Ep. 20 - From Hotels to Food Truck to Brick and Mortar: Chef Kyle's Culinary Evolution - Burnt Hands Perspective

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
I'm trying to get like the ice ASMR thing going on
.
Let me tell you who's sittinghere and what's going on, tell
us who's sitting here today.
I'm going to tell you aboutthis.
Cheers Chef Kyle.
Folks, welcome to the party.
Let me tell you how I know himGreat to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Let me tell you how I know him.
Before the chef world this isonly years ago, right, I don't
know this I used to every club Iwent to every group of people I
went to.
Here comes homeboy.
I'm like what is this guyRemember in Braveheart when he
was laying on a thing and helooked out and he saw his girl

(00:36):
going through the crowd.
Like that's what he reminded meof.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I see you all the time, that's it.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
Circles.
It's all about circles, circles.
And then from there is when Irealized you were the chef of
the truck, and so on and soforth.
And then we built a rapport,and you come to my wine dinners
and now we talk to each other ona great level.
Yeah, so we were cool before weeven knew we were fucking cool.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
That's right, that's the best part of it.
That.
I think that gets lost.
People forget that chefs arejust people.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It gets lost amongst chefs too, because a lot of the
chefs nowadays are in it for thewrong reasons or maybe the
different reasons, and they camein it different.
You can tell how each chef cameinto the industry by how they
attract to each other.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
For sure you know what I'm saying and I know,
there's a lot of chefs out therethat I don't have an attraction
to whatsoever.
You are not my people.
You can go over there.
Yeah, they're not my people,not your people at all.
So who is this?

Speaker 1 (01:26):
You tell us, man, tell us what you got, tell us
who you are.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
We've gotten this far in Tell America.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Chef Kyle folks, I'm the owner and operator of Satay
a new American experience aswell as Satay Kitchen, which is
my food truck.
It's been a crazy ride to getto this point, but it's freaking
awesome.
We're coming up on our one yearanniversary for the restaurant
next month.
And I couldn't be more proud ofthe team and all the success
that we've had.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, and already been great accolades.
You've already won awards.
Crazy, right yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
So Coastal Virginia Magazine's best new restaurant
of 2024.

Speaker 1 (02:03):
This motherfucker right here beat me out for best
chef in coastal Virginia thisyear, don't worry about that I
beat him last year.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's okay.
Let's put that on and make surethat's on camera.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Check, check Got it, but no, it's awesome.
Man, we're rolling, things aregood and I'm just happy to be
here and be a part of the showand get to kind of chop it up
with my brother.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
We got some new satay merch.
I know how to butter people up.
This is the first time we'vegotten merched out on a show.
This is freaking awesome.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Brand new, just dropped this week.
Check that out.
Plug.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Plug life.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
That's it, baby.
I love it.
So check this out, man.
You have this story right.
You got the story of youstarted out back in the day.
We'll get to that.
So bring us up to date a littlebit on how you got into it,
where you went quick rundown,quick history, and then get to
the truck thing you justmentioned 100% so graduated

(02:56):
Johnson Wales University in 2003.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Great school.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
My father came here in 1970-something and he went to
that school from ItalyExcellent.

Speaker 3 (03:05):
And I tell people all the time school is only what
you make it.
You know, I've seen a lot ofgreat folks that go to culinary
school and they come out andthey're just a shell of
themselves.
They don't really have anydirection.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
They're just as lost as they were before they came
here, they were hoping for amiracle.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
Yeah, and that's not what school's about.
If you're willing to grind andput in the work and the effort,
then schooling is awesome.
So, graduated, that first realjob as a sous chef was at the
Embassy Suites Hotel in Hampton,virginia.
It's attached to the HamptonRoads Convention Center.
Yeah, and then three yearslater, I became the executive

(03:41):
chef.
So that was in 2008.
And at that time I was theyoungest executive chef that our
company had.
John Q Hammond's Hotels was thecompany.
We had 84 hotels, all differentbrands, across the country.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Were you the exec of all locations.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
No, just that location, but I was a part of
this corporate core group thatwe would meet twice a year.
We'd go to the Chicago FoodShow things of that nature,
great show, and we would meettwice a year.
We'd go to the Chicago FoodShow things of that nature,
Great show and we would makedecisions for the rest of the
brand Gotcha.
So there was an Embassy Suitesguy, a Hilton guy, you know
whatever other hotels we had,and we would get together, link

(04:17):
up, go to all these shows andkind of make decisions, talk
about buying power.
You know we're into a hotelthat big.
You know there's thousands ofFrench fries, right A hotel.
We're not cutting our own fries, so they make us try 50 types
of French fries.
And then us little six or eightguys would say this is the fry
we're going to use across theboard, and then the sales rep
will say okay, we'll give youall this buying power.

(04:38):
Now the case is $15.
Everyone has to pay $40 andthings of that nature.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Buying power is huge, man 100%.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
And we did some numbers there.
My last year we did $7 millionin food and beverage, which is
rocking the world.
But we had the ability to docatering for 2,000, 3,000, 4,000
people and I really tried topride myself on not being a
typical hotel restaurant.
We had a restaurant.
We had a catering facility.
I never wanted to be oh, that'sa hotel, it's not going to have

(05:08):
good food, right, because wehear that all the time in the
industry.
So we kind of wanted to setourselves above and so literally
the same kind of food that I'mcooking now at the restaurant is
what we had at that hotel.
But because it was a hotel, alot of people didn't really know
about us.
A lot of people didn't reallyknow about us.
I did a lot of stuff to help usout.
I would go on TV and theHampton Road Show and enter

(05:28):
these competitions anything Icould to shed some positive
light on the hotel.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You have to do that.
You've got to brand what you'redoing.
If you believe in it and youreally strongly believe in it,
you have to take the chances andtake the risks to do it 100%.
No one's going to see what'scoming out of your pan if
they're not on the other side ofthe table to eat it.
And they need to know whatyou're about, man, and I'm a
full believer of that.
So when you went from there,you went to that, and then what
happened?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
That dreaded fucking word came along.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
So then, COVID hey, hey, let's hear it again for the
millionth time in the fuckinglife.

Speaker 3 (05:59):
And COVID came and obviously for the hotel people
that put our industry in thetoilet.
You know you couldn't even meetwith more than 10 people.
Our model was doing dinners for500, 1,000.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
So that was all out of the question.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
So my entire team got furloughed.
The hotel kept me on as long asthey can.
I was actually in the laundryroom man.
I was folding towels andcleaning rooms.
I'm like I'm a chef man.
What the fuck am I doing, youknow, here in the laundry
department?

