October 13, 2025 • 34 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varry Show is on the air. Grant the board
is our guest's restaurant is Winnies in Midtown. So when
(00:27):
I went to your website to track you down when
the guy had tried to steal your shrimp in his
very clever delivery uniform, are you the co owner of
Johnny Goldbricks in the Heights?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
No, that is my business partner, Benji Mason.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Benji Mason. What was he in before.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We met and worked together? In tread Sack?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Oh that's where Yeah, yeah, that's why I would Qusacs company.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I used to go over to Downhown when it
was just Downhouse all the time. It used to hold
a lot of parties at our house and Cusac would
come over.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And there was a group of us that all ran together,
Morgan web if you knew Morgan, Yeah, Morgan, and then
a lot of guys that I knew through Morgan that
were kind of the restaurant. I'm not a craft cocktail guy,
but they're all craft cocktail. You know, they're kind of pretty.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Graham, It's not pretty to like good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I know. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
You.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But Johnny Goldrigs is supposed to be it's supposed to
be pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It's awesome. You got to check it out. They make
fantastic cocktails, and they don't like what they have on
the menu. They can make you anything.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Did you do the menu there?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I did not know. That's that's all Benji.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So we've got we've got a great team that we
both work with, uh justin as our like kind of
headbar guy at Winnie's and at Johnny's. I've got a
general manager Kyle, who's great. But Johnny's is a fantastic
place and you know, cool, cool neighborhood hangout.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So I used to live at the edge of Mintown
two two three West Timer and this was okay, two
thousand to two thousand and five or so, and and
we would frequently maybe people passed out in our yard.
Windows get broken, stuff would get stolen. We got kind
of used to it. So when I saw that the shrimp,
(02:31):
I thought it had been stolen. And Ruz you had
stopped him at the time, and the Russ you had
stopped him. I thought, well, knowing what I know, that's
probably been the least of his worries. It just makes
for a funny story. How bad is the crime problem? Now?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's any part of you know, living in a city, right,
I've been broken into in the Heights way more than
has happened to me in Midtown. You know, you've got
there's a homeless problem in Midtown. That's like there's a
heavier concentration there. But the crime that we see is
(03:12):
not any better or worse, in my opinion, than it
is anywhere else, with the exception of maybe the metro rail.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'll tell you this. You know, moving the Greyhound bus
UH station was a huge boon. Of course, the people
over on the East End are not happy that they
moved it over. That was I used to do rat
alongs with the cops when I was on city Council
in the early two thousands, and we would go to
that area in an unmarked car and you can sit
(03:43):
I mean, the stuff you would see, you could you
could literally just arrest, you know, one hundred people a night.
It was.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It was horrible, no no doubt. I mean, we're excited
that they moved it. It was a definitely a concentration.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
There, all right. So what's the best thing on your menu.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I'm partial to the shrimp po boy.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know, it's kind of one of those things where
we get the best shrimp we can. Kurt from BBTC
Food actually just texted me he's listening in So High, Kurt,
but our shrimp come from Texas, Matta Gordo. To be exact,
is he your shrimp?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
He is, yes, And what's his name?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Kurt Evans? His father, Jimmy Evans is a shrimp legend
in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
There used to be a guy you'll know him. I
don't know if he's still alive, but there used to
be a guy who would go down Morgan would buy
his food from him. I learned a lot about this
whole thing from from Morgan. Weever, we were running buddies
for a long time. We're still friends. But he lives
out in Leaky now is Leaky or Laky Leaky? Okay
spelled leaky? Anyway, there was a guy that was going
(05:02):
down and I think he provided for y'all at Bernadine's.
And he would go down and and he was the hot,
most expensive, but he would bring back all this cool
stuff from the Gulf that I think he would practically
go get himself or he would handpick kind of curate
from the from the fisherman. Do you remember who that was.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's Jimmy Evans. That's Kurt's daddy.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That name doesn't I thought this guy had kind of
an odd name, but maybe that's him.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh there's also Freaksos.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Uh yeah, well Freaks I know he's over off Kirby. Yep,
this was this was Freaksos is Greek, I think. But
this guy, I thought he had kind of an odd name,
but maybe it was Jimmy Evans. Anyway, so you get
your shrimp from.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Him, from his son, now Jimmy's past.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And so that's yes, that that is all coming out
of the Mattagorda water that's correct. It was an article
recently about a lot of restaurants in the area are
buying or not buying local, which is just crazy, especially
in Keema and Galveston, when you consider it's right there
on your doorstep and you could be supporting the local fisheries.
(06:10):
And it's just shocking to me that that, you know,
somehow the consumer wouldn't care enough to find out these
sorts of things. Do you pay more for shrimp because
you're not buying the cheap Chinese stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Absolutely, But you know that's sourcing locally has just always
been what you did right. It's part of providing the
best ingredients and then not doing too much to mess
it up. That's kind of I like to say. Cooking
is the easy part. Making food taste good is the
(06:43):
easiest part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You call it the perfect good.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Sorry, go ahead. The rest of it is just, you know, relationships.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You call it the perfect shrimp? Po boy? What makes it?
What one ingredient without this one ingred obviously shrimp's shut
up fromo Oh is it the bread? Is it the bread?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's the bread?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Did he tell you that already? Well then how did
you know that? You don't stop acting like you know anything.
Bridegulf shrimp, savoy, cabbage, tomatoes, pickles, mayo, Leidenheimer's po boy roll?
Where's that from?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
New Orleans?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Is it Leidenheimer or Leidenheimerleidenheimer? I love Neworons, I love
the people of Neworleans. I'm gonna get a hundred emails going,
I come he in now Leidenheimer's. So you bought that
when you were there? That's where you discovered that?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh yeah, I mean that's what you use when you're
in New Orleans. The only thing that I can't stand
is that we don't get it delivered fresh every day.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I was gonna ask, who's your distributor?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
We buy through a couple of different distributors for them,
but they ship direct and how often?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Tell me how is a week? Do you get a bread.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Delivery three times a week?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Interesting? Can you hang with us? From a couple of.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Events with us? Blue Plate Mayor has done a couple
of events with us, and they approve of how we
handle and represent their bread.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Gramble aboard Winnie's Restaurant in Midtown.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
In the simpl.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Jender, The Michael Berry Show is simple man tonight time.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Look here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The shrimp boats is a common There's dancing tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Shrimp boats is a common. This says on inside, shrimp
boats is coming, there's dancing tonight.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Shrimp is the fruit of the sea.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You can voulbecue it, ball it, brawl it, bake it,
saltate days on shrimp, cobots, shrimp, creole, shrimp, gumboo and
from uh deep fry stir fry is pineapple shrimp, limon shrimp,
coconut shrimp, helper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad,
(09:13):
shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's that's about it. You have two different burgers you
have you have on your menu and says po boys
and not po boys. Why do you have two different burgers.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Because one has barbecue sauce on it, which I used
to think was an abomination. But I made a rodeo
burger that I think is so damn good that it
was a special that made the menu.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That feels very Brian Caswell.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Graham, Sorry, didn't hear you?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Oh, I said that feels very Brian Caswell. I didn't
know if you felt insulted.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
By that or not to have two different burgers.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
No, no, to just that that particular burger. It just
felt like something where Caswell is giving up on his
kind of fancy chef jacket, you know, chef behavior and
going all right, let me give something to my dad's
friends that they'll come in and love. Do you wear
the chef jacket that he does?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You think you could have pushed him out the back
door if he was the one still in your shrimp.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No, Brian's a friend, but he's every bit of six
y four.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So that's a dude whose hands could be described as myts.
