Artist Friendly with Joel Madden - Phillip Frankland Lee

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Chef Phillip Frankland Lee joins Joel Madden on the latest episode of Artist Friendly. Before Lee was a celebrated chef, he served as the drummer in the rock outfit Alpha and Omega. His love of food, however, took over.  His first experience in the culinary world was as a dishwasher, moving into different positions over time until he opened his own restaurant, Scratch, in 2013. Scatch is just as its name suggests, serving up imaginative dishes that focus on “the purity and experience of food.”  Lee has also appeared on several cooking shows, beating out challengers on Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games, and Cutthroat Kitchen, as well as competing on Top Chef season 13. ------- Listen to their Artist Friendly conversation on ⁠⁠⁠Spotify.⁠⁠ ------- Follow Artist Friendly! IG: @artist.friendly TikTok: @artist.friendly YouTube: youtube.com/@artist.friendly ------- Host: Joel Madden, @joelmadden Producers: Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Josh Madden, Joey Simmrin, Janice Leary Video Editor: Ryan Schaefer Sound Engineer/Audio Production: Nick Gray Music/Theme Composer: Nick Gray Cover Art/Design: Ryan Schaefer Social Media: Sarah Madden Additional Contributors: Anna Zanes, Anthony Lauletta, Neville Hardman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, what's up? I'm Joel Madden, and this is artist-friendly. On this episode, I'm talking to chef Philip Franklin Lee, the chef and owner-operator of scratch restaurants. Let's go. Philip Franklin Lee. But your friends call you Philip? That's right. Does anyone call you Phil? No, well, sometimes. My mom, when I was growing up, would always correct anyone who call me Phil. Right. Her father was Phil, and so it's like, for her, it was like, my dad's Phil. My son is Philip. Yeah. Yeah.

It's very specific to call someone Phil. Yeah. You have to really want to be called Phil. Maybe in like 20 years I'll be Phil. Yeah. Phil's an older dude. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. So I did the intro. For everybody listening, Philip is a incredible chef and restaurateur of probably like my favorite group of restaurants. Thank you. Like, period. Thank you. I definitely have, I definitely like to eat, but I think we started going to your

restaurant, Scratch Kitchen in Encino first. Yeah. And that's where we met. Yeah, that was what, like probably years ago. Six, seven years ago, probably. Yeah. And then you opened sushi bar like right around, not too much longer after that, right? Yeah.

So, well, the original scratch bar opened in 2013 in our apartment. Then moved to Beverly Hills. Then we moved to the current location in Sina where we met 2015. And then sushi bar, which now is sushi by scratch restaurants, long story, is that opened in end of 2016, I think. Yeah. Maybe beginning of 2017. Okay.

So how did you start in your apartment? What was that? So, basically, back in 2012, I took over a restaurant in Tolucah Lake called DeCache as the executive chef. And it was my first executive chef job. And this restaurant, I've been around for 30 years, something like that, 20, 30 years. And we, like, like, three, four months in, we, like, won, like, best new restaurant and shit like that. And apparently, if you get a new chef and you change it, even though you, you've been around, you're still re-eligible.

And so one of the regulars there approached me, and he was like, yo, I love what you've done to this place. And he asked if he could hire me to consult at his little restaurant over in Hollywood. It was like a coffee shop that served like breakfast and lunch. And so I was like, yeah, I'll come check it out. And so I went and looked. It was this little coffee shop.

It was open from like 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. They did breakfast. They did a little lunch. They had a cool little kitchen, little bar set up, and the guy was like, you know, at the end of the day, he goes, so what do you think? Are you interested? And I said, yeah, I'm very interested.

And he goes, well, what do you want me to pay you for? And I said, I'll do it for free. Yeah. And he goes, what do you mean? And I said, no, no, I'll consult. I'll redo your thing. You don't have to pay me anything. But here's what I do want.

Your place closes at 3 o'clock every day. I just want to have access to it after that. So I want to open a fine dining restaurant in your coffee shop starting at 5 p.m. every day. So you get me and my crew, we do everything you want. So you get everything you want. But instead of me paying rent, I just get to run my own business at night. So you started, I mean, that to me, I'm just going to highlight this for any maybe entrepreneurs listening. that kind of trade is very common i've found with people who who really i think believe in themselves

and i think also understand long-term value of things like the opportunity to have a space you calculate that really quickly and you go i don't have startup money i can't go and get a space i'll trade i'll trade my my work for his space that kind of trade i found we did that a lot in the early days we would just trade people. It's very common with people who have like really long-term goals is understanding that value of the long-term. Yeah, I mean, it's that, but it's also like the, it's also that I don't give a shit about the now.

I mean, maybe I was too young to like, it's not like I game-planned it out, but it was like I don't need anything to really live. Right, it's going to get my foot in the door. Yeah, it's not about making money. It was about having a place to have my own restaurant. And so, you know, we did it. We made this deal.

We got open. And what was that restaurant? That was Scratch Bar. Okay, that was Scratch Bar. So Scratch Bar. And then when we moved it to Encino years later, we changed the name to Scratch Bar and Kitchen. Right. And so basically we ran this thing for a couple months.

We got all these accolades and everything. And then I used to be way more of a hot head than I am now as a grown-up. But this dude comes to me, you know, a big. maybe six weeks, eight weeks in and goes, so, you know, because I was running the restaurant four nights a week. You know, I was running his thing every morning, the restaurant four nights a week. But it was like, it was like a, you know, 20 course tasting menu. That was it super, you know.

And so like a Wednesday to Saturday type thing? Exactly. Right. Yeah. And so then he comes to me and he goes, hey, so I, what do you think about like maybe moving your dinner thing to like just fry in Saturday so you can focus more on the morning? And long story short, I end that conversation by just saying, fuck you and walking out.

Okay. And so, well, you know, I think we all, we've all been in our younger years, especially when we're hyper-focused. Yeah, man, it was 25 years old. You know what I mean? It was like, I mean.

Life teaches us, though. Yeah, I mean, nowadays I would have probably, but then again, like I am where I am today and I'm happy, so you've got to go through those things. But, you know, so walk out, you know, it was a Saturday night after service. We had this conversation. So it was like, fuck, what are we going to do now?

Because we're sold out for the next like three weeks. And I got no restaurant now. So Margarita, my wife, you know, it was her and I and a couple buddies. I mean, we started this thing like a band. Right. We really did. And you started in bands, which I want to get to. But you started playing music.

And I wonder if any of that taught you how to run a group. 100%. This was like having a residency and the promoter now. Like he's like, how about I? just don't pay you anymore. Right. Or how about you only do this? Like, no, fuck you.

I'll go play somewhere else. Right. You know. So we leave and so we have basically the weekend before our next sold out thing. And so we convert our one bedroom apartment and do a 20-seat restaurant in West Hollywood. And so we just go on Craigslist. We find like free tables, free folding chairs. How the hell is that even possible?

Well, it's possible. Legal, different matter. But possible, I mean, you know. I've always had this idea that if you just refuse to lose, then you won't. Yeah. You know, that probably comes from, you know, my DIY hardcore punk rock days. It's like, no, fuck you. We're just going to do it.

Yeah. We do. We turn our apartment into this like 20, 30 seat restaurant. We're doing like 50, 60 covers a night. And one of my guys, we're in West Hollywood, so you know you need a parking permit. So one of my guys, we get him a little orange vest. He's parking people's cars, letting them into the apartment complex. And right on Crescent Heights in between sunset and fountain.

I know that block. Was it that old building that like that historic looking? Right across the street. So it's next door like that huge temple. It's that huge temple. And then right north of that, the very next little building right there. What are your neighbors in the apartment say at the time? I mean, we didn't tell anyone.

We didn't really give a shit. Wow. You know, I mean, we walked them from the front. You know, we had an apartment in the back. and, you know, we just, we just fucking did our thing. Wow. Yeah, so we did that for a couple of weeks until one of our guests who was dining there was like, this is crazy.

