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Speaker 1: What's up. It's way up at Angela Yee. Jasmine brand

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Speaker 1: is here with me and Stratus. I've never pronounced your

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Speaker 1: last name, is that right? Yeah? Okay, more Fogin Stratus

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Speaker 1: Morphogan is here with us now. I'm gonna tell you guys.

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Speaker 1: He has this book out is called Be a Disruptor,

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Speaker 1: and it's street wise lessons for entrepreneurs from the Mob

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Speaker 1: to the mandates. But we all know Stratus, I think

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Speaker 1: in general, just for being one of the owners of

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Speaker 1: Brooklyn chop House. But what people may not have known

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Speaker 1: is that he also was one of the owners of Philip's.

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Speaker 1: I created Philippe in two thousand and five and I

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Speaker 1: sold it in fourteen. Wow. Okay, So we got to

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Speaker 1: get into some of these lessons from this book because

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Speaker 1: you've been in the rest of our business since you

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Speaker 1: were six years old. So talk about that a young Stratus,

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Speaker 1: what you were around, that education you had. My dad

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Speaker 1: was an old school Greek and he always brought me

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Speaker 1: around adult situations. I mean I literally used to go

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Speaker 1: to closings when I was six, seven, eight years old

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Speaker 1: when he was buying one of his fourteen restaurants, and

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Speaker 1: on the top of it, he also used to go

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Speaker 1: the Fulton Fish Market. The more Folgan family are probably

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Speaker 1: the largest buyers in the Fulton Fish Market from like

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Speaker 1: the sixties to the eighties. And I would you know,

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Speaker 1: there's a part of my book where I said, you know,

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Speaker 1: my mom was taking my brother and sister to Disney World,

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Speaker 1: and I knew my dad had to truck that week

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Speaker 1: and he was going to be at the Fulton Fish

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Speaker 1: Market like three times that week. I said, Mom, you

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Speaker 1: guys can go. I'm going with Dad, because the Fulton

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Speaker 1: Fish Market was my Disney World. If a people who

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Speaker 1: don't know what the Fulton Fish Market is here in

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Speaker 1: New York. By the way, as soon as you go there,

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Speaker 1: the whole things about like fish. It takes a while

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Speaker 1: to get adjusted. But like I mean the whole area.

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Speaker 1: I used to be like this, think so bad, yeah that,

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Speaker 1: but I picked there. That's where I picked there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: well it actually moved. So the Fulton Fish Market was

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Speaker 1: at Souse Street Seaport, and about ten years ago they

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Speaker 1: moved it up to uptown. Okay, but the old traditional

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Speaker 1: weight is not with the old ships. That's where a

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Speaker 1: fish used to come into New York City from like

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Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, twenty fifteen. Now, one of the things

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Speaker 1: that you learned from an early age is discretion being

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Speaker 1: in the restaurant business. And this is something I didn't

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Speaker 1: think about because from the first time I've met Jadis

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Speaker 1: and you had another restaurant. It was like an Asian

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Speaker 1: steakhouse before Brooklyn Chop House. What was that called a

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Speaker 1: Jade sixty. It was on sixty Street. Yeah, Jade sixty.

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Speaker 1: I didn't see that in here, and now it was

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Speaker 1: only about it didn't even last nine months. We had

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Speaker 1: a major flood and it just didn't you know. We

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Speaker 1: actually I took the chefs out of there and that's

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Speaker 1: where we did Brooklyn Chop House with Dampoo. Okay, So yeah,

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Speaker 1: so I remember that restaurant though, because oddly enough I've

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Speaker 1: been there many a time. But discretion is really important

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Speaker 1: when it comes to owning a restaurant and being in

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Speaker 1: that business. So you learned that in an early age.

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Speaker 1: Explain that because this is actually a mob story that

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Speaker 1: you guys would love to hear. Yeah, So my dad

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Speaker 1: had the Chelsea chop House. One of them was in

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Speaker 1: Howard Beach and about six seven years old, I was

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Speaker 1: a bus boy and the first lesson of discretion I

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Speaker 1: had was what there was a little diminutive guy used

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Speaker 1: to come in with a lot of big guys around him,

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Speaker 1: and they used to go very discreet. My father would

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Speaker 1: like drop what he was doing. You know. I was like, Wow,

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Speaker 1: who is this guy that my father like looks at

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Speaker 1: with such reverence, you know, And then he would go

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Speaker 1: sit him down. Then I hear him tell the manager

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Speaker 1: just get mister Gambino his drink, Get mister Gambino this.

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Speaker 1: And it was Carlo Gambino, you know, the boss of

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Speaker 1: the Gambino family. And you know, so here's a little

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Speaker 1: short bus boy who's really not shy. You know. I'm

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Speaker 1: walking up to his table, and you know, I start

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Speaker 1: pouring water and I say hi, mister Gambino, and no

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Speaker 1: one says yeah, you could hear a pin drop and

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Speaker 1: and and you know, I felt so weird, like what

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Speaker 1: did I do wrong? I'm just being nice, That's what

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Speaker 1: my because my father actually calls him sir. So after

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Speaker 1: after he puts me down on his knee and he

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Speaker 1: talks to me, he goes, hey, how school like like

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Speaker 1: like a grandfather. How this is like nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 1: That was six, and he goes, how school, you know,

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Speaker 1: how are you doing in school? And I'm like, I'm like,

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Speaker 1: I think i'm talking like my grandfather. I'm doing really well,

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Speaker 1: you know. And he's and he slips a twenty dollar

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Speaker 1: bill in my in my pocket and he just says,

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Speaker 1: next time, high as enough, and I'm like, all right,

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Speaker 1: all right, I have no idea what I did, but

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Speaker 1: I'll keep taking the twenties and I'll just say hi.

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Speaker 1: And then so as I could see my father peeking

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Speaker 1: around the table, going, oh my god, Stratus is sitting

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Speaker 1: with the gangsters, you know. And I'm living there for

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Speaker 1: like ten minutes. And so as I get up, my

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Speaker 1: father goes, come here, what was that about, I said, Dad,

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Speaker 1: I don't know what I did. I just said high

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Speaker 1: missed agambeing. I goes, oh my god, this guy goes

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Speaker 1: so far out of his way to be discreet and

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Speaker 1: here comes a six year old chubby bus boil. It

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Speaker 1: knows exactly who you are. And I saw when I

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Speaker 1: left the table, they all started laughing like it was

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Speaker 1: so innocently done. But it was very funny, and there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of lessons to learn there, because you know,

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Speaker 1: like I do say in my book Fast Forward, you know,

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six is two lessons I learned. I

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Speaker 1: just opened Felipe Chow on my honeymoon at Micanos, and

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Speaker 1: I get a call for I think it was like

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Speaker 1: the Inquirer or something. They said, we're offering you a

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Speaker 1: million dollars for the tape. And I said, what tape?

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Speaker 1: And it's like literally the fifth week that I opened Chow.

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Speaker 1: It was like February, February, March, March, March of twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty six. I said, what tape and they're like, there's

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Speaker 1: a tape, you know. And they mentioned the names which

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Speaker 1: I'm not going to mention um and they were having

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Speaker 1: sex in your restaurant. So I'm like, So I called

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Speaker 1: my managers right away and I'm like, what happened. I

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Speaker 1: gotta be careful because I could easily say the names.

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Speaker 1: So a hip hop mogul and a Hollywood starlet. We're

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Speaker 1: having sex in one of the private rooms at Philippe.

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Speaker 1: And they've noticed that we had security cameras. And I

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Speaker 1: said to the manager, Eddie, I said, Eddie, get on,

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Speaker 1: get on the security cameras and tell me what you see.

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Speaker 1: Oh mister fucking I can't. This is serious. Yeah, He's like, yes,

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Speaker 1: so and so reserve the whole room last night to

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Speaker 1: have a private dinner with on a date, you know,

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Speaker 1: two very big names. And I'm like, Eddie, give me

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Speaker 1: a favorite before I before I even get an inch

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Speaker 1: of temptation, deleted off the server, right, get rid of it.

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Speaker 1: That's not how I do business. Yeah, get rid of it.

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Speaker 1: I don't care if it's a million or five million.

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Speaker 1: Get rid of it. And he's like, oh, you're sure.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, yes, get rid of it because and we

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Speaker 1: deleted it. Yeah, and it was over because if you

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Speaker 1: would have leaked that out, that's something that could destroy

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Speaker 1: your business. And that's not the way I've become successful.

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Speaker 1: On the other hand, I've always protected people's privacy, especially

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Speaker 1: well known people. They come from me, they come with

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Speaker 1: to me with trust, and in turn, I you know,

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Speaker 1: I think I've done pretty well in twenty five years

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Speaker 1: respecting you know, from VIPs to celebrities to presidents to

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Speaker 1: you name it. Because I know, if I go into

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Speaker 1: C status at a restaurant, I don't have to worry

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Speaker 1: about anybody know who I was with in case I'm

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Speaker 1: out here creeping or something that you know, and and

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Speaker 1: and let's thank Carlo Gambino for that, because he told

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Speaker 1: me about discretion early on. Yeah, so you know, and

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Speaker 1: you know, take Away the hip Hop and the Hollywood

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Speaker 1: side in two thousand and nine. You know John Paulson,

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Speaker 1: you know, I go down and says, how to mister Paulson,

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Speaker 1: he's a big hedge fund um takeover king. I saw

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Speaker 1: that in the book. Yeah, and you know I go

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Speaker 1: down to say, mister Paulson, I see down the power

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Speaker 1: point it says the hostile take over a Bank of America.

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Speaker 1: So right, so it's you know, they didn't because they

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Speaker 1: didn't want any servers in there. They just wanted the

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Speaker 1: food to be presented. Everybody leave the room because they

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Speaker 1: want to do a power point wow on how they're

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Speaker 1: going to take over a Bank of America tomorrow. And

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Speaker 1: the world doesn't know it yet, right, but I know it.

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Speaker 1: And if I was corrupt, I'd be buying options and whatever.

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Speaker 1: But you know that's not how I roll. And you

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Speaker 1: know I shook his hand. I looked up at the thing.

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Speaker 1: I'm like, oh boy, I'm like and you could see

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Speaker 1: that he did not want me in there and to

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Speaker 1: say hello, at that moment, but it never left the room.

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Speaker 1: And I've always taken a lot of you know, that's

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Speaker 1: really been a thing that I've really gone out of

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Speaker 1: my way to protect privacy. Now another thing, because this

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Speaker 1: is streetwise lessons from entrepreneurs from the Mob to the mandates. Right,

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Speaker 1: this book that you have about being a disruptor, you

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Speaker 1: also talk about your relationship with so many people from

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Speaker 1: the Mob are coming to your restaurants and how some

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Speaker 1: of them actually might be more stand up than people

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Speaker 1: who works day in for the government or in politics.

