Who’s at The Chef’s Table with Chef Dan? Chef Armando of Candela fires up the conversation.

This video is an interview with the chef and owner of Candela Restaurant in Wilton Manners. Chef Armando discusses the challenges and rewards of running a restaurant, as well as his passion for food. He also talks about the importance of family and work-life balance. Finally, he and Chef Dan give some tips for people who are thinking about opening their own restaurant. Here is a more detailed summary of the video: • The chefs talk about the challenges of running a restaurant, such as long hours, stress, and the need to constantly adapt to the changing market. • They also talk about the rewards of running a restaurant, such as the satisfaction of creating delicious food and the opportunity to meet new people. • The chefs emphasize the importance of family and work-life balance. They share their own experiences of how they have managed to balance their personal and professional lives. • They give some tips for people who are thinking about opening their own restaurant, such as the importance of having a strong business plan and being passionate about food. • The chefs also talk about the importance of consistency and quality. They believe that these are the two most important factors in running a successful restaurant. Overall, this video is a great resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about the restaurant industry. The chefs share their insights and experiences in a candid and informative way. Would you like to learn more about running a restaurant or Candela Restaurant?

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi everybody, welcome back to SoFlo Dining. I'm Darcy Lleby and today we are at Chef's

(00:09):
Table with Chef Dan and Chef Armando and we are at Armandela restaurant. And the guys
have been talking about some stuff here so we were asking some questions and Armando
we wanted to know how long have you been in business? Hi, yeah, I think it was September

(00:34):
2007 that I got into the location and probably I don't know, long time. You're pretty much
a pillar in this neighborhood. Yeah, I think that the guy next to me is being older than

(00:59):
me here than everybody else came, you know, a little bit later. A lot of change in the
neighborhood, you know, people. Yeah, I see a lot of new buildings, a lot of new stuff
coming up. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, new people, you know, people come and go. I remember when
I first started doing this, people were telling me, you got to go to Candela, you got to go

(01:21):
to Candela. And I was like, where's Candela? They said, well, it matters, like where? And
nobody would give me the directions. They're like, no, no, it was like a secret, like,
you know, like they were holding this as a secret. Really? And I had to find it. I had
to go online, search it and do the whole thing. Because nobody wanted to tell me they were
holding this as a secret. Yeah, back in the day, it was a lot less, it was not so easy

(01:53):
to find a place. Now, you know, with all the internet, you have easy access. Before it
was a little bit more like with the mouth and that, you know, but they would keep it
as a secret from me. Somehow, yes, somehow they wish me well, but they wanted to keep
it to themselves. In a way, I should have probably listened to them and kept myself

(02:15):
as small and more, you know, but we did pretty much everybody does, grows a little bit more.
Yes, some people grow too big and then it's, so I understand you wanted to keep your original
self. But you were at the same time wanted to be able to showcase your food to more people.

(02:38):
So you know, it's a difficult thing at the moment and in the rush of events, you know,
you're on the newspapers and you're on TV and then you're again on the newspapers and
then you have an interview with somebody and they call it and people influence you in a

(03:02):
way that they want more of you and you feel like you have to provide.
To sacrifice something.
Oh, that's what you don't know. An experience on my part, you know, you think that you can
do everything and then you, yes, yes, we can do it. No, there's always a sacrifice and

(03:24):
I think that my biggest achievement is that after like 17, 18 years that I have the restaurant,
I didn't lose my family. Although I didn't get divorced. I had a lot of trouble, but
I didn't get divorced. You know, I took care of the kids. I took Sunday soft. It's a long

(03:44):
time ago, which is not a very small move on the restaurant business. You know, then I
have to have some time for the family. So at least I kept the business and I kept it
with the family together and you know, that is important.
That's a lot. That is in this business. That's a lot is being with somebody that knows what

(04:06):
the business is. I mean, when I came up, I was doing this since I'm 14 years old and
anybody I dated or was married to or anything new, holidays, weekends, no vacation, you
know, they knew that you're not going to see me Christmas. You're not going to see me
Easter. You know, and then what we do is we celebrate it a different day. You know, it's

(04:27):
just that but some people, you know, they get involved with people and they don't understand
the business. They don't understand that this is, you know, this is our life. This is our
blood.
Very important to have a good balance because without a good balance, you cannot achieve.
Yeah, well, in my case, I think that the only good thing I did, I sacrificed the restaurant

(04:51):
for the family, meaning I did to, I do take every holiday, every Sunday, I tried to do
that because otherwise I would not, now the kids are at all, and they do their own thing.
So I get the sentence for myself. Now I do it for myself. Now I don't want to give it

(05:13):
back. Now it's mine and my wife, you know. We go to the beach and you know, we enjoy
ourselves. But it's a lot of hard work. It's many, many years, you know, in the location.
It's a lot of, you know, a lot of hard work and consistency.
Yeah, we've done a lot of these interviews and you know, pretty much it's the same thing.

(05:40):
You're saying pretty much, you know, we're pretty much picking and choosing who we interview.
And we see, we see the successful places. It's the same thing. The owner's here. You
know, this is the life. You know, this is it.
Here is my wife and myself. We cook. Like, I cannot blame, if something is not right,

(06:04):
I cannot blame a sushi chef or a cook. It doesn't work like that. It's me. Even though
in a big operation it's always me that want to blame, you know, I take all the blame,
whatever. But here, it's actually me. If you want something now, either I will cook it
for you or my wife. It's the way it is. I think I simplify it in a way that I don't have to

(06:34):
deal with many people coming through the kitchen.
And that's always a challenge, too, getting the right people. You know, and for me, I
always found it was more work.
I gave up. If I were to have someone to cook in the kitchen with me or when Anna here or

(06:56):
someone that takes over the kitchen, you know, I'm not going to look for it. It will come
right because I cannot be interviewing and doing.
You have your systems. I mean, I've been in the kitchen.
And I've seen your systems and you are perfectionists. I mean, I've seen the refrigerators, how you

(07:16):
have them lined up, everything. You know, it's a very special kitchen.
It's my kitchen.
But you know what I mean? Then you're all in and changes everything.
It's a big problem.
It's a big problem. Yeah, I used to have my walk-in and I used to have, you know, how
you have the racks and I had one rack and I told the rest of the kitchen, this is your

(07:38):
rack.
Okay, well, that's cool. Yeah.
This is the prep rack. This is my rack. This is your rack.
I have not thought of that. I should.
And I'm coming by every day to make sure everything is labeled, dated and clean. But whatever you
put on there, knock yourself out. Don't touch my stuff.
Well, I'm telling you, this is the little things that after many, many years, if you

(08:02):
have the chance to do it, you do it all for yourself. So in the kitchen, when I built
it through all these many years, I built it in a way that it would benefit me 150%
and 50%, you know, it would give me a comfort of working. It would be easy. Things are what

(08:24):
they're supposed to be. It flows in a certain way.
I don't try to get things to be too complicated. If I, well, this I learned a long time ago
with, with Master Chef Klaus, you know, in the Art Institute here. And he would, you
know, when you're there, you try to impress people and you try to do complicated things
and he will break it and say, don't, you know, if you're going to do it for 500 people,

(08:47):
you know, then don't do it at all. It's got to be something. So those things, you appreciate
those things way into your experience lives as a cook, as a chef, as a kitchen manager,
you know. So yeah.
You know what they say? It's the little things.

