The I Love CVille Show With Jerry Miller! - Dick's House Of Sport Grand Opening (Experiential); Vape Shop Coming To Old Fox's Cafe In Belmont

Episode Date: October 31, 2025

The I Love CVille Show headlines: Dick’s House Of Sport Grand Opening (Experiential) Vape Shop Coming To Old Fox’s Cafe In Belmont Vape Shops V Payday Loans, What’s Worst Storefront? Rt 29 Holiday Inn To 191-Unit Apartment Bldg Meet The Company Behind The Holiday Inn Conversion VA Film Festival Draws 23,000 Attendees #15 UVA (-3.5) At California, 3:45 PM, ESPN2 If You Need CVille Office Space, Contact Jerry Miller Read Viewer & Listener Comments Live On-Air The I Love CVille Show airs live Monday – Friday from 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm on The I Love CVille Network. Watch and listen to The I Love CVille Show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, iTunes, Apple Podcast, YouTube, Spotify, Fountain, Amazon Music, Audible, Rumble and iLoveCVille.com.

Georgia Gilmer, hello, Janice Boyce Trevillian, Tom Powell, Michael Pruitt, hello, Brandon Harrop, hello, Jason Noble, hello, Jeff Gason, hello, like and share the show, like and share the show, like and share the show. Scott Aaronworth, Colleen Tyler. Welcome to The I Love Seville Show. My name is Jerry Miller. Thank you kindly for joining us. Good Friday afternoon to you, a Halloween extravagance. This morning on Real Talk with Keith Smith. You saw The Dark Night, Batman, The Boy Wonder, Robin, a muscular Captain America, a somber and poetic, dark Jedi. You saw Alfred behind the scenes, and I'll tell you what, Marvel or, what's the other? DC. Marvel or DC, they had nothing on us. Is the Dark Jedi on either of those?

maybe i could be maybe argued i think um the dark jett i are now owned by disney oh dark jett so do we who do we have represented on real talk with the key smith which which brands um i mean marvel dc disney so batman and robin batman and robin i'm not sure if i'm not sure if if disney owns one or the other okay batman and robin is which brand they're D.C. Okay, Batman and Ramas, Captain America is? Marvel. Okay, Alfred would be D.C.

Okay, and Dark Jedi would be Disney? Yep, Disney. So you had Marvel, D.C. and Disney. And I'll tell you what, that was a pretty fantastic show this morning. Excellently, excellent execution. No doubt. A lot we're going to cover. I'm going to ask you this question.

What is the bigger scourge on the Charlestville, Almore, and Central Virginia communities? the proliferation of vape shops that are springing up on every corner or the proliferation of payday loans that are springing up on every corner in storefront. What is the bigger scourge to Charlottesville and Amarral County? The payday loan business or the vape shop business? And it's a perfect segue because Fox's Cafe, now a vape shop.

Conan Owen, Sir Speedy of Central Virginia, will give him some love. locally owned and operated SurSpeedy, Central Virginia. The talented business development, virtuoso Conan Owen, let us know that Fox's Cafe is now turning into a vape shop. Sir Speedy is who you contact for any logo application, window decals, stickers, direct mail. The banner behind me is a Sir Speedy special.

Signage, lanyards, uniform, merchandise. I remember viewers and listeners Fox's Cafe 20 years ago, and I'm going to offer a firsthand perspective of Fox's Cafe. Nicholas Erpy, welcome to the show. Neil Williamson, welcome to the show. Neil Williamson's buddy Captain America was fantastic today. I'll tell two stories, okay? First, a behind-the-scenes story of Real Talk with Keith Smith.

As we were getting ready in the green room before the show, I was putting, or Robin was getting his hair right. Robin was adjusting his tights, his cape, and his, in his mask. Batman was having to shift some epidermis around to fit into his tights that seemed to be a little bit more snug than this time last year. The Dark Jedi was making sure his lightsaber was in a safe position, because that is a deadly weapon he had in his hand. Captain America walked into the green room today before Real Talk with his... He was ready to go with a new shield.

