Burnt Hands Perspective
This is a raw and unfiltered look into the pu$$ification and state of the restaurant industry as a whole, powered by longtime friends Chef/Owner Antonio Caruana and former bartender turned News Anchor/TV Host Kristen Crowley.
Representing all aspects of the industry from the front to the back of the house we will dig into the juiciest stories and pull from decades of experience in one of the sexiest and most exciting industries in the world...the food and beverage industry.
From international chefs, sommeliers, industry pros, and so much more, this show will cover all of it without a filter. You turn up the volume; we'll turn up the heat.
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Burnt Hands Perspective
Ep. 14 - From Punk Rock to Culinary Humanitarian: Chef Tony Priolo's Journey
Get ready for Chef Tony time two in this episode!
We were honored to have award-winning Chef Tony Priolo on the BHP, who bares his soul and takes us on a culinary expedition from Chicago's bustling streets to the creation of his celebrated restaurant, Piccolo Sogno.
Chef's journey is one of passion, heritage, and culinary brilliance, beautifully demonstrated by transforming a modest venue into a dining experience rivaling Michelin-starred restaurants. Our conversation links punk rock's chaotic energy to a chef's life and how that helped him survive. Tony’s love for baseball and his Italian roots are major players in why he does what he does and why he is who he is today.
We talked about the power of community and compassion, and the remarkable efforts of Chicago chefs, including Tony, uniting to support Ukraine in times of crisis. The episode shines a spotlight on the swift mobilization of the restaurant community to organize a major fundraising event, raising $650,000 for World Central Kitchen. Inspired by Chef José Andrés, Tony, and his peers demonstrate that true success in the culinary world stems from a genuine desire to give back and help those in need. This conversation is a moving reminder of how the culinary community can respond to global challenges with empathy and action.
We also had to joke about the real side of kitchen life, where humor and pranks are just as essential as the food. From left-handed whisks to frozen boiling water escapades, these stories highlight the joy and camaraderie that come with a shared passion for cooking.
This episode celebrates passion, creativity, and the enduring bonds forged in the heat of the kitchen.
Please support Chef Tony Priolo at his restaurant in Chicago: https://piccolosognorestaurant.com/
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/cheftonypriolo/
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All right, check it out folks. This is an amazing day, kristen it is. This is an amazing day for us. We have Chef Tony here. He came all the way from Chicago. Chicago Arms must be killing him. Yeah, we have Chef Tony here. He came all the way from.
Speaker 2:Chicago, chicago. Arms must be killing him yeah, we're starting off that way.
Speaker 1:So, anyway, go ahead and introduce yourself right out the gate, chef.
Speaker 3:Tony Priolo Piccolo Sonio, born and raised in Chicago, Great little town.
Speaker 1:Tiny town, little town, small town Small food town.
Speaker 3:Midwestern small town USA right Yep town, small food town, midwestern small town, usa right yep absolutely a little bit smaller than here, right?
Speaker 1:so what's going on here is let me tell you a little story.
Speaker 1:I was in chicago for some club business one time, uh and me as I travel as a chef everywhere I go, I look for the place to be, yeah, mostly italian first, so I get my inspiration and then, if I'm there a few nights in a row, I'll break out, just to get diverse, right. So I want to see what the food scene is in chicago, which I already knew. I've been there multiple times. I come across my little thing and I find your spot. I'm seeing all the reviews and all this. Let me give it a shot, right. So I walk into the place and I'm sitting there and I'm not expecting what I see. First of all, the mural on the side of your building which we're going to show some b-roll um during this.
Speaker 1:Once we do the editing, we'll put a little sign up with some pictures.
Speaker 3:It's badass.
Speaker 1:Whoever did that mural. I thought my little mermaid mural was cool in here.
Speaker 3:Which it is. She's my girl. I got a guy to help you out.
Speaker 1:This one is huge right Whole side of a building. The area that the restaurant is in is, I wouldn't say, ran down by any means, but it's definitely not high society. Is that right? Yeah, tell it. Beautiful place, right? You walk in his restaurant, though, and you separate instantly from where you are outside into this.
Speaker 1:It's more of a quaint, oh cool, smaller town mentality, very just homey. You walk right in the front door and you, you got to kind of just turn right and as soon as you turn right, you're walking along the bar. As you walk along the bar, you go into another room. Archway to open up, ceilings are arched out, beautiful um, and you're just like what the fuck? It's almost got a. I'm going to tell you what. I travel to a lot of the michelin restaurants around the world and the vibe of the room has that vibe it's very, it's very cathedral.
Speaker 3:I wasn't trying to do that, I just no. No, you're not. That's the beauty of it.
Speaker 1:That's the beauty of it. So when you're not trying to do shit is when the best shit happens. That's what I think. So when you walk into his room you really get that vibe and what I really envy because it's just not mine yet is the way you sit in the dining room, you look through a staging slash prep area I guess you can call it where you have your work tables and everything.
Speaker 1:And then you look through beyond that into the line. Amazing, just a really beautiful old world setup but a new world vibe. And then you walk outside to his patio, which is in downtown Chicago.
Speaker 3:we're talking right.
Speaker 1:And it's like what the fuck? How did this happen? What did you do? Knock buildings down? Did you pay people off? What happened there? A little bit of both down, Did you pay people off.
Speaker 3:What happened there? A little bit of both. A little bit of both. Let's take a toast.
Speaker 1:Great food Tequila and a little bit of pink lemonade.
Speaker 3:I don't know I'm being weird today. It was all I could find in the cooler.
Speaker 2:I love it, let's drink it.
Speaker 3:It's a great way to start my morning. I'm new at that and I'm loving it. That's how we roll on here.
Speaker 1:So moving on. So then he comes out, talks to me, we talk, had no reason to talk other than the fact that I got to the mention that I was in the industry. Never told you at what level or anything like that, but you took me in as if I was at the highest of all levels.
Speaker 3:And you gave me that type of work.
Speaker 1:Well, no.
Speaker 2:But we do the same type of work.
Speaker 1:And it's a great thing. I don't know if I'll ever say I'm at the highest level, because I'm always going to higher levels to get inspired, so I don't know if I'll ever reach the plateau. There's so many people out there including you, so humble.
Speaker 1:Well, it's the way I feel, bro. How am I going to be inspired by going to a restaurant like yours if I feel I'm at a higher level? It's never going to happen, right? So anyway, coming back to how this happened, Me and you, here comes you walking out with your chef, coat your blue jeans on.
Speaker 3:I remember clearly knowing everybody in the restaurant just doing what you're supposed to do and I had a broken arm, or not a broken arm, but I was in a cast. Yeah, you're right, you're right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. That's what happens when you talk shit. I know.
