Jimmy's Bronx Story: Sofrito, Hustle & VIPs Con Jimmy Rodriguez

In this can't-miss episode, we sit down with South Bronx legend Jimmy Rodriguez — the Puerto Rican visionary behind NYC staples like Jimmy’s Bronx Café, Sofrito, and Don Coqui for a raw and real conversation about hustle, legacy, and staying true to your roots.

Jimmy opens up about growing up in the Bronx, dropping out of high school, and hitting the streets with his dad as teen selling lobsters, a grind that would later shape his journey as a restauranteur. He shares how a lack of Latino-owned spots in the city fueled his mission to fill that void and how he secured millions as a young man to build what would become cultural hubs for Latinos in NYC.

From legendary nights hosting Celia Cruz, J.Lo, Tito Puentes, Yankees players... to the wild story of why Fidel Castro ended up at his Bronx Cafe (and how Jimmy wound up in Cuba with Castro’s uniform in hand), this episode is packed with surprises.

He gets candid about fatherhood, including being estranged from his son with actress Michael Michele. Plus, we touch on his new spot SoBro, his thoughts on Diddy’s public downfall, and why the Yankees have fallen short in showing real love to the Bronx.

Jimmy’s far from done and considers himself a forever student of life, of the restaurant game, and of the culture. Tap in for a story of resilience, reinvention, and real Bronx royalty.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Come Again as a production.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Now, Jimmy Rodriguez, Welcome to Gassias, Come Again. When I
say Jimmy Rodriguez, I want to say Jimmy from Jimmy's
Brong's Cafe, because this is how we all know you
here in the tri state, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut.
You were everything to us. Can I say that, I'm
just excited to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm so happy that I'm a guest. I'm excited to
talk today about Jimmy Roveguez.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Jimmy Rodriguez, Jimmy Rodriguez. It feels like I've known you forever,
but I don't know you. I did that happened well,
you know, it's like we grew up like I remember
when when your neighbors like Jimmy's gotta go to Jimmys,
we gotta go to Jimmys, we gotta go to Jimmy's.
And I was like, and you know, before we even
get deep into who you are and the core of
who you are, I just want you to know that

(00:52):
when we went to Jimmy's as young girls and we
saw you walk by, it was like there's Jimmy. Oh
my good, there's him and you were. You felt so
tall and like your presence just felt so like grand
and I want you to know you made an impact.
And it wasn't even like, oh, we want to talk
to him to get his number anything. She's like, there
he is the man.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah. I mean it's interesting because I always wanted to
make our community feel proud of everything we did, you know,
because we did it together as a family. So I
was excited.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
And I want to know we were proud of you.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Wherever we saw you, it was just like Jimmy, there's Jimmy. Now,
where where was Jimmy born?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Jimmy was born in Fordham Hospital. The Bronx was part
of Fordham University right now in the Bronx. I have
two brothers and grew up in the South Bronx and
lived all over the Bronx and made a lot of
history in the Bronx.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Puerto Rican born and.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Raised Puerto Rican. My both my parents are.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Puerto Rican and they migrated to the Bronx.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
From Puerto Rico.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes, no, it's crazy. It's like I saw a meme
and it was just like Puerto Ricans saw this and
it shows a beautiful beach and they decided to move
to the Bronx, Like, I don't know, why, isn't that
what we did? What we all did. We all migrated.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Interesting times, especially growing up in that era where it
was the first time where the eighties, oh like Puerto
Rican restaurants. Back then, mom cooked at home, so Dad
had to eat at home. So we didn't have nothing
that represented the Puerto Rican community.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
It was mostly it was mostly black and white.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Not even I mean we had Sylvia's, we had white restaurants,
we had Chinese restaurants, we had had some Irish restaurants,
but Puerto Rican Dominican that didn't exist back back in
those days.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
I feel like we were still kind of like getting
our footing in and owning something like Jimmy's Bronx Cafe
was like on thought of for our parents as immigrants.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
It's mind boggling because even sometimes I think about, you know,
the purchase of Jimmy's Bronx Cafe, the challenge of how
to buy the property and back then, you know, opening
up my school, that got even setting fish in the
street and owning this small restaurant and going to buy
your property on Ford and Road and major dig and
with little or no money, and when back then there

(03:08):
was redlining with the banks, so you couldn't even get
loans from the bank. So you know, I was able
to secure a million one and twenty four percent, which
was great for me because I had another off for
thirty two percent interest only.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
You're gonna have to put me on listen. You're gonna
have to tell me how I can do something like
what you did, because it's still even today in twenty
twenty five. It's not an easy thing for us to do.
You know, let's say me as a Latina.

Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's true, the woman is very challenging, very.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Challenging open up an establishment. Do you think I can
do it now presently?

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yes? Yes, Now you would have to look at the
challenges that you would have to overcome opening up a
new business today. What is post COVID So like for me,
I'm relearning the hospitality industry even being in it for
forty years, I'm learning right now what is the trend?
Which direction are the people headed? You know, because you

(04:07):
make money in life filling voids, you know what people
are looking for. So I'm seeing the new generation, what
type of eating habits, what type of things they want
to do what they want to capture. They want to
go into places where they can be photographed. They just
want to have this instant moment. So you have to
challenge yourself every day and what would make your show

(04:31):
more successful. Who's your audience because there's a new audience.
You're capturing a new audience, and I think right now
the new generation and even across the board, everybody needs
role models, like people to tell them what they're experiencing
for mental health reasons and just to live, because at

(04:52):
what point do you stop living? I mean exactly. So
school is never over. So I'm teaching my kids as
as well as that teaching me new things in life,
which is interesting.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
It's called reverse mentorship, which we have it in my
company where you you know, an older person gets with
a younger person. They teach me and I teach them and.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
I'm excited every day.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
That's amazing. Now you mentioned, you know, selling seafood in
the street. I do really deep into your past. This
is something that you did with your father as a
young man. Yes, how old were you?

Speaker 2 (05:27):
I believe I was seventeen just I just left. I
just finished. I didn't even finish high school. I had
six months to go, and I dropped out because I
started working and I was making money, and I didn't
think that I was going to be a baseball player.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
But I wanted to be a baseball You wanted to
be a baseball player.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
So I played with Bobby Benia. I played with him
from literally to junior pony to double A to high school.
We compete against each other. He was a great ball player.
But I had the chance to be there, and I
didn't think that I can make it, you know, and
I could have, you know. But I mean, I'm not
regretting anything that you know, God put in my life.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
You've lived a great life.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I still have a lot to go. I'm just starting.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
This is this is Jimmy two point oh okay, and
I love this Now. You dropped out of high school.
Do you ever think like I should have finished or
did you finish?

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Or no? Because I had so many great mentors in
my life that I don't think that my teachers could
have taught me the lessons that I've learned from so
many people in my life. Percy Sutton, Sylvia's from Sylvia
Van Woods, Charlie Rangeo, Jose Currano. I mean, the list

(06:39):
goes on people.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
That just so you feel like life lessons are by
far more important than let's say, sitting in a classroom.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I mean, we are in a classroom right now. We're learning,
we're learning from each other. So this is a platform.
This is a classroom for me because at the end
of the day, even with my team that I work
with every day, we're going to class and we talk
about things that we need to do to be better.
What can we correct? You know, where are we going
in the future. So we're never not in the classroom.

(07:08):
We're never not learning, we're never not teaching, Like why
children not grandchildren? So I feel that a classroom in
the school is one platform. Is it going to teach
you to be a millionaire? I don't think so. How's
a guy that doesn't know how to make seven figures
gonna teach you how to make seven figures? I need you.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
And that's the reason I ask because sometimes you know,
people like you know, the most successful people, you know
millionaires didn't even graduate high school. It didn't even go
to college. And that's the only reason I ask that.
I always wonder. I'm like, do very highly successful people
that didn't finish high school or didn't go to college,
have that regret in the back of their mind. You
just told me you don't.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Oh, and I'm not interested. Like for me, i'd rather
be just around successful people. I'd rather be the dumbest
one in the room.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
So, oh, that's a musk.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
That's a musk for me. So I want to be
in that room every single day. I don't want to
I don't want to tell people I know anything. I
just want to learn, whether it's younger people, older people.
I just want to learn every single day of my life.

