Men At Work Podcast - Michael Solomonov on Cooking for Adam Sandler, How Zahav Almost Closed, & Michelin Stars | MAW 66

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

Chef and restaurateur Michael Solomonov talked to us about cooking his chicken recipe for Adam Sandler, how Zahav almost closed, his amazing comeback story, the food scene around the country, dealing with criticism, and his thoughts on the Michelin Guide coming to Philadelphia. About Us: The Men At Work Podcast asks one question: What do you do for a living? After that the conversation flows from there. We've talked to substitute teachers, Bangladeshi t-shirt moguls, a real estate broker tight with LeBron James, and the Governor of Literal Pennsylvania. And we'll record anywhere. Random sidewalks during an eclipse, a furry convention, and more! Whether we like it or not, our jobs are most of our lives - might as well yap about it. If you want us to come to your event email us at: [e-mail] If you want more bonus content check out Office Hours a weekly workplace advice show on Patreon that subscribers submit their questions to and we answer them: https://www.patreon.com/menatworkpod*If you subscribe to the Patreon consider subscribing on a desktop or website or an android device, NOT THROUGH iOS (Apple) APP. Apple takes 30% of every month you're subscribed (yea they suck). Follow Us: The Pod: https://www.tiktok.com/@menatpodcast https://www.instagram.com/menatpod/ Follow Matt: https://www.tiktok.com/@mattpeoplescomedy https://www.instagram.com/mattpeoplescomedy/Follow Kyle:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kylepagancb/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kylepagancb Follow Vito: https://www.instagram.com/vito_visuals/?hl=en

Anyone you ever cook for that was like, holy shit, I made it? Adam Sandler was a good one. Okay, so the thing about Adam Sandler, when he came in to eat, he kept adding people to his reservation. So there were all these, like, musicians and whatever sitting outside. It was, like, very, very cool. And we sent out all this food, and we do chicken, like, shishleek, like chicken thigh, marinated, cooked on a stick over charcoal. And he, like, asked for another one.

So I was like, well, this is pretty cool. He's asking for, like, seconds, right? Yeah. So I got out there and I put it down. And he, in his, like, straight up fucking happy Gilmore, a Billy Madison voice goes, oh, yeah! And I was like, oh, my God. Yes!

Welcome back to another episode of Men at Work. I'm Kyle Pagan, as always joined by Matt Peoples. And we have a special guest today, Michael Solvinaw. But before we get into that, if you enjoy the show, hit subscribe. Leave a comment on the YouTube and the IELB. iTunes or Spotify because it helps a ton and lets us get more incredible guests like Mike. And also we have our Patreon, please, for the love of all things sacred, get on the Patreon. We truly are making like pretty cool stuff on there.

We're trying to make, we're doing office hours. We're doing that every Wednesday at 8 or 7 p.m. You can join in, write in questions during the week, talk stuff about that's going on your job, about things with your life, whatever, just write stuff into us. We'll talk about it. Join the chat. It's a ton of fun. And then we're also filming a new segment called Grunt Work, one of the first episode.

was just recorded most recently, so keep an eye out for that. Cool stuff like that. Please jump on the Patreon. We love you guys more than our families. Now, let's get into the episode with five times James Beard Award winner. Owner of Zahav, Goldie, Federal Donuts, all Philly restaurants in New York restaurants. Laser Wolf, I freaking love that place. Restaurants that you love, the Houdini of Hummus, they call him, Michael Saldonov.

What do they say? Like, it's good luck when a bird shits on you or whatever, which is, I mean, doesn't that, isn't that just bad luck immediately? Like it's bad luck, so it's good luck. And I'm like, when I spill coffee on my fresh white shirt, three minutes after I leave my house, it's going to be a good day. Really? Yeah. And you know what?

On those days, on those days, I've never been shit on Byrd. So, you know. I need to get shit on more often. My days are going brutal, dude. I spilled coffee, just nothing good comfort. You should get into the restaurant business. Then you'll get shit on all the time. Yeah.

Yeah, for 15 minutes. So did I read that you went from Israel to Pittsburgh back to Israel and you were mad about going back to Israel? I was. Yep. Yep. Born in Israel, grew up in Pittsburgh, moved back to Israel, moved back to Pittsburgh, went to college in Vermont, dropped out of Vermont, back to Israel, got a job in a bakery, and then moved to Florida to go to culinary school. You might be the first guy to be sad and actually go back to Pittsburgh after leaving. That might be the first guy. Dude, Pittsburgh is, I mean, listen, I am, I'm like Philly. Yeah. Pittsburgh is an amazing.

amazing place. So Steelers or birds? I mean, birds. Yeah, come on. Okay, so the funny thing is we grew up, so my great-grandfather had like a pretty famous jewelry store in Pittsburgh. So he was buddies with like

Willie Sturgel, like Roberto Clemente, all that, okay? So when Three River Stadium was built, my great-grandfather had like first dibs on tickets. So we grew up, you know, not fancy, But we always had these, like, four season, you know, season tickets that were first row, first base for pirates.

And then 50-yard line, second level for Steelers, right? So called Heinzfeld? Not Heinzfeld. It was three-over, three-river stadium. So my bar mitzvah was actually three-rovers stadium, believe it or not. Really? Believe it or not. And so I, but I grew up into baseball or whatever.

My dad, who's Israeli, loves. Holy came out there. Did you hear that? What was that? My dad. My dad. My dad, my dad, my dad, my dad, came out of a little bit of it. No, my dad.

Yeah, that's a little bit. Come on, Cus. I'll do the Delco to operate against the Pittsburgh. You know what's funny is like, I say Cuzz all the time. Do you really? I mean, I do just, because, you know, I don't know. I just, I. Cuzz is like a higher level cool word that I am not cool enough to say.

Cuzz is like a nice, like, conversational. I could ever break it out. Cuzz is great. Yins is like a hard thing to bring back. Dad is like funny. I never got into the Joan. I never got to John. Yeah, I can't do Joan.

either. Why? It's because we're dorks. We can't do cool slang. We just talk very vanilla. That's all we got. We can't, like, incorporate cool stuff. So in the kitchen, you can use John all the time because there's like objects and actions that are happening on the time. So John, you can apply to actually use a guy named John though. We have guys named John and they're really confused. Yeah. I don't know why people keep talking about. Go grab John. He's like, stop picking me up. We were just in the back of the kitchen. That place is insane already. You guys are coming in. You're on the schedule. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

You saw him sweeping up a little bit, and he was like, this guy's got promise. I'll try it in there. So, Philly or Stellars. So Eagles, I got into football not because we had season tickets. I was not interested at all. My dad loved it. And I just ended up like, I ended up getting obsessed with, like, the show Friday Night Lights. And then, but also living in Philly.

So my interest and love for sports comes with a love. for the Eagles, right? And then it goes outward, right? So that's kind of, like, how it started. But now it's like we're all, my daughter is two and a half, doesn't watch TV except for Eagles games. Is that right? On, like, we'll be on like an airplane and she'll be like,

E, hey, she like, like, it just comes right out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, we're hoping by like her third birthday, we teach her how to punch a police horse. Oh, you're like, oh, you're starting her late then at that point. Yeah, I hear it. Gotta get a room at some point. Yeah, here you did.

Bad damn baby's doing another eagle's channel rather than fucking cry. Yeah. First words, Kelsey. Yeah. So you went to Taylor Order Dice. I did. I sure did. And you're not even close to the most famous person to ever come out of there.

You know who's out of there? Wiz Khalifa. And Mac Miller. Yeah. So my friend, Benji, Greenberg, started Rostrom Records and discovered them. Shit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I know. Everyone's like, oh, my God, Ms. Caliphon. I was like, he was younger than me. But Taylor Gang was like. Taylor Gang died, bitch. Yeah. Blue Slide Park.

Yeah. That is, like, Frick Park, that is literally up the street from that. I mean, we all grew up there. My kids have been on that before. That's, no way. Oh, yeah. Not to be rude, but that was like the most interesting thing I read from your Wikipedia page.