Speaker 3:You probably, you know what I mean. You knuckled up he was playing baseball, we'll go with that story the baseball player he was playing baseball in. Chicago. And he's Sicilian yeah right, he's Sicilian playing baseball in Chicago. No, I'm just kidding. No, you do play some.
Speaker 1:You're avid in baseball aren't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I love baseball. Yeah, that's great man.
Speaker 1:That's great. I'm a hockey guy having a hard time playing the way I used to, just because of everything that's going on.
Speaker 3:You're still playing. You need that outlet because this is a rough lifestyle. You need that outlet. Rough lifestyle. It is a rough lifestyle all the way around.
Speaker 1:So you're privy to it. Just because you've been around it so long and then doing these casts and everything, you're starting to see the stories of it as well. It's awesome, right.
Speaker 2:Oh it is, it is amazing.
Speaker 1:Going back to that. Let's talk about that your lifestyle before you became a chef. We're talking I can say this right away, because when you talk to me about this, I think it's amazing. So the whole, where did you start out? You were into the punk rock scene. Oh yeah, is that right?
Speaker 3:In Chicago.
Speaker 1:In Chicago. Now Chicago has a punk rock scene period.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That Midwest punk rock scene. Punk, yeah, we got a. I don't even want to go into the whole genres of the different varieties of punk.
Speaker 3:Naked Ray Gun. Yeah, a lot of great stuff, Right, yeah?
Speaker 1:So what were some of your inspirations through the punk life Tell?
Speaker 3:me about that. So yeah, I kind of grew up one of my friends older brother, they came from England. I got at young age we lost our house because we didn't have money. So I went to go live with another family and the family was from England, half Irish, half English, and they would make fun of each other. It was the best. But the older brother would take us to shows at like 13, 14 years old and we're seeing unbelievable punk bands. I fell in love. This place is awesome. You could sit and let out any aggression, because every 13 year old kid has aggression right and this was mostly underground right yeah, underground low yeah.
Speaker 3:No name punk bands it was it was amazing so any of those no names ever grow out to be something big oh yeah, naked ray gun um guys that extend to other bands, um, let's see screeching weasel uh the methadones.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, yeah, yeah, the guy around the corner for me is in um I can't.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the guy around the corner for me is in I can't remember the name of the band a real big band, they're just. They're all over a lot of big punk bands and you're still into it now.
Speaker 1:Oh, absolutely. So you have children, you have a family. Do you introduce them to them? Oh, absolutely, they love it.
Speaker 3:I came into my kids room I have six and eleven year old Violentessa and she was singing the Ramones in the bath.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Perfect, can't go wrong.
Speaker 2:Did they want to dye their hair or do any of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they dyed their hair like pink and green. The older one has blonde hair. It's easier. The other one's darker hair.
Speaker 1:So you went through a phase of that as well, right?
Speaker 3:You had some hair going on Absolutely when I had more.
Speaker 1:Do you have any?
Speaker 3:pictures of this? I don't no.
Speaker 1:Oh damn, the evidence is gone. I probably have some.
Speaker 3:I can probably text them to you, so when it came to that.
Speaker 1:so you started punking. I'm going to call it punking at that time, not punking as a person, but as a genre of the punk music. You started doing that when you were younger, kept you busy, kept you going. I have similar stories but I'm not going to talk about right now because I'll do that in many podcasts to come. But your stories are coming from the same type of that building block that we need as chefs. We all have the same kind of weird story Not all of us, but a good percentage of us.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's what the kitchen is. We're all a bunch of misfits, Misfits, right Hence?
Speaker 1:misfits the misfits.
Speaker 3:Saw them a bunch of times.
Speaker 1:Perfect, so matter of fact. Yeah, saw him a bunch of times. Perfect, so matter of fact. I think you invited me out there to see the Misfits?
Speaker 3:Was it them Rancid, rancid, right, right, right that would have been great too.
Speaker 1:Sorry, I missed it.
Speaker 3:I saw their first show ever in Chicago and I'd just seen their last show they played at Wrigley Field, same with Green Day. Oh wow, and I I'm seeing them. I haven't seen them in 20-something years. They were playing Wrigley.
Speaker 2:Field.
Speaker 3:Same with Green Day. My band played the day before at some small little punk venue.
Speaker 1:So you play in a band yourself? I used to. Yeah, what do?
Speaker 3:you do. I used to play bass the best.
Speaker 2:So did you pick that up when you started seeing those shows and start playing?
Speaker 3:What age were you when I was a little kid? Actually, he was probably 14 years old.
Speaker 1:How many people in Chicago know about this?
Speaker 3:I know they know the chef side of you.
Speaker 1:The chef side of you is very. It's out there, man. It's a great one because I've studied it after I met you. It is bro, I call it this, I call it from punk to humanitarian.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is what we might title your episode.
Speaker 1:There you go, punk to humanitarian.
Speaker 3:You're my title of your episode there you go From punk to humanitarian.
Speaker 1:Check it out. So it's, and you're still you're still living punk rock man, obviously. So the thing is people don't understand when we become chefs, and that's the vision they see of us and that's how they meet us. They meet us in a whole different way, and a lot of people rightfully so, because you don't really focus on them outside of what it is they bring to you. So if they're going to your restaurant and you're bringing something to their world, almost like you when you're a news anchor or a bartender, if you're going to meet somebody as a news anchor or a chef, that's kind of the frigging world you build around in your mind of who they are.
Speaker 3:So you kind of mentally put them in a place of this, oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:So while she's at home, she must be doing her Speaking perfectly Our lives are this every minute.
Speaker 3:It's a lifestyle. You're right. We have other facets that make us who we are, and that's just one of the facets. Who makes us who we are?
Speaker 1:How did you feel about being a chef? When did that turn to you? I've always wanted to be a chef.
Speaker 3:When I was five, six years old, my mom and dad were both working. I lived with my grandma. She lived in the basement of our house and she was constantly cooking. We were poor. She would enter recipe contests and win them, like $5, $10. She would take me by bus three, four buses to Little Italy because we lived on a Sicilian area.
Speaker 1:So you're from Italian backgrounds.
Speaker 3:your blood Absolutely, and I learned from my grandmother that you know you have to travel far to get good ingredients and she would take me off and show me off. So I would always cook as a kid growing up and one day, like one of my family members, gave us a family like tree that they did when we were younger I think I was seven I said either I wanted to be a professional baseball player or a chef. Professional baseball player didn't work out. Here I am now 54 years old. I followed my dream.
