An Army of Normal Folks - Chad Houser: Eat, Drink, Change Lives

Episode Date: October 24, 2023

Chad's life was forever changed when he was asked to teach 8 young men in juvenile detention how to make ice cream. The chef couldn't go back to running a "normal" restaurant and felt he had no choice but to launch Cafe Momentum, an award-winning Dallas restaurant that’s 100% run by youth leaving the juvenile justice system. Over 1,000 youth have worked there as paid interns while also benefiting from 12 months of case management and programming. Their incredible model has expanded into Pittsburgh and they're ready to scale across the country. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A gentleman that worked in the journal apartment that was a supervisor in the facility at the time told my entire staff that he thought I was the craziest SOB he'd ever met because I walked into Juvie and gave kids knives. And he said, but it taught him a very valuable lesson, which is the kids responded to my belief in them and expectation that they could succeed and they responded to that. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I've been a football coach in Intercity Memphis in the last part.

It accidentally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits talk at big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox, but rather, an army of normal folks us. Just you and me deciding hey I can help

that's what Chad Howzer the voice we just heard is done. Chad was a restaurant owner and chef whose life was forever changed when he was asked to teach eight young men in juvenile detention how to make ice cream. And he couldn't look away after that. In 2015, Chad founded Caffe Momentum, now an award-winning Dallas restaurant that get this is run 100% by youth leaving the juvenile justice system. And they're in terms who not only get paid

and trained in the restaurant business, but they also benefit from 12 months of support that includes case management, financial education, parenting classes, career exploration, and they can even go to their very own school there. They've walked alongside a thousand youth in Dallas and are now expanding this incredible model across the country.

I really cannot wait for you to meet Chad right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. A brand new historical true crime podcast. The year is 1800, a city hall, New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System. A man-sense trial for the charge of murder. Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of.

When you lay suffering a sudden violent brutal death, I hope you'll think of me. Starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, don't be so sad that front, it doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Allison Flock. Why do I keep doing it? Let it go! Listen to E. Rast, the murder of Elma Sands.

She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl. No! No! Until she met that man right there. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm a murder! What is this place?

Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitations. Light stuff on your feet!

You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead To Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison name? No, it's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask, or are you going to do that? Escape. Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On one side were the Cowboys, a band of ranchers turned criminals who had plagued the town for years. On the other, four laman, and their names are the ones you'd recognize, Virgil Morgan and Wyatt Earp, alongside their good friend Doc Holliday. The resulting shootout, known today as the gunfight at the Ok Corral, only lasted 30 seconds, but the market left on popular imagination has held

on for nearly 150 years. Why? Because Americans have never stopped being fascinated with the Wild West. This July, Grim and Mile presents Turns its Gays Westward. Join us for a trek into the unknown, the misunderstood, and the forgotten tales of America's Westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey.

Grim and Mile Presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents. Chad Houser. It is so good to meet you. I was actually aware, a little bit aware of you and what you are doing, and I'll reveal to you a little later how, but it man is so good to be in Dallas and be with you. Thanks for taking an hour or so to hang out with me.

Thanks for being in Dallas and thanks for hanging out with me. Yeah, you know, I'm a month too early. A month later, I think I wouldn't feel any heat, but at least I missed July. What was it like 111 down here or something? I have PTSD still. I don't know if I can talk about it. Right.

Alex, the producer is going to be mad at me because I time stamped it. So now everybody knows it's after July that I was here. But anyway, really, really good to be with you. And before we jump into cafe momentum and the phenomenal success that you've had, I just really want to set up who you are. So where were you born? Where'd you come from?

Tell me about Chad, the kid running around in the neighborhood Chad. Tell me who that kid is that guy. Well, it's ironic. I was born here in Dallas and the hospital I was born in is less than a mile from Kathy Momentum. So, no kidding. Keep it close. Yeah. Yeah. You got you got a tight world. So, where is that? Baylor Hospital just outside downtown Dallas was born here. Something that I think may sound a little bit ancillary, but I think in the grand scheme of the story made a significant impact as my mom graduated high school in 1973, which was two years before I was born.

The significance of that for my life is that the high school that she graduated from was the first high school in Dallas to be desegregated when she was a freshman. Wow. Which meant that. Oh, and she stayed. Yes.

Because in the south, for those of you, not from the south, a lot of times when the high schools got desegregated in the early 70s, kids left. Some kids left because their parents yanked them out. Other kids left because part of that was kids would get bossed out of their neighborhood to other schools to segregate. So she did they stay at the end of the day, whether my grandparents wanted to leave or not,

they were too poor. That wasn't an option for them, you know. But for me at MenteState, for me at MenteState, I grew up kind of in two worlds. And by that, I mean, I actually grew up in a suburb of Dallas. And the suburb that I grew up in was a suburb that had a population growth around the time that desegregation happened. And white family started leaving the city and going out the suburbs. So the suburb that I grew up in was very white, very middle class. But my mom and my grandma being best friends meant that I spent every weekend at my grandparents house

Hmm it meant that I spend every summer running around him and you know my grandfather had the greenest them of any human being in the world So if he wasn't working on a car or something in the garage He was out in the backyard Gardening my mom and my grandmother loved a so which was not anything that I cared to do other love to sew, which was not anything that I cared to do. So that meant that I was running around the neighborhood. And in that particular neighborhood did not look like the neighborhood where I grew up, right? It was very racially diverse.

It was socioeconomically diverse. In fact, I remember times when my grandfather would hook the garden hose up to the kitchen sink so that he could run warm water into the neighbor's backyard in Philip a kitty pool because they couldn't pay their water bill that particular month and that's kidding. No, I mean, that's where things happen. But then I would go home to the suburb and that was not the world of nobody. Yeah, nobody was in free on free and reduced lunch at school. Nobody was, what did your grandfather do for a living? My grandfather drove a bread truck for Mrs. Beard's bakery. Um, that's awesome.

Yes. And, and I, uh, we have a running joke in our family because the Mrs. Beard's bakery was right off the highway and the highway that we would take from home to go to my grandparents house and we would drive by that bakery and I would say, you know, what would happen if that bakery blew up one day and everybody in the car would roll their eyes and I'd say, I sure don't know, but it would be one crummy day. That's you know, you should have been a bean. That was dad jokes before they were dad jokes. Yeah, that's right on my time. So your parents, what did your

parents do for living? My mom was a secretary for all of my growing up. That was really fun too, though, because she was a secretary on a horse ranch, which also meant that amongst going into the city and experiencing that living in a suburb, I would spend days during the summer on a ranch, clean and horse poop and wash and horses. And it's secretive for what I would, I would think a horse ranch would eat. Well, they had a show they raised Morgan horses. And so they would show them. They would travel all the country with these horse shows and all this stuff. And so my mom was out

there. My dad was a office supply salesman and built a whole career doing that. But he in 1980 also signed up to be a reserve police officer for the Colin County Sheriff's Department. So it was this crazy world where my dad wore a business suit during the week, traveled and all that stuff. But on the weekends, he out on a police uniform was driving a patrol car. And I was, it was always the most confusing thing to me. It was like, so you signed up to be a police officer You put on the uniform you drive the car around you pull people over you don't stuff and you don't get paid

And he was like nope. I just you know do it. It also meant that in high school I was the I never went to parties in high school because my dad was a cop breaking it up and I was like how embarrassing Okay siblings I was like, how embarrassing. That okay siblings. We have a complicated family tree. So my dad is not my biological father, but he's raised me since I was two. And my mom passed away almost four years ago. So I have a almost four year old son at home and also a 79 year old teenager.

That's my dad. That was at list with us. And so and it's it's it's it's awful watching them because they just egg each other on to get the in the worst trouble possible. But um, who cares about the 70s? Right. You're your your efforts still kids playing. Oh no, they still laugh at fart jokes. They still I read um and and I don't want to jump too far ahead. We'll get to how you got where you are, but I read that um you once said that Sundays were about this whole eclectic group of people called your family would get together and it was around food.

It was around eating. It was around the community your family shared on Sundays around eating. It's where my love for food came from. Every Sunday, my mom and dad and I would go to my grandparents' house, and all my aunts and uncles and cousins would come over and we'd have Sunday supper. And being that for all intents and purposes, and only child, I have step siblings and

half siblings and so forth, but grew up by and large in a house alone with her. My cousins were like surrogate siblings, you know, and my aunts and uncles were like my additional parents. And we were all very very tight knit and so we would get together on Sundays and break bread together and it was it taught me of the power of breaking bread the power food that it was not just about eating it was about that camaraderie community community feeding your soul and subsequently my my grandfather would, he played the guitar, harmonica, and piano all by, excuse me, all by ear. Not something that I

inherited from him, unfortunately, but I do have his 1959 Gibson Les Paul Jr. guitar hanging it up in my life. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. And it was really cool about it is my mom being the meticulous person that she was had saved the receipt to so I have the receipt from where he put that guitar on a layaway and I think it's probably worth a lot of money. Well, you know, it's funny because people always say that I'm like it doesn't matter to me like that doesn't it's worth a lot more than money to you. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's it's the Sunday's my grandpa would break out the guitar and play, you know, and and he was just a good, good, good, the old chicken pick in the, the, the, the, the, the chat addkins, you know, um, and so that was family. That was, you know, food family. All of it was tied in together and it's never left me. So you go to high school in Dallas, right?

And after a high school in Dallas without any really fun parties on the weekends, because your dad adverished you for best and all your buddies, you, what's the plan? What's next for Chad? Yeah. So, you know, being in the home that I grew up in, you know, for me, the expectations were always high. I was expected to be a good student. I was expected to get grades. I was expected to go to college. I was expected to graduate college. I was expected to go into the workforce and build a career. I was, you know, all of these like, they were, there's more, this one optional. So you can imagine,

I spent two years in college getting good. I graduated with honors from high school, spent two years in college getting good grades. And then, you know, they they have this little thing where they at a certain point you got to declare a major. And I had actually grown up being sports obsessed. I when I was in the eighth grade wrote a letter to a legendary Dallas sportscaster and asked him if I could follow him around for a day.

No kidding. Yeah, it was, it was what's just Dale Hansen, okay? And he called Cowboys Games. Oh, he, he was the color commentator for the Dallas Cowboys for years. He was the sports anchor for the local ABC affiliate here in Dallas. Um, and just, just true legend, true legend just just retired a couple years ago. And I'll tell you anecdotally, you know, two things happened. I show up at the studio to follow him around. I'm sitting in the lobby with my mom. They told us to be there at four o'clock, which at 13 years old when you're like, you don't go to work till four o'clock. I was like,

I want that gig. So they all has a sharp wit and a sharp tongue and he was late because he was late. We sat out in the lobby waiting and because we were sitting out in the lobby, the doors opened and out walked Walter Cronkite. Wow. And even for 13 year old me, that was a pretty incredible moment to meet a legend. You know, like true, true legend. Dale finally showed up and he told my mom, how long can he stay?