With a new shield in hand, absolutely ready to go, Captain America like he always is. And the boy Wonder Robin, who clearly of this group of five Cape Crusaders, is the troublemaker of the bunch. And the boy Wonder Robin tapped Captain America on the shoulder this morning while we were standing in the green room and he said to Captain America, hey, cap, let's go outside the studio and leave the green room

because it looks like Batman is really struggling to fit in his tights and the show's not going to start on time. And let's go onto Market Street in front of the studio and let's hide behind this brick wall that we call the Macklin building and let's wait to somebody comes by and let's jump out and scare them and go,

pow, come, poo, junk. What are the words they do with Batman? Zap, zap, sock. So for some reason, Captain America is corrupted by the boy wonder. And he follows the boy wonder out. And Captain America is an opposing figure. And down comes Market Street in unexpected. young chap of maybe 25 or 30 years old, wearing a Carhart jacket,

Tech's neck as his phone is looking down, as he certainly is utilizing TikTok and Snapchat as young Gen Ziers do. And as he gets in front of the I Love Seville Network studio, the boy wonder jumps out from behind the brick wall and screams, pow, as Captain America is lurking behind the boy Wonder. This young chap in the Carhart jacket with the Tech's neck pretty much close to craps his pants, screams like a schoolgirl.

A brown pants day. Screams like a schoolgirl said, Jesus, what is this? Captain America, I turn, boy wonder turns over, looks over, and he bellows a deep chuckle of amusement. while the boy wonder with a Cheshire grin ear to ear as if he was a

kitty cat with a sleeve of ritz crackers and a tin of cheese whiz at his disposal just looks at him and smiles a smile of mischievous enjoyment. That was how we started real talk with Keith Smith. And it's a perfect segue into Fox's Cafe. Fox's Cafe, ladies and

gentlemen, I remember I've lived in this community for 25 years first arrived as a mischievous 18-year-old first year at the University of Virginia and now find myself a mischievous 40-something that has a hell of a lot more responsibility. Wife, two young children, mortgage, private school tuition, bills, someone who's basically family

and Judah Wickhauer as well and team members to be mindful of. And I remember Judah, circa 2000, this is the year right out of UVA maybe this was 2006 no no no this was 2005 this is the fall of 2005 okay because from from spring of 2004 into spring of 2005 I lived at Oxford Hills after UVA I lived at Oxford Hills on Preston Avenue then Tall Tom Mad Dog Mike and in and in a crowd Fafty Shannon who climbed the rope ladder to sleep in the attic at 208 Little Graves. We decided to move our posse to Belmont because we wanted to be in stumbling distance of the Bar District.

And we have kind of outgrown the corner at the time, post-graduation. So we choose to move to 208 Little Graves. Arthur Feiner, Ben Feiner's father, Ben Feiner owns ProLink. Arthur Feiner was the landlord of 208 Little Graves. And four of us were living in basically a two-bedroom, one-bath house. One of us converted a basically a greenhouse room that was tied to the house into a bedroom. And Shannon literally climbed a rope ladder to an attic that had no heating or ventilation. So it got to be at 110 degrees in the summer and like 40 degrees in the winter.

Yet he lived up there for about $150 a month because all four of us were broke jokes. but we wanted to live in Belmont because we could stumble from the downtown mall. And that's when the downtown mall was thriving. It had a bar district. It had nightlife. It was just at its peak and pinnacle. Okay. Haven't seen it

at its peak and pinnacle in a really long time. Certainly not how it was in 2006, 2007. And when we would wake up on a Saturday morning, hungover most certainly from closing down Millers, hungover, most certainly.

from closing down zocalo or rapture or mas tapas we would wake up and we would all decide what are we going to do and on many mornings we would walk from little graves which was behind spun nuts and spun nuts was active at the time and we'd head to fox's cafe and fox's cafe was the type of greasy spoon it's right there on belmont that was a melting pot for all walks of life in charlesville It was a melting pot for a rag-tag posse or group like me and my roommates and friends, okay, that were literally there on an hour or two hours of sleep, either doing the walk of shame or having a gaggle of gals with us that were doing the walk of shame with us as well,

in the same clothes that we most certainly were in the night before. Or Fox's Cafe would be the hospital type that was fresh off their shift. that was going to Fox's Cafe for the meal following a 12-hour workday or it was the blue-collar type the plumbers, the electricians, the carpenters, the construction workers that were eating a meal

prior to starting what was going to be a working, physically demanding working class type of day. You'd see bankers and judges and attorneys and financiers in Fox's Cafe because the food was good, it was priced right, it was served with a smile. And at the time, in 2005,

