Latest / Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals / Black Fridays Special - Inside Detroit’s Most Iconic Black-Owned Restaurant w/ Stephanie Byrd

Transcript

Black Fridays Special - Inside Detroit’s Most Iconic Black-Owned Restaurant w/ Stephanie Byrd · Black Fridays: Business Growth for Entrepreneurs, Creators & Professionals

0:00
[SPEAKER_00]: What up, Dell Black Friday family, welcome back to another installment of the Black Friday's podcast.
0:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Today's episode is a very special one because we're a partner with the legacy business project and hot sense who is hosting us today to be able to bring you some of the amazing stories of our Black on legacy businesses here in the city of Detroit.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And today, I have a very special guest, which is Stephanie of Flint's Bar and Grill.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: How you doing today, Stephanie?
0:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm well, I'm excited to be here.
0:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: We are excited to have you on the podcast.
0:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into more of the story and journey of the business and your background and what you do, I first want to start with what does the word or the term legacy mean to you?
0:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, legacy means that we are part of the fabric of the city of Detroit.
0:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Legacy means that Detroit, which is the most authentic city in the country, is behind us.
0:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Supporting us, it means that generations of Detroiters have supported us.
1:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And it means that we have seen the highs and lows, right now I'd be a little recession.
1:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're experiencing a low.
1:11
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be here another 10, 20 years because the city supports us, and the city has had our backs.
1:19
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
1:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And in terms of Flo's Bar and Grill, we'd love to know what is the origin story from your perspective, because this is a family ran business, has been the staple in the city to trade for many decades.
1:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So I would love to know from your perspective, and view point, when did you understand what the business was and how did you get introduced to it?
1:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And that
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: great question.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: My parents, my mom and my dad, a few people know that it's both of my parents that bought fluids.
1:48
[SPEAKER_01]: They bought an existing business almost 40 years ago and it was not a black business before that.
1:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So they bought a white business and obviously made it a black business.
1:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like five years old in my whole world got turned upside down, right?
2:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything, we own a family business, everything revolves around the business.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, my first introduction was, you know, watching my parents leave the house late or come to the house late or to have my dad come in in the house from a late night because we closed the two so four or five o'clock in the morning and I'm good enough for the day.
2:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was my first experience.
2:28
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, my chores were to work at flowers, to count the coins out of the The foam booth, right?
2:35
[SPEAKER_01]: This is way back today.
2:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You probably don't remember it in to manually process credit cards So it floods has always been now when you say manually you mean like the machine that you have to correct Okay, yeah, you had to and then you had to go back the next day You had to punch in the tips, right?
2:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So you had to do that was one iteration another That you had to go in manually punch in the tips now everything automatically process and everybody gets their money the next day
2:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But it wasn't always like that.
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So back in the day before we had all this tech, there was a lot of manual work.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they didn't put me in the kitchen because they didn't look like, you know, that was my stupid, I'm not the good thing.
3:10
[SPEAKER_01]: They knew something that I didn't know then.
3:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But in terms of like developing the business, periodically I worked in marketing, and then fast forward, I went to college, I was like, I'm never coming back.
3:22
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like there's so many of us, at least those that are probably in the early 40s are like, I'm out of here.
3:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And we fail for the hype that Detroit had nothing to offer us.
3:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I left, came back for a special project, which was the garden theater that my dad was working on.
3:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I got a little project for you.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, okay, I'll come back for a couple of years.
3:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've been here ever since, been pointed to the garden, the black and fluids.
3:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a
3:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what, I love that people this who have moved from the city and then came back like myself, what, what were you able to learn, where were you when you moved away right before you came back and then what were you able to learn the years that you were away that you were able to bring back to the city?
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: great question.
4:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I went to college, I went to undergrad and grad school in DC.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So I came back in 2013.
4:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Thought it would be temporary, right?
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Thought there was an opportunity here.
4:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I got here, I realized I had a lot to offer, right?
4:25
[SPEAKER_01]: In terms of like what I've seen kind of in a larger market, right?
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of thing, a lot of marketing ideas, tech,
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt at the time we were a little behind the city.
4:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we've caught up since then, but there were a lot of skills that I was able to bring to the black, the garden, and flood, you know, we weren't manually processing credit cards then, but it was pretty close.
4:49
[SPEAKER_01]: There were a lot of, we need some automation.
4:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We were manually printing like menus.
4:55
[SPEAKER_01]: All types of things are just so time consuming.
4:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And I could see them just eating our time up.
5:00
[SPEAKER_01]: They were daunting.
5:01
[SPEAKER_01]: My sister was here.
5:02
[SPEAKER_01]: She'd always got too much of college and was always here.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Came back.
5:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But I saw everyone being just so we were so in the mood in terms of like daily operations.
5:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, dang, we can't work on the business.
5:12
[SPEAKER_01]: There's no time to work on the business.
5:13
[SPEAKER_01]: We're getting menus prep.
5:14
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to restaurant depot and get wings for the night.
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, there's no time to have any,
5:20
[SPEAKER_01]: to think about the future of fluids.
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it benefited me being back and working with my sisters now.
5:25
[SPEAKER_01]: We have that time to work on the business instead of in the business.
5:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like those are skills that I gained from my time, my 10 to 10 years in DC.
5:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what was your profession doing this the time before you came back to town?
5:37
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no.
5:39
[SPEAKER_01]: A little bit of professional student.
5:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a job.
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I was a marketing coordinator, marketing manager at XM Radio, H&R Block.
5:48
[SPEAKER_01]: and I had another job.
5:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even remember the time, but you know, I was having fun.
5:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I was hanging out.
5:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I was experiencing the city.
5:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I had a job, but I knew, you know, I was curious what was happening here because I was like, oh, there might be a financial opportunity for me here, right?
6:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I was tired of struggling in DC, too.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, expensive market and the chance to pour, I finally, I was mature enough to realize that
6:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It was time for me to come home and support back into a business that supports so much in me.
6:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, send me to college, just in the college.
6:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, maybe probably many people, right?
6:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
6:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And I know that Lauren has a similar story of Hot Sam since she talked about how it was able to the business that they would have put her through college and things like that.
6:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So being able to have that legacy business and family like, you know, obviously it's being able to support households and generations.
6:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely, and not just, right, not just me and my sister, but we have other family members, you know, like, it is a point of pride for us that we've been able to support family all stages.
6:51
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, like, family has come in, you know, it's a high schooler who needed some support and did a job, and then we might see them again, you know, when times are rough and they need some support.
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So for us to provide stability for our extended family, it's been a point of pride.
7:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's important, you know, those are values that my dad instilled in us and we're still doing that with a garden in the block.
7:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So even if they're not family, most of our staff have been around us for 10 plus years at the block.
7:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We've been open 10 years.
7:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have some of the things that we open with and floods has some staff that has been, we have a few staff members that have been there since.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow say 30 years.
7:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
7:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so like family.
7:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:38
[SPEAKER_00]: So you start you have family business and then you essentially build a family through that business.
7:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we're we're pretty proud of what we built and what we've been able to maintain because there's so many challenges with being able to maintain and hold onto the business people assume that you've been around for.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: 40 years you're going to continue to be around with their challenges and we're surprised sometimes by the new challenges that we face.
8:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And we're resourceful.
8:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we're able to grow and learn and evolve.
8:07
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're proud that we're still here.
8:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
8:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:12
[SPEAKER_00]: So I have a follow-up question to that.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: But first I want to ask you what is your, I'm sure you probably do a little bit everything.
8:18
[SPEAKER_00]: But what would you say is your title quote unquote with the family of businesses that you are
8:23
[SPEAKER_01]: You know this from entrepreneur, we don't really have time.
8:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, that's the last.
8:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But I am learning, I found a car from my dad from about 30 years ago, and it didn't have a title on it.
8:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And I am learning to lean into the title.
8:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So about two weeks ago, I said, and I had a discussion.
8:42
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, one of us is CEO, and one of us is President.
8:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I said, OK, all right, I'll be see.
8:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be see, I'll be see, I'll be see.
8:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're not in daily apps anymore, for the most part.
8:56
[SPEAKER_01]: If we, you know, if an emergency arises, yes, we're in the most part, I'm not in daily operations.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: But we do everything else from overseeing the payroll to making sure the bills are paid on time, bank account.
9:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You name it.
9:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet entrepreneurs may have to get in the dish tank.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on the dish tank, though, then I. Yeah.
9:15
[SPEAKER_01]: We do it all.
9:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Entrepreneurs do it all.
9:16
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll say, I'll say CEO, my sister's president.
9:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
9:20
[SPEAKER_00]: That's perfect.
9:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Same way.
9:22
[SPEAKER_00]: To my follow-up question, I'm going to ask being a part of a family business and legacy business.
9:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel pressure in terms of your role and what you do to perform?
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And if so, what is that like or is it the opposite and you feel like you all have been able to build an environment where it's like, you know, we all get each other and we're going to figure it out.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so I'll say for, I've been back for one of my 12 years, only until recently did I feel pressure to perform.
9:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt a lot of pressure to perform and self-imposed pressure.
9:59
[SPEAKER_01]: No one is like, you know, the family is riding on you.
10:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just to me.
10:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And recently, like, through therapy
10:11
[SPEAKER_01]: In my life, I don't have children, I'm not married and I'm realizing now like I made a lot of sacrifices like for this business.
10:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm just coming around to realize, yes, I put far too much pressure on kind of holding it on my back.
10:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I'm realizing I don't need to put that much pressure like I need to enjoy life I'm not into making as many sacrifices as an entrepreneur right now in this stage.
10:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully I won't have to make too many more.
10:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm always prepared to, but I realize I don't want to sacrifice.
10:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to make too many sacrifices for entrepreneurship.
10:49
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some boundaries I have now.
10:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm.
10:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a question.
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It does.
10:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
10:54
[SPEAKER_00]: That was perfect.
10:55
[SPEAKER_00]: And do you understand in the seat that you send in now and then some of the challenges that you all deal with as a business, reflect them on growing up in the business, any of those challenges that you may have seen your parents deal with?
11:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Like do you kind of understand it now from a different standpoint being in the seat?
11:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, I have, I'll tell you, I have a, I've always respected my mother, but I have to so much more respect for my mother who in the early years of floods, she actually ran floods because my father had a nine-five job.
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Worked for EDS, so he was at work.
11:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So my mom said, okay, I'll run floods.
11:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I understand what it's like to be a woman in the bar business, a woman in the hospitality business, all the misogyny.
11:42
[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many battles, and I have so much respect for my mother, for carving out a path for herself, for standing up for herself.
11:52
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, at some point early on, she faced so many struggles that she said, I'm going back to my profession.
11:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And she, her profession is a psychologist, so she would back and begin to cheer for this psychology department for Wayne County Community College.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, I'm going to back do what I want to do.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I see Nav learn so much from her experience and watch her navigate it, and this was 30 years ago, but now
12:15
[SPEAKER_01]: We had the same challenges and, you know, I have challenges working with my father, you know, it's his business, but there's some tug of wars.
12:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do believe if I was his son, I wouldn't face some of these conversations.
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've told him this directly.
12:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's one big challenge is the misogyny industry.
12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, now tell me about the industry at the home because I've always wondered like what what does that like to be in nightlife to be in hospitality And to have like businesses that are adjacent to that at least from your perspective what does it like working in that industry?
12:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's the obvious, like, long nights, especially early in my career, long nights.
13:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to be have some concerns for your safety, right?
13:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to take some precautions, and you have to navigate it as a woman in the industry.
13:11
[SPEAKER_01]: You realize that a lot of people don't pay attention to you the first time you say things.
13:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You have to say it kind of, you know, with some basic advice to get to notice and recognize.
13:26
[SPEAKER_01]: We navigate ourselves a little bit differently.
13:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't catch me drinking in my businesses for the most part, I don't drink in my businesses.
13:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure.
13:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't hang out too much in the industry.
13:40
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, there's just some different there's some ways that we carry ourselves.
13:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I think because we're aware that we are young women in the industry and we have a reputation to protect.
13:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's some things we have to consider as women industry that sometimes I wish we would didn't have to.
14:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But here we are.
14:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's been a fascinating industry.
14:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say that.
14:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
14:09
[SPEAKER_00]: And for the family, are you all at least for your parents as they got into the industry?
14:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Were they people that like to go out or people who like to host events and stuff like that?
14:22
[SPEAKER_01]: My parents don't like the host events.
14:24
[SPEAKER_01]: They aren't incredibly social.
14:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's the irony.
14:28
[SPEAKER_01]: But my dad, he knew that he wanted to be an entrepreneur.
14:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't want someone else to dictate his future.
14:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He worked at GDM and EDS for years and he saw
14:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He's so focused really late off, right?
