Speaker 1: Do you go ice skating? Yeah, well I haven't been
Speaker 1: ice skating yet. Don't break a leg and don't break
Speaker 1: an arm. It's a beautiful roller right now. Okay, you
Speaker 1: can break a leg, but you can't break an arm.
Speaker 1: Cheff Rey d. Nasser and Lee Hansen are the masterminds
Speaker 1: behind one of New York City's newest and most beautiful restaurants,
Speaker 1: Little Rock. The Rock, which is located in Rockefeller Center,
Speaker 1: has a well curated French menu and stunning design. The
Speaker 1: pair is also known for their James Beard Foundation winning
Speaker 1: restaurant Frenchet and their bakery French At Bakery. Both Riad
Speaker 1: and Lee are veterans of Balthazar and have carved out
Speaker 1: a successful path for themselves. Welcome to my podcast, Read
Speaker 1: and Lee. I am very happy to be here, sitting.
Speaker 1: We are sitting in the most peculiar spot. It's a
Speaker 1: little newsstand recording studio on the first floor of one
Speaker 1: Rockefeller Plaza. And this is a well one East forty
Speaker 1: nine Street, I guess. But have you ever been here before?
Speaker 1: We passed it a few times. Yeah, so it's it's
Speaker 1: very cute. It looks, it looks it's it has windows
Speaker 1: right onto a promenade that goes from forty nine S
Speaker 1: Street and Uh, and the restaurant is really at St. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And last night was my first time at lar Rock.
Speaker 1: When did you open exactly? First week of August? First
Speaker 1: week of August. I tried to come earlier, and I
Speaker 1: just you were closed one night that I was free,
Speaker 1: and then I wasn't able to get in. But boy,
Speaker 1: am I glad I ate there last night because now
Speaker 1: I have a lot to ask, even more questions than
Speaker 1: I had before. Uh. You guys have been really, really busy.
Speaker 1: I first met you many years ago at Both of
Speaker 1: Ore when you were both the chefs working with Keith
Speaker 1: McNally in one of the most innovative restaurants of the time.
Speaker 1: Both are which still is going strong. I've been there
Speaker 1: a few times during and since COVID, but I miss
Speaker 1: you guys so much. And then of course you went
Speaker 1: on to Minetta Tavern. Did you leave both Ustart to
Speaker 1: go to Mindetta or did you just redesign? We did that.
Speaker 1: We did that with Keith and um it was I
Speaker 1: think the last project that we worked together. That was
Speaker 1: it right? And and then you parted ways and took
Speaker 1: your great talents and opened Friendship. So describe friend Set
Speaker 1: to everyone, because I want to talk a lot about Laroq,
Speaker 1: but friend Set is also such a delightful place to
Speaker 1: go and and a first choice on many many people's
Speaker 1: itineraries come from out of out of town. So tell
Speaker 1: us what friendship and where you got that idea from.
Speaker 1: When Lee and I, uh, look, we were always you know,
Speaker 1: uh cooks, cooks. You know, we wanted, uh, we wanted
Speaker 1: to forge our path. You know, we were looking for
Speaker 1: a sort of a small location where the two of
Speaker 1: us could basically just just sort of click. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: every young chef stream or that you have been cooking,
Speaker 1: how many dinners at Baltaz are thousands thousands every day? Right?
Speaker 1: But the bakery, the fantastic food at it was fantastic. Okay,
Speaker 1: So then you go, so yeah, I mean we we
Speaker 1: we we left and to sort of pursue that dream.
Speaker 1: And we found this location that you know, we had
Speaker 1: um have many seats through at French that it's pretty
Speaker 1: big and stuff that's pretty big. That's not a little
Speaker 1: tiny place, and it was taking a very size of
Speaker 1: what we're sort of used to, you know, prior to that.
Speaker 1: But we just wanted to do sort of a simple
Speaker 1: neighborhood French bistro, very very market driven, sort of inspired
Speaker 1: by you know, our travels in France and you know,
Speaker 1: our culinary upbringing so to speak, you know, incorporate some
Speaker 1: ideas that we had. How long did you know each
Speaker 1: other before you joined forces at baltaz Are when we
Speaker 1: met back when we both worked for Danielle Blood at
Speaker 1: restaurant Danielle and that was that opens and I met there,
Speaker 1: So you were both there at that time, at the
Speaker 1: opening and at that fabulous place at the former home
Speaker 1: of the Cirque. No, this is in Missouri Hotel. This
Speaker 1: was seventy six streets, which then became your cafe Balloon.
Speaker 1: You know. I think that's when we first met you, Martha.
Speaker 1: That is great, Okay, that was a long time. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Danielle is my neighbor now. He lives right across
Speaker 1: the street from me in Bedford. Keep the noise down.
Speaker 1: A good neighbor. No, he's great, he's great. We share,
Speaker 1: we share. I share eggs with him. He shares rare
Speaker 1: things with me that gets shipped to his house. Rare things, yeah,
Speaker 1: rare things like pineapples out of season. But so so
Speaker 1: first with first at Danielle, So is that when you
Speaker 1: forged your idea of a partnership or yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: We were both Sux chefs there And what was your
Speaker 1: training before we had? Prior to that, well, I met Danielle.