He's like, I'm from London. This reminds me of like the punk rock underground scene in like the 80s. He's like, I own a restaurant space in Beverly Hills on Restaurant Row. He's like, if you want, we'll go 50-50. You can take what you're doing and you can open there next week. And so, boom. Now we're next door to Matsuhisa on Restaurant Row. Wow. So the thing that I hear there that you just said, that refusing to lose attitude,

I always say like, just keep going forward. Yeah. Keep taking this step in front of you. Yeah. That's available. Whatever steps available in front of me, I'm going to take it. Yeah. And I'm not going to get stuck in some, you know, I think sometimes we get stuck in this idea of where we want to be and what we're going to be. but we don't give credit to all the steps we have to take to get there. Yeah. And what that feels like in real time is just really hard. It's just figuring it out, figuring it out, figuring it out. And I feel like that's such a good story of someone that's like,

we've got three weeks of reservations. We'll do it in the apartment. And then within those three weeks, you're obviously scanning the environment for the next opportunity. You're obviously trying to solve for the current problem, which is how long until we get busted in this apartment. I mean, I've never been a dude where it's like, hold on, let me find a solution before I move forward. It's like just keep, it's like running and gunning and having enough faith that you will make it. And the next, there may not be, like you were just saying, like, always take the next step. Sometimes the next step might not be visible. It's blind. So you just fucking keep

running anyways because you have that faith. And use the resources available to you until you have more resources. Yeah. And like that's the other thing is I think sometimes entrepreneurs and guys like us we're whatever you want to call us. Call us entrepreneurs is a broad word for people for us. But it's like self-starting, self-reliant, imaginative guys who want to make things. Yeah. I think it's I think some people want to gather resources first, which it doesn't always make sense. when you're trying to create something. And what I find with your restaurants and all the experience I have there is,

there's a bit of like a organic, home, homey feel to it. Yeah. That feels like it was grown. Yeah. Right? It wasn't constructed on paper first and then gone out and, you know, built from like a plan more like... There wasn't like a big time producer who like selected the boy band

and then created it, which is what a lot of restaurants really are. Right. Exactly. and it's like it's a bunch of money raised and this and that now it's at some point when you're when you're us and we've we've been building businesses for for you know 10 15 years probably around the same time you started your restaurants i was starting my businesses when i decided to stop touring and making records and just like focus on being home with my wife and kids and figure out a way to work here yeah which is for me it's music so i'm building businesses in

and around the music business that's amazing um but it's just the same same figure it out like here we have an idea that we love we have a a passion to do it uh let's not just let's not go raise much of money and try to like sell this big dream let's start built let's plant some things in the garden and grow them but a lot of people aren't willing to just go play backyard shows and sleep on count and sleep on the floor for years until it happened for years i did that yeah for most of my teenage years right you know so um i wasn't afraid to i don't need to have the money to go start in in arenas i was cool to just go play house shows right and that's literally what the restaurant was was a house show you know we played in a car we were basically played in a coffee

shop yeah until we kicked out of the coffee shop and went to our apartment yeah so before we get to where the next part of the restaurant journey from you move to beverly hills uh and you open your first maybe like official spot yeah um go back to where you grew up. Yeah. And then how you got into music and then how you got into cooking. Yeah, so I grew up in the San Fernando Valley.

What area? Van Eyes, Tarzana, Encino, Sherman Oaks. And my father was a record producer. Okay. So I got my first drum set when I was 18 months old. Wow.

And so I've been playing drums pretty much my... There's three things I know how to do. I got my first. first chef's knife for my third birthday. Wow. I got my first drum set when I was 18 months old and I learned math with playing cards. So I can play poker. I can I can cook and I can play drums. Those are like three things I'm good at. Who got you the drums? Uh, my dad. Who got you the knife? So my dad got me the knife. I think the drums were probably my mom. I'm not really sure. I think

with probably both. Right. But I know like the drums were left in the studio by Simple Mind. Wow. Yeah. So that was my first Slingerlinger one kit when I was a kid. And that was like a gift to me, but it was too big. So then I think my mom went out and got me like a little, you know, baby drum set.

And then grandma taught me how to count with like, here's a two and a three and that equals a five. Right. You know, you count the suits on there. That's how I learned how to count. Wow. And so I tell you your parents really believe in you. I think so. Right.

I think they can see now that there was a lot of impact. I mean, now that I have a daughter, it's like, I'm very, I'm like, okay, so what am I going to get her? You know? Right. Because I don't know how often that happens for most people, but for me, like those, the first three things I received are the three things that I'm good at in life. Yeah. That's crazy, right? It is.

It really is. I mean, of course, I also had a, I got a keyboard at some point. I got roller blades at some point. I mean, it's not like those only three things I ever got. Are you a phenomenal rollerblader as well? Amazing rollerbladers. So I'm pretty good too, actually. A little known fact.

Roller blades are underrated in my opinion, and they're socially, I feel like rollerblades should be more accepted. Don't you feel like they should be more accepted? Rollerblading was something like when I was, I mean, I was definitely into rollerblading before I was into skateboarding. Right. But then as a ride a passage, in order to be into skateboarding. board and you had to you had to disown roller blade yeah it was like it was like or you don't have your

skate card anymore that's that definitely that was the case for me because I skated too um I wasn't a very good skater though but I like like I just like hanging around um so growing up in the valley your dad's in the music business um which is hard business yeah um it it feel I feel like everyone like gives the music business it it's like eternally sexy to everyone but I don't think they realize like how hard it is to make a a consistent living across you know like the music business is a tough business full of people who have to be creative and and they have to be self-starters yeah so your dad would have had to have been a self-starting kind of entrepreneur as well yeah yeah i mean so he you know he produced a bunch of great records and he played a bunch of bands

and you know so for me when i actually started my first band i think in the either fourth or fifth grade oh that's young um yeah um i met a met a kid at colfax elementary his dad played guitar in a band um at that point i had a guitar i had a bass i had a you know a drum set um i really that's really when i started playing drums i mean i had it my whole life but i started playing drums mainly because um i could kind of play a little bit of everything, but he could only play guitar. Yeah. So now I play drums.

And guitar and bass, that's not a band. Yeah. Guitar and drums is a band. Yeah. And so I... Local H. Remember local H? I do, yeah. Just guitar and bass.

That's guitar and drums. Yeah. I mean, there's actually been a couple cool bands. Bunch of bands. Yeah, yeah. And so basically when my dad was like, I'm going to pull your drums out of storage, he's like, but if I'm going to pull them out and I'm going to set them up, we always had everywhere we always live.

studio in the back. He's like, if I'm going to set up your drums, you're going to play, you're going to practice every single day. He's like, if you're not going to practice, I'm put him away because it's, you know, it's a fucking nuisance to have a kid playing the drums. Right. You know, so he's like, if I'm going to pull it out, then you're going to play, you're going to play an hour a day, every day, and this is what you're going to, you know, what you're going to do. And if you don't want to do it, that's fine. But if you're going to do it, it's not like a once a month thing. Yep. And so I pulled out the drums and I started playing. I started playing all the time. Um, but, but, but,

By the time I was fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade, I think I got, I got endorsed by DW when I was 14, maybe 15. I think at the time I was like the youngest, you know, endorseee from, to me, like, the greatest modern, you know, drum company in the world. And by the time I was in eighth grade, I joined a band that was getting ready to start touring basically full time. They were all guys who were one year out of high school. And it was a local band that I would go see at the Colbaugh Cafe, you know, every weekend.

And it was one of our favorite local bands. And they put a thing out. They were looking for a drummer. And my friends were like, you should go try out for this band. I'm like, I'm in the eighth grade. And these guys are all like, you know. Out of high school. I mean, they're out of high school already.

And I went and I tried out. And they brought me back again. And I got in the band. They were like, you're the best drummer that's, that's here. And plus you're in the back, no one can fucking tell. the name of the band? It was called LAO. L-A-O. And then did you go on tour? I did, yeah. So then I ended up dropping out of high school in the beginning of the 10th grade.

So I was in the band through 9th through the beginning of 10th. And we were doing like, we were playing, I mean, played every weekend. We practiced every single night. And then we would, you know, do weekend tours. We'd do, you know, we'd go up and do like three days, West Coast. And then by the beginning of the 10th grade, it was like, hey, it's time. we're going to go start doing full U.S. 's. So I dropped out of school and just basically between that band, eventually I left, another

band, another band, another band. From the time I was like probably 15, probably 15, I think I, no, 16 because I could drive. 15 or 16 until probably 19 or 20 is when I quit my last band. Maybe I was 21, but I quit my last band. And that whole time I was touring,

you know, on and off. And basically the idea, told my parents when I was going to stop going to school, they were like, well, here's the only thing. If you're going to not go to school, then any time you're home,

you have to have a job. Can't just sleep all day. Yeah. So I don't care if it's at Bascom, Robbins, Jamba Juice, Starbucks. Right. You're having a job. That's good.

