Respect, Rockstars & Real Talk: Ron Onesti’s Rules for Legendary Success The Real Rundown! What do you get when you mix Italian food, rock legends, and unstoppable grit? You get Ron Onesti—the man who went from flipping sausages at street festivals to running two of the most iconic entertainment venues in the Midwest. In this episode, Ron dishes out the real story behind building the Arcada and Des Plaines Theatres, the wild ride of working with celebrities, and the non-negotiables of customer service, respect, and hustle. Whether you’re slinging food or selling out shows, this one’s packed with golden nuggets that’ll feed your fire and challenge your thinking. Golden Nuggets! Respect for all roles in the service industry is crucial.Family and cultural background shape culinary passions.Customer service is about treating everyone with importance.Mistakes are opportunities for learning and growth.Every day is a gift; make the most of it.Creating memorable experiences is key to success.Designing spaces should reflect personal passion and history.Influential figures can provide valuable life lessons.Treating everyone equally enhances customer loyalty.The journey of entrepreneurship is filled with unexpected moments. Sound Bites "I respect the bus boy that moves the shaker.""You built it and they came.""You be the judge, come see us." Chapters 00:00 Culinary Beginnings and Family Influence02:49 The Importance of Customer Service06:02 Mistakes and Learning in Business08:55 Life Lessons from Influential Figures12:10 The Value of Treating Everyone Equally15:00 Designing Unique Spaces17:42 Memorable Experiences with Celebrities20:56 The Journey of a Theater Owner23:41 Closing Thoughts and Future Aspirations
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
M does.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This week on Goldie's Closet, we sit down with a
man who has fed both stomachs and souls for decades.
Ron Onnesty, the powerhouse behind the legendary Arcata Theater in
Saint Charles and the vibrant to Plains Theater. What began
in a kitchen with a passion for food, family, and
service eventually led Ron to become a cornerstone of Midwest entertainment.
(00:54):
But his journey is anything but typical. From working humble
culinary gigs to booking suits super stars and creating unforgettable
experiences in iconic venues, Bronze path is paved with hard work,
heartfelt values, and a hustle you can't teach Golden peeps
in true Goldilocks style. I was so excited to speak
(01:15):
with Ron that I forgot to hit record, So we're
going to dive right into episode two sixty one. We
did touch back at some of the great points he
made in the first minutes, but hang in there.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's a wild ride.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This guy is absolutely fabulous. Thanks for spending your day
with us day, Golden.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Here we go, Yeah, getting your job done. You know,
I say this a lot to our people about respect,
you know, I respect the bus boy or the bust
person these days that moves the salt and pepper shaker
to wipe behind it rather than wipe around it. It
says a lot about the person, It says a lot
about the way they were trained. Just little things like
that always meant a lot to me. So I started
(01:52):
done and got my appreciation for the for the saute pan,
and then and learning how to use those things. And
since then, you know, it was a hobby, of course.
But you know, I grew up in on Taylor Street
little you know, the old little Italy, and everybody cooked,
I mean going to a restaurant. I'm telling you, I
(02:12):
don't remember. Maybe once in a while on a holiday.
It never went out to eat. That wasn't what we did.
You know, we all ate by I mean going out
to eat mint. We're going by our aunt's house going
out to eat ment. We're going next door to the
neighbor's house going out to eat was you know, we're
cooking outside, not with a Weber grill, which is some
with the I remember the the top of a garbage
(02:34):
can that they would cook on. They would put the
they would put two bricks and you know, back then
the fifty five drums were the steel garbage cans. They
would take the top of the garbage canquote it with
aluminum foil, put it on top of two like cinder blocks.
They would put a fire underneath it. This is on
the street, and they would cook things on there. I
mean stuff like that. You know. I remember looking above
(02:56):
the garbage can that we had the fire. They poked
the holes in the gard garbage can and the fire
would be coming up, and I remember how the air
and if you're of a certain age, you know what
I'm talking about. The air above the garbage can was
on fire was all wavy, and you'd look at that,
be kind of cool, trying to figure that out. Stuff
like that, you know, that's how you're brought up. So
I've got my love for cooking for the culinary experience.
(03:20):
I'm not trained. I mean, I'm street trained, you know
that kind of thing. I'm family trained. That's the extent
of my train and experience. I've been doing it for
forty years, so that's kind of where my humble beginnings
come from.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I absolutely love that, and I am going to be
totally transparent and honest with you. I was so excited
to talk to you that the first few minutes of
this interview I didn't hit record, and everybody listening will totally.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Know that's a Goldie thing to do.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We are recording now, but all I'm going to do
is very quickly because we have to respect your time.
I want to go back to when we first we're
talking Golden Peeps.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
This is Ron.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
He is an incredible man that I had the privilege
of meeting at one of the thirty eight Specials shows.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I was hanging out with the guys.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
We were doing some writing and there's another colleague of
ours friend for him in town in Chicago. His name
is Joey. He's been helping us out. You meet amazing
people on the road. It's not only all of you.
And I want you to get something from this podcast,
just about we were talking about, and we'll touch real
quickly on it again, how to treat people all. I
(04:27):
know so many of you are driving today.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
We've got a lot. We've got a lot of drivers
that listen to this podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They drive across country Ron, and they're looking for entertainment,
they're looking for inspiration, they're looking for nuggets on to
take you said, take just take you out of reality.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For lo while Ron is so.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Great because he has hands on at his venues, and
we did touch on and talk about just how you
treat people and why people trust you. We'll just give
me a minute of a minute of bumping back to that.
And that's that's even if we were recording. You know,
you you talk to everybody. For I saw you the
(05:07):
minute that that I was in there. You're handling everything.
You are present. You're one of those people that owns
a building, that owns an organization that's that's present, that
you don't just hand it off.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You're there.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You were saying, we're the type of business where if
there is an issue or a problem, not like some
of the others, that you can actually get to you
and talk to you. And you seem like you enjoyed that.
And I compared you to the old school Liberachi where
he was in all his glory dealing with everybody there
with the people. I love that about you, just real
(05:41):
quick bump on that and philosophy.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well you just have to care, you know. And again
I'm a fan myself. I'm not ashamed to say it.
My peers are they like to be cool and say,
these stars don't make a big, big difference to me.
And I've seen them all, I've worked with them all.
But for me, I'm a fan. I was a fan
back then. I don't mind being starstruck because they earned
this respect and you know, when they come here. As
Rick Springfield mentioned in his book, he called me the
(06:06):
king of the meet and greet, not the eat and greet.
I'm sorry, the eating greet and not the great because
I cook for the bands. You know, we give them
a home style cooking and family and family style cooking,
and they feel like they're taking care of and they
feel that they're being cared for, and that goes a
long long way. You know, if you got the right
sound system, I mean, unless you have the right sound
system or the right venue or the right money, all
(06:27):
that that's all got to happen anywhere, you don't even
get the show. But that puts us all on an
even level, but takes us to the next level. And
the reason why people want to come by us is
because they get treated so well. And I take that
attitude with our customers, with our vendors, with our with
our staff and the entertainers. You know, it's it's everyone
needs to feel like they're they're they're important and they matter.
(06:47):
And and you know, I'm at my venues, I'm in
the audience, I'm talking to them because again, you know,
if you go to you'll you'll tend to go to
a restaurant more if you get to say, well, I
know the owner over there, as opposed to some restaurant
you been to before, and you never don't know the owner.