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Speaker 1: Yeah so um in nineteen ninety three. Well but this

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Speaker 1: way so now I know most of them mop because

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Speaker 1: they run the Fulton Fish Market and they're like extended

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Speaker 1: family to me. I mean I never looked at them

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Speaker 1: as like they were criminals. You know, it was like, hey,

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Speaker 1: how's your dad? Then I'd be keeping my hands warm

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Speaker 1: at the fire in the garbage cans next to the

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Speaker 1: like you know, underbosses and capos of different parts of

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Speaker 1: the Genevese family and what have you. And they were

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Speaker 1: like extended family as I was growing up six ten, eleven, fifteen.

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Speaker 1: So here I go. I opened up my restaurant in

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Speaker 1: ninety three called Gotham Diner. And you know, at that

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Speaker 1: time I became very close with like Ralph Coppola, who

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Speaker 1: was the underboss of the Genevese family. And these guys

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Speaker 1: were friends of mine, Bucky Carbone, and they were just

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Speaker 1: customers and they paid their bill, and you know, it

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Speaker 1: was like a mutual like you know, customers friends. They

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Speaker 1: didn't ever make you pay them, you said, nothing left

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Speaker 1: like it. They were my friends and they knew that,

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Speaker 1: you know, my family had some roots going back to

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Speaker 1: the market, and it was always like a mutual respect um.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, so in ninety three ninety four

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Speaker 1: it became like the hottest place, not just as a diner.

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Speaker 1: We had Mark Ronson spinning, we had you know, his

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Speaker 1: sister's spinning. I mean, it became like the who's who

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Speaker 1: of that crowd. But they were not famous at the time, right,

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Speaker 1: but it just became a huge nightlife business. Lights came down,

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Speaker 1: the music went up. By the time we were finished

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Speaker 1: at five in the morning, we were getting ready for

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Speaker 1: a typical diner breakfast. It was likely going twenty four hours.

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Speaker 1: And and then at the time I opened Rouge nightclub,

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Speaker 1: so that's what he turned away by the way, Madonna

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Speaker 1: and two path, we need your story. Okay, So so

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Speaker 1: getting back to my in my book, My book is

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Speaker 1: a story of inspiration and a journey of an entrepreneur.

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Speaker 1: But it's not the typical book that you would read

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Speaker 1: where it's all based on analytics. If you do two

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Speaker 1: out of three, do this, you'll get that. If you

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Speaker 1: get one percent of the market, well you're worth a billionaire. No,

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Speaker 1: it's basically like I could curse you, right, I fucked

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Speaker 1: up and this is what I did to fix it.

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Speaker 1: So all my analytics are supported by true life stories

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Speaker 1: and lessons. Yeah, and that's why it's hit a nerve

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Speaker 1: with a lot of people because I actually beat myself

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Speaker 1: up in the book quite a bit, because I want

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Speaker 1: people to learn from my mistakes and how I handled it.

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Speaker 1: Because I'm tired of reading business books where you know,

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Speaker 1: it's just like I'm successful. I'm successful, and I did

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Speaker 1: it's a check mark, right. My story is a bowl

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Speaker 1: of yarn. You know, this is my success story, and

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Speaker 1: it's important because there were mistakes that you made along

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Speaker 1: the way. There was a time you bought a strip mall, yes,

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Speaker 1: oh yeah, and I never would imagine that anybody would

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Speaker 1: do something like this, but the guy set up some

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Speaker 1: like fake businesses so it looked like they were in operation,

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Speaker 1: but you didn't do your due diligence. I'm sure that

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Speaker 1: was a lesson. Yeah, it was. It was a less

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Speaker 1: expensive one. So what happened was is, um, well, let

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Speaker 1: me go back a little bit. So when I opened

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Speaker 1: up Gotham Diner to answer the question regarding how I

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Speaker 1: got involved with with with organized crime, um like that. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: So what happened was, so I became friends with the

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Speaker 1: heads of the Genevc family and they were my friends.

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Speaker 1: But simultaneously I had John Gotti Junior beating up my managers,

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Speaker 1: his crew beating up my managers, shaking down my store.

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Speaker 1: And then they finally came to see me. They wanted

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Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars a month or they we're going to

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Speaker 1: break all my windows. So I told him to fuck off.

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Speaker 1: You know, it was actually well known in the industry

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Speaker 1: because everybody was paying them. They owned the whole Upper

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Speaker 1: East Side. I told him, fuck off. I said, I'm

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Speaker 1: not afraid of you. I'm not paying you. So every

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Speaker 1: night they're throwing black paint all over my windows, and

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Speaker 1: every night I would clean every morning. I would clean

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Speaker 1: it up. So Ralph Copel and those guys saw me

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Speaker 1: one day clean that what is this, what's going on here?

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Speaker 1: I said, well, John Gotti Junior and those guys want

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Speaker 1: a payment and I'm not doing it. And this is

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Speaker 1: what I get. Sit tight. So literally, like six hours later,

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Speaker 1: they say, go to Ferry, a bistro on sixty fifth

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Speaker 1: in Madison, which I knew was a Gambino hangout. Go

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Speaker 1: there eleven o'clock tonight. We're gonna we're gonna squash this thing.

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Speaker 1: So I get there at eleven o'clock at night and

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Speaker 1: you could see all the suits in the back, which

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Speaker 1: were all the Gambino heads. And I know these guys,

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Speaker 1: they're always really good to me. I just hate the

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Speaker 1: John Gotti Junior and those guys and a whole a

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Speaker 1: bunch of thugs. And I had no problem saying it

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Speaker 1: in the nineties and I still can say it today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, not afraid and yeah yeah. And so what

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Speaker 1: happened was I get to this meeting and it's like

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Speaker 1: something out of like Gretfellas had just come out, and

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Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, this is like my life now. I'm

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Speaker 1: like i'd a sit down, and then Ralph's like, listen,

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Speaker 1: he's my nephew. He's around us. Tell Junior, next time

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Speaker 1: he comes near him, come correct, or we're gonna have

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Speaker 1: a problem. And I was like, oh my god, because

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Speaker 1: I know the guys he's talking to are like the

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Speaker 1: bosses of the Gambino family. I'm like, and my guys

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Speaker 1: walk around with like a Yankee bomber jacket and old cars,

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Speaker 1: and these guys have chauffeurs with five thousand dollars suits.

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Speaker 1: So in my head, I'm like, they're the big guys

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Speaker 1: and my guys are not right. But I learned very

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Speaker 1: quickly that the discreet ones I walked around with a

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Speaker 1: bomber jacket and a pair of jeans and a nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy eight Cadillac and not a driver and like, you know,

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Speaker 1: wearing a hoodie on and whatever. These guys ruled the country,

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Speaker 1: maybe the world. And all of a sudden, I saw

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Speaker 1: the respect that the suits, the five thousand dollars suits

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Speaker 1: were given their fifty dollars jeans. They were saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know, we like this Greek here. We're good. We're

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Speaker 1: gonna squash this, Ralph. We apologize, We're sorry, what happened

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Speaker 1: after the meeting. So after the meeting, as we were leaving,

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Speaker 1: So the guy who actually beat up Noel Ashman was

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Speaker 1: my head of promotions. Noel Ashman. You guys might know him.

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Speaker 1: He does a lot of clubs for the last thirty years.

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Speaker 1: Some of the guy who beat him up actually was

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Speaker 1: having dinner with his girlfriend at the same restaurant. So

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Speaker 1: I said, Ralph, that's the guy. That's the guy that

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Speaker 1: gave Nola bloody, bloody face. He's like, okay, watch he

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Speaker 1: goes up to and he grabs him like a cat

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Speaker 1: and he says, you see this kid, he's with us,

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Speaker 1: and then he goes RAFFI I didn't know I'm here.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I said, the next

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Speaker 1: time you walk into that restaurant, was you gonna do

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Speaker 1: this week? You're gonna pay, and you're gonna bring all

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Speaker 1: your friends and you're gonna pay, and you're gonna support

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Speaker 1: that restaurant. And if you ever go there again and

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Speaker 1: cause any trouble, I promise you the next time we

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Speaker 1: see each other, I'm gonna have you crawl on the

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Speaker 1: floor like the dog that you are, and I'm going

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Speaker 1: to kick you in the ass until you bark in

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Speaker 1: front of all these people. Oh my gosh. And I

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Speaker 1: was just like very descriptive. Oh yeah, and that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what happened. I'm like, I'm like, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: I think I grew six inches. As I'm walking out

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Speaker 1: the door, I'm like, wow, I got friends like this.

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Speaker 1: So as I'm talking to my dad the next day

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Speaker 1: about what happened, He's like, well, you may have just

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Speaker 1: exchanged one devil for the other. And I would be

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Speaker 1: thinking that too. Yeah, and the truth be told, it's

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Speaker 1: not true, right, no these guys, because that's what you

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Speaker 1: would think from like, we're protecting you. Now you got

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Speaker 1: to pay us, right, These guys continued to come to

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Speaker 1: Gotham Diner, and basically they continued to pay, and they

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Speaker 1: wouldn't they would never hear of it. If I want,

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Speaker 1: I think the first time I try to take the check,

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Speaker 1: he's like no, no, no, no, no no, put the

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Speaker 1: check down. And and they always pay with a credit card,

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Speaker 1: which is really funny. You think mob's always paying with

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Speaker 1: a credit card? They want yeah, they wanted a paper

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Speaker 1: trail that you know what. We're just we just we're

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Speaker 1: just like this kid and and there's no nothing attached

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Speaker 1: um and everything stopped, and all of a sudden, I

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Speaker 1: had like friends coming to me, Yo, bro, I got

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Speaker 1: a problem with like the Hell's angels, can you like

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Speaker 1: help me out here? And and all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you know, through the industry, the word was always around saying, hey,

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Speaker 1: you know, is this guy mobbed up? And I really,

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Speaker 1: I mean, on one hand, I'm not. But on the

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Speaker 1: other hand, these guys love me and I do love

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Speaker 1: them back. Yeah, and the truth be told us. They's

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Speaker 1: been saying for the last twenty years, write a book, right,

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Speaker 1: a book, because no one's ever heard that story where

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Speaker 1: you could actually be friends with honorable people that are

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Speaker 1: the heads of the most powerful family in the world.

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Speaker 1: And these guys love me and I love them, and

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Speaker 1: they call me uncle and I call them uncle. They

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Speaker 1: call me nephew. But they protected me right and then

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Speaker 1: what happened, And they never asked me for anything except

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Speaker 1: well not not except. But I actually came to them

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Speaker 1: through Patti Stisso was their lawyer, and Patty gave me,

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Speaker 1: you know, full permission to discuss it, because yeah, I

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Speaker 1: was just wondering. I was going to ask you that next,

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Speaker 1: because I know how private this can be. And well,

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Speaker 1: the truth is the guys I talk about unfortune not

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Speaker 1: with us. Yeah. So with that said, I said, Patty,

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Speaker 1: I found this place called Corollas on fifty fourth between

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Speaker 1: Park and lex This is June ninety four. I said,

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Speaker 1: I want to make a nightclub. I have the name.

