Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Chef Mike Angeloni: Toronto Mike'd #924

Episode Date: September 30, 2021

Mike chats with Chef Mike Angeloni about opening Amano, Union Chicken, the emergence of Chef Drop, and so much more.

Welcome to episode 924 of Toronto Mic'd, proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a fiercely independent craft brewery who believes in supporting communities, good times, and brewing amazing beer. Order online for free local home delivery in the GTA. ChefDrop, access top chef and restaurant prepared meal kits shipped across the GTH-A. Stay tuned for a fantastic new offer for listeners of Toronto Mic'd. McKay's CEO Forums, the highest impact and least time intensive peer group for over 1,200 CEOs, executives and business owners around the world.

StickerU.com, create custom stickers, labels, tattoos and decals for your home and your business. Palma Pasta. Enjoy the taste of fresh homemade Italian pasta and entrees from Palma Pasta in Mississauga and Oakville. Ridley Funeral Home. Pillars of the community since 1921. And Mike Majeski of Remax Specialists Majeski Group, who's ripping up the GTA real estate scene. Learn more at realestatelove.ca. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Chef Mike Angeloni. Welcome Chef Mike. Thank you for having me.

Welcome, Chef Mike. Thank you for having me. Now, we're going to get into it here, but I'd like to open with a song. So let's just take a moment and listen in our headphones here. Hey Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, There I will be. There I will be. Soaring with the eagle so high. Feeling free. Remember me. Down the road, hand in hand, you and me. Hey-oh, hey-oh, hey-oh. So, Chef Mike, today is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

This is a day we commemorate the tragic legacy of residential schools and we honor the survivors. So I wanted to open the show with this fantastic artist I recently discovered. Her name is Fawn Wood. And I just want to urge everybody listening to take some time today and listen like literally

listen to the stories of the survivors and remember remember what has happened and you know the only way I can know of to fix the past is to educate yourself and ensure that the future is

is brighter for everybody. I agree. Thank you very much for sharing that. It's a good jam, too. And Mike, I'm going to say the word Mike a hundred times in this episode, but the mics here are very unidirectional. Even if you can push it even a few more inches towards... Like that? Yeah, you've got to be like five centimeters out of that thing there.

Hey, Chef Mike is how I introduced you, but are you a Mike or a Michael? I'm naturally curious when you're which. Yeah, so I go by Mike mostly. Much to my father's dismay. He absolutely hates it.

But I do go by Mike unless my parents are listening, then it's Michael. Interesting. I also chose at a very young age that I was a Mike, not a Michael. Yeah, you know, it's one of those things where my dad gets mad about it, where he's like, you know, I didn't name you Mike. And I'm like, well, pick a more original name maybe. Oh, that's true. If you were born in the, and you were, you Mike. And I'm like, well, pick a more original name maybe. Oh, that's true. If you were born in the, and you're a much younger man,

but if you were born in the 50s, 60s, 70s, or 80s, and you're born a male, there's a 50% chance you were named Michael. I made that up, but it feels that way sometimes. It does, it does, 100%. And are you like me? Because I had this chat with Michael Landsberg recently about the Mike versus Michael.

And he said, oh, Mike. He goes, Mike is the guy who fixes my car. You know what I mean? And I felt like, okay, maybe that's sort of why I want to be a Mike. 100%. I mean, I am that guy. I used to build cars. See, he said it like a negative. Like, he fixes.

I'm like, I wish I could fix. I wish I could fix cars. Like, I want to be Mike. And Michael sounds a bit like a hott. Like he fixes. I'm like, I wish I could fix. I wish I could fix cars. Like I want to be Mike. And Michael sounds a bit like a haughty toddy, like a little pretentious. 100%. Like I'm trying to be somebody that I'm not. Yeah. I like this.

