Latest / Earn Your Leisure / $100M Food Empire: Mario Carbone Breaks Down Restaurant Business, Marketing, & Running 30 Eateries

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$100M Food Empire: Mario Carbone Breaks Down Restaurant Business, Marketing, & Running 30 Eateries · Earn Your Leisure

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Speaker 7: I've got a really good problem on my hands. How
1:56
Speaker 7: do I solve this? I've got more demand than I
1:58
Speaker 7: have seats. We want to make sure we take care
2:00
Speaker 7: of the people that have taken care of us. So
2:02
Speaker 7: all those people that are regulars, that have been regulars,
2:04
Speaker 7: that are great customers, we want to make sure we
2:06
Speaker 7: take care of them. I have two hundred seats. The
2:08
Speaker 7: last thing I want to do is just have two
2:10
Speaker 7: hundred random people in the restaurant that I don't know.
2:13
Speaker 7: Two top can come in order a bottle of sparkling
2:16
Speaker 7: water and split a pasta and lead. That doesn't help me.
2:18
Speaker 7: Or I can know exactly who those two people are
2:21
Speaker 7: that are coming because they're regulars. I know all of
2:23
Speaker 7: their spending habits. I know everything that they like and
2:25
Speaker 7: they don't like, and I can put those two people
2:27
Speaker 7: in there. That's totally changes my mind. That's how the
2:29
Speaker 7: scarcity model works in my favor, is that I take
2:32
Speaker 7: care of the people that take care of me and
2:34
Speaker 7: take care of the company by making sure they always
2:36
Speaker 7: have access.
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Speaker 3: Guys, welcome back. Yes, yes, y l we have a
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Speaker 3: very special guest. This is a New York edition for sure.
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Speaker 3: For sure, Lendons of the City. One of the top
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Speaker 3: entrepreneurs and restaurant toys of our generation. Definitely Mario Carbone.
2:53
Speaker 3: You probably recognize his last name because Drake always wraps
2:56
Speaker 3: it by his restaurants better than what do you say?
3:01
Speaker 3: You said they can't get a reservation at Carbone. They're
3:03
Speaker 3: gonna say, it's a chill night, that's one of our
3:06
Speaker 3: favorite barts.
3:09
Speaker 4: But are you getting that late eleven o'clock reservation?
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Speaker 3: One for sure. But you built a dynasty in the
3:14
Speaker 3: culinary business and now you're expanding your fashion doing a
3:18
Speaker 3: variety of different things. So you know you have a
3:20
Speaker 3: partnership with AMEX that we're going to talk about. So
3:23
Speaker 3: this is going to be a great conversation. First and formal,
3:26
Speaker 3: thank you for joining us.
3:26
Speaker 4: We sure you having We statistically got information that it
3:30
Speaker 4: is on record the toughest reservation to get into in
3:33
Speaker 4: the United States of America.
3:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean mentioning AMEX. So Amex, you know, a
3:38
Speaker 7: few years ago, bought Rezi, so they have all the
3:42
Speaker 7: statistical information on the on the reservations there. And we
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Speaker 7: rank Carbon New York ranks number one by demand and
3:50
Speaker 7: Carbon Miami ranks number two by demand.
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Speaker 4: Okay, top two and both.
3:55
Speaker 3: Have you been to Carbone.
3:56
Speaker 4: I've been to Carbone Vegas.
3:58
Speaker 3: Okay, I have not been the car Yeah, so we'll
4:02
Speaker 3: see how this thing goes.
4:03
Speaker 7: Hopeful, we got a feel and I know why I'm here.
4:06
Speaker 3: This is a New York thing, all right, So let's
4:09
Speaker 3: let's just start at the beginning. How do you actually
4:12
Speaker 3: get into the culinary business, and how do you actually
4:14
Speaker 3: start major food group and what's the first steps to
4:17
Speaker 3: actually building this empire?
4:20
Speaker 7: I mean, I would take it all the way back
4:22
Speaker 7: to the very very beginning, which is you know, me
4:23
Speaker 7: being a child. I think my first influence of the
4:30
Speaker 7: of food was my grandparents, who were born in Italy.
4:34
Speaker 7: They were my babysitter kind of in Queens. They'd watch
4:37
Speaker 7: me and you know, invariably they'd be in the kitchen
4:41
Speaker 7: doing something, make preparing something, working on something. So you know,
4:46
Speaker 7: my early, early early memories and early photos or me
4:50
Speaker 7: in my grandparents' kitchen and Queens, and I think that
4:54
Speaker 7: was an introduction to food, the importance that we put
4:58
Speaker 7: on food as a family. And then I think as
5:01
Speaker 7: I grew up, I never lost that interest. And I
5:05
Speaker 7: started working in local restaurants when I was about fifteen,
5:09
Speaker 7: after school and on weekends, just trying to make a
5:11
Speaker 7: little bit of money, and I fell in love with
5:15
Speaker 7: the business of it. And I think that's really important.
5:18
Speaker 7: I think it's important that if you're going to choose
5:21
Speaker 7: this profession, that you love them both. It's not enough
5:24
Speaker 7: to just be a really passionate, enthusiastic cook at home
5:31
Speaker 7: entertainer at home. You think you love this, there's a
5:34
Speaker 7: whole other side of the business of it that's chaotic,
5:40
Speaker 7: it's intense, it's difficult, it's long, hours. It's hard work.
5:46
Speaker 7: You have to love both of those things equally. If
5:49
Speaker 7: you don't, then then one of them is probably going
5:51
Speaker 7: to give out over time.
5:52
Speaker 3: How did you get who mentored you in a business
5:54
Speaker 3: side of it, because like learning about food costs and employees,
5:57
Speaker 3: Like most of the time, if you're just a chef,
6:00
Speaker 3: you're not really who did you just do that on
6:02
Speaker 3: your own or you had like a mentor that actually
6:04
Speaker 3: was showing you the books and showing you how businesses were.
6:07
Speaker 7: Being I think it's a collection of all all of
6:09
Speaker 7: my experiences, from the earliest ones, you know, humble, local
6:14
Speaker 7: local restaurants into you know, going to culinary school, leaving
6:19
Speaker 7: there and then sort of deciding I was going to
6:21
Speaker 7: work for the very best restaurants and chefs all over
6:24
Speaker 7: the world. So I think I took a little bit
6:27
Speaker 7: from from from all of these places, and I sort
6:29
Speaker 7: of collected business acumen, cooking techniques, you know, thematic ambiances,
6:38
Speaker 7: what was working for different people, what were their styles,
6:42
Speaker 7: And I think eventually that college becomes your style.
6:47
Speaker 4: So you you blended in from your experiences. But when
6:50
Speaker 4: you get to a culinary school, because I feel like,
6:52
Speaker 4: especially you said you're an eighties, baby, I'm an eighties
6:54
Speaker 4: based I had saying, we don't know too many people
6:57
Speaker 4: that are going to culinary school and what actually happens
6:59
Speaker 4: inside of high school. I know there was a great
7:01
Speaker 4: experience for you, but everybody's not the same. So talk
7:03
Speaker 4: about the aspects of actually getting into it. What you're studying,
7:06
Speaker 4: what's practicing, what's happening inside of this place.
7:08
Speaker 7: I think the biggest thing for me with culinary school
7:11
Speaker 7: was the fact that I wasn't a great high school student.
7:17
Speaker 7: So I never really had the aptitude in high school.
7:21
Speaker 7: I wasn't really that interested. I got whatever grades in
7:25
Speaker 7: high school. And as I was getting towards the end
7:29
Speaker 7: of my time there and senior year, and I realized
7:32
Speaker 7: that my choices after high school were really sort of
7:39
Speaker 7: continuing this mediocracy and lack of interest and aptitude in
7:46
Speaker 7: formal education, or actually try this what I saw as
7:51
Speaker 7: a vocation, like I'm going to learn this trade. Because
7:54
Speaker 7: to your point, it still wasn't like a cool thing
7:58
Speaker 7: to do in nineteen nine, right, you weren't. I wasn't
8:01
Speaker 7: going around telling my boys that I was cooking after school.
8:05
Speaker 7: So had I been a better student in high school
8:09
Speaker 7: and had an opportunity to see a path in traditional education,
8:14
Speaker 7: I might have taken it, and that would have taken
8:17
Speaker 7: me somewhere entirely different. So I think it in hindsight,
8:20
Speaker 7: it was luck for me that I didn't care at
8:22
Speaker 7: all about school and I didn't really want to continue it,
8:26
Speaker 7: so I forced myself to do this, this vocation. And
8:30
Speaker 7: then that triggered, oh, you better make something out of this,
8:34
Speaker 7: like now you you you made this bed, you know,
8:37
Speaker 7: so now you better make something out of it because
8:39
Speaker 7: you didn't do it in regular school. Here's culinary school.