Speaker 1 (08:04):
And that absolutely makes sense. And it brings me to
something you know that I mentioned recently. I was like,
I don't want to be the person that everybody's learning from.
I want to learn from the people around me. I'm like,
it's getting kind of a little bit tiring that I'm
the one teaching. I'm like, I don't want to teach it anymore.
Where are my mentors? Where are my teachers? So I
see exactly where you're coming from as far as wanting
to be the dumbest person in the room, because I

(08:24):
want that too.

Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah. I mean, I'm trying right now. I'm trying to
figure out TikTok something, Oh, I got you, that's right.
The young folks, and I'm like, a, how do you
do this? How do you do this? But then you know, well,
they're like, well, they'll spend it back at me. It's like, hey,
you always said there's no iron team. Give me your
input and I'll be Okay, I think we should do this,
and we'll just do it together and we'll laugh about it.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
It's really cool because social media is it's all about
being creative and collaborating because a lot of tiktoks take
two three people. Sometimes it takes an entire family to
put one successful TikTok together, so it is a collaboration. Now,
speaking of family, your far other, Yes, was he the
one that opened it? Or how did this work? Because

(09:06):
I this was my father's spot when I was growing up. Yes,
I remember my father. That was the spot, that was
his spot on Sundays a carven And you know, it's crazy.
When I was doing my research, I was like, oh
my god, that was dad's spot. He's no longer with us,
and I it just opened up like an old memory
that was kind of like I guess in the back
of my mind, I'm like Wow, that was your father.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
That was my father. Okay, So little history of my
father please. He was a cab driver, okay. And then
it became a book maker. So he was collecting, you know,
numbers back in the day that had numbers every store,
just a number stop spot. He was a heavy, heavy gambler.

(09:50):
You know. He would gamble thousands of dollars a day.
And I'm talking about fifty years ago, two three, four,
five thousand dollars a day.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
I was a fortune, a fortune.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
But he was making it that way. He had a
grocery store, he had a fish market, a little restaurant,
and he managed to lose them all. And then he
borrowed four hundred dollars from a school teacher and he
went to Jordan lobster Farm in Long Island and bought

(10:20):
one hundred pounds a lobster and he started selling lobster
on the west Chester and the Bronx River. And we
were there for I believe two years before they kicked
us out because we created a nightmare between traffic, double bucket.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Tripper part everybody trying to preach.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
They eventually got rid of us out of that corner
and we went to the Cross Bronx and Webster, and
we started selling fish under the street under the highway,
and I remember getting the hot water next door from
leaving an antle so we could throw out those shrips
and everything else. And then we rented across the street,
which the little side of the building, and one day

(10:56):
the landlord asked us to watch his property and we
rented Maris. It was huge, and it was it was
challenging because we didn't have gas, so we were cooking
on an electric little stove. Was twenty one shrimps for
five nine I remember with French fries and we had
to peel each one of these shrimps. It was, it was,

(11:18):
it was challenging. It was interesting because we fulfilled the
need of the people between coconut sugar canes, seafood soup,
seafood rice, lopster salad, and the shrimps. And it just
took off. I mean I remember more than forty years
ago doing five six million dollars a year out of
a little hole in the wall. So you know, it

(11:38):
was it was interesting because my father got sick, he
went to Puerto Rican. When he went to Puerto Rican,
when he came back and we did the whole restaurant,
and he was like, I don't know what to do.
It's not a mom and pop operation, even though it
was like a real restaurant at that point, because now
we have tables, we had linen, we had waiters.

Speaker 1 (11:56):
I got to ask, where did you get the money
to do this?

Speaker 2 (12:01):
Please? We saved I remember courses about one hundred and
twenty thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
There's a lot of money today. I can only imagine.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
No, because we were making money. I mean we were
business because it was only a couple of us, and
we worked hard every day. So everything we put it
right back in the business, you know, just reinvest, reinvest.
And then one day I saw Fordham Road and I
made an offer on it and we moved my score
that got even to Jimmy's Bronze Cafe, but nobody believed.

(12:29):
I remember it. Back then, I was trying to borrow
money from anybody and everybody I could. Pulito Vega, he
would always walk around with thousands of dollars in the sock,
a whole not in a sock, in the sock every day,
like every day anytime anybody knew Bully though, he had
socks like loaded with money. It was like, I need

(12:52):
fifteen thousand. I can't help you. I remember another friend
of mine. I don't want to mention his name, but
I said, I need like a ten. I was not
a check. I needed to bounce. But I just need
the time. In the other words, because.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Back then, little period of time period you.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
Put it in, it takes a week before it bounces,
and then you read the project, it takes another week.
So that it gave me two weeks to get that money,
and he couldn't even do that for me. So I
was forced to borrow, you know, hard money, which was
twenty four percent, which was which was okay because I
believed in the dream. I believed in myself, so it
didn't matter what it was going to cost me. It
would have cost me more if I didn't do it.

(13:28):
So for me at the end, I don't look at
anything as you know, every project and every I mean
from Jimmy's Cafe, Jimmy's Uptown, Jimmy's Downtown, Jimmy City Island,
five hundred employees, much money, how much money?

Speaker 1 (13:43):
I just how do you not have any great here
right now? That's what I want to know, because Jesus.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
It's a secret. It's called rewind. My buddy Fat Joe,
he got this thing called rewind Wi t rewind.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Here you go, Okay, Lauren, I see what you did here.
So now you look amazing for that rundown of restaurants
that you just gave them. I'm like this man, really
that was nothing.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
That was just four So then after that I got
rid of all of them and I had I did
Sofria on fifty seventh Street.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Sorito was a staple.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
There wasn't a birthday that was had that we didn't
need to celebrate in Sophritha.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
Okay, I mean everybody went to Sofriita from God.

Speaker 1 (14:26):
Let's talk celebrities, because I feel like there hasn't been
any other Latino establishment that has really, you know, been
able to, you know, pull in the type of celebrity
clientele that you have. Interesting Jennifer Lopes did you know
Jennifer lopeesever?

Speaker 2 (14:44):
Okay? So, I mean it's family. She's proms. That's that's
BX all day b XBX. You know how that is.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So she was willing to come through and show love.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
So I tell you funny, I tell you funny. Jo's story.
The first time, I don't know, this is sorry ironic.

(15:16):
The first time she went to Jimmy's Cafe, she went
with Puff okay.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
And they went, that's Diddy, guys for whoever doesn't know
him as Puff. Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
So she went that one time. And at the time,
I had a public relations individual called Richard Turley, one
of my mentors. The guy he took me out of
the Bronx. He brought me to the White World.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
He said, let's clean you up a little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:39):
Let me show you what downtown looked like. So they
went and he was like personal best friends with Richard Johnson.
Richard Johnson was Paid six. If you talk about back
then in the day, if you was on Paid six,
you was somebody. Was it? You woke up every day like, hey,
if you were there for one reason, you was in

(16:00):
bel if not, they were highlighting your life. So the
next day, the first day that they go on, it's
on page six that Puff and Jay are at Jimmy's
Bronx Cafe.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
So that's when the relationship with public well, that's.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
That's the you know, the worst thing that you could
ever imagine is that you're going to go to the
Bronx and the next day be on page six. You
would think the last place they're going to talk about
you is you going to the Bronx, And it came out.
So that's one of the revelations that came out from
Jimmy's Bronx Cafe. But it was like everybody wanted to
be there. Calvin Klein, Mutcha Prada. I remember one day

(16:38):
Calvin Klein was going through the dance floor and he
grabs this kid that has a wife beater and he
just like like puts his hand on his shoulder or whatever,
and the guy turns to me. He goes, jim who's this?
Who's this? He's about ready to get torn.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
Up, And I'm like, so you were mixing the two worlds.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Listen and the guy and I like, that's Calvin Klehanne.
He's looking for a new ad Kate. He's like, why
don't you just tell me can touch me now?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
He's like, I'm ready to model right now. Now, let's
bring it back. Are you surprised by everything to happen
with Diddy or how did that take you? Because it's
so much happening with him right now.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
It's all bullshit.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
You feel like it's all bullshit.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
It's all you know, you know.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
What, it's his private life.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
I think it's I think he turned around and he
heard a certain group of people that he wasn't they're
teaching him a lesson when you take down a certain
group of people of corporation and you destroy a brand.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
So you feel like this had to do with what
was it one of his tequilas or something. There was
like an issue with his Why is the spirit.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
When you turn around and you play with people's money,
they'll tell you, they'll teach you who the boss is.
I mean, look at Kanye full of grace.

