Northside Yacht Club (NSYC) is best known for its little-bit-naughty, little-bit-rock ‘n roll aesthetic and as a chill spot to kick your feet up with a drink and a plate of something greasy and delicious. The landlocked yacht club serves up classics like sandwiches, burgers, wings and fries, as well as vegan and gluten-free options. They also have an extensive craft cocktail list — including their infamous peanut butter tequila shooter – and brunch on the weekends.
This past May, NSYC welcomed Mayor of Flavortown Guy Fieri as he brought his Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, back to Cincinnati to feature some more delicious Queen City eats. Northside Yacht Club will appear in Season 42, Episode 4, titled Soup, Salad and Sorbet Spins, on Friday, Aug. 29 at 9 p.m. on The Food Network, or you can watch it later with your TV provider’s information on watch.foodnetwork.com.
Ahead of the episode’s debut, NSYC’s owner, Stuart Mackenzie, sat down with CityBeat to offer a behind-the-scenes look at being featured on the show:
CityBeat: What’s the process of getting on the show like? Did you have to apply or did they contact you?
Stuart Mackenzie: So for us, [the first time they contacted us], they called the bar, and we thought it was a prank call. And so, they called, like, three times, and we thought it was just someone messing with us, but then we got an email and it was true.
This was a couple of years ago that they first reached out, and they kind of just ask about your food. And … I think the reason why Guy’s show is so successful is because you don’t know, if you’re going into a mom-and-pop restaurant, if if everything’s frozen from a bag or if it’s, like what we do, made from scratch. His show, every restaurant that’s on there, the fries have to be fresh-cut. Nothing’s pre-processed; nothing’s frozen. So … they look at your menu, ask you about your processes and they kind of vet to make sure that you’re able to meet those criteria.
We are kind of known for our monthly specials, and we’ll go over the top, like a deep-fried coney. … We try and change it up every month and also keep it interesting for our chefs. But for the show, anything that they feature has to be featured year-round, because it has so many fans, [the fans] want to be able to eat what Guy ate. … Nothing on our regular menu is super crazy. It’s all really good and handmade food, but it’s not over-the-top stuff. So then we worked with this cool producer and she looked at our menu, and we pitched some stuff.
They just didn’t pick us that year, but they called us again a couple months ago, and, once again, I thought it was someone pranking me because, basically, we got asked to do the show because of Emilio Estevez and his girlfriend. … I think they’re trying to work with Emilio Estevez or something, and he was like, ‘I can hang out with either Guy or the Food Network.’ And they were like, ‘Oh, you know, Guy was saying he wants to do more shows in Cincinnati. And Emilio and his girlfriend wanted to be on our episode, but he ended up not being able to because of scheduling purposes. But he and his girlfriend put in the good word to push us over the edge.
CB: What did you do to get ready for the show?
SM: We filmed on a Sunday. So, [on that Saturday], we were open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. and then you got to get your kitchen and bar ready to be on HD television. … Luckily, we had some staff members that were just going to stay all night and clean and clean. We had some people come in early, so it was cool.
But it’s been cool because there’s kind of, like, two curses. One is, because you’re cleaning everything, everything breaks because you’re moving stuff around in the day. So one of our fryers was being weird, and we had a repairman fix it. And then, as we’re talking about the show, it caught on fire, because the back of it had a carbon buildup, and then we had to take it completely apart.
The other curse is you’re getting national attention and you’re not ready for it. So in the last four months, any wishlist kitchen item that I’ve wanted to get, we just got. So we got Henny Penny fryers, which are made in Eaton, Ohio, and they use them at Wendy’s and Chick-fil-A, so it’s, like, my dream fryers. … normally there’s a nine-week waiting period, but the salesman was really cool. I was like, ‘We’re gonna be on the show.’ So he found one in a in a warehouse in Cleveland for us.
And then we moved a stove upstairs. I got another flat top, and I added two new chest coolers. So we kind of just have been getting ready to get work so we can impress the new people coming in and then not alienate our hardcore Cincinnati people.
CB: What was filming like?
