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Luke’s Diner: You Are Top Chef · I Am All In with Scott Patterson

0:00
Speaker 1: I am all in again.
0:09
Speaker 2: Let's do Luke's Diner with Scott Patterson, an iHeartRadio podcast.
0:22
Speaker 1: Everybody Scott Patterson, I Am All In Podcast Luke's Diner. Addition,
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Speaker 1: we have a really really special guest. His name is
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Speaker 1: Michael Voltaggio and he is a really, really, really dynamic chef,
0:45
Speaker 1: one of the big forces in modern American cuisine, Michelin
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Speaker 1: star chef, Acclaim Television personality, visionary entrepreneur known for blending precision, creativity,
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Speaker 1: cultural relevance. Since winning Top Chef Season six, Michael has
1:01
Speaker 1: built a brand that moves fluidly between high end dining, media,
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Speaker 1: lifestyle innovation. He has co founded Volcania, an Alpine Italian
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Speaker 1: an Alpine Italian. Listen to that, an Alpine Italian American
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Speaker 1: restaurant at Mammoth Mountain Resort. The resume is so long,
1:24
Speaker 1: you know, let's get into the Mercado twenty eight, which
1:28
Speaker 1: you sent me a couple bottles of. You know, I've
1:30
Speaker 1: got maybe a couple of shots left on the Blanco.
1:34
Speaker 1: But man, we had a time, buddy. Thank you for
1:37
Speaker 1: the course, of course, and it mixes beautifully with everything.
1:42
Speaker 1: You can do it straight, you can do it all
1:43
Speaker 1: the rocks. You can mix it. Oh, it's just beautiful stuff. Man,
1:46
Speaker 1: thank you for that much.
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Speaker 2: Abre this is this is the best commercial I've ever had,
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Speaker 2: So thank you for everything. Across the board and on screen.
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Speaker 1: Michael's still on a food network. He's a fixture there.
2:00
Speaker 1: He's on Bobby's Triple Threat, He's on Guys Grocery Games,
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Speaker 1: Beat Bobby Flay co hosting Battle of the Brothers with
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Speaker 1: his brother Brian. Welcome Michael, how are you?
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Speaker 2: Thank you? I mean, I feel like the whole podcast
2:15
Speaker 2: could have been my intro, so I appreciate that.
2:18
Speaker 1: Oh well, that's it. That's all we're doing, so goodbye.
2:24
Speaker 1: Let's get into it man. Yeah, how'd your first get
2:27
Speaker 1: into cooking?
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Speaker 2: I mean a lot you'll hear the same story from
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Speaker 2: a lot of chefs, but for me, it was very similar.
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Speaker 2: I was young, getting in trouble, blah blah blah. I
2:36
Speaker 2: needed money. I mean, I was fifteen years old. I
2:39
Speaker 2: needed to buy a car. Ultimately, I was out of
2:42
Speaker 2: my house at the age of sixteen. So I was
2:45
Speaker 2: in high school, paying rent on an apartment, playing full
2:48
Speaker 2: time football or working full time playing football at school,
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Speaker 2: and by default ended up in the kitchen. I needed
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Speaker 2: a job, and then I just I didn't realize that
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Speaker 2: like thirty years would go by and I still have
3:00
Speaker 2: the same job. So I guess it was all worth
3:04
Speaker 2: it for sure. But yeah, sometimes you just get that
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Speaker 2: little bit of motivation to go figure out what you
3:09
Speaker 2: want to be when you grow up, and you don't
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Speaker 2: realize that you're already doing it at such a young age.
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Speaker 1: Right, right, So you co founded an Italian American restaurant,
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Speaker 1: Mammoth Mountain Resort. I mean, I personally love the mountains.
3:23
Speaker 1: I'm a big skier, grew up scan I grew up
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Speaker 1: in New Jersey where there were no mountains, so I
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Speaker 1: really just like pined for like real mountains, and I
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Speaker 1: got them and I love them. Tell me why you
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Speaker 1: chose to open a restaurant in the mountains, Well, I.
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Speaker 2: Mean we have right now. My brother and I have
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Speaker 2: three restaurants. We've got Full Kanye, which is at Maamth
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Speaker 2: like you mentioned. We've got Voltajo Brother's Steakhouse, which is
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Speaker 2: going on almost ten years old now with MGM as
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Speaker 2: our partner in National Harbor, which is in Maryland. And
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Speaker 2: then we just opened another restaurant called Wyoak which is
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Speaker 2: in our hometown where we grew up in Frederick, Maryland.
