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Speaker 2: All right, guys, welcome back e y L Legendary episode.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty sure. So this is this is a while
Speaker 2: in the making. So if you're from New York, you've
Speaker 2: heard of the name Jimmy. It's ironic because it's like
Speaker 2: Jimmy is one of these names, is one of the
Speaker 2: probably most popular names in the world. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: Jimmy is like anybody will be named Jimmy. Right, Well,
Speaker 2: if you from New York, there's one, Jimmy, that's a fact.
Speaker 2: Jimmy Jones, Jim Jones, Jim Jones is jim This is different, this.
Speaker 5: Is this is legend.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's so many different rappers. Well, you know
Speaker 2: a z So shouts to so Soid that comes to
Speaker 2: the firm album follow Me, and Jimmy is up in
Speaker 2: the Bronx. So it's just one of these things that
Speaker 2: just became such a staple in New York, from Jimmy's
Speaker 2: to Jimmy's seafood to donkle Kee to some free throw
Speaker 2: to get sold row to. Akrie said that correctly, Yes,
Speaker 2: a cree now in back in the Bronx and Jimmy
Speaker 2: Rodriguez had has a legendary career as a restaurant tour.
Speaker 2: A legendary restaurant tour, I believe how long over thirty
Speaker 2: years something like that.
Speaker 3: Twenty years, let's keep the number down. A would have
Speaker 3: been more than forty though, you know what.
Speaker 2: I'm saying, you know, yeah, for sure culture I car
Speaker 2: in New York City. So I was in the spot
Speaker 2: a few months ago, probably like four or five, maybe
Speaker 2: six months ago, I don't know, a while back, and
Speaker 2: I was with a good friend of mine shout out
Speaker 2: to tell us, and we was in there and we
Speaker 2: was waiting. They was they was full. So we're sitting
Speaker 2: at the couch like just waiting for you know, somebody
Speaker 2: to see us. So the waitress comes over like, you know,
Speaker 2: you know, we got some shots for you, like free drinks.
Speaker 2: I'm like, all right, cool. He's like it comes from Jimmy.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that it was that Jimmy. So I looked,
Speaker 2: I'm like thanks, because the last time I saw him
Speaker 2: he waged a lot more weight, so he.
Speaker 3: Lost a lot of weights.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I didn't recognize that was a heavyweight. He
Speaker 2: gave me, you know, the mafia nod.
Speaker 3: Like what's up. I'm like, what's up?
Speaker 2: So long story short, it turns out that his son
Speaker 2: is a huge support of our Alesia and his son
Speaker 2: told him like, that's Unerleisia.
Speaker 3: You can't have him waiting. I like that, So we
Speaker 3: chopped it out.
Speaker 2: He came over and we spoke for like two hours,
Speaker 2: and you know, I was just letting him know who
Speaker 2: we were. It was just you know, just trading stories
Speaker 2: and it was just a really dope experience. And I
Speaker 2: told him, you gotta come on the podcast. Man, he
Speaker 2: asked me at the time. He's like, I heard you
Speaker 2: got you know, a big podcast. And he's like I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it's number one. And he was like number one where
Speaker 2: and I'm like in the world.
Speaker 3: I come, I don't know, said you number one guy.
Speaker 2: It's then a couple a couple of months later, we
Speaker 2: hit number one in the world. So I spoke that
Speaker 2: into existence. So and then a couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 2: our friends was in there shout out to Mike, Damn
Speaker 2: Rich the whole crew, and they was like, yo, you're
Speaker 2: never gonna believe who we got to come on on
Speaker 2: Alesia and they faced something. I'm like, I already spoke
Speaker 2: to him. He said, you already committed. We was just
Speaker 2: waiting for the Okay, So, long story short, we finally
Speaker 2: got this done. So I'm looking forward to an exciting conversation. So,
Speaker 2: first and foremost, thank you for joinings. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3: I'm excited, you know, just to see be part of
Speaker 3: your show and number one show, and I know your
Speaker 3: audience wants to hear different topics and I think that
Speaker 3: you know, what I've done over the last forty years
Speaker 3: is interesting. You know, I've done it you know, at
Speaker 3: different times. And I know there's a lot of people
Speaker 3: out here that have a Jimmy story.
Speaker 5: That's true.
Speaker 6: I told you before we started that my first ever beverage,
Speaker 6: alcoholic beverage was at Jimmy's. It was the first time
Speaker 6: I ever tasted a Long Island iced tea. And for
Speaker 6: the next ten years, that's the only thing I had.
Speaker 3: It was only the real ID or fake ID.
Speaker 2: I don't want to get it statue limitations.
Speaker 5: I don't want to get anybody.
Speaker 3: Still, we still got to respect.
Speaker 5: That she was a little too. Yeah, it was a fig.
Speaker 3: We tried out. We tried our best to make sure
Speaker 3: that I did do right.
Speaker 6: But I looked a lot older. I always had a bid.
Speaker 6: I always looked a lot older than I was. So
Speaker 6: credit to your bouncers at the time, they didn't make
Speaker 6: a mistack.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: So we got I want to about a variety of
Speaker 2: different things, just you know, the state of restaurants and
Speaker 2: on COVID, your experience, all of the different stuff. But
Speaker 2: I want to go back to where it started. So
Speaker 2: how did you start and kind of you selling? You
Speaker 2: just told me you were selling fish in the streets originally,
Speaker 2: Like how did you start in the restaurant business.
Speaker 3: Well, I started working for my dad as a young kid,
Speaker 3: about fifteen sixteen years old. We were selling fish in
Speaker 3: the street on the Crossbronx and Webster, but before that
Speaker 3: was west Chester and the Bronx River, and we got
Speaker 3: kicked out because it was so popular, and they we
Speaker 3: went to the Crossbronx and Webster under the bridge, and
Speaker 3: then from there we rented the building across the street.
Speaker 3: We started selling fish on the side of the building,
Speaker 3: and then we took the building over and that was
Speaker 3: my school. It was Jimmy's Seafood, and then from jimmy
Speaker 3: Seafood we went to Madi'scholar Carribe Then eventually we looked
Speaker 3: to expand and we took over the Jimmy's Bronx Cafe
Speaker 3: and Fordam Road, the Major Deacon. That was a forty
Speaker 3: eight thousand square foot building. We tried to borrow the
Speaker 3: money from everybody and anybody in the world, and I
Speaker 3: remember buying the building for two point four million dollars.
Speaker 5: So I got it.
Speaker 6: So this is that story is pretty crazy because I
Speaker 6: read it was it was two point five million, and
Speaker 6: then mother nature took its course. Yes, and just kind
Speaker 6: of like messed the building up a little bit to
Speaker 6: your favorites, and the price got dropped.
Speaker 3: It was three point two and then we got it
Speaker 3: for two point four. And I remember trying to raise
Speaker 3: the money and I'm like, we're doing so well at Jimmy's,
Speaker 3: at Madi's collar Cardiebe it wouldn't be a problem to like,
Speaker 3: you know, borrow the money from the bank. But you know,
Speaker 3: every bank that I went to was a roadblock, and
Speaker 3: it was like redline, you don't lend money to certain
Speaker 3: people in certain neighborhoods because they cannot be successful. And
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I winded up putting
Speaker 3: the deal together with Leon Katz, and he lent me
Speaker 3: the money at twenty four percent. I almost had it
Speaker 3: at thirty two percent from a group in Connecticut, but
Speaker 3: he gave it to me for a million one. I
Speaker 3: got three hundred from the seller and then a million
Speaker 3: dollars they held back in paper, so I was paying
Speaker 3: twenty four percent. And the fun part about it is
Speaker 3: I remember leading to the fun part, you know in
Speaker 3: life afternoon, like they're just challenges. It's not how many
Speaker 3: times you fall us how fast you get up so
Speaker 3: for me, it was like, I'm going to buy this building.
Speaker 3: I don't know how, but I'm going to buy the building.
Speaker 3: So I remember going into contracting to the property and
Speaker 3: I gave them three hundred thousand, and the three hundred
Speaker 3: thousand was from Reuben Sierra.
Speaker 5: Ah, so the Salica king, yes, baseball players as.
Speaker 3: A king, and so he gave me the money as
Speaker 3: a deposit. He was supposed to be partners with our family,
Speaker 3: and he backed out. But before he backed out, I
Speaker 3: borrowed the money from Leon Kats. And the fun story
Speaker 3: it was that Leon Katz came to he sent his
Speaker 3: nephew Lenny, and Lenny pulled up and he looked at
Speaker 3: the property and he's like, what are you doing. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm building my restaurant. He said, but you don't own it.
Speaker 3: How do you put so many people to work? I said, because,
Speaker 3: like you said, you talk it into existence, you make
Speaker 3: it happen. So I said, I'm going to own this property.
Speaker 3: And the only way you're going to believe in me
Speaker 3: and this property is by me turning around and putting
Speaker 3: everything on the table. Win all, lose all. And I
Speaker 3: did that. So he went back. He told his uncle
Speaker 3: what was going on. He took pictures, looked at some paperwork,
Speaker 3: and he said, I want to go to your house.
Speaker 3: I want to see where you live. He came to
Speaker 3: my house Michell La Parkway. I want to see your family.
Speaker 3: Back he told his uncle. He likes to deal. He said,
Speaker 3: the guy will do the twenty four percent, which twenty
Speaker 3: four percent is the most interest they could charge. It's
Speaker 3: like a loan shark. But that's professional loan shok like
Speaker 3: the credit card companies right now. If they could charge
Speaker 3: you fifty percent, they will, So twenty four percent was fine.
Speaker 3: So he called up. At the time was Freddy Ferrare.
Speaker 3: He was borough president, and Freddy said he asked Freddy,
Speaker 3: what do you know about him? And he's like, that's
Speaker 3: the that's the Latin restaurant guy. He that's what he does.
Speaker 3: He works every day, he has a family. He just
Speaker 3: that's all he does. He says none but good things
Speaker 3: about him. So he goes back. He says, we'll lend
Speaker 3: you the million dollars million one, but you got to
Speaker 3: come up with forty four thousand dollars. So I asked
Speaker 3: my dad for the forty four thousand. He gave it
Speaker 3: to me. So basically, we bought this property with forty
Speaker 3: four thousand out of our pocket, besides the money that
Speaker 3: we used to start the construction. So I went to
Speaker 3: all my vendors. I says, hey, guys, I need some money,
Speaker 3: Like I buy one hundred thousand from you can instead
Speaker 3: of thirty days? Can I go to ninety? And I
Speaker 3: said nope, nope, nope, nope. So I doubled my order
Speaker 3: trip and my orders, and all of a sudden, like
Speaker 3: I can't pay you right now, We're gonna have to
Speaker 3: work out some payments. So I really basically leverage every
Speaker 3: credit card I borrowed from everybody to make this happen.
Speaker 3: I remember, like a lot of my friends that I
Speaker 3: would go to him, like, dude, could you lend me?
Speaker 3: Can you give me a check for like twenty thousand?
Speaker 3: Let it bounce. I just needed I don't really want
Speaker 3: the money, let it help. You Gotta do whatever you
Speaker 3: gotta do to make it legally, just to get over
Speaker 3: that pace. So they're the fun part about it. So
Speaker 3: I remember going out to Arizona. That was the first
Speaker 3: time the World Trade Center got like attacked, and I'm
Speaker 3: sitting with Rick Ruben Sierra and Ricky Henderson and that's
Speaker 3: the time. But I picked up the check so I
Speaker 3: can get into this deal. So I took fifty thousand.
