Ep. 14 - Michael Dalmau : Restaurant Owner | Cinclare Bar & Table | Downtown Thibodaux

Miracles in Meat Podcast | Ep. 14 – Michael Dalmau: Preserving Louisiana’s Culinary Heritage

A Journey Through Cajun & Southern Cuisine

In this episode of Miracles in Meat, Shane Thibodaux and Beau Bourgeois sit down with Michael Dalmau, the visionary owner of Cinclare Bar & Table in downtown Thibodaux. Michael shares how his experiences from Baton Rouge, California, and New Orleans have shaped his chef-driven approach to Cajun and Southern cuisine.

Inside This Episode:

🍽 From Baton Rouge to New Orleans to California—how travel shaped Michael’s culinary vision
🔥 The evolution of Cinclare and its impact on Thibodaux’s food scene
👨‍🍳 The creative process behind a chef-driven menu—balancing tradition with innovation
🏡 Preserving Louisiana’s culinary heritage through high-quality, locally inspired dishes
🍷 The challenges of running a successful restaurant in today’s food industry

Why You Should Listen:

If you’re passionate about Louisiana food, Cajun traditions, and behind-the-scenes restaurant stories, this episode delivers expert insights, real-world experiences, and inspiration for both home cooks and culinary professionals.

💥 Exclusive Offer

🛒 Use code: MIMPODCAST for 10% off your cart at checkout!

🔗 Connect with Us:

🌐 Website: www.bourgeoismeatmarket.com
📍 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bourgeoismeatmarket
📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourgeoismeatmarket/
📩 Email: Shane@bourgeoismm@gmail.com

 

Transcript

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Music.

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You're listening to the Miracles in Meat Podcast. I'm Shane Thibodeau,

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the fourth generation butcher at one of the oldest meat markets in the world.

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My great-grandfather started this business by slaughtering one cow or pig at

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a time and selling the cuts door-to-door on horse and buggy.

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Today, our products were enjoyed across the globe. I will attempt to give you

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some insight as to how we got here and explore the challenges we've had along the way.

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At Bourgeois, our mission is to preserve our heritage generation after generation

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through legendary Cajun flavors and the development of relationships, not customers.

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Since 1891, Bourgeois has maintained age-old culinary traditions that fueled

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the South Louisiana lifestyle.

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Over the past 133 years, our Cajun products have gained global recognition,

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and for tens of thousands of

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folks around the world, the Bourgeois Cajun Lady logo is a symbol of home.

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Today, the fourth-generation butchers sit at the nine-foot maple block with

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loyal customers to discuss the adventures, skills, and passions that guide each of their legacies.

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These conversations will become priceless resources for future generations of any industry.

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This is our way of maintaining the spirit, purpose, and traditions of our lost

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arts in the world of change.

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Music.

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All right, everyone, this is episode 14 of the Miracles of Meat podcast. I'm Shane.

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Today, Bo and I sit down with the owner of Sinclair Bar and Table,

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one of my favorite little places here in downtown Thibodeau.

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Excellent restaurant, high quality, chef forward, as they say.

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And Bo and I get into some conversation with Michael about the business and

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customer service and his background and how he got here.

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He's a Baton Rouge boy, and this is a fun conversation. We got to learn a lot

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about Michael and hope this relationship grows going forward.

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So if you got any questions or

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comments about the episode, you can submit them on a form on our website.

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Just click on the podcast, dig around in there. There's all kind of goodies on that on that website.

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And yeah, if you have a question you like read on the podcast,

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you can even drop us an audio file on there. If you feel if you're feeling frisky.

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Thanks for your support, guys. And here we go. Michael Dalmau.

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Michael. Yeah. Let's, how about you tell us a little bit about yourself?

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I know a little bit about the restaurant, but let's do like start with like

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some personal stuff where you grew up and your story. Sure.

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Grew up born and raised in Baton Rouge and went to LSU.

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And then when I graduated from LSU, I lived in California for about three years

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and then moved back, met my now wife and we moved to New Orleans for about 12 years.

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And we lived there for about another dozen years and then moved here in 2010 and.

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Loving it. So, I mean, we're at the restaurant, we're celebrating nine years this month.

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Nice. So exciting. Yeah. You know. I feel like I remember all nine years.

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You know, it's funny, but it's kind of flown by and, you know,

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it's not an easy thing to do, like I got to tell y'all.

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But it's been a wonderful ride. It's just, it's incredible.

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We're at nine years so far. So, yeah. But no, when I left LSU,

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I went and worked at a resort in Lake Tahoe and worked in kitchens in front of the house there.

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When I left LSU, I had worked in several restaurants and bars in Baton Rouge

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and then got my degree and realized, oh, God, I'd love to go to culinary school.

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But I mean, we're talking mid 90s and, you know, culinary schools weren't accessible.

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So I thought, well, if I'm going to go learn how to be how to work and kitchens

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and resorts, I'm going to go somewhere nice.

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So I moved to Lake Tahoe on the California side. I worked at what's now called

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Tahoe Palisades, the massive ski area.

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And I worked at a resort called Resort at Squaw Creek.

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And it's a huge resort that had several different outlets.

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And I worked at a bunch of places.

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I was on the line at an Italian place with a wood-burning oven and ran the room

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service kitchen for six months and worked at banquets and stuff like that.

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So it gave me the opportunity to learn kind of on the fly while I'm getting paid.

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Considerable student loan to boot with LSU. So I had to kind of figure my way out.

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But then when I left, my brother was having a baby and, you know,

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it was tough to be in California when, you know, you got your little niece and godchild on the way.

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So after about three years of living there, I moved back.

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And by that time, I was ready to make a little money.

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And, you know, down here at the time, they weren't paying too much to toil in the kitchens and stuff.

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So I kind of left that behind and went and worked in medical sales,

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started in pharmaceutical and moved my way to surgical and, you know,

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got kind of tired of the travel and all that. I had a big territory and all that.

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So once I moved here, we were looking for other things for me to do.

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And so I was fortunate when the building came up for Sinclair downtown. Yeah.

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So you say the building came up, you already had plans?

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Well, funny you should ask. Yeah, we were, you know, when we moved here,

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I hate the term foodie, but we love to eat and, you know, we cook at home a

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lot. But, you know, that was one thing.

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We love the area, but we felt like we're missing some of the cuisines and some of the things.

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And so, I mean, if you're going to, you want to motivate change or you want

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to see something different, a lot of times you got to do it yourself.

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And so we were looking at a couple different

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properties and different concepts to me i

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think st claire that concept was

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kind of for that building for that area that

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location we looked at another place right

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before it kind of fell through because of zoning and uh

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in tibedo they don't really change zoning you know

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that that readily so we

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it was i guess it was a good luck stroke

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of good luck because that fell through and so we were looking and then the front

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of ours who owned the building was looking to sell it had been in a number of

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of college bars and establishments yeah i'll say that i'll say that but you

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know some some more story than others and uh.

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And and so i think yeah i think the

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person who owned the bar kind of was looking to you know to to get out.

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And I think the person who owned the building, she wanted to get rid of some

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property. So we were happy to do it.

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You know, there was a lot of work to be done. We had to put in a kitchen where there wasn't one.

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But yeah, that's where we started.

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And how long was Sinclair in your thoughts?

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Well, you know, I think as far as name goes, it was something that I was a little resistant to.

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And I'll share the story on why I called it Sinclair.

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And my wife was the one that thought it'd be perfect and kind of had to talk me into it.

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I can already tell you, you made the perfect decision just based on that.

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Absolutely. I'm a smart man. wealth. I'm not smart, but I'm no dummy.

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But the concept was kind of, to me, I think I wanted to do something different.

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There's some really good restaurants in Thibodeau, and I didn't want to be another

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Cajun place and all that.

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I thought, this culinary school here, to me, was a great resource.

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There's a lot of really, just living here for a few years and doing some informal

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market research, talking to, you know, other parents of kids in my school and

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stuff and going out and talking to people I'm meeting.

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These people were going to New Orleans a couple times a month to get an upper,

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you know, chef-driven food.

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And they were kind of lamenting about how, you know, God, you know,

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wish we love what we have here, but we want something just a little bit different.

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And to me, it kind of made sense. And, you know, so I,

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And we, you know, we just thought, I mean, again, I couldn't do this in New Orleans, obviously.

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Baton Rouge presents challenges, too. To me, this was kind of a layup.

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I've always wanted to open a place.

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I've always had the idea of, should be done this way. You know,

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we all go out to dinner and be like, ah, it should be, you know.

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But I truly thought, and I don't know if it was just misguided confidence,

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but I thought, well, I think I know what people want.

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So I came up with a concept menu and didn't even have a name on it.

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There were things that I thought, and this is not an original thing.

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You know they were oh i love this dish from this place and i love this dish

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and how about if we do this yes so that's kind of where it was born out of just

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throwing thoughts onto a piece of paper,

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and and then yeah it was it was kind of like that but i had to get buy-in you know so.

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One of the first trips i made was to the culinary school i thought well you

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know let's go to the horse's mouth.

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And at the time I sat with the head of the department, John Kosar,

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may he rest in peace, great chef, great man, just passed away last year and intimidating guy.

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You know, he graduated from Mellon University in mathematics and he's a pastry chef.

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And I've always been around chefs who were very intimidating and,

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you know, aggressive and all that.

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So I was nervous, But I showed him my menu, and he looks it over,

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and he says, with his pencil eraser side down towards the page,

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he slid it back to us, this doesn't have any desserts on it.

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It was all, you know, I was just sitting in the entrees, and I'm presenting

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this thinking I'm going to blow his world, that, you know, I'm talking to a

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pastry chef, and I don't have any desserts, so I'm just melting in my chair.

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My great first meeting well he asked

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to keep that that menu and i'm sure

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you know like maybe he can give me some feedback maybe we

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can talk about any kind of help that they but they don't really like you know

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they they don't like to lend support to local restaurants i don't think they

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want to look as though that they're being favorites or anything like that he

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kind of made that plain but you know they've always been a great resource for

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us but you know they've always just been like you know will help in certain ways.

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So apparently what had happened was that menu got copied and it got circulated around...

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Faculty and then you know the good culinary students hang out with faculty you

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know they they're in their office talking talking food and you know it helps out their cause,

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so what ends up what ends up happening is somebody finds

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this whoa what is this well somebody came in here it's

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got no desserts on it that was

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on the back it was on the back and so the

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and so i we got a bunch of people

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reaching out to us jeffrey was one of them jeffrey you

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know found so from the menu huh that's

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wild from i always wondered how they got hooked up with logan

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and with jeffrey well yeah absolutely i you know

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it was a two really really talented i mean logan's one

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of them two really talented culinary students logan boudreau

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our chef right now who's been our chef for seven years

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now but he's been with us since we opened and another really

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talented chef crystal crystal lachny and

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they both saw it and they they i mean

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they reached out almost they said where can that where can i do this

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yeah and that's awesome and you know and that's very

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very cool it made a lot of sense for them so so

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yeah we kind of took off from there and it and it really you

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know i don't want to say i fell in it but all the mistakes are or good things

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kind of accidental you know so it you know just very good luck so you started

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with them go ahead My grandpa Earl always said, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

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I've been using that one a lot lately. No doubt about it. So you started with a menu.

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That was one of my questions, is how do you start? Do you start with a genre,

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or do you start with dishes, or do you start with atmosphere,

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or how does that work? Right.

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Did you have the building before the menu, or vice versa?

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No, I had the building first. We were under contract. And at that point,

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it was pretty much 99% in the bag when I started that.

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And it was... So you had a building, you just didn't know what you were going

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to sell out. No, yeah. It was a great position to be in.

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At any point, we could have been like, okay, hell, it's Michael's Campus Bar.

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You know, just completely abandoned the restaurant.

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But we, you know, my wife, I guess, you know, had enough confidence in me that

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she said, okay, you know, just do what you want to do.

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And yeah, I didn't go for genre just because,

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If you pigeonhole yourself, you know, because I think there was a rumor out

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since I'm Cuban, my parents are from

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Cuba, that it was going to be a Cuban restaurant. So there was this buzz.

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It's the Cuban restaurant. So people would come by the construction site and

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they're like, is this going to be a Cuban restaurant?

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I said, no. And you'd see all the disappointment in people's faces.

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Well, where is it going to be? Right, right. And I'm like, well,

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no, but, you know, just check in.

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And they were like, well, what kind of restaurant is it? And I'd be like,

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oh, God, I don't even know how to explain this.

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You know, now there's a word for it. It's called chef-driven,

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you know, chef-forward, kitchen-forward, creative.

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So, you know, you tell some people, we're going to be creative.

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We're going to be rotating menus, small menus. You just see them glass over.

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Yeah, Joe Blow and Thibodeau.

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Well, it could have been that way in Banner. He's normally, you know,

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just speak plainly, please.

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But again, I couldn't, I had no idea because it was, you know,

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you know, whether it be on purpose or accidental, I thought, let's just do creative.

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Let's do fresh. Let's do fun.

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To me, the idea was dinner and drinks, you know, for a place downtown with a nice bar.

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And that was in that kind of dinner, dinner and drinks.

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You know, we're not going to do lunch, you know, even though we get the massive demand for it.

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I don't know, the place is suited for dinner and drinks. That's what kind of jumped out to me.

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So I'm sure other, Shana, other restauranteurs will tell you,

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oh no, I wanted to do this.

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And then this was kind of, this kind of started to fall in place because of

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the building concept kind of followed the building and everything.

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Cause this other building, we were talking about doing a breakfast brunch place,

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you know, nothing, you know. Was it downtown?

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It was on 7th. It's now a hair salon. I think it was, I think at one point it

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was a butcher shop back in the fifties and straight by your house.

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I know what you're talking about.

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Yeah. And so it was a dentist's office and I thought great location because

00:16:23.926 --> 00:16:25.186
we're by the schools and everything.

00:16:25.326 --> 00:16:32.046
But at the time it was, so it was zoned commercial, you know, office.

00:16:33.126 --> 00:16:37.006
And I got quite the education. We got real close to securing the loan for that too.

00:16:37.086 --> 00:16:41.226
So they're like, and luckily our loan officer said, you realize it's not zoned for that.

00:16:41.366 --> 00:16:46.566
And so, So, but yeah, at the time it was, it had been out of business or out

00:16:46.566 --> 00:16:50.426
of commerce for so long that it got rezoned from commercial to residential.

00:16:50.666 --> 00:16:54.766
And I'm thinking I almost got bought, I almost bought a dentist office that

00:16:54.766 --> 00:16:57.186
I'd have to convert into some sort of a house or apartment.

00:16:57.426 --> 00:17:01.526
So, so yeah, the idea with that was, was this little breakfast,

00:17:01.586 --> 00:17:05.966
you know, Hey, we have tables here, but then, you know, come pick up a something

00:17:05.966 --> 00:17:09.566
to, to go to before you go to school or something. It was, you know,

00:17:09.646 --> 00:17:12.186
but that's kind of how I was operating.

00:17:13.589 --> 00:17:17.869
Being close to Baton Rouge, did you make your way to Thibodeau around that college time?

00:17:18.049 --> 00:17:21.809
I did, actually. I dated a girl from Thibodeau. Oh, boy. Yeah,

00:17:21.989 --> 00:17:23.589
yeah. She's a wonderful girl.

00:17:24.029 --> 00:17:26.269
But I never thought I'd move here.

00:17:27.369 --> 00:17:32.269
Her family was in Cronus, so we dated for maybe a year.

00:17:32.609 --> 00:17:36.769
But she was very close with her parents. So her family, we came,

00:17:37.189 --> 00:17:39.889
visited a couple times, and we went to Cronus one year.

00:17:40.529 --> 00:17:46.269
And then actually, I shouldn't even mention, my aunt and uncle lived here.

00:17:46.549 --> 00:17:50.329
Actually, my cousin was born here. They live in Miami now. I told you I was cute.

00:17:50.989 --> 00:17:55.289
But he taught physics, my uncle did, at Nichols.

00:17:55.729 --> 00:18:00.389
And then they just moved to Miami 30 years ago. But they lived here.

00:18:00.449 --> 00:18:02.309
So we would see them. We'd come to their house.

00:18:02.649 --> 00:18:06.689
He'd take me. He was a big, big outdoorsman. So we'd go to Grand Isle,

00:18:07.149 --> 00:18:13.369
a lot of fishing. And, you know, but so, yeah, I was really I was and I always loved this area.

00:18:13.489 --> 00:18:18.789
I would come here when I was in sales and, you know, a couple surgeons that

00:18:18.789 --> 00:18:23.309
I worked with, a couple doctors that I worked with. So I always loved this town. Really did.

00:18:23.569 --> 00:18:25.889
What was your was your first time coming to the market?

00:18:27.009 --> 00:18:30.149
God, I got another great question.

00:18:30.149 --> 00:18:37.049
So there was, my dad is in industrial sales and, and in college,

00:18:37.329 --> 00:18:41.749
summer job I had, I'd work in his warehouse and he had a guy,

00:18:42.289 --> 00:18:46.289
one of his field salespeople, I guess those field salespeople, they come here a lot.

00:18:46.929 --> 00:18:51.469
He said, and at the time I was dating the girl from Thibodeau and he said,

00:18:51.669 --> 00:18:55.809
oh, you know, uh, God, you date a girl from Thibodeau, you gotta get me,

00:18:55.949 --> 00:18:59.429
gotta get me that, the jerky from bourgeois.

00:18:59.669 --> 00:19:04.049
And I had no idea, you know, I just thought, you know, when we would come in

00:19:04.049 --> 00:19:07.209
town, we'd be around our family or we'd go to a party or a wedding or something.

00:19:08.009 --> 00:19:11.889
But then one time I made it, so it was got 90...

00:19:12.662 --> 00:19:23.522
93 or 94 maybe 92 but yeah i mean instant i thought wow this is you know and yeah i just.