When you hear somebody's hands described as mits, that's cash
has some big, big hands. Are you having trouble hearing me, Graham?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
No, I need you When I say something, I need
you to acknowledge it. You can chuckle or hum or yeah,
or you have to acknowledge it, or then I don't
know what to do.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I got you, Okay, try again.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's a dude with some big mits. You know you
hear the word mits used. That could be his hands.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
My grandfather put a huge emphasis on teaching us how
to shake hands. He introduced a fictitious character called mister
Kickapoopolist just to make us laugh at how ridiculous it was,
But it was really a test of could you keep
a straight face, even in a ridiculous moment and shake
a good hand. Brian Caswell has a fantastic handshake. I'll
(11:27):
give you that.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
What a great story to rat alog. You went from
not acknowledging my Caswell reference to to throwing mister kickapooplis
is in there? I like your grandfather already? Was it
Mom's side or Dad's side, that was mom's side. Was
he a coon ass or where was he from?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
He was not a coon ass. He was a landman
in the Lafayette area for every bit. I mean, he
never retired, so you just did that until the day
he died.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I bet he had stories.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh you would not believe.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, Ramon, this is what you want. Oh you don't
eat you know, Ramon doesn't eat seafood, the golden seafood Mountain,
golden fried catfish, six fried golf, shrimp, French fries, videlia
and fennyl buttermilk, slaw, cocktail and tartar sauce. Twenty four
dollars look twenty four dollars ain't cheap. But I got
(12:22):
to tell you in midtown for all of that, that's
I'm you know, I look at how good of meal
is before I look at whether it's a good value.
But that's a that's a relatively low price for price
point for where you are. Quick. Do you name the
one do you know the one country song that mentions
vadalia onions, vadalia onions. I do not, Sammy Kershaw Vadelia.
(12:48):
How about the gumbo smothered chicken fried steak. Would you
eat that ramon? You don't eat gumbo? Oh my god,
that's ridiculous. Forty four farm steak breaded and fried, smothered
and chicken and sausage gumbo. Gravy with a dollop. Dollup
is a good word. It doesn't get used enough of
potato salad on a bed of dressed slaw twenty six dollars.
(13:10):
How about the eggplant park You like eggplant? My wife
likes eggplant. I don't like eggplant. Eggplant parm a la vodka,
panco and fennel seed, crusted eggplant, spicy vodka, sauce, melted
mozzarella and palm, twenty one dollars. You want to know
the sides are. Moment you got your parmesan, parmesan serrano,
creamed corn, picnic potato salad with dial. You know how
(13:32):
come people don't use deal more? I like dial Graham.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Any fresh herbs just hive with almost every kind of salad,
so we use a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Gins, creamy mac and cheese. Is that your wife?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
No, that is not my wife. That gin is an
employee of ours who will make her presence known at
any given moment. And she came up with her macaroni
and cheese recipeet salt.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And pepper fried Oakrey. So I don't care for Oakrey.
I mean, if you're making a list of things I
don't like, I don't want to make sure I don't.
I don't pass myself off as somebody that does. And
we say, Okrey in our household, battered and seasoned fries.
Can I get fries without them being seasoned?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So the seasoning is a potato starch. They're coated French fries.
Kind of like the best version of Popeye's French fries
you ever had?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Okay, you want some advertisers from home? Oh? You let
me ask you? How hard is the restaurant business today?
How much harder is it today than when you start?
I mean, now you've got the heavy at a head
that wears the crown. You got more worries than when
you were, you know, making red pudding. But how much
(14:48):
tougher is it today?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I like the challenge. I mean I think of what
I do is problem solving, and so you know it
any harder to make money? Are the margins tighter now
than they've ever been? Sure? But that's kind of always
the case. Right, It's as I kind of said earlier,
(15:14):
restaurants are about relationships. It's relationships with your vendors, relationships
with the customers, the guests, the employees, and problem solving
is just a big factor and what we do and
how we do it. I don't know that I could
or would do anything else.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I love that, and I get tired of hearing restaurant
people be so negative and cynical that being saved do.
I mean, it's it's terrible to.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Get jaded specifically, you know. I mean, we had a
woman write as a one star review because she didn't
want to leash her dogs. And that's if you google
dogs restaurant patio, Houston, the number one thing that comes
up is that they must be on a leash. So
(16:02):
this is the woman who did not enjoy her experience
because she wanted to treat our patio like it was
her house. It's easy to get jaded when that happens
to you day in and day out, or get you know,
a guy tries to feel shrimp or whatever. But at
the end of the day, I still love what I do.
I love my employees, I have a very supportive family,
(16:27):
and it you know, as I said, I don't think
I could do anything else.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love the optimism and most most food guys. After
a while, I think the most retail they do get
jaded and cynical. It's nice to hear someone who says, no,
I love this. I wouldn't do any of these. Do
you know what you said? The challenge people here love challenges.
You gotta love the child because it's a daily.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
From God I have all day, and not just because
that's the thing that white people say to be like,
look at me, you know, but I really could.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
There's just something about the way he pronounces certain words.
We interrupt our discussion with Graham Levoorde of Winnie's Restaurant
in Midtown to bring you this important message. I was
asked by a fellow named David Suffel, which would be
so much cooler if it was David Souffle, and he said,
I need your hat, your advice, and perhaps help. I'm
(17:25):
trying to start up the Pairland Men's Choir, and I've
had very little success. I have notified the local colleges,
local high schools, advertised on social media, used Craigslist, and
have notified some churches. This is a nonprofit with very
little startup money. When I lived in Ohio thirty five
years ago, I started one in the community one half
the size of Paarland, and we had our first performance
(17:46):
the first month we were in existence. We have a
father son program for a fun time with the family experience.
