Transcript

Diane Armitage · Laguna Talks

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Speaker 1: Recording.
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Speaker 2: Okay, here we go, I want to record this again
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Speaker 2: and welcome my guest, Diane Armitage. Forty two thousand subscribers
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Speaker 2: to your blog. How long have you been doing.
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Speaker 3: That since two thousand and three?
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Speaker 2: You are truly an early adapter who was doing blogs
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Speaker 2: in two thousand and three.
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Speaker 4: Well, I got the idea from Julia and Julia when
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Speaker 4: she started doing that blog about writing about a recipe
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Speaker 4: she was going to do every day of the year.
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Speaker 3: From Julia Child.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, really, you got inspired by the film.
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Speaker 4: I did yes, and I thought, Okay, I'm going to
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Speaker 4: do this and yes. For several months, my mother was
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Speaker 4: the only commenter.
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Speaker 1: Wow. But you stuck with it.
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Speaker 3: I stuck with it.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, And you just knew that you felt like, I mean,
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Speaker 2: it was coming out of you. You didn't care if
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Speaker 2: you had any probably readers because it was just something
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Speaker 2: you felt compelled to do.
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Speaker 3: Oh absolutely.
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Speaker 4: I mean, you know I always tell people that per capita,
0:48
Speaker 4: we have more international chefs here than anywhere else between
0:51
Speaker 4: San Diego and San Francisco, and the talent here is extreme.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 2: I love hearing you say that, because I'm a angst
1:00
Speaker 2: some people here who think it could be a lot better.
1:03
Speaker 1: The culinary scene.
1:04
Speaker 3: Well, it's changed a lot over the last few years.
1:06
Speaker 4: Yeah, and we've lost We've lost some really really great chefs. Yeah,
1:11
Speaker 4: Marl Maltini is gone, Chef Craig Strong is gone, Chef
1:15
Speaker 4: Cannoli from Kaya is gone. You know, they've all moved on,
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Speaker 4: and it's been a big loss for a lot of
1:21
Speaker 4: us because some of those chefs were absolutely astounding. We
1:25
Speaker 4: lost Chef norm Over at Rue he was a great,
1:28
Speaker 4: great chef.
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Speaker 2: So Sapphire, who was that, I mean it changed, yeahs Osman,
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Speaker 2: great chef.
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Speaker 4: So there's a lot of and of course David Wilhelm
1:36
Speaker 4: was one of our first established restaurants here in town.
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Speaker 3: He's what I call one of.
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Speaker 4: The four great actually the Triumvirate, which is like Mark Cohen, you.
1:47
Speaker 2: Know, who's the guy from five Feet You include him, right, Yeah,
1:52
Speaker 2: that was a little time.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, but okay, you know those guys were the ones
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Speaker 4: who really Oh and Clay over at Hotel a gooda.
1:59
Speaker 4: They actually establish the culinary here in town. And when
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Speaker 4: David Wilhelm left, he left with French seventy five, you know,
2:05
Speaker 4: so we had some really amazing culinary that moved into
2:08
Speaker 4: this town and stayed in this town. And we still
2:10
Speaker 4: have some great chefs here, but we've lost quite a
2:13
Speaker 4: few too as well.
2:15
Speaker 3: It's a sad thing.
2:16
Speaker 2: Yeah, And of course, you know, by way of you know,
2:19
Speaker 2: introducing this segment, we everybody is talking about the vast
2:23
Speaker 2: amount of closed restaurants and closed retail in this town.
2:27
Speaker 2: And I wonder, in your experience, have you has there
2:29
Speaker 2: been a time when there's been so many closures.
2:33
Speaker 4: Well, I haven't seen as many closures in retail as
2:37
Speaker 4: what we're experiencing here, and I think it may be
2:39
Speaker 4: a sign of the times. There are a lot of
2:40
Speaker 4: reasons behind that, the closures in the restaurants. Actually, I've
2:45
Speaker 4: been keeping a spreadsheet since two thousand and three and
2:48
Speaker 4: I'm actually filling it out all the way through the
2:50
Speaker 4: mid nineties. And you know, really we're running about the
2:53
Speaker 4: same the same number of closures every year, the same
2:56
Speaker 4: number of opens every year. So we haven't really east
3:00
Speaker 4: okay significantly.
3:01
Speaker 1: Is just the nature of the business.
3:03
Speaker 3: It's the nature of the business.
3:04
Speaker 1: What is the average lifespan of a restaurant.
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Speaker 4: Well, in this town, until they started retiring, they were
3:12
Speaker 4: here for twenty twenty five years on the average now
3:15
Speaker 4: it's about eight years.
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Speaker 2: Right, because if you average out, there's the successful ones,
3:19
Speaker 2: but then there's the what is it eighty percent of
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Speaker 2: restaurants that don't get past year two or so. So
3:25
Speaker 2: I've heard seven eight years is around right.
3:27
Speaker 4: And I don't see like if you say eighty percent
3:29
Speaker 4: of the restaurants don't get past year two, which is
3:31
Speaker 4: the national average for sure, but here that's not the case.
3:35
Speaker 4: Most of the restaurants that come into this town actually
3:37
Speaker 4: last beyond the second year.
3:38
Speaker 3: There's only a few that have not made it.
3:40
Speaker 2: I mean, the thing that I observe, not only with restaurants,
3:44
Speaker 2: but you mentioned with retail, is that if you're set
3:47
Speaker 2: in a large city San Francisco, LA or New York,
3:50
Speaker 2: you have the benefit of so much foot traffic year round,
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Speaker 2: people walking past, and it feels like here we have
3:57
Speaker 2: a nine month period when there's not a lot of
4:00
Speaker 2: foot traffic. Then you know, certainly early in the week
4:03
Speaker 2: it feels empty. I mean, whether you go downtown or
4:07
Speaker 2: come into the hip district, that doesn't feel like there's
4:09
Speaker 2: many people around. So seasonality has got to be a
4:13
Speaker 2: real challenge for restaurants because you have to staff up
4:15
Speaker 2: for the peak season and then staffed down. I guess
4:18
Speaker 2: for when these slower periods occur.
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Speaker 4: Well, and it's interesting that you said nine months, because
4:22
Speaker 4: I think you're right on that time frame has expanded.
4:26
Speaker 4: And back in the day when I first came here,
4:28
Speaker 4: you know, our restaurants were super busy all the way
4:31
Speaker 4: through about the second week of September for the summer season.
4:34
Speaker 4: But then all of the schools around us in you know, Nevada, Arizona,
4:38
Speaker 4: they started putting their kids in schools the first week
4:40
Speaker 4: of August, right, and that shut down six weeks of
4:43
Speaker 4: our busy season, like just like that. Yeah, And you've
4:47
Speaker 4: seen it happen in August where we'll be just packed
4:50
Speaker 4: at the end of July, first of August and then
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Speaker 4: all of a sudden it dips way down.
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Speaker 1: You know.
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Speaker 2: I have a tourist facing business myself, which is the
4:56
Speaker 2: kayak paddleboard tours, and August fifteenth are cutoff. We see
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Speaker 2: this precipitous drop on that day, and it never used to.
5:04
Speaker 1: Be like that. Absolutely, we go through at least Labor Day.
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Speaker 4: And we've had these longer gray days in the spring, yep.
5:12
Speaker 4: And so there are these things going on around us
5:14
Speaker 4: that we don't have any control over when people decide
5:17
Speaker 4: in school districts to start the kids back to school.
5:19
Speaker 4: What the climate change is doing for us, you know. Yeah,
5:22
Speaker 4: so it does have an impact for sure.
5:24
Speaker 2: And another thing that has occurred to me, you know,
5:28
Speaker 2: there's so many factors that make it difficult to run
5:30
Speaker 2: a restaurant. Certainly post COVID, cost of goods went up,
5:37
Speaker 2: there's been a big push to increase the wages for
5:40
Speaker 2: restaurant workers. And there was a trend we heard after,
5:44
Speaker 2: you know, where it was difficult to find workers who
5:46
Speaker 2: wanted to work in the restaurant industry. So has that
5:50
Speaker 2: changed at all?
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Speaker 4: I think it's just gotten harder, it's gotten worse. I think,
5:56
Speaker 4: you know, when we were coming out of COVID, so
5:58
Speaker 4: many of the restaurant owners were telling me that it
6:00
Speaker 4: was so difficult to find help. And you know, they
6:04
Speaker 4: were paying dishwashers more than they were paying their cooks
6:07
Speaker 4: to try to get dishwashers into town.
6:09
Speaker 3: And so there was that difficulty with that.
6:12
Speaker 4: And yes, the expense of everything has gone up significantly,
6:16
Speaker 4: and taxes have gone up as well, and so and
6:19
Speaker 4: then you're looking at all of the different expenses that
6:22
Speaker 4: you're dealing with in a restaurant, including you know, spoilage,
6:26
Speaker 4: including employee theft, including I mean, and you hope that
6:30
Speaker 4: that is minimal, but for the most part, you plan
6:32
Speaker 4: on about twenty percent in your revenue for that. And
6:36
Speaker 4: so you've got all these chunks of things that are happening.
6:39
Speaker 4: And so now you know, the smart restaurant owners are
6:42
Speaker 4: buying less, storing less from day to day, you know,
6:46
Speaker 4: that kind of a thing, and just sort of adjusting accordingly.
6:50
Speaker 4: But the prices are moving up and down like the
6:52
Speaker 4: stock market as far as produce.
6:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, to acquire, yeah, because you know, I know
6:57
Speaker 2: people who've lived here a long time that are on
7:00
Speaker 2: of somewhat of a limited budget, and they complain that
7:03
Speaker 2: you can't get a drink for under fifteen dollars at
7:06
Speaker 2: the low end, and it makes it difficult to want
7:08
Speaker 2: to go out and have a cocktail, and let alone
7:11
Speaker 2: appetizers in the twenty to thirty dollars range entrees on
7:14
Speaker 2: up from there. It's really expensive to go out, and
7:17
Speaker 2: yet we all want to go out, you know, and.
