Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.112 | Great Food & Service at Second Chance Diner! Feat. Eddie DePalma

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Second Chance Diner: From Recovery to Culinary Triumph - An Interview with Eddie DePalma In this special episode of Good News York, host Matt Masur conducts an inspiring interview with Eddie DePalma, ...owner of Second Chance Diner. Eddie shares his personal journey from addiction recovery to becoming a successful entrepreneur. He recounts his early days as a barber, his decision to save money by biking everywhere, and the switch to opening his first diner with no prior experience in the restaurant industry. The conversation covers the challenges he faced, including going broke twice, and his expansion and growth through multiple locations. Eddie explains the thought process behind his unique menu items like cereal-infused pancakes and honey butter pancakes, and how his story and diner have become sources of inspiration and support for the community. Additionally, the segment highlights the diner’s popular Ultimate Breakfast Challenge, various culinary innovations, and the importance of a clean and welcoming environment. The episode concludes with Matt and his team enjoying a meal at Second Chance Diner and discussing the unique atmosphere and service. 00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene 00:35 Eddie DePalma's Backstory and Inspiration 02:53 The Journey to Opening Second Chance Diner 04:57 Overcoming Challenges and Expanding 07:46 Creating a Unique Dining Experience 10:03 Moving to a Bigger Space 13:07 Building the Final Home for Second Chance Diner 20:54 Innovative Menu and Customer Favorites 25:54 Operating Hours and Busy Days 26:24 Accommodating Large Parties 26:56 Brunch and Bar Highlights 27:23 Expansion Plans 28:13 Eddie's Ultimate Breakfast Challenge 29:24 Food Challenge Fame 30:57 Diner Experience and Food Reviews 31:22 Fun Conversations and Food Preferences 40:52 Concluding Thoughts and Farewell

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Instagram teen accounts have automatic protections for what teens see and who can contact them. Plus, time management tools. And Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age-appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at Instagram.com slash teen accounts. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley, Newman and Uniworld Boutique River Cruises L'iq Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection
Starting point is 00:00:45 with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirond's 50th anniversary summer specials. Hey guys, Mandator from Good News, York. We are doing a very special interview. This is awesome. I'm very excited, one of my favorite diners. We're going to hear a story of how it came to be. We're at Second Chance here in Camilla. Is this Camiller's Fairmount technically?
Starting point is 00:01:26 I don't know where the line is. Somewhere down the road. Yeah, right on Genesee Street, you can't miss it. In the old good buddies location, and we'll get to how you got here. But let's start with first and foremost, go ahead and introduce yourself, man, and tell us what you do here. I'm Eddie Napalma. I'm the owner of Second Chance Steiner, and what I do here is run the operation. That's it.
Starting point is 00:01:52 I love it. I love it. Eddie, let's sort of jump in a little bit in the beginning, right? Yeah. So it's second chance that alludes to there was some kind of first chance, right? And something that inspired this. Could you tell us a little bit about kind of your backstory, how you got here? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:09 I mean, well, nothing inspired my first chance. My first chance does not the create it. So I am a recovering addict. So the meaning behind second chance was, you know, this was my second chance, new beginning. And I came from a history of addiction. And, you know, that's a real hard thing to, I don't say we beat it, I'm going to live and cope with it. Sure.
Starting point is 00:02:35 But to live in active recovery, a lot of people get to see that light. So, you know, I'm very grateful and I'm very grateful for what I've, built and you know the meaning behind it how many people I inspire truly didn't realize how many people my story inspired and you know how much hope really goes yeah can't tell you how many times I've walked around this restaurant then stopped by a custer and sat down and you know heard their story of what they're going through themselves or their children or mother or brother wow we're in the middle of an epidemic. It's a lot more common than you think.
Starting point is 00:03:18 Yeah. And addiction doesn't discriminate, you know. I've seen all walks of life under addiction, you know. Doctors, lawyer, I mean, you name it. Yeah. So just to hear some people's stories and to, you know, know that I give them hope and connection and listen to their story and telling them mine, it's a nice thing, you know.
Starting point is 00:03:42 Yeah. There's been some emotional moments with some clients. I believe it. So it's nice to just be able to connect to people on that lovely, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Is that kind of what inspired you to use a diner sort of as your vehicle? You know, there's a lot of folks that have become entrepreneurs.
Starting point is 00:04:01 Yep. To try to find their way. So I will tell you, I am a businessman at heart. Yeah. I'm an entrepreneur. So I was a barber for 11 years. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:04:13 So I was a barber for 11 years. I've never worked in a restaurant, not even for 15 minutes of my life. Wow. So one day I just walked in and I realized I don't want to do this the rest of my life. I always knew from a young age I was meant for bigger things. I always thought different, spoke different. I always had bigger goals and aspirations. So I just walked in one day and said, you know, this is my two-month notice.
