Latest / Forking Around with Flavor South Florida / Ben Foster: Behind the Business of Great Restaurants with Ben Foster of MLM Food Group

Transcript

Ben Foster: Behind the Business of Great Restaurants with Ben Foster of MLM Food Group · Forking Around with Flavor South Florida

• 0:02
  Thank you. Welcome to Forking Around with Flavor
• 0:06
  South Florida. I’m Kerri Paizzi, CEO of Flavor
• 0:09
  South Florida. We are sitting down with entrepreneurs,
• 0:12
  business owners, and influential community partners
• 0:14
  to talk growth, trials, tribulations, and more.
• 0:17
  These conversations lead into Flavor South Florida,
• 0:20
  the region’s largest restaurant month, happening
• 0:22
  every September from the 1st through the 30th.
• 0:24
  If you’re in hospitality or thinking about building
• 0:27
  something meaningful in this industry, you’re
• 0:29
  in the right place. Pull up a chair and let’s
• 0:31
  get into it. This episode is sponsored by Altima
• 0:38
  Caviar. Visit them at altimacaviar.com. Today’s
• 0:44
  guest is Ben Foster, Director of Operations for
• 0:47
  MLM Food Group. The team behind Townies Tavern,
• 0:50
  Hudson’s on the River, and so many other restaurants
• 0:53
  that I’m sure you visited on the Treasure Coast.
• 0:56
  Ben’s background stretches from the West Palm
• 0:58
  Beach nightlife and restaurant scene into opening
• 1:00
  some of the busiest hospitality concepts in South
• 1:03
  Florida from the ground up. We’re talking restaurant
• 1:05
  nightlife, leadership, hospitality, culture,
• 1:08
  and what it really takes to survive in this business.
• 1:11
  Ben is the go -to for this. Welcome to the show.
• 1:15
  Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. I’m
• 1:17
  excited. Thanks for coming on, man. I’m so excited
• 1:19
  you’re here. Ben and I are, we’ll just tell the
• 1:23
  audience that we’re old friends. We worked together
• 1:25
  a long time. I truly admire you. And I talk about
• 1:29
  you a lot, actually. And I tell people, like,
• 1:32
  if you’re going to open a restaurant, you need
• 1:34
  to call Ben. You have to call Ben because you’ve
• 1:38
  been in this for a lot of years. Yep. So Ben’s
• 1:42
  this guy, right, where I can meet somebody, random
• 1:46
  stranger, and I’ll say, oh, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:49
  Ben Foster. And they’re like, I know that guy.
• 1:52
  I know Ben. The amount of people that tell me
• 1:55
  I know Ben is hilarious. I’m going to start a
• 1:58
  campaign calling like, I know Ben. Because I
• 2:01
  feel like everybody does. So let me roll that
• 2:04
  into how is that? Where did you start? Tell me
• 2:09
  the beginning. Yeah, well, I started out washing
• 2:12
  dishes at 14 years old when I was in high school,
• 2:15
  and I got the love for it then, and it just hooked
• 2:19
  me. And so I just worked my tail off and came
• 2:22
  up to the restaurant business and just learned
• 2:23
  from everybody along the way. And more or less,
• 2:26
  I learned what not to do more so than I learned
• 2:28
  what to do, I feel like. And then when I got
• 2:30
  to West Palm Beach in 1999 and I went to culinary
• 2:32
  school there, I just started working in different
• 2:35
  restaurants. And the South Florida restaurant
• 2:38
  scene is… you know, filled with lots of great
• 2:40
  restaurant workers. And I think getting people
• 2:42
  to know me was more or less just working alongside
• 2:45
  of everybody and just being always doing the
• 2:47
  right thing and always being that person that
• 2:49
  just pass knowledge on, got knowledge from other
• 2:52
  people and then pass that knowledge on to other
• 2:54
  people. And I think people just kind of, you
• 2:56
  know, listen most of the time. And I think just
• 2:58
  being approachable and always wanting to learn
• 3:00
  and, you know, do the right thing by people,
• 3:02
  I think has got me to where I am today. That
• 3:04
  is the thing I hear about you and I know about
• 3:07
  you is that you’re a stand -up guy. Like, I’m
• 3:11
  just going to say that. You’re definitely a stand
• 3:13
  -up guy to your word. And I think that’s important
• 3:16
  in this industry. So not only do you have the
• 3:19
  expertise, but you’re actually a good human,
• 3:22
  which is awesome. Thank you. So where were you
• 3:25
  a dishwasher? At a chicken wing place in Springboro,
• 3:28
  Ohio called Roosters. It was kind of like a restaurant
• 3:32
  concept there that did chicken wings. So that’s
• 3:35
  where I started out washing dishes. And back
• 3:37
  then, the restaurant industry has changed a lot
• 3:40
  since… that time. And, you know, the cooks
• 3:45
  used to throw plates at my head, you know, because
• 3:47
  they weren’t clean. What kind of plate? Were
• 3:49
  they glass plates? No, they were wooden plates.
• 3:51
  They were wooden plates. But they would throw
• 3:54
  them over in the dish area and tell me they weren’t
• 3:56
  clean enough, you know, for them. And so you
• 3:58
  just, you know, trial by fire almost to make
• 4:00
  sure that, you know, every plate went back to
• 4:02
  them super, super clean. So. Yeah. But it was
• 4:05
  fun. What year was that in the 90s? That was
• 4:08
  1994. That’s what it was. That’s what it was
• 4:11
  in the 90s. It was. It was that kind of old school
• 4:14
  restaurant mentality and things have shifted
• 4:16
  a lot. I mean, I think you started to kind of
• 4:19
  see that shift in the mid 2000s and then COVID
• 4:22
  really kind of changed the game big time in the
• 4:24
  restaurant business. But yeah, I mean, those
• 4:26
  old school days, man, if you didn’t do your job
• 4:29
  the right way, they would tell you and they would
• 4:31
  let you know. And it was tough. Isn’t it funny,
• 4:35
  the evolution of that? So I worked in the restaurant
• 4:38
  industry. My whole life started in 97, so same
• 4:43
  time. And it is so different. Now you can’t,
• 4:47
  I mean, forget about throwing a plate. Like,
• 4:50
  could you imagine doing that now? There’s open
• 4:53
  kitchen concepts everywhere. So not only are
• 4:55
  you working in this hot kitchen on your feet
• 4:58
  for all these hours, now you’re putting on a
• 5:01
  show for people, right? You’re like, Here I am.
• 5:05
  And I sit at the chef’s table and they open concept
• 5:07
  kitchens and I look in the window like, oh, look
• 5:10
  at him frying up my dinner. Right. Like that’s
• 5:12
  a lot. That’s a lot. If you think about the evolution
• 5:15
  of that, the evolution even of the marketing
• 5:17
  for restaurants, like now everything’s got to
• 5:20
  be Instagrammable and pretty where you’re like
• 5:23
  your plates. I think in the 90s had to just really
• 5:26
  taste good and they had to be like. Talked about
• 5:29
  where the locals or maybe the local newspaper
• 5:31
  is going to write about you or a food writer,
• 5:34
  right? Like I remember there was a big food writer
• 5:35
  by us in New York in the 90s. And that’s like,
• 5:39
  no, now it’s like, is your dish going to go viral?
• 5:43
  Is it pretty? I just find it so interesting.
• 5:47
  The evolution of the people have been in the
• 5:49
  game for so long have actually witnessed if you
• 5:50
  really sat down and thought about it. And I think
• 5:54
  that another thing you’re really good at is.
