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Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child

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Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador

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Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with

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Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just

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Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President

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Speaker 1: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States

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Speaker 1: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border

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Speaker 1: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over

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Speaker 1: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you

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Speaker 1: are here illegally, your next you will be fined nearly

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Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will

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Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

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Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

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Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,

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Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.

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Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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Speaker 3: The time is come, ladies and gentlemen. Invest fest That's right,

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Speaker 3: That's right. Invest Best twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 4: bigger than ever. This year, we're gonna do twenty thousand

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Speaker 4: people in Atlanta, Georgia.

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Speaker 3: I want you to do yourself a favor. Head over

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Speaker 3: to Investfest dot com right now.

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Speaker 4: We will have activations for on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,

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Speaker 4: three days, musical performances, billionaires. Everything is going to be

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Speaker 4: a completely life changing experience. Vendor, marketplace, food truck village.

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Speaker 4: You know how we do.

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Speaker 3: Don't wait, don't hesitate that over now.

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Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back Eyl. We're back home. Yes,

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Speaker 4: in a lab. This is an interview that we've been

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Speaker 4: trying to actually do for a while. So if you

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Speaker 4: follow us, you know that we are foodies. We frequent

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Speaker 4: the restaurants a lot, and the number one restaurant one

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Speaker 4: more than in New York that we always go to

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Speaker 4: all the time. I just had my birthday dinner there.

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Speaker 4: Actually Brooklyn Shophouse. Yes, so Brooklyn Shophouse. The first location

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Speaker 4: was was downtown Manhattan by the Brooklyn Bridge.

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Speaker 5: Uh yeah, it's actually five eye so it's a cross

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Speaker 5: the street from Based University and right by the brook

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Speaker 5: right at the mouth of the Brooklyn Bridge, So we

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Speaker 5: call that financial district for sure, financial district.

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Speaker 4: That was the first location, and then once they opened

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Speaker 4: a second location in Times Square. Yeah, and that's the

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Speaker 4: one that we've been turning up a lot all the time.

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Speaker 4: I've been in there every week pretty.

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Speaker 5: Much, so a lot. Yeah, good lucky, good luck.

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Speaker 3: No problem.

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Speaker 4: One of the owners of Brooklyn chop House is Don Pooh.

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Speaker 4: So I forgot who was the first person to introduce us.

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Speaker 4: I'm not sure.

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Speaker 3: I think Matt was mentioned trying to connect us like

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Speaker 3: years ago.

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Speaker 4: But then we had met, and then over the last

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Speaker 4: six months we've actually been running to each other everywhere everywhere.

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Speaker 3: They're part of the tour.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I've been on tour with you guys. You guys

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Speaker 5: win a little hort go a little harder than me,

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Speaker 5: you know. But I've seen you guys, maybe I don't

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Speaker 5: know eight ten times, I don't know, over the weather,

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Speaker 5: the weekends, weekdays, events you know, important, you know, important events,

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Speaker 5: you know in industry, fashion film. I've seen you guys,

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Speaker 5: I don't know ten times in the last twelve weeks.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, man to super Bowl.

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Speaker 5: Miami, Yeah, Miami, Dubai.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, We've been all over the world together. Grammy, that's

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Speaker 4: a fact.

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Speaker 5: From through the other day. I even know you guys.

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Speaker 4: Are Mary J.

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Speaker 5: Blige forty shout out to Mary J. Blige and Andrew

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Speaker 5: Martinez Grass Mary on your new show.

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Speaker 4: Yes, So this is gonna be a dope episode because

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Speaker 4: we're not only going to talk about his journey as

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Speaker 4: being a restaurant tour, but he's also a music man.

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Speaker 4: Is what's actual high He got his start and both

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Speaker 4: of those albums are people that he actually played an

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Speaker 4: intricate role in, from Mary J. Blige to the notorious

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Speaker 4: b I G.

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Speaker 5: Fox Bug Fox Boogiet. We gotta get that, folks. Fox

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Speaker 5: LP is on the way.

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Speaker 3: I'm gonna put it next to hardcore just because of

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Speaker 3: cultural impact.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you gotta do it, both of them, both

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Speaker 5: cultural importance and then both Brooklyn.

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Speaker 4: There you gook Brooklyn. So this is gonna be a

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Speaker 4: thrope episode. We're gonna go through his whole journey. We're

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Speaker 4: gonna talk about the opposon downs, entrepreneurship, the music business,

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Speaker 4: restaurant business, and everything. But before we start, thank you

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Speaker 4: for joining us. We appreciate it.

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Speaker 5: Oh Man, thank you for having me. Man, I've been

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Speaker 5: trying to connect with you guys as well. And I'm

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Speaker 5: proud of what you guys have been doing and the

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Speaker 5: message and you know everything. You know that you guys

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Speaker 5: have been actually intricol and trying to educate people on again,

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Speaker 5: you know, the slogan Assets of Reliability. So I think,

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Speaker 5: you know, hopefully the best is just resonating out there

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Speaker 5: in the community where it needs to resonate.

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Speaker 4: That thank you your part of the sky to all

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Speaker 4: the club.

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Speaker 5: So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, that's my thing. So

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Speaker 5: I said again.

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Speaker 4: That's a fact. So let's get into this. So all right,

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Speaker 4: where does it start for you? Because I know it

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Speaker 4: starts a long time ago, absolutely, So let's talk about

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Speaker 4: the star. Let's talk about the music and how you

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Speaker 4: got going.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, So, my passion has always been music, just as

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Speaker 5: a as a kid, you know, I had all these

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Speaker 5: images all of the you know, like from right on magazine.

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Speaker 5: I had all those guys on my wall, and you know,

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Speaker 5: I used to take piano lessons as a kid. I

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Speaker 5: hated it, but my parents forced me to do it,

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Speaker 5: and you know what ended up working out in a

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Speaker 5: weird way later on in life, because you know, I

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Speaker 5: had an air for music and you know, I got

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Speaker 5: my shot by you know, actually going on the road

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Speaker 5: with the notorious Big Biggie. And prior to that, you know,

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Speaker 5: I went to Howard University for a little bit and

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Speaker 5: I met Puffy, you know, Harf Pierre, you know, my

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Speaker 5: good friend Mark Pitts, Derrek Angeletti. They were all down there,

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Speaker 5: you know, didn't know that, you know, music business was

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Speaker 5: gonna be their future. They were, you know, Howard studying,

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Speaker 5: you know, taking up business and whatever you know they

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Speaker 5: were doing. But just so happened that Puff, you know,

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Speaker 5: kind of took like left it was interning, got an

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Speaker 5: internship job, and I'm gonna talk about that later on

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Speaker 5: how important that was. But he took it. He got

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Speaker 5: an internship job at Uptown and then he became cool

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Speaker 5: like Heavy D. He was cool with like Dougie Fresh

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Speaker 5: and a lot of those guys, and when it came

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Speaker 5: time for homecoming, he would bring Heavy D down. And

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Speaker 5: then you know, he always like try to learn the game.

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Speaker 5: And then he became an A and R and he

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Speaker 5: started working with Heavy D as an A and R

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Speaker 5: well Uptown as an A and R until he was

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Speaker 5: producing Heavy A and R and Heavy D right and

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Speaker 5: then you know, he got his shot to you know,

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Speaker 5: A and R, Jodasy obviously Mary J. Blige and father

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Speaker 5: him see and a couple of other people. So you know,

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Speaker 5: it was inspiring to see him go from intern to

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Speaker 5: A and R to vice president of A and R

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Speaker 5: to then you know, obviously you know they had a

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Speaker 5: conflict and then you know, he got fired from his job.

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Speaker 5: Then he went and started his own label, so that

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Speaker 5: whole entrepreneur he didn't took his entrepreneurial journey. So you

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Speaker 5: know inspired me. So to answer a question, and how

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Speaker 5: I got my start was really once my friend Mark

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Speaker 5: started to mand ags Biggie. I kind of said, you

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Speaker 5: know what I want to learn from that same perspective.

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Speaker 5: I want to get on the road. You ain't got

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Speaker 5: to pay me nothing, that just want to learn the

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Speaker 5: game and understand the game from a management perspective. And

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Speaker 5: that's how it became part of his you know, his

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Speaker 5: management team that was on the road with him, and

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Speaker 5: then we hit it off and became good friends. What

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Speaker 5: year was that, That was nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 4: So he was like an understudy, Yeah, for Biggie's management.

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Speaker 3: Correct, that's right, Mark, Mark Pits has big Later he

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Speaker 3: gets Usher.

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Speaker 5: No, he had Biggie, he had Faith, he had a

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Speaker 5: he had a group called Changing Faces. Yes Yes, Yes, Yes,

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Speaker 5: and that's was the core of his management team. And

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Speaker 5: then he went on later on from there to you know,

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Speaker 5: do A and R and you know, obviously you know,

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Speaker 5: work with Usher and Chris Brown and so on and

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Speaker 5: so forth, and you know, you know, big historic moves.

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Speaker 5: So but the first his first interest in the game

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Speaker 5: was you know Big. He was working with Puffing and

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Speaker 5: Biggie asked him to manage him. And then through that

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Speaker 5: I got my entrance into you know, working in management.

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Speaker 5: And then I was always you know, doing the entrepreneur thing.

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Speaker 5: So I opened up a barbershop in Brooklyn called Moods.

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Speaker 5: So it was on Washington Avenue, not too far from

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Speaker 5: where Biggie grew up. So they would come through, you know,

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Speaker 5: stop by, and everybody in the neighborhood was like, oh shoot,

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Speaker 5: you know, you know Biggie Da Da Da. So then

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Speaker 5: a friend of mine, his name is Anton, and his

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Speaker 5: brother Gavin, they had a little sister called Inga and then

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Speaker 5: they used to get their hair cut there. So it

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Speaker 5: was like, hey, my sister, her name, you know, she

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Speaker 5: was signed to Capital Records, but it didn't work out

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Speaker 5: through you know, another situation. It was like, hey, you know,

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Speaker 5: I want you to introduce you. Maybe you guys could

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Speaker 5: you know, work together. I met her, we hit it off,

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Speaker 5: you know, I started, you know, shot going around and

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Speaker 5: doing demos. I went to this kid dr Period. He's

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Speaker 5: he's a producer in Brooklyn who produced like Smooler, Hustler

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Speaker 5: and Trigger the Gambler and then Clark Kent. He helped

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Speaker 5: me with a lot of music and a few other people.

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Speaker 5: So I lean on all the relationships I knew and

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Speaker 5: everyone I knew through big and we started, you know,

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Speaker 5: putting the demo together and then we got a big break.

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Speaker 5: So that was my first client client on my own right.

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Speaker 5: So no, no, we had no deal. So we got

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Speaker 5: our big break by getting on ELL's album on a

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Speaker 5: record called I Shot You. So that record featured Keith Murray,

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Speaker 5: Bad joe In Ll and there was one more spot.

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Speaker 5: I think they was trying to get another artist. The

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Speaker 5: artists didn't show up or whatever. So track Masters, who

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Speaker 5: was cool with Anton, said he we heard you know,

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Speaker 5: you're putting your demo together, and we started hitting mixtapes too, right,

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Speaker 5: we started doing like clue tapes and were doing the

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Speaker 5: groundwork right. So next thing they called us, we went

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Speaker 5: in the studio, we laid the sixteen and then they

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Speaker 5: played it for l. L said leave it on there.

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Speaker 5: That actually sounds dope. She had this like unique kind

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Speaker 5: of deep tone voice. There was like, you know, kind

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Speaker 5: of like at that moment they were saying that she

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Speaker 5: sounded like Shai from Wu Tang, but running she had

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Speaker 5: she had her own style. And you know, we came

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Speaker 5: with a little, you know, a different more edgy lyrics,

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Speaker 5: a little different than what was out there before, and

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Speaker 5: that's how you know. And then once that hit, it

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Speaker 5: was a bid in war, unbelievable in war. We end

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Speaker 5: up going with depth Champ.

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Speaker 3: Can we stop right there? Because it's interesting, right, I

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Speaker 3: never heard this story, right, So Inga obviously becomes it's

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Speaker 3: Foxy Brown. She's from Brooklyn, yes, but she she does

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Speaker 3: the song with Lly, she jumps on at the ain't

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Speaker 3: no with j but she runs with the Queen's crew

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Speaker 3: was unique.

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Speaker 5: What happened here, Okay, So it was a unique dynamic.

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Speaker 5: That was actually a great question because she was part

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Speaker 5: of different crews. So after the I shot your record.

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Speaker 5: Jay Z calls me, right, He's like, you know, I'm

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Speaker 5: putting out this independent joint through Priority, and so there

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Speaker 5: was like a mix of a couple of different labels,

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Speaker 5: and I heard your girl, I want to put on

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Speaker 5: this record. So I meet him true story, and we

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Speaker 5: talked about it. The last time I seen him at

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Speaker 5: before No, I actually saw him in LA when we

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Speaker 5: were at that. Yeah. Yeah, So he said, he said, ya,

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Speaker 5: I want to put it on there. He's like, it

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Speaker 5: wasn't gonna take. I was like, you know, we're gonna

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Speaker 5: work it out. He's like, all right, I'm bring it

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Speaker 5: back right because you know, we were sizzling doing a

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Speaker 5: couple of things. So we ended up getting twelve fifty

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Speaker 5: I remember the number, right, he came with twelve hundred

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Speaker 5: and fifty hours. No, no, twelve hundred and fifty hours.

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Speaker 5: This is early, this is early nineties, early early, right.

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Speaker 5: So I meet him at Junius. He pulled up in

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Speaker 5: the GS Lexus out of Lexus too, so we met.

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Speaker 5: We said, Yo, we're gonna do it at D and

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Speaker 5: D Studios. We're gonna knock the knock this verse out

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Speaker 5: in about another week. So this is the beat. So

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Speaker 5: I gave it a beat. You know, she started, you know,

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Speaker 5: writing the rhymes and that, and that's how she ended

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Speaker 5: up getting on.

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Speaker 4: Ain't no so that So he paid with twelve thousand.

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Speaker 5: I mean he was independent, he was from We had

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Speaker 5: people in common.

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Speaker 4: So you know, we just and she was she was

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Speaker 4: she was coming up, yeah, but she wasn't artist.

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Speaker 5: She wasn't right, she wasn't there yet. We had this

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Speaker 5: one feature, but we were like buzzing in the streets.

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Speaker 5: Then the same thing happened. We get a call from

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Speaker 5: uh Kenny Smooth, who's from up this this this way

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Speaker 5: he had he had a label through a situation I

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Speaker 5: think it was due Depth Jam, and he asked us

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Speaker 5: to jump on this record called touch Me Tease Me, right,

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Speaker 5: like I got this called it next week case case

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Speaker 5: so correct. So this is how you know, this is

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Speaker 5: when I really met Mary. And then that records started

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Speaker 5: to blow up, right, And then because it was on

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Speaker 5: Death Jam, they added that to the Nunty Professor soundtrack

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Speaker 5: and then they was like, who's this jay Z guy?

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Speaker 5: You know, I want to meet him. So I'm the

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Speaker 5: one who introduced jay Z and Dame Dash to Leo.

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Speaker 5: All right, So once I introduced them to Leon. They

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Speaker 5: went and you know, Leo wanted to kind of take

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Speaker 5: the record. He was like, Yo, this record out here

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Speaker 5: has Foxy Brown on it and it wasn't cleared. Ain't no,

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Speaker 5: it wasn't clear that we need to clear it. So,

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Speaker 5: you know, they were going back and forth a little bit,

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Speaker 5: and then what ended up happening is we all had

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Speaker 5: a meeting and then they agreed to you know, work

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Speaker 5: it out financially clear the record for Jay's album and

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Speaker 5: also add the record to the Nunty Professor soundtrack simultaneously,

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Speaker 5: which worked to both of their advantages. So then they

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Speaker 5: end up after that the success of that record and

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Speaker 5: that soundtrack and then Jay dropping the album and becoming

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Speaker 5: successful on his own, they end up working out a

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Speaker 5: deal to do a joint venture with Death Jam and Rockefeller.

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Speaker 3: That's ninety six because the case when he dropped that record,

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Speaker 3: it's crazy. He actually came to our high school performance,

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Speaker 3: oh wow, and I was like, I was sick. I

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Speaker 3: didn't go to school that day. The fact like, Okase

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Speaker 3: did the record, I'm like, because it's not cl and

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Speaker 3: Aaron they were doing wives projects and that was part

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Speaker 3: of it. They brought them to the school. That was crazy.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, So what ended up happening is after he got

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Speaker 5: the after he got the deal. No, his album came

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Speaker 5: out ninety six, right, His second album was on Death Jam.

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Speaker 5: So first album ninety six independent, and then we came

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Speaker 5: out with My My, My Artist. We came out ninety

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Speaker 5: six in November.