Starting point is 00:04:41 I don't want to be a barber anymore. My boss was like, well, what are you going to do? I have no idea. So I worked really hard. I saved up all my money. I rode a bike everywhere for two years. I could have went and bought a vehicle, but a part of me wanted to remember the suffering
Starting point is 00:05:00 and where I came from and never wanting to go back to that. So at the beginning stages of my recovery, I won't say I tortured myself, but I made things a lot harder for myself. Gotcha. just to, you know, kind of remember if you go back, this is what you're going to be doing again. So, yeah, for two years, I rode a bike, pedal bike, all over the place. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:22 So I had no idea what I was going to do. And I used to live in Eastwood at the time, and I used to go to Carl's Country Kitchen every morning. I love the ladies over there. I used to go there every morning for breakfast, before I went to work. So that's kind of where, like, the diner. idea sparked but I was I would get home and I'd get on Facebook Marketplace every night or I'd be at barbershop, just go up their Facebook Marketplace, just trying to figure
Starting point is 00:05:52 out what direction I wanted to bring my life and what business I wanted to own. So it was actually my ex's birthday and I had seen a listing for a restaurant space down on Bennett Road. Okay. And I knew I wanted to do something in Camillas. I'm born and raised, believe it or not, come full circle. This is actually my childhood street. Oh, wow. Columbus F. Wow. My mom actually worked here when this was Fresnos. Wow. So talk about a full circle moment. I actually have a picture of my sign and above it is Columbus Ave. So, yeah, it was a real full circle moment. But anyway, yeah, I seen the space for rent. I knew I wanted to do something in Camillas. I knew I wanted to be in Camelis. I've always been, you know, big part of the community
Starting point is 00:06:39 here and so it was a barbecue place and I went walking through and I just had this gut feeling and I couldn't shake. So two days later I ended up signing a lease, a five-year lease and I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Yeah. I was in over my head 10 ways to Sunday. A lot of people don't know this. I actually went broke twice. I thought I was going to fail. I laid in bed every night for, it took me nine months to renovate that place. Wow. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.
Starting point is 00:07:14 Yeah. And that place is what tested me not only as a man to see what kind of drive I had, to see that failure was never an option. And to just learn, like, really what it needs to be an entrepreneur. Yeah. There's no one to call.
Starting point is 00:07:34 You've got to figure out these issues on your own. and failure wasn't an option for me. It couldn't be. You know, I had my life savings into this and more. I'd quit my job at this point. I had a, you know, a family, a daughter, a home. I had all the cards stacked against me, by the grace of God.
Starting point is 00:07:51 I fully renovated the place to be absolutely beautiful. Went through all the hurdles, everything that I got through it. We opened. And my first day, I was lying out the door. and every day moving forward, line out the door. That's awesome. I was very blessed we were busy from day one. But what a lot of people don't know is the amount of hours I spent in my office.
Starting point is 00:08:19 Like Thursdays, I worked 18, 20 hours. Wow. Because I was renovating a restaurant and then nobody sees the back end of it. All the legalities, all the paperwork, all the permits, you know, building all the menus, everything that you need to get to be able to open a restaurant. And you're talking to a kid who never worked at a restaurant. Right, right. You're figuring it all out.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Yeah, I'm going around to all these diners and kind of like looking around and seeing how they set things up. And, you know, I took a trip to Jersey and New York City and Mass. I went to a bunch of different diners. And my mentor told me, he said, if you're going to, if you're going to open something, you have to have something where people can't get anywhere else. because if you have a wait, why are they going to wait? So I kind of took that idea to heart.
Starting point is 00:09:10 And when I built my menu, I built a menu that you can't get anywhere else. So people wait the hour or two hours to eat breakfast here because what I offer, you can't, I do something very special. You know, I put a lot of time, effort and a lot of thought into, building my menu and a lot of the creations I brought were never seen or heard from anywhere around here. You know, I was the first person to do the cereal-infused pancakes and, you know, the milkshakes and all that, you know. That's awesome. Yeah. That's such great stuff. Could you, you talked about a little bit where you started there over on Bennett. Yep.
Starting point is 00:09:54 In that space. Talk to me about, you know, at what point you decide you've outgrown it. And then again, what time you've outgrown the next space? How does that work? So Bennett was small. We sat 49 seats interior. And then in the spring, summer months, we had an outdoor patio that sat about 60. I outgrew that building in about 60 days. But I had a lease.
Starting point is 00:10:25 Sure. I had just invested my life savings in this. I couldn't move. So, you know, we rocked it out and we did the best we could and we dealt with, you know, the weights and the volume. And once I opened the outdoor patio, that helped alleviate some of the wait times and getting people in. But that was only a temporary fix. Yeah. Because once winter came, maybe close the patio down, you're back to 49 seats.
Starting point is 00:10:53 And that place was stuffed to the brim, you know, open to close. No. open to close. So my mind started spinning and the old Friendlies building had been vacant for a couple years. So I had my eyes on that and I had the owners of Township 5 calling me like every week. I want you to take a space in township. And, you know, as a businessman, there's a lot of factors that go into opening a restaurant. And at this point, I had learned a lot of them. I thought I learned them all, but you never learned everything. So I ended up moving into, I ended up working a deal out on the friendlies,
Starting point is 00:11:40 renovating that whole thing all over again. I actually left there on a little before my two-year mark, and I actually opened at my second location the same date as I did my first location. Wow. So it was actually kind of crazy how that actually timed out, and it was just a coincidence. I ended up selling, I ended up giving my lease to the mixing bowl. Gotcha.
