April 10, 2024 • 46 mins
On episode 11 of the Between Bites podcast, Nina Compton and Larry Miller are joined by Martha Wiggins, Chief Culinary Officer and Executive Chef at Cafe Reconcile.
Chef Wiggins talks about the day-to-day operations and the foundational principles of Cafe Reconcile, emphasizing its commitment to nurturing young individuals in New Orleans through a comprehensive four-tier program. This initiative not only equips them with culinary and hospitality skills but also addresses their personal barriers, providing a holistic approach to their professional and personal development.
Having transitioned from the high-pressure environment of traditional kitchens to the socially impactful space of Cafe Reconcile, Chef Wiggins shares her journey and the fulfillment she finds in working with the youth.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Would a big All right, welcome back to another episode
of Between Bites with Nina Compton and me Larry Miller,
brought to you by our dear friends at.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Caesar's New Orleans Sports Book and Cassine.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Who are we talking to today?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We're speaking to a very very very important friend of mine,
Miss Martha Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hell, Hey, I'm good. How are you.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
We're great.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
We're happy to see you and and chit chat and
talk about life.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
Shoot, I just got off off work like ten minutes ago,
just left the cafe and uh it was another wild one.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Business is booming. It's very good. I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Man. We're talking about the Reconcile cafe.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Reconcile, of course, So tell me about how does your
day start. My day starts.
Speaker 6 (01:06):
I usually try to get there by seven at the latest.
Our day, you know, the the young people get there
at eight, or supposed to get there at eight, and
a lot of them will show up a little early.
So I am there one to get myself.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
This must be a positive side effect of covid cod.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
Usually to to circumstances outside of their control. They are
there and looking for a place to be and uh
so I try to one. It offers me an hour
of relative quiet time to gather my thoughts, check some
emails before the day starts, and and it starts right
(01:49):
then eight am is like I recommend all my staff.
I'm like, if you need to take as much time
as you need. But eight am we are on. So
the young people come, they could be at any level
of in mood or energy level, and so we have
to be like, you.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Know, hey, good morning, how's it going.
Speaker 6 (02:07):
You know, like right, so if you need to get
you know, you need a coffee, you need a minute
to get your mind together, get your mind right, get
it right, because eight am we're on.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
They are the ones that aren't going to bring the
energy we have to.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And we'll back up for some of the folks who
are listing out of town and may not be aware
of Cafe Reconcile. But could you tell us the I
mean amazing setup and program and what it's design.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Right, So it's it's there's been you know, it's been
evolving for now almost twenty five years. So that's amazing.
What it What it is now, you know, is a
four tiered program. We work with youth sixteen to twenty
four years old. That's really the only that's the only
qualification you have to fit into to be able to
(02:52):
join the program and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Through the first through the four tiers.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
You know, the first tier is really just assessing your
barriers and stabilization, which of course takes more than those
first four weeks, but that's when we want to address
major stabilization issues to see one if they can be
resolved in four weeks so then you're ready to start training.
So that could be a lot of things. So we
(03:19):
want to make sure you have your basic needs met housing, food, childcare, transportation,
medical care, mental health care, a lot of case work
and case management where we're just trying to see what
are your biggest barriers that you've experienced in whatever you've
tried to do or wanted to do. A big one
(03:39):
is often id like I don't have my birth certificate.
I don't have my Social Security card. It got lost
maybe in one of the storms, and I can't get And.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I was going to say, it's not the easiest thing
to turn around and get.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, it's difficult. It's very difficult.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
A lot of our young people have been moved around
a lot and again, you know, we had very you know,
if it was you know from Katrina and Ida and
other storms, you know, a lot of paperwork was lost,
so they could be you know, it's hard, it's you know,
I can't get this without this one. I can't get
this one, this one. And we all know you can't
(04:16):
get a job, you know, if you don't have an
I or some some form of ID to get it,
and not only a job, but to get benefits. So
whether that's you know, housing or food stamps or snap benefits,
et cetera, if you don't have ID, you can't get that.
So that's a big part of that first four week
case management and then hopefully if all things go well,
(04:40):
and if it doesn't, if they need more time, just
take more time. They'll start with the next group that
goes into Tier two, Tier two to come down and
they start training in a cafe. So they start they
have some very basic culinary workshops and service training workshops
of some foundational skills, and that's really where we you know,
we meet every intern where they are and that's also
(05:01):
where we'll get to see like, Okay, this person is
a visual learner, this person is going to need more
time here or need more one on one time. This
person has a lot of anxiety. This might be the
best way to go as we move through the tiers.
It's a way for us to get to know them
as well. So then on Mondays the building is closed,
(05:22):
uh to the not the building, the restaurant is closed.
The building is very much open and we're doing so
we'll do a lot of our classes that day. That
you know, when I first started, we were open five
days a week, and when I got there, I was like,
now we can't this is crazy. We can't do all
the things that we need to do to be the
(05:42):
well we're out of program that we are and for
these young people while we're open, you know every day
that we're in the building, right, so the Monday is
great and then you know, the end of the day
we can do whatever. Admin we have a lot of
data to enter. As cooks and dishwashers, you still have
to enter data every time you interact with a young person.
(06:04):
So there's a lot more to it that you know.
Then we're all used to. Then you know, they continue on.
So they work two weeks in the front of the
house and two weeks in the back.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Of the house, and then they all want to go
back to the front of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Don't listen, that's the front of the.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
House joke with two chefs here.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I know, right, I mean it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And now that's what I was gonna ask. Do you
try and identify and say that person has the look
of someone who's going to be a who can cook
really well, or that person probably should be working the
front door and far away from the kitchen as possible.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean everyone, because that's not the primary goal
is the well being of these young people, right, but
we also got to on the back get them trained
up to.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Hopefully thrive in whichever part of the restaurant they wanted
to be at.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
Yeah, I mean, there's all like everyone, and the thing
is to more and more often a lot of the
young people that we work with are like, I don't
want to work in a restaurant. Like it was cool
when I was coming up, it's not rightmore so.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, we yeah, we do.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
But they're like, yeah, I want to do that. That's
sounds really hard. And I hear you don't make a
lot of money, and like why would you do this?
And I'm like I you know, you're not wrong, but
so but there's there's always you know, a young person
who and I'm sure you had this experience where you're
like I put a knife in their hand and I'm like,
let's do this, and they're like okay, and they kind
(07:37):
of like they can follow instructions, you do this and
do that.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And then there's some.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
People who are like this is never not yeah yeah,
and in the front of house too, you know, like
vice versa, whereas that would be that was a place
where it was never going to happen for me, and
so again they may not know it yet, but I'm like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
This person's very capable here.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
So I try to really encourage them to you know,
it's I don't want to influence them.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They can do whatever they want. A lot of them though, they.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Do need a job, they need income, and they get
a stipe in to be at Reconcile, but it's not work,
it's not employment, it's training. So but I do see,
you know, so we encourage both in the front. You know,
I have an amazing counter part in the front of
the house, Brandy Tapage, my general manager, our general manager
(08:28):
who also who worked with Link Group for forever and
is extraordinary and black excellence every way, Uh, you know,
to identify and those those the people that have that thing.
I'm like, they have that thing, you know, like have
you have you considered doing this before? And a lot
(08:49):
of them have never, and they're like, I love this,
this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
The process in that first four weeks, did they decide
that the restaurant will not be for them.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
If they want to you on, yeah, so and a
lot of them it's never that, you know, we do.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
You do have to do your two weeks.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
In the front, your two weeks in the back, unless
there is some exceptionality that I'm like, this really isn't
gonna work.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That is not good for you to continue doing this.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Outside of that, they'll do that.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
And then when they are done with those four weeks,
we start to talk about, you know, which one of
these was one more appealing to you the other. Some
people it's a strong I can't wait to get back
to the kitchen. I can't wait to get the hell
out of this kid. And then others are like, you know,
they're gonna they're really gonna be pursuing maybe they.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Education.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
It could be a lot of our young people may
need to still get their high school equivalency, or they
want to go to college, or they want to do
these things, so that's also a track they could do.
So Tier three they start working in career prep, so
resumes mock interviews, starting to be able to articulate the
(10:03):
things that you learned onto paper and to someone you
might meet who might ask ask you these questions, which
is a huge difference than doing it right.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And that's something that I've learned a lot about working
with young people is like I've.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Trained them they do I know, he knows how to
do that, and he gets up there and it's in
the mock interview and it's like, I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't know how to do that
because I didn't learn how to articulate that, and I'm
still not confident enough.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I have this.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Imposter syndrome and I don't want to tell you that
I do know how to do that or I don't
know what it's called. And then I've done them a
disservice and I'm like, so it but it does take.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It takes repetition.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
You know, you don't learn, you can't learn at all
or much really in four weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, I think also because I have been part of
the mock interviews, and you know, you're doing this round
table of them. It's hopping around to the different restaurants
and and speaking with people. But I mean, I think
back to when I was that age. I was never
taught how to interview for a job. I was just
(11:10):
went and sold myself. So I think this is a
great stepping stone for a lot of people that they're
able to be coached.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
And counsel and like what do they need to work
and then.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Get to get the feedback because it's an interview that
you're going in there to tell them why they should hire.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
And one of the things I did like that day
I spent at the restaurant was the Wood of the
Day that I thought was pretty powerful.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
And if you want to tell us a little bit
of that, sure.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
So Word of the Day is something that they've been
doing at Reconcile for since its birth, right Yeah, And
it previously was very.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Focused around scripture.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
Recantile was founded by a Catholic priest, father Harry, and
so you know that that was a large part of
it and still is in in that memory of like this.
