Episode 23 - Thoughts on the National Restaurant Show....

2.5 million square feet of convention space....to say the National Restaurant Show was overwhelming is an understatement. But we're glad we had the opportunity to attend. We had some quality time discussing pizza, sampling new food and products and brainstorming what's possible in the future...

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:47

What's up? Oh, there you go. So uh what's up? We just got back from Chicago.

SPEAKER_03 1:01

Speaking of twenty-three.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Speaking of twenty-three, what a segue. Holy cow, you know what? I think this episode was meant to be. Twenty-third episode, back from Chicago, and uh the goat of basketball war number twenty-three.

SPEAKER_03 1:20

You had a you had to uh throw basketball in there as if there was a question.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yeah. I don't know what's up with your mic, Scott. Maybe hold it up to your face.

SPEAKER_03 1:29

I feel like that might be a little too close.

SPEAKER_02 1:31

No, that sounds good right there. Um, okay, so uh we were at the restaurant show. Huge it was incredibly overwhelming. It's crazy. Um something that I've I've always wanted to go to personally. Um you know, Edward Don helped get us there. So thank you to them. They've been great partners. Uh as we've I mean partners of ours for many, many, many years, well beyond countryside, but sure. Um really great partners with our project here.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Um, but what do you I mean gosh, so much. We walked, you know, we walked four and a half miles inside that building. I know it was insane. So much stuff.

SPEAKER_02 2:20

Two and a half million square feet.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

And Scott, you guys went two days.

SPEAKER_03 2:24

Yeah, we went back the next day because there were a few few items that we just kind of had a breeze past. Yeah. So getting a chance to see some of that stuff um was kind of necessary to go back another day, but it even that we still didn't see it all.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

Couldn't see it. Yeah, it was overwhelming. Yeah, I mean it was overwhelming. Um, but I thought it was cool. I mean, a lot of a lot of neat stuff. No doubt.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

Yeah, there was I guess it was you know, being that we've I've personally only been to like smaller vendor shows, Cheney Brothers, Cisco's, you know, which uh hindsight says, well, those are tiny compared to the national restaurant show.

unknown 3:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

But it was, you know, it was it was truly overwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

But I mean, I was thinking when we were there, I was thinking back about the Cheney show that I went to with you guys back in 2023, yeah. Yeah. And I I mean I thought that was a big show. Right. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

You know, it is until you go to this thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:31

And it's it's not so so what do you I mean, like what were the takeaways? Um I mean, for me, I loved talking to that pizza guy.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

That was like that was an education in in the 20-minute or well, probably 45-minute conversation that we had, yeah, it was highly educational. Yeah. I mean, it was everything that reconfirmed what I went to pizza university for. He just reiterated it and and helped me apply it to our new oven. Because in in university, we only used deck ovens, electric deck ovens. So when we came back, or when I came back, that's the gear I was at, was an electric deck oven. So now we have this um gas-fired, you know, brick oven, traditional Neapolitan style oven. And he's helped, you know, I think he he pointed us in the right direction of you know what the formula is because it's not, you know, he's like, you're not really doing it if you say you have a recipe because it's really not a recipe, it's a formula. It's a percentage of this and a percentage of that, and you know how much hydration and you know, and it's all these combination of ingredients, yeah, which technically is a recipe, but it's a it's a proportion amount of certain ingredients, and it's it's science, it's truly uh, you know something that we had to work on, and we're currently working on. So it was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 5:11

So I had a question for you. Because after that conversation, I've been thinking a lot about well, we've been eating a lot of pizza, but I've been I've been thinking a lot about pizza and like like experimenting at home. Right. Because I've never made dough myself. I mean, we've bought store, you know, store-bought dough and have made pizzas at home, but it's never the same. And I've always like I've I've just been thinking a lot about like this would be cool to kind of like experiment with at home and you know, try and learn how to make dough and you know, get the recipe or the formula, the formula right. So it like in a in a traditional residential oven that you have at home, like if you if you if you get the formula right, is it possible to get a good like crust crust out of that oven, like out of my home oven?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

It truly, yes. Yeah, you you know, and they talk about, you know, like our oven now is a steel deck, you know, or uh our deck oven was it had steel instead of stone. The new oven is stone. So there's a difference between the the way that the heat transfers to the dough between those two mediums. And so if you can do it in your oven at home, I would suggest the steel because it, you know, it heat up and it's you're only using you're only doing one pizza at a time. Right. So the transfer of heat to the dough is exactly what you need just for that one time that you're baking it. So um that would be my suggestion. And I think you just get the formula right, the right flour, you know, the right amount of um fermentation. Um, and then that helps build you know um gluten, which is the structures that you know are intertwined in the dough that hold when you put the dough on the steel, the steam that the water that's in the dough transfers to steam and it puffs the dough up. And that structure, that gluten structure, is what holds the shape. It holds the steam in to keep it moist inside or tender and fluffy inside and crispy on the outside. Yeah. That's the whole science behind you know pizza dough.

