Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Chef Ed McFarland, Owner of Ed’s Lobster Bar In New York City

Transcript

Chef Ed McFarland, Owner of Ed’s Lobster Bar In New York City · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

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Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. My
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Speaker 1: next kiss is Chef Ed McFarland and as the executive
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Speaker 1: chef and owner of EDS Lobster Bar, located in Soho
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Speaker 1: and Sag Harbor Edge. Lobster Bar has been open for
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Speaker 1: over fourteen years in New York City. New York City
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Speaker 1: is one of my favorite cities. Y'all. Just let y'all
1:30
Speaker 1: up front. So I'm about to go back home here
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Speaker 1: a little bit and not from Houston, Texas born and raised,
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Speaker 1: and it's an upscale fish restaurant that specializes in lobster.
1:38
Speaker 1: You mean lobster lops. The lobs a lot, don't they're
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Speaker 1: don't go in there, try to get no chicken. Lobster
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Speaker 1: loves to lobster. He grew up in an American Italian
1:46
Speaker 1: household in Brooklyn and stad Niland and got his feet
1:49
Speaker 1: where as a teenager working in red sauce Italian restaurants
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Speaker 1: and pizzerias. So it's only natural fire. Such dishes as
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Speaker 1: Lost to Raviola and Lost the lobster meat balls on
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Speaker 1: the menu at EDS Lobster Bar are to this day.
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Speaker 1: There are no restaurants who focus on making lobster the
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Speaker 1: star of the show. When it's a star to show
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Speaker 1: it has lobs of all come on that he's a
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Speaker 1: successful restaurant entrepreneur. He's also talk about building your dream.
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Speaker 1: Please welcome to money Making Conversation the ultimate authority on lobster,
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Speaker 1: chief Ed McFarland. How are you doing it? Very good,
2:21
Speaker 1: So happy to be here with you today. This is
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Speaker 1: fantastic and I appreciate your time and wonderful, wonderful accolades
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Speaker 1: that you gave me. I'm only hoping that I live
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Speaker 1: up to the image you just portrayed of me. Well,
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Speaker 1: you know, let's let's talk about because a lot of
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Speaker 1: people get into business, even even a specialty can be
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Speaker 1: a curse, but also can lead you through on the
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Speaker 1: right path of success because you can open a restaurant,
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Speaker 1: try to be good at a lot of things. What
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Speaker 1: made you make the decision that lobster, which some people
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Speaker 1: may proceed to be expensive out of their price range
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Speaker 1: when they look at the menu, it's not like it's shrimp,
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Speaker 1: it's not like it's cod or some at fish. Why
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Speaker 1: did you settle on lobster? You know, it's interesting because
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Speaker 1: when I was working in restaurants, I had an affinity
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Speaker 1: to cook fish. I really enjoyed the delicateness, and I
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Speaker 1: really enjoyed the fact that you didn't have to do
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Speaker 1: a lot to it. The flavor is all about the
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Speaker 1: lobster itself. So for me, it was about one of
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Speaker 1: my mantras, which is always keep it simple. And I
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Speaker 1: like to keep all of my stuff simple and let
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Speaker 1: the ingredients speak for itself. So for me, lobster was
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Speaker 1: just a natural choice. It was a very niche specific item.
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Speaker 1: It is expensive and it continues to get more expensive
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Speaker 1: as the years go on, and you know, for various reasons.
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Speaker 1: But the one thing I really love about it is
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Speaker 1: nobody was exploring all the different things you could do
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Speaker 1: with it, and it really is an untapped market. You know,
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Speaker 1: other than lobster roles, which you can find everywhere. Now,
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Speaker 1: you're not seeing people make true lobster raviol These were
4:00
Speaker 1: just lobster in the ravioli. You're not seeing people make
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Speaker 1: lobster meatballs. You don't see lobster nachos everywhere. We do
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Speaker 1: a lobster romen now where we get unbelievable flavor and
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Speaker 1: the broth from lobster stock and reductions. So I really
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Speaker 1: just wanted to exploit that uh factor that nobody's experimenting
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Speaker 1: with it, because it does end up being an expensive ingredient,
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Speaker 1: especially if you don't get stuff right. And you know,
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Speaker 1: you don't get everything right on the first tray. You're
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Speaker 1: really experimenting and doing all different things until you get
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Speaker 1: the dish right. You know, it's not like I threw
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Speaker 1: together the lobster meat ball together in the first try
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Speaker 1: it was perfect. So and the same thing with the
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Speaker 1: lobster rom and so your R and D tends to
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Speaker 1: get a little expensive as as you're working on well,
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Speaker 1: you know, I can always tell you when I when
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Speaker 1: when you eat good food and all lobsters not to
4:53
Speaker 1: saying that's why we wanted to interview you because of
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Speaker 1: the fact that we have some of you. You have
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Speaker 1: lost so on different coats you have lost today that
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Speaker 1: that some people say it's tender. I've eaten lobster in Hawaii,
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Speaker 1: which they say is a little sweeter. So I'm talking
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Speaker 1: to the authority and and this is really a serious question.
