The Joe Rogan Experience - #1583 - John Terzian & Craig Susser

Episode Date: December 24, 2020

John Terzian is co-founder and co-president of Los Angeles-based hospitality and lifestyle firm The h.wood Group. Craig Susser is the owner of the Los Angeles restaurant Craig's, and creator of the non-dairy ice cream brand Craig's Vegan.

the joe rogan experience train by day joe rogan podcast by night all day uh so gentlemen why don't we let's start just introduce yourself john introduce yourself tell people what you do i'm john terzian uh i own a company called h wood group so we have restaurants nightclubs delilah nice guy bootsy bellows or some of them and craig i'm craig sussert i gotta feel like such a slacker compared to that yeah you should i own a place called craig's restaurant and uh and a uh a vegan ice cream company called craig's vegan a place called craig's very modest it's one of the best restaurants in la very uh highly respected place and we're here to talk about what the fuck is happening to the restaurant industry during this pandemic and how crazy it is um you know i i've talked about this before but having you guys on so you could say firsthand what it's been like to you

and what this experience has been like and how poorly it's been handled. Just, I want to give people a sense of this at home, what it's like from two men who have made their living in the hospitality and restaurant industry. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you want to start Craig? Well, no, the funny thing is it's like, we're the rule followers. Yeah. We're the ones that are used to handling the health department. We're the ones that are used to handling the health department. We're the ones that are used to, you know, doing everything that, you know, from a safety standpoint, right? And now we're the ones that are being crushed or being picked on, so to speak, by, that's

the way a lot of people in the industry feel because we're the ones that are being shut down in a city where a lot of other businesses are remaining open, like malls, distribution centers, markets. Stores. I mean, you can go to a mall and go shopping. You can go on an airplane from LA to New York, take your mask off and eat, and that's okay. But you can't eat outdoors in a restaurant in L.A. that's following social distancing, all the health guidelines. I mean, we know our business.

And so it's been really hard since, what, it started March 15th. We shut down. We were then told to put glass in between our boots, so we did that. We opened for about 10 days. We did UV lights in the air conditioning systems. Air filtration, all the stupid, everything. Absolutely. And then we built patios.

I've personally spent $250,000 abiding by the rules that were set forth by the state, by the county, by the governors, by everybody. And then to just kind of be shut down is really, really difficult. And it's not about me. And it's not about my restaurant. And it's not about John. It's not about, it's about the employees. It's about the dishwashers and the busboys

and the servers that live day to day on the money that they make at the restaurant. It's their livelihood. It's how they feed their families. They send money back to the countries that they came from. This is a larger issue. And the reason it's a larger issue is one little restaurant like Craig's, we have 90

employees. A furniture store might have five or six. So when you shut down an industry like that, it really has a huge economic impact. And then it has a social impact because we all love to eat. It's the one thing we have in common. We like to get together as people. I'm a giant fan of restaurants. I mean, it's one of my favorite things to do is to go out to eat.

And living in LA, it was so frustrating. It was bizarre. It doesn't make sense. Now, when you guys get the orders, when they tell you what's shut down or what's open, is there anyone you communicate with? Is there anyone that's involved in government that you've had conversations with? No, that's the issue. That's the biggest issue that we have is they refuse to communicate to any of us.

And I can't quite figure out why. We hear about it on the news. We've joined with about 30, 40 other main owners that are all in the area. And I think it's the one thing that's kind of a silver lining in all this is that we've all teamed up to kind of like try to figure out what's going on. But we find out about it from the news, and we have to just make these moves within 24 hours. It's absolutely absurd. And we've reached out. I've reached out to Newsom. I've reached out to Garcetti, and they do nothing. They

put you on phony task force. They lie. They have no idea how serious this is. And I commend you for having us on. No one else wants to speak about it. Everyone's too scared of backlash. But what backlash? I don't think they understand that LA is crumbling. Yeah, I think people are thinking it's black and white. If you say anything somewhat negative, they view you as you're anti-COVID, you're wanting to kill everybody. And that's not the case. You're a science denier. Right. Yeah, that's not the case. But that's not the issue. So we're not denying that there's an issue. We're not denying that people are getting sick. We're not denying that there are, we all are in this together.

So how do you do it well? How do you do it smartly? Where should we be spending money? A perfect example is they're doing rapid testing in certain areas. So instead of losing all of this revenue, why don't they invest in smart technology that has rapid testing that allows people to go to a restaurant, get a rapid test, you're positive,

you're negative, and then you get to go into the restaurant. Like we did here today. Exactly. We got rapid tested today. Everyone's fine. We can sit down

and have a conversation, have no paranoia. You could do that at a restaurant. You could have the, I was telling you about Stubbs Barbecue here in Austin

where Dave Chappelle and I have been doing shows. Great establishment. We do 400 seats. We test everyone. People get there way in advance. They test them. They get a COVID test, which gives them a nice peace of mind.

Like, oh, great. I don't have it. Then you get to sit down and enjoy a show. And the place is packed. And so the business is making money. Everyone's having a good time. It's possible. Well, that's what a lot of people are doing in LA, right?

So they're having parties in LA. And a lot of them are doing in LA right? So they're having parties in LA and a lot of them are doing rapid testing beforehand so everybody gets a wristband and everybody in the party knows that everybody's negative. But isn't the mayor threatening to shut those kind of parties down? He's threatening to shut water off. And by the way he's done it. Water and power which

we're living in like a dictatorship. I literally feel like LA is like a third world country right now. Never seen anything like this. Well, if you go to Venice or you go to downtown L.A. and you see the encampments, it's fucking bananas. Yeah. I mean, third world countries wouldn't allow that shit. It's worse. This is some sort of dictatorship happening that to me is a bigger picture. picture if if if other governments if other states counties cities see that

they can just shut an industry down so easily get a name for themselves get their name out there what's stopping everyone else from doing this exactly it's new power so here's Venice Beach look at this video this is I mean this is very mild in comparison to some of the videos that I've seen yeah but there's one from downtown LA that literally, so Venice Beach, all the boardwalk, that whole area, is now just encampments. Yeah, like Wilshire and San Vicente.

It's pretty bad, right? Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, I've seen that. Wilshire and San Vicente's bad. Downtown LA is absolutely the worst. Downtown LA is bananas. Thousands and thousands of tents. And I don't know how they're

going to put that genie back in the bottle now you've got they're trying to clean up because they're trying to like oh this is a health hazard you've got like human shit in the streets like how do we clean this so they're trying to clean up right now activists are stopping them from cleaning up they're like your actions are violence and they're holding hands and blocking cleanup crews. Like, yeah. Think about how many more people you've just added to the homeless roles because of all the industries that have been shut down. Yeah. And people that can't feed their families. Yeah.

That's the hard part. It's like, you know, John, we all know the same people. And I actually, I actually, in my heart of hearts, think that they are, they believe that they're helping. That's my belief. That's cute. And I disagree with that. I disagree wholeheartedly.

I know that. But I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt. That doesn't mean I agree with them or agree with what they're doing in the least. But I will give a shout out to the city of West Hollywood, the mayor, Lindsay Vohervath, Paul Arevalo. They have been so business friendly. They're trying to help as much as they can. The permits, the ability for me to get my patio up and running, they moved in lightning speed.

But I'll give you an example. I got the front patio built. It finished on a Friday. And on Saturday, I got shut down. It's worthless. So what did I just spend? 60 grand. There's no evidence that shows that outdoor dining is contributing significantly to the COVID spread.

There's no evidence. They actually had to admit that finally. In court, the county has no evidence of a nexus between any sort of outbreak with outdoor dining. nexus between any sort of outbreak with outdoor dining. So how do they make this arbitrary distinction between outdoor dining and going to Walmart or what they're calling essential? They don't. It doesn't make any sense. There isn't.

So the county health officials shut us down, right, for three weeks, right around what was it, Thanksgiving? Yes. right around, what was it, Thanksgiving? Yes. And some friends of ours took them to court and said, you know, how can you just shut down an industry with no evidence? And they said, oh, we have plenty of evidence.

We have six studies and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they actually got to court and they had nothing. Nothing. All the evidence was from indoor dining. Not one piece of paper. And they had to admit it. So when they admit it, then what happens?

No, but now they're appealing it. Why? Now they're appealing it. By the way, they've hired an outside counsel. And you think these people have our best intentions? Come on. These guys. You're being too nice.

This guy, Newsom wants a name for himself, and no one's calling him out, and it's absolutely insane to me. Okay, here's the number one thing that boggles my mind. You have a problem. We all agree there's an illness, okay? The rates of hospitalizations are going up, infections are going up, but the rates of death are going down. Okay, so we have an issue.

Why not get together as a community and say, you know what? We're gonna grab a couple of restaurant people. We're gonna grab some doctors in the field. Have a committee. And have people that have real world experience, not PhDs, not theoretical people, people that have real experience in the industry, grab them, grab a round table and say, okay, we have this problem. How do we mitigate it? And how do we move forward smartly? I've never been asked. John's never been asked. No doctor that I know in the wide variety of people that I take care of has ever been asked their opinion

by the county state on any level. He's right. It's it's that's the problem. And I reached out directly. I have Garcetti's email. I email this mayor puts me on with some some random person from the office and puts me on with the random person from the office, then puts me on with the county. And I said, hey, get us together. Why don't you actually talk to real restaurant owners? This is when they were thinking about, this is when they were going to do the curfew, right? There was a 10 p.m. curfew. And I said, where's the 10 p.m. curfew come from? Oh, well, when people get inebriated, they get looser, and then they're super spreaders at restaurants. And I'm like, okay, why 10 p.m.? That's the time when people get inebriated, they get looser and then they're super spreaders at restaurants. And I'm like, okay, why 10 PM?

It's like, that's, that's the time when people really start, start getting inebriated. And I was like, but you realize you could at least say, Hey, close up, let people make sure they get out and get their check paid and be out the door by midnight, 1130, whatever it might be, rather than everyone out the door by 10 PM. And he said, well, you could seat someone at nine and then kick them out at 950. And I was like, do you have any understanding of the restaurant industry at all? Not one. Had not contacted any restaurateur.

They went to a 10 PM curfew. Three days later, shut it all down. They just said, you know what? We're just shutting everything down for no reason. By the way, they've never heard no from any of us. You want to do six people or less? Okay. You want tables six feet apart?

Okay. You want to do an 11 o'clock curfew? Okay. A 10 o'clock curfew? Okay. We've said yes to everything they've wanted, and yet they still find a way to shut the industry down. Well, why?

This is what I understand. Why? Who's making the decisions? I personally think, again, I don't think Craig wants to say this, but I personally think it is politicians trying to make a name for themselves. How does it make a name for yourself? But I think it's fear. They are. I honestly think it's fear.

What? I think it's fear. That they're going to be seen as not having done something and people are being you know killed newsome is on the news almost every day so much so that people get get off get off the news man like this guy is speaking every left and right he really thinks that he's the savior situation and i think that is where it's it's some sort of political gain situation in his mind and and it's control. Like, look, they're – by the way, I just found out recently, and I've been in this business for 15 years. I had no idea that our – we're considered independent restaurants, not franchised.

We had no representation. We had no lobbyists. The representation for the restaurant community is driven by big fast food chains. Well, they have no incentive to help independent restaurants, you know, McDonald's and all these people, which God bless them, but they're thriving in COVID. So we just get bullied around essentially because there's no lobbyists. And so we're kind of like sitting ducks in this situation. And I kind of feel like we're somewhat trying to be a voice here for the independent restaurant world. And it's not just L.A.

I mean, think about New York and L.A. were trendsetters, right? The country watched what happened in L.A. and New York, and they followed. And now L.A. and New York have just completely dropped the ball and everybody else is kind of rising up well they're examples of government overreach they're examples of government overreach without any thought whatsoever to these independent businesses it's a slippery slope yeah how much more is that going to happen that is a big fear well it's also a slippery slope because what happens if it doesn't come back what happens if you drive down melrose and those things stay boarded up what happens if downtown LA stays filled with tents?

Yep. What do you do? Well, how many restaurants are going to be able to come back? I mean, like I said before, we'll manage, we'll figure out a way. And to John's point, Governor Newsom actually did help with something.

