#114. Bill Chino: Service, Community, and the Arcata Restaurant Years

Bill Chino sits down with Scott Hammond to talk through a long Arcata run in restaurants, bars, and old-town buildings, from The Far Side Cafe and Abruzzi to the newly reopened Plaza Grill. Along the way he tells the story of coming west from Long Island, why he stayed in Humboldt after arriving sight unseen in 1979, and how he thinks about hospitality as a service, community, and simply giving people a good place to gather. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and neighbors, and all those out at sea, Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt podcast. I had to think about which one this was. With my new best friend Bill Chino. Hi, Bill. Hi, Scott. How are you how's that for an interesting?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

I don't think I'm your new best friend. I think we've been friends for over four decades. That's right. We were just talking about that. We figure 85-86. 85-86. Wow. You guys had a was Abruzzi open then, or was it still Abruzzi opened in 88, may have 88, but I think you and I crossed paths when I had the Farside Cafe. Yes, you did, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Was that after uh uh Bret Hart's and downstairs?

SPEAKER_00 1:07

Um Abruzzi was after Bret Hart's The Farside was in between those years. Bret Hart's was in around 77, 78.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

And we opened the Farside in 1985. We you mean you and Chris? Me and Chris Smith, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So did you guys have that prior to running Abruzi or uh Youngberg's being involved with it?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Um I actually was the first owner of that location. I had an Antonio's take and bake.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I bought their franchise, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Um months later, that was going okay at best. Uh Chris was looking to do something. Chris and I were buddies at the time. And he bought into my um subchapter S Corporation. He bought half. Uh-huh. And then over the course of the next few months, uh, due to a weird incident, we opened up the Farside Cafe.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Aaron Powell Remember that? That's in Northtown where the uh whatever it is, Roberto?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah, exactly. Aaron Ross Powell Where 7,000 things have been I think it used to be, I think its most famous location, I think, was Jill's Drive In. Oh, that's which I think was in the fifties or sixties.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

It's going way back. Yeah. I remember it as uh Philly Cheesesteak. Right. Uh something else.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Philly Cheesesteak was at well, way after me.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Yeah. It's been a couple different things.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah. And then we um while we were operating the far side in Arcada, we opened two in Eureka. And then um Brazard Company was looking for a tenant in the old Burgess location. This is Cam Cam Appleton. That was Cam Appleton. Hey Cam. Yeah. Hi Cam, how are you? Uh and that's when it became a brute scene in 1988. Aaron Powell, how about that? So you guys you guys kicked it off? Uh we kicked it off. Um Cam gave us a sweetheart deal. Uh basically they were looking for a tenant. Chris had managed Burghees previously. They were familiar with him. Sure. They were not familiar with me. I was new to the business. Um we got an invitation we could not refuse. Aaron Powell So sold Farsight or just divested and uh I actually sold Farsight to my sister-in-law. Nice. How long did that last? Uh she opened up a place called Rita Murphy's. It was a secondary job for her. I remember but that lasted several years as well.

SPEAKER_01 3:18

Yeah. Boy, the restaurant business, what a trippy deal.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

You used to do it. I don't recommend it. Not for the fate of heart, folks. No, it's not. It's a um it's a lot of hours. It's uh obviously it's up and down. Uh you're working on a very, very tight margin. Aaron Powell All the time. All the time. So you uh you need to work on volume, obviously, which is not easy in a small town or uh any area with a small population.

From New York To Humboldt

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Or in a big one. So being in the restaurant business, let's go let's go way back. We'll come forward into that again. Tell us the uh Bill Chino story. Uh where you're from, where you're raised, what's your what's your deal?

SPEAKER_00 3:58

Aaron Powell What's my deal? Yeah. Uh born in Brooklyn. That's right. You're back East time. I'm a Backeast guy. Uh raised out on Long Island on the south shore of Long Island by the famous Jones Beach. Uh left uh Long Island when I was 18 to go to college in Fredonia, New York. I don't know. Is that upstate? West of Buffalo. Is that upstate? It's upstate. Uh Fredonia. Fredonia. Uh famous from the March Brothers movie, Hail Fredonia. And um spent a couple years there. I found myself uh in 1979 in Georgia and walked all the way to Maine on the Appalachian Trail. Oh, that's cool. Which was my wife Joni's gonna love this podcast. She's a hiker. Well, she's gonna love this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

I love talking to you about that when we come and eat at your new restaurant you're gonna talk about.

SPEAKER_00 4:47

So um I fin I finished the trail, and at the time I had applied to many different universities out west. Um Humboldt State started the latest out of all of those universities or colleges. So I chose Humboldt because I needed time to finish the trail. Wow. How many miles uh was that trail? Uh about 2100, but I would imagine with all the time if you count the times I got lost, I probably walked over 3,000 miles. And all and and walking in and out of towns to resupply and do things as such. Um so I found myself in Arcata, sight unseen. Uh prior to that, I'd only been uh west of the Mississippi once. I'd been to Colorado. So I literally showed up in Arcata late at night, sight unseen. Ready and enrolled at Humboldt. I was enrolled, had no place to live. Um I did find a place eventually, um, and I've never left. Been here since 1979.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

I've talked to several people that just arrived here at midnight with nothing. Just I got off the Greyhound or I'm in my van my Volkswagen van. Exactly. And I had nothing.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

I knew no one, and here I am. Yeah. Well, I knew one person. Uh she was not here yet. She actually had hiked the trail with me. Um she got to Arcata about two weeks after me. Um so I knew one person when I when I m came here. And like I said, I fell in love with it, and uh I think this is the final spot for me. Nice. I don't plan on going anywhere.

SPEAKER_01 6:22

How many years ago is this? 79.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

I moved in 79.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

79, yeah. I came in 78.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

Yeah. Yeah, stayed. Never left. Trevor Burrus, Jr. And raised the ki raised the family here. Trevor Burrus, Jr. You could do a lot worse than Humboldt. You could do a lot worse. And I I've been fortunate enough to travel, I don't want to say all over the world, but extensively, and I can't wait to get back here.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I've always felt that way. Aaron Powell And the air quality is number one in the world. Um I can't wait to use my new props.

SPEAKER_00 6:46

So here it's gonna shine that on my head? No.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

The guy that Toby, my guest for last week, gave this to me today for lunch. He goes, Which Toby? Toby um Toby Tullis.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yes. He goes, Toby Toby um opened up the basement for me. Yes, he did. I was like, oh, you guys have a connection. That's right. We definitely have a connection. Yeah, he said my guest.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

He goes, he goes, don't burn his eye out with it.

