Tyler Akin on Dreaming up Bars and Restaurants Through Form-Function Hospitality

#75. In this episode of The meez Podcast, we dive deep into the culinary world of Tyler Akin, founder of Form-Function Hospitality, and a celebrated chef and restaurateur who has left an indelible mark on the East Coast's dining scene. From his early days in Wilmington, Delaware, where he was inspired by his Southern grandmother's meticulous cooking, to his time at prestigious kitchens like minibar by José Andrés and Michelin-starred Komi, Akin's journey is anything but ordinary.

After leaving law school to follow his passion for food, Akin honed his craft under the mentorship of renowned chefs Johnny Monis and Michael Solomonov. His own ventures, including the acclaimed Stock in Fishtown and Res Ipsa Cafe, have garnered national recognition and cemented his reputation as a key figure in Philadelphia’s culinary renaissance.

Akin's latest project, Bastia, is set to open in Philadelphia’s Fishtown neighborhood. This new venture, a collaboration with Foyer Project, will transform Hotel Anna & Bel into a vibrant space, offering a leisurely café experience by day and a coastal Mediterranean restaurant by night, drawing inspiration from the sun-drenched shores of Corsica and Sardinia.

As Form-Function Hospitality continues to expand with concepts like Bastia and the upcoming Caletta, Akin remains at the forefront of creating memorable dining experiences in historic spaces. Join us as we explore Tyler Akin's remarkable career, his passion for preserving culinary traditions, and the exciting new projects on the horizon.

Where to find Tyler Akin:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Where to find host Josh Sharkey:

• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• TikTok
• Twitter

In this episode, we cover:

(05:40): Tyler's Delaware roots
(10:09): How Tyler got into cooking
(17:57): The worst kitchen injury Tyler's seen
(23:21): All about Form and Function Hospitality
(30:28): Hotel Du Pont and Le Cavalier
(37:46): Batista Restaurant

Transcript

[00:00:00] Josh Sharkey: 

You're listening to Season 2 of the meez Podcast, I'm your host Josh Sharkey, the founder and CEO of meez, a culinary operating system for food professionals. On the show, we're going to talk to high performers in the food business, everything from chefs to CEOs, technologists, writers, investors, and more about how they innovate and operate and how they consistently execute at a high level.

[00:00:24] 

And I would really love it if you could drop us a five star review anywhere that you listen to your podcast. That could be Apple, that could be Spotify, could be Google. I'm not picky. Anywhere works. But I really appreciate the support. And as always, I hope you enjoy the show. Good to see you, man. Good to see you.

[00:00:44] 

Glad we finally made this happen. I think we had a couple, couple mishaps along the way. Misconnections, but I got your Craigslist post finally. And here I am. Oh my God. misconnections. Did you ever know anybody that actually partook in a Craigslist misconnection? 

[00:00:59] Tyler Akin: 

No, no, but I used to listen to a podcast where there was like a recurring segment that they would read them, read them aloud, like LA Craigslist market, misconnections.

[00:01:11] Josh Sharkey: 

I remember. I think I. I know at least one person that I remember she met, she met like her husband via like a misconnection on a subway. It's incredible. It's, you know what's crazy is like, I moved to New York in like, uh, was it 99, 2000? And I got my apartment on Craigslist. That was like a basement of this like apartment in Queens, Middle Village, Queens.

[00:01:34] 

And never saw the apartment once. Never met the person. Just Just So to leap of faith. A 500 basement apartment, I feel like that would never happen, but back then that was like, that was really the only way, was Craigslist

[00:01:46] Tyler Akin: 

I know. Also, a $500 basement apartment in Queens would 

[00:01:49] Josh Sharkey: 

never happen anymore. I worked at Oceana at the time, and it was like an hour and a half to get to work every day.

[00:01:55] 

I would have to take a bus to like a train in, you know, in uh, Bushwick. I don't even know if, I think they call it East Williamsburg now, that, that part of it, Grand Street. And then train in and then train up, you know, it was like, but $500 a month. I mean, this was great. It's funny, it's kind of like, I actually liked that apartment and I liked The people that I live with and it sort of feels like that arranged marriage thing, you know, like sometimes maybe we overthink all the things we get into and if you just kind of like do it, it'll, it'll work out fine.

[00:02:24] Tyler Akin: 

Definitely. You were probably at a stage in your career where it was literally just like a place to rest for six or seven hours, you know, and then get back to it. I mean, especially with that commute. 

[00:02:37] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, I was like 19 years old. I think. I don't even think about it. Yeah. Where did you grow up? In Wilmington.

[00:02:42] 

Oh, you're from Delaware. Wow. I am. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is that like, man? It's such a small state. I can't. 

[00:02:49] Tyler Akin: 

Well, it's been, you know, it had a moment for sure in 2020 around the election. And then I felt like all eyes were on Delaware for a second there. I mean, obviously, you know, as of this past week, no longer, but I, you know, everybody's like a Philly sports fan and Wilmington is its own kind of like, Small to medium sized city that has its own identity and like is not a suburb, like, you know, towns on the main line are, but like effectively it has some characteristics of being like a Philly suburb, right?

[00:03:26] 

Like there are a lot of professional commuters to the city. So people live there and then commute to Philly? For sure. Yeah. And vice versa. I mean, I, you know, my partner Mark in Rezipsa, who, who's a co owner of Free Animator, like before he started resting coffee, he was living in Philly and commuting to a job at Chase Bank in Wilmington.

[00:03:45] 

So there's, there's the reverse as well. You know, I think especially among the younger crowd that is either in law or finance and works in Wilmington, but kind of wants A big city experience. So there's like a reverse commute dynamic as well. How far is the, I mean, I imagine the train not a drive, right?

