On The Pass

How do you build a great partnership? And how does that partnership foster a strong company culture—one that extends beyond your guests to include your entire team? Our next guests have mastered this balance, creating a thriving hospitality group while continuing to expand their portfolio of offerings. In this episode of On The Pass, we’re joined by two culinary visionaries w

No matter where you are in the world, January is a time for reflection—a moment to consider how we’ve moved through the past and envision how we want to step into the future. January offers us a cultural and astrological milestone, the New Year, as an opportunity to start fresh. For many, Dry January becomes a product of this cultural shift, reflecting a growing interest in

At On The Pass we have a deep love for Mexican food—from the humble street taco to the artistry of fine dining. Mexican cuisine is vibrant, flavorful, and as colorful as the people, culture, and diverse landscapes it represents. It’s hard to imagine a time when the beauty and richness of this storied food culture weren’t widely celebrated, both in Mexico and across the globe.

Are you familiar with the three key tiers in Cognac production? These include the distillers, the grape growers, and those who age the eau-de-vie. In Cognac, it’s quite uncommon for a single brand to oversee every aspect of the process—growing grapes, distilling, and aging. However, our next guests are doing just that. Some might even say this challenger Cognac brand has been a

Our next guest is on a mission to support restaurants and reclaim market share in a sector her company helped revolutionize 26 years ago. Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, the pioneering platform for restaurant reservations, founded in 1998 in San Francisco. Today, OpenTable remains the leader in online reservations as part of Booking Holdings Inc., but being the first and largest doesn

Chef Mauro Colagreco has famously said, “We aren’t a restaurant with a garden, we are a garden with a restaurant.” He and his team are deeply committed to safeguarding the world’s culinary heritage, particularly through the preservation of biodiversity in both flora and fauna. This dedication has extended his role far beyond the kitchen and his numerous restaurants, positio

On this episode of the Hot Spot series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with Chef Jon Yao and Sommelier Ryan Bailey, co-owners of Kato, an Asian American restaurant that artfully explores the intersection of Los Angeles culture and the Asian diaspora. Kato originally opened in a small Westside strip mall, operating in a space just one-quarter the size of its current location in Downtow

In January 2023, Gabriel traveled to the southern Pacific Coast of Mexico, in the state of Guerrero, to experience Playa Viva, an eco-luxury and regenerative boutique hotel founded by our next guest, David Leventhal, and his then-wife shortly after purchasing the land in 2006. Playa Viva is situated at the base of the Sierra Madre Mountains, just forty minutes from Zihuatanejo-Ix

On this episode of the High Tea series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with Clay Williams, Brooklyn-based James Beard Award-winning photographer. Clay has been capturing and helping tell stories about food, hospitality, and the people and places that define our culture for more than 15 years. His work has appeared in the pages of Food & Wine, The New York Times, Bloomberg, and Travel

On this episode of the High Tea series, Gabriel Ornelas sits down with Adam Teeter, New York-based Co-founder and CEO of VinePair. Adam and Josh Malin Co-founded VinePair ten years ago and together they’ve grown the platform into the largest multi-media publication about wine, beer and spirits in America, reaching almost 40 million people a month. In this episode, we discuss: