Chef George Elias - Award Winning Chef Shares His Culinary Path

With two pints of Garrison Red and a milky looking glass of Arak, we cheers (or Bisehtak) to Chef George Elias of Au Liban Lebanese Restaurant. 

We dig into the textures of Lebanese cuisine—silky hummus, smoky baba ganoush, roasted pepper muhammara, crisp cheese rolls, and a honey-kissed feta fusion roll—while unpacking how a great spread (mezza)  invites people to slow down and connect.

George traces his path from culinary school in Lebanon to hotel kitchens in Iraq and Dubai, then to Canada through a serendipitous call that changed everything. He shares the pride of being named 2025 Lebanese Professional of the Year at the Cedar Maple Gala and the deeper story of Halifax’s Lebanese community shaping the city’s culture. We explore the mezza mindset—why a generous menu isn’t excess but expression—and how he balances authenticity with accessibility, from manakish and za’atar to the elevated Lebanese tartare, kibbi nayeh.

Beyond flavour, this is a masterclass in hospitality. George talks leadership under pressure, the value of systems, and why service details matter as much as seasoning. He opens up about the grind—holiday prep, quiet New Year’s, breathers in the walk-in—and the intentional growth behind sold-out Lebanese Nights. There’s heart here too: a focus on building stability, buying a home, and starting a family, all while keeping Au Liban warm, vibrant, and welcoming to everyone.

Pull up a chair and let the chef lead the way. If you’ve ever wondered what makes a restaurant truly great—kitchen trust, cultural pride, and the willingness to serve with care—you’ll find it here. Subscribe, share with a friend who loves mezza, and leave a review with your must-try Lebanese dish. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome Au Liban And The Mezza Spread
• 2:59 Arak 101 And Perfect Pairings
• 4:04 Honours At The Cedar Maple Gala
• 8:54 Roots, Family, And Moving To Canada
• 13:43 Lebanon’s Coast, Fishing, And Nightlife
• 19:33 Trusting The Team And Kitchen Culture
• 24:53 From Culinary School To Halifax
• 29:13 Manakish, Za’atar, And Menu Philosophy
• 34:23 Service Excellence And Running The Floor
• 38:13 The Bear, Pressure, And Leadership
• 42:33 Work, Life, And Building For The Future
• 47:48 Lebanese Nights And Community Demand
• 50:53 Ten Questions With Chef George
• 1:01:12 Closing Toast And Key Advice

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:14

Cheers. Welcome to the afternoon pint. I'm Mike Tobin. I am Matt Conrad.

SPEAKER_02: 0:20

And I'm George Lies.

SPEAKER_03: 0:21

Welcome, George. Thank you. Well, I'm gonna run back that cheers really quick, George. How are you supposed to say cheers? Okay. So there we go. Chef G. This is already one of my favorite episodes because I've never seen such a beautiful assortment of food right in front of us before we even start recording. This is amazing. You're at the right place.

SPEAKER_02: 0:42

So where are we? We're at Olivant Lebanese cuisine in the heart downtown of Halifax. Oh my gosh, man.

SPEAKER_03: 0:48

This looks amazing. Thank you. And I mean I recognize grape leaves. I know some Lebanese foods, but I'm kind of a little bit green on Lebanese foods. I grew up on Donairs, but I guess it's somewhat limited, right?

SPEAKER_02: 0:58

So that's the authentic Lebanese cuisine, like Lebanese food that you see here.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02

Okay, beautiful. So walk me through some of this just for the listeners. Some people who are just listening to the show, too, so we can kind of describe it a bit, I guess.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08

Well, we have here a mix of uh what it called here at the restaurant is the trio. And we have the hummus pesto, that's his favorite. Oh yeah. Okay. And that's here the Mohamara, it's roasted red pepper dip. And here's the Baba Ganoush, that's the eggplant dip. Okay. And right there we have grape leaves. Grape leaves, yeah. Yep. Here we have the cheese rolls stuffed with the mozzarella cheese and halloumi cheese. Oh, and right there that's our signature. That's the feta fusion roll uh with harissa and dates and feta cheese. Wow. Topped with smoked honey and black sesame seeds. And you you have the fresh puff bread right here. The presentation's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03: 1:43

Thank you. Yeah, and I love the puff bread. It looks like uh yeah, looks like uh just for the just for the sound, like oh, there you go. Thank you. Well, for the ASMR folks, exactly. ASMR. There you go. There you go. There you go. Oh my god. Look at that. Look at that. Maybe this is an entire episode we should just eat. There you go.

SPEAKER_02: 2:01

Why even look at that cheese pull? Oh my gosh. And just like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:05

Okay, so this is the first time I've had these the Feta date rolls. Feta Fusion, yeah. Yeah, these are awesome. Holy smokes. I've had I've had a lot of things on your menu, but this is the first time I've had this and wow. Okay, it's one of my favorites, actually.

SPEAKER_03: 2:16

Wow. So, gentlemen, if you're listening to this show and you're or ladies and you need a good date night, my god, there you go. This place is going to impress, isn't it? Oh yeah. Look at the place, it's beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. Oh yeah. With the araq. Got some good drinks.

SPEAKER_02: 2:30

So there we go. We got the araq. Don't forget that.

SPEAKER_04: 2:32

Yeah, yeah. So you were telling us about this. Well, yeah, let's let's.

SPEAKER_03: 2:34

So we're drinking beer as we normally do. What are you having?

SPEAKER_02: 2:37

Yeah. That's the traditional, actually, uh Lebanese um liquor that goes with the meza.

SPEAKER_03: 2:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 2:43

That we pair it with the meza.

SPEAKER_03: 2:44

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02: 2:45

And uh it's made from um two ingredients, based ingredients that's a grapes and fresh anise. Okay. And it's distilled for like three times for like hours and hours. And um, and uh it's actually like uh have like um a clear um color. Oh, okay. And when you add water to it, the anatol oil in it and the in the anise, that will give it that color. Kind of that milky color it is now, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 3:10

But trust me, it's not milk. Well, I saw the bottle, it said 53% proof, right? Which is a pretty good, uh, pretty stiff drink. Oh yeah, it is, it is.

SPEAKER_04: 3:20

So yeah, so uh I I in I mean I can maybe speak a little bit out of turn a little bit here, but I think we are in one of the like you know, the restaurants in Halifax, is in my in my opinion. Um, I think that uh you know you've just created such a great spot here. Uh I I you're one of my favorite restaurants to come to, not just because I like you, but your food's incredible, and I just think it's really, really beautiful here. Um but yeah, you you've created a spot in downtown Halifax that feels as close to like a large city, high profile spot. Because every time I'm coming here in the evenings, you're always seeing people who have, you know, are known in this place. Oh yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:06

So congratulations. Thank you so much. Well, without without my business partner, uh Abud Zuri and his family, yeah, shout out to Abud.

SPEAKER_04: 4:14

Um and we will get yeah, we'll talk a little bit about your start, uh, about that, because I know you kind of you've you've worked with him on other things before, I think, but yeah, um just to kind of uh high-level things. So you're the uh uh 2025 Lebanese professional of the year.

SPEAKER_02: 4:30

Yes, sir. Cheers of that, man. Cheers, man.

SPEAKER_04: 4:32

Thank you, appreciate you. Yeah, that was uh pretty uh these fusion rolls are amazing. Are they right?

SPEAKER_03: 4:38

Oh my gosh. Oh yeah, for real.

SPEAKER_04: 4:40

I told you. They're so good. So that was the one of the biggest moments in my life. Had to be, right? Like, yeah. It was at one of my favorite events of the year, which is the Cedar Maple Gala. And that's where I met you. That's where we first met, and it which feels like years ago. Yeah, but it was only like six months ago, but I feel like I've known you for years, man. Oh yeah, yeah. That was a big night. Yeah. Walk us through some of that.

SPEAKER_02: 5:02

Like talk talk a little bit about like how that how you found out and like how you just your well, I didn't actually like um uh knew about the whole event that's happening. And um I got a call um from the president of the Lebanese Chamber of Commerce.

SPEAKER_04: 5:18

Norm.