Still only a couple of guys are singing with the group.
We have a website Pairlandmen's Choir dot. Why are we
having so much trouble getting men to sing with this group?
Our Christmas plan is to sing at the Salvation Army
(18:07):
ring the bell program, sing carols at rest Holmes, and
have a Christmas program. What is your advice? And I
told him I would be glad to help promote it,
but under the strict requirement quid pro quote that they
sing God Rescie married gentlemen, because that's one of my absolutelys.
I didn't when I asked you for that, I didn't
(18:29):
realize you were going to throw Nat King Cole at me. Wow,
that's a lot to handle all at once. You like that,
Graham the choir, Well, anything would you like to join
the Paarland Men's Choir.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I can't think that driving down to choir rehearsal from
Houston would be a valid excuse for use of marital capital.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Can you sing?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Uh? Not?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Well, maybe we start with that before we get into
demands on your time. Do you have a particular Christmas
Carol that if you did sing and you were to
have a solo, you'd want it to be?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Ah? Absolutely, but it's Mariah Carey. All I want for
Christmas is you.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I listened to it nine thousand times over the holidays.
I think that might even be the definition of torture.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I always know. I always wonder, you know, I'm always
afraid when I do a discussion, and I'm very interested
in learning from the person i'm talking to. Am I
going too far? You wonder maybe you should cut it short?
And I just realized that exactly that moment, we should
have cut it short. Romment that Mariah Carey, all the
capital we built up, the whole the place was about
(19:47):
to be overwhelmed, and now they're going, Dear God, know
if I have to hear Mariah Carey, I'm done?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Is that good? You gotta have some joy you find.
I don't know how retail people do it. I mean
I don't even they Yeah, three four more weeks to
the holiday madness than we do, and by the end
of it, I am so ready for things to not
be Christmas. Yeah, I mean we make our year during
the holidays.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
So you know there is a there's a website dedicated
to retail employees when that song comes on and they
do freak outs and all the different all the different
things they do. Uh, you said, you make it so
my friend Jane and jam Alva said, y'all do a
great job decorating at Christmas. What percent of your revenues
for the year are the one to twelfth of the
(20:34):
year that is December for you?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Ooh, probably almost fifty. Are you maybe a little lesson
more like thirty five? Yeah? It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Is it parties or buyouts or what is it?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
No, it's just I mean will go. It's like taking
a restaurant to one hundred miles an hour for six
weeks and then January first comes and you slam on
the breaks.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you all take some time off.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Usually two or three days, just to decompress and get
everything back to normal and reopening. But that always depends
on which bowl game they're hosting it energy and who's playing.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
How did y'all become known as a Christmas bar Christmas restaurant.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So we do. We participate in Miracle, which is a
national craft Christmas cocktail pop up. It started years ago
in New York. A bar had all their licenses everything,
but it wasn't ready to open. So rent in New
York being what it is, they threw up a you know,
(21:48):
a bunch of Christmas decorations. It looks like Christmas exploded
in there, made some cocktails and it was a huge hit.
So we license and participate in Miracle, which is its
own cocktail pop up Christmas cocktail pop up brand.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Interesting I never heard of, but part of the unique.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, well there's only us. So Winnies and Johnny's Goldbrick
are the only participants in Houston. We have the exclusive
you know, other Christmas. Other bars and restaurants will do
heavy handed Christmas decorations. That's gotten more and more popular
in the last years, but only Winnies and Johnny's do Miracle.
(22:35):
Interesting and it's totally different experiences that either if you
want a reservation, you want a more kind of serene
Christmas explosion, you go to Johnny's. If you want Christmas chaos,
you go to winnings about that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's interesting. It's fascinating. It's fascinating how people come up
with their little niches, you know, it's it's interesting. I
was out at doc Do the other night and they
were they had they usually have country acts, and they
had a band called the Red Hot Chili Pipers and
it is a Scottish Highlands bagpipe band. It's a full band,
(23:13):
but they feature the bagpipes. They wear the kilts. And
so after the show, after the people left, I hung
around and talked to the guys and not really not much,
but interacted with them. And you know, they were leaving
the next morning to go back to Scotland and they'd
been on the thirty day tour of the United States.
You know, when you're programming a bar, live music venue
or whatever, you're trying to program. Unlike restaurants where you
(23:37):
want to be consistent. You're trying to program because people
aren't going to come for the same type of music
every night. So even if you call yourself a kind
of a country edged bar, you still have to have
some things that get younger people and older people and
Christmas people and party people, and the fact that they
kind of counter programmed with that was so clever and
it was a successful night. I mean I looked at
their numbers at the end of it, and they did
(23:59):
well on a night that they didn't have to burn
through the Texas country scene or the classic country scene.
Just it was I thought that was very interesting. Let
me ask you about the protein on your menu. How
well does that do in in Houston?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
It crushes. I mean, people love gumbo. So much of
what we do is based in rooted in Cajun, but
it crushes too much to my dismay because as a Louisianian,
everything I like is traditional. You don't mess with this.
And Benji actually did a survey that says, if we
(24:37):
put gumbo gravy on our French fries, would you eat it?
And overwhelmingly if yes. I roll myne eyes every time
I see the sails. Yeah, it's always third or fourth
in our p mix. But I gotta say, if they
can find a metal themed bagpipe band, the guy in
Parland ought to be able to find some singers.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
You know you would thing and you know, a choir,
a men's choir. I mean, how awesome is that? How
many guys out there are sitting around going, man, I'm
in Katie, but I'll drive to that, or I'm in
the Woodlands. I'll drive to that because hopefully we can
find that for them. So I've heard of bang bang shrimp.
I love bang bang shrimp. And you have a bang
bang catfish. What makes it a bang bang? What? What?
(25:20):
What is the element in bang bang?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's the saw. It's a high chili mayonnaise saws.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I love it. Do you like it? Librarians?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I love Michael Verry show.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Tzar you mentioned the Red Hot Chili papers this morning.
My sister's boyfriend bought tickets to see him in La
a couple months back. On accident. He thought he scored
some really cheap seats to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I guess he didn't have his reading glasses on when
he ordered him. They loved the show and thought they
were fabulous. Well, you know what was amazing is the
(25:57):
almost the entire crowd. I stood at the door to
listen to people as they left, and they were speaking
with their Scottish brogue. The Irish have a brogue. I
don't know what you call it, Scottish a brogue. Yeah,
And it was probably seventy five percent Scotsman. So I
(26:22):
asked the general managers, what's going on with all these?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
What general managers? Steve Sayte's son Brad, I said, why
are there all these? Is this a Scottish private event?
