Restaurant Guys & Their Favorite Guests

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The Restaurant Guys are solo this show by listener request. You’ll hear great advice like never touch a waiter’s tray and guidance on the right number of martinis to have before a business dinner (Hint: It’s less than two if you haven’t had lunch.) From celebrity encounters to fur coats, these are a few quirky tales of life behind the scenes of fine dining.

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Transcript

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-12-2025_132352: 1:27

Hello everybody and welcome. You are listening to the Restaurant Guys. I'm Mark Pascal and I'm here with Francis Shot. Together we own stage left in capital Lombardi, restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We're here to bring you the inside track on food, wine, and the finer things in life. Hello, mark. Hey buddy. How are you? I'm great. How. I'm great. I'm super excited for our guests today. They are some of our favorite people. Uh, you guys are gonna realize why I'm laughing in a minute. Our guests today are us. We're the guest today. So we have, we're responding to a bunch of listener requests to do a Mark and Francis only show. And so, uh, we thought we would, so honestly, you know, we spend. That anywhere from five to 10 minutes at the beginning of the show talking about things we want to talk about and what we realized is. We got more stuff we want to talk about. There's, that's not enough time. So just a while back, we were on the 200th episode of the Cocktail College podcast. And, uh, many of you have joined us, I guess from the Cocktail College who are now following us. That's great to have you aboard. Yeah. Welcome to the restaurant guys. If you'd like to become a paid subscriber, you'll get invited to lots of cool parties and fun things like that. We'd love to have you on board. Anyway, thanks for following the show. But one of the things that we've gotten a lot of requests for is to tell some stories. Mm-hmm. People want to hear stories from the past and, um, you know, I'm moved, but there's so much stuff out there. Like some of them aren't that just far in the past of, some of them are from y from yesterday. No, but some of them are from far in the past. But what what's funny is I think there's a real appetite for. Restaurant stories. Mm-hmm. So do you, do you follow Bistro Huddy on Uh, oh yeah. They're great. They're Ray, he's great. They're terrific. It's, it's one guy, but yeah, he plays all those characters. It's different characters, but it's one guy. But there's all sorts of these, like, you know, in the restaurant life mm-hmm. Uh, you know, amusing stories and, and, and tales of life. well, what makes them amusing is a lot of people have worked in restaurants. Obviously most of our listeners have worked in a restaurant mm-hmm. At some point or another. And we've all been in restaurants and the, the ones that have that little grain of truth running through them. Yeah. Those are the ones that are kind of the most fun. What's amazing is, I think what you get in Bistro Huddy is everybody in the restaurant business is like, oh, I remember that happened. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah. The sauce is another good one where that I like a lot. Also. Also Good. Do you know what they did at Bistro Hu? They did. One of your, one of your, the things that you've trained on in a long time is Okay. Never let anyone take anything off your tray. Oh, and recently they did one. I didn't see. I didn't see that one. Oh, it was great. So which one is the hot one? The ger hot girl. That, that, well, she comes over and the guy says, let me help you with that. And takes a beer off her tray and the whole thing goes flying.'cause things are balanced on a tray. People never touch a waiter's tray. So one of the things I do with every single employee when they come, when they start mm-hmm. Is we take a coffee test and then make an espresso, make a double espresso, make a cappuccino, make a pot of tea, you know, make sure everything is up to spec in our standard and looks the way it's supposed to look. And they all look the same. Right? Yep. So the very first thing I do when they come to my table mm-hmm. Or, or wherever I'm sitting to take the test, is I grab something furtively off their tray. You're like, just don't let somebody do that. Right. Defend against that. Turn away from them. Defend against that pull, turn away from them. You gotta, you can't, you can't let somebody take something off your tray'cause people will mess you up. It's true. It's true. So I want to, I want to dive into some funny stories from um, uh, if we had Bistro Hudy at what we would do, and we don't, we're never gonna do that. We're not that talented. Uh, we should have him on the show though. Absolute. We should ask him to come on the show. Absolutely. I will tell you I remember. Early. Very early. My very first restaurant job was, uh, at Mayfair Farms and do, I was doing a wedding. Mm-hmm. And one of my worst, my, me taking something off my own tray moments. Uhoh, what'd you do? I was waiting on the bridal party and I had a tray of white Russians. I remember the drink. Wow. Had a tray of white Russians and they had 1982. Glass. The outside of the glass had frosted over'cause Oh, it was cold milk and Yeah. Cold insides. Yeah. And the glass frosted over from all the, the stuff that was inside