2006 at Fox's Cafe, You could go into this greasy spoon and you could get, you know, two or three eggs cooked your way, grits are hash browns, toast, coffee and a juice and spend like eight bucks with tip. Wonderful time. Cash is the method of payment. I'm sure not all those cash, you know, those payments were reported to the tax man, right? And I'm going with this story, 2005, 2006, Fox's Cafe in Belmont. You could smoke cigarettes inside. And I had a small phase of my life, a short window of my life, where I was a camel lights smoker.

Okay? And, you know, at that time, a pack of camel lights was like less than two bucks, right? So we go to Fox's Cafe, you'd have, you know, a couple of cigarettes, he has some eggs scrambled with cheese, some hash browns, some grids, some juice, some coffee, and try to shake the hangover while you were the gaggle of the girls and your buddies are wearing the same clothes that you were in when you closed down Millers. And the Fox's Cafe inside, which is not large and had terrible ventilation, was literally a cloud of smoke.

It was so cloudy the smoke billowing in this cafe as the door open and the gusts would bring the smoke wall to wall, swirl it as if you were in a tornado, eating in a greasy spoon in a tornado in Fox's Cafe. that there were times where you could literally go like this while eating your scrambled eggs like there and blow the smoke away from your face because in this 1,200 square foot restaurant, 50 people were smoking inside.

A wild time, if you think about what was life like, where you could be in a tiny, closed-off room having breakfast, lunch, and dinner while basically sitting inside a chicken, chimney. And today, Fox's Cafe and it's a great way to have a conversation and to segue into one of our topics of Friday show. Has it evolved? Is this air quotes from greasy spoon where you could eat scrambled eggs and drink coffee and wear the same clothes with the gaggle of girls from the night before and basically experience Charlottesville? Now it's evolved air quotes into a babe shop. I mean, another vape shop, another vape shop and another quarter, is that the maturation of yours truly that the vape shop I see is a scourge?

Or do we look at the vape shop as, hey, Jerry, hey, Judah. At least it's not another empty storefront. They're contributing tax revenue to the local jurisdiction, and it leads Judah and I to ask this question. Yeah, is that how I look at it? What is the bigger scourge? to Charlottesville, Almore, and Central Virginia. The vape shop proliferation or the payday loan proliferation.

Because those business are bountiful in today's, you know, ecosystem that we call Charlottesville, Almore, and Central Virginia. Curious of your take on this. Viewers and listeners, I'm curious of your take. Put the lower third on screen, the bigger scourge, the vape shop or the payday loan business for Charlottesville and Almaral. Viewers and listeners, what are your thoughts on that? Judah Wickhauer, you, my friend, lead the way.

and I do have to highlight your jacket is quite sharp over there. Thank you. What is the bigger scourge in your opinion? Well, I think I actually haven't seen that many of the payday loan places. At least they just haven't impressed themselves on my senses lately. So I don't know how much they've spread, but the vape shops The payday loan was your contribution to the headline

and now you're marginalizing the headline by saying they're not that prolific I haven't seen the vape shop was my contribution but go ahead go ahead bigger scourge the vape shop or the payday loan I think the the vape shops definitely considering the wow considering the they pop up in single unit

boxes that end up brightly lit and gaudy, and when you've got them on every corner, you kind of wonder at the necessity of them. Viewers and listeners, your thoughts, bigger scourge, the vape shopper, the payday loan. The payday loan business is incredibly, is significantly more predatory. No doubt. Significantly more predatory business model, the payday loan. In fact, viewers and listeners, can you think of a. more predatory business in Charlottesville, Almore, and Central Virginia than the payday loan