I like that. And you're wearing the official shirt of Gordy Levesque. Do you know the name Gordy Levesque? I do. So we're, you know, big supporters of GLB, which I know you as well. Obviously, we got a few cans here. Yeah. I actually used to play a prank on new staff at the restaurant.

Which restaurant? So at Union Chicken, which is one of my restaurants. Wow. Here we have a location in Etobicoke, Newmarket, Toronto. Sure, Shirey Gardens. Yeah. Shout out. Yeah.

So I used to tell them that Gordy, that the inspiration of the can was actually me. Yeah. You got the beard. You do look like Gordy. I used to have the beard like crazy. Like it used to be like down here. Um, so I would tell them like, yeah, GLB like made this can for me and they believed it. And like, I had a whole thing where I did like a chicken spit over my shoulder. there's a there's a guy dan something i wish i remembered his last name no dan kennedy's another guy actually dan kennedy i had lowest of the low here yesterday yeah i hope i know dan listened to this episode for sure because he loves it but like it just naturally we were chatting about uh chef drop because uh ron hawkins and we're going to chat more about chef drop but

ron hawkins and lawrence nickels were very excited they got this uh promo code they were going to get 75 bucks at chef drop and we were talking about the different things there and somehow i they said oh yeah we love union chicken because it's on you know union chicken and you can get it from chef drop and they're like i think laurence looked at ron and said wait who's that guy that guy who shows up at her shows who's involved with union chicken and then i said dan who's that guy, that guy who shows up at our shows, who's involved with Union Chicken? And then I said, Dan Kennedy. And that was the guy.

Like, it was like we were just chatting about Dan back here yesterday. Yeah, hilarious. Small, small world. But you do look like Gordy Levesque. And shout out to Great Lakes. Yeah. Great Lakes. Great Lakes.

So let's start. I tease it off the top because I haven haven't this is so fresh i haven't haven't updated the intro yet this is so fresh but right off the top i just want to tell listeners because we're going to talk more about chef drop but we're going to talk a lot more about mike angeloni and we will not talk about michael angeloni because i love it some other guy but there's a new a new offer forMs, like literally just debuting now. And this is pretty cool. And I'm just looking at my notes here because I want to get the right code here.

If you go to chefdrop.ca and you use the promo code FOTMBOGO, BOGO essentially, and BOGO. And the offer is, and I wish I had a drum roll here, but buy one. Thank you. Buy one, get one 50% off your first order. So FOTMs again, chefdrop.ca, use the promo code FOTMBOGO, buy one, get one 50% off your first order. All right, back to you, Mr. Shoray. I'm going to call you Chef mike from now on works for me toronto mike talking to chef mike talk to me like about like when did you fall in love with uh food and then i want to hear all about uh you talked about union station but and

i hope i pronounce it right amano yeah yeah you nailed it i'm practically italian and you're you're angel and that's a that's a that's a good irish name you've got there angeloni. And you're, that's a good Irish name you've got there, Angeloni here. But you're an Irish, you're obviously, you're of Italian descent. Yeah. So I'm half Italian,

half Polish. My parents were both born there in their prospective countries. Where did they meet? They met at a photo shop on St. Clair that my dad and his brother owned. And my mom worked in the print room, the dark room. Did HR know about this? I don't think they had HR in those days.

Okay. So they met in Toronto. Yes. Yeah, exactly. Okay. And we were chatting before I pressed record, but we're chatting in new Toronto, which is like Southwest Toronto. And this neighborhood is very Polish. It is, it is, yeah. And you mentioned a restaurant nearby. Yeah, shout out Albatross Pub. That's my go-to when I'm in this area. Some great food. Is that like pierogies and such?

