Inside the Hospitality Business with BTB’s Connie MacLeod & Matt Reis

Bill sits down with Connie MacLeod and Matt Reis of BTB Woodfire Pizza & Grill for a raw, honest, and authentic master class in the hospitality industry. Recorded right inside BTB, this conversation takes you behind the scenes of what it truly takes to run a successful restaurant.

Matt shares his inspiring journey from pizza maker to restaurant owner, while Connie reflects on her studies in hospitality and her passion for creating unforgettable experiences for every guest. Together, they open up about the realities of restaurant life—from hiring and training staff to balancing budgets, managing suppliers, and coaching teams.

You’ll gain insights into the dedication, care, and heart that make BTB thrive, along with a look at the challenges they face both inside and outside the business. Whether you’re in the hospitality industry, considering a career in it, or just curious about what it takes to build a beloved restaurant, this episode will leave you with a deeper appreciation for the work that goes into every meal and every guest experience.

One thing is clear: with Matt and Connie at the helm, it’s no wonder BTB Woodfire Pizza & Grill is a standout success.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/billified-the-bill-moran-podcast--5738193/support.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
On location and driven by Victor Dot's Chief Brown. It's Billified,
the Bill Moran Podcast.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Well, Hello and welcome live from b TV wood Fire,
Pizza and Grill and the mall at Grease Ridge. Where
it when we're taping this, it's eleven thirty five and
he got a nice crowd already.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
It's like I came in here, there all pretty hanging
out of the bar. Yeah, we got you know, we
got a few regulars to come in every morning. Yeah,
and they're retired and they're just enjoying their life a
little bit. Yeah, and then he take some lunch home
and they go home and take a nap.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
I imagine that's that's Uh, that's a pretty nice life.
It's a pretty nice So I called Madden, asked Matt
if he would be open to me coming out and uh,
just kind of doing a like a one on one
type situation with he and Connie because bTB been sponsoring
the podcast since it started, which is I can't thank

(01:08):
you enough for that. But just the hospitality industry as
a whole has changed dramatically, I feel like absolutely and
more because of customer behavior and stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
But but let's go back, like I know Matt. Probably
since you were a kid was in some form of hospitality,
whether it was being in a hot shot DJ at
all the nightclubs and kick it out the ladies.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
And you to know he was I started. I started
at fifteen in a pizza shop. Yeah. I grew up
in Hamblin, so I grew up in podunks, you know.
But I started Crony's Pizza out there when I was
when I was fifteen, And I'll be honest with you,
I was probably the worst employee for the longest time. Why,
I just like, what fuck things up? Oh yeah? But

(01:52):
oh just because you didn't know? Yeah yeah, And I
you know, I was a dumb kid. You know. I
worked on a farm before that, so you know, before
I worked on a farm, then I worked in a
grocery store. The most disgusting job. I worked in the
meat department. But I was in charge of cleaning it
after it was all done right, and a lot of
that stuff goes on the floor.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh yeah, because there's a butcher shop basically in the
meat department.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
But that's where I learned cleanliness because everything had to
be spotless or else you'd have backterios. How old were
you when you were doing this, I was fourteen. Oh yeah,
so yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean that's you know, it
built me to what I am now, So I'm good
with that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
But you so you just decided at that moment this
is kind of my path here.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Well, no, I just I was kind of a lost
child for a while. Like my twenty one year olds
is basically a mirror image of me. I was kind
of lost for a while. You know. At eighteen, I
was working three jobs. I didn't go to school, so
I was working two full time jobs plus a part
time job. So I was working like ninety hours a week.
But all I cared about was putting money in the bank,

(02:53):
making money, making money, right. I didn't have much of
a life in the early twenties, you know, but I did.
I didn't because the parts of job was working security
or DJing. So I was out and about. I was
making money over use was spending money, right, not quite
the same as you know, you're not partying, but I'm
still out in the atmosphere. Yeah, the DJ, and yes,
the DJ. The DJ. Yeah. I wasn't even a heavy

(03:18):
drinker back then, so it didn't take much, you know,
that's right. The DJ like I, I mean, you heard
stories about guys who were DJ. Yeah, there was nice
that at the time. My best friend Mark, uh, he
would shut the mic off. He'd just be like, you're
not You're not talking no more tonight. That's funny. That's funny.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
And so Connie, what it was your Have you been
in the hospitality?

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I actually went to college for it.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
Yeah, And then I just.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Yeah, how did this kind of union become between you
and and Matt to where BTV is now?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
Right?

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Because you kind of work hand in hand.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
This building the building, So this building was Captain Zaddik
back in nineteen ninety four ninety five. Yeah, and uh,
like it's funny because where the door is to the
mall now is what the DJ booth was. And then
in front of that there was a small dance floor
like a I would call it a pergola is what
I would call it, over the top of it. And

(04:17):
it was very small, twelve x twelve maybe, and it
was not the ideal set up for like a club
or with bands because behind that area was a fireplace
with tables and chairs, and these old ass chairs and
tables were so heavy we had to remove them every night.
Wednesday through Saturday, so Wednesday would be the lady you
work at Captain's Adam. Yeah, that's how we met is

(04:40):
working at Captain's addik.

Speaker 2 (04:41):
Okay, and then together just decided this is yeah, because it's.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Been funny because her and John have worked for me
in almost every business I've had in some sort of capacity.
John was mowing for me as a landscaper, and she
was doing a lot of the billing and collections for me.
So I, you know, because I had a full time
job running are running this company, so I always had
to rely on some other people to help out, right,
So in some form of capacity, they've always worked I

(05:08):
think in every single business I had, except for maybe
the ceiling business.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Yeah wait, you had a ceiling business.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Yeah, I had a driveway sealing business. Oh oh that's
I'm thinking of drivewall. I don't know why, but you know,
the thing with that was like a buddy came to me.
He's like, hey, I got this great idea. He couldn't
keep a job, and he's like, I'm gonna do this.
I did this for two years and I was like okay, great.
He's like, okay, I need the money. I was like,
what what do you, he goes, I want you to
be the investor. Blahlah blah. So we bought a truck.

(05:36):
It was like, I remember we bought the truck. It
was end of August, so the ceiling season for driveways
is over in September. I'm buying this truck, going, why
are we buying this truck right now when the season
doesn't start until you know next bro. Yeah, but anyway,
so I bought the truck. I invested some money throughout
the winner to do it. I learned a business just
by teaching myself online and stuff, and then I would

(05:56):
go out and help. But he lasted like a month
and he just disappeared, just with the truck. Or no,
you had it all. But now I have all these
appointments lined up, so I'm scattering because we only had
one guy working for us with him, So now I'm scattered.
So it threw me into a tizzy at that time, right,
but it was able to It's kind of how we

(06:18):
fix everything around here because you never know somebody's not
going to show up. So but this guy was running
the whole thing. For him not to show up really
kind of screwed me.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
What's the what's the mindset to go, Uh yeah, I'll
just I'll just do this. I'll just make this work,
because it was uh when he left her before that,
just in anything like hey, yeah, this sounds like a
great idea. That's the way you're the entrepreneurial kind of
side of you just goes yeah, yeah, I'd rather do this.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
I mean, you're your own boss, both of you. Right,
It's it sucks though sometimes you know it's it would
be a lot easier sometimes to go to work nine
to five clock that paycheck and go home five o'clock.
I don't care about anything right where. You know, there's
times that her and I are talking at one o'clock
in the morning about things, you know, and really there's
no yesterday I did five thirty in the morning. What

