The Restaurant Guys
Mark Pascal and Francis Schott are The Restaurant Guys! The two have been best friends and restaurateurs for over 30 years. They started The Restaurant Guys Radio Show and Podcast in 2005 and have hosted some of the most interesting and important people in the food and beverage world. After a 10 year hiatus they have returned! Each week they post a brand new episode and a Vintage Selection from the archives. Join them for great conversations about food, wine and the finer things in life.
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The Restaurant Guys
Robert LeBlanc: Honoring the Past and Shaping the Future of New Orleans
Banter
The Guys talk about an unusual cooking appliance and how long is too long to keep snails in your pantry.
The Conversation
The Restaurant Guys finally catch up with Robert LeBlanc, hotelier and restaurateur. They talk about camaraderie within the restaurant community and how that enhances the experience for all involved. The love of hospitality often goes back to their roots of family and experienced restaurateurs before them and that’s how they navigate the inevitable challenges of the industry.
The Inside Track
The Guys and Robert find common ground in how they lead their teams—training staff to share their own enthusiasm and create genuine connections with guests.
Mark: As I said to the team yesterday, pick something that you are just absolutely passionate about and talk to the customers about that and tell it from your heart and tell it from who you are and tell it from your perspective of why you like it. Nothing's more powerful than that.
Robert: We have a value built on that. It’s called, “Do cool shit and stay humble.”
Robert LeBlanc on The Restaurant Guys Podcast 2025
Bio
Robert LeBlanc has built some of New Orleans’ favorite spots. His hospitality group, LeBlanc+Smith, is behind Sylvain, the French Quarter bistro; Barrel Proof, a whiskey bar; and The Chloe, an Uptown boutique hotel. He’s also opened The Celestine, a French Quarter stunner with the cocktail bar Peychaud’s, plus neighborhood hangouts like Anna’s and The Will & The Way—each with its own personality.
Info
Robert’s group
https://www.leblancandsmith.com/
Robert’s NOLA recs
https://www.chaisdelachaise.com/
https://www.arnaudsrestaurant.com/
We will have a Halloween pop-up bar in Stage Left Steak Oct 27-Nov 1.
We're hosting Pam Starr to showcase her wines at a Crocker & Starr wine dinner on Oct 16. https://www.stageleft.com/event/101625-winemaker-dinner-with-crocker-starr/
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https://www.stageleft.com/
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https://www.catherinelombardi.com/
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hello everybody and welcome. You are listening to the Restaurant Guys. I'm Mark Pascal and he's Francis Shot. Together, we own stage left and Catherine 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. Hey Mark. Hey Francis. How are you? I'm doing great and I'm looking forward to our guest later on today we have Rob Lelong from The Big Easy. He owns a bunch of great properties down there and uh, it's gonna be a lovely conversation about New Orleans, one of my favorite cities. Yeah, really long term. New Orleans guy, doing some cool stuff down there. Excited to talk to him. But in the meantime, what do you got for me? people are using appliances in ways they shouldn't be using their appliances. Is this gonna be sexual? Never. Okay. I thought, I promise I will never start a show like that. This is a family show, mark. What are you talking about? Exactly? That was funny, by the way. I'm sorry. That was really funny. I hope you're laughing in the car wherever you are. I think most people have seen people using their dishwasher to Oh, to like cook a lobster? Yeah. Or the latest one I saw was somebody So steak in their dishwasher. No. Okay. No. The first thing that I wanna say is. Maybe you can, but you shouldn't. No, it's a hard No. It's a hard no. It's a hard no. It's a hard, no. Boiling, boiling water is too hard. Yeah, that's too hard. You can't, you can't try the soup feed steak in a, in a pot of boiling water. But what they're saying is. They that you should, you're gonna soo stuff in lower than boiling temperature water, but keeping it at a constant temperature. But you know what? You don't need a fricking dishwasher to do that. You can just dishwash do what I just said. The dishwash and the dishwasher doesn't give you constant temperature anyway. Right. And all you're gonna have is a shitty water log lobster look, or a well no overcooked steak. But the lobster is supposed to be in a bag. It's all supposed to be in a bag. No, no, no. You put the lobster right on the rack, brother. Why that? That Oh, absolutely. Are you serious? I'm totally serious. Oh my goodness. It's the stupidest I trend on, on Instagram that I have ever seen. I thought that was stupid when I thought it was in a bag. It's really stupid. I'm gonna, I'm just gonna beg all everybody who's ever seen that just don't do it. Don't do that, that, and scroll past that person and unfollow. Alright. Those are the things that you should be doing though. I have seen stuff where people say, you, you, you have like done stuff in a bag, in a dishwasher, but also unnecessary. Buy yourself a little CUV machine. So, you know what? My aunt used to do? What? So my aunt for years and years would find the clam shell or the snail shell. That was perfect. from buying fresh snails, and she would run them through the dishwasher so she, she could put her next set of stuffed clams or, or snails. We did a lot of snails. She, she serves snails a lot in our family. Uh, when I was a kid, like every fancy schmancy dinner party and the snail shells were always perfect looking. Yeah. But who knows what was living inside the snail shell that had gone through the dishwasher. 18 years ago for the first, that was a snail 18 years ago. Don't eat out of its carcass. I remember the, there were restaurants who used to, um, and I, I don't know if they still do, but if, I think people mostly know that if you buy scallops in a big bucket, they're a lot cheaper than if you buy. Mm-hmm. If you buy dry scallops, or certainly scallops in the shell are much more expensive depending on where you are. Yes. restaurants would use scallop shells for scallops that had been shipped in wet, as wet scallops. So they would buy diver scallops. Yeah. One time, which come in the shell one time. Open the scallops, save the shells, run them through the dishwasher, put a cheaper scallop in the scallop shell and serve you that. You. Yeah, I, I, there was a restaurant very famous, like at the New York Times three star restaurant in New York that used to do that with oyster shells. And my buddy who used to work there was like, I can't believe, come on, man. I can't believe that do better. I Say it again, do better, Josh.