7:20
Speaker 4: Right well, and you know, I've had people tell me
7:23
Speaker 4: this as well, and you know, of course I'm always
7:25
Speaker 4: going to be a great proponent of Laguna Beach because
7:27
Speaker 4: I'm going to always defend these restaurants. But you know,
7:30
Speaker 4: you can go to Chili's in Aliso Viejo and they're
7:32
Speaker 4: charging fifteen dollars for a cocktail and they're charging twenty
7:35
Speaker 4: to thirty dollars for appetizers. So you know, you can't say, well,
7:39
Speaker 4: it's just happening in Laguna Beach or it's just happening
7:41
Speaker 4: along the coastal, and you know they're trying to get
7:44
Speaker 4: the money out of us, because that's really not the case.
7:46
Speaker 1: That's a good point. You know.
7:48
Speaker 2: The other thing that has been a trend here which
7:51
Speaker 2: really bought bugs me, and then I'm interested in your
7:54
Speaker 2: point of view is I wasn't even in Laguna when
7:58
Speaker 2: we had twenty four hour eateries, and then we had
8:00
Speaker 2: a couple of them. We had a Denny's, we had
8:02
Speaker 2: a what was some some pirate name restaurant. I forget
8:06
Speaker 2: right or not, I forget anyway. And then but when
8:10
Speaker 2: I did arrive here in the late nineties, we had
8:14
Speaker 2: Thy Brothers was open, if I recall, till midnight one am.
8:19
Speaker 2: Taco Loco also open late night, almost two almost till two,
8:27
Speaker 2: and I always thought that that was a public service
8:29
Speaker 2: in so far as people come out of these bars drunk,
8:33
Speaker 2: they need to soak up the alcohol. Or even people
8:36
Speaker 2: that work in the service industry that get off work
8:39
Speaker 2: and they're still jacked up, theyre adrenaline. Whether you're a cook,
8:43
Speaker 2: you need a place to go and wind down. We've
8:46
Speaker 2: gotten progressively earlier and earlier, even those restaurants over in
8:51
Speaker 2: what was a twenty four hour restaurant in Dana Point
8:55
Speaker 2: Corperhouse Long that's no longer twenty four hours. So maybe
8:58
Speaker 2: it's again, to your point, not just a trend in Laguna.
9:01
Speaker 2: My only thesis when people say, well why, because Steve
9:04
Speaker 2: what our you know, music Royalty, was recounting to me
9:08
Speaker 2: how he would go to these places after a gig
9:10
Speaker 2: in Laguna and they were rocking with energy people, you know,
9:14
Speaker 2: one am in the morning, people are eating and it's
9:16
Speaker 2: all the musicians. And the only thing that I guess
9:20
Speaker 2: is that we've just gotten older and we don't have
9:23
Speaker 2: the young people here anymore.
9:25
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's a lot of it. I think
9:27
Speaker 3: that's a lot of it.
9:28
Speaker 4: You know, I know that the restaurant industry people when
9:32
Speaker 4: they're done with work. Probably the only places that they
9:35
Speaker 4: really have to go are on Ocean Avenue. You know,
9:38
Speaker 4: they've got Hennessy's, they've got the Marine Room. You know,
9:41
Speaker 4: Larson stays open later, so they'll stay open till midnight.
9:45
Speaker 4: But I think that I mean, and the city can
9:47
Speaker 4: correct me on this, but I think at this point
9:49
Speaker 4: the edict is pretty much twelve o'clock.
9:53
Speaker 3: You can't really go much past that.
9:54
Speaker 1: Really.
9:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think with the nightclub permit.
9:57
Speaker 4: You have until one, but I'd have to double check
10:01
Speaker 4: with that. So so, and then of course sky Loft
10:05
Speaker 4: had late nights, but Mozambique wasn't allowed to have the
10:07
Speaker 4: late nights because of the you know, the zone neighborhood
10:10
Speaker 4: in the neighborhood situation, and so it really is sort
10:13
Speaker 4: of a pick and choose. And a lot of people
10:15
Speaker 4: missed Taco Logo when God Soo shut down because I mean,
10:19
Speaker 4: even coming in from La I'd be coming in from
10:22
Speaker 4: La after visiting friends or something. I'd be coming through town.
10:24
Speaker 4: I'd be like, I just want to stop in for
10:25
Speaker 4: a Tago. Now.
10:26
Speaker 3: The only thing that's really.
10:27
Speaker 4: Open late is like Jack in the Box, I know,
10:29
Speaker 4: and I think they're open till eleven. I don't even
10:34
Speaker 4: know if Rock's stays open that long.
10:35
Speaker 1: I'd looked it up. I think they do. Oh wow,
10:38
Speaker 1: but you know, what are you going to get there?
10:39
Speaker 1: The question?
10:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, even though even you touched on Skyloft. I remember
10:44
Speaker 2: going to Bodega when they first opened. I thought it
10:47
Speaker 2: was great looking place, and I said, how lady opened
10:49
Speaker 2: and she goes eleven. I'm like, fantastic. So the next
10:51
Speaker 2: time I come back, nine thirty, Sorry, kitchen's closed. Like
10:55
Speaker 2: I thought you were open till eleven. Well, we would be,
10:57
Speaker 2: but we have no business, so you know, and I've
11:00
Speaker 2: I've seen that happen in other restaurants right where of
11:02
Speaker 2: course it's nobody there. You're going to let your staff go.
11:06
Speaker 2: But it's a shame because you know, it's a perpetuating
11:09
Speaker 2: cycle here with where the public, I guess is trained
11:13
Speaker 2: to believe this is an early dining town.
11:15
Speaker 4: Well, you know what's interesting is even a mar at Broadway.
11:18
Speaker 4: Now that Broadway stays open and stays pretty active for
11:21
Speaker 4: quite a while. But in the summer festival season, when
11:25
Speaker 4: I was working with him, way back when he had
11:26
Speaker 4: first started, they decided to do a late night and
11:29
Speaker 4: they were hoping to capture all of the pageant traffic
11:32
Speaker 4: leaving because there's thousands of people in that urbine.
11:35
Speaker 3: Bowl and no one would come.
11:38
Speaker 1: Did they even know.
11:39
Speaker 4: They did all kinds of marketing they did. They just
11:42
Speaker 4: they really papered the area and the and the patrons
11:46
Speaker 4: at the FOA about this, and they couldn't get people
11:49
Speaker 4: in the door.
11:49
Speaker 3: People just walked out of the FOA and went home.
11:52
Speaker 2: And what do you think our dining habits have simply changed?
11:56
Speaker 2: Because if you go to a big city or you
11:58
Speaker 2: go to Europe, of course people dine late. And in fact,
12:00
Speaker 2: you know, in the summertime when we have light until
12:03
Speaker 2: nine o'clock. Sometimes I'll just be out doing things and
12:06
Speaker 2: I get home and I'm like, oh my god, it's
12:08
Speaker 2: nine fifteen. I can't go out to eat. Yeah, you
12:10
Speaker 2: would think there'd be places. You think it's our dining
12:14
Speaker 2: habits have changed to the economics, So why are we.
12:17
Speaker 4: I think the dining habits and I do think that
12:20
Speaker 4: we have an aging population. Even the population that's going
12:22
Speaker 4: to the pageant of the Mask, well, that's for sure
12:24
Speaker 4: is an aging population, right, And so you know they're like, okay,
12:28
Speaker 4: well we've done it all here. We've spent our money here,
12:32
Speaker 4: We're not going to eat and you know, it is
12:34
Speaker 4: a whole different attitude on diet and sleep over here
12:37
Speaker 4: versus when you're in Europe and you're eating your first
12:40
Speaker 4: you know, dinner entree at eleven o'clock.
12:44
Speaker 1: Yep.
12:44
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know who lives longer, though our
12:48
Speaker 2: life expectancy isn't necessarily longer than theirs.
12:50
Speaker 4: But but you know, I was up in you know,
12:54
Speaker 4: Studio City with Nelson and Rubin a couple of months ago,
12:58
Speaker 4: and I get up there every now and then in
13:00
Speaker 4: Downtown La. My friends were, you know, renting a place
13:03
Speaker 4: in DTLA, and I would get up there. It is poppin'. Yeah,
13:07
Speaker 4: it's popping until late. I mean, Culver City is rock.
13:09
Speaker 4: And they've got a whole restaurant row, all these shops everything,
13:12
Speaker 4: And we were out eleven o'clock, eleven thirty.
13:15
Speaker 1: Eating problem packed. Yeah.
13:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, And there is something to be said about the population,
13:20
Speaker 4: right because they've got a younger audience up there, younger
13:24
Speaker 4: you know, lots of studios, lots of you know, the
13:27
Speaker 4: Google thing going on, all of that kind of thing.
13:29
Speaker 4: They've got a lot going on with a lot of
13:30
Speaker 4: younger people out and about and they've got a larger
13:33
Speaker 4: population period.
13:34
Speaker 1: You know.
13:35
Speaker 2: And we're speaking with Diane amartash here on Laguna Talks
13:38
Speaker 2: KXFM Radio one oh four seven.
13:43
Speaker 1: I was recently in Dana Point. I went to.
13:46
Speaker 2: Jana Restaurant, just basically a bakery, but with some really
13:52
Speaker 2: fabulous entrees and it's with a great breakfast and a
13:55
Speaker 2: very vibrant scene. And then I was in Costa Mesa
14:00
Speaker 2: on Nineteenth Street recently on the east, on the west side,
14:03
Speaker 2: where there's a number of funky bars and cool things happening.
14:07
Speaker 2: And it feels like again that we are getting progressively
14:11
Speaker 2: stodgier here in town.
14:13
Speaker 1: Not enough, you know.
14:14
Speaker 2: I hear young people complaining that there's not enough to
14:17
Speaker 2: do here.
14:18
Speaker 1: Do you see that?
