June 27, 2025 • 33 mins
Restaurant owners unite! We are going Greek!
We sat down with the owners of Brick House Diner to explore the deep connection between food, heritage, and the challenges of preserving authentic Greek cuisine in America. The episode brings together our longtime friends with Greek restaurant backgrounds to discuss how their cultural food traditions have shaped their lives and businesses.
We touched on so many topics in this episode:
• Greek cuisine offers flavors similar yet distinct from Italian, with regional variations throughout Greece
• Authentic Greek ingredients create dramatically different flavors – organic tomatoes, hand-cut fries, and fresh feta cheese
• Traditional dishes like spanakopita require homemade phyllo dough, a labor-intensive process that yields incomparable results
• Restaurant owners struggle with rising costs, slim profit margins, and the challenge of presenting rustic dishes to American diners
• Preserving cultural cooking traditions becomes increasingly important as older generations age and younger ones show less interest
• The restaurant industry has transformed from a highly profitable business to one where owners carefully balance menu pricing against costs
• Both the community and customers need greater understanding about the realities of operating restaurants in today's economy
Support your local restaurants, local people, and local shops – they're the ones preserving cultural traditions while facing significant business challenges.
Check out Brick House Diner - https://www.brickhousediner.com/
Richmond · 13520 Midlothian Tpke Midlothian, VA 23113 ·
Richmond -3336 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd, Richmond, Va 23230
Virginia Beach · 941 Providence Square Virginia Beach, VA 23464
"Brick House Diner is family owned and operated by The Routsis family. We at Brick House would like to thank you for choosing our restaurant for your dining experience. The Routsis family takes pride in preparing homemade dishes for our customers. If there is ever a problem in our restaurant please feel free to let us know. We are here to satisfy our customers and friends so we look forward to seeing you again for one of our three meals. We are sure you will enjoy it so make sure you tell a friend about Brick House Diner"
Welcome to the show! Burnt Hands Perspective
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Thank you to our location sponsor, Luce Secondo, located in Summit Pointe in Chesapeake, VA www.lucesecondo.com
For sponsorship opportunities, don't hesitate to get in touch with us directly.
*The views and opinions on this show are meant for entertainment purposes only. They do not reflect the views of our sponsors. We are not here to babysit your feelings, if you are a true industry pro, you will know that what we say is meant to make you laugh and have a great time. If you don't get that, this is not the podcast for you. You've been warned. Enjoy the ride!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, burhan's perspective right here, sitting
here with my two buddies, go wayback in time.
Of course, kristen always herewith me on the show and I'm here
with her either way Hi.
Depending on which one of usyou watch probably her she's
much better to look at than I am, but hey.
I try, Anyway.
So we go way back, guys.
This is the Greek connectionwe're talking.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Greek.
Today we're going to Greece.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's all Greek to me, Probably well, not probably.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It is my top three cuisines in the world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It is Italian, Greek, Thai.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Flavor explosions.
But Greek to me is everythingItalian when it isn't right.
So everything that I, if I eversay, man, this could be a
little more Greek.
It's the only time I say it, someaning I love this stuff, I
love the feta cheeses, I lovethat.
When you there's, that's sobasic to say, right, that's the
most basic shit to say untilyou've gone there and ate it,
then then it's a whole differentworld.
(00:53):
Right, it's like eatingmozzarella.
Most people think mozzarellathe thing about pizza or you
know, cheese sticks or littlestring cheeses or something,
until you go to italy and getyeah, um, it's an ld buffalo
right.
So if you go to Italy and getmozzarella di buffalo, right.
So if you go to Greece and eatthe feta cheese there, it's
totally different.
It brings you to another placein it, and all that shit.
So what I'm going to say isthis man, we go all the way back
(01:15):
to the bars back when we wereyoung, as does most people on
this show, because we live in asmall world.
So here's what I remember themost.
The first time I remember youthree guys.
Your brother John's not hereright now.
He couldn't be here, but thisis how I remember you first.
You ready for this.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
You don't know what he's going to say you might
remember this.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm in the bar, drunk as fuck.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Last call.
Last call.
You remember that.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Last call, drunk as fuck.
Last call, last call youremember that last call and I
smell something like what thefuck is that?
Right, and my buddy ben and Iwere sitting there one time.
We're like what was that?
What does that smell?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
these three guys are walking around the bar with a
fucking like a tray, an aluminumtray with aluminum foil, on top
, with fucking chicken skewersthat they grilled out these
greek bastards, and they got theseasoning, the chicken or pork
that they grilled out theseGreek bastards and they got the
seasoning Chicken or pork, oneof the two, yeah, and they're
walking through the souvlaki Inthe store.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
You're young, we're all kids, right then?
Yeah, we're like 19, 20, 21years old, right?
Can't tell the secret.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We were there early, but that's all right, we were in
the bars early.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Let me tell you what night and sell them for like two
, three bucks a piece orsomething, right, I'd be like
getting handfuls of them andthat's what we met and I'm like
these guys love food as much asI do and they're learning how to
make money on it, right?
Yeah, so, Kristen, you probablydon't.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
You were probably working atthe time.
I was always working, that'swhat I mean Everybody was up
(02:40):
there having fun.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
She was keeping us ready for the food.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
She was keeping us hydrated, so from that point on,
I knew I had a fuckingrelationship with you guys and
right away we started connecting.
Then I ended up dating a Greekgirl at that time and then I got
more introduced to the cultureand that was an amazing time too
, because that's what really gotme involved with the culture
and being around you guys andmeeting you guys and everything
else there.
We're still friends to today,me and her and Peggy what's up?
(03:05):
You're out there, anyway.
So that was a great time inlife to be introduced to such a
culture, because I've alwaysgrew up Italian.
I had Greek friends, but I wasnever introduced to their Greek
lifestyle, the cooking and itwas so similar, right?
Yeah?
So the way you guys, you knowyou have a lot of similar dishes
, that kind of translate toItalian.
(03:26):
Maybe it's just because of theGreek and Roman connection back
in history, or whatever it maybe, but your versions of lasagna
, your versions of eggplant,your versions of pastas and
baked dishes and things likethat, go ahead and spit some of
them out.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And I mean even the bread, all the way to the bread,
the bread, yep.
A lot of artisan-type breadstuff like that.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Musacca bread, a lot of artisan type bread stuff like
that, um, which is like twodifferent types of lasagna, ones
with eggplant potatoes, theother ones with a penne pasta or
noodle type of noodle with abechamel ground beef.
Um, then a lot of stewed dishesas well too a lot of nutmeg.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, herbs that we don't really see a lot of men
but it.
But it also depends on theparts of Greece that you're from
.
Yeah, my family's from centralGreece.
We didn't use a lot of nutmegor a lot of mint.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Now Greece, central Greece, you say.
Is that central islands?
No, no, it's central Greece.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Back from mainland, yeah, mainland, yes, gotcha.
And so we didn't use a lot ofnutmeg and mint.
But when I went to my aunt's orwent to other people's houses,
they had mint, they had nutmeg,all that stuff it's pretty
similar, but you had thatdifference.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Greek culture is huge and the Greek food is huge
and the Greek communities arebig.
Right, you guys throw partiesand eat man, it's not a joke,
it's a fucking festival.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There's 15 of us and we cook for 150.
And you all eat it, and we alleat it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You eat it all.
I'm saying we all eat it forsure.
You know, and it's all freshand it's right up my alley A lot
of lamb fish.
The fish is off the hook, right.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
So when you guys, you guys go back to Greece, quite
often Not as're there.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
When you're getting there, you're on the airplane,
you're getting ready to land.
Something's going through yourmind when it comes to food and
shit.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
What's the?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
first thing on your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Where am I going to eat?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
What's the?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
first food I want the souflaki which is the pork on
the skewer.
It's different there, right,it's different.
Oh man, you can't get it right.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Number one, I believe , because everything it's 95% of
it's organic.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yes.
Correct the tomatoes,everything tastes different.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Unbelievable Potatoes , tomatoes, cucumbers, I mean a
lot of stuff's grown locally,especially if you go to the
villages where my parents arefrom, you literally sit down us
four sit down and order a meal.
We want chicken.
The chicken's out back hangingout until we order it Right.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And then it's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Not like the chickens here we discussed in the other
episodes.
The potatoes are grown in theyard, the tomatoes, the
cucumbers, everything is.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
So the best part.
So when I'm going thinkingabout my cuisine, italian
cuisine, when I'm ready to eat,I'm always thinking of it all
day long, and right now I'mthinking of it I want.
First thing that comes to mymind is basil.
That's the first thing thatcomes For some reason.
I just love it.
It's the best smell, the besttaste, the best everything in
the world.