Mark:So my aunt calls me about these snails that she has.
the-restaurant-guys_2_09-04-2025_135114:Mm-hmm.
Mark:So now you can buy snails shelled in a can. Okay, so she has a can of snails that she wants to keep and serve to people. I was like, okay. she was like, they're old. I was like, well, how old are they? You know, they're canned. They're probably good for a year, two years, three years, whatever, Uhhuh, and She goes, they're 25 years old and I hear my uncle in the background go 30. They're 30 years old. I'm like, you gotta throw the canna nails out. I gave them a Canna nails for Christmas that year, and I went in their cupboard and threw away the canna nails Alright, one other, Do not do this food, food thing. Go ahead. We had a guy who worked for us in our kitchen, um, and he was really talented. He had worked in a Michelin star, uh, restaurant in Germany. Oh, I know the guy you're talking about and I know what you're gonna say. And I, and he had some ideas. This is the nineties, right? So this is before the internet has connected the world. And there were some different ideas. And one of the things he said to us was just like. One of the waiters came and said, um. This person is, he's collecting all the butters as they come back from the table, the half eaten butters off the table. Well, yeah, and it wasn't like you stuck your lip on the butter, but you used your butter knife to get the butter and put on bread. Okay. We don't know that. You didn't stick your light to butter butter though. I don't know exactly. We don't know that you didn't sneeze in the butter once. That butter, we don't know what you did to that butter.'cause that was your butter. So it wasn't our butter anymore. It's your butter. Now what? We said, the guy was like, what are you doing? He's like. Well, we are not going to throw this away, are we? I'm like, yeah, we're, yes. Yeah, we're we Most certainly are. You don't want that butter anymore. We most certainly are. We don't. We sold that butter. It's now sweet butter. Well, once it was out of the chain of custody, I don't know exactly what happened to that butter and he was mad. Yeah. He's like, how dare you waste butter like this? I'm like, yeah, we're wasting the butter. Like I'm like, no. So gross. Sorry again. I don't know what you did with that butter. No, no, no, no, no and no, no. Alright, so we're gonna be back in a few minutes. We're gonna be talking with Robert Leblanc to ask him if he reuses any of the butter in his restaurants in New Orleans, and we're guessing not so stick with us. You're listening to the restaurant guys. You can always find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_130900:Hey everybody. Welcome back. It's Mark and Francis. And today our guest is Robert Lelong. His restaurants in New Orleans are amazing. He's a James Beard, outstanding restaurateur nominee. Uh, he's a hotelier, a sandwich shop owner. He's got boutique hotels like the Chloe and Celestine and bars like barrel. Pay showed will in the way. Um, his places are anchored in historic New Orleans as well as being completely fresh. And his story is super interesting and that's why we asked him to come join us on the show today. Hey Robert, welcome to the show.
squadcaster-2bdf_1_07-31-2025_130900:Hey guys. Thanks for having me. I'm fired up to be here with y'all.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_130900:Yeah, it's, it, what you're doing there is pretty exciting. You know, you have a, you have a town that is kind of with the old guard, you know, we had Dickie Brennan on a show recently. We had T Martin on a show not that long ago. And you got these, these, know, royalty families in New Orleans, and now you, you're carving out your little niche of, more boutiquey style of places and, you're kind of the next generation in that city. It's, it's really a cool thing that you're doing. Tell us a little bit about what, what's going on there.
