Chef Shane Schaibly: First Watch Restaurants, “The Anti-Chain”.

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
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(01:31):
That was a mouthful All right.
This week we've got thecorporate chef of an amazing
breakfast concept with over 500locations nationwide.
I was honored to spend a fewhours with him last month at
their home office down inSarasota.
That's here in Florida.
Let's find out how amedium-sized corporate

(01:52):
restaurant group stays cuttingedge on culinary.
Stay tuned, chef ShaneChabalese on deck and I know I
probably just murdered that.
Okay, jefferson, my man, hi,you know, I don't know if
anybody understands the skillset involved in ending these

(02:13):
long monologues Right on themoney.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Yeah, you know, master, judge now, master
communicator.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, all right.
A lot of great food came onlinetoday.
Yeah, and I want to jump rightin.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
You know what it is.
It's the first time we've everdone breakfast.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
And it's been fun for me because it's just something
different.
That's why I wanted to roll outthe shashuka, which also is
like a Mediterranean stew, whereyou take the eggs and just kind
of throw it in there and let itjust cook, all together with
the tomatoes and some peppers,little pita on the side, and let
me tell you, john did anawesome job, as always, with his
food photography.
And then I wanted to dosomething with some sourdough.

(02:55):
We had some Bloody Mary brinepork with Mexican hot chocolate
rub smoked.
We had some lemon thymemarmalade Put that on the bottom
, a little PTSD, which is putthat stuff on everything.
And then we had somecaramelized onions.
I had some mozzarella thatmelted on top of the poached egg
.
And then I did a brulee ofpeach, because you know peach
and pork go together so well,and that actually turned out

(03:18):
really good.
I really enjoyed that.
But I guess our guest actuallyhas some really good stuff that
he threw down.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, but I guess our guest actually has some really
good stuff that he threw downyeah, and when we bring him on
we're going to get into thegoodies man, and I have to say
today, I mean there's food here.
I cannot wait to jump in.
I had a couple of littleappetizers.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
You can say, right, but it's going to be great for
me, I did like the fact that youhad the vegan lasagna.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
So I was just going to talk about that.
Why did you bring it?
Because why I was giving you aheadache yesterday, big time,
big time headache.
But I love you baby, I made upfor it.
I have to tell you, we did alittle video for Cassie, who was
here a few weeks ago.
Right, she was into this wholevegan thing and here you were.
I ate it on camera, delicious,thank you.

(04:09):
Yes, yeah, I'm not into that.
I'm just simply not into.
We know vegan anything, but Iwill tell you that you did a
terrific job.
Appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
how's your book sales going?
Book sales are going well, itreally is.
I can't.
I'm just blown away byeverything, everything they're
getting back from people,hearing the responses and how
everybody is just the samemessage.
It's okay not to be okay andyou're never alone, and it's
just, it's the turnout, justamazing.
You hear people like it's likeyou're talking to me as I'm
reading the book and it's justphenomenal.

(04:37):
And Tina Davis is on a planeright now.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
She just popped on Instagram or one of her stories
and she's got a dish that she'sgoing to do, so it's just really
cool.
That would be Tina Davis fromRack.
Of course, I'm just saying,start that out there.
So I started the book, you know,and I've I got like a past the
forwards right and I got to getback into it now because that
took 45 years to to to getthrough that.
But it's going to be veryinteresting because I kind of
flipped through just to kind ofget a feel for it and yeah, man,
I'm super stoked for you.
Congratulations again on doingthis.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah, it's something that you know.
People are saying that youstarted something, a movement.
I didn't start a movement, it'sjust speaking the truth and
trying to get out there andchanging the mindset on how we
perceive mental health,especially in our industry,
because I think we really needthat help in that area.
Cause for for we've alwaystalked about it we're like the
lighthouse for the misfits andthe pirates, so let's get them

(05:36):
the help they need.

Speaker 1 (05:38):
Indeed All right.
So without further ado, let'sget chef Sugar Shane on the show
.
Welcome to the program, sir.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Thank you guys.
I appreciate it Speaking ofpirates and misfits here we are.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Indeed and the boat pulled in.
Indeed, it did.
So let's start with an airplaneview of who you are and how you
got to become the corporatechef for such a wonderful,
wonderful operation.
And then I also want to hearabout the sugar Shane, I mean
just check your eye.
So that's his IG, by the way,everyone.

(06:16):
Yeah, no, that's true, that'smy Instagram handle
ChefSugarShane.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
A lot of long, long history there.
Yeah, we'll get into a littlebit of it.
Yeah, so I've been in theindustry since I was 14 years
old.
I was born and raised justoutside of Tampa, in a little
town called Dunedin, florida,about 30 miles, I guess, west
from Tampa, and went in theindustry at 14, started working
in local restaurants seafoodrestaurants, that sort of thing
and realized like hey, I reallylove this industry, like this is

(06:43):
fun, these people are just likeme there's a lot of stories to
be told in these places and wentfrom there and decided I want
to go to culinary school.
My parents, my mom and dad,both said absolutely not, that's
not a real job, you're smart,you're going to real college.
So I got a full academicscholarship and turns out I was

(07:04):
smart and I did go to realcollege.
It lasted six months and camehome and eventually went down to
Johnson Wales down in Miami,went to culinary school, worked
at the Ritz Carlton in SouthBeach and eventually came back
home to Tampa, worked for whatwas it at the time?
For several years bestrestaurant in Tampa Bay, cafe
Pond and then went into thecorporate world when I was 25

(07:25):
years old.
So I started a corporate 25 andworked for the melting pot,
burger 21, grillsmith for sevenyears and then came to First
Watch about 10 years ago andhave seen, you know, this
amazing company grow from 114restaurants all the way up to
over 500 today and and it'sawesome, man, I love the
corporate side.
I've learned so much and it's afun brand to be a part of.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
I love how we so we, I don't know, about a month ago
we were together for about, Iwould say, three hours, yeah,
plus or minus, you know.
Yeah, and and it was.
We talked, we we went prettydeep, we did and you don't fit
the corporate cutout mold.
You're tatted, you are thiskind of like pirate in disguise

(08:10):
and it's really great Now thatRitz-Carlton you're talking
about, down at South Beach, Ilived across the street.

Speaker 3 (08:16):
I lived in the Decaplage, literally across the
street.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
Yeah, Lincoln Road.
Yeah, right there.

