Episode 378: Peter Elias of Spain Wine Bar - Ocean City, MD. The DARK NIGHT of the SOUL. Learning from OUR PAST Grows OUR FUTURE. GOD Will is Always Blessing US. Spiritual Resilience is Earned. - JUSTIN AND THE [FOOD] ENTREPRENEURS

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.

(00:18):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Justin the Food Entrepreneur
Show. I'm Justin Bizarro. I'm your host. That's B-I-Z-Z-A-R-R-O.
For anyone who's out there who wants to find us, you can find this show,
plus the Justin Ryan Bizarro Show and the Centurion Leadership Battalion all
on Spotify or wherever else you grow yourself through podcasts.
Also, thank you, everyone, for the interest. Yes, Gorilla Brave is up and running.

(00:42):
That is for For food and beverage entrepreneurs, it is a community.
It is an educational space.
It is also a networking space.
So anyone who's out there who feels alone or wants a community,
I know what I felt like over 24 years not having a community.
I also had found other entrepreneur groups that allowed me to be part of an
entrepreneur community, but I never found one in food and beverage that truly

(01:05):
helped me feel that I belonged.
So with a group of partners, we formed Gorilla Brave. Thank you,
everyone who's taken interest.
We have about 22 spots left for 2024.
So if you are interested, you may want to start looking at that.
We are only taking 100 individuals the first year.
So there are 24 spots left, and it is making a difference already.

(01:29):
And then also leaders to owners, guys, that's for anyone out there who's interested
in being an owner or an entrepreneur, but is in the food space in a leadership position.
I think Peter was actually one of these guys back in the day,
our guest as I introduced him.
But this is to help people find investors, to help people acquire franchises,
or even develop their own business concepts in the food and beverage space.

(01:53):
So there's a whole academy we've put together because I've noticed there are
a lot of consultants or people out there that say they are going to help and do this.
But there's no better way to form a business or become an entrepreneur than
to have the proper education as well as be part of a community of individuals
who are doing the same thing.
So you have people to have fellowship with that are going through the journey

(02:18):
as well as you are so that you're not alone on that journey.
So that's Leaders to Owners. That'll launch here soon.
We are already starting the first class of that. And then, like I said, GorillaBrave.love.
You can check that out as well as we start refining that. With that being said, thank you everyone.
Again, you can find me on Instagram, B-I-Z-Z-A-R-R-O.

(02:39):
First name, Justin.
Thank you everyone for listening in. We just crossed over to 143 countries last
week. That's pretty awesome.
We're getting thousands of downloads again across the globe,
so I appreciate that and I appreciate everyone's patience as I took a leave
of absence for six months. So I can see all the fans are already back and downloading

(03:01):
the new episode. So that's pretty awesome.
With that being said, I have a very...
Great friend, someone whose life helped me get through my life over the last
16 months, someone who came into my life that has had huge impact that I would call a friend.
And as I've mentioned in some of the other podcasts that everyone's been listening

(03:24):
to, God has been restoring my life and restoring the relationships that I need in my life.
And I would say Peter is definitely
one of those restorations in my life and relationships
that I've needed and we've sort of talked back and
forth and after catching up today I'm definitely like
okay God's putting him back in my life for a reason

(03:44):
so Peter Elias from Ocean
City Maryland Spain Wine Bar how are you doing today Peter I'm good Justin thank
you for that kind introduction you're very well I'm doing well I I mean our
story together is is and it was you know something else when trying to get business off the ground,

(04:07):
when you're trying to do your falafel stands in New York City.
That goes back way back when, I mean, over 12 years ago now,
I believe, and maybe 13 years ago.
So I'm going to give you the mic and let you sort of tell your story,
because you have such a fascinating story.
Part of your story is that dark night of the soul that We talk about in Christianity,

(04:32):
for sure, as Christians, as believers of God. And so I think I'm just going to give you the mic.
And if I have any questions, I'll just interrupt you. But for the audience,
your story is one of the most powerful stories of becoming a food and beverage
entrepreneur I've ever heard.
So I'm going to- Oh, thank you. You're very welcome. So it's all yours, Peter.

(04:53):
Thank you. Thank you, Justin. It's great to hear your voice.
And I'm so happy to reconnect, first and foremost. most. And what an honor.
I've been watching you grow as well, too.
So super excited about what you've done and where you're going.
And, you know, like you said, my journey, you know, we all have our journey in life.
And mine started with a very, you know, household where, you know,

(05:14):
we're Egyptian by descent.
My parents immigrated from Egypt and food and beverage.
And we're I call the Egyptians the Italians of the Middle East,
where we're loud and we eat with family.
There's a lot of love and there's a lot of you know a lot of god and that's
that's kind of how we lived our life and so i grew up with a mother who was
very proactive in in service and serving others you know and she was an amazing

(05:40):
cook and she never stopped you know we grew up when she had her own business
and she could have easily just ordered.
You know, to go back then. But she refused, not only did she refuse to order
to go, but I remember she was a business owner and that she would drive two
hours to the farm to collect, you know, dairy and produce.
And then she would go in this direction for 35 minutes and get our,

(06:01):
go to the butcher and get our meats and our seafood.
And I never understood her. I was like, mom, what are you doing?
You know, the Kroger's right down the street.
And she's like, you don't know anything about food. Those things are processed.
And I thought, I'll be honest with you, with all due respect,
I thought she was losing it.
And because she was communicating like this back in the 80s,
when there wasn't a lot of talk of organic, and there was no talk of all that other stuff.

(06:24):
So it was like, it was it was quite, quite fascinating to see how she spoke.
And I was really overwhelmed with her. And I thought, like, I just that's the
part of my mother, I just didn't want to become as I was getting older.
And now I find it dominating who I am. Anyway, as immigrants,
you can imagine, you know, I was restricted to some certain careers,
You know, I could do anything I wanted as long as I was a doctor, a lawyer or engineer.

(06:48):
Anything outside of those those that realm was really going to be challenging
for them because they left everything for their future kids.
And they wanted to make sure that we were doing the right thing,
invested and have that security.
Of course, I had a different career, which I did for 11 years to kind of support
and do what my parents asked me to do.
I remember working in the restaurant business when I was a kid and young and I absolutely loved it.

(07:10):
A junior in college spoke with my father
i remember saying dad i really love this restaurant thing i'd love
to continue doing it and i remember dad was really strong and really big guy
put his arms around me and said that's nice son we didn't come here so you could
be a dishwasher and that was the exact words and i was like thanks dad so fast

(07:31):
conversation for sure i'm sure you do.
So fast forward, you know, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry.
You know, I was a biochemist, worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 11 years.
And, you know, I just wasn't happy. You know, there's a big change in my life
at that moment in those 11 years.
And I decided to move to New York City and kind of not tell anybody in my family

(07:56):
what I was doing and just try to figure out my life and try to get into the
food and restaurant beverage in the food world.
And actually you and I connected shortly after I
moved and I was really just and
I'll be honest with you I was really amazed by like what
you've done it's like every all the knowledge and everything that you knew
I wanted to learn it so badly you know you had this amazing
company put together and you had a great team I remember you had this guy for

(08:20):
the test kitchen and we did this for our appliances and this for strategy and
you know putting all the numbers together and that was all fresh that was all
new stuff for me and I wanted to learn it so you were a huge a big very big part of,
you know, me getting invested into the industry. And as you know,
We were on our way to opening up Fat Camel Falafel. And what's interesting is

(08:42):
Fat Camel Falafel was a fast casual concept that was similar to what Chipotle was, but with falafels.
And this was a time when that concept wasn't out there. I know there's several
concepts that have come out since, but there was really nothing back then.
And we found a great location, East Village, New York City.
And, you know, I was sharing this story with Justin before we got on the podcast

(09:04):
about what happened after.
I want to share that with the rest of the team because this ties in with God
and my journey, where my journey starts after this particular restaurant.
So let me kind of break down what happened. There was a space that Justin had
actually was supporting me with and helping me with trying to secure the space.
I actually had found three different banks to fund this particular project for me.

(09:27):
And my brother had flown in from out of town.
He was in Michigan. And he flew into New York to kind of help celebrate the
closing and, you know, and, you know, celebrate my new journey into the food and beverage world.
Anyway, at the closing, we had found one of the banks didn't fund and lawyers
weren't really concerned.
They go, you know what? It's probably a relay thing. It should come in by tomorrow.

