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Steven Fondu: Ara Jupiter Owner On Building One of Jupiter's Favorite Restaurants · Forking Around with Flavor South Florida

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  Welcome to Forking Around with Flavor South Florida. I'm Kerri Paizzi, CEO of
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  Flavor South Florida. We are sitting down with entrepreneurs, business
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  owners, and influential community partners to talk growth, trials,
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  tribulations, and more. These conversations lead into Flavor South
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  Florida, the region's largest restaurant month, happening every September from
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  the 1st through the 30th. If you're in hospitality or thinking about building
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  something meaningful in this industry, you're in the right place. Pull up a
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  chair and let's get into it.
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  This episode is sponsored by Altima Caviar. Visit them at AltimaCaviar.com.
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  Today I'm joined by someone who has helped redefine the dining scene in
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  Jupiter. Steven Fondu is the owner of ARA, a hospitality driven entrepreneur
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  and someone who believes great restaurants are built on relationships
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  just as much as great food. We're diving into his journey, the risks he took to
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  build Aura, and what it really takes to create an unforgettable guest
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  experience. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
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  Yeah, you're to be here. You're awesome. You've become a staple
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  of this community very, very quickly. Yeah. So far, so far so good.
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  So, you just celebrated your second anniversary. second anniversary. Yeah.
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  May 22nd. That's a huge accomplishment. Uh for,
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  you know, we we'll dive in deeper, but like for any restaurant, I always tell
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  people this for up to year three. Mhm.
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  You're you're you're swimming. You might even be sinking, right? So, it's like
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  after year three, like you're here, you're not going anywhere. You're
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  staying. You're in it. You're in it. You're in year two and you're already
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  crushing it. Every time I go there, it's packed.
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  Yeah. So, you're doing something right. doing
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  something right. Let's share the secret recipes.
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  I give it I'll tell you, I probably give it all to
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  my team. I mean, that's that's the number one thing. I think a lot of
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  restaurants just in general, not just around here, but they're the turnover is
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  just a little too much. And I think guests that come in and they see
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  familiar faces and they see the same hostess and they see the same servers. I
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  can't tell you how many of our regulars are, you know, in their notes. It's just
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  always with Star, always with Kate, always with, you know, whomever may be.
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  So, I have people there that have been with me from the get-go. You know, my my
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  core staff is really all with me since we started. So, they make it easy. You
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  know, we've built a culture, like you said. I think relationships are are huge
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  in this business, especially in a town that, you know, we're not in New York
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  City. We're not in Chicago. It's not like we have first timers walking in the
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  door. left and right. You know, it really is
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  built on the quality of the food, the quality of the service, but also, you
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  know, those personal relationships that people like walking into a restaurant
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  and feeling like they're remembered or they're known. And I think we do a
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  really good job with that. I agree. I mean, 100%. You have Jazelle
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  is one of your bartenders. I've come to love and adore her. She knows my drink.
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  She knows my order. She knows my food. And Griff Griffin. Yeah. Um he also is
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  awesome. And then there's some really cute server you have with a ponytail
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  or man bun rather. Man bun. Ah.
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  Attractive looking guy. Miles. Yeah. We call him Thor.
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  Oh yeah. Yeah. So he I know. But again I I joke I maybe but his those faces
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  people love that. Right. And I think you're doing a fantastic job with that.
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  Thank you. You um originally from New York though,
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  right? I am. I am. Yeah. From uh Westchester,
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  New York, just above the city about an hour north of Manhattan. My father
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  actually owned a few restaurants up in White Plains, Hartsdale, Scarsdale. So
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  that's kind of how I got into it as at a young age and just loved seeing new
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  faces every day. And my dad always enjoyed going to work and
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  you know I started bartending when I was 16 in Manhattan and
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  yeah, I loved it. But uh I think co co was the
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  main reason I kind of came on down here and
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  right you know everything happens for a reason
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  and so far so good. It's been great. So was your father when you were like oh
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  I'm going to get in I'm going to do this. I'm going to win restaurants.
