Eli Sussman, a James Beard Award-nominated chef and owner of Gertrude's in Brooklyn, uses humorous social media posts and memes to spotlight the realities of hospitality. As a chef, operator, and content creator, he’s built a career that blends hospitality with digital influence.
Watch now to learn about the drive to keep opening restaurants, an unexpected collaboration, and the rise to meme royalty.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
Watch now to learn about the drive to keep opening restaurants, an unexpected collaboration, and the rise to meme royalty.
Sponsored by:
• TOAST - All-In-1 Restaurant POS: https://bit.ly/3vpeVsc
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NewsTranscript
00:00Every podcast and I'm guilty of this as well. It's like what's the secret sauce?
00:04There is there is no
00:07Magical equation some work some don't you've closed places. I've closed places
00:12So my huge takeaway from that is I love what I do. I love this business. I love cooking. I'm gonna try it again
00:19Welcome to restaurant influencers presented by entrepreneur. I am your host Sean Walsh if this is a Cali
00:25BBQ media production special shout out to toast our primary technology partner at our barbecue restaurants in San Diego for believing
00:33In storytelling for giving us the opportunity the stage to have the best storytellers the best hospitality professionals on to this show to share
00:40successes
00:41But more importantly the failures and all of the ups and downs of the business
00:45But more importantly the failures and all of the things that it takes to live in this crazy world of restaurant business
00:51We started as a barbecue business. We turned ourselves into a media company on top of our restaurant and
00:57Now we're trying to find other people that are playing the game within the game
01:01In life in the restaurant business and in the new creator economy. We learned through lessons and stories
01:06I've got Eli Sussman. You can find him at the Sussman's on
01:11Instagram he crushes it. They've got 83,000 followers on that page. You can find him at Gertrude's NYC
01:17He is a partner and executive chef. You can find him at all OS and Arbor new restaurant coming 2025
01:24And you can also find him at talking in the walk-in. We've got a lot to talk about today
01:29We're gonna talk about memes. We're gonna talk about storytelling. We're gonna talk about this crazy world that
01:34New dads find themselves in running running these businesses, but Eli welcome the show man. Thank you for having me
01:40I am super excited to have you on the show
01:43We're gonna start with our favorite random question, which is where in the world is your favorite stadium stage or venue?
01:50Oh, wow
01:53I
01:55I think it's probably gotta be the Fox Theater in downtown, Detroit
01:59I saw Aretha Franklin there. No way is maybe 10 years old 12 years old
02:05Incredible venue and shout out to my hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Okay, how many fit in the Fox Theater?
02:13I don't know. I'd have to guess
02:162,500 or nice
02:183,000 I don't know. I'm guessing it's been a long time since I've been there, but it's not huge
02:22It is not gigantic, you know, I could be wrong. I don't know. I don't know
02:26But it's not huge it is not gigantic, you know, I could have gone with the big house which is in Ann Arbor
02:32Yeah, and that's the biggest sports stadium in North America. Well, let's keep it intimate. I think that works the best
02:39We're gonna go to Fox Theater. I'm gonna talk to toast. I'll talk to entrepreneur
02:43We'll talk to Baldor specialty foods, which we'll get into we're gonna get some sponsors together
02:47But we like like I said people that play the game within the game
02:50This is a really hard business to be in and we're looking for secrets. We're looking for successes
02:55We're looking for favorites, um favorite ways to improve your business. I'm gonna give you the mic. I'm gonna say Eli
03:02Um 2,500 people that listen to this show that are fired up to hear about you and your story
03:07Can you share a story about your biggest failure as a restaurant owner?
03:12Oh
03:13there's
03:14too many unfortunately to list but I think my biggest
03:19my biggest failure
03:21has to be that I had a
03:23A restaurant that was operational for quite a long time, especially by new york standards
03:29uh
03:30called samisa, which was a mediterranean fast casual concept and
03:35It closed I
03:37I couldn't make it happen and by make it happen what I envisioned for samisa was that it would be
03:44a
03:45fast casual player that would get venture capital and that I would open dozens if not hundreds of locations when
03:53I started the business with my brother
03:56We thought of it in two very distinct
04:00operational
04:01formats the first was opening it up as a 55 seat restaurant with servers and a full bar
04:08And doing plated food and the second one was doing it as fast casual
04:12And we had to before we even opened we had to decide which entity we wanted to be, you know
04:17How did we want to be seen in the marketplace?
