WEBVTT - Keith Corbin: His Culinary Journey After Prison 0:00:15.476 --> 0:00:21.996 Pushkin. The other day I drove up from my home 0:00:22.036 --> 0:00:24.836 in Long Beach to a restaurant called Alta and the 0:00:24.916 --> 0:00:28.876 historic West Adams neighborhood of LA. This is a beautiful 0:00:28.876 --> 0:00:29.476 space you have. 0:00:29.756 --> 0:00:31.636 I thank you, thank you. Have you been here? 0:00:32.156 --> 0:00:32.596 I have not? 0:00:32.676 --> 0:00:38.036 I gotta I gotta put you on? Did we get that? 0:00:39.076 --> 0:00:41.036 Great? Were opening with that? 0:00:42.956 --> 0:00:46.356 My apologies, man, you can make here for the interview. 0:00:46.916 --> 0:00:49.316 Keith Corbyn, the man you just heard grilling me, grew 0:00:49.396 --> 0:00:51.836 up about ten miles south of here in another LA 0:00:51.916 --> 0:00:56.076 neighborhood called Watts. In the nineteen eighties. Watts was pretty 0:00:56.116 --> 0:00:59.796 much the epicenter for the War on drugs, and like 0:00:59.876 --> 0:01:02.916 many others growing up in the area, hustling became a 0:01:02.956 --> 0:01:05.316 way of life for Keith. But it was also in 0:01:05.396 --> 0:01:10.276 Watts where through his grandmother, Keith developed a love of cooking, 0:01:10.996 --> 0:01:13.756 and as you'll hear in our interview before becoming the 0:01:13.756 --> 0:01:17.756 trendy restaurant tour he is today, that love of cooking 0:01:17.996 --> 0:01:23.356 saved him when his hustle landed him in prison. This 0:01:23.596 --> 0:01:26.836 is started from the body hard earing success stories from 0:01:26.876 --> 0:01:32.316 people like us. Keith and I jumped right in to 0:01:32.356 --> 0:01:34.556 talk about what it was like building this black owned 0:01:34.556 --> 0:01:38.076 restaurant in West Adams and how people in this quickly 0:01:38.156 --> 0:01:42.276 gentrifying neighborhood reacted when Keith first opened All TOA back 0:01:42.316 --> 0:01:43.236 in twenty eighteen. 0:01:43.796 --> 0:01:45.516 Yeah, it was ugly the beginning. 0:01:46.316 --> 0:01:49.356 How so, I mean when we first came in here, 0:01:49.916 --> 0:01:53.036 we first came into West Adams, I got a lot 0:01:53.076 --> 0:01:56.196 of slack for, you know, from our own people, for 0:01:56.396 --> 0:02:00.796 being the quote unquote face of gentrification. It was only 0:02:00.836 --> 0:02:04.076 on Instagram and you know, and it was just like 0:02:04.156 --> 0:02:07.796 in my what I was trying to do was elevate 0:02:07.836 --> 0:02:11.196 our food. I wanted to represent it and present it 0:02:11.196 --> 0:02:13.796 in a way that it hasn't been done. I wanted 0:02:13.836 --> 0:02:17.116 to bring a restaurant into a community like mine. I 0:02:17.156 --> 0:02:22.036 wanted to provide opportunity, jobs and training to kind of 0:02:22.076 --> 0:02:26.396 like infistrate this industry that doesn't have a lot of 0:02:26.396 --> 0:02:29.276 black and brown influence in it. So I was very 0:02:29.316 --> 0:02:33.196 intentional on what I was coming in to do. No 0:02:33.236 --> 0:02:35.996 one asked me, it's just like part of the gentrifying 0:02:35.996 --> 0:02:41.716 the community. Bullshit, excuse me? Yes, So, but you know, 0:02:42.156 --> 0:02:44.796 it passed and now people see what the mission is, 0:02:44.796 --> 0:02:47.756 to see what I'm about and understand it, and has 0:02:47.796 --> 0:02:51.916 been very very supportive, but it was hard in the beginning, 0:02:51.956 --> 0:02:54.796 you know, like it was it was eating at me. 0:02:55.676 --> 0:02:58.436 What do you think it says about as black folk, 0:02:58.636 --> 0:03:01.396 like our relationship with success, that when one of our 0:03:01.436 --> 0:03:05.796 own opens up, like a restaurant like the one like 0:03:06.116 --> 0:03:10.836 Alter that you've opened in our own neighborhood is viewed 0:03:10.876 --> 0:03:13.836 as betraying the community. 