14:44
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, with every round, you worry, is that going to be me?
14:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So he had so many concerns about that.
14:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So he just wanted to, he wanted to take control of his destiny.
14:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And this was a business that kind of fell into his left, you know, like after a few failed businesses.
14:57
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what people don't know, is that.
14:59
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had a few failed attempts, right?
15:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And you may never know exactly with the names of the business that we had tried before, and some individually, some as a family, some as some you may know of, before the black, it was called the Grill Midtown for a few years.
15:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So we ripped that concept out and started over.
15:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So, no, we were not social, and we've had a few things.
15:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Catch you, because I feel like those type of people probably build the best, like going out experiences in terms of restaurants, in terms of clubs, and stuff like that, because like, I don't know what it is.
15:38
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you know how to curate the space for people, but that's not your thing.
15:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're not the party person or going out or whatever, and I think they just see it from a different lens.
15:50
[SPEAKER_01]: group that, and we also are able to identify, we have folks that work with us that are active in my life.
15:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going out tonight, but I know someone else, I know someone on my team is going out tonight.
16:02
[SPEAKER_01]: This is what I need you to look for, and then we'll come back and talk about it.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: So as long as we know, we know kind of where we have some deficiencies, and we're able to identify those and fill the voids.
16:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
16:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And you had mentioned obviously garden theater and then the block is well, and you had came back to work on that project when it was garden theater.
16:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm wondering for you all the family or yeah, other family, when did you, how did you all identify that those times to expand into a different venture?
16:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Regardless of, you know, whatever that venture might have been.
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So that whole process, because my dad and his partner actually owned the whole black corner to corner, so I went into Alexandria.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Nice.
16:44
[SPEAKER_01]: It took them 10 years to acquire each parcel and to rehab the garden theater.
16:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was 10 years before I even moved back, they just started kind of working away at this project.
17:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We wanted to actually control the business, not control the business, that's not the part of what I'm looking for.
17:10
[SPEAKER_01]: We wanted to operate the business and we wanted to do.
17:14
[SPEAKER_01]: We just know it was time.
17:15
[SPEAKER_01]: We knew we love floods, but we also knew we had some different muscles to flex.
17:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And the garden theater has so much history.
17:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It was built in 1912.
17:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Like there was so much history there.
17:26
[SPEAKER_01]: We couldn't just rehab it unless somebody else ran it, right?
17:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was we knew
17:32
[SPEAKER_01]: based on the history that we can leave a legacy there, too.
17:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it was, and then sought the opportunity to be in, as far as the
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: the block that where the actual block is in garden theater, the vision wasn't too for you all to occupy like every corner of it of like businesses.
17:53
[SPEAKER_00]: It was to be able to allow other people to have space there as well.
17:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, you know, through the years we've learned that even with these three business systems, we're stretched this.
18:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, our goal was to provide spaces for other people, specifically black people, to be a part of Midtown, because even back then we could see kind of landscape of Midtown was changing and downtown is changing.
18:17
[SPEAKER_01]: One reason why hot sams of woods are really special in this landscape because
18:22
[SPEAKER_01]: We're holding it down for black businesses and downtown in Midtown, but we still think there should be more businesses of color in Midtown and downtown.
18:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And our way of helping was to provide spaces.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So we have six retail spaces and most are at least half are black owned.
18:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and we still have, you know, space available.
18:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So anyone interested, you use lots of available off of off of Seldon and what word.
18:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But yeah, we wanted to make sure that, you know, in a sense, we passed the baton down and it doesn't just stop with us, like we're part of the ecosystem of black businesses in Detroit.
19:07
[SPEAKER_00]: very dope.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I got confession to make.
19:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So all these years, the flow has been around.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: My first time going there was last year.
19:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And so people have told me about it.
19:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I've heard about the functions and, you know, that being the spot to go to try to true, but like, I'd never had actually step foot in there myself.
19:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I've,
19:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I party or get that on my system like early on in my life and college.
19:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not huge on like going out at night, life and stuff like that, but being my wife we had went for dinner.
19:35
[SPEAKER_00]: We had an amazing time.
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Music was on point, food was on point, customer service on point.
19:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all definitely took care of us.
19:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I'm wondering if you could talk about what floods means to people in the community that you have hurt like that feedback or people will tell you, leave reviews like what is floods like meant to the community over the years.
19:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, that floods is a mainstay.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It is part of the fabric of Detroit when you think of downtown, think of floods.
20:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's a place that you can start your night or in your night, you think of home cooking, you think of home, actually, because we have soul food, you know, we have food, the feed, your soul, and experience that is
20:23
[SPEAKER_01]: warm, familiar.
20:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We're always there in a place to a safe space for black people, right?
20:32
[SPEAKER_01]: To be black and to celebrate blackness in an corner where
20:39
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not much blackness going around right from down down to trade, so where can you kick it at the end of the night and feel safe with your people, fluids, right, and have a great meal, home cooked, you know, we make the color greens, the mac, you know, we make it all in house, and whether it's at 5 p.m. or at the end of the night after the concert at 1 a.m. we're there, you know, and happy to be there.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that's what people are saying about it.
21:08
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure, and after my travels, I know you've been the, you lived in DC for a while.
21:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been the DC Atlanta Florida, New York.
21:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's different pockets of blackness that you can find that kind of like feels like,
21:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly what you all are going for if flushed or so my first time going there.
21:25
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, oh, this feels exactly like that like I feel like I'm in Atlanta Because you can like go down.
21:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go anywhere in the land and like find that type of experience and like our night life is not that robust Be just based off of the size of the city, but that's the exact vibe that I got when I went there
21:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
21:42
[SPEAKER_00]: I'd like to think Atlanta kind of built their model off of us because you know our people came from down down there They came up here got the swag and they took it back down there exactly yeah, it's cyclical absolutely absolutely.
21:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'd like to think that
21:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And plus still, we're actually coming out with a line of merch.
22:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you're in your merch.
22:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: So years ago, we had merch.
22:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And now we've been working on bringing back this merch, but whenever my dad or I have a few one of a kind pieces too, we go through the airport.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: still to this day, people were like, oh, floods.
22:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, they don't identify floods, and they're not from Detroit.
22:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So Detroiters obviously keep us going day-to-day, but folks from out of town get hype above floods too.
22:25
[SPEAKER_01]: So that excites us too, you know, that we can provide a safe space for blackness for out of towners, too, right?
22:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And they remember us, but the memorable experience for them.
22:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yes, whether Detroiters or visitors,
22:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and it was a comedian that I think her name is the car Williams.
22:45
[SPEAKER_00]: She had came to I don't know if you seen the video on social But she made a video.
22:48
[SPEAKER_00]: She was like I need somebody to take me to that place She like it went nothing but beautiful black people in there.
22:54
[SPEAKER_00]: They was hustling the food's on point That's on the best thing when he's I and she was talking about fluid.
22:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, I need to see it I got to send it to okay.
22:59
[SPEAKER_00]: I got yeah.
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I got I got to show it to you when we wrap up, but yeah, she was like
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: How'd you describe it and everybody in the comments knew a meal yet?
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, you told my flux.
23:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and so she had came here.
23:09
[SPEAKER_00]: She went to punchline in Southfield and then she was saying that after her show, she had hit flux and she was like, it was I had a ball.
23:17
[SPEAKER_01]: See, that warms my heart.
23:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, that's all we're trying to do.
23:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's to recreate that experience for everyone.
23:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary Sheffield just mentioned us in the shade room.
23:24
[SPEAKER_01]: She just a shout out for a few black businesses and Detroit that she loves.
23:29
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm flux.
23:30
[SPEAKER_01]: We were on our list.
23:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Can't go wrong with us.
23:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:32
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I do this with all my guests.
23:34
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to introduce my favorite part of Black Friday's which is Freestyle Friday's.
23:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey listen, thank you all so much for listening to this episode and any episode of the Black Friday's podcast.
23:50
[SPEAKER_00]: But I got to be honest with you.
23:51
[SPEAKER_00]: I really think it's something missing and I hate to draw it and notice it.
23:55
[SPEAKER_00]: The thing that's missing is your podcast.
23:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Why am I not listening to your podcast?
24:00
[SPEAKER_00]: You talked about making one with your friends years ago.
24:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You noted you need one to better market and promote your business, but yet you still don't have one.
24:08
[SPEAKER_00]: This is why I created the pocket podcast and course to teach you how to be able to
24:14
[SPEAKER_00]: with the essentials and tools that you have right interfinger tips in order to create.
24:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And I created two different ways in order for you to do that.
24:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You could join my digital, do it yourself, on-demand video recorded pocket podcast and course.
24:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Grab those literally step-by-step from idea on how you upload your very first podcast episode.
24:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And for my people who would like to have something a little bit more tangible.
24:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I have created a digital e-book that walks you through my podcast and journey.
24:39
[SPEAKER_00]: The things I've learned along the way, the tools and equipment that I use in order to create and elevate my show.
24:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Now look, I don't want to keep you too long, but I'm going to make this as simplest possible.
24:49
[SPEAKER_00]: go ahead and head over to www.blackfrightx.com to learn more about the digital podcast course and also the podcast in ebook or you can hit the links in the show notes to take you directly to each of those resources.
25:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, enough of that time to get back into that episode.
25:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So Stephanie, I hope you got some bars for us, um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
25:33
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, well, lucky for you, it's only rapid-fire questions, so just want to ask you some some things about the business relates to you and all that.
25:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So people can get learn a little bit more about you.
25:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, all right.
25:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So first thing, what is the best host of song in Detroit?
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: look controversial to me, okay, everybody still gets up.
25:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I know DJs hate to play it over, but everybody gets up, everyone still trying to learn it.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to the to me as well.
26:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, fair enough.
26:04
[SPEAKER_00]: And then what's a funny moment that you have experience at the bar any of the adventures that you all had, because I know being in that space, you see a lot of things.
26:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, gosh, so many things.
26:15
[SPEAKER_01]: What can I tell you about?
26:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, me, there's a lot of R rating.
26:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Each start scene, foolishness that happens at hospitality.
26:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, next question.
26:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to say, you know what happens in bar life.
26:31
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, people get caught up.
26:34
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you got a cover for folks.
26:37
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, they won here.
26:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I never seen them before.
26:40
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all right.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to move on I'll let you plead the fifth on that one.
26:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Where would you, where do you like to try?
26:50
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your favorite place to go to?
26:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Traditionally, typically, my favorite place has been Burmuda because it's blackness, you know, you're on the water, it's beautiful.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: But I need to find some new places, state side.
27:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You have your recommendations.
27:07
[SPEAKER_00]: State side.
27:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, you've been Arizona?
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: I have.
27:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
27:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I enjoy Arizona.
27:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been there once, but it was beautiful.
27:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I like Cali, probably been the Cali before.
27:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm trying to think.
27:20
[SPEAKER_00]: If you haven't been a Seattle, I'm making a place to visit, especially in the spring or the summertime.
27:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, how much the wrong time of year?
27:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
27:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, spring or summertime, because you get to see the mountain, you get to see the beach, get to see the water, like you can, it's the views amazing.
27:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Super chill out there, you can get some amazing.
27:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Asian food, Indian food, as well out there.
27:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, okay, I'll put that on my list.
27:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I forgot to, I really like Denver, too.
27:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, um, you know, in Chicago, you know, because blackness, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, I'm overdue.
27:53
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm overdue black people.
27:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, I feel you.
27:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I'm overdue for Chicago trip.
27:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I got family down there.
27:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't been there in over 10 years.
28:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, I need to, I need to find my way to Chicago.
28:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You do.
28:04
[SPEAKER_03]: At some point, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
28:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there, uh, let's say you had opportunity to, I know you mentioned like you all have expanded tried different ventures, things like that.
28:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Is there a business idea that you have saying or insane that you would like to explore if time money, all that was no object?
28:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be honest, no.
28:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I'm kind of tired as an entrepreneur.
28:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that I don't want to build a new brand.
28:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Right?
28:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We have explored expansion.
28:35
[SPEAKER_01]: We are always kind of exploring expansion.
28:37
[SPEAKER_01]: You never know when you might see uploads too.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: But
28:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think I want to build a new brand from the ground up.
28:45
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I did it with the block in the garden and like you have to see extensions of those.
28:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but I don't want to build a new brand.
28:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of even though it might be a dream, a crazy idea when I think about building the brand part of it.
28:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like, nah, I'll pass.
28:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, fair enough, fair enough and then last night leads for the free, for the rapid fire question, what, what do you have in rotation?
29:05
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you listening to right now?
29:08
[SPEAKER_00]: What you put on repeat?
29:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
29:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I always have Afrobe's on a lot of R&B, Victoria Monet, um, and Frank Ocean.
29:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not, I'm anti-wrap.
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, now with, it will come back around.
29:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It's difficult to come.
29:25
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you listen to?
29:26
[SPEAKER_00]: when my listening to.
29:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, I'm a mix of R&B, alternative old school and then also Detroit rap and hip hop and then just like hip hop and you know, so I was I'm huge on the like big shine while a
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: J. Cole Drake date that was all like my air like when I was in college so like do they're like my artist like how people get jazzy and all the other people so do they're my my staples but then um I love like listen to our Linux print fires um like those people that new age of like R&B and music and I'm trying to give this any newer artists that I like and I love Detroit rap I can't go wrong baby face rape baby money uh payroll like for Detroit rap like great time yeah
30:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so that's when I'm home.
30:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, no, she probably got a fire play list on Spotify.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I try, I need to look at my rap.
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: I haven't looked at my rap yet.
30:17
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're gonna see what I actually've been listening to for the year.
30:19
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fair, that's fair.
30:20
[SPEAKER_00]: And to, well first, thank you for partaking it for your style for out of day.
30:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, you know, first person, I have to let plea the fifth on the questions.
30:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, my life is right here, right.
30:32
[SPEAKER_00]: But I did want to ask if you had anything to leave us as far as what do you see on the crystal ball?
30:37
[SPEAKER_00]: We're talking about legacy businesses and being you being a part of that.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: What do you see on the horizon for floods that you would be able to to share with us?
30:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I see
30:50
[SPEAKER_00]: or I'm sorry, floods the block and garden theater.
30:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I see innovation.
30:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like we are at a point where folks know who we are, but we want to redefine your thoughts about floods, your thoughts about the blocking your thoughts about garden.
31:08
[SPEAKER_01]: you think of us as a bar restaurant who knows in the future you might be thinking of us as a pop-up, as a food truck, as a you name it, you know, we want to remix our businesses a little bit.
31:21
[SPEAKER_01]: As part of being the second generation, you know, you want to honor the history, but you also need to put your stamp on the business.
31:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So we want to change
31:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, bring a little change to flizz and a black and a garden.
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So you might see us out there, um, a different version of us.
31:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, honoring the old, but still bringing us new ideas to the world.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And then that merch is coming back.
31:44
[SPEAKER_01]: We are in process.
31:45
[SPEAKER_01]: The merch is coming back.
31:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
31:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm excited about that.
31:48
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
31:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I should have worn my varsity jacket today.
31:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I was gonna say if y'all you know if y'all need models, I'm open for business if y'all you know looking for sponsors You'll be the first one Yeah, I just send you the prototype.
31:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, please.
31:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Please.
31:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
32:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It's talking about this last night's though Perfect.
32:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Perfect.
32:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking forward to it as well Well Stephanie, this has been amazing to be able to learn about your background the family business and then how you all have been able to
32:10
[SPEAKER_00]: be a mainstay and continue to be a mainstay in the city of Detroit and I look forward to I probably be in floods much sooner than later because I've been craving.
32:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been craving some old food from there so yeah if you see me in there soon you know that I'm sad about that and you don't have um
32:25
[SPEAKER_01]: holiday catering.
32:26
[SPEAKER_01]: So this I'm thinking you're doing it.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a holiday catering.
32:29
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's something new we brought is that you know folks that they love our Mac or love our candy games.
32:33
[SPEAKER_01]: We're not even getting them for Thanksgiving.
32:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And for New Year's or Christmas or whatever you sell a break.
32:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So yes, we had that a bit.
32:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You tell the people how to put a put a order in if they want to do so.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's Detroit.com.
32:43
[SPEAKER_01]: You can get all the information there.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we'll continue to have catering moving forward.
32:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So look for that too.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to people find you, we're going to people find floods, fires website.
32:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you just get a website, but as far as social media and any of that information.
32:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, all floods Detroit, the black Detroit, the garden theater Detroit, you can find all of that.
33:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I need to be more active on Instagram.
33:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I must go personally back to this.
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll tell you more about that.
33:07
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
33:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, appreciate you once again for stopping by the legacy lounges.
33:13
[SPEAKER_00]: What we call that as we sit in here and in hot sand.
33:15
[SPEAKER_00]: So definitely appreciate you stopping by and looking forward to seeing the continued work you don't in the community.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: I enjoyed it.
33:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.