November 7, 2023 • 57 mins
On episode two of the Between Bites podcast with Nina Compton and Larry Miller, New Orleans Chef Donald Link stops by to discuss his journey from South Louisiana to California and back.
The multiple James Beard Award-winning chef talks about how he came up in the industry, the evolving restaurant culture, and some of his favorite New Orleans restaurants to eat at.
The Link Restaurant Group was founded in January 2009 by James Beard Award Winning Chefs Donald Link and his business partner Stephen Stryjewski, with the goal to support the continuous growth of their family of restaurants, currently including Herbsaint, Cochon, Cochon Butcher, Calcasieu, Peche Seafood Grill, La Boulangerie and Gianna.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
What would it big?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to season two between Bites with Nina Compton
and Larry Miller, brought to you by Caesar's New Orleans Man.
Do we have a guest today? This actually could turn
into like a a seven episode segment, so we got
to cram it all in. But we're joined today by
(00:34):
chef Donald Link.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Welcome.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
So, Donald is a very very dear friend, Ay and
I remember the first time that we met.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
You invited me to State for lunch and you asked me.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
About how I enjoyed the city and everything else, and
the thing that stuck out to me the most was
where do I get my crawfish? And you were the
most instrumental in guiding me on the dewes and the
dons of living.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Here in New Rulans.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Right, yeah, I remember that I've heard this story.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
So fower listeners.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Donald informed me that the best crawfish actually stays in Lafayette.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Right, Well, that is the source generally, and you're any
food or wine you're talking about, the source is always
a little stronger, agreed.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So it gets even better than that because it starts
off that here we are new in town. We're building
out compare the pen and Nina comes up with this
look in her eyes and just holding her phone, and
she said, Donald Link just asked me if I could
come to lunch with him at herb Saint. That's what
you got to say.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yes, it's come my own embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
We know, I know, I know, But you know the
thing about it is.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I remember Nina from Top Chef and I. It was
coming to a new city and being a new person,
and I just thought it would be nice to, you know,
say hi, I get to know each other. So you
weren't coming in blind and alone.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
So how was that experience on Top Chef being the judge?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It was weird. I don't know if I do it again.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
And that day was very hot, you remember.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, I remember somebody passed out and some girl got
ate by an alligator. Yes, two things happened.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
How did that not make this show?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
They didn't think that would be a good good press.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Not good TV.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now, Nina alluded to a Kadiana. You grew up out there.
What were your first, uh first food memories when you
look back on your childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Me, well, it's kind of crazy. I grew up in
Lake Charles So and my dad's family was from the
Cajun country, and my grandparents lived well it's Sulfur, a
quarter mile from each other, so one of them was
very Alabama and the other was very Cajun. So I
grew up going and fishing at my granddad's place, and
(03:08):
he had a big farm. So I remember eating peaches
and fresh watermelon, fish right off the boat, you know,
mostly brimmed like like fried hole with the bones in.
It was very you know, collar greens and cream corn
and fresh shrimp, catfish, and ice chests that he caught,
all trot lines that were four feet long. And so
(03:30):
I just remember all this crazy food that at that
point doesn't seem crazy because you're growing up with it.
And there was no I mean, there were McDonald's, but
that was what you did before you, you know, went
to work with your uncles. It wasn't like where you
had dinner for sure. So I grew up with all
that kind of really rustic home cooking. Big families like
(03:53):
my moms one of ten, dad's one of seven, so
huge families, large pot cookings, large format like everything you
would think from a southern household. Super sweet desserts, the
whole bit.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And when you started cooking, where was that professionally?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Professionally, well, the first job was in sulfur in a
Mexican restaurant run by Iranians.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There you go interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I know, it's a very strange combination. I don't know
how I got involved there, but it hired me as
a dishwasher, and a few weeks later the guys there
brought me up to the line and turned me into
a light cook. So that was my first professional cooking job.
And then you know, I worked at McDonald's, couple hamburger joints, Sammy's, Bargrove,
(04:41):
and Baton Rouge. When I went to college. It wasn't
really until I h there was a place, I forget
the name of it in Baton Rouge. It was a
it was a French restaurant. I just remember the chef
was very angry, cruise shit, and I was like, screw this,
I'm gonna go work more hours at Sammy's. It's more
funs are prettier. I just worked over there, and then
(05:05):
then I moved to San Francisco. Is when I started
getting into real restaurants.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
So what did you study in college?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Finance?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Finance and now you're cooking. You're a chef.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, now he's a movie, you're a business business one
of the five families.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I went to the I went through the cycle, and
I dropped out of college to to cook because I
liked it better and I didn't want to be in finance.
And then now I'm kind of back in the finance.
Not finance like stockbroking, but business.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Now all that was very helpful when it came to
running a business, and you know, being running you know,
running a restaurant, it's not just fun of games. Cooking
is the fun part. I still, you know, it's still
is the fun part. The business part not so much.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, And I mean you have been very instrumental in
helping chefs like myself and other people in the city
with you know, making the right moves financially.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So we're thankful for your financial background.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, that gets back to one of the things of
how welcoming the city was that one of the biggest
names in our industry, meaning you donald were reached out
to us and welcomed us a city. We got flowers
from your company. I'm sure you picked them out when
(06:29):
we opened the restaurant. And we're like, wow, this is again.
We thought it was part of that Truman show where
you all were just filming us, making us think that
everything was so lovely, But it really was. And it
was a refreshing way to look at it, because when
we were in Miami, nobody got along, nobody sent each
other flowers or reached out, And here we realized that
(06:50):
this was more like how we had been brought up
to be friendly and polite and welcome.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That's the great thing about New Orleans in the South,
and particularly New Orleans. Know, I know restaurants in New
York aren't doing that. I think Chicago is probably a
little like New Orleans. I mean, I know, those chefs
get along and there's a strong industry presence up there.
But New Orleans is small enough to where, man, we're
not in that big of a city, right, I mean,
(07:16):
it's a it's a big little city. The geography is small.
I mean other than getting over here this morning, where
I live was about as far away as you can
get and still see in the city, and.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
He still beat me.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Hey on a good day, I mean, you know, thirty
minutes the now.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Growing up in Lake Charles and then going to school
in Baton Rouge. How did California come about? And how
big a culture shock was that?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It was a culture shock, all right. It came about
because I wanted to leave Louisiana and I've met a
girl and she was from that area. It goes, well,
we moved to San Francisco. I'm like, great, I just
I was at LSU. I was not. I was unhappy.
I didn't see any prospects, you know, really for me,
(08:11):
I was kind of lost. I was even. There was
even a month where I just did a month or
two where I just did odd jobs like und like
worked for a temp company unloading truck tires and running
cable and like painting refinery tanks. Well of them offer
me a job stay here. I'm not going to work
(08:33):
at the refineries. So we moved, and of course I
got a job cooking because that's what I'm good at,
and and that just grew into bigger and better restaurants.
It was a culture shop for sure. I mean growing
up in small town in Louisiana, and I remember the
first place we went in San Francisco. I'd never seen it,
I had. I remember, three thousand dollars is all we
(08:54):
had and we sold everything. Step one, we stopped in
South San Francisco and I bought a Suzuki five hundred
cc motorcycle for my transportation thousand bucks. So now we
get two thousand bucks. So now we're in the Castro
neighborhood of San Francisco. To go to a roommate or
an apartment referral, you go look for apartments, and so
(09:18):
I didn't know if the Castro was like the Gay District.
So I'm thinking the whole city is the Castro. I'm like, okay,
well I knew it was here. I didn't think it
would be, but wow, okay, and then I realized, Okay, oh,
that's the neighborhood. They're all different. That's that's me, you know,
I'm such a small town mentality, like there, surely it's
(09:42):
all the same. Yeah, exactly. Like I said, it was
exciting to me that it was different and open. I thought.
I was like, man, this is great that people here
can be who they want to be. And that was
the biggest change for me, the biggest eye opener, because
that's what I didn't like about growing up in small
towns in Louisiana was that, yeah, you had to be
this way, right, So breaking free of that religion and
(10:07):
politics and seeing that you know that I'm not crazy,
that there are other people that think like me, right,
because that that percentage was very small and growing up.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
So then from you know, finding your your footing in
the city, where did you land?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
How did you go about finding a job? Do you
just knocking back doors or San Francisco?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Did?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I probably the fact in those days to called the newspaper.
I saw this ad and spaghetti western and lower hate
and it was this grungy rock and roll, you know,
ive breakfast joint with skullheads and on the wall and
(10:52):
junkies passed down on the count I think An Tracks
was eating there. Demand Uh, I don't know. It looked fun.
I was like, this looks cool, and it ended up
being really cool place to work. And then that guy
brought me the upper heat to a place called Chata Chop,
and that's where I really started. I was like, well,
(11:13):
I don't know anything about this, you know, Cuban Caribbean food.
And then I started seeing the connections to the creole
food that I grew up in. And then I started
reading and testing and it was a great job because
there was the chef and me on the line. So
our jobs were there's six meets on the board, you
take one and you do the topless plate with it,
(11:34):
so you do three specials at night and then everything
else on the menu was was prepped hot and cold,
backed up by an amazing prep team. Because when you
get on the line, you just get your ask for
six straight hours. They had a spindle ticket in the
round one and when you walk on the line at
five thirty, it's full stack on the end, so they
(11:56):
start seating around four poor thirty. The restaurant you walk
on like showtime, five thirty, full dial till eleven thirty
straight Oh, full dial for six straight hours.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So I definitely hone some high level skills while I
worked there. It was brutal six days a week, ten
to twelve hours a day, cash tips. It was a
cash restaurant, so everybody got cash, and then on you
get the one day off you have, you're just paralyzed
on a couch with a pocket. With the pocket you're
(12:29):
too tired to spend.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Listeners should know also that it's taking us this far
in season two to have Rose served in typical for
New Orleans. We normally filmed or tape very early in
the morning. This one we waited all the way till
eleven thirty.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
To start special guests. So from then, where did you
go from Spaghetti Western?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, like I said, I went to that job. And
then I started thinking, Okay, this is fun, but what's next?
You know, where do I go from here? Just you know,
nobody can do this forever. Not at this base. The
pace was pretty, it was rough, and that's when I
decided to go to culinary school to see if I
(13:19):
could take a notice step. So I started going to
culinary school and then there was an instructor there. They
all all that there was still all the old French guys,
and there was this legendary chef there named Albert Torsman
who was there, and they all talked about him, like,
you know, he got fired because I met too many
(13:41):
people cry. He has a restaurant called Flying Saucer and
nobody can make it through the night. And they said,
anybody can make it through one day, there will have
it made forever. So of course I went there the
next day. I said, well, that sounds like the place
for me.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You're up for the challenge.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I had to see it. So I went in and
I told him. He goes, why do you want to
work here? I said, because everyone told me I can't.
He said, all right, well get your shot. He brought
me in and and it was everything people said it was.
He was a brutal I made it, cut my head
down and said yes chef, and and and persevered. And
(14:26):
you know, once I made it a week, you're in
your gold You're one, You're you're the golden child. There's three,
three or four cooks in this place, and that's it.
