Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / Diamond Spur's Chef Marc Marrone Talks Regenerative Ranching & More | 339

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Diamond Spur's Chef Marc Marrone Talks Regenerative Ranching & More | 339 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back, boys and girls, to a new episode of Hey Big Head.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: Julie, before we get into who we have on, I just want to I just want to ask you a question.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: Is this the best job you've ever had in your life?
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: It is the best job.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry to previous employers if you see this.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: I will I don't be sorry.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: The reason I can tell you why this is the best job, because we have some incredible fucking guests on all around Las Vegas, and today is no exception.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_02: To the point, do you want to do the intro?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know how excited you are for today.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: I do kind of want to do the intro.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Hit it up.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: So today, everybody, we have Mark Marone, who is an esteemed chef historically.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: However, he did just open a new project that we'll get into a little bit later called Diamond Spur.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's more than a butcher shop, as he will explain later.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: You'll be able to get all of your beefs and meats and even me, I don't eat beef, but I've heard a lot about the chicken and stuff as well.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: So that's exciting for me.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: But welcome, Mark Marone, to the Big Head Family.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Mark.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: How are you?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Good, man.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: How'd you like that intro, by the way?
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: It was great.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: He was super unprepared.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: He did not tell me I was doing the intro.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, exactly.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that's what makes the episode.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, thank you so much for being here, man.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: I know you're a busy guy, I know you're running around doing things, but I appreciate you taking the time to sit down with us.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, you have the new spot that opened up, and we're gonna dive into that.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: You're you're obviously well established, but I want to I want our listeners and viewers to learn a little bit more about you, if that's all right.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um you you you built your I mean, you really got your big start working with Tao back in the day, right?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, how old were you at that time when you got involved with them?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I was brought on as a chef of Tau in New York, the original Tau, I was 23, 23 years old.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a big, it was a big opportunity.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: It was one of those jobs that uh I had no chance of getting, at least I didn't think I did.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_05: And I went in for the stage and it was a Friday night, it was a Friday, right?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_05: So I roll into this stage, it's like 10 o'clock in the morning, and there's a little thing hanging up, and it's like 627 covers.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, Oh, is that how much we have for tonight?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_05: And the sous chef at the time looks at me and goes, No, man.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, That's lunch.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, It's about to happen right now.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, Oh, I'm so over my head.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_05: You just got thrown into it.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, Cool, what do you need me to do?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_05: He's like, You have to figure it out, man.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, all right, just watch this restaurant get slam busy.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_05: And I remember standing there in awe of just like the operation and what they were doing, and it was this basement kitchen in New York City on 58th Street, and it was like I'm convinced the ceilings were probably seven, six and a half feet.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_05: They were like low, yeah, low ceiling basement.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_05: I'm watching like prep like produce a stack to the ceiling every you know in the morning.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_05: By the end of the day, it's prepped out, it's sent out, and I was just you know, I was I was in awe, and I got the feeling that they do these stages, and most of the chefs that did them were kind of just like, no, no chance I'm doing this, man.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_05: They and they fucking bailed, right?
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_05: I loved it, and I loved every minute of it, and ended up basically they invited me back the next day and the next day, and and they offered me a job and they're like, Cool, just you're at it, have at it.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I still have no idea what I'm doing, but let's let's go.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_05: And it was one of those things where the company had just Tao Vegas had just opened, town of New York was kind of skyrocketing.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_05: So it was in town of New York, and we're getting busier and busier.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_05: It was one of those jobs that was kind of like everyone had an opportunity to grow with that company at the time.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_05: And it was if you took it and ran with it, you did.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I started there, um, and then Vegas completely ramped up pretty heavy.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_05: Tao Vegas took off like a rocket and became the highest-grossing independent restaurant in the country at the time.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's incredible.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um, lava just opened and lavo stutter stepped a little bit out of the gate, and uh we were doing some transformations on that.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_05: Once that got flipped over to the Italian restaurant, you guys all know now, yeah.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um, it also took off like a rocket.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_05: So, next thing you know, I'm out in Vegas.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: We're gonna open Lavo, New York, and I got sent out to Vegas to help kind of tighten things up at Tao, get familiar with the Lavo brand, and open up the one, be the chef of the one in New York City.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, sounds great.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_05: I was supposed to be here for 90 days, and that was about 17 years ago.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_05: So um ended up staying here and um you know, going back and forth with them.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_05: I wanted to go home, I wanted to do this, and the bigger picture was to make me the corporate chef.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_05: So as we were growing up, became the corporate chef.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_05: I was 24 at the time.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was crazy.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_05: That's wild.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_05: It was nuts.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_05: And it was, you know, I I I definitely wouldn't be where I'm at today without the opportunities I think that these guys had given me early on.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_05: They were just like, hey, you know, it was one of those things where they're very much a company early on that was like, if you execute and you do it, I don't care where you came from, just if you're the guy, the right guy for the job or right girl for the job and have at it.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, it was a unique opportunity.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I did that, and that's what brought me to Vegas.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um when you're when you came from the front French Culinary Institute, did they kind of prep you and and get you ready for something where you have 600 plus covers, or is that something that you're you're you're never prepared for?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't go in school.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_05: No, you're not.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_05: And I was working in restaurants before that, and the only reason I even went to do that was I had this stupid idea that I wanted to work on a cruise ship.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know why.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone said that it was like that was good money, a good experience, you could travel, and I was like, yeah, and everywhere I looked, you needed like a culinary degree.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I've been working in restaurants for like four years of the five five years of the time.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to interrupt real quick.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: I personally have never heard anyone say good things about working on a cruise ship.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: That's terrible.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: So, what got in your head that made that the starting dream for you?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it was because I I mean, especially now it's been romanticized a lot, but you know, being a chef even back then wasn't like, oh my god, I'm so cool.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: You're on TV and be all this cool shit.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, it's like a trade, and you're gonna try to make a living, and that paid really well, right?
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, yeah, great, you have a plan here, I make some good money.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: I'm 21, 22 at the time, I'm gonna get a job on a cruise ship.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, I need a culinary degree.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, but I have other degrees, like, nope, need a culinary degree.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, fucking, goddamn it.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_05: So I went there, right?
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_05: And I got referred there um by a couple other chef friends of mine that all went there, and I was like, all right, cool.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_05: So I go there, and immediately realized that I don't want to be on a cruise ship.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's a horrible idea.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so I was actually kind of already planning my my uh my next steps.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: And I was actually crazy enough, I acted probably the only lunatic that took the job at Tau while I was still finishing school.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_05: So I would literally go to school until like 6 a.m.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_05: until I got out, I'd skip out at like 12:30, go right to the restaurant, work at towel to one in the morning, try to catch a train home, just to be back at school by like six.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I did that for the last like couple months of of culinary school.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_05: So I was kind of getting ramped up and ready, and not gonna lie, I took a lot of naps at school.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_05: It was a lot a lot of dozing off.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, yeah, so that was no, nothing at school prepares you for any of it.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I also, you know, I think I'm the antichrist for culinary schools, but I think that you know, the biggest mistake anybody can make really is just get an idea in their head they want to cook for a living and go right to culinary school.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_05: It's not fair to you, it's not fair to anybody.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's an incredibly large bill you end up getting stuck with, and you know, and you don't really know you love this job until you do it.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_05: And the only way, and I mean that not like some guy telling you to make, hey, here you're gonna spend three hours making stock.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's get in a restaurant, understand what it looks like to prep to actually get thrown to the wolves, and either you love it or you don't.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_05: Like I said, that first day, it's how I was standing there.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I love this place.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I want to, I love everything about it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_05: It was fucking chaos, it was nuts, it was loud, it was it was madness.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Do you miss the chaos?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, obviously you're in chaos, but you're you're in a different role now with the chaos.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you miss that chaos of the early days?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I I think I always, yeah, I do.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_05: I think so.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_05: I think uh, you know, I think about that a lot, you know, especially when I go through different phases of what I'm doing now, and I look back at you know, going back to a scenario like that, and it's just a very different version of me.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_05: And the one it was a blessing, but also like that was my entire life.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_05: Like sure.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_05: When I when I tell you, like, I made it, that was that was it.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like it was six, seven days a week.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_05: I worked my ass off.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_05: I I'm not complaining, by the way, but it was just that I it consumed me.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_05: And I the only way to be great in a scenario like that is to completely make sure that that is your number one priority.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, it's a big topic in our culinary world right now, right?