SPEAKER_02: 5:19

Norm. And um he I was actually at the restaurant, and he was like, Yeah, you have like a couple of minutes to talk about things. I'm like, yeah, I I didn't know, like, I thought he was just gonna he wants to book for like an event or something for the chamber. And um he was like, uh, I would like to let you know that uh the we voted for you to be the Lebanese professional of the year, and we're gonna give you that award. Well, and I went on silent. Oh, I bet. And I was like, I I I don't know what to say. Yeah, and he was like, and that's what I said to him. I was like, um, thank you so much. I I don't know what to say. And he was like, You better know what to say, or like you better prepare yourself, you better prepare a speech for that. Yeah, and um, I was just first thing I did, I just I just called my family back home. Yeah, I was like, this happened, that's something big in the city, and and and probably that night there was like 800 plus people at that event. That was the the biggest, actually. Oh, yeah, yeah. Um, the gala. That was the one of the biggest gallas. And uh I when I was there, I felt like I'm I'm going to do like my final exams. Like there's a lot of people around, and and and no one no one knew. Um the only people that they knew that was the board of the chamber. Right. And um, but when we sat on the tables, um, we just start opening um uh the kind of like the menu that they have about the whole event, what's happening, and people start to see like who was like the award winners. And a lot of people came to the table, like, congrats, chef, like we're so proud of you. And I was like, and that's when I start like, okay, I'm I'm sweating, I need to calm down, I need to calm down. But it was one of my biggest moments. I got on some point a little bit emotional, not gonna lie about it. Oh yeah, and uh uh I was so proud of myself of what we did, uh, what I did, my team, and everyone, because without them, I I I couldn't be here.

SPEAKER_04: 7:14

Yeah, yeah, it's it's uh it's a particularly cool thing because you know anyone who's listening who's not from Halifax might not realize that Halifax has a very large Lebanese community. Yeah. And the Lebanese community essentially has really helped in many ways shape and build Halifax to where it is today.

SPEAKER_02: 7:34

That's true.

SPEAKER_04: 7:35

Um, so it's I think it's a really special I think it's a really special thing to get awarded, like, I don't know, like something there's a there's just something something about Lebanon that I think people get connected to, right? From here, right? And I'm not Lebanese, but there's just something about it. It wants to be, you can tell, right? Because he's gone and he's trying to get up spot. Yeah, stop drinking out first. Well, there you go. I just I just I don't know, there's something about like every single like person, like every single Lebanese person that I've come across in my life, and everything, they've just been such good people, they've been such welcoming people. Yeah, um, and they just give so much back. And you know, Halifax is I'm born and raised here, my like you know, like it's it's my home. Yeah, and to see so many people from and I mean many people are now at this point, like three, four generations of live and living here, but just I don't know. I just I get I get I get really appreciative of the what has done here uh and what has been built up here. So I think it's really cool that you get to be recognized as Lebanese professional of the year, uh in I think, you know, the Canadian kind of I don't know the how to say it, but like the Canadian stronghold of Lebanese people kind of thing, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Oh yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_03: 8:46

So let me ask you this. So you talk about your family back home. So so you know, you called your family back home when you won. Like whose family back home and who's here with you now?

SPEAKER_02: 8:54

I don't have anyone here.

SPEAKER_03: 8:56

You're here on your own.

SPEAKER_02: 8:57

Oh my gosh. I'm here by myself, yeah. Okay. I've been here. I moved to Canada back in uh 2017. That was October 2023, actually. Uh like in a couple of days, I'll be here for eight three years. Oh, there you go, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 9:08

All right, what was the initial move reason? Just um school?

SPEAKER_02: 9:11

I just no. I actually uh I work in a couple of different uh uh places in Lebanon, uh Middle East too, and in Dubai and Iraq also. And I got to a point like I have to just start a new beginning. Okay, and um that's when I met my business partner right now that I used to work for him at his restaurant before too. Okay, yeah, and um I moved to to Canada. That was like I need to do like I need to start something else, something new for me. And uh when I say back home, my whole family's still back home. My mom, my dad, my sister, yeah, my brother, he's in the Czech Republic actually. Okay, he lives there too, and uh, and I'm the youngest. I'm the youngest in the family.

SPEAKER_03: 9:50

Brave soul just ventured out. Oh yeah. Right on. Oh yeah, yeah. So um, you know, uh, are you you know, do you fly home often? Do you go back often?

SPEAKER_02: 9:59

Actually, I went uh this year. I went the end of August until uh September 25th.

SPEAKER_01: 10:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 10:06

Uh since I moved to Canada, I never went back home uh during summertime. So that was my first time being here during summer. I saw your pictures there. I mean it looked like you had a blast. Oh my god. Lebanon is something else. Lebanon, like like it's just like you know, family, uh friends. Um like I'm I I love like like like going fishing and like Lebanon, it's it's something huge. Fishing's big in Lebanon. Oh my god, big fishing?

SPEAKER_03: 10:32

Yeah, like rail and rod, there's fire fishing, rolling, deep sea fishing, tuna, everything.

SPEAKER_02: 10:36

Okay, everything.

SPEAKER_03: 10:37

And what sea are you fishing from Lebanon? I'm sorry. What's that? What sea or what ocean are you fishing in from Lebanon? Mediterranean. Mediterranean sea. Mediterranean Sea.

SPEAKER_02: 10:44

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, man, the nightlife in Lebanon, the food, the street, it's just it's just amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 10:50

Amazing. What kind of fish? I'm sorry, I'm stuck on the fish, man. What kind of what do you what are you pulling for like fish at a actually?

SPEAKER_02: 10:58

When I was there, uh was the season of uh bonita fish. That's what I call like the fake tuna. Ah, yeah, yeah. And I have an and I made like a nice reel on uh on my Instagram, like me and my best friend, we were like going out, like going in the middle of the sea like fishing. Oh, dope. And we actually after that, we just like had like had to like just do some sashimis. Yeah, yeah. From from the bonita and like cooking it on the grill, and just like we're drinking our rat too.

SPEAKER_03: 11:23

Beautiful. How much does uh one of these fish weigh?

SPEAKER_02: 11:26

Like oh, it's like a tuna, like huge? Like no, that that that was around like saying kgs or pounds.

SPEAKER_03: 11:34

Uh whatever you want. It's in Canada, right? We do both, I think. We do both, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 11:38

We do both. That was that was like that was around uh six to eight kgs each. But like tuna now. It's still a heavy fish. Tuna now my friend he he caught actually like uh one of my friends in Batroon, that's where I'm from, yeah. Yeah, Lebanon. And uh he caught one actually last week was 90 kg uh bluefin tuna. Oh, it was uh it took him 13 hours. What did he do you know what he got for it? Those things go for a crazy amount of money. Oh, let me tell you, he he we will never sell uh what we call it actually. Yeah, yeah. We we just invite our friends, and that's what I actually did. Really? I'm not joking. The whole town was there like drinking and like eating and whatever. Yeah. Sounds like a party. Always fishing and drinking.

SPEAKER_03: 12:58

Always too, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 12:59

Yeah, from your pictures, though, you're saying nightlife and stuff like that, but from your pictures, it looked like you were mostly in the countryside.

SPEAKER_02: 13:05

Uh I mean, to be honest with you, um, everywhere in Lebanon, there's uh there's doesn't matter where you're like on the and in the mountains, yeah, on the beach, there's always something to do for fun when it comes to nightlife. Right. And the village, uh I'm telling you, in my town, yeah, we we never sleep. We never sleep. That's it.

SPEAKER_04: 13:27

So I mean that that being said, being there though, um, was there any fear? Because obviously there's a lot of hostility going on over there right now. No, not at all. No fear, no, no, no fear.

SPEAKER_02: 13:35

It's just like when you're home, you're home. No, oh, I get that. No, that doesn't matter what's happening around you. We just try to you try to enjoy your time as much as you can and be around the family.

SPEAKER_04: 13:45

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. No, that's awesome, dude. Like I think that's awesome. It was probably well deserved to, you know, you guys you guys work hard here and you probably had a very busy summer.

SPEAKER_01: 13:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 13:55

And it's awesome that you could go for the whole month of September and actually trust your team to keep doing the you know things and keeping the standard that you would, you know, as if you were here.

SPEAKER_02: 14:03

Oh yeah, I I got to a point right now I I fully trust my team. Um the way they run the operation in the kitchen. I mean, um they're they're like they've they've been with me since like since almost we start.

SPEAKER_01: 14:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 14:16

And um day following recipes, presentation. I mean, I never I never made anything of this right now. They that's beautiful. That's a theme work.

