Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP. 187 | feat. Don Agate from GOOD Eats & Sips

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Chef Don Agat on Building Good Eats & Sips During COVID and the Story Behind Don’s Cookie Host Noah Chrysler interviews Chef Don Agat, owner of Good Eats & Sips and Good To Go in Skaneateles, about launching Good Eats & Sips in June 2020 during COVID to provide fresher, “healthy-ish” food and a seamless online takeout experience. Don describes being denied by four banks—one scolded them for 45 minutes—before a fifth approved their loan after refining the business plan. He shares his career path from dishwasher to Johnson & Wales graduate, working in Outer Banks, Aspen, and Manhattan, experiencing layoffs during the 2008 crisis, then joining Club Med in the Bahamas where he met his wife. After Texas, he returned to Central New York to oversee the Krebs Restaurant rebuild, then held several leadership roles before COVID pushed him into the cafe. He discusses culture as the key to strong teams, showcases his sea salt chocolate chip hazelnut “Don’s cookie,” and outlines future growth, catering, and community-focused customer service. 00:00 Cookie Origins 00:18 Show Introduction 01:15 Launching During Covid 03:33 Bank Loan Gauntlet 05:53 From Dishwasher To Chef 07:03 Crisis And Layoffs 08:51 Club Med Escape 13:01 Montreal To Texas 13:59 Returning To Skaneateles 15:55 Career Moves After Adam 16:47 COVID Forces New Path 17:42 What Sets Him Apart 19:09 Del Lago Audition Story 21:08 Building Teams and Culture 22:11 Cheat Sheet for Leadership 24:19 The Bear Restaurant Reality 26:42 Cookie Tasting and Origins 28:16 Vision for Growth in CNY 29:51 Community Service Philosophy 31:56 Catering and Final Wrap

So that cookie started out probably 20 years ago, so I was obsessed with making chocolate chip cookies. And then when I was in Montreal and unemployed, I would just make cookies all day and try and perfect my chocolate chip cookie. How I saw a perfect chalk chip cookie. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York. My name is Noah Chrysler, and today I am sitting with Chef Don. Chef Don. Welcome to the show. Thank you very much for having me. Absolutely. Go ahead and introduce yourself.

I am Don Aga. I'm the owner of Good News. eats and sips and also good to go both located in Skinny Atlas and been a central New York resident pretty much all my life. Beautiful. Yeah. So yeah, so I found you guys. I thought your business looked really, really cool. Your website looked amazing. Your socials look awesome. Your reviews are insane. And I'm like, cool, I want to talk to Don and see, you know, see the story of this business and everything. So I thought we could take some time today and kind of get into that story. So wherever you would like to start, you know, tell me the story of good eats and sips and how it came to be. or your story personally.

Excellent. Well, all those things you mentioned are all due to my wife, so I got to give her some credit there. So the social and all that, the website design and everything that's all been born from her. I'm more of the hands-on kind of tactical behind-the-scenes guy. So Good Eats and Sips was, we came up with it during COVID. So Good Eats opened up during June of 2020.

It was really born out of necessity. Everything was shut down. It was hard just to get a nice, healthy-ish meal. Everybody was serving pizza, burgers, you know, greasy stuff. And we're a family of four, and we really just wanted to, you know, like a nice salad or, you know, something, you know, fresh and healthy. And a space became available. We started putting together a business plan. and then we started getting real serious like, okay, this is going to happen, and then we started

going to banks. Most of the banks pretty much told us no right out the bat. The first bank we went to was pretty awful. They pretty much scolded us for 45 minutes and told us how awful of an idea it was to open a restaurant when so many were closing. But through tenacity and perseverance, we kept going. And on the fifth bank, we found somebody that said, hey, you know what, I'll take a chance. Wow.

And Good Eats and Sips was born there. We opened up, like I said, in June of 2020. So it was still in that six-foot, you know, spacing era and, you know, no contact. And it was all just takeout, which we did really well. And I think that was one of the things that we were able to capitalize on where a lot of restaurants and a lot of legacy restaurants, we're struggling just to put food in a bag and get it to the customer in the most seamless way possible. We came out on the front in that era where it was just a simple online order and easy grab and go access. And then we were just trying to offer something healthier and fresher in Skinny Atlas.