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_05: Is is work-life balance is the is the famous word now, and and I totally appreciate and get it now.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't then.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I look back now and missed a lot.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, I missed the first couple years of my son being born.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's a big reason why I decided to leave Tau when I did, was my son had turned two, and I basically missed.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_05: I was in Singapore for the first year basically of his life.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's tough.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was hard, but you know, but it's weird.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, but I love that, right?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I realized though to be great at that, I couldn't be great at both, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_05: You had to pick one or the other.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, that's kind of what guided my next set of decision making on my career path was how do I create something special that you know is something impactful that I enjoy, but also I can weave, you know, my family into it and make sure there's some semblance of time with my family.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_02: As you get older, your your priorities change.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what I mean we've had we've had some pretty incredible business owners and chefs on this show, um, even ones that we haven't, but we we know their stories.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Very rarely is there somebody who gets to the level that you're at or even further, and they haven't had a similar history to you.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you you you gotta grind, you gotta get through it and sacrifice social time, sacrifice some relationships at times, sacrifice the things that other people would take for granted.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: But it's you know, fortunately, it's it's been working out for you today, but I know it probably didn't seem like that for a while.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_05: No, you know, I'm really thankful.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_05: I I got it out of the way early, right?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, it was it was uh that's I I get asked a lot, you know, I'm fairly did a lot of accomplished a lot at a young age, I guess, right?
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, people ask, how do I how do how do I get started?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_05: How do I do that?
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, like I said, the only real answer, like my 20s, I didn't, I wasn't like, you know, hanging out and part, I mean, I had a good time, but it was all revolved around work.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, and I I made a point right out of the gate, like I wasn't, you know, getting hung over and not going to work the next day.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_05: I showed up every day and I worked worked my ass off.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that you know, getting that out of the way in my early 20s and through my 20s really helped kind of build where I'm at now to give me that kind of perspective and understanding to really try to try to create things, but also as we build new businesses, I try to ensure that we build systems in place that can give the teams an opportunity to have some kind of life outside of work, right?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_05: Because again, yes, it got me where I am today, but I do think that you know there's a healthier way to get there.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: You don't seem like the type of person that would brag too much about you know the accomplishments.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like you you have enough to show that.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the type of person that will vocally brag about all my accomplishments over and over again.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: So just for my own sake, can you humble brag a bit about some of the chefs that you have worked with in the past that are well known today?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, I did, I was fortunate to do a lot of a lot of cool projects.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_05: I've done everything with from Daniel Balou to do some project, Dan Barber.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I've worked with, I mean, Jacques Papin was actually an instructor at my school, who was unbelievable.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_05: And I learned an absolute ton from him.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_05: Jacques Therese guided the pastry program, so I learned was fortunate to learn a lot from him.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then, you know, candidly, uh, you know, Brouse Gamerdell is the chef partner at Tao, was really the one that initially gave me that that big shot of like, hey, if you want to do this, I'm gonna give you the path to do it, and it's yours to lose.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, I learned a lot, probably the most from him, candidly, about how this industry works, right?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_05: And how, you know, again, you know, I got I think I got the advice really early on that you know, the biggest in the culinary world specifically, right?
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's like if you show up every day and you work your ass off and you keep your nose clean for lack of a better word, double pun intended with kitchens.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_05: Um triple pun intended with it.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, literally, yes, yes, you know, and you show up, people will majority of people in this business will find a way to screw themselves.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_05: And I didn't know what that meant.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_05: And so I realized showing up every day and you see guys that come in hot and you're like, oh, this guy's gonna be really good, does something, derails himself somehow, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_05: Or and and ends up doing something stupid or or or being someone in their 20s, right?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_05: It just happens.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I had this hammered into my head early on.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, if you want to be great in this business, this is what you got to do.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_05: And I took it to heart, and I and I didn't have any other way or have any other perspective as to like do it a different way.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but every one of those guys, the same ethos was kind of present with all of them.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_05: It was a direct commitment to this, right?
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_05: It's like to be great at it, that's what you got to give all your effort to.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, again, I think any one of them will tell you the same thing as you got old as you get older and you you get more perspective that it's great, but there's other side of your life there, right?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_05: As you get older.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: But I don't know, I feel hypocritical saying that though, because I have a hard time giving that advice sometimes because it's like I didn't do that.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: There's no clerk on the answer.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I I mean now, yeah, I'd try to have balance, but even then I'm guilty of like I have to really make sure that does it have to be me that goes and goes and does it?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_05: Or can I empower one of my guys?
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_05: It's a good opportunity for them to learn something new and them to actually go do it, versus me always jumping on a grenade and be like, oh, I'll go do it.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's well seasoned, more mature, Mark.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and it's believe me, it comes in waves.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: But um when you left Tau, I know you you you explained why, but what was your mindset?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because you my dad, it was not necessarily at the level of of Tau group, but he's also in was in the hospitality business and left uh a pretty big uh company here in town to do his own thing.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I always like hearing the the the setbacks he had, the successes he had, and the mindset that he was going through when he was you know doing that.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I I see a lot of similarities when I we Julie did the research on you and you were talked about leaving Tao.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: What was going through your mind when you decided to pull the trigger on Tao and leave?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: So it's funny.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: I think through, you know, I I think I think everybody has this in their in their career, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_05: Where it's like you get this phase is where you're like, I'm gonna do my own thing, whether it's your own restaurant, whether it's your own version of whatever business you're in.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's your own podcast.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, your own podcast.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_05: And then, you know, you keep working, and then something comes up and you're like, holy shit, I thought I knew everything.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_05: And that happened to me a lot at Tao, right?
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, not that I knew everything, but that I was equipped and and I had you know gotten the right experiences to be able to be well around enough to do my own thing.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I I felt that way a little bit, and then Lavo Singapore and Tao LA was big last two giant projects I worked on.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, the Tao LA thing came about, and I was it was gonna be, you know, I would oversee the opening and construction and development of Tao Los Angeles, the highlight room, which is on the roof, Avenue, Lucenia Pizza Place, room service for the hotel, the banquets of the hotel, there's a beauty and essentials going in there, and it was basically this one block of like madness, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_05: And that was like me and my project.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, okay, let me see what I think I after that.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_05: I realized I was like, holy shit, now I think I've got some good perspective on stuff.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_05: And then right after that, I got the opportunity to go.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_05: We signed the deal for Lava Singapore.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_05: So I rolled into Towel LA, learned a ton opening a hotel with four restaurants at the same damn time.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_05: You know, just it was it was madness.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_05: One of the coolest, you know, coolest experiences I could ever ask for.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_05: And and you know, being part of that, kind of figuring it out as we went along and getting this thing open.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was a big undertaking.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_05: And we had projects going on in New York at the same time, too.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_05: So the company was truly like yeah, bunch of New York team was focusing on one stuff.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_05: I was we were focusing on on this.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_05: Spread thin.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_05: Um it was great, and I was like, this is cool.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_05: I learned a lot, and then cool, they're like, Yeah, you did that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_05: Now you want to open a restaurant on the top of a hotel in another country.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, haven't done that yet.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_05: So again, another thing to layer in going, I really don't know shit.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, the whole nothing.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_05: Singapore at the time.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so lava Singapore was on the roof of the Marina Bay Sands.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_05: So that was after Tao LA, I rolled right into opening that.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Did you get a chance to actually enjoy Singapore or were you just working the interview?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, actually I did.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um thanks thanks to construction delays.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: So shout out construction delays.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_05: Went out there and uh, you know, it's big like you know, interview process and mass hiring for the team and all this other stuff.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, we're supposed to open uh sometime in mid early December.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um and then it just kept getting dragged on and dragged on, and then it turned into a New Year's Eve opening, which was cool.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: But so I had this like two-week period of only training to do so much, and then so at night I would wander around and go to these different hawker stalls and just hang out and cook and eat.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: And I would actually ask these families if I could cook with them.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_05: So I got these, like I got a lot of really cool experiences of hanging out with these random families and love that because all the hawker markets are basically families that run their own little business in these in these markets, right?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_05: So I'd hang out at night, they'd see me over and over again.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_05: Eventually I'd be, I was like, how do you ask you a couple questions and start shooting the shit, learn how to make different stuff, high-in-need, chicken and rice, all that.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_05: And it was that was cool.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and that was a real cultural immersion because it wasn't like a quick vacation.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_05: It was like I was there every day.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_05: So it was like a little different getting in the routine of how long were you there for?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_05: Oof.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_05: Uh a total of it was a total of three months, three and a half months.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um the longest clip was a month and a half, it was like six weeks straight.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_05: It was a lot.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_05: It was great.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_05: Living in a hotel, it's funny after like the third week.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, I just want to do my own laundry.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_05: I know it sounds annoying, and I hate anyone who knows me is I can hate doing laundry.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_05: But I was like, I just want my own shit.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Some sense of normal stuff.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was nuts.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_05: You walk in, yeah, it's like folds close.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_05: It's nice for a minute, and then I'm like, I don't want room service, I don't want anything.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_05: I just want to make a bagel.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_05: You can't even do that, right?