And he said no, he said, Uh, it's the weirdest thing,
I guess because there's so many people from Scotland working
for the oil companies here, which makes sense, but when
(26:46):
there's a Scottish event they come out for it. How
about that? You just never know. It's amazing to me
how good you get at running a business. When you
run a business, and if you don't, you go out
of business. You know, when you get to know people
who who run a business, I always like asking them
questions because sometimes they stumble on things they never expected it,
(27:09):
and they go, whoa, I've got something here, Or sometimes
they have this great this will be me. Sometimes they
have this great idea and this is going to kill
and nobody's ever done it and it's an absolute bust.
And you know, so there's there's that too, and you
just know this is going to be the one right here,
and man, that's why you get to where you don't
(27:30):
even tell people, Hey, well I'm about to do right here.
It's really good. People are gonna be talking about this,
because then it's a complete bust. Whereas if you hadn't
told anybody and ends up halfway successful, then you can,
you know, act like, oh shucks, I didn't even so.
I took Crockett to Lubbock this weekend and a couple
(27:54):
of things I have to say about Loubboock because I've
never been there and we have a lot of listeners
on kf YO. Out of Lovebock went with a friend
of mine named Gary Peterson. He's a big donor to
the school. He grew up in Lubock and he's very
proud of Lubock. He took us to see his little
modest home he grew up in on at thirty three
(28:15):
eleven forty fourth Street. Met him through Russell Leabara years ago.
He is one of the three founders of a private
equity firm called end Cap and they have funded a
lot of boil and gas dreams to fruish and over
the years he's done. Very successful man, a very generous man,
and he's very eager that Crockett go to his alma mater,
(28:38):
which is Texas Tech. He's given over fifty million dollars
five zero to the place, so he's pretty passionate about it.
So he said, let's just take him up, and well,
I didn't realize what he meant by show him around.
We get there and he drives us around the campus,
drives us see his the house he grew up, and
we drive to the old downtown and you know, get
(29:00):
a sense of the of the place, and we checked them.
We had a little hotel called the Overton, which is
right across and you know, Lubbock listeners in Lubbock have
told me, you know, you can see this guy for miles.
There's all sorts of jokes about how far you can
see the sky because there's no skyscrapers, no skyscrapers. So
in Montana, well only they call it blue Sky Country.
It's blue sky there. It's beautiful. Actually, I kind of
(29:22):
like it. I'm not used to it, but I like it.
And then we start and he's a big donor to
the team. There's three of them, a guy named John
Sellers and Cody Canada and Gary Peterson, and the three
of them together put thirty eight million dollars into nil
and they went out and bought the best players that
(29:42):
you could buy in the country through the transfer portal,
so there's no development time. And these guys come in
and they start contributing and they're all from all from
major programs to start with, and so the team is undefeated.
They were ninth going into the game. Of course they won,
so they moved up in the rankings. I think just sixth.
I can't call anyway. So there are buildings named or
(30:04):
parts of buildings named after him, and we toured all that,
got to have lunch with the team, got to go
in the locker room before and after with the team,
which is really fun for me, but it's super fun
for Crockett because he's eighteen years old and these guys
are a year older than him, and you know, they're
all grabbing him and excited and high five of him
and you know, roughing him up and you know, like,
(30:25):
you don't how dogs in the dog partner, Remember my
young people are that way. I remember now I'm like,
oh carefully, you hurt my back. But anyway, it was
it was a lot of fun. And I got to
meet Cody Campbell, who you see on TV all the time.
He's the one that President Trump has put in charge
of the nil thing to somehow fix college sports in
(30:45):
the finance of it all. And it's going to be
each university can spend twenty point five million dollars on
nil and that's it. That's all. You cannot spend a
penny more than that. You can spend twenty point five.
A lot of them won't get to that, but you
can spend up to twenty point five. You cannot spend
a penny.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
More hard and fast, unless unless, unless you were to
hire a kid to let's say I just make I'll
just pull a name out of a hat.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Let me just some random Now it's too random. Eric Dickerson. Okay,
let's say let's say let's say you were to bring
Eric Dickerson in, and let's say you were to own
I don't know, car dealership, right, and let's say you
had a gold trans Am and and you know you,
Eric Dickerson, sell some cars. You just this got this
(31:35):
random guy that I'm coming up with, you know, got
goggles and everything, and the neck pad and real high
step are real fast and on the option and get
to the corner. And yeah, but let's just say, hypothetically,
Eric Dickerson went to work for your car dealership. Now
you could, but Deloitte and Touche has to review the
deal and make sure that it looks like a real deal.
Like you got to really want Eric Dickerson to be
(31:57):
a car salesman at your dealership. So anyway, there's that
little exception to the rule. Do with that what you will.
But anyway, I like when people have a chip on
the shoulder and Texas Tech has a chip on their shoulder.
A and M is cocky because they're a and m
UT is cocky because they're ut. But it's nice to
(32:19):
see these guys that are so eager to say, hey,
we're at the table now too. We're a top ten
team about to be a top five team if they
went out, they're going to make the playoffs. But they
have a veterinary school. Now, they have a medical school,
now they have a law school. Now they have a
nursing school in El Paso. And I got to tell you,
(32:43):
I think that I think there is a role for
putting campuses for professional degrees in the small communities of
our state that don't have all the resources. You know,
you had to leave Orange to get a job at
that time to go to school. There's a Lamar campus
(33:04):
in Orange now or parts of the campus. But I
think there's something to be said in these small towns
considering how much of the money that goes into it
as taxpayer dollars to creating opportunities. Because you talk about
economic incentives, the hospitals, the the veterinarian. We needed another
veterinary school. It was impossible to get into A and
(33:26):
M or Auburn, and we needed more veterinarians. I think
it's a good thing. A and M fought them on that.
But anyway, for those of you who have kids applying
to school, keep your keep your eye out on Texas Tech.
I'm very impressed. I really liked lovebook. It's not the
streets of New York, but I didn't get since you
were going to get mugg there. I liked the people.
(33:46):
I liked the culture they and they're trying very hardy.
The tree I didn't. I weren't hardly any trees and
then tho skyscrapers. But I really liked the people and
I liked the feel of the town. Yeah, so that's
that's my review of Low Book.
It's that time time, time, time, luck and load. So
Michael Varry Show is on the air. Grant the board
is our guest's restaurant is Winnies in Midtown. So when
(00:27):
I went to your website to track you down when
the guy had tried to steal your shrimp in his
very clever delivery uniform, are you the co owner of
Johnny Goldbricks in the Heights?