(09:49):
So that later that night, my brother and I went to a lily in New York City and
celebrated a great dinner together. other.
And, you know, he flew out the next morning. And of course, two weeks later,
I still don't have that fund from that bank.
And I find out that the loan officer who approved us for this particular loan
had some type of like fraudulent, you know, activity that he'd done,

(10:10):
not with me, but he'd had, they had caught him doing something.
So everything that he was involved with had frozen, you know,
so there was nothing that was going to be approved.
And the other banks basically gave me 30 days to come up with the rest of the
money in which I did not come up with the money.
And so I ended up losing this deal. And let me tell you,

(10:31):
The frustration and the anger of always,
you know, at least in my mind at the time, trying to be a good Christian and trying to be ethical,
you know, trying to serve others, trying to go to, you know,
going to church and reading the Bible and trying to be a good brother and a
good son and a good father and do all those things,

(10:51):
you know, being a good friend and then still getting kind of slapped in the face, you know.
And this was a big slap for me because I was committed.
Everything was done, right? We had the space that I've been looking for.
I had the funds to come after. I had the design was done. My lawyer was there.
All the money, that doesn't go away.

(11:14):
So long story short, we lost the deal. And that's kind of what started my journey
and trying to figure out what my next steps were going to be.
But let me kind of share something. thing while I was really angry with God.
And if you saw me sometimes, people say, why is it that he got swearing by himself
in the middle of the corner like a crazy person? That was me in prayer, by the way.

(11:36):
So yeah, the prayers were in the nicest, and I was super angry with God at the time.
And why this God? And why this God? And why not this God? And why not me,
God? And a lot of that was happening.
And I get a phone call about three months later from my My sister,
who's overseas, heard my mother live in Dubai, and they're always watching the
news, and apparently a building had collapsed.

(11:56):
And she was really concerned. She didn't know it was a terrorist attack or what
was going to go on or what's going on in New York now.
So she called me anxious, and I told her, Mary, I was fine. I didn't hear anything
about it. I was just going about my day.
And I said, I'll look into it. Didn't hear anything about that.
Anyway, come to find out that the building that collapsed and actually killed
somebody on the bottom floor was the building that we were supposed to be in,

(12:17):
which was incredible. That was the building that I lost the deal to. Right.
And I guess what's so profound for me is I've always been somebody who just
tried to push through things, even if they weren't right.
I'm like, oh, you know, this is my I try to convince myself that even I didn't have that gut feeling.
Right. That quote unquote gut feeling of, hey, this doesn't seem right.

(12:39):
But still, it's an awesome opportunity.
Right. There's money there. This is great. You know, I tried to like not think
about that stuff and try to just make myself feel good and thinking it was for
me, even though I had this weird inner feeling that was off.
And God said, Pete, you're not listening. I'm trying to give you these.
I'm trying to tell you that this is not for you.

(13:00):
And, you know, and of course, you know, this, you know, this is,
I mean, it was such a significant impact for a bank not to, I mean, you're approved.
That never really happens, right? You're an approved, you're at close,
everything has been signed.
Like you're just waiting for the wire, right? That's it.
And something comes up last minute and prevents all that from happening.

(13:21):
And just to say God's presence was felt and it changed everything for me. It changed everything.
It changed the way I pray. It changed the way I approach things.
I have no emotional response to anything anymore.
I'm just thankful for everything that's in front of me. If it's amazing and
it's there for me, great.
If it goes away last second, great. Thank you, God, for taking it away.

(13:43):
Whatever it is, I have changed completely because of this.
And lo and behold, seven years of my life struggling, working in nightlife,
working in restaurants, working as a door guy, $20 an hour.
Like I left a six figure salary in the pharmaceutical industry,
11 years and working $20 an hour just so I can network and meet with people,

(14:05):
you know, and then going from doing that for a couple of months and getting
promoted to become a manager because people finding out my background and I
was very connected and tried to learn everything that I could.
There were, and I kept myself isolated from everything.
I just went to work. I prayed. I took care of the kiddos, you know,
when I was with them as much as I could. I was back and forth to D.C. quite a bit.

(14:26):
But long story short, like that impacted my life.
And today I have an amazing restaurant. We're actually building two more this year.
Spain Wine Bar is a rooftop restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland.
We in our third year in August will be three in August. We have about 320 seats here.
And, you know, we've been really blessed with our numbers, you know, for, you know, our,

(14:50):
Our first year numbers, I didn't project those numbers for at least four years.
And we hit that in our first, you know, in our second year, you know,
we had numbers that we didn't project for seven years out and we're hitting them in our second year.
So it's been a blessing and God's been really blessed us with a lot.
We've had a lot of, you know, conversations with James Beard Foundation members

(15:13):
about coming through and there's just so much going on here.
And i jason i just haven't told you that a lot that's
going on but everything has been because of the journey that
god gave me you know and all the suffering
thank you god all the you know all the knowledge that i received was really
through the hard work and i feel like i have a phd in the industry now and i'm

(15:34):
doing things for the first time also i'm building stuff from scratch that i
never did before either in a different market that's seasonal like i don't know
what seasonal Coming from New York, there is no seasonal,
you know, so coming to a market where there's 8 million,
there's 8 million visitors that come in, in a three month span.
Right. And then you have 7,000 people that just live here all year round.

(15:58):
So just think about the influx of people, right? You have 7,000 people in the
off season and all of a sudden there's 8 million people influx coming through.
So a lot of people in this market tend to go to Florida. They shut down their business.
They go to Florida. They stay there for three to four months and they shut it
down. Then they come back, turn the key open up, get things.
So, you know, they're making their money. That's their livelihood.

(16:19):
Because I was uncomfortable with that and I moved my chefs to come here,
I actually wanted to make sure that we were all year round. and one of the things
I should probably do is back up and tell you about how Spain happened because
I think that's also a miracle in itself.
So in 2020, 2018, I moved to DC and I worked for a couple of big restaurants

(16:41):
and I was their GM there running their operations.
And in 2020, March 16th, 2020, I was running about, I was running a $10 million
restaurant in DC and ended up shutting them down because of COVID.
So I basically cleaned everything out, shut it down, and then we walked away for two weeks.
I was supposed to come back to that restaurant after two weeks and start working

(17:04):
on our carryout because that was a big part of our strength.
Our menu changed every day, so carryout wasn't a thing that we did very well.
Unless you came and ordered it yourself and picked it up, we didn't do carryout.
So we had to build that menu for COVID.
Anyway, as soon as I get the phone call to come back in, And I get a phone call
saying, you know, my dad was in the hospital.

(17:24):
He had a stent that he was going to get placed.
And dad, you know, was, you know, in the hospital. So I said,
you know, wait, wait till my dad gets out of the hospital.
He gets out of the clear and I'll come back.
I got two other managers that were sent over there to start working on the restaurant.
But I went to Michigan to make sure dad was OK.
Long story short, dad got COVID. Right.

(17:47):
And end up passing away two weeks later. So March 16th, we closed the restaurant. I'm sorry.
Thank you. I didn't know that. I apologize. I'm praying for your family big
time on that one. That's okay.
That's okay. Yeah. March 16th, we closed the restaurant. April 16th, that passes away.
And so everything changes for me. I shut it down.

(18:10):
I tell them that I'm going to take some time off and kind of figure out my life.
And I go to Michigan, and I see, you know, because of COVID,
my brother who was in Toronto couldn't come down. He was stuck.
My one brother who was in Michigan did come down and my, my mom and my sister were overseas.

(18:30):
So it was just me, you know, and my other brother, but my other brother had
his family in Michigan and he has two little kids.
So when I, when I was there, I basically cleaned out his apartment.
You know, my parents, you know, never got remarried, but they,
they were, you know, They were separated when I was in middle school and my
dad lived in the same apartment for 26 years and my dad was an accountant.
So he was very meticulous and very, very organized, very clean.

(18:54):
His apartment was immaculate and I would walk in there and I cleaned out his
apartment and I learned a lot
about my father, things that he never told me. He never shared with me.
I learned when I cleaned out his apartment and mind you, before I kind of tell
you the rest of this, you know, after, you know, I had gotten divorced,
you know, several years years ago, before I went to New York,

(19:14):
I was divorced, you know, and that's one of the reasons we actually moved to
the DC area and then went to New York afterwards.
I was committed to just my kids and my career and I wanted nothing more.
I was content. I was happy. I was happy, like just focusing on my kids and my
career. And it's like, I was good.
I was like not interested in ever in having a relationship.
And I knew the industry I was going to go into wasn't going to help me out either,

(19:39):
you know, because the restaurants take obviously a lot of work.
And so the reason I say that, and I share that with you is after I cleaned out
my father's apartment, you know, my dad being that again, never in a relationship
after they got divorced, since I was in middle school,
and he'd been there 26 years, I felt his loneliness for the very, very first time.