8:42
Speaker 7: Don't mess this one up. And then I started to
8:45
Speaker 7: apply myself.
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Speaker 4: So I mean, the first day you get there, you
8:48
Speaker 4: meet somebody that ends up being change your life forever.
8:52
Speaker 4: So you're talking about luck of even getting there. But
8:54
Speaker 4: the first day you're there you meet Jeff, which I
8:57
Speaker 4: met rich Rich.
8:58
Speaker 3: I'm sorry you.
8:59
Speaker 4: Meet Rich up being a How did like from day one,
9:02
Speaker 4: did you guys just have a synergy with your past
9:05
Speaker 4: kind of crossing at the same time, like, yeah, we
9:07
Speaker 4: have similar aspirations.
9:09
Speaker 7: We didn't know that early on. I think it was
9:11
Speaker 7: just it was day one orientation, like you were saying, uh,
9:14
Speaker 7: you know, nineteen ninety eight and we met and we
9:18
Speaker 7: both you know, he was from Westchester or some Queens
9:21
Speaker 7: and it was really that it was really that short
9:24
Speaker 7: and that sweet. It was just like, oh, hey, what's up.
9:25
Speaker 7: You know, nice to meet you. You know, we were
9:27
Speaker 7: meeting kids from all over the country, all over the world,
9:30
Speaker 7: and I was like, oh, you're you're kind of from
9:31
Speaker 7: You're kind of your New York. So like great, like
9:33
Speaker 7: nice to meet you. And then later on in our
9:37
Speaker 7: time at school, the girl that he was dating and
9:39
Speaker 7: the girl that I was dating were friends, so we
9:41
Speaker 7: wound up going out to like dinner together and like
9:44
Speaker 7: hanging out a little bit. And I think it was
9:49
Speaker 7: and we stayed friends through our time there. But I
9:52
Speaker 7: think it was the fact that we both had nearly
9:55
Speaker 7: identical ambition to do the same thing in the same place,
10:00
Speaker 7: with virtually the same goals, which was really, I want
10:02
Speaker 7: to go to New York City, I want to graduate,
10:04
Speaker 7: I want to go to New York City. I want
10:05
Speaker 7: to work for the best restaurants, best chefs. I don't
10:07
Speaker 7: care what I have to do, put my head down,
10:09
Speaker 7: que my mouth shut, and make myself a great chef.
10:12
Speaker 7: And through those almost identical pass we wound up staying
10:17
Speaker 7: friends for the next decade. I knew where he was working,
10:20
Speaker 7: he knew where I was working. Sometimes we worked in
10:22
Speaker 7: the same restaurants, which was really cool. We eventually became
10:26
Speaker 7: roommates in the West Village, and then all of that
10:31
Speaker 7: started to really grow like a deep friendship, a brotherhood,
10:35
Speaker 7: to where we trusted each other with our thoughts, with
10:39
Speaker 7: our ideas. You know, we'd stay up late at night
10:41
Speaker 7: talking about our ambition and our ideas and the things
10:43
Speaker 7: we wanted to do. And through that process of becoming
10:48
Speaker 7: so close and divulging in each other, we when it
10:52
Speaker 7: came time to start a business, we trusted each other
10:55
Speaker 7: very very much. We knew that that other person had
10:57
Speaker 7: my back and they had the same ambition.
11:00
Speaker 3: So, okay, you start the business right what you opened
11:04
Speaker 3: the restaurant first, that's the first thing you do.
11:06
Speaker 7: When so yeah, I mean it was probably ten or
11:09
Speaker 7: eleven years after graduation. So like the first decade is
11:14
Speaker 7: you know, just keep your mouth shut, go work everywhere,
11:16
Speaker 7: work for the best, grind it out. It's not glamorous,
11:20
Speaker 7: there's very little money in it. But you're there to
11:23
Speaker 7: just build your experiences and your resume. And then end
11:27
Speaker 7: of two thousand and nine, the very beginning of twenty ten,
11:31
Speaker 7: we opened Rich and I opened our first restaurant. Basically,
11:34
Speaker 7: the way that came about was we both had ambition
11:38
Speaker 7: to be entrepreneurs in New York City, and then there
11:41
Speaker 7: was a financial crisis in two thousand and eight, which
11:44
Speaker 7: basically meant that any investors for the two of us
11:49
Speaker 7: were dried up. We were unproven, we were young, We
11:52
Speaker 7: had no track record of making anybody any money. So
11:57
Speaker 7: it makes sense that we really had a hard time
11:59
Speaker 7: finding any sort of investment to do this thing. But
12:02
Speaker 7: we were really ready to be our own bosses. So
12:06
Speaker 7: we decided the only way to do it right now
12:10
Speaker 7: would be to do it together. Put aside your personal
12:14
Speaker 7: dreams and my personal dreams, let's make them collective dreams.
12:18
Speaker 7: And we put the little bit of resources that we
12:21
Speaker 7: had each had put aside, each of our families, had
12:24
Speaker 7: a little bit of money saved for us, and a
12:27
Speaker 7: couple of friends, and we opened a four hundred square
12:31
Speaker 7: foot almost the size of this room restaurant, if you
12:35
Speaker 7: want to call it, that, six table restaurant, Teresa Time Specialties,
12:39
Speaker 7: which still exists now just a little bit further north,
12:42
Speaker 7: on that same block, six tables, twenty customers at a time.
12:47
Speaker 7: We served We were basically a deli in the daytime
12:50
Speaker 7: and we had one menu at night. That was really
12:54
Speaker 7: all we could serve, so sandwiches in the daytime and
12:57
Speaker 7: a menu at night. And that was our very first
13:01
Speaker 7: foray into being businessmen and figuring out all the things
13:05
Speaker 7: that go along with that.
13:07
Speaker 4: But it's the ten years of experienced product gets you
13:09
Speaker 4: to this point. So as you're saying, and I'm thinking
13:12
Speaker 4: to myself, what are the things that you're applying from
13:15
Speaker 4: what you've learned when you're grinding, you're not making much money,
13:18
Speaker 4: you're learning about hospitality. I'm sure food, coutse, menu options, presentation,
13:23
Speaker 4: all the what are the things that those key components
13:26
Speaker 4: that you're saying, all right, we need to add this.
13:28
Speaker 4: When we start, even in four hunder square fee, we.
13:31
Speaker 7: Were very confident that we could we could we could
13:33
Speaker 7: make the food, We could make something, We could make
13:36
Speaker 7: a product that people wanted. We had we knew the
13:42
Speaker 7: local press community from being in all these restaurants in
13:45
Speaker 7: New York. We knew who the who the journalists were,
13:47
Speaker 7: we knew who the critics were. We could get our
13:50
Speaker 7: message out to them, which was important. We were a
13:53
Speaker 7: product of the city, so it felt like they wanted
13:58
Speaker 7: to root for us. We were these young kids from
14:00
Speaker 7: New York doing a very New York thing. Finding our
14:06
Speaker 7: voice was a critical thing early on. Who are we?
14:11
Speaker 7: Who are what is this thing we're building? And when
14:15
Speaker 7: we came across the idea that we needed to we
14:20
Speaker 7: needed to portray our upbringing in this restaurant. We needed
14:25
Speaker 7: we needed to be Italian American and what did that
14:27
Speaker 7: mean to us? So when we found that voice, it
14:32
Speaker 7: became easy to speak about it. It became easy to reach
14:35
Speaker 7: out to these journalists, Hey, can you help get our
14:37
Speaker 7: message out there? We're going to open this little thing,
14:41
Speaker 7: and it felt like everybody rallied around us. It was
14:44
Speaker 7: a really beautiful time for us.
14:46
Speaker 3: So what's the point where you really hit your stride
14:48
Speaker 3: and you start to really take off in a situation.
14:51
Speaker 7: We got a couple of really incredible critical reviews of
14:55
Speaker 7: that restaurant from New York Magazine, from the New York Times,
14:59
Speaker 7: So that took us from you need to know about
15:02
Speaker 7: this little place in the neighborhood to the entire city
15:06
Speaker 7: being made aware of what we're doing in this restaurant.
