Communal Table Podcast: Sarah Robbins

Chefs and restaurant workers take great care of everyone else, but often they need a little help themselves. Each week, Food & Wine senior editor Kat Kinsman talks with hospitality pros about they manage their business, brain, and body for the long haul. Is there a topic you'd like to know more about or a guest you'd love to hear from? Tell us at fwpro@foodandwine.com or tweet to Kat @kittenwithawhip, and subscribe to the weekly Food & Wine Pro newsletter. Subscribe to the new Communal Table YouTube page and never miss an episode. Catch up on previous episodes here.

Episode 54: Sarah Robbins

Whether you're away from home for business or pleasure, you're in a vulnerable spot when you stay in a hotel, away from your normal patterns and dependent on other people. Sarah Robbins knew hospitality was her calling, got an ROTC scholarship to put herself through school to learn all about it, and has spent her entire career finding ways to make restaurant and hotel guests—and the people who work in them—feel taken care of. Robbins, now the COO of 21c Museum Hotels, sat down (fittingly enough in a hotel room) during last year's SXSW for a conversation about her days wrangling celebrity requests at Tribeca Grill, the mistakes she made along the way, choosing empathy over meanness, and how the military taught her to be a great manager.

Learn more about Sarah: 21c Museum Hotels

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Previous episode: Emma Bengtsson talks about open kitchens and (reluctantly) learning to sit still.