Speaker 1 (17:52):
Because listen what happened with Diddy. This is something that
it's huge. It's all everybody talks about. The trials have
to right now domestic.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Violence, Like come on, like really, like, what did he do?
He partied, That's what Hollywood does every single day. So
what I mean, really, where did this stem from? I mean,
if he would have just not played with certain people's money,
he wouldn't be in a position he's in right now.
You know, there's a lot of crazy people in this world,
and people do certain things using drugs and things happen,

(18:24):
but do you really got to come down on him
like that? I mean, come on, he took down billions
of dollars. Let's let's talk about without talking about it.
He heard, he heard.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
He said billions.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Would it be Yeah, there's a lot of money that
was hurt. I mean, do you destroy the whole brand?
What is that worth? Same thing? They're doing it back
to him, they're playing ping pong right now.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Did he mess with the wrong people? And what they've
done with him? It's just like, how can he even
come back from this? Like I was looking at the pictures,
like the exhibits, I'm like, what's happening here? What are
these photos?

Speaker 2 (18:58):
I you know, God, you know, And I'm a true
believer that God does certain things that certain people's at
certain points of our life to teach us certain lessons
because that whole me to movement. If that was ten
years earlier, how many more people would be in jail
right now? You understand what I'm saying. And there's nobody
like you. Look at every industry, every every person around

(19:20):
the world is being affected by this whole situation.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
Do you feel like it's you know, hypocritical because let's say,
Hugh Hefner. Nothing like this was ever done to him,
and he lived a lifestyle that was questionable at times questionable.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
There's the right way and there's the right way. He
did it the right way, and it's that's he would keep.
Let's keep how it is. I mean, could you imagine
the if those walls could talk?

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Oh no, I don't even want to.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
You want to talk about party animals. We can start
with the president.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Oh Trump, Oh, that's an animal animal when it comes
to that party. What's the craziest night that you experienced
that one of your establishments. What do you say, a
memorable night that you're like, wow, that one goes down
in the books. I'm sure there were men.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
There's so many.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I mean, come on, come on.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
Fidel Castro.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Oh, I want to talk about that knockout Fidel Castro.
This is the South Bronx. That's a book. I'm like,
they wrote a whole book about Fidel Castro visiting your establishment.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
And it wasn't me like that. That's not listen. You know,
Serrano invited Fidel to the restaurant, and that came because
Giuliani at the time was the mayor and he uninvited
him and coffee, and I believe from all the the

(20:48):
events that were celebrated around the anniversary of the un
So he asked me if if he invited him, what
I you know what I would I host the event? Like? Sure,
why not? I mean, I'm already known as a place
of unsavory characters to go in the Bronx, and you're
imagine some.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
Shit like that that.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Came because every baseball, basketball, every celebrity and star was
going to the Bronx and they felt that, you know,
they're why how can all of these people hang out
in the South Bronx. They're not hanging out the higher
than I hanging out in the city. No, they're hanging
out the South Bronx. And you know, any incidents that
happened around us or evolve, they felt, you know, that

(21:32):
they needed unsavory characters are going to the Bronx Cafe,
but they go to the X Stadium, they go to
Madison Square Garden, they go to everywhere else. But instead
of like giving us the protection that we deserve. I mean,
you're talking about thousands of people going to my restaurant
and no police presence, and the only time the police
come is to try to like harass us because you know,

(21:55):
it's always been harassment with the police department, is always
them in US. And I have nothing against the police,
because I would tell you I probably have more police
friends in this world right now in my life than
I've ever had in my life. So it's not about police.
It's just the mentality that cops have when they come
and approach us as a community. They're not taught to

(22:15):
like relate to us, you know. And back then we
didn't have like captains and chiefs that were Latinos or blacks.
It was all white alrighty or this, But we didn't
have no one that could help us. So back then
it was like we had no way to help our community.
It was really sad.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
It wasn't like a community thing with the police. It
was more about policing awus, making sure we stood in
our lane. Don't get out of character.

Speaker 2 (22:41):
That's a funny story. Funny story. So Ian Schrager, all right,
Ian Schrager is one of my mentors. I love this guy.
For those that don't know who Ian Frager is, Studio
fifty four. That is like the nightclub God of God.

Speaker 1 (22:54):
I saw a picture of you there. I'm like oh
my god, he was super young.

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Yes, Ian and Steve Rebell. They had this club where
the who's who of the world went. So I remember
one time In comes to the restaurant. He used to
go there all the time with his best friend Robert
Isabelle Norma Kamali, and he runs around the club. There's
like twelve hundred and fifteen hundred people in the club,

(23:18):
and he goes, Jimmy, there's nobody doing drugs in your place.
I'm like, why are you surprised? He's like, all of
these people and no one is doing drugs. And I
went to the bathroom and I no drugs. I'm like,
how do you do it? I'm like, well, it's different. See,
we can't you could because downtown, you guys don't get scrutinized. Uptown,

(23:41):
we get shut down. So we gotta be twice as nice.
You know, we can't even play around because they're looking
for any reason to try to shut us down, to
like prove that we cannot be successful. So I'm always
walked on eggs shells because you know, it's it's I
always had to work twice as hard as everybody else
because everybody looks at me like, what are you going

(24:03):
to do? How would you do it?

Speaker 1 (24:05):
So it was very challenging back then, I can imagine,
because you know, we come from an environment where if
we're going to an establishment, the police is outside looking
at us walking to the establishment to try to see
how they can even like pull us off of a
line or say you're doing something wrong. So we had
to move different as Latinos, as minorities, and you know,
in the Bronx, it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I mean, if you had two peoples you're a drug dealer,
Like you couldn't even have a beeper if you had
to be a drug like Okay, how did.

Speaker 1 (24:33):
You make all these connections? You're mentioning all these mentors,
all these people. As a kid from the South Bronx,
Puerto Rican, You're like, how are you meeting these people?
Who's introducing you?

Speaker 2 (24:44):
Richard Turley brought me downtown one time to a party,
a very fancy apartment and they walk in as the
only minority, like Latino, the only one of color besides
the ones that are serving the adrbs. So as they're
passing on dirbs, I'm like, but they know who I am.
I knows who I am. Oh, that's Jimmy Rodveguez. That's

(25:05):
Jimmy Rodriguez. So as I go through, and I'm like,
I'm a little like nervous because I'm a kid from
the South Bronx. I never hung out with the white people,
with the people below ninety six Street, because you know,
you grew up in the Bronx. Above ninety six Street
was uptown. Below ninety six Street was downtown, the low
fourteenth Street, the village. That's it. There was no that

(25:28):
was just uptown and that's it. So I go there
and I'm in the room and I really like I'm
sweating and I don't know what to do. Awkward. Yeah,
and then I get introduced to one and then you
they want to know about me. I want to know
about you, and I want to know about you. And
then all of a sudden is like I'm rocking in
the room. Before you know what, I'm going to every
party downtown and everybody's invited me here and everything, because

(25:51):
you become just natural because you break that ice and
you just realize that everything is okay. And then I
would bring them up to the they I bought them
to the Bronx so they'd be like, wow, I'm excited
I bring them to Harlem. They'd be like, oh my god,
I would never come to Harlem. I'm like, let's let's.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
Do this lit You're like, I got you, like a
totally different world all day crazy. I feel like that's
a wall that a lot of us, you know, sometimes
black and Latinos have that were like, we don't co
mingle with the whites, especially the rich ones and the
successful ones. Do you feel like that was an advantage
that you had, that you were welcomed and admired by

(26:28):
that group of people that later on turned out to
be mentors and friends.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
They were lucky to have me in their life, okay,
because you know, I gave them a different perspective. I
think that our perspective of growing up in a real
environment versus I say, a fake environment because you have
to put on the show. We ain't got to put
on the show. We got to live. We get up,
we enjoy our life. We're real, we're genuine. And then

(26:52):
I realized that it didn't matter how much money they had,
it didn't matter how educated they were, it didn't matter
or that where they're from they had the same problems
we did.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
We're all regular people.