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Surviving, surviving, surviving, literally.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
So we had about 150 employees at that hotel and
during that little bleak erathere we ran it with 12 people.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
And I was one of those 12.
I made it as far as I could,and then they're like chef, we
just can't afford to pay yoursalary anymore.
Like that's the honest truth.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
You know that's bottom line.
Yeah, yeah, like everybody.
Yeah, this is the greatdepression.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
Get your ass on the street, hoe, so uh I went home
and hung out for a couple monthsand then the wheels started
turning.
Okay, what am?
What am I going to do?
Because, I can't survive off ofthis $600 a week or whatever.
Life is crazy.
You get to a certain statureand then that's kind of your
life.

(07:16):
So when you don't have anything, you're appreciative of that,
and then you get a little bitmore.
You're like oh, I like whereI'm at.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Then you get a little bit more oh, I really like
where.
I'm at.

Speaker 3 (07:24):
Going backwards is never part of the plan Never
part of the plan no goingbackwards is not part of the
plan.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
We fight daily to not go backwards, man.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
So I kind of just had to say, all right, what am I
going to do?
And I said, how about a foodtruck?
So for years I had been reallyapprehensive on becoming an
entrepreneur.
I knew the kind of commitmentit was going to take, I knew how
much work it was going to takeand I had a really good thing
going at that hotel.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
And this is where I want to stop you for one second
because this goes back to whereI said you have a unique, you
have the unique story.
This is a guy who had to godown.
You need to come up.
Here comes the food truck.
This food truck craze has beennuts since COVID.
Yes, it just started getting alittle bit before then, but
nothing like it was with COVID.
Covid was where it really gotan opportunity to pop.
Yeah, so you took advantage ofthat.

(08:09):
Right, tell me about the foodtruck life, man, because I
wonder how much food you have tosell out of a fucking truck to
be relevant enough to pay yourbills and be happy about it A
lot, a lot right.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
The food truck grind all seriousness is like no other
.
I've been a chef my entire lifeand the food truck the last
three years was the hardest Iever had to work.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
So meaning you've got to load the fucker up getting
the propane right, making sureyou every now you've got to plug
it in to keep your stuff, yourprep, every day.
That's my concern.
Hold on, wait a minute, you'reon the permits.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah, I was going the permits.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
You started in the middle of the story.
The permits and the inspectionsand signing off and am I good
to go?
I just did all that for mycatering truck.
It's a nightmare.
They don't make it easy at alland each city wants their own
permit, their own fire code andeverything else.
It's a nightmare, man.
Did you ever want to let thething on fire and just ghost
ride that fucker down?
How?

Speaker 3 (09:04):
many times I thought about going back to the hotel.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
I didn't go back to the hotel.
It's fine.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
This is awful, oh my God.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
But just the conditions that it's never clean
enough.
You can never get it.
It's just so much happening insuch a small spot.
Listen if it's 95 degreesoutside, it's 120 in the food
truck Minimum, and it's 120 inthe food truck, Minimal.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
And then somehow this I don't even know how this
works, but we would do ourbiggest client, the Newport News
Shipyard, right.
So we'd go there, do lunchevery day and we'd do breakfast
as well, Breakfast on the water.
It's 25 degrees outside.
I'd have on four hoodies,mittens.
Oh my gosh, Three pairs of socksboots and you're not cooking

(09:43):
fast enough, yeah, and the lineis just backed up and it was
crazy, but that's what I had todo to kind of like make this
dream, or at that time, anightmare, but Chef, it made you
, but it was your step.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
It made you, another step to making you where you are
.

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
That's a struggle you're never going to want to go
back to, so you're going towork harder for it, right, 100%.
So we all have that story.
So the food truck really is.
It was was the inspiration foryou to motivate yourself to get
onto your next adventure, whichis where you are now.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Six months into that food truck, all I could think
about was how the hell am Igoing to get off this fucking
food truck?
It was that miserable?
Like if your day starts at 4amto do?
Breakfast at the shipyard, andthen you have lunch, and then
you do dinner at a brewery, andthen you don't get home until 10
or 11 o'clock at night.

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Yeah, that's brutal.
Sounds like me here.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
It's like I got to get out of this truck and so at
that point it was everything Icould do.
How much blood, sweat, tears,energy I could put into it to
get to the restaurant piece.
And I kind of put myself a plantogether.
I said I'm going to get thisdone in three years and
literally we nailed it in threeyears.
I started my food truckSeptember of 2020.

(10:55):
I signed the lease on my brickand mortar the end of August
2023.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
So so you got through COVID on the food truck.
Basically you started it in thefood in covet it.
It amped you up to getsomething going on 100.
So without that covet which I'mgoing to talk about that for a
brief moment, because everyonetalks about covet on the other
way of how it fucked everybodyup yeah, if it wasn't for covet
I wouldn't be where I am.
Covet was fucking great to me.
I fucking had no problems withcovet.

(11:22):
I had little bit of we had alittle bit of this uh
organization and notunderstanding what was going on,
cause it was new to everybody.
But if you were, all this COVIDdid to me in the restaurant
industry was fucking thinned outthe herd.
It weeded out the people whoweren't supposed to be there and
the ones that were sucking offthe environment anyway.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Cause, once COVID came around, you were either an
organized restaurateur and chefor you were fucking not, and
that was what proved it True.
And anyone who didn't make itthrough it is only because they
didn't have their proper shittogether.
They didn't have their invoicesright, they didn't have their
employees right, they didn'thave their taxes right, they
didn't have anything right.
So, with that being done likethat, man, people didn't get out
of COVID.
Are the ones who were sayingCOVID ruined me, it wasn't a fun

(12:01):
time?
Man, don't get me wrong.
I'm not fucking sitting theresaying it was great.
But if it wasn't for COVID, youwouldn't be where you are.
Nope, you might still be in thehotel.
Absolutely, if it wasn't forCOVID, I wouldn't have the
opportunity to be where I am,because the government did come
back if you had your shit rightand helped you out.
Granted, I'm still paying,having anything to pay back,

(12:23):
though, if I didn't have it.
So it is what it is.
You've got to play the fuckinggame, and right now I am able to
purchase some of the best primemeats, the best Wagyu's I can
make, the best foods andeverything right now, because
all the other people aren'tbuying it, because they don't
fucking exist anymore, becausethey weren't even supposed to be
here in the first place.
You know what I'm saying?
I agree, and I don't want nodemise in anybody.
So anybody who's in the gamestrong right now, they got my

(12:46):
back.

Speaker 3 (12:46):
There, you go.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
They got my support.
You know what I'm saying.
I got their back and if youdon't belong here?
If you didn't belong here, it'sobvious.
Man COVID was the cleaner, itwas the eraser man.
You know what I'm saying, ifyou made it through COVID it
anyway.

Speaker 3 (13:00):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (13:01):
I'm saying that's how I'm feeling about COVID.
I love it.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (13:04):
I'm saying All I did when COVID was.
I just fucking worked my assoff, still with a line of cars
down the street and I wasliterally cooking in a wife
beater you were churning foodyeah we would drive from
Chesapeake to Norfolk to go pickup to-go food, at least once.

