Dec. 24, 2020 - The Joe Rogan Experience
01:54:13
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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- The Joe Rogan experience. | |
| - Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. | ||
| So gentlemen, let's start. | ||
| Just introduce yourself. | ||
| John, introduce yourself. | ||
| Tell people what you do. | ||
| I'm John Terzian. | ||
| I own a company called H. Wood Group. | ||
| So we have restaurants, nightclubs, Delilah, Nice Guy, Bootsy Bellows are some of them. | ||
| And Craig? | ||
| I'm Craig Susser. | ||
| I've got to feel like such a slacker compared to that. | ||
| Yeah, you should. | ||
| I own a place called Craig's Restaurant and a vegan ice cream company called Craig's Vegan. | ||
| A place called Craig's. | ||
| Very modest. | ||
| It's one of the best restaurants in LA. Very highly respected place. | ||
| And we're here to talk about what the fuck is happening to the restaurant industry during this pandemic and how crazy it is. | ||
| You know, I've talked about this before, but having you guys on so you could say firsthand what it's been like to you and what this experience has been like... | ||
| How poorly it's been handled. | ||
| I want to give people a sense of this at home, what it's like from two men who have made their living in the hospitality and restaurant industry. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, you want to start, Craig? | ||
| Well, no. | ||
| The funny thing is, it's like, we're the rule followers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| We're the ones that are used to handling the health department. | ||
| We're the ones that are used to, you know, doing everything that, you know, from a safety standpoint, right? | ||
| And now we're the ones that are being crushed or being picked on, so to speak, by – that's the way a lot of people in the industry feel because we're the ones that are being shut down in a city where a lot of other businesses are remaining open like malls, distribution centers, markets. by – that's the way a lot of people in Stores. | ||
| I mean, you can go to a mall and go shopping. | ||
| You can go on an airplane from LA to, you know, New York, take your mask off and eat. | ||
| And that's okay. | ||
| But you can't eat outdoors in a restaurant in LA that's following social distancing, all the health guidelines. | ||
| I mean, we know our business. | ||
| And so, it's been really hard since, what, it started March 15th. | ||
| We shut down. | ||
| We were then told to put glass in between our boots, so we did that. | ||
| We opened for about 10 days. | ||
| We did UV lights in the air conditioning systems. | ||
| Air filtration, all the stupid... | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| And then we built patios. | ||
| I've personally spent $250,000 abiding by the rules that were set forth by the state, by the county, by the governors, by everybody. | ||
| And then to just kind of be shut down is really, really difficult. | ||
| And it's not about me. | ||
| And it's not about my restaurant. | ||
| And it's not about John. | ||
| It's not about – it's about the employees. | ||
| It's about the dishwashers and the busboys and the servers that live day-to-day on the money that they make at the restaurant. | ||
| It's their livelihood. | ||
| It's how they feed their families. | ||
| They send money back to the countries that they came from. | ||
| This is a larger issue. | ||
| And the reason it's a larger issue is one little restaurant like Craig's, we have 90 employees. | ||
| A furniture store might have five or six. | ||
| So when you shut down an industry like that, it really has a huge economic impact. | ||
| And then it has a social impact. | ||
| Because we all love to eat. | ||
| It's the one thing we have in common. | ||
| We like to get together as people. | ||
| I'm a giant fan of restaurants. | ||
| It's one of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat. | ||
| And living in L.A., It was so frustrating. | ||
| It was bizarre. | ||
| It doesn't make sense. | ||
| Now, when you guys get the orders, when they tell you what's shut down or what's open, is there anyone you communicate with? | ||
| Is there anyone that's involved in government that you've had conversations with? | ||
| No, that's the issue. | ||
| That's the biggest issue that we have is they refuse to communicate to any of us. | ||
| And I can't quite figure out why. | ||
| We hear about it on the news. | ||
| We've joined with about 40... | ||
| 30, 40 other main owners that are all in the area. | ||
| And I think it's the one thing that's kind of a silver lining in all this is that we've all teamed up to kind of try to figure out what's going on. | ||
| But we find out about it from the news, and we have to just make these moves within 24 hours. | ||
| It's absolutely absurd. | ||
| And we've reached out. | ||
| I've reached out to Newsome. | ||
| I've reached out to Garcetti. | ||
| And they do nothing. | ||
| They put you on phony task force. | ||
| They lie. | ||
| They have no idea how serious this is. | ||
| And I commend you for having us on. | ||
| No one else wants to speak about it. | ||
| Everyone's too scared of backlash. | ||
| But what backlash? | ||
| I don't think they understand that LA is crumbling. | ||
| Yeah, I think people are thinking it's black and white. | ||
| If you say anything somewhat negative, they view you as you're anti-COVID, you're wanting to kill everybody, and that's not the case. | ||
| You're a science denier, right. | ||
| Yeah, that's not the case. | ||
| But that's not the issue. | ||
| So we're not denying that there's an issue. | ||
| We're not denying that people are getting sick. | ||
| We're not denying that there are... | ||
| We all are in this together. | ||
| So how do you do it well? | ||
| How do you do it smartly? | ||
| Where should we be spending money? | ||
| A perfect example is they're doing rapid testing in certain areas. | ||
| So instead of losing all of this revenue, why don't they invest in smart technology That has rapid testing that allows people to go to a restaurant, get a rapid test, you're positive, you're negative, and then you get to go into the restaurant. | ||
| Like we did here today. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| We got rapid testing today. | ||
| Everyone's a fine where we can sit down and have a conversation, have no paranoia. | ||
| You could do that at a restaurant. | ||
| I was telling you about Stubbs BBQ here in Austin where Dave Chappelle and I have been doing shows. | ||
| Great establishment. | ||
| We do 400 seats. | ||
| We test everyone. | ||
| People get their way in advance. | ||
| They test them. | ||
| They get a COVID test, which gives them a nice peace of mind. | ||
| Like, oh great, I don't have it. | ||
| Then you get to sit down and enjoy a show. | ||
| And the place is packed. | ||
| And so the business is making money. | ||
| Everyone's having a good time. | ||
| It's possible. | ||
| Well, that's what a lot of people are doing in LA, right? | ||
| So they're having parties in LA. And a lot of them are doing rapid testing beforehand. | ||
| So everybody gets a wristband. | ||
| Then everybody in the party knows that everybody's negative. | ||
| But isn't the mayor threatening to shut those kind of parties down? | ||
| He's threatening to shut water off. | ||
| And by the way, he's done it. | ||
| Yeah, water and power, which we're living in like a dictatorship. | ||
| I literally feel like L.A. is like a third world country right now. | ||
| Never seen anything like this. | ||
| Well, if you go to Venice or you go to downtown L.A. and you see the encampments, it's fucking bananas. | ||
| I mean, third world countries wouldn't allow that shit. | ||
| It's worse. | ||
| This is some sort of dictatorship happening that to me is a bigger picture. | ||
| If other governments, if other states, counties, cities see that they can just shut an industry down so easily, get a name for themselves, get their name out there… What's stopping everyone else from doing this? | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| It's new power. | ||
| So here's Venice Beach. | ||
| Look at this video. | ||
| This is, I mean, this is very mild in comparison to some of the videos that I've seen. | ||
| But there's one from downtown LA that literally, so Venice Beach, all the boardwalk, that whole area, is now just encampments. | ||
| Wilshire and San Vicente? | ||
| It's pretty bad, right? | ||
| It's terrible. | ||
| Wilshire and San Vicente is bad. | ||
| Downtown LA is absolutely the worst. | ||
| Downtown LA is bananas. | ||
| Thousands and thousands of tents. | ||
| And I don't know how they're going to put that genie back in the bottle. | ||
| Now you've got, they're trying to clean up, because they're trying to, like, this is a health hazard. | ||
| You've got, like, human shit in the streets. | ||
| Like, how do we clean this? | ||
| So they're trying to clean up. | ||
| And now activists are stopping them from cleaning up. | ||
| They're like, your actions are violence, and they're holding hands and blocking cleanup crews. | ||
| Like... | ||
| But think about how many more people you've just added to the homeless roles because of all the industries that have been shut down. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And people that can't feed their families. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's the hard part. | ||
| It's like, you know, John, we all know the same people. | ||
| And I actually, in my heart of hearts, think that... | ||
| They believe that they're helping. | ||
| That's my belief. | ||
| That's cute. | ||
| And I disagree with that. | ||
| I disagree wholeheartedly. | ||
| I know that. | ||
| But I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. | ||
| That doesn't mean I agree with them or agree with what they're doing in the least. | ||
| But I will give a shout-out to, like, the city of West Hollywood, the mayor, Lindsay Voherveth, Paul Arevalo. | ||
| They have been so business-friendly. | ||
| They're trying to help as much as they can. | ||
| The permits, the ability for me to get my patio up and running, they moved in lightning speed. | ||
| But I'll give you an example. | ||
| I got the front patio built. | ||
| It finished on a Friday. | ||
| And on Saturday, I got shut down. | ||
| That's worthless. | ||
| So, what did I just spend 60 grand? | ||
| And there's no evidence that shows that outdoor dining is contributing significantly to the COVID spread. | ||
| There's no evidence. | ||
| They actually had to admit that, finally. | ||
| In court, the county has no evidence of a nexus between any sort of outbreak with outdoor dining. | ||
| So, how do they make this arbitrary distinction between outdoor dining and going to Walmart, or what they're calling essential? | ||
| They don't. | ||
| It doesn't make any sense. | ||
| There isn't. | ||
| There isn't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Shut us down, right, for three weeks, right around, what was it, Thanksgiving? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And some friends of ours took them to court and said, you know, how can you just shut down an industry with no evidence? | ||
| And they said, oh, we have plenty of evidence. | ||
| We have six studies and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. | ||
| And then they actually got to court and they had nothing. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nothing. | |
| All the evidence was from indoor dining. | ||
| Not one piece of paper. | ||
| And they had to admit it. | ||
| So when they admit it, then what happens? | ||
| No, but now they're appealing it. | ||
| Why? | ||
| By the way, they've hired an outside counsel, so they're spending more money. | ||
| And you think these people have our best intentions? | ||
| Come on. | ||
| You're just being too nice. | ||
| This guy, Newsom wants a name for himself, and no one's calling him out, and it's absolutely insane to me. | ||
| Okay, here's the number one thing that boggles my mind. | ||
| You have a problem. | ||
| We all agree there's an illness, okay? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| The rates of hospitalizations are going up. | ||
| Infections are going up. | ||
| But the rates of death are going down. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So, we have an issue. | ||
| Why not get together as a community and say, you know what? | ||
| We're going to grab a couple of restaurant people. | ||
| We're going to grab some doctors in the field. | ||
| Have a committee. | ||
| And have people that have real-world experience. | ||
| Not PhDs. | ||
| Not theoretical... | ||
| People that have real experience in the industry, grab them, grab a round table and say, okay, we have this problem. | ||
| How do we mitigate it and how do we move forward smartly? | ||
| I've never been asked. | ||
| John's never been asked. | ||
| No doctor that I know in the wide variety of people that I take care of has ever been asked their opinion by the county, state, on any level. | ||
| He's right. | ||
| That's the problem. | ||
| And I reached out directly. | ||
| I have Garcetti's email. | ||
| I email this mayor, puts me on with some random person from the office, then puts me on with the county. | ||
| And I say, hey, get us together. | ||
| Why don't you actually talk to real restaurant owners? | ||
| This is when they were thinking about – this is when they were going to do the curfew, right? | ||
| There was a 10 p.m. | ||
| curfew. | ||
| And I said, where's the 10 p.m. | ||
| curfew come from? | ||
| Oh, well, when people get inebriated, they get looser, and then they're super spreaders at restaurants. | ||
| And I'm like, okay, why 10 p.m.? | ||
| That's the time when people really start getting inebriated. | ||
| And I was like, but you realize you could at least say, hey, close up, let people make sure they get their check paid, and be out the door by midnight, 11.30, whatever it might be, rather than everyone out the door by 11.30. | ||
| 10pm. | ||
| He said, well, you could seat someone at 9 and then kick them out at 9.50. | ||
| And I was like, do you have any understanding of the restaurant industry at all? | ||
| Not one. | ||
| Had not contacted any restaurateur. | ||
| They went to a 10pm curfew. | ||
| Three days later... | ||
| Shut it all down. | ||
| They just said, you know what? | ||
| We're just shutting everything down. | ||
| By the way, they've never heard no from anybody's. | ||
| You want to do six people or less? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| You want tables six feet apart? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| You want to do an 11 o'clock curfew? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| A 10 o'clock curfew? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| We've said yes to everything they've wanted. | ||
| And yet they still find a way to shut the industry down. | ||
| Well, why? | ||
| This is what I understand. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Who's making the decisions? | ||
| I personally think, again, I don't think Craig wants to say this, but I personally think it is politicians trying to make a name for themselves. | ||
| How does it make a name for yourself? | ||
| But I think it's fear. | ||
| I honestly think it's fear. | ||
| What? | ||
| I think it's fear. | ||
| That they're going to be seen as not having done something and people are being killed. | ||
| Newsom is on the news almost every day. | ||
| So much so that people get off the news, man. | ||
| Like this guy is speaking left and right. | ||
| He really thinks that he's the savior situation. | ||
| And I think that is where it's some sort of political gain situation in his mind. | ||
| And it's control. | ||
| By the way, I just found out recently, and I've been in this business for 15 years, I had no idea that we're considered independent restaurants. | ||
| Not franchise. | ||
| We had no representation. | ||
| We had no lobbyists. | ||
| The representation for the restaurant community is driven by big fast food chains. | ||
| Well, they have no incentive to help independent restaurants. | ||
| You know, McDonald's and all these people, which, God bless them, but they're thriving in COVID. So we just get bullied around, essentially, because there's no lobbyists. | ||
| And so we're kind of like sitting ducks in this situation. | ||
| And I kind of feel like we're somewhat trying to be a voice here for the independent restaurant world. | ||
| And it's not just LA. I mean, think about- It's much bigger. | ||
| New York and LA were trendsetters, right? | ||
| The country watched what happened in LA and New York and they followed. | ||
| And now LA and New York have just completely dropped the ball and everybody else is kind of rising up. | ||
| Well, they're examples of government overreach. | ||
| They're examples of government overreach without any thought whatsoever to these independent businesses. | ||
| It's a slippery slope. | ||
| How much more is that going to happen? | ||
| That is a big fear. | ||
| Well, it's also a slippery slope because what happens if it doesn't come back? | ||
| What happens if you drive down Melrose and those things stay boarded up? | ||
| What happens if downtown LA stays filled with tents? | ||
| What do you do? | ||
| Well, how many restaurants are going to be able to come back? | ||
| I mean, like I said before, we'll manage. | ||
| We'll figure out a way. | ||
| And John's point, like, Governor Newsom actually did help with something. | ||