it and the condensation on the outside. And I, as I went to hand the glass Mm. To the, one of the grooms women. Like bridesmaids. Sorry, not a grooms woman. Well, today could be a grooms woman. Come on. That's true. It's true. Come on. It sounds like something at a game of Throne. Throne though. But back then it was a bridesmaid. Okay. So grooms woman, I think of someone on a horse and the glass just slid out of my hand headed right for their lap. But I had a way to save it. Which was, which was to take my other hand, which had the tray with two glasses in it. Oh, no. Except I took the tray and I basically smashed the other two white Russians into their lap with the first one while I tried to catch the, the white Russian. And, you didn't get fired. I didn't get fired. I did not wait on the head table though, for like another six months. Yeah, I would, I would assume those wedding sucks. I was banned. How come? How come I'm on table 28 and 29? Why? Why am why am I waiting on those tables? I'll always remember, uh, the frog and the peach where we used to work. Uhhuh. Great restaurant. It's still here, owned by a friend of ours. Now, the owners that who we work for sold to their chef, the Great Peoples. Yep. We recommend the place. But Frog Peach, very nice, elegant restaurant. But we used to have a late night crowd that would go till two in the morning during the weekend, three in the morning on the weekends. And we used to work at ourselves and we frankly made a ton of money.'cause we were really fast bartenders back then. We were geriatric. Well, part of the way, honestly, part of the way we, you could be really fast is lots of the drinks were gin and tonic. True, true. Last. Martinis, but we, but we would have a bar with 50 people at it. Yes. By ourselves without a bar. Yes. Just, I mean, simply just taking orders, ringing them up, giving people their change to all we were.'cause people used to pay with this magical paper stuff. Cash. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes, you know, you know, it reminds me at the time that young people don't know this, but people used to go to bars and, and they didn't do this at, at the dining tables. And, you'd sit at a bar and you'd put like 50 bucks, which was a lot of money back then. On a bar in like tens and fives and twenties. And the bartender would take out of your pile Yes. Slowly take out of your pile what you were spending. You didn't, spending, didn't run a tab, but you just left a pile of cash on the bar. Yeah. And, and you'd, you'd, if you bought something to drink, you'd point at them and then you'd point at your pile like, take it outta my pile. So strange. It was a really weird way to do things. It was cool. It was great. It was way better than the way we do it now. Yeah. Then you got people get really drunk and leave their pile there sometimes. Well, that was the idea, right? You get what's left in the pile. That's funny. People did call me up the next day and they were like. Did I tip you last night? I don't remember paying. I'm like, yeah, you left a hundred dollars. You can pick up, you can pick up 80 of it, because I know you didn't mean to leave that. Yeah. But that was the time. But I do remember it so close in one night and we had long shifts. We'd start our shift at three 30. Yep. And we would leave at four o'clock in the morning. Yep. Five o'clock in the morning. Sometimes I, I left, I left. It sunrise, you know, 6, 6 30. But we made a lot of money. Yeah, it was great. Totally worth it. It was, but one guy alone behind the bar, no bar back. Um, and breaks. And it was, and, and don't forget we had all those breaks. Oh, no. Breaks you, you didn't, you didn't have breaks. Four to four 30 was a one break. Um, and, uh, but they did feed us well. Yeah. And, uh, you could go to the bathroom, but no one covered your bar when you went to the bathroom. Right. So the tickets just filled up. So the moment you went it, it was, it, you know, I kind of harken it to when I go on vacation now. So if I go on vacation for a week, somehow I do two weeks of of work the week before I leave. Exactly. And two weeks of work, the week I come back, I'm like, wait a second. Well, let tell you something. How did I get an extra week's worth of work? But let me tell you something. It was long and it was hard. But they paid very well. Paid, yeah. And I, I loved it. It's where we learned how to do what we do. I loved it. And we were fine. We were the fastest fine dining bartenders in New Jersey, clearly. Who we talking to? Neil Bodenheimer, I think is, we were talking about, and he's like. I didn't even, you know, I had to pee, but I didn't wanna, you know, I just wanted to stay behind that bar. It was good. Well, so anyway, so the night, it's been a long night, and you would have one other employee who was there. Mm-hmm. They weren't really helping you, they just were there in case. So you didn't get robbed. Well, sometimes. Depends on who it was. Right. Sure. Some people would be great at helping you, and some people are like, I'm just a babysitter. And you, and you'd tip out the ones who did. Absolutely. And you would less tip out the ones who didn't. Anyway, so I'm with somebody who's just a babysitter. Mm-hmm. And, uh. They, these people came in and they drank champagne at the end of the night, and it was like a wonderful evening, and I'm at the end of the bar and they used to, they used to run dirty glasses back for you. Mm-hmm.