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Speaker 2: So it's just another extension of our story. I mean
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Speaker 2: Anya when we were going to name that restaurant, Volcanyo
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Speaker 2: was the name of the ship that brought the Voltagios,
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Speaker 2: the first Voltagios allegedly to the US and so, and
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Speaker 2: it also means volcano and mammoth actually sits an a
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Speaker 2: dormant volcano. And so I came up with that whole
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Speaker 2: narrative in my head and then we just my brother
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Speaker 2: and I knew that it was going to be challenging
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Speaker 2: to get food up to the mountain given its location
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Speaker 2: in the terrain. So as long as we had flour
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Speaker 2: and water, we could open the restaurant. And so we
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Speaker 2: make all of our pasta and we make all of
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Speaker 2: our pizza do there. So with those two ingredients we
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Speaker 2: can do we can feed people. And then it just
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Speaker 2: became sort of a solution. I think there's a built
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Speaker 2: in audience obviously, but there are the challenges of the elements,
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Speaker 2: and so for us, it was how do you satisfy
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Speaker 2: that with hospitality, And that was making sure that we
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Speaker 2: always had food to serve people.
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Speaker 1: And that's year round operation. It's just not during ski season.
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Speaker 1: You're open summer, You're open all year round.
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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean people are up there mountain biking,
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Speaker 2: swimming in the hot springs, hiking, all that good stuff.
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Speaker 2: I mean very short what we call shoulder seasons where
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Speaker 2: it slows down, but honestly, we need that time to reset.
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Speaker 2: Our team gets crushed. I mean from through the entire winter,
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Speaker 2: We're doing anywhere from four to four hundred and fifty
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Speaker 2: people to five hundred people the day up there, and
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Speaker 2: it's just, yeah, we're super stoked. A lot of people
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Speaker 2: from LA that missed the restaurants that I had here
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Speaker 2: drive up there and are sort of stoked because I'm
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Speaker 2: not currently operating a restaurant in Los Angeles.
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Speaker 1: So what's the go to dish being served up there?
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Speaker 1: What's the most popular.
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Speaker 2: We created a dish called the Voltagios. We are making
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Speaker 2: our own Annalidi pasta, which looks like spaghettios. We're making
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Speaker 2: and amlsified a rabiata sauce that has brown butter i'mulsified
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Speaker 2: into it with colabory and chili. We put it in
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Speaker 2: a stainless steel can and we pour it tableside, just
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Speaker 2: like spaghettios back in the day, So that's become a
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Speaker 2: staple for us up there. But also it's just like
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Speaker 2: it's comforting, it's comfort food. We're serving Italian American comfort
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Speaker 2: food up there. We want to give people their carbs
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Speaker 2: during a time when I think they feel like they're
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Speaker 2: allowed to eat them, which is extreme sports all day,
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Speaker 2: carb overload at night. And then we've got meat, fish, salads,
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Speaker 2: things like that. But we make everything in the house
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Speaker 2: and it was important for us to be able to
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Speaker 2: do that beautiful.
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Speaker 1: So you and your brother you mentioned you have a
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Speaker 1: steakhouse called Wyoak Tavern, and that's why Oak.
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Speaker 2: Is our sort of modern hubs slash chop house, but
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Speaker 2: a little bit more elevated. And that's built in like
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Speaker 2: a two hundred year old decommissioned Catholic school. The Catholic
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Speaker 2: Church came and like blessed, blessed us to do our
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Speaker 2: thing in there. We've got the original stained glass in
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Speaker 2: the restaurant itself. It's attached to a hotel, the first
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Speaker 2: hotel of it's kind in our hometown, the Visitation hotel,
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Speaker 2: which is for us for me personally cool because now
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Speaker 2: I can go back and visit my mom and not
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Speaker 2: sleep on my brother's couch. So there's a hotel attached
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Speaker 2: to the restaurant. And then Voltajio Brothers Steakhouse MGM has
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Speaker 2: been a partner, a great partner to us for the
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Speaker 2: past over eight years now. And so that restaurant, which
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Speaker 2: sits on National Harbor right across the bridge from Washington, DC,
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Speaker 2: right on the Potomac River, that's like a steakhouse. We
7:22
Speaker 2: built it to look like a house, so living room,
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Speaker 2: a dining room, kitchen, it's a steakhouse, like a like
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Speaker 2: pun intended steakhouse.
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Speaker 1: And we have to talk about being a Michelin starred chef.
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Speaker 1: What is the process like when being considered for a
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Speaker 1: Michelin start any does anyone give the restaurant a heads
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Speaker 1: up or is it a complete surprise.