Speaker 2 (27:06):
The same problems. I just thought because they had more money,
they went to a better school, they lived in a
better place. They didn't know they had the same drug problems,
the same fighting problems, the same divorce problems, the same
problems with their children that we're having without you. It
was all the same. It was relative. So not knowing
what to expect was the fear that I first had.
But then after a while I was like, you know,

(27:26):
I walked into any party like, hey, how you doing.
What's your name?

Speaker 1 (27:29):
But did that come from the fact that you were
successful so young?

Speaker 2 (27:37):
I don't think success. I think it was because I
was very confident with the like just being a beautiful
person that it's easy to connect with another person when
when you're just like this. No, I don't pretend there's nothing.
What you see is what you get. Like the other day,
I went to the Bronx Ball, So why do I
bring up the Bronx Ball because over twenty five years

(27:57):
ago for Theel Castro went to my restaurant.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
So did you get to meet him, Like, how did
that go down? Because like, we touched on it, we talked,
we talked about why he came, but we didn't talk
about the moment he came.

Speaker 2 (28:08):
Oh so when he came, he came to the Bronx Cafe.

Speaker 1 (28:12):
And I love how you just say the Bronx Cafe.
You don't say your own name. Like I would never
live to say the Bronx Cafe. It's always Jimmy's Bronx Cafe.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
I should practice that, Okay, So I want to I
was at my place Jimmy's Bronx Cafe came, and then
he came, and I remember he came so secret services, Like, so,
where's how much security at I'm like, I have like
five or six yead Like that's it. I'm like, if
anything happens to him, is on you, for real? I

(28:42):
I had They had helicopters, they had boats, they had
the whole thing sealed off. They had the protesters on
one side, the ones that Rooty family.

Speaker 1 (28:49):
Did the protests even know he was coming.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Listen, every media, everybody in the world wanted to see him.
He comes to the back and when he comes to
the back, I remember there's a whole old pilot of
water and he grabs the guy. He says, get me
one of the bottles of water from the palette because like,
there's not just so you can't poison every you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
So I see where you're going.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
No, that's like you have to.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Be go three cases down and give me the one whatever.

Speaker 2 (29:17):
So he drank that and then we spoke and he
signed a jersey for me. He said to Jimmy, meant
the Fidel Castro nineteen ninety five. So actually this was
thirty years ago. And he signed a Yankee hat for me,
and he signed Fidel Castro. And then I remember some
time later I visited.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
Him in Gua in Cuba. That's interesting he invited you
or how did you end up? Was it his house
or was it like the White House in Gua?

Speaker 3 (30:04):
So I need the details, So Serrano said, if ever,
I said, I'm going to Cuba with one hundred black
men the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
They're going for a festival for Benni Morrell. So as
I go for the festival for Bennie Morrell, I'm sitting
in the audience in this big concert hall. As I'm
in the concert hall, Serrano says, if he ever visits,
if you get the chance to meet with him, he

(30:41):
doesn't meet in the daytime. He meets only a night fine.
So I'm sitting there in the audience and I said, well,
let him know that.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I'm coming up for Dolemont.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Right, So I gave him these pictures. I had a
gift package for him, right. So as I have the
give package for him, the set of baseballs, he turns
around and somebody touched me on the shoulder and says,
el Comandante would like to see you. So this is

(31:14):
like like, wow, the boss is calling. So I get
up from the seat. And when I get up from
the seat, I says, they bring me in the car.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
And I said, oh, they had to take you elsewhere.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
They yeah, they had to pick me up to take
me elsewhere. So I'm like, okay, so I'm gonna share
something with you. This is so literally, So so i

(31:49):
go pick up the present to give it to him.
And I'm sitting in the White House in Cuba and
I'm having morhidos with him and just sitting with me
and him his assistant and true me and we're just
having drinks and we're talking about New York the economy.
I'm not like, I'm not a politician.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
I'm literally looking at a photo of you right now,
just talking to right.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
So I asked him for a shirt, you know, because
I have all this collection of jerseys and shirts.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Is that the shirt I'm looking?

Speaker 2 (32:20):
And he gives me the whole uniform, the jacket, the shirt,
and the.

Speaker 1 (32:24):
Pants that he had on that day or just.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
A difference that he gave it to me. And so
where is this now? It's in storage?

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Okay, so you still have it.

Speaker 2 (32:35):
So for the Bronx ball thirty years later, I was
invited and I decided to show up dressed as for
the casher with the Yankee. That's it with these clothes, yeah, perfect?
How does this?

Speaker 1 (32:52):
It looks like brand new clothes.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
It's been it's been put away, sealed, and I wore
one time just to exist, but because I would like
it to be in a museum, like for people to
see his authentic fatigues. So I mean, without politics, that's
just how it is.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
That's different, very very interesting story. How Kuwanas would take it,
I don't know, it's your experience.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
It's an experience. I have nothing. I don't have nothing
to do with the politics. I mean, at the end
of the day, I don't know how many people would
say that they had anything. I have a jersey, I
have a hat, and it's fatigues thirty years later. You know,
it's memorable. And he's not here, so he's gone.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
It's gone. That's a different one. Hillary Clinton, you met
her too.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
I met her.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
We brought Hillary Clinton to the Bronx.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
I bought it to fifty seventh Street. We did a
fundraiser for her at so freto.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
Okay right here fifty seven Yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:57):
And then we had and then I used to care
for Clitting in Harlem because he had his office in Hallow.
When he had his office there, we would cater his
lunch a couple of times a week.

Speaker 1 (34:06):
Do you know what? Bill would eat himself or he
would just order a bunch of food for everybody.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
He would order a bunch of food. But I mean
we are very we're foodies, like in other words, we
love food. We eat very clean food. I've been gluten
free now for about thirteen years. I lost almost one
hundred pounds in less than five months.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Can I say something? Yeah, I was like, oh, he
had gastric When I saw how much weight you lost,
I was like, oh, no, he definitely had surgery. This
is your diet.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
No diet.

Speaker 1 (34:37):
I mean changing your diet.

Speaker 2 (34:39):
No diet, no drugs okay, no gym, no trainer, no exercise,
no walking, no calarie counting. The best part, which is
the worst part, but the best part what I didn't
stop drinking.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Okay, so just gluten free. Yeah, teach me your weight.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
It's the easiest thing you could Listen. My girlfriend at
the time, she was a fifteen sixteen and she was
a three four and five months I was a forty
four waist. I was a thirty two waist within five months.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
I don't even know what gluten is. That feels so
ignorant right now.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
It's it's it's in everything pretty much. Gluten is a
protein Biggers figures. Gluten is a protein found a wheat
rye and balley.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
So you lost one hundred pounds in five months.

Speaker 2 (35:27):
In five months, and the best part about it was
like you don't have to calorie count. So and it
makes a lot of sense because if you eat like
your parents, not your parents, your grandparents. There was no supermarket,
there was market. What's the difference between supermarket and the market?
Mark was everything fresh. If you run out, he ran out.
Now supermarket, so everything has to have a shelf life.

(35:49):
Anything that has a long shelf life doesn't really belong
in your body. So if you put this preservatives or
processed foods. First of all, gluten is appetit, stimulating, bloating,
and inflammatory. So if you put these things in your
body every single day, you're an addict to processed food.
So you first have to detox from processed food to

(36:10):
like live a lifestyle of, you know, being healthy and happy,
because food has a lot to way the way you think,
the way you act like it's it's it takes over
your life.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Did you study this, Like, how did you come to
the conclusion of this is the way reset? Your daughter?
My daughter, she put you on. Was she studying this
or what?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
No, So she's like reading a book by the pool,
and I'm like, sweetie, what's the book about? She goes, Dad,
if you ever read this book, you'll never eat the
same again. I'm like, whatever, I got three chefs, I
eat whole weat, I eat multi grain. I know what
I'm doing. You thought, Yeah, she like got whatever? So
for Christmas, I give a nice bonus. What do you

(36:51):
think she gives me for Christmas? The book? Yeah, but
she's smart. She knows I'm not going to read the book,
so she gave me the audiobook.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
What's the name of the book.

