The Heart and Hustle With Danir

We explore the inspiring journey of a NYC restaurant owner who transformed from up and down youth to successful entrepreneur through perseverance, family support, and seizing unexpected opportunities.

Transcript

Welcome and Introduction

Speaker 1 0:06

baseball season is upon us that's right all right , all right , we are back . Ladies and gentlemen , we are back . Uh , this is another episode of small talk with compa . My name is denier will and we are excited . You know , we're doing something different today . We actually have a different setup , you know , just trying out new things .

Speaker 2 0:29

Yeah , it looks good .

Speaker 1 0:31

See how that pans out . It's a little bit uncomfortable , I'm not going to lie , but we just got to get used to it .

Speaker 2 0:37

Yeah , I think so .

Speaker 1 0:50

You know , it's like in everything you know , when you buy your your own , your new shoes or sneakers , you gotta wear it for the first time . You just gotta get used to it . We're slowly approaching the the . Hopefully , when we get the cameras , we're just gonna adjust to that too , but of course , yeah , anyway , welcome back episode nine and then these last two episodes . Uh , it will end , uh , the first season of small talk with compa , and these two last episodes are basically going to be about myself and about my compadre . Basically just a little stories about us and our history and our ups and downs and how we came to where we are right now . Is that right , compa ?

Speaker 2 1:20

Yeah , I mean yeah , we're going to take this opportunity to you know , get to know each other a little better . Not that we don't know each other , but you know for you guys , the listeners , to get to know . You know the rawness and the history of who we are and what we became and what the future holds .

Speaker 1 1:44

Yeah , excellent , I'm excited . Yeah , so whenever you're ready , brother , it's my turn . So I guess you can start whenever you want to go .

Speaker 2 1:51

Sounds good , sounds good , I'm ready then .

Speaker 1 1:53

He's taking the lead on this one and I'll do the one after towards him .

Speaker 2 1:58

So hágale parce Hágale parce , all right , all right . So I mean , without further ado , you know there's no introduction here . You know , you already know who my compadre is . You know you heard his voice , you know who he is by name . But now we're going to see , we're going to know the person and who he is and what he's all about . And you know , and there's no other way to begin , but right in the beginning , I guess right . You know how uh , you know how it was uh , growing up here in uh , new york city . You know what was the um , what was the uh , the life of the near uh . And then why see , like you know the beginnings , man , Like you know , growing up , yeah , in New York City .

Speaker 1 2:45

For sure . So obviously I came at a young age from . I'm originally from Mexico . I came at a young age I was three years old and then moved in with some relatives for a little while . That was a little challenging .

Speaker 2 3:00

Yeah .

Speaker 1 3:00

You know it was like it was a lot of us . You know , it was myself , my mom , my siblings and my pops , and we were all sleeping in , you know , one room , Okay , A small-ass room , for that matter .

Speaker 2 3:15

And I'm pretty sure you know you're not the only family that had , you know , gone through that , I'm pretty sure that a lot of people out there could relate you know For sure At that time , you know , coming into the uh to the States , it was very difficult , um , so I'm not going to . I'm not going into details cause I'm pretty sure you , you know , you were three years old .

Speaker 1 3:32

Yeah .

Speaker 2 3:32

You kind of don't . If you have some memory , go ahead and share it .

Growing Up In Queens

Speaker 1 3:47

But if not , you know it was I , my , my , my mom um tried our hardest to get , to get us out of there do you remember which borough ? Yeah , queens queens we moved into queens , okay , um somewhere in astoria like way down yeah in the story of black boulevard by east elmhurst . So we were there for a little bit . Yeah , that's , uh , that's where it all started , you know . Then obviously I went to middle , uh , elementary school . All right , 148 , 148 , where's that at ? That's on on northern . No , actually on 37th and 90th at kindergarten .

Speaker 2 4:22

Right , yeah , yeah , elementary school , kindergarten to fifth before that did the uh , were your family members were able to speak in it like in ? You know the native language , english , or is it more spanish ? No , it was difficult for you to kind of learn the language it was all .

Speaker 1 4:36

It was all spanish . Uh , you know , I came at a young age so I picked up english right away and you know , now I'm learning more spanish . But for the , for my siblings and my my parents , they were , they were really . So it must have been tough for them , I'm pretty sure . Or it was probably getting a job and stuff yeah , tough times , tough times , right .

Speaker 2 4:59

And were they able to , like you know , persevere , in the sense where they moved down to that one room apartment or that and be able to get a your own apartment and they did okay , yeah , yeah .

Speaker 1 5:11

Um , actually , I think a few family members moved out , got it yeah something like that . Okay , I gotta .

Speaker 2 5:18

It's a long time ago well , let's jump into like your parents , like , tell me a little bit about them . Like , for example , like your mom and your dad like what , who they , who , they were , like what , what was their , like their influence in you growing up ?

Speaker 1 5:30

My mom obviously was a huge influence on me and you know she taught me to be a good person . You know not to , not to be , show respect and earn , so you can earn the respect . Humble , stay , uh , stay on top of your game as much as you can . You know that kind of stuff she was always very . She was always around , always giving me , uh , advice on what to do and , uh , you know how to go about things was .

Speaker 2 5:59

Was she that old school mexican mom , also like when you know , when you did shit wrong ?

Speaker 1 6:03

it was like oh , she like when I , when we were learning the times tables uh and you know what , anytime I was doing my homework , she would be like right next to me and she was that parent where , if I don't get something right , I'm getting a smack in the head . Yeah , yeah and so you go with that fear , yeah exactly , uh , but somewhat of a little bit of a troublemaker , not much yeah , no more childhood .

Speaker 1 6:27

Yeah , no childhood nothing , I wasn't like causing crazy habit . I'm not wasn't trying to burn my house down . Yeah , of course you know .

Speaker 2 6:34

But everything you know every every situation is different . But I'm pretty sure that a lot of listeners out there you know got that type of like mother that you know old school , you know get ready to like , oh yeah . You know you better get this done . Or you know , got that type of like mother that you know old school , you know get ready to like , oh yeah you know you better get this done , or you know for sure that chancla was definitely around what the watching got .

Speaker 1 6:50

Yeah , Chancla was was lethal .

Speaker 1 6:53

Yeah , I mean , I deserved it most of the time . Okay , like that's when everything changed . Like I was like I , I was always like I . I cut school , I ditched school a lot and you know , there was a few times where I got caught and one time I got caught in Brooklyn . Yeah , I was . I think I was like 13 , maybe , okay . So just tell me a little bit about like , growing up in you know , getting to your teen years um , how was school ? Like you know , it was fine . Um , I think , uh , yeah , I would like I was saying I was I got caught , uh , ditching school in brooklyn and then going back to my , when my mom was , she was really strict . She had to go pick me up , she had to get out of work and go pick me up in brooklyn . Yeah , um , like way in brooklyn , like downtown coney island , brooklyn , like that's yeah and yeah , I was uh called by truancy .

Speaker 1 7:54

You know , I got what was coming to me when I got home type of thing did she tell you , or was it more like the look nah you just , it was just the energy , because I think we took a cab home back home from brooklyn or I don't know , but when I got home it was , it was just , it was over , it was all right , it was just like again I deserved it . I was out there yeah , man , you're doing .

Speaker 2 8:17

You know you're doing things that you weren't supposed to be doing . I think , I think , it's because I was .

