E2 - Ben B - Most Bussin' Bartender

Ben grew up here, is an encyclopedia of Chicago knowledge, and also one of the best bartenders in the West Loop.

Tune in to hear him describe his experience growing up in a gentrifying Logan Square, his take on what Chicago is and ISN't,  and dealing with folks at the bar. The man waxes poetically on Chicago and his love for the city can be felt through his words.

Transcript

Unknown: All right. Hello. Welcome to episode two of Next Stop, Chicago. I hope that this episode finds everyone. Well, you guys are living your best lives. If you're not living your best life, it's okay. You know, get through it. You'll be fine. But I have a very special guest today. On the pod man is Ben Mott of Benedicts. This man I've known since high school. We went to Whitney Young together. We grew up in this wonderful city of Chicago together. And he has a lot of stories. The man is Chicago historian. The man has a treasure trove of knowledge. I call him the human encyclopedia when it comes to things about Chicago and just general random history facts. But more importantly in that, Ben is doing big things in Chicago, and that's why he's on this pod. You might ask yourself, All right, Ben Smart, whatever. He's your boy. Okay, whatever. What's he doing? What's so fucking big? A lot of big shit. My boy Ben works in the West Loop at some of the hottest bars in Chicago. And he is the leading the best number one goat and best of all time bartender in Chicago. Hands down. When you get a drink served by Ben, be like, you know you're getting it right. You're getting it hooked up. The man is a legend. So welcome to the pod. Ben might have Benedict say some words, my friend. Hello. Hello. Thank you for that rousing introduction for. Yes, sir. As always, I appreciate you for having me over, uh, bring me into the studio. Uh, Farouk has brought me here to impart whatever random knowledge just comes flowing out of my mouth to. Hopefully, as he said before, it finds everybody well. And if not, don't worry. You'll get through. Yeah, we'll all get, you know, we're all just. Just taking it one step at a time, getting slapped in the face and kicked out. Then we get up, put a smile on whatever. Get a little mad, get a little feisty. Move on with our lives. Get a little freaky guy. If that's how you take care of your shit. We fully agree and we support you. And if that's not how you take care of shit, that's totally fine too. But bro. Okay, so tell me, man. Growing up in Chicago, since you're the Chicago historian, since you know all the shit, right? What do you think in your experience growing up in Chicago? How did you like it? What did you not like? What is something unique you think people don't understand about Chicago that you think they should? Uh, well, Chicago is a magnificent city. The world class city. It's, uh, when the greatest places that I think I could have been planted on this earth, you know, if the seed was meant to go in any part of the soil, I think I ended up in the right spot. But. You know, like any place, Chicago is multifaceted. I think if there's one thing to understand about our wonderful city, it's the fact that it's many cities within what you know, it's the north side, it's the west side, it's the south side. And it's every neighborhood in between, every intersection, every corner. You know, it's different people living their lives and having a different experience because, you know, if there's one thing that I've learned about Chicago is that it's not the same experience for everybody. That being said, the Chicago experience overall is fantastic. I started off here growing up in the north side of the city, which as many people know is, of course, the more affluent and often more advantaged part of the city. That being said, I grew up a little bit West and Logan Square, which to most people listening now or people who are new to Chicago. Logan Square is a very nice neighborhood and you know, it has some of the nicest restaurants and bars. You can't go out without spending less than $100. But back in the day when I grew up, Logan Square was a neighborhood much more akin to the majority of how Chicago actually is. It was a blue collar, working neighborhood with a lot of immigrant families, a lot of Hispanics, a lot of Polish, and a lot of, of course, Puerto Ricans. Um. When I grew up in the nineties and early 2000, I was raised, uh, pretty well-to-do. I had parents that both their parents didn't had gone to school before, but they had gone to college themselves, and they were a librarian, a lawyer, and we were sort of an enigma. Even within the neighborhood at the time where we lived on one of the nicer blocks, we owned our home and we were sort of set up for the change or maybe even the beginning of change that was about to happen. Gentrification in Logan Square was a theme that I would sort of see play out all over the city of Chicago these past like ten, 15 years as I've been growing up and, uh, growing up firsthand, I had no inkling of that at all. When we would go out, it was just classic working class Chicago. We'd go to Tony's supermarket, we buy food from the little food truck carts. The Puerto Ricans and Humble Park were still there, by the way. Awesome to go check out if you've never been. And, you know, the neighborhood was very different, you know, from what you sort of see all over the city now cropping up. And that sort of change really began to happen. You know, as I was growing up, uh, I went to private school in elementary school instead of public school because the Logan Square public schools, I think I would have had to go to. Darwin Academy, which at the time was like one of the worst elementary schools like in Chicago. It had some like. Well, it was a school for 400 kids. There was like 1600 kids there. The city was having real problems with their public, like overcrowding. And then, of course, hilariously enough, they would decide to actually close schools later and go to charter school. But that happened. I went to a montessori school. Um, so what. What's a montessori school? I heard the. It's where, like, you don't have chairs or tables, and it's like a fuckin like you're in a living room or you're in a classroom. No, see, that's so generous, because I think a lot of people, their interpretation of a monastery, uh, school is a school where you literally just do nothing and do nothing, you know? But that's where I learned the power of doing nothing. That's why I learned the power of a mind that is actually truly at rest. And without, you know, any causes, you kind of just come up with stuff to do. Being bored. It's like the superpower that Montessori schools are like teaching