Speaker 3 (08:25):
My balcony faced the Ritz.
Yeah, that would.
Yeah, that would have been somerooms over there and some of
the banquet kitchen hallway yeah, yeah, it was pretty amazing
and I was in.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
I was actually in sales.
I was working with a bunch ofchefs at the time too that was
pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
I wish I would have known man I was probably around
the same time.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Yeah, yeah, 2005 that was it.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
yeah, yeah, dude, we, we might have partied.
I don't know, I don't evenremember.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
You might be right.
Don't quote me.
That's another episode, totallyanother episode.
So to talk about transitioningfrom, let's just say, a melting
pot style operation to a firstwatch, yeah, obviously, it's

(09:07):
completely different.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
Completely different, mostly franchised over on the
melting pot side.
So I learned a ton from workingin the corporate office.
I had great mentors and bosseswho are still friends and
mentors to this day.
But when I transitioned tofirst Watch, it was, and still
is to this day, majority companyowned.
We do have some franchisees,but the amount of control and
consistency that you have youknow control sounds a little

(09:34):
aggressive but the consistencythat you can maintain in a
system as big as we are today isjust like a breath of fresh air
.
And I, you know I'm stillfriends with a lot of our
franchisees from melting potdays and they're doing really
well.
But when you look at what we'retrying to do and the level of
culinary that we're trying toput out there in 500-plus
restaurants, you just usuallydon't see that anymore in

(09:57):
quote-unquote chains.
And I don't want to be a chainrestaurant ever.
I want to be an anti-chain.

Speaker 1 (10:08):
Well, yeah, one of us I was just going to say that
one of us coined that in thatmeeting.
It might've been you anti-chain, yeah, and I think that's
terrific.
There's a place for everyone.
Right, you need your Chili'sand Outback's and whatnot,
absolutely.
But then you need some elevatedexperience and you need to be
able to bring that across thecountry and you're, you know,
500 plus units, 530, 40 units,whatever it is, yeah, that's a
lot of units, it's a lot.

(10:29):
And to keep consistency, and Ijust want to point something out
so your corporate office and Ibrought this up to you in the
your corporate office isgorgeous, it's a happy place.
It mimics the locations, yeah,and the mimics the locations,
yeah, and the locations mimicthe dishes, so what's on the

(10:50):
plate and what you eat and howthey plate and the colors and
the energy, that's the actualrestaurant itself.
But then when you go tocorporate, it's all of that in
corporate.
So for me, I noticed thatimmediately and I thought that
was terrific in corporate.
So for me, I noticed thatimmediately and I thought that
was terrific for me.
I, that's something I canembrace, just you know, you know
in where I sit, next to theindustry.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
I just appreciate that.
Yeah, yeah, it's awesome, man,it's a, it's a fantastic culture
that we, that we have, thatwe've built and grown and
cultivated.
And you know, I think it's upto people like me with tenure.
You know I've been there over10 years.
Our, our CEO has been there.
You know he just crossed his 18year anniversary.
So, like having those peoplewho were around when we had, you
know, for me, a hundredrestaurants, for Chris you know
he was around, we had 40 and tocarry that tradition and that

(11:39):
culture through to the team thatwe have today, I mean there's
probably 120 people in thatoffice that you came to.
But you're right, like it feelsnice, like it feels like the
restaurants.
I mean we, we cook all the timedownstairs.
One of my chefs, michael, isalways like baking cinnamon
rolls or, you know, banana breador whatever.
And like you send one email outand there's like a line down

(12:00):
that hallway we can walk down topeople, just like trying to
rush and make sure they get youknow a taste of something.

Speaker 1 (12:09):
I think, if, if there's other corporate entities
food, food, restaurant, youknow restaurants and whatnot who
might listen to this podcast.
If you can match your corporateoffice to your dish, to your
plate, to what you're servingyour guests, you've made it.
Yeah, yeah, and, and that's,and that's for me going forward,
that's my bar.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, Thank you.
Well, I appreciate that.
And and we work hard, we workhard at it and it's, it is, it's
a constant battle, cause we'realways we're growing Right and
we're always hiring new people,so you bring in people from
other brands or other you know,quote, unquote chain restaurants
or concepts, and it's likethey're amazed by the fact that
you can go and sit in thatlittle cafe.
We talked in for a while andlike, oh wow, the CEO is sitting

(12:48):
right there.
Like, yeah, man, he's a regularperson, he eats lunch like the
rest of us, same with me.
And it's like we almost takeaway like that classist
separation of like well, they'reall executives, they don't.
When you hang out together, youhave lunch together on Fridays,
you bring lunch in for theentire office, like we sit down
and BS and talk about eachother's families or what you're

(13:10):
doing this weekend or whateverit is.
Especially people who have justmoved to Florida.
You know they have a lot ofquestions.
Oh, what happens duringhurricane season?
Oh, my goodness, I say nothing.
Well, I think it rains a little.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
I think one of the one of the you can point at this
, what I'm going to say here asto what brings your organization
to a kind of another level.
You're, tomorrow or tonight,you're leaving, you're going,
you're, you're going to SouthAmerica.
I'm going to Columbia, yeah,you're going to Columbia, and

(13:47):
you're going there becauseyou're going to go meet or go
re-see people from the farmswhere you're buying your coffee
from.
That's right, yeah.
So your, your organization,you're out there doing things
that independents go and do.
That's right, right, and let'stalk about that a little bit.

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, that's exciting .
It's awesome man, and I thinkthat's you know, part of why I
love my job so much.
It's these little things that wedo that keep like a certain
level of authenticity to.
Yes, we're serving food at avery, very large scale, but if
you didn't have a chef who wasinterested in where that food
comes from, or meeting thosegrowers like shaking the hand of

(14:20):
a strawberry farmer in PlantCity, florida, like those little
things matter so much to me,partly because I grew up here
and I want to, like you know,let people know that Florida has
a strong ag program.
But also like educating theconsumer and, more importantly,
educating our employees.
Like I want cooks and serversout there who work for us to
know, like hey, there are womendown in Wheeler, columbia, that

(14:42):
grow our coffee.
Like we see their smiles, we'vetold their stories, we brought
a few of them back here to theStates and spoken at our
conferences and the fact that wego down there and shake their
hands and break bread with themis a really big deal and it
doesn't happen in large-scale,quote-unquote chain restaurants.
So we have a lot of pride inthe sourcing that we do and I

(15:05):
personally have a ton of pridein the food that we serve.
So, yeah, I'm excited to go, gosee it again.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yeah, you have to right, because it's your name on
it Technically.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (15:14):
And I learn every time.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Right, and then what exactly?
Most of the time, this is wherewe're getting the food, and
then you have the story to tell.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
exactly right, yeah and then when people ask about
it, like oh you know, I can'tbelieve you have to go do this,
like oh man, you have no ideawhat it's like and and what you
know they go through to get thatlittle coffee cherry that has
two beans inside of it and thenthey strip that down and then
they'll wet mill it and to getit like to get the things that
we get that walk in our backdoor.
There is a whole world ofstories behind that, you know,

(15:45):
be it a grower down in Columbiaor a farmer here in Florida or
wherever in the States.
Like, I love learning about theindustry, I love being a
student in the industry.
So the fact that I get to dothat as part of my job and then
pass those stories along, I loveit, I love it.