And my mom said, well, that's up to you. You can stay, he said, well, he said, I gotta, I do the five o'clock news, the six o'clock news and the 10 o'clock news. And I tell you what, if you let him stay for the 10 o'clock news, I'll take him to Hooters for dinner. So, yeah. So I looked at, not only would he see kind of a local legend,

he was the coolest guy on earth. Well, to me, my mom picked me up at 6.31 pm as soon as a 6 o'clock newscast ended. We ain't going to hooters. No, which I think was Dale's way of getting rid of me politely. It's smart guy, yes. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first, given a shout out to my boy Badger. Badger is a member of the Army who emailed me and recommended that we set up a telephone number where you can leave voicemails with feedback about our movement and podcast. We've gotten a ton of emails and we really appreciate them but some people have a hard time when

they're driving around or when they're engaged in something and they want to leave a quick voicemail about the feedback about our movement and our podcast, how an episode touched or inspired you or take action or even story ideas. Pretty much anything else as long as it's not weird or creepy. So we thought it was an awesome idea. So Badger, this is for you and anyone else who wants to reach out to us through phone rather than email. The telephone number is 901-352-1366. Call us, leave a voice smell about your ideas, leave a voice smell about anything as it pertains to the army, and we will get it, and we will

respond. 901-352-1366. We'll be right back. A brand new historical true crime podcast. The year is 1800, a city hall, New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System. A mass-ass trial for the charge of murder. Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of. When you lay suffering a sudden violent brutal death,

I hope you'll think of me, starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Don't be so sad that it doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Alison Flock. Why are you doing that goal? Listen to E-Raced, the murder of Elma Sands. She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl.

No, no! Until she met that man right there. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm murder! What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween Penance.

Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why? This is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitation. Light's up on your feet! You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking.

Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison then? No, it's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask for you

going to do that? Escape. Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On one side were the Cowboys, a band of ranchers turned criminals who had plagued the town for years. On the other, four Laman, and their names are the ones you'd recognize, Virgil Morgan and Wyatt Earp, alongside their good friend Doc Holliday. The resulting shootout, known today as the gunfight at the Ok Corral, only lasted 30 seconds, but the market left on popular imagination has held on for nearly 150 years. Why? Because Americans have never stopped being fascinated with the Wild West.

This July, Grim and Mile presents Turns its Gays Westward. Join us for a trek into the unknown, the misunderstood, and the forgotten tales of America's westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey. Grim and Mile presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents. I did what you should do in college, which is kind of a question. Like, what do I actually want to do? Do I really want to do that? Do I really want to have that live? Is that something I'm interested in? Do I want to do that when I'm 45, 46, 47 years old, 57 years old? And I had to declare a major. I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I had read the poem Under Milkwood by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. It was fascinated by it. It made the really sound life decision that based on that poem I was going to get a degree in English literature. I'm more like English. First of all, I love English.

The Chaucer, the Canterbury tells the, I mean, the imagery and some of that stuff to me is just absolutely hilarious to this. But English literature, I don't know the data or the percentages on it. Well, I would say that 75% of the people that made your English literature end up living on some vice-couch. Well, that was my dad's impression. Yeah. He's gonna spend the rest of his life with the English literature. It's interesting. So I told my parents that once I got my degree in English literature, which was going to fulfill my obligation to them, that I was going to try cooking. Really? Because cooking was interesting to me. It was fun.

I, there's so many things about it that I enjoyed. And that was my dad's out right then and there. He was like, no, no, no. If he works in a restaurant, he'll have a job for the rest of his life and he won't be sleeping on my couch. So there's, you know, there's job security in his mind for his son and also his son won't be sleeping on his couch. So they, my parents encouraged me to go to culinary school and... Which means no more college.

You move from college to culinary school. Well, technically college, yeah. Well, I mean, the school you were going to didn't have a culinary school dinner. No, that's correct. No, no, no, at the time. No, no, and I ended up going to El Centro College in downtown Dallas, which is now the El Centro campus of Dallas College and spent two years there and got my associates in food and hospitality service about it. hospitality service about it, maybe a semester or so into school, you know, they, they just pound over the top of your head, get a job in a restaurant, get a job in a restaurant, get a job in a restaurant, which is like practical experience, right? Well, it's, yeah, it's actually practicing what you're learning, I guess.

Well, in learning what you're practicing, right? And back and forth. And I'll never forget, I got a job with a gentleman, a local upscale caterer who happened to also own a cookie dough business. And we did catering for the very wealthy individuals around Dallas, but we would also make cookie doughs and sell these 11 pound buckets of cookie doughs to Whole Foods. And then Whole Foods would scoop them and bake them and call them house baked. I'll be dead, go.

Yeah. And so my first day on the job, all I was allowed to do was measure out ingredients for batches of cookie dose because I was not trusted to touch the mixer. You know, and I just remember like at the end of the day, they were like, okay, you can go. And I was like, I mean, I can stay. I can, I was like, this is amazing. Like I'm creating. And it was just measuring cookie dough ingredients. Um, but it was a passion for it. I knew it. I knew it. I knew that day. I was like,

this is where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing. When I hear culinary school, I think most uninformed people like me think the same thing, which is, I think, quote, on blue or blue or I've always said, how do you say that? Properly, let go down blue, go down blue. Okay. So, you know, I think of that because I've heard of it before, but in reading on the way to meet you this morning about culinary school, the cooking is actually only a small part of it. but in reading on the way to meet you this morning about culinary school,

the cooking is actually only a small part of it. A very small part. And that's the interesting part to me is culinary school for those listening is a business degree too. It's about the business of how you run a restaurant and actually try to be profitable in the restaurant business, which is exceedingly difficult. And talk about that a little bit. I mean, we're talking about certainly learning how to, they're not

training you to be Julia Childs. They're training you to be able to run a restaurant business in culinary school. And that's mundane stuff, right? Oh, people think I'm kidding when I say, you know, I had to take a restaurant equipment class in which I had to listen to a three hour lecture on light bulbs. That's not a joke. on light bulbs. That's not a joke. And Gus Katsigris, the Godfather of the culinary program at at El Centro College, I mean, he's famous for his light bulb lecture because it's a big deal about light bulbs for culinary guy. Is it about keeping the food warm or something? Well, it's because Gus wasn't a chef. He was a restaurant tour. And so for him, you know, a chef focuses on the cost of food, the quality of ingredient, and the quality of what they're putting out, right? But a restaurant tour is thinking about

the cost of fixing plumbing, the cost of maintaining the chairs. Ask any restaurant tour, and I guarantee you one of the top five things that bothers the hell out of them nonstop is the staff constantly turning down the air conditioning and then leaving it down when they leave the restaurant at night and you're paying for cold air to keep the tables comfortable. In culinary school do you talk margins? Oh yeah. And how margins, I mean, people think that restaurants have these ginormous margins are not.

They're really tight. I understand the margins are the biggest in iced.co and cocktails. Yes. Oh, alcohol for sure. That's where the money is. Yeah, alcohol for sure. But I say that with, it's what influenced me in caffeine momentum and how we put together our...

So, the reason why I'm talking about it now, don't know spoilers. Yeah, yeah, no, our alcoholic beverage program because you take like a steakhouse, right? They've got a bottle of wine that they'll sell for $2,000, that their cost on it could be anywhere between 500 and 1,000 dollars. So the margins are great, but it may take them 18 months to sell that one.

Yeah, they're sitting on it for a while. Yeah, so it's cash flow. Yeah, it's cash flow, right? So that's how I focused the alcohol sales that Kevin Moon was to focus on cash flow. I don't know where I heard this. I actually think I read it in the, maybe US News and World Report,

and I just now thought of it, This is not prepped at all. So I'll probably put you this and it may not even be close to right. But I'm almost sure that 60% of the startup restaurants the United States fail within the first two years. And the one that, and that's surprising, but it's not truthfully, Chad, it's not that dissimilar from any startup business in the United States.

It's hard to start a business. Yes. But the one that is shocking to me is of the surviving quote successful restaurants, most of them have fewer than 30 days cash flow on hand. And that's why that that's why a 60% fail. It's it's the same. Is that right? Yeah, it is. And it's because people will spend every penny they have to get the doors open.

Now, evenly thinking that once you open the doors, the cash comes in and it solves everything. And that's not how it works. How does it work? It works because you have to have liquidity. You have to be able to have the cash on hand to sustain all the things that are going to happen that you didn't anticipate. We're going to happen when you built out this. I'm just going to open a restaurant and people are going to come in.

You didn't budget for the week that you have to close down because there's a gas leak and they've got to dig up the gas lines underground and you're closed and you've just lost $55,000 in revenue. Let's talk about that too. This does need to understand that in my business, I'm a lumberman, right? We manufacture lumber. If we break down and have a five hour break down, we lose that revenue and we have those expenses, but I can work on Saturday and make up that loss production and recoup that revenue. I'll have a little higher cost in it because I'm paying overtime, but I can make it up.

Or I can work five days, one hour over time, it won't work my cruise. And I can make up that loss production, sell it, recoup that revenue, certainly at a little lower margin as a result of the higher cost of the labor, it takes to do it, but I can recoup it in a restaurant. If on Friday, you can't open. There's no more recouping. That Friday's gone forever.

It's like time that once it ticks off a clock, you never get those seconds back because you're already open Saturday and Sunday and Monday until there is no makeup time and you can't work on Friday from midnight to five to make it up because nobody's gonna come in the door. So if you miss a shift or a day that the door's open, the restaurant business,

it is literally gone forever, but the expenses of rent and utilities and everything else you have going on, you still incur them. So every day you're not open in the restaurant business is a net net humbling. It's a pummeling. Everybody's been talking a lot about the newest show, The Bear. And everybody wants to talk to me about it. And everybody wants to ask me, you know, how real is it? How real? And everybody in the restaurant industry has their like, oh, they use the same deli cups

that we all use to drink water out of a known. I'm like, no, the realest part of that show is that before service one day, an hour before service, the toilet explodes. And it's like, okay, who, who knows how to fix the pipe, who knows what, but that on your prep list, who can clean up, literally off the like, like, and it's like, everybody just like because because we can't not open, we can't, you can't, you can't, you can't, you can't conduct a restaurant via zoom because in everybody on staff, there's no remote restaurant. No.

And if you're, and if you're, and if you're hourly and the restaurant closes, you're not getting paid, right? So, and if that happens, you've already, the restaurant itself is already bought a perishable items. Yes. That you're going to sell that day. Yes. That if you don't sell them, go on the garbage.

