Kowloon Restaurant & Double Midnight

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're listening to Food for Thought withBilly and Jenny, brought to you by
the Box Center. For more thanfifteen years, this dining duo has been
eating their way through New England,mixing it up with top chefs, jumping
behind the line of the hottest restaurantsand giving you the inside scoop on where
to wine, dine and spend yourtime. So get ready, it's Food
for Thought giving you something to chewon. Hey, everybody, welcome into

(00:22):
Food for Thought. Billy Costa here, there's going to be an interesting show.
I've got my old friend Bobby Wongfrom the Kyle Looon wanted saga.
Say hello, Bobby, Hello,Bobby. You know Bobby, I gotta
tell you something. You get morepress than Travis Kelcey. It's like every
day that Kyle Loon is in thenews. Again. I appreciate that,

(00:44):
but I don't think we were asas famous as Travis Kelcey or his what's
his girlfriend's name? I can't remember. Oh, Patrick Mahomes wife who just
painted her hair red. I'm sorryit was in my hand. No.
I appreciate, but that's a littleover blown. What is that call?
Does that called good pr just beinglucky at the right place at the right

(01:07):
time. I don't know. Ithink you've got to give that PR company
a raise or something. That's mysystem in law. She does all she
does all my social media. Shedoes a great job. And there was
all kinds of talking. We're goingto knock the kW loon down. That
was like seventeen years ago, butit's still standing on Route one, and
so we have a lot to talkabout. And you've got the spring summer
coming up, which means outdoor activities, movies, concerts, everything going on

(01:30):
in the parking lot. Also instudio with us this week is Scott Prew.
Scott, Welcome to Food for Thought. Thank you for having me.
And Scott Prew operates a company calledDouble Midnight. And you've got two locations,
yes, in Manchester and conquered NewHampshire. So you're in New Hampshire,
yes, And you do like acomic con right every year? Yep,
the Grand State Comic Con Ah.And that started out very small,

(01:53):
right, it did. Did.We started out in a small room that
we actually we still use, butit's more for like a for gaming and
stuff at the DoubleTree Hotel. Andnow you've got the whole hotel. We
got the whole hotel and a littlebit more coming this year. Wow.
Okay, what do you have thesame PR person as the Wong brothers and
now he doesn't know my sister law. I feel we had to give a

(02:16):
shadow. It's Lauren Birmingham that Ididn't know was your sister in law.
No, no, no, no, Lauren is the PR. But social
media, I'm knowing Lauren Birmingham forI get the email from her literally every
day. She does a good job. She does a great job. And
accidentally I didn't plan it this waybecause I had Scott booked and then you

(02:38):
were all over the news again thisweek, Bobby. But as it happens,
you both have a connection to NewHampshire. So Scott in a few
minutes will get to you and what'sgoing on with Comic Con and all the
events you have coming up and allpeople can get there. But Bobby,
let's start with the news that brokethis week. It was announced that you
now have a venture in New Iam sure, isn't it the Brook Casino

(03:00):
and Seabrook. Yes, it's theBrook Casino. Andre Carrier is the CEO.
Great person out of Vegas and hedoes a lot. I guess that's
the home base and great person.He kind of like approached us. We
did a couple of our events therefor Chinese New Year, and we sold

(03:21):
out buffets and events there for him. He liked what we did and he
offered a management team that was handlingall that an opportunity. And so it's
a great opportunity for them management team, and we're going to be the column
name will be backing them. Itwon't be a column restaurant because you can't
duplicate the column because it's just toobig. It's like you know, and

(03:46):
if people go to a location andexpecting that column experience, it's not quite
the same because we're so large.Will it have a name. It will
have a name, but it's notthe column, not the column. It
will not be the column. Butit's gonna be a great name. It's
going to be a great environment.It's going to be heavy on the not
only the dining, but also onthe nightlife. Oh it's not it's not

(04:09):
a huge spot. It's probably onehundred and fifty two hundred seats. But
what they're what we're planning is themanagement team's planning is a lot of along
with the Brook because the Brook isour partners. Yeah, a lot of
DJ's live entertainment, as well asa great dining uh experience, which is
going to be a little bit differentthan the Colune. The Column. We're
going to still have a lot ofthe favorites because you have to have the

(04:30):
favorites because a lot of people knowwhat it's going to be, Calloun food.
Probably fifty percent Column food, andthen the other fifty percent is going
to be a little bit more ofimaginative fusion and much much more so it's
more of a business venture for you. Yeah, well it's a business venture
as well as we're going to besupporting them, you know naturally. Now,

(04:51):
the all of the the frame picturesyou have on the wall at the
Kowloun on Route one in Sargus,will those go to the place in New
Hampshire, because I think mine ison the wall? Yeah, no,
you are, You're iconic, Sowe have to keep them in the Saugust
location. Okay, Okay, Sonow and now when does the New Hampshire