And once you're one, once you're in, you're in family. Yeah,
like you're protected by God at that point. So you know,
it was always a brutal night. I mean he did
fire somebody every night. Wow, whether a cook or a server,
(14:48):
someone got fired nightly. That's yeah. He's the chef that
stabbed the knife from the table for the food critic, right, Yes,
I remember that, Yes, that's him. I heard I heard
him screaming a baby one night. That's a problem.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Where is he now?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You probably went crazy, that's I heard. He went nuts,
moved to Singapore.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Maybe maybe he figured it out could be worse. It
could be worse.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Again, that's the pace that you know you can't keep
up with.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, it's yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So coming from that time when that happened an awful
lot to where we are, I don't know, the last
five years, ten years, where we're actually supposedly producing more
pleasant places to work than that personalities, How was that
a challenge for you when you started seeing that as
(15:46):
far as.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Well way it should be able to figure this out
a long time ago. You know, I've had Erbstein now
for twenty three years. Nuts I figured out. But then
my first year at IRB Saint that all those nights
I got mad through my half crossed the room or
punched a wall or table, or yelled at people. But
(16:12):
at the end of the day, it's all my fault.
And that was the revelation. Once you figure out it's
all your fault, then it stops. What's the point of
yelling at someone? You got to yell at somebody that
much and you have the wrong person, or you're not
doing a good enough job teaching them well. And that's
what I figured out. So then I stopped doing that.
I didn't hire people that were going to put me
(16:34):
in that position. I mean, that's the first step just
stop hiring people that you got to yell at. So,
I mean I had a really good team, but it
was small and we worked a lot, and you know,
Stephen was one of those, and the Steven Straduski in
the early days, Kelly Cavin Gambino. I mean, we had
this tight squad and we would just work short and
(16:57):
if somebody couldn't cut it, they just you know, got
run out or let go, or I would let Kevin
and Stephen torture them until.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
They left, make them the bad guy.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Right for a while. But then we had to you know.
But yeah, it's different now. You know the point of
what we do is that we're teachers.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Now everybody walks into a kitchen knowing exactly what to do,
including us. We had, you know, our days of you know, learning,
and I had definitely had mine, especially at Flag Saucer.
He taught us. It was brutal, but uh, someone asked
to teach. And that's our job as chef, just to
(17:37):
teach and the mentor and to build a career and
build a cook And you don't you don't just hire
cooks and make cooks.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
That is so well said that it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
We were in Playermo Wants with the team, you know,
on a food trip. I mean Ben went to the store.
I said, we were like, hey, make get some ice.
So he comes back from the store in Italy with
ice trade and he goes the guy looks at me
and he brings me these and says, you don't buy
the ice, you make.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It any.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
You know. I always have that accent in my head
when I think about cooks, right, it's like, you don't
you don't make cook I mean, you don't just hot
buy cooks. You make cooks. You show them, you tease them,
and then you watch them again and again and direct
and guide, and you know it's you don't just show
them one time and walk away and then say, well
I'll showed you. No, it's it's constant, constant pressure. Constant
(18:33):
gentle pressure, I guess should be the word. But I
think that's part of the fun of the job. And
it's probably you know, I don't spend you know, I
don't work in the kitchens like I did, or at
all really anymore except for testing. But I missed that.
That's the one thing I miss more than anything, probably
is that you know, hey, come here. Let me show
(18:54):
you out a butcher of this lamb or hey have
you ever you know split a rack before it and
and and that's what they want. And that's how you
build good kitchens is you have that atmosphere of learning
and respect. And I think that's what attracts the best people.
That's not the money. I mean, money is better than
it used to be. But man, when I was a
(19:16):
yeah it was rough. It's two jobs. I mean, Jakin's
meat and roommates.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yeah, very true, it is. It is a different world.
But I think you can't you can't buy passion. It's
something that's in you. And that's the first step for me.
Somebody that's passionate, I gravitate towards them.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, I mean that's the way to go, may if
you can find them. It's a it's a hard job,
and I'm you know, I think we learned a lot
with COVID about the pay scales. I mean everybody, I
think you know if even before COVID, I knew that
the scales were wrong, so we you know, inflation. I
(19:58):
knew inflation was coming. I was like, we've got to
raise all of it, like seriously, not just a dollar
or two. We got to go big. We have to
change the industry. We have to pay more. I mean,
we've always been fortunate in our group that we don't
have investors. So we run the company and we decide
years ago, long before COVID, that we were going to
do four one K matches and health insurance and parking
(20:21):
and everything we could think of, you know, that we
could afford that we would give to the employees. And
we also started, you know, for management, which is a
good bit of our our staff, so that there's a
pathway to management and a pathway to more direction, more
of a future career. And we we wanted to not
(20:43):
just do jobs. We wanted to make careers and lives
like and we have. We've seen people become leaders and
managers and buy by houses, have kids. You know, it's
different these days. You know, we want the restaurant to
be a real job. You know, when I came up,
it wasn't a real job. It was what you did
if you were a degenerate or didn't have real job skills,
(21:08):
joined in the restaurant business.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Very free lifestyle too, right, and it's also.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Their first introduction to a job.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
Most people are dishwashers or prep cooks, so that's their
first entry level job.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
You know, I never understood why we couldn't have mind
cooks be on the same level. Say electricians and plumbers. Yeah,
we know how much those costs, right.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Well, that's the problem is we're used to paying plumbers
and electricians. We're not used to paying the higher menu
prices that come.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Along with Well, that's the thing, and that's what caused
the inflation. I knew it before it happened. I'm like,
oh my god, this is gonna skyrocket. We have no
choice but to raise prices at some point. I mean,
we fight that battle all the time. M all right,
we fight that battle all the time. Is the last
resort we do everything. I was like, are we running
(22:01):
as tight as humanly possible before we raise that price?
And then there's always the the allure of adding percentages
to the bill, which I'm opposed to. We should be
smart enough to put it in, but man, I would
love to put the credit card feeds on the check, right,
we'd love to so much money. Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
That's the thing.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
A lot of people don't understand what it takes to
run a restaurant. There's so many hidden things behind before
you get the bill.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
They're not hidden to us.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
No, they're not to the consumer.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
They have no idea that you know, because people just say,
we'll just pay your people more.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Whys you provide health insurance? And why on you adding this?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And what we do we do?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If you're ready to pay twenty bucks for that burger?
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah, that's what it costs.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, that's what it's going to cost. How much fun
do you have? Well, I know you won't call this
fun when you go to other cities. You go to
New York or San Francisco and look down and see
the menu prices compared to what we charge here in
New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean we're behind for sure. And you know
we've always paid the same as New York, if not more.
I mean back in the old days, New York was
ten dollars an hour when we were twelve or fourteen,
because everybody wanted to work in New York so they
could pay less, right, And there's more competition, But you
(23:30):
know that we have to we have to look at
restaurants as as a business, and it costs what it costs.
And you know that the ideas to provide quality and
something unique and different. Yeah, you can, you can go
somewhere else and get something cheaper, but it's it's not
gonna have the same service, it's not gonna be the
same meme, it's not gonna be the same environment. You know.
(23:52):
It's more of a you know, restaurants is different. It's
not eating, it's dining. Yep, there are two different things.
You don't go to a certain restaurants just because you're hungry.
You go for the experience. You go for the event.
You go for the the time spent with family and friends,
and it's it's an evening out. It's entertainment, you know.
It's like, you know, I always thought of gambling as
(24:14):
entertainment when only if I'm out of town, and not
anymore because I don't go to those places. But when
I did go to Reno or Tahoe or Vegas, I
mean I had a certain limit. It's like I'm gonna
go out tonight. I'm gonna spend four hundred bucks, Like
as two people, that's my event for the night. I'm
gonna spend four hundred dollars. I'm gonna eat something, I'm
(24:35):
gonna play some cards and then I'm gonna leave when
those four hundred dollars are gone, and if I lose it,
you know, that was cost of my entertainment for a night.
And I'm not saying that dieting is like gambling. What
I'm saying is that it's it's entertainment. It's something. It's
like you're paying for You're not just paying for that
piece of fish. You're paying for everything in that room,
(24:55):
from the decor, the music, you know, the people you're
interacting with, the people watching. I mean, it's not just
I mean you can eat for less about it if
you want to cook your own food, trust me, but
not that much anymore, because it's not like the grocery
store is cheap anymore. It's still dinner for four is
still you know, one hundred hundred bucks in the grocery
(25:15):
store easily.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So if you were cooking, what would you what would
be your other occupation?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, what would you be doing?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I don't know, I know what it is?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Dream he would like? Yeah, he'd like to be a
professional tennis player.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
No, no, no, trying to be in a band, yeah
he plays that. Yeah, maybe i'd be painting refinery tanks.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Always so you're you're into music, did you are you
self taught or did you have lessons or now.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Self taught on that one really started? I started as
fourteen fifteen years old. It'll beat up acoustic guitar and
a book of scales chords?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
The Roy Clark I don't remembers. Nina doesn't know what
he is.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's a it's a show that he was very popular
in the areas. Yeah, I mean back with CEBE radios
were popular. They might even preceeded the CBE radio. Remember
the CBE radio face?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Now what is that?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Right, right, right right.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Movies they didn't have smoking, smoking.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Abandoned convoy, canniball run glory, glorious era of movies, Yes,
late seventies.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
What's your favorite movie of all time?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
If you say, if it's on, I'm gonna watch, it's
his brainwork.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
There's no way he's gonna have.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Not one movie. I love the Scorsese movies, which one though,
Good Fellas, Good Fellas. That's why I like Casino. Yeah,
I mean I love a Podalyst. Now that was a
cinematic masterpiece. I don't know, you know, to give me
(27:17):
a minute, but those are probably on the top.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, I'm a big scor fan. His stuff is.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, I love you know what I love about Scorsese
is the music that he has a knackt for, like
pairing the right music for the movie.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
It's there's still many scenes that just stick out in
every single movie.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
It's like I could probably tell you a lot of
the songs I like using Devo and the shootout scene
and Casino right Satisfaction, I mean it's so good, brilliant
and the pen stabbing scene. You know the song do
you know you remember the song is playing you you
(27:59):
know the pin scene right? That was Casina right, Yeah,
it was Cain in the bar. It's been a long
time by the Rolling Stones. Now I'm going to rewatch
that Crescendos write that song. Cresinda's right at the point
where you start stabbing him. Brilliant.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
And then there's the one that Godfather.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
What only the first one?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm sorry, the first one. But anyway, we're gonna leave
Hollywood and come back to.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Okay, the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Marty Gross celebrations. Over the years, how have you gotten
to the point where you're like, man, I got this down,
this is my plan. I'm doing this too. How long
was it until you I mean you've been you've served
as a marshall in a parade. You write a lot
correct Where was your growth once you came back to
(29:03):
New Orleans? In getting to the point that I haven't
nailed and then I'm going to throw the biggest party
on the route on top of Herb Saint things like that,
what are your memories of Let's get into this.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Well, I have the perfect Martin Graul thing going on
right now. We're getting my car go to Florida.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Let's say back in the old day, because used to
do a crawfish boil.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I'm kidding, no, I mean I've had a lot of
fun at Marti Gras and I ride a toath on
Sunday and then generally after that we packed the car
up and had out. But you know, twenty something years
on the parade route at Herb Saints, you know, not
always been the best.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It's amazing that I mean not amazing. It's testament to
the architecture.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
But a little bit of riff rauh to have them.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's still standing.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, we put the stands out front and it's fine.