| I was trying to get, you know, a back patio done, and there were a couple of health department rules, and his office did step in and said, that's ridiculous. | ||
| You should allow that and make that happen. | ||
| And they changed a rule that benefited not just my restaurant, but all restaurants. | ||
| Big Newsom fan over here. | ||
| No, no. | ||
| I'm just trying to, like, I'm trying to split the difference. | ||
| Like, I want it to be an honest conversation of, I think your policies are wrong. | ||
| I don't dislike you as a person. | ||
| Right? | ||
| There's a big distinction. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Okay? | ||
| So that's all I'm trying to say. | ||
| But I will say that on the reservation list... | ||
| Somebody's name that rhymes with spaghetti will not get a reservation, okay? | ||
| I'll do that. | ||
| I mean, I will say, I've spoken out about him, and we got targeted pretty hardcore, openly. | ||
| They targeted you? | ||
| They came, health came every night when I finally, where are the permits for al fresco? | ||
| Where's this? | ||
| Every single night. | ||
| I'm like, you were here last night. | ||
| Well, you know, we were instructed to come every night. | ||
| I said, okay. | ||
| You were instructed to come every night because you talked out against Garcetti? | ||
| Ann Newsome, correct. | ||
| Jesus fucking Christ. | ||
| And my thing is, I agree, it's nothing personal. | ||
| It's their policies, their arbitrary policies. | ||
| How does it make sense that, you know, there's a million people passing through TSA a day? | ||
| I looked up all the stats. | ||
| How does it make sense that we can fly... | ||
| Here, for example, anywhere, Austin, New York, wherever it might be, and go right back in the same day with zero issues, zero checks, zero anything. | ||
| Yet, outdoor dining is completely shut down. | ||
| By the way, this is the first time in nine months I've left L.A. And the only reason, the way I got down here through JetEdge, by the way, thank you for a great ride. | ||
| And Private Suite. | ||
| And you guys are the best. | ||
| You're a big baller. | ||
| You should use JetEdge. | ||
| But I'm flying back United tonight, and it's the first time in nine months that I've left L.A. And I'm not a science denier and I take precautions and I'm around a lot of people. | ||
| When the patio was open, I was around 150, 180 people a night. | ||
| But you can go from LA to New York. | ||
| You can take your mask down and eat. | ||
| You can land in LA. You can go in a hotel. | ||
| You can then go to a mall and go shopping. | ||
| You can grab some food to go. | ||
| We could sit together and eat outdoors in the mall. | ||
| But I can't go outdoor and eat at a restaurant that employs 90 to 100 people and keep a business afloat. | ||
| We're not thriving. | ||
| Outdoor dining isn't blowing the doors off of the revenue. | ||
| It allows us to keep all of the people employed. | ||
| It allows employees to make some money. | ||
| We're paying payroll taxes. | ||
| We're paying sales taxes. | ||
| And we're just one little place. | ||
| There's 30,000 restaurants in Los Angeles. | ||
| Now, one of the reasons they cited for shutting it down was they found that 10% of the restaurants weren't abiding by the rules. | ||
| So, well, I would say then why don't you go to those 10% restaurants and shut them down or give them warnings to the point where they do come into line. | ||
| So if they're not social distancing and they're not wearing masks and shields and they're not wearing gloves and they're not doing all the things that you've asked restaurants to do, well, then you can target them. | ||
| But to shut down an entire industry because you feel like you have a couple of bad actors makes no sense. | ||
| None of this makes any sense, and this is the first time we were talking about this before the show, that people are realizing how important it is who the mayor is, how important it is who the governor is. | ||
| And the fact that the mayor is actively targeting you guys, because you've spoken out against these fucking ridiculous draconian restrictions that don't have any... | ||
| There's no logic behind them. | ||
| There's no studies. | ||
| Obviously, when you take them to court and they show that the studies are about indoor dining and not outdoor, they're lying. | ||
| And they're coming after you, like targeting you? | ||
| Well, we all know that the biggest spreaders are right, the distribution centers. | ||
| Construction, for some reason, and I don't understand why, but construction is a really big number. | ||
| So I just, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I was just like, I don't understand the logic behind it. | ||
| And the thing that I keep seeing in my head is the abject fear. | ||
| Of the employees. | ||
| Because they don't know what's going to happen next. | ||
| They don't know when we're going to open. | ||
| They don't know when they're going to get a paycheck. | ||
| When they're going to get their tips. | ||
| And we've kept on most of our people. | ||
| We haven't let our people go. | ||
| So it's costing the restaurant a lot of money. | ||
| But it's a family, and it's the holidays, and I don't want to be that guy that lets people go during the holidays. | ||
| But when are we reopening? | ||
| Are we going to reopen? | ||
| Well, if you close Thanksgiving, it was a super spreader event. | ||
| Well, then I guess Christmas is. | ||
| Well, it was supposed to be three weeks, right? | ||
| So are you back open? | ||
| No, so that was a lie, too. | ||
| And they were openly lying about three weeks because when I would call the county, the inside that had the county, they were like, it's a minimum six weeks. | ||
| I'm like, well, why are you guys saying three weeks publicly? | ||
| We don't want pandemonium to happen. | ||
| I'm like, you realize this is the problem. | ||
| There's zero trust. | ||
| And when they said it, three weeks would have come right before holidays. | ||
| Their whole point was to get past January 1st. | ||
| Now I'm hearing they want to go until February or March and just keep it fully shut. | ||
| The county order is over. | ||
| The county order is over now, but they're saying that the state order supersedes it because ICU numbers are high. | ||
| Okay, so if Thanksgiving was a super spreader event and they were protecting us against that, then Christmas is one. | ||
| Then New Year's Eve is one. | ||
| So you've got to figure at the earliest, if we get lucky... | ||
| March. | ||
| January 20th? | ||
| Maybe three weeks after New Year's Eve would make sense. | ||
| If we're lucky. | ||
| They have to stop lying and saying that they have science behind this. | ||
| Honestly. | ||
| You're not controlling this thing. | ||
| You either shut down the entire country, no airports, nothing. | ||
| Shut everything down. | ||
| Literally nothing. | ||
| Or you can't just pick and choose what's going to be open or not. | ||
| It literally makes zero sense. | ||
| And I don't know why no one has thought of this or is telling them this. | ||
| I can't quite figure out who's advising these guys. | ||
| I think what happens is once you make a decision and you do something, it's very difficult to say that that decision was wrong. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| No matter how stupid it is. | ||
| Because if nothing's changed in terms of the virus's impact and the ICU numbers, but yet you decide to open up restaurants again, that means you're admitting that you made a mistake. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Well, look at the numbers have skyrocketed. | ||
| We've been closed since November 25th. | ||
| The numbers have continued to skyrocket. | ||
| Yeah, there's almost 400,000 cases in the last seven days in LA. Well, I saw a chart and it said that the highest number they could attribute to restaurants at all was 3%. | ||
| Okay, so that's a perfect example. | ||
| So if you're not going to a restaurant that's licensed and says, okay, you can have six people or less and there's eight feet apart and all of the rules that we abide by. | ||
| If you're not going to go to a restaurant, well, then you're going to have people over in your house. | ||
| And they're not abiding by the rules. | ||
| Right, no. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| And there's not six people, eight people. | ||
| It's usually 12 people or 15 people or 20 people. | ||
| And look, we all know that the spread is coming from, you know, in-home dining. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| A lot of it. | ||
| Because people want to get together. | ||
| We're social animals. | ||
| We do not want to be isolated. | ||
| You're not stopping families from getting together. | ||
| And we're seeing it. | ||
| We see orders come in for 30 people, 40 people at homes. | ||
| How is that okay? | ||
| I don't know the numbers, but I know that we're doing it in larger pans and things like that. | ||
| So it's not my job to enforce that, and I try not to ask too many questions. | ||
| And I'm all for it. | ||
| I want people to have fun. | ||
| At this point, it's insane. | ||
| I don't see an end in sight the way it's going, especially in California. | ||
| I see the end being people just mass exiting out of California. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| And they're already doing it. | ||
| They're losing the soul of the state. | ||
| And I'm born and raised L.A. I live and die for it. | ||
| I have 15 places there. | ||
| You know, I've never left, and this is the first time I'm sad about the city and state that I'm from. | ||
| I have a real fear of it never returning. | ||
| I said that to my friends back in May, and they're like, you're out of your mind. | ||
| I'm like, I'm telling you, the foundation is eroding, and there's no plan to keep it alive. | ||
| There's no plan. | ||
| When they have the comedy store shut down, they literally wouldn't allow someone to be on stage inside and broadcast to people outside. | ||
| They had tables outside. | ||
| They had these people set up outside. | ||
| They let them have people outside and serve food and drinks. | ||
| But they wouldn't let someone be inside on a stage and broadcast to a fucking screen outside. | ||
| Right. | ||
| It made no sense. | ||
| Zero. | ||
| I was talking to Jeff Ross last week. | ||
| By the way, he'd be very impressed. | ||
| You actually have water and coffee. | ||
| He said you will find nothing to eat or drink and Joe should be embarrassed. | ||
| And I'm here to tell you. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| He's making that up. | ||
| He's just fat and he needs food every five minutes. | ||
| Fuck you, Jeff. | ||
| Okay, I'm part of the reason he's fat. | ||
| Easy on that. | ||
| I'm friends with you. | ||
| He knows I love him. | ||
| And I love him too. | ||
| So the thing is, he was saying like, at Saddle Ranch, which is right next door to the Comedy Store, they had outdoor dining in a parking lot. | ||
| And they were abiding by all the rules. | ||
| And the Comedy Store wanted to do the same thing. | ||
| And they wanted to have a comic 10, 15 feet away. | ||
| They wouldn't allow it. | ||
| And they wouldn't allow it. | ||
| And you're like, I don't understand. | ||
| There's no logic at all. | ||
| Yeah, and you go to stores, and there's one clerk. | ||
| There's no regulation of the 200 people in the store, all half-mask on, bumping into each other. | ||
| It's madness. | ||
| Madness. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So a restaurant can actually be controlled. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I'm not even arguing for... | ||
| I own a bunch of nightclub stuff. | ||
| I'm not arguing for any of that. | ||
| I think we'd be safe in that regard. | ||
| I'm all for the COVID safety of what you can actually control. | ||
| But this is madness. | ||
| But when you come here, and you come to Austin, and you go to a restaurant, and you realize, like, oh, you can actually eat at a restaurant here. | ||
| You can go inside, and it's normal. | ||
| Yeah, I felt alive again. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| No, it was really weird. | ||
| We had dinner last night, and we were inside, and I was looking around going, this is so bizarre. | ||
| Felt like I was doing something wrong. | ||
| I've taken friends to dinner that have not left L.A., and they've come here to visit, and I've taken them to dinner, and they have this look on their face like they're like, someone need to come take us away? | ||
| They're cutting their food up like they're Willy Wonka. | ||
| I really think these health inspectors, I feel like I'm in like I now know what, like, Prohibition era it was. | ||
| Speakeasy life. | ||
| Real similar. | ||
| I mean, I literally am afraid. | ||
| I'm like going out the back door when I see a health inspector. | ||
| I don't know what is going on here. | ||
| Well, it's the same logic. | ||
| When someone has the ability to tell people what to do, then they feel like they have some sort of a right to do that. | ||
| And they enforce these rules. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| That don't make any sense, but they feel like they're right because it's written somewhere. | ||
| And this is the problem with human beings when it comes to power. | ||
| Power is very intoxicating for people. | ||
| And when you have some sort of a situation like this, where you have this pandemic, where you can semi-justify the wielding of this power, people will do it with impunity, and that's what you're seeing right now. | ||
| And I will say, like he said earlier, a majority of what this is a voice for the employees, 100%. | ||
| But also independent restaurant operators, you know, from small to big, you know, majority of independent restaurant owner operators are family owned. | ||
| There's, you know, five person families eating off of, you know, their one restaurant establishment they own, two restaurant establishments they own. | ||
| They're scared to speak out, one. | ||
| Two, if they want to speak out, there's no outlet. | ||
| There's no one to talk to. | ||
| And I think that this suppression is what's the strange situation that I see. | ||
| Well, there's also a very clear blowback. | ||
| Like you're saying, you're getting inspected every night. | ||
| That... | ||
| Should be criminal. | ||
| It should be. | ||
| That's an abuse of power, and you're clearly not doing this because you think someone's doing something wrong. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Right, one of the things they... | ||
| And the guy felt bad. | ||
| He said, I don't know. | ||
| I have to do this. | ||
| They keep talking about it is the fact that the reason they shut down all of the restaurants was because they couldn't... | ||
| They inspect 20,000 to 30,000 restaurants on a regular basis because they just didn't have the manpower, yet they're at his place five, six nights in a row. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Exactly. | |
| So it doesn't make any sense. | ||
| It's like... | ||
| That's so fucking dirty. | ||
| That's corruption. | ||
| I know it is. | ||
| That is corruption. | ||
| And I think they think it was going to stop me or have me be scared. | ||
| It's the opposite. | ||
| I have nothing to hide. | ||
| I have no skeletons in my closet. | ||
| I don't care. | ||
| They need to be called out. | ||
| This can't happen to... | ||
| I got into this business out of love and I still love it. | ||
| This whole scenario has made me be like, should we move everything to places that want us? | ||
| Dallas and Austin and Miami. | ||
| That's how sad it is in LA and California. | ||
| They're going to lose people that are at the top of their game in our industry. | ||
| And clearly in other industries, as we've seen the exodus from all the other titans that are in other industries, why? | ||
| For what? | ||
| Well, that's how people feel about comedy clubs as well. | ||
| It's the same sort of environment. | ||
| I've gotten phone calls from every major comedy club owner in this country trying to figure out how to open up in Austin. | ||
| Because they're like, we've got to get out of LA. But think about it. | ||
| We're two people, and we represent, like I said, we're on a chain of about 40 people, and we all feel the same way. | ||
| Nobody's a denier. | ||
| Nobody's saying there isn't an issue. | ||
| And we're all rule followers. | ||
| We're all willing to do whatever we can do to make sure that people feel safe, that the county's involved, the city's involved, and the state's involved. | ||
| And yet, there is no answer we can give them to where they say, okay, that makes sense. | ||
| Let's try it. | ||
| Well, I think it's because they're not being held accountable. | ||
| There's no way you can hold them accountable. | ||
| There's nothing you can do. | ||
| Nothing you can do. | ||
| It's not like, you know, this is a democratic society, right? | ||
| But it's not with everything. | ||
| You don't get to vote on whether or not you're allowing outdoor dining. | ||
| It's not like you can present evidence to the people. | ||
| Like, this is why it's safe. | ||
| This is what we're going to do. | ||
| And then you allow people to vote. | ||
| They would overwhelmingly vote. | ||
| Here's the thing. | ||
| They were voting with their feet. | ||
| Yes, they were going. | ||
| Packed. | ||
| To the limits that we were supposed to be. | ||
| It wasn't like insane. | ||
| So yes, they were voting. | ||