Speaker 2 (13:20):
And I think we saw community come together too.
Quite a bit Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
So I had reservations three days in advance, full
booked on COVID for cars coming.
They were going to pick up ontheir pickup times and we were
just me and two guys that Iworked for that were just stuck
by my side.
We were in there fucking justgetting it.
They're still working for metoday.
You know what I'm saying andthey're still rocking and
rolling down there in Norfolk,they're still doing.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
I just don't want people to get the wrong
impression, like I get asked allthe time because they see me.
Oh man, you were so successfulwith the food truck.
It comes with a lot of work,yes it does, and so if people
think that, oh, I can just starta food truck and I'll make it,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,it took all those years I had of

(14:01):
experience cooking for 3,000people and organizing a kitchen
properly to be able to say, okay, now let's minimize it to a 7
by 16 foot box, let's put theseanchovies in a can and let's
rock and roll.
You know, at our best we can doabout 130 to 140 people in 90

(14:22):
minutes.
So at the shipyard we'refucking rolling.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
You're rolling, we have 45-second ticket time.
That's a lot.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Credit card.
What do you want?
Credit card?
Swipe it.
Give you your card back.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
Here's your food.
Hand you your sandwich.
That's crazy.
Who's next that's?

Speaker 2 (14:35):
amazing, that's rolling, yeah, that is.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
And people are like experience and tons of work and
grinding bro.
Yeah, and not only that.
Let's not forget the mostimportant part of it all you
still have to have a passion forfood?
Yeah, because that food rightthere will kick your ass.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
If you let it, it'll fuck you up if I didn't love
what I did, there's no way Iwould still be.
There's none.
There's no way I love it.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
You can't you break down mentally if the only thing
that keeps me going sometimesduring a rush, when we're going
balls to the wall and shit justkeeps on coming in and you know
the ticket times are backing up,the only thing I keep going is
just slow down and put it outright.
If they're gonna fucking wait,let them wait for a good fucking
meal.
Bingo, at least let them waitso bingo so it's, it's.

(15:17):
It's a matter of how muchpassion you have for what you're
doing or how much passion youhave for the money you're making
.
The money's not always going tobe there, bro.

Speaker 3 (15:26):
The food has to be.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Because you always got to rely on the food to be
right.
You know what I mean.
If you do the food right, themoney will come, man Stop
worrying about fucking money100%.
You know what I'm saying andthe money, the awards, all that
shit, it's all perks of hardwork.
No one's paying more.
You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (15:40):
I couldn't agree more .
There's no one walking in.

Speaker 1 (15:42):
So when you get to the now, you open up your new
restaurant, which is a hugething, because you took that
risk.
You left.
You obviously had investors whobelieved in you, or an investor
who believed in you.
You had a position or asituation and you're out there
in Newport News.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, newport News City Center.

Speaker 1 (15:59):
City Center.
So you came into an area thatis already kind of known, with
restaurants that already hadtheir anchor there.
So that's a risk in itself.
To be the new kid on the block,yeah Right, but you're hanging
tough.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
You got to believe in your product.
See what I did there.
I like that.
I like that.
You got to believe in yourproduct.
Though you know I always tellpeople that if we're going to do
like a little competition orwhatever it is, it's like we may
not win.
But do you believe in yourproduct?
Did you feel like you put outthe best dish that you could
today?
And if the answer is yes, thenyou have nothing to hang your
head on Like, hey, you did whatyou thought was good.

(16:30):
You stood by your product.
You're proud of that dish.
That's all you can ask for,that's all that matters, right,
and that's what I did.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
The awards that come typically, you don't see them
coming Typically in the head andyou're like holy shit, that
just happened.
You know what I'm saying.
It's like when I just won thataward for the chef of the year
in Richmond.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
That was one of the best accolades in the state.
Phenomenal actually.
I love that for you.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
He's like oh, I'm nominated.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
I had no idea, so that just came from nothing more
than my team and myself justconstantly fucking grinding.

Speaker 3 (17:00):
And.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I accept it and they accept it.
We accept it.
You know it's part of whatyou're doing, because if you
don't focus on it, it's whenit's going to come faster.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
If you focus on that's the only thing you're
trying to do all the time,you're going to fail.
Oh yeah, mentally you're goingto fail because it's not about
that.
It's a lot.
There's only one award, butthere's a million things to do.
You, you know that's wherewe're at with it.
So did you have any strugglesopening your restaurant, your
new one?
Coming from the food truck,Then you had to slow down to get
into the truck.
Like you said, you condensed.

(17:28):
Then you have to get out ofthat fucking mindset to expand.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Now you're given a budget, you're given a, you're
given a um investors.

Speaker 2 (17:36):
How'd that budget go?
How close were you to thebudget?

Speaker 1 (17:39):
Yeah, we were and think that's the one I'm going
with.
There's one next to it.
That's better Always.
Well, we can just squeeze itout of the budget, right?

Speaker 3 (17:55):
And as long as that budget keeps coming.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
You're good, but regardless, you're doing great
now.
So give me an idea of what isyour typical day like as a chef,
now that you're a year into itcoming up which I won't be able
to be at, that party, which I'mreally bummed about.
I think me and her are going tobe at the World Food
Championships in Indianapolis.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Okay, so I'll be a master judge for that.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
I'm going to miss it too.
I really want to be there, butyour first year, how are you
feeling about it, man?
What are the strongest points?
What do you need to work on?

Speaker 3 (18:25):
What do you think is going on there?
So I think those first fewmonths of having the restaurant
was more about getting everybodyto kind of buy in on what we're
actually doing here, what theculture is.
We did a good job ofestablishing that from the very
beginning.
In the hiring process I waslooking for particular people,
not just the best cooks, becauseI feel like I can train someone
to be a good cook In yourkitchen, you should be the best

(18:47):
cook, exactly.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
So there you go.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
So I'm not looking for that.
I'm looking for someone who'smoldable, who's passionate about
food, things of that nature,and I think we did a good job.
But in any new business you'regoing to have some hiring that
doesn't necessarily pan out.
So after the first three monthswe sort of kind of fell into a
rhythm.
The staff really stabilized andI'm really proud of that.
Our front of the house teamdoes an incredible job.

(19:12):
They really make my life easier, because that's not my strength
, right, my strength is in theback of the house, and so to
have people on the front of thehouse team that I can trust and
I can believe in and I know thatthey're always going to put
what I believe is right first,which is taking care of the
customer that to me, is theultimate goal.
You know, I think we're alwaysin good hands.