(09:08):
No, what I like here is that.
And what I love here is every time we go, you don't notice because you're in the kitchen,
but I always say when the food comes out, I'm always like, this is classical. This is
classical. This is how it's supposed to be. Every time we get stuff, right? And I look
at her and I'm like, that's, that's how it's supposed to be. You know, and then we go to
other restaurants or similar dishes and it's, I mean, I'm not saying they don't taste good,

(09:34):
but I'm saying they put all this stuff on it.
Listen, like this is not what I want. I want, there are things that I wish I could do, but
I know my limitations. I cannot do three or four different textures in a dish, even though
I would love to eat. I am only doing it with a limited amount of people by myself. Those

(09:59):
things I would love to do things like that. I cannot. I try to do it in a more simple
way. You know, I simplify things. I try to make, you know, a clean dish, the hot food,
some elevation, a little contrast in color and, you know, that's, that's, that's, for

(10:26):
me, that's enough. You know, that's in the environment that I am. It's good.
That's the thing. Yes. You know, when someone comes to a Spanish restaurant, they want Spanish
food, you know, and sometimes you go to places and that's not what you get. And that's why
I, that's what I love about these places. You know, people ask me all the time, where's
the best Spanish paella?

(10:47):
Yeah, right here.
Well, I said a lot of, a lot of paella.
Yeah, but when I say Spanish traditional, I say here.
Well, I try.
Now I'm Cuban. I love Cuban. I love Cuban paella.
But it's a little different.
It's a little different.
It's a little different.
It's a little different. Yeah, yeah. The Cuban paella is a whole different thing. I would

(11:11):
say that probably it's a rosin casuela.
And it's Americanized.
It's Americanized now.
But, you know, no, the paella here is the paella as I used to cook in, in the kitchen.
In, of course, there's going to be a whole bunch of people that's going to say, oh, you

(11:31):
can put chorizo in the paella, or you can do this, or you can, which I understand. 100%,
I agree with them. 150%. They live in Spain.
They cook for themselves. And I cook for the people who give me the $25 that the paella
costs.
Right.
And I'm like selling out. Well, I don't know, am I going to disappoint you? And that's what

(11:57):
you want. Am I going to come and say my own clientele on behalf of the purity of the Spanish
paella?
I, I don't get subsidized by the, by the Valencia government.
And that's the thing is like the paella, when you look up paella, like the real definition,

(12:20):
the old books, they tell you artichoke, garbanzo.
They tell you that in there. It's in there.
But people have been conditioned to visit Spain, go to the tourist section, and they're going
to give them, you know, and it's not that it's bad, but that's what I'm saying. Like
when I, when I look for the root, when I look for genuine, this is it. I mean, my mother,

(12:43):
my mother loved, right? We brought her here. She loves paella.
Like crazy.
And she lives, my mother lives on paella.
I'm going to tell you something else. I don't know how to make it different. Like that,
that's the only way I know. So why would I do to make it deep? You know, I can change
the broth. I can change the rice.

(13:04):
I can change the things, you know, by surprise, the rice you use the, the, the, the, the,
the calasparra, not the bomba. Bomba is a quality of rice, which is extremely good.
I use calasparra, which is pretty much like, like everybody uses in Spain. It's the calasparra
rice. It's a short grain rice, high content of, um, um, al midon, starch.

(13:31):
So it's a rice that goes very well in a paella. It's a rice that goes very well in a meloso,
which is similar to a risotto. And it's very versatile. And it's, it, it takes, I don't
know, three, four times is, is the volume of, of liquid. So it's very flavorful. Just

(13:53):
like canardoli rice, just like the abode rice. This is a very good rice. And that's, that's
what I use.
But that's the example. I go to places sometimes I got long green rice.
Oh, well.
And it's like, no, not that it doesn't taste right, but to me that's not, you know, no,
no, no, that's, that's a no, no, or power boy. Power boy. Power boy.

(14:18):
You know, that's not working. No, no. I remember back in the day, there was a, a
commercial in Spain. They were promoting power boy rice. I don't remember how they
call it. And it was something like the power boy rice is the rice that never, you never

(14:39):
overcook it, no matter how much liquid you put on it, you know, like there's no way you
can overcook it. So that's the rice for people who does not know how to cook.
That was, you know, I was there and I don't know, I tried to not use it. I, you know,
I'm not going to say nothing about people. But I, I don't even use long grain rice at

(15:03):
home anymore. Even though Cubans do use a lot of medium to long grain rice, like basmati
or something like that in their everyday cooking. At home, I only use short grain
rice. I don't know why we like, we like it more.
See, I do, I do bus, she's going to laugh. I do bus money for my black beans.

(15:26):
I like it with my black beans. Yeah, on the morose, on the right.
I don't know why. They usually use longer rice in Cuba.
I did it by mistake one time and I liked it. And I said, you know what?
I'll just keep doing it. If you like it, you like it. That's it.

(15:47):
That's it. But it holds just the right amount of flavor. Yeah. Yeah. So the style of cooking
that you do is... Wow. It is, it's casual, the style of my cooking. It's mostly food,

(16:14):
you know, Spain, Cuba, which is my background. I looked a lot into if I'm going to do
something that is Cuban, like the roast pork. Even though the technique is a
French technique, it's a confit pork that cooks roast, but it doesn't roast because

(16:38):
roast is dry. I cooked it in fat and flavor in the mojo, so it kind of confies
into for many hours. And then I try to get that better and better all the time.

(17:02):
Because, you know, it's something that I like. I lived in Spain. I learned how to cook
in Spain. My whole culinary thing starts in Spain. Then when I opened the restaurant
and I do... When I opened the restaurant, Spanish cuisine was not like it is right now.

(17:28):
There were not that many products being sold. There were no chorizos or serrano
hams or all that. You know, you found your prosciutto and you find your salami.
Pretty much everything was Italian. Right. Right. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah,
nothing wrong with, you know, Italian charcuterie. It's excellent. It's

(17:53):
today I have half and half. I have half of my charcuterie. It's Spain. The other half
is Italian. I eat it. So I use it for my... I have the sopra sata calabrese, the spicy one.
I like it. And then I like... You know, I have the salami toscano. I use everything.

(18:20):
I do a lot of preserves, you know, like eggplant, soto olio and things that are not so much
Spain but Italy. But I like it. And when I learn in Spain, I learn with Italians.
Okay. Which makes it very difficult for you to not... And then we're in South Florida.

(18:43):
And you're in South Florida. And you have all these Cuban things that you forget for
years. But then you come here and you have the Cuban sandwich, you know, in your face
and then what you're going to do? Like, you're not going to try to make a killing Cuban
sandwich. You're going to want to make a killing Cuban sandwich even though you're also making paella.
I don't know. It's the United States. It's something that then when Kobe, when everything

(19:12):
is shut down, how many paellas am I going to be selling? You know, if nobody can sit down
and eat at the restaurant. So what you do, you open a window and you remember that, you
know, and you start doing Cuban food for the people in the neighborhood. And then it's
the only guy who lower the prices with Kobe. Everybody when the price is up, I lower the

(19:35):
prices for the people in the neighborhood so, you know, they're not working so they can
come in and do that. So I do that and then transition Kobe into today's day, what am I
going to do? Shut down that part that people are coming for? No, I cannot. So kind of the
lunch goes like that. There's a lot of people that want something. Also, there's people that

(19:58):
come for the tapas, so they come for the whatever they want to come for, you know, get it to
them. And then dinner, I concentrate in, you know, your wines and your meals and your tapas
and your things, you know. A lot of sangria. A lot of sangria, a lot of sangria, a lot of

(20:19):
paellas and lots of patatas bravas. The brava potatoes, lots of them. They people really
like that. They, you know, spicy. Yeah. I don't know. They like it. Is that your most popular dish? Yeah, those
are big, those they, the potato. Yeah. Lots of that. Now this one's not on our questions. I just thought of this.