Speaker 1 8:20

I was young , I was still , I was 13 years old .

Speaker 2 8:23

But you know , growing up in NYC , right and going to school Was , did you ? Did you see yourself ? You know , being a student Like you know what I want to stay in school , I want to learn . Or is it more something when you were just like you know , it was like that's not for me Type of thing , or you ?

Speaker 1 8:42

know , tell me a little about that , was it ?

Speaker 2 8:43

more like bad influences and you know , you just came , you kind of did big bad choices and like , what was your mentality ?

Speaker 1 8:49

I've always liked learning . Learning , I was my favorite subject was always , for some reason , history was always my favorite subject , okay , and but you know , once I figured out the whole , you know the whole paper situation , yeah , uh , that kind of sets your mind off a little bit different , because now , okay , now you know it's going to be challenging to go to , not doable , but challenging to go to , to go to college and all that stuff after high school yeah so that all that played a role in my , at least in my mental aspect of it .

Speaker 2 9:27

So when you mean papers .

Speaker 1 9:28

You mean your immigration status , right yeah , like you know , you can't get any scholarships or any kind of or financial aid unless you are at that time . I didn't have anything that was .

Speaker 2 9:37

That's a bummer man .

Speaker 1 9:39

Yeah , and so that you know again it sets your mind , takes your mind somewhere else . You know again , it sets your mind , takes your mind somewhere else . But you know again , it's challenging but it's doable , because a lot of people are still doing it now . Obviously , there's a little bit more help now .

Speaker 2 9:54

More help and then more information More information yeah . And , like you know , going back to your immigration status . You know . I wanted to tell you like I'm just like really really wow about this , because it's like yeah , you know , for for a young man to be growing up and to actually think about that , you know it must be very discouraging um , but does anybody out there that was kind of telling you , man , or they should have tell you like , hey , man , forget about that , just keep doing what you're doing like you don't need to know about this .

Speaker 2 10:21

Just you know , stay to , stay with your academics and or just more of like you felt like you know what . I'm on my own , I can't do this , I'm just going to find another route .

Speaker 1 10:31

My mom . She always pushed for the whole education .

Speaker 1 10:35

She was always on top of to go to school . Go to school . It's either you're going to go to school or you're going to work . You can't just be home bumming it . Yeah , um , and she was always again , she was always the one that was pushing me the most , even till now . Uh , you know , when I started the business , she was always by my side and and showing you know a lot of support and being there . You know just , you know , hang in there . You know it's gonna be tough the first couple of months you open , maybe a year or so , but you know you're gonna do well .

Speaker 2 11:05

And just listening to her was , you know what was , uh , what led me to keep on going , keep on pushing and what was one of the things that your mother instilled in you that to this day you have , you know , you have implemented in your personal life or in your business , like something that kind of like you remember , like whoa , this is a turning point that my mother just said something and kind of like you know , flip a switch she's always said like you know , don't , let people discourage you , don't let , don't , let .

Speaker 1 11:36

Don't be intimidated by people . Yeah , they might know or make more than you , but you know they're still the same . You know they're humans , just like you are , and she's always . She's always , you know , on the pilas and yeah learn as much as you can . You know , we've always , they've always tried to push us back and down , but she's always like , pushed me to , like just stay focused don't lose the focus out of , out of , uh , out of for for anything .

Speaker 1 12:02

All right , because there's always she's she always , because there's always she's always said there's always going to be bumps on the road , and you know , and keep your faith in god , and you know we'll , we'll , find a way out of whatever we get stuck on got it ?

Speaker 2 12:14

and how was your um , how was your your siblings like ? How did they play like a uh , an important role , or was more something like hey , you know , these are my . You know , did you guys ? What was your relationship like ?

Speaker 1 12:27

good . You know my relationship with my siblings , my two sisters and my brother . Uh , my brother was also . He played a a huge factor in like so many , so many parts . You know he was always . He helped out my mom a lot my sister did , my older sister as well , but my brother , he's the one that kind of got me into the whole music scene .

Speaker 2 12:48

Oh right .

Speaker 1 12:49

He was an audio engineer . Got it and he used to take me around with the group that he was with and he used to ,

Mother's Influence and Family Dynamics

Speaker 1 12:57

like you know , set up the speakers and connect all the wires and you know I enjoyed that , I enjoyed .

Speaker 2 13:03

So he was the one that was setting up , like all the tech for the yeah , for the yeah , yeah , like a stage setup .

Speaker 1 13:10

There you go and and I fell in love with it , okay , like I fell in love with the whole everything from making sure that the bass sound good , the mid sound good , the treble sounds good , and so I give them like , that's , that's my brother . He's the one that definitely influenced me in the music side of it , uh , and my sisters they were always they're always there for me . Yeah , they've always showed a lot of support , um , even to this day with the podcast and the the restaurant business like they've always been a huge , huge support of me all right yeah now , we used to go with my little , my little sister .

Speaker 1 13:49

We used to go because we grew up together . I'm what am I ?

Speaker 1 13:53

I think I'm like 10 years apart , no , 12 years apart with your older , my younger sister , okay , and but she , like we used to , we used to with her and my niece , who's also . They grew up together they're a couple of years apart , okay and we always used to go to the park , like the uh , when we were younger , and I would go play hambo and I would leave them , like in the jungle gym , and then my mom would come from work and like what your sister's like .

Speaker 1 14:22

No , like she would . Either I think she knew that we were there and I guess she would just take them home , or she would come back and look for me . I was always in the handball courts and for some reason my mom always thought that the handball courts were where the you know . There was a lot of drugs in there , but nah , everybody was cool .

Speaker 2 14:45

So were you any good in handball ?

Speaker 1 14:47

yeah , oh yeah , nice , all the sports you like like you like well , baseball obviously baseball is is I think it's from it's baseball , football , basketball that I enjoy to watch and what made you love like baseball , like what , what was it ?

Speaker 2 15:03

that kind of like brought your attention , like there's got to be something where you know like , wow , this game is pretty interesting I think it's just .

Speaker 1 15:12

That's a good question too . It's all the whole thing , the pitching , just the , the whole different dynamic of pitching , how , how pitchers have so many pitchers in their repertoire that they can throw the hitting . You know , some hitters hit with no , with no , with no gloves . Some hitters hit with a shit ton of gloves padding on their hands . Yeah , like the swings that other some hitters have , as opposed to others that might have , like an upper cup swing . Okay , just the whole , the whole , the whole . Uh , even the numbers . Now that I'm older I pay attention to a lot of numbers now .

Speaker 1 15:50

It's always been a number game . When you were younger , you just loved the game . And then one of my sister's friends , her son . We played together Okay . Her son , we played together okay . And you know what ? You know that times were a little tough so I couldn't afford a , we couldn't afford a baseball glove I can't I can't remember how I got my first baseball glove , but I do .

Speaker 1 16:16

I have it to this day oh nice and it's a dwight gutten fellow fellow , matt and yankee . Okay so , yeah , so we played together and then we also like the block , the homies from the block . There was a where there was where Buccaneers was .

Speaker 2 16:31

Okay .

Speaker 1 16:31

Um no , I'm sorry , where uh , walgreens is down there in east elmer's 94th street . Yeah , yeah , that was a buccaneers before . Oh wow , in that there was a parking lot and then they eventually closed that buccaneer . So we used that parking lot as like our little kind of like a sunlight type shit yeah yeah , so and it and I grew . That love for baseball grew even more . My fellow dominicans that lived in the building also had a huge , huge influence on the baseball , because that's all they played .