Speaker 3: I put it towards the air condition. I put fifty
Speaker 3: thousand or one hundred thousand towards construction. And then Ruben
Speaker 3: had a brother in in Puerto Rico and he called
Speaker 3: him and said, I want you to check this property.
Speaker 3: So he says to him, pull out the deal. I'm like,
Speaker 3: women caused me. He said, like, listen, I got to
Speaker 3: pull it out the deal. I'm like why, I said,
Speaker 3: because my brother called. He didn't tell me the story.
Speaker 3: So this cab driver was a good friend of my
Speaker 3: mother in law, thought or whatever. He said, his brother
Speaker 3: killed the deal on you. I'm like, what happened? He's
Speaker 3: like he I found out later that he checked the
Speaker 3: assessment of the property, not the appraisal. The assess for
Speaker 3: tax purposes different from what it praised property, and it
Speaker 3: was it was assessed for a million dollars or a
Speaker 3: million five. So he pulled out of the deal. I said, well,
Speaker 3: but I don't have the money. I'll pay you when
Speaker 3: eventually I get into this deal. And you know, I remember,
Speaker 3: like going to one hundred black men and asking them
Speaker 3: for help, and that said, we can help you, but
Speaker 3: we can't help the whole village. We will help you
Speaker 3: because we know who you are, and that's how we'll
Speaker 3: do it. And I remember, like little things that you
Speaker 3: learned from your elders, the ogs, the master g's that
Speaker 3: come to you, and you always look up to these guys.
Speaker 3: And that was the beginning of Jimmy. So that became
Speaker 3: an amazing property, busiest thing in the world. And then
Speaker 3: at the Jimmy's Downtown, Jimmy's Uptown, Jimmy City Island, which
Speaker 3: where they were all amazing places to go. I remember
Speaker 3: running up and down around the city. But you know,
Speaker 3: one of my craziest stories was stay away from Jimmy's
Speaker 3: Cafe where the Yankees. Major League Baseball was so upset
Speaker 3: that every major celebrity, basketball, football, hockey, every major celebrity
Speaker 3: in the world went to Jimmy's. But why because I
Speaker 3: became the caterer for the Yankees. So could you imagine
Speaker 3: feeding every major celebrity star in the yank that came
Speaker 3: to New York, not only the Yankees but visiting team.
Speaker 3: So I was voted the best food in America for clubhouse.
Speaker 3: So what do you think they wanted to go afterwards
Speaker 3: with their family mind So instead of them making sure
Speaker 3: that we wouldn't have problems with none of these celebrity
Speaker 3: figures anything, they told him not to come to my place.
Speaker 3: And that hit the front page and that went from
Speaker 3: three hundred thousand dollars a week to less than one
Speaker 3: hundred thousands.
Speaker 2: So who started this campaign? So let's go into this
Speaker 2: a little bit. So you were in the Yankees clubhouse
Speaker 2: as a vendor food vendor.
Speaker 6: Yeah, because I read that your uncle was the plug, right.
Speaker 6: Your uncle was the guy that knew the Yankees players.
Speaker 3: He played. He played Yankees for one two years, he remember.
Speaker 3: I remember him telling them the story with Mickey Mantle
Speaker 3: let him get his his locker right next to him
Speaker 3: because they really wanted him out the locker room because
Speaker 3: he was the only Spanish guy there. So racism within
Speaker 3: Major League base couch has always been there for me.
Speaker 3: I'm like the Yankees, great dynasty, amazing team, but I
Speaker 3: believe in my heart that one of the most racist
Speaker 3: teams in America. And I mean, you look at the
Speaker 3: deal that the Yankees got in the Bronx. They ain't
Speaker 3: giving back. They just keep taking and taking and taken.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's a sad situation that you get these
Speaker 3: major companies come into our community, rape it and put
Speaker 3: nothing back, you know what I'm saying. But that's a
Speaker 3: separate story. So the way I got into the Yankee
Speaker 3: Stadium was at the time was an Italian restaurant, and
Speaker 3: all the food that ever went into the Yankees was Italian.
Speaker 3: Imagine Sylvia's or Jimmy's Bean and Yankees damn never gonna happen.
Speaker 3: So one of the ways that happened was Bernnie Williams
Speaker 3: is a rookie. So I'm like, hey, I sent them
Speaker 3: a stuff lops to the next day, I send them
Speaker 3: baa and a whole bunch of food, and de w
Speaker 3: G's like, we don't want this food. We want this food.
Speaker 3: And all of a sudden, I get a phone call
Speaker 3: from Luke Cucuza and Robbie like, yo, we want a
Speaker 3: meeting with you. Like what's up. It's like, oh, guys
Speaker 3: want your food. And that was the beginning where you know,
Speaker 3: we just became legendary. I did the nigs, I did
Speaker 3: the meds, you know, and you just have to let
Speaker 3: people know that you know, what you do is it's great,
Speaker 3: it's quality, and you got to open doors for others.
Speaker 3: And that was how I got my foot in the
Speaker 3: door with there.
Speaker 5: Bernie Williams Puerto Rican, Bernie Williams Marianna.
Speaker 3: I remember the World Series they win where they going
Speaker 3: to Jimmy's with their family and that drove people crazy
Speaker 3: because that's what they wanted to be within their own people.
Speaker 6: From the outside, it was like we saw those people
Speaker 6: going there, and so as the public, it was like,
Speaker 6: there might be a chance if we go there tonight
Speaker 6: that we might see there.
Speaker 5: You never know who's you never know who's going to
Speaker 5: be in there.
Speaker 6: Plus the jerseys are everywhere. It was like the first
Speaker 6: place where you had the players would come, they give
Speaker 6: you the jerseys on the wall. It's like, there might
Speaker 6: be a chance tonight.
Speaker 3: Peyton Martinez, Vegas, Tito plant their cruise, Mark Anthony J. Low.
Speaker 6: I mean, if you name it, you didn't you miss
Speaker 6: you missed one guy, the King of the Bronx.
Speaker 3: Oh Joe, that was.
Speaker 5: We can't, we can't.
Speaker 3: We had stories there but.
Speaker 6: Joseph Carter Gin Yeah, we even have to Castro I'm
Speaker 6: glad you mentioned that because I read that in nineteen
Speaker 6: ninety five, and that was at the time.
Speaker 5: Mayor Giuliani is the mayor of New York. Yes, didn't
Speaker 5: want him eating anywhere in the city anyone.
Speaker 3: Wanted to leave his room. I mean at the point
Speaker 3: where he locked him out of everywhere. So it was
Speaker 3: him and another European coffee or nine or something other
Speaker 3: coffee was he was restricted from everything. So I'm like,
Speaker 3: Serrano asked me if we can invite Fidel Castro to
Speaker 3: the Bronx, and when I hosted, I'm like sure. I'm like,
Speaker 3: I'm already known for the place where unsavory characters like
Speaker 3: Enemy number one of the United States a Phidel Castro, Like,
Speaker 3: how better can I get? Like, I'm going to really
Speaker 3: And I remember like deciding the media people like New
Speaker 3: York Times scene, I had more cameras and everything. I
Speaker 3: was like the most amazing, you know, starty, and then
Speaker 3: the death threats came in and to you, yeah, of
Speaker 3: course humans like yo, get me me like yo, but
Speaker 3: I'm not I'm not in politics. I'm just a restaurant guy.
Speaker 3: So you have the guys that are for Cuba on
Speaker 3: this side and you have the ones against Cuba or
Speaker 3: Fidel on this side. And the next day after this
Speaker 3: whole historic meeting, where Fidel came to the Bronx, you know,
Speaker 3: he went to three places. He went to Abysiny and
Speaker 3: Baptist Church, he met with the Times, and he went
Speaker 3: to Jimmi's. So those are these places. So no matter what,
Speaker 3: you can't ever take away that we had the number
Speaker 3: one enemy of the United States at that time, which
Speaker 3: was Fidel there and for the row. Yeah, I'll tell
Speaker 3: you want to go even crazier. A couple of years later,
Speaker 3: I went to Cuba for any Moore Theell concert, and
Speaker 3: I was in I was sitting in the in the
Speaker 3: in the in the audience, and Toronto said, if Fidel
Speaker 3: is going to if you're going to meet Fidel again
Speaker 3: in Cuba, it's going to be a night. He doesn't
Speaker 3: meet people in the daytime. So I'm not thinking. I
Speaker 3: just put that in the back of my head. So
Speaker 3: it was like ten to eleven o'clock at night, somebody
Speaker 3: taps me on my shoulders. Is Commandante would like this here?
Speaker 3: What that what that means?
Speaker 5: Like you know, the like he wanted that is the
Speaker 5: commander of the command.
Speaker 3: That's so I get out from the hotel, I get
Speaker 3: up from the concert. They take me across. I got
Speaker 3: a prison for him. I know it's his birthday. So
Speaker 3: I bought him this, this piece with all these famous
Speaker 3: baseball pictures and balls Nolan Ryan, and so I give
Speaker 3: it to him and I go to the White House
Speaker 3: in Cuba and we sit down. We have a couple
Speaker 3: of drinks and he's like, you know you hungry. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 3: if you cook weeding, they called chew me I remember that.
Speaker 3: I don't know why I still remember this name, like
Speaker 3: so many years later tom Me so chummy comes over.
Speaker 3: We set it up and we're sitting down with I
Speaker 3: remember drinking cocmeo for the first time of life and
Speaker 3: salad and this that. So we wrap up the meeting
Speaker 3: and you know, I'm a collective of jerseys, like you
Speaker 3: could tell like that's where it collect So I said,
Speaker 3: come man, Dante, if you don't mind, would you give
Speaker 3: me would you allow me to have one of your shirts,
Speaker 3: like just for what I could imagine, like his shirt,
Speaker 3: like the army shirt, like the general. So he whispers
Speaker 3: to somebody and he comes back in two minutes he
Speaker 3: gives me the jersey, the jacket and the past, the fatigues,
Speaker 3: the whole shit. Bam. I'm like crazy, crazy crazy. So
Speaker 3: that was my little Fordell story. I had David Bowie
Speaker 3: concert there.
Speaker 2: I mean, wow, So why did why did the Yankees
Speaker 2: tell people not to patronize your restaurant?
Speaker 3: Wasn't the Yankees? It was major League Baseball? Why did
Speaker 3: major League Baseball tell peoples we had They felt that
Speaker 3: unsavory characters visited my place and they didn't want something
Speaker 3: some street street activity. In other words, if you have
Speaker 3: two beepers, you're a drug dealer. You have two buds,
Speaker 3: you're a drug dealer. You can't have one for business.
Speaker 3: So I remember one time Waltarie said he was ahead
Speaker 3: of Hispanic Police Association and he had two beepers. I guess,
Speaker 3: I guess you're a drug dealer because you got you
Speaker 3: look like one. So at the end of the day,
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, you don't stop them or unsavory
Speaker 3: characters going to the Yankees, You don't stop them going
Speaker 3: to see the next You don't stop from going anywhere
Speaker 3: New York City. But now you want to stop them
Speaker 3: from going to Jimmy's because it's out of control. I
Speaker 3: don't understand. It cost me a lot. And I remember
Speaker 3: sitting down with Van Woods from Sylvia's and it was funny.
Speaker 3: You know, for the one time in my life, I
Speaker 3: felt bad being Hispanic because as influential, I felt that
Speaker 3: our business was in the Hispanic community. Now one Hispanic
Speaker 3: leader came to support us, not one spoke out, but
Speaker 3: yet there were Sylvia's. I said, listen, we're here. Whatever
Speaker 3: you want. And if I would have known now what
Speaker 3: I know now, if I would have known it, then
Speaker 3: I would assume major League Baseball and the rest would
Speaker 3: be history, because you know this discrimination that they have
Speaker 3: against us, Like.