00:19:24.342 --> 00:19:28.042
Another reason i love living here is is because

00:19:28.042 --> 00:19:31.222
of y'all i mean you know i mean that you guys are artisan

00:19:31.222 --> 00:19:34.462
you're craftsmen you know you guys do a a

00:19:34.462 --> 00:19:37.602
trade that not a lot of people do and perfected

00:19:37.602 --> 00:19:40.682
something that and to me it's best

00:19:40.682 --> 00:19:43.882
damn turkey in the world so what

00:19:43.882 --> 00:19:46.502
else do you like other than the jerky any any kind

00:19:46.502 --> 00:19:49.582
of tasso to me i mean that's

00:19:49.582 --> 00:19:53.522
it's good i've always tried to to cook with the jerky

00:19:53.522 --> 00:19:56.322
you know whether you reconstitute it or

00:19:56.322 --> 00:19:59.182
you know or you know rehydrate or whatever

00:19:59.182 --> 00:20:02.282
but i find to me i'm assuming y'all

00:20:02.282 --> 00:20:05.722
use the same smoke that i get that same you

00:20:05.722 --> 00:20:08.702
know so i can actually flavor dishes with the

00:20:08.702 --> 00:20:12.282
tasso so the tasso i mean

00:20:12.282 --> 00:20:20.402
i come in and i get always get a dozen burgers and then sausage i mean i yeah

00:20:20.402 --> 00:20:24.962
between garlic and jalapeno that's always a toss-up so i end up getting two

00:20:24.962 --> 00:20:30.542
pounds of each but no you guys do an amazing job i always love it here.

00:20:32.575 --> 00:20:36.915
And then, all right, so you're in college, and you're dating a chick from Thibodeau,

00:20:36.915 --> 00:20:40.695
and you've done the downtown thing in college.

00:20:41.395 --> 00:20:45.975
You've been to the Goose, and you made your rounds? I did. We went to the Goose.

00:20:46.015 --> 00:20:48.155
We started at Flanagan's.

00:20:48.555 --> 00:20:52.055
At the bar? Or dinner? For Kronos, we started at Flanagan's,

00:20:52.115 --> 00:20:56.755
and we did, because I remember she told me they're famous for their Long Island ice teams.

00:20:57.195 --> 00:21:02.235
Oh, boy. And that's what got me in trouble. You know, we got deep in the Long

00:21:02.235 --> 00:21:04.715
Island iced teas that night at Kronos.

00:21:04.835 --> 00:21:07.135
They went to the island.

00:21:07.415 --> 00:21:10.075
Yeah. Yeah. We got stuck in Long Island.

00:21:10.435 --> 00:21:14.335
And so that's, I remember, I know we went to the goose.

00:21:15.055 --> 00:21:18.335
Don't know if we went to Rox's or not, but I do remember going,

00:21:18.435 --> 00:21:20.755
oh, we're walking into a shoe store.

00:21:23.895 --> 00:21:28.395
And, but now the, the, those nights were a little bit foggy.

00:21:28.395 --> 00:21:31.195
It's funny how many times that sentence has been

00:21:31.195 --> 00:21:33.955
said over the years yeah i know we went to

00:21:33.955 --> 00:21:36.695
the goose and then i don't know i don't know where else we

00:21:36.695 --> 00:21:40.095
went i think we went to rox's i don't know yeah yeah

00:21:40.095 --> 00:21:44.675
no we like that you know i'm i keep hearing about the heyday and i know that

00:21:44.675 --> 00:21:49.475
when we were when i was we would come here in the early 90s i'm guessing the

00:21:49.475 --> 00:21:53.995
iron horse was still open i mean you guys are better than me but i've never

00:21:53.995 --> 00:21:58.435
heard like i've heard maybe the original foundry I know dad always talked about

00:21:58.435 --> 00:21:58.875
that. Original foundry.

00:21:59.135 --> 00:22:03.135
But so the Iron Horse is, as I'm told, like if you go down St.

00:22:03.275 --> 00:22:08.095
Philip from St. Clair and there's the Hippie Hotel, you know that there's a

00:22:08.095 --> 00:22:09.695
foundation that kind of smashed.

00:22:09.915 --> 00:22:12.055
Oh, yeah. That's where the Iron Horse used to be.

00:22:12.415 --> 00:22:15.295
And that was, you know, the dance club of the day.

00:22:15.495 --> 00:22:19.255
And then I think Last Call was something else, called something else.

00:22:19.255 --> 00:22:20.695
Oh, what was that called? The library.

00:22:20.955 --> 00:22:23.095
Oh, before Last Call. Yes.

00:22:23.895 --> 00:22:31.135
Oh. I think I only remember it as Last Call. Yeah, I think I'll predate you guys by a few years.

00:22:32.332 --> 00:22:35.392
Was the library there it wouldn't

00:22:35.392 --> 00:22:38.272
have been the library yeah i don't think so

00:22:38.272 --> 00:22:44.012
i think at that time it was like a little coffee shop they did like little pennies

00:22:44.012 --> 00:22:48.152
and stuff kind of like what the willow does but i think it was there a little

00:22:48.152 --> 00:22:51.832
ahead of its time and it was only open for about a year or two and there was

00:22:51.832 --> 00:22:57.472
just desserts but amazing i mean you know that building is at least It's the front building.

00:22:58.672 --> 00:23:03.032
It's in excess of 130 years old. I mean, that's mainstream.

00:23:03.372 --> 00:23:06.792
It's a cool part of Thibodeau. Yeah. I mean, to me, I think it's,

00:23:06.952 --> 00:23:11.112
you know, I say we're right at the center of the entertainment district of Thibodeau.

00:23:11.732 --> 00:23:15.652
Let's start using that. Yeah. We are going tonight. I'm going to the entertainment district.

00:23:16.452 --> 00:23:20.032
We'd be surprised once everybody finally gets things going, you know.

00:23:21.332 --> 00:23:24.532
The worst was right after Ida. God. God.

00:23:24.712 --> 00:23:29.212
You know, Freeman's is down. And, you know, they didn't open Renee's back up.

00:23:29.392 --> 00:23:33.252
And, I mean, we were, it was pretty much us, you know, in spars.

00:23:33.572 --> 00:23:37.292
It was just us in spars. And, you know, business was good, but it was just kind

00:23:37.292 --> 00:23:41.172
of sad. You know, there wasn't any kind of vibrancy or life downtown.

00:23:41.532 --> 00:23:48.652
So, you know, it's nice to see things coming back and people investing and trying

00:23:48.652 --> 00:23:53.252
to, you know, shape a really beautiful area.

00:23:53.512 --> 00:23:56.752
Cool area. Totally. Downtown has a ton of potential.

00:23:57.132 --> 00:24:00.092
I'm excited to see what they've been doing with the, they got rid of the weir

00:24:00.092 --> 00:24:05.472
and they are putting in, you know, the docks and all, and it could be really awesome.

00:24:06.132 --> 00:24:10.412
I agree. I think, you know, they're trying, you know, you know,

00:24:10.492 --> 00:24:14.432
and people butt heads and we want this, we want that, but people are trying,

00:24:14.472 --> 00:24:16.712
you know, and, and, you know,

00:24:17.332 --> 00:24:22.692
the city is doing a great job, but, but what's most impressive is the,

00:24:22.852 --> 00:24:24.772
the personal investment.

00:24:25.012 --> 00:24:27.492
You know, people sticking their neck out. Yeah.

00:24:27.972 --> 00:24:34.452
You know, and, but that's, that's what it takes. You know, I think there's still a good ways to go.

00:24:34.892 --> 00:24:37.852
Speaking of which, what you know about some lights? I hear there's some lights

00:24:37.852 --> 00:24:39.052
coming downtown. Is that true?

00:24:39.592 --> 00:24:44.112
You mean kind of like they have in Houma? I've heard that, you know,

00:24:44.492 --> 00:24:47.332
we, uh, we should be better as a downtown group.

00:24:47.432 --> 00:24:50.972
Now, you know, we've got main street, but that's more, uh, you know,

00:24:51.512 --> 00:24:57.212
but you know, We should meet regularly, and I think individually people meet

00:24:57.212 --> 00:25:00.692
with the administration or they meet with other people.

00:25:00.852 --> 00:25:05.332
But, you know, I kind of hear some things late. I hear some things before they're

00:25:05.332 --> 00:25:10.052
made real, but I have heard that. I think it's a great idea.

00:25:10.232 --> 00:25:12.272
I don't know if y'all have been in downtown Houma and all that.

00:25:12.332 --> 00:25:16.112
It looks awesome. They're doing a great job there with, you know,

00:25:16.272 --> 00:25:19.152
and they're just finally getting some businesses back.

00:25:19.332 --> 00:25:22.092
They just got a really wallet. Houma guys, yeah. But I mean,

00:25:22.172 --> 00:25:26.852
for a while, that was, you know, tough, tough haul for downtown Houma.

00:25:26.952 --> 00:25:31.152
But yeah, I think, yeah, I think that's, I've heard it.

00:25:32.612 --> 00:25:36.832
Whether it's done deal, I don't know. But, you know, I thought you missed those

00:25:36.832 --> 00:25:41.212
blinking blue lights, crime cameras. I've seen those too. That's crazy.

00:25:41.812 --> 00:25:47.172
They are. And so many people complain to me, and I have nothing to do about that.

00:25:47.352 --> 00:25:51.792
And, you know, we have our own cameras up. But I think at some point they just

00:25:51.792 --> 00:25:55.432
maybe need to blink a little less or maybe a little less bright.

00:25:55.612 --> 00:25:59.092
If there's a switch in there somewhere, a dimmer or something, you know.

00:25:59.412 --> 00:26:04.132
A dimmer switch, right. I think those string lights would be great for tourism

00:26:04.132 --> 00:26:08.992
because I know I can see clearly in my mind any place I went out of town,

00:26:09.132 --> 00:26:12.412
out of state that had a little downtown strip, if they got the lights,

00:26:12.552 --> 00:26:13.892
I remember it and I want to go back.

00:26:14.412 --> 00:26:17.052
Or you're at least going to stop and see what it's about. It just feels special.

00:26:17.052 --> 00:26:19.192
Why they got lights. Something special. Yeah. Yeah.

00:26:20.792 --> 00:26:23.052
There's a good mix of retail.

00:26:25.072 --> 00:26:29.832
Main Street does a good job of getting people downtown. we

00:26:29.832 --> 00:26:32.592
got great shops we got great places to eat and what

00:26:32.592 --> 00:26:35.872
are we missing what would you what would you throw up oh yeah what you about

00:26:35.872 --> 00:26:39.872
to open up next if you could just pick you guys are investing if you could just

00:26:39.872 --> 00:26:44.772
pick three i'd love to see three industries to just park downtown and open up

00:26:44.772 --> 00:26:50.012
well i mean i'd like to see investment in the doncero house get that i think,

00:26:51.752 --> 00:26:56.972
damon i don't know the gentleman baldone home attorney i think he owns it man

00:26:56.972 --> 00:27:00.912
i think that you know, those old buildings, they're not the easiest thing.

00:27:01.112 --> 00:27:06.252
I mean, mine was a cinder block building, you know, these things have architectural

00:27:06.252 --> 00:27:07.692
flourishes and everything everywhere.

00:27:07.852 --> 00:27:11.572
So I can't imagine what it is, but that's kind of the centerpiece of downtown.

00:27:11.832 --> 00:27:16.752
I'd like to see, you know, if you can't get a grant or something like get that

00:27:16.752 --> 00:27:20.292
back to where, you know, it was really, I think, I don't know if you guys remember

00:27:20.292 --> 00:27:24.572
when we first moved here, Don's Row House had the cocktail and the drinkery.

00:27:24.772 --> 00:27:28.032
Do you remember that? That's what I was going to say, a number of years ago,

00:27:28.052 --> 00:27:29.552
it looked like they were trying to do that.

00:27:29.712 --> 00:27:33.312
And they would run those events. You remember? It was like an Iron Chef style

00:27:33.312 --> 00:27:35.552
thing with the culinary school. Yeah.

00:27:36.352 --> 00:27:39.672
You know, to me, that's just an untapped resource.

00:27:39.992 --> 00:27:44.572
Look, it's a privately owned thing. I don't want to lay it on him to,

00:27:44.692 --> 00:27:47.512
hey, you know, spend $3 billion.

00:27:48.612 --> 00:27:51.732
I can reminisce about a place I used to get to on Thursdays.

00:27:52.516 --> 00:27:55.716
But it was really cool. And I, that, that, that was one of the things that really

00:27:55.716 --> 00:27:58.736
impressed me about Thibodeaux is we kind of like, Oh, this is our little place.

00:27:58.836 --> 00:28:00.356
We'd have a date night every Thursday night.

00:28:00.916 --> 00:28:05.116
You know, we'd start there, we walked down to Freeman's or we'd make it to Spars or something.

00:28:05.336 --> 00:28:08.296
And, you know, it was nice. And that's kind of, you know, where that,

00:28:08.516 --> 00:28:13.816
you know, kind of birth of the idea of, you know, the concept for downtown,

00:28:13.836 --> 00:28:17.896
but, you know, I think if we had like a little boutique hotel,

00:28:18.556 --> 00:28:21.616
you know, that a little, you know, but again, who wants to,

00:28:22.296 --> 00:28:25.336
you know take that kind of risk you know what

00:28:25.336 --> 00:28:28.156
the risk i took was not that big you're talking

00:28:28.156 --> 00:28:31.156
in the millions of dollars and it's you know if things

00:28:31.156 --> 00:28:36.596
happen and but yeah you know the hippie hotel used to be called the jeffrey

00:28:36.596 --> 00:28:41.556
a little history for you there every time i talk to jeffrey i'm like this could

00:28:41.556 --> 00:28:47.796
be your hotel this is poking you in the back man but no to me you know like

00:28:47.796 --> 00:28:49.736
a nice boutique hotel, but, you know, for,

00:28:49.996 --> 00:28:53.036
even though Tubino's growing and it's only going to get bigger,

00:28:53.256 --> 00:28:58.016
I think that's one thing I'd like to see more parking.

00:28:58.976 --> 00:29:02.296
Might need a garage soon. Yeah. I don't know where you'd put it,

00:29:02.356 --> 00:29:03.716
but. Big city parking lot.

00:29:03.996 --> 00:29:09.056
You know, just those little, you know, those little bunk beds for cars or something

00:29:09.056 --> 00:29:10.756
that, you know, cause you know, once.

00:29:11.996 --> 00:29:15.416
Peppers reopens, if it does, which it will, of course it will,

00:29:15.636 --> 00:29:19.036
you know, there's going to be a A lot of people want to get pizza again.

00:29:19.236 --> 00:29:23.036
And, you know, and once all the other, you know, the beer garden happens,

00:29:23.036 --> 00:29:26.036
there's going to be, you know, people wanting to park and be downtown.

00:29:26.316 --> 00:29:31.856
So they, it hasn't been an issue yet because I don't, we haven't been fully populated, you know.

00:29:32.216 --> 00:29:35.636
So, but yeah, that's going to be something they'll need to address.

00:29:36.976 --> 00:29:41.296
So how long did it take to go from idea to opening day?

00:29:41.496 --> 00:29:49.256
I want to know that. So we closed May or June 2015.

00:29:50.896 --> 00:29:56.156
And we opened February 16th, so eight months. That's really fast.

00:29:57.936 --> 00:30:01.096
You know, we'd have people who are like, oh, you should open for Thanksgiving.

00:30:01.376 --> 00:30:02.296
You got to open for Christmas.

00:30:02.536 --> 00:30:06.796
But to me, you get one chance to open.

00:30:06.976 --> 00:30:12.716
You know, I mean, we were opening a restaurant that, you know, nobody asked for.

00:30:13.156 --> 00:30:17.376
You know what I mean? I mean, like specifically nobody asked for what? No one wanted Cuban.

00:30:17.516 --> 00:30:20.196
Right. And it wasn't Cuban, so they're already going to be married.

00:30:20.196 --> 00:30:22.556
Yeah, we've already disappointed several hundred people.

00:30:23.296 --> 00:30:27.796
But yeah, it was eight months. You know, there was a few months where we finally

00:30:27.796 --> 00:30:30.356
closed and I just kind of went, wow, that's day of late at night.

00:30:30.716 --> 00:30:33.996
You know, menus and doing a lot of research. I like that.

00:30:34.156 --> 00:30:39.816
I like, you know, I collect cookbooks and big fan of all the food shows and

00:30:39.816 --> 00:30:42.476
restaurant shows and Tony Bourdain and all that.

00:30:42.836 --> 00:30:45.916
So I just, I was just idea after idea.

00:30:46.216 --> 00:30:50.676
And that to me was just the funnest part of it. I mean, I love what I do now,

00:30:50.796 --> 00:30:55.716
and I love hosting folks and seeing folks be happy and enjoying the restaurant.

00:30:55.916 --> 00:30:59.996
But, you know, it was just the promise of this.

00:31:01.336 --> 00:31:04.936
So, and then we had to go into design mode.

00:31:05.496 --> 00:31:06.816
All right, well, we've got a menu

00:31:06.816 --> 00:31:11.036
kind of, so you kind of have to work backwards. Okay, so we got a menu.

00:31:11.516 --> 00:31:15.536
What kind of equipment do you need? What kind of footprint does that equipment need?

00:31:15.756 --> 00:31:21.116
And you still don't have a name, to be clear. No, we were batting around a few.

00:31:21.816 --> 00:31:25.336
God, I wish I could provide them with you, but I mean, you know,

00:31:25.596 --> 00:31:27.136
my wife can be pretty persistent.

00:31:27.456 --> 00:31:30.476
I'd say, okay, Sinclair this or this? She'd be like, Sinclair.

00:31:30.896 --> 00:31:32.616
Okay, how about Sinclair this or this?

00:31:33.156 --> 00:31:36.136
Sinclair. You're pretty stuck with the Sinclair thing, aren't you?

00:31:36.876 --> 00:31:40.036
So, yeah, yeah. So, it was, you know, it was.

00:31:41.245 --> 00:31:44.785
When you're doing something like that, even with the renovation we just did,

00:31:44.945 --> 00:31:47.425
you know, we didn't know what we're dealing with.

00:31:47.545 --> 00:31:51.105
It's one of those, you know, when you start from the ground up,

00:31:51.385 --> 00:31:54.805
you kind of, okay, this gets done here. This gets done in phases.

00:31:55.425 --> 00:31:58.625
You know, you don't know what you're going to find with some of these old, old buildings.

