Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacob & Nadia Bickelhaupt.
Hi Jacob & Nadia, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Konro as it is today was born out of COVID – a time that ended up being a strange blessing for our family. Jacob’s restaurant in Chicago had to shut down during quarantine – a restaurant where a chef plates three feet in front of you did not adhere to social distancing requirements – and it turns out fine dining does not translate to takeout.
Prior to COVID, we were back and forth between Denver and Chicago weekly, and we ended up quarantining with our puppies in a studio apartment in Denver, where I was still working full-time. Just like all artists would, Jacob got very antsy not being able to create.
He started a YouTube cooking channel, and taught himself photography and videography (he does all our Instagram content himself now), but nothing fulfills him quite like cooking for and feeding guests. So, we decided to revive Konro, a traveling pop-up he had briefly operated in Chicago prior to opening his second restaurant. Jacob flew to Chicago, packed all the restaurant equipment he needed, and drove it back to Denver in a van.
We set up a new Tock page and marketed Konro on Instagram and to friends – a two-Michelin star chef cooking a tasting menu in Denver was all but unheard of. Foodies jumped at the chance to book tickets, especially since people were starved for experiences during quarantine. We rented a guest suite in our apartment building for the weekend and moved in at 3 PM (tables, chairs, plates, glassware, food, etc.) for a 7 PM dinner start time.
The first weekend was a huge success, and we slowly started doing Konro one, then two, then three weekends a month. Eventually, we wanted to do Konro more days a week, so we ended up moving into a two-bedroom apartment and operating the pop-up out of our home. When COVID worsened again, we shifted our business model to only serving private groups of four or more (in our living room).
When Wednesdays would come around we would move all our living room furniture into our bedroom, move the Konro tables and chairs from our guest bathtub into the living room, and start our week of dinner service. Saturdays after dinner we would return our home to normal, and the following Wednesday we started it all over again.
As of 2021, our tables were selling out six months in advance, with people traveling from all over the country to dine with us in our homes. As much as we loved doing Konro in Denver, we needed to get it out of our apartment. All of us (maybe the puppies most of all) missed having a couch to snuggle on at the end of a long day.
So, we started thinking about where we could open a “restaurant” – keeping our same concept of just the two of us, with Jacob describing every course and myself (a sommelier) doing all our beverage pairings. Long story short, we moved to West Palm Beach, where we are currently building our dream restaurant – one that we consider to be an extension of our home.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our road definitely hasn’t been a smooth one. Konro was born out of a time when the entire world was struggling, and we were no exception. My (Nadia’s) pay was cut by 50% at the beginning of COVID, and with the restaurant shut down we were surviving solely on my salary, which with that cut was not enough to get by.
Once we got the momentum going, we definitely had a routine in Denver, but not having a space to just relax (not to mention personal refrigerator space), was definitely a challenge! Since moving to West Palm, we’ve had to pivot again. We are not immune to the construction delays that plague everyone – we are currently a year behind our scheduled opening – but since we do not have investors and rely solely on our work to pay our bills, it has been a challenge, to say the least.
Thankfully, we made amazing friends at Fern Street Wine Bar and Kitchen in downtown West Palm, and they have graciously welcomed us and let us use four seats at their bar, where we are currently operating our pop-up experience while construction wraps up.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Konro is solely a tasting menu experience – when you come in you don’t have to think about anything, we do all the thinking for you and your only job is to sit back and relax. It is a 10- to 14 course: Chef Jacob describes each course directly to you, and I do all the wine pairings. You can’t order anything a la carte or order a glass of wine: we have a fully curated experience that allows you just to immerse yourself in the amazing flavors, textures, and of course gorgeous plating.
Currently, we only seat four people a night at the pop-up, which is so intimate, and to have a chef of Jacob’s caliber describing each course to you directly is pretty much unheard of. When construction completes at our brick-and-mortar, we have a seating capacity of 14 people, but we are only going to seat generally between six and eight people a night (unless it is a private party), to maintain the intimacy of the experience.
We are very unique in that we do not have any employees, we are just a husband-and-wife team. Jacob does all the prep himself (each dinner is about 50 hours of prep), we both serve you, and we are there interacting with you and chatting all dinner long. Me, personally, what I love so much about our experience is that we get very close with our repeat guests, and we’ve built such an amazing circle of people as a result of the experience that we offer.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
The biggest advice I’d give my past self as we’ve gone down this crazy journey – is just to trust the process and don’t overthink it. If you know what you are doing is special, keep at it. Of course, we all know hindsight is 20/20, but for us, every challenge that we have gone through, even when it has seemed unsurmountable at the time, has brought us to a better and more beautiful place.
Pricing:
- Pop-Up R&D Tasting Menu: $405 per person
- Pop Up Beverage Pairings: $225 per person
Contact Info:
- Website: www.konrorestaurant.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/konrorestaurant
- Other: exploretock.com/konro