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Speaker 1: It's called Rouge. And so Patty put up the money.

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Speaker 1: But I wasn't stupid. He was the lawyer for the game,

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Speaker 1: for the generess, so I knew that. But but but

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Speaker 1: he gave it to me in a check. You know,

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Speaker 1: me and him were on the liquor lins was in cash.

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Speaker 1: Nothing was in cash. So I was very careful. I

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Speaker 1: knew where it was coming from. But as long as

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Speaker 1: I got a check, right, you know, when you hire,

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Speaker 1: when you got a liquor license, they want to know

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Speaker 1: where the funds were we're in they generate. They definitely

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Speaker 1: check into everything. You can't have like a criminal record,

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Speaker 1: You can have a duy, which is a great lesson.

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Speaker 1: If that story about you learned that, right, and that's

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Speaker 1: why it's important not to drink and drive. Your father

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Speaker 1: said that to you when you were fifteen. Yeah, you

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Speaker 1: were drinking a fifteen Oh yeah, so so oh my story.

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Speaker 1: When I was fifteen, as I snuck out of my

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Speaker 1: house before eleventh grade, I met Peter Stringfellow on a

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Speaker 1: plane from Greece to um to New York and he's like,

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Speaker 1: I'm opening my new club, String Fellows. It's like nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty three or something. And I'm like, oh my god.

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Speaker 1: He thinks I'll come twenty five or so because I'm

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Speaker 1: kind and he's like, I guess I don't know because

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Speaker 1: he's a plane. Oh yeah, it's September. All my friends

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Speaker 1: are in school, and I always missed the first two

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Speaker 1: weeks of school. That's why I graduated three sixty three

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Speaker 1: out of three sixty five. Had a great conversation. I'm

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Speaker 1: sure you guys talked about I'm talking about restaurants and

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Speaker 1: all that, and it's like, I need you to come

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Speaker 1: to my opening tomorrow night. So I my mom thought

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Speaker 1: I was sleeping, sluck out my backside of my house.

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Speaker 1: I took the Long Island Railroad. I got to Penn Station,

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Speaker 1: I took the subway, and I went to the opening

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Speaker 1: of String Fellows. And that was my world. That was

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Speaker 1: my my my hook into New York nightlife, okay, because

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Speaker 1: all I knew was an Irish barn Garden City, Long Island.

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Speaker 1: I didn't know. And part of the story I said,

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Speaker 1: when Peter brought me in smoke machines and the dancers,

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Speaker 1: and it wasn't a strip club. It was a real nightclub,

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Speaker 1: string fellows. It turned later into a strip club. This

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Speaker 1: was just a hot nightclub in New York. And I

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Speaker 1: was like, wow, this is what hospitality. My father never

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Speaker 1: showed me this, right, you know. And then and I'm

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Speaker 1: a type of kid where we were paying three dollars

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Speaker 1: a drink in Garden City and then I get here

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Speaker 1: and it's twenty dollars for a vodka cranberry in nineteen

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Speaker 1: eighty three. Oh my god, and I and most hundred

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Speaker 1: dollars today. Yeah. Yeah, most kids would have been like

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Speaker 1: that's a rip off. Me. I had a smile from

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Speaker 1: year to year, like this is this possibility. Yeah, my

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Speaker 1: dad didn't teach me this. Yeah. And to your point,

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Speaker 1: you said your dad didn't teach you this, what was

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Speaker 1: that like for you? Because your father was a successful

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Speaker 1: business owner, right, but he also was more old school

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Speaker 1: in his way of thinking, and sometimes somebody like you

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Speaker 1: who's been in the business, like you said, since you

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Speaker 1: were six years old. But now you're introducing things that

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Speaker 1: may have been far into him. So how was it

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Speaker 1: for you just trying to convince him to try something

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Speaker 1: new or to mark up the price on this, or

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Speaker 1: to step up the products that you guys were selling,

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Speaker 1: the food that you were selling. So when he brought

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Speaker 1: Hilltop Diner in nineteen eighty nine at one sixty fourth

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Speaker 1: and Union Turnpike and Queens and Flushing, Queens, he wanted

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Speaker 1: me to join him as a partner. Now and I

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Speaker 1: had an amusement park out in Long Island. I was

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Speaker 1: on my own. I was really doing well, and I said, Dad,

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Speaker 1: if I'm going to go into it Diner and Queens

424
00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:16,439
Speaker 1: because right now by that time, I'm in Manhattan. I

425
00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:19,520
Speaker 1: don't even know what Garden City is. I have an

426
00:19:19,520 --> 00:19:22,880
Speaker 1: apartment in Manhattan. I'm living in Manhattan. I'm out in Manhattan.

427
00:19:23,160 --> 00:19:24,600
Speaker 1: You know. Telling me to go do a diner and

428
00:19:24,640 --> 00:19:27,840
Speaker 1: Queens is not exciting to me, you know. But I said,

429
00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:30,399
Speaker 1: what could be really fun is disrupting the diner model.

430
00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:32,480
Speaker 1: I said. I said, if we do it the way

431
00:19:32,520 --> 00:19:35,080
Speaker 1: I want, I'll respect what you're doing. With the sandwiches

432
00:19:35,119 --> 00:19:36,880
Speaker 1: and the eggs and the breakfast and all that, because

433
00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:38,840
Speaker 1: that's the core core business and I think it's a

434
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:41,199
Speaker 1: great part of the industry of being a diner. But

435
00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:42,640
Speaker 1: I said, but I want to bring a three star

436
00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:44,800
Speaker 1: in New York Times chef in, and I want him

437
00:19:44,840 --> 00:19:48,399
Speaker 1: to focus on the fish, the pasta, vegetables and salads.

438
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:50,720
Speaker 1: And he's like, hell no, you know, he argued with me,

439
00:19:50,760 --> 00:19:53,080
Speaker 1: and then finally he gave in. And what we did

440
00:19:53,240 --> 00:19:55,960
Speaker 1: was basically, I brought Gabrielle Moran, who was a chef

441
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,520
Speaker 1: at Van Dam, which I had just gotten three stars,

442
00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:00,919
Speaker 1: and I convinced that the to a Greek diner with

443
00:20:00,960 --> 00:20:03,959
Speaker 1: me and queens. So the diner opened up in nineteen

444
00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,440
Speaker 1: eighty nine ninety and it was crazy. It was the

445
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:08,840
Speaker 1: only diner in the industry ever that you needed a

446
00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:11,600
Speaker 1: reservation only on Friday and Saturday night. Can you imagine that?

447
00:20:11,760 --> 00:20:13,639
Speaker 1: And these are things that a person wouldn't think. But

448
00:20:13,680 --> 00:20:16,600
Speaker 1: that's why being a disruptor is really important to your point.

449
00:20:16,880 --> 00:20:19,240
Speaker 1: You know, the restaurant business people talk all the time

450
00:20:19,640 --> 00:20:23,880
Speaker 1: about statistically restaurants fail a lot. Yeah, right, And you've

451
00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:25,800
Speaker 1: had things that haven't worked out so where do you

452
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:28,199
Speaker 1: find the resilience to say, let me pick myself back up.

453
00:20:28,280 --> 00:20:30,440
Speaker 1: Was there ever a time that you would like I'm out. Yeah.

454
00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:32,560
Speaker 1: So it's a great question because when you disrupt things,

455
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:35,560
Speaker 1: you have to be a little bit more a thick

456
00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: skin for failure because you're going to fail more. But

457
00:20:38,640 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 1: when you hit it, you're not going to hit a

458
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:42,160
Speaker 1: single or a double. You're going to hit a grand slam.

459
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:44,480
Speaker 1: So that's the difference when you disrupt things. So when

460
00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: I identify something like I did the Greek diner, I

461
00:20:46,920 --> 00:20:49,880
Speaker 1: identify it. And I've been doing this since a kid.

462
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:54,640
Speaker 1: I deconstructed, I reimagine it, and I rebuild it in

463
00:20:54,680 --> 00:20:58,359
Speaker 1: my way. And again it could be the odds of

464
00:20:58,400 --> 00:21:01,680
Speaker 1: failure are much higher that I'm going to fail. But

465
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,040
Speaker 1: when you do hit it, there's no base hits here.

466
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:08,320
Speaker 1: It hits big and um. And so with the diner

467
00:21:08,359 --> 00:21:09,760
Speaker 1: and with a bunch of things I did, And that's

468
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:11,960
Speaker 1: why I really wanted to write the book. It speaks

469
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:13,760
Speaker 1: to all different age groups. It speaks people that I

470
00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,440
Speaker 1: want to be entrepreneurs. But I'm telling them, don't look

471
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:19,560
Speaker 1: at things as status quo. Look at things and and

472
00:21:19,760 --> 00:21:22,920
Speaker 1: and do it your way. But again the flip side

473
00:21:22,960 --> 00:21:25,720
Speaker 1: is you're gonna have to accept failure because it's gonna happen.

474
00:21:25,880 --> 00:21:28,359
Speaker 1: There's no path to success without failure. How do you

475
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:30,880
Speaker 1: define disruptor how do you define it? Um? Looking at

476
00:21:30,880 --> 00:21:34,280
Speaker 1: a conventional opportunity or a business to construct it, reimagine

477
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:36,320
Speaker 1: it and do it your way, and people will tell

478
00:21:36,359 --> 00:21:40,080
Speaker 1: you you're crazy. Yeah yeah, the more crazy is the better. Yeah.

479
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:41,800
Speaker 1: So if you hear you're crazy, you know you're on

480
00:21:41,840 --> 00:21:43,920
Speaker 1: the right path. Now let's get back to this Tupac.

481
00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: We have to do that. So you open up Ruge Nightclub.

482
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,080
Speaker 1: Yeah right, everybody's coming here. It's the hot spot. Yeah,

483
00:21:51,320 --> 00:21:53,359
Speaker 1: this is so, this is actually so. The night before

484
00:21:53,359 --> 00:21:56,880
Speaker 1: the grand opening, um, Julia Cooke came to me and said,

485
00:21:56,880 --> 00:21:58,560
Speaker 1: I want to throw a birthday party from my husband

486
00:21:58,640 --> 00:22:02,159
Speaker 1: David Cooke, who is the energy conglomerate and you know,

487
00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:04,920
Speaker 1: multi billionaire family. And I said, wow, that's a great

488
00:22:04,920 --> 00:22:06,600
Speaker 1: way to open it. Because only celebrity I knew at

489
00:22:06,640 --> 00:22:08,159
Speaker 1: the time was Susan lue Cheeks. I grew up in

490
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 1: Garden City. I didn't know. Actually, I saw her last week.