00:31:58.845 --> 00:32:06.305
And so, yeah, but we opened at the right time, you know, and we opened a very little fanfare.

00:32:06.605 --> 00:32:10.345
You know, you had a lot of curiosity because we were right there.

00:32:10.485 --> 00:32:14.125
People would pass and they want to know, but we didn't promote our opening.

00:32:14.565 --> 00:32:19.525
We kind of wanted to limp in, you know, it's not that we weren't confident, but again.

00:32:20.045 --> 00:32:21.845
You don't want to get rushed on your first date. So many places.

00:32:21.845 --> 00:32:23.465
There's a lot of moving parts. Yeah.

00:32:23.765 --> 00:32:28.985
And new staff, new kitchen, you know, so we were, you know, some people would

00:32:28.985 --> 00:32:33.425
say we were too cautious, but I, you know, I think it all ended up working out. Yeah.

00:32:34.345 --> 00:32:36.485
And what was the goal?

00:32:37.625 --> 00:32:41.925
What was the goal? So what did you want to achieve with this restaurant?

00:32:42.625 --> 00:32:45.765
Well, you know, I wanted to, I wanted to,

00:32:46.105 --> 00:32:51.085
it's going to sound corny, but I wanted to give the folks at Thibodeau something

00:32:51.085 --> 00:32:55.425
else, you know, just, I mean, myself too included, you know,

00:32:55.645 --> 00:33:00.905
I wanted a very, I'm specific about how I like my old fashions,

00:33:01.545 --> 00:33:04.505
you know, and they're made several ways.

00:33:04.505 --> 00:33:07.565
And, you know, you know, I like mine the way I like mine.

00:33:08.345 --> 00:33:13.205
And, you know, I wanted a place that had a good cocktail program and that,

00:33:13.385 --> 00:33:14.605
you know, that could, you know.

00:33:15.785 --> 00:33:21.725
Make any drink, you know, I know at the time craft beers were super hot,

00:33:21.845 --> 00:33:26.225
but, you know, I was like, no, let's, let's focus on cocktails.

00:33:26.545 --> 00:33:33.345
Let's, let's do that. But I, you know, I wanted to give folks to it a place that they can hang out.

00:33:33.445 --> 00:33:38.765
But I wanted a place that I thought I could hang out a few days a week.

00:33:39.905 --> 00:33:41.445
And I do. And now you have to.

00:33:42.985 --> 00:33:46.865
I'm kind of chained to it now. But it's not a bad place to be chained to.

00:33:47.045 --> 00:33:49.105
You know, we enjoy ourselves. We have a lot of fun.

00:33:49.765 --> 00:33:53.745
Speaking of cocktails and old fashions, man, Jeffrey is a wizard.

00:33:53.745 --> 00:33:58.065
I feel like we could spend an entire episode just talking about him because

00:33:58.065 --> 00:34:03.785
watching him, just watching him make the drink is special. And you know that

00:34:03.785 --> 00:34:06.285
it's going to be special just watching him do it.

00:34:06.585 --> 00:34:08.945
Yeah, yeah, I, you know.

00:34:10.296 --> 00:34:14.236
I am a very fortunate guy, you know, because if it wasn't him,

00:34:14.416 --> 00:34:18.176
it was probably me going to be making drinks back there.

00:34:18.256 --> 00:34:21.756
That was kind of the plan because I was like, you know, that's a,

00:34:22.816 --> 00:34:31.496
but, you know, he really, you know, he, you know, he came because I don't know

00:34:31.496 --> 00:34:34.336
if you know, he doesn't drive. So he walks everywhere.

00:34:35.036 --> 00:34:40.296
So he walked into right when I was there and he said, I heard about what you're doing.

00:34:41.456 --> 00:34:44.696
And what are your plans for your cocktail program?

00:34:45.216 --> 00:34:51.256
And I said, you know, I want to, I want to do the standards the right way.

00:34:51.476 --> 00:34:56.416
You know, I mean, old fashions for ingredients, you know, I'm easy,

00:34:56.576 --> 00:34:59.976
easy to mess up, but shouldn't, shouldn't be that hard.

00:35:00.196 --> 00:35:03.256
And, you know, I don't want to get cute with drinks.

00:35:03.636 --> 00:35:07.076
You know, somebody gets wants a mojito. Let's make a traditional mojito.

00:35:07.296 --> 00:35:10.276
It doesn't have to be, you know, we can make strawberry mojitos,

00:35:10.696 --> 00:35:15.096
you know, we can make any kind of martini you want, but we're going to lead with the classics.

00:35:15.996 --> 00:35:19.436
And that's what we did, you know, and we had a few, you guys love the Robo Show.

00:35:19.576 --> 00:35:22.456
That's, that's one of our creations, early creations.

00:35:23.196 --> 00:35:30.076
But for the most part, we were making Manhattans and sidecars and all these

00:35:30.076 --> 00:35:38.176
great classic cocktails that I think, Like, you know, people weren't exposed to here.

00:35:38.416 --> 00:35:42.016
I'm not saying, I mean, you know, we love drinking around this town.

00:35:42.356 --> 00:35:46.176
We've got a lot of great bartenders. But Jeffrey was one of those who bought

00:35:46.176 --> 00:35:49.036
in early. I didn't, you know, call him.

00:35:49.416 --> 00:35:53.316
He sought us out and just said, that's exactly what I want to do.

00:35:54.636 --> 00:35:58.936
How do I get involved? And so we were like, okay, yeah, absolutely.

00:35:59.276 --> 00:36:01.796
You know, and that's kind of where that was born. And, you know,

00:36:01.876 --> 00:36:06.856
that was just, you know, one of those where I kind of fell in that, you know, it was,

00:36:07.096 --> 00:36:14.636
yeah, I think, you know, he loved the concept, but how many times in a town of 15,

00:36:14.816 --> 00:36:21.176
16,000 people are you going to have not only a restaurant professional season

00:36:21.176 --> 00:36:27.716
30 years, but a barman, you know, that's been doing it that long. So I was like, wow.

00:36:28.556 --> 00:36:32.776
So yeah, I was super fortunate. And yeah, I think we could spend hours and hours.

00:36:32.896 --> 00:36:36.256
If I can just tell you, Jeffrey said, I'd love for him to say he would never come and do this.

00:36:36.316 --> 00:36:41.016
He's very, he gets a little nervous with these, but he's such an interesting

00:36:41.016 --> 00:36:44.376
guy and perfectionist detail.

00:36:44.816 --> 00:36:49.036
That's the thing. His passion for it, it comes out watching him do it.

00:36:49.756 --> 00:36:53.336
Absolutely. And he's not a young man. So we've always said, look,

00:36:53.396 --> 00:36:57.676
do you want to be day manager? Do you want to, cause he's our general manager too. Absolutely not.

00:36:57.936 --> 00:36:59.916
He loves being there. And, and

00:36:59.916 --> 00:37:03.336
now, you know, we get, we get a lot of pushback cause people, you know.

00:37:04.850 --> 00:37:07.790
Can't just belly up to the bar whenever they want. You know,

00:37:08.010 --> 00:37:12.290
pandemic kind of forced this issue, but people realized, hey,

00:37:12.350 --> 00:37:16.230
I love eating at the bar because one, we have incredible bartenders.

00:37:16.350 --> 00:37:19.310
And look, I mean, we can't leave out Cameron or Noah.

00:37:19.690 --> 00:37:23.970
They're younger, but I mean, you know, Jeffrey is anything. I mean,

00:37:24.010 --> 00:37:26.410
he's a wonderful trainer too.

00:37:26.750 --> 00:37:30.870
And he passes his information down and especially Cameron.

00:37:31.030 --> 00:37:36.050
She's a great student of it. I don't know if she wants to necessarily run a

00:37:36.050 --> 00:37:40.030
bar or run a restaurant, but she does an amazing job. She's our assistant manager too.

00:37:40.190 --> 00:37:44.030
She does a great job. And one thing they do is they work hard.

00:37:44.190 --> 00:37:47.890
They're detail-oriented. They make good drinks, but they entertain too.

00:37:48.630 --> 00:37:52.990
If you want to talk and chat, they'll certainly chat you up.

00:37:53.070 --> 00:37:53.950
That's part of their jobs.

00:37:54.410 --> 00:37:58.250
And so now we've got a lot of people who reserve and we've reserved them pretty

00:37:58.250 --> 00:38:03.990
quickly seats at the bars people eat there so we only have 12 seats so they

00:38:03.990 --> 00:38:08.550
fill up kind of quick and you know if you get there early you can sit there

00:38:08.550 --> 00:38:10.630
and drink and and enjoy it but.

00:38:11.410 --> 00:38:15.210
Yeah i mean i guess that's a it's a good problem to have but

00:38:15.210 --> 00:38:18.150
you know just the kind of space we got i can't tell

00:38:18.150 --> 00:38:21.390
you the last time we've sat at a table there we we reserve

00:38:21.390 --> 00:38:24.210
the bar every time and that's our that's what we like to

00:38:24.210 --> 00:38:27.510
do and you know love that it just feels good

00:38:27.510 --> 00:38:30.990
yeah i i enjoyed you know i i i

00:38:30.990 --> 00:38:33.790
don't know if this is probably a personal problem but i feel comfortable at a

00:38:33.790 --> 00:38:38.790
bar you know was always a bar guy and i worked at fred's at and and on campus

00:38:38.790 --> 00:38:43.590
at lsu oh my god a few years yeah poor guy yeah i got the scars to prove it

00:38:43.590 --> 00:38:48.370
but you know i'm a i'm a bar guy i like but you've really worked every single

00:38:48.370 --> 00:38:52.970
it sounds like possible position in a restaurant bar. I think it's important.

00:38:53.430 --> 00:38:57.310
So I'm in the Louisiana Restaurant Association and our new chair,

00:38:57.510 --> 00:39:03.470
state chair, this guy, Mark Ladder, he owns Two Jogs and the Bauer and Bertie

00:39:03.470 --> 00:39:04.650
Bond the Bauer and stuff.

00:39:04.830 --> 00:39:08.530
And he and I become friends through the LRA, the West Restaurant Association.

00:39:09.490 --> 00:39:14.590
And he started, even though his family had Two Jogs, which is this old restaurant

00:39:14.590 --> 00:39:16.030
on Decatur Street, New Orleans.

00:39:16.310 --> 00:39:18.650
He started working for Dickie Brennan.

00:39:19.010 --> 00:39:23.050
And part of Dickie Brennan's management is that you go spend a week.

00:39:24.016 --> 00:39:27.656
At each station, making salads, washing dishes, busing tables,

00:39:28.116 --> 00:39:33.056
bar backing, bartending, captain waiter, back waiter, manager.

00:39:33.376 --> 00:39:37.256
And I think it's important. I think it's for me to be a good boss.

00:39:37.616 --> 00:39:41.476
I mean, my first job in a proper restaurant,

00:39:41.476 --> 00:39:48.676
I was hired as Jack's Grill in Baton Rouge by the DeStefano family who used

00:39:48.676 --> 00:39:53.296
to own the village and ran Jack Saban's and all these incredible restaurants.

00:39:54.736 --> 00:39:59.976
But she hired me as a busboy. And when I got there, you know,

00:40:00.056 --> 00:40:03.536
I had my white shirt on and my little black bow tie and my black pants.

00:40:03.976 --> 00:40:07.096
I said, lose the bow tie. Do you want to work here? And I said,

00:40:07.176 --> 00:40:08.776
yeah, absolutely. I want to be a server here.

00:40:08.916 --> 00:40:13.356
You know, that was the way to become a servers or waiter is to do your time bussing.

00:40:14.076 --> 00:40:18.256
And back when they had busboys, she said, well, I don't need a busboy right

00:40:18.256 --> 00:40:19.876
now. Do you want to, do you still want the job?

00:40:19.996 --> 00:40:23.916
And I said, yeah. She's like, well, our dishwasher, Buck, may he rest in peace,

00:40:24.376 --> 00:40:29.716
got his third or fourth DUI and said, he's in jail for a couple of weeks.

00:40:29.836 --> 00:40:32.336
I need you to wash dishes for two weeks.

00:40:32.716 --> 00:40:36.796
And I sat there thinking about it. And so I said, well, I'm going to,

00:40:36.996 --> 00:40:40.416
you know, I'm not going to go back and say, no, I quit the job my first day.

00:40:40.476 --> 00:40:42.776
So I said, look, I'll do the first shift.

00:40:43.556 --> 00:40:49.976
You know, if they're not that dirty. Well, if I hate it, you know,

00:40:50.036 --> 00:40:53.516
then I'm not coming back or I hate the place or something. It was my first restaurant job.

00:40:54.656 --> 00:40:58.156
And I hadn't developed a passion for the business just yet.

00:40:58.276 --> 00:41:04.016
But, you know, so I went and worked there and it was immediate how much I loved

00:41:04.016 --> 00:41:06.476
the environment, you know, the camaraderie.

00:41:06.776 --> 00:41:10.236
You're back in the trenches together. You know, you see it back here too.

00:41:10.476 --> 00:41:14.136
But that's something unique in restaurants. And one of the things when I left

00:41:14.136 --> 00:41:18.916
the restaurant industry, one thing that I missed, you know, is,

00:41:19.016 --> 00:41:23.956
you know, just even at Jack's Grill, I still keep in touch with two or three of those guys.

00:41:24.596 --> 00:41:28.916
See one, you know, we could contact each other once a week almost.

00:41:29.116 --> 00:41:35.196
But, you know, but, you know, at that time, they just they loved that this in

00:41:35.196 --> 00:41:37.716
the kitchen, it's all African-American guys.

00:41:37.716 --> 00:41:42.376
And I was a skinny little white kid working with a bow tie. And so they would,

00:41:42.376 --> 00:41:45.556
they would, they, they really enjoy, they had a lot of fun with me,

00:41:45.656 --> 00:41:49.296
but they, they love that I, I took everything in stride and,

00:41:49.356 --> 00:41:52.676
and would laugh and I'd crack them up. And so they love me.

00:41:52.836 --> 00:41:56.356
So by the time, you know, a week, week and a half later, when I got moved to

00:41:56.356 --> 00:42:03.256
Buck came back and, and Buck got released, Buck, the funniest guy in the world. Oh my God. But,

00:42:04.265 --> 00:42:08.805
you know, the kitchen loved me. So, you know, if I needed something,

00:42:09.105 --> 00:42:11.325
you know, because kitchens can be scary place.

00:42:11.465 --> 00:42:15.125
Like if you're a waiter and you go in there and you put a plate down and say,

00:42:15.845 --> 00:42:19.485
customer says the steak is overdone. The guy's waving a knife or a spatula.

00:42:20.785 --> 00:42:25.985
But, you know, I had a better inside track with these guys. So it really worked out.

00:42:26.165 --> 00:42:30.305
And, you know, again, I didn't get scared off from the hard work or,

00:42:30.565 --> 00:42:31.585
you know, the situation,

00:42:32.185 --> 00:42:36.545
but but yeah but that was an important lesson to me you know we will start a

00:42:36.545 --> 00:42:42.945
lot of kitchen people in in in the pit and because i think it's important people

00:42:42.945 --> 00:42:44.445
learn you know they're gonna,

00:42:45.065 --> 00:42:49.705
take care of their station and their equipment if they know you know where it

00:42:49.705 --> 00:42:54.525
goes to and how it's how it's worked on so yeah but yeah i think it's very important

00:42:54.525 --> 00:42:57.045
god that was a long way to say yeah at work every station.

00:42:57.225 --> 00:43:00.985
It's really good to be well-rounded, but yeah, I think I've done.

00:43:02.605 --> 00:43:05.965
I've never managed front of the house.

00:43:06.185 --> 00:43:09.805
I was, you know, so that's probably one thing I never really did,

00:43:09.945 --> 00:43:13.845
but you know, yeah, it was, it's been an education.

00:43:14.505 --> 00:43:18.725
So like some of the, some of the things that have come up that we didn't expect,

00:43:19.045 --> 00:43:25.685
you know, for years and years, everybody, everybody at the market that worked there did everything.

00:43:26.145 --> 00:43:29.405
There were very few specialized jobs, right?

00:43:29.485 --> 00:43:33.625
The jerky smoker, maybe we only had some people that could cut on the saw,

00:43:33.745 --> 00:43:36.085
but really most everyone did everything.

00:43:36.545 --> 00:43:41.425
And in the last few years, we had to sort of start specializing with the new location coming.

00:43:41.845 --> 00:43:47.045
And that's something that I've spent a lot more time on than I thought I would

00:43:47.045 --> 00:43:50.925
have to is managing the relationship between the front and the back,

00:43:50.925 --> 00:43:55.925
because now they're separate and they don't know how hard the other person's job is, right?

00:43:56.545 --> 00:44:00.005
You know, your job's always the hardest. So, oh boy.

00:44:00.265 --> 00:44:04.685
And look, there are always be, look, and we've got good folks in the back and

00:44:04.685 --> 00:44:05.685
we got good folks in the front.

00:44:06.125 --> 00:44:09.605
There's always going to be some friction between front of the house and back

00:44:09.605 --> 00:44:15.985
of the house. You know, I won't list the stereotypes that each have for each

00:44:15.985 --> 00:44:18.385
other, but let's just say most of them are true.

00:44:18.645 --> 00:44:24.845
Yeah. You know, they really are. They really are. But, you know, it's, you know, it's.

00:44:26.312 --> 00:44:31.012
I would love to see, look, I laugh about this.

00:44:31.132 --> 00:44:35.872
I remember back when, oh my gosh, this might have been our first year,

00:44:36.072 --> 00:44:38.732
and we were down a bar back.

00:44:39.312 --> 00:44:45.932
And Logan, we looked at Logan, Logan, up for anything, you know? He's great about that.

00:44:46.052 --> 00:44:48.672
And I remember he bar back for us a couple times.

00:44:49.232 --> 00:44:53.772
And he made great money. And he's like, don't ever make me do that. This is terrible.

00:44:54.172 --> 00:45:01.872
This is terrible. Wiping glasses and filling wine glasses just is not what he wants to do.

00:45:02.032 --> 00:45:04.812
And you'll find that at the back of the house, they're passionate about it.