So you know, if you have an issue at the
House of Blues or one of these other big venues
or big restaurants, you know, if you have a problem,
(07:09):
can you call the owner of the president of the
House of Blues or you know, or the United Center
or whatever. It's just like you got to deal with
it here. You got an issue, I'm calling you directly.
I'm emailing directly with an apology and let's figure it
out or not. Even if there's an issue, if there's
a concern or a request. You know, this is my
husband's it's his sixtieth birthday. This is his absolute favorite band.
(07:29):
Is there anything we could do to have them meet
the band? Or can he get a poster or can
we have good seats up in front. I will do
everything I can. Never any guarantees, but I'll do everything
I can to make that guy's sixtieth birthday the best
birthday's ever had. And that goes a long way.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's such a shift when you start to think of
the importance of customer service. We did talk about that,
and that was something that you said that actually just
even inspired lil O me. And we have a lot
of people listening that I know they just get tired
of their jobs.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
They get tired of their roles, they're exhausted.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Something that you said where everybody has an important role,
and like, seriously, Ron, that matters so much when you
shift any frustration to be about I'm just going to
pour that into giving the best customer service that I
possibly can for whatever job that I have. Real quickly again,
(08:25):
just how do you do that with all of your
team members and the importance of that, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Tell them, you know, I asked them, I said, I
asked them what business are we in? And they'll say,
especially when they're new, and they'll say, well, we're in
the restaurant business, we're in the music business, we're in
the concert business. From the entertainment business, hospitality business. No,
not at all. Those just happened to be the products
that we vend, that we sell, that we exchange or
(08:50):
present for our customers. We are in the logistics business.
We're in the details management business. Because in some industries
you could say, you know, but I'm sorry, I forgot
to do this, or I didn't do that, or you know,
I did that a little bit incorrectly, but I'll do
it better next time, and they'll say, Okay, I can't say,
mister Anka, I forgot to get you your steinweight. You know,
(09:12):
my bad. I'll get it next time. Where hey, Andrew
Dice Clay, I forgot to pick you up at the airport, sorry,
and grab a cab. We don't get the luxury of
a mistake. So that's the business that we're in. And
if you take that approach to customer service and to
production levels of the of the industry, you know, you're
not only your mistakes are lessened, but also you get
(09:34):
to be more responsible about the product that you put
out and the pride in your product. And that's what
we have and that's a really push and we profess,
you know, pride in what you do. I think I
mentioned this before, just like you know some of the
bus boys. I will have tremendous amount of respect for
a bus boy that takes the time to move the
salt and pepper shaker to clean behind it rather than
(09:55):
just wipe around it. That tells me a lot about
that person, how they're brought up, how they were, the
type of pride they have in their job. Are they
lazier or not. That says so much speaks volumes and
those little things is what we look for.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
That's like the putting back the card at the grocery
store mentality.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You can tell a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So I saw something on LinkedIn that's such an interesting platform.
It's either like the dating app that people try to
pretend it's not when they slide into my dms, or
there actually is some great content. Something I saw last
night was somebody giving an interview from a billionaire, and
the billionaire was talking about when you're first starting out
in your business, you're just so excited, you're so excited,
(10:35):
and then midway into the business, it's frantic and you're
just edgy, and then when you've made all of your money,
you go back to where you were in the beginning,
where everything is gravy and cool and kind of where
you seem like you're at. I want to ask you
how you deal with how I deal with was what
we just all saw. I literally looked at the red
blinking button and saw that it wasn't blinking after you
(10:58):
were so kind to give us all your time, and
felt like shitting my pants. But can't do that, So
I kindly I could have not said anything at all,
but you said some really great things that I wanted
to hit on again. Maybe not as in detail as
we did, but I admit that I made the problem.
I figure out a way that I'm going.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
To You're amazing with that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, I'm not saying I'm amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'm saying here is a real, live I've looked up,
and how are.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We going to fix it?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How do you because you just said you don't make
a lot of mistakes, but if you do, and if
you did in the past, how do you deal with
it where you've seen a great outcome?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, I don't want to say I don't make a
lot of mistakes. We make them all, you know, like everybody,
but they're minimized because again, we trained people to really
be focused and laser focused on the product. They give.
But you know that's another thing too. I mean, you know,
I tell people, you know, I said, respectfully stating that
you're going to make mistakes. I understand that, and I'm
not the kind of person to pound their fist on
(11:55):
the table. What the hell did you do? Why did
you do that? How could you do? Because after that
twenty minutes you still got to fix it. So I
go directly to the fixed point. Don't waste time getting
upset about it. As I said before, no matter how
bad the day is, you got to remember the sun
will come up tomorrow. And you know, the the what
you said about the billionaire saying it's crazy, and then
you go back to it. There's definitely one one perspective.
(12:19):
My perspective really, isn't that. I think that you know,
when people ask me, you know, hey, Ron, how's it going,
I say, hey, every day's a gift, and you got
to you know, as you get older, those are the
things you realize, you know. I mean people say that,
you know, you get to you got to make every
day count, every year count, and then you get down
to make every week count. And I'm at an age
(12:40):
where every moment counts. I don't know if I'll be
around in ten moments from now, so you know, you
really I think that's the thing when you get to
be a little bit more mature, you know, in life,
whether you're a billionaire or not, I mean, how you
handle it. I mean, we know a lot of billionaire jerks.
We know some billionaires that you wouldn't even know. There
were a billionaire wearing the same pair of shoes that
(13:01):
they bought ten years ago, and they're the same card
they've had for five years. And they don't have rolls royces.
They have, you know, f one fifties, a little bit
rust on the back. You never know who you're talking to.
And that's that's really the point that I make to
our employees. Treat everybody fairly, cheap, everyone equally. You know,
just because somebody is a little bit more affluent than
other doesn't mean that everybody shouldn't be treated with respect
(13:22):
and should be given the best opportunity for a great experience,
no matter what if they're sitting in the back. If
there's somebody sitting in the back and I got a
couple of seats open in the front, I will literally
go and look at the people in the back, there.
Maybe it's a person that can't see above a person
I'm I'm you know of a slightly shorter American community,
(13:44):
you know, so if there's someone like that, I'll move them.
Or somebody who's a little bit, a little bit on
the larger side from our seats. I said, let's go
over here and make you It's about comfort, you know.
So people got to really do that. And it doesn't
matter how much money they have or if they're sitting
in front row or back row. Treat everybody fairly, everybody equally,
be smiling, be happy, and that will transcend and people
(14:07):
go back and the letters that I get are unbelievable.
They'll go they'll have a great time at a show.
They'll see thirty eight Special, a phenomenal show. But what
they remember most is the security guard that helped them
to their seat that they couldn't find. I'll hear about that,
or the bartender that really smiled at im and gave
them a little extra on the liquor or whatever it is.
You know that those types of the experiences is what
(14:28):
I get the letters on. Not necessarily you know, hey,
lover boy, it was amazing last night or forward, or
was incredible. You know, we know that, but the personal
experience that carries a lot of weight with people, and we.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Know that that's really that's very inspiring in giving me
a lot of ideas. There's something I want to ask you,
but it's a guilty question. So well I ask you,
then I want to go back. I've got two questions.