Speaker 2 17:00

I'm like , did you learn on your own the game or it was more like did somebody kind of like teach ?

Speaker 1 17:04

you ? No , I learned everything on like on your own . Yeah , like , even the play catch . Wow , like I played with them with my with . But what I ?

Speaker 2 17:11

meant , but what I meant to say was also I mean obviously learning with you , know , with the , with your peoples there , but as well , like the game itself , like the understanding of the game .

Speaker 1 17:22

Did I learn it on my own ? Yeah , you learned it on your own .

Speaker 2 17:23

Yeah , for sure , because that's a very difficult sport to understand , and so I always kind of intrigued to find out how people learn the game . Others will get influenced by their parents , like hey , this is how the game is played , and then you move forward to actually putting into like a league where they could play . But there's other people that these learn on their own , like myself ?

Speaker 1 17:43

I didn't . We were in the small league . But you know , the shit costs money yeah , of course , yeah , so we . Um , I had to end at some point yeah uh , but then that's when we started playing in the in that parking lot .

Speaker 2 17:56

You know what's funny In the hood .

Speaker 1 17:57

Yeah , you know what we used to do Uh-huh , fucking young and dumb . We used to throw bottles like glass bottles into that same parking lot that we would play in , just for shits and giggles .

Speaker 2 18:09

Yeah , just for the fun .

Speaker 1 18:10

And then when we would go play we would just sweep it up , At least any big glass that were out there .

Speaker 2 18:18

Why , why ?

Speaker 1 18:19

the hell did we do that ?

Speaker 2 18:21

I guess Giving ourselves more work , like como dice mi mamá , te gusta la mala vida , yeah , exactly .

Speaker 1 18:27

God forbid we would have fallen .

Speaker 2 18:28

You know . Thank God nobody fell or cut themselves .

Speaker 1 18:31

But it would have been served as right man . But yeah , baseball came at a very young age for me , like for me loving the game . I didn't you know what . I played it more than I watched it . Now I watch it more obviously yeah um , and that I've been watching it more is made me learn about it more

Troubled Youth and Legal Issues

Speaker 1 18:50

.

Speaker 2 18:51

Um , yeah , I love baseball and for the audience , which probably a lot of listeners already know your team , but you know , just to kind of for a refresher hey , what is ? Who is your team ?

Speaker 1 19:05

my team are the new york city metropolitans .

Speaker 2 19:09

Respect from queens , new york , nice , nice , all right man , awesome and like , and I don't have nothing against the rivals across town , of course not but .

Speaker 1 19:19

I just you know . I grew up in Queens and I'm a Queens native .

Speaker 2 19:23

Yeah .

Speaker 1 19:24

I lived in Brooklyn for a little bit , but that doesn't count .

Speaker 2 19:28

What was like your old school favorite player for the Mets and why ? Like growing up , Like growing up in NYC at that time and know you fell in love with the mess .

Speaker 1 19:38

What ?

Speaker 2 19:38

was the player that's that you just kind of looked up to um , I have .

Speaker 1 19:44

I have a few uh robin ventura , robin torah , great third baseman yeah , fucking awesome . I've always been I've always been a huge third baseman man like the hot corners have been like my and that's a , that's a . That's a one of the hardest positions I know I get there because you got to be laser focused . Yeah , you got a one step ball . It's better for right hitters , you like a ?

Speaker 1 20:07

rocket like a rocket , so you gotta catch that so uh , and then I guess a little bit further along the line . Uh , I've always been a huge , huge fan of carlos belch . On carlos beltrane yeah he's solid , but I guess it's a little more on the late 90s , early 2000s no , I'm lying mid 2000s , okay , uh , yeah , all those guys are . And then , in terms of pitching , uh , out lighter , all right , was I ? I was a fan of out lighter , yeah he was . He was a good , he was a good pitcher he was a good pitcher , he's with . He's still with the yankees .

Speaker 2 20:42

Right , he's doing broadcasting . He's doing broadcasting with the yankees , but he's always been in touch with , like both teams yeah and it's funny you mentioned lighter because he is one of the solid pitchers in in the game , but without but what people don't know and understand ? He's a , he's a competitor , he's a grinder and , most importantly , man . People don't know , and understand . He's a competitor , he's a grinder and , most importantly , man people don't know he's a smart pitcher Very very smart pitcher .

Speaker 1 21:00

He knows how to like really pitch , and I was a fan also of Billy Wagner .

Speaker 2 21:03

Billy Wagner- as a closer . Billy Wagner was a Hall of Famer , now Hall of Famer . Yeah , congrats yeah .

Speaker 1 21:09

And then I want to recap , see if I'm missing anybody . I want to recap see if I'm missing anybody . I don't think I am . But my favorite favorite player like hands down for me is David Wright . Yeah , right , yeah . I wish he would have had a more of a longer career , but he brings so much energy to the ballpark .

Speaker 2 21:33

That's amazing , man . It's good to , like you know , to go back in time and , like you know , remember the good times and remember all those times . Baseball is all about good times , even when you're struggling and you're not there . Watching the game just kind of makes you forget about things , so it's good for you to share that .

Speaker 1 21:54

Also with my sister's friend's son . We actually played in Shea Stadium , in Shea Stadium .

Speaker 2 21:59

Oh , so you get your experience there , yeah .

Speaker 1 22:01

It was like an inning or two .

Speaker 2 22:02

But still , still For a kid . Yeah , running around the diamond , yeah , it was fucking awesome .

Speaker 1 22:08

I wish I would have had a camera to take pictures , but that was definitely a memorable experience . Chris , his name was Chris , all right .

Speaker 2 22:16

Shout out to Chris . He was out there .

Speaker 1 22:18

I forget his last name . It was again a fellow Dominican .

Speaker 2 22:21

Cool .

Speaker 1 22:22

Yeah .

Speaker 2 22:22

It's amazing man . Yeah , dominicans man , they love the game .

Speaker 1 22:24

Yeah , they love it , but we Mexicans too , man yeah .

Speaker 2 22:27

So you know , we're also in the game . One last question about you know your um , your childhood man or growing up , and then why , like , what was like ? Well , the question that I really want to ask you , like , what was your toughest moment or experience ? That kind of like , you know , set you down and I want to say humble you but , like , made you really understand , like , whoa like this is this is real life , yeah , type of thing I guess , uh , things that I would never forget and forgive myself for .

Speaker 1 22:59

You know , again , I was young and dumb and did a lot of mistakes is getting arrested , right and and then , uh , I had I don't know I got . I eventually ended up getting a bench warrant . I had a warrant for my arrest for you know ?

Speaker 2 23:14

can I ask what ? Why you got arrested ? What ?

Speaker 1 23:17

the hell did I do ? I think I got caught , I don't know . Some can't remember , okay fair enough , I could remember . I just don't want to share got it , got it so um but it wasn't again . Were you scared ? No , I mean the first , the first time I , when I initially got arrested I I completely told my mom that it was some bullshit yeah and and they , they got the wrong person .

Speaker 1 23:42

Blah , blah , blah okay but , for that same , for that first initial arrest , I I got a , I got a bench warrant . I think I didn't go to court for some reason . And then you know when you , I was damn , I was hella young , I think I was like 15 , 16 .