0:03:14.076 --> 0:03:15.916 You know that. 0:03:16.196 --> 0:03:22.036 I mean, I don't know, you know, I try not 0:03:22.156 --> 0:03:26.316 to be this believer in black folks pulling black folks down. 0:03:27.076 --> 0:03:29.556 You know, I don't come at our folks like that. 0:03:29.996 --> 0:03:32.396 You know where they say black folks pull black folks down, 0:03:32.436 --> 0:03:34.316 White folks lift each other up, and this, that and 0:03:34.396 --> 0:03:37.236 the other. I just think it's years and years in 0:03:37.476 --> 0:03:44.556 years of trauma and experiences, right, it's brainwashing, Like it's 0:03:45.436 --> 0:03:48.156 America has a lot to do with the way black 0:03:48.196 --> 0:03:51.316 folks think, you know, from our ancestors and what we've 0:03:51.356 --> 0:03:53.716 been through to get up to this point is going 0:03:53.796 --> 0:03:56.596 to take a lot of healing, you know, it takes 0:03:56.596 --> 0:03:59.156 a lot. It's gonna take a lot of healing and that, 0:03:59.276 --> 0:04:02.716 you know, I don't think that we intentionally want to 0:04:02.756 --> 0:04:03.476 pull each other down. 0:04:03.516 --> 0:04:06.036 I don't wake up to pull another black person down, 0:04:06.676 --> 0:04:06.876 you know. 0:04:06.996 --> 0:04:10.436 But I can't say that ten o'clock at night and 0:04:10.476 --> 0:04:13.556 I'm on the street, you know, and I got my 0:04:13.636 --> 0:04:17.636 eye out, you know what I'm saying, Like in certain communities, 0:04:17.636 --> 0:04:20.436 you know, if I'm turning the block and it's kind 0:04:20.476 --> 0:04:24.996 of dark and you see the like your own fellas 0:04:24.996 --> 0:04:28.116 on the block, like you might you know, fly past 0:04:28.316 --> 0:04:32.036 or busty you or whatever. Right, Yeah, but yeah, that's 0:04:32.036 --> 0:04:33.076 going down a whole other lane. 0:04:33.156 --> 0:04:34.276 Yeah, yeah, Yeah. 0:04:34.396 --> 0:04:36.956 You had an interesting I mean, plenty of trauma in 0:04:36.996 --> 0:04:40.796 your life, plenty of trauma. How have you managed given 0:04:40.836 --> 0:04:44.436 all that to become comfortable with success? 0:04:45.116 --> 0:04:52.116 So for me, success changes with my goals. I don't 0:04:52.156 --> 0:04:56.716 look at it as monetary or buying a house in 0:04:56.756 --> 0:04:58.956 Westwood or any of that. 0:04:59.236 --> 0:05:00.596 But you did, But I did. 0:05:01.636 --> 0:05:04.716 When I first came on from prison in twenty fourteen, 0:05:05.556 --> 0:05:08.636 I had a conversation with my daughter where she was 0:05:08.756 --> 0:05:13.156 made whare of my lifestyle, and in that moment, I 0:05:13.236 --> 0:05:16.676 realized I wasn't proud of the lifestyle I was living. 0:05:17.116 --> 0:05:19.556 And if I died in that moment, you know, I was. 0:05:19.516 --> 0:05:23.076 No longer proud of the conversations that people have, you know, 0:05:23.196 --> 0:05:26.876 and about me. So I set out to change my 0:05:27.116 --> 0:05:30.796 narrative and my legacy and the narrative that people were 0:05:30.796 --> 0:05:35.516 having around me, right, conversations, and we're having different conversations today, Right, 0:05:36.396 --> 0:05:40.516 my legacy has changed. So I'm successful in that I've 0:05:40.516 --> 0:05:43.836 accomplished that, right, So that's a level of success. So 0:05:43.956 --> 0:05:48.356 then once I accomplished that and I had an opportunity 0:05:48.436 --> 0:05:52.916 to open my own business, my goal changed, right, and 0:05:52.996 --> 0:05:57.476 my goal became to provide opportunity to people in similar 0:05:57.516 --> 0:05:59.516 situations in which I came from. 0:05:59.796 --> 0:06:03.116 Right, So maybe we should start at that first moment 0:06:04.036 --> 0:06:06.636 coming out talking to your daughter. Yeah, your goal was 0:06:06.756 --> 0:06:10.556 really just to create a different narrative for your life. 0:06:10.596 --> 0:06:11.956 That's it than you've been given. 