Episodes

The industry data is in, and it's a mixed bag — limited service is hanging on, full service is still struggling, and the highest margin item on every menu is quietly losing ground. David Henks, Senior Principal and Head of Strategic Partnerships at Technomic, joins Justin and Emily to make sense of all of it. Nearly 30 years of food service intelligence gets unpacked in one conversation: where traffic is actually growing, why beverages have become the industry's unlikeliest bright spot, what's r...

Go green, go white, go get a Michelin star — apparently Detroit's in the running for all three. Justin flies solo this week to welcome Jay Davis, Crain's Detroit man on the restaurant beat, for a deep dive into the biggest food news the city's had in years: Michelin is doing a Midwest guide, and Detroit's hosting the very first Great Lakes reveal dinner next April at Michigan Central. Jay sets his over/under at three and a half stars and breaks down what a Michelin star actually can do to a rest...

What do a U.S. Army platoon and a Taco Bell restaurant have in common? More than you'd think — and Monica Rothgery has the war stories to prove it. Monica went from second lieutenant to COO of KFC to keynote speaker, and her through-line the whole time has been the most underleveraged person in any restaurant or hotel: the frontline manager. She joined us to give a preview of her upcoming keynote at the Women in Hospitality Leadership Conference in November and it took a lot of will (WIHL?) pow...

We're coming to you live from the 2026 MRLA Summer Board Meeting at Grand Traverse Resort, and we pulled Isaac Collazo aside before he took the stage to give us a few minutes of tell us more on the state of the hotel industry. Isaac leads analytics at STR, a division of CoStar Group — the people who quite literally wrote the book on hotel market data. If anyone knows where this industry is heading, it's him. We got into what actually drove that surprisingly strong June, what Michigan's numbers...

We're doing something we've never done before: skipping the news, ditching the segments, and handing the whole episode over to our guests. That's how excited we are about this one. Josh and Jase — the British content creators who dove headfirst into Michigan in the dead of winter and loved it enough to come back — are here. We talked Great Lakes polar plunge, Mackinac Island, the Big Home, pasties, and why Midwest nice might be the most disarming thing one can experience in America. Fair warning...

What does it take to cement a region as a premier culinary destination? This week, Justin and Emily sit down for an exclusive interview exploring the upcoming Traverse City Food & Wine Festival, unpacking the community partnerships and creative culinary forces driving northern Michigan's booming tourism scene.  Plus, a marathon overnight session in Lansing results in a massive $75.2 billion state budget—we’re breaking down what a split Legislature's eleventh-hour deal means for local operator...

Crown & Core opens with the world falling in love with America during the World Cup — free peanuts, affordable steaks, and apparently we've been sitting on a goldmine this whole time. Then we get into it: QSR traffic, the Chick-fil-A vs. Jersey Mikes (kind of), and a couple of plaudits worth raising a glass to. Our guest this week is Glenn Haussman — host of the #1 hospitality industry podcast No Vacancy, professional road warrior, and possibly the most optimistic person in a room full of opti...

Some episodes have a theme and this one is showing up. One hundred and fifty operators showed up to Capitol Day. Senate Bill 304 showed up across the finish line. A Detroit brewery makes sure it'll never stop showing up. And then there's Brandon Markle, who is showing up — behind a counter, in a hotel lobby, on a national awards stage, and in-person in the studio for this interview. The GM of the Courtyard by Marriott Lansing Downtown started behind a McDonald's counter and by 28 is running a ho...

Salad stuffed into a baguette is apparently the hottest thing in food right now, Mackinac Island's ferry system is under attack, and a proposed $4 billion service tax in Lansing has us paying very close attention. But honestly? You should listen in for the interview. Chef Andrew Sargent, winner of Netflix's Next Gen Chef, trained under Daniel Boulud at the eponymous Daniel before running day-to-day kitchen operations at Thomas Keller's three Michelin-starred Per Se — and he joins the pod to deli...

Today's episode opens somewhere more somber than usual. Justin and Emily take a moment to honor John McNamara — friend, colleague, and the record-holder for most guest appearances on this podcast — before getting back to the business of Michigan hospitality, which is exactly what Johnny Mac would have wanted. From there, the segments pick back up: Detroit lands in the newly launched Michelin Guide American Great Lakes edition, Open Table is mandating restaurants make it their system of record a...

What's with the Pineapple is making history this episode — first ever remote segment (Justin's phoning it in from Traverse City, literally) and Emily's first solo interview. The segments cover a big tip credit win out of Chicago, where the City Council voted to halt the phase-out, Justin's productive DC fly-in for Restaurants Act, movement on Michigan's open and obvious doctrine, and Grand Rapids swinging big (hopefully) on a 600-room convention hotel. Emily also takes a massive bite out of Burg...

Pete Beukema literally flies planes and wants Michigan's hospitality industry to reach similar altitudes. The new MRLA Chairman talks Brady Bunch-style family business dynamics, why property taxes are killing development deals, and how Pure Michigan keeps getting shortchanged while surrounding states actually invest in tourism. Crown and Core discovers protein infiltrating every menu, the GLP-1 fascination continues with new data showing users still dining out, and somehow the great pepperoni di...