00:45:05.032 --> 00:45:09.032
Otherwise, that's a hard life. It's hard work. Hours.

00:45:09.372 --> 00:45:11.392
Hours. He means danger.

00:45:13.012 --> 00:45:19.132
Lots of danger. Lots of danger. Relatively, you know, relative to what some

00:45:19.132 --> 00:45:20.532
of the front of the house people make.

00:45:20.692 --> 00:45:24.212
It's not as, you know, well-incentivized. It's the infantry.

00:45:24.212 --> 00:45:27.812
Without you're a grunt you're a grunt so

00:45:27.812 --> 00:45:30.912
but you gotta but they love it you know they they don't grumble

00:45:30.912 --> 00:45:33.872
when they come in and so yeah they're

00:45:33.872 --> 00:45:36.832
they're amazing i'm very blessed so here's

00:45:36.832 --> 00:45:40.152
a fun fact we had a little boy in september

00:45:40.152 --> 00:45:43.132
jeffrey was actually the first person to

00:45:43.132 --> 00:45:46.632
know that we were expecting no kidding because we

00:45:46.632 --> 00:45:49.632
had scheduled our first date night at the bar as usual

00:45:49.632 --> 00:45:52.952
and we try our best to get in front

00:45:52.952 --> 00:45:55.792
of jeffrey sure which are smart move but

00:45:55.792 --> 00:45:59.352
we both he knows that we both like

00:45:59.352 --> 00:46:02.332
a few whiskeys and britney had asked

00:46:02.332 --> 00:46:06.632
if he could do i don't know exactly what she asked but i think she asked for

00:46:06.632 --> 00:46:11.992
a like a virgin old fashion and he goes he's like yeah sure and he like looked

00:46:11.992 --> 00:46:17.372
at her and we were like yeah it's happening yeah we're the tip of the spear

00:46:17.372 --> 00:46:19.412
when it comes to So pregnancy announcements,

00:46:19.532 --> 00:46:21.252
discretion is job one.

00:46:21.372 --> 00:46:25.652
We don't tell anybody, but I'll get notes to me. Let's not make a big deal.

00:46:25.752 --> 00:46:31.132
We haven't announced it yet, but can you make whatever mocktail look like this?

00:46:31.132 --> 00:46:32.472
And of course, absolutely.

00:46:32.692 --> 00:46:35.672
Now it's so prevalent now that we actually look real.

00:46:35.932 --> 00:46:37.172
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We don't need

00:46:37.172 --> 00:46:41.192
to make a scene about it. And you'd be surprised how often this happens.

00:46:41.372 --> 00:46:46.612
So now we have zero proof cocktails, so you can go ahead and say, I'll have this.

00:46:46.912 --> 00:46:50.212
Oh, I did see that. Yeah, it's on the menu. Great, yeah. Great idea.

00:46:50.532 --> 00:46:54.952
You know, for people who are abstaining, you know, they're dry January,

00:46:54.972 --> 00:46:59.352
people on Ozempic, you know, you'd be surprised.

00:46:59.892 --> 00:47:05.972
I mean, it's that kind of, we've kind of had to change some things about that, you know, menu items.

00:47:06.212 --> 00:47:08.552
And I mean, it's made quite a difference, you know.

00:47:09.072 --> 00:47:16.292
But yeah, those are the pressures for how we create menus and things.

00:47:16.292 --> 00:47:17.872
We were talking about this the other day.

00:47:17.952 --> 00:47:20.512
We were talking about Jeffrey and getting drinks there.

00:47:21.298 --> 00:47:25.298
I've watched Jeffrey, we've all watched him taste his work,

00:47:25.598 --> 00:47:29.358
but I've watched, I've watched, we were talking about he'll,

00:47:29.378 --> 00:47:36.318
he'll taste it and then take out one ice cube or, or add one ice cube or stir

00:47:36.318 --> 00:47:38.858
it a little more or taste it and sucks.

00:47:39.318 --> 00:47:44.198
Toss the whole thing. Right. And I'm like, but he, he, he, he's the only person

00:47:44.198 --> 00:47:45.198
in the room at that moment.

00:47:45.358 --> 00:47:49.998
That's what's so cool. Like you actually get to see this is what he would be doing if he was at home.

00:47:50.178 --> 00:47:55.418
The man has blinders on. I know so many times, I can't tell you how many times

00:47:55.418 --> 00:48:00.998
I'm trying to get his attention and he's not, he's not going to give it to me.

00:48:02.018 --> 00:48:05.838
But I mean, it's the most prudent thing to do. Why the hell do you want to listen

00:48:05.838 --> 00:48:10.298
to whatever stupid thing I have to say rather than get your job perfect?

00:48:10.598 --> 00:48:13.438
And yeah, that's how he is and yeah he does

00:48:13.438 --> 00:48:16.498
try him he doesn't get drunk though he uh no he's

00:48:16.498 --> 00:48:23.038
taking a little yeah he takes a little strong yeah and um yeah he's he's a perfectionist

00:48:23.038 --> 00:48:26.878
it's cool it is very cool to watch yeah i mean it's really neat i mean you guys

00:48:26.878 --> 00:48:31.938
you love what you do you're put on this earth to do this that's what he's put

00:48:31.938 --> 00:48:34.238
on this earth to do and he does it so well,

00:48:34.998 --> 00:48:40.438
and he's such a humble guy and you know it's he doesn't know why he gets some

00:48:40.438 --> 00:48:45.238
of the attention and he does and he doesn't necessarily ask for it but you know

00:48:45.238 --> 00:48:50.918
he's such a wonderful guy and a great host along with being a bartender so yeah we're real,

00:48:51.578 --> 00:48:55.078
blessed with the it's a skill man it really is there's a lot that goes into

00:48:55.078 --> 00:49:00.918
it yeah and we definitely appreciate it oh thank you we appreciate that we definitely do yeah yeah.

00:49:01.998 --> 00:49:07.178
What about the rest of the staff? How's hiring been? How's management been?

00:49:07.398 --> 00:49:08.978
You know, it was bumpy for a while.

00:49:09.898 --> 00:49:13.098
You know, after the pandemic, everybody coming, every business out here.

00:49:13.218 --> 00:49:17.298
So you said Jeff was with you from the start, correct? Oh, very start. And Logan.

00:49:17.678 --> 00:49:23.018
And Logan. And who else? Anyone else long-term? Chris, no, let's see.

00:49:23.278 --> 00:49:28.598
So our longest, so we have Michelle Bourgeois. She moonlights.

00:49:28.838 --> 00:49:32.338
She's an accountant now. And that's, we're really like. I recognize her.

00:49:32.478 --> 00:49:33.738
Yeah. So she went and worked.

00:49:33.918 --> 00:49:36.678
She actually moved to Tennessee for a while. She's an accountant,

00:49:36.678 --> 00:49:42.078
but she loves the restaurant, loves us, and we love her.

00:49:42.378 --> 00:49:48.798
And so she's trying to save a little bit for a house. And she's a local and people love her.

00:49:48.938 --> 00:49:54.158
So she'll work on Fridays and Saturdays for her. So she's been there since 2018.

00:49:54.218 --> 00:49:57.218
Now she stepped away for about three years, two, three years.

00:49:57.478 --> 00:50:01.158
And then we've got Cameron, our assistant manager and our second bartender.

00:50:01.578 --> 00:50:03.638
She's been with us since 2019.

00:50:04.318 --> 00:50:08.478
I mean, we hired her when she was 18, and now she's a child.

00:50:09.318 --> 00:50:12.778
That's awesome. I mean, and she's amazing, too.

00:50:13.258 --> 00:50:16.778
Well, this person's like, you know, when we hired her, she didn't drink.

00:50:17.078 --> 00:50:21.318
You know, she was not of age. But now it's like, you know, somebody ordered

00:50:21.318 --> 00:50:23.058
a, I forgot what drink somebody ordered.

00:50:23.218 --> 00:50:25.758
And I said, do you want me to Google it? She's like, no.

00:50:26.858 --> 00:50:30.418
She just started shaking away. And it's amazing. Like, you know,

00:50:30.518 --> 00:50:35.518
I think, you know, there's bartenders who can make a drink or make some drinks,

00:50:35.698 --> 00:50:37.478
but you're, you know, you're.

00:50:39.474 --> 00:50:42.494
You're most viable when you, when you're just, you know, like,

00:50:42.634 --> 00:50:47.114
and she'll study drinks, you know, like, you know, but yeah,

00:50:47.114 --> 00:50:50.994
it's, you know, she's awesome, but yeah, so she's probably our longest.

00:50:51.194 --> 00:50:55.094
We don't have a whole lot of turnover, but you know, especially like in the

00:50:55.094 --> 00:50:58.954
kitchen, you're usually there two, three years and they graduate and then they,

00:50:59.094 --> 00:51:01.914
when they take off. And that's a perfect place for the Nicholas.

00:51:02.154 --> 00:51:07.074
Yeah. We hope so. We hope so. And Luke, we think we, we're a great addition

00:51:07.074 --> 00:51:09.314
to your resume or your CV.

00:51:09.474 --> 00:51:14.674
You know, and it's important to look at as amazing as the instructors are and

00:51:14.674 --> 00:51:16.914
as great as the curriculum is there.

00:51:17.074 --> 00:51:21.094
I think it's always important because, I mean, you leave school and you go into

00:51:21.094 --> 00:51:25.334
some of these kitchens and it's throw everything that you learn kind of out

00:51:25.334 --> 00:51:30.094
the door and start, you know, cleaning snow peas or, you know,

00:51:30.534 --> 00:51:33.334
or that's that's every job, buddy.

00:51:33.334 --> 00:51:38.974
Yeah, and so, you know, we think that we provide a little bit of real-world

00:51:38.974 --> 00:51:43.154
experience and make a little money, and it looks good on your resume if you

00:51:43.154 --> 00:51:45.514
work somewhere like our restaurant, so.

00:51:46.694 --> 00:51:51.054
That's an invaluable part of the community. I'm glad that y'all can do that, you know?

00:51:51.134 --> 00:51:55.414
It's a great resource, and, I mean, not just to us, but all restaurants,

00:51:55.414 --> 00:51:59.314
hopefully take advantage of it, but without a doubt.

00:51:59.314 --> 00:52:04.054
I mean, we're, you know, we're a small town, but we've got this world-class

00:52:04.054 --> 00:52:08.274
four-year culinary school. You get a bachelor's in culinary arts.

00:52:08.434 --> 00:52:13.014
I mean, even the really good ones like CIA and Johnson and Wales and all that,

00:52:13.134 --> 00:52:16.194
those are associate's degrees. And they're so wildly expensive.

00:52:16.514 --> 00:52:20.294
But with John Foles Culinary Institute, you can get that.

00:52:20.678 --> 00:52:24.678
College experience. You know, you go to culinary school, you're in a class of

00:52:24.678 --> 00:52:28.698
a hundred people, they're all in chef's whites all the time. But you know what?

00:52:28.978 --> 00:52:34.138
Somebody across your dorm at Nichols could be a culinary and cross accounting degree.

00:52:34.418 --> 00:52:39.758
And so, I mean, that's a great thing for Nichols, a great thing for Thibodeau, for the area.

00:52:39.958 --> 00:52:46.118
They go to, they're one of the only American school that gets the program at

00:52:46.118 --> 00:52:50.498
the Institute Bocuse or the Life Institute now is renamed.

00:52:50.678 --> 00:52:55.678
Which is they go spend, and Logan was one of them. He went and spent two months

00:52:55.678 --> 00:52:58.498
in Lyon, France, learning under French chefs.

00:52:58.838 --> 00:53:05.358
And it's, I mean, that experiences for somebody who wants to do that for the rest of their life.

00:53:05.518 --> 00:53:08.138
So, Nichols provides that. He just did that, right?

00:53:08.358 --> 00:53:14.938
A couple years ago? He did that in 2018. So, we had an original chef who was

00:53:14.938 --> 00:53:16.538
with us for about a year and a half.

00:53:16.758 --> 00:53:23.198
And then we had Crystal and Logan. And Crystal had gone in 2017 to France.

00:53:23.358 --> 00:53:26.398
And actually, she won Outstanding Graduate from Lyon.

00:53:26.718 --> 00:53:32.638
So when we let go of our original chef, we made, because they were both young,

00:53:32.758 --> 00:53:33.738
they were still in school.

00:53:34.558 --> 00:53:41.098
So they were co-chefs. And so he went 2018, and she ran the kitchen by herself

00:53:41.098 --> 00:53:42.298
and then moved to Los Angeles.

00:53:42.358 --> 00:53:45.538
When he came back, he took over, and that's kind of how it's cool.

00:53:45.758 --> 00:53:47.158
So she's got a lot of experience.

00:53:47.438 --> 00:53:53.038
She is. She's now in New Orleans, running a great pizza place.

00:53:53.198 --> 00:53:55.718
I mean, they got national, it's called St. Pizza. I don't know if y'all have

00:53:55.718 --> 00:53:59.718
heard about it, but they're one of the 50 best pizzas in the country.

00:54:00.018 --> 00:54:06.598
And so with all my, all our former employees, you know, I'm proud of all of

00:54:06.598 --> 00:54:11.018
them, you know, and especially, you know, most of them, you know, we leave in good terms.

00:54:11.158 --> 00:54:16.258
They really make things of their life and it's really cool to see, you know. Absolutely.

00:54:17.278 --> 00:54:20.578
Didn't any of them help with kitchen design and layout?

00:54:22.078 --> 00:54:27.838
No. Well, Logan vastly helped with the new renovation, so we needed it.

00:54:27.998 --> 00:54:32.158
I mean, our kitchen, I don't know if I gave you all a tour.

00:54:33.238 --> 00:54:37.318
That's the new one, but the old one was just, I kind of designed it myself.

00:54:37.578 --> 00:54:42.378
And we were running out of budget. Just a couple microwaves and a sink? Yeah.

00:54:43.578 --> 00:54:47.778
God, it was a nightmare because you had to sink. Like, we had this big, I mean, we have it still.

00:54:48.178 --> 00:54:52.118
Man, it's a big old beast of a grease trap.

00:54:52.718 --> 00:54:56.518
And we need to sink that. And so not only do we have to kind of wipe out all,

00:54:56.618 --> 00:54:59.538
because there were a bunch of storage rooms. What was back there?

00:54:59.858 --> 00:55:03.418
Storage rooms and offices, you know, an office and...

00:55:04.015 --> 00:55:07.635
You know, we kind of had to do a little exorcism back there,

00:55:07.795 --> 00:55:12.855
you know, college bar, office, who knows what kind of hosts are back there.

00:55:12.855 --> 00:55:16.055
Yeah, because I've seen what happened in the front. Yeah.

00:55:16.835 --> 00:55:20.535
Yeah, yeah. We did a lot to the front, too, you know.

00:55:21.175 --> 00:55:25.515
God, they had the, of course, they weren't going to clean up the place on their

00:55:25.515 --> 00:55:30.455
way out, you know. So they had that blue, like, terracotta tile throughout the

00:55:30.455 --> 00:55:34.535
whole place. And it was just, it had like a half inch of garage.

00:55:34.775 --> 00:55:37.555
You'd walk in there and stick your steps.

00:55:38.075 --> 00:55:45.575
That's coral. That's live coral. Right. It was something growing for sure. It was growing.

00:55:45.995 --> 00:55:49.515
Y'all wiped out generations, dude. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah.

00:55:49.755 --> 00:55:55.295
I hope that went out of country, all that industrial waste. But,

00:55:55.395 --> 00:55:58.755
you know, it's funny because we'll have people come in and, you know,

00:55:58.795 --> 00:56:00.055
we've got that mosaic tile.

00:56:00.315 --> 00:56:03.735
We're real proud of that. But girls will argue with me.

00:56:03.755 --> 00:56:08.655
No, I'm so glad y'all preserved those floors. This is what you're talking about. Oh, yeah.

00:56:09.055 --> 00:56:12.735
I remember this. I thought it was the same. I really did. I said,

00:56:12.835 --> 00:56:14.215
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:56:14.495 --> 00:56:18.595
God, we had to, you know, I couldn't imagine how deep cleaning we'd have to

00:56:18.595 --> 00:56:22.195
do. But no, it was all new flooring, new banquettes.

00:56:22.675 --> 00:56:30.315
And we did some minor alterations to the bar. But then the renovation came...

00:56:31.013 --> 00:56:33.773
Last year and it was all the stuff that we've been

00:56:33.773 --> 00:56:37.173
wanting to do for nine years so when you for the renovation i

00:56:37.173 --> 00:56:40.153
got to see it it looks awesome first of all i know

00:56:40.153 --> 00:56:43.913
y'all did those awesome floors i know y'all got new equipment

00:56:43.913 --> 00:56:46.653
and stuff but did y'all change the layout of the kitchen or that

00:56:46.653 --> 00:56:49.533
was all the same yeah we changed

00:56:49.533 --> 00:56:52.553
it to a degree we you know we we extended

00:56:52.553 --> 00:56:55.313
our our pass line i showed you that pass line that has

00:56:55.313 --> 00:56:58.213
that that's where where the dishes come they assemble them

00:56:58.213 --> 00:57:01.193
there and then they pass them to the servers we have a six-foot line

00:57:01.193 --> 00:57:04.353
now we have a 12-foot line that goes into where

00:57:04.353 --> 00:57:07.093
stretches into our garmagee or.