Francis: 9:46

This got way ahead of the game and I've got a, I'm like closed up. The last call's 20 to three. I've got a, I might just go out, it's now quarter after three, the bar still got 38 people in it, and I pick up one of the big foot ball trays of glassware. It's all. Tall champagne glasses because they all were drinking champagne, tall stem, skinny glass, high center of gravity. Very. And I, and I had another small tray with rocks, glasses on it, little base. And then I, so I'm walking toward the kitchen and I'm gonna set the one. Straight down and swing the other tray over and, so. I make it all the way to the kitchen, which is inside of the bar, and as I am in the kitchen, the bar door closing taps the back of the big football tray. One champagne glass falls over. PI overcorrect. Another champagne glass falls over the other side. Literally, I think I dropped them one at a time.$10,$20,$30,$40,$50,$60. It is not my money at that time. I'm just a bartender. Standing ovation from the bar crowd though was really, that was the biggest, longest crash ever in the history of bartending. So what's funny is you started this story with. You know, I couldn't do this today, but to be fair, it sounds like you couldn't do it back then either. I could do it most of the time back then, but the, the football tray of champagne flutes was a really, really bad plan. You know what else I, I, I wanted two related stories. One is, I remember when we first opened and we priced ourselves too low. Wow. with purpose, we purposely priced ourselves low. We didn't, we want it to be, we didn't make as little as we made. Yeah. Yeah. We, I'm, I'm sorry We waited too long to come out of it. Yes. So we were ve we were the busiest restaurant in town. You couldn't get a reservation on a Saturday night for weeks. Yes. And we weren't making any money. There was no money left over. We're like, well, we gotta keep the prices low. That's a mistake by the way. always do the math and make sure the math, math at the end of every month.'cause we, we did that too long anyway. We are making very little money. We're very busy. We're very happy with our jobs. And there was a lovely family who supported us from the very beginning, and they were our first big private party. And I remember it was a bar mitzvah. And so we had this little co closet in the front. And this little 50 seat restaurant, this family came over and we had some friends who worked for us who knew fur, they knew furs. Mm-hmm. And it was cold outside. And fur was very much in fashion back then. And. These people were very wealthy and their friends were very wealthy. And somebody came up to us and they said, you know that that coke closet is worth more than double what your entire restaurant was. You could just steal the Coke closet and get on a plane and never come back. so, you know what I remember about that Bar mitzvah? What? Okay. Remember I grew up in Nutley? Yep. Okay. Big Italian enclave. Mm-hmm. Italian family. You know, my dad was a half French, half Italian. That was the first Bar Mitzvah I was ever at. Really? That's absolutely, I, I had never been to a Bar Mitzvah before. I went, I went to high school in Livingston, New Jersey. I would say that 60% of my high school was Jewish. I went to more bar Mitzvahs and Bat Mitzvahs than I did confirmations. I didn't know how they worked. that was the first Bar mitzvah I've ever, I'd ever been to. Lead the way. I got no idea. Fortunately I was here. Um, but that reminded me of another story and, and a first story. So hold on. What God, so. You're saying you're gonna tell another story now. Yeah, I know, I know, right? Uh, yes. And I'm gonna go back to the frog and the peach yet again. Mm-hmm. Where we used to work, and I think the statute of limitations has run out on this'cause it's 30 5-year-old story. back then a lot of waiters in this profession. There was a lot more. Gay representation of waiters, kind of an area where people had permission to be gay. Mm-hmm. And, and to be openly gay. Well, it was one of the, was in restaurants honestly, was one of the first places. Right. That was restaurants, really. Restaurants. Absolutely. Absolutely. Really let your freak fry. Flag fly. You can't even say it. Yeah, you don't even have a freak flag. You don't even have a freak flag. I gotta be honest. You got an old fraternity flag in your closet, that's all you got. So it's got moth balls, holes in it now. Moth holes in it now. That's it. So I remember though, it It was Galena and Michael Yao. So what they would do, they had their co closet