Speaker 6: That's crazy because if you think of the sport dominated
Speaker 6: by Latin American and Hispanic players.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so where would they I mean, what they eat.
Speaker 3: Where they take their family? Where would they feel comfortable
Speaker 3: in the radicon? Yeah, because we're gonna go downstairs and
Speaker 3: have some sandwiches or just like in other words, not
Speaker 3: but nothing. Our food is made from scratches fresh. You know,
Speaker 3: the service, the hospitality, the music, the environment, the energy.
Speaker 3: So you have all the money in the world, where
Speaker 3: you want to go where you don't feel comfortable? Where
Speaker 3: you do feel comfortable. Where would you want to visit?
Speaker 3: You know, but you feel like all the prejudice, Like
Speaker 3: you see all the checkpoints. Checkpoints are not below ninety
Speaker 3: six Street, they're above ninety six Street. So you look
Speaker 3: at the discrimination on like you know, you cross the bridge,
Speaker 3: they wait for you over there, they waiting for you
Speaker 3: over they get on the high we get out of here,
Speaker 3: like in other words, it happens still to this day.
Speaker 3: In other words, you know, it's it's a crime, it's
Speaker 3: a shame. What happens.
Speaker 2: Do you feel that taking to detour the restaurant industry,
Speaker 2: just the night life in New York City. I feel
Speaker 2: like even before Corona it is dead. And I feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, all of the clubs closed, La Ladina closed,
Speaker 2: the gentlemen's clubs, clothing with all of that, and I
Speaker 2: just feel like New York has become so buttoned up.
Speaker 2: And you go to other places like Atlanta. This is
Speaker 2: why Atlanta is thriving, Miami is thriving. It's like they letting,
Speaker 2: you know, they're letting things happen, where New York has
Speaker 2: just become so buttoned up that nothing is like nothing's
Speaker 2: going on anymore it's lost its culture.
Speaker 3: And we don't have no voice. Like in other words,
Speaker 3: right now we have a problem. We have no voice.
Speaker 3: If something happens in one of our establishments, we have
Speaker 3: no one to support and stand up for us, like
Speaker 3: if like you know, if there's something happened today in
Speaker 3: the Hispanic community, the best we got, in my opinion
Speaker 3: is Fernanda my tale. The best we got is Fernando
Speaker 3: Mattel and AOC. So what happened to the rest of
Speaker 3: our leaders? What happens to our businesses? Like in other words,
Speaker 3: you know, if something happens in it's on the community.
Speaker 3: We have no leadership. But you know something Black community,
Speaker 3: our shoppers right there, So he gonna put the break
Speaker 3: right on of say slow down, you're doing this, you understand.
Speaker 3: So we're going to change the mentality. What's going on
Speaker 3: in our businesses are suffering right now. The culture from
Speaker 3: the top down is like the abuse of power, like
Speaker 3: you shut down the City of New York's like the
Speaker 3: restaurant industry, the hospitality, bus boys, waiters, cooks, I mean,
Speaker 3: you name everybody in our industry suffered this whole year.
Speaker 3: Why but you can go to the anchors in party
Speaker 3: you can go to my running and party. But right now,
Speaker 3: why are you holding us down? Why you're holding us
Speaker 3: back because it ain't based on the science. So the
Speaker 3: governor has a problem with the mayor. So why are
Speaker 3: we being kicked around? Why are we being abused because
Speaker 3: of it? Like right now Friday, New York City's going
Speaker 3: to fifty and the state is going to send.
Speaker 2: Why capacity based on what science? It's just just random.
Speaker 2: You know, this whole thing has been extremely random. The
Speaker 2: governor of Texas just decides Corona's over no mass required.
Speaker 3: Dumb. Atlanta never had three weeks. Three weeks.
Speaker 2: They've been done with it for monthseventy It's like they
Speaker 2: just thrown out a number. Sounds good to me, seventy five.
Speaker 2: Let's go for it. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 3: You know, at the end of the day is it's
Speaker 3: challenging and those that stay with it are gonna win.
Speaker 3: Like in other words, I just my advice to everybody
Speaker 3: out there is like, Yo, hang in there, Yo, it's
Speaker 3: gonna get better, it's gonna get great. This was just
Speaker 3: of course we took in life that's gonna strengthen us.
Speaker 3: I mean, whether you bowed out and failed get back
Speaker 3: in it, because this is gonna turn around. This is
Speaker 3: gonna be amazing. There's gonna be a lot of great opportunities.
Speaker 3: You're gonna learn from the mistakes that you took for granted.
Speaker 3: Now to take advantage of them, you're gonna make. You're
Speaker 3: gonna do great coming out of this. I mean, I'm
Speaker 3: looking forward to going around the world.
Speaker 5: With this, yeah said. I mean that there's two things there.
Speaker 6: Number One, you've been in the game so long that
Speaker 6: you've probably seen almost everything, and now, including this, I
Speaker 6: can't imagine anything else that you haven't seen. But going back,
Speaker 6: you said that you were working with Sylvia's and that's
Speaker 6: interesting too, because you're both in the restaurant field, but
Speaker 6: you're not looking at each other as competitors.
Speaker 5: You're looking at You're looking at his family.
Speaker 3: I go there and I tell them, listen, you got
Speaker 3: to change your computer system. I'm going to get you
Speaker 3: some equipment you need to do this, and Van and
Speaker 3: family and so we just that's what we do to
Speaker 3: the height and do the same thing.
Speaker 5: Is that common in this game?
Speaker 6: Because I feel like, you know, when you have restaurants,
Speaker 6: it's like this is my competition. If there's a dynamic
Speaker 6: of people or a culture of people that are going
Speaker 6: to these restaurants. It's looking at like, well, you're taking
Speaker 6: away from my customers, But what changing your relationship to say,
Speaker 6: you know what, we're family, We're going to do this together.
Speaker 5: Let's all rise.
Speaker 3: Oh you look at opportunities, like the opportunities that are
Speaker 3: out there for everyone. Like in other words, the podcast industry,
Speaker 3: there's there's so much you can do. Let's teach someone,
Speaker 3: teach one, let them grow, show them the tricks. It's
Speaker 3: like going to school. What we're doing right now is
Speaker 3: I'm going to school. I'm the teacher. I teach the students.
Speaker 3: So if I learned something quick, I give it to them.
Speaker 3: Now they give it to their kids, and they helped
Speaker 3: street change and evolve. You know, we're responsible. Like one
Speaker 3: of the biggest problems we have right now in this
Speaker 3: day and age with this young men and women. I
Speaker 3: blame us. I blame us as adults that didn't put
Speaker 3: our foot up there ass because that's what happened to
Speaker 3: us growing up. In other words, your biggest fear of
Speaker 3: growing up is if they told your parents you were
Speaker 3: going to get whooped. Like another word, you embarrass me.
Speaker 3: I'm move.
Speaker 5: You know. You got to do it back then.
Speaker 3: Now, I was like, there's no one to tell these
Speaker 3: young men and women, hey, you can't do this. That's
Speaker 3: not how you do things. So we we're gonna have
Speaker 3: to step up our game and grab them under the
Speaker 3: wing and say, yo, slow down, chill. This is how
Speaker 3: you build a restaurant. This is how you build the
Speaker 3: clothing store. This is how you build a label, this
Speaker 3: is how you do a studio. You got to teach everyone.
Speaker 3: We got to share our information, we got to share
Speaker 3: our contacts, and we got to help each other. Like
Speaker 3: I do a lot of consulting all the time with restaurants,
Speaker 3: and I'll tell you, guys, listen, you know, I'll come
Speaker 3: in and I'll assess your whole restaurant and look at
Speaker 3: your sales, and I'll look at your nightlife, and I'll
Speaker 3: look at your equipment, and i'll look at your habits.
Speaker 3: And this is what I'm gonna charge you, and the
Speaker 3: money you pay me ten, I'm gonna save you one hundred.
Speaker 3: And this is how easy it is. I'm want to
Speaker 3: show you how easy it is. I'm gonna just save
Speaker 3: you ten in a minute, and I just show them debling.
Speaker 3: But I'm okay because they're going to be able to
Speaker 3: grow and each one helps each other. We're going to
Speaker 3: grow together as one big family. So let me ask
Speaker 3: you this.
Speaker 2: As far as we've interviewed a few restaurant owners, and
Speaker 2: everybody has different philosophies as far as what makes a
Speaker 2: restaurant successful. Because I think it's like ninety five percent
Speaker 2: failure rate for restaurants. It's extremely tough business. Food cost
Speaker 2: shot of Derek Falcon. He's the first person that actually
Speaker 2: broke down food cost. Chef Calvin talked about food course
Speaker 2: also food costs, extremely important, managing systems, things of that nature.
Speaker 3: So what is some.
Speaker 2: Like commandments that a restaurant has to have in place
Speaker 2: in order for to be successful?
Speaker 3: Based on your experience, Team, there's no I in team.
Speaker 3: If you don't have a great team around you, you're
Speaker 3: going to Like a basketball team, you can't you can't succeed,
Speaker 3: you can't win that championship. You need a fold, you
Speaker 3: need a center, you need the team. Baseball the same thing.
Speaker 3: You need the best of the best. So if you're
Speaker 3: going to do something small, make sure you have a
Speaker 3: good team. I mean you want to have someone that
Speaker 3: understands the kitchen. But you cannot let that front of
Speaker 3: the house rule the back of the house. The back
Speaker 3: of the house can't rule the frond of the house.
Speaker 3: It has to flow. And a lot of times what
Speaker 3: we have is a great cook that doesn't listen to
Speaker 3: the clientele. You understand that you think that your food.
Speaker 3: Like in other words, for example, you're going to put
Speaker 3: a menu together, first thing to do is sit down
Speaker 3: with five or six foodies, people that no food and
Speaker 3: tell the chef prepare that dish five times for five people,
Speaker 3: and we're gonna critique the protein, the vegetable, the salad.
Speaker 3: We're gonna we're gonna critique the presentation, the flavors, the layers. No,
Speaker 3: I learned, Like in other words, keep going to school,
Speaker 3: keep learning, and keep putting people in your life that
Speaker 3: can help and support you. So, for an example, tomorrow
Speaker 3: I decide to open up something other than the restaurant business.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna hire the best person that does that. I'm
Speaker 3: not gonna turn it around and said, well, I'm gonna start
Speaker 3: from ground zero. It's not happening. A lot of times
Speaker 3: people will open up a restaurant they'll put everything into
Speaker 3: this restaurant and then leave no reserve for the next
Speaker 3: six months or a year.
Speaker 2: Talk about that, Talk about that as far as like,
Speaker 2: I think that's one of the reasons why restaurants fail because,
Speaker 2: you know, and the business is up and down, you know,
Speaker 2: and you make most of your money, correct me if
Speaker 2: I'm wrong. You make most of your money in a
Speaker 2: couple of days, like weekends or like happy hours like that.
Speaker 2: You can have ups and downs, but you still gotta pay.
Speaker 2: You gotta pay stef you got to pay security, You
Speaker 2: got to pay all these things. So you don't have
Speaker 2: enough money, and then it's like your bankrupt. So how
Speaker 2: much money should you have like three months, six months?
Speaker 2: How much money should you have in savings before even
Speaker 2: starting a restaurant?
Speaker 3: Well, that number is going to depend upon your team,
Speaker 3: your leadership, your concept, your mission statement, your projections, all
Speaker 3: of these things are going to determine what you need.
