Behind the Bar: The Life of Restaurant Owner/Chef Bobby Maher

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey Bar Ninja Nation.
Welcome to the Bar NinjaPodcast, where we talk about
everything from trials andtribulations, from life behind
the bar, from tips and tricks tomake you a better bartender and
a better drinker.
Join your host, bill Thornton,kayla Lowe and yours truly, mike
Garrison.
Let's go have some fucking fun.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Cool, I think we're live.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
All right, sounds great.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Mic check, mic check.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yep, yep, I can hear you, bobby.
Everybody's got green coming inon their stuff.
I think we're good to go levels.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Good recording push levels are good.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Yeah, recording button is pushed we're about to
take off the space I know, yeah,we did a whole podcast once and
I had was like you hit record,didn't you?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
And I was like no way , she's like.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
I never saw the number countdown, I just figured
you did it before we got on.
Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
And technically we will always blame that on the
blind guy.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
No matter what it's Bill's fault.
Bill was supposed to push thebutton.
Yeah, so I have a couple couplequestions.
Bill's got a ton of.
Bill sent me texts all day ofquestions to ask you.
I got a couple.
You're in my old neighborhoodtoo.
I'm in Richmond, virginia now.
In Churchill.
I used to live like I was acolonial village, so like two

(01:20):
blocks from the metro.
Stop Back in that single familyhome neighborhood.
We were always in that stompingground.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
It's so much fun.
There's about 15 morerestaurants there now.
There's like 35 restaurants ina block or two.
It's crazy, but it's like.
You know Virginia's littlerestaurant district.
Yeah, yeah, it was great.
You can like walk a block andthen go anywhere and get any
food, any beverage you want.
You know it's, it's tooconvenient and I spend too much
money.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
But I know that's what we it's very expensive to
live there, oh my God.
So that's gotta be one of themore expensive places to live.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
So I prepared and Bill's like I don't want to
prepare, Like if you're going toprepare.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I just want to go in fresh.
We're all industry people, soyou know people, and so I
prepared.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
I had a couple comments and questions.
From that kind of quick firestuff you pay your bartenders
sometimes a guaranteed salary,or did during covid, I don't
know if you still do or not, andI was like that is g.
So one thing I've noticed aboutyou and your style is that you
really play kind ofunderstanding the human at a
different level and you're likeyou don't let nickels get in the

(02:25):
way of dollars.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Yeah, well, I just try to like make myself a little
happier.
You know like it's sometimesthe give and take.
You know there's sometimeswhere I'm too nice, but I like
to just try to bring loyaltyinto the restaurant because I
feel like a lot of timesrestaurants struggle with
keeping staff and then customersare like what's going on?
I always thought like I'd seemy servers on a really slow
night say it was like likeholiday weekends are slow and

(02:47):
clarendinic July 4th is going tobe slow.
You see them walking away with40 bucks and I'm like this
doesn't feel like it should belegal.
So I always just after a whileI was just like you know what,
I'm just going to guaranteeevery shift and you know a lot
less people trying to call out,a lot less people trying to like
leave early on their shifts.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
That's a good point.
The call out too, causeeverybody all of a sudden gets
sick, right oh?

Speaker 3 (03:09):
yeah, or they like hear how many reservations there
are and all of a sudden you'regetting like three people trying
to call it at once and it'sjust like I, you know, and I'm
like a one, I'm not a one manshow, but like like I'm, and,
and I'm just like I need to likemake it as streamlined as
possible and if, if I think youhad a few more bucks, you know
cause I, you know I do savemoney, cause I do both things,
so I'm happy, like to to givethat back to my staff.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Yeah.
So how does that work?
Do you just if they, if I made$40, you cover a split up to a
certain amount?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
Well, I guarantee $27 an hour and, like you know it's
it's maybe one shift a week.
I'm putting in a hundred bucks.
It's really not that much, butit makes like it makes for a
much more trusting environment.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
I feel like you know it creates culture and a family
family, which is which is whichis fun.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
It's getting summer now, so there's a lot of,
there's a lot of turnover withthat, which is which is kind of
sad.
You know, my parents arepsychiatrists so I always try to
like think of my servers and mybartenders.
I know that if they're freakedor they're not happy, the tables
feel it and I have a smallrestaurant and they feel it Like
there's been times, like we'vebeen doing this four years now,
where, like, I've had staff thatbicker a lot and you know I
would get an email saying, likeyou know, get right, you always

(04:23):
have to be the adult in the room, which really sucks.
I hate that so much.
You know, like givingconversations and letting people
go and stuff like that, butjust trying to like keep the
staff fair, happy.
And you know we also do a tippool, which is, you know, a
whole different set of issuesand trying to keep people
working in a fair amount.
It's just you know it's a lot oflike just trying to keep the
culture and you know, you knowhow restaurants are like in

(04:44):
virginia, you know from new yorkcity, and and new york city has
a lot of like servers thatwanted to be actors and now are
servers for a career and youhave these really serious,
amazing servers and there's alot of those in dc too.
But virginia it's it's a littlemore like people, whether it's
like right out of college ordoing two things at once or like
hustling.
It's a lot of people who's likea lot of my servers, like are

(05:06):
looking to do something else orlike in grad school, are doing
all this stuff.
So you know it's, it's hard tosee it's not their career.
You know it's their job.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
You have an interesting conflict resolution
tactic that I really liked,where you know if you have a
conflict at the restaurant, youknow maybe it's between two
employees or something, andyou're like, look, we're going
to deal with this.
We don't have time to do it now.
I'm going to carve out time ina day or two and we're going to
sit down and we'll talk about itand then by the time that comes
around it's kind of likeLincoln when he'd write the
letter, never send it.

(05:35):
By the time it comes to get theconflict resolution, no one
remembers why they were mad athim.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
No, I've had so many times where people were like I
can't work with this person, orthis person did that, and then I
go like, okay, well, let meinvestigate, let me do this and
that You're saying I hear you,right, you're like I hear you, I
definitely do.
I address the issues for sure.
Intensity of it you can'treally address effectively.

(06:04):
When two people are intense,know it's never gonna it's.
You're only siding with one orthe other, yeah.
And then all of a sudden you'retaking sides and someone's
friends with this other personand someone's from that person
and all of a sudden you have arestaurant bickering and and the
that like when the restaurantstarts bickering with each other
, like that can just rattle theplace to pieces.
So oh yeah, you know, I just tryto like really like calm
tensions because it's hard.

(06:26):
You know, I'm a chef.
I got to hide in back forever.
You know, only for the lastfour years I've learned how to
serve, I learned how to bartendand there's something just so
like stressful and drainingabout talking to customers and
keeping professional and keepingeverything going and it can
really get like me and me likeyou kind of get like me and me
like you kind of get like workedup sometimes, you know, and
like trying to calm that downand like realizing, like you

(06:46):
know, hey, we're like I tellthem a lot of times like it's
like we're selling laptops here.
You know, like if we get, we geta customer.
That's like a little like tough.
I'm like, oh, we're justselling laptops, you know, and
they know it takes that like Itry to take the sting out of it
and just I'm.
But I think the customers canstay happy because service is
quick and they work hardtogether and they don't bicker,

(07:08):
they don't seem like they're, orif they do, we quickly put an
end to it.
It's a learning process everysingle day and as your staff
evolves you're learning newstuff and I just feel it's
always a challenge, as he hasknown.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
The longer you do it, you normalize it more.
I was talking to a manager ofblue moon and, uh, nag said
north carolina this week and youcould tell it was a tough day.
And then, you know, it's allkind of done.
It shifts over and we weresitting at the outside bar and
she comes out like, hey, she'slike, you know, putting out a
lot of fires today.
She's like but no one bled,it's a good day.
No one bled.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
You know, and I was like oh, there's nobody's crying
in the walk-in, nobody's in thewalk-in crying.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
So we're fine.
This is a fun day um so that's.

Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah, I, I uh, as long as no one's crying the
walk-in.
But yeah, I gotta.
I have a camera in the walk-inso I get to see what that
happens.
Funny one time one of my cooksdropped a whole um, it was cold
already but dropped a whole uh,I think it was like a hotel pan
of of soup on them and I havethis amazing video that.
But yeah, as long as nobodybleeds and the restaurant

(08:09):
doesn't have to like close forthe night, we're all good.
You know, has that everhappened.
This restaurant space hasprobably been around for I
haven't figured it out yet like10, 15 years.
I took over I signed at leastfour years ago but it's so
patched together, it's so likeso many different, like fixes
and stuff like that.
So stuff breaks all the timeand even Monday my AC went out,

(08:30):
boom like that, and all of asudden it's getting hot and I'm
going upstairs trying to fix it,calling people.
I called three HVAC companiesand they came back to back to
back and they're like, why isthis other guy here?
And I'm like, oh, oh, it's mybuilding, I don't know what's
going on.
And so, like, I got one personto patch it.
It lasts for tomorrow andthey're coming in the morning to
fix it, but it's just like it'snever ending.