SPEAKER_02 7:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:38

So yeah, I think the you know, the only thing is is it just takes a little bit longer to cook it in your home oven. Because you're not getting the because you're not getting the 600 degrees or 700 degrees in, you know, you can in in an in a commercial oven.

SPEAKER_02 7:52

Right. Have you have you made dough at home, Scott?

SPEAKER_03 7:55

You know, I did a long time ago until I realized that public sold pizza dough. Yeah. Or that you could very easily go to a pizzeria and say, hey, can I get some dough? And they'll they'll sell it to you. I did make it, um, and it came out pretty good, but I remember making a mess. And you know, and it just it's it's good, it's a good amount of work. It's not easy. So um yeah, I found it a lot easier to just go to Publix and gives you a lot more that bakery.

SPEAKER_02 8:25

A lot more appreciation for a food that we typically think is something simple and grabbing and a go. Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

Yeah, you know, something well, even just like you said, since we've been back, you know, seeing Chef and Nicola play around with uh different recipes and and or formulas, like the chef said, just to try to nail down and and you know, you really do. You get a feel for different flavors and different textures and just just from how you uh portion out different different ingredients within that dough.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

So yeah, yeah. We used to we used to cook a lot at home, but last many years, like we really don't do it.

SPEAKER_04 9:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Um well, I shouldn't say we, like gentle cook. I don't.

SPEAKER_04 9:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

And I kind of miss it sometimes. Like I I this past weekend, Emma and I went to the store and bought food. Yeah. Like food that we would take home and cook. And I cooked a meal. It's the first time in years. A meal of food? A meal of food that we then ate. Nice. But I ever since we came back from Chicago, I've been thinking about the pizza thing, and like just how we've been doing here. Like every day you're like, hey, here's this one's with a new a different type of flour, this one's a blended, or this one's got, you know, do this one's no oil, or right, and we just continue to try different pizzas. I'm like, this would be really fun to do at home. Sure. You know, where you're yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Every every other day or something, you could have a different flavor, right? Setup.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

It's gonna be, it's it's a it's a personal mission of mine this summer.

SPEAKER_03 10:00

Outstanding. Cool. They have some pretty cool and I know I think Chef has one. They have some pretty cool pizza ovens, like outdoor, yeah, super hot, big flame, something you don't want to burn your house down with, but you know, get out, get outside and uh you know, I should get one of those.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

They're neat. I I I think you know, it's portable. It's so portable that when I go on vacation, I take it with you.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

Yeah, it's gas, right?

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Yeah, just have one of those camper, like small butane, uh no, it holds a 20-pound, you know, a 20-pounder you can put onto it, you know, not just a small uh one pound. No, I got it's it's just like your grill at the house, you know.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

That uh utilizes like wood pellets, also, right? To get you can, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Some of them have yeah, exactly. Yeah, mine's called a pizza queue. Mine looks like a little RT unit.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

Well, that's the one you brought in here, didn't you?

SPEAKER_01 10:51

Right. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Hmm. I think I'm gonna buy I'm gonna have to buy one of these.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

They're neat. Bam, purchased right right in the middle of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Maybe uh like a little family gift. A Jew.

SPEAKER_03 11:05

Outstanding. Yeah. Take it with you to Japan, maybe. No.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

I don't want that. Ironically enough, though, they are supposed to have some decent pizza places over there. Really? You wouldn't think so, but I'm on a mission to find I mean, obviously, we yeah, we'll I want to find a good domino's nice solid, solid little scissors up there. I saw some um, I don't remember off the top of my head, but I saw maybe probably on Instagram, like there was a couple like best pizza places in Tokyo. Really? And it's like yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

So they put noodles on it? I I don't know about that. It comes out of the oven, they put raw fish on it.

SPEAKER_02 11:47

Hey, as long as they're not putting pineapple and Canadian bacon, ham, and all that other garbage that some people put on pizzas. Yeah, yeah, disgusting stuff. So but any I mean, what I mean what what else I mean, what were your takeaways from the show?

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Like I mean, amazing amount of food and equipment and I mean just anything you could think of related to restaurants or food and beverage. I mean, the day that we went back that next day, we pretty much hit a lot of the the beverage section. Yeah. Not to say that the the main portion that we hit on Sunday didn't have its fair share. It means a lot of energy drinks. Right. A lot of uh bloom.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

I got hooked on bloom. I know drinking them every day.