(07:08):
are you doing up? Oh, we don't sleep. You don't sleep.
You sleep in breaks, you know, like.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
Two hours, two hours, two hours.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I think I had fallen asleep at like midnight, so
by four o'clock I was my mind's racing, so and
then I'm usually for a couple hours and I'll fall
back asleep for like an hour. Again, that's a nice
thing about and I having to come to work at
a certain time, right, I mean I could fall back
asleep till eight thirty and I'm okay. Or most people
had to be up, so yeah, it's it's just in breaks.
It's not healthy for you, that's for sure. No, I know.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
I mean, look, I feel like my life, you know radio,
I was up at three and a lot of times
I was sew especially when you know we's left and
it was me and Tommy and you're like everybody's.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Talking about how you're going to fail and you're to
get down and run over.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
I would work my ass off to find great cash,
right angles, how can we talk about this that nobody
else is? And I would be up to like eleven
twelve and then back up by three thirty or you
know if I could four and sometimes falling asleep at
a traffic light with the kids in the car at
one point.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
I mean, a position basically is like own your own
your own company, because if you don't, you know, if
you don't do well there, you fail. Yeah, you're gonna
get fired. Right, So you had to make it better.
You couldn't rely on a producer. You had to do
things yourself to make sure they got done right.

Speaker 2 (08:23):
Okay, so talk to me and I'll ask Connie this first,
because in that mindset, right, I feel like and you guys,
and Matt seems to be pretty good at this, and
he found it in you and you probably found it
in him. Somebody you can rely on and trust that
knows how you wanted things done and knows that. But
outside of that, how much more do you take on

(08:46):
because you just would rather do it yourself than deal
with someone.

Speaker 4 (08:50):
Else everything possible.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
Yeah, and that's like a terrible way to be because
you can't grow because you're doing the small shit that
you am.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
I right, right, but I'll make sure it's maintained so
that we can grow.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Okay, right, I mean, but are you like that, Like
even with the ceiling business, you're like, I got to
get out there and do it, and then you don't
almost like you'd rather do it yourself.

Speaker 1 (09:12):
I mean, there was a time, and you know, on
Friday nights, I was in the kitchen. You know, it'd
only be for three hours, but I said, rather than
hire somebody else is not going to show up, let
me just do this myself. I know I'm going to
do the right thing by the customer. I know I'm
gonna do the right thing by the employee. I know,
I'm gonna do the right thing by Connie and the
employees that are working here and counting on me. So
why am I going to bring somebody in here that's
just going to not show up and then they're shorthanded

(09:34):
in the kitchen? Yeah? So I just said, screw it
when I hire another person right now? So how do
you keep it? Like?

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So, you guys are here, You're at the Mallick Reese Ridge, right,
there's always changing things around.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
You seem to be sort of an anchor spot. Right,
It's been here how many years now? Almost five five
five years?

Speaker 2 (09:50):
I was thinking, And you've got a reputation that comes
from that. But how do you keep it so much?
Because the atmosphere in here is always like it's it's
different than I would expect for a restaurant at them all.
I mean when I stay different, I mean you walk in,
I feel like I'm in a free standing building. It's fun,

(10:11):
the it's lively. Watching a Bills game here is a
freaking treat, it really is. Like, So, how does what
is that? And how do you bring that when you're
concerned about someone not showing up? Did this delivery happen?
Is that you know, are we getting backed up in
the kitchen? How because you guys are the vibe, but

(10:31):
the vibe in here is always like great.

Speaker 3 (10:33):
You just always have to have a backup plan. Always
in the back of your mind. There's a backup plan
if this person doesn't show up, if this doesn't person
show up, I can switch this, I can switch that
this person's out here. Whenever I wrote a schedule, I
always had a backup plan for every position.

Speaker 1 (10:49):
You should teach a course. Honestly, like, like you know
what I'm saying, I would think we're crazy at the
things that we come up with. Ye why though, because
it's why do you got to worry about that? And
because we've seen every scenario you could possibly through.

Speaker 2 (10:59):
Yeah, Like I don't think that there's you can go
to school for anything.

Speaker 1 (11:04):
And and you went to college, right, hospitality. I went
to college communication.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
You can learn.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Stuff like I was. I was in.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
I was asked to come back to my college and speak,
and they somebody asked me, if you could do it
over again, would you major in communications? And I said no,
I would major in the history of philosophy because you
have to have something to say into the microphone, you know,
learning how far the distance is from the microphone. You
need something to learn to say. There are certain things

(11:36):
that you learn on the job that they can't teach you,
Like everybody, do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 (11:40):
Like, they can't teach you. And that's where I go.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Sometimes the best teachers are the people who never went
to school, right or.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Any formal we'll call it formal, and.

Speaker 2 (11:49):
Came along and build something successful.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
And you go, that's who should be teaching you.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
You know, you learn more on the job than you
do in school.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (12:00):
You learn everything that you don't learn in school.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
Right, And because it's real life scenario, you can't. I mean,
how do you handle an unruly customer? How do you
handle a drunk person at the bar? How do you
handle an employee who shoots back at a customer who's
ru I mean, holy shit, I not just that.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Then? How do you handle a twenty top that walks
in and expects their dinner right on there, on the spot.
You know, they don't want to wait half hour for
their food. So there's pressure there where they can't give
you that pressure in school. And I shouldn't speak on
that because I didn't go to school for maybe they do,
Oh they don't. But if it was me, I would
teach that class. I would recreate it that way. I'd say, hey,
these twenty people just walked in, here's their order, we

(12:38):
need it out, and you take a time. Better be
less than thirteen minutes, because that's our rule here, right,
which is I know people think I'm ridiculous, but wow, yeah,
it better be right.

Speaker 3 (12:49):
Cut a chicken in college when I went, but they
didn't show me how to make produce twenty people in
thirteen minutes, right, show me how to make a donut,
but not how to handle a drunk asshole?

Speaker 1 (13:00):
Right? And is there a right way to handle a
drunk asshole at the bers?

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Different?

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Yeah, very much. So what do you do?

Speaker 2 (13:07):
I mean as a and I'll say it as a woman,
like if you approach a guy, you know, she'll.

Speaker 1 (13:15):
Sh'll throw him out his fans.