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  Oh he did. Oh, he loves it. You want to extremely absolutely not or
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  No, he loves it. He loves it. You know, I asked him,
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  it's funny when I first moved down here, I wanted to open up my own place. And my
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  father's my best friend, but he's he's honest with me as my best friend and my
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  father. And you know, at the time, I remember asking
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  him, you know, telling him I wanted to open up a place. We were looking at
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  spots and he said to me honestly, he was looked at me and goes, "You're not ready
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  yet." Mhm.
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  He goes, "Find a place. Learn learn the things you don't know yet. learn the
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  crowd down here and when you're ready, and I know you're ready, then we'll then
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  we'll do something. Yeah.
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  And he was right. He was 100% right. I learned from a couple of guys that knew
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  a lot more than I did. And you know, I had an opportunity to do my own thing
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  and jumped on it and looked at my dad and he's like, "All right, we're ready.
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  Let's go." So, he sees it from a totally different standpoint. It's cool. He he
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  did everything by the book back in the day, you know, hand pen to paper. So him
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  looking at like our POSOS systems like Toast, he's like, "Oh, you got it easy."
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  You know, he's like, "This is it's all done for you and plug the numbers in and
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  it spits it all out for you." But, uh, it's great to have him. He's he's been a
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  mentor for me, best friend, and just at the end of the day, the restaurant
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  business is the restaurant business. Whether it was in the 70s and 80s or
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  whether it's now, it's it's all built on those relationships and the quality of
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  food and service. And, you know, he's he's passed it on down to me for sure.
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  He's here now or still in New York? He is. He's in New York at the moment.
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  My mom actually had to have her hip replaced. Shout out mama. She's doing
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  great. But they're here most of the time. Yeah, they have a place in North
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  Palm Beach. Okay. Okay. What's his favorite item on
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  your menu? Spicy riketone. It is actually mine,
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  too. It's on the menu because of because of
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  Pops. Don't ever take it off. That dish is
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  amazing. I mean, it's it's pretty automatic. So,
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  he's known as Pops in the restaurant. All my whole team and everyone calls him
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  Pops. So, he uh every time he comes in, it's
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  just like an automatic fire up a spicy rieton. And he likes a little extra
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  spicy. It's the only reason it's on the menu there actually is cuz it's so good.
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  He's I always said if I open my own place, he's he's going to have a spicy
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  riatoni. So you should call it pops rigetoni instead
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  of spicy. That's not a bad idea.
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  Might do that. I like that. I like that. So what do you feel like since you've
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  been in the industry for a long time as have I. What is the biggest difference
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  that you do see? Because it's funny you said about the pen and paper when I was
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  a hostess in 1996 7
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  2006 whatever it's all good on Long Island
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  I was two you were you weren't maybe you were Damn
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  1994. Damn. All righty. Well, moving on.
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  So, me too. I was also I was also too. Damn, Stephen. Damn. Anyway, we had
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  paper. I had to write paper. And actually, funny in this book, we had
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  5600 dinners every Saturday night. And every reservation was in pencil because
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  if they canceled, we had to erase it with the eraser.
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  And then we had another column that said smoking or non.
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  Imagine that. Wild, right? Imagine.
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  It's it's changed. I mean, it's very it's very different. There's pros and
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  cons, I think, from the the back of the house and back end kind of numbers
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  things. It's great. you know, it's I'm not exactly a math guy. So, having
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  it spit everything out I need and I just need to accomplish these numbers in
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  order to be successful. It makes it, you know, kind of simple. I love running a
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  business. I don't really love the numbers part of it, but at the end of
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  the day, it's the only thing that matters. So, you know, those have got to
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  match up. I think the personal aspect of it is
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  is where it kind of comes as a con. You know, we use our toast tablets.