squadcaster-2bdf_1_07-31-2025_130900:Thank you, um, so much. And, and look, I'm glad you brought up T and Dickie because I think one of the things that makes New Orleans magical is, is the old guard, the generation that t Dickie, Melvin Rod from gwas, they've been incredibly supportive, um, of us and, and, and my peers. And I remember some of our. Earliest regular guests at our first restaurant, Sylva. Literally Dickie Brennan would sit at the bar when he was building Tableau next door, and, and t Martin would come in once a week. And when you don't know who you are and you don't even believe in yourself, to have people like that come in and tell you that you're doing something really outstanding. And I, I just, that was really impactful to me. And if I ever make it, I, I wanna make sure that I'm doing the same exact thing for the, for the, for the generation right behind me that they've done for us. And so. But look, because those places are so great, we're also clear. You can't replicate that. You just can't compete with Gallo's 125 year history or the, the depth of, uh, character and experiences that exist in the brand's restaurants. And so what we wanted to try to do was create spaces that reference some of the most iconic aspects of their hospitality. But to do it in a, in a different and slightly more refreshing way, uh, in a way that's probably a little bit more oriented towards having a cocktail. We always say we want people to feel as comfortable just sitting at a table to have cocktails as they would sitting at the bar to have a whole meal
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_130900:It's no surprise that those people welcomed you to the city. I mean, Francis and I have been here for 33 years, and one of the things we love is when a. New restaurant with a new concept and a new perspective opens up in our city because. I mean, not to the degree that New Orleans is, but New Brunswick, New Jersey is a restaurant destination city, and I can't be a restaurant destination city with my two restaurants being the only two re restaurants in the city. So a a lovely new restaurant just opened around a corner here. We're, we're excited. Azi Azi just opened around the corner. We're excited that that restaurant's joining the scene. Yeah. And, and gonna become an important part of the restaurant dynamic here because. It is different. Sure. And it is bringing something new to the city and it does bring, you know, more people in and, and keep the city interesting. And, and new.
squadcaster-2bdf_1_07-31-2025_130900:Yeah, I mean, the secret's out now because there's been so many high quality podcasts. Your guys is, you know, among the best of them. But, the biggest misnomer is that everybody in restaurants and bars are all competing with one another. We're all friends and, um, I think the industry's better when we're talking honestly, and sharing best practices and also sharing mistakes and misstep that we made. And so some of our most. Helpful conversations and some of our biggest supporters have been people that, uh, the outside would quote.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_130900:we found that in a lot of places here as well as our, our friends in New, in New York have, there's a, there's just a restaurant community comradery, but there have been a few outliers over the years and everybody's an angel. And there are people who view every, Entree served in your dining room is a night that someone's not in their dining room and they, they haven't lasted. I mean, the, the people who come in with that point of view who to steal staff from you or try to get people, you know, they come for your piece of the pie. Um, it doesn't work.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:and so it's about make the pie bigger is really the only way that a restaurant community can survive. What do you think?
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:I, I couldn't agree more. You know, if you think about it, you, you all have a couple restaurants. If somebody's in town for four or five days, they can't go to your restaurant every single
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Exactly, exactly.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:someplace else and experience something else. And, know, if, if somebody goes and has a great restaurant experience anywhere, they have a great restaurant experience everywhere. And so You know, if you go in there with kind of a chippy competitive attitude and you're, you're sort of thinking about what somebody else is doing as opposed to trying to be the best that you are, the guest picks up on that and what it does, it doesn't just give them a poor experience in your restaurant. It gives them a poor experience, but going out to dine
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:I think that restaurants serve a, a greater purpose and New Orleans is a, is a very important city, but it's also kind of a small city and a tight knit community that's very stable and been there for a long time. And the restaurant people have been there for a long time. And you know, I say more and more, you know, as the restaurant business is more and more challenging and we're losing a lot of our quick service restaurants and a lot of the chain restaurants'cause they were places to get food. That's what, that's what a quick service restaurant is place to get a kind of a flow restaurant experience. It's a place to get food in a corporate chain with an anonymous person who gets you the same food that you can get, and every other one of those, whatever the chain is, and I'm not saying they don't serve a purpose, but they're not doing so well now because it's expensive to eat out no matter what, but what I think. what remains is restaurants where people feel that they're in a community and in a part of the, when they come to your, your house, they may not be irregular, but your regulars feel at home. The new people feel like you know, they're welcome there. And also I think the people in the town they like, they like talking to us about. Our former Matri D, who is now the Maury of the frog and the peach around the corner, and he says Hello, and we're gonna go this place for dessert. And we'll say, he'll say hello to that person and it makes the guest feel like. I am in a community with a network of restaurants, and I am known in this community. It's, it's, it's, it's an extension of the dining room. And I think in a little city like New Brunswick, in a, a real communal city like New Orleans, it makes a big difference. You did something really cool in one of your restaurants. You created a v-shaped bar so that the, customers could talk to each other more than they would at a conventional bar, and I just thought, you know, that's somebody who's, who's. Taken his vision and said, okay, I want, I want my customers to feel good with each other and taking it to the next step. Tell me, tell me why and how you did that.