Oh, my God. It was all the time. I know you've won five James Beard Awards. I know you've got no restaurants in the eyes. You're like, but you shared space in a different time with Kleefe and Mac Miller. You guys have the same chemistry room. Yeah, I don't, I mean, we probably skip the same amount of class. But, yeah, I mean, listen, Pittsburgh is amazing.

It's amazing. It's got great. It's like such a great place to grow up. Growing up there, I hated it. But now it's like a wonderful place. Now I get that, yeah. Philly. I moved to Philly because it was like on the way to New York and I stayed here and like, me, Philly's the best. Was there any any consideration about opening restaurants in Pittsburgh or there was something about the Philly scene that kind of like stuck out? I was living in Philly for so long and I didn't know like it just made sense here. My business partner, Steve, like he was here as well. well and it just made sense. The idea of like going to a new location and opening restaurants are so hard, you need to have as much knowledge as of the market, you need the resources, you know, picking up and moving somewhere different and saying, let's just figure these neighborhoods out immediately and open a place. Let's understand the customer. Like it's, there's too many factors. Is that why you like kind of open in place in New York too? Because the neighborhood vibe? So New York was an opportunity that. we have with a different partner who we love and trust and it's in a hotel in Williamsburg so

there is a little bit of control sweet and we love our partners same thing with Miami we opened there after many many years at the one hotel and it's amazing and we have people that are in that are ingrained in the market that know how to do it yeah so it's not just me like showing up on an air you know like for two days a month pointing a bunch of fingers there's like an entire team that like really kills it yeah the I feel like it gives you an opportunity to, like, kind of check in on things. It's not you've got to go down to Miami, you're got to go out to L.A. You've got to go somewhere else on a plane and everything.

It's like, if I want to go up to New York and go up to New York, if I want to see one of my spots around Philadelphia, I can see one of my spots around. Well, I mean, Philly, that's basically what we do, is just walk around and eat and eat people. It's, I know, so rough. And New York is an hour and 20-minute train ride, no way. I mean, it's like not that big of a deal. Miami's a little bit more complicated, but it's still, you don't need a passport.

There's no time change. It's two hours away. It's not that big of a deal either. And when it's like seven degrees here in February, it's really nice. It's coming up. You know? I need that. I need a nice, like, cool down a little bit.

Kyle knows this, but I sleep in my car every day at work at lunchtime. And the cooler weather has been serving me well. You're rolling down the window. He's not homeless. No, I'm not homeless. I have a home. That makes it kind of worse, to be totally honest with you. But yeah.

What kind of car do you have? I have a 2009 CRV Honda. Oh, that's perfect for sleep. Yeah. No air conditioning. No AC? How many hours can you sleep in your car on an arrest? Legally, I'm allowed one per day, so I wish I could sleep longer. Court order. Yeah, I got to get back my... Wait, so are you one of those people that just falls asleep, like, all the time, or no?

No, no, I just get... I'm a sleepy little guy, so I get tired in the middle of the day, and then while I'm at work, I work in an office, I go hit a car nap. So that's what I'm saying, the colder weather. I think there should be naps all the time. Really? I think this idea... Yeah, dude, I don't even... I mean, in the middle of the day, after, like, hours of work, don't you feel like laying down for 30 minutes?

I don't get that too, 30 feel. Really? I just... I just... I just... I think I live off of fear, anxiety, and coffee. I drink so much coffee, and I hear you, you're like, can I have a coffee? Can I have a coffee?

Wherever you go. I skip breakfast today. Exactly. How many cups of coffee do you drink a day? Two and a half. Two and a half? Two and a half? I would say like two and a half of these big guys?

I don't understand the half. Would you order a half fucking coffee? Like a small coffee? Two large is in this wall. The other half gets spilled on my shirt. That's why it doesn't have it. I like that. I thought you're like, you take one and, like, pour half of it out.

That's how I explained to my fiance. It's like it's not three coffees. It's two and a half. Yeah, you're pouring for the homies. Every time I have coffee a little. I drink probably five more. Yeah. French vanilla guys.

Yeah, super tough. I drink like probably five cups of coffee. Five cups of coffee. See, that's just freaking industry life, man. You guys are nuts. I guess so. I mean, it's delicious. All of you guys.

You just live off of just coffee. It's like you guys have the most beautiful, extravagant food around you guys. And all the most successful people are like, I'll just take these burnt beans, baby. Yeah, true, honestly. Are you a hot coffee or a cold coffee guy? I'm an everything coffee guy.

Is that right? I'm not like a coffee snob. I like really nice coffee. I like Wawa coffee a lot. You know, ice coffee in the wintertime? Ice coffee I will do in the wintertime if I'm going to work, bro. And I'll usually get like an ice latte or whatever in the winter too. People think you're crazy if you drink ice coffee in the wintertime.

I don't understand that, but you drink iced everything. You drink cold water in the winter. You won't go into a restaurant and be like, you know what, heat up that tap water for me. That's a great argument. I never thought of that. I'm keeping that one. It goes down. It's a different beverage.

It's a different. You can get it to go. I'm in my temperature controlled house. yeah like if I was out like on the docks yeah you're wearing pants yeah if I was on the dock yeah yeah yeah yeah good thing you're off the do yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right the dox is that's what you do

when you go sleep in your car that's me when I sleep in somebody else's car to be honest with you if you didn't lock it that's my bedroom for the night yeah so we were talking a little bit about you know Philly and how you ingrained yourself in it what do you think of the scene right now I feel it's interesting time for restaurants and everything

I guess the way that you're asking that is kind of provocative what do you think of the scene I think of the scene is a very interesting time And not only because of like the chefs and restaurateurs and everything. And Philly's got, I would say Philly's got a strong chef. Like, I mean, growing up in like my 20s was great. I mean, Garses Star, you, Shulson, like all those guys about Vetri and all those guys.

And then like now with the introduction of like TikTok and everything and you have a million food influencers. Yes. Now I'm kind of pissed off at the scene, if we're being honest. Well, is it because it's hard for you to get into these places or because you're just like, I've known about this for a long time. and there are these like kids that are no because it's not every restaurant can be good yes i think it's i think it dilutes the product when everybody goes around and be like come with me as i went to the best restaurant in fish tan oh right right right right you know i'm not on ticot i'm only on instagram and i'm minimal on instagram and i feel like so from my perspective i don't actually

eat out a lot because like usually on my nights off i want to just like cook dinner for my family or like eat a pizza or watch you know what i mean like cereal you know um i do like to go out to a restaurants, but I don't, I'm not informed by like social media, right? Which is nice. I will also say, okay, so there's the new restaurants opening. We have a lot of restaurants opening, right, in Philly. But I will say that like Philly, unlike our other bigger cities around us, we have to try really hard. We don't have the same concentration of wealth as like D.C. and New York, right? What we also have, which is amazing, is that the cost of living here compared to other big cities in this in the country is pretty awesome. So you have people.

People that can open restaurants, they can live in the city, they can own a house, own a business with not like a ton of capital. So you have people doing really cool stuff, which is also why all of our like immigrant food is incredible. Our Chinatown, Philly Chinatown is unbelievable. It is so good, but the Italian market is now Vietnamese, Cambodian, Brebelin, sick stuff. Great Mexican. Amazing Mexican. Amazing Mexican. Amazing Vietnamese, like really, really good food. you can find that amazing Korean food now in Elkins Park or Cheltenham

unbelievable unbelievable and you can do it without having to raise like three million bucks and like oftentimes our employees share the same zip code as our customers right which means that like it's actual community right our employees don't

have to live three hours away because they can't afford rent like granted it's still prices are still rising and there's no question but it's like such a it's such a it's not more gentle because it's still competitive, but it's like such a, it's such a normal place to live. You know, you can do things here. You can try things. We have like amazing pop-ups. We have amazing bakeries. We have people that don't need to raise 10 million bucks to open a concept

because it's just a little bit easier to do business here. Yeah. Interesting. So that's what I like Philly. Like again, I'm not, you know, social media isn't like what gets me to go out to restaurants or whatever. And like I said, I'm kind of a hermit. She talked to my fiance. Where does she you go. We go around here, but I mean, man. You can't keep up, dude. Can't keep up. There's too much.