You know, we know that this is where Reconcile was
founded by this Catholic priest. But however we've moved a
(12:11):
lot away from scripture. It's you know, to be way
more inclusive and also to build trust, you know, with
our young people.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
So we still as opposed to scripture.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
We'll talk about a word, a phrase, could be accountability,
and it really just that the whole spirit of doing
the Word of the Day was to talk about a
principle or a value or an idea uh or a
saying and talk about what it means to you. And
really it's just many everything we do at Reconcile is
(12:48):
like it's a tool for with another goal, you know,
and the goal is some public speaking, some critical thought.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And also in that Word the day.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
So we all make breakfast together every day, and we
all eat breakfast together.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
While we do Word of they so there's a meal
part of that.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
And the interns make breakfast with my team. So then
staff from the whole building, whether you're in whatever, you know,
it's not just the cafe team, it's everybody can come
down and eat breakfast with the interns and engage and
engage and be in community with them.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
And get to know them.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
This is the first time for a lot of them
they're going to get to meet us. If they've just
started day one, they're doing word of the day, so
it's a it's an icebreaker in.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
A lot of ways.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
But as they move through the tiers from tier one
to tier three, now they're leading word of the day.
Now they're raising their hand. They can't put their hand down,
as opposed to being like.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Can I get someone from the sides of stuff, remember
to give me a you know, an answer to this,
you know.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
And it's really it's a really it's a daily uh
display of their growth or what else may be going
on with them, you know. And also it's time for Okay,
this one seems a little down, you know, let's check in,
let's talk to their caseworker.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Do they need a minute? You know, it's it is.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
It's a great start to the day of focus and
some intention and just being in community with each other.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And it's just I think when you have a group setting,
it hopefully builds that confidence, yeah, to speak publicly, because
most people they don't feel comfortable on day one or
day two because they in front of strangers. But the
more comfortable you feel, the more that you feel open
to open up.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
And yeah, I think the cool thing about word of
the day is that they start I think in general,
they walk into a place where there's other young people
their age, so their wall goes up, their defense goes up, right, yea,
I'm gonna get you before you get me up and
look stupid me, look stupid right, embarrass me, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But then they're like, oh, this is a safe space.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
There are community norms and boundaries, and we can't talk
to each other in certain any a way, and we're
going to respect each other. And then that kind of
melts and they get to be you know, weird little
adolescents nerves or you know, whatever they want to be
or whatever they are, whatever, you know, and it's that
is so cool to see them put that wall down
(15:18):
and then start making friends. But they're you know, the
and just because they are comfortable, they're not you know,
while everything else in their life may be vulnerable, they
you know, we try to make it, as you know,
a safe space and a comfortable space and a nurturing
space that like I said, everything we do is really
(15:41):
the restaurant is a tool. The restaurant is you know,
it's it's it's where, it's training, but it's also simulation
for you to learn all to sorry to practice all
the the life skills.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
We hope you're learning out of this. That you're getting
out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's a tremendous It's not workload, but that's a tremendous
addition to your daily duties of producing food and getting
it out to people who were eating.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
How do you take the job of a chef and
then add this much to it.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So you were at Sylvain, yes.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
As the executive chef chef cuisine, and you decided to
take some time off or you knew that you were
going to reconcile.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
No, I took about three years, maybe more. I can't
even remember now. I worked at other places I worked.
I worked with Alex Harrel a couple of times at Angeline,
I had a brief stent at Cannon Table shout out Chefredo.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Both solid dudes, Yes, and then.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Alex Harrold again at a Lesion bar with the bachan
Off crew Joaquin and Adrian and them, but again not
in a position when I took the role at Alesian Bar.
I was intentionally not in a position of leadership, which
was which was cute for me, but at the same time, like,
if I can't influence things around me, I can't shut
(17:11):
my mouth and I have to be able to affect change.
So that was, you know, it was wonderful, and it
was also wonderful to be just have the break of
not being ultimately responsible for everything for a little while
I very much needed after doing that, it's ivan, you know,
for almost eight years, and then during the pandemic, that's
(17:32):
when someone reached out to me about the job.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I reckon so.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
But yeah, so then when I started the job, it's
still it wasn't is the hardest thing I've ever done
and ever had to do, and was it was really
scary at first because it was the first time I
was like, you know, I've had a lot of success
only in the fact that one the support I've had
(18:00):
in my life and privileges I've had in my life.
But I would work really hard and do Like I'm like,
if I work really hard and I come in early
and I stay late and I do this, I can
do it. And then I got there and I was
like I might get fired.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Because this is a lot.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
And the other thing was in you know, a lot
of respect to the people that were there before me
in the restaurant was but my the people that were
reviewing my success or failure had never worked in a
restaurant before.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So that was terribly interesting because I was like, y'all
don't know if you're.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Talking about it.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
So that was very That was odd, you know, because
I was like, there's so much more.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
To this than.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Now. And you psyched you up when you psyched yourself
up too, All right, next week, I'm gonna do this.
Did you psyche yourself up enough? Or was it like,
oh man, this is even bigger.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah. I mean I didn't back down. I just kept putting.
But I was I was worried because.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
I was I was like, do they know how like
how much there is involved in this, not just not
just the restaurant part, like one, like, yes, we got
to regroup as a restaurant as far as our culinary practices,
our identity, all these things, our processes are our standards.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We got to do all of that.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
But then there's this whole other thing that we're doing
at once. And then add in that that's the main
thing that we're doing is working with young people and
the most important thing we're doing. So that first year
was was was hard. Were extremely It was the hardest
thing to date that I've ever done in my life,
the whole year, and and a lot of it, Like
(19:53):
I said, because I was working with people in a
community of people who had worked in nonprofits their whole lives.
I was like, I'm used to being around restaurant people.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Right, because people don't I think a lot of people
think it's just cooking the food and serving it. There's
a lot of aspects and you know that people just don't.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Think about, you know, and it's.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Restaurants are very complex, yes, and it's a it's a moving, living,
breathing organism, and it's it's like a basketball team. It's
all the players. It's not just one person. And you know,
if you're down one player, everybody feels it. And it's
a it's a huge team sport. And when people don't
understand that, it's it makes the process much harder.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Right, I mean, managing adults is terrible. It's it's the
hardest part about my job. I mean, the young people
are you know, I'm like y'all are supposed to be
in a bad mood and right have an attitude and
not be able to manage your emotions like you're learning that, but.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
You know it's it's all so that.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
And then managing your team, like you know, managing a
team is so difficult and to do well and with
you know, with care and.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And to make because I'm I do still.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
While I love working with young people and they are
the most important part about my job, I'm also I
love my team and I want them to have a
great quality of life and I want them to be
happy and fulfilled. And but in this role and in
this position, I really have to ask of my team
to check it at the door, right, because we have
(21:38):
such a huge responsibility to these young people.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Sure that I.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Can't manage your emotions, you have to have learned how
to do that or be practicing that somewhere else, not here,
and not with these young people. We could be the
first adult in these young people's lives that they encounter
that doesn't do wrong by them or doesn't.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Let them down.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
And that is a huge privilege and an honor to me,
and I take it very seriously, and I need the
same of my staff, but they also need a lot
of support to be able to do that, and I
truly believe they get that just at Reconcile, largely in
how we are structured and the support that's just built
into how we do.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I love that. That's so well said. So how many
people come through the program, like for the for the year,
let's say.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
I'm really bad at the numbers, part one hundred and
twenty a year is uh, I guess the well was
last year. And uh, you know, we're kind, we're we're
always enrolling.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So there's you know, a new tier one every every month. Okay,
I'm looking at me. I'm on, I'm speaking into a microphone.
I don't I don't know any numbers.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Yeah, so there's always like so, you know, at any
given time, my staff, my team could be working with
and my team, I mean the cafe team with at
least one intern by their side while they're going through service,
while they're working saute or girl or whatever, or washing dishes.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They're going to have one person hopefully assigned to them
per day and in the front of the house as well.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
So we have somebody that came through your program.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Alissa who's still still with us, and she's doing so well.
