Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Alan Rosen Full Interview

Transcript

Alan Rosen Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: heart or text I Heeart to five hundred, five hundred.
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Speaker 1: My next guest celebrations this day, all the time with
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Speaker 1: the world's most fabulous Cheesecake from Junior's Restaurant. The man
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Speaker 1: behind this extraordinary success is a third generation of the
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Speaker 1: Rosen family to lead the Junior's Restaurant brand. Born and
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Speaker 1: raised in New York, one of my favorite cities, he
1:40
Speaker 1: grew up watching his father, Walter, run their original Junior's restaurant.
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Speaker 1: While in high school and college, he spent his summers
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Speaker 1: learning the business while also acting as a manager at
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Speaker 1: the original Brooklyn location. Please welcome to money making conversation
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Speaker 1: on National Cheesecake Day, Alan Rosen, Thank you for having me.
2:00
Speaker 1: Appreciate such a nice introduction. Now, Allen, I I built
2:03
Speaker 1: you up. That's what you're gonna give him. Man, you
2:06
Speaker 1: really built me up. That was I mean, that was
2:08
Speaker 1: almost too much, too much of our building. No, no,
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Speaker 1: you know, because because I like cheesecake and this is
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Speaker 1: your day, you know, and so so tell me is
2:16
Speaker 1: this this is a big media day for you on
2:18
Speaker 1: National Cheesecake That big? This is a big media day.
2:21
Speaker 1: I've been doing media since about six forty five. This
2:23
Speaker 1: morning in New York. Um, you know, this is you know,
2:25
Speaker 1: we've been around sixty eight years. National Cheesecake Day didn't
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Speaker 1: exist in nineteen fifty. So we're very fortunate to have
2:32
Speaker 1: one of these names. You know. You know, every day
2:34
Speaker 1: is a different day. But today is our day. And
2:36
Speaker 1: it's nice in the summer, you know, in July to
2:39
Speaker 1: have a little shot in the arm, if you know
2:40
Speaker 1: what I mean, get some attention for our business. Come
2:43
Speaker 1: up with a new flavor of cheesecake because we wanted
2:45
Speaker 1: to have some fun with it and just generally have
2:47
Speaker 1: a really nice day in all four of our restaurants. Now,
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Speaker 1: the new flavor is Strawberry Shortcake. Right, It's strawberry shortcake cheesecake.
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Speaker 1: So what we did was we baked our New York
2:58
Speaker 1: style and we're winning cheesecake which strawberries blended into it,
3:02
Speaker 1: and on top of it, we built a strawberry shortcake.
3:05
Speaker 1: So you get a combination of two of the most
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Speaker 1: popular deserts in America. Certainly, now to tell me again, okay,
3:12
Speaker 1: I got the you. You you put the strawberries in
3:15
Speaker 1: the milks mixed right, and then you said the top layer.
3:20
Speaker 1: We finished that. Then we take a layer of whipped cream.
3:24
Speaker 1: Then we take a layer of strawberry jam. Then we
3:27
Speaker 1: take another layer of cake, and then we put some
3:30
Speaker 1: more whipp cream around the whole thing, and then we
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Speaker 1: finish it with some strawberry and fused butter cream. No, man,
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Speaker 1: that sounds very very good. But now let me ask
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Speaker 1: you this, who thought of that? Alan, your master chef.
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Speaker 1: All of that we have, We have a pastry chef
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Speaker 1: in Amanda for you and see helped us talk with
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Speaker 1: that flavor. And so so do you do like a
3:54
Speaker 1: sample session? Oh yeah, we said every time. We were
3:57
Speaker 1: so proud of our cheesecake heritage because it that we
4:01
Speaker 1: would sit around and we will taste and test because
4:03
Speaker 1: we don't want to cover it. Up as you know
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Speaker 1: what I mean. You want to make sure it all
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Speaker 1: enhances the experience doesn't take away from it. Okay, let's
4:10
Speaker 1: let's talk. Let's talk with Sean McDonald and my experiences
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Speaker 1: at Junior's. Okay, first of all, they've all been fantastic. Okay,
4:20
Speaker 1: let me just put that out right there. I lived
4:22
Speaker 1: in New York twice. I lived in New York in
4:25
Speaker 1: eight eight. I lived in New York in ninety in
4:28
Speaker 1: two thousand five to two thousand and seven. So I've
4:31
Speaker 1: had a good experience. And I go to New York
4:33
Speaker 1: all the times. One of my favorite cities now, the
4:36
Speaker 1: Time Square location I go there is packed all the time.