0:06:12.036 --> 0:06:14.556 That's it, And that one not the one I've been given, 0:06:14.596 --> 0:06:21.116 the one I've created. Right, So, both the circumstances were 0:06:21.236 --> 0:06:25.316 created before me, Right, I was born into these circumstances. 0:06:25.796 --> 0:06:30.276 But the narrative of the gangster and the drug dealer 0:06:30.396 --> 0:06:34.876 and all that, even though the choices were limited for me, 0:06:35.196 --> 0:06:37.836 so it was kind of like a forced path for me, 0:06:38.796 --> 0:06:42.996 I still own responsibility and accountability and choosing to go 0:06:43.116 --> 0:06:46.796 that route, right, So I created the narrative the drug dealer, 0:06:46.916 --> 0:06:51.516 the gangster, the shooter, the X, whatever the case may be. Like, 0:06:51.636 --> 0:06:56.236 I own some responsibility in it. Yeah, So I created 0:06:56.316 --> 0:07:00.236 this narrative about myself because one I had pride in it, 0:07:00.716 --> 0:07:04.356 and I set out to have this larger than life 0:07:04.396 --> 0:07:07.436 reputation in the streets and then the drug trade. That 0:07:07.596 --> 0:07:11.236 was my goal, in my mission, my aim, my objective. Right, 0:07:11.756 --> 0:07:15.516 So I own that. Right, I own that. But then 0:07:15.596 --> 0:07:17.236 I sought to change that. 0:07:17.516 --> 0:07:20.356 So to change that. So when you come out, what 0:07:20.396 --> 0:07:22.476 are your thoughts about how you can change that? After 0:07:22.516 --> 0:07:23.916 that conversation, I had no idea. 0:07:24.756 --> 0:07:32.356 I absolutely had no idea, right, I just took it 0:07:32.436 --> 0:07:37.996 day by day, and when I found myself in situations, 0:07:38.876 --> 0:07:42.036 I just made the best of it, just like when 0:07:42.076 --> 0:07:46.036 I was in my youth, you know, when I found 0:07:46.116 --> 0:07:50.996 myself in situations at seven and seven world on wheels, 0:07:51.436 --> 0:07:55.116 locked in with all these street dudes throughout LA and 0:07:55.156 --> 0:07:57.916 the squabble time come up. I just made the best 0:07:57.916 --> 0:08:02.956 of the situation. And as things as those opportunities presented 0:08:02.996 --> 0:08:06.756 themselves and I stood up and stayed down, the reputation 0:08:06.876 --> 0:08:07.556 began to grow. 0:08:08.356 --> 0:08:10.756 So I just followed that same model. 0:08:11.156 --> 0:08:14.156 I had no idea, no path on how I was 0:08:14.196 --> 0:08:17.076 going to change my legacy or how I was going 0:08:17.156 --> 0:08:18.196 to change the narrative. 0:08:18.956 --> 0:08:19.996 It's just I. 0:08:19.956 --> 0:08:23.236 Knew I didn't want to do that anymore so and 0:08:23.396 --> 0:08:27.196 avoiding that it put me on another path. And as 0:08:27.236 --> 0:08:31.636 the opportunities presented themselves, right, I made the best of it. 0:08:31.996 --> 0:08:35.556 When I got my first job at local restaurant, I 0:08:35.596 --> 0:08:39.116 had no idea where that path was going to take me. 0:08:39.196 --> 0:08:40.996 Did it seem like a good opportunity to you? 0:08:41.716 --> 0:08:41.876 Oh? 0:08:42.036 --> 0:08:42.116 No? 0:08:42.356 --> 0:08:45.356 Like work man, please, nigga, I've been hit selling dope 0:08:45.396 --> 0:08:48.796 my whole life, like hustling entrepreneur. I ain't want to 0:08:48.796 --> 0:08:52.036 work for nobody, you know what I'm saying. Like it 0:08:52.156 --> 0:08:56.796 was so uncomfortable. It was so uncomfortable to be to 0:08:56.876 --> 0:08:59.316 come up into projects and to go to and lift 0:08:59.356 --> 0:09:04.796 this whole lifestyle of with no authority, no respect for authority. 