To me, my number one trigger isbasil fresh basil.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I love it, and with you guys it's the same, except
for it's oregano and it comesout on tomatoes, it comes out on
cheese, it comes out oneverything and I'll never forget
.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I was in um, I was in uh in gumanitza and I went to
this restaurant.
That was not supposed to be arestaurant.
I think it was more supposed tobe like a mechanic shop or
something I don't know but.
But it was.
They brought out this pot ofbeef broth, right and, and they
put it on this burner right.
And the only experience I'veever had like this in my
(06:48):
culinary world is one time whenI was in Hungary.
They do the goulash the sametype of way.
They come out on the fire withthis crock, they put it in front
of you and they kind of cook itin front of you and you serve
out of it right On the table.
It's a hole with a fire in it.
Well, this guy brought out thispot of lamb sorry lamb broth
straight.
You could smell it, the foaming, it was ugly, it wasn't
(07:09):
presented right and I'm likewhat the fuck is going on here?
you know what I mean and hetakes pasta spaghetti and just
dumps the raw spaghetti in thislamb broth and I'm thinking to
myself what is going on in mylife right now?
Why are greeks cookingspaghetti?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
first of all.
Second of all, what ishappening here?
You my life right now.
Why are Greeks cookingspaghetti?
First of all, second of all,what is?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
happening here, you know, and he comes out and he
puts the Greek cheese on it andI forget what it's called.
It's like a white crumblycheese, real soft, not feta, but
it's just a very soft mildcheese.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's white, it's white.
They call it manouri and it's adifferent type of feta.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Okay, good, and it's very mild, very clean, and he
sprinkled that on there and kindof tossed it like we would.
No broth, though, just thepasta out of the broth.
No strain or nothing, just youknow, into the bowl.
And he put the fucking cheese inthere and tossed it A little
bit of oregano on top.
I'm telling you all, man, I eatpasta as a professional.
This was some of the best shitI ever ate in my life.
(08:06):
I don't know if they're.
In a sense it was the broth youcook the noodles in, almost
like fall or something yeah, butit just the pasta spaghetti
with that cheese on it and therest of a mechanic shop out of
it was well it was a restaurantthat looked like.
It was just a couple tables in agarage.
It looked like shit it didn'tlook like a place that you
should be eating, and but it was.
I telling you it was some ofthe best shit I've ever had in
my life.
I still think of that to thisday and I don't know if I can go
(08:28):
back to that island and figureout where the hell it was, if
it's even still there at thispoint.
I was with a friend who was aGreek guy there and we were
going to check on somemotorcycle parts and across the
little place over there was thisguy.
He goes come on, you're gonnalove it, trust me, I'm gonna
love it.
I'm gonna love eating with thisguy's eating for lunch right
here.
Who's this guy?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
and it was that good.
It was that good.
Well, going to greece ruined me.
I mean, it ruined me comingback here to eat food here,
because it was, I mean, likegreek salad.
Like I can't eat greek saladwith lettuce in it like I can't
do that.
It's not.
And then once I had it therethe way that it is prepared or
supposed to be prepared therewas no coming back.
So now I'm ruined.
I don't eat lettuce really.
Anyways, I don't like green.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But it's just one of the things.
It ruined me.
The funny thing is getting aGreek salad there with a pile of
French fries on it and stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Everything's beautiful man and the fries are
hand cut.
Yeah, they're delicious and apain, and they're golden brown,
they're not white dude, the salton, it's better, everything's
good.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Now we're all you can tell me because this is the
conversation, but growing upwith the food culture and
bringing it back here.
So you have the restaurant likeyou know.
How much of it do you get toreally stick to?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Greek food in a sense we used to do, actually, one
night a week.
We used to have a Greek nightand do Greek foods and my aunt,
who's obviously greek, um, shewould make, uh, two or three
dishes and then that's what wewould have that day and we did
well, um, she's just gottenolder now.
I mean I can pull the weight,uh, but I think the what it's
(10:00):
not a lot of people.
You get a lot of people inthere that want it.
The presentation of it, like Iwas telling you a second ago,
isn't always the greatest,because we talk chicken and
potatoes, right.
So my mom, growing up, chickenand potatoes was a big pot, big
pan.
She threw potatoes and chickensand she married everything, put
it in the oven and came out.
We all just threw it on a plateand ate, right.
There was no garnishing.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, how do you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
present that to you know when you have a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
It's very rustic.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yes, same with.
Like it's what they call Uvezi,which is a veal.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
A lot of stewed.
Yes, it just doesn't present sogood.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
but it's fucking amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Oh, it's unbelievable .
The flavor is amazing.
It's unbelievable, it's sodelicious.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So, like Kristen's saying, so, when you come in,
you guys have restaurants,diners, and they're amazing.
I go twice, three times a week,for real, not joking, thank you
.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, no worries, that's great.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So everything that you guys do is the highest
quality at the level you're atright.
So you have great burgers, youhave great.
Everything you guys do is withlove when you put the Greek food
like.
I think what she's saying isit's it's hard to get the
community enlarged to just havea greek restaurant, right is?
Is that what I'm seeing herelocally?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
yes, I mean there's.
There's been a few, but they'venever, really advanced.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I've never stayed long it's not like italian food,
where people just go, want itright, and here's a good thing.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Correct me please.
American Italians have adifferent palate than Italian
Italians.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I am an.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Italian restaurant more European than I am American
.
Once a week I have an ItalianAmerican Heritage Night.
That's out of respect for theheritage of Italian Americans.
But I don't see that much inGreek food.
You've never really beenoverrun with the American Greek
food, have you, or have you?
Is there American Greek foodthat you don't?
That isn't really Greece Likethe yiddle.
(11:52):
Yiddle.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Like the yiddle here.
What you get here is nothingwhat you would get in Greece.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
That's the pile of French fries on the meat.
And all that On the meat withthe sandwich, with the pita
bread, right.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Because in Greece what they do is they'll take
meat and they'll layer it andthen cook it and then they'll
shave it off.
Here it's processed, and thenthey make it into process, into
a cone, and then they cook itand they take it off In.
Greece.
They literally it's layeredmeat.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So each layer is marinated and then they layer it
on an Italian, then it'sstacked and then cut.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And, I think, the only reason why it's not allowed
here, because it's probably ahealth code violation.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Because they're stacking it.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Because, the inside.
Yeah, because, like the, it isa huge.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Listen, I'm a chef dude, I've done this all my life
.
It is a huge health risk.
Yes, seriously, dude.
Yes, yes, seriously, do yes,because the amount of hours it
takes you to prepare it and theamount of hours it takes you to
cook that keeps that thing inthe danger zone.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So far along the middle of the middle has got to
be bad.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I would probably core that middle out and throw it
away but increase, they get awaywith it.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
They are because their bodies can accept people
reading it but they also gothrough it too.
I mean you know it's afour-hour period that you need
to get it cooked or done.
Typically, these people aregoing through it because they're
selling jars left and right orgyros left and right.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's funny you say that too, bill, because here's
the deal.
Not to knock Americans, I'm not, but for every Greek person who
would understand how to putthat cone and prepare it
properly, you have four or fiveemployees who don't.
No, and they're the risk.
It's not the Greek.
It's not the Greek.
It's not the Greek people.
It's not the people whounderstand the culture, no
matter what culture you're in.
It's not them.
(13:27):
It's the people who don'trespect it or understand it who
make that a dangerous situation,because they're not handling it
with the pride they're nothandling it with the passion
they should.
They're not paying attention tothe outcome, because when
you're making this in yourcountry for your country people,
the people expect it to be donea right way, because they want
(13:49):
to eat it a right way.
That's the outcome they'relooking for.
It just so happens that thatoutcome also is safe.
Yeah, so if they're not worriedabout the outcome here, they're
not worried about the safety ofit either.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
So in order for it not to spoil, right, you have to do it right
, period.
Yeah, here they don'tunderstand.
A lot of people don't.
The majority doesn't I'm notsaying everybody by any means,
(14:11):
but there's a lot more riskfactor here when you're in a
melting pot of people instead ofjust people who understand it.
It's easy to go to only greekguy in a restaurant here and
five-year employees are not, andthey're trying as hard as they
can to understand it, but theyjust simply don't because they
didn't grow up in it same thing,in an italian kitchen.
And that's where italianamerican food became so popular
(14:33):
is because it was able to be.
For all those who didn't reallyunderstand it, it was still
good enough to get by at a levelpeople could understand.
So that's why we have such adifference of Italian food
versus Italian food.
But in Greeks it's the same way.
Now, when you go to, how harddo you find it?
Whenever you guys throw downwith some Greek food at your
(14:53):
restaurant, you bring me outsome.