14:19
Speaker 2: Is that something you've observed too, that we're kind of
14:21
Speaker 2: getting stale?
14:23
Speaker 3: It feels a little stale to me. I feel like.
14:28
Speaker 4: It's interesting because Data Pointe has put twenty restaurants into
14:32
Speaker 4: place in the last two years.
14:33
Speaker 3: Wow, and that's a lot.
14:35
Speaker 4: But one thing that I think we need to start
14:38
Speaker 4: really understanding is that Laguna Beach is not a tourist
14:42
Speaker 4: based industry. It is a restaurant based industry. It's no
14:46
Speaker 4: longer even a retail based industry, right And when we
14:50
Speaker 4: understand that this is a restaurant based industry in Laguna Beach,
14:54
Speaker 4: then things begin to change in the perception of how
14:57
Speaker 4: we take care of and economically support these restaurants in
15:02
Speaker 4: both Laguna and Miguel. And in data Point, they offer subsidies,
15:06
Speaker 4: they offer tax breaks, they you know, they're they're quicker, well,
15:10
Speaker 4: they try to be quicker. Data Point is actually proving
15:12
Speaker 4: to be much quicker getting through the permitting process, the
15:16
Speaker 4: design review process. So these kinds of things are our
15:20
Speaker 4: game changers. I mean, if you are opening a restaurant
15:23
Speaker 4: in Laguna Beach and the average timeframe to get open
15:25
Speaker 4: is eighteen months to two years on the average, and
15:28
Speaker 4: the average time to get open and data Point is
15:30
Speaker 4: four to six months, that's a big difference, big difference.
15:34
Speaker 4: And so they're looking at that now, and they're looking
15:37
Speaker 4: at where can we get economic help, Where can we
15:39
Speaker 4: get support, Where do we have somebody who could even
15:41
Speaker 4: be an advisor to help us if we feel like
15:45
Speaker 4: we're stuck, like for instance, what Ivan Spears just went
15:49
Speaker 4: through with skylofton Bodega you know, there was a lot
15:52
Speaker 4: that I couldn't write in that article because I don't
15:55
Speaker 4: want to get anybody into lawsuits, and I have to
15:57
Speaker 4: be very careful. I mean, the landlords had very strong opinions,
16:00
Speaker 4: he had very strong opinions. But in the bottom line,
16:05
Speaker 4: for Ivan, and we all know that he is a
16:07
Speaker 4: very committed restaurant owner in this town. He's put millions
16:12
Speaker 4: into this.
16:12
Speaker 1: Town, probably the biggest employer.
16:15
Speaker 3: Second biggest impart.
16:17
Speaker 4: Yeah, and so when you look at all that commitment
16:21
Speaker 4: and the fact that he felt like he wasn't getting
16:23
Speaker 4: support from the city to be able to put somebody
16:26
Speaker 4: in place at the city who actually is a facilitator
16:31
Speaker 4: or just you know, a mentor to help these restaurants
16:34
Speaker 4: that feel stuck or aren't making progress. Like for instance,
16:38
Speaker 4: I was talking to Mario Melendez about building out his
16:41
Speaker 4: two hundred square foot Rosta Taco and you know that
16:44
Speaker 4: two hundred square foot ross to Taco took three years
16:47
Speaker 4: to build. He said, you know, I could have gotten
16:49
Speaker 4: a bunch of buddies together. We could have had it
16:50
Speaker 4: up at He's like, it's like a it's like a
16:52
Speaker 4: pup ten. We could have had it up in like
16:54
Speaker 4: two weeks. But the permitting process, the construction process, all
16:58
Speaker 4: of the stuff that he had to go through was
17:00
Speaker 4: just so laborious. And when the Wild Taco guys were here,
17:05
Speaker 4: which is Bear Flag, you know, they went through all
17:08
Speaker 4: kinds of I mean getting.
17:10
Speaker 5: In and has Eventually they didn't change a thing from
17:12
Speaker 5: when it was I mean, oh, they had to retrofit
17:14
Speaker 5: so much by permit. They had to by permit, they
17:18
Speaker 5: had to well, why.
17:18
Speaker 2: Wasn't it just Grandfather it was a restaurant before.
17:21
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right.
17:22
Speaker 4: Part of the but the new code enforcement laws, the
17:25
Speaker 4: new ADA laws, the new grease trap laws, all of
17:28
Speaker 4: that is now being put on the tenant in many
17:32
Speaker 4: cases instead of the landlord, and then you end up
17:35
Speaker 4: with a lot of delays, you know. So when they
17:39
Speaker 4: finally finished, almost at the three year mark, just trying
17:42
Speaker 4: to get that little place in play, they're like, you know, Dan,
17:45
Speaker 4: we're so exhaustive, we don't even.
17:46
Speaker 3: Want to be here.
17:48
Speaker 4: And it's part of the reason why Bear Flag pulled
17:50
Speaker 4: out of this larger space up here.
17:51
Speaker 1: I was wondering what happened there, Yeah.
17:53
Speaker 4: Because it was just it felt like a constant fight.
17:56
Speaker 4: In a constant fight, and they had just been through
17:58
Speaker 4: this battle, So how do we make is easier for
18:00
Speaker 4: the restaurants?
18:02
Speaker 2: Good question, you know, you just backing up a bit
18:05
Speaker 2: because anybody who's listening doesn't maybe know the full story.
18:09
Speaker 2: When you mentioned Ivan Spears, who first started with Mozambique,
18:13
Speaker 2: which was an incredible conversion from what was it then
18:17
Speaker 2: flat Pertia Flats, and he made it into a music venue,
18:19
Speaker 2: and I know his struggles to with balancing act of
18:23
Speaker 2: at being a restaurant permanent as a restaurant, but also
18:25
Speaker 2: having live music and this what they call cup creep
18:29
Speaker 2: when they said no, you're a nightclub now and you're
18:32
Speaker 2: not permanent for that, and he endured so much pain
18:35
Speaker 2: to make it a really fabulous diamond of a jewel
18:39
Speaker 2: for our town, of a multifaceted restaurant. I mean, when
18:43
Speaker 2: that place is cranking, I can't believe how many things
18:46
Speaker 2: he's got going on in each of those rooms. And
18:49
Speaker 2: then went on to do a deal with Sam Goldstein,
18:52
Speaker 2: the owner of the Heiser Building, to first put skyloft
18:54
Speaker 2: in the top, which was a lot of work, and
18:58
Speaker 2: Sam had to put that elevator in that costs a
19:00
Speaker 2: ton of money. And then Sam had an unhappy tenant
19:04
Speaker 2: from the get go and Tommy Bahamas, and when they
19:07
Speaker 2: closed and left, he made a great deal with Ivan.
19:10
Speaker 2: What I found interesting in your article was the fact
19:14
Speaker 2: that Ivan said, you know, Sam was a gem of
19:18
Speaker 2: a landlord, because I know Sam's a tough guy, and
19:20
Speaker 2: they had they suit each other, but you know, but
19:24
Speaker 2: yet they can hug it out afterwards, settle and make
19:26
Speaker 2: it work. And it struck me that Sam all the
19:30
Speaker 2: things positive things that Ivan said about Sam being a
19:33
Speaker 2: very proactive landlord who spent a lot of money to
19:37
Speaker 2: make it work. And I think the difference clearly is
19:40
Speaker 2: that Sam lives here, and Sam is a part of
19:42
Speaker 2: the community, and he took great pride in remodeling that
19:45
Speaker 2: building and he wanted to see it successful. Now we've
19:48
Speaker 2: got an out of town landlord who appears not to
19:52
Speaker 2: really care about the town, and I, without going into
19:55
Speaker 2: too much detail about the conflict, I know there was
19:59
Speaker 2: some repair that needed to be made that we refused
20:02
Speaker 2: to be made that we're putting. You know, I haven't
20:04
Speaker 2: even said that publicly is workers at risk? But is
20:08
Speaker 2: that part of the problem too, is out of town
20:12
Speaker 2: landlords who don't help their tenants get their permits and
20:16
Speaker 2: open these don't help them succeed.
20:20
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know that you can actually say it's
20:22
Speaker 4: just out of town landlords. I mean, there are some
20:24
Speaker 4: landlords here in town who are very difficult to work with.
20:26
Speaker 4: And in some cases, families are passing down their properties
20:32
Speaker 4: to their kids, and their kids have an entirely different
20:35
Speaker 4: attitude dealing with these long term restaurants, and it's caused
20:40
Speaker 4: some difficulty for some of the restaurants that are dealing
20:43
Speaker 4: with this change in generational ownership, so.
20:46
Speaker 3: To rights and management that makes sense.
20:49
Speaker 4: So unfortunately, I do think that back in the day,
20:52
Speaker 4: like when I got here, you know, it was the
20:55
Speaker 4: culinary was very high level, and I think that the
20:58
Speaker 4: majority of the landlords lived here. And we're embedded in
21:01
Speaker 4: the community, like you look at how Joe Hanauer redid
21:05
Speaker 4: the pottery place and put in that beautiful sapphire and
21:08
Speaker 4: you know, I mean that guy really truly cares about
21:10
Speaker 4: the community. And the one thing that I made a
21:12
Speaker 4: point of in that article that you mentioned is that,
21:15
Speaker 4: you know, despite the differences that those two gentlemen had,
21:18
Speaker 4: they are extremely strong businessmen and they are extremely committed
21:23
Speaker 4: to Laguna Beach.
21:24
Speaker 2: And they're pragmatic. You know, it's like, well, let's make
21:26
Speaker 2: this work.