SPEAKER_00 7:08

No, he's a good man.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

So this is where Arcada is, right here. This is Eureka. Then Arcada's right here in the North Bay. Right. And then you go north here to Oregon, as you guys back east say. That's right. And then w east to uh Reading and eventually Black Rock Desert, Nevada.

SPEAKER_00 7:25

I'm glad you have that light. I can see the map.

unknown 7:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

I mean just the map. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

The details fuzzy. This is McKinleyville where I live. And there's Bill's house out there by Ben Hurd. Right. How'd you know that? What a great guy. How'd you know I live up there? Well, I I d I don't know. It's kind of new. I don't know. I think I saw you once up there.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

We waved or maybe we talked about it.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

Could have, yeah. Yeah. What a great man he was. We did trees for forty-two years. Oh, it's a great spot for that. Christmas tree, man.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

We used to do, or they used to do, I should say, when my kid when children were younger, on Halloween they did, they came with a big trailer with hay on it and would pick up all the neighborhood children and bring them from house to house. So it was just that group because we're sort of sort of isolated up there. Right. So each house got all 40 kids at one time. At one time. And then we would go to there to the herds and we'd have a bonfire all night. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Gonna miss that guy. He's a legend. Yeah. Yeah. So you were uh raised in New York, New York guy.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

And you went to J C up in F Ferdonia. Ferdonia. University of New York. Is it V or F? Fur? Uh V. V.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

No, F, excuse me. F is in Ferdinand. Ferdonia.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

F-R-E. Okay. So is that a J C or is that two years of just a that's a four-year college? Okay. So you came back west. So you walked the trail? Correct. That's cool. Went to Humboldt. Did you do another four-year program or uh I was in and out.

Falling Into The Restaurant Business

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I I don't know how many But you were. I don't know how many units I have. I never graduated. If I remember correctly, I was think I think I was one class short of graduating. Most successful entrepreneurship. Never got around to it. I haven't done it yet. Never got to it. And I don't plan on going back. Yeah. That's cool. So what'd you study? I was heavy into the sciences. Oh wow. Lots of science, lots of biology. I I think uh if memory serves me correctly, uh it was probably gonna be wildlife biology at one point. Then I studied a little bit about small business administration, and then literally just fell into the restaurant business. Wow. Never being a busboy, never a waiter, uh never a bartender, I became the owner. Yeah. You know, which is kind of which was kind of strange. And I was young at the time. So uh Curly, for instance, Curly Tate, one of my employees, was Hey Curly. Was hi Curly, hope you're well. I think Curly was probably 20 years older than I at the time. And there I was, his boss with zero experience. Telling Curly what to do. Telling Curly what to do. He's probably mellow. He was mellow, but uh obviously uh what he forgot, I'll never know. Yeah. And he could run circles around me, but we got along fine and became um fast friends for life. Aaron Ross Powell And who's a partner too with uh Tux? Uh Curly was never a partner. The only partner in Tux was Chris Chris was my only partner. You and Chris. Yeah. We were it. And you bought it from Tony Tuck. I bought it from Tony Tuck and uh Richard Dryling, I think, is really.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

I don't know if those guys are still alive. They're all gospel outreach guys from Eureka.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Yeah. Yeah. I I I mean I lost touch with them many, many years ago.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Hey Ron, what's up? How's Ron doing, by the way?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Ron is doing good. He had a little uh uh ding on his leg, but I think he's gonna be okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

I haven't uh hello, Ron. I haven't seen you in years. I hope to see you again. I want to bring Ron up for dinner. Yeah, please do. Hear that, Ron? I'd love to see him.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

He'll watch this too.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

Yeah, it's been years.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

It's been years. Oh, he would love to see you. Yeah. Oh, he's he's uh uh his other partner used to call him the travel agent because he loves to eat uh to travel and the fine things of these. We did many caterings. He's an Italian from Philly. Yep. So what do you guys think? Yeah, what do you got to do about that? Anyway, pardon me one second while I uh I'll just admire your shirt while you're busy. Are you are you noticing my shirt here? I love it. My phone never goes off until I get to the podcast booth.

unknown 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:15

Well, it's not me calling you on the phone. Wait, you noticed my shirt? I didn't. How did I not? I don't know. I just this little thing. My eyes aren't that good, but they're they're good enough to see that shirt. But they're burning right now a lot. Well, I if you open that vest a little more, they'll really start burning. Oh, they're like a little bit like that. It's a it's a fabulous shirt.

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Yeah, I was uh I don't know what I just reached into the closet today, Bill. Eyes open or eyes closed. Yes. Yes, oh yes. So I uh I'd probably wear this to the Plaza Grill. I is the the probably the ticket.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So I think you should. I can guarantee you I will not have on the same shirt.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

So you you and Chris and I'll never forget going upstairs to the office, the world headquarters and Ed Curly, and it was like frickin' Mark's brothers, three stooges, um Dumb and Dumber, all of it. And it was like I I just standing there as a vendor, and you guys are very welcoming, very kind. And it was just like I was just peeing my pants. It was so funny. You guys would and it for no real business reason, just going nuts.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

No, uh well, and I think you were a victim of good cop, bad cop quite often. Probably. Chris would be on one side, I'd be on the other. I can't remember exactly what I'm saying. What are you doing here?

SPEAKER_01 12:27

Why are you exactly he selling advertising? He would give you a hard time.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

You're going to be able to do that. That's okay. Maybe we'll look at some. You, I mean, I think I don't remember exactly. I think in the beginning, I think before we signed any contracts at you, it might have been a year. You came back, you always came back, and then once we started doing doing business, we never really stopped. Yeah. I think that's true. But it did take a while to get your foot in the door. Yeah. You were extremely tenacious.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Aaron Powell, Well, that's you when you feed nine kids, you can't.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

I remember you did have a good time in the office, and you always were laughing.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

Oh, I I would love just chuckling. It was so funny. The um It was a zany office. It was zany, and you had that one gal. It was uh Dave, uh what's his name's daughter? Uh the Mormon guy from McKinleyville. Oh, Danica. Danica, she was great.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, she was great. Is she still around? Danica is still around. She is a nurse. How about that? Hi, Danica. Yeah, and she's doing uh she's doing great. Uh she's had a fabulous life. Aaron Ross Powell Oh, she was what she was she's your main audience that was usually there in Nintendo. She was definitely the main audience and our most regular audience. The paid health.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

That was part of her pay.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Exactly. No, she um she kept Chris in check and kept our office running smoothly uh while we were up to the rest of the shenanigans.