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Speaker 2: No. When I was in my late twenties living in Hillsburg, California,
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Speaker 2: working for a chef named Charlie Palmer, I had just
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Speaker 2: taken over the restaurant as the executive chef. Charlie gave
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Speaker 2: me of autonomy to recreate the menu and sort of
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Speaker 2: do it my own way, with obviously his blessing along
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Speaker 2: the way. And after getting the menu implemented. We got
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Speaker 2: a great review from the San Francisco Chronicle. There was
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Speaker 2: this surprise that the Michelin Guide was coming out and
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Speaker 2: we received a star, and I did what anyone else
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Speaker 2: probably shouldn't do, And at that time I sort of
8:25
Speaker 2: transitioned out and went back east. I was like, well,
8:28
Speaker 2: there's only one way to go from here, So I
8:32
Speaker 2: thank you for this, and I was just I knew
8:34
Speaker 2: in that moment that I was going to be looking
8:36
Speaker 2: for opportunities to sort of control and drive my own
8:40
Speaker 2: narrative from there. And so for me when I received,
8:44
Speaker 2: when we received that, as a team, I felt a
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Speaker 2: responsibility to then go out. And anytime you get recognition,
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Speaker 2: you have this pressure, this accountability to maintain whatever standard
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Speaker 2: the public has created for you. And so oftentimes that
9:02
Speaker 2: happens to me annually, like something will happen where now
9:06
Speaker 2: I get sort of self conscious and I have to
9:08
Speaker 2: go back and prove something. And so for thirty two
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Speaker 2: years I've been cooking, I just have this innate pressure
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Speaker 2: on myself to do better. And so when that happened,
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Speaker 2: it wasn't like, hey, great job, Michelin star. It was
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Speaker 2: like now what okay, Now what are you going to
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Speaker 2: do to get better and to do better and provide
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Speaker 2: more hospitality and so. And I know that sounds kind
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Speaker 2: of sales pitchy, but some of us got into this
9:36
Speaker 2: industry long before social media and any of that stuff,
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Speaker 2: and it wasn't about We weren't even talking really about
9:42
Speaker 2: celebrity chefs when I started cooking. And so for me,
9:44
Speaker 2: it was a job, it was a craft, it was
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Speaker 2: a it was a trade that I learned to support myself.
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Speaker 2: And every time you get those nods, it's like, oh, wow, Okay,
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Speaker 2: this is really super cool that I get these opportunities.
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Speaker 2: But I get that recognition and it makes me just
9:59
Speaker 2: want to work.
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Speaker 1: So you've been on many cooking shows. What draws you
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Speaker 1: to them?
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Speaker 2: Originally? When I did, the first one I did was
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Speaker 2: Top Chef, and I remember watching it. I remember thinking
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Speaker 2: to myself, Wow, there's some really good cooks on this show.
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Speaker 2: I'd never seen restaurant chefs really on TV doing what
10:26
Speaker 2: we do in our restaurants in a competitive environment with
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Speaker 2: cameras in their face, and so I was really intrigued
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Speaker 2: by that. I watched it as a fan and Marcel
10:35
Speaker 2: and your own who was a contestant on the show
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Speaker 2: at the time, and I would say, like one of
10:39
Speaker 2: the more recognized ones. When that show was started out,
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Speaker 2: Like in the beginning, Marcel was like, I'm like, this
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Speaker 2: guy's famous. He applied for a job as a soue
10:49
Speaker 2: chef when I was sous chef when I was opening
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Speaker 2: the Bazaar with Jseandres in La and I was to
10:54
Speaker 2: be the executive chef of the hotel. And I was like, wow,
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Speaker 2: this is random. This guy just came off of the show.
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Speaker 2: He's applying for a sue chef job. What's the deal?
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Speaker 2: Interviewed them, and similar vibes to what I'm saying now.
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Speaker 2: He felt that same pressure to go back and like okay,
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Speaker 2: now prove all the hype. And so he came to
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Speaker 2: work with us, and one day we were joking around
11:12
Speaker 2: and I was like, a haha, top chef that I
11:14
Speaker 2: could have won that, and he's like, well, if you
11:16
Speaker 2: think it's so easy, why don't you go do it?
