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Chad Mackay's Roadmap to Building Restaurants with People, Purpose, and Resilience
In this episode, Chad Mackay, CEO of Fire & Vine Hospitality, shares how he’s built a thriving restaurant group by focusing on people, purpose, and values. From navigating financial crises to growing as a leader, Chad shares powerful lessons on resilience, leadership, and legacy.
Chad Mackay
CEO, Fire & Vine Hospitality
Chad Mackay, CEO of Fire & Vine Hospitality, joined El Gaucho in 2003, working alongside his father and founder, Paul Mackay. He became CEO in 2013 and went on to launch the evolution of Fire & Vine Hospitality in 2017, supporting iconic Pacific Northwest properties such as El Gaucho and AQUA by El Gaucho. He served as Board Chair of the Washington State Hospitality Association, Finance Chair for Visit Seattle, and in 2018, co-founded the Third Door Coalition to address homelessness through Housing First and Permanent Supportive Housing solutions.
In this episode of Restrocast, Chad Mackay, CEO of Fire & Vine Hospitality, shares his journey from growing up around restaurants run by his father to stepping away into the corporate world, only to return with renewed vision and a commitment to do things differently.
He talks candidly about the pivotal moments in his leadership journey—surviving the 2008 financial crisis while building a flagship restaurant, learning from failed concepts, and the power of integrity and honoring commitments. Chad also reflects on the importance of a people-centric culture, his evolution into a servant leader, and how empowering others became the key to scaling sustainably.
From using technology to enhance the human experience to building teams that stay longer, this episode is packed with accurate, hard-earned insights for anyone in hospitality—or any people-driven business.