One is my personal I have to know and some
of you listening will enjoy this. And the other is
you are very injected with that Annie Warbucks mentality of
this son will come out tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Was it your mom? Was your dad?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's always one a little bit more than the other
who injected you with that.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Question. I would say that was my dad. My mom
was very matter of fact. She was from Florence, a
very high class lady. Let's see in we're filming this
on July tenth, so July thirty first, you would have
been one hundred years old. Oh wow, would have turned
one hundred just as past February twenty fifth, and again
the classiest lady ever met from born in Florence, Italy
(15:31):
and had a very very tight and very how can
I put a very pure Italian language? My dad born
on Taylor Street, World War Two hero a Taylor and
was very matter of fact, the just kind of a
cool guy everybody loved, always smiling, always making jokes. And
(15:52):
I think I got you know, I'd like to think
that I got probably the best from both of them.
I mean, I think as an honor to even say
that I got a part of a the better part
of their personalities. But I think I think, you know,
loving people, my dad loved everybody. People who screwed him.
You know, He's like, ah, he's a good guy, like
what you know. So that's how it was. My mom
(16:12):
was like, no, no, if you messed with her, she's
done with you. So there's that. But my dad just
loved everybody, just wanted his his He wanted to talk,
he wanted to ask questions, he wanted to he wanted
to help everybody. And he had the cure for everything.
He said, I'm going to cure cancer. Was serious about that.
He would read books. I mean, an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
What did he do.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Here's a tailor. There's an old school taalor like my grandfather.
Oh yeah, right on Taylor Street and then the Elmwood Park.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Oh man, I bet he had a lot of stories
to tell from his clientele, talk about walks of life.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I got him all here, I got them all here.
He loved. Matter of fact, you know, he says the
best time of his life, whereas the outset of having kids,
all the stuff that you're supposed to say. He said,
the last six months and World War two was the
best of his life, because you know, the war ended
around June, you know, June July, but he was still
in He was left in Sicily because at first he
(17:11):
was asked to battle, you know, basically his hometown. He
had the coat and and and go against him. That
whole Mussolini thing was on. It was a was a
good guy and not a bad guy, and a good
guy and a bad guy. That whole that whole conversation,
and and uh. But the last six months of his life,
you know, the war was over and the Italians and
Americans were allied, and he had to stay another six
(17:32):
months in Italy, and they put him in school there,
and he had the other girls in town. Loved the Americans.
So every night he was having dinner a different place
and he just just loved it. And you know that
that love for people transcended his entire life and I
think I really uh did a big piece off of
that apple. I really do.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Ah, what day was your would your mom been.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
One hundred July thirty first? Wow?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And my mom died just a few days before that.
That's so interesting, that cycle of life. Life, it really is.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Well, there's a lot of anniversaries right now. Again, my
folks turning one hundred this year, which is another ironic thing.
You know. I own the Displayings Theater and on August
the ninth that will turn one hundred. And my Arcata
Theater on Sember sixth of twenty six, Yes, that'll turn
(18:24):
one hundred. And on July twentieth it will be my
twentieth anniversary at the Arcata. So there's a lot going
on this year.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I could talk to you all day, Ron, Well, respect
your time. We've got like eight more minutes. If I
could get that with you, and if we could break
that up with two different sections. I'll leave my guilty
pleasure of the design.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Of your rooms till the end.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But I would like to ask you've met you know,
go to Ron's website. Everybody it's oh shows dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's on the ticker in the Burgundy branding at the
bottom of the screen.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And for those of you listening, that is the letter
O shows at dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Check it out.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Look at all the beautiful things that he has created,
instigated just the founder of it all. You've met so
many what you know, a lot of people mark out
and wrestling we call it marking out and the stars?
Who are the top three stars that you've met throughout
the years that you've learned the most from. Like, doesn't
(19:26):
have to necessarily be a story, but something positive because
I like you to try to keep things positive here
and not talk shit on folks.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Just something some.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Like, what are a couple of things that really stick
out to you as maybe you didn't expect it or
you were just like it's just fresh in your mind.
It like it was yesterday that you learned from somebody
that maybe we wouldn't expect hearing this.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I would love to hear that from you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Well, I'll give you a quick one of Paul Anka.
You know he's came up down just a tremendous individual
and we got to be very very close friends. And
I asked him last year, I said, I called him
Uncle Paul. I talked to him all the time. He'll
come me from an airport at midnight and what are
you doing. I'm like, I'm sleeping, it's midnight. What are
you talking about? But I said, Uncle Paul, would you
know I put on the Columbus Date Parade in Chicago
(20:14):
and with the joints of the Committee of Italian Americans,
the organization I'm president of. And I asked him. I said,
Uncle Paul, would you be our grand marshal of parade?
This is last year? He said, are you f and
kidding me? They've been asking me for forty years? New York, LA,
New Jersey. I don't do that, only standing on a float.
I don't do that. Calls me back an hour later.
Why does it have to be you to ask me
(20:35):
this right? Tell me about it? I said, well, it's
the only parade that goes down State Street. You're right
in front of Chicago Theater. It's amazing. I'll get back
to you. He gets back because, okay, fine for you,
I'll do it. Like, oh my god, are you kidding me?
He says, is you're a sound system there? I said,
you're kidding me right now. You're gonna know you would
sing a piano a sound system? He said, if you
put that there I will do a song. So we
(20:56):
had an opening ceremony State and Whacker. We had this
float dressed all up put a piano we brought as
keyboard player. Not only did he sink my Way, but
he's saying he rewrote the words of my Way to
include my name, Columbus Day. It's all this amazing, amazing,
amazing things. So you know, he really taught me a
lot with regards to being, uh, being something very special,
(21:19):
you know, to treat people special even though you you
may or may not do that. Another guy's chas palmentary
for Bronxdale, the guy you know, if you really look deep,
people think The Bronx Tail is a mob movie. It
really isn't, you know. It's actually if you look at
the message, it's about staying clean, not being a part
of that, you know, and all the messaging and all
the stories, all the the lessons that go with that,
(21:41):
you know, and uh, and there's been so many of them.
I mean, Sophila un Joan Rivers taught me a whole
lot about talk about.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Joan Rivers because I know her. Also, let's talk about
John Well.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
You know, we had that, we did her her last
television special at the Arcada and I met her. Yeah,
it was incredible. And what I I mean when I
asked her, I said, at the time, she was she
was like on TV more than anybody else. There's like
some record sixty two times in a month or something
with the Red Carpriate, just all that kind of stuff.
And I said, Joan, you know, if you don't mind
(22:14):
me saying, at your age, you know, because you're so accomplished,
why do you work so hard? She goes, let me
tell you something now, Dolly, she said, dal She said,
if you're if you're a Jew and you lived through
Prohibition and the stock market crash and all that, you
value money. If you're a Jew and lived through the
Holocaust and World War two, you value life. You value
(22:35):
That's why we value opportunity. It's not about money. It's
about opportunity and getting the most out of life, you know.
And she then she started complimenting me. I'm saving the
theater and you know, I mean it's another guy, Kevin Costner.