was kind of neither front door. It didn't have a door to close it. So when anyone had a fur, they would bring it into the liquor room behind the bar. Right. Which, so they could lock the liquor room. And whenever they had a quiet moment, uh, Michael Avino and Gina would prance around and model the women's first. Oh my goodness. Sorry everyone. But they did. And, uh, they were absolutely hysterical and fabulous. And, um, they borrowed your coats. We've never done that at our restaurant. But I, the story I thought you were gonna tell. Kirkland is a, is a furrier on the side, Uhhuh, and in walks you know, a woman with a fur coat, Uhhuh and Kirkland takes the coat and he hangs it on the regular coat rack. Oh, yes, I know this guy. Okay. And he hangs it on the regular coat rack. And he goes back like, so, Kirk, you know that fur coat? Why didn't you put it in the liquor room where we put fur coat. Do you remember what he said? I do. You, you, you may I, I'll give you the punchline here. He said there is a difference between a fur and a fuzz. A fur comes from an animal and a fuzz does not, and that is a fuzz. It's not a fur. And he refused and he refused to put it away. And he was, which a valuable coat. It was totally a dig and she totally got it. He was a little bit snooty and he was a stereotypical, snooty waiter sometimes, and it was very. Fucking funny. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Speaking of fucking, you have to tell a story. When you took over as his assistant manager, there was one, the one waitress who sometimes you get people, sometimes people get fired, and this has happened to us. You, you're like, listen, I have to let you go and like you do, but tell this story about this. So you have to tell me the name of the actor, uh, Andre Brower, So we are. Working at the Frog of the Peach. Crossroads is next door, and it's one of the largest African American theaters in the country. And so a lot of name people would come from Crossroads. They'd either be starring in the show or come to see the show. Spielberg came to see one of the plays, didn't he? So, I think so. Yeah. So Andre Brower he was in Glory. He was in Brooklyn. Nine. Nine. A whole bunch of stuff. Yep. Anyway, so he's there and he's there with a, a group and they're being waited on it. At that time, the frog and the peach had teams. Okay. And I remember the two person, team was Donna and Rick waited on the table. Mm-hmm. And one of the people came out of the party as, as it was over, like they were in the back, back area. I couldn't see what was happening for the event, but I see this happen. And I see the, one of the men from the party go to pay the check and he's carrying the check in his hand. He's means the check means nobody wants to pick it up and the Donna and Rick are standing there. And he purposely walks past Donna and hands the check to Rick and says, we wanted to give this to you because you were great. And it was obviously a slight as he, like I said, he walked past Donna and ignored her and so Donna turns to him, he and she goes, well, excuse me. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember now unbelievably, the guy turns to her. He doesn't miss a second, he goes. Well, actually, we've been making excuses for you all night. Ooh. Ouch. So now she retorts. Well, fuck you. Still cracks me up. Oh my God. So Donna was the first person I ever fired in any job anywhere. This was the next day, right? The next day, yeah. And can tell the story of how she was incredulous. That she was fired. She couldn't believe that she was being fired for saying fuck you to the gentleman who was trying to pay the check. It's amazing. It, it was, it's, you know, it's one of those restaurant stories that will live on forever. You know, I think, I think it's interesting also when you have ele celebrity or well-known people that are there, that come into your, to your restaurant. Some people, it's funny, well, everybody knows this. I guess. Some people, when they come into the restaurant, they're like. Uh, I'm a celebrity, so please seat me in the back so no one will see me. Mm-hmm. And of course, what they want of more than anything is to be noticed. Right. But then there are many people who are like, you just wanna be left alone. Yep. You know, they just want to come and, and have dinner. Absolutely. And I remember Avery Brooks used to come into the restaurant mm-hmm. I was bartending and I remember, um, there was a group and they were like, look, it's because he was in a man called Hawk. Mm-hmm. Which was the show before he was in