SPEAKER_03 12:34

A lot of coffee products, uh a lot of THC products is what really we saw that next day. A lot of infusion of THC into beverages.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Um lot of um uh on the beverage topic, uh the um non-alcoholic stuff is is becoming really big. And I and I made me think of that stuff. Yeah, when you said THC, um, I'm wondering if that you're gonna start to see more of that replace the alcohol, you know, product menu items, alcoholic, you know, with the blended. I was surprised by that.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

Now I think you know, there's the some of the younger generations uh uh aren't aren't necessarily drinking as much. They've kind of gone that that are at least early on here, have gone more towards the you know, fun drinks, energy drinks. Um you know, there's a lot of options for them out there now, and a lot of companies that are catering to that versus um, you know, the the alcohol way.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

And uh, you know, so seeing a lot of that option out there was the juices, you know, because it kind of opened the globe to like different fruits and different berries and stuff that they're they're putting in drinks that you know, you start looking at stuff, you're like, what is that? Exactly. I've never seen that. You know, it's just do we live in just a little sheltered little part of the world that you know, and then you go to an event like this that is open to the to the global community, yeah, and they start bringing in their local stuff and their heritage stuff and their items that they're using every day, and and it's new to well.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

I think some of it too has to do with where that show is, like Chicago, like the big cities attract and that there's so much more, especially in the restaurant scene, it's just more trendy, new wor new age type concepts, you know. For sure. Um I was also surprised about the at the amount of non-meat meat, exactly, you know, the impossible stuff, which yeah, I've had, I mean, you know, I I did the no meat thing, I did the vegan thing for a long time, and um, I was surprised at how many boosts there were. And some of the stuff was good.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Yeah, I tried, I tried most of it um that I found that was the non-meat because I'm I'm a huge proponent for you know red meat. Yeah, I truly enjoy it. But there were some items that you couldn't tell. You know, they were either you know mushroom base or blended, and you know, it was just an the texture was there, yeah, the flavor was there.

SPEAKER_03 15:22

Those non-steak tips were really good. Exactly. The chicken tender, there was like you couldn't tell me that that wasn't chicken. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

I mean, even the look, I mean, it wasn't even like it was you know a processed paste that they formed. Exactly. It was it looked like shredded chicken when you bit into it. It was just, you know, and the option or the to have something like that available for a vegan or a vegetarian to come in and be like, oh, okay, yeah, I've got I've got this. And I don't have to change my whole recipe to use this meat product or protein product, and as I would to, you know, to take it off the menu, right? You know, you know, or something totally switched out and and a whole new item. But I can add the same sauces, I can add the same, you know, everything looks the same at the end of the day, but one is the consistency was a big thing.

SPEAKER_02 16:19

Like when you I remember, you know, like you think of like a burger patty.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Like now with like the impossible burgers and the beyond burgers, like I you I can't tell the difference in the consistency of it. Whereas, you know, however many years ago when it was like the black bean burger, and it was it's mushy, you know what I mean? It doesn't grainy grainy, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

Um they you know, this whole and the and the one thing that we that I saw was this pod, it's called a pod, and it helps with the fermentation of soybeans, you know, to make these things. And I'm like, what are we doing now? It's just another whole style of being able to, you know, textures and and items to use for protein sources.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Do you see us um implementing any of any of that type of stuff here?

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, there's a couple of um I grabbed some brochures on some of that stuff, um, and I'm just trying to check on availability, but I think there was one that I saw it's called chunk, and I think that was the steak tips. Yeah. And then they also had like a six-ounce puck, you know, in essence, of it looked like a fillet. I mean, you can grill it, you can slice it, you can you could do whatever you wanted to it.

SPEAKER_02 17:40

What's the what's the shelf life on that stuff? Can it be frozen?

SPEAKER_01 17:45

That's how it comes.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

It comes frozen.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

Yeah, so it'll come frozen. So I'm sure, you know, and it'll be you know vacuum sealed, so it's I mean, you got probably a year on it. Um, and but I think the one guy I talked to that was a it was a 50-50, his was uh half meat, half mushroom, and he said he had three weeks you know thawed.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

You know what would be cool um if we did a one-bite review with a member on like a burger, but we had a burger and a non-meat burger, and we we didn't tell like none of us knew which one was which. Right, right, because I think they're they're so identical that you wouldn't or like another meat dish, like you do a steak tips or something like that, and one of them is steak and the other one is not steak.