Speaker 4 (13:16):
Well physically.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
That's connie man.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
Oh, I don't mean it like that, but I'm just saying,
like I could see a guy trying to go yeah, yeah,
to be more intimidating, trying to intimidate you, right, And
I think most people nowadays would probably help you around,
like around you would help But I go, still, that's
a scenario.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
You just have to walk up to him with confidence,
just be very polite, and then when they turn, then
you turn.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
But you don't have a lot of problems here ever, No,
I mean that.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
You get you get some problems here and there. You know, well,
in the first year, I feel like we had a
couple of problems. That was like what the hell? I thought, Well,
you know when I when I closed back to abilities
and I was done with this business. And then Connie
said I'm gonna open this and I was like, you're
fucking crazy. Come work for me. And I was like, okay,
because I'm that crazy too. But like the fact, like

(14:06):
we had a guy in here one night, sitting at
the bar and I sat down after my shift, I'm
having a drink and he's talking to me, and then
a couple of minutes later he like turns on me
one hundred and eighty. So I, oh, you think you're
something fucking special. And I was like, I looked at him, like,
are you talking to me? I thought he was talking
to somebody else. I thought he really was. And so
I looked at him and said me, he goes, who
the fuck else would I be talking to. I'm like, oh,

(14:26):
I was like, I don't know, I don't know what
I did to you. Man, whatever your problem is, I'm sorry.
And man, all of a sudden, I see out of
the corner of my eye see him pick up the
chair next to me, and he goes to fucking swing it.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Tell me he fell like it took him off.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I grabbed him and him and I tumbled to the ground. Yeah,
we kind of rolled around, and then a couple guys
helped me get him out the door. This guy was
crazy and he was strong as hell. We got him
out the door and locked the door. He tried to
break the window, break the window, break the window. He
finally found like an a frame sign out front, smashed
it through the top window of the door, and then
couldn't get in. If he was smart enough, he would
have mashed the bottom windows so we could get in.

(15:01):
But then the other next door is locked too, so
I don't know where he was going. We called the
cops and he starts running from the cops. They chase
him down, they catch him, which was another story, but
amazing how the fastest cop was, but the guy was
I'll give you this, it's hard to see because you
don't know where the jewelry price is. Over here by
the light. This guy's halfway across the parking lot. So

(15:24):
he's a good lead. I mean, there's no way I
wouldn't even think about catch him in a car. This
cop ran him down by the jewelery store. And like,
when I looked at the other cop, I go, did
he just run him down? He goes, yeah, he meddled
the wrong guy. Now he's hee a marathon runner, but
he's a sprinter. I'm like, he ran him down and
tackled him. So they get him and they're like, yeah,
we know this guy. He just got out of jail

(15:46):
three days ago. Now he's gone to this and now
he's claiming he's in you know, he's insane, so they
gotta take him the cycle. So this guy is all
big and tough the whole time, so I have to
identify him in the ambulance. So I walk over there
and he's just crying, crying, crying and crying. So I'm
kind of a deck and I go, Wow, you're not
so fucking tough, now, are you? Fucking pussy. As he's

(16:06):
crying it's in a female cup. Just starts laughing and
she's like, Okay, man, you identified him, let's go. I mean,
he just changed and for no reason, something snaps in
his head. And you never know what somebody's going through, right,
you know. I literally had a conversation with this guy
for a minute, five ten minutes, and he was fine,

(16:27):
just normal conversation. I thought he was a normal guy. Yeah,
And next thing I know, he's frasing a barstool at
me and I'm like, what shit. Luckily I saw out
the corner of my eye.

Speaker 2 (16:35):
Right, But this is all the stuff that you have
to deal with on all the levels, because even if
it's not you and it's one of your employees, you gotta.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
We've we've had that too, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, And what are you doing in that situation like that?

Speaker 1 (16:49):
So we did have a problem about six months ago
or so with a dishwasher, and we kind of had
a feeling that he might be one of those guys
that comes back to kill you if he did something wrong.
But he was. He was an excellent worker and he
was a nice, nice guy, right, I mean, he was
weird until that moment. Yeah, But he worked probably six months,
and the joke was, you know, when's he gonna blow

(17:11):
the place up or whatever. But he came to work
every day and he you know, he was he was happy.
He'd sing to himself, he talked to people. He seemed okay.
And then one night he snapped and I wasn't here.
So unfortunately, Connie and Michelle both had a deal with this.
Wait wait wait, wait, wait wait wait wait.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I'm sorry, I'm moving a camera at the same time.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
I probably Connie tell you this too.

Speaker 2 (17:32):
No, no, but the guy snaps. He's an employee here and
he snaps. It was in the back at least, But
Connie can tell you exactly what happened.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
What happened.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
He just started screaming at Michelle and Nina, and Nina
is our kitchen manager, and he just kept screaming that
he was going to come back and cheot us and
kill us and d So we got him out the door,
got the doors locked.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
And see, the thing is like, I almost feel like
if you go back to the eighties and someone screamed that,
you go, it's just a drunk get him out of here.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
Exactly now, you go, what the fuck. I watched the
guy die on on TikTok yesterday.

Speaker 2 (18:10):
I mean, my kid comes out of his room, goes
look at this, and then it was before it even
hit the news, and I go, this is awful.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
The world horrible horrible.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
Like horrible.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
So when someone says that, like my finger is tight, man,
I'm like, I'm scared. I don't have guns I got
I don't even have a you know, I don't know anything.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
So what do you so what happens?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
We just called the police on them and they chased
him out.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
They chased him out. You didn't try to get him
out of here?

Speaker 4 (18:38):
Did you got him out of the building?

Speaker 1 (18:40):
How?

Speaker 4 (18:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
I don't remember.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
It just happened.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
I take over a whole other personality.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
If you ever saw Michelle, Connie and Nina together get
upset with somebody, you'd understand you get out of the
building like I'd run too. Yeah. They're forced to be right, Yeah, but.

Speaker 2 (18:58):
If somebody's you know what I'm saying, like three and again,
I mean, look, one of the things I'll always say is,
no matter what, most men, not all are like physically bigger,
physically stronger, Like that's the thing that would scare me
a little bit. I'm not afraid, I just not.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
I have an out over the bar. I know my
easiest way to get over the bar set around around.
Michelle has an out over the bar. We have all
these things planned.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
I do not try to go over the bar and
too fat and I'll fall and hurt myself. I just
they got a handle before I get there. I don't
have to do anything scary though it.

Speaker 3 (19:36):
Is afterwards, Yes, afterwards, when you realize everything that you
just did, it's like, oh okay.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
So and I will say these incidents are very limited,
Like they don't. We haven't. I shouldn't say this, but
we haven't had a problem in the bar in years.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
I would think you're not like that. That's what I mean. Like,
the atmosphere here is one of cool. It's a cool vibe.
It's nice, it's comfortable, it's happy. It's a happy, fun place.
That's why you come in here, living three. The people
are comfortable coming here. They like starting the day here.
It's their part of their routine.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Is their routine.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
These guys come in a lot for lunch. You know
they're here. This is what you created.

Speaker 2 (20:16):
Like, I think that's a pretty cool thing that you
sometimes have to step back and should give yourself a
little bit of credit.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
No, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
We'll take the idea, you know, we'll take the credit
for creating it. But the staff is the one that
you know, they they roll it out, Like if the
staff didn't do what we wanted it to do, then
we'd have to find other staff. But this staff is amazing.

Speaker 2 (20:36):
So what So how hard is it because you hire
somebody great worker and then he snaps, what how do
you find how hard is it to find somebody else
then to step in because that guy you clearly don't
want back here.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
It's hard, and be honest with the dishwasher is the
hardest position to fill in the place. Really, it's a
hard job. People don't realize how how hard it is
deal with dirty plates, food, heat from the water summertime,
it's one hundred and twenty degrees back there, it's hot.
Now you got hot water getting soaked all night. It's
a It's a terrible hard job. It's also the most

(21:13):
important job in the restaurant. If you don't clean every
dish and every plate and every bowl and every pan perfectly,
you can get somebody sick. You could send out something
that looks dirty instead of clean to a customer. So
it is vital that that dishwasher does his best.

