Behind Bars Network
The best stories in hospitality are told behind the bar.
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The Nag's Head Pub "Earn It Hospitality"
The Irish Ghosts of Delco: A History Behind Bars
The Emerald Triangle: DelCo Irish History Docuseries — and the Authority Engine Behind It
It's a good story on its own. It's also maps ranking …
James T. Fisher's On The Irish Waterfront
Historian James T. Fisher (author of On the Irish Waterfront: The Crusader, the Movie, and the Soul of the Port of New York) joins us to unpack the real story behind Elia Kazan's 1954 classic: the crusading Jesuit "waterfront priest" Pete Corridan, the mob-run docks, the code of silence, and the corrupt union that ruled the Port of New York.
BEST PINT OF GUINNESS on FIRST with BEN PRIOR
Parish, Pub, and Politics: The Irish in Hoboken
Drawing on state surveys and Hoboken Historical Museum oral histories, we tell the story of a community that rarely owned the bars, but absolutely owned what happened inside them.
THE GOLDEN YEARS OF IRISH ROW
The Nag's Head Pub "Earn It Hospitality"
Austin, TX - Where a Goldmine of Local History, Maps Authority, and AI Visibility Converge
When Being “THE Pub” Means You're Not A Bar
It can be the place regulars call “the pub” and also the place that shows up when someone nearby searches “bar near me.”
That is not a contradiction. That is simply fuller coverage of what the brand already represents in the real world.
A Mart…
Lito Sheppard - 11
Earl Strickland - 10
Regan Stephans - 8
Casey Parker - 7
Brandon Novak - Behind Bars Ep. 5
Mike Gretz - Behind Bars Ep. 4
Ed McHugh - Behind Bars Ep. 3
Chuck Sullivan - Behind Bars Ep. 2
Bob Cullen - Behind Bars Ep. 1
About the Hosts
From the McDonald's Line to a Mountain Vineyard
Richard Truocchio has spent his entire life on both sides of the pass — from the line to the dining room to the bottle — and most every stop in between.
His career started the way a lot of great ones do: flipping on the line at McDonald's in high school, then cooking at the Roadhouse Grill in Doral while in college. But it wa$n't long before South Beach came calling. Recruited to a buzzy new Lincoln Road concept, Poppy, from the Opium Group, Richard trained under acclaimed chef Michelle Bernstein — the kind of education that sticks. From there he worked the floor and the kitchen at Pearl, the Haute Miami concept inside the legendary Nikki Beach Club.
After college, Richard stepped into management, running the restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne for several years and eventually taking the reins of its wine program. A waiter's tour at Smith & Wollensky in South Pointe Park rounded out his Miami years before he headed north to Hoboken.
He got back in the game during the 2008 financial crisis at Zylo Steakhouse in the W Hotel, then spent two years as manager of Hoboken's Madison Bar & Grill. Miami pulled him back once more — this time as head waiter at Scarpetta inside the Fontainebleau — before he returned to Hoboken to open Gringo's as executive chef and partner, eventually growing it to three restaurants and a food truck.
When the pandemic bullshit reshuffled everything, Richard traded the city for the Catskills, where he now runs the Vineyard at Windham — making wine and pouring New York vintages in the tasting room at his own mountain vineyard.
From a McDonald's line to a mountain vineyard, Richard has done nearly every job hospitality has to offer. On Behind Bars, he brings that hard-earned, firsthand perspective to the people and places that make this business worth it.
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