Mario Carbone
Appearances
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's important that they exist. It's just not my mind. I'm in a business. We're at the corner of art and commerce. I'm in a business model. There's nothing wrong with preaching the art and teaching the art of business. That is also a craft and we need to keep the lights out and we need to keep people paid.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, but there's very little cash these days. Everything's cards. No cash. No one carries cash anymore. No one.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I guess valet is still, I'm trying to think of when I carry cash at this point. I know.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
valet is one of the few ones that you still want to have that yeah um but the waitstaff it's all it's all in uh all in credit cards which is good because it actually used to be really dangerous because you have these restaurants have all this cash at the end of the week some employees got to take like like comical bags of cash and might as well have a dollar sign on it to a bank they're just waiting to get robbed because you were putting it all in the bank yeah like 100
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
5 p.m., 10 p.m. Yeah, because we have the internal demand to fill it with regulars. Okay. Can somebody grease a host? You can get into it. It's not about necessarily greasing a host. Thank you. Okay. I would say.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That was strictly your policy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, because we didn't take that card you had. Oh, yeah. What was that? I think that was a diner's card. Uncle Rush card.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
If you're going for that, if that's a goal of yours, then it's important. Yeah. Michelin can't possibly be what they say they are or what they have been. So like Michelin in the past started in France, you know, 50s and 60s. There would be a anonymous inspector that would come every year and check on your restaurant and grade it basically.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
For that to still happen today in the number of restaurants and numbers of cities that Michelin is in is virtually impossible. There's no way they're checking on these restaurants. So it's my belief that it's simply an aggregate. They're just aggregating where they need to sell books and what the reviews of the rest of the world are of these places and figuring out who to give stars to.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think there's a handful of people that are actually going to some of these restaurants. Like the top couple brass of Michelin are going to the important ones, but there's no way they're going to all of them. So it's really just some sort of aggregate system they're using to give out these stars. It's no longer like... The movie Ratatouille kind of projects this.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's a Michelin inspector, basically, right? At least at the New York Times, which is, for me, the most important review in New York, right? The New York Times critic says, you know who it is. It's a single person's opinion, whether you like it or not. It's a real person. It's not some sort of computer-generated aggregate. Yeah. And take this for a grain of salt. We only have one Michelin star.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They took a couple away from me a couple years ago. It is what it is, but I could easily be seen as someone who's just kind of grumpy about it. But I just think as a system, and it's nothing that we necessarily covet, but as a system, I just don't think they're being honest with who they are as a criteria. So you're saying there's other motives here at play?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They used to be a subsidy of this tire company, right? And the whole idea was that they created this map of restaurants so that... you in your car on your Michelin tires would drive from restaurant to restaurant. And it was a fun way to promote it. It became really big. And then it spawned into its own business. So you have to look at it and say, this is its own business.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It has to make its own dollars. So as a business, there's just no way, given what they do in revenue and book sales, that they could pay enough people to go to all these restaurants. So if that's the case, then how are they coming up with it? It's a fugazi. So then in that case... It's a fugazi.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, social media is going to tell you. I mean, if you punch in best restaurant, pick your city, you're going to get 10 at least.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, infatuation. I mean, they don't speak kindly to me in Miami, but they do in New York. Two totally different groups of people in the same publication, but they're definitely going to pop up. You're going to get CNN Traveler. You're going to get all these things that are going to pop up. But the biggest thing that's changed in the restaurant business is that
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The power of these critics has been basically completely taken away and put in the customer's hands. Everyone has it now. Everyone's an editor-in-chief of their own thing, right? No matter how big their Facebook is or their Instagram page, they're going to tell you all about their meal. And if you follow them, you're going to go—they're the critic.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You want to grease the kitchen? How about you already want to grease my kitchen one night? Yeah. Take the 5 o'clock, 5.30 reservation. Okay. Bring in two cases of beer. Go straight back into the kitchen. Drop it in the pass. Be like, hey, it's for you guys tonight, chefs. From me, Schultz. Reservation at 2, 5 o'clock. Wow. Now we're talking. Now we're talking. That cost you... 30 bucks.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Dredge of society.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Listen, I think— What do you do? How do you— The team going out after work and having drinks and letting some steam off of a long night is totally normal, and we're not going to get in the way of that. I think certainly we have rules that management and hourly staff can't commingle. Like that's just that's just rule number one.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And as soon as that happens, like there's a there's a zero tolerance there. But the staff, I mean, they become family. I mean, I have the same team in Carbone, the original Carbone since basically day one. No one's left. It's all the same team. Wow. Starting with Ricky. Wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
How do you know Ricky? Ricky was a day one guy who answered an ad for captains. The head waiters are captains for a captain position and loved him immediately. And he grew into being the face. I call him the face because everyone knows him. Everyone knows him as Ricky of Carbone.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think you've got to play the game a little bit. If that's something you're going after, if that's a really important metric for your restaurant and for success and for getting people in there, then you have to play a game to a certain degree. And that being buying it...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
could manifest itself in the things you buy for the restaurant, all of the extra money you spend towards the things that you think you need to get that star. I don't think you can pay Michelin for a star. Cities pay Michelin, which is commonplace. Cities pay it to bring them to that city to create a Michelin whatever Miami. Which makes sense. But that's just like the... Michelin Guide?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, the Michelin Guide. So the Michelin Guide is paid for. It's paid for by the cities to bring them there.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You can be included in the book without having a star where they're like sort of recommend you, especially if you're at a lower price point. If you had a really low price point, usually you're not even up for a star. This is really just kind of the world of fine dining more or less.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That is marketing these days. I mean, it's not that much different than paying some agency to tell you how great this restaurant is. Bro, it's more effective.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then what happens after that? They're going to be like, then one of the chefs will be like, yo, someone just dropped two cases of beer. Like, who's that? I don't know. Let's go find out. Look it up. Like, oh, Andrew Schultz, two top at five o'clock. Has he been here before? No, first time. Wow, you did the right thing. Send him out a little something from us.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, they're selling... If you're a big influencer, you're selling all sorts of products, right? I mean, like... Oh, they're getting... Huge amounts of money. And they're getting money to even go to restaurants? Yeah. I mean, we don't pay anyone to go to restaurants, but I'm sure that that's a business, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's got to be a line item in advertising somewhere that in this local town, so-and-so is a huge influencer. Yeah. They're definitely going to move the needle. They're definitely going to move the needle.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Milk that mistake.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No, because I didn't want to deal with that press. It didn't look good. To me, it didn't look good. That's not hospitable. We tried to take care of it. It was just like a last minute thing. That scenario was just like a super last minute try to make a reservation and they were already showing up and we just didn't have the table at that moment.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Scummiest thing to do for PR? Um... there's only so many things that you can really do. I mean, I'm trying to think of like creative scummy things. Um, You know, planting paparazzi. So making the calls to the PR agency. Yeah, someone's there and then you call like a page six type guy and all of a sudden they get blown up.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then all of a sudden, your name starts to populate in our system. Then maybe you order a nice bottle of wine. Treat the staff nicely. Now, all of a sudden, the next time you call to make a reservation, you give us your phone number. Immediately, your name is going to pop up and be like, Andrew Schultz. Wow. Oh, so there's a database that rewards the type of customer you are.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's a thing. That's a thing.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Well, I mean, our staff, that's something we talk about more than probably most is sort of anonymity. Like one, of course we say nothing, but also like we, we are, we're the, we're the protective layer of a celebrity or an athlete or someone that's in the restaurant.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
because you don't know who might be like secretly filming them or who might just come up and try to get like an autograph or a selfie. Like, so my team is that last line of defense to make sure that they have a really private moment. Do they have a special seating area, a special entrance, all of that? It depends on the restaurant. Some places just have like, there's nowhere else to go.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Um, it depends on how much notice we have, but like most places there's like, wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Well, early days was just a couple hundred feet away from here. It was Original Terezi. This is on Mulberry, right? Yeah, that's the very first restaurant, Mulberry and Prince.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I went to Danielle to try to get a job. Well, the story of Danielle was I really wanted to work there. My dad was turning 50 years old. And I said, Pops, I saved up some money. I'm going to take you to a nice restaurant tonight. And me and my dad went to Danielle. I know that Danielle kind of works the dining room. He walks around the whole dining room. And I really wanted to meet him.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I wanted to get a restaurant. So I had my resume in my jacket pocket.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