21:27
Speaker 4: And I don't know that we have that commitment in
21:30
Speaker 4: a lot of the landlords right now and in a
21:34
Speaker 4: lot of the like my business partner Bruce Russo, who
21:39
Speaker 4: is in restaurant development in Dallas. You know, I bring
21:42
Speaker 4: him onto my show every now and then. You know,
21:44
Speaker 4: he was talking about how so many leases are being
21:48
Speaker 4: made now where the landlords are looking out for themselves,
21:54
Speaker 4: and so the restaurant owners are signing these leases before
21:57
Speaker 4: they even get through design and review, and then all
22:00
Speaker 4: kinds of stuff comes up that they now are responsible
22:02
Speaker 4: for in the lease, and the tenant finish becomes this
22:05
Speaker 4: very expensive process that shouldn't have to be the case.
22:08
Speaker 4: It needs to be more of a partnership, right Like
22:11
Speaker 4: you know, when when the White House closed, that's that
22:15
Speaker 4: empty until the landlord put in a good million million
22:18
Speaker 4: and a half to clean up the kitchen and get
22:20
Speaker 4: everything kind of retrofitted. And then finally Fenne's came in,
22:24
Speaker 4: and even then Finney's had to put millions into that property,
22:28
Speaker 4: and so that the landlord was working with them and
22:32
Speaker 4: shared the expense, and you don't see that happening a
22:35
Speaker 4: lot now in a lot of the a lot of
22:39
Speaker 4: the buildings that we have here.
22:40
Speaker 2: You know, there's some people on social media, one in particular,
22:43
Speaker 2: who complains about how difficult the business conditions are here
22:46
Speaker 2: and that the city doesn't do enough. And I challenged
22:49
Speaker 2: him to tell me what exactly he's referring to him.
22:53
Speaker 1: One of the things he said is.
22:54
Speaker 2: A Phinney's or a taco stand has the resources to
22:59
Speaker 2: pay higher rents than an independent mom and pop because
23:02
Speaker 2: they're a chain. And it made me think, well, we
23:05
Speaker 2: sort of had a policy when it comes to retail,
23:08
Speaker 2: and Michael Ray would always say, you know, that's one
23:11
Speaker 2: of the big problems is that we have people subjectively deciding,
23:15
Speaker 2: at least on the retail side, what business belongs in
23:17
Speaker 2: what area based on do we have other businesses like this?
23:21
Speaker 2: Is it good for the character of the city as
23:23
Speaker 2: opposed to just allowing free enterprise to take hold? So
23:27
Speaker 2: I wonder if you feel that there is any merit
23:31
Speaker 2: to this idea that are we betraying our own values
23:36
Speaker 2: by having restaurant or is this a good thing? And
23:38
Speaker 2: where do you draw the line in terms of a
23:40
Speaker 2: chain and not wanting a generic eatery in your town
23:44
Speaker 2: when you're trying so desperately to have mom and pops
23:47
Speaker 2: an independent retail.
23:49
Speaker 4: Well, I really applaud the city for limiting franchises and chains,
23:53
Speaker 4: especially in the downtown quad, you know, because that is
23:57
Speaker 4: I mean, when you see something like Cheesecake Factor we
24:00
Speaker 4: move in, all of the people who are walking up
24:02
Speaker 4: and down the streets are going to be inclined to
24:05
Speaker 4: go there. I mean, you see McDonald's open up in Paris,
24:08
Speaker 4: and you see the lines of people out the door
24:10
Speaker 4: McDonald's in Paris for sure, and so the same thing
24:14
Speaker 4: is the issue here, and so you want to be
24:16
Speaker 4: very careful about that, and I appreciate the city putting
24:18
Speaker 4: that in place. Now, chains, as I understand, and now
24:22
Speaker 4: this may need to be a correction, but as I understand,
24:25
Speaker 4: it has to be eight restaurants or less in order
24:27
Speaker 4: to participate.
24:28
Speaker 3: In Laguna Beach.
24:29
Speaker 4: Okay, So Finney's has now expanded beyond that. But when
24:34
Speaker 4: they came into our situation, they were at about number five.
24:37
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, we can't tell them, hey, you're over the limit.
24:39
Speaker 2: You got to shut down now.
24:40
Speaker 3: Right exactly.
24:41
Speaker 4: And so when they came in, yes, okay, I guess
24:46
Speaker 4: the chains may have a little more money to deal with.
24:48
Speaker 4: But then you also look at the fact that no
24:51
Speaker 4: matter what the case is, even if you have a chain,
24:54
Speaker 4: even if you have three or four restaurants, for the
24:56
Speaker 4: most part, you're still looking to private investors to fund you,
25:00
Speaker 4: not getting bank support. Until you're a large, large change
25:04
Speaker 4: or a chain or a large restaurant, it's very unlikely
25:08
Speaker 4: that you're going to get bank institutional support.
25:10
Speaker 3: So it depends on the level of.
25:12
Speaker 4: Your investor that you bring into the restaurant. And that's
25:15
Speaker 4: so important to understand that. You know, you always have
25:18
Speaker 4: patrons who come in and say, oh my gosh, if
25:20
Speaker 4: you open your own restaurant, I'm going to help you
25:22
Speaker 4: out with that. I'm going to bring you one hundred
25:24
Speaker 4: K and it's going to be awesome. And then when
25:26
Speaker 4: you decide to open up your own restaurant, that patron
25:28
Speaker 4: has kind of disappeared into the woodwork.
25:30
Speaker 3: You know.
25:31
Speaker 4: So you're dealing with that kind of a situation. And
25:35
Speaker 4: I do applaud the city for limiting the chain enfranchise thing.
25:39
Speaker 4: I think it should be throughout the town because it's
25:41
Speaker 4: the only way to keep the mom and pop and
25:43
Speaker 4: the creativity alive and well in Laguna Beach, just like
25:47
Speaker 4: we heralded as the art community that we are and
25:52
Speaker 4: have been from the beginning the inception, Right, So that's
25:56
Speaker 4: when the city needs to get behind and start getting
26:00
Speaker 4: involved in helping the mom and pops exist and survive
26:05
Speaker 4: in these locations.
26:07
Speaker 3: Now, the average.
26:09
Speaker 4: Across the country is one thousand dollars per hundred square feet. Clearly,
26:14
Speaker 4: we have landlords there way up all over the place.
26:17
Speaker 3: Here in Laguna Beach, we have no governor, we have
26:21
Speaker 3: no moderator.
26:23
Speaker 4: And so you kind of look at that and say, okay, well,
26:25
Speaker 4: how can we help in any way, shape or form
26:28
Speaker 4: to kind of even it out so that we can
26:30
Speaker 4: really applaud and support the mom and pops and the
26:33
Speaker 4: independence that make this town so uniquely individual. So I
26:38
Speaker 4: think that that is absolutely key. I would continue to
26:43
Speaker 4: support the city in not allowing franchises into this town. Now,
26:46
Speaker 4: when you look at something like what I even just vacated,
26:50
Speaker 4: you're looking at twelve thousand square feet under roof and
26:53
Speaker 4: forty five hundred square feet on the rooftop the sky
26:56
Speaker 4: skyloft roof bar.
27:00
Speaker 3: That's a lot.
27:02
Speaker 4: That's a lot for I mean just for skyloft and
27:04
Speaker 4: the rooftop. That's a lot of square footage when the
27:08
Speaker 4: average square footage that we figure in town that's the
27:11
Speaker 4: safest for anyone to take in and on, is.
27:14
Speaker 3: About three thousand square feet or less.
27:16
Speaker 4: So even David Wilhelm when he first was looking at
27:19
Speaker 4: that property when it was emptied Tommy Bahamas to the
27:21
Speaker 4: time that Evan took over was three full years and
27:25
Speaker 4: he looked at that property and the lower level was
27:27
Speaker 4: about sixty two hundred square feet.
27:29
Speaker 3: He said, it's too much, it's too much.
27:31
Speaker 4: And this guy had been in this town, yeah, had
27:33
Speaker 4: built restaurants, three restaurants in this town.
27:36
Speaker 3: So he really understood that.
27:38
Speaker 4: You know, with the seasonal traffic that we currently have, now,
27:43
Speaker 4: how do we change the traffic so that even if
27:48
Speaker 4: we're dealing with seasonal traffic, we've got something that is
27:52
Speaker 4: actually dining in the restaurants and coming to this town
27:56
Speaker 4: for the restaurants like they used to do back in
27:59
Speaker 4: the late ninety and the early two thousands. That is
28:03
Speaker 4: key because right now I don't think we have that
28:05
Speaker 4: come hither going on. It's happening in Data Point now,
28:09
Speaker 4: it's happening at Newport Coast. Those restaurants aren't packed, and
28:12
Speaker 4: they are high revenue, high money restaurants. Yeah, and they
28:17
Speaker 4: are making money hand over fist to Newport Coast. So
28:20
Speaker 4: what are we not doing here that is happening around
28:23
Speaker 4: us and that's.
28:24
Speaker 3: Pulling our patrons to those locations.
28:27
Speaker 2: Well, what do you think is what we're not doing here? Well,
28:31
Speaker 2: you've talked about the city making it difficult to get
28:35
Speaker 2: approvals and it can take years, and that can turn
28:37
Speaker 2: away any potential. But I think you know, there's something
28:42
Speaker 2: else going on where. Maybe it's word of mouth, but
28:44
Speaker 2: when these restaurant tours ask around, I think people are saying,
28:47
Speaker 2: don't go to Laguna, go to Newport, go to Data Point.
28:51
Speaker 2: That's where it's happening. And you know Data Point. I
28:54
Speaker 2: mean we could learn a lot from them, you know.
28:56
Speaker 2: I know there was some pushback when they started their
28:59
Speaker 2: down town efforts to say, we don't want to look
29:02
Speaker 2: like Dana Point.
29:02
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, we do.
29:04
Speaker 2: They've got ground floor retail and two stories of living
29:08
Speaker 2: space upstairs. Not that we can retrofit our buildings. But
29:11
Speaker 2: that was smart planning because then you get young people
29:13
Speaker 2: living downtown, walking and they filled in the empty spaces
29:16
Speaker 2: on that lantern road, and suddenly it has the feeling
29:19
Speaker 2: of a downtown core. I think it's a pretty remarkable
29:22
Speaker 2: thing they did.
