Almost 200 Episodes in, the Hospitality Podcast ‘Joiners’ Still Puts Good Hangs First

Get more recipes, food news, and stories at wttw.com/food or by signing up for our Deep Dish newsletter. 
Have a food story or recommendation? Email us at [email protected].

Looming milestones tend to spark reflection. But as Tim Tierney and Danny Shapiro, creators and hosts of the weekly hospitality industry podcast “Joiners,” near their 200th episode, they’re still most concerned with getting an engaging episode out every Monday. 

“It’s just part of our routine now,” Tierney said. 

It may have something to do with the fact that Tierney and Shapiro each run businesses in addition to churning out weekly longform interviews with “colorful characters” representing every facet of the restaurant and bar industries. Tierney is the co-founder of STOCK Mfg. Co., which makes restaurant uniforms. Shapiro runs five Logan Square restaurants and bars under the Scofflaw Group, including Scofflaw, Outside Voices, and Slippery Slope. 

“We always said we’ll do the podcast until it’s not fun anymore,” Tierney added. Then Shapiro jokingly cut in: “Which was, like, 100 episodes ago.” 

Yet as these goofy friends’ passion project has amassed a cult following of food-loving listeners across Chicago and beyond, they’re facing the kinds of questions that plague every creator whose hobby shows commercial promise. Can they make the podcast financially viable without selling out? Should they get better at self-editing conversations to streamline episodes, or needle guests more on tough topics in the service of listeners? Should they focus more on video content to reach untapped audiences? Do they need a manager? 

“The hard part is, we are content with how it is now,” Shapiro says. “We like building and working toward a new phase, but we’re willing to let it happen at its own pace.”

We recently caught up in the sunny dining room at Bia’s Cafe Marianao in Kilbourn Park over tangy, savory marinated steak sandwiches pressed with tomato, onion, and cheese on crackly Cuban bread. They had chosen the spot based on a tip they received from a recent guest, Cecily Federighi, co-owner of Pizz’Amici in West Town. (The two often ask guests for their hidden-gem dining recs on the show.)  

Tierney and Shapiro debuted their podcast in the summer of 2022. The name “Joiners,” which Shapiro came up with, is a restaurant industry term for someone who joins a reservation at a restaurant. Each week, they have a “standing reservation,” with the guest acting as the joiner, there to share their winding journey through hospitality, warts and all – well, hopefully. 

“I think [the adversity] is what makes the hospitality industry interesting,” Tierney said, “and fuels the camaraderie and feels very real. When we have someone on who’s very self-serious, who’s like, ‘It’s all been great, I’m building this one block at a time,’ no one is going to believe that.”  

They take a conversational approach to interviews with mostly local sources who range from restaurant owners and chefs to pitmasters, brewmasters, bartenders, food distributors, grocery store owners, interior designers, and food writers. In mid-November, the legendary French chef Jacques Pépin, who turns 90 in December, will take the (virtual) hot seat. Their industry status no doubt presents an instant shoulder drop for some who might feel reluctant to open up to traditional news media. They prep some questions in advance, but often lean on their inherent curiosity and penchant for humor to drive interviews. Three years of weekly practice helps, too 

“We’re not traditional journalists where we’re digging out the core, difficult subjects,” Shapiro said. “We’re happy to go there and enjoy it when it happens naturally, but we don’t want to force it.”

Tierney jumped in: “Like [Giant restaurant chef and co-owner] Jason Vincent told us he wanted to come on specifically to talk about healthcare.” 

Shapiro piped up: “And then Tim said, ‘What is that?’” 

“Health? Care?” Tierney replied, honoring the duo’s perpetual verbal tennis match. 

Occasionally, “Joiners” breaks industry news. Monteverde chef and owner Sarah Grueneberg teased the Italian restaurant she is opening in Bucktown with her husband, Jamie. Likewise, Maxwells Trading’s Josh Tilden let slip that he and business partner Erling Wu-Bower are workshopping another concept beneath their Underscore Hospitality umbrella. Sometimes Tierney’s and Shapiro’s names appear on press invites I receive to buzzy openings or specialty dinners, a trend both seem tickled by. 

Since its debut, the podcast has amassed a core base of roughly 1,200 listeners per episode, with downloads topping out at about 4,000. Said core includes a few dozen of Chicago’s most popular chefs, meaning the regular listener is engaged and “very sticky,” Shapiro said. But as they’ve amassed hundreds of hours of content in the ephemeral realm of podcasting, they wonder if they’re hitting a ceiling, not just on local listenership (about 70 percent of downloads are Illinois-based) but on those interested in dining-scene deep dives. All they can do is keep building and deepening their knowledge and network from the place they know best. 

“The evolution is really through Tim and I – our relationship, how we talk to people, because that’s the only constant with ‘Joiners,’” Shapiro said. 

They relish a great conversation, even if it means running 30-odd minutes over on time. They want listeners to feel like they’re in on the joke, whether that means finding the squeaky barstool at Shaw’s Crabhouse’s Oyster Bar or joining their long-raging debate over the superiority of Culver’s versus In-N-Out’s burgers. 

But they also want this thing they’ve built to sustain itself financially. Sponsorship partners like Branca USA help “Joiners” break even, but to make it profitable they’d have to more aggressively pursue sponsors, which raises concerns that they could eventually risk compromising their authenticity and integrity.

During blue-sky conversations, they also talk about making “Joiners” the standard bearer of hospitality podcasts, which would probably require taking it on the road to record in different cities and forge new connections – not an easy ask of two business owners with young families. They’ve toyed with leaning more into video, leveraging their unique industry access to make more entertaining content. As Tierney noted, “Videos go viral; podcasts don’t.” Indeed, views on a handful of their Reels (all edited by Shapiro) have reached the tens of thousands. 

Whether consciously or not, they’ve yet to meaningfully pursue these avenues, in part because they believe growing a podcast in a rising sea of them means putting themselves front and center.

“Tim and I don’t have big egos,” Shapiro said. “In order to become a much bigger thing, you really have to make it about yourselves. We don’t, and that’s the reason that guests like coming on, because it’s fully about them, not us.”

He paused to briefly rib Tierney, who accidentally over-applied hot sauce to his sandwich. Then he added with a laugh: “It’s funny because the thing that helps it succeed is the thing that keeps it from succeeding. It’s a real paradox of a podcast.”

This has been edited to remove an incorrect location for where "Joiners" is recorded.