[00:04:03] 

Yeah. I mean, Amtrak is 15 minutes except, uh, our Philly's regional rail, like terminates in Wilmington and that's closer to a half hour or you can drive in 30 minutes. So, yeah. Do you live in Delaware now or do you live in Philly? Uh, no, we're back in Philly as of January. So we had a little. Detour pandemic move to Wilmington that coincided nicely with the Hotel DuPont project opening, but really it was just, you know, we were stir crazy during shelter in place and, you know, with a three year old who no longer had daycare and, you know, kind of like two bedroom apartment wondering if we could find a backyard somewhere.

[00:04:42] 

So we like quickly pulled the trigger. I think some of the like Exodus from cities. We had a Place under contract by July of 2020. So, oh, well, technically we weren't even supposed to look at the home in person and the agent kind of bent the rules and got us in there. It was just supposed to be virtual tours at that point of home.

[00:05:03] 

So yeah, we were there for three and a half years. Gia, I think the novelty kind of wore off for her within six months. And 

[00:05:10] Josh Sharkey: Why she missed the city?

[00:05:12] Tyler Akin: 

Hey, she's like Brooklyn born and raised and I think, you know, had only ever lived in cities. She had never even had a driver's license until three months after we moved there.

[00:05:21] 

So anytime she wanted to leave, it was either catching a ride with me or, you know, if it was visiting a client in Philly, it was, you know, a hundred dollar 45 minute Uber ride. Or if it was, you know, getting to the train, it was like, we were pretty. Removed. I mean, we were on back roads, beautiful setting, but like, you know, even getting to the train was a 25 minute drive.

[00:05:43]

So if she was doing a New York trip, it was like, just, you know, a same day trip, like four to five hours were accounted for just to kind of do the commute, you know, so 

[00:05:55] Josh Sharkey: 

That's nuts. We live in, um, in Northern Westchester, but we on Hudson and the train is like two minutes from the house or six minutes, and it's a direct.

[00:06:07] 

shot to Grand Central. So it's like 46 minutes to Grand Central, which is great because you could just kind of do work on the train, watch the Hudson River. Yep. I do miss living in the city. I go, I'm going to go on like once, you know, once a week or so, but that’s definitely different. We, we moved up long before the pandemic.

[00:06:22] 

It was like 2017, which was, Man, it's insane how much houses increased in price after 2020. 

[00:06:30] Tyler Akin: 

Hey, good for you. You know, we, we caught a little bit of that, but yeah, I imagine that's, that's a good situation to be in. We moved back. It's nice to be back on that five minute walk from this new project. So that's super helpful.

[00:06:41] 

But Fishtown was awesome. Where I moved when I, when I came up to Philly from having been cooking in DC, I moved directly to Fishtown and it was kind of at a moment in that neighborhoods trajectory where it was like, you know, people were talking about it, but you can't be there looking around like what are people talking about?

[00:06:57] 

Like the people were beginning to be there and. Some of the, the sort of like beachhead, you know, businesses were, we're starting to open where you're like, okay, this, this is the first sign, the third wave coffee shop, uh, three or four times over, you know, Pizzeria, Badia, and then, uh, you know, it's just, it's, it's taken off. It's incredible. Yeah. 

[00:07:21] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. I mean, today we'll talk a lot about your concepts and also just, I did want to talk a bit about hotel dining in general, but you do remind me of this. So I wanted to ask if you, if you've heard of this. Premise that's happening now, this is, we're talking about virtual tours of like the, the houses, but have you seen, there's this company called Tables that Frasier started, really, really, really cool concept and basically you can just tour the restaurant, pick out your table or tour a hotel and, and like, you know, scope the, you know, scope all the sort of like rooms if you're going to do an event, have you seen any of that in your, or use any of that in your restaurants?

[00:07:53] Tyler Akin: 

No, I mean, the only thing related to. You know, a pitch around like interior content like that has been, you know, repeated offers from Google maps to kind of like extend the street view into the interior space, which we've declined repeatedly because it's, you know, 2,500 bucks and, 

[00:08:17] Josh Sharkey: 

Oh, that's nuts, dude.

[00:08:18] Tyler Akin: 

There's plenty of, you know, content of our interior out there for anyone trying to find it. Yeah. I mean, I imagine that. So does it like sink to your reservation platform? 

[00:08:28] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, exactly. So it's like just incrementally additional revenue because you can scope out the space and pick a table and basically you're just paying for the table in addition to whatever you pay.

[00:08:40] 

I believe this is how it works and it's free. So like they come and like do all the, all the sort of like, you know, video and, and imagery. And then I think they just take a percentage of the, of that, like purchase of the table. It's kind of like, you know, like a, like a premium economy upgrade. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:08:55] 

Which I think is smart, you know? Yeah. Yeah. You know, oftentimes, I never really got the whole, like, oh, the best table in the restaurant. I know it's a thing, but like, I'm always like, I don't know, whoever I'm with, we're just gonna, we're gonna have a good time wherever we are. 

[00:09:08] Tyler Akin: 

I know, I know a bad table when I see or am at one, which is like, you know, proximity to the bathroom in particular, but I don't, yeah, to me, I mean, it, you know, reading American Psycho years ago, and there being like, Discussions about the best table.

[00:09:27] 

I'm like, you know, what is the best table? I personally don't want to be seen as much as possible in life. So what's the best table to one person is probably 

[00:09:35] Josh Sharkey: 

That’s a good point to Yeah, because look, there's definitely people that want like a very specific table. And and also, if you have a group, maybe, you know, if there's a choice between a banquette and like a, you know, a six top, you know, rectangle table, maybe you'll be like, Oh, yeah, I definitely think head.

[00:09:51] 

Yeah, So, or if you're proposing or something, I mean, there's probably a lot of reasons why people would want, want that, actually. Anyways, so, I want to talk about form, function, and hospitality, because I don't, you know, I, I checked the website, but obviously you have a bunch of projects going on. 

Before we get to that, how did you get into cooking?

[00:10:09] 

Because I believe you started in a very similar, kidding, very different career, which was law. Mm hmm. So you, you went from law to cooking, is that right? 