I was trying to get a back patio done and there were a couple of health department rules and his office did step in and said, that's you should allow that make that happen and they changed the rule um that that benefited not just my restaurant but all big newsome fan over here no no i'm just trying to like i'm trying to i'm trying to split the difference like i want i want it to be an honest conversation of i think your policies are wrong. I don't dislike you as a person. Right?

That there's a big distinction. Sure. Okay? So that's all I'm trying to say. But I will say that, you know, on the reservation list, somebody's name that rhymes with spaghetti will not get a reservation. Okay? I'll do that.

I mean, I will say, I've spoken out about him and we got targeted pretty hardcore, openly. They targeted you? They came, health came every night when I finally could. Where are the permits

for alfresco? Where is this? Every single night. I'm like, you were here last night. Well, you know, we were instructed to come every night.

I said, okay. You were instructed to come every night because you talked out against Garcetti? And Newsom, correct. Jesus fucking Christ. And my thing is, I agree.

It's nothing personal. It's their policies, their arbitrary policies. How does it make sense that there's a million people passing through TSA a day? I looked up all the stats. How does it make sense that we can fly here, for example, anywhere, Austin, New York, whatever it might be, and go right back in the same day with zero issues, zero checks, zero anything. Yet outdoor dining is completely shut down. By the way, this is the first time in nine months I've left LA.

And the only reason, the way I got down here through JetEdge, by the way, thank you for a great ride. And Private Suite. And you guys are- The best. You're a big baller. You should use jet edge. Um,

but I'm flying back United tonight and, and you know, it's the first time in nine months that I've left LA. Um, and I'm not a science denier and I take precautions and I'm around a lot of people. When, when the patio was open,

I was around 150, 180 people a night, but you can go from LA to New York. You can take your mask down and eat. You can land in LA. You can go in a hotel. You can then go to a mall and go shopping. Okay?

You can grab some food to go. We could sit together and eat outdoors in the mall. But I can't go outdoor and eat at a restaurant that employs 90 to 100 people and keep a business afloat. We're not thriving. Outdoor dining isn't blowing the doors off of the revenue. It allows us to keep all of the people employed. It allows employees to make some money. We're paying payroll taxes. We're paying sales taxes. And we're just one little place. There's 30,000 restaurants in Los Angeles.

Now, one of the reasons they decided for shutting it down was they found that 10% of the restaurants weren't abiding by the rules. So, well, I would say then why don't you go to those 10% restaurants and shut them down or give them warnings to the point where they do come into line. So if they're not social distancing and they are not wearing masks and shields and they're not wearing gloves and they're not doing all the things that you've asked restaurants to do, well, then you can target them. But to shut down an entire industry because you feel like you have a couple of bad actors makes no sense. None of this makes any sense. And this is the first time we were talking about this before the show that people are realizing how important it is who the mayor is, how important it is who the governor is.

And the fact that the mayor is actively targeting you guys because you've spoken out against these fucking ridiculous draconian restrictions that don't have any there's no logic behind them there's no studies that obviously when you take them to court and they they show that the studies are about indoor dining and not outdoor they're lying so and they're coming after you like targeting you well we we all know that the biggest spreaders are right the distribution centers construction for some reason and i don't understand why, but construction is a really big number. So I just, I didn't mean to cut you off, but I was just like, I don't understand the logic behind it. And the thing that I keep seeing in my head is the abject fear of the employees because they don't know what's going to happen next. They don't know when we're going to

open. They don't know when they're going to get a paycheck, when they're going to get their tips. And we've kept on most of our people. We haven't let our people go. So it's costing the restaurant a lot of money. But it's a family and it's the holidays. And I don't want to be that guy that lets people go during the holidays. Yeah.

So, but when are we reopening? Are we going to reopen? Well, if you close, Thanksgiving was a super spreader event. Well, then I guess Christmas is. Well, it was supposed to be three weeks, right you closed, Thanksgiving was a super spreader event. Well, then I guess Christmas is. Well, it was supposed to be three weeks, right? So are you back open? No. No.

So that was a lie too. And they were openly lying about three weeks because when I would call the county, the inside that had the county is they were like, it's a minimum six weeks. I'm like, well, why are you guys saying three weeks publicly? We don't want pandemonium to happen. I'm like, you realize this is the problem there's zero trust and when they said it three weeks would have come right before holidays their whole point was to get past january 1st now i'm hearing they want to go till february or march and just keep it fully shut the

county order is over the county order the county order is over now but they're saying that the state order supersedes it because correct i icu numbers are high yes okay so if if thanksgiving was a super spreader event and they were protecting us against that then christmas is one then new year's eve is one so you got to figure at the earliest if we get lucky march january 20th maybe three weeks after new year's eve would make sense if we're lucky they have to stop lying and saying that they have science behind this honestly there's no you're not controlling this thing you either shut down the entire country marshall like no airports nothing shut everything down literally nothing or you can't just pick and choose what's going to be open or not. It literally makes zero sense.

And I don't know why no one has thought of this or is telling them this. I can't quite figure out who's advising these guys. I think what happens is once you make a decision and you do something, it's very difficult to say that that decision was wrong. Sure. No matter how stupid it is. Because if nothing's changed in terms of the virus's impact and the ICU numbers, but yet you decide to open up restaurants again, that means you're admitting that you made a mistake. Sure. Well, look at the numbers have skyrocketed.

We've been closed since November 25th. The numbers have continued to skyrocket. Yeah, there's almost 400,000 cases in the last seven days in L.A. Well, I saw a chart, and it said that the highest number they could attribute to restaurants at all was 3%. Okay, so that's a perfect example. And he said that the highest number they could attribute to restaurants at all was 3%. Okay. Correct. So that's a perfect example. So if you're not going to a restaurant that's licensed and says, okay, you can have six people or less and there's eight feet apart and all of the rules that we abide by. If you're not going to go to a restaurant, well, then you're going to have people over in your house.

And they're not abiding by the rules. Right. No. Okay. And there's not six people, eight people. It's usually 12 people or 15 people or 20 people. And look, we all know that the spread is coming from, you know, in-home dining. Yeah. Okay. A lot of it. People want to get together. We're social animals. We do not want to be isolated. You're not stopping families from getting together.

And we're seeing it. We see orders come in for 30 people, 40 people at homes. Like, we can't, you know, like, how is that okay? I don't know the numbers, but I know that we're doing it in larger pans and things like that. So it's not my job to enforce that, and I try not to ask too many questions. And I'm all for it.

I want people to have fun. At this point, it's insane. I don't see an end in sight the way it's going, especially in California. I see the end being people just mass exiting out of California. Sure. And they're already doing it. They're losing the soul of the state.

And I'm born and raised LA. I live and die for it. I have 15 places there. I have never left, and this is the first time I'm sad about the city and state that i'm from i have a real fear of it never returning yeah you know i've said i said that to my friends back in may and they're like you're out of your mind i'm like i'm telling you the foundation is eroding and there's no plan yeah to keep it alive there's no plan all when when they have the comedy store shut down they they literally wouldn't allow someone to be on stage inside and broadcast to people outside.

They had tables outside. They had these people set up outside. They let them have people outside and serve food and drinks. But they wouldn't let someone be inside on a stage and broadcast to a fucking screen outside. It made no sense. Zero. I was talking to Jeff Ross ross but last week who is by the way he'd be very impressed you actually have water and coffee he said he said you will

find nothing to eat or drink and joe should be embarrassed and i'm i'm here to tell you yeah i don't know he's making that up i don't know he's just fat and he needs food every five minutes okay fuck you jeff okay i'm part of the reason he's fat so easy on that i'm friends with jeff he knows i love him. And I love him too. So the thing is he was saying like at Saddle Ranch, which is right next door to the comedy store, they had outdoor dining in a parking lot and they were abiding by

all the rules. And the comedy store wanted to do the same thing. And they wanted to have a comic 10, 15 feet away. They wouldn't allow it. And they wouldn't allow it. And you're like I don't understand. There's no logic at all. And you go to stores and there's no there's one clerk there's no regulation of the 200 people in the store all half mask on have it bumping into each other it's it's madness madness yeah it's it's the most a restaurant can actually be controlled right yeah i'm not even

arguing for i own a bunch of nightclub stuff i'm not arguing for any of that i think we'd be safe in that regard i'm i'm all for the covid safety of what you can actually control but this is madness when you come here and you come to austin and you go to a restaurant yeah and you realize like oh you can actually eat at a restaurant here yeah you can go inside yeah and it's normal yeah i felt alive again it's crazy yeah no it was really weird we had dinner last night and we were inside and I was looking around

going, this is so bizarre. I felt like I was doing something wrong. I've taken friends to dinner that have not left LA and they've come here to visit and I've taken them to dinner and they have this look

on their face like they're like, someone need to come take us away? They're cutting their food up like they're Willy Wonka. I really think these health inspectors I feel like I'm in like, I now know what like

prohibition era it was. Yeah. Speakeasy life. Real similar. It's the same thing. I mean, I literally am afraid. I'm like going out the back door when I see a health inspector. I don't know what is going on here.

Well, it's the same logic. When someone has the ability to tell people what to do, then they feel like they have some sort of a right to do that. And they enforce these rules that don't make any sense. But they feel like they're right sort of a right to do that and they they enforce these these rules yeah that don't make any sense but they feel like they're right because it's written somewhere and this is the problem with human beings when it comes to power power is very intoxicating for people and when you have some sort of a situation like this where you have this pandemic where you can semi-justify the wielding of this power people will do it with impunity and that's what you're

seeing right now and i will say like he said, a majority of what this is a voice for the employees, 100%. But also independent restaurant operators, from small to big, a majority of independent restaurant owner operators are family owned. There's five-person families eating off of their one restaurant establishment they own, two restaurant establishments they own. They're scared to speak out one two if they get a if they want to speak out there's no one there's there's no outlet there's no one to talk to and i think that's this suppression uh is what's the strange situation that i see well there's also a very clear blowback like you're saying you're getting clear blowback inspected every night yeah that should be criminal it should be that's that's an abuse of power and you're clearly not doing this because you think someone's doing one of the wrong 100 right one of the things they and the guy felt bad he said i don't know i have to do this they keep talking

about is the fact that um the reason they shut down all of the restaurants was because they couldn't inspect 20,000 to 30,000 restaurants on a regular basis because they just didn't have the manpower. Yet they're at his place five, six nights in a row. Exactly. So it doesn't make any sense. It's like – That's so fucking dirty. That's corruption. I know it is.

That is corruption. And I think they think it was going to stop me or have me be scared. It's the opposite. I have nothing to hide. I have no skeletons in my closet. I don't care it was going to stop me or have me be scared. It's the opposite. I have nothing to hide. I have no skeletons in my closet. I don't care. They need to be called out. This can't happen to – I got into this business out of love, and I still love it.

And this whole scenario is maybe be like, should we move everything to places that want us? Dallas and Austin and Miami. I mean, that's how sad it is in L.A. and California. They're going to lose people that are at the top of their game in our industry and clearly in other industries as we've seen the exodus from all the other titans that are in other industries. Why? For what?

Well, that's how people feel about comedy clubs as well. It's the same sort of environment. Like people from – I've gotten phone calls from every major comedy club owner in this country trying to figure out how to open up in austin yeah because they're like we got to get out of la but think about it we're two people and we represent that like i said we're on a chain of about 40 people and we all feel the same way nobody's a denier nobody's saying there isn't an issue and we're all rule followers we're all willing to do whatever we can do to make sure that people feel safe that the county's involved

the city's involved and the state's involved and yet there is no answer we can give them to where they say okay that makes sense let's try it well i think it's because they're not being held accountable there's right there's no way right you can hold them accountable there's nothing you can do nothing you can do it's not like you know this is a democratic society right but it's not not with everything you don't get to vote on whether or not you're allowing outdoor dining it's not like you can present right evidence to the people like this is this is why it's safe this is what we're going to do and then you allow people to vote they would overwhelmingly here's the thing they were voting with their feet because when we were opening and we were open without door we were packed yeah to the to the to the limits that we were supposed to be yeah okay

not like it wasn't like insane right so yes they were voting so and and and here's the thing besides the employees that are just like heartbroken and they don't know where to go or what to do, a lot of us are feeling separated. We're all scared. It's a really weird time. The one thing we do in common is eat. And we normally do it in a social environment. Whether it's small, four or five or six, or it's bigger, it's the one thing that kind of makes us feel normal. And what I think we're realizing through this whole time is that we are social animals. We spend so much time on our

technology and our devices that kind of pull us apart. This time over the last eight or nine months has realized how much we actually need each other and how much we get from each other. What's it like being in a comedy club with 400 people and hearing people laugh and doing it together? That's a big difference than sitting in your home by yourself and being isolated and worried about a disease and just freaking out about your kids and your family and should I do this or should I do that or how am I going to pay for this or how am I going to keep my employees or how am I going to keep my business afloat? Like, the stress is almost worse than the actual disease. Yeah, well, that's the case with a lot of people. Suicides are up.