business? Can anyone offer a more predatory business model than payday loans? The only business I can think of that are more predatory are the guy that's slinging some meth or some crack rock on the corner, but that's not legal. The payday loan business is legitimately legal. Maybe the second cousin of the payday loan business was the proliferation of those illegal slot machines. or those legal slot machines that were somehow gray-aried games of chance. The one-armed bandits? The one-armed bandits, the slot machines in the back of gas stations, where you would see people posting up on stools,

just pumping money into these slot machines that were monikered games of chance, which allowed them to get around Virginia gambling laws. I mean, maybe that's the better lower third. What is a more scurgy, what is the more damning business model to the Charlottesville, Almore, and Central Virginia, marginalized communities, because I'm going to cut to the chase. It's not the sophisticated or the wealthy or the educated that you're going to find patronizing the vape shops, the payday loans, or the one-arm bannecks, the slot machines.

It's the uneducated, the unsophisticated, and the financially marginalized, the socio-economically marginalized that are proliferating these three scourgy business models. And why we're having this conversation is Fox's Cafe, is a gateway to Belmont. Yeah. This is a gateway to pump and premiere and prime and prestigious Belmont. And it's $750,000 entry point to probably $2 million homes. I'd say you're probably looking at a window of Belmont $750 to $2 million.

And now their gateway, Judy, you jump in, is a babe shot. I was going to say, just across the street, the city was for a short while, considering using that property for, I think... A shelter. Yeah, a shelter. That was a shelter. And the Belmont community was firmly against it. Belmontodians bashed.

Came out firmly against it. And now I don't think they have a choice. I don't think they can push... Oh, no, no, no. You absolutely can do vape shop there. No, no, I'm saying I don't think Belmont can push back and prevent it from happening. No, you're 100% right.

100% right. Neil Williamson said, I knew you would go there with this. The president of the Free Enterprise Forum is watching the program. He is best friends with Captain America, Neil Williamson. And Neil Williamson, did you conversate with Captain America on the trouble boy wonder got you into with jumping out from behind a brick wall to scare the unexpected Gen Zier with Cape Crusading costumes as he was walking down Market Street? I mean, damn near your crapped his pants, that guy. Neil Williamson says, if you do not like a business, do not patronize them.

The market, not soft sensibilities, should determine the market. He's 100% right. You're 100% right, Neil. The market will determine. But as someone who needs to create content and fill an hour a day for a talk show, I have to come up with some concepts and some ideas and some fodder for commentary, which is exactly what we are doing right now. Bill McChesney watching the program,

the Vap Shop combined with payday loans and a gambling machine dent, is the model for a mega crap convenience store. He's 100% right. And you sometimes see that. You sometimes see the payday loan merge with the vape shop, merge with the gambling machines. You saw that on Harris. What better place to get everybody, all the people.

That was the place on Harris that actually had a murder outside during COVID. What was the place called? It's now since closed and been rebranded. What was it called William McChesney? The one on Harris Street. James Watson, you know what I'm talking about. What was that place called? I would love to get your, if you remember what that place was called.

You know what I'm talking about, Judah? I do. I can't think of the name, though. And you know what? Is that capitalism's version of Darwinism? Is the business model that is the payday loan, slot machine, vape shop, the capitalistic version of Darwinism?

could very well be because you patronize that business you are going to lose in some capacity or another you are going to lose and you know and how do you feel if you're a belmontonian and now the gateway to your pomp and and and and premier and prime uh neighborhood is is gatewayed by a vape shop and and what a sad homage frankly to fox's cafe which at one time, 20 years ago, was woven into the fabric and identity of a working-class neighborhood in Belmont. And really the flashpoint for the eclectic Charlottesville that no longer is so cornucopia in its status. Charlottesville, much more vanilla, much more white and wealthy than it once was 20 years ago, where it was a cornucopia of black, white, Puerto Rican, and Haitian,

corticopia of wealth, corticopia of social economic stratosphere? I mean, now Vanella, John Blair watching the program. Am I incorrect, or was there a rumor the other year that one of the mass and nut owners was going to redevelop the property into something much bigger than a babe shop? You are absolutely correct, John Blair, per usual. You were absolutely correct. I got something coming in via direct message, not from Deep Throat,

He says this, I'm very much against both payday loans and babe shops. I will say I doubt most know or can comprehend how predatory the payday businesses are. The interest rate is usually between 300 and 395% APR, creates circle of debt. People don't understand. I've paid off and restructured personal loans for a couple of employees that had gotten caught up in the payday loans. My jaw hit the floor the first time I realized what they had signed up for, thinking my math must have been incorrect initially. 300 to 395% APR at the payday loans. That should be illegal.