(20:51):
As a chef, you're in the kitchen, you make the pay, you make the food. Is there a dish that you wish
people would order more? Like you make, like this is good. I wish more people would order this. The specials. Yeah.
When I come out with a special, right? I, there's something that comes to me and then I, I do it for

(21:15):
myself. Like I mean, after 17 years, I'm very selfish. Yeah. I go for myself. And then I give you
the leftovers because they cook a lot. Yeah. I don't, you know, I don't cook a little bit. So I cook and then
I say, yeah, that doesn't go anywhere. You know, like that, that goes, if I cook something that I really, really

(21:46):
like, then I say, well, you know what, we can give and it might not be as punishable. It might be something else.
So that goes into the specials. Do I want people to try that thing that blew my mind? Yes. Do they order that? No.

(22:08):
Because they come here for what they want to eat, you know, like I want lasagna is something that I cannot get away
from the menu because if I get lasagna of the menu, there's a lot of people who's going to come here and have a

(22:30):
problem. And then they're not going to come anymore because they want that. Therefore, five people, one is the lasagna, the other
one is the fish, the other one is the bayan, the other one is something else. And then that's a problem that I created.
That's a problem that the restaurant and I, and we as a family here, it's me and my wife, and we have that problem, but

(22:57):
it's a good problem. Yeah, it's so good that people don't want to do it, but you see, I don't know. As long as you could adapt,
that's it. You're going to accommodate in the deaf. This is your neighborhood. You're feeding them. Yeah. So some things.
And then again, why don't you open and kept doing that thing without 17 years? I have, I have been cooking here for 17 years.

(23:31):
If I don't change the menu, I hung myself. I cannot be cooking for 17 years. The same thing. I can. We talk about it all the time.
It's like some of the food that I cooked. I can't eat. Like I make a chicken franchise. Everybody loves my chicken franchise.

(23:53):
I can't eat it. I hate it. Filet Mignon lobster. I used to work in a place that used to serve in turf every night. 30 or 40 of them every night.
So guess what? Filet Mignon lobster tail? I don't like it. No, I don't. You see it so much, so much.
I made a chicken. Not that I don't like, but I, it's not my favorite thing in the world. I can live without the bird. Right. You too.

(24:26):
Today, my wife gave me a little bit of the chicken breast that I have. Marinated. You know, you put it in a saute pan with olive oil and you leave it there.
And caramelized is that thing. You turn it around, you put the saute onions. That's it. That's the only thing I do. That thing was very, very, very good. Very good.

(24:49):
Why is not full of people eating that dish? Because I know that a lot of people in the United States eat chicken. Probably what they eat the most is chicken, chicken breast.
I don't even do chicken breast. I am. Why would I do chicken breast if the chicken breast at a point start coming or tough and it was, there was a point in which I thought to myself, I cannot buy chicken breast no more.

(25:16):
I don't know if you, it happens to you by the 40 case found and it's, so it's an MS.
Then I discover chicken tender, a 40 pound case of only chicken tenders. So all I do is chicken tenders. I give you three chicken tenders in the portion, you know, it's pretty much, you know.
I know they're pretty consistent.

(25:38):
Those are tenders. The day that they're not tender. You know what I mean? But then I do that. Does it cost me a lot more? Yes.
Do I live bed? Do I sleep better night knowing that that chicken is going to be tender? It's not going to be some of the chicken breast that I bought back in the day was not even good for broth.

(26:02):
I had to, and I don't know how.
They were turning the rubber.
Listen, I don't know. I don't know what's going on. So I just, I just don't do it anymore. You know, I am I successful? Do I buy a castle? I have a lot of money.
No, I'm I successful that I know I can buy something more expensive than that thing and not need that extra money. Yes, I've been successful in the way that I can buy better product.

(26:37):
And that'll keep the customer coming for they appreciate a better product. If you put that rubbery.
Yes, but I know that would be financially wrong if they don't come back. But when I go to bed at night, I like, I like to go in peace with what I did. You know what I'm saying?
Yes.
And for me to be able to not worry about buying all the holy war that I, you know, because do I have money for, for instance, for buy, you know, and make it the Reno for a guy at a point I thought of, you know, no, and then I said to myself, don't do it.

(27:17):
And it's very expensive. So don't don't do it. Don't go there. Don't buy Kobe beef, you know, like certain things I don't want.
I don't want to buy olive oil. Olive oil is very necessary for me to have all the one I want. I need to have plenty of olive oil. I need to have good tomato. I need to have good salt. It's very important for me to have good saffron. And that chicken tender thing. Yeah, it's a lot more the case.

(27:48):
Right.
I'm glad that for me that's not a problem. You know, I that is good. I mean, it's
I mean, it's a challenge. Number one, like you said, the quality. You mentioned like the Kobe. That's another thing people with trends, people like these trends. And oh, you don't have this, you don't have that. Those are trends.
No.

(28:09):
You know, and if you chase trends, you know, no, no, no, no, that's, no, that's, no, no, I, I, I fell out of love with following the trends of culinary enthusiasm.
Yes, that I don't care anymore. No, I don't care. I mean, we talk about it all the time, like when we do our reviews, we do all our reviews, people ask us, why don't we go down into Miami? And I say, there are good places in Miami. But for the most part, I said, I don't do pretentious food. And by that, I mean is, you know, we're Cuban black beans and rice.

(28:50):
That's considered peasant food. That's black beans and rice. You go to some places in Miami, you'll get a plate of mortal, they'll take a fried pigs ear and put it in there and charge you $20 for that. And for what? Oh, well, the ear and the flavor. No, no, just give me black beans and rice. I don't need, you know, oh, but this rice was formed from the mountain.

(29:13):
I know I don't need to know that, you know, and that's that's a hard thing because a lot of places, like you just said, they follow those trends. And that's that's not a good thing. You know, that's that's a they usually think they they have to reinvent themselves.

(29:34):
Yeah. Every few years. You know, but usually restaurants that that that are in the restaurants that that has been forever, established, they kind of do a consistent, good, proud and and that that's

(30:01):
we got a place right on South Beach. I don't want to advertise anybody right on South Beach. It's been there forever. They serve I think breakfast all day. They serve meatloaf.
The owner's recipe from 1940s something meatloaf on South Beach. You know, what else shrimp scampi just basic stuff that people order. And that place is always packed and they've been here since the 40s. And they're right in the middle of what I'm talking about the right.

(30:31):
Yeah, you don't go to South Beach. I know the meatloaf. Yeah. And I mean, you know, and you know what and she and when we went she said to me, you're gonna I said you got to try this.
Now I'm gonna ask you for the name of the place. I'll tell you after but I say you got to try to me low and then what's wild is the owners there. And I remember the one time he came out and he and you've done this with us. You brought us croquet as one time.

(30:53):
He came out and he said to try this. And so what is it pickled zucchini and squash. I said pickle zucchini and squash. Well, guess who makes that now. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. I was like this is good.
Again, but these are places like we just said they're consistent. They're consistent. They don't have to chase. You know, I think like you find yourself you find your niche. And you you you good you're good at it.

(31:18):
And listen, I did I want back in the day to balsamic pills and and powder olive oil and and a gelatin or beads with the. Yes, yes. Did I? Yeah, but what was that?

(31:40):
That I did too much for myself. And not so much for the customer when you I need to do it for myself. But but but also I need you to appreciate it because I cannot be cooking just for myself. So at a point I pulled back from that and says you know what you know, calm down.
You know, you got to take that step. Yeah, and be you know, and be consistent and nice and presented clean play something nice, you know, concentrate more in products and things that are going to be good on the plate.