There's something new popping up every... Do you cook at all? No, no. No, you do. Now you may come us. True. Yeah, you put that right. That's on, that's on wax, dude.

Does your partner, does your fiancé cook or no? Yeah. Great cook. Really? Guts it off of TikTok recipes. Love TikTok. I am pro TikTok. I'm just kind of like, I think it's just an interesting time in the, as a content

creator myself, I think it's just an interesting time to be in kind of the restaurant scene as a whole going in towards the future and stuff. It's going to be funny how they kind of weed everybody out because everyone now, and nothing really has changed, but TikTok's so crazy now with the algorithm that's like everybody can pick up the phone and thinks they're like a creator or an influencer and stuff. So sometimes they're sending people to places that aren't as good as they might say on them. Yeah. And God forbid you go to a place where it's like it's not great. So now that ruins the, now you might have another experience and you're getting on TikTok now and you're like I don't like that. Yeah.

Isn't that the deal with food though? Like isn't some people like things, some people don't? It's the most subjective. As I was going to say, yeah. It's like rap music. Yeah, but it just feels like it's so visibly disingenuous now where like somebody will be making the TikTok and they're at a restaurant and they're like, here, the chef, shits in a roll and serves it to you.

It's the best shit in a roll I've ever had. Like, a lot of times it feels. I guess I have to take the shit off the menu. I thought it was great, thank you. Shit on a shingle does roll. Dip it in the hummus. It's incredible. It's good stuff.

It's probably gluten-free too. But it does feel disingen. I mean, I think about the days, I mean, I'm not as familiar. I'm sure you know it more often. but like those like newspaper editorials where they would write like a very vivid review about a restaurant and they would it seemed cutthroat.

It seemed like they'd really kind of tell it how it was. I love that. The best food critic hands down is LeBahn. Yes. And to this day he still is only on print. Well, he, I mean, he's got an Instagram account but you're absolutely right. He's a writer, he's a journalist that has been doing this

for a very long time. He went to France. He's like lived the thing. He's been doing this for decades, decades. decades, and we're really lucky to have that in Philly. No question. I think you're what you said about how food is subjective. That's another thing.

Like, I hate music credits. I hate movie critics. I hate food critics because it is. Everyone has different. It's really DNA. Everybody has different taste blood. So I don't know how you can be like this food was the greatest thing I've ever had because I might not like that.

Well, what's your favorite thing to eat right now in Philly? Wow. I really like pasta. I think we have a great Italian scene. What's your favorite pasta? MERS. MERS. Yeah, I love MERS.

They have this one dish right now. It's such an original common name, but it's the greatest pasta and the greatest salt I've ever had in my life. Well, what is it? I forget. You love it so much, did you? I just fail. It's so bad. I will say it, but I will find it and say it by the end of this because I love Mers.

Good. I like to go to Fiorella. I think that's like my favorite pasta in the city of the Rigotone. It's like so sick. And if you spent time in the Italian market, to see that building maintain its kind of integrity and story is like incredible

but we have sick pasta here now we have amazing pizza do you guys remember when the only place was like the Port Richmond place what's it called? I don't really mention to Port Richmond no no it was the only like

sick pizza in Philly Taconnelles Tuccinelli's never been it's bad really? Yeah dude I know it's terrible you're not gonna like What the fuck man I think pizza is also subjective

I think you get a good piece of pizza down the street Okay, you're absolutely right And you're absolutely right And listen, like, you grow up And you, there's nostalgia for stuff that you eat True. Tackanelli's at one point Was the place to get like very good pizza in Philly

We have great pizza everywhere Like great pizza Cheese Stakes dough Unbelievable cheese sauce That's because I hate people when they have their My favorite cheesecake You can't go to Pat Zerginia's a tour show Who gives shit?

Where do you want to go? I love, listen, I've been eating at Pats forever. I will continue eating at Pats forever. I think Frank makes a sick steak. He's a wonderful person. That is the OG cheese steak. It's a different experience than like Angelo's. It's a different experience than D'Alessandro's.

It's a different experience of Del Rasi. Have you guys been to D'Rossi yet? Yeah. Del Rossi changed their bread. Yeah. Unbelievable. So people are, and there's like a million other that I'm forgetting. There's great cheese steaks now, you know?

Because you're forgetting them because there are so many. We could spend the entire hour on a podcast. Yeah. Have you guys gotten a large hot dog at Pat's, though? You haven't got a large glossy over there, dude. What the hell? What are the glozy gobler over there? Three deep fried, large hot dog.

Better be kosher. It is not kosher. It is a Hebrew national hot. It's three Hebrew national hot dogs. Is that right? Deep fried, hoagie roll, cheese whiz, onions. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

Once a year, I have that. I'm about to. It's so good. The whiz is good, dude. The whiz is good. It's so good. I'm out on gelatinous whiz. You need like an IV.

You need. You need medical hydration after it. It's so good. Give me the Cooper Sharp all day. I hear you. Cooper, I mean, it's a different thing. Yeah. So, when you were a young buck coming up here, be honest.

We're just talking about food critics. Did the criticism get to you, Annie? I mean, the criticism still gets it. Oh, is that right? Yeah, of course. Yeah. I mean, you know, you develop fixed skin. But the reality is, as you were saying, we're, this is like so subjective.

Like, it's a hob alone. We have to exceed expectations. expectations for like 260 strangers with food every single night. Yeah. And so we sometimes don't get it right, you know? And yeah, I mean, of course, you know, you hear, especially now there's a common section to everything. And it's hard to read that stuff. I don't know.

You guys are probably. We're not prominent in the YouTube space, but we do a couple of things on like content and TikTok and stuff. And, you know, it gets a little rough. It gets rough. Yeah, it gets brutal. But that's just kind of the name of. of the game. Yeah, but we're really are not built for that. Like, we were going back to talking about cheese steaks.

The thing that kind of hinders me from doing a lot of the cheese stakes in the city is the customer service is so, like, cutthroat that I'm not built. Like, you get up there and they're like, what do you want and be quick or I'll kill your family? And I'm like, I'm not built for that, dude. I'll, I need somebody to be. You don't want to just talk about the comment section of that? Oh, that's basically the comments section. That's not cutthroat.

Yeah. I like to go on their profile and just make fun of them to myself, and that's how I kind of get solace. I think that that is a really good thing. to do. I think that like unfortunately if you're public this is just how it goes right and I think about one of

I just told you guys I thought that the interview you guys did with Governor Shapiro was just like unbelievable and I'm like sometimes I'm like man poor me people are so mad about whatever they comment they call me names they fucking whenever I suck you know and then I'm like could you imagine being

in public service right now how difficult that would be 50% people hate you at all times all the time And you're doing this not because of, like, prestige or money or whatever. You're doing this, you know, if you're doing it the right way, you're doing it because you care about the Commonwealth because you care about the country or the, you're, you know, city council. Like, wherever it is that you live. Like, you care about it to some of our congressmen.

Yeah. We're going to send this clip out to this. Well, okay. So the idea is, though, that you get in public service because you want to do better for your community, for the people around you, whether that is. On a municipal level, whether that is a local, national, state level, and then you also just get shit on it all the time. Yeah, I mean. I'd be lying to you if I didn't follow some of other stock trades.

