Bar Pod
Bars are one of the few businesses that don’t let you lie to yourself for very long. The numbers are real. The feedback is immediate. The mistakes are expensive. Bar Pod is a podcast about what it actually takes to build and run bars—and by extension, any small, creative, high-risk business—without the hype, the shortcuts, or the guru nonsense.
Hosted by brothers Ryan and Chad, Bar Pod is a candid, conversational series about ownership, operations, and the long game of building something that lasts. Ryan handles the day-to-day reality of running multiple bar and hospitality concepts, while Chad brings the perspective of someone balancing bartending, ownership, and family life. Together, they talk through real decisions, real mistakes, and real lessons learned the hard way.
This isn’t a how-to manual and it’s not a highlight reel. It’s an honest look at what works, what doesn’t, and why most good ideas live or die on execution. Episodes explore everything from finances and branding to staffing, burnout, risk tolerance, and knowing when to push—or when to walk away.
Bars are just the lens. The lessons apply to anyone who’s started a business, thought about starting one, bought a building, managed people, taken on risk, or tried to design a life with more freedom and fewer illusions.
Bar Pod is thoughtful, practical, occasionally irreverent, and grounded in experience. If you care about building things in the real world—and doing it without pretending it’s easy—pull up a stool.
Bar Pod
Latest Episodes
Stop Putting Ads in My Pizza Order | Bar Owners on Apps, Billionaires & Summer Chaos
A train rolls by with distributed power and somehow that turns into a perfect warm-up for the kind of wide-ranging bar conversation we love most: the little details of everyday life that say a lot about where we live and how we treat people. Fr...
The Dive Bar Episode
A real dive bar doesn’t need a marketing plan, it needs time, stories, and a little bit of grime in the corners. We’re going all-in on the dive bar edition, starting with the debate: can you actually “open” a dive bar, or does a place have to e...
Stop Stealing Plungers You Weirdos
Somebody is stealing plungers from bar bathrooms and it’s not even the weirdest part of our week. We’re back with Barpod energy, bouncing from fermented-food gut health talk to the real-world chaos that shows up once summer crowds hit Sandusky ...
A Simple Bar Build Turns Into Inspector Hell
Somebody walked into our bar and ordered a “Dolce and Gabbana.” Not sunglasses. Not a purse. A beer. That story sets the tone for a loose, honest hang where bar ownership, customer chaos, and real-world interruptions all collide in the best way...
A Birthday Pour With Bar Owner Rants And River Stops
A birthday morning at the bar turns into the kind of freewheeling conversation that only happens when the mics are on and the to-do list is already screaming. We start with studio quirks, beers on deck, and that familiar moment where you realiz...
Fan Mail
I’m turning 31 this summer, I’m single, i don’t like my corporate sales desk job, I’ve bartended/served 6 years ago, is it too late to switch to bartending as a full time career? I’d be open to seasonal jobs.
Cleveland, Ohio