Mindfull Eating

In Season 1, Episode 3 of the Mindfull Eating podcast, host Amy Paige Condon celebrates Oktoberfest with Kevin Ryan, a West Point graduate and military veteran, and his partner in business and life, Meredith Anne Sutton, a jewelry designer and creative director. Together, they are the founders of Service Brewing Co., a Savannah craft brewery built on creativity, community, and a commitment to serving others.

What began as a Valentine's Day gift from Meredith to Kevin in 2012—a homebrew kit—grew into a shared passion for researching and developing inventive beer flavors. In 2014, Kevin and Meredith turned that passion into a thriving local business, launching Service Brewing Co. with the support of investors that included 19 fellow military veterans. Housed in a sprawling red-brick warehouse at the corner of Fahm and Indian streets in Savannah, the brewery has become a welcoming third space for musicians, artists, foodies, and budding entrepreneurs to gather. And there's always room for four-legged friends, too!

Service Brewing's mission extends well beyond craft beer. The company dedicates a portion of its proceeds to helping veterans access housing and health services while also supporting first responders. Every visitor who walks through the brewery's doors encounters a wall bearing a simple but powerful question: "How do you serve?" It's an invitation to reflect on how each of us can make a difference in our communities.

Inspired by Service Brewing's craft beers, Amy's menu features Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup and Beer Bread, both made with the brewery's Rally Point Pilsner. For dessert, she prepares Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guinness Cake using Gunner's Daughter Milk Stout from a Maine craft brewery—not a Service Brewing offering—which she discovered at White Whale Ales on Bull Street.

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Learn More About Service Brewing Co.

Service Brewing Co. — Savannah, Georgia

Follow Service Brewing Co., Kevin Ryan, and Meredith Anne Sutton:

Service Brewing Co. on Instagram

Meredith Anne Sutton on Instagram

Service Brewing Co. on Facebook

Kevin Ryan on Facebook

Meredith Anne Sutton on Facebook

Meredith Sutton on LinkedIn

Kevin Ryan on LinkedIn

Each new episode of Mindfull Eating drops every other Thursday. On the following Sundays, the Tasty Bits newsletter takes you behind the scenes with recipes, images, pieces of conversation that didn’t make the cut, and five takeaways.

EPISODES OF MINDFULL EATING ARE SPONSORED BY:

The Refinery Writing Studio

Russell Feed and Supply

Picker Joe's Antique Mall and Marketplace

The Literary Salon

MINDFULL EATING IS PROUDLY PRODUCED BY:

DEE DANIELS MEDIA, Storytelling with a Purpose

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Southern Food Stories

00:51 Meet Service Brewing

01:07 Beer Cheese Menu

01:41 How They Started

02:46 Sponsor Break

04:23 Valentines Brew Kit

08:27 First Homebrew Batch

09:44 From Army To Beer

13:29 Learning And Business Plan

16:47 Finding The Perfect Space

18:53 Veteran Roots And Design

21:54 Neighborhood Growth

23:43 Art In The Brewery

26:39 R And D Beer Collabs

32:13 Seasonals And Beer Trends

36:14 Georgia Law Changes

39:41 Evolving The Taproom

42:56 Events And Brewside Studios

44:16 Future Food Plans

45:08 Restaurant Concept Reveal

45:59 Artist Studios Filling Up

47:05 Meet the Studio Artists

47:53 How Studio Visits Work

50:02 Community and Collaboration

50:53 Designing the Perfect Studios

53:17 Brewery Updates and Merch

55:30 Cake and Food Collabs

58:21 Beer Pairings and Events

01:00:05 Valentines and Cooking Love

01:01:55 Going Mostly Vegan

01:05:27 Beverage Indulgences

01:08:43 Proust Questionnaire Fun

01:12:15 Root Vegetables Wisdom

01:13:19 Cheese Soup and Farewell

01:15:35 Literary Salon Community

01:17:47 Sponsor Antique Market

01:18:12 Refinery Writing Studio

01:19:37 Podcast Closing Credits

In Season 1, Episode 2 of the Mindfull Eating podcast, host Amy Paige Condon sits down with Indigenous Food Warrior Crystal Wahpepah, a registered member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma. Crystal is the force of nature behind Wahpepah's Kitchen, the first Native American woman-owned restaurant in North California. Located in Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood, not far from where Crystal spent most of her childhood, the restaurant serves dishes that honor the city's intertribal community, where more than 200 Native American tribes are represented--the largest indigenous urban population in the United States.

Growing up amid the city's activist Native American community, Crystal often wondered why the foods she grew up with--berries, wild turkey, venison, cracked corn and other dishes indicative of a pre-colonial diet--were never served in restaurants. She became an avid heirloom seed saver, working with the Cultural Conservancy's Heron Shadow farm to grow traditional corn, squash, beans, chilies, berries, and greens that she serves in her restaurant.

In 2022, she was a national finalist for the James Beard Foundation's Emerging Chef award. Crystal has competed on the Food Network's Beat Bobby Flay, Alex vs. America, and was the first Indigenous chef on Chopped. Each one of these milestones has allowed her to talk about food sovereignty, food as medicine, and to ask, whose land are we on?

Her debut cookbook, "A Feather and a Fork: 125 Intertribal Recipes from an Indigenous Food Warrior" was released by Penguin Random House in March 2026. Crystal's close friend Julia Sabory, the community development and engagement manager for the San Francisco Planning Department, joined us for dinner and conversation.