Starting point is 00:12:06 I had it, I had the entire restaurant for sale and I sold it to them. They were just a great fit and I gave it to them for cents on the dollar. I just, to me, I wanted the perfect person there because I had dumped so much blood, sweat, tears. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village. village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises Loebuck Bali to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been selling there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections
Starting point is 00:12:44 make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. Have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is about to explode? Liquid Death now makes a better-for-you energy drink. Liquid Death, sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric chair. It has zero sugar in just five calories. No sucralose, aspartame, and artificial flavors and dyes. Plus, it has essential vitamins.
Starting point is 00:13:17 You can find it in four delicious flavors that has a clean taste. Scary Strawberry. Strawberry with a hint of lemon. Tropical Terror, which is like a Pena Collada. Orange horror, tasty orange with a hint of orange cream, and murder mystery, my favorite, a blend of cherry cola and spices. I love a good energy drink to keep me moving, and I'm glad I now have Liquid Death Sparkling Energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these delicious flavors. They have unextreme, 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee.
Starting point is 00:13:47 You can buy Liquid Death Sparkling Energy at Fine Retailers like 7-Eleven or learn more at LiquidDeft.com. I think people understand like, you know, what took me to open that place. You know, I didn't, it was nine months of, you know, 20 plus hours a day. So I had an emotional attachment to the building. And then they came in and they were just the perfect mix. And, you know, they were a new business working out of a ghost kitchen. So their funds were pretty limited. And, you know, I gave them a deal of a lifetime.
Starting point is 00:14:22 but they were deserving and they reminded me of myself. So I'm glad that I gave the old space to them. And now we moved up to Friendlies. Now we have a bigger space. And we outgrew that in about four or five months. But again, you know, I was, you know, open in a restaurant. It's not cheap. I'm talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, you know.
Starting point is 00:14:45 So again, I was there. Clearly the old friendlies. But if you walked in, you realized it didn't look like the old friendlies. No. You went crazy inside of that place. So my thing is I think presentation is everything and cleanliness. Yeah. Every building that I have gotten has been disgusting when I got it.
Starting point is 00:15:03 You know, loads of grease all over the kitchen and just, you know, dirty and outdated. And that's just not what I do. Sure. I have a certain vibe, a certain cleanliness that I keep. Like if you walk in my kitchen right now, it still looks brand new. Yeah. Because we, I hold my staff to a very high standard. I think cleanliness is everything and obviously quality product.
Starting point is 00:15:25 But people want to come in and feel comfort. Yeah. I think that's half your battle. So I had a five-year release there. And the beginning of year five, I'd always drove by this. It was vacant at that point for like a year or so. And this was my dream. You know, this was like, okay, this is like the square footage I need, the space I need.
Starting point is 00:15:51 got everything that I need, but it was just too soon to move. So as I give it's meant to be, it's meant to be, and kept driving by, vacant, started getting towards the end of my lease. And so I made a call one day to Neville, he was the realtor. So I'm also a licensed real estate agent as well. Gotcha. I do that as well. I do a lot of other things as well as from, you know, from the diner.
Starting point is 00:16:17 But so I represented myself. and ended up connecting with Dan Gior Martino, the owner of Tully, actually owns this building. Gotcha. It became a good friend and mentor to me. Wow. Amazing, amazing man. And we kind of went back and forth.
Starting point is 00:16:34 And I tried to buy the building and just they weren't having it, but they gave me a deal of a lifetime. And, you know, I was the perfect poison, the perfect fit that they were looking for for this building. Sure. So back and forth. for months in the negotiations. We worked out a deal and then I took on the biggest, most stressful project of my entire life. Really? Oh yeah. It made the other two look like a walk in a park. Wow. You know, you have to think this isn't a dying. This is a rest shot.
Starting point is 00:17:10 Right. We see hundreds of people in here. This place is enormous. Yeah. You know, and when I got it, It was a dark and dingy pub that had been closed for, you know, over two years. Yeah. So I had to breathe second chance dying our life into this. It took a lot. I had a very good contractor helping me, Kevin. I wouldn't have been able to do this without him. And we transformed this building in 102 days to what it is.
Starting point is 00:17:41 This is by far my biggest accomplishment. This tested me in ways. I never knew I could be tested. This pushed me to limits. I never knew I could succeed and overcome. You have to think something of this size. You know, this is the size of a Wonghorn steakhouse at Texas Road. This is a big place.
Starting point is 00:18:04 And places like that have 10, 12 people orchestrating the opening of something of that caliber. Sure. I'm a one-man wrecking crew. It's just me. Wow. So to orchestrate all of the pieces to open this, I mean, I don't think people understand really what it takes from, you know, the equipment to, you know, all the kitchen equipment to building server stations and computers and security. I mean, the list is just enormous. And I was the only one orchestrating that.
Starting point is 00:18:38 Everything has to fall into place at the perfect time. but opening this was the biggest accomplishment, the biggest accolade I've ever made in my life. And when I walk in these doors, I have the biggest sense of pride I've ever had in my life. It's like I was always meant to be here. Yeah. You know, when second chance diner opened,
Starting point is 00:19:03 everything I did was a stepping stone to here. I'm never leaving. This is our final resting ground. Everything about this place feels like home. I love pulling in here, seeing the outside, and then walking in. There's no bigger sense of accomplishment. A lot of days I got to kind of pat myself on the back and kind of snap my fingers. Sure.