And so I did. I actually worked at all those places. Yeah. And then I started getting really into food. I'd always been into food, but I told my parents, if touring doesn't work, if music doesn't work out,

I want to go to sushi school. That's what I want to do. Because you loved sushi? I did. Yeah. I was 13 when I bought my first book on how to make sushi. And I was like making sushi at home and like studying. And that was like my favorite, my favorite thing.

So you like to cook and make food. Oh, yeah. Right. From a young age. Yeah. I mean, I've been cooking basically my whole life. And who like nurtured that? Mom and dad are both good cooks.

Dad would cook basically every night. I'm the oldest of... six. And so basically everybody in my family had some sort of, like parents divorced early, of course, you know. And so everybody had some sort of role. I was the one who could reach the counters. You know what I mean? So it was like I cooked with dad. Right. And so, you know, one one, one sibling might do the dishes. One might put the stuff, set the table, one might this. I always helped cook. Six is a lot. Six is a lot. Wow. Yeah. Are you guys all close? Yeah. So there's four immediate, same mom, same dad.

Right. And then dad remarried step-step brother, half-brother. Okay, cool. Yeah. But all still like... Good, nice, big, blended family. Yeah, I mean, there was six of us in the house at the same time. Wow. Even though I'm 18 years older than my youngest brother, I was, well, I was at home sometime. But when I was at home, he was there. So, I mean, we grew up sort of in the same house.

And you were like also probably babysitting and taking care of little ones and all that. That's crazy. So, but you were the oldest. Yes. Wow. My dad has older ones from prior marriages. Right. He's an old fucking rock star.

He's got a bunch of, yeah, yeah. That's how it goes sometimes. I always find it really cool when people can make those big blended families all work well together. Yeah. I've, I've always thought that was my wife's family is, it feels like a big family. like everybody gets along and every you know it's kind of it's really nice to see people who can make it who can bring everyone together and and uh i came from a broken home where it was no function at all there was yeah they were not functioning and so when it broke down it broke down completely and then

it was like completely cut off from my dad for 20 years and yeah it was like very dysfunctional so when I see people make it function, like, I think that's incredible. Well, I'm definitely focusing on the positive right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was, I mean, I had a very, I mean, there's, you know, I definitely had a tough childhood and a tough family situation, but that's subjective. It was tough to me. Right.

I mean, it was, I'm sure there's a lot of people out there who had it a hundred times worse, and there's a ton of people out there who had a hundred times better, you know, but I do think that, you know, when you go back, like, I sit where I am today and I look at like, you know, all the bad partners I've had in business and the, you know, people embezzling and lawsuits and this and that. And people ask me like, are you, you know, if you go back, would you change this? I'm like, absolutely not. Nothing. Because today where I said, I'm very happy. It teaches you. Yeah. And that's like I always try to say that to my kids actually is always like, life's going to teach you no matter what. Yeah. So I'm going to try to give you the information and do with

it what you want. But like, we all learn from life. Life. is our greatest teacher, it's going to teach us. So as long as we show up and we try our best, we're going to learn something. And so being quick to judge an experience as bad, which I think we do when we're young, yeah. It's tricky because that bad experience might have taught us for a future catastrophe that we avoided because of that little bad experience. And I also think with family, there's no way around the pain of life growing up.

and then, you know, the, the, the, when we're little, it's everything, I think we're kind of, our parents and adults, the good ones anyways, they try to put us into this perfect life or they try to protect us from like the reality of life, right? So as long as they can, that's their job, is just try to shield us. But at some point, whatever age it is, six, seven, eight, nine, whenever that is for anyone, When you start to come into the reality of life that it's just fucking painful and people are imperfect and mom and dad aren't perfect. And we all want to see our dad as our hero and our mom as the perfect. But they're just two kids who grew up and are trying to figure it out.

Yeah. And I think like if we take the need for perfect doubt and we just go like, look at my parents, go, were they good people? They actually were good people with a limited. toolbox at the time. And even if they're not good people, were they doing the best? Were they, you know, because that's the thing is like I've learned a lot of like, you know, all you can ever ask for someone is for them to do their best, you know, and for some people's best, subjectively may not be considered good. Right. You know, and. They might just not be good at it. Yeah. Like some guys would say, I love to cook, but they're

not a good cook. Yeah. Right. And that's a great, you know, example. I have a lot of situations where I'll have two guys on the line and they'll both be, you know, working at the same pace. And one of them is objectively much better and faster than this one. And I might walk over and go to this guy, hey, dude, you're fucking killing it. I might like this to do you say, what the fuck? I'm going as fast as him. Like, yeah, but you're better than him.

You're supposed to, like, you're supposed to get, everyone gives their all. That's his all. If you're capable of more than that, then you have to do more for yourself. And his, he, the guy who's not as good might actually have a lower ceiling maybe on what he actually. it's like athletes like how how capable actually and how athletic are they there's a limit and some people that you just have way higher expectations for because you can see as long as you've been doing it and your experience now lends itself to you being able to see it in others

yeah you're like that guy is a superstar yeah but you can see the guy who works hard and maybe is limited in what his ability could be uh uh that's interesting too because some people things come easy to. And there's something to that. Even if you have to push them sometimes, there is something about natural ability that it's a motherfucker when someone's naturally gifted. It's trying to get those people to, it's like nudging them to the middle a little bit with the work ethic. And sometimes they, and the ones who get it are like, they can be superheroes. And then it's the guy with the work ethic trying to nudge him to the side where he can hopefully pick up some

of the things that don't come naturally to him. There was this thing I just heard. I can't remember who said it, but it was like, it's a story of like this guy who was like running some races or whatever and he was beating everyone, right? But then he went into a harder league

and he started losing. He was like getting last place. But his last place times were actually faster than his first place times. So like when he's beating the pack, he only has to just beat the pack. When he's trying to actually compete, even though he's in last place,

he's still beating those numbers. You know what I mean? And so is the goal to get first place or is the goal to be the best version of you? And I think people who are just trying to get first place are always going to get beaten by the people who are just trying to be the best version of themselves. Yeah.

It's kind of an interesting way to think about it. Yeah. So coming back to now, knowing a little bit about your family life, and then hearing you say that, What is it that's driven you to have now 13 restaurants that are successful? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not to get to a certain place, right? I think it's kind of what I just said.

I've never wanted to just get first place. Right. I've wanted to exceed my own time. Right. You know, and so every time we have, it's funny because I, like, every restaurant we open, the day it opens or two days later, I go to my team, I go, that's it. That's it. And then like, six weeks later, I'm like, all right, let's do another one.

You know what I mean? And so it's always like, you know, I want, I want to go further. I push myself further than I think I can handle. And then as soon as, I mean, there's that old saying, like, if your plate is full, just get a bigger plate. Yeah. You know? So it's like every time my plate feels like it's about to overflow or is overflowing,

I learn how to manage it. I get a bigger plate. And then as soon as my plate's bigger and I have room, I go, all right, let's do more. Yeah, it's like the guy at the gym who can bench press 250. And you're like, holy shit. How did he get to 250? Well, he started at 150. Yeah.

And he, however long it took him to be able to put that weight up. So I find that same thing in all of our businesses when we talk about what we're doing. It can feel overwhelming to other people that haven't been in it for the last 10 years. But we put up a little bit of weight each more weight, weight more weight each day. And that's the other thing that I always try to encourage people, people listening. that are trying to build a business or, you know, chase down a dream they have, or even just get their life in order, right? Like they want to feel better.

So we have to just get a little bit more each day, and it's incremental. So it's like a couple inches a day of progress is actually, it does add up. A couple inches of progress every day. Yeah. In six days, you've got a foot. Yeah. I think that's, I mean, I think that comes from like skateboarding. I think it comes from music.