Speaker 4 (21:27):
Job and takes pride in his work.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
Yeah, and that's why everybody put dishwasher. That's that's why
I think somebody would say, but I'm just a dishwasher,
which is a terrible right.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
I mean you can see where I'm just a dishwasher.
Or have you had anybody who started as a dishwasher
and now maybe something like moved up?

Speaker 1 (21:50):
We did, I don't think anymore.

Speaker 3 (21:52):
No, yeah we did though mook. Yeah they've cooked up,
moved up to pizza guy.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah. So that I mean, it's there are opportunities to
grow and stuff. But so how about like in finding
employees and things, though a lot very difficult. Not a
lot of turnover here, not a lot of turnover.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Here, luckily not the front of the house. So our
servers are great. You never have to worry about finding
servers and bartenders. That's not the problem. It's finding quality ones. Yeah.
So I probably get ten to fifteen applications a week
for between bartenders and servers, and most of them you interview.
You're like, there's just not a good fit. But the

(22:33):
back of the house, that's the hardest part. And we
thought we had the final piece of a puzzle, and
now we're starting to question that maybe we need somebody
different for that spot. But for now it's like you
roll with it. But the person who you hire was
doing great for the first three months, and now it's
like you got to keep talking to them and talking

(22:54):
to them, and ceriarly you can't keep talking. Do you
ever see yourselves as kind of coaches?

Speaker 4 (23:00):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (23:01):
Yeah, we have to figure out and this sounds really bad.
You have to figure out how to get out of
somebody what you want.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, No, it doesn't sound talk to.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Them or coach them, or treat them or lead them.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah. I mean everybody's different, right, So how do you
walk that line? There's some people you can say, what
the fuck are you doing in the middle of a
dinner rush, and in five minutes afterwards you're laughing about it.
There's other people you say that too, and they holdly
against you the rest of your life.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
You're the meanest person in the whole wide world.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I've come a long ways. Like I used to,
I used to be that asshole that was really tough.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
I love when Matt talks like this because we.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Both used to be that way. Absolutely old school. You
could scream and yeah, yeah right right to day. You
went out, you had a shot, you had a beer,
everything was fine.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
We're not even that long ago because down the road
was that way. Like we would yell at people, you know,
back and forth, me and an employee, and then after
the shift is over, we go out, we'd have a drink,
laugh about it, apologize to each other, and move on.
Nowadays some people people get upset about that.

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Yeah, it is different. I mean it's very different, and
I don't I don't know why. I don't know what
the shift was. I like to think re evolved. Maybe
it may be as better as a society. But I
was one of these people screaming and yelling and doing
all kinds like that was just it. And again you
sometimes go, well what do you mean, and then people go, well,

(24:22):
you're intimidating, you're this, You're nobody wants to not necessarily
want to work with you. But it becomes one of
those things. So but in the heat of the moment,
I mean, it's it's you know, when you watch and
I couldn't continue on I don't know.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
Yeah, I knew you're gonna say the bear.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah, because it's very real, so real, And I thought
that was an excellent depiction of what goes on.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
I don't know. I think there was other things that
the shows is like, all right, yeah, I stopped watching
season two. Yeah too, watches season one. Yeah, that's the
real life of a restaurant, right, him wondering how am
I going to pay the bills? How am I gonna
get How am I gonna pay the payroll? How am
I gonna pay this? Oh shit? How am I get
get through dinner hour? Oh? I gotta do all this.
I gotta get this prepped. I gotta do this. People
don't realize it. There's some glory to it, but it's

(25:06):
very limited. Like people think you're a millionaire. You can make
less than the average person at Walmart. Probably no offense
to anybody working at Walmart, no, I understand, but I
could probably make more money as a greeters as than
I did down the road at Bathubord. So why stay?
It's just a passion. Yeah, it's a passion. You love.
I love this industry, love it, Like even if I

(25:29):
didn't work for Kanye anymore, I would go work somewhere
else in this.

Speaker 2 (25:32):
Industry, you would. Well, now you also have the other.

Speaker 1 (25:38):
Right, so now, yeah, so I'm spreading myself a little bit. Yeah,
And I feel bad because that puts more on Connie
and Michelle to kind of, you know, write this place,
keep it right. So I'm putting a lot and and
honestly I give it to Connie because I don't feel
comfortable give it to somebody else without giving them something
to do that, you know, where conye, I can say, hey,

(25:59):
can you help me with it? And I know that
she's not going to hold it against me or you know,
anything like that. Or I don't feel like I have
to reward her something. You know, I don't have to
go out and buy her a gift card or something.

Speaker 2 (26:10):
Well, right, I mean, for lack of a better term,
it almost sounds like you guys have a marriage a
business right that you work together well enough?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
Yeah, needs my longest relationship other than the Dale's Cowboys,
you know, I would. I cant understand. Yeah, right, you understand.

Speaker 2 (26:32):
And it's somebody that you completely implicitly trust, and vice versa,
because if you didn't have each other, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
And most days is eight to ten hours a day together.
And the only reason it's not more is because I leave,
you know, I get to leave. She's she's she's stuck here.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Do you how long are your days? What is a
typical day? Thirteen hours a day?

Speaker 1 (26:54):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
And then what can you unwind though when you go home?
Because it's like you have a cocktailer? Yeah right, Like
I mean, I've been so what do you do to stay?
Because there are day you've got to be dragging Some
days I do because I tried a red Bull the
other day and I took it too late in the
day and I was up till two in the morning.

Speaker 3 (27:12):
No, you reach a certain age where you can't drink
caffeine after eight pm or you won't go to sleep.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, well this was three in the afternoon, but I
was like, I was still wired home.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I took one of the big ones. Maybe I
do have to try it. I can't ta get it
by the taste. Yeah, well it tastes like medicine. Yeah,
a little bit. And I don't know if I want
to give my heart anymore reason than wow. See that's
the other thing that worries me as well.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
And I used to drink vodka Red Bull because it
was like I would be jumping around centers and sweaty
and being inappropriate.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
I'm sure all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
But no, never, never at all. So when you when you,
what do you do for fun?

Speaker 3 (27:52):
I unfortunately don't.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Yeah, because this is fun.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
Yeah, in a way. I mean I got a certain point.
You travel them much, you get ready, like I'll see mad.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
I love watching that.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
I live vicariously through.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
It drives me and.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
So mad at me. He gets so mad at me
because I don't take more time off.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Well, if you don't take care of yourself, you don't
gonna be good enough for anybody else.

Speaker 4 (28:13):
I know that.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
But you should enjoy the time. You know, the money
you're making, you should at least be able to enjoy that.
You should be enjoying your time that you have off.
I'll give you an instance. She has a wedding coming
up in November for her nephew. It's in New York City.
Does want to go?

Speaker 3 (28:27):
No, I Joe, I book the hotel.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
But she's gonna take the minimum time that she needs
off where I'm like, spread it out, take a week.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Yeah, I'm gonna take a week in March.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
That's six months away.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
I have not taken a week.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
And how long.