[00:10:18] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah, roughly, I mean, with some, you know, But time in between that was less, you know, structured or didn't have a clear trajectory. I mean, I, I, I moved to DC and kind of had like a, uh, a little bit of panic, but not, not like an urgent sense of panic, but just sort of, you know, I'm, I'm approaching my mid twenties and what am I doing?

[00:10:42] Tyler Akin: And had a lot of friends who really ambitious kind of personalities and we're on these, uh, you know, amazing, Professional trajectories themselves, and I'm kind of like, what am I doing law? Clearly wasn't for me. I was dating somebody at the time whose family came from a hospitality background. Father was still in it, but they had been with the, uh, you know, let us entertain you group in Chicago before coming out east.

[00:11:11] 

And yeah, food was like, everything to them. It was often the topic of conversation. It was, you know, a lot of, a lot of the television that was watched. And so I, I had like seeds of that. I think growing up personally, I mean, my sister was obsessed with food. My grandmother was an amazing cook. My mom was a good cook.

[00:11:28] 

Why was your sister obsessed with food? That's a good question. You know, she just, it was when the Food Network appeared, it was a fixture. You know, I was always kind of wanting to watch MTV and she always wanted to watch Malta Mario and, and, uh, you know, the Essence of Emeril and the, what was the grill?

[00:11:49] 

Uh, that Bobby Flay is like grill. Yeah. Wait, you were watching MTV then. What MTV shows were you watching? Grillin and chillin Oh man, like yo, MTV Raps, and you know, if I could like finagle at Headbanger's Ball at midnight, I had pretty, pretty varied interests in music at that point. But yeah, she was always wanting Food Network, and I thought it was great.

[00:12:11] 

I mean, I remember that first episode, that like legendary first episode of Malta Mario where he mangled his finger. 

[00:12:18] Josh Sharkey: 

That show was so good. I mean, that, that show was really, really good. And lit. The food on there was just also really good. I don't know. Like, are we allowed to say that? But yeah, it was, you can, two things can be true at once. Indeed. Have you ever watched the frugal gourmet? 

[00:12:32] Tyler Akin: 

You remember that? It's a little older. Yeah. Yeah. And like the fat ladies. And I mean, you know, it was like a real, I, I appreciate the, the like authenticity and low budget ness of it in that era, you know, it was, it was very much just underproduced in the best way.

[00:12:53] T

And you know, it's, it's obviously gone in different directions now, but I have really fond memories and that was like, I don't know, I, I like food was important to me if you had asked me when I was 15, whether I'd be cooking when I'm 25, I would have told you absolutely not, but yeah, so I, I, I moved to DC with a girl who, like I said, her family was super into food and hospitality and, you know, I started cooking.

[00:13:17] 

I was kind of cooking on my own, started going to the farmer's markets that Fresh Farm put on down there, various locations. And I saw this guy who kept showing up to all these Fresh Farm markets with this incredible array of like breads. I mean, he would show up with 15 or 20 different kinds of bread, all kinds of beautiful like French pastries.

[00:13:37] 

And I asked him if I could help him sell the stuff. And I did that with him for a month or two. And he, it turned out he was baking like his, his, his bakery was in, um, a converted, like really beautiful barn in the panhandle of West Virginia. And I asked him if I could kind of learn the ropes and like come out and spend some time baking, and he really jumped at the opportunity because, you know, the, his labor pool out there, like he had one, he had a pastry chef who, you Had come to him, you know, this guy, he was, he was from CIA, but it was very much just happy, like living on his own on the property out there.

[00:14:18] 

But otherwise it was, it was, you know, folks who. I don't know how to say this diplomatically, but like would not have been baking artisanally, but for Wes just happening to be out there. So Wes was a chef by training, had spent a career, you know, as a chef at the Greenbrier Resort and had fallen into baking, but also had this catering arm on the side.

[00:14:41]

So after like a couple of years being on the bench and working the ovens and mixing dough with him, you were living out in West Virginia. Yeah. No, I was living in DC, which is insane. So I was like, my routine was basically going out there for a couple of days at a time and like baking. And then I would like, you know, either drive the truck or catch a ride on the truck into, into DC where we would deliver, you know, the big wholesale account was mom's organic market.

[00:15:06] 

And, and then these various, you know, he had like. Annapolis, Penn quarter, DC, the white house market that launched while I was with him, um, DuPont circle. So it was like, the volume was insane. I mean, people were just snapping these $10 loaves up, like. They'd never seen Brad before and he was definitely making money.

[00:15:25] 

And it was like, you know, it was cool to see for me, you know, how you can make just a quality, honest product like that and sort of have a creative business model. But he had this catering division sort of on the side where. You know, he had some longstanding relationships with the lobbyists down in DC who would throw, you know, a big like annual party.

[00:15:47] 

And, and there, there were a few of these and, and, you know, they would, he would get these like two, $300,000 contracts for single day catering. And they were over the top, you know, and I was like learning techniques from him. Did he have a background in fine dining as well? I mean, he literally had spent his career at Greenbrier and hearing his stories about that.

[00:16:07] 

I mean, it was an era when those. resorts were, you know, it was like fully a brigade system. If you had a down moment, you were tornaying potatoes. Every line cook had to know how to carve ice. Like it was, it was very, you know, 

[00:16:24] Josh Sharkey: 

Greenbrier was like the go to externship for culinary schools in like the late nineties, early two thousands.

[00:16:30] Tyler Akin: 

That's what I came to understand. Yeah. So he, um, yeah, he had a lot of tricks up his sleeve. He had a lot of, a lot of experience and, you know, I began to gravitate. I, I, I think over time I just got sort of bored shaping bread and by no means mastered it, like I was, you know, but I, I, I think I needed something that's more variation and I really enjoyed helping him with the catering stuff.

