Podcast provides in-depth coverage of area food, restaurant scene

John Engleman, a former sports anchor and director with over a decade of media relations experience, started a podcast to keep tabs on the ever-evolving food and restaurant sector in Northwest Arkansas. As of March 11, he’d released 122 podcasts.

Engleman of Springdale is the founder and host of podcast “Flavors of Northwest Arkansas.” He started the podcast in 2024.

The Dallas native said he started the podcast because of his mix of experience working in restaurants, broadcast journalism and media relations. He grew up working in restaurants. He was the sports anchor at the CBS affiliate in El Paso, Texas, before moving to Northwest Arkansas, where he served as sports director at CBS affiliate KFSM-TV (Channel 5) from 2009 to 2012. After, he worked in media relations for 11 years, joining Fayetteville-based agency Mitchell Communications Group. It was acquired by Tokyo-based Dentsu Group Inc. shortly after he joined.

He said when he moved to Northwest Arkansas the prime-time news anchor at the CBS affiliate in El Paso moved to Savannah, Ga., and started a weekend food show.

“That was 15 years ago,” he said. “Now he owns the project. He owns the whole thing. He’s written books. He’s a regional James Beard Awards judge. So it’s really blown it up.”

He and Engleman remained in touch, and he’d been considering whether to start a food and restaurant podcast here. Then, he asked Engleman whether he was near Bentonville, as restaurants and chefs here were being nominated for James Beard Awards. He suggested that Engleman start something here.

The weekly podcast was audio-only in the first year before becoming a video podcast. The podcast, which is released every Wednesday, starts with food news. He updates viewers and listeners on new restaurants, those that are closing and anniversaries. Sometimes he covers events, such as a chili cookoff.

The second segment of the podcast is an interview in which he speaks with restaurant or food-and-beverage business owners and chefs. Listeners and viewers learn how the person or people got to where they are currently. The third segment highlights the actual food or beverage.

GROWING PODCAST
Engleman said he’s unaware of another weekly podcast in the area like his.

“There’s ones that’ll pop up every now and again, and they’re more with the chef cooking something or things like that. And maybe one day I’ll get into vignettes like that, but as it is now, it’s focused more on the storytelling aspect.”

He said that about six months before he left Channel 5, it had transitioned to digital video, which helped him when he had to relearn digital video editing. Each month, the podcast averages about 1,200 to 1,300 audio downloads and between 500 and 600 YouTube views.

“We’re getting there — slowly but surely,” he said. “I remember the days when I got 60 listens a week, and I was, “Yes, heck yeah.”

Sometimes he records special podcasts for events, such as for Bentonville Restaurant Week. Those might be released on other days and be shorter than the weekly podcast. He recently recorded his first live podcast via social media. It was for No Kid Hungry and was recorded at The Hive at 21c Museum Hotel in Bentonville. It was connected to a dinner, and he interviewed the chefs. He said a friend at Roberston Professional Media in Fayetteville handled the digital video.

He said an average podcast “is way too long.” He tries to limit them to 45-50 minutes, but they may end up lasting 1.5 hours.

“Sometimes these folks get on a roll … I do very little editing out of anything because … I want to be authentic,” he said. “On the financial side, it has been a long road, but you have to build a following before you can be valuable.”

His podcast’s revenue model is based exclusively on advertising. “I’ve got a good weekly advertiser with Macadoodles,” he said. “I’m talking with another one currently.” He said he invested “probably a couple grand” in startup costs. All of his equipment is mobile, and he doesn’t use a studio. “I like to go on location where they are.”

He uses three DJI cameras when he shoots his podcasts. He said they are similar to GoPro cameras, and if someone were to bump into them and knock them over, “they’ll be fine.” He has four microphones, allowing him to interview up to three people at a time.

NOTABLE GUEST, ANECDOTES
Some notable podcast guests have included New York chef Rocco DiSpirito, who starred in “The Restaurant” reality TV series, and Boston chef Tiffani Faison, who’s been on TV shows such as Food Network’s “Chopped” serving as a judge.

One of his favorite stories was by Chef Soerke Peters of Italian restaurant Mezzaluna Pasteria & Mozzarella Bar in Bentonville. In the early 1990s, Peters was chef at an event in Siberia, Russia, and served Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and only executive president of the Soviet Union.

“Flying over, he [Peters] didn’t know it, but he’d lost a day,” Engleman said. “And when he landed, he thought he’d have a whole day to just go relax, get caught up on time, and they said, ‘You have three hours until you have to feed Gorbachev.’ So that’s a fun story.”

Another was when Rick Boosey, founder of Kyya Chocolate in Bentonville, talked about his daughters and him going to Ecuador, and a major earthquake happened after they arrived.

“He was working to cut out the middleman in chocolate, so he was in Ecuador,” Engleman said. “And he took his daughters with him, and they were in an earthquake. They had just crossed over the bridge the day before that collapsed in the earthquake.” The detour took them through the mountains and concerns of being robbed by “banditos … So that’s also a fun story.”

Another was about Nellie B’s Bakery in Elkins, and how the mother-daughter team had to learn how to deliver wedding cakes on dirt roads. The mother used to manage gourmet bakeries in the San Francisco Bay Area before moving to Northwest Arkansas. After years of speaking with someone online who lived in Elkins, she and the family moved here to start a bakery.

“And one thing they were not prepared for was dirt road deliveries,” Engleman said. “You don’t have those in the Bay Area. So they’re delivering wedding cakes, losing their suspension at the same time.”

In a recently released episode, Engleman spoke with Arturo Rodriguez, owner of Michoacana Ice Cream Shop in Rogers. He had a Spanish-speaking broadcasting school across the hall from CNN in Los Angeles, and one day, someone sitting in his office seemed out of place. He said they didn’t understand each other at the time because he didn’t speak much English, but his bilingual secretary told him it was Kurt Cobain, the lead singer and guitarist of grunge band Nirvana. Engleman said Larry King recorded his “Larry King Live” shows across the hall from Rodriguez’s office, and he often saw him.

“You never know what you’re walking into in Northwest Arkansas,” Engleman said. “I’m shocked most of the time.”