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:Yeah, so, you know, you touched on something a second ago, Francis. It's, it's really about relationships. You know, and relationships are binary. They're a one or a zero. You're either good at relationships, you're not good at relationships. And so the, the restaurants that I think succeed are the ones who establish a relationship between the guests in the restaurant. the guests and the team members, and between guests and other guests because we're a social creature and we want to be connected. And a lot of those chain restaurants don't do that as well. They're transactional. They make the, you know, they make the spinach dip as well as it is everywhere in the country, but it's a very transactional experience and people still need to be fed. So those places do okay, but people really crave relationships. We're so disconnected because we interact digitally. We don't meet anymore. You know, we, we zoom. Call anymore, we text. Um, so, so I think that restaurants become ever important as that third space. But you have to, you have to make sure that you're able to foster relationships with guests and you have to allow guests to foster relationships with your patrons. And, you know, there's no way that you can be relational with your guests, be relational with your team, and then be adversarial with your neighbor, or the restaurant down the street. It just doesn't, it doesn't work. And that, you know, so it's like if you're adversarial with your. down the street, you're probably adversarial. Even if it's subtly or subconsciously with your team, you're probably a little adversarial with your guests. Right? And so that. relationship piece is an important part of it. And it, Yeah.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Yeah.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:percent. And so, you know, so we designed everything with our physical space and our program to encourage people to bump into each other more frequently with happenstance. And one of the things we pride ourselves on is. Um, the solo diner, you know, the, the, the person who comes in by themselves at the bar, they're gonna at least have one friend, and that will be us, you know, the bartender taking care of'em. And if they are at the bar for five or 10 minutes, you can bet the bartender's gonna introduce them to the couple next to them, or the person sitting across the way who they should, should know. And, And you can establish, you know, great memories that way.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:And I know I, I'm, I'm belaboring the point a little bit, but when we extend that and we have that sense of community like you have with Dickie and t and other restaurateurs in New Orleans, and we have with the other restaurateurs and, and restaurant staffs in New Brunswick, if you're visiting a town for a week or you just moved into a town, how great is it? How much do you feel like you're part of a community? If you go to the other bar and say, oh, well, you know, I was talking to the bartender I was talking to, I was talking to Julie at Sage left, and she said I could come try this place. Oh, that's great. We love Julie Taylor. And then that you send them someplace else and so you go into another place where you've never been before. And so by being part of that network of hospitality joints, you're creating that community and then you know, a couple of bartenders names and you a coup know a couple of servers names and you're new in town, but at least you know, four or five people. I don't know. I, that's why restaurants are so important. I mean, when we were in New Orleans, you know, the dive bartender was sending us to this cool, trendy place and that person was sending us to this fancy schmancy place, and that person was sending us to the back, to the dive bar.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:Yep.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:You know, it was, it was this great symbiosis that I, I very much enjoyed.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:That's
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Mm.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:You know, we, we, we co-opted that Maya Angelou quote, people will forget what you said. They'll forget what you did, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And when we talk about it all the time, it's like people will forget what they ate here. They'll forget what they drank here, but they'll never forget how you made them feel. And so if you can make them feel like they're a welcome part of the community, if you can make them feel connections to other human beings and to our team, that's, that's the juice.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Alright, so let's talk about your places. Um, you have a, you have a, a collection of different sorts of places and, and I think what I first wanna talk about is, uh, the places where people can stay. Your, your, where you have rooms because most of our audience does not live in New Orleans. And talk, talk about. The Chloe and Peau and how they're different and what, what you're going for in accommodations.'cause we've stayed at Airbnbs in New Orleans. We've stayed at, uh, the Monte Leon, we stayed at the Roosevelt Hotel and they're all great experiences. But you, you are a boutique hotelier kind of thing. What's that all about?
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:So we try to, um, we operate smaller hotels, so Chloe's 14 rooms ine 14 rooms, and we have a strong food and beverage program that help make the economics of a 14 room hotel. Okay. But by nature of their being smaller, we can more deeply embed our hotels in culturally and historically significant residential neighborhoods. And we really want our guests to get a sense of what it's like to live in New Orleans, not just to visit New Orleans. And New Orleans is is magical. The French Quarter is magical hotel. Mat Island is a great hotel, and that's a great experience, it's an experience of New Orleans that most people only get when they're traveling to New Orleans, not when they live in New Orleans. And those of us who live there have really rich lives. We're fun. We bump into people we love every day. By nature of the close proximity to one another. But I don't think a lot of hotels were able to translate that experience that makes New Orleans such a magical place to live. And so we really try to replicate that. And even with Celestine, which is in the French Quarter, which is a heavily trafficked tourist destination, it's more in the residential part of the French Quarter, the the slightly more quiet side of the French Quarter. And there's tons of people who live and work on a daily basis in that end of the French Quarter. And. We want our guests to get a sense of what it might be to have a nice apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans, or a nice apartment uptown in, in the case of Chloe. And so we also want people to experience the cultural experiences that reflect 21st century New Orleans. You know, new Orleans is a magical place because we're steeped in all this history and heritage, so the architecture's amazing. you know, new orleans's role in, in classic cocktail culture is, is pretty eponymous at this point, and so we want people to be able to experience that, but that's table stakes. But there's also musicians writing really cool songs in the 21st century, and there's great photographers and writers down here. Um, certainly great chefs and bartenders creating these really good cocktails that are inspired by things that are going on in 21st century New Orleans, and they still reference the heritage. It's still rooted in that hospitality tradition. It's still rooted in this sense of timelessness that New Orleans really tends to do really well, but it's the same time. It gives you a sense of what New Orleans is in today and where it's going, as opposed to this sense of being a museum that just preserved what New Orleans was.