0:09:05.356 --> 0:09:07.356 To then have this white man yelling at me in. 0:09:07.276 --> 0:09:09.116 The kitchen, Daniel Patterson. 0:09:09.276 --> 0:09:12.236 Man, that shit didn't work. It just didn't work, like 0:09:12.316 --> 0:09:13.276 you feel me. So I tried to. 0:09:13.316 --> 0:09:17.636 Quit numerous of times, but Daniel supported me in the role. 0:09:17.756 --> 0:09:19.196 So hold, look you walk me through that. So will 0:09:19.196 --> 0:09:20.956 you when you go in? Would you just go walk 0:09:20.996 --> 0:09:22.476 in and be like yo, I'm done, or he might 0:09:22.556 --> 0:09:23.516 yell you and be like I'm done. 0:09:24.316 --> 0:09:26.396 You got to understand that the restaurant right in the hood. 0:09:26.596 --> 0:09:29.036 So I just walked out of the door. Yeah you 0:09:29.076 --> 0:09:31.876 feel me, like he we yelling in the kitchen. Fuck that, man, 0:09:31.916 --> 0:09:34.236 I'm out of here. So I walk out. Then here 0:09:34.316 --> 0:09:37.116 Daniel come behind me. She let me talk to you, 0:09:37.116 --> 0:09:40.596 you feel me and like guide me back in, Like, man, 0:09:40.636 --> 0:09:43.276 I know it's uncomfortable with it. To get comfortable, it 0:09:43.476 --> 0:09:45.916 just takes time. And in my mind, I'm like, man, 0:09:45.956 --> 0:09:47.676 you just want me here to yell at me, fool 0:09:49.076 --> 0:09:52.036 like you know, but I'm seeing it one way and 0:09:52.076 --> 0:09:53.636 he seeing it another way. 0:09:53.716 --> 0:09:54.756 He like, you know what I mean. 0:09:55.436 --> 0:09:59.196 But at the end of the day, that job, I 0:09:59.236 --> 0:10:03.516 didn't treasure it, but I explored it because I had 0:10:03.556 --> 0:10:04.236 a goal. 0:10:05.196 --> 0:10:09.316 I didn't know that working at Loco that so it 0:10:09.316 --> 0:10:09.636 this way. 0:10:09.916 --> 0:10:13.916 There was no representation at the mountaintop or at the 0:10:13.996 --> 0:10:16.436 end of this road saying if you take this path, 0:10:17.436 --> 0:10:19.236 you're able to accomplish these thing. 0:10:20.116 --> 0:10:21.556 There was no example for me. 0:10:21.676 --> 0:10:25.076 No, there was no representation, nobody, no example, no one 0:10:25.156 --> 0:10:28.396 exemplifying that for me. Right, I was carving a path 0:10:28.476 --> 0:10:31.556 on my own you know what I mean. So with 0:10:31.756 --> 0:10:34.796 not knowing what I can accomplish at the end, I 0:10:34.836 --> 0:10:36.476 didn't treasure it, you know what I. 0:10:36.396 --> 0:10:38.756 Mean, trust the process because you didn't know it was 0:10:38.756 --> 0:10:39.276 a process. 0:10:39.596 --> 0:10:41.516 I didn't know what the end result was going to be. 0:10:41.516 --> 0:10:41.756 For me. 0:10:41.796 --> 0:10:43.516 In my mind, is just a job in a check 0:10:43.556 --> 0:10:45.716 And if it's just about the money, then I know 0:10:45.796 --> 0:10:49.476 many ways to get money. But I was committed to 0:10:49.516 --> 0:10:53.036 the change. I was committed to the change. And I 0:10:53.076 --> 0:10:57.596 think that commitment to the changes would allow Daniel to 0:10:57.596 --> 0:11:02.436 tap into to guide me back into the restaurant, because 0:11:02.436 --> 0:11:06.196 if I wasn't committed to the change in yourself and myself, 0:11:06.636 --> 0:11:09.396 then I would have been out. Yeah, but he was 0:11:09.436 --> 0:11:13.876 able to tap into that. And I had a purpose, 0:11:14.596 --> 0:11:16.996 like I was doing it for a reason, and so 0:11:17.076 --> 0:11:19.916 I went back in and you know, now I'm comfortable. 