And the vape shop shouldn't be? And the skilled games shouldn't be? That's, I mean, those are questions to ask. How about the head shops that are on every quarter in Charlottesville where you can, you know, in dubious fashion? and I'm extremely pro-cannibus. Anybody who watches this program knows I'm pro-cannibus, but head shops on any corner of Charlottesville where you can pay a $10, $15 entry fee

and walk upstairs or walk into a room, nondescript room, and have a farmer's market of indica and setiva, edibles, vape cartridges, stems, caps, you name it, it's there. How does that fly? I mean, those aren't the only, the places to get that stuff. There are people, I would bet dollars to sense that there are a lot more

people using CBD, THC products than we would actually think. Neil Williamson says, before he left to town, Captain America told me he regrets participating in the boy wonders, pants-filling shenanigans. I really love Captain America. He's genuinely one of my favorite people. He's a good man. He's such a good person, Captain America. He really is.

Well, you know, I think you've found your scourge, your storefront scourge, and your storefront scourge. We've found the evil three. The evil triangle. Is the storefront scourge, vape shop, in this order, payday loans? vape shops

skilled games slot machines followed very closely by Walmart and Target I mean lottery tickets aren't their own storefront but at least the lottery funds education

yeah the lottery is funding Virginia education at least you can make that argument can you not? That's fair. Okay. If we're talking about taking advantage to people.

What, the lottery? It doesn't matter what it funds. I mean, at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Deep Throat's got comments coming in. He says, this is what neighborhood retail looks like. Not a cute country store,

but rather an even worse version of a New York bodega. Only selling the addictive crap, not even bothering with the fig leaf of fencing shoplifted CVS toiletries or selling expired bread and milk, but try telling that to the bumpkin yimbies around here. Tell us how you feel over there deep throat. That's why we appreciate you as well.

And he's right. Why is the vape shop so prolific around town? Because the margins are ridiculous. Because the vape shop can be staffed with one person. Because the vape shops sell a product that do not expire. there is no waste because the vape shop is selling something that is so addictive the buyer overlooks the damning impact what he or she is buying has on their body because of set addiction they are so prolific because they are so profitable that's why and I bet if

you kind of pulled the covers and looked under them you would find it was the same handful of people that are driving the prolificy, is that a word? The prolific nature of vape shop expansion. More accurately, it's the same handful of people. And as they buy, as they put more vape shop POS's point of sales out there, they just have more purchasing power and are just fattening their margin. A restaurateur that I work with as consulting,

and gaining mark and share basis once told me that each unit that he opens, restaurant that he opens, he can go to the same two or three vendors that provide product, dry goods, food, ingredients. Basically, the items he needs to run his restaurant, and he's saving points by opening additional restaurants, points on purchasing.

Because the economy is a scale, the vertically integrated nature of just adding points of sale to the infrastructure that he has in play. I want to highlight John Vermillion and Andrew Vermillion. The Vermilions are five generations strong in Amar County. I love John Vermillion. Love Andrew too. Andrew Verbilion is recently engaged. Congratulations to Andrew Vermilion.

Recently engaged. I love John Vermillion. John Vermillion is a southern gentleman. What you see is what you get. I appreciate a business that's three generations, a family owned, and backed by a family that's five generations in Amar County. And I appreciate a business that is navigated for 61 years a changing retail landscape. And I very much encourage viewers and listeners to support this company because Charlottesville Sanitary