Starting point is 00:19:29 You know, like, man, you, you know, you accomplished this. You did this. Yeah. You know. Yeah, it's a great. No, it's incredible. It's really everything here is just, the decor and everything like to cleanliness like you mentioned it's it's I actually spend 10 days in
Starting point is 00:19:46 Florida really yeah I went to about 50 antique shops wow and I sourced handpicked all this decor it's all pre-1940 that's incredible I had it all shit back and wow so every piece has a has a story that's incredible yeah I wanted I wanted this to be something special yeah you know I built the name, I built the brand. I just never built the home. Sure. And this is home, you know? That's so incredible.
Starting point is 00:20:19 Real quick, we got to mention while you were building that, you played a little gag outside. I did, yes. Can you tell people what that was all about? Yeah. So I did not want anyone to know what I was doing. in human nature of the human mind you know curiosity curiosity kills people but curiosity also carries buzz you know when people don't know something or they're suspicious or something they talk and talk
Starting point is 00:20:53 builds i mean it's like the biggest source of free advertising there is sure you know so i didn't want any of my competitors to know like i'm not in competition with anyone but at the end of day you know other people on diners they are competition sure um I don't compete with anyone but myself but I didn't want anyone to know what I was doing um so me and my sign guy were sitting one day and we we had the idea to come up with a fake sign and me and him created Joe Sausage House in his and his sign shop we printed it I hung it and the buzz that went around was unreal and then You know, people are, I heard this and I heard that and I had to be very careful.
Starting point is 00:21:42 I had to park my truck down the road. You know, I own a lot of people know that I own copper tree builders. That's my building company. So I had to keep my trailer down the road. Or come in late night. That's funny. We need it and move. But I wanted to build the hype.
Starting point is 00:21:58 I wanted to build the buzz, you know. And I don't want anyone, like I said, I don't want anyone to my next move until I was ready to announce it. Yeah. the amount of people we'd have come in, peek in, and I'd put signs on the door. And so then once I had announced that I was moving here, it went haywire. So there was a little thought, there was a lot of thought behind that. Yeah. And, you know, I thought it would be funny.
Starting point is 00:22:29 And, you know, again, like I said, build the hype. But yeah, that literally happened. Me and my sign guy just joking around in a side chest. And I'm like, you know what? Let's do it. I'll hang you. That's hilarious. I love that. People still talk about that. People will come in here and joke about it. Yeah. I still want sausage. I don't know. I was excited for that when I drove by. You know, like, hey. What's a sausage house? No, but that's such a great, great strategy, honestly. Like you said, the buzz that it created for free in business. He can't beat that. Can't beat it. You know, and it helps when people found out that you, like I said, you already have.
Starting point is 00:23:08 established that name. You already had the crowd that was waiting forever to get in at the other place. Tell us just a couple more quick things, and I'll let you get back to it. But we talked a little bit about some of the unique things that you do here. Tell us just a few more things that folks might be able to get here that can't find it at other local places. So one of my newest creations is honey butter pancakes. It's one of my favorite. Really? Yeah, they're pancakes with honey butter on them.
Starting point is 00:23:38 blueberry compote and the lemon zest on top. We do a lot of cereal-infused pancakes. You can't get anywhere else. You know, we do Fritty Pebbles and a toast crunch, as well as French toasts. I have the Atty's Hash Benny Burger, which is a burger with corned beef hash. Fried egg, bacon, hollanda sauce on top.
Starting point is 00:24:03 It's one of my other creations. That sounds pretty incredible. Do a donut breakfast sandwiches. We do all the cereal French toasts. I mean, just tons of out of the box. That's what I strive on is I have your everyday diner fair, but I also have all those out-of-the-box things that people love. You know, and that even goes into my bar.
Starting point is 00:24:28 You know, we do big mimosa towers and crazy ice coffee flights and mimosa flights. And I just strive to be different. I strive to, you know, give some people, the community, something they can't get anywhere else. Yeah. You know, and I strive in quality product and having, you know, out-of-the-box ideas. And I think that's what's built the epitone of this place, is that I am different, you know. And I love that.
Starting point is 00:24:59 We're always coming up with crazy new ideas. Like, you know, we already got a few new menu items we're going to be adding. We're doing the whole barmen. And to me, everything is about growth. You know, I'm never complacent. We're always, you know, and I have an amazing, amazing staff, amazing managers. And it's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Uneworld Boutique River Cruises Luik Bali to learn about river cruising in France.
Starting point is 00:25:31 As we have been setting there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local community. Local connections make exploring France easy. Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. What up, y'all, y'all, Jus, have you ever had an energy drink that makes you feel like your head is about to explode? Liquid death now makes a better-for-you energy drink.
Starting point is 00:25:59 Liquid death, sparkling energy feels like a coffee, not an electric kid. It has zero sugar and just five calories. No sucralose, aspartame, and artificial flavors and dyes. Plus, it has essential vitamins. You can find it in four delicious flavors that has a clean taste. Scary strawberry. Strawberry with a hint of lemon. Tropical terror, which is like a pinocalada.