SPEAKER_01 13:48

And then Curly, just side note on him, he was uh Jaser Size instructor for years. For years. Man in tights. Yes. And wore them wore them well. He wore them very well. The guy was yoked and he was an Adonis.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

He's 80. He was also, if I remember correctly, and I don't know the year, Curly was also, as a young, I want to say, boy, possibly adolescent, um, an underwear model for Sears. Is that right? Yes. For who? For Sears Robo. Sears. Oh, okay. Like Kramer on Signp. Like Kramer, exactly. So I I heard that directly from Curly, so I'm assuming Was he an athlete too? Did he swim? Was he I thought I heard I don't know. You would think so. He was he had that athletic build of great job. Trevor Burrus, Jr. And Curly, no one still knows how old Curly would be currently. No one really knew his age. Yeah. But I think when Curly was doing jazz or size, he was well into his seventies. Easy.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Easy into his seventies, and I think it continued into his early age.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Yeah, they would go all the time. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

Yeah, great guy. Great stories, great laugh. We had um we had Friday night dinners together all the time, uh he, myself, and Chris, and they were just hysterical episodes. Curly's laughter was he'd always be holding his heart as if it was too much for him. He's gonna have a heart attack. But that's what it looked like, and just cackling and laughing.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

They were fabulous. I love that. So do you go back to the Vance Log Cabin and all their shenanigans in Old Town?

SPEAKER_00 15:27

I never No, that was uh Chris and Curly's venture. Um that was their first venture in California.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

So did they own a restaurant or did they?

SPEAKER_00 15:35

They owned the the Vance Log Cabin, uh both he and Chris.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Which is really legendary.

Old Town Music And Humboldt Nights

SPEAKER_00 15:40

Yeah, it was uh it was a bar with you know darts, they had pool tables, uh, there was music all the time. It was a music venue. And um they wanted to keep operating that, but I if I remember the story correctly, I think their rent got tripled or quadrupled. Because that's and that was the end of them.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

And then Chris, of course, um Chris knew Curly from Chicago.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

Uh they worked for a guy named Rich Millman. And they uh Chris brought Curly into Abruzzi. Okay. Curly was sort of the first guy in. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, and I remember um yeah, Paul DeMarc was here. He's talking back in the day, Old Town had music six, five, six nights a week. Old town was vibrant. Yeah. You could have gone bar and grill and see uh, you know, what's his name and the other guy?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Uh Curtis Salgado and Robert Cray. Cray, I was gonna go to the room. Robert Cray. He played there a lot. And I once again, if my memory serves me correctly, I believe Chris gave Robert Cray his first job in Humboldt County. Trevor Burrus, Jr. How about that? Yeah. Lined him up for a concert. And then, you know, Taj Mahal used to play down in uh Bret Hart's. Right. So there was quite a few, uh quite a bit of talent passing through the area. And uh Eureka and Arcada together were quite vibrant. Trevor Burrus, Jr. So Steve Steve Young was Bret Hart's, right? And uh John Young and Steve Berg. Steve Berg, okay, were Bret Hart's and Actually I'm not sure about that. I think Steve was Bret Hart's, and then he and John collaborated to make Youngberg's Trevor Burrus, which is more upscale- was it? It was upscale and it was the third floor of the Jacoby storehouse uh newly refurbished, just a gorgeous, gorgeous floor plan. And they were sort of the fern bar restaurant, the first one north of San Francisco. Something that looked like that. Delicious. Especially looking that good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

I mean, they were the they were top shelf at the time.

Plaza Grill Reopens With A New Format

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Wait, perfect segue. Perfect segue Plaza Grill reopening. If you're just joining me, it's uh Scott Hammond with 100% Humboldt with my super old best friend.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Former, former, not former, currently.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

Current best friend, uh Bel Chino. Um so I understand Plaza Grill uh in Arcada on the third floor of the Jacobic storehouse opened again last night for the first time. Last night was reopened.

SPEAKER_00 17:57

Reopened um last night. That's all about it. Opening night. Uh uh We're operating under a different format now. Um it's not sit-down service. We have two owners operating under the same roof. Uh I own the bar, and former employees of my are running the kitchen as a separate entity. Very nice. So it's counter service. We'll call it counter service. You have to get up from your table, you're seated by a host, you get up, you buy your food at one location through a cashier, and then you go to your bar go to the bar if you want to buy a beverage of any type. Uh it went very well last night. Um I didn't seat as heavily as as I might normally, but uh it was vibrant, people seemed extremely happy to be back. Um it was very lively, uh, it was well received. Uh people seemed um to be willing to entertain this this new way we're doing business. Old faces, new faces? Uh definitely old faces. Um a few new, but I would say more old. Um what we're trying to do, the concept is we're keeping our overhead low, smaller menu, less food waste, sure, uh fewer employees, and we're trying to pass the savings along to the customer.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Uh my firm belief is that excuse me, it's too expensive to go out to dinner. It's crazy expensive right now.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:23

And we are trying to offer people a break. Aaron Powell, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

I saw that in the menu. I I I go, I how are these guys going to make money?

SPEAKER_00 19:30

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. Well, we hope to work on volume. Um essentially, if the community supports us and we can do our job properly, um, we will support them. We're in it all together. And I I think from what I saw last night, uh I think we've got a a very good shot of um succeeding.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

Aaron Powell Nice. It's perfect timing.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Yeah, I hope so. People it's naturally the building itself and that floor is very inviting. It's very warm. It's got a beautiful bar, it's got Humphrey Bogart's fireplace. Um people are comfortable there. I've served three generations of folks there. And I it's the to me, in my mind, it's the logical meeting place for our community. I I'm talking about Arcada in general. Sure. Um we've got the rotary groups there. We do Right. You got two clubs, right? Yeah, catered vents, two clubs. So to me, it's the perfect spot, and we are getting that response. Beautiful. And I hope it stays this way. Yeah. Shout out to Rotary. Yeah. Shout out to Rotary. Both rotaries, actually. So you do you feed the rotary guys, or is that your uh right now we we had for years, we're just providing them the space to meet, and then they are they are using an outside caterer.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Aaron Powell Gotcha. Gotcha. Yeah. Great, great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

But it's nice to have them there. We've I've watched different people come in and out of the rotary, and uh they are all uh very fine folks. Aaron Powell Yeah. Rotary's cool. Yeah. They do a lot of good work.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Trevor Burrus, Jr. You're not name anybody, are you? There are exceptions to the to every rule. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

Well, I don't I don't know any of them.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Trevor Burrus, Jr. And your bar your bar is all Wallace and Hines, right?