00:57:07.093 --> 00:57:09.913
Cold side but where garmagee is now is where

00:57:09.913 --> 00:57:12.873
our dish pit used to be so our dish pit was right

00:57:12.873 --> 00:57:16.633
next to our hot side and we had this big convection oven

00:57:16.633 --> 00:57:19.493
and here we're spraying down water right next

00:57:19.493 --> 00:57:22.673
to a you know highly electric it just

00:57:22.673 --> 00:57:26.113
made me nervous constantly so yeah i

00:57:26.113 --> 00:57:29.053
yeah it was we changed it a good bit and

00:57:29.053 --> 00:57:31.993
it was the things that just definite changes and so

00:57:31.993 --> 00:57:34.853
we needed walk-in refrigeration we

00:57:34.853 --> 00:57:37.473
needed all that it was just it makes our life a lot

00:57:37.473 --> 00:57:41.513
easier makes chef's life a lot easier and his staff so

00:57:41.513 --> 00:57:44.673
so yeah yeah yeah because it was god it was a nightmare

00:57:44.673 --> 00:57:48.113
to work you know because you know those those we

00:57:48.113 --> 00:57:51.053
don't have dumpsters we don't you can't have those big roll

00:57:51.053 --> 00:57:53.893
away grease bins and stuff like that

00:57:53.893 --> 00:57:56.873
so so yeah it was

00:57:56.873 --> 00:58:02.113
but we had you know we had the the kitchen designer at richard she was a former

00:58:02.113 --> 00:58:06.313
chef also not a former chef but she worked on she worked at our in our kitchen

00:58:06.313 --> 00:58:12.053
for about a year taylor bergeron she works at at richard she's a kitchen designer

00:58:12.053 --> 00:58:16.093
she did our stuff as well yeah And she does great work. We love her.

00:58:16.353 --> 00:58:20.373
And so, yeah, she and Logan work really closely together, and they know each

00:58:20.373 --> 00:58:22.193
other from school and from work and all that.

00:58:22.333 --> 00:58:29.853
So, yeah, I was very happy to put it in the hands of a professional. Cool. Very cool.

00:58:31.508 --> 00:58:35.188
Let's touch a little bit on COVID. What was that like?

00:58:36.728 --> 00:58:41.048
Ooh, God. You want to see me have a panic attack in front of you?

00:58:41.168 --> 00:58:42.968
Were you as scared as us? Yeah.

00:58:43.368 --> 00:58:48.208
It was, God, I remember we had, so the Saturday before we had to close,

00:58:48.808 --> 00:58:51.008
we had this big beer dinner.

00:58:51.228 --> 00:58:54.868
Beer, it was like Dixie beer at the time.

00:58:55.308 --> 00:58:57.388
Before they changed their name, they were still Dixie.

00:58:58.848 --> 00:59:01.548
They did like a little party. so they were

00:59:01.548 --> 00:59:04.368
giving away dixie they had like that two or

00:59:04.368 --> 00:59:08.568
three they were this is just when they had moved out to new orleans east mrs

00:59:08.568 --> 00:59:11.488
benson got involved with dixie and

00:59:11.488 --> 00:59:14.788
so they were doing a pretty guy you know so they reached out to us and said

00:59:14.788 --> 00:59:18.588
we'd love to do it and we're like oh that's awesome yeah absolutely so we had

00:59:18.588 --> 00:59:21.968
a good turnout and that was a saturday when i remember we were just talking

00:59:21.968 --> 00:59:27.468
about it like oh you know because that run up to the week it was the possibility

00:59:27.468 --> 00:59:30.468
was getting closer and closer that we may have to shut down.

00:59:30.668 --> 00:59:32.708
And I remember that night, people packed.

00:59:32.928 --> 00:59:36.388
It was, it was, people were like trying to get in.

00:59:36.788 --> 00:59:45.728
And so sure enough, the next week, you know, it was, those few weeks were really, really tough.

00:59:45.908 --> 00:59:50.848
Very, you know, very anxious, very thinking, God, is it, you know,

00:59:50.988 --> 00:59:56.728
I mean, because we didn't have enough information saying that it was going to be bad.

00:59:57.108 --> 00:59:59.548
You know, we had no idea we were going to be dealing with this for the next

00:59:59.548 --> 01:00:03.148
year and a half, two years, but it was still kind of scary.

01:00:03.768 --> 01:00:10.488
And, and, you know, never did I think that something like that was going to shut us down.

01:00:11.028 --> 01:00:15.668
And meanwhile, we'd gone through some hurricanes before we'd have to close or

01:00:15.668 --> 01:00:20.168
we'd have a ice storm or whatever. It's just like, God, what are we going to deal with next?

01:00:20.288 --> 01:00:22.888
And then sure enough, global pandemic.

01:00:23.208 --> 01:00:29.108
So, you know, i think we're fortunate that for being a small town in southern

01:00:29.108 --> 01:00:31.008
louisiana and we were you know.

01:00:31.848 --> 01:00:35.008
We got open you know we started doing god

01:00:35.008 --> 01:00:38.368
we did months of curbside and okay

01:00:38.368 --> 01:00:41.148
just uh that was how long we are actually shut

01:00:41.148 --> 01:00:47.508
down i think we're shut down for like lights out for four or five weeks maybe

01:00:47.508 --> 01:00:54.868
six weeks and you know and then so i think i really need to go back and look

01:00:54.868 --> 01:00:58.408
back through that only just because we we ended up okay because i didn't there

01:00:58.408 --> 01:01:00.728
was no assurances that we were going to come out of this.

01:01:02.692 --> 01:01:05.612
I don't remember. That gets a little foggy.

01:01:05.712 --> 01:01:11.712
But, you know, then it was, okay, you can open up now.

01:01:12.432 --> 01:01:15.712
Well, wait, then y'all started doing curbside? Then we started doing curbside,

01:01:15.812 --> 01:01:18.312
and that was kind of a skeleton crew.

01:01:18.872 --> 01:01:23.612
But there were still a lot of employees, one, that were concerned,

01:01:23.972 --> 01:01:28.352
you know, I don't want to get sick, and I'm getting paid to stay at home.

01:01:29.032 --> 01:01:32.532
So I was like, oh, God, can we staff up for this? and

01:01:32.532 --> 01:01:35.832
luckily we had a bunch of people who were just like you know what you know

01:01:35.832 --> 01:01:38.752
down for the cause kind of like you know and

01:01:38.752 --> 01:01:41.532
so we had a bunch of hardliners who who wanted to get back

01:01:41.532 --> 01:01:44.532
to work and but i mean it was just it was doing

01:01:44.532 --> 01:01:49.852
the curbside it was me and it would somebody else would do it was shakori i

01:01:49.852 --> 01:01:53.072
don't know if y'all know shakori would help and then phil would some of our

01:01:53.072 --> 01:01:57.732
old employees that people might know but and then that was god it was two months

01:01:57.732 --> 01:02:01.612
and And that was kind of torture because what we do doesn't,

01:02:01.612 --> 01:02:03.392
it's not that it doesn't travel well,

01:02:03.492 --> 01:02:06.072
but you don't, the food's good, but I mean,

01:02:06.212 --> 01:02:08.612
you pay to come. You're doing an, it's an experience.

01:02:08.912 --> 01:02:13.932
Correct. But we had people who wanted us, like, I'm just still just amazed at

01:02:13.932 --> 01:02:23.832
our community and our customers and our regular customers who made a point to come in and, you know,

01:02:23.972 --> 01:02:26.932
and they'd give the server a couple extra hundred bucks and say,

01:02:27.012 --> 01:02:29.732
you know, split this between. I mean, it happened weekly.

01:02:30.292 --> 01:02:34.672
So, I mean, that's another. And that would kind of fill the cup.

01:02:34.792 --> 01:02:38.092
That would buoy you, you know, like you would be like down. And then,

01:02:38.232 --> 01:02:43.812
you know, you'd have a customer that, you know, feeding a family of six, you know,

01:02:44.452 --> 01:02:50.012
curbside and, you know, screaming through the window as you're masked up saying, don't give up.

01:02:50.926 --> 01:02:53.466
You know, please come back. That's cool. So that was really cool.

01:02:53.466 --> 01:02:56.406
Little old Thibodeau. I know. Love it. Whoever knew.

01:02:58.046 --> 01:02:59.586
I did. You just got a date of girlfriend.

01:03:01.886 --> 01:03:06.426
Y'all shut down. I hope they open up a Cuban restaurant. And then,

01:03:06.646 --> 01:03:10.526
so yeah, you had to deal with it for that long, but I mean, you're actually

01:03:10.526 --> 01:03:15.886
still dealing with it with prices and availability on things and vendors.

01:03:16.406 --> 01:03:19.546
That little episode cast a long shadow. I mean, we're still.

01:03:19.686 --> 01:03:21.066
Right. I was still dealing with it.

01:03:21.646 --> 01:03:25.246
And, you know, to be quiet, I mean, the one-two punch of that in Ida was,

01:03:25.446 --> 01:03:27.766
to me, Ida was very difficult.

01:03:27.766 --> 01:03:35.626
But with that, I mean, it changed how people dined and what they expected out

01:03:35.626 --> 01:03:36.766
of their dining experience.

01:03:36.766 --> 01:03:42.186
You know, it's, you know, all of a sudden people were less tolerant of a loud

01:03:42.186 --> 01:03:46.246
restaurant or a crowded restaurant. You know, you saw people's tastes change.

01:03:46.966 --> 01:03:52.146
So, so yeah, so we're still dealing with some things, good and bad,

01:03:52.266 --> 01:03:57.046
you know, I mean, you know, look, and, and for us, once we started,

01:03:57.386 --> 01:04:01.066
God, once we started opening the dining room, we were packed every night.

01:04:01.506 --> 01:04:04.426
You know, granted we were. People were waiting for a long time.

01:04:04.646 --> 01:04:09.406
Yeah, I mean, absolutely. And people would go out on Wednesdays and Thursdays,

01:04:09.466 --> 01:04:12.166
even when we're 50% occupancy.

01:04:12.306 --> 01:04:16.126
It was really easy to fill a place, but we would fill it on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

01:04:16.206 --> 01:04:19.866
And so we were blessed. We did really well. I think people wanted to go out.

01:04:20.646 --> 01:04:25.266
And so, you know, it was tough, but we also did well through it.

01:04:27.089 --> 01:04:29.949
Scary times yeah yeah how about y'all what

01:04:29.949 --> 01:04:32.849
was y'all's what was it like here oh it was

01:04:32.849 --> 01:04:35.969
a lot of panicking it was a lot of planning and ideas

01:04:35.969 --> 01:04:38.789
and then no it worked out really

01:04:38.789 --> 01:04:41.689
good for us so it turns out when people close all

01:04:41.689 --> 01:04:45.129
the restaurants they have to cook for themselves so for

01:04:45.129 --> 01:04:47.889
the first time ever yeah so we got

01:04:47.889 --> 01:04:50.769
a lot of new customers out of that deal no just

01:04:50.769 --> 01:04:53.969
the hardest and nightmarish part was getting supplies

01:04:53.969 --> 01:04:57.669
getting meat of prices fluctuating daily

01:04:57.669 --> 01:05:00.409
that that part was a nightmare trying to keep

01:05:00.409 --> 01:05:03.229
up with that you know yeah i forgot about all

01:05:03.229 --> 01:05:06.069
that and like you said everyone's paid to stay

01:05:06.069 --> 01:05:08.829
home so the guys putting meat on

01:05:08.829 --> 01:05:11.889
our trucks up in hammond the warehouse workers are

01:05:11.889 --> 01:05:14.609
just saying peace out i'm not

01:05:14.609 --> 01:05:17.849
coming in so like our salesmen that take

01:05:17.849 --> 01:05:20.829
our order they're in the warehouse at night loading boxes

01:05:20.829 --> 01:05:24.469
because no one else is there you know so that that

01:05:24.469 --> 01:05:27.649
lasted for for quite some time yeah yeah i

01:05:27.649 --> 01:05:30.569
can imagine i mean but that separates the wheat

01:05:30.569 --> 01:05:34.889
from the chaff as far as you know and because what i would tell people is hey

01:05:34.889 --> 01:05:38.749
you know the dole ain't going to last forever and you're going to want your

01:05:38.749 --> 01:05:43.429
job back it may not be available so if you like your job and you you like what

01:05:43.429 --> 01:05:48.289
you did and you wanted to stay on a career path i'm not gonna you know I'm not

01:05:48.289 --> 01:05:49.869
going to tell you you have to come back to work,

01:05:49.869 --> 01:05:55.369
but I can't assure that your spot's going to be here when you're ready. Hell no. So.

01:05:56.391 --> 01:06:01.391
So, yeah, so, you know, there was some negotiations and, you know,

01:06:01.531 --> 01:06:04.071
some frank talk and all that.

01:06:04.311 --> 01:06:07.811
But, you know, we run a pretty tight ship. But, you know, like,

01:06:08.091 --> 01:06:12.571
you know, I think we've got six or seven back of the house people and we've

01:06:12.571 --> 01:06:16.091
got about eight or nine front of the house. So we're not a big organization.

01:06:16.911 --> 01:06:19.611
It doesn't take a whole lot to run our restaurant, especially when we're at

01:06:19.611 --> 01:06:21.971
limited capacities and stuff like that.

01:06:21.971 --> 01:06:26.911
So, you know, it ultimately worked out well, but I mean, I just saw so many

01:06:26.911 --> 01:06:28.191
great restaurants and so many

01:06:28.191 --> 01:06:32.291
great businesses go under that just couldn't keep up and deal with it.

01:06:32.391 --> 01:06:34.931
And it's, it's a shame stuff. Yeah.

01:06:36.571 --> 01:06:41.571
You, so you obviously made the first menu, which if nothing else got you a few

01:06:41.571 --> 01:06:44.111
good employees and some notoriety.

01:06:44.331 --> 01:06:47.511
It's worked out. I, you know, I need to go back and revisit that document.

01:06:47.511 --> 01:06:50.631
I think it's on a Word document, too. I'll send it to you. I'll see you.

01:06:51.071 --> 01:06:57.411
I've been having it. We need a 10-year throwback menu. A pirate. I'd love to.

01:06:58.831 --> 01:07:01.091
Look, it was kind of all my favorites. And that's the thing.

01:07:01.171 --> 01:07:05.111
I think I was responsible for the first two menus.

01:07:05.391 --> 01:07:08.491
Well, that would be my question. How much are you involved now?

01:07:08.551 --> 01:07:12.851
You know, I have approval at the end.

01:07:12.851 --> 01:07:19.851
But I mean, there's, you know, rarely, you know, I mean, I trust Logan and our

01:07:19.851 --> 01:07:25.791
sous chef, Ali, who helps with menu composition and design and all that.

01:07:26.171 --> 01:07:31.111
I wholeheartedly trust them. Yeah. You know, they're...

01:07:32.004 --> 01:07:38.064
This is trust gained, trust earned. But, you know, even back when I was,

01:07:38.264 --> 01:07:40.984
when we would work together, it was, all right, what do you think?

01:07:41.324 --> 01:07:46.764
And one time we had, it was a bit formulaic, you know, had to be a steak on there.

01:07:47.284 --> 01:07:50.444
There had to be a burger on there. Had to be some sort of a fowl,

01:07:50.584 --> 01:07:54.004
whether it be a duck or a chicken or something like that. And then there had to be seafood.

01:07:54.304 --> 01:07:59.084
And then there were three salads and three desserts and this, this, and this.

01:07:59.084 --> 01:08:05.604
And don't forget the desserts yeah yeah boy did i learn my lesson but it was

01:08:05.604 --> 01:08:11.644
you were less formulaic now even though you know we still have a burger on there

01:08:11.644 --> 01:08:17.904
just because we do that really well yeah and yeah come in tonight's twenty dollars oh you can eat.

01:08:19.384 --> 01:08:24.084
All right let's not get carried away test one two is this thing going but yeah

01:08:24.084 --> 01:08:27.924
so yeah yeah The first two were, you know, like,

01:08:28.704 --> 01:08:33.204
were mine, even though I'm not a chef or, you know, but, you know,

01:08:33.284 --> 01:08:37.484
this was kind of, it was my place and my concept.

01:08:37.664 --> 01:08:42.104
And I wanted to make sure that my fingerprints were on it initially.

01:08:42.724 --> 01:08:46.664
But now I know, Logan, that they, you know, hopefully we've got a new menu either

01:08:46.664 --> 01:08:48.324
next week or the week after.

01:08:49.224 --> 01:08:52.964
And it's really good. Very excited about it. So, yeah, it's always fun.

01:08:52.964 --> 01:08:56.124
I love the rotating menu and it I do

01:08:56.124 --> 01:08:59.744
too because you may not know this but it

01:08:59.744 --> 01:09:03.264
travels around like once it's posted we get

01:09:03.264 --> 01:09:07.904
it sent from friends a friend will send a picture yeah and it's like that's

01:09:07.904 --> 01:09:11.344
cool that's really cool it's a typical thing hey y'all heard Sinclair's new

01:09:11.344 --> 01:09:15.684
menu is coming out next week yeah and that's been it you know it's kind of organic

01:09:15.684 --> 01:09:22.704
it wasn't we didn't want to it came from a place of necessity we didn't we we had you know a,

01:09:23.324 --> 01:09:29.804
two reach-in refrigerators, and then we had some low boys. So we couldn't have this huge menu.

01:09:30.724 --> 01:09:36.824
So if we had this small menu, after a while, people get kind of tired of it.

01:09:36.964 --> 01:09:39.764
And one, we wanted to be fresh. One, we wanted to be seasonal.

01:09:39.924 --> 01:09:42.924
But also, like, we have to change things.

01:09:43.064 --> 01:09:47.144
Like, we have to kind of... So I think the first menu, we changed half of it.

01:09:47.204 --> 01:09:48.424
It wasn't a wholesale change.

01:09:48.524 --> 01:09:51.084
We just tweaked things. We kept this and changed that.

01:09:51.484 --> 01:09:54.304
And then it became the idea of okay we're pretty much

01:09:54.304 --> 01:09:58.064
going to do a whole new menu top to bottom look some

01:09:58.064 --> 01:10:02.644
people aren't fans of it well there's people who were devoted to certain dishes

01:10:02.644 --> 01:10:06.804
and they get their feelings hurt and like i got my feelings still mad about

01:10:06.804 --> 01:10:12.024
that on to eat cheese oh yeah oh man alligator and on to eat cheese look and

01:10:12.024 --> 01:10:16.204
you know you know you guys know van halen right.

01:10:17.178 --> 01:10:20.218
Sammy Hagar doesn't want to play all the David Lee Roth songs,

01:10:20.258 --> 01:10:24.118
you know, like you get a, you get a really creative mind and,

01:10:24.238 --> 01:10:27.658
and he tiptoes around the idea and he does it.

