by Adam Ortega, reporter
OMAHA – Restaurant Tales is a podcast released March of 2019. Zach Ferguson and his co-hosts interview restaurant professionals while drinking various alcohols. The show also reads listener stories and, in their own words, “gets up to all sorts of nonsense.”
Zach is from California and moved to Omaha for economic opportunities. He worked multiple restaurant jobs around the metro, working both front and back of house positions. It was in 2017 when he became a wine distribution specialist.
One night in 2019, Zach and a few friends were chatting and drinking wine. Zach thought it would be funny to record their conversations while tipsy. To his surprise, the audio actually sounded decent.
“You want the honest answer? I was drunk with some friends and literally just started recording on my phone…then we sat for like 40 minutes trying to come up with a name for the show,” Zach said.
Fast forward to 2020 and the podcast regularly has an audience of one thousand listeners across the country. He said there was no way to know how successful the podcast was going to be.
“I mean, I’ve worked in the service industry for most of my life…what do I know about podcasting? Nothing! There was a lot of reading. Lots of practicing and looking at NPR training articles to figure out how to do this,” said Zach.
His website, Restauranttalespodcast.com, archives every episode since the show started.
There you can also leave feedback on episodes.
Zach said, “We are nothing without feedback, everyone in the podcasting community knows something we don’t. Reach out! Tell us what we’re doing wrong,”
Overall, the podcast celebrates the daily struggle of working in the hospitality industry.