15:10
Speaker 7: So once those happened, we had pretty quickly outgrown the
15:15
Speaker 7: square footage that we had. You know, we weren't taking
15:18
Speaker 7: reservations at the time, so a line would form early
15:22
Speaker 7: in the afternoon waiting for reservations for that night. Those
15:25
Speaker 7: are those big moments where you're like, oh shit, man,
15:28
Speaker 7: there's a line outside, like it wraps around the block,
15:31
Speaker 7: like they're here for reservations. Those are big moments to
15:35
Speaker 7: be to be recognized by your colleagues like that at
15:38
Speaker 7: the highest level in New York was was we're big
15:41
Speaker 7: turning points for us.
15:42
Speaker 4: So you get the write ups New York Times. That's huge.
15:45
Speaker 4: So there's a different time. So like people listening now
15:48
Speaker 4: like that, don't reprint this is a huge thing New
15:51
Speaker 4: York Times. Like social media, I mean it existed, but
15:54
Speaker 4: Facebook is Instagram isn't what it is?
15:57
Speaker 3: Right.
15:58
Speaker 4: You also get Michelin start, Yeah in two thy thirteen,
16:03
Speaker 4: twenty fourteen. Yeah, for the people in the restaurant, this
16:07
Speaker 4: is like this is your stamp. Like at the time
16:10
Speaker 4: when you get Michelin started, I know things have changed
16:12
Speaker 4: and we'll get into that later, but what does that
16:14
Speaker 4: feel like and what's the process of becoming Michelin started.
16:17
Speaker 4: And for those who don't know, I can explain what
16:19
Speaker 4: it means to somebody in the restaurant into your world.
16:22
Speaker 7: Well, I think the stars that we put the most,
16:25
Speaker 7: we put the most weight into are are and still
16:28
Speaker 7: are still and will always be The New York Times,
16:30
Speaker 7: I think for us, because that's that's the that's the
16:34
Speaker 7: system we grew up reading. That's the paper we'd run
16:37
Speaker 7: to go get to see who was the review that day.
16:40
Speaker 7: So for us, it's always been The New York Times.
16:43
Speaker 7: You know, Michelin wasn't wasn't a thing yet in New
16:46
Speaker 7: York when we were coming up. Now, Michelin is a
16:50
Speaker 7: big thing and it's a big business. And we could
16:53
Speaker 7: talk for a long time about Michelin. But I'm not
16:56
Speaker 7: exactly sure what the criteria is. I don't not sure
17:00
Speaker 7: sure anybody really does. But it's it's it's it's certainly
17:04
Speaker 7: closely watched by a lot of people, and if you
17:07
Speaker 7: are recognized by them, it's a big deal for your business.
17:10
Speaker 3: So, okay, so you get a cult following in New York,
17:15
Speaker 3: then you open up it. After that, that's when you
17:17
Speaker 3: open up Carbo.
17:19
Speaker 7: We wound up taking the space directly next door to Terresi,
17:21
Speaker 7: and that became a really casual sort of sandwich shop
17:24
Speaker 7: called Palm. So they know, that was just kind of
17:26
Speaker 7: luck of the draw that the place next to us
17:28
Speaker 7: went out of business and we wound up having these
17:31
Speaker 7: two stores next to each other. So basically, the deli
17:34
Speaker 7: that was in Too Easy moved next door and that
17:36
Speaker 7: just became a restaurant, and we thought that would hold
17:39
Speaker 7: us over for some time. But we kind of quickly
17:42
Speaker 7: outgrew both of those as well. You know, each one
17:44
Speaker 7: really small, I mean collectively, you're still talking about a
17:47
Speaker 7: thousand square feet, so it didn't take long before we
17:50
Speaker 7: outgrew both of those little spaces. And the third one
17:54
Speaker 7: was our next big leap, which was taking on a
17:58
Speaker 7: quote unquote real restaurant, which was would be Carbone.
18:02
Speaker 3: So all right, restaurant industry, I think it's like a
18:05
Speaker 3: ninety percent failure rate, right, even people that have money.
18:09
Speaker 3: We see a lot of athletes, they don't. They're not
18:11
Speaker 3: successful in restaurants. Foot traffic is very random. It is
18:15
Speaker 3: hard to keep people inconsistently. What is some mistakes that
18:19
Speaker 3: you see restaurant toys make and how what are the
18:22
Speaker 3: things that you have done differently to break those odds,
18:25
Speaker 3: and you know, be the outlier.
18:28
Speaker 7: You'd be hard pressed to find an industry with more
18:30
Speaker 7: complexity than a restaurant business with more moving parts a restaurant.
18:36
Speaker 7: A business as difficult as it is that even when
18:40
Speaker 7: you are successful, the percentage of profitability what is considered
18:46
Speaker 7: successful is still relatively small for another business, which makes
18:53
Speaker 7: the whole thing incredibly difficult. The problem is it's a
18:58
Speaker 7: cool business. So there's another element of vanity involved in
19:01
Speaker 7: these businesses. You want a host, you want your name
19:04
Speaker 7: in lights, whatever it might be, so it looks like
19:07
Speaker 7: a lot of fun. That's where it That's where the
19:10
Speaker 7: danger lies. So things that we've done to be successful,
19:16
Speaker 7: you know, I'm not quite sure. I think we tell
19:20
Speaker 7: a very clear story. We have a story and we
19:23
Speaker 7: have a product that I believe people want, identifying that,
19:27
Speaker 7: knowing that we try not to build selfish products. We
19:30
Speaker 7: try to remember that there's a customer on the other
19:32
Speaker 7: side of that. Making something that people want, making a
19:35
Speaker 7: great version of something that people want, giving them something
19:38
Speaker 7: that they can't experience on their couch. You know, this
19:41
Speaker 7: day and age, you know, not so much when we started,
19:44
Speaker 7: but this day and age, you know, there's so many
19:46
Speaker 7: delivery services, so, like the business has changed a great
19:49
Speaker 7: deal from when we started, from social media to the
19:51
Speaker 7: delivery apps. My business is completely different than when we
19:55
Speaker 7: first started, So we had to adapt as well. So
19:57
Speaker 7: giving them an experience, giving them a night out, making
19:59
Speaker 7: it something that you can't replicate form ubritz.
20:02
Speaker 3: Also the scarcity model, right have you manufactured? Because it's
20:05
Speaker 3: like going to a club. Right, If you can see
20:07
Speaker 3: a club that has no line, you're not really interested
20:10
Speaker 3: in going in. But if you see the line is
20:12
Speaker 3: like three blocks long, you're at least curious to know
20:14
Speaker 3: why this line is three blocks long, right, which makes
20:17
Speaker 3: you want to spend more money for bottles. Being that
20:19
Speaker 3: you can't really get into your restaurant, it makes people
20:22
Speaker 3: want to get into your restaurant. Is that done purposely?
20:27
Speaker 7: I mean it's not done purposely. You can't. You can't
20:31
Speaker 7: fake having a product that's in demand, right, you had
20:33
Speaker 7: to have created the product. So it all starts with
20:37
Speaker 7: the product. Like Carbone was a great restaurant. We built
20:40
Speaker 7: a great restaurant. We had no idea the outcome, you know,
20:43
Speaker 7: it was take on a bigger project than we've ever
20:47
Speaker 7: taken on and do your best, put everything you've got
20:50
Speaker 7: behind it. Make a great product. So it has to
20:52
Speaker 7: start there, and then good problems will come, you know,
20:57
Speaker 7: the good. The good will come out of that, but
21:00
Speaker 7: keep super focused on the product and not the outcome,
21:04
Speaker 7: because there is no outcome without the product. So we
21:07
Speaker 7: built a great restaurant. Thankfully, you know, it's been and
21:11
Speaker 7: continues to be in demand by a really wide demographic
21:14
Speaker 7: of people. You know, for everything from you know, my
21:18
Speaker 7: parents and grandparents to the new athlete that just got drafted.
21:21
Speaker 7: They all love it and it's rooted in nostalgia, so
21:25
Speaker 7: it touches a lot of people. And then you get
21:28
Speaker 7: into the scarcity model. Then you get into Okay, I've
21:32
Speaker 7: got a really good problem on my hands. How do
21:34
Speaker 7: I solve it? The really good problem is I've got
21:36
Speaker 7: more demand than I have seats. Now we're in a
21:39
Speaker 7: position where we want to make sure we take care
21:42
Speaker 7: of the people that have taken care of us. So
21:44
Speaker 7: all those people that are regulars, that have been regulars,
21:47
Speaker 7: that are great customers, we want to make sure we
21:49
Speaker 7: take care of them. The last thing you want to
21:51
Speaker 7: do with I have two hundred seats, The last thing
21:54
Speaker 7: I want to do is just have two hundred random
21:57
Speaker 7: people in the restaurant that I don't know. They could
22:00
Speaker 7: come in a two top, can come in order a
22:04
Speaker 7: bottle of sparkling water and split a pasta and lead
22:07
Speaker 7: that doesn't help me. Or I can know exactly who
22:11
Speaker 7: those two people are that are coming because they're regulars.