Speaker 1: I I was cooking in France. I was working at
Speaker 1: Michelle bra and I've been wrong a little town called
Speaker 1: Yol And prior to that, I was you know, Park
Speaker 1: Bistro and Leal I was working and I was sort
Speaker 1: of like, where were you moderns? I was born in
Speaker 1: New York, but I grew up in Montreal. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you're you have a French background kind of yeah, I
Speaker 1: think so I'm sort of pseudo French. And what about you,
Speaker 1: you're so American? Uh well, my first job out of
Speaker 1: school is with Danielle when he was a chef at
Speaker 1: Le Cirque, and school was ci a corner and student ark.
Speaker 1: And after I worked with Um Jean George at Van
Speaker 1: and Charlie Palmer for a number of years, and then
Speaker 1: I've always had a conversation with keeping in touch with
Speaker 1: Danielle and everything, you know, when he when he was
Speaker 1: ever going to open his own place, I wanted to
Speaker 1: be a part of that. And that came a few
Speaker 1: years later and he came by and it's like, okay, Lee,
Speaker 1: let's go and h And that's where you met read remember. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it's a long it's a long partnership. You two
Speaker 1: guys had any arguments, I don't know, quiet pouting, Maybe
Speaker 1: when we both kind of express are are we We've
Speaker 1: we express our frustrations in similar ways, like what just
Speaker 1: like to ourselves we might kind of be like, all
Speaker 1: right ly, I'll just slide this time, or Maria, don't
Speaker 1: walk away from this from now. But now we've never
Speaker 1: had any screaming matches. Um. Great. I think he keeps
Speaker 1: score though we think you do. I think he does
Speaker 1: right down. And there's a given take that you have
Speaker 1: to have with the relations and life changes have occurred.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're married, are you married ly? I don't
Speaker 1: even know sure. My kids were on your show one
Speaker 1: that's right, Oh my gosh. Yes, the the the bathroom,
Speaker 1: the bedtime we had sleepover, sleep over one sleepover episode, pajamas.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, how old are they know? Your kids? Wow?
Speaker 1: Ones in college? Junior in college that it's a junior
Speaker 1: in high school. Any chefs in the family. Oh no, no, definitely, yes,
Speaker 1: I don't don't read. Yeah, no, My wife and I
Speaker 1: have been married twenty three years, so no kids. Lots
Speaker 1: of cats. My wife does trapping in to her release,
Speaker 1: so we foster. How many do you have right now?
Speaker 1: We have six? Yeah. Yeah, we have a good big
Speaker 1: space though. Yeah. And um, I know your sister, that's right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's the editor in chief of Harper's Bizarre. Yeah. We're
Speaker 1: incredibly proud of incredible. She's an incredible editors. So proud
Speaker 1: of you. Oh my gosh, she talks about you along.
Speaker 1: She needs to get out of the world a little
Speaker 1: bit more. But she she loves your food as I do. Um. Well,
Speaker 1: back to the food friendship is um is the food
Speaker 1: is very delicious and kind of unique. Uh, those are
Speaker 1: your own, your own ideas of what what what's this
Speaker 1: friendship mean to you? Sort of French e or I
Speaker 1: when we start with with I mean, it's it's rooted
Speaker 1: in in in traditional French French cuisine, but we like
Speaker 1: to throw a little twists and things. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: not twists or just have a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a attitude about what's your favorite dish on the menu
Speaker 1: at French at I think you would probably have to
Speaker 1: be the brillad, which is the soft scrambled eggs with
Speaker 1: saute scargo and you like, yeah, certainly. Yeah. I had
Speaker 1: them last night. They were delicious and we love the
Speaker 1: way you serve them in the little individual, little individual cups,
Speaker 1: so pretty with a little toast on top. Really really tasty. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Where do you get the snails from? The snails? They're
Speaker 1: they're Burgundy snails. It's a preserved snail that that we
Speaker 1: cook in a corbillon and they're braised out with a
Speaker 1: little bit of pinch, had tons of aramats and then
Speaker 1: stuffed in those little pots. And tarragon is everywhere on
Speaker 1: the menu at at l Rock. Yeah, you love tarragon. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in the league and also in the in the crab,
Speaker 1: I had the best appetizer last night that I've had
Speaker 1: in a long time. It is a dungeoness crab shell,
Speaker 1: perfectly cleaned, filled with the most delicious crab salad um.
Speaker 1: So that has a lot of tarragon and what else
Speaker 1: does it happen? And I'm trying to get a recipe
Speaker 1: out of this. I want to make that at home.