0:11:19.996 --> 0:11:20.276 Was ill. 0:11:21.876 --> 0:11:24.036 How did Daniel and Roy Troy find you for local 0:11:24.116 --> 0:11:24.676 to be men? 0:11:24.956 --> 0:11:27.876 Well, they came down there. I was still in prison 0:11:27.916 --> 0:11:30.276 when this process started. They came down to the community 0:11:31.036 --> 0:11:35.956 and kind of like really did the best research they could. 0:11:36.556 --> 0:11:38.676 They got with a bunch of the older gentlemens in 0:11:38.716 --> 0:11:41.476 the community, which I call my big homies, well some 0:11:41.516 --> 0:11:43.276 of them. Some of them are just older dudes in 0:11:43.276 --> 0:11:47.116 the community. You know, we'll keep that separate. And they 0:11:47.476 --> 0:11:52.636 spent almost a year in the community and so they 0:11:52.716 --> 0:11:55.236 were aware of some of the. 0:11:55.236 --> 0:11:56.836 Conflicts, the traumas. 0:11:56.996 --> 0:12:00.396 They kind of got an understanding about what the community 0:12:00.396 --> 0:12:03.316 culture was like. And one of the things that they 0:12:03.356 --> 0:12:05.636 did was really important when they opened Local was they 0:12:05.676 --> 0:12:13.476 brought in a counselor. Wow, so we had access to counselor. 0:12:14.036 --> 0:12:15.596 That's brilliant, you know what I. 0:12:15.476 --> 0:12:17.516 Mean, and like paid counselor. 0:12:18.116 --> 0:12:20.396 Like you'll have a you'll be working in a restaurant 0:12:20.396 --> 0:12:22.476 and like I'll go have a session if I chose to, 0:12:23.156 --> 0:12:25.756 and then I'll come back and tell Tim or whoever. 0:12:26.116 --> 0:12:29.116 Now your session up, Like it's your turn and you're 0:12:29.116 --> 0:12:32.196 still on the clock getting paid to go deal with 0:12:32.196 --> 0:12:34.716 some of your trauma. And then we had group settings, right, 0:12:35.276 --> 0:12:39.756 And so that was how intentional Local was. We're coming 0:12:39.796 --> 0:12:45.036 into the community and really being intentional on helping. 0:12:45.276 --> 0:12:49.436 The folks that they hired. And that's what I experienced it. 0:12:50.076 --> 0:12:51.876 So they found you by talking on the old heads 0:12:51.916 --> 0:12:52.316 on the block. 0:12:52.436 --> 0:12:56.116 No, I'm sorry I didn't answer that question. I had 0:12:56.196 --> 0:12:59.756 got fired at the OI refinery, and I got a 0:12:59.796 --> 0:13:00.396 call for my mother. 0:13:00.516 --> 0:13:04.716 You working at the refinery in. 0:13:03.356 --> 0:13:06.276 Else So, yeah, I was working there. 0:13:06.316 --> 0:13:08.996 I came on from prison, got a job there, labor job, 0:13:09.116 --> 0:13:11.396 because that's the only job I thought X cons can get, 0:13:12.316 --> 0:13:14.836 And so I got a labor job, worked my ass off, 0:13:15.036 --> 0:13:18.076 got a promotion. At the time I got hired, they 0:13:18.116 --> 0:13:22.236 wasn't doing background checks, and then by the time I 0:13:22.276 --> 0:13:26.076 got the promotion, background checks has been implemented. So in 0:13:26.196 --> 0:13:27.876 order to get the promotion, they had to run my 0:13:27.916 --> 0:13:31.156 license to drive company equipment. Running my license brought my 0:13:31.196 --> 0:13:33.476 background up, and so they walked me to the gate 0:13:33.476 --> 0:13:36.756 and terminated me. They didn't say damn, like, man, he 0:13:36.876 --> 0:13:39.276 really worked hard to the point that we want to 0:13:39.276 --> 0:13:42.116 invest in him and move him up in the company. No, 0:13:42.316 --> 0:13:44.916 they overlooked all that and said background, Oh, yeah, you 0:13:44.996 --> 0:13:47.596 out of here. So for a couple of weeks, I 0:13:47.756 --> 0:13:51.236 just really felt that the system and society was so unforgiving, 0:13:51.396 --> 0:13:55.676 right yeah, that I considered going back to hustling. And 0:13:55.716 --> 0:13:57.836 then I got a call from my mother saying, boy, 0:13:57.836 --> 0:13:58.516 you better get over here. 0:13:58.516 --> 0:14:00.316 They just build a restaurant in the. 0:14:00.276 --> 0:14:03.756 Hood and they hiring on the spot and I was 0:14:03.796 --> 0:14:07.116 getting off the freeway and watch on Womenton, the Womenton 0:14:07.116 --> 0:14:08.716 exit off the one oh five, So I just shot 0:14:08.756 --> 0:14:09.116 over there. 