22:13
Speaker 7: I know all I know all of their spending habits,
22:16
Speaker 7: I know everything that they like and they don't like.
22:17
Speaker 7: And I can put those two people in there. That's
22:19
Speaker 7: totally changes my night. So that's how the scarcity model
22:23
Speaker 7: works in my favor, is that I take care of
22:26
Speaker 7: the people that take care of me and take care
22:28
Speaker 7: of the company by making sure they always have access
22:30
Speaker 7: to tables.
22:31
Speaker 3: When you scale.
22:32
Speaker 4: Because even when you were talking about the deli and
22:34
Speaker 4: having the restaurant, I'm thinking to myself, most restaurants don't
22:36
Speaker 4: succeed because the hours of functioning. Most people are working
22:40
Speaker 4: and they're not there and if they don't open for lunch,
22:42
Speaker 4: and how do they make revenue. The fact that you
22:44
Speaker 4: have a deli keeps you open throughout the day, and
22:45
Speaker 4: then you can have a restaurant at night that helps
22:47
Speaker 4: profit Martians. When you realize that we need to grow to,
22:50
Speaker 4: like you said, a thousand square feet. Now the process
22:54
Speaker 4: of financing you went from two thousand and eight where
22:55
Speaker 4: it was a financial crisis to now it's twenty eleven,
22:58
Speaker 4: twenty twelve, thirteen. Economy is changing. Is it easier now
23:02
Speaker 4: when you're going to investors to say, hey, I have
23:04
Speaker 4: a proven model, going to banks, Hey we need a loan.
23:07
Speaker 4: Here's approven model. We're in such demand. How was that
23:11
Speaker 4: going through that at that time?
23:13
Speaker 7: Incredibly difficult? In the beginning where you're taking you know,
23:17
Speaker 7: virtually your your your family's life savings, and your roll
23:20
Speaker 7: in the dice, right, so like the stakes can't possibly
23:23
Speaker 7: be any higher. You're unknown, you're unproven except for the
23:27
Speaker 7: people that are closest to you. And then you build
23:30
Speaker 7: something that now has a following. So with the second
23:35
Speaker 7: and the third project that you're seeking investment, of course,
23:37
Speaker 7: the first people I'm going to go to other people
23:39
Speaker 7: that that I that I've met, that i've that now
23:42
Speaker 7: I know that enjoy my product, that are fans of
23:44
Speaker 7: what I do. So now I've got Now I've got
23:47
Speaker 7: some I've got some audience to talk to to ask
23:51
Speaker 7: for Hey, would you like to be a part of
23:52
Speaker 7: what we're doing next or our future growth where I
23:56
Speaker 7: had I had none of that to begin with. So
23:59
Speaker 7: the snowball starts to happen. You know, it's it's all positive.
24:02
Speaker 7: It's all the positive snowball that comes from putting out
24:05
Speaker 7: something that that people want.
24:07
Speaker 4: So and at that point is that now it's you
24:10
Speaker 4: and rich as Jeff part of this.
24:11
Speaker 7: Ye, Jeff's a part of it. He came on really
24:13
Speaker 7: really early on pretty much the end of the first year,
24:16
Speaker 7: by the end of our first year in business, and
24:18
Speaker 7: Jeff was already part of the company, you know, exactly
24:21
Speaker 7: this point. He was a super enthusiastic early customer of
24:24
Speaker 7: what we were doing at TRESI wound up hanging out
24:27
Speaker 7: with us at the end of the night having drinks. Hey,
24:29
Speaker 7: I love what you do. This is something I want
24:31
Speaker 7: to be a part of. Here's how I could I
24:33
Speaker 7: think I could help. You know, maybe this dynamic is
24:36
Speaker 7: three instead of two. And over the course of you know,
24:40
Speaker 7: talking it out with him, was like, you know, maybe this,
24:42
Speaker 7: maybe this is the right next person. But without having
24:47
Speaker 7: taken that leap of faith and doing TERRESI with you know,
24:51
Speaker 7: just bootstraps, then I don't. I don't really meet Jeff
24:54
Speaker 7: comes out.
24:55
Speaker 3: So you said something as far as like client attention.
24:58
Speaker 3: That's keith any business, right, it is better to keep
25:01
Speaker 3: clients as opposed to trying to get new clients. So
25:03
Speaker 3: and then you're keeping data and you're tracking how much
25:06
Speaker 3: money you're spending, right, and you know your A clients
25:08
Speaker 3: from your B clients to your C clients. That's true
25:10
Speaker 3: in any business as well. What are you doing to
25:14
Speaker 3: encourage them to come your A clients that's spending five
25:18
Speaker 3: thousand dollars on wine? How are you encouraging them to
25:21
Speaker 3: come back on a regular basis? Are you constantly in
25:24
Speaker 3: staying in touch with them via text messages? Like what's
25:26
Speaker 3: your communication method?
25:29
Speaker 7: I think it's making sure that we have access for
25:32
Speaker 7: them as much as possible, right in some sort of
25:35
Speaker 7: tiered system. But again, I think all roads always lead
25:39
Speaker 7: to the product.
25:40
Speaker 4: Right.
25:41
Speaker 7: We have to stay hot, we have to stay and demand.
25:47
Speaker 7: How do you do that? You've got to keep putting
25:49
Speaker 7: out the product. It's always all roads always lead back
25:52
Speaker 7: to the product. The restaurant to stay hot for a
25:55
Speaker 7: decade means that enough people have come in and had
25:58
Speaker 7: great experiences. That database grows as a new customer comes
26:03
Speaker 7: in and has a great experience and they want to
26:05
Speaker 7: come back. Great. But if we start to slip and
26:10
Speaker 7: someone new comes in and they're hot, well, then my
26:13
Speaker 7: A customers are going there. I can't keep them. I
26:16
Speaker 7: can't keep them without the product. All roads lead to it.
26:20
Speaker 4: So even like in a scenario like that, do you
26:22
Speaker 4: have to Let's say, you guys have the ravioli, that's amazing,
26:25
Speaker 4: that's why people are coming down the street, somebody selling
26:28
Speaker 4: the lasagna, and you lose some customers. Are you updating
26:33
Speaker 4: the menu? Are you updating the products to say? All right, well,
26:36
Speaker 4: if that's what the I don't know, you don't like
26:37
Speaker 4: the word competition will say, if that's what the colleagues
26:39
Speaker 4: are doing, then let's figure out how we add to
26:42
Speaker 4: it to make sure that we can encompass all of them.
26:45
Speaker 4: It's tricky because you don't want to add too many
26:47
Speaker 4: things right to make sure that the price points i'mmachining
26:50
Speaker 4: so you can have profit. You don't want to get
26:53
Speaker 4: rid of the old things because you have loyal customers
26:55
Speaker 4: that are coming there for that. How do you balance that.
26:58
Speaker 7: I'm always working on working on something, I'm always working
27:02
Speaker 7: on the product, whether it's something we just open, something
27:06
Speaker 7: we're about to open, or looking back at something that's existing.
27:11
Speaker 7: I think you look at it, you have to look
27:12
Speaker 7: at it, or you'd like to try to look at
27:14
Speaker 7: it through as many sets of eyes as possible. Be
27:17
Speaker 7: a customer yourself, be in the kitchen, talk to the team,
27:23
Speaker 7: talk to the customers, read reviews, collect the data, and
27:29
Speaker 7: that will educate you as to what needs to be done,
27:34
Speaker 7: what shouldn't be done, what should be touched. And then
27:38
Speaker 7: there's just sort of the ambition of it all. Okay,
27:40
Speaker 7: I want this brand to grow with me. You know,
27:42
Speaker 7: I started it in two thousand and third, let's talk
27:44
Speaker 7: about I started twenty thirteen. Okay, that's ten eleven years now.
27:49
Speaker 7: It shouldn't stay stagnant. It should grow while not changing
27:54
Speaker 7: to a point where a person who's never been there
27:56
Speaker 7: before gets a different experience. Finding that balance and really
28:01
Speaker 7: the only way to do it. It's up to me.