Drug addiction is up. Mental health is through the roof. Yeah, through the roof. Yeah, there's a lot of issues. There's vodka in this, by the way. There's vodka in that? Well, you can have some if you want. We have booze here.

But the unwillingness to course correct is one of the most disturbing things about this. Like the understanding that this is deteriorating these businesses, destroying small businesses, destroying restaurants, destroying bars, destroying comedy clubs, and no willingness to course correct or make some sort of, like find some sort of middle ground. And LA's being impacted hugely. But think about the restaurant scene in New York. I mean, it it's 30 degrees there and it's snowing and they're going outside but at least they can go outside they're still allowing outdoor dining yeah but at new york is allowing outdoor dining they are which is fucking bananas like why isn't la what explain

that to me i think back when this all started we all when everyone thought this was like the black plague and this is the worst thing ever, everyone understood shutting everything down. I think now that we've seen what's going on, I don't see why they can't correct it and say, you know, there's a safe way to do this. Well, not only that, the disease itself, because it's not what we thought it was going to be, particularly when you look at the deaths now, the deaths are way down low. The people that I know that have gotten it, like including Jamie, Jamie kicked it in a day. Yeah.

This is not something to destroy our entire economy for. I had it, and the same way. I'm not, but it affects everyone different. We're 100%, it's definitely something to be safe about.

With that said, is there a way to have there be safe outdoor dining like we've seen everywhere else? Yes. And that is the issue. But there's a fundamental failure of leadership because all they're looking at is how to shut things down. There's been no emphasis whatsoever on improving people's health.

Correct. No emphasis whatsoever on vitamin supplementation or improving your immune system. That's zero. Zero discussion of that. It's all power. Yeah. Okay, so if the argument is we're really trying to fight the disease and we're trying to lower the incidence of transmission.

Flatten the curve. Okay, flatten the curve. Then you take the places where it's happening the most and you get rid of those. But you can't. But you don't get rid of a restaurant business where, what is it, 1.4% transmission rate? That's the latest figure I heard. Well, I think what you're saying is very important that you guys are independent and you don't have lobbyists.

Because it seems to show, it highlights the real inefficiencies of this system or the real flaws of this system. All you have to do is look at Chipotle's numbers. Look at Chipotle's numbers. They're through the roof.'re through the roof yeah and god by the way god bless them and i by the way i'm a fan i like the food i'm happy for it but the but but the issue is is exactly that everyone miraculously groups that have lobbyists are going fine all filming is going by the way well you've seen that video i'm sure of the woman who has the outdoor dining area that's across the fucking parking lot from that she's getting shut down and they're setting up these dining areas these outdoor dining areas for motion pictures okay so i said i said okay

it's insane i understand it's unfair the film the film crew is being tested and that's why they're together she's suing newsome yeah i'm sued by restaurant over california coronavirus right but so here's it clearly doesn't care though. Here's the gray area. Why didn't they hire her to cater the event that was happening 20 feet from her place? Yeah. That way she makes a couple of bucks and you're

kind of like striking a balance. Well, they probably have some sort of union deal in terms of catering. I guarantee the amount of the required amount of recall numbers to recall Newsom is going to happen and nothing's going to happen to him. That's how rigged I think everything is.

Well, they did, they recalled Gray in, was it 2003 when Schwarzenegger became the governor? Yes. I mean, it can happen. And if things keep deteriorating, it can happen. People have lost all faith in him after that French laundry incident. The French laundry thing, I think people are laughing about it, and it's funny, but it's also, he just got caught doing that.

One time. How many other times? We all know his winery is open. Miraculously, wineries are an exception to restaurants. Well, in his county, in the area where his winery is, it's open. Sure. How's that fair? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense. It makes no sense. county in the area where his winery is sure it's open sure how's how's that fair yeah you know i

mean just it makes no sense but they're gonna they're gonna say that that the transmission rates and the the incidence of infections there are low yeah right so sure that's what he tried to say about the french laundry that it's a low impact he also said he was outside of french laundry but there's a fucking chandelier clearly there's a chandelier outside means stars above your head that's what outside means outside doesn't mean a fucking chandelier that's a roof bro no that's a roof that's not outside mirrors on the wall we see we see it all buddy yeah sliding glass door yeah that's inside look like a nice dinner though yeah look great yeah look great listen i i don't fault him for eating dinner neither do i i fault him for eating dinner in a restaurant.

Neither do I. I fault him for telling everybody else to not eat dinner and to be safe and to not do anything and to put your fucking mask on in between bites of food. At home. Yeah. And meanwhile, he didn't have a mask on at all. They're sitting right next to everybody. It's bananas.

The whole thing is bananas. Yeah, completely carefree. I love the fact that it's not even helping them. Like with Garcetti, Black Lives Matter is at his house 22 days in a row protesting. He couldn't have tried to be more progressive. It wouldn't be possible. He's bent the knee at every single chance he could. And they're like, fuck you.

We don't want you. Get out. Defund the police. He doesn't stand for anything. I just think the whole thing is being run by academics that don't really have any real-world experience. I don't know if it's academics. I don't believe it's academics.

I think it's bureaucrats. I think by the time they get... Bureaucrats is the key. With a complete lack of any... They have no desire to understand any aspect. But I think... Okay. So the bureaucrats are being...

Are giving their knowledge by the academics that have no real world experience. I don't even think they're getting knowledge from the academics. I don't. I think they're just

looking at statistics and they're making arbitrary decisions. And I think, here's the problem. There's no real consequences. I think if their income was directly related

to the amount of income of their county or of their city. They're all getting their paychecks. The Board of Supervisors that voted to shut. They're all getting their paychecks. The Board of Supervisors that voted to shut down dining are all getting their paychecks. By the way, good example.

Supervisor Kuhl is single-handedly the one that actually put the nail in the coffin for the shutdown. What does she do right after? She goes to a restaurant for lunch. Literally ate out the day she made the decision. The most dangerous thing you can do is eat at a restaurant and then went and ate at a restaurant. That's what's so bizarre about this, what happened with Birx.

She resigned now. She told people. I think she's going to help with the Biden transition and then whatever. Is that what she's doing? I thought she quit. I thought she just stepped down completely. I think she's going to help with the Biden transition and then whatever. Is that what she's doing? I thought she quit. I thought she just stepped down completely. I think she stepped down completely because the blowbacks were pretty substantial. Told people not to go anywhere.

Don't do anything. Don't go see your family members. Then went to go see your family members. It's across the board. They're all doing it. They all say, do as I say, not as I do. How does that make sense? Fucking bananas.

This is really clown world's it's it's this is really clown world and it's like and again this happened the the people that are paying the price are the people that can least afford to pay the price yes and that is the people that are lowest on the rung the dishwashers the bus boys the waiters and and and eyeing retirement after biden what day is this yeah this today yeah yeah? Yeah, yeah. I'm in retirement. Yeah, eyeing it. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. Good call.

It's like Garcetti came out saying that L.A. needs him, so he's choosing to not go to the White House. Sure, buddy. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, sure, buddy. Yeah. Dude, they're protesting outside of your house for 22 days in a row. L.A. will pay you to be gone, dude. Yeah, that is a very unpopular mayor.

And just a weirdly incompetent person. Yeah. Like the way he communicates is incompetent. It's just no one relates to that. Even the way he communicates, it's like it makes you realize what a fucking low talent pool it is. Yeah, it's sad. In terms of like the people that want to be mayor of LA. Oh, yeah.

It made me sad. I'm like, it makes me want to run. I just don't want to get involved in that. You know, I mean, it's like that is the issue. It's like this is who we have. That's our leaders. This is our only option. I never gave any consideration at all as to who the mayor was.

I never thought about it. I was just like, oh, the mayor? What's his name? Garcetti? Right. Go to the store. See ya. Go to this restaurant.

Go to Felix. I've never thought like it's so important Yeah, that you you have to like scrutinize every Potential decision they could make because if something goes wrong if the shit hits the fan like it has those people these fucking Incompetent morons right that don't have there's no consequence whatsoever for their poor decision-making right the only consequence is They might get voted out in a few years. That's it. And they don't care.

But here's the funny thing. It's like the city of West Hollywood, everybody from the mayor on down, they're not in favor of this. And they want our restaurants open. The city of West Hollywood has been excellent for the comedy store as well. They're fantastic. They just have no power. Yes. They don't have the power.

They're getting shut out. And the city of Beverly Hills has voted. They voted against shutting all this down but they just don't have the power because they are run by right the you know county health yeah i think that's the issue is the abuse of power you said earlier it's like to me you know it's because it's affected our personal industry so much it's been eye-opening on the the local politics you know up to state basically and i think that's the bigger picture is the fact that this can actually happen could happen to any industry could happen anyone if they if they they can flex this power when they need to yeah and i

think it's i really do think it's a small amount of people that are responsible for this i really do i think it's a small amount of people that have made poor decisions from the beginning yeah but decisions in the beginning that probably they thought were good decisions that we all would have agreed to. Because we did think this was going to be the plague. We thought this was going to wipe out a giant percentage of our population. It turned out to not be that. But there's been no course correction. And these people have dug their heels in.

And now they're exercising this newfound power that never existed before. The mayor's never had the ability to shut down entire industries. The governor's never had the kind of ability that they have now to decide who goes to school and who doesn't. I frankly don't even know how it's legal now. It's probably not. I mean, they could keep citing public health, but I'm not sure what the threshold is for it to be legal for them to actually shut down. Well, you would think if you're going to cite public health, you would need a mountain of data

to support your position. 100%. Before you can make this life-changing decision. So the county single-handedly decided to shut down restaurants. They said they had all this data. They went to court. The judge said, show us the data. They came back with nothing. Right. Okay? They lost. Because they showed data that was from inside a diner. No, there was no data. They came back with nothing. Right. Okay? They lost. Because they showed data that was from inside dining.

There was no data. They showed indoor. One piece. They got caught. Yeah, it was indoor dining. They got caught doing that. So yes, one piece, but it was indoor. And now they're appealing the ruling using an outside law firm that doesn't even work for the city.

But why would they appeal the ruling? Because they don't want to admit. Because what you said is they're not going to admit the wrong. Yeah, because if they admit that they're wrong, then they could be held responsible. If someone sues them, if all the restaurants got together and sued them for the lost wages and for destroying an industry, it would be devastating. The only way they can stay afloat is if they maintain this position that they're doing it to help people.

And then they said, you know, the big thing john and i hear and and and yes it does help a little bit but at least we left you with you know uh food to go and delivery that does not help that is complete bs but that's a lack of god bless craigs for making money on it you don't you do not make money on delivering to go it's a lack of understanding of the business yeah well it's also a lack of understanding of the margins that It's also a lack of understanding of the margins that a business operates on when it's a restaurant, even if you're full every night. But the delivery

services win. Oh, Postmates and DoorDash are winning. So if you look at it, you've got 30% food cost, you've got 30% labor cost, you've got 20% for rent, utilities, incidentals, insurance, all that other stuff. So at best, with no mistakes and everybody doing everything perfect and the refrigerator not breaking or the

plumbing not breaking or any of that stuff not happening, you might be at 15, 12% profit rate, right? Yeah. Maybe. But then Postmates, DoorDash, they come in and they take their piece. 18%. So you're losing on a good night. Yeah. There's no shot of making money. You're just kind of stemming the bleeding.