Speaker 1:It's not a job. You followed it, you laid it.
Speaker 3:I've been working in restaurants since I was a punk rocker orange hair, washing dishes, cooking. I remember one time, it's a memory I was 15 years old stirring a big vat, big steam kettle of minestrone and I said I made it. I made it. You know. It was one of the still stuck in my head. You know, 40 years later I love that.
Speaker 1:So you say you're following your dreams. He's following his dreams, rightfully. I'm looking at his shirt here. Piccolo Sogno means an Italian dream small, little dream. So that little dream now is not so little anymore. It's not so little, yeah, now it's little reality.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it is, and it's very dear to me and, like we talked about this again last night, this industry and everything I do is because I cook. Everything I have, everything you have, is because we cook. This is our lifestyle. It's not a job, it's our life. I love it. I wouldn't change it for the world.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't change any of it the people we meet, the things we do. It has its ups and downs, like anything. The only times I consider it a pain in the ass or even remotely a job is when there's a lot of fucking problems. Then it becomes a job, but then you fix it. We're firefighters. We put out fires every day.
Speaker 3:Somebody doesn't show up, somebody comes in and hum them over, customer complains or somebody wants a certain table. I mean, it's just we adapt so fast. But every day is a problem. It's how you deal with it, right.
Speaker 1:Exactly the size of the problem isn't the thing every day, every day, yeah. So you know, being a chef is, you know we have a lot of things we have to follow and then the bigger your crew is, the more restaurants you have things like that, the more problems come up. So you go from having to deal with all that and still remaining creative, still coming up with the education yourself. If you're gonna do, let's talk Italian, because that's what we are and that's what we practice. Me, I'm not an American-Italian chef. I do love the American-Italian history and heritage. I am one. I'm that first generation of American-Italian here, so I do like a lot of American-Italian stuff. I grew up on it the chicken, parms, cutlets, eggplant parms, lasagnas, the meatballs, the spaghetti, I mean that's how you got so big.
Speaker 3:Right, you have to. Yeah, you got to pump them in.
Speaker 1:But where my heart is is regional, or multi-regional, or fusion, regional Italian as far as the country of Italy, and what you're trying to do is what I try to do is you try to bring Italy to the guests here.
Speaker 3:So when they come to Virginia and they're going to eat at your restaurant, you're taking them on a trip to Italy. You're not bringing them to southern Italy or the stuff that we grew up eating saltimbocca, bergoglio, the whole thing. You're taking them to a place where you went and an experience of your life. And that's what I and why I call myself. Our food is regional Italian, because my travels, my experiences, my things that I've tasted, I try to bring it back to the guest Exactly.
Speaker 1:So when someone's on vacation and go to Italy, the first thing I love is when they come back. A lot of them say it, and I think it's because of the twist, but of course they're going to say it just to get in your graces. But we've had places in Italy and we still like this better. Well, I appreciate that. You know what I mean. That's a wonderful thought. Ambience has a lot to do with that. You know what I mean. Their perception of what's going on in their world has a lot to do with that. Their comfort zone has a lot to do with that. But what I like to do is that. So when I went to your restaurant the last time, you had brought out perfectly done truffle risotto with a fried egg on top. Oh yeah, which?
Speaker 1:on top which you cannot replicate as well as you did, right, because it is something so easily made in Italy and so ready. When you're in certain parts of Italy we're talking about Piemonte, up in Alba, in that area, up in the northern part of Italy, Milano, all that stuff they have some beautiful stuff of this nature and I love it. That's where I go instantly. So as soon as I ate that and saw it when it came to the table, I could smell it and Instantly.
Speaker 1:So as soon as I ate that and saw it when it came to the table. I could smell it and the shaved truffle was perfect. Matter of fact, he's the one who turned me on to my new truffle purveyor.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, giacomo the best. Yeah, giacomo, I have a really good relationship. When did you meet this guy? When did you come to Chicago?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I have a great relationship with him. I'm getting ready. Sure, if I could carry them on board, I had a whole uh oh nice, yeah, so sorry to make it so that would be one thing you're arrested for at the airport.
Speaker 1:Thanks, for not bringing it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool could he use that so?
Speaker 1:so the whole point of this is when you're, when you're replicating or bringing something back to someone like myself, with the education of going back there mentally it's not even educating of knowing you're doing it right. We're past that right Now it's a fact of we're eating it and now it's bringing me there without choice. I'm not looking for it, I'm not dissecting it. Oh, he did this right, he did that. Fuck all that.
Speaker 2:What it is really is.
Speaker 1:I'm eating this damn egg and it's just oozing perfectly, perfectly.
Speaker 3:Orange yellow yolk the way it should be Local eggs, yeah.
Speaker 1:Local farm eggs, you're getting that real good protein in the yolk, yeah. And then, just amazing, al dente risotto the way it should be. The rice was perfect. Now I'm going on talking about this. Basically, what I'm saying is how this should have been done and how it fucking was done. Yeah, right. So I'm not talking about how you executed it. I'm just talking about how it was executed and it was right and that's what you guys bring over there. And that's where a lot of Italian restaurants and a lot of people who judge us. This isn't Italian.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, it's not the Italian you're used to, but it is Italian, because I'm Italian and I'm cooking it, and this is what I eat and this is what we eat and the ingredients are from Italy.
Speaker 3:You're right. Carne Rola is coming from Italy, reggiano's coming from Italy. The eggs might not, but the truffles are coming, because where else are you going to get them right?
Speaker 1:You have to get them there. We can't grow our own.
Speaker 3:I wish we could, yeah, be a millionaire. We'd be happy We'd be a little bit bigger.
Speaker 1:And the funny thing, is up in Maine, where I lived for quite a while in my life. There's poplar trees and that's what the is the same tree, but just to climb it or for whatever it is, I'm always wondering is there a fucking shitload down there that we don't even know about?
Speaker 3:There could be, you never know. I went truffle hunting. You ever go truffle hunting? Yes, amazing right, great people out there. I go with.
Speaker 1:Every time I go out there and have a chance, I go with them. It's very secretive. We get in our little four-wheel drive Panda hatchback and we, the dog's in the trunk of a car.
Speaker 3:You pull up to another car, the dog pops out, this cute little dog, and he's hiding oh he's a third generation dog Wow.
Speaker 1:Sounds we meant to the same place, but it's a lot of fun. So, moving forward now with the, let's move into the humanitarian side of you as a chef in Chicago. Chicago is not an easy place. You've been there many times, you know the food scene Right. So we know the food scene in Chicago is untouched, right, it's great. It's a huge, huge food scene. The chefs that come out of there. It's a Michelin city, james Beard city. You're up against it, man. And though these awards don't typically come to everybody, they do go to the people who are in the right place, right time and do the right thing over and over and over. But you don't need the fucking award to be the best in the eyes of your customers that come through the door.