[00:16:52] Tyler Akin: 

So he encouraged me to go to culinary school and that was the next move for me. Nice. Where'd you go to school? It's now defunct, but it was called the Academy de cuisine right outside DC. So, you know, some great, like, uh, Ketsey, uh, Aaron Silverman, you know, Carla hall or all graduates. But it was cool because like, it was all the faculty was all.

[00:17:16] 

Super classically trained, like guys from Leon who had ended up in DC either because they were working at the French Embassy or the white house. And the, the, it seemed like there was sort of a retirement plan for those guys just go right into the academy to cuisine. So I remember like, there's this guy, chef, what's his name?

[00:17:34] 

Chef Fabrice, I think he like, he had a, a pinky, one of his pinkies had like a one and a half inch fingernail that he would use as a sort of utility tool. I think he just says, picking a cutoff. And they would tell stories about, like, these, these kitchens in Lyon in the 70s, where there would be, like, knife fights between cooks, and, you know, that all appealed to me very much, so.

[00:17:57] Josh Sharkey: 

Alright, what's the craziest thing that you've seen in a kitchen, and the worst injury you've ever had? 

[00:18:02] Tyler Akin: 

The craziest thing I've seen. Well, the worst injury I've seen was Michael Ferreri, who ended up becoming the chef at Res Ipsa. When we were cooking next to each other at Zahav, he pulled a pan out of like a 475 degree oven beneath the French top.

[00:18:19] 

And you know, it had a generous amount of oil and it splashed all the way up his arm. Like that was pretty gnarly. I don't know, I always get a little bit sick to my stomach when I see people get nicked on mandolins, you know? It's like, when it happens, you roll with it, then what else are you gonna do, but, just I don't know, there's something, there's something about seeing it for me at this point that's worse than it actually happening to me.

[00:18:45] Tyler Akin: Like, when I see it happen to somebody else, it just makes my stomach turn over. 

[00:18:49] Josh Sharkey: 

You know, it's so funny, like, I, I've had a couple bad injuries. One with a deep fryer, when I was very young, actually, when I was like 17 or something. Like, my whole arm, like, just, like, third degree fryer burn, and I was, like, a wrestler, so I had to, like, wrap my arm and, You know, and whatever, just to whatever you call that stuff, you know, to wrestle and that sucked.

[00:19:09] 

When I was at Tabla, I remember, it's funny because you said that, I remember like, it didn't even register for me. I was slicing eggplant on the meat slicer, you know, because we would slice it really thick and then dice, like, really, really, like, nice, like, like, just almost like a, like a Mastodon, maybe bigger, bigger size.

[00:19:25] 

And we would slice the eggplant on the meat slicer. And I was singing a song to the dishwasher or something. And I just was slicing, slicing, and then boom.

[00:19:36] 

Thumb. Totally off. Hanging on by like a piece of skin. Seriously? And, and I kept slicing, and then I was like, Oh, man, I think. Oh my god. Everyone was freaking out, and I was like, I wasn't, because I actually, I don't think I could feel it, because I sliced the nerve.

[00:19:56] 

And I was just sitting there, like, kind of like laughing. My, my thumb just sort of like hanging off by like this piece of, Skin and now they're like two different sizes my thumbs, but um, it didn't even hit me. It's like, oh my god I'm freaking out. I just I was just maybe I was in shock But I was just like laughing all the way to the hospital for them to tie it by Yeah, 

[00:20:15] Tyler Akin: 

You were definitely in shock. I mean those kinds of things never, you know, they never go away It was for sure and nobody can see you like I can right now But I think your thumb looks great for what 

[00:20:22] 

It's worth I appreciate that. They are two different sizes now. I mean, this will go on video, but you'll see, like, you see one that's like, the one is longer than the other. It's like, it's like a half inch longer. 

[00:20:38] Tyler Akin: 

We, did you say we are, we are on video? 

[00:20:40] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, yeah, we got video too. Oh, who knew? And we both. Don't worry, you look good. I'll stop sipping my coffee then. Okay. I've been, uh, you know, all over it. It's okay. We're real people, you know, we do real things. So injuries, what's like the craziest thing you've seen independent of like an injury in a restaurant or experienced?

[00:21:01] Tyler Akin: 

I had a dishwasher Who like threw me against the wall with his arms around my neck one time who worked for me who was my employee. Why? And to be honest, I don't even remember why like I'm positive that it was nothing that was proportionate to the injury. To that happening, you know, just kind of a volatile personality.

[00:21:21] 

I mean, I've seen, you know, someone else walked out on me mid shift after saying, I don't feel like being here anymore. I need to go get the heroin stuff like that. I mean, it's not funny, but yeah, just things that are, you know, would be unthinkable in a conventional workplace. Maybe you would say, 

[00:21:42] Josh Sharkey: 

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:21:44] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, I have a few of those too. I remember one time, uh, I mean this was, I mean this was in 2001, it was before 911 I think, and one of our dishwashers, we, we had, you know, on the night shift at Oceana, we wouldn't get done until like 3 in the morning, after a clean up and everything. And this dishwasher came.

[00:22:03] 

To the back door. It was his day off, but he came to the back door with a sex worker and someone who worked with her and basically they were just like, he needs to pay us. And we all had to sort of chip in and give him money, which obviously we're all poor too. Wow. At like two in the morning. Uh huh. That was a, that was a nutty one.

[00:22:24] Josh Sharkey: 

I have another story with a pig, but I won't share that one here. Okay. Anyways, all right, let's talk about form function. 

[00:22:30] Tyler Akin: 

I have one other good one, actually. No, nevermind. Nevermind. Are you sure that one on the table? Yeah, I'm good.

[00:22:38] Josh Sharkey: 

How about just a clue for people so that when they see you on the street, they're like, you gotta tell me this story.

[00:22:43] Tyler Akin: 

It involved a team of kitchen management at a restaurant where I worked staying in the kitchen in the restaurant with the lights off overnight with like self fashioned spears

[00:22:59] 

A rodent that had been spotted in the restaurant that day and they got it in like the most savage manner you can imagine. That's just impressive. 