Star Trek. It was a spinoff from Spencer for hire. Right. And he was, and it was very popular at the time. Right. And, uh. And, but he was this no-nonsense, not a lot of words, guy. And they said, is that, is that a man called Hawk? I'm like, yeah, that's Avery Brooks. He plays a man called Hawk. Like we're gonna go ask for his autograph. And I said, no, no, actually you're not. You're not gonna do that. You're not gonna do that at all. Anyway, so they're like, why not? I'm like,'cause he just wants to have a drink each. And I know Avery doesn't just wanted to have a drink and he certainly didn't want to. Okay. This is a guy who played Paul Robeson and you know, he played Othello on Broadway, you know? Yeah, exactly. He's playing, playing, on on Broadway. Well. And he's in this show, a man called Hawk with this kind of in eloquent, kind of gruff character. And he hated that. That's what, what people, well, that people would know him for that you and not know him for a, you stepped on my punchline, but I'll, I'll deliver it Anyway, it's that How dare I. How so? When he, so I walked over and ay said, thanks a lot, man. I said, yeah, no worries. He is like, I played Paul Robeson on Broadway. That's how I'm gonna be known a man called Hawk. Little did he know he would be known as the, as the captain of the Deep Space. Nine. Yeah. See, later on he moved, he, he eradicated a man called Hawk. And do you know what I said to him? Moved outta the water. Yeah. I said, yeah, but I, because of a man Paul called Hawk, you have a swell townhouse on the Upper East Side. He's like, yeah, that's true. Can't can. But he's also a, he was a professor of theater at Rutgers. Yeah. He was super talented company and a really good guy. Mm-hmm. He was, he was, he really was here a lot in the early years of stage left and Yeah. Really appreciated him. do you wanna take a quick break and come back on the other side? Yeah. And talk a little more about celebrities. Sure. Okay, great. We'll stick with this. You're gonna hear some more celebrity stories, even if there b celebrities, uh, from the restaurant guys, you, oh, I got an, a celebrity story from it. Oh, well then don't go away. You can find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com. Hey everybody. Welcome back. Uh, mark, you had some celebrity story stories. I, I do. So back in, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago, Ann Mira and Jerry Stiller used to, used to come in a lot, a lot and did a bunch of shows at George Street Playhouse that she wrote and starred in. And Jerry was in one and it was, it was terrific. And, you know, her, her, her whole entourage and her kids' entourage used to come and see him. It was absolutely fantastic. Anyway, so. Anne hung out in town. She lived here in town for, for five weeks at a time. Right. And we were kind of her, her hometown bar right. By the way. And those two at table having dinner are exactly like they play. And they're not acting. That's just them. They're hysterical. Jerry was quieter than, than he. Yes. Anne was the, was the bores one in Jerry. But the interaction's the same. The quieter one. Yes. But they're terrific nonetheless. Uh, anyway, so Anne is at the bar one night. And I, and this is, and Jennifer, you're gonna have to do a little bleeping here. I think, uh, Anna's at the bar one night and she starts going off on the Vagina Monologues. Oh, that was the play that was playing at the time. Yeah. Not here, it wasn't playing here on Broadway, but she was talking about in Broadway, and she just said, I, I just don't understand the world today. Right. There was just some things that you just didn't talk about in my day. And there, you know, nothing sacred anymore. And she's standing at the end of the bar and she goes, you know, you can just stand up there on stage. And, and she's talking in Anne Mira, full voice, right place isn't that big. That was voice and a half. Okay. She's, she's, she's full throated. Yeah, yeah. Firecracker. And she goes, and you can just stand on stage now and say, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt. And you know, you can just say it as much as you want, whenever you want, wherever you want. Oh, and literally at the table right behind Ann, across from the bar. Are three nuns. Okay? And I'm praying, yeah, okay. Please don't strike me down right now. Lord, She'll stop in a minute. I promise. Uhhuh. Yeah. And whatcha you gonna do? Just tell Anne Mirror to shut up. Mirror sink hunt in my restaurant. And I turned and I saw the three nuns sitting behind her I really thought