491
00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,880
Speaker 1: She looks amazing. I saw I saw her last week

492
00:22:14,920 --> 00:22:17,920
Speaker 1: in Garden City. But she's like the only celebrity I

493
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:20,399
Speaker 1: ever knew. I didn't know what a celebrity was. And

494
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:22,520
Speaker 1: actually the young kids that I met at Gotham Diner

495
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:25,479
Speaker 1: there weren't celebrities yet. David Blaine's and all this. They

496
00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,119
Speaker 1: were all working for me for a hundred bucks a night,

497
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,200
Speaker 1: but they weren't celebrities. So here I opened up the

498
00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 1: nightclub and the night and I told, like, my big

499
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,120
Speaker 1: fat Greek wedding, that's my family. I said, doesn't matter

500
00:22:36,119 --> 00:22:38,120
Speaker 1: who comes to the door tonight, no one's coming in.

501
00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:41,440
Speaker 1: This is Thursday night. They could all come on Friday Thursday.

502
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,080
Speaker 1: No one's coming in. And it's a black tie event.

503
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,200
Speaker 1: You've got like Henry kissing your Murradocks. You got It's

504
00:22:47,200 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: Who's Who a fifth Avenue in Park Avenue for David

505
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:51,919
Speaker 1: Cooke's birthday party. And that's a pretty cool way to

506
00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:54,840
Speaker 1: open your club, especially when you're on fifty fourth in Park.

507
00:22:55,720 --> 00:22:58,920
Speaker 1: So putting that my next till this is before the internet.

508
00:23:00,080 --> 00:23:03,040
Speaker 1: The next song going off, and I'm like, what They're like,

509
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:04,800
Speaker 1: you have to come to the front. There's someone trying

510
00:23:04,880 --> 00:23:06,320
Speaker 1: to get in. I said, if they're not on the

511
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: list and are coming in. They're like, you gotta make

512
00:23:08,119 --> 00:23:09,880
Speaker 1: that you're making this call. I'm not making the call.

513
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:11,960
Speaker 1: That's what my security said, okay, And this time I'm

514
00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,679
Speaker 1: so intoxicated at this time, and I'm just like, I'm like,

515
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:16,840
Speaker 1: oh my god. I'm thinking it's like, you know, maybe

516
00:23:16,840 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 1: one of my cousins pretending to be a countess or something.

517
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:22,840
Speaker 1: So so I get to the front and as you know,

518
00:23:23,119 --> 00:23:25,760
Speaker 1: black guy there gold chains looking pretty cool, but not

519
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:27,920
Speaker 1: for tonight. There's a little blonde girl with like a

520
00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:30,719
Speaker 1: bomber jacket and a Yankee hat. And I look at

521
00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,320
Speaker 1: them and I go, fuck no, And I turned on

522
00:23:35,119 --> 00:23:36,960
Speaker 1: like I want to hear it. There's all like black

523
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 1: tie in there, you know there. No, I don't want to.

524
00:23:39,440 --> 00:23:41,080
Speaker 1: I don't care who they are. And I walked away.

525
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 1: So the next morning, here a round seven am. I

526
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:47,760
Speaker 1: saw that that David Coke's party got some press. I

527
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 1: was like, all right, cool, They're like, bro, look at

528
00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: page two, and I'm like, what you know, before the internet,

529
00:23:53,480 --> 00:23:56,520
Speaker 1: I gotta put the jacket over the over the pajamas.

530
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,120
Speaker 1: Right down the street. Go get the New York Post,

531
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,560
Speaker 1: open it up up and it says the picture of

532
00:24:01,600 --> 00:24:03,920
Speaker 1: me going like this, and it says new Kid on

533
00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:06,600
Speaker 1: the Block rejects Tupacket Madonna and going like this is

534
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:14,119
Speaker 1: him saying like never so wow, but that's not bad press.

535
00:24:14,119 --> 00:24:16,639
Speaker 1: So I didn't really exclusive, yeah, yeah, and I'm not.

536
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:19,320
Speaker 1: I'm like Forrest Gump of clubs right now. I had

537
00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:21,879
Speaker 1: no I was not cool at all. It was a

538
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 1: total mistake, and I had thought, oh my god, I

539
00:24:23,840 --> 00:24:26,399
Speaker 1: just ruined my club. I don't understand press at the time.

540
00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:29,399
Speaker 1: I'm twenty five years old, twenty six years old. I'm like,

541
00:24:29,440 --> 00:24:31,560
Speaker 1: oh man, I killed my business. This is crazy. But

542
00:24:31,640 --> 00:24:34,000
Speaker 1: obviously you know what happened, as we know. What that

543
00:24:34,040 --> 00:24:36,680
Speaker 1: does is that we're like, you know, who is this guy?

544
00:24:36,720 --> 00:24:39,800
Speaker 1: Who is this guy? Strategy? I know? Then Nil Rogers

545
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,000
Speaker 1: calls me a week later and he's like, bro, she

546
00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:44,640
Speaker 1: wants to come back. Are we cool? I mean, well,

547
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:46,159
Speaker 1: I have to put it on mute, like because I

548
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:48,159
Speaker 1: have an office of like six people, and I'm like,

549
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:52,440
Speaker 1: I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. So I'm like Nile,

550
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:58,160
Speaker 1: as long as she dresses right, we're cool. We're cool

551
00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:04,080
Speaker 1: like this, and so craz doesn't end right Forrest Gump.

552
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:08,160
Speaker 1: She comes with Sam Cassell. Sam Cassell now was playing

553
00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:10,520
Speaker 1: for the Houston Rockets, and the Houston Rockets are playing

554
00:25:10,520 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: the Knicks. This is June ninety four. She comes in,

555
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:15,640
Speaker 1: she's gracious, She's like, I'm sorry, I go no, no,

556
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,719
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I'm no sit down. Whenever I got out

557
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:21,000
Speaker 1: of Champagne closed the curtain. They were having like a

558
00:25:21,040 --> 00:25:24,480
Speaker 1: little dinner, a little you know, brondezvous, whatever that was.

559
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 1: I thought it was over. We're all friends, everything is good.

560
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:28,919
Speaker 1: I saved my club. But meanwhile, the buzz on the

561
00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:31,080
Speaker 1: street walls, Wow, we got to go to this place,

562
00:25:31,119 --> 00:25:33,280
Speaker 1: and how do you reject like the hottest couple of

563
00:25:33,320 --> 00:25:38,359
Speaker 1: the moment. So soone the next tail stout's going off.

564
00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:41,240
Speaker 1: Put on ET on channel two. I think it was CBS.

565
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:43,880
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, what did I do? Now? I put

566
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 1: on two and Sam Cassell's wife is throwing all his

567
00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:49,240
Speaker 1: clothes out of the second story window. Pictures came out

568
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:53,159
Speaker 1: with McDonald leaving with Sam Cassell from my mid So

569
00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,200
Speaker 1: that's how I became the Forrest Gump of my class.

570
00:25:57,760 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 1: We need a series, so exciting enough, definitely we need

571
00:26:02,960 --> 00:26:07,000
Speaker 1: There are two options, thanks are they are like a series?

572
00:26:07,119 --> 00:26:09,159
Speaker 1: Or yeah, that's what they're discussing now, like, is it

573
00:26:09,160 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: a Sex and the City type thing for business and

574
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:13,760
Speaker 1: street smarts or is it like, you know, a doctor

575
00:26:13,840 --> 00:26:16,200
Speaker 1: series and sex in the City, speaking of which there's

576
00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 1: a connection there. I'm not going to give it all

577
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:19,639
Speaker 1: away though, because you guys do have to get the

578
00:26:19,680 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 1: book to even see. This is not even the tip

579
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:23,840
Speaker 1: of the iceberg of all the things that you learn

580
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,000
Speaker 1: and be a disruptor. But I do want to bring

581
00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:28,360
Speaker 1: it to present day now, right, because there's a lot

582
00:26:28,359 --> 00:26:31,280
Speaker 1: of history lessons about you. How you got where you are.

583
00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:33,720
Speaker 1: The Philippe story to me is amazing too because it's

584
00:26:33,800 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: kind of out of pettiness. Um, some thing's happen, yeah,

585
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:40,480
Speaker 1: out of anger, and then it's a long drawn out,

586
00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,719
Speaker 1: you know process that costs a lot of money with

587
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,720
Speaker 1: lawsuits and everything, and there's some lessons to be learned

588
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,439
Speaker 1: from that too. Yeah. So, um, well, how how Philip

589
00:26:49,520 --> 00:26:51,760
Speaker 1: Chow and I got together? Was you know, my wife

590
00:26:51,760 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 1: at the time was you know, the accessories director at

591
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: Vogue magazine, So you know, all the after parties for

592
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:01,600
Speaker 1: the met Ball were at Philip Chow, Carlagerfeldt hosting. It

593
00:27:01,640 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 1: was just it was it was unbelievable because I knew

594
00:27:04,320 --> 00:27:07,040
Speaker 1: I had music in sports. I knew I had socials,

595
00:27:07,320 --> 00:27:09,439
Speaker 1: and then my wife just finished it off by bringing

596
00:27:09,480 --> 00:27:11,560
Speaker 1: in the fashion room. So I had like a perfect

597
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:13,840
Speaker 1: storm for Philly Chow and that's why Philippe did so well.

598
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,440
Speaker 1: But how I got Philippe was interesting, so weird. Anna

599
00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 1: Winter would always have our parties at Mister Chow and

600
00:27:18,800 --> 00:27:22,240
Speaker 1: at the table with David Bowie, David Bowie, Rupert Murder Bono.

601
00:27:22,320 --> 00:27:24,040
Speaker 1: But it was like like everybody that was on my

602
00:27:24,040 --> 00:27:26,240
Speaker 1: wall as a poster or sitting next to me, and

603
00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:28,720
Speaker 1: I know them on a first name basis, and I'm thinking, God,

604
00:27:28,760 --> 00:27:31,840
Speaker 1: this is like heaven, you know, heaven um and and

605
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:37,000
Speaker 1: basically with that um I I I there was another.

606
00:27:37,080 --> 00:27:39,400
Speaker 1: Then the next day I went there. I was with

607
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:41,760
Speaker 1: some Greek friends trying to put it back in chronological

608
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,240
Speaker 1: and Brian comes to me. I'll mentioned his name because

609
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:48,200
Speaker 1: he's in the book, the manager of Mister Chow. I said, Brian,

610
00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:50,679
Speaker 1: I got some friends from Greece. I said, can you

611
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:53,000
Speaker 1: just show me the menu. He's like, next time you

612
00:27:53,080 --> 00:27:55,400
Speaker 1: asked for the menu, I'm going to ask you to leave. Oh.