01:10:27.758 --> 01:10:32.378
And, you know, we're going to do the Rangoons and all that doesn't make all

01:10:32.378 --> 01:10:36.578
the people happy, but you know, to him, it was his predecessor's dish.

01:10:37.158 --> 01:10:40.478
You will see it in, you know, permutations are going to, you know,

01:10:40.558 --> 01:10:41.438
he's going to be running that.

01:10:41.598 --> 01:10:45.178
I think we're looking at Lent, there's going to be the old classic cheesecake

01:10:45.178 --> 01:10:48.578
and stuff like that. And we love that it's that way.

01:10:48.838 --> 01:10:55.698
And believe me, we're in the customer-pleasing business, but it upsets people.

01:10:56.798 --> 01:11:01.318
We had this dish, the mushroom toast. The shrimp toast was great.

01:11:01.458 --> 01:11:02.738
Oh, mushroom toast. It's fantastic.

01:11:02.998 --> 01:11:04.798
It did the shrimp toast, too, right? Yeah, the shrimp toast.

01:11:04.918 --> 01:11:06.778
Those are both special. And that's Logan's.

01:11:07.238 --> 01:11:10.578
Those were special. That's something that will be in rotation.

01:11:10.758 --> 01:11:15.418
Shrimp toast will be in rotation. But I got this email one day from this man.

01:11:16.178 --> 01:11:20.338
It laid right in. One, he just started, hey, you have this wonderful restaurant, blah, blah, blah, blah.

01:11:20.878 --> 01:11:24.658
How dare you take away my, and you've lost a customer.

01:11:24.798 --> 01:11:28.638
By the end of it, he was giving me all his lods and by the end of it,

01:11:28.658 --> 01:11:30.778
you've lost a customer. And I'm like, wow.

01:11:32.220 --> 01:11:36.300
You know you can't make everybody happy that's rule number 101 i appreciate

01:11:36.300 --> 01:11:41.000
the passion but you know we you know we're just trying to to make these fish

01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:43.120
look it's not an easy thing to do,

01:11:43.740 --> 01:11:47.460
no i gotta imagine changing the menu is a nightmare it's it's tough because

01:11:47.460 --> 01:11:50.840
i feel like after three months you finally figure out how to cook it right without

01:11:50.840 --> 01:11:55.480
a doubt without a doubt you know we don't change many from our vendors you know

01:11:55.480 --> 01:11:59.480
we gotta we gotta change what we're ordering and we got to make sure it's available regularly.

01:11:59.860 --> 01:12:02.920
Like, okay. So when, so yeah, it's going to be available next week,

01:12:02.960 --> 01:12:05.480
but are you going to have the same quantity for weeks from now?

01:12:05.560 --> 01:12:06.980
We got to get assurances from them.

01:12:07.480 --> 01:12:10.920
Then we've got to train the kitchen. We've got to assemble everything.

01:12:11.240 --> 01:12:15.220
There's a, you know, I mean, you know, we give our staff all the descriptions

01:12:15.220 --> 01:12:18.880
of everything. And so everybody has to get trained up on it. We got to restock.

01:12:19.020 --> 01:12:23.120
We got to get rid of old stock. So the last night of each menu,

01:12:23.120 --> 01:12:26.820
there's usually this grand buffet in the kitchen for all our staff.

01:12:27.340 --> 01:12:31.940
You know, and it's, it's, you know, it's like the Ninja American Ninja Warrior,

01:12:31.960 --> 01:12:34.120
people climbing on each other to get to things.

01:12:34.260 --> 01:12:38.100
But, but yeah, it's a hard thing to do, but I think it's something we have to

01:12:38.100 --> 01:12:39.620
do. And it was, it was organic.

01:12:39.840 --> 01:12:42.620
It was not something we were like, ah, this is going to, people are going to

01:12:42.620 --> 01:12:45.320
love it. But I do, I love that it's kind of turned into that.

01:12:45.420 --> 01:12:48.300
It's really makes things worthwhile because it really is a, you know,

01:12:48.360 --> 01:12:49.560
load everything on the computer.

01:12:49.760 --> 01:12:52.860
Again, we got a, you know, new buttons, new plates, and

01:12:52.860 --> 01:12:55.740
we have to order sometimes new utensils and new equipment so

01:12:55.740 --> 01:12:58.660
it's there's a lot of effort involved it's it's

01:12:58.660 --> 01:13:01.540
cool it's like a i mean for us it's a date night

01:13:01.540 --> 01:13:04.640
reminder you know so well where would

01:13:04.640 --> 01:13:08.520
we be if if you didn't change the menu and it would never get posted it would

01:13:08.520 --> 01:13:12.000
never get shared and we would kind of just forget to go well another problem

01:13:12.000 --> 01:13:17.580
that i have is so when i look at like the new menu and i mean everything sounds

01:13:17.580 --> 01:13:23.020
amazing i want to try everything so i start with one thing whatever sounds the best to me. Right.

01:13:23.140 --> 01:13:25.600
And then I eat that and it's so good.

01:13:25.760 --> 01:13:27.900
And the next time I go, what am I going to get?

01:13:28.300 --> 01:13:32.280
The same thing every time because it's good. I know it's good.

01:13:32.380 --> 01:13:36.160
And that's just, it's probably a screwed up way to be, but that's how I am.

01:13:36.280 --> 01:13:40.600
And so when you change the menu and take it away from me, that's what I needed.

01:13:42.780 --> 01:13:46.920
Otherwise I wouldn't be taking full advantage of the menu. I can hear the hurt in your voice.

01:13:47.220 --> 01:13:51.760
No, I tell you, it's what I need. I need to try more things.

01:13:52.400 --> 01:13:57.420
We've been fed by the bartenders the last few times. I don't think we didn't make any choices.

01:13:57.960 --> 01:14:03.200
We just said, give me something. And they bring something and we say something else.

01:14:03.380 --> 01:14:08.040
Yeah. Bring something else. That's the smart way to do it. Look, we demo everything.

01:14:08.260 --> 01:14:14.840
So our servers, our bartenders, even our host, I mean, they all get to try everything.

01:14:15.020 --> 01:14:18.340
And we try to make it kind of a discussion. Okay, what do you taste?

01:14:18.680 --> 01:14:24.180
You know, and they'll look at the, you know. and you know so so you know you

01:14:24.180 --> 01:14:28.040
should be able to sell it and then a lot of these things you know.

01:14:29.331 --> 01:14:33.111
Not necessarily the first time people have heard about it, but people want,

01:14:33.351 --> 01:14:35.891
hey, what exactly is this? How is this prepared?

01:14:36.131 --> 01:14:40.611
And they have to be able. And it's cool when the bartender, which who I don't

01:14:40.611 --> 01:14:45.311
expect to know, I guess, I don't know why, but it's cool when they know everything about it.

01:14:45.431 --> 01:14:50.811
Like I tell these guys in front of the house, it ends up paying you to know this.

01:14:51.171 --> 01:14:55.411
There's value to this and people, you know, I mean, that's what tipping is about

01:14:55.411 --> 01:14:58.311
is, hey, this is for the effort. This is for a great night.

01:14:58.651 --> 01:15:01.191
So that's why it's important. That's why it's important that,

01:15:01.291 --> 01:15:02.671
you know, we're on our staff.

01:15:02.771 --> 01:15:07.111
We love our staff, but, you know, service to us has kind of been,

01:15:07.331 --> 01:15:14.091
you know, one thing where we get ticked on every once in a while and we stay on top of them.

01:15:14.591 --> 01:15:18.331
Service has to match the food that has to match the drinks, you know,

01:15:18.511 --> 01:15:20.251
and has to match the ambiance.

01:15:21.131 --> 01:15:24.831
So, yeah, it's important and that's part of it, you know,

01:15:24.891 --> 01:15:28.091
because not everybody, look even me and i'll ask them you

01:15:28.091 --> 01:15:32.911
know i mean i don't study the menu descriptions like they do i probably should

01:15:32.911 --> 01:15:37.151
but i was a terrible student what do you want from me but you know i'll stop

01:15:37.151 --> 01:15:40.491
them and say tell me about this dish and they'll tell me something i had no

01:15:40.491 --> 01:15:45.191
idea you know i thought i knew oh wow you know i'm like that sounds delicious

01:15:45.191 --> 01:15:46.551
now do you want me to order something.

01:15:48.091 --> 01:15:50.811
But yeah yeah it's it's good it's worked

01:15:50.811 --> 01:15:54.551
out for us service is difficult it is

01:15:54.551 --> 01:15:58.011
it is not an easy business to be in service or hospitality

01:15:58.011 --> 01:16:00.891
or any of these customers are hard it's

01:16:00.891 --> 01:16:03.811
hard it's very hard and to do it you know

01:16:03.811 --> 01:16:09.151
like our counter service they do it day after day they deal with a lot of rude

01:16:09.151 --> 01:16:13.971
people day after day you know and for 10 hours a day and they know they're going

01:16:13.971 --> 01:16:20.831
to come back yeah absolutely it's hard yeah a couple things one i what i tell

01:16:20.831 --> 01:16:23.371
this because all of our service.

01:16:23.491 --> 01:16:26.951
Well, there's a couple of culinarians who work from the house and restaurants

01:16:26.951 --> 01:16:28.071
going to be in their future.

01:16:28.271 --> 01:16:33.011
But 90% of them, 95% of them, they're doing this to get through college or,

01:16:33.011 --> 01:16:36.951
or to, to get to their real, real job, right? Quote unquote, real job.

01:16:37.331 --> 01:16:41.631
But I tell them, look, you know, when there's a recession and your real job, they lay you off.

01:16:42.131 --> 01:16:45.971
You've got restaurant experience and there's always going to be restaurants.

01:16:46.131 --> 01:16:48.971
So it's important that, you know, you get that experience.

01:16:49.151 --> 01:16:51.531
It's important that you have this experience.

01:16:51.791 --> 01:16:55.331
So, but yeah, it's not, it's not easy, especially, you know,

01:16:55.451 --> 01:16:57.091
we're not an inexpensive restaurant.

01:16:57.371 --> 01:17:01.691
And so the expectation is that everything's great and everything should be great.

01:17:01.871 --> 01:17:06.191
And to me, I mean, absolutely. I understand when people, when we fall short.

01:17:07.465 --> 01:17:12.345
Everybody should feel terrible and we need to do something to make it right,

01:17:12.585 --> 01:17:14.445
you know, whatever it may be.

01:17:15.005 --> 01:17:20.985
But yeah, you know, you deal with some testy folks, but you deal with them with

01:17:20.985 --> 01:17:24.745
a smile on your face and, you know, we're not here to argue with anybody.

01:17:24.945 --> 01:17:29.225
Who might handle a complaint or situation?

01:17:29.225 --> 01:17:34.945
So we've got a few levels of managers. So we've got a lead server that looks

01:17:34.945 --> 01:17:40.685
over our servers and she, not necessarily a floor manager, but that's kind of

01:17:40.685 --> 01:17:41.785
our first line of defense.

01:17:42.165 --> 01:17:45.745
And, you know, then we've got management, but they're both behind the bar,

01:17:45.925 --> 01:17:46.685
you know, our assistant manager.

01:17:46.885 --> 01:17:49.965
So really, if I'm there, I need to be handling it.

01:17:50.065 --> 01:17:54.465
And I think people, especially when it's a hot potato or an upset customer.

01:17:54.465 --> 01:17:57.525
I don't see that it's it's yeah they

01:17:57.525 --> 01:18:00.605
start the chef we got a potato yeah i got a server

01:18:00.605 --> 01:18:03.585
who's like i'll i'll here to hold this yeah for a second so

01:18:03.585 --> 01:18:08.785
yeah and and you know that usually helps but you know it's uh you know sometimes

01:18:08.785 --> 01:18:14.405
you can't make everybody happy you know and when i first god i would take bad

01:18:14.405 --> 01:18:17.785
reviews so personal or if somebody

01:18:17.785 --> 01:18:22.285
you know said this was you know i didn't like this or I, you know,

01:18:22.645 --> 01:18:25.765
or this wasn't even edible, which was, I'm like, I mean, okay,

01:18:25.825 --> 01:18:29.545
if you didn't like it, it doesn't mean you can't, you know, and I don't expect

01:18:29.545 --> 01:18:32.005
you to eat it, but to say something that we serve is an edible,

01:18:32.225 --> 01:18:33.985
I don't think it's a little unreasonable.

01:18:34.165 --> 01:18:40.465
And, but, but, you know, you have to, to listen to them, but yeah, it's,

01:18:40.665 --> 01:18:46.105
yeah, we have layers in there, but there's still some issues that,

01:18:46.205 --> 01:18:50.945
that get past the goalie and I'll hear about them either through an email or a bad review.

01:18:51.325 --> 01:18:54.825
You know, for a while, I, you know, stick my head in the sand.

01:18:54.965 --> 01:19:01.185
I just, it got to me so, so much that I just didn't read good or bad, any reviews.

01:19:01.445 --> 01:19:07.425
And now I pour over all the reviews and, and to me, the most effective,

01:19:07.765 --> 01:19:12.745
even though we love the five-star reviews, keep reviewing those phone stores, the most effective.

01:19:13.164 --> 01:19:18.604
Helpful are the are the next two well look the one stars you're right you know

01:19:18.604 --> 01:19:22.664
it's the two or the three it's the three the three those get my attention yeah

01:19:22.664 --> 01:19:27.324
those get my attention if you're one you probably got a beef against me or you

01:19:27.324 --> 01:19:30.844
know or or you just you know there's something.

01:19:31.744 --> 01:19:36.484
Something else is going on here and i don't completely discount them but i'll

01:19:36.484 --> 01:19:40.284
tell you with a massive grain of salt, you know, because, you know,

01:19:40.544 --> 01:19:46.264
for me, a one star review is I got you sick or, you know, punched you or,

01:19:46.524 --> 01:19:49.704
you know, like you had this really, really, really, really horrible

01:19:50.144 --> 01:19:55.704
experience, which I don't think we're above it, but I can't imagine even the

01:19:55.704 --> 01:19:57.444
worst Cuban, there was no dessert.

01:20:00.084 --> 01:20:03.124
So, yeah. So, so yeah, it's, I mean, we get our feedback.

01:20:03.424 --> 01:20:08.504
It's, you know, Look, people complain about how there's just too much.

01:20:09.084 --> 01:20:14.424
We give people too much power as far as their reviews and social media.

01:20:14.764 --> 01:20:18.664
Look, the sword cuts both ways. Yeah, the problem is everybody can read it.

01:20:19.184 --> 01:20:24.904
Yeah, yeah. And I know there's a lot of places out there who have a team or

01:20:24.904 --> 01:20:28.184
have a person that just, thank you for the wonderful review.

01:20:28.364 --> 01:20:31.104
Please come back and see us. And I'd love to respond to everybody. but it's

01:20:31.104 --> 01:20:33.864
just there's we have seven or eight we

01:20:33.864 --> 01:20:36.904
counted them eight different ways that we can be reviewed

01:20:36.904 --> 01:20:40.584
yeah like and it's only going to increase yeah yahoo

01:20:40.584 --> 01:20:43.704
google yelp trip

01:20:43.704 --> 01:20:46.984
advice i mean just so it's really impossible you know

01:20:46.984 --> 01:20:49.864
and i have a an email system that you know goes and

01:20:49.864 --> 01:20:52.724
and and searches for reviews but you've not even

01:20:52.724 --> 01:20:56.984
that doesn't even get to all of them so you know we use it as much as we can

01:20:56.984 --> 01:21:01.124
we don't let it you know don't let it raise my blood pressure anymore you take

01:21:01.124 --> 01:21:06.964
it like it's water off a duck's back whatever you can use from it use it the

01:21:06.964 --> 01:21:12.124
rest just let it go my favorite is maybe on google or facebook.

01:21:13.200 --> 01:21:16.940
Might get a bad one and it is an unreasonable it is unreasonable and

01:21:16.940 --> 01:21:21.320
our customers will beat them down we don't

01:21:21.320 --> 01:21:24.680
we don't even have to reply in the attack if it's

01:21:24.680 --> 01:21:27.720
unreasonable and our you know our true customer

01:21:27.720 --> 01:21:30.540
base they know and they will go to bat for us they'll go to war

01:21:30.540 --> 01:21:33.560
great that's fantastic i love it here's an

01:21:33.560 --> 01:21:36.720
example of a review we got recently that that was

01:21:36.720 --> 01:21:40.100
constructive and we used it but

01:21:40.100 --> 01:21:43.300
it was unreasonable okay there's a one-star review

01:21:43.300 --> 01:21:46.360
they said they shop here all the time they love

01:21:46.360 --> 01:21:50.900
all of our products but we shipped something to them recently the uh boudin

01:21:50.900 --> 01:21:56.640
blocks and when it got to them it was melted like uh not hot but you know they

01:21:56.640 --> 01:22:01.460
have to get frozen or else they'll stick together and so that was a one-star

01:22:01.460 --> 01:22:05.160
review even though they said they come here all the time and they love everything.

01:22:05.520 --> 01:22:09.460
Right. I'm like, well, maybe, maybe take all those other things into account

01:22:09.460 --> 01:22:10.620
too when you leave the review.

01:22:11.120 --> 01:22:14.220
Also, Shane, we need to take Boudin blocks off of the website.

01:22:14.460 --> 01:22:21.860
Yeah. That's the, yeah. I, uh, I mean, I look very rarely active on social media.

01:22:22.020 --> 01:22:27.520
I'm kind of off of it, but look, I went, when I'm motivated to write a review,

01:22:27.540 --> 01:22:29.160
it's usually wildly positive.

01:22:29.320 --> 01:22:32.860
If like, if I'm going to get on my phone and type something out,

01:22:32.940 --> 01:22:34.940
it's usually because I had a great experience.

01:22:35.300 --> 01:22:39.600
Even when I have a bad experience, look, I guess it's because I'm an owner of

01:22:39.600 --> 01:22:44.620
a restaurant that, you know, even restaurants, even the best restaurant has a bad day.

01:22:44.880 --> 01:22:49.900
I would go to the manager for a negative versus going online.

01:22:50.000 --> 01:22:53.340
And that's what I would tell everybody.