• 5:57
  Building brands from the ground up. I think that
• 6:01
  people don’t realize how hard it is to open a
• 6:04
  restaurant. So like tell me what that process
• 6:07
  is. If you were to go open a restaurant, what’s
• 6:11
  like the first thing you’re doing? Like give
• 6:14
  me like step by step on how do you open a restaurant
• 6:16
  for dummies? Well, I think the first thing that
• 6:20
  you have to keep in mind when you’re starting
• 6:22
  a new concept from the ground up is being very
• 6:25
  flexible, right? You might go in with one mindset,
• 6:28
  like we’re gonna serve this kind of food and
• 6:30
  this kind of drink and really structure it that
• 6:33
  way, but you have to be open and willing to make
• 6:35
  changes on the fly because conceptually, you
• 6:39
  might have a great conception of a menu or of
• 6:41
  a drink menu or of a food menu, but once you
• 6:44
  put it in play, maybe the guest in that, you
• 6:47
  know, town don’t respond well to it. So you have
• 6:49
  to be, you have to be willing to shift. And I
• 6:52
  think that’s, you know, can be the difference
• 6:54
  between restauranteurs is some, some restauranteurs
• 6:57
  are so dead set on, I’m going to serve you this
• 7:00
  food and you’re going to like it because I’m
• 7:02
  telling you, you’re going to like it. And then
• 7:03
  other people are like, you know what, we’re going
• 7:05
  to listen to our guests. We’re going to make
• 7:07
  those changes and, and we’re going to do, you
• 7:09
  know, what’s going to be beneficial for the restaurant
• 7:11
  for the longterm. So as far as like starting
• 7:14
  restaurants from the ground up. you know, and
• 7:16
  having that kind of concept that you want to
• 7:18
  put in place is I think it’s finding out what
• 7:23
  you’re going to be great at and excelling at
• 7:26
  that, right? So let’s say it’s a burger. So a
• 7:29
  burger, if you’re going to be a burger restaurant
• 7:31
  and known for burgers, then you’re going to want
• 7:32
  to source all the different kinds of beef everywhere
• 7:35
  and find that best beef, right? And you’re going
• 7:38
  to put the best product on the plate. And I think
• 7:40
  that price is not as big of a deal. as the quality
• 7:45
  of the product or what you’re trying to achieve.
• 7:47
  So if you give the guest what they want, they
• 7:49
  will pay, you know, what you set for, for that
• 7:52
  price. So I think that’s, what’s important is
• 7:54
  just being flexible and opening a restaurant.
• 7:57
  And, and then the next part of that would be.
• 8:00
  the staff, you know, hiring and putting together
• 8:02
  a team is very difficult when you’re opening
• 8:05
  a restaurant. And what most people don’t understand
• 8:07
  is when they go to a restaurant, when it’s only
• 8:08
  been open for a week, you got to remember you’re
• 8:10
  putting 50, 60, a hundred people in a building
• 8:12
  that have never worked together before. And that’s
• 8:15
  like putting a baseball team out there that’s
• 8:17
  never played baseball together. You know, that,
• 8:19
  that cohesiveness that they need to have, it
• 8:21
  takes time to kind of establish that. So having
• 8:24
  some patience. finding that right personality
• 8:27
  that you’re looking for in staff and then making
• 8:29
  sure that they’re teachable. If somebody is not
• 8:31
  teachable, then that’s not, you know, somebody
• 8:33
  you want to have on your staff. You need to be
• 8:35
  able to coach people and, and people want to
• 8:37
  be coached, right? So those majority of people
• 8:40
  want to be coached. So I think finding that kind
• 8:43
  of element of what you want to be great at and
• 8:45
  sourcing those great products, and then also
• 8:47
  finding staff that kind of believe in your vision
• 8:50
  that want to execute your vision while, you know,
• 8:52
  being coachable. Yeah. And you make a good point
• 8:56
  that when you’re going into a brand new restaurant
• 8:59
  and you have all those personalities at once,
• 9:02
  I mean, think about that. That’s so interesting.
• 9:05
  And you as the boss, as the leader. You have
• 9:10
  to manage, well, let’s talk about that. You have
• 9:12
  to manage a lot of personalities. So right now
• 9:16
  you are the director of operations for MLM Food
• 9:19
  Group with two locations, Hudson’s on the River
• 9:21
  and Townies Tavern, both in the Treasure Coast.
• 9:25
  Well, Hudson’s participates in Flavor South Florida,
• 9:29
  which in September, you have to go check out
• 9:31
  that menu because it’s always amazing and a great
• 9:34
  deal. But between those two restaurants, how
• 9:37
  many people are you? managing? How many employees
• 9:40
  do you have? It’s about 150 employees. It ranges
• 9:43
  between season and out of season between 120
• 9:45
  and 150 employees. So yeah, I mean, you’re right.
• 9:48
  There’s definitely a lot of different personalities
• 9:50
  that you have to - It’s like a lot of people.
• 9:52
  It is a lot of people. Do you know them all?
• 9:55
  You know all 120 of them? Yes. You do? I think
• 9:59
  it’s important. That’s impressive. It’s definitely
• 10:01
  important to come in and make sure you say hi
• 10:03
  to people. People like to be recognized. So that’s
• 10:07
  a very important thing. Whether you’re the owner,
• 10:09
  you’re the manager, you’re the chef, the server,
• 10:12
  the dishwasher, it doesn’t matter. People like
• 10:15
  to be recognized and you got to say hi and good
• 10:18
  afternoon, good morning, those sort of things.
• 10:19
  So those are important stepping stones to leading
• 10:22
  a good team. But also asking people how their
• 10:25
  day is. Maybe you know they’ve had a struggle.
• 10:28
  Maybe something happened in their personal life
• 10:30
  and asking them how they’re dealing with that
• 10:32
  issue I think helps. create that kind of buy
• 10:35
  -in from them, right? And so I believe that most
• 10:38
  people leave jobs because of poor leadership,
• 10:41
  poor management, poor ownership, right? Absolutely.
• 10:44
  More so than they leave a job for money or whatever.
• 10:47
  I think that’s a big thing. So creating that
• 10:50
  positive work environment, I think super, super
• 10:53
  important in the restaurant business. And if
• 10:54
  you have a staff that continues to come to work
• 10:57
  every day and wants to be coached, As you continue
• 11:00
  to build the restaurant, people go to restaurants
• 11:03
  and go back to restaurants because of one big
• 11:06
  thing, I think, and that’s consistency, right?
• 11:08
  So people like to go into the restaurant. They
• 11:11
  like to be recognized, right? Same thing for
• 11:13
  a staff member as it is for a guest. So if you
• 11:16
  go in as a guest and the staff greets you with
• 11:18
  a smile and says, hey, Kerri, welcome back.
• 11:21
  Could I make you the favorite drink that you
• 11:23
  have? I pour you that glass of wine. What’s my
• 11:24
  favorite? Do you know my favorite drink? Don
• 11:26
  Julio 1942. That’s my boy! I actually had one
• 11:31
  the other night at Townies. I played bingo. I
• 11:34
  won bingo. Of course you won. Why would you not
• 11:36
  win? I won twice. You won twice? I won twice.
• 11:39
  I don’t think, there’s people that have been
• 11:41
  going there for a year and have never won once.
• 11:43
  I gave my prize away to somebody else. These
• 11:45
  guys were sitting at a table and I was like…
• 11:47
  I felt bad because they were so invested. I was
• 11:49
  like, I’ll play bingo. So I played and like I
• 11:52
  literally played like one game and I won twice
• 11:55
  in that one game. But I had a turkey club sandwich
• 11:58
  and a 1942 on the rock. On a rock. On a rock.
