Joey Ryan

Career Executive chef Joey Ryan leads the kitchen at Xiao Bao Biscuit in Charleston, where co-ownership puts the same hand on menu, room, and bar. That arrangement gives the restaurant a single line of authorship: the food, the mood, and the drinks all draw from the same point of view. Xiao Bao began with a late-night appetite for the Asian flavors Ryan and his team wanted on repeat, and that premise still shapes the place more than any formal concept ever could.

The Path

Co-ownership at Xiao Bao Biscuit places Joey Ryan inside the restaurant’s identity, not just at its pass. The role carries the weight of building a project from within, with the kitchen and dining room still tracing back to the original impulse that made the restaurant possible. Xiao Bao started as a way to satisfy late-night cravings for Asian foods Ryan and the team loved, and that practical origin remains visible in how the restaurant works.

The Work Today

At Xiao Bao Biscuit, Joey Ryan’s method is built on reuse with intent: the same ingredients can move from plate to glass, and the line between kitchen and bar stays deliberately open. “I used the same ingredients that were in the food items on our menu,” he says, pointing to a program that values economy as much as range. Infused spirits and tongue-numbing spices extend that logic into the drinks, tying the beverage list to the kitchen’s bright, tactile register. The effect is a unified service where heat, perfume, and intensity meet on the same terms.

Signature

Joey’s signature dishes include Sichuan Sting and a name that fits the restaurant’s appetite for sharp edges and direct flavor. It reads as a dish meant to wake the palate, with spice used as punctuation rather than decoration.

In Their Words “At XBB, it was very literal. I used the same ingredients that were in the food items on our menu.” “Xiao Bao started as a way to satisfy our own late-night cravings for Asian foods we loved.”

Acclaim

The distinction attached to Ryan is the coherence of the work itself: he is the chef-owner at the Charleston restaurant, and the beverage program grows directly from the same ingredients that shape the food. That tight correspondence gives Xiao Bao Biscuit a clear authorship, one built from repeatable decisions rather than rhetoric.