01:22:53.340 --> 01:22:57.960
I hope people who are listening would do that, you know, before,

01:22:58.360 --> 01:23:02.020
unless we've ignored you, and the server really didn't care,

01:23:02.300 --> 01:23:05.020
or the manager didn't come by and check on you.

01:23:05.890 --> 01:23:08.490
On your way out, say, hey, we had an

01:23:08.490 --> 01:23:12.010
issue. This was salty. The server was inattentive or something like that.

01:23:12.470 --> 01:23:15.930
Give us a chance to make the situation right before you, before you,

01:23:15.990 --> 01:23:20.070
you know, you get online and you, and you, you light us up.

01:23:20.270 --> 01:23:23.710
You know, back in the day when I started in restaurants, there's lots of,

01:23:23.810 --> 01:23:27.410
of things that people say, but if people had a great experience at the restaurant,

01:23:27.550 --> 01:23:28.450
they might tell two people.

01:23:28.570 --> 01:23:32.590
If they had a bad experience at your restaurant, they might tell 10 or 12, right?

01:23:33.110 --> 01:23:38.050
Now it's, if they had a bad experience, they're going to tell 10,000 people. You're right. Yeah.

01:23:38.570 --> 01:23:42.810
And so, and you know, it's, you know, the squeaky wheel gets the grease,

01:23:43.550 --> 01:23:47.050
you know, I don't know if you guys deal with influencers or not,

01:23:47.090 --> 01:23:49.390
but I mean, I'll get a monthly influencer.

01:23:49.750 --> 01:23:52.490
Hey, I'd love to work with you. Oh yeah. Basically.

01:23:52.990 --> 01:23:56.450
I'd love to get a monthly free meal out of it. So, you know,

01:23:56.610 --> 01:24:00.710
it's a, it's a two-edged sword, you know, for me, I've been meaning to talk to you about that.

01:24:02.490 --> 01:24:07.430
We have a strict no influence or policy. And that's kind of how you have to do it.

01:24:07.490 --> 01:24:10.170
We just, we have a policy and no thank you, but no thank you.

01:24:10.270 --> 01:24:11.330
Appreciate you reaching out.

01:24:11.750 --> 01:24:14.450
Because the last thing we need is for them to light us up. I don't know how

01:24:14.450 --> 01:24:19.550
many followers I could care less, but, you know, but it's really work.

01:24:20.330 --> 01:24:27.850
In the, in total, social media, Yelp, all that stuff, it works in our favor.

01:24:27.850 --> 01:24:33.230
I'm glad it's there because it helps us out a lot you know otherwise we'd be

01:24:33.230 --> 01:24:36.510
paying through the nose for advertisements and and,

01:24:37.426 --> 01:24:44.346
What effectiveness? I don't know. So this happened a long time ago, 2015, maybe.

01:24:44.686 --> 01:24:49.486
We were kind of just growing the Facebook page and trying to do the social media thing.

01:24:49.686 --> 01:24:56.486
And one night I wake up one morning and I've got a hundred notifications from

01:24:56.486 --> 01:24:58.546
Facebook, all one star reviews.

01:24:58.986 --> 01:25:04.926
And, you know, at the time, I think we had like 10, we had like 10 five star reviews. Okay.

01:25:05.546 --> 01:25:08.326
Well, I wake up to them in the morning. My phone's going crazy.

01:25:08.466 --> 01:25:12.406
All one star reviews, all from unique users.

01:25:13.106 --> 01:25:17.146
Bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, going nuts. So I start, I start reading them.

01:25:17.366 --> 01:25:19.086
I start clicking on profiles.

01:25:20.086 --> 01:25:24.886
Long story short, it's some kind of anti-meat activist group,

01:25:25.446 --> 01:25:28.106
you know, virtual terrorism group.

01:25:28.166 --> 01:25:31.286
And they're, they're targeting and they're, that's what they're doing.

01:25:31.286 --> 01:25:37.706
So i'd taken screenshots and you know they they all all their profile pictures are weird or their

01:25:37.986 --> 01:25:41.826
brand new accounts or they have you

01:25:41.826 --> 01:25:44.846
name it the pictures on they were bots basically so some

01:25:44.846 --> 01:25:48.266
were some some weren't anyway i

01:25:48.266 --> 01:25:51.986
took some screenshots and then i wrote this big thing hey guys

01:25:51.986 --> 01:25:55.166
need some help look look look what's happened you

01:25:55.166 --> 01:25:58.506
know unfortunately we can't remove these these

01:25:58.506 --> 01:26:01.786
reviews are there so that you know facebook facebook wouldn't

01:26:01.786 --> 01:26:06.826
take them out well at the time i didn't think so yes facebook facebook reviews

01:26:06.826 --> 01:26:11.646
so it's like look guys we could really use some help i know we got enough people

01:26:11.646 --> 01:26:15.446
out there that if everyone goes and they do this and they click five star we

01:26:15.446 --> 01:26:18.926
can drown this out and we can you know our average will still be high but.

01:26:19.586 --> 01:26:22.386
Obviously this is this is not right so let's you know

01:26:22.386 --> 01:26:25.346
who who's with me you know dude we posted

01:26:25.346 --> 01:26:28.226
this and i think

01:26:28.226 --> 01:26:31.766
within three days we had like two thousand five-star reviews

01:26:31.766 --> 01:26:34.646
that's so amazing that's power right so it made

01:26:34.646 --> 01:26:40.446
something terrible yeah work out way to our favor you know great example that's

01:26:40.446 --> 01:26:45.006
a great example of of the good versus the bad and that's tib but that's little

01:26:45.006 --> 01:26:49.526
old tibodeau i know that's what they're capable of you guys have a lot of followers

01:26:49.526 --> 01:26:52.326
outside of How many Facebook,

01:26:52.466 --> 01:26:55.526
how many followers are a little over 40?

01:26:55.726 --> 01:26:58.846
I think 40,000. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And it's amazing.

01:27:00.058 --> 01:27:05.338
A lot of it, they're strung throughout families here somehow.

01:27:05.738 --> 01:27:08.298
It's someone's brother down the street. It's cousins.

01:27:08.718 --> 01:27:11.758
Yeah, well, there's a lot of people that are from Thibodeau. Yeah.

01:27:12.018 --> 01:27:17.418
You know, and y'all have this very special place. People are protective of their

01:27:17.418 --> 01:27:21.738
place, and y'all's shops are part of it.

01:27:21.798 --> 01:27:26.038
I think, you know, you guys belong to Thibodeau, you know? Like,

01:27:26.098 --> 01:27:31.598
and so it's, uh, you know, I don't mean calling like property or anything like

01:27:31.598 --> 01:27:33.818
that, but I mean, that's, to me, that's the goal.

01:27:34.038 --> 01:27:38.958
That's the goal is that one, I mean, you know, you guys do business all over

01:27:38.958 --> 01:27:42.438
the place, but you serve locals mostly.

01:27:42.798 --> 01:27:49.718
Yeah. We like to hope that we, we, we carry that flag when we go places that,

01:27:49.918 --> 01:27:55.678
you know, we, we like to let people know where we're from and what we're doing and we'll be here.

01:27:55.778 --> 01:27:58.318
Well, the consistency, like, we'll be here.

01:27:58.538 --> 01:28:01.798
You can come back in 20 years, 100 years, we'll be here. Yeah.

01:28:02.018 --> 01:28:08.158
I mean, for the first time I had it, 30 plus years ago, the same as it is today.

01:28:08.458 --> 01:28:13.078
I mean, that's... That's great to hear. Yeah. It is. It's a comforting thing, you know?

01:28:14.558 --> 01:28:17.798
Consistency. Would you guys like to hear why I called it Sinclair?

01:28:17.978 --> 01:28:19.758
Oh, yeah, dude. We still got to get to this.

01:28:19.998 --> 01:28:22.358
I don't know. You guys wanted me to ramble. I can ramble. Yeah.

01:28:22.558 --> 01:28:26.418
I like that. So, like I told you, my family's from Cuba, both sides,

01:28:26.538 --> 01:28:29.898
mother and father, but they didn't meet really officially until they lived.

01:28:29.958 --> 01:28:34.438
They were both at LSU, but they were in exile. So my grandfather,

01:28:34.838 --> 01:28:37.558
my maternal grandfather, my mom's grandfather, my mom's father,

01:28:37.758 --> 01:28:41.998
he was a mechanical engineering process sugar in Cuba.

01:28:42.638 --> 01:28:48.018
I mean, you know, that was a big, big crop in Cuba besides tobacco.

01:28:48.238 --> 01:28:49.858
Actually, it was bigger than tobacco at the time.

01:28:50.738 --> 01:28:54.878
And so he was exiled. I mean, he finally ended up, you know,

01:28:55.098 --> 01:28:59.978
deciding in 61, forget it, this thing is happening.

01:29:00.298 --> 01:29:05.138
We need to get out. So at the time, he'd already sent my mom and her siblings

01:29:05.138 --> 01:29:09.518
to the United States, kind of as a wait and see.

01:29:10.238 --> 01:29:16.298
And it wasn't, it was so, so my grandfather didn't have anything but his degree

01:29:16.298 --> 01:29:20.938
and his experience and was looking for work. But St.

01:29:21.058 --> 01:29:24.658
Clair is a sugar mill in Brulee, Louisiana, Highway 1 in Brulee,

01:29:24.798 --> 01:29:25.978
West Baton Rouge Parish.

01:29:27.118 --> 01:29:34.018
And they were looking for an engineer and my grandfather fit the bill.

01:29:34.158 --> 01:29:37.158
So they put him up. He had help because he had no money.

01:29:37.298 --> 01:29:39.838
He had to leave all of his money in Cuba.

01:29:40.058 --> 01:29:42.078
So he didn't have a dime on him. So he couldn't.

01:29:42.999 --> 01:29:47.379
Or anything like that. So they gave him a house, this beautiful house on the

01:29:47.379 --> 01:29:49.579
property. It's the engineer's row.

01:29:49.779 --> 01:29:53.119
They have where all their engineers live and keep them close to the mill.

01:29:53.599 --> 01:29:57.199
Put my mom and her siblings in school and kind of took care of them.

01:29:57.539 --> 01:30:03.039
And so one, that, and he ended up working there until he retired in his late

01:30:03.039 --> 01:30:07.379
seventies and lived there even after he retired and just a special place.

01:30:07.559 --> 01:30:11.379
We'd go there every Sunday. I grew up in Baton Rouge and it was just a trip across the river.

01:30:12.299 --> 01:30:18.219
But not only that, I mean, Sinclair, like if you talk to any Cuban Americans, my parents' age,

01:30:18.439 --> 01:30:22.519
it became like, because it was, it was a lot of, they either went to South Florida

01:30:22.519 --> 01:30:27.359
or they came to Baton Rouge and they came to Baton Rouge to go to engineering.

01:30:27.539 --> 01:30:30.239
I don't know why, but a lot of them ended up becoming engineers.

01:30:30.719 --> 01:30:34.739
So they settled in the engineering program. So there was this huge contingency.

01:30:34.899 --> 01:30:38.039
I mean, like the island had pretty much disappeared.

01:30:38.259 --> 01:30:42.379
All the, all the thought leaders, all the smart, educated folks left.

01:30:42.579 --> 01:30:46.039
They weren't really desirable, according to communists.

01:30:46.819 --> 01:30:51.359
So that became like Sundays. I remember even when I was a little kid,

01:30:51.499 --> 01:30:55.919
you know, 15 years after that, they'd be always on Sunday.

01:30:56.239 --> 01:31:00.579
You know, my grandmother would be cooking, you know, some Cuban dishes and they'd

01:31:00.579 --> 01:31:05.439
have a bunch of, they'd have family, But then they'd have a lot of other Cuban-American

01:31:05.439 --> 01:31:07.799
members of the community there.

01:31:08.339 --> 01:31:13.919
Became kind of like the, you know, Cuban consulate, you know.

01:31:14.099 --> 01:31:18.779
And then, you know, even though they were in a country that wasn't their own,

01:31:18.899 --> 01:31:22.799
this seemed familiar and they were surrounded by familiar faces.

01:31:22.819 --> 01:31:24.599
So it was a special place to a lot of people.

01:31:24.739 --> 01:31:29.979
I get a lot of emails from my parents' friends thanking me for doing that.

01:31:29.979 --> 01:31:32.719
And it was a special place to them, not just my family.

01:31:32.839 --> 01:31:36.399
So that's why we named it. I mean, I ended up in this, you know, we ended up.

01:31:37.147 --> 01:31:40.047
In sugar cane sugar world i was like oh

01:31:40.047 --> 01:31:43.027
i mean that's you know and so you know after

01:31:43.027 --> 01:31:46.687
you know some convincing kimberly

01:31:46.687 --> 01:31:49.427
my wife she made kind of made some sense about it so

01:31:49.427 --> 01:31:53.887
that's that's why we named it sinclair it's a sugar mill that's been decommissioned

01:31:53.887 --> 01:31:59.247
since 2004 but they keep the i mean it's so important to burly they keep the

01:31:59.247 --> 01:32:03.987
the smokestack they paint it like every four or five years it's big bright lights

01:32:03.987 --> 01:32:08.567
on it now it's going to be developed or something i mean Brulee now is a suburb of Banner.

01:32:08.827 --> 01:32:12.087
The picture in the restaurant, is that? Yeah.

01:32:12.487 --> 01:32:17.427
I was curious about that. Absolutely. And what's great, in the nine years we've

01:32:17.427 --> 01:32:23.547
been open, anybody who goes down from Plaquemine to Port Allen,

01:32:23.787 --> 01:32:25.707
they'll stop and they'll send a picture.

01:32:25.847 --> 01:32:31.307
And they'll send me a message on Facebook or they send me a text or something.

01:32:31.567 --> 01:32:32.767
People will be like, oh, my God.

01:32:33.267 --> 01:32:37.887
It really is. Yeah. And I'm thinking, it'd be weird if I just kind of like painted

01:32:37.887 --> 01:32:40.467
a smokestack. But yeah, it's a real thing.

01:32:40.707 --> 01:32:44.447
It was a smaller, you know, back then they were these small,

01:32:44.907 --> 01:32:48.887
I don't want to call it small, but yeah, they were small and not as big as LeFou Sugars or Raceland.

01:32:49.467 --> 01:32:52.307
So that's what happened. There's a lot of these smaller ones.

01:32:52.527 --> 01:32:56.207
You know, they just couldn't keep up. It didn't make financial sense.

01:32:57.287 --> 01:33:02.047
But yeah, it's a real thing, and they still keep it in a lot.

01:33:02.107 --> 01:33:09.887
And they film movies inside, and like inside the guts, they took all the centrifuges,

01:33:10.567 --> 01:33:14.827
and all the pumps and everything out, but they still have, it looks like an

01:33:14.827 --> 01:33:17.307
industrial place in there. So, you know, it's...

01:33:18.320 --> 01:33:23.540
TV show gets, there's shootouts and stuff in there, but, but yeah, it's still there.

01:33:23.740 --> 01:33:28.120
And, you know, we'll go run by there. My uncle actually, he was in Plaquemine

01:33:28.120 --> 01:33:32.900
and lost his wife. And so he ended up moving away from his home.

01:33:33.040 --> 01:33:38.240
Plaquemine ended up renting the house that he lived in when he had come and

01:33:38.240 --> 01:33:39.980
they were, when they were children. So he lived there.

01:33:40.080 --> 01:33:46.020
So we, we have this, you know, our family's very much interwoven with that place.

01:33:46.200 --> 01:33:48.400
So it was a- That's very cool. Yeah, it is.

01:33:49.820 --> 01:33:53.680
You ever bring the wife and kids to the restaurant? Yeah, you know,

01:33:53.760 --> 01:33:58.020
they were, you know, she, my wife, it's impossible for us to have a date night there.

01:33:58.300 --> 01:34:02.640
You know, she, as much as she loves the restaurant, you know,

01:34:02.720 --> 01:34:07.380
for us to have a quiet, you know, one that's like, hey, can I get you to do this?

01:34:07.460 --> 01:34:10.600
Or somebody stops by to say, which is wonderful. And we encourage that.

01:34:10.880 --> 01:34:13.300
Yeah, I get it. You know, she doesn't get my full attention.

01:34:13.420 --> 01:34:15.460
But yeah, she and the kids love to come in there.

01:34:15.460 --> 01:34:18.580
You know the kids love getting the vip treatment and

01:34:18.580 --> 01:34:21.780
you know and i mean you know that to

01:34:21.780 --> 01:34:25.000
them they know all the employees and i mean jeffrey's

01:34:25.000 --> 01:34:29.400
jeffrey's like an uncle to my kids and you know yeah they they find it a special

01:34:29.400 --> 01:34:34.380
place my wife used to go there a lot more often and she goes there less and

01:34:34.380 --> 01:34:38.360
less but but she still she still loves to go when she's got friends in town

01:34:38.360 --> 01:34:43.840
or she takes out some of her staff and they always go to sinclair so yeah favorite table,

01:34:45.100 --> 01:34:48.640
uh god i don't have a favorite table my favorite table is behind the bar.

01:34:49.960 --> 01:34:52.660
But yeah they like to

01:34:52.660 --> 01:34:55.780
sit kind of in the obscured corner by

01:34:55.780 --> 01:34:58.780
the glass what's what's like the most requested do

01:34:58.780 --> 01:35:01.760
people pick by the window by the way we have a few

01:35:01.760 --> 01:35:04.720
the yeah the ones that are right there by the street and that table

01:35:04.720 --> 01:35:07.600
in the dining room if not if not the bar

01:35:07.600 --> 01:35:10.360
stools the bar stools now are becoming the and y'all do

01:35:10.360 --> 01:35:13.020
events too right you can you can rent out as a

01:35:13.020 --> 01:35:15.900
venue sort of thing we do i mean i wish i had a private

01:35:15.900 --> 01:35:19.060
room but we don't you know we have to ask it's really unfortunate

01:35:19.060 --> 01:35:22.620
but we have to ask for minimums if we close down because

01:35:22.620 --> 01:35:27.860
i'm giving up you know also it's a goodwill gesture because we get people not

01:35:27.860 --> 01:35:34.100
happy when we have to close right i've had reservations for my anniversary like

01:35:34.100 --> 01:35:38.500
oh it's always tough but you know since the pandemic it's tough to say no to

01:35:38.500 --> 01:35:39.600
guaranteed money and things.