You know, he's he gave me one of my best
experiences ever when I brought him there and he looked
at the theater and I didn't even know what he
(22:56):
did and who cares. It's Kevin Costner, right, but he
has a country band. He did this country show by us,
and I told him, I said, you know, I said,
it's amazing that you're here and the fact that you
were a big part of this being successful, this me
saving it. He goes, I can't believe that you're saying
that I became an artist and an actor because I
(23:16):
wanted to touch people. If you're telling me that something
that I did made you do what you did with
this theater and save it, you know, it's it's given
me like goosebumps myself. I said, you know, I'm a
baseball I'm nut. You know, feel the dreams. If you
build it, they will come. One of my favorite moments
was when I went to the Field of Dreams, way
before is all developed now. My brother and I were
(23:38):
throwing the ball. It was the weekend that I was
supposed to make the decision on getting this theater. I
had no money, had no experience, but it was something
that made me feel good, feel that I needed to
do it. I said, you know what, I went to
the Field of Dreams just because of just to throw
the ball around and at that moment I told my brother,
I said, holy smokes, I got to do this theater.
It's like and I told him, I said, it's not
like anybody walked out of the cornfields and told me this.
(24:00):
But if the whole, if you build it would come
not to sound so corny. Made me think, you know what,
we got to do this theater. And he started tearing
up and his daughter was there. He goes, come over here, Lily,
I want you to hear the story. I told her
the story. He was crying, she was crying. I was crying.
It was amazing. But then after the show he left
and I thought I didn't get the autograph. I didn't
get all this stuff. I thought were going to hang out. Well,
he left me a poster of the Field of Dreams.
(24:22):
It said deer Ron, you built it, and they came, congratulations,
Kevin Costner. So these are moments, a hundred of them.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's badass. And you gave me I won't tell you now,
holy crap.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You just gave me like, oh my god, moment idea
in that And thank you because I needed that today,
Like I owe you because you just gave me a
great idea.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Rewind back to Joan Rivers.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I will tell you my side of the things with
her is we play a lot of We play a
lot of casinos, we play a lot on the hard
rock circuit. And I get to be friends just because,
like you, I just love the people. I love the
people that are behind the scenes more than the people
that you would think.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Oh, I just I love the cogs and the wheels.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And the innards. And you get to be friends with
all the people in hospitality. And my favorite thing is to.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Ask them like who's doing what?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
And it is it was.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I asked them over the last ten years, give me
your top three celebrities that treated you right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I don't care about the bad, like who treated you right?
And the number one.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Person that they said, and I love telling this to
people to keep her legacy alive, was Joan Rivers. You oh,
just always handing out one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
She was always handing out tips. And it was and
that was, like, you know, ten years ago that I
heard that story.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So even now one hundred bucks is a nice tip,
But ten years and ten years ago, every single person
that literally talked or spoke to her or did anything
for her, honey, darling A hundred bucks, hundred bucks. The
other person that would leave like one thousand dollars on
the night table was Jone Jets constantly over tipping the
(26:04):
shit out of people, and then I would have never
known this, but sindbad leaving huge tips for people. And
I just love I love to hear people that are
busting their ass behind the scenes light up like a
firecracker when they talk about somebody who has the choice
to just dismiss them and treat them like garbage or
(26:26):
treat them like you treat people, Ron, And that's what
dignity and respect and humanity saved for all kind and
take care of them.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So I love, I love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I'm gonna just milk a couple more minutes from you
and ask you for my own guilty pleasure. Golden peeps,
check out the ticker at the bottom, or if you're
listening and driving when you stop to take that restroom
break on the road, it's oh Shows Shows dot Com.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Navigate around this website and look.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
At these beautiful theaters in rooms that Ron has kept
alive and renovated and just made incredibly awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
They're just how did you? How did you start?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
When you when you acquired the theater one or at
the same time too, was it or was it one
at a time?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
There's fifteen years in the different between.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
When you got your first one. Did you kind of
just know like I wanted to be decorated like this?
Was it a work in progress? Did you go start
looking well?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I again, as I mentioned before,
I was brought from World War two household. You know,
Saturday mornings was all about little rascals and three Stooges
and Marx Brothers and you know, just understanding and James
Cagney and just all that kind of stuff. Uh Yankee
Doodle Dandy and It's Wonderful Life and just all those movies.
And I really, really, you know, you had an affection
(27:43):
for the whole vintage eras and the prohibition eras and
and that was always been in my head anyway. But no,
when I got it, I mean I thought it was
cool that it was in nineteen twenties, and I thought
I can do some. But I'm not a designer or anything.
But no, I'm not nothing. And I never like if
you come to my speak, easies, you go to theaters,
you see all the four hundred antiques. You see the
(28:03):
the the the window treatments, you see all the stuff
that we designed. I did it all myself. If I
you know, it could be urgantly stated. I didn't even
write anything down, didn't draw anything. I just pointed. I
said it with the with the curtain lady, I said, well,
let's do this or that. The painter gives us to
this color here, this texture there. I would go around
collecting furniture. I said that would be cool there where
(28:26):
they saw hotel furniture. Old. I've just all that stuff,
and it just happened. I didn't have an architect, didn't
have a designer, didn't.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
You're not you're you're seriously kidding me.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It just all happened. I just and everything. Every time
I designed one of my places, which I got to
say are pretty magnificent, people tell me, you know what,
it just works out. I mean, you know, I break
a lot of design rules about lines and mixing of
colors and mixing out shapes and and and doing too
much and one all this stuff here. They teach you
from what I'm told, and but you know what it
(28:57):
works and you know what I think. You're all your
listeners viewers out there, you'd be the judge. Come see
us in displaying because se St Charles, you know, we've
got two theaters, got the nine restaurants, and we have
a boutique hotel and a couple other things on the
horizon were opening up on Harlem. I haven you a
couple of places, so there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Come back on please when you have some new horizon
things that I've actually been birthed. And who picked the
green chairs at the one restaurant that I'm looking at?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Who picked that color? Did you pick that green?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah? We picked it absolutely, It's.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Just perfect, absolutely per perfect. Everybody check out the ticker,
check out oshows dot com and it is ownesty right,
it is okay, ron on it. I wanted to make
sure I got the accent right, ron on Esty. Our
guest absolutely phenomenal man, human being, business leader, community everything entity,
serial entrepreneur. Like I said, all around, great guy, ron
(29:55):
Thank you so much for the inspiration today. You gave
me so many uh just gold and nuggets of my
own Selfishly, this is kind of fun for me.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
To have all the guests that I get to have in.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
The privilege just because I learned so much, so I
won't say I hope golden peeps, I know that you
learn some great things today. So Ron, blessings to you
and all that you do. Thanks for being such a
cool dude. Everybody, stay safe out there, but be free
and always stay golden.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And then we clap at the end.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Yeah, you'd now.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
What's up everyone? It's Goldie Impact Wrestling. TLC's Cheapskates Ted
Nugent's running wild from him somewhere in the woods. And
maybe you've seen our band, Goldilocks Band. We're out there,
we're on tour, but now we're connecting on cameo. So
I want to tell you that I am here to
be your humble servant and that's whatever you need said
for you, for a friend, a shout out, a golden
(30:54):
shout out. You name it here and on it now,
just reminding you keep it classy, the cool, and keep
it above the belt.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
But I want to offer you something a little bit,
a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Just remember, if I'm not on the road and I've
got access to these next beauties, we can always have.
