Episode Details

After a decade running Tail Up Goat, one of DC's most celebrated tasting menu restaurants, Jon Sybert and Jill Tyler did something most restaurateurs would never consider: They closed it on their own terms, gave their team almost a full year to celebrate and prepare, and started over. What they built in its place, Rye Bunny, is the restaurant they always wanted to run and the model they believe the industry needs more of.

Jon grew up in Chicago before landing in Northern Virginia and eventually dropping out of college to cook, drawn in by the industry before he even loved food. Jill grew up on St. Thomas with nightly family dinners and a hostess job at fifteen, eventually realizing she could not quit restaurants no matter how many times she tried. They met at a DC restaurant where Jon was staging, spent a summer of Jill looking for him at parties, and ended with her slamming a car door and telling him to ask her out. He eventually did.

Tail Up Goat ran for ten years, collected Michelin recognition, and changed how Jon thought about protein sourcing after his lamb ribs got so popular they moved the national lamb market and his D'Artagnan rep called to say a meeting was being held about pricing. The restaurant became more formal than they ever intended, accolades shaped guest expectations, and post-pandemic it never quite fit back together. When the lease came up, they chose not to renew.

Rye Bunny, which opened in Adams Morgan in April, is counter service with full table hospitality: guests order at the counter, then sit down to a server, fresh plateware, and a full meal. It covers 100% of full-time employee health insurance and offers a week of paid time off. Their two reservations per night carry a $25 booking fee that goes entirely to Dreaming Out Loud and Amica Center for Immigrant Rights. And it finally feels like the dinner party they’ve always wanted to host.

What we cover:

• Jill growing up on St. Thomas with nightly family dinners and Grandma Connie's pasta; Jon growing up in Chicago and falling into kitchens before he ever loved food
• How hospitality became a career, not a detour, for each of them, and why Jill kept going back no matter how many times she thought she was supposed to stop
• Their meet cute: a stage, a summer of Jill searching for Jon at parties, and eventually a date
• How the name Tail Up Goat came from a trip to the Virgin Islands and why the name informed everything that followed
• The lamb ribs that were so popular they moved the national lamb market and what that moment taught Jon about whole-animal cooking and responsibility
• Why Tail Up Goat became more formal than they ever planned, and how accolades quietly reshaping a restaurant is something you only understand in hindsight
• The post-pandemic reckoning: why things never fit back together, and why the end of the lease felt like a gift rather than a loss
• The send-off year: announcing the closure, watching the entire team stay, and filling the dining room with people who came back one last time
• How a trip to Austin to see friends Arjav and Tracy at Birdie's changed Jill's mind on counter service, and then