11:17
Speaker 2: And I'm like, fine, I will, And so I applied,
11:21
Speaker 2: got on the show and competed and won and so
11:25
Speaker 2: from there, anytime you get a little piece of show business,
11:28
Speaker 2: I would say there's a sort of addiction attached to that,
11:31
Speaker 2: like you get a taste for it and you're like, wait,
11:35
Speaker 2: this is really neat, this is cool. I can't believe
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Speaker 2: I get to do this, because not many people do
11:41
Speaker 2: in the world. And now they can, obviously with these things,
11:44
Speaker 2: but to be able to get pooled from society and
11:46
Speaker 2: go do something like that and get recognized like that,
11:49
Speaker 2: and then the opportunity is to sort of share that
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Speaker 2: part of yourself with people that aren't necessarily eating in
11:56
Speaker 2: the restaurants, but then drive them back to your restaurants.
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Speaker 2: And so now I looked at it, or now I
12:01
Speaker 2: look at it as and I think back then even
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Speaker 2: more so as another discipline, another thing I could learn
12:07
Speaker 2: how to do. I was this introverted like I'm a
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Speaker 2: serious chef and I'm going to keep my head down
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Speaker 2: and no one needs to talk to me and I'm
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Speaker 2: so cool and blah blah blah. To like, wait a second,
12:16
Speaker 2: that's not hospitality, And I think food television actually became
12:21
Speaker 2: a conduit to extend more hospitality to more people. So
12:25
Speaker 2: then I was like, Okay, I want to do more
12:27
Speaker 2: of this, and I mean, who doesn't. Food network is
12:30
Speaker 2: ultimately the goal for every I feel like it's called
12:34
Speaker 2: the Food Network, Like what do people watch that to see?
12:37
Speaker 2: They seek food and cooking. So my goal was to
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Speaker 2: get onto the Food Network. And They've been so good
12:44
Speaker 2: to me over the years, and I've gotten to get
12:47
Speaker 2: mentored by the best I mean from Bobby to Guy
12:49
Speaker 2: to I mean everyone to Amberell who we just lost yesterday,
12:54
Speaker 2: and the list goes on and on and on of
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Speaker 2: the people that within that network. I got to learn
13:01
Speaker 2: under no different than I learned under a lot of
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Speaker 2: the executive chefs and chefs that I worked for, just
13:05
Speaker 2: learning how to cook, and so it was another skill set.
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Speaker 1: So what was it like competing against your brother on
13:10
Speaker 1: top chef the chef? Did it cause some family tension?
13:14
Speaker 1: Was he happier or was he a little salty? When
13:17
Speaker 1: you want?
13:18
Speaker 2: It was a little It was a little awkward. It
13:19
Speaker 2: was a little awkward for a while there. It divided
13:23
Speaker 2: us for sure. I mean I think that not not
13:26
Speaker 2: by intention or design. It just our goal was to
13:28
Speaker 2: get each other to the end or get to the end,
13:30
Speaker 2: and it happened and that was all real, Like there
13:33
Speaker 2: was nothing produced about it. We just both you know,
13:36
Speaker 2: sort of fought our way through that entire competition, and
13:39
Speaker 2: then when it came down to the two of us
13:41
Speaker 2: and a third Kevin Billss there my boss Sam and
13:46
Speaker 2: Azarian who owned the SLS Hotel that I had left
13:50
Speaker 2: to go to top chef to do uh. He was
13:53
Speaker 2: sitting at the table while I was cooking. So there
13:56
Speaker 2: was a lot of pressure. And did it divided? I
14:00
Speaker 2: did us for a long time that it sort of
14:01
Speaker 2: inspired this separation where my brother and I ran different
14:05
Speaker 2: professional directions I would say secretly, like rooting for each other,
14:09
Speaker 2: but not publicly and not to each other. To fast
14:13
Speaker 2: forward to today, that was the dumbest thing we could
14:15
Speaker 2: have done. We immediately realized, I think immediately a few
14:19
Speaker 2: years later, we should be partners and we should do
14:22
Speaker 2: this together, and wouldn't it be cool if we could?
14:26
Speaker 2: You know, some people would look at this as an
14:28
Speaker 2: opportunity to work half as hard. We saw it as
14:31
Speaker 2: an opportunity to accomplish twice as much, and so we
14:34
Speaker 2: became business partners. And as much as people like to
14:37
Speaker 2: see us go against each other, that's not real for
14:40
Speaker 2: us now, like where we share our recipes, we collaborate,
14:45
Speaker 2: we cook together. We support our families by doing this
14:50
Speaker 2: and so he's my family, so I'm indirectly and vice versa,
14:54
Speaker 2: we're supporting each other's families.
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Speaker 1: Beautiful, Beautiful, you have a tequila brand, So, and thank
15:01
Speaker 1: you very much for sending me with Top of the Show.
15:03
Speaker 1: I let everybody know you sent me two bottles. I
15:10
Speaker 1: took them with me Saturday on our golf scramble tournament
15:15
Speaker 1: at our local country club and we were so, what's
15:21
Speaker 1: the word faced? I think that's the word. That all
15:29
Speaker 1: of our first four shots all went into the water.
