@ForkReporter | Hour 2

OC Restaurant Week – Descano Restaurant / Rob Arellano / Chris Modelwell


California Restuarant Pay

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, it's Neil Savedra. You'relistening to kfi EM six forty the fore
Purport on demand on the iHeartRadio app. Hey everybody, it's the Fork Report,
all Things Food, beverage and beyond. I am your well fed host,
Neil Savedra. How do you do? Thanks for hanging out today.

(00:20):
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now I am proud to talk about. Please check out their website Zelman's Z
E L M I NS dot comand when you a purchase, use Fork

(00:43):
twenty five in the checkout. Thegreat thing is you will get twenty five
percent off. They don't do this. It's for a limited time through the
end of tomorrow night, so throughSunday night. Get on it now.
I highly encourage you to it.They are wonderful. They don't only mask,
you know, the smells or takecare of the smells in your mouth.

(01:06):
You swallow the capsule after you suckoff all that great mint coating,
and then it goes to work onyour stomach in your belle. You know
you're not just going to put perfumeon the front of the cave. You
got to get in the back whereit stinks. All right. So Orange
County Restaurant Week is coming up,and we've got our friends from Desconso Restaurant,

(01:33):
rob Ariano, who's been on theshow many many times before. And
Chris, what's your last name,Mottowatowel. Mottowel. Yes, that that's
like a cool name. I'm I'mthat's a bartender's name right now. I
am Chris Mote. Well, youhave offended me and now you must die.

(01:55):
So you're in charge of the tailprogram there at Disconso. Uh Disconso,
Discanoisconzo? Sorry discon So. Yeah, I want to say garden and
then uh you forget it? Yeah, and uh so you are participating in

(02:16):
Orange County Restaurant Week and part ofthat, as we know, is not
just food anymore, because you haveto have a great cocktail program to go
along with it. And how doyou like the vibe of the food,
how do you mix? Are youplaying off the food? Are you coming
up with something else? And thenthe you're working with the back of the

(02:39):
house to find out what works ortypically like we start we start with,
we start with all the fresh ingredientsthat they use from with all the that
they get every day. So basicallythey beat fresh lime, fresh chili's,
fresh everything brought in every single day. We kind of try to tie all
of our drinks into the flavors thatwe are using in the in the actual

(03:00):
food. So we do use alot of like Serrano pepper's. We're gonna
do something a little bit like thattoday. A lot of our chicken and
a lot of other stuff is donewith like achiote, which is like a
seed from a tree in Central Mexicothat they like to use as a spice.
It has a little bit of likespice, a little sweetness to it.
We like to use that in likesyrups, a little bit of fig
and some other stuff. So wetry to tie all of our drinks into

(03:22):
the flavor profiles that we're already goingfor with all the food. So it's
gonna have a little bit of heat, a little bit of spice, a
little bit of sweet to kind ofblend all everything in and make like a
nice, great Kraft cocktail for you. So does that come about as far
as a favor flavor profile, Thelack of a better example, like a
peppercorn more than for instance, capsaicinor something. Yes, it's gonna be

(03:46):
more of a peppercorn with a littlebit of sweet heat to it. Yeah.
Just wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's cool. And how are
things going, Rob, how's theplace doing? Things are great? Things
are going so well. We're actuallylooking to expand up into to the great
city of Los Angeles. Oh,please do summer. Yeah, we're planning
to open off a bullsher this summer. So things are going great. That'll
be store number two. That isawesome. Let us know, absolutely,

(04:11):
let us know. And if there'sanything we can do, you know,
we're here and we'll put something together. And uh, if it's even possible
to broadcast from there on a Saturdaor something, we'll do it. Oh
that'd be You know. I loveyour food and you're a great guy,
and I whenever I send anybody there, they always love it. So it's
very easy to well, you know, we still get people that come in

(04:31):
and ask us, I want whatNeil had that one day. Oh my
god, it really is. Youput it on the map. It really
is fantastic. It's oh my gosh, it's so good. And I get
cravings for it, you know.But I live in La so I don't
always get down to O Si.But well, soon enough you won't have
to go down to O s youknow. I just want to say this

(04:54):
to the audience. Prayers work,Prayers work. Okay, here Lord,
please bring the restaurants to me.Thank Prayers work all right, Stick around,
we'll come back more. We'll tellyou about what's going on with Restaurant
Week Orange County Restaurant Week as well. So go nowhere right now. You're
listening to the Fork Report with NilSavedra on demand from KFI Am six forty.