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:So that's a very interesting thing about New Orleans because it is a, a city that relies heavily on tourism and people coming through. Yet it is a city with a stable history and population that's been there for a long time. what's the relationship like? Between when you put a hotel in a residential neighborhood, how, how does that work? How do the people who live in that neighborhood feel about your hotel? How do you be a good neighbor with them and how do you make it a positive interaction for both the people who live there? Yeah, there's, there's lots of people who do not want a 14 room hotel in their.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:Yeah, so That's. a great question and we're really intentional about that. So we want our, our hotels to be lobbies for the neighborhoods. So come in, have coffee in the morning, take your meetings, come jump in the pool if you wanna jump in the pool. We really treat our neighbors and all new Orlean. Um. The same way that we treat hotel guests. And that actually is what informs the experience of getting a sense of what it's like to be a local, from the hotel guest perspective is the fact that you have hanging out there and you know, so the way that we do that is we're really open and inviting to them. We have local pricing on our cocktails and, and, and menu items. So it's not. It's the same as the hotel guests would pay. But you know, hotels are notorious for upcharging, for drinks. You know, hotel foods more expensive. Hotel drinks are more expensive. Our food and drinks are right in line with a slightly higher end restaurant. Not the most expensive restaurant, but it's, it's pricing that locals are used to paying in their local restaurants. And that's a really important part'cause it allows them to come frequently instead of just being sporadically or occasionally. the hotel guests. What happens for the hotel guests when they're having breakfast downstairs in the morning? They're having coffee next to a local who can, and the conversation typically always shades more to what's going on on a day-to-day basis in New Orleans, or when they're at the pool, at a pool chair, they're sitting next to a local who's working on a laptop. And it's that conversation and that color that you get by these interactions with locals, whether it's at the bar at happy hour or it's at the dining room table next to them, or having coffee in the morning. That's where you really get the relational. Aspects with locals and the conversations between locals and people visiting New Orleans, staying at the hotel. That's the touch point. That's the stickiness
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:That's.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:that gets people.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Robert, when we come back from our break, I, I really want to talk to you about you and your organization doubling down at kind of what was a low point for New Orleans doubling down on your investments in New Orleans. And, and I, I thought that was a really cool thing and I wanna know how you came through that. So stick with us, stick with us. We'll be back in just a moment with, uh, we barely belong from New Orleans. Uh, you're listening to the restaurant guys. Of course. We'll be back in just a moment. Hey, everybody. Welcome back. Mark. You had a question? Yeah. So Robert, new Orleans goes through that same, low point with COVID, like every other big restaurant town in America, and, Then New Orleans gets hit with Ida. Okay. And you have to deal with another flood, and you have to deal with, with more people leaving the city and more properties being, being abandoned and your police fo force being lowered and all the, all the rest of the stuff that happened in New Orleans during that. What, what I'll say was, was a, was a pretty low point for New Orleans. And see you just investing more and more and more in the city of New Orleans during that point when we're all sitting here, you know, looking for cover from, those bad things that happened to us and, and just trying to get to the other side. And you keep reinvesting. So, so tell us about what gave you the confidence to, be a guy who's like, well, no, let's, let's push forward right now.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:Yeah. You know, one of the things I think makes restaurateurs who we are is there's a natural resilience that comes with just being in this business. There's so many ups and so many downs, and there's always gonna be tough times no matter how good
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Some, some people would call that resilience stupidity. Robert, just, I'm just
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:that's, putting
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:big headedness.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:on it.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Any, any, any way you wanna place that.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:But I, I think, you know, look, it's tough. Uh, you know, the DNA of New Orlean is pretty, is is pretty tough now, you know, recovering from Katrina and then the BP oil spill was a little bit tougher maybe than it appeared from the outside because tourism got shut down. Most of the hotel rooms were allocated to recovery work. Couldn't get access to Great Gulf Seafood, which is what everybody likes to eat when they come to New Orleans. So that was also a tough time. And then COVID was a tough time. And so I just think resilience is built into the DNA of our company and, and most new orlean. And I think you always try to find, I study stoic philosophy, so you always, it's based on the premise that you can't control what happens. So you can only control how you respond. And, you know, you keep having these instances and it's like we just, you just gotta keep going one foot in front of the other. And as long as you don't stop. Um, and as long as you keep learning and growing and keep acknowledging your own mistakes and just pay attention with ida, we never paid attention. And with COVID, we never paid attention to all the external things that COVID did to us. We really dissected the mistakes that we were making prior to COVID that. put us in a situation where we didn't have enough cash to be able to save all the places or, you know, there's always something we could have done and controlled. And so we made it a point. That that wasn't going to be the excuse for the reason why this company closed down. That wasn't going to be the excuse why the New Orleans lost its soul, and we just wanted to keep going. And then, you know, it worked after Katrina. It worked after the BP oil spill. And so we just had confidence that if you just keep going, you keep learning and growing and you take responsibility for the things that you can control and be the best you can be over time, that stuff typically bears out. And I think that's a maximum that's true in life, not just in our industry, but it's certainly true in our industry.