| So, and here's the thing, besides the employees that are just like heartbroken and they don't know where to go or what to do, a lot of us are feeling separated. | ||
| We're all scared. | ||
| It's a really weird time. | ||
| The one thing we do in common is eat and we normally do it in a social environment, whether it's small, four or five or six, or it's bigger. | ||
| It's the one thing that kind of makes us feel normal. | ||
| And what I think we're realizing through this whole time is that we are social animals. | ||
| We spend so much time on our technology and our devices that kind of pull us apart. | ||
| This time over the last eight or nine months has realized how much we actually need each other and how much we get from each other. | ||
| What's it like being in a comedy club with 400 people and hearing people laugh and doing it together? | ||
| That's a big difference than sitting in your home by yourself. | ||
| And being isolated and worried about a disease and just freaking out about your kids and your family and should I do this or should I do that or how am I going to pay for this or how am I going to keep my employees or how am I going to keep my business afloat? | ||
| The stress is almost worse than the actual disease. | ||
| Yeah, well that's the case with a lot of people. | ||
| The suicides are up, drug addictions up. | ||
| And mental health is through the roof. | ||
| Yeah, through the roof. | ||
| Yeah, there's a lot of issues. | ||
| There's vodka in this, by the way. | ||
| Well, you can have some if you want. | ||
| We have booze here. | ||
| But the unwillingness to course correct is one of the most disturbing things about this. | ||
| Like the understanding that this is deteriorating these businesses, destroying small businesses, destroying restaurants, destroying bars, destroying comedy clubs, and no willingness to course correct or make some sort of, like find some sort of middle ground. | ||
| And LA's being impacted hugely, but think about the restaurant scene in New York. | ||
| I mean, it's 30 degrees there and it's snowing. | ||
| And they're going outside. | ||
| But at least they can go outside. | ||
| How about that? | ||
| They're still allowing outdoor dining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| But New York is allowing outdoor dining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They are. | |
| Which is fucking bananas. | ||
| Like, why isn't LA? Explain that to me. | ||
| I think back when this all started, when everyone thought this was like the Black Plague and this was the worst thing ever, everyone understood shutting everything down. | ||
| I think now that we've seen what's going on, I don't see why they can't correct it and say, you know, there's a safe way to do this. | ||
| Well, not only that, the disease itself, because it's not what we thought it was going to be, particularly when you look at the deaths now, the deaths are way down low. | ||
| The people that I know that have gotten it, including Jamie, Jamie kicked it in a day. | ||
| This is not something to destroy our entire economy for. | ||
| I had it, and the same way. | ||
| But it affects everyone different. | ||
| We're 100%. | ||
| It's definitely something to be safe about. | ||
| With that said, is there a way to have there be safe outdoor dining like we've seen everywhere else? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And that is the issue. | ||
| But there's a fundamental failure of leadership because all they're looking at is how to shut things down. | ||
| There's been no emphasis whatsoever on improving people's health. | ||
| No emphasis whatsoever on vitamin supplementation or improving your immune system. | ||
| Zero. | ||
| Zero discussion of that. | ||
| It's all power. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Okay, so if the argument is we're really trying to fight the disease and we're trying to lower the incidence of transmission. | ||
| Flatten the curve. | ||
| Okay, flatten the curve. | ||
| Then you take the places where it's happening the most and you get rid of those. | ||
| But you can't. | ||
| But you don't get rid of a restaurant business where, what is it, 1.4% transmission rate? | ||
| Mm-hmm. | ||
| That's the latest thing I heard. | ||
| Well, I think what you're saying is very important that you guys are independent and you don't have lobbyists because it seems to show, it highlights the real inefficiencies of this system or the real flaws of this system. | ||
| All you have to do is look at Chipotle's numbers. | ||
| Look at Chipotle's numbers. | ||
| They're through the roof. | ||
| Yeah, and by the way, God bless them. | ||
| I'm happy. | ||
| By the way, I'm a fan. | ||
| I like the food. | ||
| I'm happy for it, but the issue is exactly that. | ||
| Everyone, miraculously, groups that have lobbyists Are going fine. | ||
| All filming is going, by the way. | ||
| Well, you've seen that video, I'm sure, of the woman who has the outdoor dining area that's across the fucking parking lot. | ||
| She's getting shut down, and they're setting up these dining areas, these outdoor dining areas for motion pictures. | ||
| Okay, so I said, okay. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| I understand. | ||
| It's unfair. | ||
| The film crew is being tested, and that's why they're together. | ||
| She's suing Newsom. | ||
| Newsom's sued by restaurant owner over California coronavirus. | ||
| He just clearly doesn't care, though. | ||
| Here's the gray area. | ||
| Why didn't they hire her to cater the event that was happening 20 feet from her place? | ||
| That way she makes a couple of bucks, and you're kind of like striking a balance. | ||
| Well, they probably have some sort of union deal in terms of catering. | ||
| I guarantee the amount of... | ||
| The required amount of recall numbers to recall Newsom is going to happen and nothing's going to happen to him. | ||
| That's how rigged I think everything is. | ||
| Well, they did – they recalled Gray in – was it 2003 when Schwarzenegger became the governor? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| I mean it can happen. | ||
| And if things keep deteriorating, it can happen. | ||
| People have lost all faith in him after that French laundry incident. | ||
| The French laundry thing – I think people are laughing about it, and it's funny, but it's also... | ||
| He just got caught doing that. | ||
| One time. | ||
| How many other times? | ||
| We all know his winery is open. | ||
| Miraculously, wineries are an exception to restaurants. | ||
| Well, in his county, in the area where his winery is, it's open. | ||
| Sure. | ||
| How's that fair? | ||
| Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. | ||
| It makes no sense, but... | ||
| They're going to say that the transmission rates and the incidence of infections there are low. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right? | |
| So... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| That's what he tried to say about the French Laundry, that it's a low-impact area. | ||
| He also said he was outside at French Laundry. | ||
| But there's a fucking chandelier. | ||
| Clearly there's a chandelier above his head. | ||
| Outside means stars above your head. | ||
| That's what outside means. | ||
| Outside doesn't mean a fucking chandelier. | ||
| That's a roof, bro. | ||
| No, it's a roof. | ||
| That's not outside. | ||
| Mirrors on the wall. | ||
| We see it all, buddy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Sliding glass door. | ||
| That's inside. | ||
| Looked like a nice dinner, though. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Looked great. | ||
| Listen, I don't fault him for eating dinner in a restaurant. | ||
| Neither do I. I fault him for telling everybody else to not eat dinner and to be safe and to not do anything and to put your fucking mask on in between bites of food. | ||
| At home. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And meanwhile, he didn't have a mask on at all. | ||
| They're sitting right next to everybody. | ||
| It's bananas. | ||
| The whole thing is bananas. | ||
| Yeah, completely carefree. | ||
| I love the fact that it's not even helping them. | ||
| Like with Garcetti, Black Lives Matter is at his house 22 days in a row protesting. | ||
| He couldn't have tried to be more progressive. | ||
| It wouldn't be possible. | ||
| He's bend the knee at every single chance he could. | ||
| And they're like, fuck you. | ||
| We don't want you. | ||
| Get out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Defund the police. | |
| Because he's got no backbone. | ||
| He doesn't stand for anything. | ||
| I just think the whole thing is being run by academics that don't really have any real world experience. | ||
| I don't know if it's academics. | ||
| I don't believe it's academics. | ||
| I think it's bureaucrats. | ||
| I think by the time they get it... | ||
| Bureaucrats is the key. | ||
| With a complete lack of any... | ||
| They have no desire to understand any aspect. | ||
| Well, but I think... | ||
| Okay, so the bureaucrats are giving their knowledge by the academics that have no real world experience. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I don't even think they're getting knowledge from the academics. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| I think they're just looking at statistics and they're making arbitrary decisions. | ||
| And I think, here's the problem. | ||
| There's no real consequences. | ||
| I think if their income was directly related to the amount of income of their county or of their city... | ||
| They're all getting their paychecks. | ||
| The Board of Supervisors that voted to shut down dining are all getting their paychecks. | ||
| By the way, good example. | ||
| Supervisor, cool. | ||
| Is single-handedly the one that actually put the nail in the coffin for the shutdown? | ||
| What does she do right after? | ||
| She goes to a restaurant for lunch. | ||
| Literally ate out the day she made the decision. | ||
| She said, the most dangerous thing you can do is eat at a restaurant and then went and ate at a restaurant. | ||
| Did she? | ||
| Well, that's what's so bizarre about this, what happened with Birx. | ||
| Like, she resigned now. | ||
| She told people. | ||
| I think she's going to help with the Biden transition and then whatever. | ||
| Is that what she's doing? | ||
| I thought she quit. | ||
| I thought she just stepped down completely. | ||
| I think she stepped down completely because the blowbacks have been pretty substantial. | ||
| Told people not to go anywhere, don't do anything, don't go see your family members. | ||
| Then went to go see your family members. | ||
| It's across the board. | ||
| They're all doing it. | ||
| They all say, do as I say, not as I do. | ||
| How does that make sense? | ||
| Fucking bananas. | ||
| This is really clown world. | ||
| And again, the people that are paying the price are the people that can least afford to pay the price. | ||
| And that is the people that are lowest on the rung, the dishwashers, the busboys, the waiters, and... | ||
| Buying retirement. | ||
| After buying... | ||
| What day is this? | ||
| This today? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, retirement. | |
| Yeah, eyeing it. | ||
| Uh-huh. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Good call. | ||
| It's like Garcetti came out saying that L.A. needs him, so he's choosing to not go to the White House. | ||
| Sure, buddy. | ||
| Oh, that's hilarious. | ||
| Yeah, sure, buddy. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They're protesting outside of your house for 22 days in a row. | ||
| L.A. will pay you to be gone, dude. | ||
| Yeah, that is a very unpopular mayor. | ||
| And just a weirdly... | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Like the way he communicates. | ||
| Completely. | ||
| Is incompetent. | ||
| It's just. | ||
| No one relates to that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Even the way he communicates. | ||
| It's like. | ||
| It makes you realize. | ||
| What a fucking. | ||
| Low talent pool it is. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| In terms of like. | ||
| The people that want to be mayor of LA. | ||
| Oh yeah. | ||
| It made me sad. | ||
| I'm like. | ||
| It makes me want to run. | ||
| I just don't want to get involved in that. | ||
| You know, I mean, it's like, that is the issue. | ||
| It's like, this is who we have. | ||
| That's our leaders. | ||
| This is our only option. | ||
| I never gave any consideration at all as to who the mayor was. | ||
| I never thought about it. | ||
| I'm just like, oh, the mayor? | ||
| What's his name? | ||
| Garcetti? | ||
| Going to the store. | ||
| See ya. | ||
| Going to this restaurant. | ||
| Going to Felix. | ||
| I've never thought it's so important that you have to scrutinize every potential decision they could make because if something goes wrong, if the shit hits the fan like it has, those people, these fucking incompetent morons that don't have... | ||
| There's no consequence whatsoever for their poor decision making. | ||
| The only consequence is they might get voted out in a few years. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| And they don't care. | ||
| But here's the funny thing. | ||
| The city of West Hollywood... | ||
| Everybody on, you know, from the mayor on down, they're not in favor of this, and they want our restaurants open. | ||
| The city of West Hollywood has been excellent for the Comedy Store as well. | ||
| They're fantastic. | ||
| They just have no power. | ||
| Yes, they don't have the power. | ||
| And the city of Beverly Hills has voted, you know, they voted against shutting all this down. | ||
| But they just don't have the power because they are run by, you know, County Health. | ||
| I think that's the issue is the abuse of power you said earlier. | ||
| It's like to me, because it's affected our personal industry so much, it's been eye-opening on the local politics up to state basically. | ||
| And I think that's the bigger picture is the fact that this can actually happen. | ||
| It could happen to any industry. | ||
| It could happen to anyone. | ||
| They can flex this power when they need to. | ||
| Yeah, and I really do think it's a small amount of people that are responsible for this. | ||
| I really do. | ||
| I think it's a small amount of people that have made poor decisions from the beginning, but decisions in the beginning that probably they thought were good decisions that we all would have agreed to because we did think this was going to be the plague. | ||
| We thought this was going to wipe out a giant percentage of our population. | ||
| It turned out to not be that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| But there's been no course correction, and these people have dug their heels in, and now they're exercising this newfound power that never existed before. | ||
| The mayor's never had the ability to shut down entire industries. | ||
| The governor's never had the kind of ability that they have now to decide who goes to school and who doesn't. | ||
| I frankly don't even know how it's legal now. | ||
| It's probably not. | ||
| They could keep citing public health, but I'm not sure what the threshold is for it to be legal for them to... | ||
| To actually shut down... | ||
| Well, you would think if you're going to cite public health, you would need a mountain of data to support your position. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Before you can make this life-changing decision. | ||
| So the county single-handedly decided to shut down restaurants. | ||
| They said they had all this data. | ||
| They went to court. | ||
| The judge said, show us the data. | ||
| They came back with nothing. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| They lost. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Because they showed data that was from inside dining. | |
| There was no one piece. | ||
| It was indoor dining. | ||
| They got caught doing that. | ||
| So yes, one piece, but it was indoor. | ||
| And now they're appealing the ruling Using an outside law firm that doesn't even work for the city. | ||
| But why would they appeal the ruling? | ||
| Because they don't want to admit... | ||
| Because what you said is they're not going to admit the wrong. | ||
| Yeah, because if they admit that they're wrong, then they could be held responsible. | ||
| If someone sues them, if all the restaurants got together and sued them for the lost wages and for destroying an industry, it would be devastating. | ||
| The only way they can stay afloat is if they maintain this position that they're doing it to help people. | ||
| And then they said, you know, the big thing John and I hear, and yes, it does help a little bit, but at least we left you with, you know, food to go and delivery. | ||
| That does not help. | ||
| That is complete BS. But that's a lack of understanding about your business. | ||
| God bless Craig for making money on it. | ||
| You do not make money on delivery and to go. | ||
| It's a lack of understanding of the business. | ||
| Completely. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, it's also a lack of understanding of the margins that a business operates on when it's a restaurant, even if you're full every night. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So if you look at it... | ||
| But the delivery services win. | ||
| Oh, Postmates and DoorDash are winning. | ||