SPEAKER_04: 14:25

Yeah, yeah. And you know what? Like that's uh that's uh hard hard to do in this in this restaurant industry. It's hard to keep people, yeah, and it's hard to um, you know, it's hard to just kind of keep that consistency because I mean obviously people can rotate out and everything like that. Like how do you do it? How do you how do you how do you keep your staff like how you know?

SPEAKER_02: 14:44

Well, as much as um my staff, like they're doing their job, yeah. Um, they're keeping uh what I thought them from day one. Uh consistency, uh the taste of the food, the presentation. If they gave me what I want, yeah, I give them what they want. It's very very easy. I'm very um listen, I'm I'm very flexible. Lately, I'm being very flexible. Everyone knows when the case. It sounds like that's something you might have learned a little, eh? A little bit. Lately, like, oh my god, the chef is here. I'm like, it's okay, guys. Take it easy, it's okay.

SPEAKER_04: 15:17

Do whatever you guys are doing. I got to see a little bit of his harshness because we had chip.

SPEAKER_03: 15:21

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 15:21

We had chip in here, and we've done a couple of videos.

SPEAKER_03: 15:23

Oh, I saw the promotional videos of chip.

SPEAKER_04: 15:25

Yeah, we did a couple of them there. I mean, we had one video that like it's like seven million views or something like that now.

SPEAKER_02: 15:32

There you go, something like that.

SPEAKER_04: 15:33

6.7 million people have seen his food. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 15:37

Just on Instagram. Yeah. Right? Which is great. He had me laughing the way he was eating the like it was it was my the night he sent that video over to me, I think it was before he put it online.

SPEAKER_02: 15:46

The way he just like, you there's no fork, no, nothing on the table. It's like that's it.

SPEAKER_03: 15:50

The way he slapped the slapped the hummus, though. He had me laughing. I mean, uh, I mean, oh my gosh. I think I said it right there to Matt that night. I was like, that's I think that's my favorite video you've ever seen yet. It was it was fantastic, right? It went viral, actually.

SPEAKER_04: 16:02

And it did go viral, and then but then we also did like the follow-up where we did it in the kitchen, so that's actually. I was the camera guy when Chip, and so he was in there bossing uh Chip around me.

SPEAKER_03: 16:10

He was a hard, he's a hard head to kind of get work around.

SPEAKER_02: 16:13

Walked into the kitchen, he was like, Okay, we have to do this, this, and that. I'm like, there's any script that we can like just be yourself. I'm like, are you sure about that? Yeah, I'm like, okay. Well, if we can handle it.

SPEAKER_03: 16:23

If it's funny though, like so check out Chip's socials or uh your socials if uh if uh to see those videos, they're fantastic. They are, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 16:30

A couple things you were giving hard time and stuff like that. It's good, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:32

Always I gotta go like ask again now. So you were a chef, you were a chef in Lebanon, correct? And you were a chef here. Like, so what was the story? Why did you want to become a chef? Why'd you stick with it so many years? Why? Um all goes back to my mom.

SPEAKER_02: 16:46

Yeah, yeah. Um when I was around like 11, 12 years old, uh, I was so curious about like uh what she's doing in the kitchen, what type of food she's preparing. I want just to learn this, I want to learn that, I want to help her. Um I wasn't that tall back then, so so very tall now. So she used to put a chair beside the stove. Yeah, and I don't know what was what I was doing. She was like just stir the pot. And since then, I started just like asking questions. What's in this? What's in that? How you chop this type of vegetables, why you're using that kind of meat.

SPEAKER_03: 17:22

So you f you were fascinated by it right from the inception.

SPEAKER_02: 17:25

Yeah, and I started to like um try to make my own plates when she cooks something at home, like like try to do like some presentation, like do some garnishing. And I was like 12, 13 years old.

SPEAKER_03: 17:36

Yeah, and we was were they immediately oppressed, or did they kind of laugh at you at first, or how was it?

SPEAKER_02: 17:39

They they will show me that they're impressed, but they're not at all.

SPEAKER_03: 17:44

Oh, good job, son. Oh, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 17:46

They must be very impressed now, though. Yeah, big time. Came a long way, eh? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 17:50

Have they come over to visit you? Never, never, no.

SPEAKER_02: 17:53

It's it's not easy. Yeah. Um uh because mom and dad, like um well, our second language is like French, actually. Yeah, that's right, yes. But don't don't even try to ask me any talk French right now. Uh uh. Oh, his second language is French. Lebanese people, yeah. Our second language is French.

SPEAKER_04: 18:09

But my wife's school is like 50% Lebanese. I didn't know. Oh my gosh. There you go. He speaks a little French.

SPEAKER_03: 18:18

Yeah, yeah. My kid's in French immersion, and she's already more French. I don't even know what she's saying. I'm trying to help her with the math, and I'm using Google Translate and just taking a picture of her homework to help like translate it so I can help her with math questions and stuff now.

SPEAKER_02: 18:30

Yeah, it's it's I mean I can I can read in sp uh uh French and like uh I can write French like but like speaking right now it's oh so you can write it, but you can't speak.

SPEAKER_03: 18:37

Yes. Oh, interesting. Oh, you'll have no problem with the with the French immersion homework then. Uh uh.

SPEAKER_04: 18:45

Putting her through school. Yeah. So yeah, so yeah, so back to your folks. So like you were they're cooking with your mom. Yeah, and obviously you had this early inspiration from her. Exactly. Um what made you like what made you go like, okay, I want to learn how to do this? Like, yeah, what was that like something like in you're in high school and you're like, nah, I'm gonna be a chef.

SPEAKER_02: 19:04

I just got to a point, I'm like, um, it's not about I want to be a chef, I want to be in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_04: 19:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 19:10

You know, being being a chef, you have to be in the kitchen first because chef it's a big word. Yeah, there's a lot of cooks, but there's like not not that much of chefs around.

SPEAKER_04: 19:21

That's fair.

SPEAKER_02: 19:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 19:22

Yep, that's that's legit.

SPEAKER_02: 19:23

Oh yeah. So I got to a point I'm like, I just I need to be an actual like kitchen.

SPEAKER_04: 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:29

So that's when uh I went to culinary school back in Lebanon, and I did it for uh three years, three years there, and that's when my journey started. I start like working um in my hometown first, yeah, and um that's how I start to just like grew up with my career, yeah. And um and then I went to Iraq and then I went to Dubai, and I went back to Lebanon.

SPEAKER_03: 19:56

Now were you were you cooking uh uh like a kitchen staff in Iraq or a chef in Iran?

SPEAKER_02: 20:00

Yes, yes, yeah. I was uh I was in the hotel actually, and um in Dubai also we we we went there to uh uh a Lebanese kind of international uh mix, like food, also restaurant. And then uh after I went back to Lebanon, that was around actually 20 2016, and I got this opportunity. It's uh it's a very funny story actually, how how I got this opportunity to to come to Canada.

SPEAKER_03: 20:26

Yeah, I'm here. Yeah, let's see.

SPEAKER_02: 20:27

I'm curious. Well, my business partner, uh Abud, Zuri, um, I'm a very close friend with uh his uh uh nephew in Lebanon, a very close friend. So we were sitting um on the beach drinking, barbecue, whatever, and I got to a point I'm like, his name is Paul. I'm like, Paul, I wanna I wanna leave. I wanna just like, I don't know, I wanna go from Lebanon. I wanna just like go big anyway. He was like, my uncle uh actually he needs a chef in uh Canada, he's in Halifax. And I was like, and we were like kinda tipsy, let's say, not drunk. Yeah, but let's take it that way. Right on, yeah. And he was like, I'm gonna call him. And he was like, call him. Oh my. He called him, and I was on the phone with Abud for maybe like half an hour, and he was like, I'll get back to you in a couple of days. Just let me start um the the procedure with the papers and things like that, and I'll get back to you. Just send me your phone number. I was like, okay. Exactly, two days. He called me, and that was Thursday, and he was like, uh, George, uh, I saw your Instagram and whatever like you do, and you're you're you're a good guy. And I was like, thank you. Okay. And uh he was like, when you can come to Canada. I'm not joking, that was his question. When you can come to Canada, what you know about Canada before you came.

SPEAKER_03: 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:50

I was I I was here. Um you had been there before? For for a visit. Okay. For a visit, but not not actually in Halifax.

SPEAKER_03: 21:56

Okay, whereabouts? Where are you?