people. It's what it's what a lot of people don't get is when you're sort of set in this very regimented, you know, you sit at a desk from this hour to this hour, it's like you're working all right. It's like you're a little kid and you're already, like, being set up to be like a little mindless worker drone, like Montessori school. They're like, you know, like, just be a kid for, like, a few years. Just sit in the room, do whatever. And they, you know, there's stuff to do, right? It's like they put you in a room with, like, a bunch of informational puzzles and stuff like that. So you really have no option. You're, you know, you're either bored out of your skull or you're doing, like, little informational learning. So where does the teacher come in? Is there even a teacher? You just get locked in a room with a bunch of kids and. No. Yeah. So at least the way Montessori school works, if you're like a little kid, at least the way I was when I was going to near North Montessori. About two or three miles south towards downtown from, uh, Logan Square. They would have you in a room, 30 kids. They would group you up by age. So instead of, like, first grade, second grade, third grade, it would be like 6 to 9. 332662992 12. They would group you by like three year gaps. And as a result, you know, you could be like a six year old, you know, fresh in the whatever and a kid with, you know, in the classroom with like a nine year old. So it was a very big range. You'd be with about 30 kids and there just be one teacher in this teacher. They're not actually really teaching you anything. They're kind of just they're facilitating, you know, making sure you're not buying other kids years off, you know, breaking up fights. But you really the whole concept is you're just in this room and the room is like very enriching. You know, it's carpets. It's as you said before, there's couches, there's furniture. You know, you sit out your chair. And during this time, the whole idea is you're supposed to be kind of like. Learning to do things on your own and wanting to do and doing things because you want to do them and doing things with purpose. You know, you don't you do things with purpose if you're doing it because you want to, you know, if someone tells you to do something, you might just do it half assed. But if you're literally doing it because you just you want to do it, you're bored like you're going to do it, right. So right from the beginning, I think that sort of began to shape my philosophy is that people should just do things because they want to. And if you're forcing me to do something, I don't want to do it. This this would become a theme that would play out later on in my high school career and my non-existent college career. Yeah. So one thing you guys should know about Ben is like, he's one of the most zanies or zany persons people I've ever met. Like, the guy does not get fazed. He's, like, the epitome of it is what it is. Fuck it, I'm going to do it. But he's very calm about it. And the man does find ridiculous ways to keep himself entertained. Like you lock him in a room with, like, maybe, like, one item, and he'll probably figure it out. He'll be okay. Well, that's basically what I was doing the whole time of my source. And now I guess it's working out for you. And, like, it seems like you have a good on your head. On your shoulders. Right. Like you have good parents, we think. Right? Like we hope. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, honestly, you know, having that initial set up is, you know, that nurturing environment helps any person, helps any child. And, you know, the resources that I had to be able to go to a better school versus, you know, my local public school definitely set me up with some of the skills that I needed for later on. I mean, more than anything, it's just like, you know, you're watering the plants if if there's not no water, there's no sun, if there's no resources to, like, you know, help people grow, then they're not going to grow. They just won't. And something that my parents saw, which I thought was sad, too, because my mom was actually a lifelong Chicagoan, too. Born and raised in the city since the sixties. And she had gone to public schools all throughout like, you know, her life. She went to maybe five or six or seven different schools as a child because her parents were never satisfied with the way the schools were. And when they had me, you know, being an only child or whatever, except for a half brother who also went to Montessori school, you know, there was this definite feeling in the family that. Public schools didn't work out and they weren't you know, they had sort of failed. They weren't going to work for the kids. And what that did do, though, was it insulated me. It put me in an environment where right off the bat, you know, I was in this private school. All the kids are parents. You know, they were like pretty well, you know, they were well-off middle class, upper middle class. You know, kids, parents were things like architects and engineers and doctors. And those were the sort of people that right from the very beginning, I was sort of rubbing up against and. I think. That that sort of installation at the time really began to paint the picture for me, that this is a city with two faces. This is a city that, you know, you can have many different experiences, even living right next door. Growing up in Logan Square, I mean, I would go miles out of my way to go to the school, but right there on my own block across the street, you know, there was public housing. Right next door was public housing. There were people who in our back alley, you know, were doing drugs. There was a trap house at the corner. I mean, the things that I would see like in my actual home environment versus sort of like this world that was being like presented to me and painted to me within the confines of school. I mean, it was it was very different, but that was just the beginning of seeing that, you know, you can see Chicago, you know, you can see the glamor, you can see the glitter. But, you know, to see that roughness, to see that just that humanity, everything else underneath, you know, that's the illusion that Chicago sort of paints on everybody. It's it's easy to see the glimmer and it's, you know, easy to forget and overlook a lot of the issues and just, you know, all these people that are just having these experiences different from, you know, what I was having. So it's definitely a gilded city. There's a lot of stuff that we may not necessarily address too well, but I mean, like overall, right? Like, okay, Chicago has lost some population, but overall, we're still a pretty solid