(05:11):
location open up? Probably summer inthe summer, at July August. I
think that's what we're shooting for No. This could be a touchy question.
Do the Saugust Wings move to NewHampshire That's what we were We were debating
that just the other day. Butwe're going to keep it the Saugust Wings.
Yeah, oh yeah, you can't. You can't. Yeah. And
also, well don't forget Kowloon alsohas ty food, right yep. Yeah,

(05:32):
so some of the tie dishes kindof like a satellite. Yeah,
I will say that, but it'sdefinitely you don't you you can't expect the
same experience actually as a column inSaugust, but it's going to be a
great experience. It's going to belike a sister restaurant with a little bit,
a little bit different twist to it. So, yeah, here's what

(05:53):
you have to love about Bobby Wong. Right, I go way back with
Bobby and his brothers. How's Andy? By the way, Andy's great,
We go back years. Right.So I'm sitting here and Scott's sitting here,
and aj the producer is sitting herein the studio, and I don't
know if they're feeling it. Bobby, but I've known you long enough to
know that you're kind of squirming inyour seat because you know, there's only

(06:14):
so much you want to say aboutwhat's going on up in New Hampshire,
right, But you're such a goodguy and such a good friend that you're
giving us whatever you think you canget away with, right exactly. Actually,
think about it this way. Thisis how much of a friend you
are. You drove all the wayin here, right knowing that you weren't
supposed to say much. But you'regiving us what you can exactly because they

(06:36):
have their own pr exactly, andI can't you know. I can tell
you yeah, I'm going to teaseyou that exactly, and I can tell
you know, look at Scott Okay, he's in a Hampshire guy. You
don't want to mess around with thesepeople, No, I know. I'm
just saying what I mean. NewHampshire is a tough, tough group.
We're going to take a break.We're having some fun on the show.

(06:57):
Bobby's going to stick around for afew minutes because I want to talk about
the history of the Kowloon, butI also want to talk about the future
of the kow Loon. Because youscared New England. You scared all of
New England when you announced you wereknocking down the place, and we're all
like, where are we gonna go? Well, it's gonna happen, all
right, So we talk about thatand everything else, get all the information

(07:18):
we need from Scott Prue and DoubleMidnight and Comic Con happening up in New
Hampshire. So we'll take our firstbreak. It is Food for Thought.
I'm Billy Costa, and we willbe right back. You're listening to Food
for Thought, brought to you bythe Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel in
sweets. Hey, everybody, welcomeback to Food for Thought. Billy Costa.

(07:39):
Here, I've got my good friendBobby Wong from the Kowloon. First
and foremost, how's the family?How are you brothers? Everybody's great.
Everybody's great. Now you guys arefamous. Oh I don't know if you
ever heard this bit, But who'sthe singer I'm thinking about it? Loves
the Kowloon. I had him onthe Billion Lise some morning show just recently.
Why am I a blind? Youknow? I know? He uhh,

(08:05):
Charlie Pooth. Yeah, Charlie Pooth, right, good guy. Every
time he comes in he does ourkiss concert. We get to talking about
the Kowloon and he's describing your dishesand what the scene is. So you
get a lot of celebrities, butgoing years back, you always had WWE
wrestlers coming in, like if therewas a card at the garden the next

(08:28):
day. In the newspapers, rememberthe gossip columns like the uh, the
Inside Track and UH, they wouldalways be telling you all the wrestlers that
were at the Kowloon. When andhow did that start? Bobby, I'm
not really sure. I think maybea good friend, Phil CASTANETI may have
brought one of the wrestlers in oneday and it just blossomed that and kills

(08:52):
really good friends with Andy. AndPhil has a sports memorabilia company. Yeah,
not as big as your sons,but they became the wrestlers became great
fan. Andy's a great hospitality whenit comes to a celebrity, he just
he goes over. He loves wrestling. It was a natural fit and the
way he treated him, it justbecame a natural for the wrestlers to come

(09:15):
in after the events. And youknow, we met the Rock when he
first started John Cena, and hebefriended both of them. He has their
phone numbers and you can probably callhim and and you know John Cena warrew
sneakers. Oh that's another thing.By the way, I never got up
here, I know. So Iremember years ago when there was a Duncan

(09:39):
Oprah over on Route sixteen over herein Everett, and they have since closed
and become a convenience store or something. But a lot of times I would
run into Andy, your brother.Now I'm talking about four in the morning,
okay, and I'd be like,Andy, what the hell are you
doing here? Right? And hewould just be leaving the offices at Coloun.

(10:01):
Now, I'm sure he probably workedin the office, you know,
gathering the numbers and everything until aboutmidnight, but he would sit in the
office at the coloun to watch allthe wrestling matches he missed. If that's
probably what it was. He's leavingat four in the morning, not because
we yeah that late. And hetold me, he said, oh no,
I just finished watching the match.I said, so I need to
know this, Okay, your brotherAndy loves the wrestlers. They love him.