Some of it.
I love most 90% of it.
Sometimes it's okay.
But I think the more traditional, the more eh, I think you have
to grow up to like that.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
But just like the traditional spanakopita and
tiroba, that's actually madewith homemade phyllo, not the
store-bought phyllo.
Like my mom taught me years agohow to make my own phyllo, I
roll it out when we cook for ourfamily dinners.
I roll it out myself.
I don't buy the store-boughtphyllo.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You got to roll it.
Roll it a process.
Oh, it's a hell of a process.
Yeah, it's a process.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Paper thin and then put all the ingredients together
.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
But the difference is night and day.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
But nine out of ten people aren't going to know that
because they're used to thephyllo.
That's already store-bought andyou know they're going to be
like oh, this is good.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
The store-bought.
Phyllo doesn't really fuckingrise properly.
It doesn't have the air layersthat it needs, it doesn't crisp
up properly and still have thatmoisture level inside to where
it's crispy but yet still moist.
It's dry right, it's like awafer stacked wafers that just
get, because once you freezesomething and recook it, it's
going to suck.
Yeah, so making your own filo isa process.
(15:59):
For anyone who doesn't know howto do it, look it up online.
Just go to how to make it atyour own fucking pace.
How long does that take?
You'll see how many times it'sa process.
It's just like making bread.
Yeah, each layer.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It's layer after layer after layer, and you need
to make a traditionalspanakopita in the round pan
like my mom used to make.
I use your traditionalspanakopita in the round pan
like my mom used to make.
I use uh 12 kilos I mean layersof phyllo.
So it takes me about I don'tknow 40 minutes to make the
phyllo and then after that I gotto put everything together
because I put um, so it's calledactually from one of my mom's
friends called prasopita, whichmeans green.
(16:35):
So we put leeks, spinach, greenonion, any type of greens you
can put in there, I don't likedills.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I'm sure you would love the greens.
It's so good.
I do like the green.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Ricotta cheese lots of butter.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well, bill, the next time you make this, let me in on
this, we can be there, but whatyou need to see is if we should
have what they have here, forexample with the frozen phyllo.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
You should compare.
That would actually be reallygood.
Let's do a show on it For real.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Even the way it cooks is just completely different.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Oh, I'm sure Completely different.
But amazing, and you can findsome good product that's frozen
but I know he knows you can tellthe majority of people probably
don't know You're in theindustry, you would know what's
this and what's that for sure.
Definitely so good.
When did you guys open thefirst restaurant?
How?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
did that go, so our diner in Malothia Virginia,
opened back in 2004.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
As I mentioned, that's when we started our brand
.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
But this all starts back in probably the late 80s,
no, early 80s, no early 90s,late 80s.
My dad opened up a restaurantin Chesapeake Virginia, and it
was called Four BrothersSteakhouse and he was there for
16 years.
Wow, and it was we did okay,but there was four boys that my
(17:56):
dad was trying to raise and allwe did was raise hell and eat,
yeah, so he was just barelyabout a house.
Yeah, he was just like literally, we had a restaurant so we can
eat you know what I mean um, sohe did his, he, they did their
part, they did.
Well, what we learned wasobviously from, yeah, what we
learned in that kitchen um, whenhe was ready to, my dad was
ready to kind of retire and sitback and my mom was done with
(18:18):
the restaurant business and weobviously didn't want it.
But now, here we are, all theseyears later right back into it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't think anybody wants it until you're old
enough to understand and respectthat it is who you are and it
made you.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
What would we be doing otherwise?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I asked myself that all the time I tried other
things.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I tried other things and it always brought me back or
in trouble.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
There's always a passion in what we do.
We do what we do because weenjoy doing it.
I mean there's nothing I wouldchoose anything else.
I mean I really enjoy doingwhat I do.
But you got to have the passion, especially in today's society,
even though you lose a littlebit of passion because of you
know, the generation, now thatwe got coming in for employees
or cooks or you know, whateverthe situation may be, has
(19:01):
changed.
But you still got to have thepassion for the restaurant
business because it's it's noteasy well in the generations you
.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's a good thing you speak of and um when you're
talking about cooking the foodand upholding the traditions and
the youth your youth coming upare.
Are your youth in the greekcommunity still interested in
cooking and carrying on thattraditions or is it faded?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's faded.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I believe it's faded and I believe how can they fade?
It's a fucking flavor does notfade.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
They just don't want it, they don't want to deal with
it, they don't want to work.
No, they don't want to cook.
I enjoy cooking.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Find me some 20 girls that want to cook.
You know you're going to makeit someday.
Who else is going to fuckingmake it?
You just stop eating it.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
That's just like I told you my aunt she's 77.
She still works with us.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
She still prepares some of this, she hangs out.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
She puts her hands in things.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
She touches things.
Her hands are gold.
She checks things.
She touches things, she checksthings.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Quality control there you go, but it's like man, I
can't, even though I can do whatshe does, I can't make it like
she makes it.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
My mom and her sister have the same bread recipe, but
two different.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
They taste different.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Plus, you also got to remember the nostalgia has a
lot to do with that.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah well.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Because no one's ever going to make it like my Aunt
Allie, or anybody else who madethis food when I was little?
I could probably withoutquestion, with all my skill and
what I've been doing in my life,I could probably out-cook her
Everything she cooks for me,though still nothing's better,
yeah but if we were to putourselves compared to compared,
she's afraid to cook for me nowbecause of who I am and I'm like
(20:42):
you should never say some shitlike that.
Yeah, because I absolutelystill from a little boy.
That's that from what it is thatthat really resonated with me
even though, even though, um,she was my aunt and and I was
able to have that food as youwould when you're go your aunt's
but it was all my family, buthers specifically, always sits
(21:02):
with me, and though I can cookmy ass off, just a simple
ravioli with a pomodoro sauce,that she makes is in this world,
yeah, but maybe if I never hadit before growing up and I
tasted it now, I'd be like but Ithink because it meant so much
to me all growing up.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
It's used to it.
It's like your brain stuck onit, right.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's stuck on.
This is the best.
Yeah, and that's the best partabout talking about food.
I've been talking about foodwith you guys since 1990,
fucking seven.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah, for real, for real.
The first place I opened was onthe ocean front.
Years ago, after my dad closedthe restaurant in Chesapeake,
you came and showed us how tomake chicken marsala.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I remember that you had a catering event or
something.
I came in to have breakfastwith you.
I've just never made it.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Before I was 18 years old, I'd never made chicken
marsala.
Did I make the whole thing withyou?
Yeah, I made the whole thing.
You catered that, didn't you?
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Royalties.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That's where you started, man.
That's where it all started.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's it, so I was cooking with Andrea LaBella,
Italia then, I've been cookingmost of my life.
All my paid life since I was 1314 years old, is working but
here I am now, and here we arenow, and we are what do you?
what do you when it comes to?
I know, as you get, as we getolder, all of a sudden we look
into our heritage.
Like, all of a sudden, I'm mritalian and you're, you guys are
mr greek, but but all growingup, yeah, we were greek, we're
(22:25):
italian, whatever.
But now that we're gettingolder, we're looking at our
heritage and being like, oh shit, we gotta preserve this, we
gotta do our part.
You think that's always beengoing on and that's always gonna
happen.
You can't just go away, right?
Speaker 4 (22:37):
well, you can't go away.
But I think it's also aboutraising our youth yeah like my
kids now.
Our parents taught us, you know, try to stick to traditions.
And um, I married an americangirl.
Know out of our tradition butshe stays up more with our faith
, taking the kids to church.
She does, she's very active,yeah, and she does more than I
actually do because I'm usuallyat the restaurant or whatever,
(22:59):
and you know, it's about the waywe teach our kids to raise them
.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I think your wife gets her Greek by proxy.
What does he call it?
She won her Greek card.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
She has her Greek card.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
She speak Greek, yet no, she understands a lot of it.
She speaks very little, but not.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It all boils down to us doing our part with our kids,
like our parents did for us.
But it's hard, dude.
It's not like I did.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I can't say that that's not true.
My kids absolutely fucking lovepasta.
They love Daddy.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Pasta.
They do love Daddy Pasta theylove their pasta Sunday.
Even at the restaurant, they goback and ask for that.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
They love the pasta.
So I can't say my kids don'tlove it.
They absolutely love it andlook forward to it.
They're not into the processyet and pass around.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So do you cook at home too?
Yeah, I do.
You do See, that's what I mean.
I don't really cook at home.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I only cook at home on Sundays.
I'll cook pasta.
I'll try and do a pasta dinner.
I always got a pasta.
I eat pasta every day, someform of it.
You know what I mean.
I don't understand spaghettiand meatballs.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I don't eat, I might as well be dead.