(20:00):
And I realized that I wasn't built that way, you know, and I didn't want to be alone in the end.
And so I had to knock down these serious walls that I had built up and let myself
to feel things again and to allow
myself to have the openness to have that relationship, you know, again.
And the reason I share that with you is once that passed and you got all that

(20:22):
stuff cleared out, that was an April 16th in November.
I had actually met, you know, the person who's my fiance today in November,
and I had moved to Ocean City in February 1st of 2021.
And she was right there back and forth with me. And she's been with me ever

(20:46):
since, you know, through this whole entire time.
Spain, when I was, when I was after COVID, I was in Northern Virginia and there
was an old, there was a gentleman who I used to work with before who asked me
to partner up with him and start managing his restaurants and take him over.
I didn't really want to do that, but he was going on a last minute trip and,
you know, he needed the favor.

(21:07):
So I said, let me support you until you get back from your trip and then we'll
figure it out from there.
Anyway, I was running his restaurant in Northern Virginia. We were actually
start to pick up and get busy.
And it was fun to kind of get into the work mode again and kind of be active
and try to move forward with my life.
And at the time, there was five opportunities that sat at my,

(21:28):
like there was five opportunities that were in front of me where I had to make
a decision, whether it was to go into a town called Ocean City,
Maryland, that I've never been to ever in my life,
or to work with this gentleman who had nightlife, which I didn't want to get
involved in again, but he was trying to open up a restaurant and it was walking
distance from where I lived.
The third was another gentleman had a very active restaurant slash lounge concept

(21:55):
in Tysons, Virginia, that was very, very busy.
He was looking for a GM and he was also opening up another spot in D.C.
That was going to be involved with nightlife and food where he wanted me to help him there.
And then the last there's another one where it's called it's now called vera
and it's doing very well it was in union market in washington dc and this was

(22:16):
a concept that had to do with a restaurant concept and a nightlife concept called
culture and they're doing exceptionally well right by the way they wanted me
to operate and be their gm so i had to sit here and pray on all these things.
And the one that made the least sense for me the least sense was ocean city
maryland but for For whatever reason, it felt the right way.

(22:37):
So let me tell you a little bit about that. Let me back up and tell you Ocean City, what happened.
I had a guy who was, I was trying to buy out the guy in DC and I was trying
to stay in DC with a restaurant I was working at because he was getting tired.
And I had pulled an investor. I had met this guy through a mutual friend.
And anyway, we were talking about the DC, you know, and Tyson's restaurants there.

(22:59):
And long story short, three weeks afterwards, you know, he says,
Hey Pete, you know, there's I have a space in Ocean City, Maryland.
I just want your feedback.
I know you're not going to move there, but I just want your feedback and a proof of concept.
I said, sure, I'll take a look at it. I'll do them a solid.
So I drove two and a half hours to Ocean City, Maryland, came out here.
I looked at the space. I looked at the space.

(23:20):
Told them I would do a wine bar because the sunset was facing west.
The sunset was amazing. So I said, I would do a wine bar there because of the sunset.
And I would do a Spanish concept because the kitchen was really, really small.
And also there was a lot of energy. There's a lot of energy.
Like right now I'm sitting in my patio at the very end. I'm looking at Assateague
Island that has wild horses.

(23:41):
There's dolphins that are swimming in the bay. I can see the ocean right
now there's it's just an amazing immaculate
view and there's bars below me
there and there's restaurants over there and there's a marina around so it's
a lot of energy and i said you want a high energy restaurant you want to do
a spanish concept so that would i would do spanish because you got small plates

(24:01):
you can bring them out without having to time them you bring them out when they're
done and that would that's the only way your kitchen is going to survive good
luck you know i went back Back to D.C. to mind my own business.
And three months later, he's just all over me asking me to please come.
You know, and I said, look, my kids were very, you know, pushy.
They were saying, Dad, you should do it.

(24:22):
They were giving me their blessings to do it.
And I said, look, I'm only going to do it if these three chefs come to the restaurant.
And I knew they weren't going to come. There's no way these three chefs would
come. It's impossible. It's impossible.
So I said, if these three chefs move to Ocean City, I will do this project.
So who were these chefs? So you had Chef Dimo, who worked for Nick Stefanelli.

(24:44):
You know, Nick Stefanelli was Chef of the Year in 2019.
He has Officina and Masseria. Those restaurants are Michelin star restaurants.
And Nick had actually recruited Dimo to open up a Greek restaurant where it was called Philotimo.
It was a restaurant that he also wanted to pursue a Michelin star there as well.
So he recruited Dima, the guy that I wanted to be here, to have him open that restaurant.

(25:07):
And Dima was working with Nick at the time.
But because of COVID and everything, all the delays that were happening in D.C.,
things were slow to move.
OK, so he said yes and he moved out here. Right. Which is crazy to me.
The second chef was Chef Judy Anderson, who was out of New York City.
She'd been on Be Bobby Flay. She's been on different Food Network shows.

(25:30):
She's never left New York City in her life.
She has a beautiful little boy, and there was no way she was ever going to leave
New York. She moved out to Ocean City.
And the third one was an executive chef who worked in D.C. He'd been in D.C. for 15 years.
He was an executive chef working for a very successful restaurant.
He'd never, since his immigration from El Salvador to D.C., he never left.

(25:58):
Left and i never thought he was going to leave because he was in a very good position.
And believe it or not he decided that he was going to move and come to ocean city
so i was like oh my goodness this is happening and and honestly those three
big moves made it made this restaurant made me say okay i'm doing it it feels
right the craziest thing just happened in the positive way this time right it

(26:21):
had three miracles like those guys being here it's a miracle all in itself,
superstar chefs in this market.
They all came here and here we are two and a half years later because of it.
I love this. I'm going to enter in some crazy things here.
And I don't even know where to begin because it's weird how our stories have
overlapped, our lives have overlapped.

(26:44):
And geez, I don't even know where to begin. Well, Pierre Debas would be the reason we met.
He's part of Rahmer Debas. They're a real estate law firm in New York City.
Probably one of my best friends in the whole world. We went to the Heights together
for high school, Catholic school, all boys school.
So you guys, anyone in the audience can imagine what that was like.

(27:05):
An all boys school that let us truly learn how to be boys and then grow into men.
So that's one. We met around the time he got married, which was a whole crazy
time in my life. Definitely a transition.
I was also in graduate school, going to University of North Carolina,
I'm doing my MBA in global business.

(27:26):
And when we first met, it was Pierre connected us, said you were interested
in doing your own concept for a restaurant.
We landed on Fat Camel Falafel because you guys used flava beans instead of
chickpeas or gabonzo beans.
And it was enough of a difference. And it didn't have the gastrointestinal issues that chickpeas have.

(27:52):
And so it's one of the things that really stuck out for me, like,
okay, I'm going to really put my time into this project.
And we worked on it for a good six to eight months. We did financials.
We looked at different spaces throughout New York City.
We talked to different investors and different banking companies.
We put together whole concepts, menus, and all those things,

(28:15):
and even did testing in the kitchen and all that.
And I remember that day in New York City where the bank fell through. We were in the building.
We were trying to close the deal on the location. It was snowing outside.
And it was right before Valentine's Day, interestingly.
And I had already had a shoulder injury from playing soccer.

(28:37):
Someone landed on my shoulder.
My arm stayed and my body kept going. So I deeply damaged my shoulder in 2007.
But this is like 2011, 2012 by this point, 2013, somewhere around there.
I would say it was probably February, 2013, if I remember correctly.

(28:57):
And so it's been like six years. I'm trying to find someone to do shoulder surgery, still can't find it.
And my shoulder's dislocating all the time. Every time I play sports,
my shoulder dislocates and I'm having all these struggles.
Well, let me just lead up to this. The couple of days before,
we're looking at different spaces in New York City still, and we finally find the space, okay?

(29:21):
And my sister comes up who's working at Cull Equip with us.
Cull Equip was the company that we did that food service partner subsidiary
that did restaurant design, restaurant equipment, restaurant construction.
There were some subsidiaries in there, but let's just call it Cull Equip.
It stood for culinary equipment. And we had been in that business.
We had acquired it. It was a company called Restaurant Equipment Sales in 2008, in October of 2008.

(29:48):
We acquired that company and then turned it into Cull Equip,
did an asset buyout deal.
And they had a location in Salisbury, Maryland also, which is a stone throw
away from Ocean City, Maryland,
which was one of our top markets during that 700,000 people boom,
7 million person boom, whatever Ocean City's at now between Rehoboth and Bethany

(30:12):
Beach and so on and so forth.
And so which is delaware because ocean city and maryland and then bethany beach
delaware are right there next to each other right right and so there's that
so there's this weird connection that you end up in ocean city maryland and
color quote we had until we we sold it in 2017,

(30:35):
and sort of broke apart the pieces but i remember looking at restaurant concepts
and my sister comes up right before we're in this deal.
And we're standing outside of one of the restaurant concept,
one of the places, and a bunch of pigeons just poop all over her.