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Speaker 4: So you're managing Foxy fox Sole, your soul man, all right,

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Speaker 4: so her career starts to take off. And now that

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Speaker 4: leads to other clients. Where do you start working with Mary?

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Speaker 5: So after so ninety six, I started working with Foxy

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Speaker 5: the album Blew Up, so we did that album, then

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Speaker 5: we did another album, China Doll. Then that album Blows

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Speaker 5: Up that goes number one. It's like ninety nine, and

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Speaker 5: then I decided to go into I got a call

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Speaker 5: that they were looking for executive vice president of A

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Speaker 5: and R. So I decided to go that direction and

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Speaker 5: do more of the A and R more my passion

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Speaker 5: of making music, because even though I was managing, you know,

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Speaker 5: I'll contribute to records here and their ideas, you know, concepts.

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Speaker 5: And I decided to go into becoming the executive vice

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Speaker 5: president of the A and R for MCA Records. And

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Speaker 5: they also gave me a label deal from my company.

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Speaker 5: My artists didn't blow up, but you know, I took

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Speaker 5: a shot at it. And also as part of that

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Speaker 5: part of that, the first their biggest artists on the

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Speaker 5: label was Mary J. Blige. So they said, you know what,

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Speaker 5: you have a you know, you have a history of

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Speaker 5: working with you know, successful r this and you know

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Speaker 5: we would like you to work with us. So that

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Speaker 5: then you know, we we got together at that point

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Speaker 5: and I worked on her No More Drama album.

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Speaker 4: So okay, So the role of a manager, let's go

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Speaker 4: do this. What's the responsibilities day to day for a

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Speaker 4: manager for a musician?

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Speaker 5: Just one other questions that you you you was talking

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Speaker 5: about NOS. You want to get back to Yeah, okay, okay,

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Speaker 5: let's get that Foxy she's running with the park so

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Speaker 5: se so so right, So she got this the jay

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Speaker 5: z Out record out. She worked on her album and

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Speaker 5: then she always had she loved NAS from the beginning

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Speaker 5: for when he dropped this albums as a fan. Right.

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Speaker 5: So track Masters right, and Steve Style was working with no.

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Speaker 5: So Steve was managing NOS and track Masters was producing NONS.

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Speaker 5: So track Master is the one that gave us our

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Speaker 5: opportunity to get on an LL record, right, so naturally

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Speaker 5: we're all you know, working and developing. And then track

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Speaker 5: Mess is also executive producing the first album as well,

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Speaker 5: so you know, collectively, we're all working together. Her and

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Speaker 5: Nas and As get together and Cormega and they say,

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Speaker 5: you know what, we're gonna start this thing called a firm.

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Speaker 5: We're gonna start our own power group. Individually, they were

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Speaker 5: artists separately, so it made it kind of cool. They

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Speaker 5: didn't come together as a group. First was nos Fox.

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Speaker 5: He was getting high, as was Asy, and they came

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Speaker 5: together to form this group, the Firm, and then you know,

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Speaker 5: he started working on our records. So affirm Affirmative Action

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Speaker 5: was the first record that they did together. On nas album, yeah,

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Speaker 5: she was you know, I helped her with that verse

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Speaker 5: so by.

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Speaker 4: The way wrote.

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Speaker 5: Well I helped her with it. I'm not gonna take

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Speaker 5: a credit away, ye that. Yeah, So so yeah, we

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Speaker 5: collaborated so on that, on that. So after that they

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Speaker 5: ended up doing the deal with track Masters, and.

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Speaker 4: After Man after Man trended up.

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Speaker 5: Getting together and do a collaboration. And then I was

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Speaker 5: able to help like co executive produce that album with

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Speaker 5: you know track Man Firm album. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so

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Speaker 5: that was you know.

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Speaker 4: What's your favorite song on the Firm album?

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Speaker 5: I think maybe Firm Biz.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good that was the lead. That was

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Speaker 4: the single. I didn't think that should have been bone Tap.

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Speaker 4: I think it's like I don't know that. We spoke

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Speaker 4: about no. He said that that song actually saved his life.

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Speaker 5: Wow.

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Speaker 4: We spoke about that on Drink Champ because he was

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Speaker 4: saying that he was he was down and out and

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Speaker 4: it was after the War report came out and Cope

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Speaker 4: was locked up and he was like he was back

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Speaker 4: in the hood. He ain't had no money, he didn't

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Speaker 4: have any direction, and Jungle was like, yo, you wanted

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Speaker 4: to get on his record? He was like, he flew

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Speaker 4: to Miami, he did the record, and I think it

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Speaker 4: was originally supposed to be for Nature's album or something,

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Speaker 4: and then it was like and the landed on the

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Speaker 4: Firm album and then it was like his solo career

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Speaker 4: just took off after that.

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Speaker 5: That's dope, man, that's dope. That's a great story. I

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Speaker 5: talk about that when I go go, you talk about

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Speaker 5: that one.

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Speaker 4: Shout out to Norri Shout out to Norri bro very

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Speaker 4: nostalgic to our child these conversations. So all right, so

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Speaker 4: the manager, right cause we always say about the role

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Speaker 4: of a manager. I personally didn't know how important because

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Speaker 4: I was always one of those people like, no need

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Speaker 4: for a manager, you can just do it yourself, until

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Speaker 4: we actually were in a position where we needed a manager.

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Speaker 4: And then I saw how much work that entails and

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Speaker 4: how it just can bog you down. And I don't

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Speaker 4: think people fully realize it until they actually need it.

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Speaker 4: So what's what? What was the role? What's the role

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Speaker 4: of a man?

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Speaker 5: So the most important thing, especially from an artist manager

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Speaker 5: manager's perspective, is representation, right. You don't want to negotiate

396
00:20:53,600 --> 00:20:56,439
Speaker 5: your own all of your own deals, right, So you

397
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Speaker 5: have a manager. You have an agent if you know,

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Speaker 5: you need an agent to secure bookings that has other buyers,

399
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Speaker 5: you know, in their database to secure bookings, and obviously

400
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Speaker 5: the entertainment lawyer. You know, you have the role manager.

401
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Speaker 5: But the key, the nucleus of it is the manager

402
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Speaker 5: because they deal with all of those different positions as

403
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Speaker 5: well as the stylists as well as the label, as

404
00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:25,520
Speaker 5: well as the the publishing company as well as the publicists.

405
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Speaker 5: If you have one. So that's the nucleus of all,

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Speaker 5: you know, working with the artists to make sure that

407
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Speaker 5: all the functions that an artist needs are are done

408
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Speaker 5: and done correctly and done on time and schedule, and

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Speaker 5: make sure that they have everything they need to be successful,

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Speaker 5: because that's the last thing an artist wants to worry

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Speaker 5: about all of those other things. So a manager is

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Speaker 5: key to putting you know, negotiating deals, you know, doing

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Speaker 5: day to day you know, back back back in the days,

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Speaker 5: you know, when you're you have a management company to

415
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Speaker 5: have a day to day manager. Back in the days,

416
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Speaker 5: we were everything. We were the manager, the day to day,

417
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Speaker 5: the role manager. We did it all in the beginning

418
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Speaker 5: because you got to work your way up to build

419
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Speaker 5: your organization to have you know, that foundation.

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Speaker 3: So as you're growing, right, the records are blowing up,

421
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Speaker 3: your artists are blowing up. You have the labeled. Obviously

422
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Speaker 3: you said your artist didn't blow like you thought, but

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Speaker 3: you still getting money at this time, right, right? Are

424
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Speaker 3: you continuing the entrepreneurial journey? Because I feel like the

425
00:22:28,960 --> 00:22:33,720
Speaker 3: barbershop happens, but then at some point franchising happens. Right,

426
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Speaker 3: what what period is this? I know it starts at

427
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Speaker 3: Papa johnsone that right, right.

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Speaker 5: So, barbershop I had when I was rocking with Big

429
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Speaker 5: earlier on before I before I have Foxing, and then

430
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Speaker 5: when I have Foxy, I sold the barbershop because I then,

431
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Speaker 5: you know, we then started getting some success and she

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Speaker 5: became you know, you know, a world you know, worldwide artist.

433
00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,639
Speaker 5: So at that point, I said, you know what I

434
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:56,720
Speaker 5: want to, you know kind of you know, start my

435
00:22:56,760 --> 00:23:02,840
Speaker 5: own label. So the first my first entrepreneurial you know,

436
00:23:03,400 --> 00:23:07,920
Speaker 5: attempt was doing my own label, right so, and then

437
00:23:08,320 --> 00:23:10,639
Speaker 5: doing my own well actually doing my own management company

438
00:23:10,680 --> 00:23:15,160
Speaker 5: and label. So also discovered Shine. So I found Shine

439
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:18,160
Speaker 5: in the midst of right before I did the deal

440
00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:21,119
Speaker 5: with m c A. I found Shine. You know, he

441
00:23:21,640 --> 00:23:26,120
Speaker 5: was at a barber shop. My boy Manny and another guy,

442
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 5: Austin brought him to me. It was like, no, I

443
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,439
Speaker 5: know you you know, you got Foxy. You know, like

444
00:23:32,160 --> 00:23:34,320
Speaker 5: this kid, we think he's dope. So he spit for

445
00:23:34,440 --> 00:23:40,840
Speaker 5: me for like two hours. I was like, all right, out,

446
00:23:41,359 --> 00:23:43,800
Speaker 5: let's go to. Let's go to And then did you

447
00:23:44,119 --> 00:23:47,360
Speaker 5: mention Matt early on? You said Matt was the one

448
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:48,480
Speaker 5: that tried to hook us.

449
00:23:48,400 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 4: Up different different different.

450
00:23:51,320 --> 00:23:53,560
Speaker 5: Okay, So there was a there was there was an

451
00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:59,320
Speaker 5: attorney that Milton was down at. Yeah, there was down

452
00:23:59,320 --> 00:24:02,840
Speaker 5: at Howard and then he was he was actually doing

453
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:07,680
Speaker 5: some I think assistant da work. And then I said,

454
00:24:08,320 --> 00:24:10,679
Speaker 5: I got a client and I know you could do this.

455
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:15,360
Speaker 5: That needs a manager. So I brought Shine to Matt, right,

456
00:24:15,640 --> 00:24:19,840
Speaker 5: Matt represented. I already had an attorney, and then we

457
00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:21,600
Speaker 5: end up doing the deal. We end up signing the

458
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:24,800
Speaker 5: deal in the back of my car. So, but prior

459
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:29,320
Speaker 5: to that me signing him right, So, once I found him,

460
00:24:29,960 --> 00:24:32,040
Speaker 5: he started to move around. He started doing a few things.

461
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,840
Speaker 5: So he actually bumped into jay Z and gave jay

462
00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:39,720
Speaker 5: Z a uh demo. Jay listened to it, said it's

463
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,680
Speaker 5: I and he's like and he took back the demos

464
00:24:44,040 --> 00:24:46,600
Speaker 5: like the weirdest thing. They spoke about this too, right,

465
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:49,119
Speaker 5: I'm like, yo, you take I get devil for now?

466
00:24:49,240 --> 00:24:52,200
Speaker 5: He you know you don't think that that that I met,

467
00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:55,560
Speaker 5: So it was that was an interesting story. And then

468
00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:02,080
Speaker 5: along the way a few other so as I have

469
00:25:02,200 --> 00:25:05,600
Speaker 5: him signed, I have a meeting with Diddy. Did he

470
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,680
Speaker 5: falls in love with it? And then death Cham falls

471
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:10,840
Speaker 5: in love with it. And then so it turned into

472
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:13,320
Speaker 5: another bit of then we end up doing I end

473
00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:17,000
Speaker 5: up doing a deal with did with puff with bad

474
00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:19,679
Speaker 5: Boy where he went to bad Boy and then you

475
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:23,119
Speaker 5: know I got my deal separate from bad Boy, like

476
00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 5: you know, override points and stuff like that. So he

477
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 5: went directly there and I kind of so almost like

478
00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,479
Speaker 5: he was signed to me by I kind of like

479
00:25:30,520 --> 00:25:31,400
Speaker 5: released them the part.

480
00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:35,280
Speaker 3: I feel like this, this Howard ninety one through ninety three,

481
00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:37,120
Speaker 3: this needs to be a documentary on the people who

482
00:25:37,119 --> 00:25:37,399
Speaker 3: came out.

483
00:25:37,560 --> 00:25:39,720
Speaker 4: We spoke, we spoke to you know, you know, it's

484
00:25:39,720 --> 00:25:41,560
Speaker 4: a just story with this Matt Middleton things. I'll just

485
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,000
Speaker 4: kind of interject. So Matt Middleton. Before I did this,

486
00:25:45,040 --> 00:25:47,880
Speaker 4: I was a financial advisor for twelve years. And when

487
00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:49,880
Speaker 4: I was first starting as a financial advisor, I used

488
00:25:49,880 --> 00:25:52,159
Speaker 4: to get like all of these publications Black Enterprise, all

489
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:54,960
Speaker 4: these like any black like business publication I would get,

490
00:25:55,240 --> 00:25:57,199
Speaker 4: and you know, you always had the list list of

491
00:25:57,280 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 4: top fifty business accountants, top fifty lawyers, top fifty whatever.

492
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:05,040
Speaker 4: So he was on the list. So I emailed every

493
00:26:05,119 --> 00:26:07,520
Speaker 4: single person on the list. I didn't know any of them.

494
00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:09,880
Speaker 4: I just emailed them like, hey, I'm a financial advisa.

495
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 4: You know, would love to, you know, come and just

496
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,560
Speaker 4: you know, have a meeting with you that if you're interested.

497
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,480
Speaker 4: And he actually was one of the few people that responded.

498
00:26:16,480 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 4: He's like, hey, come up. So I met him in

499
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,080
Speaker 4: his office like a cold call. I didn't know who

500
00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:23,800
Speaker 4: he was. He know who I was, and we sat

501
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,320
Speaker 4: and we had a meeting and he was telling me.

502
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:28,679
Speaker 4: I think at the time he was representing Cameron and

503
00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 4: a few other people had like clients and he was

504
00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:35,600
Speaker 4: the president of this organization called Beesler Black Entertainment Lawyer

505
00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:42,000
Speaker 4: something and we So it was crazy because fast forward

506
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,159
Speaker 4: almost fifteen years later, I see him at the Rock

507
00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:48,080
Speaker 4: Nation brunch and he's like, yo, remember that time. He's like, yeah,

508
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,080
Speaker 4: that was crazy, Like you know, but I say that

509
00:26:50,160 --> 00:26:53,320
Speaker 4: to say, you never know.

510
00:26:53,040 --> 00:26:56,040
Speaker 5: You never know, you never know who's who. And I

511
00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:01,400
Speaker 5: liked the fact that he answered though that a lot.

512
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:03,919
Speaker 5: I like that. That means, that means a lot. Sometimes

513
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 5: I would do that a lot. Can do it to everyone.

514
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:07,359
Speaker 5: I would do it a lot. And I met a

515
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:10,000
Speaker 5: few people later on in life like oh wow, they

516
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,920
Speaker 5: say thank you for for you know, taking my call,

517
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:15,560
Speaker 5: and you know, inspire me. So you never know who

518
00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:16,880
Speaker 5: you're going to talk to along the way.

519
00:27:16,920 --> 00:27:18,680
Speaker 3: That's why I said, even listen to this story right now,

520
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:21,960
Speaker 3: like that HPCU connection, right obviously the big manager, yep,

521
00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:26,399
Speaker 3: you met a Howard, Matt Howard brought Sea Puff Howard.

522
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 5: Yep.

523
00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:29,359
Speaker 3: It's just I mean, I don't know how many guys

524
00:27:29,400 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 3: graduated from it, but I know that the guys in

525
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:34,280
Speaker 3: the early nineties that was there. They obviously went in

526
00:27:34,320 --> 00:27:37,040
Speaker 3: different aspects of their careers, but everybody when they needed somebody,

527
00:27:37,040 --> 00:27:39,400
Speaker 3: they looked to those people to all right, yeah, look

528
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:40,200
Speaker 3: at that work.

529
00:27:40,359 --> 00:27:44,040
Speaker 5: Yeah. And and not only that, I thought that man

530
00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:47,360
Speaker 5: could actually handle a bit, like handle a client in

531
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 5: which he did, and he ended up I believe that

532
00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:53,159
Speaker 5: was his first client. And then from there, you know,

533
00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,520
Speaker 5: he had endless clients and you know, doing lots of

534
00:27:56,560 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 5: different things. So that was good and shout out. Then

535
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,840
Speaker 5: you mentioned Cameron out the camera on cameraon you know,

536
00:28:01,960 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 5: just recently spoke about me giving him his first check.