SPEAKER_02: 21:57

Uh in uh Fredericton.

SPEAKER_03: 21:58

Oh, okay, actually.

SPEAKER_02: 21:59

Fredericton, oh boy, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 22:00

It's a rough start.

SPEAKER_02: 22:05

But let's be honest here, it's like it's that's yeah. Okay, so and then um I was like, any, whatever, I don't know, anytime you want. Yeah, it was like Tuesday. Oh it was Thursday, it was like Tuesday. I was like, sure, yeah, okay. He was like, okay, I'm gonna send you the ticket, all the information, the papers, whatever. Oh, that I'm starting your work permit and everything like that.

SPEAKER_03: 22:27

I'm just thinking, like, I mean, yeah, that's not like a that's you'd have to create this entire menu. Well, this was not this was not this place.

SPEAKER_04: 22:34

Oh, not this place, that's not this place. You worked at uh La Piazza.

SPEAKER_03: 22:37

Oh, that's how we have another sister restaurant. Okay, or was there yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:42

So I actually talked to my mom and dad. I'm like, I'm leaving. Okay. Leaving where? Like, I'm just I'm leaving done. I'm leaving Canada. Were they supportive at first? Yeah, of course.

SPEAKER_04: 22:51

Yeah, oh good.

SPEAKER_02: 22:52

Of course, and then I came to La Piazza, it's our sister restaurant. Uh it's uh it's an Italian restaurant also. And I started to work there for uh I worked there actually for five years, and uh, we got a lot of awards. Uh the the best Italian restaurant in the city, the best pizzas for the community vote. And um it's it's a family restaurant. I loved, I love working there. I mean, that's where it was all our beginning, like me and uh. And we did a lot of uh actually events, and then that's when we start to do uh and serve Lebanese food for like private events, uh catering.

SPEAKER_03: 23:28

So kind of on the low, you were just doing that every once in a while.

SPEAKER_04: 23:31

Oh, they're doing pizzas, so then they do like because the levy, like Lebanese have like a food that looks like pizza, like kind of their version. It's not pizza. I know it's not. I said it looks like pizza.

SPEAKER_03: 23:42

It looks like pizza.

SPEAKER_04: 23:43

What's it called? You want to explain it? No, you're the you're the chef.

SPEAKER_03: 23:47

I'll let the chef explain it.

SPEAKER_02: 23:48

It's actually the pie, but the toppings are different. Yeah, no pizza sauce. Yeah, so there's one that's like, let's say, whatever you have in the cheese roll, you're having it on a pizza. Let's say margarita pizza, but there's no there's that there's no cheese.

SPEAKER_03: 24:00

Tomato? Nope. Well, it's not pizza, it's no tomato.

SPEAKER_02: 24:03

Here you go. And we call it we call it gymnic.

SPEAKER_04: 24:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 24:06

Okay. There you go. The chef made that cheese.

SPEAKER_04: 24:08

That's what Chip made. He made three of them. Yeah. Here you go. Yeah, he made the Zatar. I love Zatar. Oh, you know what? I have to do a quick shout-out. My wife has a friend. She teaches with her. Okay. She made the best bread I think I might have ever had in my life. It's a Zatar sourdough. Really? And I'm telling you, it's insane. I should have actually brought it. Uh I should I I'm going. I have some at home. Okay. I have to be in town tomorrow. Okay. If you're here, I will cut some off and I'll bring it down. I'm telling you. I would love to. It's insane.

SPEAKER_03: 24:42

What's the difference between a sourdough and a Zatar sourdough?

SPEAKER_04: 24:45

Uh it's a sourdough with Zatar in it. The flavor.

SPEAKER_02: 24:47

Oh, what's the flavor of Zatar? Oh, it's just um the Zatar is a mix of dry thyme, sumak, and roasted sesame. Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 24:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 24:57

So imagine that acidity that you get it from the sumak and the smokiness from the sesame. And it's just, and we mix it with olive oil and we spread it on the on the on the pie and you cook it in the oven. Okay. It's so good. Cool. And you can have on the side like tomatoes, olive, cucumber, mint. It's just like make it like a sandwich. Nice.

SPEAKER_04: 25:15

Yeah. You take that, rip that up, and then dip it into that, and I'm like, I think I think he's he's getting Lebanese. I told you, he really wants in. He's trying.

SPEAKER_03: 25:24

Right?

unknown: 25:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 25:25

I love that. But yeah, like, and then we because and so that's what yeah, there's the three of them that we made. And uh the third one, remember? The third one, okay. Hold on. It was the Zatar uh Gibne. Gibni, and then it was the Lahambajin. Lamajin. Lambajin. Yeah, Lamogin. So the Lamogin, and actually I've knew I've known of the Lamogin because they're the uh in Turkey, yeah, they do something very similar. Lamachun. And I made that during COVID. Yeah. Uh we were doing some research on food, and I made that. So when you were making that, I was like, oh, I've made this kind of before. Yours was much better than mine, but of course. But yeah. So uh that's what I was saying. It kind of looks like it. So I remember seeing like in La Piazza that you guys were doing kind of like low-key, like you're doing pizzas, but then it's also kind of like this easy sidestep.

SPEAKER_02: 26:15

Yeah, we we do have because that um at La Piazza we had that on brunch. Yeah, we had the Zatar, we had the Judney, and we had the Lahambajin. Yes, and that's when like uh we start to kind of introduce to the community more uh local people and like also Lebanese people because they would love to have that as breakfast, right? Yeah, and um and then when uh back to the point when we started doing like a couple of uh like big events, uh catering like Lebanese food and doing the spread of like all the barbecue and things like that. So we got a lot of comments like you guys need to open like a Lebanese restaurant in the city. And uh we got this opportunity, and here you go. Amazing.

SPEAKER_04: 26:54

Yeah, this place was closing down like how but it's been is it three years that this has been opened?

SPEAKER_02: 26:59

Actually, uh we opened on June 21st, uh 2023. That was a Wednesday.

SPEAKER_04: 27:06

Wow, so it's just over two years. Yeah, okay, so like yeah, two and a half years or whatever. Yeah, so I yeah, because I remember this place closed, and the place that was in here before was a good restaurant, and you know, it was just for whatever reason closed down. Um kind of a sad opportunity, you know, thing whenever you see a restaurant close never great. Exactly. Um, but uh I mean obviously then this was born, and I remember uh my wife actually came here first. She was the first one to tell me, like, oh, there's a like authentic Lebanese place downtown, I think you'd like it. Yeah, so yeah, it um yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 27:36

Well, I like it. So I think you should try something else now. You've mastered this, dude. So so how about like Southern Barbecue, you know, Texas, let's switch it up a couple years. I want to I want to see what else you could do. This is amazing. So like the whole menu, did you make this yourself?

SPEAKER_02: 27:51

Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_03: 27:51

Yeah? So like and when you're making these uh dishes, I mean, you know, I mean, of course, there's like authenticity that you're aiming for, but there's also probably like a little bit of fusion, a little bit of incorporating uh North American cuisine. Like this seems like something my kid would eat, no problem.

SPEAKER_02: 28:09

That's that's that's the most traditional uh Lebanese dish. Okay. It's very popular, very popular. Yeah, what's actually kind of fusion is the hummus pesto. Oh yeah. So because we do have the hummus, right? Right, and then we add pesto to it. Yeah, but the pesto that we do at the restaurant, I don't add cheese to it. So still for like some like dairy-free, you know. So there's no cheese and the and then that pesto. The fusion one is the feta fusion roll. It's all it's called feta fusion roll.

SPEAKER_03: 28:35

And the hummus is nothing like the grocery store hummus, it's quite quite a bit tasty. What do you think? Quite a bit taste. What do you think? I love it. Okay, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 28:42

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. Yeah. I mean, I like hummus on a good day, so there's that too. Hummus goes on everything. It does. I make sandwiches with it. Yeah, yeah. Like sometimes if you don't want to like put like mayonnaise or mustard, sometimes I'll just throw like hummus in there and there you go.

SPEAKER_03: 28:57

I got a more of a philosophical question for you now. Like, how do you feel Lebanese food and culture is represented in Nova Scotia? I mean, uh, I mean, like, you know, Mount Washington, there's a lot of Lebanese folks here. Do you feel it's underrepresented still or overrepresented, or do you feel like better, worse?

