WEBVTT - The Tipping Point 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:07.840 This is Red Pilled America. The revelations of doctor Fauci's 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.639 diary have us all angry reliving the lunacy of the 0:00:10.680 --> 0:00:13.920 COVID shutdowns. We must never forget how COVID brought a 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:17.360 taste of communism into America. While we're working on new episodes, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.840 this week we'll be playing a few episodes from the 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:23.160 COVID era that we haven't replayed in years, including this 0:00:23.200 --> 0:00:26.200 one titled The Tipping Point, which was originally broadcast on 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:28.640 December twelfth, twenty twenty. And if you want to get 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.040 Red Pilled America ad free, go to Redpilled America dot 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:34.159 com and click join in the top of the menu. 0:00:34.360 --> 0:00:41.080 Now on with the show. We live in incredibly polarizing times. 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:48.240 Some say not since the Civil War have Americans been 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:48.959 so divided. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.280 So this is just a warning to you trumpers, be careful, 0:00:53.880 --> 0:00:54.680 walk lightly. 0:00:56.000 --> 0:00:57.760 We ain't playing with you. 0:00:57.800 --> 0:00:59.080 Put your mask one. 0:01:00.120 --> 0:01:01.840 Does it bother anybody else that she doesn't have to 0:01:01.920 --> 0:01:02.560 wear a mask? 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:03.120 All? 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.080 Destroying property which can be replaced is not violent. 0:01:08.000 --> 0:01:09.920 All the Republican telling. 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.280 Among our people there is no shortage of disagreement, but 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.120 can anything bridge the gap? Is there an issue that 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:24.880 can bring Americans together. I'm Patrick Carrelci and. 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:26.759 I'm Adriana Cortes, and. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:29.640 This is Red Pilled America, a storytelling show. 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:33.240 This is not another talk show covering the day's news. 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:35.440 We're all about telling stories. 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.120 Stories. Hollywood doesn't want you to hear stories. 0:01:39.160 --> 0:01:43.800 The media mocks stories about everyday Americans that the globalist ignore. 0:01:44.760 --> 0:01:47.680 You can think of Red Pilled America as audio documentaries, 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:57.200 and we promise only one thing, the truth. Welcome to 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:08.520 Red Pilled America. Even our oldest scholars agree that we 0:02:08.560 --> 0:02:12.239 live in the most polarizing moment of modern times. At 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.080 no time since the Civil War have Americans been so 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:19.240 divided on fundamental issues gripping our republic. But even in 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.000 these vitriolic times, is there an issue that can unify Americans. 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:27.920 To find the answer, We're going to tell the story 0:02:27.919 --> 0:02:31.240 of Andrew Gruel, a chef and an entrepreneur that grinded 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:35.720 away until he achieved his American dream becoming a successful restauranteur. 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.000 Andrew didn't set out to be a rebel, but when 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:41.880 the moment arose, he took a stand and found an 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:43.680 issue that should bring us all together. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.800 Along with his wife, Lauren, Andrew Grule is the co 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:55.440 founder and executive chef of Calico, a Huntington Beach based 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.040 seafood chop house celebrating all things land and sea. He's 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.680 also the purveyor of a food porn newsletter called American Gravy. 0:03:03.200 --> 0:03:05.760 He knows better than anyone about the challenges of owning 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.680 a restaurant during the never ending government shutdowns. 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.119 Right before I got on this podcast, I'm looking over 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.360 bills from agencies I didn't even know existed. Office of Tourism. 0:03:15.440 --> 0:03:17.280 Who knows what office they're trying to hit us with 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:18.399 in the middle of a pandemic. 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:19.280 That's Andrew. 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.400 We haven't been able to open in one of our restaurants, 0:03:21.440 --> 0:03:23.400 but I'm still getting hit with all the ABC bills. 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:27.200 So yeah, it's tough. It's tough in the restaurant industry 0:03:27.240 --> 0:03:28.440 and retail in general. 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:31.959 With movie star good looks and an electric personality to match, 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:34.480 he never meant to become the pioneer of a resistance, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:40.920 but Andrew became exactly that. Chef Andrew Grule grew up 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:41.760 in New Jersey. 0:03:42.080 --> 0:03:45.600 I was the product of two working parents. Lash key child. 