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Learn More About Crystal Wahpepah

Wahpepah's Kitchen — Oakland, California

39 Restaurant at the First Americans Museum — Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

A Feather and a Fork — Cookbook by Crystal Wahpepah with Amy Paige Condon

Follow Crystal Wahpepah and Wahpepah's Kitchen:

Crystal Wahpepah on Instagram

Wahpepah's Kitchen on Instagram

Crystal Wahpepah on Facebook

Wahpepah's Kitchen on Facebook

Penguin Random House on Instagram

Harmony Rodale Convergent on Instagram

Each new episode of Mindfull Eating drops every other Thursday. On the following Sundays, the Tasty Bits newsletter takes you behind the scenes with recipes, images, pieces of conversation that didn’t make the cut, and five takeaways.

EPISODES OF MINDFULL EATING ARE SPONSORED BY:

The Refinery Writing Studio

Russell Feed and Supply

Picker Joe's Antique Mall and Marketplace

MINDFULL EATING IS PROUDLY PRODUCED BY:

DEE DANIELS MEDIA, Storytelling with a Purpose

FIND A FAVORITE SPOT IN THIS EPISODE:

00:00 Southern Food Stories

00:49 Meet Crystal Wahpepah

02:08 Today’s Menu

02:50 Local Sponsor Break

04:14 Where Are Our Foods

05:59 Alcatraz Activism

08:17 Two Homes Oklahoma

10:10 Berries And Belonging

12:21 Nature As Medicine

13:46 Corn Soup Traditions

16:37 Foraging With Respect

20:23 Urban Disconnection

24:47 Becoming A Native Chef

28:40 Catering Origins

31:50 La Cocina And Branding

34:57 Tech Catering Training

37:38 Food Network Breakthrough

39:15 Making It On Chopped

39:51 Behind The Scenes Stress

40:52 Other Competition Shows

42:24 COVID Pivot To Wild Rice Bars

46:11 Letters Food As Medicine

49:44 Taking Over Reems Space

50:37 Designing The Restaurant Art

56:06 Opening Day Tears

01:00:52 Seed Saving On Display

01:03:10 Herons Shadow Land Back Farm

01:07:04 Food Sovereignty Lab Research

01:10:51 Healing Beyond Food Policy

01:13:31 Manaki at The Village

01:14:24 Teaching Kitchen Vision

01:16:08 Food as Foundation

01:18:44 Food Justice as Right

01:19:56 Whose Land Are We On

01:21:29 Rapid Fire Food Questions

01:25:20 Kitchen Skills and Heroes

01:27:53 Extravagances and Smells

01:32:22 Final Meal and Farewell

01:33:51 Sponsor Messages

01:35:42 Podcast Closing Credits

Amy Paige Condon hosts the Mindfull Eating podcast. In Season 1, Episode 1, she interviews husband-and-wife chefs and farmers, Matthew and Tia Raiford. Matthew Raiford grew up near Brunswick, Georgia, not far from the farm that his great-great-great-great grandfather Jupiter Gilliard bought more than 150 years ago after being freed from enslavement. Matthew left soon after graduating high school when he joined the military, vowing he would never return to the South. But his Nana knew better and turned over the deed to the farm to Matthew and his sister Althea in 2010, making them the sixth generation of their Gullah Geechee family to turn this soil.

After leaving the military, Matthew attended the Culinary Institute of America, where he first met Tia, a Philadelphia native who riffs on recipes like her uncle and father did on jazz albums. They remained friends and culinary collaborators until they married in 2021. Tia now serves as a senior corporate chef for the Hormel Culinary Collective. Together, they have started a series of spice blends and hot sauces and host dinners on their farm.

In 2018, Matthew and Amy collaborated on Matthew's debut cookbook, "Bress 'n' Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer," which was published by Countryman Press in May 2021.

For this episode of Mindfull Eating, Amy served Grandma Florine's Salmon Cakes on Pepper Rice, Cowpea Salad, Curried Vegetable Galette, and Nana's Sweet Potato Pie--all recipes from Matthew's cookbook that brought back the taste of home for him. In this episode, Matthew, Tia and Amy discuss their roads to the kitchen; what it means to return home, especially as a Black man to the South; the way the Great Migration influenced foods in places like Philly and Chicago; and their mission to spread the gospel of heritage and regenerative farming.

Get recipes and more through The Tasty Bits newsletter. Each new episode of Mindfull Eating drops every other Thursday. On the following Sundays, the Tasty Bits newsletter takes you behind the scenes with recipes, images, pieces of conversation that didn’t make the cut, and five takeaways.

EPISODES OF MINDFULL EATING ARE SPONSORED BY:

The Refinery Writing Studio

Russell Feed and Supply

Picker Joe's Antique Mall and Marketplace

MINDFULL EATING IS PROUDLY PRODUCED BY:

DEE DANIELS MEDIA, Storytelling with a Purpose

Mindfull Eating: Official Trailer

In the South, food isn’t just fuel—it’s history, memory, and the way we show love.

Join writer and Southern storyteller Amy Paige Condon for the launch of Mindfull Eating, a new podcast from the Dee Daniels Media Podcast Network. In this trailer, get a taste of the stories we’re serving up—from front porches to fish fries, cast iron to community cookbooks.

We’re dishing out the people, places, and moments behind the meals that shape us. Whether you’re a chef, a home cook, or just someone who knows the kitchen is where the real stories live, there’s a seat at our table for you.

Pull up a chair and let’s get full in every sense of the word.

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Keywords: Mindfull Eating, Mindful Eating, Southern Food, Food History, Storytelling, Amy Paige Condon, Dee Daniels Media.