613
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:57,840
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, that's not the way I was brought

614
00:27:57,920 --> 00:28:00,439
Speaker 1: up in hospitality, and you would you have said that

615
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:02,399
Speaker 1: if I was sitting next to Grace Cottington and I

616
00:28:02,480 --> 00:28:04,440
Speaker 1: Winter or Philippe, you know, and all and all the

617
00:28:04,520 --> 00:28:07,400
Speaker 1: Vogue girls, you wouldn't talk like that to me. I said,

618
00:28:07,400 --> 00:28:10,160
Speaker 1: you know what, fuck off and you know, and maybe

619
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:11,800
Speaker 1: I'll repeat it to them and see if the next

620
00:28:11,840 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 1: party will be here. But I got really mad, and

621
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:15,720
Speaker 1: as I got mad, I pulled out my business card.

622
00:28:15,720 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: I said, bus boy came here, give with a twenty

623
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:19,800
Speaker 1: dollar bill wrapped in it. I said, give this to

624
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:22,960
Speaker 1: the chef. I was sewing the head chef. Yeah. So,

625
00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: and that was part of when the lawsuit when he

626
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: said that Felipe cho was a choppers. All the bus

627
00:28:27,040 --> 00:28:29,040
Speaker 1: boy disagrees with you because I said give it to

628
00:28:29,040 --> 00:28:30,679
Speaker 1: the chef and I didn't say give it to the chopper.

629
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,320
Speaker 1: So anyway, gave him the card and the next day

630
00:28:33,359 --> 00:28:35,280
Speaker 1: I got a call from Philippe and he says to me, Hey,

631
00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:36,960
Speaker 1: what do you want? I said, can we just meet

632
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:38,760
Speaker 1: a beyond diner in eighty six straight and can we

633
00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 1: just you know, talk. I said, I've got this spot

634
00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,080
Speaker 1: on sixtieth Street, and you know what everything you guys

635
00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,280
Speaker 1: are doing at mister Chow basically is so anti customer service.

636
00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 1: I don't like the idea of not getting a menu.

637
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:50,480
Speaker 1: I don't like every time I go there. I hate

638
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: the same thing and it's always different pricing. I hate it.

639
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:56,040
Speaker 1: I want to I love your food, but I hate

640
00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:59,080
Speaker 1: the guest experience. Right. So I offered him twenty percent

641
00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: above his salary of from ten percent equity and he

642
00:29:01,720 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: put his coat on. He said thank you, but no

643
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:04,920
Speaker 1: thank you, and he's walking out the door. I said,

644
00:29:04,920 --> 00:29:06,880
Speaker 1: why are you walking out? And he goes, I've been

645
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,760
Speaker 1: offered that before. I said, sit down, and in the

646
00:29:09,800 --> 00:29:11,760
Speaker 1: story I write, like Tommy Mutola taught me a story

647
00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:13,480
Speaker 1: when he's trying to sign an artist and they're run

648
00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:15,720
Speaker 1: by a parent. He sends a Ferrari to the mother

649
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:18,280
Speaker 1: and with the contract wrapped up in it, signed the

650
00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:21,840
Speaker 1: contract in the fight, you know. So I said to him,

651
00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 1: all right, let me think of that one. I said,

652
00:29:23,320 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: I said, how about we go to the Porsch dealer tomorrow.

653
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,880
Speaker 1: You pick out any porschee on that's a signing bonus

654
00:29:28,600 --> 00:29:31,520
Speaker 1: and broken Chinese. I hope no one gets offended. Show

655
00:29:31,560 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 1: me Porsche I show you partner, and I'm like, let's go.

656
00:29:35,200 --> 00:29:37,920
Speaker 1: That's crazy. So we went. We went to Salschuer Porsche

657
00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:41,240
Speaker 1: and Rosalind you got a black Cayenne. But I was

658
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:42,960
Speaker 1: very smart. I called up Evan. I said, Evan, how

659
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:44,320
Speaker 1: many cars have I gotten from there in the last

660
00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:46,560
Speaker 1: twenty years. He's like a lot. I said, Okay, get

661
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,280
Speaker 1: rid of every GT and every turbo out of that

662
00:29:48,320 --> 00:29:54,920
Speaker 1: showroom or we're done cart car equity. I wouldn't have

663
00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,080
Speaker 1: done it, okay, So was timed your cap? Yeah? Was

664
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:00,320
Speaker 1: my cap? Because usually we assume that people don't go

665
00:30:00,360 --> 00:30:02,960
Speaker 1: in with their cat. We really assumed that I wanted

666
00:30:02,960 --> 00:30:04,920
Speaker 1: to do a quick deal. I knew ten percent was fair,

667
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,320
Speaker 1: but you know what, I don't think twenty percent would

668
00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,479
Speaker 1: have done it either. It wasn't tangible. Twenty percent twenty

669
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:14,080
Speaker 1: percent of nothing something. Right now, we don't know what

670
00:30:14,120 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 1: we got there. And that location has failed seven times

671
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:19,560
Speaker 1: in fifteen years. Okay, we don't really have a good

672
00:30:19,560 --> 00:30:22,800
Speaker 1: track record here for that. Spite that spot. And then

673
00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:24,680
Speaker 1: when you know, when I said you could have a

674
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:27,880
Speaker 1: brand new car, wait a second. He went from making

675
00:30:27,880 --> 00:30:31,120
Speaker 1: sixty thousand a year to eighty five thousand a year

676
00:30:31,480 --> 00:30:34,920
Speaker 1: and ten percent equity a brand new car. You can say,

677
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:38,320
Speaker 1: I'm an owner. That's something. You know, he got a

678
00:30:38,360 --> 00:30:40,400
Speaker 1: lot of those offers before. It was the car that

679
00:30:40,440 --> 00:30:42,760
Speaker 1: closed the deal. And the joke was, you know, his

680
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,360
Speaker 1: cut was like twenty thirty thousand dollars a month, and

681
00:30:45,360 --> 00:30:47,720
Speaker 1: then I would put in parentheses six sixty one because

682
00:30:47,760 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: I leased it. You know, at least the car for

683
00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,760
Speaker 1: six hundred and sixty one dollars that I'm paying, I

684
00:30:52,800 --> 00:30:55,480
Speaker 1: would put in parenthesis as a joke at that six

685
00:30:55,560 --> 00:30:57,640
Speaker 1: sixty one got you the thirty forty thousand a month.

686
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. What do you attribute the success to Brooklyn

687
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:03,600
Speaker 1: chop House too? Because you've opened UM now in New

688
00:31:03,680 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: York you have two locations when in times where which

689
00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:08,160
Speaker 1: is not an easy place to open a business, that

690
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 1: financial district where UM when you guys first opened. I

691
00:31:12,320 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: don't know what other restaurants are even right there. But

692
00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:17,360
Speaker 1: the success the two guys have achieved, what would you say,

693
00:31:17,360 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: because I know you talk about location, and we all

694
00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:21,320
Speaker 1: know when you have a brick and mortar location is

695
00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,320
Speaker 1: super important. I wouldn't have probably bet on something. You're

696
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,800
Speaker 1: very smart right there either, But what do you attribute

697
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 1: that to? Brooklyn Chop House five is the worst location

698
00:31:30,680 --> 00:31:33,520
Speaker 1: for a restaurant in New York City. Just you can't

699
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:35,320
Speaker 1: get you can't even get to it. You got to

700
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,680
Speaker 1: go around the bridge, you gotta go around Pace University.

701
00:31:37,720 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 1: You gotta go around. It's really hard to get you. Yeah,

702
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,800
Speaker 1: and um, so how this came about was Robert Dampoo comming,

703
00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 1: So is my friend for twenty years, Dampoo. He's you know,

704
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 1: he's my brother. And um he said, listen, I'm thinking

705
00:31:52,160 --> 00:31:54,800
Speaker 1: about doing a Caribbean restaurant. I know. And at this

706
00:31:54,840 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: point I say it in my book, I'm really down

707
00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,440
Speaker 1: now I've lost everything. Um. I had a really falling

708
00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:03,560
Speaker 1: out with the guys who stole Phelip Chow and I

709
00:32:03,560 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 1: write about it in my book and not to really

710
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:06,760
Speaker 1: go too deep into that. You guys got to buy

711
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:10,160
Speaker 1: the book. Yeah, it tells you the inner happenings of

712
00:32:10,200 --> 00:32:14,040
Speaker 1: what really happened there and was borderline criminal. And you know,

713
00:32:14,080 --> 00:32:15,960
Speaker 1: I was down, you know, I was really depressed. I

714
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:18,200
Speaker 1: was really out. And again I don't hide from it

715
00:32:18,240 --> 00:32:20,240
Speaker 1: in the book, because there's no way to be an

716
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,840
Speaker 1: entrepreneur and not have your roller coaster, right, you know,

717
00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,560
Speaker 1: and with that, Robert says, you know, Pooh says, hey,

718
00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:27,560
Speaker 1: I need the old stratus back. I need the old

719
00:32:27,560 --> 00:32:29,360
Speaker 1: stratus back. I need the old stratus back, the one

720
00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:32,400
Speaker 1: that got me excited about Philip Da Da Da. I said,

721
00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: what are you doing? He's like, I'm doing a Caribbean

722
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:36,040
Speaker 1: restaurant and fight. I just want you to help me.

723
00:32:36,040 --> 00:32:40,120
Speaker 1: I do a lot of you know, fast food restaurants. Yeah,

724
00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,000
Speaker 1: And so I went there, and you know, at the

725
00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:44,840
Speaker 1: last couple of years, I've been writing a business plan.

726
00:32:45,040 --> 00:32:48,040
Speaker 1: What about a Philippe Chow met Peter Luger and we

727
00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,640
Speaker 1: married them together. Because every time I go to a

728
00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 1: great steakhouse where my wife doesn't eat meat, that's me.

729
00:32:54,080 --> 00:32:56,760
Speaker 1: She feels like a step child. Yeah, that's how I am. Yeah.

730
00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 1: So I said, wouldn't it be cool if we did LSD?

731
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:04,000
Speaker 1: And I mentioned it like LSD, you're promoting drugs. I said, no,

732
00:33:04,120 --> 00:33:08,000
Speaker 1: salt and pepper, ginger, garlic, lobster, which is married with

733
00:33:08,080 --> 00:33:13,080
Speaker 1: you know, child style, married with dry age porterhouse steak

734
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: with some sea salt, nothing Chinese about it, married with

735
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:21,120
Speaker 1: pe king duck and dumplings. And I said, wouldn't it

736
00:33:21,200 --> 00:33:23,240
Speaker 1: be cool that's the ultimate surf and turf where someone

737
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:25,360
Speaker 1: who doesn't like beef, it's not feeling like a step

738
00:33:25,440 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 1: child right yet. And they're having like sea bass with

739
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,520
Speaker 1: black bean and garlic. They're having nine season prawns. They're

740
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:33,320
Speaker 1: having salt and pepper lobster, and then you marry that

741
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 1: as lobster, steak and duck. It got hashtag so many

742
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,760
Speaker 1: times in two years, I got a letter from Instagram

743
00:33:39,800 --> 00:33:42,600
Speaker 1: that I'm being investigated for promoting a narcotics Wow. So

744
00:33:42,720 --> 00:33:45,200
Speaker 1: hashtag LST to this day has been removed from Instagram

745
00:33:45,800 --> 00:33:49,920
Speaker 1: because it was hashtag over four thousand times. So then

746
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:52,479
Speaker 1: I said, and then I give a lot of credit

747
00:33:52,560 --> 00:33:55,959
Speaker 1: to Pooh and our other partner, Dave Thomas, because they

748
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 1: were already in getting the kitchen equipment for this Caribbean restaurant.