| So if you look at it, you've got 30% food cost, you've got 30% labor cost, you've got 20% for rent, utilities, incidentals, insurance, all that other stuff. | ||
| So at best, with no mistakes, And everybody doing everything perfect. | ||
| And the refrigerator not breaking or the plumbing not breaking or any of that stuff not happening. | ||
| You might be at 15, 12% profit rate, right? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| But then Postmates, DoorDash, they come in and they take their piece. | ||
| 18%. | ||
| So you're losing on a good night. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| There's no shot at making money. | ||
| You're just kind of stemming the bleeding. | ||
| So Postmates takes 18% and you need 15%. | ||
| If you're at full capacity, You're getting 15% profit. | ||
| And then Postmates takes 18, so you're losing three. | ||
| At least. | ||
| At least. | ||
| Jesus Christ, that's crazy. | ||
| This last round, I mean, God bless Christ, we stopped everything except for one of our barbecue, our slab place. | ||
| Everything else, we've just stopped and just going to wait to reopen, whenever that is. | ||
| Whenever dictator Newsom allows it. | ||
| There's no point to fight this. | ||
| He's right, and you're defending the guy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Stop being scared, Craig. | |
| No, it's not about scared. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You are scared. | |
| It's about Stockholm Syndrome. | ||
| No, it's not. | ||
| What's he going to do, arrest you? | ||
| No, I actually... | ||
| Actually, he may do that to me. | ||
| No, I actually... | ||
| If you move out of LA, he won't have shit on you. | ||
| I like the guy, and I just have... | ||
| There's something inside me that's, like, hoping that they're doing it for, like, you know, whatever. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What? | |
| Yeah, you're out of your mind. | ||
| That's why you're here, bro. | ||
| You are out of your mind. | ||
| I know, I'm out of my mind. | ||
| You're just a good guy. | ||
| Good for you for being so loyal to a friend that's fucking stabbing you in the back with a poison knife. | ||
| Okay, alright. | ||
| It's true, though. | ||
| It's true. | ||
| What were we talking about? | ||
| If he makes a reservation at Craig's, are you having a meet there? | ||
| Honestly. | ||
| Gavin? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| First name basis now. | ||
| I got you. | ||
| Bro, someone's gonna nuke your building. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I'll put it this way. | ||
| I won't allow the reservation for you. | ||
| I'll put a stop to that. | ||
| Here's the thing about that guy. | ||
| The people that know him say he's a very nice guy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm sure he is. | |
| He actually is a really nice guy, and I actually do think he thinks he's doing the right thing. | ||
| He's doing the wrong thing. | ||
| No, I think it's power-hungry. | ||
| I think he thinks he's going to be president. | ||
| I think he thinks he's going to be president as well. | ||
| And I think he thinks we're all idiots and don't see through that. | ||
| Well, he's hired a crisis management firm to try to deal with what's happened, the blowback from the French Laundry incident. | ||
| I don't know if he'll be able to get over that because he handled it so poorly. | ||
| You know what he should have come out and said? | ||
| Yeah, I like eating out too, actually. | ||
| I messed up in that regard. | ||
| There's a little statement of like, I should have, if I had known so many people, I would have stood up and shut up. | ||
| And gone home. | ||
| But I didn't. | ||
| I just fucking partied. | ||
| I ate a thousand dollar meal. | ||
| It was great. | ||
| No, listen, you can't Defend hypocrisy. | ||
| You can't. | ||
| There's nothing he could have said. | ||
| What it is is it shows you the type of person that wants to be a politician in the first place. | ||
| The type of person that wants to control people. | ||
| It also shows you how bad people want to be at social gatherings. | ||
| I don't blame him. | ||
| It's his friend's 50th birthday. | ||
| Go! | ||
| Yes, but even the lie of it being outdoors. | ||
| The lie was so deep. | ||
| You think there are no pictures? | ||
| He didn't think there were pictures. | ||
| That's the point. | ||
| Someone took a picture from the outside. | ||
| Literally, the thing that drives me crazy is Sheila Kuhl going to dinner on the very day she voted to close them. | ||
| Did you hear her excuse? | ||
| What'd she say? | ||
| She tried to say it's her favorite restaurant and she wanted to go tell them how sad she feels. | ||
| Claims she didn't eat. | ||
| Pictures of her actually eating. | ||
| No explanation to the stat, by the way. | ||
| All a lie. | ||
| Meanwhile, a couple days later, she gave an interview as to why she voted no, and she said she read all the scientific data that was given to her. | ||
| There wasn't any. | ||
| Oh, God. | ||
| Dirty people. | ||
| Well, that's who we're being led by. | ||
| How is there no consequences for that? | ||
| This is what I don't understand. | ||
| Well, because people – I don't know if they pay attention to the voting. | ||
| Yeah, we need more like you to raise – I think – I don't live there anymore. | ||
| It's easy. | ||
| I know, but – yeah, but you have a – we need people to actually be outspoken about it because the only way to do it is they have a fear of bad press, of bad – Even word of mouth, essentially. | ||
| Right now, everyone is being suppressed. | ||
| From the beginning, once they realized what the actual disease was, that it wasn't as dangerous as we thought it was, still dangerous, still we need to be precautious, but they should have made an adjustment and protected the vulnerable people. | ||
| They should have focused on isolating the vulnerable people, protecting the vulnerable people, shielding them from contact and from infection. | ||
| That's what should have been done. | ||
| And we should have opened everything else up. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, look, at the end of the day, there are people sick and there are people dying. | ||
| And, you know, I lost a really good friend and a mentor, the bartender at Dantana's. | ||
| Mike passed away from COVID early back in March and April. | ||
| So it's hit me personally. | ||
| That's why I'm not a denier. | ||
| That's why I'm not saying that there isn't an issue to be dealt with. | ||
| Well, I don't think anybody's saying that. | ||
| Well, that's the whole point. | ||
| So here's the point. | ||
| If you make a case for opening up restaurants, you're an idiot, you're a denier, you don't understand the severity of the issue. | ||
| Instead of saying, isn't there a gray area somewhere here? | ||
| Isn't there a way of doing this smartly? | ||
| Why aren't we investing the billions of dollars we're losing in tax money into testing efficiently? | ||
| So that these venues can open. | ||
| There has to be a consideration for the negative impact on these businesses and the health consequences of people being out of work and the mental health consequences, the drug addiction, all the things that go along with it. | ||
| You can't just look at the impact of the numbers. | ||
| You have to look at the impact on the community. | ||
| You have to look at the impact of what's the long-term health of the culture. | ||
| You're destroying an immense part of the city. | ||
| Going out to dinner is a huge part of people's social life. | ||
| They're like, what do you want to do? | ||
| Let's go to a restaurant. | ||
| People love it. | ||
| It's probably one of the number one things that people like to do. | ||
| Get together with some friends. | ||
| Have some wine. | ||
| Have some food. | ||
| By the way, it was about the only thing you could do. | ||
| In, you know, it was July, August, September, October. | ||
| It was about the only freedom you had is to get together with your friends and go out to dinner. | ||
| It was about the only thing that was normal in your life. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, you've got to miss all your comedy friends living down here in Austin. | ||
| You've got to miss all your community back in L.A. A lot of them are moving here. | ||
| They're all coming. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't blame them. | ||
| It's like everybody's trying to figure a way out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would keep a few out. | |
| I would keep Saget out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would keep Dice. | |
| I want Dice to move here. | ||
| I want Dice to move. | ||
| I want to see him walking around with sweatpants. | ||
| Dice and I are brothers. | ||
| I know, you told me. | ||
| You were telling me the story. | ||
| Tell the whole thing. | ||
| Okay, so for a while... | ||
| I was an actor for a while, and Dice and I, he was nice enough to get me a role in a movie. | ||
| You know, everybody says, dude, I'm going to hook you up. | ||
| Nobody ever does. | ||
| Right. | ||
| But Dice did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Which one? | |
| Was it Ford Fairlane? | ||
| It was with... | ||
| God, Don the Dragon Wilson was the lead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, wow! | |
| Yeah, that's how big a movie this was. | ||
| So, anyway. | ||
| There it is. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right there. | |
| Whatever it takes. | ||
| There you go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Wow. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| So, Dice and I, we do the movie. | ||
| He's at dinner with his parents. | ||
| And he says, I don't have your name in my phone. | ||
| And I'm like, Susser, S-U-S-S-E-R. He goes, what kind of fucked up last name is that? | ||
| So, he puts it in his phone. | ||
| And right then, his mom's head jerked up. | ||
| And she goes, Susser? | ||
| You know an owl? | ||
| And I go, yeah. | ||
| Why? | ||
| She goes, how well do you know him? | ||
| I go, I know him pretty well. | ||
| She goes, you know he's got a tattoo? | ||
| I go, yeah. | ||
| She goes, what's the tattoo? | ||
| I said, it's a heart. | ||
| She goes, what's in the middle of a heart? | ||
| I said, a name. | ||
| She goes, what's the name? | ||
| I said, Jackie. | ||
| She goes, I'm Jackie. | ||
| My dad. | ||
| That's insane. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, it's insane. | |
| 3,000 miles away and 40 years later, my dad was dating her, got called up in Korea, figured he was a paratrooper, he figured he wasn't making it back, did seven jumps in Korea. | ||
| What? | ||
| And comes back, meets my mom, three weeks, gets married, never sees Jackie again. | ||
| I thought maybe you were Dice's brother or something. | ||
| So that's why Dice calls me his little brother. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| That's incredible. | ||
| But by the way, that's also why my dad said, don't ever get a tattoo. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| But still, you didn't have the tattoo. | ||
| But if he didn't have the tattoo, you wouldn't have the story. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a good point. | |
| And you wouldn't find the connection. | ||
| There's no way. | ||
| It would have probably taken a long time for you to figure out the connection. | ||
| That's a movie, by the way. | ||
| No, and I remember back in the old, like when I started at Dan Tanis, I mean, that was the Sam Kinison era. | ||
| Yeah, you tell me that, too. | ||
| That's when, like, it was bonkers. | ||
| I missed that. | ||
| I missed all that. | ||
| And he was on fire. | ||
| Yeah, he was an animal. | ||
| By the way, the way he lived on stage is the way he lived in real life. | ||
| They fixed a bullet hole in this. | ||
| I was furious because I went there. | ||
| They cleaned up the comedy store when everything was booming over the last few years and it was killing it. | ||
| They fixed the back sign because it was cracked and there was a bullet hole in it. | ||
| I'm like, what did you do? | ||
| That was Sam Kinison's bullet hole. | ||
| Sam and Dice got in some sort of an argument. | ||
| So Sam shows up, pulls out a gun, and shoots a hole through the fucking sign. | ||
| And to this day, the bullet hole in the back is there, but they fix the cracked sign. | ||
| I'm like, why would you fix that? | ||
| That's Sam Kinison's bullet hole! | ||
| But that's how wild that place was. | ||
| He was pulling out guns and shooting signs in West Hollywood, in the parking lot. | ||
| My only thing right now to stay positive is that whenever this comes back, it's going to be off the charts again. | ||
| It's going to be nuts. | ||
| Roaring 20s-ish. | ||
| It will be the roaring 20s of the 2000s. | ||
| I think it will be. | ||
| It's just like, what's going to be... | ||
| When does it switch over? | ||
| Is it the vaccine? | ||
| Is it people relaxing a little bit? | ||
| Is it more testing? | ||
| You don't hear much about Singapore, Thailand. | ||
| They've got it under control. | ||
| Well, New Zealand has it the most under control, but obviously they're an isolated island, but I have friends in New Zealand. | ||
| They stopped traveling. | ||
| They're fucking partying. | ||
| They have no masks on. | ||
| They're going to restaurants. | ||
| They have no cases. | ||
| They've done the best, but they've also... | ||
| They live on an island, and there's only 4 million-plus people. | ||
| Are they allowing travel to and from? | ||
| I don't believe so. | ||
| And I think if you do go, there are very strict quarantines. | ||
| There's a girl who just got arrested. | ||
| She's a teenager. | ||
| She violated the restrictions in the Cayman Islands, and she's going to jail for four months. | ||
| Yeah, it's insane. | ||
| They have a 14-day very strict quarantine, and she went out, and they're like, fuck you. | ||
| I firmly believe, at this point, It's not a controllable thing. | ||
| You're talking about a virus situation. | ||
| I think the goal should be as much testing, as much safeguards as possible. | ||
| I don't think you can just shut the world down. | ||
| Treatment, and then concentrating on immune response and health. | ||
| Their Georgia college student who broke Cayman Islands quarantine received... | ||
| What does that say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Reduce sentence. | |
| I'm going to go bail her out. | ||
| Let's go get her out. | ||
| I can't uncover it. | ||
| I did not do that. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| She got a reduced sentence. | ||
| What's the reduced sentence? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Two months. | |
| Four months to two months. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Still, 60 days. | ||
| We should offer her a job when we're open. | ||
| I want to go break her out. | ||
| Feel bad for her. | ||
| I don't. | ||
| That's crazy. | ||
| I mean, look, I don't think she should go to jail, but they should scare the shit out of her. | ||
| Like, you can't just go out. | ||
| Like, what if she got it? | ||
| Well, she spreads it to this community that doesn't have it. | ||
| They've got a quarantine rule. | ||
| They do. | ||
| Follow the fucking rule. | ||
| If you want to go to the Cayman Islands, it's 14 days. | ||
| But here was the rule. | ||
| We knew that flying down here, we were going to see you, we were going to get tested first, and then we were coming in here. | ||
| We agreed to it. | ||
| You have to agree to certain common sense. | ||
| If the county came back and said, listen, we've kind of rethought it. | ||
| Why don't we reopen at like 40%, social distancing, distance the tables, have shields, and let's see where we go. | ||
| We would all be in. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know? | ||
| Well, it's just one of those things where I just don't think they're going to do anything logical and sensible at this point. | ||
| I think they're in defensive mode, and I think they're realizing that there's so many people that are upset with them. | ||
| And the only thing that they have over them is to maintain this power and to keep their rule. | ||
| That's sadly true. | ||
| This is even more bizarre. | ||
| So we started doing some direct deliveries to not only cut out Postmates and DoorDash and the percentage, but also people actually enjoy seeing our servers deliver their food. | ||
| It's a moment in their day that's like something normal. | ||
| It's the food that they like and it's a person that they know. | ||
| So they've been leaving some extra big gratuities to take care of the staff during this time because it's Christmas and everybody knows that it's hurting. | ||
| So restaurants have a really big impact on people's lives. | ||
| And I think that that's hit home more for me than anything. | ||
| And then people are always asking, I think they're asking John as well, it's like, what can we do to help you while things are working? | ||
| And I'm like, order food, order wine, order t-shirts, order Craig's vegan ice cream, order any of the products that people have and keep the restaurants alive until we can get past this moment and get back to operating because... | ||
| As far as I know, I think 70 to 75% of all the restaurants have already closed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And I'm not sure how many are coming back. | ||
| Is it really that much? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| 70 to 75%? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And I really don't know who's coming. | ||