537
00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:08,119
Speaker 5: So that's another one I identified and I tried to sign,

538
00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:13,040
Speaker 5: but he ended up going with Entertainment because they got

539
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 5: I got a big bag from Sony. My bag was

540
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:15,879
Speaker 5: still little.

541
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:18,000
Speaker 3: Baltimore.

542
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:20,879
Speaker 5: Yeah, But before that, I was trying to sign him

543
00:28:21,240 --> 00:28:25,520
Speaker 5: and then but I had gave him a check for

544
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:29,720
Speaker 5: you know, doing a collaboration on I ended up signing

545
00:28:31,320 --> 00:28:35,760
Speaker 5: Foxy's brother Gavin. He was pretty boy and we did

546
00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,120
Speaker 5: a deal at Sony and he ended up doing you know,

547
00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:42,160
Speaker 5: some collaboration and some writing on the album for me.

548
00:28:42,280 --> 00:28:44,440
Speaker 5: So I gave him a check before he even got signed.

549
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,800
Speaker 5: So that was his first check he got. And Fab

550
00:28:46,880 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 5: as well, so I identified Fab even before, like he

551
00:28:51,560 --> 00:28:54,200
Speaker 5: was like buzzing on mixtapes with Clue. And I also

552
00:28:54,320 --> 00:28:56,400
Speaker 5: gave him a check to come and collaborate with my

553
00:28:56,480 --> 00:29:08,200
Speaker 5: artists like early on. But work yeah, clap, so you know.

554
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:09,200
Speaker 3: The right price, I could even make.

555
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,760
Speaker 4: Show. So you're rocking and roll in the music business.

556
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:16,560
Speaker 4: But at some point the music business starts to die.

557
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:18,600
Speaker 4: I guess when when iTunes.

558
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 5: Comes out, it's more napster and you know, downloading and

559
00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:26,600
Speaker 5: you know file and just you know this ability to

560
00:29:26,760 --> 00:29:29,720
Speaker 5: like like you know, like how the mixtapes was a

561
00:29:29,800 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 5: source of promotion and marketing and you leaked what you

562
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:36,360
Speaker 5: wanted to the mixtapes or whatever. But now you know

563
00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,280
Speaker 5: all entire albums were getting leaked and emailed and you

564
00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 5: know it was that time where you could, you know,

565
00:29:42,600 --> 00:29:44,720
Speaker 5: share files and all of a sudden people got the

566
00:29:45,240 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 5: leg of different albums, so it was hurting the music industry.

567
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 5: So that was in like two thousand and three, after

568
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:56,360
Speaker 5: I've been with MCA from ninety nine to two thousand

569
00:29:56,400 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 5: and three, I decided, and I had some success with

570
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,719
Speaker 5: we're working with Mary and you know, we're gain a

571
00:30:03,760 --> 00:30:06,480
Speaker 5: great working relationship and you know, shout out to her,

572
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:10,360
Speaker 5: still work with her today. So that was a that

573
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:15,080
Speaker 5: was another you know, relationship that you know, I'd garnered

574
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:17,840
Speaker 5: from you know, the music business and the success of

575
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:22,040
Speaker 5: us having you know, her album being successful. So then

576
00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:27,400
Speaker 5: I decided to diversify and go into franchising. So it

577
00:30:27,440 --> 00:30:31,200
Speaker 5: was something that you know, I thought made sense because

578
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,280
Speaker 5: they had proven systems, and if I was going to

579
00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:35,760
Speaker 5: invest my money, I wanted to invest it in something

580
00:30:35,800 --> 00:30:40,320
Speaker 5: that had a system instead of restaurants, specifically, because restaurants

581
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:44,840
Speaker 5: are are risky and you know, there's a it's a

582
00:30:44,960 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 5: it's a high risk investment. So you know, seventy sixty

583
00:30:49,160 --> 00:30:51,480
Speaker 5: to seven percent failed in the first you know year,

584
00:30:51,600 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 5: eighteen months, and then another eighty percent don't even make

585
00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:58,200
Speaker 5: it to three years. So it's definitely a high risk.

586
00:30:58,480 --> 00:31:00,640
Speaker 5: So I don't I don't know. I like to take

587
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 5: on the most riskiest of things, but I end up

588
00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,920
Speaker 5: doing franchises. So I got into Papa John's Pizza, the

589
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:13,640
Speaker 5: development sixteen store development deal for New York City. Me

590
00:31:13,680 --> 00:31:16,200
Speaker 5: and a partner of mine who introduced me to the opportunity,

591
00:31:16,400 --> 00:31:19,960
Speaker 5: my boy keV, and then we end up doing seven

592
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 5: out of them and then sold them all. Then he

593
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:24,400
Speaker 5: went on to do another franchise, and then I went

594
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 5: on to get a franchise deal a development deal with I.

595
00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 3: So for the development deal, how does this work? They

596
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:35,560
Speaker 3: you tell you go to the company and say, this

597
00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,600
Speaker 3: is my idea to create more stores inside of let's

598
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,440
Speaker 3: say the borough of Brooklyn. Did they look at your plans?

599
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:46,760
Speaker 3: They okay, they say yes or no. How's this worth?

600
00:31:46,880 --> 00:31:51,720
Speaker 5: So another great question? So not exactly. So they have

601
00:31:52,440 --> 00:31:56,600
Speaker 5: territories that they think are great. Right, So when you

602
00:31:56,640 --> 00:31:59,920
Speaker 5: go sit with them, they'll say if another franchise or

603
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,720
Speaker 5: doesn't own that development right already, they'll say, well, we

604
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:07,120
Speaker 5: have Brooklyn, we have the Bronx, we have White Planes,

605
00:32:07,160 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 5: we have you know, this part of Jersey that we

606
00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 5: want to develop. If you have any interest, you know,

607
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 5: and you qualify based on having restaurant experience and having

608
00:32:19,760 --> 00:32:24,360
Speaker 5: you know, the financial experience, I mean financial wherewithal to

609
00:32:24,360 --> 00:32:28,920
Speaker 5: do it, which we'll get into in a minute. We

610
00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:33,800
Speaker 5: would love to have you develop the you know, we

611
00:32:34,320 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 5: feel first, we feel that this amount of restaurants can

612
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 5: fit in this territory. So in Brooklyn, we feel like

613
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,040
Speaker 5: a whole you know, six stores, you do a you know,

614
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:45,600
Speaker 5: five store, six store deal, and you could you know,

615
00:32:46,480 --> 00:32:50,200
Speaker 5: have options later and then you get a certain amount

616
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:52,880
Speaker 5: of time to develop each store, like maybe one you

617
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:55,840
Speaker 5: have to build one every two years, right for the

618
00:32:55,880 --> 00:32:58,200
Speaker 5: next you do a five store deal, one every two

619
00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:01,000
Speaker 5: years for ten years and then and you know, but

620
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,400
Speaker 5: until then, that territory is locked and you own that

621
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:08,720
Speaker 5: development what they call development area. You own that development

622
00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:12,720
Speaker 5: area until you finish your development. Nobody, nobody can develop there.

623
00:33:12,840 --> 00:33:16,480
Speaker 5: So unless you default obviously and you don't meet your

624
00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,840
Speaker 5: you know, your your timeline, then it becomes available again.

625
00:33:21,080 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 3: Was it very cash intensive?

626
00:33:22,960 --> 00:33:27,479
Speaker 5: Very cash intensive, especially up front because obviously restaurants and

627
00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:31,320
Speaker 5: especially full service restaurants like that take you know, quite

628
00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:35,040
Speaker 5: some capital to you know, build out. You know, you're

629
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,400
Speaker 5: talking seven figures to build a restaurant of that size,

630
00:33:38,400 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 5: five thousand square feet and everything that comes with it, right,

631
00:33:41,440 --> 00:33:46,800
Speaker 5: So from the soft cost, the construction, the franchise fees,

632
00:33:47,080 --> 00:33:51,320
Speaker 5: you know, training, everything that goes with it. So but

633
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 5: again they have proven system. It's a you know, for me,

634
00:33:55,920 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 5: there was a void, you know, just going into the

635
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:00,960
Speaker 5: business side of it. Why I did it. It was a

636
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 5: void in the market. Right. I grew up in Brooklyn

637
00:34:03,680 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 5: and there was only one I Hop in Brooklyn. It's

638
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:08,080
Speaker 5: like three million people. So I'm like, this is not

639
00:34:08,160 --> 00:34:10,440
Speaker 5: making sense. So as a kid, I would have to

640
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,400
Speaker 5: go to the suburbs to get like red Lobster and

641
00:34:15,880 --> 00:34:18,360
Speaker 5: I Hop and there was there's nothing. There was nothing

642
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:21,040
Speaker 5: in the like in the boroughs. There was nothing in Brooklyn.

643
00:34:21,040 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 5: It was crazy to me, right, So I said, you

644
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:27,120
Speaker 5: know what, I'm going to bring this because everyone loves it.

645
00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:29,320
Speaker 5: Why is it not here? So I always thought, almost

646
00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:32,479
Speaker 5: thought I didn't know what I was doing, right, because

647
00:34:32,480 --> 00:34:32,839
Speaker 5: I'm like.

648
00:34:32,920 --> 00:34:34,680
Speaker 4: Why isn't it what's the catch?

649
00:34:34,840 --> 00:34:37,680
Speaker 5: Right? Right, I'm like I was going in to this

650
00:34:37,760 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 5: place in the seventies and it's still one there, and

651
00:34:40,800 --> 00:34:43,600
Speaker 5: the we're in the you know, two thousands, right, So

652
00:34:43,640 --> 00:34:46,960
Speaker 5: they had like a thirty year run, So you know,

653
00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,359
Speaker 5: we took it on. We opened it up, and that

654
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,879
Speaker 5: restaurant became one of the highest grossing restaurants in two

655
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:58,080
Speaker 5: thousand and seven of all eighteen hundred eyeps. Because I

656
00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:01,719
Speaker 5: knew that that was a value that's a value play, right,

657
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,239
Speaker 5: So by having a value brand and a like in

658
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,360
Speaker 5: a place like Brooklyn where it's like a value market,

659
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,720
Speaker 5: it worked. The two worked really downtown Brooklyn on Livingston Street,

660
00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:16,960
Speaker 5: it's still there. Still actually moved it across the street.

661
00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,360
Speaker 5: Actually the building, the first one I built. They demoed

662
00:35:20,360 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 5: the building and built another building, So I actually moved

663
00:35:22,560 --> 00:35:23,160
Speaker 5: across the street.

664
00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:27,480
Speaker 4: Yes, So let's get back to this Papa john situation.

665
00:35:27,880 --> 00:35:29,280
Speaker 4: Why'd you sell the Papa John's.

666
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:34,439
Speaker 5: So Papa John's, it was at one point we had

667
00:35:34,680 --> 00:35:37,000
Speaker 5: a really good performing unit, and then we had a

668
00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:40,840
Speaker 5: couple that weren't performing that well. So me and my

669
00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:43,120
Speaker 5: partner decided, you know what we liked there was a

670
00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:49,240
Speaker 5: couple of other brands that we thought can perform better

671
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 5: for the amount of investment that we put in the

672
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:54,520
Speaker 5: amount of return we were getting back. We said, you

673
00:35:54,560 --> 00:35:57,319
Speaker 5: know what, list, maybe it's a good time and we

674
00:35:57,400 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 5: and someone you know made an offer to us that

675
00:35:59,520 --> 00:36:01,680
Speaker 5: was really good. So we say, you know what, this

676
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:04,040
Speaker 5: was great. We built out this many we didn't finish

677
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 5: our development deal, so we sold the rights plus the

678
00:36:07,560 --> 00:36:11,560
Speaker 5: remaining rights to develop, and then we both decided. He

679
00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,680
Speaker 5: went in to do Popey's and I went in to

680
00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:14,919
Speaker 5: do Yeah.

681
00:36:14,920 --> 00:36:17,000
Speaker 3: So I'm looking at it from a just business standpoint.

682
00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:20,080
Speaker 3: If I'm doing Papa John's, I know my biggest competitors Dominoes,

683
00:36:20,360 --> 00:36:23,800
Speaker 3: right right, If I do I what's my biggest competitor.

684
00:36:23,719 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 5: In this market? It wasn't any But in the rest

685
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 5: of the country there are competitors. There's Kaka Barrel, this, Denny, this, Perkins,

686
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:35,759
Speaker 5: this different in other markets. But in this market, I

687
00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:39,160
Speaker 5: knew I had nobody close. There was no one there was.

688
00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:42,080
Speaker 5: The closest person was ten years away from the development

689
00:36:42,120 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 5: of market, and they still, in my opinion, still couldn't

690
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 5: beat the I Hot brand. And what you know, I

691
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 5: how meant to families that grew up on it.

692
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:55,880
Speaker 3: So inside of the the franchise itself, were you able

693
00:36:55,920 --> 00:36:59,520
Speaker 3: to create a uniqueness to the actual store or did

694
00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,239
Speaker 3: you have to by bye by like yo. This is

695
00:37:02,520 --> 00:37:05,200
Speaker 3: the rule book for how we want our franchise some great.

696
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:09,520
Speaker 5: Questions bro oh Man. So with that said, there is

697
00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,080
Speaker 5: a franchise branded franchise manual. This is what they call

698
00:37:13,200 --> 00:37:15,920
Speaker 5: standard operating procedures, right that you got to follow by

699
00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:21,000
Speaker 5: when you're developing the brand. But because the way they

700
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 5: developed earlier on was a standard blue roof kind of

701
00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:30,080
Speaker 5: freestanding ihops, which everyone knows when they see it, you know,

702
00:37:30,120 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 5: whether you're anyway in the country. But now they were

703
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:37,720
Speaker 5: doing non traditional locations, which I found, which in Brooklyn

704
00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:40,359
Speaker 5: you really can't find the land downtown, so you had

705
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:43,840
Speaker 5: to do an inline non traditional. So with that said,

706
00:37:44,640 --> 00:37:49,440
Speaker 5: and they realized that I had this music background, we

707
00:37:49,600 --> 00:37:53,239
Speaker 5: tied in a little bit of the artwork was was

708
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:57,360
Speaker 5: a you know, was Brooklyn inspired. So we had like

709
00:37:57,360 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 5: like Brooklyn inspired Brooklyn Bridge, downtown Brooklyn and artwork, so

710
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:05,120
Speaker 5: we kind of tied the brand to the community in

711
00:38:05,160 --> 00:38:10,000
Speaker 5: a way. Did like some music inspired artwork. Obviously we

712
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:13,880
Speaker 5: had the brand's images inside, but they did allow me

713
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 5: to do something unique and different. You know, I put

714
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,800
Speaker 5: at that time flat screens. It just come out maybe

715
00:38:19,840 --> 00:38:22,759
Speaker 5: like like five or six years before it's had a

716
00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:26,600
Speaker 5: flat screen TV. I built I built a not a

717
00:38:26,680 --> 00:38:29,880
Speaker 5: VIP room, but like a meeting room right inside of

718
00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 5: this location where people downtown and all of the businesses

719
00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 5: downtown could do breakfast meetings. So I did something a

720
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:38,960
Speaker 5: little different than what was traditional, and they allowed me

721
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 5: to be creative within you know, my ideas that I had,

722
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:45,520
Speaker 5: so that that also worked really well.

723
00:38:45,960 --> 00:38:48,360
Speaker 4: So how much is it for the licensing fee for

724
00:38:48,360 --> 00:38:48,960
Speaker 4: a franchise?

725
00:38:49,040 --> 00:38:52,840
Speaker 5: Iha, So a single unit is fifty thousand dollars, and

726
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 5: if you do a development deal is forty thousand dollars

727
00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 5: per And when you do a development deal, you pay

728
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:01,640
Speaker 5: for the first one and then you pay for halves

729
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:04,160
Speaker 5: of the other ones, and then you pay the other

730
00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,239
Speaker 5: half each time you opened the last one.

731
00:39:06,280 --> 00:39:08,320
Speaker 4: And that's what you did development dement.

732
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 5: I opened four in Boklyn, all in Brooklyn.

733
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:15,520
Speaker 4: They're still all running, all running, all them all what

734
00:39:15,640 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 4: parts of Brooklyn.

735
00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:20,719
Speaker 5: It's in downtown Brooklyn, it's in Flatbush, Brooklyn, it's in

736
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:26,839
Speaker 5: Cony Coney Island. I had the opt the license and

737
00:39:26,880 --> 00:39:29,320
Speaker 5: I and I sub licensed that that I was a

738
00:39:29,400 --> 00:39:32,719
Speaker 5: friend of mine. Shout out to him. And then I

739
00:39:32,760 --> 00:39:38,880
Speaker 5: have Williamsburg, Bushwick. So that's on Flushing Avenue, ones on

740
00:39:38,960 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 5: Church Avenue, other ones on Livingston.