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  Yeah. So I think the human interaction is, you know, it depends on the server
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  and my best servers really know how to kind of use both at the same time
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  without losing that, you know, human eye to eye contact and interaction that you
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  get with people. But, you know, that thing becomes a priority. You know, you
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  you need it to put the orders in. But do they do a they hold their tablets
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  tableside? Depends. It really it really depends.
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  There's there's some, you know, there's nights I I don't want them to, but
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  ideally for efficiency wise, you know, getting orders to the kitchen and
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  getting drink orders to the bar as soon as possible, you know, really really
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  makes a difference. And I always tell them, you know, parties of 12 when you
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  have one server going around the table asking for drinks. Like,
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  imagine being able to just take four drinks at a time, put them in, send
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  those four drinks to the bar so they're already getting ready, rather than a
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  bartender getting a tab of 12 drinks at one time and he's like, "Oh god, can
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  someone help me with this?" He could have been making drinks the whole time
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  already and then you bring them out gradually. They don't all have to come
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  out at the same time. You sell an extra drink doing that. You You get an extra
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  round in. You do that for every table. It It adds up.
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  Good point. Yeah, it's Do you
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  use Open Table? Right. I do. I do. I'm starting to look at resi
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  a little bit, too. Open table's great. Resi's not really used down here that
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  much in New York. It's like the only thing that's used now.
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  Is that funny? So you get a lot of people that come down here and even if
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  it's not used down here, they come from New York and then they get down here,
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  they go on resi just cuz that's the only thing they really know. So if I have an
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  account on there, it's like, okay, now people are going to see it. So
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  So unbiased because I started when I started working at Capital Grill 100
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  years ago, I was trained heavily on Open Table there.
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  So I've always been an Open Table user. Open Table is a partner. I love Open
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  Table. They're sponsor. I love them. I honestly unbiasedly think Open Table is
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  really cool for me as a diner. I get points. I get I feel like it's user
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  friendly. My app is like whenever I'm traveling it's like check this out. We
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  know you like this. I feel like it's really good. We're like resi like I just
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  get mad at Resi sometimes. Yeah. User the user interface isn't
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  great. But I'll tell you what no patience.
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  It's a lot less it's a lot less expensive than Open Table.
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  True. I guess from a diner point I get mad when I
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  No, I agree. And I don't open table's not going anywhere, but you know, having
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  both having both of them is is doable. So that might, you know, come into play.
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  Nice because those are actually marketing pieces too that you're you
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  know, Toast has some great marketing pieces to the restaurant as well. So,
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  okay. So, I want you to take me back to the moment that you heard Crosby Kitchen
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  formally. Ara is formally uh we used to be Crosby Kitchen was there for just a
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  small time. When you first found out that was available, what was going
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  through your mind? Did you know your concept before you walked in the door?
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  Did you walk in the door and then say, "No, this is the concept." Like, how did
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  that all come about? Uh, I know the exact moment. So, my
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  business partner, he was kind of my mentor through the whole thing. Not my
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  dad, but someone else. and he was going to be the guy that kind of purchased the
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  commercial building. And we were going to work out a lease together, but he was
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  going to be like my, you know, my guy to get me going. And he was and we were
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  actually playing golf. We were at, I think we were playing at Banyan K at the
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  time. Was still Banyan K. Now it's Dutchman something. We're on the first
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  hole, both in the middle of the fairway, surprisingly. And he gets a text message
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  from the realtor who is selling that property. Okay. It
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  was the first and only time in my life I've stepped off of a golf course. We
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  literally turned around right away, got in our cars, drove right here, and right
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  when I walked in the door, I remember looking at Frank and just being like,
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  "This is it. 100%. This is it."
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  You know, concept wise kind of came a little bit after. I knew that I wanted
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  to do the level of and style of the place. I knew what I wanted that four
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  four and a half star kind of vibe. I knew I wanted the big bar and this and
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  that. So everything kind of fit, you know.
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  What would you say is your like See, some people think say to me like, "Oh,
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  isn't our a Mediterranean?" Like it's not in my eyes.