(32:15):
You can see the quality and the flavors and and don't do too much gimmick gimmick. You know, and there's room for that if you have specials like you said, you know, if you ever wanted to do that, you can do that.
You know, you don't have to have that as like the main. I tried that the paella comes out with a good aroma. You can smell and you smell that is good. He has loose grains of rice, even though he's he has, you know, a little bit of the socarrar burn on the side and

(32:56):
a little bit on the bottom and it's nice and caramelized and and the colors are right and the produce inside the good and it makes me happy.
Then the Brancino nice, crispy moist. If the mojo, I want it bright and green. I don't want it dull and you know, I want it bright and I want the best potatoes I can get and make them simple.

(33:29):
I like things that are simple, but they are consistent and they they look good, they're clean, they taste right, they make sense.

(33:51):
That's pretty much it. That I cannot ask for for more than that because I don't have the resources here. I don't have a team of cooks, you know, putting together a play, putting together seven different parts of the play.
That I cannot do. That I hit, you know, but overall, you know, listen, food don't come back. If it comes back, I want to know why.

(34:22):
Of course.
Always. I made a point on servers telling me and one of my wife and the other one is just a good friend of mine that you know, that it's being forever.
So that's very important for me. If there's no food coming back or no complaints, you know, I'm happy.

(34:44):
People leave the food.
We like taking food home.
Well, yeah, I do big portions and sometimes if you do big portions, you know, people are not going to be finishing the whole thing.
They're going to do three or four tapas and then they want to try two or three main courses. That's going to be too much. You know that.

(35:06):
So that's not a problem, you know, or if you are in a hotel and you're going to take it to the hotel, but you're not satisfied.
I see your face that you happy, you know, that that that makes me happy. I don't, you know, I like that.
And by a we said about where we're caramelized around the edges. Yeah. Yeah.

(35:28):
So I have to fight for on the plate when they get that's mine.
That's mine.
You're not supposed to know about that.
Yeah.
How did you find your way into the hospitality industry?
Well, um, you go to Spain from growing up in Cuba.

(35:56):
Since I was a little kid and I have memories of what I ate at home.
You know, um, life in the United States and Europe, I've been going out since, you know, the war.
Every day you have more and more in the table.

(36:18):
Every day you have more quality, more proud, you know, culinary history is going out in US, Europe.
Not in Cuba. In Cuba, 59, the culinary history has been in decline.

(36:41):
So every day is less and less and less and you grow having a more limited spectrum on what you eat.
Plus, I think that also Cuba being an island back in the day, that had so many things and it was so fertile and has so much fish.

(37:07):
And then you put a pig and they will reproduce and you have pigs and cows and you have fruits and vegetables and you have fish.
You know, so back in the day I think that humans didn't have a hard time as much as Europeans had a hard time and they tried to eat everything that they could get their hands on.

(37:28):
So the way of eating was more necessary so they ate a lot more things and they tried to venture into a lot more...
simple things that you would not eat.
In Cuba people don't eat a lot of Spanish and you know, just giving you an idea or...

(37:55):
You know, they eat rice and beans and sweet plantains and they eat pork and beef.
Chicken and stuff.
When I went to Spain, I discovered there's seafood which is different from fried fish in Cuba or a cocktail of osteones, you know, like oyster cut.

(38:24):
When I went to Spain, I saw...
And also when I tasted things without a sauce, which is very important, you know, the better the quality, the less you need to be a cook or a chef to be tweaking the product.
You know, you leave it alone and you let it be and then you taste.

(38:46):
So that changed for me a lot.
I wanted to learn.
What prefers I wanted to eat?
I ate everything and I drank everything on the show.
I drank everything that I got my hands on.
I wanted to taste.
I wanted to taste everything.
I wanted to eat everything.

(39:07):
And then after, I wanted to cook.
I wanted to be able to recreate what I tasted.
I wanted to, you know, and I started on my own.
You know, you started on your own and then I was lucky enough to work with a very, very...
Very, very good chef from Galicia.

(39:28):
And, you know, he taught me a lot and I kept on my own and then I came here.
And I was working at a restaurant and I was starting...
Because I decided when I was 30 years old, more than 30 years old, that I wanted to go to culinary school.

(39:57):
Who in their sane mind goes to culinary school because they need...
They have the need of filling up gaps, you know, and you want to be classically trained.
It was a very bad economical decision.
No, but I went there.
I don't regret I got what I wanted.

(40:19):
I learned with the best that there was.
Chef Klaus was excellent and the team was really good.
But, you know what I was saying?
I went there.
What was it?
I don't know why I was saying that.

(40:41):
You took a detour?
Yeah, I was going to make a point.
Because you felt that you needed that, no?
Yeah, and I was working...
I was starting there and working as a server because you made more money as a server.
And I know how to run the front of the house, like probably better than the back of the kitchen.

(41:03):
The only thing that you need to be quiet in the front of the house.
So I was working as a server and I was going to go to school for my own thing.
And then something happened with the customer and the manager came, one of the managers came and said,
listen, if you're going to go to school and you really want to be a chef, a cook,

(41:32):
you are always in the kitchen telling the kitchen people what to do when you're not supposed to do that.
But you're now here making money as a server when you want to be a cook.
Why don't you stop peacing off my customers?
Because I would get with the customer.
Why don't you stop peacing off my customers and just cook if that's what you want to cook?

(41:58):
And I said, you know what, I think that you're right. So I go to the general manager who just fixed my schedule
so I can do my server thing with my school thing.
So he just fixed my schedule.
After two hours of fixing my schedule, I go and I say, you know what, I'm quitting because I want to be a cook.
I was like, after I spent two hours, I said, don't blame me, blame that whatever that told me to pursue my career.

(42:26):
And then I went, I got a job cooking here, not in Spain, Spain was before, here.
And it's really difficult to not be, you really need to, you really want, need to want to be a chef or a cook

(42:54):
and leave your server position because a server comes very nice and then the clean and all that.
He comes after you arrive. He does nothing but pissed off the cooks.
They do side work.
They, oh yeah, they do side work at the beginning and at the end, which you are not criticizing the servers.

(43:21):
I'm not. It was a server for them. So I'm talking from experience.
You make a lot of money. You look at the cooks and inside of your brain, you laughing at them because they're all sweaty and running around
and they're going to be there long before you leave and then they're not going to make half of the money that you're making.

(43:42):
So for me to leave that behind and start cooking was again another bad business decision.
But then you're doing what you love. You see, like I started doing this, like you said your memories.
I remember my grandmother, I used to take leaves off the plants and boil them and put salt and pepper in there.

(44:09):
She would try it and say, oh, I did that. I was boiling from the house.
She encouraged me and every job I ever had was in the kitchen.
And like you said, I was doing this. I was probably just graduated high school and all I ever did since I was 14 was work in the kitchens.
And what was I doing? I was a busboy and a waiter and I used to keep getting in trouble for the same reason why you got in trouble.

(44:38):
Where's the busboy? I'm in the kitchen peeling potatoes, cutting celery, cutting carrots, making a miroproix.
They're teaching me how to make a miroproix. So then after I graduated, I was supposed to be an architect,
but I never did anything like an architect and only cooked. So I wanted to go to culinary school and I'll never forget.

(45:02):
You have to have the paper. Now, we're both talking about a time before it was cool to be a chef.
Oh yeah, way before. There was TV and all that stuff.
Kitchen rats.
And I always tell people, we've grown up. I mean, I just speak for myself.
The people in the kitchen back then weren't friendly people. It was a lot of criminals.