741
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:42,680
Speaker 3: Was the original deal for four or what did it?

742
00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:43,239
Speaker 5: Was there more?

743
00:39:43,239 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 3: And you said, I have the capacity to do for No.

744
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 5: The original deal for four. I fulfill the agreement, and

745
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:52,640
Speaker 5: then I replaced one as well, so that that that

746
00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:55,399
Speaker 5: technically was the fourth one, and I licensed that one

747
00:39:55,440 --> 00:39:58,160
Speaker 5: that was the like like a fifth one. But the

748
00:39:58,200 --> 00:40:01,320
Speaker 5: replacement of the first one to this to the newer

749
00:40:01,400 --> 00:40:04,719
Speaker 5: version was like, so I actually built that's actually like

750
00:40:04,760 --> 00:40:05,880
Speaker 5: building two restaurants.

751
00:40:06,040 --> 00:40:08,000
Speaker 3: So when you see the success of the four that

752
00:40:08,040 --> 00:40:12,279
Speaker 3: you've done, was expansion part of the plan, Like, are

753
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:13,280
Speaker 3: we going to other boroughs?

754
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:18,040
Speaker 5: I was, I was thinking about it, but as I was,

755
00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:20,840
Speaker 5: you know, got to the end, I thought, you know,

756
00:40:22,360 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 5: let's try my own brand. Let's try something different, right,

757
00:40:26,840 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 5: let me you know, the natural progression is going into

758
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,240
Speaker 5: real estate, which I'm doing that as well, but before

759
00:40:35,280 --> 00:40:38,000
Speaker 5: I got there, I decided to try my own brand.

760
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 4: And this is when Brooklyn Chopause comes.

761
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 5: In from Brooklyn chap House, like ten years later Brooklyn

762
00:40:43,800 --> 00:40:47,439
Speaker 5: chap House. Well, yeah, ten years later, oh seven, yeah,

763
00:40:47,680 --> 00:40:48,640
Speaker 5: twenty eighteen.

764
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:50,719
Speaker 4: So I want to talk about broken chop up before

765
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:53,920
Speaker 4: we get to Brooklyn Chop House, the ie Hop. So

766
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 4: all of this that you're funding, are you funding this

767
00:40:56,360 --> 00:40:58,720
Speaker 4: out of your pocket? Are you getting bank lines of credit?

768
00:40:58,840 --> 00:40:59,760
Speaker 4: Or you have partners?

769
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:04,279
Speaker 5: Like great question again. So initially it was myself and

770
00:41:05,120 --> 00:41:09,960
Speaker 5: a partner, my partner Dave Diamond Castars my partner. He

771
00:41:10,120 --> 00:41:13,640
Speaker 5: actually passed away, but we started together. We had an

772
00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:17,920
Speaker 5: idea someone brought us, you know, after I got out

773
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:22,400
Speaker 5: of Papa John's up skipping apart, actually opened a nightclub

774
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,279
Speaker 5: called Rain in Brooklyn, me and Dave, and then we

775
00:41:25,320 --> 00:41:28,760
Speaker 5: went on to do the the first two I apps.

776
00:41:29,280 --> 00:41:33,480
Speaker 5: And what we did was, yes, we pulled together our

777
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:38,640
Speaker 5: resources and then we had one more option, which is

778
00:41:38,680 --> 00:41:41,600
Speaker 5: not as available today as it was before. We did

779
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:46,200
Speaker 5: like an equipment financing loan through through like g GE

780
00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:50,000
Speaker 5: the like there's a GE franchise Financial I don't know

781
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:53,719
Speaker 5: if they're still around today offer like equipment loans, so

782
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,840
Speaker 5: whatever we didn't. We used that for the equipment and

783
00:41:57,880 --> 00:41:59,959
Speaker 5: then we used our money to build the rest.

784
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 3: So prior to Papa John's, prior to IHB, did you

785
00:42:04,719 --> 00:42:08,799
Speaker 3: have any experience in the rests around tour game at all?

786
00:42:09,040 --> 00:42:11,440
Speaker 3: Or it's the capital let me partner with somebody who

787
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:12,239
Speaker 3: has that expertise.

788
00:42:13,360 --> 00:42:16,160
Speaker 5: No, we just knew. I just knew business right. So

789
00:42:16,680 --> 00:42:19,239
Speaker 5: prior to doing Papa John's, I just knew that I

790
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 5: wanted to own my own business right by having my

791
00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:26,360
Speaker 5: own management company, by having my own no label imprint.

792
00:42:26,680 --> 00:42:28,080
Speaker 5: I said, you know what, let me just let me

793
00:42:28,320 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 5: take a shot at it. Because franchising you can actually go.

794
00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:35,440
Speaker 5: So I went to training to learn how to run

795
00:42:35,719 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 5: the franchise, how to make the food, how to do

796
00:42:38,200 --> 00:42:40,840
Speaker 5: food course, how to do you know, schedule and labor,

797
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:44,840
Speaker 5: you know, build a restaurant. Basically, they teach you everything

798
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:48,239
Speaker 5: and training right, and I already know how to build that.

799
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,440
Speaker 5: I used to renovate homes here and there and do that,

800
00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 5: so I already knew construction, so that that came That

801
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:56,000
Speaker 5: part came easy.

802
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:58,920
Speaker 3: And then you said it was a tenure span between

803
00:42:59,040 --> 00:43:02,439
Speaker 3: the ihop and and obviously Brooklyn chop House. What role

804
00:43:02,560 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 3: is music and the music industry playing during that ten years?

805
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:06,120
Speaker 3: Are you still involved?

806
00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 5: Yeah? I still have my my relationships still earners.

807
00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:16,440
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811
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864
00:46:36,360 --> 00:46:40,399
Speaker 1: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned, and deported. You will

865
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,080
Speaker 1: never return. But if you register using our CBP home

866
00:46:44,120 --> 00:46:47,480
Speaker 1: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.

867
00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump, America's laws,

868
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: border and families will be protected.

869
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:57,280
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland.

870
00:46:57,040 --> 00:46:59,959
Speaker 5: Security to work in with Mary on the outside doing

871
00:47:00,239 --> 00:47:06,720
Speaker 5: some you know deals and you know, opportunities and appearances.

872
00:47:06,840 --> 00:47:10,080
Speaker 5: You know, I was handling a lot of that part

873
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:13,320
Speaker 5: of our business, like the appearances with different people around

874
00:47:13,320 --> 00:47:15,200
Speaker 5: the country, like like when she went on tour and

875
00:47:15,239 --> 00:47:19,319
Speaker 5: things of that nature. And then like I said, open

876
00:47:19,400 --> 00:47:21,600
Speaker 5: the nightclub, so I would have a lot of artists

877
00:47:21,600 --> 00:47:24,960
Speaker 5: come through the nightclub in Brooklyn. So through my relationships

878
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:29,000
Speaker 5: and then that I just kept all the entertainment relationships.

879
00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:31,640
Speaker 5: And then when I opened Brooklyn job houses, really when

880
00:47:31,800 --> 00:47:35,200
Speaker 5: a lot of because it's the same thing that I

881
00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:37,080
Speaker 5: used to do in the music industry. I used to

882
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:40,120
Speaker 5: frequent a lot of these restaurants and do my dinners

883
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:42,120
Speaker 5: at my meetings, and that's what we did a lot

884
00:47:42,160 --> 00:47:44,960
Speaker 5: in the you know when when you know you're working,

885
00:47:45,000 --> 00:47:47,759
Speaker 5: you know, having meetings after you before you go to

886
00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:50,879
Speaker 5: the studio, after you leave the label, it's always like, oh,

887
00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:52,400
Speaker 5: you want to get something to eat. So either the

888
00:47:52,440 --> 00:47:54,800
Speaker 5: label got the corporate card or you spending the money.

889
00:47:55,920 --> 00:48:00,560
Speaker 5: So that's how that's how that went. But yeah, the

890
00:48:00,600 --> 00:48:05,320
Speaker 5: relationships were important, and you know, just doing good business

891
00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,879
Speaker 5: with people all the way around kind of paid off

892
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:09,080
Speaker 5: in the end.

893
00:48:09,719 --> 00:48:15,640
Speaker 4: So all right, you take the steps to open Brooklyn Chophouse. Yeah,

894
00:48:15,719 --> 00:48:18,120
Speaker 4: what's this, What's what's the process to do that?

895
00:48:18,600 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 5: So what happened was Brooklyn chop House on Nashall Street

896
00:48:24,719 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 5: used to be a Denny's. Right, So I got a

897
00:48:27,920 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 5: call from the Denny's owner, like, it's not working out right,

898
00:48:33,719 --> 00:48:36,560
Speaker 5: this restaurant on Wall Street, it's not really you know,

899
00:48:37,120 --> 00:48:40,080
Speaker 5: performing the way it's supposed to. If you want to

900
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:42,359
Speaker 5: turn it into I hop turn it into you know,

901
00:48:42,719 --> 00:48:44,759
Speaker 5: the you know, the landlord is open for you to

902
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:46,239
Speaker 5: turn it into an I OP. And we know you

903
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 5: got the rights, and you know there's not a lot

904
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:50,920
Speaker 5: of them in Manhattan. This will be perfect for you.

905
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:57,200
Speaker 5: The operation operational, operationally, the vicinity was perfect. It was

906
00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:01,520
Speaker 5: right over the bridge. I went downtown. So I jumped

907
00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 5: in the deal, and midway through the deal, I said, uh,

908
00:49:05,080 --> 00:49:07,840
Speaker 5: you know what, this might not be good for IHAP.

909
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:11,799
Speaker 5: So if Denny's didn't work, I mean I'm stronger. I

910
00:49:11,800 --> 00:49:14,040
Speaker 5: don't think I want to, you know, put an eye

911
00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:17,000
Speaker 5: app here. So you know, I told the landlord, I

912
00:49:17,040 --> 00:49:20,440
Speaker 5: want to do my own concept. So originally I was

913
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:25,120
Speaker 5: gonna do a Caribbean concept there. So I took the

914
00:49:25,200 --> 00:49:29,200
Speaker 5: leads and signed the leafs and midway through me developing

915
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:35,960
Speaker 5: and building out the restaurant, I call my partner, my partner, Dave,

916
00:49:36,040 --> 00:49:39,160
Speaker 5: and I said, hey, you wanna I think you want

917
00:49:39,160 --> 00:49:41,520
Speaker 5: to do this? And you know he's West Indian, You're

918
00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:44,160
Speaker 5: want to do this restaurant with me because he always said,

919
00:49:44,200 --> 00:49:46,200
Speaker 5: you know, when you find an opportunity, to just call me.

920
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,879
Speaker 5: So I called him and Dave was like, I bet,

921
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:51,680
Speaker 5: let's do it. So then we got together and that's

922
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:54,080
Speaker 5: my partner in chap House. And then what ended up

923
00:49:54,120 --> 00:49:59,839
Speaker 5: happening was I gave another gentleman, you know, who does

924
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:05,000
Speaker 5: operations and who had a restaurant stratus. I gave him

925
00:50:05,000 --> 00:50:07,440
Speaker 5: a walkthrough, right. I was like, I'm doing his restaurant.

926
00:50:08,160 --> 00:50:09,880
Speaker 5: It's gonna be this, you know, I'm this is my

927
00:50:09,960 --> 00:50:13,040
Speaker 5: first four way into you know, New York City. I'm

928
00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:15,880
Speaker 5: gonna do like more like a fine down an upscale restaurant.

929
00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:18,160
Speaker 5: And he was like, oh, that's dope. It was like,

930
00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:21,120
Speaker 5: you know you should consider you know, flipping it and

931
00:50:21,160 --> 00:50:23,799
Speaker 5: doing you know, a different concept. I was like yeah.

932
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,440
Speaker 5: He was like, yeah, let's do you know I was

933
00:50:26,480 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 5: successful doing these other Asian brands. Let's do you know Asian,

934
00:50:30,360 --> 00:50:32,719
Speaker 5: I mean steakhouse, and the Caribbean was going to be

935
00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:38,160
Speaker 5: partly like a steakhouse anyway. So I was like, that

936
00:50:38,360 --> 00:50:41,719
Speaker 5: sounds good. Let's figure it out. So, you know, we

937
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:43,560
Speaker 5: came up with the name. You know, it was always

938
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:45,919
Speaker 5: the name was always going to be Brooklyn something right,

939
00:50:46,400 --> 00:50:51,240
Speaker 5: So we was thinking about Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn

940
00:50:51,239 --> 00:50:54,239
Speaker 5: Bridge Restaurant, We was thinking about Bridge and Butter. We

941
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:57,640
Speaker 5: had all these names and then we just said Brooklyn

942
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,239
Speaker 5: and it was like chop house, like chop stick and

943
00:51:00,320 --> 00:51:03,680
Speaker 5: chopped steaks, and then it sounds like something that's been

944
00:51:03,719 --> 00:51:06,120
Speaker 5: around for a long time. So we came up with

945
00:51:06,160 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 5: that name, and then that's how Brooklyn chop House was born.

946
00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:13,160
Speaker 3: So I was gonna say, in terms of from a

947
00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:17,200
Speaker 3: financial standpoint, obviously this is Wall Street, right, so we're

948
00:51:17,200 --> 00:51:20,600
Speaker 3: talking about are you at leasing the spot? How much

949
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:22,600
Speaker 3: is it as opposed to had you done the I

950
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:23,160
Speaker 3: Hop deal?

951
00:51:23,320 --> 00:51:23,400
Speaker 5: Right?

952
00:51:23,560 --> 00:51:26,479
Speaker 3: Was it more cash intensive or were more people needed

953
00:51:26,520 --> 00:51:28,319
Speaker 3: to be involved to finance? How did that work?

954
00:51:28,480 --> 00:51:32,400
Speaker 5: So it was less cash intensive because the blessing for

955
00:51:33,960 --> 00:51:38,279
Speaker 5: me and my partner Dave is that we were kind

956
00:51:38,320 --> 00:51:42,319
Speaker 5: of you know, successful for what we've been doing for

957
00:51:42,400 --> 00:51:45,200
Speaker 5: the last ten years, so we were looking I was

958
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:48,920
Speaker 5: actually looking for an investment opportunity, and the fact that

959
00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:54,000
Speaker 5: it's a second generation space, meaning that it was already

960
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:56,440
Speaker 5: built out as a restaurant, so I just had to

961
00:51:56,480 --> 00:52:00,720
Speaker 5: come in and change the furniture, change the equipment, changed

962
00:52:00,719 --> 00:52:04,279
Speaker 5: this static, you know, so we just had to basically,

963
00:52:04,400 --> 00:52:08,799
Speaker 5: to use a music term, I had to remix the restaurant, right,

964
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:12,600
Speaker 5: so I put my ditty on it and changed up

965
00:52:12,600 --> 00:52:17,160
Speaker 5: everything and made it more upscale, all the textures, all

966
00:52:17,160 --> 00:52:21,840
Speaker 5: the furnitures, all the you know, the equipment, and we

967
00:52:23,000 --> 00:52:28,160
Speaker 5: changed it into our use. Right, so much less cash

968
00:52:28,200 --> 00:52:31,719
Speaker 5: intensive by doing second generation space. And even if it

969
00:52:31,760 --> 00:52:33,960
Speaker 5: was I have, it probably might even be more or

970
00:52:34,000 --> 00:52:35,840
Speaker 5: less because a lot of the equipment is the same

971
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:38,200
Speaker 5: I have been. Then it's similar.

972
00:52:38,760 --> 00:52:38,960
Speaker 3: You know.

973
00:52:38,960 --> 00:52:41,360
Speaker 5: I probably would have went with all new equipment, because

974
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:43,719
Speaker 5: that's how I like to start with, you know, a

975
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:47,240
Speaker 5: concept I believe in, So I would have started fresh

976
00:52:47,760 --> 00:52:49,160
Speaker 5: instead of using old equipment.

977
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:51,880
Speaker 3: Did you have to sign like a five year or

978
00:52:51,920 --> 00:52:53,480
Speaker 3: ten year least? What was that process? Oh?

979
00:52:53,560 --> 00:52:57,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, we signed a twenty five unheard of because I

980
00:52:57,200 --> 00:53:00,359
Speaker 5: talked to them and you know, well, actually these had

981
00:53:00,360 --> 00:53:02,560
Speaker 5: a great lease. Let me not say that, and then

982
00:53:02,600 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 5: I was able to negotiate a great least myself. So yeah,

983
00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:09,600
Speaker 5: we have a long lease.

