Episode Details

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For nearly three decades, Donnie Madia has shaped how Chicago eats, drinks, and gathers. As owner and partner of One Off Hospitality Group, he is the co-founder behind Blackbird, avec, Publican, Big Star, and a string of concepts that helped define Fulton Market, the West Loop, River North and now the North Shore. Along the way, his group has been credited with 12 James Beard Awards and a reputation for doing things right, not just first.

Donnie grew up in Chicago raised by his mother and her twin sister, two women who made handmade pasta every Friday and Sunday dinners that friends still talk about today. Before hospitality, he spent years at the Chicago Board of Trade, undercapitalized and inverting numbers, until bartending and hospitality took over and never let go.

In this episode, he talks about assembling the Blackbird team like a rock band, running out of money multiple times before opening night, and the moment his mother sat in a steel-studded, drywallless room and made peace with his dream. He also gets into his role as a hospitality advisor on The Bear, the avec expansion to Highwood, and why he still believes the best thing you can do as an entrepreneur is stay singularly focused on one great idea.

What we cover:

• Growing up Italian in a household run by his mom and her twin sister, and the Sunday dinners that shaped everything
• The Chicago Board of Trade detour: being undercapitalized, inverting numbers,