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Speaker 1: I'm asking you because I want to educate my audience.
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Speaker 1: It will just educate myself on how do you why
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Speaker 1: is it different taste for lobster and different parts where
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Speaker 1: you buy it? And also is it is the texture change?
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Speaker 1: Does the change in the type of water that lobsters
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Speaker 1: raised versus free versus uh, you know bat and you
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Speaker 1: know in in a in a in in in a
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Speaker 1: cultivated environment, is there a difference in the lobster. So
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Speaker 1: there's there's a huge difference in lobster. First, nobody's farm
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Speaker 1: raising lobsters, so we'll just throw that out of the equation.
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Speaker 1: It's too expensive to farm race, it's much it's much cheaper,
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Speaker 1: even even at the high prices for for the lobster
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Speaker 1: to be wild caught. They've done experiments um where they've
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Speaker 1: tried to raise lobsters to a pound and a half.
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Speaker 1: It's just too time consuming and and too much money.
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Speaker 1: Just takes too many years. As they do, however, hatch
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Speaker 1: them in Maine and up in the Northeast for the
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Speaker 1: what is in my opinion, the greatest lobster, which is
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Speaker 1: the North American lobster, what we tend to call main lobster.
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Speaker 1: They do pull the lobsters visibly showing eggs, out of
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Speaker 1: the water, bring them to hatcheries. They'll hatch them and
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Speaker 1: distribute them across rocky ocean bottom so they have the
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Speaker 1: best chance of survival. But there is a big difference
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Speaker 1: in the lobster. You know, our lobsters here that we
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Speaker 1: use at eggs and the traditional main lops or that
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Speaker 1: you get on the northeastern Canada as well that we
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Speaker 1: have philopster ls. We're using tail, knuckle and claw, although
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Speaker 1: most lobsteroles use knuckle and claw meat exclusively. There is
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Speaker 1: a difference our our lobster is from colder, sweeter water
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Speaker 1: when you're using the rock lobsters that you find across
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Speaker 1: South America's South Africa, Australia and far to stuff like
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Speaker 1: that where you know the guys are diving down and
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Speaker 1: put up these you beautiful big lobsters because you're just
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Speaker 1: eating the tails. In my opinion, the meat tends to
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Speaker 1: be a little tougher, not that they're not delicious, you
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Speaker 1: wouldn't use them for a lobster role. Um. If we're
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Speaker 1: talking specifically lobster is one of the biggest differences you
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Speaker 1: would find in the product that you're getting is whether
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Speaker 1: people are cooking lobsters where we cook and chill all
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Speaker 1: of our own lobster meat in the house, or they're
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Speaker 1: buying the stuff out of the processing plants that comes
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Speaker 1: from the main shedders. And you know, I don't know
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Speaker 1: how in detail you want me to to talk about
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Speaker 1: that shedding season is when you kind of if you've
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Speaker 1: ever taken a whole lobster and you can crushed it
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Speaker 1: with your hands, that's a shedder, and the shedders can
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Speaker 1: be very sweet, but there's also less meat in the shell.
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Speaker 1: But what happens is they'll send those to the processing
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Speaker 1: plants because they don't live a long time out of
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Speaker 1: the water and they can't withstand the shipping um. So
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Speaker 1: what will happen with those they'll go to processing plants.
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Speaker 1: And that's the traditional stuff you see when you're on
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Speaker 1: the main coast, or you're getting a less expensive lobster
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Speaker 1: roll and the texture is kind of weird and stringy,
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Speaker 1: that's because the meat has been frozen already, and that's
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Speaker 1: how you kind of know the difference in in the
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Speaker 1: Northeast lops or if you get that beautiful lobster and
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Speaker 1: it's big chunks and you're biting it kind of like
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Speaker 1: what we do here, and some of the other places
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Speaker 1: that I've worked at across New York City before up
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Speaker 1: in my own place. Or you go to like the
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Speaker 1: shack type style place and you're taking a lobster roll
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Speaker 1: to go and you're noticing meets a little stringy or
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Speaker 1: it's more watery. That's because they're using the frozen lobster meat.
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Speaker 1: And that's kind of the more traditional way to make it,
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Speaker 1: because it's the less expensive way than having labor where
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Speaker 1: somebody's busting lops are out of the shell all day
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Speaker 1: Administration for Children and Families and the ad Council. Well,
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Speaker 1: the whole thing is the experience. Now that the experience
10:46
Speaker 1: is the restaurant experience, going in the great and great food,
10:48
Speaker 1: going to get to the menu, because I'm a foodie.