She she she did our internship as a food runner
m h. And it was a couple of weeks ago
somebody was running late or something and she's like on
pastry plate in the dessert and shooing the ice cream
and she is just not unless she got promoted as well. Yes,
(24:02):
so she Yeah, she's she's on the floor, but she
is so driven, a bundle of joy, you know, and
just she just hard.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Working, brings in other great people work.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
That's good. So we we're blessed to have her.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
So thank you for Yeah, I wish I could take
any crisis blue, But you know, she's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
She always was.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
I just needed the support that we gave her to
be you know who you know who she already was,
which was very competent and smart and capable boss lady.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yes, yes, she's one to watch.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So. Yeah, So you grew up in d C, DC area, Yes,
DC proper.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And did you come from DC straight to New Orleans?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
No.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
I had a brief hiatus in Massachusetts, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Moved there with my mom and uh after I dropped
out of high school and it was just working and
she moved back to New England, which is where she
is from originally, and there was so I went to
(25:12):
New Bedford and.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I lived in about four years, but I did go.
I went to a.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Community college in culinary school there, okay, and then moved
to New Orleans in twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Wow, but DC, you didn't have the haughtiness that they
have about their chest peak crabs. Oh you did, and
you you got rid of it when you tasted the good.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Yeah, that is a big debate to talk about. What
are your thoughts on crab boils?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Oh Jesus, I don't even know if I want to
speak on this. I love them both. I just went to.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
I mean, I have very fond memories of beast trips
and on the way stopping and getting you know crabs
where they were steamed and the season was on top
and they were delicious, and I love them.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
That's you know, that style. But again that wasn't like
all the time, like I didn't grow up and eating
a lot of crab crab money. So I love them both.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
Like I said, that was like a special occasion and
it was like on the way to the beach or
to the outer banks. Uh, those are my crab memories
and then you know. But recently, for my birthday, I
went to Port Soul for Louisiana and stayed at a
fishing camp on the Bayou and it was amazing and
(26:35):
he boiled crabs, the first crabs of the season, and
it was some of the best crab I've ever had
in my life.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And he also showed me a different way to break
and eat crab that was different than the way that
I had learned. And I was like, wow, what did
you do differently? I have to show you play good? Yeah,
because he was like, do you know how to eat crab?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I said yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
And then I was like, well, I don't eat it.
But I was like, oh, this works too. They both
they're both wonderful and and I'll just leave it at that.
But again, very diplomatic. Get a lot of crab. When
I was coming up, it was it was so what
what was it?
Speaker 5 (27:13):
What as a child? What was some of the your
fond food memories.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
I was always fond of food. All my memories of
food were fond. For the most part. I was a
good eater. It's the lamb uh and uh, my my dad.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Loved to cook.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
My mom also loved to come. My dad is a
very passionate, a very uh romantic cook. You know, he's
into the beauty of everything, and he's very sentimental about things,
and he traveled all over the world. He's a musician,
so he traveled all over the world and he would often,
more often than not, every time he went to another country,
(27:58):
he would bring back an instrument and a cooking vessel.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Oh wow.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
So we would eat that way for until he went
to the next thing, and we would listen to that
music until he went to the next thing, and we
would hear about that history until you went to the
next place.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So that's very fond. Uh.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
My parents had pretty epic New Year's parties as a
child that you know, we grew I grew up in
Adams Wore and d C. And it was just you
know where they would invite their friends who are all musicians,
and they would come and bring their instruments and we
would just be passed around and they would make tons
of food and people would bring food and the party would.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Go all night up until the next day.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
And oh wow, I still see people old you know,
my parents older older friends from back in the day,
and they're like, man, your parents had some wild New
Year's parties, And I was like, oh, that really was
I didn't realize the time, and it was kind of
pretty pretty epic and wonderful.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Do you play an instrument?
Speaker 6 (29:03):
I played guitar for a while and I still play it,
you know, when I'm feeling some type of way and
I need to get my emotions out and I'm by myself.
I sing a lot, but uh, never never to the
degree that I wanted to be good at every instrument.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But I do own a guitar that I play sometimes now.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Good therapy, right, yes, good therapy.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
And then my other you know, fondest child food memories
are just my mom made dinner for us every night
when she got off work, for me and my sister,
and whether we ate it in front of the TV
and talked to each other, it didn't. She made a
square meal every night and made sure we had a
vegetable and we didn't spend a lot of money on
other things. We didn't have a lot of money for
those things. But they they, they they thought that was
(29:56):
important and I appreciate that, and I know it was
a huge privileged to have and really has shaped my
relationship with food and my love for food and my
desire to share that exposure that I got from a
young age with other people who would.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Have, you know, not had it. There's no other reason
why you would.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
What was your favorite dish of moms and one that
you're just kind of glad that you have the knowledge
and you don't have to eat that anymore.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
My favorite dish of my mother's. I really loved her
cast roles. I really, I mean I was not a
piggy eater as long as like there was a time
where she went through a little vegetarian phase when I.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Was, and it was still really good. But I was
kind of like, where's the right?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
But I really was me and my sister both even
though she was she was maybe a little slightly picky, but.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
We were never given the option. I was just like,
what wadding is dinner?
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Is for dinner?
Speaker 6 (31:03):
I'm just happy to be eating now, and thank you
I've been waiting.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yes, I think that's very special because I think we
take that for granted, sitting now and having a meal
with a sibling or family member. I think it's for
me growing up, that was a big thing, like we
don't have dinner, but we have a big lunch. Yeah,
So that was a big thing where we all came together,
and the mornings were my grandmother was in the kitchen,
(31:30):
my mom was in the kitchen, my dad was. Everybody
woke up early, and the kitchen was and still is
the most active part of the house. So I think
when you have that coming together, it just it brings
you back.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Yeah, that's that sounds really nice. I'd love to have
a nice, big lunch every day. Well, it's very different.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yes, it's a different way because you're i mean just
being the regular American way of growing up. When I'd
go down there, I'm like, all right, it's getting laid afternoon,
let's get ready for dinner then, and you're like, no,
it's just everything we had for lunch but didn't finish. Yeah,
but it is an interesting way to just look at it.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Yeah, lunches, lunch is the big meal.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
And then.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It's funny because we just you know, eat it and
we leave it in the oven and then if you're
feeling packaged, you'd make a small.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Plate and come back.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, and then that's it. There's no like creating another meal. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
I like that, And yeah, it's there was zero waste casserole.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Actually, you said the word casserole, and I haven't had
a good one in a while.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
What's your favorite casserole?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Mom made a broccoli castle. But again that's one of
those mom dishes where you don't have the Campbell soup
can or not the cambele the store label soup can
and threw it in there with She would put rich
crackers in the blender to make bread crumbs. That was
a cuisine right there. Oh yeah, for us, for the
Miller household.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
That was also I think cast role is like one
of my earlier cooking memories is making cast role with
my mom. My mom found she was a big she
loved cookbooks, and so she'd go to a library and
she'd be there with the cookbook at the copy machine
and be making copies. And our cookbooks were folders of xeroxta,
you know, recipes out of library books, and she found
(33:22):
one for some it was like a chicken tortilla castrole,
and she still to this day is like it was
the grossest thing in the world, but you loved.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It because it has potential.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
It was it was because it involved the opening of
like ten different cans things and jumping them in layers
and she's like, you know, She's like, you just loved it.
And I never realized how gross it was until I
was like in my twenties and I had my mom
found it and she was like, oh, remember this, And
(33:54):
I was like, God to meet that. And my boyfriend
at the time was there for dinner and he was like,
this is discussing and I was like, it is this
is the Yeah. No, but like creama mushroom, there was beans,
there was olives, it was everything. Good. God, it was bad.
(34:16):
And I was like, yeah, you're right. It still I
kind of want to do it. I'm like, it's got
to be a good way. But it was like it
really it's It was gross, but it was very comforting.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Yeah, you got to revamp it for.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
For for human incomes.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Yeah, then you surprise your mom.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Mom, I reinvent she probably never want to eat that again.
I'll do it for me.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Yeah, So what's next for you? But twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6 (34:48):
I mean more of the same, And it's never the
same at Reconcile. Every year i'm there, I understand what
I'm doing better, I understand the impact we have deeper
I learn on ways to make our impact be deeper
(35:11):
and more effective, and I love it more every year.
And when I started working at Reconcile, what I knew
I wanted to be some I wanted to be more
involved in the community, and I wanted to work with
young people.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Whatever.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I was like, I can do that, I can train
and work with young people before, but I didn't know
that I was going to love working with young people.
I thought I would be able to tolerate it enough
to try to get whatever I could across to them, right,
But I absolutely love coming in every day and getting
(35:47):
to work with young people. It's like I can't wait.
I can't wait to see them. I miss some when
they're not they're like you know. And that's not to
say that I'm not happy to get a break. Sometimes
we all have to take care of ourselves, especially because
there's a large kind of social work component of this
right that is exhausting in a way that I've never
been exhausted before.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
But I love it.
Speaker 6 (36:11):
I'm you know, I'm just getting started. I feel like
it must work.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I mean, that's that's amazing great.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I had to actually tell somebody how many years I
had worked in restaurants yesterday and it got scary when
you think about all those years. But it also I
love just discovering something new or being able to look back.