You want to make this the most amazing experience for
you ever, because you deserve it.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Your friends deserve it. Your loved ones deserve it.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And just remember I can sing you a few lines
of a song.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
It can be from from anywhere, like it can be
from song.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Where or it could be.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Fun.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It could even be Honor Highway way. It can need
to be from there.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Oh, and keep in mind, not all requests are the same.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Maybe your motivation comes with a harder edge. Maybe you
need a more jagged little pill. There's nothing that I
love more than playing the heel.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
So if you need your message delivered with more uh oh,
what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Intention? Please specify. I can't wait to connect with you
on cameo. Thanks so much for being here Day Golden
M does.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This week on Goldie's Closet, we sit down with a
man who has fed both stomachs and souls for decades.
Ron Onnesty, the powerhouse behind the legendary Arcata Theater in
Saint Charles and the vibrant to Plains Theater. What began
in a kitchen with a passion for food, family, and
service eventually led Ron to become a cornerstone of Midwest entertainment.
(00:54):
But his journey is anything but typical. From working humble
culinary gigs to booking suits super stars and creating unforgettable
experiences in iconic venues, Bronze path is paved with hard work,
heartfelt values, and a hustle you can't teach Golden peeps
in true Goldilocks style. I was so excited to speak
(01:15):
with Ron that I forgot to hit record, So we're
going to dive right into episode two sixty one. We
did touch back at some of the great points he
made in the first minutes, but hang in there.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
It's a wild ride.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
This guy is absolutely fabulous. Thanks for spending your day
with us day, Golden.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
Here we go, Yeah, getting your job done. You know,
I say this a lot to our people about respect,
you know, I respect the bus boy or the bust
person these days that moves the salt and pepper shaker
to wipe behind it rather than wipe around it. It
says a lot about the person, It says a lot
about the way they were trained. Just little things like
that always meant a lot to me. So I started
(01:52):
done and got my appreciation for the for the saute pan,
and then and learning how to use those things. And
since then, you know, it was a hobby, of course.
But you know, I grew up in on Taylor Street
little you know, the old little Italy, and everybody cooked,
I mean going to a restaurant. I'm telling you, I
(02:12):
don't remember. Maybe once in a while on a holiday.
It never went out to eat. That wasn't what we did.
You know, we all ate by I mean going out
to eat mint. We're going by our aunt's house going
out to eat ment. We're going next door to the
neighbor's house going out to eat was you know, we're
cooking outside, not with a Weber grill, which is some
with the I remember the the top of a garbage
(02:34):
can that they would cook on. They would put the
they would put two bricks and you know, back then
the fifty five drums were the steel garbage cans. They
would take the top of the garbage canquote it with
aluminum foil, put it on top of two like cinder blocks.
They would put a fire underneath it. This is on
the street, and they would cook things on there. I
mean stuff like that. You know. I remember looking above
(02:56):
the garbage can that we had the fire. They poked
the holes in the gard garbage can and the fire
would be coming up, and I remember how the air
and if you're of a certain age, you know what
I'm talking about. The air above the garbage can was
on fire was all wavy, and you'd look at that,
be kind of cool, trying to figure that out. Stuff
like that, you know, that's how you're brought up. So
I've got my love for cooking for the culinary experience.
(03:20):
I'm not trained. I mean, I'm street trained, you know
that kind of thing. I'm family trained. That's the extent
of my train and experience. I've been doing it for
forty years, so that's kind of where my humble beginnings
come from.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I absolutely love that, and I am going to be
totally transparent and honest with you. I was so excited
to talk to you that the first few minutes of
this interview I didn't hit record, and everybody listening will totally.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Know that's a Goldie thing to do.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
We are recording now, but all I'm going to do
is very quickly because we have to respect your time.
I want to go back to when we first we're
talking Golden Peeps.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
This is Ron.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
He is an incredible man that I had the privilege
of meeting at one of the thirty eight Specials shows.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I was hanging out with the guys.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
We were doing some writing and there's another colleague of
ours friend for him in town in Chicago. His name
is Joey. He's been helping us out. You meet amazing
people on the road. It's not only all of you.
And I want you to get something from this podcast,
just about we were talking about, and we'll touch real
quickly on it again, how to treat people all. I
(04:27):
know so many of you are driving today.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
We've got a lot. We've got a lot of drivers
that listen to this podcast.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
They drive across country Ron, and they're looking for entertainment,
they're looking for inspiration, they're looking for nuggets on to
take you said, take just take you out of reality.
Speaker 1 (04:44):
For lo while Ron is so.
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Great because he has hands on at his venues, and
we did touch on and talk about just how you
treat people and why people trust you. We'll just give
me a minute of a minute of bumping back to that.
And that's that's even if we were recording. You know,
you you talk to everybody. For I saw you the
(05:07):
minute that that I was in there. You're handling everything.
You are present. You're one of those people that owns
a building, that owns an organization that's that's present, that
you don't just hand it off.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
You're there.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
You were saying, we're the type of business where if
there is an issue or a problem, not like some
of the others, that you can actually get to you
and talk to you. And you seem like you enjoyed that.
And I compared you to the old school Liberachi where
he was in all his glory dealing with everybody there
with the people. I love that about you, just real
(05:41):
quick bump on that and philosophy.
Speaker 3 (05:44):
Well you just have to care, you know. And again
I'm a fan myself. I'm not ashamed to say it.
My peers are they like to be cool and say,
these stars don't make a big, big difference to me.
And I've seen them all, I've worked with them all.
But for me, I'm a fan. I was a fan
back then. I don't mind being starstruck because they earned
this respect and you know, when they come here. As
Rick Springfield mentioned in his book, he called me the
(06:06):
king of the meet and greet, not the eat and greet.
I'm sorry, the eating greet and not the great because
I cook for the bands. You know, we give them
a home style cooking and family and family style cooking,
and they feel like they're taking care of and they
feel that they're being cared for, and that goes a
long long way. You know, if you got the right
sound system, I mean, unless you have the right sound
system or the right venue or the right money, all
(06:27):
that that's all got to happen anywhere, you don't even
get the show. But that puts us all on an
even level, but takes us to the next level. And
the reason why people want to come by us is
because they get treated so well. And I take that
attitude with our customers, with our vendors, with our with
our staff and the entertainers. You know, it's it's everyone
needs to feel like they're they're they're important and they matter.
(06:47):
And and you know, I'm at my venues, I'm in
the audience, I'm talking to them because again, you know,
if you go to you'll you'll tend to go to
a restaurant more if you get to say, well, I
know the owner over there, as opposed to some restaurant
you been to before, and you never don't know the owner.
So you know, if you have an issue at the
House of Blues or one of these other big venues
or big restaurants, you know, if you have a problem,
(07:09):
can you call the owner of the president of the
House of Blues or you know, or the United Center
or whatever. It's just like you got to deal with
it here. You got an issue, I'm calling you directly.
I'm emailing directly with an apology and let's figure it
out or not. Even if there's an issue, if there's
a concern or a request. You know, this is my
husband's it's his sixtieth birthday. This is his absolute favorite band.
(07:29):
Is there anything we could do to have them meet
the band? Or can he get a poster or can
we have good seats up in front. I will do
everything I can. Never any guarantees, but I'll do everything
I can to make that guy's sixtieth birthday the best
birthday's ever had. And that goes a long way.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
It's such a shift when you start to think of
the importance of customer service. We did talk about that,
and that was something that you said that actually just
even inspired lil O me. And we have a lot
of people listening that I know they just get tired
of their jobs.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
They get tired of their roles, they're exhausted.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Something that you said where everybody has an important role,
and like, seriously, Ron, that matters so much when you
shift any frustration to be about I'm just going to
pour that into giving the best customer service that I
possibly can for whatever job that I have. Real quickly again,
(08:25):
just how do you do that with all of your
team members and the importance of that, Well, I.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Tell them, you know, I asked them, I said, I
asked them what business are we in? And they'll say,
especially when they're new, and they'll say, well, we're in
the restaurant business, we're in the music business, we're in
the concert business. From the entertainment business, hospitality business. No,
not at all. Those just happened to be the products
that we vend, that we sell, that we exchange or
(08:50):
present for our customers. We are in the logistics business.