0:14:09.556 --> 0:14:10.276 They's show enough. 0:14:10.396 --> 0:14:12.756 They had an application with like four or five questions 0:14:13.716 --> 0:14:18.396 first name, last name, birthday, phone number, email, like, no, 0:14:19.036 --> 0:14:21.116 do you small? Have you ever been in prison? Are 0:14:21.156 --> 0:14:24.756 you black or brown? None of that general information. They 0:14:24.836 --> 0:14:26.076 hired us on the spot. 0:14:26.276 --> 0:14:29.076 Without even knowing your ability to cook? 0:14:29.996 --> 0:14:31.716 Are my inability Do. 0:14:31.676 --> 0:14:34.556 You feel you had an inability at the time for restaurants? 0:14:34.796 --> 0:14:37.396 Absolutely okay, because cooking that home. 0:14:37.316 --> 0:14:45.556 And cooking dope, the's two differents, like it's but however, 0:14:45.916 --> 0:14:49.196 there are skills in both of those that's transferable that 0:14:49.276 --> 0:14:54.356 I didn't understand until I got comfortable in the restaurant industry, right, 0:14:54.436 --> 0:14:57.756 and then I was able to see and understand that, Wow, 0:14:58.796 --> 0:15:01.476 I didn't have to forsake all this knowledge I've learned 0:15:01.476 --> 0:15:05.836 cooking drugs. There's some things there that I learned that 0:15:06.836 --> 0:15:10.796 actually it's transferable. Because when I was cooked drugs, the 0:15:10.916 --> 0:15:15.476 main star was the product, right right? 0:15:16.556 --> 0:15:18.076 How do I make great product? 0:15:19.116 --> 0:15:22.956 And that's what's starting with a proper base, A great base, 0:15:23.276 --> 0:15:25.556 great keilo or cocaine, right right? 0:15:25.956 --> 0:15:27.996 So that's like a rue or something like. 0:15:28.276 --> 0:15:32.196 So No, it's like when you have an option of 0:15:32.996 --> 0:15:35.876 vegetables where you getting it from the liquor store or 0:15:35.916 --> 0:15:40.876 the farmer's mark. Starting with great product and the base 0:15:40.956 --> 0:15:44.236 of the product has to be great, yes, right, and 0:15:44.276 --> 0:15:48.676 then that translates how the end product. So if I 0:15:48.836 --> 0:15:51.436 have a bad kelo or coke, then what do I 0:15:51.436 --> 0:15:53.556 think the crack is going to be at the end result? 0:15:54.196 --> 0:15:57.716 If I have shitty vegetables that's out of season, that's 0:15:57.756 --> 0:16:01.396 been on a frozen truck traveling for two months. 0:16:02.516 --> 0:16:05.036 If I have avocados. 0:16:04.196 --> 0:16:07.476 That's coming and that's getting picked off the tree too 0:16:07.596 --> 0:16:12.396 early to equate for travel time opposed to going to 0:16:12.436 --> 0:16:14.716 the farmer's market and grab an avocado that was just 0:16:14.756 --> 0:16:20.196 picked yesterday. So that's what I'm talking about. Like there's things, 0:16:20.316 --> 0:16:24.996 and so the product is one. And then when you 0:16:25.036 --> 0:16:28.756 think about hustling, it's like, Okay, I had a dope 0:16:28.756 --> 0:16:31.396 house and you got all these young dudes on the 0:16:31.436 --> 0:16:33.396 block that also have dope sexes. 