And this was my next question. I was going to
ask you, how often do you patch yourself on the
back and just say, God, Lee, look what I've done,
and not even just this job, just saying people that. Yeah,
(36:40):
but you need to and especially in something that it
sounds is mentally like just filling up your head other
than could you imagine if you were doing what she
just said and trying to get the menu ready for tonight?
That's amazing. Yeah, but you need to be able to
recognize that in yourself, that you've done something pretty remarkable
(37:01):
and that you've grown through the whole process.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah. I'm bad at taking compliment. That was a really
good one, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It's important too, it's part of your own self care.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
To say absolutely, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Hard on myself, but look where I've gotten.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
I think it gets easier to pat myself on the
back when I can do it collectively. I love the
people that I work with, and we really are a team.
I have, you know, I work with three other women
in executive leadership that I love and respect, and we
really get each other and we know we stay in
our lane. You know, we all have very different talents
(37:39):
and we let each other do those things.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
And inform each other.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
And when you know, like we just don't step on toes,
it doesn't come up right because we're all capable and
competent and we handle our business so I don't need
I don't never like lacking from one of them to
do something that they're supposed to do, and vice versus.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
So that works really well. So collectively with.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
That team, also with the rest of the team, the
social services team, my cafe team, the employment team, the
AMIN team, everyone, like, I really do I I it's
easy to clap us up. It's easier to clap us up,
like as a group because we really like we help
each other. It really is. It's wonderful and it is
amazing what we're doing. Yeah, and it takes a step back.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
To realize what we're doing sometimes.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
But you know, we have we have a five story building.
It's not just the cafe, and we're on every floor
of the building, which a lot of people don't realize.
You can go to any floor of the building, and
there is something. There's young people working in some capacity
with some professional on something to better themselves at any
given time in the building. And but our social services team,
(38:47):
like we have licensed uh social workers that are there
every day. They're my co workers now, you know, and
they work at the host stand or in the expo window.
Miss Kaylin right here works in the she's the best expo.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
I might need you on Saturday and.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Especially on the fifth floor, you know, because the other
part of it is the more we need, you know,
a young person, especially when the especially in the summer
where our attendance grows quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
And we need.
Speaker 6 (39:21):
More hands and eyes around because and then also we've
gotten like since you know, we got written up in
the New York Times twice and business is has skyrocketed
and that's amazing and I'm so excited. But now it's
another layer. It's a higher volume for the intern to
deal with, who has never done this before and it's
(39:44):
just starting to deal with, you know it could you know,
they could be a star, you know, that's like going
for it, like that's and they came in well equipped
to handle that, but most did not at all. So
if they're if they're going to you know, if the
may may have a meltdown, a panic attack of you know,
(40:04):
whatever it may be. We need to be able to
make sure that they are safe and comfortable, that we
can anticipate that that we're paying attention, and the more
hands on deck the better to make sure that being
like this person is getting a little overwhelmed, maybe over stimulated.
They had a bad interaction with the guests, they burned themselves,
they're freaking out, you know, Like there's a lot of
(40:26):
room for error. But it because where everyone is paying
attention and everyone is engaged that way, it works out
somehow every day after day. But it really is a team,
team effort across the board.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
So how many covers are you guys doing now?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
I don't even know. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:49):
Well, the other thing about it is we do so
much takeout that I look more at dishes sold in
the final numbers because we sometimes when I started, I
was doing fifty percent of my sales would take out.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Now it's still there, but our in diamond has increased, increased, increased, increased.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
But we do so much takeout to the point where
at some point every day I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Everyone, I have to turn.
Speaker 6 (41:16):
It off type like we are at capacity in every
form and every you know, every stretch of that word. Yes,
and uh we only we're only open from eleven to
two thirty.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
So that's a week.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Yeah, that's a crunch.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
So when people are trying to get it in and
every almost like it's most of our guests get food
to go at the table every day. What is the
number one selling dish, fried catfish, which is probably the
number one selling dish.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We are a fried fish restaurant and it is lunt season,
so you know, yes, it's popping.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Yes, Holy Thursday was little quiet today, But I'm not mad.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Every now and then.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
Yeah, sometimes it was like you know, when we needed it,
but I was ready. But yeah, fried catfish is is
our best seller. Okay, but you know our fried chicken
is creeping up there. Yeah, especially since we finally, like
I think like a year ago, we nailed our our recipe.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
And so it's creeping up there. People are finding out
about it, and I'm excited, all right.
Speaker 5 (42:27):
Good to know, good to know.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
So how can people enroll into the program?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
They can, I mean, they can really show up. And
I shouldn't say this anytime, but it happens all the
time because somebody somewhere said, hey, go to reconcile, and
they just did. They show up in the middle of service,
and we're going to figure out where you need to go.
Best case scenario, you come to open house, which we
do once a month, sometimes twice a month, and uh
(42:59):
where you can really get the full spiel. Meet people,
meet alumni, meet all the staff, have some food, bring
your parents, whomever you want. But you if you show
up or end up at Reconcile, we're going to figure
out how we that day, we're going to make an
(43:20):
appointment for you to come for an interview. Right so,
you know, all day there's young people wandering in or
somebody wandering in while you're like, hey, hi, how many
and they're like, actually I just you know, got out
of wherever and they told me to come over here.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Okay, hold on, have a seat.
Speaker 6 (43:36):
We're going to message our little group message, hey, is
anyone available to do an intakeer to talk to this
person and make an appointment. We're going to figure it
out that day. We might to get you the whole thing,
but you know, the whole shebang, but we're going to
figure out NSS. What are your needs and maybe if
your needs are beyond what our capacity is, connect to
(43:56):
you same day with a like you know, whatever organization
that's in our community that you need to Yeah, we
won't turn you away.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
And is there a way for the public to help
support the program coming? Or is it fully funded? So
eating is the.
Speaker 6 (44:13):
All of your money goes to the program? You know,
there's no tip line, it's a donation line. So all
all coming to eat. If the program you get to eat,
all that money goes right to to everything, get to stipends,
bus passes, daycare, whatever it is, It all goes right
(44:34):
back into that. Caitlin might have more things to say
about around that.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But if you've got a big check, just going with
your check.
Speaker 6 (44:43):
You can give it to pretty much anyone.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
And then but yeah, come to eat at the cafe. Uh,
that's the best way to do it.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
And get the catfish or the chicken.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
The chicken for the chicken.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
What is the wood of the data? Take us out
with the wood.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Of the day. What was the word of the day today?
I don't remember.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
I'll give us one.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Let's see the word of the day. What was this
is hard on the spot?
Speaker 6 (45:19):
Hope, hope that I'm going to say that I'm feeling
I'm feeling hopeful.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
I could give you several.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
I'm feeling hopeful that we survived the shift tonight.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Yeah, I hope that for you.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
And my other word, I'm excited.
Speaker 6 (45:38):
I'm excited about twenty twenty four. It's gonna be awesome
and I can't can't.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
You You are glowing as you say that, and yeah,
thank you so much for all you do.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
And it's you are you are giving me life?
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Are really inspiration. Yeah, I'm serious and you're fun to
be And that was Nina who cust earlier.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
She'll be happy that I only did it five times the.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Well, thank you very much for being with us. Everybody,
go see chef Mark the Wiggins and her band of
very fun people at Cafe Reconcile. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
I appreciate y'all have a great service. Thank you y'all. Wait, yeah,
thank Wait, everybody
Would a big All right, welcome back to another episode
of Between Bites with Nina Compton and me Larry Miller,
brought to you by our dear friends at.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Caesar's New Orleans Sports Book and Cassine.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Who are we talking to today?
Speaker 4 (00:29):
We're speaking to a very very very important friend of mine,
Miss Martha Higgins.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
Hell, Hey, I'm good. How are you.
Speaker 5 (00:38):
We're great.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
We're happy to see you and and chit chat and
talk about life.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (00:46):
Shoot, I just got off off work like ten minutes ago,
just left the cafe and uh it was another wild one.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Business is booming. It's very good. I'm very excited.
Speaker 5 (00:58):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Man. We're talking about the Reconcile cafe.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Reconcile, of course, So tell me about how does your
day start. My day starts.
Speaker 6 (01:06):
I usually try to get there by seven at the latest.
Our day, you know, the the young people get there
at eight, or supposed to get there at eight, and
a lot of them will show up a little early.
So I am there one to get myself.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
This must be a positive side effect of covid cod.
Speaker 6 (01:25):
Usually to to circumstances outside of their control. They are
there and looking for a place to be and uh
so I try to one. It offers me an hour
of relative quiet time to gather my thoughts, check some
emails before the day starts, and and it starts right
(01:49):
then eight am is like I recommend all my staff.
I'm like, if you need to take as much time
as you need. But eight am we are on. So
the young people come, they could be at any level
of in mood or energy level, and so we have
to be like, you.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Know, hey, good morning, how's it going.