Speaker 1 23:58

Yeah , and they came to my house and they knocked and then eventually I ended up . I had turned myself in . I called the detective that came to my house . I'm like , hey yo , what's happening ? He's like , yeah , you got a warrant , I need to pick you up . If I'm not mistaken , I think they might have barged into my house . And this arrest wasn't like . It wasn't nothing major , it was a misdemeanor , it wasn't like a felony or anything .

Speaker 2 24:28

Yeah .

Speaker 1 24:29

Some bullshit . And then so I get there , I get to my front of the house . They're waiting for me and I just they cuffed me . And then my mom was there and just the look from my mom's face of seeing her me get arrested was just to me , was like really devastating . I couldn't stop thinking like , oh man , what is my mom thinking ? The look on her face was really like what changed me completely . The look on her face was really like what changed me completely . Like I'm , like I'm never gonna get arrested again .

Speaker 2 25:03

Yeah , like I'm never I'm gonna get my shit together . Were you booked , and yeah you know ? And throwing the uh in the cell , yeah yeah , stupid bookings , you know , keep you there for like 48 hours or so and while you were in there , right , and you know , kind of , just kind of going , I'm pretty sure you were going back in time and like what the fuck did this ? Why ? Why am I here , right ? Yeah what was your uh mental state at that time ?

Speaker 1 25:25

it was more of like anger , or it's more like mixed feelings , mixed emotion , or was just the fact that I let my mother down and exactly , it's just more like I couldn't stop thinking about , like letting my mom down , yeah , and you know she's always wanted , she's always protected us and taught us the good , and but you know , you , you run into some , some dilemmas in your , in your life , especially your teenage life you run into some bad friends and make wrong decisions and unfortunately that happened to me a little more than once .

Speaker 1 25:56

But yeah , because then I had guy in uh arrested again for some other bullshit . Yeah , but this was uh in brooklyn , but I was a little old I think I was already 18 at the time and again , it doesn't make the situation better because I'm older . But you know , we , they try to test you . Hey , man , you live and learn . You try to test you and you know we start . There was a fight involved , altercation broke out and , matter of fact , at that fight , that altercation that we were got into , I got hit in the head . Yeah , with uh , actually not in the back of my head , my lower back of my um . They , they swang at me with uh with a broomstick . Oh yeah , yeah , I didn't feel it , though I thought that when I was in the , when I was in central bookings , it must've been in like high adrenaline . Uh , she was . I felt my head throbbing , yeah , and uh , again , I couldn't . I was thinking like what am I going to tell my mom ?

Speaker 1 26:57

Yeah , I'm 18 , so I can do whatever I want , but you know , still I'm under her roof , you know , okay , but yeah , that wasn't our fault . They just again , the people try to oppress you and you know you got to defend yourself .

Speaker 2 27:09

Yeah .

Speaker 1 27:10

I'm not trying to get sunned or anything .

Speaker 2 27:21

So , for just to kind of recap , you know , with growing up in NYC and , like you know , having troubles with the law back and forth , and you know , obviously kind of anger you that you , you know , let your mother down . Were you thinking about going to college or was more like confusion there ? You wasn't sure . Was it like an unknown route ?

Speaker 1 27:35

I went , I took a course for music . The little school was called Innovative Music and I think it was very independent . It wasn't nothing major .

Speaker 2 27:43

Yeah .

Speaker 1 27:44

But it got expensive so I stopped going , got it , I learned what I had to learn and yeah , just . And then the rest of that I learned on my own , just reading books on like music software and music engineering and editing and all that stuff , wow . But yeah , it got really expensive , I think they were . Yeah , it got super expensive after a while so I just stopped going . Oh man , that sucks . Yeah , that was the rest of the . That was the final school that I've ever done . It was that music small little music school , okay , which doesn't even exist anymore well , hold that thought .

Speaker 2 28:18

I really want to go back to your um , to your , to your passion of music . I think that's very important for a lot of listeners to , to , to hear about yeah but let's , let's shift , let's shift gears , all right , so we're shifting , we're shifting .

Speaker 2 28:31

you're out of high school , you know you did the uh , the uh , the music program , but you know , obviously it's a little expensive . Yeah , so you're shifting gears . So we're shifting gears . Now , what kind of made you go into the restaurant business ? Was it an accident ? Was it something that you probably was like thinking beforehand Like hey man , this is something where I could , you know , make some quick money , or is it more of like the passion ? Was it something that you really wanted to do ?

Speaker 1 28:57

It's funny . It passion . Was it something that you really wanted to do ? It's , it's funny , it's funny you asked that because that was , it was more of an uh , an accident . Okay , uh , I was actually we'll talk a little about that looking for a job and I I forgot where I was working at the time . I was working some , some you were working in uh .

Speaker 2 29:16

You know , now that I remember , remember a little bit about your story . You were working in uh , dr j's , wasn't it ?

Speaker 1 29:22

oh yeah , yeah , I was working at that yeah , like no , but that was before .

Speaker 2 29:26

Okay , that was before the restaurant scene .

Speaker 1 29:28

Okay , okay , like I was always into retail got it . I was always into like selling like sneakers and shit , okay , which again I hit a little bump in the road there . Yeah , in terms of , but live and learn . Live and

Baseball Passion and Community

Speaker 1 29:41

learn right .

Speaker 2 29:42

That's a story for another time , hey you would , you were exercising your entrepreneurship there .

Speaker 1 29:46

Exactly there you go , but anyway moving along uh , I walked into this , this restaurant , and I had worked in a restaurant before , but it was just like some random restaurant . I had no experience .

Speaker 2 30:00

And what you were doing there , just like what they made me they wanted me to be a server .

Speaker 1 30:04

I'm like , what the fuck ? Oh , okay . So I'm like , okay , like , what do I have to do ? And he's like I got to just take orders . Yeah , oh , okay . So on my first shift I did exactly what he said I go to the table , I say hello , and then can I take your order ? Yeah , and then at the time that's when the whole POS system I thought I had to write things down .

Speaker 1 30:26

But he said no , you can use this computer and then the ticket will go to the kitchen . Ah , okay , you know it was new to the POS system , was that shift ?

Speaker 2 30:34

busy that day .

Speaker 1 30:35

It was busy enough for me to be in the shits . You know , they just threw me in there Like I thought I was going to be like a runner or something . Throw it to the wolves , man . But that's how you learn . Yeah , exactly , but I didn't do a good job because they didn't even train me . So I didn't know what the table numbers were . You know the running food was a disaster , jesus . The cocktails . I didn't know anything about cocktails , so that's where it started .

Speaker 2 31:01

Okay .

Speaker 1 31:02

I had told my mom listen . I think I do like working in restaurants .

Speaker 2 31:06

Even after it was a shit show .

Speaker 1 31:08

Yeah , I did , and you had the worst shift of all time .

Speaker 2 31:11

It was such a shitty shift . You went back to your mom and you said I like it .

Speaker 1 31:15

I told her that I think I want to work here or work in the restaurants , because you know the money's good and you know it's not that hard even though I fucked up the money . That's what it does , yeah , yeah and then I , and then she actually encouraged me yeah , go ahead , go go work at a restaurant , you know . And then I told her you know , really I think I want to be a bartender . So she actually paid for I . I didn't go back to that restaurant , by the way .

Speaker 1 31:37

So it was like one and day and they told me not to come back .