749
00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 1: They I love the concept so much of like dim

750
00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:05,600
Speaker 1: summon chops, of marrying chow and lugar together. Because I

751
00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:07,440
Speaker 1: had all the chefs. They're all loyal to me, right,

752
00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:09,040
Speaker 1: you know, they all left Philippe and came with me

753
00:34:09,120 --> 00:34:12,160
Speaker 1: right away, Okay. And and then I give them a

754
00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 1: lot of credit because they were already you know, they

755
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,920
Speaker 1: had to return equipment that they're already paid for to

756
00:34:17,040 --> 00:34:18,759
Speaker 1: jump into something that you know. Now, you guys look

757
00:34:18,760 --> 00:34:20,960
Speaker 1: at Brooklyn chop House as a pretty big brand, but

758
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: it was an unknown at the time, and those guys

759
00:34:23,560 --> 00:34:26,239
Speaker 1: were like, I see it, I love it. And what

760
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:28,480
Speaker 1: about the name. I'm like, it's chop house because I

761
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:29,880
Speaker 1: owe that to my dad. And my dad owned the

762
00:34:29,920 --> 00:34:31,360
Speaker 1: Chelsea chop House, and I was like kind of a

763
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,600
Speaker 1: tribute to my daddy. I just passed and and I'm like,

764
00:34:35,080 --> 00:34:39,040
Speaker 1: what's the name? City Hall chop House, Spruce Street shop House.

765
00:34:39,280 --> 00:34:41,200
Speaker 1: And We're sitting out a big bay window and I'm

766
00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:43,239
Speaker 1: looking at the Brooklyn Bridge and like, I got it,

767
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:46,319
Speaker 1: the Bridge chop House. And then Poo's like no, no,

768
00:34:47,560 --> 00:34:50,120
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh wait, a second Brooklyn chop Let me

769
00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: go on Google, let me go on cheap dot com.

770
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,000
Speaker 1: Let me find out if Brooklyn chop House is even

771
00:34:55,200 --> 00:34:57,399
Speaker 1: even available. Because chop house, if you know the history

772
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,160
Speaker 1: of it, were originated in Brooklyn. I didn't know at

773
00:35:00,200 --> 00:35:02,279
Speaker 1: eighteen fifty by the Irish. And then that makes even

774
00:35:02,320 --> 00:35:04,279
Speaker 1: more yeah, because that was the whole idea. Let's to

775
00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:07,000
Speaker 1: attribute to the Irish, because the Irish brought the first

776
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:09,880
Speaker 1: chop houses to America in the eighteen fifties and it

777
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: was mutton chop, lamb chops, what have you. And the

778
00:35:12,200 --> 00:35:14,480
Speaker 1: Irish brought the first culinary wave to New York and

779
00:35:14,480 --> 00:35:16,919
Speaker 1: it was all in Williamsburg area, the last one being

780
00:35:16,920 --> 00:35:19,120
Speaker 1: Peter Luger. Okay, And I'm like, all right, that's it,

781
00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:21,400
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Chop House. I go on cheap domain nine dollars.

782
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:23,440
Speaker 1: I'm ripping my pants. I got the credit card. I

783
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 1: put the credit card, and I'm like, this is crazy.

784
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,320
Speaker 1: That's the name I got. I'm not a very spiritual

785
00:35:28,560 --> 00:35:29,759
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn. I just want to let you know what

786
00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:35,600
Speaker 1: it's in Manhattan. Everybody that's on the Manhattan side of

787
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:39,080
Speaker 1: the Brooklyn Bridge. Yes, yes, okay, So now it's um.

788
00:35:39,160 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: When you guys first opened, how long did it take?

789
00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:44,399
Speaker 1: It was great? So I mean we opened up and

790
00:35:44,400 --> 00:35:46,799
Speaker 1: and our projections were like four million a year because

791
00:35:46,800 --> 00:35:48,759
Speaker 1: it's a really tough location. It was a Denny's, right,

792
00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 1: you know, really bad looking. Oh yeah, so I told

793
00:35:52,960 --> 00:35:56,040
Speaker 1: I told Mayor Adams. Fast forward. I said, I pooh,

794
00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:57,800
Speaker 1: and I and David Thomas we have we need the

795
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,440
Speaker 1: key to the city. He's like, He's like, for I

796
00:36:00,480 --> 00:36:02,239
Speaker 1: got rid of the only Buffalo while Wings and the

797
00:36:02,239 --> 00:36:05,400
Speaker 1: only Dennis in Minute because because the time spur location

798
00:36:05,440 --> 00:36:07,640
Speaker 1: was a Buffalo Wilo Wings. So I said, I get

799
00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,280
Speaker 1: the key to the city with Pooh and David because

800
00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,319
Speaker 1: because we got rid of those two brands out of

801
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:16,080
Speaker 1: New York and replace them with Brooklyn chop Outside and

802
00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 1: so yeah, the location was really really tough. But all

803
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:21,759
Speaker 1: of a sudden it clicked. Yeah, like you know what,

804
00:36:21,880 --> 00:36:24,480
Speaker 1: wait a second, it's remember chop house menu hasn't been

805
00:36:24,520 --> 00:36:26,560
Speaker 1: changed for one hundred and fifty years. Now, all of

806
00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:29,439
Speaker 1: a sudden, we're disrupting the whole chop house menu. It's

807
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:32,279
Speaker 1: not creamas spinache, baked potatoes, shrimp cocktail, you know, with

808
00:36:32,440 --> 00:36:35,120
Speaker 1: a steak and a piece of fish and parsley. You know,

809
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:39,080
Speaker 1: it's salt and pepper, lobster, pe king, duck, chicken. Ste's

810
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,400
Speaker 1: no extensive dumpling. Yeah. So yeah, I love how you think.

811
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 1: Right very before, I said, you're so good Angel. So

812
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:47,239
Speaker 1: so then we got down to the advertiser. I said,

813
00:36:47,280 --> 00:36:50,000
Speaker 1: let's do a bacon cheeseburger. No, let's do it bacon

814
00:36:50,080 --> 00:36:52,799
Speaker 1: cheeseburger shoe am, which is a form of dumpling. I said,

815
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:58,920
Speaker 1: let's do a pastrami, a rubin peanut butter and jelly. Yeah. Yeah,

816
00:36:58,320 --> 00:37:00,799
Speaker 1: and then when it gets to the suit, let's do

817
00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:04,520
Speaker 1: lobster bisk or French onion soup dumplings. And like, if

818
00:37:04,520 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: we're going to see this through, there's two things are

819
00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:08,120
Speaker 1: gonna happen here. We're going to confuse the funk out

820
00:37:08,160 --> 00:37:10,520
Speaker 1: of everybody. It's going to be a monumental failure, which

821
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:12,840
Speaker 1: I'm okay taking that shot, or it's going to be

822
00:37:12,880 --> 00:37:15,120
Speaker 1: a Grand Slam. Like I said before, it's Grand Slam

823
00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:20,560
Speaker 1: or failure. There's no double in between, and thank god

824
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: grand Slam. So we had a great business. Everything was

825
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:25,319
Speaker 1: going great and it was funny. I went to my

826
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 1: doctor in January twenty twenty. I said, you know, my

827
00:37:27,719 --> 00:37:30,440
Speaker 1: kids are healthy, my marriage is good, and my business

828
00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:32,759
Speaker 1: is thriving. It's got to be my health. I've never

829
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:35,560
Speaker 1: had a trifecta anytime. I never have all three working

830
00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:39,640
Speaker 1: at the same good. It's going too good here, I'm

831
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 1: I'm you know, paranoia is starting to kick in. I've

832
00:37:41,800 --> 00:37:44,080
Speaker 1: never had at all. I've had a great business with

833
00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:47,400
Speaker 1: a terrible marriage. I've had a great marriage, terrible business.

834
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:50,319
Speaker 1: I've never had at all. So what was So I

835
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:52,120
Speaker 1: get to the doctor and he checks me out and

836
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:55,960
Speaker 1: he says, Stratus, everything's fine, And this is January twenty twenty,

837
00:37:56,120 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 1: and I said, it's like strategy. Now, you've been through

838
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:01,000
Speaker 1: a lot. Just to enjoy it. I said, I'm not gonna.

839
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:07,600
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna. Something's gonna happen. March COVID, COVID, COVID,

840
00:38:07,760 --> 00:38:10,399
Speaker 1: so COVID hit and we went from ten million dollar

841
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 1: business to uh to basically one and and that, but

842
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: again we found something good out of it. So yeah,

843
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:19,680
Speaker 1: I remember I spoke to you during that time, and

844
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:21,319
Speaker 1: you were doing a lot to help people who were

845
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,319
Speaker 1: frontline workers at that time and making sure that they

846
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:28,080
Speaker 1: were actually getting food. Yea, So I went the first

847
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:30,359
Speaker 1: thing we started doing in March twenty twenty, when they

848
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:33,480
Speaker 1: closed this down and everybody really the morale was so low,

849
00:38:33,719 --> 00:38:35,279
Speaker 1: I said, well, we're gonna do something good here. I

850
00:38:35,320 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 1: want to explain to my grandkids one day that we

851
00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,160
Speaker 1: helped the healthcare heroes. I never said workers heroes. They

852
00:38:40,239 --> 00:38:43,000
Speaker 1: could be janitorial made, doesn't have to just be doctors

853
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:48,160
Speaker 1: and nurses. Janitorial made first doctors, nurses, These are our

854
00:38:48,200 --> 00:38:51,440
Speaker 1: heroes because they're cleaning up, they're taking care of us

855
00:38:51,640 --> 00:38:56,440
Speaker 1: while we're dying sick, and they're going back to their families.

856
00:38:57,160 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 1: That is, that is basically a human like no other.