city. Right? We economy is pretty thriving. I mean, now, you know, the entire United States is becoming a service economy and everyone's buying experiences. Everyone's buying the next thrill or the next adventure. No, our generation fruit, like people our age, they literally it's been shown that they spend the majority of their money like, you know, our parents might have been doing things like buying cars and buying houses, but the average paycheck of our generation goes to the bar, goes to the restaurant, goes to the club, goes to that vacation that we've been wanting to take. I mean, we're yeah, we're in the moment. We were people who live in the moment, and that's, you know, that's a change. Uh, you know, people have access, people have resources, people feel comfortable. They feel like that next check is going to come. They feel like that next money is going to come. And, you know, we're sort of getting, you know, that's that's the beauty and that's the danger of reaching that level of prosperity is, you know, people are just complacent, maybe people that make the best decisions, but they're just convinced that it's always going to work out and there's always going to be that safety net. Well, I don't know if everyone feels that way now. A lot of I mean, a lot of people do. I mean, one thing that my dad always told me about, uh, growing up was, you know, in the fifties and sixties, he said poor people didn't have shoes. Poor people didn't have, you know, a paved road that went to their house. They lived in shacks they didn't have like this and that. Then maybe they even had an outhouse. Now, you know, not to say that, you know, being poor, being at the bottom rung of society, you know, that socioeconomically is always the worst. But, you know, you can have shoes, you can have air conditioning, you have a TV, but things are things are definitely way different. And there's a new there's new struggles, right? Like society evolves or. Yeah, no, truly, truly. The more things change, the more they stay the same. You know, new new problems emerge. I mean, we saw things happen in our city because of all these changes that are I think are just a whisper of what's to come. Okay, future. So what's what are these changes? What are these whispers? What are they? Yeah, I mean, just first and foremost, all the changes. I mean, growing up in Chicago 20 years ago, 15 years ago, this city. Has really gone to the extreme of this sort of separation that we're talking about where, you know, there's places where people are just living it up and, you know, the worlds are good and gravy. But then right there across the tracks, across the line, it's a whole different worlds, a whole different experience. And we sort of saw what happens when, you know, those lines are crossed, when those worlds collide. And we had, you know, these protests. We had this movement. We had a huge conversation and a social reckoning. And so what exactly are you referring to when you say these movements, these protests, these social movements and the reckonings? Well, I'm talking specifically about gentrification in the city of Chicago, and I'm also talking about protests and social activism related to police involved shootings both in the city of Chicago, cases like, you know, Adam Toledo and then other cases like George Floyd in Minneapolis, which, you know, the resulting protests and occasional riots that occurred throughout the city I think really sort of showed to the forefront that these changes have been happening for a long time. And people who aren't benefiting, the people who aren't living it good and grave either, you know, people are fed up and and people are trying to be heard and recognize that, hey, this isn't just Chicago of the north side This isn't just Chicago West Loop. This isn't just Chicago, Wrigleyville. This is the whole city of Chicago. It is definitely very obvious that the city of Chicago prefers certain neighborhoods and puts more investment into those neighborhoods and especially, you know, gentrification. Like you grew up in this city. And like I remember, like, I grew up off WILSON Right. And like back in the day, like when I was growing up, Wilson was like still pretty normal. Like, it's still crazy. Like, you know, like there'd be shootings or like some crazy shit would go down. But now you look at Wilson and you're like, Oh, shit, this is like kind of nice. I see it in Uptown, you know, like, uptown has always been kind of like a lower key, but a nice area with its problems. We still have like our affordable housing and we have a, like a strong community of like immigrants and all that stuff. But there is like a generate gentrification boom kind of happening here. Um, but you man, like, you were born in Logan Square, you live in Logan Square, you stayed in Logan Square and you've seen it all man. And so, like, how do you feel? How do you feel about all of that? Like, oh, man. No, no, no, no. Before you go on on the on the Ben isms, bro, before I let you go on the Ben ism, you benefit from the system, brother. We both matter, of course. And I think you do about that. Oh, yeah. I mean. Like I said before, you know, you never you don't pick where the seeds are going to be planted. You don't pick if someone else is going to come and water you if the sun's going to shine that day. But yeah, I've been very, very lucky and very privileged to have been born in the city with the situation that I've had and, you know, given access to the resources that I've had in a city that honestly starves for resources. But I've always just tried to be aware and, you know, from an early age, seeing things happen in Logan Square. I mean, there were many instances where I saw these two worlds that I talk about, you know, just colliding. There'd be, you know, a new. I remember one, the first fancy boozy, sort of like restaurant opened in Logan Square. It was this place, like, Dudley's on the square and that's still there. No, it's gone now. It's turned into this place called the duplex. It's really awesome. Duplex? What is it? It's a kind of the same thing that done this was its classic American fair fancy bar, the kind of place where a cocktail is going to cost a fortune 50 bucks. Do you like the duplex? Would you recommend it? Even though we're shooting on and saying like it's part of the. No, no. Yeah, but see, it's not part of the problem. It's just part of the change. It's part of, you know, it's not that because one side of the mask is pretty, you know, on the outside, right? That it's somehow wrong or better, you know, it it's about making sure that everyone has access to everything and it's about making sure that everyone can have all the same