15:33
Speaker 2: How much to kill it? Did you guys drink.
15:37
Speaker 1: A little too much? Probably? We're very happy with the flavor.
15:43
Speaker 1: Tell us about that, Marcado Marcado twenty eight. How'd that
15:49
Speaker 1: come about?
15:50
Speaker 2: So? Initially it was like I feel like when the
15:54
Speaker 2: opportunity came across the table was more of like a
15:56
Speaker 2: marketing collaboration. This company reached out to us. These guys,
16:00
Speaker 2: they're responsible for Winds that Rock. They now have Spirits
16:02
Speaker 2: a Rock, and they do a great job at bringing
16:05
Speaker 2: sort of lifestyle brands together and decorating the Spirits world
16:09
Speaker 2: and telling their stories through these different spirits. So when
16:13
Speaker 2: I met with them to potentially be their their partner
16:17
Speaker 2: in Marcato twenty eight, which means Marcato means mark, So
16:22
Speaker 2: Marcato twenty eight. The twenty eight refers to Leviticus twenty eight,
16:25
Speaker 2: which is a Bible verse that says don't basically, don't
16:28
Speaker 2: mark your body too late for that so too like
16:33
Speaker 2: you're in the club and you drank the tequila already.
16:35
Speaker 2: So it started as this brand narrative about defiance, and
16:40
Speaker 2: I said, well, if we're going to be defiant in
16:43
Speaker 2: this industry, and you know, I'm sort of a public
16:47
Speaker 2: face in my own right, I guess some people would
16:50
Speaker 2: say that, what if we made a really good tequila
16:53
Speaker 2: and didn't charge a lot of money for it, and
16:57
Speaker 2: I was given the opportunity to go to Mexico so
17:00
Speaker 2: meet the people that were growing the agave, go through
17:03
Speaker 2: the process with the family that's going to make it,
17:05
Speaker 2: and we make something really good so that it doesn't
17:09
Speaker 2: come out like, oh, here's this tequila and there's this
17:13
Speaker 2: chef guy that's involved in it, but it's probably not
17:16
Speaker 2: any good. What if we were like, well, yeah, but
17:19
Speaker 2: this is really really good tequila, and I can tell
17:22
Speaker 2: you who made it, and I can tell you about
17:23
Speaker 2: the family's lineage and I can tell you about every
17:27
Speaker 2: part of it, down to I was involved in the
17:31
Speaker 2: process of making it. What if we did that? And
17:34
Speaker 2: then fast forward to today our scores from wine enthusiasts,
17:37
Speaker 2: we got ninety four on the Blanco and a ninety
17:40
Speaker 2: three on a Repisodo, and we continue to sort of
17:42
Speaker 2: get decent scores within our category, and we've managed to
17:47
Speaker 2: keep our price point down low enough for everyone that
17:50
Speaker 2: wants to feel like a little bit defiant when they're
17:53
Speaker 2: shopping and making their decisions, like get behind a brand
17:57
Speaker 2: where I can tell you every single person involved in
18:00
Speaker 2: the process. And so we collectively as a group decided
18:03
Speaker 2: to maintain that discipline, to have a family sort of
18:07
Speaker 2: environment behind this brand, and ultimately down to even like
18:10
Speaker 2: the tattoo artists that did the labels. I know Billy
18:13
Speaker 2: Baka and I know Elsando. I've been tattooed by both
18:16
Speaker 2: of them, and they gave they were given the opportunity
18:19
Speaker 2: to tell their stories through the art that's on the label.
18:21
Speaker 2: So it was less about a quick like oh, let's
18:24
Speaker 2: started to kill a brand, and more about again every
18:27
Speaker 2: part everything that I do in my life, like I
18:29
Speaker 2: feel like I'm held accountable to be able to tell
18:32
Speaker 2: that story. And if there's such thing as legacy, you know,
18:35
Speaker 2: I feel like my legacy one day could be that
18:38
Speaker 2: I was somebody who had a trade, but that I
18:41
Speaker 2: was a storyteller through my craft and through my trade,
18:44
Speaker 2: and I was willing and able to sort of emotionally
18:48
Speaker 2: share that part of myself along with the physical acts
18:51
Speaker 2: of what I was doing. And so everything that I do,
18:54
Speaker 2: I try to make sure that there's a story of
18:57
Speaker 2: authenticity that's linked to it, because I think enough there's
19:00
Speaker 2: enough bullshit out there right now that I don't need
19:03
Speaker 2: to jump into that, right.
19:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, the story is all, It's everything. What's the
19:17
Speaker 1: best way to drink Marcato twenty eight is cocktail straight?
19:21
Speaker 1: How do you like it?
19:22
Speaker 2: So you just said you went to play golf and
19:24
Speaker 2: you were lit by the time you teat off right,
19:26
Speaker 2: So to me, what that suggests is that it was
19:30
Speaker 2: very easy to drink. You probably felt that it was smooth.
19:33
Speaker 2: And I'm not doing a tequila ad right now. It
19:35
Speaker 2: was I'm using your words, So I would say, try
19:40
Speaker 2: it like that. I like a little bit of ice,
19:43
Speaker 2: one cube, one big cube that doesn't felt too fast.
19:46
Speaker 2: That's my vibe. But one thing specifically about tequila, whether
19:51
Speaker 2: it be blanco, reposoto, and jeho mescal even which is
19:55
Speaker 2: not tequila, but it's an agave spirit. Obviously, to swap
20:01
Speaker 2: out any sort of spirit in any classic cocktail with
20:05
Speaker 2: inappropriate toe quill it. Now, what does that mean? Reposado
20:10
Speaker 2: would lean more towards Scotch and things like that, I
20:13
Speaker 2: would say, and yahoe would lean more towards bourbons, and
20:16
Speaker 2: the blanco could replace any sort of gin in vodka.
20:19
Speaker 2: So I feel like, if you're able to have one
20:22
Speaker 2: spirit behind your bar, let's say you live in a
20:24
Speaker 2: two hundred square foot apartment with a two foot little
20:28
Speaker 2: corner for your bar, tequilo would be a great spirit
20:32
Speaker 2: to always have. In having those three, with the various
20:35
Speaker 2: ages levels of age, you could almost make any classic
20:39
Speaker 2: cocktail just by having tequila or a gave spirit. So
20:42
Speaker 2: I would say, try anything at all. I mean, even
20:47
Speaker 2: in the groni if you have a little kompari and
20:49
Speaker 2: some vermouth. Now I know, I just added two more
20:51
Speaker 2: bottles to your bar at home, But tequila and Negroni
20:54
Speaker 2: and mezcal and negroni, you know those It works basically
20:58
Speaker 2: in any sort of cocktail.
21:01
Speaker 1: If there's one thing that you wish people knew more
21:05
Speaker 1: about how tequila should be made or enjoyed, what would
21:09
Speaker 1: that be?
21:09
Speaker 2: I want to be careful how I answer that. Honestly,
21:13
Speaker 2: I feel like the best way for us has been
21:16
Speaker 2: educating the people that are selling it for us, Like
21:18
Speaker 2: I go to Total Wine and Spirits, or I go
21:20
Speaker 2: to ABC. When I went to ABC Lickuers in Florida,
21:23
Speaker 2: I met with everyone there and we told them our story.
21:27
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of times when you go
21:29
Speaker 2: to a beverage supplier or a store, oftentimes you can
21:34
Speaker 2: tell if the product is good or the story is
21:37
Speaker 2: authentic by how the employees interact with you when you
21:41
Speaker 2: start asking questions. Also, bottleneckers are a good sort of
21:45
Speaker 2: indication as to whether or not you're getting something good.
21:48
Speaker 2: We did wine enthusiasts gave us that those ratings, but
21:52
Speaker 2: we didn't know we were going to get those ratings. Well,
21:53
Speaker 2: now that we have those ratings, we have those those
21:56
Speaker 2: neckers that we can go and put on the bottles
21:58
Speaker 2: that say And I was at at Albertson's grocery store
22:01
Speaker 2: two days ago. We were having people over. I needed
22:03
Speaker 2: a bottle of piano Nora. I didn't want to spend
22:04
Speaker 2: a ton of money, and so I just looked for
22:07
Speaker 2: those neckers and I used wine enthusiasts as my as
22:09
Speaker 2: my guide to Like, I don't know if I'm answering
22:12
Speaker 2: the question, but I feel like asking questions and doing
22:16
Speaker 2: research on what you're buying as opposed to like what's
22:20
Speaker 2: hype out in the marketplace right now. It was very
22:22
Speaker 2: easy for everyone to be like costam Egos. That's because
22:24
Speaker 2: they did a great job putting it everywhere. I mean,
22:28
Speaker 2: I feel like when costam Egos came to market, every
22:30
Speaker 2: like LA party that I went to was sponsored by
22:33
Speaker 2: costam Egos and we were all drinking it. We all
22:36
Speaker 2: thought like, oh, that's the tequila that everyone needs to
22:39
Speaker 2: drink right now and right now. Their stories being told
22:42
Speaker 2: a little bit differently these days, and I think.