Well, and that there's another example, right, when we're talking about margins, as a restaurant, you're going to plan and prepare food as if you're going to be packed full of people. And what happens if you're only half packed? It's gone. But what if you what if you were fully packed and only buy for half packed? Right. Then your customers are pissed off because you got nothing to serve them. Nothing to serve them. And there's nothing like going into a restaurant and perusing a menu of 50 different items and finding that delectable, delicious thing that you've done a great job marketing on the menu and explaining the cilantro and the whatever and all those words that nobody ever uses on some kind of remote heirloom tomato and some kind of career cheese

or something. And you say, that's what I want. And then you sit there and you've had your cocktail and you're ready to order it. And you say, I'd like it. And the server says, well, I'm sorry, we're out of that. Well, that one. You just want to leave. Listen, it's like getting screwed at the drive-through.

Oh, yeah. When you order, mustard, mayonnaise, pickle, and lettuce, and they serve it to you and you're already halfway down the street and you got ketchup and onion on your burger and you're just angry, but there's nothing you could do about it. Oh, it listen as a chef, it eats me alive. And the chefs at Cafe Mimim know, like we're only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday for dinner.

So on Thursday night, they're like, yeah, we're out of this. I'm like, how does that even happen? You've had four days. You've had four days to order, prep, do everything. Like, you had one job, just one. me. Yeah, that's that's because you know Ultimately That would lead to an upset customer and for every one happy customer

I mean you need a hundred good reviews to offset one bad one you really do no you're a hundred percent right and you can't You can't have somebody walk out your 100% right. And you can't, you can't have somebody walk out your door and happy. No, and you can't because also they just don't have to come back. Right. And why do people go to restaurants? It's called hospitality. People go to restaurants because they get what they ordered. The expectation is met. The quality of food, the expectation is met, the quality of service, the expectation is met, the cleanliness, the ambiance, the expectation is met, and if it's not, they just don't come back. Yeah, they vote with their pocketbook. Yep. So, you've learned all that in culinary school.

You've learned all that through hard knocks and experience, but you are at least exposed to the realities of these things in culinary school. Yes. And you graduate. Yep. Well, cafe momentum is not your first stop. Tell me what you do from there. Well, it's, yeah, the day after I graduated from culinary school, my boss sat down with me, who's, by the way, is an incredible human being, an incredible entrepreneur taught me so much. I mean, didn't have to and did that I carry with me still to this day, but he, um, I graduated the very next day I had to work and it was a breakfast catering and did all of that. I got it done. He said, let me take you to lunch, sat me down and said, and I was at the time an hourly employee

making, I made $7.50 an hour. And he said, now that you're out of school, let's move you into a salary position. And he offered me a salary of $22,000 a year. I thought I was quite possibly the richest man in America at that point it. At that point in time. I mean, it was like everything inside me driving home to not pull over to car dealership

and go ahead and just buy a brand new car. You know, I was just like, this is it. I mean, 22k, are you kidding me? I got home and called my parents and was like, you're not gonna believe what your son has done. I mean, then I got that first paycheck and I was like taxes. And like, I think like actually,

750 an hour and work in 65 hours a week, I think I was getting paid, like wait a minute here, wait, what's going on? But you know, and did that for continue, where I worked for him for a total of nine years and left there and had the opportunity to work at a great restaurant with a rich history and Dallas called Parigi and be the daytime chef and that was my first for a into restaurants and called what's it called Parigi the Italian word for pairs. Yeah, okay. And that was the first time for me to work in a restaurant kitchen, at all, I'd done catering all before. And so it was kind of learning to ride a bike with, you know, one wheel instead of two wheels, you know, and then so you're learning and it was great.

And I loved it. And it was incredible. I ended up having chance from Pregee to go on to be executive chef of a different restaurant. Lasted there about six months helped open a restaurant. I wasn't the right fit for them and they were the right fit for me and left there and just thought, you know, kind of, what do I want to do here? I actually at the encouragement of my former boss and mentor enrolled in a class at SMU on entrepreneurial

journalism. And it was just a certificate class, but it was like, it was so great because they weren't just telling you about in teaching about entrepreneurialism and what are the best habits of entrepreneurs? What do entrepreneurs ask themselves? What keeps them up at night? But also kind of like, who are you and what do you want? And at the same time, my boss, the owner of Preji and I had jumped in and was kind of helping her work in kind of filling in there. And she and I through a series of conversations she had mentioned that perhaps she would be interested in selling the restaurant and then kind of said, you know what? I don't think I'm ready to sell but I could use a partner. We talked about what partnership could look like and

it was beautiful because She really loved catering. I really wanted to do catering. I was so burned out on catering after nine plus years Yeah, you want to be I want to be should have been the restaurant. And so it was, it was perfect. So in the summer of 2007, I sold my house and took the equity out of it, took out a loan and bought in to become a partner at Parigi restaurant. Are you, are you, uh, I hadn't gotten to this, but are you a father or married? Yeah, uh, a single dad, I have a have a, my daughter just turned 26 on my now. Yeah, now, now, now, yeah. And so she, I'm a little bit not that old, but she, so my

daughter at the time was 10. And your single father? Yeah. Do you have custody of her? Uh, joint, yeah, shared. So you're literally mortgaging up selling off everything, a single dad to get a piece of a business. Yeah. I don't know what they taught you at SMU, but you went ahead and did the risk part of entrepreneurship. Yeah. Yeah.

And I did the risk part. And here's the real risk of the risk part is I'm going to say the year again 2007. There was a housing crisis that happened shortly after. You know what, something Chad just so you know that you and our kindred spirits in one way. I started my business with $17,000 in September 1st of 2001. So I feel you're paying, bro. We are, we are kindred and we're going to get into even more how kindred we are. I want to tell you my other wise business decisions, but, but it was, I mean, I was in culinary school. I had one goal. That was to own a restaurant, be the chef.

And this was the shot. restaurant, be the chef. And this was the shot. This presented the perfect opportunity. So I did, I bought in and then the economy tanked and literally restaurants closing around us left and right. And I, you know, was trying to be proactive in talking to my business partner and saying like, she started coming in and bartending during the week. like she started coming in and bartending during the week. And I started coming in and hosting at lunch during the daytime so we could cut class. We had the kitchen team that the morning crew that would come in because we were open

lunch and dinner. The morning crew would come in. We would make them leave an hour early and the evening crew come in. We'd make them come in an hour later. And they were all really disgruntled and annoyed and frustrated. But you're trying to stay open until all their friends started losing their jobs. Right. And they still had a job.

And not only did they have a job, but in spite of the recession, in spite of all these restaurants closing, my first year of coneorship, we grew the business by almost 40%. We ain't everybody else's closing. But everybody else was closing. And I was right right around that time, nominated by a prominent local publication as best up and coming chef and Dallas. And you know, is at that point, I was like,

I'll tell you what, you are a risk taken genius. I mean, look at you. Did you hurt your shoulder, pat your stuff? Yeah. Yeah. You know, it was great. You risk, take it genius. You good cooking son of a guy. I mean, I just thought, I mean, there's, there's restaurants available. Let's build the empire. Here we go. You know, and, and just, um, and it was, and it was, it was a fun time getting to like, you know, Dallas is full

of, of really great restaurants, really incredible chefs and to, to be a part of, of that community. It felt like Sunday supper is at my grandparents house, you know, it was, I mean, you're fortunate at this time in your life because you're able to match the discipline you love with something you're passionate about it that actually connects you to the essence of who you are the way you grew up. Oh 100%. Listen, I will live my entire life just trying to be half the person that my mom was. Wow. She was when she passed my lifelong friend Katie referred to her as all the bubbles in the champagne and I like wow I can't think of a better way to describe her. She lit up every room that she walked into. She made every person that she talked to feel like they were the only person in the room and they were the most important thing.

There wasn't anything that you could possibly need that she didn't anticipate and was there to support I I don't, you know, I know that she slept because I grew up in the house. I mean, she slept, but it doesn't feel like she slept because she did all the things. My parents used to have a routine of, you know, they would eat it. This restaurant on Monday night, this restaurant on Tuesday night, this restaurant on Wednesday night, and it typically revolved around the wine specials. But they would go, they would go eat at the olive garden every, I think it was every Monday night or Wednesday night because the wine specials and they befriended a couple that served there husband and wife.

And they were, they were immigrants from Eastern Europe. And my mom would throw them baby showers. You're kidding. Was the server was the server from the olive garden. from Eastern Europe, and my mom would throw them baby showers. You kidding. It was the server from the Olive Garden, and my mom would throw them baby showers. That's who she was. She just... Is there any irony that there were immigrants

from Eastern Europe where there is thousands of years of culture serving at the Olive Garden in America. Certainly. Irony to you. Well, you know, it's funny too because they actually opened up their own Italian restaurant. There you go. There's redemption. There it is. Thank goodness.

I would hate for their culinary experience to stop at Olive Garden. Yes. No, yeah. Well, I mean, imagine me as a chef, feeling like, right, telling that story, like my parents ate it all. My parents ate it all. You know, the bottomless salad is a thing. So you've reached, despite economic difficulties from a macro sense, just the world we lived in in 2000, mid 2007 through early 2009. Obviously, once again, tagging on our kindred spirits.

Oh, no, lumber company. Lumberers go into building. So you can imagine my life in mid 2007 through 2009 as well. And I, my friend did not grow anything 40% of every time. I hung on with every ounce of fingernail and duct tape that I could, but we made it through. If you could afford the duct tape. You're a gosh. Yeah. No, we stole that. So, but I get it. And you've reached, now you're getting awards.

You're being recognized as not only a, I mean, it's really important to me that people understand the restaurant business. It is very much a two-prong thing. They create creativity and the ability to copleasing food that people want to come back to and do it at a cost. The rest of it can sell it and be profitable so that they can replicate it. Be consistent with it. Week after week after week. That's

the one thing. The other thing is just managing the front of the house, the back of the house, the shrinkage from your bartenders and your liquor, the shrinkage from the food of the house, the back of the house, the shrinkage from your bartenders and your liquor, the shrinkage from the food, the whole shoot and match. But here you are in some of those trying times we've had in a couple of decades and you've grown this business 40% and you're getting awards as a guy that can actually cook pretty good. I mean, you're on top of the world. It felt like it. Yeah. Yeah.

So what happened? Right at the one year mark of co-ownership, I was on the board of directors of a very small organization called the Dallas Farmers Market Friends. I'm out. Yep. I told you we'd get to this. I was flown into Dallas two years ago to keynote that group. Wow.