0:16:33.476 --> 0:16:37.196 Like how do I. 0:16:35.716 --> 0:16:39.516 Get the customer to walk past the convenient guy to 0:16:39.636 --> 0:16:40.596 come to me every time? 0:16:41.436 --> 0:16:44.996 Right? How do I distinguish my product? You know what 0:16:45.036 --> 0:16:45.996 I mean, and so. 0:16:46.916 --> 0:16:50.396 All these things start coming back to me, like, oh, man, 0:16:50.436 --> 0:16:53.436 I can utilize that shit in the restaurant, like focus 0:16:53.476 --> 0:16:56.116 on the product, like the base. And then when you 0:16:56.156 --> 0:16:59.236 have that, how do you distinguish your product from everyone else? 0:16:59.516 --> 0:17:02.276 At least full of restaurants? So how do you separate 0:17:02.396 --> 0:17:05.276 your product and your business from everyone else? And so 0:17:05.476 --> 0:17:08.756 those lessons that I learned in the streets I utilize 0:17:08.876 --> 0:17:14.156 and the restaurants, but just cooking, I had a whole 0:17:14.196 --> 0:17:15.036 lot to learn. 0:17:16.316 --> 0:17:19.156 When we come back. Keith Corbin talks about how being 0:17:19.196 --> 0:17:22.516 exposed to fresh foods and learning to cook professionally helped 0:17:22.596 --> 0:17:27.436 him understand what his community needed, access to healthier meals. 0:17:37.876 --> 0:17:41.636 What did you learn at local about cooking properly? 0:17:41.676 --> 0:17:47.996 Seeing me full timing shit. I learned a lot of vegetables. 0:17:48.556 --> 0:17:51.196 I learned a lot of herbs. I learned a lot 0:17:51.196 --> 0:17:53.676 of stuff because you know, growing up, a lot of 0:17:53.676 --> 0:18:01.036 of the ingredients came out of can garlic powder, onion powder, lowriesy. 0:18:01.716 --> 0:18:05.796 You know, like you didn't really work with raw product, 0:18:06.676 --> 0:18:10.396 so loco, I learned that how to deal, how to 0:18:10.476 --> 0:18:13.876 work with raw product. And then another thing, how to 0:18:13.916 --> 0:18:20.596 properly cook vegetables. Like in our community, we overcook vegetables. 0:18:21.036 --> 0:18:26.236 We make everything into mush, right, we boil the heat, 0:18:28.996 --> 0:18:32.276 We boil the hell out. So what I'm saying, so 0:18:33.116 --> 0:18:36.476 no color. Yeah, So I learned a lot of that, 0:18:36.596 --> 0:18:39.356 you know. I learned a lot about how you know, 0:18:39.396 --> 0:18:43.436 steaming is better than boiling because through the baill you 0:18:43.436 --> 0:18:46.556 you boil broccoli and then you see the water's green. 0:18:47.636 --> 0:18:50.756 That's because all of them nutrients is in the water now, right, Like, 0:18:51.596 --> 0:18:53.236 So I learned a lot in Loco. 0:18:53.476 --> 0:18:55.236 Incredible. How long were you there? 0:18:55.276 --> 0:19:00.076 Ultimately I started in twenty sixteen, probably a year and 0:19:00.116 --> 0:19:03.196 a half because I opened this restaurant in twenty eighteen, 0:19:03.996 --> 0:19:05.636 so just over. 0:19:05.436 --> 0:19:08.076 A year, just over your half. And then you get it. 0:19:08.156 --> 0:19:12.116 Then you go up to then that shutters, that closes. 0:19:12.076 --> 0:19:15.836 No Local Wats, and Local Wats was the last one 0:19:15.876 --> 0:19:16.236 to close. 0:19:16.636 --> 0:19:21.236 So six months, not even six months, less than six 0:19:21.276 --> 0:19:25.076 months into Loco, I was actually join the executive body 0:19:25.836 --> 0:19:28.356 and be part of the expansion of Local and so 0:19:28.476 --> 0:19:32.396 I moved to the Bay Area and opened one in 0:19:32.676 --> 0:19:36.356 downtown Oakland, one in West Oakland, and then we circled around. 0:19:36.156 --> 0:19:37.276 And open one in San Jose. 0:19:37.636 --> 0:19:38.236 Amazing. 0:19:38.476 --> 0:19:42.756 I flew to Jersey and met with Mayor Barock, now 0:19:42.796 --> 0:19:43.556 Barack Obama. 0:19:43.596 --> 0:19:45.476 I was gonna say, wait, wait, wait a second man, Brock. 