Speaker 3:We don't do this every day for an award.
Speaker 1:There's no award If we did it for an award dude, we would have shut down many years ago. It takes years to earn awards. It takes years right.
Speaker 3:It's not why you do it.
Speaker 1:I don't do it.
Speaker 3:I don't open my doors, I don't think about it. I do it because I want to translate what my feelings are to my guests. I could care less Exactly.
Speaker 1:My point being is you're in a city of the same attitude which means there's the same feel and then the awards come right. Because, your competition isn't against the awards, it's against the other chefs with the same passion. But that competition becomes a friendship in a sense.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, so we share a lot of the same clients here with the best chefs around. We all share the clientele because clientele want to eat. That's what we provide. So when you are big time we were talking about your punk youth and you had so many stories last night of Craig Give me, before we go into this, give me like one good or two good stories of how you were, how you came up, like you came up. You were talking to me about being a little bit in the French brigade. You were talking about the French system. You were talking about asshole French chefs. That did you dirty.
Speaker 2:Old school yeah, Old school which we all know about and we do, and.
Speaker 1:Old school, yeah, Old school which we all know about and we do, and today we would probably get arrested for. But tell me, give me like a couple of synopsis there. Give me some.
Speaker 3:Fun story. You know what a current tomatoes I remember one time a chef gave me a pint like a little pint of current tomatoes. He said give me some tomato roses. Yes, chef Started banging it and they pop every time.
Speaker 2:He's just sitting in the corner laughing uh, yeah, just things like that, you know, go get the hot water out of the coffee machine, yeah, hot water out of the coffee machine at one time.
Speaker 3:Uh, it wasn't happening to me, but it happened to a friend of mine who was at another chef restaurant. He, the chef, told to go get two, the two top sheet pans on a speed rack in the cooler. So he went in there. He came on, he burned his hand so the chef had put hot pans in there it's just a yeah. An idiot chef that did that. But I mean, you're like a young kid, you want to learn.
Speaker 1:Yes, I'll do that, you know so when I, when I was young, I got hit with these two I got. I'll give you two of mine. So the first time I was in a kitchen, I was probably 14 years old. I went to this thing and one of the one of the saute cooks told me to run across the street to another restaurant or left-handed whisk, and I fucking fell for it Of course you did.
Speaker 1:Yes, chef, yes, chef, I went and got it and the fucking people handed me a whisk. They went right along with it and then he said, as I'm walking out, the guy was like whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second. That's a right-handed one.
Speaker 2:I came back.
Speaker 1:He goes here's a left-handed one right here, just tell him I and joking around.
Speaker 3:Those guys were friends, Right? So the next time I went on.
Speaker 1:I had this chef tell me. An Italian chef told me to boil. We're going to have a storm coming, in which we were. It was predicted to have a big snowstorm and everything. He told me to go, boil a bunch of water for pasta and then put it in the freezer so we wouldn't have to fuck with it later, so if we lost, power, we'd have plenty of boiled water for pasta later.
Speaker 1:I didn't do it. No, right away I said, first of all, you're fucking fucked. Second of all, I almost might have fell for it. If I haven't been whisked out before.
Speaker 3:So that was it After that whisk thing.
Speaker 1:I learned everything. I'm going to analyze everything.
Speaker 3:But have you done that since? Have you had one of your guys go to another friend of yours restaurant? No, I never did it.
Speaker 1:I'll be honest with you.
Speaker 3:I never did it because well here's the thing.
Speaker 1:This is why I don't do it. I never trusted or liked that guy again in my life.
Speaker 3:I actually held resentment towards him for making me look that fucking sick. Oh for the whiskey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I was never able to get a good relationship in that restaurant again.
Speaker 3:That's on him, that's on him.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I carried it.
Speaker 3:I, because I don't want someone to misappropriate my knowledge or what I want to teach them, because they don't trust me anymore.
Speaker 1:I can see that point. It pissed me off. I had secondhand embarrassment for anybody doing that.
Speaker 2:Well, and you were also young, so you take it more personally. I was young at the time. Yeah, like when we're older, you fuck around with each other.
Speaker 3:I mean we still mess with some of the interns, but we also mentor them. It's just kind of good fun and they give it back too.
Speaker 1:My messing around with people now is different. Now I fuck with them in a different way. If they mess something up or break something, I'll just sit there and stare at them and tell them I'm going to see your fucking ass outside right now, motherfucker.
Speaker 3:You're kind of intimidating looking, so I mess with them like that.
Speaker 1:And I'll say, no, get over here, come on you. And I'll say, no, get over here, come on, you're going to cost me money.
Speaker 2:You think the?
Speaker 1:customer out there is because your steak sucks. Now get the fuck outside and then he'll go outside and I'll just leave him there and then he'll come back in. I'll be like I do it in different ways. I don't know if you're here yet or not. I had a cook overcook. I was pissed at this time and I threw a tomahawk at him straight, a tomahawk at him straight a tomahawk, oh no way.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. And then fucking actually caught it.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I threw it across the freaking kitchen at him like a tomahawk right. And he just said I don't know if he can catch a ball if you threw it at him twice, but he caught it just out of reaction and it was perfect, like you, know what I mean Classic. You know what I mean Classic.
Speaker 2:So we gave him ESPN's shot out of the day for that.
Speaker 1:So now you've been through the wringer, you've been through the stuff, you've worked for chefs, you've worked for French chefs, you've been fucked with, you've been tormented, you've tormented, and here we are now In a good way, in a good way. So the safe thing to say here is that the industry is still alive and it's safe. Oh yeah, right, so we're going to get to that in a minute, but I really want to talk so we have time on this. Your humanitarian efforts are, I mean, they're huge, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, thank you. If you look you up as a chef, you're going to find out a lot about your cooking, your restaurant, your accolades, people's reviews, people's perception of his restaurant. You're going to see all that. But what you do see a lot more of, too, is what you're doing for your community, what you did during the pandemic the war. The pandemic yes. You did a lot for the pandemic.
Speaker 3:In.
Speaker 1:Chicago. You had a lot of play on that. I remember trying to be involved with it from here.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they shut us down.
Speaker 2:They shut you down, shut us down.
Speaker 1:He did a lot of work, trying to bring things smart and together during that time to help all restaurants around. Yeah, so, but more so. The war in Ukraine. You did that. Everybody knows there was a lot of refugees that were coming out of there. Can you touch on that a minute?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you know, first I'll backtrack. You know, in a restaurant we probably get 30, 40 requests a week to help out a charity right?