Supply, much like any local retail business, has a landscape that is rapidly. changing. And it's rapidly changing here in Charlottesville. Can we move that so that doesn't happen every day? It's the bag that's under the table that's picked up under the mic right there, that you knock with your foot. The business, and you know this, Judah, because you're at the conversations. We're basically the confessional for small business, our shop, the Miller organization. The good, the bad, and the ugly, okay? The small retailer, the locally owned retailer, I would say has more headwinds today than maybe ever before. Give me a time, viewers and listeners, where the locally owned retailer has had more

headwinds than they do right now with ubiquitous technology, with one-click ordering and delivery within hours on a doorstep, and retailers having the economies of scale of a global footprint. An app on your phone. Yeah. Give me a time, viewers and listeners, where the retailer has more headwind, local retailer, the locally owned and operated retailer has more headwinds than they do right now. If you want to see the animal connections of the world and the happy cooks of the world, the Charlottesville Sanitary Supplies of the world, if you want to see these businesses survive another 61 years, you must go out of your way to patronize. and support them.

Like, and out of your way is not even really that significant because Charlestville Sanitary Supply has an e-commerce website and same-day delivery free in market. It's just a matter of changing your shopping habits to think about them versus the one-click app that's in it. You talk about an addiction. How about the addiction that Prime and Amazon is peddling? No doubt. Amazon is peddling addiction.

you pay us $200 a year for prime we'll give you all the content that you want on demand we'll give you free shipping we'll give you access to a library of inventory a product that anything you could possibly want I wouldn't be surprised if you could buy some some uh sirens of the night on Amazon what is that what's next did you know Starbucks one of Starbucks's fastest line of fastest growing lines of revenue right now. You know what it is? Viewers and listeners, I found this startling. Are you ready for this?

Starbucks, one of its fastest lines of growing lines of business, business dream, is coffee delivery. Coffee delivery. Coffee delivery, ladies and gentlemen, I read a story, is now a $1 billion business for Starbucks. This was 24 hours ago on CNBC. Starbucks coffee delivery business surpass $1 billion with a B in sales in fiscal year 2025. The company said delivery sales climbed almost 30% in its fiscal fourth quarter.

The typical Starbucks delivery order is nearly twice the size of an in-store transaction, according to the company. The coffee giant said this past Wednesday that its annual delivery sales crossed the milestone in fiscal year 2025. which ended on September 30th. Delivery sales climbed almost 30% compared with the year ago period. It was crazy. At one time, we thought the coffee business

was going to be small points of sale strategically positioned for drive-through ordering and drive-through capacity. Is the now coffee business online ordering? Think about this from a Starbucks stand. Coffee warehouses.

it's basically the Amazon of coffee if you don't need Class A coffee shops in densely populated in traffic corridors and you don't need staff

in those coffee shops serving people in person or with vehicle drive-through and instead you could have Class C positions that are much lower monthly overhead and you deliver the coffee with, I mean, Jesus Christ, what are you using to deliver the coffee? Are you using

robots to deliver the coffee? Really? Are you, are you going to use robots? Is that what's going to happen? They're not even using, how would that work? Uber eats and DoorDash and Grubhub. They're using Uber, they're not even using their employees. Yeah. Can you, how do you make money on that? What do you mean? Besides the fact. Cost to make a cup of coffee. It's one of the most high margin businesses that are out there. That's fair. It's literally like Bobo's makes money.

Bagel costs the nickel. I'm saying, what's your, do you have a minimum for delivery? Well, did you, this statistic is, this is the one that most startled me, not the billion dollars in sales, but the delivery order is twice the size of an in-store transaction. You know why that is. Because you might as well get snacks while you're ordering your coffee. coffee. No, because you're probably doing it for others that are around you. You're asking them and doing it for others that are around you. It's the convenience of being around people. Jason Noble, his photo on stream. Get your coffee at grit, people, at grit. Amen. Grit now in Hunter Craig's

clock tower storefront on Water Street where Waterbird spirits once was. Fantastic location for grit. William McChesney. So far, what I've seen about vaping. It destroys your cardiovascular system very quickly and very destructively. 100%. It's gross. It's nasty. Vanessa Park Hill. Funny the government did their best to squash big tobacco

only to have it replaced with vaping. Is vaping healthier? Maybe. Not sure it's been around long enough to really know. I'm pretty sure the vaping is worse. Travis Hackworth. The addiction of the day is Timu the ordering platform.