I think it comes from that idea of like, you know, in skateboarding, you try something 30 times in a row and you fall 30 times in a row. But every time you tweak it just a little bit to get closer until you finally land it. And that's the dopest feeling in the world, right? In music, it's like you're playing in a garage until you're playing in someone's basement until you're playing at a coffee shop until you're playing at a local club. Right? But you just keep going every day without like, you know, it's not about I need to.

to be the next whatever. Now, you might want to be, but if your focus is today, I'm going to just get better at whatever it is I'm doing, then eventually, like now people look at me and go,

13 fucking restaurants. I'm like, yeah, but like I didn't walk into 13 restaurants. I walked into zero. Right. And then just slowly add it. Every time I had a little more room on my plate,

just add a little bit more. And so it's stack it on little by little. But I think naturally they're like with cooking naturally there's a process yeah so you have to follow the process or it doesn't turn out right right yeah so i think there's something there with process that like i do think that people that struggle with progress um they don't stop and check on their process and try to identify like if they even have one yeah and then if they don't feel like they have one to

try and identify one. As we always say, we're a process driven company at our company. And I do think that that's really helped us because we're highly, you know, ADD-minded, all that, you know, like we'll get distracted really easy. So we'll jump into 50 things if we don't stop and check our process, check our values and kind of try to identify, like, what are our values as a brand, as a company, And then like if it's not in line with it, we're not doing it. And then it keeps us focused on the work at hand.

But also like for anyone that's trying to build something or improve their life, actually it's developing a process and really trying to wrap their head around it. I always like try to encourage people to do that because they'll, the other thing is, is we all have our own process and we have to really tailor it to, you know, a, a, a, A trainer can give someone the process to lose weight, get in shape, feel better, get healthier. But they have to take that process and then tailor it around their real life that they're living in every day. And I think maybe naturally you're super process driven because of the cooking. The Novak not so distinct of the others.

Simply want to keep their secrets are still occultos. The difference is that they can buy the ceiling. I mean, to call it to kill to kill, the show time. We're talking to the new series original of Sky Show Time. We're all right. This is some monsters. First four episodes,

yet disponibles and a time complete a part of the 30th of April. The power not sered. It's a protage. The homage, solo in Sky Show Time. I mean, maybe, I think that, like, a big part of it for me is,

is, like, passionate obsession, right? The thing is, like, you can give anybody the recipe, the directions. You can have a trainer who shows you exactly what to do, but if you go home and you just don't do it, right, then nothing's going to happen from it. It doesn't matter if you know exactly the process, if you know exactly the recipe. You have to become obsessed with the recipe. You have to become obsessed with what it is you're doing. You have to have discipline. I think it was Mike Tyson, what he say, he said, discipline is, fuck what he say, he said, discipline is doing the thing

you hate to do like you love it. You know what I mean? Or at least the parts you don't like. Right. Right. So like you might love cooking, but it's like to do this recipe, I have to spend 45 minutes,

you know, shucking peas. Nobody got into this game because they love shucking peas, right? But you have to shuck the peas like you fucking love shucking peas or else the peas won't be perfect. Yes, and suddenly that really matters if you shuck the peas right.

It does, you know. And that's obviously just a, you know, a funny analogy that doesn't really, you know, hold much weight, but the point remains that, you know, like for me, everything I do I obsess with and everything I do I'm super passionate about, or I just don't do it. That's kind of been like, you know, that's why I didn't really love school. I didn't really, like there's a lot of things that's like it either grabs me or it doesn't. And I think that just also a lot of people,

you know, we talked about like skateboarding and stuff. Like a lot of people, when they fall down a third time, they're like, you know what, this isn't fun. You know, I'm just going to go do something else. Yeah, this isn't worth it. This isn't worth it. It's not fun. But that's kind of what I think has helped me get to where I am, which is I'm driven by the process, the process of trying to figure out to land the trick.

What's funny about skateboarding is once you land the trick, once, you move on. You don't do the trick again. It's all about trying to do it. It's not about doing it. And so for a lot of people, when they get into something, they're like, oh, that seems fun. I want to land that trick. I want to make that dish.

But the fun is like the first, you know, several years of me cooking was just like trying to figure things out, put things together. I've always come from just this mindset of like, I don't really want to do what everyone else is done or I don't want to do it the way they've done it. So I want to try my own thing. And so like I would always, I'd like, I'd look at a recipe or I'd read about something. I'd be like, that's cool. Now, using those techniques and those steps, what can I do that's not that?

because I don't want to replicate that. Someone else did that. I want to replicate. I want to do my thing. So it's always been about like, you know, the process for me is just like, where do I want to go? But then really, how do I get there? Knowing that if I, again, absolutely refuse to lose.

If I will not take no for an answer, I know I'll get there. But because of that discipline of trying the trick over and over and over again, playing to empty rooms over and over and over again. But playing to empty rooms like you're playing to a thousand fucking people. You know what I mean? It didn't matter for us. You know, some shows we played were sold out to 300 kids. And some shows we played, there was two people in the crowd.

Yeah. And I would fucking go as crazy and head bang just as fucking hard no matter. It didn't matter. Right. And that was to me, that's the process is back to that thing. It's like the discipline of not having a shit show because there's only two people there. That how you do one thing, you do all things, attitude, I think the day. diligence. There is really, really like a real character trait of successful people that I've found

like a through line with a lot of people I know that have done things their own way. Yeah. Successfully at a high level. So, God, it's hard to have one successful restaurant, but to have 13, to have Michelin, you know, to get Michelin stars and all the things that you've been able to accomplish with your restaurants and as sure I'm sure it's great it feels great to win championships and to so to speak but to do it you actually have to do the work no one's phoning that in yeah and that's why I think we all respect of I think you know all the real workers the guys who have started things and built them from the ground up we're Very rarely are we hating on anyone because we know what it takes to get the years of work it takes to get there.

And whether it's your favorite brand or not, you see someone who's winning and you go, man, that's fucking hard to do. And if you know, you know, you know. You can only cheat so long, I think. I don't think long-term cheating is a strategy that works. No, no. Work is a strategy that works. But so for you, it's been incredible to watch. Do you have a favorite restaurant of yours?

That's hard. I mean, I feel like every time we open a new location, that's my favorite one. Right. There's a novelty to it. Yeah, well, also like because... A new kid. It's like another baby. It's another baby.

It's another city. I get to, you know, every time we open a new restaurant, I'm living in that city for three months with my family. We're building in a new location. You know, Chicago was super awesome to open because it was like we opened our burger shop upstairs. And then like there's a, you know, if there's like a, there's a wooden wall with a secret door panel that opens and you take a candle, you know, brick staircase down to the basement. That's where you have the sushi dinner. And then we go to Montreal and we're like a speakeasy in the back of an underground, speakeasy nightclub, you know, in the old town.

You know, and then the newest one in the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons, like they gave us the penthouse. Amazing. Yeah. So, I mean, like, you're up there having your welcome cocktail and canopays, like looking down at Tiffany's, like, down Rodeo Drive. And then you're taking through the penthouse to another room where we do the dinner. I mean, I feel like every time we open a new one, that's my favorite. It's a new experience. Yeah.

Really fun. Because I get to, and then what's funny is then I'll go back to all the old ones and I'll be like, hey, all the new ideas and all things we did here, let's re-implement them. So it's always a moving, you know, I've never been, I get a lot of shit from everyone in the company because they're like, can we just like, chill? Like, like, let's just do this. I was like, but why would we not change? If we figure out a better way to do it, let's just always just, let's just add the thing that makes it better.

I think we'd be doing ourselves and every guest a disservice if we figured out a better product and then we just didn't implement it because like we're still practicing the old product. fuck that. You know what I mean? Let's just do it. But I think that hearing that makes a lot of sense now. Yeah. As a person who goes and eats at your restaurants, it makes a lot of sense because it feels like there's always going to be a little new twist on something or a new introduction of something. I was just a, I told you I was just in the other night in the Montecito

sushi bar, which is one of my favorites. I think the setting is incredible on that street. I think it's just like the vibe up there. But one thing I notice every time I'm in one of your restaurants is people are there. They've waited a long time. They're really excited that they got this reservation because there is a wait. It's very hard to get. It takes months sometimes to get a reservation. And then you go and the people that are working there know that.

Yeah. And so they give everyone an experience. I notice it every time how much effort everyone puts into making sure that everyone, you would think that the people eating when, you know, that 12, 10 or 12, yeah, 10 seat, sushi bar, every single, you know, couple or group was looked after as if they were the most important group at the bar. Yeah. And it's a really hard thing to get that right with customer service.

Finding great people that care as much as you do, I think is really hard. Well, I mean, I look at it like a band. And when I hire people, I say this is not like any restaurant you ever worked in. You're not part of a restaurant. You're part of a band. We play three shows a night. The set list is behind us, right? The lights are down.