Speaker 3: Like in other words, you know, I I was in
Speaker 3: an establishment yesterday where the guy spent two hundred thousand
Speaker 3: dollars building a place, and I'm like, I wish you
Speaker 3: would have known you six months ago because it would
Speaker 3: only cost you seventy five, So you just put one
Speaker 3: hundred and twenty five that you didn't need to put
Speaker 3: into this concept, and that money could have went into
Speaker 3: the development of the mark, the labeled the brand. A
Speaker 3: lot of people picking name, they don't realize that that
Speaker 3: name's already taken. Got to take a step back, So
Speaker 3: you have to do a lot of work from the
Speaker 3: very beginning of the inception of the name. Can you
Speaker 3: own the name? Can you register the name? Can you
Speaker 3: build a name? Where's where are you going with your restaurant?
Speaker 3: Are you looking for a livelihood? Are you looking for
Speaker 3: long term? What are the goals? What are you looking
Speaker 3: to make from this restaurant? Are you looking for just
Speaker 3: the salary? Then you think about security. Why would you
Speaker 3: want to build a restaurant that you won't feel safe
Speaker 3: in yourself? Why would your security need bulletproofs? Why would
Speaker 3: they need like another way, and one of the problems
Speaker 3: that we have, like in New York City, that we
Speaker 3: don't have in Florida. Just a very simple example. I
Speaker 3: don't know Atlanta yet, but why can't we have a
Speaker 3: cop at the front door. Why can't we have a
Speaker 3: cop at the front But you can because it's it
Speaker 3: has a liquor license, but you can have at a
Speaker 3: Yankee Stadium, Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2: And Atlanta definitely has cobs the front door and it
Speaker 2: deters the violence. Heavily armed and it deters the violence.
Speaker 3: You can't have it in New York. So we got
Speaker 3: to change little things like this. So we tell the
Speaker 3: young men and women, you're not coming any here with
Speaker 3: the weapon, and if you do, you're gonna leaven handcuffs
Speaker 3: and don't even think about it. So you stop it
Speaker 3: at the front door. Like when I had Jimmy's. You
Speaker 3: knew my guys were retired at the front door that
Speaker 3: were not street ducks.
Speaker 5: This is true.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're gonna pat you down and if you got
Speaker 3: a weapon, you're going to jail. And you knew that
Speaker 3: if you got stupid, we're gonna find you because we
Speaker 3: got cameras everywhere and you didn't come in with it.
Speaker 3: And one of the things we stopped we stopped the Posse's, Like, yo,
Speaker 3: ain't no Posse's tonight. Wa ain't forty fifty. We got
Speaker 3: ten security. Why I want forty you guys to run
Speaker 3: my show. It's not happening. Never happened. Yeah, exceptions to everybody.
Speaker 5: That's an exception.
Speaker 6: So when you expanded, what do you Because you moved
Speaker 6: to Harlem and you had the downtown place, we want
Speaker 6: to talk about the doggie barn sect. But what are
Speaker 6: you looking for when you're expanding into different areas?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 6: Is it the prime real estate? And are we trying
Speaker 6: to own the land or are we leasing the area?
Speaker 3: We want to own the land, but if we can't
Speaker 3: on the land, we want to go negotiate a deal
Speaker 3: that the revenue we're going to pay is going to
Speaker 3: be basically just as much as a mortgage that you're
Speaker 3: not overpaying. That's one way to look at it. Another
Speaker 3: way is that you want to find the neighborhood that's
Speaker 3: going to support your concept. The craziest thing is I
Speaker 3: opened up Chimneys downtown on fifty seven and first, Now,
Speaker 3: if you look at anybody that lived below ninety sixth Street,
Speaker 3: then look at you and say you retarded. How is
Speaker 3: fifty seventh Street downtown? It's fifty seventh Street downtown.
Speaker 5: Midtown is midtown?
Speaker 3: Midtown? Where'd you grow up? All? Right? Below ninety sixth
Speaker 3: Street was what midtown?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 3: No, below ninety sixth Street, below ninety sixth Street what
Speaker 3: we call that. That's mahad all right, But growing up,
Speaker 3: if you went above ninety six that was uptown.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, where do uptown start?
Speaker 3: Well, Harlem starts at one hundred and Town Street. Way
Speaker 3: did uptown start? And the sixth Street that's where the
Speaker 3: money was, that's the nicest houses and properties, or below
Speaker 3: ninety sixth Street. So there was three places that we
Speaker 3: went to growing up as a kid. We went below
Speaker 3: fourteenth Street, that's the village. Below ninety sixth Street, that's downtown.
Speaker 3: Above ninety sixth Street were going uptown. So it was
Speaker 3: only three. So when I said Jimmy's downtown, I'm like, dude,
Speaker 3: that's how That's what we knew. Downtown was below six.
Speaker 6: I got So you were just saying downtowntown because that's
Speaker 6: what you grew up knowing.
Speaker 7: So it's just a low halem. So it's downtown. We
Speaker 7: want above six we want to Harlem. Right, So Jewish
Speaker 7: lady walks up to me. Chimans downtown Puerto Rican cuisine.
Speaker 7: She goes, why don't you call it Spanish? I'm like,
Speaker 7: what do you mean? I'm like, why don't you just
Speaker 7: call a Spanish restaurant? I said, because it's a Puerto
Speaker 7: Rican restaurant, but wouldn't it be easier for you to
Speaker 7: call it Spanish?
Speaker 3: So the problem is like, well, we go out to eat.
Speaker 3: We don't say, let's go to a white restaurant. We
Speaker 3: said Italian or Greece say Irish.
Speaker 5: No Greek.
Speaker 3: We call it what it is. So he's nothing wrong.
Speaker 3: We're calling it what it is.
Speaker 2: He trying to just lump you in the bucket with
Speaker 2: Peruvian Dominican when we.
Speaker 3: Said Spanish, that's a that's like, you know, it's wrong
Speaker 3: because Mexican, Puerto Rican is not Spanish. Europe is Italian, Russian,
Speaker 3: and German. It's not European, right it is.
Speaker 2: And it's not really even a correct word Spanish because
Speaker 2: Spanish is a language. It would be like the equivalent
Speaker 2: of saying English.
Speaker 5: Or it has to or the origin has to come
Speaker 5: from Spain.
Speaker 3: Well Spain, right, we do exactly. Yet the way they
Speaker 3: like a soupy we do with difference is totally different.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. It's funny story, like even
Speaker 3: like soul food like funny thing. I was talking to
Speaker 3: Van Wards, you know, ran ran Sylvia's and we talked
Speaker 3: about restaurant stories, and he opened up Sylvia's in uh,
Speaker 3: South Carolina and it failed, and I'm like, why did
Speaker 3: it fail? He's like, how you gonna teach Southern people
Speaker 3: from southern Southern? Oh my god, and it's not gonna work.
Speaker 3: So like people said, why don't you open to the
Speaker 3: Puerto Rican restaurant in Puerto Rico. I'm like, yo, I
Speaker 3: learned one thing from man. Don't do that.
Speaker 5: Don't We're not coming at I was.
Speaker 3: I was gonna ask you that. Actually, if you I
Speaker 3: was gonna ask you.
Speaker 2: That's funny you say that I was gonna ask you
Speaker 2: if you ever thought about opening a restaurant in Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3: And if I did, it would be where the tourists
Speaker 3: come in. So I heard him be for the people
Speaker 3: like by the by the Doe, by the docks. I've
Speaker 3: heard fact Joe say this before. What's your take on it?
Speaker 2: He said that some Puerto Ricans or a lot of
Speaker 2: Puerto Ricans and Puerto Rico don't look at Puto Ricans
Speaker 2: in New York as really Puerto Rico.
Speaker 3: You call a New York creakan. In other words, you're
Speaker 3: not one of us. So it's a disconnect. It's a
Speaker 3: whole disconnect, you know. And I think New York and
Speaker 3: Atlanta you look at each other different. You're from the south,
Speaker 3: not from the East coast, like the East coast West coast,
Speaker 3: you're not. We just don't connect. We create barriers, We
Speaker 3: create walls that don't need to be there.
Speaker 2: M Yeah, So let me ask you this as far
Speaker 2: as like how difficult was it or what was the
Speaker 2: two part question? Your spots have become like very popular sparts,
Speaker 2: like you said, with celebrities, rappers. All that goes to
Speaker 2: what was the marketing? Did you do any marketing or
Speaker 2: that was just natural? That's the first question.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so marketing then to marketing. Now, back then you
Speaker 3: couldn't Instagram, you couldn't Facebook, there was none, So it
Speaker 3: was pretty much flyers and promoting. But the one thing
Speaker 3: that I learned, like back in the days, was like
Speaker 3: just be genuine, sell a real, true experience, because then
Speaker 3: the cheapest form of advertising is true advertising when you
Speaker 3: sell someone to experience their telephone and they tell a
Speaker 3: friend and it goes on and on. And I believe
Speaker 3: that to this day, tele friend is the best concept
Speaker 3: for marketing because you come in and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it's like you want to tell someone to celebrate their birthday.
Speaker 3: I Mean, I remember times I go to the restaurants
Speaker 3: and I'm like, how many reservations, how many birthday parties
Speaker 3: we have? Like we have seventy birthday parties tonight, I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh my god, Like everybody celebriting there and you're going
Speaker 3: to see everyone thing and you're going to dance and
Speaker 3: you're going to have fun and you're just gonna make
Speaker 3: sure the food comes out on time. And it's just
Speaker 3: a lot of little little details. You gotta pay attention
Speaker 3: to the details. You know, you have to like put
Speaker 3: a nice team of people together. Like if I'm opening
Speaker 3: up a new restaurant tomorrow, I'm looking for my chef.
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the front of the house. I'm looking
Speaker 3: at the white staff, I'm looking at the help in
Speaker 3: the kitchen, and I'm looking at the whole team together.
Speaker 3: What the food course is going to be, what's the presentation,
Speaker 3: what's to talk more audience. One of the things that
Speaker 3: I did wrong was when I down Cokay, for example,
Speaker 3: was I built them too close to each other. So
Speaker 3: when I had which ones newishell? Was the first one
Speaker 3: that was the one you couldn't get into if you
Speaker 3: even dreamed about it, because that was just crazy. But
Speaker 3: then I built from there. I did a story, so
Speaker 3: that took a little bit away because it too close,
Speaker 3: and a lot of people from Queens and Brooklyn didn't
Speaker 3: come to the Rochelle. You know what I'm saying, because
Speaker 3: now you're in Westchester and now this is the city.
Speaker 3: Then I did White Planes, and then I did City
Speaker 3: Island exactly, so now I was too close to the
Speaker 3: mothership and I couldn't be in all of them. And
Speaker 3: then the people that you bring into the team and partners,
Speaker 3: if they don't understand to how to take care of
Speaker 3: your clientele where they're your family and you've you got
Speaker 3: to make a promise and keep a promise. Like in
Speaker 3: other words, one thing you have to tell people is
Speaker 3: like your word is your bond. So if you make
Speaker 3: a reservation and there's going to be ten and six,
Speaker 3: you can't walk into six with ten people and know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying, I ain't got your table. And you
Speaker 3: know I had a partner that he didn't.
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Speaker 3: Dealer care and basically he turned the Don Koque and
Speaker 3: Queens into a shit show, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: And you can't have people that value money more than
Speaker 3: the concept and what you're selling because and then you're
Speaker 3: going to dilute the brand. You can dilute you know
Speaker 3: what people are expecting, and they're going to talk bad
Speaker 3: about you. And that's what a lot of people do
Speaker 3: in restaurant businesses. If you don't focus on the food,
Speaker 3: you don't focus on the service, forget about the happy hour.