10:50
Speaker 1: I gotta get to the menus, especially when we're talking
10:52
Speaker 1: about the you know, the tortilla chips and the peak
10:54
Speaker 1: of the gayo and the lops achieves the silatro. You know,
10:59
Speaker 1: I gotta get there because not to nothing like the nacho.
11:03
Speaker 1: That's what we're about to get you in the minute.
11:05
Speaker 1: But but but the experience, man, is where I really
11:09
Speaker 1: get out of a restaurant. I would care what the
11:11
Speaker 1: food is, but if I don't get the experience of
11:13
Speaker 1: walking in and feeling great serviys the ambiance. Talk about
11:17
Speaker 1: the ambiance of your locations. I'm talking to Chef Ed mcfallan.
11:22
Speaker 1: He owns It's Lobster Bar, which is an institution in
11:24
Speaker 1: the New York marketings now has one outside of the
11:27
Speaker 1: city is sag Harbor. But let's talk about the experience
11:29
Speaker 1: and why it's so important for you to create becoming
11:32
Speaker 1: an authority on lobsters, but also to have the experience
11:35
Speaker 1: to be unique to your facility, to your restaurants. You know,
11:39
Speaker 1: it all starts at the top, and it's important to
11:42
Speaker 1: create an atmosphere that's warm and friendly for everybody. And
11:46
Speaker 1: you know, listen, every single restaurant is not for everybody. Uh,
11:50
Speaker 1: we specialize in something very specific. We're not a diner,
11:53
Speaker 1: and not that there's anything wrong with that food, but
11:55
Speaker 1: there's places for everything, and you cannot be everything to everybody.
11:59
Speaker 1: So for first and foremost, we wanted to create an
12:02
Speaker 1: atmosphere that was Nantucket meets New York City meets Maine.
12:08
Speaker 1: So you get a little bit of the shacky element,
12:11
Speaker 1: you get a little bit of the upscale beach culture,
12:14
Speaker 1: but thrown into a casual, fast paced New York atmosphere
12:18
Speaker 1: where you're coming in. We're very very bright white looking marble,
12:26
Speaker 1: stainless steel accents, and but you want to be swept
12:30
Speaker 1: away to the beach. That's the whole purpose of the concept.
12:33
Speaker 1: You're walking off of the New York City street, getting
12:36
Speaker 1: out of the hustle and bustle, and you want to
12:38
Speaker 1: be somewhere where you're welcomed in a friendly atmosphere. And
12:41
Speaker 1: you know that starts from the top. It's all about
12:43
Speaker 1: mindset and creating the environment that you want your customers
12:47
Speaker 1: to enjoy. And you know, I like an environment where
12:50
Speaker 1: it's friendly, casual. You sit down at the bar, you're
12:53
Speaker 1: chatting with the bartender, you're chatting with the server, you're
12:56
Speaker 1: chatting with the people sitting next to you, and anybody
12:59
Speaker 1: could be walking through the door, and we get anybody
13:02
Speaker 1: in the restaurant from you know, the restaurant owner, chef, casual,
13:06
Speaker 1: person of the city, two celebrities, and everybody's in this
13:11
Speaker 1: tight little boxing area and wonderful. You know, there's nobody's
13:15
Speaker 1: hiding and eds lots of our it's all for the open.
13:18
Speaker 1: There's no hidden booths or anything like that. And even
13:20
Speaker 1: in the new space that's not going to exist either,
13:23
Speaker 1: because we're moving down the street from our older location
13:26
Speaker 1: to a new owner spot just one block down, and
13:28
Speaker 1: soho at one Grand Street. So you know, it's it's
13:32
Speaker 1: all about creating an experience. It starts. It's the experience.
13:36
Speaker 1: You're right when you say you want to go in
13:38
Speaker 1: somewhere I my staffs with me forever. The customers come
13:42
Speaker 1: back and they come back because it truly is a
13:45
Speaker 1: place where the servers do know you. But let's let's
13:48
Speaker 1: talk about the beginning here. You know, you know you
13:51
Speaker 1: wanted to be a shift because I love your personality,
13:53
Speaker 1: because you're a good talker. First of all, you're a
13:55
Speaker 1: good talker. You have a great personality, so you could
13:58
Speaker 1: have been a lot of things you other than the shif.
14:01
Speaker 1: Why did you Why did you become a chef? You know,
14:04
Speaker 1: it's interesting, and I called my epiphany story because I
14:07
Speaker 1: had a bunch of jobs. I was working in the pizzeria,
14:10
Speaker 1: I had a job working on the docks. At the time,
14:13
Speaker 1: I was working at the Board of Elections in New
14:15
Speaker 1: York City as a part time job. I had just
14:17
Speaker 1: dropped out of college and I woke up. I woke
14:22
Speaker 1: up one morning and I went, I want to cook.