SPEAKER_02: 29:12

I mean, it's it's now it's going on the on the good side, to be honest. Um again, I've been here for only eight years. So talking to like the first people they came to, like first Lebanese, like they came to to Halifax uh 20, 30, 40 years ago. Um uh you never had we had we had uh we had Meza. Yeah, it's like um they do a lot of type of Lebanese foods from Tabule to show armas and things like that. Yeah, they're mostly like wraps, yeah um, and like um bowls and mixing things.

SPEAKER_03: 29:48

Yeah, and they're innovative guys, they were they franchised it, they managed to make it like a I'm a very close friend with uh with the owners too, Tony.

SPEAKER_02: 29:55

And um but um what what what I was trying to do is just to show more how we spread the food on the table. Like, because if you if you're at the Lebanese restaurant at Ole Ban, you can have one dish and you can have 40 dishes. It depends how you want to do the spread. I'm like me and you right now, and Matt, we're just like sitting here right now, we can have that sharing plate. Yeah, right? But like we can also have cheese rolls, you can have grape please, you can also have you can have whatever you want. It's uh how it's it's it's a there's there's a lot of variety when it comes to like Lebanese food. Right. And it's still for me, my menu is still small. Yeah, and there's a lot of items. How big is your menu? 50, 60 items. Oh my gosh. Wow, yeah, yeah. We're not talking about uh that's the dinner menu.

SPEAKER_03: 30:44

See, because like Western cuisine, obviously, when you get into finer dining establishments, usually the menu becomes more and more condensed. Yeah, yeah, that's pretty pretty.

SPEAKER_02: 30:52

Well, that's that's a Lebanese culture. The the meza word is the spread. Right. Right. Yeah. So there's you have to have a spread. Oh, 100%. And talking about like I was telling you, like about the din the menu, it's only the dinner menu. There's a lunch menu, there's a brunch menu, there's a dessert menu. Oh my gosh. Dude, so your your kitchen staff must be like crazy. Like, what the heck is this? Let me tell you, everyone works in the kitchen, they're crazy. Yeah? Okay. Okay. We're all crazy. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04: 31:18

I I will say, like, so I mean, I think sometimes like people might see the name and see the restaurant. And as much as we're saying, like, I think you've created, you know, like a top class restaurant. That being said, I do think it's important that people know that not to be intimidated to come in here. Because uh we like I came here with my four-year-old this summer with with my wife. We were just walking on the boardwalk and we weren't ready for supper. It was like kind of in between. We were hungry, but not, you know, it wasn't supper time. And we stopped in here and we had the trio drips, exactly. And we had the cheese, like the the cheese with the cheese rolls. Cheese rolls, and that was perfect. Kept going on, like it wasn't, you know, it's not breaking the ball.

SPEAKER_02: 31:57

And you can go to the extreme, like it can be really full.

SPEAKER_04: 32:01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 32:02

To live the whole experience.

SPEAKER_03: 32:03

They had to drive six hours or more, dude. I'm going easy today.

SPEAKER_04: 32:05

Oh, I was here uh a couple weeks ago with work, day job work, yeah, yeah. And uh I left so full.

SPEAKER_02: 32:14

Insanely full. I mean, you you told me, like, Chef, it's it's your call. You feed us.

SPEAKER_03: 32:19

We had a show later that day, you were done. That was all, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 32:22

I was so full. But it's true. I I came in, I was just like, I kind of asked the table. I was like, hey, like, this is I trust the guy. And I was like, this is this could he could really roll out an experience for you. He's like, do you want to choose what you want to eat or do you want an experience? And then everyone was like, let's do the experience. So I was just like, go. Brilliant. Yeah, let's have fun. It's I think I love that as a way to experience food. One, you get to like have the person who created it choose for you, which I think is probably the best way to experience it. And then you just kind of get to like food's more than just the eating, right?

SPEAKER_03: 32:55

Have you guys seen that movie The Menu on Disney? No, it's about the chef that gives people like this crazy experience, but he's like sick in the head. It's like it's talking about me. He gets all these billionaires out to a private island and then starts. It's called the menu? Yeah, it's called the menu. I'll I would check it out. You gotta check it out. It's a messed up movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he's about a chef that's just obsessed with always just getting to the next level. That's amazing. Yeah, great show. But it's uh it has a really dark twist. Yeah, anyways.

SPEAKER_04: 33:24

But uh so the everyone's ever like when people a lot of people think of chefs, like they're all they obviously go to like people like Gordon Ramsey and things like that. Do people do you like do you do you yell at people in the kitchen? No, no, no, no, no, I don't think he yells.

SPEAKER_02: 33:39

I can tell it's all right. I mean, I don't yell, I just get sometimes irritated from things. Right. You know what I mean? Um, every every let's talk about chef. Now I'm not talking, I'm putting myself on the side as a business owner. Yeah, of course. I'm buying myself in the kitchen. Yep. And my I call it my my play round. Yeah. Because I it's I have a lot of passion when it comes to like cooking and like like like being in the kitchen. Um the worst thing is for me is just when mistakes starting to be more repetitive.

SPEAKER_04: 34:10

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:11

Uh it feels like you're starting to just jump on my nerve. Like stop stop doing that. Yeah, yeah. Stop doing that. Stop doing that. And I got to a point, I just get to a point, I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna go to the walk-in freezer. Okay. A little cold therapy, and then just like go, okay, I'm good to go.

SPEAKER_04: 34:31

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But at the same time, like you have to be a little bit like like you have to be urgent in a kitchen, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:39

It's just like if you're too, let's say, if you're too nice and soft with everyone, um they're not gonna look at you. That's my my point of view, as as an actual leader. Because leader, you have to just like kind of give and take. Yep. You know what I mean? Um, you have to be on some point uh uh uh the dishwasher, right? You have to be on some point the line cock, you have to be the baker, you have to be the prep guy. Yeah, so you have to work all around the kitchen just to show your your team that the way I'm doing it, you can also do it. Right. It's like I'm showing you respect, show me some respect. Yeah, that's it. That's uh that that that's how I run my kitchen.

SPEAKER_04: 35:19

Well, there's something to be said about you know you not asking, like it's like I'm not gonna ask you to do something that I wouldn't do myself. Right?

SPEAKER_02: 35:28

I mean, when when when I'm when I when you run a nice and uh professional operation in the in the kitchen, um and you have uh a team and a members that they always listen to you, um, that's when I'm in that point right now that I'm letting things go the way it is.

SPEAKER_04: 35:46

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 35:47

I'm not they burn your trust. That's it. Yeah, that's it. They're doing the the right measurements, they're doing the right recipes, they're following everything by the book. Yeah. If you follow everything by the book, that's that's what you get.

SPEAKER_03: 36:00

So you get no idiot sandwiches then you ever call me a donut? My favorite thing. I am an idiot sandwich. That was a good one. That was a good one. I love Gordon Ramsay. I thought I would think he's fantastic.

SPEAKER_04: 36:17

He would be one of my top people that would love to get on this podcast.

SPEAKER_03: 36:19

I'd love to have sit down and have a beer with that guy. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:22

Everyone actually, not everyone, most of my staff in the kitchen, they're like, Do you know him? You just look like him sometimes. Who? Because I do go crazy sometimes.

SPEAKER_03: 36:29

Oh, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 36:30

Yeah, I wish I could see him. And then like, okay, just calm down a little bit.

SPEAKER_04: 36:34

I'm sure they like you know, they kind of respond and expect that a little bit. That's you kind of get what you get in the kitchen, right? Yeah, but I mean uh that being said though, running a kitchen is one thing, and but running a restaurant is not an easy thing to do. It's not like speak to a little bit about like you know, we have rising costs, you have you know a lot of other things outside of just cooking recipes, right?

SPEAKER_02: 36:55

Yeah, um I have always um something that I think about that um it's not easy uh for a chef just to open a restaurant without having an actual management team that they know about that business. They know about the restaurant business. Because being a chef, you can you can just like be in the kitchen. Um you know how to make food, you know how to do run all your the operations, you do an amazing uh I don't know, presentation, whatever, whatever you do in the kitchen, you're you're master in it. But when it comes to the management, front of the house management, right? If you don't know anything about it, that's the worst thing when it comes to customer service. Right. If you don't know how to do customer service, yeah, from like the customers walking from the front door till they leave the table, there's steps to follow. And if you don't have that full team that you can trust, and that's what we have at the restaurant, right? If you don't have that full team that you can trust, it doesn't matter if your food is good. Fair enough. If the food has been served to you in the wrong way, um the table is not clean, the your your bottle, your your glass of water is not filled, those small little details affects affects the whole business.