[00:23:11] Josh Sharkey: 

All right, we could probably do this for a long time, but let's talk about Form Function. So can you just pretend I know nothing about it? What's the, you know, what is the group and what are you guys doing?

[00:23:21] Tyler Akin: 

So at this point, like it's a constellation of people I work with on the design side, culinary ops, but you know, kind of what we offer is the ability to develop concepts and manage critical paths related to everything that goes into an opening and begin to develop. A specialty in the space of kind of properties where that are very design intensive and where there's their historical either constraints or considerations.

[00:23:52] 

So, you know, if there is a need for design that adheres to certain limitations when it comes to the exterior or interior because of historic designations on the property and then some of the, you know, tax incentives that accompany those, those projects, but, you know, where, where there are sensitivities around, you know, maybe what this property used to be or how, how it fits into a community or, you know, wholesale sort of re concepting something that has a historical reputation.

[00:24:28] 

So these are. Things that I love these projects. I find those complications to be really interesting and like intellectually challenging in the best way. But in general terms, like I'm working with hotel operators and developers to develop concepts that compliment their properties, but also have like a true sense of identity themselves and, you know, can stand alone and present as An authentic independent restaurant and embody that spirit, even, even if it's part of like some.

[00:25:05] 

Larger thesis that that group might have around, you know, a neighborhood or a specific property. Yeah. So I've learned a lot as I veered into this territory of, you know, not solely owning and operating actually really, really like the, the challenges that it presents and, you know, so that's where we're at, but I think, you know, we, we have some projects in the works right now.

[00:25:29] 

Do some of my work under the Form Function framework, you know, on more of a like a la carte basis that isn't a holistic development of a concept kind of from the very beginning, but we can come in and troubleshoot something that's already running or just kind of own a specific part of a critical path.

[00:25:49] 

If there are other parties sort of already at the table handling the branding, handling, you know, whatever else, and you know, often I'm, I'm doing this stuff. Without my name attached to it, you know, so kind of selective about where I am, where I'm actually saying that this is my place and 

[00:26:08] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, no, which makes sense. I mean, you know, first of all, they're, they're beautiful properties, but it sounds like you're, you're sort of doing your best to assimilate the concept to wherever it is and whatever the environment is in the space. And, and so, which by the way, it sounds really fun, right? You're just creating food and concepts around the architecture and space in the, in the area, as opposed to like.

[00:26:30] 

I'm Tyler and I want to create this kind of food and here's where it is and let's go find a space. 

[00:26:34] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah, yeah, which like has its own, you know, that's rewarding and I've, I've done that and there's a purity to that, that definitely has an appeal and I think that, you know, sometimes I, I, I find restaurants like that maybe resonate slightly differently.

[00:26:51] 

More strongly, you know, but I, I, it's, the world has different needs at times 

and I found that this is a lane that I'm comfortable being in. 

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[00:28:10] 

Yeah, it's funny because I feel like there's been this sort of bell curve of hotel restaurants that were like some really amazing ones and then for a while just a lot of really shitty hotel restaurants. And now it's kind of like coming back around where there's a lot more good food in restaurants, which is awesome to see.

[00:28:28] 

I don't know if you only work in hotels or if it's just, is that at least for form function, is that specifically with hotel spaces or is it any kind of. 

[00:28:36] Tyler Akin: 

But now, you know, so like I said, like I'm, I, I do white label kind of consulting even in independent restaurants, but besides hotels, the other primary like partners that I'm working with are, are developers, you know, where, where it might be part of renovating, re concepting a specific building or a collection of buildings in a, in a corner of a neighborhood that's kind of creating a, You know, a new identity for that part of the neighborhood.

[00:29:04] 

So, you know, yeah, but typically like institutional partnerships that, that I'm jumping in with. 

[00:29:11] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. What does the team like that you work with for that? Like, do you have an internal team that you use for a lot of this? 

[00:29:17] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah. So right now, I mean, it's all on a W9 basis, right? So I, I have, I have contractors and based on what the needs are for a specific project, I'll kind of scope the support that I need to execute my, my goal over the next couple of years is, is to, to build out a full time team to execute these projects, you know, I think that.

[00:29:39] 

When what I have in the pipeline comes to fruition, I'll, I'll be in a position to have three or four people by my side full time.

[00:29:45] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. And what are the most common sort of roles that you're bringing on as contractors, as designers? Is it like compliance? Like what, what, what are these types of roles that are typically like most commonly 

[00:29:55] Tyler Akin: 

Design, branding. Culinary direction, you know, culinary consulting, you know, in that case, sort of people who I'm comfortable with, like being my proxy at times, if, if there's a need to be in two places at once or who have a, an expertise in that specific cuisine that I might not have. But yeah, interior design, architectural design, some legal, and especially branding and graphic for sure. 

[00:30:28] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah. Very cool. I wanted to learn a bit more about the Hotel DuPont and the project you had there. Uh, Cavalier, is that right? Yep. The Cavalier. What's the history of that place and how did you get involved here?

[00:30:37] Tyler Akin: 

So the history is, you know, this is a hotel that was built by the DuPont company in an era when, you know, a chemical company might, or a gunpowder company really at the time might, you know, want to build a kind of over the top luxury hotel.

[00:30:53] 

Like their goal, the DuPont family had. It was like the first leverage buyout where they took, they took the publicly floated DuPont company private again, and the very beginning of the 20th century, there were three brothers who made like gobs of money in the process. And one of them operated with John Raskob as like his proxy.

[00:31:18] 

So the Raskob, the Builder of the empire state building, you know, he was like really a DuPont proxy throughout his career. It's who they installed on the general motors board when DuPont had control, you know, so John Raskop and, and one of the DuPont brothers had this idea to build a hotel in Wilmington that would.