The Basement Venue And Its Crowd

SPEAKER_00 21:07

Uh Abruzzi. No, the both bars are Wallace and Hines. The one in Plaza Grill was Wallace and Heinz's first bar ever built. Number one. Number one. Number two resides down in what is now the basement, formerly Abruzzi was number two. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Let's talk about the basement. I know it's uh Well, you talk about it. Um a music venue primarily in a bar, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:29

It's a music venue. Um it's going very well. We are serving a wide demographic. Uh I say twenty-one to seventy-one on any given night.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

Uh we the music is varied. Uh we've got jazz, we've got bluegrass, um rock and roll, um uh DJs, burlesque. We've got a little bit of everything. What's the capacity? Um the capacity uh it depends on the night. I would say comfortably we can get up to 200 people.

unknown 22:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

That's more of a standing crowd and a dancing crowd.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:06

If we have the swing dancers in, um a few less people, they require a little more space. Sure. But um everybody is getting along in that venue. We've got the young kids getting along with the middle aged kids, nice getting along with the older kids. Um my firm belief is that the younger kids behave better. When the older kids are in the room. We run a um what I like to call a tight classy ship. Nice. I want people to feel safe. Sure. And so far, it has been happening. That's great. I know Claire Bent plays a lot. Claire plays quite a bit. And she continually packs the house. Speaking of classy. Speaking of classy. Hi, Claire. And hi Hi, Chris Smith. Hi, Chris Smith. I'm Claire. We'll be seeing you at the end of the month again, of course. She's playing again. Okay, good.

SPEAKER_01 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

Well, it's like, okay, we're going to stay out late tonight, Joni. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

Right. Well, hence the demographic I mentioned. We do have a wide demographic.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

But the folks my age, 9, 9.30 is a little too late for them. However, that middle demographic, that 25 to 45. They're just getting started at 10, 10. Well, they want to go to three. Yeah. And then the younger kids are 11, 11, 15, and we do close early. We don't do the three o'clock game. We're pretty much done by midnight, 12.30, the latest. And we send that crowd off to other places.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Aaron Powell H has any bands like stayed and just jammed for like overtime?

SPEAKER_00 23:53

Aaron Powell They haven't yet. Mainly we're paying them. They're under contract. It's usually a certain time they're playing to be coming.

SPEAKER_01 24:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

And then our employees, you know, they want to work to whatever their required time is. So if it's 1230, you know, to to to basically respect them, we try to keep it close to them. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Mesks. Yeah. They want to go home. Trevor Burrus, Yeah. Exactly. It's been it's a long shift. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yeah. I feel bad that I haven't uh been to the venue, but now uh I'm coming to two venues.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Aaron Powell Well well you should come to that, Joni? Yeah. You should come to the venue um Saturday. The undercovers are playing. Aaron Powell That's your Is that your kickoff thing? No, that's for uh the basement.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

That's for the basement.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

This coming Saturday. Uh there is no kickoff for Plaza Grill other than just uh uh quasi soft opening. Gotcha. Undercovers are great. Yeah. So this Saturday, should you get a chance? What time are they killing? And I'll uh I'll waive your cover charge. Aaron Powell You will Okay, cool. Well you just save ten bucks.

Pride Regrets And Finding Purpose

SPEAKER_01 24:49

You might just win a prize too. We'll see how you do on your quiz. So uh so uh so hard stop. Uh I want to ask you some questions about Humboldt. Your I don't know, your perspective. So uh I'll I'll just start with the hard questions. And we haven't even gotten to the quiz yet. So uh who who is Bill Chino and and what does he want?

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Um I want exactly what I'm doing. Nice. I've achieved it. Yeah, I I there was no um uh there was no goal in mind, but I'm very happy where I've ended up. Wow. Yeah, I think not a lot of people could say that, Bill. It's wonderful. Yeah, I'm 100% pleased. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, love, love my job, love my family. Um uh easy. I was just uh talking before. Uh I can't wait to get to work in the morning. That's cool. 41 years later. Wow. Up at 5 30 at work? Well, not at work yet. I hit work around eight. Yeah. Um but I I wake up, I'm energized, I I've got plenty to do. It's varied. Uh it's a social job. Um I'm very fortunate. I can't wait to get to work. That's cool. I it's odd.

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Find a job you love, you'll never have to work again. Yeah.

Lawsuits And The Cost Of Compliance

SPEAKER_00 26:02

I think so. And I I've been fortunate. I uh it it was a job I never thought I would have. Right. But I fell into it and it it has worked out perfectly. Counterintuitive. Yeah. You know, enough to raise the family on. I'm comfortable financially. Yeah. Uh all good.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yeah. Well, let's see what AI has to say about you. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 26:21

This is it from AI. I don't do AI, so this is going to be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

Let's see if this tracks or not. Um Bill Chino, Arcada's culinary entrepreneur shaping Humboldt's dining scene. Woo! I like that. It's grandiose. It is. It's a little big, but hey, it's okay. These are fun because they sometimes, you know, AI takes LSD.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

And it gets interesting. Right.

SPEAKER_00 26:48

Well, let's see what you're scared.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Grew up on a farm in Tennessee.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

You're only on the first sentence. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

Um let's see. So left a distinctive mark. Um, entrepreneur, restaurateur, uh driving force behind some of Arcada's most beloved establishments. Plaza Gorilla Brutzi. Um deep passion for a food service and community. I think we haven't said community a lot, but I think I've heard you imply this is a commun community deal.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

That's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:17

That's that's that's it. That's that that's that hits the head of the nail right there.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Aaron Powell Cultivated a welcoming atmosphere where casual meets refined. Does that mean I could wear my shirt in the restaurant or the bar?