(10:26):
Does Andy believe they're real? Yeah? I mean during Easter he was
looking for the eggs that we thoughtthere was being hidden throughout the restaurant,
but we had to tell him therewas no eggs y So I don't want
to blow it. I hope he'snot listening. Andy, I'm just kidding.
So the wrestlers natural, of coursehe does. Okay, take me

(10:48):
back to the coloun How many years? Seventy going down to seventy five?
Next year, Wow, seventy fiveyears. How did it start? Well,
my grandparents started in nineteen fifty Theytook a gamble and opened a Chinese
restaurant. My parents took it overin fifty eight, nineteen fifty eight,

(11:09):
and they took a gamble by expandingthe restaurant. Yeah, and the rest
is history. They added on afew times and now it's twelve hundred seeds
versus forty set beginning, and youknow, we get the family was stuck
there for the rest of their lives. So they created a great life.

(11:30):
Just the history and the consistence ofthe column. When you really think about
going back, there used to beDiamond Head. Is that still the Diamondhead?
Right? There was a bally Iremember that you were sandwiched between Diamond
Head and then the giant place upon the hill Waylou opened. And yet

(11:54):
you're the ones who remained the conquerorsof Route one. Like, you know,
you've had everybody coming at you,and yet the kW Loune was always
king. Yeah, we don't lookat his conquering naturally. The competitors,
and actually they were friendly competitorss SoDiamond Head was my aunt, oh I
didn't know. Yeah, and RickChang from way Loose. We used to
get together and play basketball. Rickwas my neighbor in Midfield and his son

(12:18):
was a big I used to goto his house and hit tennis balls with
his son. Rick was a goodguy, Yeah, very good guy.
But that was a strange place.It was the size of a small stop.
It was a beautiful place, Yeah, beautiful, But it's timing.
Like my mother used to say,timing is everything in life. You know.
You you opened a place and theinterest rates was crazy at that point.
I think it was like sixteen percent, eighteen percent. I mean you're

(12:39):
borrowing money to build something. Ohyeah, you're paying the bank and well
that's the deal. You were risktakers, right and you had to be
right, and it's you know,and that's how business people are. They
risk takers. And you know,we we've you know, We've gone through
so many employees over the years,and a lot of them we you know,
we we took good care of themand they went on and opened their

(13:01):
own businesses. They you know,raised the families, sent their kids to
college. That's the most mean warningpot about the business. Well, you
know when I started food television yearsago, first with Phantom Gourmet and then
like ten or twelve years of TVDiner are now ten years this year with
Dining Playbook. You know, Istarted it because of people like you,
right, because I had an appreciationfor how hard the industry was and the

(13:26):
long hours that had to be putin and the dedication. So I was
never about some of those other showswhere you review the restaurant and tell them
if it's good or bad. Whoam I to be the decision maker?
I wanted to showcase the families andthe chefs and the workers and the staff
and the dedication. And you werea big part of that. I mean,

(13:50):
that's how we go so far back. Yeah, we can go along
way back, and I appreciate that. Okay, So some time ago you
shocked the world when you announced thatthe Kowloon was going away. You were
going to knock it down. Isthat still going to happen. Yeah,
it's gonna go away one of thesedays. So now there's no date.

(14:13):
Well we're looking hopefully in a coupleof years. It keeps getting pushed back
because you know, you know,you have to, like I said,
the town does its due diligence.It takes a while to get we just
this matter of fact is just thispast week we requested a pre application meeting
with the town, which is thevery first step of getting the plans in

(14:33):
front of the town. And oncethey approve that, as we go along
we'll start digging. So not evenan estimate. People want to know that
I wish, yeah, I know, I wish there will be kind of
a satellite coloon there. Once everythingis done, then that's what. Yeah,
that's the plan. What's it goingto be like an apartment complex.
It's going to be a couple apartmentcomplex. We actually we thought that we'd

(14:56):
be probably knocked it. We assumedthat the building would been knocked down already.
But everything gets pushed back, youknow, that's life, you know.
And yet as you drive by thecaloun regardless of what time of the
day or night, it seems likeyou're busier than ever. Is that because
people want to get in before it'sgone or what's going on? Well,
hopefully it's that's one other reason,but hopefully they like out places. Well,

(15:18):
it's hard to beat your lounge.I mean when you renovated that lounge,
that room exploded. You guys havealways well, the Thai restaurant came
later that started kicking ass, soto speak, and then the Lounge of
beautiful renovation there. Okay, sothere will be a satellite Koloon, so
we're not losing Kloon, no,but it won't be the same as what

(15:39):
we have now. Naturally, thebuilding here. We are now in the
spring summer season and you guys typicallyfor the past couple of years or so
have had outdoor events. So whatcan we expect outside of calllun this season?
This season, we're expecting to doeven more than we had done in
the past. We want to gothrough the decades and so we're getting acts.