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

And we review it for sure. That would be we should do that. Yeah, it'd be fun. It'd be fun to do with one of our members who are here over the summer. Yeah, yeah. Something different. Because then we could also like talk about you know how we use this time of year to kind of plan forward and think about you know exactly how we're tweaking things. And hey, here's a product, it's not on the menu. We're thinking about adding it to the menu. We don't know which one it, you know, it's we got two burgers. One's burger, one's not. So let's do a one-byte review, taste them, and see if we can decide, you know, and it may end up on the menu in default. I don't know, it'd be fun.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yeah, no doubt. So also secure some product, we'll try it.

SPEAKER_02 19:20

Let's do that for sure. All right, cool.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

That's easy, Joe.

SPEAKER_02 19:25

See how that's so that's yeah, that's a good example of how we do things around here at countryside. You say you just kind of sit around a table and make it happen, throw, throw ideas out there and see see where it goes. What'd you guys think about um the Chicago food scene and I my hometown, right? So I'm like whenever I whenever I get to bring someone there for the first time, like I really enjoy showing people around and being a tour guide, even though most of the facts that I share made up. Um that's the entertaining part. But I mean, I like I genuinely, genuinely had a good time, sure, like just walking you guys around and your families around, and you know, so I'm interested. Like, so we went to Portillo's the first day, which is my favorite, like you know, that beef sandwich is my favorite sandwich in the whole world.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Yeah, it was uh it was good, yeah, very good.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Yeah, yeah. That's all you got for me. So not that great. It was very good.

SPEAKER_01 20:35

I mean, I think I think I went home and wrote a letter to my mom, told her how great it was. Really? Yeah, I sent a letter home to my mom.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Were you angry at her about why she didn't raise you in Chicago?

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was close to the city.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Why didn't you move it from from Cleveland to Chicago, Mom? I was like, you know. Your whole childhood is just a mess because of that.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

I could have had so many better meals than I ever did.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

All right.

SPEAKER_03 20:55

I've I've been to a portillo down here. Yeah, I know. It's different, you know. It's that the whole the whole feel of it is different. It's a yeah, it's a cool setup. It's um, you know, it it was I mean it was a little after lunch time from what I remember. It wasn't like in the in the you know, the the lunch push, but it was still busy, and yeah, you know, the place was really cool. It was a uh it was a good introduction to to that, and I was looking forward to having some Italian beef.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

So yeah, yeah. What'd you think of like cause because that was the first time you and Christy had been to Chicago? So what did you think of the city?

SPEAKER_03 21:33

I mean, it's it's uh it's very cool. I mean, it was kind of packed in, you know. We we had uh, you know, at least one full day of make you know, kind of being at the show. Yeah, you know, we wound up going for another day, but getting a chance to see what we saw was really, you know, really enjoyable. Yeah. Very walkable, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

It's Did you feel safe?

SPEAKER_03 21:57

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

There wasn't any point that no, we walked quite a bit. I mean, even because where the our hotel sat and where we were trying to go, we we used a lot of the back alleys. Yeah. And it was I felt no, I mean, but you also look around and there's cameras literally everywhere. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 22:16

I mean, Chicago, you you could see if we if we didn't go to the show, like that's the reason we were there. Like if we had like three or four full days of just doing whatever we wanted, um, I mean, you could see the whole city. Sure. Whereas I just like when I compare it to like Manhattan, like you can't see that you can't see a quarter of it in three days, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Yeah, it's it's pretty tough. But even like some of the suburbs, like when we went through what was it, Lincoln Park or something you said? I mean, very cool. Yeah. I mean, old school suburbs. Uh, you know, it it reminded me a lot of outside, you know, outskirts of Cleveland, you know, because it was that same kind of setup. Just with better food, just with better food and and probably a little cleaner. Yeah. Unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

What about um what about Tao? What did you guys think of that?

SPEAKER_01 23:08

That was an experience.

SPEAKER_02 23:09

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Yeah, we um yeah, I mean, it was cool. I mean, the food was great, yeah. Uh a little loud, very loud, yeah. Um, but yeah, service was good.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

I don't think it was loud for Sophie or Emma, though. Like I thought about that. I'm like, I think it's an age thing. Yeah, like we are old now. Sure. Because that was when we got there, as soon as we walked in, the first thing that went through my head was like, Oh, it's really loud in here. Yeah. And I'm like, oh my god, like 20 20 years ago, I would be like, This is this is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 23:40

But like you, I think you said that it was a it was formerly a club, right? The building, yeah, was a nightclub for years. And it kind of had that feel to it still, just with tables on the dance floor. So there was uh you know, the restaurant though was so cool, like that giant Buddha statue right in front was just incredible.