(30:55):
And at the time, we had an apartment in Waterside Plaza, which is like 23rd
and 1st, basically, or the FDR in New York City.
And so she had to walk all the way back there and shower and change and come back and meet us.
So that was one that I felt like, okay, here's an omen.
The second omen would be when we sat in this building, we ate pizza waiting.

(31:18):
We were with another person that worked for us named Steve Wildrick.
Oh, my God. And it was the three of us sitting at this table.
We sat at this table for over eight and a half hours trying to figure out what
was going on with this one bank. Yeah.
And that Peter already alluded to. And so we spend all day there.
We're all just sitting at this table. The client that we were looking at basically

(31:40):
buying the spot from or taking over this falafel spot and transitioning into
Fat Camel Falafel comes in and out numerous times.
Like they're feeding us food. They're getting frustrated.
We're trying to figure out what's going on. we finally get
an answer that the bank is shutting this down like
the third bank and that we're we're gonna have to

(32:01):
find you know we need 30 more days and so
I literally walk out to go to the bathroom finally after waiting all that time
and as I'm leaving the bathroom someone comes flying in the door so hard he
hits me with the door and I go to put my hands up to the door but as I hit the
door both my feet slipped.

(32:22):
My elbow hits the ground, and my bad shoulder literally flips over my head and
completely destroys my shoulder at this point, what's left.
So I come walking out of the bathroom.
I've got a backpack on my body because I had a backpack.
I can't get the backpack off because my shoulder is so discombobulated behind my body.

(32:43):
And I'm like, Peter, I think something bad's going to happen.
I just need to go to the hospital. He's like, dude, I'm not going to let you
go by yourself. I'm going to take you with me.
So I think the first hospital we ended up was like at New York's,
I want to say Bellevue or something.
We ended up at Bellevue Hospital. Yeah, I think it's Bellevue.

(33:04):
And they're like, we don't deal with this. You got to go somewhere else.
So they send us down to NYU Medical Center.
And my shoulder is completely messed up. They They think they're going to have
to do surgery right away because, number one, it's not in socket.
Number two, it's literally stuck behind my body and my arm is so messed up and in pain.

(33:28):
And in this point in my life changes everything in my life.
Just so everyone knows, they finally with they finally all the muscles and everything are so tight.
They finally have these two guys come in and they literally yank my arm as hard
as they can. And it still won't go back into place.
And then finally, it's like, I'm like, they're like, you need to call your person.

(33:53):
We got to get them out here. You're going to have emergency surgery.
We're going to do it. And all of a sudden, the shoulder just kind of stabilizes
enough where I can force it back into place on my own.
So they let me go. Mind you, I'm in graduate school with four other universities from around the world.
Part of my 27-month program is to reside and do residencies all over the world. old.

(34:18):
I have to leave in two and a half weeks to go to London, Amsterdam,
and Istanbul for residency for my program.
It's our first trimester. We had already done residency in North Carolina,
Washington, DC, and New York City.
So I'm working full-time. I have a shoulder that I now have in a sling.

(34:41):
I now have to go overseas to spend time there and work there and do work study
programs on top of going to class, on top of trying to deal with this.
And then I'm in a foreign country with discombobulated shoulder.
That's quite a time in your life, Justin. Yeah, it was crazy.
But what would happen is I would end up getting shoulder surgery injury in June.

(35:05):
I would end up through that getting very involved in CrossFit to help rehabilitate my shoulder.
I would end up being the main owner and the CEO of a new sport and the team
in a new sport, professional sport called the National Pro Grid League,
MPGL, in the DC Brawlers,

(35:27):
which would put me back in DC a lot. We would win the first two championships.
I would meet Deborah Mikus, who everyone knows on this show.
She was my co-host on this show for the two years.
And I would end up transitioning my life to be with her in Denver and with her,
you know, learned a different part of life for sure.

(35:49):
You know, I don't know. However, God works and his plan is very interesting to me.
You know, food service partners would grow. Color Club would grow.
We'd go through some ups and downs, sell off the pieces, end up where I am today.
Now, without a relationship and trying to figure out who I am,
and I will say this to the audience, you know, no matter for me,

(36:13):
Debra was the love of my life.
She was my soulmate. I don't know if I'll ever love anyone more.
You know, and Peter and I talked about this more, but I can't force someone
else to be with me or love me or treat me well or reconcile or do whatever,
even though we've been through periods of trying.
But at the same time, I don't know when my life fell apart if I was even ready

(36:35):
to be in a relationship, even though I was already in one.
Because when you're an entrepreneur for 24 years from 18 to 42 years old,
you don't even know who you are.
And if you're not putting your identity in Jesus or God, you're a pretty broken
human when the things you do put your identity into money, family,

(36:55):
businesses, all sort of fall apart, you know?
And, but that moment that changed your life also changed my life that day.
And both of us would spend the next seven years, I feel like trying to find out who we are.
I agree with that. And by 2019, 2020, I started figuring out who I was and who I'm not.

(37:22):
And while it's really expanded into the last four years,
I started changing in a way during that time that would put stress on my businesses
and in my relationships because I started becoming a different human morally,
ethically, and spiritually.
For whatever reason, that's what happened.
And it led me to rock bottom, for sure, because Because when we go through this

(37:48):
sort of transformation of the soul, like you talked about, we start all over again.
And I said this to Peter before we got on the call.
If Peter had not come into my life and I watched him go through a divorce,
then a relationship that he thought was the end all be all for him,
and then see that fall apart,
then see him sort of chase these jobs to learn an industry to ultimately end

(38:13):
up where he is now seven years later.
I don't know if I would still be here because all this time,
I always think of Peter during this.
So, I mean, I've talked to this about the audience before.
Over the last 16 months, I've done pizza. I've done donuts.
I've done deli meats. I've worked in nightlife in Nashville in the honky tonks.

(38:38):
I've done every random bottom feeding job, as I'll call it, at the bottom,
but they're the most important jobs.
I respect people, the dishwashers, the dough rollers, the pizza makers,
the donut makers, everyone who's down there, the fry cooks.
Every single one of those positions I've been in over the last 16 months trying

(38:59):
to learn my way around the world and figure out what I wanted to do, but I knew this.
I knew that I had the opportunity to start all over again, and I would never
have this opportunity again to learn all the things in the food,
beverage, and restaurant industry that I didn't know because everything took off so quickly for me.

(39:20):
And it's what Peter did, and I knew he did that.
I knew in my soul that he had decided that he was going to make an effort.
He was going to build relationships.
He was going to start all over again, start in a new industry.
And why I didn't necessarily start a new industry, what I decided is I wasn't
gonna be an entrepreneur for a while.

(39:40):
I was gonna go learn all the things I didn't know in the restaurant business,
in the nightlife business, in the hospitality business, in the hotel business.
Whatever I could get in the grocery store business, whatever job someone would
give me, I'd take it for a few months and I'd learn that business,
sometimes more than one job at a time.

(40:00):
There was a time I was working four jobs at a time.
And then I had some health issues and things like that that some people know
about, but where I went from not wanting to live in some ways to now fighting for my life.
I think that that's an important thing to talk about.
And the thing that's happened to me over the last seven months goes back to

(40:26):
what Peter said, is I don't emotionally respond to anything anymore. more.
Like when I got baptized again, when I started really seeking God again over
the last 16 months, and then in November, when I really surrendered, got baptized,
decided that I would accept the offer and the individuals pushing me into seminary,

(40:48):
and then I also accepted that it's time to start trying to be an entrepreneur
again in the food and beverage space,
that I stopped emotionally responding. I stopped reacting.
And while I've had periods of that in my life, it isn't as strong as it is now.

(41:08):
The calmness, the composure, the peace that I feel, even though some days are
bad, there are some days I'm still depressed and I miss my family and I miss
Deborah and I miss my stepdaughters.
And I would give anything for God to restore my family because I'm extremely
loving and forgiving human.
But at the end of the day, I don't react in anger anymore.

(41:32):
I don't react in ways that cause damage to me or others.
And I don't know why it took me so long to get here.
God definitely gave me enough opportunity to learn this lesson over the years,
but it took me until I was 44 years old to really grasp it.
And I don't know if that's age or whatever. Go ahead, Peter.

(41:53):
Justin, I think that's beautiful. I mean, honestly, for me, how I translate
what you said was me having God carry the weight more.
You know, a lot of times as entrepreneurs, you know, as restaurant owners and
operators, like everything falls on us at the end of the day.
You can have 100 staff, which I do here in this restaurant.
You know, you can easily point the finger and say, well, it was their fault.