4:40
Speaker 1: What is your most population? Can I ask you that question?
4:42
Speaker 1: What is your most popular location? The one, the one
4:45
Speaker 1: shrink between Broadway and Eighth that you're referring to was
4:47
Speaker 1: probably in the top ten busiest restaurants in the United
4:50
Speaker 1: States of America. I know every time I go in there,
4:52
Speaker 1: you know, because I don't know anybody, so you know,
4:54
Speaker 1: I gotta stand in lide so you know, you know
4:56
Speaker 1: somebody now, but then he's gonna be there. I'm He's
5:01
Speaker 1: my main dad. To do your text me and we'll fld.
5:04
Speaker 1: You go to Jason, I go in there, I go
5:06
Speaker 1: in there. Okay, I've been at the Foxwood location. Okay,
5:10
Speaker 1: I've also been, which is really great. Is that menu
5:12
Speaker 1: a little bit different than Foxwood? That's the Foxwood the
5:14
Speaker 1: scenes by the way. A little more. We add on
5:17
Speaker 1: a couple of local dishes wherever we are, so up
5:20
Speaker 1: at fox which we might have prime red yes dishes,
5:24
Speaker 1: just because we want to. You know, we want to
5:26
Speaker 1: please the local clienta we we don't want to act
5:28
Speaker 1: like a change each one of our restaurants or have
5:31
Speaker 1: each have a chef in them. You know, everything is
5:34
Speaker 1: from scratch and we want to pay attention to the
5:36
Speaker 1: local environment where we are. We want to be part
5:38
Speaker 1: of it. If you want a good hamburger, everybody, you
5:41
Speaker 1: want a good hamburger, we're gonna go through his menu.
5:44
Speaker 1: If you want a good hamburger, go to Junior's because
5:47
Speaker 1: they have what I love, steak fries. See steak fries.
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Speaker 1: Who you though? Those good steak fries in front of me?
5:54
Speaker 1: You win in right there. And so so when you
5:56
Speaker 1: start breaking down that menu. The reason I like your
5:59
Speaker 1: menu is that it feels like a hearty experience. Eating experience.
6:03
Speaker 1: Is that by design? Yes, absolutely so. It's what I
6:08
Speaker 1: call it is Brooklyn comfort food. But when you're so
6:10
Speaker 1: for instance, when you get one of those deluxe burgers,
6:12
Speaker 1: it has steak fries, that has homemade or rings. It
6:15
Speaker 1: had a ten ounced burger on it. Um you me.
6:19
Speaker 1: All of our portions are very large, and you know
6:22
Speaker 1: that's part of the charm of what we do. You're
6:24
Speaker 1: never gonna feel like you got you paid too much
6:27
Speaker 1: and didn't get enough. Yeah, because I just go in
6:29
Speaker 1: there with my crew. One of my crew members, with
6:31
Speaker 1: Steve Harvey, the comedian, famous comedian, was going at all
6:34
Speaker 1: the time and to juniors. Remember absolutely Fox when we
6:37
Speaker 1: go into the Brooklyn location when we had our book
6:40
Speaker 1: signing back in two thousand and nine, we hung out
6:42
Speaker 1: and juniors in Brooklyn, and then, like I said, at
6:44
Speaker 1: Times Square whenever I'm over there, you know, because it's
6:47
Speaker 1: got a ton of options to eat at. And I'm
6:49
Speaker 1: just gonna let everybody know it. If you've never been,
6:50
Speaker 1: if you've ever been to New York, you will know
6:52
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you. You're true. There are a ton
6:55
Speaker 1: of eating options. And to say that his restaurants, that
6:58
Speaker 1: bus is a testament to the quality of service, the pricing,
7:03
Speaker 1: and the type of good food that you consistently get,
7:06
Speaker 1: because that's what that's what kind of happens, because you
7:09
Speaker 1: know when you when you spread out to these you know,
7:12
Speaker 1: we're not gonna use the word chain. I want to
7:13
Speaker 1: say individual restaurant. You get the same service and the
7:17
Speaker 1: same smile. Because I'm that guy. I eat all over
7:19
Speaker 1: the country and so I go into the place, I
7:22
Speaker 1: expect that hamburger or that fries. I'm telling you something
7:25
Speaker 1: else about Junior's that y'all don't know. They sell grits.