and he comes over he introduces himself he talks for a second and he asked me what i did i said listen i'm a cook in new york but i'd love to work here and i gave my resume right on the dining room floor and he told me listen uh you know we i don't know if we have anything but here call my assistant tomorrow and i called this assistant like every day for like a month until finally she was like just show up on saturday saturday i show up no one knows i'm supposed to be there no one has any idea i'm there
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I get there. They're like, who are you? They just throw a uniform at me, and they're just like, go find something to do. So I find one cook. I do one thing all day. I dice leeks. I did that really bad for a while, and they kept yelling at me, and I finally did it okay. I dice leeks all day. No one says anything to me. The day ends, and everyone's going home, and I'm like, all right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So I throw my uniform in the bin, and I'm like, I guess no one's going to talk to me today. The next day I show up, I find the guy, I get the leaks again, and I do it again. No one really talks to me. This goes on for like three or four days.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then the executive chef at the time, a terrifying man named Alex Lee, one night during dinner service kind of looks over and he's like, and he like points at me and I'm like, me? He's like, yeah. He goes, come here. I walk up to the pass and he's like, who the fuck are you? And I'm like, my name is Mario Carbone. I've been here for five days. No one's talked to me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I've been cutting leaks for four days. I just need a job. And he's like, there's no work here for you. There's no jobs here. I'm totally full. He's like, go to one of the other restaurants in the company tomorrow and see if there's a job there. So I spent a week at Danielle without really anyone talking to me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Well, it's more that we keep tons of notes on everybody. And it can go from allergies, the table they like, the table they don't like, preferential amount of time, when they want to dine, et cetera, et cetera. So we keep notes on everybody because that's the crux of the business. Who's coming in tonight, right? That's everything. We can't just open the door to random.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I wound up getting a job at one of the other restaurants and I worked there for- Which one? Cafe Bouloud. Bouloud. So it was, at that time it was, I was like 22. Me, David Chang owns Momofuku. That's what I was about to say. This is a really, and then also Teresa, right? My partner, Rich.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
With Rich as well? No, just me and him. But Rich was my roommate. so we would like after work, we would, we would, we would spend like before, like before we'd crash, we'd spend time like talking about ideas, talking about like how we were going to get, how we were going to get started, what his place was going to be like, what my place was going to be like.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then, um, in 2008, there was a financial crisis and like all money dries up, all investors dry up, everyone's done. And, but we were ready. It was like, this is our time. So instead of trying these separate ideas, um, And individually, we were like, the only way, if we want to be our own boss, like next year, the only way we're going to do this is if we do it together. Wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And we pooled our resources, our money, and we took a space a couple hundred feet away that was like 450 square foot jean shop. And it was on Mulberry and Prince, but we just, we thought that that was it. We thought that was the energy, that was the spot, that's where we needed to be. And that was...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Teresi Italian Specialties.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's unbelievable. Foosball, two out of three.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
At first... At first it was... We opened it as a sandwich shop. That did well. But our goal was to open it at night and do kind of a serious dinner. It was one set menu on a chalkboard. And when we started opening at night, no one really came. And if they did come, they were like, oh, I heard you sell sandwiches. And we're like, yeah, but in the daytime.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And they're like, yeah, but there's nobody here making a sandwich. We're like, no, that's not the thing. That's not what we're doing. We're doing this menu thing. That took a while.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You want the money or not? I see what you're saying, but I'm going to die on my morals here. It took a while for people to figure out what was going on there. And what do you think it was? Eventually, we got a great review from New York Magazine, and that started a bit of a line outside, people waiting for reservations, the shit that we had never seen before, almost overnight.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
wow does that go for every nice exclusive restaurant is this like everyone keeps notes and they all do it their own way but everyone keeps notes on their customers and and there's you know there's softwares for this that help you track all this information how many times have they been there what was the last time they were there but the beer move that would work in most places the beer move works in in in most places it works it works great i really appreciate it guys this is ricky everybody
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You don't. And at first, when they came the first time, they were alone in the dining room. We knew them. And so we cooked for them. We talked to them. We were friendly. They left. They came back next week. And I was like, Rich, man, they must really like it. They're here again. And he's like, yeah, cool, you know, whatever. Third time they come and I'm like, oh. They make it short.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Oh, they're writing a review on this train shot. So do you spice it up on that last one? I mean, we gave it all we had. I mean, we threw everything we had at it, but it wasn't much at the time. We only had this one little menu. Yeah, no sandwiches. We had no sandwiches, just enough money to kind of make a chalkboard. Were you both in the kitchen at that time?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
it's only five employees total you know there's like me him a dishwasher one one waitress i mean that's everybody right so we're open we're open six days a week on the seventh day we were closed we would do a prep and he and i would go in lock the door we'd go in we'd crank we'd crank the radio and we would prep all day just to get ready so we're working seven days um but we were the only employees but we were living the dream there's a uh
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Are you sweating the reviews when the special comes out?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, I used to hear that back in the 70s and 80s, if you got a great New York Times review, that the owners would literally tear it out of the newspaper, walk into the bank, and get a loan. Wow. Be like, here. Wow. That's all you need. The old New York Times critics used to tell me that. Wow. Yeah. So were they drunk off that power? I mean, that was the top.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, there was no Michelin in America back then.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like a little dirty martini. Ooh, wait a minute.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
see and i overcompensate i over tip because of the because that's a great scene in my blue heaven yeah with steve martin goes over over tipping fantastic movie but wait a minute yeah is there a version where over tipping makes you look a little funny
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Simply taking care of the staff. I actually think that's true. Yeah, I might have been.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Wait, 20% is generous? 15% I can't do? Were you unhappy with your service?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, yes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's starting. Yeah, I would only go under 20% if I was unhappy with myself.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
But if you are unhappy... He's always unhappy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
This guy is never happy. You might want to start staying home.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That used to be the good spot. But now you're tipping for all sorts of things that don't warrant any sort of tips. Like, what are we talking about here? Like what? I mean, if you're just going to the coffee shop, you're getting a cup of coffee, all of a sudden the screen spins around.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I'm still confused by self-checkout at the airport because people are working those... They understand that you're going to have trouble with this, and there's people that are helping you check out, which is no longer the whole purpose of this experience.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Is that like a strategic move? So the strategy that's implemented there is if you have like one main guy who's like the head porter, right? He's doing the hiring. there's constantly infighting amongst communities. If you start blending communities, there's going to be all sorts of stupid drama that's going to happen because they're fighting with each other.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And it's best to sort of hire one community of people.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And it's just a happier house, right? Everyone gets along. It's all one community. The staff meal's all the same, right? You don't have to deal with Mexicans making pork for the Muslims and they're fighting about it. It's just a happier house.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Incredible chefs. I mean, Mexican cuisine is arguably the most complex food there is, period. Talk that shit. Period. Starting with, like, the Aztecs into the Spanish into the regional Mexican cuisine. Oh, thank you. It's an incredibly difficult... So, if they can cook mole, they can cook whatever else the fuck you want. So, then why... And they work hard. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No one asked him about them pyramids. Yeah, he knows. He knows. No one questioned him.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, I'm sure it is. It doesn't affect ours. I mean, we just don't allow illegal immigrants to work in the restaurants, right? I mean, you have to have proper paperwork. We don't fuck with that. It's not worth bringing the house down.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Because I see it looks like... You go to Roosevelt Avenue and you get paperwork made.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It helps.