So Postmates takes 18% and you need 15%. If you're at full capacity, you're getting 15% profit. And then Postmates takes 18%. So you're losing three. At least. At least. Jesus Christ, that's crazy. That's why we—this last round, I mean, God bless Christ, we stopped everything except

for one of our barbecue, our slab place. Everything else, we've just stopped and just going to wait to reopen whenever that is, whenever Dictator Newsom allows it. You know, it's just—there's no point to—there's no point to fight this. See, he's right. You're defending the guy. Stop being scared, Craig. No, it's not there's no point to there's no point to fight this see he's right and you're you're defending the guy no it's not about scared it's like you're scared syndrome no it's not what's he gonna do arrest you no i actually he may do that to me no i actually move out of la he won't

have shit on you i like the guy and i just have there's something inside me that's like hoping that they're doing it for like you know? Yeah, you're out of your mind. That's why you're here, bro. You are out of your mind. I know. I'm out of my mind. You're just a good guy. Yeah.

Good for you for being so loyal to a friend that's fucking stabbing you in the back with a poison knife. Okay. All right. It's true, though. It's true. What were we talking about? If he makes a reservation at Craig's, are you having a meet there?

Honestly. Gavin? Yes. Are you first name basis now? I got you. reservation at Craig's, are you having a meet there? Honestly. Gavin? Yes. Are you first name basis now? I got you. Bro, someone's going to nuke your building. I'll put it this way. I won't allow the reservation for you.

I'll put a stop to that. You're going to put a stop to that? Here's the thing about that guy. The people that know him say he's a very nice guy. I'm sure he is. He actually is a really nice guy. And I actually do think he thinks he's doing the right thing. He's doing the wrong thing.

No, I think it's power hungry. I think he thinks he's going to be president. I think he thinks he's doing the right thing. He's doing the wrong thing. No, I think it's power hungry. I think he thinks he's going to be president. I think he thinks he's going to be president as well. And I think he thinks we're all idiots and don't see through that. Well, he's hired a crisis management firm to try to deal with what's happened, the blowback from the French laundry incident. I don't know if he'll be able to get over that because he handled it so poorly. You know what he should have come out and said?

Yeah, I like eating out too, actually. I messed up in that regard. There's a little statement of like, I should have uh if i had known so many people i would have stood up stood up and let's shut up and gone home but i didn't i just fucking parodied i ate a thousand dollar meal it was great yeah no listen you can't defend hypocrisy no you can't there's nothing he could have said what it is is it shows you the type of person that wants to be a politician in the first place yeah the type of person that wants to control people it also shows you how bad people want to be at social gatherings i don't blame him it's his friend's 50th birthday go yes but even the lie of it the lie is outdoors oh yeah the lie was so

deep that's you think there are no pictures? He didn't think there were pictures. That's the point. Someone took a picture from the outside. Literally, the thing that drives me crazy is Sheila Kuhl going to dinner

on the very day she voted to close them. Did you hear her excuse? What'd she say? She tried to say it's her favorite restaurant and she wanted to go tell them how sad she feels.

Claims she didn't eat. Pictures of her actually eating. No explanation to the staff, by the way. All a lie. Meanwhile, a couple days later, she gave an interview as to why she voted no. And she said she read all the scientific data that was given to her. There wasn't any. Yeah.

Oh, God. These dirty people. Well, that's who we're being led by. How is there no consequences for that this is what i don't understand well because people you know i don't know if they pay attention we need yeah we need more more like you to raise you i think i i think i don't live there anymore i know but yeah but you have a you have a plan we need people to actually be outspoken about it because the only way to do it is they have a fear of bad press, of bad even word of mouth essentially. Right now, everyone is being suppressed.

No one's not saying anything. From the beginning, once they realized what the actual disease was, it wasn't as dangerous as we thought it was. Still dangerous. Still, we need to be precautious 100 but they should have made an adjustment and protected the vulnerable people right they should have focused on isolating the vulnerable people protecting the vulnerable people shielding them from contact and from from infection that's what should have been done yeah and we should have opened everything else up yeah i mean look at the look, at the end of the day, there are people sick and there are people dying.

And I lost a really good friend and a mentor, the bartender at Dantana's, Mike, passed away from COVID early back in March and April. So it's hit me personally. That's why I'm not a denier. That's why I'm not saying that there isn't an issue to be dealt with. Well, I don't think anybody's saying that.

But well, that's the whole don't think anybody's saying that. Well, that's the whole point. So here's the point. If you make a case for opening up restaurants, you're an idiot. You're a denier. You don't understand the severity of the issue. Right. Instead of saying, isn't there a gray area somewhere here?

Isn't there a way of doing this smartly? Why aren't we investing the billions of dollars we're losing in tax money into testing efficiently so that these venues can open well i think there has to be a consideration for the negative impact on these businesses and the the health consequences of people being out of work and the mental health consequences the drug addiction all the things that go along with it you can't just look at the the impact of. You can't just look at the impact of the numbers. You have to look at the impact on the community. You have to look at the impact of what's the long-term health of the culture. You're destroying an immense part of the city.

Going out to dinner is a huge part of people's social life. They're like, what do you want to do? Let's go to a restaurant. People love it. It's probably one of the number one things that people like to do. They're like, what do you want to do? Let's go to a restaurant. People love it. It's probably one of the number one things that people like to do. Get together with some friends.

Yeah. Have some wine. Have some food. By the way, it was about the only thing you could do in, you know, it was July,

August, September, October. It was about the only freedom you had is to get together with your friends and go out to dinner.

It was about the only thing that was normal in your life. Yeah. I mean, you've got to miss all your comedy friends living down here in Austin. You've got to miss all your community back in LA. A lot of them are moving here.

They're all coming. Yeah. I don't blame them. It's like everybody's trying to figure a way out. I keep Saget out. I would keep... Oh, Bob. Dice?

I want Dice to move here. I want Dice to move. I love Dice. I want to see him walk around with sweatpants. Dice and I are brothers. I know you told me. We did. You were telling me the story. I want Dice to move. I want to see him walk around with sweatpants. Dice and I are brothers. I know you told me. We did. You were telling me the story.

Tell the whole thing. Okay, so for a while, I was an actor for a while, and Dice and I, he was nice enough to get me a role in a movie. You know, everybody says, dude, I'm going to hook you up. Nobody ever does. Right. But Dice did. Which one?

Was it Ford Fairlane? It was with, God, Don the Dragon Wilson was the lead. Oh, wow. Yeah, that's how big a movie this was. So anyway. There it is. Right there. Whatever it takes.

There you go. Yes. Wow. Wow. So Dice and I, we do the movie. He's at dinner with his parents. And he says, I don't have your name in my phone. And I'm like, Susser, S-U-S-S-s-s-e-r what kind of fucked up last name is that so he puts it in his phone and

and right then his mom's like head jerked up and she goes susser you know an owl and i go yeah why she goes how well do you know him i go i know him pretty well she goes you know he's got a tattoo i go yeah she goes what's the tattoo i said it heart. She goes, what's in the middle of a heart? I said, a name. She goes, what's the name? I said, Jackie. She goes, I'm Jackie. My dad.

That's insane. No, it's insane. 3,000 miles away and 40 years later, my dad was dating her, got called up in Korea, figured he was a paratrooper. he figured he wasn't making it back did seven jumps in korea uh and comes back meets my mom three weeks gets married never sees jackie again oh i thought maybe you were dice's brother or something so that's why that's why dice calls me his little brother wow but by the way that's also why my dad said don't ever get a tattoo but still you didn't have a tattoo but if you're if he didn't have the tattoo you wouldn't have the story yeah and he wouldn't find the connection there's no way it would probably

take a long time for you to figure out that's a movie by the way no and i remember back in the old like when i started at dantanas i mean that, that was the Sam Kinison era. Yeah, you can tell me that too. That's when it was bonkers. I missed that. Late 80s, early 90s, and he was on fire. Yeah, he was an animal. He was, by the way, the way he lived on stage is the way he lived in real life.

They fixed a bullet hole in this. I was furious because I went there. They cleaned up the comedy store when everything was booming over the last few years and it was killing it. they fixed the back sign because it was cracked there was a bullet hole in it i'm like what did you do that was sam kinnison's bullet hole sam and dice got in some sort of an argument so sam shows up pulls out a gun and shoots a hole through the fucking sign and to this day the bullet hole in the back is there but they fixed

the crack sign i'm like why would you fix that yeah that's sam kinnison the bullet hole in the back is there, but they fixed the crack sign. I'm like, why would you fix that? Yeah, that's awful. That's Sam Kinison's bullet hole. No, I know. But that's how wild that place was. He was pulling out guns and shooting signs in West Hollywood, in the parking lot. My only thing right now to stay positive is that whenever this comes back, it's going to be off the charts again. It's going to be nuts.

Roaring 20s-ish. It will be the roaring 20s of be off the charts again. It's going to be nuts. Roaring 20s-ish. It will be the roaring 20s of the 2000s. Yeah. I think it will be. It's just like, what's going to be, when does it switch over? Is it the vaccine?

Is it people relaxing a little bit? Is it more testing? Like, you don't hear much about Singapore, Thailand. Like, they've got it under control. Well, New Zealand has it the most under control, but obviously they're an isolated island but i have friends in new zealand stop travel they're fucking partying i mean they have no masks on they're going to restaurants they have no cases they they've done the best but they've also they live on an island and there's only four million plus people right are they allowing travel to and from

i don't believe so and i think if you do go they're very strict quarantines there's a girl who just got arrested she's a teenager she violated the restrictions of the cayman islands and she's going to jail for four months yes it's insane they have a 14 day very strict quarantine and she went out and they're like fuck you i firmly believe at this point it's not a controllable thing you're talking about a virus situation i think the i think the goal should be as much testing as much safeguards as possible i don't think you can just shut the world down treatment and then concentrating on immune response and health there are georgia college student who broke cayman islands quarantine receipt what does that say reduce sentence i'm gonna go bail her out let's go let's go get her out but you had it

i can't uncover it and add come here i did not do that oh wow she got a reduced sentence what's the reduced two months four months two months okay still 60 days well that's we should offer a job when we're open i want to go break her out feel bad for her i don't that's crazy i mean look i don't think she'd go to jail but it's crazy they should scare the shit out of her like you can't just go out like what if she got it when she spreads it to this this community that doesn't have it they've got a quarantine rule they do follow the fucking rule no if you want to go to the cayman islands it's 14 days but here was the rule we knew that flying down here we were going to see you we were going to get tested first and then we were coming in here we agreed to it we're you have to agree to certain common sense you know like if the

if the county came back and said listen we've kind of rethought it why don't we reopen it like 40 social distancing distance the tables have shields and let's see where we go, we would all be in. Yeah. Yeah. You know? Well, it's just one of those things where I just don't think they're going to do anything logical and sensible at this point. I think they're in defensive mode, and I think they're realizing that there's so many people

that are upset with them. And the only thing that they have over them is to maintain this power and to keep their rule. That's sadly true. This is even more bizarre. So we started doing some direct deliveries to not only cut out Postmates and DoorDash and the percentage, but also people actually enjoy seeing our servers deliver their food. Oh, sure.

And it's a moment in their day that's like something normal. It's the food that they like and it's a person that they know so they've been leaving um some extra big gratuities to take care of the staff during this time because it's christmas and everybody knows that it's that it's hurting so so restaurants have a really big impact on people's lives and and i think that that's hit home more for me than anything. And then people are always asking, I think they're asking John as well, it's like, what can we do to help you while things are? And I'm like, order food, order wine, order T-shirts, order Craig's Vegan Ice Cream,

order any of the products that people have and keep the restaurants alive until we can get past this moment and get back to operating. Because as far as I know, I i think 70 to 75 percent of all the restaurants have already closed yeah and i'm not sure how many are coming back that much yeah yeah 70 to 75 percent yeah and i really don't know who's come i i think there's gonna be very low comeback rate jamie what is it like in columbus uh closed day of uh 10 p.m curfew it's like what we were talking about earlier it's

boring not good no one likes it everyone's you know what's 1 p.m curfew but do they have indoor dining i can't confirm that i don't think so when i was there in july yes i don't know about now florida's wide open florida is crazy you can do a fucking arena there. It's insane. Yeah, they don't give a shit. They don't care. What are their cases like? Lower than California. What? Really?