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Well, I will never forget and so my house flooded during Ida, so I had, you know, during COVID and I will never forget walking outside. we demolished my house the day after Ida. As soon as we can get back into the house, we demolished the downstairs and I walked outside and it was one of the most beautiful days. That I had ever seen. The weather was perfect, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping. It was just this spectacular day, and the choice was just like you said, I could focus on the rubble that was sitting out in front of, what had been the downstairs of my house. Or I could focus on, Hey, it's a new day, you know, I'm gonna rebuild my house. It's gonna be just the way I want it when I rebuild my house. Which is, you know, I guess metaphorically what you did, right? You rebuilt your house right after Ida. And, that became my focus of, uh, okay, well how am I rebuilding? How am I gonna make this, this home better than it was? Before this, tragedy happened to me. I did the little air quotes.'cause it, it was some water.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:that's
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:water came in my house. You know, it did, it did not, it did not hurt my soul. And so, so we built back better. And that's, it sounds like that that's the philosophy of, of building your company during bad times.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:Look, I'm sorry that happened to you, but I think what you just, the story you just told personified, while we all love New Orleans, it's, it's the ultimate love song. It's like, no matter how much happens to you as a result of being a new orlean that hurts you, you love it so much. The, the highs, the moments, the, the day that you describe, you know, it's worth the cost that. We sometimes pay to be New Orleanians. it it, it is that magical of a city and, and people do care for each other. And my, I don't wanna be presumptuous, but I would imagine your neighbors were offering to help you with whatever needed help or, you know, people in the community. It,
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:People, you, you, unbelievable support from friends and family and neighbors and just ridiculous. Ridiculous. If I think about it, I'll cry. So it was, it was spectacular.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:You know, we don't want these tragedies to happen, but, um, you know, one of the magical things about New Orleans and a story that's very rarely told about New Orleans is, is every time one of these things happens, You really get to see the strength of the community that is the city of New Orleans.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:I think that was really on display. And ever since Katrina, the nation looks at New Orleans is like what happened to them now. Yeah. And then, then yeah, it's, it is the bounce back city, uh, ever since then, and I, I, I was never concerned that New Orleans couldn't rebuild and retain its soul except after Katrina. I think it's pretty magical that, or it's a testament to New Orleans that it, it did rebuild and become like, once again, the city. Well, well, I, I also wanna say, three, four years ago, Francis and I went down to Tales of the Cocktail and we were like, oh, new Orleans is not in a great place right now. And, you know, your police force would, was diminished your, it just, it didn't feel like the old New Orleans that, that we had been to so many times before. And then we went down last year and I started to feel again, like, okay, it's getting better. And then this year I went down and I was like. Whew. Okay. We're, we're back to New Orleans. We're back to be in that, that city that I love and it, it was, it was really good to see this year. I felt really good in New Orleans this year.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:I appreciate you saying that, and I think that our industry has a lot of responsibility to sort of be the positive force for good and, make sure that everybody sees the glass half full as opposed to half empty.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Well, let's talk about the glass for a minute now. Um, you have great bars, you have great hotels. We're gonna link all of those on our, uh, show notes. But, um.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:I.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:If you were gonna send someone to New Orleans or someone were gonna come down to New Orleans and spend and spend one or two nights in New Orleans, where would you send them to eat? Where's your like top one or two things. You have to never been to New Orleans before. Let's go three nights. So you can mention your own place? Yeah. All right.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:So look, I love our places, but I don't ever think it's interesting when a restaurateur mentions their own places. I think by nature of y'all being gracious enough to have me, that's enough coverage for our own places. So I'll name three places, um, that I think are quintessential New Orleans experiences that people should have. So I think people should go to Patois, which is a neighborhood restaurant in uptown New Orleans. it, it doesn't, probably doesn't get the attention it does great, but it probably doesn't get the national attention that it deserves based on the quality of the experiences there. But I think that is the best restaurant we have in New Orleans, in my opinion. I think that you should probably go to the wine bar at Della Chase, which is on St. Charles Avenue, so you get a sense of what it's like to be on the street car line. And, um, the food's fantastic. It, it presents a little bit more like a bar or a Parisian cafe, but the food is every bit as good as great restaurant food.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Never been there. Okay. That's
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:it's fantastic. Um,
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:a ago.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:uh, I apologize. Well, they're always kind of popping up and look, I think, um, everyone needs to go to a grand lunch at GWAS or our nose. Uh. It, you know, and, and those are interchangeable. They're totally different restaurants. But if GWA is too crowded and you can't get in, but you can get into our nose, or sometimes our nose may be a little too crowded, you get the same feeling. The food's really good, but you're not going for the food, you're going for the experience. And nobody takes a diner from sitting down to truly making you feel as though you're in the restaurateur's living room. than either one of those restaurants. And I think that is a great reminder for anyone of what a sense of belonging feels like. And, you know, you guys have both been so, you know, it's awesome. You start at 1130 and you know, you're, you're slow playing it by one 30, you're sitting at the table next to you, you know, wishing happy birthday to, uh, an 80-year-old grandmother, right?