Speaker 3: Happy hour is just part of an experience. So I
Speaker 3: tell people, listen, if you want to learn how to
Speaker 3: really do this, go work for somebody that really knows
Speaker 3: how to do this, Like learn the ins and out
Speaker 3: of the business. Just don't decide because you can make
Speaker 3: a cheese burger, you're going to open up a restaurant.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work that way.
Speaker 2: So as far as balancing it, because your your spots
Speaker 2: is also like a nightlight, especially like the Don Cokey's
Speaker 2: of the world, Jimmy's balance in a restaurant with night life,
Speaker 2: how is that.
Speaker 3: Besides your audience? Like in other words, I'll give you
Speaker 3: a perfect example. I love all the new music. I
Speaker 3: understand all the new music. Do I want to listen
Speaker 3: to that when I'm having dinner. You understand, Like when
Speaker 3: is too much? Too much? I mean, can you listen
Speaker 3: to hip hop for three hours? You know, just straight
Speaker 3: hardcore straight. So the funny thing is, like, you know,
Speaker 3: there was a guy called one of my mentors, Robert Isabelle,
Speaker 3: was a big mentor mine, Richard Turley, Ian Schrager, Charlie Rangel,
Speaker 3: wants b ls oh, Percy Sutton, one of the most
Speaker 3: amazing in the world. I don't and I was part
Speaker 3: of the Great Chamber, and I would listen to all
Speaker 3: my mentors and this guy, Robert Isabelle, they called him
Speaker 3: the flower God. And I remember back in the days
Speaker 3: when I had the Spanish band and he came up
Speaker 3: and he's like, the bands can't play two sets. They
Speaker 3: only pay one set. I'm like, but that's what we
Speaker 3: do uptime. That's wrong, Michael Kyle, try it. I booked
Speaker 3: the band one set. He said, you don't introduce him,
Speaker 3: but that's what you don't introduce them. But well, why
Speaker 3: don't you introduce him? It's because you interrupt the flow,
Speaker 3: You interrupt the energy. People start looking at their watches
Speaker 3: like okay, he says, when they finish, it's only forty
Speaker 3: five minutes, not an hour and a half. Not because
Speaker 3: you're paying them for one set. No, no, forty five minutes
Speaker 3: and the minute that song is finished, and it better
Speaker 3: be only five or six amazing hits, no new songs,
Speaker 3: and then you go right into the set, don't. So
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay. It changed the whole game in Heights
Speaker 3: because now you only book a band for one quick show,
Speaker 3: and you were able to bring in diferent people. So
Speaker 3: I remember one time I tell one of my tejs,
Speaker 3: I said, listen, I want you to play some Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3: He goes, I ain't playing Michael Jackson. I said, you
Speaker 3: think you ain't gonna put you ain't playing Michael Jackson.
Speaker 3: You know you out of here? Like right now, I'm
Speaker 3: like you and you're gonna play Michael Jackson. He looked
Speaker 3: at me like I'm crazy, because that's what Robert said
Speaker 3: I should do. And it's like the old school, so
Speaker 3: you know what you used to all the new music.
Speaker 3: But he said, no, you gotta give people twenty to
Speaker 3: thirty minute mixes so that they don't get yeah, I
Speaker 3: knowed that was a don Keys special started rocketing.
Speaker 5: It felt like, oh, like changing the music.
Speaker 2: That was kind of annoying to me and be honest
Speaker 2: in full transparency because they will play hip hop, but
Speaker 2: just enough. And then they went back to the to
Speaker 2: the south said yea, I teach, I put it back
Speaker 2: on and jumped.
Speaker 6: Up and if we being like and then it felt
Speaker 6: like the land music would go for like an hour
Speaker 6: and a half and I was like, I don't know
Speaker 6: one word.
Speaker 5: I gotta go.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you went to the south Side. You went
Speaker 3: to and I was like, you start playing some white,
Speaker 3: some white music, and all of a sudden you go
Speaker 3: to hip hop and it's like that.
Speaker 5: I'm like, okay, here we go.
Speaker 3: A little flip, you know what I'm saying. So it's
Speaker 3: like he says, you play this music for twenty minutes,
Speaker 3: and then everybody goes on the dance floor. It goes crazy.
Speaker 3: Put the heat on. I'm like, put this He said, no,
Speaker 3: put the heat on. They're gonna start sweating, right, I said,
Speaker 3: twenty minutes the ball put a what Guy song? But
Speaker 3: now they're all gonna run to the bar, I said,
Speaker 3: about ten minutes later, you put a great song and
Speaker 3: it's like, oh shit, But like I understood because he
Speaker 3: and Ian Traeger Studio fifty four, Like he is the
Speaker 3: god of night life. Like that guy knew what he
Speaker 3: was doing and he knew how to deme the nights,
Speaker 3: the music, the concept. So I'm like, I have the
Speaker 3: best teacher in the world teaching me how to play
Speaker 3: it the game. How can I mess up? Like so
Speaker 3: in other way, I always said, listen, pick him into us,
Speaker 3: make sure they know what they're doing, Understand what they're
Speaker 3: teaching you, and adopt that of what they're teaching you
Speaker 3: to what you need to do today, and before you
Speaker 3: know it, well it is yours. Like right now, if
Speaker 3: I go to Atlanta, if I go to Miami, if
Speaker 3: I go to Long Island, who's the best. And I'll
Speaker 3: sit there, I go two or three nights, take my notes.
Speaker 3: I'm like, they don't know what's coming because I know
Speaker 3: everything they're doing wrong, So I'm not looking at everything
Speaker 3: they're doing right. I'm going to go in there today.
Speaker 3: I'm going to do my homework like I'm going to
Speaker 3: be the student and I'm going to be the waiter.
Speaker 3: I'm going to be the host. I'm going to be
Speaker 3: the manager, the most important. I'm going to be the client,
Speaker 3: the guy who spends the money. And I'm going to
Speaker 3: sit with the big willies and I'm going to sit
Speaker 3: with the regular folks and I'm going to see how
Speaker 3: they feel. I'm going to see their energy. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: see how what's going on in their world, and before
Speaker 3: you know it, you have a winning, successful here. What's
Speaker 3: coming in twenty twenty one? It's Corona taught me a lot,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying. One of the things that
Speaker 3: taught me is to be closer to my family, children,
Speaker 3: my grandchildren. But like you know, the love of real
Speaker 3: people that in your life. But then you got to
Speaker 3: do your homework and says, Okay, I'm busting out. I'm
Speaker 3: going crazy. And what's coming next? If you thought Jimmy's
Speaker 3: was crazy, don't cokeyo. So freedom was crazy. What's coming
Speaker 3: is out of this world? Because I already see I'm
Speaker 3: already planning and I'm going slow. I build a foundation,
Speaker 3: not building it. I'm saying, I'm getting ready. And one
Speaker 3: of the things in the restaurant or any business, build
Speaker 3: yourself cut strong foundation coutend, it's easier to build from,
Speaker 3: you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 6: So at the height of Jimmy's, you had celebrities coming
Speaker 6: in and obviously that boosted the amount of revenue you
Speaker 6: can bring in and then the food became the thing.
Speaker 6: And so I'm thinking now, especially like in the down
Speaker 6: coo quy locations, how profitable is that or how properle
Speaker 6: are The location doesn't just matter based on where they're located.
Speaker 3: No, it doesn't matter where they're located.
Speaker 5: It's just going to be a hit.
Speaker 6: Because I figured, like you got at the height, you
Speaker 6: had over three hundred employees. You got again, you have balances,
Speaker 6: have all this staff that you're paying, and most restaurants
Speaker 6: people don't walk into till about six seven o'clock if
Speaker 6: they don't go happy shout out to your happy hour.
Speaker 6: The two dollar drinks during the somewhere are great. But
Speaker 6: at what, like, how we what's the revenue model in
Speaker 6: a good a good year and a down year.
Speaker 3: For me, it's like, if I'm gonna it's not so
Speaker 3: much about the number. So it's about what you can offer.
Speaker 3: So like, let's say, if the location can do breakfast
Speaker 3: lunch and dinner. Now you have three revenues. Then you
Speaker 3: add in takeout, then you add in happy hour, then
Speaker 3: you adding private events, then off premise catering, than you
Speaker 3: the nightlife. So the more components you could put, the
Speaker 3: more sources of revenue you can bring in. Okay, Now,
Speaker 3: one of the most important things that you have to
Speaker 3: understand is you have to sell an experience, and the
Speaker 3: experience has to be genuine. It has to be real.
Speaker 3: People have to be able to touch and feel and
Speaker 3: know that it's real, because then they'll do the marketing
Speaker 3: for you. You know. One of the things that I created,
Speaker 3: like you want to celebrate your birthday in my place
Speaker 3: because it's going to be an experience. Like it's going
Speaker 3: to be an experience. So at five o'clock, I had
Speaker 3: a seating four hundred and forty. It was boked and guys,
Speaker 3: you got to get up at seven because my next
Speaker 3: group is coming. And then nine o'clock was my next group,
Speaker 3: and eleven o'clock my next group, and one o'clock was
Speaker 3: my next group. And I would sit with my daughters
Speaker 3: and I'm like, what are we doing today? Give me
Speaker 3: the list? Okay, who's running?
Speaker 1: La? No?
Speaker 3: No, you got to tell them that they got to
Speaker 3: be up and like, you know, we get that food
Speaker 3: out like now, like you create such an experience, but
Speaker 3: you like people wanted to celebrate because it was happy birthday.
Speaker 3: It was happy there. The music played was happy birthday song,
Speaker 3: then another happy birday so and people just felt like
Speaker 3: part of one big family. You create an experience. I
Speaker 3: think now post COVID, what's going to happen is outdoor
Speaker 3: is going to blow up. Like whoever has the nicest
Speaker 3: outdoor experience is going to take advantage of this market huge.
Speaker 2: So now that things have changed as far as like
Speaker 2: how how has that shifted your business, not only with
Speaker 2: COVID but just in general as far as like marketing,
Speaker 2: Like you said, now it's social media. Now it's influencers.
Speaker 2: Like influencers is like more important than rappers or entertainers.
Speaker 5: These days, you may not even know.
Speaker 2: Who Nobody knows who any athletes are if you're not
Speaker 2: in the NBA because NBA players, even if you're not notable,
Speaker 2: you're tall and you stick out, so it's obvious who
Speaker 2: you are. But that still doesn't really mean anything these
Speaker 2: days unless you're like a celebrity NBA player.
Speaker 6: But it's even toughing even then, Like I went to
Speaker 6: a restaurant it was for next players and you wouldn't even.
Speaker 3: Know have the mascot? Right?
Speaker 6: Yeah, well I was like I know them because I
Speaker 6: found sports, But like they're just they necessarily right next
Speaker 6: to you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, athletes aren't. Are aren't moving the needle these days?
Speaker 2: Rappers but only a select fewer rappers. But influencers are
Speaker 2: moving the needle a lot. So do you are you
Speaker 2: marketing on social media? Are you marketing to influencers? Are
Speaker 2: you marketing bartenders? Startenders, star tender star?
Speaker 3: You know it's crazy because star tenders. You know, I
Speaker 3: tell you a funny story. So now what changed in
Speaker 3: the night life? But you're asking the question, what do
Speaker 3: you think changing night life?
Speaker 2: A lot of things changed, but bartender's definitely changed because
Speaker 2: bottle service. Bottle service changed everything. That changed the whole world.
