Kevin Boehm

After opening more than 50 restaurants over the past 30 years, James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Kevin Boehm has helped build Boka Restaurant Group into one of America’s most acclaimed restaurant companies. His approach to hospitality has earned recognition from the James Beard Foundation, Michelin Guide, and Food & Wine, while launching restaurants that have become fixtures of the industry.

Boehm gives audiences an inside look at what it takes to build restaurants that endure in one of the world’s most competitive industries. Through candid stories from his career, he explores what separates lasting concepts from fleeting trends, how great operators build teams and earn loyalty, and why exceptional hospitality remains a competitive advantage in any business.

Boehm’s path to becoming one of the country’s most accomplished restaurateurs began with a promise he made to his mother at age 10 that he would one day own a restaurant. After leaving the University of Illinois, he moved to the Florida Panhandle to work in restaurants, overcoming homelessness before earning a coveted captain’s position at the Beach House Restaurant.

In 2002, he partnered with Rob Katz, and together they opened 41 restaurants over the next 23 years. The group’s many accolades and accomplishments include 20 James Beard Award nominations, two Food & Wine Best New Chefs, 13 consecutive Michelin Guide stars for Boka, and 6 Boka Restaurant Group restaurants on Chicago Tribune’s Top 50 list.

In 2019, the James Beard Foundation named Boehm and Katz Outstanding Restaurateurs.

Boehm is the author of The Bottomless Cup: A Memoir of Secrets, Restaurants, and Forgiveness, a candid account of his unconventional path through the restaurant industry and the experiences that shaped his approach to hospitality. He is also a contributing writer for Fast Company, and his work has appeared in Esquire, Plate, the Chicago Sun-Times, and McSweeney’s.