After four successful years as a pop-up dining experience in the downtown area and beyond, Please is looking for a permanent home. And chef and founder Ryan Santos has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the next step: a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Santos has been honing his culinary skills for nearly 10 years, having worked at his craft throughout the U.S. and in Europe with renowned chefs like Kevin Sousa and John Shields. Finding a spot to call home is only a natural progression for Please, known for using quality, locally grown produce and products to create new takes on classics and dream up inventive dishes like wild ohio venison with juniper branch or toasted milk ice cream.
CityBeat sat down with Santos to discuss the Kickstarter campaign and what the future holds for Please.
CityBeat: Why do you want to transition from a pop-up to a permanent location? Ryan Santos: Doing the pop-up has been great. It’s given me the freedom to find my voice and vision as a cook and a chef, to make mistakes, and learn greatly from them. But there comes a point when as a pop-up you can only take things to a certain level. We feel like we’ve plateaued at that point and are ready to keep pushing, improving and refining … We want something we can make and call our own, from the furniture to the food to the atmosphere.
CB: You’ve been a pop-up restaurant for around four years now. Why is now the appropriate time for the transition? RS: I think the food scene here in town is really hitting its stride and I’ve grown to a point as a chef where I think what we do can contribute something meaningful to it. As well as our excitement to just be a part of it.
CB: What are your plans for a new restaurant? RS: We plan on continuing to do what we do. We want to open a restaurant where we continue to strive to be an honest, delicious, value-driven restaurant that continues to focus on creativity, quality and sourcing locally from the Ohio River Valley, Tristate and beyond.
CB: What’s going to be different about Please if it finds a permanent home? RS: The food will continue to grow, evolve and definitely we’ll be able to refine things. Right now with the pop-up it’s a lot of raw ideas, but in the format, it’s difficult to have the budget and time to refine dishes, so we are definitely looking forward to that. We’ll also have a bar with a fun beverage program. It’ll include our unique take on cocktails, a focus on local and European beers, and a wine program that focuses on natural, biodynamic and small producers.
CB: If the Kickstar [campaign] succeeds, what’s your timeline for finding a spot and opening? RS: The Kickstarter is also being supplemented by some private fundraising we’re still doing as well, so when all those things come together, we can get moving. We’re hoping to have a space and fundraising locked up and ready to start building out by this spring.
You can help support their Kickstarter campaign here, or check out their website at pleasecincinnati.com. (A CityBeat 2013 cover story on Santos and Please is available here.)
This article appears in Dec 17-23, 2014.