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:48.360 If you will, you know they're working their butts off 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:51.200 all day, every day until eleven of twelve o'clock at night. 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:54.400 His upbringing did not exactly trigger his later passion. 0:03:54.880 --> 0:03:57.080 I make the joke I say, I'm the Sarah Lee chef. 0:03:57.080 --> 0:03:59.880 It was Microwave Sarah Lee and every now and then. 0:03:59.960 --> 0:04:02.240 We were fortunate enough when my sister got our license 0:04:02.320 --> 0:04:05.160 that I could go get McDonald's. So, you know, that 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:09.000 was that was the height of my culinary upbringing. However, 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:12.120 I realized at a young age I loved food because 0:04:12.120 --> 0:04:14.000 I used to skip school and I caught myself at 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:17.400 home watching all those original this is pre Food Network 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:22.599 PBS shows, Yan Khan, Cook, Lydia Bastianich, Jacques pa Pen 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:28.280 those just real comfortable, dump and stir TV shows. I'm 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:29.960 going to show you two type of omelet. 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:32.760 I kind of country franch chimelet, which. 0:04:32.600 --> 0:04:35.080 Is basically the way we do it in America, and 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:36.880 then a classic franchchimelet. 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:39.240 So that definitely gave me the bite. And then I 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:42.240 started reading a scoff Ya and like Joy of Cooking 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.280 and all these cookbooks that my mom had at home 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:46.719 making a mess in the kitchen when I'd skipped school. 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:48.760 She'd come home. You know, hit me with the wooden spoon. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.480 When he was old enough to begin working, Andrew naturally 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:52.840 looked for a kitchen with an opening. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.560 My first job was in a food service restaurant catering, 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.400 and then proceeded to keep working food jobs while I 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:01.680 was trying to go to college for other avenues. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.240 Andrew went to Bait College, a private liberal arts school 0:05:05.320 --> 0:05:08.600 in Maine, initially to study piano performance and philosophy. 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:11.400 I went to a small liberal arts college up in Maine. 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:14.039 I mean it was like fifteen hundred kids, and everybody 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:16.680 was up there like studying art history and things in 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:20.400 which you would never have any career path. I thoroughly 0:05:20.520 --> 0:05:24.839 enjoyed the intellectual gymnastics, if you will. But I realized 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:26.800 right away, like I need to work. I mean I 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:28.760 was working sixty seventy eighty hours a week. 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.640 And that desire to get his hands dirty was driven 0:05:36.680 --> 0:05:39.080 by his love for the ocean, and he just so 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.839 happened to be in the lobster capital of America. 0:05:42.240 --> 0:05:44.520 I always loved the ocean, right, so while I failed 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.240 in science, I had a passion for a marine biology 0:05:47.279 --> 0:05:49.320 and understanding what was going on with the ocean and 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:52.520 kind of the biodynamic nature of that environment and how 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:55.040 it affects us. So it was certainly a passion that 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:59.840 I never was truly able to galvanize from a science perspective, 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:02.359 but being able to get hands on with it in 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:05.960 an econo me right, I mean, because the main economy 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.839 is driven by the lobstermen. I mean it's a true 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:13.040 fisherman's economy, one of the few artisanal fishing economies that's 0:06:13.080 --> 0:06:21.920 left in the United States. I worked at a lobster 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:24.599 restaurant right on the coast, and part of their their 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:28.000 selling proposition and as well as their business model was 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:29.960 they owned part of the supply chain, so they had 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:32.680 lobster boats that would go out and I was able 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:34.880 to kind of help haul, you know, pull up traps, 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.359 do a lot of the basic things, not specifically with 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:39.839 that restaurant, but with other lobstermen around the area. So 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:41.720 it was always just about a couple extra hours here 0:06:41.760 --> 0:06:44.520 or there, you know, hands on stuff and learning the industry, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:48.599 learning learning seafood, really getting into the industry and getting 0:06:48.600 --> 0:06:50.640 my hands dirty. And said to myself, this is this 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.159 is the career path I want. So it just bit 0:06:53.240 --> 0:06:53.839 me in the button. 