Starting point is 00:26:21 Orange horror. Tasty orange with a hint of orange cream. And murder mystery, my favorite. A blend of cherry cola and spices. I love a good energy drink to keep me moving. And I'm glad I now have liquid death sparkling energy to keep me awake. I can't wait to keep drinking all these days. delicious flavors. They have
Starting point is 00:26:37 unextreme 100 milligrams of caffeine, same as a cup of coffee. You can buy Liquid Death Sparkling Energy at fine retailers like 7-Eleven or learn more at LiquidDeft.com. People who truly love to work here and be here. I try to be the boss I never had.
Starting point is 00:26:56 So, you know, I walk in and, you know, you see my staffs always smiling and always happy and happy to be here. And I like to think that I play a big role in that. Um, so, you know, just trying to keep evolving and coming up with these new crazy ideas and, you know, I love it. I love it. That's so cool.
Starting point is 00:27:16 Building things that, you know, you can't get anywhere else. Yeah. So let me ask you this, because as much as I love the unique items, yeah, I'm willing to bet that the staples are some of your winners, right? The old school. Oh, yeah. So what, what is the most common ordered item? I'd say either hash in. eggs. People love our hash. Yeah. Comes fresh from the butcher. I mean, it's, I never even
Starting point is 00:27:48 like corned beef hash for I got ours. Our corn beef hash is definitely a big one and our homelots. Yeah. And then our cinnamon raisin toast. Wow. People go crazy over that. Yeah. Oh, you got to try it. It's so good. It's my absolute favorite. That's incredible. We still have, you know, steak and eggs. I do it. I do a 30-day dry-age. and it cuts like a filet. Absolutely. So people love our steak and eggs. We do a lot of that. A lot, tons of burgers once lunch hits. And then you have a lot of people that just come in for their regular overeasy, their egg combo. Everyday diner breakfast. Yeah, yeah. So I guess it just depends on the person, you know. What's your personal go-to? My personal go-to. So my
Starting point is 00:28:41 is two eggs over medium bacon our new home fries so we do a deep fried and a home style home fry oh wow home style are my absolute favorite and then the honey butter pancakes can eat those every day I go to the gym every morning so I try to stay healthy yeah and then the fruity pebble French toast those are my favorites wow that's incredible all right my man you're you're making me hungry so I'm thinking I'm gonna let you get back to work and and if you got from room for us. I'll buy my team some breakfast here and try these things. I'll keep you guys
Starting point is 00:29:15 in here. You can... That'd be great. Just hang out here by yourself. I have a server come over. I'd love that. We do a lot of like, we have tons of gluten-free. I have a huge gluten-free menu. So that's a lot of... Our little buddy over here is gluten-free. That's a huge one. Like I said, I try to accommodate
Starting point is 00:29:34 to everyone. That's all. You know, I don't want someone to come in here and be like, you know, I can't order anything on this menu, because I'm vegetarian or I'm gluten and tonne, or whatever the case may be. We do a lot of stuff, especially for the gluten community. We have gluten-free pancakes, French toast, I mean, tons of stuff.
Starting point is 00:29:52 So just real quickly, to end, what are just the basics in terms of what are your hours, things like that? So we're open seven days a week. Monday through Friday, we're open seven to two, and Saturday and Sunday we're open six to two. And we're busy every day. But what's great is we have the capacity now where the weight isn't that long.
Starting point is 00:30:16 Gotcha. And, I mean, on the weekends, sometimes we do get up to an hour or more. But, again, people are wrong to wait. But the best part of here is where I struggled is people would come in with 10, 12, 15 people. There, we struggled to seat those people and to have them walk away or be like it's an hour and two hour. We don't want to be two hours for breakfast. Right. You know?
Starting point is 00:30:38 Here, it's, I have. so many big tables and we have the banquet room and, you know, it's someone comes in for a 12 top, it's like a three, top, four top, you know, we don't even stress, oh, not a big deal. It's like that was one of the biggest things in my move was accommodating big parties. Sure. What we do big here is brunch. People go crazy for our brunch. You know, we have a, I mean, we have a full service bar.
Starting point is 00:31:02 Our bar is, it's no joke. You know, and we get a lot of crowd, you know, eight, ten girls all meet and want to go to brunch. So being able to seat them like that was another one of my things on the checklist that, you know, had to check the box as being able to see larger crowds. And we accomplished that. And I actually just started architectural plans. We're going to rip out the patio. And we're building a whole Four Seasons room. It's going to be all glass garage doors.
Starting point is 00:31:29 Oh, wow. And I'm going to build a private catering kitchen. And we're going to have a storage room. But this will be a private, it'll be our private. It'll be our private banquet room and overflow room. So I'm going to blow this door out. We're going to enclose all this. So we'll be able to open all the garage doors in the summer.
Starting point is 00:31:48 But we'll be able to close them in the winter months and still use that as seating. Because believe it or not, I've only been here a few months, but we're running out of space again. And I can't move again. Yeah, yeah. I hear you. No, but that's great. You're finding solutions for that. Solutions for everything.