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  I think we, you know, when we opened we we were always thinking of like a
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  slogan, you know, or like what type of food are we? And you have to give people
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  some sort of a idea, but I always thought that Ara would kind of develop
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  into its own thing, you know, people would kind of think of it, it would
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  create itself. It would happen organically. Um, I think that's why we
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  always said it was globally, you know, inspired.
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  Interesting. I have a restaurant idea for you and I have not
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  I'm always open. I have not said this to anyone out loud
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  ever. So, I'm just going to say it here now cuz clearly I'm not doing it. And if
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  you steal my idea, we have it recorded. I will I'm I want I want
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  You did just say you're clearly not doing it though. So, I want that on the
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  record, too. Happening here. Fair. So I want a restaurant that I can
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  go it has to be like phenomenal not just like
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  so and it's booths and every booth is a different cuisine. So like I go into the
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  restaurant you're always going to cuz like okay so let me back up. I don't
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  want to eat Italian food five nights a week. I don't want to eat sushi five
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  nights a week. I don't want to eat Greek food five nights a week. Right? But I
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  can keep going to the same place because if I go to booth number one, I'm getting
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  this whole Japanese sushi experience. And then the other booth number two,
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  it's like a whole and they're all decorated like that style. They're like
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  little personal mini restaurants. And then booth number three is
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  Mediterranean. I'm not going to take your idea. How
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  about that? We'll put it. I'm not going to take your idea. Don't
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  worry. Come on. cuz I figured
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  how about we just open up five different restaurants that are five completely
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  different things and they're all awesome.
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  That's a lot of work. Yeah, I like restaurant. I'm not ever
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  ever. Okay. So, I want to know what are your biggest lessons from your childhood
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  that you bring into Aura dayto day from your mom, from your dad, from your
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  teachers, you know, like think of like those
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  moments and what cuz you're a leader to how many how many staff members do you
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  have on the whole roster? We've probably got
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  about 60. Yeah. So, you're like a leader to 60
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  people. Yeah. It's like what do you bring that
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  you learned in your youth to them on the daily?
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  This episode is sponsored by Altima Caviar experience exceptional. Visit
• 14:04
  them at AltimaCaviar.com. You know, my mom was definitely the
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  biggest, I think, component of, you know, that idea of work ethic. You know,
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  she she drilled that in my brother and I and my dad as well. I think we were a
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  little I was a little younger when my dad was had his restaurants and stuff. I
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  don't remember him as much, but you know, all throughout middle school and
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  high school and college, my mom was, you know, going to Manhattan every single
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  night and every single day, I mean, 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. every single day.
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  Never miss a work. She was at L'Oreal Paris.
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  I love L'Oreal. 37 years president. No, made it all the
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  way to president. Yeah. she had a a big time role and just never never backed
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  down to to anyone or anything and always took the harder route and you know she
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  did it when it was tough like in the 80s and 90s as a as a woman in Manhattan in
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  that in the beauty world it wasn't easy so
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  she really taught that so I would say just just show up you I think people
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  don't understand how important it is especially in the restaurant industry
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  just to show up like I I would tell you my best employees they're there 15
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  minutes early and they stay 50 minutes late.
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  Mhm. And it's hard to find people in this
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  industry that are that consistent and that you don't have to worry about. And
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  that on Saturday nights when you have 350 covers on the books, it's like
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  where's this person or where's that person? It's, you know, she she
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  instilled that idea of you just show up and I don't care if you don't feel well.
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  Like there's got to be a real damn good excuse for you not to show up to work.
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  It's got to be really good. And I think in the restaurant world, it's like
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  people think, "Oh, I can just take off cuz I'm a server. I'm a bartender. I'm
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  a, you know, you wouldn't think that way if you worked for Morgan Stanley,
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  right? So why do you think that way cuz you
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  work for a restaurant? You know, it's I think people need to
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  appreciate where they're at a little bit more. And you know, that includes giving
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  great service, whether it's a Monday at 6:00 or a Friday at 7:30. You know,
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  every table matters. Every person that walks in there is paying the same
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  amount. And you don't know how their day is
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  going. And we got to we got to show up every single day. every single dish.