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:56.800 I left college only after a short period of time 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:59.320 and then just hit the road working for as many 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:00.200 chefs as I could. 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.000 Andrew worked in every kind of kitchen you could have made, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.520 from fine dining restaurants and hotels like the Ritz Carlton 0:07:06.640 --> 0:07:08.360 to the midnight shift at Denny's. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:11.239 Every kitchen has its own personality, and that's the beauty 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:11.680 of the kitchen. 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:13.640 I mean, it's always a band of pirates. I think 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.880 that it's become different nowadays because it got glamorized, and 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:21.600 you know, Hollywood took over with the Food Network, so 0:07:21.720 --> 0:07:26.080 you started seeing every single kid go to culinary school 0:07:26.080 --> 0:07:27.960 for sixty thousand dollars a year thinking they're going to 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:30.000 step out and become an executive chef. But I remember 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:32.520 when I was going through the Ringer, you know, it 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.080 was the days of the Anthony Bourdain type of kitchens. 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.400 You know, bone in the throat, band of pirates, just 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:40.400 a bunch of people who were outcasts in other areas, 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.400 and everybody ended up in the kitchen together and that 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:53.720 becomes your family, your team, and everything beyond. So after 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.360 years of working in the industry, ultimately I landed back 0:07:56.360 --> 0:07:57.920 in Jersey, which is where I'm from, and I was 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:00.640 running a few restaurants out there, huge restaurants, five hundred 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.480 seats underneath the toke. If you will come to two 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.080 thousand and eight. When the economy crashes. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.320 In the throes of the two thousand and eight financial crisis, 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.400 restaurants got hit extra hard and it forced downsizing throughout 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:14.040 the industry. 0:08:14.400 --> 0:08:16.560 And I said, you know what, this is an opportunity 0:08:16.600 --> 0:08:18.080 for me to step out and try and follow through 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:19.880 on some passion projects of mine. So at the time 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.680 I was thinking about opening my own restaurant, I held 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:23.280 back on that. 0:08:23.600 --> 0:08:26.560 Instead, he went back to school to study food marketing. 0:08:26.840 --> 0:08:29.600 He also got a degree in culinary arts from Johnson 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.520 and Wales University. And it wasn't long after that that 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:33.319 his phone. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:37.120 Rang and just serendipitously, I got a call from hear 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.360 Me out the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California, 0:08:41.440 --> 0:08:44.600 because they were headhunting. They got a grant from the 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:48.120 Pacific Life Foundation to start a sustainable seafood program. 0:08:48.240 --> 0:08:51.560 Sustainable seafood works to create a healthy balance between harvesting 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.359 the ocean and the financial needs of fishing dependent communities. 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.040 The crux of their program was that they wanted to 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.800 target chefs because eighty percent of the seafood consumed in 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:03.439 the US has done so in restaurants, So they figured 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.240 if they could train chefs to serve more responsible seafood, 0:09:07.480 --> 0:09:09.559 or at least have a more responsible dialogue about the 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:11.600 type of seafood we're eating and the effects it has 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.520 on the ocean, then they could target a larger number 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:17.400 of people. So they needed somebody to run this program, 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.400 a director of the program. They wanted a chef with 0:09:19.559 --> 0:09:24.760 marketing background and true culinary chops to talk to other chefs. 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.360 So I was like, hey, let's back up. Remember I 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:32.760 love this marine biology thing. This is like my dream opportunity. 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:35.640 So I packed up. I mean, in this nonprofit right, 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:38.400 this was not paying money, so it was like cash 0:09:38.400 --> 0:09:40.440 out all my savings come out to California, and the 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.760 next thing I know, I'm working in the aquarium, spending 0:09:43.920 --> 0:09:48.240 half my time on like touch tanks, while simultaneously going 0:09:48.280 --> 0:09:51.240 out and working with all these chefs throughout Los Angeles, 0:09:51.320 --> 0:09:54.280 San Diego, Orange County, trying to engage them in the 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:56.200 conversation about sustainable seafood. 