| I think there's going to be very low comeback rate. | ||
| Jamie, what is it like in Columbus? | ||
| Closed day of 10 p.m. | ||
| curfew. | ||
| It's like what we were talking about earlier. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's boring, not good. | |
| No one likes it. | ||
| Everyone's... | ||
| You know what's what? | ||
|
unidentified
|
10 p.m. | |
| curfew, but do they have indoor dining? | ||
| I can't confirm that. | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| When I was there in July, yes. | ||
| I don't know about now. | ||
| Florida's wide open. | ||
| Florida's crazy. | ||
| You can do a fucking arena there. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| Yeah, they don't give a shit. | ||
| They don't care. | ||
| What are their cases like? | ||
| Lower than California. | ||
| What? | ||
| Really? | ||
| Yeah, but they have 24, 25 million people. | ||
| Florida, California's 39, 40 million people. | ||
| That's not that big of a difference. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I agree. | ||
| I agree, but they have a lower case situation. | ||
| Now, it's run through Florida. | ||
| They were hit months ago, so it's a little bit skewed. | ||
| But I think that's kind of my point, is that I don't think you can man-made... | ||
| I don't think you can just control it. | ||
| I think you can stop this thing. | ||
| You have to just do a minute precautions. | ||
| There's a Dutch study that just came out that said the more you close, the more you force people together in unsafe areas. | ||
| Alex Berenson, who was on the podcast yesterday, used to write for the New York Times, that's his argument. | ||
| And he's pointing out all the instances of places like California that have had the most strict lockdowns, but have the worst numbers. | ||
| You're literally forcing people into the worst environment possible to keep the spread of the virus down. | ||
| You're forcing them together. | ||
| That's a smart analysis. | ||
| I don't know why that isn't more out there. | ||
| You know what I mean? | ||
| No one wants to be objective about this. | ||
| Everybody has an opinion, they start with it, and then they dig their heels in. | ||
| I'd be the first one to say, look, of all the draconian measures that California has taken, If it had knocked down the number of infections, I'd have been, okay, I'm wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
100%. | |
| I'm an idiot. | ||
| You were right. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Okay, it was worth it. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| But it hasn't. | ||
| The numbers are exploding and we're locked down. | ||
| Off the charts. | ||
| Off the charts. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's proof in itself. | ||
| It's inverse of what they expected. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, you're also getting people that are drinking more because they're depressed, and if you're drinking more, your immune system gets shattered. | ||
| There's so many different things that they're doing that it seems like on paper it should work, but it doesn't, and they didn't course correct. | ||
| No, and then we're being forced, not only are we out of business, we were forced to spend a lot of money through all of these different measures. | ||
| Not only weren't we making the regular revenue that we were making, we were then spending money that we were supposed to spend. | ||
| Then we were cut in half. | ||
| Then there was a curfew. | ||
| And now it's just like... | ||
| How about no one's talking about there's no plan to reopen? | ||
| By the way, I get city officials calling me, asking me if I've heard anything. | ||
| What? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They want to know if I'm hearing anything in the wind. | ||
|
unidentified
|
From who? | |
| Because your friends with Gavin? | ||
| Can you call Gavin up? | ||
| What's with the first name basis thing? | ||
| Call him up. | ||
| I don't even have his email. | ||
| You're about to call him by a nickname. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| If you see him, does he say, hello, Craig? | ||
| Do you shake your hand? | ||
| I'm just not making it personal. | ||
| Be honest. | ||
| He ordered some vegan ice cream. | ||
| Is that why? | ||
| I'm just not making it personal. | ||
| You guys are making it personal. | ||
| Does he say hi, Craig? | ||
| If I see you, I'm going to say hi, Craig. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a good question. | |
| I haven't actually asked him. | ||
| If someone says, are you friends with Joe Rogan, you can say yes, I'm your friend. | ||
| If you saw me walking by a street in two days, would you stop and go, all right, Greg? | ||
| Yeah, I think he would. | ||
| Just like good old G would to you. | ||
| First of all, Jeff Ross has spoken so highly of you for so long. | ||
| We've been friends for 25, 30 years. | ||
| And everybody loves your place. | ||
| Your place is one of the most beloved restaurants in LA, for sure. | ||
| It's home for a lot of people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is. | |
| It's that whole vibe is what I'm talking about. | ||
| We live in a crazy world, even in normal times. | ||
| So to get together, to have a good time, somebody may sit down, and across the way is somebody that they know, and it's a party, and it's fun, and it's personal, and it's all that good stuff. | ||
| And guess what? | ||
| We've all risen through the ranks together. | ||
| Well, it also trickles down from the top. | ||
| You've developed this environment where you have this friendly, family, fun environment. | ||
| Well, that's one of the reasons why we didn't let anybody go during COVID. We've let the busboys on furlough and the bartenders. | ||
| We've kept everybody else. | ||
| Austin, Travis County moves to stage 5 COVID-19 restrictions just ahead of Christmas. | ||
| What does that mean? | ||
| Just announced this. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Just today? | ||
| Breaking. | ||
| 20 minutes ago. | ||
| So does that mean like... | ||
| Restaurants move to 90% capacity. | ||
| They might not allow people in them, they're saying. | ||
| Really? | ||
| They're suggesting contactless delivery only. | ||
| Maybe Newsom is here. | ||
| They're not forcing them to shut down. | ||
| I was just trying to read so I could explain to you quickly. | ||
| I feel like the California officials came in. | ||
| No, I actually went. | ||
| I actually think that the thought process is like, let's knock this down for Christmas and New Year's and let's just see if we can slide by. | ||
| Sure, I just don't think that that's the way to knock it down. | ||
| Austinites are advised to avoid all gatherings with anyone outside the household and avoid in-person dining and shopping. | ||
| Businesses, including retail and restaurants, are recommended to only operate through contactless operations such as delivery. | ||
| Curbside service. | ||
| They may have a curfew. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mmm. | |
| Look at that guy. | ||
| Paranoid. | ||
| Knows it's coming. | ||
| Yeah, he does. | ||
| He's like, oh, man. | ||
| They're gonna fucking... | ||
| They're gonna hate me. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't think they really know how to stop the contact, particularly when it comes to the holidays. | ||
| Of course they don't. | ||
| I just don't think they know. | ||
| And I don't want to admit that. | ||
| They're throwing... | ||
| Janet Zuccarini from Felix said... | ||
| I think they're throwing a bunch of shit against the wall and hoping it sticks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Well, what did Alex say yesterday? | ||
| What was his advice? | ||
| What would he do if he... | ||
| He said the lockdowns are literally the worst thing we could do. | ||
| It's terrible for children. | ||
| Children not being in school is devastating for them socially. | ||
| It's devastating for their emotional growth. | ||
| He's like, this is devastating for the economy. | ||
| You have to take into consideration all the impacts. | ||
| You can't just think about the health consequences or the spread of the virus. | ||
| You've got to think about the health consequences from people. | ||
| Doing drugs, being depressed, suicides are way up. | ||
| There's a lot of factors here. | ||
| He actually made an argument that masks aren't effective. | ||
| He's like, they're just not. | ||
| If you have one of those serious N95 fully sealed on your face, yeah. | ||
| He goes, but people are wearing bandanas. | ||
| That's not stopping the spread of anything. | ||
| But it keeps people from thinking you're an asshole. | ||
| That's the best thing about a mask. | ||
| Like, oh, the guy's got a mask. | ||
| He's trying to do the right thing. | ||
| Like I said, we're both rational human beings. | ||
| Tell us what to do. | ||
| Tell us how to do it. | ||
| And we're going to do it. | ||
| And the problem is, we go through all of these exercises at... | ||
| I mean, the expense is enormous. | ||
| And it's not helping. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That's what's so... | ||
| Yeah, we've essentially rebuilt restaurants outdoor. | ||
| Our own restaurant, we've basically rebuilt outdoor. | ||
| Yeah, that's what Felix did in Venice. | ||
| They took over the back parking lot area and it was nice to be able to go there and eat. | ||
| That's what we did at Delilah. | ||
| Everybody begged me to open up a second Craig's and I did it. | ||
| Right outside the first one. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Crazy. | ||
| I mean, it's nuts. | ||
| That's the issue. | ||
| Imagine a world where everything comes back to normal. | ||
| How long does it take for these 75% of all restaurants to return? | ||
| Does that ever happen? | ||
| Well, it takes a lot of investment, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
A lot. | |
| You need a lot of capital to get started. | ||
| Yeah, I don't think people realize how much it takes to actually reopen these places. | ||
| Okay, so in order to keep the restaurant open and to keep our employees employed and not furlough them and not let them go, we got some PPP money back in May that lasted six weeks. | ||
| 80% of it was for payroll labor. | ||
| I've reinvested almost what I invested in the first place, 10 years ago, to keep the restaurant open during this time. | ||
| So, it's not even... | ||
| You gotta re-adore inventory or re-adore everything. | ||
| It's a tremendous amount of capital just to kind of get started. | ||
| And then it's not just the capital to get started. | ||
| It's you need a little bit of reserve in the bank because it's not linear, right? | ||
| You open, you get busy, you have slow nights, busy nights. | ||
| Things aren't happening as efficiently as they should be. | ||
| But once you get up to 8, 9, 10 months, the restaurants are efficient, you're rolling, there's not a lot of waste, people are doing things well, and your costs come down, your profits go up, and then all of a sudden you've got a business. | ||
| Right? | ||
| So there's going to be a lot of people that are going to gravitate towards their favorite places because it's like it feels like a hug and that's like, oh, thank God I get to go to this place or that place. | ||
| Go to your favorite dish. | ||
| Right, exactly. | ||
| See your favorite waiter. | ||
| And then you're going to start to try the newer places that are coming back out. | ||
| So how long will it take back to get back to it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Years. | |
| I mean, yeah. | ||
| And I have a gut feeling these officials just... | ||
| I think they really don't think highly of our industry. | ||
| I think they think there'll just be another restaurant that opens anyway. | ||
| Well, that's what Trump said in the beginning. | ||
| It's one of the things he said. | ||
| That was such a crazy statement. | ||
| The restaurants would be open, maybe it would be a different owner. | ||
| What the fuck are you saying? | ||
| Welcome to my life. | ||
| I've been doing this for 30 years. | ||
| It's people's livelihoods. | ||
| I think that's the part that people really need to understand. | ||
| To your question, I think it's going to take the strong ones to survive. | ||
| It's going to be tough for most to survive. | ||
| It's going to take the really super successful ones that have a lot of capital. | ||
| Have a lot of capital or just are going to have a, you know, if there's a will, there's a way type of attitude. | ||
| Like, there's nothing stopping me from having our places reopen. | ||
| Will it be a challenge? | ||
| It's not easy, you know, but I think it's going to weed out a lot of people. | ||
| And I think there's a lot of people, sadly, they're going to fall by the wayside, unfortunately. | ||
| It's just so strange that you guys who own successful places aren't given any information. | ||
| Zero. | ||
| I can't imagine that. | ||
| None. | ||
| I can't imagine that. | ||
| Zero. | ||
| It doesn't make any sense. | ||
| No, I literally call people and go, what are you hearing? | ||
| And they're like, what are you hearing? | ||
| And I'm like, wait, what? | ||
| You're the one that's supposed to be looked in. | ||
| I'm like, okay. | ||
| That's nuts. | ||
| I'll call you if I hear anything. | ||
| We got shut down. | ||
| And we had no previous warning. | ||
| On the news. | ||
| But yet, all these other places that have been proven to be the things that spread the virus the most, they haven't shut down. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And that's the big question. | ||
| Is it lobbyists? | ||
| Is it money talking? | ||
| Whatever it is, it's insane to me. | ||
| So do you think it's one of those things where they feel like they have to do something that shows they're trying to stop the spread of the virus? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Even though it's not effective? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| At least they can show they're taking steps. | ||
| And then they can say, this virus is out of control. | ||
| And they take the weight away from their own decisions. | ||
| And they just say, look, this is just a dangerous virus. | ||
| We need more restrictions. | ||
| They don't... | ||
| They don't take responsibility for the fact that the restrictions they put in place have been totally ineffective. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| I think that is definitely a big part of it. | ||
| I mean, at the end of the day, the virus's job is to spread, right? | ||
| That's its job. | ||
| It's to go from host to host to host. | ||
| So just by shutting down certain industries and not shutting down other industries, I don't think that that's an effective way to do it. | ||
| And I'm afraid of what the next one is. | ||
| Are they going to keep coming up with, oh, we got a new strain, we got a new COVID? Well, there's a new strain right now in the UK. You've seen that, right? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And I know the media plays it up, and it's like, so every year, are we able to just shut down? | ||
| Is that going to be the new thing? | ||
| Like, when does it stop? | ||
| The thing is, I think, like, we just touched on it a couple minutes ago, we've taken away that moment of getting together with your friends and having a couple of laughs and forgetting about the world's problems for just a minute, you know? | ||
| That social interaction where you have your favorite meal in your favorite place, and even if it's socially distant, and even if it's, you know, all that stuff is all on the table. | ||
| They've taken away all of those moments, and I don't know what it's doing to our, like, psychology. | ||
| I don't know what it's doing to, like, our brains, because we're not allowed to see our friends. | ||
| And then what I've had to come in, and I think, John, I think we've touched on it, is There are some people that are like, oh, I'm coming tomorrow. | ||
| We're great. | ||
| And I'm like, okay, cool. | ||
| And then there's other people I haven't seen for like seven or eight months. | ||
| And I just check in on text and I'm like, I don't make a judgment. | ||
| That's what you feel comfortable doing. | ||
| And I've had to become okay with it. | ||
| In the beginning, I started to take it a little personal. | ||
| But now I'm kind of like, okay, that's your level of comfort. | ||
| Okay, cool. | ||
| Like, I get it. | ||
| But yeah, it's dividing a lot of people. | ||
| There's some people that we were supposed to see over Christmas that I'm not sure they're going to want our family over because I'm down here doing this show. | ||
| But if you get tested when you go back to LA, that's not going to be enough for them? | ||
| Yeah, but I mean, like, technically, I mean, I guess you're supposed to wait five days after, you know, taking a commercial flight. | ||
| But you've come down here and you've come in contact with all people that have been tested, all people that show negative. | ||
| Then you're going to go back and you'll test negative. | ||
| You tested negative here and they're still not okay with that. | ||
| Some people are, some people aren't. | ||
| But you have to go to the supermarket and stand right in front of that cashier and not have any idea. | ||
| Will Gavin be over for the holidays? | ||
| You're getting really cute. | ||
| You know what I gotta do? | ||
| I gotta buy you a razor. | ||