Like my daughter and I always watched musices on Thursday
from the stands. I mean, so those are there's some
great memories with with her and and you know, friends
on the stands, and then you know, over time it
just gets to be I'm throwing people off the stands
that shouldn't be there, and somebody's harassing somebody or trying
to steal something or breaking the windows. You know, like
(30:25):
last year, was it last year we had that stupid
parklet on the side right, Yeah, And then one of
the city's trucks with the barricades came back, grabbed part
of the parklet and dragged it out in the corner,
and I was like, ah, it almost it must be
Marti Graus, Is it Marty gral Already my parklet just
got dragged out into the street. So I have mixed feelings.
(30:49):
Now if I could, uh, here's my rules for Martin Graus.
If I cannot get in the car, then I love it.
But I don't have to drive park Uh, then I'm good.
It's when I have to go somewhere or drive and
then it gets then it's not real fun. If I
can station myself walk from my house, which I can
for some parades and not be at work because that's
(31:12):
the thing. Working during Marty Girl is different than playing
during market, right, sure, So if you can get away
from you know, when you're not at work, it's fun.
When you're at work, it's you know, it's work.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
So I'm saying twenty three years, how does it feel
from day one to now? Because I know that's a
long time to go through a lot of a lot
of things.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
It's really crazy. You know, there's days where I just
feel like, oh, I'm getting old, you know, my back hurts,
or every time I stand up, I'm like, oh my god,
I feel all those years standing up in the kitchen.
I would love herbscene. I mean, I really just I
just that restaurant is stronger than it's ever been. Yes,
such a good team right now. The food I think
(32:02):
is sharp, maybe sharper than it's ever been. And it's
just so bine tuned with I mean, all the details
that go into it. And it's just spent a ton
of money refurbishing the wait station and buying new plates,
and it's just fascinating to watch it go through these cycles.
And I'm definitely at the point in my career where
(32:24):
that's changing, you know, like my outlook has changed, and
you know, I see, you know, I'm still trying to
figure out my role is, you know, the chef, the visionary,
the the the boss, right, you know, and at the
same time trying to pass on those those higher positions
(32:49):
and that responsibility to let the chefs be more creative
and to build their names and to let them have
the you know, the awards and the articles and it
just you know, there was one last week's we want
you to do this. I'm like, well, that's that's Maggie's
Google or whatever it was for that one say, why
don't you put her on the on the headline, Well,
(33:13):
we really want you, Like, well, she's making this stuff,
put her name on it, and I really want to
build that that legacy, that next generation. I'm fifty four
years old. It's nuts. I mean it started, you know.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Thirty.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It was thirty years old when I opened her. Wow,
and you know, I went through all the young Yeah,
that was I think about it. You know, it was
very young. You know, raised two kids and they're you know,
my my son's a senior and my daughter's working and
you know, life changes, and and that's the thing. It's
like trying to build these careers and and again it's
(33:50):
not just the job that we're trying to build his
careers in its life and what do you do next?
And how do you move through this business? And it's
a tough one to navigate for a lot of people
and us and chefs and owners and what do I
do now? I mean, I'm not going to be here forever.
I mean not dying or anything, but you get my point.
You start thinking about this a lot at my age
(34:11):
and getting ready for it. And it doesn't just happen overnight.
So what is the direction? And and you know, I
think about it a lot, and for me, it really
is about mentoring that next generation of chefs and their
careers and building another tier and seeing the world of
restaurants is a tiered system of progress, you know, getting
(34:32):
the line generation ready to be sues and Sue's ready
to be chefs and chefs. You know, we started a
you know, profit sharing thing at our restaurant so that
part of our profits go to the management, so everybody
gets percent. It's based on performance, and we teach them
how to you know, how to watch the numbers because
(34:54):
if you know, if I win, everybody win, right, So
there has to be you know, we want that incentive
to be there so it's not like they're playing with
their own money, but kind of if you put that
incentive there, it does start to become their own money.
And when it's your money, then you look at everything
a little different differently, if you've got something at stake,
you're gonna you're gonna look at something different. I remember
(35:16):
one of the things I love that Thomas Keller said
once about it was about a rabbit. I think it's like,
you're gonna be less likely to burn that rabbit dish
if you killed that rabbit, right, And then it makes
sense because you treat that a little more thought in
respect if there's something at stake for you. And it's
(35:37):
not the only reason we did it. We did it
because you know, we've we've had a like I said,
we don't have the investors and the people to answer to,
is that we can create this, you know, this idealistic
situation that that helps everybody at the same time, so
that everybody benefits together. And you know, constantly, you know,
thinking about that is in terms of everything from the
(36:01):
hourly to the benefits and what do we do when
this happens, and how do we make everything as equitable
as fair and share and the success is the best
we can. So it's a lot of work. And that's where,
you know, my life has become more of that world
than what I miss is. You know, I'd rather just
(36:22):
talk about food all day, but it's not possible all
the time. And then I get in these dilemmas where
I'm like, well, I have to do one or the
other today. I can't like be creative and then talk
about the P and L.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Well, and that's the thing a lot of people don't
understand that.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
You know, restaurants, like you said, is just not about cooking,
it's it's a business.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah. I mean I do my best creative work honestly
at four point thirty in the morning, staring at the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Like oh yeah, yeah, that'd be good. So you have
one final meal in New Orleans. Where are you going?
Not one of you? Actually, let's not do that. He's
going to go to right, No, No, he's going to
(37:08):
You have four courses to eat for a final meal
in New Orleans? What are you having?
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Have I put them all together? Yeah, it's not fair.
I never liked those questions there's so much out there.
I mean, it depends.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's so many, so many, it depends.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
It's the last meal you're gonna have in New Orleans,
so you gotta have actually the last meal for your life.
So it could have been my life.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And I'm gonna get some craw fish right now there,
you know, I went. They're also unique and have different
I get at Station six on Saturday, and everybody I
used to live in Lake. When I first moved here
a long time ago, I lived out there, it reminded
me of like Brunning's and the you know, the sid
Mars type places, and aren't there anymore. I was like,
(37:54):
I forgot about what the spills like to be out
here on this part of town, because I don't get
out there very much much, right, And you know, going
to Bruning's and having that cup of gumbo and some oysters,
and I just really I like that about New Orleans.
When I think, you know, outside of our world of restaurants, right,
I think about New Orleans food like r No's by
(38:15):
the Lake. Have you been there? Best bo boy in town?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Really?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
No? I love it.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
It's called R Specials. Got hot roast, beef, ham mayonnaise
it's just a dirty.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Nobody puts it on the list, but like the best.
I just had it. I know I'm hearing it from Donald.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
But but like, just know, there's some interesting places out
by the lake front, and that was always been one
of my favorites. R No's that you know that. I
took Andrew Zimmern there and I was telling us like, no,
no tourist a here. It's really and he even stood
up and said, excuse me, is anybody here from out
(38:55):
of town? And they all looked at him and went,
just you, that's funny. I was like, I told you, man,
this red, red and white checker tablecloths, and I mean
it's like it's the real deal. I mean it's really.
I mean there's New Orleans food and then there's New
Orleans right, and to me, that was one of those places.
And you know there's two places out on Airline, Queen's
(39:16):
and Hearst's.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
You told me about that when they haven't been yet, you.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Know, I sent I told John t Edge about it,
and he put him on the in the magazine after
he went out there because he didn't believe me either,
because he's like, yeah, I heard all the time. I
was like, trust me, man, go out there. It's it's
these these little places that people don't talk about. And
I'm I don't know the name of this Chinese restaurant
in the West Bank. We went to tiny place. Oh god,
(39:43):
I feel bad. I don't remember the name. But they
have ducks hanging in the window, and like, I've never
heard about this. I am excited by stuff like that.
I love finding these little these little joints and places
and that no one's ever heard of or I'm just discovering.
I mean I think that's cool. Yeah, I love that.
I mean obviously, I mean, you know, your restaurant's my restaurants,
(40:06):
let clancies. I mean there's all these like classic, wonderful places.
I mean that took my daughter every year to Commanders
for her birthday. So every place has like a thing. Yes,
and like I go here because this, and I go
here because when I want this, and you know, not right,
my my love affair right now is that Yakuza house
and Metie just love sushi. And it's like finally, oh
(40:30):
my god, have you been out there?
Speaker 4 (40:32):
It's on my list Donald the list gets longer each yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Swear, you know, and it takes a lot. Do you
think this is far?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I mean, yeah, it's passport.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah, is that going to a different states.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I figured out a way to get there down the
road up through Causeway. It's a little better, but it
takes twenty minutes just to get through that intersection of
Causeway and Vets.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I mean Louvi is another one.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
There's just so many like little gems all over the city.
There's never like one place that you know. I mean
I probably do get in a rut a lot with
one place in particular. I mean it happens, but you know,
I also like to stay at home sometimes.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I have to eat a lot in the restaurants because
I have to taste it. I think it's the radio
show grabbing my stomach, right.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
I was playing tennis with a guy the other day
and he's like, what are you doing in LA And
I'm like, well, got these media visits and I got
these rest like seven restaurants to eat at. And he goes, oh,
I wonder you can't lose. We take it easy, man.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
It does an advantage of being in the industry.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Right, an advantage. Yeah, disadvantage is on you look at it.
I mean, at some point, I've got to change that too.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
That's the hard part Also is how do you how
do you change your eating habits and.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
You do it for a living, It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
I quit smoking. That was a big one.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Good, that's great.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
I feel so much better. Larry, I hear you.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
We're gonna get that book for you. We're gonna get
that book for you.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
It's life changing, definitely is. But I love it. I
like the future. I think it's interesting. It's different, you know,
for me. And I'm trying to fight the urge of
doing another restaurant because I think I'm good. If I do,
I want it to be something that is for someone else.
Maybe I love creating. It's a point. I love the
(42:39):
deal I did with the Four Seasons because it was
a you know, I struggled for months whether not to
do that deal or not. And oh good, you know,
I don't need more work and it's just but you know,
the reason I did it is I like the team
over there and it was fun to create something new,
and that's what I really love. At the end of
the day, I got to say, creating food, it's like
(43:00):
when I feel bad or depressed, or you know, and
the whatever, we won't call it, the funk. I got
to get in the kitchen. It really is the only
thing that makes me happy. I mean, it's not the
only thing that I mean, there's other things to make
me happy.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I'm saying, And Cassie just dropped.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Some that I don't mean it like that. What I mean,
it's like professionally that you know, you can go to
work every day and have meetings and talk about this
and that, and then it can get really frustrating. But
then when you it's like, Okay, I'm going to create
something new. I'm going to go to the store. I'm
just gonna get away from the work environment and it's
going to get into a kitchen and maybe if if
(43:39):
you know, I'd loved it when I would bring those
chefs over to the house and it's okay, we're going
to work on these three things and we're going to
create some new food that that makes me happy. You know,
I have a I have a place in DestinE that
you know, John Harris came a couple of times, and
you know, we'll get in the kitchen and cook together
and it's like this is great, and it's like the
old days. Man line cooks leating food and that's fun.
(44:02):
You know, that's the good part. And that's like I
want to tell everybody that's in the kitchen right now,
it's like, just enjoy it. Yes, these are the good days.