Speaker 3: Well, the bottle service was around with Jimmy's because you
Speaker 3: got a section of VIP if you were buying four
Speaker 3: or five, six.
Speaker 2: But that everything became vi Bottle service used to be exclusive,
Speaker 2: then it became mandatory.
Speaker 3: You can't get into a club unless you're a lot.
Speaker 3: But what changed the most. Let me see if you.
Speaker 2: I would say bottle service club to what, oh club
Speaker 2: to like lounge like a club to strip club?
Speaker 3: Oh yes, growing up right, going to a strip club
Speaker 3: was frowned upon. It was like look fast, no, no,
Speaker 3: you don't.
Speaker 6: Go to the strip clubs, strip club yours, especially in
Speaker 6: New York and New York like that was looked.
Speaker 3: Upont like you don't go to the strip club? Like, yo,
Speaker 3: who goes to the strip clubs? Then all of a
Speaker 3: sudden the clubs disappeared, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it's all the strip clubs, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it's like if you didn't go there with how many
Speaker 3: stacks to throw and you didn't buy like how many bottles?
Speaker 3: The shoes round vous the one of the bronx up.
Speaker 3: You know, you looked at all the strip.
Speaker 10: Clubs all of that, like everything was like, so now
Speaker 10: you don't go to a club on a Friday, saiday,
Speaker 10: that way, you go to the strip club and the
Speaker 10: girls enjoyed drawing money.
Speaker 3: At the girls back that back then it didn't look
Speaker 3: like so then that's how the clubs disappeared in our communities,
Speaker 3: because then the strip club started getting closed down. But
Speaker 3: then the strip club started to close, right, But why
Speaker 3: did they gets because they catered to a certain audience
Speaker 3: that now the strip clubs are closed, and that's now
Speaker 3: where the lounges and the restaurant and the restaurants turned
Speaker 3: coming back, because before you couldn't open up a club
Speaker 3: because nobody came.
Speaker 6: The bottle server is the VIP was one thing, but
Speaker 6: then the entire club became VIP and now you're just
Speaker 6: standing there back to back with your friend like, hey,
Speaker 6: you want to drink? These guys popping bottles behind you.
Speaker 6: It just was like, wow, we're here. We're just standing here.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: But what he said about the strip club thing is
Speaker 2: very pointed, and because in Atlanta it's been a part
Speaker 2: of the culture Southern coature for a long time. They
Speaker 2: break records down there, like you listen to a new record,
Speaker 2: you got to be playing the strip club first.
Speaker 3: Before first fight. Jo will be like, yo, we got
Speaker 3: to drop it in all the strip clubs because if
Speaker 3: all the strippers are dancing to it, it's a hit.
Speaker 3: And now it's like social media. But the strip clubs
Speaker 3: changed the whole game. But what happened was the violence
Speaker 3: shut them all down everything. You see how few were left?
Speaker 2: Yeah matter in New York on the clubs closed in
Speaker 2: New York, club became the only option, and like you said,
Speaker 2: shootouts and stabbings and violence, and then that got shut
Speaker 2: down and.
Speaker 5: Then Corona and then Corona came.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, basically that's how That's how it happened. Now
Speaker 3: they have the underground strip clubs. They have like everything's
Speaker 3: happening underground, and so you think they're really gonna stop it.
Speaker 3: But I don't know, but I think that the next
Speaker 3: big move is going to be like now that the
Speaker 3: city opened up and allowing outdoor, it's changing people. But
Speaker 3: I was talking to one of my friends, he's a
Speaker 3: captain in the four three four, and he's like, the
Speaker 3: problem that we see is going to develop is people
Speaker 3: now learn how to party outdoor. They don't need to
Speaker 3: go to a club until it gets cold. Well that
Speaker 3: was lo Marena. That was the That was the lure of.
Speaker 2: Loam Marena was that you in New York City, but
Speaker 2: you feel like you're in Miami, Miami, like you know,
Speaker 2: you gotta you got the water you got saying yeah,
Speaker 2: it was a vibe that whole Diyakman strip was a vibe.
Speaker 3: It was amazing. It was like the whole strip was
Speaker 3: like a whole not so, what's going to be the
Speaker 3: next now move? It's going to be interesting this twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one is whoever prepared to come out.
Speaker 5: I think Jimmy knows what the next move is.
Speaker 3: It's happened. It's in the worst, it's in development of
Speaker 3: the development right now.
Speaker 2: And you know, it's interesting because it's like I remember
Speaker 2: when Lo Morena first started the pop and I heard
Speaker 2: about it. I think if I really heard about it,
Speaker 2: when jay Z went this was years ago, like they
Speaker 2: was like Jay was in Lot Marina. It was like
Speaker 2: every weekend I was him about lot Morena and at
Speaker 2: that time, like it was all the way uptown, so
Speaker 2: it was kind of out the way and location wise,
Speaker 2: you wouldn't think that that would be the best location,
Speaker 2: but it ended up working out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was. I would pull up all the time.
Speaker 2: But so location isn't really location isn't always the most
Speaker 2: important fact. If you can make something hot, they'll country.
Speaker 2: Like even sus rendezv was in Mount Vernon, you know
Speaker 2: for us, I mean that's that's hometown. But people in
Speaker 2: the city, they look at Westchester like that's upstate.
Speaker 5: That's uptown. That's really uptown.
Speaker 3: That's upstate.
Speaker 5: Yeah, upstate, Bronx is uptown and west Chester's upstate.
Speaker 3: You're right, So that was cool to live upstate because
Speaker 3: nobody wants to live in a box room in the city.
Speaker 3: Not everybody's looking for properties upstate. But you know the
Speaker 3: fun thing about upstate and it's not upstate, it's west
Speaker 3: there's no place to really party.
Speaker 5: No.
Speaker 6: No, that's why down Coquy was important because before you came,
Speaker 6: it was Pearl and Pearl was official. We had the
Speaker 6: two for one drinks in there, and they shut that
Speaker 6: down because I guess again maybe the client tell of
Speaker 6: people that were coming in.
Speaker 5: But then that Coki came and was like all right.
Speaker 2: But you know what happens that something to get shout
Speaker 2: to my man cave party extraord in there promoted but
Speaker 2: anytime in White Plane because it's white so it's oversaturated
Speaker 2: with restaurants. I know when the restaurants in trouble when
Speaker 2: they start throwing parties. Just before Corona obviously, but they
Speaker 2: would through parties for a couple of months and then
Speaker 2: it'd be like a stabbing or something like that and
Speaker 2: then they would the cops would come shut it down.
Speaker 2: But I knew that the only reason when they were
Speaker 2: doing parties is because they wasn't making at that point.
Speaker 3: Like like I like, I seen industry and it messages
Speaker 3: it up for our community. Perfect example, you just said,
Speaker 3: you know, I had a place in White Planes down
Speaker 3: Cokie up there. I thought that that was going to
Speaker 3: be like the next best, most amazing thing. But the
Speaker 3: town is racist. You ain't gonna like. They don't want
Speaker 3: people of color to go up there in parties. So
Speaker 3: they have checkpoints are everywhere you go. So you get
Speaker 3: a couple of checkpoints, you ain't going back. One guy
Speaker 3: gets a resident kills your business. So at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, it's like, you know what, I stay
Speaker 3: away from upstate and little towns because little towns have
Speaker 3: people that will they will come after you. They'll shut
Speaker 3: you down. They don't care. I mean, and that's around America.
Speaker 3: I'm not gonna say just New York City, anyone in
Speaker 3: this world. Like you go to Jersey, Connecticut. If you
Speaker 3: don't really you're not an influence and you're not down
Speaker 3: with the town, they will shut you down real quick,
Speaker 3: you know. And if you're of color, you're even faster.
Speaker 3: You're gonna get shut down. But one of the biggest
Speaker 3: problems that we have is that when somebody's doing bad,
Speaker 3: they think that the way to get out of the
Speaker 3: debt is to bring in promoters. What's the problem with
Speaker 3: the promoters. Promoter doesn't care. He has no investment. He
Speaker 3: makes his money today, he's in, he's out, have a
Speaker 3: nice day. So if your capacity is two hundred and
Speaker 3: he brings in five hundred, what does he care. He
Speaker 3: makes more money. You feel better that you made more money.
Speaker 3: But you have an incident, the cops walk in. You
Speaker 3: over capacity all of a sudden. So you know there
Speaker 3: has to be like yo, it's a double edged sword.
Speaker 3: Got to know what you play with him when these
Speaker 3: places they do these parties because they know they got
Speaker 3: four months they're going to go to the Lives Day. Now,
Speaker 3: that sets a stigma for the next owner. So that's
Speaker 3: what we heard each other, because if something is out
Speaker 3: of line, shut him down. You know, like I said,
Speaker 3: club owners, guys, you know you feel that the caps
Speaker 3: are against you, But do you know who's out of
Speaker 3: community board? No, do you know who the price and
Speaker 3: commander is? No, have you ever met with them? No,
Speaker 3: you wait to meet them when they're coming down on
Speaker 3: you to shut you down. You ain't doing your homework.
Speaker 3: So if you're going to open up an establishment, know
Speaker 3: your neighbors, know the community board leaders, know the police department.
Speaker 3: Hire a retired cop. Listen blue, I'm blue is different.
Speaker 3: If they don't know you, they can come after you.
Speaker 3: But if you have a bulletproof vest, it ain't going
Speaker 3: through you. So hire someone that can help you. So
Speaker 3: hire people, know your team, know what you're going up against.
Speaker 3: If you don't do your homework, you're gonna get hurt.
Speaker 3: Don't call it after the fact. Oh day man, Like
Speaker 3: if you look at the Heights of Heights was out
Speaker 3: of control for a very long time. You walk into
Speaker 3: these places and I'm like, how do you how did
Speaker 3: this happens? And then all of a sudden they all
Speaker 3: got shut down and it was only a matter of time.
Speaker 3: So you have to know what you need to do
Speaker 3: in every neighborhood. But you know, if you're of color,
Speaker 3: you're more likely that they're going to attack you than
Speaker 3: if you're American, you're white, or you're a retired cop. Listen,
Speaker 3: there's just different set of rules.
Speaker 6: Did you ever think, all right, I'm just going to
Speaker 6: keep it strictly a restaurant and not have that nightlife
Speaker 6: component as part of the establishment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because right now is like if you're going to
Speaker 3: go out for dinner and you have like I'm building
Speaker 3: outdoor spaces where you're going to have dinner and you're
Speaker 3: going to enjoy your music and your space and your fans.
Speaker 3: So you're going to You're going to build something different
Speaker 3: for the day and age of people that we're living
Speaker 3: with today. You know what I'm saying. So it's that
Speaker 3: big night life went to a small nightlife went to
Speaker 3: a strip club. So what's the new what's going to
Speaker 3: be the new deal. It's going to be with social distancing.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are not going to take the
Speaker 3: vaccine for I don't know what reason. I already had Corona.
Speaker 3: I went through it. It was tough for me and a
Speaker 3: lot of people enjoying privacy because we move so recklessly
Speaker 3: so fast before Corona. Now we look we slow down,
Speaker 3: We like our company. We pick our company now, so
Speaker 3: we're going to go to places that we feel that
Speaker 3: the energy in the room is good and we can
Speaker 3: have our own different little parties, and I think that's
Speaker 3: going to be the move moving forward. So part part
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 6: And you said the word development during this whole process,
Speaker 6: started your own construction team.