Speaker 3:so at least we do in chicago, I'm sure yes, we do yes, you know, because, uh, some of these customers mothers having a you know some fundraiser for their kids at school we're always a part of it, so we're taught early that, okay, to be successful, we need to help, we need to give back, and my personality is from me growing up and not having a home. At one point people have helped me, so I always want to pay it forward. And one time, you know, and the day the war started and that Russia invaded Ukraine, I'm working out in the morning because I have to get healthy. It's 530 in the morning and I'm watching this and, as my adrenaline is pumping and flowing, I'm watching on the TV screen what's going on and I said to myself what can I do to help? I can't be there. I feel bad for all these people that are getting bombed. Just think about somebody's coming to your town and they're bombing your town and you're hiding in a subway.
Speaker 1:You told me last night you have a Ukrainian young girl working there. At one point we had a Ukrainian hostess.
Speaker 3:She was probably like 18, 19, and I remember thinking about what is that poor Nadia doing, what's going on with her Sweet little girl, sweet kid. So I actually sent her a message later on and I'll get to that. So anyway, I banded back with my chefs. I reached out at like 7.30 in the morning. First I texted the head of the Illinois Restaurant Association, sam and Mary Kay, and they didn't respond because he was finally on vacation, because that guy, those guys are great. They do so much for our restaurant community. He didn't respond. So I waited a little bit more and my adrenaline's going. I just had coffee, which now I've quit coffee, I just drink decaf because it puts you up to another level after you work out.
Speaker 3:Tweaking you up to another level after you work out tweaking, yeah so, and I'm like I can't, I can't take, I can't take no for an answer one of this. So I reached out, I emailed and texted about 40 chefs. Immediate responses yes. I said, hey guys, let's do something for these poor people. I'll lead the charge, I'll take care of, I'll take care of the logistics. Let's just do an event, let's do something. So within a day and a half I I got um navy. I reached out to the city of Chicago because friends were working In Chicago. You know, you're like two degrees of separation. So Navy Pier was able to donate their space. We had 80 chefs, or actually 100 chefs, that participated. Hold that thought.
Speaker 1:For those people who are watching, who don't really realize the capacity. I'm sure you do, but the Navy Pier in Chicago is not like the old Navy in the mall. I mean, this is a big deal. To have 100 area chefs in Chicago come together is a big deal In two weeks. So we're not talking about a small town somewhere where you just make a fucking call to some people. We're talking about Chicago's food scene. And if you rented out?
Speaker 3:Navy Pier. Right now it's $250,000 for the size party.
Speaker 1:Right, so that's huge. Sorry to interrupt, no no, no interrupt.
Speaker 3:So they donated the space. I had some friends that did some other cherry work for Green City Market. They helped me. They jumped in with some fundraising and organization. But it was all my contacts. I called Danny Wertz from, who Owns the Blackhawks Yep, yep, and he's like whatever you need. They donated all the booze. Friends donated tablescapes. We had sound systems, djs.
Speaker 1:So you had the NHL pretty much involved in the scenes. No, it wasn't the NHL, it was just Danny Words. Okay, gotcha.
Speaker 3:But you know, everybody donated. We did a silent auction and within two weeks I put on an event for our community. All the chefs voted and we sent all the money to World Central Kitchen. I texted Nadia on Instagram and she said yeah, she was safe. I asked her how she was and she said I'm like who's helping you? So we want to send money to who's helping you. So World Central Kitchen. Every time we have a train stop because they would take the train at night. I told that to the team of chefs. We all said World Central Kitchen. So we donated $650,000 within two weeks.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the day after the war started is the day it started, and our event was on the day that the city and state closed our restaurants two years prior because of COVID. So it was like here, restaurant communities are giving back, doing something that nobody else did in the world. No other chef community in the world did what we did. We didn't want any accolades, we just wanted to help and that's why we did it, and it was the day that they shut our. I know you guys got shut down in Virginia too.
Speaker 3:We got shut down on the 16th of March, and here we are doing something on the day of the anniversary that, instead of us complaining and crying, we went forward and we raised a bunch of money.
Speaker 1:That's why you're here and that's why we're together talking, because that type of chefing and that type of restaurateuring is what makes separates the successful people who are really passionately going for what they do, and those who are out here just for a fucking paycheck, and there's a huge difference in that because the paycheck goers aren't helping nobody.
Speaker 1:They're bitching all the time, they're giving a bad name to this fucking industry and it's becoming a little bit out. We're almost getting on the other side of that scale, to where there's a lot more of them. It helps us, in essence, but but on the other hand, it's disheartening in another way. But what you're doing and what you did now, that's Jose Andres Chef. Jose Andres, yeah, amazing.
Speaker 3:Chef Jose Andres has a lot to do with all that. He helps with food policies, to help with organics and getting food out to homeless people, to shelters. He's always first in line.
Speaker 1:He's got a team and the reason I'm bringing him up, so there's no confusion here why I just brought him up out of nowhere is because it's really not out of nowhere. It has all to do with that kitchen situation in Ukraine. Yeah, world.
Speaker 3:Central Kitchen. So myself backtrack Paul Cahan, one of the owners of One Off Hospitality, james.
Speaker 3:Beard winner Friend, giuseppe Tintori, and myself and another guy, eric Kleinberg, who's a photographer, was a waiter and also someone of a chef. We all went down there two weeks after we did that event, on our own money, and we went down there to go cook. We were on the border of ukraine poland, because he didn't have a kitchen at the time and because it was still fresh, so we went down. We, in the daytime, we went in this kitchen. Um, what were you cooking? What were you guys serving? We were serving anything that was donated to us food.
Speaker 1:So you're creating things out of ingredients Mass quantity, soups, sandwiches.
Speaker 3:Borscht salads. We had one area of the kitchen with sandwiches, so we'd make 30,000 sandwiches a day. Wow 30,000 a day, Jesus Right. And then we were cooking hot foods, proteins with vegetables and starches to keep them going. Good, great food, similar to the food that they're eating, and the pots were bigger than this whole area.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, so this is 2024? We were in pie pans.
Speaker 3:We had six pie pans going, that's crazy, yeah, this is 2024,.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, 23. It's 23, 24.
Speaker 3:As soon as the war started. We were down there within the first three weeks.
