October 19, 2024 • 34 mins
In this video, Chef Dan, Doris WithaD, and Troy Ganter the owner of Papa's Raw Bar, talk about the restaurant's history, the menu, and his passion for the food industry. We also discuss the importance of community and supporting other local businesses. Overall, the video is a great way to learn more about Papa's Raw Bar and the people behind it. Here are some key points from the video: Papa's Raw Bar has been in business for over 40 years. The restaurant is known for its fresh seafood, sushi, and fried rice. They are very passionate about food and about giving back to the community. Papa's Raw Bar is a great place to go for a casual meal or a special occasion. I would definitely recommend watching the full video if you're interested in learning more about Papa's Raw Bar. It's a great restaurant with a lot of heart. #SoFloDining #beachsidedirectory
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello, welcome back to SoFlo Dining. I'm Dars with the D and today we are at the Chef's
(00:10):
Table with Chef Dan and Troy Gantner in Lighthouse Point at Papa's World Bar.
Welcome to Papa's.
Welcome, welcome to SoFlo Dining.
Thank you, it's an honor.
So tell us, how did you get into the whole hospitality industry?
(00:31):
Funny, my parents were my kids of the fourth generation here. My parents opened Seafood World next
floor in 1976. So I kind of grew up having a family-owned business that was doing a
reputation for some of our seafood in South Florida. We were landmark for Caribbean style
(00:52):
and seafood cuisine and we had a fresh market. When my dad opened he applied planes back and
forth from the fresh seafood from the islands to here and today we still have that market.
We turned that old dining room into a speak easy for private parties. We also do some hosting and
chef experiences in there and now at Papa's World Bar you have a wonderful restaurant,
(01:17):
outdoor patio, fresh market and a private venue. So I don't think I really had a choice. Some say
I was either born next door or conceived next door so it's a legend still a mystery.
I read some of the legend, I don't know how you moved over little by little, which is the
small thing. Yeah, my next question was in B, have you always been in this location?
(01:40):
And when did you begin? But you already told us that.
Yeah ironically about every decade we moved over a bay. We now occupy seven bays in the
corner of the main street shopping plaza. I used to get my haircut next door which is our
prep and storage room. It used to be Ross's hair salon and we're now sitting in a
time place that changed hands five times throughout the time of 1976. One of them was pretty famous,
(02:03):
the Thai family they opened up Hard Rock Sushi in Florida off the Sunrise. So they're doing another
local legendary family and hospitality business. So this came about in 2014. We saw an opportunity to
open up next door to Sifu World and then paying homage to my father. We opened up Papa's raw bar.
(02:24):
We had no clue what to expect and it was originally supposed to be a hangout to
kind of accommodate some of the overflow. We were definitely seasonal and during season people
couldn't get in. There wasn't really anywhere to hang out. So you know maybe we'll open a little
raw bar next door and see how it goes and it caught fire quickly. Talk about it. I mean it did because
(02:45):
when I came down and I wasn't doing this yet I came in but like 12 years ago and right the first
place someone recommended was here. I made a friend Ruth who goes to like all the local restaurants.
This was the first place and she sent me, I'll never forget you had a lobster bomb. She took a
(03:05):
picture of the lobster bomb. She's like you have to come to this place. That was the first time,
the first place to come. Wow. You have something? Yeah. What is your most popular dish here?
So you know beyond our kind of core foundation my father always joked around that our business is
built on stone crabs and palm. That's why we have our own boats for that. We import our own stone
(03:27):
crabs and palm from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. So there's a lot of things from being that
core foundation of Skridian style seafood to that heavy ancient influence that pop its raw bar.
And not just your typical raw bar but I have to say I know what our number one seller is and
all the kids, grays, four and adults it's our fried rice. Eddie's fried rice.
(03:54):
Oh wow. That's what we always get. Well it appeases everybody and it kind of gets us out of that
stigma that we're just a seafood place or a raw bar. So you can come here and you can watch a
football game. Your wife can eat sushi and drink sake or enjoy a wonderful glass of wine.
We're going to share a craft cocktail and your kids can have fried rice and our known
(04:15):
ads from the best chicken fingers around. So there's an array of food and they were guilty of
trying to accommodate everybody's palate and having a hard time saying no to people. So we've
really grown to have a unique menu that's been designed by our passionate chefs, our passion
for food and our locals. I love that. If you can't cater to the locals, who cares?
(04:35):
But you also have a passion for quality. Quality, service and food.
I know that. There's none. Most everything's made in house because of the market we bring in our
whole fresh fish. We want to see the eye color, we want to see the bloodline, we want to be cut into
it, not you, no offense. We want to know that we're buying day-grown fish. My brother's in Miami,
he lives in Homestead. I'm actually married somebody in the seafood industry that got out of it.
(04:57):
But we have a pulse in the business. I think my dad's been buying and smuggling seafood for
just 75 years. The fried rice was kind of a, I hate to use the word fetish, but it was a fetish
of mine growing up. I didn't want to have big birthday parties or go to Chuck E Cheese or
Pizza Hut. I wanted to go to Benny Honest. I wasn't about to show. I've always had a passion for
(05:23):
Asian culture and Asian food and fried rice has been one of my favorites. So when we opened this,
he recruited one of the top chefs that trained on the sushi rei and bokeh. That was kind of the
epitome of the best sushi spot around town. And him and his son joined us at opening, even a couple
years before opening as we introduced sushi next door. But we knew that we were going to have some
incredible fried rice and sushi here. So you just went and answered my next question. I was going
(05:48):
to say, what is your comfort food? And there it is. Asian food is my comfort food. Besides the
own little chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes that my mom used to make growing up. And I love,
I have a passion for cooking, even though I try and say on a kitchen, I love Italian food,
but Asian food is up there. And I think it's not only because of my passion for food, it's because
(06:10):
of that umami that's defined in a lot of Asian dishes that's six cents that were after that.
It's almost like a drug, like a sugar, like people crave sugar in the United States.
And it's clean. And but it's yeah, it's clean and you'll find it in a lot of our ingredients.
And I know you cook. So I know you do cook. So you know, it's, and you know, I've been cooking
forever since I was like 14. And Asian food, I love it. I mean, when you make the right fried
(06:35):
rice, it's like a quarter of a teaspoon of foil. Yeah. You know, when you get it in some places,
it's like, what the hell is this? Yeah. When I come here and I think you can read the original
review I did here, I said, I put up, remember, I said, I put up this rice, it's any type of rice.
Wow. And I love, and I'm really specific about fried rice. And I was like,
(06:55):
So the first thing he orders when he goes into Thai dishes, because he can judge what's going on.
I love it. You got literally customers try buying kids who don't speak many words,
say, Papa's or fried rice. And the fact that you can get it with chicken,
and punk is my favorite. You know, we do things with punk that nobody does. We blacken it instead
of just traditionally deep frying it, which we also offer that traditional crack punk.
(07:18):
But I love the crack punk on everything on our tacos, on our fried rice, on our new season
salad. But you can get it with lobster, fish, fish, snapper, mahi, grouper, any fresh fish we
have, we do a homemade, uh, braised pork belly, you can get on the fried rice, shrimp steak.
So yeah, scallops. Yeah. We think you had scallops when we wanted it. Yes, we did.
(07:41):
Yeah. That's the day they were. Really off the chain so fresh. And just tender.
And, um, we see concepts. You've got a lot of concepts.