experiences that they want to have. But yeah, the duplex. Great experience. Yeah. Highly, highly recommended. Highly, highly recommended. But done this right before that. I mean, it was the first sort of like boozy gastropub, new age, American fare place that opened up in Logan Square in the first place that started to sort of attract, you know, that yuppie crowd that like, you know, that young, prosperous, no kids, dual income couple type crowd. And there's like a thing there's a thing for that, you know. But long, long story short, right off the bat, I saw that like my neighbors, you know, my you know, my neighbors like plumbers, electricians, people, you know, hardworking people, people who live in public housing. They weren't going to this new place. I want to go to Donnelly's, but we went there. My parents went there, we went there. And that's when I began to see. It's like, you know, you're part of this gentrification, you're part of this movement. And likewise, I would continue to to frequent, you know, my classic neighborhood, the Mercado Mercado San Lucas. I go to like, you know, my butcher. I go all these things. I would never man, I'd be like the only white boy in there for real. I would never see, like, any of these new people, all these new people moving into the neighborhood they would rather walk into, like the Goofy Food Mart and spend. $40 on three groceries and a bag of, like, chips and kombucha. And then I'd walk into the Mercado San Lucas with, like, you know, my 15, 20 bucks, and I'd be eating steaks and, you know, tacos and stuff. But like, you sort of see it's like this beer. It's like these beer, these two worlds, you know, the new people that they had no interest, you know, they came to like Logan Square. They came to these neighborhoods and they claimed that they're there for the culture. They claim that, you know, that they had experience, that sort of bohemian lifestyle, yada, yada, yada. And then, you know, they build up all these new places and they, you know, they go there and they don't frequent the old businesses. So that's you know, that's sort of gentrification as a whole. That's not something that's unique to Logan Square. That's something that, you know, happens everywhere. Let me ask you something. Do you think you could strike a balance between these new younger folks who want to like appreciate the area for its culture and its heritage without overstepping its boundaries? Like I'm saying, do you think that Mercado can be along with the duplex and like there just be like a balance between how much there's like service industry and specific niche targeted to that towards that crowd. And then the rest of the neighborhood, which is just, you know, the people that have been there with the grocery stores and the standard fare. Well, no, I mean, people can coexist for sure. That's the thing. I mean, you have these sort of like Agglomerated central business district areas, these like commercial districts like West Loop and Wrigleyville and, you know, starting to become like that in Milwaukee Wicker Park and Logan Square, where that's sort of what that scene is. And it you know, it takes over, you know, commercial space for a lot of these, you know, lower income, you know, small businesses, you know, people aren't coming in with $10 million to open up a storefront, you know. A family just fresh from Ecuador, you know, ten years hard working, then they don't have money to open a store in Logan Square. And, you know, what it really comes down to is sort of mixing mixing the water. If there's something that I've seen, it's that like when people really do just kind of come together, you know, if you go to that neighborhood and you you walk into that place, you know, you're not sure about you know, you try that new thing. It's like people are just so afraid and people are just. Scared to try new things. And, you know, they want to live in their bubble and they don't want to do anything different than what they're used to. But I saw these worlds collide firsthand. Growing up in Logan Square, we would have block parties. And I remember, you know, the block parties when I was a little kid. It was like salsa, uh, you know, dancing, Latin music. We'd be eating tacos. We'd be eating like Pablo Frito. We'd be eating like my phone. Go like it was like. Such a vibe, like, you know, very. You know, Latin vibes. And you began to see that the neighborhood, you know, was sort of changing, like, you know, houses were being sold, families that, you know, had been renting for. Ten, 15, 20 years. Suddenly had the rent go up one year. 500 bucks. Right. You know, just completely priced out, just like that. You started to see that, you know, there was for, you know, the city was starting to focus in on these areas, places like Logan Square. Money was coming in. They were doing things like, you know, fixing up parks, you know, putting public funding into these areas. And developers were being really sneaky. They were, you know, developers were trying to buy out people who had homes. They already saw the writing on the wall. They were trying to pay people nothing from their homes. Or even worse, these developers were actually trying to give people tickets and citations. We'd see realtors that would literally be poking around people's houses, trying to, like, see if the, you know, the steps were messed up so they could file a report to the city, anything so that, you know, the city would fill them up with tickets and they would have no option except to sell it and get out. Get out of Dodge. Yeah. And, you know, seeing this transition, I mean, feathers were getting ruffled, people were getting upset. And I remember we had one block party where it all came to a head. It was right at this point where, you know, it was wild. One half of our block was fresh, new builds. They'd put like four empty. Lots of people used to, like, play in, you know, when I was a kid and stuff like that had all become new, almost million dollar multi-unit houses. People were living there. And we had this block party, you know, on one side we had the cornhole. We had cornhole. When the cornhole came, we knew the yeah, we knew when the core hall came, we knew that it was the hall fuckers bag of the army of gentrification. But yeah, the cornhole came out right there playing it over in the corner by their fancy new condos and new builds. I'm seen on the other end of the block. Man We got old gangbanger, we got ankle monitors, we got weed, we got, you know, beers. And finally it happens, man. Someone asked, Hey, man, can we play? And the dude? Next thing you know, man, I look over. I'm just a kid. At the time, I must have been 12, 13 years old, sitting