When you get knockoff stuff for cheese, wild times we live in where how does the small business owner keep up how's a small business owner keep up you by being a part of the community I don't think there's really any other way you've got to you've got to engage and just like Foxes was back in the day for you, it was a touch point of community where you could see all of what made up that community. And places like that, I don't know, if you really want to survive, you need to be a part of the community. I'm reminded, one of my favorite movies that's out there is the founder with Michael Keaton. Have you seen that movie, Judah?

No. That's the one about Ray Kroc. Yeah, it's so good. I actually, it's one of the few movies that I've purchased on a streaming platform. Michael Keaton plays Ray Kott so well. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, like a lot of people don't realize this, Ray Kroc, who they equate to the founder of McDonald's, he is a dushy, fellow, a man of dubious, a man of, some would say deplorable integrity, a man who did not have

the innovation or creativity to create, to build a business necessarily himself. So we saw a business run by two brothers in California and basically stole it from them. And he stole it from them because he understood how to basically steal something in a paperwork white-collar capacity through smoke-and-mere franchise agreements and backroom deals. Some he didn't even carry through on his end. And he got a piece of advice. Red Crock, his aha moment, was when somebody that was

in a bank Ray Kroc was at a bank talking with a lender and this conversation with a lender Ray Kroc was out of money he was the guy that was in charge

with scaling McDonald's across the country but he for all intensive purposes was out of money because all Ray Kroc was doing was taking a small percentage of every cheeseburger sold it was like less than a percentage

point of every cheeseburger sold. It was like a point of, you know, I'd have to look at the movie, but it was a sliver of money. I don't want to get into the weeds. And this hairy Sonoborn is listening, eavesdropping. He's eavesdropping at the bank in the cubicle next to Ray Crocs. It doesn't work for the bank. He's also a customer there.

He follows Ray Croc outside the bank, and he stops him, and he is able to convince Ray Croc to let him look at Ray Crock's books. And he basically says this to Ray Crock. So let me understand what you have here at McDonald's, Ray. You have a terrible agreement. You have no revenue streams. You have no opportunity to grow the business. You own no assets. You don't really have a business. Ray Crock's like, yeah, you're probably, you're right. I keep opening these McDonald's and my company gets no money. Okay? And then this hairy Soda-Born guy says, you don't realize what business you're in. You're not in the burger business. You're in the real estate business. And then he elaborates and he explains the story, the business model of McDonald's is not selling burgers and milkshakes and fries and nuggets. It's buying class eight pieces of real estate and finding franchisees that want to open locations in the markets that you own the money. real estate and then demanding ordering as part of the franchise agreement that they open that

individual franchise on the location the dirt that you own and then they pay you rent in perpetuity you get the royalty on sales but you're really in the real estate business i believe if memory serves correctly macdonald's the is it the most significant commercial owner owner of commercial property in America? Is McDonald's the most significant commercial? That's a deep throat or Rob Neal question right there. Maybe a John Player question. I believe they are. And that aha moment shifted Ray Kroc into what is now the founder of McDonald's when really he didn't create it. He ripped off the concept. Yeah. And that concept, that aha moment built one of the most iconic businesses the world

has ever seen. And when we offer counsel to clients, I'm going to try to get a second meeting. We had a meeting this week. I'm going to try to get a second meeting and have this conversation. You know, being in a business where you're tied to

needing to do tremendous volume. Yeah. And the margin of each unit you sell is small, but you have to do tremendous your business models to do tremendous volume to make money, that's tough. No doubt.

Yeah. That's tough. Being in a business where it's not a volume play, but it's a margin play where you can sell either a service or a product that has high margin

so you don't have to do a ton of volume, that's doable. So if you're a small business owner and you're trying to differentiate yourself, from a Walmart, a Target, or an Amazon, who are clearly looking to be the retailers of the world, you know, you then have to say, all right, what's a concept I can go to

where I may not be able to compete on the volume play, but I can compete on a margin play by providing value proposition of education and service tied to that high margin item that's probably expensive. That's a frame of thinking that's difficult for somebody like me, who's in the consulting business to help, you know, pass along to an operator. Some of these topics we may not get to today, it's goodness gracious, it's already 120.