Speaker 3 (28:44):
My honeymoon in two thousand and two.

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Holy shit, Connie, that's like years. I've only been with
her nine years.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
It's not all my factors that were building up to that.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
Okay, is that a good thing?

Speaker 4 (28:57):
No?

Speaker 1 (28:59):
But you're happy.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
My husband was an addict, is an addict, but he's recovering.

Speaker 1 (29:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
So there was never any money, and if I was
out of town, there was always a problem and I
would have to rush back home and there was always something.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
So in the last three years that he's been you know, playing, you're.

Speaker 1 (29:16):
A fucking angel. No, seriously, because most people leave.

Speaker 3 (29:23):
You know, I should have, but you didn't.

Speaker 2 (29:26):
And he's lucky, and he's unlucky, you know what I'm
saying like that, that's a lucky dude guy.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
And he now knows it, but he didn't know it
for the longest of course. Not you're all up in
your head, you know it says it's tough. That's a
tough one to go because I told her probably a
hundred times, get the fuck out. Yeah, I'm sure we're
going to take him on a boat.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Yeah, I do know that he fits in a sixty
gallon garbage bag.

Speaker 1 (29:51):
I didn't test it. That's very funny, but I mean,
honestly like that. And so you're you're putting out fire
to here. Your whole life is a fire. It is
at times, right, you don't know what anything's gonna pop up.

Speaker 3 (30:07):
And for a few years I took care of my mother,
and then my dad got sick and we took care
of my dad. My dad lived with us for a
year and a half. Yeah, we're a main caregimer.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
You just like that stuff.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
I like to fix things.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
Yeah, I put I'm getting tired. Yeah, that's the reason
why everybody calls her ma. She said that.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
She said everybody calls her.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, because you fit. You can fix it.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
I try.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Is there anything that anybody comes to you as an
employee that you haven't seen before?

Speaker 3 (30:36):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (30:36):
Lord, I'm thinking really the things.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
You haven't seen before?

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah? Yeah, because I'm thinking, like most of it, you
must have come across somewhere in there.

Speaker 3 (30:45):
We say all the time we should have a reality
show because people would not believe it.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
We'd make billions. Dude.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
All you need to do nowadays just set up cameras,
have someone edit it and put it on YouTube and
just see what happens. You know, put it out there.
It could if you could do it.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
I don't know what help your restaurant or kill it.
The I'm not going to deal with those people. It's
a great point. I didn't think of that.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
You could go on.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
I'm just saying like it would be interesting, because I
don't think any I think that Young guys often say
I want to own a bar, yes, and I don't
think they know what they're getting themselves into because beyond that.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
Just the state and then give me a dive bar,
give me a die bar all day long. And why
is that?

Speaker 2 (31:28):
You know?

Speaker 1 (31:29):
I don't want to say die bar. You know plays
like b side yep, very small, easy, not a kitchen.
The kitchen is the headache of the restaurant business. The
bar usually is not. As long as you have good
bartender shore and stealing right. You could have one bar
tender on and do two thousand dollars in a day,
three thousand dollars and make so much money doing that.

(31:51):
Where a place like this, where it's got seventy something employees,
your rents atrocious because it's a huge place. Your costs
are terrible. Your food costs no matter what you do. Again,
we just raised our our burger, especially on Wednesdays, was
a ridiculous eight dollars for burger and fries. Now it's ten,
which is still ridiculously low. Nobody else is lower than

(32:11):
twelve that has a decent burger. But beef just went
up again this week again. And when we say go up,
it went up ninety cents a pound. Wow, we go
through two, well over two pounds, me and the grocery store,
I would imagine. So, yeah, the hell's going on. I
don't know what's going on with beef, but it's crazy.

(32:32):
So your steaks, your burgers, and justin burger alone, we
go through two hundred and forty two hundred and fifty
pounds a week. So like take that time as ninety cents.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
I'm so glad you're saying all this stuff because I again,
and it's not just bt B, would be any restaurant
that's like this, and these are the decisions you have
to make, and you know how you're wow, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
It's you know, there's certainly I wouldn't sleep either in
a place like I wouldn't sleep either in a place
like this where we're a casual restaurant, we can't get
forty dollars for a Revi steake, so we're selling it
for twenty nine to thirty dollars and we're not hitting
the margins we're supposed to. So you got to hope
that your margin maybe in pizza, recovers that. So you

(33:13):
got it one for the other. Right where if you're
in a dive bar, all your liquor and your beer
are twenty five percent costs, right, you make sure that
and you kill it. So many give me, give me
a little place, and.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
It's like it's like an education though that you guys
are like.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
I say that. Now the new place is a takeout
only place, which is very small, and I'm already like,
you know down the road there's that building. It could
open up a little bigger, make it a full restaurant. Yeah,
I'm a glutton for punishment. I put myself through it.
But you like it.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
And see, the thing is like, do you think either
one of you will ever retire?

Speaker 1 (33:50):
No?

Speaker 2 (33:50):
No, no, you always own or have a hand in something. Right, Yeah,
along the way and this place is going great, so
why not?

Speaker 1 (33:59):
Yeah, my go on a couple of years, you know,
hopefully hopefully in the South. But if even if it's
a year, I'd like to I would like to get
back into it and have my own place again. Yeah,
but we'll see. Yeah, I guess something is a clear up.

Speaker 2 (34:11):
First, Well, everybody has things, but I mean here is
going very well.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
It does go well here, yeah, you know, but then
what do you mean by that? Yeah, it's going great
that I don't know. That's the thing. It's like, what
is well for you? You don't see, like people don't
see you. On Monday, our Monday this week was probably
our worst Monday we've had since we didn't have our
liquor license for a for a short period of time
because of a hiccup on it, and that was when

(34:36):
we first opened. This Monday was just bad, and I
think a lot of it was the Bills played Monday
or Sunday nights at home, so a lot of people
went to the game. The other people stayed up and
watched it. People were tired, they were hungover, so it
was a very very sm like alcohol hangover, football hangover, right,
And it put it in perspective, A very slow day
here is better than a Monday, I ever had at

(34:58):
bat to abilities really by far, Like I've like, we
look at the numbers on Monday, we're like, Jesus, what happened?
And I think back and I go, I would have
killed for that number down the road it was double whatever.

Speaker 2 (35:08):
My best night was So Connie, what do you do?
Like does that affect your head? Do you start to
worry about that day? Or do you just go there
are factors and.

Speaker 3 (35:18):
We got gone. Yeah, and you can kind of figure out,
you know, the Bills played late. They was uplated if
they stayed and finished to watch the game. But when
it comes a pattern, absolutely absolutely, you stay up and
you think, what do we do? What do I need
to do? What do we need to do for this?

Speaker 1 (35:32):
What are we doing wrong?

Speaker 3 (35:33):
What did we do wrong? Did we screw something up?
Are we not? Are we? He is the most creative
man I've ever met. Well, and he has so many
ideas and they're all crazy.