Speaker 2 31:42

But it kind of opened your eyes .

Speaker 1 31:43

It's their fault , though . They set me up for failure .

Speaker 2 31:45

Yeah , of course .

Speaker 1 31:46

Yeah . So then she paid for a bartending course , which is a complete scam . Like they say , they're going to place you a job right after you finish the course .

Speaker 2 31:58

That's a lie it's just , they just teach you like the , the entry level basics .

Speaker 1 32:01

Yeah , and you know . But then again , at the time you I'm like , oh man , this the bartender that was teaching us some old dude , he was old cat and he , he didn't use jiggers , he didn't , he eyeballed everything . And I'm like , okay , so it doesn't look that hard . Yeah , so whatever , finished the course , they made us take a little test at the end . And then also , uh , like , making cocktail , got it quiz ?

Speaker 1 32:26

yeah , or whatever making sorry about that and then they they're supposed to give you find you a job they send , they send there . It's basically a placement like a placement job , but what they do is they get you interviews . They don't . They don't put you in a job , so they they send . They got me a few interviews and all these fucking interviews they got me . They were all in like super high-end restaurants that were definitely not gonna hire me , like I will my first interview . I would never forget this and this goes back . I'll never forget it , because this guy was a fucking . He looked at me and I know he looked at my color .

Speaker 2 33:01

Yeah .

Speaker 1 33:02

The straight white boy looking at this brown kid . I guarantee you he doesn't know anything , and I to his point I didn't , because I was new to the game . He just needed an opportunity . Yeah exactly Like I could have started as a barback or something .

Speaker 2 33:16

Of course opportunity .

Speaker 1 33:17

Yeah , exactly like I could have started as a barback or something , because they were hiring . They were hiring barbacks and bartenders and , of course , I shot for my , I shot for the home run and I wanted to be a bartender . I'll learn as I go , but this guy had asked me . He asked me the fucking most hardest questions that I can think of . Yeah , like he was asking me about fish , like types of fish , and , um , he was asking me to name a bunch of different pasta shapes . And then he started asking me about , uh , grape varietals . You know , again , at the time I'm new to the industry , I'm like bro , I don't know this shit . And and just the way of his , his vibe , his energy , came off , like looking at me , like up and down , I wanted to slap the shit out of him . Like you , you looking at me because I'm not your color , yeah , that's the kind of energy you know what . And I , I'm , I'm definitely , I'm not a racist . I don't condemn that .

Speaker 1 34:10

But this fucking guy , yeah you could just tell when , when somebody in that and you could sense it .

Speaker 2 34:14

Oh for sure you don't need , you don't need , sure they don't need to tell you like I felt that energy from like literally like three , like three minutes , five minutes , less than five minutes that interview . I'm like okay , well plus and you know , by the way , you're telling me this . You know he doesn't know how to interview yeah , you know it's not , you know you're , you're asking questions .

Speaker 1 34:34

He looked like zach morris , like real preppy , preppy type dude right , yeah , so what was your first ?

Speaker 2 34:41

like fine dining restaurant , like that you started so .

Speaker 1 34:46

So go back to what you asked me like how did this come ? This come about ? I walked into this restaurant called tablo , okay boom .

Speaker 2 34:55

So you were like what you was walking , like I was walking around , I can't remember I was .

Speaker 1 35:00

I was looking for a job for sure , but our , our friend , our dear friend , uh , tony , yeah , he worked there and he was he was a bartender . I think , yeah , he was a bartender got it and he , he was the plug , he was a plug , he was a plug and he was the plug . He was a plug . Oh , he was a plug . I can't remember what the hell I went in there for .

Speaker 2 35:21

Probably for some I think it's just to say hello . Actually , the plug plug was Alex . Oh , right , right , that's right . Yeah , that's Tony's brother , yeah .

Speaker 1 35:30

So I walked in there and they were having family meal and the GM at the time Told him To go eat family meal with them . I'm like what the fuck ? It's family meal and I go upstairs and of course there's the whole staff . There's a whole , a nice Buffet of food .

Speaker 2 35:47

Wait , wait , so you go in there , right , you see , tony , right , our boy . And Tony tells you Yo , let's go upstairs , yeah , and eat family meal .

Speaker 1 35:54

Yeah , that's so , tony , though yeah I go upstairs and I and I remember the meal because it was spaghetti and meatballs , like indian style spaghetti and meatballs oh , wow man . This is amazing and I think he I remember him him telling me that , uh , are you looking for , for a job ? He's looking for john . I think I said yes and he said , all right , let me , let me see , let me ask around .

Speaker 1 36:17

Yeah ,

Entering the Restaurant Industry

Speaker 1 36:18

I literally walk out and maybe , like down the block , he comes out and chase me like , oh daddy yeah and he tells me he's like I don't know what you said to tracy , because he introduced me to tracy got it . You know you made a good impression and you come back tomorrow for an interview . That was crazy . That was it the next day I came back . Tracy was super nice uh-huh um , and then I think who was there ? I think , uh , terry was there , which was the his , her agm , and kevin , yeah , was the the other the other one that I interviewed with uh and I made a good impression and I started working there like two , three days later .

Speaker 1 36:58

Wow , the rest was history .

Speaker 2 37:00

That's crazy .

Speaker 1 37:01

Yeah , it was you know . Shout out to the homie , tony man .

Speaker 2 37:04

Yeah , I miss you , brother . That's crazy .

Speaker 1 37:09

And then it was . That's where to answer your question . That was the first three-star restaurant that I started working in . Yeah , um , three star , three star restaurant that I started working in ? Yeah , certainly , service had to be like up to par every single time which you know they made it . They made it fun . You know , I don't , I don't know how they , how their , their group is now , but when I first started they like that . That group made training fun .

Speaker 1 37:34

Yeah you know , you know , and it wasn't like I never felt intimidated . I never felt like , oh , I'm brown , like I can't do this . No , like they didn't make me feel like that . That other dipshit made me feel uh . On the contrary , they made me feel like family .

Speaker 2 37:47

Yeah .

Speaker 1 37:48

Like from the , from the jump , she goes up , she goes like it was . It was great everybody , it was cool . You know , we we got a lot of good friends there made a lot of good relationships . Yeah , you know , we had a after every shift . We had a go to live bait and have some beers . Yeah , I learned a lot from there . You know , I just like and I I started from from ground zero and moved my way all the way up to becoming a manager .

Speaker 2 38:19

Oh wow At that restaurant and throughout that journey with Tabla and like , you know growing , you know being in the front of the house , and when I mean the front of the house , I mean you know the servers , bartenders , right , and you're growing into every position . Like , did you have a mentor ? That was like guiding you or was it more of like your own self-motivation to learn something new ? I've always had .

Speaker 2 38:46

Uh , people are pushing me like it was a bunch of them that were like you know , keep going , you know within the restaurant , in the restaurant , yeah , management , or more of like your team , both okay , management , and who was the manager ?

Speaker 1 38:57

that kind of like pushed you to like get to the cabin was always , yeah , he was always the guy that kind of you know , oh , you have to do this this way , uh , etc . Etc . Like the steps of service , um , how to talk to guys when , what to say , what not to say to gas and and then a bunch of other team members also were . They were in pushing me as well , got it ? Yeah , yeah , what's a mentor ? Mentor like I didn't really , besides , like chef because chef is like chef was the man like I always looked up to him . Chef floyd cardos , right , chef floyd , yeah , which rest in peace .