28:04
Speaker 7: The balance is up to me where I want to
28:06
Speaker 7: take it. So it's my personal ambition along with reading
28:11
Speaker 7: the room, getting collecting the data, finding where I want
28:15
Speaker 7: it to grow. But it's no different than a fashion
28:20
Speaker 7: designer who's in a house that's ten years old, twenty
28:23
Speaker 7: years old, thirty years old. You have the customers that
28:26
Speaker 7: are loyal followers, and that's great earners.
28:29
Speaker 3: What's up?
28:30
Speaker 4: You ever walk into a small business and everything just
28:32
Speaker 4: works like the checkout is fast, the re seats are digital,
28:36
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28:39
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28:43
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30:19
Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
30:23
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31:10
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31:17
Speaker 2: Be protected sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
31:20
Speaker 7: But if you don't continue to gain new followers, it
31:24
Speaker 7: will eventually die. So how do you maintain the integrity
31:28
Speaker 7: of the brand standards that have built this thing while
31:31
Speaker 7: continuing to innovate, to gain new customers and finding that balance.
31:35
Speaker 7: That's just growth.
31:37
Speaker 3: So okay, multiple streams of income very important. So you've
31:41
Speaker 3: diversified your portfolio, you have physical products. What's the thought
31:44
Speaker 3: process behind that.
31:47
Speaker 7: The thought process behind this was we believed that we
31:50
Speaker 7: had built a brand that was nationally known while only
31:54
Speaker 7: having a few hundred seats total. Even if you collect
31:58
Speaker 7: all the carbones in the so certainly, we can only
32:02
Speaker 7: reach a very very small demographic of people physically, How
32:05
Speaker 7: do I do something? Create something that can reach a
32:11
Speaker 7: much larger percentage of the people that know who we
32:14
Speaker 7: are and we'd like something based off the product. They'd
32:18
Speaker 7: like a little piece of that restaurant taken home to them.
32:23
Speaker 7: So this was was the way that we thought to
32:25
Speaker 7: go by doing that.
32:27
Speaker 3: Okay and okay, so you want to bottle it? Are
32:30
Speaker 3: you working with somebody? Are you doing this independent? Are
32:33
Speaker 3: you a partnership?
32:34
Speaker 7: We work with you know, it starts with us creating
32:39
Speaker 7: this sauce ourselves, like literally Rich and myself, creating this
32:42
Speaker 7: sauce on scale because you know, as you get to
32:46
Speaker 7: scales that we're cooking at, the recipes change. So it
32:49
Speaker 7: took us quite some time to get to something that
32:51
Speaker 7: we were really happy with. You're doing it at a
32:54
Speaker 7: bottling plant where where sauce is being made on scale,
32:57
Speaker 7: we don't own one hundred gallon drums of ovens and kettles.
33:04
Speaker 7: So you do that locally, choosing the tomato, choosing all
33:07
Speaker 7: the ingredients, choosing the cooking process, tweaking the recipes. Every
33:11
Speaker 7: time a new batch is made. They send us a
33:14
Speaker 7: sample so that we can make sure that it's exactly
33:16
Speaker 7: where it's supposed to be. So that's kind of how
33:20
Speaker 7: you go about it. You know, you want to take
33:22
Speaker 7: the same sort of care and thought process with this
33:25
Speaker 7: as you would anything you're making at the restaurants.
33:28
Speaker 4: So multiple streams turns from having the product I use
33:30
Speaker 4: the product the tomato besols like I was telling you.
33:33
Speaker 4: But you have a portfolio of over forty restaurants. Yeah, right,
33:35
Speaker 4: almost fifty now almost fifty. All of each are kind
33:41
Speaker 4: of unique. Right if you have the Lopsy Club, which
33:43
Speaker 4: is different from Carbone you talked about Palm. What is
33:45
Speaker 4: the process when you're saying, let me look at that landscape,
33:48
Speaker 4: what is it missing? How you choose the locations and
33:50
Speaker 4: what to put in each.
33:53
Speaker 7: I think the process is different. Sometimes it'll come to
33:55
Speaker 7: us a developers building something a hotel or a residential tower,
34:00
Speaker 7: and they say, we have a space available, we'd love
34:03
Speaker 7: to have you part of the project. Sometimes it's us
34:07
Speaker 7: seeking a space because we have like Terresi, for instance,
34:11
Speaker 7: our original restaurant had outgrown the original space. We need
34:14
Speaker 7: we need a space. We have to go find one,
34:16
Speaker 7: but we don't want to leave the circumference too far
34:19
Speaker 7: from the original location. So it's often opportunistic how we
34:26
Speaker 7: get a hold of these spaces and then figuring out, okay,
34:29
Speaker 7: working backwards, what does this space want, what does it
34:33
Speaker 7: want to be. Sometimes it's it's predetermined where a hotel
34:38
Speaker 7: will come to us and say we're looking to put
34:40
Speaker 7: a carbone here in the city, and you can either
34:42
Speaker 7: agree or disagree or do the deal. Or it can
34:45
Speaker 7: be abstract, Hey, you know, let me know your thoughts
34:48
Speaker 7: on this project and how you would program it, and
34:51
Speaker 7: then we can go back and sort of take a
34:53
Speaker 7: look back and say, okay, what is that project or
34:55
Speaker 7: that city, that development, what does it want, what does
34:58
Speaker 7: it want to be? What does it want? And uh,
35:00
Speaker 7: and work through it. You know, what's the demographic of
35:03
Speaker 7: the city, what's what you know? What what what do
35:05
Speaker 7: we think that the appropriate check average would be. What's
35:08
Speaker 7: the right concept to put there? So each each one
35:12
Speaker 7: can be unique of how we get to the answers
35:16
Speaker 7: we get to when you look.
35:17
Speaker 4: At it, Is it ever a situation where it's there's
35:20
Speaker 4: a there's a real estate component to it, where we
35:22
Speaker 4: actually now have ownership or equity inside of these developments.
35:26
Speaker 4: Does that come into play as well.
35:27
Speaker 7: Yes, uh, for sure, you want to. You know, as
35:30
Speaker 7: you get bigger and the brands get bigger, you want
35:33
Speaker 7: to try to leverage them as much as possible. So
35:38
Speaker 7: we're fully aware that food and beverage greatly affects you know,
35:42
Speaker 7: how you the customer feel about that hotel. I stay
35:45
Speaker 7: at that hotel because it's got that great restaurant in size,
35:47
Speaker 7: this is true. Or I might buy a condo in
35:49
Speaker 7: that building because it's got a it's got a carbone
35:52
Speaker 7: in it or whatever. Okay, well, if we're affecting it
35:55
Speaker 7: that greatly for the owner of the building of developer,
35:59
Speaker 7: well then there should be something in it for us
36:00
Speaker 7: as well. But all you know, fifty restaurants, we've got
36:05
Speaker 7: fifty different deals. You know, they're all different, they all
36:08
Speaker 7: look a little different. And that's just kind of growth
36:11
Speaker 7: as well and teaching. You know, no one, no one
36:13
Speaker 7: teaches this, so you know, learning as you go along
36:15
Speaker 7: how to how to construct these things and how to
36:17
Speaker 7: put them together for the good of the business, the
36:20
Speaker 7: best of the business.
36:21
Speaker 3: Can you talk about Carbone Beach in the partnership with
36:23
Speaker 3: American Express.
36:24
Speaker 7: Absolutely, American Express has been an amazing partner to us
36:28
Speaker 7: for years now and where now we've just finished our
36:33
Speaker 7: third year of Carbone Beach, so there's been three uh,
36:37
Speaker 7: you know, and it's in line with the Formula one
36:39
Speaker 7: race in Miami, so there's been three of those now.
36:42
Speaker 7: And you know, the first year came about because as
36:46
Speaker 7: as this sort of Formula one race in Miami was
36:48
Speaker 7: happening and all the buzz and talk about it coming
36:51
Speaker 7: to Miami, you know, we realized we needed to do
36:54
Speaker 7: something on scale with what was what was looking like
36:58
Speaker 7: it was going to be the biggest week end of
36:59
Speaker 7: the year in the city. Like, well, if this is
37:02
Speaker 7: the biggest week of the year, we need to we
37:03
Speaker 7: need to go big two. It's not enough to just
37:05
Speaker 7: have the restaurants. So we came up with this idea
37:08
Speaker 7: of this sort of basically old world supper club, very glamorous,
37:13
Speaker 7: you know, weekend of dinners where there'd be a performance,
37:17
Speaker 7: there'd be this over the top meal, all sorts of
37:21
Speaker 7: activations happening around it. But the scale was the scale
37:27
Speaker 7: we were talking about was crazy. It was the biggest
37:28
Speaker 7: thing we've ever done, basically building an airplane hangar on
37:33
Speaker 7: the beach of Miami. So we needed help, and AMEX
37:37
Speaker 7: has always been, you know, really really supportive of us,
37:40
Speaker 7: great partners. They were the first people we thought of
37:42
Speaker 7: the call and Queen's guy, Steve Squiry, CEO. Shout out
37:47
Speaker 7: to Steve Squirrey, the CEO of AMEX mcclancy High School.