on my front step, watching all this go down, hanging out with the other kids, playing squirt fights. And we're looking over, you know, all the adults there playing cornhole. Next thing I see, a bottle is getting broke over someone's head. Wow. Yeah. And it was between. There was between the two groups. Hmm. Next thing I know. The true story. True story. Seven cop cars on the block. Bloody dude on my front steps of inside. My parents are freaked out. We got the neighbor kid over. We're all hanging out. The cops everywhere. Blue lights. We're freaked out. It was bad, man. I mean, nobody thank God, nobody died. But we had, you know, a couple of dudes with, like, broken ribs stabbing each other with bottles. It was crazy. It was a full blown fight over what? I was too young to understand, but being older now, whatever it was, whether it was over this, whether I was over that that underlying frustration, that underlying change, that underlying misunderstanding of I'm this tribe, you're that tribe. It was that feeling. People had it and it's ism. It's that tribalism. And it's this feeling that I that permeates Chicago. This this feeling of the it and the not it. Damn, bro, you were very, uh, obviously have a very profound perspective on Chicago considering your dad like as a Chicago historian as well, and you grew up here and like you're very cognizant of what happens here. You've experienced a lot, but goddamn motherfucker, some cynical shit like, well, it's not all cynical. If, as I said before, fruit. Things are changing, both for the better. You know, the more things change, the more they stay the same and the sameness. It's a city with issues. It's a city with problems. But it's still a beautiful city. It's where millions of love stories happen and millions of tragedies happen. And I think as long as people just, like, continue to work and all of these problems, you know, we're going to fix some problems and then we're going to have new problems. You know, we got everybody's shoes, we got everybody plumbing, we got everyone TVs. And now, you know, and now we got to fix this and now we got to fix that. And then maybe we'll fix that, and then it's going to be a solution. All right. Now, everyone needs a jetpack and a flying car. You know, things are always going to there's always going to be a need and a lack. Right. And that's you know, that's why we get out of bed every day and that's why we go to work. Okay. So speaking your work because your profession, as you've told me before, you're in the business of making fun. You're in the business of selling fun. You're in the business of. You are in the entertainment business. In the industry. Right. Like in in some degree. I mean, being being a bartender is peopling with people. It's, you know, obviously the main part of your job is you're making people drink. You know, you're just the best drinks. But of course, you know, when you're a bartender, when you're in front of someone, you know, you're just being a human being. And, you know, every day, no matter what job you're doing, you know, you're just being a good human being, whether you're a doctor, whether you're a cop or whatever. I hope that part of what you're thinking about is, you know, I'm just going out there. I'm just being like a good human. I'm, you know, I'm putting smiles on people's faces. I'm not I'm not trying to bring anybody down. I'm trying to make sure everyone has a good day when they see me. Well, you know, that's hard. That's hard to be like a good human being always. We all have our days. We all have our moments. And my man, like you work in West Loop. You see all these folks, you see you know, you see the gang bangers with the with the cash. You see the finance brokers, you see the stupid rich millionaire that just pops out in like a McLaren or whatever the fuck, you know, like, you have to deal with all these people. How do you regulate your emotions and how do you regulate yourself when there might be people where you're like, Yo, this guy's a piece of work? Like, if I wasn't behind this bar right now, I'd deck his ass. And you have told me there have been stories where you have gone into shit. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a bar. People want certain things, but, you know, you want to talk about how do I deal with people? You know, if I wasn't behind this bar, maybe I'd be on that other side. Maybe I'd be that guy. Maybe I'd be that person. You know, you just don't know. People come at you. You don't know what kind of day they're having. But you know, the beauty and you know what some perceive as the challenges. You know, you leave it at the door like anything, like any job. You know, you got things going on in your life. You got things, whatever. You know, when you walk behind the bar, when you walk on to the job, you know you're supposed to be. That you know that person like I'm Ben, the bartender. Like, when I'm behind the bar, I'm not dropping my issues on you. I'm dropping you know, I'm there for dropping their shoes on you. You work at a fucking bar. You're like Aaron's therapist sometimes. Yeah. No, I mean, you. You get to talk to a lot of people and you get to really sort of understand that a lot of these issues that, you know, maybe I have in my own personal life, you you really understand from talking to people is that these are sort of universal problems. And, you know, a lot of the anxieties and fears that I have, you know, I often hear expressed to me over a jack and Coke or over a shot of tequila. Like you realize that the experiences, you know, the issues, the problems that we're all having, it's it's all just so similar. And in a weird way, even though maybe I'm not talking about my problems, it's sort of therapeutic to just to like really be out there, hear people's stories and just understand that, you know, in a weird way, we really are sort of in it together. And I think that one issue that a lot of people have and one thing that I really feel so blessed to do, the work that I do is people really struggle to sort of like find those people in their lives, you know, find people that they can just talk to, just like talk to your neighbor, talk to anybody, you know, just get a different experience. Try to hear someone's experience every day. I it really does wonders for your mental. It really does. You know, that's interesting you say that because I'm on the CTA twice a day, five times. Listen to a podcast. Listen to my podcast. If you're on the Metro, I don't experience every day, you know. Yeah, but I was on the train, I was having a rough day at work, so I was like, Ah, you know, I'm gonna go, I'm going to pick up some stuff. I'm gonna just chill out a