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_05: So you just get like start getting crazy.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_05: But uh, but it was cool.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that and then that was really where our again, whole new set of challenges hiring you know, teams from multiple countries, multiple languages, dealing with a hotel, dealing with our company, the bridging that the whole thing, procuring products overseas.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_05: So that was a pretty cool kind of cap to that.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_05: And then you know, really what ended up driving the driving force was uh Madison Square Garden had bought Tau Group out.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_05: And at that point, I was kind of on the fence anyway of what I really wanted to accomplish.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_05: I was 33 33 at the time.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_05: Nice, 34, 34.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I was like, what do I want to do?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_05: And the MSG plan was to open it, was to open more towers, right?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_05: It was a town Chicago, the Town Mohegan Sun, all these, a bunch of Tows in the pipeline.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I was really fortunate to be, you know, really heavily involved in in driving the concepts of the team on Tao Downtown, Tao Los Angeles, Tao Vegas, original town New York.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I just don't know if I want to keep opening the same thing for the next five or six years, right?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_05: And that was no insult to them.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_05: I just wasn't at a point where I was like, this is this is my chance, if I'm gonna do something different, this one I would do it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I thought long and hard about that one.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_05: I think I think I typed my resignation email probably four times to delete it, and I was like, what are you doing?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_05: You're an idiot.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I had these moments where I'd be like, but now is the time to do it.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, I then it was one of those things I kind of realized it was like there wasn't ever a right time to do it, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_05: Is it gonna do it or not?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_05: And so I did put my notice in, and you know were they surprised or were they just they kind of understood?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, they were surprised.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, they understood, but they were surprised.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_05: And it was uh yeah, I mean, I've been there since you know, I've been there forever.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_05: It was like when I started, we had two restaurants, and when I left, they I think it was 39, 40 venues we had at the time.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_05: So it was a lot.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_05: Wow, yeah, it was I mean, it was it was great.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I just uh it was one of those things, and they chatted with me about it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, what do you need, right?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_05: Like, is it money, is this and that?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, there were anything you could possibly want from an employer when you put your notice in, except for the fact I was like, I just I think I'm ready to try to do my own thing.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Good, man.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: And yeah, and that's kind of I was gonna take some time off, and I was like, I'm gonna take like six months off, I'm gonna relax, hang on my kid.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_02: So could you relax after being so no, of course not.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_05: No, so I started going to golden nights games all the time, but nothing else to do.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_05: And then sure my hell of a way it does.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm sitting there looking around, I'm like, really cool, do some food in here.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_05: Some shooting shit, and sure hell, I know somebody that knew the the the global VP down there, and he was like, hey, so I was one night's game of talking to him, and he's like, You'd want to put something in here?
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, Yeah, it'd be awesome.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, Well, come on Monday, but whatever you got lined up, you have I'm sure you have presentation decks and stuff ready to go.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, bring some ideas to this Monday and we'll go through it.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, sure.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_05: Get in the car.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Did you have anything?
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: I had nothing.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_05: There goes your weekend.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there goes your weekend plans.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I uh I was like, what would work in a stadium?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_05: So I started running through all these ideas, and that's where Graffiti Bow came about.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_05: Was that and a few other concepts I had kind of kicked around?
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, spend two days putting together this deck, branding everything for it, right?
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_05: Making the fortunately the bow buns I had down.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_05: I could make those in my sleep.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, all right, so we did all that, and uh so that was uh three weeks into my six months off.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_05: And basically they're like, we love it, yes.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, cool, and the playoffs are about to start.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_05: So I figured it'd be for next season.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, they're like, we can get you in right before the playoffs.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_05: That way you get a couple games in and then you'd be ready for the playoffs.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, all right.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_05: No problem.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_05: You just couldn't relax, could you?
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_02: Just take your time off.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_05: No, and he was like, and they were like, it's not a problem, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, no, no problem at all.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Not at all.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's a problem for future mark to worry about.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, not present-day Mark.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, future mark definitely gets the shaft a lot from the other.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_05: Mark's like, yeah, you'll you'll be fine later.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you'll be good.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I round up the troops and I call everybody that, you know, all my I've I've really forgotten a really tight-knit group of guys that worked with me throughout Tower Group.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um, even to this day.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: Like there's two guys that work at Diamond Spur with me.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_05: His Julio has worked with me for four fifteen years now.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's crazy when you find somebody in the industry in that industry is especially you find somebody, you you really want to stick with them.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: They kind of like actors.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: When the actors get together with other good actors and they have you know good chemistry.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: You kind of put them in similar movies in the future.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you get trust a trust factor, right?
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_05: Like this business is, you know, it's hard enough as it is, and trust is a big thing, and then also understanding each other.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, so anyway, I rounded up the you know, the guys that were all close to me and um my business my now business partner Todd.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_05: I kind of gave he's you know really good operations and um he came, he was the president of John Taffer's consulting firm and all this other stuff.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_05: So I was like, I got an idea.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_05: He's like, all right, cool, so run it through him.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, I love it.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, you down to be part of it?
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_05: He goes, Yeah.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, cool.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_05: We got like three days to get ready for this.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: He's like, awesome.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_05: So him got a couple of guys that were working part-time at Tau doing other stuff, and we were making bow buns all night long and getting ready for these games and loading them in my car and driving them over there.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and it was great.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_05: It took off like a rocket to the point where you know, we realized very quickly that we needed a brick and mortar and you know, just kept scraping money together.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: Shutting along.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and my dad, you know, my and a big part of me leaving Tau too is uh it's weird, like block I'm I'm very Italian when it comes to blocking things out of my brain that aren't like healthy.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like my dad passed away in 2019, also.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and that's when it was kind of like the final, you know, my dad was one of those guys, a true typical Italian American, right?
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_05: His dad came over from Italy, did a job he hated to provide for his family.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_05: My dad did the same thing where he had a job that I knew he didn't love it, but it was what he was good at and was able to try to give me an opportunity, right?
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, to do something.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_05: And that was a big part of it, right?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_05: When I was just like, man, really not happy at the moment.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_05: I really want to do something different.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like kind of nervous and afraid, and I was like, that's kind of the final motivating piece where he was like, he wouldn't want me sitting here doing a job he I hate.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_05: That's what he did, right?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: So that was also kind of another like, all right, let's give it a shot.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_05: And a little bit of cash from selling his house when he passed away, so I was able to try try to scrounge every inch of that to try to get graffiti bow open, the stadiums open.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_05: So that's kind of what started it.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um like I said, yeah, that was so I got like three weeks off.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Who congratulations, by the way.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh who cooked in your family growing up?
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, everybody, actually.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_05: Um, my mother's a really great cook.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_05: My my father was really good.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_05: My my nana, though, my Italian grandmother was like, Yeah, she was it.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_05: Like, that was the one that from the time I was a little little kid, like taught me everything.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was my job to you know stir the sauce.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_05: Once I was tall enough to sit on a stool and stir it, I was just yelled at from the other room.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: Sauce is sticking to the sauce.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, it's not sticking, stir it.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_05: I could smell it, it's sticking, and I was like, sitting there every fucking, every five minutes.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_05: I wasn't allowed to leave the kitchen.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone else was watching Yankee games, the other room was sitting there.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_05: Oh my god, don't screw this up.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, yeah.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_05: So that was so I would and and I think that's why I gravitated to this business, though, is because that like all my memories as a kid of like family and like friends and family and and it all gathered around food, right?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_05: So it was like that was always the easy segue.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_05: And also, if my fucking family there's a problem, like, oh, we're having a fight, let's make some sandwiches.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_05: You haven't a problem with your aunt, let's down and talk about it.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_05: Here's some food.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_05: It was always like that, was the solution for everything, right?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_05: So um, I think subconsciously it's why I kind of got into doing that, and it's just family and food.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_02: It it's incredible what what that can do to a person.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it with those two factors being such an integral part of your early life, especially, it's amazing what it can do.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you're you know, and it's just I think by nature, you know, as crazy as it sounds.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I I because of that, I was enjoyed, like I get more enjoyment out of like hosting people, cooking for people.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_05: I don't really eat a lot, but it's like I but I like that I've always enjoyed doing that, and I saw my grand, like my family enjoyed it, and it was like such a key piece of what made our family what it was.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_05: So um, yeah, I think that's why I just was able to, I was like, I do this for a living.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_05: This is great.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is your kitchen loud?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_05: Loud?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: No.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: No, not really.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_05: Can't be.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not a big fan of that's where I still get some of the old school, like the old restaurants back in the day of like quiet kitchens, things like that.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, our kitchens are exciting, they're fun, but I don't like playing music in them and that kind of stuff as much.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_05: I just don't I like to be able to hear everybody and talk and communicate.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um but yeah.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_05: Gotcha.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: So fast forwarding, we've got graffiti bow, VGK, tau, all of that.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't quite lead us to how you get into horses.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_05: I'll give you the bridge version of that one.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_02: So everybody listened at home, not watching, he is rocking an incredible, incredible cowboy hat, regular hat?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: What would you mind?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: The whole outfit down to the shit kicker.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_05: I literally was just working a horse before I put it covered in dirt.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um please tell Andrew I'm not making this word up.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_05: Oh no, yeah, that's a real word.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_05: First of all, I would never doubt you.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_05: Um so fast forward through all that, uh, COVID.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_05: Fucking hate talking about it, but it's a key part of this whole thing.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_05: So COVID happens, right?
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_05: And the whole world comes to a fucking crashing halt.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I had Graffiti Bow was just getting like full steam ahead, and it was busy, and then COVID happens, right?