That is how I know who you are. Because some dude came up to me and said, have you ever heard of the amazing work being done at Cafe Momentum? And they said, he's not here today. I'd love to introduce you. And I said, no, but send me some stuff and Weak later some guy from that organization. It's called the Dallas power. What's it called? Dallas farmers market friends. Yeah

That group Send me something on you. So there you have it. What a what a world Small world so anyway, you're yeah, you're well. What a, what a world. Small world. So anyway, you're, you're, you're, you're working on this thing. Yeah, so I'm, I was a board member for Dallas Farmers Market Friends, loved it. I've always been since, you know, the time that I was a child going to my grandparents backyard and my grandfather's growing tomatoes and cucumbers and jalapenos and I'm doing the very childish thing of grabbing a cucumber and biting it.

But you know as a adult, as a chef, knowing where your food came from, represented integrity and represented the integrity that you were providing to people that were coming in to eat your food. It also meant supporting local business people because you're putting money in a farmer's pocket. So I created these round tables for chefs and farmers to come together and have conversation to understand farmers to kind of understand the relentless ness of the restaurant world and for chefs to understand that, you know, a farmer has to farm. They can't just be running produce to your restaurant all day. Um, they actually have to grow that stuff. Yeah, they actually have to do that, you know. Um, uh, I love, I, I, I, I worked with a farmer

one time before and they said, Hey, is it we're growing Colrabi? Do you want to buy our Colrabi? And I was like, yeah, like, how much are you guys growing? They're like, well, once we pull it out of the ground, it's not growing anymore. So we'll have about 40 pounds. What is that? Like, what is, Corrabi is a, like a Japanese root vegetable. It's delicious, similar to a turnip. Might even be in the turnip family, I don't know.

But, but for me, well, for I made, what do you do? I did it. Well, so I made a lot of stuff with it because I was like, well, I guess it's a one shot ingredient, right? Like I'm not going to have it next week. So we pickled some of it. We put some of it in salads. We smoked some of it and turned it into a soup. We just had a lot of fun with it.

But it was, but that's the part of the culinary stuff. It's fun. You get to be creative and stuff that most people have it. Yeah, it's to be eaten before. And, and, and, you know, it was maybe a bit audacious to be like all Colrabi all the time, but, you know, we had fun with it. It was, it was great, but, but, but the farmers market friends was just starting a ice cream competition contest, named after the founder of Dallas farmers market friends, Mama

Ida Pappert. So it as Mama Ida's ice cream social, and they had- Wow, wouldn't it be? Why wouldn't it be? And the idea was to get college culinary students to participate and make ice cream, and we would market it and get people to come down the farmers market, they'd pay $5 to taste a sample

of each of the ice creams, and then they would vote on which one they liked the best, the winning student would get $100. And we, you know, the rest of the ice creams and they would vote on which one they liked the best. The winning student would get $100 and we, you know, the rest of the proceeds, we would, you know, support the farmer's market in some way. And there was a gentleman that was on the board as well that was the executive director of an organization that was doing programming inside one of the Dallas County juvenile detention facilities. And it just so happened that some of the programming he did was culinary related.

And so when we're talking about the ice cream social, he said, well, can I bring eight kids from juvenile detention? And everybody on the board is like, I mean, this is genius. This is like philanthropy squared, right? Like this makes us double good. Yes, absolutely. And so his exact words in that moment were great. I just need to find someone to teach him how to make ice cream. And it was at that exact moment that ten other hands pointed right at me and said, he'll do it. We'll be right back.

A brand new historical true crime podcast. The year is 1800, a city hall, New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System. A man-sense trial for the charge of murder. Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of. When you lay suffering a sudden violent brutal death, I hope you'll think of me.

Starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, written't be so sad, that's right. It doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Alison Flak. What are you doing? Let it go, I'm ready. Listen to E-Raced, the murder of Elma Sands. She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl.

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13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season four of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitations. Light stuff on your feet. You're new here, so I'll say it once.

No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest? We know what can use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison then? No, it's a rehabilitation center.

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Westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey. Grim and Mile presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at Grim andild.com slash presents. A month later, I was in juvenile detention there to teach eight young men to make ice cream. For me, the moment that I walked into that facility and met those eight young men I felt

arguably the greatest sense of shame I've ever felt Talk about that. Well the moment I met these eight. I know that feeling by the way. Yeah when I first showed up to Manassas high school the media of movies and TV and frankly the news and this sensationalism that goes along poor or people from inner city areas that end up in juvenile detention is so sensationalized that you think from all the stuff you've been fed that you know exactly what those people are and who they are, how they are, why they are. And the reality is the antithesis of the sensationalized pictures we are fed daily. And so I get where you're coming from. And I did it, right? I just shame because I so explain what you shame because I thought I was a better person. I thought I was

better than that. I didn't, you know, I thought I was non-judgmental or, you know, that I grew up running around the inner city and knowing kids from the inner city and knowing who they were. Which gave you quote credibility, right? Well, not necessarily. No, I mean, ceaseless. Oh, yeah, yeah. In your own mind, it gives you credibility. I thought I had credibility. Oh, yes, oh, 100%. Oh, 100%. Yeah, I'm real. Yeah, I mean, I thought, but the one of my better, I realized I wasn't. I wouldn't real. Because I, I had, I had stereotyped them. I had labeled them. I was wrong. I thought I knew better. I thought I was a better person

But I did it. I succumbed to exactly what you talked about the sensationalism the things that you're fed and the moment that I met him And I was confronted with that reality literally face to face and until Described our listeners What you found I found eight young man who were excited to meet me, who were brilliant, who were thoughtful, who were curious, who didn't judge me. And they probably had more reason to judge me

than I did them. And they were also teachers. You know what you just described? A normal 14, 15 year old kid. A normal 14 or 15 year old kid. Yeah, so here's the thing. It's interesting what you said, because again, I don't want to evoke too much of my own stuff here, but you are bringing out stuff in me through this conversation that I feel

and remember. I have often said, the kids at Manassas accepted me into their world, much more readily than my world would have accepted them in. And when you said they were curious and interested to meet you and kind to you, that's what great shame for me. Is that, wow, you know, and is that what you felt was like this sense of holy mulley? These are just kids. They're just kids and, you know, like, I spent three and a half hours making ice cream with them.

One of the best cooking times I've ever had. Like we were, we had a local produce company that was kind enough to donate just, I mean, cases of pineapples and mangoes and strawberries and blackberries and raspberries and jalapenos and tarragon and basil and, you know, all this stuff. And we had a party. I mean, we were, I was cutting up watermelon and slice and jalapenos and giving them like old-sized jalapeno watermelon. Oh, you know, they're trying everything and we're having a great time

and I came up with a rule. I was like, okay, so every one of your ice creams has to use at least two fruits and at least one herb and a jalapeno can be an herb. You know, like, and we had a blast. And two days later, the same eight young men were brought by the jewel department to the farmer's market. And each other, not there yet, not there yet.

You said curious. Yeah. Is it, it had to have been the first time these kids ever thought about fruit and herbs and ice cream in the same source? I remember distinctly that there was a young man of Mexican heritage who had never had a fresh mango before. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And it was like, I mean, I mean, 15 years later, that still is like permanently stuck in my head. And I was just think like,

and me working in kitchens with predominantly people from Mexico and understanding, you know, mango was everything. They put a mango in everything, you know? And- But this kid came from such a disenfranchised poor background that he'd never even had a fresh mango in his life. Well, it's the seed planting for me of things that you begin to learn later on. a distant franchise poor background that he'd never even had a freshman go on as well.

It's the seed planting for me of things that you begin to learn later on and as you get deeper and deeper into it, right? Like the concept of a food desert. The idea that our city today, I can't even begin to guess how many grocery stores there are north of downtown Dallas in the hundreds probably and there are three south of downtown Dallas, but the same number of people, but the same number of people. So I do have a quick question. You said jalapeno, yeah, and ice cream. Yeah, it is. It is. It is. There is Texas. Boy, I don't have barbecue at ice cream here. Yeah. Well, hold on. Now, I'm from Memphis. We can argue barbecue. You grill beef, you barbecue pork, but we can have that argument later, okay?

So now we're getting into fighting words. Oh yeah, we're going to get into it about that. So yeah, the way you don't barbecue beef, this whole Texas barbecue thing is a completeness no more. But I'll digress. We can argue about that later. So you have this enlightening experience with this a gets that actually humbled you and taught me and taught you humbled in the true sense of the word humbled, right? I think we use the word humbled wrong. We win an award. We say we're humbled. You weren't humbled when you get punched in the face

and knock down your. I was gonna say you'd brought you to your knees metaphor. It knocked me, it knocked me flat on my rear. Yeah. And so these eight kids are gonna enter the ice cream contest against college culinary students. Love it. Tell us about it.

So they show up at the farmers market. In these college culinary students had the salt and pepper checkered chef pants on. They had chef coats on. about it. So they show up at the farmer's market. In these college culinary students had the salt and pepper checkered chef pants on. They had chef coats on. I still joke to the stage. Some of them had those stupid tall hats on. I mean, it was like a real thing, you know. And then here's these eight young men. And they've got on like khaki jail issued pants and white t-shirts and these jail issued flip-flop slides that look like they were going to fall apart.

They're kind of crocs. Well, at the time, back then, crocs wasn't a thing. But that's kind of an open-toed crock looking thing. Yeah. This is unfortunately what the footwear is. Yeah. And so... And they show up to this culinary thing.

Yeah. And they show up. Looking like that. Yeah, and they show up. Looking like that. And I told a group reason, I was like, if you just close your eyes and imagine that scene, it just imagine the college students and these young men coming from detention and you see pride.

Who are you seeing pride coming from? Because if you're like anybody else, you're probably thinking these college students pride with their chef cuz also No, it was the eight young men. They were the proud ones. They were the ones standing so tall so proud so excited and and and they're competing in At the end of the competition one of the young men won the whole thing You beat the college should beat everybody By the way his flavor was caneloop strawberry and basil. I was just about to ask you what,

how did caneloop strawberry and basil ice cream? Yep. Was the ice cream itself like vanilla-ish ice cream? No, no, no, it was more of like a sorbet. I gotcha. Yeah. And it was caneloop basil and strawberries. And he made you. Yeah. Yeah. And it was caneload basal and and strawberries. And he made it. Yeah. How cool was that? But what was cool was to watch him and the look on his face and I mean he just took off running at me and just gets right in my face. Arms cocked and he's bent and he's just screaming at the top of his lungs as if we're across

the room from one another. Sir, I just love to cook. Wow. And I just bent my knees, cocked my arms and screamed right back in his face. Sir, me too. I think it's important that we make sure we're bringing folks along with something I know that you now understand, which is Caldwell's Act. 16. 16.