little, you know, like, it's been a long day. I'm on the train, right? I'm on the train and it's like, packed. You know what I hate on the train is like when their seats and people don't sit down. It's like, yo, bro, to sit the fuck down. Like you're just causing more ruckus by just standing like a sardine. Anyway, I sit down next to this man, starts telling me about his life, how he was just like had just been homeless and he just got on like he has affordable housing now. Congrats to him. I didn't catch his name. We don't exchange names, but he pays 250. You know, he's doing well. He has a job. He's saving up, he's stacking up. And, you know, it was interesting, like moments like that, it's like you have you just sit down next to this dude, this disheveled dude. People clearly are not giving him any time of mind because they think maybe something's wrong with him. Just a normal dude just trying to make life. You know, he had his struggles, but like from a non judgmental perspective, it's like, Yeah, man, like you have housing, you seem to be doing well and that's great. And like for my mental, you know, I was having a rough day, so just shooting the shoot with him for like ten, 15 minutes, all we wrote up was helpful. So I think like what I'm getting from you and what I'm definitely saying is talk more to strangers if, if you if you want, but it's definitely helpful Oh, no. I mean, how are people when I go to the bar or like when I just like kind of wander around like I love it? Yeah. No, just that exchange, just like seeing different people helps. So I think I want to ask two main things because I think it would be helpful for anyone listening to this to know as a bartender, bro, like what should we stop doing? What is like, Yo, stop doing this shit, I don't like it, I don't like you. And then also, what should we do more of or what do we do? Well, that you like. Yeah, that customer, he did that shit or they did that shit and I love it. Like, that's great. Thank you, bro. Or person. You know, I'm saying, man, I'm like not even here to lecture anybody or do anything. But honestly, if it had to just be to simple things, just people got to stop blacking out and people got to start having a good time. Like, if there's one thing that blows my mind more than anything is I see people at the bar, I see will do whatever and it's like you're not enjoying yourselves, not having any, you know, it's one thing, right? The vibes off, whatever. Cool, you're not having a great time. That's fine. But people come out and it's almost like they're trying to like they're just already like in a horrible mood. Like, people come out and are like, I hate my life. Give me a million. You know, it's like, so when you know you hate your life, you're taking shots in the world. Oh, well, but that's the other side of the coin. And it's also the greatest lovers of life. Drink, myself included. Yeah, but love, hate, love, hate. So, you know, drink more mellow. Definitely. Stop blacking out at the bar. Stop doing drugs. The bad for you. Drugs are bad kids. Drugs are bad for you. Don't do drugs and drinking at the same time. But yeah, with drugs we talk like, oh, all the drugs, every drug, I mean all the drugs. Like what if I want to, like sparkle over some some go across, but like that's not there's a no go man. I it's it's funny. Ever since they started doing weed here in Chicago, uh, you know, legally, full scale not. It was really that different beforehand, but. Man. You know, people are just feted everywhere, man. Everyone is faded in the city. Everywhere you go. We just miss out here. Yeah. Not just tennis courts, folks. It's. It's on the streets, too, now. But Wesley. Wesley was sort of an enigma, because whether you're working, you know, I've had the privilege of being able to work in Wrigleyville on the north side and in West Loop. And if there's one thing that you sort of knows is it doesn't matter. What kind of people you're dealing with. I mean, people are just the same, like people going out there trying to have a good time to try to have a couple of drinks, but people don't know how to how to handle their liquor, man. I mean, every once in a while, you just see those real those real memorable cats. I mean, I've seen it all. I've seen people climb in light posts. I've seen people trying to fuck on the bar. Oh, under the bar. I've seen people, you know, I've. I've seen some things, you know, I've seen some weird shit scenes which, uh, then you've met some weird people and I met some amazing people and honestly, keep the weirdness coming because like I said before, it's all. It's just what life's all about, man. You know, the intricacies. Everyone's a little different intricacies. That's really the greatest pleasure of bartending is just being able to witness to so many different kinds of people, so many characters. There's one thing that I really love about West Loop compared to anywhere else that I've ever seen is you just have like the most awesome cast of characters that you're ever going to meet anywhere. Um, whether it's the finance brokers, whether it's the valet guys, you know, stack and cash coming in wads of cash, whether it's your, your crazy cooks or your wild bartenders. I mean, it's a really cool cast of characters and some really cool people. And of course, none of it would be possible if it wasn't for just. All the people. There's just so many people. And it's it's just people being people. And that's, you know, when people are people, sometimes bad things happen. But most of the time it's all smooth sailing. Good is gravy. So, you know, if you want to ask just how to be one of those good people, just keep people in, you know, just keep. It's fun to do bad things, though. Oh, it's fun to do bad things, honestly. Bad things. If you're going to do bad things, just don't do them around me. Shut the fuck up. You just doing bad things all the time. I've never done a bad thing in my life. Yeah. The man is clean Nothing's ever man is a saint He went to Montessori. How could he? How could I? How could you, bro? No, I mean, West Loop is fun, honestly. Like from my experience, it costs a shit ton of money though. That is the one downside to going out in this fucking city. Yeah, I mean, West West Loop is sort of the ultimate expression of the duality of Chicago. You just have this place that is ridiculously nobody's business, like the most expensive place in the Midwest. You know, you drive out to Wisconsin, you go to Michigan, you go to whatever, and you tell somebody, Hey, man Mill, it's going to be $11. It's like. It's a lot. What? You know, like, I'm not even at the concert or the ball game or whatever. I'm literally just like at the bar