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Honestly.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:buying champagne for the table.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:But you're also doing that and about 45 minutes in, you're like, is it 2025? Is it 2015? Is it 1987? Is this 1965? I don't know. It's, it's timeless, but not like in a museum sort of sense. But you've, you're, you're there forever. I have to say, I just throw in my own recommendation. The, the French 75 bar at our nose. Yep. There is. There is one chair there that has been, I think it's the best seat in New Orleans when you walk in to the bar from the street into the bar. If you just do a hard Right, there's a little like snug right back there. There's also, there's also one on the left, right? Both sides of the door. Yeah. But the one on the right is you sit there and you used to be able to smoke cigars in there. I love that. And you're sitting a little protected. You're right at the French 75 bar and that you feel like. It could be a hundred years ago. That is exactly what that looked like and feels like. And there's super nice and so Francis. Yeah. I'm not sure I told you this, but do you remember when you were like, ah, I'm gonna take a little two hour break, and Jennifer and Julie and I ducked out for a little while? Yeah, we sat in that chair. I know Jennifer sent 75. Jennifer sent me a picture. You you gonna go take a nap? Here's what you miss. You miss your chair.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:love it. I appreciate the honesty,
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:So how.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:point, Francis. It's that it's that example of timelessness. It's, it's, it's why those restaurants have been around for over a hundred years and continue to, to thrive and flourish because they get the most important things right, which is that sense of belonging and that sense of community and camaraderie that we all crave.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:So how long has your family been in New Orleans? What's your history with the city?
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:So it's interesting. My family has been in New Orleans. My great-great-grandfather was the first royal architect of the city of New Orleans. So That's the French side of my family. And then I have an Irish side of my family has been there since, uh, 1866. My grandfather was an orphan or great-great-grandfather, was an orphan from county Ca Ireland. And he came to New Orleans to be a sail maker on the docks of the Mississippi River. Um, and he settled in the Irish channel right where he worked and he eventually became a Steve Dore and, and owned a, a company that did really well. But he insisted on staying in that neighborhood. And, uh, to this day, I think both sides of the family influenced. Who I am and what we do. The name of the company is LeBron Smith. After my maternal and paternal grandfathers, uh, the
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:That's great.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:the, the French side, and it's a long line of architects and builders. And so my grandfather was a contractor, so his home wasn't super expensive, but it was beautifully appointed. My, we were always listening to great classical music. My grandmother was a great cook and she'd meals out. It wasn't stuffy, but it was nice. It was fantastic food. My grandfather would make sachs for the family. Um, and it was nice and it wasn't stiff, but I, but I think everything that you experienced viscerally in our restaurants and bars came from that LeBlanc side of the experience. And then we'd go over to the Smith side for holidays. We'd spend half the time at the LeBla house, half the time at the Smith House. Then you go to the Smith house and it was exactly the opposite. I, I'm not saying they were bad cooks, but I don't remember what we ate and drank or if we ate and drank. But
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:Right.
squadcaster-2bdf_3_07-31-2025_131605:what you remember is it the, the soundtrack of, of the whole experience was laughter. And it wasn't just aunts and uncles and first cousins, it was third cousins and it was neighbors and it was neighbors, cousins, and basically anybody. That was tangential to them that didn't have a place to go for the holidays. We come to the Smith house and that's the first time I remember experiencing the idea of family is not just a blood bond. Um, and how important it is to make everybody feel welcome and, and how much that means and how magical that can be. And I remember we would get there, we lived in home Louisiana an hour away. We would get there and it felt like we were there for 30 minutes And, it would be four hours later and we had to go home and. Um, so I think that what we want people to feel emotionally in our space is a sense of belonging and interconnectedness that's not just, you know, with the people that you came in knowing, but also people near you. that the soundtrack being laughter, I picked up on that from the Smith side of the family. And it's, it's interesting how those experiences are steeped in the heritage of the both families because my great-great-grandfather was an orphan. He didn't have family, so he didn't define family as would be traditionally defined. and that's why he stayed in the same neighborhood. Um, that he landed in when he got to New Orleans and his neighbors were his family and, and that very much is still a part of the DNA of the
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_131605:And, and the city of New Orleans was his family. Yeah. And, and, but you talk about the DNA I know so many restaurant people that talk about recreating that type of thing, but it's not part of their DNA. Mm-hmm. And so it comes across as. I don't wanna say fake, but, but that's kind of the word. Forced, forced, forced, forced, forced is the word. I'm, I'm thinking about, uh, it comes across as forced and you, that's not something you can force. That kind of conviviality, that kind of hospitality is, is. I'll use Olive Garden as a, as an example, right? You walk into Olive Garden and there is a contrived message that they want to, it's a formula. It's a formula, right? And I'm not saying that our restaurant doesn't, doesn't abide by certain procedures, standards, and procedures, but it's all gotta feel, right? And if one of the policies and procedures doesn't feel right. Then out the window it goes. Mm-hmm. you can't recreate that. It's gotta be part of the DNA. So I, I love that. That's part of yours. Yeah, you know. It's, I love talking to fellow restaurateurs and one of the things I always love about this show is there are so many common threads between places that I enjoy and places that I like, and, you know, the way I wanna run my own place. Yesterday at Family Meal, we, I was talking to the, the waiters and, and busers and, uh, front of house team about expressing themselves to the customers. One of the things I said was never say something that you don't believe. There are enough interesting, delicious things. If there's something you don't like here, you don't have to talk about it. You don't have to recommend it. Pick something that, that you are just absolutely passionate about and talk to the customers about that and tell it from your heart and tell it from who you are and tell it from your perspective of why you like it. Nothing's more powerful than that. I love it. You forgot that the name of our restaurant is stage left. So there's, there are two theaters next door, so we do do some of that, but, but what I'll say is much less than we used to. Yeah. So where that form of dining. People going, coming here and then going to the theater. In the early years of the restaurant was 80% of what we did. It is now 17% of what we do. And you say is exactly right. I mean, there are some nights when the same guest who's visiting us on their way to the theater, they have a lighter meal, a quicker meal. They don't want to have more than a drink or maybe two because they, they'll say, uh. I don't wanna fall asleep in the show, you know? Yeah. Whereas they may come for another dinner and, and come at seven o'clock and stay for three hours. Yeah. And, and take their time and enjoy things. It's, it's two different ways of dining, but I agree dining is the main event for a lot of people right now, and that's a great thing for us. For sure. Robert, I have to say you are, you are just a great ambassador for Yeah. New Orleans and for the restaurant industry and I am very much looking forward to us sharing a cocktail somewhere, somehow making that happen. And I think you're doing your family proud and, uh, we, we love, we share the philosophies that you have in your bars and restaurants and it's been a pleasure to have you on the show. You too. Absolutely you will. You can find out all about Rivera's Properties in our show notes. Stick with us. We'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Restaurant guys. You can always find out more@restaurantguyspodcast.com.