Speaker 2 (35:47):
Yeah, they hate me never well, see, this is the
thing that I have said to Matt, like the tweaking
of the menu, right, the specials, the stuff, the food,
It's amazing. And I and she asked me how Laura
like the green fried green tomatoes, and I said, Laura
said she never had them and loved them, and Connie said,
I've never had them either, and they were fantastic. I

(36:08):
don't know where these ideas come from. I don't know what,
but is it always from everywhere? That one came from
a customer. They had it at another restaurant in.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
The South, and they want us to try it, and
I said, I'll give it a shot, what the hell?
And everybody looks at me like you're fucking crazy. But
it used to be a lot worse. We used to
do monthly specials. Yeah, I know, I remember that. That's
very taxing, and I realized that, but it took me
a long time to realize how taxing it was, so
I kind of apologize for that. So I'm glad we

(36:41):
even first of all, to come up with it, right. Yeah,
but then you've got to teach all your cooks. So,
like say we have eight cooks, All eight cooks got
to learn how to do every single dish the exact
same way because it can't go out two different ways.
So yeah, you spend a week making sure everybody's ready, right,
and then you put them out in four weeks you're done.
Oh hey, guys, it's time to learn seven new items. Right.

(37:03):
So if the season was much better, Yeah, there's times
where I wish we had the monthly just because like
Saint Patrick's Day. I would love to do something just
for Saint Patrick's. But now, what are you gonna do.
You're gonna print another menu and put it out for
a weekend. So we usually do.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
We got to look at what's you know, what idea
is going to make me the most?

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yeah? Right, And it's not even about the money. It's
about what's going to be easiest for the step.

Speaker 2 (37:27):
When I say make the most, I mean make the
most of my time, make them for the staff, make
the most for every keep our life the kiss rule, right,
keep it simple, stupid, but to a degree, yeah, to
a degree.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
And listen. I you know, I'm up at three in
the morning. I can't sleep. I get on TikTok. I'm
looking at food TikTok? Can you ever turn it off?

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Never?

Speaker 4 (37:47):
He never turns it off.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Not even when I'm away, Nope, Like I'm never fully.
It drives nally crazy. I am never fully on vacation. Really,
when I go away, I take my laptop, I do
all the banking away. I don't want to put more
on her and Michelle. That's not that wouldn't be fair.
So I take it with me and I handle it,
and luckily I have some Connie's very good about it

(38:10):
because her Connie and I kind of handle the finances.
Michelle doesn't have to worry about those. She has to
worry about the rest of the place, which is more
than enough. But I can I can say to Connie, hey,
when you're ready check this week, just send me the
number and the amount so I can log it so
I can keep track, so I know we're not gonna
bounce any checks or you know, anything like that. And
it works out very well. Like we both have an

(38:31):
idea every week with the checks that get written are
but there's always some something that comes up, you know,
a sudden last week we had a plumbing problem that
costs US nine hundred dollars. You never know when it's
gonna happen. Yeah, you know, and they see a big
restaurant and they think, Okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna just
hit him over the head.

Speaker 4 (38:46):
They got a ton of money.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah, I mean, luckily, I got a great plumber and
I got a great electrician now, so it's all people
you need to trust. Yeah, right along. You know that
plumbing repair probably have cost us double that psis, but.

Speaker 2 (38:59):
You don't make it and like it's I mean, it
looks fun.

Speaker 1 (39:03):
It can be. It can be a whole lot of fun.
Like when I'm sitting out here having a beer with
you watching the Bills game. Although I'm still watching, going
on what's going on? Of course your head's on a swivel.
There is a coways are playing. I'm like, what's going on?
Where there is everything? Okay? Yeah? Right, so like the
third quarter then I stopped because once I've had a
couple of drinks, I stay away because people get mad.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
What attracted you, Connie, to the hospitality business?

Speaker 1 (39:26):
What was it?

Speaker 2 (39:27):
I mean as you're talking about Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
Whenever, like I was at home, we always my mom
always hosted.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
I always loved taking care of people.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
You like making people happy, making people happy? Yeah, I
can I can see that. I think you like making
people happy too. I do, even though you'll say things
like I'm miserable, But I think you like making people happy,
and that's what you come in here. And I think
everybody leaves happy. I mean great. You know all these
people who've come from around the country to try the

(39:58):
different food and go on TikTok. Right, you got to
be shipping the brick a little bit, going what's going
to happen? And every one of them well or three
two two, yeah, well okay, so one hundred said love it.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
Yeah, and the one that went viral last year. He
wants to come back. So I'm actually trying to find
three or four other restaurants in this area. Yeah, that
we can sign up to do it with him, because
he does. You know, he comes from six hours away.
He goes, I really want to come back and do like, hey,
it's been a year. I want to come back and
see how things are. And uh does make you a
little nervous. It would make me a little nervous, do

(40:35):
you like?

Speaker 3 (40:35):
He tells me last minute, Yeah, you today, you had
somebody here.

Speaker 4 (40:39):
He's like, somebody's on the way. I'm like, on the way.

Speaker 1 (40:41):
I didn't know about this guy. So we had a guy.
He's called the Empire Plate guy. I think I've seen
him go everywhere guy.

Speaker 2 (40:48):
Yeah, so a lot around Rochester.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
He sent me a message because he's on the imun
Foodie and Roster page, so we we put it on there.
A lot our specials in that. So he texts me,
was it last for He sent me as his Friday.
I think it was no Thursday. I came back. It
was two fridays ago and he goes, Hey, just soleting
you know, I'm gonna be at your restaurant twenty minutes.
I'm might check out your food. And I was like,
oh shit, Like would you rather than know?

Speaker 2 (41:12):
Like the corny thing in a movie. It was always
the New York Times reviewer was sneaking in undercover, but
would you want to know or not know?

Speaker 1 (41:22):
So we've had that too, Yeah, we've had that too.
And so this guy gives a heads up. But he
gave us a twenty minute heads up, yeah, which is
not on a Friday night. So I had to make
sure he had a table, okay, make sure everything's okay.
But he loved it, and now he's coming back in
November to film an episode. So he's like, he goes,
I always go to a place and I check it out.
I try the food because I won't do a show

(41:44):
with somebody if it's bad. He goes, I appreciate that. Yeah,
and he's great. Just he goes around New York State
just doing it. That's super nice guy.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
If he says no, but what can you?

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Would you ask that guy why why he chose here?

Speaker 2 (42:01):
No, Like if he said to you, hey, I'm coming
in in twenty minutes and you do all the stuff
and then he doesn't come back to film an episode.

Speaker 1 (42:08):
Oh yeah, now he is, So we're all good? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Can you?

Speaker 1 (42:10):
Yeah? You want to know why I would shake him up?

Speaker 2 (42:13):
So I always think me, but I always think like
we could all learn. We're never like you know, I've
jokingly said to my kids, you're you're not that good.
But none of us are perfect. We're always somewhere in
the middle, right. I always think like everything's going so
great and you're feeling atop of the world, and then

(42:35):
sometimes you're feeling way down here. But really it's right
kind of in the middle, Like it's never that great
and it's never not that bad when you actually look
at it.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Oh, I want to get a one star review on Google.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
Wait, okay, but that's some asshole it is. But I'm
something personal. Why see, how can after all these years
in the business, that's the thing like I feel like Connie.
Some of that stuff just seems to run off your back.
It doesn't, it does, Okay.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
None of it runs really, I'm just more emotional about it.