Speaker 3: I've always built. I've always been you know, I've always
Speaker 3: loved building things. And I have had fortune of having
Speaker 3: some great designers in my life. Eat Alt Watsburg, he
Speaker 3: did Cafeteria Republic, Bond Street, Dublin, Mexico. W So he's
Speaker 3: like a designed the interior guy. And once he tells
Speaker 3: me how to design it and do it, then I
Speaker 3: get my Chinese crew and we just make it happen.
Speaker 3: It's like the one thing I'm gonna tell you in
Speaker 3: the restaurant business, the most important thing when you're gonna
Speaker 3: build a restaurant anywhere in this world, to not do
Speaker 3: it without a plan. The biggest mistake restaurant owners do
Speaker 3: and people ain't even homes like, just if you have
Speaker 3: a dream, put it on paper, make the mistake, erase it.
Speaker 3: It costs you a lot less to do it this way.
Speaker 3: Then to turn around and says, well, I have an idea.
Speaker 3: I want to put a lamp over here and this
Speaker 3: over there and get a rendering spend the money on
Speaker 3: a designer and architect. Look at it before it's going
Speaker 3: to open and change whatever you're going to change now,
Speaker 3: don't make don't waste the money. Trust me, I've done
Speaker 3: this so many It's cost me millions of dollars to
Speaker 3: turn around and think that. I know. No, no, no,
Speaker 3: no no. Put it on a paper because then you
Speaker 3: can cost the material, the labor. A contract is not
Speaker 3: going to rob you. He signed on the dotted line.
Speaker 3: Don't give a contractor too much money. Buy your own
Speaker 3: material if you can pay him weekly, and don't let
Speaker 3: him rip you off. There's a lot of bad people
Speaker 3: out there. There's a lot of bad people out there. Trust me,
Speaker 3: I deal with them all the time. I don't deal
Speaker 3: with them. I know who they are. You can see
Speaker 3: those weaves in the But design it upfront, like anything
Speaker 3: in your life. Put it on paper. Design and see
Speaker 3: what's going to cost you, and spend some money which
Speaker 3: hire someone that can consult. Hire. There's a lot of
Speaker 3: great consultants out there that will save you so much
Speaker 3: money you think upfront is going to cost you. If
Speaker 3: you go down that, that's a money pit. When you
Speaker 3: start building these places, they become money pits and it
Speaker 3: doesn't make sense.
Speaker 2: So you had spoke about before, like the way that
Speaker 2: the cops had treated different like when you started the
Speaker 2: soul food restaurant as opposed to the lat restaurant. Talk
Speaker 2: about that a little.
Speaker 3: Bit, you know, you know it's listen so you know
Speaker 3: I'm from the Bronx. I'm Puerto Rican. My grandchildren are
Speaker 3: black and Puerto Rican. I have Dominican grandchildren as well.
Speaker 3: So you can't tell me like I shifted one way.
Speaker 3: Listen with all brothers. At the end of the day,
Speaker 3: when I have black cops and white cops looking at
Speaker 3: soul food restaurant differently, you know it exists. We can't
Speaker 3: say it doesn't exist. I said, you don't want a
Speaker 3: great soul food restaurant with music and a little bit
Speaker 3: of everything. That's what we do every day. Anyway, I
Speaker 3: just called I just changed the name. All of a sudden,
Speaker 3: I changed the name. I'm different different. I did the
Speaker 3: same concept. I did a little Latin food. I did
Speaker 3: a little soulfood. What's the difference? Why was that treated different?
Speaker 6: That was that was Don Cokey turning into gets old.
Speaker 6: So and you know it was a nice situation betifl.
Speaker 6: It was a beautiful situation. You had a nice VIP room,
Speaker 6: the food was great, the music was great. I actually
Speaker 6: liked it a little bit more than the Don co
Speaker 6: Kee White Planes. Then you had the upstairs downstairs if
Speaker 6: you had to do brunch during the day. So it's
Speaker 6: unfortunate that that that happened.
Speaker 3: Unfortunate and fortunately because I got a great experience and
Speaker 3: I could still do it again, and I can, and
Speaker 3: I see myself sometime in the future doing another soul
Speaker 3: food Latin restaurant combo because I got it under the wing.
Speaker 3: I took the course, I got the class, and it's
Speaker 3: and the demand is there. The demand is there, Like
Speaker 3: I've seen some soul food restaurants that have never had
Speaker 3: I've never taken it to that level. I already seen
Speaker 3: what's missing. So for me, it's in the bandage.
Speaker 6: Did you tap into the Sylvia's team when you went
Speaker 6: ventured into SOFO or now?
Speaker 5: Is it your direct competition?
Speaker 3: No, they're never, they're never. There's no, But that's my family.
Speaker 3: Those are my family. Anything they need they can call
Speaker 3: me tomorrow. I'm like, yo, I'm there, I'll help you
Speaker 3: out whatever you need. I hire a soul food chef,
Speaker 3: you know, because I think everybody has their own chefs
Speaker 3: and their own and then you have to tweak what
Speaker 3: chef is going to do because just because you know
Speaker 3: how to cook soul food doesn't mean is that what
Speaker 3: everybody gonna want. So you got to tweak that and
Speaker 3: that's how you learn these things. But I think that
Speaker 3: a great soul food with a a bougie nightlife would
Speaker 3: be a great head in New York anyway in this world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that definitely wouldn't because it's not there's not really
Speaker 2: too much like that going on.
Speaker 6: That we really need. What's the the cuisine? Oh hot
Speaker 6: class I love the grill is nice, but it's only
Speaker 6: in the city, so we need something out here.
Speaker 3: I love what's in it food. If you don't understand,
Speaker 3: I'm a food I love. I love great food. I
Speaker 3: love like when chefs present food and the taste, but
Speaker 3: the energy. It has to be a vibe. You gotta
Speaker 3: be a vibe. That's what we need. That vibe. We
Speaker 3: need that vibe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the tough spot. It's difficult because it's
Speaker 2: like how do you control how do you really control it?
Speaker 2: You try to do dress code, but there's no dress
Speaker 2: code anymore, so that that one away you do the
Speaker 2: eye test. The eye test is that leads to just
Speaker 2: racism on a whole different level of playing. Like you
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying. So it's like, I see if
Speaker 2: from both perspectives, because I've seen places where they're like, yo,
Speaker 2: no sneakers, you can't get in, and every single person
Speaker 2: that's white in there has sneakers on.
Speaker 3: And the sneaker you get, you put out a load
Speaker 3: for a fact, that's a fact. So how do you
Speaker 3: do that? How do you control crowd?
Speaker 2: Like because like I said before, you could just do
Speaker 2: dress code, but there's no more dress code, So how
Speaker 2: do you control the crowd?
Speaker 3: Music? Music, all okay, you set the tone, yo, I
Speaker 3: tell listen? Okay, So I tell a cloth bone all right,
Speaker 3: nick A license is till four o'clock in the morning. Okay,
Speaker 3: when should you change the music at three fifty nine?
Speaker 3: You understand? So if you go from hardcore taboogie dancing
Speaker 3: too slow and sexy to turning on the lights, people
Speaker 3: leave in this tone. But if you leave with you,
Speaker 3: we all know the great DJs of New York City
Speaker 3: in the world. If you bring that DJ in at
Speaker 3: three thirty to rock out for that last half hour.
Speaker 3: I need a bottle, and that what they do with
Speaker 3: the bottles, they're chugging it. If you look at the
Speaker 3: most violence in the clubs anywhere in this world, and
Speaker 3: I'm talking about anywhere, and this is like science, it's
Speaker 3: half hour before you close to an hour after you close.
Speaker 3: Why the juice kicks in? Now what do you do?
Speaker 3: You just set yourself up for failure. So what do
Speaker 3: I do? The hardest music? If I close it for
Speaker 3: it ends at three, then at three o'clock you do
Speaker 3: a little souce a little bit. They don't get people
Speaker 3: stop bugging out, like yo, I want to go hardcore.
Speaker 3: You don't bring them, you know, because you're going to
Speaker 3: create a problem. I just thought about something. I just
Speaker 3: had a great idea.
Speaker 2: So when we go to the land and shout out
Speaker 2: to alx butad Energy, always bring them to this party.
Speaker 2: Cause R and B only party and they only play
Speaker 2: R and B and it's a vibe and it's an
Speaker 2: R and B. So it's not like, you know, no violence,
Speaker 2: not no violence. We should do earn your Lisia. We
Speaker 2: should do what we should have a night. We should
Speaker 2: collaborate on the night, Bring the night. R and B
Speaker 2: is only going to be only R and B is
Speaker 2: a vibe.
Speaker 3: No, But I think, listen, if you do, you do
Speaker 3: a little freestyle, you do a little house, you do
Speaker 3: a little like old school hip hop. Listen. I always
Speaker 3: tell this is funny because back in the days, I'm
Speaker 3: like always fight it with Joe. You know, Joe's my
Speaker 3: little brother. Like I love Joe. Joe's like he's family.
Speaker 3: I mean, he's been to my daughter's weddings, like everybody knows.
Speaker 3: And I always say, listen, Joe, all my friends love
Speaker 3: you because they met you. But your music it's too hardcore.
Speaker 3: You need to start doing some some hip hop. And
Speaker 3: all of a sudden, what do you think he's changed?
Speaker 3: And he flipped the light and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 3: it's like every year he has a hit. And what
Speaker 3: is it about dancing? It's not about violence. All of
Speaker 3: it is like everybody started changing the vibe. So if
Speaker 3: you did a hip hop show, it has to be
Speaker 3: a dance on it can't be it has to be
Speaker 3: positive energy. That's where the R and B kicks in.
Speaker 3: That's where a little bit everything kicks in. It's all
Speaker 3: about the energy you bring to the tech and.
Speaker 2: Then we promote it because everybody I follows is positive.
Speaker 2: It's a business platform. We played the good R and
Speaker 2: B music.
Speaker 5: We have R and B. We don't even need right Well,
Speaker 5: like he said something something, you can mix it.
Speaker 3: You can make it so No, but that's too like
Speaker 3: and then it's like you got to mix it. I said, listen.
Speaker 3: I tell everybody listen, mix it, mix it up. But
Speaker 3: you have to know if, like you said, if I
Speaker 3: only played a little bit hardcore hip hop, that's it,
Speaker 3: that's it. Just do to too, that's it. But it
Speaker 3: kept everybody like the one thing I earn this body energy.
Speaker 3: Everybody's chilled. Like the fun part about being in the
Speaker 3: restaurant of Don co Key is like I'll be on
Speaker 3: my DJs and I'd be like like, and they knew,
Speaker 3: like they gotta change it up because if I see
Speaker 3: the energy in the room, change I change my mood. Change.
Speaker 3: I want to go. I want to work like I'm happy.
Speaker 3: I'm good. Everybody's moving and dancing, Like the nicest thing
Speaker 3: that I see in my world is when I see
Speaker 3: people dancing on the table and they eating. That's like that's fun.
Speaker 3: Like you know what I'm saying, Like it's crazy.
Speaker 5: We've been going to dance on the table.
Speaker 2: About I'm about to help bring New York back. Man,
Speaker 2: once this Corona thing is over, I think we're.
Speaker 3: Gonna have to earn your leisure night. I serious, I'm serious.
Speaker 3: I know it's gonna be that night. We're gonna say it.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be. It's gonna be a vibe. Yes, it
Speaker 2: needs to happen. So what's your what's your visions moving forward?
Speaker 2: What's on your your plan for the next five years,
Speaker 2: ten years, one year? What do you what are you
Speaker 2: looking forward to in the future.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, first and foremost, I'm just happy to
Speaker 3: like have made it through this corona and stay healthy.