SPEAKER_00 27:30

Uh if it's late at night and I've the lights are low, yes. Even if it's early at night and the lights are low, yes. Okay, good.

unknown 27:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

Um let's see. Jacob you you still own Jacoby Storehouse? Yes. That's cool. You bought it from Cant the Appletons. We bought it from the Appletons.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Nice family. Yeah. And Chris was an owner as well. Uh Dorley, his wife, is still an owner. Uh one of our owners had passed away, and then uh we have a third owner as well. Just a quick second. I think his um memorial was outstanding. Aaron Powell Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was uh I thought it was great. It was a great send-off for Chris. Uh 270 people attended. It was beautiful. I I I hope and I think everybody had a good time. I thought it was a really nice farewell. And I think Chris would have loved it himself. Oh, it was it was well done.

Travel Time And Where Bill Eats

SPEAKER_01 28:24

Yeah, yeah. And it had um it had joy. Well, thank you. That was the intent. Aaron Powell What set Bill Cheeto apart is just not just his ability to successfully run a business, but his dedication to the community that supports him. Okay. Well, it's very kind. I hear that. Yeah. Um let's see. Maintaining multiple enterprises simultaneously. I guess that's true as a landlord, right?

unknown 28:50

Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

And we had the the three restaurants running running at one time for quite a few years. Accolades from local food critics. Is has that been true over the years? Uh I don't know. I don't I I don't spend any time on social media. That would be currently. Yeah. Um I really don't know. I mean, we have gotten both Chris and myself have gotten many wonderful cards over the years. And thankful, you know, thank um thank you notes and all that. But uh direct accolades sometimes maybe. Yeah. I'm sure best of Humboldt somewhere. Yeah, yeah. We had won the best of this and the best of that a few times. Yeah, I like it.

SPEAKER_01 29:28

I remember the pasta primavera being really good at season.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

The chicken Friscotti, the Carbonara, I can name them all. Oh, Dodge. And some of those could possibly reappear on the new or in the new Plaza Grill uh in our rotating seasonal menu. Beautiful. So we are bringing back all the favorites, cool. A few things at a time, keeping the menu small and concise.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Love it. You heard it here for first, folks. You did hear it here. Scoop Hammond. Spirit of resilience and creativity that defines Humboldt County's small business community. I like it. And the hustle that I saw during COVID when you were you still the COVID boxes? The COVID boxes. You were servant, and it's like, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

The$10 boxes. Um bottle of wine? Bottle of wine was also 10. Um I I I really enjoyed that. I I think it's a great business model. The fact that people did not have to get out of their car. Um so whether you have two young children in the back seat that you don't have to take out of the car, walk into the restaurant, walk back strapped back in the car, um raining cats and dogs outside, all you had to do was open your window and we handed you your hot food. The bit is the business model is fabulous. Yeah. And it is going to be revisited uh with the new Plaza Grill staff. Get out of town. They're going to do now, it's not going to be in the parking lot. You'll have to come into the building to pick it up, but you will pre-order on your phone or computer. You can pre-pay, and there'll be absolutely no wait. You will arrive between four and five and handed your meal. Perfect. And the the only wait will be if there's a person in front of you. It will be instantaneous.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

Do I understand you're going to use the app for the um get seated? What's it called?

SPEAKER_00 31:16

The dining app? Uh we're using open table. Open table. Great. Trevor Burrus, Jr. And I'm learning about it. It's um it's the algorithms offer all the things that are c in my head that I've been doing for years. What it uh I'm learning about it, and actually some of my staff will deal with it because I'm not computer savvy. Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Those young people. They're yours. And I understand it. It's a little informal for me. What the algorithms don't do is they don't necessarily allow you to make last-minute split decisions. In other words, when I was hosting in the restaurant, if I noticed you had a hearing aid and the room was loud, I was putting you to a different table. I was putting to the best table I could possibly give you. This won't allow for that as much. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah. I think people can change their profiles, but it's not instantaneous enough. So there's no better way than the way I used to do it, but I'm trying to embrace this new technology. Um I'm the Rip Van Winkle of the restaurant business. Trevor Burrus, Jr. I see that, yeah. I I woke up. Well, thank you. You look great, Rip. Not bad for 153. You look great.

SPEAKER_01 32:25

I feel great, too.

SPEAKER_00 32:26

I do feel great.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah, no, good. I and I think um that ability to pivot probably defines a good well-run establishment and a and a major G and an entrepreneur and an owner together. Hey, why don't you guys sit over here? Yeah. Exactly. I have the bar. You know, whatever that decision is. Right. Yeah.

Hours Reservations Menu And Closing

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Yeah. I mean, I think the boxes during COVID Chris and I have always thought long term. You know, we we weren't in the business for five years. We were thinking 50 years. Yeah. You know, obviously he didn't make it. I might make it, we'll see. But we always thought long term, and when COVID hit, I thought, you know, how can I help? Things are tight, people don't have money, uh, everybody's freaking out. I'd like to go out and eat. Yeah, so a little bit of comfort food. Uh we took care that the fact that they didn't have to see anybody, we could mask up whatever it was. Yeah. And we made it as affordable as we could, and it it turned out to be a great success. And people overall were extremely generous. The amount we got in tips was mind-boggling. Wow. Cool. And these were in tight economic times. Oh, yeah. I had people come in for two boxes and give me$100. Sweet.$80 tip on 20.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Not bad.

SPEAKER_00 33:41

So it was great. So I could tell that everybody was appreciative and it I think it worked for all.

SPEAKER_01 33:47

Community.

SPEAKER_00 33:48

Yeah, yeah, no question about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:50

It's interesting how that's true for a a band playing to a community. Sure. Or a a tour. Yeah. And a a business person doing community. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 33:59

Well, I uh to sum it up, I think it comes back to why we're here. You're talking about Arcata and small community in Humboldt County. I think that's why we're all still here. It's a great community.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:13

Everybody chips in. You go to the fundraisers, everybody's supporting everybody.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

You know, night after night after night. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Right.

SPEAKER_00 34:20

And that's it's hard to sustain sometimes. It is hard to sustain. And I I don't think you it's not as prevalent in larger communities.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

And the cannabis boom and bust.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yeah, I live through that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

We've seen it all here. Oh we've seen it. The gold rush?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

The green rush? Yeah, and I saw it coming and I I didn't pivot quickly enough.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Aaron Powell Oh, yeah. No, it's uh Yeah, we talk about that from time to time. Hey, a time for the speaking of time to time, it it's time for the quiz. Okay. Lucky you. Lucky you. How many questions? Oh, uh as many as I want to make up. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:53

Are you are you reading the questions or making them up?