(05:20):
I am your well fed host,Neil Savedra. How do you do
OC Restaurant Week twenty twenty four,Live, happy, and dine out.
That's pretty much my motto on thedaily March third through the ninth. So
much going on, massive amounts ofrestaurants, looking over all of them now

(05:42):
just some of the best restaurants inOrange County. A great focus on Santa
Ana as well, which is wonderful. It is rich with a lot of
fantastic flavor and culture there. Sogive your eyes upon that. You can
go to Ocrestaurantweek dot com restaurantweek dotcom. And you know, as we

(06:02):
sit here and hang out and talkabout cocktails and stuff with the Discano Restaurant
and rob Ariano, you've been onthe show. I'm countless times I can't
even count. Yes, Yeah,I appreciate that. Yeah, so good
chats. Yeah, definitely. Welove talking food and what you guys are

(06:23):
doing there. It's not only greatfood, but it's a special environment and
vibe. Absolutely, And I highlyrecommend that you've brought Chris modelwell today and
he's got two cocktails in front ofme, soon to be empty glasses if
I do it right. So,and these are all part of Restaurant Week.
Not only do you have a greatbrunch menu and dinner menu and all

(06:46):
of these things with multiple courses,we're focusing on the cocktail portion of the
program that you have. You havethe Mango forty three, You have the
bad ombre and uh the what isit? Oh? Look at you stop
it with your accent? My whyRequeah? I'm Mexican. My wife always

(07:14):
goes God. Every time he's tryingto speak Spanish, it sounds Italian.
Okay, So what are the onesthat I have in front of me.
You have this rais a arth theyin front of you. Yeah, that's
this one here or this one thatis going to be the coop glass,
which is the one that is upwith there? And that what a coop
glass there? You go knock itoff. Fancy thing. I gotta go
for it. Yeah, it's nota Nick and Nora. And you want

(07:35):
to do you want to quiz me? Now? Okay, this I will
tell you this is so lovely.That just just the aroma that comes off
the top of this. So whydon't you break down some of those flavors
for us. So basically, it'san aromatic style cocktail. We start off

(07:56):
with a with a space side rum. It's gonna be a little bit of
an overproof rum. It's gonna havea little bit of a like a sherry
like space I cast that they usein scotches, Holy smokes. That's good,
slightly caremly. It has this wonderfulroundness to it. Of course is
an aromatic. It doesn't have citrus. It is really booze and booze and

(08:18):
booze, and it's but in alovely way. This is very well stacked.
Yeah, with an aromatic cocktail,you want to start with that full
overproof booze because that's the majority ofwhat you're going to be using. After
that, it's just the syrups,which is like I said, we did
a blend of the achiote, whichis something that we used to see in
a lot of our food and fromCentral Mexico. We made that blended that

(08:39):
with a little bit of brown sugarand fig as the sweetener. That is
amazing, by the way that isit is different, It is lovely,
and it enhances and bounces with thatwhiskey. So nice. That is you.
That's very special. You should beproud of that. Definitely, Thank
you, appreciate it. Keep talking. I'm drinking. Hmmm, man,

(09:03):
that really is good, Tayla,thank you. Fly she okay. Chris.
Chris is like a chemist. Youget him, you get him behind
the bar and he's just playing withflavors left and right, and that's what
comes out. It is very easywith those specs to go heavy on the
sweetness and break the sophistication of thatdream. It's very easy to go over

(09:26):
on the booze and make it morebitter. That is very well balanced,
excellent, and it's a sexy scolor too. That is just so wonderful
and warm. I love that yousay well balanced, because I'm tone.
That's our big buzzword where we comeup with cocktails. I can't tell you
how many times we use that wordand trying to trying to get it to
that you know, perfect and thengetting it poured that way every single time.