• 12:02
  A big rock. Big rock. You can’t have 42 on rocks.
• 12:05
  No, no, no, no. That’s gross. The big rock. It
• 12:07
  cools it down just enough for you to sip on it.
• 12:09
  It’s like perfect. And the server was so cute.
• 12:12
  She’s like, do you want a garnish? I’m like.
• 12:13
  Nope. I just going to drink this bad moisture.
• 12:15
  Or I’ve had people say, I would like order. I’d
• 12:18
  be like, I’ll have the tequila on the rocks.
• 12:20
  And they go, with what? I’m like, with ice. Because
• 12:24
  they are expecting me to order like tequila club.
• 12:26
  Or I’m like, I’ll just have tequila. And then
• 12:30
  it was just like shocked that I’m drinking straight
• 12:31
  tequila. I’m like, what? You know, it’s agave.
• 12:34
  It’s actually a health benefit. Have you heard?
• 12:38
  Yes. So it naturally breaks down in your body.
• 12:42
  Naturally, as opposed to regular sugars, correct?
• 12:45
  Yes. No hangovers. Actually, I’ll shout out our
• 12:48
  tequila sponsor for Flavor South Florida, which
• 12:50
  is El Bendito, which is really, very clean, delicious
• 12:56
  tequila. I recommend people try that as well.
• 13:01
  So, all right, let’s get into some things here.
• 13:04
  So we got current day. I want to know like…
• 13:07
  I want to go backwards here a little bit. Okay.
• 13:09
  So like I told you, everybody says, I know Ben.
• 13:12
  I feel like they all know you from your West
• 13:14
  Palm days. Yep. So what, like, I didn’t know
• 13:17
  you in those days. So this is where I’m intrigued.
• 13:19
  Like, where were you working? What were you doing?
• 13:22
  Tell me crazy stories about West Palm nightlife
• 13:25
  in the 10, 15 years ago. Cause I know there’s,
• 13:29
  I know it. Just do it. I know they’re there.
• 13:32
  Yeah, I mean, there’s some pretty wild days,
• 13:34
  you know, in the West Palm days. So, you know,
• 13:36
  when I got here in 99, I started out at Spoto’s
• 13:39
  Oyster Bar and I was actually working in their
• 13:41
  open kitchen. And then City Cellar in CityPlace,
• 13:44
  which actually just closed last week, very sad
• 13:46
  to see them close. I went to help open City Cellar
• 13:49
  and was there in the beginning and left for a
• 13:51
  little while, came back and then managed. uh,
• 13:53
  City Cellar, but I met a lot of people at city
• 13:56
  seller. That was just such a wonderful place
• 13:57
  to work. City Cellar owned by big time restaurant
• 13:59
  group. And then I went on to work at Rocco’s,
• 14:03
  Rocco’s tacos in West Palm. And I helped them
• 14:05
  open a couple of locations group, right? That’s
• 14:07
  big time. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then I helped them
• 14:10
  open a couple of their locations as well. And
• 14:12
  then I got promoted to. general manager at Greece
• 14:15
  Burger Bar downtown West Palm Beach. And so that
• 14:17
  was my first GM job. That was around, what was
• 14:20
  I like 30, 31 years old. But to kind of rewind,
• 14:23
  you know, back when City Cellar first opened,
• 14:26
  you know, City Cellar was packed when it first
• 14:28
  opened in CityPlace. I mean, CityPlace was
• 14:30
  so hot back in the early 2000s. That was when
• 14:32
  I, well, let me think when I, when I first moved
• 14:34
  to Florida, it was like 2010. City Cellar was
• 14:38
  one of the first restaurants I went to when I
• 14:41
  first moved here, which is so random that I remember
• 14:43
  that. But I really enjoyed it. Like they had
• 14:47
  that charcuterie, I can never say that word.
• 14:50
  Charcuterie. Charcuterie board. And it was so
• 14:53
  good because they were like the variety of cheeses
• 14:56
  and meats was like, anyways, carry on. So the
• 15:01
  team there, we would wait tables all night long,
• 15:03
  make all of our money. anywhere, you know, we’d
• 15:07
  be making 250 to $400 a night waiting tables
• 15:10
  there and we would get done and we would head
• 15:12
  back over to the villages where basically all
• 15:14
  the restaurant people worked back then. And we
• 15:16
  would hang out at TGI Fridays where Renegades
• 15:19
  is now that’s where TGI Fridays was. And then
• 15:22
  we also hang out across the street at a place
• 15:25
  called Gatsby’s, which had all these pool tables,
• 15:27
  very kind of like high end pool hall area there
• 15:30
  on village. So those were kind of the two like
• 15:31
  hotspots that a lot of us would hang out after
• 15:33
  work. And We would stay up until, you know, three,
• 15:36
  four o ’clock in the morning drinking. And then
• 15:38
  we would wake up the next day at 9 a .m. and
• 15:41
  go back to work and do it all over again. And
• 15:43
  that kind of went on for a while. And then down
• 15:46
  in West Palm, you know, going to those Roxy’s rooftop
• 15:49
  parties on Sundays, you know, and Snooty’s Wine Dive on
• 15:52
  Sunday brunch was just crazy party. And you never
• 15:55
  know where you would end up after those things.
• 15:58
  Tell me something like, give me a good one. This
• 16:02
  one time. I don’t know. I don’t know. It’s like
• 16:07
  the craziest story. Well, okay. So I’ll tell
• 16:10
  you this. Like a story nobody knows. A story
• 16:13
  nobody knows about me or about like - Just like
• 16:15
  a situation that happened. A situation about
• 16:18
  downtown West Palm. Yeah. Or after hours working
• 16:21
  in West Palm. You don’t have to name drop anybody.
• 16:24
  Just be like, this guy. Maybe like something
• 16:26
  this guy did or even a customer. How about this?
• 16:30
  We had a Christmas party, right? So when we were
• 16:33
  all still working at - city cellar there was
• 16:38
  a bar downtown called nobles okay and we had
• 16:42
  our staff christmas party there well we were
• 16:45
  all drinking of course and a couple of the girls
• 16:48
  were up on up on the bar with a one of the male
• 16:51
  employees and they were dancing having a good
• 16:54
  time and then they de -pantsed him on the bar
• 16:57
  in front of the whole entire staff yes absolutely
• 17:00
  so that was uh that was That was probably an
• 17:03
  interesting story. So I’ll go with that one and
• 17:06
  I won’t name drop any names. I mean, you can
• 17:08
  if you want. We’ll keep that quiet. We could
• 17:11
  tag them. So what’s the difference, the biggest
• 17:15
  difference to you between a restaurant in West
• 17:18
  Palm and a restaurant in Palm City or Stuart?
• 17:21
  I think, you know. I mean, I feel like the Treasure
• 17:25
  Coast, especially Palm City and Stuart, I feel
• 17:28
  like a lot of people still don’t know where some
• 17:31
  restaurants are and they’ve lived there forever.