(08:50):
Yeah, it's just like.
But then you get addicted to it.
You know you get addicted tothe fact that you're like, oh,
hey, well, I fixed this problem.
Yeah, cost me money, but youknow it still feels good at the
end of the day being able tostill like, open and and prove
to your like you know customersand your staff that you're
serious.
You're not gonna like be likeI'll take a vacation for a week
they told me two months.
They said that hvac would not beup for two months.

(09:11):
What yeah?

Speaker 1 (09:13):
yeah, you're in a big building.
You're in the building, um, Imean, it's right on the corner
the fillmore in clarendon it'slike the.

Speaker 3 (09:20):
It's in the crossing area.
Um, do you know where uhcheesecake factory is?
Yeah, they're on the corner inthat building.
Okay, it's all like like mylandlord, it's all like triple
net like you, don't you?
You're responsible for yourplumbing up into the street,
you're responsible for your age.
You just got a dark shell andit's all right yeah, it's

(09:41):
totally like we all have thesedifferent restaurant spaces
where all of us have likedifferent breaking things, and
Cheesecake Factory has an HVACguy there every single day.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
How does a hood system work?
How many stories is thebuilding?

Speaker 3 (09:52):
It's like it's three.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
It's the worst, are you venting out the?

Speaker 3 (09:55):
back or on the roof.
On the roof, yeah.
And I just found out.
I talked to the I don't want toget him in trouble, but I
talked to the CheesecakeFactoryvac guy and he's saying
that like they had moved thevents and stuff like that and
that had like caused a whole,like it kind of caused like a
huge cooling issue in my, in my,uh, in my restaurant.
And it's like one of the thingsyou say, you, you think like

(10:15):
everything's good and you signup, you don't think about that?
not at all, yeah not at all, youknow.
That's why, if I, you know, ifI do it again, like, uh, like a
second restaurant, like it's gotto be like completely studs
Standalone, it's got to be likeempty and I got to put
everything in there, because younever know, I mean, you really
never know, like my landlord,I'm going to get in trouble.

(10:35):
Was there a kitchen in it?
There was a kitchen in it, itwas.
It was I don't know if you'rearound there at the time.
It was Heritage Brewing Company, heritage brewing company, and
then it was Ruby Tuesday's tacoconcept, which lasted six months
.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Gotcha, I was out of there in.
We moved to old town.
I remember what year it was,probably 2018.
And then we were in old townuntil like 2021, 2022 or so when
I was in Clarendon it was likethe hotspots were a big Liberty
tavern and line hall Whitlow'syeah, for bars and stuff, but it

(11:08):
was, uh, sullivan.
Yet don tito's don tito's wasnew, yeah that that opened while
I lived there.
So that little rooftop washopping.
First was wilson hart werethere yet or I don't.
I think that opened, but Idon't know if it opened while we
lived in clarendon villagethere's's just so much choice.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
There's so much choice.
Everything's like new Americantoo.
It's like it's, it's, it's it's.
We're all, like you know,chasing each other's.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
You got a lot of competition down there for
employees and for customers too,cause I mean there's endless
choice, oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:39):
And it's like being downtown Manhattan almost.
It is without the skyscraperson top of you and also we don't
have the tourists coming in.
So we have a huge suburb typeof feel.
On holiday weekends we don'tget the tourists coming in
replacing the people that livethere, and stuff like that.
A weekday is going to be alittle slower for everybody.

Speaker 1 (12:04):
So there's those issues that really make you have
to like it drives a betterrestaurant, though, because when
we lived in old town,everything just turned into the
same restaurant group andeverything went just went to a
low common denominator, becausethey didn't care, because 10 000
people get off a tour bus everyday and they're like, oh, this
place looks pretty it was allsmoke and mirrors, the
restaurants looked gorgeous andthere's a couple that were you

(12:24):
know decent, but I mean youcould one hand you.
there's a couple that were youknow decent, but I mean you
could one hand you could namethe restaurants that were
actually like good food andeverything else was just
basically a you know restaurantgroup style neighborhood or you
know restaurant group stylerestaurant.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
That's what's taken over everywhere.
Pretty much is that restaurantgroup like pretty, build out
corner restaurant like you knowbuzz this and that and you go
there and it's like, uh, not thegreatest food you know, it's,
it's just the, the.
I feel like the costs aregetting so high that people are
taking.
You can start, you can startseeing a crunch here a little
bit because of like we're buyingdc and stuff like that.

(12:56):
I already know like two chefswho you know that go got fired,
like you know, and so thequality really starts they don't
feel like they need a chef.

Speaker 1 (13:05):
I mean, they're managing, they're optimizing for
profit.
We're not optimizing forcustomer experience.
We're not optimizing for foodquality, more, we're optimizing
to make money.
We are an investment group,yeah, and so that eventually it
kind of destroys the restaurantor become soulless um and it
tortures a lot of chefs.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, because they try so hard, they build it up
and like, what's your, what'syour, uh, your reward?
You get fired at the firstopportunity.
You know, once your sous chefgets strong enough to get the
place going, it's, uh, you know,but you know, we're used to it
and and, uh, that's how we learnso much stuff, you know, yeah,
I'm sure, like I'm sure ithappens more with, like, bar
managers and and beverageprogram people.

(13:45):
As soon as you put that inplace, like you know, and the
penny pinches started coming in,like just yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
A lot of them are doing consultants.
Now you know they'll have aconsulting company, write the
menus and then just do atraining.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
And then just run a bar staff with a consultant.

Speaker 3 (14:00):
But I don't know if that's more expensive or less
expensive, but how do you?

Speaker 1 (14:03):
do yours.
Are you making your barman?
Are you making your cocktails?

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I I do like 50, 50.
So I like to like I'm a barmanager who, who I love a lot,
ben, we both try to play offlike each other's like ideas.
I like to take ideas from thestaff too, cause flavors for
food is like my strong point.
Cocktails is like my strongpoint.
Cocktails is there's like ascience to it, and so I like to
like take a lot of feedback, alot of ideas.
I'll do contests and stuff likethat.

(14:28):
Just try to figure out likewhat's fun and what's what's
like new.
Because you know you look oninstagram and you're like see
all these cocktails and you'rejust like oh, wow and and none
of them have any like substanceto them.
So I like to try to motivateand you know my bar manager is
really starting to come in withlike these delicious cocktails
and I'm able to like kind oflike step back a little bit from

(14:50):
the making the cocktail recipe,which is like really like makes
me happy, like that I can trainsomebody do it better than I
can, and that's like really theend of the day is like I want
everyone here to be better thanI am at everything.
Yeah, it's really importantbecause you know you need to
step away.
Sometimes you get hurtsometimes and if your staff's
trained up and and ready to go,you're those stressful times of

(15:11):
getting hurt, being out for amonth or something yeah, that
was you've cross-trained.

Speaker 1 (15:15):
You were saying like not necessarily front to back of
the house, but like back of thehouse.
Everybody can kind of do everyposition in front of the house.

Speaker 3 (15:20):
A lot of people can do we train every single server
to bartend?
Yeah, unless they really youknow, I have some servers that
really don't want to, so I don'tdo it, but usually I have 75
can make all the cocktails andbe like the sole bartender on
like a night, and and that'slike really important because,
yeah, you know, it's good,bartenders are hard to find,
hard to hold on to.

(15:40):
When you're, when you're like alike, kind of like a sole
operator, you don't have thatcorporate structure behind you.
So you kind of and I feel likereally good bartenders respond
really well to like thatcorporate structure.
So it's like I kind ofcompensated for that by like
making my servers like and mybartenders like all do
everything and learn off eachother and, and it's like a

(16:01):
little extra thing, I feel liketo teach a server how to bartend
because now, all of a sudden,their next job could be a
bartending job and you knowthey're good, they're good wow
yeah, it opens

Speaker 1 (16:12):
up skill set, capability I tripped on honey
mustard in the kitchen, goingaround the dish pit once, and
hit those old school winechiller things where the bucket
was removed from the littleprongs that held it.
So the bucket was in the discpit and the prongs things right
beside the corner.
I slipped and one of the prongswent through my rib mid shift,
broke my rib.
I go out to the next table andthey're like, oh, you have a

(16:33):
little raspberry vinaigrette onyour shirt.
And I was like, oh, I do.
And I touched it and then justlike hunched over and just
straight to emergency room.
So then like, if somebody elsecan bartend, that's not a
problem.
You know what I mean.
But if, like, no one knows howto bartend now you have a very
large problem on your hands.
So I've been yeah, I've been inat least three situations where
somebody went to the emergencyroom from shift, you know, and

(16:54):
it's like wow, what do?