Yeah, but, I mean, look, they have 24, 25 million people. Florida, California is 39, 40 million people. That's not that big of a difference. I agree. I mean— I agree, but they have a lower case situation. Now, it's run through Florida. You know hit months ago, so it's a little bit skewed. But I think that's kind of my point is that I don't think you can man-made – I don't think you can just control it. I think you can stop this thing. You have to just do a minute of precautions. There's a Dutch study that just came out that said the more you close, the more you force people together in unsafe areas.

Alex Berenson, who was on the podcast yesterday, used to write for The New York Times. That's his argument. And he's pointing out all the instances of places like California that have had the most strict lockdowns but have the worst numbers. Oh, yeah. You're literally forcing people into the worst environment possible correct to keep the spread of the virus down You force them together. Yeah, and you're like that's a smart analysis I don't know why that isn't more out there in our you know what I mean Like no one wants to be objective about this. Everybody has an opinion they start with it and then they dig their heels

Yeah, I would say I'd be the first one to say look of all the draconianaconian measures that California has taken, if it had knocked down the number of infections, I'd have been, okay, I'm wrong. A hundred percent. I'm an idiot. You were right. I'm sorry. Okay. It was worth it. A hundred percent.

But it hasn't. The numbers are exploding and we're locked down. Off the charts. Off the charts. Yeah. That's proof in itself. It's inverse of what they expected yeah well you're also getting people that are drinking more sure because they're depressed

and if you're drinking more your immune system gets shattered there's so many different things that are doing that are they it seems like on paper it should work yep but it doesn't and they didn't course correct no and then we're being forced not only are we out of business where we were forced to spend a lot of money through all of these different measures. So not only weren't we making the regular revenue that we were making, we were then spending money that we were supposed to spend. Then we were cut in half. Then there was a curfew.

And now it's just like... How about no one's talking about there's no plan to reopen? By the way, I get city officials calling me, asking me if I've heard anything. What? Yeah. They want to know if I'm hearing anything. From who?

Because you're friends with Gavin? Can you call Gavin up? What's with the first name basis thing? Call him up. I don't have his email. Yeah, you're about to call him by a nickname. No. If you see him, does he say, hello, Craig?

Do you shake your hand? I'm just not making it personal. Be honest. Does he order some vegan ice cream? Is that why? If you see him. I'm just not making it personal. You guys are making it personal.

Does he say, hi, Craig? Like, if I see you, I'm going to say, hi, Craig. This is a good question. I haven't actually asked. Like, if someone says, are you friends with Joe Rogan? You can say, yes, I'm your friend. If you see me. If you saw me walking by the street in two days, would you stop and go, hello, Craig?

Yes. Yeah, I think he would. Yes, 100%. Just like good old G would to you. First of all, Jeff Ross has spoken so highly of you for so long. We've been friends for 25, 30 years. And everybody loves your place. Your place is one of the most beloved restaurants in LA, for sure.

It's home for a lot of people. It is. It's that whole vibe is what I'm talking about. We live in a crazy world world even in normal times. Yeah. So to get together, to have a good time, somebody may sit down and across the way is somebody that they know and it's a party.

And it's fun and it's personal and it's all that good stuff. And guess what? We've all risen through the ranks together. Well, it's also, it trickles down from the top. Like you've sort of, you've developed this environment where you have this friendly, family, like fun environment. Well, that's one of the reasons why we didn't let anybody go during COVID. We've let the bus boys on furlough and the bartenders, but we've kept everybody else. Austin, Travis County moves to stage five COVID-19 restrictions just ahead of

Christmas. What does that mean? Just announced this. Wow. Just today? Breaking. So does that mean that. 20 minutes ago.

So does that mean like they. Restaurants move to 90% capacity. They might not allow people in them. They're saying. Really? Contactless. They're suggesting contactless delivery only. Maybe Newsom.

They're not, they're not forcing them to shut down. I was trying to read so I could explain to you quickly. I feel like the California officials came in. I actually think that the thought process is like, let's knock this down

for Christmas and New Year's and let's just see if we can slide by. Sure, I just don't think that that's the way to knock it down. Austinites are advised to avoid all gatherings with anyone outside the household and avoid in-person dining and shopping. Businesses, including retail and restaurants, are recommended to only operate

through contactless operations such as delivery, curbside service. They may have a curfew. Look at that guy. Paranoid. Knows it's coming. Yeah, he does. He's like, oh, man.

They're going to fucking... They're going to hate me hate me yeah i don't think they really know how to stop the contact particularly when it comes to the the holidays of course they don't i just don't think they know and i don't want to admit that they're throwing uh janet janet zugarini from uh felix said i think they're throwing a bunch of shit against the wall and hoping it sticks well Well, what did Alex say yesterday? What was his advice? What would he do if he was in power?

He said the lockdowns are literally the worst thing we could do. It's terrible for children. Children not being in school is devastating for them socially. It's devastating for their emotional growth. He's like, this is devastating for the economy. You have to take into consideration all the impacts. You can't just think about the health consequences or the the spread of the virus you got to think about the health consequences from people doing drugs being uh depressed suicides are way up there's a lot of factors here and he you know

he he actually made an argument that masks aren't effective yeah he's like they're just not it's like it's if you have one of those like serious n95 fully sealed on your face yeah he goes but people ran bandanas. Right. It's like, that's not stopping the spread of anything. Right. But it keeps people from thinking you're an asshole. Sure.

That's the best thing about a mask. Sure. Like, oh, that guy's got a mask. He's trying to do the right thing. Right. Like I said, we're both rational human beings. Like, tell us what to do. Tell us how to do it.

And we're going to do it. Yeah. And the problem is we go through all of these exercises at – I mean, the expense is enormous, and it's not helping. Yeah. That's what's so – Yeah, we've essentially rebuilt restaurants outdoor. Our own restaurant, we've basically rebuilt outdoor.

Yeah, that's what Felix did in Venice. They took over the back parking lot area, and it was nice to be able to go there and eat. I mean, everybody begged me to open up a second Craig's, and it was nice to be able to go there and eat. I saw you at Delilah. Everybody begged me to open up a second Craig's, and I did it right outside the first one. Yeah. Crazy.

I mean, it's nuts. That's the issue. Imagine a world where everything comes back to normal. How long does it take for these 75% of all restaurants to return? Does that ever happen? Well, it takes a lot of investment, right? A lot. So you need a lot of capital to get started.

Yeah, I don't think people realize how much it takes to actually reopen these places. And to keep our employees employed and not furlough them and not let them go. We got some PPP money back in May that lasted six weeks. And we used it, 80% of it was for payroll labor. I've reinvested almost what I invested in the first place 10 years ago to keep the restaurant open during this time. So it's not even, it's a tremendous amount of capital just to kind of get started. And then it's not just the capital to get started. It's you need a little bit of reserve in the bank because it's not linear, right? You open, you get busy, you have slow nights, busy nights, you're not, things aren't happening as efficiently as they should be.

But once you get up to eight, nine, 10 months, you know, the restaurants are efficient. You're rolling. There's not a lot of waste. People are doing things well and, and your costs come down, your profits go up. And then all of a sudden you've got a business, right? So there's going to be a lot of people that are going to gravitate towards their favorite places because it's like, it feels like a hug. And that's like, oh, thank God I get to be a lot of people that are going to gravitate towards their favorite places because it's like, it feels like a hug.

And that's like, Oh, thank God I get to go to this place or that place. Or to your favorite dish. Right. Exactly. So your favorite waiter. And then you,

and then you're going to start to try the newer places that are, that are coming back out. So how long will it take back to get back to years? I mean, yeah. And I have a feeling the, I have a gut feeling. These officials just,

I think they really don't think highly of our industry. I think they think there'll just be another restaurant that opens anyway. Well, that's what Trump said in the beginning. It's one of the things he said. That was such a crazy statement. Yeah, it's like, the restaurants will be open,

maybe it'll be a different owner. Like, what the fuck are you saying? Really? Welcome to my life. I've been doing this for 30 years livelihoods yeah and that's that's the problem that's the i think that's the part that people really need to understand it's just you know and to to your question i think a lot it's the this it's going to take the strong ones to survive it's going to be tough for most to survive it's going to take the really super successful ones that have a lot of capital have a lot of capital. Have a lot of capital

or just are going to have a, you know, if there's a will, there's a way type of attitude. Like there's nothing stopping me from having our places reopen. Will it be a challenge? It's not easy,

you know, but I think it's going to weed out a lot of people. And I think there's a lot of people, sadly, they're going to fall, you know, fall by the wayside,

unfortunately. It's just so strange that you guys who own successful places aren't given any information. I can't imagine that. None. I can't imagine that.

Zero. It doesn't make any sense. No, I literally call people and go, what are you hearing? And they're like, what are you hearing? And I'm like, wait, what? You're the one that's supposed to be looking. And I'm like, okay.

That's nuts. I'll call you if I hear anything. We got shut down and we had no previous warning no we're on the news but yet all these other places that have been proven to be the things that spread the virus the most they haven't shut down correct and that's that's the big question is it lobbyists is it money talking is it whatever it is it's insane to me. So do you think it's one of those things where they feel like they have to do something that shows they're trying to stop the spread of the virus? Part of it, yeah.

Even though it's not effective, at least they can show they're taking steps. And then they can say, this virus is out of control. And they take the weight away from their own decisions. And they just say, look, this is just a dangerous virus. We need more restrictions they don't they don't take responsibility for the fact the restrictions they put in place have been totally ineffective correct that's that's i think that's the i think that is definitely a big part of it i mean at the end of the day the virus's job is to spread right that's that's his job it's to go from host to host to host so just by but by shutting down

certain industries and not shutting down other industries i don't think that that's an effective way to do it and i'm afraid of what the next one is are they going to keep coming up with right oh we got a new strain we got a new there's a new stream right now in the uk you've seen that right yes and i i know the media plays it up and it's like, so every year, is there going to be, are we able to just shut down? Is that going to be the new thing? Like, when does it stop? The thing is, I think like we just touched on a couple minutes ago, we've taken away that moment of getting together with your friends and having a couple of laughs and forgetting about the world's problems for just a minute. You know, that social interaction where you have your favorite

meal in your favorite place and even if it's socially distant and even if it's you know all that stuff is all on the table they've taken away all of those moments and i don't know what it's doing to our like psychology i don't know what it's doing to like our brains because we're not allowed to see our friends and then what i've had to come in, and I think, John, I think we've touched on it, is there are some people that are like, oh, I'm coming tomorrow. We're great. And I'm like, okay, cool. And then there's other people I haven't seen for like seven or eight months.

And I just check in on text and I'm like, I don't make a judgment. That's what you feel comfortable doing. And I've had to become okay with it. In the beginning, I started to take it a little personal. But now I'm kind of like, okay. It's dividing a lot of friends and families. That's your level of comfort. Okay, cool.

Like I get it. But yeah, it's dividing a lot of people. There's some people that we were supposed to see over Christmas that I'm not sure they're going to want our family over because I'm down here doing this show. But if you get tested when you go back to LA, that's not going to be enough for them? Yeah. doing this show. But if you get tested when you go back to LA, that's not going to be enough for them?

Yeah, but I mean, like technically, I mean, I guess you're supposed to wait five days after, you know, taking a commercial flight. But you've come down here and you've come in contact

with all people that have been tested, all people that showed negative. Right. Then you're going to go back and you'll test negative. Right. You tested negative here

and they're still not okay with that. Some people are, some people aren't. But you have to go to the supermarket and stand right in front of that cashier and not have any idea. Will Gavin be over for the holidays? Your buddy? You're getting really cute. You know what I got to do?

I got to buy you a razor. Tell him to come by. That's what I got to do. I got to buy you a razor. Is this new? Yeah, I lost a bet. That's all new. I've never seen this, by the way.

What is the bet? I lost this. I bet one of my best friends. We had this weight loss challenge thing that we did. All we do is bet each other, and I lost. Well, that's a hell of a manly beard. By the way, so is the weight loss challenge. Who does a weight loss challenge amongst a bunch of guys?