984
00:53:10,200 --> 00:53:14,200
Speaker 4: So all right, So now the restaurant business is a

985
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,399
Speaker 4: lot harder than the franchise business because it's not set

986
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:18,080
Speaker 4: for You got to kind of stry it. But you've

987
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:20,799
Speaker 4: learned it from So did you take the principles that

988
00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,640
Speaker 4: you learned from franchise and just duplicated with the restaurant I.

989
00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:25,359
Speaker 5: Got to say, it's another great question.

990
00:53:25,480 --> 00:53:25,840
Speaker 3: Yes.

991
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:29,359
Speaker 5: So so so that's how I was able to put

992
00:53:29,440 --> 00:53:32,760
Speaker 5: systems in place because I already had I was already

993
00:53:32,840 --> 00:53:37,200
Speaker 5: trained with these systems right from food ordering from all

994
00:53:37,239 --> 00:53:39,359
Speaker 5: the vendors and I'm that I was dealing with from

995
00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:42,040
Speaker 5: how the and the vendors to order from, which is

996
00:53:42,080 --> 00:53:45,400
Speaker 5: basically automated. Right, So we use some of the same vendors,

997
00:53:45,440 --> 00:53:49,560
Speaker 5: we use some of the same principles from a franchise,

998
00:53:50,160 --> 00:53:53,719
Speaker 5: I you know, use it. That's those same principles in

999
00:53:53,800 --> 00:53:59,919
Speaker 5: Brooklyn chop House, from hiring, from operations, from scheduling, from

1000
00:54:00,160 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 5: all of those different things and all of those different

1001
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:05,840
Speaker 5: tools that I had at my at my disposal, from

1002
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 5: being at I have except from you know, obviously I

1003
00:54:08,600 --> 00:54:12,640
Speaker 5: don't sell panchaches, but but I've used, you know, the

1004
00:54:13,080 --> 00:54:16,080
Speaker 5: knowledge that I got from all of the years of

1005
00:54:16,239 --> 00:54:20,880
Speaker 5: operating underneath these proven systems. I employed some of that,

1006
00:54:21,520 --> 00:54:25,799
Speaker 5: especially back at the back end, like the back end,

1007
00:54:25,840 --> 00:54:29,120
Speaker 5: like the financial, the you know, the you know, the bookkeeping,

1008
00:54:29,200 --> 00:54:31,960
Speaker 5: the you know, all of those things. So I already

1009
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:34,880
Speaker 5: had you know, systems in place from account.

1010
00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:40,360
Speaker 4: Talk about like food courts, right, explain what food course

1011
00:54:40,480 --> 00:54:42,280
Speaker 4: is and why food course is so important.

1012
00:54:42,320 --> 00:54:45,799
Speaker 5: Oh, food course is so important. So food course and

1013
00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:51,240
Speaker 5: labor course are your two highest controllables, your two highest

1014
00:54:51,239 --> 00:54:54,359
Speaker 5: controllable costs. So in any P and L when you're

1015
00:54:54,400 --> 00:54:58,600
Speaker 5: looking at one hundred percent or you're looking at let's

1016
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:04,160
Speaker 5: just say one dollar, So typically your full costs, you know,

1017
00:55:04,320 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 5: can range anywhere from twenty five percent to thirty five

1018
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:12,080
Speaker 5: percent of that one dollar, right, So and that's something

1019
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:16,080
Speaker 5: you have to control, right. And then you have your

1020
00:55:16,160 --> 00:55:21,440
Speaker 5: labor costs, which can be also high twenties to mid thirties,

1021
00:55:21,880 --> 00:55:24,919
Speaker 5: which if you put the two together, that's anywhere from

1022
00:55:24,960 --> 00:55:29,400
Speaker 5: fifty five to you know, high sixties or seventy percent

1023
00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:34,239
Speaker 5: of every dollar. It's in those two controllable costs. Right,

1024
00:55:34,560 --> 00:55:38,240
Speaker 5: So food cost is extremely important because if you can't

1025
00:55:38,320 --> 00:55:40,759
Speaker 5: control the cost of your food, obviously it's gonna shrink

1026
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:45,239
Speaker 5: your margins, right, you shrink your profit margins. So it's

1027
00:55:45,280 --> 00:55:49,719
Speaker 5: great to have, like, for instance, back to the franchising,

1028
00:55:49,840 --> 00:55:56,960
Speaker 5: so they have we do what we call like bulk purchasing,

1029
00:55:57,239 --> 00:56:01,800
Speaker 5: right because there's so many restaurant r purchasing at the

1030
00:56:01,840 --> 00:56:07,359
Speaker 5: same time that it reduces and it could kind of stabilize, right,

1031
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:11,000
Speaker 5: you could negotiate your prices and stabilize your food costs,

1032
00:56:11,320 --> 00:56:14,920
Speaker 5: which is to your advantage because there's a lot of

1033
00:56:15,440 --> 00:56:20,080
Speaker 5: like fluctuation and obviously produce and you know, chicken and

1034
00:56:20,160 --> 00:56:24,640
Speaker 5: meats and things of that nature. So with having so

1035
00:56:24,760 --> 00:56:27,960
Speaker 5: much buying power, you're able to level that out and

1036
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:36,040
Speaker 5: control it, like pretty much to get the maximum out

1037
00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,920
Speaker 5: of your full cost, meaning to bring your food costs

1038
00:56:38,960 --> 00:56:43,040
Speaker 5: down because the buying power so much. So it's a

1039
00:56:43,040 --> 00:56:46,200
Speaker 5: little more challenging when you have your own concept because

1040
00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,400
Speaker 5: if you're not doing volume, you're not able to you know,

1041
00:56:50,480 --> 00:56:54,000
Speaker 5: get that yeah, get that discount of that buying power

1042
00:56:54,040 --> 00:56:58,240
Speaker 5: that thousand restaurants are buying versus you know, just a small,

1043
00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:03,240
Speaker 5: small group of restaurants us and so in the franchise,

1044
00:57:03,320 --> 00:57:05,480
Speaker 5: we have what we call a co op who goes

1045
00:57:05,520 --> 00:57:09,840
Speaker 5: in and negotiates the pricing for us, and we're.

1046
00:57:09,719 --> 00:57:11,640
Speaker 2: All part of that co op for the whole region.

1047
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:15,360
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, so correct for the whole region. So within

1048
00:57:15,400 --> 00:57:19,720
Speaker 5: the country there might be you know, ten co ops, right,

1049
00:57:19,760 --> 00:57:22,160
Speaker 5: So every region has their own co op. So for

1050
00:57:22,280 --> 00:57:25,280
Speaker 5: New York, for example, there'll be New York, New Jersey,

1051
00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:29,800
Speaker 5: Connecticut co op. Right. So we go in, might be

1052
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:33,840
Speaker 5: a one hundred restaurants and we you know, we plan, right,

1053
00:57:33,880 --> 00:57:37,360
Speaker 5: we say, okay, we're gonna do this special like this.

1054
00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:40,520
Speaker 5: We think this is gonna work. This is just this

1055
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:43,400
Speaker 5: is back to iha. So the co op is an

1056
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:45,960
Speaker 5: important part of it, but you don't have that. And

1057
00:57:46,840 --> 00:57:48,800
Speaker 5: when you own your own restaurant, your own brand, so

1058
00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:51,040
Speaker 5: you have to do the best you can and negotiating

1059
00:57:51,080 --> 00:57:54,080
Speaker 5: your own prices and really watch the food court because

1060
00:57:54,600 --> 00:57:57,720
Speaker 5: you know it's a small even though you could do

1061
00:57:57,840 --> 00:58:01,640
Speaker 5: large numbers, your profit of it is very in restaurants,

1062
00:58:01,720 --> 00:58:02,880
Speaker 5: so how do you manage it?

1063
00:58:02,960 --> 00:58:05,840
Speaker 3: Because this is interesting, Like when you're doing pancakes, you

1064
00:58:05,880 --> 00:58:08,080
Speaker 3: can do a different vari antion of pancakes, right, you can,

1065
00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:10,600
Speaker 3: but they still pancakes or whether they're chocolate chip, you

1066
00:58:10,640 --> 00:58:12,720
Speaker 3: do something special with them. But one of the things,

1067
00:58:12,800 --> 00:58:14,760
Speaker 3: like when we go to book on chop House, the

1068
00:58:14,880 --> 00:58:18,200
Speaker 3: menu is so there's so many different types of food,

1069
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:20,040
Speaker 3: and so like one of the things we've heard, especially

1070
00:58:20,040 --> 00:58:22,640
Speaker 3: in the restaurant businesses, keep the menu limited. That way

1071
00:58:22,680 --> 00:58:23,920
Speaker 3: you can cut down on the food coats and have

1072
00:58:24,040 --> 00:58:27,080
Speaker 3: higher margins, but you have such a wide variety. How

1073
00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:30,720
Speaker 3: do you balance like having all that being an independent

1074
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:32,320
Speaker 3: and keeping good profit margins.

1075
00:58:32,400 --> 00:58:36,680
Speaker 5: I'm about to drop with jewel. You're gonna have to

1076
00:58:36,960 --> 00:58:37,840
Speaker 5: pay me for this one.

1077
00:58:37,880 --> 00:58:40,360
Speaker 3: You have to see, you're gonna have to frequent the restaurant.

1078
00:58:40,400 --> 00:58:42,000
Speaker 5: Yeah, you got a freak good the restaurant. You gotta

1079
00:58:42,000 --> 00:58:45,200
Speaker 5: frea good the restaurant. So we use a lot of

1080
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:50,080
Speaker 5: the same things in different items, So we lose a

1081
00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:53,480
Speaker 5: lot of the same menu items in different dishes. Right,

1082
00:58:53,560 --> 00:58:55,600
Speaker 5: That's kind of how we do it. So if we're

1083
00:58:55,600 --> 00:58:59,520
Speaker 5: buying you know, Bell and Evans organic chicken, we'll have

1084
00:59:00,120 --> 00:59:03,600
Speaker 5: our chicken dishes, or our chicken and rice, or or

1085
00:59:04,240 --> 00:59:11,400
Speaker 5: chick saute Beijing chicken sweing sour chicken, chicken compile different

1086
00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:16,560
Speaker 5: menus that we have. We have the same items, so

1087
00:59:16,600 --> 00:59:20,960
Speaker 5: the items aren't that extensive, but we're able to create

1088
00:59:21,200 --> 00:59:28,080
Speaker 5: different Yeah, we're able to create different likable dishes that

1089
00:59:29,640 --> 00:59:32,680
Speaker 5: like the lobster. You got the lobster, so lobster. We

1090
00:59:32,680 --> 00:59:35,919
Speaker 5: have lobster fried rice. We have lobster saute, we have

1091
00:59:36,200 --> 00:59:40,160
Speaker 5: a lobster spring rolls. We have lobster salt and pepper lobster.

1092
00:59:40,240 --> 00:59:43,919
Speaker 5: We have ginger lobster. So yeah, that's enough.

1093
00:59:45,440 --> 00:59:47,080
Speaker 3: All the good. By the way, I think I tried

1094
00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,680
Speaker 3: everything you just said. Ladies and gentlemen, it just dropped

1095
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:53,520
Speaker 3: them somebody on the lobster.

1096
00:59:55,800 --> 00:59:59,680
Speaker 4: Lobster. Let's talk about liquor license because that's something that

1097
00:59:59,720 --> 01:00:02,959
Speaker 4: a lot of people have. I've seen restaurants getting taken

1098
01:00:02,960 --> 01:00:05,200
Speaker 4: out because of liquor like, like they might lose their liquor

1099
01:00:05,240 --> 01:00:08,400
Speaker 4: license and then they're not making enough money. How much revenue,

1100
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:14,240
Speaker 4: like percentage wise, comes from a liquor license, and how

1101
01:00:14,280 --> 01:00:17,480
Speaker 4: hard is it. What's the challenges and actually getting a

1102
01:00:17,520 --> 01:00:19,520
Speaker 4: liquor license and maintaining a liquor license.

1103
01:00:19,560 --> 01:00:23,040
Speaker 5: So I have quite a few of those, but it's

1104
01:00:23,120 --> 01:00:28,080
Speaker 5: it's in the city that I operate in is not

1105
01:00:28,560 --> 01:00:32,040
Speaker 5: that challenging. You just have to qualify, and you have

1106
01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:35,440
Speaker 5: to qualify in two ways. Your location has to qualify

1107
01:00:35,520 --> 01:00:39,440
Speaker 5: and you have to qualify. So obviously, you know, you

1108
01:00:39,480 --> 01:00:41,560
Speaker 5: couldn't have a list of license before and do like

1109
01:00:41,680 --> 01:00:45,560
Speaker 5: reckless things with it. You got to be responsible. And

1110
01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:50,600
Speaker 5: then obviously you have to have the capital to build

1111
01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:52,880
Speaker 5: your restaurant because they want to know that you're actually

1112
01:00:53,120 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 5: you can actually build a restaurant that you're applying for

1113
01:00:55,880 --> 01:00:59,880
Speaker 5: the liquor license for. And the challenges sometimes is that

1114
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:02,600
Speaker 5: you know, when you're applying for the license, you're actually

1115
01:01:02,600 --> 01:01:05,000
Speaker 5: building the restaurant at the same time, so you're actually

1116
01:01:05,040 --> 01:01:07,720
Speaker 5: spending money while you apply for the license. The cost

1117
01:01:07,760 --> 01:01:10,960
Speaker 5: of the license is not a lot of money. It's

1118
01:01:11,040 --> 01:01:14,840
Speaker 5: only forty five hundred per bar right in New York City,

1119
01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:20,720
Speaker 5: so that's that's not hard. But finding a location that

1120
01:01:20,960 --> 01:01:26,480
Speaker 5: can be licensed can be a challenge because the liquor

1121
01:01:26,520 --> 01:01:30,160
Speaker 5: authority don't want too many licenses unless it's zoned differently.

1122
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:34,040
Speaker 5: They don't want too many licenses or too much alcohol

1123
01:01:34,040 --> 01:01:37,160
Speaker 5: being sold on the same block area right because it's

1124
01:01:37,240 --> 01:01:40,600
Speaker 5: like unless it's like a zone, it's zone like a.

1125
01:01:40,560 --> 01:01:44,320
Speaker 4: Times square or like Bourbon Street.

1126
01:01:44,120 --> 01:01:50,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, or things like that. Then then it's different or

1127
01:01:50,200 --> 01:01:54,120
Speaker 5: like Hell's Kitchen has has a different zone, but other places,

1128
01:01:54,760 --> 01:01:57,320
Speaker 5: And I'm assuming it's the quality of life. They don't

1129
01:01:57,360 --> 01:02:01,040
Speaker 5: want too many liquor licenses on one block. I believe

1130
01:02:01,080 --> 01:02:03,760
Speaker 5: it's like four might be the max or something like that.

1131
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:08,560
Speaker 5: I'm not sure. But your location has to qualify, so

1132
01:02:08,600 --> 01:02:11,160
Speaker 5: it can't be too close. I think it's the fire

1133
01:02:11,240 --> 01:02:14,120
Speaker 5: from your foot rolls. You gotta be five hundred feet

1134
01:02:14,160 --> 01:02:20,760
Speaker 5: away from a school, a church, and other entities that

1135
01:02:21,200 --> 01:02:25,000
Speaker 5: are in the Yeah, things like that. You can't be

1136
01:02:25,320 --> 01:02:28,120
Speaker 5: like you can't walk out and then there's the nightclub,

1137
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:31,440
Speaker 5: or you can't walk out, then there's you know, things

1138
01:02:31,480 --> 01:02:34,560
Speaker 5: like that. You're selling the liquor store, so you know

1139
01:02:34,600 --> 01:02:38,960
Speaker 5: they tried to so, so in that essence, the actual

1140
01:02:39,880 --> 01:02:43,720
Speaker 5: location needs to qualify as well as you qualify when

1141
01:02:43,760 --> 01:02:44,680
Speaker 5: you get the liquor license.

1142
01:02:44,760 --> 01:02:47,440
Speaker 3: When you create a chop house, obviously you gotta have

1143
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:49,000
Speaker 3: food clothes, but there's also a part of it that

1144
01:02:49,040 --> 01:02:50,720
Speaker 3: you have to market to make sure that people know

1145
01:02:50,800 --> 01:02:53,360
Speaker 3: that it's there. And so I'm wondering was there a

1146
01:02:53,360 --> 01:02:55,920
Speaker 3: marketing budget or was it the power of the relationships

1147
01:02:55,960 --> 01:02:59,400
Speaker 3: that you had, you know, cultivated throughout your career. That

1148
01:02:59,480 --> 01:03:01,560
Speaker 3: helps inside that marketing.

1149
01:03:01,560 --> 01:03:05,040
Speaker 5: So it was a combination of both. It's it's the

1150
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:10,960
Speaker 5: power of social media, right, So just one person or

1151
01:03:10,960 --> 01:03:16,680
Speaker 5: a few people that influencers, taste makers, people that just

1152
01:03:16,840 --> 01:03:21,000
Speaker 5: love the brand and you know and love what we do.