Speaker 3 (16:55):
you do now, yeah, and it's, it's you, just, you, you,
you, you put a server in thereand make them cry and ruin their
day.
And you know, and you knowthat's like my my ultimate goal
is to get the front of house, inthe back of house, to um, to to
like be able to like to go backand forth.
Yeah, like, because becausethat's like kind of what I do,
like I have a slipped disc rightnow, so I'm kind of just, like

(17:18):
you know, on the sideline, likecoaching and letting my guys go,
but like I'll they'll hate it,but I'll hop in there and make
cocktails and and, and, you know, take tables and, and, you know
, on a busy night I'll go to thetable and take the two or three
and, like I really want myother guys to be able to do that
.
You know, I want my, you know Iwant my like you know bar
manager to be able to make asalad if something happens, and

(17:39):
and, uh, I just open it.
Like you guys said, it opens askill set and it's like makes
the job more rewarding, you know, you know, cause, like I don't
have that corporate thing where,like people can climb, climb,
climb and go like so like if Ican like make them stronger.
Service industry people likethey can make tons of money.
Yeah, you can make so muchmoney serving and I don't even
want to tell my cooks how much.
You know they can make so muchand and it's it's really fun too

(18:07):
.
If I was a little more social,I would definitely love the
bartending thing, like it's somuch fun just shaking a cocktail
and like and you know, gettingthat rush out and you're on
stage, it drains some people onstage.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
You're interacting.
You're making friends too.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
That's how you bring back the regulars who pay the
rent for sure, for sure, for me,I get like, I get so worried
about like, is everybodyenjoying things that it kind of
takes the fun out of it.
But yeah, you know, one dayI'll definitely, like you know,
maybe when I retire I'll, youknow, take a bartending job and
really feel, see how?
Uh, you know, because it lookslike so much fun, honestly like
just like connecting theregulars, like making drinks and

(18:40):
just like the rush of it, yeah,and you're not sweating like in
the back.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, correct.
Yeah, how hot is your kitchentoday?
You stole that question fromBill.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
But after the AC going out on Monday I'm like I
don't even want to know.

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Yeah, I got it back to normal somewhat normal, but
it's 90, 95 maybe.
Yeah, it sits to the pointwhere I called my refrigeration
people, my uh refrigerationpeople and I was like come out
and they're like why I'm likeyou'll find out soon Like I
don't know Something's going tobreak, it's too hot, like.
And then they told me we'rebooked till July 30th.

(19:17):
No way, yeah, yeah, july 30thFor restaurant refrigeration
repair.
That's crazy, like the goodones it is.
It's getting crazier.
Yeah, the heat, the heat,really like my buildings AC went
down.
I went outside today there wasan HVAC truck on every corner.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Every single corner, you know, and like that's part
of the service we provide, is anice, chill, cool environment.
It is not cheap to fix.
Yeah, no, I, cool environment.
It is not cheap to fix.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, no, I imagine commercial PC Bill.
You had some questions.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
I mean I was good First of all, bobby, how you
doing, man?

Speaker 3 (19:53):
You say it sounds like it's been a day.
The day was Monday.
Now I'm just having fun.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Okay, good, good.
It's mind boggling to me tothink about how much.
You've got a slip disc rightnow.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
Oh yeah, it's, super.

Speaker 2 (20:07):
So well, I'm glad you're getting to relax and do a
little recording right now,I'll tell you one thing.
I'll appreciate it.
So how did you find yourself inthe restaurant industry?
What was your first gig?
How'd you get drawn in?

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Well, I was always like it was always what I was
good at, and I always heard thestories from people and I was
like I, I'm not gonna do it,like it's too hard.
Like when I was a kid I couldlike already cook, like pretty
pretty well, uh.
And then I was like you know,I'm gonna try to like I'll go to
college and like try to do likea desk job.

(20:43):
And I did that and I got a two,four, eight, eight GPA and my
first desk job.
I just fall asleep and I waslike you know what I gotta I
gotta do, I gotta do what I'mgood at.
You know, I think I was a.
I also was like an antiquesdealer for a while.
I wasn't good at that and um,and then, uh, it just like one
day like uh, you know, I washaving a bad, bad year and I was

(21:05):
like I got to do.
I got to do what I'm good at,and so I went to culinary school
and that and that was it.
And then I worked in likecorporate, like fine diet dining
for a while, which is like itwas a doctor's club that I
started out in and we change amenu every two weeks and we
would like do catering anddinner service, lunch service,
all at the same time.

(21:25):
And I'm sitting there and likewhy am I here?
And I was like it was like youknow, I'm just doing so much
stuff that I'll learn so muchthat by the end of this I'll
turn myself into a good chef.
And all my culinary schoolfriends were at like these, like
you know, Michelin star places.
By the time I had like twoyears under my belt and could do
everything.
They were just getting off, youknow, the salad stations that

(21:50):
like they're at their places.
So like I, I really like I beatmyself up and and learned a lot,
you know.
And I was also in a kitchenwith no cell phone service.
So like chef tells you to makesomething, you gotta remember
how to make it and all that's,all that stuff.
Uh, and like in this industryespecially, all the tough times
are you're like they're theywon't grow and you almost I
gotta be addicted to it.
You know those, those, thosethose tough days where you're
like pressure makes diamonds,baby, and then, but every time

(22:11):
when it's over, I'm like, ah, Ifelt good, I don't know why, I
don't know why, but like I havea, you know a boosted energy and
and and like, and.
Those are the stories I tell.

Speaker 2 (22:26):
Like I'll tell this HVAC story probably like 20 more
times before you know, before Igo.
Well, I think it's, you know,it's one of the defining things
for for us career or anyone inthe restaurant industry the
excitement, the adrenaline, thegood times, the camaraderie.
At the end of the night or inthe middle of the mix, it's like
, yes, we are doing somethingthat is not easy to do on any
level, with a lot of movingparts, and we're having fun and

(22:48):
making money and it's, I reallylike, just kind of touching base
on the OK.
I know you both are upset witheach other right now.
We are in rush, so I'm going toneed you to stay clocked in and
be professionals and we'regoing to circle back to this.
I don't know if you do.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Do you do weekly meetings or anything like that
than like a group?
When it's like a, when it'slike a real time, unless it's
like really like a really hugeissue, I try to like separate it
off because, like you know,every time I've had a team
meeting where I've like gottenupset.
People start texting each otherthis and that and all of a
sudden every server that wasn'tthere is hearing a different
story and it just blows up.

Speaker 2 (23:39):
So it just turned into 20 things that didn't
happen.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
And I'll tell you one thing like no, I don't really
like I'm sure my face shows it,but I never let anybody know.
I try to never let anyone knowwhen I'm angry, because I feel
like as soon as you get angry orshow like anger, anything you
say is not going to be taken.
Well, you know.
So I really try to hold it inand I have like my poker face,
I'll deal with it like away fromlike people seeing and and

(24:05):
because as soon as I every timein this industry when I have
raised my voice and like reallylike try to be gordon ramsay,
just like nobody takes itseriously anymore, like nobody
takes that type of managing,like I mean some people do, of
course, like some people arereally good at it, but like yeah
, I think it's a marketing thingI've lost, like I I when I
started doing that like to be inmy career, I feel like I lost

(24:26):
like a lot of respect and Ilearned from that.
Like you know, I feel likeevery like a lot of like
industry people.
Like when you get your firstlike managing job, you kind of
take it too seriously and all ofa sudden managing jobs over if
I try to find a new job and thatdefinitely happened to me.
And you take all those thingsand you realize like, yeah, I
I'm not, like I'm a normalperson, I don't know what I'm
thinking.

(24:47):
At the end of the day, we're,we're, you know, selling laptops
.
It's like such a pretentiousfield, but like that's not.
That's not the fun part to me,the fun parts that come out of
it.
And like getting food out to atable and them having no clue
how hard it was and I have noclue how long.
Like writing the menu was you,you know how, how, how hard
making the cocktail, but theydon't, they just like enjoy it,
they write a good review and itand it and it's, it's, it's,

(25:09):
it's good.
And you know, I, I definitelylike need to be stricter in my
managing approach, for sure, ahundred percent, as long as I
can make people not want to hatetheir lives at the end of the
day, Like I think that'simportant to me think that's
important to me.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
I think you've got your head exactly where it needs
to be, because the positiveenergy, the love, everything we
can do to keep ourselves calm onsuch a stressful industry and
what we do is what really flowsout to the customers and also
keeps us sane.
And that was one of the thingsI was going to talk about, kind
of the Gordon Ramsay thing,because you've even seen him
evolve from the anger.
It's a waste of time.

(25:46):
There's going to be emotion,people are going to get upset,
but when you can help your staffand make sure they know that,
no matter what, you're there forthem and we can all work
together and be happy, no matterwho threw the pan of soup on
the floor, whatever's gone down,we're in it together, folks

(26:07):
soup on the floor.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Whatever's gone down, we're in it together.
Folks, so important I do thinkthe gordon rams, you think I.
I haven't seen the yelling chefin in a while oh yeah, and it's
good to see like that, that thatmove away like and I think,
like the, the younger generationwon't stand for not at all
poorly and you and you reallyreally have to evolve.
Because I know like I'mmillennial and like we kind of
would just like work hard, justbecause, like we were promised

(26:30):
that it, if we worked hard andput our head down, we would be
rich someday.
And it's definitely like a lotdifferent working with this
generation and and they reallylook out for themselves and I
think that's good.
You know, I really do, becauseI saw so many industry
professionals wear themselvesout, I mean myself, but yeah,
but uh, you know, and and Ithink, like if we could make

(26:51):
this industry a lot less toughand hard days and and you know,
like not being able to call out,if we, if we can like evolve to
more like a more friendly, morelike a higher paid environment,
like it, it in like a placewhere you can call out when you
have a sore throat or something,I think that would be really
make this industry evolve to thenext level.