Speaker 1: Because I get dungeon iss crab ship to be from
Speaker 1: from Seattle Top, parsley and lemon and sieved egg and
Speaker 1: capers a. That's a super little all four of those
Speaker 1: up nice and even like the idea to kind of
Speaker 1: mix it all together, add a little the uh mayonnaise
Speaker 1: that comes with it beautifully. It's called a dressed crab
Speaker 1: on the menu. Funny last night we had a we
Speaker 1: had a customer come in and said, I would like
Speaker 1: my crab undressed please? Oh no mayo. That means no
Speaker 1: mayo crab. Well, it's a delicious appetizer. Wow, I could
Speaker 1: I want that for lunch today? Unfortunately Laroc is not
Speaker 1: open for lunch yet. That's coming soon though. That's good.
Speaker 1: October will be in. October will be. And what's your
Speaker 1: favorite dish on the menu at French Chet French Set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: hard to say. I guess one of my favorite little
Speaker 1: pairings that we do is the oysters in the chippe LATAs.
Speaker 1: So we serve oyses on the half shell and a
Speaker 1: little of the sausages on the side. So it's a
Speaker 1: very kind of unique combination from Brittany that you don't
Speaker 1: see very often. But it's the richness of the sausage
Speaker 1: and that kind of clean Briani oyster is the sausage
Speaker 1: or it is? You see. That's another wonderful feature of
Speaker 1: of these Guys restaurants. It's everything is really homemade and
Speaker 1: touched and and loved, and it tastes so good. Every
Speaker 1: single thing my favorite thing. Last night at LaRock we
Speaker 1: had a lot of appetizers, so I'm going to read
Speaker 1: what four of us ordered on the off the menu.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we had um, Let's see, we had the column
Speaker 1: mari and shochito peppers. That was delicious. So the calamari
Speaker 1: were wrapped with schito peppers and put on little tiny skewers.
Speaker 1: That was wonderful. We had the sardine escabeesh, that was fantastic.
Speaker 1: So those are fresh sardines that you pickle. You pickle
Speaker 1: them yourself. And then we had the pette maison which
Speaker 1: was also excellent. What is that made out of? That
Speaker 1: was a pork and rabbit, Yeah, rabbit with large squares
Speaker 1: of little little cubes there yea, And yeah that was
Speaker 1: served with a little apricot mustata that was very little, right, Didjli?
Speaker 1: That was a jellow shot basically that was really good.
Speaker 1: Then we also had annualati with corn and chantarelle central
Speaker 1: are just coming into season, I guess, yeah, and they
Speaker 1: are they were. That was delicious. And then it also
Speaker 1: had some red pepper, I think like soft read pepper,
Speaker 1: and oh it was so good. Then we also had
Speaker 1: the um let me see, I thought we had yet
Speaker 1: did you ever yet have that? Yeah? So we have
Speaker 1: that bread. We have sort of that section underneath the
Speaker 1: bag att, So we offer the bag at and then
Speaker 1: we have like several sorts of smallish a little little
Speaker 1: bread and all the butter that whole section and that
Speaker 1: you're looking at all things that go with bread, and yeah,
Speaker 1: the riette dear, and my favorite of all was the
Speaker 1: chicken liver most with that wonderful topping of a little
Speaker 1: port on the top port. That's pork jelly for those
Speaker 1: of you who don't know what it was really also
Speaker 1: very nicely not too big a serving, just enough because
Speaker 1: it's very rich. But you know how to you know
Speaker 1: how to serve chicken livers. Yeah, you know, we were
Speaker 1: we were brought up on chicken livers, and this is
Speaker 1: the best chicken livers I've ever had. Might be able
Speaker 1: to share that recipe and then we went on two
Speaker 1: leaks vinaigrette. That are the leaks were so interesting because
Speaker 1: you wrapped them in what are they wrapped in? Leaks?
Speaker 1: And the most of the leaks, that's the dark leaves
Speaker 1: poached and there are they poached in there and then
Speaker 1: and then roasted. Now the roasted hole first, yeah, really hot,
Speaker 1: so they get kind of caramelized in their skin a
Speaker 1: little bit, and we strip away the outer layers and
Speaker 1: put that inner very tender leak now in some new
Speaker 1: green leaks that are still raw, and then we grilled that.