Look at this. Hey, guy. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Some of the best guys are. Jeff Andrew Henshaw. Andrew is the best. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much. Oh, let's go. Thank you, Sam. I'll tell you something, ma'am. yeah those horissa wings at laser wolf yeah i didn't know what you could cook wings man insane yeah yeah i was scared i was scared to order well they brought them out and you were and your and your and your generalization changed yeah jews can't cook wings yeah all right good then my work on this planet was done i knew you guys on set on some people govern the commonwealth

pennsylvania we cook wings you know and that's it yeah i mean i feel like uh i mean And schmalti chicken is certainly, like, very Jewish. Shapiro could run on that, I think. If he just, like, his whole campaign was just like, Jews can cook wings. They'd be like, all right, sweet. I agree. I agree. Goes for president. It's like, yes, sir, please.

Bring the hot sauce. So now that you think the Jews can cook wings, you know that we can make French fries. Your French fries rule. And it might be because the ketchup is so good, but they do rule. They're like an in-betweener. They're kind of like a little bit of a steak fry. Oh, yeah. But not really.

So we brine the potato. We steam them, and then we fry them. And they're, like, super crispy because of that. to get in there and not super greasy you know this looks burgers uh crab dip which is sick i don't know if you had that we just put that on the menu no i've came in for the oasis about a couple weeks ago i had the burger when you first opened up it was amazing yeah we'll try the crab dip good give you a shot you guys normally eat on your podcast uh we have for the lord often recently yeah it's getting you're coming the fat ass podcast to be honest we're just trying to get good

interviews with good chefs so we could just eat their food you eat their food you take a nap in the car you know spill some coffee feel free you know we already got we already got the card why did you guys into podcasting? We failed at a lot of other podcasts and then we finally met each other and we're like, hey, let's do a podcast together. The reason why we do this one is because, I don't know, everyone yaps about their job in the first like five minutes that they meet somebody. Usually it's like, what's your name?

Yeah. Where you're from? Where do you live? What do you do for a living? So that's what our kind of tagline is. What do you do for a living? And then people have interesting lives, you know, outside of like celebrity, outside of like prominent people.

Yeah. you know we meet union guys that are a lot of fun oh yeah yes we noted too a lot of like these podcasts are interviewing like these very famous celebrities that you already know a lot about a lot of time it's more interesting to just talk to like the every man or like somebody notable who's maybe not out in the public eye all the time right also booking guests sucks ass that's really honestly we would get the celebrities to be totally honestly we'd sell out in a second but they won't hang out it's actually for for you this was a lot this was booked a lot quicker than we thought it would I mean you want to talk about the governor yeah

we did three months for that guy What's that guy got to do? Yeah, what's he'll do? I mean, he's, you know, just, you know, hanging out. Save the world, yeah. Saving the world, saving the state, you know, education, those things. Food, meals, 95. We even amazing people, we love what you guys do.

If you weren't doing this, I'm interviewing you guys now. If you weren't doing this, what would you be doing? Stay at home, husband, 100%. Yeah, I have no ambition. This is all against my will, dude. If this failed, you fuck. That's it. So that's all, that's what you do?

Yeah, I mean, I'm a comedian. And that's how we kind of met is I'm a comic and he does social media stuff. So I guess being a comic full time, but deep down, I really just want to stay at home. I'll have dinner ready for the way. That is hard. That is like thick skin shit. When do you, what's your, when's your next tour? Well, tour is an ambitious word of yours.

But yeah, you do shows all the time. You have a show coming up this weekend. It's really wherever they book it, you go and you do it and you bother people. And that kind of lends itself to the podcast itself where the big popular thing now is crowdwork. And a lot of times while you're doing crowd work, you're asking the person, what do you do for a living? And it resonates with people. And that's, again, it goes back to the ethos of it. Wait, so can you do a little thing?

Like, I became friends with a comedian, and I never, like, you know, I understood, but I ended up, he was asked to, like, open up for somebody. And he's a professional and, like, so funny. And he was like, hey, he was eating a Zav. And he was like, hey, I got to go to helium. And so after his entree, he was like, I'll come back for dessert. But, like, do you want to just come with me? so we go there I double park in front of helium

sure we walk in he sees his like pals that are all there that night they brohug and then he goes out there and just fucking kills it and like literally like the guy in the front

was like crying laughing yeah and then he's like all right everybody here's whatever and then he's like all right let's go back to Zav and then we drive back my car's there like flashes on

we drive back and he has dessert and I was like oh my god that's the coolest thing I've ever seen at my life Did you take credit? First kill? I did not take credit, and I did comp part of his meal. He'd a bellyful as a hobby, he wouldn't have to be killed. But it was very cool, and I was like, to be, to see the way that the sausage is made in comedy is unbelievable.

It's like TV production or whatever. I feel like all these things are related. You guys were in our kitchen right before we were getting started. You feel the drumbeat going. You see the curtain about to rise, and then you see a bunch of professionals that, like, know what they're doing. They're there for a reason. To see comedians do that and to get up in the middle And it could be five people in the audience

It could be 30 Some people could be drunk hecklers Which seems to get worse and worse It does. The later a show gets the drunker the people get The more they're like, this show is actually about me now I'm going to just interrupt because I've like never been outside in public before But then to see you guys react and like turn it into a show is unbelievable It is nice, yeah

I want to come and check out one of your shows sometimes That'd be sick Who's your comic buddy? Alex Edelman Alex Edelman I don't think I know Sounds familiar though Yeah he had a

His show ended up on Broadway for a while He's really awesome But just watching him It's like he was rehearsing For a late night show And just went out there With a little bit of like You know with like a little notepad

Yeah People were like had their hands Over their faces Just crying laughing so hard And it was like man That seems like fun That seems like fun And the coolest part

Is you probably pull him aside after And you're like that was great And he's like It's fine It was all right Let's go back. I want to, like, go eat the cake. Yeah, dude, I'm right there, but, you know.

So it was good, and I will say, too, like, especially in this world of, like, screens, social media, you know, is post-COVID. To be in a room full of people just belly laughing, it was so good, like, laughing out loud, like, like, like, spitting water through my notes. I do that, even at not good jokes. Yeah. Oh, you're going to love me then, dude. You're going to love me up there, man. I'm going to be your new favorite. Bro, when's your next show, though?

August 29th. Next in line in Philly, it's on... Chinatown. It's right next. What's the brewery next to it? Love City. Love City, bro. Yeah.

August 29th? When is that Friday? Friday, Liberty weekend. I get back from a work trip. Dude, I'm coming to that thing. You're going to, shemmy a text. I'm going to there. I'm going to heckle the shit out of shit.

I'm going to start a fight with you, okay? Go ahead. I'll be like, cook me another meal. Why don't you do that? Yeah, yeah. Your dessert's ready at the restaurant. Get off stage. Then I'll actually get off stage.

Yeah. You should have and go get a laddle. So what about you if you weren't doing this right now? Besides comedy, what would you do? I would hope I had a trust fund. Honestly, we have the same thought process. You guys are like in the weeds. Like if this doesn't work.

No, 100%. We sat down at Paddywax one time and I said, dude, this is my last podcast. If it doesn't fucking work, I'm quitting. It's done. Yeah. It's done. That's it. So it's like we just got to come.

Did you go to school or no? I went to Temple. Oh, what did you do that? Marketing major. Yeah. And so do you have a degree? Yeah. Yeah.

And then I work for an outlet called Crossing Broad. It's a sports website. Philadelphia and so I do a lot of like content and stuff man on the street stuff and everything that's cool yeah really enjoyed it's better than I mean I used to work Comcast bartended but I've done there I've done what was your favorite job that you've had so far besides the besides this um my favorite job ever uh bartending just talking to people yeah it's easy shot in a beer place shot in a sports on TV all right can you come and guest bartender one of our restaurants one night oh god I'm not going to learn the cocktails you're going to be great shot to beer I'll tell you

right now, chef, I'm not learning the cocktails. Okay, well, I don't know what this is. You're fucking fucking. You know, I'm sorry. I got to put out and go home. Dude, I didn't learn the cocktails at the place I worked for six years. Every time I would like sneak a peek, be like, oh, all right. Six years.

I mean, I feel like you should have. You taste that. This is a mocktail, but you should taste this, bro. That's a beautiful little drink there. What is that? Thunderbird. The Thunderbird. Yeah, it's dope.

