We recently connected with Nicolai McCrary and have shared our conversation below.

Nicolai, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

Every vacation is an opportunity to learn and be inspired—about people, food, design, etc…I think it’s extremely important to take them because they help broaden our scope and become more creative individuals. But vacations don’t have to be expensive—some of my most memorable trips have been to small nearby towns.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have my hands in a lot of different things. After spending about 10 years as a food photographer, working for various publications and companies, I decided to shift over to food writing as a career. Now, most of my days are spent eating out and writing reviews about restaurants.

But when I’m not writing about food, I like to cook it. About once a month, I run a pop-up called Penang Shack. It’s an opportunity for me to cook Malaysian food for friends and people in Austin, since we don’t really have a lot of that here. It’s also helped me gain a better understanding for what it’s like to be on both sides of the industry, albeit in a limited capacity.

I guess, at the end of the day, I just like being around food. Whether that’s photographing it, writing about it, learning about it, or cooking it.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Every business that I’ve started, I’ve done on a shoestring budget. At one point in my career, I founded and operated a maid service. I think I started it with about $500, most of which went to paying for things like an LLC and hosting costs. I spent nights and weekends learning how to build a website, signing up for free trials, and designing my own marketing materials until we had grown enough to start hiring people. It’s easy to talk about things and plan for the future, but implementing those plans and following through is the hardest part.

When I started Penang Shack, it was a similar story. I’ve been talking about operating a pop up for years—I’ve always loved cooking for my friends, and thought that progressing to cooking for others was the logical next step. I discussed menus and ideas, but things like figuring out a name or necessary permits always held me back. Eventually, during the protests in the summer of 2020, I was frustrated and wanted to find a way to raise money for local causes that were actually trying to do something. I started cooking out of my kitchen and selling food to people on Instagram, and donated everything to the Austin Justice Coalition. I didn’t have a name, I didn’t have permits, and I had no set menu. And it’s eventually worked itself into something that I’ve grown incredibly proud of, that continues to evolve.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I treat my pop up as a creative outlet rather than a business. I’m very fortunate to be in that position (having another job), and I realize not everybody has that luxury—because of that, I’m generally not focused on profit margins or picking up whatever events are willing to pay. I just want to do and make cool things. I’m very lucky to have some great friends that have helped me out along the way, that cook with me and support me through my constantly changing ideas, however dumb they might be. But because of this approach, I think I’ve been able to continue having fun with things and pushing the envelope, creatively.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.nicolaimccrary.com
• Instagram: @thenicolai @penangshack
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaimccrary/
• Twitter: @nicolaimccrary

Image Credits
Jaycee Grover, Nicolai McCrary