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It happens. You talking tariffs now? We've got one guy who comes in every now and again and will spend a great deal of money. And regardless of what the bill is, leaves 100% tip.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Well, we were pretty frugal early on, but we knew that. Why would you bring that up? We knew. We knew we needed help. We were just two chefs who were trying to figure out the rest of it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Oh, wow. And when we got somebody that was like noteworthy coming in, it was heavy because the room is this big, you know, like Stout would bring Hovind and he'd sit in the corner and you're like, oh, shit. Wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, that's crazy. So early days were kind of crazy when we were getting momentum because that was the room. That was everything. But when we met Jeff, Jeff was one of the kind of early customers. We knew him. We had similar friends in the same business. And he came in and he quickly kind of identified that we had a chance of being something much bigger than we are right now.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And he thought he could bring the rest of it to the table, which... We would have learned. I believe we would have learned, but it would have taken a while.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's phenomenal. It was an Italian restaurant. Rocco, right? Yeah, Rocco from the 20s. Yeah. I think it was a Genovese family kind of like Stallworth restaurant. Oh, wow. There were a couple of questionable doors in there that were for them, back courtyards and shit. And it finally kind of fell on disrepair. And we found out about it through the guy who owns the space knew Jeff somehow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And we wind up getting it. It was at the time crazy expensive. Now it's a great deal. But at the time, it was crazy expensive for us.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like $18,000 a month in 2012, 2013.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
When we first opened, there was a big push of... who do you think you are sentiment from sort of the community at large, because we had gone from these kind of lovable guys charging a small amount of money in New York to tuxedos, you know, expensive dishes, table side, um, You know, there was a sentiment of like, don't you know Emilino's down the block? What are you doing?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
What are you trying to do here? You know, there was that, especially from the older generation. So we had to kind of push through that. So you had immediate almost rejection. We had a bit of rejection from like the food community. Not necessarily the patrons, but the journalists, certainly the ones that had been around a while and seen a lot of shit. And you were their darlings.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Because we were acting older. Yeah. We had guys like him in tuxedos. We would put fake ads in newspapers and Craigslist to hire old school waiters because I didn't want kids. We created a fake steakhouse for them to respond to because those are the style of restaurants that they want to take jobs in. Yeah. And so I got old school guys to come in and, and respond to those ads.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The kitchen's not getting the restaurant's alcohol. So at the end of the night, they're going to have your two cases of beer to crack open after a long service. They're hot. They're sweaty. It's been a long night.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then I told them what we were doing and put them in tuxedos, play the old music, do the old vibe, you know, cause everything in 2013, everything was this big. All the food was this big. The trend was 20 course tasting menus. And we were doing, we were, we were going completely against that. And to do that in our, in our 30 years old was, didn't make any sense to anyone for a minute.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And it took a little bit of time. And then we got to the New York Times review. We got an incredible New York Times review. Before that, it was the price point that they were frustrated by? It was that we made such a big leap that it caught people off guard.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The same person that was applauding me a couple months ago down the block in that little place was like, wait a minute. What'd you just do?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So... To know that we were putting ourselves out there in that way and to have that be the initial response. Again, we were getting traction on the ground. People were enjoying themselves. The vibe in the restaurant was good. I was just worried a little bit at like the community at large. And it took a kind of a flag being planted by the New York Times to say, no, this is accredited.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
This belongs here. So New York Times comes in and thwarts all the other criticism. They basically wait to be the last one. So in a big review like that, the New York Times will take that position and they'll wait for New York Magazine and The Post and all the other publications to weigh in. And then they'll go last.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Because no one's ever really thrown a critic out. Wait, what happened? I wasn't... Again, young and a little spicy at the time. But the critic at the time for New York Magazine had come in and he wrote a really poor review. And I just didn't like the way he went about it. And I was also young and sensitive. And I didn't like the review. I didn't like the way he went about it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
What do you mean you didn't like the way he went about it? I remember he brought in other chefs to sit with him. And I didn't think that was cool to review it. And I thought he had an agenda. I thought he didn't like it from before he even sat down. He never gave us a chance. So he wrote this pretty terrible review. And then we had a little bar down the block.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And he tried to go to that bar a couple weeks later. And he's supposed to be anonymous, but I know who he is. And he shows up and we threw him out. And that became a whole thing because no one's ever done that. And in hindsight, probably I wouldn't have done it again. But that's how I felt at the time.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I appreciate the ones that do real homework, that come with real, like, either they've been in the business a really long time, but you can tell that the way they go about it, the way that they research it, whether they like it or not, it comes from a real place of understanding. And at that point, you can't, you can't, you can only say so much.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You know, there's a couple of critics. There's one named Ryan Sutton, who is a really, really bright journalist who knows his shit inside and out. And sometimes he's written really beautiful reviews for us, and sometimes he hasn't. And if I look back at the ones that he was more critical of, they are some of the projects that I think needed more work than others.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think he was probably right about them.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That simple.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You tell a joke and you know... You know right away. Like, I deliver the plate and it's gone. Like, did you like it or not? And you ate it or no? Like, it's instant gratification. Yeah. Which is just beautiful, right? And, like... It disappears. You make something, it's a disappearing art. It goes on a plate and it's consumed and it's gone.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Carbone was a very intentional project. sort of celebration. It's an Italian-American restaurant, right? So it immediately doesn't exist in the country of Italy. It's born and raised in America, like I am. So if you start to look at it and you're telling a story, and for me, restaurants are most closely similar to theater.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You build a stage, you're telling a story, you're in costume, you're trying to make this believable play that starts at the exact same time every day with the same cast in same uniform for a different audience. It's theater. And you're trying to create something that's transportive. I want to take you somewhere. And in Carbone's perspective, it's first generation Italian Americans.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So I say it's Michael. It's not Vito. Right. It's Michael. He struggles with Italian. Right. In the movie. Right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I'm incentivizing them. Well, this is a tradition. I mean, if you're at a sushi bar, that's a classic move. It's like, hey... You get a round of beers for all the sushi chefs. That's a classic move. First thing you do when you sit in a nice sushi bar, buy a round of beers for all the chefs. This is game changing.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
He can speak it a little bit, but it's not his native tongue. He's born in New York, right? This is a thing that's born in New York. It's really not recognized. It's not understood by Italians. It's our thing. So when did that take place? If you think about the Godfather movie, the first reference is Louie's Italian-American restaurant where he kills Sollozzo. That's the 40s and 50s.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So that's where I wanted to set the restaurant to that period. So then I start thinking about, okay, if it's 1950 New York, What's the music? What's the uniform? What's the menu look like? What's the server look like? What is this? Because I want you, the customer, to walk into it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
He's a better chef than I am, right? We're both chefs, but he's... Better foosball player. He is a better fucking foosball player. Super talented, militant about how he goes about things. I'm much more... I live in the margins, right? I tell these sort of stories. They don't necessarily... There's a perfection to the imperfection for me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
While he's more like a Swiss watch, he's been trained by the best chefs in the world. He's an incredible... I've taken a little bit from him and I think he's taken a little bit from me of how we go about making something. Um, and, and that's proven really, really, really special for us.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Um, and how the end result gets there, because I think without either one of us, it's a really different product. Um, but, but we approach it really differently. And I didn't, you know, if there's like a chef competition, like he wipes the floor with me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I always say that it's really flattering when they come because they can call anybody, right? Like, there's no door that's not going to take Jay, right? So the fact that he came tonight means that he's, like, he's selected there. He's chosen to go there. So I think it's really flattering when we do get these sort of big celebrities and athletes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And as far as taking care of them, I think the most important thing is making sure that you do everything you can as a restaurant, as a team, to protect their privacy. They're not there to be on display. You want to try to make an environment that's really nurturing for that and make sure that they're protected. The team knows that. Their anonymity is everything to me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And I think if you do that, then they respect it, put out a good product, make something they want to come back for, and hopefully they'll be part of the regular.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't think we've ever thrown anybody out. I think we've definitely gotten in the way of photos. Hey, I'm sorry, but Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so is having dinner. Please respect that. I don't think we've ever thrown anybody out. Anybody that's banned? We have a few banned. Who's banned? I don't know who's banned. One of the only ways to get banned in this company... You think he's a rat?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