(42:16):
But at the end of the day, it's on me, you know, and so, but life doesn't work that way.
The restaurant may work that way, but life doesn't. Life, it's,
you know, you need to be able to have that relationship with God,
with, you know, Jesus and where he picks you up.
You know, you've ever, you've seen the poster where, you know,
you see the footsteps, you know, in the sand, you know, and you after reading

(42:42):
that poem, you realize that that's actually, you know, should be Jesus' footsteps and not yours.
He's carrying you through all the trials and tribulations.
And so those don't feel as intense anymore.
Because they don't even matter, to be honest with you.
They shouldn't matter. It should be about him first.
And I'll tell you, and I shared this with you before we got on the cast,

(43:03):
part of my journey was trying to figure out.
I knew somehow, some way I was going to get back in the restaurant world.
And I just didn't know how that
was going to look. And I was okay at the time trying to figure it out.
But I'll tell you, the biggest thing for me was trying to figure out how I was
going to serve him through food and beverage.
How was I going to serve God through the restaurant?

(43:26):
And that was the biggest thing for me is trying to, I didn't want to do it for the money.
I didn't want to do it for the business. Of course, we have steps of service.
And of course, we have quality control.
But the biggest thing for me
was serving God. And so I decided to make my mission statement about love.
I mean, we talk, you know, I there's a note on the top of my menu with my signature

(43:47):
on it. And it tells the guests why.
Why are we here? Why are we in this space? What are you coming to?
And we I'm very profound about it now.
And I'm very vocal about letting people know we're here to serve God's grace
through love and service.
You know, so what does that mean? Even in my training, you know,
we're building an online training module now. Now, and I've taken my training

(44:08):
here pretty seriously with my team.
And the first day of training is they're learning why they're here.
We talk about our culture and our mission statement. We talk about hospitality.
As a matter of fact, if you go to 1 Peter, right?
1 Peter talks about hospitality. He says, you know, hospitality is to serve one without grumbling.

(44:28):
To serve somebody without grumbling is the definition of hospitality in the
Bible. I have that in my mission statement because what does that mean?
That means you sink your hands and your heart.
To serve. You have to, you have to seek your, and in order to have,
you have to have a pure heart in order to do that.
You don't, you don't want to have a closed off heart.

(44:50):
You don't want to have a heart that has a wall around it. You know,
you don't want to be angry. You want to serve with love and true love.
And so we literally in our training module define what love is in terms of this restaurant.
And we define it using God's definition.
And we talk about the results of what that will bring.
Like, of course, we're a restaurant here to serve people. And it's like,

(45:12):
Pete, you're crazy. You're doing too much, man. Just serve food.
Just do a good job. And we do.
We do. But the biggest thing for me is I don't, I want it to be about people.
I want it to be about, you know, and I'll be honest with you.
I was only focusing on my guests at the time. I wasn't focusing.
I'm like, how do we serve? How would you give this guest the best experience ever?
How do we give them above and beyond experience, true love, genuine love?

(45:35):
And we talk about that. We talk about listening.
We talk about nonverbals. We talk about, you know, even my managers,
I'm not a normal, you know, my managers overstaffed. I have six managers in
my restaurant right now. Six.
I have a sommelier and five other managers walking around.
And their goal, their job is just to sit down and have genuine conversations

(45:55):
with their guests. That's it.
And make sure steps of service is being forced. Make sure the door is good.
Make sure the kitchen is doing well. I'll obviously do all the things that managers
are supposed to do, but their primary goal is to sit down and have a genuine
conversation to the point where I have to tell them, do you know what a genuine conversation is?
We talk about divulging of yourself, and then if you divulge of yourself,

(46:17):
you should be able to divulge something of the other person.
And that's what we call a conversation.
And so I'm literally trying to get to the nitty-gritty of loving others from
the biblical sense. and I'm doing it, especially because of what's happened over the years for me.
I've seen a lot of demise, you know, the restaurant industry,
and I was a nightlife for so many years.
Unfortunately, I've lost a lot of, you know, colleagues to alcoholism and drugs

(46:42):
and, and stressors and suicide.
And, you know, I decided a long time ago that, you know, I want to be able to
be God's, you know, I want to be able to do God's service.
I want to serve others, you know, and I want to do it in God's name.
And if I have to be the light in the darkness, then so be it.
You know, I've been in the darkness and I've seen it and I came out of it and

(47:03):
it doesn't phase me anymore.
Like I'm still human. I'm still making my mistakes. Like, and I,
and I always will, you know, but I am just trying to be a figure for them to
become better. And I want to share with you something.
I just had a town hall meeting that I called a couple weeks ago.
Actually, it's probably been about a month and a half now, about six weeks now.
And it was about trying to, you know, I said, let me, I want to meet with my

(47:26):
team. No managers are just going to be you and I.
And it was on a Monday and we're closed on Mondays. So I didn't think anybody was going to show up.
It turned out there was 20 people showed up to this meeting and they kept me
over six and a half hours.
And I had given them three ways of sharing the good, the bad and the ugly.
You know, we did it in a public forum first.

(47:46):
And so the public forum, we sat down and talked about issues and then someone
started and obviously everybody picked up on it.
And then I give them an opportunity to sit in a private setting so they can
share more egregious, things that were more serious to them that they wanted
to share with me in private.
And I had about six or seven people do that. And one of the servers said to

(48:06):
me, Pete, when I started working for you, this was just a job.
I came here to take care of my bills, to pay my bills and just to make money.
And that was it. I'm like, okay.
And she goes, And then I started to kind of take your mission and trying to
actually serve them, but using my heart and really trying to use love and to
try to be a better person, a good person and try to, you know,
do all the things that you shared with me in training. I said, okay.

(48:29):
And she goes, and I really liked it. I really started to enjoy.
I became a better server.
I had, you know, I had all the, she's had her, all her names on like five-star
reviews because of a little, because of her approach, not anything that she
did physically, but her mental and her,
you know, and then serving with her heart as opposed to being strategic and,
you know, trying to say, let me see, let me be the best server I can to make

(48:51):
as much money. That approach from her was gone.
And then she told me something even more that really kind of put me in a little
bit of an emotional spirit.
She shared to me that I love serving so much that I've decided to serve.
I've been serving outside of the restaurant to others, and I love it.
And of course, she shared that with me, and I literally just kind of gripped the chair and tried to.

(49:12):
Pete, don't cry in front of her. Don't cry in front of her. But that is fellowship.
I've had guests who've read the mission statement and who've read on top of
the menu, like, you know, some of the things we say and people are just in tears
and they're random. You don't think they're anything important.
Some people, some, some of them are going to say, that's really nice.
We're not saying anything to me about it, but then the profound impact that it has on a few.

(49:35):
And that's what I've been looking for. And, you know, we're,
we're slowly growing into that. And I'm actually working on on how to exercise
that speech more and more, you know, slowly through the restaurant.
So that's been a huge blessing for us.
So I'm going to I'm going to share with you something. And for the audience,
we have not talked about this before, Peter and I.

(49:55):
But a year ago, when I started to lay out Gorilla Brave and what it would be,
I printed out a verse that this is the new international version from the Bible.
And this verse is actually sitting up top of my desk right now on the wall at
the podcast studio and it is 1 Peter 4, 9 through 11 and it says,

(50:21):
I'm going to read it for the audience.
You're kidding me. Yeah, because it's right in front of me. Offer hospitality
to one another without grumbling. Without grumbling.
Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others as faithful
stewards of God's grace in its various forms.
If anyone speaks, they should do so as one speaks the very words of God.

(50:43):
If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides,
so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
Amen. That's incredible. And here's the part about love also.
So when we were forming the website, instead of using .com for Gorilla Brave,

(51:08):
we used GorillaBrave.love.
I love that. It wasn't about the money.
It isn't about how much we charge people. It was about bringing people together
in love in the food and beverage space that want to change the world for the
better, just like you're talking about, Peter.
So we haven't really even talked about all this.

(51:29):
That's so funny. We're living parallel lives.
That's so funny. Matter of fact, on our reservation system, I literally had
that printed out yesterday so that when you see the reservation system,
you see that phrase just random, which is really, really funny.
That's really, really funny.
That's great, Justin. That makes me so happy. I'm really, really impressed by

(51:52):
that. And we're in a very similar space.
I believe that as an entrepreneur, our goal is to grow the humans around us
positively. I have a tattoo of a bee on my hand, and it's always there to remind
me to positively pollinate the world. Okay?
Yes, Deborah in Hebrew also means honeybee, just so everyone knows.