Speaker 2 (37:01):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna give to you. I can't
give it that whole world. I'm just you.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
I give it behind the scenes, behind the scene.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
So I put the first c D in. I went
home and threw everything out, everything, everything, and I started
buying everything fresh and natural, avocado, meats, chicken, no processed foods,
no breads, like just clean, and all of a sudden
it fell off. So right now I'm down one hundred

(37:29):
pounds twelve years later and never gained any weight, never
went to the gym. Never. So you eat from the
you train from the inside out, not the outside in.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Wow, that's amazing. I was looking at the pictures and
I was just like, I feel great.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
I never feels so good when you're clean, when your
body is like and the best shape of his life
is when you feed it what it deserves. So like
last night, for example, I went home and I had
a skirt steak with with the house sided at three
in the morning and then went to sleep. So it
does it doesn't matter when you eat or whatever. It's
like you know they say you can't eat steak and

(38:03):
eggs in the clash, No bushit. It's really the process
food with good food that makes the real difference. And
I've seen people that I've turned down and lose fifty
sixty seventy one hundred and twenty pounds. You know, the
first couple of weeks, I'm not gonna lie detoxing from
processed food and sugar. The number one drug in the
world is it's crazy.

Speaker 1 (38:24):
And you work in you know, hospitality and the food
in the sheet. How hard is it when you walk
into a kitchen? Or do you no longer crave things
like that? Let's say like a w to the letchie
or slet cheese. Can you no longer crave things like that?

Speaker 2 (38:37):
No? I have a flying or I have fruit or
have thea paya or have a mango. So I eat
strawberries and then I'll do like I have a famous
house salad where I do like arugular and lettuce and romaine,
and I mix it up with strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, nuts, avocado,
and I'm like, for meal.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
I love that for you for meal.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
And I turned Joe one to it, and I've turned
out a lot of my friends to like eat healthy,
and once you become healthy, it's like it's hard to
go back, very difficult.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Now you mentioned Joe celebrity friends. Is it real? Is
it p R? Because I was wondering, I'm like, are
they really really friends?

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Joe? Yeah, Joe for me is my little brother. Okay,
but you know there's Joe, there's Fat Joe, and there's
Joe Serrano, my big brother.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
You know, so all these years it's been a true friendship,
brother brotherhoods, family because it always just made sense. You know,
he's turned the bronx the establishments, so of course it
made sense, like make him, you know, your best buddy,
and then we're all gonna go because the place is
popping and Fat Joe is there.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
We just broke bread. It was me, it was him,
it was Pawn, it was Angie, it was Pakas. I mean,
everybody came through. So everybody was just you know, our
little circle, our little friendship, our kids and everybody just
you're all friends.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
You all came up together. Yes, Pun gone way too soon.
Give me a story about pun Man.

Speaker 2 (40:06):
It was so hard to see because I know he
went to the fat farm. He wanted to live, you know,
and to see that happened, I was like, what a
night man. Then to do the funeral, you know, I
did the funeral for him, and I did the whole
security for him, the whole arrangement and everything.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
What do you mean by I did the funeral for him?
What does that mean?

Speaker 2 (40:30):
We took care of it? Okay? So like we we
we took care of it. Jimmy's took care of it.
We we we took care of our own. That's our brother,
that was family.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Do you mean like paid for it? Yeah, okay, I
didn't know if you meant like catered everything around.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
I mean it was you know, you don't you know,
I've done a lot of things. I don't have to say,
I just do. I had one hundred and ten Little
League teams.

Speaker 1 (40:58):
Oh I read that about you.

Speaker 2 (40:59):
You know, and I and I took him to Cooperstown
and I took them to the stadium and I had
torn them into amongst them. I mean, it's just it
makes you feel good, you know what I'm saying. For me,
it was it's always exciting to help, you know. At
this point in my life, I'm going I think my best.
My best is about to come in the next two years.

(41:20):
My next project is in the next two years.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Is are you working on it already?

Speaker 2 (41:24):
Yeah? Of course, are you.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Working on it up here or is it on paper?

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Both about development. It's developing what the next generation of
people are going to experience, you know. So like right
now we have so Bro Garden, so Bro Garden, South Bronx.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
That area over there is beautiful fire. It looks like
Brickel fire. What is this fire?

Speaker 2 (41:47):
And then garden because it's but it's not a restaurant,
it's a vibe. So now the difference is like, yeah,
we do food, we do drinks, we do music, but
when you walk in, you won't even know it's there,
and you walk in as like wow, this is really really.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Different because now we want what is called a social activation.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
There you go, it's that that feel good you want
to walk in. You want a different experience. And then
we have a lot of little concepts that we're working
on to finalize. And I think then my kids could
just do whatever they want to be fine after this one.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
Are any of your kids involved in your businesses?

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (42:29):
Yeah, yes, because sometimes you know it's like parents build
an empire and the kids are like, I don't want it.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
Well, I mean, you know, it's fun. Part is that
we're all involved without being involved. Like my daughter just
became a nurse and she's going to open up her
own spot soon. So from botox, the BBL and everything else,
she's going to be able to do that money is.
And then my other daughter is part of the restaurant
Association where she's project development manager for like all the

(42:57):
type restaurants in New York City. So we're over with
bunting back and forth ideas. And then my son is
part of the management team with the restaurant now. And
then my other one is learning but he's a car salesman.
And then my last one, I don't know where he's at.
That's a whole nother project.

Speaker 1 (43:14):
What do you mean by oh, you don't know where
he's at physically or professionally.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
I had a baby with Michael Michelle. She kept him
out of my life for ten years, and I don't
know where he's at, what he's.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
Doing, like where he is anywhere.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
He's somewhere and going to school somewhere. But you know, well,
she could take my money, but he can't be in
my life.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Really, that's strange. How old is he now?

Speaker 2 (43:38):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Now it's on him.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
There you go. But if you've been brainwashing, stay away
from your dad because he's not a good mentor. And
your brothers and sisters and not what are we talking about?

Speaker 1 (43:48):
So I think I would want to go see for myself.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
Well, she bought. He came to New y a couple
of years ago because she calls me up and says, hey,
you know our son is not all of a sudden,
now he's at our son. You know, he's selling drugs
in school and Atlanta's doing this that whatever, and I
need you to talk to it comes to New York
and I'm like, hey, I'm not gonna tell you what
to do and what not to do, but be responsible
if you're gonna smoke weed, do you know the difference? No,

(44:15):
give him a little education. He goes back to us
his mother. He's like, I don't want you in your
father's life. No more so. Now i's been for three
or four years, later, five years, what do you want
me to do? But she takes the money every week
to Chabot.

Speaker 1 (44:26):
That's fine, okay, But isn't he too old at this
point for child spot or he's in college at.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
Least twenty one and then you got to pay college
until he finishes college. And she wants me to pay
eighty thousand, forty fifty eighty thousand dollars a year. And
I don't know, she's crazy. I don't know what to say.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
Does she still work like acting?

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I don't know. I don't even follow her like I
just I don't even get involved in her life.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Would you take it back if you could? The relationship,
the relationship meeting.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
Now because you never know why God did certain things,
like why did God shut down the world for COVID?
You understand? Can you take that? If you told me
back then that they were going to shut down every industry,
I would say, you're crazy. It's never gonna happen. Broadway,
the hotels, the rest of dark went dark, and we survived.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
It was scary, It was challenging.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
There's challenging for me. It's like nothing scary because going
to sleep is probably the scariest point in my life
because you don't know if you're gonna get up. That's scary.
But as long as you hear and you're making it happen,
we just got to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Did you ever hit rock bottom after having everything that
you had, did you ever say this might all go away?
Like fuck, I might lose all this.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Never never never lucky because you could never take away talent.
You know what I'm saying when you know what you're doing.
If if I had nothing tomorrow and I had to
start tomorrow from zero, I'd be fine within a month.
It wouldn't take that long because there's there's so many

(46:15):
voids that you can fail. There's so many things that people.
I walk into restaurants, I walk into all type establishments,
and I can tell you five minutes if this was better,
this could work, This could be work, this could work,
this could work. So the talent is you know, when
you know how to do it, you'll never stop.

Speaker 1 (46:31):
Can we debunk a myth right now? Anytime I've talked
about going into hospitality or opening a business, they're like,
whatever you do, do not open a restaurant within one year,
it'll be gone. Is that a thing?