(16:00):
You might know Freddy Belbony, he'sI know for well he works here.
Oh yeah, he sees our producerand he's the one that's going to
be putting a lot of the actstogether. So it's gonna be exciting.
You know, we don't know,this may or may not be the last
year outside, so you know,once we start to get there now,
so exactly, we're trying to increasebusiness. So you'll have live concerts.

(16:21):
Yeah, we have knights typically orthe concerts usually Friday Saturday. Right now,
Freddy's book trying to book and everything'sfluid. Right now, we get
the platters and the oh, wehave the spinners. You know who I
heard is a Ba Taylor Dane,Johnny Osmond, Donny the House with Johnny
Osmond. Right, okay, andthen you've got movie nights too, right

(16:42):
is that going to happen? Westopped the movie nights once COVID ended.
But what we're going to plan ondoing now is maybe have bingo on Wednesday
and maybe outdoor bingo under the stars, and then right after bingo ends around
eight nine o'clock when the sun goesdown, we might do free movies for
families because we want to make itas we've always been a family atmosphere,

(17:03):
so we might do free movies forfamilies. Okay, Bobby Wong, let's
say hypothetically, you don't own thekow Loon you're just coming in as a
customer. What's the one dish youabsolutely have to have. I'd love the
ty food. Yeah, pod Thaiphookat shrimp. I love that. There
you go. We got to takea break when we come back. You

(17:25):
had a wedding there and people werelike, they said, what a wedding
at the Kow Loon, and itwas all over the news and I'm like,
who are these people? How'd theyget the Kyle Loon. We got
to talk about the wedding and thenI'll let you go. And then we
got Scott prew Preuce standing by.We're going to talk about Comic Con coming
in New Hampshire. He's got agreat company, Double Midnight, two locations,

(17:45):
Manchester and Conquered. Like I said, we got a pack show.
It's Food for Thought. I'm BillyCosta. We'll be right back. You're
listening to Food for Thought, broughtto you by the Box Center and Sale
and Waterfront Hotel in Sweets. Hey, guys, welcome back. It is
Food for Thought. We're having alot of fun. Bobby Wong from the
colun here. We get a coupleof minutes left with Bobby. So you
had a wedding. Was it ayear ago? Two years ago? Wow?

(18:07):
Last year? I think last year. And everybody's first reaction was,
who the hell are these people?How did they get a wedding and they
shut down the entire colun for thewedding? How do I know? You
couldn't talk about it then, canyou now? Oh? Yeah, I
can talk about it now. Acouple approached email to somehow approach my function
manager, Lilian, and they askedif they can rent out the entire place.

(18:29):
So Lilian came back to me andsaid, some guy he wants to
rent the place. And I said, geez, well, seriously on a
Saturday night. You know that's youknow, shutting down doesn't make sense.
Why don't we just give them theupset of function room. You can fit
five hundred people up there. No, they want the whole place before we
shut down, as they have somememories there. So I said, all
right, well let's talk to themand see what. You know, what
kind of arrangements they make, pricingand whatever. Much. Yeah, we

(18:53):
talked to them. Kayler and John, great people, nicest people. We
came to an agreement and I wasthinking to myself, Jesus, we shut
down on a Saturday night that welose a lot of business, you know.
But in my back of my mind, I was thinking, like you,
you know, public relations, andI figured we'd get some press out
of it. It wasn't. Itwas a lot more than we expected,
and we actually had to do itlike a gag gag. Employ bring that

(19:18):
up and I know you called andtry to get me done, and I
said, I really have to respect. I really have to respect the couples,
which I was working it so well, yeah, well, if I
got invited, I had to bringa present. If I figured just working
it was better. So do youknow if they're still married? Yes,
yes, they still come in.So you actually did know them when they

(19:41):
came to you. Yeah, wellI didn't know them when they came to
me. I'll be honest with you. But since then, they've been in
a few times after the wedding andthen the nicest people maybe you know.
Now you know what the most askedquestion, Yeah, I know what you're
going to say. At the time, all of these reports are coming out,
and the question was, hey,what do you think they're paying for?
Can you give us a ballpark?Yeah? About it's over twenty five

(20:03):
hundred dollars. What, oh mygod. And the max would have been
two point five million. But nowin between this a million more than a
million, no, no, definitelyhalf a million, less less less than
half close to a half million,no, not even close, not even
a few hundred thousand dollars. Ohyou could have got a million. Guy.

(20:23):
This it wasn't about that, youknow. If you're like you said,
you're in the we're in the business. And just like Scott here,
all right, I mean, you'rein to make money, but money's not
the number one. It's about takingcare of people. You got to go
to break, Bobby, but sogood to see you. We look forward
to the outdoor season at the Kowloonand just keep it open for everyone.
Care. At this point, we'llbe back and we'll talk with Scott Prude.