14:26
Speaker 1: In the morning, I said, I want to book, and
14:29
Speaker 1: I went I was. I was driving the Board of
14:31
Speaker 1: Elections trup. I was driving people from Staten Island to
14:34
Speaker 1: the city, and I stopped at the magazine Stam while
14:37
Speaker 1: I was sitting in the truck because I had to
14:38
Speaker 1: sit outside in the van and I grabbed. I said,
14:42
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna grab a cooking magazine. I grabbed.
14:44
Speaker 1: I literally grabbed the issue of Gourmet magazine. And you know,
14:47
Speaker 1: they were going we had gourmet magazine in the house,
14:49
Speaker 1: food and wine. I never really picked them up, but
14:52
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, I'm going to culinary school.
14:54
Speaker 1: I'm gonna cook, I'm gonna start working in the city.
14:56
Speaker 1: I grabbed the magazine. I started flipping through it, and
14:59
Speaker 1: they was an ad in there for the French Culinary Institute.
15:02
Speaker 1: I mean, this is this is one true, unabridged version
15:05
Speaker 1: of what happened. I pulled the magazine boom boom, boom,
15:09
Speaker 1: boom boom. And you know, at that time, we didn't
15:11
Speaker 1: have cell phone yet. So the next day when I
15:14
Speaker 1: got out of bed, I picked the magazine up and
15:17
Speaker 1: I made the phone call. I made an appointment to
15:19
Speaker 1: go and see the school. Within three months, I was
15:21
Speaker 1: in school. Within nine months, I had graduated the culinary
15:25
Speaker 1: program and I was working appecially in the New York City.
15:29
Speaker 1: I mean, that is literally how fast it happened. But
15:32
Speaker 1: the one thing I have to say is that without
15:34
Speaker 1: knowing it, I mean I've studied mindset now over the
15:37
Speaker 1: past couple of years, but without knowing it, my subconscious
15:42
Speaker 1: from all the years was working in that mansion, pushing
15:46
Speaker 1: me in that direction. And I just ten xt myself,
15:49
Speaker 1: you know, like all the self help guys every ball
15:52
Speaker 1: talk about ten xing yourself and mass of action. I
15:56
Speaker 1: went all in. That was it. Boom, I discarded it.
15:59
Speaker 1: I went all in. Within within a couple of months,
16:02
Speaker 1: I was there. Within six months, I was done. I
16:05
Speaker 1: was working in New York City. I was working in
16:07
Speaker 1: a three star restaurant, and I was going to work
16:10
Speaker 1: six days a week and if they needed me there more,
16:12
Speaker 1: and they said come, I went that was question next.
16:15
Speaker 1: I just kept showing up and showing up and showing
16:17
Speaker 1: up and putting the time. And what chef I I
16:20
Speaker 1: I just caut slow everybody out. First of all, when
16:22
Speaker 1: I when I'm doing when I'm doing an interview and
16:24
Speaker 1: I'm engaged, say just there's a lot of chefs come
16:27
Speaker 1: out of the kitchen. They talk to you, you know
16:28
Speaker 1: the restaurant. Now, yo, behind come out. I want you
16:31
Speaker 1: to sit down. How do you engage you? I'm saying
16:35
Speaker 1: a stupid question because I know you do. The customers
16:38
Speaker 1: have to love you, man. You have to have a
16:40
Speaker 1: loyal base. When you come out, they probably put it.
16:43
Speaker 1: You probably put people. Smile on people's face because they
16:46
Speaker 1: know you love the business. They low your passionate about
16:48
Speaker 1: the food. They know you're an expert. And your celebrity
16:51
Speaker 1: too because you appear on TV all the time. You
16:53
Speaker 1: judge on different shows and things like that. How do
16:56
Speaker 1: your customers react to you? Because you are I would
16:59
Speaker 1: like to say celebrity, but also you are down the
17:02
Speaker 1: earth guy. Because this personality, I can see myself walking
17:05
Speaker 1: in the pizza pizzare you go, I can see that
17:10
Speaker 1: happening to you. It has to be a fun atmosphere.
17:13
Speaker 1: It's lobster. You know what it has to be, and
17:16
Speaker 1: you know what it's all about, smiles on people's faces,
17:18
Speaker 1: and starts with the staff. Smiling smiling staff makes customers smile.
17:22
Speaker 1: But I talked to customers all the time. I love engaging.