Speaker 1: It's grilled. Yeah, so they were quite burned on the
Speaker 1: outside and so delicious on the inside. That's a different
Speaker 1: way because post leagues oftentimes get a little wet. These
Speaker 1: were These were not wet. These were all leaks. And
Speaker 1: that's fun. That's the sort of a bit of a
Speaker 1: surprise there. You're taking a humble ingredient and then treating
Speaker 1: it with a bit of reverence, not unlike a baked
Speaker 1: potato that you might smash tableside. And that's our most
Speaker 1: popular dish at the Bedford. That's great, we should do
Speaker 1: a mash up with it and leak, but it's a
Speaker 1: good it's a good it's a good potato. I mean
Speaker 1: we're using we're using Yukon gold large gold potatoes, and
Speaker 1: they're so tender inside, buttery buttery on their own. Um,
Speaker 1: So you're following that I opened a restaurant. I am
Speaker 1: now the proud competitor of all my friends who I
Speaker 1: have visited year after year after year, and I can't
Speaker 1: believe that I actually have a restaurant. Now we'll have
Speaker 1: to get a show and have you on. Wouldn't that
Speaker 1: be great? Nobody has asked me to talk about my
Speaker 1: restaurant on a podcast yet. But but it's it's fun,
Speaker 1: it's I'm under I was a nervous wreck about opening
Speaker 1: the restaurant, So you guys must have been you must
Speaker 1: have been nervous. How long did it take to actually
Speaker 1: build the rock this beautiful space? A year and a half,
Speaker 1: I mean a year and a half of actual construction,
Speaker 1: and there's probably a year of development prior to that.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, COVID sort of put a real
Speaker 1: it just slowed the entire process down and actually kept
Speaker 1: our meetings of on a remote um, you know, remotely
Speaker 1: versus being sort of on premise and and and and
Speaker 1: basically prototyping things. So we spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: fixing things that you know, maybe didn't quite line up
Speaker 1: because you're not in the space as often. Um, but
Speaker 1: just Inspire bought Rockefeller Center a few years ago for
Speaker 1: what looks like in retrospect a terribly small price one
Speaker 1: point six billion for all of Rockefeller Center. Can you
Speaker 1: imagine that's not a bad business move. That was a
Speaker 1: smart move. And then somebody had your space before a
Speaker 1: rule it was it was brocery rule mine, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: was very beautiful but very dark. It was dark and
Speaker 1: would he have was sort of different? Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: you get to read the floors or floors there you've
Speaker 1: got you got the Torozzo guys to come in. A
Speaker 1: lot of people surprised when we say the floors and
Speaker 1: you're like, yeah, because Rocketfillar Center is known for its Toronto.
Speaker 1: You know, all all the spaces here have the most
Speaker 1: beautiful Toronto. One of the reasons for using is try
Speaker 1: and tie into some of the beauty that's just naturally
Speaker 1: exists everywhere. And the color palette, the design choices were
Speaker 1: all taken from from roaming you know, the center and
Speaker 1: picking up on those details. And the half shades up
Speaker 1: the windows are so beautiful. You have to come and
Speaker 1: see this place, in this space because it really is
Speaker 1: unique to New York and uh and so clean. And
Speaker 1: I have to warn you the only thing that bothers
Speaker 1: tender ears is the noise, because it's hard escape the
Speaker 1: whole place Toronto floors, plaster walls and high ceilings and
Speaker 1: naked and naked tables which you protect nicely with pasters.
Speaker 1: Everything is a poster or paper under it, but knows
Speaker 1: nothing to soften them. The excited sound of the patrons
Speaker 1: were working on that and there how there'll be some
Speaker 1: acoustic help coming. There has to be. I mean it's
Speaker 1: noisy for the help too. That at French yet as well.
Speaker 1: But people really are noisy, aren't they builds and as
Speaker 1: they drink it sounds like everybody's screaming, but they're not.
Speaker 1: You know, they're talking out the high as revelry exactly.
Speaker 1: That's a nice way to be excited when you're in
Speaker 1: a big room. So what are the big surprises about
Speaker 1: opening this place with a big commitment of time and effort.
Speaker 1: What were your big surprises moving uptown? This is your
Speaker 1: first Uptown restaurant. Midtown, uptown in the most famous place
Speaker 1: in New York, you know, Rockefeller Center. What were your
Speaker 1: surprises all that we would like it up here? Do you?
Speaker 1: And do you know ice skating? Yeah, well we haven't
Speaker 1: been ice skating yet. Don't break a leg and don't
Speaker 1: break an arm, and you can break up with it's
Speaker 1: a beautiful roller right now. Okay, you can break a leg,
Speaker 1: but you can't break an arm, you know. I I
Speaker 1: don't know. And not to be too like Smalty is
Speaker 1: serious about it. It's funny coming out of out of
Speaker 1: pandemic um and and and reintroducing yourself to the city
Speaker 1: in a way and re embracing the city. We couldn't
Speaker 1: really think of a better place to do it than
Speaker 1: than than Rockefeller Center. It is an epicenter and you
Speaker 1: haven't lived to the through the tree lighting yet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we're a little anxious about that. It will be pretty
Speaker 1: big and better be open for lunch, Yeah, we should be.
Speaker 1: Are you ever going to open for breakfast too? For they? Oh?
Speaker 1: I hope so, yeah, that would be Those are actually
Speaker 1: really fun meal periods for us to explore. I want
Speaker 1: to bring my grandchildren for breakfast and ice skated. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a nice time. Applause is so airy and beautiful. Uh.
Speaker 1: And the light in the room during the day is
Speaker 1: pretty is pretty great. So now they're able to see
Speaker 1: about a hundred people, So make your reservations early. Everybody listening.
Speaker 1: But you'll be open outside too. Is that going to
Speaker 1: be a heated space outside for winter time or only
Speaker 1: only summer time? Mostly seasonal? But we've talked about, you know,
Speaker 1: and closing it. But again, you know, I think the
Speaker 1: we like the idea of seasonality being sort of expressed,
Speaker 1: and in winter maybe indoors is where you should be,
Speaker 1: right and in springing and summer really enjoy the spring
Speaker 1: of the summer outdoors a little bit more. So I
Speaker 1: think we're good with you know, maybe just some space
Speaker 1: heaters and the some umbrellas, and I mean for the
Speaker 1: tree lighting and that kind of really festive time of year.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna rule out the possibility of someplace to
Speaker 1: keep warm and have a snack out on the terrace
Speaker 1: while you're looking at the tree. It would be so fun.