Speaker 1 (16:00):
Coffee should cost $25 a cup, at least at least.
And most people don't realizewhy coffee should cost $25 a cup
, at least At least.
And most people don't realizewhy, and that's something that
has to do with the fact thatit's been produced the same
since the beginning.
That's right.
There really haven't been anytechnological advances in coffee

(16:22):
.
That's correct.
So that means it's a lot ofmanual labor, technological
advances in coffee.
That's correct.
So that means it's a lot ofmanual labor.
It's it's people carrying, youknow, a hundred pound, 150 pound
sacks of coffee up and downmountains.
That's right, literally, youknow, on a pitch, heavy, deep
pitch there, and then it'sdrying it in the like.

(16:42):
You've seen the process right?
Oh yeah, yeah, like the, the,the whole coffee process.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Drying it out on the roof of their you know where
they live their homes, right Onthese patios, and standing up
there in the sun raking it tomake sure that no little you
know moisture pockets, you knowstart to form and then mold to
grow, I mean it's and that wehaven't even left the farm yet.
Like this has all happenedright there and in our case,
these, these people's homes.
Yeah, there's some bigcommercial places in Brazil I

(17:08):
think you know is well known forthat, but machine harvesting
and stuff like that.
But where we go and where mostof like the you know I don't
want to dig on Brazil's coffee.
They have great quality coffeeas well, but like super high
altitude, really, really nicecomplex cups of coffee can only
be grown and picked by hand,like that's.
That's it.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Period?
Yeah, it's, it's picked by handand and and the little
masterclass on coffee here isbasically, if you look at the
equator, right, and then youlook for elevation around the
equator, that's where you'regoing to find places that grow
coffee.
That's right.
Right, because you might have.
You know Florida might have a aa great climate.
You know florida might have a agreat climate.
You know, good part of the year, but they don't have the
elevation.

(17:46):
Yep, and that the species ofthe bean that grows in the
altitude is actually it's calledan arabica bean, but that's a
species specific type of beanand that doesn't grow well in
low altitudes.
And the other bean, which isrobusta, doesn't grow in high
altitude altitude, that's right.
Yeah, that's pretty amazing.
And the fact that a 500 plusand I really can't wrap my brain

(18:09):
around it the 500 unit partthat they care about that and
not just, you know, let me getthe cheapest product I can put
in a cup.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
Yeah, no, yeah, it's certainly not the cheapest and,
at the same time, like we seethe value in what it takes to
get that coffee in the cup.
We also built this program witha purpose in mind.
It's called Project Sunrise.
We started it from scratch,probably like eight years ago,
and began with 25% femalegrowers and we had a pledge to

(18:39):
grow it by 5% to 10% everysingle year.
So when we go down this year itwas about 60, a little bit over
60% of all the coffee served inFirst Watch across the country
is grown by female farmers, andthese are women who have maybe
lost their husbands or theirfathers or their brothers.
There's been some politicalunrest over the last couple of
decades few decades in Columbiaand instead of just folding up

(19:02):
shop or deciding to growsomething else, they kind of
picked themselves up and saidwe've been growing coffee in our
family for generations, we'regoing to keep doing it.
And what's interesting is theoverall quality of the coffee
coming from these farms went up.
So, just like having ladies inthe kitchen, which I love and
actually when I started at FirstWatch it was an all-female

(19:22):
kitchen and they're super clean,super meticulous about their
plating, about their dishesthere's a lot of tough love
there and so I think these womenreally, you know, took the ball
and ran with it and we're superproud of them and that's, you
know, part of the reason I'mgoing down there.
We have a big incentive programso we do pay out a little bit
extra, based on what the coffeeprice is in Columbia, every
single day and then every yearwe go back down and give extra.

(19:43):
They're like, think of it aslike bonus dollars.
So if they grow a certainquality of coffee throughout the
year, we keep track of all that.
We can trace every single lotback to where it was grown in
Columbia and we go back and Iwill shake hands and hug women
who have grown coffee for us for, you know, seven or eight years
and who I've seen, you know,their kids kind of grow up and
and hopefully see these kidstake over, you know, the family

(20:06):
business in the in the comingyear, if I get to go back down
there, what I love about thatstory is because when you're in
the other side of things when Iused to do sales most people
don't realize when you have asandwich and it hits the plate
and what's normally goes withthe sandwich.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
a hamburger gets what in most restaurants Lettuce,
tomato fries.
Hamburger gets what in mostrestaurants Fries, fries.
And people don't really let ustomato, but most people, what do
they do?
Everyone goes after the fry totaste it right, and so most
people don't forget that thefries are a key ingredient in
your menu, where their keyingredient is the coffee.
Yeah, you want to be known forsomething.
You want to be known for thatfirst sip that it's going to

(20:46):
wake you up, and that's that'sthat story behind it is
beautiful because it shows theinitiative to the company, that
it don't not only cares abouttheir employee but it cares
about where they're getting theproduct from.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
yeah, and that's the story behind it yeah, well, it
has to do with influence, rightinfluences and which kind of is
a great segue, and into it I wasgoing to ask 500 units across
the country.
So that's a lot of differentpalates, right?
Different people, differentcultures, different areas,
whatnot.
Where does the inspiration forthe menu actually come from, to

(21:13):
kind of, you know, satisfy allof that and is it regional?

Speaker 3 (21:18):
So the menu is not regional.
We have the same menuconsistently across the entire
country, so almost the entirecountry.
There's one area of Ohio thatthey serve getta, which is kind
of like a scrapple-ish breakfastmeat.
It's awesome.
So I don't want anyone inCincinnati to be pissed at me.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Why don't you bring some of that Dude?
It's good, it's really good.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
So we have, I don't know, like 10 or 12 restaurants
there and they serve it, butanyway the rest of the country
all in the same menuconsistently.
And I think where we get toplay and I get to have the most
fun you know my team and I is isin our lto program.
So we have a limited time offer, seasonal menu.
It changes every 10 weeks.
That's where we get to play,that's where you get to tap into

(22:00):
regional specialties likeshrimp and grits or crab cake
benedict or something like that,or burritos, or you know, we're
on a carne asada hash going uphere in a little while, like all
of those little nuggets we getto kind of bring in from
influences around the country,regional influences, and then
share it with everyone else.
Now we might sell more shrimpand grits in, you know, texas,
louisiana, alabama, florida, butthe people up in detroit,

(22:22):
michigan, have never had it ornow exposed to it and I think
you know that's cool and we takepride in that and you know it's
.
It's, like I said, the most funthat we get to have in our jobs
.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
So how does that work with culinary trends then?