All we do is bet each other and stuff. This is what happens during COVID. Oh, look at you. Oh, yeah, clean shaven. Look how handsome he is. I like you better with the beard. I'm going to tell you what. Gives me a little more edge, right?

Yeah, a little swarmy, don't you think? Don't trust that unsavory character. He's opening. What can be done that's not being done in terms of, like, the people listening to this? Yeah. I mean, is there anything they could do? Could they reach out to anybody? Is there a way that we can organize where there can be some sort of impact

from the people that are hearing this right now and listening to this and furious? Yeah. You know, I think he's, Craig said it earlier, I do think it's important to order, you know, to keep supporting the restaurants you love, the local ones especially the ones the ones that you love i think that my goal is to have people in their mind understand that it isn't as black and white if you challenge

this shutdown you aren't saying you're anti-coveted safety you aren't some big bad person that wants you know this thing spreading. It's quite the opposite. It's taking an intelligent approach to how to actually have an age-old industry keep going. And in my opinion, I think people need to have that mindset more and more and speak out to whoever. I don't know if there's a direct way to do any of this. There isn't an easy way to have a voice. I think that, I think the key is just having people's mindset change and as much as they can spread that, I think that's important. I think it's really important to contact, you know, we're so used to paying attention to the national politics that I think the local politics have become really, really important. So reaching

out to the LA County commissioners. Right now, if I literally canvassed 100 people, I guarantee you they probably wouldn't even be able to name one. And those inboxes need to be full with their emails. They need to get annoyed. They need to be able to call them. They need to be able to say, look, we're not

science deniers. There's a disease. We completely understand. But this is an outlet for us there's got to be a way to get going um and i think you know on a national level as well contacting representatives their voices need to be heard look all politicians want to get re-elected right so we have a voice yeah i also think you've got to give people the ability to make their own decisions this has never been the role of the politician to tell people how and how not to take risks right and what to do with their lives you know especially sensible well

thought out risks that have been mitigated as much as possible like social distancing like like making sure that you follow all the health protocols, making sure that restaurants are compliant. I mean, there's a way to do this. It's totally possible, especially with outdoor dining. There has never been, and I've been in the business 30 years. I've had my own place. January 12th will be 10 years.

There's never been an instance where a health inspector came in and said, clean that. I don't like the way that looks. Reorganize that. And it hasn't been done in an instant. Okay. We're rule followers. That's how we stay in business. All right. The last thing in the world I want to hear is that somebody got sick from eating at one of my places, right? So we're instinctively instilled with all of that, right? Safety is our first protocol. So driving people away from those institutions is insanity. It is insanity. How do you think this plays out?

Like if you had to guess, what do you think happens at the end of all this? I think they're going to keep doing these rolling shutdowns, sadly. And I think it's going to take a lot of uproar. I think it's going to take more of us banding together and actually putting a stop to how it's being handled. I think that's the only shot we have. It's not as optimistic as I would like, but I think if and when it ever opens again, ideally you get outdoor dining, safe outdoor dining opening in January, you know, even February.

And if I think proving it to everyone that it's going safely, I think is all we're really asking for now. And then eventually open the rest as more vaccines happen and more people kind of change their mindset toward it is what my optimistic goal would be it seems like there's a lot of restaurants so that don't have outdoor dining as an option that's the unfortunate i you know we have i have several places that can't open they have only indoor you don't have a parking lot you don't have a place in front you know it's it's a nightmare i don't know how that's fair either you know it's it's all it's all pretty it's it's it does not seem like a fair system that's going on and i know life isn't fair but i think it's crazy to be dictated like this look i i i think

that um we should spend a fortune or look they're spending so much money on so many other things why aren't they spending money and developing rapid testing rapid testing would eliminate a lot of the issues that were even talking about everywhere and have it everywhere literally at department stores at airports at restaurants that's probably the best way to do it well the rapid testing with that we're using here you could use that at your restaurant. 100%. Wouldn't be that hard. 100%. Wouldn't be that hard to have a station out front of the restaurant. Like, your reservation's at

8, you must get there at 7 to get rapid tested. Make that required. Make that a law. I don't care what that is. You get rapid tested. You drop your mask for a second. They swab you. You wait over there for 15 minutes. Oh, McDonald, party of two. You're good.

You guys are good. You had to use the word McDonald? I don't know. Really fast food? Really? Jack in the box, party of two. Another fat. You're good?

So, yeah, and then just like add it to the bill. It's just a part. Yes, yes. It's just a price of going out to dinner. My God, people would jump on that. 100% they would. 100%. The opportunity to go out.

Just give people the option. Yes. Well, give people the option. Yes. Well, this is the problem. Politicians have never been in a position where they can tell people what they can and can't do and make up laws. Yep. What I'm so shocked about is, and we both do it in the restaurant business, when we were busy, we were handling 300, 400 people a night. 300, 400 people a night. Of all the doctors that I've asked,

nobody has been contacted by the county to ask them their opinion. And somebody else said to me, well, they're not epidemiologists or they're not infectious disease doctors. They're doctors, right? So get them from across the board and ask them their opinion. How do you fight this thing and do it well?

If you're not getting guidance from the federal government, I don't care. We're a big state and we've got a lot of money and we've got a lot of resources and we're capable of tackling anything. So use the intellectual capital that we have and we've got enormous wealth. Yeah, I think the wealth is going to diminish rapidly after this pandemic is over, unfortunately. 100%. I also think California needs government that's much more friendly to business and understands how important it is to have thriving businesses, to have all the other things you want. All these other things that you want are dependent upon the tax revenue. The tax revenue is dependent upon successful businesses. If you have practices and you have decisions that you're making that are unfriendly to

businesses, you're going to lose all that money. And then what are you going to do? You're going to tax the rich? Yeah. Because this is how they're looking at it, this new wealth tax that they're proposing. So then you're going to have people just move. So then they're trying to say, well, if you move, we're going to tax you for the next 10 years.

Yeah. Well, good luck with that because that's not real. I love how Elon handled it, Musk. Yeah. I that because that's not real i mean i love how elon handled it musk yeah i mean that's the type of move we need more people's you know standing up to these people you've just had tesla move hewitt packard move oracle move i mean those are i mean huge companies huge companies and we're we're finding a you know as as we were closing the patio a lot of people were saying goodbye to us and i'm like goodbye what do you mean they're like we're leaving.

We're moving to Florida. We're moving to Texas. Or we're moving to Arizona. And I'm like, wait, for real? For good? And they're like, yeah, we've just had enough. We're done. Well, so many people are like, this is enough.

Fucking Kat Von D just moved to Indiana. Like, everybody's going crazy. It's one of those things where it's like, you were telling me about your friend out there who talked to Newsome and was saying, I'm moving because of you. There's been a lot of people that are really just down and upset that it's being handled so poorly. But it's not being handled poorly everywhere. Texas is recognizing that there is an issue. Obviously, this new COVID quarantine,

whatever the fuck they're calling it. What are they calling it? I kind of feel like we're fighting for our lives here in a lot of ways because I feel like California is handling it so poorly that if something doesn't happen, I don't know how this industry is reopening the way it should.

They're not even talking about how to reopen. And also when we got shut down right at Thanksgiving, you know, a lot of people had to lay off a lot of people in our industry. And there was no, like, number for unemployment or no rapid way for people to get taken care of. So you've basically, a lot of restaurants laid off all of their employees the day before Thanksgiving going into the holidays. So there's no like thought process of like, well, how's that going to affect the 400 or 500,000 people that are employed by the restaurant business? I am one of the fortunate ones that have chosen to keep most of my people on. Most people can't afford to do that. So how are you helping those people?

There's no consideration. It's almost like there's too many decisions to be made across the entire state with all the different businesses. There's too many decisions to be made and they don't have the answers. And so they're just digging their heels in. But other states, as you said, other states are handling it better. Yeah. Well, it's unfortunate that it's been these Democrat-run states because I agree with them on so many different things. Right.

So many social issues. But then when it comes to the way they handle business, it's fucking terrible. Yeah. It's really terrible. It's terrible what's going on. Yeah. I mean, I am happy to pay my taxes. I always know. I am happy to make sure

that other people are being taken care of that are less fortunate. I, I totally get it. But you have to enable us to operate for us to be able

to contribute. There has to be a balance. Right. Yeah. And how do you think this ends? Like, um, I,

you know, I actually think that, that probably outdoor dining will resume, uh, at some point, three to four weeks after New Year's Eve, because that's considered another big super spreader event. Right. So it'll take about three weeks for that to crest, I think. And then I think outdoor dining resumes in some aspect. Hopefully the vaccines start to take effect.

That might be our only hope. That might be the only hope. And then hopefully things start to open back up maybe in April and May, and then June, July, it really starts to kind of feel like we might be past this in a large point, unless you get another strain that's different that is resistant to the vaccine,

and then you're looking kind of like right back where you were. Shut down. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know. That's scary. It's a scary thought. I am an optimist,

and I'm hoping that that's kind of the road that we're headed towards. Have you considered moving? No, I haven't considered moving. I have considered, I always said I'll never open up another craigs but that thought pattern has changed so uh we're looking at other cities to maybe open in um and diversify a little bit um and then craigs vegan is you know it's weird

even meat eaters you know they're this new term called flexitarians where we you know people are meat eaters. They eat eggs and milk and all kinds of stuff. But if they're looking for a way to cut back, they usually look for a non-dairy dessert or something like that. So that industry is exploding. So the ice cream is doing really, really well. Sales are great. And then we're opening up a scoop shop at the Resorts World in Vegas.

And it'll be kind of like the first vegan ice cream scoop shop, which will be really, really cool. How did you formulate your ice cream? It's made out of cashews. But, I mean, did you work with someone? Oh, no, no. Do it to taste? So our chef, Kirsten, is great. And, by the way, I want to give a big shout out to the kitchen and to chef.

They've had to deal with, if you think about it internally, our crews. What they've had to do with if you think about it internally our crews what they've had to do they went from a complete shutdown yeah they were preparing food to go in the middle of a pandemic in march and april when nobody knew anything and they were still showing up for work yeah and we were doing deliveries and to-go's just to make people feel comfortable and they were scared and they were doing it. And then we reopened for 10 days indoors. So we were doing to-go and indoor. And then we did outdoor and to-go and delivery. So Chef has done a masterful job of kind of like-

Navigating. Yeah, pulling it in and out and navigating. Our chef's side too. It's been insane. And by the way, this is not easy. This is not just a machine. These are people and they're scared of Our chef's out too. It's been insane. And by the way, this is not easy. This is not just a machine. These are people and they're scared of getting the disease as well.

And they're trying to adhere to all the new protocols of the health department. Masks, gloves, social distancing. While they're prepping our, you want your salad with no garbanzo beans and tomatoes and you want it chopped and you want your fish grilled. All those special orders are all being taken care of. So they've done an amazing job.

And then we just noticed that about seven or eight years ago, we put some vegan items on the menu because some of our customers were demanding it, and more and more people started to ask for it. And so what we were realizing was if you've got a group of six people and one is a vegan, they're the one that makes the decision where you eat. So we were like, well, we want a diverse clientele and we want them, let's not give them an excuse to go somewhere

else. So we started making vegan entrees that turned into a whole vegan section of the menu, which makes up about 18% of our sales. So it's not insignificant. And then we wanted it to be a complete meal. So we came up with a vegan ice cream and chef just kind of buried his head in the books and figured out how to make ice cream. And ice cream is essentially fat and sugar and it's the combination and that's what makes it so delicious. So you're using like cashew fat like right so we're using cashew butter and we've reduced the amount of sugar so it's rich it's creamy and it gives you that like satisfaction but it's got no animal products and it's a third lisher so um you know we're we're the base of the shake it's certain you know hamburger fat

burger has been great we're rolling into johnny rocket's we're at some of the shake at certain, you know, hamburger, Fatburger's been great. We're rolling into Johnny Rockets. We're at some supermarkets, Gelson's, Air One. That's amazing. You're at Fatburger? Yeah. So if you go to Fatburger and you order a vegan shake, I mean, it's unbelievable. And it's a third less sugar.

Uh-huh. Wow. And then we're on to it. How are you pulling that off? Are you using Stevia? No, no, no. It's regular sugar. It's just... Look, you know, Halo Top made a decision to do high protein and low sugar, right?