It's fun. It may seem stressful, but it's really not.
I mean, it's not brain surgery. Yeah, have fun with
that stressful. Enjoy cooking. I mean, it's a it's a
beautiful life. It's a beautiful way to make a living.
Learn as much as you can and master your craft,
(44:25):
and then you know, start thinking about terms of the
future and business and where you want to be. It's
that's what it really comes down to, I think, is
where do you want to be? Setting goals and just
moving forward and keep moving forward.
Speaker 5 (44:40):
So with that being said, where do you see because
we've been here for eight and a half years and
we've seen the car, new landscape change a lot. Where
do you see New Orleans in five years four?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It's not gonna be that much different, you don't think,
so nine hundred year old city, you can't say.
Speaker 5 (45:02):
I know, But I'm just saying that.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Trends come and go, right, But what's always great about
New Orleans, Right, is that feeling you get like I feel.
I got that feeling last Saturday. I hadn't had in
a while because I was in a different part of town.
But you have that sense of place, right, That's one
thing you can't lose in New Orleans. There will be
places that will be trendy, that'll come and go, and
then there's the those classics that make that remind you
(45:29):
of what city you're in, right, And it's a powerful
thing New Orleans. And I got all excited yesterday and
I read my son's assignments and one of them was
an excerpt from a book called The World That Made
New Orleans. It's by Ned Sublett, who I met and
Haiti after I read his book. But it's from Spanish
(45:49):
Silver to Congo Square, The World That Made New Orleans.
And I loved that book. And when you you know,
if you read and because I'm kind of a history
buff and I just love the history of New Orleans
and the city, but not just the history, but you
can feel that history when you're in a restaurant and
when you're eating at this place, or drinking at this place,
or walking through this neighborhood. It's been around forever, and
(46:11):
I hope that that doesn't change, and I don't think
it will. I think the one has got such a
powerful character to it that it's always going to have
that in some form. I think it'll go through this
cycle of different food and then it'll come back to
I think it'll get different for a while, and everyone's like,
I mean, I remember fifteen years ago, I was like,
(46:32):
there's nowherey to get a burger in its down right,
there's no good Mexican food. There's no good sushi. I mean,
there's no ethnic food. That was the big thing. And
then you see all that start to grow, right, and
you see more and more of it, and you know this,
five burger places open up and three five, three or
five new sushi restaurants. I will think you'll see a
return to classics at some point. I think.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
I think that's a good a good assumption.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Yeah, you're gonna start people are gonna start missing it,
Like I miss oyster stew, I miss having a fried
oyster sandwich, and I miss a regular good old pool
boy and not this other stuff. I want this one back.
And you know, I like Guy's Boys on I haven't
had a Guy's boy in months, and I was thinking
about the other day. It's like to get those all
(47:18):
the time. But there's that memory associated with it too,
So I do think it will come back, I think,
and then we'll end up with a nice mixture of
the two. It's good to have both. But I like
the tradition too. I like to I like to know that,
you know, herb Saint is a good example that half
that menu will never change. The other half we can
(47:39):
play with, but half of that is setting stone for
those people that come back. I imagine that spaghetti or
that short rid the gumbo. Yeah, yeah, there's you got
to have that, you know. It's I mean I have
mine at certain places too. If I go there, I'm like, man, sorry,
(47:59):
I mean.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Is it's a classic for a for a reason, because
it's it's timeless, and I think that a lot of
people with newons. It is such an old city and
it has so much tradition that you're expecting that and
that can go away.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Yeah, you need you need to have that, you know,
you've got to have some of that history, that classic.
I imagine going to San Francisco without Swans, that would
be that would be a loss. That is grilled. Every
city has one, but Neurons in particular is you don't
(48:36):
come here for the that fits in? Well, say you
don't come here for the Mexican figure. I'm not saying
there's not good Mexican food here. I'm just saying that's
that's not on your list right when you come to
New Orons And if you made a restaurant list of
(48:57):
foods you need to get, that's not probably agreed.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Do you have any dishes in your mind that stick
out that did not sell? Not saying they're not good.
I know how to handle these chefs with their kid gloves.
But Nina has one dish that we put on the menu,
the farro salad, that we just couldn't get anybody to
order it, and Nina was pulling her hair out. It
was delicious.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Anything with salt cod doesn't sell.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
Yes, I love it. I mean, you know you've been
to celebration and we have saltfish and everything else.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
So yes, John had it on his menu that once
years ago and I ordered it goes. He came out
with me, thanks for ordering that. You and Justin DeVillier
ordered that dish and I tried it. De Maru and
all these beautiful adaptations of it at Nain.
Speaker 5 (49:52):
Well, we had the one when we had lunch the
last time with the ba Peo peppers, and that was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Right, they just don't sell. People don't get it.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
There it's fish.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
I don't know why that's never been anchovies. It's the
anchovy effect. You're gonna have the most beautiful, gorgeous anchovies
in the world, like we even make them, like buy
fresh anchovies and strip them and gear them.
Speaker 5 (50:20):
Still, didn't you have your anchovy fingernail at one point anail?
Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, you strip it right in there and then you
grab the You gotta have enough to grab the you know,
that's fine, pull it out. You put it from the
tail and the head comes off with it and it
pulls the rib bones.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
That is the chef's manicure.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Still, you're gonna have this. That's why you can never
get a manicure. I gotta seea leave nails. You gotta
be able to grab so they don't slip out of
your hand.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Here's here's the chef's secrets.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Who were looking green beans, anchovies, great food, So you
cut it outside, don't know.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
I love you. You know, there's just some people in my life.
That just make me smile and laugh, and you one
of them.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
So wow, thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
This is the most I've ever spoken around him, because
I usually just like listening to him talk.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Well, yeah, I'm having fun, fun time here. I like
talking about restaurants and food, so I mean that's all
I ever do.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Well, normally when we have lunch, it's three hours, so.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
This is a condensed Another great thing about this city. Yeah, lunches.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yeah, well did they turned in Top five?
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Top five things I love about the city.
Speaker 4 (51:53):
Yes, there's no judgment if you say going for lunch.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Well, we left last year. I just for some reason
last year from Martiga, I wanted to just get away.
So we left Wednesday before Martin Gras and came. I
got so mad. My wife was like, okay, well but
next year, I don't know, we can leave that early, okay?
(52:18):
And I agree, and especially now like John has started
this thing on Friday before Martin Graus doing these crazy lunches,
and I missed it. I mean, we started with this
guy we met in Italy called Masimbo Massimo Alwis, and
he came and started kicked off our Friday Marti Graul
(52:39):
lunch and he was fantastic, and then he rode with
us on the float, which was so much fun. That's
like the best time is writing with somebody new. Yeah,
it just makes it so much more fun. I mean,
I've ridden so many times now. It's like the year
before last was not great for me. I thought that
(53:00):
it was like the first year after COVID. I guess,
I don't know. Crowd was kind of rough. Somebody hit
me with something. I don't know what they threw at me,
but it's like it felt like a baseball in the chest. Oh,
I couldn't see was right at the turn at Saint
Charles and Napoleon just so we call it the turn.
And I swear if i'd have Senior did that, it
(53:21):
jumped off. That was so mad. But I don't know.
The energy was rough that year, and it's kind of
turned me off. So I needed a break.
Speaker 4 (53:30):
That's fair. That is fair.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
And you know, I am getting older and I don't
smoke anymore, no party like.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
I used to.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
So that's up.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, as we know, up if I can handle all
that partying anymore.
Speaker 4 (53:45):
Larry knows my start with my crosso.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
All I know is the aftermath. Yeah, the picking up
the what used to be Nina Compton. But by the
end of a end of a parade, I.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
Thought I was pacing myself perfectly.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
No and an amateur moment.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Oh it went first year, that's fine, I was forgivable
go I actually that was I've worked that night, rolling
in front of compare the pen in Orpheus and worked,
went back changing tuxedo, walked all the way down to
your ball and she was sitting on a cooler outside
saying take me home. Now. I just walked all this
(54:29):
way into tuxedo.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
You're not alone.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
The following year, she's riding and I said, hey, Uber
is your friend. I'm not coming to get you. Saw
her roll by and I headed home. Phone rings right
as I'm getting in bed, Come pick me up, I said, Nina.
We said that just there was some like monster ruberoo
(54:52):
voice on the other end of the phone, so I
had to go pick her up again.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
It was not fun.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Brother Marty gral Tip. Always have a plan, always exit strategy,
an extraction point.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Oh that was the other good part. She walked all
the way back to Caesar's Harris then Yeah.
Speaker 5 (55:14):
He told me He's like, just go to a restaurant
and somebody can call a cab for you, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (55:18):
I'm not going to the restaurant. I am not in
good shape.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
So it's so easy to get a cab in the
middle of down town. Nobody knows that. Now I have
a plan. I park where Kashan is because that's where
the float's in near there, and then there's a way
to you know, jump on the interstate with the clay
burn the head uptown. Just get out of the box.
And it sounds crazy, but you know, be sober by
(55:46):
the time you finish the run, do all your drinking early.
Speaker 4 (55:52):
Not pace yourself like I thought I was doing.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
It was the opposite of it.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Yeah, that that last year, I wrote there was some
guy on our float the float before we took off
because he had taken too many mushrooms. And then somebody
else threw up in our bathroom bathroom, our bucket in
the hole and then passed out in it. Oh, so
we didn't have a bathroom the whole ride. Oh then
(56:18):
I got hitting the chest with a baseball.
Speaker 4 (56:20):
That will do it, That will make you stop for
a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
I was like, yeah, I didn't even take Next year, off.
Speaker 5 (56:27):
You need a break, so Donald, thank you so much
for catching up with.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
It's been a pleasure I can never have.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
We'll do another episode called Marty Story.
Speaker 4 (56:38):
Yes you will welcome back anytime. Sorry, thank you so much. Donald.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
All right, everybody that it was so wrong. You ever
say I wear
What would it big?
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Welcome back to season two between Bites with Nina Compton
and Larry Miller, brought to you by Caesar's New Orleans Man.
Do we have a guest today? This actually could turn
into like a a seven episode segment, so we got
to cram it all in. But we're joined today by
(00:34):
chef Donald Link.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Hi.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hi, thank you, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Welcome.
Speaker 5 (00:41):
So, Donald is a very very dear friend, Ay and
I remember the first time that we met.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
You invited me to State for lunch and you asked me.
Speaker 5 (00:53):
About how I enjoyed the city and everything else, and
the thing that stuck out to me the most was
where do I get my crawfish? And you were the
most instrumental in guiding me on the dewes and the
dons of living.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Here in New Rulans.
Speaker 3 (01:08):
Right, yeah, I remember that I've heard this story.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
So fower listeners.