Speaker 2 (46:43):
Well, I mean, if you go into a relationship with
the wrong intention, is it going to be there six
months or a year? Same thing. It's like, you know,
if you're not prepared for what you're going into, like
a lot of times people What the biggest problem that
most people do is they think that just opening a restaurant,
people are gonna come. And what I say to most

(47:05):
people is if you don't nurture a child, the child
will not grow. So when you're opening up a restaurant
within a year, if you don't nurture the restaurant, how
do you expect the restaurant to grow? Like right now,
Sober Gardens is six months has been open. I think
that it's going to reach its full potential in another
year because every day you nurtured the baby and then

(47:27):
it's going to give back to you. What a lot
of people do is they starve the baby. They stop
putting in, they stop learning, they stop asking questions. If
you don't surround yourself around people that can give you
the right advice when you're opening up a restaurant, you're screwed.
I mean, I had a group the other day that
called me up and they want to open a restaurant,
and I'm like, okay, can I help you negotiate the lease? Well,

(47:50):
we pretty much did. You pretty much didn't do anything,
So you know, within two hours, three hours, I'm negotiating
a lease and within you know, three hours, that saved
them fifteen rand. So just like quick, now you have
to negotiate not only the least, the termine the least
what you're going to do, Like these are like little
things that I've done over and over and over and over.

(48:11):
So for me, when you ask me these questions, well,
let me negotiate from the very beginning. What's the name
of what's the what's the logo, what's the mark, what's
the identity, what is the purpose, what is the food?
Who's going to set it up? It's a lot of
little tricks that you need to know.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Do you work as a consultant all the time?

Speaker 2 (48:29):
All the time, I get a lot of phone calls.
People call me like, you know, I need you to
come in and just tell me what am I doing wrong?
And a funny story. So I'm in Brooklyn. I'm in
the restaurant. There's about thirty of us, and I'm sitting
at the table and most of the time I don't
like to leave, but I went on my own. I
sit there and I'm like, this place is so bright,

(48:52):
the music is loud. I'm waiting fifteen minutes. I ain't
got a drink, yet i'man like and it's all of us,
and it's all my friends. So I'm like, I get up.
I go to the bar and I said, give me
a drink all that No, no, no, no, give me a drink.
I'm paying for this. I don't want me drink. I
don't want to wait fifteen more minutes. I go back.
I'm like, we're going to have all these tastes. Give
me one of each, right now? Please? I said, who's
doing the lighting? Can you do this? This is the music?

(49:16):
Who's playing the music? Okay? Can? And then like half
hour later, I grabbed the owner. I'm like, I walk
around the whole restaurant. Were you showing me the operation?

Speaker 1 (49:25):
Were you there to do that or you were just.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
I'm crazy because I'm hanging out with them. That's my friend.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
He's the owner and the way.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
So I'm like, let's walk around. Tell me about your operation.
I showed me behind the bar, showed me that, show
me the Like four months later, they come back to me,
they said, you know, I gotta thank you. I'm like,
what do you mean? He says, you know, everything you
told us made sense, and we made the changes and
we make a lot more money because of it. And

(49:53):
I said to them, that was free advice. Imagine if
you hired me, how much more money you could make,
how much more money you can make? Because I was
just that was a free hour, you know, because I
can do a fifteen two hundred and twenty five hund
hour consulting. Well, I can do it for free as
a friend. But the next time, I know, I got it.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Can we put you on TV? What's the name of
that TV show? Restaurant overhaul?

Speaker 2 (50:17):
You can do that too.

Speaker 1 (50:18):
Come on, why not?

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Listen? I can do Listen. That's saying our community.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Watch the show, right, listen. I love that show.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
It's great. I feel like he did really he went
to my restaurant a couple of times. He's cool.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
I feel like we could do it Latino an urban version.
There's plenty of New York restaurants.

Speaker 2 (50:34):
The hospitality is listen, hospitality between the nightclub industry, the
restaurant industry, the lounge industry. Like why not? It's it's
there because there's no one to really to teach. And
even if you went to school, they can't teach genuine hospitality.
You know what I'm saying. It's like.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
It's very difficult. I don't know if you speak Spanish,
but it's something totally because you know, you go to
some establishments, like there's this restaurant in Jersey. It's called
Cuban Pete and the owner is just amazing, and I'll
just go back there because as soon as I get there,
it's like, Hi, how are you sit down? I'm going

(51:16):
to bring It's just I feel good when I go there,
and you know, he's not even trying to do it.
I feel like it's who he is natural, it's not true,
and I feel good when I go there, Versus when
they're like, do you have a reservation? I'm like, the
police is empty, but no I don't. And then they're like,
oh well wait for twenty minutes the place is empty,
and then I'm like, I'll never come back here.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
And listen, people will always remember how you made them feel,
you know, it's very important. And I tell that to
the team because I don't have a staff. I have
a team, and I tell the team people will always remember,
and it's hard to just keep reminding the team that,
you know, these are the things that people are looking for.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
We want to feel good. And one thing that I
would say, I'm here to give you my money. Make
me feel good. Listen, listen, don't turn me away.

Speaker 2 (52:04):
Fight every single day to be better with my with
everything that we do.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
How big is your team and how do you pick
your team?

Speaker 2 (52:12):
I'd say probably like forty, but within a year that'll
probably be about another one hundred, within two years a
couple of hundred. You just you know, you just got
to make it happen.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Have you ever thought like I want to go away.
You've been doing this for so long, so many people
to do what I don't know.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Just enjoy why I don't know.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Just go to the beach and enjoy and be like, ah, yeah,
enough is enough.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
I got a little color in three days like this
week where you went or here, I just sit outside
and I have a little a peaceful retreat that I
just okay.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
So you just take little breaks here and there. You know,
this world can be so crazy, and sometimes when you've
lived a life like you've lived, it's just.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
Like I just started. I'm just starting.

Speaker 1 (52:59):
I love the Listen. You met Celia Cruz, like who
can say they met?

Speaker 2 (53:06):
He used to hang out with him all the time.
He was supposed to be you know, Jimmy's on for
the morow was supposed to be jim was supposed to
be Tito Puntez. I bought a limo for him. I
ordered the plates for him.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
I was supposed to be the name of the place.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
And then Ralph Maccardo asked me for a hundred thousand.
I didn't have it. So he's like, I can't do it.

Speaker 1 (53:24):
And that's how Jimmy Ski was born.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Listen, do you see how god is Tina wasn't Tita
wasn't upset about it. I met Tito's s obs and
I told him the idea. I says, I love you.
I think you are the icon of our community. I'm like,
it'd be such an honor if I can take this
place and call it Tito Pointez. I had the logo
and everything that. He said, yeah, I love it, So
talk to Ralph. Ralph, I didn't have it. I was

(53:50):
barely just you know.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
And then he got his own spot in City Island.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Right, yeah, then he know. Then he he let Then
then Sammy's from Sammy's bought the name at least the
name or whatever, and they call it Tina And it
wasn't the real.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
Long story, short you hung out with you.

Speaker 2 (54:11):
Great guy who amazing?

Speaker 1 (54:14):
Where did you meet Cruz?

Speaker 2 (54:16):
She will come to the restaurant all the time and
go to all her shows. I mean it was it
was just family.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
What did she order? I need to I do you
remember what was her meal?

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Most of the time is either lobster.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
It's gonna order by a lobster because it was always
the best of the best for.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Her, always, always, always RP Man.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
That's the real legend. Fact that she got a coin,
I was like, that was that was huge for us,
like Latinas after Latinas and just like you know in general,
it's like I got a couple of the coins to you.
I never was able to find one who somebody told
me they were going to send me one, but no,
I've never been able to find one. Now your connection
with the Yankees, I know that one of the Yankees

(54:57):
made a big investment in Jimmy's No No, No, okay,
okay facts.