(45:27):
In the kitchen? Yeah.
Yeah, people that couldn't pass background. I had people that couldn't stand up at night.
Exactly.
That's what we came into. And I took one job only ever. I took a security job that lasted six months.
I hated it. I had to go back to the kitchen. And like you said, I know that the waiters make more money,

(45:48):
but it's what we love. You get that gratification. And you know, you just said it, when the food doesn't come back,
when the people love everything, that you feel so good. When the end of the night, and you serve 50, 100 people, how do you feel?
Oh no. That makes me, yeah, it makes me really happy. And it's, you know, it's a big party.

(46:12):
And then we all go out and have a drink and all that. Again, it's a very bad economic.
I remember when I went to go to school, Chef Rob, he was Master Baker and a great pastry chef,
a chocolatier, a rapper, Roski. And I remember the first day of class, he says,

(46:37):
whoever likes to have holidays and parties and have a nice, decent life and be happy and da-da-da-da-da,
don't pursue a culinary career. Nobody. Nobody. There were kids over there and nobody understood.
I said, well, I know because I'm coming from a restaurant background. So I know what he's saying.

(47:01):
Does it make me happy? Yes. Do I love what I do? Yes. Would I be better off doing something else? Yes.
Yes. And a hundred times yes. Does it make me happy to have so 17 years? My own business, yes.
Would I be happier someone else? I don't know. I guess that we never know.

(47:23):
I'm never going to take these 17 years back. You know what I'm saying?
No. The grass is always greener on the other side.
Exactly. Well, that's what keeps you going.
That's the other, yep. Because I mean, I always tell the story is one place when I worked, I was only part-time.
So what I would do is I would volunteer to work as a waiter on the slow days, because the waiters didn't want to come in.

(47:45):
So what I would do is I would take the order and then I'd go into kitchen and do the appetizers.
And then the other waiters would say, how come his food came out first?
Yeah, because you would. Because I went in and then I was able to take care of my tables.
Also, when you, when you're a server and you know the back of the house, because you are really into that and you know.

(48:15):
And pretty much in Spain and these places, back in the day, I don't know now, but back in the day, servers were like very professional.
Like they knew that's what they were going to be for the rest of the lives. They were not dead because they want to finish school and then go and do, or be actors.

(48:38):
Or they knew they were going to be servers forever.
So these people had, they knew better. They, they try, at least they try.
So when you, when you go to a table, when I go to a table and I explain the dish to a table, I explain the dish from the bottom up.

(49:04):
So in your mind, you can see how I'm making, you know, like, well, do you do this with that?
I didn't make sense. And that dish is so, is, is, that dish is so, like, you know, it's all a bottle of wine or you sell this dish.
Dessert. Or, you know, I was a very good front of house.

(49:29):
Yeah. I mean, it's all, it was, I mean, the times have changed. We talk about any kind of services now, any kind of services, you know, I mean, we sit down sometimes, we don't even finish sitting down.
What do you want to drink?
Let me look, we give me a minute, you know, right? I mean, some places it's, and people have come, like I said, people get accustomed to bad service.

(49:57):
And it's a shame, you know, it's a shame because, again, and I know exactly what you're saying about describing the dish, you know, but some people you go in there and you'll say, oh yeah, you have bronzino special today.
What's the bronzino? It's a fish. No, no, how is it? Oh, it has like some stuff on it. You know? Now, if you or I come out there, we're going to say it's done this way. It's topped with this, you know, but a lot of the waiters, and like you said, it's very important.

(50:26):
A lot of them just do the job because they want to get out of school or they want to do this or they want to do that. It's hard to find those professionals.
I know in Miami and Joe's, Stone Crab, they get a little diamond, I don't know if it's every year, every two years that they're a waiter, and you've got to see they have the full Crab with all diamonds on it.
I didn't know that.

(50:47):
Which means they've been there, you know, a long time. And again, that's someone that's going to be doing that forever.
Matru D's too, remember Matru D's. I bet that my wife would want to see that story about me giving diamonds to the service. She will have like 17 diamonds.
No, even Matru D's, remember Matru D's? When's the last time you've seen a Matru D?

(51:12):
Gotta go probably to one of those big restaurants or some, I don't know.
I'll tell you what, they changed the name, it's called the host. When you go to the restaurant, that's the young kid that sits at the front.
No, they host.
No, they host the stand.
They host the stand, yeah, they sit you when you arrive and the, wow.

(51:37):
But that's basically what the Matru D used to do. But over time, that phased out. That just phased out.
I don't want to blame the customers, you know, they leave you money behind.
So, good or bad, they have all the, you pay for the dish and you have all the right to criticize the dish.

(52:02):
You might like it or not, I don't care. And you know, I don't feel superior. I don't think that I'm more noticeable than you are.
I listen to you. And again.
I was not saying you said it.
I tell you, I cannot do it any other way. You know, now, the other day someone came over.

(52:24):
And I said, they are, so they are Cubans, right? They are Cubans that came from Cuba two years ago, directly.
I know that the paella is not going to be the same as, so am I wrong for doing this?

(52:45):
Probably I am.
No, wait a minute, wait a minute.
But I don't want to have a problem with the car. I want to give them what they want.
I'm not here to, now, you know, if I don't know who you are, I'm in the kitchen and I get it by, I do it by the way, I do it for everybody else.
But if I know who you are, then I get a heads up and that's why you had, back in the day, you have a front house, you have that metropolis that would see who everybody was.

(53:13):
And it would recognize people. I would tell, hey, there's someone here and this is the mayor. That is the, that dude. This is, this might be a critic.
So this guy in the front house, the money show, the little details of how, work with the kitchen like this.

(53:34):
And if people back in the day benefit from that, why wouldn't I, if I know that I can give these people something that they might, you know...
Want it differently.
Yeah, because, for instance, I eat on Cuban, but I have a different background. I eat spicy and I eat a lot of different things.

(53:55):
But in Cuba, they don't eat a lot of spice and they don't eat the rice too dry and they don't do certain things.
Well, that day, I send the pie a little bit more, you know, the only thing that you do. So it doesn't have the crust and the thing.
You have a little bit more liquid. Now, this is not that rice, parboil. This is going to overcook the little bit.

(54:16):
So it's going to be a little bit mushy. It's not going to be the way I like it.
You know, but again, it's like pasta. If you're not Italian, it's going to be undercooked, not al dente.
So what is go for one is not go for the other one.
Again, so I do this for these people like that.

(54:40):
And that rice dish, all of them, come back because they were undercooked and dry.
At that point, I ask, if I put more liquid, and I put in the paella pan and I put it in, this is never going to come up.

(55:07):
And I don't want to see how it's going to come up. Seriously, I don't care. I'm not doing it.
They want more broth and they want more soft and whatever. So I put in a saute pan and I have more liquid and I cook it a little bit more.
And they serve me like a caldosa rice, like a soupy rice, like something that is going to be on a nice big bowl.

(55:30):
And it's going to be soupy and you're going to have the mochi rice, you know, and I'm not going to criticize you.
Now that flavor is not going to go anywhere. It's going to be the same kind of thing.
It's going to be two more minutes until the broth gets everything right. So the thing actually was not.
So that rice goes back into, goes back out. And they don't eat it. They don't like it.

(55:57):
But they pay for the dish and they left.
Did I want to know what was going on, just out of interest?
What would you do different that I don't know how to please you?

(56:21):
But again, in 17 years, this is for people that came from, you know, and...
Well, that's what I was going to say. If this is what you've been doing for 17 years, you're doing it right.
If you've got one person that comes in that doesn't like it, you can't please everybody.
No, I know, I know.
The thing is, when you look at numbers like 17 years, and that's how you've always done it, you're doing something right.