Speaker 5 (01:14):
Donald informed me that the best crawfish actually stays in Lafayette.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Right, Well, that is the source generally, and you're any
food or wine you're talking about, the source is always
a little stronger, agreed.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
So it gets even better than that because it starts
off that here we are new in town. We're building
out compare the pen and Nina comes up with this
look in her eyes and just holding her phone, and
she said, Donald Link just asked me if I could
come to lunch with him at herb Saint. That's what
you got to say.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yes, it's come my own embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (01:52):
We know, I know, I know, But you know the
thing about it is.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
I remember Nina from Top Chef and I. It was
coming to a new city and being a new person,
and I just thought it would be nice to, you know,
say hi, I get to know each other. So you
weren't coming in blind and alone.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
So how was that experience on Top Chef being the judge?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
It was weird. I don't know if I do it again.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
And that day was very hot, you remember.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Yeah, I remember somebody passed out and some girl got
ate by an alligator. Yes, two things happened.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
How did that not make this show?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
They didn't think that would be a good good press.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Not good TV.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Now, Nina alluded to a Kadiana. You grew up out there.
What were your first, uh first food memories when you
look back on your childhood.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Me, well, it's kind of crazy. I grew up in
Lake Charles So and my dad's family was from the
Cajun country, and my grandparents lived well it's Sulfur, a
quarter mile from each other, so one of them was
very Alabama and the other was very Cajun. So I
grew up going and fishing at my granddad's place, and
(03:08):
he had a big farm. So I remember eating peaches
and fresh watermelon, fish right off the boat, you know,
mostly brimmed like like fried hole with the bones in.
It was very you know, collar greens and cream corn
and fresh shrimp, catfish, and ice chests that he caught,
all trot lines that were four feet long. And so
(03:30):
I just remember all this crazy food that at that
point doesn't seem crazy because you're growing up with it.
And there was no I mean, there were McDonald's, but
that was what you did before you, you know, went
to work with your uncles. It wasn't like where you
had dinner for sure. So I grew up with all
that kind of really rustic home cooking. Big families like
(03:53):
my moms one of ten, dad's one of seven, so
huge families, large pot cookings, large format like everything you
would think from a southern household. Super sweet desserts, the
whole bit.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And when you started cooking, where was that professionally?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Professionally, well, the first job was in sulfur in a
Mexican restaurant run by Iranians.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
There you go interesting.
Speaker 3 (04:21):
I know, it's a very strange combination. I don't know
how I got involved there, but it hired me as
a dishwasher, and a few weeks later the guys there
brought me up to the line and turned me into
a light cook. So that was my first professional cooking job.
And then you know, I worked at McDonald's, couple hamburger joints, Sammy's, Bargrove,
(04:41):
and Baton Rouge. When I went to college. It wasn't
really until I h there was a place, I forget
the name of it in Baton Rouge. It was a
it was a French restaurant. I just remember the chef
was very angry, cruise shit, and I was like, screw this,
I'm gonna go work more hours at Sammy's. It's more
funs are prettier. I just worked over there, and then
(05:05):
then I moved to San Francisco. Is when I started
getting into real restaurants.
Speaker 4 (05:08):
So what did you study in college?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Finance?
Speaker 4 (05:11):
Finance and now you're cooking. You're a chef.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Well, now he's a movie, you're a business business one
of the five families.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
I went to the I went through the cycle, and
I dropped out of college to to cook because I
liked it better and I didn't want to be in finance.
And then now I'm kind of back in the finance.
Not finance like stockbroking, but business.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Now all that was very helpful when it came to
running a business, and you know, being running you know,
running a restaurant, it's not just fun of games. Cooking
is the fun part. I still, you know, it's still
is the fun part. The business part not so much.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
Yeah, And I mean you have been very instrumental in
helping chefs like myself and other people in the city
with you know, making the right moves financially.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So we're thankful for your financial background.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Well, that gets back to one of the things of
how welcoming the city was that one of the biggest
names in our industry, meaning you donald were reached out
to us and welcomed us a city. We got flowers
from your company. I'm sure you picked them out when
(06:29):
we opened the restaurant. And we're like, wow, this is again.
We thought it was part of that Truman show where
you all were just filming us, making us think that
everything was so lovely, But it really was. And it
was a refreshing way to look at it, because when
we were in Miami, nobody got along, nobody sent each
other flowers or reached out, And here we realized that
(06:50):
this was more like how we had been brought up
to be friendly and polite and welcome.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
That's the great thing about New Orleans in the South,
and particularly New Orleans. Know, I know restaurants in New
York aren't doing that. I think Chicago is probably a
little like New Orleans. I mean, I know, those chefs
get along and there's a strong industry presence up there.
But New Orleans is small enough to where, man, we're
not in that big of a city, right, I mean,
(07:16):
it's a it's a big little city. The geography is small.
I mean other than getting over here this morning, where
I live was about as far away as you can
get and still see in the city, and.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
He still beat me.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Hey on a good day, I mean, you know, thirty
minutes the now.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Growing up in Lake Charles and then going to school
in Baton Rouge. How did California come about? And how
big a culture shock was that?
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It was a culture shock, all right. It came about
because I wanted to leave Louisiana and I've met a
girl and she was from that area. It goes, well,
we moved to San Francisco. I'm like, great, I just
I was at LSU. I was not. I was unhappy.
I didn't see any prospects, you know, really for me,
(08:11):
I was kind of lost. I was even. There was
even a month where I just did a month or
two where I just did odd jobs like und like
worked for a temp company unloading truck tires and running
cable and like painting refinery tanks. Well of them offer
me a job stay here. I'm not going to work
(08:33):
at the refineries. So we moved, and of course I
got a job cooking because that's what I'm good at,
and and that just grew into bigger and better restaurants.
It was a culture shop for sure. I mean growing
up in small town in Louisiana, and I remember the
first place we went in San Francisco. I'd never seen it,
I had. I remember, three thousand dollars is all we
(08:54):
had and we sold everything. Step one, we stopped in
South San Francisco and I bought a Suzuki five hundred
cc motorcycle for my transportation thousand bucks. So now we
get two thousand bucks. So now we're in the Castro
neighborhood of San Francisco. To go to a roommate or
an apartment referral, you go look for apartments, and so
(09:18):
I didn't know if the Castro was like the Gay District.
So I'm thinking the whole city is the Castro. I'm like, okay,
well I knew it was here. I didn't think it
would be, but wow, okay, and then I realized, Okay, oh,
that's the neighborhood. They're all different. That's that's me, you know,
I'm such a small town mentality, like there, surely it's
(09:42):
all the same. Yeah, exactly. Like I said, it was
exciting to me that it was different and open. I thought.
I was like, man, this is great that people here
can be who they want to be. And that was
the biggest change for me, the biggest eye opener, because
that's what I didn't like about growing up in small
towns in Louisiana was that, yeah, you had to be
this way, right, So breaking free of that religion and
(10:07):
politics and seeing that you know that I'm not crazy,
that there are other people that think like me, right,
because that that percentage was very small and growing up.
Speaker 5 (10:20):
So then from you know, finding your your footing in
the city, where did you land?
Speaker 4 (10:25):
How did you go about finding a job? Do you
just knocking back doors or San Francisco?
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Did?
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I probably the fact in those days to called the newspaper.
I saw this ad and spaghetti western and lower hate
and it was this grungy rock and roll, you know,
ive breakfast joint with skullheads and on the wall and
(10:52):
junkies passed down on the count I think An Tracks
was eating there. Demand Uh, I don't know. It looked fun.
I was like, this looks cool, and it ended up
being really cool place to work. And then that guy
brought me the upper heat to a place called Chata Chop,
and that's where I really started. I was like, well,
(11:13):
I don't know anything about this, you know, Cuban Caribbean food.
And then I started seeing the connections to the creole
food that I grew up in. And then I started
reading and testing and it was a great job because
there was the chef and me on the line. So
our jobs were there's six meets on the board, you
take one and you do the topless plate with it,
(11:34):
so you do three specials at night and then everything
else on the menu was was prepped hot and cold,
backed up by an amazing prep team. Because when you
get on the line, you just get your ask for
six straight hours. They had a spindle ticket in the
round one and when you walk on the line at
five thirty, it's full stack on the end, so they
(11:56):
start seating around four poor thirty. The restaurant you walk
on like showtime, five thirty, full dial till eleven thirty
straight Oh, full dial for six straight hours.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
So I definitely hone some high level skills while I
worked there. It was brutal six days a week, ten
to twelve hours a day, cash tips. It was a
cash restaurant, so everybody got cash, and then on you
get the one day off you have, you're just paralyzed
on a couch with a pocket. With the pocket you're
(12:29):
too tired to spend.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Listeners should know also that it's taking us this far
in season two to have Rose served in typical for
New Orleans. We normally filmed or tape very early in
the morning. This one we waited all the way till
eleven thirty.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
To start special guests. So from then, where did you
go from Spaghetti Western?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
Well, like I said, I went to that job. And
then I started thinking, Okay, this is fun, but what's next?
You know, where do I go from here? Just you know,
nobody can do this forever. Not at this base. The
pace was pretty, it was rough, and that's when I
decided to go to culinary school to see if I
(13:19):
could take a notice step. So I started going to
culinary school and then there was an instructor there. They
all all that there was still all the old French guys,
and there was this legendary chef there named Albert Torsman
who was there, and they all talked about him, like,
you know, he got fired because I met too many
(13:41):
people cry. He has a restaurant called Flying Saucer and
nobody can make it through the night. And they said,
anybody can make it through one day, there will have
it made forever. So of course I went there the
next day. I said, well, that sounds like the place
for me.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
You're up for the challenge.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
I had to see it. So I went in and
I told him. He goes, why do you want to
work here? I said, because everyone told me I can't.
He said, all right, well get your shot. He brought
me in and and it was everything people said it was.
He was a brutal I made it, cut my head
down and said yes chef, and and and persevered. And
(14:26):
you know, once I made it a week, you're in
your gold You're one, You're you're the golden child. There's three,
three or four cooks in this place, and that's it.
And once you're one, once you're in, you're in family. Yeah,
like you're protected by God at that point. So you know,
it was always a brutal night. I mean he did
fire somebody every night. Wow, whether a cook or a server,
(14:48):
someone got fired nightly. That's yeah. He's the chef that
stabbed the knife from the table for the food critic, right, Yes,
I remember that, Yes, that's him. I heard I heard
him screaming a baby one night. That's a problem.
Speaker 4 (15:06):
Where is he now?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
You probably went crazy, that's I heard. He went nuts,
moved to Singapore.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
Maybe maybe he figured it out could be worse. It
could be worse.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
Again, that's the pace that you know you can't keep
up with.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
Yeah, it's yeah, agreed.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
So coming from that time when that happened an awful
lot to where we are, I don't know, the last
five years, ten years, where we're actually supposedly producing more
pleasant places to work than that personalities, How was that
a challenge for you when you started seeing that as
(15:46):
far as.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
Well way it should be able to figure this out
a long time ago. You know, I've had Erbstein now
for twenty three years. Nuts I figured out. But then
my first year at IRB Saint that all those nights
I got mad through my half crossed the room or
punched a wall or table, or yelled at people. But
(16:12):
at the end of the day, it's all my fault.
And that was the revelation. Once you figure out it's
all your fault, then it stops. What's the point of
yelling at someone? You got to yell at somebody that
much and you have the wrong person, or you're not
doing a good enough job teaching them well. And that's
what I figured out. So then I stopped doing that.