We created a lot. You created a lot of concepts. We did a personality test here. And I guess I've
been calling it the, the, the, the passionate one and the visionary. So you know, I've probably
(08:08):
been guilty of my life of being all over the place and not always finishing things. I've
learned to surround myself by great people. I've learned to ask for help. I've learned to
surround myself by better people. I'm still having that hard time. But it is. It serves
the soul and it helps us shine where we are. But we do, we really more see full world into
(08:29):
Papa's Law Bar now. And at Papa's Law Bar, we have this barrel room that I discussed.
It's, we have the old dining room next door. Still has the same floors. It's, you know,
Priscilla Preston, Muhammad Ali, Mickey Mannell. A lot of celebrities used to come here for
good quality Caribbean styles. He's been in a little kind of fish shack. So we turned that
room into the barrel room because there wasn't a calling or there wasn't a place where you can
(08:52):
have a small intimate private part. And we had a lot of requests for that. Now we cater on yachts,
boats, houses, trains, planes outside of here. Not trains, but we do planes. So it's nice to have this
unique concept of the barrel room. And we're still promoting it and getting it off the street.
Oh wow. The food is coming out. Wonderful.
(09:15):
Right back. We'll meet you here. Thank you. Thank you.
But yeah, the barrel room has been a great success and has that ability where we can have these
private parties. We can do, we do a class A of soul pairing every year. We do a dairy use
pairing. We have different beer dinners in there. But you can have a private party.
(09:37):
You can have a private party here in the queue. Yeah, for premieres. It's fun. And it's exciting.
We even had celebrities that want to party in there and kind of stay on the radar. So instead
of being in the public restaurant, that helps out. And so here's Papa's Raw Bar with concepts
within having a market, a speakeasy venue, and a restaurant. So, you know, my cousins and I got
(09:59):
together. We started the brand Papamigos and we were going to open that up and it was right before
COVID. So we actually teamed up with my family who was also born in the restaurant business. They
owned a meat market out west and unfortunately my uncle's no longer with us, but the legacy
continues about good food and service. Used to be Danny's meat market. My cousin grew up in
(10:21):
J.L. Alexander's. Her fiance grew up in Morton Steakhouse. So there's some of the best restaurant
people I know. And they took over Papamigos. So it's nice to have family running it. We never
quite opened up the location yet in Pompano. It's still on the fence. Yep. You're not trolling us
that flagship. Yep. They're running strong in Coconut Creek and Delray Beach. And they're not
(10:44):
stopping. You know, they helped open. And that's kind of our crazy Asian. So you get tacos, burritos.
They're doing things on the taco side that is always... Oh my goodness. They're trying to...
And then they kind of throw in that Asian mixture. So they have, you know, phenomenal sushi too.
We had sushi when we were at the BJ. Yeah, we had a little bit of everything. Yeah, we go there
(11:08):
often though. And our latest out-of-the-box concept was wontoms. We were going to take over the pier
or go on a bid for it. I'm so happy Danielle for motions took it over. But with that passion for
the Asian colostination food on the brewery approach, us the new cold brewery, which is
unbelievable. I mean, I've never seen a brewery so nice and chic and cutting edge. They've only
been open for a year and their tapering's been more successful than any brewery around because of
(11:32):
the time and effort they put into not just building an industrial brewery. I mean, it caters to the
masses. I can't wait until they get into distro. But they wanted us to do an extension of papas.
We thought it was a little too close. So we took the opportunity and our creativity and developed
wontoms. Kind of a word play on the word wontom, which brings our kind of better choice of words.
(11:54):
I'm not Asian. But you know, we have me and my two partners, Matthew Smith and Chad Daddy Chad Leap
is our chef and guru. And we really put together a trending brand that focuses on a variety of
Asian foods from Thai to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese. So we'll find something for everybody.
(12:15):
It was fun after COVID taught us to kind of build this scalable brand. So it's just a kitchen with
a window where we can pump our feet to the masses without compromising quality. We saw it. It blows
my mind. I was like, and we cater to the brewery. So you know, you can we can't cater 150 people here,
but the brewery can. So we drive a lot of traffic there. The Lucho family who owns a brewery,
(12:36):
they're also natives like us. So they're very well connected. And it's a perfect marriage. Yeah,
great beer, better people, amazing food. We love the concept. Like when we were sitting here, I'm
like, wow, you just water here, they bring it over. Like this is like wild. I mean, it was just so easy.
I mean, I hate the term no brainer, but it was like, wow, this is like a brainer.
It's the kind of place you can spend a couple of hours at with family, friends,
(12:59):
what I like about it is the multiple areas like you said about the areas of seating in there. You
have a lot of high tops. You have a bar, even nicknamed it like you have the patio where a lot
of people party and we can hold 250 people out there. They have the low tides area, which is all
the lower tables. So they have the lounge area and they have the bar in the front patio. So
(13:19):
it really cares to everybody. Some people like a certain way. I mean, yeah, wow.
Chopsticks for you. Thank you. We don't do anything without having a good time and eating.
My dad took me all over the world traveling when I was young. He said,
(13:40):
buying a big house where the money worked hard for. It's like, I want you guys to travel and I
want you guys to try good food. I want you to see what's out there. So it's also been part of our
brand is the experiences we've had and shared with other people and the experiences we have
with our locals. You know, when I joked around our business being built on stone crabs and conch,
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it's really built on relationships. That's what inspired our Eat, Drink and Be Local trademark
and bringing the community together, breaking down those barriers of competition and using it
as fuel to help one another, to share resources. That's what he said earlier. It's about service.
You helped me. I always tell you, you helped me. You're the one that's driving the course
(14:23):
where I got my trademark, the LLC. You told me one time, I wrote something about the social
dining. You said, you better trademark that. And then I said, where? I said, there's places online,
you know. Yeah, you're responsible for this. Well, we got to help one another. Thank you.
Thank you, Michelle. You're wonderful. Thank you. I believe we all have a little piece of the
(14:45):
answer. But it's just a matter of getting together and making it all come together and grow.
No, and she's not saying that you are part of the driving force of what we do because
a lot of the stuff I saw you doing was like blowing my mind. I'm like, here's a restaurant tour,
promoting another restaurant tour. That's like competition and I'm like, wow,
this is weird. But it works. And then we keep pushing each other. It's like in the Bible,
(15:10):
they say iron, sharp and zine. If we can keep pushing each other, and that's what I want my
voice to do. Don't fight and it's going to happen. It can't be perfect. But 80% of the time, just try
and push each other. It's part of service. And the same thing is when you recommend,
like someone says, oh, here, where's the good steak? And you recommend it. That's your character.
(15:34):
That's your character. You're saying, oh, no, stay here. I got whatever, you know,
the character is what's going to bring them back. We go to places where we're just heavily
tourist restaurants. And I hate it when they say, I don't talk about that place.
I'm like, no one's going to come here and you hear seven days a week. And if you're honest,
you're the one that's going to fall back on always. That's the community. That's it. That's
(15:58):
how we sell it. It's true. So you want to tell us anything else to add?
We want to talk about this. I kind of brought out some of our new items. That's one thing about
our brand too. And maybe we're doing it wrong. But we like to, we would do our menu at least twice a
year. We keep a lot of the staples on customers almost want to stone us sometimes for taking
(16:22):
things away. We look at the feed mix, we see what sells. It's never intentional. We've had names on
the menu of people who built dishes or helped inspire them and constantly have new stuff. We
want to stay trending. We want to stay relevant. We want to stay fun. I hate to comparison the
cheesecake factory, but the menu is explosive. There's almost too much on it. Thank God we have
(16:42):
three kitchens that we still operate most of our raw bar or home fried fish. And those unique items
come from the market side. We have a sushi kitchen and then we have our main kitchen.