SPEAKER_01 34:56

Yeah. The answer is yes. Yes. So what are you proud of and what do you have regrets about?

SPEAKER_00 35:05

I'm proud of um well, I'm proud of many things. Um I'm proud of my kids. What's it called? Yeah. They're all doing very well. They're all gainfully employed. They're uh they were great kids. They're perfect adults. Wow. Um regrets. Hear that kids? I think they might be listening. Probably not right now, but maybe after the fact that we're see, they'll see this. Um I don't um I don't think I have any regrets.

SPEAKER_01 35:31

Wow. That's strong.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

If I do, they're minor. I don't even have to think about it.

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 35:37

Okay. Yeah. I I like I said, I've been very lucky I've fallen into the right path.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

Wow, man. I you're blessed. I love it. Question number two. Right. Question number two. Um the most heavy-duty setback you've ever had, and what did you learn from it? Or a setback. It doesn't have to be that.

SPEAKER_00 36:00

I think uh some of the big setbacks for me have uh revolved around lawsuits. Um a lot of them that never should have happened. Um we got sued uh years ago for um non-ADA compliance. And being in a historic structure, there was no way to get around it other than paying the money or going to federal court in San Francisco, which every attorney at the time told me we would lose. So we ended up losing$125,000 that we didn't have. And that put us behind the eight ball and made uh business over the next few years extremely difficult. We were strapped.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:44

So things like that. We have had some frivolous lawsuits. Uh we tend to be in the public eye. We've got a big building there. Um You know, it's just about money. I can't argue about it. I wish it wasn't that way. Yeah. Uh when it's justified, I understand it. When it's not, um it doesn't sit too well with me.

SPEAKER_01 37:03

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah. Is this Singleton, the the attorney that went around? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

So you just I was the second one that got sued.

SPEAKER_01 37:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:11

I I know and there was uh there was no way we could win it. Yeah. It was just it was extortion.

SPEAKER_01 37:16

Aaron Ross Powell And he was doing that on the regular, right?

SPEAKER_00 37:18

He was doing it on the regular, and he was actually operating at a building that wasn't ADA compliant, but it wasn't the owner. He was renting.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

He was a freaking hypocrite.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

Yeah. So you know, it was unfortunate. Uh he was doing it all over the place. There were others doing the same thing. Um thank God things have changed. Um The the most unfortunate thing about that entire process was with all the money we gave him, we actually could have made a few corrections that would have actually helped the people in need. Yeah. And that never got done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:50

And therefore, his mission was flawed.

SPEAKER_00 37:53

His mission is flawed.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

You know, and so that that is too bad. And that was a bitter pill to swallow. What'd you learn from it? Um You know, I d uh I I guess what I learned from it is you just keep you keep your head down and keep going. You know, I I couldn't let it destroy me. Right. Um that's about all you can learn from that. And I it's just it came down to money, and I I don't want to argue about money. It doesn't mean that much to me. Amen. Good work. Yeah. Question number three. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

You get the day off tomorrow. You can do whatever you want. No such thing. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard to conceive. If I'm in town, there's no day off. It's a day off. So you're out of town.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

What do you what do you do with a day off? It's a all expensive paid day off. Uh usually if I'm in town, there is no day off. I'm in the building. Okay. I can almost guarantee it. Uh uh leave town and go on vacation.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

So what's that look like?

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Uh vacation for me is great. Uh Sally, my wife, uh, we escape every time we can because she knows that's the only time I will not work. Or if I do it, it's very minimal. It's a phone call. Uh most of the time we visit the kids. Uh my oldest son lives in Australia. Wow. So we go there quite a bit. Right. Um my I've got a daughter in Manhattan. We visit there quite a bit. Wow, opposite size. Yeah. A son in Cardiff by the sea down south. No it well. And a daughter up uh Lake Oswego. So most of our traveling uh gets us to see the family and gets me um out of work. Aaron Powell And Oswego's upstate New York, too? Uh this is Lake Oswego up in uh south of Portland up in Oregon. Oregon. There is an Oswego in New York as well. There's two, okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah. I I know my geometry. You do you do know your geometry.

unknown 39:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Did you hear the one about the map maker that couldn't get a job because he had no sense of humor?

unknown 39:44

No.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

It's like a dad they go.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

That's a dad joke.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

I'll be telling at least five people tonight. So you'll it'll come full circle around to you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

And I'll laugh. Of course you promise to laugh. Um last question. Yes. If you were to eat out in Humboldt County, and it could be it could be anywhere, where would you go? Where would where would you take Susan, your wife? Oh Sally. Sally, sorry. Sally.

SPEAKER_00 40:11

Hi, Sally. Um I'll be honest. I I don't go I don't dine much in Humboldt County because um much of the time I'm too busy. The other caveat there is that someone that might be waiting on me or cooking in the kitchen probably worked for me at some point. So I was always like a big factor. But I've been eating at uh brick and fire a lot, and um I think they do a fabulous job. I have yet to have um uh a bad meal there or a bad service. I uh it's a it's a wonderful spot.

SPEAKER_01 40:47

The folks that used to own Heartbeat started that, right? Yes.

SPEAKER_00 40:50

Were they your partners? I think they were partners years ago.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

What were their names? Um you know, I don't remember, but I'm I should.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:56

No, they were uh it's delicious.

SPEAKER_00 40:58

But we really enjoy that, and uh Larapin's always a great place too.

SPEAKER_01 41:01

Yeah, Paul's done a great job.

SPEAKER_00 41:02

Yeah, Paul does a wonderful job.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Good good man.

SPEAKER_01 41:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:05

Yeah. So those are the two. It's not to say there aren't other good restaurants. Um there's many of them. It's just for some reason, we tend to migrate toward towards those.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Yeah, no, those are great choices.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

Well, guess what? Winter winter chicken dinner.

SPEAKER_01 41:18

What'd I get? Hmm. I see Dick Taylor on the box. I know. You get an official Scott Hammond State Farm IOU. Wow. And I'll let you know off camera what what you want. It's not that shirt, is it? You asked for the shirt.

SPEAKER_00 41:36

I know.