Starting point is 00:32:03 I love it, man. I'm getting a note from my producer. I've never done that before This just in Actually so as we walked in Danny and I noticed on the wall You've got some Polaroids All of Fame wall of shame
Starting point is 00:32:17 Yeah And clearly there's some kind of challenge Mike just found it on your menu Yes tell us what this challenge is all about Eddie's ultimate breakfast challenge So it is five pounds of food And when we posted on social media I don't think people realize that it's on a half sheet pan
Starting point is 00:32:34 So people will come and oh I'll be that that's nothing and then they get here and we slam down this half a sheet pan of five pounds of food and they're like yeah this looks way smaller in a picture i'm like well it's five pounds of food and so i i always seen you know with the food challenges people would just hang your picture on the wall so i wanted like i said everything i do i try to be different i try to be creative yeah so i'm like you know what i'm going to do a wall of fame and a wall of shame And if you lose, you go on the wall of shame. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:33:09 But if you win it, we can tack your name back over on the other side. And as you can see, that wall of shame is almost a full board, and you look to the other side. There's just a few. There's just a few. We've actually had people travel from all over the world. That's a thing for some folks, right? Yes. So we've had a lot of viral food challenge eaters.
Starting point is 00:33:33 They've all won. We had one guy do it nine. nine, little over nine minutes. But our biggest one, we were about two weeks from moving and beard meats food came in to do the viral food challenge. He crushed the whole thing, then ordered
Starting point is 00:33:49 deep fried PBMJ, ate the whole thing. And actually... He's just showing off now. That video on YouTube has over 10 million views. He's one of the biggest food challenge eaters in the world. That's incredible. And to know, like, he came into my little hometown diner Like, that was one of the biggest accomplishments.
Starting point is 00:34:10 Like, just a good sense of pride. Like, you know, I'm on the map. This, you know, this dude's from another country. Yeah. And here he is in the U.S. decided to fly in to Syracuse, New York to, he was in Florida. In the video, he says that he was in Florida. But he literally flew to Syracuse, New York, to come to Second Chance, Diner to do Eddie's Ultimate Ultimate Barker challenge.
Starting point is 00:34:32 That's incredible. You know that? That's incredible. That was a really, really, really cool experience. Three huge pancakes, three Texas French toast, four sausage, four ham, four bacon, home fries, five scrambled eggs. And if you conquer, you win a T-shirt and your Wall of Fame. That's pretty awesome. That's pretty awesome.
Starting point is 00:34:56 Guys, second chance diner, this is the place to be. Eddie, thank you so much for all of this. It's an honor. We're going to enjoy some food. But this is, you know, this is what Good News York is all about. It's celebrating local businesses, local success stories. Thank you. And you've knocked it out of the park, an inspiration for all kinds of folks.
Starting point is 00:35:16 So I really appreciate this man. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. You know, dude, one thing I've heard about the Second Chance Diner other than just great ownership, amazing food, great atmosphere, we see that. I heard the service is like super quick. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:35:30 Like lickety split. We just ordered. I don't ever eat breakfast, I'm really happy to be doing so right now. There you go. Favorite food item in a diner, breakfast, is hash. Okay. And I was going to order it anyway, and then he raved about it. Let's check this out.
Starting point is 00:35:49 Nothing like some good old corned beef hash. That is. That is by far the best hash I've ever had. Wow. And I'm not just saying that. Are you just saying that? No, I'm not just saying that. Okay.
Starting point is 00:36:02 Okay. That is phenomenal, man. It's fresh. I always wonder why they don't corn more meats, you know? Yeah. Why isn't they're like corned chicken? That's a great question. Corned pork.
Starting point is 00:36:20 Yeah. Could be just as good. There is a cornish game. How do you corn a beef, by the way? You just dump shit on it. Oh, all right. Just like, ah, you're corned. What's your...
Starting point is 00:36:35 I thought maybe you just told the bad jokes for a while. Oh. It's my dad joke for the day. It's breakfast, I gotta do it. I bounce between fried eggs and scrambled. Okay. I'm not one or the other. Are you always scrambled?
Starting point is 00:36:52 I'm an omelet, fella. Yeah. Like a good omelet. When I'm cooking, if I can pull off a fried egg without breaking the yolk, I will, but I usually can't, so I end up becoming scrambled no matter what I do. Yeah. And I cannot make an omelet to save my life at home.
Starting point is 00:37:08 So it makes me appreciate it at the diner even more. I can't do the flip. It's a simple thing that many people have mastered. I am not one of them. Oh, my God. What in the world is this? Oh, my God. So these little blueberry pancake bites, they just came out of the fires, so they're very hot, okay?
Starting point is 00:37:24 Okay. How are the first couple bites? Everything is great. Awesome. Can I get us anything else? No, thank you. I think we're great. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:37:34 I tried to make it pretty wet because they were so hot. Oh, you know. You did a great job. Thank you. In the words of Wilford Brimley, this is the best. Yes. Dhabitus. Um, let her shoot that and then also somebody's got to try the fruity pebbles.
