November 24, 2025 • 37 mins
Pour one out for Spike, the LAPD K9 police officer who was shot and killed last night while in pursuit of a suspect in Burbank. The suspect was subsequently killed by responding police officers. According to the LA Times, LAFD records show there was no sign of firefighters having extinguished the Lachman fire in the Pacific Palisades before it reignited into the Palisades fire in January 2025. The first home, an ADU, has officially been rebuilt following the LA wildfires, replacing a garage that had previously stood in its place. Andy chats to Chris Anderson, co-owner (with his father) of Chez Jay restaurant, which has survived and thrived in Santa Monica for 66 years.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
US I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It's the ay Reesmeyer Show. Thanks for being with us
on this Sunday, November twenty third. You can always say hello,
we are live everywhere on the iHeart Radio app. You
could give us a call. We're gonna open up the
lines later and talk about some old school restaurants in
(00:39):
southern California. I figured that as we were getting into
the holiday season. Obviously Thanksgiving is coming up. This is
the first show we'll be doing before Thanksgiving, our first
Sunday show, I think, and we will talk about some
comfort food. But we have an incredible guest joining us
in just a little bit, Chris Anderson, the co owner
of the legendary Shaj in Santa Monica. We'll be in
(01:00):
studio with us. We'll talk about owning one of the
most iconic old school restaurants in the city and how
he's doing, how Shayjay is doing, though Santa Monica is
not doing well. Plus Zillo has revised their price forecast
for next year. I'm excited to see what I think
Gonzalez thinks about this of course, she's a real estate expert,
being a realtor. Is your home going to be worth
(01:23):
more next year or is it going to be worth less?
Is it time to bail? And what is a cousin walk?
It is a trend that has kids dipping out to
spend some time in nature with the trees before a
big Thanksgiving meal. We'll get into this, maybe you'll understand
why when your nephews, or your kids, or your teen
(01:48):
age ish young twenties members of the family leave for
a little bit before Thanksgiving meal, why they come back
and they're a lot hungrier. But I want to start
with that news you heard about at the top of
the hour, some terrible news here in Burbank. We got
to pour one out for our boy Spike. He's the
(02:09):
Burbank police canine that was shot and killed last night
by a guy who was pulled over. KTLA's Aaron Myers
was on the scene this morning reporting on what happened.
Here's the backstory.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Please say, during that stop, a passenger fled from the vehicle,
ran up the on ramp, and jumped over the freeway
embankment wall into a residential neighborhood. Officer saying they believe
that passenger may have been armed. Now, additional resources were
brought in to search for the passenger, while other officers
stayed with the driver at the vehicle.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
During the search, a police canine and helicopter were used,
with the canine Spike finding the suspect.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Official say the suspect.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Fired multiple shots, striking Spike, then fled the area. Spike
was rushed to an emergency VET but died from his injuries.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Just an awful story. And I know that last night.
I was on my way home from Orange County, real
late at night, coming off the five Freeway, and uh,
my girlfriend and I are just looking at the map
and we're trying to figure out where how we're going
to get back to the valley. And it was a
it was a long trip. I mean it took like
an hour and a half to get home because there
was a crazy accident over in Downy and then as
(03:18):
you got up into La County, you saw that the
five Freeway was shut down, and we're like, what is
that all about? So she gets on on the Coltran's
website and starts to look and see what's going on.
She gets the details and goes to KTLA dot com
and find finds all that yes, indeed, the Spurbank police
canine was shot, and we didn't know at the time
how he was doing. We knew that he was being
(03:39):
rushed to the hospital. I think that they were going
to do surgery on him. And despite that surgery, of course,
the dog, Spike died from his injuries. Burbank Police confirmed
this morning that he didn't make it. And my my girlfriend,
who is a a patient person, I don't know if
I would say that necessarily, but I would say, like
(04:01):
a sweet person, a kind person, obviously loves dogs, but
is not a criminal, is not a wildly aggressive lunatic
without tequila, but looks at this and read the story
and immediately says, I hope they kill this guy. When
(04:22):
she learned that the suspect had shot this police officer dog,
this canine, she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I don't be
to say that, but I and I think that that's
the natural reactions that we care about these dogs so much,
we love these animals, and we just think, you know,
it's a bummer because obviously Spike didn't get to choose
to be involved in this. Spike was identified at some
(04:46):
point that he's gonna be a good police dog. And
this is what Pete will say. They say, like, the
dogs can't consent, so they just have to sort of
deal with whatever happens to them, whatever danger they get
to be put in. And I understand the argument. I mean,
I'm not a peda person, and I think that it's
incredible what these dogs do. And I think it's incredible,
you know, in some situations, obviously they do more than
(05:06):
what a human could do just based on their physiology.
But officers tried to talk to the suspect after the shooting.
They say that he wouldn't surrender. Glendale police and Swatt
moved in overnight. They tried less than lethal rounds and
at around eleven to twenty pm, the suspect started shooting back.
(05:28):
Officers then fired back, killing a suspect. And you know,
the Burbank police does not mess around. They are on it.
You call nine one one, they are there. There are
a lot of them. They have relatively little crime to
deal with, so when they do have it, they are
right there. Spike had just been on the job for
(05:49):
under two years. In a post, they said he was
an intelligent, devoted partner he had a gentle nature off duty,
and he was tenacious while serving. They asked to keep
Ske's handler, his family, and the Burbank PD in your
thoughts and prayers, and like I said, the peed of
people are quick to jump on things like this. They've
called for other departments in the past where situations like
(06:12):
this have unfortunately happened to phase out the use of canines.
But what you would replace them with is not I
don't think we're there yet with the robot dogs for
so many reasons. One, they're incredibly expensive, and I'm not
really sure if I'm ready for the police to have
(06:32):
robot dogs yet. I don't think I need to have
those roman around patrolling. That's the stuff horror movies are
made of, I think, absolutely, But it is It's tough,
you know, because I don't. I think they do a
very specific job that there's not a lot of other
ways to have that job accomplished. They could run far
(06:54):
quicker than a person. They're able to do that take
down you ever see, you ever train, you will go
to those like the canine training. That's that's a good
Like local news story during sweeps, I've covered those. Oh yeah,
did they have they ever you ever get attacked by one?
I did not get attacked. You put you put chicken,
you put the sleeve on or whatever they like give
you like a feeling. I love dogs so much like
(07:18):
if it attacked me like that, my feelings would be heard. Yeah.
You know, one of the things that the Burbank Police
Department asked for people is to of course keep the
the handler of Spikes in your thoughts and prayers. And
you know, these these dogs, they are workers. They are
(07:39):
considered officers. I mean even the Burbank Police and the
in the post about Spikes is and to watch Saturday
November twenty, twenty twenty five. But they're also part of
these officers family. A lot of times they go home
with them and that's their dog, it's their bud, it's
their partner. And the bond that you have with your pet,
(08:03):
it's very similar to the way that they're bond with
their with their working dogs. So you know that the
you know a lot I mean and really like these
dogs are in danger, but I don't think a lot
of times we're not doing stories where they're they're getting
hurt in the line of duty. But I'm sure we
will find out who the handler is. And I can
(08:25):
see Conway doing a thing maybe this week where they
try to send something nice to the handler. I would
I would like to do that. If I had thought
of that earlier, maybe he will do it. I don't
want to take it away from him. So uh, porn
went out for Spike today. Sad, sad. Situation really tough
(08:48):
coming up the Los Angeles Fire Department. There's a little
bit of discrepancy here because the interim chief had claimed
that they had tried to mop up and put out
that Lochlan fire Lockman fire, excuse me, that broke out
in the first of the year this year, the one
that everybody, at least for the most part, is blaming
(09:09):
for then growing into the Palisades Fire about seven days later.
But the LAFD records show that there was no sign
of putting out that fire after it smoldered again, after
it flared up again, as the interim chief had claimed.