[00:31:42] 

You know, be competitive in terms of like aesthetics and experience against, you know, the major hotels in London, New York and Paris at the time. So hundreds of artisans from France and Italy came over to do plaster work and, you know, gilding. Details and, and frescoes and, you know, painting and all, I mean, it's just like truly over the top, like true gilded age property.

[00:32:11] 

So the green room was the restaurant that opened in the hotel DuPont when the hotel opened in 1913 and operated continuously until its closure in 2020 when, when. You know, it underwent some minor demolition and, and. A lot of conservation and a little bit of construction for our re concepting project, you know, people in the community have a specific memory of the green room, depending on when, you know, they experienced it or when they choose to remember it by, but it really, like, you know, I, Hagley, which is the Hagley museum is, was the first powderworks for the DuPont company that they built around 1800.

[00:32:56] 

And now it's like a, it has a library of, of American corporate history. So all of the hotel DuPont archives live there. And most of the DuPont company archives live there and went in and spent a lot of time looking at old menus and stuff. And it was like so many different things over the years. You know, it was regional mid Atlantic cuisine.

[00:33:17] 

You know, it was kind of Mad Men era, mid century cuisine. It was, you know, there was an era where all of the senior management came from Switzerland and it was super classical and the menus were very understated, but just straight out of Escoffier type, uh, stuff. So it, you know, it really was not like a static concept, but it was always very well regarded.

[00:33:42] 

You know, it was sort of an institution in the region, you know, before like the Lebec fans of the world, even it was one of those real kind of like bulwarks of excellence. 

[00:33:52] Josh Sharkey: 

Sounds like a very, very cool concept to then take over and run with. 

[00:33:57] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah, it hit, you know, by the time I began to You know, being engaged on that project, like it had seen better days for sure.

[00:34:05] 

The dining room itself was like, you know, it was tired and, you know, the design didn't really speak to our sensibilities. Um, you know, the food felt a bit dated, I would say, and yeah, I needed work. The revenue was like, yeah, this is like. A very large restaurant, 40 foot ceilings and incredible, you know, decor that you couldn't reproduce if you had all the money in the world today.

[00:34:31] 

But despite all that, it was grossing less revenue than Res Ipsa was with 24 seats and no liquor license. That's nuts. So yeah, it needed, it needed work for sure. 

[00:34:44] Josh Sharkey: 

Was the hotel at full capacity? 

[00:34:47] Tyler Akin: 

So there's always been a swift business and banquets there because one of their big assets is the gold ballroom, which is just a really unique, incredible space.

[00:34:54] Tyler Akin: 

So pretty constant flow of weddings and the banquet. Sort of F&B division has always, you know, been a bustling one and thrives, 

[00:35:05] Josh Sharkey: 

But do you, um, also manage the banquets and room service? No. So where does it, that's just like a completely separate kitchen or? 

[00:35:11] Tyler Akin: 

Room service comes out of our kitchen. I mean, the kitchen, I, you know, next time you're in Delaware, I'd love to show it to you because it's a labyrinth and you know, the basement is, is sort of where banquets operates out of.

[00:35:23] 

And we have some storage down there too, but it's just, it's like. Endless, endless. I mean, we've mothballed 12 of the 16 walk in refrigerators that we're sort of barely hanging on by the time I get in there. But there was this dynamic where, you know, a DuPont family. Air or heiress was like getting married, you know, and, and the last one that was hosted, there was a thousand people, but she's going to have 2000 people.

[00:35:53] 

So they would just add another kitchen and they'd add two more walk ins for that event. 

[00:35:58] Josh Sharkey: 

That's nuts. 

[00:35:58] Tyler Akin: 

It was kind of like the company was because it was 

privately held for that time. It was like. The hotel property, it was sort of, it was like, you know, a piggy bank asset for the family. 

[00:36:09] Josh Sharkey: 

So do they, do they just operate completely separate from your, from your team? How does that work? Banquets? Yeah. Yeah. And how does it like ordering and things like that work? 

[00:36:18] Tyler Akin: 

Separate, you know, I mean, we submit separate invoices to Chef's Warehouse in Beldor and, you know, they come on different pallets and, you know, the receiving team kind of helps manage that flow as it comes in.

[00:36:32] 

So separate walk ins unless one of them's down and then they're not separate, which is fun. And that's why the chat, you know, it's an old facility. So there, there are a lot of facilities challenges there. You can't 

[00:36:43] 

really take a property like that down to the studs, you know? So even though like new ownership came in that I'm partnered with, who bought it from the DuPont company in 2017 or so, you know, there are certain things you can't change.

[00:36:56] 

Like the condensers for the walk ins are 13 stories above them. On the roof and it can be, it can be hard at times. There's some challenges there. So you're a partner in the restaurant. Is it a completely separate entity? Yeah, it is its own entity, but like the, the P&L from the restaurant does flow into the hotel P&L. I mean, 

[00:37:18] Josh Sharkey: 

It's a gorgeous space. I should take my, I should take my wife down there. Just like with the little trip. I love like those beautiful, like hotel spaces. Like one of my favorite places to have a drink when I go is the Connaught in London. Nice. You know, it's, Yeah, just like that feeling. And, um, especially if the food matches the, and the cocktails match the space.

[00:37:37] 

Yeah. It's amazing. Sounds like you do too. And you have some other projects. What are the other ones that you have both under Form Function? There's other things that you're excited about right now. Gotcha. So 

[00:37:46] 

Tyler Akin: we're opening Bastia restaurant. Oh yeah. And Coletta in Hotel Anna and Belle, which is kind of in the heart of the Fishtown neighborhood in Philly.

[00:37:56] 

Similarly, a historic property, this is a building that has a history dating to the 18th century as a women's asylum. Wow. So, I, I, you'd think this term would be politically incorrect when you hear it, I guess, but it seems like it's used widely. It was a home for indigent women and, you know, functioned in that capacity.