Speaker 6 (02:07):
You know, like right, so if you need to get
you know, you need a coffee, you need a minute
to get your mind together, get your mind right, get
it right, because eight am we're on.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
They are the ones that aren't going to bring the
energy we have to.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
And we'll back up for some of the folks who
are listing out of town and may not be aware
of Cafe Reconcile. But could you tell us the I
mean amazing setup and program and what it's design.
Speaker 6 (02:30):
Right, So it's it's there's been you know, it's been
evolving for now almost twenty five years. So that's amazing.
What it What it is now, you know, is a
four tiered program. We work with youth sixteen to twenty
four years old. That's really the only that's the only
qualification you have to fit into to be able to
(02:52):
join the program and.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Through the first through the four tiers.
Speaker 6 (02:57):
You know, the first tier is really just assessing your
barriers and stabilization, which of course takes more than those
first four weeks, but that's when we want to address
major stabilization issues to see one if they can be
resolved in four weeks so then you're ready to start training.
So that could be a lot of things. So we
(03:19):
want to make sure you have your basic needs met housing, food, childcare, transportation,
medical care, mental health care, a lot of case work
and case management where we're just trying to see what
are your biggest barriers that you've experienced in whatever you've
tried to do or wanted to do. A big one
(03:39):
is often id like I don't have my birth certificate.
I don't have my Social Security card. It got lost
maybe in one of the storms, and I can't get And.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
I was going to say, it's not the easiest thing
to turn around and get.
Speaker 3 (03:53):
No, it's difficult. It's very difficult.
Speaker 6 (03:56):
A lot of our young people have been moved around
a lot and again, you know, we had very you know,
if it was you know from Katrina and Ida and
other storms, you know, a lot of paperwork was lost,
so they could be you know, it's hard, it's you know,
I can't get this without this one. I can't get
this one, this one. And we all know you can't
(04:16):
get a job, you know, if you don't have an
I or some some form of ID to get it,
and not only a job, but to get benefits. So
whether that's you know, housing or food stamps or snap benefits,
et cetera, if you don't have ID, you can't get that.
So that's a big part of that first four week
case management and then hopefully if all things go well,
(04:40):
and if it doesn't, if they need more time, just
take more time. They'll start with the next group that
goes into Tier two, Tier two to come down and
they start training in a cafe. So they start they
have some very basic culinary workshops and service training workshops
of some foundational skills, and that's really where we you know,
we meet every intern where they are and that's also
(05:01):
where we'll get to see like, Okay, this person is
a visual learner, this person is going to need more
time here or need more one on one time. This
person has a lot of anxiety. This might be the
best way to go as we move through the tiers.
It's a way for us to get to know them
as well. So then on Mondays the building is closed,
(05:22):
uh to the not the building, the restaurant is closed.
The building is very much open and we're doing so
we'll do a lot of our classes that day. That
you know, when I first started, we were open five
days a week, and when I got there, I was like,
now we can't this is crazy. We can't do all
the things that we need to do to be the
(05:42):
well we're out of program that we are and for
these young people while we're open, you know every day
that we're in the building, right, so the Monday is
great and then you know, the end of the day
we can do whatever. Admin we have a lot of
data to enter. As cooks and dishwashers, you still have
to enter data every time you interact with a young person.
(06:04):
So there's a lot more to it that you know.
Then we're all used to. Then you know, they continue on.
So they work two weeks in the front of the
house and two weeks in the back.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Of the house, and then they all want to go
back to the front of the house.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Don't listen, that's the front of the.
Speaker 2 (06:20):
House joke with two chefs here.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
I know, right, I mean it's fifty to fifty.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And now that's what I was gonna ask. Do you
try and identify and say that person has the look
of someone who's going to be a who can cook
really well, or that person probably should be working the
front door and far away from the kitchen as possible.
Speaker 7 (06:40):
Yeah, I mean everyone, because that's not the primary goal
is the well being of these young people, right, but
we also got to on the back get them trained
up to.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Hopefully thrive in whichever part of the restaurant they wanted
to be at.
Speaker 6 (06:57):
Yeah, I mean, there's all like everyone, and the thing
is to more and more often a lot of the
young people that we work with are like, I don't
want to work in a restaurant. Like it was cool
when I was coming up, it's not rightmore so.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, we yeah, we do.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
But they're like, yeah, I want to do that. That's
sounds really hard. And I hear you don't make a
lot of money, and like why would you do this?
And I'm like I you know, you're not wrong, but
so but there's there's always you know, a young person
who and I'm sure you had this experience where you're
like I put a knife in their hand and I'm like,
let's do this, and they're like okay, and they kind
(07:37):
of like they can follow instructions, you do this and
do that.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
And then there's some.
Speaker 6 (07:41):
People who are like this is never not yeah yeah,
and in the front of house too, you know, like
vice versa, whereas that would be that was a place
where it was never going to happen for me, and
so again they may not know it yet, but I'm like.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
This person's very capable here.
Speaker 6 (07:58):
So I try to really encourage them to you know,
it's I don't want to influence them.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
They can do whatever they want. A lot of them though, they.
Speaker 6 (08:06):
Do need a job, they need income, and they get
a stipe in to be at Reconcile, but it's not work,
it's not employment, it's training. So but I do see,
you know, so we encourage both in the front. You know,
I have an amazing counter part in the front of
the house, Brandy Tapage, my general manager, our general manager
(08:28):
who also who worked with Link Group for forever and
is extraordinary and black excellence every way, Uh, you know,
to identify and those those the people that have that thing.
I'm like, they have that thing, you know, like have
you have you considered doing this before? And a lot
(08:49):
of them have never, and they're like, I love this,
this is what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
The process in that first four weeks, did they decide
that the restaurant will not be for them.
Speaker 6 (08:59):
If they want to you on, yeah, so and a
lot of them it's never that, you know, we do.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
You do have to do your two weeks.
Speaker 6 (09:05):
In the front, your two weeks in the back, unless
there is some exceptionality that I'm like, this really isn't
gonna work.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
That is not good for you to continue doing this.
Speaker 5 (09:15):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
Outside of that, they'll do that.
Speaker 6 (09:18):
And then when they are done with those four weeks,
we start to talk about, you know, which one of
these was one more appealing to you the other. Some
people it's a strong I can't wait to get back
to the kitchen. I can't wait to get the hell
out of this kid. And then others are like, you know,
they're gonna they're really gonna be pursuing maybe they.
Speaker 5 (09:38):
Education.
Speaker 6 (09:38):
It could be a lot of our young people may
need to still get their high school equivalency, or they
want to go to college, or they want to do
these things, so that's also a track they could do.
So Tier three they start working in career prep, so
resumes mock interviews, starting to be able to articulate the
(10:03):
things that you learned onto paper and to someone you
might meet who might ask ask you these questions, which
is a huge difference than doing it right.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
And that's something that I've learned a lot about working
with young people is like I've.
Speaker 6 (10:18):
Trained them they do I know, he knows how to
do that, and he gets up there and it's in
the mock interview and it's like, I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't know how to do that
because I didn't learn how to articulate that, and I'm
still not confident enough.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
I have this.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Imposter syndrome and I don't want to tell you that
I do know how to do that or I don't
know what it's called. And then I've done them a
disservice and I'm like, so it but it does take.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
It takes repetition.
Speaker 6 (10:43):
You know, you don't learn, you can't learn at all
or much really in four weeks.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Well, I think also because I have been part of
the mock interviews, and you know, you're doing this round
table of them. It's hopping around to the different restaurants
and and speaking with people. But I mean, I think
back to when I was that age. I was never
taught how to interview for a job. I was just
(11:10):
went and sold myself. So I think this is a
great stepping stone for a lot of people that they're
able to be coached.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
And counsel and like what do they need to work
and then.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
Get to get the feedback because it's an interview that
you're going in there to tell them why they should hire.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
And one of the things I did like that day
I spent at the restaurant was the Wood of the
Day that I thought was pretty powerful.
Speaker 5 (11:33):
And if you want to tell us a little bit
of that, sure.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
So Word of the Day is something that they've been
doing at Reconcile for since its birth, right Yeah, And
it previously was very.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
Focused around scripture.
Speaker 6 (11:51):
Recantile was founded by a Catholic priest, father Harry, and
so you know that that was a large part of
it and still is in in that memory of like this.
You know, we know that this is where Reconcile was
founded by this Catholic priest. But however we've moved a
(12:11):
lot away from scripture. It's you know, to be way
more inclusive and also to build trust, you know, with
our young people.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
So we still as opposed to scripture.
Speaker 6 (12:24):
We'll talk about a word, a phrase, could be accountability,
and it really just that the whole spirit of doing
the Word of the Day was to talk about a
principle or a value or an idea uh or a
saying and talk about what it means to you. And
really it's just many everything we do at Reconcile is
(12:48):
like it's a tool for with another goal, you know,
and the goal is some public speaking, some critical thought.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
And also in that Word the day.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
So we all make breakfast together every day, and we
all eat breakfast together.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
While we do Word of they so there's a meal
part of that.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
And the interns make breakfast with my team. So then
staff from the whole building, whether you're in whatever, you know,
it's not just the cafe team, it's everybody can come
down and eat breakfast with the interns and engage and
engage and be in community with them.
