OCTOBER 2024 16 with Chef Bernie Kantak, owner of The Gladly 2201 E. Camelback Road • thegladly.com In the Kitchen W ith three popular restaurants operating in the Valley, it’s clear that when Chef Bernie Kantak decides to do something, he sticks with it and does everything he can to make the experience enjoyable for all. Before opening The Gladly, Citizen Public House and Beginner’s Luck, Kantak was an art student that grew up in New York, who had no idea that owning a restaurant was in his very successful future. Give us a little insight into your upbringing. I was born and raised in Syracuse, New York. My grandfather on my dad’s side was a German butcher shop owner and he did everything in the shop and market. His brother had a restaurant and bowling alley next door. My grandmother on my mom’s side lived in Ohio and ran a reception hall in a church. She’s Hungarian and all the food she made was Hungarian, like chicken paprikash and stuffed cabbage. When I would visit my grandmother I’d go to church with her and watch all the crazy old Hungarian ladies making all these different foods. I washed dishes in the church kitchen when I was nine. Don’t worry, there wasn’t any kind of child labor going on [ laughs ]. How did you get involved in the restaurant industry? After I graduated college, I moved to Phoenix [in 1995] to attend Scottsdale Culinary Institute. My first real job was at an old Italian restaurant in Syracuse. I did dishes, prep cooked, line cooked, served, bartended… you name it, I’ve done it. That was my job through high school and college. I attended SUNY Cortland in New York and got a degree in sculpture. Wait…sculpture? When I got to college, I had no idea what I wanted to do – like everybody else. My advisor was the sculpture professor, and he told me to take an easy class. ‘You’re going to have to take an art class before you graduate,’ he said. I never really enjoyed art after elementary school because it felt like I was being told what to do, so I didn’t take any classes until senior year of high school. As a senior, I took 3D Art and the first day of class the teacher showed us where everything was and said ‘here’s everything – do something and you’ll pass.’ I jumped on a pottery wheel and it came naturally to me. It’s therapeutic, the way the mud slips through your fingers. I found myself skipping other classes to go in there. My freshman year of college I took a ceramics class. At some point I’d like to semi-retire and make plates and stuff like that. Right now I have too much going on [ laughs ]. After college, you ended up at culinary school? Both of my sisters live in New York – one was in Brooklyn and one in Manhattan at the time. My plan was to work at a restaurant in Phoenix for a year, save up some money, go back and work in New York City. There or San Francisco, Chicago – somewhere with an amazing food culture. I was completely broke so I went to work for Peter and Marianne at Cowboy Ciao, and they gave me an opportunity to take over the kitchen. I was like, ‘I have no idea what I’m doing,’ but I really loved what they were doing and a lot of what Marianne and Peter taught me was that it’s all about making people happy – whether its guests, or your teammates, it should be something enjoyable. I started at Cowboy Ciao right out of culinary school. I forget how long I was there before we opened Kazimierz and I would jump back and forth between the two, which was easy because they were right next to each other. I was with Peter for 12 years. Was there a lightbulb moment where you went, ‘I want to open my own place’? Kind of. I didn’t want to deal with all the things an owner deals with, but I was already dealing with all of those things without reaping the benefits so I figured it was time to do my own thing. You have a partner in the restaurants, yes? Yes! My partner, Andrew Fritz, was also at Cowboy Ciao when the idea came up to do my own thing. I’m not a front of the house person, I know nothing about it – I mean, I can go talk to a table, but there’s lanes that I believe people should stay in. Andrew is amazing at the things he does and I’m pretty good at the things I do. We work well together. How would you describe the cuisine at your restaurants? Well-traveled comfort food. The most popular item is the OG Chopped Salad, by 100-fold. It’s insane how many of those we sell. The Gladly and Citizen share three plates – the salad, a scallop dish with roasted corn grits, snow pea leaves, bacon and a little cola gastrique and espresso short ribs with parsnip purée and cherry BBQ sauce – those are really, really good. What makes The Gladly different from Citizen Public House? I like to explain Citizen as a little more ‘me.’ It’s been around a long time, I’ve been around a long time, it’s a little more casual. Gladly is more like Andrew – he’s a little younger, definitely more hip, he’s always dressed very nicely and presents himself well, while I’m a little more artsy. Where do you find inspiration for the dishes? Life, honestly. A lot of what I’m doing right now is based on my experiences. There’s a dish at Beginner’s Luck called My Rich Uncle’s French Toast. My uncle used to take me for breakfast on Thanksgiving morning when I was little and one year, he said ‘let’s make everyone breakfast,’ and he taught me how to make French toast. You know those friends that give you a hug and you’re like ‘thanks, buddy,’ and then there’s others that you don’t want to let go of? That’s what I’m trying to do with food. I’m taking comfort food to a more intimate level. What’s the story behind the names? Andrew named all three of them. Citizen Public House – I think he was on a hike with Chris Lingua, who owns Sauvage Wine Bar, and came up with the name after we came up with the concept. You know the advisories that are put on menus for undercooked or raw foods? We like to add a line… ‘we will gladly accommodate…’ And that encompasses our approach to hospitality. We’ll bend over backwards for you if it makes sense – and sometimes if it doesn’t. Beginner’s Luck came about after a cocktail from Gladly that Andrew named. We had a bartender and it was the first drink they put out and Andrew went ‘Hmm, Beginner’s Luck!’ We decided to turn that restaurant into a brunch-type place to start your day or night off. I couldn’t tell you what that original drink had in it [ laughs ]. Tell us about your awards and accolades. Oh, jeez! I don’t even remember them all. James Beard semifinalist 2017; lots of ‘best new restaurant’ – we had a hat- tip in Esquire for best new restaurant, honorable mention. These awards are mind-boggling. I had a friend text me congratulations and I said ‘Thanks! For what?’ and she sent me a screenshot of the

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