17:26
Speaker 1: It's hard to get me to sit down. I don't
17:27
Speaker 1: say still for that very long. But if you're sitting
17:29
Speaker 1: at the bar, I'm happy to go stand behind the
17:32
Speaker 1: bar and chat and and and have a drink and
17:35
Speaker 1: kind of stuff whatever you want. And it's interesting you know,
17:38
Speaker 1: I've I've always tried to take the ego out of
17:40
Speaker 1: it and um and and it gets hard sometimes and
17:43
Speaker 1: I'm not a big ego guy. And that's one of
17:45
Speaker 1: the things I've kept out of the restaurant is that
17:47
Speaker 1: you know, like, this is an industry full of egos. Uh,
17:51
Speaker 1: Servers have egos, Cooks have egos, Bartenders have egos, chefs
17:54
Speaker 1: have egos, manager of egos, and you know, if it
17:57
Speaker 1: comes from the top where it's not a out one individual,
18:01
Speaker 1: but it's about the whole success of the of the
18:04
Speaker 1: staff together, it really changes the way things go. And
18:08
Speaker 1: I get people come in and they go, chef, take
18:10
Speaker 1: a picture with me, showing no problem with people that
18:13
Speaker 1: I know who looked at me and go, are you
18:14
Speaker 1: really taking a picture with somebody? And you know, and
18:17
Speaker 1: I know your videotaping me, But this is what they
18:19
Speaker 1: get double club. That's I'm taking a picture with them
18:26
Speaker 1: because they asked me to take a picture. People they
18:30
Speaker 1: know me, they want to break them and that's what
18:31
Speaker 1: they literally get. And that's that's me walking through the
18:34
Speaker 1: dining room. It's this you know, go stick it to
18:37
Speaker 1: yourself and you don't like it, but you know, I
18:39
Speaker 1: wanted to be big. I wanted to be loud. I
18:41
Speaker 1: wanted I wanted to be boisterous, and I wanted to
18:43
Speaker 1: reflect who I am. And you know, I'm a fun guy.
18:47
Speaker 1: I'm always joking around. I like to tone it down.
18:51
Speaker 1: I am a disruptor, right, my guys. You know I
18:53
Speaker 1: the first five six years the restaurant was open, I
18:57
Speaker 1: cooked on the line every day, lunch in her. Then
19:01
Speaker 1: I expedited the food until I got to the point
19:03
Speaker 1: where I was comfortable and I was ready to start
19:06
Speaker 1: expanding and move myself out of the kitchen and be
19:08
Speaker 1: that personality outside. But my guys, man, they've been with
19:11
Speaker 1: me forever. They gonna chef it out of the kitchen
19:14
Speaker 1: because they're cooking and it's busy, and if I'm back there,
19:17
Speaker 1: they're like chefs, stop, stop, because I'm chirping in their
19:20
Speaker 1: ear what are you doing? And I'm I'm disrupting them
19:23
Speaker 1: as I'm helping them put the food out, and it
19:25
Speaker 1: makes it quite comical. But you know, they're getting frustrated
19:28
Speaker 1: because they got to do their job. And then they
19:30
Speaker 1: got me kind of absolutely, what are you doing? Come on,
19:35
Speaker 1: pick up the pace. But that's not the way you
19:36
Speaker 1: do that. And you know my staff, my kitchen, he
19:39
Speaker 1: has been with me and my guys on the line
19:41
Speaker 1: most of everly ten years. I'm opened fourteen years. Most
19:43
Speaker 1: of those guys really ten years. Um the years the
19:46
Speaker 1: service have changed, but I still got a few people
19:48
Speaker 1: with me that that have been we seven, eight, nine,
19:50
Speaker 1: ten years as well out in the front of the house.
19:52
Speaker 1: So you know, I've created an environment that the people
19:56
Speaker 1: do well. They want to come to work every day,
19:59
Speaker 1: but you know they they much perform me out talking
20:01
Speaker 1: to the customers. I don't get the food dood the
20:08
Speaker 1: tickets on the border of the enemy. I want to
20:10
Speaker 1: off the lawn. Let's go. I love it. What grows
20:14
Speaker 1: in the forest trees. Sure know what else grows in
20:17
Speaker 1: the forest? Our imagination, our sense of wonder, and our
20:21
Speaker 1: family bonds grow too, because when we disconnect from this
20:27
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20:32
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Speaker 1: the AD Council. Look for your children's eyes to see
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20:48
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20:51
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20:55
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Speaker 1: They're fearless. Guide. Is this fascinating world? Find a forest
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Speaker 1: near you and start exploring. I Discover the Forest dot org,
21:10
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21:12
Speaker 1: the AD Council. What grows in the forest trees? Sure
21:17
Speaker 1: you know what else grows in the forest, Our imagination,
21:20
Speaker 1: our sense of wonder, and our family bonds grow too,
21:23
Speaker 1: because when we disconnect from this and connect with this,
21:30
Speaker 1: we reconnect with each other. The forest is closer than
21:33
Speaker 1: you think. Find a forest near you and start exploring.
21:37
Speaker 1: I Discover the Forest dot org, brought to you by
21:39
Speaker 1: the United States Forest Service and the AD Council. And
21:43
Speaker 1: you know here the word family are here in the
21:46
Speaker 1: word relationships. And and saw what happened because of New
21:49
Speaker 1: York City became the epicenter of COVID nineteen. And she
21:53
Speaker 1: know what she did? I love shut down and seeing
21:57
Speaker 1: Broadway shut down? How did that impact your business? Because
22:00
Speaker 1: this is family? And suddenly you couldn't do what you
22:03
Speaker 1: do normal. Your energy had to change and shift out.