I don't consider us a health food restaurant, even though we get labeled that a lot. We're healthy-ish with quotation marks. But I try to keep things very fresh. you know, everything in my coolers and everything. There's nothing there that's more than three or four days old. We make small batch recipes, but we make them often. So everything's always that it's freshest quality and, you know, the best stuff that we can put out. Interesting.

Okay, I've got a zillion questions, but first I want to kind of zoom in on that story. You're applying to banks for loans for the business to launch the business. During COVID, which was, you know, I mean, you can imagine the banks are like, he's stupid. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, what does that process look like? you know, I mean, tell me about like, you know, you get the fourth denial, right?

Like, how long is that process take? Is that just a few days or is that months of work? And then you're getting, you're one after the other of denied, denied, denied. Well, you don't expect to get, you know, right off the bat. And honestly, we went in with knowing that the environment for getting a business loan, especially a restaurant business loan, was going to be challenging. On the back end, we had already been working on it. we were like one signature away from signing on to another restaurant that we were going to buy

two years prior. And we were just, you know, a signature away from making that happen. And then, you know, some financial mumble-jumbo kind of messed it up. So we pulled out of that. So we had the business plans already kind of working along. So, you know, we weren't going into it completely, you know, just from the square one. We had always kind of had something in working. We knew we wanted to have her own. restaurant and we're working towards that. As far as the denial, I mean, the first one was the roughest. And like I said, for 45 minutes, this bank president kept us there and just scolded us

and really just said awful things and was like, you know, you're stupid. You know, why would you do this? And I'm sitting there, you know, my wife is in tears and I'm just, you know, my jaw is on the floor. I'm like, where do you get on? You could just say no. Right. You could just say no, you know, and no thank you and we'll walk out.

So we had to lick our wounds for a little while after that. You know, it took a little while to recover. But I would say the whole process through all the banks was about two to three weeks. Okay. But then, yeah, the last bank, you know, said, you know, let's look at your numbers. Let's, you know, massage a couple things here and there, clean up the business plan, and then, yeah, we'll take a chance on it, which was amazing. Cool.

So tell me about your story, too. So you're saying that before this opportunity came, you know, there was opportunities as well to potentially you were one signature away from owning a different restaurant, you said. Tell me about your history. Have you been a chef for years? What does your background look like? So I'm from Homer.

Okay, I grew up in Homer, New York, South End of Skinny Atlas. I started out as a dishwasher at the Glen Haven Hotel down there. Love that place. One of my favorite restaurants in Southern New York. Didn't really know what I wanted to be. Like, I originally went to school

to become a underwater welder. Really? Yeah. Cool. And, you know, the engineering side of things and all the mathematics is just not my strong suit. So after, you know, like a year in school, that was definitely seen as not going to work out for me. And it was during the late 90s when they had all those flashy ads for culinary schools, you know, the chef in the whites, you know, not sweating or anything. But, you know, enjoying themselves and having a great time.

They sold it really well. So I signed up for Johnson and Wales sight unseen and went to Johnson. Wales down in Norfolk, Virginia. Graduated there at the two-year degree, and then my career just kind of snowballed after that. I worked in a lot of great places, Outer Banks, Aspen, Colorado. I worked in Manhattan twice. Had a great time working there. And then my last stint in Manhattan, where the story I kind of thing starts, is during the 2008

financial crisis. So during that time, I got to see Restaurant Row Close, and that's where all the things. theaters are, all the restaurant theaters are, that entire strip closed. Every chef got laid off, all the cooks got laid off. I was able to hold my job for the company I was working for as a sous chef for three Midtown and Greenwich Village restaurants I was overseeing for a while. But then they used me to start laying off people. So like every week I got a list of names and I would have to come in and then lay people off. So I was like that black cloud that walked into the restaurant.

Yeah. And everyone saw me and they're like, oh, Jesus. He's here again. Oh, God. It was awful. What is that like? When you're sitting across with somebody and saying, hey, you know, I know you got a family, but like you're...