I didn't hire people that were going to put me
(16:34):
in that position. I mean, that's the first step just
stop hiring people that you got to yell at. So,
I mean I had a really good team, but it
was small and we worked a lot, and you know,
Stephen was one of those, and the Steven Straduski in
the early days, Kelly Cavin Gambino. I mean, we had
this tight squad and we would just work short and
(16:57):
if somebody couldn't cut it, they just you know, got
run out or let go, or I would let Kevin
and Stephen torture them until.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
They left, make them the bad guy.
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Right for a while. But then we had to you know.
But yeah, it's different now. You know the point of
what we do is that we're teachers.
Speaker 5 (17:16):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:16):
Now everybody walks into a kitchen knowing exactly what to do,
including us. We had, you know, our days of you know, learning,
and I had definitely had mine, especially at Flag Saucer.
He taught us. It was brutal, but uh, someone asked
to teach. And that's our job as chef, just to
(17:37):
teach and the mentor and to build a career and
build a cook And you don't you don't just hire
cooks and make cooks.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
That is so well said that it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
We were in Playermo Wants with the team, you know,
on a food trip. I mean Ben went to the store.
I said, we were like, hey, make get some ice.
So he comes back from the store in Italy with
ice trade and he goes the guy looks at me
and he brings me these and says, you don't buy
the ice, you make.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
It any.
Speaker 3 (18:09):
You know. I always have that accent in my head
when I think about cooks, right, it's like, you don't
you don't make cook I mean, you don't just hot
buy cooks. You make cooks. You show them, you tease them,
and then you watch them again and again and direct
and guide, and you know it's you don't just show
them one time and walk away and then say, well
I'll showed you. No, it's it's constant, constant pressure. Constant
(18:33):
gentle pressure, I guess should be the word. But I
think that's part of the fun of the job. And
it's probably you know, I don't spend you know, I
don't work in the kitchens like I did, or at
all really anymore except for testing. But I missed that.
That's the one thing I miss more than anything, probably
is that you know, hey, come here. Let me show
(18:54):
you out a butcher of this lamb or hey have
you ever you know split a rack before it and
and and that's what they want. And that's how you
build good kitchens is you have that atmosphere of learning
and respect. And I think that's what attracts the best people.
That's not the money. I mean, money is better than
it used to be. But man, when I was a
(19:16):
yeah it was rough. It's two jobs. I mean, Jakin's
meat and roommates.
Speaker 5 (19:22):
Yeah, very true, it is. It is a different world.
But I think you can't you can't buy passion. It's
something that's in you. And that's the first step for me.
Somebody that's passionate, I gravitate towards them.
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah, I mean that's the way to go, may if
you can find them. It's a it's a hard job,
and I'm you know, I think we learned a lot
with COVID about the pay scales. I mean everybody, I
think you know if even before COVID, I knew that
the scales were wrong, so we you know, inflation. I
(19:58):
knew inflation was coming. I was like, we've got to
raise all of it, like seriously, not just a dollar
or two. We got to go big. We have to
change the industry. We have to pay more. I mean,
we've always been fortunate in our group that we don't
have investors. So we run the company and we decide
years ago, long before COVID, that we were going to
do four one K matches and health insurance and parking
(20:21):
and everything we could think of, you know, that we
could afford that we would give to the employees. And
we also started, you know, for management, which is a
good bit of our our staff, so that there's a
pathway to management and a pathway to more direction, more
of a future career. And we we wanted to not
(20:43):
just do jobs. We wanted to make careers and lives
like and we have. We've seen people become leaders and
managers and buy by houses, have kids. You know, it's
different these days. You know, we want the restaurant to
be a real job. You know, when I came up,
it wasn't a real job. It was what you did
if you were a degenerate or didn't have real job skills,
(21:08):
joined in the restaurant business.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Very free lifestyle too, right, and it's also.
Speaker 4 (21:12):
Their first introduction to a job.
Speaker 5 (21:15):
Most people are dishwashers or prep cooks, so that's their
first entry level job.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
You know, I never understood why we couldn't have mind
cooks be on the same level. Say electricians and plumbers. Yeah,
we know how much those costs, right.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Well, that's the problem is we're used to paying plumbers
and electricians. We're not used to paying the higher menu
prices that come.
Speaker 3 (21:40):
Along with Well, that's the thing, and that's what caused
the inflation. I knew it before it happened. I'm like,
oh my god, this is gonna skyrocket. We have no
choice but to raise prices at some point. I mean,
we fight that battle all the time. M all right,
we fight that battle all the time. Is the last
resort we do everything. I was like, are we running
(22:01):
as tight as humanly possible before we raise that price?
And then there's always the the allure of adding percentages
to the bill, which I'm opposed to. We should be
smart enough to put it in, but man, I would
love to put the credit card feeds on the check, right,
we'd love to so much money. Oh my god.
Speaker 4 (22:25):
That's the thing.
Speaker 5 (22:25):
A lot of people don't understand what it takes to
run a restaurant. There's so many hidden things behind before
you get the bill.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
It's crazy.
Speaker 2 (22:33):
They're not hidden to us.
Speaker 4 (22:34):
No, they're not to the consumer.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
They have no idea that you know, because people just say,
we'll just pay your people more.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
Whys you provide health insurance? And why on you adding this?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
And what we do we do?
Speaker 3 (22:47):
If you're ready to pay twenty bucks for that burger?
Speaker 4 (22:49):
Yeah, that's what it costs.
Speaker 2 (22:50):
Yeah, that's what it's going to cost. How much fun
do you have? Well, I know you won't call this
fun when you go to other cities. You go to
New York or San Francisco and look down and see
the menu prices compared to what we charge here in
New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, I mean we're behind for sure. And you know
we've always paid the same as New York, if not more.
I mean back in the old days, New York was
ten dollars an hour when we were twelve or fourteen,
because everybody wanted to work in New York so they
could pay less, right, And there's more competition, But you
(23:30):
know that we have to we have to look at
restaurants as as a business, and it costs what it costs.
And you know that the ideas to provide quality and
something unique and different. Yeah, you can, you can go
somewhere else and get something cheaper, but it's it's not
gonna have the same service, it's not gonna be the
same meme, it's not gonna be the same environment. You know.
(23:52):
It's more of a you know, restaurants is different. It's
not eating, it's dining. Yep, there are two different things.
You don't go to a certain restaurants just because you're hungry.
You go for the experience. You go for the event.
You go for the the time spent with family and friends,
and it's it's an evening out. It's entertainment, you know.
It's like, you know, I always thought of gambling as
(24:14):
entertainment when only if I'm out of town, and not
anymore because I don't go to those places. But when
I did go to Reno or Tahoe or Vegas, I
mean I had a certain limit. It's like I'm gonna
go out tonight. I'm gonna spend four hundred bucks, Like
as two people, that's my event for the night. I'm
gonna spend four hundred dollars. I'm gonna eat something, I'm
(24:35):
gonna play some cards and then I'm gonna leave when
those four hundred dollars are gone, and if I lose it,
you know, that was cost of my entertainment for a night.
And I'm not saying that dieting is like gambling. What
I'm saying is that it's it's entertainment. It's something. It's
like you're paying for You're not just paying for that
piece of fish. You're paying for everything in that room,
(24:55):
from the decor, the music, you know, the people you're
interacting with, the people watching. I mean, it's not just
I mean you can eat for less about it if
you want to cook your own food, trust me, but
not that much anymore, because it's not like the grocery
store is cheap anymore. It's still dinner for four is
still you know, one hundred hundred bucks in the grocery
(25:15):
store easily.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So if you were cooking, what would you what would
be your other occupation?
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Yeah, what would you be doing?
Speaker 3 (25:27):
I don't know, I know what it is?
Speaker 1 (25:29):
Like?
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Dream he would like? Yeah, he'd like to be a
professional tennis player.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
No, no, no, trying to be in a band, yeah
he plays that. Yeah, maybe i'd be painting refinery tanks.
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Always so you're you're into music, did you are you
self taught or did you have lessons or now.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
Self taught on that one really started? I started as
fourteen fifteen years old. It'll beat up acoustic guitar and
a book of scales chords?
Speaker 5 (26:03):
Was it?
Speaker 2 (26:03):
The Roy Clark I don't remembers. Nina doesn't know what
he is.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
It's a it's a show that he was very popular
in the areas. Yeah, I mean back with CEBE radios
were popular. They might even preceeded the CBE radio. Remember
the CBE radio face?
Speaker 4 (26:28):
Now what is that?
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Right, right, right right.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Movies they didn't have smoking, smoking.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Abandoned convoy, canniball run glory, glorious era of movies, Yes,
late seventies.
Speaker 4 (26:45):
What's your favorite movie of all time?
Speaker 5 (26:48):
If you say, if it's on, I'm gonna watch, it's
his brainwork.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
There's no way he's gonna have.
Speaker 3 (26:55):
Not one movie. I love the Scorsese movies, which one though,
Good Fellas, Good Fellas. That's why I like Casino. Yeah,
I mean I love a Podalyst. Now that was a
cinematic masterpiece. I don't know, you know, to give me
(27:17):
a minute, but those are probably on the top.
Speaker 4 (27:20):
Yeah, I'm a big scor fan. His stuff is.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Yeah, I love you know what I love about Scorsese
is the music that he has a knackt for, like
pairing the right music for the movie.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
It's there's still many scenes that just stick out in
every single movie.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
You know.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
It's like I could probably tell you a lot of
the songs I like using Devo and the shootout scene
and Casino right Satisfaction, I mean it's so good, brilliant
and the pen stabbing scene. You know the song do
you know you remember the song is playing you you
(27:59):
know the pin scene right? That was Casina right, Yeah,
it was Cain in the bar. It's been a long
time by the Rolling Stones. Now I'm going to rewatch
that Crescendos write that song. Cresinda's right at the point
where you start stabbing him. Brilliant.
Speaker 5 (28:20):
And then there's the one that Godfather.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
What only the first one?
Speaker 2 (28:28):
I'm sorry, the first one. But anyway, we're gonna leave
Hollywood and come back to.
Speaker 4 (28:33):
Okay, the.
Speaker 2 (28:38):
Marty Gross celebrations. Over the years, how have you gotten
to the point where you're like, man, I got this down,
this is my plan. I'm doing this too. How long
was it until you I mean you've been you've served
as a marshall in a parade. You write a lot
correct Where was your growth once you came back to
(29:03):
New Orleans? In getting to the point that I haven't
nailed and then I'm going to throw the biggest party
on the route on top of Herb Saint things like that,
what are your memories of Let's get into this.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Well, I have the perfect Martin Graul thing going on
right now. We're getting my car go to Florida.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
Let's say back in the old day, because used to
do a crawfish boil.
Speaker 3 (29:34):
I'm kidding, no, I mean I've had a lot of
fun at Marti Gras and I ride a toath on
Sunday and then generally after that we packed the car
up and had out. But you know, twenty something years
on the parade route at Herb Saints, you know, not
always been the best.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
It's amazing that I mean not amazing. It's testament to
the architecture.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
But a little bit of riff rauh to have them.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
It's still standing.
Speaker 3 (30:01):
Well, we put the stands out front and it's fine.