• 17:33
  Like Hudson’s, I think there’s still a lot of
• 17:35
  people that don’t know where Hudson’s is in downtown
• 17:38
  Stuart or other restaurants that are in Stuart
• 17:40
  and Palm City. So I think the other thing is,
• 17:43
  is sometimes the locals don’t go to a restaurant
• 17:45
  right away. They wait. for a little while to
• 17:48
  make sure the restaurant’s going to kind of like
• 17:49
  make it and then they go. Whereas I feel like
• 17:52
  West Palm, the second your restaurant opens,
• 17:53
  everyone wants to go there. Everybody wants to
• 17:56
  be the first one in the door. You know, it’s
• 17:58
  kind of more of that status symbol down there
• 18:00
  in Palm Beach. So I think that’s, you know, being
• 18:02
  able to hit it out of the park right away in
• 18:04
  West Palms, I think a lot more important than
• 18:06
  hitting out of the park in, you know, Stuart
• 18:08
  or Palm City right away. I think, you know, you
• 18:10
  have time to kind of work through your issues
• 18:12
  up in the Treasure Coast or West Palm. You have
• 18:14
  to hit it right out of the gate. And if you don’t.
• 18:16
  You know, it’s, it’s, it’s trouble. It’s trouble.
• 18:19
  So, and I think the other, I think the other
• 18:21
  big difference, you know, between restaurants
• 18:23
  is, you know, the rent is just absolutely. I
• 18:26
  was just going to ask you that. What’s the rent
• 18:28
  difference between those two? I mean, you’re
• 18:31
  probably, you’re looking, you know. Most places
• 18:35
  in the Treasure Coast are anywhere from $20 to
• 18:37
  $30 a square foot, where down in West Palm, you’re
• 18:39
  $40 to $50 a square foot easily. I mean, it’s
• 18:42
  almost double now at this point. And the problem
• 18:46
  as a restaurateur is if you get into a lease
• 18:48
  deal and it’s… extremely high rent, you’re
• 18:51
  working to make the landlord money, right? And
• 18:53
  that’s a challenge. Restaurants work on very
• 18:56
  small profit margins. So you have to start out
• 18:59
  signing that good rent deal. If you don’t, then
• 19:01
  it could be the kiss of death for you right off
• 19:04
  the bat and you haven’t even opened yet. So making
• 19:07
  sure that you get into a good rent deal is very
• 19:09
  important for a restaurant. So wouldn’t that
• 19:11
  reflect if your lease is what it is? So say you
• 19:17
  opened a Hudson’s in West Palm, hypothetically,
• 19:20
  same space, apples to apples. Now your rent is
• 19:24
  double in West Palm. So how does that change?
• 19:29
  Do you have to raise your prices on your menu?
• 19:32
  Like, are they priced differently at that point?
• 19:35
  How does that play? I guess it depends, right?
• 19:38
  So there’s two ways you can look at it. One,
• 19:40
  if you’re trying to chase that same profit margin,
• 19:42
  then yes, you would need to raise your prices
• 19:44
  because that’s the only way to kind of offset
• 19:46
  that. However, if you’re willing to work on a
• 19:49
  smaller profit margin, right, because you still
• 19:51
  are putting dollars in the bank, then you could
• 19:54
  essentially keep your prices the same. I think
• 19:56
  that’s more important at a corporate level. you
• 19:59
  know, than it is at a more of a one or two restaurant
• 20:02
  level. Um, but I mean, even corporate restaurants
• 20:04
  have different pricing structures based on where
• 20:07
  they’re, where they’re current, where they currently
• 20:09
  are, you know, so a restaurant that’s in, you
• 20:11
  know, New York city that is, you know, a chain
• 20:15
  restaurant, their prices are probably going to
• 20:17
  be a couple of dollars higher than if you’re
• 20:18
  in Topeka, Kansas. Right. So that definitely
• 20:21
  is, you know, is a factor in raising, you know,
• 20:24
  your menu prices a little bit to help offset
• 20:26
  some of that. So if you have – we’re just going
• 20:31
  to throw numbers out for people here. If you
• 20:34
  make $100 ,000 a week, where does your cost come
• 20:38
  in on labor, food? Where’s your big – your rent?
• 20:44
  Where does that – what are you actually walking
• 20:46
  away with? A restaurant owner making $100 ,000
• 20:49
  a week. That’s a pretty good restaurant, right?
• 20:52
  Making $100 ,000 a week. So, yeah. No, good question.
• 20:56
  typically restaurants make about seven to 10
• 20:58
  % profit. So that’s typically what most restaurants
• 21:01
  do. But if you operate, you know, and sign a
• 21:04
  good lease deal, you can make more. So typically
• 21:06
  what restaurants like to chase is they want their
• 21:09
  rent to be somewhere between five and seven and
• 21:12
  a half percent of gross income. So, you know,
• 21:15
  that would put your rent if you did a hundred
• 21:17
  thousand dollars. you know, a month, let’s say,
• 21:20
  instead of a week, $100 ,000 a month, then you
• 21:23
  want your rent to be $7 ,500. That’s a good start
• 21:25
  to make money in the restaurant business. The
• 21:28
  next piece to go into that would be labor. So
• 21:31
  typically labor is around 30%. Now that’s kind
• 21:34
  of gone up a little bit. Now it’s, you know,
• 21:35
  32 % is what I call break even. So 32 % and below,
• 21:39
  you’re doing a very good job of managing your
• 21:41
  payroll, your labor, and your… probably putting
• 21:44
  some money to the profit line. If you’re above
• 21:46
  that 32%, then you’re probably not. And that’s
• 21:50
  where you’re losing some points. Labor is the
• 21:52
  biggest controlling factor in whether a restaurant
• 21:55
  makes money or not outside of rent. So those
• 21:58
  are two big factors. Then the third factor that
• 22:01
  you brought in is cost of goods. So cost of goods
• 22:04
  normally needs to be around 30%. So if you can
• 22:07
  hit 30 % on labor and 30 % on… on cost of goods
• 22:11
  and your rent is seven and a half percent, then
• 22:14
  the rest of that money is used for everything
• 22:16
  else you need. You should be able to, you know,
• 22:19
  pull down 10 to 15%. Insurance is so high right
• 22:21
  now, isn’t it? For restaurants? Insurance has
• 22:23
  gone up exponentially. And that is, you know,
• 22:27
  a result of… people suing, right? I mean, that’s
• 22:31
  what it is. It’s lawsuits. And are some of them
• 22:34
  legit and people do, let’s say, slip and fall
• 22:37
  and hurt themselves? Absolutely. But sometimes…
• 22:41
  people make it up. I mean, I had an incident
• 22:43
  at one of my restaurants. I won’t say which one,
• 22:45
  but I had one where I had the lady on video camera
• 22:49
  taking her foot and rubbing her across the stairs
• 22:51
  and looking to slip and fall. And then she walks
• 22:55
  away, she goes back and has two glasses in her
• 22:58
  hand, right? That were empty, mind you, and empty
• 23:02
  glasses, right? She purposely grabbed empty glasses
• 23:05
  to make it look like she couldn’t grab a handrail.
• 23:07
  Does that make sense? So she goes inside and
• 23:11
  gets two empty glasses, comes walking outside,
• 23:14
  right? And then kind of, oops, I tripped and
• 23:17
  fell down, even though she took a very soft landing
• 23:20
  with the cup still in her hand. Did you win that
• 23:22
  though? What’s that? Did you win that? Like,
• 23:24
  did she win that lawsuit? No, she did not win
• 23:27
  that one. But I had another one where a lady
• 23:30
  came, this one’s crazy. I mean, even when I called
• 23:33
  the insurance person, they’re like that, oh,
• 23:35
  there’s no way. This episode is sponsored by
• 23:39
  Altima Caviar. Experience exceptional. Visit
• 23:42
  them at altimacaviar.com. A lady was knocking
• 23:46
  on the door one day, trying to get in, like early
• 23:49
  in the morning, 8 .45, 9 o ’clock. Nobody’s even
• 23:51
  there, right? So she’s knocking on the front
• 23:53
  door, looking, peeking inside, peeking inside,
• 23:55
  doesn’t see anybody, right? She goes around to
• 23:58
  the back, tries to get in, door’s locked, goes
• 24:01
  back around to the front, knocking on the door,
• 24:02
  doesn’t see anybody. Then she proceeds to walk
• 24:05
  around the side of the building and walk through
• 24:07
  the kitchen entrance. Walks through the kitchen
• 24:10
  because it was open first thing in the morning.