at the club. But, you know, that kind of, uh, that goes to show the agglomeration of sort of prosperity that you're starting to see here in Chicago. And of course, that all played to my benefit. When I was figuring out what I wanted to do, I had no clue, even remotely that I wanted to be a bartender or that I was going to do anything related to the service industry at all. It really was something that just sort of fell into my lap. I think coming off of like a monastery background, growing up, it was very, very difficult for me to sort of jump in line when it finally did come time for my parents to dump me into the public school system. Going to Whitney Young, a public magnet high school selective enrollment meant that I actually had a lot more of those resources than I would if I'd gone to, say, my neighborhood high school. Like I think it would have been Clementa. But even still, I noticed that. There was an immediate and immediate feeling there that I never had a neuroma story that you're just sort of. A grain of sand in a rolling dune. And, you know, sometimes you're you're on top and sometimes you feel like you're getting the light and the attention. But a lot of times you're just sort of caught up in a million other little grains of sand just sort of flowing about. And when I was there, you know, suddenly switching from that mindset of like, hey, you know, you're going to do things with purpose because you want to do them, not because anyone's telling you to to, hey, you need to do this and this and that. It just sort of didn't work for me and. You know, even coming with the mindfulness and sort of. The way that I like to view things, you know, what does this mean in the bigger picture? I just was never quite able to get in line with the whole. Factory school system. Hmm. And it's not even a personal critique. Like, I'm not out here to be, like, you know, need to burn it all down and rebuild it. I just felt like even where I was at there just, like, wasn't resources for me. I mean, I fell through the cracks. I remember one of the craziest things that happened to me was I like literally failed a class freshman year of high school. And I did not have a parent teacher conference. I did not have. And he sort of like literally when I just met with my counselor the next year, they were just like, Oh, well, since you felt this, you just got to take this instead. Hmm. And there was literally no pressure all the way right up until finally my senior year after a whole four year career of. Sort of. Treating a public school like a montessori school. I would go to, you know, the classes that I wanted to go to, the things I had interest in, and I would excel. You know, I remember I took some AP classes and history and stuff like that where I got B's and A's and then I actually got fives and my AP tests. But then meanwhile, I would never go to math class, not even like think maybe had 20 absences, which, you know, thank you CPS for never calling my parents about that either. But yeah. But yeah. Got through it definitely, you know, kind of had like a fell through the cracks feeling kind of moment where. They just, you know, maybe someone should have just, like, scared me straight, set me straight. But I think all that happened for a reason because it never really broke my mentality of, you know, you're doing things because you want to do them and you're doing things with purpose. But finally, you know, discipline life and it's way sort of caught up with me. And after four years of stumbling and mastering my way through and finishing it off, I finally had the moment when, you know, the council is just looking at me and is like, Yeah, you're not going to walk. You know, you're like, you're literally not graduating. And I'm like, Oh, well, what do I do now? And it was like, Oh, you know, you're going to do some online classes, go to summer school. I did eventually go and like a month later they mailed me my diploma after I did two math classes online. I think an English class too, which was the kicker. So after I learned how to speak English and, you know, do and do math, you know, we're still figuring it out. Um, it kind of just came time to live life, and I definitely was not about to go to college after, you know, that performance, whatever, and just didn't really have an interest. So I started working and funnily enough, the place that I originally started working that sort of became my introduction to the service industry was Wrigley Field. I had the great privilege and sort of random chance of having a high school girlfriend at the time. Um. Her father was like a manager or something at the stadium, and he got me a job right off the bat. And what was so interesting is despite working at the stadium, you know, you play thinking hot dogs and, you know, beers and all this stuff. I was working in like a restaurant. It was like a private club for season ticket holders. And you walk in in this place and it's and it's a restaurant. So with no purpose or intention, thinking, I'm off to go, like selling hotdogs or something, I'm like working in a restaurant. And I was a host. Very bottom of the ladder. And anyone who enters the service industry or does whatever you sort of like right off the bat, you walk in the room and you see like, Oh, these are the people who are making money. These are the people who are doing whatever. And I think right then and there, you know, I saw servers, I saw bartenders. And I'm like, oh, if this is something I'm going to do, I want to do what they do. Uh, I spent a long time at Wrigley. I ended up doing a bunch of different things there. Eventually, I moved up and worked in the suites in the premium section. I was always dealing with sort of those like season ticket holder, premium type people, you know, people with, you know, with a lot of money, people who are sort of from that other side of Chicago, you know, that I was talking about a lot of suburbanites and stuff like that, too. And, you know, and I felt this real sort of like duality of being like, yo, like I kind of feel like I'm from this, but I'm not part of this because I didn't fulfill the rituals of, like, going to college and doing whatever. And now I'm taking care of you guys in the setting. It was like a very humbling, but also like freeing experience to be like, well, now I'm off the now I'm off the tracks. Now I can just go wherever I want. And that was that was the beauty. That was the beauty of sort of that time of my life was I felt very free. And of course, this whole time the city was all changing, too. I actually got priced out of my own neighborhood at that time. Working at Wrigley was not enough to live in the brand new, shining