Yeah. 16, 16, yeah. If you're in a youth detention facility, there are the very small amount of people who have born mental illness, bipolar schizophrenia, that, you know, that's that's sorting out a whole different set of problems. But in truth, it is a very, very small number of what we would say has psychosomatic illness. 95% of those kids, I don't know that number, but it's close. Are there because they were kicked out of school or they got in trouble repeatedly or whatever, but they are not psychosomatically ill.

They are socially ill. And the reason the vast majority of them are socially ill is because they come from some background that is wrought with one or more of trauma, physical abuse, sexual abuse, social abuse, parentlessness, homelessness, or such abject poverty that they literally had to fight just to eat. That is what the population of these kids locked up are the vast majority of. So if you remember that this kid, it just won an ice cream contest, came screaming to you, sir, I just love to cook. That very likely was the nicest setting, the competition itself, for us being held, very, very likely was the nicest setting he'd ever been in his life. And very possibly that was the most positive, amazing thing to have ever happened to him in his life.

This was a super ball for this kid. Well, you're just going right into the very next thing that he said to me was, and I knew his story. He taught me was my story close. Yes. I mean, sorry, was his story close to what I just got? Yeah, yeah, no, yeah. And the, the, the, um, this was a attorney speaking of barbecue, the district attorney for wine.county, Kansas City, Kansas, told me one time, you know, it's not the choices people make, it's the choices they're given. And it is so true. It is so true.

If you're given three choices and all of them have bad outcomes. It's not that you can't make a choice. You just try to choose the least worst. And unfortunately, there's a large segment in our population of children who are forced to make their choices every day. The least worst. And so to know his story, to understand that circumstance to hear him save. Very next thing he said to me was, I just love to make food and give it to people and put a smile on their face. Now, I know a lot of people that love to make food and sell it to people and pay rent. And that's noble. Which we're all with that. Nothing. That's business. That's life. Absolutely nothing wrong. And I know a young man

That deserve in every way to make food and sell it and make money to help with rent to help with food to help with all those things But he said I just love to make food and give it to people and put a small interface I've never heard a human being describe their heart in a more beautiful way at a more perfect time Who by the way? Yeah came from the type of background we're talking about. And if the vast majority of the people listening to us saw him walking down the street, would because of the sensationalism they've been fed about this kid, they would sum them up and cross the other side. Yep.

Meanwhile, there's a soul in there that just wants to cook and give away food. Well, and you think about, um, he has to take that. What they just did was they, they, they, they, they talked to him and they told him who they thought he was. And he has to walk with that. And walk in a world that says, um, this is not who I want to be, but everybody's just told me I am.

I'm fulfilling their prophecy, not mine. So he says, when I get at, when it is, when I get released, I am going to get a job and a restaurant and I am my mind and thinking, wow, I mean, this, this is incredible. He didn't ask me on whether I think he should work at Wendy's or Chili's. Heeding the advice of my father, I told him whoever hires you first and whoever pays you the most money second. And that was it.

He was under custody of the Dallas County Juveal Department. So I was not allowed to get any of his information and at the time was so scared of death to give him my information because I thought that was not allowed either. And I didn't want to get in any trouble because I wanted to be able to do more. And so I drove home that day, realizing I'd never see him again, but also realizing that he was never going to make it to a windies or chillies. So deflating. Oh man, you go from the highest high, right, being so excited to angry, being so inspired to sad. And it goes back to, you know, what you were bringing up earlier is there's this, it was this moment of all these things happening, right?

My childhood and the things that I saw and didn't see and the different communities and the experiences I had and my personal upbringing and home life and comparing and trusting it to what I knew of his and thinking through. And just coming for me, it was this running into a brick wall, a reality of just understanding that it wasn't just that he's going to go back to the same house and the same street and the same neighborhood and the same, you know, lack of resource and education, food, healthcare, etc. It was the fact that like for he and I, our lives were dictated by choices that were made for us for reborn. Because of the color of our skin, because of the socioeconomic class we were born in, the part of town that we were born in, all those resources that access or in access to.

And I was given a abundant of resources growing up. I was given so many resources. I didn't have to think about it. I was given so many opportunities to succeed. I was given so many opportunities to fail and try again. Actually, that one's the most important one. We'll be right back. A brand new historical true crime podcast.

The year is 1800, a city hall in New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System. A man-sense trial for the charge of murder. Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of. When you lay suffering a sudden, violent, brutal death, I hope you'll think of me.

Starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton. Don't be so sad, that's right. It doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Allison Flock. Why do I have to wait? Let it go, I'm ready. Listen to E. Rast, the murder of Elma Sands. She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl. Until she met that man right there.

On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Apple Murder! What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 Days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I?

Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitations. Light stuff on your feet. You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead To Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word.

Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison then? No. It's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask or are you going to do that?

Escape. And how may I ask, or are you going to do that? Escape! Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On one side were the Cowboys, a band of ranchers turned criminals who had plagued the town for years. On the other, four Laman, and their names are the ones you'd recognize, Virgil Morgan and Wyatt Earp, alongside their good friend Doc Holliday. The resulting shootout, known today as the gunfight at the Ok Corral, only lasted 30 seconds, but the market left on popular imagination has held on for nearly 150 years. Why?

Because Americans have never stopped being fascinated with the Wild West. This July, Grimm & Mile presents Turns its Gays Westward. Join us for a trek into the unknown, the misunderstood, and the forgotten tales of America's Westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey. Grimm & Mile presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents. The opportunity to fail, but I have a safety net to catch you so that you can go yet again.

Go yet again. It's the big one because so many of these kids, if they fail, there's nothing. Nothing. Well, you just look at it. Actually, jail. Yeah, that's what's below. And then it's done. Right.

I mean, we can look at all the data. Now you're institutionalized. Now you're in the system. And breaking out of that is rough. I was in Denver recently, and we were doing some research and stuff like that. And it's, it is something like 80% of all prisoners in the state of Colorado.

Adult prisoners. Adult prisoners. Yes. 80% of all adult prisoners in the state of Colorado. Adult prisoners. Adult prisoners. Yes. 80% of all adult prisoners in the state of Colorado had a juvenile record. Right. See if that's in every way. We're having a mayor's election in Memphis, as we speak. And there's 10 top 10 issues in Memphis and they are crum crum crum crum crum crum and crum. Yep. And so now everybody's getting out all their data, their metrics, their analytics,

and that was one, it's interesting, Shed Denver. I guess. It's probably every city in the country. Yeah, I mean, I'm just quoting Colorado because I had researched it. It's like 87% of adults in the prison system and in a round Shelby County were all in the juvenile system. Yes. It's a, it's a, it's a, so if we're starting at 18 to try to fix this, we're

light. No, we're super light. And I think, and this is the other thing that not to go off on a, on a tangent or climb up a soapbox. But if I had a nickel for every time, I've heard somebody say the system is broken. I'd be a very wealthy person, but I challenge people a time it is not broken. Broken systems just don't work. The system is doing exactly what it's designed to do. It starts when their 10, 11, 12, 13 years old and it just keeps them going. I had a friend that was a former public defender

that said the saddest thing for him was kept, was being a public defender for an 11 year old because you knew you had job security for six more years. Wow. Because you would continue to represent that child every time they went to court until they became an adult. And then, and then the adult public defender now had a client for life. Yes. Yes. 11, bro.

11, 11, 11, I can't, I get. What? It's what? Fourth, fifth, third, eight, nine, that's fourth, fifth grade. Yes. Yes. This is, this is when you're supposed to be hanging out with your buddies and playing hide and seek and playing on your church or youth sports teams and watching cartoons or video games or whatever the heck it is good. This is a let you're not supposed to be in jail. You're not supposed to be in jail and you're not supposed to be having to make choices based on the choices you're given. The least worst available to you, which is also bad. Yeah.

And that's the thing that I feel like is the most important thing that people here is a child that goes to jail is not their fault. We have failed them. Somewhere along the lines. So we can complain all day long about jails and overpopulation and the cost and how much money we spend on carcerating people and all this stuff. But until we as a society make the decision that we're going to invest in their lives early on, then we're never going to change. One of my mantras is the greatest success. No, the greatest measure of the success of a leader is the actions of the followers. Yep. Okay. So let's be a chef in a kitchen.

If the foods coming out cooked properly, tasting good on time and delivered, you've probably got a chef handling it. If the food's late, it tastes like crap, it's burnt, it's watery, it's probably not all the people in the kitchen prepping. It's probably the chef. The greatest, the greatest measure of the success of the leaders, the actions of the followers. Let's take that to a macro view.

Who's fault is it the 10 or 11 year old turn jail? If the greatest success, if the greatest measure, the success of leadership, as the actions of the followers, we got 9, 10, 11 year old kids going into jail. I would argue it's a success of the leadership of those kids. and that includes the parents, that includes the school system, that includes society, that includes the political and social systems that allow this continue to happen. I would suggest that these kids have absolutely no leadership in their life and as a result or off the rails.

Well, and I think it's worth noting because like we were talking about earlier, three grocery stores south of downtown Dallas, right, and 45% of the population of the city living south of downtown Dallas. These children these, these children come from families that come from families that come from families that come from families that have gone through these same generation old. Yeah. And so we're in, in wheat, but in, in, in leadership, tells them figure it out. Right. That's the point. But I'm not going to give you any tools. I'm not going to give you any

resources. I'm not going to do anything to help. So just figure it out. Hey, we're the freeest country in the world. Pull your boots up by your straps and go get them, kid. Right. But, but, but, but how, but how, I, I, I, I, I gave a kid a ride one time from his house to a restaurant. And it was a 12 minute car ride, 12 minutes. Hopped on a highway, hopped off whenever while he was interviewing for the job. I looked up public transportation. It was four bus transfers an hour and a half each way. Now explain to me how we're telling a kid, go get a job. I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't go I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't go, I wouldn't go work somewhere that took me a three hour commute for a 12 minute car ride.

We're asking somebody to do something that we wouldn't even do ourselves. That's a fallacy of leadership. So do as I say, not as I do. Here you have this restaurant, these accolades, and now this experience of the ice cream kids. You're driving home going, it's sad that Wendy's or Chili's is what he sees as culinary, but what's even more sad that even as low a bars that is,

he won't even make it there. And you're feeling these range of bipolar motions of excitement and sadness and feel good, but also shame and all of it. But now you've got to go back to work when you're restaurant or do you? Well, at the time, yeah. But I wanted to it was it was in that moment on a drive home where I just thought This is so okay, you know, this is the way the world works. So what are you gonna do? And you know option a was to just go back to my restaurant Pretend that other part just kind of didn't exist and build my empire. The other part was to lean in, to listen and learn more.