04:19And we went fast casual which I think was more my idea than my brother's and we both came from traditional chef
04:26restaurant backgrounds with
04:28You know with with the traditional. Um structure that wasn't fast casual
04:33And I thought that's where the money is and when we opened that was where the money was in
04:382015 it was sweet green was just kind of percolating in new york city
04:43And I said we make amazing food someone is going to taste this food and they're
04:48going to want to invest and we're going to we're going to get that
04:52Equity injection and we're going to expand and this is what we're going to do for for the rest of our lives
04:57We're going to be the guys that started samisa. I kind of sold myself on that dream sold my brother on that dream
05:02It never came to fruition, you know, we we we didn't get very close. Uh, we had more than one location
05:09We did, you know multiple
05:11Uh revenue streams with catering and and dine-in and to go and all these things
05:18uh, but I closed it because you know what I couldn't hang with the big with the big guns with the big guys and
05:24I will always
05:26wonder what
05:28Missteps mistakes I made along those eight and a half years where I didn't end up being
05:34Kava where I didn't end up being
05:37uh, naya and jersey mics and all these things so
05:41um, yeah, that's that's my that's my big failure, but
05:45excuse me, sorry, but the
05:47The cliche is is that with all those hundreds of failures along the way?
05:52I think it made me a better owner and a better leader and hopefully is going to allow me to be successful
05:58uh down the line
06:00I appreciate the honesty and candor to start the show
06:03It's something that is always hard to do as restaurant owners like we fail so much
06:07But it's it's almost so painful to go back and say because we've closed three restaurants
06:13We've closed three ghost kitchens in the pandemic. We wanted to be the amazon of barbecue
06:17We were going to open up more barbecue to more people and you know, just the ghost kitchen didn't work out for us
06:23but we
06:24Learned from that now we have a fast casual concept and we've taken those learnings
06:28Which I don't even know if we'd be able to be operating on the san diego navy base, you know
06:32Next to five guys in subway if we hadn't learned from those other ghost kitchens. It's just like it's really hard
06:39You know, it's so hard to go back
06:42But I think that's why I love doing shows like this is I get just from you sharing that it makes me makes me feel better
06:49Um because you're still standing
06:51Right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean we've we had uh
06:55like everyone we went through covid everyone who was operational during that time and
07:02I had that moment many many
07:05hours spent on the phone with other business owners and
07:10Lawyers and insurance and the city of new york and zooms and just trying to figure out if I could save
07:17The business if it would reopen and what that might look like and during that time you have all these
07:23uh
07:23You know
07:24You have an existential crisis like I think i'm a chef and I think this is what I want to do with my entire life
07:29And maybe my business is going to close and i'm never going to go back to working at a restaurant or being a chef
07:34And then we were fortunate enough to be able to reopen
07:38And then we were fortunate enough to get an opportunity to move it to rockefeller center because rockefeller center was investing
07:45uh
07:46Emotionally, they were investing in small businesses and saying can you help make midtown cool?
07:52and so we took a really big swing there which for the
07:55Whatever fifth tenth time that it was I said this is the way that the brand is gonna this is where it's gonna pop
08:02Yep, i'm gonna get in front of the right people the tourists the finance guys and it's gonna happen
08:08and
08:10I think what's so important to
08:13Understand about being a restaurant operator is you can have every single piece
08:19Right the food the vibe
08:22Everything you can have it all dialed in perfectly, but the lifespan of some restaurants
08:29Is not long. Yeah, and some make a profit and some don't and everyone's you know every podcast and i'm guilty of this as well
08:36It's like what's the secret sauce?