29:23
Speaker 3: In a matter of just a few years.
29:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, and they haven't even touched the marina.
29:26
Speaker 3: Yet, right exactly.
29:28
Speaker 4: I think that they knew who their target audience was
29:31
Speaker 4: and they built that target audience. I think that we've
29:34
Speaker 4: lost We've lost our perspective on who our target audience is.
29:39
Speaker 1: Who is our target audience?
29:41
Speaker 4: We were dialed in in the early two thousands. When
29:44
Speaker 4: I moved here, it was like Carmel. When Ivan said
29:47
Speaker 4: he moved here, it was like Aspen by the sea.
29:50
Speaker 4: There was a posh feeling of opulence in this town.
29:54
Speaker 4: You felt that you have arrived in a very prestigious, beautiful,
29:59
Speaker 4: excl usive place. And now the people that we have
30:04
Speaker 4: on the people that we have primarily coming into town,
30:09
Speaker 4: are not coming into town to experience the posh opulence
30:13
Speaker 4: of what the town has built.
30:15
Speaker 3: They're coming to.
30:15
Speaker 4: Experience the posh opulence of our beautiful beaches in our waters.
30:19
Speaker 4: So that's a different crowd than the crowd that comes
30:22
Speaker 4: in on this side of the ocean and the beach
30:26
Speaker 4: to participate in what the city has built and we've
30:30
Speaker 4: lost that audience.
30:31
Speaker 2: That's really interesting because I went, I'm embarrassed to say,
30:36
Speaker 2: to Salon's for my first time last Monday, sat at
30:41
Speaker 2: the bar and couldn't believe how busy it was.
30:43
Speaker 3: I know. And you look at the Drake they are packed.
30:46
Speaker 2: And Broadway yes, so the high high ends here still
30:50
Speaker 2: seems to thrive.
30:51
Speaker 4: I mean, they aren't attracting. They know how to attract
30:54
Speaker 4: those patrons. So what did they do right? What did
30:57
Speaker 4: they do in their marketing? What did they do right
30:59
Speaker 4: to make this happen? Because clearly the people still want
31:02
Speaker 4: to be here or they wouldn't be going to those
31:04
Speaker 4: restaurants either, right, and they are packing those restaurants in.
31:09
Speaker 3: So what are we doing to not.
31:12
Speaker 4: Expand that shape, you know, that pie shape, to bring
31:17
Speaker 4: in more of that opulent visitor.
31:20
Speaker 2: Well, you know you've said something earlier that struck me,
31:22
Speaker 2: which was that we are a restaurant driven town. You know,
31:26
Speaker 2: there's obviously a segment of the population here that's very
31:29
Speaker 2: vocal that goes to every city council meeting that are
31:34
Speaker 2: let's call them preservationists, anti change and virulently anti restaurant
31:40
Speaker 2: and they think it just brings too many people into town.
31:44
Speaker 2: It causes you know, undue traffic and chaos and blah blah.
31:47
Speaker 2: And you know they've been fighting this idea that Lagunna
31:52
Speaker 2: loosen their parking ratio requirements for a restaurant, which used to.
31:55
Speaker 1: Be impossible because't much.
31:58
Speaker 2: Doesn't loosened much, and you have to go to tremendous
32:01
Speaker 2: and spend money to get credits to replace the parking
32:04
Speaker 2: that you that you have a deficit on. And yet
32:09
Speaker 2: when you look at as you said, you look at
32:11
Speaker 2: all the regular retail closures of just stores, it makes
32:15
Speaker 2: me think that restaurants really are the core economy now
32:20
Speaker 2: for a number of reasons. Number one is their Amazon proof.
32:24
Speaker 2: Number two, young people are hungry for experiences. They're delaying
32:29
Speaker 2: the purchase of a home. If ever, a lot of
32:31
Speaker 2: them have given up on that, particularly in California.
32:34
Speaker 3: And look at Abba Abba.
32:35
Speaker 1: Look at Abba Abba.
32:37
Speaker 4: Primary age range, I would say is twenty eight to
32:40
Speaker 4: thirty five.
32:41
Speaker 1: And I can't get over that.
32:43
Speaker 2: That's an example of, yes, of a restaurant that somehow
32:47
Speaker 2: has bucked the trend here. And I don't know where
32:50
Speaker 2: all these young people come from. By've asked, actually, where
32:52
Speaker 2: do you live? And most of the out of town,
32:55
Speaker 2: but they'll drive to South Laguna with limited parking to
32:59
Speaker 2: you know, like the menu, it's not nothing like, oh
33:02
Speaker 2: my god, this is the culinary experience. But they have
33:04
Speaker 2: healthy vegetarian options. Their smash burger is really popular. Setting
33:09
Speaker 2: is I mean, you know, if you're old and have
33:12
Speaker 2: a bony ass like me, you know, it's not the
33:14
Speaker 2: most comfortable seating. You know, you're outside. And then they've
33:18
Speaker 2: got Helen's, which I think is brilliant.
33:20
Speaker 3: It was brilliant.
33:22
Speaker 1: So what did they do right?
33:24
Speaker 4: It's also attracting twenty eight to thirty five year olds
33:27
Speaker 4: who have money, who have expendable money, and so there
33:31
Speaker 4: are pockets in this town that are attracting the right patrons.
33:35
Speaker 1: But how did ABA do it?
33:36
Speaker 2: They they were going to close five six years ago
33:39
Speaker 2: because again there was some sort of pressure by the city.
33:43
Speaker 5: It was a Helen's thing, Helen's thing, right, because it.
33:46
Speaker 4: Didn't have all the right permitting, et cetera. And so
33:50
Speaker 4: but it didn't close, and the city actually did intervene
33:54
Speaker 4: in that and helped him and said, okay, let's sit
33:57
Speaker 4: down and come to the table, let's figure this out.
33:59
Speaker 4: And if that had only happened with Ivan, then we
34:04
Speaker 4: would have had one hundred and eighty employees still employed. Wow,
34:08
Speaker 4: and he was actually a lot of people were saying, oh, well,
34:11
Speaker 4: you know, he wasn't really making it.
34:12
Speaker 3: It was a really struggle. He was just scrapping along.
34:14
Speaker 3: You know.
34:15
Speaker 4: He was actually turning a very solid black revenue stream
34:20
Speaker 4: in both locations. So you know that sudden disappearance is
34:25
Speaker 4: a huge black hole in the central district of our
34:31
Speaker 4: entire city. So going back to I don't know, I
34:34
Speaker 4: think I kind of got off track there, But you know,
34:36
Speaker 4: going back to the fact that we do have restaurants
34:38
Speaker 4: that are attracting ideal clientele, all we need to do
34:42
Speaker 4: is focus efforts on how we attract that ideal clientele
34:46
Speaker 4: back into this town. Now, it's going to take a
34:49
Speaker 4: multi pronged effort, but it's not going to take years
34:52
Speaker 4: and years to change up. I mean, in the marketing
34:56
Speaker 4: that I've done in years and the marketing that you've
34:58
Speaker 4: done in years, I can tell you I can go
35:00
Speaker 4: into an entity like the Biltmore Estate, I can go
35:03
Speaker 4: into places like ARII dot com. When you have experienced
35:06
Speaker 4: marketers who really know what they're doing, who know how
35:08
Speaker 4: to leverage pods of revenue for any entity, and you
35:12
Speaker 4: start looking at how can we engage, how can we
35:14
Speaker 4: create more pods of revenue, How can we make this
35:16
Speaker 4: easier for people, how can we get in. You know,
35:19
Speaker 4: it's all looking at the guest experience. How we make
35:23
Speaker 4: the guest experience easier. Then we begin to create this
35:27
Speaker 4: swell and this underswell of support for these restaurants so
35:31
Speaker 4: that they can continue to operate and survive here.
35:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, really interesting that you mentioned that.
35:37
Speaker 2: In the early aughts, I guess we you know, we
35:41
Speaker 2: were so successful because we had this perception of Aspen
35:44
Speaker 2: by the sea.
35:45
Speaker 1: I like that reference.
35:47
Speaker 2: Somebody said to me recently they had friends staying at
35:50
Speaker 2: the Montage and the consensus of these people where it
35:54
Speaker 2: was Laguna is tattered. I'm going to stay on property
36:00
Speaker 2: and just have my entire vacation experience here. And I
36:04
Speaker 2: was really saddened to hear that because I always thought, yeah,
36:09
Speaker 2: because I used to say, you know, not everybody comes
36:12
Speaker 2: to Laguna to go to the beach. They come for
36:15
Speaker 2: the urban experience, the pedestrian experience, that it's a town
36:18
Speaker 2: that you can walk and people watch, and that's a
36:21
Speaker 2: rare thing in California.
36:23
Speaker 1: So to hear that and I, you know, I see it.
36:26
Speaker 2: I see I think the city acknowledges they got to
36:29
Speaker 2: clean it up.
36:31
Speaker 1: But it's like you look at Forest.
36:33
Speaker 2: Avenue and the amount of retailers that are just selling
36:35
Speaker 2: kind of to tourists, not high end it definitely, And
36:42
Speaker 2: I was in Aspen last year and I can tell
36:43
Speaker 2: you this is not Aspen by the Sea.
36:46
Speaker 1: And they'll get very prestigious like.
36:50
Speaker 2: Coffee shops from Italy and Paris names, you know, not
36:53
Speaker 2: necessarily chains, but very high end, famous places that we
36:57
Speaker 2: don't ever seem to attract.
36:59
Speaker 4: Right those places are anchoring into these prestigious cities because
37:04
Speaker 4: they know it's the best brand experience for them, even
37:07
Speaker 4: if they're not making a lot of money. That's why
37:10
Speaker 4: you know on Rodeo Drive they may not be making
37:13
Speaker 4: a lot of money, but they want to be on
37:15
Speaker 4: Rodeo Drive because that signifies their opulence and their ability
37:19
Speaker 4: to stay in that space, and it's an attractor to
37:22
Speaker 4: every other brand that they have around the world.