So they made a certain product. Some people enjoyed it. Some people didn't. What is Halo Top? Halo Top was an ice cream that was like really hit about two years ago because you could eat the whole carton and it was only 200 calories that sounds like hell i wasn't so but but i think that they gave up you know so our product has great flavor and great texture and so we just you know chef we kept playing with the values and we kept just tasting and tasting and tasting it so um the

great thing is you go on craigsvegan.com and people are shipping it all across the country and we deliver it on dry ice. So good vegan products are kind of, I would say an LA, New York kind of thing. I think they've started the trend. And so a lot of the places in the middle of the country haven't been able to kind of get their hands

on really good products. Whole Foods obviously has a really good cross section now.. Whole Foods obviously has a really good cross section now. Trader Joe's has a really good cross section now. So we're just kind of rolling out nationally. So we've used this time during COVID to kind of pivot into, okay, well, I guess we'll do food to go. Okay, well, I guess we'll do outdoor dining. Okay, well, I guess we'll put our foot on the accelerator

on craigsvegan.com and let's just see where we can go. So it's made me more resourceful. It's made the crew more resourceful. I mean, like I said, what the kitchen's been through and what Chef's been through, it's just been incredible. And I give a big shout out to all the restaurant workers that especially in March, April, and May that were coming to work every day when we didn't know as much as we did about the

disease. And people were really worried about dying. And we were hearing people about on ventilators and we didn't have, um, ways to mitigate the disease and they were still showing up for work. And these are the very people that are being hurt by the shutdown now. Yeah. So that's what really fires me up. Like these are the people that risked their lives to go to work to make sure that people were being fed and the way you're paying them back is by shutting down their industry. Now, do you have other things along with Craig's Vegan Ice Cream?

Do you have like ice cream sandwiches? Do you sell in a bunch of different products? No, so we're going to kind of get into that development of ice cream sandwiches right now. So the scoop shop at the resorts world will have shakes. We'll have floats. We'll have sundaes. We're going to do vegan cookies. We make an unbelievable vegan bolognese that people eat.

What's the meat? It's a product called hungry planet and so it's all plant-based and are you vegan yourself uh i was vegan until the pandemic the pandemic switched you over yeah i mean i've lost 28 pounds depression causes during the pandemic yeah depression has just cost weight loss. So what am I eating? Not much of anything. But that's the way I deal with stress. Just from stress?

Yeah. I think you could probably take a poll and say, okay, people have either gained 25 pounds or they've lost 25 pounds. A lot of people have gotten heavy on the alcohol, unfortunately. Yeah. And I'm trying not to medicate my way through. I'm trying to use this as a way of saying, okay, how can I use this as an opportunity to either be a better leader? Yeah. How can I get our people through this?

How do I get the restaurant to survive? How can I speak up for an industry? It's not about Craig's. Craig's will be fine. It's about our employees, it's about the other restaurants, and it's about the little mom and pop shops that don't have a voice. It's also about the decisions that are being made that affect you.

You have no power over yourself for the first time ever. And there's no place to go. Like John said, you're the only one or few that have said come on and let's talk about it. And we have a lot of outlets and I've never, you know, and you're right. So what happens when you reach out? You know, they go down the road and then they all don't want to do it.

And they come back and they say, look, we just can't, whatever, you know, editor or media person or whatever. It's like the superior doesn't want the backlash. You know, whatever it might be. Where is the backlash coming from at this point? I think the general public is aware of what's going on, that you've lost 75% of all restaurants due to this arbitrary decision. I think there's a lot of public out there,

and I don't blame them, that are very scared of the virus, and that's fine, but they're not looking at it in the way of there's this balance. And so there's that, and then, yeah, they don't want the backlash from the officials, from government officials, which is crazy to me. But the other point, too, and I know John has done this as well, is like I said, it's not just about us. It's about the mom and pops. It's about the employees. But we're also donating food to Cedars-Sinai to help the frontline workers.

We've donated food and ice cream to Children's Hospital. We've donated ice cream to Children Mending Hearts, to charities. We're actually in the middle of this pandemic, also a resource for these people and paying it forward. We're not blind to the sacrifices that people are going through. It's not just about our industry. We're all in this together. So Cedars called on Saturday night and they had a flex

and they had a lot of patients and they had more employees there than they thought they were going to have. And she was like, I know it's seven o'clock. I know you're busy. Do you have anything? And at 9.30,

they picked up 100 meals to feed frontline workers. And that's.30, they picked up 100 meals. Wow. To feed frontline workers. And that's not a pat on the back for us. The kitchen. I'll pat you on the back. All right. The kitchen actually came through in the middle of a rush.

And did it. That's amazing. But so it's about all of us together. It's not. The restaurant industry provides so much. Yeah. The chefs have been rock stars. They're unsung here. Our chefs have been insane.

To navigate this has been absolutely insane. Between closing, opening, delivery only, outdoors. I mean, they're complete rock stars. But what dawned on me is the trickle down on this closure. You know, I was in an Uber in LA and the guy was so down. I was like, you doing okay? And he's like, well, you know, he didn't know who I was. And he's LA, and the guy was so down. I was like, you doing okay? And he's like, well, he didn't know who I was. And he's like, yeah, the restaurants.

He's like, I got to leave town. They're all closed, so I have no business. And I realize how many people it affects. Janitor services. Yeah, obviously everyone knows chefs, waiters, bartenders, all that. But there's so much that it extends to that this industry is keeping people going business-wise. The lack of – the complete disregard for all of that from officials is what's driving me insane and why I'm so angry. I was talking to the –

Take a look at it. I was talking to the flight attendants and the pilots and I'm like, what are you guys going to do now? And they're like, well, we got to find a place to eat. Like that was never a we just would go out to eat or we'd find something we have to actually it's so late we have to find a place that we can actually get food and how much this is forcing people to eat unhealthy

unhealthy because they have to go to these fast food places unhealthy and it's also causing underground quote-unquote underground type establishments to happen so happening which are oh Which are unsafe. Oh, yeah. Tons. Do you have like a password to get into a restaurant? Knock three times? No, but there's people making sandwiches

and they're selling them online and who knows where they were made? Who knows how they were made? And it's also driving people to gather at places. There's chefs at houses and they're having 50 people. Just hiring a chef to come in. Hiring a a chef there's people doing it for for business out of houses you know illegally doing it but it's that's what everyone's being driven towards but the

interesting thing is so so it's it's also thinking outside the box not just for us in the restaurant business but for everybody so netflix is a is a really good client and they're and they're great so they've got a bunch of premieres they've got a bunch of movies that they want to. So now what we've been doing is virtual premieres. So we've been, we've been creating with chef and our events team, these boxes that get delivered to people's homes and it may be a hundred people on the same day. And so they get to eat the same box of food from Netflix while they're, you know, watching the premiere of a show. And so that whole end of our business is kind of increased. It doesn't make up for what we do on a regular basis, but okay, that's a new kind of a

thing. And it's a new way of doing premieres. And I wonder if the old style of premieres are going to come back because the celebrities that are in the show, they just get to Zoom in, right? Promote whatever they're promoting. Everybody gets to eat the same food from their favorite restaurant. They're not in the same environment. And so I wonder if that's going to change.

It's not the same thing. That would make me sad if premieres don't come back. I agree, but I don't know what it's going to do. I don't know. But what agree, but I don't know what it's going to do. I don't know. But what's interesting is like, you know, Netflix, Warner Brothers, Universal, they've all decided to kind of figure out a way to promote their products in a different way and also help support the restaurants that, you know, they like doing business with. Yeah.

It's devastated the comedy community. It's devastating. I know. Devastated. Yeah, we're close with them. No, I like doing business with. Yeah, it's devastated the comedy community. It's devastating, I know. Devastated. Yeah, we're close with that. No, I mentioned the other day, I spent some time with Chris Spencer and I said, what are you doing tonight? And he goes, oh, I'm doing a little gig

on Ventura Boulevard. I go, what do you mean? He goes, well, it's a little outside thing and there's like, I don't know, there's 20, 25 people. And he was so excited to just have a mic in front of his face and to be out and about.

And then we were talking to our good friend Jeff, and Jeff's been on the road for 30 years, performing all over the country, and he said to me, there's a part of me that it's kind of nice not to be in a suitcase on the road all the time and taking this little bit of a break. But he goes, I'm not one of those comics that needs a microphone in his face to be happy

all the time. But I'm jonesing for it a little bit. So it's interesting how everybody's kind of taking it differently. Yeah. A lot of comics don't realize how bad they love it until they go and do it again. Yeah. I did a gig with Ron White out here a few weeks back and he hadn't done any stand up in eight months.

And he's like, you know, I think I'm kind of retired. And he goes on stage and kills. And then afterwards, he grabs you by the shoulder and he goes, whatever we have to do, we're doing this again. He got his fix again. And he's like, you realize people love having a good time, whether it's having a good time at a restaurant, having a good time at a comedy club. You're taking away a big chunk of their life enjoyment. It takes away from their quality of life. It takes away from their socializing.

It takes away from their mental health. It's a big impact. And it's not something you can just diminish just without any consideration. Yeah, I'm here because of Dave and Sina and their team. And I've been begging them, like, when are you going to come back in L.A.? It's like why why come there no no there's no there's nothing we can do shows for right it's like it's set we just drove

away all these people all these great comics that want to be doing stuff in LA I mean that's what we're known for and I most I miss those interactions like when they come in the restaurant and I mean to just get told off by one of those guys or just have like a sharp little like right between the eyes yeah I I missed that moment.

I'm like, fuck you very much. And there's your table. Like, you know, like I missed that moment. Yeah. It's fun. Yeah. It's, it's devastating to the store. The store is, they don't know what to do.

And there's no indication whatsoever that they're going to get to open up anytime soon. I mean, it might be literally, might be six, seven months before they're allowed to do outside shows. I mean, who knows? Well literally, it might be six, seven months before they're allowed to do outside shows. I mean, who knows? Well, I know that from, like, you know, from concert venues and things like that,

I don't think they're even booking shows until September 2021. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I have some stuff booked in New York in October of 2021, and I'm like, maybe. Maybe.

Maybe that's real. But there's a lot of people that are doing virtual stuff. I know there's a lot of virtual shows over, like, New Year's Eve, New Year those are off day like i don't know but you know what people are starved for most talent doesn't don't want to do virtual shows though no you don't get the interaction but at least at least it's something it's something to look forward to it's something like you get to like look you know if you want to see your favorite people at least you'll tune into something like we're so deprived right now yeah of everything that you're willing to like you're willing to do think about it if i said to you two

years ago so and so would be on zoom and you could buy tickets you'd be like right why are they doing that yeah yeah it doesn't make any sense i'm look i'm hoping that this vaccine uh opens things up again that's i'm hoping but i I just don't think that these, the governors that have been particularly draconian, I don't think they're going to lighten that up. I think that's who they are now.

I think this is a real problem. We've let a genie out of the bottle. We need more voices telling people how it is. We also need more pro-business, some business-friendly politicians to run. People who realize, like, hey, fuck this. This is really affecting our communities.

This is really affecting our livelihoods. It's affecting our businesses and our mental health. I'm not going to stand for it anymore. I'm going to run. We need more of those people. That's a big thing I'm going to get behind is the next people running. Well, we all need to do that. It's a important aspect.

It didn't seem like a big deal. I agree. Whoever the governor was or the mayor was, like, look, I'm busy. I put my nose to the grindstone. I'm going. I'm not paying too much attention to them until they, like, the record skips. Like, what? I can't work.

Who the fuck are you? Like, a person is telling all these people they can't work, and it's based on what? They don't have to tell you. They don't have to tell you. They don't have to show you. Follow the science. We trust the science. There's no such thing as the science, you fucking asshole. Exactly.

Like what is that? What is the science? Right. That's not even a real term. No. Essentially, the governor abdicated all decision making to each individual county health inspector. He just kind of threw his hands up and said, okay, I'm not going to make the decision.

They're all going to make the decisions. So, you know, we're open or closed based on one person's opinion. It's bananas. Literally insane. And here's the really- It's got to be stopped. But here's the worst part about it.