Speaker 2 (00:42):
No, that is my business partner, Benji Mason.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Benji Mason. What was he in before.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
We met and worked together? In tread Sack?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Oh that's where Yeah, yeah, that's why I would Qusacs company.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, I used to go over to Downhown when it
was just Downhouse all the time. It used to hold
a lot of parties at our house and Cusac would
come over.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
And there was a group of us that all ran together,
Morgan web if you knew Morgan, Yeah, Morgan, and then
a lot of guys that I knew through Morgan that
were kind of the restaurant. I'm not a craft cocktail guy,
but they're all craft cocktail. You know, they're kind of pretty.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Graham, It's not pretty to like good stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
I know. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
You.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
But Johnny Goldrigs is supposed to be it's supposed to
be pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
It's awesome. You got to check it out. They make
fantastic cocktails, and they don't like what they have on
the menu. They can make you anything.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Did you do the menu there?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
I did not know. That's that's all Benji.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Okay, all right.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
So we've got we've got a great team that we
both work with, uh justin as our like kind of
headbar guy at Winnie's and at Johnny's. I've got a
general manager Kyle, who's great. But Johnny's is a fantastic
place and you know, cool, cool neighborhood hangout.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
So I used to live at the edge of Mintown
two two three West Timer and this was okay, two
thousand to two thousand and five or so, and and
we would frequently maybe people passed out in our yard.
Windows get broken, stuff would get stolen. We got kind
of used to it. So when I saw that the shrimp,
(02:31):
I thought it had been stolen. And Ruz you had
stopped him at the time, and the Russ you had
stopped him. I thought, well, knowing what I know, that's
probably been the least of his worries. It just makes
for a funny story. How bad is the crime problem? Now?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
It's any part of you know, living in a city, right,
I've been broken into in the Heights way more than
has happened to me in Midtown. You know, you've got
there's a homeless problem in Midtown. That's like there's a
heavier concentration there. But the crime that we see is
(03:12):
not any better or worse, in my opinion, than it
is anywhere else, with the exception of maybe the metro rail.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
I'll tell you this. You know, moving the Greyhound bus
UH station was a huge boon. Of course, the people
over on the East End are not happy that they
moved it over. That was I used to do rat
alongs with the cops when I was on city Council
in the early two thousands, and we would go to
that area in an unmarked car and you can sit
(03:43):
I mean, the stuff you would see, you could you
could literally just arrest, you know, one hundred people a night.
It was.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
It was horrible, no no doubt. I mean, we're excited
that they moved it. It was a definitely a concentration.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
There, all right. So what's the best thing on your menu.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
I'm partial to the shrimp po boy.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
You know, it's kind of one of those things where
we get the best shrimp we can. Kurt from BBTC
Food actually just texted me he's listening in So High, Kurt,
but our shrimp come from Texas, Matta Gordo. To be exact,
is he your shrimp?
Speaker 1 (04:27):
He is, yes, And what's his name?
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Kurt Evans? His father, Jimmy Evans is a shrimp legend
in the state of Texas.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
There used to be a guy you'll know him. I
don't know if he's still alive, but there used to
be a guy who would go down Morgan would buy
his food from him. I learned a lot about this
whole thing from from Morgan. Weever, we were running buddies
for a long time. We're still friends. But he lives
out in Leaky now is Leaky or Laky Leaky? Okay
spelled leaky? Anyway, there was a guy that was going
(05:02):
down and I think he provided for y'all at Bernadine's.
And he would go down and and he was the hot,
most expensive, but he would bring back all this cool
stuff from the Gulf that I think he would practically
go get himself or he would handpick kind of curate
from the from the fisherman. Do you remember who that was.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
That's Jimmy Evans. That's Kurt's daddy.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
That name doesn't I thought this guy had kind of
an odd name, but maybe that's him.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Oh there's also Freaksos.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Uh yeah, well Freaks I know he's over off Kirby. Yep,
this was this was Freaksos is Greek, I think. But
this guy, I thought he had kind of an odd name,
but maybe it was Jimmy Evans. Anyway, so you get
your shrimp from.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Him, from his son, now Jimmy's past.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
And so that's yes, that that is all coming out
of the Mattagorda water that's correct. It was an article
recently about a lot of restaurants in the area are
buying or not buying local, which is just crazy, especially
in Keema and Galveston, when you consider it's right there
on your doorstep and you could be supporting the local fisheries.
(06:10):
And it's just shocking to me that that, you know,
somehow the consumer wouldn't care enough to find out these
sorts of things. Do you pay more for shrimp because
you're not buying the cheap Chinese stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Absolutely, But you know that's sourcing locally has just always
been what you did right. It's part of providing the
best ingredients and then not doing too much to mess
it up. That's kind of I like to say. Cooking
is the easy part. Making food taste good is the
(06:43):
easiest part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
You call it the perfect good.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
Sorry, go ahead. The rest of it is just, you know, relationships.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
You call it the perfect shrimp? Po boy? What makes it?
What one ingredient without this one ingred obviously shrimp's shut
up fromo Oh is it the bread? Is it the bread?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
It's the bread?
Speaker 1 (07:07):
Did he tell you that already? Well then how did
you know that? You don't stop acting like you know anything.
Bridegulf shrimp, savoy, cabbage, tomatoes, pickles, mayo, Leidenheimer's po boy roll?
Where's that from?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
New Orleans?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
Is it Leidenheimer or Leidenheimerleidenheimer? I love Neworons, I love
the people of Neworleans. I'm gonna get a hundred emails going,
I come he in now Leidenheimer's. So you bought that
when you were there? That's where you discovered that?
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh yeah, I mean that's what you use when you're
in New Orleans. The only thing that I can't stand
is that we don't get it delivered fresh every day.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
I was gonna ask, who's your distributor?
Speaker 2 (07:53):
We buy through a couple of different distributors for them,
but they ship direct and how often?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Tell me how is a week? Do you get a bread.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Delivery three times a week?
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Interesting? Can you hang with us? From a couple of.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Events with us? Blue Plate Mayor has done a couple
of events with us, and they approve of how we
handle and represent their bread.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Gramble aboard Winnie's Restaurant in Midtown.
Speaker 4 (08:19):
In the simpl.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Jender, The Michael Berry Show is simple man tonight time.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Look here.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
The shrimp boats is a common There's dancing tonight.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Shrimp boats is a common. This says on inside, shrimp
boats is coming, there's dancing tonight.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Shrimp is the fruit of the sea.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
You can voulbecue it, ball it, brawl it, bake it,
saltate days on shrimp, cobots, shrimp, creole, shrimp, gumboo and
from uh deep fry stir fry is pineapple shrimp, limon shrimp,
coconut shrimp, helper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad,
(09:13):
shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
That's that's about it. You have two different burgers you
have you have on your menu and says po boys
and not po boys. Why do you have two different burgers.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Because one has barbecue sauce on it, which I used
to think was an abomination. But I made a rodeo
burger that I think is so damn good that it
was a special that made the menu.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
That feels very Brian Caswell.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Graham, Sorry, didn't hear you?