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  There has not been one time ever that I've been to Ara that you are not there.
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  You're always there. You are running around. You're running
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  to the back to the kitchen. You're running to up to the bar. You're guiding
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  your I see it with my eyes. You're guiding your staff. You're talking to
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  your guests. You're at the tables. Like, and I think that's very very important.
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  I mean, at least around here at our local restaurants, I find from what I
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  notice that the restaurants where the chefs, owners, andor managers are
• 16:40
  extremely present and table touching, they're the ones that are really doing a
• 16:46
  really great job. And you know, another person I'll I'll commend to that is was
• 16:50
  Tavalina. Michael's always the tables. Always slammed. And Laura is still
• 16:57
  slammed right now. You know, you're both slammed right now and it's off in South
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  Florida. So, there's like something to be said about that. I feel like
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  that's important because you love what we do. You got to love
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  what you do. Are you still like this is still busy
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  time, but you do flavor. Yeah. Yeah. It definitely slows down.
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  You know, summer's Tuesday and Wednesday nights in June are not what they are in
• 17:19
  January and February. That's for sure. But it it's all relative. you know, the
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  labor's down and costs are down and this that and the other, but and I think it
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  really gives our kitchen and our entire staff more time to really focus on every
• 17:33
  dish and just make sure it's perfect. You know, I tell the staff that all the
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  time. It's like if we have 60 covers tonight, 60 people are walking out of
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  here and they are going to say they had a phenomenal meal. They're going to tell
• 17:43
  60 other people about it. Now, when you have 250 people and there's a bunch
• 17:47
  going on, you know, things happen. You know, something gets overcooked or
• 17:50
  something gets undercooked and this that and the other. When there's 60 people,
• 17:53
  there's no excuse. So, every dish has got to be absolutely perfect cuz then
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  come season time, they're all coming back and it's going to be 350, 400
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  people again. I love coming to our restaurants in the
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  summer. It's my favorite because I don't have to wait and I get like I still get
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  good service. I get great food. Everybody's everybody's happy.
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  Everybody's in in a better mood overall like chat with family. not as much
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  stress where otherwise it's like season and
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  they're like I'm like I'm not going there till July. So we're getting ready
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  for Flavor of South Florida which you participate in. Thank you so much for
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  doing that. Absolutely. Every year
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  but you it benefits you know. Absolutely.
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  How tell me how. New faces for sure. Definitely new
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  faces. I think people travel a little bit farther. Ours is a little bit more
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  of a you know it's not inexpensive. Let's say that. And so I think this with
• 18:47
  the cost that we offer the precourse, you know, meal, it's it gets people out,
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  you know, from West Palm, from up in Stewart, and it gives people a chance to
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  kind of come into Ara and, you know, see it for the first time. And we love it.
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  We'll do it every year. Absolutely. Not just cuz you.
• 19:02
  Well, you do a phenomenal menu. You do. You usually you're somewhere around like
• 19:06
  $60 for three courses. And they're good courses. They're good quality courses.
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  I hope maybe you'll put the do soul on it this year. That's what we can do. But
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  think about that. See what we can do.
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  Imagine if you put soul do soul soul. I'd probably say it's our our number one
• 19:24
  entree for $60 with the food cost nowadays. I'm really proud of all the
• 19:29
  local restaurants that are able to accomplish that for the diners during
• 19:33
  our slowest time because that's like you still, you know, you're
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  still running a profit margin. You're still
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  the cost is crazy right now. people. I I try to tell this to people
• 19:44
  all the time how crazy it is. But so yeah, let's talk about that do soul for
• 19:48
  a second cuz it has this amazing sauce in it with caviar. I have a gift for
• 19:52
  you. Oh, okay.
• 19:54
  Do you like caviar? I love caviar.
• 19:56
  So our friends at Altima Caviar. Okay.