(56:46):
Yes, yes, yes.
You have to think of it that way.
No, yeah.
But of course, I would want to know too.
But I would want to know.
But then, do I want to know the answer? I might not be interested in the answer.
That's true.
Yeah, it was, you know, like the thing that killed the cat.
It's that they say curiosity was the thing that killed the cat. You know, I'm not a no cat.

(57:10):
So, yeah, I want to know what did I do wrong so I could please, but then again, do I want to please you?
I want to know the answer.
I might not want to know the answer.
You might not.
I did like that, which I would not have done that at the very beginning of me here.
I would get a lot of emotional involved and I would want to sort the word out.

(57:32):
Tame, you know, the business tamed me, you know, domesticated me.
And time and time.
You know, into...
Because I used to be, you know, I had somebody that sent back pork chops.
I had spicy Cajun pork chops, one inch thick.
And the guy said, told the waiter, you know, he wanted extra spicy.

(57:54):
So I said, well, these are really spicy.
You know, I said, let him know.
I'll give you a sample.
So he says, the guy said, tell the idiot in the kitchen to make it double spicy.
That's the server.
That's the server.
He said, he went on the guy, he said, he should not, you know.
I said, okay, so I doubled it up.

(58:15):
I sent it out.
It comes right back.
The guy said, these are too spicy.
They're unedible.
Cook me another set.
They're regular way.
So I cooked the set, sent it out.
Toward the end of the night, the waiter comes over, I need your card for the machine.
I said, for what?
He goes, I have to take the pork chops off.

(58:38):
I said, no, no.
They're right here in the to-go box.
He said, what?
You're going to make him pay for them?
I said, yeah.
If I made the mistake, or if he wanted them hotter, I would have done that.
But I took a $30 product, did what he wanted.
After I told him it wasn't going to work, and I'm supposed to eat that?

(58:59):
I said, no, I can't do that.
I said, I said, my staff knows.
Anything comes back, if it's my fault or the service fault, I'll fix it.
But somebody tells it, so when I went out there, the guy, what's the senior manager now?
So he says, yeah, they won't take the food off the plate, I mean off the bill.
And I said, you know, it's probably the idiot that was in the kitchen.

(59:21):
And I said, oh wait, that was me.
Yeah, I can tell you.
I was younger.
I was younger.
This means with the customers and with the servers.
And with ourselves, the ego and the feeling and the experience.
And then you have an owner.

(59:42):
It's difficult for me because I'm the owner and the employee and the chef.
So for me, if I made a mistake, I was me and I couldn't fire myself.
I could not fire myself.
I wish I could.
I would fire myself many, many times and I would be somewhere else.
But I couldn't fire myself.
But I think that it's time for me to catch a break from the restaurant industry.

(01:00:09):
All this conversation wants me to get into a two or three year vacation from the restaurant.
And it's many things.
It's a fast-paced business.
You don't plan like you plan a building.
Oh, I'm going to do this and I'm going to plan myself and do that.

(01:00:32):
This is from zero to a hundred in three seconds.
And then there's people that you have to deal with in the kitchen.
So it's a lot of different personalities.
And then the customers come in and they bring the money and they bring the business.
And you, that's the job.

(01:00:53):
And then there's many little things.
And you should not take it personal.
You should not bring the problems that you have outside the restaurant into the restaurant.
That's the little things that I've learned.

(01:01:14):
You really get peace.
You know, don't have a knife next to you.
Like, move the knife over there if you know that you're going to get peace.
You know what I'm saying?
But don't get mad in the kitchen.
You know, go out of the kitchen.
You know, don't let nobody have problems in the kitchen.
If there's going to be a situation, you know, move them out to the dining room, whatever.

(01:01:35):
Put them out.
But again, it's a passionate business.
It's built for someone out of passion for what they can do and want to show.
Well, it's definitely not what they see on TV.
No, well, you know.

(01:01:58):
But this is the business of a guy that do something.
And he wants that thing that he does well.
He wants to make money out of that and give it to people.
The thing is that these people appreciate what he does, so he wants to please.

(01:02:19):
Then Igor comes and says, I screwed it.
I know better than that guy.
But remember that originally you wanted to please him.
But when you made enough and you have a name and you have for somebody, you don't know what.
I know better than that guy.
And I don't need him.

(01:02:42):
And then, I don't know, not that I have not done it at the beginning.
I will take that people by the tent.
Table ten out.
Did I do it?
It was not right for me to do it.
It was not smart.
But again, we have a story that I make a lot of mistakes.

(01:03:05):
You know, this was not a smart.
I make a lot of mistakes.
I don't know how I'm in business after 17 years after all these mistakes.
People say, I don't know how many years back someone says,
you're not going to be in business for a lot of years.
I go, God, I wish you were right.
Then again, for better words, I'm here.

(01:03:31):
And these things, the other day I was amazed.
I wanted to know, and I said, you don't need to.
And I chilled and I said, bye.
And very civil, which is the way it should be.
Probably I'm getting tired and all.
But some things I don't need to know, let them be.

(01:03:54):
You know what?
They paid.
But if they would have said, they deal with their server,
he put the top, they paid for it.
There was a, so I'm not going to get it done.
But if they would have said, listen, I want to talk to the server
because I don't want, I would say, you know what?
I don't need the, how much?
A hundred dollars, four pie.
I don't need that.

(01:04:15):
Take it, you know, take it.
Don't pay, you know, go on the same thing.
Because they didn't really enjoy it.
So you know that.
You know, it's different when they eat half the plate.
Yeah.
And they say, oh, this is no good.
It's, everything is really bad because let's say that you ordered octopus.
Octopus is something, octopus is something.

(01:04:41):
Between you and me, people don't like.
But it's in fashion.
Not so much now, but 10 years ago, nobody wanted to eat an octopus.
Right, nobody wanted to eat it.
It's the leg of an ugly animal.
You don't say, it has to go for a while.

(01:05:02):
Now, Italians and Spaniards, yes, they want to eat an octopus
because they have been eating them forever.
Americans and Cubans, they haven't been eating octopus like it was, you know,
like, like, like Greeks, they haven't.
But now it's good to eat an octopus and they want an octopus.
The only thing is that, yeah, I mean, I want to eat the octopus,

(01:05:23):
but, you know, this is too tough.
No, it's the way it's supposed to be.
It has to have a texture.
Then you have to cook it more.
Now, for you, lose the texture.
It's too soft, but, you know, at least you keep the fat and the tentacles

(01:05:49):
and the little octopus, the sacros.
I've seen places that they just give you the white thing like that
because everything got lost in the boil thing.
But why that happens?
Because people follow the fashion and they want, they want a third tartar
because it's cool and it looks good, but they don't eat raw meat.

(01:06:13):
They want octopus bad.
They don't like it and seriously, they don't need to eat it
because if they don't like it, what would you eat it?
You know, it's expensive.
And when they send the octopus back, it pisses me off because that leg of octopus
not only cost me a lot of money, I'm never going to get that money back,

(01:06:36):
but that octopus died in vain.
You know what I mean?
And it pissed me off.
Just say no.
So when the specials, I have it as a special, quality sometimes is better than another.
So I tell the servers, you don't need to sell these to everybody.

(01:06:59):
You can mention, but don't emphasize.
You know, we don't want to sell, you know, like, it's not what I made the most money.
It might be expensive, but I'm not making the most money.
I made most money on something else.
So don't...
But if you have someone that likes octopus...
Oh, someone says, then yes.

(01:07:23):
But if you need to push him over the border for them to eat it, don't do it.
Like, not worth it.
No, a trend now I see, and you said about trends, I see calamar.
A lot of places sell fried calamar, no tentacles.
No, because people don't like the calamari.