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Speaker 1: We do went breakfast time. See you say that like that.
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Speaker 1: Ain't every actors you get your choice of home fries
7:36
Speaker 1: and grits. So say so. See, I'm a Southern ball
7:39
Speaker 1: from Houston, Texans. So you know I lost my mind
7:41
Speaker 1: when I went to Junior's and they had grits on
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Speaker 1: the menu. Yep, so is man. That's what's what's so
7:49
Speaker 1: great about Juniors. You know. That's that there's two items
7:51
Speaker 1: on the menu. For instance, if you go there tonight
7:54
Speaker 1: and you want to a cheeseburger the luxe or you
7:57
Speaker 1: want a piece of rod salmon or chicken carm a
8:00
Speaker 1: jan or a broiled you know, uh, you know, broiled steak.
8:04
Speaker 1: We have it all. And I mean there's there's almost
8:07
Speaker 1: TEMs on that man, but is not you know something.
8:09
Speaker 1: The thing about it, I'm gonna tell you somebody, because
8:11
Speaker 1: a lot of players, you have a a lot of
8:14
Speaker 1: menu items, it kind of like confuses you, you you know,
8:17
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, no, this is all done. So
8:20
Speaker 1: Juniors when originally started, was almost like a kosher style restaurant.
8:24
Speaker 1: But over the years, what we've added is local favorite.
8:27
Speaker 1: So we have the Southern influences like the grids and
8:29
Speaker 1: barbecue chicken and ribs, because that's what our customers wanted. Okay.
8:33
Speaker 1: And when we ever my father or my uncle added
8:36
Speaker 1: something to the menu, he said, if we're gonna add something, guys,
8:39
Speaker 1: it's got to be great. So everything's done with a
8:42
Speaker 1: real attention to detail. And if you're gonna go have
8:46
Speaker 1: a slice of cheesecake or a burger or a corny
8:48
Speaker 1: from strawmy sandwich, why shouldn't it be the best, most delicious,
8:52
Speaker 1: served in a really nice environment by some really nice
8:54
Speaker 1: family members. That's what That's how we talked about the
8:57
Speaker 1: people I work with, and we have you know, close
8:59
Speaker 1: to a hundred people working with us only with four restaurants, um.
9:03
Speaker 1: But that's that's how busy these restaurants are. Absolutely, and
9:06
Speaker 1: I agree now before we're end this break because I'm
9:08
Speaker 1: bringing it back because I want to learn about your
9:10
Speaker 1: the whole history of you, your brand, your development, because
9:14
Speaker 1: I love the fact you worked worked at the restaurant
9:16
Speaker 1: and you learn your crap before you inherited the business
9:19
Speaker 1: the way you supposed. I didn't inherit I didn't correct
9:22
Speaker 1: you shortly. I didn't inherit anything. I thought I bought
9:24
Speaker 1: my business from my uncle. That you're in a real transaction. Nothing,
9:27
Speaker 1: nothing is a gift in this family. That's why. That's
9:30
Speaker 1: why you know, up until my kids were seven years old,
9:32
Speaker 1: I work seven days a week, okay, and then I
9:35
Speaker 1: decided to take one or two days off just because
9:37
Speaker 1: I wanted to watch him play little weak. That's important
9:39
Speaker 1: to say that because of the fact that that's the
9:41
Speaker 1: part of the business I want to talk about when
9:42
Speaker 1: you come back. But today is National Cheesecake Day. I'm
9:45
Speaker 1: talking to a third generation owner, Alan Rosen, and he celebrated.