So this is not the place that you're going to come for a course meal. Everything's going to come out
when it's ready. You're going to try and get your soup and salad first. It's not always here in
Jeep. There's a soup moving in here and we're constantly making it. But you know, things are
(17:03):
going to come out when it's ready and we really want you guys to share everything so everybody
can have a taste. That's that kind of family vibe we're taking up in Italian family or any family
for that fact. But it's all about sharing. So what's unique about these two roles on the outside
is we're big for service. We're in the hospitality business, but like I said, I think it's our
(17:24):
obligation here is to help one another out. So one of our guys, Tony, from Pelagic, we have our
Pelagic Knights here once a month. It's all about fundraising. When you come in here any given day
of the week, you can round up at the end of your check that goes towards that spotlight
of charity for the month. Pelagic Knights is a party once a month that we have in the parking lot.
We do a raffle and that adds on to the fundraising for that charity. We've even taken three of our
(17:48):
infamous foundations and named a roll after them. So in the bottom of the sushi menu, you'll see an
area. I'll show it to you. It's our pay it forward section. And there are Tony's pay it forward
roll. That's Tony D from Pelagic. All these roles we contribute proceeds at the end of the year
to those charities. The top one is pro-prote. They're not just a snack bar that you find in
(18:11):
Whole Foods. Matt and Chelsea Williams. They're the founders of pro-prote. And it is a wonderful
peanut butter snack bar. But they're saving lives. They saved my life. I've been in recovery for eight
years. Matt Williams is my sponsor. So this is one of those roles that they help design. Cheers to
pro-prote guys. Kudos. The Mission Fish and Wolf. They're taking families who haven't had the
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opportunity to get out and do fun things because they've been consumed at home,
either with a paraplegic son or some type of ailment. And you know, Tony Davis, one of our
pastors at Calvary Church, one of my mentors, him and his son, Josh. Josh is in my sunscreen.
He's been confined to a wheelchair and is a paraplegic. And what they're doing to help the
(19:00):
community out and share their story and share God's message is unbelievable. So this role is
titled the Mission Fish and then the other one is Tony D's pay it forward roll. That's not out
here, but that's the name of our section. And those, that money, proceeds Tony puts towards our
December party here. Every December, instead of a charity, we pick about eight to 10 families in need
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in the community. We had a close friend that died. He got hit by the bright line. The mom was left with
four kids and went on the way. We picked him last year. We had another one that was, had a couple
bone marrow transplants. Shout out to Rocco. And so any family that we can help her that needs help.
And Tony's been amazing that we've teamed up with Hayes Christmas tree and donate all the
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Christmas trees. Tony got his funds to help out with all the Christmas lights and decorations.
We get email lists from the kids of these families that want an iPad or scooter and it's not out of
our budget. We have families that step up and we're raising close to $25,000 because of the
community outreach. We've had one of our guests say, you know, I have a family that lost their
son to a hit and run. Can we honor them? Yeah, we'll throw them out for plagiate nights and let's
(20:04):
make them one of the families for Christmas. That's a completely organic non 501c tree where
the community is coming together to provide Christmas for local families. And that's a
testament to what Tony and stars is to deal with that pay a cold was all about. So the service
components alive and all here. It's a big part of our culture. When we recruit you, we want to
condition you and hope that you condition us and leave something behind. We hope you grow out of
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here that there's no bad blood when we leave and we're not perfect, but we're all about our core
values and our culture that it's iron sharpens iron. It's, you know, are we always learning and
growing? How cool would you better tomorrow than we did today and have that you want a place where
people come in here and people do come in here. No, what do you feed in the staff and what are
they drinking? Why is everybody having a good time? Why are people happy to be here? Why do I keep
(20:51):
coming back? Why do I feel like I'm on the water? She always says she always says, she always says,
they must be awesome working. I said, we're here with our neighbors. Yeah. And I said, why? What
he says is everybody's smiling. Yeah. All of us stay up to have a good time. We're not perfect,
but we really try and pour into one another, you know, and there's challenges in the world. So
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people create a fun, healthy environment to come to work with great food and great, but it's all
about taking service to the next level. We learn if you just look to take care of your customers,
who like business would be gone without it. You can't overlook the people that come and work for
you. You got to take care of them because the product will be a happy customer. If you have a
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loving team and you pour into them. So we really take that serious. It shows. It really does show.
And even on your social media, I've watched your commercials with the Blue Noil. You have fun with
the staff. We do. You know, Mary's been here, right? Jim's been here. How long you been here, Mary?
Um, half a year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we just step around over this way. So we can see you on
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camera. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're on camera. Yes. So yes. She on there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
She's back there much time. But she's been an agent too. When we talk about core values that
and we've been talking about development and, you know, let's not have to part ways with somebody
because they didn't do a good job and we didn't do everything we can to make sure that they had
(22:20):
the tools to succeed and that we had the ability to develop them. Let's make sure that our passion
for God speaks louder than being hidden. You know, like we're up front about who we are, who we want
to be and creating that healthy environment. So it's, we take it very seriously. And I guess I
said it three times now, we're not perfect. There's time for she has to call me out on
median and the hunker. You know, I got to get on her. And but it's, it's that ability to recognize
(22:43):
that, to be aware and to push each other. To be there for each other.
I think we will accept that criticism. That's the other thing. Yeah. Yeah. We do that.
Sometimes our employees just aren't in the right position. And sometimes you just have to move them
to another position where they start to bloom and their callots come out and.
I started off as a busboy and they couldn't find me because I was in the kitchen.
(23:08):
I was in the kitchen, feeling potatoes, cutting celery. And I was like 13 years old.
Really, that's it. And it never stopped. Yeah. Never stopped. I never, I had one job other than
kitchen. It was a security guard. Oh, wow. And that really didn't last well.
She knows the story. It's like the first time the guy says, okay, you can go on break now.
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And I said, well, what do I do? Do we go to the cafeteria? So I'm like, okay, so I go there and
I buy food. The next day I do it again. And I'm like, what the hell is it like $20 a day? I'm spending
on food because, you know, I'm bringing food, buying food. I'm like, I'm used to being in the
kitchen where you eat when you want to eat. You know, so it was a total, I need to go back in
(23:52):
the kitchen to security. Yeah, I'm the same way. I've always had a, I started cooking when I was,
my dad joked around and the frying pan was up here. And I joke about staying out of the kitchen.
I cook for my family meal prep. I love to inspire the dishes here, help with the chefs. I thank God
I've stayed out of the heat of the kitchen because I'm a people person and I love to be out in front
of people. I think that's where I shine the most. But my passion for food and people is
(24:17):
something I think we all share here. And it's a wonderful thing. It's like we don't stick me in
an office, you know, unless it's about 10 minutes at night. This is where I want to be as I'm full
out of here. And she's married as all the, she does all the recruiting here and we really,
we're always growing and learning and we keep taking that to the next level about development,
you know, making sure they understand our core values. You know, where's our training program
(24:40):
at? How can we tweak them? How can we test? How can we quiz? So it's fun. It's exciting. We look
around here today. Like we said, we have a bunch of eight players and we have a team and we want
a lot of that. It's part of like what we do, like with, with SoFloDonic, sometimes when we do our
reviews, we go into places, stuff's lacking. We offer to help train. Absolutely. We offer,
(25:01):
even if they don't want it, we let them know what could be improved. Yeah. Because some of the stuff
is like no-brainer stuff, but they, you know, people don't see it. And it's just about our training.