So you see the whole gamut of emotions from the bargaining to the denial to the anger. I was in... So it was landmark that I worked for for Mark Murphy, who's been on, you know, chopped and all these other shows. Great guy, great chef. I have nothing negative say. It was just the times we were in. But I was in the Time Warner building, but I would have to take different exits.

I mean, there was threats, you know, that people were really upset. They've been in the company for 10 years, and I had to let them go. But eventually the hammer fell, and I was laid off. Jeez. Which, you know, it was tough because, like, every day I lived in Jersey, and every day, you take the path trains, you see everybody with the cardboard boxes. So that spillover for the financial crisis affected everybody. And it was a weird time to be in Manhattan, but to, you know, come home and see so many people with cardboard boxes with all their stuff and it was crazy.

But ironically, before the financial crisis had happened, I was planning a vacation and I came across ClubMed. And I'm like, oh, wow, look, there's an employment tap and completely, unsuriously filled out this employment tab for ClubMed before the financial crisis hit. And then I got laid off and a week went by and I got a call from ClubMed. They're like, hey, would you like to come work for us? Wow, that's exciting. And this is a time where, like, you know, if you tried to go for a job interview in Manhattan, you'd be in line with, you know, 10, 20 chefs. Right.

And these weren't just any chefs. These were chefs from like Peter Lugers and, you know, high-end restaurants that you're, you know, competing with for a cook position. So I was like, yeah, sure. So they did the interview in Brooklyn. Usually most American speaking or English speaking applicants have to do one year in the club med down in Florida. But because I could kind of navigate my way through French, I speak a little bit. I was able to go to Columbus Island or San Salvador in the Bahamas.

And that's where I met my wife, now business partner and everything. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, so there's a whole story there. But basically, you know, as the world was melting, I was flying down to the Bahamas. And I got to work for ClubMed, and I ran two of their fine dining restaurants down there. I did, you know, seven months down there. I was offered another position in Turks and Caicos. But I turned that down because I fell in love with my wife, and I moved up to Montreal and to be with her.

Wow. For someone who, this is a very basic question, I'm not super familiar with ClubMed. What is ClubMed? And can you explain it to me? Clubbed is the original all-inclusive. And I think, you know, they are the tippy top when it comes to, you know, all inclusive resorts. It's a French-owned resort. They're all over the world.

I think there's at least 70 or 80 of them. You're not considered an employee. You're considered a GO or gentle organizer. You work six days a week. But you're not just a cook. As soon as you're done cooking, you've got to throw on the colors that are supposed to be worn that night. And then you have to interact with a guest. So the employees are very involved with the guest relations and everything.

It was a fantastic experience. It really was. Like nothing I'd ever done before. Living in the Bahamas, meeting all the Bahamians, you know, getting to go to their houses for dinner as we, you know, befriended people. Every day I went spearfishing, you know, and you could trade fish for beer at the bar, you know. So if you got like a big, you know, 40-pound NASA grouper, you know, you could basically drink for free, the whole entire night there.

Oh, that sounds really fun. It was a really good time. When you're spearfishing, are you throwing a spear? You like with a... No, it's with the rubber band. Cool, okay. So we bought spears and we're down there. But every day we would go,

so I'd have to set up in the morning, get all the mezen place and everything ready for the restaurant. And then I usually had about a two to three hour window where I could do what I want. So we'd go sailing or we'd go spear fishing and then scuba diving at night. Cool. That sounds wonderful during the financial crisis.

During the financial crisis, I know. So it was almost one of those things because, like, Facebook was still kind of new, but it was one of those things where you're kind of like, you know, well, should I post this? You know, like, I feel kind of bad. You know, everyone else is struggling, but I'm having, you know, a really good time. That's awesome. But yeah, ClubMed's great. They pay for everything.

You have your housing, your laundry, all your food is paid for, all your transportation's taken care of. It's a really nice kind of golden package that they give you. Cool. And I made really good money as an executive chef for two of the restaurants there. Wonderful. How long was that period? Just over six months. It touched on seven months.