01:35:39.660 --> 01:35:44.280
So we occasionally do events during the week.

01:35:44.620 --> 01:35:48.140
Just last night, we did an awards banquet for First American,

01:35:48.600 --> 01:35:50.160
but that's on a night we were closed.

01:35:50.360 --> 01:35:52.840
And then next week, we got a drug rep dinner on Tuesday.

01:35:53.460 --> 01:35:59.820
So, you know, we usually try to do those on Tuesdays, and, you know, it works out.

01:36:00.020 --> 01:36:03.220
It's tough because... And you got to call up the crew and make sure everyone

01:36:03.220 --> 01:36:06.720
can make it. It makes their week a little longer. Some people go into overtime,

01:36:06.720 --> 01:36:11.320
you know, when we, when we do those events, but it makes financial sense for us to do it.

01:36:11.440 --> 01:36:15.660
You know, it's, you know, until we build a second floor and, uh.

01:36:17.072 --> 01:36:19.932
Oh, I'm joking. Next renovation. Yeah, that's all I need is a room around.

01:36:20.212 --> 01:36:23.592
Basement. Yeah, you just start. Is that where the Cuban place is going to be? I'm telling everyone.

01:36:25.072 --> 01:36:29.512
Cuban place is upstairs. Right. Because they just got to go around.

01:36:29.692 --> 01:36:30.972
You can do a speakeasy, man.

01:36:31.492 --> 01:36:34.152
Mm-hmm. You can do a, yeah, a little fake door kind of thing.

01:36:34.272 --> 01:36:37.152
I like that. A little back alley sandwich stop.

01:36:38.512 --> 01:36:42.812
You got the kids washing dishes yet? My son has, that's, yeah,

01:36:42.912 --> 01:36:45.392
he's a fill-in dishwasher. He's our on-call dishwasher.

01:36:45.632 --> 01:36:48.532
Nice. He was a junior, so it's, I mean, like, school nights are dicey,

01:36:48.572 --> 01:36:53.012
but, like, this past summer, I think he did about seven or eight shifts, and he loves it.

01:36:53.112 --> 01:36:58.572
I mean, I get on him because I'm like, oh, I get the phone out your face.

01:37:00.052 --> 01:37:04.092
But when he's back there, I think he just doesn't, I mean, it's,

01:37:04.812 --> 01:37:06.212
you know, you've served.

01:37:07.372 --> 01:37:10.612
There's a chain of command, and you don't want to let anybody down,

01:37:10.652 --> 01:37:13.492
and he's got a few folks he looks up to back there.

01:37:13.772 --> 01:37:20.232
That's good. So, yeah, he's not afraid of some hard work, you know, when put to it, you know.

01:37:20.552 --> 01:37:23.872
Those are some invaluable experiences for kids, man, I really think.

01:37:24.052 --> 01:37:28.752
Yeah, and he realizes, this is my family's restaurant.

01:37:28.932 --> 01:37:33.392
Before it was dad's business or whatever, but he realizes, hey,

01:37:33.412 --> 01:37:35.772
this is our family's operation. Right, right.

01:37:36.172 --> 01:37:39.212
So he's getting at that age where he wants to be a little more involved.

01:37:39.212 --> 01:37:41.552
But I mean, you know, I can't put

01:37:41.552 --> 01:37:45.712
him on the line, even though he wants to learn. But I mean, I just can't.

01:37:45.912 --> 01:37:50.872
It's a drag on resources and all that. But, you know, my daughter wants to be involved.

01:37:51.112 --> 01:37:53.092
But, you know, she's 14, 15.

01:37:53.572 --> 01:37:56.992
You know, we may look at her hosting and things like that.

01:37:57.152 --> 01:38:05.612
But, you know, we just she's got banned and bans this huge time time commitment

01:38:05.612 --> 01:38:07.492
and there's school involved.

01:38:07.492 --> 01:38:12.232
So, but yeah, I mean, ideally I'd love for it to be a whole family affair, right?

01:38:13.012 --> 01:38:16.012
My wife's a physician. I don't think she'd take a pay cut working for me.

01:38:19.352 --> 01:38:19.992
That's good.

01:38:21.016 --> 01:38:26.416
I just think this is so cool. I don't know if you guys, do you guys listen to podcasts? I do. A lot.

01:38:27.196 --> 01:38:31.236
Who do y'all listen to? I'm a big standup guy. So I listen to.

01:38:31.696 --> 01:38:36.376
I'm all over. A lot of jujitsu. Oh, yeah. A lot of jujitsu guys.

01:38:36.836 --> 01:38:42.336
I like business and hunting, fishing, spear fishing.

01:38:42.676 --> 01:38:46.916
Anything I'm into, I find the best one for that. And that's what I do. That's awesome.

01:38:47.156 --> 01:38:50.876
Yeah. You just do it for a certain amount of time? I've got certain podcasts

01:38:50.876 --> 01:38:53.176
that I've been listening to since, like, 2010.

01:38:53.456 --> 01:39:00.436
That's so cool. Yeah, I listen to, you know, funny people talking with other funny people.

01:39:00.596 --> 01:39:03.216
Two Bears in One Cave, Your Mama's House.

01:39:04.136 --> 01:39:07.796
I like, you've heard Theo Vaughn's podcast. Oh, absolutely.

01:39:08.296 --> 01:39:14.536
He is a riot. I know that y'all went and saw him, and he is so funny and so out there.

01:39:14.656 --> 01:39:16.976
And from Louisiana, too, you know?

01:39:18.156 --> 01:39:21.336
Funny funny guy yeah i love tom segura burt

01:39:21.336 --> 01:39:24.316
kreischer andrew santino bobby

01:39:24.316 --> 01:39:27.936
lee all those guys it's you know they're all in a little oh yeah

01:39:27.936 --> 01:39:33.176
they're all they're all they're in a little circle yeah yeah norman like mark

01:39:33.176 --> 01:39:40.056
norman from new orleans and yeah i i'm i love look as much as i love music when

01:39:40.056 --> 01:39:44.956
i'm in my truck i'm listening to stand-up comedy i just think it's to me i i

01:39:44.956 --> 01:39:47.456
love music and it makes me feel better about, you know, if I have a,

01:39:48.266 --> 01:39:53.946
a bad day and i hear a funny joke i'm out of it i need to do you a little comedy night,

01:39:55.126 --> 01:39:59.166
yeah you know i think the restaurant down the street does that i don't want

01:39:59.166 --> 01:40:03.146
to i've actually been over there yeah i've been over there too and seen the

01:40:03.146 --> 01:40:08.746
hypnotist made me nervous i don't deal with no hypnotist yeah and yeah we went

01:40:08.746 --> 01:40:14.826
to somebody else we took my uh mother-in-law and they had somebody who likes to does crowd work.

01:40:16.046 --> 01:40:19.446
And, you know, my mother-in-law is a wonderful, wonderful person,

01:40:19.586 --> 01:40:23.546
but she loves giving me the heat every once in a while. So this guy was like on me.

01:40:24.046 --> 01:40:28.646
And, you know, he knew I was squirming and she just, she had a blast with that.

01:40:28.806 --> 01:40:32.246
But yeah, she had a great time.

01:40:32.526 --> 01:40:37.626
I didn't, not so much. I could feel the heat coming off of my face.

01:40:38.346 --> 01:40:43.066
But no, I would love to. I just, I don't have the space for it.

01:40:43.226 --> 01:40:44.746
And it's kind of their thing.

01:40:44.926 --> 01:40:51.346
And I, you know, I appreciate that. And how about spitball, some quick favorite

01:40:51.346 --> 01:40:53.246
restaurants, New Orleans, Baton Rouge.

01:40:54.026 --> 01:40:55.926
Okay. Some go-to's.

01:40:56.726 --> 01:41:00.566
Sure. We do have a lot of people that listen out of state. Yeah.

01:41:01.066 --> 01:41:02.566
I mean, God, New Orleans.

01:41:03.806 --> 01:41:07.126
They're all right. Tough. Yeah. I mean, there's some, and now,

01:41:07.226 --> 01:41:12.906
and look, and I'm not as learned as I, I mean, I just don't get there as often as I used to.

01:41:13.386 --> 01:41:16.566
I mean, I love Patois.

01:41:17.286 --> 01:41:20.126
Uptown's a really good one. I mean, I love all the Link restaurants,

01:41:20.366 --> 01:41:26.446
Pesce, Cochon, even the Cochon Butcher. Yeah, that's such a good place.

01:41:26.806 --> 01:41:27.926
I mean, everything Donald Link

01:41:27.926 --> 01:41:32.726
does, I think is great. Anything Susan Spicer does is great. I mean...

01:41:33.746 --> 01:41:38.706
Turkey and the Wolf, a great little sandwich place. That's the thing is I'm

01:41:38.706 --> 01:41:40.106
just obsessed with sandwiches.

01:41:40.506 --> 01:41:44.146
You know, I mean, if you have a Nikosho Butcher there, it's just so good.

01:41:44.726 --> 01:41:50.726
And in Baton Rouge, you know, Jubin's, just another great restaurant.

01:41:50.886 --> 01:41:51.786
It's been around forever.

01:41:52.266 --> 01:41:56.006
I haven't been to the Supper Club. I hear it's really good. Very expensive.

01:41:56.346 --> 01:42:02.306
Very Brandon Landry's restaurant from Walk-On's. You open up this kind of Vegas-style

01:42:02.306 --> 01:42:08.926
place. I haven't been there, but, you know, Building 5, I think, is really good.

01:42:10.026 --> 01:42:16.226
The Overpass Merchant's another good place. God, there's a great place downtown we love to go.

01:42:16.366 --> 01:42:19.846
It's owned by these really great people from Uruguay or something.

01:42:19.926 --> 01:42:21.026
It's not Uruguayan food.

01:42:22.006 --> 01:42:27.886
But they do something very similar. I see a lot of parallels between what we do and what they do.

01:42:28.166 --> 01:42:32.406
And I really, of course, the name escapes me.

01:42:32.886 --> 01:42:35.786
But yeah, Baton Rouge, look, when I grew up in Baton Rouge, Baton Rouge was

01:42:35.786 --> 01:42:40.206
known for having the most successful chain restaurants.

01:42:40.346 --> 01:42:44.546
The Chili's that they had was the number one Chili's in the country. Wow.

01:42:45.046 --> 01:42:48.326
The Roos Cris, which is a chain restaurant, busiest Roos Cris.

01:42:48.706 --> 01:42:52.486
I mean, they just were known for that. And then just, I'd say recently,

01:42:52.566 --> 01:42:59.086
like the last 15 years or so, they've really kind of found their own, you know, voice.

01:42:59.086 --> 01:43:03.826
And there's a lot of chef forward, chef driven places that are really good.

01:43:03.966 --> 01:43:08.406
I just, you know, yeah, I don't, God, I wish I had a little more start.

01:43:08.966 --> 01:43:12.706
Yeah, man, this is awful. I'm just thinking about sandwiches.

01:43:15.466 --> 01:43:21.866
So, yeah. Well, this is good, man. We'll, little Tibideaux, we'll catch up to Baton Rouge one day and.

01:43:22.306 --> 01:43:25.686
You know, I don't want it to, I don't want it to, I, you know,

01:43:25.726 --> 01:43:27.646
and look, it's going to grow and I'm glad it's growing.

01:43:28.858 --> 01:43:31.198
It's already too much. I mean, look, we have a traffic circle,

01:43:31.318 --> 01:43:34.458
guys. Well, look, it's so funny how spoiled we are.

01:43:34.538 --> 01:43:39.398
How spoiled we are when it takes us any more than 10 minutes to get on the far

01:43:39.398 --> 01:43:41.258
side of town and losing our mind.

01:43:41.718 --> 01:43:44.518
You know, I mean, Baton Rouge, the traffic in Baton Rouge.

01:43:44.798 --> 01:43:48.458
Now with all the interstate work, you know, getting from one end to the other,

01:43:48.758 --> 01:43:50.138
it's getting to be like Houston.

01:43:50.618 --> 01:43:56.038
So, I mean, I like that Thibodeau is not like just off the exit.

01:43:56.218 --> 01:44:01.078
You have to try to get to Thibodeau, you know? You don't just end up in Thibodeau. Yeah.

01:44:01.298 --> 01:44:04.578
And I like that. I like that it's, you know, it's got its own identity.

01:44:04.798 --> 01:44:08.338
It doesn't borrow anything from Baton Rouge or New Orleans. It's its own thing.

01:44:09.858 --> 01:44:16.018
It's a great town. It's got, I mean, it's got intelligent folks that work at the university.

01:44:16.538 --> 01:44:20.678
It's got, it's not just a model. It's not just sugar cane. It's got,

01:44:20.698 --> 01:44:23.098
you got John Deere. You got the hospital.

01:44:23.278 --> 01:44:26.238
Got a lot of doctors. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

01:44:26.698 --> 01:44:31.338
And so, you know, it's a great town. I mean, it's going to grow,

01:44:31.678 --> 01:44:34.178
but, you know, how big can it get?

01:44:34.578 --> 01:44:38.758
It feels like it's happening right now more than any other time in my life.

01:44:39.038 --> 01:44:43.218
I know we're going to get some groans from our listeners, but once that bridge

01:44:43.218 --> 01:44:47.538
on Canal Street, that starts going, that's going to be, you know,

01:44:47.598 --> 01:44:51.238
I think it's going to divide, you know, which side of the bayou you live on.

01:44:51.338 --> 01:44:54.518
Yeah, just not even going to the other side. It's not worth it.

01:44:54.658 --> 01:44:57.998
It's sad. You know, I want to be optimistic.

01:44:58.298 --> 01:45:01.038
And it's work that needs to be done. And it's just not an easy,

01:45:01.238 --> 01:45:05.078
you know, I'm certainly not envious of the mayor having to do all that.

01:45:05.178 --> 01:45:09.198
Because, boy, his phone must be ringing off the hook all the time with complaints.

01:45:09.818 --> 01:45:16.198
But, yeah, I love how this town is and what it is.

01:45:16.318 --> 01:45:19.318
But, yeah, it's going to grow. It's going to grow. The secret's getting out.

01:45:19.918 --> 01:45:23.518
Mm-hmm. A lot of people with those storms are moving north, man.

01:45:23.778 --> 01:45:28.918
A lot of people from Hawaii are moving. Yeah, I can't even pay those insurance premiums. It's tough.

01:45:30.541 --> 01:45:33.461
What if we do, like, what if we start a Facebook page or something for the mayor

01:45:33.461 --> 01:45:38.141
where people can leave reviews? You don't think he has that? He does.

01:45:39.081 --> 01:45:41.541
I think he can just write whatever you want on a water tower.

01:45:41.701 --> 01:45:45.021
I need to dig into those reviews, man. There's some people that have no fear,

01:45:45.221 --> 01:45:52.121
you know, that, you know, you're about to get an IRS audit if you keep talking like that, you know.

01:45:52.961 --> 01:45:55.701
Someone's got to reassess your property. You've got to be careful.

01:45:55.701 --> 01:45:59.821
But, yeah, people, you know, with all the stuff that happened after the snowstorm

01:45:59.821 --> 01:46:05.101
and the low water pressures, there's certain things that you just can't manage.

01:46:05.361 --> 01:46:06.941
And, you know, it's okay.

01:46:07.361 --> 01:46:11.661
People can still get mad at it. Well, look, absolutely. And this is America.

01:46:11.921 --> 01:46:15.621
You can be able to, you know, people are allowed to voice their opinions.

01:46:15.621 --> 01:46:19.961
And just, I just say, be respectful and no more one star.

01:46:20.621 --> 01:46:23.881
I've lived in Thibodeau my whole life. It's the best town ever.

01:46:23.881 --> 01:46:28.901
But, man, that one day for that snowstorm, one star. One star. Yeah.

01:46:29.141 --> 01:46:33.101
Come get those other four stars back. Show me you're worth it. Yeah.

01:46:33.721 --> 01:46:37.761
Yeah. Oh, well, this was fun, man. I really enjoyed this. Thanks so much for coming.

01:46:38.041 --> 01:46:41.141
Appreciate you coming on. We appreciate it. Thanks for the restaurant. Yeah.

01:46:41.361 --> 01:46:46.801
Of course. Thank you. Great addition, Thibodeau. And it's become very Thibodeau

01:46:46.801 --> 01:46:48.221
and a big part of Thibodeau.

01:46:48.341 --> 01:46:53.321
And I hope that that continues. And I hope you have success and enjoy what you

01:46:53.321 --> 01:46:57.181
do. and it's awesome. You got a great place, great environment.

01:46:58.221 --> 01:47:02.981
You knocked it out of the park with the staff and that's a hard thing to do.

01:47:03.121 --> 01:47:06.201
That's a hard thing to do. Yeah, we're very fortunate. Very, very fortunate.

01:47:06.641 --> 01:47:10.681
Well, good. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, gentlemen. It's always great seeing you. Cheers.

01:47:08.880 --> 01:47:20.720
Music.

01:47:18.061 --> 01:47:21.141
All right, that's it for this episode of the Miracles of Meat podcast.

01:47:21.141 --> 01:47:25.821
We ask that you share it with at least one person in your life that you think needs to hear it.

01:47:26.781 --> 01:47:29.921
You know, if you got a little something from it, you got some little goose pimples

01:47:29.921 --> 01:47:33.981
or just gave you some feel goods, you know, send it to someone else.

01:47:34.101 --> 01:47:35.521
Let them let them feel that, too.

01:47:36.121 --> 01:47:40.141
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01:47:40.361 --> 01:47:44.921
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01:47:50.321 --> 01:47:53.581
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01:47:53.581 --> 01:47:57.761
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01:47:57.761 --> 01:48:04.341
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01:48:04.341 --> 01:48:09.321
please shoot those over too we're all always interested in hearing um who else

01:48:09.321 --> 01:48:12.661
is out there and what kind of cool stories we might be able to bring into this place,

01:48:14.061 --> 01:48:15.601
see you next time thanks.

01:48:15.920 --> 01:48:47.497
Music.