SPEAKER_01: 38:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 38:14

So it's not about it's not about being a chef, it's about being the whole restaurant. Yeah. So because that's why sometimes that's what I get to to that point that was talking about uh about earlier, that I'm more now uh getting engaged with the with the guests. Right. And we can start to see that when it comes to Google reviews, they're starting to mention the owner's name, the manager's name, the server's names. That's good, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04: 38:40

So um and I'm sure that now that you you have a staff that you can trust, coming up, being able to come out of the kitchen and interact with the dining room helps a lot because everyone wants to talk to the chef, right? Yeah, big time. Yeah, like, oh my god, like, yeah, hey, how are you? Yeah, exactly, right? It's true. So, uh, but I mean, and on top of that, it's like so that makes total sense. I mean, you have to know how to cook, you have to know how to like do the customer service, and you also have to know just the business. And I'm sure that's where your business partner helped, though, because I mean you had to start with just being in the kitchen, right?

SPEAKER_02: 39:10

Uh Abud, he's um he's my like I don't know what to say about this guy. He's an amazing person.

SPEAKER_03: 39:18

He's not here, is he? He's not here right now. No, man, that's too bad.

SPEAKER_02: 39:20

Yeah, nice guy, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um Abud, he's my he's my backbone. Yeah, like he's my big brother, uh, he's my best friend, he's my business partner. Yeah, um, he's he's everything to me. Like, it's because the relationship that I have between me and him, it's not only about the business. Yeah, you know what I mean? Like, we talk to each other about a lot of things, like personal stuff, yeah. You know, we help each other like in so many different situations. Um, and that's what built our relationship more and more and more to get to that part of because he trusted me a lot, and he gave me what I asked for, and I gave him what I know and what he asked for too. So that's why um, like he showed up here, and I would love to see him most of the time, sitting on the bar, having a drink, enjoying his time at his own restaurant, but he's letting me running the show. Like he will never just try to step uh in my foot about like talking. You cannot do that. Right, no, because he trusted me and he knows what I'm giving to this to this place, and uh, but if if he has any complaint or he wants to change something, yes, we will sit and talk about it and have a conversation.

SPEAKER_03: 40:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 40:38

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 40:39

So we're going to that, like, I mean, we see the show. I mean, I'm I'm I'm on Disney Plus here today. I'm sorry, man. But again, the show Chef, have you seen or heard about that show? There's a show called Chef now. Is it called Chef? The the one with Jeremy, uh what's the one on Disney Plus there? Um gosh, maybe it's not called Chef. The kitchen? Is that is that isn't it like the the bear or something? The bear scrapers. Oh my gosh. Now, what do you think of the bear? What do you think of the bear? Now, do you feel like that's uh an accurate representation? I'm I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_02: 41:07

Yeah that's that's the first the first word that word that I said when you mentioned the bear. Um I felt I felt two things that I'm not joking. Yeah, yeah. I felt two things the first time I watched it. Goosebumps, anxiety.

SPEAKER_03: 41:24

Okay. But is that how you feel? You know, that's not how you feel in your real life.

SPEAKER_02: 41:27

Because that's how I'm running this. Because that's because because the way he's doing things, yeah, yeah. Um, I don't see myself doing it. But I'm seeing someone else doing it in front of me. I'm like, is that me? Is that is that me during the the supper rush and like running the orders and like giving orders left and right to the boys? That's me. And the pressure. Yeah, there's one episode that I completely forgot what like which episode when he renovated the restaurant and he like reopened it again. Yes, yeah, and he had that new crew and new member teams like uh with with him, and um he was running uh a very busy night, that's the opening night, and he got to a point he was like stressed about the whole thing, and he didn't know what to do. I I saw myself when I run to the walk-in freezer, sometimes it's like just breathing, yeah. And that's what happened to him too. Yeah, yeah. That's why he got stuck, he got stuck in the walk-in freezer, or like whoever.

SPEAKER_03: 42:21

I'll be honest with you, I kind of always loved the idea of being a chef. Then I watched that show and I'm like, yeah, you know, I got it. It's pretty good.

SPEAKER_02: 42:27

I don't know if I can handle that kind of uh intensity. It's not easy to be a chef.

SPEAKER_04: 42:31

And like I like, I like to cook. I love cooking too. But I uh Gordon Ramsey, like I said, he's a top five. Like there's probably like five celebrities that I would say like that I actually like truly want to meet. And he's one of them. Yeah, I love the way I just love everything about him, like all the shows that he's put out and everything. I like watching cooking shows. Yeah, food's a big part of my life. I just love I think you can really learn a lot about people and everything, and just food's delicious and all that stuff. But I um I think the thing about like I just don't think I could I think it would ruin my love of it if I was like, I'm gonna do this.

SPEAKER_03: 43:06

Yeah, right?

SPEAKER_04: 43:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 43:07

So like that's that's kind of what I was getting to. Like your work-life balance, like that's that's where I saw the real like you know what he was missing. Like, you know, he he had no life outside of that kitchen. So there's no balance, you're just working, dude. That's it. Like 100% of the time. You wake up, you're planning your your breakfast.

SPEAKER_02: 43:26

I put my life for my job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 43:29

It's not kidding. We we went out one night, we had some drinks one Friday night, and he said he was like, This is the first time I've been out on a Friday night for drinks with friends in like years.

SPEAKER_03: 43:39

I mean, that's good and that's bad, right? Like, I mean, not and I'm not being critical. I'm just saying it's good, but it's also like, you know, you gotta you gotta. I mean, there's a lot of life that you want to live, and you don't want, you know, you these are your best years in some senses, right?

SPEAKER_02: 43:51

I agree.

SPEAKER_03: 43:52

You want to meet uh uh a person or whatever.

SPEAKER_02: 43:55

I will I will tell you the way I see things right now. Sure. I lived my life. I lived my life to the max. Okay, to the fully. So you're happy. I'm I'm happy, but there's always a part missing. And no one's no one's perfect. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_03: 44:10

That's true. Um we're always looking, even when we think we have it, we're always looking for some little piece. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02: 44:15

But the the way I would uh I would explain the idea about why I'm that into it that deep, and like I'm just like sacrificing my life to it. Um I lived my life, I enjoyed myself a lot, and for me, it's now to be to step in more to the maturity life, to just like focus on yourself as a businessman. I don't want to just like make money and go spend it left and right, you know what I mean? I want to make money to invest in that money to make more. Right. In a way to be more to get to a point, be more like wealthy. Um I have uh I have savings for my future. I can I can buy a house, I can uh have a family, a wife that I don't have. Um and um and that's that that's it. That's how I say it. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 45:06

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean that's all I think about. It's like, you know, the these times, like, you know, you're I know you're working so hard. Yeah. And uh I always just wonder, like, you know, do you feel happy like about it? Do you feel like you're missing that piece? Like, you know, it's gonna be hard to get out and meet that girl if you're here every Friday.

SPEAKER_02: 45:21

I mean, I mean, whatever, whatever, whatever's gonna happen. Anytime's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_03: 45:27

So do you want to put your number in right now? We got any nice beautiful women listening. I know too.

SPEAKER_04: 45:33

But there is, you know what though, but there is something to be said. So good. Exactly. There's something to be said about like working in the hospitality industry where you are working when everyone else wants to be off.

SPEAKER_02: 45:45

Yeah, exactly. Weekends, yeah, like I said, like you just mentioned, uh, I don't I don't remember like just I have like weekends off. Right. Forget about like um I took a vacation, went 25 days to Lebanon. But um Christmas Eve, Christmas Eve. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm wrapping and packing things for people to come pick it up around like 6 30, 7 o'clock. I'm still at the restaurant. Right. New Year Eve, it's my best night. Oh yeah, you guys do like like belly dancers and stuff in the joint? Just like a club, uh, get to a point. But like at the same time, but like it's it's my favorite night when I see, and it's also like for me, uh seeing people every time happy have that when they eat something. Oh my god, like I just like always look from the kitchen, yeah, like seeing the reaction on their faces. But uh 11 30, quarter 12 on New Year Eve, I'm in bed, man. I'm I'm in bed. Don't call me. I don't want to celebrate. I'm just I don't want I just want to go home and relax. I too, but I'm just a grumpy old guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 46:49

So yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 46:52

So um, as much as the restaurant industry uh you know can be a tough gig here, but you're talking about you were talking about growth and everything. So is there uh Oliba Deu coming or like what do you see next for you?