But like I said, I could have gone to Turks and Caicos. That was going to be my next assignment. But foolishly, I fell in love and ended up going from, you know, 90-degree days in, you know, Bahamas to Montreal where it was like negative 30. Sure. But, yeah, it all worked out. But I was only in Montreal for a stint. The labor law is up there a little bit more strict, so you can't just work or work under the table.

It just doesn't happen up there. But while I was in the Bahamas, one of my best friends from Aspen was trying to get a hold of me because he had a gig for me in Fort Worth. So when I finally got my phone reactivated because I had a cell phone in seven months, I called him up and he's like, hey, I got a job for you in Texas,

you know, executive chef position working for him. for a high-end steakhouse and seafood restaurant. It's yours if you want it. They flew me down, interviewed me. I came back, and they offered me the position. And then, you know, it wasn't even three, four weeks later. I was moving to Texas and living down there. Cool.

So we did Bahamas. We did Montreal for a little while. We've done Texas. There's a lot. I'm sorry to bring you back so far. And, you know, this is kind of our first interview about, like, a founder story and everything. So good eats and tips happen. When did you kind of come back to Skinny Atlas?

So I was in Texas and I had done very well there, had gotten some notoriety. And then Adam Weitzman had heard of me through a friend of a friend. And he had just purchased the Krebs restaurant in Skinny Atlas, which at the time was just a shell of its formal self. You know, the loveless's had retired from it. Adam bought it as kind of, you know, like a nostalgia project. But it was just a shell. You know, the back end of it was just like a duck pond. It all filling in water in the basement.

But he needed a chef and somebody to oversee the reconstruction of it and everything. So again, I was in Texas. He got a hold of me. He flew me back. I did a five-course tasting dinner at his house for him and some neighbors. He liked everything. And Adam's a funny guy. Like, I didn't even know I'd gotten the job until somebody started posting on my Facebook.

Like, hey, congratulations. Can't wait to see you in Central New York. And I haven't even told my employers yet. So Adam had posted it on, you know, like Facebook. Hey, I just hired this great chef from Texas. He's from Central York. So I'm like, what is everybody talking about? And then I go on my Facebook.

And I'm like, oh, I guess I got the position. I got to tell my bosses real quick. And that was at a time. So that was at Eddie V's. Darden had just bought out Eddie V's. So it all kind of works serendipitously. You know, Darden buying out at EVs kind of, you know, put some restrictions on us. But, you know, the payout was really good.

But it worked out really well. We wanted to, my wife and I wanted to move back to New York to kind of, you know, settle down and start family. So it all kind of worked out the right way. So I came back, oversaw the Krebs project for about two years. That was just the construction project that went on for a while. while and then it was the front of the restaurant was you know they spared no expense on any of the furnishings furniture anything it was i mean everything in there is of the highest quality it was exceptional but i was getting antsy to get back into cooking so you know adam and i kind of left

it amicably but i was like you know i moved on to other things he still had a lot of left to do to finish the restaurant to get open ready um and then Then what did I do after that? I went and worked for, there was a hospitality concepts group. So I was a culinary director. I oversaw like five different restaurants in Central New York. And then I went from there to Springside. And then a very short stint at a, I'm sorry, I went to the casino, the Delago.

And after Delago, I went to Sherwood for a brief stint. And that's when COVID happened. That was when they were like, oh, we're going to take a two weeks. pause. And in the background, my wife had been working on the space for what was then nectar's was the name of the restaurant. And the intent was to hire a chef to work with her. But during COVID, everyone just took the unemployment. You know, it was impossible to find anybody to work. So originally it wasn't supposed to be me being part of it, but during necessity, I had to kind of let things go at the Sherwood and go full tilt into nectar, which

then became good eats and sips. Cool. That's kind of the abbreviated. There's a lot of missing pieces there, but it's the main points. No, I truly appreciate it. And, I mean, that's a fascinating story. I do want to, again, zoom in. So, I mean, so with this story where, you know, you're making a meal for Adam Weissman,

right? And, you know, it seems like that's a big kind of inflection point in your career, brings it back into Skinny Atlas and everything, or maybe not, or, you know, maybe that was just like, you know, another, it seems like, though, like through each and every one of these opportunities, you know, your skill and your, like, it seems like you stand out from the crowd, right? And I want to ask you, you know, what do you think makes your work different than some of the other people that do what you do? Well, I hope my food tastes good, you know?