Like my daughter and I always watched musices on Thursday
from the stands. I mean, so those are there's some
great memories with with her and and you know, friends
on the stands, and then you know, over time it
just gets to be I'm throwing people off the stands
that shouldn't be there, and somebody's harassing somebody or trying
to steal something or breaking the windows. You know, like
(30:25):
last year, was it last year we had that stupid
parklet on the side right, Yeah, And then one of
the city's trucks with the barricades came back, grabbed part
of the parklet and dragged it out in the corner,
and I was like, ah, it almost it must be
Marti Graus, Is it Marty gral Already my parklet just
got dragged out into the street. So I have mixed feelings.
(30:49):
Now if I could, uh, here's my rules for Martin Graus.
If I cannot get in the car, then I love it.
But I don't have to drive park Uh, then I'm good.
It's when I have to go somewhere or drive and
then it gets then it's not real fun. If I
can station myself walk from my house, which I can
for some parades and not be at work because that's
(31:12):
the thing. Working during Marty Girl is different than playing
during market, right, sure, So if you can get away
from you know, when you're not at work, it's fun.
When you're at work, it's you know, it's work.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
So I'm saying twenty three years, how does it feel
from day one to now? Because I know that's a
long time to go through a lot of a lot
of things.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
It's really crazy. You know, there's days where I just
feel like, oh, I'm getting old, you know, my back hurts,
or every time I stand up, I'm like, oh my god,
I feel all those years standing up in the kitchen.
I would love herbscene. I mean, I really just I
just that restaurant is stronger than it's ever been. Yes,
such a good team right now. The food I think
(32:02):
is sharp, maybe sharper than it's ever been. And it's
just so bine tuned with I mean, all the details
that go into it. And it's just spent a ton
of money refurbishing the wait station and buying new plates,
and it's just fascinating to watch it go through these cycles.
And I'm definitely at the point in my career where
(32:24):
that's changing, you know, like my outlook has changed, and
you know, I see, you know, I'm still trying to
figure out my role is, you know, the chef, the visionary,
the the the boss, right, you know, and at the
same time trying to pass on those those higher positions
(32:49):
and that responsibility to let the chefs be more creative
and to build their names and to let them have
the you know, the awards and the articles and it
just you know, there was one last week's we want
you to do this. I'm like, well, that's that's Maggie's
Google or whatever it was for that one say, why
don't you put her on the on the headline, Well,
(33:13):
we really want you, Like, well, she's making this stuff,
put her name on it, and I really want to
build that that legacy, that next generation. I'm fifty four
years old. It's nuts. I mean it started, you know.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Thirty.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
It was thirty years old when I opened her. Wow,
and you know, I went through all the young Yeah,
that was I think about it. You know, it was
very young. You know, raised two kids and they're you know,
my my son's a senior and my daughter's working and
you know, life changes, and and that's the thing. It's
like trying to build these careers and and again it's
(33:50):
not just the job that we're trying to build his
careers in its life and what do you do next?
And how do you move through this business? And it's
a tough one to navigate for a lot of people
and us and chefs and owners and what do I
do now? I mean, I'm not going to be here forever.
I mean not dying or anything, but you get my point.
You start thinking about this a lot at my age
(34:11):
and getting ready for it. And it doesn't just happen overnight.
So what is the direction? And and you know, I
think about it a lot, and for me, it really
is about mentoring that next generation of chefs and their
careers and building another tier and seeing the world of
restaurants is a tiered system of progress, you know, getting
(34:32):
the line generation ready to be sues and Sue's ready
to be chefs and chefs. You know, we started a
you know, profit sharing thing at our restaurant so that
part of our profits go to the management, so everybody
gets percent. It's based on performance, and we teach them
how to you know, how to watch the numbers because
(34:54):
if you know, if I win, everybody win, right, So
there has to be you know, we want that incentive
to be there so it's not like they're playing with
their own money, but kind of if you put that
incentive there, it does start to become their own money.
And when it's your money, then you look at everything
a little different differently, if you've got something at stake,
you're gonna you're gonna look at something different. I remember
(35:16):
one of the things I love that Thomas Keller said
once about it was about a rabbit. I think it's like,
you're gonna be less likely to burn that rabbit dish
if you killed that rabbit, right, And then it makes
sense because you treat that a little more thought in
respect if there's something at stake for you. And it's
(35:37):
not the only reason we did it. We did it
because you know, we've we've had a like I said,
we don't have the investors and the people to answer to,
is that we can create this, you know, this idealistic
situation that that helps everybody at the same time, so
that everybody benefits together. And you know, constantly, you know,
thinking about that is in terms of everything from the
(36:01):
hourly to the benefits and what do we do when
this happens, and how do we make everything as equitable
as fair and share and the success is the best
we can. So it's a lot of work. And that's where,
you know, my life has become more of that world
than what I miss is. You know, I'd rather just
(36:22):
talk about food all day, but it's not possible all
the time. And then I get in these dilemmas where
I'm like, well, I have to do one or the
other today. I can't like be creative and then talk
about the P and L.
Speaker 4 (36:34):
Well, and that's the thing a lot of people don't
understand that.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
You know, restaurants, like you said, is just not about cooking,
it's it's a business.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
Yeah. I mean I do my best creative work honestly
at four point thirty in the morning, staring at the ceiling.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Like oh yeah, yeah, that'd be good. So you have
one final meal in New Orleans. Where are you going?
Not one of you? Actually, let's not do that. He's
going to go to right, No, No, he's going to
(37:08):
You have four courses to eat for a final meal
in New Orleans? What are you having?
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Have I put them all together? Yeah, it's not fair.
I never liked those questions there's so much out there.
I mean, it depends.
Speaker 4 (37:20):
It's so many, so many, it depends.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
It's the last meal you're gonna have in New Orleans,
so you gotta have actually the last meal for your life.
So it could have been my life.
Speaker 3 (37:31):
And I'm gonna get some craw fish right now there,
you know, I went. They're also unique and have different
I get at Station six on Saturday, and everybody I
used to live in Lake. When I first moved here
a long time ago, I lived out there, it reminded
me of like Brunning's and the you know, the sid
Mars type places, and aren't there anymore. I was like,
(37:54):
I forgot about what the spills like to be out
here on this part of town, because I don't get
out there very much much, right, And you know, going
to Bruning's and having that cup of gumbo and some oysters,
and I just really I like that about New Orleans.
When I think, you know, outside of our world of restaurants, right,
I think about New Orleans food like r No's by
(38:15):
the Lake. Have you been there? Best bo boy in town?
Speaker 4 (38:21):
Really?
Speaker 1 (38:22):
No? I love it.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
It's called R Specials. Got hot roast, beef, ham mayonnaise
it's just a dirty.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Nobody puts it on the list, but like the best.
I just had it. I know I'm hearing it from Donald.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
But but like, just know, there's some interesting places out
by the lake front, and that was always been one
of my favorites. R No's that you know that. I
took Andrew Zimmern there and I was telling us like, no,
no tourist a here. It's really and he even stood
up and said, excuse me, is anybody here from out
(38:55):
of town? And they all looked at him and went,
just you, that's funny. I was like, I told you, man,
this red, red and white checker tablecloths, and I mean
it's like it's the real deal. I mean it's really.
I mean there's New Orleans food and then there's New
Orleans right, and to me, that was one of those places.
And you know there's two places out on Airline, Queen's
(39:16):
and Hearst's.
Speaker 4 (39:17):
You told me about that when they haven't been yet, you.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Know, I sent I told John t Edge about it,
and he put him on the in the magazine after
he went out there because he didn't believe me either,
because he's like, yeah, I heard all the time. I
was like, trust me, man, go out there. It's it's
these these little places that people don't talk about. And
I'm I don't know the name of this Chinese restaurant
in the West Bank. We went to tiny place. Oh god,
(39:43):
I feel bad. I don't remember the name. But they
have ducks hanging in the window, and like, I've never
heard about this. I am excited by stuff like that.
I love finding these little these little joints and places
and that no one's ever heard of or I'm just discovering.
I mean I think that's cool. Yeah, I love that.
I mean obviously, I mean, you know, your restaurant's my restaurants,
(40:06):
let clancies. I mean there's all these like classic, wonderful places.
I mean that took my daughter every year to Commanders
for her birthday. So every place has like a thing. Yes,
and like I go here because this, and I go
here because when I want this, and you know, not right,
my my love affair right now is that Yakuza house
and Metie just love sushi. And it's like finally, oh
(40:30):
my god, have you been out there?
Speaker 4 (40:32):
It's on my list Donald the list gets longer each yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Swear, you know, and it takes a lot. Do you
think this is far?
Speaker 2 (40:41):
I mean, yeah, it's passport.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Yeah, is that going to a different states.
Speaker 3 (40:49):
I figured out a way to get there down the
road up through Causeway. It's a little better, but it
takes twenty minutes just to get through that intersection of
Causeway and Vets.
Speaker 4 (40:59):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:02):
I mean Louvi is another one.
Speaker 1 (41:05):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
There's just so many like little gems all over the city.
There's never like one place that you know. I mean
I probably do get in a rut a lot with
one place in particular. I mean it happens, but you know,
I also like to stay at home sometimes.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
Man.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
I have to eat a lot in the restaurants because
I have to taste it. I think it's the radio
show grabbing my stomach, right.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
I was playing tennis with a guy the other day
and he's like, what are you doing in LA And
I'm like, well, got these media visits and I got
these rest like seven restaurants to eat at. And he goes, oh,
I wonder you can't lose. We take it easy, man.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
It does an advantage of being in the industry.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
Right, an advantage. Yeah, disadvantage is on you look at it.
I mean, at some point, I've got to change that too.
Speaker 2 (41:56):
You know.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
That's the hard part Also is how do you how
do you change your eating habits and.
Speaker 4 (42:01):
You do it for a living, It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
I quit smoking. That was a big one.
Speaker 4 (42:10):
Good, that's great.
Speaker 3 (42:11):
I feel so much better. Larry, I hear you.
Speaker 4 (42:15):
We're gonna get that book for you. We're gonna get
that book for you.
Speaker 3 (42:18):
It's life changing, definitely is. But I love it. I
like the future. I think it's interesting. It's different, you know,
for me. And I'm trying to fight the urge of
doing another restaurant because I think I'm good. If I do,
I want it to be something that is for someone else.
Maybe I love creating. It's a point. I love the
(42:39):
deal I did with the Four Seasons because it was
a you know, I struggled for months whether not to
do that deal or not. And oh good, you know,
I don't need more work and it's just but you know,
the reason I did it is I like the team
over there and it was fun to create something new,
and that's what I really love. At the end of
the day, I got to say, creating food, it's like
(43:00):
when I feel bad or depressed, or you know, and
the whatever, we won't call it, the funk. I got
to get in the kitchen. It really is the only
thing that makes me happy. I mean, it's not the
only thing that I mean, there's other things to make
me happy.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
I'm saying, And Cassie just dropped.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
Some that I don't mean it like that. What I mean,
it's like professionally that you know, you can go to
work every day and have meetings and talk about this
and that, and then it can get really frustrating. But
then when you it's like, Okay, I'm going to create
something new. I'm going to go to the store. I'm
just gonna get away from the work environment and it's
going to get into a kitchen and maybe if if
(43:39):
you know, I'd loved it when I would bring those
chefs over to the house and it's okay, we're going
to work on these three things and we're going to
create some new food that that makes me happy. You know,
I have a I have a place in DestinE that
you know, John Harris came a couple of times, and
you know, we'll get in the kitchen and cook together
and it's like this is great, and it's like the
old days. Man line cooks leating food and that's fun.