SPEAKER_02 24:02

The stairwell down with seating was cool.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Like those little alcoves, kind of and then even like the ones that were up on either side of the Buddha. Oh, yeah, exactly. The the drapery that I mean it had to be what 30 feet to the ceiling. I mean, it was just awesome.

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Yeah, it was really, really cool. A lot of lot of you could tell there was a lot of like parties that were going on within like a lot of groups that were together. There were I think a couple of like bridal showers, you know, not bridal showers, but bachelorette parties or you know, groups getting together. Um and and that's a place to go and be seen and pressure because it was that kind of place. DJ was playing, it was it was just uh it was a cool setup for sure.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

And what I mean, what'd you think about the food? Food was really good. Yeah, yeah, really good.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

Yeah, everything that that I tried, I can tell you.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

And I didn't think it was priced, I didn't think it was I didn't think it was bad at all. I didn't think it was crazy. No, I mean it was certainly comparative to anything here, sure. In fact, I think so. When I think back, I think a lot of the prices of of where we were at were better than downtown Naples. Yeah, seriously, yeah, which is crazy. I mean um but yeah, I I thought that that I think the dinner was good and I mean oh yeah, smoked eel.

SPEAKER_01 25:29

Wasn't a fan of that. Oh, so I thought it was good.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Yeah, I tried it, I wasn't a fan of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

I I ate the rest of it, huh?

SPEAKER_02 25:34

It wasn't bad, it wasn't bad. I wouldn't, I mean, it's not something I would I would order again.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Um but you gotta try it.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

I thought yeah, the dumpling, everything we have is yeah, yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

And then we did um Pequads.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Pequads is cool.

SPEAKER_02 25:56

Yeah, the first time I'd ever been there.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

Yeah, well that's good. Yeah, so you guys try to do it. What did you think of it, Joe? Um it's it's uh it's a work in progress as far as the actual location. Yeah. Some renovations, some renovations, so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

I thought it was good. Yeah. Um, there's other pizza, like it there's other pizza in Chicago that I would like go have before that one. Yeah, but I thought it was good. Yeah. Um the restaurant's cool, like, and then you know, the whole tie-in with the bear, sure, you know, everything. Yeah, exactly. And that's a cool area that it's in, yeah. Um, but no, I I thought it was cool. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

Yeah, we did the I believe you called us tourists by ordering the Chicago style deep dish. Yeah, but we had to. We had to.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

We were tourists, so the first time, I mean, when when Jen and I took um Art and his wife, Art was a chef that worked with me at the colony forever ago, and he's lived in Benita his whole life. So it was the first time this was back in like the first time we did that trip was I think was 2007. So almost 20 years ago. Right. And it was the two of us. We took him and his wife, they'd never been to a city. She grew up in Mexico.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

And we we had like the the most amazing time. It was so much fun. It was in December. We end up getting a ton of snow. Hello. Um, but yeah, the first night we were there, we went to Gino's East, which is like one of the other big pizza places there. And I same thing, they're like, Well, we're gonna get deep dish. I'm like, I'm like, that's touristy, but we did get deep dish, and I I mean it was deep dish is good, it's just a lot of work. Yeah, it's a lot of work there.

SPEAKER_03 27:49

It's not it, it's a lot to eat. It's a like it's a casserole slash lasagna slash loaf of bread. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 27:57

I like the tavern style pizza in Chicago. It's you know, cut in the squares. It's I think the crust is like a corn cornmeal crust, maybe. It's got a little bit of more crisp to it.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Um they could just you know, they could coat it with uh in the cornmeal. Yeah, like instead of the semolina, use a little cornmeal on it.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

But what I don't remember what else did we do while we were there? We did the boat tour. Did we do the boat tour? It was fun. Went to the casino.

SPEAKER_03 28:31

Usually did pretty good there. Had a good good experience there.

SPEAKER_02 28:36

Did the Sears Tower?

SPEAKER_03 28:39

What'd you think of that? It was sketchy.

SPEAKER_02 28:42

Yeah, I don't like walking out on that ledge at all. I think it was pretty cool. You've seen big you've been in big skyscrapers though. Sure, yeah. You're in the World Trade Center, didn't you? Did you go up to the top? Like the top floor, it was open, right?

SPEAKER_03 28:55

Yeah, I don't know if I could do that. Yeah, we we did it a year before it was no longer there. Yeah, it was the last season that we did. It was September of uh 2000.

SPEAKER_02 29:05

You have any pictures?