We'll get into that. Plus, the first home has finally
been rebuilt after the wildfires. It is Sunday, November twenty third.
(09:35):
We are more than eleven months since that fire. I
think right, more than almost eleven. It's been a long time,
and only one home has been rebuilt. That is insane.
We'll get into that. Plus we'll take your calls. Feel
free to say hi anytime you'd like on the KFI
(09:55):
app on the iHeartRadio app. Rather find KFI and look
a little look for that little microphone where you can
leave a message for us and we'll play it on
the show. Nikki, we got that set up right, that's
ready to go, she says, yes, yeah, yeah, awesome. It's
I AM six forty. I'm Andy Reespeyer. We're live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I am Andy Reespy. This is KFIAM six forty. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. I'm a little tired
last night. I got home very late. I went down
to Orange County to see Andrew mcmannequin. Andrew McMahon play
in a band called Jack's Mannequin. They are a southern
California band. He's from Dana Point, went to Dana Hills
High The band got big in the early two thousands
(10:41):
because of Napster called something Corporate, and so last night
was a bit of a homecoming show for the band
because it was in Anaheim at the House of Blues.
And man, I'll tell you what, there is nothing like
that feeling when you cross over the freeway on the five,
you going down, you cross out of La County into
Orange County and you know you're in Orange care because
(11:02):
it is so smooth. And you know how much it
costs for me to park at that show last night?
Four dollars, four whole dollars to park at a concert
in Los Angeles? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Never?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And I do love it here. I hope that that
is that's known that I like Los Angeles, I support
LA I'm a transplant, but I've tried to make it
work for me as much as possible. I like it
for what it is. I don't try to make it
into what it's not. You go crazy if you do that.
But man, it was a much easier experience.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It took me two and a half hours to get
there because the five Freeway was a nightmare. But it
was a great show, very fun to see those songs.
Twenty years ago, a record called Everything in Transit came out.
This is mcmannequin's Andrew McMahon's record's first Jack's Mannequin record,
and it came out like the same week, or at
(12:01):
least it was delivered to the record label the same
week that he was diagnosed with leukemia, and so the label,
I think, thought, I don't know how we're gonna deal
with this while he's getting treatment. So he got treatment,
he got better physically, took him a couple of years,
he says, to get better mentally. But in the years
(12:22):
since twenty years now, he's had other side projects, like
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. There's a song called Cecilia
and the Satellite was on the radio a bit. He's
made music and toured kind of a journeyman, you know,
like really gets out there, plays shows thousand, two thousand
and three thousand person crowds, doesn't have a lot of
songs on the radio, but has a really dedicated group
(12:43):
of people who love him, and twenty years later also
started a foundation called deer Jack which helps young people adolescence,
the eighteen to thirty five demo with cancers, which is
a pretty un underfunded group of young people because the
(13:04):
good news is most you know, there's not a high
instance of cancer for people of that age demo. But
he did a great show. It was very fun. And
I got back to LA and I was happy to
be in LA. But I thought, man, it was so
easy to go down on a concert down there. And
speaking of Los Angeles, you might remember during the Palisades Fire,
(13:28):
a lot of conversation about how the Lachman fire, which
happened about a week earlier and was then put out,
eventually reignited and then spread and destroyed some thousands of
homes in the Pacific Palisades Together, thirteen thousand homes were
destroyed in both the Palisades and the Eaton fire. Back
(13:50):
in early January, the LA Times obtained records that call
into question the Los Angeles fired up and statements about
how thoroughly firefighters had put out that Lockman fire in
the days before it reignited into the Palisades fire. Just
back in October, the Time spoke to the interim fire chief,
(14:15):
who has now been replaced by Hime Moore, but the
interim fire chief then was Ronnie Villa Nueva, and he
said that there was an opportunity for firefighters to go
back to the burn area on January third. Remember this
is a couple days after the initial fire was put out,
there was a report of smoke, and he said that
they cold trailed an additional time. They used this word
(14:37):
called cold trailed, which means they used their hands and
feet or hands rather to feel for heat, and they
dig out hotspots. He said, we went back over there again.
We dug it all out again, We put ladders on it.
We did everything we could cold trail again. We did
all of that. Now, this is what he said on
October eighth. Now, the LA Time says, none of that
seems to have happened. A dispatch log that they obtained
(15:00):
shows firefighters arrived at the scene. They reported quickly that
they saw no smoke. They canceled the dispatch for another
engine that was on the way. It took them all
about thirty four minutes. The log does not mention cold trailing,
and as the Time says, it's unclear if Cruz did
anything else during the call because the LAFD won't respond
(15:25):
to them about it. The Times asked the spokesperson, Captain
Eric Scott, three ways, email, text, and in person, but
the agency did not explain the discrepancy. Vinoueva also did
not respond to an email request by the paper. Additionally,
that LAFD after action report, Now this isn't the one
(15:45):
that was ordered by the county that looked in the
Eaten fire. This is the one about the Palisades. It
made only a cursory reference to that Lachlan fire Lockman fire.
They also do not include any reports of smoke from
January third. They don't include a battalion chief's decision to
remove firefighters from the scene a day before, even though
(16:09):
he was warned that there were remaining hotspots and somebody
saw smoke. The president of the Board of Fire Commissioners says,
the after action review is exactly what we asked for.
The review was only supposed to cover the first seventy
two hours after the fire erupted in the Palisades. She says, quote,
it's not an investigation. It should not include things that
(16:30):
the newspaper seems to feel like it should be included. Okay,
there you have that fascinating new chief. I may more
people like him, A lot a lot of the reporters
like him. They said, you know the former PIO for
(16:50):
the Los Angeles Fire Department, which is the public Information officer,
that's the person who you go to on the scene
to try to get information from so then you can
put it in your report. He historically has been very
very good about being transparent, friendly smart. I think the
hope is that we get some kind of clarity on this.
The challenge is that it is a criminal investigation with
(17:14):
this Rendernet guy who set the fire on January first.
And there's a lot writing on this in terms of
the political capital, the responsibility, how much of it goes
to Rendernet for setting the fire, how much of it
is on the fire department for keeping those flames from
(17:36):
becoming another fire a week later. But I got to
give it to the Los Angeles Times here for continuing
to stay on this because, as you know, life goes on,
and I think that the people I'm not saying this
is the situation. I'm saying if you were in a
situation where this looked bad for you, either as a
(17:57):
public official elected or not, you would just hope that
eventually time would go by and people would become preoccupied
with other stuff. But it's good that the Los Angeles
Fire Department is keeping as being you know, the Los
Angeles Times rather is keeping track of all of this. Also,
the first home has been rebuilt after the fires. It
(18:18):
is an ADU. It's say, two bedroom, six hundred and
thirty square foot accessory dwelling unit in Altadena. It has
its certificate of occupancy given on Monday. It actually was
not replacing a home that burned. It replaced a garage
that burned. The primary house on the lot was not
damaged in that fire. Slow, slow build homes are springing
(18:45):
up all over Altadena. In the Palisades. Multiple projects, including
rebuilds of destroyed homes, though, are expected to be finished
in the coming weeks. So at least that that is
good some families maybe getting back into their homes for
the holidays coming up. We're talking to Chris Anderson, the
co owner of the legendary shayj in Santa Monica that
(19:06):
celebrated its sixty sixth anniversary in business. We're gonna ask
him how things are going, even though Santa Monica is
a tough place to be these days, especially for businesses.
I'm Andy Reesmeyer. This is the Andy Reespier Show.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
This is the Andy Reestmeier Show on this Sunday, November
twenty third, just past two thirty. I hope you're having
a nice weekend. Chargers have a bye week this week.
That's kind of exciting for me, I guess because I
can't be disappointed. They've been really good. No, they've been good.