08:38There is there is no
08:40Magical equation some work some don't you've closed places. I've closed places
08:47All thousands of people that are that are listening have closed in open places and what ends up happening is
08:54Sometimes it hits and sometimes it doesn't so my huge takeaway from that is I love what I do
08:59I love this business. I love cooking i'm gonna try it again and
09:03Sooner or later, I will maybe lose the urge to try it again
09:08I don't think so
09:09But I but I tried it again in 2023 and i'm about to do it again in 2025 with my brother again as my partner so
09:16um
09:17i'm either the you know, i'm either the biggest idiot that that's ever existed or you know, i'm just i'm bit with the
09:23Hospitality bug and I I need to keep doing it
09:26But there's something about this industry and the camaraderie and feeding people that really does it for me
09:32So I just am gonna keep
09:35Doing what i'm doing which is which is opening restaurants and and hopefully hopefully they're they're successful, but you never know
09:42Yeah, I love that and i'm i'm gonna make a more conscious effort to hopefully try to ask people that come on this show
09:50about the things that they missed on because
09:54We all look and we see people, you know
09:56I heard danny meyer recently on a podcast talking about
09:59You know setting the table and how great that book is and how many opportunities it opened for him for union square hospitality eventually shake shack
10:06But one of his only regrets about the book was that he mentioned his pride in having never closed a restaurant
10:13And he says now that I look back on that
10:16I don't want other restauranteurs out there
10:19To think that it's a badge of honor to have always opened and operated concepts like it's okay to close and sometimes it's a seasonal
10:26Thing where you know, maybe this is the beginning of something else do not skip this ad. This is important information
10:34I
10:35Unboxed toast our point of sale at our barbecue restaurants. And now here I am interviewing shaquille o'neal on the biggest stages
10:43We want to hear your toast story if you use toast in your restaurant
10:48Send me a message at sean p walcheff on instagram sh a w n p
10:55W a l c h e f
10:58We want to hear your toast story if you're thinking about switching to toast, we would love to help you
11:03Please send us a message so that we can share your toast story today
11:10Who are who are your mentors who do you look up to in the industry
11:14Yeah, I mean I I look up I have a lot of people that I guess are either
11:18Contemporaries or peers within new york that I I don't gauge my success against them
11:23But I figure that all tides rise together in a way. So I look at people who are in a similar
11:29style of restaurant as gertrudes
11:32And I look to them either because I know them personally or from afar via social media or whatever it might be and I am
11:39Trying to glean from them what they're doing and what's working
11:42So, I mean there are some folks in our neighborhood and prospect heights that i'm friends with and we have a great open communication
11:48And dialogue. Hey, what's working for you? Uh, are you seeing changes in the marketplace?
11:53Are you seeing changes in customer retention in days of success and failures?
11:58Have you tried anything new in the last couple months that's really resonated with your staff or with your customers?
12:04So I mean I have a luckily through the internet
12:08I can communicate with people all over the united states and I do I dm with chefs everywhere
12:12but I think the people that really
12:14I look to are the folks that are a good comp to my restaurant in new york city
12:19Because i'm interested in what they're doing and I really want to hear from them specifically
12:25You know what's bothering them and and what's working for them so that I can learn?
12:29um
12:30In terms of just straight up and down mentorship. I talk to my brother all the time
12:35He's only a little bit older and he's got a couple years of experience on me
12:40But we've run businesses together and apart and he's you know worked at amazing places in new york
12:45And he's been a culinary director of several units of a restaurant group
12:48so
12:49uh
12:50he's my go-to guy to
12:53Bounce things off of and then I keep about a three or four core group of chefs that I know
12:59Where if i'm gonna engage in something a new business practice
13:04Or try something new on the internet. I usually run it by them first and say is this lame?
13:09Is this cool? Is this a good idea? Do you think that this is funny? Is this stupid?
13:13And that's my sounding board and they know who they are and i'm not going to call them out here
13:18But but those people are the ones that kind of keep me honest when i'm maybe going to try
13:23Something new on the internet and or if i'm going to get a new job
13:27And uh, and it's good to have that core group of people that can tell you
13:33No, or that's not a good idea because as we all know in restaurants there can be a lot of like echo chamber
13:40Oh my god, your restaurant's so great. Oh, I loved it
13:43You know your friends come and they tell you that it's amazing and what I actually want to hear is what you didn't like
13:48Yeah, and only some people are willing to be that honest with you
13:51And my brother is one of those people who will be brutally honest with me and will tell me you shouldn't
13:56Uh do that product sponsorship? You shouldn't put that on the menu, whatever it might be
14:01And I think that you need those type of people around you
14:05especially if you are successful because when you become more successful people tend to
14:10Um kiss your ass a little bit more and tell you that whatever you're doing is so great, you know
14:15Uh, I want to talk more about the dms and like speaking your truth on the internet
14:20It's something that we believe deeply and obviously we wouldn't be having a show on entrepreneur
14:25having toast as our title sponsor being able to
14:27Interview people like you who we admire from afar. We follow the memes we like for me. This is super cool that
14:34It started seven years ago when I just had a crazy idea that I wasn't alone as a restaurant owner
14:39That there were other business owners that I could learn from like selfishly
14:42I don't give a shit if anyone was listening if anyone was watching i'm like I get to sit down
14:46And i'll publish it on the internet. Hopefully one day more people will watch and more people will care
14:51But yeah, if I selfishly learn
14:54Then all of a sudden you start to build this community
14:56Can you talk about the beginning days of like publishing on the internet 100 percent? I couldn't
15:02I I feel exactly the way that you just articulated it, which was that it really started off as an education for myself
15:10It's a continuing education in the same way that going to different restaurants and learning from different chefs on the ground
15:17Is is that learning experience by interviewing them and talking to people on the internet?