(27:12):
Because even like, from COVIDto now the servers, the cooks
and the chef, we give the staffso much more like ability to
like, be sick, have their lives.
Like I remember before COVID,like nobody could call out, like
nobody yeah, you'd show up with.
I mean, I'm sure you tried towork with your punctured rib,
you know like you're calling outwas basically I don't, you

(27:34):
don't work there anymore oh yeah, oh yeah I mean

Speaker 1 (27:38):
terrifying saying that text we worked for bill and
I worked for a food andbeverage director at a ski
resort, but if you called, hewas driving by that house.
Are you serious?
He's going to make sure thatcar's in the driveway.
Yeah, so wow, wow.
Well, this is early.
Two thousands.
So we're Gen Z or Gen X?
Sorry, young Gen X.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, you guys went through it.

Speaker 1 (28:00):
So while we're like, I can't remember what they call
it Xenial, not Xenial, but I'mlike the borderline between X
and millennial.

Speaker 2 (28:06):
And I am full on Gen.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
X, I've been screamed at.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
You know, we've had people pulling me off the chef,
the chef pulling the chef off ofme.
You know, and it goes back tothe and.
I learned in my management andownership early on, it's not
helping nothing.
Just like you were saying,bobby, like's I'm if I'm gonna
get mad.
All I'm doing is ripping thefoundation out from underneath
all of us.

(28:30):
And you know, I think back tothose days and and people in the
industry now that I'm so proudof, because you know, we just
want to be happy and we want ourcustomers to have that walk
away experience to where they'reenjoying themselves, and we've
all got to be in the right frameof mind to do that.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
And it's hard, so hard.
And the thing that I reallylearned is like when I get angry
and I express it, I will beplaying that back over my head
the entire night and all of asudden I wasted all my energy
when I could have been donedoing anything else, anything
else, anything else, anythingelse.
And that being able to just notlike express anything else, and

(29:07):
that being able to just not likeexpress or like stop, like that
thought process is like saved alot of time and a lot of grief.
And I just think we have wehave such an industry where it's
we go through a lot, and Ithink like the mental health
aspect of it isn't reallyaddressed nearly as much as it
as it needs, as it needs to be.
You know, and you know I'm achef we only have so much money
like Like a lot of places don'treally have effective HR, all

(29:29):
this stuff, and and think likehopefully one day we'll be able
to evolve to where we can reallylike have, like you know, more
healthy of a, you know, mentalyeah, bill, and I always used to
talk about that in just evenlike health insurance with small
businesses and all because thecities and counties tax you so
much too.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
I mean it's like this is like a business that barely
makes it.
You know, one in fiverestaurants are ever going to
make it, but we're going to putextra taxes.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
We, just, we just got that Arlington just raised
their meal tax by 1%.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Why food and intermittent?
It doesn't make any sense,because these are businesses
that barely succeed.
They barely survive.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
What's that?

Speaker 3 (30:04):
percentage.
You're paying now 10.
Now it's 11.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Good, I mean, that is crippling.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
It doesn't make any sense.
Arlington has tons of money.
Yeah, arlington is like youknow.
I mean, maybe I'm wrong, Idon't know, but you know and the
thing that hurts us too is yougo to a grocery store, which I
think is right.
1% is the tax on grocery stores, and that's Amazon and huge
corporations that don't quiteneed the help the restaurant

(30:32):
industry we really could use.
We don't need to tax the hellout of our customers.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, it's one of the higher taxes, probably used
taxes.
It's out there.
It is Like 17 or something.
It's 17.
I can't remember Richmond's atoo right.
It is In Richmond like 17 orsomething, yeah, 17.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
I can't remember Richmond's a little weird with
taxes.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
That stops anyone from wanting to open a business
from becoming an operator in thefood and beverage platform, and
I think us just talking hereand the other podcasts out there
are doing it with our following.
This is the beginning of theevolution to where we have to
have some kind of representation.
You can't keep your killing atone of the largest industries in
the country.

Speaker 1 (31:10):
It's now we're going to start.
We bought it a long time ago.
We still own it, we're sittingon it, but it's a four-letter
domain, like when you could getdomains in the beginning.
So we have aopb association ofprofessional bartenders and then
we have a long form associatedprofessional association of
professional bartenders, and ourgoal was like we were going to
start a big group healthcarepolicy and then like, so like
anybody who was a bartender.

(31:30):
Basically, you did join theassociation and then you'd be
able to get healthcare, grouppolicy, healthcare through the
association, and then but weknow it's just so hard, it's so
hard we're so busy.
We've never did it, but I willgive if anybody listens to this
podcast wants to do it.
I have both those domains andwe're ready to help you.

Speaker 2 (31:50):
And just from a corporate standpoint.
I mean, this is something thatputs money into it.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Well, you need to help small businesses out.
I mean, you can only do so muchas a business.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
We don't talk to each other though the local
restaurant owners.
We're all pretending how rosyand amazing our restaurant is.
We won like how rosy andamazing our restaurant is, yeah,
we won't.
We won't talk to them.
We won't go to the owner nextdown the block and be like, wow,
that was a shitty month.
Yeah, never do that.
And like the fact that we don'ttalk to each other.
We can't like, we can't do thethings that that we need, like,

(32:15):
like, even like, like, likelocal politics wise and stuff
like that.
I mean, we just had somethingpassed in virginia where it's
like you know, know how linencompanies could just put in
their contracts and auto renewsafter five years if you don't
cancel it.
That just happened to me, but Ihad learned that Virginia had
made a loss and you can't dothat, so it saved me.

(32:38):
But if we had morerepresentation in these areas,
we wouldn't get screwed upatory.
Yeah, it's, it is everybody fromI think we stay with these
thoughts and make it happen,yeah you know we have the power
to do these kind of things nowwe do and and I just wish we had
like more ability to organize,you know and imagine yeah, well,

(32:59):
we, we have to.
We we only have so much time inthe day and and but like, if, if
we had, like you know, ourrestaurant associations, I, I
don't want to like, I mean, whatdo they do that?
Even like, when I, when I read,like you know, dc's restaurant
or um, uh, organization stuff,everything's roses and we're not
getting like any real, likedata or any real stuff other

(33:21):
than like we've grown the foodsales have grown like five
percent and yeah, but last yearwe don't get anything and it's
just like we put on this frontand like I just feel like the
professionals need to likefigure out a way to like discuss
, like what's going on, like ina real form, and we're just so
guarded and and it's because wehad to bring like this image of

(33:43):
I got this great restaurant tolike everybody and that you know
, it makes us like and we'realso at the last, like all the
expenses come to us and then wegive the food to the customer,
you know, and and that like wedidn't know.
Like, if you're a small,independent restaurant, you have
no bargaining power with, withlike yeah, you don't want to

(34:03):
bring her.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I mean like, so I had a.
I had a buddy that was with Idon't know if it was a brinker,
but his whole job was likehedging butter, like he's just
analyzing food costs at amassive scale and like hedging
orange juice, hedging butter,hedging stuff like that, just
for to get their costs down onstuff.
Yeah, so I mean, like whenyou're talking about competing

(34:26):
with these big, huge, the bigmassive players, I mean they're,
they're counting every littlepenny every little penny and and
they take every opportunity toraise the price.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
And as soon as they raise that price they never
lower back to where it was ever.
Like maybe the eggs kind of gotback to uh, kind, not really
actually, but you know, did youtake the eggs or do you have to
raise?
oh yeah, oh yeah, there was atime where I bought 300 eggs and
it was $333.
Jeez, 300 eggs.
Yeah, your cost.
Yeah, and I do a lot of brunchbusiness and I was just like,

(34:56):
well, I have to make $0 forbrunch, I have to lose money.
I didn't lose money, but mymargins are done.
All my brunch we do frenchomelets and stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Like I mean four eggs and you know and like it we.

Speaker 3 (35:13):
Just I was just like, well, I'm just gonna take a hit
, roll with it and keep yourhead down and just hope for the
best, pretend like somethingbroke this month and bad to pay
for it and that's it, you know,because we can't pass.
We can't pass everything to thecustomer.
Just there's no way, especiallynow, with, like you know, we
have to eventually, but, likeyou know, we have to like,
balance the sentiment and andwith, like you know you know,

(35:33):
with costs, I guess you, do youlike predict what's like?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
what's a bubble or like there's a salmonella thing
in tomatoes, so they're going tobe expensive for a minute?
Those kind of things you wouldjust ride through versus.
I mean, do you kind of decidewhether you think this is a bump
up forever versus like a?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
yeah, I search my hardest, best product and like
the most cost effective.
And if that doesn't work, Ijust take it off, like which.
I just relight the menu.
I just take it off like I.
I've had squash blossoms likefried, like stuffed fried squash
blossoms, different variety,like on like 75 of my menus.
And then, like I, I one day Iwas just like these are just

(36:10):
like everyone, everyone lovesthem, but they're just don't
make me any, any money.
I take them off.
Yeah and that, like there's somany good things I used to sell
like venison, this and that, uh,chilean sea bass, all that
stuff, all the really good stuffit's it's too cost restrictive,
at least in this area inArlington, for it to be
profitable.