It's much better than the UCLA shutouts that we've had
UCLA football last two weeks. It's been kind of tough.
(19:45):
Rams are playing the night though, Mario, you're gonna go.
You excited?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I am excited, but no, I won't be there in person,
but I'm definitely tuning in tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yes, sir, who are they playing? Buccaneers? Very good? Well,
I think you'll you'll have a nice night. Oh there
the other I like Baker Mayfield too, so it'll be
a good game. Yeah, it'll be fun. One to also
remind you that the fifteenth annual KFI Pastathon is here.
Chef Bruno's charity, the Katerina's Club, provides more than twenty
five thousand meals every week to kids in need in
(20:15):
southern California, and the reason is because of you. You
and Michelle Q. Michelle who works at the station, who's
worked at the station for twenty I don't want to
date her, but I think thirty years. Maybe she's been
here for a long time. She's kind of the grand Puba,
as they say, and she puts all of this together
(20:38):
every year. We are doing a live broadcast giving Tuesday,
December second, five am to eight pm at the Anaheim
White House. That's eighty eight seven South Anaheim Boulevard. You
can of course come join us there anytime between five
am and eight pm. We'll be raising money to feed kids.
(20:59):
You can also donate any time at KFI AM six
forty dot com, slash pastathon or find pasta and sauce
drop drop off locations. You can go to any Smart
and Final donate any amount at checkout, even in Arizona
and Nevada. So if you're heading out there to Phoenix
get a little sun, maybe heading out to gamble in Nevada,
stop at a Smart and Final. Instead of putting your
(21:20):
money towards Steve Win, put it towards helping kids. You
can also go to any Wendy's restaurant in so Cal
or the Yamava Resort and Casino. When you cash your
winning ticket at the kiosk, it'll ask you if you
want to donate your change. You can say yes, then
pick Catarinas Club from the options that pop up, and
of course tomorrow you can bid on exclusive auction items
(21:40):
at KFI AM six forty dot com slash auctions. Did
you know about this? I didn't know that we had
an auction coming. I wonder what's gonna be on there.
I know you're gonna you can you can talk to
I think Wendy. I think doctor Wendy Walsh will do
a second with you. I'm not They didn't ask me
(22:02):
to do anything, so maybe I can bid. I don't know.
Fastathon next Tuesday. Awesome in studio now with Chris Anderson.
Thanks for being here today. You are the co owner
of shay J You and your dad. How long have
you been the the owners there of that iconic restaurant
(22:26):
in Santa Monica.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
My dad got there in the perola.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Let me move that microphone up towards your face a
little bit more. There you go? Is it on?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
We got his mic on?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Let's hear you?
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Now?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Do you hear him? Mario?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I here's somebody else, let's see, yeah, he's there. Here's there.
Minds off? Now, let's see you gotta try it again.
I hear a different studio. I here's somebody else in
another studio. Well, we will figure it out. Just you
want to hit that on button there, you already got it,
(23:04):
go ahead right now. I hear somebody else. Okay, all right,
well I'll tell you what. We will talk to Chris
in just a minute. We'll figure out whatever tech issues
we're having here right now. But of course Thanksgivings coming
up soon. The Thanksgiving travel rush is under you know here.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
At LAX, the holiday travel rush has begun. Family is
getting ready to head out of town, like the Pridge
and family here who we've been talking to this morning.
Thank you guys so much for joining us. Tell us
about how your Thanksgiving travel experience has been so far
and where you're headed for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Everything has been smooth so far.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
This morning.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
We did leave pretty early, a few hours early, and
we caught an uberla you're.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Going where fla dah oh wow. Pretty excited about that trip.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
We are so excited we're going to see our family.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
So awesome, awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
You know they say tickets are more expensive this year.
Did you guys experience that They're about seven hundred dollars
on average for a round trip ticket.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
Prices are going up. I think we bought these pretty early,
so it was okay, it was still pretty reasonable.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Thank you guys so much. I'm not going to keep
you too long. Really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Dad.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
You having a good experience here today.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So far, so good. Yeah, thank you so much. Really
appreciate it. Save travels, Happy holidays to you. Want to
show you this video while things are smooth here right now,
that was not the case just a day ago. To
talk on videos showing here as some folks had to
experience that stand still traffic here at the Horseshoe, people
grabbing their bags walking to the terminal instead of waiting
(24:34):
in gridlock traffic. Again here at LAX are expecting about
two and a half million travelers through December first.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
The single busiest.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Day is expected to be next Sunday, November thirtieth, with
more than two hundred and thirty thousand people expected to.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Move through these terminals.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
To keep things moving, they of course tell you to
come here at least two hours early for domestic flights,
three hours for international flights. A nation triple A projecting
about six million people will be traveling.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Through That is so many people do not want to
deal with that. All right, coming up, we are going
to I hope talk to Chris Anderson. Can we check
that Mike one more time? Hit that on button? All right,
go ahead, how's it going? Hey, we got him just
the time to go to the news. I'll tell you
what if you can stick around through the commercial break.
When we come back, we'll talk about shay j sixty
(25:26):
six years of service to the Santa Monica community at
the end of Route sixty six. How exciting sounds great,
that's all coming up on the Andy Reestmeier Show. It's
caf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Joining me in studio with a working microphone. It's Chris
Anderson from shay J. Good afternoon, Thanks for being here, man,
Thanks for the invite. Sixty six years of Shaye J.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, that's older than you are. Yeah, absolutely, But your
dad has been involved. You and your dad are the
co owners. Yes, your dad has been involved since the seventies.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Yeah, he got there in the late seventies. One day
he just wanted to leave Connecticut. Then, like the cold,
drove across country in a bel air kind of like
the movie style no Way, and landed in La. Was
supposed to go to San Francisco. I forget the reason
why he stayed here, but enjoyed La and just got
some odd jobs here there, and then became a manager
(26:29):
at some local bars and one place was called the
Basement in Marine Delray, and then he would frequent Shay
Jay's and one night Jade, Hey, you want to take
the keys and run the place? That was in the
seventies and whatever happened to Jay? So Jay state he
passed away in two thousand and eight. Wow, so that's
kind of recent. Yeah, but he was he you know,
(26:53):
bigger than life kind of character, and he wanted to
be an actor, so he used if you read the
old stories, he used shy J's as a place to
entertain a lot of people. And and so he would
have musicians come, jazz bands, the early English actors would
come in in a place of like the Hollywood actors
could hang out and just relax and built on itself
(27:15):
from there.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
If you haven't been, which I don't know if that's possible,
because I think shj is up there with Musso and
Frank with the Smokehouse with I mean, it's a very
short list of places that are that iconic. They've stood
the test of time in LA which is no small
(27:36):
feat in the restaurant industry, which has never been harder.
And they also have a sense of respect for the originality.
What have you guys tried to do to make sure
that Obviously you're changing with the times you take credit cards, yeah, right,
but you know the place itself still feels like it
(27:58):
did way back when you're popped in.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Well, first of all, my favorite restaurant in town is
Musso and Franks. Yeah, I love going there just because
I like that style, the old school, the heritage brand.
But you know, in the early days, I think they
were more concerned about just having fun, and it was
a time in LA where, you know, there wasn't as
many things going on. People could let lose, have fun,
tell some stories, do something they talk about the next
(28:25):
day or maybe years later. And so from there it's
beginning emfansy stages. It just built on itself. Yeah, and
then once became a brand after you know, the third
or fourth decade. Oh, this is something to preserve, right,
and we just really didn't fall the narrative. We just
we just wanted to be a place where people can
(28:46):
hang out, have fun, leave your ego at the door,
and in amongst During that journey, we just so many
stories were created and then it just became something to preserve.