That's dope. And we don't play concert. sorts we play shows right right it's 10 seats it's not it's not a thousand people it's yeah it's it's 150 kids you know i mean and everybody is up to the stage right and so it doesn't matter whether you're in a good mood you're a bad mood uh it's busy tonight it's slow tonight you're gonna play the best fucking show and that's really actually what i say to everybody and what i try to instill in everyone it feels like they it feels it feels like that's a style that maybe it speaks to me personally, because a lot of times when I go into other people's work, I watch how they work.

Yeah. I just can't help it because I'm building businesses and I certainly perform for, you know, the last 26 years. And so there is something about the art of performing that really matters. Yeah. And especially at like an omicasse style sushi. place, there's got to be a little bit of a performance in how you deliver the food to people, how you present things.

And you guys have, I think maybe it's one of the things I've always liked. But it feels like you've nailed it. But also what I notice is scaling that's hard. So getting it right in every restaurant is, and I've noticed it in every restaurant. It's not easy. Soutly different each band, but like I definitely feel like if you go to the sushi bar by Cratchie in LA and Encino. I haven't been to the one in Beverly Hills.

I'm excited to try that one. It's slightly different, but it's still, it's like a good show in every place. It's cool. Yeah. I mean, it's, I mean, I put the whole thing together very much like how you would, like how you put, would put a show.

So you have a set list. Like, and that's the reason that I, that every menu or every restaurant we have is a tasting menu, is because I've always been a fan of listening to an album. not listening to songs. I had friends growing up or was like, yeah, I like this song. We listen to this song,

and they put on like mixes. I never have playlists. I listen albums. That's just the way that I am, and I really enjoy albums, not necessarily concept albums, but I like albums that every song flows under the next song.

And you're kind of telling one whole story and the whole album. And so that's kind of what we do. But what is difficult, and I think you're sort of touching on is, you know, imagine that you guys, that you write an album.

album, right? And then you're going to go to a city and you're going to hire a band, basically, and you're going to teach them that album, and they're going to play a show of your songs every single night. And then you're going to go to another city and you're going to hire a band, and they're going to play your songs every single night. And every time, you know, and then what you, so that's, that becomes very difficult. And then you have fans of your band who are going to go see your band in this city and your band in this city. And it may be a slightly different experience, but what's been really fun to navigate and figure out is how does it not feel like you're going to see a cover band? Right. Yeah, exactly. And so what we've really

done is, like, there's six songs on the album, essentially, that are like, those are our classics. Those are the one, that's the hamachi with the corn and the sourdough. That's the album with the crispy onions. Those are the ones that you're like, those are the anthems, right? And then there's 10 songs on the album, each one where it's like this band gets to sort of collaborate with me

on the other 10 songs they play so that, you know, there's an essence of not just, oh, this is Phillips cover band, but you're actually going to a restaurant to dine with these guests knowing, you know, kind of what you're getting into, but also you're going to get a little something new there. Do you have a sushi hero?

Like, who's your idol, your sushi idol? Is there a guy you just love his sushi or you look up to him? There, I don't know that I have like a hero or an idol, but I do know that there were a few very influential sushi chefs who I think had I not met them, had I not eaten at their restaurants, I don't know that I would be as informed as I am today. Right. Like whatever band that may be for you.

That inspired you. Exactly. Of course we have a bunch. Of course. Right. So for me, probably the most influential sushi restaurant was a restaurant called Yorasawa. Okay. It's no longer there.

It was above the Tiffany store on Rodeo Drive. Oh, wow. It was a little eight-seat restaurant. And essentially you would go in. It was like a 30-something course dinner. Wow. And it was, I mean, it was, it was, it was Hiro Yorasawa, the chef, and he had two apprentices. And, um, uh, basically you sat there and you just ate for several hours. I mean, I, I only went once in like,

I want to say like 2005 or six, as a young line cook. And, um, I saved up for like six months. Dinner back then, if you just drank water was like five, 75 plus tax. Wow. Yeah, it was, it was, it was, he was Masa's apprentice before Masa moved in New York. Okay. And so, uh, he, he, basically for for for for for for people like me that aren't um in the know of the sushi uh chefs the famous sushi chefs masa is masa is uh three michelin stars in incredible in new york uh arguably the the the best sushi chef in america um and uh i mean that's kind of the gold standard one of the goats yeah yeah okay so i go in with my my station partner at the time we're line cooks together you save your money up save our money for i mean we made eight nine dollars an hour right we saved up six hundred

dollars we saved up for like six or seven months wow um to go eat this restaurant we sit down and um uh we sit down at a at a full seating of eight people but they don't do like we you know how we bring all ten guests the same time they staggered them in so we sit down and buy our third or fourth course we're the only ones left in the restaurant we're the late seating and um uh the chef starts talking to us you know, you don't look like my average $600 person. You know, I've got to, I have a Mohawk at the time. Like, you know, a buzz, like I have like a buzzed mohawk and I'm like, I'm a fucking kid. And I don't look like, you know, the 60 people.

The Beverly Hills guy is like there every, every two, three weeks. Like, yeah. I'm with my Hispanic station partner. And we, he starts talking to us and we're like, yeah, we're young line cooks. We're aspiring chefs. We've been saving up. We're so excited. So he takes the next like three hours of this dinner and he basically teaches us and explains to us his thought process and what he's doing.

Because I was watching him serve everyone else. He's just doing his thing, handing it out, explaining it, doing his thing. But for us, he took an interest in us and he actually spent the next several hours because it's, you know, you sit across the counter. And he explained everything. And I learned so much about sushi that I, that really influenced what we do today. And so some of the things that he. So that night would have been a really. like crucial moment for you.

That was finding your favorite band. Amazing, man. That was grabbing a random record because the artwork was cool and getting home and being like, wow. But then the band actually walking you through how they made that choice for that album cover, how they chose the songs on the record, how they, how they, a little bit about their process, giving you some insight, which is really generous, by the way. It was, I mean, it was so fucking cool.

I mean, you know, one of the things, and I think you'll, you'll, you'll, will, resonate with this and you'll recognize it from the restaurant. One of the things he told me is like traditionally in Japan, in Tokyo, when Omacase became a thing, like in the 80s, the 70s and the 80s, what would separate each sushi chef wasn't who had the best fish because at a certain level everyone's trying to get the best fish. It wasn't about who made the best rice because that was subjective. At a certain level, it's splitting hairs. What it was is that each sushi chef would tell the story of their childhood and their neighborhood in the presentation, the garnish, the flavors in which they would present the sushi. So fast forward a decade when I go to open the first sushi

by scratch restaurants, used to be called sushi bar, the first location, I'm like, the most traditional and the most respectful thing I can do is to tell my story. Because that is, that's the, that's the process that they would use to write their menu. And so it's respect. It's respect. I'm not sure that it would necessarily be disrespectful to tell, you know, a Japanese story, but I'm not Japanese. I grew up in L.A.

I grew up with grilled corn on the cob. I grew up with Nancy Silverton's LaBraya Bakery sourdough, you know. And so growing up in L.A., you've got this plethora of like every ingredient. And so. And a melting pot of different recipes and cultures and foods. Like, L.A., I always tell people, I think one of the greatest places, top three in the world to eat is L.A. because of the melting pot of culture here. And the young chefs that have come out of growing up here

over the last 30, 40 years and what this city's kind of, the last few decades, I think this city's just gone through this huge art and food and music and all of the good things that have come out here is really a, it's really because of the fusion of culture.

Yeah. And the people that are here now in L.A., it's just people from, from all different walks of life, making food, making music, making art. That's why it's so good, I think. I mean, just like, actually, it's kind of interesting you say that.

So like, just like food has, like if you were like, what's the cuisine in New York, everybody can kind of tell you, bagels, pizza hot, like it's, what's the cuisine in Chicago? What's the cuisine in France? What's the cuisine in San Francisco? What's the cuisine in LA?

Exactly. Everything. So in other cities, it might be fusion when you take, New York and you mix it with this. But in L.A. it's not fusion. It's Angelino cuisine.

Right. And that's very similar with music, right? So in music, what's the music in Texas, right? The music in Texas, it has a style. You know, San Francisco has a style. New York has a style. L.A. style is whatever the fuck we want to make. Yeah.

