We were lucky to catch up with Patrick Berger recently and have shared our conversation below.

Patrick, appreciate you joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents were both academics and I assumed I would become one as well. I majored in archaeology in college and was planning on going to grad school followed by a career in teaching and field research. You would think my parents, both being professors, would be thrilled with my trajectory but they could tell my heart wasn’t in it. When I made the decision to pursue a life in the restaurant industry, they could not have been more supportive. Instead of pressuring me one way or another, they let me decide my own path. I strive to do the same with my kids. If you’re passionate about what you do, no matter what it is, the rest falls into place.

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?

My name is Patrick Berger and I own 2 restaurants in Chicago, Kaiser Tiger and Max and Issy’s. I started working as a dishwasher at the age of 13. I needed spending money and it was the only industry that was willing to hire a kid with zero experience. To me, the restaurant business is a true example of the American dream. No one cares where you’re from, how old you are, what color you are, what school you went to or who your friends are. All they care about is how hard you work. As it turned out, I was pretty good and quickly worked my way up to line cook. After graduating from Loyola University in Chicago, I decided to learn every aspect of the restaurant business with the goal of opening my own place. After 10 years of managing other people’s restaurants I partnered with a friend, Chris Latchford, and we opened our first business, Paddy Long’s Beer and Bacon Pub in 2007. Paddy’s was a huge success and we opened Kaiser Tiger in 2014. Kaiser Tiger is a huge space with a bar, restaurant, beer garden and event space. We transformed Paddy Long’s into a pizzeria called Max and Issy’s two years ago to take advantage of the pickup and delivery trend brought on by COVID.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my business partner, Chris Latchford, about 20 years ago while bartending. Chris was an advertising executive at the time and would hang out at the bar I worked at. We bonded over a mutual love of the Irish rugby team. During a visit to Dublin to watch the team play, Chris mentioned he was tired of advertising and I told him I wanted to open a bar. I’m sure many friends have had a drunken conversation about opening a bar but rarely does it come to pass. In our case, we started looking as soon as we got back to Chicago and a year later we opened Paddy Long’s. With Chris’s backround in marketing and my experience running bars, we made a great team. I often feel the secret to a good partnership is having a common goal but different talents. I’m terrible at what Chris does and vice versa so we rarely step on each other’s toes. If we were both trying to do the marketing or the operations I’m sure we would butt heads but since we respect each other’s space our partnership is going strong after 17 years!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When we first looked the the Kaiser Tiger space, I couldn’t imagine how we were going to fill it. With the beer garden it seats over 600 people. Paddy Long’s only seats 80. I had never worked in such a large place. This is where Chris’s marketing genius came in. He decided we should build a curling court in the beer garden our first Winter. Neither of us knew anything about curling except what we’d seen on the Olympics. So after a deep dive into the ins and outs of the sport and how to build an ice rink, we opened Chicago’s first bar curling rink and it was a hit from day one. To this day the Winter curling court is one of our biggest draws and keeps the beer garden hopping even when the weather is sub-zero.

Contact Info:

• Website: kaisertiger.com
• Instagram: @kaiser_tiger_chicago
• Facebook: @kaisertiger
• Twitter: @kaisertigerchic