(19:32):
If I say, something that I kindof am glad that we've made
happen is just our consistencyand our repeat guests.
Right now we have about 50 to60 guests that we're seeing
every week.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
That's great Same ones.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
And then we probably have about two dozen guests or
so that we're seeing multipletimes a week two, three times.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
And to me that is awesome.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
That's amazing.
That's the biggest compliment,absolutely it's a pure testament
of what you're doing.
So when these people come inright, I always praise the front
of the house.
To me, the cooking is thepassion, it's the heartbeat.
The kitchen is the heartbeat ofthe restaurant.
We get it right, yeah, but therest of the body is out there
and nobody sees what's in theback of the house until they
walk through the front first.
And once they walk through thatfront door and the front of the

(20:16):
house is so important and socrucial that they represent or
misrepresent your fuckingpassion like that.
Yes, like that they can fuck upyour damn second like that man,
and if we're in the back puttingin all this work and effort
into making perfect food but yetthey're not getting the right
service from the get-go or theydidn't get the right vibe or
someone sent them down the wrongpath of energy, you know what

(20:38):
I'm saying?
It automatically comes down onthe food Period, even if they
have a bad review on most ofthese Yelp things and all that
shit.
You're going to see, it's goingto be a thing that says the
waitress didn't greet me, right.
We sat there with our water cupempty.
The food was okay.
If it was the other way around,it would have been the food was

(20:59):
great.
They got my water full everytime.
So they always are going toattack the food, even if it was
good, just based off what thefront says.
You don't ever see a thing thatsays the service was great, but
that food was fucking garbageit's very rare.
you do see that sometimes, butit's kind of odd.
Usually the fucking fault comesfrom the front.
The front of the house is soimportant and to put the trust
that you do into the front ofthe house is another huge risk,

(21:21):
because you don't know whatthey're doing, because you're
cooking.
So hopefully everything's goingthe way it's supposed to.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
So I'm a really big believer in I'll go to a
restaurant that has outstandingservice and mediocre food before
I ever go to a restaurant withgreat food and lousy service.
Because I don't really, unlessI'm coming to Luce.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Well, yeah, I don't have the If you don't get both
at the same time let me know.
Throw me a bone.

Speaker 3 (21:48):
I don't have this thing where I feel like I'm
going to go and get blown awayby the food, Because I always
believe in my skill and myability right.
So, I'm never going in thinking, oh, this food's going to wow
me.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
But I am going in and I'm paying attention to the
service.

Speaker 2 (22:01):
You want a quality meal.
How is this service going to bedelivered Like Hooters?

Speaker 3 (22:04):
Yeah, you ain't going there for the wings most of the
time it's, and so I'm justreally big into that and I
stress that to my team weeklyhey guys, we got to make sure
we're not dropping the ball uphere.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Yeah, it's important.

Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, it's a fucking.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
It coincides, bro.
It's very important that peopleunderstand that.
So do you have any future?
It's hard to see the futureright it is.
So you're stepping into now.
I know you're picking up a lotof more cater, big caterings and
things like that, becausethat's that's kind of where
we're going now.
That's getting back into youroriginal, so you have a play on
that, because your hotel daysright.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Exactly so.
So I'm very comfortable in thatelement.
You know doing catering forlarge groups.
You know there was we'd havethis one crazy December Saturday
every year never failed.
Christmas parties galore, right, and we would have 14 or 15
parties.
The smallest was 150 people,the largest was a thousand, and

(23:00):
out of the 15 parties we'd have12 menus and I'd be cussing out
the sales team for selling allthose different menus oh yeah,
you want to fight them all.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Just fight them right to the fucking face.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
But I'm very comfortable in that like it
would end up being like me andthe two dishwashers putting out
the last party because all theother cooks were doing action
stations in other rooms and allthis stuff, Like we had endless
space at that convention center.
So I'm really looking forwardand I'm excited about these new
catering opportunities.
We've really been pushing that.
That's cool, you know doingsome catering for the Virginia

(23:29):
Living Museum for Ferguson.
We're getting ready to do ourfourth wedding coming up and
those are some good venues,those are good events, man.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
So you're going to do it right.
You're going to draw peopleinto that brick and mortar we
have.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Hampton University's largest donor event coming up,
it's on site during theirhomecoming weekend, the
president asked for mespecifically, and so we're just
going to go out there and dowhat we do.
Congratulations, that's amazing.
Good fucking work, dude.
I love it, you're representingHampton Roads.

Speaker 1 (23:56):
Right, you're helping out the community.
It's hard being a chef thesedays, man trying to rebuild that
chef communal experience thatwe used to have, even back in
the day when I used to cook inother spots in other cities.
There would still be a.
We'd either have a reallyhealthy competition, but we'd
always have each other's back.
Yes, and I'm starting to seenow that if I have anything to

(24:17):
do with it, if I have anythingto do with it, I'm trying to get
more community going again withthe chefs and getting things
together and putting thingstogether and instead of me
saying, don't go to that dude'sfucking restaurant, come to mine
.
I said no, go to his Next week,come to mine.
I his Next week, come to mine.
I want that because withoutvariety, how am I going to be
better than you if they don'thave nothing to go to?

Speaker 2 (24:39):
You don't even know, this how am I going to show you
up if they don't know yourproblem?

Speaker 3 (24:45):
The number of people that I have sent here is
astronomical.
I have a list in my notessection.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
I appreciate you, man Thank you.

Speaker 3 (24:53):
It's all what I believe are the best restaurants
in the 757.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
Well, you're on mine.
I have it out there for sure.
I send people all the time.

Speaker 3 (25:04):
It's like you got to go see Tony man it's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's all love.

Speaker 3 (25:08):
I don't have to tell you that I've been doing that
for four years.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
I never told you that have to tell you that I've I've
been doing that for four years.
I never told you that, but samehere.
That's what I believe you'reexpecting shit either, so it's
not like yeah so I don't knowyou as a like in the kitchen,
your personality type, now chefhas told me that you, you are
out and about a lot like hewould see you on the scene and
very a lot of places are you?

Speaker 3 (25:28):
chef kyle is a little bit different.
So yeah, this shit, how do youbalance?

Speaker 1 (25:32):
that.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
And how are you in the kitchen?
Are you that social in yourrestaurant?
How?

Speaker 3 (25:38):
does that go?
I think touching tables isimportant to me and the feedback
that I've gotten from my guestsis that it's important to them.
Now there is a little bit of ablurred line where I feel like
sometimes people come in and nowthat is the expectation.

(25:59):
We've actually had somenegative reviews written because
I didn't go to their table.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
This isn't a joke.
Many years ago I had to put athing up where there was and I'm
not.
This is truth.
This is just the way it was.
There was a time that so manypeople wanted in Norfolk that so
many people wanted to comeinside and take a picture with
me that I had to literally stopdoing that between certain hours
and tell the cast I can't stopcooking Because the kitchen is
part of the dining room, sopeople would just walk up.

(26:25):
Can we get a picture with you?
Can?

Speaker 2 (26:27):
we get a picture.
I can't stop cooking.