Speaker 2 (55:07):
And it was like when I was looking for I
have a love hate with the Yankees. I love the players,
I hate the organization.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Did the organization want to stop the players from being
there with you in the establishment. Did they see it
as like so much.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
It wasn't that they couldn't stop them because there was
the place to be. But you know the way the
organization ran. For the Yankees, for example, how is it possible,
How is it possible for the richest organization sports team

(55:43):
in the world do shit for outside the stadium and
the community. There's no hotel, there's no Yankee Village, there's
no Little Yankee Stadium. There's nothing outside of the property
that they leased from us that demonstrates and shows what
they do in our community. And you know what's messed

(56:04):
up about it is our community leaders. They screwed up.
They let the richest organization in the world give us
nothing but crumbs, if that to do something in our community.
What do they do when they play? They bombard our
whole neighborhood with traffic and blah blah blah. They get

(56:28):
safely coordinated in and out of our community. And what
are we left with delays and traffic and everything else.
Why we don't have a hotel, Why don't we have
a Yankee village? If this was in Greenwich, what do
you think the investment the Yankees would have made in
Greenwich versus the South Bronx, Right, I mean, it's black
and white. So it's not like I'm saying anything like

(56:50):
why did our leaders allow this to happen? They don't
do shit for our community, and they're really racist as
an organization. But it's okay because that's the right way.
If you go to Yankee Stadium is a corporate world.
Who could really afford to go there with their family
in our community? Nobody, And if they're gonna give us,
the're gonna give us a upper deck of the bleachers
and days that nobody wants, like nobody holds no one accountable.

(57:13):
That's why they get away with what they wanted. But
the way I got into Yankee stated it was very simple.
I sent the food to the Yankees, to the players,
and Bernie was like, yo, I got hey, I got this.
I fed Bernie, Bernie and Posidon and all the guys
like yo were eating our food because before it was
Frank and Johnny's. So every day you gonna need you
gonn need pizza and pasta pizza. You can't do that.

(57:35):
So then all of a sudden, Jeter's like, yo, we
want this food. And the next day they call me
and like, yo, how do we set up a contract
with you? How do we do this?

Speaker 1 (57:44):
How big was that contract? Or did they try to?

Speaker 2 (57:47):
It was? It made me so much money that I
don't know what to do with it. They used to
give me four hundred dollars a game to feed forty players.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
Why thought you were going to say four undred thousand
dollars a.

Speaker 2 (58:01):
Year, four hundred a day for twenty five maybe, And
that was I used to So they played on that
bad did no? No, this is how this is. But
you know that's not a discouragement because if you look
at it now, because of that four hundred, it was
not a break even. I was losing money to k

(58:22):
I was. I was doing Lemnon, I was doing trimp,
I was doing Lopster, I was doing Baya, I was
doing panaas. I was feeding fifty people.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
You're taking four hundred dollars.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
But this was the advantage. I did eighty games, forty
for the Yankees, forty for the visiting team over ten years.
Voted the best clubhouse food in America because everybody a
Jimmy's all right, so, and it wasn't so bad the
forty dollars, right. The bad part was the four hundred

(58:54):
dollars that wasn't bad. The bad part was I had
to wait till the end of the year to get paid.

Speaker 1 (58:59):
They were like, we'll pay you for Christmas.

Speaker 2 (59:01):
Not told enough, I'm give me the invoice I had
to write down every single time.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
I'm like, how like, so you were out all this
money all year long for the Yankees.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
Yeah, but listen, I have no you can't. I don't
have no regrets. I'll be honest. Brought it up. You know.
God was good. God is good. You know what I'm saying,
because at the end of the day is like I
opened the door. I was able to say that I
fed Bernie, Pasado, Mariano, everybody. But the cool part is

(59:33):
they used to all come with their family to the
restaurant because I'm feeding them. So what do you think
their family wanted to do after the game? And Pedro Martinez?
I mean, you name. I have more jerseys and stuff
from all of these guys. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
It's crazy because that was one of the big things
about Jimmy's that you could go there and see celebrities.
We didn't have anything like that ever in life.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
Every day, every day, it was amazing. It was interesting,
it was interesting and I still have it every day,
I believe it or not. It's like, so I was,
I was involved with CONCO and they went after Eric Adams.
So what do you think they did? They came after me? Why?
Because why is ever Adams hanging out of the Bronx?
Because I know everk for thirty years and he's a

(01:00:17):
good friend of mine. So anybody's a friend of Eric
is going to go They're gonna attack. So it's it's
it's crazy how all of these things come about, because
and even people couldn't believe that just Erick is just
sitting there, the mayor of the City of New York,
just sitting in the Bronx, just sitting outside having a drink.
It was interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:00:34):
Eric Adams, I don't know's he's your.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Friend, dear friend. I don't turn my back on nobody.
You're my friend, You're my friend forever for life.

Speaker 1 (01:00:44):
He feels like a fun time. But I feel like
he's always targeted for having a social life.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
What's wrong with that? Well, that's what it is wrong with.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
He's always targeted for having I think people with politicians,
they feel like, we don't want you outside, we want
you in greasy mansion. We want to, you know, not
going to restaurants. We don't want to. He was smoking
hookah with them the other day. Everybody was like, oh,
Eric Adams is smoking hookah with THEMS. It was just
such a big deal.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Well, I mean, who is illegal? Who is illegal? So
let's start right there. Who is illegal? Because it's tobacco.
You cannot smoke a joint, You can't smoke a cigarette,
and you can't smoke a cigar in the restaurant. Okay,
so why can you smoke a hookah because there's no
enforcement or that's a whole nother story.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
I don't even know was illegal but tobacco.

Speaker 2 (01:01:35):
So you know, if you cannot smoke hookah because it's illegal,
only who can you could smoke is non tobacco and
you're not even allowed to do that in a restaurant.
But there's no enforcement, Like they didn't enforce the weed situation.
Then once they started rolling out the licenses, then they
had to enforce all their illegal places. But hookah is

(01:01:57):
probably gonna be here another six months or a year
because you you cannot smoke weed, cigars or anything else
in the messant. You gotta stop the hookah, you understand.
So it's gonna happen eventually, I guess so. But what
did you ever get in trouble for? When did New
York stop falling in love with him? When when he

(01:02:17):
went to the White House. Yeah, he told by that
I want my money, you send me all the migrantes.
I gotta get paid. And the minute he jumped on
the plane and went to Washington, he jumped on the
next plane. They send him a quick message and he
came right back. And then after that was investigation after
investigation after investigation. You went after the big man, the President.
What do you think he was gonna teach you a lesson?

(01:02:40):
He was on fire. He was the best thing that
happened in New York until he went to get his
migrant money. And then all of a sudden, he's doing
this wrong. He's doing that wrong. This one is doing this. No, man,
what did you do? What you see just happened? Trump
just parted to him. Why, because he knew what the Democrats.
The Democrats did this to Eric, and they turned their back.

(01:03:00):
So Trump turned around and helped them out. Says, Yo,
that's all bullshit. The same thing they did to you,
they did to me.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
Trump came back and he said, I'm gonna get all
my licks. I can tell you that he did. He's
doing it that he is. He's like, listen, y'all thought
I wasn't gonna come back with surprised bitch, I am
because Jesus Christ, that man came back with a vengeance.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
And the Democrats. What happened to Democrats? They didn't do
their job. You don't do your job, somebody else is
gonna take it. Who the hell wants to be a
Democrat today? You don't do your job, you get replaced
anywhere in this world. So if the Democrats were doing
such a great job, why is everything falling apart? I
mean I had two dear friends of mine, one worked

(01:03:43):
for Obama and the other one worked for Clinton, and
they both said to me, Jim, for the first time
of my life, I questioned, why am I a Democrat? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Things have shifted, like we.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Went too far. I mean we as a community, like
we let anything go, you rob your go in and
out of the system. What happened? I don't understand what
happened growing up. And I was listen, we got locked up,
We got locked up. We had to we had to
get Baire. We had to go through the system. I
got locked up three times in one week. And the
reason why those three times that I got arrested on Monday, Wednesday,

(01:04:15):
and Friday, that changed my whole life. I tried to
get straight one weekend writ Beers. I'm like, oh, I'm
not doing no time for nobody. Nobody's gonna tell me
when to wake up, when to go to sleep. But
to nah, I'd rather make one hundred dollars a day
legal than five or six hundred dollars trying to be cute.
I'm not doing that joke now. It was just just
the whole mentality that somebody's gonna tell me when to

(01:04:37):
wake up and what to do, what to eat. No,
that's not happening. I'm like, I'd rather be legitimate. And
those three weeks, those three times I got like and
one I said, nah, I'm staying straight quick. Thank God. See,
he brings things into your life for a reason. And
that's it, Flip and here we are. That's it.

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
One of the most iconic hospitality restaurant tours that we've ever.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I'm just starting after Jimmy's. I did Sofrito. Right after Sofrito,
I did don't cookie don't coquie.