(01:07:44):
I love the tentacles.
That's what I love the most.
I like the crunchiest.
That's the sweetness.
It's the crunchiest and it's the more flavorful part of the animal and it's the most fun.
Yeah.
Why don't they eat that?
Because they don't really like the animal.
And the tentacles of the calamari is the whole body of the octopus.

(01:08:05):
Because you don't eat the head.
You know what I'm saying?
Right, right.
I mean, I would sit there with a whole plate of them.
I love it.
You know what I'm saying?
We get them, I'm like, where's the tentacle?
No, people don't like that.
No, people don't like the tentacles.
But it's also education.
They're going with the trend.
They're not eating something because they know what it is and they honor it and they're

(01:08:28):
going to eat it.
They're just going with the trend.
Yeah, they want to try things.
That's true.
The thing is that as a customer, when you want to try something, yeah.
If you don't like it, it's not the animals fall or it's not the chef fall or the cook
or the server.
You want it to try.

(01:08:51):
You don't like it.
It's on you.
It doesn't agree with you.
We're about to go.
Right?
It's your person that it doesn't agree with you.
Yeah, there are things that I don't eat.
Exactly.
There are things that I don't care.
Exactly.
There are things that I have cooked for hours and I cannot eat it like the belly of the

(01:09:15):
pig, you know, the pork belly.
No, no, no, the inside, the patty panza, the tripe with the feet.
So the tripe, I went and I followed, I think it was Thomas Keller's recipe or somebody
else's recipe.
So I boiled the thing so many times to clean it, throw the water, fresh water, put the fresh

(01:09:39):
herbs, do the thing, the whole restaurant, it smells like, you know, like bad.
So I know I'm not going to eat that thing because after seven times of boiling the thing,
then I have to cook it in a sauce or whatever.
After many, many times that thing is not agreeing with me whatsoever.

(01:10:03):
My wife is very mad at me.
The whole thing that smells bad.
And then comes in an Italian friend of mine comes in and says, oh my God, you are having
tripe.
Let me see it.
Oh, I said, no, no, I don't want that.
I'm going to throw that away.
No, no, no, no, no.
So he got the tripe and he cooked in five minutes, the tripe in seven different ways.

(01:10:28):
He put some flour, fried a little bit, then he did a spicy tomato sauce, he did it with
garlic and blah, blah, blah.
And he put like seven little plates and a whole lot of bread and he ate the whole thing,
almost of it.
Which I was mad, I saw him do that and I laughed and I don't know.
But he has that in him.

(01:10:51):
Like Boi Yucca.
I eat Boi Yucca.
Boi Yucca, I eat it.
I have a Udubaian friend.
Doesn't understand Boi Yucca and there's no way, he says, why would you, and then he
asked me, why would you eat that?
But I guess that someone back in the day was really hungry and Boi Yucca.

(01:11:15):
You know what I mean?
Because otherwise, why would you?
You know what I mean?
Yeah, we're civilized so we use a little extra virgin olive oil now.
You put flavor again, you know, and then it comes in your DNA.
I think that the way you season food is because back in the day, those things where you season
the food with was good for your health.

(01:11:36):
It is not like I like it.
That's why I eat it.
It was like, I use it.
It was good, my health.
So when I ate it, in that manner, it made me feel good.
That's why my taste buds appreciate the flavor.

(01:11:57):
So the flavor comes after the health, it heals you and restores you.
And you buddy appreciates that and then somehow the mind says, well, that's the flavor that
I'm going to follow and I'm going to live from now on.
That's the way I think it kind of goes.

(01:12:18):
I don't understand, why would you put fennel crepe in sausages?
What are the Germans and Italians do?
Something has to do with them because not the Argentinians do that.
So do I respect that?
Of course I respect that.
More or less.
Yeah, well, why do Mexicans and people in the Sahara, Africa, Middle East and why certain

(01:12:47):
cultures eat spicy food?
Because it opens the pores and makes you sweat.
When you sweat, you clean the pores and then you breathe better and now you are fresher
in a hot environment because you say, it is hot and they're going to eat hot food.

(01:13:11):
Why would in a hot place you're going to eat hot food?
Because it makes you feel better.
It's like you have an air conditioning and you clean the dust on the filter and now it works better.
Does the air conditioning light a brush?

(01:13:33):
Not really.
Only after it makes it feel so much better that you appreciate that brush that cleans you.
And that's why they eat and that's why.
And it makes sense.
Now, if I were to start now doing spicy food all of a sudden, which I do, but if I were
to start doing this, it's not going to be appealing to me.

(01:13:56):
Now, I'm not going to blame the whole Mexican culture about what they're doing with their
sauces.
I'm not going to adjust them.
And that's how I feel the customer should be a little bit more civilized and a little bit more empathy when they say,
well, you know what, it's not their fault.

(01:14:18):
You pay for it.
Even though you didn't like it, there's nothing wrong with that type of food.
I don't like hummus, okay?
But it's not their fault.
That's the way they do it.
You pay for it and then don't have it again.
Yeah, because a lot of times they want to sample something.
And that used to kill me.

(01:14:39):
They order something and this is, I don't know, the 80s when I was a waiter.
So that was in the 80s.
And we're looking at a dish that's $40.
And that's in the 80s.
And they're like, well, I don't know.
I want to try it.
And I'm sitting here like, that's something to try.
That's like a hundred dollar dish today.

(01:15:00):
I want to try it.
What we do is, you know, she likes a lot of stuff that I don't like.
So a lot of times we'll order something.
And I say, you know, I know you don't want this, but I'm ordering because I know you'll eat it if I don't like it.
You know, and she'll order something else.
So I'll try it.
And if I like it, it stays here.
If I don't, we do it that way.
But when they say, oh, I want to try it.

(01:15:22):
What do you mean, try it?
You know, it's like, and if you don't like it, then what?
You know, who's going to, you know, and like I said, back to those board chops.
What was I supposed to do with those board chops?
You know, in the nineties, 30, you know, $30, what do you want to tell?
What am I supposed to do?
Yeah, I want to try it.
I've never tried lobster.
Let me try that thing.
And then I tell you how it goes.

(01:15:44):
But anyway, I between now and the end of the year, do you have any special events planned?
Any promotions?
Well, we have doing Tuesday, Wednesday on Thursday.
I think that we have a payamista promotion that goes with a sangria, like a little jack of sangria.

(01:16:14):
So when you come in, you don't know that the sangria and then the payamista, you ordered the thing, the dish,
which is, you know, the way, because it's, you know, different sizes and stuff, but it's plenty for two.
And I think that that goes like for 50 bucks, so you're saving like the sangria goes like for free.
But definitely it's enough for two, definitely.

(01:16:36):
Yeah, I think that is more than enough for two.
I don't know why.
That's something that someone has to explain me, you know, I made the same amount for one person.
So a single portion is not more or less, it's the same when I do double.
Somehow it's more when you double the recipe and that being more than, you know, ask me why.

(01:17:05):
We also have appetizer at all.
See, maybe a single person doesn't get an appetizer.
No, no, no, no, no, the way I look at the body, I don't know how, but it's something that I might be going next,
but for me, for me when I serve a single, which is the same amount, smaller than the double,
which is the same two singles.

(01:17:26):
It ended up being a smaller portion, the single one that the, I don't know.
That's good, which is even better, I think, is like the happy hour, which is from three to like six.
Tuesday through Friday is 20% off the whole menu and the wine list and pretty much everything.

(01:17:50):
Everything but the specials, because specials, you know, but you can come and take advantage of the most expensive wines
and whatever you want to try.
And at the very end, as long as you ring the food in on that time frame,
you're going to have a 20% off direct.