There's a, uh, there's a hotel in Wildwood called the Thunderbird. Yeah. Yeah? It sounds like, uh, uh, it sounds pretty sketch yeah i got a i got a handy back there in 2014 to be honest with you i was going to say it seems like the kind of it seems like the kind of place you don't want to use the bathroom yeah the guy was really cool too yeah another heckler

different kind of heckle yeah why is it so small i see you got the margate represent dairy bar gargaret dairy bar yes sir honestly it upsets me that you haven't and i feel like this for your next podcast you should go to Margate New Jersey. Dude, Lucy the Elephant is right there. Margate Dairy Bar, the best burgers, I mean, next to the Jaffa Burger, obviously, amazing soft serve. It's an iconic place and the service is incredible. It is like a perfect magical place. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. You got to check it out. I went to Lucy as a kid, like Lucy the elephant. Great time. I hate to keep making it crude, but I got to share this tale too. This is great. You're running. We're talking about

kids, elephants, family fun, stuff. It all melds together, yeah. Okay. I was eight years old and we were out. I don't even know. This is going to be one of those things. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. I'm not going to respond. I don't condone anything at all. I don't get the story. No, go. Now we have to know. Dude, there's a kitchen talk. It's a dad joke. There's an HBO special about this incident. Go ahead. Yes. We were walking in to the elephant. It was me, my mom, my dad, my aunt, who is no longer with us. I don't know why I told you that. But, um, and as we're walking in my dad why you're laughing yeah something funny but Jesus Christ she's kind of bitch as we're walking yeah that's we're walking in my dad looked at uh my

uncle and said not the first time I've been in an elephant that's a good joke now I didn't understand then I kind of grew up and I was like didn't know dad had zingers like that yeah great joke great joke and now we're apple tree yeah yeah exactly now he used it on stage yeah keep it yeah wow as we were yeah sorry to keep the rail it but I love that That was all the time. One thing I do want to ask you, the Michelin Guide is in town for the first time. Yeah, ever, ever.

Yeah. How do you spot, have you, well, first off, like, you know, do you give a shit about it? And how do you spot somebody? Have you spotted somebody at Zahab? I imagine they come to Zahab. We can. I mean, they're anonymous, and we don't know.

And I feel like it is so much effort to try to, like, find out who they are. I think our ethos is to just try to do it with a good job all the time. We obviously give a shit. it, we obviously care. I would say that it is so good for Philly and it's so great that, you know, your toes curl a little bit in the morning. I mean, this is what restaurants are. Every single night, the curtain goes up and you have to, like, kill it, right? And you have to make it magical and you have to, like, create memories for people, right? And the fact that

we do it with scrutiny and we do it with a little bit of competitiveness, but the idea that Philly is now on the international stage, like officially, is a really big deal. Sure. And we have been. I mean, we have amazing restaurants. Vetri, you know, where I worked, Mark is, you know, amongst a few very, very important mentors in my life, like taught me how to cook, right? And he's one of my best friends.

And Vetri has always got an international acclaim. I mean, Philly has always had very important restaurants, but the fact now that it's, like, kind of official is huge. and I can't wait to see the list. Obviously, we want to be included, but in general, the idea that there's just a conversation makes us really happy. Again, I think it might be the opposite

of the sort of influencer TikTok vibe, but I think all these things are really good for the city. So I think it'll be really cool. I can't wait to see who makes it on. I'm hoping that I'll still be able to get into the restaurants. On the nights that I'm not eating cereal and watching TV, and I do want to go out to a restaurant. restaurant. I'm hoping that I'll still be able

to get in. Yeah. Yeah, it's exciting. What do you guys think about it? Mishlin Star? Yeah. I mean, what do we have? We have just Irish Catholic pig shit pallets. Yeah. We're kind of just like food good food bad, okay. Yeah. Like I wish I had like a pallet

and I wish I could talk about like wine. But your fiancé does. She does. What does she think of the Michelin then? Do you know what? Yeah, I don't care about what you think. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure. I mean, will I ever go to it? I mean, I've been to Zahav. Yeah, like, whether you guys have a Michelin star or not, I'll come back to Zahom. I mean, I don't want to twist your arm.

No, no, I know. I mean, honestly, if you want, you know. The shitty part is, it's like, I kind of wish, like, you wouldn't get a Michelin Star, because I would be worried about trying to get a reservation. You can't get a reservation now. You guys are nuts. Well, I got your GM's card now, so I can. You can, yeah, you can just come.

Yeah, it's why we just podcast. Yeah. Surprise! We're not even rolling. Yeah, exactly. What's your social security number? Yeah, we're going to be on the, we're going to be on the Goves ticket in 2028. That's right.

Yeah, 100%. I'm kind of curious, like, you're referencing, like, New York and Philly, obviously, like, big food cities. Is there places more inland that, like, people don't know about that actually have, like, sneakily good food scene? I feel like you don't hear a lot about, like, the Nashville. Obviously, Memphis has the barbecue, things like that. Well, Nashville is huge because so many people have moved there. Right. Okay, so here, the good thing about the sort of social media thing, and the fact that chefs at some point decide that they don't have to, like, only live in the biggest cities.

They can go back to where they grew up. I mean, Pittsburgh is a great example. There's great restaurants in Pittsburgh. There were not when I grew up there. There are great restaurants there because people have like maybe gone to New York, maybe gone to L.A. And they're like, you know what? I don't want to live here.

I want to go back to where I am. And maybe it's like a little bit harder because it's not that many customers, but I'm going to figure this out. So I think that that's what's happening. I think that like the James Beard Awards, I think that Michelin even to a certain extent, I think that people are realizing that you don't have to be in these big cities and that you can go basically anywhere. So Savannah, amazing. Charleston, amazing. Nashville. Sick. I mean, so many people have moved there. But people are moving to upstate Newark and opening their thing. They're moving all over the Midwest.

Which normally doesn't get huge representation. All the Great Lakes region now, amazing, amazing stuff. So you can really find good food, like, absolutely anywhere. And now there's guides and there's lists and there's probably like ways to scroll to figure out. like where to go, which I think is just saying you don't need a star dude you can go and get Liston James Beards awards I think listen to the restaurant listen again the idea and this is like regardless of where we end up with all this stuff the idea that we are part of something that puts Philly on the international stage more than it is is cool yeah in the summers especially this summer it's a half the reservations on the weekends are like

DC, New York or other cities, right? Which means that people come into our wonderful city. They stay in our hotels that are not super expensive. They go to our museums, go to shows. We have amazing live music, amazing art, amazing entertainment, and amazing restaurants that you can kind of get into most of the time.

And so to be part of that, which is, again, not to like get too heady with this stuff, but like we're helping out, like we're increasing dollars being spent in Philadelphia. And so that is an amazing thing.

For sure. And so that should theoretically funnel into infrastructure. It should help, you know, raise money for education, for public education,

those things that make the city so wonderful that we kind of like need. Yeah. We just want to be a part of. All right. We go to start. Yeah.

That's right. Take it back. Do you notice like... So go back to the elephant. So anyway. Of course. Your dad? Of course.

Good guy, dude. Does, like, does the cheese steak work? Wait, you know what? I'm sorry. Go ahead, please. I'm sorry, but I'm really bad at this. But when I was saying, what I should have done, when you were like, my dad said, I've been in an elephant.

And I said Apple, you know, whatever. Like, oh, he's a comedian too. What I should have said is, no, no, no, you've like obviously been inside an elephant. Of course. Now I've related much more to that thing. I love that. Doesn't matter if you're the rest of the rest of the rest of the rest. He's like, cut that shit.

Yeah. Danny's like going to throw me out. Wait, I did this other. We sucked a bit, though. I know. I know. That would have been so good. And I said that.