15:22You get to grow and you can glean great stories from them. So
15:26how
15:28Pre memes I had a podcast that I hosted in person on this thing called heritage radio network
15:34I recorded in the backyard of roberta's which is in bushwick
15:38And it was awesome and I loved doing it and then
15:42Covid happened and you couldn't do anything in person anymore. I was at home. My restaurant was closed. I was feeling frustrated
15:49I didn't really know how to articulate my feelings and sort of air my grievances
15:54And the meme is a perfect format to encapsulate
15:58a lot of emotion into one succinct, uh sentence or one
16:03Uh complete visual and so I just tried my hand at it
16:07I just started making some memes and and putting them in my stories on instagram. I I had maybe like
16:1512 000 followers at that point which had basically been a instagram account that was pictures of food, you know
16:21It was my it was my restaurant stuff and it was top down pictures of food
16:25like sort of what everybody else was doing at that time and
16:29And
16:30And not a lot of maybe my personal personality on there
16:33and then what I quickly found was that the memes they resonated with people and also
16:39Covid everyone was so isolated that everyone was talking to each other on the internet. Yeah, and
16:45While everyone was, you know doing these happy hour zooms with their friends
16:49what I was doing was talking to somebody who owned a bakery in north dakota and some bartender in washington state and
16:56People back at home in michigan and I thought wow there is this online
17:02Community that is talking to each other and everyone's totally scared about what's going to happen
17:09And as the memes sort of got shared more and more people were dming me and sharing their
17:14personal experiences of during covid and so I just had this wealth of
17:20Information and I had all of this. Uh
17:23All of these like miniature
17:26Anecdotes that were spurring on the content that were that were that were allowing me to create this content. So I just
17:33started my brain just started exploding onto the internet
17:37Which was that I was freaked out that I was not going to have a job anymore and that I was not going to do
17:42It and I started making memes from the perspective of all the different people in the hospitality industry
17:49the line cooks the bartenders the porters the owners
17:52Everybody and
17:54People started sharing them and it just totally has changed the trajectory and dynamic of my life and how I
18:02interact with the hospitality industry, um
18:06And it was you know, this amazing crazy thing that came out of being isolated during covid
18:11can you share
18:13My my media mentor one of my favorite things that he he I quote him all the time is he said the truth vibrates
18:18the fastest
18:20Like we live in a world where there's so much content on instagram so much on tiktok so much on youtube like
18:26Emails text notifications like all these notifications, but when you speak the truth
18:31People stop and they listen because it's different it actually interrupts patterns
18:37When you speak the truth and sometimes say things that aren't flattering about our industry
18:44You seem to elicit a lot of response a lot of engagement a lot of shares
18:50Why do you do that?
18:53Well, the reason that I do it is because I
18:57feel like there's I have an opportunity to share people's voices that might not necessarily be heard or be amplified and
19:05as
19:06uh a white guy who's a chef and has gotten a lot of opportunity to succeed and has had sort of a lot of leg ups
19:14and uh and been given, you know
19:17The ability to act on the privilege that I have I during covid I thought these people are not being heard
19:23there's a the entire industry is being maligned and marginalized and people are having to go to work and
19:29Um, no one's really treating them with respect and then beyond that I thought our industry
19:35Everyone's talking about is our industry going to change and what are we going to do?
19:38Are we going to stop treating our own employees?
19:42Uh terribly and will customers start treating us better and all these conversations were being had
19:48And I just thought if people are going to start looking at me and listening to what i'm going to say on the internet
19:52Then i'll take it as an opportunity to try to be funny
19:55and share these things in a way that will
19:58Be an access point for people that want to hear them or that don't want to hear them
20:02and I think doing it in a funny way was that access point by
20:07poking and prodding the bear and always
20:10You know
20:11Targeting the people that are like five steps above me
20:13Nobody felt really what I was doing was super malicious because I was really only telling the upper elite chefs that maybe they should pay
20:21Their uh stages and I don't think that that's the most controversial
20:26Opinion of all time. So look I pissed off like four people and I made, you know, a couple thousand happy that they that I was
20:33Maybe initiating a conversation that had not been had or had was being had in in the shadows
20:39and I think that's just been the most, uh
20:42Gratifying and satisfying part is that I am not the only one having these conversations
20:48But perhaps I am keeping the conversation moving or amplifying certain aspects of the conversation
20:55And I just want people to think within the industry about what's happening in a different way
21:00It doesn't need to be the same old hierarchy and paradigm that you experience when you are coming up
21:07You don't have to be
21:08Mean and and be terrible to people because that's how you were treated when you came up. So
21:14Hopefully the meter has moved a little little bit to the positive side
21:18I'd like to hope that I was a small small part of that huge national conversation
21:23I am in no way taking credit for it
21:25But I think I was partly in the right place at the right time where people started talking about it
21:30And then the memes just reflected that
21:33Can you talk about the evolution from memes to also adding video?