37:25
Speaker 3: Now, we're not bringing that in.
37:28
Speaker 2: You know, we always there's a group of people here
37:30
Speaker 2: that always fault the city when they are addressing a problem.
37:33
Speaker 2: They go outside and hire some expensive consulting firm and
37:37
Speaker 2: spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, and typically they get
37:40
Speaker 2: this really, you know, dense study, and then it gets mothballed.
37:44
Speaker 2: And we always say, we have so much talent here
37:47
Speaker 2: who are passionate about the areas of interest that they have,
37:50
Speaker 2: that we don't need to go outside to hire. Hire
37:52
Speaker 2: people that are actually embedded in the community, that live
37:54
Speaker 2: it every day. So my question, Diane, is how come
37:57
Speaker 2: the city isn't using you as a resource.
38:01
Speaker 3: That's a good question. I like that question.
38:04
Speaker 4: You know, they have begun to approach me, and so
38:07
Speaker 4: we have begun some conversations. I hope that they continue,
38:11
Speaker 4: because you know, I really do believe that when you
38:14
Speaker 4: have somebody who has so effectively covered the one hundred
38:19
Speaker 4: and fifty nine food and beverage concepts in this town
38:22
Speaker 4: at the level that I have, and I have a
38:23
Speaker 4: trust factor with these restaurant owners, yes you do, and
38:28
Speaker 4: they will call me, they will volunteer information, they will,
38:31
Speaker 4: like Ivan said, I'm only going to talk to you.
38:33
Speaker 4: I'm not going to talk to anybody else because it's
38:34
Speaker 4: going to get all twisted. So I love the fact
38:37
Speaker 4: that they trust me. And I have a lot of
38:40
Speaker 4: experience marketing and restaurant consulting and everything like that. And
38:43
Speaker 4: I have Bruce as a as a business partner essentially,
38:48
Speaker 4: who has developed more restaurant concepts in the country than
38:51
Speaker 4: anybody else in the country, no kidding. And he has
38:54
Speaker 4: developed them because he has operated concepts, and those concepts
38:58
Speaker 4: are designed to make restaurants money. And I think when
39:02
Speaker 4: you bring the two of us into something like this,
39:05
Speaker 4: things can change very quickly because you need to start
39:07
Speaker 4: looking at what is the economic plan for the restaurants
39:10
Speaker 4: in town. Where are the low ticket item restaurants, where
39:13
Speaker 4: are the high ticket item restaurants, and where do we
39:16
Speaker 4: situate them geographically in this town. I don't think that
39:18
Speaker 4: there's that kind of a map developed yet. And then
39:22
Speaker 4: when you start looking at that, then you can say, Okay,
39:24
Speaker 4: here's where we're going to start attracting chefs, here's where
39:26
Speaker 4: we're going to start bringing in businesses. There's a wonderful
39:30
Speaker 4: woman in Las Vegas, Elizabeth, and she was brought in
39:37
Speaker 4: way before when the casinos were just starting to come
39:39
Speaker 4: into play, when the Belagio was just getting established by Steve.
39:42
Speaker 4: When they brought her in and said, you go find
39:46
Speaker 4: us the celebrity chefs to bring into this town to
39:49
Speaker 4: change things. And she was singularly responsible. Now the city
39:54
Speaker 4: was willing to work with her and work economically with
39:57
Speaker 4: those chefs to change the face of Las Vegas, and
40:01
Speaker 4: it changed in a matter of about five years.
40:03
Speaker 1: It became a culinary destination. Right.
40:05
Speaker 4: So it doesn't take a lot of people to do it.
40:07
Speaker 4: It takes the people who know how to do it
40:09
Speaker 4: and have done it.
40:10
Speaker 1: Before, you know.
40:12
Speaker 2: I remember Steve Winn once said publicly that he came
40:15
Speaker 2: to the realization that when people most people come to
40:18
Speaker 2: Vegas spend money and lose, but the ones that actually
40:21
Speaker 2: have the streak of good luck and win some money,
40:24
Speaker 2: he doesn't want them leaving town with it. So hence,
40:27
Speaker 2: you know, they built these luxury malls and stores and
40:30
Speaker 2: of course the restaurants. And I wonder, you know, with
40:33
Speaker 2: our Visitors Bureau, who has been under fire this past
40:36
Speaker 2: year and been the fall guy for what everybody said
40:38
Speaker 2: was over tourism. And I think it was unfair because
40:41
Speaker 2: all of us are responsible having posted a sunset picture
40:45
Speaker 2: here and there on social media, but they are very
40:49
Speaker 2: deep pocketed. They get a million eight from the city
40:53
Speaker 2: from the bed tax every year. Then I think and
40:56
Speaker 2: I thought it was really misguided, but they decided to
40:58
Speaker 2: give a half a million back to the city annually.
41:01
Speaker 2: Know about that, Yes, and I think it was kind
41:04
Speaker 2: of a mea culpa that wasn't necessary. Did they make
41:07
Speaker 2: a few missteps and put some beautiful pictures up on
41:10
Speaker 2: social media that maybe got eyeballs that weren't the overnight
41:14
Speaker 2: visitors that they're charged with attracting. But what I'm getting
41:17
Speaker 2: to is it's interesting to say, Okay, their job is
41:20
Speaker 2: to bring people into the hotels and spend the big
41:23
Speaker 2: spenders and spend the night. But one of the ways
41:25
Speaker 2: of doing that is to improve the restaurant scenes. So
41:28
Speaker 2: you're talking about where's the resources to do the outreach
41:32
Speaker 2: to bring in chefs? Has that ever Have they ever
41:35
Speaker 2: talked to you about that putting some effort into improving
41:38
Speaker 2: our dining scene.
41:39
Speaker 1: No, doesn't.
41:41
Speaker 2: That makes some sense for like, you know, you can
41:43
Speaker 2: only say the same thing over and over again to
41:45
Speaker 2: bring people to the montage and the surf and sand,
41:48
Speaker 2: but you're basically selling Laguna and so if you're going
41:51
Speaker 2: to sell the beaches, that's great. It's not everybody's thing.
41:54
Speaker 2: If you're going to sell mountain biking very niche, surfing
41:57
Speaker 2: very niche, it's got to be this is a great
42:00
Speaker 2: to dine.
42:02
Speaker 4: Yes, And you know that you and I kind of
42:04
Speaker 4: differ on our opinions of the visitors Bureau. I think
42:07
Speaker 4: that when you're a visitors bureau, you're built to market
42:11
Speaker 4: the entire city.
42:13
Speaker 3: Dana Point hired me and Judy Bijlani.
42:16
Speaker 1: Who started I remember Judy Yep.
42:18
Speaker 4: To open and start Visit Data Point, and so we
42:22
Speaker 4: built that up from the ground up. And it was
42:24
Speaker 4: initially supported by the four primary resorts there, and they
42:29
Speaker 4: were doing the same kind of bed tax thing to
42:32
Speaker 4: fund the visitors Bureau. But what was so important to
42:36
Speaker 4: those resorts was the understanding that they only had one
42:41
Speaker 4: or two restaurants in each of their resorts, and so
42:44
Speaker 4: it was important to support the entire city so that
42:47
Speaker 4: they could continue to have this congruence of effort between
42:53
Speaker 4: the retailers, the restaurants, and the resorts to build the
42:56
Speaker 4: city up. And I think we've lost that somewhere along
42:59
Speaker 4: the line. And I feel that, you know, the Visitor's
43:03
Speaker 4: Bureau has done a great job of supporting the hotels
43:06
Speaker 4: who are their clients and advertising the beaches in the water.
43:11
Speaker 4: But like I said, what has made this town is
43:16
Speaker 4: over here on this side of the sand, and I
43:20
Speaker 4: don't feel that that's getting proper representation. And that's part
43:23
Speaker 4: of the reason why I do so much invest with
43:25
Speaker 4: the Guna Beach and write so much investle the Good
43:27
Speaker 4: Beach and do this radio show because I just really
43:31
Speaker 4: want people to understand what the magic is of this
43:33
Speaker 4: town and how easily we can shift in the direction
43:38
Speaker 4: of just feeling like a really wonderful, welcoming, opulent experience
43:43
Speaker 4: that just brings people in by the droves who want
43:46
Speaker 4: that experience and are participating.
43:48
Speaker 3: In that experience.
43:50
Speaker 2: Diane Armitage, you have made some excellent points. I've got
43:53
Speaker 2: a few more questions here. We've got a limited time,
43:56
Speaker 2: and I want to get to them. Okay, one hundred
43:57
Speaker 2: and fifty nine dining establishments, not a single marijuana dispensary.
44:01
Speaker 2: Do you think we should have a dispensary in this town?
44:03
Speaker 3: Sure?
44:04
Speaker 2: Okay, good and the one hundred and fifty nine I
44:08
Speaker 2: think even more if you add liquor stores a license.
44:10
Speaker 2: You maybe mentioned this amount of liquor that's sold in
44:13
Speaker 2: this town is another thing that the anti fun group
44:18
Speaker 2: once it's fun. Well, they bring this up all the
44:20
Speaker 2: time because we had some very unflattering news that just
44:23
Speaker 2: was released where the dui capital of Orange County as well.
44:26
Speaker 2: How do you balance that, how do you, you know,
44:29
Speaker 2: want to promote more restaurants in a town that's reacting
44:32
Speaker 2: now to the idea that we have too many drinking establishments.
44:36
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, I don't think people who are
44:38
Speaker 4: buying at the liquor stores are the ones getting the
44:41
Speaker 4: DUIs right, So there's that it's the people at the bars,
44:46
Speaker 4: It's the people at the bars. And also I do
44:49
Speaker 4: think that in that article they noted that a lot
44:52
Speaker 4: of the times they're catching the traffic that's coming from
44:55
Speaker 4: CDM or coming from data point that they're not actually
44:58
Speaker 4: participating here.