Speaker 1 (26:28):
So at first it was really fun and it was nice, but
then I started burning shit,Ticket time started getting
fucked up and once you come upand take one, now the next
person and I get it.
I'm honored man.
I am totally honored and I don'tunderstand it.
I'm just a fucking cook, right.
But I understand that.
It says it right on yourfucking hat man.
Yeah, an American experience.

(26:51):
And sometimes we forget thatthis.
They're determined to beentertained and that's one of
their levels of entertainment.
They want to post that theywere there.
They want to post that theywere there with the chef, me and
you.
And I can understand it becauseI've been to restaurants.
I go to French Laundry andThomas Keller walks through.
I want to take a picture withhim.
I'm not going to lie to you,the man's a fucking culinary

(27:13):
genius.

Speaker 3 (27:13):
Why wouldn't?

Speaker 1 (27:14):
I.
He's ascended to a level that Icould only imagine.
He's just a little example.
I'm talking about local peoplelike that.
If I go to your restaurant, Iwant a picture with you, Just
because we're in the samestruggle.
I want people to see we supporteach other.
I want to be able to look at itone day and go look at that 20
years ago, what motherfuckerdidn't have gray hair?

Speaker 2 (27:31):
He's coming in now.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
You guys welcome Welcome to our world 20 days
later he's got gray hair.

Speaker 2 (27:41):
Like the presidency, it just happens real quick.

Speaker 1 (27:45):
I'm saying, man, you get handicapped.
You don't even fucking realizeyou can't walk no more, you need
a hip replacement.
So how does the coming up inthis, the party life?
So I'm all about the party life?
Sure, I'm all about the partylife forming and molding this
industry.
Mm-hmm, because this right hereis an extension of everybody
else's party.
Yeah, so everybody's coming inhere, and whatever level you're

(28:07):
partying at is irrelevant.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
It's still an extension of someone else's
party, so at some point in timewe become victim of that party
because we are entertaining themin the party, and then it
becomes our party after.
So, really, in the long term ofthings, we've been partying
since fucking 2 o'clock in theafternoon, if you think about it
because we've been working onsomeone's party right.
The name of our customers thatcome in is a party of one, a
party of two.
It's in, brained it's, it'sdrained in us.

(28:32):
But what?
What do you do as far as whenyou have um, when you have as we
get older and age, you stillfind yourself in that zone, or
you you backed out of that no, Ithink, um, it's just phases of
life, right?

Speaker 3 (28:46):
uh, so 15 years ago, that's really what I wanted to
do, you know, and obviously Iwas always working my ass off
because that's always been thenumber one priority.
But the moment I had a secondof free time, I was leaving the
peninsula and I was coming overhere.
And I think, just as you getolder and priorities shift, you
realize that well, it's sort ofthe same thing that I've been

(29:07):
doing.
Like I could pretty much tellyou who's going to be there.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
How many are?

Speaker 3 (29:11):
they going to have.
You know, you know the deal.
And so I think when I went intothis restaurant, piece most of
that kind of subsided, justbecause I couldn't do both, I
couldn't be all in on making therestaurant the best that it
could be and still trying tohave like a personal life.
Now we're 11 months in and so Iwouldn't say the foot is off

(29:35):
the gas, but now at leastthere's some opportunities.
You know so a buddy of mine, heturned 50 this weekend and so I
was able to go and celebratewith him.
I'm just some milestones likethat that in the previous two
years I would have been like Ican't do it, so I can't.

Speaker 1 (29:50):
I look back at what, the way I used to do this
madness, and I look back on whatI used to do and didn't realize
that I was in the kitchen somuch that it wasn't even work,
it was life.
So I was partying at work.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
Right, you would consider work.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I waspartying in the place.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
I'm employed because it was my life, so we'd go
through a phase of coming inhungover, get lit, get lit up,
whatever however you had to dothat.
Get lit, get lit up, whateverhow we had to do that.
Then get drinking while we'reworking while working, because
we had to catch a buzz before weget out, because by then
everybody's already caught up.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
They're already drunk .

Speaker 1 (30:25):
You're trying to catch up to them yeah, so
there's been times I've been sodrunk my sous chef now.
We used to get so fucking drunktogether working back in the
day.
There was a couple times wewere on the floor.
I couldn't move, laughing drunk, just wondering what the fuck
am I doing here?
Room is spinning, I'm holdingon to the thing and I'm cooking
people food.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
I couldn't even imagine doing that at this point
in time.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
But luckily there was someone else paying the bills
at the restaurant someone elsepaying me.
It wasn't mine, Totallydifferent story.
But even just waking up likethat, I couldn't even imagine
now.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
How you'd feel It'd take how many days?
To recover.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
Yeah, oh yeah, that's a rip.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Now don't get me wrong, I'll smash my shots at
Jaeger and my tequila and shitwhile I'm cooking.
Still, I like doing that, butto get to a point where I'm
buzzing or drunk, couldn't evenimagine that while I'm working
and cooking and beingresponsible for other people's
entertainment and time and money, you know what.
I mean, they trust us to do it,but holy shit, I encourage
anyone coming through to justget fucking crazy while you can.

Speaker 3 (31:21):

Speaker 1 (31:22):
While you can, unless you're on my clock, don't do
that in my kitchen, but when youwere, I'm going to call you
guys and tell them get fucked up.
Tonight you can do one shot,that's all right, I'll go down.
Watch the ship sink.
Please don't do that.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
It is a fun experiment though.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
I bet, oh, it's funny , yeah, but man, we have some
good times.
I don't know how we made itthrough.
I have no idea.
I really don't know.
You used to get fucking righttoo when you were working.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Oh God, it was fucking terrible.
I don't even know.
I don't there.
We were there drinking, sowe're there seven nights a week.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Seven nights a week Till 3, 4 in the morning.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
I had a day job so I was still working Monday through
Friday and would be right backat the bar at 5 pm working and
drinking all night.
I mean, there was whipped creaminvolved.
There was a lot of things thathappened at the edge that people
don't need to know about.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
Wake up and more whipped cream stuck to your hair
and your face and shit, yeah,and you're like thank God, we
didn't have a camera In 99, Iwas like a bar Norfolk guy.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
Oh yeah, that was another part.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
That's a whole other problem.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
I was down at time At the end of the night we would
go down, open up the kitchenrestaurant, invite people from
the bar until 5, 6 in themorning when the baker would
show up, there would be fucking.
It was a nonsense.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Plates of Italian food, plates of everything.

Speaker 3 (32:47):
How are you here now?
Don't worry about that.
Listen, you're asking a lot ofquestions.
We do the answering around here.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
How am I here now?
I don't know, bro.
That's the funny thing.
That's the whole point.
How am I here now, exactly?
You get your wake-up calls.
You get your wake-up calls, youget your ups and downs, you get
your quick realizations.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
You had that.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
There's not many cooks or kitchen people who can
come through my kitchen with anexcuse or a fucking story or a
reason why they were late.
You can't fool me.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Jack no.