22:06
Speaker 1: I'm sure that was probably the most dramatic part of
22:08
Speaker 1: your life in the fourteen years that you own at
22:11
Speaker 1: Labsabar and Soho. Talk to everybody about how do you
22:15
Speaker 1: dealt with it emotionally? How did you woke up one day,
22:18
Speaker 1: hey man, stop crying to your own you know, yeah,
22:21
Speaker 1: this is this is this is a this is a
22:23
Speaker 1: good story because I had I had the high and
22:26
Speaker 1: the low during this period and and then you know,
22:29
Speaker 1: kind of build it back up. And I never concerned
22:32
Speaker 1: myself with take out as a cost center. I never
22:35
Speaker 1: concerned myself with the delivery apps because the restaurant was
22:38
Speaker 1: busy and I didn't think my food traveled well. I
22:42
Speaker 1: literally went from having customers in my restaurant to getting
22:46
Speaker 1: one order a day, and it was my friend delivering
22:49
Speaker 1: food to his office and that was my only order
22:52
Speaker 1: for the first week of COVID when we shut down,
22:55
Speaker 1: and I said to myself, if I shut this restaurant down,
22:58
Speaker 1: I'm shutting my life down. I'm shutting down what I do,
23:01
Speaker 1: I'm shutting down who I am, and I'm shutting down
23:04
Speaker 1: where I go every day. So I refused to close.
23:06
Speaker 1: I refused to close. I said, I'm gonna figure this out.
23:09
Speaker 1: And I doubled down my efforts. And you know, I
23:11
Speaker 1: went back to showing up at work eight am and
23:14
Speaker 1: staying until the door was locked. And I sat there
23:17
Speaker 1: with my computer out and and I sat there with
23:21
Speaker 1: a budget a budget calculator. And I went to my
23:25
Speaker 1: guys and in the kitchen, because you know, truly, these
23:28
Speaker 1: people are family, because they've been with me for so long.
23:30
Speaker 1: These aren't transient employees. At worked for six months and leave.
23:34
Speaker 1: Most of my weight staff didn't want to work, and
23:36
Speaker 1: I honestly I didn't have a job for them. So
23:39
Speaker 1: I kept a couple of them on and I said, listen,
23:41
Speaker 1: this is what I can afford to give you for hours.
23:43
Speaker 1: And I gave my front of the house manager a
23:46
Speaker 1: few a certain amount of hours to work with. And
23:48
Speaker 1: I went to my guy in the kitchen. I said,
23:50
Speaker 1: you know, we went from my thinking the kitchen from
23:52
Speaker 1: like four hundred hours a week too. I gave him
23:55
Speaker 1: a hundred and forty hours. And I literally said to him,
23:58
Speaker 1: I'm giving you a hundred and forty hours. You talk
24:02
Speaker 1: to everybody, you guys, divvy up the hours however you want.
24:05
Speaker 1: If you want three guys to work, the three guys
24:08
Speaker 1: are gonna work the hours. If you want to split
24:10
Speaker 1: it between everybody equally, everybody's gonna do it. I said,
24:14
Speaker 1: but we're getting rid of the cleaning service. Anybody who works.
24:17
Speaker 1: We're back to old school restaurant. Every night, everybody cleans,
24:21
Speaker 1: every morning. Everybody cleans, everybody does every job. Everybody's a dishwasher,
24:26
Speaker 1: everybody's a cook, everybody's a prep guy. Everybody's packaging food
24:30
Speaker 1: to go until we figure this out. And and I said,
24:33
Speaker 1: when when? When we figure out how the PPP stuff
24:36
Speaker 1: is gonna work, and we'll make some changes at that point.
24:39
Speaker 1: But this is what I have to focus on. I
24:42
Speaker 1: have to focus on budgeting and figuring. I I'm gonna
24:44
Speaker 1: stretch this money until we start to do business again.
24:48
Speaker 1: And I went from I went from doing one order
24:51
Speaker 1: a day and take out two over the course of
24:54
Speaker 1: six weeks to doing over a hundred orders a day
24:58
Speaker 1: and take out. And you know, it's just you know what,
25:01
Speaker 1: where And it's really true, where you focus your attention
25:05
Speaker 1: is where you build. And as soon as we went
25:08
Speaker 1: back to opening, and my attention went away from the
25:11
Speaker 1: takeout and delivery to take out and delivery dropped off
25:15
Speaker 1: and we started getting customers back in the restaurant. Uh.