| That's what I gotta do. | ||
| I gotta buy you a razor. | ||
| I lost a bet. | ||
| Yeah, I lost a bet. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's all new. | |
| I've never seen this, by the way. | ||
| What is the bet? | ||
| I lost this, you know, I bet my, one of my best friends, we had this weight loss challenge thing that we did. | ||
| It was, you know, all we do is bet each other and I lost. | ||
| Well, that's a hell of a manly beer. | ||
| But by the way, keep it. | ||
| So is the weight, so is the weight loss challenge. | ||
| Who does a weight loss challenge amongst a bunch of guys? | ||
| All we do is bet each other and stuff, you know? | ||
| This is what happens during COVID. Oh, look at you. | ||
| Clean shaving. | ||
| Look how handsome you are. | ||
| I like you better with the beard. | ||
| I'm going to tell you what. | ||
| Gives me a little more edge, right? | ||
| Yeah, a little swarmy, don't you think? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Don't trust that unsavory character. | ||
| He's opening. | ||
| What can be done that's not being done in terms of the people listening to this? | ||
| I mean, is there anything they could do? | ||
| Could they reach out to anybody? | ||
| Is there a way that we can organize where there can be some sort of impact from the people that are hearing this right now and listening to this and furious? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You know, I think he's... | ||
| Craig said it earlier. | ||
| I do think it's important to order, you know, to keep supporting the restaurants you love, the local ones especially, the ones that you love. | ||
| I think that my goal is to have people in their mind understand that it isn't as black and white. | ||
| If you challenge this shutdown, you aren't saying you're anti-COVID safety. | ||
| You aren't some big bad person that wants... | ||
| It's quite the opposite. | ||
| It's taking an intelligent approach to how to actually have an age-old industry keep going. | ||
| And in my opinion, I think people need to have that mindset more and more and speak out to whoever. | ||
| I don't know if there's a direct way to do any of this. | ||
| There isn't an easy way to have a voice. | ||
| I think the key is just having people's mindset change. | ||
| And as much as they can spread that, I think that's important. | ||
| I think it's really important to contact, you know, we're so used to paying attention to the national politics that I think the local politics have become really, really important. | ||
| So reaching out to the L.A. County commissioners. | ||
| Right now, if I literally canvassed 100 people I guarantee you they probably wouldn't even be able to name her one. | ||
| And those inboxes need to be filled with their emails. | ||
| They need to get annoyed. | ||
| They need to be able to call them. | ||
| They need to be able to say, look, we're not science deniers. | ||
| There's a disease. | ||
| We completely understand. | ||
| But this is an outlet for us. | ||
| There's got to be a way to get going. | ||
| And I think... | ||
| You know, on a national level as well, contacting representatives, their voices need to be heard. | ||
| Look, all politicians want to get reelected, right? | ||
| So we have a voice. | ||
| I also think you've got to give people the ability to make their own decisions. | ||
| This has never been the role of the politician to tell people how and how not to take risks and what to do with their lives. | ||
| Especially sensible, well-thought-out risks that have been mitigated as much as possible, like social distancing, like making sure that you follow all the health protocols, making sure that restaurants are compliant. | ||
| I mean, there's a way to do this. | ||
| It's totally possible. | ||
| Especially with outdoor dining. | ||
| There has never been, and I've been in the business 30 years, I've had my own place, January 12th will be 10 years, okay? | ||
| There's never been an instance where a health inspector came in and said, clean that, I don't like the way that looks, reorganize that, and it hasn't been done in an instant. | ||
| We're rule followers. | ||
| That's how we stay in business. | ||
| The last thing in the world I want to hear is that somebody got sick from eating at one of my places. | ||
| So we're instinctively instilled with all of that. | ||
| Safety is our first protocol. | ||
| So driving people away from those institutions is insanity. | ||
| It is insanity. | ||
| How do you think this plays out? | ||
| Like, if you had to guess, what do you think happens at the end of all this? | ||
| I think they're going to keep doing these rolling shutdowns, sadly. | ||
| And I think it's going to take a lot of uproar. | ||
| I think it's going to take more of us banding together and actually putting a stop to how it's being handled. | ||
| I think that's the only shot we have. | ||
| It's not as optimistic as I would like, but I think if and when it ever opens again, ideally you get safe outdoor dining opening in January, even February. | ||
| And I think proving it to everyone that it's going safely I think is all we're really asking for now and then eventually open the rest as more vaccines happen and more people kind of change their mindset toward it is what my optimistic goal would be. | ||
| It seems like there's a lot of restaurants that don't have outdoor dining as an option. | ||
| That's the unfortunate. | ||
| I have several places that can't open. | ||
| They have only indoor. | ||
| You don't have a parking lot. | ||
| You don't have a place in front. | ||
| It's a nightmare. | ||
| I don't know how that's fair either. | ||
| It does not seem like a fair system that's going on. | ||
| And I know life isn't fair, but I think it's crazy to be dictated like this. | ||
| Look, I think that we should spend a fortune or... | ||
| Look, they're spending so much money on so many other things. | ||
| Why aren't they spending money and developing rapid testing? | ||
| Rapid testing would eliminate a lot of the issues that we're even talking about. | ||
| Have it everywhere. | ||
| And have it everywhere, literally. | ||
| At department stores, at airports, at restaurants. | ||
| That's probably the best way to do it. | ||
| Well, the rapid testing we're using here, you could use that at your restaurant. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Wouldn't be that hard. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Wouldn't be that hard to have a station out front of the restaurant. | ||
| Like, your reservation's at 8, you must get there at 7 to get rapid testing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Make that required. | |
| Make that a law. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| I don't care with that. | ||
| You get rapid tested. | ||
| You drop your mask for a second. | ||
| They swab you. | ||
| You wait over there for 15 minutes. | ||
| Oh, McDonald, party of two. | ||
| You're good. | ||
| You guys are good. | ||
| You had to use the word McDonald? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Really fast. | ||
| Jack in the box, party of two. | ||
| You're good. | ||
| Yeah, and then just add it to the bill. | ||
| It's just a price of going out to there. | ||
| Part of the bill. | ||
| My god, people would jump on that. | ||
| 100% they would. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| The opportunity to go out. | ||
| Just give people the option. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Well, this is the problem. | ||
| Politicians have never been in a position where they can tell people what they can and can't do and make up laws. | ||
| What I'm so shocked about is, and we both do it in the restaurant business, when we were busy, we were handling 300, 400 people a night. | ||
| Of all the doctors that I've asked, nobody has been contacted by the county. | ||
| To ask them their opinion. | ||
| And somebody else said to me, well, they're not epidemiologists or they're not infectious disease doctors. | ||
| They're doctors, right? | ||
| So get them from across the board and ask them their opinion. | ||
| How do you fight this thing and do it well? | ||
| If you're not getting guidance from the federal government, I don't care. | ||
| We're a big state and we've got a lot of money and we've got a lot of resources and we're capable of tackling anything. | ||
| So use the intellectual capital that we have. | ||
| And we've got enormous wealth. | ||
| Yeah, I think the wealth is going to diminish rapidly after this pandemic is over, unfortunately. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| I also think California needs government that's much more friendly to business and understands how important it is to have thriving businesses, to have all the other things you want. | ||
| All these other things you want are dependent upon the tax revenue. | ||
| The tax revenue is dependent upon successful businesses. | ||
| If you have practices and you have decisions that you're making that are unfriendly to businesses, you're going to lose all that money. | ||
| And then what are you going to do? | ||
| Are you going to tax the rich? | ||
| Because this is how they're looking at it. | ||
| This new wealth tax that they're proposing. | ||
| So then you're going to have people just move. | ||
| So then they're trying to say, well, if you move, we're going to tax you for the next 10 years. | ||
| Well, good luck with that. | ||
| Because that's not real. | ||
| I love how Elon handled it, Musk. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, that's the type of... | ||
| We need more people standing up to these people. | ||
| Well, you've just had Tesla move, Hewitt Packard move, Oracle move. | ||
| I mean, those are... | ||
| Huge companies. | ||
| Huge companies. | ||
| And we're finding... | ||
| You know, as we were closing the patio, a lot of people were saying goodbye to us. | ||
| And I'm like, goodbye? | ||
| What do you mean? | ||
| They're like, we're leaving. | ||
| We're moving to Florida. | ||
| We're moving to Texas. | ||
| We're moving to Arizona. | ||
| And I'm like, wait, for real? | ||
| For good? | ||
| And they're like, yeah, we've just had enough. | ||
| We're done. | ||
| Well, so many people are like, this is enough. | ||
| Fucking Kat Von D just moved to Indiana. | ||
| Like, everybody's going crazy. | ||
| It's one of those things where it's like, you were telling me about your friend out there who talked to Newsom and was saying, I'm moving because of you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| There's been a lot of people that are really just down and upset that it's being handled so poorly. | ||
| But it's not being handled poorly everywhere. | ||
| Texas is recognizing that there is an issue. | ||
| Obviously, this new COVID quarantine, whatever the fuck they're calling it, what are they calling it? | ||
| I kind of feel like we're fighting for our lives here in a lot of ways because I feel like California is handling it so poorly that if something doesn't happen, I don't know how this industry is reopening the way it should. | ||
| They're not even talking about how to reopen. | ||
| And also, when we got shut down right at Thanksgiving, You know, a lot of people had to lay off a lot of people in our industry. | ||
| And there was no, like, number for unemployment or no rapid way for people to get taken care of. | ||
| So you've basically, a lot of restaurants laid off all of their employees the day before Thanksgiving, going into the holidays. | ||
| So there's no, like, thought process of, like, well, how is that going to affect the 400 or 500,000 people that are employed by the restaurant business? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| I am one of the fortunate ones that have chosen to keep most of my people on. | ||
| Most people can't afford to do that. | ||
| So how are you helping those people? | ||
| There's no consideration. | ||
| It's almost like there's too many decisions to be made across the entire state with all the different businesses. | ||
| There's too many decisions to be made and they don't have the answers. | ||
| And so they're just digging their heels in. | ||
| But other states are, as you said, other states are handling it better. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, it's unfortunate that it's been these Democrat-run states, because I agree with them on so many different things, so many social issues. | ||
| But then when it comes to the way they handle business, it's fucking terrible. | ||
| It's really terrible. | ||
| It's terrible what's going on. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, I am happy to pay my taxes. | ||
| I am happy to make sure that other people are being taken care of that are less fortunate. | ||
| I totally get it. | ||
| But you have to enable us to operate for us to be able to contribute that way. | ||
| There has to be a balance. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| And how do you think this ends? | ||
| You know, I actually think that probably outdoor dining will resume at some point, three to four weeks after New Year's Eve, because that's considered another big super spreader event, right? | ||
| So it'll take about three weeks for that to crest, I think. | ||
| And then I think outdoor dining resumes in some aspect. | ||
| Hopefully the vaccines start to take effect. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| That might be our only hope. | ||
| That might be the only hope. | ||
| And then hopefully things start to open back up maybe in April and May. | ||
| And then June, July, it really starts to kind of feel like we might be past this in a large point. | ||
| Unless, you know, you get another strain that's different, that is resistant to the vaccine. | ||
| And then you're looking kind of like right back where you were. | ||
| Shut down. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So, I mean, I don't know. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's scary. | |
| It's a scary thought. | ||
| I am an optimist. | ||
| And I'm hoping that, like, you know, that that's kind of the road that we're headed towards. | ||
| Have you considered moving? | ||
| I haven't considered moving. | ||
| I have considered... | ||
| I always said I'll never open up another Craigs, but that thought pattern has changed. | ||
| So we're looking at other cities to maybe open in and diversify a little bit more. | ||
| And then Craig's Vegan is, you know, it's weird. | ||
| Even meat eaters, you know, this new term called flexitarians, where, you know, people are meat eaters, they eat eggs and milk and all kinds of stuff, but if they're looking for a way to cut back, they usually look for a non-dairy. | ||
| Dessert or something like that. | ||
| So that industry is exploding. | ||
| So the ice cream is doing really, really well. | ||
| Sales are great. | ||
| And then we're opening up a scoop shop at the Resorts World in Vegas. | ||
| It'll be kind of like the first vegan ice cream scoop shop, which will be really, really cool. | ||
| How did you formulate your ice cream? | ||
| It's made out of cashews. | ||
| But I mean, did you work with someone? | ||
| Oh, no, no. | ||
| Do it to taste? | ||
| So our chef, Kirsten, is great. | ||
| And by the way, I want to give a big shout out to the kitchen and to Chef Kirsten. | ||
| They've had to deal with, if you think about it internally, our crews. | ||
| What they've had to do, they went from a complete shutdown. | ||
| They were preparing food to go in the middle of a pandemic in March and April when nobody knew anything and they were still showing up for work. | ||
| And we were doing deliveries and to-go's just to make people feel comfortable. | ||
| And they were scared. | ||
| And they were doing it. | ||
| And then we reopened for 10 days indoors. | ||
| So we were doing to-go and indoor. | ||
| And then we did outdoor And to go and delivery. | ||
| So Chef has done a masterful job of kind of like... | ||
| Navigating. | ||
| Yeah, pulling it in and out and navigating. | ||
| It's been insane. | ||
| And by the way, this is not easy. | ||
| This is not just a machine. | ||
| These are people and they're scared of getting the disease as well. | ||
| And they're trying to adhere to all the new protocols of the health department. | ||
| Masks, gloves, social distancing. | ||
| While they're, you know, prepping our, you know, you want your salad with no garbanzo meats and tomatoes and you want it chopped and you want your fish grilled. | ||
| You know, all those special orders are all being taken care of. | ||
| So they've done an amazing job. | ||
| And then we just noticed that back seven or eight years ago, we put some vegan items on the menu because some of our customers were demanding it. | ||
| And more and more people started to ask for it. | ||
| And so what we were realizing was if you've got a group of six people and one is a vegan, they're the one that makes the decision where you eat. | ||
| So we were like, well, we want a diverse clientele and we want them, let's not give them an excuse to go somewhere else. | ||
| So we started making vegan entrees. | ||
| That turned into a whole vegan section of the menu, which makes up about 18% of our sales. | ||
| So it's not insignificant. | ||
| And then we wanted it to be a complete meal, so we came up with a vegan ice cream. | ||
| And Chef just kind of buried his head in the books and figured out how to make ice cream. | ||
| And ice cream is essentially fat and sugar. | ||
| And it's the combination, and that's what makes it so delicious. | ||