Speaker 1 (36:28):
You know DC different story, but like Arlington we
have a lot of people that youknow live here and they're
almost like big neighborhoodrestaurants, though I mean, we
would go to the same fiverestaurants all the time.
You know we'd get to know theGMs at some point, you know.
Just so it was like it's likeyou're, it's, it's like you said
.
Arlington's not a touristdestination, it's a real livable

(36:50):
city, so it's it's a differentlike dc you can get away with.
You know a tour style restaurantthat has some kind of crazy
price point, you know.

Speaker 3 (36:59):
But the tourists.
There's something, there'ssomething like too, something
expensive to make people thinkit's good.
Yeah, you know, there was oneyear I think it was like my
second or third year I was likeyou know what, like prices are
getting high, I'm gonna like tryto like build my customer base
a little more, not raise pricesnearly as much.
And that did nothing.
Like, yeah, same, same amountof business.
It was like a little higher.

(37:19):
But like, just like, just fromlike operating like I was like
what am I doing?
And then I realized like peopleare skeptical.
If you're, if your chicken dishis a little less expensive than
someone else's, they becomeskeptical.
Like why am I like?
Why me and and it's like it's awhole psychology of it just
bouncing like, but nowadayseverything's getting too
expensive.
So I, you know, I, I try to tomake everything like more.

(37:40):
Um, like you know, the, the Iwant to say the cheaper.
But like I try to find likereally good, like I'll take
chicken and I'll, I'll, I'llmake it really delicious.
Or I have I found a cut of acut of steak that's like a you
know the butchers take off ofthe strip loin.
It's called the Dakota steak.
It is like way better than aprime piece of prime strip and

(38:08):
it only costs.
It costs like I.
Have a good piece of primestrip and it only costs.
It costs like I.
I have a nine ounce dakotastrip for 32 and it's making me
a margin and it's way better.
I used to have a the new yorktrip for two for like 78 and I
wasn't making any and this isbetter, and so you just gotta.
you gotta search for what works.
But yeah, it's hard because thethe these the customers want
what they had and they, theywant to come back and they want
to have that venison again, theywant to have those squash

(38:30):
blossoms again.
And telling them like, oh well,you're not going to pay $25 for
three squash blossoms.
It's tough and I think thelonger you go, the more trust
you build and the community willcome back.
But in the first couple ofyears, when I had to start

(38:52):
taking some of the finer thingsoff, there was a lot of pushback
.
And when I hear year three orfour, I would hear all the time
you took this off and I didn'tcome back.
But then I realized yourrestaurant's really good, so I
started coming back all the timeyeah, that's the trick.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Is you just got to keep rotating that menu, right?
Yeah, and so they know thatyou're not chili's, or it's
going to be the samesouthwestern records every time
you come in.
But your brand is the qualityof food you're going to get, not
the physical dish you're goingto get yeah, and there's.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
There's ways that are out.
Like you know, those corporaterestaurants have the same menu,
so it takes like training.
What I do is like try to keepthe same proteins.
So, and like the salmon'salways cooked in a very specific
way, I'll just changeeverything around, change all
the sides.
So my cooks are so good atcooking duck and salmon and

(39:46):
chicken, but it's just keepingthose proteins in their heads.
So when they're learning a newmenu, at least that duck's going
to be cooked right and allthey're doing is putting sides
on it.
So that's one way I took someof the training and made it a
little easier.
That's smart.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
It is smart and there's a little bit of
consistency too with yourclientele.
Like you kind of know, you'regoing to be able to get your
protein, which a lot of peoplefocus on, and then the setup
always feels fresh, yeah, andlike it definitely.

Speaker 3 (40:16):
like you know, people come for the salmon they don't
know what's on it A lot of times, you know.
Or they come a lot of times,you know.
Or come for the duck and, likeyou know, and I I don't like I
have people just tell me likelike there's one customer was
like well, it was, it was timefor like a menu change and they
were like like I don't know whatyou're going to put in the next
duck, but I know it's going tobe amazing.

Speaker 1 (40:35):
You know what I mean that's exactly where you're
going to be.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
That's, your customers trust you.
That's a hard place to get.
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (40:52):
This one was hard too , because I put like I had an
idea, like I wanted to make um arisotto that was like halfway
between like a bread, uh, like arice pudding and like a savior
risotto and risotto is atechnical dish, right, it's easy
to make a mistake on that.

Speaker 3 (40:59):
It's it's hard, but like I made a coconut and date
risotto duck pairs well withsweet and and I was like this is
stupid, it paired so well.
And like it really makes iteasier for me having the same
proteins, because you reallylike remember what works and
what doesn't, and like I onlyhave so much time and there's

(41:20):
sometimes where, like you know,I barely have time to write a
menu and that really helps.
You know barely have time torent a menu and that really
helps.
You know that really reallyhelps so on, like bar costs.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Now that cocktails are a lot more complicated than
they used to be, is bar costsomething you have to manage as
far as like the ingredientsreally building out these
cocktails, so not exactly howmuch they cost you, and yeah, I
mean they.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
The prices don't rise nearly as much.
Liquor than it does yeah, yeah,it's a lot more stable.
It's it's it's state regulatedand stuff like that.
Like I, like we're just aboutto reevaluate the liquor costs.
I think we're probably doingthis week or next week.
You can only, you can onlycharge so much.
Like, like, cocktails are like16 bucks now.

(42:01):
Yeah, we're like in a suburb ofDC.
Yeah, we're like in a suburb ofdc.
It's a city, but yeah, that's alot of money.
I, I, you gotta figure out waysof either making something
really special or find thatbrand of of tequila or vodka
that is just as good as tito'sand cost a little bit less, you
know, and but the the priceincreases are.
So you know it's what food usedto be.

(42:21):
It's they're so stable, likethey move so stable.
Now, like I'm spending so muchtime just food costing and see
and like reprinting menus andand you know, either lowering
prices, raising prices, and thatseems like 75 percent of my job
yeah, you're general managingand chef yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yeah, it sounds like he's an hvac tech.
It sounds like there's a lotgoing on definitely not hvac
tech.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
I tried turning that thing on.
I made it 10 times worse.
It was so stupid.
But hey, you live and youlearned.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, well, that's how it's the industry.
So are you finding that you'rehaving a lot of those cocktails
that are pairing or, you know,just going out the door with
your proteins and your entreesand your appetizers?
Are you seeing trends with that?
I mean, you're moving drinks aswell as you want to with.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
It's become.
I've seen wine take, take likeover more than than cocktails.
I think right now we haveprobably our best tasting
cocktail menu we've ever had andit's not selling, it's not
beating.
It's not beating wine, and Ithink that has do with like the
costs of it too as well.

(43:34):
But like you know, it's, it's,it's.
I mean, we don't sell any beer,which is really really crazy,
but we just sell cocktails andwe sell beer, but we don't.
You know, there's some weeks Isell 250 bucks worth of beer, no
wine and cocktails.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I, when I first, when I firstopened, I have like 14 lines of
beer and then you know, you kindof don't know which way your
restaurant's going to go.
When you first open, you see aneighborhood All of a sudden.
I was like, well, this is awine and cocktail restaurant and

(43:58):
then all my beer's gone.
But I definitely see cocktailsstarting to struggle and people
starting to turn to like wine,gotcha starting to struggle and
people starting to turn to likelike wine and like like the
cheaper, because they're justgetting so expensive in new york
city.

Speaker 2 (44:10):
It's like 20 for a cocktail.
I mean it's just a couple weeksreally kind of dampers.
The we're gonna hit the barafter work and have, you know,
several beverages type you'regonna find happy hour and and
then, and it's just, it's not asfun.

Speaker 3 (44:24):
you know, we used to go out and just like, forget
about what, just order, like,can I have this cocktail?
Not think about a price andjust see the, you know, see the
bill.
Okay, now, if you do that,you're spending like all right
well, some of these bills.
When I go out with mygirlfriend I'm like how did this
happen?
Yeah, we've all been there.
We had four drinks.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
We had four drinks.
Yeah, we did.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
And I was at Amaretto and I mortgaged my Two drinks
each, I mean you get $100 realquick.

Speaker 1 (44:50):
With Tip you probably get $100.
And we're in the industry.

Speaker 3 (44:54):
We got a Tip good.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Yeah, we got it.

Speaker 3 (44:56):
I'm crying, writing that Tip.
I'm like, ah God.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
You deserve this.