Speaker 1: So how did you come to name the restaurant Little Rock?
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's natural, but but how many names
Speaker 1: did you have before you came up with the rock.
Speaker 1: The naming part of a restaurant is the worst by
Speaker 1: far um. It's because when you that's going to be
Speaker 1: the name for the life of the restaurants, so you
Speaker 1: do you just bang your head over it and it's
Speaker 1: on you. Some of the some of our worst actually
Speaker 1: meetings have been about the names and what were what
Speaker 1: were other possibilities we've exercise them from. But it's funny.
Speaker 1: We were both kind of this project. We didn't really
Speaker 1: have that many names for right, we we didn't really
Speaker 1: have a naming session. We had a couple like, hey,
Speaker 1: what do you think it is? What do you think
Speaker 1: of that French? It was, Yeah, that was a long one.
Speaker 1: That was It was more so, do you have investors
Speaker 1: in the restaurant? Yeah? So they're pretty they're pretty um
Speaker 1: fabulous because there they are really redoing this entire location,
Speaker 1: a lot of great talent, thoughtfully invigorating the and with
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I mean, look at us, we're
Speaker 1: in an old news stand here. They're amazing repurposing of
Speaker 1: the space. Right Yeah, and uh uh so where do
Speaker 1: you source your ingredients? I saw I saw coming down
Speaker 1: Fifth Avenue from seventy Street there was a fish truck,
Speaker 1: there were there were vegetable trucks coming down Fifth Venue.
Speaker 1: Is that you you buy from wherever that you've learned
Speaker 1: I guess through the other restaurants, your sources. You have
Speaker 1: a pretty extensive prevayor list the chefs. The chefs shop
Speaker 1: at the Farmer's market as well, so there's three days,
Speaker 1: four days a week they're picking up fresh and seasonal
Speaker 1: from from some of our partners at the at the
Speaker 1: Farmer's market. Um. And then yeah, you have some some
Speaker 1: larger scale purveyors for for potatoes for example, or at
Speaker 1: least the you know the frying potatoes. Umbly, what do
Speaker 1: you use for the frying potatoes? Yeah, they're Idaho. They're
Speaker 1: g p O d gepod. There's a shortage right now.
Speaker 1: Then well, yeah, yeah there is. They were very good
Speaker 1: last night the Kevin Sharky loves your Fried Potatoes. Boy.
Speaker 1: We discussed the potatoes for about fifteen minutes. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they were They're very very good because they they're soft
Speaker 1: in the middle and crispy on the outside, and they're
Speaker 1: not hard and they're not too soft, and they they
Speaker 1: stayed crispy the whole meal really much. We just got
Speaker 1: right past that season of potatoes where they go where
Speaker 1: they're out of the potatoes from last year, and your
Speaker 1: young potatoes are still very kind of sugar. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: so we're just getting into that sweet spotted potatoes. They were,
Speaker 1: they were very very good. But remember you came on
Speaker 1: my show and showed me how to make um the
Speaker 1: onion rings from Balthazar's right, And guess when I made
Speaker 1: them the other day. And I think I improved on
Speaker 1: your recipe at the last second. I looking at the
Speaker 1: flower and you use all purpose flower. I went to
Speaker 1: won Dra try it. They are the best onion rings
Speaker 1: anybody in the whole room. And had had try to
Speaker 1: try the Wondering. I had never used it before for
Speaker 1: Ra and it held on nicely. They're glorious color and
Speaker 1: that the rest of the recipe is pretty much the
Speaker 1: same with beer in the batter and stuff. But it
Speaker 1: was really good. You use wonder and anything nice. Now
Speaker 1: we have it on the shelf and we dust and occasionally,
Speaker 1: depending on what we're cooking, well dust you could do
Speaker 1: or crab or skate wing. Yeah, yeah, it's really it was.
Speaker 1: It was just incredibly delicious. So I just wanted to
Speaker 1: share that nice happens. Since so, um so, who designed
Speaker 1: the restaurant? I mean, I'm sure you had a lot
Speaker 1: of input, but did you have an architect or a designer.
Speaker 1: We had a firm called Workstead that we are They
Speaker 1: from Brooklyn, Yes, I guess technically from Brooklyn. Um it's beautiful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they didn't know. They did a great job. It was it,
Speaker 1: but it is it definitely a collaboration. We worked closely
Speaker 1: with them for over a year on every detail and
Speaker 1: all the lighting fixtures are great. We chose them is
Speaker 1: because they design their owlining well. Oh they doe chanelers.