(09:48):
That's always the fun challenge of arestaurant. You don't want to suck
back something and go gosh, it'smissing something or it's too heavy on this.
Oh yeah, now this one,this has uh, you know,
great citrusy notes just from smelling itand uh has it's gorgeous to look at.
So talk about this here. Thisone is our bad ombre cocktail.
At Wisconsin, we like to startwith the spirit, so we definitely chose

(10:11):
a quality spirit in the Herodera Repisodowhoa, yeah, which is gonna have
a little bit of like that oakinessto it. It is age for a
little over three months. Wow,and that heat is lovely. It goes
over the soft palate and on thesides of the tongue, gives you just
that little bite, but it doeshave this nice sweetness to the beginning.
You definitely got to balance the heatwith the sweet It can't just be all

(10:33):
spice. So that's why we dothe salt and pepper rim on it.
So the salt and pepper definitely balancesout the sweetness and the spice. When
you drink them all together, itkind of gives your palate a little more
of a god damn yeah, excellent. It kind of hits all all those
sensations on your tongue as you doit with the salt and pepper. Chris,
you should be very proud. Thatis lovely and you can even see

(10:54):
that, you know, the seedsfrom the have apenos, the fresh halpanos
floating in there, and that heaton the lips that is sexy as hell.
That is really lovely in the heavyuh you know, like blown style
glass with the blue rim on thatKayla, take a pop of that.

(11:18):
Well, gentlemen, I know itgoes by quickly, and I know that
you guys take time out of theday when you're gonna be rushing back of
course for evening service and the like. Thanks for coming in. If you
guys get a chance, give thewebsite out please sure it's a disconso restaurant
dot com or in Coasta Mesa andyeah, come visit us. Restaurant Weeks

(11:43):
one of our favorite weeks because weget to showcase a lot of our great
new menu items to a lot ofnew customers. And you know, had
a great deal because that's what restaurantWeeks about. Disconso restaurant. Disconso restaurant.
I've been mispronouncing and everything, andI figured out why because I typed
it wrong on my notes and sowhen I'm lasting at it and I'm dropping

(12:05):
it, so I apologize to that. It's not the first time that's happened.
Well, I know, but Iknow I expect more from me.
I was, yeah, freaking forkreporter, man, but this this is
really fantastic. It's always good tosee you, Rob. Thanks for coming
out and I wish you nothing butthe best. And you are one of
the reasons that every time I seeyou go, God, I gotta get

(12:28):
out to oors anymore. I can'twait for you to come in to LA.
We'll be talking about when that aswe get closer the summer. Absolutely,
that is awesome. Congratulations on allthe success. Thank you, thanks
so much for coming in. Chris. Those were fantastic. It is the
Fork Report. I'm Neil Savadra KFIAM six forty. You're listening to the
Fork Report with Nil Savedra on demandfrom KFI AM six forty. Hey,

(12:52):
everybody, it's the Fork Report,all things food, beverage and beyond.
I'm your well fed host, NeilSavadra. How do you do if you
haven't heard enough of me this week? Guess what You're gonna get an extra
scoop of me tomorrow two to fourhere on KFI on Sunday, that's manyana

(13:13):
As. I will be filling inwith my friend Marla Marla Teas there from
Fox eleven News here in Los Angeles, and we'll be hanging out from two
to four. Please join us there, won't you? And then today,
of course after the program at fiveyou will have Tallas Sharp and so Cal
Saturdays. And then after that,of course Unsolved with Steve Gregory. So

(13:37):
go nowhere, okay, Ocrestaurantweek dotcom. Ocrestaurantweek dot Com. I wanted
to make sure that I gave youall the specs for that, because again,
not only are you going out andeating and right now that's imperative,
it really is, because the isyour mic on what you gonna really breathe

(14:01):
into the mic like that. Iwas wondering who was breathing and you're looking
for a man. I didn't knowmy microphone was on. As you know,
I am going through it because I'vehad too many cocktails last night.
And that's how I am surviving bybreathing heavily. What do you think about
the cocktails today? They were sogood? It was very good. I
really like the spicy margarita. Itwas perfect balance. They actually dumped them.

(14:24):
Thank you all for thinking of butthey were tasty. Leg Thank you
for telling me. I can assureyou. You know, I told I
told Kayla, will you please makesure that Layla gets some. He did
not say that. He said,Kayla, take it to the head,
Take it to the head, Gogo go. That's the matter with party.