But you'd be amazed how many people don't want to take their criticism. Yeah. You know, and it's like,
okay, and, you know, I'm just trying to help you. It's all I want to do. Service. Because without
(25:23):
service, you don't really have much. You guys have a very polite, organic, vibrant, synergistic
energy about you. So I can't imagine it ever coming across the wrong way. Wow. Thank you.
Well, one of the big things too is that was, that was awesome. Wow. Of course. Thank you.
One of the big things though is what we said about the staff is,
(25:46):
I don't, I don't like saying the chain name, but you know, the big chain names. Yeah. And I call it
the, I call it the Chili's mentality where people have become accustomed to bad service. And it's
a shame. Yeah. I mean, we come here, we, the first time we came here, I loved it. We sat out here
and it was like, I fell in love with the place. Yeah. The service was, the lady told me what the
(26:06):
drink was, even though it was written there, she explained to me what it was. And a lot of time
you get places that say, oh yeah, it's right there. Well, some of these challenges, whether it's COVID or
a day of bad service, these things are what hold you accountable. Yeah. You know, people say,
why first someone stole me? Thank you, Amy and I, feedback was a gift. Yeah. And unless you treat
it that way, you're not going to be open to criticism. And you got to listen. Listen to what
(26:28):
people want. And you can't make everyone happy. But in this hospitality industry, it's our job
to make sure that we have open ears and open heart and open mind. And then we want to cater to
serve people. Why would you not listen? I mean, I hate when people would, when I was a ship,
people would make me. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not complaining. I'm like, no, tell me.
Please tell me. Yeah, if I don't know, shame on you for not saying anything. Yeah. You're really
(26:54):
not helping. Yeah, some more of this stuff. This is local inspired out of the box crazy
truffle pieces, spicy yellowtail in the middle. This is how crazy we get. This is the code rule
that pays homage to the code community, the code shopping center. Most of all, the code brewery.
Love you guys. Next, we're on Tom's kitchen floor. This is a code rule. You're not going to see
(27:19):
anything like it. It's got spicy king crab crunches in the middle. It's top half foot salmon and half
foot tuna. We sprinkle some cracked pepper on it. The chef torches the pepper to bring it to life.
They put thin sliced lemons that are so thin that you don't mind the rind. You can actually eat the
lemon. And it's so refreshing. It's got truffle butter melted on top of it. And then deep fried
(27:42):
salmon skin. That's also crunched on the top. So this, um, this roll right here,
this is a dive for it. Yeah, it's amazing. I gotta take a bite.
That sounds overwhelming, but there's so much going on there. So many flavors. You don't have
(28:05):
to go to Nobu or fight in New York. Yeah. To have something so fresh and delicious. We're doing it
right here in a raw bar environment. Right in life. House point. Now if you go to the Bahamas,
you find crack punk, crack officer. We do it on mac and cheese. Now you got our mac and cheese for
the kids that you can have any protein that I talked about on the fried rice. You can have on
the mac and cheese. It's one of my favorite. Now you say you're talking about the blackened
(28:28):
coughs and all. Yeah, just like the people really ever hear. It's right here on the season salad.
Blackened crack punk is still tenderized. We rub it in the blackening,
right? Put on the grill and it's crunchy and clean. It's not fried because the fried food is
delicious. We crave it, but sometimes it slows you down. I thought it was cauliflower. No,
this is blackened crack punk. We finally by popular demand got the tuna rice cakes.
(28:52):
Those are homemade rice cakes. That's a shime-style tuna, a little bit of a homemade
guacamole on top. And then our fried rice. This, it is pork belly. It is so tender,
melts in your mouth. Fried rice is done with the carrots, the onions, the egg,
the macaroni and the obachi butter. So this is more the Japanese obachi style.
Okay. Well, sometimes we do the Thai style, which has the oil, a little bit lighter, crispier.
(29:16):
This is not too much butter, but it definitely has the obachi butter. This is with the pork belly.
But again, you can have any protein on there. I'll take that since I touched it.
But yeah, there's something for everyone. It's not just seafood. We got happy hours here every day.
Five days a week, during the week, you can come and have half-off oysters, our raw oysters,
(29:36):
our Noah oysters, which are grilled and have the Parmesan cheese and the Cajun butter,
our Rockefellers. We do a black and blue, thanks to the Crockett brothers that another foundation
we support that went to Ely Ford Estate and played in the NFL. They came in here and I,
you got to put some bacon and blue cheese on an oyster with that garlic butter, that Cajun butter.
So we do it. We got the black and blue oysters. We got great Monday nights. It's a great kind of,
(30:00):
we don't want to say in the biz, but it's a great local night that we can come in here and get $5
off any sushi roll, $5 off our exotic craft cocktails and get $5 spirits. You can come in
here and drink Espelum for five bucks. Yep, it's unbelievable. Tuesdays with $5 off all our tacos.
We have Espelum for five bucks and Casamigos for 10. Wednesdays, half-off every wine on the menu by
(30:23):
the glass. For the ladies who have Wednesdays, we do music Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
outside Thursday. We also, it's always a party. It's always a party. I was going to say, because
several of the people that I recommended, they're like, what's it like? I'm like, it's kind of like
Key West meets the Bahamas. Yes, you know, and then the one of the gentlemen that came, first thing I
(30:45):
was not, I felt like I was in the keys. You feel like you're on vacation or some local stuff all over
the wall, stickers on the doors. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you have that something for everyone. You
can come in your casual, you can come in your dressed up, quite known for the first date because
it's so comfortable. Casuals for the blind dates, first dates, birthday parties. You come on your
birthday, you get a free deep fried brownie. We make this concoction of the brownies overloading
(31:10):
with chocolate chips, a touch of espresso, rolled in beer batter, deep fried, and served with vanilla
ice cream. On your birthday, you come in here, you get treated like a king. You know, a bug and
beyond. Oh my goodness. It's like one after another. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Do you want to share your address with everyone? Yep. We are at 4610 North Federal Highway. It's
(31:34):
a little blind coming from the south and heading north. We're between 10th Street and Sample Road.
Our phone number is 754-307-5034. You can find us at poppasrawbar.com. You can find us on
social media at poppasrawbar. There's an S in there, P-A-C-A-S-R-A-W-V-A-R. We're on Twitter,
(31:55):
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. You find us all over. You also have our trademark de-drinking
to local. So you can find us on those avenues and we also help to try and support and bring
together the community. So come to poppas, support us, get out there, support other local restaurants.
Give your feedback. It's a gift. Don't hold it back because you're only screwing us.
(32:17):
We're hurting us. So share your thoughts and feelings. Give positive reviews. Give those
negative reviews to the director of the owner so we can fix them. Exactly. At least the management
for the owner. Yeah, please. We're here. We're here with open ears. At heart. Yeah. Yeah, we're
supporting each other and we're helping each other when we know things. We just put it out there
and we help each other out. Yeah. You can't know what you don't know sometimes. You can't. Yeah,
(32:41):
so that's why we all stick together. Amen. So we're better together. That's right. Yes. Yes.
So thank you guys for what you do. We need more of this passion towards service and helping each
other out. Thank you. I mean, that's part of why we started this was I couldn't stand the negative
reviews and how they affect small, mom and pop places. So that's part of why we started doing
(33:04):
this. Yeah. We just want to help. We just know. We're tired right now. We could be traveling right
now. We could be going away again right now. But the thing is, we like to help and we know we have
knowledge that we can pass on. So why not? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure you come to papa's today,
(33:29):
tomorrow and the next day. And don't forget to. And always take care. Bye. Bye.