Speaker 1: They were beautiful sign those and it was beautiful and
Speaker 1: the light is ambient but but not intrusive, and you
Speaker 1: can still read the menu and it was it was
Speaker 1: really really beautiful. And who is your matre d that'd
Speaker 1: be Kevin King. He was great. He came by several
Speaker 1: times to check on us, and we had the best waiter. Yeah, Craig, Craig,
Speaker 1: you come in about the vodka? Dot know Kevin Kevin
Speaker 1: and Kevin Sharkey mentioned it. Yeah, I said you didn't
Speaker 1: like our vodka selection? Is that correct? Well? I drink
Speaker 1: very little except I drink wine, and you have lovely wines,
Speaker 1: but you didn't have a European or a Polish or
Speaker 1: Russian vodka. This was great goose, great, but I can't
Speaker 1: drink great like I like potatoes, potato, like gluten free vodkas. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it just it just agrees with me. Great. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: like I could see that. So you have to please
Speaker 1: get That's why you can come back and happen. What
Speaker 1: do you do? What do you like that? I like Pilvidere.
Speaker 1: I like I found a new one called Zubrovka that's
Speaker 1: a potato of Polish vodka. Is very very nice and
Speaker 1: it's not terribly expensive. It's but it's good. Yeah, are
Speaker 1: well as Helix, I think and uh, which is a
Speaker 1: French vodka. But yeah, you're you're you're right in saying
Speaker 1: that there's not you don't have the originator there. Yeah
Speaker 1: the other guys. Yeah, that's true. Well, if vodka tasted
Speaker 1: like Gin, I think we'd probably have more at the place. Martini.
Speaker 1: I like it. I like Gin, you do? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: what about what about stories from opening the restaurant? What
Speaker 1: about the clientele? What do they say? I've been pretty
Speaker 1: receptive this this, this, this go around. I mean, look,
Speaker 1: we've been really really fortunate, I think, I think coming
Speaker 1: from where we came and opening French yet we had
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of goodwill and support from from you know,
Speaker 1: from the press, from patrons, from peers and so on
Speaker 1: and so forth. Uh and and and here it's just
Speaker 1: sort of extended, you know, really fortunate with the staff
Speaker 1: that we have. You know, Joel Michelle is our general manager.
Speaker 1: We work with him, um many many years ago at
Speaker 1: Baltasar and I think he was a manager over the pasties.
Speaker 1: So he's another emigrat from Balthaz. Yeah, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: he he left and he did a little stint in
Speaker 1: fine dining and then he you know, he worked with
Speaker 1: Jean George and uh, you know, post COVID, there were
Speaker 1: a lot of sort of free agents around. Um, a
Speaker 1: lot of people sort of skeptical about getting back in
Speaker 1: the business, but you know they you know, we were
Speaker 1: sort of known entities to them and and and previous friends,
Speaker 1: so so you know, they sort of took a leap
Speaker 1: with us. Well your time. He was really pretty good
Speaker 1: to be able to be planning and building a restaurant
Speaker 1: during the most difficult time in New York restaurant history. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just world history. Yeah, world history. But even in New York,
Speaker 1: what a difficult time last two years have been. And
Speaker 1: then to be able to open with great fanfare and
Speaker 1: have people they're eating and enjoying in a in a
Speaker 1: most iconic location, it's been. It's been fantastic. So are
Speaker 1: you happy with the turnout? I mean you are. Biggest
Speaker 1: adjustment is just you know, the times people would come
Speaker 1: in for the or want table as their prime time
Speaker 1: tables downtown French yet it's always been seven thirty eight
Speaker 1: and here it's more six. Well, they kiss right out
Speaker 1: of work, right, and you're getting that big bar rush
Speaker 1: at five. Did you read in the New York Times
Speaker 1: today how restaurant diners are now opting for earlier and earlier. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so they can get home and watch their streaming shows.
Speaker 1: So much to watch, isn't it funny? But no, I
Speaker 1: think it's also healthwise. Earlier you eat, the better it
Speaker 1: is for you for dinners and uh and then you
Speaker 1: and then you also you know, get you know, you're
Speaker 1: just coming out of the officers. No, you don't have
Speaker 1: to stay late at the same late at the office
Speaker 1: is not a priority. These days the same coming to
Speaker 1: the office is not such a priority these days, which
Speaker 1: is really I hate this. I hate this whole not
Speaker 1: coming to work thing. So have you had any difficulty
Speaker 1: filling the filling the spots in your restaurant in terms
Speaker 1: of waiters, wait staff and kitchen kitchen staff is? Uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been difficult for sure. I mean, we're we we're
Speaker 1: basically operating five dinners and that's our entire staff. You know,
Speaker 1: should actually single them ountain and congratulate them as well.