(20:45):
Double Midnight, two locations, Manchesterand Concord, New Hampshire. He's
got a huge comic con event comingin and that's next. You're listening to
Food for Thought, brought to youby the Box Center and Sailing Waterfront Hotel
and sweets. Everybody. Welcome backto Food for Thought. Billy Consta here,
Bobby Wong had to go he justleft and again outdoor activities all spring

(21:07):
and summer and probably early fall atleast at the Kyloon Root one in Sagast.
Everybody has a Kyle Looon story ortwo to tell meantime, Scott Prew
is still in the studio and Scott, I gotta tell this story. Every
year I host a fundraising gala forCity Year, New Hampshire, which is
a beautiful gala. One of thebig dignitaries up there come to that event,

(21:32):
Scott, Yes, yes, Iwas surprised to see a lot of
the people that were there. Well. City Year does a lot of great
things for a lot of people,especially young people, and they're always working
hard to do more and more foryoung people. In fact, the gala
is this Saturday night and I'll behosting it again. That fantastic and it
always takes place at Wentworth by theSea, one of my favorite place places

(21:53):
on earth in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. But Scott, you were at the
event last year or the year before, last year, last year, and
what I do at the fundraiser isI'll offer up a couple of items and
one was, hey, you knowwhat, and I wasn't planning on that
that was the spirit of the momentthing. And I said, you know

(22:14):
what, in the live auction,I'm going to offer up the chance to
come on my Food for Thought showon WBZ News Radio and talk about whatever
it is you do. And weraised a lot of money thanks to you,
Scott, and here you are.Thanks. So now we've got to
talk about you. You've got acompany called Double Midnight. You've got two

(22:36):
locations. First of all, whatis Double Midnight and what does it mean?
So Double Midnight is a we startedin two thousand and two. I
was my brother and a good friendof ours and practically brother himself. Yeah,
So the three of us started acomic book store because there was nothing
in our area that was family friendlyand for everybody to go to. So

(23:00):
we saw a void and we steppedup and we filled it. The name
Double Midnight came from a production companythat my brother and our friend Brett had
started. They did a movie yearsago, like a local called Nowheresville.
It was just a locally filmed thingin Manchester. So it was a production
company, yes, yep, Andthey did a movie. They filmed it

(23:22):
in late ninety nine into two thousand. Yeah, and they were looking for
a name for the company, andthey were actually with another mutual friend and
they were actually watching the friend's nephewand the nephew was trying to get him
convinced everybody let him stay up late, and he's like, sometimes my parents
let me stay up till midnight.Like yeah, right, well sometimes they

(23:45):
let me stay up till double midnight. They're like, what is that?
And it just sounded cool, sothey just kind of we just kind of
ran with it. And when youstarted, what were you doing? What
was the company? So we justthe production company made the movie Nowheresville,
but we just kind of kept thename when we did the comics we wanted
because they their plane was to makemore movies kind of faltered, but we

(24:07):
kepind of to end up in thecomics industry. We had been big comic
fans all of our lives. Westarted out kind of like G I.
Joe and Transformers and kind of blossomedfrom there. And well, when we
were younger, it really wasn't asaccepted as it was now. We kind
of you know, had the likeit wasn't very cool. Oh you had

(24:30):
forty year old virgin guy that hadthe comic babble heads and everything and all
over the a little bit. Yeah, but we were we were also athletes,
so we didn't you know, itwasn't that little cross now you're qualifying.
Yeah, okay, we were athletestoo, right. I was a
quarterback for the college football team.Okay, so then what so then the

(24:51):
story that we had gone to theguy had sold it off to somebody else
and they kind of let it goand there was nothing for us to go
to. So we saw the void. We stepped up and we we started
with no business knowledge whatsoever, butwe just knew we loved comics, and
we started. We started with somecomics and games, and back in two
thousand and two, this was justbefore when the Spider Man movie hit.

(25:12):
Yeah, so we were just goingto the movie theaters, throwing flyers on
people's cars and things like that.So are these like the collectible comic books
like that? Yeah, they garnera lot of money. To see in
the news all the time, allthis comic book sold for four million dollars.
Well, I wish that was us. Why wish we had some of
those, But no, we've hadsome some decent ones in in our in

(25:33):
the shop what's the most valuable thingyou have in your stocks right now?
Right now would be the first appearanceof Wolverine, which was an incredible hulk
comic. And really ye, andwhat's that worth? Well? We actually
so a lot of companies. Youcan get them graded now. They put
them in like they encapsulate them liketrading cars doing the same thing. Yeah,

(25:55):
so we have one that we justgot back a few weeks ago.
But that's like it's like a veryvery good condition. It's like a thirty
five hundred dollars comic thirty five hundreddollars. Yeah. No, I'm guessing
you have to keep them in plasticbags or champing out. Does that work?
Yeah? How many comic books doyou have in total? Oh?
Jeezu? Probably half a million?I'm sorry, yeah, half a million.