21:37yeah, so that
21:39was
21:41You know partly
21:42Like we like you had kind of touched on like a selfish desire to learn from other chefs
21:48Like I want to get better and I want to be educated
21:51So I had this idea to interview chefs in their walk-in
21:54Uh talking in the walk-in was born
21:57uh as a reason to
21:59Get in very close proximity to chefs and hit them with questions in a cold walk-in and not it's an intimate space too
22:06Yeah, exactly. It's an intimate space that people don't see, you know
22:09totally and as we all as we all know like that is the space that people hide out in in a restaurant the
22:16the cooks and the chef they hide in there and take two two minutes for themselves and like
22:22you can go in there and like scream whatever you want to scream and
22:25um, you know, maybe mumble some stuff under your breath that you don't want people to hear and so that was my
22:32Zone of interest let's do it in your walk-in. I'm going to come to you. I'm going to come to your safe space
22:37I'm going to invade it and i'm going to ask you some questions and I want people in the industry to watch it and think
22:45That they can see a part of themselves in that chef in the walk-in if they're not there yet in their career
22:50So a line cook says oh I could be that chef one day
22:53That's a chef that I really respect
22:55And that i've been to their restaurant or I want to go to their restaurant
22:57So there's that ability to learn from them and then it's just creating content has now become a part of my life and I
23:05Am trying to create a business out of that and as you're talking about your
23:10various
23:11Pivots and revenue streams. I'm also thinking in that capacity because my back and knees are getting no younger
23:19And I want to make sure that I have some longevity here. So in addition to doing restaurant stuff
23:25I'm doing internet stuff and i'm making i'm making goofy reels on the internet because uh,
23:30That is what I hope can be part of my future within the industry. Yeah, I think I mean
23:36That's one of the reasons why we do this show to learn about things that I don't know about and things that we do
23:40Know about and other people that we respect that are like I said playing the game within the game
23:45Uh, let's talk about balder specialty foods. Sure collaboration because uh, I even I even wore that. I love the sweatshirt for it
23:52When we're talking about multiple revenue streams partnerships
23:56Where it's no longer a vendor partnership. Can you can you go into the go into the story share it with?
24:01Yeah, I believe the it was the cfo or the cmo of bald or put it put it the best and basically, you know,
24:08I basically talked enough shit on the internet until I uh fell backwards into a partnership with them
24:16and
24:17Basically what happened is I started making it's the opposite of me, but it's fucking great
24:23what I uh
24:25What I?
24:27Started doing was making fun of them because they are one of the primary vendors in new york city. Um
24:34Their trucks are all over the streets and as with any vendor for any restaurant owner
24:40You know, this is the great thing about our industry. We have a lot of people that are
24:44You know, this is the great thing about our industry and it makes sort of my job easier on the internet
24:50Which is like our stories are different, but they're all the same. It's like globally like not just in the united. This is global globally
24:57Totally. Yeah, it's like your stuff never comes the place breaks down your workers
25:02Don't show up on time and everyone parties and all the problems are the same problems, right?
25:08and so
25:10and so my jokes about baldur being late are
25:15Specific to me in new york with baldur, but everyone understands that joke if you've ever worked in a restaurant before it's like
25:21Where is my stuff? Like I gotta I gotta prep for service. So anyways waiting to prep for service. Yeah
25:27Yeah, exactly. They're twiddling their thumbs and like where's my you know traviso? So I am
25:33I am joking around with them and they reached out to me and said
25:37Look
25:38we want to talk to you because
25:41we have this event that is this um,
25:45Basically, it's their yearly, uh walk around event where they all their vendors display
25:51Uh the items that they showcase and they said we want you
25:55To get people like you to come you have the ear of the of the chefs and the line cooks
26:00We want these people to come and so those conversations
26:05Turned into a merch collaboration. How are we going to get people excited about coming to this event?