1153
01:03:21,080 --> 01:03:25,120
Speaker 5: Can we fuse you know, our you know culture, whether

1154
01:03:25,280 --> 01:03:28,800
Speaker 5: you know entertainment, music, food, fashion. We kind of fused

1155
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:33,280
Speaker 5: it together to create Brooklyn Chop House. So when people

1156
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:36,760
Speaker 5: get that experience, you know, they share it. And once

1157
01:03:36,800 --> 01:03:41,240
Speaker 5: they share that experience, people may say even today, we're

1158
01:03:41,240 --> 01:03:44,160
Speaker 5: getting a lot of people in Times Square like we

1159
01:03:44,320 --> 01:03:46,720
Speaker 5: just came here to see a play and to go

1160
01:03:46,760 --> 01:03:50,800
Speaker 5: to Brooklyn Chop House. So we're getting after after you know,

1161
01:03:50,880 --> 01:03:53,840
Speaker 5: being opened, the brand being open five years now, we're

1162
01:03:53,840 --> 01:03:56,560
Speaker 5: getting people from out of state that's coming in town

1163
01:03:56,640 --> 01:03:59,880
Speaker 5: that they heard about it, or they heard someone celebrated

1164
01:04:00,040 --> 01:04:05,320
Speaker 5: there that was you know, a significant you know, personal

1165
01:04:05,480 --> 01:04:10,280
Speaker 5: celebrity or artists or athlete you know, celebrated at the restaurant.

1166
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:14,240
Speaker 5: And they see the social media because it's not really

1167
01:04:14,320 --> 01:04:19,600
Speaker 5: like the news, it's just social and people posting how

1168
01:04:19,680 --> 01:04:23,400
Speaker 5: much they enjoy their experience. How much they enjoy the food.

1169
01:04:23,440 --> 01:04:27,440
Speaker 5: They're taking pictures of the food, and you know that's

1170
01:04:27,480 --> 01:04:33,000
Speaker 5: really has what has spread the word around it and

1171
01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:36,480
Speaker 5: in the relationships obviously, you know helped. You know, I

1172
01:04:36,480 --> 01:04:39,560
Speaker 5: come from a promotion promotion background, so I used to

1173
01:04:40,000 --> 01:04:41,800
Speaker 5: I left this part up. I used to throw parties

1174
01:04:41,920 --> 01:04:45,120
Speaker 5: as well, like one two big parties a year, so

1175
01:04:45,520 --> 01:04:48,240
Speaker 5: you know, I had a small, you know, network of

1176
01:04:48,280 --> 01:04:51,320
Speaker 5: people that came to support. But it's not just that,

1177
01:04:51,400 --> 01:04:55,800
Speaker 5: it's just the brand is standing on its own and

1178
01:04:55,960 --> 01:04:59,040
Speaker 5: you know the experience of when you know they come

1179
01:04:59,120 --> 01:05:02,400
Speaker 5: to other the two most important things obviously the food.

1180
01:05:02,440 --> 01:05:04,280
Speaker 5: People like the food. But you know, you want to

1181
01:05:04,320 --> 01:05:06,720
Speaker 5: have a good experience in a nice place.

1182
01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:09,439
Speaker 4: Yeah, like I said, you know, they see me there

1183
01:05:09,480 --> 01:05:13,360
Speaker 4: probably at least once a week. So yeah, doing my

1184
01:05:13,440 --> 01:05:16,760
Speaker 4: promotional purposes. So let's ask you. Let me ask you this.

1185
01:05:17,200 --> 01:05:20,200
Speaker 4: So you said the two biggest costs that you could

1186
01:05:20,240 --> 01:05:23,080
Speaker 4: control are food and labor. Yes, you talked about food

1187
01:05:23,200 --> 01:05:24,120
Speaker 4: and talk about labor.

1188
01:05:24,480 --> 01:05:28,600
Speaker 5: Okay, So labor you have to be able to control,

1189
01:05:28,800 --> 01:05:34,080
Speaker 5: to schedule correctly, know your market right. So I don't

1190
01:05:34,120 --> 01:05:37,320
Speaker 5: open for lunch right lunch At one point prior to

1191
01:05:37,360 --> 01:05:41,320
Speaker 5: COVID was a big seg daytime part, a big segment

1192
01:05:41,360 --> 01:05:44,960
Speaker 5: of the business. But right now it's not as big

1193
01:05:45,360 --> 01:05:48,919
Speaker 5: in certain markets as it used to be because it's

1194
01:05:49,280 --> 01:05:53,000
Speaker 5: the traffic isn't the same. The traffic change. People aren't working,

1195
01:05:53,200 --> 01:05:58,120
Speaker 5: people aren't working as much from the office. Maybe there's

1196
01:05:58,200 --> 01:06:01,520
Speaker 5: three and two right or maybe it's all at the

1197
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:05,720
Speaker 5: Maybe it's all at the office, so I mean, sorry,

1198
01:06:05,800 --> 01:06:08,760
Speaker 5: all at home. So what happens is you have to

1199
01:06:09,080 --> 01:06:11,560
Speaker 5: know your you know, traffic patterns, you have to know

1200
01:06:12,040 --> 01:06:18,000
Speaker 5: how to schedule. And that's a huge cost because obviously,

1201
01:06:18,080 --> 01:06:19,640
Speaker 5: you know, there's a lot of a lot that goes

1202
01:06:19,680 --> 01:06:23,280
Speaker 5: into labor, and you know, New York, New York City,

1203
01:06:23,760 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 5: you know requires that you know, you do it the

1204
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:30,440
Speaker 5: right way. So, you know, we we pride ourselves on

1205
01:06:31,040 --> 01:06:34,360
Speaker 5: having quite a few employees that help us execute. When

1206
01:06:34,360 --> 01:06:37,560
Speaker 5: you're busy, you need more employees. So, but when you're

1207
01:06:37,600 --> 01:06:40,600
Speaker 5: not busy, there's you know, some slow times. You have

1208
01:06:40,640 --> 01:06:43,760
Speaker 5: to know how to you know, control your schedule.

1209
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:46,400
Speaker 3: What are some other costs that associated with the business.

1210
01:06:46,480 --> 01:06:50,040
Speaker 3: Obviously said food and labor, but there's other costs that

1211
01:06:50,080 --> 01:06:52,280
Speaker 3: people probably aren't aware of if they're trying to get

1212
01:06:52,280 --> 01:06:54,240
Speaker 3: into the space that they probably should be aware of

1213
01:06:54,280 --> 01:06:55,680
Speaker 3: and prepare for if they're going.

1214
01:06:55,600 --> 01:06:59,960
Speaker 5: To Yeah, so I think knowing your locate. You know,

1215
01:07:00,200 --> 01:07:03,800
Speaker 5: you heard the term location, location, location, knowing the right

1216
01:07:03,920 --> 01:07:09,120
Speaker 5: location for the concept that you're doing. Right. So, for instance,

1217
01:07:10,160 --> 01:07:14,080
Speaker 5: you might not want to open up subways in your

1218
01:07:14,160 --> 01:07:19,000
Speaker 5: neighborhood when everyone's at work during lunch, right, because the

1219
01:07:19,040 --> 01:07:23,400
Speaker 5: subways is primarily a sandwich is primarily a lunchtime item.

1220
01:07:23,640 --> 01:07:28,480
Speaker 5: So you might want to position your franchise or your

1221
01:07:28,520 --> 01:07:34,480
Speaker 5: brand if you if you focus on lunch, you might

1222
01:07:34,520 --> 01:07:38,439
Speaker 5: want to put that in there an office complex where

1223
01:07:38,440 --> 01:07:40,920
Speaker 5: people at work where people need to grab lunch.

1224
01:07:41,160 --> 01:07:41,360
Speaker 3: Right.

1225
01:07:41,480 --> 01:07:46,120
Speaker 5: So it's all location, right, So I think that, and

1226
01:07:46,200 --> 01:07:50,080
Speaker 5: you know, obviously negotiating the deal and you know, try

1227
01:07:50,120 --> 01:07:53,560
Speaker 5: not to have high rents, which is tough in certain markets.

1228
01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:59,919
Speaker 5: That's a non controllable cause because that's a fixed cost.

1229
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:00,480
Speaker 3: Right.

1230
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:03,600
Speaker 5: So you have fixed costs that you have to obviously

1231
01:08:03,680 --> 01:08:06,920
Speaker 5: be aware of, you know, from garbage to electric to

1232
01:08:08,240 --> 01:08:12,080
Speaker 5: you know, rent and you know, cleaning services and things

1233
01:08:12,120 --> 01:08:16,680
Speaker 5: that you must have as far as running a restaurant.

1234
01:08:17,680 --> 01:08:20,280
Speaker 5: So you have the fixed costs and then you have

1235
01:08:20,320 --> 01:08:24,799
Speaker 5: things that are in your control that you must control

1236
01:08:24,960 --> 01:08:26,599
Speaker 5: else it hurts your bottom.

1237
01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,320
Speaker 4: So you got the variable court and fixed cost.

1238
01:08:30,200 --> 01:08:33,320
Speaker 5: Insurance you're putting there to insurance would be a fixed

1239
01:08:33,360 --> 01:08:37,240
Speaker 5: cost because you can't you can't control the insurance rates.

1240
01:08:37,479 --> 01:08:39,599
Speaker 3: I just picture for you. I'm gonna show this to you. Right,

1241
01:08:39,800 --> 01:08:42,679
Speaker 3: you said, people visit look at the date. See the date.

1242
01:08:44,200 --> 01:08:46,040
Speaker 3: So let me see March.

1243
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:48,719
Speaker 5: Thir Wow, this is right before the fans.

1244
01:08:48,760 --> 01:08:52,760
Speaker 3: A week later book the chop house would close the doors.

1245
01:08:53,240 --> 01:08:55,040
Speaker 3: So I want to talk about that. Man, talk about

1246
01:08:55,160 --> 01:08:57,360
Speaker 3: well March it was my birthday. So we went there

1247
01:08:57,400 --> 01:09:00,160
Speaker 3: on this is the down by Wall Street, but for

1248
01:09:00,400 --> 01:09:00,920
Speaker 3: Times Square.

1249
01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:02,080
Speaker 4: So talk about that.

1250
01:09:02,280 --> 01:09:05,000
Speaker 3: The impact obviously that COVID had on you, and how

1251
01:09:05,080 --> 01:09:07,880
Speaker 3: you were able to leverage that in the new location

1252
01:09:07,920 --> 01:09:08,559
Speaker 3: in town Square.

1253
01:09:08,840 --> 01:09:12,479
Speaker 5: So, I mean we were all impacted, like every most

1254
01:09:12,520 --> 01:09:16,840
Speaker 5: in most industries were impacted, especially the hospitality industry, the

1255
01:09:16,880 --> 01:09:20,320
Speaker 5: restaurants and hotels. Everything was just closed. It was just

1256
01:09:20,640 --> 01:09:23,080
Speaker 5: like it was over. So we all went home. We

1257
01:09:23,120 --> 01:09:27,640
Speaker 5: had to really think in the word is pivot. We

1258
01:09:27,760 --> 01:09:31,040
Speaker 5: had to really figure out how to pivot from all

1259
01:09:31,080 --> 01:09:33,599
Speaker 5: of this, right, because you could have sat down and

1260
01:09:33,720 --> 01:09:38,519
Speaker 5: just waited till everyone came back, which in retrospect, it

1261
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:40,559
Speaker 5: took a long time for it to get back to

1262
01:09:40,760 --> 01:09:43,599
Speaker 5: it's still not normal, to get back to some normalcy, right,

1263
01:09:44,120 --> 01:09:46,400
Speaker 5: So we had to figure out how to pivot, and

1264
01:09:46,439 --> 01:09:49,880
Speaker 5: that's how you know, our concept Brooklyn Dumpling Shop was

1265
01:09:49,920 --> 01:09:53,280
Speaker 5: born from pivoting. That's one thing. And the other thing

1266
01:09:53,520 --> 01:10:01,479
Speaker 5: was we had to change our to labor. So we

1267
01:10:01,520 --> 01:10:05,200
Speaker 5: had to cut all the labor back obviously because we're

1268
01:10:05,200 --> 01:10:08,240
Speaker 5: not open, but we were allowed to do delivery, so

1269
01:10:08,320 --> 01:10:11,280
Speaker 5: our deliveries went up. We got you know, we had

1270
01:10:11,320 --> 01:10:14,280
Speaker 5: some support, so a lot of people were coming to

1271
01:10:14,320 --> 01:10:16,800
Speaker 5: pick up, so we were doing pick up and deliveries.

1272
01:10:17,040 --> 01:10:19,720
Speaker 5: We were closed, we couldn't do any indoor dining, so

1273
01:10:19,760 --> 01:10:22,320
Speaker 5: I pick up and deliveries went through the roof, and

1274
01:10:22,400 --> 01:10:28,040
Speaker 5: then we started delivering food to the first responder's, a

1275
01:10:28,080 --> 01:10:30,280
Speaker 5: lot of emergency rooms because you know, at that point,

1276
01:10:30,840 --> 01:10:32,760
Speaker 5: you know, there was a lot of people, a lot

1277
01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:37,680
Speaker 5: of loss of life and things were happening that you know,

1278
01:10:37,800 --> 01:10:39,920
Speaker 5: we didn't know what was going to happen next, right,

1279
01:10:39,960 --> 01:10:42,000
Speaker 5: it was just like, oh, you touched this person, like

1280
01:10:42,120 --> 01:10:45,639
Speaker 5: you got like it was a weird time. So once

1281
01:10:45,640 --> 01:10:47,880
Speaker 5: we started doing that, we ended up getting you know,

1282
01:10:47,920 --> 01:10:51,160
Speaker 5: someone picked up the story and I think we got

1283
01:10:51,160 --> 01:10:54,160
Speaker 5: hero the day of the manga and sorry in one

1284
01:10:54,200 --> 01:10:58,880
Speaker 5: of the newspapers. And then all of a sudden, the

1285
01:10:58,920 --> 01:11:03,719
Speaker 5: food purveyors, right, which were also in fact impacted, they closes,

1286
01:11:03,760 --> 01:11:06,519
Speaker 5: they don't have anyone to send food to but the

1287
01:11:06,560 --> 01:11:10,920
Speaker 5: people that's doing delivery and take out. So their business changed,

1288
01:11:11,479 --> 01:11:14,200
Speaker 5: and they had a lot of product that they had

1289
01:11:14,240 --> 01:11:18,120
Speaker 5: to you know, certain things have an expiration day, right,

1290
01:11:18,200 --> 01:11:21,280
Speaker 5: so vegetables and you know, different things. So all of

1291
01:11:21,320 --> 01:11:25,320
Speaker 5: a sudden we started getting boxes and loads of vegetables

1292
01:11:25,400 --> 01:11:27,840
Speaker 5: and food and produce because they saw that we were

1293
01:11:27,880 --> 01:11:31,880
Speaker 5: you know, cooking things, just giving it away, right, So

1294
01:11:31,960 --> 01:11:35,759
Speaker 5: that was great. So the purveyors, you know, vast water,

1295
01:11:36,200 --> 01:11:40,000
Speaker 5: different companies, just started sending us boxes and packages. Our

1296
01:11:40,560 --> 01:11:45,519
Speaker 5: dining room would filled with boxes of produce, vegetables, water,

1297
01:11:46,400 --> 01:11:49,320
Speaker 5: anything that we could know make. So we'd make all

1298
01:11:49,320 --> 01:11:51,800
Speaker 5: these dishes and pans and we'd just bring them to

1299
01:11:52,280 --> 01:11:55,720
Speaker 5: police departments, hospital, every hospital in the city. I think

1300
01:11:55,760 --> 01:11:58,200
Speaker 5: we touched just out the cond as far. We didn't

1301
01:11:58,200 --> 01:12:01,519
Speaker 5: want anything in return. We just knew at that point

1302
01:12:01,640 --> 01:12:05,960
Speaker 5: it was you know, people that were in the front lines.

1303
01:12:06,439 --> 01:12:07,760
Speaker 5: Didn't have to be in the front line. They could

1304
01:12:07,760 --> 01:12:11,360
Speaker 5: have quit too, right, So we just did something for them.

1305
01:12:11,720 --> 01:12:17,880
Speaker 5: And then when they started to open the outside program

1306
01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:19,840
Speaker 5: where you could build the decks, is when we built

1307
01:12:19,840 --> 01:12:22,519
Speaker 5: the decks, and then from there everyone I guess it

1308
01:12:22,600 --> 01:12:25,800
Speaker 5: was cooped up too much. It was looking like pirates outside.