Hello, welcome back to SoFlo Dining. I'm Dars with the D and today we are at the Chef's
(00:10):
Table with Chef Dan and Troy Gantner in Lighthouse Point at Papa's World Bar.
Welcome to Papa's.
Welcome, welcome to SoFlo Dining.
Thank you, it's an honor.
So tell us, how did you get into the whole hospitality industry?
(00:31):
Funny, my parents were my kids of the fourth generation here. My parents opened Seafood World next
floor in 1976. So I kind of grew up having a family-owned business that was doing a
reputation for some of our seafood in South Florida. We were landmark for Caribbean style
(00:52):
and seafood cuisine and we had a fresh market. When my dad opened he applied planes back and
forth from the fresh seafood from the islands to here and today we still have that market.
We turned that old dining room into a speak easy for private parties. We also do some hosting and
chef experiences in there and now at Papa's World Bar you have a wonderful restaurant,
(01:17):
outdoor patio, fresh market and a private venue. So I don't think I really had a choice. Some say
I was either born next door or conceived next door so it's a legend still a mystery.
I read some of the legend, I don't know how you moved over little by little, which is the
small thing. Yeah, my next question was in B, have you always been in this location?
(01:40):
And when did you begin? But you already told us that.
Yeah ironically about every decade we moved over a bay. We now occupy seven bays in the
corner of the main street shopping plaza. I used to get my haircut next door which is our
prep and storage room. It used to be Ross's hair salon and we're now sitting in a
time place that changed hands five times throughout the time of 1976. One of them was pretty famous,
(02:03):
the Thai family they opened up Hard Rock Sushi in Florida off the Sunrise. So they're doing another
local legendary family and hospitality business. So this came about in 2014. We saw an opportunity to
open up next door to Sifu World and then paying homage to my father. We opened up Papa's raw bar.
(02:24):
We had no clue what to expect and it was originally supposed to be a hangout to
kind of accommodate some of the overflow. We were definitely seasonal and during season people
couldn't get in. There wasn't really anywhere to hang out. So you know maybe we'll open a little
raw bar next door and see how it goes and it caught fire quickly. Talk about it. I mean it did because
(02:45):
when I came down and I wasn't doing this yet I came in but like 12 years ago and right the first
place someone recommended was here. I made a friend Ruth who goes to like all the local restaurants.
This was the first place and she sent me, I'll never forget you had a lobster bomb. She took a
(03:05):
picture of the lobster bomb. She's like you have to come to this place. That was the first time,
the first place to come. Wow. You have something? Yeah. What is your most popular dish here?
So you know beyond our kind of core foundation my father always joked around that our business is
built on stone crabs and palm. That's why we have our own boats for that. We import our own stone
(03:27):
crabs and palm from the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. So there's a lot of things from being that
core foundation of Skridian style seafood to that heavy ancient influence that pop its raw bar.
And not just your typical raw bar but I have to say I know what our number one seller is and
all the kids, grays, four and adults it's our fried rice. Eddie's fried rice.
(03:54):
Oh wow. That's what we always get. Well it appeases everybody and it kind of gets us out of that
stigma that we're just a seafood place or a raw bar. So you can come here and you can watch a
football game. Your wife can eat sushi and drink sake or enjoy a wonderful glass of wine.
We're going to share a craft cocktail and your kids can have fried rice and our known
(04:15):
ads from the best chicken fingers around. So there's an array of food and they were guilty of
trying to accommodate everybody's palate and having a hard time saying no to people. So we've
really grown to have a unique menu that's been designed by our passionate chefs, our passion
for food and our locals. I love that. If you can't cater to the locals, who cares?
(04:35):
But you also have a passion for quality. Quality, service and food.
I know that. There's none. Most everything's made in house because of the market we bring in our
whole fresh fish. We want to see the eye color, we want to see the bloodline, we want to be cut into
it, not you, no offense. We want to know that we're buying day-grown fish. My brother's in Miami,
he lives in Homestead. I'm actually married somebody in the seafood industry that got out of it.
(04:57):
But we have a pulse in the business. I think my dad's been buying and smuggling seafood for
just 75 years. The fried rice was kind of a, I hate to use the word fetish, but it was a fetish
of mine growing up. I didn't want to have big birthday parties or go to Chuck E Cheese or
Pizza Hut. I wanted to go to Benny Honest. I wasn't about to show. I've always had a passion for
(05:23):
Asian culture and Asian food and fried rice has been one of my favorites. So when we opened this,
he recruited one of the top chefs that trained on the sushi rei and bokeh. That was kind of the
epitome of the best sushi spot around town. And him and his son joined us at opening, even a couple
years before opening as we introduced sushi next door. But we knew that we were going to have some
incredible fried rice and sushi here. So you just went and answered my next question. I was going
(05:48):
to say, what is your comfort food? And there it is. Asian food is my comfort food. Besides the
own little chicken cutlet with mashed potatoes that my mom used to make growing up. And I love,
I have a passion for cooking, even though I try and say on a kitchen, I love Italian food,
but Asian food is up there. And I think it's not only because of my passion for food, it's because
(06:10):
of that umami that's defined in a lot of Asian dishes that's six cents that were after that.
It's almost like a drug, like a sugar, like people crave sugar in the United States.
And it's clean. And but it's yeah, it's clean and you'll find it in a lot of our ingredients.
And I know you cook. So I know you do cook. So you know, it's, and you know, I've been cooking
forever since I was like 14. And Asian food, I love it. I mean, when you make the right fried
(06:35):
rice, it's like a quarter of a teaspoon of foil. Yeah. You know, when you get it in some places,
it's like, what the hell is this? Yeah. When I come here and I think you can read the original
review I did here, I said, I put up, remember, I said, I put up this rice, it's any type of rice.
Wow. And I love, and I'm really specific about fried rice. And I was like,
(06:55):
So the first thing he orders when he goes into Thai dishes, because he can judge what's going on.
I love it. You got literally customers try buying kids who don't speak many words,
say, Papa's or fried rice. And the fact that you can get it with chicken,
and punk is my favorite. You know, we do things with punk that nobody does. We blacken it instead
of just traditionally deep frying it, which we also offer that traditional crack punk.
(07:18):
But I love the crack punk on everything on our tacos, on our fried rice, on our new season
salad. But you can get it with lobster, fish, fish, snapper, mahi, grouper, any fresh fish we
have, we do a homemade, uh, braised pork belly, you can get on the fried rice, shrimp steak.
So yeah, scallops. Yeah. We think you had scallops when we wanted it. Yes, we did.
(07:41):
Yeah. That's the day they were. Really off the chain so fresh. And just tender.
And, um, we see concepts. You've got a lot of concepts.
We created a lot. You created a lot of concepts. We did a personality test here. And I guess I've
been calling it the, the, the, the passionate one and the visionary. So you know, I've probably
(08:08):
been guilty of my life of being all over the place and not always finishing things. I've
learned to surround myself by great people. I've learned to ask for help. I've learned to
surround myself by better people. I'm still having that hard time. But it is. It serves
the soul and it helps us shine where we are. But we do, we really more see full world into
(08:29):
Papa's Law Bar now. And at Papa's Law Bar, we have this barrel room that I discussed.