(26:18):
Yep. What do you think thetotal worth of all your comic books
are? Oh? I don't know. I just did I'm sorry, I
just did my taxi too out ofmoney. Maybe you shouldn't say that.
I mean, I mean some ofthem are worth, you know, twenty
five cents. Some of them areworth hundreds. Now I can give you
a hot tip. I just foundthis out of Puerto Rico. No capital

(26:40):
gains. How about that? Okay, there are a lot of collectorates living
in Puerto Rico right now. Nocapital gains. I'm just saying. I'm
just saying. But you now doshows, yes, which include I guess,
the buying and selling and trading ofcomic books and everything related to comics.
Yep, and you bring a lotof well known people within the comic

(27:00):
industry. Yes. Okay, Sowe're going to talk about that because you
have one coming up, and we'llbreak that down and give people all the
information you need. Again, thecity here Gala is again happening this Saturday.
It went Worth by the Sea.Shout out to them. I've got
Scott Prewe in the studios. We'lltalk more right after the break. Please

(27:21):
hang in. You're listening to Foodfor Thought, brought to you by the
Box Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel inswedes Hey. Folks, welcome back.
It is Food for Thought. BillyCosta here. By the way, we
are the opening act for sixty minutescoming up right after this show is sixty
minutes on CBS. Anyway, Scottprew is here. We got him from

(27:44):
New Hampshire. He's got two locationsof his very cool company. It's called
Double Midnight. It's all about comics, comic books, comic games and comic
con. Now, when was thefirst comic con up in New Hampshire,
Scott So the first Greenies the ComicCon was in two thousand and three.
Well, what is now the DoubleTree in Manchester? Yeah? What was

(28:07):
it then? I think it wasa ratison. Okay, it's gone through
a couple iterations, Okay, butI'm guessing you started in a small room
yep, yep. We started injust one of the little ballrooms that we
had there. We just had sometables set up and we had some friends
of ours do some artwork, andwe had like little coupons and flyers and
everything that we come in perusing throughthe books, yea, offering deals,

(28:33):
buying, selling, trading. Didthey bring comic books with them too?
Some do? Yep. But wehad vendors from some people who might do
like things on the weekends. Theymight go to just different shows like ours
and sell their collections or sell theircomics. And now you're in a much
bigger room at the Double Tree.Yes, yeah, Now, actually the
room we use that we started inis actually just like a panel room where

(28:56):
people come in and talk and thingslike that. But now we took over
the whole hotel back in two thousandand twelve, I'm sorry, the entire
hotel. Yep. Yep. Theyhave so people book rooms, you block
out rooms for people are coming inand stuff like that. Yep. So
we actually sell out the hotel prettyquickly, sold out. Yeah, well

(29:18):
they must love you up there too. Yeah. Yeah, We've kind of
become a de facto teenage bemuting NinjaTurtles convention because I'm not sure if many
people know, but the Ninja Turtleswere actually created in New Hampshire in Dover.
I did not know that. GodI wish I had known. When
my kids were young. They wereNinja turtle freaks. They met the Ninja
Turtles at Disney World. But I'msure whoever was the Ninja Turtle that particular

(29:44):
day, you know what I'm saying. Yeah, actually, they just unveiled
a plaque a manhole cover with someartwork on it in Dover from the movie.
Yeah, the manhole cover that theturtles would come up through. Yep.
Ye, you didn't think I knewmy stuff? Uh, my Ninja
turtle stuff. But you also havecomic connected celebrities that commit right, yes,

(30:08):
yep, yeah like that. Forinstance, Uh, we've had Billy
D Williams who was Lando Carozian fromEmpire Strikes Back, one of the greatest
movies of all time. Billy DWilliams and Diana Ross. Well, what
was the name of the movie WishYou played a drug addict and he was
her manager or something? Oh mygod, a classic American film. Diana

(30:30):
Ross is coming back to Boston thissummer. N anyway, go ahead,
So you have who else? Andthen and we've had some wrestlers, We've
had like some actors from my Gameof Thrones coming in before. So it's
it's great you had actors from Gameof Thrones. Yeah, we had I
think five of them at the time, so yeah, it was it was

(30:51):
really cool. We were very excited. And and one of one of the
actors who actually went on to playplay Iron Fist in the one of the
Marvel TV shows. And you haveDon Wells. Now which singing group was
she from? She was actually fromGilligan's Island, that's what she was.
Maryann. Yeah, Yeah, we'vehe's had Marianne from Gilligan's Island. Yeah,
yeah, this is the real dealthis show. Oh yeah, now