Speaker 2 39:36

I know , uh , it was a couple of days ago that uh , they celebrated his anniversary oh really yeah , oh , um , what . So you know a amazing chef , yeah amazing chef , a pioneer big time , yeah , big time .

Speaker 2 39:49

Definitely a pioneer in the restaurant industry . But going back to your um , to your , to your , to your journey in table , um , you had mentioned that . You mentioned that you were going up the ladder , and what I mean by that ? You were going to all the positions and did that ? Going through all those positions made you a better teammate and a better employee for the restaurant , in the sense where you started to understand the hospitality and the business sides of things , or is it more of like I need to get to where I need to be and from a to b , and how I'm going to do it by going up the ladder , did you ? What I'm trying to say is was it really helpful to go through all that , those position , or was it better to just come from the bus or and jump to captain ?

Speaker 1 40:38

no , I think . I think going to those positions were helped a lot because I understand , I understood and understand how hard it is to be a busser yeah how much you need their support .

Speaker 1 40:50

I understand how it was to be a bartender because they're the ones that you know , know the drinks and guide you on . If you don't know it , they're the ones that you know , know the drinks and guide you on . If you don't know it , they're going to guide you . And then same thing for captain . Like I liked going through all those roles because I wanted to learn every single one of those positions , but no , no particular reason . And then once I became a manager the backside of it that's where I felt a little intimidating , you know , because all these managers they went to like culinary , the cia and a bunch of like big um colleges and shit , oh , super intimidating yeah , I mean , here's a kid from fucking queens that went to a like a one semester music school .

Speaker 1 41:34

Yeah , like , what's ? What's he doing in the round table ?

Speaker 2 41:37

in my head ?

Speaker 1 41:37

yeah , of course obviously that's not what they were thinking , because I wouldn't have been there in that round table if I wasn't for my pursuit of chasing that goal that I wanted to take it to get to . Okay , but it was still intimidating , you know you said , chasing that goal , like what ?

Speaker 2 41:52

what was the ?

Speaker 1 41:53

goal . Uh , just to get , get , get to the , the manager , like to the highest rank , oh wow really yeah fortunately you didn't get there because you know tableau closed on 2010 , I believe 2010 , I believe it was yeah so at what point did you start to see this job as not a job but as a career ?

Speaker 2 42:18

Because , I mean , you mentioned you wanted to be a manager . Yeah , so like what was the point when you said , you know what ? I kind of want to do this as a career . What was that pinpoint ?

Speaker 1 42:28

Good question . I think when I became a manager . Oh okay , as soon as I like , because I think as soon as I like , because I like hospitality , I like making people happy , I like the service aspect of it , the beverage aspect of it . I liked all of that . And yeah , definitely from Tableau . The beginning , like as soon as I became a manager , I'm like this is it ? I think this is what I'm going to learn to do and I'm going to try my absolute hardest to be good at it .

Speaker 2 42:58

And when you became a manager manager was it really tough in the beginning , like to learn , learn the , uh , the process , or it was more , you know , you kind of were natural at it well , the the admin stuff was was challenging .

Speaker 1 43:15

That's because I I did it to myself so , so I was terrible at clocking in and out .

Speaker 2 43:20

Yeah .

Speaker 1 43:21

And I always got yelled at for it . So then , when I got promoted to manager , kevin was like all right , I'm going to give you payroll , because you always made my life difficult when I had to do your payroll , so you're going to take the lead on the payroll aspect of it . I'm like fuck , I mean in my head . I'm like it can't be that hard , you know .

Speaker 1 43:41

Then you start to realize you got to calculate numbers and make sure everything adds up . It can't be that hard , but that's not the problem . The problem is the clocking in and out . Got it Because you got to adjust shit .

Speaker 2 44:00

So you know , it's not that hard , it's just annoying . So how do you balance , like learning all this admin stuff as a manager and then also being the creative side of becoming a manager ? You know , obviously the creative side is being , you know able to , you know , express knowledge to your team about , you know , any new cocktail , new ingredients , new dishes . Um , how do you balance that ? Because it's hard yeah , I .

Speaker 1 44:24

Basically , you know , I taught whoever wanted to be taught what I learned how to do . You know what . You know how I got there and you know my story was good . You know I , I was a buster , so I , I , I and I earned Everybody's respect , you know , so nobody really got , nobody really came , got combated with me .

Speaker 2 44:42

They can't lie to you .

Speaker 1 44:43

Basically , yeah , because you don't know the positions , right Like you can Tell me that you're doing this Right when you're not , because I've done it before , exactly so Don't fuck with me .

Speaker 2 44:53

They can't say like oh , this guy came from school and like Don't fuck with me .

Speaker 1 44:56

They can't say like , oh , this guy came from school and doesn't know what he's doing . You know there's people that come from school and they don't know shit . People don't respect them . You got to earn it , yeah .

Speaker 2 45:01

But with you it was more like , well , he was in the trenches . Yeah , exactly .

Speaker 1 45:05

They've always again the team always had my back . They've always supported me . Yeah , it was fun times , man . Yeah , it was fun times being working at Tablo like we'll have one episode , we're just gonna talk about , of course , tablo . Yeah , that's , I love , I love that place .

Speaker 2 45:24

A word that comes around in this industry that a lot of people hear about but don't really understand it until you be there , is family meal , family meal . People don't understand that . That is not in the industry . Family meal for them would probably be oh , meal with the family . Explain to us what's family meal to you just to you , family meal to me .

Speaker 1 45:42

Got me my job .

Speaker 2 45:46

That's right , that's right , absolutely that's what .

Speaker 1 45:49

That's where I met the first like true three-star gm and she liked me and but family's just you know it go . It could go so many ways because I feel like the kitchen people sometimes they get , they get tired of making family meal but , uh , but it brings everybody together , you know it brings you at the front and back of the house together .

Speaker 1 46:11

You know we'll have our little lineup of any menu changes and any any beverage changes and kind of like . Um , just hang out before we get started with with service . Yeah , and it's a good time just to chill and chat for a bit , absolutely , with the team and the team with the management you know , taste some wine , yeah , um .

Speaker 1 46:33

Taste a new cocktail , if there is . Or food , uh , talk about anything that's happening . Or just it kind of got everybody in sync in terms of before going into service , got it right and then on top of that they serve . It was food , good food , good food , right . I mean , I remember deli days , yeah that's what feels amazing daily days .

Speaker 2 46:53

It was great .

Speaker 1 46:54

Like all types of meats . Yeah , paws , cheese and bread , yeah , oh , I miss those days , oh man .

Speaker 2 47:02

Well , thank you for sharing your you know your aspects of Family Meal . I'm pretty sure a lot of people have a different opinion but also will agree with you of what Family Meal is all about For the people out there that don't know what that is . That's just one individual with his opinion about Family Meal , but I'm pretty sure once we start interviewing people from the industry , they're going to have their own aspects of and opinions of Family Meal and what they experience .

Speaker 1 47:25

I love Family Meal .

Speaker 2 47:26

I love Family Meal as well .

Speaker 1 47:27

Oh man .