I mean, if anything, that is good. I hope the food is good. I think, you know, when it gets to running a restaurant, building a restaurant, you know, people are looking for somebody that is, you know, well put together, you know, isn't a drug or drug or alcoholic or anything like that. But, you know, I think I can speak well. I know the business well. It's all I've been doing since I've been 15. I have a vast amount of experience.

And I think, you know, I'm just able to bring to people a people. of mind and how the business needs to be run. I've seen it all. I've done everything from wedding cakes to sushi, so I have a pretty broad experience. And I think that just kind of adds to the people's comfortability. Like, you know, when I interview for the positions, I'm usually, you know, interviewing with several other chefs.

You know, Delago is a good example with that. I had to cook for Fabio Viviani and the other chefs were Italian, and I was not. you know i'm i'm english and uh scottish you know um i don't have a lick of italian in me a lot of people think the last name agate is pronounced agate you know so they think there might be some italian heritage there but there's zero um but you know trying out for the delago position it was mostly like you know an italian fused steakhouse with you know fresh made pastas and stuff and doing the dinner there for fabio i just did what i know how to do i did what i know how to do i

it well and I wasn't trying to showcase anything like, you know, that it wasn't me. It was dishes that I was comfortable with serving. And I think I also present them well enough. There wasn't any ego attached to it or anything like that. This is who I am. This is what I can offer. And I think the selling point for the executives at Delago was just how I spoke about, you know, creating culture, which is so pivotal for restaurant success is, you know, the food is one thing,

but the culture is what drives a restaurant. And, yeah, to get that position when you're, you know, with four other chefs that are mostly Italian, and, you know, you're the knot. Yeah. I was, you know, I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. You know, I got it. And there's some, you know, sour grapes on the other side. Sure. But so experience, lack of ego, you know, like, just like this is what I can do.

This is who I am. And here you go. Check it out. I think that that. And then also, I think one thing that was interesting to me, it's like you talk about, like, your like business acumen right like you know like cooking skills is definitely like important but you i think the interesting angle that i didn't expect you to mention was like hey i've done i've done i have a lot of experience in doing this and it's more about the business honestly like that that plays a

part into it as well as i think i'm a good leader and i'm a good um builder of cultures you know i don't think i'm the strongest business person when it comes to you know finances and stuff like that. Honestly, I think that's like my weak point. I rely heavily on accountants and stuff, bankers and everything to kind of keep our books straight. That's never been my strong suit, you know, but I have a lot of passion for this industry. I know how to build strong teams. I think that's one of been one of my strongest, you know, traits as a chef, an executive chef, coming up, is I just know how to build strong teams and strong systems that last, you know. So, like, at the landmark, I was the first banquet sous chef.

And I remember going back, you know, years after I left the place. And all the systems I had put in place for their execution of their banquets were still in place. You know, because I got to peek in the kitchen, they had a banquet going on. And I was able to see how they were doing it. I'm like, oh, wow, that's all, you know, things I'd put in place there. What, if you're going to give somebody a quick cheat sheet, And I know, I know, you know, we're probably towards the tail end of this conversation. So I appreciate your time seriously, Donnell.

But if you're giving somebody a cheat sheet on how to build a fantastic team, you know, and how to build that great system, what are you going to tell them? I would study up on culture, you know, it's culture. You can have standards. And standards are important. You know, you need your mission statement and all that stuff. But those are just words on paper. It's how you carry yourself day to day.

And it's really, you know, everyone has good. days and bad days, but it's how you carry yourself on the bad days and able to still show up with a smile or at least fake it. You know, like you need to be able to, you can have a bad day, but you know what, you shouldn't have, you shouldn't be putting that on your team. You know, you got to find a way to kind of push that aside. I tell my kids all the time now, you know, like, you know, you can have a bad day, but you have to put a time stamp on it, you know, and that's the thing. Like something bad can happen in the morning or whatever, you know, but go ahead.