And in two thousand and I think it was eleven
ten or eleven, they of landmarking the building anyway cool
and so that kind of just codified that brand of
(29:06):
you know, we're here. I always call it kind of
like a mini museum where to preserve maybe what your
parents experienced in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Well, and you think about Santa Monica and how it
for a long time was when I first moved to
LA I went to Santa Monica College in the early
twenty tens, and yeah, and we were right down the
street and it was kind of like the California dream
at that point. And I think it was sort of
like right before things started to get really weird. And
(29:34):
I remember it being a really good mix of the
new and old, but it really was new, Like a
lot of the building's Third Street promenade, A lot of
that obviously is not the way Santa Monica Monica always
was and the evolution of the city, you know, which
I think is great in a lot of ways, during
that time kind of took a turn. We've seen over
(29:56):
the last eight or nine years, crime way up, uh,
business vacancies way up, blue played oyster at your neighbor
just up the street. I thought they were never going
to close. They said, look, we can't do this anymore
because I mean, the promenade is not a sliver of
what it used to be. Yeah, how do you like?
(30:19):
How do you keep And every time I've been to
Shae j it's always popping, which which I think. You know,
do you feel like you're sort of isolated from all
the craziness or does that has that affected you? Guys?
Speaker 6 (30:30):
I always kind of go back to what are your
control controllables? Yeah, and what can you not can control?
I can't move Shaye Jay's right, nor did I want to, right.
But you know, there has been a change in Santa Monica.
I hope this is just kind of a down down
period and we're able to figure it out and move
in the right direction. My dad, when he moved there,
(30:51):
he always called Santa Monica the sandy little beach town,
and it was just so cool because people would hang
out there, come to the beach, relax and enjoy the
senior and activities there. And in terms of Shayj's, we've
just focused on we seem to always attract great people
and customers and patrons, and you know, we want to
(31:13):
be a place where conversation is still rich. You know,
phones are not out. It's a small shotgun room kind
of style, and the bar is small and everyone's kind
of squeezed together. And I believe if we maintained that,
we will always attract the individuals that you know, that
we're looking for and that want to have a good
time and are not concerned, are not participating in the
(31:36):
things that we're not happy about.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Talking right now with Chris Anderson, who's the co owner
of SHAJ with his with his dad, you guys have
been in this family business for a long time. How
how involved is dad still in the.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Day to day We call him the mascot. Now, you know,
a class of Chara here there and walks around.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh that's why you bought it. You know, that's how
you want to be. But do you do you ever
have instances with him where you want to do it
this way and he wants to do it the other way, or.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
Oh, I mean not anymore. When I first came back
in twenty eighteen, it was like that, you know, of
course he's been there for so long.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So did you like want to put some big flat
screens on every single TV or every single table or raither.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
No.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I was very careful to not change. I mean, it's
funny when people say you should, you should, you should,
and I say, hey, you know, we're the zero point
five percent of a business that've lasted. I think we're
doing things the right way, and so I don't want
to change that too much because that's what our brand is.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Do you do you think that California or the city
of Santa Monica is doing enough to support local businesses.
It's a big question, U sounds like the answers.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
No. I mean we have a great relationship with the
city and we've really tried. Like wed we held that
sixty six Anna version.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, which was by the way I got to go
it was my birthday. Was like, it was so fun Yeah,
I it was so serendipitous and it was such an
exciting thing, and congratulations on sixty six years. First of all,
it's a crazy thing to do sixty six years of anything,
but it was. It was packed and had so many people.
They are telling stories about their old times at Shaj
and their memories that they've had, of course, and I think,
(33:13):
what I want to do, actually, Nikki, if we can
do this, let's open up the phone lines. Give us
a call one hundred five to zero one five three four,
one in hundred five two zero one KFI. Tell us
your shay J story one in hundred five to zero
one five three four And if you don't have a
Shaj story, make one up. Go tonight, get yourself a
(33:34):
shay J. Still sorry, go ahead. You said you have
a great relationship with the city, and you did the
sixty sixth anniversary.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
Yeah, so we want to do the sixty fifth, and
we ran out of time. So someone came up and said, hey,
why don't you do the sixty six? They rid sixty
six ended right there, and I wanted to kind of
pay homage to the people that have worked their customers
and my dad and so. But part of that is
it feels like Santa Monica has been in a funk.
There's not a lot of exciting things going on. Events,
(34:01):
they're trying to revitalize that. So I thought if we
could do something that I mean, I think we had
like thirteen hundred people show up, and so if we
could do something that kind of gets some excitement in
the city. That was one of my big goals for
this event. And I think we can turn it around
because we have the geography, location, it's a pretty city.
(34:21):
We can easily fix it. The infrastructure is there.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
There's no reason Santa Monica should not be exceeding in
every possible way. Should be the top of the list.
It has everything going for it. It's got history, it's
got the views, it's got the weather. We were talking
about this before. You know how it's good that the
La Times is keeping people accountable in local government as
(34:44):
far as it comes to the fire. You know, they're
staying on it because a lot of us we just
sort of get into the day to day and we
forget about all this stuff. And I think you had
an incredible observation which I am going to steal, but
you say it might be the fault of the weather. Yeah,
the weather curse.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Right.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
You know, we get upset about something for about ten
to fifteen days and then you see that sunset or
that perfect you know, climb in and that air is
just you start forgetting about it, which you know it's
it's not great, but we need we should fix things.
We should, you know, focus on making sure that the
streets are safe, yeah, clean, and all the businesses will
(35:23):
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It'll thrive naturally once you have that. Well, I appreciate
you for being here. We were talking with Chris Anderson,
who is the co owner of SHAJ the Legendary. I
wouldn't call it a dive. It's a dive in high
class dives. High class dives, is that's what you're calling Yeah,
or a joint. It's got the soul of a dive,
but it's you know, obviously still have an A grade
(35:46):
on the wall. Yeah, we have the we have the history.
We have cool stories. You got to hear about the story.
What's the thing to order? Like, if I'm going tonight,
what do you think I should What should I order?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
The quintessential Shaye Jay's night is you come in? There's
Frank Sinatra on the juke box. Summer winds are a
theme song. And you know if you like a wedge
shout or Caesars all the same and then from there,
I would always recommend the filet with kaream of horsehratish
and we have this dessert called the Sticky Toffee pudding
and the night with that sea breeze air coming through
(36:16):
the touchdoor, and then have a good conversation. That's that's key,
you know.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And the bar at the bartender's very good, good good
cocktails there as well. Yeah, Chris Anderson and JJ, thank
you so much for being here. Best of luck with
the future. And like I said, we'll take your call
one hundred and five. Is you're a one five three four,
give us your favorite SHAEJ memory or shay J story,
and I guess we'll open it up too. If you
don't have necessarily a memory about Shaj. What's your favorite
legacy restaurant in southern California? Give your favorite shout out.
(36:45):
Maybe you like the Prince, Maybe you're into Musso and Frank.
Maybe you like Big Dean's that's just up the street
from you, guys, Toota's, Dan Tana's this great rest in peace,
mister d'antanna, that's right, Uh, Casa vega. Who else do
you guys all go and hang out and stuff? I mean,
you and Christy must know each other. Christy Vega, I've
not met it.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Get out of town.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I tell you, I want to give one together.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
That's my goal. It's giving one together, you know, and
just preserve legacy, not just restaurants but businesses in LA
but places where people got together, social clubs, which usually
is a bar, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And do you get the drags DA in all these
different places, it's a great one too. So well, very good, Chris,
thank you for being here. Shaj in Santa Monica at
Route sixty six where it ends. That's the Santa Monica
appear on Ocean. It's kf I AM six forty. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Kf I AM six forty on demand
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
US I AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
It's the ay Reesmeyer Show. Thanks for being with us
on this Sunday, November twenty third. You can always say hello,
we are live everywhere on the iHeart Radio app. You
could give us a call. We're gonna open up the
lines later and talk about some old school restaurants in
(00:39):
southern California. I figured that as we were getting into
the holiday season. Obviously Thanksgiving is coming up. This is
the first show we'll be doing before Thanksgiving, our first
Sunday show, I think, and we will talk about some
comfort food. But we have an incredible guest joining us
in just a little bit, Chris Anderson, the co owner
of the legendary Shaj in Santa Monica. We'll be in
(01:00):
studio with us. We'll talk about owning one of the
most iconic old school restaurants in the city and how
he's doing, how Shayjay is doing, though Santa Monica is
not doing well. Plus Zillo has revised their price forecast
for next year. I'm excited to see what I think
Gonzalez thinks about this of course, she's a real estate expert,
being a realtor. Is your home going to be worth
(01:23):
more next year or is it going to be worth less?