44:59
Speaker 2: In But we get blamed because they're in Laguna when
45:02
Speaker 2: they get possible well.
45:03
Speaker 4: And of course when the word is put out that
45:05
Speaker 4: Laguna Beach is the number one DUI right even said
45:09
Speaker 4: his business went down to nothing after that article came out.
45:12
Speaker 4: And so there is a certain I don't know, there's
45:17
Speaker 4: a certain pr problem I think we have, right, I mean,
45:20
Speaker 4: we want to be we certainly want to be attentive
45:26
Speaker 4: and stop the DUIs. Want we want to stop the
45:29
Speaker 4: people from drink, drinking and driving, we definitely do. But
45:33
Speaker 4: what can we put in place that allows people even
45:36
Speaker 4: more freedom to get ubers, to get you know, trolleys
45:41
Speaker 4: that actually go later than a certain timeframe of the night,
45:45
Speaker 4: you know that kind of a thing.
45:46
Speaker 1: That's an excellent point.
45:47
Speaker 4: And you know, I think that, like I said before,
45:54
Speaker 4: this is not a tourist industry town any longer because
45:58
Speaker 4: retail has struggled so mightily against the big giants like
46:02
Speaker 4: Amazon and the online buying experience. You know, we really
46:07
Speaker 4: need to begin supporting these food and beverage establishments.
46:11
Speaker 1: And so.
46:15
Speaker 4: There's got to be a I don't think that we
46:18
Speaker 4: have too many liquor stores.
46:19
Speaker 3: I mean I think that we have enough.
46:23
Speaker 4: I don't think we have I think we have too
46:26
Speaker 4: much of a nightclub situation down on Ocean Avenue, and
46:30
Speaker 4: it's tattering that street. And so I think that we
46:34
Speaker 4: need to look at where the nightclub permits are happening
46:36
Speaker 4: in this town. And that again goes back to creating
46:39
Speaker 4: that plan of where things go, so that you're spreading
46:44
Speaker 4: this across the town and you're not putting too much
46:48
Speaker 4: resource or issue on one particular section of the town.
46:53
Speaker 4: I mean, I also feel like the Promenade has gotten
46:55
Speaker 4: a lot of PR and there are only four restaurants
46:59
Speaker 4: in that space, and they have really benefited from that space.
47:03
Speaker 4: Beyond that block, the restaurants beyond that are getting no notice,
47:09
Speaker 4: They're not getting any PR. And so what about all
47:13
Speaker 4: the other restaurants on all the sides that we need
47:16
Speaker 4: to take care of. One of the other things, too,
47:18
Speaker 4: is the city offered to do sort of a help
47:21
Speaker 4: with the curb cleanup with these restaurants, which I.
47:24
Speaker 3: Think is a beautiful idea.
47:25
Speaker 4: But I don't know that the restaurant owners and tenants
47:30
Speaker 4: that are in those properties really know how to approach
47:32
Speaker 4: the city how to go get help funding. They don't really,
47:36
Speaker 4: it hasn't really been spelled out for them, and the
47:38
Speaker 4: city has just kind of said, well, here it is,
47:40
Speaker 4: and we're not going to talk about to go any more.
47:42
Speaker 4: And so how can we be more assertive so that
47:45
Speaker 4: we are helping them clean up their spaces? Because, as
47:47
Speaker 4: Reuben has said on my show many times, once somebody
47:50
Speaker 4: starts cleaning up their space, the next guy starts cleaning
47:52
Speaker 4: up his space. It's like people putting up Christmas lights
47:54
Speaker 4: in the same neighborhood.
47:55
Speaker 1: It's kind of what I said about this whole.
47:59
Speaker 2: Effort to educate tourists to clean up the beaches behind them,
48:03
Speaker 2: which you know they're calling stewardship, and you know, I'm like, well,
48:06
Speaker 2: you can write about it, but you could also you know,
48:09
Speaker 2: stock plastic shovels, gloves and trash bags with a big
48:13
Speaker 2: sign be a part of the solution, not the problem.
48:15
Speaker 2: Leave no trace or leave it better than you found
48:17
Speaker 2: it empower people and then once they see somebody doing it,
48:20
Speaker 2: it's contagious.
48:21
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, I want to do my part well.
48:23
Speaker 4: And you know, the leave no traces actually worked in
48:26
Speaker 4: the parks, the national parks. That whole campaign has worked,
48:30
Speaker 4: and it's worked for decades now, and people are getting
48:33
Speaker 4: more and more careful about packing out their trash to.
48:35
Speaker 1: Most people want to do good. They just have to know.
48:37
Speaker 4: They just have to know, and they have to have
48:39
Speaker 4: the resources available to them to follow through. Like for instance,
48:42
Speaker 4: when the city of Laguna Beach took over the county beaches,
48:46
Speaker 4: you know, we had one trash can between Lost Peer
48:50
Speaker 4: and Treasure island where the montage was one trash can
48:53
Speaker 4: and so that was a county thing that was a problem.
48:56
Speaker 4: But when the city inherited it, the trash cans didn't
48:59
Speaker 4: go up either. So these kinds of things, you know,
49:01
Speaker 4: we have to have a place where we can kind
49:02
Speaker 4: of notify the city nicely, we don't have to be
49:05
Speaker 4: mean about it. But then the city responds and helps
49:07
Speaker 4: us with that so that we keep our beaches clean.
49:10
Speaker 1: Two more questions, if we can squeeze them in one.
49:14
Speaker 2: How you know, I would be remiss if I didn't
49:17
Speaker 2: talk a little bit about the fire. And you know,
49:19
Speaker 2: we're preparing everything we can here at the station to
49:22
Speaker 2: keep people on hyper alert and we're going to get
49:24
Speaker 2: more into that building out our website on what to
49:26
Speaker 2: do in the case of an emergency. But what happens
49:30
Speaker 2: to the restaurant industry in la I mean, I think
49:34
Speaker 2: of two things. One is all the workers who are
49:37
Speaker 2: affected by this, who you know, can they even open?
49:41
Speaker 2: And secondly, there must be a huge demand for restaurants
49:46
Speaker 2: because one hundred and thirty thousand people are displaced. Any
49:51
Speaker 2: are you hearing anything from your sources up there about
49:53
Speaker 2: what's Oh.
49:54
Speaker 3: There's a lot of talk.
49:55
Speaker 4: Yeah, and there's there has been a lot of talk
49:58
Speaker 4: and a lot of conversation. I've been in a lot
50:00
Speaker 4: of conversations, and it's absolutely dreadful what's happening up there.
50:05
Speaker 4: I would estimate that forty to fifty percent of those
50:09
Speaker 4: restaurants aren't even going.
50:10
Speaker 3: To try to come back, no care.
50:12
Speaker 4: Well, for one, it's so difficult to operate a restaurant
50:15
Speaker 4: and continue to thrive. Secondly, when you're in a community
50:19
Speaker 4: and you have all of your patrons in a certain
50:21
Speaker 4: area around you, moving to a new space is a
50:25
Speaker 4: difficult thing to do.
50:26
Speaker 3: And whether or not you can carry the liquor.
50:28
Speaker 4: License with you is an issue because they're supposed to
50:31
Speaker 4: be only travel with the building, yes, right and so,
50:35
Speaker 4: and they can't travel from LA to Orange County with
50:38
Speaker 4: a liquor license.
50:39
Speaker 3: That's not legal as not allowed.
50:41
Speaker 4: So there's going to have to be some new flexibility
50:43
Speaker 4: and there have to be restaurant owners who are saying, Okay, well,
50:46
Speaker 4: I am willing to move three.
50:47
Speaker 3: Miles down or ten miles down.
50:50
Speaker 4: To get into this space because it's going to take
50:52
Speaker 4: two to three years just to build, and it's not
50:54
Speaker 4: because of the permitting or the rezoning processes that are
50:57
Speaker 4: probably going to go on.
50:59
Speaker 1: It's resources.
51:00
Speaker 4: It's resources, yeah, you know, I mean just getting rid
51:03
Speaker 4: and you know, doing the demolition, getting rid of all
51:08
Speaker 4: of that material.
51:09
Speaker 3: Where does it all go?
51:11
Speaker 4: You know? And then are they going to allow for
51:14
Speaker 4: rezoning with the restaurants on Malibu Strip for instance, and
51:17
Speaker 4: that kind of thing. And so there's a lot that's
51:19
Speaker 4: going to be happening over the next two and a
51:21
Speaker 4: half three years.
51:21
Speaker 3: What does a restaurant do in the meantime.
51:25
Speaker 1: And all the employees and all the employees.
51:27
Speaker 2: Ugh, it's so sad. I can't even get my head
51:30
Speaker 2: around it. H All right, well, let's send on a
51:33
Speaker 2: lighter note. L note, lighter note. I know you have
51:37
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty nine children that you love equally
51:40
Speaker 2: love them. But you're having friends come in visiting you
51:44
Speaker 2: from out of town. You want to impress them. You
51:46
Speaker 2: want to have a great weekend, best restaurants to go to?
51:49
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh. Everyone puts me on the spot with this.
51:52
Speaker 4: I always say, what do you feel like eating? And
51:54
Speaker 4: then I tell them where to go?
51:55
Speaker 1: Well where should we go? Anyway?
51:57
Speaker 2: Generally, you who do you think is really outstanding right now?
52:01
Speaker 4: I think I think the Drake is outstanding. They are creative,
52:07
Speaker 4: drinks are amazing, They're outstanding. They have valet parking, they
52:10
Speaker 4: have valley parking, and they are really working with the neighborhood.
52:13
Speaker 4: The neighborhood loves them and they just have got the
52:17
Speaker 4: right combination.
52:18
Speaker 1: Do they have live music every night or.
52:19
Speaker 3: Live music every night?
52:20
Speaker 2: It's not too loud For those of us who don't
52:22
Speaker 2: like noisy restaurants.
52:24
Speaker 3: I think it could be a little loud.