I chose to listen, lean in and learn more, and I spent time inside the juvenile facility, and I was, would teach cooking classes every so often and working with the kids. Um, I found out some years later that a, uh, a gentleman that worked in the journal apartment that was a supervisor in the facility at the time told my entire staff that he thought I was the craziest SOB he'd ever met because I walked into Juvie and gave kids knives. So be he'd ever met because I walked into Juvie and gave kids knives And he said but it taught him a very valuable lesson

Which is the kids responded to my Belief in them and an expectation that they could succeed And they responded to that and it was a lesson to him But I spent time teaching cooking classes. We made a lot of fried rice. It was inexpensive and the kids loved it. And so I spent most of that time though listening. You know, I was earning trust and listening.

I listened to the staff. I listened to the kids. The staff talked a lot about consistency and stability in every way. If you say you're gonna do something, if you say you're gonna show up at two o'clock on Friday to teach class, you better be here at 159 ready to teach class.

But also, I wanna interject something about that. Yeah. One of the kids that I coached years ago from the inner city talked about that very thing and he said, all you have to do is not show up. And then you're common. Yep. And if you want our attention, be uncommon. And what he was saying was, everybody in their life says, you're going to do something. It's just, this is me, I don't care. And when you're someone, it's so odd, it's

so unfortunate. The best simply doing what you say you're going to do and being consistent showing up every time you say makes you uncommon and makes you someone worth an an eyelid raise worth maybe, I might give this guy a look. Yeah. But that kid told me, he said, look, if you don't show up, it just makes you common. But if you want our attention, be uncommon, I will never forget that.

But that's exactly what I got. I always, they're the wisest people. I know. I mean, I always tell people like, are young people have the best BS indicator ever? Have births. birth sniff it out. They're like tiger counters for BS. Oh, yes.

Those kids know it because they've lived it and they see it and they can pick it out in 15 seconds. So fast. And then we're you know, cooking with the kids and understanding their lives and their lived experience and their stories and what consistency and stability has played into why they're in detention. Lack of.

Lack of. Yeah. And that's where the initial framework for Cafe Momentum came about is I literally was on the phone with my business partner one night and I was complaining that I had been working with the kids for about a year and I hadn't done anything and I felt kind of like a fraud. I mean,'re sure you want to be in the classes, but you're supposed to do something else. You're supposed to do something else and She just kind of

Snap me to it said didn't what do you want to do? And I said I just want to open a restaurant and let the kids run it She said It's kind of cool It's like I think we both been drinking but We'll be right back. A brand new historical true crime podcast. The year is 1800, a city hall, New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System.

A man-sense trial for the charge of murder. Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of. When you lay suffering a sudden violent brutal death, I hope you'll think of me. Starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton. Don't be so sad, that's right.

It doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Allison Flock. Why are you doing that goal? Listen to E. Rast, the murder of Elma Sands. She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl, until she met that man right there. On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. Apple Murder!

What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here? 13 days of Halloween, Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitations.

Light stuff on your feet! You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking. Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead To Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time.

So this is a prison none? No, it's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask, or are you going to do that? Escape! Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

On one side were the Cowboys, a band of ranchers turned criminals who had plagued the town for years. On the other, four Laman, and their names are the ones you'd recognize, Virgil Morgan, and Wyatt Earp, alongside their good friend Doc Holliday. The resulting shootout, known today as the gunfight at the Ok Corral, only lasted 30 seconds, but the market left on popular imagination has held on for nearly 150 years. Why? Because Americans have never stopped being fascinated with the Wild West. This July, Grim and Mile presents Turns its Gays Westward. Join us for a trek into the unknown,

the misunderstood, and the forgotten tales of America's Westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey. Grim and Mile presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents. I went to the gentleman who ran the programs in the facility who, you know, probably the opportunities to have access to working with youth and so forth. And I just said, you know, this is kind of what I want to do. And I expected him to say, you're out of your tree.

Yeah. What is wrong with you? Yeah. And he literally just looked at like me said, okay, I was like There's a problem myself with some real crazy people here, but there's a problem with him saying okay Now you actually got to do it. No, 100% you didn't he didn't put a barrier up that stopped your crazy self You're like uh-oh yeah now it on. Yeah. And the in the false arrogance that everybody I taught you was going to say, okay, you know, because that didn't happen.

Yeah. No, I started the stigma around these kids still exist. I was, I was asked by a gentleman within the first 15 seconds of the conversation, okay, let's just cut to it. You and I both know, what are you going to do when those kids stab each other in the kitchen? Yeah. So ridiculous. I'm more scared about you stabbing me in the back. That's any of these kids. And believe it.

I was told repeatedly, you know, those kids don't want to work. They just want to collect a check. I was told repeatedly. Can we, can we, can we go ahead and go ahead and put this out there that the welfare queen stories BS also. Okay, continue. Oh, such, I know, such a hair. But it's, but the problem with it is it leads to more objectification. Yes. And, and it leads to more of this generational BS about orchids. I should just Objectification and justification. And just in just in the way you feel. Yes. Because we make up these ridiculous narratives that become, they become somehow fact that have no basis. In fact, I'm going to butcher this and totally get it wrong. Sorry, I get most of our stuff wrong. But it was so much. I read something a couple of years ago, where like the state of Florida introduced this legislation that in order to receive,

you know, welfare dollars, you had to pass a drug test and all this stuff and they spent tens of millions of dollars rolling out this program and saved like $15,000. Like it was something absurdly ridiculous. Yeah, but it made everybody feel good. But everybody thought, oh, we're doing it. We're doing it. And it's, it's, yeah, it's the problem because you have to understand the truth about kids and the truth about kids is it's zip code at the time of your birth should have nothing to do with whether or not you end up in jail at 11 year olds or not, but it's truth is it does. And the other truth is that infant, that child, that kid given a level playing field is very likely to smash your own children if they only had that level.

And both likely to. And by, I actually believe that all of this, all of these stories and the sensationalism and everything around it actually gives us license to not feel guilty about the way we think of this segment of our society. And it is so patently wrong. We can just end the whole thing right here on that statement. I mean, that is the truth, the truth that I hope people get out of this today.

It is patently wrong. It is, and that was my problem in going around trying to open this restaurant was, this is what I was up against. And it didn't matter that I was up against it. It's what these young people are up against every single day of their life. And I just remember thinking to myself, if you actually met them, if you actually stood face to face with them, if you actually talked to them, you would never, not in a million years, would you ever, ever say that about them? In fact, you would do the opposite. And so based on that, so then it's like, based on how do I do it? Yeah. How do I do it? And I know food. So I came up with this idea of I am and this is, this is, you know, 2000, late 2000,

early 2011, and there was this new kind of it thing going on the food world. These underground dinners and pop up dinners and all this stuff. I was like, I'm going to take a thing. Is it the pop up dinners? Yes. So, first pop up dinner I did was June 2011. And the idea was to go on one of the top restaurants in Dallas. And it had to be one of the top restaurants in Dallas. Because when I'm going to show you that the kids are capable of, I'm going to show you at the highest echelon

of what they're capable of. Like so. So go on one of the top restaurants in Dallas and a center. It's also a little bit of a shocking picture for people. Yeah. They don't expect to see them there. Well, if you're saying that they can't cook my food, I'm going to show you that they can cook the best food in the city.

And do it on your turf. On yes. And so the idea, yeah, going to one of the top restaurants in Dallas Sunday night when the restaurants close, they'll tickets to a private dinner. Chef writes a four-course menu that the staff not only helping the chef and working alongside the chef team in the kitchen but serving to level and quality of service of that restaurant were eight young men that we would bring in from a juvenile detention. And these kids are servers, dishwashers that they're all the parts of the kitchen.

And the staff. The design was that four of them would work in the kitchen for the first two courses while four of them kitchen. And the staff. The design was that four of them would work in the kitchen for the first two courses, while four of them served. And then we would flip flop them halfway through so that they would get a little experience on both. Now, the first dinner, the goal was to get 50 people to pay $50 to come to the dinner. I had absolutely no belief that any human being, but just based on lived experience of what people would say about the kids, that anybody would show up so much so

that I would devise the plan to call my mom and have her guilt the ladies in her Bible study class. And this was, we'll get somebody there for these kids to support us. I mean, these ladies, I'm like, you know ladies, the clock is taking here, you really need to do some good things in your life. Yeah, yeah. And this may be a little better than all of card. That's the goal. And so, uh, but, but myself and another gentleman, there are five of us organizing this dinner

in myself. And one of the gentlemen organized the dinner, we posted a little write up about the dinner on, on, on our Facebook pages and our Facebook pages and put a link to PayPal. And the dinner sold out and before we could shut the PayPal off, the dinner had sold out in less than 24 hours. It was 63 people showed up at that dinner. And 63 people gave these young men a standing ovation at the end of the night.

And 63 people walked out of that restaurant and looked me right in the eye and said, you know, this could be my son. Wow. Bingo. So we went on and we started. Now you know the kids. Now you know, once you know them, you'll never say that about them. And you need to know them. So fast forward, the dinners become very, very popular. They're selling out by like the end of 2011, beginning 2012. They're selling out by like the end of 2011, beginning of 2012, they're selling out like 15 seconds. 15 seconds. Literally. And I can, I do not learn at SMU or in culinary school, raise the price. Well, there's a, there's a give and take

to that, right? Because the, what I knew was it was going to take us 25 years of pop-up dinners to raise enough net profit off of each profit dinner to open a restaurant, right? Yeah, it wasn't raised to it. It was right. So it was it was keeping the buzz and leveraging that into bigger. So you didn't want to chase people off a raise in the prices more important to get them in and know the kids so that you could go back to them. I wanted to tell the mayor, I'm sorry, sir, we're sold out. I love it. And so about a year into those dinners,

I just had another one of those moments and I sat down and talked to my business partner and just said, you know, I need to walk the talk to exactly what you said earlier. I didn't want to be common. And I knew those kids have been fed lines their entire lives and I didn't want to be one of them. And I wanted to show them that I was willing to walk the talk. So I walked away from Parigi to focus my full time and attention on getting a permanent

brick and mortar cafe momentum open. And it took us three and a half years total and 41 pop up dinners over that time before Kathy momentum finally opened its doors on January 29th, 2015, which means you walked away from what you thought was your pinnacle. I thought it was the empire. You you you, you,

you've worked as your house, you own the restaurant, people are writing articles about you, you are the man, you grew this restaurant's revenue 40% in the middle of the housing crisis, when the most difficult times people are shutting down, you're growing people are writing about you, you've reached your pinnacle, and the truth is, it was still only a step to what is now the real pinnacle. Well, it's funny because I've had conversation about this before and people really hone in

on that. I'm like, but I don't think that you understand. There weren't choices I was making. It wasn't options. I wasn't there was only one thing to do. That was it. Um, it was my empire. It was all like all those, it was greater than any. It was, it was the thing.