Speaker 3 (22:35):
Excuse me.
So we're about 18 months out indeveloping.
So we have this bank of recipesand we know exactly what's
going to launch, what's going totest when it has the potential
to go nationwide.
So, instead of sitting back andlistening to all the big
presentations and all the bigcompanies who say, hey, these
are the top 10 trends of 2025.
You know, I'm in the room, Itravel in the same circles as

(22:57):
all the other corporate chefsand everyone grabs their phone
and they're taking pictures ortrying to write it down in their
notebooks and I'm like that'san awesome checklist because we
launched that last year.
We're testing those two thingscoming up here next and like
being ahead of the game, likethat is from travel.
Spend time out there in theindustry.
Go visit big cities.

(23:17):
Go spend three days in the cityand eat breakfast, brunch and
lunch only in independence andsee what's going on, Like what's
starting to happen.
You know you'll see trendsstart before the big media
companies see it and for me,like that's, that's awesome.
So where?

Speaker 1 (23:37):
how often are you traveling the country or out of
country?

Speaker 3 (23:43):
doing those, those tours, or just like in general.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
No, Well, well, for you know, for for first watch.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
Yeah, I'm on there.
I probably take two trips everymonth.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
Sometimes they're a little two or three day trip,
sometimes they're a week inColumbia and you would say
that's, that's R and D based,everything's R and D.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Every say that's, that's r and d based,
everything's r and d.
Every restaurant I go to, everybite I take yeah, I mean you're
gonna, you're gonna go to your,to to the units and see what's
going on, but when you're there,I mean you're, you're out
canvassing the 100, yep, andthen we do one dedicated tour,
like a true tour, every singleyear.
Pick a city, research the city,research all the restaurants in
it, what's going on, and you'llsee things.

(24:22):
You will start to see littlethings, like you know we're in,
we'll give away all of oursecrets.
We're in Nashville and, like,we saw cornbread on almost every
single table, right, and it'slike that's.
That's interesting, becauseprior to this it would have been
a really big Texas thing whichwe saw in Austin maybe years ago
or so, but that's inspiring.

(24:43):
Okay, if this is happening here,is there a way that we can do
that kind of the first watch way?
Sure, put bacon in it, allright.
So now let's run, let's testbacon cheddar cornbread, let's
see if our customer is ready forthis thing.
That we think is kind of cool.
So bacon cheddar, cornbreadwith honey here you go.
Cool.
So bacon cheddar, cornbreadwith honey here you go.

Speaker 1 (25:02):
Yeah, I'm ready.
You enjoyed it.
Yes, yeah, I can.
Yes, I can, I can get behindthat Right.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
So we test that, make sure that it does work how we,
how we had hoped to learn fromit, and then go and launch that
nationwide and you know, youmight see on the next top 10
trends list cornbread as a, asan appetizer, or regional
cornbreads or whatever it is,and it's like that's great.
We saw that, identified it, andeven if it's not a trend at the
national scale, like for us,that worked.

(25:33):
So that's a successful trip.
We learned something from thattrip and you know, I don't know
how to quantify it Like we soldmillions of cornbreads and that
was great news, but to me, likewe learned something, we applied
it and it worked.
And now we have this platform.
So the year after that we did alemon, blueberry cornbread Cool
.
What other cool stuff can westuff inside these cornbreads?
And that's kind of how it goesyear after year.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
Well, look, I mean, I've eaten millions of
cornbreads.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
So I mean.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
I get it.
I get that.
So, but if we're talking,you're hitting a lot of
different points.
You know, nutrition, health andnutrition is a data point.
Yeah, and I'm very familiar,you know, with your brand and
there's a lot of Lululemon thatend up, you know, inside First
Watch.

(26:14):
That's right.
How do you guys embrace thehealth and nutrition aspect of
culinary?

Speaker 3 (26:19):
Yeah, for sure, right , we're talking about, like all
the fun, crazy, indulgent dishes, right, but there is always an
element of health and wellnessor, more importantly, freshness,
to all of the dishes that weput out, and I think it has a
ton to do with where we comefrom, right.
So the brand was started inNorthern California, pacific

(26:40):
Grove, california, monterey Bayarea, and you're right next to,
effectively, the salad bowl ofthe US, right, where all of this
fresh produce is readilyavailable.
We're a 41-year-old company, so41 years ago you only had
greasy spoon diners, and thenyou started to have this healthy
rumblings, right.

(27:00):
The restaurants were startingto pop up, but they were like
uber, granola, very functional,right, not really like fun, and
so there was nothing in between,and that's what our founders
saw as a gap.
And we're like, hey, what if wehad a restaurant that could take
into into the menus and intoaccount all this amazing fresh
produce?
But we don't need to be agreasy spoon diner.
We didn't, we didn't and westill don't to this day no

(27:23):
microwaves, no deep fryers andno heat lamps, and not a single
one of our first watches.
And like that's a testament tobeing able to carry that idea on
and then focus on the freshness, like the food's inherently
healthy if you're using freshingredients, right.
I mean, I suppose you could frythose ingredients, but looking
at the fresh avocados that weuse for avocado toast, right.

(27:44):
Looking at our juice program,where we're juicing every single
day, every single first watch,fuji, apple, english cucumber,
kale, turmeric, beets, and thenwhatever's in season right,
pineapple, watermelon.
We've used blueberries andstrawberries and all kinds of
stuff.
But, yeah, it's a huge, hugepart of our identity and we take
a lot of pride in balancingthat health and wellness with.
Hey, you want a triple stack ofchocolate chip pancakes, like

(28:06):
we'll.
We'll make that for you.

Speaker 1 (28:09):
Yes, yes I mean what are we talking about here?
I mean, yeah, cause I I so funfunny story.
My wife this is before, this isa long time ago she goes new
orleans and you know she'slooking for something egg whites
in new orleans yeah, andobviously the server was

(28:30):
basically like yeah, you're in.
you're just in the wrong part ofthe country.
For, for all of that and youknow to to your point you know
it is it is a growing segmentand the and the fact that
there's an offering and you'restill putting out the delicious
chocolate pancakes alongside Idon't know.

(28:50):
For me it's hitting the spot.
Where do you actually takehealth food going forward?