26:11Let's offer them a unique piece of merchandise that they can either only acquire at the event
26:15Or we're going to promote it at the event and you're going to be there. So
26:19They asked me for a bunch of ideas and I
26:22I sent them a document
26:24We narrowed it down to a couple visuals. They had their in-house team design it. We produced them
26:31I was there at the event and we sold a lot of merch a lot of merch
26:37and
26:38Yes, it was it was I was compensated and all door merch
26:42Bald or merch like it says
26:45And then and then on the back like we did we did hats we did hats
26:51And two t-shirts and on the back. It's like a capsule collection
26:54It says bald or x, you know by the sussman
26:57So it gave me an opportunity to work with a huge brand
27:01It gave me the opportunity to flex some of my marketing and promotion muscles
27:05which I hadn't used as much since my previous career when I worked in that pre-chef and
27:12For them it gave them, you know exposure and interactions
27:17And impressions digitally with an audience that maybe they hadn't been connecting with so it was the rare win-win
27:24We both came away and we thought wow this worked out tremendously well for us like you got exposure
27:29I got exposure. We actually sold product and I think that
27:34I made bald or look a little bit cooler than it did the day before I started working with them
27:39for me it now shows other brands that i'm capable of
27:43uh piloting and and driving a integration
27:47um, and so
27:49It worked and it was very cool for both of us and then this winter
27:54so that was in april of 2024
27:57and just a couple weeks ago, we released a
28:00Sweatshirt and beanie with similar branding because it had done so well the first round. So, um
28:08Yeah, it's so cool to kind of work with a brand and convince them
28:13That even though that i'm, you know poking fun at them and i'm giving them
28:17a lot of hassle on the internet that there is a way to find like this cool common ground where they can be in on
28:22The joke and I think a lot of brands you see on social media. They are now getting in on the joke
28:28whatever it might be and
28:30uh
28:31A little bit I helped them get there and they had great people on their side and
28:36And I hope that we can do more stuff together, you know, that's amazing
28:39We'll put a link in the show notes for the collab drop. Um, yeah, can you share a little bit about the new restaurant?
28:452025
28:46Yeah, yeah, so it's not it's not hard enough to run one restaurant and in in your city
28:51You got to do it in a different state. Totally. Totally. So gertrudes is my restaurant in brooklyn and it's uh open in 2023
28:59So I figured you know right around the two-year mark would be a great opportunity for me to uh to open up a brand new
29:04Restaurant and so my brother lives in ann arbor, michigan. We're from michigan
29:09And we're going to open up a italian-american spot. My brother ran roberta's and bushwick. And so, uh
29:17He's been a huge pizza nerd for
29:2020 years now and he's a dough tinkerer and anyone who works with dough knows that
29:26These people are you know psychotic and devoted and really dig in deep about how they
29:32uh how they make their dough so it's a
29:34A neapolitan style pizza that we're going to be doing handmade pastas soft serve
29:41Uh, we're going to make bagels at brunch and then you know
29:44We're going to play a lot of the hits mozzarella sticks made from scratch eggplant parm and then using michigan produce
29:51Which is a phenomenal phenomenal produce center of the united states
29:56And ann arbor is a great college town and there's a large amount of people that live there year round
30:03even when school's not in session and we're
30:06Super excited. It's going to be uh a dinner spot that also does brunch
30:11We're going to have outdoor seating and my brother will really lead that project and then I am going to
30:18assist from afar with uh
30:20operations logistics
30:22Sops marketing things like that. And then when I go in and see my family i'll swing by and you know
30:28maybe work a shift here or there or stand in the dining room and get in the way and uh
30:33And it's exciting to be opening up another
30:36Project with them and then if you know to kind of loop it back to the first part of the conversation, you know
30:42We tried fast casual. Yep
30:44And what we what you realize when you try fast casual
30:47Is that you need to sell alcohol at least that is the major lesson that I take away from doing fast casual
30:54and
30:55We are going to have a wonderful wine program. We're going to have cocktails. We're going to have beers on the patio nice and
31:03You need a good product mix you need a good product it needs to taste good and you need a good location but beyond that
31:09Liquor really helps tremendously, which is what i've learned from gertrudes
31:14and
31:14So probably putting pause on fast casual concepts for now and really moving towards. Uh,
31:22a full dining
31:24Experience that aloes is going to deliver to ann arbor
31:27What lessons have you learned as a new dad working in the restaurant business
31:34Well
31:35the