It's a Christmas miracle – another episode before year's end, thanks to producer Joe getting married and leaving Emily to discover he makes them sound way better than they actually are. After Crown and Core debuts Michigan's first "outdoor hotel" (it's a campground with aspirations) and This Week in Michigan History reveals the 1948 Supreme Court ban on female bartenders lasted until 1976, Pure Michigan's Kelly Wolgamott joins to celebrate the campaign's 20th anniversary. Kelly explains navigati...

Detroit's winning and has the receipts to prove it – literally hundreds of millions of them. Before DoorDash economist Erica Blom reveals why the Motor City ranks third nationally with a $12.90 cheeseburger meal (national average: $18.58), Emily declares war on boring modern architecture while Justin explains Michigan's bizarre post-prohibition liquor control system. It’s a battle of the opening segments. The main event delivers DoorDash's groundbreaking State of Local Commerce report built from...

You can't spell "reunited" without... well, actually you can, but Emily's back anyway to defend the podcast segments after Justin's three-episode soundboard discovery tour. The duo kicks off with the 1835 Toledo War where Michigan traded a swampy Ohio strip for the entire Upper Peninsula (clear winner: Michigan), before diving into why Pure Michigan's $17 million budget is an embarrassment when Wisconsin is eating our lunch with better marketing dollars. Airbnb thinks slapping a 3% tax on hotels...

Justin welcomes the Vice President of Industry Relations at Broadcast Music Inc (BMI) Vice, Dan Spears, to share what makes BMI different than other Performance Rights Organizations (PRO’s) and how their partnership with the MRLA provides meaningful value and transparency for members. Dan also welcomes BMI artist and fellow Michigander Julianne Ankley to share her experience working with the company before making What’s with the Pineapple podcast history as its first musical performance. Juliann...

Justin welcomes back Adrian Hemond of Grassroots Midwest and John Sellek of Harbor Strategic Public Affairs who jointly share their inside the Lansing beltway expertise under the moniker “Baldly Bipartisan”. The trio discuss the status of the 2026 governor’s race in Michigan, with a real focus on the impact that independent candidate Mike Duggan has had on the dynamics before previewing the open US Senate seat and potential constitutional convention. They wrap the interview by predicting outcome...

Ooh baby baby, it’s a wild world! Justin labored to handle the podcasting duties solo this week because beloved co-host Emily went into labor and welcomed baby Lenora Joyce “LJ” into the world. Team MRLA is ecstatic and committed to carrying the torch forward in her temporary absence, but let this pod be your official declaration to manage expectations accordingly! Justin tries out a new segment that somehow features Tiger Woods, Hootie and the Stanley Cup before a seamless(-ish) segue into tari...

While Emily hasn't gone on leave quite yet, Justin takes the helm with production control and an impressive arsenal of sound effects buttons to break down the massive tax legislation signed into law over Fourth of July weekend. After celebrating National Kitten Day and pitching "Detroit Does" as the new WNBA team name, the co-hosts dive into local wins including Detroit City Council streamlining business licensing and Cameron Mitchell's $13 million Big Rock Italian Chophouse remake in Birmingham...

With Emily preparing for a hiatus and Justin's podcast equipment training going about as well as expected, the duo tackles the hospitality industry's latest existential crisis: customers who literally can't finish their food. Dr. Wesley Tucker from Texas Women's University explains the GLP-1 revolution that has 15-20 million Americans eating 800-1000 fewer calories daily while shifting spending from processed foods to items like Greek yogurt. The conversation covers everything from two-beer nigh...

Justin and Emily are fully caffeinated and slightly unhinged to tackle a lineup of industry challenges both perennial and unprecedented. Justin and Emily celebrate Plymouth Canton's second-place ProStart national finish before diving into the hospitality industry's latest headaches – from Pure Michigan funding stuck in political limbo to the annual H-2B visa lottery keeping northern Michigan operators guessing. Food policy expert Maggie Gentile breaks down the rapidly evolving "Make America Heal...

The Content Room takes What's with the Pineapple on the road to the Michigan Food & Hospitality Show floor for a lineup of hospitality heavy-hitters. First up, Julie Pinkston wearing all of the hats joins to discuss her roles as president of the Michigan Association of CVBs, secretary of the Michigan Hospitality Tourism Alliance, and her day job leading Choose Lansing – where they're busy transforming downtown with new venues, hotels with rooftop bars, and earning national recognition as the cou...

The Content Room returns after their tip credit-induced hiatus with MRLA Chairman Jean Lanfear to discuss her journey from Dairy Queen counter to Buffalo Wild Wings executive. While debating the pronunciation of "caramel" (there is only one correct answer), Justin and Emily serve up surprisingly sweet (and a few sour) stats about the industry five years post-COVID – restaurants now command 53% of America's food dollar despite dining solo becoming the new norm. Starbucks' pivot back to human conn...

Things are getting weird and we aren’t just talking about the three month hiatus of What’s with the Pineapple. Justin and Emily kick things off celebrating National Slap Your Coworker Day (HR would like a word) and their Halloween costumes of choice. The pair dives into McDonald's unexpected political spotlight, Massachusetts giving Michigan a master class in common sense on tip credit, the cage-free egg law scrambling industry preparations for 2025, and Michigan hotels earning their Michelin Ke...