• 19:58
  They sponsored this episode. So they brought you a gift. They brought you
• 20:03
  three cans of caviar. Amber, Beluga, Hybrid, and Siberian.
• 20:11
  And I don't know how to really open. I'm not I'm getting better at it. Here's a
• 20:15
  key. Here's a spoon. So, one thing that stands out about you is your belief that
• 20:20
  great restaurants should be surrounded by other great restaurants.
• 20:24
  Absolutely. Competition versus collaboration. Like,
• 20:27
  what are your what are your some of your favorite restaurants in the area?
• 20:30
  Oh, good question. Let's see. I love Food Shack.
• 20:36
  Food Shack and Leftovers. I think they do. I haven't been to their new spot,
• 20:39
  Sweet Fish, yet, but I've heard great things. I think they do a great job.
• 20:42
  More casual, but the food quality, the people, same thing. Like, I go in there,
• 20:47
  I see the same people every time. I know exactly who's going to take care of me.
• 20:51
  They say hi to me. They know what I want. They're, you know, that that goes
• 20:54
  a long way. And that's I don't go out a lot, but when I do, I go to the places
• 20:59
  that, you know, have that feeling. Tavalina, Mike, I love going there.
• 21:03
  Great spot. Mike does a fantastic job over there. The guys over at Blackbird,
• 21:07
  they're unstoppable machines, these guys. I
• 21:11
  mean, they are they are unbelievable. Uh it doesn't get much better than that. I
• 21:15
  mean, they're doing some some big big things all over and on the other side of
• 21:19
  uh the state as well. So, you know, those are those are
• 21:23
  probably the top three I could think of the top of my head.
• 21:26
  You live in Jupiter? I live right here.
• 21:28
  And you love to golf. I love to golf.
• 21:30
  Golf just about every day. And you're at R just about every night. Is that
• 21:33
  correct? I wouldn't say everyday golf, but
• 21:36
  maybe in the summer. Also, I love golfing in the summer, just like you
• 21:39
  love going to restaurants that are empty. Golf courses are empty in the
• 21:42
  summer cuz no one wants to play in the heat and I love the heat. So, I can go
• 21:45
  play at 12:00 in the afternoon in the middle of July, no problem.
• 21:48
  Okay. Yeah, that would make sense. I'm not a golfer. I would like to like
• 21:52
  maybe, you know, do a little mini golf here and there. That works. That's about
• 21:57
  it. I like my son. Maybe pop fun spot. Speaking of my son, you ought to have
• 22:02
  kids one day because
• 22:04
  now that's a good question. Uh yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. 100%.
• 22:08
  I see being a good dad and like playing sports.
• 22:11
  I've always I've always loved kids my whole life.
• 22:13
  I can actually totally see you absolutely doing that.
• 22:15
  I got a nephew on the way. I've got two godsons already, so I got my I got my
• 22:20
  hands full right now. But yes, absolutely.
• 22:23
  So, I'm going to ask you some quick quick questions here and you have to
• 22:27
  answer them pretty pretty fast. Oh god, they're easy ones. They should be easy.
• 22:32
  Your favorite restaurant city in the world?
• 22:36
  New York. Food city. New York. Yeah, sames.
• 22:38
  One restaurant you wish you had opened. Like a restaurant that is currently open
• 22:45
  that I wish was mine or like Carbone. Maybe it's Carbone. Maybe it's
• 22:49
  like Yeah, it's just wish for you. It was yours.
• 22:52
  I can't think of the name of it, but there was a restaurant in Venice. It was
• 22:56
  a two Michelin. I think it was two Michelin. my family and I went to and we
• 23:00
  sat outside on the back like veronda over the wine vineyard and was the most
• 23:06
  spectacular dinner I've ever had and if I own that place that'd be pretty damn
• 23:09
  cool. I can't think of the name of it. I'll think of it and get back to you on
• 23:12
  that so you can post it. That would be cool. What is the most
• 23:16
  underrated item on ours menu? The cabbage. Our pan seared cabbage is
• 23:22
  the best thing you've ever had. I've never had it.