You know. No rules, really here. There's never been any rules here. It's the only one that doesn't have it. Like, we don't have a defined genre of cuisine because our genre is undefinable. everything. And so, you know, that's what I really tried to try to do with the food. And so like when we first open, you know, it was, we, we opened to like, you know, the media ripping us apart. And, you know, people who hadn't eaten there being like, first, like, who's this white kid trying

to make sushi? And then it was like, you can't put this on sushi. You can't make sushi look like that. This is blasphemy. I literally had my publicist quit the night before we opened because she was offended that what we were doing, I was calling sushi. And now it's funny because, you you know, seven, eight years later, that's what sushi looks like around the country and around the world now. Right. And it's expected to have some creative, flare to it. Like, I think it's gone like mainstream.

But I think it's interesting, though. So, and I'm only underlining this because I want people listening to get as much out of this conversation as, I mean, I'm having fun talking to you because I'm. a fan of what you do. But certainly like people listening, I want them to always get something tangible. Find examples of something that you did that shows, like I think saving the $600 to go eat at the sushi bar that the sushi restaurant was too expensive. Because you wanted to experience greatness.

And then the general. of the chef to share with you and teach you, I think those life-changing moments that we don't realize at the time are important to look at because you had to save the money and have faith that it was worth it. And you weren't just going to taste good food. You certainly wanted to taste good food, but you were going with a dream to get a little closer to your dream. Yeah.

To touch it a little bit. To be able to, to be able to witness it. It's like we saved our money in our first concert. It was a lot of money to go to that. It comes. We had nosebleed seats at the Beastie Boys. But we wanted to go to a concert so bad. Yeah.

We loved music at that point. Kind of like became our obsession because we had a really tough home life. And school was tough. And everything just seemed shitty. Yeah. But music was the thing where we felt free. And we felt like there was possibility, endless possibility. Like we could be important.

We could be valuable. We saved our money and we went to this Beastie Boy show and we got probably the last two tickets in the building way up in the last row, like crazy. Yeah. But we were, but we got our, we bought our tickets. And we at the time worked jobs and we had to help our mom with like bills. And so it was very hard at the time.

Money was something we didn't have. So the buying those tickets was was expensive at the time. It's probably like 75 bucks or 50 bucks or whatever it was. Yeah. And, you know, working 425 an hour minimum wage jobs in the 90s. It was different. So we go to the Beastie Boy Show and we experience the thing in real life. Yeah.

And we see the people on stage and we go, we could actually do that. Those are real people. Yeah. They're not like magic images. And then we left that. concert, we started our band the next day. And we had been contemplating starting a band, but we didn't know how. We didn't know you just start it. Yeah. And then it was that night that really lit the fire. Not to say that going to that sushi restaurant lit the fire in you, you obviously had,

were, but it got you closer to understanding how someone did something that you wanted to do. Yeah. And then you took that because you have that imagination, you started in the, internalize it and make it your own. Yeah. And that's what I think. I encourage people out there who haven't been taught how to make things and how to start on their own to try to do that. Find someone that's doing the thing you want to do and you will meet someone generous enough

to show you something. Yeah. I think that's another thing that, you know, remind me I didn't give enough, I didn't give any credit to it when I was just talking about it. But I think not only did he inspire me. in terms of like showing me that you can sort of make it your own because I've been obsessed with sushi since I was five years old and I'm now 24, 25 when I have, no, 23 maybe, 22, I don't know, I'm in my early 20s when I have this dinner and I've never seen sushi like this.

I've never seen it in pictures. I've never seen it in the magazine. I've never seen sushi like this and to me it's the best thing I've ever had. But the other thing I really took from that is he wanted to show us what he was doing. And in that dinner, or, you know, we asked for the sake list and we look at the menu and the, the cheapest sake on the menu is $100. Yeah. And we're like, fuck, we don't bring enough. But I was like, okay, I have like a credit card.

Like, we'll figure something now. And so we asked the chef, because once they hand you the list, we didn't realize they don't have, they don't have like by the glass. It's just by the bottle. So we like, shit, what do we do? So I asked the chef and I go, chef, what is your, um, first? From the first like two or three, because they have it like, here's the $100 bottles, the $150 bottles, the $200 bottles.

I didn't want to let off. We were that, you know? So I was like, from like the first one or two like tiers, what's your favorite? He goes, my favorite is this one right here is the cheapest bottle, which I know is not his fucking favorite. But he suggests that once I said, okay, we'd like to have that. So then the lady, the server lady, she comes over and she drops three sake cups. And she pours one for my friend.

one for me and one for the chef. And I was like, that's cool. I'm happy to drink, but fuck, you know. And so at the end of the dinner when we end up getting another bottle because now we're drunk and like, fuck it, you know. And at the end of the dinner, when she comes over, she says, chef is taking care of all your drinks tonight. That's dope.

Yeah. Unforgettable. It's unforgettable. But also it's that sort of, it's the opposite of that like famine mentality. It's like that he recognized that perhaps this is the next generation. You know, that's why, and so now today at our restaurants, anyone who shows, we have this thing called back of house appreciation. Right.

We made it like, we started it years ago and like, used to be the entire month of February, if you showed up to any of our restaurants with a pay stub showing you worked in the back of house, any restaurant, I don't care of it's Denny's, you eat for free. And then that turned into, I tried to launch this thing called the Backhouse Exchange program where I wanted to work with any other restaurant. And basically it was like, if your chef, like, writes like a letter of recommendation, you're going to eat for free. And then it's like it would become like this network, but I couldn't get a single restaurant to join into it. And so now it's just like when people

show up, if we find out that you're from back of house, you don't get a fucking check. Because it's about paying it forward and inspire. And maybe like if we find out, I mean, we already explain everything we do. But if we find out someone's from the back of house, we like, that's one of ours. you know yeah and likely that's one of ours who are going to be the next generation yeah you know that's why they're starting there yeah so that was that was a big that was a big inspiration thing that I took from him as well it's so funny man like we have to remember no matter where we get in our own development our own success uh that there is people coming behind us yeah that are going to be successful yeah and we can be a part of that success we can add to it or we can we can try to

gate keep, we can try to stop them, but we won't. No. It's natural, it's natural law. And back to the whole recipe, the, you know, you can give anyone the recipe to success. It's only the driven dudes who are actually going to get there. And make it their own. Yes. And that's the thing with great chefs. Yeah. Because I could give you the family secret recipe to something. You are going to take it and put your own spin on it because that's what an artist does. And, you know, chefs, To me, they're artists. That's why I really, I think a great artist is always pretty secure in what they do because they're going to do it their own way no matter what.

Yeah. And I think that being generous with information is really important. Yeah. And I think there's an impoverished way to look at the world where we think that this is all we have. And if we give anything away, we're going to have less. And I even had to learn that at a young age. was it no actually if I give I have more yeah and um it took me a while to learn that but I really

do have that attitude now I'm not I definitely don't want to withhold um if I know a route for someone to take that's going to get them there faster I'm going to tell 100% um and I think you can go you can you know that sushi meal you had was was likely uh I feel like it anyways hearing your story if I was writing the book it would be a key moment in the story of like the successful picture of what you want to accomplish and achieve, this expensive restaurant, this expensive meal, aspirational all the way around. You see the core value of the person whose idea it was give you some information that helped you along the way get to your goal a little faster with a little more clarity and

probably some inspiration. And I also think that's the important of, you know, there are things that I think are over overpriced, but the importance of an aspirational experience is exactly that. And so, like, there's fast food, there's this, there's that, like, to me, like a really great meal that was worth every dollar that you, you know, that people save for and they go on their anniversary or they go is an important part of life. And people will complain about, crisis because that's the that that's the nature of people but that's a different mindset I kind of like really try to like exist in abundance my mindset and so I always aspire to more I'm

always going to want more I'm always going to want to achieve more because that's just how I live but I do think that these like aspirational experiences like a really amazing meal are really important for people because it inspires us all like how many chefs come into your restaurants whether you know they're there or not yeah um and go man i want to do this one day it's important for people to have uh things to look towards trying to achieve um and it's it's amazing that you've been able to do it uh how old are you 36 you're 36 yeah that's crazy I thought you're I mean

to do that at 36 is incredible and you do it with your wife Yeah Yes I mean We've been doing it We've been married for 11 years We opened our first restaurant Incredible accomplishment

11 years Well we've been I mean we this is what her and I have done You know our first restaurant I mean we started You know We took her and I As the chef and pastry chef

Took over that restaurant DeCache in 2012 11 years ago Yep So we started our restaurant running journey together 11 years ago. So in that last 11 years, I mean, we've opened, I mean, we have 13 restaurants today, but we probably closed, you know, six of them, you know. Right. So it's been, it's definitely, it's like, it's been a roller coaster, it's been up and down,

it's been plenty of, you know, crying in the shower, plenty of, you know, never going to make it tomorrow and plenty of, you know, get the fuck up and fucking do it. Don't be a bitch. Do you find she's kind of the voice that pushes you sometimes yeah i mean she definitely um she has the best palate of anyone i've ever met um she was born and raised like in a little forest in in latvia um oh wow so she you know she grew up you know with uh grandparents who were chefs and and uh bakers and and butchers and she didn't grow up with mcdonalds you know she grew up like you're hungry you go pick berries and salt of the earth mushrooms and shit right you know um and so uh that's Crazy.