Speaker 3 (29:03):
health food going forward?
That's a?
It's an interesting questionbecause, quote unquote, health
food means so many differentthings to so many different
people.
Right, we look at it as, hey,fresh equals healthy to us.
So, no matter how big we grow,and as long as I'm here with the
brand, we want to make surethat we keep that focus on fresh
produce for as long as wepossibly can.
I think a lot of times, asrestaurants get bigger, right,

(29:25):
bigger in numbers, bigger spreadacross the country, it's so
much easier to just go.
We'll buy that already made oralready chopped or whatever it
is for us.
And you know, I look at thatand it's like you didn't have to
, though, right, you're kind oftaking the easy way out.
It may be a little bit, littlebit cheaper, right, because
fresh produce comes at a priceyou got to truck it across the
country, has limited shelf life,and so, as a chef, I look at

(29:46):
that and I'm just like we'regonna, we're gonna hold strong
on this.
I mean, we're still.
You know I mentioned all thethings we juice.
We still hand fabricate, likeall pineapple, all honeydew
melon, all watermelon during thesummertime, or house roasting,
all veggies, right, so corn inthe summer, bring in whole cobs
of corn.
500 restaurants, right.
Bring in whole cobs of corn,season them, roast them in the

(30:08):
oven and then strip the kernelsoff and use them in different
things like hashes or burritosor whatever Like.
To me, health is freshness.
We're not trying to jump on thebandwagon and go you know,
chase any of the plant-basedproteins or anything like that.
Like that's great and I'm proudof the industry and those

(30:28):
companies.
They all have their place, butfor us we're really going to
stick to supporting the farmersand the growers out there across
the country.
Like that's a huge deal to us.
You know we mentioned we'regoing to Columbia, but I spend
that same amount of time goingout to us.
You know we mentioned we'regoing to Columbia, but I spend
that same amount of time goingout to California.
Spend a week in Californiagoing from Northern California
and visiting all of our growersright, kale and spring mix and

(30:49):
carrots and beets and all thatstuff, and then all the way down
to Southern California andvisit avocado ranchers.
I mean these guys have treesthat are 40 years old.

Speaker 1 (30:57):
It's awesome, you said it.
Plant City strawberries.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
It's right, here we're at the, we're in the
epicenter oh my god man, I loveit so much when strawberry
season comes around in florida.
It's the best 100.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
now here's the thing.
How did you go?
How did you go from?
You know pan throwing, you knowtatted restaurant, you know
pirate chef?
Yeah To this.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
There's probably some of that still left in me.

Speaker 1 (31:26):
I don't think that goes away.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
No, it doesn't leave you you didn't remember the
comment he made and I was likeooh, that's a chef comment.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
It never leaves you.
You said that several timestoday.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
Because it never leaves you.

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Yeah, I think for me, I know when to turn it on and
when to turn it off, I think,and that's a unique skill set
that not all people have.
I'm not 100% sure where thatcame from, but I'll probably
give credit to my parents onthat.
I mean, my mom was a schoolteacher and my dad was a cop,

(31:57):
and so it was a pretty strictcombination there in my house,
but there was always a level ofof joking and and smack talking.
My dad was one of nine kids andgrew up in a farm family.
We just had a family reunion upin Michigan with a lot of my
uncles and like hearing them alljust like talk smack all day to

(32:18):
my dad and my dad gave it backto them and my son now, who's 13
, is hearing it and he'sinterjecting.
It's like, oh my God, this isjust handed down through the
generations.
But for me, going back to yourquestion, I think that plays
well in being able to like hey,man, you know, put on a long
sleeve shirt, cover up yourtattoos and you can sit in a
board room and have aconversation, and as long as
you're educated and smart enoughto understand the numbers side

(32:41):
you can change into ashort-sleeved chef coat, show
your tattoos and have fun in thekitchen just like anyone else.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
We're in a different time anyway, right, correct,
it's a different time, but Iwill tell you so with how I see
the fit, because you even havethe skull and crossbones on the.
I'm staring at it now.
He's got a pirate hat on that,I know, I see it In the scroll.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
I thought that's why he's laughing Right, I know, I
know.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
That's what I'm trying to say here but here's
what I'm getting at the brandthat you work for now.
I don't know if they can becutting edge without someone
with your sort of background.
Yeah, I think it fits when.
In other places it's not goingto fit, you know, because

(33:26):
they're looking for a differentend use, a different product.
That's right, right.
Different execution or whatever.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Yeah, I think it's terrific.
Thanks, man, I agree with you.
I love it.
Obviously, you know, it'sshaped a really cool, fun life
for me and I think all thecredit in the world needs to be
given to.
You know, our current presidentand CEO His name's Chris
Tommaso Awesome guy Was ourchief marketing officer and you

(33:52):
know he kind of recruited me,you know, over 10 years ago, and
we sat and we talked not aboutthis brand but like about this
culture and to say, hey, we'vebeen at that point, we've been
around for 30 years, and all Iknew, you know, and I told him
this is is that you know, thisis where my grandma took me for
breakfast, which you know isn'tthe best thing to say in an

(34:14):
interview which he let me know.
And I was like, listen, man, I'm, you know, I'm an honest guy,
I'm going to shoot you straight,like that's kind of what I know
.
And he said, hey, we're hearingthat a lot lately and this is
the future of the brand.
And he showed me a drawing ithadn't even been built yet of a
restaurant and I was like, oh,that's different, man, and
that's the first watch that youguys all know and see today.

(34:35):
But this is early 10 plus yearsago, and he showed me that
drawing and he said you know,we've always been known for
great service and we were goingto revamp kind of the look and
feel of the restaurants and weneed someone to help the food
keep up with what we're doing.
And you know, he gave me thatopportunity at the time bringing
up tattoos.
At the time we had a tattoopolicy and no tattoo policy.

(34:56):
So if you worked in the frontof the house at first watch, you
had to either wear long sleevesor cover up your tattoos with a
bandaid or whatever.
It was, yeah, crazy.
So I went and did my trainingand I called him after like my
third day in front of the housetraining and I was like, hey,
man, like this tattoo thing isnot going to work.
I'm not going to put longsleeves on every time I go in a

(35:17):
restaurant.
And I'm like also, what are wedoing, dude, restaurant?
And I'm like also, what are wedoing, dude?
We must be missing so manyawesome candidates, right?
So many opportunities for thesekids out there just because
they look like me.
I'm like we've turned a cornernow and now that I'm here, like
you know, we need to dosomething about it.
He said we've already had thediscussion, we're getting rid of
the tattoo policy.
I was like, hey, cool, that's abig deal.
To this day, 10, 10 or moreyears later, I still meet

(35:40):
servers or now people who areGMs or even director of
operations for us, who came upthrough the ranks and are like
dude, you changed the world forme.
I don't have to cover up mytattoos and imagine all the
people that we've hired who arejust badass managers.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
So many creative people.
I don't have any, but like Irespect it.
I'm into artsy stuff orwhatever, so I'm all about it,
but here's the thing I'm into.
I like artsy stuff or whatever,so I mean I'm all about it, but
here's the thing I do rememberthe bandaid thing like back in
the day when I, or if you, hadearrings and you had to put a
band like oh my God, you lookridiculous.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Yeah, that's the mentality of the culture right
Of the restaurant industry as awhole.
That's what it used to be.
You know, there's this stupidmeme that goes around and it's
like it used to be.
You were a biker and a murdererwhen you had tattoos Now it's
like I'm doing a gastric of youknow, balsamic and roasted duck,
and that's because you've gotthe tats.
I know that you know it's funnybecause that's the way it goes.