Speaker 3 (45:08):
We got to go sell one of the kids.
Yeah, it's, it's crazy and it'slike, but how do we like slow
down the the prices and stillmake money?
I like, I guess it's justtechnique.
I guess that's what we have todo is, is you know, we're trying
one of these?
Um, it's not, it's not sellingthe best, but it tastes really
good.
We're trying one of theseclarified cocktails.
Oh, yeah, yeah, and uh, we, weput like the milk disclaimer.
Yeah, I think, like it's noquestion which kind of like I

(45:29):
don't, I don't know if I aren'tthings quite there yet, but
tastes delicious and it has alittle more technique to it.
So like it can save you somemoney there and I think, like,
like technique is what's what'sgonna save us.
But that's harder and harder tofind, you know, harder and
harder to find.
Yeah, you know it's just harderto find.
Yeah, you know, it's just thelove for it is still definitely

(45:50):
there and there's a lot ofindustry professionals that are
just like amazing, but like I'mtrying to see the new generation
and like at least in Virginia,I'm having a hard time seeing
people who really, really loveit.
There's like there's a few.
It got so technical.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
There's a barrier to entry now where you have to be
so into it.
It's like being an audiophilethat's got some kind of crazy
speaker system and there's justso much work to become a craft
cocktail mixologist now.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (46:18):
It's so hard.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
We're going to have.
Tony Maloney, the guy thatwrote Bartender's Manifesto.
Have you read that book?

Speaker 3 (46:25):
I've seen it.
Yeah, you need to get that book.
It's good.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
It's the best cocktail book ever he gave us
Violet Room in Chicago.
Like some of the early likeyeah, but it's really well
written for the industry.
It's not like a regular barbook.
It's all the tactics and how todo it and why, and like how to

(46:48):
create cocktails from scrapcraft cocktails, and like it's
so hard to figure out.

Speaker 3 (46:51):
Yeah, he breaks it down.
So the reason is yeah, to justadd some salt.
So yeah, he breaks them alldown.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
He breaks all the sugars down and he's like you
would use demero sugar with thisbecause that's you know, and he
like there's a lot ofinfographics in there, but like
I found it the most helpfulcocktail book ever.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Yeah, I need to buy that because I've always wanted
to figure out like we makecocktails.
We waste like tons of like wewe try, we fiddle, we do this
and that, but there's it'sscience, you know, it's like
baking, I feel like, and heteaches, he unlocks the code.
Yeah, it's good there's still,like, a lot of cocktails you can
like with cooking.
Everything's been done before,but, like there's still a lot of
fresh ideas with cocktails thatyou can do, even though you

(47:27):
know if you Google it, it'sprobably done already.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
But yeah, give it a new name.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Well, there's a lot to be said about originality
within the room too.
You know it's very much abecause the jump from.
I've seen this on TikTok too.
We're going to serve 37 ofthese drinks in the next hour.
The customers don't understandthat.
Drinks in the next hour.
The customers don't understandthat.
So from operators it's likeokay, how are we going to tweak
every single bolt on the ferrarito get it?

(47:52):
Yeah, the ferrari drink yeah,there was one.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
There was one cocktail we did with, uh, with
like mini madeleines in it, andI'm like this could be great.
And then, all of a sudden, I'mlike I gotta make a lot of mini
madeleines.
Yeah, yeah, just like you, youwant the art.
And then it's like, well, mybar guys are doing a hell of a
lot of a lot of prep for this,yeah, for this art and uh, it's

(48:14):
a balance for sure.
But you know, that's one thing.
I, I really like a weakness isdefinitely my like my cocktail,
like creating, like for me Istruggle and I really like had
to put a lot of work into it andand like just like having those
, those voices and those, youknow that science behind it, you
know, and I think if, like herein churchill, we have grisette,

(48:36):
alewife, roosevelt and thejasper opened a new um bar,
pearl denver lounge.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
Those are all phenomenal craft cocktail bars.
Those guys also the guys youknow, grisette are at the brunch
at Alewife.
You know, there's a communitywhere everybody's like well, I'm
doing the milk washing here andI'm doing this.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
And so like everybody's like sharing, like
this program is doing this andthis cocktail program is doing
that, like we've seen reallyquickly a synergy where the
information's being shared inthis little network and then
everyone's cocktails get a lotbetter real fast.
And so it's like if we could dothat, we're going to actually
have more mixology guests on.
We spent the first kind of yearof bar ninja doing other stuff,

(49:15):
but we are going to get moreinto mixology this year and
interview toby and theninterview these some of these uh
really good.
Uh, operator mick, like chad'sgoing to be on from Bar.
I don't know if you've everbeen to Service Bar in DC.

Speaker 3 (49:25):
It's a genius.
I mean people who can make likecraft cocktails, like it's much
.
I mean.
I want to make chefs.
It's harder than food, honestly, to balance a cocktail and make
it like that's not somethingthat's been done a million times
.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
And teach somebody else to do it 100% J 100.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
What did you just say ?
That'll get Gordon Ramsayreaching out to the podcast
right there.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Like flavor wise and technique wise and thinking that
it's so hard, I waste so muchalcohol just trying to balance
things, and like trying ideasand this and that, and like it's
a genius it is.
I mean, some of these guys likeyou know what's that?
A cocktail bar in New York city?
There's one of them, I forgetwhat it's a genius it is.
I mean, some of these guys likein, um, what's that?
Uh, cocktail bar in new yorkcity.
Um, uh, there's one of them.
I forget what it's called.
Um, the stuff they come up withis it is incredible.

(50:12):
What is it called?
It's not, it's not a bathtubgym, it's.
It's oh, um, it's.
They don't have food.
I don't think they just likeforget what it is, but the ideas
these guys have and I likewatching about their process and
how they just talk about thecocktails.
I mean, honestly, I think it'smore difficult.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Well, the passion has really increased to where it's
a complete build.
I mean it is.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
There's definitely now.
There's like that level ofbartending and then there's like
fast, casual or, like you know,chain restaurant bartending.
They're like needs to be abetter middle.

Speaker 3 (50:49):
Oh yeah, elevate the, the jump from the good
old-fashioned bar with a pbr anda shot to the middle row yeah,
I'm sure it'll evolve someday,but it really is so hard I mean,
like you can find restaurantswhere the chef's good and you
get good food, but, like I was,it's hard finding like middle
row borrowers, like themixologists are are at these

(51:12):
places, that I struggled with itwhen I first started.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
It's so hard because I mean, bill and I were slinging
purple hooters in our birthdaysmost of our, you know,
professional when we were justbar manager, bartending um, you
know, and it evolved and caughtup to us and they were like, oh,
these are like what, what arewe talking?

Speaker 3 (51:28):
about.
You know, it was like I never.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
I worked at a bar for 15 years.
I never pulled that bottle offthe shelf, like no one orders
that and you know.
Now that's like, yeah, you knowmain ingredients and stuff.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
So blue carousel era was, yeah, and the bartender
that was the coolest guy in theworld, 45 and uh, we had a
customer who wanted a bluecarousel drink and he I mean
he's been bartending since hewas like 21 or whatever and he
named off like 30 blue carouseldrinks.

(52:00):
That's funny.
That's an era.
I want to go back to you know,but also, we've evolved so much
that the palates of thecustomers are so much stronger.
I can't even drink a Jack andCoke anymore.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Yeah, You've almost came up with a promotional night
idea there, though, where youdo and this may fit more for
other operations, but where youdo a night where it's I don't
know what you'd call it.
The nineties are back, I don'tknow.

Speaker 3 (52:29):
That sounds like so much fun, but still do something
with garnishes, or you know theold martini bars.
Remember those yeah yeah, yeah,I mean that would be amazing.
I mean just like I think we'remissing the dive bar at least.
Like back at home, like in newyork, like the dive bars are are
are going away and like to.
If we could bring that vibeback with better cocktails dive

(52:49):
bar night uh, amazing, yeah, Iwish, just give me, give me,
give me a restaurant spacethat's breaking down more than
this, and uh and uh, stickyfloors and and I'll be, I'll be
happy yeah, that's all.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
There's so many people listening to us right now
, like you could smell it.
You could feel that all thisindustry folks fun.

Speaker 3 (53:09):
We had, like there was a, there was a bar in new
york city.
It's not there anymore.
Five dollars for it was tendollars for five shots or
something.
Yeah, and you can have a greattime and just not think about it
.
Nowadays it's hard to find aplace where you can just not
think about it and have fun.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
Yeah, Just go out.
Yeah, and how dive bars are?
You know they're, they're theirown niche.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
Yeah, they're charging, just as much as you
know.
You know the chain fast cash,everything you know.
It's, it's, it's, uh, I thinkI'll come back.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Is Galaxy Hut still in Clarendon?

Speaker 3 (53:38):
Galaxy Hut is.
You know, I've never been there, I've walked by.

Speaker 1 (53:40):
Oh, there's a dive bar, is it?
Oh yeah, I got to go.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
I got to go.
Yeah, you got to go.
Yeah, but yeah, it's, they havesandwiches, right Like, is that
what?

Speaker 1 (53:50):
they're doing.
I think they have food.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
The only thing I've ever had there is, I think, um,
it's a cool, it was like thedive bar and we live there.
That's where I go.
Awesome, yeah, yeah, that that,uh, I mean, I I think like a
cool dive bar.
You know, like you guys aresaying is that'd be so much fun
then, like to have a restaurantwhere it's like what you like
you also enjoy, like you can'tget better, like now, like I
like my spot, like a littlehigher quality food than I eat
myself.
You know, yeah, it looks great.