31:36Logistics and organization that you must exhibit within a restaurant
31:41layer perfectly onto
31:43parenting and
31:46If you thought you didn't have a lot of time before kids when you worked in a restaurant
31:50Adding kids to the mix doesn't leave like a huge amount of um
31:55Of free time, but what I have found is that
31:59the
32:01The patience that I try to exhibit in both places
32:04I actually think of both places when i'm in the other one and what I mean by that is um
32:10People at work have a lot of things that are going on with them outside of work
32:14And sometimes you just need to be a good listener and give them like one minute or two minutes to vent
32:19And they need to know that they can come into a safe place to work and that you will provide
32:25For them the framework to do their job. Well, whether that's tools or
32:30Being present or having the schedule or being organized and having the space be safe
32:36So that's a restaurant and then kids need to be
32:40led they need to be sort of
32:42told what to do and they need to have a structure or else they fall apart completely and
32:48Look i'm not equating lime cooks to children. That's not what i'm
32:51That's not exactly what i'm trying to do
32:53but what i'm saying is like everybody wants structure and everybody needs to
32:58Have great communication with each other and in a business
33:02You need to have amazing communication with your staff and with your partners and at home
33:07I require to have great communication and structure and organization. Otherwise
33:12Uh, no one gets sleep and nothing gets done and then everyone freaks out and wants to kill each other
33:19That's awesome. Uh, so 2025 for restaurant influencers
33:23I'm trying to find the greatest storytellers that I that might not be on my radar
33:29And in order to do that i'm going to start asking my guests starting with you
33:33Of who who is a master storyteller? They can be in the food space. They can own restaurants
33:38Who do you think I should I should have on the show and if you can make an introduction it'd be awesome
33:42I i'm gonna put i'm gonna put people on the spot. No prep for this. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Um,
33:48Who do I think is an amazing storyteller in the food space?
33:54That is a great question and i'm definitely on the spot. So give me a second to try to think
33:59I follow so many people. Um
34:09Yeah, and now i'm a bit at a loss of who of what of who I what who I should point you to and in what direction
34:15I you know, i'm, sorry. I can't think of someone right now. Um, i'm gonna give you a homework assignment then
34:21Yeah, exactly. I'll have to i'll have to email you, uh afterwards and and tell you but I mean I think in terms of
34:28Who I follow I actually follow most people that I follow are not in the food space as far as like content creators
34:35People that are doing good stuff. Yeah. Yeah, and I I think what I I think what I always do is I always follow people
34:41That are much more successful than I am and have a lot more followers than me
34:45I'm trying to learn what they do right and how they engage with their
34:49with their audience, um
34:52I follow a lot of comedians because my stuff tends to try to be funny at least and so
34:57I love these people that are doing like these short forms of
35:02I love these people that are doing like these short form
35:06uh
35:07You know, it's a joke visual that has some heart behind it. Um,
35:12and
35:14And that's what that's what resonates with me on on the internet. I'm not a big like dancing
35:19Yeah, you know the dancing stuff is not really for me
35:22I like the the comedians that are doing jokey stuff in the form of a real not stand-up comedy
35:28um, but I but I will say like
35:30In the the top top for me is like john mulaney. I think he's the greatest comedian storyteller out there right now
35:38He's obviously in a much different echelon than me. But like if there's one person out there whose stuff
35:44Really works for me and I love the way that he crafts his joke and it's a story and it pulls you in
35:51I think he is uh the best out there right now. I love him very much amazing
35:57Um, so we're going to real quickly go through your personal tech stack
36:01Uh, we believe in smartphone storyteller. You're a master at using your phone. Are you an iphone or android user?
36:07I use an iphone which version?
36:10Uh, i've got a 14 14. Do you update your software?
36:15Regularly or not? Yeah, I think I do it. I think I do it regularly
36:20I think on the ninth prompt from the phone. I'm like, oh my god, fine. I'll update it, you know
36:25How many emails do you get a day?
36:28uh
36:32Probably like 50 or 75. How many do you enjoy reading?
36:37uh
36:3810th of them
36:41Do you prefer phone calls or text messages?
36:44text I I
36:45Uh don't have the best memory and I have a couple moving pieces in my life right now
36:49so it's good for me to refer back to the text message and I will
36:54Unread text messages so that I can respond later on
36:58That's the greatest tool for me is that you can unread a text message and keep that little blue dot next to it
37:05um
37:05Because otherwise I lose track. What's your notification man?