Speaker 1 (33:18):
We don't?

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Well, it's like your kids.
Like your kids, you're notgoing to sneak out because I've
done every play in the bookthere is nothing you can get
past me, and my kids know that,so I'm pretty good about that.

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Yeah, I mean typically, when someone has
COVID 15 times in a fall seasonthere's probably a time to go
get a frigging radiation orsomething.
Do you ever?

Speaker 3 (33:36):
get the COVID Google search pic.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
They're like I do have COVID.
It's like a few years ago.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
That's the same pic they've had on the internet for
three years.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Yeah, it's okay, but no, it is.
But this industry teaches you alot.
It's someone else's hand, it'sa woman's hand with fingernails
and shit.

Speaker 1 (33:54):
That's my nurse.
That and shit, that's my nurse,that's my nurse.
So, coming up, man, I know youhave some advice for people.
Let's talk about that.
I mean, we could sit here allday and chop up all these
stories and I love doing that,man.
But you know, the point of theshow to me is to really get back
into the environment of therestaurants, man, to bring it
back to life.
The glory, the glory of it, tomake people proud of it.

(34:16):
You know there's so much peopletalking.
You go online people talkingabout how we don't pay people.
No, we don't all not pay people.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Right.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Some people don't pay people and they're typically
not around long.
This industry is fucking great.
It's a great building block forpeople.
It's a great building block forpeople's lives, whether they
stay in it or not.
I think there was a time in along time decades went by where
everyone that was anyone thathad a job started as a busboy a
waitstaff or something.
The industry is huge and itshould be celebrated.

Speaker 3 (34:46):
So one of the things I'm most proud of this year we
had a busser.
He was the valedictorian ofDemby High School in Newport
News this past year and for thewhole year as he was a
valedictorian and then throughgraduation he was working for me
as a busser.
And just getting to know himand this super smart kid he's

(35:07):
pre-med at UVA, got a full rideand every now and then I say
look at you, man, all thosebrains, and now you're here
bussing this person's fuckingtable.
But it means something.
It taught that young mansomething.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
You know it.

Speaker 3 (35:23):
Absolutely, and I think that it's missing these
days, like starting fromsomething and having to deal
with the customers andhospitality and what it means.
Empathy, empathy, yeah.
All that shit Starting on thefucking.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
You can't climb a ladder if you're not starting.
The first step, man, yeah, andthat's the first step to reality
is, yes, you too can bustsomeone else's fucking table
just like that.
You could be a doctor one day,and maybe one day you may have
to go bust a table, you don'tknow what the fuck happens.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Well, what's to?
Say, I mean everyone should doit, because it just teaches you.
I mean, my daughter works here,okay, and she's going to be a
doctor.

Speaker 3 (36:01):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
And so this is where she will get the chops to do
anything in life and I wouldn'thave had my jobs if I didn't the
restaurants.
I literally went from being abartender to being a news anchor
.
That happened because one of mybar customers sat there and
said wow, you can talk a lotwithout messing up.
I think you'd be good ontelevision.
I was like go fuck yourself,because I have a fear of public

(36:22):
speaking.
I will never do TV.
I did TV for 18 years because ofbeing a bartender, and that was
because I was professional, Iwas well-spoken, I showed up, I
worked hard and that leads to somany opportunities that I don't
think people realize the amountof opportunity this business
presents.
Because we all like to eat, weall like to drink, we all like
to have community, so this isliterally the only thing

(36:44):
everyone can share in this worldis the joy of food and being a
part of it.
So it has been the biggestconduit for, I think, all the
success I've had in my life.

Speaker 1 (36:53):
It's great Me too.
Obviously I love thehospitality industry.
When people walk through thedoor, you don't know where
they're from.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:59):
They all come in with different.
They have a whole differentreason for being alive.
Everybody has a differentreason for coming in here, right
?
Well, the reason is to eat, butthey're all coming in with
different avenues that they'vecome in on, yeah, and you never
know who the hell you're talkingto.
You never know what the fuck'sgoing on.
And the fuck's going on, and wehave the biggest open door to

(37:20):
that, where the opportunity isendless and we have.
It's just crazy.
So I'm all for the, therestaurant industry.
I'm all about it.
Appreciate you being here.
For sure, we're going to dosome more stuff in the future.
Soon I want to come check youout out there.
Matter of fact, me and her aregoing to start doing a little
bit of restaurant type ofreviews I love it um we're gonna
do a tour we're gonna do a tour.

Speaker 2 (37:34):
We're gonna call it a tour.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
We're going to do a tour.
We're going to call it the tour, not so much a review, but a
tour, just to show people what'sup out there.
We're going to have a differenttwist on them.
We'll show it when it's time,but maybe you'll be the first
one we stop at.

Speaker 2 (37:47):
I better be the first one and tell everybody where
they can find the restaurant 694Town Center Drive, city Center,
new center, newport news.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
Uh, it's just been an honor, man, hang out with you
guys.
It's been.
It's been a blast.
The restaurant's rocking theworld right now one year
anniversary party is coming upnext month, november 8th, uh,
and we're just looking forwardto to what's next.
You know I think we got someexpansion plans, maybe in the
future.
Uh, as a chef, tell me about it.
You had Luce for how many years?
Seven, eight, before thisopened.

(38:21):
Ten years before this opened.
Did you know after a few yearsthat you wanted to open a second
one, or what was it?

Speaker 1 (38:29):
I didn't want to open up a second restaurant, and
this restaurant is underconstruction.

Speaker 2 (38:32):
They're outside, not the inside the outside.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
So I do have.
The answer to that question isI didn't necessarily want
another restaurant.
I wanted a bigger experience, Iwanted to broaden my, I wanted
more out of myself.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Correct.

Speaker 1 (38:44):
So my restaurant, luce, was so small that I was
starting to get fucking confined.
I was starting to getclaustrophobic meaning
metaphorically for my expressingwhere I wanted to go with my
food.
I didn't have the equipment.
I wanted to grow.
I was learning more.
I was traveling Europe and Iwas working with a lot of
Michelin chefs, which isn't somuch my goal, but a lot of the

(39:04):
techniques are.
There's a lot of things outthere that I want to experiment
and experience.
I just couldn't do it in thatlittle place.
So it wasn't a matter of mewanting to open up another
restaurant wanting to open upanother restaurant.
It was a matter of me wantingjust a bigger fucking kitchen.
And then the opportunity cameby people walking to the door
like we just spoke about andwhen that opportunity came, it

(39:29):
was a difference between goingfrom this big to jumping into a
fucking huge thing.
We're talking about a milliondollar operation in time to a
multi-million dollar startupoperation over here.
So it was very stressful.
It was a huge risk.
I did want more.
Yes, did I think it wasfeasible for me to go get
another restaurant?
No, I didn't at the time.
Now with education, now withtiming, I'm ready for two or

(39:51):
three more restaurants because Iknow how to do it.
Of course there's a break onthat.
I'm not going to go do that,but I'm always ready for more.
I'm ready for more.
So this podcast right here is agood outlet because it kind of
feeds into the me wanting what'sout there, it allows me to talk
to you, and feeds that wantingto go out and get more.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Scratch that itch a little bit.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Scratches an itch exactly.
So is there more for me in thefuture?
Absolutely, man.
I'm doing a lot of things rightnow and with her help on this
it's amazing, with your helpbeing here, with your help being
in the community, gives medrive to fucking work harder.
You know what I'm saying when Isee a guy chomping at the bit
to fucking take that chef of theyear away from me there's eyes
on you, brother.
It's fucking time to roll.
It keeps me rolling and I wishall the best for everybody.

