Description

This episode is an interview with Bobby Stuckey, a Boulder based award winning Master Sommelier, restaurateur, winemaker, and cookbook author. Bobby grew up in Arizona and is a graduate of NAU. He worked his way up from being a busboy to working with Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, where he met his business partner Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson. Together in 2004, they opened Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, CO, and went on to found the Frasca Hospitality Group that now includes 5 sister restaurants. In 2004, Bobby received his Master Sommelier diploma, making him just one of 279 people in the world to have this title. In 2020, Bobby became a founding member of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, which saved thousands of restaurants during the pandemic. Bobby is the recipient of 3 James Beard Awards, including the 2013 award for Outstanding Wine Service, the 2019 award for Outstanding Service (changed to Outstanding Hospitality in 2020 per Bobby's recommendation) and the 2025 award for Outstanding Restaurant. Bobby currently lives in Boulder, is a 2:45 marathoner, and tries to run a marathon every year with his brother.

In this episode, we talk about:

• How Bobby found running as a kid who was struggling in school academically with undiagnosed dyslexia
• How his first job in the restaurant industry as a busboy led to him finding his passion in hospitality and set him on his path to work at award winning restaurants like French Laundry
• The overlap between the skills it takes to be a runner and the skills it takes to work in the hospitality industry, and why it's important to Bobby to protect his time
• What it means to be a Master Sommelier and how you become one
• What goes into opening a restaurant and planning a menu, and what inspires the food and wine Bobby's restaurants
• Why Bobby's relationship with food is about so much more than fueling, but about honoring culture and tradition
• How his background in cooking has helped him prioritize fueling to support his own training

If you would like to learn more about the Frasca Hospitality Group offerings, you can do so on their website HERE.