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.000 Andrew worked on the program for about three years and 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:02.520 through the process an idea began to form over the 0:10:02.600 --> 0:10:05.440 years come to the realization that in the seafood world 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:09.200 there was either really high end establishment or greasy fried 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:12.400 Long John Silver type restaurants. There was no in between. 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:16.280 A sweet spot wasn't being served. At the same time, 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.520 through his work with the Aquarium, he was learning more 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.680 about the supply chain of seafood, and. 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.480 When the grant came to the end of its end 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.000 of its time, I said, you know what, I'm going 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:26.520 to put my money where my mouth is. I've been 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:28.640 preaching this for two and a half three years. I'm 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:29.080 going to do it. 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.320 I'm going to launch a concept that's for the people, 0:10:32.480 --> 0:10:34.920 fast casual where we're going to serve the quality of 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:37.199 fine dining seafood. 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:39.320 At the costing convenience of faster food. Because I realized 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:42.000 in the seafood world, you've got either high high high 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:44.439 end or greasy fried Long John Silver. 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:47.560 So in twenty eleven, Andrew tried to raise money to 0:10:47.640 --> 0:10:51.280 open a restaurant. However, in the wake of the financial crisis, 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.080 he quickly learned that it wasn't going to happen. But 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:56.600 as luck would have it, there was a new trend 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.480 exploding within the food industry. 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.680 Food trucks in cities across the country. These rolling restaurants 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:06.000 are upping up everywhere, providing hungry lunch breakers and late 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:09.840 night bar crawlers with a corner copy of Fast easy 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:13.040 fuel and all on the cheap and running one means 0:11:13.280 --> 0:11:16.959 no office politics, just cooking and cash. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:19.720 Food trucks had been around in one form or another 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.280 for well over a century, but they had largely been 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:27.079 focused on fattening comfort food. The financial crisis presented an opportunity. 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.280 Investors in new brick and mortar restaurants were nowhere to 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.760 be found, while at the same time people were looking 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:36.040 for bargain eateries to meet their smaller budgets. Food trucks 0:11:36.080 --> 0:11:39.520 provided the perfect vehicle to bridge the gap. The startup 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.040 cost was much cheaper than that of a restaurant, and 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:44.360 the savings could be passed on to the customers, and 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.240 there were some real success stories. The Kogi Truck, a 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:50.400 mobile Korean barbecue taco kitchen, was one of the first 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:52.840 to show how this new business model could be lucrative. 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:55.880 Andrews saw this new trend as a path to creating 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.640 his first restaurant, albeit one on wheels. 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:00.800 So I said screwed. I got as many credit cards 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:02.719 as I could. I'd leverage myself to the brim. I 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:06.160 went into massive debt and started renting food trucks. 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.679 He found a guy selling tacos out of a truck. 0:12:08.880 --> 0:12:10.240 I said, how much you make on your rid? He 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:11.760 goes four to fifty week. I said, I'll give you 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:13.800 five hundred, give me the truck, and I'll buy my 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:14.360 own stock. 0:12:14.559 --> 0:12:16.560 He then got on the phone with his old seafood 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:17.160 contacts in. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.839 Mate started having those guys ship lobsters out to me, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.880 friends from decades ago, and selling lobster rolls and fish 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:27.360 tacos at like five and ten dollars off the food truck. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.600 At first, he manned his mobile restaurant on his own. 