Speaker 2 (43:03):
You're outspoken, but it really does affect you. Sure in
what way? I want to I don't you want to
make it better?

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Right?

Speaker 4 (43:12):
I want to know what was wrong?

Speaker 3 (43:14):
I want to know, Okay, was this really a problem
or are you or are you.

Speaker 4 (43:17):
Just being an asshole?

Speaker 1 (43:18):
Did you ever reach out you figure out? Yes? I
reach out to every single time, do every single well.
I will say this, I reach out to everybody who
will mention anything on Facebook, good or bad. I'll try
to reach out to them. You really can't from a
business page, but I will from my personal page. When
some of these are Google review there's no way to
contact them, but I will say that. You know when
when we do answer the Google reviews, time is please

(43:42):
contact doesn't let us know what we could do differently,
because if you would have told us why were you
were here? We would have right. And that's I think
that's my biggest pet peeve is like somebody doesn't say
something when they're here like you had. Let's say you
didn't like our chicken fingers, you thought they were too greasy,
say something, We'll make it right, Like you're here spending
your heart.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
This is a good lesson for everybody in a restaurant
because I think that most of sometimes you feel like, oh,
they don't care.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
But they do.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
And that's why I think it's so great that both
of you say it affects us so deeply. We want
to make it right. So if you're at a restaurant
and something's going wrong in a in a polite of course,
I don't scream at the service.

Speaker 1 (44:27):
It's not her fault. Let's say your state got screwed up.
Just say something. And you know our managers touch every
single table, every single table they check on and say
how is everything? You have ample opportunity at that point
to say something. Your server is going to check on
you two or three times. You have plenty of time
to say I don't like this and we'll make it right.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Have you ever had a customer that you've been able
to almost converts yeah, oh from bad to good? Well,
I say bad to good. Maybe they had an experienced
you know the other thing is everybody's with their own perspective,
right I don't know what happened to you out there
before you came in this restaurant, right, and a lot

(45:07):
of that all of us. It filters how we perceive things.
You know, Oh, great, fucking great day. I stubbed my toe,
I fucking bounced a check and now I come here
and my burger's got a hair on it, right, you
know what I mean. And so it's a compounded thing.
And it's like, fuck this place, I'm leaving.

Speaker 1 (45:24):
And I'm going to Google and I'm gonna blast them. Yeah,
and it's it's ridiculous. So on one of those reviews
to give you a little background, we we got blasted
pretty good. And honestly, I think we deserved it. We
made some mistakes that day, and you know that that happens,
you know, it says that, no, we did deserve it.
I mean, they script the food, They script the food.
It happens. They're human beings back there making the food.

(45:46):
And who knows. We might have been three people short
that day because two people didn't show up or something.
So I said, please reach out, and the woman did.
She reached out. It was a group of eight people,
and I said'd like to make this right and we
talked about it for a few minutes. They came in
a weekly, had a meal. I made sure everything was comped,
everything was taken care of, everything was great, Right, of
course it was because we're gonna make sure at that point. Yeah. Sure,

(46:09):
she now comes back at least once a week, and
some people do not know her, and she'll tell me
every time how it is. We have not missed the
spot since. And that sounds to say we're not gonna
make a mistake, of course, but it shows that one
mistake can happen in the next nine visits indicative of
everything else in the restaurant. Yeah, and if you're gonna
leave a review, leave a good one too. You know me.

(46:30):
If people say I've been to this restaurant nine times
and today I had a bad visit, and now I'm
writing new a one star review, well why didn't you
give me a five star review the first time? Why
not the second time? Third time? You've had nine chances,
But the one time we make a mistake, you're gonna
blast us. So, Okay, a baseball hitter hits a ball
two and a half times every ten times, he's great. Right.

(46:50):
If we screw up one out of ten. We're horrible,
yet we're batting nine hundred. Yeah, and I'm not again,
I'm not gonna say we don't make mistakes. We make
every day. We met mistakes, whether it's noticeable to the customer,
because it's something to happen in the back, if it's
your food gets screwed up, or maybe you just don't
like the way it tastes because you thought it was
going to taste differently. We don't say to you, well,

(47:12):
too bad you didn't you should have known that, No,
what do you want and said we'll make it for you,
and we push it ahead of everybody else. Yeah, So
I guess what I'm saying is.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Yeah, that's I'm saying. This isn't just BTV. It's anywhere
you go. And I love when you go out and
you do food reviews, sometimes quietly, but you do right
on there, and I always think that that's a great you.

Speaker 1 (47:36):
Know the business. Not Wow, I just won't and you know,
people get mad at me, and so I did a
couple of them, and then people got more mad. So
I was like, okay, I'm not gonna so like I'll
be For instance, we went somewhere last night and all
I got was a grilled chicken sandwich.

Speaker 3 (47:51):
Right.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
It was the worst grilled chicken sandwich I have ever had.
I tell you, I would rather eat a piece of wood. Yeah,
I had three bites out of it. We know the
curlers working in there. And she goes, what's wrong. I said,
it's just I can't eat it. What do you want? Said,
I don't want anything else. Don't take it off the bill.
Mistakes happened, and of course she took it off the
bill anyways, because you know she knows this. But I
was like, I just want you to know so that

(48:13):
the next customer or something. Maybe the chickens dried out
because it's been sitting somewhere. I don't know there's a
reason why, or maybe the cook is just overcooking. Just
I just want you to know, you know. And it's
hard if I don't know the people, it's hard for
me to even say something. So I get the people
to want to say something, because what a Karen. You know,
it's not as long as you do it the right way.
No a Karen demands a baseball from a child. Yeah, yes,

(48:37):
it's even But even with me being in this industry
now for the last time. Eleven years, it's still hard
for me to say to a server, I don't like this,
this is terrible. But I managed to try to squeeze
it out. And I always said, I don't want the
money back for it. Don't you lose money. I just
don't want the next customer to get this. I'm not
the guy that's gonna blast you. The next person could. Connie,

(48:59):
what's your favorite part of the business?

Speaker 3 (49:02):
The rush?

Speaker 1 (49:03):
The rush?

Speaker 3 (49:04):
What do you mean like would look like the dinner
rush or the Saturday that I have four caterings and
or Thanksgiving when we serve two hundred.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
And do you like it when it's like you got
a challenge? Yeah, it's a challenge, right.

Speaker 3 (49:20):
There was there was one Thanksgiving. I remember you were
you're a masochist, yeah, And I was in I was
in the back and I was texting him like I
can't do this, and he's like, I shouldn't have gone away.
I'm like, oh, nope, I'm good. That's not the answer
I wanted. I just wanted to say I didn't know
if I could do this. Yeah, but like last year,
we fed two hundred and fifty homeless people for that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
That's like, really, who's that through? I don't know what
this shows Monroe Avenue, okay, which I knew, but that's.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
A wonderful thing that you do. And then people know that.
Do you take donations for that?

Speaker 3 (49:53):
We didn't this year?

Speaker 2 (49:56):
Now would you ever consider that?

Speaker 1 (49:58):
Because I will tell you that a lot of times
I have regular customers that are here that will say,
please take this fifty dollars, please take this twenty, which
is graying. But I feel absolutely horrible too. I don't
know you're putting you're doing.