SPEAKER_02: 47:05

No, um we're taking me and Abu the ladder like step by step.

SPEAKER_04: 47:09

Yep.

SPEAKER_02: 47:09

Uh we need to focus more uh on a lot of things here that we're gonna introduce to the city when it comes to more new items in the menu, uh new type of like events that we're going to do. Um but uh we're taking things easy. Yeah, because I don't want to make that big step forward and then lose everything. Fair. Right. Just taking things.

SPEAKER_03: 47:35

I'm sure like you know, you're just talking about Matt the Belly Dancers, but like that cultural experience was people to get out for a night like that. I mean, you could probably, I mean, if you found a way to do that every month, yeah, people would probably be fighting each other to get in.

SPEAKER_02: 47:47

That's what's happening, actually. Yeah. Okay. Uh summertime, we don't do Lebanese nights. Yeah. Because it's just always like uh there's a lot of people, a lot of like reservations that like they just won't come to enjoy just the food. Sort of on the patio. It's quiet. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 48:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 48:02

But uh our first Lebanese night is coming on uh November 1st. It's actually a Saturday.

SPEAKER_03: 48:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 48:07

But the funniest thing is that we post uh on Instagram, on our Instagram, uh, I think uh two weeks ago. And the same day, it's fully booked.

SPEAKER_03: 48:16

Fully booked.

SPEAKER_02: 48:17

It's fully booked already. Amazing, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 48:19

Yeah so people I think people want that. They want to enjoy that authentic experience because they're part of something.

SPEAKER_02: 48:24

Yeah, because it there's not only like uh dancers, yeah, it's like there's a DJ. Yeah also and there's Oh, I saw it all today.

SPEAKER_03: 48:30

It looked pretty cool. Yeah, I checked you out, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 48:33

And there's like um um that night, like we serve um around 12 different types of cold and hot meza, plus the main course.

SPEAKER_03: 48:40

Oh so yeah, best meal of your life, where you go just uh you're just sitting there for a party.

SPEAKER_04: 48:46

Oh, that's already sold out?

SPEAKER_03: 48:47

Yeah, sold out. Too bad. It is. Well, too bad, folks. We missed that one. Yeah, but but but uh I guess a good plug to follow you on Instagram and make sure you don't miss the next event because that could be pretty hot, man. That'd be a pretty cool thing going. And I think if that keeps going, you'll people wait for it all the time.

SPEAKER_02: 49:04

Oh, that's amazing. And we got every time like messages when's the next Nebuchadnezzar night? When's the next Lebanese night? And then we'll be like, just keep following our social media and like it will show there. We will post about it.

SPEAKER_04: 49:16

That's all so I think uh we move into 10 questions.

SPEAKER_03: 49:21

Yeah, man. So we're already getting to our wrap-up questions now. Okay. This is a game we play with every guest, or not every guest, but every guest for the last, what, 50 episodes, Matt, or so? Yeah, something like that. Or something like that. Okay. And we just start asking people 10 questions. They're all over the place. They're just kind of some are silly, some are serious. I love that. They're weird. Okay. Cool. Matt, if you want to make up one, go ahead, okay? Uh uh, these were uh some of these were randomly generated, so I don't even know what we're in for.

SPEAKER_04: 49:45

I like question number one, so okay.

SPEAKER_03: 49:46

So I'll I'll do a question. Or you go to go ahead with question number one. I'll do question. Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 49:50

So question number one. Okay. If you could cook for any three people, dead or alive, who would they who would be at the table?

SPEAKER_02: 49:59

Dead or alive. First, my mom. Um should have gone Ramsey.

SPEAKER_01: 50:11

Oh, alright, there you go.

SPEAKER_02: 50:13

And um my god. Can I cook for the whole Scorpions team? Uh Scorpions uh band? Sure. Okay. I love Scorpions. Yeah. My favorite song is Wouldn't have Change. Very cool. There you go. I love it.

SPEAKER_03: 50:31

Alright. Scorpion, there you go. All right. You work all day. Yeah. Long day. Exhausting hours. What's your comfort food after a long day? Oh my god. You're going through that McDonald's drive-through, aren't you?

SPEAKER_00: 50:45

Double cheeseburger, please.

SPEAKER_02: 50:49

To be honest, um okay. I'm gonna put like me being on a diet. I'm not on a diet. I'm just gonna have like oh my god, my comfort food meal at home. Yeah, yeah. At home. Um that will be uh a grilled cheese sandwich.

SPEAKER_03: 51:08

Oh, nice. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 51:10

Wintertime, summertime grilled cheese sandwich, winter time. I'll add the roasted uh red pepper tomato soup with it.

SPEAKER_03: 51:15

Yeah. Okay, nice.

SPEAKER_02: 51:16

I'll just dip any of it.

SPEAKER_03: 51:18

You know what? You know what I did when you're sick. I was feeling like crap yesterday. I had a grilled cheese sandwich and I had made pea soup the night before. Yeah, you ever had pea soup? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was uh it was perfect. I love those questions, by the way.

SPEAKER_04: 51:32

Okay, so that question number three is what's one Lebanese dish that every Canadian needs to try?

SPEAKER_02: 51:42

That's that's tough. Because I would that's that's a good I love that question. Let me let me let me tell you why. Um everyone let's say 90% loves beef tartare. Yes. Oh, I think. Do we agree on? You know what I'm gonna talk about. I like it. Oh, yeah. You need to try the Lebanese version of beef tartare. It's incredible. That's called kibbi nayi. Yeah, kibi what? Nayi. Kibbi naine.

SPEAKER_03: 52:11

Nay? Kibbi nai Nayi, don't mess me up. I'm just I'm really trying to tell him trying to do that to him.

SPEAKER_02: 52:16

You can't do that to him.

SPEAKER_03: 52:18

I got a kibina hearing problem.

SPEAKER_02: 52:19

Kibbi naye. Nay. Kibbi naye, it's the Lebanese version of beef tartare. Cool, cool. Uh there's a lot of different uh spices in it. There's onion, there's basil, different texture, it's more creamy, but it's made from almost the same cut of the beef tartare that you eat it. It's so good. I won't try that. Yeah, it's it's really good.

SPEAKER_04: 52:38

Yeah, I yeah, I remember we had it here the night that we were sitting out there having some drinks, and yeah. Chip Chip's not a fan of the the beef tartare, so he was like, nah, nah, nah, nah. But I was like, man, he didn't try it for it. He tried it before, yeah, but I don't think he likes the like the raw beef type of thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got it. But it's uh if you like beef tartare, it's elevated beef tartare for sure. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 53:00

Uh, question number four. If you weren't a chef, what would you be doing?

SPEAKER_02: 53:04

Interior design. Interior design right away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 53:07

Oh, is that why this place is beautiful?

SPEAKER_02: 53:08

It looks good, yeah. I love it. Yeah, really. Yeah, I I just love it.

SPEAKER_03: 53:12

It's cozy. And we didn't even get a like uh this is like old Lebanese money.

SPEAKER_02: 53:20

I used to use it. Like my ancestors. I used to use it.

SPEAKER_03: 53:22

Oh, like so 80s, 70s, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Ancestors? Well, maybe it was older than that.

SPEAKER_02: 53:27

Yeah, around like I would say 60 years ago, 50 years ago. 60 years ago, okay, cool. Oh, yeah. That's the first Lebanese currency.

SPEAKER_04: 53:34

Awesome. All right. Question number five. Have you ever cooked for anyone famous and who were they? No. No?

SPEAKER_02: 53:43

No, I would say no. Okay. Like famous, famous. Oh, well, you know. He just made us famous. I'm you guys. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 53:50

I mean, what are you talking about? I didn't know where you asked, we're asking that question, man. Well, yeah, it's just us.

SPEAKER_04: 53:55

No, I don't know. I mean, like the trailer pack boys could have been in here for all we know. Nate. Cindy Crosby could have brought like something here and look, right? Yeah, that was. Nate McKinnon. Yeah. Maybe Brad Marchand brought the cup here. I don't know. Please. But we're we're putting it out there. Put it out in the universe.