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah. Wow. Yeah. That's wild. Pretty cool. Before phone, so it was I think it's a physical picture, which we're a little three by more exactly. So the storage of phone. Yeah, now that I think about it, the more we talk. I don't know that I have one. I know I've taken them on there, but yeah, I've been to the top of the World Trade Center, top of the Empire State Building, which again you go outside. I've done that one uh that as well. Um, but yeah, going up there was was cool. It's quick. It's like you you get on an elevator and you're at the top. Yeah, you know, we weren't climbing stairs or running stairs as some others have done. Yeah. You know. Thanks. It was fun. Uh but yeah, that was cool.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Uh the Chicago Athletic Association Athletic Association. Yeah, that's right. We did that. Um I don't remember what night that was. Yeah. After you guys had peeled off. Oh I think it's when you guys went to the casino, actually. We we went down to the bean. Went down to the bean, yeah. And then across the street is that hotel that I was telling you about. Used to be uh it used to be an athletic club. The building itself is uh is 125 or 150 years old. It was a private, I think, men's athletic club. And um still have the swimming pool in it? It it does, but it's not a swimming pool. Right. So it's like uh it's like a lobby area, I guess.

SPEAKER_03 30:35

It almost just seemed like they kind of had some stuff stored there. Oh, you know, there were some tables and chairs that were kind of stacked in that area, but you can see that it was the physical pool.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

The building sat empty for like 20 or 30 years, and it was nothing. And then someone bought it and they turned it into a hotel and retained all the original it did we say it was a Hyatt? Yeah, it's part of the Hyatt. It's part of Hyatt. That's right. Yeah, that's right. Because I remember Sophie caught that. But holy cow, yeah, I mean, the building itself was like the lobby was just gorgeous, wasn't it? Yeah, very cool. You you walk in there, like the original windows, really, you know, you look through, and it's like this this old glass, it's dark and dark wood everywhere, just really just that's awesome, awesome, really cool space. It is for sure. So did you guys eat any uh eat any different food when we were like on our own? We split off.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

No, we just went to a little cafe for breakfast, um right, I don't know, three, four blocks from the hotel, which was which was really good. And then we sat through that torrential downpour. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Um but yeah, no, we didn't really uh we didn't do anything yeah, crazy.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

It's too much. I mean, I ate too much. Oh, I ate more at the food show than I thought I would. And you know, you you kind of eat throughout the day there as they're passing samples to you, right? And then at some point, all of a sudden, I'm like, I think I'm gonna vomit. Like, I don't know why it came on so fast.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

You gotta paste yourself, Joe. Yeah, that's what it is. It was a mixture of all the food, different types, and the drinks, fizzy drinks. The fizzy drinks, fizzy drinks, I'll feel them. Yeah, it'll mess you up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah, and then you start eating hot sp hot spicy stuff and some snacks, some snacks. Yeah, little combination, you know.

SPEAKER_02 32:34

So is the is the restaurant shows at one and done? That one?

SPEAKER_01 32:40

That one for me is I mean, you don't something you'd go to every year. Probably not, just unless I was looking for something in particular, because I mean there was a lot of things that I saw that I thought were very cool. But then you start talking to the people and like, okay, how do I how do I buy this? Yeah, who who do I who do you sell to that I can buy from? And that you know, that seemed to be a thing. Well, you buy direct. Oh, okay. So now I'm buying direct from where? Yeah. And how long does that take? Yeah. And you know, and it was, you know, there was it was there was a ton of foreign, you know, um, you know, everything from China to Taiwan to Vietnam to a lot of Korean stuff.

SPEAKER_02 33:23

I was surprised about that.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

I didn't didn't expect to see you know, and but there's there was things that I thought were, you know, like bamboo straws. Yeah. I thought was a great thing. But you know, and I look around here and you nobody has them down here. Yeah, yeah. You know, that's not an option, that's not a an item that's available. You know, they want you to use paper straws. Well, okay, you use a paper straw and a frozen drink, and 30 seconds later it's shocked. Yeah, you use a bamboo straw and a frozen drink, right? You drink it all day long, right? You know, and I was like, well, why don't we have that? Yeah, exactly. You start looking around for that and you you just can't find it. Yeah, yeah. You know, you can order it from them from you know, big, you know, Amazon or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

But I think the the difference is like that is a that's a that's a national show versus when we go to like Cheney, it's it's it's what they've already it's local, they've already got their vendor place, yeah. I mean, I I remember two things stood out in my mind, and they're probably small things, but this is how we do how we do small things. Um, the name tags. Sure, like I came across that one vendor that's and I'm sure they're not the only ones that do it, but they sell you buy a name tag machine, right? It's 900 bucks, and you can print your own name tags right here. And for me, that's like name tags that are like the bane of my existence in seeds. And I hate when people aren't wearing them, and I hate when they're wearing them that and they look like they've drove over them. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:52