1309
01:12:26,320 --> 01:12:29,439
Speaker 5: Like everybody came out and it was like an outdoor party,

1310
01:12:29,600 --> 01:12:30,240
Speaker 5: like every night.

1311
01:12:30,280 --> 01:12:30,719
Speaker 3: I remember.

1312
01:12:30,760 --> 01:12:33,280
Speaker 4: I remember that that element was outside. It was in

1313
01:12:33,320 --> 01:12:33,639
Speaker 4: the winter.

1314
01:12:33,720 --> 01:12:36,000
Speaker 5: They had like yeah, I had I had winside to

1315
01:12:36,040 --> 01:12:39,040
Speaker 5: cover that heat lambs. So for just about a whole

1316
01:12:39,080 --> 01:12:42,519
Speaker 5: year until twenty twenty one, we was outside. It was

1317
01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:45,360
Speaker 5: rocking outside, it was snowing, and people were eating. The

1318
01:12:45,439 --> 01:12:48,759
Speaker 5: decks were full because it became like I guess everyone's

1319
01:12:48,760 --> 01:12:50,879
Speaker 5: patterns changed again. It became a way.

1320
01:12:50,640 --> 01:12:54,840
Speaker 4: Of getting outside. Speaking of your employees, we gotta give

1321
01:12:54,920 --> 01:12:59,240
Speaker 4: Ja Kwan absolutely dope shout out. He always holds us

1322
01:12:59,240 --> 01:13:02,120
Speaker 4: down every time he was out there with you guys.

1323
01:13:02,200 --> 01:13:05,479
Speaker 5: Yeah, so j Kwan, And I'm glad I was able

1324
01:13:05,479 --> 01:13:07,640
Speaker 5: to take him out there and show him, you know,

1325
01:13:07,760 --> 01:13:09,760
Speaker 5: the other side of the other side of the world.

1326
01:13:09,840 --> 01:13:13,799
Speaker 5: But yeah, he was with us from I guess after

1327
01:13:13,840 --> 01:13:18,479
Speaker 5: the fifth or sixth month of us opening Brooklyn Chop

1328
01:13:18,560 --> 01:13:24,320
Speaker 5: House fi I in the financial district and it's great

1329
01:13:24,320 --> 01:13:27,400
Speaker 5: to see his growth. He's been with me since then,

1330
01:13:27,439 --> 01:13:32,680
Speaker 5: since two thousand and nineteen. So I had the opportunity

1331
01:13:32,760 --> 01:13:37,720
Speaker 5: to do a Brooklyn Chop House with the w and

1332
01:13:37,840 --> 01:13:43,800
Speaker 5: Abu Dhabi during Formula one, which was incredible. Bumped into

1333
01:13:43,880 --> 01:13:46,280
Speaker 5: you guys on the other side of the Not only

1334
01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:48,360
Speaker 5: did I bump into them, I was going to play with.

1335
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:50,240
Speaker 4: Them, that is true.

1336
01:13:50,880 --> 01:13:52,160
Speaker 3: Going and coming back.

1337
01:13:52,680 --> 01:13:55,800
Speaker 5: By the way, we were on the second floor. You

1338
01:13:55,840 --> 01:13:59,320
Speaker 5: don't know what that means, you know, you know, you know,

1339
01:13:59,360 --> 01:14:01,880
Speaker 5: you know, interest separate, pole, separate.

1340
01:14:02,920 --> 01:14:05,400
Speaker 4: You know that's a fact. And Marsha shout out to

1341
01:14:05,479 --> 01:14:09,840
Speaker 4: Hunt too, Yeah, shout out to market. He's hold me

1342
01:14:09,840 --> 01:14:11,360
Speaker 4: down a few times. So let's talk about the most

1343
01:14:11,400 --> 01:14:16,240
Speaker 4: important part of a restaurant, the chef, because nothing is

1344
01:14:16,479 --> 01:14:18,479
Speaker 4: It doesn't matter that I'm beyond the vibe if the

1345
01:14:18,479 --> 01:14:21,800
Speaker 4: food isn't good. So, you know, I don't think people

1346
01:14:21,840 --> 01:14:25,240
Speaker 4: have a full appreciation of chefs because it's probably one

1347
01:14:25,240 --> 01:14:28,200
Speaker 4: of the hardest jobs because you don't even really live

1348
01:14:28,240 --> 01:14:31,000
Speaker 4: in a real life. You're working in the restaurant from

1349
01:14:31,040 --> 01:14:34,200
Speaker 4: like six o'clock to like two o'clock in the morning,

1350
01:14:34,880 --> 01:14:37,559
Speaker 4: five days a week. It's like a night shift. You

1351
01:14:37,600 --> 01:14:41,360
Speaker 4: don't even get to you don't have no nights, I.

1352
01:14:41,320 --> 01:14:46,640
Speaker 5: Mean, and weekends and weekends, holidays. Yeah, exactly, Like the

1353
01:14:46,920 --> 01:14:51,639
Speaker 5: business is tough. I mean, I've been fortunate to layer

1354
01:14:52,000 --> 01:14:55,120
Speaker 5: all of my businesses with managers and you know, to

1355
01:14:55,120 --> 01:14:57,200
Speaker 5: the point where I have a director of operations. So

1356
01:14:57,800 --> 01:15:00,439
Speaker 5: you know, but in the beginning, I would in there

1357
01:15:00,600 --> 01:15:03,400
Speaker 5: like that because I had to watch you know, you know,

1358
01:15:03,439 --> 01:15:04,880
Speaker 5: it was most of what I had, I had to

1359
01:15:04,880 --> 01:15:07,880
Speaker 5: make that grow. So in the beginning, you you really

1360
01:15:08,000 --> 01:15:11,040
Speaker 5: sacrifice and put a lot of work in. But you know,

1361
01:15:11,160 --> 01:15:13,960
Speaker 5: going back to what you're saying about the chefs, like

1362
01:15:14,120 --> 01:15:17,679
Speaker 5: they you know, it's it's it's it's a tough position,

1363
01:15:18,040 --> 01:15:22,000
Speaker 5: right to execute day in and day out. So shout

1364
01:15:22,000 --> 01:15:24,160
Speaker 5: out to shout out to my chef, can't you know,

1365
01:15:24,160 --> 01:15:26,960
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna tell your name because people knowing that

1366
01:15:27,120 --> 01:15:30,400
Speaker 5: you know the secret sauce, But shout out to my chef.

1367
01:15:30,520 --> 01:15:33,640
Speaker 5: You know how he holds me down. And then and

1368
01:15:33,680 --> 01:15:36,800
Speaker 5: then I replicate that, right, because now my chef can't

1369
01:15:36,800 --> 01:15:39,759
Speaker 5: be in two places at time, So now I trained

1370
01:15:39,800 --> 01:15:44,640
Speaker 5: another chef, and then for when we become permanent in

1371
01:15:44,680 --> 01:15:47,280
Speaker 5: the W hotel, there's gonna be another chef. And then

1372
01:15:47,320 --> 01:15:51,000
Speaker 5: I'm building one in Miami, which this chef is gonna

1373
01:15:51,040 --> 01:15:54,479
Speaker 5: go down and spend like two months. So we're treating

1374
01:15:54,560 --> 01:15:59,760
Speaker 5: another chef to hold hold down the latest restaurant while

1375
01:15:59,800 --> 01:16:02,680
Speaker 5: he so, so it's just it takes time though, it

1376
01:16:03,080 --> 01:16:06,120
Speaker 5: gotta do it in steps. But when I get to Miami,

1377
01:16:06,200 --> 01:16:07,439
Speaker 5: he's gonna be training.

1378
01:16:07,680 --> 01:16:10,160
Speaker 4: So so so it's not necessarily and I shout out

1379
01:16:10,160 --> 01:16:11,840
Speaker 4: to the chef because obviously it is the chef, but

1380
01:16:12,040 --> 01:16:15,320
Speaker 4: it's the recipe because like, because my whole thing is

1381
01:16:15,360 --> 01:16:19,040
Speaker 4: like if the chef isn't there anymore, well, the food

1382
01:16:19,080 --> 01:16:21,720
Speaker 4: still taste the same, yeah, because of because of the

1383
01:16:22,560 --> 01:16:25,360
Speaker 4: So you got the chef teaching the Sioux chefs, right,

1384
01:16:25,439 --> 01:16:27,280
Speaker 4: and then they become chefs and then they teach. So

1385
01:16:27,640 --> 01:16:29,639
Speaker 4: the recipe is the most important thing.

1386
01:16:29,600 --> 01:16:32,840
Speaker 5: Correct, It's the recipes and and and it's the chef

1387
01:16:32,880 --> 01:16:36,439
Speaker 5: too because it's the quality. It's quality control, right. So

1388
01:16:36,479 --> 01:16:40,280
Speaker 5: it's quality control with the recipes, right because you could

1389
01:16:40,280 --> 01:16:43,080
Speaker 5: take the recipe and mess it up. So it's just

1390
01:16:44,160 --> 01:16:47,519
Speaker 5: quality control because there's always you know, new people that

1391
01:16:47,560 --> 01:16:52,400
Speaker 5: come that we train. So it's about doing it consistently

1392
01:16:52,840 --> 01:16:57,760
Speaker 5: all of the time, right, just like consistent service. Right,

1393
01:16:58,080 --> 01:17:03,160
Speaker 5: it's the consistent quality of the food that helps make

1394
01:17:03,280 --> 01:17:06,920
Speaker 5: everyone feel like every time I go there, the chicken

1395
01:17:06,960 --> 01:17:10,640
Speaker 5: saute tastes the same, the sauce tastes the same. So

1396
01:17:11,120 --> 01:17:14,960
Speaker 5: that's kind of key, you know, for anyone in the

1397
01:17:15,000 --> 01:17:20,800
Speaker 5: restaurant business to have that consistency because oftentimes I'm also

1398
01:17:20,800 --> 01:17:23,720
Speaker 5: the customer. I'm not only the business guy. I'm the customer, right,

1399
01:17:23,760 --> 01:17:26,439
Speaker 5: So I do this. I go out right like I'm

1400
01:17:26,439 --> 01:17:29,320
Speaker 5: on the receiving it. So sometimes I have good service.

1401
01:17:29,360 --> 01:17:32,719
Speaker 5: Sometimes I have bad service. Sometimes I have the places

1402
01:17:32,760 --> 01:17:35,639
Speaker 5: that I love the most. They might be a little off,

1403
01:17:35,680 --> 01:17:37,439
Speaker 5: but I love it so much I forgive them and

1404
01:17:37,520 --> 01:17:39,800
Speaker 5: I come back and then they get it together. I

1405
01:17:39,840 --> 01:17:43,080
Speaker 5: make a suggestion. I don't think I ever wrote a

1406
01:17:43,080 --> 01:17:45,880
Speaker 5: bad review in my life, but I just because I'm

1407
01:17:45,880 --> 01:17:49,880
Speaker 5: a restaurant tour I'll give my you know, input or

1408
01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:55,160
Speaker 5: constructive criticism on how I feel about something that took

1409
01:17:55,200 --> 01:17:57,440
Speaker 5: place during that experience.

1410
01:17:57,560 --> 01:18:00,920
Speaker 3: So when you brought up expansion, you talked about and

1411
01:18:00,960 --> 01:18:03,920
Speaker 3: Abu Dhabi that was fly that was that was amazing

1412
01:18:03,920 --> 01:18:07,240
Speaker 3: and obviously just brought up Miami. But Tom Square, when

1413
01:18:07,280 --> 01:18:10,280
Speaker 3: you had the financial district location, how did you know

1414
01:18:10,360 --> 01:18:13,000
Speaker 3: it was time to expand? Was there a number that

1415
01:18:13,080 --> 01:18:14,880
Speaker 3: you said, I, if we hit this, we can grow

1416
01:18:14,960 --> 01:18:18,120
Speaker 3: because Tom squa when we're talking about prime location, they

1417
01:18:18,120 --> 01:18:20,800
Speaker 3: don't get more prime than than Tom Square in New York.

1418
01:18:21,160 --> 01:18:23,040
Speaker 3: And the fact that I mean there's a lot of

1419
01:18:23,040 --> 01:18:24,840
Speaker 3: restaurants there, but the fact that we know the owner

1420
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:26,599
Speaker 3: of one, it's just like, yo, this is pretty cool,

1421
01:18:26,640 --> 01:18:28,920
Speaker 3: which is why people go there because they know that

1422
01:18:28,960 --> 01:18:30,920
Speaker 3: there's a chance they might see you. So how did

1423
01:18:30,960 --> 01:18:32,760
Speaker 3: you know it was time to expand and grow into

1424
01:18:32,840 --> 01:18:36,120
Speaker 3: the probably the heart of New York City?

1425
01:18:36,880 --> 01:18:41,680
Speaker 5: So I kind of knew based on the reservations and

1426
01:18:41,720 --> 01:18:46,400
Speaker 5: people can get reservations in the original one that was one,

1427
01:18:46,680 --> 01:18:51,040
Speaker 5: So I really knew if I used this theory, right,

1428
01:18:51,560 --> 01:18:54,880
Speaker 5: if ten people call me and say, oh, I can't

1429
01:18:54,880 --> 01:18:57,960
Speaker 5: book a reservations this time, I don't know everybody in

1430
01:18:58,040 --> 01:19:02,400
Speaker 5: the in the new in the world, that means hundreds

1431
01:19:02,439 --> 01:19:05,680
Speaker 5: of other people can't get it either, right. So I

1432
01:19:05,840 --> 01:19:07,960
Speaker 5: just used the theory that maybe there's a lot more

1433
01:19:08,000 --> 01:19:11,799
Speaker 5: people wanting to come all at the same time, meaning

1434
01:19:12,040 --> 01:19:16,439
Speaker 5: during the evenings on weekdays between like you know, six

1435
01:19:16,560 --> 01:19:19,400
Speaker 5: thirty and ten thirty, and that's the time that we're

1436
01:19:19,439 --> 01:19:23,280
Speaker 5: mostly always always booked. So I said, you know what,

1437
01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:28,000
Speaker 5: this when COVID hit the restaurant that was there in

1438
01:19:28,040 --> 01:19:31,320
Speaker 5: Times Square before they left the you know, the landlord

1439
01:19:31,400 --> 01:19:34,840
Speaker 5: used to have dinner at the other restaurant and he said, hey,

1440
01:19:34,840 --> 01:19:39,720
Speaker 5: I got something for you guys. So we explored the

1441
01:19:39,760 --> 01:19:43,600
Speaker 5: opportunity and we said, you know what, this is a

1442
01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:46,920
Speaker 5: little scary. This is huge. It's a big undertaken. So

1443
01:19:47,520 --> 01:19:50,040
Speaker 5: you know, he said, don't worry, We're gonna take it

1444
01:19:50,080 --> 01:19:52,920
Speaker 5: in steps. Right, this is what it is now. But

1445
01:19:53,560 --> 01:19:57,439
Speaker 5: this is what we'll do for now. I'm like, word, okay,

1446
01:19:57,800 --> 01:20:02,200
Speaker 5: let me sit and let's think about it. You know,

1447
01:20:02,400 --> 01:20:04,439
Speaker 5: we sat and we thought about it. We said, you

1448
01:20:04,439 --> 01:20:07,040
Speaker 5: know what, let's take a shot at it right because

1449
01:20:08,560 --> 01:20:10,639
Speaker 5: now is the time because I don't think I can

1450
01:20:10,680 --> 01:20:14,200
Speaker 5: get that same opportunity now there because it's I don't

1451
01:20:14,240 --> 01:20:16,160
Speaker 5: know if you want to say seventy percent back or

1452
01:20:16,200 --> 01:20:19,800
Speaker 5: eighty percent back now things have changed. So it's it's

1453
01:20:19,840 --> 01:20:22,879
Speaker 5: about season, the moment, and everything is like the timing

1454
01:20:23,240 --> 01:20:26,360
Speaker 5: the deal was right for that time. So we took

1455
01:20:26,520 --> 01:20:28,320
Speaker 5: we took it on and you know, we opened it

1456
01:20:28,400 --> 01:20:32,600
Speaker 5: and became you know what it is now and you know,

1457
01:20:32,960 --> 01:20:36,040
Speaker 5: one of the largest black owned restaurants, I don't know,

1458
01:20:36,080 --> 01:20:39,120
Speaker 5: maybe in the country, certainly I think in New York City.