That's how my mom used to be.
She would never, get full ifshe didn't have bread every day
with her meal.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
That's another thing.
Italians and Greeks are allabout that bread.
Gotta have the bread If I wastold.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
If the doctor told me I had to cut gluten out, if I
got like celiac or somethinglike that, I'm not kidding you,
I don't know what the fuck Iwould do.
No, you'd eat bread withoutwhat?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
what the quality of life is?
I don't know.
You gotta find something.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I don't know gluten-free it'd be tough to do.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I don't know what I would do then we also know the
difference.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There's a difference.
We talked about this and thepastas and the breads like
making it with the organic but,like the flour, doesn't have any
any of the crap in it.
So most people can travel toother countries and eat the
pizza, the pasta, the bread,whatever, and not get sick.
It's because we, you know here,it just makes you sick.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
The good news in Europe with Greece, Italy,
France, most of Europe isthey're underneath the European
standard.
So they're all getting thatquality product because it has
to be sold throughout Europe onthe same standard.
So if we get something fromTexas, it's still produced by
the laws of American standard.
So you can get just as muchshit from Texas as you can here,
or you can get just as good asyou can here, depending on how
(25:20):
much money you want to spendOver there.
The standard is the same ineach country.
So if I get something fromGreece to cook in Italy, it's
going to be of good quality andit's gonna be on the same
standard, the wheats, like yousaid, the pasta and the dough
and all that shit is veryimportant.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
None of the pesticides and all the shit
that's put on it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Every country needs a pesticide, a controlled one.
There's a huge difference inwhat they're allowed to get away
with and what they're again.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
They have strict standards.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It goes back to the meat cone.
Right, yeah, right, yeah, yeah.
People over there aren't goingto allow themselves to put shit
on food because it's soimportant, the food, the final
product, is so important theywouldn't want to bastardize that
, yeah, and that's, that's aculture that I wish would start
striking in america, moreamerica.
We eat, we eat to eat.
You know what I mean?
We eat to eat something.
I'm saying yeah it's great.
(26:05):
But so in your, in yourrestaurants now you're in the
same struggle as everybody elseEmployees, staffing, purveyors,
high cost of everything.
How hard is it for you guys?
Right now, I can sit here andtalk about me having to put a
$65 lamb chop on my menu, cookedat the level where cooking in
here is a little bit different.
But how are you getting bytrying to survive and pay your
(26:26):
bills on a cheeseburger when thecheeseburger costs you so much
fucking money?
What would you tell the peopleout there?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
My goal, what I tell them, is shut up and spend the
money there's nothing we can doabout it, just like you got your
hands up like that right now.
That's exactly how we are.
We're like I mean, if it cameto me cheaper, you would get it
cheaper, exactly.
They think we're all out heretrying to.
They think we're gold.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Look, the restaurant industry fucking.
25 years ago people were goldminers when restaurant owners
were wearing gold chains andCadillacs.
That was real and that wasn't alot of work to do.
That we were just gold.
Money was coming in hand overfist because you can get a bag
of flour for fucking $2.99 oreggs at fucking 12 cents a piece
.
That's what was happening backthen, and we were not charging
(27:14):
much less than we are now.
That's right.
So, yes, profitability backthen was ridiculous.
Now the profit margins are thefucking this big.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, it has to do with everything.
It has to do with where you'reat your location, the price of
rents, leases and all that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
And then, at the end of the day, we just got to pass
it down to the consumer, becausethat's all we can do to stay in
business and there's nothingelse we can do, and we're not
individually passing it down tothe consumer, as if we're
punishing them just for comingto our spot.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
This is a natural.
This is how it is.
This is how it is everywhere.
We're not going to be able tooperate that anymore.
That's going to have to rise.
If you're operating at 30 now,you're on board.
It's tough.
I'm right on the cusp Between 29and 33, I'm trying to stay
there, but just with youremployee, you almost have to
(28:01):
remove the employee rate out ofthat.
You know what I'm saying?
Because now people are gettingpaid so much to work that that's
taken away from that percentage.
It's almost impossible tooperate on that 30% business
model as we used to, because thebusiness model back then was
different the percentage.
We had a lot more room for flaw.
Right now there's no room tomove man.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Not at all.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And to making mistakes, like you know, you
gotta cut your costs and try toeliminate mistakes in the
kitchen.
Eliminate your waste right,Correct costs.
And trying to eliminatemistakes in the kitchen
eliminate your waste right,correct, because that's what I
said, when stuff goes up, youjust got to eliminate as much
waste as you can.
Cut the tomato a little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
This way you know.
Try to get closer to the stem.
Stop wasting half the tomato.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Getting rid of the top yeah, whatever you can do to
just kind of, you know, keep,keep that bottom line where it
is and you know, with us.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It's like like the rack of lamb, for instance.
My lamb is very expensive forme.
It costs me a lot of money.
There's very little profitmargin.
I have the lamb on the menu sothe customers coming in here can
come in here, while otherpeople get the other things.
We spread the margins aroundthe menu so we kind of make it
all work out that way.
But when we have the lamb thatcosts so much just to satisfy
(29:09):
the palate, you fuck that lambup one time and you just lost
profitability for that wholerack.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's it.
Yeah, it's gone, you're in thepocket.
So you're.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You're really in the.
You're going to always make alittle bit of money, but you're
not going to make a lot of moneyto make profit.
So one lamb goes wrong.
One send back one fuckingmishap.
Bad news, you know what?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I mean bad news, so we don't have that freedom of
maneuvering, maneuvering around,yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So when's?
When's the next greek trip?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
um, I was.
I was discussing my brother.
Now he don't know yet, butwe're gonna try to get up, us,
the four brothers, to go togreece for about 10, 10 days,
two weeks, surprise, surprise sowe'll see.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, we're gonna try to, not 90 probably, you know,
fall november, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Right around that time that'll be a good time.
We're going to try to probably,you know, fall November.
That's amazing.
Right around that time, that'llbe a good time.
We usually when we go, weusually go summertime.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We've never been that time of the year, so we're
going to try to make that trip.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If you guys anybody in the comments you, when can
they get you on social medias?
Where can people connect withyou?
I don't have any social media,that's just me.
How about the restaurant?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Brickhouse Diner 04 is a restaurant in Richmond, in
Midlothian.
Brickhousedinercom is all ourthree of our locations and
Brickhouse Diner Virginia Beachon Instagram and Facebook here
in Virginia Beach Awesome yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Cool, so get in there .
Brickhouse Diner.
You'll probably see me there inVirginia Beach a couple times a
week.
A few times a week if you gothere at the right time.
I won't tell you when that is.
I'll let it be a surprise.
Anything you want to say toanybody getting in this business
, any last words you put outthere to anybody out there, and
it could be nothing um, the therestaurant business is very
(30:54):
tough and I think a lot ofpeople don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Um, along with you know, with trying to do your
best in the restaurant business,and on different scales.
Obviously, here you are withthis beautiful restaurant here
and you do your lamb chops andwe do a simple cheeseburger, in
a sense, and it's just so toughall the way around and I think
it's the same struggle.
I think, if for sure, ifeverybody in greece, everybody,
when you get out of, uh, out ofhigh school, you got to do 18
(31:20):
months of military standard, Ithink here you should have to do
two weeks of the restaurantbusiness yeah, or the military
instead of the military, rightInstead of the military right.
This is your military, becauseonce you work in the restaurant
business I think you start torealize and understand a lot
more.
And there's a lot of peoplethat obviously haven't and I
think the struggles with a lotof our business is the customer
(31:44):
just not understanding and yourstaff in a sense, until they
start to understand.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
For every successful restaurant.
The minority are the ones thatare actually passionate and the
ones keeping the thing going.
It's a lot of stress and a lotof pressure on them.
Everyone else that works thereis great, but they're not so
much into it as a career,they're into it as their moment,
for whatever it is they'redoing.
And you know and that's good toowe have great team members,
(32:08):
depending on where you're at ohyeah, oh yeah for sure, but it's
a lot of stress on thepassionate people, typically the
owners and the management orthe career chefs or career
waitstaff.
The people who are not leavinganytime soon are the ones that
feel the pressure.
But for everyone else whodoesn't understand when they
come in and write these bullshitreviews and all their nonsense
(32:29):
and all the shit they want tosay, it's ridiculous.
What they need to do is justshut the fuck up.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Seriously, just shut up, there we go.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Learn a little bit about something.
Get some culture to yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Yeah, I mean just kind of exactly Educate yourself
a little bit about it andyou'll understand a little bit
more.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And if you don't, then maybe you should just stay
home and eat.
I don't know what to tell you.