Speaker 3: And one of the very important story of my life.
Speaker 3: So I have this young crazy daughter, her name is
Speaker 3: Joelle and crazy because she reads, she knows a lot.
Speaker 3: And one day, about seven years ago, we were by
Speaker 3: the pool and she's reading a book she loves to read.
Speaker 3: Me I ain't reading nothing audiobook audiobooks. So I had
Speaker 3: six months to go before I dropped out of high school,
Speaker 3: and I went right to work because I was working,
Speaker 3: I was making money I didn't think I needed, and
Speaker 3: I was on top of my game at the point
Speaker 3: seven years ago. I was three hundred pounds happy, three
Speaker 3: hundred forty two pushing forty four. My pants were real tight,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, yeah, I'm not buying forty four. So
Speaker 3: you know, Oh you said you're from business. It's forty two.
Speaker 5: And you're not going to forty four guys.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to forty four waists. I was
Speaker 3: very uncomfortable because didn't work. Diet pills didn't work, portion
Speaker 3: control didn't work. Nothing worked. But I couldn't figure out
Speaker 3: how I kept like staying around at three hundred and
Speaker 3: I kept trying to lose weight. So she's reading the
Speaker 3: book and I'm like, what's the book about? She goes, dad,
Speaker 3: if you ever read this book, you'll never eat the same.
Speaker 3: I'm like, look, you know, I eat a whole week.
Speaker 3: I multi grain brown rice, I brown pasta, I do this,
Speaker 3: I do that. She goes, dad, if you ever read
Speaker 3: this book, You'll never read the same. I'm like, So,
Speaker 3: I'm not going to argue because she's gonna win. Learn
Speaker 3: learn one thing about women. Don't fight. You know what
Speaker 3: I'm saying. You got it. Everything was fine. So you know,
Speaker 3: this is July and August, and she decides to buy
Speaker 3: me something for Christmas. And I opened up the President
Speaker 3: and I'm like, she knows I ain't gonna read the book.
Speaker 3: What's the name of the book, Wheat Belly, The Wheat Belly,
Speaker 3: Wheat Belly by William Davis. So I take the book
Speaker 3: and see the I put it in the first CD,
Speaker 3: and the guy says, listen, go home and look at
Speaker 3: the album of your grandparents and see if anybody was overweight.
Speaker 3: Did your mother own a pair of sneakers? Did your
Speaker 3: mother exercise? Did she ever do anything but vacuum the house?
Speaker 3: And was there any nutrition?
Speaker 4: Is?
Speaker 3: No, no, no no. I'm like, oh shit, sounds interesting.
Speaker 3: So I turned around. I put the CD in. He
Speaker 3: tells me how they modified wheat so it doesn't grow
Speaker 3: five feet, it grows eighteen inches, and everything is thick,
Speaker 3: and everybody's thick and down all there's blood pressure, diabetes,
Speaker 3: blood cholesterol, and how the FDA and everybody's selling all
Speaker 3: this processed jump food, this that whatever. I went home,
Speaker 3: emptied out my cabinets and five months later I lost
Speaker 3: seventy pounds and I've been two twenty to twenty five.
Speaker 3: For the last seven years, I have more energy now
Speaker 3: than ever. I feel great. I eat clean, and I
Speaker 3: just remember one thing. If the secret to life is
Speaker 3: listening to your parents and look at the way they ate.
Speaker 3: Growing up, there was no supermarket, it was all market.
Speaker 3: Whatever it was fresh, we ate, and we ate as
Speaker 3: much as whether it was potatoes, whether it was rice,
Speaker 3: whether it was avocado, yams, or whatever. We ate it.
Speaker 3: And nobody was sick. Now everybody's sick, so they're not
Speaker 3: going to try to change your diet. They're going to
Speaker 3: try to give you medication to keep your life. So
Speaker 3: one thing is health is wealth. And if you're going
Speaker 3: to change your lifestyle and you want to feel better,
Speaker 3: I personally believe gluten free is the way to go.
Speaker 3: No wheat, no rye, no body.
Speaker 2: So that's that's the only thing. You just stopped eating
Speaker 2: gluting products. I drink every day. I don't exercise, I
Speaker 2: don't go to the gym, I don't take it. But
Speaker 2: I don't do no diet, pill, drugs or anything.
Speaker 3: I die and I maintain my weight, and you know,
Speaker 3: I feel amazing. I have wanted you now at this
Speaker 3: point in my life then I had twenty years ago
Speaker 3: for twenty years. So I'm just like, losing weight without
Speaker 3: dieting is amazing. Now could you imagine like losing twenty
Speaker 3: pounds in the month without having a diet, exercise and
Speaker 3: you can have a little bit of a drink or
Speaker 3: two here there listen Wheat Bully. You know that one
Speaker 3: book changed my life. And then the other day I
Speaker 3: don't know if you what the health was crazy? Another
Speaker 3: another movie on documentary, It's crazy. The information is power.
Speaker 2: There's a great book called How Not to Die.
Speaker 3: You're read that book. Yeah, she's on it. Listen, health
Speaker 3: is well and you want to listen? What good is
Speaker 3: it having what we have? You know? I remember having
Speaker 3: this conversation with Cally because his wife Nicole is gluten free,
Speaker 3: she has Celiac and he's like, I should know that.
Speaker 3: And Joe another one. I fought with Joe to listen
Speaker 3: to the book. I gave him the audio books. He's like, nah,
Speaker 3: my doctor says no, don't do this, don't and guess
Speaker 3: what he did. He's like, dude, I lost more weight
Speaker 3: in a month than I did in six months before.
Speaker 3: At what is in glue? What's gluten? What exactly is
Speaker 3: that Gluten is a protein found in wheat, writing Bali.
Speaker 3: So it triggers your exhaustents in your mind to make
Speaker 3: you want to eat more. It makes you feel better.
Speaker 3: So you're eating breakfast, thinking about lunch, lund thinking about dinner,
Speaker 3: and the minute you taste it, like I have gluten
Speaker 3: free possibly gluten free bread. I fry my food in
Speaker 3: the restaurant, believe it or not, with almondflour, rice flower.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, So we don't really do we don't. I
Speaker 3: don't like processed food, so I'd rather not give that
Speaker 3: to my clientele. And it tastes so much better when
Speaker 3: you when you're really putting together good food, you know
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. So that's really one thing that changed
Speaker 3: my life that gives me the energy to do what
Speaker 3: I do. Because serving if not understanding what you're serving,
Speaker 3: it's easy for you to sell. But once you know
Speaker 3: quality food, your clientele knows because you always focus on
Speaker 3: the quality food. You go shopping for it, you serve it,
Speaker 3: you know what it is.
Speaker 8: J Lo.
Speaker 3: I do a lot of caning for j Lo, and
Speaker 3: I'm like, Jay, you know I'm gluten free. She goes,
Speaker 3: I understand now, you can serve me. Well, the people
Speaker 3: are coming like, oh, she wants to have dinner when today,
Speaker 3: I'm like, okay, I'll bring the food. She knows that
Speaker 3: it's gluten free. You know what I'm saying. Because you
Speaker 3: don't want to another a little connection, you want to
Speaker 3: work smarter.
Speaker 5: We we actually sat down with one chefs. Yeah, yeah, he.
Speaker 3: Was good, but I've been I've been cooking for a
Speaker 3: long time.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he's much younger than us.
Speaker 3: That. It's a great chef.
Speaker 2: It's a great chef, Jimmy. It's been a pleasure, bro,
Speaker 2: it was mine. What would you like to tell the people?
Speaker 2: How can they find information on your restaurant, social media,
Speaker 2: website and all that stuff.
Speaker 3: He's just way to find me is Jimmy's b X
Speaker 3: Cafe on Instagram. You could dm me if you're looking
Speaker 3: for any consulting, any ideas you want to run by
Speaker 3: me and within thirty days we're going to announce a
Speaker 3: new restaurant. And if you're in New York, you won't
Speaker 3: be disappointed. It's going to be amazing looking forward to
Speaker 3: you can catch looking forward to that to the e
Speaker 3: y L night. Yes, that's the best. I can't wait.
Speaker 3: I can't Troy housekeeping on.
Speaker 6: Shout everybody on picture on dot com. You know that's
Speaker 6: our proud to pay program. Obviously T five members, you
Speaker 6: have access to e y L University, to the number
Speaker 6: one place. Jimmy Son is a members, remember right, Yeah,
Speaker 6: he's an official earn Jonathan.
Speaker 3: Shout out to Jonathan.
Speaker 6: Listen, shout out to Jonathan. Okay, because your dad's a legend.
Speaker 6: And now you're still selling sneakers.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, he's in the restaurant.
Speaker 6: Hey, Jonathan, this is Troy Asia. I'm a diehard sneaker guy.
Speaker 6: Shout out to you. Uh and obviously everybody that's been
Speaker 6: supporting uh Uya University, we thank you greatly.
Speaker 5: All our earners.
Speaker 6: Keeps telling the friend of telephone man, the group is spread,
Speaker 6: and shout out to all of our people that are
Speaker 6: inside there, all the triads that are.
Speaker 5: In there, all the accountability groups.
Speaker 6: Man, it has really grown to a place that we
Speaker 6: are proud of and get to witness on a daily basis.
Speaker 6: So shout out to all the earners in there, and
Speaker 6: shout everybody supporting the merch.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 6: I can't say enough, man, y'all, y'all really have turned
Speaker 6: Lesia into a worldwide name. So we are forever grateful
Speaker 6: and thankful for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and uh, you know, it's just this just happened.
Speaker 2: We didn't plan for this to happen. But I was
Speaker 2: talking to a friend of mine the all the day,
Speaker 2: and you know, our Alesia is not only the biggest
Speaker 2: platform in America business, but it's probably the biggest platform
Speaker 2: in Latin America too. We've reached the number one charts
Speaker 2: in Dominican Republic, We've charted in Puerto Rico, we've charted
Speaker 2: in Colombia, I think fat Venezuela. So he was saying that,
Speaker 2: you know, it's really not like a comparable resource for
Speaker 2: the Latin community like how we have. And I was
Speaker 2: telling him I wanted to do more content with Latin entrepreneurs,
Speaker 2: Latin investors, and even eventually Latin content actually spoken in
Speaker 2: Spanish exactly. And so he gave me a list of
Speaker 2: a bunch of different people. We already had a lot
Speaker 2: of people with Latin backgrounds, but so, yeah, we're looking
Speaker 2: to do more with the Latin community because I feel like,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, I was talking to him and he
Speaker 2: was like, nah, you're right, bro, Like there's nothing like
Speaker 2: ey l for you know, the community.
Speaker 5: We got some stuff brewing too.
Speaker 2: Oh he got a lot of stuffy always supposed to
Speaker 2: have been come out with, but we just want to
Speaker 2: make sure that's correct. But taking over the whole world, man.
Speaker 2: So yeah, anytime we get to sit with, you know,
Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, especially a legend, it's dope. But to have
Speaker 2: you know, somebody that is not only a legend but
Speaker 2: Hispanic icon, it's dope.
Speaker 3: It's dope.
Speaker 2: So, you know, looking to diversify the content, so it's important.
Speaker 2: So yeah, appreciate you, brother.
Speaker 3: Sure, I'm so happy to be here and I'm looking
Speaker 3: forward to leave your.
Speaker 2: Night you head, that's a fact, all right, God, thank
Speaker 2: you for rocking with us. We'll see you next week.
Speaker 3: Peace.
Speaker 4: Please, my graduates from my school being forced bad and
Speaker 4: drop drop, drop drop.
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