Speaker 3 (13:22):
And get to know them.
Speaker 6 (13:23):
This is the first time for a lot of them
they're going to get to meet us. If they've just
started day one, they're doing word of the day, so
it's a it's an icebreaker in.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
A lot of ways.
Speaker 6 (13:34):
But as they move through the tiers from tier one
to tier three, now they're leading word of the day.
Now they're raising their hand. They can't put their hand down,
as opposed to being like.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Can I get someone from the sides of stuff, remember
to give me a you know, an answer to this,
you know.
Speaker 6 (13:51):
And it's really it's a really it's a daily uh
display of their growth or what else may be going
on with them, you know. And also it's time for Okay,
this one seems a little down, you know, let's check in,
let's talk to their caseworker.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Do they need a minute? You know, it's it is.
Speaker 6 (14:10):
It's a great start to the day of focus and
some intention and just being in community with each other.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (14:16):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:17):
And it's just I think when you have a group setting,
it hopefully builds that confidence, yeah, to speak publicly, because
most people they don't feel comfortable on day one or
day two because they in front of strangers. But the
more comfortable you feel, the more that you feel open
to open up.
Speaker 6 (14:35):
And yeah, I think the cool thing about word of
the day is that they start I think in general,
they walk into a place where there's other young people
their age, so their wall goes up, their defense goes up, right, yea,
I'm gonna get you before you get me up and
look stupid me, look stupid right, embarrass me, et cetera.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
But then they're like, oh, this is a safe space.
Speaker 6 (14:55):
There are community norms and boundaries, and we can't talk
to each other in certain any a way, and we're
going to respect each other. And then that kind of
melts and they get to be you know, weird little
adolescents nerves or you know, whatever they want to be
or whatever they are, whatever, you know, and it's that
is so cool to see them put that wall down
(15:18):
and then start making friends. But they're you know, the
and just because they are comfortable, they're not you know,
while everything else in their life may be vulnerable, they
you know, we try to make it, as you know,
a safe space and a comfortable space and a nurturing
space that like I said, everything we do is really
(15:41):
the restaurant is a tool. The restaurant is you know,
it's it's it's where, it's training, but it's also simulation
for you to learn all to sorry to practice all
the the life skills.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
We hope you're learning out of this. That you're getting
out of this.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's a tremendous It's not workload, but that's a tremendous
addition to your daily duties of producing food and getting
it out to people who were eating.
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, it's wild.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
How do you take the job of a chef and
then add this much to it.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So you were at Sylvain, yes.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
As the executive chef chef cuisine, and you decided to
take some time off or you knew that you were
going to reconcile.
Speaker 6 (16:29):
No, I took about three years, maybe more. I can't
even remember now. I worked at other places I worked.
I worked with Alex Harrel a couple of times at Angeline,
I had a brief stent at Cannon Table shout out Chefredo.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
Both solid dudes, Yes, and then.
Speaker 6 (16:48):
Alex Harrold again at a Lesion bar with the bachan
Off crew Joaquin and Adrian and them, but again not
in a position when I took the role at Alesian Bar.
I was intentionally not in a position of leadership, which
was which was cute for me, but at the same time, like,
if I can't influence things around me, I can't shut
(17:11):
my mouth and I have to be able to affect change.
So that was, you know, it was wonderful, and it
was also wonderful to be just have the break of
not being ultimately responsible for everything for a little while
I very much needed after doing that, it's ivan, you know,
for almost eight years, and then during the pandemic, that's
(17:32):
when someone reached out to me about the job.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
I reckon so.
Speaker 6 (17:38):
But yeah, so then when I started the job, it's
still it wasn't is the hardest thing I've ever done
and ever had to do, and was it was really
scary at first because it was the first time I
was like, you know, I've had a lot of success
only in the fact that one the support I've had
(18:00):
in my life and privileges I've had in my life.
But I would work really hard and do Like I'm like,
if I work really hard and I come in early
and I stay late and I do this, I can
do it. And then I got there and I was
like I might get fired.
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Because this is a lot.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
And the other thing was in you know, a lot
of respect to the people that were there before me
in the restaurant was but my the people that were
reviewing my success or failure had never worked in a
restaurant before.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So that was terribly interesting because I was like, y'all
don't know if you're.
Speaker 5 (18:38):
Talking about it.
Speaker 6 (18:40):
So that was very That was odd, you know, because
I was like, there's so much more.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
To this than.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Now. And you psyched you up when you psyched yourself
up too, All right, next week, I'm gonna do this.
Did you psyche yourself up enough? Or was it like,
oh man, this is even bigger.
Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah. I mean I didn't back down. I just kept putting.
But I was I was worried because.
Speaker 6 (19:08):
I was I was like, do they know how like
how much there is involved in this, not just not
just the restaurant part, like one, like, yes, we got
to regroup as a restaurant as far as our culinary practices,
our identity, all these things, our processes are our standards.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
We got to do all of that.
Speaker 6 (19:29):
But then there's this whole other thing that we're doing
at once. And then add in that that's the main
thing that we're doing is working with young people and
the most important thing we're doing. So that first year
was was was hard. Were extremely It was the hardest
thing to date that I've ever done in my life,
the whole year, and and a lot of it, Like
(19:53):
I said, because I was working with people in a
community of people who had worked in nonprofits their whole lives.
I was like, I'm used to being around restaurant people.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Right, because people don't I think a lot of people
think it's just cooking the food and serving it. There's
a lot of aspects and you know that people just don't.
Speaker 5 (20:16):
Think about, you know, and it's.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
Restaurants are very complex, yes, and it's a it's a moving, living,
breathing organism, and it's it's like a basketball team. It's
all the players. It's not just one person. And you know,
if you're down one player, everybody feels it. And it's
a it's a huge team sport. And when people don't
understand that, it's it makes the process much harder.
Speaker 6 (20:42):
Right, I mean, managing adults is terrible. It's it's the
hardest part about my job. I mean, the young people
are you know, I'm like y'all are supposed to be
in a bad mood and right have an attitude and
not be able to manage your emotions like you're learning that, but.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
You know it's it's all so that.
Speaker 6 (21:00):
And then managing your team, like you know, managing a
team is so difficult and to do well and with
you know, with care and.
Speaker 3 (21:13):
And to make because I'm I do still.
Speaker 6 (21:17):
While I love working with young people and they are
the most important part about my job, I'm also I
love my team and I want them to have a
great quality of life and I want them to be
happy and fulfilled. And but in this role and in
this position, I really have to ask of my team
to check it at the door, right, because we have
(21:38):
such a huge responsibility to these young people.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Sure that I.
Speaker 6 (21:42):
Can't manage your emotions, you have to have learned how
to do that or be practicing that somewhere else, not here,
and not with these young people. We could be the
first adult in these young people's lives that they encounter
that doesn't do wrong by them or doesn't.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
Let them down.
Speaker 6 (22:04):
And that is a huge privilege and an honor to me,
and I take it very seriously, and I need the
same of my staff, but they also need a lot
of support to be able to do that, and I
truly believe they get that just at Reconcile, largely in
how we are structured and the support that's just built
into how we do.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (22:26):
I love that. That's so well said. So how many
people come through the program, like for the for the year,
let's say.
Speaker 6 (22:36):
I'm really bad at the numbers, part one hundred and
twenty a year is uh, I guess the well was
last year. And uh, you know, we're kind, we're we're
always enrolling.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
So there's you know, a new tier one every every month. Okay,
I'm looking at me. I'm on, I'm speaking into a microphone.
I don't I don't know any numbers.
Speaker 6 (23:07):
Yeah, so there's always like so, you know, at any
given time, my staff, my team could be working with
and my team, I mean the cafe team with at
least one intern by their side while they're going through service,
while they're working saute or girl or whatever, or washing dishes.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
They're going to have one person hopefully assigned to them
per day and in the front of the house as well.
Speaker 5 (23:34):
So we have somebody that came through your program.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
Alissa who's still still with us, and she's doing so well.
She she she did our internship as a food runner
m h. And it was a couple of weeks ago
somebody was running late or something and she's like on
pastry plate in the dessert and shooing the ice cream
and she is just not unless she got promoted as well. Yes,
(24:02):
so she Yeah, she's she's on the floor, but she
is so driven, a bundle of joy, you know, and
just she just hard.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Working, brings in other great people work.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
That's good. So we we're blessed to have her.
Speaker 6 (24:19):
So thank you for Yeah, I wish I could take
any crisis blue, But you know, she's amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
She always was.
Speaker 6 (24:25):
I just needed the support that we gave her to
be you know who you know who she already was,
which was very competent and smart and capable boss lady.
Speaker 5 (24:38):
Yes, yes, she's one to watch.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
So. Yeah, So you grew up in d C, DC area, Yes,
DC proper.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
And did you come from DC straight to New Orleans?