That's why I'm not in that's what I'm not in. That's why we drag our, we drag our, uh, we drag our, uh, our guests always come down. We drag that all over. And then the PR people in the back are like, God damn it. Yeah. I mean, it, you can imagine this happens oftentimes. Yeah, sure. This joke, I'll tell you offline about, you didn't get this fan.

restaurant in New York. I thought it was amazing. Everybody was laughing and then Danny was like, you are never to fucking sit together. I was like, yeah. Thank God, she's like so much smarter. Called the shots. Yeah, called yeah. I hear you. I don't believe you at all. Do you get back on the line? Do you get back and still like the thick of things?

I make bread and all that stuff, but yeah, I don't even know I was rehearsing in my head for you guys to ask me what I did. And I was like, oh fuck, you forgot to do that. That's the point of the whole fucking time. We'll get there. We'll get there.

It's only 45 minutes in, yeah. That's literally what the clip was for the governor that made it go viral. I know. God damn. We suck at this. I know. I mean, this is, yeah, I don't know what you guys are doing. But I was rehearsing without, also, Danny was like, you can't say fuck immediately.

And I was like, but the governor did. And that's why we're doing the show. That's right. And so I was like, I don't know what it is that I do. I just do like a lot of it. You know what I mean? Like I'm always busy doing things So I would say that like

I like to make bread That's a hobby during service But I do I'm like tasting food I'm like whatever So I'm probably on the line We're less Yeah

Than I was Yeah What do you do for a living I like to make bread Yeah And taste food on the line Sourdose Doors kids

Yeah I guess so I mean next to this guy That fucks elephants And seeps in his car My father That's my father That's my father people not even yeah okay I mean I read on that you so you got working in a kitchen because

you moved to Israel and you couldn't speak the language so you were just looking for something that was like kind of universal and I was like a three semester art major they dropped out of school so like my employment you know potential was like really low yeah and I just got a job working a bakery because they are the only people that hired me and I totally fell in love with it really like fell in love with it it was like really hard work I was surrounded by people that were, like, so many different kinds of people working at a bakery.

Everybody over there eats baked goods all day long. Sure. Damn. Nobody cares about carbohydrates or sugar and take it at all. Yeah, it's amazing. Honestly, the similarities. And I loved it. I loved it.

It was like hard work. I felt like such a, I felt productive. Yeah. You know? And that's what got me cooking. You got a job at a cafe up the street after that. And then I moved back to the States to go to culinary school and actually, like, complete something in my life,

which I did. Yeah, let's go. It seems like it turned out pretty good, dude. It seems like it's working pretty well. I'm really interesting. Like, I've always been interesting, like, people with, like, success and stuff, and it kind of goes back to, like, the conversations that we had. Did you know this was always going to happen, or did you kind of just fall ass backwards into it?

I did I know that, no. Like, I didn't know. No, absolutely not. James Beards. Like, you know, like, when you, what was your, like, original goal? I think I just wanted to be a chef at some point. No, I mean, no. I met my business partner, Steve.

He had hired me to be the chef at Marigold Kitchen, which is a restaurant that he owned. I was done with my three-year stint at Vetri, and he hired me, and then we got along really well, and we decided that we wanted to open an Israeli restaurant, and then we did, and, you know, I mean, it was a really rough, like, opening, obviously. We opened in 2008, which was a hard year. Right, right in the recession, yes. You should open a hedge fund then. I know, I know.

Well, so, like, the Phillies won the World Series, which was horrible. It's a hard time for a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. No, no, it wasn't that's a hard time for a restaurant owner that doesn't have a TV. Sure. Wow, that's a great point. The economy fell apart, and I, four months after opening this restaurant, that we had collateralized our houses, you know, all this. Steve drove me to, like, drug rehab. Yeah, I was hiding, like, an addiction.

Like, it was a fucking mess. Sure. I found out that we won Esquire's, like, top new restaurants in rehab from a payphone. Really? Yeah. In Chester County. Yep. Payphone.

Tattoes before or after the rehab? I got, you know, I had some tattoos before, but when I got clean, I, like, needed something to obsess about. So I got a ton of tattoos, like, my first couple years of work. You have been one of, like, the greatest restaurants in the country during addiction? Oh, yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. Well, so we opened the restaurant.

at the end of my like things were coming to an end right but i mean but opened yeah but like there was a process to like continue what you're going so like so we opened in may my business partner uh drove me to rehab after finding out that his business partner was hiding like a crack addiction from him and a heroin addiction from him drove it drove me to rehab and then i came out and the economy tanked and we almost closed and i was like Like, you know, early recovery, like, trying to get, like, from one block to the other without, like, calling my drug dealer. Right, right, right. Yeah.

Yeah. What was Steve you said? Steve was. This guy's got ironclad will. He's, uh, Steve Cook, man. He's, uh, Steve Cook. Steve Cook, yeah, exactly. Steve Cook, Steve was cooking.

So I remember coming out from a rehab and sitting in, uh, in my South Philly backyard, which is like four feet of concrete that smells like cat piss. And I was like, hey man, you, um, you, uh, I can leave the business. I'm so sorry I did this. And he was like, let's like take it easy. We're in this together. We're, you know, we solve problems together, like all this stuff, right? And then, you know, early recovery is, it is like, it is like inches, right? You're like, it's a game of inches, right?

Like I have to get up, you know, the time's like 24 hours just for today. I have to get up. I have to like put on my clothes. to get out of the house without scoring, without, like, obsessing, right? I have to, I, so I would, like, go to an A meeting at, like, 7.15 in the morning. After being awake all night going through kind of, like, post-withdraw, that's why I started watching Friday Night Lights, because it was on demand, and I had nothing to fucking two, from the hours of, like, 2 a.m. to 5 a.m., right?

So I just watched Friday Night Lights, and I'd started speaking with, like, a Texas accent. You're like, I'd go into the restaurant and be like, let me tell you something. You know, like, we were, like, we were. I was full heart, get to lose. And so I got really into football. And then I would, like, not really sleep because my body was, like, kind of in withdrawal. Sure.

I would go to an A meeting on, like, 19th in Walnut in the basement of the church. Because I would, you know, you have to do the opposite behavior of what you did in addiction. So I would usually go to bed when I was getting high at, like, 7 o'clock in the morning when the birds were chirping and the sun was coming up.

So I was like, I have to go to the earliest A meeting. So I would go there. Steve would pick me up. from the meeting drive me into work every single morning every single morning this is coming from

like the guy that found out that his business partner was hiding like I could have ruined everything yeah you said house is collateral all the savings right right right and my now ex-wife my wife at the time used to pick me up

every single night from work and drive me home because I couldn't get from point A to point B without like picking up or relapsing or whatever so yeah it was rough and then like the economy falls apart and I'm like trying to I had to call my dad in Israel to borrow money to make payroll

because we were going to like close the restaurant we were tanking and my dad like is a pretty stoic chill dude and we're sitting in the back of Zahav like in the courtyard smoking cigarettes and we're like oh my God what are we going to do and this wasn't for us to make money this was like to pay people

sure sure work there and so I call my dad and he knew that I was obviously in like very early recovery and um you know i've never like asked my parents for money or anything like that and call my dad and i was like listen abo like i need to borrow 10 000 i had like 55 or 60 days clean yeah i need to borrow like this money and he was like are you okay and you know that's a big deal for my family like that's a lot of money and and uh and he's like are you all right and then uh i was like yeah i'm fine and he's like are you sure and i knew what he was

asking obviously. And then I hang up the phone and Steve's phone rings and it's my dad calling him to be like, is Mike okay? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so, you know, and so my dad sends us this check and, and then the next day or next week or whatever, Philly Mag puts us at like number one restaurant. And then it was like restaurant week and because it was during the recession, it was like two weeks. Shit, okay. That makes sense. Yeah. And we, for the first, time actually made money yeah which is incredible because restaurant week like forces you into a format that our guests could understand sure and so we like you know like our break-even was like 40,000 bucks a week or something like that and

so first week of restaurant week we made $50,000 yeah I was like oh my god we're rich and then our hot water heater fucking went out of course it was 12,000 dollars to repair like it was like whatever but that check my dad's check that we never cashed It sat in Steve's desk for like a decade. Wow. We never cashed it. And then, you know, I, of course, with the help of, like every single person around me, all the resources, all the inpatient, outpatient, you know, extensive IOP for like a year, A meetings every single day, therapy. Sure.