857
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,319
Speaker 1: I mean, that's so I started bringing food there incognito,

858
00:39:02,719 --> 00:39:06,000
Speaker 1: lobster dinners, steak Dinners and just dropping it off. Then

859
00:39:06,040 --> 00:39:07,880
Speaker 1: they started picking it up, and all of a sudden,

860
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:10,880
Speaker 1: they started putting on Instagram Brooklyn chop House, thank you,

861
00:39:10,880 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 1: you know, and it started getting like, you know, on

862
00:39:12,640 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: and on on. But I didn't do it because I

863
00:39:13,680 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 1: don't think charity should be exposed like that. But they

864
00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,040
Speaker 1: were doing it, and it was nice because it actually

865
00:39:18,040 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 1: started to lift our morale yea. And then the New

866
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:22,520
Speaker 1: York Post hit got onto it and they said hero

867
00:39:22,600 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 1: of the Day, Brooklyn chop House. At that point, we

868
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:28,480
Speaker 1: were up to about nine hundred meals complimentary in the

869
00:39:28,480 --> 00:39:31,239
Speaker 1: month of March or this just started right And when

870
00:39:31,239 --> 00:39:34,160
Speaker 1: that happened, all the big boys called me, like Cisco Foods,

871
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:38,600
Speaker 1: Junior's Cheesecake, Voss Water, they all after five coffee, they

872
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:40,560
Speaker 1: all started calling me and saying, hey, you have a

873
00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,200
Speaker 1: go fund me page. I said, I don't believe in

874
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 1: go fund me because honestly, we're all hurting. But if

875
00:39:45,280 --> 00:39:47,719
Speaker 1: you want, donate stuff to me and I can make

876
00:39:47,719 --> 00:39:51,360
Speaker 1: this thing bigger. It got so big, Jasmine, I basically

877
00:39:51,440 --> 00:39:55,280
Speaker 1: had we got this in six months to nine thousand

878
00:39:55,680 --> 00:40:00,239
Speaker 1: meals complimentary. It got nineteen hospitals, three police department. Isn't

879
00:40:00,239 --> 00:40:02,719
Speaker 1: even a nursing home on Mother's Day and I got

880
00:40:02,719 --> 00:40:05,920
Speaker 1: to tell you, the morale in my restaurant was so high.

881
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:07,920
Speaker 1: You know, we were we were all felt so good.

882
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:09,920
Speaker 1: And these are the people that could have went on

883
00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:13,480
Speaker 1: unemployment and we're going to lead to the mandates unemployment.

884
00:40:13,840 --> 00:40:16,319
Speaker 1: And they didn't take unemployment, and they worked for us

885
00:40:16,360 --> 00:40:18,640
Speaker 1: for about the same that they would have collected on unemployment,

886
00:40:18,960 --> 00:40:20,800
Speaker 1: you know, because there was no tips. You know, we

887
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,359
Speaker 1: just had them on salaries, and you know, they could

888
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:24,960
Speaker 1: have made a little bit more and they could have

889
00:40:24,960 --> 00:40:27,120
Speaker 1: made a little bit less on unemployment and stay home.

890
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:30,560
Speaker 1: I meanwhile, they're going to hospitals and they're seeing bodybags

891
00:40:30,560 --> 00:40:33,200
Speaker 1: and they're seeing all this. Fast forward two years, when

892
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:36,000
Speaker 1: Governor Hokell said, you know, jab for a job, I said,

893
00:40:36,040 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: fuck you, arrest me. I went on Fox News, I

894
00:40:39,200 --> 00:40:41,719
Speaker 1: went on a New York Post, I said, fuck you

895
00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: arrest me. I am not firing one of my staff

896
00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:47,399
Speaker 1: members for a job, for a job, and thank god,

897
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:48,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to be on the right side of history

898
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:51,279
Speaker 1: because they threatened me so many different ways. I had

899
00:40:51,320 --> 00:40:53,760
Speaker 1: every city agency coming down to me, every state agency

900
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,080
Speaker 1: coming down on me. When I told Governor Hokell to

901
00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:59,960
Speaker 1: arrest me, they were sending everyone I called Cuomo, Comrade

902
00:41:00,160 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 1: Cuomo and Mayor Dalouzio instead of de Blasio. I was

903
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: doing this on air, right, I didn't care. If you

904
00:41:06,560 --> 00:41:08,960
Speaker 1: guys want to fight, let's fight, let's fight. And it

905
00:41:08,960 --> 00:41:11,080
Speaker 1: comes down to the book. I've been partners with the Mob.

906
00:41:11,600 --> 00:41:14,200
Speaker 1: I dealt with these politicians. I had the CEOs of

907
00:41:14,239 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 1: the top three banks in the world that brought into Philippe,

908
00:41:16,560 --> 00:41:19,120
Speaker 1: who are the most corrupt guys you'll ever meet, criminals

909
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:21,680
Speaker 1: to the half of them with the jail already. Um,

910
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:23,319
Speaker 1: And I gotta tell you, if I had to pick

911
00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,200
Speaker 1: those three groups again, I'd be partners with the Mob

912
00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:31,000
Speaker 1: because they're the most loyal, right, you know, respectful and

913
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:33,640
Speaker 1: you know you know what you got. You like a

914
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,840
Speaker 1: good fight too. I love a good fight, yeah, but

915
00:41:35,840 --> 00:41:38,920
Speaker 1: I love I love fighting for the one that doesn't

916
00:41:38,960 --> 00:41:42,040
Speaker 1: have my platform. Okay, Brooklyn shop House was doing okay

917
00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:44,600
Speaker 1: during COVID we had the outdoor decks. You know, even

918
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:46,279
Speaker 1: some of the partners were saying, Hey, do we need

919
00:41:46,280 --> 00:41:48,479
Speaker 1: this fight. We're doing good. Let's just stay under the radar.

920
00:41:48,520 --> 00:41:50,279
Speaker 1: I said, no, I'm going to fight for the ones

921
00:41:50,320 --> 00:41:52,960
Speaker 1: that are being shut down. They're the ones that are

922
00:41:52,960 --> 00:41:56,000
Speaker 1: being told to open and close, open and close. Like restaurants,

923
00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:58,400
Speaker 1: not a light switch. It takes weeks and weeks to

924
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 1: prepare to open a restaurant. Is it during this time

925
00:42:00,800 --> 00:42:06,560
Speaker 1: that with technology, you've also opened Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, right,

926
00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:09,240
Speaker 1: So I just want you to because I know we've

927
00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,319
Speaker 1: done a lad and I know we're running out of time,

928
00:42:11,360 --> 00:42:14,160
Speaker 1: but talk about Brooklyn Dumpling Shop and technology and how

929
00:42:14,200 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 1: you feel like that is going to be something that's

930
00:42:15,760 --> 00:42:17,839
Speaker 1: a game changer also and it has been already. Yeah,

931
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,520
Speaker 1: So Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, because the dumplings were so successful

932
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:23,439
Speaker 1: a chop house. This is before COVID. We figured let's

933
00:42:23,440 --> 00:42:26,239
Speaker 1: do a fast food, fast casual version of dumplings because

934
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:30,240
Speaker 1: dumplings have never been explained. No, I mean burgers, pizza,

935
00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:35,680
Speaker 1: you know, fries, cookies, tacos. Everything has been so overexplained.

936
00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:38,920
Speaker 1: But who doesn't love a dumpling. When I introduced new

937
00:42:38,960 --> 00:42:41,400
Speaker 1: foods to my kids, when they didn't like fish and vegetables,

938
00:42:41,400 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: I'd go take some fish, vegetables, friedgside, give them a dumpling,

939
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:47,360
Speaker 1: and they're eating fish and vegetables. It's like the greatest

940
00:42:47,440 --> 00:42:50,200
Speaker 1: product like to eat. It's like it's like it's like

941
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:52,480
Speaker 1: a two ound sandwich, right, That's how I look at it.

942
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: So I said, let's do Brooklyn Dumpling Shop, an offshoot

943
00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:59,359
Speaker 1: of Brooklyn Shop House, but just dumplings. And then so

944
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,440
Speaker 1: then I started researching on why so many restaurants and

945
00:43:02,480 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 1: fast casual fail, and I said, number one reason is

946
00:43:05,160 --> 00:43:07,759
Speaker 1: they can't meet peril. This is before COVID. So I

947
00:43:07,800 --> 00:43:09,680
Speaker 1: was in love with the automat as a kid, I

948
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,240
Speaker 1: love the automat, and I started researching why the automat failed.

949
00:43:13,760 --> 00:43:16,359
Speaker 1: And the automat failed in the seventies because technology failed

950
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:18,920
Speaker 1: the automat. There were no dollar bill receivers in credit

951
00:43:18,920 --> 00:43:21,320
Speaker 1: card processes. On these machines. You had to go get coins,

952
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:24,719
Speaker 1: hold the coins, and put the coins in and basically,

953
00:43:25,480 --> 00:43:29,880
Speaker 1: you know, it was so so prehistoric as fast food

954
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: was rising people out of choice. I can go to

955
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 1: McDonald's with a credit card, be out in three minutes

956
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:36,680
Speaker 1: instead of going getting on change and getting food. You know,

957
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:38,760
Speaker 1: automat fell out of favor. Make a long story short,

958
00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:43,080
Speaker 1: automat is gone. So I'm saying, you know, today the

959
00:43:43,239 --> 00:43:47,000
Speaker 1: kids basically live off their phone. I said, this is

960
00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,200
Speaker 1: the cash register. Let's create a restaurant that speaks to

961
00:43:50,239 --> 00:43:53,200
Speaker 1: this as a smartphone. I said, wouldn't it be cool

962
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,680
Speaker 1: if we brought back the automat but have it controlled

963
00:43:55,680 --> 00:43:58,279
Speaker 1: by your smartphone. You could say, I want to pick

964
00:43:58,320 --> 00:44:00,880
Speaker 1: it up at three o'clock. I'm paying, I pay for

965
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:03,000
Speaker 1: the order, this is what I want. Three am in

966
00:44:03,000 --> 00:44:05,800
Speaker 1: the morning, I'm picking it up. You get a QR

967
00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:08,440
Speaker 1: code texted or email back to you. You appear at

968
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 1: the store, you scan your phone. You're in and out

969
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:14,040
Speaker 1: in ten seconds, not four to six minutes, which is

970
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:18,600
Speaker 1: an industry food and a heated and refrigerator concept. Yeah,

971
00:44:18,800 --> 00:44:21,560
Speaker 1: and it's all controlled by your smartphone. It's funny. I

972
00:44:21,600 --> 00:44:23,520
Speaker 1: just did that thing at Murtech in Vegas, like front

973
00:44:23,520 --> 00:44:26,360
Speaker 1: of fifteen hundred people, and Starbucks and McDonald's got up

974
00:44:26,360 --> 00:44:28,799
Speaker 1: and saying we have the latest technology in the self

975
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 1: ordering Kiosk. Oh, we are so advanced with the self

976
00:44:31,760 --> 00:44:34,680
Speaker 1: ordering Kiosk. And then I felt like such a dick. Sorry,

977
00:44:34,960 --> 00:44:37,280
Speaker 1: So I get on next and I say, the self

978
00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:41,200
Speaker 1: ordering Kiosk is my fax machine. I did because I

979
00:44:41,239 --> 00:44:45,799
Speaker 1: already done. I said the self ordering Kiosk, I said,

980
00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:48,160
Speaker 1: the self ordering Kiosk is my fax machine. This is

981
00:44:48,160 --> 00:44:50,840
Speaker 1: your cash register. You know, the self ordering Kiosk is

982
00:44:50,880 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 1: only good for like the fifty and overs. That is

983
00:44:52,440 --> 00:44:56,279
Speaker 1: still not comfortable during complete transactions. So people say, oh,

984
00:44:56,280 --> 00:44:58,919
Speaker 1: so it's an automat. I said it is, and they go, wow,

985
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:03,000
Speaker 1: so it's contactless is but there I've shifted the staff

986
00:45:03,040 --> 00:45:06,000
Speaker 1: from transaction, which is a cash register, to being in

987
00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:08,239
Speaker 1: the front and talking to you. Right, hey, first time here,

988
00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:10,680
Speaker 1: Try the chicken palm dumpling. Try the peanut butter and

989
00:45:10,719 --> 00:45:13,480
Speaker 1: jelly dumpling. Blah blah blah blah. So that is morph

990
00:45:13,520 --> 00:45:16,959
Speaker 1: now into two hundred franchises. Really, that's what I'm sorry.