Speaker 1:Now, when most people are talking about refugees and walking with their suitcases, things like that, I'm thinking two things come to mind is the old images I used to see of the Vietnam War, when all the Vietnamese people were running and all torn up and tattered, black and white imagery that you can just imagine only because it's in black and white stuff like that. Then you go back to World like that, then you go back to world war ii and you go back to these things that you can kind of relate to but not really, uh, because it was so far back it's almost like you're just reaching into history and kind of imagining what it must be.
Speaker 3:You see it in a book, you don't see it in live but now you're seeing it live in 2023-24.
Speaker 1:So these people are wearing nike emblems and they're wearing modern day class.
Speaker 3:Class means nothing. Class means nothing at this point. So we would cook in the kitchen 14, 16 hours, stinky as hell. We'd go get something to eat and then we'd go to the. We'd serve, go to the camps and serve the food and see, like I was on the border of Ukraine, poland, and people are coming across beautiful clothes, dirty, two bags. It's usually older people or moms with little kids crying. I don't know how much money we gave out, like you know, here go buy some ice cream here's 100 euro, because these poor kids give them to the kid because the mom probably wouldn't take them, and then the mom would come over and start crying because we had somebody help translate. Thank you, we can have a nice. We can go find a hotel now you know, in Poland.
Speaker 3:I mean it was insane just seeing this, and we were feeding 30,000 people a day at the time.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for that I can thank you for that because A you're helping all those people. B you just exemplify what it should be to be an actual giving chef who has resources and doesn't hold them to yourself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's the whole idea. That's the biggest thing. It'll pay back dude.
Speaker 1:Karma is a motherfucker.
Speaker 2:Karma will get you. My mom has family in Ukraine so she kept in touch with them through that time.
Speaker 3:It's tough these poor people. They're hiding in subways, hiding in sewers getting bombed? I mean, you never know. But there's people who talk about it and say they want to do something and there's people who actually do it, and I have no idea of zero relations, besides that one little hostess that worked for us one summer. Uh, zero relation to any anything. You've created something, just god just pulled me over there.
Speaker 2:You just did it because that was where you were supposed to be and I didn't do it for any media attention.
Speaker 3:I just did it, because that's what we do, chefs.
Speaker 2:We're there first in line to help yeah, you know, and when you google, you in essence, like the first few pages are all the accolades, the write-ups in the magazine, all the awards, those type of things. You don't see that as much, and I mean it's something that, again, you don't want accolades for, but you do deserve thanks for that.
Speaker 1:Where's the headline? Punk Rock Chef saves the nation.
Speaker 2:Where's that at?
Speaker 1:Punk Rock Chef gives ice cream to the kids. I prefer the Punk Rock.
Speaker 3:Chef gives ice cream to the kids. Yeah, the community. I prefer the Punk Rock. Chef wins his baseball championship.
Speaker 1:That's what you want?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we just lost our playoff round.
Speaker 1:You just lost it. Yeah, right before, let's put that national. Oh, okay, we got to fix that next year, boys. Yeah, we're trying, we're trying. Come on, boys, bring it in the morning. Yeah, let's do a toast for next year.
Speaker 2:I know this is the yeah to the good shit Another toast.
Speaker 1:So let me swallow this.
Speaker 2:That's what she said.
Speaker 1:She did say that, didn't she?
Speaker 2:We haven't really gotten that in much in this episode.
Speaker 1:We're pretty tame so far, so I had to do it. What's?
Speaker 2:going on with us today.
Speaker 1:Much good, yeah, we are, so I had to do it. What's going on with us today? I know he's got his.
Speaker 2:He's got too much good info to talk about, yeah I mean it's, this is the thing that the restaurant industry in general, because you know, when he had the concept for the show, it was talking about the pussification of the industry and how it's just become so like generalized, and you've lost the the passion and the love and the sex appeal and the rock and roll of the industry. And but there's a lot of good sides to it that people don't see.
Speaker 3:It's fun, it's incredible. If you're sitting around 14 hours with a group of people men, women we're having a blast.
Speaker 1:And the beauty of it is still alive. Let me be honest with you. I'm not saying any names, by any means, or anything like that, of course. However, it's still there. I still have my chefs and my cooks coming in all fucked up and hungover Some of them you know damn well. You ain't slept in two days, motherfucker. It took me forever to get here. Traffic was horrible, we take the same road, there's no traffic.
Speaker 3:More like your traffic curve was fucking on last night. There's no traffic in Virginia Compared to big cities.
Speaker 2:people like to complain. They're still coming in, stinking they're still coming in drunk.
Speaker 1:They're still coming in with freaking VCR that coke residue Maybe, who knows? I don't know, but you know, people are still partying, people are still having fun. They ain't bullshitting me man, I was there. I may have quitted all that partying the heavy partying stuff many years ago. I wouldn't be where I am today if I kept going there.
Speaker 3:But it was part of my life and I don't have a problem saying it, because the part of the growth.
Speaker 1:I don't ever want to see that part of this industry go away and I know there's a lot of people that are trying to make it go away. That's why I call it the pussification of the industry. But my thing is and I'm to talk to you about this is, out of all the things now we have to worry about, we have so many more things. We have a lot more of um diplomacy. I guess you can call.
Speaker 2:Is that right?
Speaker 3:uh, democracy, I mean, yeah, we have you're also you're a representative of your restaurant, so what you do at two o'clock in the morning you still have to think about, because you and I as a chef, it's not only about you. It's about the 70 employees you have that are on your back.
Speaker 1:But what about them hard times that we? I don't want to see some of that go away, because when people like us you and I in this industry have to get to where we are we've gone through it, we've put it away and that's why we are where we are today Yep, but you have to go through it to be able to make the decision, because if you don't have that decision, if you don't have that decision right, what are you going to do when the walls start crumbling? You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:The problems don't go away.
Speaker 1:The problems don't go away. So we can go about it as political as we want to. We can go about it as diplomatic as we want to you know what I mean. Politically correct as we want to, you can go about it all you want, but what the fuck does that do to the problem? If you have a fucking all-out grease fire in the middle of service and you're not allowed to say fuck you, cunt, get that shit, how do you not react to the problem? When the weight of the problem is still the same as it was 25 years ago, 50 years ago, are you supposed to stop and say, well, let's handle this problem differently. Fuck this, the goddamn kitchen's burning down. Get the fuck out of my way and get some water, motherfucker.
Speaker 3:Get some salt, get something, get a blanket. I don't care what you do, but we don't have time to not hurt your feelings. Let's hope that never happens, by the way. Yeah, right.
Speaker 1:That never happens. It's all fictitious. But you know, if we're 70 tickets deep and we're in the weeds and people are supposed to be nice, you're supposed.
Speaker 3:Service is service, service is service so how do you feel about that?