37:08Are you you have notifications on all your apps or if we looked at your phone zero notifications zero notifications?
37:15Drives me insane. I have to keep my sanity. I check them myself probably an obsessive amount
37:20But I I want to control whether i'm looking at them or not
37:24They can't control me use google maps or apple maps or ways
37:28I use google maps google maps, which i'm lazy. Which music platform do you listen to?
37:34spotify spotify, um
37:37How was your rap? How was 2020 24 wrapped?
37:41embarrassing embarrassing
37:43What's I give us an embarrassing?
37:45I mean
37:47I'm, not actually embarrassed about it, but I would say that you know, I am so i'm about to be 40 years old
37:52I listen to a lot of pop music. I listen to a lot of uh,
37:56Contemporary pop and rap music that is probably geared towards someone 15 or 20 years younger than me. Yeah
38:02Um partly it's because of what's being listened to in the kitchen, but I just really love
38:07Sort of bad pop music like I love ariana grande
38:11And I love I love dua lipa and i'm not ashamed to admit it and I listen to
38:17I like musicals so I will listen to like musical
38:21Soundtracks sometimes in my own time. That's maybe a little bit lame. Um, and then I listen to a lot of 90s
38:29uh rap and 80s
38:31Like electronic-y type of music. Okay. Do you prefer taking photos or videos?
38:37Photos because I I think photo. Yeah, I think photos are they're more sentimental than a video that you have to watch
38:45Um
38:47Do you have any plans for youtube in 2025 any big plans?
38:51No, huge plans. I do put the talking in the walk-in on youtube. Youtube is an area in which i'd love to get better
38:58I feel like i'm getting better at instagram, but I don't know how to use youtube to my advantage at all
39:02What app are you ashamed of that you use too much of
39:07Oh, I use shazam because
39:10A song will come on and I need to i'll shazam it so that I can so that I can
39:15Put it in my embarrassing spotify list. I use that all the time. I am a big reddit user
39:22Okay, I don't know if that's like embarrassing or not, but I love reddit. I I can't get enough of it
39:27I mean there's kitchen confidential, which is good. And there's always there's always the one that's I think it's called should have been plated or
39:35Needs a plate and it's um stuff that it comes on idiotic things that are not a plate
39:40So it'll be like a restaurant that plates things on a shovel or like in a wheelbarrow
39:46Or it's it's so it's so it's so it's so it's so it's so it's so
39:52Stupid and everything looks so bad. Um, and then I follow a lot of non-restaurant stuff on reddit. Awesome
39:59um
40:00If you guys are listening to this, uh, we want you to join
40:03We have a live show that we do every wednesday every friday on our cali bbq media youtube page
40:09We have a digital hospitality community people all over the globe that have been joining us. We started on clubhouse
40:14But we've been doing it for a while now and we've been doing it for a while now
40:17People all over the globe that have been joining us. We started on clubhouse moved it to linkedin live audio now
40:22It's a live streaming show. So if you're listening to this, it's a chance for you to come up on stage
40:27Tell us about your restaurant. Tell us about what you're doing on the internet if you're doing something cool
40:32Uh eli, this has been awesome, man
40:34I can't wait to come and visit you, uh in brooklyn come check out the restaurant
40:38If you ever make it to san diego, please let me know and anybody that's watching this
40:42Please let me know if you make it to san diego. We would love to meet you in person
40:46um
40:47Any any parting words?
40:50Uh, no, thanks for having me on I I really appreciate it
40:53This is a fun time and uh, of course if anyone is ever in brooklyn and wants to come into gertrudes
40:58I'm, i'm a real person. I work at a restaurant
41:00Uh, send me a dm come and see me at the pass and say hello
41:05uh would love to have you in and
41:07Uh, my dms are always open. I love chatting with people in the industry. I answer every message that I get so
41:13Um, I try to be an open book come and come and find me
41:17Irl or digitally whichever one you prefer. That's awesome. If you guys want to reach out to me
41:22It's at sean p walcheff. I too am weirdly available. I stole that from from ryan reynolds
41:28But my dms are open on any platform. We appreciate you guys for watching the show. Please share this episode
41:34Please subscribe. We appreciate it as always stay curious get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you guys next show
41:41Thanks sean, thank you for listening to restaurant influencers if you want to get in touch with me
41:46I am weirdly available at sean p walcheff. S h a w n p w a l c h e f
41:53Cali barbecue media has other shows you can check out digital hospitality. We've been doing that show since 2017
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