(40:33):
Yeah, this is my year.
Next year, I want someone elseto come up and make it their
year.
Yeah, because it's already myyear.
I had my year, so I'm going tocontinue on doing my best to
support the community, supportthe growth of it and support the
restaurant industry, becauseHampton Roads man, we've got to
get on that map outside of thisarea because there's some
phenomenal chefs, phenomenalrestaurants and we have a huge
food scene here.

Speaker 2 (40:53):

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Absolutely so.
That's that man.

Speaker 2 (40:55):
We're on a mission.
That's what we're doing.

Speaker 3 (40:57):
So is this the point of the show where we do the?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
read the bad reviews.
I see you brought your own badreview.

Speaker 3 (41:04):
Yeah, because I'm like well, he's always reading
all these reviews.
No, I know yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
I saw him Let me see, let me see Not only did he
bring merch, but he brought abad review.

Speaker 1 (41:23):
You brought your yeah review, yeah right, so have you
responded to these?

Speaker 3 (41:24):
yet online.
So my restaurant manager, MrBrian, he takes the brunt of
that for me because I'm afraid Imight actually respond how Tony
eloquently does on this podcast.

Speaker 2 (41:29):
Tony is not the nicest.
I don't have time to respond toall of them.
For the most part, I want tomake something really clear,
right.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
I am 100% about reviews.
You cannot function withoutthem.
There's good ones, a lot ofthem.
We wouldn't be here, I wouldn'tbe 5, whatever, 5.4, 4.9,
whatever on every fuckingplatform if we didn't have the
good reviews.
The bad reviews are just asimportant.
I'm going to go with this one,but when you take a percentage
of the bad reviews, there'sactually a smaller percent of

(42:05):
bad reviews that are actuallyhelpful and useful and something
that we can use as a tool tofix.
If you listen to every badreview and take it to heart and
take emotion on it, you're goingto be fucked.
Now, when they're literallysaying something that you need
to pay attention to and it'swritten out nicely and it's
written out plain to see.
You need to address that review.
That's the truth.
However, somebody got madbecause you didn't fucking have
the horns blowing with the redcarpet out, because they wanted
to bring balloons and we don'tallow balloons in here.
So now they're going toterrorize your whole fucking

(42:26):
thing.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
Ours is confetti.
We had confetti recently.
Fuck the confetti.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
I don't do confetti, no balloons nothing, he doesn't
even allow a birthday balloon inthis because, listen man, we
are a white tableclothrestaurant.
If I'm sitting here and there'sa balloon next to me, that's
not my party Like hitting you inthe head.
It's not my party To knowwhat's going on table.
Fucking D5 over there is noteveryone else's business.
They didn't come here for yourparty, unfortunately.
I'm sorry.

(42:49):
I'm glad you did okay.

Speaker 3 (42:51):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
by the way, Take the fucking balloons home and Do the
balloons later, put them in thecar.
But we're not going to haveballoons at table five because
the people at table three mightbe celebrating a fucking or
suffering a funeral Sure or aloss, and maybe not here for
your party and it's got to befair across the board the
fucking food is the party man.
The food, the wine, theexperience, that's going to take
center stage.
You know what?

Speaker 2 (43:12):
I'm saying you want the party to be in your mouth,
amen.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
So, look, I was devastated.
Everyone's coming.
The first time that we got anon-five review.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Okay, party in your mouth and everyone's coming.
We had 50 reviews.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
We were open for like I don't know two months or
something.
We had 50 reviews.
They were all fives and then Ithought the world was going to
end the first time.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
I got a non-five review.
It always hurts.
Yes.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
And then everyone's like chef, did you really think
you were going to go your entirelife without you know five?
This is what makes it fun.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
All right so I'll read through this one Go, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:45):
Or we'll let Tony respond.

Speaker 3 (43:45):
No, I'm going to respond too oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
we'll both respond.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
We'll both respond to Marianne.
So Marianne, all right.
So Marianne reviews a lot.
She left 317 reviews and posted1,098 photos on Google.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
She's a super zone.
She needs a life.

Speaker 1 (44:00):
She's a serial reviewer of everything.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Okay.
So the restaurant had great IGmarketing reel.
However, place looks more hipand cleaner in the reel than in
person.
A total letdown.
Service was next tonon-existent.
Our waitress moonlights as abartender, so she didn't come
back by to check in.
She didn't give us a breadbasket.
We had to literally ask if wecan have some after we saw the

(44:25):
folks sitting next to us at theend of our table enjoying some.
Too bad.
The champagne butter waspromising.
Our water wasn't refilled twice, so I don't know what that
really means.
We asked for separate checks.
It took 10 minutes minutes.
Then we found out the billswere wrong.
I was charged for a caesarsalad.
Friend ordered it, took thewaitress another 15 minutes and

(44:45):
oh, there she was tending thebar again.
I would give a one star.
The only saving grace was theshrimp and grits, which was a
solid 3.5.
The veggies were too chunky,though not finessed.
My friend who ordered scallopssays hers were so-so.
So food three out of five,service one out of five,
atmosphere two out of five.
So we can break it down as weusually do.
So I'm sure the reel lookedgreat, you have great marketing

(45:07):
on your Instagram.
Good job to your team.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Shout out to those guys.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
Shout out to the team .
Obviously that looks good.
All the time Service nonexistent.
So waitress and bartender wedon't know what night of the
week this was, but there are alot of people who pull several
roles in a restaurant.
It's right there is the problem.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
The service wasn't existent for her momentary need.
But it's obvious the servicewas existent for somebody
because she was doing thewaitstaff and doing the fucking
bartending.
So take that with a grain ofsalt, Plus you're new.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
Someone called in that night.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
Yeah, you know what I mean.
This is within the first year,so you have to go through your
ups and downs.
So maybe the bartender wasn'tthere on time, or maybe she
wasn't there that night, ormaybe somebody was doing two
jobs in one because they had toget through that night.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Maybe all of a sudden , there was an influx of people
on Thursday night and where weused to do 70, we a hundred.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
And now you know, yeah, so she was, she was mad
with that and then, obviously,you know well, you can talk to
the food part.
So the veggies were chunky andnot finessed I don't know how
much more finessed I mean lookmy style.