You're human. Feel that way, okay? I'm not going to take that away from you. You have every right to feel upset, angry, whatever, but you get five minutes. Go outside, kick a trash can, smoke a cigarette, do whatever you got to do. But then when you come back in, you got to get back to work. And I think, you know, you can't let it drag all day. And I've worked in a lot of places where people hold on to these anxieties, these things

that are troubling them, and it just drags everything else down, okay? and you're part of a team. I don't like when people associate restaurants as kind of family. To me, restaurants are more team-oriented, you know, and I think the team mannerisms and, like, everything that comes with running a team, like sports teams, are more aligned with restaurants than the family aspect of it. Because, you know, we coach.

We try to build people up. Coaches push people, you know, like to see what their potential is. And then that team camaraderie and stuff like that, If a guy's having a bad time, you better shake it off. We've got to win this game. You know, you got to get your head in it. Cool. Have you seen the bear?

Oh, yeah. The bear gave me PTSD. Like that one episode, you know, where everything was melting down, they nailed it. Yeah. They nailed it. And there was a pat, when he was on the pass, getting screamed at by the chef. I mean, that was literally me at Cafe Desartes in Manhattan by Franz, this, you know, psychopath, Australian chef, just screaming. at me telling me what a piece of crap I am and everything but get the food out at the same time.

What do you think that show? So, you know, in that show, I feel like they do kind of take the angle of like, we're a family and that sort of thing. But also, you know, as, I mean, it evolves as you watch the seasons and everything. I don't know, what do you think that show might get wrong or what do you think it does really well? I think they really do, they nailed it on the reality of what it's like to be in a restaurant during those chaotic periods. Is that what it's like all the time? No, absolutely not. Does everyone say, you know, chef to everybody?

No, I mean, that was kind of exaggerated. And honestly, I don't expect to be called a chef. To me, it's like, you know, putting a mister in front of something, you know, it's just a term of respect. But I'm not going to call a dishwasher a chef or anything like that, you know. Sure. They nailed it on just how real it is. But like I said, I attribute restaurant culture and restaurant teams more towards sports teams than the family. aspect. You end up having that camaraderie and that, you know, you feel like family, you know,

like any sports team can. You guys hang out all the time and everything. But at the end of the day, how restaurants are run, I think, you know, they run the way you'd run a sports team, you know, and I think that's a good analogy on how you want to build your culture, build your teams, because, you know, families are always going to be nice to each other. And, you know, mostly, you know, copacetic with everything. Coaches should push their team members, you know, to learn what they're capable of. Because you won't go into it naturally, you know, like, oh, we have 400 covers tonight. We're only used to doing 200.

The chefs are all having, you know, meltdowns. Okay, let's go. You know, let's focus on what we can do, not what we're fearing was going to happen. Yeah. And having that strong kind of leadership attached to it so that they can lean on you with their anxieties and see through all the, you know, be-eastern. that goes through it. Cool.

Tom, thank you very much. I do want to do so you brought us some goodies. I did. I brought you the cookies, so the Don's cookie and then our power bites.

And then I snuck a gluten-free cooking there. Hand me something from this bag and you tell me what it is and kind of tee it up and I'm excited to try it. All right, so we got our original Don's cookies. I hope that's a gluten-free.

There you go. Nice. So that's going to be sea salt, chocolate chip, and cool. Hazelnut. Oh, I'm so excited.

This is great. You get to hear a cool story from a cool founder, and I get a cookie. This is the best. I know. You got to bring something in. Absolutely. Thank you. All right, so tell me about this cookie.

What iterations has this been through? So that cookie started out probably 20 years ago, so I was obsessed with making chalk chip cookies. And then when I was in Montreal and unemployed, I would just make cookies all day and try and perfect my chocolate chip cookie, how I saw a perfect chalk chip cookie. and then the sea salt that's on top was completely by accident. I made a batch of cookies, and I forgot to put salt in the batter. I was like, oh, crap.

So my wife had a little bit of flaky sea salt, so I put that on top, and therein was born the original Don's cookie, which we sell boatloads of at both locations. This is one hell of a cookie. It's a good cookie, yeah. This is really good. The gluten-freeze are actually outselling the original Don's now. people love the gluten-free cookies.