One of the only ways to get banned in the company is to treat the staff poorly. So who treats them the worst?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No, Bezos is a good guy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I had to do, I did the Today Show last week from a cruise ship.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
that okay so you're not gonna give us any shit you're not gonna give us wait but why would someone get banned they're addicted if you're if you if you like treat the staff poorly you you know you cuss at them you get drunk you yell at them god forbid you put your hands on them like you got you got it you know you're you're never yeah you're never coming back and we have you know we have door guys and we have security around i mean the restaurants are too busy and too high profile to not um but so the fastest way to never come back here is to mistreat the staff
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, I'd like them to go out of the way because they, you know, that's their home too, right? Like you're disrespecting their home. This is where they make their money. This is their family too. The staff doesn't really turn over. They're really close as a, they're a really close knit group.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
There's a certain amount of like, there's a cadence to how I want. And we do kind of put it in the book too. A cadence to how we talk to tables and how we take an order. There's a way that we do it. Like Ricky's voice is basically in this book as like how we take an order. Because they're captains. They're not there to take orders, right? They're there to guide your experience.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They're there to guide your experience.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
first rap song i think was drake um i think the first one i think drake was the first one to do it i i think so and did that blow your mind like how do you find out about it that's a great question yeah people just started texting it to me um we didn't know it was happening of course and um it's crazy yeah it's crazy like i'll be working out in the gym and like some song will come on the mention carbone it's absolutely bananas did he hit you up before
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No, no, no. No one's told me before. I mean, it's, it's been, it's happened a couple of times. It was just like the cover of someone's album. Someone that's on rock nation. Like they just took a, they just took an iPhone photo in front of Carbone and that was the cover of their album.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
46?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No, no. Calm the place. Or you give it to the waiter and say, hey, I brought a couple cases of beer for the kitchen. Does the type of beer matter? I mean, chefs drink, you know, simple, cold, easy drinking.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, don't bring them any, like, weird, hazy IPAs.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
A little Modelo, you know? I'm mad at Modelo.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I got it. Yes. You order a nice. So this is a front of the house. You're going to get some appreciation. You order a bottle of champagne. Whether you're talking to the waiter or the sommelier, you order the bottle of champagne. And right before they leave, you kind of grab them, give them a little whisper and say, I don't want the champagne flutes. Bring me wine glasses.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Can it even go Lakers, or are they going to play each other before that?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Selma, are we asking for you?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think if you order something that has a specific in it, it's cooked to this temperature, I want it without pistachios, you know, I think. And it didn't happen that way. You order an expensive steak, you want it rare, and it comes out well done. Like, send that shit back. Like, that should be sent back. That was completely mismanaged.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I would send it back. That's disgusting. It should be sent back. It should be taken off the bill. It should be made right.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
A real wine drinker never, ever drinks champagne out of champagne flutes. Wow. This is bars. Keep going. And the second you tell them, if you say AP glasses, which is all purpose, or you say, bring me white wine glasses for the champagne, that immediately says, you know what the fuck you're talking about.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think the highest level Italian food in New York beats the highest level in Italy. All day. Wow.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's what happens. Thoughts on that? I don't think that's totally inaccurate. I think New York is the greatest food city in the world. And at the highest level, it is often better than the best in that country because it has to be. Wait, why does it have to be? To survive. Yeah. Because there's so much competition. Yeah, you're in New York.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
If you're going to have the best Indian restaurant in New York, it better be one of the best restaurants in the world. Jersey kind of beats out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You're working overtime. You're working overtime.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't need your takeout dollars.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, that's right. We kept the lights on with that one.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Dude, how have you accomplished that? It's so refreshing. Lots of black people at Carbone. That's not a celebrity. Yeah. It's not my fault you're not famous. Step it up.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's better for the champagne. No one likes drinking out of these skinny little things. It's actually not great for the champagne. You want a real wine glass for your champagne. No one ever does that. So the second you tell them that, that immediately puts them on that you know what you're talking about. And you get a little more respect. You get immediate respect.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You start taking things off the table. So slowly, one item at a time, you start taking things off the table.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So the first thing is you start taking things off the table. You've dropped the bill, right? Yeah. That's the first move. Drop the bill. If the bill's on the table and they haven't paid it yet, then you're going to slowly start taking things off the table until they realize, potentially, subliminally, oh, we probably should go. They're removing things. They may not.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The next round would be to offer them an after-dinner drink somewhere else in the restaurant, at the bar, another location. So that's the emergency. Can I buy you guys a drink at the bar? I need you off this table.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's class. I'm going to pay you to leave. Yeah. Yeah. Because you're guessing, right? You're guessing the amount of time people are going to stay and you built this book off of that. Yeah. So if they're staying far too long, then it's going to start screwing up the next round.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Your chances are going to go through the roof.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, I can't. Even if that table's available, it's not really. Because it's 7. It's about to get sat. Yeah. But you could potentially get in and get out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And the restaurant just won a whole nother seat. That's free money.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I've seen some- Well, I think it's actually part of our reservation protocol. You make a reservation, the email confirmation probably says at some of the restaurants that children under a certain age-
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
so there's a lot with like shorts and sandals like that there's yeah some restaurants just won't have baby chairs that's a great way of doing it i mean if you're like a brunch restaurant then that's obviously a kid-friendly environment yeah you're going for like a really nice dinner probably at the place for an infant how do you talk to someone that shows up in sandals
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's why we built it into—that's why we have, like, a backup and says, hey, listen, it's actually on your reservation. It says, you know, like, proper attire.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Can I call out somebody that refuses to wear pants? Yes. noriega nori wear shorts everywhere fucking refuses to put pants on i don't have the old pants go grab me the the drink champs uh heavyweight championship belt that's out there refuses to wear pants that's like not to the restaurant in life because he's on the run eating you can't be noriega you can't be
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, listen, it was revenue for us. It was good revenue for us. But for the city, it had to go. It had to go. Why? Because there was no rules around it. These restaurants don't really have extra money to do it, right? But they need to capitalize on it. So they're building up these shanty towns in front of their restaurants. It's a horrendous look for the city. Thank you, Ricky.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's the number one thing that I spend the most of my time on, and the most difficult thing, I think, is consistency. Okay. trying to build protocols and like, you know, WhatsApp chats and video zooming and, and digital recipes and all sorts of like processes so that their chefs can communicate all over the world. Cause they're all making virtually the same thing. Um, we're,
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
spending more money and more time every year to try to get better at it, it's really hard. It's really the hardest thing. It's harder than everyone assumes it's staffing, which is hard. But once you get good people, I think they stay because they want to be part of a good team and they want to make good money, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's all digital. So once you call for the second time, Immediately, the person that's on my team that's picking up the phone or looking at the email has side-by-side your information. You're at the back of your baseball card. Here's what you do. Here's who you are. Here are your likes, dislikes. Here's what you spent. Here's et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Not that it's always about spending.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's the consistency that is number one by far for me and the thing that will keep me up most at night.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's a democratic society. I mean, it's a policy that's just one month out. You're just going to lie to the people again?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
is your a chef as good as your b chef no otherwise you'd be the asia so then how do you maintain consistency or maybe a better question is what days is your a chef there it's tough with carbone because we're blessed to kind of have the same business almost every night usually what you do is you put your b chef on your b nights right which is like monday tuesday wednesday sunday maybe depending on depending on the location like i feel like