the-restaurant-guys_3_07-31-2025_135331:Hey there everybody. Welcome back. Boy, he was fun. Yeah, seemed like just such a good guy. We missed him in New Orleans. We tried to hook up like three had times in that week. There were literally four different events that we were supposed to cross over, and one he left early. One, he stayed someplace else late. And two, we didn't get out. The things we were trying to get out of. So yeah, new Orleans Star Tales is, it's one of those things. Fun. You all should go to Tales next year. We'll probably do another live podcast from down there. Next, I'm sure we'll make your, make your plans. Um. I have to say, I, I, he brought up a topic that we both agree on, but it's not your favorite frame of reference that I'm gonna reference. Uhoh, you know, you talked about the V-shaped bar. Yeah. I'm, I'm gonna bring it back to a Shula Club story. Oh, come on, man. The Shula Club. For those of you who don't know is a shit hole. It's not. It's a very nice bar and it's a very nice club full of very nice people. Uh, the, listen, I love your Sele brothers. Yeah, they're great, but it's not a very nice bar. It's fine. You haven't been back much since I've done the improvements. You're right. It's improved. It's way better than it was. It doesn't smell bad anymore. That's all good stuff. Yes. That's been that way for years. It's all good stuff. Yes. Before COVID. Yes. So it's a lovely bar. So the Shal Club, um, uh, is a fraternal Irish American organization in North Jersey. I ran the bar for a little while. We did a little turnaround for making it not a great bar as. So unloving ly put it to where it's a great little bar, and the Shula Club bar is open to the public as well. Yes. If I lived closer, I would go to the Shula Club. Yes, you would. I promise I would. I would drag you there all the time. So, um, the, but I remember the, my dad was a member of the Shal Club. I walked into this club when I was seven years old, and they had a bar up against the wall. And they did a renovation of the bar. This must have been in the seventies or maybe the early eighties, but I think it was the seventies where they pulled the bar off the wall and they did a, a round bar. 300. Well, they did a three-sided rectangular bar for just that same reason. Yeah. So that you could talk to the people next to you at the bar. There was a turn-in, and we always love to sit at the corner of the bar when there's a turn-in. Yeah. If there's more than two people. And then you could speak to the people on the other side and the bartenders run an island in the middle that you could see over. And I, there was a lot of debate about that. And when we renovated the bar, when I took over for a little while, some people thought about putting it back up against the wall. Uh, but what the club decided. That we're a club and we want people to be able to talk to each other, even when just sitting at the bar. So we sacrificed some space to gain some bar stools to gain that communal sense. And I think that's a, an old fashioned way of having a bar. And I like it. Alright. I'm gonna say something now to you that's gonna make you happy. Uh oh. Okay. It's, I don't feel good about it. Just Okay. Uh. The club is the bar I was thinking about when I was talking about his v-shaped bar. See, see, you just wanna hate it because you, you know, it pushes my buttons. It does push your buttons. Yeah, that's true. And I, and, and as much as I like it, I will still call it names just'cause I know that it, that, that it gets your I up. If you're in West Orange, New Jersey, I recommend, that's S-H-I-L-L-E-L-A-G-H. And now you know how to spell shale. I would check it out. I still dunno how to spell it, just so you know. Well, uh, it's all about community. Like our bar is all about community. His bar was all about community. And, and listen, what I said in the middle of that interview was we're looking at the fast casuals and those change are closing. Closing, yes, yes. Closing, because that was where you went to get food. And there's a million ways to get food right now, but independently owned. Restaurant that's on the nicer end. That's where you go for an experience. And I think that was a great, and that was Affirm. Today it's lovely to see and get outta your houses and stop door dashing and stop Uber eating and go to the local bar or restaurant and sit down, have a 45 minute meal, and talk to a bartender and talk to another human being. It's, it's a better life., And I hope we've made your life a little better for the last hour or so. I'm Francis Shot. And I'm Mark Pascal. We are the restaurant guys. You can always find out more at restaurant podcast com.