Speaker 1: You know, our chef, our executive chef as Walker Stern
Speaker 1: who had a restaurant in Brooklyn, Michelin Starred and Jeffrey Teller,
Speaker 1: who's are one of our chefs are executive chef company
Speaker 1: ye and our pastry chefs as well, Maria and Michelle. Um,
Speaker 1: we're fortunate that to sort of have a core group
Speaker 1: that as as strong as they are and have plowed
Speaker 1: through the whole, you know, pandemic situation with us, and
Speaker 1: you're lucky. But I think I think is because of
Speaker 1: you two guys who are such loyal employers and so
Speaker 1: and so nice to work for, it, nice to be
Speaker 1: friends with. I mean, it's it's it's really you're the
Speaker 1: you're the glue together. You know, it's it's a pretty
Speaker 1: good it's a feel good story right now, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a restaurant opening. They're still difficult. You
Speaker 1: just went through it yourself and and you know, and
Speaker 1: it's not like, Okay, we're open and it's over. It's
Speaker 1: it's open. It's beginning. So how much time do you
Speaker 1: spend at LaRock right now? All the time. Yeah, it's friendships,
Speaker 1: all friendships, operating wealth. I'm very impressed with their wine
Speaker 1: menu at French chet Where did you get all that wine? Yo?
Speaker 1: An existing wine seller? I wish we did. No, we didn't.
Speaker 1: We didn't have the money for that. We just started
Speaker 1: to collect. We started to look. Our wine director is
Speaker 1: Hore Riera. You know I know Hore over thirty years
Speaker 1: we worked together at lahaw and big proponent of the
Speaker 1: natural wine movement, and we knew we wanted to sort
Speaker 1: of make that distinction with French Chett. And uh he
Speaker 1: built out that wine list and in blank last night. No, No,
Speaker 1: it was very Yeah, it was probably from a former
Speaker 1: a former Bobbasar employee, Lauren Sairet. I bet you had
Speaker 1: the lucky you Yeah, so we worked together as there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so are you continuing at tradition here? Absolutely? So
Speaker 1: that's your that's your wheelhouse. Yeah, I mean to to
Speaker 1: move off of that would be disingenuine yea. And but
Speaker 1: it's extensive. And so what do you what do you
Speaker 1: find I mean when you when you're dealing with such
Speaker 1: a eclectic clientele, but but pretty much all American? Well,
Speaker 1: I guess you find it mostly American right now? Yeah,
Speaker 1: or a New York American New York Americans do they do?
Speaker 1: They do ask for anything that you don't want to make. No,
Speaker 1: everyone's been very receptive menu and there's so many kind
Speaker 1: of different choices to go there that by the way,
Speaker 1: also the boys also ordered the big Steak. Yeah, they Thomas. Well,
Speaker 1: you know why because we last week on my little
Speaker 1: New Roku show, we cooked a coach to booth and
Speaker 1: I on a grill and I had never really cooked
Speaker 1: a great that kind of well it wasn't actually a coach,
Speaker 1: but it was a Tomahawk. But but we reversed heared it,
Speaker 1: you know, cooking it really slow for a long time,
Speaker 1: and then we then we caramelized the exterior. It was
Speaker 1: very good, but we were just comparing steaks, and your
Speaker 1: steak was utterly delicious. And my favorite thing that I think,
Speaker 1: after the crab, was the duck. Wow, where's that duck from?
Speaker 1: Is that a long island? Long island? What a beautiful,
Speaker 1: beautiful piece of duck And it was boneless. And then
Speaker 1: the flavorful you have sugar on their it's what's the
Speaker 1: what's the crystal things? That's honey, and then it's coated
Speaker 1: and spices it is so yeah, and a lot of
Speaker 1: is that coriander? Yeah, it was delicious, So a little
Speaker 1: bit Moroccan kind of a to me, almost Roman kind
Speaker 1: of inspired by that sort of stuck yeah, um yeah,
Speaker 1: that's um. Yeah. Walker brought that to the menu. And
Speaker 1: I love the Swiss chard. Oh, the Graton switch. I
Speaker 1: grew a lot of Swiss chard and that was that
Speaker 1: was just delicious. Yeah. So you have sort of the
Speaker 1: influence of of of what a cream spinach would be
Speaker 1: or how it would play in a steakhouse. But it's
Speaker 1: that Gratton is a very French, French technique and approach,
Speaker 1: and that meat is all sort of local beef, very
Speaker 1: good beef premise as well. It is two boy, where
Speaker 1: do you do all that because I went back and
Speaker 1: I saw the kitchen. There's a whole So again, the
Speaker 1: Rockefeller Center planned well for the for the future, and
Speaker 1: you have enough space. Um, but the kitchen is beautiful
Speaker 1: and that's a it's sort of square. Yes, yes, it's
Speaker 1: not like a typical I guess straight line rectangle. Yes.
Speaker 1: We're using these athor suites, which are a way to
Speaker 1: work where you're kind of working across some people. So
Speaker 1: it's it's communication wise, it's it's great. It's an amazing equipment.
Speaker 1: And we have two sections. We have like an entree
Speaker 1: section and then a separate app and garmage a section
Speaker 1: where um, so there's two stoves and we can go
Speaker 1: simultaneously because it's it's a very I love the kitchen.
Speaker 1: It's beautiful than you and it looked like there's lots
Speaker 1: of camaraderie and uh it's concentric squares. It's all tired.