Or washed them a hundred times, or wash them a hundred times. Um keeping our logo in place on these things.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

They get worn. Yeah. Um, and that lady, I mean, I've connected with her and she's like, um, she's like, Yeah, we can match the name tag you have, and you just put them right there at the club. Yep. And then remember that one booth we were looking at the seating, the outdoor chairs. Yeah. Remember? It was right away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

It was like one of the first spots we had.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

I I know I have a picture of it, I don't remember, but that like stuck in my mind because I hate our outdoor pool cafe furniture. Yeah, the cushions are I absolutely hate it. Struggle. So but you know, that I thought that was cool, non-cushioned outdoor furniture, stackable. Yeah, it was comfortable. I thought it was comfortable. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Um it just uh yeah, I don't know that I would ever have to go back or need to go back, but it was really cool to be able to see what it was all about because it was it was amazing. It was amazingly overwhelming as you're walking through there. But one thing I did notice, and I think we all kind of made a comment about, is that I think we've I know that you've been to the Cheney show a little bit more, Chev, but I've been to it probably five, six times over the years, maybe, maybe a couple more than that. And for the amount of people, the amount of space, the amount of vendors, everybody was pretty, you know, pretty much stayed in their lane and like nobody was up on you.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

Right.

SPEAKER_03 36:30

You know, and I know there's been a couple of times I've been to the Cheney show and it's just like you're getting ran over. If you're not moving, you're gonna get you're gonna get run over. And this was a little bit more like, all right, you can kind of do your thing and not have people all over you at the same time.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

So yeah, I don't I don't feel I didn't feel like it was overrun. I mean, there were certainly a ton of people, I'm sure, but I didn't feel bad. Didn't feel crowded to me if you were. Right. Right, you know.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Um which is always good. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

And they said there was more people there on Sunday than there was on Saturday the day before, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

And yeah, and I tell you when we went on Monday, Monday seemed to be, you know, a pretty heavy day too. And I started thinking about the fact that, you know, it wasn't the weekend, people were back at work, and that might have been a you know a a good time to to head head into it also, because of course restaurants are gonna be busier on the weekends. So, you know, I think there were people that were coming in for the first time on Monday, and you could tell that it was getting a little bit hairy, a little crazy in there. So we weren't there very long, but it was still good to see.

SPEAKER_02 37:40

Cool.

SPEAKER_03 37:41

It was fun. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:43

Well, what else is going on? We got this big push to get Dave Portnoy out here. Yes. I've been working on that. Come on, Dave. I mean, I think I know a lot of clubs are doing pizza, um, but I don't think anyone is doing pizza quite like us in terms of like it it's really become a staple thing here.

SPEAKER_01 38:11

Yeah. Yeah, it's a bigger animal than I I th I initially expected it to be. Yeah. But it's I mean it's coming out great.

SPEAKER_02 38:19

I mean, I think people love it. I mean, I know I mean, just by you know, this past season, the amount of pizza we we've been selling, and then you know, with the new oven.

SPEAKER_03 38:31

Like you said, Jeff, there did I mean there's really nobody else in this area that's got that oven.

unknown 38:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Correct. Yeah. Yeah, I was just well, I was talking to a guy. He said there's I think there's three of them. There's only one other club, and then there's a store that has one.

SPEAKER_02 38:46

That uh which is the other club, do you know?

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Uh no, not off the top of my head. I thought it was a beach club of something.

SPEAKER_02 38:56

Uh in Florida though?

SPEAKER_01 38:58

In this area.

SPEAKER_02 38:59

Oh, so Naples, Fort Myers.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah, Naples Fort Myers. There's only three three of them that he knew of from the same manufacturer.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

You know what would be cool next year is um if we did a cooking class that was a pizza class.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Oh, I think we absolutely be fun.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

And the other thing I really want to do is um sell that exhibition table where you sit and you just watch dinner service. I mean, we feed you, but you sit in the kitchen and you just can't talk to anyone, you're just there to watch. I think that would just open a lot of people's eyes in terms of like, holy cow, yeah, there's a lot that goes on here. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 39:39

Right. Yeah, the behind the scenes table.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

Yeah, be fun.

unknown 39:42

No doubt.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Yeah. So very cool. There's definitely a waiver that you'll have to sign before you do though. I guess. Oh, yeah. Non-disclosure.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah, you can't repeat anything you hear. Um we're not responsible for any injuries. Yeah, for sure. Um, sometimes, you know, we throw utensils or knives if you happen to maybe make them wear a hard hat or helmet or something. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