[00:38:18] 

Continuously until the last 10 years, when it became a kind of more generalized, like retirement home for both men and women, but the current ownership, you know, bought the property early in the pandemic and. You know, started putting plans together to convert it to a hotel. So I've been working on this for in one way or another for the better part of two years now.

[00:38:41] 

So it's pretty exciting that we're, we're about three weeks out from that opening at the moment. Not when you'll hear this, we'll have been open. 

[00:38:49] Josh Sharkey:

What are the, uh, so can you talk about those two concepts? How they sort of interface with the hotel? 

[00:38:53] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah. So the hotel, I mean, just starting with the hotel, a lot of the design reference points were the, you know, great boutique hotels of New Orleans.

[00:39:03] 

Like there, there was a lot of looks towards Maison and Hotel Peter and Paul and St. Vincent and the Chloe and spots like that. You know, I think like there's something really special about the boutique hotel. Ecosystem done in New Orleans that like, you know, getting to run around there with, with Gia as often as I do, I'm, I'm lucky to have like experienced, I don't know another city quite like New Orleans where there's like that critical mass of just really unique, well done boutique hotel properties.

[00:39:34] 

So an embellishment to feel kind of like transportive, like an old world kind of experience and, you know. A lot of Mediterranean references in the design. I mean, I, I, that's what I latched onto when, when I started working on this project and it felt to me like it would be a good opportunity to kind of fuse.

[00:39:58] 

A couple threads in my background, one being, you know, the like Sicilian concept that we did at Res Ipsa and the French stuff had been doing at Locave and, and, you know, it's really started looking at the islands of Corsica and Sardinia as, you know, somewhere to hang our hat and be able to like play in both of those sandboxes in a way that felt, you know, unique and not just like, you know, coastal French Italian, you know, which has been done, you know, Many times over at this point and, and some of them are great for sure.

[00:40:31] 

But, you know, I wanted to get off the beaten path a little bit. And of course, skin food is something that I'd begun to deep dive on, you know, as I was like chasing down threads of inspiration at Le Cav, we had a, we had a dinner, like a collab dinner tentatively planned with John Seibert, the chef owner of Tail Up Goat in DC.

[00:40:50] 

And we were, we were kind of. It ended up falling through for scheduling reasons, but we were going to do a Corsican dinner and I was like really getting into it at that point. This was a couple of years ago, so it just felt like, you know, these, these like sources of inspiration coming together for me that kind of matched.

[00:41:09] 

The vibe that the property was going for. So that's sort of where we're going. You know, I, I, I see ways that we can sort of lean Sardinian and the spring and summer and Corsican in the fall and winter, you know, where the food is a little hardier and it's almost like Alpine in some ways because of the island's history.

[00:41:28]

Yeah, did you spend any time in Corsica? Yeah, I Spent about a week in each to my wife's chagrin, you know, like on the eve of moving up to Philly I didn't get to make it out there No, this is her birthday gift to me Actually, my 40th birthday gift was some time away from the kids and you know an airfare to and from Corsica Which was where I started and rented a car and ended up like Putting on a ferry to Sardinia.

[00:41:54] 

It's been about a week in each and yeah, it was really, really amazing. Can't wait to get back there. I mean, there's a lot more for me to explore, but I'm really like enjoying immersing myself in these two cuisines. What do you love most about the Corsican cuisine? I think what I like about it's, it's so counterintuitive.

[00:42:13] 

You know, you look at a map and it's sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean. It's like, You know, you kind of like draw a right triangle and it's like, you know, you have, you know, Rome and Marseille roughly and it's there and it's, you know, okay, so this must be kind of bright, what we think of as sort of Mediterranean, like, you know, bright and light and that would be the assumption, you know, and maybe there's a little bit of French influence there by virtue of it's, you know, it's political status, but You know, in reality, it's a super rugged country, you know, you have, despite it's small size, like quickly as you get into the interior, you're, you're up in mountains that are taller than any mountains we have in the continental US and because there was such a malaria problem there for a very long time, really until the second half of the 20th century, most of the people lived in the interior, either in the hills or the mountains.

[00:43:12] 

You know, you have these like sheep's milk cheeses and cheese generally resembles more like inland Alpine continental traditions. You've got, you know, more pork than fish for sure. You've got more veal is a beloved item and charcuterie. And a lot of these things that we associate more with like less kind of coastal.

[00:43:37] 

Cuisine, and I wanted to find a way to thread that needle and be able to serve seasonal menus, but have it feel like we're not like trying to pigeonhole butternut squash into a like breezy Mediterranean framework, you know, to me, I think that that is going to be our cadence is like really leaning more in that direction in the cooler months of the year, you know, with that kind of produce and those kinds of animal products versus spring, summer.

[00:44:08] 

You know, being able to look a little, you know, across the water to Sardinia and kind of playing with those, with those flavors more. 

[00:44:14] Josh Sharkey: 

I remember chestnuts being a big, a big part of the agriculture in Corsica. Huge. I was reading this thing about Corsica, which is interesting because there's been a lot of different cultures that have come through there.

[00:44:25] 

When Genoa was sort of like migrating there, the governor mandated that every, every resident plant one chestnut tree, one mulberry tree, an olive tree, and a fig tree, and you got fined. That's right. Yeah. If you did not plant one of each of those a year. So it definitely sounds like very, very plant based.

[00:44:42] 

Very cool culture. Are you using a lot of chestnuts? 

[00:44:45] Tyler Akin: 

In the fall and winter, we will be like, there's definitely, we have an old fashion that incorporates chestnuts on the beverage menu for opening. How do you do that? That sounds interesting. We're, we're going to crack them and infuse them, you know? So honestly, we're still kind of like R& Ding the beverage, but there happens to be a chestnut farm here.