37:51
Speaker 7: We gave him a call and and and he was like, absolutely, well,
37:54
Speaker 7: we would love to partner with you. So that was
37:57
Speaker 7: the beginning of a of a great relationship. And and
38:01
Speaker 7: what is basically the Academy Awards for us, and it's
38:03
Speaker 7: the biggest event of the year we put on. It
38:06
Speaker 7: takes virtually the whole year to put it together.
38:08
Speaker 4: You're talking about high level. I remember last year when
38:11
Speaker 4: I saw Nails on stage and Cali was just recorded
38:15
Speaker 4: and Stout was their ice sculptures. It was an amazing
38:19
Speaker 4: looking event. I'm sure this year we missed. This year
38:21
Speaker 4: we were out of dear friend's birthday party out of town,
38:24
Speaker 4: so we missed it. But when I thought about it,
38:27
Speaker 4: and I'm glad you brought up F one, it makes
38:29
Speaker 4: you feel like maybe this is something that can happen
38:31
Speaker 4: at additional f ones. I know you're in Vegas already,
38:35
Speaker 4: and shout out to the Aria because you're in there
38:38
Speaker 4: one of the reasons we say, but is there potential
38:41
Speaker 4: to follow events right, whether it's the World Cup which
38:45
Speaker 4: is coming it'll be in Miami as well. F One
38:47
Speaker 4: which travels throughout the world. Is that on the vision
38:50
Speaker 4: board as well?
38:50
Speaker 7: There's definitely demand for it. We've done carbon Beach in
38:55
Speaker 7: Doha for the Formula One race there. We plan to
38:59
Speaker 7: do it again this year there. So some of these
39:01
Speaker 7: bigger events have been reaching out based off of the
39:06
Speaker 7: success of the one of Miami. And again it's it's
39:10
Speaker 7: it's for us because it's judging risk award because it's
39:12
Speaker 7: such a big lift for us. It takes so many
39:14
Speaker 7: team members, so many man hours to put it on
39:17
Speaker 7: to make it great that you know, you're always looking
39:22
Speaker 7: at it as as you know, what is the what
39:25
Speaker 7: what's the what's the risk award here? What's the what's
39:27
Speaker 7: the level of risk for us to send a whole
39:29
Speaker 7: squad hours and hours away from from their home base.
39:34
Speaker 7: But I'd say there to your point, there is definitely
39:37
Speaker 7: growing demand for this, this Carbone Beach product at big
39:39
Speaker 7: events around the world.
39:40
Speaker 3: How how are you able to manage COVID?
39:44
Speaker 7: No one was ready for it right. I mean, there
39:45
Speaker 7: was no sign that this thing was going to happen.
39:47
Speaker 7: So we were just plugging along, New York based company.
39:52
Speaker 7: We had a we had I think at the time
39:54
Speaker 7: maybe almost three thousand employees, and you know, we had
39:58
Speaker 7: our plans for the future. We were you know, I
40:00
Speaker 7: remember exactly where we were the last night we were
40:03
Speaker 7: in business before that happened. And this thing comes out
40:07
Speaker 7: of nowhere and decimates the business landscape. So then we
40:14
Speaker 7: turn around and a week or so later, we have
40:18
Speaker 7: twenty employees on the payroll and one functioning restaurant, which
40:24
Speaker 7: is Carbone on Thompson Street. Yeah, and one functioning restaurant
40:30
Speaker 7: which was Carbone, and Carbone was putting Rigatoni into go boxes.
40:37
Speaker 7: We didn't we we did like everybody else, didn't really
40:39
Speaker 7: know what hit us. But I think that what we
40:44
Speaker 7: did really well in that moment was pivot hard fast,
40:51
Speaker 7: and we came together. We talked and we said, we're
40:55
Speaker 7: not going to accept not being able to do business,
40:59
Speaker 7: So where can we do business? And virtually the only
41:03
Speaker 7: city in the world that was up and running and
41:06
Speaker 7: conducting business and conducting life as was nothing was happening
41:10
Speaker 7: was Miami Florida and Atlanta, Atlanta.
41:13
Speaker 8: Maybe Atlanta, like COVID didn't come here, existed. You're like, okay, Miami,
41:20
Speaker 8: we know people in Miami. We wanted to go to Miami.
41:22
Speaker 8: Miami was on the board. Let's let's make some calls.
41:24
Speaker 8: Let's go there quick. And we grabbed the space, a
41:28
Speaker 8: triple A space because, like everybody else, restaurants were closing
41:33
Speaker 8: all over the place. So we were like, well, wait
41:34
Speaker 8: a minute, these restaurants are closing. We don't know how
41:37
Speaker 8: long COVID's gonna last, but it's not gonna last forever.
41:40
Speaker 8: So we see a triple A space, grab it. We'll
41:42
Speaker 8: figure it out later. So a triple A space in
41:44
Speaker 8: South Beach came available. We grabbed it, like like this
41:48
Speaker 8: is as good as it gets. A piece of real estate,
41:50
Speaker 8: prime piece of real estate, literally next to prime in Miami,
41:54
Speaker 8: and like right behind Joe's like, this space is crazy.
41:58
Speaker 8: We have to take this space. So we took it,
42:01
Speaker 8: and we set up a company wide zoom call. Anyone
42:06
Speaker 8: in the company that had previously been with us could join,
42:09
Speaker 8: and we're like, we as a company are making a
42:11
Speaker 8: move to Miami, Florida, and we're doing it right Now
42:14
Speaker 8: we don't know how long New York's going to be closed,
42:16
Speaker 8: but we know the city is open. So anyone who
42:18
Speaker 8: has had a job with us, anyone who's just been furloughed,
42:21
Speaker 8: there's job, there's work for you in Miami.
42:24
Speaker 7: Come down. So we had enough people come down. So
42:26
Speaker 7: now we have not only do we have an amazing space,
42:29
Speaker 7: but we have our team. They're now making money again.
42:33
Speaker 7: They're getting checks from New York. From New York that
42:35
Speaker 7: came down and we opened Carbone. Ten weeks later. We
42:40
Speaker 7: had the restaurant up and running, and it was it
42:45
Speaker 7: crushed because it was one of the only restaurants functioning
42:48
Speaker 7: in one of the only cities functioning. And that was
42:50
Speaker 7: the beginning of Miami becoming another tent pole for the
42:55
Speaker 7: company that we had never expected. And one became thirteen
42:59
Speaker 7: restaurants in Miami really fast because we were there, our
43:02
Speaker 7: team was there. And then once New York came up,
43:05
Speaker 7: came back, came back around, and now it's flourishing again.
43:08
Speaker 7: The companies twice ASI as it was and COVID. You know,
43:12
Speaker 7: one of the great Warren Buffet quotes is be fearful
43:15
Speaker 7: when people are aggressive, be aggressive when people are fearful,
43:18
Speaker 7: and we were incredibly aggressive in a very fearful moment,
43:21
Speaker 7: and we just started scooping up spaces because this is
43:23
Speaker 7: going to end eventually.
43:25
Speaker 4: Man, that's crazy. So another prestigious club that you have
43:32
Speaker 4: that is almost as difficult to get in the ZZ Club?
43:37
Speaker 4: Can you can you talk to us about that? I
43:39
Speaker 4: know people might have heard it mentioned in songs and
43:42
Speaker 4: the breakdown of it, because again, you've had a base
43:45
Speaker 4: for almost ten years, and so how do you keep
43:47
Speaker 4: them coming back? How do you make something new? I
43:49
Speaker 4: feel like ZZ Club becomes that. We'll talk about the
43:52
Speaker 4: price points and applications and all that, but when you're
43:55
Speaker 4: coming up with this, what's the thought process.