52:25
Speaker 4: That's why, you know, mostly you'll find the local sitting
52:28
Speaker 4: in the bar having a great time in the bar.
52:30
Speaker 3: But they do a great job.
52:32
Speaker 4: I also think Carrie Redfern at Lumberyard is one of
52:34
Speaker 4: the most creative owners in this town.
52:36
Speaker 1: One of the best restaurant tours. It really is.
52:38
Speaker 2: I see him in the kitchen serving bringing dishes out.
52:41
Speaker 2: He knows there's no job beneath this guy.
52:43
Speaker 4: No, and he takes his team up to La to
52:46
Speaker 4: check out new concepts and try new foods, and I
52:48
Speaker 4: mean they're constantly they're actually constantly changing up that menu.
52:52
Speaker 4: I think he's doing a beautiful job and very into it.
52:55
Speaker 2: And that restaurant absorbs sound that you can actually have
52:58
Speaker 2: a nice conversation there. Yes, that's one of the three
53:02
Speaker 2: biggest things right now that people complain about with food
53:05
Speaker 2: service and noise right.
53:06
Speaker 4: Well, and that's the number one thing people ask me.
53:08
Speaker 4: Where can I go where the restaurant's quiet?
53:10
Speaker 2: I know, for an aging population, it's an important thing.
53:15
Speaker 1: You know.
53:15
Speaker 2: It's like my hearing. I fit there a lot of
53:17
Speaker 2: ambient noise. I can't hear the person across from me.
53:19
Speaker 4: I know.
53:20
Speaker 3: It's a dreadful thing.
53:22
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yes, I mean I think those are two
53:24
Speaker 4: great restaurants.
53:25
Speaker 3: I think.
53:27
Speaker 4: I think I have favorites, like you know, I love
53:30
Speaker 4: Kyrite Grill, I love Nea Pizza Soup, I love Evans Gourmet.
53:33
Speaker 4: She's doing a fantastic job in the old Roue location.
53:37
Speaker 4: Glad you mentioned that she is a fabulous chef. Yeah,
53:39
Speaker 4: and a very not weally well known chef. And I
53:43
Speaker 4: think she is just knocking it out.
53:45
Speaker 3: Of the park.
53:45
Speaker 1: Awesome.
53:46
Speaker 2: So, and what about the job that Chris from downstairs
53:49
Speaker 2: wine Gallery is the sushi bar up Mickey's.
53:52
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, Wine Gallery is a favorite locals for a
53:55
Speaker 4: reason because he's done an amazing job there and what
53:58
Speaker 4: he did to rezare the Mickey sushi from two forty
54:01
Speaker 4: two is amazing and the food there is phenomenal. It
54:04
Speaker 4: is the best sushi restaurant in town.
54:06
Speaker 1: Glad to hear that we need more sushi. Yeah, everybody does.
54:09
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, and you know Chris OL's and he Rocks.
54:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, just you know, these guys are just so personable
54:15
Speaker 4: and so I mean, I think Phineas has done a
54:17
Speaker 4: great job.
54:18
Speaker 3: I think totally. I think the guys at Shire have
54:21
Speaker 3: done an amazing.
54:22
Speaker 1: Love Sapphire, great lunch.
54:25
Speaker 2: Your food has to be terrible for that place not
54:26
Speaker 2: to work, because it's so attractive and true. You know,
54:30
Speaker 2: what about the anticipation of the restaurant that's going to
54:34
Speaker 2: replace Sanhi Go, the big what used to be marks
54:37
Speaker 2: over there?
54:37
Speaker 3: You know, I don't have enough information on it.
54:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't either. I haven't heard much.
54:41
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I am looking forward to Piat's coming
54:43
Speaker 4: into the two twenty two Ocean Boulevard location, which, yes,
54:46
Speaker 4: where Taverna started and then it became you know.
54:49
Speaker 1: A million things, a million things. When is that slated
54:52
Speaker 1: to open? Do you have any idea.
54:53
Speaker 4: They're looking for early summer is what I've heard. So
54:57
Speaker 4: I have another interview scheduled with them this next week,
54:59
Speaker 4: so I'm looking forward to getting some more information on that.
55:01
Speaker 2: And we don't have any updates on somebody replacing Bear
55:05
Speaker 2: Flag or replacing Wild Taco or any of these others.
55:10
Speaker 3: Nothing yet.
55:10
Speaker 4: I mean remember too that you know, there were rumors
55:13
Speaker 4: of people going into Wild Taco. You know, remember like
55:17
Speaker 4: I would love to date and marry Keanu Reeves. But
55:20
Speaker 4: there are a lot of steps that have to happen
55:21
Speaker 4: between the desire and actually making it happen and getting
55:26
Speaker 4: the concept approved initially with design reviews the first thing
55:29
Speaker 4: that has to happen, and so you know, I don't
55:32
Speaker 4: even know if they got that far, and so there
55:36
Speaker 4: is a big process that you must go through. But
55:38
Speaker 4: I mean just getting the initials approvals and then they
55:40
Speaker 4: have to say, well, this is what you have to change,
55:42
Speaker 4: and then you say, okay, I'm going to come back
55:43
Speaker 4: at it. And then there are a lot of times
55:45
Speaker 4: when design review has no knowledge of how to actually
55:48
Speaker 4: build a restaurant to make money, and so you begin
55:52
Speaker 4: changing the concept and the build out and the renovation.
55:56
Speaker 1: Then you've got to go to planning commission and you've got.
55:58
Speaker 4: To go to planning commission and Planning commission, and it
56:00
Speaker 4: may not be the best way to make a restaurant
56:02
Speaker 4: make money.
56:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, yep.
56:05
Speaker 2: Yet we've had some very unusual things where places that
56:08
Speaker 2: were not restaurants before somehow got approved, like the pizzeria
56:12
Speaker 2: that carry Owns across the street, or Tangoed that I
56:16
Speaker 2: had no idea how that got converted to a restaurant,
56:19
Speaker 2: or I'm just going.
56:20
Speaker 1: To say the hot dog place that was in the
56:21
Speaker 1: visitors Bureau.
56:22
Speaker 2: Not that was necessarily the best use, but you know,
56:25
Speaker 2: there are instances when the city has seemed to help
56:28
Speaker 2: a merchant open a restaurant and what previously was not
56:32
Speaker 2: a restaurant.
56:33
Speaker 4: And it's difficult to open a restaurant in retail. I
56:35
Speaker 4: mean a lot of people have a fear that all
56:37
Speaker 4: the restaurants are going to take over all the retail
56:39
Speaker 4: space in this town. It's really difficult to shift a
56:44
Speaker 4: retail space into a restaurant.
56:45
Speaker 1: It is it is, And you said grease trapped number
56:48
Speaker 1: one thing.
56:49
Speaker 4: It's just it's a nymeric you know, the hood that
56:51
Speaker 4: everything that you've got to get going on, and it's
56:53
Speaker 4: just it's a lot, it's much.
56:55
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a lot of work to move into a.
56:57
Speaker 4: Second generation restaurant, but it's still made to be a restaurant.
57:01
Speaker 4: There's better hope that you'll be open faster and sooner.
57:04
Speaker 1: Diane Armitage.
57:06
Speaker 2: It has been a pleasure and I just applaud all
57:09
Speaker 2: the work you do to be a booster to the
57:11
Speaker 2: restaurant culinary scene in this town.
57:13
Speaker 1: We need you and thank you for all your work.
57:15
Speaker 2: And anything about your show you want to mention upcoming
57:19
Speaker 2: guests or how people can are you saving your shows
57:22
Speaker 2: as podcast I am, Well.
57:24
Speaker 1: There you go. People.
57:25
Speaker 2: If you want to hear Diane interviewing all of these
57:28
Speaker 2: interesting people in the business, you got to go our
57:30
Speaker 2: website KXFM Radio dot org, click on Diane's profile page
57:36
Speaker 2: and all of your podcasts are house there.
57:38
Speaker 1: Yeah.
57:38
Speaker 3: No, it's awesome.
57:39
Speaker 4: Yes, And I've got some great interviews coming up in
57:43
Speaker 4: the weeks ahead. So I've got Carrie from lumber Yard
57:46
Speaker 4: coming in. Oh good, Yeah, and Bruce is going to
57:48
Speaker 4: join me again. We're going to be talking about the
57:51
Speaker 4: LA fires and how to better prepare your restaurant against
57:58
Speaker 4: that kind of a thing, you know, whatever you can
58:00
Speaker 4: do for that, and uh yeah, and I'm going to
58:04
Speaker 4: be in reviewing the PATI people here.
58:06
Speaker 3: Oh good, Ma is going to be coming in and.
58:09
Speaker 1: What about getting Ivan in here?
58:12
Speaker 3: You know we are going to do that in February.
58:15
Speaker 4: Okay, yeah, he hasn't set a date, but he said
58:17
Speaker 4: I'll talk in February, and I think that'll he just
58:20
Speaker 4: needs a little cooling off period, I think.
58:23
Speaker 1: Sure, sure, I'm sure.
58:24
Speaker 2: It's shocking and you know, all having to let go
58:26
Speaker 2: all these people and pull all that equipment out, I
58:29
Speaker 2: mean that's a lot. Yeah, So Ivan, we love you man,
58:32
Speaker 2: Thank you for everything you do. And if any city
58:34
Speaker 2: officials are listening to this show, Diane is available to hire.
58:38
Speaker 2: We need Diane to help us improve our restaurant scene.
58:41
Speaker 2: And everybody out there, thanks for listening. We will podcast
58:45
Speaker 2: this show as well, so you can listen at your
58:47
Speaker 2: leisure and if you feel so inclined that we always
58:51
Speaker 2: are accepting of your donation tax deductible to keep us
58:54
Speaker 2: going there you have it.
58:56
Speaker 1: Thanks Diane.
58:57
Speaker 3: It's been a pleasure, all right.
58:58
Speaker 1: K x F.