991
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:21,960
Speaker 1: I mean, you better thank them for pushing you out

992
00:45:21,960 --> 00:45:26,000
Speaker 1: of Philish. Yeah. No, no, it's funny. We have that

993
00:45:26,040 --> 00:45:29,279
Speaker 1: conversation all the time. So, um, when when when the

994
00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:31,440
Speaker 1: original partners were bought out. These were friends of mine,

995
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 1: They were bought out for a lot of money. They

996
00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:35,680
Speaker 1: kept me on. It was all scam. They started bankrupting

997
00:45:35,719 --> 00:45:38,880
Speaker 1: good stores because I had PGS on them. And basically

998
00:45:38,920 --> 00:45:41,560
Speaker 1: what they did was they did the unthinkable. They basically

999
00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:44,400
Speaker 1: started close like almost like the producers. They were closing

1000
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,239
Speaker 1: good restaurants because I was exposed and then put me

1001
00:45:47,280 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: into involuntary bankruptcy. And that's what they did to me

1002
00:45:50,239 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen. And that's what kind of guys were there.

1003
00:45:53,120 --> 00:45:55,879
Speaker 1: So can you imagine going from making millions of dollars

1004
00:45:55,920 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 1: a year and not even being able to afford to

1005
00:45:57,560 --> 00:45:59,960
Speaker 1: get on a subway and then this full circle moment

1006
00:46:00,239 --> 00:46:03,200
Speaker 1: of the latest restaurant you just opened. Yeah, so what? So?

1007
00:46:03,320 --> 00:46:05,680
Speaker 1: My grandfather had the first Greek restaurant from nineteen ten

1008
00:46:05,760 --> 00:46:09,600
Speaker 1: to nineteen seventy five called Pappus. So I was another

1009
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:11,560
Speaker 1: COVID deal we did. And it's in one of three

1010
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:13,640
Speaker 1: McDougall in the West Village. I teamed up with chef

1011
00:46:13,640 --> 00:46:16,920
Speaker 1: taught English because again I want to just run. Was

1012
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:20,719
Speaker 1: right in a grill village? Isn't that next to Minetta Tavern? Okay?

1013
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:25,640
Speaker 1: So what we're interesting enough about disrupting is I um?

1014
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:27,759
Speaker 1: I said, okay, I want to do a woodburning Greek,

1015
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,360
Speaker 1: because that's how Greek food started. Most of the Mediterraneans

1016
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:33,120
Speaker 1: started that way, with a woodburning oven. I started speaking

1017
00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:34,719
Speaker 1: to the best Greek chefs in the business. I said,

1018
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:36,719
Speaker 1: I want to do a woodburning Greek. You know, when

1019
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 1: I went to my father's village and Sparta, they used

1020
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:41,960
Speaker 1: to get wood before dinner. And I'm and they're like woodburning.

1021
00:46:41,960 --> 00:46:43,360
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're talking about. You know, the

1022
00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 1: chefs of Avaron, Milos and all these restaurants, which is

1023
00:46:46,239 --> 00:46:49,640
Speaker 1: right here, like, I don't know what that is, you know.

1024
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:52,640
Speaker 1: So I make a long story short. I connected with

1025
00:46:52,760 --> 00:46:55,200
Speaker 1: chef Todd English, who's a master at the wood burning oven,

1026
00:46:55,640 --> 00:46:57,319
Speaker 1: and I said, I just want a new fresh set

1027
00:46:57,320 --> 00:46:59,800
Speaker 1: of eyes on Greek food. And boy, oh boy, what

1028
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: dud is insane? Greek onion soup, Greek salad in a

1029
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:06,879
Speaker 1: bottle um, you know, lamb vetsy with figs. Calm down,

1030
00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 1: as we figured out the best Greek salad. You know,

1031
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:13,799
Speaker 1: when they put it in a bowl and they toss it,

1032
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,120
Speaker 1: that's not the best. A guy in Rhodes came up

1033
00:47:16,120 --> 00:47:17,960
Speaker 1: with a better formula. You put it in a big

1034
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:20,759
Speaker 1: bottle with a fork and shake it like a cocktail.

1035
00:47:21,280 --> 00:47:25,080
Speaker 1: All the sauce gets thick, and all the sauce evenly distributes,

1036
00:47:25,080 --> 00:47:27,000
Speaker 1: because after a Greek salad you kind of mop it

1037
00:47:27,080 --> 00:47:29,440
Speaker 1: up with bread. Yea, yeah, no, this goes all the

1038
00:47:29,480 --> 00:47:32,759
Speaker 1: way through by shaking it. And it's like it's already got,

1039
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:35,600
Speaker 1: It's already got like so many views online. And you know,

1040
00:47:35,640 --> 00:47:37,600
Speaker 1: we are in the reaction business, right, so it's a

1041
00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:40,399
Speaker 1: great reaction when people see, would you like your Greek salad? Well,

1042
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:45,600
Speaker 1: here we go a cocktail first. Yeah, that's exactly what

1043
00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:47,160
Speaker 1: I would if you ever need a food tested No,

1044
00:47:48,760 --> 00:47:52,160
Speaker 1: actually opening, the opening is tonight. Oh yeah, we were

1045
00:47:52,160 --> 00:47:54,640
Speaker 1: on soft opening for like ten days and tonight's seficial opening.

1046
00:47:54,719 --> 00:47:57,840
Speaker 1: Look at what statis? You gotta come back again because honestly,

1047
00:47:58,000 --> 00:48:00,480
Speaker 1: I know you're first of all, your opening business is right,

1048
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:04,200
Speaker 1: but honestly, like just knowing you from when I first

1049
00:48:04,200 --> 00:48:07,360
Speaker 1: met you, and how great you've been just as a person.

1050
00:48:07,480 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: That is like owning a restaurant in this business of service,

1051
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:13,040
Speaker 1: because it is a service business, it matters a lot.

1052
00:48:13,280 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 1: You've always been really amazing. You know every time I've

1053
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:18,319
Speaker 1: kind of any time I hit him up, it could

1054
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:20,120
Speaker 1: be no matter what. He could be in the Hampton's

1055
00:48:20,239 --> 00:48:22,040
Speaker 1: when you guys had to pop up. He'll be like,

1056
00:48:22,080 --> 00:48:23,879
Speaker 1: all right, answer is taken care of. I could walk

1057
00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:26,120
Speaker 1: in two minutes later and it's good. You know, I

1058
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:28,200
Speaker 1: can send people there and know that everybody's gonna be like,

1059
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,080
Speaker 1: I loved it. I had a great experience. Tell your

1060
00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:33,040
Speaker 1: funny story very quick. So on Instagram three o'clock in

1061
00:48:33,080 --> 00:48:35,600
Speaker 1: the morning, just two days ago, someone's on Brooklyn chop

1062
00:48:35,640 --> 00:48:37,840
Speaker 1: House Instagram and says, hey, what is that steak? It

1063
00:48:37,880 --> 00:48:40,840
Speaker 1: looks amazing. I said, Oh, that's the thirty eight ounts Tomahawk.

1064
00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 1: Like it's three o'clock in the morning. You respond, So

1065
00:48:44,480 --> 00:48:46,959
Speaker 1: listen here here, here's the best part, because I'm gonna

1066
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:52,520
Speaker 1: tell Stratus and Pooh, you are AMAZINGA is like this.

1067
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:54,799
Speaker 1: I fall asleep with my phone in my hand, I

1068
00:48:54,840 --> 00:48:57,360
Speaker 1: mean my pajamas like this. I take a selfie and

1069
00:48:57,400 --> 00:48:59,680
Speaker 1: I send it to him. I'm like, He's like, no,

1070
00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:05,200
Speaker 1: go way, you're answering you are Can I just say

1071
00:49:05,280 --> 00:49:08,399
Speaker 1: you are a great storyteller? Yeah. And because he's very passionate. Yeah,

1072
00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:10,080
Speaker 1: but that's how it goes to show you when you

1073
00:49:10,120 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 1: are an entrepreneur, you're very involved in your business, you

1074
00:49:12,560 --> 00:49:14,319
Speaker 1: know the ends and the outs, You're willing to take

1075
00:49:14,320 --> 00:49:17,359
Speaker 1: a risk. But just caring that much, you can see

1076
00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:20,239
Speaker 1: how much Status cares about everything that he does. That's

1077
00:49:20,280 --> 00:49:23,840
Speaker 1: what I think is you know the special touch that

1078
00:49:23,840 --> 00:49:26,960
Speaker 1: that is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. You can't

1079
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:28,759
Speaker 1: just say I'm gonna open a business and then step

1080
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:30,359
Speaker 1: back and not care that much and not go really

1081
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,640
Speaker 1: hard for yourself. My dad, my dad brought me up

1082
00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:37,160
Speaker 1: saying twelve hours a half day. Well all right, I

1083
00:49:37,160 --> 00:49:46,719
Speaker 1: don't know you trying to get this sport day work. Yeah,

1084
00:49:48,719 --> 00:49:50,799
Speaker 1: but Status again, thank you so much and much love

1085
00:49:50,880 --> 00:49:52,920
Speaker 1: to your partners. And Dampoo was a great friend of

1086
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,800
Speaker 1: mine too. I talk to him about business all the time,

1087
00:49:55,880 --> 00:49:59,359
Speaker 1: and you know, be a disruptor is available now and

1088
00:49:59,520 --> 00:50:02,120
Speaker 1: anything us that we missed we got. We got to

1089
00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:06,399
Speaker 1: three of the fifteen children. Well, thank you Jantus again.

1090
00:50:06,480 --> 00:50:08,840
Speaker 1: I appreciate and thank you always supporting us. Thanks Angela,

1091
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:12,920
Speaker 1: way up with Angela, yee up.