SPEAKER_01 41:38

You win the shirt, you're lucky dog. Yeah. That's uh No, I'll uh I'm good for all my debts, and I I have yet to figure out what your prize is. So Oh good. But it'll be worth something. And uh you know, I might have a good pointer.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

I might obviously I might owe you some money. You might go the other way from our advertising days. That's right. There might be a bill somewhere. There definitely could be. Maybe Ron has some of the bills. I could definitely be delinquent for a while.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

No, you guys you guys did great because we did uh it was back in the coupon days and and people would do coupons again.

SPEAKER_00 42:09

Exactly. Well, I we always loved the coupons because you could see the result. You could count the money. Yeah, now it's hard to tell what you're getting. You don't know where it's coming from. Yeah, it's it's it's a different world. Advertising is a little tougher. A lot tougher.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

Yeah. Although they would tell you online that you could measure it all. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:24

Well, talk about pivoting. You did a you made a wonderful pivot with this. Did I?

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Oh, thank you. I think so. Yeah, no, State Farm's been fun.

SPEAKER_00 42:30

Yeah, I hope you think so.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

Yeah, no, I'm making a difference.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

Oh, good. You are making a difference. No, I'm resonating with a lot of the stuff you're saying. And you have um some of the best commercials on TV. Like Jake from State Farm. Better. Oh, yes. They're better than Jake.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

Oh, you mean my TV commercials?

SPEAKER_00 42:46

Yes, your TV commercials. Oh, okay. I love them.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Thank you. They're very creative. I try you do what I can. Met Jake from State Farm. His name's Kevin.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

Oh, yeah?

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Yeah, great guy. So we do convention every four years and he comes because that's contract, and just a real personable dude. Oh, great. Kevin, do you get 30 seconds of the photo booth and everybody shoots photos for you?

SPEAKER_00 43:07

And he's just a well, I'm sure he's telling his friends that he met you. You know, he probably did. There's no question about it.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

I wore the shirt. There's no question about it. I'm gonna wear the shirt this year. I think you should. What's up, Kev? Jake from Stay Farm. Okay. I like that. So uh where do we go from here? So give us the shout-out then. Plaza Grill, uh hours. How do we find you on your own?

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Right now, uh right now we're Wednesday through Saturday. Uh happy hour from four to five. Okay. Dinner service from five to eight.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Wednesday through Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Wednesday through Saturday. So four nights a week right now. Great. And then um I would think the best way to find us right now is um Plaza Grill Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

Okay. Is there a website? PlazaGrill.com.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

There's a website we had a little problem with it. We're redeveloping, I will know the website. It'll probably be solidified in a day or two.

SPEAKER_01 43:59

And then there's always the app which is called Dining. Uh Open Table. Open Table. Open Table. I guess I don't use it much.

SPEAKER_00 44:06

Yeah, it's there's that one in Resi. Uh we chose Open Table, which seems to be a little more user friendly. Yeah. Uh we're still learning about it. Um most people, two days in, are finding it um relatively easy to use. And it's working.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

It definitely has its blips, but we're we're gonna stick with it.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, new guy in town, in this case, old guy.

SPEAKER_00 44:30

Yeah. You know, the days of the old answering machine, and you know, you come in at four o'clock and there's eighty-two messages for five o'clock preservations. You don't have to do that anymore. Calling everybody's home phone. This is way advanced past that and much easier in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 44:44

Yeah, I like that a lot. So g give us the features of the menu, uh the food menu and then the the bar menu.

SPEAKER_00 44:51

Uh the bar menu, everything is rather uh concise. Um we've got five drink specials. I think there's five or six entrees on the menu. It's very streamlined, it's built for speed. We're trying to get the food out to the table in nine to eleven minutes. Sweet. So that uh people can get on with their lives and you're not waiting forever for it. Wow. Um like I said, the menu is small. We we know what we're making, it takes less people in the kitchen, much less food waste. We're utilizing everything we're buying. Cool. Uh one day in, it's hard to say. We utilized everything we bought last night. We're doing great. We're high. But that's the concept um so that we can pass along the savings. And then as we hear request, you know, where's my favorite this, where's my favorite that, that will appear on the next menu. Then you could do it. The more we hear it, it will appear. I like it. We have all the recipes. So it's a different it's a different formula. So far so good. Um if I come back on your show in a month or two, I can definitely give you a lot more information. A little bit more data. A lot more data. I'll have a lot more tonight.

SPEAKER_01 45:52

So what's the prime what's the prime entree that's uh two or three that are that are big, right? Burger?

SPEAKER_00 45:57

Uh the burgers on there. We've got the meatloaf, which was a big favorite over the years. Sure. We've got the coconut risotto. Sweet. We've got the um we've got the fettuccine alfredo, the Cajun Fettuccine Alfredo. Sweet. Little spicy. A little spicy. We'll be bringing the fish tacos back and all the other favorites from over the years. Uh right now we started up with probably the simplest of all the menus, just to get our feet under us. Um I well, we uh I haven't been upstairs in the grill for a year and a half now. Uh these employees that have taken over, about the same amount of time for them. Wow. So, you know, we we redesigned the kitchen a little bit. We updated the grill slightly. My intent is to uh any profit that I make, I'm putting back into the um into the building.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Um we've got some deferred maintenance that I need to take care of. Aaron Powell Sure. Old building. The old building, and uh we've got lots of things to fix. Floors, bathrooms, et cetera, et cetera. We're going for the constant upgrade. Aaron Powell And the happy hour includes what? Happy hours just a couple of items that are on the menu. Uh lower prices, smaller portions. So it's three or four items.

SPEAKER_01 47:07

I mean the bar the bar side. Let's talk about the bar side for a second.

SPEAKER_00 47:09

Uh the bar side is just uh reduction on drinks and cocktails.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

Wine and beer and then a water.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Wine beer and uh some of the specialty drinks, a couple dollars off.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

Great.

SPEAKER_00 47:18

Yeah. Well, that's real simple. Yeah. I like it. I like it simple. Yeah. It'll keep it simple. Yeah, and it uh we wanted to make it simple because there's so much going on and it's so different than it was in the past. We didn't want to spend 20 minutes at every table explaining what the new process was. So we streamlined it as much as we could. Uh last night, um uh the woman that was hosting uh you know spent an extra minute at every table telling them what to do, how to order, where to go. Nice. And um, like I said, people were extremely receptive.