Speaker 3 (24:49):
No.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
I had a brief hiatus in Massachusetts, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Moved there with my mom and uh after I dropped
out of high school and it was just working and
she moved back to New England, which is where she
is from originally, and there was so I went to
(25:12):
New Bedford and.
Speaker 3 (25:13):
I lived in about four years, but I did go.
I went to a.
Speaker 6 (25:16):
Community college in culinary school there, okay, and then moved
to New Orleans in twenty ten.
Speaker 2 (25:23):
Wow, but DC, you didn't have the haughtiness that they
have about their chest peak crabs. Oh you did, and
you you got rid of it when you tasted the good.
Speaker 5 (25:33):
Yeah, that is a big debate to talk about. What
are your thoughts on crab boils?
Speaker 3 (25:39):
Oh Jesus, I don't even know if I want to
speak on this. I love them both. I just went to.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
I mean, I have very fond memories of beast trips
and on the way stopping and getting you know crabs
where they were steamed and the season was on top
and they were delicious, and I love them.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
That's you know, that style. But again that wasn't like
all the time, like I didn't grow up and eating
a lot of crab crab money. So I love them both.
Speaker 6 (26:12):
Like I said, that was like a special occasion and
it was like on the way to the beach or
to the outer banks. Uh, those are my crab memories
and then you know. But recently, for my birthday, I
went to Port Soul for Louisiana and stayed at a
fishing camp on the Bayou and it was amazing and
(26:35):
he boiled crabs, the first crabs of the season, and
it was some of the best crab I've ever had
in my life.
Speaker 3 (26:42):
And he also showed me a different way to break
and eat crab that was different than the way that
I had learned. And I was like, wow, what did
you do differently? I have to show you play good? Yeah,
because he was like, do you know how to eat crab?
Speaker 5 (26:55):
I said yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
And then I was like, well, I don't eat it.
But I was like, oh, this works too. They both
they're both wonderful and and I'll just leave it at that.
But again, very diplomatic. Get a lot of crab. When
I was coming up, it was it was so what
what was it?
Speaker 5 (27:13):
What as a child? What was some of the your
fond food memories.
Speaker 6 (27:22):
I was always fond of food. All my memories of
food were fond. For the most part. I was a
good eater. It's the lamb uh and uh, my my dad.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Loved to cook.
Speaker 6 (27:37):
My mom also loved to come. My dad is a
very passionate, a very uh romantic cook. You know, he's
into the beauty of everything, and he's very sentimental about things,
and he traveled all over the world. He's a musician,
so he traveled all over the world and he would often,
more often than not, every time he went to another country,
(27:58):
he would bring back an instrument and a cooking vessel.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Oh wow.
Speaker 6 (28:02):
So we would eat that way for until he went
to the next thing, and we would listen to that
music until he went to the next thing, and we
would hear about that history until you went to the
next place.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
So that's very fond. Uh.
Speaker 6 (28:17):
My parents had pretty epic New Year's parties as a
child that you know, we grew I grew up in
Adams Wore and d C. And it was just you
know where they would invite their friends who are all musicians,
and they would come and bring their instruments and we
would just be passed around and they would make tons
of food and people would bring food and the party would.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Go all night up until the next day.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
And oh wow, I still see people old you know,
my parents older older friends from back in the day,
and they're like, man, your parents had some wild New
Year's parties, And I was like, oh, that really was
I didn't realize the time, and it was kind of
pretty pretty epic and wonderful.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
Do you play an instrument?
Speaker 6 (29:03):
I played guitar for a while and I still play it,
you know, when I'm feeling some type of way and
I need to get my emotions out and I'm by myself.
I sing a lot, but uh, never never to the
degree that I wanted to be good at every instrument.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But I do own a guitar that I play sometimes now.
Speaker 5 (29:27):
Good therapy, right, yes, good therapy.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
And then my other you know, fondest child food memories
are just my mom made dinner for us every night
when she got off work, for me and my sister,
and whether we ate it in front of the TV
and talked to each other, it didn't. She made a
square meal every night and made sure we had a
vegetable and we didn't spend a lot of money on
other things. We didn't have a lot of money for
those things. But they they, they they thought that was
(29:56):
important and I appreciate that, and I know it was
a huge privileged to have and really has shaped my
relationship with food and my love for food and my
desire to share that exposure that I got from a
young age with other people who would.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
Have, you know, not had it. There's no other reason
why you would.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
What was your favorite dish of moms and one that
you're just kind of glad that you have the knowledge
and you don't have to eat that anymore.
Speaker 6 (30:28):
My favorite dish of my mother's. I really loved her
cast roles. I really, I mean I was not a
piggy eater as long as like there was a time
where she went through a little vegetarian phase when I.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Was, and it was still really good. But I was
kind of like, where's the right?
Speaker 6 (30:48):
But I really was me and my sister both even
though she was she was maybe a little slightly picky, but.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
We were never given the option. I was just like,
what wadding is dinner?
Speaker 6 (31:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Is for dinner?
Speaker 6 (31:03):
I'm just happy to be eating now, and thank you
I've been waiting.
Speaker 4 (31:07):
Yes, I think that's very special because I think we
take that for granted, sitting now and having a meal
with a sibling or family member. I think it's for
me growing up, that was a big thing, like we
don't have dinner, but we have a big lunch. Yeah,
So that was a big thing where we all came together,
and the mornings were my grandmother was in the kitchen,
(31:30):
my mom was in the kitchen, my dad was. Everybody
woke up early, and the kitchen was and still is
the most active part of the house. So I think
when you have that coming together, it just it brings
you back.
Speaker 6 (31:44):
Yeah, that's that sounds really nice. I'd love to have
a nice, big lunch every day. Well, it's very different.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yes, it's a different way because you're i mean just
being the regular American way of growing up. When I'd
go down there, I'm like, all right, it's getting laid afternoon,
let's get ready for dinner then, and you're like, no,
it's just everything we had for lunch but didn't finish. Yeah,
but it is an interesting way to just look at it.
Speaker 5 (32:10):
Yeah, lunches, lunch is the big meal.
Speaker 3 (32:14):
And then.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It's funny because we just you know, eat it and
we leave it in the oven and then if you're
feeling packaged, you'd make a small.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Plate and come back.
Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, and then that's it. There's no like creating another meal. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (32:29):
I like that, And yeah, it's there was zero waste casserole.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Actually, you said the word casserole, and I haven't had
a good one in a while.
Speaker 5 (32:39):
What's your favorite casserole?
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Mom made a broccoli castle. But again that's one of
those mom dishes where you don't have the Campbell soup
can or not the cambele the store label soup can
and threw it in there with She would put rich
crackers in the blender to make bread crumbs. That was
a cuisine right there. Oh yeah, for us, for the
Miller household.
Speaker 6 (32:59):
That was also I think cast role is like one
of my earlier cooking memories is making cast role with
my mom. My mom found she was a big she
loved cookbooks, and so she'd go to a library and
she'd be there with the cookbook at the copy machine
and be making copies. And our cookbooks were folders of xeroxta,
you know, recipes out of library books, and she found
(33:22):
one for some it was like a chicken tortilla castrole,
and she still to this day is like it was
the grossest thing in the world, but you loved.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
It because it has potential.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
It was it was because it involved the opening of
like ten different cans things and jumping them in layers
and she's like, you know, She's like, you just loved it.
And I never realized how gross it was until I
was like in my twenties and I had my mom
found it and she was like, oh, remember this, And
(33:54):
I was like, God to meet that. And my boyfriend
at the time was there for dinner and he was like,
this is discussing and I was like, it is this
is the Yeah. No, but like creama mushroom, there was beans,
there was olives, it was everything. Good. God, it was bad.
(34:16):
And I was like, yeah, you're right. It still I
kind of want to do it. I'm like, it's got
to be a good way. But it was like it
really it's It was gross, but it was very comforting.
Speaker 5 (34:27):
Yeah, you got to revamp it for.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
For for human incomes.
Speaker 5 (34:32):
Yeah, then you surprise your mom.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Mom, I reinvent she probably never want to eat that again.
I'll do it for me.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
Yeah, So what's next for you? But twenty twenty four.
Speaker 6 (34:48):
I mean more of the same, And it's never the
same at Reconcile. Every year i'm there, I understand what
I'm doing better, I understand the impact we have deeper
I learn on ways to make our impact be deeper
(35:11):
and more effective, and I love it more every year.
And when I started working at Reconcile, what I knew
I wanted to be some I wanted to be more
involved in the community, and I wanted to work with
young people.
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Whatever.
Speaker 6 (35:23):
I was like, I can do that, I can train
and work with young people before, but I didn't know
that I was going to love working with young people.
I thought I would be able to tolerate it enough
to try to get whatever I could across to them, right,
But I absolutely love coming in every day and getting
(35:47):
to work with young people. It's like I can't wait.