Speaker 1:Like when all this politically correctness comes into the kitchen, where sometimes this just doesn't fit, man, I mean, how are we supposed to stop? The problem doesn't change.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, like during service for us, like we'll have tickets, the way we're working, and you know it's dead serious. The guys are thinking, okay, I need to go get my beer at 10.30, when the service is over 11. But during that time some of you will crack a joke or some of you will do something funny, and then it just lightens it all up.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:One of my guys, my pizza guy. I'm like I go to put my hand to get a drink of water and he starts rubbing my hand. I'm like Chava, come on.
Speaker 1:I do that all the time.
Speaker 3:It's just like that little stress reducer. All right, Chava. Thank you, Chava.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, it's definitely a way to do it. So I try to do that in my kitchen all the time. I'll be the one that gets fired up for a little bit. But once I realize that, okay, I've got to simmer this back down, once the tickets start smoothing and everything comes out, I'll start joking with guys or the ladies in here and we'll all will all end up calming down. Nobody really goes home that mad?
Speaker 3:No, they don't. It's the team and it's the service's service.
Speaker 1:But as far as the whole, let's take it down. Don't hurt feelings. I'm not for it. If your feelings get hurt, just find a kitchen that is more suitable for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't even pay attention to that. I mean, I just treat the people the way that I want them to treat me. Exactly.
Speaker 1:And if them to treat me, you know, and if I'm tough on them, they're gonna be tough back.
Speaker 2:I'm okay with that. You know, treat me better, treat me good, I'll treat you better type thing yeah, treat me bad, I'll treat you worse.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's that simple. I mean, it's uh, that's just the way I live, yeah, um. So, kristen, what do you think? What am I missing here? As far, we have him. He's here from chicago. We got a few more minutes. Give him something. What are you gonna give him? Let's hit him with something good. These people watching taking it to our show, gosh.
Speaker 2:I don't know. Well, I want to know because I think this is going to question where was your training? Did you go to school, or what age did you jump in restaurants?
Speaker 3:During high school I was working in restaurants dishwasher 15 years old. I worked my way up to a prep cook through high school. Then I went to culinary school. We were poor. I took out a loan which. I paid off, which is crazy. People don't pay off student loans, right? So that's why I had good credit to buy my restaurant. 20 years later, the banker said wow, you paid off your student loan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I did so. If they end up going with the country giving back loans like they were talking about, are you going to put in for your reparations?
Speaker 3:You're going to be like yo. I want my money back. Yo Donate it to charity.
Speaker 2:So how long has your restaurant been open?
Speaker 3:now Since 2008. We opened up during that bank recession that was the worst time. I was probably the last person to get a loan, but I'll backtrack. So at 18, I started working in French restaurants Because, as a kid, I started taking French. At 15. Punk rock kid trying to speak French Because I wanted to go to France and learn how to cook.
Speaker 1:And Paris had a good punk rock kid trying to speak French because I wanted to go to France and learn how to cook, and Paris had a good punk rock scene too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there you go they did, but I never thought about that, so I wanted just to be a chef. My goal was to be a chef, so I started working in great restaurants. John Bunchet had a restaurant that he was secretly owned called La Plume, and his two chefs, greg and Tom, worked for him for years. Great restaurant started doing that. Then I went to a French secretly owned, called La Plume, and his two chefs, greg and Tom, worked for him for years. Great restaurant Started doing that. Then I went to a French hotel and at one point, after working 90 hours a week, I said to myself my passion's not there, you know, it just wasn't there because I wanted to do Italian. So it was always inside of me. Then I said, okay, let me start doing Italian, because that's where my love was. You know, fancy putting things on the plate. In the 90s it was a good restaurant scene for French Orange roughy yeah.
Speaker 1:no, orange roughy Shaved almonds yeah 80s.
Speaker 3:We talked about that last night, and then my career just blossomed. So you came from that, because I went to where my roots were from and my passion. I went to Italy. I got the chance to go stage at a restaurant in italy, in tuscany, in the middle of the country, where, in the county area and my life just changed your passion changes once you get back to that roots and you're smelling again what you grew up with.
Speaker 1:I call it. You hear me say a lot chasing the dragon. It's almost like that that drug thing back in the day they used to call that. When you're chasing that high all the time, yeah, I do it, but I relate it to my passion, my cooking. So when I walk into an italian kitchen, an italian neighborhood, I smell it instantly yeah, I want to be in it.
Speaker 3:I want to be in it. And it's not just garlic.
Speaker 1:You smell like you know garlic's the least of it. Man, you know the best smell to me in the world, my smell of choice, something that really puts Zen to my life is fresh basil. Basil, to me, is the most inspiring smell. It's what inspires me every minute. If I smell basil, I want to get in the kitchen right now, and I don't even know why that happens it reminds you of a memory as a kid.
Speaker 3:Fresh bread there's three smells that I love more than anything. Fresh bread, perfect Right. The smell of fresh-cut grass, because it reminds me of baseball. Sure and fall. The smell of the leaves in fall. You guys have a lot of like. We have a great fall there and I think of myself walking to school in rain like today is a rainy day. Those are the three smells that stick to me that bread, and we live close to a bakery.
Speaker 1:My grandma would make bread Same as us. So I lived next to an Italian bakery as well when I was really young, right in New Haven area in Connecticut, and there was a bakery right around the corner that we used to go to and it was amazing. You always knew when that bread was cooking, which was every morning. Oh my, the big Italian roll.
Speaker 3:Did they have slices of pizza bread? They cut with scissors. Yeah, yeah with scissors. Oh, the best. Yes, absolutely, cinchoni, I love cinchoni. They have that.
Speaker 1:You can smell that All that stuff would come when they do the sfogliatelle. You can smell that in the air when the sfogliatelle was cooking and the pastry was opening up.
Speaker 3:Why don't we have any sfogliatelle here? You should make some sfogliatelle. I know Get you should make some for you. I know, I know, jesus, we just jumped on it. Get on this for you.
Speaker 1:Let me just get on that real quick, you can barely say it, let's make it Spell it even yeah right, s-p-z-h-f-i-o.
Speaker 3:No, but anyway.
Speaker 1:G-O-O-G-L-E, that's how you spell it. Yeah, exactly that. Remind you of something. Mine's bread as well Sauce.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, Grandma's sauce Sauce with a beef.
Speaker 1:I have the beef and the pork. You can smell that density Neck bones. You can smell the density of that in the air. Sundays at your house growing up, sundays, mostly all the time, we ate it a lot actually.