It's, we have the old dining room next door. Still has the same floors. It's, you know,
Priscilla Preston, Muhammad Ali, Mickey Mannell. A lot of celebrities used to come here for
good quality Caribbean styles. He's been in a little kind of fish shack. So we turned that
room into the barrel room because there wasn't a calling or there wasn't a place where you can
(08:52):
have a small intimate private part. And we had a lot of requests for that. Now we cater on yachts,
boats, houses, trains, planes outside of here. Not trains, but we do planes. So it's nice to have this
unique concept of the barrel room. And we're still promoting it and getting it off the street.
Oh wow. The food is coming out. Wonderful.
(09:15):
Right back. We'll meet you here. Thank you. Thank you.
But yeah, the barrel room has been a great success and has that ability where we can have these
private parties. We can do, we do a class A of soul pairing every year. We do a dairy use
pairing. We have different beer dinners in there. But you can have a private party.
(09:37):
You can have a private party here in the queue. Yeah, for premieres. It's fun. And it's exciting.
We even had celebrities that want to party in there and kind of stay on the radar. So instead
of being in the public restaurant, that helps out. And so here's Papa's Raw Bar with concepts
within having a market, a speakeasy venue, and a restaurant. So, you know, my cousins and I got
(09:59):
together. We started the brand Papamigos and we were going to open that up and it was right before
COVID. So we actually teamed up with my family who was also born in the restaurant business. They
owned a meat market out west and unfortunately my uncle's no longer with us, but the legacy
continues about good food and service. Used to be Danny's meat market. My cousin grew up in
(10:21):
J.L. Alexander's. Her fiance grew up in Morton Steakhouse. So there's some of the best restaurant
people I know. And they took over Papamigos. So it's nice to have family running it. We never
quite opened up the location yet in Pompano. It's still on the fence. Yep. You're not trolling us
that flagship. Yep. They're running strong in Coconut Creek and Delray Beach. And they're not
(10:44):
stopping. You know, they helped open. And that's kind of our crazy Asian. So you get tacos, burritos.
They're doing things on the taco side that is always... Oh my goodness. They're trying to...
And then they kind of throw in that Asian mixture. So they have, you know, phenomenal sushi too.
We had sushi when we were at the BJ. Yeah, we had a little bit of everything. Yeah, we go there
(11:08):
often though. And our latest out-of-the-box concept was wontoms. We were going to take over the pier
or go on a bid for it. I'm so happy Danielle for motions took it over. But with that passion for
the Asian colostination food on the brewery approach, us the new cold brewery, which is
unbelievable. I mean, I've never seen a brewery so nice and chic and cutting edge. They've only
been open for a year and their tapering's been more successful than any brewery around because of
(11:32):
the time and effort they put into not just building an industrial brewery. I mean, it caters to the
masses. I can't wait until they get into distro. But they wanted us to do an extension of papas.
We thought it was a little too close. So we took the opportunity and our creativity and developed
wontoms. Kind of a word play on the word wontom, which brings our kind of better choice of words.
(11:54):
I'm not Asian. But you know, we have me and my two partners, Matthew Smith and Chad Daddy Chad Leap
is our chef and guru. And we really put together a trending brand that focuses on a variety of
Asian foods from Thai to Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese. So we'll find something for everybody.
(12:15):
It was fun after COVID taught us to kind of build this scalable brand. So it's just a kitchen with
a window where we can pump our feet to the masses without compromising quality. We saw it. It blows
my mind. I was like, and we cater to the brewery. So you know, you can we can't cater 150 people here,
but the brewery can. So we drive a lot of traffic there. The Lucho family who owns a brewery,
(12:36):
they're also natives like us. So they're very well connected. And it's a perfect marriage. Yeah,
great beer, better people, amazing food. We love the concept. Like when we were sitting here, I'm
like, wow, you just water here, they bring it over. Like this is like wild. I mean, it was just so easy.
I mean, I hate the term no brainer, but it was like, wow, this is like a brainer.
It's the kind of place you can spend a couple of hours at with family, friends,
(12:59):
what I like about it is the multiple areas like you said about the areas of seating in there. You
have a lot of high tops. You have a bar, even nicknamed it like you have the patio where a lot
of people party and we can hold 250 people out there. They have the low tides area, which is all
the lower tables. So they have the lounge area and they have the bar in the front patio. So
(13:19):
it really cares to everybody. Some people like a certain way. I mean, yeah, wow.
Chopsticks for you. Thank you. We don't do anything without having a good time and eating.
My dad took me all over the world traveling when I was young. He said,
(13:40):
buying a big house where the money worked hard for. It's like, I want you guys to travel and I
want you guys to try good food. I want you to see what's out there. So it's also been part of our
brand is the experiences we've had and shared with other people and the experiences we have
with our locals. You know, when I joked around our business being built on stone crabs and conch,
(14:02):
it's really built on relationships. That's what inspired our Eat, Drink and Be Local trademark
and bringing the community together, breaking down those barriers of competition and using it
as fuel to help one another, to share resources. That's what he said earlier. It's about service.
You helped me. I always tell you, you helped me. You're the one that's driving the course
(14:23):
where I got my trademark, the LLC. You told me one time, I wrote something about the social
dining. You said, you better trademark that. And then I said, where? I said, there's places online,
you know. Yeah, you're responsible for this. Well, we got to help one another. Thank you.
Thank you, Michelle. You're wonderful. Thank you. I believe we all have a little piece of the
(14:45):
answer. But it's just a matter of getting together and making it all come together and grow.
No, and she's not saying that you are part of the driving force of what we do because
a lot of the stuff I saw you doing was like blowing my mind. I'm like, here's a restaurant tour,
promoting another restaurant tour. That's like competition and I'm like, wow,
this is weird. But it works. And then we keep pushing each other. It's like in the Bible,
(15:10):
they say iron, sharp and zine. If we can keep pushing each other, and that's what I want my
voice to do. Don't fight and it's going to happen. It can't be perfect. But 80% of the time, just try
and push each other. It's part of service. And the same thing is when you recommend,
like someone says, oh, here, where's the good steak? And you recommend it. That's your character.
(15:34):
That's your character. You're saying, oh, no, stay here. I got whatever, you know,
the character is what's going to bring them back. We go to places where we're just heavily
tourist restaurants. And I hate it when they say, I don't talk about that place.
I'm like, no one's going to come here and you hear seven days a week. And if you're honest,
you're the one that's going to fall back on always. That's the community. That's it. That's
(15:58):
how we sell it. It's true. So you want to tell us anything else to add?
We want to talk about this. I kind of brought out some of our new items. That's one thing about
our brand too. And maybe we're doing it wrong. But we like to, we would do our menu at least twice a
year. We keep a lot of the staples on customers almost want to stone us sometimes for taking
(16:22):
things away. We look at the feed mix, we see what sells. It's never intentional. We've had names on
the menu of people who built dishes or helped inspire them and constantly have new stuff. We
want to stay trending. We want to stay relevant. We want to stay fun. I hate to comparison the
cheesecake factory, but the menu is explosive. There's almost too much on it. Thank God we have
(16:42):
three kitchens that we still operate most of our raw bar or home fried fish. And those unique items
come from the market side. We have a sushi kitchen and then we have our main kitchen.