25:18
Speaker 1: But but it was it was really interesting. I mean
25:20
Speaker 1: I was driving deliveries to New Jersey. I was dropping
25:23
Speaker 1: deliveries to Westchester to Brooklyn myself because I would say, like,
25:27
Speaker 1: you know what, if I had somebody that was willing
25:29
Speaker 1: to do a big order, I was gonna take it
25:31
Speaker 1: to them, because you know what, there's nothing more humbling
25:33
Speaker 1: than going, I have a full restaurant to have I
25:36
Speaker 1: have one order, right the one? What am I gonna do?
25:39
Speaker 1: And I kept the key people on site. But it
25:43
Speaker 1: was interesting because I literally went back to working seven
25:46
Speaker 1: days a week. And and you know when when you
25:49
Speaker 1: start working seven days a week and I have family
25:52
Speaker 1: at home and I have small kids, and Daddy, where
25:54
Speaker 1: are you going? Daddy where? You know? They were used
25:55
Speaker 1: to me being home in the morning. I was hold
25:57
Speaker 1: every morning with them, dropped them off at school, and
26:00
Speaker 1: I went to work and I wasn't home anymore. I
26:05
Speaker 1: was leaving at seven am and I was getting home
26:08
Speaker 1: at ten o'clock. And you know, it was FaceTime phone calls.
26:12
Speaker 1: But I got to the point I worked seven days
26:14
Speaker 1: a week. It was fifty nine straight days, and I
26:17
Speaker 1: literally snapped like a twig. The delivery guys are outside,
26:22
Speaker 1: you know, they started. You know, the rules were ever
26:24
Speaker 1: changing for us. You could sell the liqu or, you couldn't.
26:27
Speaker 1: You could let people inside, you couldn't let the delivery
26:30
Speaker 1: guys inside. This one mask, no mask, the whole thing. Now,
26:34
Speaker 1: I got six tablets in here. I've never done this before,
26:37
Speaker 1: but things are beeping. The delivery guys are trying to
26:40
Speaker 1: pick up from five restaurants at the same time so
26:43
Speaker 1: they could make more money, and they yelling in the restaurant,
26:47
Speaker 1: where's my order, Where's this, where's that? And And I'm
26:51
Speaker 1: trying to be there by myself during the day, have
26:53
Speaker 1: an assistant at night to help me in the front.
26:56
Speaker 1: And I'm sitting in the computer, I'm trying to punch orders,
26:58
Speaker 1: and I'm trying to coordinate something in the back. And
27:00
Speaker 1: I literally, literally no joke, I lost it. I literally
27:04
Speaker 1: lost it. I went from being like this massive mindset guru,
27:08
Speaker 1: like yeah, we're all working together, everything is great, We're
27:11
Speaker 1: gonna figure it out. To shut the f of when
27:15
Speaker 1: I get it. If you don't like it, leave and
27:20
Speaker 1: and and then I literally was screaming. I afterwards, I
27:23
Speaker 1: apologized to everybody. I walked in the kitchen. It was
27:26
Speaker 1: a Saturday, it was a Saturday, it was a Saturday afternoon.
27:29
Speaker 1: I walke in the case. I apologized to my whole staff,
27:31
Speaker 1: and I said, guys, we're all off on Monday. The
27:35
Speaker 1: restaurants closed. I need a day. And literally, from that
27:40
Speaker 1: point I said to myself, I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna
27:44
Speaker 1: lose it because I can't afford to put people on.
27:46
Speaker 1: But mentally, I can't afford to be here. My kids
27:48
Speaker 1: are at home crying when I leave the house. I'm
27:51
Speaker 1: frustrated that, you know, these guys outside in the street
27:54
Speaker 1: are trying to work, but you know it's you know,
27:57
Speaker 1: we're all trying to figure it out. And we're not
27:59
Speaker 1: a take out restaurant, and and and my guys in
28:02
Speaker 1: the kitchen aren't used to doing take out either. They're
28:04
Speaker 1: used to plaiting meals, serving customers, and now we're just
28:08
Speaker 1: throwing it all together. And and I literally was like,
28:11
Speaker 1: you know what, We're closed on Mondays for the next
28:13
Speaker 1: three weeks. I have to have a day off. Everybody's off,
28:15
Speaker 1: and that and and uh, and it was. It was
28:18
Speaker 1: a learning lesson because even if you're gonna go all in,
28:21
Speaker 1: you still have to have time for that mental reset.