Speaker 3:So it's. But yeah, yeah, sundays I used to have to go to the store to get the bread, and the bread would come in the wood. You know, I'm sorry, uh, not a wood, uh, the paper bag half, it would be sticking out because it's too long so, uh, by the time I get home from the, from the bakery, the bottom was missing but I put the top in no right at all can I have some bread and dip it in a little uh little scarpa in the sauce?
Speaker 1:sure, yeah, it's the best. And that smell to me basil to me and, speaking of sports, one of my favorite smells is the inside of a hockey rink. You have that mix between the ice, the Zamboni fumes, the snack bar they have with the vinegar French fries.
Speaker 3:It's always reminiscent. You didn't say the smell of the inside of a hockey glove.
Speaker 1:Oh no, that smells like a fucking boot. That's bad news.
Speaker 3:I used to live next to some guys that used to play in the Blackhawks. At the end of the summer they'd have all their stuff out sitting in the sun, probably just killing all the bacteria.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what we did, Trying trying to kill it so I've learned in time to save my equipment is to spray it with some disinfectant so the bacteria wouldn't eat the palms out and raw and then you'd lose your gloves because the palms would rot out.
Speaker 3:you're around. You have to have that at the restaurant. I would go play hockey.
Speaker 1:Smell like the bottom side of a horse saddle in August and I would go on a date after. I'd smell my own hands and didn't care. I'm like, this is what it is baby.
Speaker 3:It was only a first date, never a second date.
Speaker 1:I didn't give a shit though. You don't like it. Whatever, I don't care. Those were the best days. Those are the days that keep on. I wish you can keep coming back. I'm really happy with where I'm at. Uh, life is beautiful. The inside of a kitchen, by all means, is where I'm most comfortable. Yep, and I can tell that's where you're most comfortable absolutely.
Speaker 3:You know what. You have a part of your house because she's at now and she's comfortable as shit because she's behind her mic. Yeah I'm good, yeah, yeah, life is good Behind the kitchen, yeah, behind the kitchen I love it.
Speaker 1:So I want to thank you, my friend, for coming here. I can't wait. Talk to me about the big food show coming up in Chicago, or the ones that come repeatedly, that you're involved in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, every year we do a Chicago Gourmet. It's in Millennium Park. It's a bunch of chefs that get together through the Illinois Restaurant Association and Association and we have some ancillary events. I'd love to have you out there as my guest on time.
Speaker 1:I would love to Just let me help you cook a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come in two weeks. We have to tell everybody, too, where they can come visit you. So where is our store?
Speaker 1:Plug yourself, buddy Big plug Producers out there, we pluggin', we pluggin', we be pluggin'. Yeah, pico Lozano, grand Milwaukee and Halstead in Chicago.
Speaker 3:Piccolo Sonia means little dream. My partner, tiro, and I started that in 2008 on pennies. For a year I lived off of toilet paper soap food from the restaurant because I had no money. I just put all my life savings into it and it worked out. Wwwcom anything.
Speaker 1:Wwwpiccolosoniarestaurantcom. We'll put that on. Once we do the editing, we'll put it in there your name is very searchable and people can find you.
Speaker 3:This is T-squared, chef. T-squared today, if your name was Tony, we'd have the three tones.
Speaker 2:I know Tony Tony.
Speaker 3:Tony.
Speaker 1:I've done it again.
Speaker 2:It's good and it turns into karaoke at this point, just if you weren't aware.
Speaker 1:Let me tell you something. There's two things I would really suck at as a career. One we already talked about stripping, and two singing.
Speaker 3:I can't sing a shit, bro, Can you dance?
Speaker 1:though, Back in the day forget it bro, they call me Fred Astaire.
Speaker 3:I just run in circles so I can't dance.
Speaker 1:No, yeah, we used to get it in man, definitely on all that stuff, anything that you would imagine that we would do as young Italian kids up north, we did the IROC Zs, all the stuff, the dancing, the Z.
Speaker 3:You know what else punk rockers would do? We'd take eggs and throw them at the guys in the IROC Zs in the little button-up jackets. Yeah, yeah, we used to fight you guys.
Speaker 1:It was fun yeah yeah, definitely all the time, but it was fun, you guys were bigger than us. We fight the punk guys. I can't lie, though, I loved punk too back in the day, but I just didn't live the lifestyle so I can't claim it by any means. We did the Z Cavaricci and all that shit, classic goody in your back pocket.
Speaker 1:We had to do it. That was all the fun stuff back then. I can't wait to do more with you in the future. I'm going to come out to Chicago. Maybe she can come out to Chicago with us and do some footage on this I'll always go to Chicago.
Speaker 3:You guys are always welcome in my restaurant and you make that well known.
Speaker 1:Anyone who goes to your restaurant I can tell is welcome there and it's an amazing thing. So if you guys are ever in Chicago, please take the time to go there.
Speaker 3:Get on his social media, which we'll also post links to. Oh yeah, good Thanks All that stuff, Because I'm on that all the time, right, Typically.
Speaker 1:I do a bad review after the end of everything, but he blatantly does not respond to reviews. Is that right, yeah?
Speaker 3:absolutely not, yeah. Which I respect both of those I don't want to put fuel on the fire, because how much of them are true? Right? And then, if there's one that's valid? And then, if there's one that's valid we talked about this last night if there's a valid one, you definitely have to respond.
Speaker 1:But don't publicly respond to it.
Speaker 3:I just reach out to them. Hey, what's your phone number? Let me call you, because that's what we do If we don't respond to the valid ones.
Speaker 1:That's a level of ignorance that's going to make you just fail.
Speaker 3:Oh, absolutely, you have. To Heart of customer service is to be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, when it comes to half the ones that we get, sorry, three-quarters of the ones we get are just people complaining because it didn't go their perfect way or they're just mad, or they got embarrassed or something.
Speaker 2:So I've got to go after them. I go after them, bro. Well, he does.
Speaker 3:Everybody can read those online if they want to but you choose to not do that. So we're not going to close out the episode with that today, so we'll just close. Let's look for the good ones. The good ones are there. I love the good ones. That's why you do your job, that positive feedback you're getting from the guests, man, I really did something today.
Speaker 1:So, in honor of him, the next episode.
Speaker 2:We'll read a good one.
Speaker 3:We'll switch it up a little bit and then we'll do a bad one after you can do both Boom, all right, we'll switch it up a little bit, I like it, and then we'll do a bad one after.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah awesome, you can do both, all right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's right, all right, boom, we're booming out.
Speaker 1:I actually was going for a toast, but I didn't have a drink in my hand. You got it right behind you, so thank back because you got service later probably, yeah, service. Ciao for now.