(36:31):
But I love about the culturethat you're talking about.
There's so many concepts thatare out there that forget they
get to to to a point wherethey're like we have to go that
way, because then you have thepencil pushers, as we like to
call them, the guys with theactivists just sitting there
going wait, that's too muchmoney we're going to lose, so we
have to do it this way and wehave to go and cut corners at

(36:53):
the food.
You cut corners at the food.
Guess what happens?
You lose your guests yeah, youlose your guests, you lose your
soul.
Yeah, that's the problem.
But because the pencil pushersare seeing the ROI dwindle and
erode, they don't realize thatif you cut the corners in the
quality of the food, which isyour foundation, the reason why

(37:13):
you started this business, guesswhat?
You're going to have the emptyseats, which is the most
expensive real estate you havein your restaurant.
But, if you stick to it and youhave these.
Not only I don't think you havelike a partnership, you have.
You don't have like a farmer.
You have partnerships rightBecause you're going to these
farmers, you're meeting them,you're shaking their hands,

(37:35):
you're doing business with themand they believe in the product
because you're putting thatproduct out.
Your cooks are around the 500.
They're putting that productout, so they're going to have
passion because they can talkabout where that food is coming
from.
That's right, yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
And we do as much of that educating as we can,
whether it be on our socialmedia or internally.
I mean, every time we launch anew LTO, one of these seasonal
menus, every 10.
Like, I get on a call withevery single general manager and
everyone in operations abovethose general managers on one
big conference call and I talkabout the dishes and I explain,
walk them through.

(38:09):
Of course, hey, here's howwe're going to make it.
But like, there's little videosfor that.
But like, tell them.
Like, hey, here was theinspiration for it.
Here's where I saw this.
You know, we have a like saltycaramel apple holy donuts dish
right now that, for me, hasapple butter on it, which was
inspired by my grandma.
I ate apple butter as a kid.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
It's hard to make, by the way.

Speaker 3 (38:29):
Hard to make.
My grandma was from Ohio.
It's kind of consuming, that'sit, and we were never jelly
people.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
Wait a second, wait, a second wait, a second.
Yeah, you were able to take arecipe inspired by your
grandmother and introduce itinto First Watch.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, that's so awesome.
The apple butter is like frommy childhood, so there's little
nuggets along the way that I canbe like there's nothing else
that makes sense here.
Let's put apple butter on thisdish.
And now here it is.
It actually just launched onTuesday in whatever 500 plus
restaurants, I thought you weregoing to go with.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
where was that?
That's where I thought he wasgoing to go and where the hell
is that?
We're going to have it tomorrowfor breakfast.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Man.
No, but see, stuff like that,to me, is super important when
you're talking about a brand andbranding and what staff brings
to the table to a largeroperation.
You know, because you know 500units isn't a little.
It's not little, yeah, but youcarry yourself little.

(39:30):
Yeah, you know what I?
You know 500 units isn't alittle, it's not little, yeah,
but you carry yourself little.
Yeah, you know what I mean.
I do, I do, yeah, and I feellike that's that was one of the
most exciting parts about youknow, reaching out to you guys
and you know getting you on theshow, yeah, because I've eaten
at your.
By the way, this is not like apromo or sponsored, and this is
like a.
You know, I enjoy the concept,the food and the atmosphere.

(39:57):
I was scrolling I saw, oh,shane, corporate reach out,
sugar shane, sugar shane.
This is professional.
It was on linkedin.
I was like is this?
This must be the sugar shit?
Yeah, I was like that's how itworks.
No, but, but that's but.
That was the genesis of thereach out, you know, and I was
like you know what, let's seehow, that you know where it goes

(40:18):
.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Besides working as the corporate chef now and then
being in the like past placesyou worked, or corporate chefs
that you meet now when you'rerunning around?
Yeah, are they different?
Are they stuffy or is it likehow?
Because I've worked with acouple, right, yeah, I've worked
with.
We mentioned Paul Muller.
Yep, paul and I worked togetherat PF Jenkins when they were

(40:38):
very young.
Yep, we're at New Orleans, soworking with them, you could
find out this is a cool cat.
Then there was mentioned who Iwanted to like.
Yeah, he was the one I wasafter.
Like, that's the type of like.
Do you run into that whenyou're running around?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
yeah, yeah, for sure, and and because I've, you know,
been on the corporate side forover 17 years now.
Right, I mean when I started Iwas 25 you're sellout man oh
dude those words have been sales, then you're a seller.
Yeah they were said to me forsure early on and it and I took
it hard and I I didn't want to,I didn't want to be a corporate

(41:12):
guy and I think you know that'sprobably why I'm not today and I
know how to turn on and allthat.
But like at the, at the end ofthe day, like I'm a restaurant
person, yep, I happen to work ina corporate office, yes, I
happen to be able to sit withthe ceo or the cfo or talk, you
know the financial goals of thecompany and all that.
But like, at the end of the day, I can also go into the
restaurant and pick up a knifeand prep and cook wash dishes,

(41:36):
jump on the line, whatever itneeds to be.
So like, yes, early on therewas a lot more of those.
You know, you don't want to beageist, but like they were, they
were older, school right, andthrough my 17 years you've seen,
not only on the chef side, themkind of age out and you start
to see people that look a littlebit more like me, that talk a
little bit more like me, butalso on the sales side.

(41:56):
And that's something that Ireally really noticed, right,
because the people who I wasworking with early on in my
career.
They've since retired and thekind of younger generation which
would be people of our agestepping up and getting into the
game.
It's awesome to see kind of thetide shifting a little bit
because that old schoolmentality of how you treat
salespeople like you're justhere to sell me what I want to

(42:20):
buy and that's ridiculous.
It's the same thing how peopleused to treat distributors Like
dude.
I was brought up completelydifferently, very fortunate to
have worked for chefs who werelike no, no, no, no, no.
Those guys are our partners andif we're in a pinch, the ones
that you're mean to, they're notgoing to help you out, dude,
they're not going to come hereon a Saturday and drop off
freaking you know a case ofpersimmon or whatever it is

(42:41):
because you forgot to order it.
So, like I was taught early onby you know his name's Chris
Pont.
Now has several restaurants inthe Tampa area, but he taught me
early on respect those guys.
Yeah, you give them a hard timeand sometimes you hassle them
and beat them up a little bitover price, but at the end of
the day they should feelcomfortable bringing their wife
or whoever into the restaurantand having dinner.
I don't know that kind of stuckwith me even at this scale.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
They save your backside.
For sure, that's what they do.
For sure, that's what they do,for sure, the good ones Now,
cause that's my, that's my world, yeah, that's where I come from
yeah, and the reality is, byand large, the caliber well,
let's just say, post COVID, thecaliber that's out there, of
salesperson, I'm not soimpressed honestly, and I, you

(43:26):
know I'm not so impressedhonestly and I, you know, for
those, for those salespeople whoare out there listening to me
say that if you're offended it'sprobably you.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
We're talking to you, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
So you know, with that said, you know that
marriage is super important.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (43:48):
Whether it's your, you know your fishmonger, your
produce, you know your, yourproteins.
Whoever it is, they're going tobail you out if they're worth
their salt.
That's right.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
That's right yeah, I think the other thing for you is
the corporate level that you'reon and then you're not feeling
that way.
Do you have a test kitchen?