9:49
Speaker 1: He's been busy all day. Guess what he's been doing.
9:51
Speaker 1: Promoting his brain. And that's what money making conversations about,
9:55
Speaker 1: promoting your brain. They got playing playing cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake,
9:58
Speaker 1: cherry cheesecake, blueberry chach cake, and today strawberry shortcake cheesecake. Wow.
10:04
Speaker 1: Be right back with more money making conversation, Allen Rosen,
10:07
Speaker 1: don't you go nowhere. We'll be right back with more
10:13
Speaker 1: from mar Shan McDonald and money making conversations. Don't touch that.
10:16
Speaker 1: Don hi this ra Sean McDonald. I think I jumped
10:20
Speaker 1: in a little bit too earlier on this is National
10:23
Speaker 1: Cheesecake Day again. I need some applause for that national
10:27
Speaker 1: cheese on the phone against third and third generation um
10:32
Speaker 1: Allen Rosen and Alan, you said you were very important
10:35
Speaker 1: for you to correct me, which is very good to say. Rashan,
10:38
Speaker 1: I did not inherit this. I bought this because this
10:41
Speaker 1: is an entrepreneurship show. And I always tell people, you know,
10:44
Speaker 1: that was a big decision for you to do that.
10:46
Speaker 1: Why why did you do it? And what was the
10:49
Speaker 1: nervousness in it doing it? Or was it any well
10:51
Speaker 1: to tell to tell you the truth, when I went
10:55
Speaker 1: when I was a kid, when I was thirteen fourteen
10:57
Speaker 1: years old. If you ask me what I wanted to
10:59
Speaker 1: do with my life, I would have told you I
11:01
Speaker 1: wanted to be in the restaurant business. So all I
11:03
Speaker 1: ever wanted to do, Okay, So from that time on
11:07
Speaker 1: that that was my own Bumpus. Every summer I had
11:09
Speaker 1: a job at a different restaurant in my community. You know.
11:12
Speaker 1: Then when I could drive, you know, sometimes I would
11:14
Speaker 1: I would go to Brooklyn and work with my dad.
11:16
Speaker 1: If I wanted to see him. When I was five
11:18
Speaker 1: years old, I'll go back even a little further. He
11:20
Speaker 1: worked every day, so I would get up at four
11:22
Speaker 1: thirty in the morning, he would knock on my door.
11:24
Speaker 1: I'd be ready to go, and I would spend as
11:27
Speaker 1: much time as I could with my dad, which really
11:29
Speaker 1: meant I was at work. And I mean some of
11:32
Speaker 1: the people I worked with when I first started working
11:34
Speaker 1: there twenty five years ago, where people I knew from
11:36
Speaker 1: them when I was six years old. So I just
11:40
Speaker 1: always loved it. And then I went to a hotel
11:43
Speaker 1: and restaurant school. Um, you know, when I when I
11:45
Speaker 1: graduated high school, I worked at different chain restaurants like Chilies,
11:49
Speaker 1: the Charred House. I did a whole bunch of stuff,
11:52
Speaker 1: and then I went back to my uncle, my father,
11:53
Speaker 1: and I literally had to beg for a job because
11:56
Speaker 1: you know, they weren't from the modern day school of thinking.
11:59
Speaker 1: Now was one restaurant. They ran it, you know, pretty
12:02
Speaker 1: iron fisted, you know, from a booth in the back.
12:04
Speaker 1: They sat down there, didn't even have an office one.
12:06
Speaker 1: They had great cheesecake and they had great food and
12:09
Speaker 1: great people and um, you know, over time, you know,
12:12
Speaker 1: we started a mail owner business. And then I made
12:15
Speaker 1: a deal with my uncle to buy the business because
12:18
Speaker 1: I believed, in my heart of hearts that I could
12:20
Speaker 1: grow it and make it, make it more popular than
12:24
Speaker 1: it was, which is kind of hard to imagine while
12:26
Speaker 1: still keeping those roots that tradition. When yeah, the integrity
12:31
Speaker 1: we we you know, when someone says, you know, someone
12:33
Speaker 1: says to me chain, I said, no, we're not a chain.