Wow. That's amazing. Thank you. Wow. Wonderful. That was delicious. What is your vision for the restaurant? What are you excited about for the future?

And why do you think you're so successful right now? Well, I mean, I'm excited for Central New York. I mean, we have so many things happening. Like, you know, the 81 project, Micron, you know, you got the aquarium going up over here. I think Syracuse is ready for Renaissance. If they just stay out of their own way and let it happen, there'll be the naysayers and everything. But Syracuse is prime for something really cool to bubble up, and it's happening. You know, so everyone's just kind of waiting on bated breath to see how these projects finish out.

And I'm super excited for that. I'm so excited for Central New York. I'm so proud to be from here, the Finger Lakes region and everything. Future projects for us, I'd love to get a third restaurant. We're always looking. I don't think we're set up perfectly to add a third. on just yet. But I've been eye on some properties up on Marshall Street.

We have a strong following up there on Syracuse University. I have a strong nostalgia up there just from going to games with my dad. You know, I love it. It would be a complete passion project, you know, if I opened a place up there. But yeah, I think, you know, like Central New York as a whole is just awesome. Like what we have happening and what's coming down the pipeline, I think there's just amazing opportunities bubbling up right now and what's going to happen here in the next year, two years, five years is exciting, you know, for everybody. There's going to be winners and losers,

but eventually there's opportunities abound for everybody. Absolutely. Cool. And real quick, you know, for Good East and Sips, I mean, what do you, why do you think the community values you so much? And I don't know, can you talk a little bit about, you know, your approach to, to restaurants right now with good eating sips and how you're different than everybody else? I think for me as a chef, I always thought the food would speak for itself. But owning a cafe, you have the interaction with the guest, which I'm not hiding in the kitchen as a chef anymore. I'm, you know, customer facing, I'm out there, I'm talking. And just the community aspect of it has been more rewarding than the actual financial side of things.

Honestly, like, I mean, if we were making no money, I would walk away from those feeling great, just with the conversations I've had, the connections I've made. I never really understood how a cafe can add so much value to a community, a meeting place, a place for people to come together. I think at Good Eats and Sips, we just crush it with the customer service. We make mistakes, just like any other restaurant, but we own it, and I'll do anything I can to make the situation right before you walk out the door. Anything you need, I'm going to correct it. And I try to always empower my staff as well to make those same decisions. You know, if it's $5 or if it's a cookie, you know, to make up for a mistake, what's the difference? They're going to come back in.

They're going to value that. But being part of the Skinny Atlas community is just amazing. Like, Skinny Atlas is just an amazing town. It's, you know, it's popping off right now with popularity and it's just beautiful. Number one rule, though, if you come to Skinny Atlas, don't be in a hurry. Okay. And I tell everybody that.

You know, if you're in a hurry in Skinny Atlas, you're doing it wrong. Like, it's meant to be a leisurely walk around town. There's a lot of cool shops, you know, to see great restaurants besides my own. But it's just a fun community. And it's just good people there that, you know, that we're part of that we get to interact with every day. Beautiful. Well, Don, thank you so much. You mentioned that you also do catering as well.

Yep. So we're in catering season. All of your catering needs through good to go. and then you can find our website at Goodscan.com. It will list both the restaurants and all of our different platforms from catering to wholesale and even vending that we're into now. But yeah, let us know if you have any catering needs. We do really well.

We do a lot of corporate caterings, what kind of were niches, so a lot of lunchboxes and stuff like that. Cool, yeah. And judging by this cookie, like that's, I mean, you can't go wrong. Like, so good. Thank you very, very much. I appreciate that.

Cool. Ladies and gentlemen, Thank you so much for watching. Good News York, guys. This is a production put on by Clickstream Studios. We are a content marketing agency run out of the old spaghetti warehouse location. If you run a business and you are posting social media and you're not confident in your social strategy and you're like, hey, what should I be posting and I don't seem to have any traction, right? I am doing free digital marketing plans for Central New York business owners. You can book one by visiting call.clixtreamstudios.com to book some time with me.

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