ep 068: Cody & Clay Allmin

The Craft with May Globus

Clay and Cody Allmin are two of the most down-to-earth entrepreneurs around. Together, the identical twin brothers started Boxset Collective, a company that runs a number of well-loved eat & drink establishments: Published on Main, Bar Susu, Twin Sails Brewing, Thorn and Burrow Wine, Mama Said Pizza, and coming-soon Novella Coffee Bar.

They were born and raised in Maple Ridge, BC, to hippie parents that split when they were still young. Their father found himself a career in tech and worked long hours, often leaving them in their older sister’s care or to fend for themselves. In the last year of their high school, a major decision was made to move the family to a tiny town in California, closer to Silicon Valley. It upended their lives, but Cody and Clay were resilient enough to find their way. With Cody returning first, the brothers moved back to Vancouver and began their respective careers.

After separate winding paths in the hospitality and corporate worlds, they came together to found Twin Sails Brewing, with the manual labour and search for much-needed last minute financing handled by them. The brewery has since won accolades for their craft beer, and their Mount Pleasant restaurant Published on Main won #1 on Canada’s Top 100 restaurants list for 2022.

In this conversation, we explore the resilience and resourcefulness they’ve built up since childhood; their entertaining recount of chapters in the hospitality and corporate industries; what they learned building Twin Sails Brewing & what advice they’d give to aspiring restauranteurs; their creative process when ideating a new establishment; the long-term vision for Boxset Collective to support & fund emerging entrepreneurs; how to maintain team culture & be a great leader; hospitality and restaurants being a people-first industry; what they’ve learned from one another; and more.

TIMESTAMPS:

4:00 - Last name history
2:14 - Growing up
5:47 - Parents
16:57 - What they were like individually
19:27 - Career trajectories
41:13 - Advice for potential restaurateurs
45:29 - Creative process to founding an establishment
57:46 - How do they maintain the box set collective culture across their businesses
01:04:39 - What they have learned from their employees
01:07:28 - Who their guest lists would consist of and what would be on the menu for that dinner
01:11:51 - What have they observed about one another and what they want the other to know
01:14:25 - Final question