(54:24):
I appreciate it.
Yeah, we would definitely comeI'm always sitting there and I'm
like, how the fuck am I goingto do a bar?
Like I just want to do a barlike a sports bar and like do
like awesome sports bar foodbetter than a lot of people.
And I'm like, how do I do that?
You know, and you know thatthat just just making something,
but you really enjoy yourself,you know.
I think that's like that's that, that's what I really like.

(54:45):
I I enjoy this, of course, butlike to do something where, like
you, you really want to, likeyou know it's in your own
wheelhouse, like I feel likethat would be so much fun so on
that.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
What's next?
Would you open anotherrestaurant?
Would you do a differentconcept?
Would?

Speaker 3 (55:00):
it all depends on like what come comes my way,
like I, you know, when I firstconcept was supposed to be half
pizzas, because I make likereally, really I'm talking
myself up here, do it like Imake some of the best pizza, so,
but I found this restaurantspace and and there's no room
for pizza, so I was like I justchanged it, so whatever comes my

(55:22):
way, but I really do definitelywant to have, uh, a, you know,
like in the like by the coast,like north carolina, what is it
called?
I want it so bad, so bad oh, weneed.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
We have no pizza.
I've had some next head,there's no good pizza, yeah, I
want that.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
Well, there's an exit pizza company benny's pretty
good, um, is it there's?

Speaker 1 (55:40):
I went to a place where no name pizza.
Yeah, I want that.

Speaker 3 (55:41):
Well, there's an exit pizza company, benny's.
It's pretty good.
I went to a place where no namepizza was good.
I don't know where that is,that's like in Maryland.
But like you know that I thinklike I love the pace.
It's a little bit slower paceof life and I love that I feel
like you know I went down therea month or two ago and you know

(56:02):
they fire the main courses afteryou finish your appetizers.
You can't do that here and Iwould absolutely love that, like
if I could just have mycustomers just relax, enjoy and
just like be in a good state ofmind, like that's like my number
one thing, like I alwaysthought I wanted to go to New
York and like make somethingthere.
Yeah, it's tough, I need aslower pace of life and that's

(56:25):
going in the opposite directionyeah yeah, yeah, out of banks in
thatway it's so nice.
I, I, I'm like you know, I'm inlove with it.
I love that area.
I could go back there every day.
It's just like there'ssomething about it.
It just there's a lot less likeI don't know what it is.
There's just a lot less of that.
You know city angst.

Speaker 1 (56:46):
Yeah, that I'm so tired of which part of the outer
north carolina do you go to?

Speaker 3 (56:51):
it was.
It was, um, I'm like I'mblanking on the cape.
Um, I keep hope cape uh it's.
Uh, I forget, I forget the nameof it.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Um, there's a fear there's Cape Padres, look out,
maybe.
Or oh, yeah, cape Lookout,that's not.
Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
Yeah, that's a little furthersouth from us, but yeah, yeah
anywhere up there.

Speaker 3 (57:16):
Yeah, it's just like it's being by.
The water creates such a nicevibe, you know, and I'm sure it.
It's like it's different whenit's like the middle of the
summer and you're gettingpounded with tourists and stuff
like that.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
But you know, like just, Well, operators and staff
tend to really generally havethat beach mentality.
Yeah, how do you say the word?

Speaker 1 (57:39):
How do you release work too?
Are you on like differentrenewals um three or five years,
ten year options?
It's 10 and 15.
10 and 15.
Okay, yeah, so it's a prettybig commitment.

Speaker 3 (57:49):
I mean, oh yeah, pretty big commitment.
And then, uh, you know, to cometo a city that I hadn't really
lived in before, uh, but I gotlucky.
You know, clarendon is, oh,you're in the middle of it, like
you're right, and that's good,it's nice, it's a nice place to
live.
Yeah, it really is a nice placeto live.
There's everything you need andthere's not like it's.
You don't feel like you're likein a sardine, can you know?

Speaker 1 (58:12):
We used to say this is not real life, this is
definitely of governmentcontractors.
And you're like how?
How does everyone have the samejob?
I can walk to an apple store.
I can walk to 20 restaurants.
I can walk like, but it's likenot even it's an apple store,
not in a mall, not downtown dc,like it was just it was like not
real life, it's so nice, yeah,the only problem is like

(58:32):
everybody wants to put arestaurant in there.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Oh yeah, that's got.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
I mean honestly, for density of large restaurants and
you're not even competingagainst some small ones, some,
some of those spaces are huge.
You don't even have cheesecake.
Your neighbor is a massiverestaurant.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
You know, like the palates they get are insane.
I mean we have, we have fourrestaurants in the building,
yeah you know, and four acrossthe street and four for the
other block.
It it's kind of it.
It's kind of like it's kind ofcrazy, you know, I know where
you are now I remember the oldtaco shop do you remember the

(59:07):
taco shop?

Speaker 1 (59:07):
no, one has remembered the taco shop.
I do, I do, I do remember that,so I do know exactly where, I
know you, I know your spot, Imean, I don't know if it was
memorable, but that's, that'sthe taco but now I'm sorry to
interrupt you, but it justclicked.
I was like I've been in, if itwas memorable, but that's that's
.
That's the restaurant in thetaco shop.
But now, sorry to interrupt you, but it just clicked.
I was like I've been in hisrestaurant before.
Oh, wow, that's awesome, butthat's a great area.

Speaker 3 (59:28):
It is, it is, but we're like the only hidden
restaurant in in Clarendon.
So that's like the Whitlowspaces.
Now, like you, you wouldn'tknow we're there and and
everybody like around us hasthat corner, a lot and stuff

(59:49):
like that.
So you know, that's, that's,that's why, like you know, we
gotta stand out a little more.
But uh, but yeah, I, I I findit pretty like I'm always
wondering, like you know,someone's bringing a restaurant
in here.
I'm like there's, there's likethere's a, there's like a
japanese restaurant moving in.
I'm like there's like fivejapanese restaurants they're
moving next to another japaneserestaurant.
I'm like there's anotherneighborhood what?

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
are you?

Speaker 1 (01:00:03):
doing for this the problem is everybody uses these.
You know restaurant analysistools and clarendon just like
pops up with like everyone hasmoney and everyone spends it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:15):
You know, and so it's like, it's like the super
desirable area, but they'resmart business, they're so smart
that like, like, the customersare so intelligent that they
don't just throw their moneyaround.
So you really gotta give them aproduct, yeah, and and like you
know, that's the one thing aboutthe tourist dollar type thing
it's so easy just to like turn aburn.

(01:00:36):
Yeah, like here's a 21 cocktail, like here's some tortellini,
there you go.
But here you gotta, like youget a really old product and
it's, it's, it's.
You know, it's, it's.
It's a different world and youknow, we, we, uh, we don't even
have any businesses anymore inClarendon.
There's no like our lunchbusiness and the entire area is
just dead.
Oh, really, yeah, yeah.

(01:00:56):
So that's.
That's why I went to brunchseven days a week.
I just made it seven days aweek.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
I think seven days a week on brunch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
That is unique.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
Well, brunch is good and there's other
French-inspired spots that do itand I, just, like you know,
some people want duck at 12o'clock and you know.
So I thought that was like alittle way to like bring people
into Clarendon for lunch, causewe don't have all our off builds

(01:01:23):
are empty, like empty.
I'm not a customer.
I live right next to a officebuilding that has zero people in
it, you know.
And so, like you know, we're inall these restaurants in here
but, like you know, our lunchbusinesses, our lunch, like foot
traffic is you wouldn't eventhink it if we lived here.
That's crazy.
You traffic is you wouldn'teven think it if we lived here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
You know you, you're around when clarendon probably
was, probably during lunch.
All those office pools areempty and they're not going to
put people in them.
Yeah, they're turning one ofthem.
You know where the ups storewas.
It's kind of tough to to this.
Is that ramen shop a reallygood ramen shop?
I don't know if it was therewhen you were there, but they're
turning that whole officebuilding into just more houses.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Oh yeah, the apartment conversions and
government conversions.

Speaker 3 (01:02:04):
Everything's moved to All the lunch.
All the businesses moved toClarendon.
Oh, not Clarendon, they movedto Ballston.
Yeah, so they're taking overthe lunch type of crowd.
So that's why I tried to dosomething different.
You know, try to bringsomething that way and and sales

(01:02:27):
definitely increased quite alot.
Yeah, uh, which is like thatthankful for you gotta have that
.

Speaker 1 (01:02:33):
You said it once about like servers, maybe making
a five minute best friend.
Yeah, you almost have to reallylike bill and I would be just
like curate our bars, you know,and so it's like you really had
to be.
Make that your superpower.
When you're a neighborhoodrestaurant, it's like these are
the people.
I want to come back.
I'm going to be a five-minutebest friend with them and, like
I mean that's, that's a skill,that that, like it's, it's

(01:02:56):
disappearing, like, like.
I feel like the general, youknow, or just man you guys like
are like the bet for the fiveand, best friend, like there's
tactics you can teach though.
So, like, one of the tactics wewould teach is conversational
threading.
I don't know you.
I want to create a connection,so I will just instead asking
you a closed-end question likeoh, where are you guys from?