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
New York Sunday is a big— Sunday can be big. It depends. If you're uptown or you're midtown, the weekends are quiet. Midtown is Monday to Friday. Saturday, Sunday, quiet. Usually Sunday closed. Midtown, quiet. Downtown, you have a good Sunday, so you're looking at Monday, Tuesday. The best nights for us in the company are Wednesday, Thursday, usually.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Thursday's like the biggest night of the week for sales. Wow. Why is that? I don't know. It's been like that for a while now. Thursday, I mean, yeah, you get a Friday. Saturday is that kind of like bridge and tunnel thing. That's a real thing. And it's a lower check average. It's more customers. They eat for less period of time. They spend less money. They spend less time there.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We do more reservations. It takes more customers to do the same number of revenue.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They got to go back to the kids, the nanny, whatever.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's a great question. I think you have to, one, be okay with a certain amount of dilution, right? You have to understand that it's no longer as potent as it was when there was one. Sure. Wow. You have to make peace with that. Yeah. You're now on an entrepreneurial journey and it's no longer about, I'm the chef of this one restaurant. I'm here every night. I'm going to cook for you.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
which is a beautiful thing. But when you've made that choice to take on a more entrepreneurial venture, you have to make peace with that to a certain degree. And now that we're growing further and further beyond that one location, it becomes...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
consistency you know can somebody on the other side of the world tonight have a very similar pasta than they will at new york um that's the that for me that's all the brand that's the brand right there right um i can i can i can set the playlist i can make the uniforms the same i can do all of those moves but what's going to happen when the waiter delivers that plate of food
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We just want to curate a room so that it's not random.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, I think we've done that a lot over the last few years is trying to make things that are I call them big bullseye, you know, like they have a big bullseye. They're much more easily replicable for whatever reason than a dish that takes a lot of time. In the moment talent.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like the ticket comes in, I ordered this thing and it takes a great deal of talent to make this from scratch versus something that is predetermined to be in a big strike zone. And I have a pretty good confidence that it's going to land somewhere here and it's going to be pretty tasty. Can you give us examples of big bullseye and maybe even small bullseye?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like rigatoni vodka, which I sell probably the most of all the restaurants, right? You call it rigatoni vodka.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You don't know that that's what everybody calls it, the spicy rig? The spicy rig?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We're going to go with the pastrami? Yeah. I mean, I feel like it's iconic for that burger.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Imagine you can be Henry Hill walking in the back of Copa. Exactly. If I can deliver that.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
But that's a perfect shot, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's a perfect shot that Scorsese set up to have all that shit happening that I have to have running for six hours, right? Yeah. I have to have a six-hour Fellini movie happening at all times. Yeah. Where there's a guy lighting something on fire, there's a hot girl in the corner, there's something, there's an athlete over there, and then you walk in.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And you're having that Henry Hill moment. Yeah, yeah. I've got to have that going for six hours.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Or just stands out? The dish there for me is, um, there's a couple, there's the Jamaican, the Jamaican beef patty cavatelli, which we've been doing since the original. Um, because when we, when we built Teresi. Rich, did you see he just took credit for your dish?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The tortellini is crazy, too. We wanted to make Italian food that was... We called it New Yorkese. Because there isn't really Italian food in Italy. There's regional Italian food. And they don't fuck with the other regions. Tuscany doesn't care about Sicily. They just became Italy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They've been in Italy way less years than we've been in America. And... We were like, what if we make our own region of Italian food that is New York-based? That's great. We pulled from the Jewish Lower East Side. We pulled from Jamaican beef patties being in pizzerias randomly. We pulled from all the German low-key.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We pulled from all of that that was New York to make this food that was our New York food. We believed that we were doing the most Italian thing possible by not making Italian food.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We're comedians. We love bomb stories. Bombs are more like no one orders it, right? Like, less they order it and they don't like it, more like you put all this effort into something and zero one of them will order it back.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
know yeah and for for chefs usually it's like really chefy shit right like you want to you want to get you want to get away from the mainstream ingredients because something's in season or something's you know some farmer drops something off and you're really excited about it and you and particularly at carbone because you're being bulldozed with the number one menu right yeah everyone's now ordering through social media and like the thing you have to order to be there right and
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's so hard to sell them something else at this point because they need the verification of being there. Yeah, it's like Bert Kreischer's machine story. This is what we came for. Like, no, no, no, this thing's amazing. Sure, get the rigatoni, but I promise you, this is great.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Anything that would kind of... I mean, they're going to see through those. Yeah. Yeah. I mean... Walk up reservations because at that point you're at their mercy. Thank you so much. I think try to kill with kindness. You'll take anything. Listen, I'll take I'll take your worst two seats. I'll take the bar stools. I'll take whatever you got. So instead of trying a big shot. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
No, I think specials this day and age are something that they're actually trying to work on and it's new. Um, I rather reprint the menu and not verbal a special. And so that when like Ricky verbals things at your table, that's part of a script, like kind of a script because there, I want there to be a back and forth between you and the waiter.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't want to just drop menus and then you come back and you tell me what you ordered. There's no, there's nothing, there's nothing there for me.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I want a conversation. So I force these things. I force conversational moments during the order taking. Meatballs are not on the menu at Carbone. That's an intentional thing because as soon as you order pasta, that's a trigger for the waiter to say, you want meatballs? Yeah. You want me to put some equals on it?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
ordered there are there any other secret menu items like you have the meatballs obviously they're kind of off many but anything else that someone could order yeah there's i mean there's all sorts of like little we call them pocket pocket moves right like things that you can do um well i hate when the waiter has to ask the chef Like when the waiter says that, oh, let me ask the chef. Oh, yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I really don't like that. I hate it in my restaurants. So I try to make sure that the waiter, the waiters, the captains, they know all the things that are possible. So that when they're at a table and they're talking to you and you're like, yeah. No, I don't want the prosciutto. I don't eat pork. Oh, I can do roasted peppers with the mozzarella for you. That's not on the menu. But he knows.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
He doesn't have to go ask the chef.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I can do this, right? I'm not in the mood for veal parm tonight. You want to do a little Milanese? We'll put arugula salad, some tomatoes on it. Yeah, let's do that. Great. We'll do Milanese. These are real waiters. These are lifelong waiters. These are not transient people that are on their way to another thing. This is how they feed their family, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So give them all the tools to take care of this table and let us cook. You know, that's the model.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I'm really sensitive to lighting and music in restaurants at this point. Um, if the lighting is really harsh or the music is just, just off too loud, off theme, abrasive, I'm not feeling it. I'm immediately put in a weird situation. a weird place. I'm not comfortable. I'm not cozy. I want warm lighting. I want whatever the music is. I want it to be the vibe of what I think this place is.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Humbling yourself. Because that's all they've got, right? All they've got is this little bit of power that they've been given at this front desk, to your point. I would go with, listen, I'll take whatever it is. Give me your worst two seats. I'll be happy tonight. I'll be in and out quick. Yeah, try it out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then... Those are my two biggest ones because I think that sets the tone. How do I put people in their position to just kind of succumb to my thing tonight? And if you're not feeling it, you're uncomfortable, you're in a defensive place. And I don't want that. I want you to give in. I want you to be part of my movie. I want you to be an extra in this thing.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And to give in, you have to be totally comfortable. And you've mentally bought into this thing. As soon as that guy walks up to your table with giant menus, you're giving in. It's in your hands.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It felt like to me, at the time when we did it, again, we were going against... To people that don't know, can you just, with your hands, show how big a menu is from Carbo?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Two, three feet by three. It's a small flat screen TV. Yes.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's gigantic. At the time we were going against the micro tasting menu. That was like a little index card. You're here all night. It's the chef's way. There's no substitutions. You have no autonomy, no agency. You mean you, you matter nothing. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You matter nothing. Wow. And here, you know, I remember writing an Italian, like have it kind of have it your way. Like it says a piacere, like piacere. The way you want it. If you don't see anything on this menu, tell me what you want. Yeah. We want it to be a yes restaurant. Because to me, that's what Italian restaurants are.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Italian restaurants, by nature, especially in Italy, is a night off for mom and dad. Because you eat so well at home. Wow. This is so fascinating. I never even considered that. You eat so well at home that to go out... It's a night off for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're just using this restaurant as a conduit to eat well, hopefully.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Because they have to worry about what's been plotted for the night, right? So at Carbone, it's about a two-and-a-half-hour meal. So we're plotting these reservations, right? It's a very tricky little dance that we're assuming the 5.30 reservation is going to be done at 8 o'clock, right? But it may not happen that way.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And if you're hoping it's as good as what's at home.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I know what I'm talking about. I'm a customer that's highly edgy.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's why, by and large, superfine dining in Italy is not great, in my opinion, because they're competing with phenomenal base food of their mom and their grandma. And so they're trying to make this thing that's nouvelle, this new take on it, when the base product is fantastic.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Let's imagine. You have 200 seats to fill for a night to make your money. Yeah. You can't leave it to chance that these two people are going to come in, they're going to fill those seats, and they're going to spend good money tonight. Of course, we keep information on everybody, like who's coming in, who are our regulars, take care of those people, what's their spend, so that I know...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So the fact that if they've got an extra table, they might give it to you if you're like, I'm going to be in and out quick. Does how you dress for the walk-up make any difference? It depends on the restaurant.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I was 20 and I just moved to Italy and I moved to the middle of nowhere. Where? Northwestern Tuscany. Italy, Italian, English wasn't even really spoken. Modena? No, this is like... North of Pisa in like near, you're trying to like choose a town that maybe you've heard of that's near, like near Lucca. It's middle of nowhere.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And I moved there to live with a family that ran just like exactly the kind of restaurant you hope to run into when you're on vacation. The most amazing mom and pop restaurant. The family lived above the restaurant. The restaurant was on the ground floor. Their apartment was above it. I lived with the family in the extra room. How did you find these guys?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I would trim it a little. I think it depends on the restaurant a little bit. But really, I would say kill them with kindness. Try to get in and out quick. I'll take any seat you got.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Mario Batali helped me set it up. So you were working at Babbo. You talked to Mario. You asked him, say, I really want to learn. I said, I'm from New York. I only know this food. I want to learn the origin of this whole thing. I need to train in Italy. I need to learn this. Can you help me set up? He connected me to an author who lived in Rome, who knew this family.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And I lived with them for almost two years. He saw talent in you early, though, Mario? I think he saw an aptitude for work. I don't know if I had talent back then. I know I had a very high threshold for work. He saw ambition. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Life-changing. There's only one phone number for the whole building, so even if you're upstairs watching the soccer match, you have to answer the phone as if it's a reservation. Yeah. Right. It's your day off and you're upstairs and you're like, you have to take a reservation. It's as mom and pop as it gets. And that was like that. How was your Italian at the time and how much better did it get?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It was not good at all. But I had a, you know, this is before like technology in your pocket. This is 2000. I had a little book in my, like a little translator in my back pocket, a little thesaurus, and I would learn what I needed for the day. And by the time I was done, I spoke the language.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They thought I was crazy, like a crazy American who works too much. Exactly what you would think a European thinks of an American. Why do you work so hard? Can't you just take the afternoon off? It's not all about...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The paycheck, like you need to like instill like the beauty of the process, you know, and a lot of it was, you know, going to the field to find the thing or visiting the farmer, like exactly what you would think. The quintessential food experience would be in Tuscany. I got to live that. You know, a certain mushroom would come in and the chef would be like, hey, go up that road right there.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You see those bushes over there? Like, yeah. He's like, there's an herb that grows over there. Pick a bunch of it and bring it over. It goes for this mushroom. Oh, that's cool. You know, like shit like that, that would happen to me. That's just like, as a kid from Queens, it was like as life-changing as it gets. The Italian food that I knew was the Italian food I make today.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like Italian, real Italian, greasy Italian-American food. That was like, wow, this is where it comes from. This is Vito Corleone.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think it works. I'm not advocating for it because my team is very well paid, but I mean, I'm sure it works.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It depends on who's doing it, but I think if it's great, it's great. If you believe it, if you're about it, if you've put the work into it, Like, why can't that be your transport of experience? It doesn't have to be mine. Mine's mine. If that's yours, then, then great. I'm all for it. I want to experience it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think I learned a great appreciation for how they live. I think at 20 years old, as someone who wanted to tackle the world... Probably not. I think I was just as bullish coming back to the States after that trip about wanting to be this chef entrepreneur who conquers New York more than ever.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I loved my afternoons playing soccer, getting four hours off between lunch and dinner, but I knew that that wasn't my life. I knew that I was coming back to Manhattan to be in the jungle and to conquer it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
If you, if it turns out you're like talking to the general manager and not just like, a well-paid general manager and you try to give him a 20 spot, he's going to be like, what are you doing here? What's going on here?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
that eagerness, that urge. Cause I, for me, it was like, I knew that that was just part of my journey to get to this end goal of make it in New York. That was the, that was the only goal for me. Is that the pinnacle for like, what is the pinnacle for a chef? As a, as a new, as a New York kid training in Manhattan.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
My ultimate goal, which I far exceeded, which is incredible, was just like make a name for myself in New York City, which seemed impossible. But I was going to give it my best shot. The best chefs in the world, the best restaurants in the world. There's so many of them. There's so much noise. There's so much talent. Can I make a name for myself in this city that I've always called home?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So to get that recognition from the New York Times, from the biggest publications of New York, from your colleagues, from your peers, I couldn't have thought of anything higher. And now we've expanded far beyond New York. But for me, that was always the goal.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Um, there's a, there's a great chef named Luciana who's in Miami. She was originally from Miami. She opened Carbone with us in New York. Who's opened a handful of restaurants in Miami. Who's been really successful. Um, but by and large, I'm really proud that most of the great talent in the company has risen within the company. So, um,
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So the people that run this company, like the top 10 people in this company have been there since almost the beginning. Wow. They're partners in the company. They have ownership in it. Oh, wow. And they've been there forever. So I'm really proud that they haven't had to leave. And we've grown fast enough to where even their ambitions were met within the walls of the company.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Oh, yeah. Good call. It's very hard to find a restaurant that embodies New York quite like Katz's. Okay. I would send them to Katz's, maybe Peter Luger's. My dad's 84 years old, and his family would go to Katz's. I mean, and it's still... Wow. Fucking great. Complain all you want for what it costs. It's incredible.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's one of the few old school places that are still around that are putting out product as good as they have since day one. It's incredible.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So I'm going to put Lucali up there because Mark's my cousin. That's your cousin? Basically.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Mmm, best burger. I love the age burger at Mineta Tavern. I still love that burger. And I'm going to throw in Hometown.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Billy's the fucking man, dude.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Nakazawa was a great call. I'll take Nakazawa.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Cafe China. Szechuan. Spicy as fuck. Mm-hmm. Indian food. I love Sichuan.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Indian food. Well, we're about to get Gymkhana from London, which is my favorite Indian food in the world. Have you been to Gymkhana? You're the whitest person.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
mexican i just opened a great mexican restaurant in miami what is it it's called chateau it's an old french chateau that we made this like really dope mexican restaurant out of um because i actually got a chance to spend a bunch of time in mexico mexico city but traveling around a little bit to other regions as well um my favorite mexican here i mean cosme is amazing amazing yeah