Like there was no called. You were driven. Yeah, I wasn't, it wasn't as if I was like, okay, let me weigh my options. Am I more interested? I was like, okay, this is it. This is like, I will never, ever at, like, forget, like, never forgive myself,

forget anything. Like, there was not a conversation. It was just like, you're doing this. We'll be right back. A brand new historical true crime podcast. The year is 1800, a city hall in New York. The first murder trial in the American Judicial System. A man-sense trial for the charge of murder.

Even with defense lawyers, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on the case, this is probably the most famous trial you've never heard of. When you lay suffering a sudden violent brutal death, I hope you'll think of me, starring Allison Williams. I don't need anything simplified, Mr. Hamilton, thank you. With Tony Goldwyn as Alexander Hamilton, Don't be so sad, that's It doesn't suit you. Written and created by me, Alison Flock. Why are you doing that goal, I'm crazy! Listen to E-Raced, the murder of Elma Sands.

She was a sweet, happy, virtuous girl. No! No! Until she met that man right there. On the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. I'm a murder! What is this place? Wait, why my handcuffed? What am I doing here?

13 days of Halloween Penance. Season 4 of the award-winning horror fiction podcast presented in immersive 3D audio. Where am I? Why, this is the Pendleton. All residents, please return to your habitation. Light stuff on your feet. You're new here, so I'll say it once. No talking.

Starring Natalie Morales of Parks and Recreation and Dead to Me. Am I under arrest? We don't like to use that word. Can I leave of my own free will? Not at this time. So this is a prison then? No, it's a rehabilitation center. Premiering October 19th, ending Halloween. I'm gonna get out. And how may I ask for you going to do that?

Escape. Listen to 13 days of Halloween on the I Heart Radio app Apple podcasts over or wherever you get your podcasts. On one side were the Cowboys, a band of ranchers turned criminals who had plagued the town for years. On the other, four Laman, and their names are the ones you'd recognize, Virgil Morgan and Wyatt Earp, alongside their good friend Doc Holliday. The resulting shootout, known today as the gunfight at the Ok Corral, only lasted 30 seconds, but the market left on popular imagination has held on for nearly 150 years. Why? Because Americans have never stopped being fascinated with the Wild West.

This July, Grim and Mile Presents turns its gaze westward. Join us for a trek into the unknown, the misunderstood, and the forgotten tales of America's westward expansion. So pack your assumptions and childhood love of the unexplored and get ready to make a journey. Grim and Mile Presents The Wild West is available now. Subscribe on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more at grimandmild.com slash presents. I never anticipated it being what it is today, which is, well, so sound business decision number two. I, with the success that we've seen in Dallas

in the program and the interest of folks and opening, you know, building coffee and minimum restaurants and programs are on the country, I started a new organization called Momentum Advisory Collective to oversee the expansion of the Cafe O'Minnum model across the country in the first week of March 2020. Two weeks before every restaurant, the country shut down. I mean, it was, you know, hey, we're coming to your city eventually. You know, great chef, great business guy, but you're timing sucks, bro. I always tell people the next time I tell them, so my next idea is like the locusts are coming. You know what?

The next I want you to call me the next time you have the big idea because I'm going to short something a week after you start because I know I'm going to hit that square in the teeth. Okay. Truth. Truth. So, cafe momentum, we don't need to skip too far by, is 100% staffed by kids out of juvenile. And we're talking servers, prep cooks, dishwashers, host, all of it. Yeah, so the program itself provides a

12-month curriculum. And the curriculum focuses on like kind of four key areas for our organization focuses on four key areas. Workforce development, which is obviously in the restaurant, 24, seven case management, mental health services, and education. Okay. I want that it's so important to people understand why those things are important. Yes. Tell me about an example of what case management means and has resulted in. Give me just one. Yeah. So when I think of case management, the first word I think of is stabilization. We've worked with over a thousand youth and Dallas and 42% are experiencing significant housing instability. They don't know where they're sleeping at night.

I think that people commonly think I have a perception of what homeless means. But when I tell you that 42% of our youth are homeless, it means that they don't have a permanent place to sleep. So they find a different floor to sleep on or a different hallway to sleep. But like, you know, there's, and it's not just the trauma of not knowing where you're resting your head at night. It's the trauma of Not feeling like you're in control of your own destiny The trauma of trying to figure out what can you barter with to sleep on this one? If you want to understand the vernacular when someone asks me Where I live, I will tell them there's also vernacular in the

inner city is where do you stay? Where do you stay? Well, a lot of people think that's really poor English, but actually it's dead nuts. It's it's it's spot on because you don't live anywhere. It's just where you stay. You don't have an address, right? You have an area. Yeah.

Yeah, that's that's 100% correct. So for us case management is creating that stability. It's it's you know, it's making sure that they're no longer food insecure. It's making sure that they have a consistent place to sleep at night, a safe place to sleep at night. It's making sure to help them with things like a government issued ID. It's making sure to help get them a physical at the doctor's office to see, you know, if there's any medical issue, vision exams so that they can have glasses and see. So they can read and learn. Yes.

It's literally, I mean, at the core, like case management, social, it's stabilization. It's also advocacy, I should say, because what you find with our youth is and this is a real time example that I wish could say was a one-off and it's not Our youth are Embedded in multiple systems That they're not allowed to advocate for themselves in and that don't communicate to one another So it's routine for a young person to be left with a choice. My probation officer has put me down to check in with him in the office at 2 p.m.

This has happened in my world, go ahead. I know this one. You know what I'm talking about? It's real. That's what I said. I wish it was a one off. You gotta go to your probation officer too, because if you and if you don't show up

You've got arrested yeah, don't back in the clink. Yeah, but it right but if you School and now you're true it yeah, and if you're true it Then I get reported to your probation officer and you violated probation reported to the very probation officer that made the Afforded appointment that made you true it. That made the appointment. And a lot of times what happens is the pro, so case manager will sit along. It's not you got this. You're going to call, we're going to call them together. We're going to have this conversation.

You call the probation officer and you say, Hey, listen, you know, Chad's supposed to be in, in school at two o'clock. And the probation officer say, you know what? I thought, I thought he was on the morning schedule. I didn't know he was in the afternoon schedule. That's great. But the young person doesn't know how to advocate. They don't believe the probation officer cares

if all of these things happen. And so then it's, here we go. Here goes the cycle. Well, civil non-threatening conversations are also not typically reality in their work. So asking them, you would think, well, just call your probation option, explain it. You have no idea how much anxiety one of these kids would have being asked to do something like that. They'd probably rather just get in trouble than actually

have to make that call because they've never been trained how. I know you've heard this before, because I hear it all the time, kids that are up on charges that will say they would rather just spend a year in jail than five years on probation. Because they think a year in jail, I'm off probation, I'm done, I can move on, but I mean, a year in jail, but five years probation is, I'm gonna spend 10 year in jail, I'm off probation, I'm done, I can move on. I mean, a year in jail, but five years probation is,

I'm going to spend 10 years in jail because they're going to get me for something. Right. And it requires me to have an interaction with people that I don't trust. I don't trust. Yeah. So case management is simply stabilization and advocacy, right? Communication, making sure that everyone that has some type of significant impact or potential for impact is aligned. And the mental health because of the traumas. That's pretty self-explanatory if you've listened

anything today. And education, you know, and it's, I think education for me is one of the things that one of two things that I'm most proud of, because it exemplifies at the core who we are as an organization, which is an organization that was built by the very people that we serve. We know education is important.

We know for a multitude of reasons, from the data reasons, but also the lived reasons of our young people. We understand that at, at, basic, a high school diploma is something that our young people. We understand that at basic, a high school diploma is something that our young people can say, I did it myself and no one can ever take it away from me. It's also the thing that they say, I never thought I would do that. Now, what are the other things I want to do in life that I never thought I could do? But high school, wonderful schools and

Dallas that really, really meet our young people where they're at and work so great with them, but two things prevented our young people from going. Number one is, you can paint it however you want. It's still school. It's still the same institution that it was that made me feel like crap in kindergarten. I ain't going. Number two is, I'm so far behind that I don't want to get caught up. You know, and then the last was public transportation.

This school's across town. It's going to take me an hour and a half to get there. And so we worked so hard to get our kids to go to school. It wasn't working. We really wanted to be in school. How a young man was supposed to be in school. His case manager and I sat down with him and said, you know, you know, you weren't at school today.

Yeah, I was. No, you weren't. Oh, the counselor didn't say, no, no, when the counselor didn't see you, it was your case manager that was at school today and didn't see you. Well, you know, I just said, look, man, I said, you know, I love you, and I'm going to love you for the rest of my life. But I just, I need you in this moment to teach me two things. Let's start with the first. Do you want to graduate high school? He goes, yeah,

it's okay. Then the second question is, why don't you want to go to school? And he was honest with me. He said, teach me. And he was honest with me and told me, I said, okay, I have one more question for you. I said, if we built a school, would you go? He said, yeah. So we built our own school. The, the, this dude's name should be over a room somewhere. Yeah.

Well, and I mean, but a hundred percent of the youth in the program are in school. But they're in your school. In our school. Yeah. And some of them youth in the program are in school. But they're in your school in our school. Yeah. And some of them are in in in other schools, but you know, we've found was, it again goes back to our young people know what they need and they know how they need it. It's our job to listen and act, you know. So we focus on those those four things in the restaurant itself to what you kind of mentioned earlier

and we talked about a little bit is we do require them to work in every station in the restaurant. So they'll spend time washing dishes, they'll spend time busing tables, they'll spend time working on a couple of the lines in the kitchen, they'll spend time hosting, they'll spend time serving. And we do that for a couple of reasons. Number one is that they're learning new life skills and social skills. And they're getting to apply them to the different environment that each of those stations presents. My favorite example is always like learning to disagree appropriately. And the way you disagree appropriately in the kitchen with

that fellow cook while you're trying to get food out for 15 tables is different than the way you disagree appropriately with a customer that sat down're trying to get food out for 15 tables is different than the way you disagree appropriately with a customer that sat down 10 minutes ago, ordered three minutes ago, and is already complaining that they've waited 45 minutes for their food when to speak to the manager. Our jails today are full of people who did not know how to handle a disagreement.

Yes. You think about, you think about that for a second, about how most assault in our country is by someone that the assaulted knows. Yes. It's very little crime, especially violent crime, perpetrated on people who don't know the perpetrator. It's very rare.