(44:02):
You know, that's the good part. And that's like I
want to tell everybody that's in the kitchen right now,
it's like, just enjoy it. Yes, these are the good days.
It's fun. It may seem stressful, but it's really not.
I mean, it's not brain surgery. Yeah, have fun with
that stressful. Enjoy cooking. I mean, it's a it's a
beautiful life. It's a beautiful way to make a living.
Learn as much as you can and master your craft,
(44:25):
and then you know, start thinking about terms of the
future and business and where you want to be. It's
that's what it really comes down to, I think, is
where do you want to be? Setting goals and just
moving forward and keep moving forward.
Speaker 5 (44:40):
So with that being said, where do you see because
we've been here for eight and a half years and
we've seen the car, new landscape change a lot. Where
do you see New Orleans in five years four?
Speaker 2 (44:56):
It's not gonna be that much different, you don't think,
so nine hundred year old city, you can't say.
Speaker 5 (45:02):
I know, But I'm just saying that.
Speaker 3 (45:05):
Trends come and go, right, But what's always great about
New Orleans, Right, is that feeling you get like I feel.
I got that feeling last Saturday. I hadn't had in
a while because I was in a different part of town.
But you have that sense of place, right, That's one
thing you can't lose in New Orleans. There will be
places that will be trendy, that'll come and go, and
then there's the those classics that make that remind you
(45:29):
of what city you're in, right, And it's a powerful
thing New Orleans. And I got all excited yesterday and
I read my son's assignments and one of them was
an excerpt from a book called The World That Made
New Orleans. It's by Ned Sublett, who I met and
Haiti after I read his book. But it's from Spanish
(45:49):
Silver to Congo Square, The World That Made New Orleans.
And I loved that book. And when you you know,
if you read and because I'm kind of a history
buff and I just love the history of New Orleans
and the city, but not just the history, but you
can feel that history when you're in a restaurant and
when you're eating at this place, or drinking at this place,
or walking through this neighborhood. It's been around forever, and
(46:11):
I hope that that doesn't change, and I don't think
it will. I think the one has got such a
powerful character to it that it's always going to have
that in some form. I think it'll go through this
cycle of different food and then it'll come back to
I think it'll get different for a while, and everyone's like,
I mean, I remember fifteen years ago, I was like,
(46:32):
there's nowherey to get a burger in its down right,
there's no good Mexican food. There's no good sushi. I mean,
there's no ethnic food. That was the big thing. And
then you see all that start to grow, right, and
you see more and more of it, and you know this,
five burger places open up and three five, three or
five new sushi restaurants. I will think you'll see a
return to classics at some point. I think.
Speaker 4 (46:54):
I think that's a good a good assumption.
Speaker 3 (46:58):
Yeah, you're gonna start people are gonna start missing it,
Like I miss oyster stew, I miss having a fried
oyster sandwich, and I miss a regular good old pool
boy and not this other stuff. I want this one back.
And you know, I like Guy's Boys on I haven't
had a Guy's boy in months, and I was thinking
about the other day. It's like to get those all
(47:18):
the time. But there's that memory associated with it too,
So I do think it will come back, I think,
and then we'll end up with a nice mixture of
the two. It's good to have both. But I like
the tradition too. I like to I like to know that,
you know, herb Saint is a good example that half
that menu will never change. The other half we can
(47:39):
play with, but half of that is setting stone for
those people that come back. I imagine that spaghetti or
that short rid the gumbo. Yeah, yeah, there's you got
to have that, you know. It's I mean I have
mine at certain places too. If I go there, I'm like, man, sorry,
(47:59):
I mean.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Is it's a classic for a for a reason, because
it's it's timeless, and I think that a lot of
people with newons. It is such an old city and
it has so much tradition that you're expecting that and
that can go away.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
Yeah, you need you need to have that, you know,
you've got to have some of that history, that classic.
I imagine going to San Francisco without Swans, that would
be that would be a loss. That is grilled. Every
city has one, but Neurons in particular is you don't
(48:36):
come here for the that fits in? Well, say you
don't come here for the Mexican figure. I'm not saying
there's not good Mexican food here. I'm just saying that's
that's not on your list right when you come to
New Orons And if you made a restaurant list of
(48:57):
foods you need to get, that's not probably agreed.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Do you have any dishes in your mind that stick
out that did not sell? Not saying they're not good.
I know how to handle these chefs with their kid gloves.
But Nina has one dish that we put on the menu,
the farro salad, that we just couldn't get anybody to
order it, and Nina was pulling her hair out. It
was delicious.
Speaker 3 (49:22):
Anything with salt cod doesn't sell.
Speaker 4 (49:26):
Yes, I love it. I mean, you know you've been
to celebration and we have saltfish and everything else.
Speaker 3 (49:34):
So yes, John had it on his menu that once
years ago and I ordered it goes. He came out
with me, thanks for ordering that. You and Justin DeVillier
ordered that dish and I tried it. De Maru and
all these beautiful adaptations of it at Nain.
Speaker 5 (49:52):
Well, we had the one when we had lunch the
last time with the ba Peo peppers, and that was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (50:01):
Right, they just don't sell. People don't get it.
Speaker 4 (50:03):
There it's fish.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
I don't know why that's never been anchovies. It's the
anchovy effect. You're gonna have the most beautiful, gorgeous anchovies
in the world, like we even make them, like buy
fresh anchovies and strip them and gear them.
Speaker 5 (50:20):
Still, didn't you have your anchovy fingernail at one point anail?
Speaker 3 (50:29):
Yeah, you strip it right in there and then you
grab the You gotta have enough to grab the you know,
that's fine, pull it out. You put it from the
tail and the head comes off with it and it
pulls the rib bones.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
That is the chef's manicure.
Speaker 3 (50:48):
Still, you're gonna have this. That's why you can never
get a manicure. I gotta seea leave nails. You gotta
be able to grab so they don't slip out of
your hand.
Speaker 2 (51:01):
Here's here's the chef's secrets.
Speaker 3 (51:03):
Who were looking green beans, anchovies, great food, So you
cut it outside, don't know.
Speaker 4 (51:12):
I love you. You know, there's just some people in my life.
That just make me smile and laugh, and you one
of them.
Speaker 3 (51:19):
So wow, thank you.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
This is the most I've ever spoken around him, because
I usually just like listening to him talk.
Speaker 3 (51:30):
Well, yeah, I'm having fun, fun time here. I like
talking about restaurants and food, so I mean that's all
I ever do.
Speaker 4 (51:39):
Well, normally when we have lunch, it's three hours, so.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
This is a condensed Another great thing about this city. Yeah, lunches.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
Yeah, well did they turned in Top five?
Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (51:52):
Top five things I love about the city.
Speaker 4 (51:53):
Yes, there's no judgment if you say going for lunch.
Speaker 3 (51:57):
Well, we left last year. I just for some reason
last year from Martiga, I wanted to just get away.
So we left Wednesday before Martin Gras and came. I
got so mad. My wife was like, okay, well but
next year, I don't know, we can leave that early, okay?
(52:18):
And I agree, and especially now like John has started
this thing on Friday before Martin Graus doing these crazy lunches,
and I missed it. I mean, we started with this
guy we met in Italy called Masimbo Massimo Alwis, and
he came and started kicked off our Friday Marti Graul
(52:39):
lunch and he was fantastic, and then he rode with
us on the float, which was so much fun. That's
like the best time is writing with somebody new. Yeah,
it just makes it so much more fun. I mean,
I've ridden so many times now. It's like the year
before last was not great for me. I thought that
(53:00):
it was like the first year after COVID. I guess,
I don't know. Crowd was kind of rough. Somebody hit
me with something. I don't know what they threw at me,
but it's like it felt like a baseball in the chest. Oh,
I couldn't see was right at the turn at Saint
Charles and Napoleon just so we call it the turn.
And I swear if i'd have Senior did that, it
(53:21):
jumped off. That was so mad. But I don't know.
The energy was rough that year, and it's kind of
turned me off. So I needed a break.
Speaker 4 (53:30):
That's fair. That is fair.
Speaker 3 (53:32):
And you know, I am getting older and I don't
smoke anymore, no party like.
Speaker 1 (53:36):
I used to.
Speaker 4 (53:37):
So that's up.
Speaker 3 (53:39):
Yeah, as we know, up if I can handle all
that partying anymore.
Speaker 4 (53:45):
Larry knows my start with my crosso.
Speaker 2 (53:49):
All I know is the aftermath. Yeah, the picking up
the what used to be Nina Compton. But by the
end of a end of a parade, I.
Speaker 4 (54:01):
Thought I was pacing myself perfectly.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
No and an amateur moment.
Speaker 2 (54:08):
Oh it went first year, that's fine, I was forgivable
go I actually that was I've worked that night, rolling
in front of compare the pen in Orpheus and worked,
went back changing tuxedo, walked all the way down to
your ball and she was sitting on a cooler outside
saying take me home. Now. I just walked all this
(54:29):
way into tuxedo.
Speaker 3 (54:30):
You're not alone.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
The following year, she's riding and I said, hey, Uber
is your friend. I'm not coming to get you. Saw
her roll by and I headed home. Phone rings right
as I'm getting in bed, Come pick me up, I said, Nina.
We said that just there was some like monster ruberoo
(54:52):
voice on the other end of the phone, so I
had to go pick her up again.
Speaker 4 (54:56):
It was not fun.
Speaker 3 (54:57):
Brother Marty gral Tip. Always have a plan, always exit strategy,
an extraction point.
Speaker 2 (55:07):
Oh that was the other good part. She walked all
the way back to Caesar's Harris then Yeah.
Speaker 5 (55:14):
He told me He's like, just go to a restaurant
and somebody can call a cab for you, and I'm like.
Speaker 4 (55:18):
I'm not going to the restaurant. I am not in
good shape.
Speaker 3 (55:22):
So it's so easy to get a cab in the
middle of down town. Nobody knows that. Now I have
a plan. I park where Kashan is because that's where
the float's in near there, and then there's a way
to you know, jump on the interstate with the clay
burn the head uptown. Just get out of the box.
And it sounds crazy, but you know, be sober by
(55:46):
the time you finish the run, do all your drinking early.
Speaker 4 (55:52):
Not pace yourself like I thought I was doing.
Speaker 2 (55:55):
It was the opposite of it.
Speaker 3 (55:56):
Yeah, that that last year, I wrote there was some
guy on our float the float before we took off
because he had taken too many mushrooms. And then somebody
else threw up in our bathroom bathroom, our bucket in
the hole and then passed out in it. Oh, so
we didn't have a bathroom the whole ride. Oh then
(56:18):
I got hitting the chest with a baseball.
Speaker 4 (56:20):
That will do it, That will make you stop for
a couple of years.
Speaker 3 (56:23):
I was like, yeah, I didn't even take Next year, off.
Speaker 5 (56:27):
You need a break, so Donald, thank you so much
for catching up with.
Speaker 4 (56:34):
It's been a pleasure I can never have.
Speaker 3 (56:36):
We'll do another episode called Marty Story.
Speaker 4 (56:38):
Yes you will welcome back anytime. Sorry, thank you so much. Donald.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
All right, everybody that it was so wrong. You ever
say I wear
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