Speaker 1: They're just all tired. The there there there. What are
Speaker 1: the hours of the restaurant? Uh five the bar opens
Speaker 1: at five five to ten. We start seating dinner at
Speaker 1: five thirty. Um. I hope to expand on that. I mean,
Speaker 1: the idea is really to go continuous service from from
Speaker 1: sort of eleven in the morning till eleven you know
Speaker 1: at night with with sort of a continuous menu. We'll
Speaker 1: see how that evolves. And then Petty d eight four right,
Speaker 1: I'll be there for Petty Jane when I have to
Speaker 1: go and do the Today Show. Yeah. I do regular
Speaker 1: appearances on that Today Show right down the street and
Speaker 1: it's always fun. Have you been on the Today Show yet?
Speaker 1: We haven't. Oh they have to have you. Gosh, you guys,
Speaker 1: should they should come over it? I got a face
Speaker 1: for radio. Oh, yes, you're you'll be great on TV.
Speaker 1: Oh look, people are walking by. We have windows right
Speaker 1: on this ponds from a very big liquor store Moral.
Speaker 1: That's a very nice quiet store. So if you could
Speaker 1: have gotten the vodka for me right there, told me
Speaker 1: go out and get stuffing. The only PoCA we have
Speaker 1: is in Lee's like filing cabinet in the office. Next
Speaker 1: day is to kill outside of the restaurant. What do
Speaker 1: you do? What do you do with your kids? What
Speaker 1: do you do on your do you have a day off?
Speaker 1: We're having Sundays off lately. Um, when we have more
Speaker 1: of a regular schedule, I guess you know my hobby
Speaker 1: is to serve and to be in the ocean as
Speaker 1: much as possible. We're out in Montalk. Yes, that's usually
Speaker 1: where we go because it's closest. It's a year um
Speaker 1: family stuff. Yeah, I mean the kids are into thrifting
Speaker 1: these days, so we do a lot of that and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm just hanging out and yeah, doing the
Speaker 1: family stuff. That's great. And what do you do with
Speaker 1: my getaway? The activity is steel heading, so it's uh
Speaker 1: so fly fishing for steelhead or Atlantic salmon out West Alaska?
Speaker 1: Do you go to Alaska? I was in Alaska in April,
Speaker 1: Prince of Wale Islands. Guess what I got for my birthday?
Speaker 1: I got a fly fishing lesson. Fantastic. I used to
Speaker 1: tie all my brothers flies for them and I'm good
Speaker 1: at that. But then my casting I went. I went
Speaker 1: with Kenna Redski, who's a big fly fisherman from from
Speaker 1: his restaurant across the street Patroon, and he uh and
Speaker 1: he thought I was terrible castor. So I got a
Speaker 1: fly fishing lesson, so I'm looking forward to that. I
Speaker 1: actually think you'd be a great caster. Well. I love
Speaker 1: doing it, I love catching you steal that is a
Speaker 1: passion and m so try and do that as as
Speaker 1: a as a getaway and then um ever do ever
Speaker 1: do for tarpin um that's so that's hard. I did
Speaker 1: that down in in uh in, Costa Rica for tarpon.
Speaker 1: That's right, very my my fishing buddies, one of them
Speaker 1: is turning forty next year, and there's plans of Rica,
Speaker 1: not Costa Rica, and they've been talking about going to
Speaker 1: Cuba and and doing a liverboard there and doing some
Speaker 1: tarp and fishing. So Hemmingway action, a little Hemmingway action.
Speaker 1: It's not steel head, but it was a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty five pounds and it took five hours to get
Speaker 1: it in and my stomach was black and blue because
Speaker 1: I was holding the room. I didn't have one of
Speaker 1: those harnesses. I didn't know about that incredible and my
Speaker 1: stomach was completely black and blue trying to hold the rod.
Speaker 1: They say, it's pretty intense when you actually see that
Speaker 1: tarp and eye for the first time. It's like you're
Speaker 1: looking at it's like checking out. You're in a little robot,
Speaker 1: like a little skiff, so you're not working anything. It's
Speaker 1: rocking back and forth with this big fish it on
Speaker 1: a wall somewhere. No, no, no, it's all catch and released.
Speaker 1: Yeah you can't. Absolutely you can't keep your trophies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's better, but they're very beautiful. Well listen, guys, I
Speaker 1: think that you have to get back to your kitchen.
Speaker 1: But I know this is great. I think that you know,
Speaker 1: please okay. I think that you have done amazing things
Speaker 1: in a very short period of time and developed a
Speaker 1: clientele that really loves you and loves your food so
Speaker 1: much and will follow you to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: Each that crab and that and that fabulous duck and
Speaker 1: those escargo I will. And I think it's just incredible
Speaker 1: what you've done. And I wish you the very very
Speaker 1: best of luck. Thank you so much for taking the
Speaker 1: change today. And you should all look up lar Roc
Speaker 1: New York City and it's called Larroc NYC dot com.
Speaker 1: The menus are listed, and make your reservation early, because boy,
Speaker 1: you will miss out if you come to New York
Speaker 1: on a visit and don't visit lar Roc. Thanks every bank,
Speaker 1: Thank you,