It's another one of those misnomers. It's another one of those things. The book you're man out to get you. Yeah. It's a hundred percent. Yeah, and so the point is, I'm sitting here hearing you and I can't think of a better lesson to the learn than how to disagree appropriately. That's a fantastic lesson. that adults need to learn. Everybody's learned, but especially at risk youth. Yes. It's a beautiful example. And you're right. Some jerk that sits down at a table and starts griping

about something they have no reason to gripe at, everybody's first reaction is to want to punch them in the nose. Well, it is. I mean, it's mine. I mean, but I've learned the appropriate reaction to that stimulus and I've understood that punching them knows it's not appropriate reaction and as a result,

don't go to jail or end up in a lawsuit. That is a really interesting thing that you're talking about is, so do they come to you and say this jerk's you want to be the table? How do I handle it? How do you teach that? Through model behavior, through positive reinforcement, through talking through a situation. I mean, it's never all those situations out. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and we'll talk about. We like role-playing. We'll do some role-playing. We do a. Yeah. And we'll talk about, um, we like role playing. We'll do some role playing. We do, we do a lot of like kind of training and, and well, actually, it's fun because we'll do role playing with interns, right?

So we'll have interns sitting at a table and another one will be serving them, talk about like, you know, don't be polite or don't be whatever. And it's fun, but what I found most times the not as of a person's kind of being a jerk and I'm grateful for this that the kids feel it's a safe place and they're going to the manager and saying this person's not being right in a manager will walk over and have a comfort with the other person. If you're ever doing role playing and you need the guy to be the really good jerk, attended bar and waited for five years to get through college. Man, I could play that role great. I just could remember one of 30 different times. I wanted to kill somebody that was in one of the restaurants I was working in. And I could just be that

person and help train your people. I could be one of the greatest jerks ever. I got to tell you one funny story is we had a guy come in the restaurant and From literally the moment that he walked in he was Absolutely unhappy and there was nothing that was gonna change his unhappiness because we didn't serve liquor That's what he was unhappy about it ruined his entire night So he was barking at the kids he was barking at and I was standing at the, I was standing in the middle of the restaurant and he came over to me and we served beer mine. He came over to me and he said, excuse me, do I have to do something to get my friends

one beverages and he's going on and I said, I'm absolutely, you know, happy to take care of you. I said, I understand that there's been some issue and stuff this evening and he goes, who said that? And I said, well, he goes, was that lady over there? And I said, well, I just looked at him. I said, it's very clear to everyone in this restaurant that you're not impressed with anything that's going on here.

So what I'm going to do is help to get you through this night and the best way I possibly can. So let me get through it. This man leaves the restaurant and he goes on Facebook and he gives us a one-star review and says horrible food, horrible service, horrible management, horrible parking, horrible on and on. And about six months later, somebody commented on his review and said, I don't understand they have complimentary valet parking. That's it. Because one of the things a restaurant business will teach you is there are people in this world that no matter what you do, you'll never make them happy. Never make them happy. And you know what? That's a really good lesson for a great lesson to learn. It's a great lesson to learn. The second thing that we that they're learning in the restaurant is to embrace and take pride in their strengths. And a strength is something that our young people have used to survive to get by to get through day to day. But yet the hustle, it's the hustle. But

then they wind up in a system that says, you're bad for doing that. And so they look at it holistically, I was like, well, I guess that's not, you know, I guess being good sales, but whatever is not a great strength. And we want them to take pride in and understand that it's an asset. It's not, you know, it's not a deficit. And I still think to this day, like the greatest example, and it happens over and over again, but the first time I saw it happen was we had a young man who we ran a special on a Saturday night and said whoever sells the most specials gets a free on tray. We do it all the time. This young man sold us out of every single special we had in the first 45 minutes we opened

and he wasn't even a waiter. He was a busser and he realized that I'm the first point of contact to the table because I'm pouring water. And so he poured water saying, hey, have you heard about our special? Yeah. And then says, so just let the server just let the server know. I told you to order this special in 45 minutes later, he was eating a steak. I love it. That's the hustle. And I always tell people because there's such a, there's such a, a, a,

a misperception that we are a training facility for restaurant workers. And that's not what you're using the restaurant to train these kids for life. Life and that, that skill, that is a skill that that young man can take with him to start his own lumber company to open a barbershop to. So cars, be a lawyer, be so like, to... So cars. Be a lawyer. Be a cell car. Like, it doesn't matter. It's an invaluable skill.

And to see him embracing it and being proud of it is important. And the third thing I think that they're learning in the restaurant and what the organization is a whole is what it means to be a part of a team. And, you know, I think when we think of team and team player, we think of the clinical sports definition of, I'm one of 11 on offense or I'm one of five on the court and you do learn in the restaurant, right?

Like as a dishwasher, you learn pretty quickly that if you don't do your job, you literally set up everyone in the restaurant to fail. Like everyone, everyone. That's all the way through a restaurant. Oh, yeah, all the way through the chaos, the kitchen, but what are interns are learning as well as what it means to be a part of a team that says, we're going to show up and do our best to put you in position to be yours, which is why beyond the restaurant, we have the 24, seven case management, the middle-hole services and education. So, now, Cafe Memoram is in Pittsburgh. We opened Pittsburgh. And, last year, earlier this year, we're doing a lot of exploration and building in Nashville

fundraising, and then we're doing some exploration and fundraising in Atlanta, Denver, and Houston. And your goal is to have how many of these things? Oh, as many as it takes. I mean, I think we kind of audaciously at the beginning said we wanted to open up 30 of them in the next 10 years. But if I'm, if I'm going to be completely honest with anyone, man, I would love to open five and then like be worked out of a job. I would love what we've done in Dallas truly is shown what a new model for juvenile justice can and should look like in this country.

And I would love nothing more than for the model to be adopted and I'd be out of a job. I'll just go back to washing dishes. What, what do you need? Me personally or... Well, here's the thing. We always talk about what we're going to do to break the cycle. We're going to do break it. Well, here's the thing. We always talk about what we're going to do to break the cycle. We're going to do break it. Well, here it is.

You mentor, you case, you cover all of that. Yeah. And it's an unbelievable model. And we're an army of normal folks. And you're just a guy from a blue collar hard work in family who went to two years of college, got his associates in culinary and found a place in a need and you match your skill with your passion and your changing kids' lives and you're also opening up ideas about how to maybe break into the cycle that leads to our adult prison systems. I think it's beautiful.

And I think our listeners going to be beautiful. And I think people will be maybe passionate about what you're doing. What do you need? You know, what do you need to make it go? Yeah, big. I think, so we get a lot of inquiry. And you know and people saying, are you hiring? How can I get involved? How can I do this in my city, my town? And I just kind of had this epiphany recently of like, you know, I feel like people think I walked into that juvenile detention facility with a business plan. No, you walked in there to my ice cream.

Yeah. Something as simple as that. So when I think about what I need, I need people to show up. Yeah. I mean, anybody that's listening to this can contact their local jewel department, say, Hey, I want to volunteer. How do they contact you to find out how it works? It actually the easiest way to do it is to go to the Momentum Advisory Collective website,

which is MomentumAdvisory.co. MomentumAdvisory.co. MomentumAdvisory.co. On that website is an inquiry form. Perfect. That's the easiest way to do it. All right. Sound us off with this.

Give me your favorite story of a kid. That's the most loaded question. I hate the question to me because I've got like a thousand. Let me say a different way. Give me one of your favorite stories of what cafe momentum has done for a kid who is now and at all. So one of my, you know, again, we could spend 17 hours and I wouldn't cover half of them. I get it. There's a story under every helmet. One that sticks out to me because I don't think it was just me. It's the community. It's the village as a whole, right? So we had a young lady who was born in English as a second language and she grew up being kind of made fun of and being very self-conscious of the fact that English was a second language. And she grew up being kind of made fun of and being very self-conscious

of the fact that English was a second language to her. It was a deficit to her. She showed up at Cafe Momentum and her first day of work, she told her case manager, I'm here to make money, not friends. And she'd been hardened. Yes. And she sat on stage one day at a conference, you know, speaking, and she talked, she was talking about that. And she talked about how, at Cafe Momentum, she learned from people that cared more about her and believed in her more than sometimes even her own family did.

And, and, and I saw her smile. It took me three or four months to get her to smile at me. Like, you know, I mean, she's, and so she finished the program. And she got, and it's single mom, an incredible mom. Her son is her life. She is now a concierge at Children's Hospital in Dallas and they hired her because she's bilingual. It was her strength. So she turned the most difficult part of what embarrassed her deficit into a strength and learned how to gather that up through

her work at Cafe Momenta. And a month ago, her supervisor emailed us and said, I just wanted to let you know, she had been given the award of employee, every month they pick an employee at Children's Hospital, that best exhibits and displays the values of the organization, and she had won that award. And let's remember, this is a kid who was in juvenile detention, who people have actually said would get in a kitchen and stab another person.

Who people would across the street if they saw her coming? But that's the beauty of Cafe Momenta and Miss Chasing Laos, bro. It's, yeah, I'm incredibly grateful to be a part of it. I'm incredibly grateful to spend this time with you and share your story chat. One more time, if people want to donate, get involved, find out more, talk to you about maybe starting a

Catholic momentum and their neighborhood, they go to. I highly encourage people to go to both caffinmomentum.org. You can read about the story of caffeine momentum and caffeine element Dallas Nashville Pittsburgh. What we're up to. But also if you want to look at more of like the national work that we're doing because you know we built momentum advisory collective not just to to build programs but to build conversation. And that's at, and that's moment of advisory.co. Chad Houser, a guy grew up in Dallas with a grandfather in a, in a diverse neighborhood

and a secretary and a, and a dad who sold off his, yeah, office supplies and was a weekend cop, just a blue collar guy, a good average middle-income family who grew to love food, do the community that his family shared over it, made it a profession, reached the height of that profession, both from respect, from his abilities as a chef, but also from actually running the business that is a restaurant. Switched his life around, started sharing all that experience with the most at-risk kids and Dallas, and in doing so, as changing lives. I cannot think of a more worthy person to be considered just a member of an army of normal folks, seeing a place of need, employing

your discipline, your passion, and changing lives, and chat. It has been my honor to me. I'm, it's my honor and I'm very grateful. And it just means the world to all of us in our youth, to go from a position of being told they can't they won't, to being here with you today and being able to go to the restaurant tonight and they're going to ask me about the podcast and one of the questions will eventually be, I thought it was pretty cool, huh? Yeah, probably wants to meet me, huh?

Yeah, all right, cool. That's so empowering to them. So thank you very much. One day maybe you'll let me be the guy that role plays and I'll meet them in the eye. You name the day. We will, we will, we have family meal every day at three o'clock.

Sounds great. Chad, thank you, my friend. Thank you very much. And thank you for joining us this week. If Chad or another guest has inspired you in general or better yet, take action by helping start a Cafe Momentum in your city by donating to them or something else entirely.

Please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me any time at bill at normal folks dot us or now you can call us at 901-352-1366. I promise you, we will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast rate and review it. Become a premium member at normal folks dot us. All these things that will help us grow, an army of normal folks. Thanks to our producer-iron light labs, I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week.

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