(52:14):
So there's a double meaning there. That's funny.
But the thing about it is, you know, so there were two reasons I got it,
but both mean the same thing to me.
Deborah positively pollinated my life, but I also want to go positively pollinate the world.
And I call it a visionary thread.

(52:34):
If we go out and we live, for me, it's a man of God.
If I go live as a man of God, as a Christian man, and my Christian values,
my morals, and my ethics, and every single thing I do, that becomes the visionary
thread that sews the blanket of my life.
What is my life going to look like? Well, it's going to be this if I live this

(52:57):
in every part of my life, meaning I serve others. I don't serve myself.
And I, uh, it's incredible. And like, for me, I don't like myself.
We'll put it that way. When I'm in a selfish place or I'm seeking self pleasures

(53:18):
or I'm seeking whatever, I don't know why.
It's just not something I'm good at. I don't like doing it.
I've never felt good at it. I've I've always tried to invest more in others
and unintentionally by investing in others, I've grown massively.
Everything that I've done, whether it's now going to seminary is to help others

(53:40):
and serve others and to give more.
Like if I'm going to be an asset in this community, getting my master of divinity
and leadership so I can go help others, not in the church.
I know that that's why a lot of people go to seminary to be pastors and chaplains
and elders. That's not my goal.
My goal is to take this and put it where it is every day, not just on church

(54:03):
on Sundays or Wednesday nights or in a ministry here and there.
No, it's to make sure what you're same thing that Peter's doing is that every
single part of the lives I impact and influence,
see that they are serving each other, loving one another, and in doing so loving
God in every part of their lives because there is no other purpose for us.

(54:26):
We're all seeking these giant purposes, but those are earthly purposes.
Peter's purpose is not to be a restaurateur. Peter's purpose is to grow humans.
The tools that God has given him to do that is in the restaurant business.
You want to laugh again, Justin, on something really, really different?
I don't think you ever knew this either.

(54:46):
And for the record, guys, for the the audience and people that are listening in
you and i never really spoke this way when
we knew each other back then no you know we were just it was
business it was like hey let's talk about business let's talk restaurant let's
meet with this guy let's talk about operations let's bring your
chef and remember to do the test kitchen let's do all the things it was
business it was never in this capacity so for

(55:08):
us to be on the same page in life after all these years is actually
incredible it just tells you something but there's
something i because it because i didn't know you in this capacity
and I don't even think Pierre knows I in 2000
in 2000 2002 2003 I got a phone call from a bishop in Egypt okay and just for

(55:29):
you guys I'm orthodox I'm Coptic orthodox so we're the we're the we're the largest
church outside of Egypt and it's like the Greek orthodox faith I guess in that
sense you know same faith as if you're a catholic it's no different.
And so anyway, in our church, they're usually if you're going to become a priest,
usually there's a voting by the by the by the congregation.
Right. The top three votes, you know, they basically get, you know,

(55:54):
they're they're interviewed.
And then they're, you know, they're, you know, they sit with different priests
and they kind of like kind of go.
And out of the three, they'll pick the one that will eventually serve the church.
Right. And then they go over to Egypt and they're in a monastery for 40 days.
They're learning everything and they basically
do a funeral to kind of kill off
the person that you were and then you're going to get you're not

(56:16):
really physically baptized but you're anointed which is one of the seven sacraments
into priesthood you know so you kind of like you know the whole show it's kind
of almost like a like a baptism but with with priesthood it's not you're not
really getting re-baptized but anyway long story short in 2002 2003 without my me knowing anything,
I get a phone call from a bishop in Egypt, and I thought it was a prank call

(56:38):
from one of my friends being silly, because they were like the Egyptian accent, right?
And they told, he's like, yes, Mr. Peter, you've been, you know,
nominated for priesthood in the church in Michigan.
And I was like, excuse me? He goes, yeah, you were voted into priesthood, you know, in Michigan.
And I was like, well, you know, thank you, you know, your holiness,

(57:01):
but I'm I'm definitely not, not interested.
It's not my path. He goes, no, no, no. Like the holy person will say those things,
you know, your humility, that's normal for you to say that.
I'm like, no, it's, I'm not being, you know, this is my honesty.
This is this, I don't deserve that role and you don't know me in that way.
No, it would all do respect, but who am I to serve others in that capacity when I need service myself?

(57:26):
You know what I mean? And I'll tell you like,
It was that day impacted me heavily because I said no to God.
Like, you know, this is a calling. It's like people, it's a calling.
It's not like something that just happens.
And I felt like God was coming after me in that sense. And I said,
no, thanks, God. I'm not, I'm not worthy to do what you want me to do.

(57:50):
And that's when I kind of ran away from Michigan, you know, from Chicago.
And I went to New York to get away from that because what happened is it made
me more nervous. and it made me like, well, God, why would you do that?
Why would like, who am I to serve you?
Like I'm the biggest sinner, you know, look at my household. It's a mess.
You know, my life is a mess. You know, I'm not where I should be to serve other people. Like who am I?

(58:15):
And so one of my seven journey in Justin, this is the crazy part is as I was
going through that, that was where my heavy emotion was like,
how am I going to serve you?
Like, I got to make this up to him. You know, this, that's how I took it. I got to make it up to God.
Like, you know, I just told him no, but I can't say no. I got to serve.
I just got to figure out how to do it.
And I'd love to do it in the capacity of my business. I would love to do it

(58:37):
in the restaurant world.
What better than to mimic my mother's, my mother's approach to serving others. You know what I mean?
She did it with full love, without selfishness. You know, she was just very
focusing on, on serving others. And she did, she was amazing at it.
And that's what I wanted to do, but I wanted to have something more,
you know, something more.
And that's something I probably never shared with you before I

(58:58):
don't think you knew that no I didn't know that at all
that's interesting and how similar the journeys
are yeah they're like yeah it's like we it's like cross it's like you're living
what I was you know doing a million years ago and it's just so so interesting
the parallels it's just it's really interesting to me I learned more about you

(59:18):
today than I have all these years I know I was uh it was all business before,
I guess. I was a different human then, for sure.
Very concentrated, very worried about business, very, you know,
wanting to succeed at all costs, I think was part of it.
I didn't leave a lot of room for God in my life back then, for sure.
Even though he was a big part of it, I just didn't leave room for him.

(59:42):
It hasn't, I mean, and I, you know, up until, you know, 18 months ago,
maybe, maybe actually I would say up until four years ago, I really didn't leave
a lot of room there. And I had to start making room for him.
And I will tell everyone in the audience, like once I made room for him,
he was doing things in my life I didn't like also.

(01:00:04):
And removing people and things from my life that I valued and I cherished and
I loved, you know, and still love, you know. But that's when you let God in,
he's going to, this is what I refer to.
It's like my life was 52 cards, you know, a deck of cards. And all of a sudden,
my life got thrown into 52-card pickup. All the cards landed on the floor.

(01:00:28):
But then all of a sudden, God brought in another deck of cards and threw them on the floor.
But the only thing that I could walk away with was a whole 52-card set.
But there were two sets on the floor. And when he started to rebuild my life,
the deck of cards that I walked away with was part of the original and part of the new deck.

(01:00:49):
Deck and whether I liked it or not, he was going to restore relationships in my life from the past.
Peter is one of them. It's happening right now in front of the audience.
God is working right now. We are glorifying him right now, his kingdom,
his love, his grace, his mercy.
But one of the things that has happened to me as these cards have come back

(01:01:11):
together now, mind you, I still don't have the full 52-card deck.
God is still rebuilding that deck off the pieces.
But what's happening in my life and the purpose that I have and the success that I have right now,
even though I don't feel it, okay? I felt more successful in my previous life than I do in this life.

(01:01:34):
Feel, the key word is feel, but the reality is in God's kingdom.
In success, in financial success, in all the success, both earthly and heavenly,
I have more success right now sitting here recording this and abundance than
I've ever had in my life in God's kingdom. them.
And yes, do I wish I had a family and a fiance or a wife or my family unit and

(01:02:01):
my step kids back in my life?
Yes, I wish all of those things. But weirdly, the abundance,
the fellowship, the impact I'm making, the peace that I feel in my soul is tenfold
than it's ever been before.
The impact that this podcast is making is unbelievable.

(01:02:21):
Even with six months off, people go back and listen to the messages and start all over again.
I've hundreds of people that have told me just over the last two months how
they've started all over again on episode one and started listening to it to
help grow their businesses.
I never thought that would happen. I didn't even think that I've had any impact

(01:02:42):
in the world or anyone would care what I said.
I just followed what God was telling me to do.
And anytime I avoid what God's telling me to do, He keeps putting it in front
of me until I do it even when it's the things I don't want to do.
That's right. That's right. You know, the one thing I learned about being a
Christian is not everyone's going to like you. You know what I mean?