43:58
Speaker 7: So the first Zz's Members Club, which is our members club,
44:02
Speaker 7: was built in Miami as part of the big COVID
44:05
Speaker 7: boom for us. Again, another incredible space that came available,
44:09
Speaker 7: and we we had predicted and saw the beginnings of
44:14
Speaker 7: members clubs finally becoming popularized here in the States. So
44:19
Speaker 7: we wanted to get ahead of that a little bit.
44:22
Speaker 7: And we thought that our fan base, our customer base,
44:25
Speaker 7: would would would accept and really enjoy having this sort
44:29
Speaker 7: of enclosed network. So we found a space that was
44:34
Speaker 7: really conducive to it, which was a two floor space
44:36
Speaker 7: kind of tucked into the design district of Miami. We
44:39
Speaker 7: thought it was a great location, and we used the
44:41
Speaker 7: second floor basically like an amenity space where there's a
44:44
Speaker 7: cigar terrorist, there's a cocktail bar, there's a lounge that
44:48
Speaker 7: kind of turns up late at night. Downstairs, you have
44:51
Speaker 7: a restaurant, sports bar.
44:54
Speaker 3: You know.
44:54
Speaker 7: It's the idea is one stop shop. You're gonna walk in,
44:58
Speaker 7: We're gonna take care of you for the night. And
45:01
Speaker 7: what I like about members clubs is that it affords
45:05
Speaker 7: us the opportunity to create more than just what the
45:09
Speaker 7: walls of a traditional restaurant are. I can take care
45:13
Speaker 7: of you more than that. I can take care of
45:16
Speaker 7: you in different ways. It's hospitality seen through a new lens.
45:22
Speaker 7: It's it's there's a there's a movie night, there's a
45:26
Speaker 7: NBA finals, We're going to do cocktails and snacks based
45:29
Speaker 7: off that. We're doing a cigar dinner tonight hosted by
45:32
Speaker 7: Koheba whatever it is. We're doing a wine dinner. So
45:35
Speaker 7: it's it's greater than just the traditional walls, which was
45:37
Speaker 7: a challenge that I really liked and I thought an
45:40
Speaker 7: ecosystem that my my fan base, my customer base would
45:45
Speaker 7: enjoy it. So we took our first crack added in Miami.
45:49
Speaker 7: It went really well, and then we opened one here
45:51
Speaker 7: in New York.
45:52
Speaker 4: Now, the fee that comes with the application, right, because
45:55
Speaker 4: it's a pretty Is there a guarantee that you're in
45:58
Speaker 4: or how what's the selection?
46:00
Speaker 7: There's an application process, yeah, and basically you know, you
46:04
Speaker 7: want to be recommended by an existing member so that
46:08
Speaker 7: we keep the group of people really friendly. We want,
46:12
Speaker 7: you know, people getting up from tables and going to
46:15
Speaker 7: visit other tables and everyone knows each other. Like minded
46:20
Speaker 7: individuals is what most clubs are looking for. So our
46:24
Speaker 7: application process is really no different than anyone other any
46:28
Speaker 7: other there's usually a board that will go through them
46:31
Speaker 7: once a month or so and and figure out who
46:34
Speaker 7: are the right fits here in the club? How many
46:37
Speaker 7: more people are we looking to add to it? You
46:38
Speaker 7: want to be cognizant not to add too many members
46:41
Speaker 7: because the point of this is access, So you don't
46:45
Speaker 7: want them hearing no too frequently. I can't get you in,
46:48
Speaker 7: and I can't have you there's no seat for you
46:50
Speaker 7: in the sports bar or whatever. So finding the balance
46:53
Speaker 7: of it's it's buzzing in here. It feels like it's
46:57
Speaker 7: the energy is really good and I can always to
47:00
Speaker 7: get in. Is a threading of a needle there that
47:04
Speaker 7: we need to be conscious of at all times.
47:07
Speaker 3: So our Lady of Rocco Clothing, how do you transition
47:11
Speaker 3: from culinary to close?
47:14
Speaker 7: Our Lady of Roco is really well. I've been able
47:17
Speaker 7: to be part of the design process for the uniforms
47:20
Speaker 7: of the companies pretty much is the beginning, working with
47:24
Speaker 7: some amazing designers like Tom Ford when he built the
47:27
Speaker 7: uniform process of the Grill, Zach Posen who made the
47:30
Speaker 7: very first uniform for us at at Carbone. So being
47:35
Speaker 7: a part of the process with some amazing designers and
47:38
Speaker 7: then doing it a little bit for myself for the company.
47:43
Speaker 7: I say about Rocco that at this point it's really
47:46
Speaker 7: an elaborate hobby for me. It's like the equivalent of
47:49
Speaker 7: me painting in my free time. It just keeps my
47:52
Speaker 7: mind lubricated. You know, maybe at some point it'll grow
47:56
Speaker 7: beyond a hobby, but I think right now it's it's
47:59
Speaker 7: that it's it's a way for me to have an
48:02
Speaker 7: outlet that's a little offset through from what I traditionally do.
48:05
Speaker 7: I think it helps me in my day job, quote unquote,
48:10
Speaker 7: And it's always cool when I see somebody in the
48:12
Speaker 7: dining room wearing something that we made.
48:15
Speaker 4: I mean, obviously there's a sense of fashion that you
48:17
Speaker 4: have and a respect for it. Talk about because it
48:21
Speaker 4: reminds me of a time and we're from we're off
48:24
Speaker 4: on the same era where when you went out you
48:26
Speaker 4: have to present yourself a certain way. Dress codes, men
48:29
Speaker 4: are thing. These things don't mean as much as they
48:32
Speaker 4: used to. But I feel like when you have a
48:35
Speaker 4: private club, when you have a specific theme that you're
48:38
Speaker 4: trying to set inside of restaurants, you can dictate that
48:42
Speaker 4: right talk about the importance of presentation and dress code,
48:46
Speaker 4: I guess for your establishments.
48:48
Speaker 7: So we don't have a dress code anywhere really, aside
48:51
Speaker 7: from like you know, no shorts, no sandals in Miami,
48:54
Speaker 7: things like that, but we're not you know, by no
48:57
Speaker 7: means jack you are acquired or anything like that. I
49:01
Speaker 7: don't want to create too many restraints for the customers,
49:05
Speaker 7: but certainly as an old soul, it makes me smile
49:07
Speaker 7: when I see somebody wearing a blazer or a suit
49:10
Speaker 7: in the restaurant. I like that, but I get it
49:14
Speaker 7: it's not for everybody, certainly as as as you know,
49:17
Speaker 7: my demographic sometimes skews, you know, a little younger like
49:22
Speaker 7: in this day and age of the thousand dollars hoodie,
49:25
Speaker 7: Like that's what fancy is, That's what going out is.
49:31
Speaker 7: And you know, I've listen. What I say is try
49:35
Speaker 7: to meet the amount of time your girl put in
49:37
Speaker 7: to get in dressed tonight or get close, Like you
49:41
Speaker 7: can't just throw on a hoodie like she took her
49:43
Speaker 7: an hour and a half to get ready, Like that's
49:45
Speaker 7: what you're putting on tonight. Like you guys are both
49:48
Speaker 7: going out right, So same place, same place, you can
49:51
Speaker 7: go nice it's a nice restaurant. So I kind of
49:54
Speaker 7: always have my dad's voice in my head when I'm
49:55
Speaker 7: leaving the house. It's like you're gonna leave the house
49:57
Speaker 7: something like that, where you're going a nice restaurant, like
50:02
Speaker 7: you have a sweatshirt on.
50:04
Speaker 3: So we've seen a lot of restaurants turn to like
50:06
Speaker 3: slash clubs like Tao, and then we've seen other restaurants
50:11
Speaker 3: like Noble they have a hotel. Is this something that
50:15
Speaker 3: you kind of envision like a Carbone full fledged nightclub
50:19
Speaker 3: or even a Carbone resort, Carbone hotel, like you know,
50:22
Speaker 3: in the next stage of the hospitality.
50:24
Speaker 7: I think it's I think, for sure, stretching out what
50:28
Speaker 7: hospitality means to us is something that we are actively doing,
50:33
Speaker 7: actively working on, you know, And I think it's the
50:36
Speaker 7: one it's it's it's in areas where we're passionate and
50:39
Speaker 7: where we think it makes sense. So like nightclub won't
50:42
Speaker 7: make sense for us because it's just not us, it's
50:45
Speaker 7: not our vibe. I have no interest in being like
50:47
Speaker 7: a nightclub guy, but Carbone Hotel i'd love to open,
50:51
Speaker 7: you know. I don't know the opportunities that'll come next,
50:55
Speaker 7: but certainly, growing in the space of hospitality is something
51:00
Speaker 7: that we're working on. Hotels, branded residences, consumer package goods,
51:05
Speaker 7: private clubs. All of those areas we're actively working on
51:10
Speaker 7: or already in for sure.