Speaker 2 47:28

Well , last question Before we go to your , to the other phase of your life , I always ask to everybody here but was there to the to the other phase of your , of your life ? I want to . I always ask to everybody here but like , was there a defining moment that you , that it was a defining moment when you realize a I'm like , I'm the goat in this , like I'm ready for this , like you can't tell me otherwise . It's like one point in your career where you're just like yay , I done this , I'm ready , I'm about to go about it and that and , and this question is going to lead me to our next yeah , yeah because you know you reach .

Speaker 1 48:06

You reach that point where you're like you know what I ? I don't know . I know this , I learned all this . I what's what's next ?

Speaker 2 48:12

yeah , what that ghost .

Speaker 1 48:14

I want to be on top of the , on top of the mountain yeah like I want to be , like don't want to not that there's anything wrong with taking in orders from anybody , but I want to be my own boss . God be , yeah , and you know , fortunately enough opportunity came around and when I took it kind of ran with it .

Speaker 2 48:32

Well , okay , so you went there . Now let's talk about that significant flex . You know with it , well , okay , you , so you went there . Now let's talk about that significant flex . You know , I mean , because that that was a surprising for me and you know , you flexed it and you became partner and owner of a restaurant in in new york city . Yes , so you know , bro , like just to like .

Speaker 2 48:50

Go back to to what you're saying you know , you became this thing where it's like hey , I'm a manager , I know what I'm doing into now a partner and an ownership , like , tell me a little bit about that . Like how , how did that start ? How did you realize ? When did you realize that you were becoming a partner and an owner ? Like , what happened ? What was the storyline to that ?

Speaker 1 49:09

well , we were closing one restaurant but wanted to keep the brand alive . Okay , and it was . It was presented to me if I wanted to take this jump and this lead with my business partner who presented to you chef chef okay and shout out to him . And here we are today . You know , we obviously we've had some bumps , uh , on the road . We knew that the brand was a good brand , a good and chef puts out good food again , like my family , my sisters , my , my brother my wife you know this is gonna work .

Speaker 1 49:42

You know don't . Yeah , because you know you're at that time I I'm like damn , I'm tacking on a loan . Yeah , you know shit starts going to your head . What if I don't pay it back , or whatever ? We should hit the fan . We don't make it a lot of responsibility yeah , you know all that shit

Rising Through Restaurant Ranks

Speaker 1 49:57

goes into your head but you know , thankfully , um people love us . People love our , our food , our service . We moved in .

Speaker 1 50:06

Obviously we moved out from brick and mortar into a food hall okay uh , but we still kept that same level of service in a food hall and I guess that's what people enjoyed . You know , yeah , you're in a food hall , but you know , if you turn , if you turn away from from that aspect of it and you look towards the kitchen , we're running an actual restaurant , like if , like , uh , our little stall , like if it was an actual restaurant and and we did it for six years . You know , clearly the market had to close down . They closed down , not us , okay , um , but you know , an opportunity came around and here we are today with , god willing , hopefully , opening up in early july , early june , mid-june I had a brick and mortar tell me a little bit about the journey in those six years , you know , especially during the pandemic , when things got really really rough .

Speaker 2 50:56

Like how , how was it difficult , challenging , to um , to , to run a restaurant as an owner ? Oh , man .

Speaker 1 51:02

The pandemic was yeah , oh crazy , because again we tack on a loan pandemic hits , the whole world shuts down . Um , we had to adapt . Yeah , you know , and thankfully we didn't have a huge staff where we had to adapt .

Speaker 2 51:14

Yeah .

Speaker 1 51:15

You know , and thankfully we didn't have a huge staff where we had to , you know , let go of so many people . I mean , obviously you never want to let anybody go , but we staffing was always kind of one of those things we had to reevaluate every single time because we sometimes it would just be chef and another cook and we will still be getting slammed because the delivery orders were coming in . So it was , it was easy to adapt because we didn't have that many employees , okay , but challenging because then then we don't have people to cook or people to take orders from .

Speaker 2 51:50

So every day was , kind of like , you know , a challenge , every single day . Man Well , the pandemic was definitely a hard , a hard situation for a lot of restaurants in new york city . So how , how were you able to like what was the uh , the pros and adaption that you made in order to , you know , be above water ?

Speaker 1 52:10

uh deliveries , man deliveries helped out a lot right yeah , they , uh , and , and then also our , our clientele , our clientele , stuck around . They showed us a lot . Game changer , right , yeah . And then also our clientele , our clientele , stuck around . They showed us a lot of support and a lot of people like especially , I'll never forget me and Chef , we got into a little argument on New Year's Because we were just getting destroyed and it was just him and another cook were just getting destroyed and it was just him and another cook and and myself and another and another waitstaff . But the waitstaff , they weren't really making any money , they were just taking orders , you know , not really serving . And well , when I tell you that that that board for tickets was full-on din dinners , jesus , and it was . It wrapped around the whole like bar , all the way to where the the glasses were oh , jesus Christ and with two people cooking that shit was fucking .

Speaker 2 53:09

Did you watch the the episode of the bear , that part ?

Speaker 1 53:13

when like yeah , it was something like that when the chef freaking , freaked out and cursed the chef .

Speaker 2 53:16

it was something like that I . When the chef freaking , freaked out and cursed the chef .

Speaker 1 53:18

It was something like that I could picture chef doing that , but they had a full team and you didn't . We had it was literally Two , three employees . Okay , myself and chef Jesus , and Thank God for our dishwasher , cristino . Christino , shout out to him . I love that man . Yeah , that banged that shit out . Literally big ass dinner tickets yeah , it's coming , just ringing , like you would think oh , you know what , somebody's gonna get a chicken and a pasta no people got salad pasta entree .

Speaker 1 53:50

Fair to say , you underestimated big time I mean I knew we were gonna get hit , but yeah me and chef were just yelling at each other amazing uh , that's a typical day of work , right ?

Speaker 2 54:02

awesome man . Thanks for sharing that , man . I mean , you know , that's just a little thing where you know people don't see that . You know , yeah , people think , oh , we're getting good food .

Speaker 1 54:08

You know I remember he sent me downstairs to go get a quart of of chicken stock . I'm running back up the stairs and I dropped that goddamn court . Just chicken stock everywhere . I'm like , oh shit , shit was just hitting the fan , but we got through it though . We got through it and obviously you know the pandemic was , was , was fucked , but you know cause ? 2019 , when we moved in there , it was strong year , yeah , great year .

Speaker 2 54:36

You were you were about to , about to go about to hit the prime right , but that happened again . Yeah , kind of reached , kind of backtracked .

Speaker 1 54:44

Yeah , set a little .

Speaker 2 54:45

Oh yeah , minor setback , big setback actually how you balance , you know , like your personal life with ownership . You know there's long hours . Yeah , there's things that you have to . You know you worry about a lot of people , right ? Yeah , a lot of people are depending on you and your leadership . How do you balance that with ? Personal life , you know , with your life itself , you know with your wife , with your family .

Speaker 1 55:09

I try to not bring work home and bring home to work .

Speaker 1 55:16

Okay , I've always maintained that and I always kept that , because you know the mass shit goes on at work and when you work in a restaurant or own a restaurant or manage a restaurant , you go home and you go home to your significant other , your wife , your kids , and let's just say you had a bad day at work . I don't want to bring that the little time that I come home and I spend with my wife . I don't want to bring that the little time that I come home and I spend with my wife . I don't want to bring that energy in here because you know I barely see her sometimes , like I'll see her on sundays and and then at night , but she works nine to five . So you know we'd have to like the days that we're together . We , you know we don't bring our work home yeah and same when I leave from here .