(01:03:18):
Okay, that didn't go anywherebecause I don't know that place.
Oh, what do you do?
And you're asking all theseopen-ended questions until you
find one You're like oh, mygrandparents live in Virginia
beach.
What part of Virginia beach youaren't?
So you basically throw, you'rejust fishing until you get
something that you both click onand then hone in on that and
then let that organically gointo the conversation.

(01:03:38):
So, just teaching somebody theconversational threading tactic
of like, instead of you knowwhere you're in, it comes from a
place of general curiosity, andthen also, once you get good at
it, you start caring aboutpeople again, which also there's
dehumanization these days, yeah, and so you're like oh, where
are you guys from?
Oh yeah, I just had a table infrom there the other day.
They were in new Haven, youknow, you know, and it just, it

(01:04:06):
just begets itself and theneveryone feels part of your
family and so that's got to bethe strength and because
clarendon it's you're a high-endneighborhood restaurant, you
know.
I mean, so it's like you got toget the same people in there
once a week, once every otherweek, and it is going to be like
a locals kind of elevated,high-end neighborhood restaurant
.

Speaker 3 (01:04:18):
You know and that's like that.
That's that's what makes itlike like.
It makes that kind of like Ifeel like harder for us too,
because people come to that barto eat, like you know, two
three-course meal, so it kind oflike it makes it like a little
tougher to like figure out, likeyou know and you guys are
probably really good at this ifsomebody wants to talk or not.

(01:04:39):
Yeah, because people are,people are ordering, like you
know, you know, duck and steaksat the bar, like they.
They come to eat dinner thereand and and like that.
That is definitely one thing Istruggle with is, is, is, is is
making those contact, makingthose like connections, because,
you know it, it's such a skillsometimes you shouldn't make

(01:04:59):
connections because if youidentify it's emotional
intelligence right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
If they're an introvert they don't want to be.
You know, it would beemotionally exhausting for them
to make a new friend, aka thebartender.
But understanding and like kindof defining those cycle or
psychographics of the designeror the diner and then being able
to like, teach people how tolike these people are extroverts
.
They probably want to make ayou know, like just being able
to identify that.
But but that's, that is alltrainable technically.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
It's definitely something like, like I want to
like cause, when it comes tolike service at like you know
the table, like I think we likeExcel, but it's making those,
it's making those connectionsthat like I think, like at the
bar, like it would like reallybring us to another, another
level.
It flows out to the room.
It really will.
It does.

(01:05:45):
It doesn't and, like we, thewhole restaurant could be full
and if your bar is anotherpeople on it, people will be
like, oh, restaurant's empty.
You know, like having a fullbar, you could have a.
You get a full bar on a slownight people will walk in with,
oh, all year, yeah, you know.
But you get a whole room filled.
Almost every table for barsempty homes.
They're going to walk in.
It's sick, it's so, it's socrazy.
Like a bar really is the heartof the heart of that restaurant.

(01:06:07):
Yeah, you know, and and and youknow that, like I, I really
wish I had you guys skill setbecause, like you know, that
five-minute friend day.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
Welcome to you, bobby welcome to you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:18):
We call it the platinum rule.
So, like you know, the goldenrule is treat other people like
they want to be treated.
The platinum rule is serveother people like they want to
be served.
So, like, once you turn yourradar on as a server or
bartender to the person in frontof you, if you're paying
attention and you have any sense, you can figure out if they
want to be talked to, don't wantto be talked to, analyze that

(01:06:39):
and then you can decide do Iwant to conversationally thread
with this person?
This seems like an introvert.
They seem fun, they seemwhatever.
Now I'll throw conversationalthreading out If I, if the
person looks like an introvertor is you know kind of given the
introvert vibes off, okay, thenI'm don't want to.
It's going to stress them outfor me to do that, so I don.
They want to be served tonight.

(01:07:01):
You know, is it a table of twothat's celebrating the
anniversary, right?
That's a different service thantwo people coming in for a
business meeting, you know.
So, like, first I'm going togather information, then, once I
get the information, I'm goingto figure out what type of
people they are psychologicallyand then I'm going to give them
the service that's perfect fortheir level, instead of just.

(01:07:21):
You know what I'm saying.
So it's just a.
It's a next level of servicewhere you're training the staff
to.
It's a most staff doesn't.
They're not, that's not ontheir radar because they're just
like okay here.
You know we have somespecialists tonight.
I'm not trying to psychoanalyzemy table, but you know, I think
some of the best you know, wekind of isolated and like really
studied some of the betterservers and bartenders in the
world and that's kind of whatthey're doing.

(01:07:41):
You know they would serve.
I would watch them serve adifferent table, differently
than they were serving my wifeand I, and I was like these guys
are good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
The skill and like the way you guys like even think
about it like it's it's.
I mean it's it's so good tohear, cause it's like you know
it's a lot more short have thanyou guys have, and I love that.
Wow, that was cool.
Like just the psychology behindit and like the, with an
executable, repeatable tacticand you can.

(01:08:09):
It's so much easier to buildclientele like that than have.
I mean, you can have an okayproduct, but if you have a staff
that can bring people back,like that's more important than
the food, the drinks.
I mean.

Speaker 2 (01:08:22):
I think it goes hand in hand.
You know, it's very much a um,assessing, from paying attention
from the moment they've steppedin the door to where they've
hit the table.
Little comments that arerelatable and personable to
yourself, but not you know thetypical oh, how's your day going
?
It's, it's.
It's a lot more than that, youknow, because people think it's

(01:08:44):
it's, it's hollow.
It's just what everyone says.
You know it's it and it is veryteachable.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
Yeah, it is and it's, it's.
It's still such a science andit's such a science, but also it
does help.
It is helpful to have good foodtoo, cause if you're dropping
off something to a customer, orcocktail you don't like, it's
kind of like, uh, you kind ofwant to just like shy away and
like you're not coming back fromthat in clarendon either,
because I mean two by check,that two by check's brutal, like

(01:09:10):
that's that's sorry againovercooked and or something
that's just it make it so muchharder to make those connections
.
yeah, but yeah, I might have myphone's blowing up, oh yeah,
we've been on for a really longtime.
It's easy to talk to Talkinglike an animal.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Sorry, it takes so much of your time.

Speaker 3 (01:09:28):
It's really refreshing talking to industry
people who really love it, Bobbyit's been a pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
Seriously, you say the word, we'll meet you in the
Outer Backs, we'll have us a bigold meeting and start getting
some more stuff rolling.

Speaker 3 (01:09:38):
If you ever come to Virginia, there's a free meal
and some cocktails for you?

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
No, you charge us.
We'll take care of your staff.
We're here to help brother.

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
I appreciate you guys .
Man, have a great night andthank you so much for having me.
It was so much fun.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
You're doing a great job, man.
We'll come see you.
We're in the HVAC.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
I.

Speaker 3 (01:09:54):
Good luck with that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
Thanks a lot, guys All right, well, thanks, have a
great day.
Thanks so much, I appreciateyou.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
That was a cool guy.
Oh, I think he really needed totalk to us.
He's going to do well, thoughhe's got his head on his
shoulders right, you can tell hehas all of the passion within
him with everything he's tryingto do.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
the structure related to Takes care of his employees.
Yeah, the guaranteed uh, Idon't remember what the number
was, but I mean that that's abig deal.

Speaker 1 (01:10:24):
You know that that is something that I it's amazing
that he's like we're going toguarantee the service is gonna
make $27 hours.
Nope, yeah, I don't know a lotof people that would have done
that.
So, uh, it was a cool idea.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
All right, everybody.
Thanks for listening to the BarNinja podcast.
Everybody be good out there.
Please throw us any ideas.
Anything you're thinking about,especially relative to what we
were just talking about, we can,as the people in this industry,
get together and maybe startmaking things a little bit
easier on all of us when itcomes to meals, tax and

(01:11:00):
everything else.
United, we're going to dobetter, everybody's going to
make better money and, on top ofall that, customers are really
going to be able to enjoy theexperiences more.
So we appreciate y'all.
Everybody be safe.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Bar Ninja out Bar Ninja out Podcast at Bar Ninja.
If you want to get us anyinformation, I'd get your
episodes.
We're going to do moreinterviews.
We've had some people reach outand want to be interviewed, so
we're totally open to that.
So hit us up, let us know whatyou want to talk about and if
you have something to say on thepodcast.
Until next time Later.

(01:11:33):
Peace.
Thanks for listening to thisepisode of the Bar Ninja Podcast
.
Please be sure to subscribe tous on your favorite podcast
player and join the Bar NinjaNation that has over 7,000
bartenders in it by going towwwbarninjacom and you can enter
your email Until next time.
See you then.

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Behind the Bar: The Life of Restaurant Owner/Chef Bobby Maher

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}Stuff You Should Know

Dateline NBC

The Breakfast Club

All Episodes

Behind the Bar: The Life of Restaurant Owner/Chef Bobby Maher

Stuff You Should Know