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, I heard that voice. I know that that is the Jim Connor.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Pujol is incredible. Contramar, Pujol. Even their old breakfast spots called Cardinal. The old school Mexican breakfast spots like the Sedels of Mexico City. They're incredible.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't know if I have an answer for that. I don't know if I've done a lot of chocolate chip cookie research. Are you a sweets guy? I am a sweets guy. I'm a sucker. Italians are suckers for like sweet breakfasts. I don't know why. It's like they're a big pastry coffee culture. So I think I'm a sucker for that stuff too. Like all things from donuts to like all things croissant.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I love all that shit. Best bakery then? Best bakery... They're talking my fat ass language.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's great.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They make some really incredible pastries and breads. Yeah. Balthazar's Bakery I've always loved. Yeah, it's fun. Always loved that. I love the old school donut shops like Peter Pan. Oh, Peter Pan's great, yeah. I love donuts. I fucking love donuts.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I would order like a dry pasta, not a fresh pasta, dry pasta. It's trickier to make. So something like a spaghetti or penne rigatoni, a dry pasta, cooked perfectly, cooked from scratch, al dente, sauced right. It's trickier. It takes a certain touch of someone that really knows what they're doing. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Fresh pasta is easier. It's more forgiving. It's soft. It's luxurious.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It only cooks in a few seconds. It's good with just plain butter. It's harder with a dry pasta. It's trickier. That's interesting.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We serve a fantastic, big, thick-cut pork chop with vinegar peppers, which is a classic Italian-American dish that I order a lot when I'm there as a customer. Um, which is really important to be a customer, like to sit in the seat of a customer. Yeah. Um, I get, I get a whole different set of notes than I do when I'm in the kitchen, but pork chop with vinegar peppers. Great dish. That's the one.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
All right. What about at Teresa? A dish that doesn't get ordered that often. Um, His menu's smaller. He sells a lot of everything. The duck, the duck at Teresi. I've heard. He's a duck master. We used to have, we probably shouldn't say this, but we used to have
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So when we first opened Dirty French on the Lower East Side, Rich had developed a technique for cooking duck where the duck had to age for 30 days like beef. And what would happen was the skin got super dry and crispy when you cooked it, but also it tenderizes the meat just like it does with beef. We were selling a lot of duck.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We couldn't hold all the ducks we needed in the restaurant to age them for 30 days. So we rented an apartment across the street. You know what? On Ludlow, across the street from the restaurant. And the landlord didn't care at all. The landlord had no idea what we were doing. We just moved refrigerators. There's no furniture.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It was just refrigerators in an apartment across the street on Ludlow Street and ducks hanging everywhere. throughout the apartment, aging in this apartment. And then every day at four o'clock, you'd see a cook come out with just a tray of ducks from this apartment into the restaurant.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, no. We're trying to apply a pretty... You don't apply... For us, for example, we don't apply the same...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
price structure to an expensive bottle of wine as you do to a less expensive bottle right so you're generally you're looking at like a three-time markup on a less expensive bottle of wine a hundred dollars or less and then as it gets more and more expensive the markup becomes smaller um so like if it costs us five hundred dollars we're not charging fifteen hundred dollars we're probably charging close to a thousand dollars on it while a bottle that costs us 30 might we might charge 90.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So there's a greater threshold on a less expensive bottle than there is on a more expensive bottle. Those margins are critical to the survival of a restaurant because at the end of the day, the final number at the bottom is generally a really small – like everyone – like if you know anything about restaurants, you know that they're generally going to close and that you don't make a ton of money.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So that money that's made in alcohol is critical to the life of a restaurant. Yeah. Also, as opposed to food, it's non-perishable. If you fucked up and you ordered 40 ducks this week and only 20 people ordered the duck, you're gambling on something that's very perishable. Now you're eating it for staff meal and you lost money.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So it's a very fine dance with food and perishable items to get the number right so that they don't come to the table and like, sorry, we're out of the duck tonight or we eat it for staff meal. What's in between those two is like really knowing how to run this business. And it's a fine dance.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I would go back to the implementing the bring a beer rule. You're going out on a date and you carry this gift for the kitchen. And she wants to, like, what are you doing? Why you got, like, a 12-pack Coors Light? Like, oh, no, it's a thing that we do for the guys. And, like, that's going to put you in a position of, like, who is this guy? He's a regular.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
He got a carbon reservation, and he knows his place so well that he brought beers for the kitchen.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And then all of a sudden, they're going to start sending extras out, compliments of the chef. Now you look pretty great. Right. So I would go back to that strategy. Tell me about this F1 thing. F1 is our fourth year of doing it. I mean, obviously, Miami is at its capacity that weekend. The city's crazy. So the first year, we were sort of like, okay, well...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
If the restaurant's so full, maybe we can do something else. There's such a demand for this weekend. What can we do that's over the top to meet the weekend? So we kind of devised this idea of throwing this really elaborate supper club, dinner party, where there's a performance, there's house bands, Ricky sings. Ricky can sing? Oh, yeah. He's Sinatra.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So there's about 400 or 500 people that come. We build this giant, amazing tent on the sand of Miami Beach. There's a headlining performer every year. The very first one we ever got was Andrea Bocelli, which was crazy. Wow. Wait, where in Miami Beach? It's on basically 21st and Collins on the beach.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
what is that close to what it's like right where all the hotels are so like right behind the satai okay um on the actual sand we build the kitchen the whole thing friday saturday sunday night um in conjunction with f1 and it's it's pretty great i mean it's like it's a carbone meal but like plus plus plus it's like carbone meets uh form of the 12 caesars it's like really over the top um
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Get it? I see what you're doing. It's a tire. Michelin started as a subsidy for the tire company. Now it's no longer. So now it's a business. So I think you got to take that with a grain of salt. They're in their own business of selling books.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
and add all the live music, a giant ice sculpture, raw bar, and we throw everything at it. How does the average person go to something like this? Impossible. No, I mean, First Man Amex sells their tickets. You can buy tickets through them. You can buy tickets through us. You can get them at majorfoodgroup.com. You can get them through all the individual restaurants. We sell them on Instagram.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think Saturday sold out, but we still have tickets for Friday.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Like the last performance last year was Lauren Hill and it was one of, wow. Lauren was one of the great ones we've ever had, but we've had some amazing ones, but Lauren brought the house down. She's one of my favorites ever.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't have a lot of wants. It's amazing. I mean, like, things are fucking amazing. I mean, I've far exceeded my own expectations. Thank you, sir. He's got the orange. He's got the orange handkerchief for Frank. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
michelin's tricky for a lot of reasons if you're if you're to the restaurant that the kind of restaurant you're talking about they're they're going for that accolade there's this sort of assumption that you have to do it in a really tight way a really you know library style hush environment very sort of the chef is right he wants you to eat this from the left to the right sort of environment because they're they're coveting these these stars yeah um
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
like royalty or like a like a shake what's the weirdest request we had we had you know obama when he was still sitting president come in which was as new york new york yeah to have him as the sitting president eat at the restaurant and the protocol that goes around that is bananas okay what's the protocol Well, I was the only I was one of the only people that knew about it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So I was pretty convinced that they were watching my phone. So I didn't tell anybody because it was an unannounced. So that night it was unannounced. So no one knew that he was supposed to be there. So at that point, Secret Service deems anyone that's in the restaurant to be safe because they don't know what's happening. So they don't they don't they don't need to check that. Right. Interesting.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So the second that he shows up, then they go full... They shut down all communication. All phones stopped working. They set up a metal detector outside. Someone goes to every exit downstairs, throughout. There's someone in the kitchen with me. Um... And immediately, the second he walks in, then things sort of shut down. But it was amazing. He walked in, the place went absolutely bananas.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And so to have him there as the sitting president of the United States, and he's been back since, but to have him there that night was pretty unbelievable. Does he order... Or does he say, give me your best hits? Someone at the table ordered for everybody, and he ordered his drink, which was a dirty gin martini. So the only thing he ordered was his cocktail, but everything else just came out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So does he speak on any of the dishes? I went to the table. I said hi to him. He's unreasonably cool for President of the United States. He got up at the end of the night. He kind of addressed everybody in the crowd, which was amazing. Where do you seat him in the restaurant? We have one table in the back that's like... To the left. Yeah, tucked all the way up so that the most...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, that's a great question. There was a person in the kitchen that... They have a whole kit with them, a giant briefcase. And all that they asked of me that night was to let them know when we were preparing his food. And he got real close to the preparation of it. But I don't remember them tasting it ahead of time. I thought they were going to. That briefcase is doing something.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
These 200 people tonight are coming in, not just a random set of people, because that's drastically going to change what we do tonight as a business. So it's almost never random? It's not never. When was the last time you had a walk-up? It happens, but at Carbone, it's rare because it's in such demand. So we do put out reservations. Generally, what we do is we put out the shoulders.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