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Oh, I said that feels very Brian Caswell. I didn't
know if you felt insulted.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
By that or not to have two different burgers.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
No, no, to just that that particular burger. It just
felt like something where Caswell is giving up on his
kind of fancy chef jacket, you know, chef behavior and
going all right, let me give something to my dad's
friends that they'll come in and love. Do you wear
the chef jacket that he does?
Speaker 2 (10:22):
I do not.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
You think you could have pushed him out the back
door if he was the one still in your shrimp.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
No, Brian's a friend, but he's every bit of six
y four.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
So that's a dude whose hands could be described as myts.
When you hear somebody's hands described as mits, that's cash
has some big, big hands. Are you having trouble hearing me, Graham?
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Not at all?
Speaker 1 (10:49):
No, I need you When I say something, I need
you to acknowledge it. You can chuckle or hum or yeah,
or you have to acknowledge it, or then I don't
know what to do.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
I got you, Okay, try again.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
That's a dude with some big mits. You know you
hear the word mits used. That could be his hands.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
My grandfather put a huge emphasis on teaching us how
to shake hands. He introduced a fictitious character called mister
Kickapoopolist just to make us laugh at how ridiculous it was,
But it was really a test of could you keep
a straight face, even in a ridiculous moment and shake
a good hand. Brian Caswell has a fantastic handshake. I'll
(11:27):
give you that.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
What a great story to rat alog. You went from
not acknowledging my Caswell reference to to throwing mister kickapooplis
is in there? I like your grandfather already? Was it
Mom's side or Dad's side, that was mom's side. Was
he a coon ass or where was he from?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
He was not a coon ass. He was a landman
in the Lafayette area for every bit. I mean, he
never retired, so you just did that until the day
he died.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
I bet he had stories.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Oh you would not believe.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Okay, Ramon, this is what you want. Oh you don't
eat you know, Ramon doesn't eat seafood, the golden seafood Mountain,
golden fried catfish, six fried golf, shrimp, French fries, videlia
and fennyl buttermilk, slaw, cocktail and tartar sauce. Twenty four
dollars look twenty four dollars ain't cheap. But I got
(12:22):
to tell you in midtown for all of that, that's
I'm you know, I look at how good of meal
is before I look at whether it's a good value.
But that's a that's a relatively low price for price
point for where you are. Quick. Do you name the
one do you know the one country song that mentions
vadalia onions, vadalia onions. I do not, Sammy Kershaw Vadelia.
(12:48):
How about the gumbo smothered chicken fried steak. Would you
eat that ramon? You don't eat gumbo? Oh my god,
that's ridiculous. Forty four farm steak breaded and fried, smothered
and chicken and sausage gumbo. Gravy with a dollop. Dollup
is a good word. It doesn't get used enough of
potato salad on a bed of dressed slaw twenty six dollars.
(13:10):
How about the eggplant park You like eggplant? My wife
likes eggplant. I don't like eggplant. Eggplant parm a la vodka,
panco and fennel seed, crusted eggplant, spicy vodka, sauce, melted
mozzarella and palm, twenty one dollars. You want to know
the sides are. Moment you got your parmesan, parmesan serrano,
creamed corn, picnic potato salad with dial. You know how
(13:32):
come people don't use deal more? I like dial Graham.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Any fresh herbs just hive with almost every kind of salad,
so we use a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Gins, creamy mac and cheese. Is that your wife?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
No, that is not my wife. That gin is an
employee of ours who will make her presence known at
any given moment. And she came up with her macaroni
and cheese recipeet salt.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
And pepper fried Oakrey. So I don't care for Oakrey.
I mean, if you're making a list of things I
don't like, I don't want to make sure I don't.
I don't pass myself off as somebody that does. And
we say, Okrey in our household, battered and seasoned fries.
Can I get fries without them being seasoned?
Speaker 4 (14:15):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:15):
So the seasoning is a potato starch. They're coated French fries.
Kind of like the best version of Popeye's French fries
you ever had?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Okay, you want some advertisers from home? Oh? You let
me ask you? How hard is the restaurant business today?
How much harder is it today than when you start?
I mean, now you've got the heavy at a head
that wears the crown. You got more worries than when
you were, you know, making red pudding. But how much
(14:48):
tougher is it today?
Speaker 2 (14:50):
I like the challenge. I mean I think of what
I do is problem solving, and so you know it
any harder to make money? Are the margins tighter now
than they've ever been? Sure? But that's kind of always
the case. Right, It's as I kind of said earlier,
(15:14):
restaurants are about relationships. It's relationships with your vendors, relationships
with the customers, the guests, the employees, and problem solving
is just a big factor and what we do and
how we do it. I don't know that I could
or would do anything else.
Speaker 1 (15:31):
I love that, and I get tired of hearing restaurant
people be so negative and cynical that being saved do.
I mean, it's it's terrible to.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Get jaded specifically, you know. I mean, we had a
woman write as a one star review because she didn't
want to leash her dogs. And that's if you google
dogs restaurant patio, Houston, the number one thing that comes
up is that they must be on a leash. So
(16:02):
this is the woman who did not enjoy her experience
because she wanted to treat our patio like it was
her house. It's easy to get jaded when that happens
to you day in and day out, or get you know,
a guy tries to feel shrimp or whatever. But at
the end of the day, I still love what I do.
I love my employees, I have a very supportive family,
(16:27):
and it you know, as I said, I don't think
I could do anything else.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I love the optimism and most most food guys. After
a while, I think the most retail they do get
jaded and cynical. It's nice to hear someone who says, no,
I love this. I wouldn't do any of these. Do
you know what you said? The challenge people here love challenges.
You gotta love the child because it's a daily.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
From God I have all day, and not just because
that's the thing that white people say to be like,
look at me, you know, but I really could.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
There's just something about the way he pronounces certain words.
We interrupt our discussion with Graham Levoorde of Winnie's Restaurant
in Midtown to bring you this important message. I was
asked by a fellow named David Suffel, which would be
so much cooler if it was David Souffle, and he said,
I need your hat, your advice, and perhaps help. I'm
(17:25):
trying to start up the Pairland Men's Choir, and I've
had very little success. I have notified the local colleges,
local high schools, advertised on social media, used Craigslist, and
have notified some churches. This is a nonprofit with very
little startup money. When I lived in Ohio thirty five
years ago, I started one in the community one half
the size of Paarland, and we had our first performance
(17:46):
the first month we were in existence. We have a
father son program for a fun time with the family experience.