• 23:24
  It is unbelievable. And there you have And chef said to me
• 23:27
  one day, she's like, "I'm going to put cabbage on the menu." I'm like, "Why?"
• 23:30
  She goes, "Just have it bite first, then you can decide." I had one bite. I'm
• 23:33
  like, "All right, cabbage is going on the menu. It is absolutely fantastic."
• 23:37
  What's the most ordered item on at Ara?
• 23:42
  Food-wise, uh,
• 23:45
  probably our salmon crudeo, our dumplings, and our
• 23:50
  bread and ziki are our top three, I would say, items.
• 23:53
  I've eaten all of those. Yeah.
• 23:54
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 23:56
  Yeah, leave it to me to not be original and try the cabbage. But I really will.
• 24:00
  It's fantastic. One hospitality rule every business
• 24:03
  should follow. No chewing gum.
• 24:06
  Oh, that is I'm 100% on board with this.
• 24:13
  I literally had somebody that my team knows that I
• 24:18
  I did I don't go crazy at all. Usually I'm a
• 24:21
  I'm an easygoing boss, but there are a couple things that get me going and if I
• 24:25
  catch you with gum, it's not good. Me, too.
• 24:28
  I can't do it. Oh my gosh, that's hilarious. Because I
• 24:31
  was They were like, "Oh my god, she's such a bitch." And I'm like,
• 24:35
  "No, bitch." I I told you to go home because I told
• 24:38
  No one should ever chew gum ever. Gum out of your mouth.
• 24:40
  No one should ever chew gum ever. Unless like you're in your car for like 5
• 24:43
  minutes and there's no one around before you go in somewhere.
• 24:45
  Like you look like a cow. You can't. Gum should not be legal in 50 states.
• 24:50
  I'm cringing so hard right now. You don't understand the cringe you
• 24:55
  I got you. That's for my dad, too. It's a pops thing. He hates gum.
• 24:57
  That's a thing. I have all of the uh icebreaker mints all the time.
• 25:02
  Yeah, that's okay. No gum.
• 25:04
  No gum. No gum. No gum.
• 25:06
  Glad we got that taken care of here. What is your favorite cocktail after a
• 25:10
  long shift? H
• 25:16
  probably I like a nice tequila.
• 25:20
  What kind any particular brand
• 25:24
  right now? Griffin's got an art to gnome an onjo. It's fantastic. Arte gnome.
• 25:31
  Really good. No more of that kas amigos. You don't need any of that. We don't
• 25:34
  even sell kasmigos. I love a small batch.
• 25:35
  Artinome is it's not really as heard of. It's probably 10 20 bucks more a bottle
• 25:41
  for the anjo than it is for Kasamigos ano. And it is three times the tequila.
• 25:46
  Very nice. I'll let you know. Manjo. Yep.
• 25:49
  Cabbage and ano. Cabbage. That'll that'll put a smile on
• 25:53
  your face. What would you be doing if you were not
• 25:57
  a restaurant owner?
• 26:04
  Something else I'd love to do. I don't know if I would do it because I don't
• 26:08
  know how well it would take care of a family. But the other thing I love doing
• 26:13
  besides owning a restaurant was coaching. I loved coaching.
• 26:18
  I was a high school coach for a couple years for high school in uh New York
• 26:21
  City, Regis. And coaching baseball was I loved it. Loved loved loved it.
• 26:27
  So I would be coaching. Yeah. Well, I have a quick question for you. I
• 26:32
  want you I'm going to show you a photo of this man and just based on solely
• 26:38
  based on the photo with no other details, I want you to give the person
• 26:43
  three words of advice. Okay? Ready? Are you ready?
• 26:52
  Who's that guy? That's me.
• 26:57
  How old were you there? I was a
• 27:02
  Definitely obviously in college. This is my junior year maybe.