Speaker 3 (44:02):
so we have a sample review area in the in the office
.
But no, when we built thatoffice I said I don't want to
test kitchen because I want togo work in the restaurants.
I passed three test kitchens onmy way home and I have one
right across the street from theoffice.
Like I'd rather go out in thefield, work side by side with
those guys.
Plus those guys and girls plusthey love to see what we're
working on, right, and you get,you get them inspired and then

(44:25):
you know I think there'ssomething to going back to the
authenticity of like oh wow,like our chef actually cooks.
You know, and I'm willing toget back there and burn myself
and you know, like they see thatthere's someone at the office
that like looks like them andtalks like them.
And you know they believe that.
And it's true, of course, thatwe're doing things for all the

(44:47):
right reasons.
True, of course that that we'redoing things for all the right
reasons.
And I think if I were just somedude in a sport coat, came in
with a laptop and sat in acorner, like, I'm not gonna have
that same faith in in our brandand and buy-in from the teams
that we have today and I don'tknow man, I, I love that.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
I treasure that and that's true, because here's the
point right, I've worked in testkitchens where they put stuff
out, like I.
I worked for Grady's Americangrill and I remember they had
zucchini, squash and anothermaybe it was carrot and we
Julianne them and I did abutcher test.
Right, I just I took, did allmy work, did all my cases,
weighed the amount, weighed thewaste and we had, I think, 35 to

(45:23):
40 units at that time.
I sent a letter off to the areaor district manager and I'm
like and the corporate executivechef for them, and I said it
was Patrick O'Connor from planetHollywood.
That's, that's how far back I'mgoing.
Wow, I'm old.
And I sent a message off.
I'm like, listen by my scale,by what I think we're losing.
We're losing a million dollarson these three vegetables.

(45:46):
Because the concept of acorporate chef is I'm in the
building over here producing allthis.
He's laughing because he knowsit's true.
That's why I asked thatquestion, because they're
producing stuff that they knowdoesn't work in the field or in
real life, where that's why he'sgoing to that restaurant and
you can produce whatever youneed, because it's going to

(46:07):
those restaurants.
That's exactly right.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
Yeah, we take a ton of pride in making sure that
when these recipes are and youcan produce whatever you need
because it's going to thoserestaurants.
That's exactly right.
Yeah, we take a ton of pride inmaking sure that when these
recipes are written, you knowthose menus that change, right,
that's three entrees, one juiceand one shareable.
That changes every 10 weeks,right?
Five times a year, well, holdon Speaking of juice.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
Yeah, can you talk about what we're drinking here?

Speaker 2 (46:26):
Yeah, absolutely it.
About what we're drinking hereyeah, absolutely it is missing.

Speaker 1 (46:29):
One thing, though, it is yeah, this makes it oh sure
we can have some.

Speaker 3 (46:30):
We'll have some after , yeah what's.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
What is actually what's in here?

Speaker 3 (46:34):
yeah, so this is called, uh, blazing dragon,
which don't be confused withblazing saddles.
No, no, no, it's, uh, it's,it's fun, it's a fun name.
We try and you know we've foundover the years like naming
stuff that's fun and not so veryspecific and descriptive.
Like this is a strawberrylemonade with dragon fruit.
I don't know man, that's no fun.
So call it Blazing Dragon andlike let people read the next

(46:57):
line so they get a little bitmore interested in or intrigued
by it.
But effectively, yeah, so we'rejuicing fresh strawberries
in-house in every singlerestaurant, lemons, a little bit
of cane sugar and thenfinishing it off with dragon
fruit.
So diced dragon fruit pieces onthe top for, like this really
bright pink color, and then itkind of bleeds in and you get

(47:19):
like effectively flames comingdown from it.

Speaker 1 (47:20):
Look people order it.
Yeah, eat the dragon fruit, butdrink it.
Enjoy the whole thing.
It's, it's flipping delicious.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Yeah, it's nice, it's a.
It's a nice one, and, andlisten, it's quote, unquote fall
right, this is a fall menu, butfor me fall all of us in
Florida.

Speaker 1 (47:42):
it's the summer you want a nice refreshing lemonade.
I just want to make mention ofsomething.
How far have I come?
I just said flippin'.
You know I'm in such control.
I'm in this like Jedi state orframe here, man, I've really.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
I'm proud of you, thank you.
You got a golf clap from SilentJohn, yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:02):
John even.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
He didn't make a noise, it's so silent.
There's still no noise therebut it's good.
Wow, I love it man, the drinkis actually very refreshing.
Thank you, it's very balancedbecause you have the tartness
and everything that goes along.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
The strawberries comes in for a little bit of
that sweetness too, as well,truth be told, right when I
found out what the items werethey were bringing, I was like,
oh, this is great.
Oh, another one.
I was like we're on a string.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
And he goes here's the menu for tomorrow.
Blink, and I'm like I'm onlydoing two dishes.
Do you want me to pull back one?
And John goes no, because wehave a certain time frame,
obviously, for the workflow,right?
So he's like we're never doingthat again.
Yeah, so I want to make sure Ikeep him happy.
Don't worry about him, he justgets food and he's happy he got

(48:53):
plenty of pancakes yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Yeah, yeah, I can't.
That's what I can't wait to gojump into.
I'm so like, really want, Ireally want to get those, those
pancakes.
Yeah, yeah, my buddy, yeseverybody.

Speaker 3 (49:05):
Yes, ricotta pancakes are a staple of our menu every
single day.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
So that's, that's on the menu year-round that was the
first thing I ever had at afirst watch was that oh yeah,
nice 100 nice.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Oh, speaking of which , now can we talk about the
sugar chef and the pastry?
Because you used to do pastry?
I did used to do pastry,because I reminded myself about
that lemon curd and I was like,oh, let's talk about the pastry
now yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:27):
So I went to culinary school down in Miami and worked
for the Ritz-Carlton down thereand J Woo.
J Woo yep, the girl I wasdating at the time wanted to
move to Tampa.
Didn't work out.
Obviously Never does.
That's another story.
But yeah.
So I came back home and reachedout to Chef Chris Pong, who I
mentioned earlier, and I waslike hey, chef, is there any
hotels that you know who arelooking?

(49:48):
You know, I'd just come fromthe Ritz.
I really liked that, that's howthe business.
And he's like no, no, no.
He's like but I need a, I needa pastry chef.
I'm like cool, I'm not a pastrychef.
So he's like no, no, no, no, no, don't worry, I'll teach you
everything.
And he said I'll teach youeverything you need to know.
If you just help me out here,I'll help you out.