22:44
Speaker 1: Oh, it is it is?
22:45
Speaker 2: Well, there's just there's there's tequila. Is that? And again,
22:48
Speaker 2: it's about flavor preference and profiles, Like I definitely used
22:52
Speaker 2: costam Egos as an example. We were trying to get
22:55
Speaker 2: to our tasting profiles. How do we get that smoothness,
22:58
Speaker 2: that drink ability without adding anything to it? And I
23:02
Speaker 2: think that's probably the number one thing to look for
23:04
Speaker 2: in tequila, is are there additives. We don't have any additives.
23:08
Speaker 2: Ours is a gave yeast and water, basically specifically blue agave.
23:14
Speaker 2: So to be able to tell that part of your
23:17
Speaker 2: I would start there. Kasamilos managed to put together something
23:22
Speaker 2: that was drinkable, smooth, approachable, and I feel like they're
23:24
Speaker 2: responsible for bringing a lot of people back to tequila.
23:27
Speaker 2: And I feel like this sort of tequila drive that's
23:32
Speaker 2: happening in the world right now where everyone wants it.
23:34
Speaker 2: This trend. I'd hate to say trend, but I think
23:37
Speaker 2: that Costamigo's really made tequila a little bit more approachable
23:41
Speaker 2: for everyone. And then now we use that to inspire
23:44
Speaker 2: our flavor profiles. But we did it naturally, We didn't
23:47
Speaker 2: add anything to it.
23:49
Speaker 1: Now, when you were approached, did this company have a
23:53
Speaker 1: distribution strategy? And how's that going?
23:55
Speaker 2: That's always the question, right, I mean, when you talk
23:58
Speaker 2: about distribution, that's for those of you that don't know
24:01
Speaker 2: really what that means. It's how do we get our
24:03
Speaker 2: product from us to you? And ultimately that goes through
24:07
Speaker 2: a distributor and there's a lot of sort of rules
24:10
Speaker 2: and regulations around that. We do the same thing that
24:14
Speaker 2: we did when we made the tequila. We call everyone
24:16
Speaker 2: ourselves and we have conversations and we want them to
24:20
Speaker 2: buy into not just our brand, but our story and
24:24
Speaker 2: get behind it because ultimately they're going to be asked
24:26
Speaker 2: the same questions you're asking me right now. So it
24:28
Speaker 2: starts with phone calls and relationships. And we've got a
24:32
Speaker 2: really good team behind us of people that have been
24:34
Speaker 2: doing this for a lot of years and have built
24:37
Speaker 2: these relationships, and so a lot of it is I mean,
24:40
Speaker 2: they can tell your excitement when you make the call.
24:42
Speaker 2: You know, are you just trying to sell me something
24:44
Speaker 2: or are you showing up to my office and you're
24:47
Speaker 2: here in person to talk about it, which I've done
24:49
Speaker 2: on several occasions. I've even driven to the Total Whining
24:53
Speaker 2: More on Librea in West Hollywood and just walked in
24:58
Speaker 2: with a sharpie in my end and signed the B
25:00
Speaker 2: and asked for the manager and said like, Hey, can
25:03
Speaker 2: I talk to you about this tequila. I'm one of
25:05
Speaker 2: the people behind it, and I'd really love to share
25:07
Speaker 2: my experience with you. And I think that that goes
25:10
Speaker 2: a long way. ABC Down in Florida, they they're like
25:13
Speaker 2: a massive family owned operation, but they were interested in
25:17
Speaker 2: hearing that story. And I think for us, it's about
25:21
Speaker 2: not just who can we sell our story to, but
25:23
Speaker 2: who wants to hear our story? And I think that
25:26
Speaker 2: that goes a long way. I mean, we're all sold.
25:29
Speaker 2: I get got on Instagram. I tell my wife, I
25:32
Speaker 2: got got today on Instagram. I bought a furry green
25:35
Speaker 2: Oscar the Grouch Sesame street hat the other day because
25:37
Speaker 2: it popped up on my Instagram feed and I had
25:40
Speaker 2: this memory of somebody calling the Oscar the Grouch one
25:42
Speaker 2: day because I was grouchy, and I'm like, I need
25:44
Speaker 2: that hat. Now. I have this green furry hat sitting
25:47
Speaker 2: on my kitchen counter right now that I haven't worn yet.