Is I've got people that go down to Orange County, Laguna, Newport. They stay for the weekend. They eat in a hotel. 30-minute drive. They eat in a restaurant. Yep. And they come back to LA?

Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy. Crazy. So what they've done is they've just pushed all of that money out of LA County. Well, they've also reinforced this idea in a lot of people's head that have leaned right, that are right-leaning people, that the Democrats are not business friendly. The Democrats are not going to support them.

The Democrats... It's pretty clear. Yeah. Huntington, Laguna, those are all red areas. Yeah. Yeah, it's sad that that's what it's come to. Yeah, it's a real eye-opener. And it's one of those things where people that were always wary of government are now, like, super paranoid.

I mean, I am now. You have to be. I mean, how many businesses do you have running that have stopped? 16. Jesus Christ, that must be insane. Insane. And, you know, some I have no hope. You know, three are nightclubs, for example.

I have no hope. 2022 be able to open night 23 maybe right maybe yeah you just you just wake up and you try to navigate like how do i how do i lead also minefield also our you know my employees don't want to see me moping around going oh my god i don't know i don't know what's gonna happen so i'm kind of like don't worry about it we're gonna get through this i know we're gonna get through this and I know we're going to get through this. And when we come back, we're going to be stronger. So stick together. Stay positive. How do we do a house party?

How do we do catering for Netflix? How do we sell more ice cream? How do we do more food to go? How do we sell more t-shirts? Like we're doing Christmas gift box. We're doing New Year's Eve boxes. So it's like New Year's Eve in a box. Like how do we get more of that going?

We started a COVID testing company. I mean, that's how much we pivot. Well, see, that is the immediate short-term solution. The immediate short-term solution is allow rapid testing. You guys could still be open. It's not that difficult to do. It's all available. Now, we're not talking about the technology of eight, nine months ago.

We're talking about what's available right now. We have this whole COVID testing company, went i went to the county about this i said just have us let us be able to require testing no why don't know exactly that's why it's nonsense that's why it's crazy how about invest invest to make it cheaper yeah quicker and more available yeah makes sense to me. Well, I think there's a lot of people that just as it is would accept the additional charge to their meal. 100%. 100%.

They would just be like, look, we want to go out. We'll just factor in the extra charge of the COVID test, and we'll go. Again, you show up at 7. You write your name down and Show your driver's license. They mark down what your temperature is. They test you. You're negative. You go on inside.

You have a couple of drinks. You sit down like a normal human. It's possible to do. We have a drive-thru for it. Hundreds a day go through it at Peppermint, our place. It's a drive-thru testing. That's how much the demand is. And I don't know why we're not amping that up around the city and county.

It's because these people have too much to think about. There's too many decisions to make. And I don't think they're really that competent. Right. You know, I mean, that's what we're finding out. That might be the real problem. When you have someone like that woman who decided to shut down outdoor dining and then go to a restaurant, that should be it for you. But by the way, there's no incentive because she's getting a paycheck.

Exactly. Exactly. All of them are getting paychecks. We were talking about before that if the paychecks of the politicians was directly dependent upon the income that was coming in from the businesses being open. If they had like really had an incentive to keep these businesses thriving because they actually benefit from it financially. I agree. That's what we need to do. And I'm just hoping that they see that this spike wasn't a result of dining and wasn't a result of some of the businesses that they've shut down. That maybe after the first of the year, they start loosening some of these things and start really kind of thinking outside the box.

Well, call your bestie. Call your bestie. Call your guy, dude. I don't have direct access. Just show him that inverse situation. By the way, I love this. He's got more direct access than I do. I do, and I'm speaking very candidly about the fact that this guy doesn't know what he's doing.

And if he does, it's because he's trying to get a name for himself. And he's got to be stopped. Well, the fact that you've spoken out and they've visited you every single day. That's why I'm really angry. Oh, my God. That should make you furious. That has the opposite effect because you're not

breaking the rules. Right. So all you're doing is being harassed. Yeah. And so they're doing these strong arm tactics but they don't really

have a leg to stand on. Right. They couldn't do anything, yeah, in that regard. But they came and threatened and every single night.

Literally, didn't miss a night. Nuts. That should be criminal. Crazy. That should be criminal. It's why I'm so angry, because it's like,

is this causing people to be scared to speak? Like, what's this? I mean, I hate to say this, but like, what society are we living in? Like, literally, what society are we living in? Well, it's not just that. It's also extremely incompetent, because there are 30,000 restaurants that are open.

If they're visiting you every night, that means there's probably violations they're not catching. A hundred percent. Yeah. Well, that's, that's the whole point. Like you're going after, we're the rule followers. Yeah. You know, go, there are, if, if, if what you're saying is the reason we closed you is because

10% of the people weren't following the rules, then why don't you stay on that 10%? Yeah. You know, and, and, then why don't you stay on that 10%? Yeah. You know? And help us stay open. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like literally watching Chef Kirsten go through every day trying to figure out what to make,

who's on the payroll, who's available, what's the schedule, do we have an event, do we have an outside event, Are we open? Are we closed? It's literally like a tiger by the tail. Well, listen, shout out to all the people that are trying to do it the right way. Shout out to all the mayors and all the health department officials that it's not their fault.

All the people where the West Hollywood folks that are really trying to help businesses. By the way, couldn't be a more pro-business friendly place, City of West Hollywood. I pretty much only want to be open in West Hollywood. Really. I hear nothing but good things. It's by far the best. Lindsay, Mayor, first name basis, by the way.

And I can get to her. They need more power. And Paul Arovalo. That's the truth. Everybody at that city, from the plan checkers, building and safety, fire department, everybody went out of their way to make sure that we got our patios open as quickly as possible. Tell Lindsay to run for mayor. Mayor of the whole city. I like that.

Yeah. I like that. Yeah. Or governor. There you go. Yeah, or governor. There you go. Jesus Christ. We'll start it right now. Well, I think we really do need something to change in terms of the way people look at government because this has opened up

a lot of people's eyes that it is important. I want Caruso to run for mayor. He's a type that would understand both. Rick's a really good operator. First name basis, by the way. Type of guy. Text him after the show. We're shipping him some ice cream.

But he gets it. He's an operator, but he's also a safety guy. Yeah, we need a runner. And he gets it. Well, let's hope that the politicians that are making these piss-poor decisions, that the new ones are going to learn. I mean, that's what I'm hoping, that we're going to learn from this pandemic. And if something else does happen down the line, we'll be much better prepared for it.

I just I'm really worried about places like California that have gone so far down the wrong path that I just don't see how it corrects course and comes back to some sort of a rational. I agree. Well, I'm also concerned about all the people that are leaving LA. I'm also concerned about all the people that are leaving New York because those are the people that spend money in places like mine and John's and other mom and pop places. Those are the people that keep our employees employed. Right, because those are the people that can leave. But it all-

Exactly. There's a lot of folks that don't have the resources to just pack up and leave. Yeah, they don't have these resources. They can't fly private suite. They can't do these things, essentially. And so everyone's forgetting about that fact. That's where the masses are. Well, especially to just get up and move your whole household.

Totally. And move your business. By the way, I love L.A. I love living in L.A. I think it's a great city, and it's diverse, and it's it's fun and it's energetic and it's got comedians and actors. It did. People always say to me, how do you get the crowd you get? And I go, it's just a part of the community.

It's just an interesting community. True. So it's a blast. And by the way, everybody that goes in there that's famous, we met. They weren't famous. Right. Right? You're not born famous.

You're not born being top of the heap comedian. You busted your ass together. And you work. So I've been doing this for 30 years. We've known each other forever. Right. I was a 22-year-old idiot running around town, not sure what I was going to do. I didn't know I was going to have a restaurant called Craig's.

But we've all kind of come up together, and we all support each other. Well, that's one of the beautiful things about restaurants like yours, or like Dan Tana's, where you go there, and it's this crazy, melting pot of generations. I'm actually scared of historic

places that are going to not be able to reopen. Troubadour, yeah, places like that. There's a lot of legendary ones that no one's talking about that are at risk of not being able to reopen unless they're saved. You know. I was just watching. So I watched the thing on Showtime about the Comedy Store. And I was thinking, like, if you didn't have open mic Mondays, right, nobody would have had a voice. Right.

Nobody would have learned their craft. Yeah. Nobody would have had a place to fail. Yeah. Right you know you you know you go to a restaurant i remember going to dantanas i i literally i was an actor i had six bucks in my pocket i was invited to dinner i couldn't afford anything on the menu except a light beer i ordered the light beer for 350 and i made some sort of lame excuse as to why i couldn't stay for dinner right I had no money. And then I ended up working there. And then I ended up running it. And then I ended up leaving and opening up my own place.

So everybody starts somewhere. Yeah. But comedy stores, restaurants, little venues like the Troubadour, those are all the places that people get to learn their trades, right? When I started out as a waiter, I didn't know shit. But they molded me and I learned. troubadour those are all the places that people get to learn their trades right when i started out as a waiter i didn't know shit but they molded me and i learned right so where where's all that happening right now all of those young people that are trying to learn comedy trying to be an actor trying to be whatever it is that they're trying to do none of that's happening right now

yeah yeah it's true it's the the development of comedy has been devastating to the people that just started out maybe they're like 10 months a year in like that's such a critical period that can make or break the the next future generation of headliners you know and they're they're stalled and a lot of them have taken jobs and a lot of them are just giving up on the whole dream of comedy. I kind of also feel bad for college students. Like, you know, if you're 18, 19, 20, that whole college experience is. How about high school kids graduating? Yeah.

Your graduation's virtual? What the fuck is that? I got two seven-year-old twins. They're home. Yeah. They're on Zoom. Like, there's no social interaction. Yeah.

It's not good. It's not good. I mean, I give a lot of credit to my wife my wife because like she's home with them all the time it's like you're you're not only a mom you're you're you're scared about the pandemic yourself you've probably got a parent or two that you're scared about because they're older and they're more susceptible you've got two kids that are scared and they don't know what's going on you got a neurotic husband who's got a business that's like barely hanging on so it's i mean it's a lot of wives deserve a lototic husband who's got a business that's like barely hanging on. So it's, I mean,

it's a lot. Our wives deserve a lot of credit. Absolutely. Big, big. Well, listen, gentlemen. By the way, I'm on first name basis with my wife.

Do you email her or text her? How does it work? No, I can actually get to her. I'm not sure she wants me to get to her. Listen, I hope we've made some sort of an impact with this conversation. I hope people are listening and I hope that've made some sort of an impact with this conversation.

I hope people are listening, and I hope that it has some sort of an effect, and I hope they do put pressure on these bureaucrats. I hope they let these people know, like, what you're doing has a real consequence, not just to the businesses and the community, but people are going to remember what you've done. Yeah. Like, you can't just. This is a bad choice. Yeah.

I mean, I just hope we all get through this, and I hope at some point down the line this is a great story that we tell a lot of people in the past, and we sound like these old bastards that keep repeating the same old story about, remember the time of the pandemic? Shit, I hope that's two years from now. I hope two years from now we're laughing it up and toasting and appreciating.

That's one thing that I think will come out of this for the people that make it on the other end. You're going to appreciate how bad it was and how weird it was. It's funny. I looked at a bottle of champagne the other day and I thought to myself, what am I waiting for? Literally, what am I waiting for?

Crack it because you never know what's coming tomorrow. So you might as well live it today. Well, gentlemen, best of luck. Let's do this again when everything's popping. Let's do it again in the celebration. Thank you for having us. Money's a lot. Seriously, thanks for having us out

because there's not a lot of people want to have this conversation. We're all rational people. We all understand there's an issue. But how do you get through it with some common sense? That's all we're asking. Well, and you're also asking for some respect for your business. I mean, it's crazy that they just feel like they can arbitrarily shut you down, again, because you don't have lobbyists, because you are independent.

You're not a part of some gigantic fast-food corporation that has a massive influence on these politicians yeah our companies are like families literally and so our family units are now shut down it's a really sad case and so I commend you for doing this because this this will make some sort of impact and it's a start at least well my pleasure best of luck to everybody and our my heart goes out to all you people out there that are struggling, whether it's business owners,

restaurants, bars, stand-up comedy clubs, all of you. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Thanks again. Thank you very much. I'm out of here.