12:35
Speaker 1: Each restaurant is run by individuals who are restauranturs. You know,
12:40
Speaker 1: I visit every one of the stores all the time,
12:42
Speaker 1: so there's always you know, that touch that I think
12:45
Speaker 1: is vital. But we also have wonderful people who have
12:48
Speaker 1: worked with me for a long time, and uh, you know,
12:51
Speaker 1: we everything is you know, everything's made from scratch. We're
12:54
Speaker 1: roasting bones to make grabies. Chicken stocks made fresh every night.
12:58
Speaker 1: Onion rings are made four times a day. Um on
13:03
Speaker 1: your yeah they are you think gloss over some that
13:07
Speaker 1: great food like you just throw out on your read
13:09
Speaker 1: like those your wings are fat. Yeah, I just try
13:13
Speaker 1: and bring out the stuff that's really identifiable with Junior.
13:15
Speaker 1: So we have a sandwich sandwich and our men you
13:17
Speaker 1: call it something different. What is it something different? It's
13:20
Speaker 1: a brisket sandwich on potato pancakes. And you can either
13:23
Speaker 1: get it with aju, which is a natural gravy, or
13:26
Speaker 1: you can get it with mushroom gravy, which is what
13:27
Speaker 1: I prefer. But have different strokes, are different folks, And um,
13:32
Speaker 1: what else can you get? Southern fried chicken, broiled salmon,
13:35
Speaker 1: barbecue ribs, corned beef, the strawmy roast turkey, fantastic burgers
13:41
Speaker 1: as you mentioned earlier? Um, you know, and breakfast matter
13:45
Speaker 1: ball suits. For get the breakfast there, you know, but
13:50
Speaker 1: it's a full line breakfast there. So because breakfast your pancakes,
13:53
Speaker 1: you're offful of your bags, your armlets comes a little
13:56
Speaker 1: minute trey miniature danishy you can snack on when you
13:59
Speaker 1: sit down, you get a little seet to, you get
14:01
Speaker 1: that take care before you get to get to the
14:03
Speaker 1: savory stuff. So let me ask you this, um, it
14:07
Speaker 1: is about your brain. Um when you start expanding. Were
14:11
Speaker 1: you nervous when you thought about opening Brooklyn location? I
14:14
Speaker 1: mean that mana, it had to okay, it had to
14:21
Speaker 1: be authentic. It can't be contrived. People can smell out
14:24
Speaker 1: a mile away. So I went there for the first
14:27
Speaker 1: I don't know year, and I worked there every day.
14:29
Speaker 1: My brother stayed in Brooklyn and watched that store, and
14:31
Speaker 1: I stayed at that store. And every time we opened
14:34
Speaker 1: a new restaurant, I lived there for a while. We
14:35
Speaker 1: just told the one or Street was so busy. We
14:38
Speaker 1: just opened another one on forty ninth and Broadway. I know,
14:41
Speaker 1: I haven't been in that yet. That next time. That's like,
14:44
Speaker 1: that's the one for two thousand twenty, if you know
14:46
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's it's built like the future. Absolutely. So.
14:49
Speaker 1: Now when you went up to the casino and I
14:53
Speaker 1: lived there, I lived there for six months because that's
14:55
Speaker 1: a different that's a different atmosphere because you know it's
14:58
Speaker 1: inside the casino and trappic comes in there. But did
15:01
Speaker 1: you bringing people just from the neighborhood coming into We
15:04
Speaker 1: get a little bit about but we all saw our captive.