Starting point is 00:37:50 Oh yeah, I will. Mmm. I did not expect it to come up. My favorite thing about a diner is that they, usually the menus have everything. From salmon to cereal. So it's great because you can be like, you know what? I want some, I want some. I want some French fries.
Starting point is 00:38:13 I want a burger. I want a pancake. You know what I mean? I want cereal on my pancakes. Or I want cereal on my pancake. Nobody wants to try the drink on my little. I'll do it. I got a question though. I will.
Starting point is 00:38:31 About the cereal pancakes. They look incredible. They're obviously clearly already covered in sugar. Do you put syrup on it? That is a fantastic. You know what? Danny's saying yes. Danny?
Starting point is 00:38:45 No? I'm always saying no. I think it's like putting creamer in coffee, like in really good coffee. Like you're ruining it with creamer, right? I feel like the... I'm saying it's already got the creamer. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:39:00 I think you're right. You know what I do? This is the way to go. Always eat something without the condiment first, and then decide if you can put it up. I think we attack it. I think we attack it raw. Ooh, baby, I like it raw. I like it raw. Remember that song?
Starting point is 00:39:18 That's not where I thought that was going. No. It's old dirty bastard. R-IP. Shimmy, y'all. Go right to the middle. You got some of that. Some of that creamy goodness.
Starting point is 00:39:32 Going in. Go it. Do it. You are? Oh, wait, I can't. Oh, I'm free shit, so. It's only a little bit of gluten. Yeah, but a little bit.
Starting point is 00:39:52 All right. Anybody else? Tell me about it very slowly, like, so I can experience it. Imagine you made pancakes, and then you put fruity pebbles in them. Oh, perfect. Yep, that is... It's everything that you could imagine. It's that straightforward, I'm sorry, there's no better way to explain it.
Starting point is 00:40:11 I did eat the fruity pebbles shake. Yeah. And it was like a glorified cereal milk. A manner to do that in cake form. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you got the pancakes. Okay. I can feel good about that.
Starting point is 00:40:21 I went with a traditional breakfast because this concoction that Ashley's got over here is really yeah those are the mind-boggling you know the drink I'm talking about oh oh I thought it was I thought it was just a coffee me too you want to love coffee bro look at the garnish you can get in that downtown you ever see those bloody mary's where they garnish it with like a whole fucking stick of pepperoni yep and like like like a quarter house steak. How is it? It's very blueberry.
Starting point is 00:41:01 It's quite hot. What is it exactly? Blueberry pancake latte. Blueberry pancake latte. Sounds like a K-pop demon hunter. They let all the syrup. Pull your straw, go little and try, like in the middle of the drink. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:23 No, try it now. Oh. Because it may, it's just kind of... Mandy, you seem to be a diner officiantana. She's a professional coffee official. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, and honeymaster.
Starting point is 00:41:34 She knows her honey mustard. She can teach classes on how to drink coffee. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Is that better if you get more of the flavor? Yeah. It's really serious. Well, this is awesome. I mean, I...
Starting point is 00:41:46 I'm not going to express the mission after an undisclosed location. I'm not for sure. Mm-hmm. I'm not going to eat for the rest of the week. This is awesome. All right. Hell yeah No
Starting point is 00:42:05 Thank you pancakes bro So that's not syrup That is syrup No it is sir I thought you said can I get you syrup No Oh yeah I thought you were trying to pass it as well No no no no I like the syrup
Starting point is 00:42:20 I'm the sauce The problem with syrup Food confusion It spreads around the plate That's why you're supposed to put it on something absorb it Yeah Or just cover it your whole plate and syrup, which I strongly recommend as well.
Starting point is 00:42:34 It works too. I'm good. Danny's like, I know where to draw the line. Yeah, leave me alone. Diabetes. Diabetes. I don't know, we did try the. Actually, my doctor just paged me after I took that bite.
Starting point is 00:42:52 I bet. Yeah. He's like, hey, what are you getting into? There's a new prescription waiting for me. I also am a big dip your toast in the runny egg guy. All right. Gotta have it. That's fair. Gotta have it. Okay.
Starting point is 00:43:07 And then I've scrambled that. This is kind of controversial of sorts. I'm a ketchup on eggs guy. That's weird to me. There are some people that are like really against it. I almost died once. I might be one of them. You put ketchup on your legs? I want to put ketchup on you. I'm pretty sure Danny quietly did that a few minutes ago here. I did just...
Starting point is 00:43:30 Put it on my chicken. I put it on my eggs. Yeah. It's a great con. It's weird. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not. Ashley? No.
Starting point is 00:43:43 I don't like you, but that's a Jersey way. Is that the Jersey thing? Yeah, like a Jersey bagel. Good news Jersey. SPK, right? Is that I am. All right, so there's a school of thought that believes ketchup is a child's condiment.
Starting point is 00:43:58 Yeah. And after adulthood, you're a child for using. I don't subscribe to that. Wrong. But I think there is. some level of like real food shouldn't be touched by your easily ketchup. You don't put it on a steak. Thank you.
Starting point is 00:44:13 Thank you. So that's, I'm with Danny. That's what I was going to say, which is the childish for using ketchup. I don't really judge it for the eggs though. I'll put that up. I only say it's childish cheese ketchup if you use it on steak. Otherwise, have it. Patrick Mahomes.