• 24:12
  She walks through the dining room. When she comes
• 24:14
  around, the mats were all stacked up. She tripped
• 24:16
  and fell and hurt herself. Now she did hurt herself,
• 24:18
  the poor woman. She really did. I felt really
• 24:20
  bad. But nobody was in there? Nobody was in there.
• 24:22
  So she was trying to come in to make a reservation.
• 24:24
  She could use the phone or the website. Could
• 24:28
  have. Either one of those would have been - Was
• 24:30
  she older? She was. She was. And unfortunately,
• 24:33
  she did fall and get hurt. But at what point
• 24:36
  is that liability? We did everything we possibly
• 24:38
  could. All of our doors were locked. You know
• 24:40
  what I mean? But she came through the kitchen
• 24:42
  entrance that said employees only. And the insurance
• 24:46
  company won’t fight it. So they just pay out
• 24:49
  because it’s cheaper for them to pay out. So
• 24:51
  what it’s - then what it does is they’re not
• 24:55
  fighting these claims and they’re just paying
• 24:56
  them out, paying them out, paying them out. So
• 24:57
  then it comes back and we have to pay more insurance.
• 25:00
  So again, these rising costs, like everything
• 25:02
  else that we have experienced, I mean, everyone’s
• 25:05
  homeowner’s insurance has gone up. Everyone’s
• 25:06
  car insurance has gone up. Well, insurance for
• 25:08
  restaurants have gone up. So those are things
• 25:12
  that cause us to have to raise our menu prices,
• 25:14
  right? We don’t want to raise our menu prices.
• 25:17
  That’s the last thing we want to do. But you
• 25:20
  get to a point where you’re… Most people are
• 25:23
  not in business just to be in business, right?
• 25:25
  What’s a crazy like price on something on a food
• 25:28
  right now? Like you’re like, wow, I can’t believe
• 25:31
  this is what this costs at the moment. Well,
• 25:34
  actually it’s gone down, but chicken wings were
• 25:35
  like that coming out of COVID. So chicken wings
• 25:37
  were crazy. So chicken wings were, you know.
• 25:41
  typically around $65 to $70 a case. It went all
• 25:45
  the way up to $140 a case right after COVID.
• 25:48
  So that was like a crazy - Why? Because there
• 25:50
  was - So what happened was after COVID, they
• 25:53
  didn’t have enough employees to help slaughter
• 25:56
  the chickens. So the chickens got bigger in size,
• 25:58
  right? And the way that we buy chicken wings,
• 26:02
  we don’t buy it by the piece, we buy it by the
• 26:04
  pound. So we buy a 40 pound case. That’s how
• 26:07
  it comes into the restaurant. So a 40 pound case,
• 26:10
  Prior to COVID, you would get about 220 wings
• 26:13
  to a case. Post -COVID, because they were not
• 26:16
  slaughtering the chickens in the right amount
• 26:17
  of time, so the chickens were bigger, now you’re
• 26:19
  getting about 180 wings per case. So you were
• 26:22
  losing technically, let’s say you sell wings
• 26:25
  10 to an order, you were losing four orders and
• 26:27
  the cost was now double than what it was. pre
• 26:30
  COVID. So that was something that was just wildly
• 26:32
  crazy. Now that those prices have since come
• 26:34
  down, they’ve gone up, they’ve gone back and
• 26:36
  forth, but that’s one instance where, you know,
• 26:38
  food, food pricing is, it can affect your menu
• 26:41
  costs and menu pricing. It’s so bizarre to think
• 26:44
  of it that way. I don’t typically, and who, and
• 26:48
  who would, they’re going out to dinner. Like
• 26:50
  they’re not, that’s not top of mind. Like when
• 26:53
  a price goes up, it goes up. It’s like. It’s
• 26:56
  a lot. It’s a lot that I think behind the scenes
• 26:58
  of people. I always joke and tell everybody,
• 27:00
  like, I feel like everyone should work in a restaurant
• 27:04
  at some point. My mother never did. And I really
• 27:06
  think she would have benefited from it. But I
• 27:08
  can’t let her listen to this episode. But she’s
• 27:10
  the guest. She can’t listen to this. That she
• 27:15
  doesn’t want to sit by the kitchen because, you
• 27:18
  know, there’s things happening over there. She
• 27:21
  doesn’t want to sit by the bathroom. She doesn’t
• 27:23
  want to sit under the AC vent. Oh, she hates
• 27:26
  sitting on those bench booths, those tables with
• 27:29
  the long bench. And I do enjoy going out to dinner
• 27:33
  with her because it’s a nice time for us to spend
• 27:36
  together. But I’ve come to a point where I’m
• 27:38
  like, if you say a word about where we’re sitting,
• 27:41
  we’re not. We’re leaving. We’re turning around
• 27:43
  and we’re leaving because I can’t deal with that
• 27:46
  stuff. Well, actually, you want to hear a funny
• 27:49
  story. Just the other night, I went to Pig Beach
• 27:52
  in West Palm. Yep. And have you been there? I
• 27:56
  have not, but I’ve heard good things about it.
• 27:58
  Yeah, it was good. So it looks like a sports
• 28:04
  bar, I guess, but there’s barbecue. So it was
• 28:07
  fine. But one side of the restaurant, we had
• 28:09
  tables sat. And then the other side, and we’re
• 28:12
  trying to watch the hockey game. So we wanted
• 28:15
  to sit on the left side because that’s where
• 28:17
  the TV was big. I was like, Hey, can we sit over
• 28:21
  here? There’s a six top high top, like there’s
• 28:24
  six of us. That’d be great. And the girl like
• 28:26
  looks at me and she’s like, uh, yeah, you can,
• 28:29
  but you have to order on the QR code on the table.
• 28:32
  So basically, yeah, you can sit there, but we’re
• 28:35
  not giving you a server. I’m like, that is so
• 28:37
  weird. And so that, and so I did. I did the whole
• 28:43
  thing and I played server for the evening for
• 28:45
  everybody. I’m like, all right, give me orders.
• 28:46
  And I, you know, it’s toast, you know, the program,
• 28:49
  right? The people don’t know it’s a toast system.
• 28:50
  That’s what we use. Right to the kitchen, right
• 28:53
  to the bar. And I’m just like, this is bizarre.
• 28:56
  Well, here’s the fun part. What do you do at
• 28:58
  the end? When it asked me if I wanted to tip,
• 28:59
  like they should tip me though. I was the server
• 29:03
  for the evening. Yeah. It was a little bizarre.
• 29:06
  It was the first time I’ve encountered that.
• 29:08
  Like, aside from the airport, I do that at the
• 29:10
  airport. I scan the QR code at the bar. I wonder,
• 29:12
  I mean, maybe it was a staffing issue. It was.
• 29:15
  So they just didn’t want to have the staff, like,
• 29:17
  run across all over the restaurant. It wasn’t
• 29:19
  super slam, to be honest. Like, I feel like.
• 29:22
  Probably a better call in the moment that a manager
• 29:24
  could have made. Areas of opportunity. But I
• 29:27
  just found that interesting with the evolution
• 29:29
  of, like, oh, here, just order it yourself, right?
