Why Libertine Left French Fries Off Its Bistro Menu | Cody Pruitt
Michelin-awarded restaurateur Josh Kopel sits down with Cody Pruitt on FULL COMP — the show where Josh Kopel unpacks the tactics, tools, and strategies of the world’s best restaurateurs.
Cody Pruitt opened Libertine, a French bistro in New York, and refused to put french fries on the menu. That single stubborn call is the clearest window into how he built the place. He is not interested in what he calls Instagram moments — if he never sees another neon phrase on a restaurant wall it will be too soon — so instead of shtick he went looking for what he calls sellable moments: differentiation points that guarantee a real experience once a guest is in the room and also give people a reason to talk about it before they arrive. No fries, and no sides at all, because in an actual French bistro a dish arrives as a dish.
His path in was sideways. He went to NYU for music right as downloading was gutting that industry, took a job waiting and bartending at a 150-seat NYU dive with another 150 seats outside and $4 mixed drinks poured nasty strong, and fell for the camaraderie of the business. He spent 8 to 10 years as a club promoter before coming back to restaurants properly and moving into wine.
Libertine was built out of that network rather than out of a spreadsheet. His partner Isabella came off the opening team at Le Rock and had worked through the French restaurant scene in New York; the chef was a wine director before he was a chef; the CFO was the back-office wizard from a well-known New York restaurant group and left it to come in as a partner. They opened on May 25th and had been running just over 14 months at the time of this conversation.
Cody talks candidly about what he would do again — finding a second-generation space and falling for its architecture and history — and about scope creep in the best sense: he planned 25 seats and ended up closer to 60. Josh pushes him on the harder question most operators skip, which is not why a failure failed but why a success actually worked.
Topics: opening a first restaurant in New York, differentiation without gimmicks, menu conviction and saying no, second-generation restaurant spaces, building a partnership and finding a CFO, wine program design, and reading your own success honestly a year in.
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⏱ CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
08:50 Challenges and Successes in Opening a Restaurant
16:46 The Importance of Differentiation
27:02 Defining Success and Growth
36:13 Advice for Success in the Restaurant Industry
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🔑 KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The restaurant industry offers opportunities for growth and career progression.
• Building relationships and networking are crucial in the industry.
• Differentiation and sticking to your brand’s ethos are key to success.
• Pivoting and adapting to unforeseen circumstances is necessary.
• Seek advice from others and be open to learning and collaboration.
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ABOUT THE HOST
Josh Kopel is a Michelin-awarded restaurateur, founder of Restaurant Scaling
Systems, and the host of FULL COMP. After two decades operating restaurants —
from fast casual to fine dining — Josh Kopel now teaches independent restaurant
owners how to build profitable restaurants that run without them.
For free restaurant marketing tools and trainings from Josh Kopel, visit
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