Is it time to bail? And what is a cousin walk?
It is a trend that has kids dipping out to
spend some time in nature with the trees before a
big Thanksgiving meal. We'll get into this, maybe you'll understand
why when your nephews, or your kids, or your teen
(01:48):
age ish young twenties members of the family leave for
a little bit before Thanksgiving meal, why they come back
and they're a lot hungrier. But I want to start
with that news you heard about at the top of
the hour, some terrible news here in Burbank. We got
to pour one out for our boy Spike. He's the
(02:09):
Burbank police canine that was shot and killed last night
by a guy who was pulled over. KTLA's Aaron Myers
was on the scene this morning reporting on what happened.
Here's the backstory.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Please say, during that stop, a passenger fled from the vehicle,
ran up the on ramp, and jumped over the freeway
embankment wall into a residential neighborhood. Officer saying they believe
that passenger may have been armed. Now, additional resources were
brought in to search for the passenger, while other officers
stayed with the driver at the vehicle.
Speaker 4 (02:40):
Now.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
During the search, a police canine and helicopter were used,
with the canine Spike finding the suspect.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Official say the suspect.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Fired multiple shots, striking Spike, then fled the area. Spike
was rushed to an emergency VET but died from his injuries.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Just an awful story. And I know that last night.
I was on my way home from Orange County, real
late at night, coming off the five Freeway, and uh,
my girlfriend and I are just looking at the map
and we're trying to figure out where how we're going
to get back to the valley. And it was a
it was a long trip. I mean it took like
an hour and a half to get home because there
was a crazy accident over in Downy and then as
(03:18):
you got up into La County, you saw that the
five Freeway was shut down, and we're like, what is
that all about? So she gets on on the Coltran's
website and starts to look and see what's going on.
She gets the details and goes to KTLA dot com
and find finds all that yes, indeed, the Spurbank police
canine was shot, and we didn't know at the time
how he was doing. We knew that he was being
(03:39):
rushed to the hospital. I think that they were going
to do surgery on him. And despite that surgery, of course,
the dog, Spike died from his injuries. Burbank Police confirmed
this morning that he didn't make it. And my my girlfriend,
who is a a patient person, I don't know if
I would say that necessarily, but I would say, like
(04:01):
a sweet person, a kind person, obviously loves dogs, but
is not a criminal, is not a wildly aggressive lunatic
without tequila, but looks at this and read the story
and immediately says, I hope they kill this guy. When
(04:22):
she learned that the suspect had shot this police officer dog,
this canine, she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I don't be
to say that, but I and I think that that's
the natural reactions that we care about these dogs so much,
we love these animals, and we just think, you know,
it's a bummer because obviously Spike didn't get to choose
to be involved in this. Spike was identified at some
(04:46):
point that he's gonna be a good police dog. And
this is what Pete will say. They say, like, the
dogs can't consent, so they just have to sort of
deal with whatever happens to them, whatever danger they get
to be put in. And I understand the argument. I mean,
I'm not a peda person, and I think that it's
incredible what these dogs do. And I think it's incredible,
you know, in some situations, obviously they do more than
(05:06):
what a human could do just based on their physiology.
But officers tried to talk to the suspect after the shooting.
They say that he wouldn't surrender. Glendale police and Swatt
moved in overnight. They tried less than lethal rounds and
at around eleven to twenty pm, the suspect started shooting back.
(05:28):
Officers then fired back, killing a suspect. And you know,
the Burbank police does not mess around. They are on it.
You call nine one one, they are there. There are
a lot of them. They have relatively little crime to
deal with, so when they do have it, they are
right there. Spike had just been on the job for
(05:49):
under two years. In a post, they said he was
an intelligent, devoted partner he had a gentle nature off duty,
and he was tenacious while serving. They asked to keep
Ske's handler, his family, and the Burbank PD in your
thoughts and prayers, and like I said, the peed of
people are quick to jump on things like this. They've
called for other departments in the past where situations like
(06:12):
this have unfortunately happened to phase out the use of canines.
But what you would replace them with is not I
don't think we're there yet with the robot dogs for
so many reasons. One, they're incredibly expensive, and I'm not
really sure if I'm ready for the police to have
(06:32):
robot dogs yet. I don't think I need to have
those roman around patrolling. That's the stuff horror movies are
made of, I think, absolutely, But it is It's tough,
you know, because I don't. I think they do a
very specific job that there's not a lot of other
ways to have that job accomplished. They could run far
(06:54):
quicker than a person. They're able to do that take
down you ever see, you ever train, you will go
to those like the canine training. That's that's a good
Like local news story during sweeps, I've covered those. Oh yeah,
did they have they ever you ever get attacked by one?
I did not get attacked. You put you put chicken,
you put the sleeve on or whatever they like give
you like a feeling. I love dogs so much like
(07:18):
if it attacked me like that, my feelings would be heard. Yeah.
You know, one of the things that the Burbank Police
Department asked for people is to of course keep the
the handler of Spikes in your thoughts and prayers. And
you know, these these dogs, they are workers. They are
(07:39):
considered officers. I mean even the Burbank Police and the
in the post about Spikes is and to watch Saturday
November twenty, twenty twenty five. But they're also part of
these officers family. A lot of times they go home
with them and that's their dog, it's their bud, it's
their partner. And the bond that you have with your pet,
(08:03):
it's very similar to the way that they're bond with
their with their working dogs. So you know that the
you know a lot I mean and really like these
dogs are in danger, but I don't think a lot
of times we're not doing stories where they're they're getting
hurt in the line of duty. But I'm sure we
will find out who the handler is. And I can
(08:25):
see Conway doing a thing maybe this week where they
try to send something nice to the handler. I would
I would like to do that. If I had thought
of that earlier, maybe he will do it. I don't
want to take it away from him. So uh, porn
went out for Spike today. Sad, sad. Situation really tough
(08:48):
coming up the Los Angeles Fire Department. There's a little
bit of discrepancy here because the interim chief had claimed
that they had tried to mop up and put out
that Lochlan fire Lockman fire, excuse me, that broke out
in the first of the year this year, the one
that everybody, at least for the most part, is blaming
(09:09):
for then growing into the Palisades Fire about seven days later.
But the LAFD records show that there was no sign
of putting out that fire after it smoldered again, after
it flared up again, as the interim chief had claimed.
We'll get into that. Plus, the first home has finally
been rebuilt after the wildfires. It is Sunday, November twenty third.
(09:35):
We are more than eleven months since that fire. I
think right, more than almost eleven. It's been a long time,
and only one home has been rebuilt. That is insane.
We'll get into that. Plus we'll take your calls. Feel
free to say hi anytime you'd like on the KFI
(09:55):
app on the iHeartRadio app. Rather find KFI and look
a little look for that little microphone where you can
leave a message for us and we'll play it on
the show. Nikki, we got that set up right, that's
ready to go, she says, yes, yeah, yeah, awesome. It's
I AM six forty. I'm Andy Reespeyer. We're live everywhere
on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
I am Andy Reespy. This is KFIAM six forty. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio App. I'm a little tired
last night. I got home very late. I went down
to Orange County to see Andrew mcmannequin. Andrew McMahon play
in a band called Jack's Mannequin. They are a southern
California band. He's from Dana Point, went to Dana Hills
High The band got big in the early two thousands
(10:41):
because of Napster called something Corporate, and so last night
was a bit of a homecoming show for the band
because it was in Anaheim at the House of Blues.