Still only a couple of guys are singing with the group.
We have a website Pairlandmen's Choir dot. Why are we
having so much trouble getting men to sing with this group?
Our Christmas plan is to sing at the Salvation Army
(18:07):
ring the bell program, sing carols at rest Holmes, and
have a Christmas program. What is your advice? And I
told him I would be glad to help promote it,
but under the strict requirement quid pro quote that they
sing God Rescie married gentlemen, because that's one of my absolutelys.
I didn't when I asked you for that, I didn't
(18:29):
realize you were going to throw Nat King Cole at me. Wow,
that's a lot to handle all at once. You like that,
Graham the choir, Well, anything would you like to join
the Paarland Men's Choir.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I can't think that driving down to choir rehearsal from
Houston would be a valid excuse for use of marital capital.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Can you sing?
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Uh? Not?
Speaker 1 (19:01):
Well, maybe we start with that before we get into
demands on your time. Do you have a particular Christmas
Carol that if you did sing and you were to
have a solo, you'd want it to be?
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Ah? Absolutely, but it's Mariah Carey. All I want for
Christmas is you.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
I listened to it nine thousand times over the holidays.
I think that might even be the definition of torture.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
I always know. I always wonder, you know, I'm always
afraid when I do a discussion, and I'm very interested
in learning from the person i'm talking to. Am I
going too far? You wonder maybe you should cut it short?
And I just realized that exactly that moment, we should
have cut it short. Romment that Mariah Carey, all the
capital we built up, the whole the place was about
(19:47):
to be overwhelmed, and now they're going, Dear God, know
if I have to hear Mariah Carey, I'm done?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Is that good? You gotta have some joy you find.
I don't know how retail people do it. I mean
I don't even they Yeah, three four more weeks to
the holiday madness than we do, and by the end
of it, I am so ready for things to not
be Christmas. Yeah, I mean we make our year during
the holidays.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
So you know there is a there's a website dedicated
to retail employees when that song comes on and they
do freak outs and all the different all the different
things they do. Uh, you said, you make it so
my friend Jane and jam Alva said, y'all do a
great job decorating at Christmas. What percent of your revenues
for the year are the one to twelfth of the
(20:34):
year that is December for you?
Speaker 2 (20:37):
Ooh, probably almost fifty. Are you maybe a little lesson
more like thirty five? Yeah? It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
Is it parties or buyouts or what is it?
Speaker 2 (20:48):
No, it's just I mean will go. It's like taking
a restaurant to one hundred miles an hour for six
weeks and then January first comes and you slam on
the breaks.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Do you all take some time off.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Usually two or three days, just to decompress and get
everything back to normal and reopening. But that always depends
on which bowl game they're hosting it energy and who's playing.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
How did y'all become known as a Christmas bar Christmas restaurant.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
So we do. We participate in Miracle, which is a
national craft Christmas cocktail pop up. It started years ago
in New York. A bar had all their licenses everything,
but it wasn't ready to open. So rent in New
York being what it is, they threw up a you know,
(21:48):
a bunch of Christmas decorations. It looks like Christmas exploded
in there, made some cocktails and it was a huge hit.
So we license and participate in Miracle, which is its
own cocktail pop up Christmas cocktail pop up brand.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Interesting I never heard of, but part of the unique.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Yeah, well there's only us. So Winnies and Johnny's Goldbrick
are the only participants in Houston. We have the exclusive
you know, other Christmas. Other bars and restaurants will do
heavy handed Christmas decorations. That's gotten more and more popular
in the last years, but only Winnies and Johnny's do Miracle.
(22:35):
Interesting and it's totally different experiences that either if you
want a reservation, you want a more kind of serene
Christmas explosion, you go to Johnny's. If you want Christmas chaos,
you go to winnings about that.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
That's interesting. It's fascinating. It's fascinating how people come up
with their little niches, you know, it's it's interesting. I
was out at doc Do the other night and they
were they had they usually have country acts, and they
had a band called the Red Hot Chili Pipers and
it is a Scottish Highlands bagpipe band. It's a full band,
(23:13):
but they feature the bagpipes. They wear the kilts. And
so after the show, after the people left, I hung
around and talked to the guys and not really not much,
but interacted with them. And you know, they were leaving
the next morning to go back to Scotland and they'd
been on the thirty day tour of the United States.
You know, when you're programming a bar, live music venue
or whatever, you're trying to program. Unlike restaurants where you
(23:37):
want to be consistent. You're trying to program because people
aren't going to come for the same type of music
every night. So even if you call yourself a kind
of a country edged bar, you still have to have
some things that get younger people and older people and
Christmas people and party people, and the fact that they
kind of counter programmed with that was so clever and
it was a successful night. I mean I looked at
their numbers at the end of it, and they did
(23:59):
well on a night that they didn't have to burn
through the Texas country scene or the classic country scene.
Just it was I thought that was very interesting. Let
me ask you about the protein on your menu. How
well does that do in in Houston?
Speaker 2 (24:14):
It crushes. I mean, people love gumbo. So much of
what we do is based in rooted in Cajun, but
it crushes too much to my dismay because as a Louisianian,
everything I like is traditional. You don't mess with this.
And Benji actually did a survey that says, if we
(24:37):
put gumbo gravy on our French fries, would you eat it?
And overwhelmingly if yes. I roll myne eyes every time
I see the sails. Yeah, it's always third or fourth
in our p mix. But I gotta say, if they
can find a metal themed bagpipe band, the guy in
Parland ought to be able to find some singers.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
You know you would thing and you know, a choir,
a men's choir. I mean, how awesome is that? How
many guys out there are sitting around going, man, I'm
in Katie, but I'll drive to that, or I'm in
the Woodlands. I'll drive to that because hopefully we can
find that for them. So I've heard of bang bang shrimp.
I love bang bang shrimp. And you have a bang
bang catfish. What makes it a bang bang? What? What?
(25:20):
What is the element in bang bang?
Speaker 2 (25:23):
It's the saw. It's a high chili mayonnaise saws.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
I love it. Do you like it? Librarians?
Speaker 3 (25:30):
I love Michael Verry show.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Tzar you mentioned the Red Hot Chili papers this morning.
My sister's boyfriend bought tickets to see him in La
a couple months back. On accident. He thought he scored
some really cheap seats to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I guess he didn't have his reading glasses on when
he ordered him. They loved the show and thought they
were fabulous. Well, you know what was amazing is the
(25:57):
almost the entire crowd. I stood at the door to
listen to people as they left, and they were speaking
with their Scottish brogue. The Irish have a brogue. I
don't know what you call it, Scottish a brogue. Yeah,
And it was probably seventy five percent Scotsman. So I
(26:22):
asked the general managers, what's going on with all these?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
No?