SPEAKER_01 47:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

And it surprised me actually. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah. That's cool. And you have some music at some point, maybe I don't think we'll do the music up there. We'll encourage people to go down to the basement after dining. Hey there. Because the times dovetail. What time is the basement open? Basement opens 7.30 on Thursdays and usually 8.30 on Fridays.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

And shows are usually 8 to 9-ish?

SPEAKER_00 48:08

Uh they start anywhere from 8 to 8.30 to 9.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:11

And we usually end around midnight, 12.30. And hopefully we'll do some cross-promotion to maybe those folks that finished dinner upstairs may like to come downstairs and enjoy some music. We might waive the cover charge or uh maybe a discount on a beverage downstairs, something to entice them to stay in the building. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Boy, that's creative. Yeah. So you said downstairs has uh also a Wallace and Hines original bar? Number two.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

Oh, yeah. Correct. Woo. That's cool. The one downstairs is much smaller than the one upstairs, but still the same great quality. I just had lunch with Tom Hines. Hi, Tom. Oh hello, Tom. How are you? And then there's Tom Taez, right? Is that how you say Taez? Tom Taez was the owner after them, and then Tom has sold Wallace and Hines to someone else. I think I heard that. Yeah. So Tom's uh semi-retired now. Crazy. And I did see Tom last night. Hello, Tom. Hey, Tom. Thank thanks for stopping by the grill. You'd say hi to him up here. Hi, Tom.

SPEAKER_01 49:03

What's up, Tom? Great guy. Great guy. Yeah. So uh speaking of retirement, so that's probably not in your lexicon or your vocabulary much, huh?

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Not a full retirement. I would like to slow down just a bit, uh, do a little more traveling, but I do like keeping my fingers in the pie, so to speak.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:23

Keeps me active, keeps the brain sharp. Aaron Powell.

SPEAKER_01 49:26

We have uh a son in Seoul, South Korea, so not that far from Australia.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

We're all talking about going to Seoul, so I hope I hope I make it there as well. I hear everything's great about Seoul, Korea. Aaron Ross Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 49:38

No, not much English. No, not much at all. You better So get ready for uh he's got language barrier. This guy's traveled the world. He goes, dude, dad, uh my full-time job is learning Korean. Right. I can't even navigate the sea. Trevor Burrus, Jr. is not that easy. Aaron Powell No, apparently not. He's he's really uh struggling, but I think he'd probably be okay. Are you gonna visit there? Oh yeah. Okay. We're waiting for the yeah. Yeah, not yet. They just moved about three months ago from Amsterdam.

SPEAKER_00 50:03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

So they went across two ponds to get there. So she worked at Nike, which was a terrible experience. And now she's at Samsung on the AI side. So there's um we'll see. Uh you know, we've been we haven't quite been invited, but I think we will be able to be cool. Um so let's talk about uh we're as we wrap, uh let's talk about you being remembered. How would you like to be remembered? You just you just got to remember a guy that was a memorable guy. How is your what is your legacy?

SPEAKER_00 50:34

And I think my legacy would be similar to what was spoken of at Chris's ceremony of life. You know, kind of born to serve. Yeah. I mean that's what we do.

SPEAKER_01 50:45

I like that.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

And I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

He's so proud of his Marine Corps background.

SPEAKER_00 50:49

Oh, the military service. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_00 50:53

Yeah. I mean, you know, you're always a Marine, and um that was a highlight for Chris.

SPEAKER_01 50:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

And you know, he I uh uh as his brothers spoke of, I'm not sure what actually transpired over there. Chris didn't talk about it much. I mean, he talked about being Marine, but that was about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

Yeah, the cadre of the dudes.

SPEAKER_00 51:12

Yes. I'm not sure what he saw and what was good, what was bad, but uh it wasn't spoken of too often. Yeah. So I think a lot of that's yeah, I mean, I'd like to I think I'd like to be remembered you know, providing people with a good, fun time.

SPEAKER_01 51:25

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 51:26

You know?

SPEAKER_01 51:27

That's about it.

SPEAKER_00 51:27

It's simple.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

I like it. It's easy.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

You got a phrase on your uh tombstone that you uh I'm not sure there's gonna be a tombstone. I will um be scattered somewhere. I like it. I'm not sure quite where yet. Um it's not that important to me at the moment.

SPEAKER_01 51:43

It's not my priority right now.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

There might be a kernel or two scattered around plaza grill somewhere, but we'll see. I'm not sure how legal that is.

SPEAKER_01 51:50

We had a guy come in, he goes, you know, I'm not gonna be cremated, but I am gonna be scattered over the ocean. Go on. Wait, I don't think so. What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_00 51:59

Leg over here, arm over here. Go on. That's not happening. Unsee that. That's not happening.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Yeah. So well, thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

Well, thank you. I uh appreciate the invite and I had a wonderful time. Yeah, so it's nice to see you.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

And you, my friend. Uh we'll see you soon. I'm gonna bring Joni and um our friends, David, and Cheryl. And then I've got to bring Ron Pellegi. Yeah. And remember, you have to make an online reservation.

SPEAKER_00 52:21

Aaron Powell What's the name of that, Resi? Uh Open Table. Open table. Or you have my cell phone, which is some people circumvent the open table, but try not to.

SPEAKER_01 52:30

The old school. No, I would do that.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

But I can assist you with understanding the interview.

SPEAKER_01 52:35

If I get lost, I can't find the storehouse. So one more time, you're at the Jacoby Storehouse, third floor.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

Third floor.

SPEAKER_01 52:42

Plaza Grill Wednesday through Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 52:43

Wednesday through Saturday, four to eight.

SPEAKER_01 52:45

And dinners only. Dinners only. And we can find you on Facebook. Correct. And open.

SPEAKER_00 52:50

Plaza Grill Facebook.

SPEAKER_01 52:51

Sweet. Good luck to you, man. I think you're going to kill it. Thanks, Scott. It's going to go great. God bless you. I appreciate you uh helping us promote. Hey, man. Uh yeah, this will pr this will self-promote. I know. I better get back there. My man, oh, you got to go. That's right. My man Nick's going to make sure of it. Hey. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Nick. Yeah. Thank you, Scott. Scott Hammond, 100% humble podcast. Thank you. And uh we are uh wanting you to like us, love us, send us money, uh, make comments. Heavy on the money. Heavy on yeah, yes. And um, yeah, we're on all the podcast platforms and YouTube and uh like us, love us. And uh we'll see you next time. Signing off. All right. Thanks, Scott. Thank you.