And man, I'll tell you what, there is nothing like
that feeling when you cross over the freeway on the five,
you going down, you cross out of La County into
Orange County and you know you're in Orange care because
(11:02):
it is so smooth. And you know how much it
costs for me to park at that show last night?
Four dollars, four whole dollars to park at a concert
in Los Angeles? Are you kidding me?
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Never?
Speaker 2 (11:18):
And I do love it here. I hope that that
is that's known that I like Los Angeles, I support
LA I'm a transplant, but I've tried to make it
work for me as much as possible. I like it
for what it is. I don't try to make it
into what it's not. You go crazy if you do that.
But man, it was a much easier experience.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
It took me two and a half hours to get
there because the five Freeway was a nightmare. But it
was a great show, very fun to see those songs.
Twenty years ago, a record called Everything in Transit came out.
This is mcmannequin's Andrew McMahon's record's first Jack's Mannequin record,
and it came out like the same week, or at
(12:01):
least it was delivered to the record label the same
week that he was diagnosed with leukemia, and so the label,
I think, thought, I don't know how we're gonna deal
with this while he's getting treatment. So he got treatment,
he got better physically, took him a couple of years,
he says, to get better mentally. But in the years
(12:22):
since twenty years now, he's had other side projects, like
Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness. There's a song called Cecilia
and the Satellite was on the radio a bit. He's
made music and toured kind of a journeyman, you know,
like really gets out there, plays shows thousand, two thousand
and three thousand person crowds, doesn't have a lot of
songs on the radio, but has a really dedicated group
(12:43):
of people who love him, and twenty years later also
started a foundation called deer Jack which helps young people adolescence,
the eighteen to thirty five demo with cancers, which is
a pretty un underfunded group of young people because the
(13:04):
good news is most you know, there's not a high
instance of cancer for people of that age demo. But
he did a great show. It was very fun. And
I got back to LA and I was happy to
be in LA. But I thought, man, it was so
easy to go down on a concert down there. And
speaking of Los Angeles, you might remember during the Palisades Fire,
(13:28):
a lot of conversation about how the Lachman fire, which
happened about a week earlier and was then put out,
eventually reignited and then spread and destroyed some thousands of
homes in the Pacific Palisades Together, thirteen thousand homes were
destroyed in both the Palisades and the Eaton fire. Back
(13:50):
in early January, the LA Times obtained records that call
into question the Los Angeles fired up and statements about
how thoroughly firefighters had put out that Lockman fire in
the days before it reignited into the Palisades fire. Just
back in October, the Time spoke to the interim fire chief,
(14:15):
who has now been replaced by Hime Moore, but the
interim fire chief then was Ronnie Villa Nueva, and he
said that there was an opportunity for firefighters to go
back to the burn area on January third. Remember this
is a couple days after the initial fire was put out,
there was a report of smoke, and he said that
they cold trailed an additional time. They used this word
(14:37):
called cold trailed, which means they used their hands and
feet or hands rather to feel for heat, and they
dig out hotspots. He said, we went back over there again.
We dug it all out again, We put ladders on it.
We did everything we could cold trail again. We did
all of that. Now, this is what he said on
October eighth. Now, the LA Time says, none of that
seems to have happened. A dispatch log that they obtained
(15:00):
shows firefighters arrived at the scene. They reported quickly that
they saw no smoke. They canceled the dispatch for another
engine that was on the way. It took them all
about thirty four minutes. The log does not mention cold trailing,
and as the Time says, it's unclear if Cruz did
anything else during the call because the LAFD won't respond
(15:25):
to them about it. The Times asked the spokesperson, Captain
Eric Scott, three ways, email, text, and in person, but
the agency did not explain the discrepancy. Vinoueva also did
not respond to an email request by the paper. Additionally,
that LAFD after action report, Now this isn't the one
(15:45):
that was ordered by the county that looked in the
Eaten fire. This is the one about the Palisades. It
made only a cursory reference to that Lachlan fire Lockman fire.
They also do not include any reports of smoke from
January third. They don't include a battalion chief's decision to
remove firefighters from the scene a day before, even though
(16:09):
he was warned that there were remaining hotspots and somebody
saw smoke. The president of the Board of Fire Commissioners says,
the after action review is exactly what we asked for.
The review was only supposed to cover the first seventy
two hours after the fire erupted in the Palisades. She says, quote,
it's not an investigation. It should not include things that
(16:30):
the newspaper seems to feel like it should be included. Okay,
there you have that fascinating new chief. I may more
people like him, A lot a lot of the reporters
like him. They said, you know the former PIO for
(16:50):
the Los Angeles Fire Department, which is the public Information officer,
that's the person who you go to on the scene
to try to get information from so then you can
put it in your report. He historically has been very
very good about being transparent, friendly smart. I think the
hope is that we get some kind of clarity on this.
The challenge is that it is a criminal investigation with
(17:14):
this Rendernet guy who set the fire on January first.
And there's a lot writing on this in terms of
the political capital, the responsibility, how much of it goes
to Rendernet for setting the fire, how much of it
is on the fire department for keeping those flames from
(17:36):
becoming another fire a week later. But I got to
give it to the Los Angeles Times here for continuing
to stay on this because, as you know, life goes on,
and I think that the people I'm not saying this
is the situation. I'm saying if you were in a
situation where this looked bad for you, either as a
(17:57):
public official elected or not, you would just hope that
eventually time would go by and people would become preoccupied
with other stuff. But it's good that the Los Angeles
Fire Department is keeping as being you know, the Los
Angeles Times rather is keeping track of all of this. Also,
the first home has been rebuilt after the fires. It
(18:18):
is an ADU. It's say, two bedroom, six hundred and
thirty square foot accessory dwelling unit in Altadena. It has
its certificate of occupancy given on Monday. It actually was
not replacing a home that burned. It replaced a garage
that burned. The primary house on the lot was not
damaged in that fire. Slow, slow build homes are springing
(18:45):
up all over Altadena. In the Palisades. Multiple projects, including
rebuilds of destroyed homes, though, are expected to be finished
in the coming weeks. So at least that that is
good some families maybe getting back into their homes for
the holidays coming up. We're talking to Chris Anderson, the
co owner of the legendary shayj in Santa Monica that
(19:06):
celebrated its sixty sixth anniversary in business. We're gonna ask
him how things are going, even though Santa Monica is
a tough place to be these days, especially for businesses.
I'm Andy Reesmeyer. This is the Andy Reespier Show.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
This is the Andy Reestmeier Show on this Sunday, November
twenty third, just past two thirty. I hope you're having
a nice weekend. Chargers have a bye week this week.
That's kind of exciting for me, I guess because I
can't be disappointed. They've been really good. No, they've been good.
It's much better than the UCLA shutouts that we've had
UCLA football last two weeks. It's been kind of tough.
(19:45):
Rams are playing the night though, Mario, you're gonna go.
You excited?
Speaker 4 (19:50):
I am excited, but no, I won't be there in person,
but I'm definitely tuning in tonight.
Speaker 2 (19:53):
Yes, sir, who are they playing? Buccaneers? Very good? Well,
I think you'll you'll have a nice night. Oh there
the other I like Baker Mayfield too, so it'll be
a good game. Yeah, it'll be fun. One to also
remind you that the fifteenth annual KFI Pastathon is here.