We're in the details management business. Because in some industries
you could say, you know, but I'm sorry, I forgot
to do this, or I didn't do that, or you know,
I did that a little bit incorrectly, but I'll do
it better next time, and they'll say, Okay, I can't say,
mister Anka, I forgot to get you your steinweight. You know,
(09:12):
my bad. I'll get it next time. Where hey, Andrew
Dice Clay, I forgot to pick you up at the airport, sorry,
and grab a cab. We don't get the luxury of
a mistake. So that's the business that we're in. And
if you take that approach to customer service and to
production levels of the of the industry, you know, you're
not only your mistakes are lessened, but also you get
(09:34):
to be more responsible about the product that you put
out and the pride in your product. And that's what
we have and that's a really push and we profess,
you know, pride in what you do. I think I
mentioned this before, just like you know some of the
bus boys. I will have tremendous amount of respect for
a bus boy that takes the time to move the
salt and pepper shaker to clean behind it rather than
(09:55):
just wipe around it. That tells me a lot about
that person, how they're brought up, how they were, the
type of pride they have in their job. Are they
lazier or not. That says so much speaks volumes and
those little things is what we look for.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
That's like the putting back the card at the grocery
store mentality.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
You can tell a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
So I saw something on LinkedIn that's such an interesting platform.
It's either like the dating app that people try to
pretend it's not when they slide into my dms, or
there actually is some great content. Something I saw last
night was somebody giving an interview from a billionaire, and
the billionaire was talking about when you're first starting out
in your business, you're just so excited, you're so excited,
(10:35):
and then midway into the business, it's frantic and you're
just edgy, and then when you've made all of your money,
you go back to where you were in the beginning,
where everything is gravy and cool and kind of where
you seem like you're at. I want to ask you
how you deal with how I deal with was what
we just all saw. I literally looked at the red
blinking button and saw that it wasn't blinking after you
(10:58):
were so kind to give us all your time, and
felt like shitting my pants. But can't do that, So
I kindly I could have not said anything at all,
but you said some really great things that I wanted
to hit on again. Maybe not as in detail as
we did, but I admit that I made the problem.
I figure out a way that I'm going.
Speaker 3 (11:17):
To You're amazing with that.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well, I'm not saying I'm amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
I'm saying here is a real, live I've looked up,
and how are.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
We going to fix it?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
How do you because you just said you don't make
a lot of mistakes, but if you do, and if
you did in the past, how do you deal with
it where you've seen a great outcome?
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Well, I don't want to say I don't make a
lot of mistakes. We make them all, you know, like everybody,
but they're minimized because again, we trained people to really
be focused and laser focused on the product. They give.
But you know that's another thing too. I mean, you know,
I tell people, you know, I said, respectfully stating that
you're going to make mistakes. I understand that, and I'm
not the kind of person to pound their fist on
(11:55):
the table. What the hell did you do? Why did
you do that? How could you do? Because after that
twenty minutes you still got to fix it. So I
go directly to the fixed point. Don't waste time getting
upset about it. As I said before, no matter how
bad the day is, you got to remember the sun
will come up tomorrow. And you know, the the what
you said about the billionaire saying it's crazy, and then
you go back to it. There's definitely one one perspective.
(12:19):
My perspective really, isn't that. I think that you know,
when people ask me, you know, hey, Ron, how's it going,
I say, hey, every day's a gift, and you got
to you know, as you get older, those are the
things you realize, you know. I mean people say that,
you know, you get to you got to make every
day count, every year count, and then you get down
to make every week count. And I'm at an age
(12:40):
where every moment counts. I don't know if I'll be
around in ten moments from now, so you know, you
really I think that's the thing when you get to
be a little bit more mature, you know, in life,
whether you're a billionaire or not, I mean, how you
handle it. I mean, we know a lot of billionaire jerks.
We know some billionaires that you wouldn't even know. There
were a billionaire wearing the same pair of shoes that
(13:01):
they bought ten years ago, and they're the same card
they've had for five years. And they don't have rolls royces.
They have, you know, f one fifties, a little bit
rust on the back. You never know who you're talking to.
And that's that's really the point that I make to
our employees. Treat everybody fairly, cheap, everyone equally. You know,
just because somebody is a little bit more affluent than
other doesn't mean that everybody shouldn't be treated with respect
(13:22):
and should be given the best opportunity for a great experience,
no matter what if they're sitting in the back. If
there's somebody sitting in the back and I got a
couple of seats open in the front, I will literally
go and look at the people in the back, there.
Maybe it's a person that can't see above a person
I'm I'm you know of a slightly shorter American community,
(13:44):
you know, so if there's someone like that, I'll move them.
Or somebody who's a little bit, a little bit on
the larger side from our seats. I said, let's go
over here and make you It's about comfort, you know.
So people got to really do that. And it doesn't
matter how much money they have or if they're sitting
in front row or back row. Treat everybody fairly, everybody equally,
be smiling, be happy, and that will transcend and people
(14:07):
go back and the letters that I get are unbelievable.
They'll go they'll have a great time at a show.
They'll see thirty eight Special, a phenomenal show. But what
they remember most is the security guard that helped them
to their seat that they couldn't find. I'll hear about that,
or the bartender that really smiled at im and gave
them a little extra on the liquor or whatever it is.
You know that those types of the experiences is what
(14:28):
I get the letters on. Not necessarily you know, hey,
lover boy, it was amazing last night or forward, or
was incredible. You know, we know that, but the personal
experience that carries a lot of weight with people, and we.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Know that that's really that's very inspiring in giving me
a lot of ideas. There's something I want to ask you,
but it's a guilty question. So well I ask you,
then I want to go back. I've got two questions.
One is my personal I have to know and some
of you listening will enjoy this. And the other is
you are very injected with that Annie Warbucks mentality of
this son will come out tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Was it your mom? Was your dad?
Speaker 2 (15:03):
It's always one a little bit more than the other
who injected you with that.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
Question. I would say that was my dad. My mom
was very matter of fact. She was from Florence, a
very high class lady. Let's see in we're filming this
on July tenth, so July thirty first, you would have
been one hundred years old. Oh wow, would have turned
one hundred just as past February twenty fifth, and again
the classiest lady ever met from born in Florence, Italy
(15:31):
and had a very very tight and very how can
I put a very pure Italian language? My dad born
on Taylor Street, World War Two hero a Taylor and
was very matter of fact, the just kind of a
cool guy everybody loved, always smiling, always making jokes. And
(15:52):
I think I got you know, I'd like to think
that I got probably the best from both of them.
I mean, I think as an honor to even say
that I got a part of a the better part
of their personalities. But I think I think, you know,
loving people, my dad loved everybody. People who screwed him.