• 29:33
  I was just like. okay, that’s, that’s, that’s
• 29:36
  fine. You know, I think you can see a lot of
• 29:40
  the more, you know, kind of casual restaurants
• 29:44
  go to that model, you know, as the labor costs
• 29:47
  continues to creep up in this, in this industry,
• 29:49
  you know, there’s, there’s definitely different
• 29:52
  ways to cut down on kind of, kind of those labor
• 29:54
  costs. And, and that is one of them. I think
• 29:56
  it takes all the hospitality and the personality
• 29:59
  completely away from it, you know? And so like
• 30:01
  at that point, I don’t know. It’s just not as
• 30:04
  fun to go out. You know, it’s like, I never understood
• 30:06
  people go out to those restaurants where you
• 30:08
  cook your own food for yourself. You know, it’s
• 30:10
  like, I don’t, my son loves the melting pot.
• 30:12
  So like I, we go there a little different. I
• 30:15
  mean, I’ve been to somewhere like you, you pick
• 30:17
  your steak out and you go up to this like grill
• 30:19
  and cook your own steak. And I just never understood.
• 30:21
  I never understood that. Like you’re, you’re
• 30:23
  going out to eat. I like to be served when I
• 30:26
  go out. I love it. Me too. It’s my favorite part.
• 30:29
  And I always like to ask the servers what their
• 30:32
  favorite things are because that’s normally a
• 30:34
  good indication of what you want to eat for the
• 30:36
  night. Yep. So I have a fun question. Okay. What’s
• 30:42
  harder to manage? You have to pick one. Okay.
• 30:48
  Your staff, the customers, or the owners? Each
• 30:58
  one presents a different challenge. That’s a
• 31:00
  great question. You can put them in order. You
• 31:04
  can pick all three and put them in order. So
• 31:06
  I think the guess is the easiest to manage. Yeah.
• 31:10
  I think the guess is easiest to manage. So I’ll
• 31:12
  go guess is the easiest. And then I think it
• 31:15
  depends on your ownership. I would say in my
• 31:17
  current situation, I’ll go ownership second,
• 31:20
  and I’ll say my staff is the hardest. I’ve been
• 31:24
  in other situations where the ownership has been
• 31:26
  the hardest to manage their expectations because
• 31:28
  their expectations are just different than ours.
• 31:30
  I mean, most owners have a different mentality
• 31:33
  than employees do. That’s such a good question,
• 31:37
  right? That is a good question. There’s a lot
• 31:38
  of personalities you have to deal with. I thought
• 31:40
  you were going to ask me what’s harder to manage,
• 31:42
  a slow restaurant or a busy restaurant. I will
• 31:46
  all day say slow. When I was a server, manager,
• 31:50
  bartender, all of the things. The slow days,
• 31:53
  man, they killed me. It’s the biggest mistake
• 31:56
  day. It’s just dragged out forever. And yeah,
• 32:00
  people make mistakes and they get distracted.
• 32:02
  And then all of a sudden, and that’s what makes
• 32:04
  me laugh. I go out to dinner and it’s slow. And
• 32:07
  then all of a sudden they forgot my drink or
• 32:08
  something. I’m like, it’s because they’re just,
• 32:10
  when you’re in a fast pace, when you’re doing
• 32:13
  400 covers, you don’t even have time to. use
• 32:17
  the restroom. Yeah. Let alone make a mistake
• 32:19
  because your life’s in it. You’re in it. You’re
• 32:21
  in the zone. Yeah. You’re in the zone. So, yeah.
• 32:24
  So I already knew that answer, but you know,
• 32:26
  we, then we shared it with everybody because
• 32:28
  the slow days, man, they are the worst. So let’s,
• 32:33
  let me ask you a couple little, we’ll do some
• 32:36
  rapid fires. Okay. So you just have to like answer
• 32:38
  it fast. Okay. They’re not too crazy questions.
• 32:41
  Don’t worry, but you just can’t think about it.
• 32:44
  All right. Your favorite restaurant in South
• 32:47
  Florida? Stage. Stage? Yep. I like Stage. I thought
• 32:53
  you were going to say Florida. If you did Florida,
• 32:54
  I would have said Bern’s Steak House. South Florida.
• 32:57
  Bern’s is great, too. We’re going to go with Stage.
• 32:59
  All right. This is going to go faster, but I’m
• 33:01
  going to touch on Stage for a second there. Now
• 33:04
  I want Stage for lunch. Chicken liver pate all
• 33:08
  day long. That chicken liver pate there, they
• 33:11
  creme brulee the top of it. It’s just magical.
• 33:14
  I haven’t had that in a while. I had the butter
• 33:17
  chicken last time. Butter chicken’s a good go
• 33:20
  -to there. That’s so good. Everything’s great.
• 33:22
  Everything’s great there. I feel like I need
• 33:24
  to go eat there tonight. Yeah. Like it’s been
• 33:26
  a minute. Oh, yeah. I should probably do that.
• 33:29
  Okay. Find me at Stage. Be there at five o ’clock.
• 33:32
  So what is one thing that customers do that secretly
• 33:37
  drives your restaurant staff crazy and you crazy?
• 33:41
  Rude to the hostesses. Fair. And I appreciate
• 33:45
  that as a lifelong hostess. Rude to the hostesses
• 33:50
  because the hostesses can’t control if a table
• 33:53
  has not gotten up yet for us to seat your reservation.
• 33:56
  And then people just flip out on them at the
• 33:58
  front door. And I always find it a little bit
• 34:00
  ironic that it happens more so on Sunday brunch.
• 34:05
  So after these nice people get out of church
• 34:08
  and they go to the restaurant, they seem to be
• 34:10
  the most mean. To the hostesses on Sundays. I
• 34:14
  mean, I just don’t know how to explain it any
• 34:17
  better than that. That’s funny, actually. I wonder
• 34:21
  if there’s some truth to that. So when I worked
• 34:24
  at the steakhouse in New York for many, many,
• 34:26
  many years, I was the host every Saturday night.
• 34:29
  Well, I don’t know, it was Tuesday, Thursday,
• 34:31
  Saturday. Saturday night we did 500 dinners and
• 34:34
  we were slammed. And I was the one in the hot
• 34:39
  seat. from 3 p .m. to 11 p .m. every Saturday
• 34:43
  night. And I couldn’t get up. Like they were
• 34:46
  literally like, you can’t, you can’t get up because
• 34:49
  there’s people everywhere. Like, and I was executing
• 34:52
  the whole layout for the evening. And I’m really
• 34:54
  good at maximizing tables and turn times and
• 34:59
  things like that, maximize seatings. And it’s
• 35:01
  like, to me, it’s like a puzzle and I love it.
• 35:04
  And I think that, I think that being a hostess
• 35:07
  is like, The most important thing in the restaurant.
• 35:10
  There’s two. The two most important jobs. Aside
• 35:13
  from the cook. No. Actually, I’ll say one better.
• 35:17
  The two most important jobs in the restaurant
• 35:19
  is the hostess and the dishwasher. Yes. Those
• 35:23
  two positions will either make your life completely
• 35:27
  horrible or completely manageable. So those are
• 35:30
  the two most important positions in a restaurant
• 35:32
  is the host stand and the dishwashers. Yeah.