Chef Bruno's charity, the Katerina's Club, provides more than twenty
five thousand meals every week to kids in need in
(20:15):
southern California, and the reason is because of you. You
and Michelle Q. Michelle who works at the station, who's
worked at the station for twenty I don't want to
date her, but I think thirty years. Maybe she's been
here for a long time. She's kind of the grand Puba,
as they say, and she puts all of this together
(20:38):
every year. We are doing a live broadcast giving Tuesday,
December second, five am to eight pm at the Anaheim
White House. That's eighty eight seven South Anaheim Boulevard. You
can of course come join us there anytime between five
am and eight pm. We'll be raising money to feed kids.
(20:59):
You can also donate any time at KFI AM six
forty dot com, slash pastathon or find pasta and sauce
drop drop off locations. You can go to any Smart
and Final donate any amount at checkout, even in Arizona
and Nevada. So if you're heading out there to Phoenix
get a little sun, maybe heading out to gamble in Nevada,
stop at a Smart and Final. Instead of putting your
(21:20):
money towards Steve Win, put it towards helping kids. You
can also go to any Wendy's restaurant in so Cal
or the Yamava Resort and Casino. When you cash your
winning ticket at the kiosk, it'll ask you if you
want to donate your change. You can say yes, then
pick Catarinas Club from the options that pop up, and
of course tomorrow you can bid on exclusive auction items
(21:40):
at KFI AM six forty dot com slash auctions. Did
you know about this? I didn't know that we had
an auction coming. I wonder what's gonna be on there.
I know you're gonna you can you can talk to
I think Wendy. I think doctor Wendy Walsh will do
a second with you. I'm not They didn't ask me
(22:02):
to do anything, so maybe I can bid. I don't know.
Fastathon next Tuesday. Awesome in studio now with Chris Anderson.
Thanks for being here today. You are the co owner
of shay J You and your dad. How long have
you been the the owners there of that iconic restaurant
(22:26):
in Santa Monica.
Speaker 5 (22:29):
My dad got there in the perola.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
Let me move that microphone up towards your face a
little bit more. There you go? Is it on?
Speaker 5 (22:35):
We got his mic on?
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Let's hear you?
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Now?
Speaker 5 (22:39):
Do you hear him? Mario?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
I here's somebody else, let's see, yeah, he's there. Here's there.
Minds off? Now, let's see you gotta try it again.
I hear a different studio. I here's somebody else in
another studio. Well, we will figure it out. Just you
want to hit that on button there, you already got it,
(23:04):
go ahead right now. I hear somebody else. Okay, all right,
well I'll tell you what. We will talk to Chris
in just a minute. We'll figure out whatever tech issues
we're having here right now. But of course Thanksgivings coming
up soon. The Thanksgiving travel rush is under you know here.
Speaker 4 (23:18):
At LAX, the holiday travel rush has begun. Family is
getting ready to head out of town, like the Pridge
and family here who we've been talking to this morning.
Thank you guys so much for joining us. Tell us
about how your Thanksgiving travel experience has been so far
and where you're headed for Thanksgiving.
Speaker 7 (23:34):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Everything has been smooth so far.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
This morning.
Speaker 7 (23:38):
We did leave pretty early, a few hours early, and
we caught an uberla you're.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Going where fla dah oh wow. Pretty excited about that trip.
Speaker 7 (23:48):
We are so excited we're going to see our family.
Speaker 5 (23:50):
So awesome, awesome.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
You know they say tickets are more expensive this year.
Did you guys experience that They're about seven hundred dollars
on average for a round trip ticket.
Speaker 7 (24:01):
Prices are going up. I think we bought these pretty early,
so it was okay, it was still pretty reasonable.
Speaker 5 (24:07):
Awesome.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
Thank you guys so much. I'm not going to keep
you too long. Really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1 (24:11):
Dad.
Speaker 5 (24:11):
You having a good experience here today.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
So far, so good. Yeah, thank you so much. Really
appreciate it. Save travels, Happy holidays to you. Want to
show you this video while things are smooth here right now,
that was not the case just a day ago. To
talk on videos showing here as some folks had to
experience that stand still traffic here at the Horseshoe, people
grabbing their bags walking to the terminal instead of waiting
(24:34):
in gridlock traffic. Again here at LAX are expecting about
two and a half million travelers through December first.
Speaker 5 (24:41):
The single busiest.
Speaker 4 (24:42):
Day is expected to be next Sunday, November thirtieth, with
more than two hundred and thirty thousand people expected to.
Speaker 5 (24:48):
Move through these terminals.
Speaker 4 (24:50):
To keep things moving, they of course tell you to
come here at least two hours early for domestic flights,
three hours for international flights. A nation triple A projecting
about six million people will be traveling.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Through That is so many people do not want to
deal with that. All right, coming up, we are going
to I hope talk to Chris Anderson. Can we check
that Mike one more time? Hit that on button? All right,
go ahead, how's it going? Hey, we got him just
the time to go to the news. I'll tell you
what if you can stick around through the commercial break.
When we come back, we'll talk about shay j sixty
(25:26):
six years of service to the Santa Monica community at
the end of Route sixty six. How exciting sounds great,
that's all coming up on the Andy Reestmeier Show. It's
caf I AM six forty. We're live everywhere on the
iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Joining me in studio with a working microphone. It's Chris
Anderson from shay J. Good afternoon, Thanks for being here, man,
Thanks for the invite. Sixty six years of Shaye J.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Yeah, that's older than you are. Yeah, absolutely, But your
dad has been involved. You and your dad are the
co owners. Yes, your dad has been involved since the seventies.
Speaker 6 (26:07):
Yeah, he got there in the late seventies. One day
he just wanted to leave Connecticut. Then, like the cold,
drove across country in a bel air kind of like
the movie style no Way, and landed in La. Was
supposed to go to San Francisco. I forget the reason
why he stayed here, but enjoyed La and just got
some odd jobs here there, and then became a manager
(26:29):
at some local bars and one place was called the
Basement in Marine Delray, and then he would frequent Shay
Jay's and one night Jade, Hey, you want to take
the keys and run the place? That was in the
seventies and whatever happened to Jay? So Jay state he
passed away in two thousand and eight. Wow, so that's
kind of recent. Yeah, but he was he you know,
(26:53):
bigger than life kind of character, and he wanted to
be an actor, so he used if you read the
old stories, he used shy J's as a place to
entertain a lot of people. And and so he would
have musicians come, jazz bands, the early English actors would
come in in a place of like the Hollywood actors
could hang out and just relax and built on itself
(27:15):
from there.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
If you haven't been, which I don't know if that's possible,
because I think shj is up there with Musso and
Frank with the Smokehouse with I mean, it's a very
short list of places that are that iconic. They've stood
the test of time in LA which is no small
(27:36):
feat in the restaurant industry, which has never been harder.
And they also have a sense of respect for the originality.
What have you guys tried to do to make sure
that Obviously you're changing with the times you take credit cards, yeah, right,
but you know the place itself still feels like it
(27:58):
did way back when you're popped in.
Speaker 5 (28:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
Well, first of all, my favorite restaurant in town is
Musso and Franks. Yeah, I love going there just because
I like that style, the old school, the heritage brand.
But you know, in the early days, I think they
were more concerned about just having fun, and it was
a time in LA where, you know, there wasn't as
many things going on. People could let lose, have fun,
tell some stories, do something they talk about the next
(28:25):
day or maybe years later. And so from there it's
beginning emfansy stages. It just built on itself. Yeah, and
then once became a brand after you know, the third
or fourth decade. Oh, this is something to preserve, right,
and we just really didn't fall the narrative. We just
we just wanted to be a place where people can
(28:46):
hang out, have fun, leave your ego at the door,
and in amongst During that journey, we just so many
stories were created and then it just became something to preserve.