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_05: And we gotta fucking close.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, holy shit.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, fuck.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_05: I remember they were shutting everything down, and I we had just gotten to the point where making money, paying people, we're you know, we're stable, right?
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_05: I go out, America, go outside.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like I was gonna throw up, and I was like, oh god, fuck am I gonna do?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: And all these guys had just left their jobs at Tao to come work with me, right?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm like, oh my god.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, all right.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_05: So I go inside, I'm like, hey guys, here's the deal.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I don't know what's gonna happen.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um, everyone's laying people off.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I'm happy to whatever you guys want.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I can lay you off and collect unemployment, I really don't, whatever's best for you guys.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_05: And they're all like, yeah, man, we'd really rather not.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like, can we try to what do we gotta do?
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, Well, it was a good education for them.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, here's what it costs, keep the lights on.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_05: Here's how much you guys cost, and here's how much the food is.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, if we find a way to buy takeout, selling whatever the hell we gotta do, if we can make X amount of dollars a day, we stay open.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: How many people did you have employed at the time?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_05: Shit, one, six, seven, ten.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, like ten or eleven people.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so we did that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_05: So we fought through it, and I kept, man, we found every way from Sunday to fucking try to sell something, man.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_05: I like I got approvals to sell like grocery items, I got approvals to whatever the hell we create sort of Jemma Gemma's pizza concept that created came out of.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um we make a pizza out of a Chinese restaurant for another revenue revenue stream, and it was great.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_05: And then I uh I you know I got linked up with uh um a guy from Skinny Fats and partnered on him with some stuff and did some projects in Salt Lake City, some projects here in Vegas.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and that kind of really got the team employed and got projects moving, opened up some really cool concepts in Salt Lake City, um, helped kind of get Skinny Fats or you know, to the point of we're focusing on franchising.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_05: And that uh that partnership didn't didn't run it, it ran its course in a really negative way.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_05: So I ended up stepping away from that disaster and uh was back to figuring out what the hell I wanted to do.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um I was fortunate enough, I'd always done when I was at Tau, we opened Dream, I was the Tao did all the food and beverage for Dream Downtown and other Dream Hotels.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um and then when I left Tao, I was doing I was also brought on as their um their corporate development chef.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_05: So I was doing all the restaurant concept thing for them um after I left Tao.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_05: Hyatt bought Dream Hotel during this whole issue I sat with my partner, so all of a sudden there was an opportunity where they created this position for me of like global head of concept and culinary development for their lifestyle portfolio, um, which was good because I was in a real shit spot.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, you know, I I I had to leave that situation or ride potentially bad problems were gonna be right.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_05: It was just not good.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_05: So I left, but I left everything on the table, so I had nothing.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, all right, so I took this, you know, I was fortunate enough I had this thing with Hyatt to do some consulting with them and keep that moving while I kind of figured out what I was gonna do next.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um you took a gamble, man.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's a that's a huge risk.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was yeah, it was nuts.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, but I just I knew that I'd do something to keep moving forward while I figured out what my next plan would be.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but needless to say, it put me in a really horrendous headspace, like probably the worst I've ever felt.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um I really told a lot of people about that, but yeah, it was uh it was not good.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_05: And at the time a friend of mine was starting a uh an equine therapy program for veterans of PTSD.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: And he'd asked me, you know, since I had the time, I was like, we need help with on the I was thinking more on the business structuring side of like, you know, helping with the business side, maybe meal planning for the for the program, etc.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I was like, let me, you know, like let's flush it out.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'll before we bring those veterans on, like, why don't you run run me through the program first, right?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like, let's test it out on me.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_05: So we adopt this wild Mustang, this horse that's kicking and biting and screaming and fighting, and I'm like, what are we gonna do with that?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_05: And he goes, You're gonna train it, you're gonna ride it.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, sick.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, cool, man, whatever.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_05: At the time, I was like, I don't know how this is therapeutic, but whatever.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: And I learned very quickly how therapeutic it is and how amazing, you know, learning the amount of internal work you have to do on yourself to be able to put yourself in a headspace for a wild horse to want to even give you the time of day.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and so I realized that you know I was working through a lot and I was in a really horrendous headspace, and also realized that I've been carrying a lot of shit like everyone else in this industry does.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, we're just always taught that like, it's okay, you know, deal with it.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_05: Just bury it deep down inside.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_05: You'll be fine.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_05: Just keep pushing it down.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_05: You don't even feel like it, just bury it.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_05: Just so I, you know, I realized I was like, holy shit.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, this has been really healthy and good for me.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_05: And um also something I didn't realize I kind of had a natural affinity to training horses.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_05: So um I just kind of dove headfirst into that and uh started training, training this one horse that I still ride today, and then started taking on the training for the program and developing and training all these wild horses that we're adopting, vetting them and doing that stuff.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_05: And um through that, I was like, I need some space for horses.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_05: Like I wanted to find like this government grants.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I want to find a grant to secure some land, a couple hundred acres, so I could dot more horses, put them out here.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_05: And so one of our sponsors in our program had introduced me to a this lady named Cindy, who um was an is an is an incredible rancher and really great at navigating grants for the USDA, for the government, for land, all that kind of stuff.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_05: So we initially spoke on that where I was gonna help her navigate have you know, how do I secure some land, how do I do this.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_05: And then through that, we started talking about her, you know, beef and cattle ranching and the industry.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_05: And it was right when beef started to get a little wacky a couple years ago.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't as bad as it is now, but it started to get a little what do you mean, wacky?
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_05: Like price-wise.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, right.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_05: It started to get real expensive for no damn reason.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_05: And it was like, so I was talking to her about it, and her whole thing was focusing on regenerative ranching.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, all the ranches are Audubon certified, so that means that you know, in essence, it's got to work with the wildlife around it.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_05: So it can't be a business that impedes on wildlife.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_05: In fact, it's got to be working with the wildlife and everything around it, right?
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_05: To be Audubon certified.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_05: Like that.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_05: So her city's big thing was focusing on land conservation and restoring land and through that through generative ranching.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_05: So it was it was kind of a win-win.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and it got to the point where you know, she's like, I don't want to deal with selling beef.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_05: She's like, I like I I love ranching, I love this.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_05: I don't the that part of his word it loses its love for me.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, great.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_05: So we going back and forth and you know, had some ideas, and long story short, we fast forwarded to partnering up, my partner Todd from Graffiti Bow, her and I, the three of us, decided to, you know, it was a unique opportunity to take this vertically integrated model of regenerative ranching.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, she we own the own processing plant, we own the ranch, we own the cattle.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um where is this ranch at?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: Well, where's that?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_05: We have three well, we have four.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_05: Uh the one main ranch, we have a big 30,000-acre ranch in McNeil, Arizona.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_05: Uh that's the newest of them and the biggest one.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_05: We've got our smaller ranch in South Dakota.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, our processing plant is in Sturgis as well, so that's where we process and butcher and do all the stuff for the animals.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_05: And then we have another ranch in Missouri that's got a little smaller ranch, probably about five or six hundred head on there.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um and they're all again, they're all kind of spread out in areas that were focused on land conservation, is how they how we landed with them, right?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_05: That's great.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, so you know, we ended up kind of deciding that it's a win-win to do this correctly.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_05: And if we do it right, there's an opportunity to take this model and show the world that you know regenerative ranching and ranching in general isn't this economic and economic environmental and economic problem that they make it out to be, right?
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_05: Everyone's, you know, I'll be candid, I know Bill Gates loves to tote this like ranching's like the worst thing in the world for the environment and methane and all this other BS that they spew.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_05: Um I got real excited when I realized there's an opportunity to kind of debunk that and really show people that that's not ranching's not the problem.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_05: It's how big companies handle it, right?
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_05: Feedlotting cattle, for example, right?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_05: Like that's the big issue.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_05: So when he refers to, you know, the environmental impact of of ranching in a negative way, it's like, again, you take how big is this room?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: 1,200 square feet, maybe.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_05: They would probably put 75 cattle in here, without even blinking an eye.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's awful.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_05: Side by side, jam them in here and force-feed them shit, sweet feed, corn, all this crap for the last 90 days of their life.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_05: And that is where I guess you have an environmental problem.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_05: But again, if I crammed a thousand people in this room, it'd be pretty fucking disgusting, too, wouldn't it?
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: Like the problem isn't ranching, the problem is how you're handling the animals, right?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_05: So, um, because the contrary to that is you know, grazing animals put on this earth for a reason, not for us to initially eat them, right?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_05: They were put on this earth for great the way they regenerate land, right?
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: The way they graze, their whole grazing process is you know, eating eating grass, defecating it, seeds come out, they get fertilized, birds pick them up, all the whole nine yards, right?
