Kevin Shinn is a chef, writer, and musician in Lincoln, Nebraska. He runs The Portico Experience — a one-table, backyard micro-restaurant that just kicked off its seventh season. It books up almost entirely through word of mouth. We talked about what it looks like to choose small on purpose, how he found his voice by using fewer words, and why mentoring the next generation matters more to him than scaling.
This is an abridged version of our conversation. Listen to the full episode right here, or find it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
What are you doing right now? Can you share a little more about the Portico Experience?
The Portico Experience is my one-table backyard micro-restaurant that started in 2020 during COVID out of a need for people to celebrate. The whole world shut us down and especially our industry, but people still had birthdays and anniversaries and special occasions and no place to go. And I provided that opportunity for people.
Little did I know that it would turn into seven years of business that I love doing. I feel like I’m a chef again. I feel like I own a restaurant again. I have my creativity back. The engagement with the guests, all of that. That’s why I got into the restaurant business in the first place — to do more than just cook. It’s to create a place of safety around the table and calm and respite.
What does an evening at the Portico Experience feel like?
It’s all about the group that’s there because we don’t have anybody coming behind. We don’t have to clear that table. We don’t have to turn it. So right off the bat, we start with ease. My guests last night showed up about 15 minutes early and they were apologizing. It’s like, well, you don’t understand — the clock doesn’t really tick here. It just starts when you arrive.
Where can you go these days and sit and have dinner for longer than 90 minutes before that server is going to want your table? They’ll drop little clues and hints that we need this table. For us, you come into the Portico and it’s yours for the night.
We learned that early on as we started watching people relax, calm down. They sit for an hour, two hours, three hours. When have you had a dinner for four hours? The transformation in the body language changes over the course of the evening. So we just leaned into that. Why should we be in a hurry? It’s in my house. I live here. I don’t have a long commute.
You’ve had a lot of experience in hospitality. What mindset changes did you have to make to go smaller on purpose?
Bob Taylor of Taylor Guitars wrote a biography called Guitar Lessons. And he said one of the reasons he thinks he became a good guitar maker is because he was not a guitar maker. He didn’t have all of these preconceived ideas, notions, and assumptions. He came with new ideas, a fresh approach, and now is probably one of the most recognizable guitars in the world because he was willing to step into an arena he didn’t have a whole lot of experience in.
That was similar to me 20-plus years ago when I stepped into the restaurant business as an owner and as a chef. I had no experience. I had no culinary degree, but I had this internal sense of what I wanted to create and what I wanted it to feel like. It enabled me to stick to my vision of — I want to serve food, not meals. And I want to foster conversation, not transaction.
When everything kind of fell out from under me — I didn’t have a job, wife had passed, went bankrupt, and COVID rolls around — this new opportunity came to me, and I thought, yeah, let’s do this. I never thought it would turn into a business. I just thought this was a fun way to get through COVID. And how you start is usually how you continue and how you end. I started as a place to celebrate and I loved it. And I’m still creating a place to celebrate and I still love it.
I was seduced into opening two more restaurants I should not have done. One in 2013 and one in 2015. I was overextended and I paid the price for that. And the good thing is I don’t need any of that back. I have something I love right in front of me. And all of those failures are now lessons and stepping stones and foundation to move me into this new season where I’m willing to stay put.
Seth Godin said, find the smallest viable market possible and stay there. And if you can make that work, you may not even worry about scaling because you have a sustainable business in a really small market that works for it. That’s what we’ve discovered.
How do you think about marketing? How have you found your voice?
The very first request for me in May of 2020 to cook for a couple that was supposed to be in London on their 25th anniversary — they took pictures of it and posted it and the power of social media took over. And the very next day — “Kevin, I saw those pictures you did. Could you do that for us?” That’s how it began. It just started with people sharing photos about their experience.
When I post something, I want it to be original. I want it to be mysterious. I don’t explain very much about my photos, about the dinner. I hope to provoke curiosity without a lot of text. And I often post the dirty table at the end of the meal instead of the pretty pictures. Because to me, the dirty table at the end of the meal is what I see after everybody leaves. And I see — David sat here. Carol sat there. They had a great time. Even the table after they’re done tells a story.
I’ve learned what my voice is in marketing and social media. And that is to be consistent, use fewer words, and let the image speak for itself. But don’t overdo it. Just be true to my voice.
What things have you intentionally not done that everybody says you should do?
Well, everybody says you should scale this. Kevin, this is a magic idea. You could scale this. And I’m not opposed to that, but the business model right now is so unique. I don’t know how I would do that other than kill myself by overworking and trying to expand. I don’t want to overdo it again. I’ve overextended myself before, and I paid the price for that. I have a good thing going here, and I don’t want to lose it.
Marketing — this is often a question. “Can we tell people about it? Can we spread the word?” And I said, no — unless you tell people that you want to hang out with for four hours. Don’t just blast this out. Selectively tell people who you would want to hang out with for four hours. Don’t stick me with somebody that’s not a good diner.
You’ve brought other people along to train them. Can you walk me through that?
It’s a deep, deep desire of mine to give what I did not get or did not have. I didn’t have a mentor when I opened my restaurant. I had a drive and a dream, and I had nobody in the corner that believed in me. I just had to do it and I learned the hard way on a lot of things.
I’d rather do that than make a lot of money. It’s that strong in me — mentoring another generation. I’ve always had a little dream of having a pop-up school and taking three emerging chefs a year. Each chef has a trimester, four months, and they pop up their restaurant concept for four months. Real live customers come in and see — is it viable? Is it tasty? Is there a market for it? And then the next chef goes the next four months. With the idea that by the end of the year, we’ve got three new restaurant concepts that have been tried and true. It just thrills me to give somebody a leg up. That’s more fulfilling to me than just about anything.
What does growth mean to you?
I’m a better person. I’m more at ease than I was yesterday. Hopefully I’m a little wiser, but I want to be a better Kevin Shinn.
My dad had a saying — son, make sure people make you more curious than angry. To do that, you just have to keep your mouth shut and listen and pay attention and be curious. Don’t just think, I don’t agree with that. You can not agree, but you can still be curious. That is to me an improvement. How do I be more curious tomorrow? How do I be more vulnerable tomorrow?
I’d summarize growth as: am I a better me? That’s as simple as I can put it.
Listen to the full conversation with Kevin wherever you get your podcasts.
Website: 55degrees.us
The Portico Experience: The Portico Experience
Kevin’s Instagram: @chefkevinshinn
Kevin’s LinkedIn: Kevin Shinn