28:24
Speaker 1: If you're not giving yourself the time to recuperate from
28:28
Speaker 1: your efforts each and every day, you're you're doing yourself
28:32
Speaker 1: a disservice because you're not at your best. And I
28:35
Speaker 1: wasn't at my best anymore, and and and and it
28:38
Speaker 1: wasn't because I wasn't spending enough time at home. It
28:41
Speaker 1: wasn't because I wasn't spending enough time at work. It
28:44
Speaker 1: was was I wasn't giving myself enough time to rest
28:47
Speaker 1: and reset my brain for each every day. Absolutely, you know,
28:52
Speaker 1: I got a few men just left here, but I
28:54
Speaker 1: want to go to a couple of year. Faby, I'm
28:56
Speaker 1: a food You have been saying that from the jump,
28:57
Speaker 1: and you know, and I went to your should media
29:00
Speaker 1: timeline and we got nervous because I could. I got
29:04
Speaker 1: nervous looking good. That's how I have a I love
29:07
Speaker 1: see good food. Men, go wow, man, that's really tasty.
29:11
Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier about the lobsters and the lachos and
29:14
Speaker 1: the cheese and the pika, the gaio and the cilantro.
29:17
Speaker 1: Tell me two of your favorite menu items that when
29:20
Speaker 1: someone goes to the It's Lobster Bar, that it really,
29:24
Speaker 1: it really is is a winner. So so listen first
29:27
Speaker 1: and foremost, if nobody's ever been to the Lobster Bar,
29:30
Speaker 1: I would literally say to them, if you've never been here,
29:33
Speaker 1: you should Somebody at the table should get a lobster role,
29:35
Speaker 1: even if you're gonna split it, because that's truly what's
29:37
Speaker 1: made the restaurant popular with the lobster role. However, to me,
29:42
Speaker 1: the best dish on the menu is the lobster avioli.
29:44
Speaker 1: It's all lobster inside. We make a lobster pasta, fresh
29:48
Speaker 1: made pasta with lobster paste in it, the cream sauce
29:52
Speaker 1: has a lobster reduction in it, and it just bursting
29:55
Speaker 1: with lobster flavor. That that's always something I tell people.
29:59
Speaker 1: Listen if you if you're looking to eat. It's a
30:00
Speaker 1: heavy dish, but that's my favorite dish on the menu. However,
30:05
Speaker 1: the lobster nachos, since I put them on and they've
30:08
Speaker 1: been on the menu for just over a year now,
30:10
Speaker 1: that was kind of creation out of COVID. You know,
30:12
Speaker 1: you can't sit still, You've got you've got to create
30:15
Speaker 1: stuff that travels. So nachos everything packed separate that that's
30:20
Speaker 1: selling like crazy hat at the restaurant. And we're fraying
30:24
Speaker 1: the chips in the restaurant, they're hot. We're making a
30:27
Speaker 1: cheese sauce that has a ton of lobster stock in it,
30:30
Speaker 1: so this you're getting a lot, a lot of flavor.
30:32
Speaker 1: I use that same sauce in the lobster mac and cheese.
30:36
Speaker 1: And then you know fresh piogo to gaio every day
30:39
Speaker 1: shop lops or pickle the Hall of Painter's. It's a
30:41
Speaker 1: traditional it is a tradicial nazo dish, but with chop
30:46
Speaker 1: lobster in it and and and lobster reduction. So to
30:49
Speaker 1: me that that's like that's a go to dish now.
30:52
Speaker 1: And you know, we moved through so many fresh oysters
30:55
Speaker 1: in the restaurant. It's it's it's something you don't want
30:58
Speaker 1: to pass up eating oysters and restaurant because we turned
31:01
Speaker 1: through oysters like crazy. Well, my man, you got me
31:04
Speaker 1: with pickle. Tell listen to when people talk. When he
31:06
Speaker 1: said pickles hallapenio, I went, that's my man right there,
31:10
Speaker 1: because I hate it when people put fresh hall opinions.
31:14
Speaker 1: Oh not so. I don't understand where this is coming from.
31:16
Speaker 1: But my man, it was great talking to you, and
31:18
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you coming on money fantastic. So, if
31:22
Speaker 1: you're not there and you hear somebody says Stephen A.
31:25
Speaker 1: Smith came into your restaurant, know your boy Rashaan McDonald,
31:28
Speaker 1: because I'm not gonna be recognizable. He's gonna be recognizable,
31:31
Speaker 1: your boy, Rashan McDonald brought him in there. Okay, well
31:34
Speaker 1: I'm gonna recognize you, Rushan, and that's awesome. I really
31:37
Speaker 1: appreciate this. This was fantastic a lot of fun and
31:39
Speaker 1: I love the energy. I love the bar. If you
31:41
Speaker 1: gotta go, and hey, man, your beast man, and I
31:43
Speaker 1: say that a strong compliment. Man, and you teach stay
31:46
Speaker 1: successful and you will see me this year in your restaurant.
31:48
Speaker 1: I promise you that, and thank you much. If you
31:51
Speaker 1: hear anyway interviews. To see them and interviews on Money
31:53
Speaker 1: Making Conversations, please go to Money Making Conversation dot com.
31:56
Speaker 1: I'm ra Sean McDonald. I am your host. This season
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33:09
Speaker 1: States Forest Service and the AD Council