Although we began working with Chef @javierbardauil and his two Core City restaurants @barda_detroit & @puma_detroit in late 2024, we poured gas on the 🔥 in 2025.
From a @beardfoundation award semifinalist nod for Chef and guest chef events at Puma to kick off the year, to Puma being named the Detroit Free Press #1 Best New Restaurant, to launching happy hour at Barda, changing hours, influencer marketing, email storytelling, Steakhouse Sundays, Sandwich of the Lambs with @carlos_parisi , launching @drinktrakal in Michigan, cooking at @farrandhall1854 and representing Detroit’s amazing artist culture on a plate at the U.S. Embassy in Paris with @detroitsalonofficial , to those mukbangs that have been popping up on your Reels and TikTok fyps, Booth One Creative was there — as an integrated growth partner translating Javi’s singular perspective into content, communications, and strategy that connects him and his restaurants with audiences close and far.
It was a good year indeed, but we can’t wait to see where 2026 takes us together. You know we’ve got plenty more fuel + new ideas to keep the party going.
Over the summer, our friend @paddy_issues bought the historic @dakotainnrathskeller and asked us to document this Detroit institution during its transition from three generations of Kurz family ownership. We produced a few short vertical videos for social that you may have already seen on the brand account, but we’ve also been quietly putting the finishing touches on a longer mini-doc that we can’t wait to share with you (and maybe some film festivals) soon. Our founder earned a James Beard Media Award in documentary, so this kind of work is right up our alley. Need award-winning film production for your brand or organization? Our books are open for 2026!
BAR GABI
We had the honor of building this one from the ground up with Gabriel and Gabriela Botezan — brand identity, social, photography, video, web, email marketing, menu design, consulting, PR, and everything in between. Seeing this place packed every night is the best kind of payoff.
We’re currently booking new work for 2026 — If you’re looking for help with integrated marketing, brand, content, PR or anything in between, let’s talk.
A blank canvas hates to see Katie Kurlyandchik coming.
Katie ensures the vibes and aesthetic are always on point at Booth One Creative. With a background in editorial media, nonprofit communications, and design, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to building bold, cohesive brand identities spanning every platform from website to social, from traditional print media to CPG. She has a niche for understanding where exactly brands are in their journey, and how to help them best resonate with and engage their target audiences.
Booth One Creative counts on Katie to keep the creative engine running and the visuals sharp.
Mark Kurlyandchik is the heart of Booth One Creative.
At his core, he’s driven by connection. Despite the many awards he’s earned as a journalist, including two Michigan Emmys and a James Beard Award, the Soviet immigrant’s passion is humble and simple: connecting people through food, culture and the art of storytelling.
Mark is best known for his tenure as the Detroit Free Press restaurant critic and as co-director of Coldwater Kitchen, a James Beard Award-winning feature length documentary about a chef who has taught incarcerated men the skill of fine dining for more than 40 years.
In 2021, Mark transitioned to marketing, running editorial operations for a chef pop-up and incubator space, conceptualizing, recruiting, and marketing hundreds of unique culinary events and experiences. He founded Booth One Creative in late 2023 to help food brands tell their own unique stories, in their own unique ways.
Carolyn Chin brings a force to Booth One Creative.
She blends her life experiences with passion for what she does best: create and lead. With nearly two decades of leadership and hands-on experience in media, creative direction, marketing and nonprofit, she’s done it all. The agency is a full-circle moment forever etched in time as the restaurant industry is engrained in the very fabric of her family and upbringing.
Owning Shanghai Cafe, one of the last existing Chinese restaurants in Detroit’s Chinatown, her immigrant grandparents paved the way for their family by doing what they knew best – food. With her mother and father both working in restaurants in every capacity from front of house to kitchen cook, she’s learned first-hand the power of perseverance, dedication and drive.
Now a seasoned leader and an advocate for immigrant stories, she creates space for work that brings joy and builds community through Booth One Creative.