(50:08):
You know, I'll make sure I takecare of you in the long run.
And I was like all right, man,whatever.
So went in and chef's a prettyawesome dude, but he spent some
time in France.
So his entire pastry book,which was, you know, probably
two inches thick, three ringbinder, all the recipes in
French, in metric, and so Ilearned from that book how to

(50:32):
make everything breads, rolls,pastries, creme brulees, bombs,
tarts, mousses, all this stuffright, and I'm eternally
grateful to him to this day forforcing me to learn that and to
learn it in that format.
But yeah, I mean, I was, I waspretty pissed.
I did not think it was going tobe cool.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Yeah, and but just for the record, chef pond is
serious.
Very, the man does not playgames.
No, he doesn't.
No, I just want to put it out.

Speaker 3 (51:01):
Oh yeah, you've had.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
He's you.
Though, since you made thecomment metric, I love the
metric system when you're doingrecipes, for sure easily.
Do you do metric when you'rewriting them for the guys, or do
you keep it in the english?
Yeah yeah, yeah, just soeverybody knows you, because
metric is so much easier whenyou're doing baking and pastry,
because you can amp that upscaling, yes, scaling.

Speaker 3 (51:25):
So going from a dozen rolls to 20 dozen rolls,
whatever vice it is.
Or vice versa Right, right, butyou have to say it with an
accent.

Speaker 1 (51:32):
You have to do it.

Speaker 2 (51:34):
Right, that's what I'm saying.
Like John.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
Paul.
So when I'm reading the epithet, I have to have it in my head.
When you expand it out, youhave to do that.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah, like John Paul Right.
By the way, it was his birthday.
So happy birthday to John Paulout there.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Yeah, the knuckle man , happy birthday, baby, happy
birthday Inside joke there.
It's terrible, it's horrible.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
No, it's all good yeah, so that's I.
I'm not sure why, because I hadalready left the pastry world
at that point, but it just, itjust felt right your myspace

(52:16):
page is still up it's.
It's still playing the samemusic dude I would love to see
it.
I don't remember what was onthere, but mine was food
fighters.
I know that for a fact Nice.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
I want to see who those eight friends are See what
they're up to.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Tom was one of them Also a friend on Instagram.
He's a good follow.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
And a dilute figure.
Dilute, alright, man, I tellyou, tell you what.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
You're not going to mention anything about this oh,
what oh?

Speaker 1 (52:57):
sort of kind of a yeah, I mean, is it small, is it
a big deal?
Big deal you, you break it?

Speaker 2 (53:03):
no, you do it.
No, you're doing what you gotto do it.
It's your show, you're the ourshow.
So, out of 5 million listeners,a podcast.
Right, you want to tell themwhat the thing is or no?

Speaker 1 (53:17):
What are you just, these people?
I hear collectively everybodyturning it off right now.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
No, they're not, Cause they're waiting to know
what the heck is going on.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Oh so this is like a strategic pause, is there?

Speaker 2 (53:28):
some sort of a.
This is where you fill in thegaps.

Speaker 1 (53:31):
Today with our friends from First Watch here.
By the way, thank you, jennyLester, for putting all this
together.
Shout out to you.
And doing a good handler yes,totally being a good handler.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
Great handler.

Speaker 1 (53:45):
Overseer watcher.
However, you want to look atthat Overlord, Overlord, no.
So during the cooking part ofthe production today, I got an
email from the publishingsoftware that we use and we hit
2.5 million downloads today,Today.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
It was cool.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
That's crazy man.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
What about something about choice and people?
What?

Speaker 1 (54:11):
People's choice.
Oh, that's what you're talkingabout?

Speaker 2 (54:13):
yeah, that's, that's kind of a big deal.
I didn't know what the hell youwere talking about.
That's why I was trying to leadit that way.
The 2.5 million is a great that.
That's a huge deal.
This is what you're about tosay all right, okay, okay, okay,
okay.

Speaker 1 (54:24):
So here.
So the the people's choiceawards.
We've all heard of it.
There is a component orcategory for podcasts.
So there's a gajillion podcastsout there, and in the arts
category we made it to the final.
They call it the final slate.
So Walk Talk Podcast is in thefinal slate of the People's

(54:48):
Choice Awards.
Super cool, how many?
What was it?

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Five million listeners.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Was it five.

Speaker 2 (54:55):
That went from the main listening group.
They're bringing it down to20,000 listeners.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
Right.
That will award the People'sChoice out of the 10, including
us yes 10 podcasts that we willhopefully find out September
30th if I'm not mistaken, and soour boy, our main man, willie
Beddix, behind the camera theretoday was a big deal, like you
know.
Red carpet pulled all the stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
There was a sign when you walked in the door.
There was a sign even WelcomeFirst Watch.
Welcome First Watch.
I saw that, oh my God, we neverdid this for anybody.
Welcome first watch.
I saw that, oh my.

Speaker 1 (55:27):
God, we never did this for anybody.
No, I never get welcome.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Jeff, jeff, get the hell out.

Speaker 1 (55:33):
So we actually have to record today an acceptance
speech in the event that we win,because we won't know in real
time.
So it's that far along Kind ofcool.
I don't know, that's better.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
But you're here for it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:49):
This is like a momentous day.

Speaker 3 (55:51):
We've done a lot of cool stuff.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Today I'm saying Breakfast.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
This potential award.
Yeah, there was a lot of firsts.
Today, 5 million, a lot offirsts 2018 cities 109 different
countries.
The book came out this week.
Our new menu came out this week.

Speaker 1 (56:07):
There's an explosion of things happening here and
John he's not even processing it.

Speaker 2 (56:16):
He might actually talk.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
Now, wow, okay, I'm out of excitement.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
I don't know, I'm spent.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
That was it.
I'm ready to go to bed now.
All right, you're ready to eata pancake I want to have?
Oh God, then.
I'm ready to go to bed now.
All right, I'm ready to eat apancake I want to have.
Oh God, then I'm going to takea nap, because it's like a
quadruple stack of pancakes.
What's the Lemon?

Speaker 2 (56:39):
curd.

Speaker 1 (56:39):
Oh my God, Are you kidding me?
Can't wait for this.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
With powdered sugar strawberries.

Speaker 1 (56:45):
All right, look.
All right, all right, look,slow down everybody.
Shane, yes, what's your?

Speaker 3 (56:51):
Instagram handle ChefSugarShane.

Speaker 1 (56:54):
Okay, follow Chef.
Importantly, follow First Watch.
Follow First Watch.
Look them up.
They're out there.
Today was really fun.
I had a blast.
Thank you guys.
Willie Beddix my man Thank youfor coming out today.
You're clutch, we love you manJeffrey.
John, you guys are amazing.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Baxter, we love you, he only yelped twice.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
That's the puppy, the mascot.
I guess you could say the JennyGlester.
Thank you kindly, we Are out.
Say the Jenny Glester, thankyou kindly, we are out.

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