SM: It was fun. Like, one of the hardest things was they’re only filming two days, so you have to have a raw pork butt so they can film how you rub it and how you put it in the smoker. But then you also have to have one that’s coming out of the smoker. So if that takes 15 hours, you have to put that in so it’s ready. And then you have to have a finished one. So you have to have three different amalgamations of the same thing and time it all correctly.
But they’re very organized, so they tell you what to do. … Basically, film from 8 a.m. to, like, 6 p.m., and they even have guidelines like have a dishwasher come at 6 p.m. because you’re gonna be tired from filming, all the stuff that you wouldn’t think about.
CB: What do you think made NSYC stand out to the Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives producers?
SM: We had the luckiness of Emilio and his awesome girlfriend, who’s from Cincinnati. But I think it’s from-scratch cooking. … We’ll never win a James Beard Award because we’re just your neighborhood bar that serves food, but we take the food really seriously.
The thing that I really appreciated, that I don’t think is going to be in the show, is he said, ‘This is why I started the show.’ If you drove past a building like Northside Yacht Club, you’d have no idea that we’re using timers for all our food and everything’s made from scratch, and we soak our fries for 24 hours. He’s like, ‘I started the show to highlight little mom-and-pops like this and let people know that they’re worth stopping by.’
CB: What was it like working with Guy Fieri?
SM: When Guy came in — he’s super gracious and met all the staff and was super nice to everybody. And in between takes, he basically just gave me awesome restaurant advice. Like, ‘Why don’t you have a tomato on your burger?’ And I said, ‘Well, it was the most-subbed-out thing.’ Sometimes, tomato, when they’re in season, they’re good; sometimes when they’re not in season, it was the most-subbed-out thing … so we just decided to omit it. He’s like, ‘Oh, that makes sense.’ He’s like, ‘But if it’s lacking a bit of acid, I would just take your shredded lettuce and toss it in some red wine vinegar, and that will add a little bit of bite to it.’
Like everyone thinks he’s funny and nice, and he was … but it was like it was just chef to chef. He’s just giving us really great advice. … At the end of the day, I was like, ‘Oh, wow. I feel like we got a little superpower here.’
CB: What was Guy’s reaction to your food?
SM: He loved it, and he was just very complimentary of our staff and the cleanliness and the food quality. So it was really nice. Because, you know, mostly the feedback you hear in the restaurant industry is always negative, so having someone that goes around and highlights small businesses say nice things was really cool and uplifting.
CB: Any other memorable moments with Guy?
SM: Yeah, he has Chihuahuas. I have a Chihuahua, and I wanted to bring my Chihuahua in to meet him, and my Chihuahua knows one trick: You snap your fingers, put your fist out and hit the rock. His name’s Snugs, and he got too nervous, and he didn’t do [the trick] for the first time ever. So I felt really bad; he got a little stage fright. But we gave Guy a signed glossy of Snugs. It said, ‘Thanks for coming to my home territory,’ with his paw print on it. And then we gave him a bottle of his Santo Tequila that we made peanut butter tequila with for him.
CB: What restaurants would you recommend for Guy to check out when he comes back to Cincinnati?
SM: In Northside, Gulow Street. Mid City. I love Maury’s Tiny Cove. La Mexicana in Newport. Kayla Robison and Jessica Baston have a pop-up [Late Nite Smash at Rosedale’s]. I think what they’re doing is really cool. They do smashburgers.
CB: How would you sum up the experience?
SM: It has kind of been a fever dream since it started, but it’s nice because everyone [on the NSYC team] buys in because we’re gonna be on the national stage. So everyone’s taking it seriously. Everyone cares. Because it’s kind of like — working in a restaurant is a thankless job and so it was cool to be like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be on national television for this.’ So everyone was down to clean and look good. And now here’s our chance to impress all of Cincinnati. So we’re hopefully coming out guns blazing.
Northside Yacht Club, 4231 Spring Grove Ave., Northside. More info: northsideyachtclub.com.
This article appears in Aug 20 – Sep 2, 2025.