Speaker 1 (26:26):
What general managers? Steve Sayte's son Brad, I said, why
are there all these? Is this a Scottish private event?
And he said no, he said, Uh, it's the weirdest thing,
I guess because there's so many people from Scotland working
for the oil companies here, which makes sense, but when
(26:46):
there's a Scottish event they come out for it. How
about that? You just never know. It's amazing to me
how good you get at running a business. When you
run a business, and if you don't, you go out
of business. You know, when you get to know people
who who run a business, I always like asking them
questions because sometimes they stumble on things they never expected it,
(27:09):
and they go, whoa, I've got something here, Or sometimes
they have this great this will be me. Sometimes they
have this great idea and this is going to kill
and nobody's ever done it and it's an absolute bust.
And you know, so there's there's that too, and you
just know this is going to be the one right here,
and man, that's why you get to where you don't
(27:30):
even tell people, Hey, well I'm about to do right here.
It's really good. People are gonna be talking about this,
because then it's a complete bust. Whereas if you hadn't
told anybody and ends up halfway successful, then you can,
you know, act like, oh shucks, I didn't even so.
I took Crockett to Lubbock this weekend and a couple
(27:54):
of things I have to say about Loubboock because I've
never been there and we have a lot of listeners
on kf YO. Out of Lovebock went with a friend
of mine named Gary Peterson. He's a big donor to
the school. He grew up in Lubock and he's very
proud of Lubock. He took us to see his little
modest home he grew up in on at thirty three
(28:15):
eleven forty fourth Street. Met him through Russell Leabara years ago.
He is one of the three founders of a private
equity firm called end Cap and they have funded a
lot of boil and gas dreams to fruish and over
the years he's done. Very successful man, a very generous man,
and he's very eager that Crockett go to his alma mater,
(28:38):
which is Texas Tech. He's given over fifty million dollars
five zero to the place, so he's pretty passionate about it.
So he said, let's just take him up, and well,
I didn't realize what he meant by show him around.
We get there and he drives us around the campus,
drives us see his the house he grew up, and
we drive to the old downtown and you know, get
(29:00):
a sense of the of the place, and we checked them.
We had a little hotel called the Overton, which is
right across and you know, Lubbock listeners in Lubbock have
told me, you know, you can see this guy for miles.
There's all sorts of jokes about how far you can
see the sky because there's no skyscrapers, no skyscrapers. So
in Montana, well only they call it blue Sky Country.
It's blue sky there. It's beautiful. Actually, I kind of
(29:22):
like it. I'm not used to it, but I like it.
And then we start and he's a big donor to
the team. There's three of them, a guy named John
Sellers and Cody Canada and Gary Peterson, and the three
of them together put thirty eight million dollars into nil
and they went out and bought the best players that
(29:42):
you could buy in the country through the transfer portal,
so there's no development time. And these guys come in
and they start contributing and they're all from all from
major programs to start with, and so the team is undefeated.
They were ninth going into the game. Of course they won,
so they moved up in the rankings. I think just sixth.
I can't call anyway. So there are buildings named or
(30:04):
parts of buildings named after him, and we toured all that,
got to have lunch with the team, got to go
in the locker room before and after with the team,
which is really fun for me, but it's super fun
for Crockett because he's eighteen years old and these guys
are a year older than him, and you know, they're
all grabbing him and excited and high five of him
and you know, roughing him up and you know, like,
(30:25):
you don't how dogs in the dog partner, Remember my
young people are that way. I remember now I'm like,
oh carefully, you hurt my back. But anyway, it was
it was a lot of fun. And I got to
meet Cody Campbell, who you see on TV all the time.
He's the one that President Trump has put in charge
of the nil thing to somehow fix college sports in
(30:45):
the finance of it all. And it's going to be
each university can spend twenty point five million dollars on
nil and that's it. That's all. You cannot spend a
penny more than that. You can spend twenty point five.
A lot of them won't get to that, but you
can spend up to twenty point five. You cannot spend
a penny.
Speaker 3 (31:02):
More hard and fast, unless unless, unless you were to
hire a kid to let's say I just make I'll
just pull a name out of a hat.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
Let me just some random Now it's too random. Eric Dickerson. Okay,
let's say let's say let's say you were to bring
Eric Dickerson in, and let's say you were to own
I don't know, car dealership, right, and let's say you
had a gold trans Am and and you know you,
Eric Dickerson, sell some cars. You just this got this
(31:35):
random guy that I'm coming up with, you know, got
goggles and everything, and the neck pad and real high
step are real fast and on the option and get
to the corner. And yeah, but let's just say, hypothetically,
Eric Dickerson went to work for your car dealership. Now
you could, but Deloitte and Touche has to review the
deal and make sure that it looks like a real deal.
Like you got to really want Eric Dickerson to be
(31:57):
a car salesman at your dealership. So anyway, there's that
little exception to the rule. Do with that what you will.
But anyway, I like when people have a chip on
the shoulder and Texas Tech has a chip on their shoulder.
A and M is cocky because they're a and m
UT is cocky because they're ut. But it's nice to
(32:19):
see these guys that are so eager to say, hey,
we're at the table now too. We're a top ten
team about to be a top five team if they
went out, they're going to make the playoffs. But they
have a veterinary school. Now, they have a medical school,
now they have a law school. Now they have a
nursing school in El Paso. And I got to tell you,
(32:43):
I think that I think there is a role for
putting campuses for professional degrees in the small communities of
our state that don't have all the resources. You know,
you had to leave Orange to get a job at
that time to go to school. There's a Lamar campus
(33:04):
in Orange now or parts of the campus. But I
think there's something to be said in these small towns
considering how much of the money that goes into it
as taxpayer dollars to creating opportunities. Because you talk about
economic incentives, the hospitals, the the veterinarian. We needed another
veterinary school. It was impossible to get into A and
(33:26):
M or Auburn, and we needed more veterinarians. I think
it's a good thing. A and M fought them on that.
But anyway, for those of you who have kids applying
to school, keep your keep your eye out on Texas Tech.
I'm very impressed. I really liked lovebook. It's not the
streets of New York, but I didn't get since you
were going to get mugg there. I liked the people.
(33:46):
I liked the culture they and they're trying very hardy.
The tree I didn't. I weren't hardly any trees and
then tho skyscrapers. But I really liked the people and
I liked the feel of the town. Yeah, so that's
that's my review of Low Book.
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