(31:17):
I see Sam Jones. Is thatthe former Celtic Sam Jones? No,
that is the former Flash Gordon SamJones you had flash yep. Now,
okay, take us behind the sceneswhen you're sitting down, because when's the
next comic holl It's coming in SeptemberSeptember twenty first and twenty second. Do
you already have your lineup? Wehave some we have some guests that we're
still kind of buttoning up in.Now walk us through that. How does

(31:41):
that happen? Like, like,how do you set up comic con?
Okay, you sell out the wholehotel. Now you have to decide who
are we going to bring in andwho's going to bring people into our show?
How does that all happen? Likea Don Wells, for instance,
a Billy d Williams, so alot of their man they have like a
management team that does conventions and stufflike that, so appearances. So they

(32:06):
kind of work with us and weshow them a good time and then they
want to come back and bring otherpeople with them. And actually one of
my partners travels the world with someof these people, so it's kind of
he's worked with them since. Youknow, he was introduced at our convention,
so he kind of met one ofthese guys and became good friends with

(32:29):
him. And now he does appearancesall over the world with some celebrities,
and so he he's met people,he's met other agents and management and they
want to work with us and bringtheir people in. Now, Scott,
when you started out, like Iremember when well, I remember when I
was young, I had trading cards, Baseball trading cards, NBA trading cards.

(32:51):
But we played games with them.Yep, you know, we put
them in our spokes or our bicyclesounded like a motorcycle, and we played
a game called Leaners, you know, and carry a shoe box full of
our guards. And sometimes you tradewith people. But in a million years,
I never thought, hey, somedaythese cars might be worth a lot
of money. As it happens,my son Chris owns a company now called

(33:12):
card Vault, and he's partnered withBig Night Entertainment. He's got three retail
stores, one at Patriot Place,one at Fox Was, one at the
TV Garden, and that's what hedoes for a living now. Card Vault
three locations and he hosts giant cardshows all over the country Chicago, Los
Angeles, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, FenwayPark, TV Garden. And my immediate

(33:36):
thought was, Hey, Chris,do you remember the loose leaf binders of
baseball cards? You all had threesons each had four or five thick binders,
all of them in plastic. Isaid, we're all those cards because
those must have been in perfect shape. We never played any games with them.

(33:58):
They were constantly in plastic. Oh, I have no idea, really,
And now cards are selling for overa million dollars, which leads me
to my question, Scott, whenyou first started out, did you start
with any of your own comic booksfrom childhood? I did. Actually,
when the three of us started thestore, we kind of put on our

(34:19):
own collections with the mentality that,you know, if we want them back
at some point, we'll buy themback. So you already knew there was
a potential value yep to these particularcomic books. Yeah. Yeah, because
at the time there were a coupleof magazines that would have like price guides
and things like that, and therewere you trading as a child. I
did trade with some friends for money. Yeah, No, just for other

(34:39):
collections. So it was a bookyou wanted? They had a book?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, uhand now look at you. Yeah.
I remember my having mustaches of comicboxes under my bed, and my mom
would say, I hope one daythese are going to pay your mortgage.
Well they are in a different waythan she thought, but yeah, do

(35:00):
you keep them all? I havea few boxes of my own that I
kept for like sentimental value. Butthese are not far board boxes. I'm
guessing these are professional Oh yes,walcked boxes. Now what do you have
for children? I have two girls, ten and a seven year old.
Are they aware of the value ofyour comic book? They're not going to

(35:21):
have two friends over and say,hey, let's have some fun with the
books. They have no idea.They're they're more. They're more to the
graphic novels and stuff like that.Did they realize in the smallest way that
these books could end up being theirfuture? I hope. So did they
ever come out and work with you? They want to? Actually, one
of my my ten year olds said, hey, can you know, can

(35:42):
me and my best friend come workfor you this summer. I'm like,
we'll see, we'll work something out. Yeah, I think that would be
great. But every time they comeby, they want to work the register
and what they call the beeper,which is the barker with scanner. Yeah.
You gotta be careful though, becauseyou know they start working for you.
The next thing, you know,they want to take over the company.
Yeah, very much, which Iguess isn't a bad thing because they're

(36:02):
at least they've got at entrepreneurial thing. I gotta retire someday, Yeah,
don't we all? Yeah, someday. Okay. So the next comic Con
is when September twenty first and twentysecond, and where in Manchester? So
it's a two day event, Yeah, full hotel and say it's already sold
out. The hotel rooms are soldout. Yeah, because actually this year

(36:25):
we are actually adding the Southern NewHampshire University Arena, which is right across
the street. Yeah, we're addingthat to our footprint as well, So
meaning, well, what will behappening over there? So we're gonna have
some vendors, some celebrities, somelike movie replica cars. Yeah, so
you're filling that into like the MiamiBoat Show of the comic con world.
I'd love to multiple locations. Thingsgoing on everywhere. You probably have vendors,

(36:51):
right, yep, Yeah, wehave tons of vendors, artists,
comic creators coming in. Yeah.Wow, big event two days? Was
it two days last year? Yes? Yes, yep, two days and
again the Comic Con event two daysin September. Double Tree Hotel, Manchester
and Hampshire. Yep. You haveyour lineup of celebrities all locked up.