• 35:37
  If the host sets the night for you, sets your
• 35:39
  pace. Like if you get double, triple set, like
• 35:42
  that’s not a good host, number one. Number two,
• 35:44
  guess what? Like now it’s just going to snowball
• 35:46
  because now the server just went to the table,
• 35:49
  double set. Now you’re putting double things
• 35:51
  to the kitchen. It’s like – so the fact that
• 35:53
  people are so mean to hostesses makes me laugh
• 35:55
  every time because I’ve gotten yelled at so many
• 35:58
  times. And going back to the restaurant industry
• 36:00
  in the 90s, my boss, he would – I had two bosses.
• 36:05
  They were partners. One was in the kitchen on
• 36:07
  Expo and the other one was walking around in
• 36:11
  his suit just saying hi to people. So whenever
• 36:16
  there was a problem or somebody was being rude
• 36:19
  to me, I would call him like, hey, get Richie.
• 36:22
  And Richie would come up and he’s an Italian
• 36:26
  Jewish guy in New York. He’s exactly what you’re
• 36:28
  picturing in your head. And Richie would come
• 36:31
  up and he would look at somebody and go, What’s
• 36:34
  the problem? I go, she’s being mean to me. And
• 36:37
  he would look at the guest and he looks dead
• 36:39
  in the eyes and he goes, get out. And she says,
• 36:42
  you can’t tell me to get out. He said, I certainly
• 36:45
  can. This is a privately owned property. You’re
• 36:47
  on my property. This is my house. You’re being
• 36:49
  mean to my girl. Get out. Next. And literally
• 36:53
  somebody was waiting, standing there to take
• 36:55
  that table anyway. So what did he care? I was
• 37:04
  good at it. And you had an owner that backed
• 37:06
  you up. He backed me up. And it molded so much
• 37:11
  of my teen years. And it made me think critically.
• 37:17
  Anyway, I could do a whole podcast about being
• 37:19
  a hostess, but that’s for another day. It does.
• 37:22
  And you can see the difference when you have
• 37:25
  a hostess that’s that kind of caliber in your
• 37:27
  restaurant than not. It does make all the difference
• 37:33
  because I notice when there’s not a good one.
• 37:36
  Well, again, it can make your whole night as
• 37:38
  a restaurant, right? They understand how to properly
• 37:40
  space out seating. They’re setting the tone,
• 37:41
  too. They’re setting the tone, exactly. So I
• 37:43
  think that’s a thing. Okay, so my next question
• 37:47
  is the hardest shift to work, brunch, late night,
• 37:51
  or holidays? Holidays. Definitely holidays just
• 37:56
  because. You know, the staff have, you know,
• 38:00
  their own personal lives too in those holidays,
• 38:02
  you know, so it can be a little bit difficult
• 38:04
  for that. And then also the guests coming in,
• 38:07
  you know, they want their experience to go perfect
• 38:09
  because it’s Mother’s Day or it’s Easter or it’s,
• 38:12
  you know, Thanksgiving or whatever. And so sometimes
• 38:15
  their expectations can be a little, you know,
• 38:19
  unreasonable. So I think that those days can
• 38:22
  be the hardest for sure. Definitely holidays.
• 38:24
  Yeah. Then you do a really nice job with the
• 38:28
  holidays at Hudson’s. You do like a beautiful
• 38:31
  brunch, Mother’s Day, Easter. I mean, you have
• 38:34
  your regular brunch on Sundays and Saturdays.
• 38:36
  But I think, and Townies has brunch now too,
• 38:40
  which is awesome. And I think it’s good and it’s
• 38:42
  needed. Again, in Martin County, it’s growing.
• 38:45
  What a growing space for restaurants. It’s crazy.
• 38:50
  We had the Blackbird, PapiChulo Tacos, Lynora’s guys
• 38:55
  in here. They’re awesome. They run some fantastic
• 38:58
  restaurants. I love Lynora’s in Palm City. I’ve
• 39:01
  eaten there a couple of times. It’s been wonderful.
• 39:03
  Yeah, so they’ve got that, and then they’ve got
• 39:05
  PapiChulo Tacos coming. Yep, that’s right around
• 39:08
  the corner from Townies. They’ll do great there
• 39:11
  in that spot, too. That’s needed. I feel like
• 39:14
  they’ve needed that kind of Mexican concept up
• 39:17
  in the Treasure Coast. I think that’s something
• 39:19
  that’s lacking. There is none. If you think about
• 39:21
  it, right? Casa Tequila, but no, you need the
• 39:26
  PapiChulo Tacos right there for sure, for sure. So
• 39:30
  if you were not in hospitality, what would you
• 39:33
  be doing? I don’t know. I mean, I would definitely
• 39:36
  be around people. So if I probably went back
• 39:38
  in time, if you asked me to go back in time and
• 39:40
  figure out what I want to do when I’m that 18,
• 39:42
  19, 20 years old, I’d probably go work for Publix,
• 39:45
  to be honest with you. I think that’s a great
• 39:47
  company. That would still put me around people.
• 39:50
  That would definitely be something I would do.
• 39:52
  I love the hospitality end of the restaurant
• 39:54
  business. So I would definitely do something
• 39:56
  that involves being around people and being out
• 39:58
  there and talking to people and that sort of
• 40:00
  thing. So you didn’t want to be like an astronaut
• 40:02
  or a police officer or anything when you were
• 40:03
  little? No, that was never. You just always want
• 40:06
  to be with the people? I just want to be with
• 40:08
  the people. You know, maybe a politician. Maybe
• 40:09
  I should have been a politician. Maybe I would
• 40:11
  be a good politician, huh? I would vote for you.
• 40:15
  Would you vote for me? I think you. Would actually
• 40:18
  be a pretty good politician. I do. Because I
• 40:21
  think you and I are both, what’s the word? I
• 40:26
  feel like we’re both very, we like to hear all
• 40:31
  the sides of the story. I feel like we’re politically
• 40:35
  correct. I definitely am politically correct.
• 40:38
  I feel like we’re very similar in those ways,
• 40:40
  especially when managing and dealing with people.
• 40:43
  I think we have a finesse for that. Both of us.
• 40:46
  And I think that attributes to success, right?
• 40:51
  It has to. Absolutely. So, okay. So you’re saying
• 40:56
  if you were young and little, you would be a
• 41:00
  publics. Or a politician. We’ll go with politician.
• 41:05
  Let’s stick on that. I feel like you could be
• 41:07
  like a local politician. Yeah. Like a mayor.
• 41:10
  We’ll go with that. Not like the president. No,
• 41:12
  no, no, no. Not president. Like a commissioner,
• 41:14
  a mayor. I’ll vote for you. Yeah. Are we starting
• 41:17
  this campaign here now? I think maybe we should.
• 41:20
  There’s a school board seat up soon. Oh, that’d
• 41:22
  be good. I’ve got young kids. I know. How many
• 41:24
  do you have? I’ve got three kids. I’ve got a
• 41:26
  10 -year -old daughter. So you ready for this?
• 41:29
  I’m ready. All right. I got a 10 -year -old daughter.
• 41:31
  And then I’ve got identical twins that are almost
• 41:33
  five. And I think the restaurant business knew
• 41:37
  that I was going to have a bunch of girls. I
• 41:40
  think God played a funny trick on me and knew
• 41:42
  I was going to have a bunch of girls. So I feel
• 41:43
  like most of my restaurants, I’ve been managing
• 41:46
  females. And so dealing with all those personalities
• 41:49
  has given me the experience, hopefully, to deal
• 41:52
  with my own children, which could not be further
• 41:54
  from the truth. Managing my staff is completely
• 41:57
  different than managing my children. That’s a
• 42:01
  whole other podcast. Maybe we can come back to
• 42:03
  that one. Isn’t it kind of the same? No, it’s
• 42:05
  completely different. It really is. Your staff
• 42:07
  listen to you. Your children do not. True. Good
• 42:10
  point. How do you tell the twins apart? You know,
• 42:13
  it took me a while. This is funny. This is really
• 42:16
  funny, actually. So right away, my wife knew.