0:19:45.476 --> 0:19:48.796 Yeah, Barock in Jersey because that was going to be 0:19:48.836 --> 0:19:51.556 a stop. I had a deal in place with Nipsey 0:19:51.556 --> 0:19:56.796 and Fats to open the second location in La off 0:19:56.836 --> 0:20:00.436 of fifty fourth in Crenshaw, right there by Krinshall High School, 0:20:00.876 --> 0:20:03.156 whereas you got the gas station at church and then 0:20:03.676 --> 0:20:05.756 the structure. So we was going to open one there 0:20:06.476 --> 0:20:11.196 and then unfortunately we was Fats untimely death kind of 0:20:11.276 --> 0:20:14.076 like ended that because it was his space, and then 0:20:14.156 --> 0:20:16.596 we lost nip So so. 0:20:16.596 --> 0:20:18.036 You got asked him move, what do you think it 0:20:18.156 --> 0:20:20.676 was about you that made them think this is the 0:20:20.716 --> 0:20:23.796 right person to come up to the Bay area? And 0:20:23.916 --> 0:20:26.716 Daniel Patterson's like, you know, he's like a big deal. 0:20:26.956 --> 0:20:28.676 What do you think he saw on you to pull 0:20:28.716 --> 0:20:31.676 you up then to his to his restaurant group up 0:20:31.716 --> 0:20:32.436 in the Baby I'm. 0:20:32.276 --> 0:20:34.276 Asked him that question all the time because at the 0:20:34.316 --> 0:20:37.676 time I was a game, banging coke, had of alcohol, 0:20:37.796 --> 0:20:40.916 putting in work, straddling the fence, like you know. 0:20:40.996 --> 0:20:43.396 You still were you still in the streets? 0:20:43.916 --> 0:20:48.596 I mean it was it was in a sense. 0:20:48.716 --> 0:20:52.116 It wasn't an even in the desire to change the 0:20:52.196 --> 0:20:56.036 narrative in the legacy. It wasn't like I walked through 0:20:56.036 --> 0:20:59.676 a magic door. Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean. Like, 0:21:00.156 --> 0:21:02.036 it wasn't like you walk through a magic door. A 0:21:02.036 --> 0:21:04.036 lot of the mistakes that people make when they leave 0:21:04.076 --> 0:21:05.676 the street culture is how they exit. 0:21:06.316 --> 0:21:11.156 Your exit can be your demise. You can't leave right away. 0:21:11.156 --> 0:21:13.836 There's roles, you know, like people still depend on you, 0:21:13.836 --> 0:21:17.716 your leadership, your guidance, the relationship. 0:21:16.956 --> 0:21:17.396 The love. 0:21:18.116 --> 0:21:20.596 You know, you can't abandon, yeah, because then it's like 0:21:20.636 --> 0:21:24.316 you're turning your back, right, And so I still deal 0:21:24.436 --> 0:21:28.516 with my folks, you know, absolutely, just in a different capacity. 0:21:28.796 --> 0:21:32.516 You know, you go from putting in work with people 0:21:32.596 --> 0:21:35.116 to counseling people. 0:21:35.916 --> 0:21:41.316 Guidance, and you know, you go to and it's just layers. Yeah, right, 0:21:41.716 --> 0:21:43.916 and so. 0:21:43.276 --> 0:21:45.036 So you come out and you make this decision you 0:21:45.036 --> 0:21:47.236 want to change your life. First opportunity, You're gonna take 0:21:47.236 --> 0:21:51.836 whatever opportunity you can, and soinery then there's local absolutely, 0:21:51.916 --> 0:21:54.236 the next opportunity is running this restaurant group. And you're 0:21:54.236 --> 0:21:56.356 not sure what Daniel saw on you. What did you 0:21:56.436 --> 0:21:58.836 learn though? Going up to Oakland I imagine, did you 0:21:58.836 --> 0:22:01.116 you never probably never live in the Bay No. 0:22:01.196 --> 0:22:01.476 I had. 0:22:01.596 --> 0:22:03.876 Up until then, I had been to about twenty cities. 0:22:03.916 --> 0:22:06.876 But like selling drugs, you see a different part of 0:22:06.916 --> 0:22:09.036 the city. You know, people say they come to l 0:22:09.276 --> 0:22:12.116 all the time, but I'm like, which part? Right, La 0:22:12.196 --> 0:22:15.076