(01:18:13):
You know, I asked them to do that, so I don't have nothing.
Some people say, ah, they didn't give them 20%.
Listen, if I put in the thing, it gives it to you automatically.
I have nothing to do.
So if you already passed that thing, if you came at six and you ordered at 6.15,
I don't think that is going to give it to you because it's not six.
It's going to be put in before six, right?

(01:18:35):
And I'm doing something new. I don't think that this is out.
So the 20% that buy a thing and I'm doing something for these big tables.
I think that we're going to do.
You know, it can be six to eight people, more than eight people.
I don't think so, but eight people, up to eight people on the table.

(01:18:59):
You order.
You can order four appetizers from one section of the menu,
value nine to 13 dollars, something like that.
And then you can order another four from the 15 to whatever.

(01:19:21):
So you can get, for instance, patatas bravas, boquerones,
gabbas with sausages and something else out of that part, you know,
to my guns, I run around.
And then you can order like a Shakutte de Boer, Smolche Shakutte de Boer,
a garlic shrimp, stuffed piquillo peppers that are very popular,

(01:19:46):
and adichocs with ham.
So eight appetizers will be for the whole table.
Eight people will be 120 dollars and it will come with three pages of sangria,
regular size, you know, sangria, three liters of sangria,

(01:20:07):
or a liter and a half of the house wine that I have, that is very good,
which I think is a good deal because pretty much you're getting all the booze,
you know, on the price, or like free.
It's something to bring parties in.
And for those that didn't get it, I'll put this at the end.
Yes, yeah, it's a little confusing because I draw the idea,

(01:20:30):
Jose is working on it to, oh no, and there's something else,
because there's something going on, like the Dine Out, or the taste of Browwer,
or for a lot of other things.
And there's a prefix menu, it's 45 dollars,
and you get five courses, you get a little Montadito,

(01:20:56):
which is like a bruschetta with something on top,
then you get an appetizer, you get a main course, you get dessert,
and then you get a glass of wine.
Wow, that's awesome.
45?
45.
And nobody has come.
Yeah.
So, no.
They may not know what's going on.
Well, it's on the website and somewhere else, but I don't think something happens.

(01:21:21):
We got to get that out.
Is that on the August or September?
They're going to run it probably August or September,
but I have it out already because they're going to run it in the future,
but I want to see how it works, so I can tweak it by the time that it, you know.
But what can it be wrong about it?

(01:21:42):
Because the way I look at it is I don't offer a Montadito in a small tapas format,
and I don't offer the second course is a smaller format,
but with the dishes that I'm offering, I thought that I could make them

(01:22:03):
so I can accommodate and you can taste more.
Right, yes.
The idea is that you can taste more when you purchase that menu.
And then you have a glass of white.
Now, again, the white and the red that I'm going to serve are the ones that I have on my regular menu.

(01:22:25):
This is not like the picture of House Wine.
This is a regular glass of wine that you see on the menu.
It can be a Rioja, it can be a Rivera, it can be a Navarino, Rosé, a glass of Cava, whatever.
It's ten bucks on the menu, which is the entry level of my wine.
You know, you can order that.
I don't care if it goes as part of the deal.
That too, so it's like four things going on.

(01:22:48):
The paella with sangria was very popular.
Again, people tried and then they don't...
It used to be on Thursdays only before, right?
It used to be Thursdays.
It used to be Thursdays because I was doing something else the other days of the week
and then I said, well, you know what, because a lot of people would come on a Tuesday on a Wednesday
and then you have to say, no, it's only on a Thursday.

(01:23:09):
Yeah, it's hard.
They are a gravation of explaining.
I'd rather give it to them Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Have it, you know, have it.
Because otherwise I have to be explaining that people get mad and they don't understand.
And I don't even understand why on a Thursday, another Tuesday,

(01:23:31):
I'm not doing anything on a Tuesday, I don't say the same thing.
I don't know what to say.
Just give it to them.
I think that making things easier on the customer sometimes pay off,
but you cannot make it so easy that you hang yourself.
But in certain things you can.
So I tried to.
I tried to on certain things.

(01:23:53):
Do you have anything else you want to add?
12.
You've forgotten?
12 p.m. noon till 10 o'clock Tuesday through Saturdays.
We're here.
We have lunch specials.
There are certain things from the regular menu that are a little bit less, you know,

(01:24:20):
not all of them, not all of the menu, but set the margins,
makes sense for lunch.
They are a little bit, you know, better priced.
And there's this cube of food that starts like at $12 and it's very good.
Very good.
I can vouch for that.
I don't cook that food.
My wife does.
I agree.

(01:24:41):
I don't do.
Her beans, her beans are the...
The black beans, the motorized, everything.
That's my wife.
And actually we were mad because we came one day, we didn't know you were cooking.
One of the days, to me, every day is a day.
Yeah, I like to...
So I don't know what day...
So we pulled up.
I'm like, oh my God, they're closed.

(01:25:02):
It's closed, hey?
Yeah.
So the lunch, so I have the lunch, then there's the happy hour, which still, you know, keeps
the prices till six o'clock, very decent.
So you finish working, you want to swim by, bring food home.
That's good.
Yeah.
Perfect.
Then the whole day, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, we have the paella thing, Tuesday, Wednesday,

(01:25:27):
and Thursday.
We have the paella and sangria, and that $45 per person, the tasting thing, I wish that
someone comes in.
I don't know that it's like, no, how it's going to be.
I don't know.
I have no experience with that.
Only here.
Now, son, I don't normally do.
Is you've got this beautiful back room.
This is the back room.
If you guys see this, this is two parts of the residence.

(01:25:48):
Yeah.
So what do you do?
Private events.
Okay.
Parties.
Like how many people, roughly?
Well, like in a long stress like that can be about 24.
If they want the whole thing, they can all sit together.
So it's great for like a shower or a birthday party.
Birthday parties and even for lunch meetings.

(01:26:12):
Lunch meetings.
We're in the Wilton Manors area.
If you call me and you want to do that, I can preset.
I love when things that are done in advance makes it a lot easier.
There's nothing I can do when you come all, come in with 20 people and sit down.
There's nothing I can do for you.

(01:26:33):
If you do it beforehand, then I can do something for you.
Then I can say, well, you're going to be coming in.
I'm going to be ready for you.
You're going to be having this and that and I'm going to give you these.
And we're going to set a price and everybody's going to be happy.
If you come in like that, there's nothing I can do.
Because you know, that's a regular cost.

(01:26:55):
You know what I'm saying?
If you want to be a special price and a special bill, you have to do.
You have to be special.
You're going to just be the regular guy coming through the door.
You have to take, you know.
The rest is all so good.
And where can you be located and how can they reach you?

(01:27:17):
By phone, they can do 954, no, see that's my cell phone.
954-563-8088.
That's the restaurant phone.
You can leave a message on the internet, on the website.

(01:27:40):
There's the product you can do that.
And the address here.
The address is 2909 North East 6th Avenue in Wilton Manors.
It is 33334.
It used to be the K-Mart in front of us.
Now it's a huge building.

(01:28:02):
Now it's a huge complex.
It's very nice.
It looks better at night before it looks really, really bad.
I know we came here when they were knocking everything down.
Yeah, it was.
Anyway, anything else?
Yeah, you're good.
Cheers.
Thank you so much.
Cheers.
Totally appreciated.

(01:28:22):
Thank you.
Yeah.
My pleasure.
I think that it was more than 50 minutes.
I think that we talked a lot.
Bye.
No, but that's the point.
Thank you.

(01:29:02):
Thank you.