We appreciate your business,but we don't appreciate all the
real shit that comes with itgotcha gotcha well listen.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Thanks for coming guys, if you like, our show.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Please hit like subscribe.
Support us, support locals,support your local restaurants,
your local people, your localshops that uh mechanic shops
that serve lamb broth fuckingpasta Support everybody, when we
do this again, bill's gonnamake a spanakopita with yes,
please, and then we'll bring onein that way.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I'm actually really disappointed you didn't show up
with it.
Yeah right, show up next time.
Come on man, what the fuck.
Come on man.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Shit.
All right, that sounds great.
Awesome talk today.
All right, burhan's perspective right here, sitting
here with my two buddies, go wayback in time.
Of course, kristen always herewith me on the show and I'm here
with her either way Hi.
Depending on which one of usyou watch probably her she's
much better to look at than I am, but hey.
I try, Anyway.
So we go way back, guys.
This is the Greek connectionwe're talking.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
Greek.
Today we're going to Greece.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
It's all Greek to me, Probably well, not probably.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
It is my top three cuisines in the world.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It is Italian, Greek, Thai.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, okay.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Flavor explosions.
But Greek to me is everythingItalian when it isn't right.
So everything that I, if I eversay, man, this could be a
little more Greek.
It's the only time I say it, someaning I love this stuff, I
love the feta cheeses, I lovethat.
When you there's, that's sobasic to say, right, that's the
most basic shit to say untilyou've gone there and ate it,
then then it's a whole differentworld.
(00:53):
Right, it's like eatingmozzarella.
Most people think mozzarellathe thing about pizza or you
know, cheese sticks or littlestring cheeses or something,
until you go to italy and getyeah, um, it's an ld buffalo
right.
So if you go to Italy and getmozzarella di buffalo, right.
So if you go to Greece and eatthe feta cheese there, it's
totally different.
It brings you to another placein it, and all that shit.
So what I'm going to say isthis man, we go all the way back
(01:15):
to the bars back when we wereyoung, as does most people on
this show, because we live in asmall world.
So here's what I remember themost.
The first time I remember youthree guys.
Your brother John's not hereright now.
He couldn't be here, but thisis how I remember you first.
You ready for this.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
You don't know what he's going to say you might
remember this.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
I'm in the bar, drunk as fuck.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Last call.
Last call.
You remember that.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Last call, drunk as fuck.
Last call, last call youremember that last call and I
smell something like what thefuck is that?
Right, and my buddy ben and Iwere sitting there one time.
We're like what was that?
What does that smell?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
these three guys are walking around the bar with a
fucking like a tray, an aluminumtray with aluminum foil, on top
, with fucking chicken skewersthat they grilled out these
greek bastards, and they got theseasoning, the chicken or pork
that they grilled out theseGreek bastards and they got the
seasoning Chicken or pork, oneof the two, yeah, and they're
walking through the souvlaki Inthe store.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
You're young, we're all kids, right then?
Yeah, we're like 19, 20, 21years old, right?
Can't tell the secret.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
We were there early, but that's all right, we were in
the bars early.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Let me tell you what night and sell them for like two
, three bucks a piece orsomething, right, I'd be like
getting handfuls of them andthat's what we met and I'm like
these guys love food as much asI do and they're learning how to
make money on it, right?
Yeah, so, Kristen, you probablydon't.
I don't know if you rememberthat.
You were probably working atthe time.
I was always working, that'swhat I mean Everybody was up
(02:40):
there having fun.
Speaker 3 (02:41):
She was keeping us ready for the food.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
She was keeping us hydrated, so from that point on,
I knew I had a fuckingrelationship with you guys and
right away we started connecting.
Then I ended up dating a Greekgirl at that time and then I got
more introduced to the cultureand that was an amazing time too
, because that's what really gotme involved with the culture
and being around you guys andmeeting you guys and everything
else there.
We're still friends to today,me and her and Peggy what's up?
(03:05):
You're out there, anyway.
So that was a great time inlife to be introduced to such a
culture, because I've alwaysgrew up Italian.
I had Greek friends, but I wasnever introduced to their Greek
lifestyle, the cooking and itwas so similar, right?
Yeah?
So the way you guys, you knowyou have a lot of similar dishes
, that kind of translate toItalian.
(03:26):
Maybe it's just because of theGreek and Roman connection back
in history, or whatever it maybe, but your versions of lasagna
, your versions of eggplant,your versions of pastas and
baked dishes and things likethat, go ahead and spit some of
them out.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
And I mean even the bread, all the way to the bread,
the bread, yep.
A lot of artisan-type breadstuff like that.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Musacca bread, a lot of artisan type bread stuff like
that, um, which is like twodifferent types of lasagna, ones
with eggplant potatoes, theother ones with a penne pasta or
noodle type of noodle with abechamel ground beef.
Um, then a lot of stewed dishesas well too a lot of nutmeg.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Yes, herbs that we don't really see a lot of men
but it.
But it also depends on theparts of Greece that you're from
.
Yeah, my family's from centralGreece.
We didn't use a lot of nutmegor a lot of mint.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Now Greece, central Greece, you say.
Is that central islands?
No, no, it's central Greece.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Back from mainland, yeah, mainland, yes, gotcha.
And so we didn't use a lot ofnutmeg and mint.
But when I went to my aunt's orwent to other people's houses,
they had mint, they had nutmeg,all that stuff it's pretty
similar, but you had thatdifference.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
So Greek culture is huge and the Greek food is huge
and the Greek communities arebig.
Right, you guys throw partiesand eat man, it's not a joke,
it's a fucking festival.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
There's 15 of us and we cook for 150.
And you all eat it, and we alleat it.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
You eat it all.
I'm saying we all eat it forsure.
You know, and it's all freshand it's right up my alley A lot
of lamb fish.
The fish is off the hook, right.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
So when you guys, you guys go back to Greece, quite
often Not as're there.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
When you're getting there, you're on the airplane,
you're getting ready to land.
Something's going through yourmind when it comes to food and
shit.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
What's the?
Speaker 1 (05:06):
first thing on your mind.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Where am I going to eat?
Speaker 1 (05:09):
What's the?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
first food I want the souflaki which is the pork on
the skewer.
It's different there, right,it's different.
Oh man, you can't get it right.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Number one, I believe , because everything it's 95% of
it's organic.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yes.
Correct the tomatoes,everything tastes different.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Unbelievable Potatoes , tomatoes, cucumbers, I mean a
lot of stuff's grown locally,especially if you go to the
villages where my parents arefrom, you literally sit down us
four sit down and order a meal.
We want chicken.
The chicken's out back hangingout until we order it Right.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And then it's a wrap.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Not like the chickens here we discussed in the other
episodes.
The potatoes are grown in theyard, the tomatoes, the
cucumbers, everything is.
Speaker 1 (05:56):
So the best part.
So when I'm going thinkingabout my cuisine, italian
cuisine, when I'm ready to eat,I'm always thinking of it all
day long, and right now I'mthinking of it I want.
First thing that comes to mymind is basil.
That's the first thing thatcomes For some reason.
I just love it.
It's the best smell, the besttaste, the best everything in
the world.
To me, my number one trigger isbasil fresh basil.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
I love it, and with you guys it's the same, except
for it's oregano and it comesout on tomatoes, it comes out on
cheese, it comes out oneverything and I'll never forget
.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I was in um, I was in uh in gumanitza and I went to
this restaurant.
That was not supposed to be arestaurant.
I think it was more supposed tobe like a mechanic shop or
something I don't know but.
But it was.
They brought out this pot ofbeef broth, right and, and they
put it on this burner right.
And the only experience I'veever had like this in my
(06:48):
culinary world is one time whenI was in Hungary.
They do the goulash the sametype of way.
They come out on the fire withthis crock, they put it in front
of you and they kind of cook itin front of you and you serve
out of it right On the table.
It's a hole with a fire in it.
Well, this guy brought out thispot of lamb sorry lamb broth
straight.
You could smell it, the foaming, it was ugly, it wasn't
(07:09):
presented right and I'm likewhat the fuck is going on here?
you know what I mean and hetakes pasta spaghetti and just
dumps the raw spaghetti in thislamb broth and I'm thinking to
myself what is going on in mylife right now?
Why are greeks cookingspaghetti?
Speaker 3 (07:24):
first of all.
Second of all, what ishappening here?
You my life right now.
Why are Greeks cookingspaghetti?
First of all, second of all,what is?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
happening here, you know, and he comes out and he
puts the Greek cheese on it andI forget what it's called.
It's like a white crumblycheese, real soft, not feta, but
it's just a very soft mildcheese.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's white, it's white.