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um, encourages water, and uh, you know, it's it's a really good thing.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_05: So we try to make sure that um we focus heavily on the regenerative ranching piece of it.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_05: And the unique scenario that we have, again, is we control the animals from start to finish.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_05: So we birth them, we raise them, we process them, no one else touches them at any point.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_05: Um most of the ranching world today is either you've got you know cow calf operations where it's ranches focus solely on birthing cattle, raising them till they're year old, they sell them at a sale barn at a year.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, and then there's specialty ranches that finish them, right, for the last year.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_05: Those are the ones that also end up a lot of times using the feed lots, etc.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_05: But those are two separate businesses, right?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_05: And then the third piece of that puzzle is processing.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_05: So a lot of ranching is one group bursts it, raises it for a year, the other group buys it, finishes it for a year, uh-huh, and then sells it or brings it to a processing company that processes it, kills it, butchers it, and either distributes it or gets it out to the stores.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_05: Not a great model from jump.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_05: And now you throw in any kind of economical bump, you it gets compounded as it works its way up.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_05: And that's not even that third guy on the chain, that processing plant and and distributor, that broker rather, that is still going, goes from them to then it goes to you know, your dish your US foods, your Cisco's, your and then it goes to the restaurant, right?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_05: So, or goes to a grocery store.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_05: So now all of a sudden, theoretically, there's some cattle that have passed through five, five, six different companies before that beef gets to you.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and again, now you have these issues of everyone's gotta make something on it, right?
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: The rancher and the end user the ones that get screwed in that scenario, right?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_05: So um, you know, we realize that the unique scenario of, like I said, of being able to birth them, control them, process them, and self-distribute them, um, you know, could be a really great model.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_05: So as beef prices started to really get out of control, especially in the last what two years has been insane.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, I kept asking Cindy, I was like, are we we're good, right?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like she goes, financially?
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, as far as like, yeah, like are we do we need it, do we charge more just?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_05: She goes, this is where this is where we're at.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I mean, you see it, like those are our costs.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_05: We're not we're not relying on anybody else, really.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_05: So um we decided, you know, to really we we started with um a direct and consumer like online sales, sure.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um which is good, but then you know, we learned also like anything else, like Force of Nature and Butcher Box and those companies, they just inundate the market with ads, right?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_05: So their whole thing is they'll pump 50,000, 60,000,$75,000 worth of online boosted ads to try to get that in your face, which is I get listen.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_05: That's business.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's business, and it was definitely a business that we weren't gonna compete in.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, no matter how good our story is, and no matter how much you know we try to get the message out, until it's something tangible people can see.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: I don't I we realize that I don't think it's gonna get the it was getting legs, but not the traction we really thought it needed and deserved.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I was like, I think we need a butcher shop.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_05: Doesn't need to be everywhere, but just something that shows, you know, you go online, you're like, hey, another beef company.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_05: Oh shit, they actually have a location that exists, so they're real, versus like sending money to some fucking website and hopefully meat shows up.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like, um, and so then so then we kind of pivoted and started looking for spaces, and you know, I I really it kind of brought me back to I was visiting my mom actually back in New York, and I grew up grew up in New York City and I used to go to like where we shop is on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_05: That's where my family, like that's where we went grocery shopping, right?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_05: That's where we got food for the weekend.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, if you haven't ever been there, I've been in the my my brother's in the Bronx, yeah.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, so yeah.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_05: Arthur Avenue, it's the sense of community in those places, is what I grew up with, right?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_05: And that's the one thing I noticed definitively coming to Vegas, it just doesn't exist.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and not anything against how Vegas is or was a lot of the West Coast that never really reached that.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's just different, right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_05: Like you've got, you know, um, especially the Italian-American side of stuff, you've got these like really concentrated hubs of of families that are rooted in a neighborhood since they came over here, and you know, each specialize in something, right?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm used to going to Arthur Avenue, like going, especially with my nana, right?
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you'd be lying out the door, walk right in, walk right around, guy would come around the corner, Mrs.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_05: Moran, here you go, I got your stuff ready for you.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_05: And it was just I remember that feeling of and no one in line getting mad about it, right?
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_05: It was just like, oh well, of course, little old lady gets her stuff first.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_05: It was just this this really unique, I don't know, synergy of community there.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I just different time, different era for sure.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I and now, but I thought that you know, I I was really thinking through that, and my Todd and I were talking about it, and I was like, you need a catalyst to create that sense of community, right?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's really hard to just make it up.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_05: But now everybody, whether you're whether you make a couple million dollars a year or you make you know below minimum wage and and and whatever it is, nobody's happy with how much food costs right now.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_05: That's a common threat across the board.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_05: People feel like they're getting ripped off, and now the lack of trust, right?
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_05: You have no idea what labels you can trust, what labels you can't.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_05: And so I was like, I think this could be that catalyst that if we do this right, we create a market that truly honors the value-driven, great quality, and a sense of community.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_05: I, you know, I'm hoping that this could maybe the driving force that can maybe force a little bit of community feel, right?
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_05: And in a city that's really hard to do that in, right?
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_05: It's a transient city.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um transient as as people that live here, but then also as far as neighborhoods go, like I'm guilty of it too.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_05: I live in I've lived in the Southwest for I don't know, I'm shit, fucking 10, 11 years.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'll be honest, I don't really leave it a whole lot.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: You're in your bubble, yeah.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: Is that why you is that why you chose Southwest for Diamond Spurs?
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_05: It's a big part of it, yeah.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_05: Because it again, only because that and graffiti bow had a lot of community interaction and people liked it a lot, and our our kind of baseline clientele from that are in the area, and I figured I was like, oh, we're gonna do something.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_05: And I hadn't I've been doing projects outside of Vegas for a while, and I was like, well, I'm gonna come back if I do it in that neighborhood.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_05: At least I know that you know there's some semblance of like foundation of people excited that something's coming back.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and again, the population density of like neighborhoods, it was like, especially where we're at.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_05: I think that most restaurant guys, even myself, would look at it and go, Why the hell would you put a restaurant behind a gas station like that?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_05: But this worked here.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, it's smack in the middle of the back exit of Rose Ranch.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_05: You have that hunting Huntington Cove, whatever that neighborhood is, right here.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_05: You've got another, like, there's like four entrances to neighborhoods within like a block.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I think this is it.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_05: Like, this is what you want.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_05: People either coming home or you know, between lunch and whatever they're doing, but they're it's like right here.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_05: And also you're getting gas.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah, crazy enough.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_01: They don't have to go out of their way to get to the butcher.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_05: So I you know, we gave it a shot, and it and it's exactly what it did exactly what I was hoping it would be.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have regulars already?
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you guys have only been open for how long now?
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_05: A month, about it's our fifth week.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: Fifth week.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_02: So are you you having regulars already that you're finding?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, uh, candidly we are, and I'm I'm that's the one thing that I've been blown away with that about.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_05: I was talking to Eric about it.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, dude, he sat there too and seen it where it's to the point now where there are regulars that we have that come a couple times a week, but now like the regulars and the other regulars recognize each other that never knew each other before, and you see them interacting, and I'm like, this is it.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, this is the small microcosm of what I was trying to hopefully accomplish.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: You're building your own little community there.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_05: Trying I think that you know, and and I think the big piece of it, um, in a lot of ways, like I like I said, listen, I think it's everyone's got their own opinions on on stuff, but I think a big big part of it though is you know, you can tell the team everyone there by.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_05: In starts with us buying into it, right?
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_05: And all the team buys into what we're trying to accomplish and they give a shit about what they're doing, right?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_05: And whether we're making food, whether we're butchering, whether we're taking care of guests, whatever it is, you know, hospitality doesn't cost you any more money, right?
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_05: And so we approach that with the same kind of gracious hospitality we would for a full service restaurant that they've all worked with me in.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_05: But take that same care, you know, that same you know, customer service, same quality, attention, detail, and food, and just give it at a great price point.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_05: I think we can build something, and I think that's what it is.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's, you know, like I said, I think you get people coming here a few times a week, and and really for me, a big part of it was I coached my son's baseball team.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, it kind of hit me too before we opened this.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like watching these families, man.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, how the hell?
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I have one kid.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_05: I go to the grocery store and I'm like, fuck.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, so these families of four or five kids that's a lot of mouse to feed.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_05: Especially the four or five boys that just eat, right?
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'm like, how and I again, like, it doesn't matter how much money you make, it's a lot of money at the grocery store.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_05: And I was and the worst part is now I'm looking at these kids, I'm like, and you're overpaying for shit that you don't even know what's in it.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I'll be can't commodity beef is not a good thing.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm not like I'm not blowing smoke up anybody's ass or trying to, you know, tell you anything you don't already know, but you know sorry, it's not layman's terms, commodity beef is just like what you can get at the grocery store type thing.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_05: Boxed beef, big big box beef, they call it, like grocery stores, right?
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_05: And it's it's the bare minimum it costs to get the fattest, biggest animal.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_05: Some big box beef.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_05: Fast fucking fast.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_05: When you put it like that, it sounds awful.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_05: It's all it's what it is.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a bad nickname, though.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, you think here's here's the perspective for you, right?
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_05: You go to the grocery store and you see like that counter, right?
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_05: And it's like fucking 45 ribeyes packed up, right?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_05: At least, right?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_05: 45 ribeyes, 45 strips, like a hundred fillets.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_05: Give you perspective.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_05: One cow, one steer, right?