(01:03:03):
People think with Christians that everyone's going to love you.
But actually, nowadays, that's not really a true statement.
You know, it's you know, I remember it was written, you know,
in Revelations that the normal would be unnormal and the unnormal would be normal,
you know, and it's happened, you know.
And and so we're you know, it's just different times, you know,
and it's not the same persecutions that the saints had.

(01:03:26):
That, you know, as they were, you know, serving, you know, Jesus and spreading
the word, you know, they were, you know, they died horrific deaths,
you know, but, you know, for us, this is just different times and you have to
be bold, you know, you have to be courageous and have the faith and let God
work, you know, through you.
And I'm doing that to the restaurant, you know, I've always been really frustrated with myself.

(01:03:50):
You know, I've never really kind of shared, you know, of my deep feelings for
Jesus or God to anybody, even if you knew me, you knew me, if you didn't know me, you didn't know me.
And I just keep those things to myself because they were so precious to me.
And if somebody had something else to say, I would just kind of like keep silent
and just kind of move on to keep it going.
And, you know, for me now, like I'm, you know, obviously it's, it's on our website.

(01:04:15):
If you looked at my LinkedIn page, you'll see that
I'm very adamant about why I do do what i do and
and what we're planning to do and you know we're going
to triple in size this year we're hoping to open up a
mediterranean concept coming up here in in july and
then i have a bistro like a french concept that we're looking to open
up in the winter time and actually have some bigger plans after that that you

(01:04:38):
know just now you know i'm looking to expand the spanish concept in the midwest
pretty heavily you know and over the next whatever you know next decade and
kind of build something on a much bigger scale.
So I'm just, you know, all these opportunities, I'm just thankful and I'm just
gonna take it one step at a time.
And I'd love, I feel blessed, Justin, like you, you've been doing this for such a long time.

(01:05:02):
And for me, I feel like I'm just breaking out of my shell and,
you know, it's happened later in life for me, but I would do nothing different.
Like I feel all my experiences, whether they were corporate or whether they
were in nightlife and in different markets, It's all somehow come full circle,
and I feel capable to understand everything that I'm doing here in business.

(01:05:24):
Now I'm just making sure I'm tying it in with the big guy to make sure all this makes sense for me.
Yeah, that's where we are today. Well, and there's, you know,
I'm going to say this right now.
This quote, I actually printed it this morning, not any intention for you and
I, but it was something that I was going to write about in a future post on Instagram.

(01:05:47):
And it's by Nausicaa, I can't say the name, Nausicaa Twila.
It's N-A-U-S-I-C-A-A space T-W-I-L-A.
I can't say it. But one of the things that her quote says is there are rare
people who will show up at the right time, help you through the hard times,
and stay into your best times. Those are the keepers.

(01:06:12):
Amen. I love that. And you found it this morning. Yeah, I found it this morning.
I printed it because I was going to start to write a post about it.
And anyone who reads my posts on Instagram, I write them days,
if not weeks in advance sometimes. Sometimes I'll get an inspiration and write it that day and post it.
But most of the time I now layer it a little bit because I'm so wordy and there's

(01:06:35):
lots of posts I've never posted that I haven't really figured out if I wanted
to or figuring it out. But I do write a lot.
It's something that has become a superpower from a kid who hated writing and
hated English and wanted to
be in business so I could only deal with numbers and money saying a lot.
And I never wanted to talk in front of people. That was one of the things I

(01:06:57):
really was like, oh, but God had other plans with a podcast and a business and
things like that. Life's a little different now, huh? Yeah, exactly.
Having, being a speaker and talking in front of audiences and all of that stuff. So doing events, but.
I think that all of this, and Peter, I'm going to ask you if you could do a

(01:07:17):
part two and we get you on the calendar for another part because we didn't even
dive into the restaurant and training and sort of the deeper things of being
an entrepreneur and restaurateur that you are now and the lessons that you learned
all those seven years just being in the business.
So I'd love to have you back on if that's okay with you.
I'd love it. I'd be honored. Thank you for inviting me back.

(01:07:39):
I'd love that. Absolutely. So I will send you the calendar link and we'll get you on there.
And the audience, this is probably going to be, I can already tell,
one of our most influential episodes.
It's going to lead to something that you guys can see that entrepreneurship,
food and beverage world, it's a tangible business.

(01:08:01):
And it takes more than a decade to really build into something. thing.
You know, everyone wants to get into consumer packaged goods or a restaurant
or a fast concept or a quick concept and expects it to just blow up overnight.
Okay. But in this business, there's a lot of things you have to learn and it takes time.

(01:08:24):
I had to learn the food business from my father who had been in it for 20 years
before I ever got into it.
And farming, my parents were were in it for 10 plus years before I was ever born.
And I still had to learn from them and I'm still learning now.
But I'm using it as an example, Peter's an example.

(01:08:46):
And even in my 40s, I have went back and done the jobs that are at the bottom on purpose.
One, I wanted to learn from people. I wanted to see their trials and tribulations.
I wanted to see their struggles.
How much are they getting paid? How are they living their lives?
How are they managing it in these jobs?

(01:09:08):
There were so many things that I've learned as a human and a leader and an entrepreneur
and someone in the food and beverage space that I never knew before.
I didn't know how to make donuts from scratch or fry them or bake them or whatever,
depending whether they're cake or rice donuts.
I didn't, and I'm Italian, I should know this, but all the times I've done pizza

(01:09:28):
for all those years and we've done pizza for hospitals and cafeterias and all
that. I've never made pizza from scratch.
Never. Never really dove into it. Never understood the way the business works.
And I did it. Or the deli and sandwich business.
Sandwiches and burgers are some of my favorite foods. And I went and worked in that business.
Yes, I was flipping burgers. Yes, I was cutting deli meats. Yes,

(01:09:51):
I was making sandwiches. Why?
God put me there. God put me where I am now to give me humility because I needed
it, because I had so much success in my life and I had so many things that always went my way in life.
I couldn't possibly understand what it was like to truly serve people even though I was trying.

(01:10:13):
That's all I was praying God for, for years, for the last four or five years.
And finally, he's like, okay, you're prepared to serve people.
You've had trials and tribulations.
You've lost a lot. You've lost your family. You lost the businesses that you
built or sold them off or however you want to look at it, now I'm going to transform you.
And I'm going to put you at the bottom so you have the humility and understanding

(01:10:37):
what it's truly to be like at the bottom and learn these businesses no different than Peter did.
If we would have succeeded at Fat Camel Falafel 11 years ago,
neither one of us would be standing here, sitting here talking about serving
others and growing others.
Absolutely. we would have had we would have been given everything basically

(01:10:58):
I won't say it was silver spoon because we're gonna we would have worked for it but yeah we would have.
You know, we wouldn't have had a story, you know, everything would have been
so different. And, and I, Justin, I couldn't agree with you more,
you know, it's so funny because you're talking about going back to learn how
to make something as simple as a donut.
Well, you know, being, having a wine bar and having a lot of wines here,
we actually took a trip to Chile and Argentina last year, and I got to go into

(01:11:23):
these vineyards and it was an incredible experience,
but we got to go into the vineyard and look at the soils and look at how the people were working.
It was during the harvest and you know
when you see all the work and everything that was happening and i
finally get that bottle in my hand i'm like i'm selling this for 45 or
50 dollars you know like i'm like how is it that cheap you know what i mean

(01:11:43):
when i think about everything that just went through it and about all the people
that you know that had to make you know and it's so weather dependent obviously
and depending on the soil and all the people and all the all the investments
and we're talking about places that have like hundreds and thousands of acres
of land that you have to like,
you know, maintain and, you know, it's just crazy.
And it was one of those things that going back to basics and learning,

(01:12:04):
like how people do their things. And we've been to farms, you know, more than ever.
And, and we can share this on the next, on the next podcast,
but I, I'll tell you, I've been looking at farmland myself lately.
So, and I won't say anything more, you know, I don't want to ruin it and tell
people why, but it's one of the things I've been looking at, you know, now as well.
So I love it. You and I always kind of talked about growing grapes and olives

(01:12:26):
actually back in the day.
So I remember us talking about that quite a bit in our lives, interestingly.
And so, wow, you know, just because it's not delivered at the time doesn't mean
it's not going to be delivered by God.
Just because the prayers go unanswered right now doesn't mean that they won't
be answered eventually.
And you and I were talking about this. Sometimes it takes years.

(01:12:50):
That's just part of it. You know, we talked about Moses and his 40 years and
Job and his 60 to 70 years.
And, you know, it's not just a chapter of a book. Those are a lot.
That's a lot of time to go by before God delivers.
But when his timing and I say this all the time, it's something I heard recently
is, you know, God's never late.