Speaker 1 55:55

You know , if me and my wife get into a , a disc , an argument or something , I don't , I don't bring our work home . And same when I leave them here . You know , if me and my wife get into a , an argument or something , I don't , I don't bring it and bring that energy to work , because that's not the kind of energy I want to give to to my team , my team members or or chef or anybody for that matter .

Speaker 2 56:10

So what keeps you grounded outside of work , like what keeps you , like , balanced in a sense Outside of work , like what keeps you like balanced in a sense ? Huh , no , I'm just kidding , you know it helps , it numbs .

Speaker 1 56:21

It numbs the pain .

Speaker 2 56:22

It does .

Speaker 1 56:30

What keeps me , I guess , just trying to stay focused on what's ahead of me . What's in front of me ?

Speaker 2 56:31

I think that's yeah , oh , amazing . Well , now we're going to go to like the future man , like you know , know your reflections on what you , what you experience and what , and what's next for the near . What's next for you , man , for for not only for your , your career and what's happening , but also your personal life . Like what's next , any exciting news ?

Speaker 1 56:51

well again . Hopefully we open our next spot and hopefully we open another spot .

Speaker 2 56:58

Oh wow , okay , so you're trying to expand hard .

Speaker 1 57:01

I think it's time . I think it's time I was just talking to Chef the other day I think it's time for us to , you know , take some , you know , get some investors and

Becoming a Restaurant Owner

Speaker 1 57:12

see if we can pop up in a restaurant elsewhere is this like the first time you're like telling this Because you're hearing it first here In the podcast ? Yeah , I think so . Oh , nice , nice , nice . I would like to retire in Mexico .

Speaker 2 57:27

Oh wow , so you're trying to open one in Mexico . I would like to . That's amazing . I think I mentioned that to you .

Speaker 1 57:31

Yeah , but yeah , you know , just expand . I think expansion is what's my next target , outside of hopefully one day getting a Michelin star .

Speaker 2 57:42

Yeah .

Speaker 1 57:42

That's my true goal . Okay , to get a Okay , or even be in the Michelin star guide . I think our food and our it can hang with , just with the best of them . Yeah , that's me getting cocky right , that is . But you know , yeah , our food and our is , it can hang with , just with the best of them .

Speaker 2 57:56

Yeah , that's me getting cocky right , that is . But you know , yeah , I mean it's true , our food is man .

Speaker 1 58:02

Our food is good .

Speaker 2 58:03

Our food is good hey , you stand by your product , right ? Oh , for sure , that's it that's the brand that's the brand . Yeah , now that you have . Now that you're here , right , and I always ask this question what would you tell the younger Danier ?

Speaker 1 58:16

Don't drink so much .

Speaker 2 58:19

Don't drink so much . No , but in all seriousness , what would you tell Danier , the 13-year-old Danier , getting into trouble , not knowing exactly what's his story from in the future ? What's a piece of advice you could give him to try to kind of switch his gear ?

Speaker 1 58:34

Stay more focused and don't let even though it gets in the way , but don't let , like uh , anything getting in your way , but . But what I mean by that is , like my , my personal yeah things like my when I was younger . The immigration status always in my head . But you know , I did , you can , you can't let that get in your way yeah you know , stay focused , stay humble for sure amazing and stay connected , alright , you know , with your family , especially with your family yeah and be loyal , respect others , respect yourself , respect your parents .

Speaker 1 59:14

Yeah , I did , yeah , but you know I was young and dumb Respect others . Respect yourself , respect your parents .

Speaker 2 59:19

Yeah , I did , yeah , but you know I was young and dumb , but that's why the question . I always ask that question .

Speaker 1 59:23

It's a hard question because I don't know what I would tell my younger self .

Speaker 2 59:27

You never know . There's a lot of things that .

Speaker 1 59:29

I would tell my younger self a lot of things .

Speaker 2 59:30

Actually Be a Yankee fan Never . Well , it's almost that time to be wrapping it up . But before we do that , you know we're not gonna leave without we do some encaliente . Let's go . You know what I mean . So we're gonna ask some rapid questions . I like it and you know , and you go from there , all right thank you all right , I'm listening tacos or bucatini , oh tacos really yeah , all right , all right jordan's or aramax Jordans .

Speaker 1 1:00:03

Cocktails or wine .

Speaker 2 1:00:04

Cocktails , cocktails , all right . Bartender , or mixologist Bartender , I know you hate that word . I always wanted to say that .

Speaker 1 1:00:18

What's your late night ghost snack ? Tacos , tacos . Okay , well , it depends Like when I'm . If I'm like coming home from work and I'm like super tired , super hungry , probably tacos . But if not , maybe like a fruit , okay , like an orange .

Speaker 2 1:00:31

All right , all right . Two more of these , two more of these questions . What's your favorite curse word in the kitchen ?

Speaker 1 1:00:39

What's my favorite curse word in the kitchen ? No mames .

Speaker 2 1:00:44

No mames , all right , I like that , I like that . And then this is the last question who would you go to dinner with within the industry , whether he's dead or alive ? Who would you go to dinner with within the uh , with within the industry , like with , whether he's dead or alive ? Like who you go to ? Like anybody , anybody , like any . Anybody could be a famous chef . It could be just your fellow colleague but anybody that you want to sit down with and just kind of just chop it up , it could be a celebrity you know , yeah , I would probably say , uh , anthony bourdain

Surviving the Pandemic

Speaker 2 1:01:16

anthony bourdain fantastic

Speaker 2 1:01:18

great choice with my wife , like both all of us of course , of course , shout out to your wife and maybe wu-tang , all right , man . And then you know , I'm so happy that I was able to take this opportunity , man , to interview you , man . It's been a pleasure , pleasure doing this . I think that I learned a lot also , even though , like , we've been friends for so long .

Speaker 2 1:01:43

But there's always something new that we should learn about , and I'm just happy that I was able to do so today . But before we go , man , I wanted to tell you this last question All right , if your journey could inspire one listener right there , that's listening , right now you know what would you tell them keep pushing , keep pushing , stay humble , all right , man , I like that well you heard the man you heard the man you know , dania .

Speaker 2 1:02:07

Thanks for keeping it real with us , man , you know . Your story , I think , is you know . That's inspiring me , that's motivating me as well , you know I appreciate I always feel like I'm always catching up to you . You know what I mean . Like we're always like no , but you know what I mean . It's always good to have that . It's always good to have somebody that you're looking up to and kind of want to . You know , chase .

Speaker 2 1:02:27

I appreciate that , because I feel like , if you don't have that person or that thing , then you know you're kind of stuck . Yeah , so you know you're an owner , I want to be an owner . You know I want to be you know , I want to experience all that , so it's really inspiring to me and I hope that it is also inspiring to the listeners out there , because you know this guy , you know , has been through a lot and his journey is a fantastic story . All right , thank you , will it's a fantastic story alright , thank you Will .

Speaker 2 1:02:57

Yeah man , thank you man , and this is this . Is it man ? It was great to interview my compadre . It is amazing . We're gonna wrap it up . Thank you guys for listening to another episode here at Small Talk with Compadre . We love you guys and can't wait for the next episode thanks everybody .

Speaker 1 1:03:15

No-transcript

Future Dreams and Expansion Plans

Speaker 1 1:08:45

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