Yeah. I mean, we met in middle school. And so we haven't been together since middle school, but we've been, you know, we've been together for, you know, since late teens, early 20s. Wow. Married for 11 years. And, you know, we just definitely when it gets tough, she'll, you know, she'll remind me. When it gets tough for her, I remind her, you know, I mean, because at this point, I mean,

it's been crazy because we went from like her and I in a, in a coffee shop. to our one bedroom apartment, to becoming 50-50 partners, her and I on one side, this new guy on the other side, in this Beverly Hills location, to opening a second restaurant with this guy, to finding out he embezzled all the money and fled the country, to getting sued by every fucking, you know, vendor, because I didn't realize that what I was signing

was personally guaranteeing every debt of the company, including the IRS and everything. It's one way to learn, huh? Yeah, fuck, yeah. And I'm super happy that it happened when I was, you know, living in an apartment, not when I had a mortgage and a child. Yeah. You know, and then all, you know, fast forward today. Other partners, no partners, other partners.

You know, today we have no partners, no investors, no nothing. So it's just her and I navigating the world together. Amazing. And so it does take, you know. How do you get up from that when you realized, you signed a bad deal? and you realize that the partner that you know that first partner by the way we all have some version of that in our life where it feels like it's crushing and it almost feels like how do I come back from this yeah um I mean I'll be lying if I didn't say I thought my life was over right I didn't know how I would move forward I didn't know what I was going to do I mean not only did like this happen but then like we shut down the restaurant and he reopened the restaurant and were under my name

and was telling people I was in the kitchen and too busy to come out and say hi to them cooking whatever random food he was doing. I mean, luckily, like, you know, LA Times reported on it. It was this whole fucking thing. You know, but it was like, I've always just believed that

if you just put your head down and keep fucking going, it will work out. I just think that it will. And so, like, literally, like, the day after I found all this out and I got like, you know, the IRS was like, you owe all this money because you personally guaranteed it. And the fish vendor was like, there's 40 grand.

I mean, I made a commitment that I was like... Man, all those payables and everybody's hitting you up. And it was like, you know, and literally the way I found out, I just got back from Top Chef. And so I was... And we didn't even talk about Top Chef. Yeah, I was sequestered for like six weeks or whatever. And I come out and some of my staff has quit and whatever. And I'm looking at the sales.

I'm like, what's going on? Everyone's like, well, we didn't get fucking paid, this and that. And I'm like, I go to my part. I'm like, we made money. Where's the fucking money? You didn't pay, I was gone for six weeks. You didn't pay any bills. You didn't pay any staff.

We made all this, like, all this revenue. Where's the money go? Right. Oh, well, you didn't, you know, it's just this whole fucking thing. But do you just chalk that whole decision on a bad partner in business to up to age experience? Well, here's the thing. Ability to vet things. I was 25.

years old in a fucking as a nobody playing in the fucking underground punk version of a restaurant in my apartment what legitimate label would have actually signed me right so I needed to have

somebody crooked to give me that stage to play on yeah it's like those early it's like what you deal with in those early days with that promoter at that bar that club you get stolen from the whole time it's the it's it's the um if it's an ecosystem right yeah it's it's those lower level operators who do those that that janky shit yeah uh to you with like nickel and diming and

because at the end of the day in the not to say the money he took from you wasn't a lot of money and especially at the time yeah detrimental amount of money but when you go when you get to the other side of your growth when you're when you're actually kind of competing at like what I I think where you're going. It's just continued success built on the foundation that you've built now, the great restaurants. Yeah. But to get there, if you look back, I mean, you wouldn't even deal with that problem

now because of the way that you operate. I've learned so. Like people are like, you're 36, like, the same reaction you had. And I'm like, I may be a newer model by a lot of fucking miles. Yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, I put a lot of my, I had this idea when I was first starting to cook that anyone could open their restaurant in their 30s.

Anyone could be that. I wanted to do that in my 20s. And so I thought, instead of having one job where you get one year experience every year, I was like, I'm going to have two full-time jobs. So every year that goes by, I get two years experience. So in five years from now, I'll have 10 years under my belt. And so that was sort of, and so I did, like, even when I was going to culinary school, I was like, I was working, I was going to school from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

And then I was working at a restaurant from 3 p.m. until midnight. And then on my two nights off, I worked at another, two days off, I work at another restaurant, like 10 a.m. to midnight. And so there was no waking hour for like five, six years as a young cook that I wasn't cooking. And so I just thought, you know, every couple, every year, I'm just going to get two, two and a half years of experience. But I think the mindset that I've had, even during these times, and yes, it's easy to get caught up in the emotion of like my life's over. I have to announce that I'm closing my restaurant. I can't really tell the truth because who's going to believe me? It's going to sound like I'm just complaining. So I got to just go out there and say, just stay tuned. Something else is coming. But I think that mindset really comes from two things. One, from playing poker. I've had tons of times where I lost my life. I lost my life. I'm going to be a lot. I've last dollar and you just like you lost that you don't have you don't have rent money you don't have this it's like it's over and you start to realize and if you ask anyone have you ever lost your last dollar like yeah i lost i'm like you didn't because you have another dollar now and in the moment

when you think you've lost your last dollar and you think there's no moving forward and you don't know how you can recover tomorrow six weeks later you don't even remember that anymore and i've had so many of those experiences in my life that i'm like this feels like the end but i know this feeling and I know that feeling. I think we all know that feeling. But once you start, and I had a doctor who once, so I had this,

I started getting bad anxiety attacks. Like, I was hooked up to like machines. They were like to check out like what was going on. And at the end of like this like whole thing, the doctor's like, well, we can't find anything wrong with you,

but just remind yourself, anytime you have that feeling like you're about to have a heart attack, ask yourself, have I had this feeling before? And if the answer is yes, then ask yourself, did I die last time?

That's smart. And I was like, oh, So now anytime I get to that space. The panic attack checklist. Yeah. We call it. Yeah.

It's like if you get to that. And I don't have panic attacks anymore. I don't have those issues. I used to have them really bad. As a kid, I got them at a young age or started having them around 11 and 12 and didn't know what the hell they were. Yeah. Realize there was a lot of trauma induced, right, from my childhood. But I learned to my older age and now I don't have them.

Yeah. No, I do have some anxiety sometimes, but I'm so aware of it. Yeah. And I go, whoa, I'm really anxious. You go, I know what this is and I know I'm okay. And this is why. Yeah. I'm about to open a restaurant or I'm about to go on stage or I'm about to do something.

And I'm like, I just share because I think we all deal with it and we just don't talk about it. Yeah. And I'm like, if you don't think that everybody has some kind of anxiety around something, then you're crazy because I think we all just do. We're built like that because it's like it's deep in our, like it's been passed down to us in our cortex for thousands of years back when we were literally running from bears. And it just lives in us to protect ourselves.

So now we're not running from bears, but we still have perceived threat, perceived danger. And some, look, it would be appropriate probably like a dozen times in your life where you're in a life or death. Like if you didn't stop yourself from stepping out on the road because you weren't looking, you would have got hit by a car. So you have that like panicked feeling.