And, you know, the grace of like every single person alive and not alive in my life, I made it, I got through early recovery. What an incredible story. Jeez, man, that's really beautiful. especially just your buddies and your ex-wife seeing, like, I imagine they saw the potential for what you're doing now inside of you and that helped them kind of push you along the way. I mean, I'm sure they loved you, of course, too. I mean, that's definitely part of it, of course, yes.

But they're like, this guy cooks a mean fucking hummus. You're like, you cannot let him die. No, no, that's not what I meant. I'm not good. That's a really beautiful story. I'm trying to find the nicest way to go along. That's really nice. I just love that your drug of choice is now hummus.

Yeah, true. My drink of choice is coffee. And that's probably my only one. but yeah listen it is a hard it's hard to ask for help it's hard to like deal with this stuff we have an industry that's really sort of addiction prone and to be

you know clean and sober and kind of open about it has been such a meaningful thing as well so to go back to the original question do you ever see this like no I should be dead you know this is all a huge gift and I think that our success

is largely due to this partnership that Steve and have which is like utmost trust and then also this unbelievable team which you guys have dealt you know you know you know a team like we have an incredible team and that's yeah chef and tosses you turn in and plugging in the vitiprep we would have been so fucked I would have had to close the rest of them actually not plugged in the blender you imagine putting that I would have caught on fire

put that note out on the front door sorry blender's not working today look I hate to see it I got to capitalize on an opportunity I'd make a TikTok right after like they can't even fucking turn the tip the blender on here dude Boom, yeah. Come with me to the best restaurant in the entire Philadelphia. They can't even turn on the goddamn blender. They're one blender away from a Michelin Star. Yeah, of course, of course.

Philly Mag would be down there so fast to get down to the nitty-gritty about the blender, too. That was awesome. Thank you for sharing that was. That was really cool. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I had a question. I noticed this would be my move because Marigold was your first restaurant at the open

that you guys had tenants that lived above you that would have to walk through the restaurant. So it was a boarding house upstairs. When Steve signed the lease, it was the understanding or the agreement was that the boarders still lived upstairs. Yeah. So like in the middle of dinner service, people would like walk their bikes in the dining room and get like takeout pizza from the host hand vestibule. I was going to say, I would just pretend that I had a reservation and be like, I'm actually here because I want to sit at the restaurant right now. Exactly. I mean, it was like kind of disorienting because you're like, you know, that was my first chef's job. And so you try to like tweak everything and make everything like really fancy and there'd be like a dude with like

a domino's box yeah and like a 10 like a 10 speed walking right through the dynamism and as I was trying to be like you know this is your blah blah blah whatever were there things that you saw like earlier on where I feel like I hear this in a lot of like arts and professions where you think like the more complicated it is the better it is and then as you do it longer you start to notice like it's really keep it simple 100% yeah 100% and the older I get the less that you have to do right yeah I'm sure you can apply this to comedy or whatever. I mean, there's people that just kill it without tricks. Yeah, yeah.

You just nail it. And I think that's what it is. It's confidence. But really, it's like understanding your audience, right? And that's what hospitality is we use food. We use, you know, wineless drinks, sometimes shitty bartenders. Yeah, we need them. To create an experience and to create a memory.

Right? And it's really just about strengthening this. relationship with your guest. It's the team and the guest and making it like tighter and doing whatever it takes to make people feel really, really good. Yeah. To make a memory. And I get like, I really do feel like it's similar to comedy, right? Yeah, it seems like it. In general, you use as much material as you can, but really it's just identifying what the, what the audience needs to Yeah, you're here to be a representation of what makes them feel best is kind of what it seems like, yeah. Anyone you ever cook for that was like, holy shit, I made it. Celebrity, restaurateur, chef.

I mean, we have celebrities come in, you know, and we have politicians that come in that we really like. We, I don't, God, I'm really bad at this. Oh, 8, 2009. You guys are new, Philly Madge just nominate you guys as number one. There had to be someone that came in was like, oh, shit, they're here tonight. I mean, I feel like, Danny, I don't know, we have cool people that come in all the time. I mean, Travis just shouted you, Travis Kelsey just showed you guys out on the New Heights.

Yeah. Vito's here right now. Yeah, Vito. Yeah, could be him. He's wearing basketball shorts. We, yeah, what did you say? Adam Sandler was a good one. Okay, so the thing about Adam Sandler is we did, like, it was like a, he was at the end of his filming.

Actually, you know, he had a federal donut sweatshirt on the entire time, and that was like unbelievable. Sure. It was very cool. And so, uh, uh, we had a federal donut sweatshirt on the entire time, and that was, like, was very cool. When he came in to eat, he kept adding people to his reservation. So there were all these, like, musicians and whatever sitting outside. It was, like, very, very cool. And we sent out all this food.

And we do chicken, like, shishleak, like chicken thigh, marinated, cooked on a stick over charcoal. And he, like, asked for another one. So I was like, well, this is pretty cool. He's asking for, like, seconds, right? Yeah. So I got out there and I put it down. And he, in his, like, straight up fucking happy Gilmore, Billy Madison voice, goes, oh, yeah. Yeah. I was like, oh, my God.

Yes. That was cool. You know, I mean, like, the Kelsey's are amazing. Like, wonderful people to see them eat, like, our pastries all the time is really, really cool. I don't know. There's a lot of really cool people. Adam Sand was a great one. Oh, shut up.

It's so. It's so good. That's too nice. That's awesome. Yeah. It's really dope. Who was the sort of, when were you the most nervous performing? Honestly, every time I'm quick.

into my boots, but I think it's a healthy quake. It's a healthy quake where you respect the audience, like, I really got to do well or else they're going to hate me. Because there's a lot of comics that say they get on stage, and they're like, take me or leave me, whatever you want to do. And it's like, well, they didn't pay tickets to get to watch this happen. But there was a time when I was early on. I opened for Mark Norman, if you ever heard of Mark Norman.

And that was a terrifying experience. But then you're in the green room with these guys, and you realize, like, you're just rich, famous dorks. Like, you're still nervous and awkward yourself. They're like you. They're like a lot more money. They're exactly like a lot more money. They don't sleep in their,

car. You'd be surprised. They sleep in a limo. They sleep in a limo. Yeah. And the way, kicks them out because they can't.

So, do you remember the, uh, do you remember the moment that, like, the best joke that you've ever told publicly hit? And do you remember, like,

obviously, like the worst bomb that you've had? Yeah, there was the best. I did well my first time, which is pretty unusual, which didn't stick. I mean, the second and third and fourth time. Terrible.

I just ate my shorts the entire time. Yeah. So that was kind of a nice feeling is like the first time you do it. It gets you hooked, your ego gets attached to it. You're like, all right, well, this is my personality now. I'm kind of good at this. The worst bomb was very easily.

I did a show in Pots Town, Pennsylvania. And I went on stage. I did 15 minutes, not a single laugh, just people kind of looking at each other. Like, why is he still up there? And I'm like, I have to do 15 minutes. So you get off stage in the club I was working at. If you're the host, they have you greet people on the way out to say, hey, thanks for coming to the club.

Hope you enjoyed the show. And it's just 400 people. Just cringe. I'm cringing just listening to this because I'm pitching myself. It's great. Yeah. It really is funny. equivalency between, you know, you and I.

You, like, going out and, like, cooking for, like, 400 people. Yeah. And they'd just be like, we want fucking Chinese. Yeah. They wanted Chinese the whole time I was up there. Yeah. You didn't. I'd be like, Ronnie Chang's up next. Yeah.

And then you got to go to the front door. Be like, thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. Well, that was the worst part is they won't make eye contact with you. You know, I'm looking there. Hey, thank you so much. And I was like 23 at the time. And I'm nervously, hey, thanks for coming.