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_05: That we butchered, you only get two rib racks out of them, you only get two fillets, two fillet tenderlines out of them, you get two New York strips out of them, that you can maybe cut depending on how big you want to make them.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_05: But call it, I don't know, on the low side, 25, 20, 20 New York strips, if you're really cutting them thin out of one cattle, and you look in fucking butcher case and there's a hundred of them in there.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_05: This is 150 animals to put half that stuff out, and people don't think of it that way, right?
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_05: So the scale in which that they produce these animals and for the price they do it at is it's just not good, right?
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_05: You and you know, the way they raise these the feedlot, why we're very anti-feedlot.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and we get asked a lot, you know, there's no hormones or no antibiotics in our cattle's like, they don't need them.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but what about vaccines?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, vaccinate them either because we don't need to.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_05: They live out on pasture, they have room, their feet are dry, they're healthy.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_05: They don't need a lot of stuff.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_05: You need antibiotics when you jam them into a room next to each other, they're force-fed, they're standing in their own filth.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_05: That's where they get sick.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_05: And they're also, you know, that sweet corn that they corn finished beef that everyone loves.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_05: They're not supposed to eat corn.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's not good for them.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_05: So you end up with more health ailments and other issues, hence why they preemptively dope them up with antibiotics, they give them hormones, they give them everything to get through that, right?
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, like I said, I don't know.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: Well, congratulations.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: You you've ruined big big box beef for me.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_02: So job well done.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_05: And you know what?
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: See him at the butcher.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, you know, and it's not, and listen, I I gotta I I respect, I don't want to ever hurt people's businesses, right?
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_05: But what I do think needs to happen is there's be more transparency, though, in what you're eating, because you would never know that, right?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_05: Looking at a label at a grocery store doesn't tell you that.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_05: It just got a stupid sticker on it that says USDA choice or whatever grade they put on it.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_05: Uh tell you what's in it, right?
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_05: In fact, it's you know, the way labeling has kind of been working is if it doesn't say anything, it could have anything you want in it.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_05: But if you but if you want to make a claim that it doesn't have something in it, you got to go through all these hoops and jumps and tests, which kind of tells you a lot, right?
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_05: So the the less on the label on the package, usually it's not a good thing, as crazy as it sounds.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I mean for us, like for our USDA, anytime I want to print a label, you know, if it's if it says no soy, no hormones, no antibiotics, every time.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_05: And they know us, right?
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_05: So we have the same USDA inspector, they know our ranch, we still got through the same process of they vet it, make sure that it's accurate, make sure it's true.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and we take that very seriously, and that's a big thing.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I think, you know, again, it's less about you know, do you want to eat it?
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_05: Great.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_05: I'm listening, I'd be lie to tell you that I don't I haven't bought beef at a grocery store.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not above that.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_05: But I think the more you know we try to again, but now also it's not cheap anymore.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_05: That's the kicker, right?
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's there's one excuse I think if you gotta if you're short on money and you and your value and you you need it, you can afford what you can afford.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_05: But when the only option you have is that and it's expensive, that's where I kind of start to have a more of a moral problem with it.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's fair.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, I I'm glad you have your stances, your your lines in the sand that you you know you you you stand by and you don't cross.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and again, that's a and that's a good, and like I said, it's it's giving people options, right?
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what we try to do is to give people a little bit of education, a little bit of peace of mind in what they're eating, um, but more importantly, just ensuring that you know you know what you're getting.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_02: You've been open for like five weeks now.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: And um I I'm a friend with a lot of local influencers, and a lot of them have gone in and obviously you know they say incredible things.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the I mean, I've seen you had uh chicken parm there that you're selling.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_02: I heard that's incredible.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: What are some of the top selling items that you have there that you can get for dine in or takeout?
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so um a big part of what you know what we wanted to do on this butcher shop again, being being from the restaurant side, I was like, I have some food offerings here, right?
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_05: So we basically kind of put together the the favorites, right, of what I think would be kind of a fun deli butcher staple.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_05: Uh right now we do a really great chicken parm.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_05: I love I love.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_05: And I've actually John Arena from Metro Pizza is making our our bread for us.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um no shit.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_05: Well, yeah, because again, the big thing for me was again growing in the Bronx, like that sesame seed semolina bread is like a thing there.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't fucking exist anywhere else.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like why doesn't it exist anywhere else?
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_05: I but I don't know.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_05: But I like I and I I you know I worked on developing a recipe for it and baking and making them a restaurant at my tie in restaurant I had, and yeah, you know, and I was coming here and I was like, how the hell?
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, I re I reached out to the bakeries in New York and I was ready to fly it out here and like ship it frozen, and I was like, this isn't efficient.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and you know, John is an other incredible pizza maker, he's an incredible baker.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_05: And being from New York, I was like, he'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_05: It was just so sure enough, he was, you know, already had one in the works in development, and it's it's exactly what we wanted it to be.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, so now he makes the bread for us.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_05: Um that's so cool.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it's a good, it's kind of the whole package.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: That then on the we also do a chicken Caesar sandwich, which is basically like a bread of chicken cut with like a like chopped up Caesar salad with like bacon, collaborated chili, mayo.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_05: It's really good.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_02: So would you say a lot of your menu is you know, obviously meat influenced, but also somewhat Italian twisted to it?
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_05: Definitely Italian American influence in there, like the market side of stuff.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_05: Um, you know, stock in the case with like you know, different if we don't make it like Bianco Dennapli tomatoes, uh organic pasta coming in from Italy.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, um again, trying to really take that Arthur Avenue inspiration and just kind of sprinkle that and tie that into the into all the offerings.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you guys do an Italian sausage?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_05: We do.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_05: We do a couple.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_05: We do a pinwheel sausage, a hot one, a mild one, all the good ones.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: So we do that.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then you know, on the other great deal of ours too, is we do a steak fritz.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um it's$17.99.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_05: We can't really do that.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's a good price.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, that was it.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_05: That and that's the idea, right?
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_05: Because again, we can.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's just right buying from anybody else.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_05: So$17.99 comes over a beef tallow and all our fries are fried in our own beef tallow.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what's the deal with that?
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: Why is the beef tallow so important to fry everything in?
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I they say it's better for you.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_05: I think it is.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I'd be candid with you.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's definitely a lot cleaner.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um, ours is straight rendered right from the animal, so there's no additives in it.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_05: It's like solid as a block when we bring it into the shop and melt it down, but it's like real straight up clean beef towel.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think I've ever had does it taste different?
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_05: You remember McDonald's when we were like way back in the day?
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_05: She's a youngin', but yes.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: I knew he was gonna comment on that.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_05: My bad.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_05: I just aged myself here.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_05: You remember French fries?
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_05: I remember, yes.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_05: I remember when they had the five.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: I remember them as early as 05.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, no, they already got soup by them.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_05: So before that, so McDonald's really got rolling, they had it was a beef towel, originally beef towel, and then it was a beef-based frying liquid that they fried their fries in that gave it that like they were really fucking good until the whole nation of people that really were pretty offended that they were eating beef and not being told about it.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_05: How dare you! I was like, Yeah, I can see that being a problem.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_05: It was like, but yeah, so basically that they got sued because they weren't disclosing it's beef and these everyone thought that's potatoes.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_05: I'm good.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_05: So obviously, religious issues and other things like that.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_05: It was didn't work out so good for them.
• 52:52
  unknown: Yeah.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_05: The good old days.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_05: Um and they haven't tasted the same since.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_05: But so for us, it definitely adds a very it for me.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_05: Again, it reminds me of any of those old school, like, you know, drive-in, like burger hot dog places.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_05: They have like just that unique, just old diner classic French fresh smell to them.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know how to like they're really good.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_05: They give a nice beefy, earthy flavor to them.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, they're great.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, as opposed to like, you know, again, oils are another.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna go down the seed oil thing.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_05: That's not I'll be honest, I don't even know enough about it.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_05: I as as well-versed as I am in food and everything like that.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_05: And you know what you know, and you know what you're doing.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_05: Shit, I still couldn't.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_05: You someone asked me the other day, I was like, why are seed oils bad again?
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, Oh, how do you not know that?
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, uh, never mind, forget it.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_05: I didn't mean to ask.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_05: Fuck, I was like, like sesame seed oil?
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, no, it's the other oils are heat.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I'm I'm good, man.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_05: No problem.
• 53:42
  SPEAKER_05: I just want you to.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: You've just offended me.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_02: How do you do it?
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know anything about it, so I don't pretend to, but I do know beef towel is good and clean, and it doesn't have all the mix of other shit that other oils have in it.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_05: So um, but yeah, so it's I think it's good.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_02: Do me a favor.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at home.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: I I I cook at home a lot.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I just cook for myself.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: I like cooking steaks.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: I like cooking steaks in a variety of ways.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Can you give me your way of cooking the perfect steak or the Mark Marone steak?
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it depends.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it kind of depends what it is.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_05: But if I'm at home, like say ribeye.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_05: Straight up inside.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_05: If you got a ripping hot cast iron skillet, um, I like to I like the first thing to do, especially depending where you get your steak from, and in general, right?