• 27:07
  What would you tell him? Keep working hard.
• 27:13
  Look at that kid. Yeah.
• 27:15
  Look at that kid. That was my junior year of college. My
• 27:19
  senior year. Yeah. Was that 2016? Yeah.
• 27:21
  Yeah. It was my senior year then. So 10 years. This is 10 years old.
• 27:24
  Yeah. 10 years old. Think about all you've done in those 10
• 27:28
  years. It's pretty cool, right?
• 27:30
  I like that. That was good. Wild times.
• 27:33
  Yeah. Amen. Those were good times.
• 27:37
  Those were fun. All right. We I guess we'll wrap it up
• 27:41
  to ask,
• 27:44
  do you have any desires to open up another restaurant? Any, where, when,
• 27:50
  and would it be another Ara?
• 27:54
  Absolutely. Open up another place. couldn't give you an exact answer on
• 27:59
  that. I don't would it be another AR? I would open up another AR. Not really
• 28:03
  anywhere around here, I don't think. Um I have other concepts in my head that I
• 28:07
  think I would open before I opened another Ara. I want to stay around here
• 28:10
  ideally. Jupiter, maybe north up to Steward or Hope Sound, maybe a little
• 28:16
  south, maybe out west. There's a lot going over uh out in Aanir or Panther
• 28:20
  and south of PGA Boulevard. There's no restaurants out there. And there's
• 28:24
  it's very densely populated. Traffic's nuts. I think Thirsty Turtle does like
• 28:29
  $7 million out there or something like that because there's no other place
• 28:32
  around besides Thirsty Turtles. It's the closest restaurant to all those homes.
• 28:36
  So, uh, actually, it's something that these guys over at Blackbird kind of,
• 28:39
  you know, Cleave has I've talked with them a lot about
• 28:42
  things and they find these, you know, densely populated kind of areas like
• 28:47
  Palm City, you know, it's that people think you have to go to West Palm or you
• 28:50
  have to go to Miami. You don't. you really popping off.
• 28:52
  You really don't. You just got to go where where it makes sense and where
• 28:55
  people need something. So, yeah, absolutely.
• 28:59
  I highly recommend you go to Palm City. I think that's a great spot for a
• 29:02
  restaurant. Okay. And one more thing I want to ask you. If you were to have
• 29:07
  dinner with your 18-year-old self or your 80-year-old self, who would you
• 29:11
  have dinner with? My 18-year-old self.
• 29:15
  That's hard, right? That's a hard question. my 18-year-old self
• 29:21
  cuz I want to be able to prep him and tell him not to make some of the
• 29:26
  mistakes that I've made since I've been 18. At 80, I think I might, you know,
• 29:31
  it's like, oh, how was the how was the life that you lived?
• 29:35
  Mhm. But I'd want to start as young as
• 29:38
  possible and just not make those mistakes. That's a good freaking
• 29:40
  question because then you could talk to the 80-year-old and ask him not to make
• 29:43
  the mistakes I'm going to make when I'm 50.
• 29:48
  It's a good question. It's a good one. I'm going to stick with 18 though.
• 29:52
  We're going to close with that. Go visit Ara.
• 29:54
  Thank you. In Jupiter and
• 29:57
  try the cabbage. Try the cabbage. Try the cabbage.
• 30:00
  See you for flavor next month. Absolutely. Thank you for having me.
• 30:03
  Appreciate it. Thanks for joining me on Forking Around
• 30:05
  with Flavor South Florida. If you're in the industry, a business owner, or just
• 30:09
  want a better understanding of what goes into keeping restaurants alive and
• 30:12
  thriving, make sure you subscribe and share this episode with someone who
• 30:16
  should hear it. Flavor South Florida takes place every September from the 1st
• 30:20
  through the 30th between Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast. You can
• 30:23
  find all the amazing dining deals and participating restaurants at flavors
• 30:27
  south florida.com. Until next time, keep supporting local and keep forking
• 30:31
  around.