(14:45):
Uh. They those drinks were really, really delicious. So anyways,
Disconso was in here at Disconso's restaurantand they're in Orange County, and I
really dig the vibe they create.Their Rob's a great guy to meet,
Chris who oversees the cocktail program,and those are really fun drinks but well

(15:07):
thought out and balance. So OsrestaurantweekDot com is where you want to go,
live, happy and die out Marchthird through the ninth, so that's
coming up soon. And really youcan basically plan an entire week of eating
if you want, and drinking.So not only do they have stuff for

(15:31):
lunch or brunch or dinner, theyhave cocktails. If you're a wine lover,
they have different menus for you.There's special events with cocktails. There's
date night during restaurant Week, whichis super cool, so you take your
lady or your man and enjoy yourself. Go out and enjoy yourself. There's
even breakdown of locations Irvine Spectrum Center, Fashion Island, the Marketplace, the

(15:56):
district at Tustin Legacy, different placeswhere you can go if you're looking for
vegetarian dining, if you're looking fora passport to World of Flavor, family
dining. During restaurant Week, theybreak it down. It's about as easy
as you can get to understand what'sgoing on and where it's happening. You

(16:18):
can see all the restaurants, clickingon restaurants and break down some of our
favorites, including our our buddies thereBruno, Bruno, come you have some
pasta good? I love pa mywhole life. I love GOODTL children,
I love everybody eating the pasta,drinking the pasta, feeding holes in the

(16:41):
wall with pasta. Is Spaco everything. I use it for clean everything.
Pasta so there at Anaheim, Ijust like I love Bruno so much.
It's always fun. So at AheimWhite House. You can go there on
Key Beasts Trow so many great places. Avi Lazell, Ranchito, Oh man,

(17:06):
what a what a list, BodegaLaguna, I just want to make
sure. I mean, there's somany hitting them up. Of course,
our friends at Chela's Mexican Kitchen justreally really great stuff. And what a

(17:27):
what a list? Wow, whata list. It seems like it gets
longer and longer every single year.Gus Guss World Famous Fried Chicken, of
course, really really wonderful. Havanathere in Costa, Mesa and Irvine.
Really just tons of stuff. Youreally want to just go and check us

(17:48):
out because I'm gonna miss tons ofplaces that I love and they're gonna say,
hey, why'd you miss us?And I'm not on pur purpose.
Just a lot to get to andthere's so many, so check it out.
Ocrestaurantweek dot com. You can goto the restaurant see that, and
you can go to the pages thatshow you, you know, how you
want to celebrate, so date night, wine lovers, cocktails, the luxe

(18:12):
Restaurant Week, which is you know, a little pricier, but you can
save some money and you can putmoney in the pockets. Really, they're
not making a whole lot, ifanything, at the restaurant level. It's
really kind of a lost leader toget you in and enjoy it and check
them out and see what they haveto offer. But it's a great way

(18:32):
to get to know the OC RestaurantWeek folks and participants, and also,
you know, check out places maybeI haven't checked before. Santa Ana has
a lot of places participating and theyreally have wonderful food out there. And
I don't always think that people thinkit's the food destination that it is because
it's a little more spread out.But please check these places all out.

(18:55):
There's a lot of people that areparticipating and doing really really great things.
All right, Okay, there isthere is your orders, your marching orders.
You're listening to the Fork Report withNil Savedra on demand from KFI AM
six forty. Hey, everybody,it's the Fork Report. I'm Neil Savedra.