Speaker 2 (50:12):
People like I really do believe, and I know that
we'll hear all this shit about the world and stuff,
but I feel like the.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
Fringes get highlighted, the bad gets highlighted. Did this?

Speaker 2 (50:24):
I think most people, no matter where they fall politically,
don't want to see someone.

Speaker 1 (50:29):
Suffer, period.

Speaker 2 (50:30):
So I'll help you know. I mean, I guess the
hand is the word would be hand up, not handout
kind of thing. I think we all would like to
see somebody go, hey, you're in America. You got an opportunity,
you can make things happen. Let's not be feeling bad
for ourselfs. But I've been there, so here, you know,
and I think that's a great thing. I think that's amazing. Though,
two hundred and fifty meals on Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
That's a lot. That's a line. And I didn't as
I did is plate stuff. They did all the cooking,
they did everything. I just helped plate this stuff. Like
who's I deal with this? Anything bad like this? That's
my ideas a big hard too. So well, no, So
we have a friend, Brittany, who's a regular customer of ours,

(51:13):
and she deals with these people and and I'm going
to say this, and and maybe it's going to turn
some people off to the restaurant. We also handle what
they call the queer prom for them. Okay, you know
a thousand kids that are obviously a little different, right,
but we handle their prom every single year. We cater it.
That's awesome and gladly, and we give them a discount
to help them out. But she also brings us other things.

(51:35):
So she was the one that said, hey, I have
this opportunity. I know this is how you guys are.
Do you want to feed these two hundred and fifty
homeless people? And she didn't finish your sentence and we
were like yes, And she's like, are you sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
And when we walked away last year, when we were
all done, I said, okay, now I know what we
can do for next.

Speaker 1 (51:52):
Year to make sure how do we are?

Speaker 2 (51:56):
But you like the rush when things are busy, and
I have to ask you this, No day is it
ever the same. I know you're coming to the same place,
it's mostly the same people, but out here it's never never, yeah.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
Never the same.

Speaker 1 (52:08):
Wow. Like you see the bar right now, it's full,
right yeah. Tuesday there was two people in there are
god bless about it. And even yesterday, like you know,
the day wasn't terrific, but like last night, they got
their asses handed to them last night and they just
nobody deal. They just made it work. You know what.
I didn't get a complaint, no, you know, yeah? Good.

(52:30):
So what's your favorite part of the business.

Speaker 4 (52:33):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (52:33):
My favorite part of the business, honestly is somebody telling
you that they had a great meal, or walking away
from those homeless people last year saying, you know what,
you just gave them a meal. That to me and
you it's like, shit, I'm gonna be so tired and
fat and full after eat this. This person is like,
oh my god. First of all. I screwed up last
year with that because I thought the meals had to

(52:53):
go there hot, so we made sure everything was hot,
so we were late getting there. So now I'm already
feeling bad. Turns out they don't care if it's hot,
cold everything. So this year they're like, just bring it
cold because they're going to take it home quote unquote
wherever they're staying, and they're going to be able to
heat it somehow, some way. So I still feel like
there's some people will wait to the last second to

(53:14):
make it because I know the ones that are definitely
not living anywhere but under a bridge, and they will
I'll make sure they get the hot one. There's a
lot of people that aren't quote unquote homeless. They're living
in a home. They can't get a job, no one
will hire them. It's not that they don't want you to.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Bring your kids to that too, because I know your sons.
Both your sons work here.

Speaker 1 (53:33):
Yeah, yeah, both of them are here. Join's been to
a couple with us. Yeah, yeah, boys have not okay,
but I thing I regret, Oh really, I wish I
could take them back. It seem like great kids.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
They have interacted with them and they I mean he
made a whole thing.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Well yeah, not one piece less I did because I
didn't want to look like people. Oh I would have
eaten it. We had nothing, but I was like, I
don't think I ate for a day after that. But
I hate the entire pizzas so good. I do that
to honor my father because that's the way I was
brought up. So I hope that maybe that when I'm gone,

(54:10):
it could be tomorrow, could be twenty years. If you
guys are unlucky, they'll they'll hold that hold that same
line for somebody and do that for them.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
You know.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Yeah, I really appreciate you guys both sitting down. And
I know that Matt was a little hesitant, but you know,
because we do dick jokes, far Joe whatever, Okay, But
I think that that what makes people tick is the
most relatable thing. And I think that hearing about both
kind of your journeys a little bit. But what goes

(54:38):
into the restaurant, the thought behind it, the concern behind it,
the uh, wanting to be the best is something that
people I don't think know or necessarily appreciate. And I
love conversations like this, So I really thank you guys
for oh, thank you for doing that, because you know
my schedule has changed a little bit.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
I've decided to take on more in life. Because that
sound like that's why, dude, this is why, this is
all the best. It's the you gotta do it, you
gotta do it, you gotta do it every day.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
We got camp and should and shouldn't.

Speaker 1 (55:12):
Do it right exactly.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
But bTB wood Fire Pizza and girl, I'm already impressed.
It's twelve thirty. There's not a seat at the bar.
There's other tables filling up.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
There's people at the bar outside too.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It's beautiful. It's a beautiful that's a lot of tables
out there. Yeah, yeah, look at the TV.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
We'll get out here and try get those fried green tomatoes.
Try the state of the meatball bomber? Is that what
is golf?

Speaker 1 (55:34):
Yeah? Because it is a huge. I devoured half that
totally fast. Bill is able to pick it up. Kevin,
he's a pussy. Fourthnight, I cut it in half and
I just picked it up and ate that thing. And
he was wearing a white shirt.

Speaker 4 (55:48):
Ship.

Speaker 1 (55:48):
Yeah, that was good.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
That was not even a spot, not a spot until
I got home and I sat down. Was there was
that a Monday night game?

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (55:57):
Yeah, I sat down to peek at the Monday night
game and decided, hey, chips and sauca would be good
because Jamison begged me to eat the other half of
the sub.

Speaker 1 (56:05):
So and yeah, it's also I'm gonna start bringing in food.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
No, you don't have to bring him in food because
he's fine. I will say this, and I'm going to
say it on the podcast. I never asked. I know
who did, and I was never comfortable with that.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
I'm all right, all right, you know what we talk about.
It it's great. Yes, we get the food out. You
said that to me, so I didn't, but I that
was never my intention. And now that we're doing a
seasonal specials like we get him pretty fast in four weeks,
we have the whole season done, so that gives me
eight weeks to bring you a different item uff a
menu that we can talk about. So it's great because
you know there's some people out that that might take
the ride out. I've had some people go your customers

(56:41):
need to start talking more though, because they used to
tell me all the time, here John the pocket, and
I haven't got all of those things.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
If somebody just sent me a thing saying they came out,
they sent me a picture, they said they're here. It
is their favorite place to come when they're out on
this side of town. Nice and uh oh I will, yeah,
go say something then something, because that that's let.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Him know, Hey, we're here because of Bill Moran. Yeah
all right, well that would be uh that would be
help you as well. Yes it does, for for Matt,
for Connie.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
I'm Bill Moran.

Speaker 1 (57:11):
We'll see you on Monday.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
H