15:06
Speaker 1: But imagine you're staying at casino and you know, in Connecticut,
15:10
Speaker 1: and you want everyone eats breakfast and everyone gets hungry
15:13
Speaker 1: late at night. That's perfect for us. Plus they have
15:16
Speaker 1: a pool outside and we do the food service to
15:18
Speaker 1: the pool, so it's it's really just a fantastic location breakfast, lunch, dinner,
15:23
Speaker 1: late night. Um, there was such great entertainment up there,
15:26
Speaker 1: So we're happy to be a part of Foxwoods. Now, Litten,
15:28
Speaker 1: let me ask you about their own line because you
15:30
Speaker 1: also do catering as well. All right, and by the way,
15:33
Speaker 1: I forgot about the South Today because besides it being
15:35
Speaker 1: National Chiefs Kit that you know a lot of your
15:36
Speaker 1: listeners may not be able to get to New York
15:38
Speaker 1: Today or Foxwoods. So if you go online, we have
15:41
Speaker 1: literally the best sales of the year, So even less
15:45
Speaker 1: than when we try and promote for Thanksgiving or Christmas,
15:48
Speaker 1: you can order now for Thanksgiving or Christmas and save
15:50
Speaker 1: a bunch. Well, it means I gotta bring you back
15:52
Speaker 1: on the show, because you are told we're going to
15:55
Speaker 1: bring you back on the show because you you're the
15:57
Speaker 1: spokesperson for juniors and you're making an a little more
16:00
Speaker 1: than that. Okay, I love this guy. I love I
16:03
Speaker 1: love the rich. You're not gonna short tell me. You're
16:05
Speaker 1: not gonna say I inherited this place. You're not just
16:07
Speaker 1: gonna call me spoke first. I'm in there, buzzet my behind,
16:11
Speaker 1: doing my thing. I got to you know, I got
16:12
Speaker 1: a T shirt on today, on any of my dress shirt.
16:14
Speaker 1: You know why. Uh I'm sweating. Okay, could you work
16:19
Speaker 1: it every day every day? Let me ask you this.
16:21
Speaker 1: You mentioned your children, and uh, all are they are they? Are? They?
16:25
Speaker 1: Are they like you? Or they engaged in seventh seventeen,
16:29
Speaker 1: seventeen fifteen. So you have twins boy girl twins who
16:34
Speaker 1: are seventeen and other boys who's fifteen. Um, I think
16:38
Speaker 1: they're fond of the business. I don't think they're clear yet.
16:41
Speaker 1: Don't what they're gonna do with their lives. I want
16:43
Speaker 1: to give them plenty of opportunity to make their own
16:45
Speaker 1: minds up. You know it always always you always amazed
16:48
Speaker 1: me people. This is a positive statement, Alan, because you
16:51
Speaker 1: got it. You know, you understood that this is what
16:53
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. Whether you know and and and
16:56
Speaker 1: you know, I wanted to be in the restaurant business.
16:58
Speaker 1: What passion drove you in that direction? I think when
17:03
Speaker 1: you're a young boy. I was the youngest of three boys.
17:06
Speaker 1: I saw my dad working tirelessly, and I used to
17:09
Speaker 1: go to work with him, and I you know, when
17:11
Speaker 1: you're a kid and you're five years old and you're
17:13
Speaker 1: not as tall as the counter that you're working behind,
17:16
Speaker 1: and you look up, everything is so grand. And I
17:19
Speaker 1: just took this great view of it. Some people might
17:23
Speaker 1: look at it, Oh, my dad worked too harder, was
17:25
Speaker 1: too tough for too many hours, and I, for some
17:28
Speaker 1: reason just loved it. And you know, there's an expression,
17:31
Speaker 1: and it's true for me. You never work in Daniel
17:33
Speaker 1: life if you love what you do. And I'm so
17:36
Speaker 1: fortunate because I'm fifty years old now and I love
17:39
Speaker 1: what I do, and so it's great. I'm going I'm
17:43
Speaker 1: gonna go. You know, I'm sitting here in New York
17:45
Speaker 1: right now. I'm going to Brooklyn and I'm gonna go
17:48
Speaker 1: work in the kitchen for a few minutes. Okay, it's
17:50
Speaker 1: not because I have to, but because I want to.