There's a whole kit of something in that briefcase that never came out.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Well, we're very close now still, which is great, with Danielle and Jean-Georges. Danielle, sorry. You know, it's important for Rich and I that we're close with that generation because they were our heroes. And they're still operating at a really high level, which is amazing. Rich was... even closer to Danielle because he had worked there for far more years than I had.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So that relationship's really important to him, but it's important to me as well. He definitely gives us our flowers, as does JG, Jean-Georges, and I think that that...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Relationship means the world to us because those coming up, reading the review every Wednesday in the New York Times as kids to see who got reviewed and to see their names and to eventually work with them and now to be their kind of colleagues and peers.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
is everything have you ever had a personal moment with him where he's like hey i'm really proud of you or even mario any of these people yeah i mean i've had i've had i've had a lot of moments of mario spent a lot of years in mario um i've had moments with you know danielle telling him that story about like the resume and having that moment with him where i get to tell him that story what did he say
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I don't know if that's a good business model. We are the opposite, right? Yes. I think that chefs, well-trained, high-level chefs fall in one of two categories, and we're firmly on one side than the other. There's two categories. Not that there's anything wrong with the two categories, but there's two firm categories.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
He doesn't remember it, but he loves that that happened. He loves that we're alumni. That means a lot to him. So to see the pride that we came from his kitchen, that we made it, is the greatest possible reward for us. That goes back to that. we made it in New York and that was the biggest thing we could have ever imagined. Yeah. I never thought about a restaurant in Hong Kong.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I just wanted to be, I wanted to be big here. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We talk about it from time to time for sure. I mean, there's definitely moments, especially cause you're, you're, you're creating something. So you're sensitive to it. So yeah, When we're criticizing each other for the betterment of whatever that thing is, you can't help but get emotional about it. I made that, so I'm sensitive to it. That still happens today.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I think the confidence that we have in that whole the band's not going to break up thing is that... Especially with Rich, I've known him my whole life, right? I've known him since I was a kid, since we're teenagers. So we know that if we're fighting about something or we're not agreeing, we're butting heads about something, that it's just like when you're doing that with your actual brother.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You built a friendship before.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
the business you're not gonna break up with your brother right like you're gonna fight with him you're gonna call him a dick and something's gonna happen and then tomorrow's gonna be tomorrow because that's your brother and he's gonna be there and like you're not gonna break up with your sibling so i think that that's what we have and there's never it's never gonna get so blown out of proportion that this whole thing is gonna be a house of cards
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
One category is the chef that spends all their training, all their work, their life, their life's journey to make something that you've never had before.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The confrontation's good.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
If you guys just agree with each other all the time, then, like, what... What are we doing here? It's not going to break us. The whole point is that we're going to make each other better. Some of our parts are going to be greater than us as an individual. Okay, before we get out of here, why is New York City the greatest city in the world?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I mean, there's just not another city that looks like this, right? There's not another city that looks like New York. I think for those that... For those that sort of complain about the classic New York isn't what it was, I think you're misunderstanding the point of New York. New York's job is to change. That's exactly what he's saying. I say this all the time. This is exactly what he said.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I can't tell you how annoyed I am. There's a generation of 18, 19, 20-year-olds that are getting their first taste of New York. It's the great... It's the great tournament of New York. How long are you going to be here? How many rounds are you going to make? It's here to be the great editor. There's so much to learn from this place. New York is not the one that our parents remember.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
That's a very dangerous proposition. But if you have whatever this thing is and you don't like it, the chef can at least fall back on the ego and say, you don't get it. You didn't get what I was going for.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's not the one from...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
my grandparents when they came from our childhood it's not the one from our childhood that's what makes new york great it's malleable it's here for the next generation it's going to challenge the next one yeah and for those that are still here right it's it's the great tournament of life that is manhattan or new york city yeah yeah do you still look here i do not still there you go
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Before we go, before we go.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
It's hard when the financial world is in a questionable place, right? It's hard for... It's hard for young, aspiring restaurateurs or any industry to get the backing in a shaky financial moment to do something. So in times like this, you're going to see less creativity because it's too risky. You're going to see more status quo. You're going to see more safe plays.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You're going to see people taking chances when it's safer to take chances.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
When the economy's healthy and money is cheap and there's investors out there looking to take chances on you. So it's a tough time for that generation like it was for us coming out of 08. There's not a lot of us that are going to get that break and we had to do –
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
crazy shit to get to get those six tables um so i'm here for those who are who are out there who are challenging um guys like kwame tatiana who are doing incredible work right now um it's a tough time man it's a tough time to to to take any other little guys it could be the tiny it could be six tables like anybody that you've seen i mean you've tasted recently it
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
industry i remember when industry was just starting right these two guys who looked who looked and felt a lot like me and rich when we first got to that pizzeria but you see it in their eyes it's like it's like tony montana man like you it's the eyes man like you can see like that guy they're hungry yeah they're gonna that they're gonna make it man i don't care like there was that guy that was making pizza i think chrissy's pizza or something in the oven in his apartment like in brooklyn yeah in brooklyn i think chrissy's pizza yeah similar vibe i assume like
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
You're not going to tell them no. They're going to figure it out. They're going to make it through it.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
They're going to. Yeah, I mean, we're just starting to see it. But it's going to. And I think that its greatest effect is going to be in cost to the customer. It's going to get passed on, right? I think certainly for us, if my options are...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Choose a lesser ingredient than what I'm accustomed to bringing in because it's too expensive or bring that ingredient in at the additional cost and pass it on to the customer. We're going to choose that one, right? Because I feel like I've made a promise to my customers to give them the best ingredients in the world. And if I'm saying that I need that, I'm not going to choose something else.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
So it's going to get passed on to them, unfortunately, right? I think that's where it's going to manifest itself is in rising costs to customers.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
We are...
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
equally dangerous we are trying to make for you the thing that you've had thousands of times right and i want to make one of the best ones you've ever had but you know exactly what it's like so i can't be like oh he didn't get that meatball you're competing with their grandma yeah like you know what a meatball is right you may not know what that chef was trying to go for but like if you didn't like it it's probably not good
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
I feel like it is a function. I feel like Carbone is a functioning museum, right? I think that it's, Italian Americans, not dissimilar to any sort of other immigrant path, right? The whole point of this journey, if you follow it back to your ancestors, my ancestors from Southern Italy leaving a place to come to the United States for the betterment of the next generation, right?
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
The entire point of the experiment was for us to assimilate into just becoming Americans, right? and to sort of eventually become less and less Italian, as each generation passes, you become just Americans. That was the whole point of this assimilation.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
To me, for community, for what we're doing, what I'm leaving behind, I have great pride in that Carbone stands as a nightly functioning museum that you can go to, you can visit, you can consume what was the woolly mammoth that is the Italian American in New York in the 1950s. Because my children will be less Italian than I am, as I am less Italian than my parents are. And that's the point.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
When you lament the fact that there are no Italians in Little Italy, you are also proving the point of what the purpose of that was. They weren't supposed to stay here. They were supposed to just become Americans. That's why they left their country. So when it was at its most potent,
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
And I chose that period, the first generation of Italian-Americans in 1950, to make this thing, to make this play that's thankfully had a very long run. We're fucking cats over here. We're 10 years in and we're still going. You get to experience this museum because over time, the Italian-American will just become the American. Yeah.
Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh
How to Get Into ANY Restaurant, Why Michelin Stars Are Nonsense & Building a Billion Dollar Business
Yeah, you don't have that fallback. But if I win, I've got a customer for life. I've got someone who's coming multiple times a week. If that chef wins, you may go once a year. You may actually never go back again, even if it's great.