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:32.040 So I went out with a white truck and I 0:12:32.120 --> 0:12:34.280 had somebody print a banner. I sketched out the logo, 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.480 which was slapfish with the hand, and we hung the 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:38.480 banner on the side of the truck. I had a 0:12:38.480 --> 0:12:40.720 little bit of a social following, so I tweeted out, 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.880 I'm doing five dollars lobster rolls, real main lobster. I mean, 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:45.559 I'm losing money, but I was doing it just to 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:48.080 get people in, you know, first hits on me. The 0:12:48.080 --> 0:12:56.360 pusher don't care. So yeah, people just start showing up 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.240 and before I knew it, within like a week we 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:02.280 had lines of people and it just blew up. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.800 He started making money. He invested back into the business. 0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.400 So we wrapped the truck. I created a dish called 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.079 the Lobstacle, so the hood it set home with the lobstacle, 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:14.000 but it was spelled backwards so that when you were 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:16.199 driving and you looked in your rearview mirror, you'd read 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.360 it the right way. And we went from one to 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.720 four food trucks over a six month period. We had 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.480 like forty five employees. It was really shooting fish in 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:29.280 a barrel pun intended. So in that short timeframe I 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:31.600 was able to build up a huge following. 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.840 Things were taking off, but it wasn't long before the 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.800 big hand of government came knocking. 0:13:37.360 --> 0:13:40.000 Another passion mine has always been politics. I volunteered all 0:13:40.000 --> 0:13:40.800 throughout high school. 0:13:40.800 --> 0:13:43.440 I ran our Youth and Government program and did a 0:13:43.480 --> 0:13:45.959 lot with various senators throughout New Jersey, so I. 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:48.439 Was always aware of regulations. Got a passion for reading 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:50.600 things like the you know, the federalist papers, et cetera. 0:13:50.840 --> 0:13:53.040 So he understood that government tends to find a way 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:54.880 to make money on a profitable enterprise. 0:13:55.800 --> 0:13:58.240 When I opened up the food trucks, I said, we're 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:00.720 driving through loopholes right now. Within four months, the government's 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:02.000 going to catch on to us and they're going to 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.080 have their hands out. We paid two hundred and fifty 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:06.079 dollars for one business license when we started with the 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.200 food truck. When I pulled the food truck up to 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.080 its last stop in December of that year, I was 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.559 paying upwards of three thousand dollars a month and fees, 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:17.280 business license, etc. The government realized how to get their 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:19.120 hands into that industry very quickly. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.120 With winter on the horizon, Andrew could see that he 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.400 was under some time pressure to evolve the business. 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:26.800 And then once the weather hit, I said, shoot, if 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:29.479 we don't get into a brick and mortar by December, 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.760 we're done. So I literally went around knocking on people's 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.240 restaurants that looked like they were empty and saying, hey, 0:14:36.240 --> 0:14:38.000 can I buy a restaurant? Can I buy a restaurant? 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:40.040 How much cash to get out right now? I found 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.080 a guy in Huntington Beach wanted to get out of 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:44.960 his bagel shop. He's like, give me seventy thousand dollars 0:14:45.240 --> 0:14:48.080 and you can have it. And so I went around 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:51.040 and bowed money from friends and family and anybody I could. 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.160 Thousand dollars here, five hundred dollars there. 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.880 He gave them all equity in the business and began 0:14:55.960 --> 0:14:58.480 the transition from being a mobile to a brick and 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:02.680 mortar restaurant. Like any small business, especially in the restaurant industry, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:05.760 Andrew was running on an extremely tight budget, so he 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.320 had to do everything himself. Once he secured the bagel shop, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:13.440 he started to esthetically transform the space with his small team. 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.320 But just as he was preparing to open in April 0:15:16.360 --> 0:15:19.960 twenty twelve, the pesky hand of the government came knocking 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:23.800 on his front door again, and this time it looked 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:25.560 like they were going to put him out of business 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:31.720 before he even got started. All right, if you guys 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:33.560 know anything about me, you know that I am crazy 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:35.840 about my dogs. And let me tell you something. 