1459
01:20:40,720 --> 01:20:43,519
Speaker 5: And you know, we're just grateful that, you know, we

1460
01:20:43,520 --> 01:20:46,439
Speaker 5: were able to get the prime location because now we

1461
01:20:46,560 --> 01:20:51,240
Speaker 5: get you know, a diverse crowd right during you know,

1462
01:20:51,479 --> 01:20:55,599
Speaker 5: pre theater, post theater. You know, we got a core

1463
01:20:55,720 --> 01:20:59,400
Speaker 5: crowd during you know, core hours, and you know, we

1464
01:20:59,479 --> 01:21:01,519
Speaker 5: have a lot of say, we have a rooftop, we

1465
01:21:01,600 --> 01:21:07,400
Speaker 5: have a private restaurant, you know, two levels below which

1466
01:21:07,439 --> 01:21:11,599
Speaker 5: we're you know which which we're looking with thinking about

1467
01:21:11,640 --> 01:21:16,160
Speaker 5: doing membership. And then so we have an event space

1468
01:21:16,280 --> 01:21:19,360
Speaker 5: and a few event spaces in a way within the

1469
01:21:20,080 --> 01:21:23,280
Speaker 5: within us being a restaurant. So you know, we looked

1470
01:21:23,280 --> 01:21:26,200
Speaker 5: at all of those possible opportunities and it all made

1471
01:21:26,200 --> 01:21:30,000
Speaker 5: sense because there's a few different revenue streams now in

1472
01:21:30,120 --> 01:21:33,000
Speaker 5: order for us to make it all makes sense.

1473
01:21:33,479 --> 01:21:37,160
Speaker 4: So talk about what's next. You said different revenue streams

1474
01:21:37,160 --> 01:21:39,000
Speaker 4: and you got the rooftop and you got a dumpling.

1475
01:21:39,120 --> 01:21:42,200
Speaker 4: Thing is expansion is uh.

1476
01:21:45,280 --> 01:21:49,840
Speaker 5: Yeah, so, you know, expanding more on our sister brand,

1477
01:21:49,880 --> 01:21:54,120
Speaker 5: our franchise brand, Brooklyn Dumplings Shop. But that's you know,

1478
01:21:54,280 --> 01:21:58,479
Speaker 5: franchise E's going from franchise z now to me, me

1479
01:21:58,600 --> 01:22:01,880
Speaker 5: and my partner being franchise or so that's you know,

1480
01:22:02,200 --> 01:22:05,920
Speaker 5: basically probably one of the biggest steps that I've taken,

1481
01:22:06,080 --> 01:22:10,960
Speaker 5: and and also working on a restaurant in Miami. But

1482
01:22:11,040 --> 01:22:15,680
Speaker 5: Brooklyn chop House, I think the the you know, that

1483
01:22:16,320 --> 01:22:21,280
Speaker 5: culture that you know, the way Miami, you know, the

1484
01:22:21,320 --> 01:22:24,719
Speaker 5: lifestyle in Miami lends itself to a Brooklyn chop House

1485
01:22:24,720 --> 01:22:28,160
Speaker 5: type restaurant. So we're gonna go there and then from

1486
01:22:28,160 --> 01:22:31,759
Speaker 5: there we're going to London and then more likely Vegas.

1487
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:37,040
Speaker 5: So those are next. In Abu Dhabi, the license deal

1488
01:22:37,240 --> 01:22:40,160
Speaker 5: with us in the w Hotel should be done and

1489
01:22:40,200 --> 01:22:44,320
Speaker 5: we should be open again permanently for Formula one next year,

1490
01:22:44,479 --> 01:22:48,840
Speaker 5: next year, this year, this year, sorry, this year, we.

1491
01:22:48,800 --> 01:22:49,880
Speaker 3: Should have little Sexion.

1492
01:22:50,200 --> 01:22:52,479
Speaker 4: So before we do.

1493
01:22:52,520 --> 01:22:54,960
Speaker 5: An official grand over. That was like the pop up

1494
01:22:54,960 --> 01:22:57,680
Speaker 5: ground over. Now we're gonna do the official.

1495
01:22:57,680 --> 01:23:03,800
Speaker 4: So a lot of restaurants serves restaurants and nightclubs, especially

1496
01:23:04,200 --> 01:23:06,720
Speaker 4: like up here, there's there was like the strip where

1497
01:23:06,760 --> 01:23:08,880
Speaker 4: a lot of restaurants open and they clothes. And I

1498
01:23:08,960 --> 01:23:11,639
Speaker 4: used to notice the cycle where a restaurant would open

1499
01:23:12,800 --> 01:23:15,280
Speaker 4: and they would struggle, and I always knew that they

1500
01:23:15,320 --> 01:23:16,920
Speaker 4: was just about to go out of business when they

1501
01:23:16,960 --> 01:23:20,360
Speaker 4: start throwing parties. Then the parties is like life support.

1502
01:23:20,439 --> 01:23:22,880
Speaker 4: It gives them, it gives them energy, and it got

1503
01:23:22,920 --> 01:23:25,720
Speaker 4: them back on their feet. And then what happened There

1504
01:23:25,880 --> 01:23:28,720
Speaker 4: was a stabbing, a fight and they lost their lake

1505
01:23:28,760 --> 01:23:30,800
Speaker 4: a license and then they go out of business. So

1506
01:23:31,160 --> 01:23:34,400
Speaker 4: but like Tao, they throw parties and they haven't had

1507
01:23:34,400 --> 01:23:37,240
Speaker 4: any issue. So that we know about that, we know

1508
01:23:37,280 --> 01:23:38,120
Speaker 4: about correct.

1509
01:23:38,439 --> 01:23:47,160
Speaker 3: So I'll tell you.

1510
01:23:44,320 --> 01:23:47,280
Speaker 4: What's your thoughts, what's your thoughts on because I could

1511
01:23:47,280 --> 01:23:50,040
Speaker 4: see how appealing it could be, but it's also dangerous

1512
01:23:50,040 --> 01:23:50,320
Speaker 4: as well.

1513
01:23:50,439 --> 01:23:51,320
Speaker 5: Right, I would never do it.

1514
01:23:51,320 --> 01:23:53,320
Speaker 4: You would never do it ever. Why Because I own

1515
01:23:53,360 --> 01:23:55,920
Speaker 4: the club before, so you know you know what comes

1516
01:23:55,920 --> 01:23:56,160
Speaker 4: with them.

1517
01:23:56,240 --> 01:23:58,599
Speaker 5: Of course I had a club in Brooklyn, right so,

1518
01:23:58,880 --> 01:24:04,519
Speaker 5: and I to come to Brooklyn, so I did that

1519
01:24:04,560 --> 01:24:08,200
Speaker 5: part already. So for me, it's about the growth. It's

1520
01:24:08,240 --> 01:24:10,000
Speaker 5: for me, it's about going into real estate.

1521
01:24:10,280 --> 01:24:10,479
Speaker 3: Right.

1522
01:24:10,920 --> 01:24:13,280
Speaker 5: So I have a few real estate developments. I'm working

1523
01:24:13,320 --> 01:24:16,920
Speaker 5: on one specifically in Newark one hundred and twenty units

1524
01:24:16,960 --> 01:24:19,880
Speaker 5: that you know, I'm passionate about and you know, it's

1525
01:24:19,920 --> 01:24:22,559
Speaker 5: like a legacy play for me. So I'm working on that.

1526
01:24:22,680 --> 01:24:26,559
Speaker 5: So the transition from you know, like leasing to owning.

1527
01:24:27,560 --> 01:24:29,920
Speaker 5: You know, I own other properties, but just on the

1528
01:24:29,920 --> 01:24:33,080
Speaker 5: commercial side, it's something that I want to you know,

1529
01:24:34,479 --> 01:24:39,559
Speaker 5: progress into. So that's the natural progression, not doing I'd

1530
01:24:39,600 --> 01:24:46,960
Speaker 5: rather give another restaurant tour the opportunity to run what

1531
01:24:47,240 --> 01:24:50,200
Speaker 5: I had if you know, I haven't you know, thank god,

1532
01:24:50,200 --> 01:24:53,360
Speaker 5: I haven't had this happened to me where I had

1533
01:24:53,360 --> 01:24:56,040
Speaker 5: to give the restaurant to someone else. But I'd rather

1534
01:24:56,040 --> 01:24:58,120
Speaker 5: give it to another restaurant tour and give them the

1535
01:24:58,160 --> 01:25:03,719
Speaker 5: opportunity than to turning into a night comelion. And nothing

1536
01:25:03,720 --> 01:25:06,840
Speaker 5: against nightclubs because we all go there, we all celebrate.

1537
01:25:07,200 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 5: Just for me, you know, that business model is just

1538
01:25:09,960 --> 01:25:14,800
Speaker 5: not for me because of the high liability and of

1539
01:25:15,479 --> 01:25:20,240
Speaker 5: probability of possible things, you know, happening. And you know,

1540
01:25:20,600 --> 01:25:22,599
Speaker 5: we knock on wood and you know, pray nothing happen,

1541
01:25:22,640 --> 01:25:25,240
Speaker 5: because anything can happened anywhere. No one is immune to

1542
01:25:25,400 --> 01:25:29,040
Speaker 5: things happening because it's the general public. But we want

1543
01:25:29,160 --> 01:25:33,360
Speaker 5: everyone to have a great time, eat dinner, you know, pregame,

1544
01:25:33,640 --> 01:25:37,519
Speaker 5: have some drinks, and then go to the club or

1545
01:25:38,200 --> 01:25:43,200
Speaker 5: strip club or turn up whatever it is your heart's desire,

1546
01:25:43,439 --> 01:25:46,080
Speaker 5: you know. Again, nothing wrong with them, it's just we're

1547
01:25:46,120 --> 01:25:49,839
Speaker 5: just going to keep it about the food, the culture

1548
01:25:49,840 --> 01:25:53,280
Speaker 5: of the experience and having a good time at dinner

1549
01:25:54,000 --> 01:25:55,360
Speaker 5: or lunch or brunch.

1550
01:25:55,840 --> 01:25:59,160
Speaker 4: Do you have it? Do you have it? Ladies and gentlemen,

1551
01:25:59,360 --> 01:26:03,400
Speaker 4: any what's the what's the socials? The website? How can it?

1552
01:26:03,439 --> 01:26:04,760
Speaker 4: What's the address? All that stuff?

1553
01:26:04,760 --> 01:26:09,599
Speaker 5: Oh, definitely missed at Downpool music is you know, my music,

1554
01:26:09,880 --> 01:26:16,240
Speaker 5: my my, my, I g my Instagram. Also at Brooklyn

1555
01:26:16,320 --> 01:26:20,240
Speaker 5: chop House. If you want to, you know, please follow,

1556
01:26:20,360 --> 01:26:23,160
Speaker 5: No not what you want to, please follow at music

1557
01:26:23,479 --> 01:26:28,160
Speaker 5: at Brooklyn chop House, At Brooklyn Dumpling Shop. Those are

1558
01:26:28,240 --> 01:26:31,280
Speaker 5: the three main tags that you know, I would like,

1559
01:26:31,400 --> 01:26:33,599
Speaker 5: you know, people to follow the CE you know, everything

1560
01:26:33,640 --> 01:26:36,719
Speaker 5: that's going on. And you know, if you have any

1561
01:26:37,160 --> 01:26:40,559
Speaker 5: you know, desire to open your own business. We have

1562
01:26:40,720 --> 01:26:46,360
Speaker 5: franchise opportunities and possible license deals you know from Brooklyn

1563
01:26:46,560 --> 01:26:48,800
Speaker 5: chat House. But again we're just going to keep it

1564
01:26:48,840 --> 01:26:52,920
Speaker 5: in you know control. In a few markets.

1565
01:26:53,200 --> 01:26:56,040
Speaker 4: You might see us definitely probably will see us at

1566
01:26:56,040 --> 01:26:57,840
Speaker 4: some point if you go to Brooklyn Chop House and

1567
01:26:57,880 --> 01:27:02,160
Speaker 4: Tom Square. That is the restaurant that I frequent the most.

1568
01:27:02,160 --> 01:27:05,160
Speaker 4: I'm there very very often whenever I'm in the city,

1569
01:27:05,320 --> 01:27:08,479
Speaker 4: I always stopped through Brooklyn Chop House. I get the duck,

1570
01:27:09,360 --> 01:27:12,880
Speaker 4: that's my favorite. He can duck, he can duck with

1571
01:27:12,920 --> 01:27:19,320
Speaker 4: the with the pancakes, things about cakes. That's my boss.

1572
01:27:19,479 --> 01:27:21,040
Speaker 5: I tell you we got we got all that. We

1573
01:27:21,120 --> 01:27:22,200
Speaker 5: got something for everyone.

1574
01:27:22,720 --> 01:27:25,200
Speaker 3: Chickens incredible. The salmon we had the other night.

1575
01:27:25,560 --> 01:27:28,040
Speaker 4: Salmon I was new. And the LEECHI Martine, you guys

1576
01:27:28,040 --> 01:27:29,720
Speaker 4: got you guys make a good leach Martin. That's my

1577
01:27:29,800 --> 01:27:30,280
Speaker 4: favorite drink.

1578
01:27:30,479 --> 01:27:33,360
Speaker 5: Thanks, And I just want to say organically that I

1579
01:27:33,600 --> 01:27:38,519
Speaker 5: appreciate that seeing you guys there. This is bump into

1580
01:27:38,600 --> 01:27:41,120
Speaker 5: each other even at my restaurant outside of the restaurant,

1581
01:27:41,280 --> 01:27:45,120
Speaker 5: So thank you, because organically I'll just see you guys. Evan, yeah,

1582
01:27:45,560 --> 01:27:46,000
Speaker 5: real quick.

1583
01:27:47,360 --> 01:27:49,479
Speaker 3: And if you're in the New York area, you should

1584
01:27:49,479 --> 01:27:52,560
Speaker 3: also visit. Tell me why y'all sent you.

1585
01:27:52,800 --> 01:27:58,040
Speaker 5: Make sure you get your assets, not acquire too many

1586
01:27:58,080 --> 01:27:58,679
Speaker 5: live ability.

1587
01:27:58,760 --> 01:28:00,960
Speaker 3: Matter of fact, when this is airing inside the Brooklyn

1588
01:28:01,000 --> 01:28:02,639
Speaker 3: chophouse tigers, let.

1589
01:28:02,640 --> 01:28:06,880
Speaker 5: Us know this is gonna be on black turned the

1590
01:28:06,960 --> 01:28:10,880
Speaker 5: valcuum down. Yeah, there you go, There you go, fat.

1591
01:28:11,080 --> 01:28:11,679
Speaker 5: That's the fact.

1592
01:28:11,760 --> 01:28:15,160
Speaker 3: Joey House and shot everybody on euy l University dot com.

1593
01:28:15,160 --> 01:28:17,559
Speaker 3: Shout to all our earnest shot. Everybody's supporting the merch

1594
01:28:17,960 --> 01:28:19,880
Speaker 3: and everybody out there that is telling a friend to

1595
01:28:19,920 --> 01:28:22,080
Speaker 3: tell a friend about what's happening here at euy Yola.

1596
01:28:22,320 --> 01:28:23,439
Speaker 3: We couldn't do it without y'all.

1597
01:28:23,439 --> 01:28:25,200
Speaker 5: So love is love and I need a hoodie.

1598
01:28:26,160 --> 01:28:29,400
Speaker 4: Got got you, Love you man. Thank you guys for

1599
01:28:29,520 --> 01:28:31,160
Speaker 4: RockA West for see you next week. Peace.

1600
01:28:31,200 --> 01:28:34,960
Speaker 1: He's an illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a

1601
01:28:35,040 --> 01:28:38,519
Speaker 1: child in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El

1602
01:28:38,640 --> 01:28:43,439
Speaker 1: Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged

1603
01:28:43,479 --> 01:28:47,360
Speaker 1: with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are

1604
01:28:47,439 --> 01:28:50,920
Speaker 1: just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of

1605
01:28:50,960 --> 01:28:54,679
Speaker 1: President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christine nom the United

1606
01:28:54,680 --> 01:28:59,439
Speaker 1: States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal

1607
01:28:59,479 --> 01:29:03,120
Speaker 1: border cross are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and

1608
01:29:03,200 --> 01:29:06,559
Speaker 1: over one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If

1609
01:29:06,560 --> 01:29:10,240
Speaker 1: you are here illegally, your next you will be fine

1610
01:29:10,280 --> 01:29:14,400
Speaker 1: nearly one thousand dollars a day. Imprisoned and deported, you

1611
01:29:14,439 --> 01:29:18,000
Speaker 1: will never return. But if you register using our CBP

1612
01:29:18,160 --> 01:29:20,880
Speaker 1: home app and leave now, you could be allowed to

1613
01:29:20,960 --> 01:29:25,759
Speaker 1: return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Under President Trump

1614
01:29:25,920 --> 01:29:29,519
Speaker 1: America's laws, border and families will be protected.

1615
01:29:29,600 --> 01:29:31,759
Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,