SPEAKER_03: 54:10

We need to get some. We I'd love to see Gordon Ramsey pop down here, I think personally. I think he would be pass out.

SPEAKER_04: 54:14

I'm going to at him a 16 times after this episode comes out. Because I want him to come here. I don't know if he has, but I want him to come here. And if he does come here, he was?

SPEAKER_02: 54:24

Yeah, like like years and years ago. That's what I heard. Cool. That's what I heard.

SPEAKER_04: 54:28

If he comes here, we're doing another episode here and we're doing it with him. I'll be like this. Exactly. Just looking at him. Exactly. I want him to call me an idiot, Samuel.

SPEAKER_03: 54:39

Question number six. All right. What's one of the strange food trends you've seen come and go in your lifetime? Like just anywhere through your through the industry, food like trends. They come and go.

SPEAKER_02: 54:53

You know, I would I would not say it's a it was a food trend. Um because you know those um roll-ups? The fruit roll-up? The fruit roll ups stuff with like the ice cream thing. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's so disgusting.

SPEAKER_03: 55:07

Yeah. I never hated it. I never tried it.

SPEAKER_02: 55:09

I hate it. So when they just like put ice cream in the in the in the fruit roll-up, it would just like be like a cracker, like like it's like like a chips from the outside. Yeah, sounds gross. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03: 55:19

People loved it.

SPEAKER_02: 55:20

Yeah, I don't. You know what?

SPEAKER_03: 55:21

But I hated frozen yogurt. People got crazy about frozen yogurt and took over the whole world. Everybody was so I like frozen yogurt. You do? Yeah, I do.

SPEAKER_04: 55:28

Because it's like it's like it's like less calorie ice cream.

SPEAKER_03: 55:30

Yeah, until you like go and put skittles in it and stuff, and that's all they were doing. They were just putting all these mixers at it. I didn't put that much yet.

SPEAKER_02: 55:36

While you mix your frozen yogurt wood. What do I mix my frozen yogurt?

SPEAKER_04: 55:40

I just eat it. I don't know. I bought I bought frozen yogurt with Nova Scotia blueberries the other day. Like, well, I say the other day, but weeks ago now.

SPEAKER_03: 55:47

Yeah, where's that at? Where'd you get that?

SPEAKER_04: 55:49

At the store, the grocery store. Um, and you know what the crazy thing is, it's like it was delicious. Nova Scotia blueberries, it was fantastic. And then when you look at it, it's like half the calories that ice cream's at.

SPEAKER_03: 55:59

Okay. So it's pretty good. Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to, I didn't know it's fine. All I was saying is there was a trend where that was frozen yogurt bars absolutely everywhere for like two years.

SPEAKER_04: 56:08

And I actually think that was a problem because the first one that came down, it was great, it was full, it was awesome. Then what happened was ten more came, and then it was like, oh, we don't need ten of these in the city. We might need two, two, right? And then it killed it all. Like the the even the original one away because it just oversaturated.

SPEAKER_03: 56:29

No, I think the craziest cookies. Like, have you noticed this? Like cookie crumble, like cookies, donuts, yeah. Like those cookies are like a thousand calories of cookies, maybe they're crazy. Oh, like it's like a burger. Yeah, seriously. I'd much rather eat a burger.

SPEAKER_04: 56:41

They're actually making burgers with donuts. No way. Yes, they're in burger week. Burger Week, they had a burger with a donut here. Yeah, donut on one each end with a burger.

SPEAKER_02: 56:49

I didn't see that. No.

SPEAKER_04: 56:50

Alright, where are we now? So, question number seven. So uh that's me, right? I think so. Okay, so we know that the Iraq goes well with uh the food here, but what drink pairs surprisingly well with Lebanese cuisine that you might not expect? Beer. Beer. Well, beer, yeah. Yeah, that's good. Is beer really big in uh Lebanon?

SPEAKER_02: 57:19

Yeah, we have our own uh breweries also in Lebanon.

SPEAKER_04: 57:23

And you didn't bring any back for me. I see how it is.

SPEAKER_02: 57:25

I thought we were cool. Actually, you know what? Um then SL theaters they're bringing now a Lebanese beer. What's it called? Uh Almaza.

SPEAKER_04: 57:33

Almoza.

SPEAKER_02: 57:33

Yeah, like a diamond.

SPEAKER_04: 57:34

Wants to try it. Alma go for it. Yeah, 100%. Question number eight over to you.

SPEAKER_03: 57:39

What's the best compliment a diner ever gave you, a guest? One of the compliments like just kind of stayed with you over all these years.

SPEAKER_02: 57:49

Um my god, I completely forgot all because one time I actually posted a story on my on my social media. Um I I don't know. I it was like if if I was a food inspector or something, because the food was so good, I would put you in jail right now. Like just to keep you. Something like that. I I that's what but that's that's that's the idea about it. And I was like, Yeah, well, well, thank you. Yeah, I mean, I got a lot of lot of compliments. That's what I like to engage more with uh with the guests. And like mostly like, oh my god, like we never had like authentic Lebanese food like that. The taste of the hummus. We got a lot of comments about the hummus, like compliments about the hummus. The hummus here is amazing.

SPEAKER_03: 58:34

Yeah, we'll say it again.

SPEAKER_04: 58:35

Yeah, fantastic. So, question number nine. Uh, I already know the answer to this, so I think maybe we should change it up because I we we did already ask this through the show. It was gonna be what's your favorite drink on the menu, but I'm guessing it's this. So on on the on your drink menu.

SPEAKER_02: 58:48

Oh, the bomb menu? Yeah. No, it's not that.

SPEAKER_04: 58:50

It's not that okay. What's your favorite drink on the menu?

SPEAKER_02: 58:52

It's spicy G.

SPEAKER_04: 58:53

Oh, I know. So what's the spicy? The spicy G. Just break it down real quick.

SPEAKER_02: 58:56

It's spicy G, it's a spicy margarita with a twist. Okay. It is really good. And why it's called spicy G? That's when when when like guests ask, it's um it's linked to our chef personality. Spicy. That's you in the kitchen. That's me in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_04: 59:12

It's spicy margarita, and then it like you you put something in it though, right? Strawberry and like uh yeah. Because it's almost hazy and creamy looking.

SPEAKER_02: 59:20

It is, and there's like a uh salted, salt trim also on it, too. I had it the night we were out there. That's really it's really good. I love it. All right, question 10.

SPEAKER_03: 59:28

What's next for Chef Gusiness or personal? Whatever you want to say. Family. Family. Family. He's looking, ladies. We're dropping it twice here.

SPEAKER_04: 59:41

We can be the afternoon punk dating service.

SPEAKER_03: 59:44

Welcome to the afternoon pink connection. Uh we'll be doing our first our first uh singles event right here. There you go. We could do speed dating. We'll set it up, man. Uh yeah, yeah, we can set this up on the phone. Oh, November.

SPEAKER_04: 59:58

You know what? Actually, what we really you know afternoon pink connection sounds good.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:01

I just said that. I like it.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:03

I think it's great, but also why don't we do like our own little uh version of The Bachelor, but with Chef G. There you go. Yeah, yeah. What's that? Like The Bachelor. Oh my god. Yeah, we'll do we'll do that, we'll do that with you. Except like, you know, you you you give them like grape leaves if they're if they're if they stay.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:21

They're all from Darwin, and if and and and you just give them like a bridge pass to go home if you're like there's no bridge pass. There's no bridge. Oh, yeah. I'm a lot of times.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:29

Who's gonna give them grape leaves instead of roses?

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:35

I take I take a cheese roll. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:38

Alright, so that's next. So family's next. All right.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:40

And uh, Matt, you could do last call there, boy.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:42

All right, so yeah, so we have our last call, which is the final question that we ask everyone. Um, and that is what is one piece of advice that you were given that you'd like to share with us and our listeners?

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:53

Um I would say um go. Growth doesn't always look like uh progress. Oh. And um because sometimes it's uh it's quiet and um it's uncomfortable, yeah, and that's what like what not the others can see. But it um but that's when like um I would say have like the most value.

SPEAKER_03: 1:01:19

That was great. Okay, that was fantastic. Okay, thank you so much, my friend. Yeah, thank you. Pleasure meeting you, thank you, pleasure and having a drink with you. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04: 1:01:27

Thank you.