They call it manouri and it's adifferent type of feta.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Okay, good, and it's very mild, very clean, and he
sprinkled that on there and kindof tossed it like we would.
No broth, though, just thepasta out of the broth.
No strain or nothing, just youknow, into the bowl.
And he put the fucking cheese inthere and tossed it A little
bit of oregano on top.
I'm telling you all, man, I eatpasta as a professional.
This was some of the best shitI ever ate in my life.
(08:06):
I don't know if they're.
In a sense it was the broth youcook the noodles in, almost
like fall or something yeah, butit just the pasta spaghetti
with that cheese on it and therest of a mechanic shop out of
it was well it was a restaurantthat looked like.
It was just a couple tables in agarage.
It looked like shit it didn'tlook like a place that you
should be eating, and but it was.
I telling you it was some ofthe best shit I've ever had in
my life.
I still think of that to thisday and I don't know if I can go
(08:28):
back to that island and figureout where the hell it was, if
it's even still there at thispoint.
I was with a friend who was aGreek guy there and we were
going to check on somemotorcycle parts and across the
little place over there was thisguy.
He goes come on, you're gonnalove it, trust me, I'm gonna
love it.
I'm gonna love eating with thisguy's eating for lunch right
here.
Who's this guy?
Speaker 2 (08:46):
and it was that good.
It was that good.
Well, going to greece ruined me.
I mean, it ruined me comingback here to eat food here,
because it was, I mean, likegreek salad.
Like I can't eat greek saladwith lettuce in it like I can't
do that.
It's not.
And then once I had it therethe way that it is prepared or
supposed to be prepared therewas no coming back.
So now I'm ruined.
I don't eat lettuce really.
Anyways, I don't like green.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
But it's just one of the things.
It ruined me.
The funny thing is getting aGreek salad there with a pile of
French fries on it and stuff.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Everything's beautiful man and the fries are
hand cut.
Yeah, they're delicious and apain, and they're golden brown,
they're not white dude, the salton, it's better, everything's
good.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Now we're all you can tell me because this is the
conversation, but growing upwith the food culture and
bringing it back here.
So you have the restaurant likeyou know.
How much of it do you get toreally stick to?
Speaker 3 (09:36):
Greek food in a sense we used to do, actually, one
night a week.
We used to have a Greek nightand do Greek foods and my aunt,
who's obviously greek, um, shewould make, uh, two or three
dishes and then that's what wewould have that day and we did
well, um, she's just gottenolder now.
I mean I can pull the weight,uh, but I think the what it's
(10:00):
not a lot of people.
You get a lot of people inthere that want it.
The presentation of it, like Iwas telling you a second ago,
isn't always the greatest,because we talk chicken and
potatoes, right.
So my mom, growing up, chickenand potatoes was a big pot, big
pan.
She threw potatoes and chickensand she married everything, put
it in the oven and came out.
We all just threw it on a plateand ate, right.
There was no garnishing.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Yeah, how do you?
Speaker 3 (10:21):
present that to you know when you have a restaurant.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
It's very rustic.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yes, same with.
Like it's what they call Uvezi,which is a veal.
Speaker 4 (10:29):
A lot of stewed.
Yes, it just doesn't present sogood.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
but it's fucking amazing.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Oh, it's unbelievable .
The flavor is amazing.
It's unbelievable, it's sodelicious.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
So, like Kristen's saying, so, when you come in,
you guys have restaurants,diners, and they're amazing.
I go twice, three times a week,for real, not joking, thank you
.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
Yeah, no worries, that's great.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
So everything that you guys do is the highest
quality at the level you're atright.
So you have great burgers, youhave great.
Everything you guys do is withlove when you put the Greek food
like.
I think what she's saying isit's it's hard to get the
community enlarged to just havea greek restaurant, right is?
Is that what I'm seeing herelocally?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
yes, I mean there's.
There's been a few, but they'venever, really advanced.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
I've never stayed long it's not like italian food,
where people just go, want itright, and here's a good thing.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Correct me please.
American Italians have adifferent palate than Italian
Italians.
Speaker 4 (11:30):
I am an.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Italian restaurant more European than I am American
.
Once a week I have an ItalianAmerican Heritage Night.
That's out of respect for theheritage of Italian Americans.
But I don't see that much inGreek food.
You've never really beenoverrun with the American Greek
food, have you, or have you?
Is there American Greek foodthat you don't?
That isn't really Greece Likethe yiddle.
(11:52):
Yiddle.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Like the yiddle here.
What you get here is nothingwhat you would get in Greece.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
That's the pile of French fries on the meat.
And all that On the meat withthe sandwich, with the pita
bread, right.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
Because in Greece what they do is they'll take
meat and they'll layer it andthen cook it and then they'll
shave it off.
Here it's processed, and thenthey make it into process, into
a cone, and then they cook itand they take it off In.
Greece.
They literally it's layeredmeat.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So each layer is marinated and then they layer it
on an Italian, then it'sstacked and then cut.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
And, I think, the only reason why it's not allowed
here, because it's probably ahealth code violation.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Because they're stacking it.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
Because, the inside.
Yeah, because, like the, it isa huge.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Listen, I'm a chef dude, I've done this all my life
.
It is a huge health risk.
Yes, seriously, dude.
Yes, yes, seriously, do yes,because the amount of hours it
takes you to prepare it and theamount of hours it takes you to
cook that keeps that thing inthe danger zone.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
So far along the middle of the middle has got to
be bad.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I would probably core that middle out and throw it
away but increase, they get awaywith it.
Speaker 4 (12:53):
They are because their bodies can accept people
reading it but they also gothrough it too.
I mean you know it's afour-hour period that you need
to get it cooked or done.
Typically, these people aregoing through it because they're
selling jars left and right orgyros left and right.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
It's funny you say that too, bill, because here's
the deal.
Not to knock Americans, I'm not, but for every Greek person who
would understand how to putthat cone and prepare it
properly, you have four or fiveemployees who don't.
No, and they're the risk.
It's not the Greek.
It's not the Greek.
It's not the Greek people.
It's not the people whounderstand the culture, no
matter what culture you're in.
It's not them.
(13:27):
It's the people who don'trespect it or understand it who
make that a dangerous situation,because they're not handling it
with the pride they're nothandling it with the passion
they should.
They're not paying attention tothe outcome, because when
you're making this in yourcountry for your country people,
the people expect it to be donea right way, because they want
(13:49):
to eat it a right way.
That's the outcome they'relooking for.
It just so happens that thatoutcome also is safe.
Yeah, so if they're not worriedabout the outcome here, they're
not worried about the safety ofit either.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
So in order for it not to spoil, right, you have to do it right
, period.
Yeah, here they don'tunderstand.
A lot of people don't.
The majority doesn't I'm notsaying everybody by any means,
(14:11):
but there's a lot more riskfactor here when you're in a
melting pot of people instead ofjust people who understand it.
It's easy to go to only greekguy in a restaurant here and
five-year employees are not, andthey're trying as hard as they
can to understand it, but theyjust simply don't because they
didn't grow up in it same thing,in an italian kitchen.
And that's where italianamerican food became so popular
(14:33):
is because it was able to be.
For all those who didn't reallyunderstand it, it was still
good enough to get by at a levelpeople could understand.
So that's why we have such adifference of Italian food
versus Italian food.
But in Greeks it's the same way.
Now, when you go to, how harddo you find it?
Whenever you guys throw downwith some Greek food at your
(14:53):
restaurant, you bring me outsome.
Some of it.
I love most 90% of it.
Sometimes it's okay.
But I think the more traditional, the more eh, I think you have
to grow up to like that.
Speaker 4 (15:03):
But just like the traditional spanakopita and
tiroba, that's actually madewith homemade phyllo, not the
store-bought phyllo.
Like my mom taught me years agohow to make my own phyllo, I
roll it out when we cook for ourfamily dinners.
I roll it out myself.
I don't buy the store-boughtphyllo.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
You got to roll it.
Roll it a process.
Oh, it's a hell of a process.
Yeah, it's a process.
Speaker 4 (15:22):
Paper thin and then put all the ingredients together
.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
But the difference is night and day.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
But nine out of ten people aren't going to know that
because they're used to thephyllo.
That's already store-bought andyou know they're going to be
like oh, this is good.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
The store-bought.
Phyllo doesn't really fuckingrise properly.
It doesn't have the air layersthat it needs, it doesn't crisp
up properly and still have thatmoisture level inside to where
it's crispy but yet still moist.
It's dry right, it's like awafer stacked wafers that just
get, because once you freezesomething and recook it, it's
going to suck.
Yeah, so making your own filo isa process.
(15:59):
For anyone who doesn't know howto do it, look it up online.
Just go to how to make it atyour own fucking pace.
How long does that take?