[00:45:06] 

It's just like an ex Google guy, bloom farm who bought a, And a state in Pennsylvania, and he's been hosting some guest chefs from around Philly to do dinners out there, but, you know, really trying to like revive the American chestnut tree, which was eliminated effectively. Like the American chestnut tree used to be the most ubiquitous like tree in continental North America. I didn't know that. And it's. Disappeared entirely. 

[00:45:35] Josh Sharkey: 

We have two of them in our, in our front yard. I mean, the chestnuts are, are delicious. Are you sure  it's not a Chinese

[00:45:40] Josh Sharkey: 

They’re Chinese chestnuts. I mean, they're delicious, but 

[00:45:42] Tyler Akin: 

Yeah. And, but you know, I think most people, like I chestnut connoisseurs, uh, do consider the Chinese chestnut to be inferior.

[00:45:49] Tyler Akin: 

And because it's like it's novel that there is this kind of. Attempt to resuscitate the, the chestnut tree kind of right around the time in Pennsylvania, right around the time that we're trying to jump in and explore Corsican food. So I'm excited to work with, with that farm and, and serve their stuff. So 

[00:46:11] Josh Sharkey: 

It's a great product because, you know, it has almost, it can have like this sort of starchiness to it, you know, you puree it, but also you can sort of slice it thin.

[00:46:19] Josh Sharkey: 

I love like those. Like even just buying like the peeled frozen chestnuts if it's a really good product is such a great, you know They work really well with like brandy and caramel and things like that For sure because most times when you think of chestnuts in Italy, all you think of is like that chestnut You know polenta with ricotta or something or is it ricotta that they use for that?

I don't remember 

[00:46:39] Tyler Akin: 

They do that chestnut polenta, it's a huge thing in Corsica, it's polentu and they, you know, essentially it's, it's hydrated chestnut flour, but you can set it much like corn polenta and then kind of sear it or fry it and we're planning on doing like a, like a French toast sort of play with that product on our brunch menu.

[00:47:02] Josh Sharkey: 

That sounds really good. Cool. So you got these, this, this project in Fishtown and the DuPont, anything else sort of in the pipe or that you're, that you're excited about? 

[00:47:11] Tyler Akin: 

The two things that I'm working on intensively, that'll be kind of quote unquote, like Tyler Akin restaurants, as opposed to things that I'm, I do.

[00:47:19] 

You know, for folks on a running basis and in more of a consulting or support capacity are things that I'm not supposed to talk about quite yet, but you know, one of them involves like really amazing, I mean, Barasa grill set up like, you know, live, you know, cooking over live fire. So that one's in Wilmington and then working on a couple of things up here in Philly too, that are maybe.

[00:47:48] 

Closer to two years out from here. Amazing, man. Well, it sounds like you got a lot of stuff going on. A little bit, but right now I'm like, you know, I, you know, I try to give my attention fairly and evenly and as, as, as generously as possible. And like, you know, we need to get this restaurant open and that's obviously a huge focus, but we just had a great new chef de cuisine.

[00:48:11] 

Stephen Forte start. down in Wilmington. So working with him to, you know, kind of make the transition into that role. And, you know, while, while making this, this opening push up here in Philly, but yeah, so I'm on the road a lot, like more, more than I'd like at times, but, um, I think that's going to be The dynamic of my life for a little bit, you know, I really want to do something in DC, by the way, like I miss DC.

[00:48:38] 

I love DC's restaurant culture. And you know, if anybody's listening and they want to do a restaurant in DC, I’m here for it.

[00:48:46] Josh Sharkey: 

DC folks. Very cool, man. Well, this was fun. I'm glad we finally got some time to do it. I will come to Philly soon. I actually, my wife and I are planning like a, a little like Friday.

[00:48:56] 

Into Saturday, like without the kids get away, we've got a pool at Annandale. Oh, you know what? Actually, I was talking to Jesse Ito last week. He was, we did a recording and he recommended the four seasons. We're talking about where we should, where we should stay because we want to kind of do it up and just have some fun.

So I'll check that one.

[00:49:16] Tyler Akin: 

Come check us out. Yeah, we, the rooms open August 7th and we've been taking bookings on the hotel side for about a month now. So yeah, come stay. Check us out.

[00:49:27] Josh Sharkey: 

Cool. Yeah. I will definitely keep you posted. And I definitely want to see the Hotel DuPont. It just sounds like such a cool, such a cool space.

[00:49:36]

So that's it. Thank you. Glad we finally made this happen. And by the way, I didn't get to ask you, but do you know the dog? Are you, are you guys like. So 

[00:49:44] Tyler Akin: 

to listeners, we had to reschedule this because my beloved three legged Pitbull Uni passed the week of our originally scheduled recording. I've always wanted a boxer. Is not thrilled about that. So, and it's, it's under negotiation

[00:49:59] Josh Sharkey: 

Yes. I know how that goes. Yeah, I'm an English bulldog guy myself. We have another bulldog, a seven year old named Herbie, and my wife really wants a Bernese Mountain Dog. 

[00:50:10] Tyler Akin: 

That's a departure like that. I love that group, you know, the Pitbulls, the Bulldogs, the Boxers.

[00:50:17] Tyler Akin: 

I don't know. There's something about that. Just a, you know, the squishy face. I was trying to avoid saying it, but it is a squishy face. Yeah. 

[00:50:24] Josh Sharkey: 

Yeah, just yeah, just cute. Well, I hope you guys figure that out soon. Thanks. And, you know, we'll catch up again pretty soon. Thanks for tuning into the meez podcast.

[00:50:35] 

The music from the show is a remix of the song Art Mirror by an old friend, hip hop artist Fresh Daily. For show notes and more, visit getmeez.com /podcast. That's G E T M E Z dot com forward slash podcast. If you enjoyed the show, I'd love it if you could share it with fellow entrepreneurs and culinary pros, and give us a five star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[00:50:57] 

Keep innovating, don't settle, make today a little bit better than yesterday, and remember, it's impossible for us to learn what we think we already know. See you next time.