that day that lightning was gonna strike the restaurant and, and strike us down. I think you're overthinking the Catholic side of this a little bit, but, uh, the, the cu story was very funny. I like that. Yes. Uh, Alright, well I have another celebrity story. Okay. Go. it's not exactly an a level celebrity story, but I remember there was, Marlo Thomas was acting in and producing a play at the George Playhouse next door. Marlo Thomas was an A level actor. Yes, yes, yes. But, um, Marlo Thomas was in, in the play next door and, and producing it, I think as well. And then at the state theater that night, which is the concert hall next to us with 1800 seats, they had Tony Orlando. No. Dawn? No. Dawn. No Dawn. It was Dawn as I recall. Yeah. But I remember that it was like a Wednesday night and at like 10 o'clock, 10 30 after the show.'cause we used to sit in seat until 10 30. Back then you sit till 11 on weekends, 10 30 on weekends. Well this is a Wednesday, 10 30. Yep. So I walked up stairs and sitting in my dining room in New Brunswick, New Jersey was Tony Orlando. And not Dawn. Yeah. But his entourage. And Marlo Thomas was having dinner with her husband, Phil Donahue. I, I can tell you a couple of other people at the table as well. Alan Aldo was at the table as well. Who else? Okay. Steve Gutenberg, Steve from Police Academy was at the table. Steve Gutenberg was at the table. Who else? Do you have anybody else? Uh, there were a few other people of that. I, and I thought to myself, if this was only 1978, this would be the coolest dining room in the world. It's not right now, but it would be amazing. It was still fun. It was still fun to have those people in the dining. It was great. It was super great. The the thing you learn. Mm-hmm. And this is absolutely, I've talked to a lot of restaurant people about this over the year and be next to theaters. We've had a lot of A, B, C, D, and E level actors throughout, right. Throughout the years here and. The A level actors are almost all to a person. Great. Yeah. They walk in, they just want what they want. They want a little peace and quiet, nice meal. Terrific. The e level actors yes, are almost always terrific Uhhuh, okay? Because they come in and they're just happy that they, you know who they are, and that you recognize that they're in the play next door, and they're, they're great uhhuh, okay? They walk in the door and, oh, so good to see you. And they're, they're happy to be recognized, and they're great. The B, c, D level actors. Okay. Variance is where we have the variance. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. It's where we have, some of them are very nice and some of them. Are awful. Yeah. Right. Notice me, notice me. Notice me. Notice me. Yeah. Yeah. Because they're trying to get to the next level and or reclaim the level they once had, or rec or in a lot of cases, you know, the one actor, the Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman's husband. Okay. Just was so busy trying. To reclaim his former glory, and he was so unsuccessful that Mark doesn't even remember his name telling you this story. Sorry dude. If you're listening, uh, you know, never quite got that back. It, it's just, but, but you're rude to my staff. But yeah, don't be rude to my staff. These, you know, sometimes they're horrible, right? Yeah. They're just horrible to the staff. It was awesome that you didn't remember. I have no idea what his fucking name is right now. No issue. I can I tell you, not only do I not know his name. I don't know how to find out his name. It's a cell phone. You, you go in the little computer and you find out, but I mean, to reach it in my brain. Yeah. Yeah. There's no, there's no, you know, line to, to his name in my brain. Alright, I got one more story I want to tell and then we'll bring this little brief episode of Mark and Francis. Tell us, if you like this episode, by the way, email us at the guys@restaurantguyspodcast.com. We'd love some feedback. Anything you'd like to hear that you're not hearing, anything that you like, that you are hearing, we always wanna hear. Well, especially because. So Francis and I each have a page of stuff that we were gonna talk about. Yeah. And we are each on question two. Exactly. Okay. So, so if you're wondering if these, if these stories are candid, I promise you they are. well, we, we always start with two questions and then ask other unrelated things. All right. So I want to end this show with a story and it's gonna be totally anonymous. I want to end with this story and it's gonna be totally anonymous.

