Before he became a hospitality lifer, Paul Abu-Taleb was considering a PhD in History -- he’s the type who could absolutely have ended up teaching undergrads how to think, argue, and spot patterns. Instead, he’s applied that same mindset to restaurants: building places that don’t just serve people, but actually hold communities together. We get into how Paul went from a restaurant-family childhood in Oak Park to a formative chapter in Whitefish, Montana, and back to Chicago to help shape Pilsen Yards. He tells us about taking on the huge project of bringing Beaumont’s back as a real-deal neighborhood restaurant -- including the debut of The Bull Moose, an upstairs steakhouse and cocktail lounge. We’re also talking: what “good taste” means operationally, why some concepts just don’t match their neighborhoods, framing the math of making restaurants work -- and so much more!
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