I do have to reference the holiday inn. Sean Tobs has got good reporting on this. Do you guys realize that there's an out-of-market company called Brick Lane LLC that has a contract to buy? the Emmett Street Holiday Inn. That according to a July 24, 2025 request for zoning determination, Sean Tubbs great reporting on this. This Brick Lane LLC

wants to take the holiday in on Route 29 and convert it to 191 apartment units. And it wants to do, and it's planning on doing this without really changing anything of the outside except for adding a small pool. Yeah. it's bananas they're basically going to be doing interior work they're going to take a middle-of-the-road hotel

and try to convert it into 191 apartments this out-of-market company if you do just a basic google search is brick lane LLC i believe there yeah i have it in front of me bricklayn dc.com is their website. And DL, under the radar fashion, another out-of-market real estate firm has come in to Charlottesville and Al-Morrow and scooped up a prime position of real estate to lipstick and pig a middling, if not sub-middling, mediocre, if not sub-mediocre piece of real estate to try to luxurify multifamily. The Palms.

And call it the Palms. This is Cavalier Crossing rebranded to Tate on Fifth, the Holiday Inn rebranding to the Palms. You want to touch on this at all, Judah? I mean, this is a four-acre property on Route 29. It's probably a great deal. They're going to crush it with this. Yeah, no doubt.

This is a phenomenal, location for something like this. No new structures. This is where the multi-family should go. No entrance changes. No land disturbance. A small pool and a deck. They're going to do a small pool and a deck on the outside of a sub-mediocre holiday

inn. And then have 191 apartments that they're going to rent for $2,000 and up a month. $191. Let's just use an average of $2,500. $2,500 times $191. That's $477,500. I'll do that again. Top line revenue.

Rent roll, $191 times $2,500 times $12. You're talking $5,730,000 in rent roll. That's obviously not net. That's the top line. $5,730,000. $5,730,000. And they're going to do no outside work. That's literally how they're positioning it.

Yeah. To fast track, approval. Deep throat, I was intrigued by the holiday end news, tells you that the hotel business maybe isn't so great here. Also, again, gives the lie to the idea there's no capacity to build housing.

Convergions are a big opportunity. Of course, from a city budget perspective, it is a loser. You get residents who consume services and you lose all that sweet lodging tax, but in the end, I do sort of wonder what absorption will look like for a product like this. Is that a location

where you would want to live if you can spend 2,000 plus a month. What's the sales pitch? You have three places to buy crap fast food places. I know stuff. Throw it. This is the tagline for the Palms, the new holiday and apartment complex.

Rent from us. $2,500 a month, and you're in walking distance of the cock block. Rent from us. The amenity is a crappy small pool and a deck and that bucket of Kentucky fried chicken right next door. Rent

from us at the Palms, and you will have your choice of five fried chicken points of sale within walking distance of your 2,500 a month apartment conversion where the sirens of the night do their business previously. Sirens of the night. It's a PG-13 show. I get chastised for my wife if I don't say in the PG-13 category. All right, it's 123.

I have a 145 meeting. That's all she wrote on a Friday. We've got to save some of these headlines for tomorrow. Gosh, tomorrow, Saturday. Today's your favorite day of the week. It's a payday Friday. Pay any front of it. All right, all she wrote.

I want you to patronize locally owned and operated businesses. Another great one is Oak Valley Custom Hartscapes. If you need a Hartscape done at your house, there's one company you call it's Oak Valley Custom Hartscape. Their design centers on the downtown mall in the Wells Fargo building, and it is fantastic. Tim Hess, the local point of contact. I've seen them firsthand do fantastic work with Harts. Hortic Valley Custom Hartscapes. I'll close with this. It's Halloween tonight. When you're driving those tons, those two and three ton trucks and cars, be careful with the tikes, the little

kids that are around. Be very careful tonight, please. Now I offer words of caution as a father of a three-year-old who's going to be Batman, no, Spider-Man tonight, and our seven-year-old's going to be Harry Potter. Happy Halloween. I'm grateful for Judah, and I'm grateful for you, the viewer and listener. So long. Happy Halloween. All right, we're going to bounce you. If you get out of your ride, how far is your right away?