(19:15):
Thanks for hanging out today talking food, shaking off the heaviness of the
week. A lot going on inthe world, so this is a place
for us to talk about food andcocktails and all of that. In addition
to OC Restaurant Week starting in March, we have about four more days left

(19:36):
of dine Out Long Beach, sowe're gonna have my friend Elizabeth Borstin,
she does the pr for them.She's gonna come in. We'll talk some
of the food, some of thethings going on with that. So if
you're in the LBC that you canstill get out support these restaurants. It
is very important and a huge partthat drives the economy locally. I've said

(20:00):
it a thousand times before and Iwill keep saying it. A story came
out from the San Francisco Chronicle sayingthat restaurants, you know, they got
to cut jobs. Now, theygot to raise prices because this new California
law. And if you hadn't heard, and I'm pretty sure you have,
that this is a law that wasfocused on pay. It's known as the

(20:26):
Fast Act or AB twelve twenty eight, brought to you by Assembly Member Chris
Holden, Democrat of Pasadena. ThanksChris, to raise the hourly wage to
twenty dollars in April. It's fourdollars above California's general minimum wage. That

(20:48):
could be for as many as halfa million workers at fast food chains with
at least sixty outlets nationwide. Sohere's the Chris, God bless you.
Yes, people need raises, peopleneed career paths, all of those things.
And I'm I do not have aproblem with people making a living wage

(21:12):
for a job that they should bemaking a living wage. I don't think
every job should be a living wage. I did plenty of jobs growing up
that weren't a living wage, andthat's part of the process. But the
weird thing here, and I'm notgoing to say it's sneaky, but you've
got this story in San Francisco Chroniclethat is really kind of going and talking

(21:37):
to these financial experts and saying,well, it'll only be a four point
four percent raise, you know,in price or costs here, and that
companies should just eat it. Theyshouldn't even have to pass it along to
you all these things. They're companies, they're here to make money. Companies
don't like to go backwards. Youknow, I'm sure when politicians are raising

(22:00):
money, they don't want to raiseless than they did last time they were
running for office. But here's whereit becomes more than just those places.
So when you look at that category, that this is only going to affect
the minimum wage for as many asfive hundred thousand workers at fast food chains

(22:21):
with at least sixty outlets nationwide iscrap. That is not honest. You
know why, it will affect everyone. And the way I feel is they're
slipping this under Rather than saying we'regoing to boost it a twenty dollars an
hour minimum rage wage across the board, which people would freak out on,

(22:41):
they slip it under the radar bysaying it's only going to affect this many
workers at fast food chains with atleast sixty outlets nationwide. That's not true.
I've been in management for a longtime. I've managed, you know,
at different companies. Employees ease,and I will tell you that if

(23:03):
one place raises their minimum wage totwenty, that's everybody, because you're going
to go and try and hire andthey're going to say, why would I
come to your restaurant? For youknow, sixteen seventy four, when I
can go to this place and gettwenty dollars. Now that restaurant, the

(23:27):
mom and pop restaurant that isn't aplace that has isn't a chain that doesn't
have sixty outlets nationwide, has tomeet that to be in the same market.
So now they're to be able toget anybody to work with them,
which is hard enough as it is. They got to match that. So

(23:52):
don't pretend like it's all, oh, we're hitting the chains and the carpet
people. You're not. You're goingto hit every single mom and pop shop.
It won't even affect just restaurants becauseeverybody is going to have to fight
against that. Now, do peopledeserve more money, Yeah, that's arguable

(24:14):
in many circumstances, but not everycircumstance. If you're not in management and
you're at a fast food place andyou're trying to make a living wage there,
good luck. The whole system isbuilt around quick serve, inexpensive food.

(24:34):
McDonald's is already having to back wayback on their prices because of pushback.
They are losing money because the peoplethat would go there that are on
a budget are no longer going there. So now you have lower income people,
often in economically stressed environments and partsof the country and in our case

(25:00):
in the state, that are gettinghit by that, and that affects them
and their families. So it willchange way more than they are saying.
And I feel like it's an underhandedway of getting it passed for across the
board and staying instead of being honestsaying, yeah, this is what we
want to do across the board.You do it in one part and then

(25:25):
everybody else will have to meet that, and it's like doing it across the
board to everybody else. It's notgoing to just affect corporate places with sixty
outlets. So be aware that thisstuff is on the rise, and it's
going to hurt those very people thatare getting extra money because they're going to
have to use that extra money whenthey go out. Now for everybody else
who's having to raise those their payas well, there's got to be a

(25:49):
better way than this and a lesssneaky way, just my point of view.
You've been listening to the forker Port. You can always hear us live
on KFI AM six forty two tofive pm on Saturday, and anytime on
demand on the iHeartRadio app.