“I love cooking. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fantastic. It’s my passion, but I’ve also noticed through my years of travel... you never see the chef in the dining room,” Bedel said. “You never see them and you never feel like they want you there. It’s different here.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
A love for making people feel good through food
Originally from Dayton, Bedel moved to Florence, KY when he was 8 years old.
“That’s really when I got into spending a lot of time with my family,” Bedel said. “My great grandmother is actually my inspiration. I remember cooking with her when I was young and she just kind of taught me that love was made in the kitchen.”
His first job in the restaurant industry was at 14 years old. He was a dishwasher at a steakhouse.
“I worked in restaurants and I just fell in love with people and the culture and obviously the food,” Bedel said. “I’m a foodie. I mean, I just love not only to eat, but I love to see how food makes people feel.”
Growing up, Bedel had a love for baseball and wanted to play in the major leagues. When he realized that wasn’t going to happen, he decided to study culinary arts at Northern Kentucky University.
“I really got to see hands on what the restaurant business was like and how chaotic it can be, but how it’s totally different from one minute to the next,” Bedel said. “I think that’s what I like about it so much.”
From state to state
After graduating from college in the late 1990s, Bedel took a job with O’Charley’s in Indianapolis, Ind. where he worked his way up to kitchen manager and eventually general manager. He was then promoted to the company’s research and development team and transferred to Nashville, Tenn.
Bedel worked at a small, independent restaurant there called Green Hills Grille where he received an award for his crab cakes that are currently on Crooked Handle’s menu.
He then went to Detroit, Mich. to work for Buca di Beppo and Fort Collins, Colo. to work for Front Range Restaurants.
In 2007, he returned to the Dayton region after his father had open heart surgery.
There was a period of time where Bedel was in sales — working for a gourmet food distribution company based out of Chicago — but he wasn’t happy. He missed being in the kitchen.
“I just wanted to kind of get my portfolio altogether, if you will, and have as much experience as I could in the food industry,” Bedel said. “You come to realize as you get older that money isn’t everything — it’s about quality of life.”
Finding his home at Crooked Handle
Before coming to Crooked Handle, Bedel worked at the Hilton Garden Inn Dayton South-Austin Landing and was the food and beverage manager at Crowne Plaza on East Fifth Street in Dayton.
“I met a lot of great people and some of those people were here,” Bedel said.
He joined the Piqua brewery as an assistant sous chef in July 2023 and was promoted to executive chef in September 2023.
“Our bartenders are top notch. All of our cooks are top notch,” Bedel said. “The owners are wonderful people, as you know, so I’m happy to be part of the team.”
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
His goal is to have something for everybody at the brewery and make sure no guest leaves hungry.
“We’re going to have a lot of the stuff that a normal brewery would have. We just take it up a notch,” Bedel said. “We want to make sure you get good quality restaurant food at a reasonable price.”
What to expect at the Piqua brewery
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“I want you to come in and see the menu. You look at it and you pick something out, but you also look over here and you’re like, I need to come back and try that,” Bedel said.
The house smoked wings or the traditional wings served with one of the brewery’s sauces such as buffalo, Carolina gold, BBQ, garlic parmesan or habanero garlic is a customer favorite.
Other favorites include:
- Smoked Brisket Sandwich (brisket, caramelized onion, smoked gouda and roasted garlic aioli piled high atop a toasted baguette)
- Winter Salad (local spring mix, pecans, dried crazins and gorgonzola served with a balsamic vinaigrette)
- The Rangoon (a cream cheese base topped with crumbled crab cake and finished with sweet Thai chili sauce and green onion)
For those looking for dessert, the brewery has turtle lasagna featuring layers of chocolate, caramel and pecan with cheesecake and chocolate pudding filling.
Credit: Natalie Jones
Credit: Natalie Jones
The brewery is a scratch kitchen with all meat being smoked and sliced in-house. All dressings, sauces and desserts are made on-site.
Since he does work at a brewery, he uses beer to cook with. For example, the Bavarian pretzel can be served with beer cheese or a spicy beer mustard.
Bedel likes to change the menu about three times a year and run weekly and daily specials.
Building a good team
He leans on his team daily as he writes orders, receives food, crunches numbers and develops the menu, but he doesn’t mind working the line, taking out the trash or washing the dishes.
“It’s not just me,” Bedel said. “I just happen to be the guy in front, just a guy with a title. I’m a grunt, just like everybody else, and I always tell these guys, don’t let the power get to your head, because it’s not about power.”
His advice to aspiring chefs is to not lose your focus and to always follow your gut.
“Hire people that know what they’re doing — that are genuine,“ Bedel said. ”Build your team around you, because you’re only going to be as successful as the people on your team.
When asked what he is most proud of in his career, he said it’s what he’s doing now.
“I just love the people,” Bedel said. “We all work together. We all have our aces in our places, and we do the things that we do best, but I know I can lean on them when I have to.”
Outside of being a chef, Bedel is a dad to a three-year-old girl. He likes spending time outside and having BBQs at his home in Englewood.
The Piqua brewery is located along the Great Miami River where Bedel and his team enjoys assisting with Protecting Our Water-Ways in clean up efforts and listing to live music at Lock 9 Park.
MORE DETAILS
Crooked Handle is located at 123 N. Main St. in Piqua and 760 N. Main St. in Springboro. For more information, visit crookedhandle.com.
FOOD & DINING NEWS
Reporter Natalie Jones has a weekly food and dining email newsletter that comes free to inboxes. Sign up at daytondailynews.com (click “my account”). Have questions or a news tip? Email her at natalie.jones@coxinc.com.
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