And if you're easily offended, maybe it's not.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

Yeah, it's I mean, it's it's a kitchen. It's you know, it's definitely a different world. I mean, ours is tamed by some of the public. Oh sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

Oh, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

But it's I mean, I I think thinking back over this past season, I mean, we by all means, we were operating at the level of like some very high volume restaurants, sure. Which is crazy to think about.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Yeah, yeah, straight out of the box like that. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

And I'm I mean, personally, I want to make a point. Um, like I'm gonna force myself at least, you know, every other week next year to to expo. Oh, good. Just because like the few times that I did it on the cold side, um, I I enjoyed it. I had fun, but I also think it was uh it was just a good way for me to just stay abreast of what you know what it takes. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:09

Yeah, when you're standing shoulder to shoulder with frontline, yeah, it's it's a different world.

SPEAKER_02 41:15

I mean, as long as you guys are okay with that.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

Well it might be a slower night, but you know, I've decided that non-compete on that.

SPEAKER_02 41:23

I I really had fun.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

I mean, those pretty well.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

I mean I think I did okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

I'd done it before. It's just been a number of years. A little while. So it's like riding a bike, right? Yeah. Exactly. So awesome. What else?

SPEAKER_03 41:52

What do you want, Joe? I mean, I've been talking. What are you saying? For now, I think we're pretty good. I mean, it's a it's a good recap of uh what we got a chance to experience. Definitely appreciate the opportunity to do it. Yeah, yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_02 42:12

Well, I mean, this is the time of year where we go out and do stuff like that, right? Season is fresh in our heads. You know, we're we're trying to digest what it was like, you know, what we experienced the first year in the club, you know. So now we've got all these ideas, and you know, now's the time of year we just kind of like see what else is out there and brainstorm and try and put a plan together for for the fall and sure, you know, uh tweak some things. I mean, that's and going to shows like that. I mean, that's just that's a good way to do it.

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, because if we don't know if you don't know.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

Right. So all right. Um we can close it out there. Um we do I'm dead set on getting Portnoy out here.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

I think you'd enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02 43:08

I think just being able to be the first club. And I've often wondered though, because he started the whole pizza review thing to help small businesses, right? So I'm wondering if he's like he's like, why would I go to these guys? Like they're a private country club.

SPEAKER_04 43:25

Sure.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

You know? Um, but I think it would be fun. Of course, be fun for our members, be fun for us. Um doubt. You know, unless he, I mean, he he's just gotta give us a good score.

SPEAKER_03 43:43

I don't see why he will see why he would. I feel like he would give them that ultimatum. That might be questionable.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

No, I think I just want him to be honest. I want yeah, you know, I just want an honest score.

SPEAKER_02 43:53

I think it would be cool to be able to be the club that can say, yeah, date. We did this renovation. The kitchen was a huge part of it. Within the kitchen, the whole pizza thing kind of came about. It was so popular after our first season, we bought another pizza oven.

SPEAKER_01 44:14

Right.

SPEAKER_02 44:15

Right. No questions asked. Right? Right. Boards like, I'm like, we need we need a better pizza oven that can get hotter and go faster. And they're like, okay. So so like we've we've got this whole like pizza thing. We started the one byte reviews on our menu items, which we kind of borrowed from him.

SPEAKER_03 44:37

Borrowed is a good word.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Just to have some fun with, right? And so now it's it's like, well, why not? Hey man, come on out here.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

It's like a full circle.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

You like golf.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

We've got pizza. Come on out here and just let us be able to say that you've been here. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

That's it. That's what we're trying to do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:56

It would be cool. It would be. And we could put on our menus, like we could put a portnoy pizza on the menu.

SPEAKER_03 45:04

There are some. I know there's one in down on Fifth, right? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

Slice shop.

SPEAKER_01 45:10

What's his style? No cheese? Well, no. Tomato only.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

No, he likes the I mean he likes the tomato pie, but he likes just cheese pizza. Cheese pizza. That's what he rates.

SPEAKER_02 45:22

And that's what their slice is. It's a Port Nois slice. It's it's a just a cheese pizza. We could do that. All right. Well, guys, uh, I guess we'll close it out there. Yeah. Thank you. And uh until next time. Till we'll see we'll see you in episode twenty-four. Oof. All right. Sweet. Awesome. Peace out.

SPEAKER_00 46:17

Thanks for listening, and we so very much appreciate the time our listeners give and hearing us ramble about the medicine of the balance. And remember, some of the best medicines and the challenges of life is simply doing something about someone else.