And in two thousand and I think it was eleven
ten or eleven, they of landmarking the building anyway cool
and so that kind of just codified that brand of
(29:06):
you know, we're here. I always call it kind of
like a mini museum where to preserve maybe what your
parents experienced in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Well, and you think about Santa Monica and how it
for a long time was when I first moved to
LA I went to Santa Monica College in the early
twenty tens, and yeah, and we were right down the
street and it was kind of like the California dream
at that point. And I think it was sort of
like right before things started to get really weird. And
(29:34):
I remember it being a really good mix of the
new and old, but it really was new, Like a
lot of the building's Third Street promenade, A lot of
that obviously is not the way Santa Monica Monica always
was and the evolution of the city, you know, which
I think is great in a lot of ways, during
that time kind of took a turn. We've seen over
(29:56):
the last eight or nine years, crime way up, uh,
business vacancies way up, blue played oyster at your neighbor
just up the street. I thought they were never going
to close. They said, look, we can't do this anymore
because I mean, the promenade is not a sliver of
what it used to be. Yeah, how do you like?
(30:19):
How do you keep And every time I've been to
Shae j it's always popping, which which I think. You know,
do you feel like you're sort of isolated from all
the craziness or does that has that affected you? Guys?
Speaker 6 (30:30):
I always kind of go back to what are your
control controllables? Yeah, and what can you not can control?
I can't move Shaye Jay's right, nor did I want to, right.
But you know, there has been a change in Santa Monica.
I hope this is just kind of a down down
period and we're able to figure it out and move
in the right direction. My dad, when he moved there,
(30:51):
he always called Santa Monica the sandy little beach town,
and it was just so cool because people would hang
out there, come to the beach, relax and enjoy the
senior and activities there. And in terms of Shayj's, we've
just focused on we seem to always attract great people
and customers and patrons, and you know, we want to
(31:13):
be a place where conversation is still rich. You know,
phones are not out. It's a small shotgun room kind
of style, and the bar is small and everyone's kind
of squeezed together. And I believe if we maintained that,
we will always attract the individuals that you know, that
we're looking for and that want to have a good
time and are not concerned, are not participating in the
(31:36):
things that we're not happy about.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
Talking right now with Chris Anderson, who's the co owner
of SHAJ with his with his dad, you guys have
been in this family business for a long time. How
how involved is dad still in the.
Speaker 6 (31:48):
Day to day We call him the mascot. Now, you know,
a class of Chara here there and walks around.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Oh that's why you bought it. You know, that's how
you want to be. But do you do you ever
have instances with him where you want to do it
this way and he wants to do it the other way, or.
Speaker 6 (32:04):
Oh, I mean not anymore. When I first came back
in twenty eighteen, it was like that, you know, of
course he's been there for so long.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
So did you like want to put some big flat
screens on every single TV or every single table or raither.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
No.
Speaker 6 (32:16):
I was very careful to not change. I mean, it's
funny when people say you should, you should, you should,
and I say, hey, you know, we're the zero point
five percent of a business that've lasted. I think we're
doing things the right way, and so I don't want
to change that too much because that's what our brand is.
Speaker 2 (32:34):
Do you do you think that California or the city
of Santa Monica is doing enough to support local businesses.
It's a big question, U sounds like the answers.
Speaker 6 (32:45):
No. I mean we have a great relationship with the
city and we've really tried. Like wed we held that
sixty six Anna version.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
Yeah, which was by the way I got to go
it was my birthday. Was like, it was so fun Yeah,
I it was so serendipitous and it was such an
exciting thing, and congratulations on sixty six years. First of all,
it's a crazy thing to do sixty six years of anything,
but it was. It was packed and had so many people.
They are telling stories about their old times at Shaj
and their memories that they've had, of course, and I think,
(33:13):
what I want to do, actually, Nikki, if we can
do this, let's open up the phone lines. Give us
a call one hundred five to zero one five three four,
one in hundred five two zero one KFI. Tell us
your shay J story one in hundred five to zero
one five three four And if you don't have a
Shaj story, make one up. Go tonight, get yourself a
(33:34):
shay J. Still sorry, go ahead. You said you have
a great relationship with the city, and you did the
sixty sixth anniversary.
Speaker 6 (33:40):
Yeah, so we want to do the sixty fifth, and
we ran out of time. So someone came up and said, hey,
why don't you do the sixty six? They rid sixty
six ended right there, and I wanted to kind of
pay homage to the people that have worked their customers
and my dad and so. But part of that is
it feels like Santa Monica has been in a funk.
There's not a lot of exciting things going on. Events,
(34:01):
they're trying to revitalize that. So I thought if we
could do something that I mean, I think we had
like thirteen hundred people show up, and so if we
could do something that kind of gets some excitement in
the city. That was one of my big goals for
this event. And I think we can turn it around
because we have the geography, location, it's a pretty city.
(34:21):
We can easily fix it. The infrastructure is there.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
There's no reason Santa Monica should not be exceeding in
every possible way. Should be the top of the list.
It has everything going for it. It's got history, it's
got the views, it's got the weather. We were talking
about this before. You know how it's good that the
La Times is keeping people accountable in local government as
(34:44):
far as it comes to the fire. You know, they're
staying on it because a lot of us we just
sort of get into the day to day and we
forget about all this stuff. And I think you had
an incredible observation which I am going to steal, but
you say it might be the fault of the weather. Yeah,
the weather curse.
Speaker 5 (35:00):
Right.
Speaker 6 (35:01):
You know, we get upset about something for about ten
to fifteen days and then you see that sunset or
that perfect you know, climb in and that air is
just you start forgetting about it, which you know it's
it's not great, but we need we should fix things.
We should, you know, focus on making sure that the
streets are safe, yeah, clean, and all the businesses will
(35:23):
come back.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
It'll thrive naturally once you have that. Well, I appreciate
you for being here. We were talking with Chris Anderson,
who is the co owner of SHAJ the Legendary. I
wouldn't call it a dive. It's a dive in high
class dives. High class dives, is that's what you're calling Yeah,
or a joint. It's got the soul of a dive,
but it's you know, obviously still have an A grade
(35:46):
on the wall. Yeah, we have the we have the history.
We have cool stories. You got to hear about the story.
What's the thing to order? Like, if I'm going tonight,
what do you think I should What should I order?
Speaker 6 (35:54):
The quintessential Shaye Jay's night is you come in? There's
Frank Sinatra on the juke box. Summer winds are a
theme song. And you know if you like a wedge
shout or Caesars all the same and then from there,
I would always recommend the filet with kaream of horsehratish
and we have this dessert called the Sticky Toffee pudding
and the night with that sea breeze air coming through
(36:16):
the touchdoor, and then have a good conversation. That's that's key,
you know.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
And the bar at the bartender's very good, good good
cocktails there as well. Yeah, Chris Anderson and JJ, thank
you so much for being here. Best of luck with
the future. And like I said, we'll take your call
one hundred and five. Is you're a one five three four,
give us your favorite SHAEJ memory or shay J story,
and I guess we'll open it up too. If you
don't have necessarily a memory about Shaj. What's your favorite
legacy restaurant in southern California? Give your favorite shout out.
(36:45):
Maybe you like the Prince, Maybe you're into Musso and Frank.
Maybe you like Big Dean's that's just up the street
from you, guys, Toota's, Dan Tana's this great rest in peace,
mister d'antanna, that's right, Uh, Casa vega. Who else do
you guys all go and hang out and stuff? I mean,
you and Christy must know each other. Christy Vega, I've
not met it.
Speaker 5 (37:06):
Get out of town.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
I tell you, I want to give one together.
Speaker 6 (37:09):
That's my goal. It's giving one together, you know, and
just preserve legacy, not just restaurants but businesses in LA
but places where people got together, social clubs, which usually
is a bar, right yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
And do you get the drags DA in all these
different places, it's a great one too. So well, very good, Chris,
thank you for being here. Shaj in Santa Monica at
Route sixty six where it ends. That's the Santa Monica
appear on Ocean. It's kf I AM six forty. We're
live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Kf I AM six forty on demand
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