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_05: If you're gonna cook it, open it up, dry it up, like tap pat dry it with a towel, and leave it in your refrigerator uncovered for a couple hours.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_05: Like let it get that like skin's the wrong word because people get weirded out.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's not, it just gets it tightens up, you know what I mean, right?
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: It gets like we can handle it.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_05: Skin it just gets tight, right?
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't like the moisture's gone, it looks dry.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_05: That's what you want.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_05: Because the only way you get good crust on beef is it's gotta be dry.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_05: Hence why, like, the major appeal for dry aged beef, right?
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_05: Is other than the concentration of flavor, what the unique thing that it gets is a really good crust when you cook it, right?
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_05: Because it's got a lot of moisture taken out.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_05: Because when you beef hits something hot, it releases a bunch of moisture.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_05: That doesn't go so good with trying to sear something and then keeping it rare or medium rare, right?
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_05: So dry the shit out of it.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and then there's like two schools of thought.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_05: People like I hate the word dry brine because it's not the right word.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, but when people season the shit out of something and let it sit for a couple hours and then cook it, that that's one way.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um what do you do?
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_05: Right before you cook it to season it.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_05: Because again, there's like if you if you if you season it and even wait like five minutes, you'll notice that moisture starts to come out.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_05: Same problem.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_05: You gotta fucking cook it and it steams out.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_02: What do you season it with?
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_05: I just salt, salt and pepper, man.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, I'm if I'm doing a red buy, it'd be salt, pepper, garlic, clove, shallot, some herbs, and then basically a knob of butter.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_05: But salt and pepper it, sear it off in that pan after you flip it the second time, knob of butter, garlic, shallot, a little rosemary thyme, and just butter baste the shit out of it until it's done.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_05: But in a cast iron, I get that good crust on it.
• 55:51
  SPEAKER_05: That's good.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_05: That's all I would do.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: How long do you let it rest for after?
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_05: It depends how hungry you are.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_05: He doesn't he picks it up and spikes it.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, theoretically, if I let it rest for what, like 10, 8, 10 minutes, it'll be good, but I just fucking whack it up at you.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_05: I gotta worry about plating it up for somebody and making it look pretty.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_05: I'm just gonna eat it.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_05: Candid.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_02: Give me give me give me that steak and give me some beef tallow fries.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: I'm all in, baby.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I make that at home a lot.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_05: Do you?
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_05: I was making it at home a lot before we opened here.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_02: Are you uh are you are you behind the line a lot at at uh Diamond Spur or not so much anymore?
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_02: You're more behind the health.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_05: No, if I if I'm there, I'm yeah, I'm always the places I again can it's been it's busy as shit.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_05: I know.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: It's been good.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_05: So it's one of those things where you know there's always something to do.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_05: So if I if I'm there, I'm usually doing something.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_05: Love that.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is the busyness and and I assume some stress that you experience at Diamond Spur similar to what you had prior, or is it like a different vibe?
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_05: I I gotta tell you, it's I it feels like a it does feel like a different vibe because I think that it's not so stressful for the team in a way of like they're all enjoying it because it's this sense of again, be if you haven't been there, it's a big open, it's like a butcher shop, right?
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_05: So like behind the counter, there's the counter guy and then the kitchen.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_05: So it's not like they're hidden anywhere.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_05: So like the cooks are just as involved and engaged with guests as the counter guy is.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_05: So um, as of now, you know, we're getting really great feedback.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_05: You tell the vibe in there, it's fun.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_05: They're they're part of the action.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_05: So it definitely it's definitely unique in that sense.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_05: We're typically, you know, in the kitchen, you're either even in open kitchen, you got to kind of be on like your best behavior, and it's just different, right?
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_05: I think in this scenario, it's just such a blatant, like, communal situation in the backhouse and in the and with the guests that um the cooks are all having a good time.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_05: They're busy, but they're enjoying it, and you're also seeing the direct feedback from people, yeah.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_05: And also the flip side is they can see everyone working, and so I've noticed that this is hands down a knock on wood here, um, but really the most understanding, kind of patient clientele guest group, because you can see it, right?
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_05: It's I mean, unless you're you know, got your own set of problems and issues, but generally, like see a bunch of people working their ass off.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_05: You're not gonna be like, Where's my food?
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, clearly, you're doing something.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna let you do your thing.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and again, it's like, you know, but that working hard and and you know, being thankful and appreciative of the guests, and you know, going out of our way to really make sure that you know there's a sense of community there and that there's something wrong.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_05: We could see it.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_05: That's the other part of it, too, where you know, it gives the opportunity for the kitchen guys to get ahead of that.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, I'm all and I'm we're all getting on like that person looks like they either need something, yeah, or they're not happy.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_05: And sure enough, it's like okay, get a spoon, or they're like, Oh, this is over, whatever it is, right?
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_05: We fit but give us a chance to really fix it, too.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, um have you had 600 covers for lunch yet?
• 58:36
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna lie to you, I think we've done we've had some days where I have no shit, man.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_05: There had there was 225 transactions.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_05: So that could be.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a lot, man.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's a lot.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_01: Wild.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was nice.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_02: Julie has a question she wanted to ask you about, Julie.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, upon doing the research for you, right?
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, I read tons of articles and watched tons of interviews.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: Just so you know, I like to tell people that I might know more about you currently than you remember.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_05: You probably do.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_05: I don't remember a lot.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: Previously, though, you've listed these as five things that you wish someone had told you when you were younger.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_05: Oh shit, I remember this interview.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_05: I forgot what I said, but I remembered was that the hu was the Huffington Post one?
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't remember what website.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, no, I remember that.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't ask me my sources.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_05: No, that's cool.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_02: What did I what did I say?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: You're asking too many questions, Mark.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_02: We're the ones asking the questions there.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna be your own worst critic.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna know it all.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna please everyone.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: Be patient, don't try to rush things, and enjoy the ride.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_05: Holy shit, man.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, That's what you told yourself.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to change anything or add anything?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think I would have given you that same answer.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_05: No, that's even that was really well thought out.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_05: Shout out to Past Mark.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_05: See?
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_05: You don't even have one new one?
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_01: But what's something you've learned even just through Diamond Spur?
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_05: Those will kind of check a lot of those boxes.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's a good list.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_05: Young just got my ass whooped some at some point.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_05: I thought it was probably after opening Town or something like that.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna please everybody.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_05: No one's gonna be happy.
• 1:00:05
  SPEAKER_05: I hate everything.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_05: That's what it really probably said.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, I suck.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_05: I'm this is the worst job ever.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_05: I suck at this, and no one's gonna tell you you're doing a good job.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think younger Mark would say to you now if he saw what you were doing?
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm sure you didn't foresee this pattern.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_05: Tell me to get back to work.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_01: Get back to work.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, what are you doing on a podcast?
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_05: What the fuck are you sitting there?
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, we have an hour to sit there now.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um I don't know.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_05: I yeah, I think uh You know, I I gotta say, I think it would be I'd be pretty surprised, candidly, where I'm at.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um but I think uh Yeah, I don't think I would have seen that coming.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_05: But I do think it was but I I but even following what I said there, um finding a way to get achieve you know success in this business by also, you know, taking care of yourself a little bit.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_05: I think it'd be kind of a I think I'd be relieved that I found a way to at least you know go down that path.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, not there yet.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_05: I mean I don't think I'll ever really be there, but at least I have the You're headed in that direction.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_05: Head in that direction.
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_05: Um yeah, I think I think it'd be pretty pretty ecstatic.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'll tell you what, I tell you what I like about there are a lot of things I like about you.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_02: This is the first time we've met, and I'm learning a lot more about you today.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I like the fact that even during the pandemic time where you had those 10 or so employees, you know, they were all like, listen, I understand the situation, you were transparent with them, you're straightforward with them, and that says a lot about your leadership and your your your management skills and having them see your vision as well.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then even the today with Diamond Spur, the team you have, how they're all bought in, especially today.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I I am don't get me wrong, I am so fortunate with the team that I have because they're just as as bought in as they exceeded my expectations.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: So in this day and age, as hard as it is to find people like that, maybe younger, that still have that hunger, um, it's it's tremendous.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that you have that and the fact that you're you're able to still have you know great networks and great connections, and you know, you're working with other local businesses with your bread and everything like that.
• 1:02:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're doing a great fucking job, dude.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's awesome, man.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I know it's it's it's not an easy industry, clearly, but um it's I'm sure you wouldn't trade it for the world.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_05: No, I wouldn't.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that you know, a big that team I have there is definitely a the the reason why I would definitely would be successful without them, but I think a big part of it too is where try to frame it up where it's you know I'm a I feel like old man now.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like at that age where you know Ralph and the Tao guys were giving me the opportunity to take something and run with it, and I think I'm trying to, you know, really empower them so they own something, right?