You know, He's like, ah, he's a good guy, like
what you know. So that's how it was. My mom
(16:12):
was like, no, no, if you messed with her, she's
done with you. So there's that. But my dad just
loved everybody, just wanted his his He wanted to talk,
he wanted to ask questions, he wanted to he wanted
to help everybody. And he had the cure for everything.
He said, I'm going to cure cancer. Was serious about that.
He would read books. I mean, an amazing guy.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
What did he do.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
Here's a tailor. There's an old school taalor like my grandfather.
Oh yeah, right on Taylor Street and then the Elmwood Park.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
Oh man, I bet he had a lot of stories
to tell from his clientele, talk about walks of life.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I got him all here, I got them all here.
He loved. Matter of fact, you know, he says the
best time of his life, whereas the outset of having kids,
all the stuff that you're supposed to say. He said,
the last six months and World War two was the
best of his life, because you know, the war ended
around June, you know, June July, but he was still
in He was left in Sicily because at first he
(17:11):
was asked to battle, you know, basically his hometown. He
had the coat and and and go against him. That
whole Mussolini thing was on. It was a was a
good guy and not a bad guy, and a good
guy and a bad guy. That whole that whole conversation,
and and uh. But the last six months of his life,
you know, the war was over and the Italians and
Americans were allied, and he had to stay another six
(17:32):
months in Italy, and they put him in school there,
and he had the other girls in town. Loved the Americans.
So every night he was having dinner a different place
and he just just loved it. And you know that
that love for people transcended his entire life and I
think I really uh did a big piece off of
that apple. I really do.
Speaker 1 (17:51):
Ah, what day was your would your mom been.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
One hundred July thirty first? Wow?
Speaker 2 (17:56):
And my mom died just a few days before that.
That's so interesting, that cycle of life. Life, it really is.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Well, there's a lot of anniversaries right now. Again, my
folks turning one hundred this year, which is another ironic thing.
You know. I own the Displayings Theater and on August
the ninth that will turn one hundred. And my Arcata
Theater on Sember sixth of twenty six, Yes, that'll turn
(18:24):
one hundred. And on July twentieth it will be my
twentieth anniversary at the Arcata. So there's a lot going
on this year.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I could talk to you all day, Ron, Well, respect
your time. We've got like eight more minutes. If I
could get that with you, and if we could break
that up with two different sections. I'll leave my guilty
pleasure of the design.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
Of your rooms till the end.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
But I would like to ask you've met you know,
go to Ron's website. Everybody it's oh shows dot com.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's on the ticker in the Burgundy branding at the
bottom of the screen.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
And for those of you listening, that is the letter
O shows at dot com.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
Check it out.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Look at all the beautiful things that he has created,
instigated just the founder of it all. You've met so
many what you know, a lot of people mark out
and wrestling we call it marking out and the stars?
Who are the top three stars that you've met throughout
the years that you've learned the most from. Like, doesn't
(19:26):
have to necessarily be a story, but something positive because
I like you to try to keep things positive here
and not talk shit on folks.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Just something some.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Like, what are a couple of things that really stick
out to you as maybe you didn't expect it or
you were just like it's just fresh in your mind.
It like it was yesterday that you learned from somebody
that maybe we wouldn't expect hearing this.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I would love to hear that from you.
Speaker 3 (19:52):
Well, I'll give you a quick one of Paul Anka.
You know he's came up down just a tremendous individual
and we got to be very very close friends. And
I asked him last year, I said, I called him
Uncle Paul. I talked to him all the time. He'll
come me from an airport at midnight and what are
you doing. I'm like, I'm sleeping, it's midnight. What are
you talking about? But I said, Uncle Paul, would you
know I put on the Columbus Date Parade in Chicago
(20:14):
and with the joints of the Committee of Italian Americans,
the organization I'm president of. And I asked him. I said,
Uncle Paul, would you be our grand marshal of parade?
This is last year? He said, are you f and
kidding me? They've been asking me for forty years? New York, LA,
New Jersey. I don't do that, only standing on a float.
I don't do that. Calls me back an hour later.
Why does it have to be you to ask me
(20:35):
this right? Tell me about it? I said, well, it's
the only parade that goes down State Street. You're right
in front of Chicago Theater. It's amazing. I'll get back
to you. He gets back because, okay, fine for you,
I'll do it. Like, oh my god, are you kidding me?
He says, is you're a sound system there? I said,
you're kidding me right now. You're gonna know you would
sing a piano a sound system? He said, if you
put that there I will do a song. So we
(20:56):
had an opening ceremony State and Whacker. We had this
float dressed all up put a piano we brought as
keyboard player. Not only did he sink my Way, but
he's saying he rewrote the words of my Way to
include my name, Columbus Day. It's all this amazing, amazing,
amazing things. So you know, he really taught me a
lot with regards to being, uh, being something very special,
(21:19):
you know, to treat people special even though you you
may or may not do that. Another guy's chas palmentary
for Bronxdale, the guy you know, if you really look deep,
people think The Bronx Tail is a mob movie. It
really isn't, you know. It's actually if you look at
the message, it's about staying clean, not being a part
of that, you know, and all the messaging and all
the stories, all the the lessons that go with that,
(21:41):
you know, and uh, and there's been so many of them.
I mean, Sophila un Joan Rivers taught me a whole
lot about talk about.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
Joan Rivers because I know her. Also, let's talk about
John Well.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
You know, we had that, we did her her last
television special at the Arcada and I met her. Yeah,
it was incredible. And what I I mean when I
asked her, I said, at the time, she was she
was like on TV more than anybody else. There's like
some record sixty two times in a month or something
with the Red Carpriate, just all that kind of stuff.
And I said, Joan, you know, if you don't mind
(22:14):
me saying, at your age, you know, because you're so accomplished,
why do you work so hard? She goes, let me
tell you something now, Dolly, she said, dal She said,
if you're if you're a Jew and you lived through
Prohibition and the stock market crash and all that, you
value money. If you're a Jew and lived through the
Holocaust and World War two, you value life. You value
(22:35):
That's why we value opportunity. It's not about money. It's
about opportunity and getting the most out of life, you know.
And she then she started complimenting me. I'm saving the
theater and you know, I mean it's another guy, Kevin Costner.
You know, he's he gave me one of my best
experiences ever when I brought him there and he looked
at the theater and I didn't even know what he
(22:56):
did and who cares. It's Kevin Costner, right, but he
has a country band. He did this country show by us,
and I told him, I said, you know, I said,
it's amazing that you're here and the fact that you
were a big part of this being successful, this me
saving it. He goes, I can't believe that you're saying
that I became an artist and an actor because I
(23:16):
wanted to touch people. If you're telling me that something
that I did made you do what you did with
this theater and save it, you know, it's it's given
me like goosebumps myself. I said, you know, I'm a
baseball I'm nut. You know, feel the dreams. If you
build it, they will come. One of my favorite moments
was when I went to the Field of Dreams, way
before is all developed now. My brother and I were
(23:38):
throwing the ball. It was the weekend that I was
supposed to make the decision on getting this theater. I
had no money, had no experience, but it was something
that made me feel good, feel that I needed to
do it. I said, you know what, I went to
the Field of Dreams just because of just to throw
the ball around and at that moment I told my brother,
I said, holy smokes, I got to do this theater.
It's like and I told him, I said, it's not
like anybody walked out of the cornfields and told me this.