So this is not the place that you're going to come for a course meal. Everything's going to come out
when it's ready. You're going to try and get your soup and salad first. It's not always here in
Jeep. There's a soup moving in here and we're constantly making it. But you know, things are
(17:03):
going to come out when it's ready and we really want you guys to share everything so everybody
can have a taste. That's that kind of family vibe we're taking up in Italian family or any family
for that fact. But it's all about sharing. So what's unique about these two roles on the outside
is we're big for service. We're in the hospitality business, but like I said, I think it's our
(17:24):
obligation here is to help one another out. So one of our guys, Tony, from Pelagic, we have our
Pelagic Knights here once a month. It's all about fundraising. When you come in here any given day
of the week, you can round up at the end of your check that goes towards that spotlight
of charity for the month. Pelagic Knights is a party once a month that we have in the parking lot.
We do a raffle and that adds on to the fundraising for that charity. We've even taken three of our
(17:48):
infamous foundations and named a roll after them. So in the bottom of the sushi menu, you'll see an
area. I'll show it to you. It's our pay it forward section. And there are Tony's pay it forward
roll. That's Tony D from Pelagic. All these roles we contribute proceeds at the end of the year
to those charities. The top one is pro-prote. They're not just a snack bar that you find in
(18:11):
Whole Foods. Matt and Chelsea Williams. They're the founders of pro-prote. And it is a wonderful
peanut butter snack bar. But they're saving lives. They saved my life. I've been in recovery for eight
years. Matt Williams is my sponsor. So this is one of those roles that they help design. Cheers to
pro-prote guys. Kudos. The Mission Fish and Wolf. They're taking families who haven't had the
(18:37):
opportunity to get out and do fun things because they've been consumed at home,
either with a paraplegic son or some type of ailment. And you know, Tony Davis, one of our
pastors at Calvary Church, one of my mentors, him and his son, Josh. Josh is in my sunscreen.
He's been confined to a wheelchair and is a paraplegic. And what they're doing to help the
(19:00):
community out and share their story and share God's message is unbelievable. So this role is
titled the Mission Fish and then the other one is Tony D's pay it forward roll. That's not out
here, but that's the name of our section. And those, that money, proceeds Tony puts towards our
December party here. Every December, instead of a charity, we pick about eight to 10 families in need
(19:21):
in the community. We had a close friend that died. He got hit by the bright line. The mom was left with
four kids and went on the way. We picked him last year. We had another one that was, had a couple
bone marrow transplants. Shout out to Rocco. And so any family that we can help her that needs help.
And Tony's been amazing that we've teamed up with Hayes Christmas tree and donate all the
(19:41):
Christmas trees. Tony got his funds to help out with all the Christmas lights and decorations.
We get email lists from the kids of these families that want an iPad or scooter and it's not out of
our budget. We have families that step up and we're raising close to $25,000 because of the
community outreach. We've had one of our guests say, you know, I have a family that lost their
son to a hit and run. Can we honor them? Yeah, we'll throw them out for plagiate nights and let's
(20:04):
make them one of the families for Christmas. That's a completely organic non 501c tree where
the community is coming together to provide Christmas for local families. And that's a
testament to what Tony and stars is to deal with that pay a cold was all about. So the service
components alive and all here. It's a big part of our culture. When we recruit you, we want to
condition you and hope that you condition us and leave something behind. We hope you grow out of
(20:29):
here that there's no bad blood when we leave and we're not perfect, but we're all about our core
values and our culture that it's iron sharpens iron. It's, you know, are we always learning and
growing? How cool would you better tomorrow than we did today and have that you want a place where
people come in here and people do come in here. No, what do you feed in the staff and what are
they drinking? Why is everybody having a good time? Why are people happy to be here? Why do I keep
(20:51):
coming back? Why do I feel like I'm on the water? She always says she always says, she always says,
they must be awesome working. I said, we're here with our neighbors. Yeah. And I said, why? What
he says is everybody's smiling. Yeah. All of us stay up to have a good time. We're not perfect,
but we really try and pour into one another, you know, and there's challenges in the world. So
(21:11):
people create a fun, healthy environment to come to work with great food and great, but it's all
about taking service to the next level. We learn if you just look to take care of your customers,
who like business would be gone without it. You can't overlook the people that come and work for
you. You got to take care of them because the product will be a happy customer. If you have a
(21:33):
loving team and you pour into them. So we really take that serious. It shows. It really does show.
And even on your social media, I've watched your commercials with the Blue Noil. You have fun with
the staff. We do. You know, Mary's been here, right? Jim's been here. How long you been here, Mary?
Um, half a year. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we just step around over this way. So we can see you on
(21:58):
camera. Oh, yeah. Oh, you're on camera. Yes. So yes. She on there? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
She's back there much time. But she's been an agent too. When we talk about core values that
and we've been talking about development and, you know, let's not have to part ways with somebody
because they didn't do a good job and we didn't do everything we can to make sure that they had
(22:20):
the tools to succeed and that we had the ability to develop them. Let's make sure that our passion
for God speaks louder than being hidden. You know, like we're up front about who we are, who we want
to be and creating that healthy environment. So it's, we take it very seriously. And I guess I
said it three times now, we're not perfect. There's time for she has to call me out on
median and the hunker. You know, I got to get on her. And but it's, it's that ability to recognize
(22:43):
that, to be aware and to push each other. To be there for each other.
I think we will accept that criticism. That's the other thing. Yeah. Yeah. We do that.
Sometimes our employees just aren't in the right position. And sometimes you just have to move them
to another position where they start to bloom and their callots come out and.
I started off as a busboy and they couldn't find me because I was in the kitchen.
(23:08):
I was in the kitchen, feeling potatoes, cutting celery. And I was like 13 years old.
Really, that's it. And it never stopped. Yeah. Never stopped. I never, I had one job other than
kitchen. It was a security guard. Oh, wow. And that really didn't last well.
She knows the story. It's like the first time the guy says, okay, you can go on break now.
(23:30):
And I said, well, what do I do? Do we go to the cafeteria? So I'm like, okay, so I go there and
I buy food. The next day I do it again. And I'm like, what the hell is it like $20 a day? I'm spending
on food because, you know, I'm bringing food, buying food. I'm like, I'm used to being in the
kitchen where you eat when you want to eat. You know, so it was a total, I need to go back in
(23:52):
the kitchen to security. Yeah, I'm the same way. I've always had a, I started cooking when I was,
my dad joked around and the frying pan was up here. And I joke about staying out of the kitchen.
I cook for my family meal prep. I love to inspire the dishes here, help with the chefs. I thank God
I've stayed out of the heat of the kitchen because I'm a people person and I love to be out in front
of people. I think that's where I shine the most. But my passion for food and people is
(24:17):
something I think we all share here. And it's a wonderful thing. It's like we don't stick me in
an office, you know, unless it's about 10 minutes at night. This is where I want to be as I'm full
out of here. And she's married as all the, she does all the recruiting here and we really,
we're always growing and learning and we keep taking that to the next level about development,
you know, making sure they understand our core values. You know, where's our training program
(24:40):
at? How can we tweak them? How can we test? How can we quiz? So it's fun. It's exciting. We look
around here today. Like we said, we have a bunch of eight players and we have a team and we want
a lot of that. It's part of like what we do, like with, with SoFloDonic, sometimes when we do our
reviews, we go into places, stuff's lacking. We offer to help train. Absolutely. We offer,
(25:01):
even if they don't want it, we let them know what could be improved. Yeah. Because some of the stuff
is like no-brainer stuff, but they, you know, people don't see it. And it's just about our training.