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Just add 0:16:58.200 --> 0:17:01.359 rough greens and watch the health benefits come alive. 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:03.400 Back. 0:17:04.360 --> 0:17:07.359 So Andrew was living the life of an entrepreneur. He 0:17:07.400 --> 0:17:09.560 saw a niche in the restaurant market that was wide 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:13.080 open fine dining seafood at the cost and convenience of 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.119 fast food. He started with a mobile kitchen, and his 0:17:16.160 --> 0:17:19.199 Slapfish food truck blew up so much so that he 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.040 decided to open a brick and mortar version in Huntington Beach. 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:24.919 But just as he was getting ready to open, the 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:31.280 pesky hand of government came knocking. Opening a restaurant is 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.399 not an easy task anytime you're serving food. There's a 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.360 labyrinth of regulations that must be met and the process 0:17:37.400 --> 0:17:39.680 is not at all clear. But typically when you move 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:42.440 into an existing space you skip many of the obstacles 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:45.320 set for new restaurants. When Andrew opened his brick and 0:17:45.320 --> 0:17:48.440 mortar Slabfish by buying the Bagel Shop, he thought he'd 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:49.680 avoided those obstacles. 0:17:49.840 --> 0:17:53.480 We were set to open on April twentieth, twenty twelve. 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.320 I had marketed it. Everything we got passed through health 0:17:57.320 --> 0:18:00.640 department by having an above ground grease interceptor, etc. Etc. 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:04.119 What was there this new pro they established called the 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:06.399 Fog Program fats oils in Greece. They knock on my 0:18:06.480 --> 0:18:08.800 door on like April fifteenth and they're like, where's your 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.200 grease interceptor? I said, we were grandfathered in. They said, well, 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:13.280 in July there's gonna be new regulations that you need 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.040 an underground one. I said, great, I'll open up, get 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.880 some revenue, and i'll you know, we'll get it all 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:20.400 set for July. And they were like, no, you need 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.720 an underground grease interceptor now per what statute? I don't know. 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:24.800 They're like, you're not opening. 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.479 So Andrew had to scramble to borrow another thirteen thousand 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.679 dollars to dig a hole in the ground to comply 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:36.480 with this new, not yet enacted statute. But being the 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:39.240 savvy entrepreneur that he was, he found a way to 0:18:39.280 --> 0:18:42.920 comply with yet another government regulation, a skill that would 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:44.840 later be put to the test on a level he 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:48.240 could never have imagined. Like his food truck, his Huntington 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.639 Beach Slapfish restaurant was an immediate hit, so Andrew wanted 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:53.000 to expand on the success. 0:18:53.320 --> 0:18:55.760 Well, the idea was to build this to scale. Right, 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:58.320 the best effect I could have I thought was to 0:18:58.359 --> 0:19:00.280 get people to eat more of the right types of seafood. 0:19:00.280 --> 0:19:01.920 But we need to do that as scale in order 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:03.760 to really have that secret. So we needed to buy 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.240 in larger bulk, right, cut out the middleman buying bulk. 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:08.000 The more bulk you can buy, the better the price. 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:11.440 So we had to scale quickly, and we couldn't raise 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:13.440 capital once again. You know, even though we were showing 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:15.880 strong unit economics on a store level, they kept saying, 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:18.120 come back at ten locations. All of them said, get 0:19:18.119 --> 0:19:20.240 to ten locations. Well, I figured the only way I 0:19:20.240 --> 0:19:22.080 could get there was through franchisinges. 0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.600 So in twenty thirteen, Andrew began franchising Slapfish. 0:19:25.760 --> 0:19:28.240 So we opened our next location in thirteen, then fourteen 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:29.440 and started growing from there. 0:19:29.560 --> 0:19:33.399 It eventually grow to twenty seven locations, including Arizona, throughout 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:39.560 southern California and Silicon Valley, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.520 and even the UK. Slapfish was spreading. Andrew was also 0:19:43.600 --> 0:19:47.560 finding success in other arenas. His energy attracted Hollywood, which 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.359 led to appearances on the Food Network, the Cooking Channel, 0:19:50.560 --> 0:19:51.760 and even the Today show. 0:19:51.920 --> 0:19:53.920 We're Just wrapping up our shrimp cubana that we did 0:19:53.920 --> 0:19:55.639 for you on the web, and now good to have 0:19:55.680 --> 0:19:55.960 you Andrew. 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:57.320