Starting point is 00:44:29 Patrick Mahomes here. The basketball player? No, wrong. Football. But that was pretty good. He famously... I knew that actually. He talks about how he puts ketchup on steak.
Starting point is 00:44:40 He should do it with wild hair. As an adult, yeah. Which makes him just more hateable. So... And he owns a steakhouse, so... It's pretty easy to hate it. So... We're just about done here.
Starting point is 00:44:52 None of us was brave enough to do the challenge. No way. I would need a day to recruit. Let me just... Out of all of us... Okay. We can wait till Amanda gets back here. But out of all of us, I want to know.
Starting point is 00:45:09 Amanda, I want your input on this. Out of all of us, if we had one of us had done the challenge, which one of us would have gotten farther with it? I'll tell you what. Before you answer, if I smoked the right cannabis, man. I could eat a lot. Thank you so much. Blue Widow is a strain where I could probably eat everything in the house
Starting point is 00:45:36 in the house and then eat the house afterwards. Wow. Yeah, it gets me hungry. See, my money would be on you actually. It's always the skinny guy who's winning all the food competitions somehow. I don't know how that works. See, I was gonna say you because you understand the fat life. You understand the fat life. Bro, I can eat for days non-stop, but I don't know that I could do that volume
Starting point is 00:46:04 in the allotted amount of time. amount of time. And the pressure on top. Are you not competitive though? Nah. Business competitive. I mean the only time I'm competitive is that you know can I get thrown out of the all you can eat buffet. But that's and so far you get just been no. How long? I didn't see the 30 minutes 30 minutes. That's short five pounds of food. I think that you if it was if you were enticed enough though because you have said I'm eating really well and then I brought in cookies in your mind like god damn and I'm just gonna have to try it so I think that you'll yeah but I'll eat like half a cookie or something that's not five pounds of breakfast you do have good discipline for someone who quote I don't understand the fat way but still that's not five pounds of food no I still keep a daily limit so even when I indulge it just means I eat less healthy food at the end of the day. Remember when Adam Richmond did that man versus food?
Starting point is 00:47:05 I always wondered, like, if they had a doctor that he had to go regularly see. Dude, there's competitive food. That's all they do. Joey Chestnut. He's not a big dude. Even when he's competitive meeting, like his veins are popping on his neck and his eyes.
Starting point is 00:47:20 I just don't want to be that guy's plumber, you know what I mean? Like, that's. Can we have Able do it? The Able might be a strong candidate. I think you might be right. You might have to bring him back here. Anthony might be a sneaky. Yes.
Starting point is 00:47:36 Yes. You know? I don't know. I don't know. Anthony snaps constantly. To be continued. Again, I'm saying there's... Abel might be the answer.
Starting point is 00:47:46 There's lots of us solid eaters, but it's different with a massive amount in the short amount of time, you know? Yeah. And then like you never see what the days like after. But then again, so here's the list. It's five pounds of food, right? But when we were reading the list,
Starting point is 00:48:00 list, it's torn made it feel a little more manageable. You know, it's like four sausage links. Like, okay, I can put those down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was actually only worked up to five scrambled eggs. Which is not that much. Right. But he said it, people read it.
Starting point is 00:48:17 And they see the picture, they go, ah, you know, I got, right. So you're going down that path. I don't know. Like, this isn't. It's the order that you got to eat it. Oh, they have a set order? That's, you've seen some of these food guys. Well, they, they,
Starting point is 00:48:30 You're going to layer it the right way. We'll eat the bread first. Yeah, yeah, because that's the most filling. Usually, my first thought would be, I'd leave that last, like the pancakes and the French toast and stuff. You'd go last with the carbs? That's what I would think. Because I feel like that would be... I wonder if they do it to stack it on, you know, like...
Starting point is 00:48:45 And then the rest goes on to the down. I mean... I wouldn't know. I would just think it's harder to eat thick bread when you're already full. I feel like when you're hungry, get that down. That's what I'm saying. That's the hardest spot that getting to get that down. stuff shit on top of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:02 I don't know. Anyway, this is getting out of control. This is... I'm gonna end this episode. All right. We've got to go home. Do some work. It's fine.
Starting point is 00:49:08 Yeah. Yeah. Roll us home. I'm Matt. It's Mike. That's Amanda. That's Danny. That's Ashley.
Starting point is 00:49:15 You can't see any of them. But they're here, I promise. They're here in spirit, and they helped us test this incredible food and... Second Chance Diner, man. It's the place to be. It is. And we are brought to you by ads on the go.
Starting point is 00:49:26 Get ads on the go. com. That's it. That's it. Peace out. Roll me home. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village, almost like a painting. Join me, travel expert Darley Newman and Univorl Boutique River Cruises L'Ik Bally to learn about river cruising in France. As we have been sailing there for decades, we have been able to create deep connection with the local communities. Local connections make exploring France easy.
Starting point is 00:50:01 Tune into the Travels with Darley podcast on IHeart and wherever you listen to podcasts to hear about river cruising. Unarold's 50th anniversary summer specials. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy.
Starting point is 00:50:23 Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for, free today at rs.com.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.