(37:13):
We have some and we have moremore that we're announcing. Okay. You
also have another event that we wantto talk about before we say goodbye,
and it's Free Comic Book Day.Yes, I didn't know that existed,
but I'm going to find out moreabout it. Free Comic Day. Comic
Book Day, Are you kidding me? Scott Prew is here with us and
we'll talk more about Comic Con andFree Comic Book Day. And we'll do

(37:37):
that right after the break. It'sFood for Thought and I'm Billy Costa stand
by. You're listening to Food forThought, brought to you by the Box
Center and Salem Waterfront Hotel and sweets. Hey, folks, welcome back to
Food for Thought. Billy Costa here, we're talking to Scott Prove from Double
midnight up there in New Hampshire.Two locations of the big Comic Con event
coming up two days in September atthe Double Tree. Is there a website

(38:01):
they can go to Scott Yes forthe for the convention, it's Granite Con,
dot com okay and comic Free ComicBook Day. What's that? Yes?
So Free Comic Book Day is exactlywhat it sounds like. You can
get some free comics. This isa worldwide program that was started in I
believe two thousand and one by acomic retailer out in California who was actually

(38:25):
in a plaza with a Baskin Robbinsand they were having free Scoop Day and
he thought, well, that's youknow, why can't we do that with
comics. So he actually worked witha few publishers and a distributor and a
couple of years later it was startup as Free Comic Book Day. So
who qualifies for free comic books?Any anybody? So you just come and

(38:47):
where are they coming from? Sothe publishers make books for Free Comic Book
Day and they actually have like theFree Combook Day logo on them. Some
of them might be reprints, someof them like the big publishers like Marvel
Comics and DC Comics. They kindof use this to kick off their big
storylines for the summer. Oh andwhen is this event? It is Saturday
May fourth, and a website theycan go for information on that. I

(39:10):
believe it's freecombook dat dot com oryou can check out like our website is
Dmcomics dot com. All right,before we go, I always like to
throw in a few places I checkedout just recently. Balaya is a new
restaurant. It's in the Troy Apartmentbuilding in the South end of Boston.
It is Portuguese inspired and it isa beautiful restaurant. Also Eastern Standard.

(39:32):
It was always in Kenmore Square,right around the corner from Fenway Park.
They have since moved Garrett Harker asthe owner and he's in a new location
just outside ken Moore Square. Youdefinitely want to check out the new Eastern
Standard. What a beautiful restaurant.If you haven't been to MGM Music Hall
for a concert. First of all, it's one of the most intimate concert

(39:55):
venues in the city of Boston.It's at the end of Lansdown's ste so
you're right behind Fenway Park. It'sliterally attached to Fenway Park and Jenny and
I shot the show there just recently, and I had been to a show
there once, but I had neverbeen to the roof deck at the MGM
Music Hall. Oh my. Firstof all, you're looking down on a

(40:16):
very active landsdown street and up onthe roof deck they have a giant bar.
And I'm telling you, if youhaven't been to a show or an
event at MGM Music Hall, youreally got to check it out. Don't
forget about a year ago William andKate were there for a fund raising event.
It's a very cool place. Andalso the roof deck at Legal Harbor

(40:38):
Side. I know a lot ofpeople have already been there. It's at
the Seaport District and they've got theroof deck with the retractable roof with that
entire roof deck has been completely renovated. Hasn't even opened yet, but they're
going to have an opening launch partyMay fourth, and that's a Saturday night.
And I found out by a bythe way, shout outs to the

(41:00):
executive chef, Matt King, greatguy, great chef. I found out
by accident the opening night launch Mayfourth, on a Saturday night. Heyj
you'll appreciate this. Our friend MikeyV is DJing, so I said,
I get to bring a bunch ofpeople and just bust this shop, go
right, just do like a barMitzer thing where we constantly bug them for

(41:20):
songs. I can't believe you haven'tplayed my song. Can you play my
song? Five minutes later? Playmy song? Anyway? That's check it
out. You may want to bethere. It's the launch party for the
roof Deck, newly renovated at LegalHarborside, Boston Seaport District. I'm pretty
sure I'll be there. And it'sa beautiful view over the harbor. And
if there was a concert at thepavilion that night, you can actually hear
the concert without buying a ticket.Okay, I said it. We're out

(41:45):
of time. We gotta go.I want to thank Bobby Wong from the
Kyle Loon. I want to thankScott Prew. Check it out Double Midnight,
a two day festival comic con comingto Manchester, New Hampshire. But
we got to get out of hereand you know what's up next sixty minutes
will see you by everybody,