| So you're using like cashew fat. | ||
| Right, so we're using cashew butter. | ||
| And we've reduced the amount of sugar, so it's rich, it's creamy, and it gives you that, like, satisfaction, but it's got no animal products, and it's a third less sugar. | ||
| So, you know, we're the base of the shake at certain, you know, hamburger, Fatburger's been great. | ||
| We're rolling into Johnny Rockets. | ||
| We're at some supermarkets, Gelson's, Air One, you know, so it's actually- Yeah, so if you go to Fatburger and you order a vegan shake, I mean, it's unbelievable. | ||
| And it's a third less sugar. | ||
| Uh-huh. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| And then we're on it. | ||
| How are you pulling that off? | ||
| Are you using Stevia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, no, no. | |
| It's regular sugar. | ||
| It's just, look, you know, Halo Top made a decision to do high protein and low sugar, right? | ||
| So they made a certain product. | ||
| Some people enjoyed it. | ||
| What is Halo Top? | ||
| Halo Top was an ice cream that was like really hit about two years ago because you could eat the whole carton and it was only 200 calories. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| That sounds like hell. | ||
| But I think that they gave up, you know, so our product has great flavor and great texture. | ||
| And so we just, you know, Chef kept playing with the values and we kept just tasting and tasting and tasting it. | ||
| The great thing is you go on craigsvegan.com and people are shipping it all across the country and we deliver it on dry ice. | ||
| So good vegan products are kind of I would say an LA, New York kind of thing. | ||
| I think they've started the trend and so a lot of the places in the middle of the country haven't been able to kind of get their hands on really good products. | ||
| Whole Foods obviously has a really good cross-section now. | ||
| Trader Joe's has a really good cross-section now. | ||
| So we're just kind of rolling out nationally. | ||
| So we've used this time during COVID to kind of pivot into, okay, well, I guess we'll do food to go. | ||
| Okay, well, I guess we'll do outdoor dining. | ||
| Okay, well, I guess we'll put our foot on the accelerator on craigsvegan.com and let's just see where we can go. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| It's made me more resourceful. | ||
| It's made the crew more resourceful. | ||
| I mean, like I said, what the kitchen's been through and what chef's been through, it's just been incredible. | ||
| And I give a big shout out to all the restaurant workers. | ||
| That especially in March, April, and May, that we're coming to work every day when we didn't know as much as we did about the disease. | ||
| And people were really worried about dying. | ||
| And we were hearing people on ventilators. | ||
| And we didn't have ways to mitigate the disease. | ||
| And they were still showing up for work. | ||
| And these are the very people that are being hurt by the shutdown now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| So that's what really fires me up. | ||
| Like, these are the people that risked their lives to go to work to make sure that people were being fed and the way you're paying them back is by shutting down their industry. | ||
| Now, do you have other things along with Craig's Vegan Ice Cream? | ||
| Do you have like ice cream sandwiches? | ||
| Are you selling a bunch of different products? | ||
| No, so we're going to kind of get into that development of ice cream sandwiches right now. | ||
| So the scoop shop at the Resorts World will have shakes. | ||
| We'll have floats. | ||
| We'll have sundaes. | ||
| We're going to do vegan cookies. | ||
| We make an unbelievable vegan bolognese that people eat. | ||
| What's the meat? | ||
| It's a product called Hungry Planet. | ||
| And so it's all plant-based. | ||
| Are you vegan yourself? | ||
| I was vegan until the pandemic. | ||
| The pandemic switched you over? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, I've lost 28 pounds. | |
| Depression causes. | ||
| During the pandemic? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Depression has just cost weight loss. | ||
| So what am I eating? | ||
| Not much of anything. | ||
| But that's the way I deal with stress. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Just from stress? | |
| Yeah. | ||
| I think you could probably take a poll and say, okay, people have either gained 25 pounds or they've lost 25 pounds. | ||
| A lot of people have gotten heavy on the alcohol, unfortunately. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And I'm trying not to medicate my way through. | ||
| I'm trying to use this as a way of saying, okay, How can I use this as an opportunity to either be a better leader? | ||
| How can I get our people through this? | ||
| How do I get the restaurant to survive? | ||
| How can I speak up for an industry? | ||
| It's not about Craig's. | ||
| Craig's will be fine. | ||
| It's about our employees, it's about the other restaurants, and it's about the little mom and pop shops that don't have a voice. | ||
| It's also about the decisions being made that affect you. | ||
| You have no power over yourself for the first time ever. | ||
| And there's no place to go. | ||
| Like John said, you're the only one or few that have said, come on and let's talk about it. | ||
| And we have a lot of outlets and I've never, you know, and you're right. | ||
| So what happens when you reach out? | ||
| You know, they go down the road and then they all don't want to do it. | ||
| And they come back and they say, look, we just can't, whatever, you know, editor or media person or whatever, it's like the superior doesn't want the backlash, you know, whatever it might be. | ||
| Where is the backlash coming from at this point? | ||
| Well, I think the general public is aware of what's going on, that you've lost 75% of all restaurants due to this arbitrary decision. | ||
| I think there's a lot of public out there, and I don't blame them, that are very scared of the virus, and that's fine, but they're not looking at it in the way of, there's this balance. | ||
| And so, there's that, and then, yeah, they don't want the backlash from the officials. | ||
| From government officials, which is crazy to me. | ||
| But the other point, too, and I know John has done this as well, is like I said, it's not just about us. | ||
| It's about the mom and pops. | ||
| It's about the employees. | ||
| But we're also donating food to Cedar Sinai to help the frontline workers. | ||
| We've donated food and ice cream to Children's Hospital. | ||
| We've donated... | ||
| Ice cream to children mending hearts to charities. | ||
| We're actually in the middle of this pandemic, also a resource for these people and paying it forward. | ||
| We're not blind to the sacrifices that people are going through. | ||
| It's not just about our industry. | ||
| We're all in this together. | ||
| So Cedars called on Saturday night and they had a flex and they had a lot of patience and they had more employees there than they thought they were going to have. | ||
| And she was like, I know it's seven o'clock. | ||
| I know you're busy. | ||
| Do you have anything? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| And at 9.30, they picked up 100 meals to feed frontline workers. | ||
| And that's not a pat on the back for us. | ||
| The kitchen actually came through in the middle of a rush and did it. | ||
| So it's about all of us together. | ||
| The restaurant industry provides so much. | ||
| Yeah, the chefs have been rock stars. | ||
| They're unsung here. | ||
| Our chefs have been insane. | ||
| To navigate this has been absolutely insane. | ||
| Closing, opening, delivery only, outdoors. | ||
| I mean, they're complete rock stars. | ||
| But what dawned on me is the trickle down on this closure. | ||
| You know, I was in an Uber in LA and the guy was so down. | ||
| I was like, you're doing okay? | ||
| And he's like, well, you know, he didn't know who I was, didn't know anything. | ||
| And he's like, yeah, the restaurants, he's like, I can't, I gotta leave town. | ||
| They're all closed, so I have no business. | ||
| I realize how many people it affects. | ||
| Janitor services. | ||
| Obviously everyone knows chefs, waiters, bartenders, all that, but there's so much that it extends to that this industry is keeping people going business-wise. | ||
| The complete disregard for all of that from officials is what's driving me insane and why I'm so angry. | ||
| Take a look at it. | ||
| I was talking to the flight attendants and the pilots and I'm like, what are you guys going to do now? | ||
| And they're like, we got to find a place to eat. | ||
| Like, that was never our... | ||
| We just would go out to eat or we'd find something. | ||
| We have to actually... | ||
| It's so late, we have to find a place that we can actually get food. | ||
| And how much this is forcing people to eat unhealthy. | ||
| Unhealthy because they have to go to these fast food places. | ||
| Unhealthy and it's also causing underground, quote-unquote underground type establishments to happen. | ||
| Is that happening? | ||
| Which are unsafe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, yeah. | |
| Tons. | ||
| Do you have a password to get into a restaurant? | ||
| No, but there's people making sandwiches, and they're selling them online, and who knows where they were made? | ||
| Who knows how they were made? | ||
| And it's also driving people to gather at places. | ||
| There's chefs at houses, and they're having 50 people. | ||
| Hiring a chef to come in. | ||
| Hiring a chef. | ||
| There's people doing it for business out of houses, illegally doing it. | ||
| But that's what everyone's being driven towards. | ||
| But the interesting thing is, so it's also thinking outside the box, not just for us in the restaurant business, but for everybody. | ||
| So Netflix is a really good client, and they're great. | ||
| So they've got a bunch of premieres, they've got a bunch of movies that they want to... | ||
| So now what we've been doing is virtual premieres. | ||
| So we've been creating, with Chef and our events team, these boxes that get delivered to people's homes, and it may be 100 people On the same day, and so they get to eat the same box of food from Netflix while they're watching the premiere of a show. | ||
| And so that whole end of our business has kind of increased. | ||
| It doesn't make up for what we do on a regular basis, but okay, that's a new kind of a thing, and it's a new way of doing premieres. | ||
| And I wonder if the old style of premieres are going to come back. | ||
| Because the celebrities that are in the show, they just get to Zoom regularly. | ||
| In, right? | ||
| Promote whatever they're promoting. | ||
| Everybody gets to eat the same food from their favorite restaurant. | ||
| They're not in the same environment. | ||
| And so I wonder if that's going to change or not. | ||
| Not the same thing. | ||
| That would make me sad if premieres don't come back. | ||
| I agree, but I don't know what it's going to do. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But what's interesting is Netflix, Warner Brothers, Universal, they've all decided to kind of figure out a way to promote their products in a different way and also help support the restaurants that they like doing business with. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Which is important. | |
| Yeah, it's devastating the comedy community. | ||
| It's devastating, I know. | ||
| No, I mentioned the other day, I spent some time with Chris Spencer, and I said, what are you doing tonight? | ||
| And he goes, oh, I'm doing a little gig on Ventura Boulevard. | ||
| I go, what do you mean? | ||
| He goes, well, it's a little outside thing, and there's like, I don't know, there's 20, 25 people, and he was so excited. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| To just have a mic in front of his face and to be out and about. | ||
| And then, you know, we were talking to our good friend Jeff and Jeff's been on the road for 30 years, you know, performing in all over the country. | ||
| And he said to me, there's a part of me that's, it's kind of nice not to be, you know, in a suitcase on the road all the time and taking this little bit of a break. | ||
| But he goes, I'm not one of those comics that needs a microphone in his face to be happy all the time. | ||
| But I'm jonesing for it a little bit. | ||
| So it's interesting how everybody's kind of taking it differently. | ||
| Yeah, a lot of comics don't realize how bad they love it until they go and do it again. | ||
| I did a gig with Ron White out here a few weeks back, and he hadn't done any stand-up in eight months. | ||
| And he's like, you know, I think I'm kind of retired. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| And he goes on stage and kills, and then afterwards he grabs you by the shoulder and he goes, whatever we have to do, we're doing this again. | ||
| He got his fix again, and he's like, you realize people love having a good time, whether it's having a good time at a restaurant, having a good time at a comedy club. | ||
| You're taking away a big chunk of their life enjoyment. | ||
| It takes away from their quality of life. | ||
| It takes away from their socializing. | ||
| It takes away from their mental health. | ||
| It's a big impact, and it's not something you can just diminish without any consideration. | ||
| Yeah, I'm here because of Dave and Cena and their team. | ||
| And I've been begging, I'm like, when are you going to come back in LA? It's like, why come there? | ||
| There's nothing we can do shows for. | ||
| We just drove away all these great comics that want to be doing stuff. | ||
| In L.A., I mean, that's what we're known for. | ||
| And I miss those interactions, like, when they come in the restaurant, and, I mean, to just get told off by one of those guys, or just have, like, a sharp little, like, right between the eyes. | ||
| Like, I miss that moment. | ||
| I miss that moment. | ||
| Yeah, it's fun. | ||
| Yeah, it's devastating to the store. | ||
| The store, they don't know what to do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know. | |
| And there's no indication whatsoever that they're going to get to open up anytime soon. | ||
| No. | ||
| I mean, it might be, literally, it might be six, seven months before they're allowed to do outside shows. | ||
| I mean, who knows? | ||
| Well, I know that from concert venues and things like that, I don't think they're even booking shows until September 2021. Right. | ||
| Yeah, I have some stuff booked in New York in October of 2021, and I'm like, maybe. | ||
| Maybe. | ||
| Maybe that's real. | ||
| But there's a lot of people that are doing virtual stuff. | ||
| I know there's a lot of virtual shows over New Year's Eve, New Year's Day. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| People are starved for entertainment. | ||
| Most talent don't want to do virtual shows, though. | ||
| No, you don't get the interaction, but at least it's something to look forward to. | ||
| If you want to see your favorite people, at least you'll tune into something. | ||
| We're so deprived right now of everything that you're willing to... | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| If I said to you two years ago, so-and-so would be on Zoom and you could buy tickets, you'd be like, why would I do that? | ||
| Why are they doing that? | ||
| Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. | ||
| Look, I'm hoping that this vaccine opens things up again. | ||
| I'm hoping. | ||
| But I don't think that the governors that have been particularly draconian, I don't think they're going to lighten that up. | ||
| I think that's who they are now. | ||
| I think this is a real problem. | ||
| We've let a genie out of the bottle. | ||
| We need more voices. | ||
| Telling people how it is. | ||
| We also need more pro-business, some business-friendly politicians to run. | ||
| People who realize, like, hey, fuck this. | ||
| This is really affecting our communities. | ||
| This is really affecting our livelihoods. | ||
| This is affecting our businesses and our mental health. | ||
| And I'm not going to stand for it anymore. | ||
| I'm going to run. | ||
| We need more of those people. | ||
| That's a big thing I'm going to get behind is the people, next people running. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, we all need to do that. | ||
| Important aspect. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| It didn't seem like a big deal. | ||
| Whoever the governor was or the mayor was, like, look, I'm busy. | ||
| I put my nose to the grindstone. | ||
| I'm going. | ||
| I'm not paying too much attention to them until the record skips. | ||
| Like, what? | ||
| I can't work. | ||
| Who the fuck are you? | ||
| A person is telling all these people they can't work, and it's based on what? | ||
| They don't have to tell you? | ||
| They don't have to show you? | ||
| Follow the science. | ||
| We trust the science. | ||
| There's no such thing as the science, you fucking asshole. | ||
| What is the science? | ||
| That's not even a real term. | ||
| No. | ||
| Essentially, the governor abdicated all decision-making to each individual county health inspector. | ||
| He just kind of threw his hands up and said, okay, I'm not going to make the decision. | ||
| They're all going to make the decisions. | ||
| So, you know, we're open or closed based on one person's opinion. | ||