But that's what kept you from, you know, stepping into danger. And I tell people all the time that, especially people listening, tend to, a lot of people listening to this tend to have a relationship with mental health that's a little bit more open than, say,

the average person who doesn't really know how to talk about it yet. Yeah. Which I think we should all talk about it. But like anxiety, learning how to manage anxiety is like such a game changer for anyone who wants to have success because we have to manage our anxiety the whole way because with every level that we reach of new success comes new anxiety that we didn't have before because we're at kind of a higher height. Yeah. We're looking down at a higher fall. Yeah. And I think that's just like super important to be just mindful of damn, I get anxious around this or I'm anxious right now because of this probably and like being able

to actually self-regulate our anxiety is probably like to me one of the biggest keys to my own personal growth and success in my life period is being able to go like whoa I'm really anxious right now. Hey it's probably because I just started this new thing and I'm putting a lot of money into it and there's a lot at risk you know what I mean? Yeah so it's funny you say this the thing about like running from bears and shit so my friend Joe told me this thing about um So I, you know, I used to have anxiety and I used to not exercise a lot. But as a kid, skateboarding, drumming, I got crazy exercise. But as I got older, even though I was on my feet 16 hours a day in the restaurant,

I wasn't like sweating. My heart wasn't going. So he told me this whole thing about how to, you know, about anxiety being like we are wired. We're designed to be running through the jungle being chased by jaguars, right? Right. And so for people who start to live sedentary lifestyles, what will happen is, your body, your, you have, your body has to have strain and your heart has to have strain. And if you sit there, you just play video games, you just sit there and you're not putting that

strain on your heart, your body will put it on itself. And what will happen is, and this happened to me, you'll be sitting there feeling fine. All of a sudden, your heart will start feeling like crazy. You're like, you feel like you just ran a marathon. And you're like, what the fuck is happening? And that sort of feeling then triggers the idea of like, what's wrong? Is there something wrong that shouldn't be happening? Where what he explained to me is like, if you just do cardio, if you just exercise,

if you just put that that like prerequisite amount of strain on your body and on your heart, your body won't need to self-regulate, which then turns into this anxiety or manifest as what we call anxiety. And now I run five miles every single day and I work out every day. And none of that happens anymore. That's great. So 13 restaurants. 13, yeah.

Okay, which are those? So we've got... How many sushi bars by... I mean, how many sushi by scratch restaurants are there? Technically, there's eight. Eight sushi by scratch. Seattle, Montecito, Encino, Beverly Hills. Wait, Seattle, Montecito,

Encino, Beverly Hills, Austin, Chicago, Miami, Montreal. And that's if you don't count the fact that there's three sushi rooms in Encino. Okay, right. Then we've got pasta bar in L.A., pasta bar in Austin. We have NADC Burger in Austin and Chicago, and then my wife has a bakery called Wolf and Wheat in Austin,

and then Scratch Bar and Kitchen, which isn't technically open at the minute. And then we have like four or five more under construction in the pipeline right now. Are they announced yet or are they surprises? Not technically announced, but I mean, we're looking to, I mean, we're looking to do some stuff in Asia. We're looking to do some stuff northern California, other spots in Texas. And there, you know, it's, I mean, in the last, my daughter's 17 months old.

and since she's been born, I think I've opened like seven restaurants in eight cities and two countries or something like that. It's been a wild last couple years. Yeah, it's been crazy for you. Are you going to open a burger bar in L.A.? I'm gonna'amena.

And, like my music, my hair can't be able to continue my rhythm. For so, Potion Nine, of Sebastian Professional, has all what my hair needs. Nutrition Profunda, Protection Contraxed against the Encrepado, 99% less of rotura,

and Puntas Abirtas, Bhopertion. New Motion 9 of Sebastian The Secret Professional, of who don't seeinces, but of who they're creating. I want to. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about...

LA's a interesting city. I mean, I'm born and raised. I'm in a love-hate relationship right now with L.A. I don't live here anymore. I live in Austin now. Yeah. Yeah.

And now that I'm, you know, my first five or six restaurants were in Los Angeles. And that's all I ever knew. And now that we're opening other cities, what I'm realizing is LA's just so big and everyone's so busy. You go to another city and everyone's like, has time and is grateful and is excited about the new thing. And not because it's a new thing, but because, oh, there's more to choose from. In L.A., I know the restaurant opens, you don't really give a shit because we already have enough. If you start a day, you'd never eat at every restaurant in L.A. before you die. There's too many of them.

It's incredible. You go into Austin. You go into Seattle. You go into some of these other cities. And people are excited about something new to come into their scene. Yeah. And there's other cities where like... It is a little bit more family focused in...

Yeah. I find L.A. and New York, particularly, which I love both places. I love New York. I'm there a lot. I love L.A. I live here. But there's a hustle to it that you have to really be careful about when you're raising a family because you can get a little lost in the hustle of it. And that's why I'm grateful for my family because I feel like they pulled me out of the hustle and they gave me something that I feel like I don't need to succeed at the highest level for their love.

I think I need it for my own love for myself, which is a whole other thing. I'm in therapy for that. but when I go to other cities and spend time there, Nashville's a great city. There's some great, Boise, Idaho, great city. Places where I've spent some time, Texas is amazing. Austin's amazing. And you go to Austin and you drive down the street and you see 100 people in line for this restaurant, 50 people in line for this restaurant, you know, a burger spot.

You need to, it's about numbers. And it's really family. It is. It's the family unit in these other places. places that focus is on family and you work to support the family habit, which I always try to remind myself, I'm just working to support the family habit. And I got to keep that habit, my biggest habit. Yeah. And now I have teenagers and it's been a big learning curve when you have the opposite example. And my strategy with parenting has kind of just been like do the opposite of what,

You know what I mean? Like, that's kind of, but, you know, I certainly try to have a strategy and a philosophy. But in real time, you're just doing the best you can. I always tell like that to my kids. I'm like, yo, I'm just trying my best here. I don't know everything. Yeah, our parents didn't say that. Yeah, no.

But like, we learned that later. We're like, oh, they were just. That's what they were doing. Yeah, they were just doing their best. And now here I am. So I'm definitely not mad at my parents. But I'm certainly doing the opposite of a bunch of stuff they did. So I do think that those other cities, especially you grew up here.

Yeah. So this is all you knew for decades. And then you go out into the rest of the country and you see this completely other, like, kind of family culture. Yeah. That it, not to say people in Austin aren't hustling. Yeah. But there's a different mindset I find sometimes in the, in L.A. and New York, particularly I've seen. and in London as well,

like which I spend a lot of time in London. I love London. But if you get too caught in the hustle, you can get a little lost in the sauce. Yeah. You have to manage that yourself. And I do think like places like Austin, Nashville are great places where like you can work.

But like, you know, my older brother just moved to Nashville for a good reason for his family. He's like, you know, I think my family's have a better life here. And they do. They,

they, he spends more time with his family. but it's still in the music business and working and we're doing stuff in Nashville. But I think that like there is this other experience you have where you go, oh, whoa, there's definitely like a family vibe here. It's nice. Yeah. It's just, you know, when I choose where I'm going to put the restaurants next,

it's like, I want to put it somewhere where it's like, and it might sound weird or egotistical, but I want to put it somewhere it's going to be appreciated. Yeah. You know, you drop in L.A. and it becomes like more of a who's who and less of a like, oh, here's a nice place to go to. Right. You know, and with burgers, we need for the business to sell hundreds of them every single day. Right.

You know, with all my other concepts, we have 10 seats. We're so, you know, you mentioned it takes a couple months to get a reservation, which is true, but also like, we serve 30 people a day. Right. You know, that, where it's, you're going to be sold out. You know, but we drop it in Chicago and there's, we, there's a line before we open every day. We do, you know, five, six hundred burgers a day. Austin, same thing. Do I drop it in L.A.?

where maybe no one gives a shit? Right. Or do I take it to a city where people are like, thank you, this is really exciting. I can't wait to try a really nice hamburger. Yeah. So that's always a thought for me, not to mention just all the regulations in California

doing business and all that stuff. Yeah, yeah, it's tough. It's tough. I probably will end up opening one in L.A. I want to. I think it would be really good. I think it would do well. But, yeah, now that I live in Austin,

I'm doing most of my, you know, most of my stuff is happening there. Awesome. Philip, thanks, bro. Absolutely. Thanks for having you. It's super fun. So much fun, man.

Hell yeah. Thanks. I'll see you next time I'm at one of your restaurants. Hell yeah. All right, bro. Thank you. Hey, thanks for checking out today's episode with Philip Franklin Lee. I hope you enjoyed the show.

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