But you'd be amazed how many people don't want to take their criticism. Yeah. You know, and it's like,
okay, and, you know, I'm just trying to help you. It's all I want to do. Service. Because without
(25:23):
service, you don't really have much. You guys have a very polite, organic, vibrant, synergistic
energy about you. So I can't imagine it ever coming across the wrong way. Wow. Thank you.
Well, one of the big things too is that was, that was awesome. Wow. Of course. Thank you.
One of the big things though is what we said about the staff is,
(25:46):
I don't, I don't like saying the chain name, but you know, the big chain names. Yeah. And I call it
the, I call it the Chili's mentality where people have become accustomed to bad service. And it's
a shame. Yeah. I mean, we come here, we, the first time we came here, I loved it. We sat out here
and it was like, I fell in love with the place. Yeah. The service was, the lady told me what the
(26:06):
drink was, even though it was written there, she explained to me what it was. And a lot of time
you get places that say, oh yeah, it's right there. Well, some of these challenges, whether it's COVID or
a day of bad service, these things are what hold you accountable. Yeah. You know, people say,
why first someone stole me? Thank you, Amy and I, feedback was a gift. Yeah. And unless you treat
it that way, you're not going to be open to criticism. And you got to listen. Listen to what
(26:28):
people want. And you can't make everyone happy. But in this hospitality industry, it's our job
to make sure that we have open ears and open heart and open mind. And then we want to cater to
serve people. Why would you not listen? I mean, I hate when people would, when I was a ship,
people would make me. Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not complaining. I'm like, no, tell me.
Please tell me. Yeah, if I don't know, shame on you for not saying anything. Yeah. You're really
(26:54):
not helping. Yeah, some more of this stuff. This is local inspired out of the box crazy
truffle pieces, spicy yellowtail in the middle. This is how crazy we get. This is the code rule
that pays homage to the code community, the code shopping center. Most of all, the code brewery.
Love you guys. Next, we're on Tom's kitchen floor. This is a code rule. You're not going to see
(27:19):
anything like it. It's got spicy king crab crunches in the middle. It's top half foot salmon and half
foot tuna. We sprinkle some cracked pepper on it. The chef torches the pepper to bring it to life.
They put thin sliced lemons that are so thin that you don't mind the rind. You can actually eat the
lemon. And it's so refreshing. It's got truffle butter melted on top of it. And then deep fried
(27:42):
salmon skin. That's also crunched on the top. So this, um, this roll right here,
this is a dive for it. Yeah, it's amazing. I gotta take a bite.
That sounds overwhelming, but there's so much going on there. So many flavors. You don't have
(28:05):
to go to Nobu or fight in New York. Yeah. To have something so fresh and delicious. We're doing it
right here in a raw bar environment. Right in life. House point. Now if you go to the Bahamas,
you find crack punk, crack officer. We do it on mac and cheese. Now you got our mac and cheese for
the kids that you can have any protein that I talked about on the fried rice. You can have on
the mac and cheese. It's one of my favorite. Now you say you're talking about the blackened
(28:28):
coughs and all. Yeah, just like the people really ever hear. It's right here on the season salad.
Blackened crack punk is still tenderized. We rub it in the blackening,
right? Put on the grill and it's crunchy and clean. It's not fried because the fried food is
delicious. We crave it, but sometimes it slows you down. I thought it was cauliflower. No,
this is blackened crack punk. We finally by popular demand got the tuna rice cakes.
(28:52):
Those are homemade rice cakes. That's a shime-style tuna, a little bit of a homemade
guacamole on top. And then our fried rice. This, it is pork belly. It is so tender,
melts in your mouth. Fried rice is done with the carrots, the onions, the egg,
the macaroni and the obachi butter. So this is more the Japanese obachi style.
Okay. Well, sometimes we do the Thai style, which has the oil, a little bit lighter, crispier.
(29:16):
This is not too much butter, but it definitely has the obachi butter. This is with the pork belly.
But again, you can have any protein on there. I'll take that since I touched it.
But yeah, there's something for everyone. It's not just seafood. We got happy hours here every day.
Five days a week, during the week, you can come and have half-off oysters, our raw oysters,
(29:36):
our Noah oysters, which are grilled and have the Parmesan cheese and the Cajun butter,
our Rockefellers. We do a black and blue, thanks to the Crockett brothers that another foundation
we support that went to Ely Ford Estate and played in the NFL. They came in here and I,
you got to put some bacon and blue cheese on an oyster with that garlic butter, that Cajun butter.
So we do it. We got the black and blue oysters. We got great Monday nights. It's a great kind of,
(30:00):
we don't want to say in the biz, but it's a great local night that we can come in here and get $5
off any sushi roll, $5 off our exotic craft cocktails and get $5 spirits. You can come in
here and drink Espelum for five bucks. Yep, it's unbelievable. Tuesdays with $5 off all our tacos.
We have Espelum for five bucks and Casamigos for 10. Wednesdays, half-off every wine on the menu by
(30:23):
the glass. For the ladies who have Wednesdays, we do music Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
outside Thursday. We also, it's always a party. It's always a party. I was going to say, because
several of the people that I recommended, they're like, what's it like? I'm like, it's kind of like
Key West meets the Bahamas. Yes, you know, and then the one of the gentlemen that came, first thing I
(30:45):
was not, I felt like I was in the keys. You feel like you're on vacation or some local stuff all over
the wall, stickers on the doors. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you have that something for everyone. You
can come in your casual, you can come in your dressed up, quite known for the first date because
it's so comfortable. Casuals for the blind dates, first dates, birthday parties. You come on your
birthday, you get a free deep fried brownie. We make this concoction of the brownies overloading
(31:10):
with chocolate chips, a touch of espresso, rolled in beer batter, deep fried, and served with vanilla
ice cream. On your birthday, you come in here, you get treated like a king. You know, a bug and
beyond. Oh my goodness. It's like one after another. Awesome. Yeah. Yeah. All right.
Do you want to share your address with everyone? Yep. We are at 4610 North Federal Highway. It's
(31:34):
a little blind coming from the south and heading north. We're between 10th Street and Sample Road.
Our phone number is 754-307-5034. You can find us at poppasrawbar.com. You can find us on
social media at poppasrawbar. There's an S in there, P-A-C-A-S-R-A-W-V-A-R. We're on Twitter,
(31:55):
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. You find us all over. You also have our trademark de-drinking
to local. So you can find us on those avenues and we also help to try and support and bring
together the community. So come to poppas, support us, get out there, support other local restaurants.
Give your feedback. It's a gift. Don't hold it back because you're only screwing us.
(32:17):
We're hurting us. So share your thoughts and feelings. Give positive reviews. Give those
negative reviews to the director of the owner so we can fix them. Exactly. At least the management
for the owner. Yeah, please. We're here. We're here with open ears. At heart. Yeah. Yeah, we're
supporting each other and we're helping each other when we know things. We just put it out there
and we help each other out. Yeah. You can't know what you don't know sometimes. You can't. Yeah,
(32:41):
so that's why we all stick together. Amen. So we're better together. That's right. Yes. Yes.
So thank you guys for what you do. We need more of this passion towards service and helping each
other out. Thank you. I mean, that's part of why we started this was I couldn't stand the negative
reviews and how they affect small, mom and pop places. So that's part of why we started doing
(33:04):
this. Yeah. We just want to help. We just know. We're tired right now. We could be traveling right
now. We could be going away again right now. But the thing is, we like to help and we know we have
knowledge that we can pass on. So why not? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Make sure you come to papa's today,
(33:29):
tomorrow and the next day. And don't forget to. And always take care. Bye. Bye.
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