(24:00):
But if the whole, if you build it would come
not to sound so corny. Made me think, you know what,
we got to do this theater. And he started tearing
up and his daughter was there. He goes, come over here, Lily,
I want you to hear the story. I told her
the story. He was crying, she was crying. I was crying.
It was amazing. But then after the show he left
and I thought I didn't get the autograph. I didn't
get all this stuff. I thought were going to hang out. Well,
he left me a poster of the Field of Dreams.
(24:22):
It said deer Ron, you built it, and they came, congratulations,
Kevin Costner. So these are moments, a hundred of them.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
That's badass. And you gave me I won't tell you now,
holy crap.
Speaker 2 (24:35):
You just gave me like, oh my god, moment idea
in that And thank you because I needed that today,
Like I owe you because you just gave me a
great idea.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Rewind back to Joan Rivers.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I will tell you my side of the things with
her is we play a lot of We play a
lot of casinos, we play a lot on the hard
rock circuit. And I get to be friends just because,
like you, I just love the people. I love the
people that are behind the scenes more than the people
that you would think.
Speaker 1 (25:05):
Oh, I just I love the cogs and the wheels.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
And the innards. And you get to be friends with
all the people in hospitality. And my favorite thing is to.
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Ask them like who's doing what?
Speaker 3 (25:16):
And it is it was.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I asked them over the last ten years, give me
your top three celebrities that treated you right.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I don't care about the bad, like who treated you right?
And the number one.
Speaker 2 (25:28):
Person that they said, and I love telling this to
people to keep her legacy alive, was Joan Rivers. You oh,
just always handing out one hundred dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:37):
She was always handing out tips. And it was and
that was, like, you know, ten years ago that I
heard that story.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
So even now one hundred bucks is a nice tip,
But ten years and ten years ago, every single person
that literally talked or spoke to her or did anything
for her, honey, darling A hundred bucks, hundred bucks. The
other person that would leave like one thousand dollars on
the night table was Jone Jets constantly over tipping the
(26:04):
shit out of people, and then I would have never
known this, but sindbad leaving huge tips for people. And
I just love I love to hear people that are
busting their ass behind the scenes light up like a
firecracker when they talk about somebody who has the choice
to just dismiss them and treat them like garbage or
(26:26):
treat them like you treat people, Ron, And that's what
dignity and respect and humanity saved for all kind and
take care of them.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So I love, I love hearing that.
Speaker 2 (26:38):
I'm gonna just milk a couple more minutes from you
and ask you for my own guilty pleasure. Golden peeps,
check out the ticker at the bottom, or if you're
listening and driving when you stop to take that restroom
break on the road, it's oh Shows Shows dot Com.
Speaker 1 (26:53):
Navigate around this website and look.
Speaker 2 (26:54):
At these beautiful theaters in rooms that Ron has kept
alive and renovated and just made incredibly awesome.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
They're just how did you? How did you start?
Speaker 2 (27:05):
When you when you acquired the theater one or at
the same time too, was it or was it one
at a time?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
There's fifteen years in the different between.
Speaker 2 (27:14):
When you got your first one. Did you kind of
just know like I wanted to be decorated like this?
Was it a work in progress? Did you go start
looking well?
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I again, as I mentioned before,
I was brought from World War two household. You know,
Saturday mornings was all about little rascals and three Stooges
and Marx Brothers and you know, just understanding and James
Cagney and just all that kind of stuff. Uh Yankee
Doodle Dandy and It's Wonderful Life and just all those movies.
And I really, really, you know, you had an affection
(27:43):
for the whole vintage eras and the prohibition eras and
and that was always been in my head anyway. But no,
when I got it, I mean I thought it was
cool that it was in nineteen twenties, and I thought
I can do some. But I'm not a designer or anything.
But no, I'm not nothing. And I never like if
you come to my speak, easies, you go to theaters,
you see all the four hundred antiques. You see the
(28:03):
the the the window treatments, you see all the stuff
that we designed. I did it all myself. If I
you know, it could be urgantly stated. I didn't even
write anything down, didn't draw anything. I just pointed. I
said it with the with the curtain lady, I said, well,
let's do this or that. The painter gives us to
this color here, this texture there. I would go around
collecting furniture. I said that would be cool there where
(28:26):
they saw hotel furniture. Old. I've just all that stuff,
and it just happened. I didn't have an architect, didn't
have a designer, didn't.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
You're not you're you're seriously kidding me.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
It just all happened. I just and everything. Every time
I designed one of my places, which I got to
say are pretty magnificent, people tell me, you know what,
it just works out. I mean, you know, I break
a lot of design rules about lines and mixing of
colors and mixing out shapes and and and doing too
much and one all this stuff here. They teach you
from what I'm told, and but you know what it
(28:57):
works and you know what I think. You're all your
listeners viewers out there, you'd be the judge. Come see
us in displaying because se St Charles, you know, we've
got two theaters, got the nine restaurants, and we have
a boutique hotel and a couple other things on the
horizon were opening up on Harlem. I haven you a
couple of places, so there's a lot going on.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Come back on please when you have some new horizon
things that I've actually been birthed. And who picked the
green chairs at the one restaurant that I'm looking at?
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Who picked that color? Did you pick that green?
Speaker 3 (29:29):
Yeah? We picked it absolutely, It's.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Just perfect, absolutely per perfect. Everybody check out the ticker,
check out oshows dot com and it is ownesty right,
it is okay, ron on it. I wanted to make
sure I got the accent right, ron on Esty. Our
guest absolutely phenomenal man, human being, business leader, community everything entity,
serial entrepreneur. Like I said, all around, great guy, ron
(29:55):
Thank you so much for the inspiration today. You gave
me so many uh just gold and nuggets of my
own Selfishly, this is kind of fun for me.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
To have all the guests that I get to have in.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
The privilege just because I learned so much, so I
won't say I hope golden peeps, I know that you
learn some great things today. So Ron, blessings to you
and all that you do. Thanks for being such a
cool dude. Everybody, stay safe out there, but be free
and always stay golden.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
And then we clap at the end.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
Yeah, you'd now.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
What's up everyone? It's Goldie Impact Wrestling. TLC's Cheapskates Ted
Nugent's running wild from him somewhere in the woods. And
maybe you've seen our band, Goldilocks Band. We're out there,
we're on tour, but now we're connecting on cameo. So
I want to tell you that I am here to
be your humble servant and that's whatever you need said
for you, for a friend, a shout out, a golden
(30:54):
shout out. You name it here and on it now,
just reminding you keep it classy, the cool, and keep
it above the belt.
Speaker 1 (31:02):
But I want to offer you something a little bit,
a little bit different.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
Just remember, if I'm not on the road and I've
got access to these next beauties, we can always have.
You want to make this the most amazing experience for
you ever, because you deserve it.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
Your friends deserve it. Your loved ones deserve it.
Speaker 2 (31:28):
And just remember I can sing you a few lines
of a song.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
It can be from from anywhere, like it can be
from song.
Speaker 4 (31:36):
Where or it could be.
Speaker 2 (31:43):
Fun.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
It could even be Honor Highway way. It can need
to be from there.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
Oh, and keep in mind, not all requests are the same.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
Maybe your motivation comes with a harder edge. Maybe you
need a more jagged little pill. There's nothing that I
love more than playing the heel.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
So if you need your message delivered with more uh oh,
what's the word I'm looking for?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
Intention? Please specify. I can't wait to connect with you
on cameo. Thanks so much for being here Day Golden
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