51:13
Speaker 4: In the day and age now, I wonder what marketing
51:16
Speaker 4: looks like for you guys, because I feel like we
51:19
Speaker 4: hear a bunch of artists say your name. I feel
51:21
Speaker 4: like nori Is has a residency. I mean Noori is ridiculed.
51:26
Speaker 4: I mean every week he's there. So it feels like
51:28
Speaker 4: you're getting promotion every day on social media. How much
51:32
Speaker 4: does marketing come into the bottom of the baseline of
51:37
Speaker 4: what you guys have to spend because I feel like
51:39
Speaker 4: people just promote it in social media every day.
51:42
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're very lucky to have a die hard group
51:46
Speaker 7: of fans that you know, talk about it, come in.
51:51
Speaker 7: You know, they're really well known. And in this day
51:54
Speaker 7: social media, like everyone's got a following, right, So that's
51:58
Speaker 7: changed dramatically how you market your business, all businesses, because
52:04
Speaker 7: everybody is a marketer now for good you know, good
52:06
Speaker 7: or bad, if they liked it or they didn't like
52:07
Speaker 7: the experience, depending on the size of their following, that's
52:10
Speaker 7: a that's a big needle mover. So we're very lucky
52:13
Speaker 7: to have a diehard fan base there. And then for us, yeah,
52:17
Speaker 7: I mean marketing has never really been a huge, a
52:20
Speaker 7: huge category for us. I think that it's something I
52:25
Speaker 7: have ambition in putting more effort and more dollars spend
52:28
Speaker 7: into in the coming gears. I think we're actually deficient
52:34
Speaker 7: in marketing right now as a company. I think we
52:36
Speaker 7: need to grow that category. I think the marketing that's
52:39
Speaker 7: opportunistic somebody comes in and they and they post about
52:42
Speaker 7: it is great. But continuing to make sure that people
52:46
Speaker 7: know we are this family of products. Oh, I didn't
52:50
Speaker 7: know you own that restaurant is is a knock on
52:54
Speaker 7: our marketing, right. We need to be better about that,
52:57
Speaker 7: about putting the family of goods together so that you
53:00
Speaker 7: know who we are. You know we have you know,
53:04
Speaker 7: all of these different brands, and I want to make
53:06
Speaker 7: sure that major food group, the mother company, is known
53:11
Speaker 7: as an entity of in the in the luxury hospitality space.
53:15
Speaker 3: Like a darting group. Yeah. Do you have any aspirations
53:17
Speaker 3: of becoming like CELERI like so Gordon Ramsay does a
53:21
Speaker 3: lot of celebrity shots, right, do you have people know
53:25
Speaker 3: your last name? But do you have aspirations of like
53:28
Speaker 3: becoming more in the forefront as a personality?
53:33
Speaker 7: No, I don't. I don't think I do. I mean
53:35
Speaker 7: I've I've had chances to sort of go down that
53:38
Speaker 7: road before. I've never really wanted to be the face
53:43
Speaker 7: of the restaurant. I like carbones standing for something, but
53:48
Speaker 7: not necessarily for me. Certainly, with each passing year, I
53:54
Speaker 7: find myself more and more being a promoter of the brands,
53:59
Speaker 7: and I think that I enjoy speaking on behalf of
54:03
Speaker 7: the company, but I don't want to take on anything
54:06
Speaker 7: that's going to take too much of my time away
54:08
Speaker 7: from what I do day to day for the business,
54:12
Speaker 7: and those jobs being those you know, commercial forward guys
54:19
Speaker 7: and girls like that, takes a huge amount of time.
54:22
Speaker 7: They're really good at it. It takes a lot of work,
54:25
Speaker 7: and I'm always fearful that it's going to take too
54:28
Speaker 7: much of my time away from what I do.
54:30
Speaker 4: And you said, you have to love the food and
54:32
Speaker 4: you have to love the business, And it sounds like
54:34
Speaker 4: I mean, it's evident when you talk. Are there parts
54:36
Speaker 4: of it when you look at it, like, you know what,
54:39
Speaker 4: I really don't like that part of the business, Like
54:42
Speaker 4: if we could tweet that this thing could be really
54:44
Speaker 4: really really amazing. What part of the business do you
54:47
Speaker 4: wake up and say, we're just not getting this right
54:50
Speaker 4: or as an industry, I wish we did better.
54:53
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's our job to focus it's our
54:55
Speaker 7: job as ownership to focus on the things that aren't
54:58
Speaker 7: going exactly what you want to. And we need to
55:00
Speaker 7: have those conversations almost daily. And sometimes the answer is
55:05
Speaker 7: I'm just not I'm just not that good at that
55:07
Speaker 7: I need to go seek out who the best of
55:09
Speaker 7: the brightest is at that thing for us. So it's
55:13
Speaker 7: identifying that at all times, not getting too caught up
55:16
Speaker 7: in in you know, hearing about how great it is
55:19
Speaker 7: or how popular it is, or you know, it's really
55:21
Speaker 7: spending the time to focus on the areas that we
55:23
Speaker 7: can get better at. And you know, often the answers
55:27
Speaker 7: is is talent. You know, constantly looking for you know,
55:30
Speaker 7: the next great person to add to the company or
55:33
Speaker 7: you know, great company that we can collaborate with that
55:37
Speaker 7: is experts in their field, you know, because we're always
55:39
Speaker 7: testing the waters of new So if you're testing the
55:42
Speaker 7: waters are new, then you're you're you're on shaky ground
55:45
Speaker 7: of something you haven't been been down the road of yet.
55:49
Speaker 7: So you know, at times you can get beat up
55:50
Speaker 7: with all the things that aren't going well or maybe
55:53
Speaker 7: not going right. But that's you know, that's the that's
55:57
Speaker 7: the double edged sword of testing the boundaries.
56:00
Speaker 4: I think you've acquired some of the colleagues, right, How
56:07
Speaker 4: is that right? When to somebody who used to have
56:10
Speaker 4: an establishment, you saw a great incentent, You saw us
56:12
Speaker 4: on things that they can improve on. But knowing the
56:15
Speaker 4: owner and maybe knowing the chef, maybe you know you
56:17
Speaker 4: have gone to school with them. What are those conversations
56:19
Speaker 4: right when you're looking to acquire a potential colleague.
56:23
Speaker 7: That's a new arm for us and something I think
56:25
Speaker 7: we're going to be more active in that space in
56:27
Speaker 7: years to come, which is sort of you know, mergers
56:29
Speaker 7: and acquisitions. That's a great way to bring talent into
56:35
Speaker 7: the company by identifying brands and the people behind those
56:40
Speaker 7: brands that we think operate at excellence. And if we
56:45
Speaker 7: it needs to be mutually beneficial. You know that that
56:49
Speaker 7: company or that owner, that chef wants to be part
56:52
Speaker 7: of this company because collectively we can grow that brand
56:56
Speaker 7: greater than potentially they can on their own. And for me,
57:00
Speaker 7: I can bring in this talent, the talent behind what
57:04
Speaker 7: I believe is a great brand because I think it
57:07
Speaker 7: fits really nicely somewhere in the portfolio and as a
57:10
Speaker 7: as a as the company as a whole. Now that
57:13
Speaker 7: we are the size that we are, we have the
57:15
Speaker 7: infrastructure that we have, I can lend something to them.
57:18
Speaker 7: So it always needs to be mutually beneficial, but it's
57:21
Speaker 7: an exciting thing that we're we're we're thankfully in a position.
57:25
Speaker 3: We're able to do well. I want to thank you
57:28
Speaker 3: for your time and any last words. Aspiring restaurant tours
57:34
Speaker 3: or business moguls in the making that you know you
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Speaker 3: can give them some advice.
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Speaker 7: On focus on the product, don't focus on the outcome.
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Speaker 7: Whatever you're doing, make it, make it great, and the
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Speaker 7: good things will come from it.
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Speaker 3: You have it, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, guys. Rocks
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Speaker 3: to see you next week. Peace. Peace.
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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
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Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
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Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
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Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
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Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
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Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
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Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
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Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly
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Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you will
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Speaker 1: never return but if you register using our CBP home
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Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
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Speaker 1: Do what's right, leave now. Under President Trump America's laws,
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Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.
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Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,