Speaker 3 (46:07):
There is a picture southern and asian cuisine
there's a photo.
That particular dish is meantto be rustic to me.
Yeah and uh.
That's how I intended to comeout.
That's where you cook, sothat's how you cook it.
That's the way you cook it, soit is the way you like it and it
looks good to me.
It looks great.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
What I think is this man?
You have it says here, righthere too bad, the champagne
butter was promising that rightthere, throws my whole when I do
these reviews, by the way, thatwhite chocolate, champagne,
butter is fucking money.
Why is it too bad?
It was good, right, why.
Why is it too bad?
It was good.

Speaker 3 (46:41):
Too bad.
It was good Because you wantedto give me a one.

Speaker 1 (46:43):
Because you wanted to give me a one Damn those shrimp
and butter.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
It's too bad.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
So you're hoping for a fucking demise right out the
gate?
So there's probably a level ofhate going on here and just
understand what it is that thischef is doing.
Man, If he's got chunks offucking, that looks good to me.

Speaker 3 (46:59):
It looks good, so that really wasn't the bad part,
but for them to give you, it'sthe number two salad dish on the
whole menu.
So I don't know, of course.

Speaker 1 (47:06):
Things happen in restaurants.
The number one is the shrimpand grits with no vegetables.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
Oh my God, oh my God, oh my god, so yeah it is.

Speaker 2 (47:17):
Yeah, I mean, we all have to expect time delays um,
this is and this one is good, so, uh, this is oh, you want me to
read okay, this one is great.

Speaker 3 (47:26):
This only because we have to jump on this really
quick sorry, we're going overweek, so this was 42 weeks ago.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Yeah, yeah, hiawatha pierce.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
We're just gonna say your name, because, why not?
If you go see this show come atus, it's fine.
So I'm just going to jump ahead.
My wife called Saturday at 11,made reservations for 5.
At 1, we get a call informingher that a reservation was
canceled.
They were overbooked.
We were disappointed.
Sometimes that happens.
My question to the person whomade the reservation was you had

(47:56):
a tablet, you ahead of time?
They never tried whatever.
Just tell them we're overbooked.
We've been to a lot ofhigher-end restaurants and if
something came up with ourreservations, some type of
accommodation would have beenoffered Not at Satay.
So we didn't get a chance to goand now we will never attempt
to go again.
This is one of the main reasonsI don't support black
businesses a lack reasons Idon't support black businesses,

(48:21):
a lack of professionalism.
So that just went all the waythere.
So we are generalizing.
My blood pressure was throughthe roof.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Did they really say that oh?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
yeah, I didn't see that on that the first time, so
let's just go with thestereotype generalization first,
but their name is Hiawatha, sowe're going to guess.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Let's give them at least that.

Speaker 1 (48:41):
So we're gonna guess yeah, yeah, okay, but you know
you're gonna call out your own.

Speaker 3 (48:44):
People, it'd be your own.

Speaker 2 (48:52):
So how is the fact that there was possibly some
delay in the system?
Could have been a lot of thingsgoing on that you Know, so yeah
.

Speaker 3 (48:58):
I dug a little deeper into this.
Oh okay, Because I reallywanted to know.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
Oh, you got to know now, so apparently Called out a
whole race.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
It was the first week we were open Five o'clock
reservation.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
You people suck, it's a.

Speaker 3 (49:08):
Saturday night right, and they called to make a
two-top reservation.

Speaker 2 (49:19):
Yeah, and we put them in.
Then she called back to addpeople to the reservation.

Speaker 3 (49:21):
Oh so that's not in the review.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Of course not.
No, it's not in there.
Why would she put that in thereview?
Oh my goodness, yeah, or he,whoever, whoever, hiawatha, yeah
, this is my wife Could beeither, okay.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
So then it became our fault because we weren't
accommodating.

Speaker 2 (49:32):
Because you didn't have room for more than the
original recipe.
This is why I don't supportblack.
This is why I don't read thereviews.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
That is fucking ridiculous.
Don't read the reviews.
Let me see that thing again.
I gotta read that again withmyself.
Okay, let me see.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
That is something it's wild out here.
It's real, that is crazy.
Lack of professionalism yeah,but your words are fucking right
on par with Lack ofprofessionalism that let you
come to the restaurant and thentell you when you got there that
we couldn't see you.
This is fucking crazy.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (50:00):
Hey, Hiawatha, why don't you go fuck yourself?
How's that sound, Hiawatha?
Yeah, we'll say it.
Yeah, fuck you dude.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Fuck off, that is um.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Clown.
Yeah, fucking Are you kidding.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, I know right.
Yeah, so the tablet is straight.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
You got that rock tablet like Moses you know
they're chiseling.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
The two was a five.
Oh no, you chiseled wrong.
Come on man, god damn.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
People have no, I mean well one, people have no
chill anyways, but they have nopatience 2,024 people talking
about nonsense and you have theability to comment and keyboard
and have no one standing infront of you you'll say anything
.

Speaker 2 (50:41):
I mean, you can go read the responses here I'm
trying to stand in front of them.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
I want to call them out we invite them in.

Speaker 2 (50:47):
We're like, come meet me back, we'll meet you outside
in the garage and have aconversation about it, and I
think honestly there needs to bea little bit more of that, but
that's really sad.
That was fun.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
Shout out to him though we're doing 900 covers a
week.
We're rolling.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Come on back Hiawatha , give it another shot, support,
support.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Support the best new restaurant in 2024.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
We had a great time talking to you.
Man.
I support black restaurant.
I'm telling you what Hiawatha,you're a punk man.
This is great.
I support black home restaurant.
I'm telling you what Hiawatha,you're a punk.
That's some bullshit.
I don't care if you're blackeither.
I'm calling you out.
You know what I mean?
That's crazy.
That is straight crazy, man.
You hear this shit?

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Oh my God, All right.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Well, that was a fun way to end the conversation you
right on, chef, take it easy,we'll talk to you soon we look
forward to doing much more inthe future and, as we say, ciao
for now.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Here's some more success from a burnt hands
perspective.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Burnt hands perspective check us out, hit
subscribe, give us a fuckingfollow, share it, love it go
after Hiawatha online.
Hiawatha, stay the fuck off thepodcast clown.
Ciao for now, ciao for now.

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Ep. 20 - From Hotels to Food Truck to Brick and Mortar: Chef Kyle's Culinary Evolution

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Ep. 20 - From Hotels to Food Truck to Brick and Mortar: Chef Kyle's Culinary Evolution