the-restaurant-guys_2_08-12-2025_150733: 28:30

no names involved but a, a guy who was a big executive in a supermarket company, became a regular customer and there was a guy who was taking him out to dinner. Very good customer of ours. I remember. This other guy who worked for a paper company that sold to the supermarket company, we'll call him Paperman. Paperman, arrives about an hour and a half early and he's super nervous. Like this is my biggest client. He made my whole career depends on this. And I'm taking him out to dinner and he said he loves this place and he wants to order, he loves good wine. I'm like, I know he loves good wine and nobody what he drinks. It's not a problem. We preselected wine. We opened some wine. Paperman has a martini. Mm-hmm. Paperman, it seems didn't have lunch. Okay, so Paperman then has a second martini and I don't realize what's going on. So Supermarket man arrives. Hello Paperman. Hello Supermarket, man. They, they have a drink at the bar, then they sit down to dinner. Then the first wine comes over. Mm-hmm. With, and as I go to the table, I'm like, oh no. Paperman paper paperman is melting. You're falling apart, like House of Carts, you're paperman. Right. So Supermarket Man is making the best of it doesn't like, but Paperman is thirsty. Okay. Yeah. I'm like, oh, slow down Paperman. So, so, so, so Paperman. Paperman is drinking his drinks and I see where this is going. Uhhuh, and slowly I can see I've been a bartender a long time. Oh yeah, yeah. Been a bartender a long time. And I can see in the eyes of supermarket, man, that he knows where this is going to Paperman doesn't know where this is going, but he's going there like a paper plane. He's, he's already a little bit there, right? He's already already in the land that he didn't wanna be. So supermarket, man. Realizes at this point that he, when the red wine hits, he, he's had too much. And I go to supermarket, man. I'm like, I can't serve Paperman. He is like, you will not serve Paperman anymore. So he, and we're we're allies now, okay, Paperman now realizes he's not getting any more wine at this business dinner and he said something. And then supermarket man says, no, Paperman, don't give him any shit. Don't have any more wine. You don't need more wine. So now he's about to cry, so this is fucking awful. I feel terrible for Paperman. So Supermarket man comes up to the bar. I don't feel great for Supermarket man either. Ooh, he's not having a great time with you. He's here with another assistant or associate from the supermarket. So he comes up to the bar, he is like, Ooh, rough night. I'm like, dude, rough night. Right? So anyway, then we go back to the table. Paper Man's gone. God, it's not Paper Man's flown away. I'm like, holy shit. He didn't get in his car today. He's like, Nope. Supermarket man's got his keys. I'm like, so, and the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to anyone at a business dinner at the restaurant, me. Supermarket, man, you other supermarket man, walking around the streets of downtown New Brunswick and we're, and we're walking around and we're like, paper man, come out. It's okay. Nobody's mad at you. And you know what I, it's okay. So you know why I feel bad. It wasn't okay. We were mad at him. No, I wasn't mad. I felt terrible for him. But Supermarket man was buying different paper towels and following you, I think. I don't know. So we go and, and, and Supermarket man was to us like, I can't believe this fucking guy. He was, he was mad. Mm-hmm. He was like, this is, he was mad. This is where I'm spending, you're taking me out as a thank you for last year's. But anyway, we find him in the parking lot of the hotel across the street and we did have the keys to his car. But he is in the backseat of his car and we're like, listen, you know, where do you live? He's like, Vermont. I'm like, oh, you drove here from Vermont? He's like, yeah. I'm like, you are staying at a hotel? He is. And he is like, no, no, I'm not staying at a hotel. So Supermarket man says. You are staying at a hotel. Yeah. And you're gonna stop ruining my evening right now and you're gonna stop ruining my friend's evening. And you're gonna stay at a hotel. And I will leave the keys at the front desk for you and tell them not to give'em to you until tomorrow morning. And Paperman said, okay. And that wins for the worst. I've never felt bad about having a a business dinner go poorly.'cause at least I wasn't paperman. Never saw Paperman again. Paperman never came back. Supermarket man, still a regular customer. Supermarket man likes it here.

Rob: 32:35

Listen, I hope you guys have enjoyed this, uh, walk down memory lane with the restaurant guys. I'm Francis Shot. And I'm Mark Pascal. We're the restaurant guys. You can always find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.