Logan Square. Right on my own. I ended up. Managing to get a spot sort of in Wrigley. But, you know, it was like a tiny little apartment behind a bar, like super freaking loud at night. They had dumpsters and stuff. Slammin all day, every day. Crazy, crazy. You know, I wasn't super happy with where I was at then, um, and then COVID happened, and COVID was sort of the ultimate wrench, you know, it sort of forced me out, you know, forced me out of Wrigley. There was no baseball season was cut, and I was left with absolutely no option except to get back to my Montessori ways and just sort of do whatever I saw fit. And during that time, you know, of basically the government supporting everybody. Get a government. You get that government. Geez. Thank you, Fez. Uh, we base you know, I was able to spend my time really thinking about what I wanted to do, and, you know, what I want to do with purpose. And sort of similarly, another job fell into my lap. I had a buddy of mine who was in school and he was working a weekend job, side job at this bar in West Loop. And pure happenstance, another week of what had been many of not doing anything. You know, I was just out one weekend doing whatever, and I wandered into this bar, saw my buddy. And next thing I knew, after talking to a couple of people, there was a bar back. And hilariously, despite all the time that I had spent at Wrigley doing everything that I did there, I had no clue what a bar back even was. Which, for all the viewers listening who don't know, it's sort of like. The assistant. The Squire, Squire, the squire to the party, you know, is the. He's the man. He's the guy. He's got exactly what you need. And if he's really good, he's like a ghost. And everything will just always be as it should. And you'll never even see him. It's. It's a guy behind the scenes who makes the bartender look so good and makes the bar look so good. So. Right in that role, man. I mean, working in West Loop, doing this bar thing, it was 100% something that I was doing because like I wanted to do it. I was like, That looks cool. This is something unique. And and I just flew through it, man. And just like that, it's dealing with, you know, a different crowd. It's not Wrigley people. It's West Loop people. I'm dealing with, you know, finance brokers I'm dealing with. You know, huge drug dealers, people just who have free time to spend their money. However, you know, you just see that like. People do it so many different kinds of ways. And one thing that I really never knew. This whole time from the outside looking in on the service industry is that. People do pretty well. You know, people actually do like really, really well in the service industry where after just a year of sort of doing something with purpose that I wanted to do because I, you know, I liked it and I was interested in it. I was able to get really good at it. And, you know, pretty soon I was in a bar back anymore. I was bartending and I was able to price myself back into Logan Square. That's probably my hat. That's probably my proudest personal moment is actually coming full circle and being able to move back to the neighborhood that I grew up in. Um, it's very come to Jesus full circle. Very, it's a, very come to Jesus full circle sort of things. But if there's one thing that, you know, I really learned along the way and just saw the whole thing, it's that, you know, the city was changing the whole time with me. And in the same way that, you know, my neighborhood started off, you know. A little bleak. And, you know, the gentrification came that people changed. You know, there was roughness. There was. And it's still changing. You know, if there's one thing that I learned is that, you know, myself, these are, you know, the city. Everything is just in a constant state of change. And it really is that adapting to the change, I think that helped me. Do what I want to do. And I think it's what the city is just constantly working to try to do. That's true. You know, and that's kind of like the whole reason I wanted to start this blog was to just have people in Chicago who are trying to do shit, who understand that it is always changing and that we all play a role in it. And they find their niche and they kill it. And my man, like I've known you since high school. You're one of my lifelong friends, obviously, so I can definitely say you're fucking killing it. So, you know, props to you, bro. Keep killing that shit. I think in general, bro, like, is there anything. Before we close out, wrap this up, put a ribbon on it. Anything you want to tell people in this last few minutes? Yeah. Um, there's anything that I really would truly love to just sort of wrap into the whole context of everything I've been saying It's just that Chicago, to me, is a living and breathing thing. You know, it has health just like the way me and you do. You know, sometimes our city is healthy, sometimes the city is hurting. And I think recently with all these changes that have been happening everywhere, people really need to just step up and be a neighbor, be a friend. And just be a good human being that everyone that you see, whether it's, you know, a guy on the train that looks down and out. Even if you don't have a dollar, but you just have a couple of minutes to just share your time, speak a couple of words, whether it's. People in a neighborhood, a store, a restaurant, a place that, you know, it's just hard working people just trying to make it, you know, spending your time spending money with them. It's all about just supporting each other and trying to grow. And I think that it can feel very isolating. Living in the city, despite being surrounded by so many people, so many grains of sand, it's very easy to feel like you're just falling through the cracks and, like. You're just like everyone else. But. Just get out there and just people with people. People with people. It's fun to do bad things. The more things stay this way. What was last one? The more things change. The more they stay the same. Any more Ben isms. Yellow, yellow. Habib. The last vandalism of the day. With that, we're going to wrap this up. Thank you to everyone that tuned in and listened to my boy Ben. Always a privilege to have a chat with him. We just shoot the shit all the time now. Yeah. Thank you for. Thank you for having me on. Thank you for letting me record with you and your beautiful home studio. I hope that one day there's some bloopers or some cinematic cuts that show you just how awesome the set up is. And yeah, with that, you know. Thank you. Tune into the next one like and subscribe to next stuff, Chicago. Have a beautiful day and robust day and we'll catch you next time. Peace.