• 42:18
  When they were born, my wife knew right away
• 42:20
  which one was which. My daughter, it took her
• 42:24
  about a month. It took me like… Six, eight
• 42:27
  months. You’re like, I still don’t know which
• 42:29
  one’s which. Yeah, I mean, hey, when they’re
• 42:31
  like walking away from me, I couldn’t tell you
• 42:33
  which one’s which. But when they’re looking at
• 42:35
  me, one of them has a little cowlick in her eyebrow.
• 42:38
  And so that’s how I can tell them apart when
• 42:42
  I’m looking at them. That’s it? That’s pretty
• 42:45
  much it, yeah. I mean, they’re wild though. They
• 42:48
  could totally trick you. They could. That’s hilarious.
• 42:51
  I think they’ll trick some teachers. They’ll
• 42:53
  probably do the whole like switching classrooms.
• 42:55
  Are there twins in your family or your wife’s
• 42:57
  family? Yeah. And my wife, Aubrey, she’s got
• 42:59
  twins in her family. But since they’re identical,
• 43:01
  that doesn’t run in the family. It’s fraternal
• 43:03
  twins that run in families. Oh, right. That’s
• 43:07
  a good point. So that’s a, so it just happened.
• 43:11
  Yeah. You were just like, all right, I got my
• 43:13
  daughter. Give me one, give me a boy. And then
• 43:16
  it was like, no, you’re gonna have two girls
• 43:17
  instead of one boy. And then the, then the doctor’s
• 43:20
  like, well, if you guys try to go for it again,
• 43:22
  your odds of having fraternal twins is about
• 43:24
  20%. My wife and I were like, nope, we’re not
• 43:26
  going to do that. So, but yeah, you want to talk
• 43:29
  about being a girl, dad? Oh man. It’s like, I
• 43:32
  mean. It’s over the top. Like one day I found
• 43:34
  myself driving into work and I was drinking a
• 43:36
  pumpkin spice latte and listening to Taylor Swift.
• 43:38
  And I was like, what am I doing? I mean. It’s
• 43:43
  like amazing. I just pictured that in my head
• 43:46
  and it was really funny. You don’t realize that
• 43:49
  you looked down. I can’t even believe you just
• 43:51
  said that. Penn, I don’t even drink pumpkin spice
• 43:55
  lattes. What? No, no, yuck. Oh, man. No bueno.
• 43:59
  Taylor Swift all the way. I’m a Swifty, but like
• 44:02
  a vanilla latte. We’ll talk about this. I don’t
• 44:07
  know about the pumpkin spice latte situation.
• 44:10
  Listen, I think it was just driving my daughter
• 44:12
  to school and listening to Taylor Swift. The
• 44:13
  next thing you know, I’m in the drive -thru at
• 44:15
  Starbucks. I’m like, what do you want? I’m like,
• 44:17
  that’s pumpkin spice latte. I just thought it
• 44:19
  was like kind of that basic girl dad coming out
• 44:21
  of me. A hundred percent. A million percent.
• 44:26
  Wow. I can’t believe that. I’m hilarious. This
• 44:29
  is hilarious. All right. I’m going to show you
• 44:31
  a picture of this guy. Okay. And I want you to
• 44:35
  give him words of advice, what you would tell
• 44:38
  him just based on what he looks like in his photo.
• 44:43
  Oh my gosh, how did you get that? Oh, that’s
• 44:47
  an epic photo. Okay, so this is a photo of me
• 44:51
  when I was probably like, I want to say between
• 44:55
  10 and… 10 and 11, 12, somewhere in that range.
• 44:59
  So that is a… Okay, so let’s talk about the
• 45:01
  hairdo. We got to talk about the hairdo. Let’s
• 45:03
  talk about the hairdo. All right, this hairdo…
• 45:05
  It still looks like you though. Yeah, it does.
• 45:07
  I’m pretty handsome back then. I’m still… It
• 45:11
  does look like you. All right, so that hairdo
• 45:15
  is a side spike with a mullet that was permed
• 45:20
  by a hairdresser. Okay, so we got a side spike,
• 45:24
  a mullet, and a perm in the back. Your mother
• 45:27
  had something to do with that. Yeah, I think
• 45:29
  it was trending back then. I mean, this is back
• 45:31
  in 1990 -ish. We lived in Minnesota, Chicago.
• 45:36
  I don’t know if that’s like right when we lived
• 45:39
  in Minnesota or right when we lived in Chicago.
• 45:40
  But yeah, I think that was Chicago. But yeah,
• 45:43
  that was the hairdo back then, I guess. All the
• 45:45
  cool kids were doing it. So I did that back then.
• 45:48
  Yeah, that’s impressive. So what would I tell
• 45:50
  him? oh man, hold on, hold on. And you’re just
• 45:55
  going to be surrounded by women your whole life
• 45:57
  that just don’t listen to you and tell you crazy
• 46:01
  stories. I have to tell you my wife’s favorite
• 46:06
  story. So my wife always will rag on me about
• 46:10
  certain things. And she’s like, I don’t know
• 46:13
  if we’re struggling with one of our kids. She’s
• 46:14
  like, just remember, you let one of your servers
• 46:16
  call off one time because she dyed her hair and
• 46:19
  she freaked out because she didn’t like the color
• 46:21
  of her hair. It’s a valid excuse, by the way.
• 46:24
  I mean, I guess. I mean, I don’t think it was
• 46:27
  like purple or anything like that. I think it
• 46:29
  was just like too blonde or whatever. But to
• 46:31
  give myself that words of advice, I would say
• 46:34
  just be patient, listen, be coachable, and always
• 46:40
  do the right thing. I think that’s good. That’s
• 46:45
  all you could do. Imagine like staring at your
• 46:48
  younger self face to face. That would be kind
• 46:51
  of cool. That would be cool. Could I tell them
• 46:53
  to buy like Amazon stock or Google stock? That
• 46:55
  would be even cooler. So we’ll close this by
• 46:58
  thanking your lovely wife for sending me that
• 47:01
  photo. Yes. I can’t believe she sent you that.
• 47:04
  She certainly did. She picked a doozy there.
• 47:08
  That haircut’s unbelievable. I said, send me
• 47:10
  any photo. You pick. That’s great. Good job,
• 47:13
  Aubrey. I love you. And I’m like, this is the
• 47:16
  best. This is the absolute best. Well, you’re
• 47:18
  awesome. You already knew that. Thanks for coming
• 47:21
  on. Thank you for having me. You’re awesome.
• 47:22
  Go visit Ben at Hudson’s and Townies and maybe
• 47:27
  he’ll buy you a drink. Yes. See you later. Thank
• 47:29
  you. Thanks for joining me on Forking Around
• 47:31
  with Flavor South Florida. If you’re in the industry,
• 47:34
  a business owner, or just want a better understanding
• 47:36
  of what goes into keeping restaurants alive and
• 47:38
  thriving, make sure you subscribe and share this
• 47:41
  episode with someone who should hear it. Flavor
• 47:43
  South Florida takes place every September from
• 47:45
  the 1st through the 30th between Palm Beach County
• 47:48
  and the Treasure Coast. You can find all the
• 47:50
  amazing dining deals and participating restaurants
• 47:52
  at flavorsouthflorida .com. Until next time,
• 47:55
  keep supporting local and keep forking around.