I can't wait to see them. I miss some when
they're not they're like you know. And that's not to
say that I'm not happy to get a break. Sometimes
we all have to take care of ourselves, especially because
there's a large kind of social work component of this
right that is exhausting in a way that I've never
been exhausted before.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
But I love it.
Speaker 6 (36:11):
I'm you know, I'm just getting started. I feel like
it must work.
Speaker 5 (36:15):
I mean, that's that's amazing great.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
I had to actually tell somebody how many years I
had worked in restaurants yesterday and it got scary when
you think about all those years. But it also I
love just discovering something new or being able to look back.
And this was my next question. I was going to
ask you, how often do you patch yourself on the
back and just say, God, Lee, look what I've done,
and not even just this job, just saying people that. Yeah,
(36:40):
but you need to and especially in something that it
sounds is mentally like just filling up your head other
than could you imagine if you were doing what she
just said and trying to get the menu ready for tonight?
That's amazing. Yeah, but you need to be able to
recognize that in yourself, that you've done something pretty remarkable
(37:01):
and that you've grown through the whole process.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
Yeah. I'm bad at taking compliment. That was a really
good one, Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
It's important too, it's part of your own self care.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
To say absolutely, Okay, I'm.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Hard on myself, but look where I've gotten.
Speaker 6 (37:15):
I think it gets easier to pat myself on the
back when I can do it collectively. I love the
people that I work with, and we really are a team.
I have, you know, I work with three other women
in executive leadership that I love and respect, and we
really get each other and we know we stay in
our lane. You know, we all have very different talents
(37:39):
and we let each other do those things.
Speaker 3 (37:42):
And inform each other.
Speaker 6 (37:43):
And when you know, like we just don't step on toes,
it doesn't come up right because we're all capable and
competent and we handle our business so I don't need
I don't never like lacking from one of them to
do something that they're supposed to do, and vice versus.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
So that works really well. So collectively with.
Speaker 6 (38:01):
That team, also with the rest of the team, the
social services team, my cafe team, the employment team, the
AMIN team, everyone, like, I really do I I it's
easy to clap us up. It's easier to clap us up,
like as a group because we really like we help
each other. It really is. It's wonderful and it is
amazing what we're doing. Yeah, and it takes a step back.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
To realize what we're doing sometimes.
Speaker 6 (38:27):
But you know, we have we have a five story building.
It's not just the cafe, and we're on every floor
of the building, which a lot of people don't realize.
You can go to any floor of the building, and
there is something. There's young people working in some capacity
with some professional on something to better themselves at any
given time in the building. And but our social services team,
(38:47):
like we have licensed uh social workers that are there
every day. They're my co workers now, you know, and
they work at the host stand or in the expo window.
Miss Kaylin right here works in the she's the best expo.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
I might need you on Saturday and.
Speaker 6 (39:04):
Especially on the fifth floor, you know, because the other
part of it is the more we need, you know,
a young person, especially when the especially in the summer
where our attendance grows quite a bit.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
And we need.
Speaker 6 (39:21):
More hands and eyes around because and then also we've
gotten like since you know, we got written up in
the New York Times twice and business is has skyrocketed
and that's amazing and I'm so excited. But now it's
another layer. It's a higher volume for the intern to
deal with, who has never done this before and it's
(39:44):
just starting to deal with, you know it could you know,
they could be a star, you know, that's like going
for it, like that's and they came in well equipped
to handle that, but most did not at all. So
if they're if they're going to you know, if the
may may have a meltdown, a panic attack of you know,
(40:04):
whatever it may be. We need to be able to
make sure that they are safe and comfortable, that we
can anticipate that that we're paying attention, and the more
hands on deck the better to make sure that being
like this person is getting a little overwhelmed, maybe over stimulated.
They had a bad interaction with the guests, they burned themselves,
they're freaking out, you know, Like there's a lot of
(40:26):
room for error. But it because where everyone is paying
attention and everyone is engaged that way, it works out
somehow every day after day. But it really is a team,
team effort across the board.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
So how many covers are you guys doing now?
Speaker 3 (40:45):
I don't even know. Yeah.
Speaker 6 (40:49):
Well, the other thing about it is we do so
much takeout that I look more at dishes sold in
the final numbers because we sometimes when I started, I
was doing fifty percent of my sales would take out.
Speaker 3 (41:04):
Now it's still there, but our in diamond has increased, increased, increased, increased.
Speaker 6 (41:10):
But we do so much takeout to the point where
at some point every day I'm sorry.
Speaker 3 (41:15):
Everyone, I have to turn.
Speaker 6 (41:16):
It off type like we are at capacity in every
form and every you know, every stretch of that word. Yes,
and uh we only we're only open from eleven to
two thirty.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
So that's a week.
Speaker 5 (41:34):
Yeah, that's a crunch.
Speaker 6 (41:35):
So when people are trying to get it in and
every almost like it's most of our guests get food
to go at the table every day. What is the
number one selling dish, fried catfish, which is probably the
number one selling dish.
Speaker 3 (41:50):
We are a fried fish restaurant and it is lunt season,
so you know, yes, it's popping.
Speaker 6 (41:55):
Yes, Holy Thursday was little quiet today, But I'm not mad.
Speaker 2 (42:01):
Every now and then.
Speaker 6 (42:03):
Yeah, sometimes it was like you know, when we needed it,
but I was ready. But yeah, fried catfish is is
our best seller. Okay, but you know our fried chicken
is creeping up there. Yeah, especially since we finally, like
I think like a year ago, we nailed our our recipe.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
And so it's creeping up there. People are finding out
about it, and I'm excited, all right.
Speaker 5 (42:27):
Good to know, good to know.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
So how can people enroll into the program?
Speaker 6 (42:35):
They can, I mean, they can really show up. And
I shouldn't say this anytime, but it happens all the
time because somebody somewhere said, hey, go to reconcile, and
they just did. They show up in the middle of service,
and we're going to figure out where you need to go.
Best case scenario, you come to open house, which we
do once a month, sometimes twice a month, and uh
(42:59):
where you can really get the full spiel. Meet people,
meet alumni, meet all the staff, have some food, bring
your parents, whomever you want. But you if you show
up or end up at Reconcile, we're going to figure
out how we that day, we're going to make an
(43:20):
appointment for you to come for an interview. Right so,
you know, all day there's young people wandering in or
somebody wandering in while you're like, hey, hi, how many
and they're like, actually I just you know, got out
of wherever and they told me to come over here.
Speaker 3 (43:35):
Okay, hold on, have a seat.
Speaker 6 (43:36):
We're going to message our little group message, hey, is
anyone available to do an intakeer to talk to this
person and make an appointment. We're going to figure it
out that day. We might to get you the whole thing,
but you know, the whole shebang, but we're going to
figure out NSS. What are your needs and maybe if
your needs are beyond what our capacity is, connect to
(43:56):
you same day with a like you know, whatever organization
that's in our community that you need to Yeah, we
won't turn you away.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
And is there a way for the public to help
support the program coming? Or is it fully funded? So
eating is the.
Speaker 6 (44:13):
All of your money goes to the program? You know,
there's no tip line, it's a donation line. So all
all coming to eat. If the program you get to eat,
all that money goes right to to everything, get to stipends,
bus passes, daycare, whatever it is, It all goes right
(44:34):
back into that. Caitlin might have more things to say
about around that.
Speaker 2 (44:38):
But if you've got a big check, just going with
your check.
Speaker 6 (44:43):
You can give it to pretty much anyone.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
And then but yeah, come to eat at the cafe. Uh,
that's the best way to do it.
Speaker 5 (44:54):
And get the catfish or the chicken.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
The chicken for the chicken.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
What is the wood of the data? Take us out
with the wood.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
Of the day. What was the word of the day today?
I don't remember.
Speaker 5 (45:06):
I'll give us one.
Speaker 3 (45:08):
Let's see the word of the day. What was this
is hard on the spot?
Speaker 6 (45:19):
Hope, hope that I'm going to say that I'm feeling
I'm feeling hopeful.
Speaker 3 (45:28):
I could give you several.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
I'm feeling hopeful that we survived the shift tonight.
Speaker 3 (45:32):
Yeah, I hope that for you.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (45:36):
And my other word, I'm excited.
Speaker 6 (45:38):
I'm excited about twenty twenty four. It's gonna be awesome
and I can't can't.
Speaker 4 (45:43):
You You are glowing as you say that, and yeah,
thank you so much for all you do.
Speaker 5 (45:48):
And it's you are you are giving me life?
Speaker 3 (45:50):
Yeah, because you.
Speaker 2 (45:51):
Are really inspiration. Yeah, I'm serious and you're fun to
be And that was Nina who cust earlier.
Speaker 3 (46:03):
She'll be happy that I only did it five times the.
Speaker 2 (46:07):
Well, thank you very much for being with us. Everybody,
go see chef Mark the Wiggins and her band of
very fun people at Cafe Reconcile. Thank you very much.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
I appreciate y'all have a great service. Thank you y'all. Wait, yeah,
thank Wait, everybody
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