Thanks for coming. And towards the end of the line, a girl comes out to me. And she was like, hey, and I'm like, fine, just you only need one. Yeah. You need one. And she was like, your zipper was down the entire time. It doesn't look like you're wearing underwear. I had to just be like, shit.

And I looked down, my zipper was still down. Oh, my God. They posted pictures on the Instagram with me up there bombing with my zipper fully wide open. Oh, my God. So that was a tough one. That was a tough one to live down. But, you know, you live and you learn. Well, and then you went right back after that.

I had a show the next day. That's kind of one of those things where it's like, shake it off. Keep going. Everybody tanks, everybody bombs. Yeah. We've had horrible nights in restaurants. It's horrible nights. But, you know, it's like my boxing coach always says, you know,

it's not about how many times you've been knocked down. It's how many times you get up, right? And so you've got to keep going. It really is, yeah. Man, that is, like, crazy, though. It was tough. Then my girlfriend calls me the way home. She's like, how did it go?

And I was like, don't fucking worry about it. Don't worry about how it went, you know? You got a death row meal? You know, I think that's a weird. I feel like I wouldn't be eating anything if I was scared of getting murdered. You got a, you got a, yeah. Shit. just five coffees just here locked in

the electric chair does nothing you're like I'm already jolted I literally went to Matt on the drive over to Sahab I was like this is a great fucking question tanked Hey bro your flies down Your flies down yeah

Yeah full circle What's your death row meal? I don't fucking believe in death row meals dude What does that mean? I know that's exactly what you just said Oh so why would you ask me that question Well I was just trying to put to play off you I fucking ate everything's going on right now

No, I mean So the elephant You know what? Probably I would eat that MERS pasta that has I can't name Yeah All right good

Not the hummus You would just say Everything in front of us That's the craziest Not the hummus I just made You had a softball Right in front of you All right

I bet your stupid elephant joke Yeah Unbelievable Wait have you seen his show Live I've seen so much I refuse to go anymore Do you?

Yeah And you don't heckle him Do you give him Honest feedback When he gets off um as we become better friends i do so up until now you've kind of just lied to him really i've ever really given you feedback no unfortunately he's seen a lot of the same shows and i'm doing the same set because that's kind of what you work out and he's like i hate hearing that same

joke because i've heard it nine times now right right i'm not the greatest uh at empathy struggle with no i could never have guessed that it's so weird that you would say that i got i want i have one i mean i think we're probably getting towards you and i have one last question for you. Go ahead. And I hope it makes sense because I was kind of curious about it as I thought about it. It seems like a lot of the best food and cuisines are the product of like immigration, like a lot of like the Italian restaurants and having like that kind of thing. Is there something where in your head, at least the way I perceive it, that a lot of these are like family passed down restaurants that somebody starts their own recipes and somebody starts their own restaurant

to make that for somebody else. And you're kind of sacred about that recipe in your head, but you also have to find ways to push the envelope and change it. Is there any kind of hindrance? You've described what our challenges are and what we go through all the time, which is when you taste something, you're like, this is nostalgic. This is like what I've had for, my family's passed down for generations. However, I'm a chef. Right.

And like context is everything, right? So you can't just copy paste, Murph's pasta. I'm trying to find it right now. Take it to a different. You really suck at endorsing this restaurant, honestly. I love MERS. Yeah, MERS is probably not going to give you anything for free because you just can't even name it. But, you know, if you take that recipe, that amazing pasta, recreate it in a different context, it will not taste the same thing.

Right. Which is why your grandparents or your parents or your fiancé or whatever, something that they made that is emotional, it comes from the heart that is like ancestry, tastes better. Yeah. It just tastes better. You can take the recipe exactly what it is, recreate it if there's not law. I hate this shit sounds so cliched, but it's true. You don't have all the things, all the emotional things lined up with it. It doesn't taste the same.

So for us, our challenge is to do that. I want you, when you eat it to humve, I want you to feel whatever that grandmother visceral thing is. I want you to feel that. I want you to experience that. But my responsibility is a little bit different than that because I'm not a grandmother because I'm actually a chef. And this isn't just feeding my family. This is also being creative. This is about a vibe.

out of things. But it always comes from that. It always comes from something that is actually emotional. Sure. Very cool. And that's the big challenge, right? Right. Is that traditional.

Traditional, that is a stupid fucking word for all this because you go to like anywhere, everyone talks about like Italy, Italy, and like they make it like this. I'm like on one side of the street, they make it like this. On the other side they make it like that. So traditional doesn't really mean anything. And food travels. Food is anthropology. Food is changing like literally all the time.

and it's always adapting and it's always transporting and transmitting and and changing and so like it's really about capturing these memories and the emotion behind it got a story that it tells very cool very nice very cool it's pretty sick because you kind of brought you did bring hummus to philadelphia like i mean we brought hummus we wanted to represent is which you know is and continues to be a very misunderstood place um and um you know i wanted to represent where i'm from and thousands of years of history and astronomy and different cultures, you know, with conflict, with commonality, all those things. So, you know, it's still a work in progress and it's still our life's work, which doesn't really end. Yeah, too big continued. But if it doesn't work, I'm going to be on stage.

I'm going to be opening up for you. I'm going to fucking take my fly down. Don't worry, dude. My car has two seats. We can go take a nap in there. You know what? I'll bring the fucking wah-waw coffee. And, you know, sometimes I think, like, I'm like, what would happen if I ended up accidentally on stage?

What joke would I tell? Do you have one? So I don't have one totally worked out, but it would be something like, okay. Do you guys have a bidet in your house? I don't. I'm not rich enough, sorry. Okay. Nine restaurants and have five James Beard Awards.

So I got, so there is a bidet. called Tush. I do feel like we need an endorsement for this. It's like a hundred bucks. Sure. Okay. You can install it yourself. I literally don't know. I can screw in a light bulb and that's about it. I installed this myself. Sweet. Because I'm a man.

Okay. All right? Because I'm good at things. All right? Works my fucking hair. Yeah, yeah, because. And so I installed this by myself and I was like, this is $100. And once you

kind of like get into the bidet world you look at toilet paper and you're like what yeah you know and so my schick would be you know i got this bidet for valentine's day because my wife is really romantic and then i would ask people in the audience do you guys have a bidet and then for the people that didn't i'd be like wait a minute if you're walking down the street yeah anywhere in philly and there's usually dog shit yeah or more right and he trip and you fall on the sidewalk and your elbow

goes into dog shit you do not just clean that off with paper right so I don't understand for $100 you know so I don't you know you gotta help me work on that

I like that I see the premise Timer was good I see the premise yeah I think that's great I love that yeah yeah go three guys walk into a bar oh god

go you think they would have seen it oh unbelievable dude really good a bidet stuff in there, dude. You got to write yourself. My dad will, like, my dad will call me, he'll what's at me from a different country and be like, I got

one, I got one for you. And it's like the filthiest, like, whatever. And he's like, no, no, no, no. And I'm like, dude, it's like three o'clock in the morning. What are you doing right now? Yeah, it's crazy. He's got good jokes. Well, yours is better than mine, dude. Mine is still hit me with the Margate elephant. I think that is still makes me laugh. And I love it,

even though we'll not live on this edited version. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%. I'm keeping that shit in. All right, good. Yeah, fuck that. By the way, Cavitelli sausage.

Cavitelli sausage. It only took 45 minutes in a fucking Google stroll. Murs. Shout the Murskavitle sausage rules. Jaffer rules too. You guys are so much fun. This was awesome. You're the coolest guy at all the time.

Listen, you guys are going to come in and kick it in the kitchen. You're going to text me. Yes, please. And I'm going to come to your fucking show. I would really appreciate it. That'd be awesome. That's great. Thank you so nice meeting.

You're so generous with your time. Guys, thank you so much. Thank you. We really appreciate this. Appreciate you. All right, we'll talk to you. Two.