| It's bananas. | ||
| Literally insane. | ||
| It's got to be stopped. | ||
| But here's the worst part about it. | ||
| I've got people that go down to Orange County, Laguna, Newport. | ||
| They stay for the weekend. | ||
| They eat in a hotel. | ||
| 30-minute drive. | ||
| They eat in a restaurant. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yep. | |
| And they come back to L.A.? Yeah. | ||
| Yeah, that's crazy. | ||
| What they've done is they've just pushed all of that money out of L.A. County. | ||
| Well, they've also reinforced this idea in a lot of people's heads that have leaned right, that are right-leaning people, that the Democrats are not business-friendly, that Democrats are not going to support them. | ||
| It's pretty clear. | ||
| Yeah, Huntington, Lagoon, those are all red areas. | ||
| Yeah, it's sad that that's what it's come to. | ||
| Yeah, it's a real eye-opener. | ||
| And it's one of those things where people that were always wary of government are now, like, super paranoid. | ||
| I mean, I am now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, how many businesses do you have running that have stopped? | |
| 16. Jesus Christ, that must be insane. | ||
| Insane. | ||
| And, you know, some I have no hope. | ||
| You know, three are nightclubs, for example. | ||
| I have no hope. | ||
| 2022 be able to open nightclubs? | ||
| 23? | ||
| Maybe, right? | ||
| Maybe. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| You just wake up and you try to navigate. | ||
| How do I lead? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a minefield. | |
| Also, my employees don't want to see me moping around going, oh my god, I don't know what's going to happen. | ||
| So I'm kind of like, don't worry about it. | ||
| We're going to get through this. | ||
| I know we're going to get through this. | ||
| And when we come back, we're going to be stronger. | ||
| So stick together. | ||
| Stay positive. | ||
| How do we do a house party? | ||
| How do we do catering for Netflix? | ||
| How do we sell more ice cream? | ||
| How do we do more food to go? | ||
| How do we sell more t-shirts? | ||
| We're doing Christmas gift box. | ||
| We're doing New Year's Eve boxes. | ||
| So it's like New Year's Eve in a box. | ||
| How do we get more of that going? | ||
| We started a COVID testing company. | ||
| I mean, that's how much we pivot. | ||
| Well, see, that is the immediate short-term solution. | ||
| The immediate short-term solution is allow rapid testing. | ||
| You guys could still be open. | ||
| It's not that difficult to do. | ||
| It's all available. | ||
| Now, we're not talking about the technology of eight, nine months ago. | ||
| We're talking about what's available right now. | ||
| We have this whole COVID testing company. | ||
| And I went to the county about this. | ||
| I said, just have us, let us be able to require testing. | ||
| No. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Don't know. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| That's why it's nonsense. | ||
| That's why it's crazy that these people get to make the laws. | ||
| How about invest to make it cheaper, quicker, and more available? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Makes sense to me. | ||
| Well, I think there's a lot of people that just as it is would accept the additional charge to their meal. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| It would just be like, look, we want to go out. | ||
| We'll just factor in the extra charge of the COVID test and we'll go. | ||
| Again, you show up at 7. You write your name down and show your driver's license. | ||
| They mark down what your temperature is. | ||
| They test you. | ||
| You're negative. | ||
| You go on inside. | ||
| You have a couple of drinks. | ||
| You sit down like a normal human. | ||
| It's possible to do. | ||
| We have a drive-through for it. | ||
| Hundreds a day go through it at Peppermint, our place. | ||
| It's a drive-through testing. | ||
| That's how much the demand is. | ||
| And I don't know why we're not amping that up around the city and county. | ||
| It's because these people have too much to think about. | ||
| There's too many decisions to make. | ||
| And I don't think they're really that competent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| You know, I mean, that's what we're finding out. | ||
| That might be the real problem. | ||
| When you have someone like that woman who decided to shut down outdoor dining and then go to a restaurant, that should be it for you. | ||
| That should be it for you. | ||
| There's no incentive because she's getting a paycheck. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| All of them are getting paychecks. | ||
| We were talking about before that if the paychecks of the politicians was directly dependent upon the income That was coming in from the businesses being open. | ||
| If they really had an incentive to keep these businesses thriving because they actually benefit from it financially. | ||
| I agree. | ||
| That's what we need to do. | ||
| I'm hoping, and I'll go back on the positive side, and I'm just hoping that they see that this spike wasn't a result of dining and wasn't a result of some of the businesses that they've shut down, that maybe after the first of the year they start loosening some of these things and start really kind of thinking outside the box. | ||
| Well, call your bestie. | ||
| Call your bestie. | ||
| Call your guy, dude. | ||
| I don't have direct access. | ||
| Just show him that inverse situation. | ||
| By the way, I love this. | ||
| He's got more direct access than I do. | ||
| I do, and I'm speaking very candidly about the fact that this guy doesn't know what he's doing. | ||
| And if he does, it's because he's trying to get a name for himself. | ||
| Well, the fact that you've spoken out and they've visited you every single day. | ||
| That's why I'm really angry. | ||
| Oh my god, that should make you furious. | ||
| That has the opposite effect, because you're not breaking the rules. | ||
| Right. | ||
| So all you're doing is being harassed, and so they're doing these strong-arm tactics, but they don't really have a leg to stand on. | ||
| Right. | ||
| They couldn't do anything, yeah, in that regard. | ||
| But they came and threatened every single night. | ||
| Literally, didn't miss a night. | ||
| Nuts. | ||
| That should be criminal. | ||
| That should be criminal. | ||
| It's why I'm so angry, because it's like, is this causing people to be scared to speak? | ||
| I mean, I hate to say this, but what society are we living in? | ||
| Literally, what society are we living in? | ||
| Well, it's not just that. | ||
| It's also extremely incompetent, because there are 30,000 restaurants that are open. | ||
| If they're visiting you every night, that means there's probably violations they're not catching. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Well, that's the whole point. | ||
| We're the rule followers. | ||
| If what you're saying is the reason we closed you is because 10% of the people weren't following the rules, then why don't you stay on that 10%? | ||
| And help us stay open. | ||
| Literally, watching Chef Kirsten go through every day trying to figure out what to make, Who's on the payroll? | ||
| Who's available? | ||
| What's the schedule? | ||
| Do we have an event? | ||
| Do we have an outside event? | ||
| Are we open? | ||
| Are we closed? | ||
| It's literally like a tiger by the tail. | ||
| Well, listen, shout out to all the people that are trying to do it the right way. | ||
| Shout out to all the mayors and all the health department officials that it's not their fault. | ||
| All the people where, the West Hollywood folks that are really trying to help businesses. | ||
| By the way, couldn't be a more pro-business friendly place, City of West Hollywood. | ||
| I pretty much only want to be open in West Hollywood. | ||
| I hear nothing but good things. | ||
| It's by far the best. | ||
| Lindsay, who, Mayor, first name basis, by the way. | ||
| And I can get to her. | ||
| They need more power. | ||
| And Paul Aravalo. | ||
| That's the truth. | ||
| Everybody at that city, from the plan checkers, building and safety, fire department, everybody went out of their way To make sure that we got our patios open as quickly as possible. | ||
| Tell Lindsey to run for mayor. | ||
| Mayor of the whole city. | ||
| I like that. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Or governor. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| Jesus Christ. | ||
| Why don't we start? | ||
| We'll start it right now. | ||
| Well, I think we really do need something to change in terms of the way people look at government because this has opened up a lot of people's eyes that it is important. | ||
| I want Caruso to run for mayor. | ||
| He's a type that would understand both. | ||
| Rick's a really good operator, first name basis, by the way. | ||
| Text him after the show. | ||
| Rick's shipping him some ice cream. | ||
| But he gets it. | ||
| He's an operator, but he's also a safety guy, and he gets it. | ||
| Well, let's hope that the politicians that are making these piss-poor decisions, that the new ones are going to learn. | ||
| I mean, that's what I'm hoping, that we're going to learn from this pandemic, and if something else does happen down the line, we'll be much better prepared for it. | ||
| I'm really worried about places like California that have gone so far down the wrong path that I just don't see how it corrects course and comes back to some sort of a rational... | ||
| I agree. | ||
| Well, I'm also concerned about all the people that are leaving LA. I'm also concerned about all the people that are leaving New York. | ||
| Because those are the people that spend money in places like mine and John's and other mom-and-pop places. | ||
| Those are the people that keep our employees employed. | ||
| Right, because those are the people that can leave. | ||
| There's a lot of folks that don't have the resources to just pack up and leave. | ||
| They don't have these resources. | ||
| They can't fly private suite. | ||
| They can't do these things, essentially. | ||
| And so... | ||
| Everyone's forgetting about that fact. | ||
| That's where the masses are. | ||
| Especially to just get up and move your whole household. | ||
| Totally. | ||
| And move your business. | ||
| By the way, I love LA. I love living in LA. I think it's a great city and it's diverse and it's fun and it's energetic and it's got comedians and actors. | ||
| It did. | ||
| People always say to me, how do you get the crowd you get? | ||
| And I go, it's just a part of the community. | ||
| It's just an interesting community. | ||
| So it's a blast. | ||
| And by the way, everybody that goes in there that's famous, we met, they weren't famous. | ||
| You're not born famous. | ||
| You're not born being top of the heap comedian. | ||
| You busted your ass and you work. | ||
| So I've been doing this for 30 years. | ||
| We've known each other forever. | ||
| I was a 22-year-old idiot running around town, not sure what I was going to do. | ||
| I didn't know I was going to have a restaurant called Craig's. | ||
| But we've all kind of come up together and we all support each other. | ||
| Well, that's one of the beautiful things about restaurants like yours or like Dan Tana's where you go there and it's this crazy melting pot of generations. | ||
| I'm actually scared of historic places that are going to not be able to reopen. | ||
| There's a lot of legendary ones that no one's talking about that are at risk of not being able to reopen unless they're saved. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| I was just watching, so I watched a thing on Showtime about the comedy store, and I was thinking, like, if you didn't have open mic Mondays, Right? | ||
| Nobody would have had a voice. | ||
| Right. | ||
| Nobody would have learned their craft. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Nobody would have had a place to fail. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Right? | ||
| And then, you know, you go to a restaurant. | ||
| I remember going to Dantana's. | ||
| I literally, I was an actor. | ||
| I had six bucks in my pocket. | ||
| I was invited to dinner. | ||
| I couldn't afford anything on the menu except a light beer. | ||
| I ordered the light beer for $3.50 and I made some sort of lame excuse as to why I couldn't stay for dinner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| I literally, I had no money. | ||
| And then I ended up working there. | ||
| And then I ended up running it. | ||
| And then I ended up leaving and opening up my own place. | ||
| So everybody starts somewhere. | ||
| But comedy stores, restaurants, little venues like the Troubadour, those are all the places that people get to learn their trades, right? | ||
| When I started out as a waiter, I didn't know shit. | ||
| But they molded me and I learned, right? | ||
| So where's all that happening right now? | ||
| All of those young people that are trying to learn comedy, trying to be an actor, trying to be whatever it is that they're trying to do, none of that's happening right now. | ||
| Yeah, it's true. | ||
| The development of comedy has been devastating to the people that have just started out. | ||
| Maybe they're like 10 months, a year in. | ||
| That's such a critical period that can make or break the next future generation of headliners. | ||
| And they're stalled, and a lot of them have taken jobs, and a lot of them are just giving up on the whole dream of comedy. | ||
| I kind of also feel bad for college students. | ||
| If you're 18, 19, 20, that whole college experience is... | ||
| How about high school kids graduating? | ||
| Your graduation's virtual? | ||
| What the fuck is that? | ||
| I got two seven-year-old twins. | ||
| They're home. | ||
| They're on Zoom. | ||
| There's no social interaction. | ||
| Yeah, it's not good. | ||
| It's not good in so many ways. | ||
| I give a lot of credit to my wife because she's home with them all the time. | ||
| It's like... | ||
| You're not only a mom, you're scared about the pandemic yourself. | ||
| You've probably got a parent or two that you're scared about because they're older and they're more susceptible. | ||
| You've got two kids that are scared and they don't know what's going on. | ||
| You got an erotic husband who's got a business that's like barely hanging on. | ||
| So it's, I mean, it's a lot. | ||
| Our wives deserve a lot of credit. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Big, big. | ||
| Well, listen, gentlemen. | ||
| By the way, I'm on first name basis with my wife. | ||
| Do you email her or text her? | ||
| How does it work? | ||
| No, I can actually get to her. | ||
| I'm not sure she wants me to get to her. | ||
| Listen, I hope we've made some sort of an impact with this conversation. | ||
| I hope people are listening and I hope that it has some sort of an effect and I hope they do put pressure on these bureaucrats. | ||
| I hope they let these people know what you're doing as a real consequence, not just to the businesses and the community, but people are going to remember what you've done. | ||
| You can't just... | ||
| This is a bad choice. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
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It's... | |
| Yeah, I mean, I just hope we all get through this, and I hope at some point down the line, this is a great story that we tell a lot of people in the past, and we sound like these old bastards that keep repeating the same old story about, remember the time of the pandemic? | ||
| Shit, I hope that's two years from now. | ||
| I hope two years from now we're laughing it up and toasting and appreciating. | ||
| That's one thing that I think will come out of this for the people that make it on the other end. | ||
| You're going to appreciate how bad it was and how weird it was. | ||
| It's funny, I looked at a bottle of champagne the other day and I thought to myself, what am I waiting for? | ||
| Literally, what am I waiting for? | ||
| Crack it because you never know what's coming tomorrow. | ||
| So you might as well live it today. | ||
| Well gentlemen, best of luck. | ||
| Let's do this again when everything's popping. | ||
| Thank you for having us. | ||
| Seriously, thanks for having us out because there's not a lot of people who want to have this conversation. | ||
| We're all rational people. | ||
| We all understand there's an issue. | ||
| But how do you get through it with some common sense? | ||
| That's all we're asking. | ||
| Well, and you're also asking for some respect for your business. | ||
| I mean, it's crazy that they just feel like they can arbitrarily shut you down, again, because you don't have lobbyists, because you are independent. | ||
| You're not a part of some gigantic fast food corporation that has a massive influence on these politicians. | ||
| Yeah, our companies are like families, literally. | ||
| And so our family units are now shut down. | ||
| It's a really sad case. | ||
| And so I commend you for doing this because this will make some sort of impact, and it's a start at least. | ||
| Well, my pleasure. | ||
| Best of luck to everybody. | ||
| And my heart goes out to all you people out there that are struggling. | ||
| Whether it's business owners, restaurants, bars, stand-up comedy clubs. | ||
| All of you. | ||
| Alright, thank you gentlemen. | ||
| Thanks again. |
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