You'll see how many times it'sa process.
It's just like making bread.
Yeah, each layer.
Speaker 4 (16:13):
It's layer after layer after layer, and you need
to make a traditionalspanakopita in the round pan
like my mom used to make.
I use your traditionalspanakopita in the round pan
like my mom used to make.
I use uh 12 kilos I mean layersof phyllo.
So it takes me about I don'tknow 40 minutes to make the
phyllo and then after that I gotto put everything together
because I put um, so it's calledactually from one of my mom's
friends called prasopita, whichmeans green.
(16:35):
So we put leeks, spinach, greenonion, any type of greens you
can put in there, I don't likedills.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
I'm sure you would love the greens.
It's so good.
I do like the green.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Ricotta cheese lots of butter.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Well, bill, the next time you make this, let me in on
this, we can be there, but whatyou need to see is if we should
have what they have here, forexample with the frozen phyllo.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
You should compare.
That would actually be reallygood.
Let's do a show on it For real.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Even the way it cooks is just completely different.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Oh, I'm sure Completely different.
But amazing, and you can findsome good product that's frozen
but I know he knows you can tellthe majority of people probably
don't know You're in theindustry, you would know what's
this and what's that for sure.
Definitely so good.
When did you guys open thefirst restaurant?
How?
Speaker 4 (17:26):
did that go, so our diner in Malothia Virginia,
opened back in 2004.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
As I mentioned, that's when we started our brand
.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
But this all starts back in probably the late 80s,
no, early 80s, no early 90s,late 80s.
My dad opened up a restaurantin Chesapeake Virginia, and it
was called Four BrothersSteakhouse and he was there for
16 years.
Wow, and it was we did okay,but there was four boys that my
(17:56):
dad was trying to raise and allwe did was raise hell and eat,
yeah, so he was just barelyabout a house.
Yeah, he was just like literally, we had a restaurant so we can
eat you know what I mean um, sohe did his, he, they did their
part, they did.
Well, what we learned wasobviously from, yeah, what we
learned in that kitchen um, whenhe was ready to, my dad was
ready to kind of retire and sitback and my mom was done with
(18:18):
the restaurant business and weobviously didn't want it.
But now, here we are, all theseyears later right back into it.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't think anybody wants it until you're old
enough to understand and respectthat it is who you are and it
made you.
Speaker 4 (18:30):
That's exactly what it is.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
What would we be doing otherwise?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
I asked myself that all the time I tried other
things.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I tried other things and it always brought me back or
in trouble.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
There's always a passion in what we do.
We do what we do because weenjoy doing it.
I mean there's nothing I wouldchoose anything else.
I mean I really enjoy doingwhat I do.
But you got to have the passion, especially in today's society,
even though you lose a littlebit of passion because of you
know, the generation, now thatwe got coming in for employees
or cooks or you know, whateverthe situation may be, has
(19:01):
changed.
But you still got to have thepassion for the restaurant
business because it's it's noteasy well in the generations you
.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
It's a good thing you speak of and um when you're
talking about cooking the foodand upholding the traditions and
the youth your youth coming upare.
Are your youth in the greekcommunity still interested in
cooking and carrying on thattraditions or is it faded?
Speaker 3 (19:21):
It's faded.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
I believe it's faded and I believe how can they fade?
It's a fucking flavor does notfade.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
They just don't want it, they don't want to deal with
it, they don't want to work.
No, they don't want to cook.
I enjoy cooking.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Find me some 20 girls that want to cook.
You know you're going to makeit someday.
Who else is going to fuckingmake it?
You just stop eating it.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
That's just like I told you my aunt she's 77.
She still works with us.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
She still prepares some of this, she hangs out.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
She puts her hands in things.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
She touches things.
Her hands are gold.
She checks things.
She touches things, she checksthings.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Quality control there you go, but it's like man, I
can't, even though I can do whatshe does, I can't make it like
she makes it.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
My mom and her sister have the same bread recipe, but
two different.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
They taste different.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Plus, you also got to remember the nostalgia has a
lot to do with that.
Speaker 3 (20:21):
Yeah well.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Because no one's ever going to make it like my Aunt
Allie, or anybody else who madethis food when I was little?
I could probably withoutquestion, with all my skill and
what I've been doing in my life,I could probably out-cook her
Everything she cooks for me,though still nothing's better,
yeah but if we were to putourselves compared to compared,
she's afraid to cook for me nowbecause of who I am and I'm like
(20:42):
you should never say some shitlike that.
Yeah, because I absolutelystill from a little boy.
That's that from what it is thatthat really resonated with me
even though, even though, um,she was my aunt and and I was
able to have that food as youwould when you're go your aunt's
but it was all my family, buthers specifically, always sits
(21:02):
with me, and though I can cookmy ass off, just a simple
ravioli with a pomodoro sauce,that she makes is in this world,
yeah, but maybe if I never hadit before growing up and I
tasted it now, I'd be like but Ithink because it meant so much
to me all growing up.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
It's used to it.
It's like your brain stuck onit, right.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
It's stuck on.
This is the best.
Yeah, and that's the best partabout talking about food.
I've been talking about foodwith you guys since 1990,
fucking seven.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
Yeah, for real, for real.
The first place I opened was onthe ocean front.
Years ago, after my dad closedthe restaurant in Chesapeake,
you came and showed us how tomake chicken marsala.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
I remember that you had a catering event or
something.
I came in to have breakfastwith you.
I've just never made it.
Speaker 4 (21:47):
Before I was 18 years old, I'd never made chicken
marsala.
Did I make the whole thing withyou?
Yeah, I made the whole thing.
You catered that, didn't you?
Yeah, perfect.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
Royalties.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
That's where you started, man.
That's where it all started.
Speaker 1 (22:04):
That's it, so I was cooking with Andrea LaBella,
Italia then, I've been cookingmost of my life.
All my paid life since I was 1314 years old, is working but
here I am now, and here we arenow, and we are what do you?
what do you when it comes to?
I know, as you get, as we getolder, all of a sudden we look
into our heritage.
Like, all of a sudden, I'm mritalian and you're, you guys are
mr greek, but but all growingup, yeah, we were greek, we're
(22:25):
italian, whatever.
But now that we're gettingolder, we're looking at our
heritage and being like, oh shit, we gotta preserve this, we
gotta do our part.
You think that's always beengoing on and that's always gonna
happen.
You can't just go away, right?
Speaker 4 (22:37):
well, you can't go away.
But I think it's also aboutraising our youth yeah like my
kids now.
Our parents taught us, you know, try to stick to traditions.
And um, I married an americangirl.
Know out of our tradition butshe stays up more with our faith
, taking the kids to church.
She does, she's very active,yeah, and she does more than I
actually do because I'm usuallyat the restaurant or whatever,
(22:59):
and you know, it's about the waywe teach our kids to raise them
.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I think your wife gets her Greek by proxy.
What does he call it?
She won her Greek card.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
She has her Greek card.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
She speak Greek, yet no, she understands a lot of it.
She speaks very little, but not.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
It all boils down to us doing our part with our kids,
like our parents did for us.
But it's hard, dude.
It's not like I did.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
I can't say that that's not true.
My kids absolutely fucking lovepasta.
They love Daddy.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Pasta.
They do love Daddy Pasta theylove their pasta Sunday.
Even at the restaurant, they goback and ask for that.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
They love the pasta.
So I can't say my kids don'tlove it.
They absolutely love it andlook forward to it.
They're not into the processyet and pass around.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
So do you cook at home too?
Yeah, I do.
You do See, that's what I mean.
I don't really cook at home.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
I only cook at home on Sundays.
I'll cook pasta.
I'll try and do a pasta dinner.
I always got a pasta.
I eat pasta every day, someform of it.
You know what I mean.
I don't understand spaghettiand meatballs.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I don't eat, I might as well be dead.
That's how my mom used to be.
She would never, get full ifshe didn't have bread every day
with her meal.
Speaker 3 (24:18):
That's another thing.
Italians and Greeks are allabout that bread.
Gotta have the bread If I wastold.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
If the doctor told me I had to cut gluten out, if I
got like celiac or somethinglike that, I'm not kidding you,
I don't know what the fuck Iwould do.
No, you'd eat bread withoutwhat?
Speaker 4 (24:31):
what the quality of life is?
I don't know.
You gotta find something.
Speaker 2 (24:34):
I don't know gluten-free it'd be tough to do.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
I don't know what I would do then we also know the
difference.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
There's a difference.
We talked about this and thepastas and the breads like
making it with the organic but,like the flour, doesn't have any
any of the crap in it.
So most people can travel toother countries and eat the
pizza, the pasta, the bread,whatever, and not get sick.