Speaker 1 (01:05:13):
That's where I'm French. Montana gave Chloy Kardashi in the jeep. Yes,
were you there?

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
That did? Of course? That was my body the news.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
You put it all together.

Speaker 2 (01:05:21):
Oh, I'll tell you about the story.

Speaker 1 (01:05:22):
So tell me.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Tell me from Sofrito. We did that fifty seventh Street.
And then I was supposed to do Sofrito at the
the Xanadu Mall, which is the Dream in Jersey. So
I signed the lease over there for twenty years.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Twenty years.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
Yeah, and I was supposed to be right next door
to Cheesecake Factory. And the owner of Xanadu mare bet
the owners of Cheesecake Factory that I was going to
outsell him. Sofrido Puerto Rican restaurant Xana Do never opened.
Then it was sold for four hundred million. The guy
lost two point four billion dollars on that deal, right,

(01:06:00):
so he lost that. So I was leaving so Free
though to open up in Jersey. And when that fell apart,
I spent three hundred thousand on the design. We never
even put up just three hundred on design for ten
thousand square food restaurant. That was just design designs so
we didn't do anything, and then I wounded up doing
Dun't Cookie. So I did Dunk Cookie in New Show

(01:06:23):
and that was a super hit. That was amazing. That
was one of my most favorite projects in the world.
It was old building, two levels, parties. It was like
you couldn't get in the place. And then I did
a story yeap. Then I got screwed by the partners
over there, Jimmy the Little Greek whatever. And then I

(01:06:43):
did White Planes, and then I did City Island, and
then I did Dykman which is at Hefa and Me
and that one's agenda and like it's I've done like
the coolest parts. And then after all of that, I
did Jimmy's thirty eighth Street which is now say Less,
which is another iconic project. I did Spice, which is

(01:07:05):
another name in Astoria, and then and now and then
we did and we did now sober god Its So
over forty years, one way, shape form or another, you've
visited one of my restaurants, You've been to one of
my restaurants. You've partied and enjoyed something. I mean, I had.

(01:07:26):
I had a lady come up to me the other
day and so and so bro. She goes, I have
to thank you, and I'm like, okay, this is interesting.
I don't know this young lady.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
But where she's going.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Okay, I don't know she's going, but this is so cool.
She goes, I have to thank you because twenty five
years ago I picked my husband up in your restaurant
in the bar, Jimi's Bronze Cafe, and we have four
kids later, and look at them right there. I'm like, wow,
I love that. It was such a beautiful story that,
you know, I would love people to like because I

(01:07:59):
have Instagram page because I am Jimmy rod Veez. I
love people to send me pictures of experiences that they've
had over forty years because I hear it every day,
like I had my baby Shoper, I got married, and
that motivates me, That gets me excited that that just
makes me full of joy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
You know, I don't mean to be a Debbie downer,
but my experience, you know, I had a lot of
good experiences at Jimmy's, but my one experience that stands
out all the time is when I found out my
boyfriend had a new girlfriend.

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
It was a Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:32):
I woke into Jimmy's. I'm like, why is he holding
somebody's hand? I was like, can I talk to you?
The girl comes from behind, she said, why you need
to talk to my boyfriend. I'm like, I thought that
was my boyfriend. It was a mess that night. Needless
to say, we all got kicked out.

Speaker 2 (01:08:49):
It wasn't my fault. No, it wasn't your fault.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
It was my fault because I said, oh wait, hold on,
hold on, these people trying to blame me right now.
But no, I had a lot of great memories. I
was a young girl, you know, acted kind of crazy.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
List you just happened. He was younger, but you're still young.

Speaker 1 (01:09:03):
I feel like a kid, you know, in my eyes.
So that's my memory of Jimmy for my listen, we're
but I had tons and tons, you know, great memories
visiting Jimmy's SOFREI don't don't cookie like everything, you know,
it's a staple in our culture, in the fabric of
who we are as Latinos here in New York.

Speaker 2 (01:09:23):
It's crazy, forty years later, I'm still talking. Sometimes I
have to look at pictures I have to take. I
take pictures every day, and the reason why I take
pictures every day because that's the only way I can remember,
because then I'll go back and I'm like, oh, look
at this one, look at this one. Oh shit, I
remember what I was talking to you about, Like it's
so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Do you have any pictures up of like iconic moments
around your home, like oh, this is the day that
this happened, this is the day that that happened, or
you just keep.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
It to like I have pictures. I have like I
probably have like sixty thousand pictures on my phone right now.
I have so many pictures at home. I have memorabilia,
and then I have so many wonderful people in my
life that tell me all the wonderful stories that we
shared together.

Speaker 1 (01:10:02):
Mine wasn't very wonderful, but it's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
There's only one one of them.

Speaker 1 (01:10:06):
Listen, listen, we're gonna we're gonna build news to come.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
I know, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:10:10):
That's one of the churches that I go to. That's
the sign that they have behind them, and it inspires
me all the time the best is yet to come.
And every time I go, I take a picture with
a sign behind me because I'm a strong believer that
the best is yet to come. And I feel like
with you, like you said, you're just getting started. You're
stand You're the best shape of your life.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
I'm excited.

Speaker 1 (01:10:30):
You know what's going on, what's gonna happen in the summer.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
Talk to me, It's gonna be a party. You got
to come out. We're turning up this summer. It's gonna
be a party.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
It is what we're doing now. The spot that we have, now,
where is it located? Where can people find it?

Speaker 2 (01:10:48):
So bro It's hidden in the south Bronx twenty sixth
Brock now and if you know it's a beautiful area,
it's But you know what's funny is it's you'll walk
right by it. You won't even notice it from outside
that it's there until you open the door and you're like, wow,
this is vibe. And I see it every time people

(01:11:09):
walk in.

Speaker 1 (01:11:10):
It's really Wanka and the chocolate factor.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
It's crazy. I see people from all walks of life,
and I see the kids coming in. They're enjoying what
we're doing, the whole TikTok, the fun. We're having so
much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
If you have places where we can activate, where we
can take pictures, where we can post, listen once by here,
once by here, once by there. We'll go just for
the activations. I'll tell you that much, because I'm one
that I'm like, Oh I love the flowers, Oh I
love the lights.

Speaker 2 (01:11:37):
We have one that says, sometimes the King is a woman.
They have fat Joe's Yesterday's price is not today's price.
And then we have one over here that says, I
didn't come this far just to come this far.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
I love all of them. I need to go and
do a photo there because I love all those installations.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
I guess I'm going to see you this week. Oh no,
for sure, perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:11:56):
I'm pulling up on you, man, the same way you
pulled up on me. And I want to thank you
for taking the time, you know, coming out here, you know,
doing this interview and getting to know me and letting
my audience, you know, get to know who you are,
especially the ones that grew up you know, visiting your establishments.
Now they know a little bit more about you, and
now they know that you have brand new spot that
we all need.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
To go to. Yes, and please make a reservation on
the weekends because it's busy.

Speaker 1 (01:12:22):
Open table, Rezie, we.

Speaker 2 (01:12:23):
Have y'all and we can just spot hopper, but it's busy.
I mean, you know what it is again, it's not
a restaurant. It's a vibe. It's a place that you're
going to come in and you're going to enjoy. You're
going to enjoy the music, the lighting, the sound, the people,
the food. It's just I think at this point in

(01:12:44):
my life, looking at the new things that I'm working on,
it's so much more fun.

Speaker 1 (01:12:48):
And I'm so glad that, you know, you're not staying
in that box where sometimes you know, you can go
to a restaurant and it's like they haven't done anything
in like twenty years. I'm like, did I just walk
into a time capsule? Like what's going on here? I
love that you've grown with the times, you know, having
children and having grandchildren. That's keeping you probably super young. Yes,

(01:13:09):
thanks kids. We appreciate you sharing your dad with us,
and I appreciate you sharing your time with me today.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
I had a great time. I can't wait to do
it again next year. I got to recap where I'm
at a year later.

Speaker 1 (01:13:22):
Course, of course, this is just the beginning of a
new relationship.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Perfect. I love it. I love it. I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Gassiers and come Again Garcia, I had a great time.
Grassiers Come Again is a production of Honey German Productions
in partnership with iheart's microen through the podcast network