• 1:02:42
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, hey, yeah, pushing them and trying to drive a lot of the success of the business and the experiences through them versus me diving in and going, I'm gonna set all this shit up and do it myself.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, hey guys, like why don't you take a stab at setting that up?
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_05: Here's how I would do it.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_05: Try this.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that you know, you're you're absolutely right.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_05: In this day and age, you know, it's been especially after COVID, right?
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of it's like trying to make, you know, people are throwing a lot of money around at everybody because it's a possible get staff, right?
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I think what's happening, a lot of people in our industry are learning that money's great.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_05: Like, let's be honest.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_05: I yeah, but if you're not fulfilled, especially in what we do, um, hospitality is it's great if it's for you, but it's gotta be more fulfilling than just money because otherwise there's a million other jobs you go do.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_05: So I think what's happening a lot of times now is that you know, people are looking even on the employment side, right?
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_05: Something they can believe in, I think, and and hopefully buy into.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, we have an opportunity, hopefully.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_05: You know, we're trying to really affect a real change here.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_05: And I think the team buys into that and they're and they get to play a direct role in that and making sure that we empower them to do that.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_02: Chef Mark, man, diamond spurt, provisions and meats down on Fort Apache.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_02: You're right by the Fort Apache and like Blue Diamond, right?
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, a little before Blue Diamonds.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, like was that sunset and Fort Apache-ish?
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, like behind Rose Ranch.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: When, I mean, you guys are still busy.
• 1:03:58
  SPEAKER_02: When's the best time to go in to get some food?
• 1:04:01
  SPEAKER_02: I want to try this chicken parm.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: I want to try all the time.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, like normal, like a little like, I mean, if you're we're pretty efficient, but the probably the lull in the day, and I'm gonna say this by busy now, is like between like 245 and 430 is usually pretty late lunch.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, late lunch is like kind of the that's fair.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_05: It's a little more transient.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_05: People are coming in and getting stuff to go.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_05: But anytime you want to come in, let me know.
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_01: I want to get some of that merch.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_01: I want that shirt.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'm gonna start selling these guys too.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_05: What about the hat?
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_05: Do you sell the hats?
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_05: Not this hat, but I have I do have hats.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_05: How much for that hat?
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_05: That's a lot.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's more expensive.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's a nice hat.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Mark, this is fucking awesome.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_02: Man, before you go, do you mind we you have your bodyguard here, Eric Gladstone, who friend of the show.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_02: Do you mind if he comes on too and chats a little bit?
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think he's want to bring up.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want me to trade with Eric?
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_01: He can have the mic.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, do you mind?
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_02: That probably easier.
• 1:04:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I do mind.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: Sit on down, Eric.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: Get comfy there.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_00: We just lost the best part of your podcast, but hey, you know.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's the cheese.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_05: The ratings are just plummeted.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_05: Actually, Eric, Eric's sitting here.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_05: If it mat if it, you know, we were asking about me leaving town.
• 1:05:13
  SPEAKER_05: My mindset candidly, he was actually the first guy I met with when I was making the decision and leaving.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I remember we had it's now, I forgot what is it, Electra now.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_05: It was whatever that bar was in the Venetian.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_05: Him and I sat down and kind of just ran through like where my head was at, and I was like, but how do I how do I deliver that message?
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_05: So he was Eric was a big key piece of like how do we framed up me leaving Tau and setting up the future stuff.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_05: That's awesome.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why I came doing Diamond Spur.
• 1:05:40
  SPEAKER_05: I was like, hey, buddy, I'm back.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_05: And I was like, well, here's what I'm working on, and it yeah, it just seemed fitting.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_05: So anyway, just want to.
• 1:05:48
  SPEAKER_05: That was a little Eric and I have worked together for a while.
• 1:05:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: That was really cool.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I got to real quick.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I got to know Mark when he was still at Tau and when I was a journalist.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, did some stuff with him, and just blew me away.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then, yeah, so he connected with.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_00: Me, uh, I guess because he kn knew that Tao's PR wasn't gonna be the right fit, so uh and I had just gotten into PR, so he's like, What how do I how do I manage this?
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, Let's figure it out.
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know what's so funny is um just starting this podcast a little over a year ago, I've tried to get a hand on you know some people that are decision makers in town and people that know people and all that stuff.
• 1:06:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew of Eric.
• 1:06:25
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know the the impact he's had and currently has in the Vegas scene.
• 1:06:30
  SPEAKER_02: Just the rumors, just the rumors, of course, the good and the bad.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: But the one thing I can share is my dad listens to just about every episode we have.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_02: We've had Jonathan Jostle on, the CEO of the Plaza, we've had Piff the Magic Dragon on.
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_02: The only time he's reached out to me out of nowhere and said, Wow, I can't believe you had him on, is when I had Eric on.
• 1:06:52
  SPEAKER_02: I swear to God, this is a true story.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_02: It blew my and I even text him, I said, out of everybody we've had on, Eric's the one.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Yes, Eric is such a big deal.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: So well done, Eric.
• 1:07:02
  SPEAKER_00: I better send that Zell, I guess.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do want to be flattering.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, listen to he's glad he was entertained.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, he's very entertained by you.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I want to talk to you a little bit about uh Unstripped because you just had a little uh uh check donation.
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what it was?
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_02: Or you I saw it on social media.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_02: So if you can.
• 1:07:22
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Mark's been in a few Unstrips and he was back for this one, which is really great.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of how we kicked off being involved together again.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so uh every Unstripped, as as I think I discussed on the podcast, we we we don't do it for profit, we take all the proceeds that are left over after paying all of our expenses to local charities and we identify different local charities every year, um, ones that are underserved because we can only donate so much.
• 1:07:48
  SPEAKER_00: We want to feel like it's making a difference, you know.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so this year we gave away uh 12, 12 and a half thousand to uh the uh St.
• 1:07:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jude's ranch for children who are out in uh Boulder City.
• 1:08:02
  SPEAKER_00: They do amazing work with um children who are from broken homes and also teens who have been trafficked and things like that, and they really help a lot of people trying to get back on their feet in life.
• 1:08:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then we gave another 3,000 to this little project called the Mat Project, which are a bunch of these volunteer ladies who do this crazy thing where they take old shopping bags, plastic shopping bags, and they crochet them into these mats that roll up that like the unhoused can use and carry around, and they're they're waterproof, obviously, because it's plastic, and they're actually soft and comfortable, and so it's something that they can actually it helps them out in some small way, you know.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um and they literally are just sitting in a room doing it, you know, hanging out and doing it, and then we thought that's really cool.
• 1:08:49
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and yeah, it's cool when we can make a small contribution like that to someone who appreciates it enough that they're almost freaked out at that amount.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we could give that amount to you know, Three Square, who are great also, or some other big charity, you know, American Heart Association, and they'd be like, Thanks, next.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, right.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's it's really nice to feel like we've made some kind of difference with someone.
• 1:09:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was that was a great post that you guys had.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_02: I love seeing that.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Unstripped is phenomenal.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_02: I know you pr you haven't announced it yet, and I'm not gonna break it here, but can you can you give us a little tidbit or or something that we can tease or wet the appetite with with the new event that may or may not be happening?
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_00: It is happening.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh by the time you have this on the air, it'll be announced.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_00: So um, so yeah, uh, we're doing a new event in the fall now called Vegas Bites.
• 1:09:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be October 3rd, back at the Palms, same place where we do Unstripped.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_00: This is gonna be a bookend to Unstripped, where Unstripped is very chef driven.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_00: You have to do a new dish.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's about moving forward and being creative.
• 1:09:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is an event that's just gonna celebrate the brands and the restaurants that people love in Vegas, the ones that have really made a name for themselves and do things that everyone loves.
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a really nice kind of corollary.
• 1:10:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is something that foodies can definitely enjoy.
• 1:10:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're just kind of an average Joe and you don't, you know, get off on fancy things, you'll you'll also kind of love it.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the idea with this.
• 1:10:16
  SPEAKER_00: We're excited for it.
• 1:10:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, one more thing, Julie.
• 1:10:18
  SPEAKER_02: I just want to point out the book we got.
• 1:10:20
  SPEAKER_02: We have it in person now.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_02: Anything but Navrana.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_02: Julie was very adamant on making sure we had this.
• 1:10:28
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, did you sign it yet?
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_02: I have not signed it yet.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not signed yet.
• 1:10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well we'll make sure warming up my fingers.
• 1:10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, this is awesome.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_02: Eric and Mark, thank you so much, guys, for having us so much for you.
• 1:10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having Mark on.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, of course.
• 1:10:40
  SPEAKER_00: Great conversation.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:10:41
  SPEAKER_02: Kidding me?
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: That was cool.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Mark Marone.
• 1:10:43
  SPEAKER_02: The Mark Morone?
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is fun.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, definitely check out all of everything going on.
• 1:10:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much going on in this episode.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_02: It was so much going on.
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_02: We had Divitzburg going up, we have the upcoming event coming up, we have anything but Navana, we got a bunch of stuff on the stuff.
• 1:11:01
  SPEAKER_02: Catch new episodes each week on heybighead.com.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see you guys next time.