It's because we, you know here,it just makes you sick.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
The good news in Europe with Greece, Italy,
France, most of Europe isthey're underneath the European
standard.
So they're all getting thatquality product because it has
to be sold throughout Europe onthe same standard.
So if we get something fromTexas, it's still produced by
the laws of American standard.
So you can get just as muchshit from Texas as you can here,
or you can get just as good asyou can here, depending on how
(25:20):
much money you want to spendOver there.
The standard is the same ineach country.
So if I get something fromGreece to cook in Italy, it's
going to be of good quality andit's gonna be on the same
standard, the wheats, like yousaid, the pasta and the dough
and all that shit is veryimportant.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
None of the pesticides and all the shit
that's put on it, yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Every country needs a pesticide, a controlled one.
There's a huge difference inwhat they're allowed to get away
with and what they're again.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
They have strict standards.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
It goes back to the meat cone.
Right, yeah, right, yeah, yeah.
People over there aren't goingto allow themselves to put shit
on food because it's soimportant, the food, the final
product, is so important theywouldn't want to bastardize that
, yeah, and that's, that's aculture that I wish would start
striking in america, moreamerica.
We eat, we eat to eat.
You know what I mean?
We eat to eat something.
I'm saying yeah it's great.
(26:05):
But so in your, in yourrestaurants now you're in the
same struggle as everybody elseEmployees, staffing, purveyors,
high cost of everything.
How hard is it for you guys?
Right now, I can sit here andtalk about me having to put a
$65 lamb chop on my menu, cookedat the level where cooking in
here is a little bit different.
But how are you getting bytrying to survive and pay your
(26:26):
bills on a cheeseburger when thecheeseburger costs you so much
fucking money?
What would you tell the peopleout there?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
My goal, what I tell them, is shut up and spend the
money there's nothing we can doabout it, just like you got your
hands up like that right now.
That's exactly how we are.
We're like I mean, if it cameto me cheaper, you would get it
cheaper, exactly.
They think we're all out heretrying to.
They think we're gold.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Look, the restaurant industry fucking.
25 years ago people were goldminers when restaurant owners
were wearing gold chains andCadillacs.
That was real and that wasn't alot of work to do.
That we were just gold.
Money was coming in hand overfist because you can get a bag
of flour for fucking $2.99 oreggs at fucking 12 cents a piece
.
That's what was happening backthen, and we were not charging
(27:14):
much less than we are now.
That's right.
So, yes, profitability backthen was ridiculous.
Now the profit margins are thefucking this big.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
Well, it has to do with everything.
It has to do with where you'reat your location, the price of
rents, leases and all that.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Sure.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
And then, at the end of the day, we just got to pass
it down to the consumer, becausethat's all we can do to stay in
business and there's nothingelse we can do, and we're not
individually passing it down tothe consumer, as if we're
punishing them just for comingto our spot.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
This is a natural.
This is how it is.
This is how it is everywhere.
We're not going to be able tooperate that anymore.
That's going to have to rise.
If you're operating at 30 now,you're on board.
It's tough.
I'm right on the cusp Between 29and 33, I'm trying to stay
there, but just with youremployee, you almost have to
(28:01):
remove the employee rate out ofthat.
You know what I'm saying?
Because now people are gettingpaid so much to work that that's
taken away from that percentage.
It's almost impossible tooperate on that 30% business
model as we used to, because thebusiness model back then was
different the percentage.
We had a lot more room for flaw.
Right now there's no room tomove man.
Speaker 4 (28:21):
Not at all.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
And to making mistakes, like you know, you
gotta cut your costs and try toeliminate mistakes in the
kitchen.
Eliminate your waste right,Correct costs.
And trying to eliminatemistakes in the kitchen
eliminate your waste right,correct, because that's what I
said, when stuff goes up, youjust got to eliminate as much
waste as you can.
Cut the tomato a little bit.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
This way you know.
Try to get closer to the stem.
Stop wasting half the tomato.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Getting rid of the top yeah, whatever you can do to
just kind of, you know, keep,keep that bottom line where it
is and you know, with us.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
It's like like the rack of lamb, for instance.
My lamb is very expensive forme.
It costs me a lot of money.
There's very little profitmargin.
I have the lamb on the menu sothe customers coming in here can
come in here, while otherpeople get the other things.
We spread the margins aroundthe menu so we kind of make it
all work out that way.
But when we have the lamb thatcosts so much just to satisfy
(29:09):
the palate, you fuck that lambup one time and you just lost
profitability for that wholerack.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
That's it.
Yeah, it's gone, you're in thepocket.
So you're.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
You're really in the.
You're going to always make alittle bit of money, but you're
not going to make a lot of moneyto make profit.
So one lamb goes wrong.
One send back one fuckingmishap.
Bad news, you know what?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I mean bad news, so we don't have that freedom of
maneuvering, maneuvering around,yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
So when's?
When's the next greek trip?
Speaker 3 (29:35):
um, I was.
I was discussing my brother.
Now he don't know yet, butwe're gonna try to get up, us,
the four brothers, to go togreece for about 10, 10 days,
two weeks, surprise, surprise sowe'll see.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
Yeah, we're gonna try to, not 90 probably, you know,
fall november, that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Right around that time that'll be a good time.
We're going to try to probably,you know, fall November.
That's amazing.
Right around that time, that'llbe a good time.
We usually when we go, weusually go summertime.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (29:55):
We've never been that time of the year, so we're
going to try to make that trip.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If you guys anybody in the comments you, when can
they get you on social medias?
Where can people connect withyou?
I don't have any social media,that's just me.
How about the restaurant?
Speaker 4 (30:18):
Brickhouse Diner 04 is a restaurant in Richmond, in
Midlothian.
Brickhousedinercom is all ourthree of our locations and
Brickhouse Diner Virginia Beachon Instagram and Facebook here
in Virginia Beach Awesome yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Cool, so get in there .
Brickhouse Diner.
You'll probably see me there inVirginia Beach a couple times a
week.
A few times a week if you gothere at the right time.
I won't tell you when that is.
I'll let it be a surprise.
Anything you want to say toanybody getting in this business
, any last words you put outthere to anybody out there, and
it could be nothing um, the therestaurant business is very
(30:54):
tough and I think a lot ofpeople don't understand that.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Um, along with you know, with trying to do your
best in the restaurant business,and on different scales.
Obviously, here you are withthis beautiful restaurant here
and you do your lamb chops andwe do a simple cheeseburger, in
a sense, and it's just so toughall the way around and I think
it's the same struggle.
I think, if for sure, ifeverybody in greece, everybody,
when you get out of, uh, out ofhigh school, you got to do 18
(31:20):
months of military standard, Ithink here you should have to do
two weeks of the restaurantbusiness yeah, or the military
instead of the military, rightInstead of the military right.
This is your military, becauseonce you work in the restaurant
business I think you start torealize and understand a lot
more.
And there's a lot of peoplethat obviously haven't and I
think the struggles with a lotof our business is the customer
(31:44):
just not understanding and yourstaff in a sense, until they
start to understand.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
For every successful restaurant.
The minority are the ones thatare actually passionate and the
ones keeping the thing going.
It's a lot of stress and a lotof pressure on them.
Everyone else that works thereis great, but they're not so
much into it as a career,they're into it as their moment,
for whatever it is they'redoing.
And you know and that's good toowe have great team members,
(32:08):
depending on where you're at ohyeah, oh yeah for sure, but it's
a lot of stress on thepassionate people, typically the
owners and the management orthe career chefs or career
waitstaff.
The people who are not leavinganytime soon are the ones that
feel the pressure.
But for everyone else whodoesn't understand when they
come in and write these bullshitreviews and all their nonsense
(32:29):
and all the shit they want tosay, it's ridiculous.
What they need to do is justshut the fuck up.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
Seriously, just shut up, there we go.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Learn a little bit about something.
Get some culture to yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Yeah, I mean just kind of exactly Educate yourself
a little bit about it andyou'll understand a little bit
more.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
And if you don't, then maybe you should just stay
home and eat.
I don't know what to tell you.
We appreciate your business,but we don't appreciate all the
real shit that comes with itgotcha gotcha well listen.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Thanks for coming guys, if you like, our show.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Please hit like subscribe.
Support us, support locals,support your local restaurants,
your local people, your localshops that uh mechanic shops
that serve lamb broth fuckingpasta Support everybody, when we
do this again, bill's gonnamake a spanakopita with yes,
please, and then we'll bring onein that way.
Speaker 3 (33:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
I'm actually really disappointed you didn't show up
with it.
Yeah right, show up next time.
Come on man, what the fuck.
Come on man.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Shit.
All right, that sounds great.
Awesome talk today.
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