17:52
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put on my chef Scot and I'm gonna
17:54
Speaker 1: go make some sandwiches with you guys. That's awesome. Never
17:56
Speaker 1: to answer you, you do a number nine hundred employees now, yep,
18:00
Speaker 1: four restaurants, that's what you say it, right, and plus
18:03
Speaker 1: a plus a hundred thousand square foot bakery in South
18:05
Speaker 1: Jersey to make all of the wholesale cakes that are
18:08
Speaker 1: going across the country. Now, you know, you're busy, my friend,
18:11
Speaker 1: and that's a positive busy. So what's the what's the
18:15
Speaker 1: what's the what's the goal? What's the what what's the
18:17
Speaker 1: brand reach? I don't, I don't. I think the goal
18:19
Speaker 1: is to be good, but the goal is also I'm
18:22
Speaker 1: not gonna lie and say we don't want to grow.
18:23
Speaker 1: We're growing. Um. You know every time we digest the location.
18:27
Speaker 1: We just had a location in Florida, to be honest,
18:29
Speaker 1: we didn't make it, much to my chagrin. Um, So
18:32
Speaker 1: now we've got to go back to the drawing board
18:33
Speaker 1: and find the next location. Um. We've got to keep
18:36
Speaker 1: growing our wholesale business. You know, we gotta get into
18:38
Speaker 1: into supermarkets that are in your neck of the woods
18:41
Speaker 1: down in Atlanta, because right now in the northeast were
18:43
Speaker 1: very popular, but we gotta spread out and keep working it. Um,
18:46
Speaker 1: you know, we're still on QVC selling hundreds of thousands
18:49
Speaker 1: of cheesecakes are here and we sell you know, over
18:52
Speaker 1: a hundreds of thousands something cheesecakes a here direct to consumer.
18:55
Speaker 1: We're selling probably you know, a couple of million more
18:57
Speaker 1: in the wholesale channels. Um, you know, we're we're we're
19:01
Speaker 1: fairly like you know, you got their own live business
19:05
Speaker 1: on fire, you know, because that's like, that's that's you know,
19:09
Speaker 1: that's what you call no brick and mortar. You know,
19:11
Speaker 1: you just there and you and you know what's what's
19:13
Speaker 1: great is it is a store. And and don't think,
19:16
Speaker 1: you know, everyone thinks once you build your website it's
19:18
Speaker 1: sort of just done. You are constantly reinvesting in that.
19:21
Speaker 1: It is a store. It needs new it needs new paint,
19:24
Speaker 1: and needs new walls, it needs new plumbings. It constantly
19:28
Speaker 1: has to be worked done, and we are working on
19:30
Speaker 1: it every month to make the experience better for people.
19:33
Speaker 1: On the phone is my man, Alan Rosen. He oversees
19:35
Speaker 1: the restaurants. Junior's restaurant, retail, bakery, wholesale and mail are
19:39
Speaker 1: the operations which generates it. You can correct me. It
19:42
Speaker 1: say's over sixty five million dollars in annual sales. Closer
19:46
Speaker 1: closer to a hundred. Okay, we've had a good couple
19:50
Speaker 1: of years. Okay, you know something, man, whoever said to
19:53
Speaker 1: me this information usually listen to only because I like you,
19:57
Speaker 1: and by letting that out there, usually I don't say
19:59
Speaker 1: those kind of numbers. I find it almost embarrassing because
20:02
Speaker 1: that's not the goal. I'm being totally honest with you.
20:05
Speaker 1: Our goal is to be good at serving food to
20:08
Speaker 1: people in a great environment, having a great time every day,
20:11
Speaker 1: serving great cheesecake. How many it says, five thousand customers
20:17
Speaker 1: daily and approximately twenty thousand cheesecakes every week. It's probably
20:22
Speaker 1: up to sixties seventies thousand cakes a week. Now, I
20:26
Speaker 1: love it. I love this guy. I love this guy's
20:28
Speaker 1: National Cheesecake Day. I'm on the phone with Alan Allen.
20:31
Speaker 1: Thank you for coming on my show. I'm gonna tell
20:35
Speaker 1: you some man, I I patronize your business before I
20:38
Speaker 1: knew you. I'm a patronize and even nore and tell
20:41
Speaker 1: the world that you know. You know what I appreciate.
20:45
Speaker 1: I appreciate your enthusiasm for what you do, because you
20:47
Speaker 1: sound pretty fired up. I'm fired about you, man. It's
20:50
Speaker 1: about money making conversation. You keep winning out there, all right?
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