25:49
Speaker 2: But I got got. I got got on Instagram. So
25:52
Speaker 2: I got an ad hit me, and I'm like, if
25:53
Speaker 2: our ads are going to hit people, then let's hit
25:56
Speaker 2: them emotionally. And I think let's hit him authentically, and
25:59
Speaker 2: let's hit them with a story that we can stand behind.
26:03
Speaker 2: And I think that whether it's in our restaurants or
26:06
Speaker 2: if I'm cooking, working with Food Network, anywhere, with anywhere
26:12
Speaker 2: in my world, that I have an opportunity to be
26:16
Speaker 2: myself and communicate that part of myself, I'm going to
26:19
Speaker 2: take it because I spent a lot of years of
26:22
Speaker 2: my life and I think you could probably say the
26:24
Speaker 2: same thing about yourself trying to figure out who that is.
26:27
Speaker 2: And I think once you get to a level in
26:31
Speaker 2: life where you're comfortable with who you are in your
26:34
Speaker 2: own sort of my Soubinge package of myself, I feel
26:40
Speaker 2: confident enough to go out and talk. I feel like,
26:44
Speaker 2: you know, I was thinking, I told my wife before
26:45
Speaker 2: we got on the podcast today. I was like, Wow,
26:47
Speaker 2: podcasts are really wild because you have to like think
26:49
Speaker 2: about what if you're answering the same question you were
26:51
Speaker 2: asked before, do you have to answer it the same
26:54
Speaker 2: way or do you change your answer based on how
26:56
Speaker 2: you feel today? Or will people judge you for the
26:59
Speaker 2: inconsistent or the consistencies. I mean, you see it in
27:01
Speaker 2: politics every day right now, So it's like, how do you?
27:05
Speaker 2: And my answer to that is I'm just going to
27:07
Speaker 2: be myself and I think all of us need to
27:11
Speaker 2: do that, and I get to do that as an
27:12
Speaker 2: artist and I call myself that because I create things.
27:16
Speaker 2: As as a person who works in a trade in hospitality.
27:20
Speaker 2: My job is to take care of people, and if
27:22
Speaker 2: I can't do that, then I'm a fraud. And so
27:25
Speaker 2: every opportunity that I have to do that professionally and personally,
27:29
Speaker 2: I take advantage of that opportunity and I do it beautiful.
27:33
Speaker 1: All right, here we go. We got time for one
27:35
Speaker 1: last question. If you were to come into Luke's Diner, Okay,
27:39
Speaker 1: what would your order? Where would you sit?
27:41
Speaker 2: I would sit probably at a banquette so that I
27:44
Speaker 2: could be comfortable. I'd like to do one of these
27:48
Speaker 2: and then I would have to say burger for me,
27:54
Speaker 2: nothing healthy on it, extra cheese, and of course a
27:58
Speaker 2: side of wink winkers.
28:01
Speaker 1: Uh huh. Beautiful. Michael Voltagio check out its Tequila Marcato
28:08
Speaker 1: twenty eight. He's got some restaurants that are fabulous. One
28:12
Speaker 1: up the Volcania up in Monmouth Mountain Resort, Wyo Tavern?
28:17
Speaker 1: Is that Wyok Tavern? Or why Wyok Wyok? And that
28:22
Speaker 1: is in Frederick, Maryland, Frederick, Maryland. Check it out. He's
28:26
Speaker 1: got some other more exciting things coming. You have what
28:31
Speaker 1: total four restaurants now we have.
28:33
Speaker 2: Three, but we're working on some other stuff right now. Yeah.
28:37
Speaker 1: Look out for this guy. He's taken over. Michael, thank
28:40
Speaker 1: you so very much for spending the time with us.
28:44
Speaker 1: We'd love to have you back on to chart your
28:46
Speaker 1: progress because it looks like you're going places and it's
28:49
Speaker 1: not just the liquor store, you know what I mean.
28:51
Speaker 2: It's everywhere, and I'd be happy to be back. I
28:54
Speaker 2: really appreciate you guys for thinking of me and thank
28:56
Speaker 2: you like it means a lot to me that you
28:57
Speaker 2: reached out and this was a yeah, I can do
28:59
Speaker 2: this all day, especially with that intro.
29:02
Speaker 1: You gave me our pleasure. And remember, best fans on
29:06
Speaker 1: the planet, keep your cards and letters, come and remember
29:09
Speaker 1: where you lead, we will follow. Stay safe everyone, Hey, everybody,
29:42
Speaker 1: and don't forget Follow us on Instagram at I Am
29:46
Speaker 1: all In podcast and email us at Gilmour at iHeartRadio
29:51
Speaker 1: dot com.