(01:13:13):
He's rarely early, and he's always on time. And for me, it couldn't be more true.
You know, even though I may not always 100% love my life right now,
and I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm doing in seminary because
I'm like the infant in the room at 44 years old, I,

(01:13:33):
you know, I can see his plan.
I can see that he needed to stack my skill set, my suffering, my pain, my victories.
Also in my life before I would enter in seminary because I bring a different
dynamic of leadership and what we'll call,
you know, the real world outside of the sacred world being the church or religion.

(01:13:59):
And it's allowed me to have a different perspective, a perspective of humanity
outside of the closed-mindedness sometimes of religion and spirituality by the
leaders that That are in there.
Because they've spent their whole life in there. Right.
You know. And that's nothing against them. I appreciate what they're doing.
Their dedication. And they're definitely less sinful than me. For sure.

(01:14:22):
So. Yeah. Yeah. But at the same time.
I'll leave everyone with this. As we close off here. Is. What I have learned in seminary. So far.
Is that God does not choose the anointed. He chooses the least likely. to lead.
Often the ones that are the most broken, the ones that are sinful,

(01:14:45):
and the ones that can show that transformation with God's glory,
mercy, and grace is possible.
Because those are the ones who glorify his kingdom and his love the most.
And so if you're out there and you feel that you're a broken human or you're
sinful or you have addictions or whatever, or you're in the restaurant business

(01:15:07):
and things aren't going your way and you want to correct your life or you're
in the food business, whatever.
It is possible. God will make it possible.
He made it possible in me. He removed things in my life over the last four years,
five years, I should say. Actually, it's been five years.
My spiritual maladies, my character defects, my personality flaws,

(01:15:28):
my emotional obstacles, and my sinful patterns, and my selfish nature.
All those things have started being removed from my life by seeking him more.
Not just how I used to seek him,
but now giving it all to him and letting him do what he wants with me.
It's true. That's great, Justin. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more.

(01:15:49):
And, you know, you know, from our perspective and our, you know,
the way the church and how I believe is your growth is through suffering,
you know, so as you're hurting, that's actually part of your growth.
That's really, really important to remember to not say, hey,
I'm down, I'm hurt. Everything is so negative. Everything is so bad.
Actually, that's where your strength is coming from. You know,

(01:16:10):
I used to be the gym, you know, you know, as a gym rat for 16 years of my life, six days a week.
And I, you know, you know, I understood that I was physically tearing or physiologically,
excuse me, tearing muscle fibers, muscle tissue, right?
You're tearing them apart and you were trying to push that 20 pound weight and
it was really struggling with it.
But then, you know, I went rested, like the doctor told me, I eat good food,

(01:16:33):
you know, and I went back at it again.
And those muscle fibers grow and they grow stronger. That 20 pounds that you
were pressing becomes nothing.
You know, you push back and you don't even realize you try to grab the extra
weight. I'm like, hey, I wonder if I can push this. And you grab the 40 pound
and the 40 pound may still be light for you.
Right. You may have grabbed strength and not even realized it.

(01:16:53):
And the spirit is no different.
The spirit gets tore. You know, there's sin around us.
There's there's so many, you know, you know, the devil is alive and well and
knows all our weaknesses and is attacking us at every single moment without even you realizing it.
And the thing is to be aware of that and to know that you will be torn and you will suffer.

(01:17:17):
But guess what? That's the beauty of strength.
Pay attention to the suffering, grow from it, be around good people, get it.
So that's your food, right? Get be like, so just like the gym,
right? You go eat and you get some sleep, right?
You eat good food, you get some good sleep, you rest and you go back at it and do it again.
Well, the soul is you pray, right? You get rest, you meditate,

(01:17:38):
you take the time between you and God, make sure you're around others who are
inspiring you and people who can uplift you as well too.
So you have that good vibe around you and then go back at it again,
you know, and just fight through it.
And soon what you're suffering with, you'll be like, I used to bother me when I was younger.
Now that doesn't even faze me. and that's what's going to end up happening.

(01:18:00):
Yeah, I agree with you 100%. It's like working that muscle. The more you do
it, the better off you are.
And the more, I mean, don't get me wrong, there's dark periods where I don't
feel that I'm communicating with God and he's communicating with me.
But during those times, it usually means he's wanting me to go help others.
But the more my spirituality grows and I work that spirituality muscle, the better my life gets.

(01:18:25):
And the more prepared I am, it's not saying that better, when I say better,
I don't mean that bad things still don't happen or there aren't deaths or there aren't setbacks.
I mean better in my ability and capacity to not only get through it,
but help others get through it and grow from it and look at and learn from those

(01:18:46):
experiences faster because of the Holy Spirit working inside of me.
You know so that's what I'm
talking about as well and I love that Peter I agree with you the devil is one
consistent being and if you don't think the devil's working in your life you're
probably not working for God as much as you should be you know I will say that

(01:19:06):
if you don't think that it exists or he's not a part of your life then you're
just you're he's not worried about you.
Yeah, I agree. Amen, man. Amen. Amen.
So just for the audience also, I feel that this is the right thing to do.
This episode will release April 24th, 2024.

(01:19:28):
And it is Deborah Mikus's birthday. So happy birthday, Deborah,
if you are listening to this.
And I just wanted to say to the audience so they know, no matter what happens,
no matter bad, good, indifferent, I'll always wish the best for her.
It's part of being a Christian is that no matter what, I want her to be loved
and cared for and taken care of and protected and provided for.

(01:19:50):
And I hope God works in her life for sure.
I will also just say thank you with gratitude because without her pushing me
to start this podcast in the first place in 2019 and being my co-host for the
first two years, I would have never done this podcast.
So this changed my life also. So regardless of whether or not we're together

(01:20:14):
or we're a family unit, they are my family. I love them very much.
And I am very grateful for the
things that they've taught me and all the goodness that they've given me.
And because of them, I have a closer relationship with God.
Because of the loss, because of the suffering, because of the pain and the missing

(01:20:35):
of all of them and it being out of my control, role, I've got closer to God.
So happy birthday, Debra.
Thank you, Peter, for doing this episode. I look forward to part two.
Thank you for having me. It was such a pleasure and such an honor to connect
with you again, Justin. And I'm happy to be a part of whatever it is you're doing.
Yeah, absolutely. Where can they find you online, Peter? And where can they

(01:20:58):
find Spanish, Spain wine bar, sorry, and the location and everything since it
is over summertime? time.
Absolutely. So if anybody's in the Ocean City, Maryland, we're about two and
a half hours away from DC and we are located right in downtown Ocean City across
the 50 Bridge on top of the Cambria Hotel.

(01:21:18):
And if you go to spainwinebar.com, that's S-P-A-I-N-W-I-N-E-B-A-R.com.
We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook, Spain Wine Bar, Spain Wine Bar, Spain Wine Bar.
We're super excited and we're gearing up for the summer.
So I hope if anybody comes this way, please mention this podcast and I promise

(01:21:38):
to surprise you with a bunch of special things. So be honored to have you.
Awesome. Thank you, Peter. I look forward to part two. I'll definitely send
you that calendar reminder.
And anyone in the audience, please share these episodes. Please continue to
share it. That's why we're in 143 countries.
That's why people are listening to us around the world. this is making a difference. This is inspiring.

(01:22:00):
This is having impact and leading to more entrepreneurs who create jobs,
who have impacts in their community.
And if they're listening to this podcast, I guarantee you they're doing it in a positive way.
They're doing it in a way that serves their communities, their vendors,
their customers, and their employees.
Because they wouldn't listen to this podcast if they weren't a genuine human

(01:22:23):
who is trying to grow the world around them.
So please continue to share them. Please continue to use your voice and let
people know that it's out there. That's how this has grown.
We don't do much advertising and marketing. We have let it grown mostly organically
over the last five years. So I thank you guys for that.

(01:22:44):
Again, if you want to find us or listen to us or any of the other podcasts we
do, the Justin Ryan Bizarro Show, the Centurion Leadership Battalion,
as well as this one, Justin the Food Entrepreneurs.
Please listen to us on Spotify or wherever else you grow yourself through podcasts.
And if you want to be on the show or you're interested in talking or have any
questions, please just reach out to me.

(01:23:06):
DM me on Instagram at Justin Bizzaro, B-I-Z-Z-A-R-R-O.
I love you guys. I appreciate you guys. Live each day to the fullest and we're out.
Music.

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Episode 378: Peter Elias of Spain Wine Bar - Ocean City, MD. The DARK NIGHT of the SOUL. Learning from OUR PAST Grows OUR FUTURE. GOD Will is Always Blessing US. Spiritual Resilience is Earned.

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