What is the... Yeah, schnitzel, you know, little... Cabbage rolls? Yeah, cabbage rolls, pierogies, you know. Every once in a while you can get some bigos, which is like a sauerkraut stew with lots of, you know know ham hock and different kinds of meat in it delicious and if you had to choose this is like sophie's choice but you have italian

food on one side and you have the polish food how do you choose let's hear what would you go with i i think i'd have to go italian just on the variety and like health factor like polish food's not the healthiest it's a lot of like potatoes and butter and okay but italian food is a lot of uh a lot of carbs there i mean i'm gonna i'll do it now i'm gonna give you before you leave a large meat lasagna from palma pasta amazing delicious delicious it's heavy but it's heavy right like uh you eat a like you eat that lasagna every day and uh you're you're day and you're in trouble. Yeah, you're going to look like Tony Sperano walking around, lumbering around.

Oh, before I forget. So I did bring up earlier Dan and then you distracted me by saying Dan Kennedy, but it's another Dan. There's a gentleman who runs a marathon dressed as Gordy Levesque. Oh, really? I actually watched him training on the waterfront. I biked by him one day. So he wears the lumberjack jacket and he has the beard and the the, uh, the beard and the mustache and he wears the toque and he runs the marathon and he, I think he carries even like a, like a ax and I know it's Dan something and, uh, Troy will shoot me for not

remembering this last name, but, uh, that's where I was going with the aforementioned Dan talk. Running a marathon with a toquecan and a lumberjack shirt, like that's... I got a buddy who runs 100 miles. I don't think I could walk 100 miles. I was thinking I can bike 100 miles, but I couldn't walk 100 miles myself. But he runs, like routinely runs 100 miles.

These are like the ultra marathoners. They're all a little bit nuts. Okay, back to you, my friend. So you're choosing Italian over Polish. No disrespect here to the polish people like you know i love my mom's cooking is amazing she's an amazing cook great food but i grew up with my grandmother in etobicoke actually nona yeah nona i know i know when i there you go you got it what part of etobicoke uh so uh the west way, like Rexdale kind of just below Rexdale, I guess off Islington.

Yeah. I'm just picturing it in my head. Okay. Uh, so up North, that's where, uh, George Strombolopoulos is from that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Around like Don Bosco and. Okay. You know what? That's more like, I don't think that's okay. I would call, yeah, that would be like almost like Eglinton and Islington. Am I right?

I'm not great with, uh the tobaco too well i'm a scarborough boy south of rexdale i would say but uh yeah i went to michael power when i was at oh nice it was like dundas and islington so i remember the bosco were up uh yeah it's a little closer to the highway right right right right so when in your uh you know you're not that old now but when did you realize like food was in your future? You know, I grew up when I was a kid, lots of, you know, typical Italian family, lots of cousins and all of that. And my grandmother used to make pasta for like everybody, the whole neighborhood or friends. She would make it.

Little did everybody know there was like an army of little kids in the basement just rolling pasta So I guess that was kind of where it started And then you know typical chef story, you know, I wasn't too good in school and getting into trouble and When I was in high school, I got talked to by a guidance counselor about you know I didn't have good grades and what was I gonna do with with the rest of my life? And he got me into an apprenticeship program when I was in grade 12. So I was doing college credits, getting to go to Humber College out actually at 427 Rexdale. Yeah. By Woodbine. Yeah. So I was getting to go out there and I got into a restaurant where most kids were getting placed at like, not no no disrespect but like more chain type

restaurants sure uh i got placed at a restaurant called oro which is at young and dundas on elm street uh which at the time was a very very high-end restaurant in toronto uh and i worked there for like a year for free and i was like oh this is super cool and crazy. So, yeah. You fell in love with it. Yeah. And then my aunt bought me Thomas Keller's The French Laundry Cookbook. And I was like, holy, can I swear on this? Yeah. Yeah, sure.

Okay. I was like, holy shit. Like, I didn't know you could do that with food. Wow. So, that's where it kind of started. And I got to ask you about something else because I read it. And I think it was in Toronto Life or something, but, uh, it referenced journals. Like you've been, uh, it says you've been keeping a notebook since you were 18, where you jot down ideas for dishes.

Yeah, that's good research. Um, yeah. So I've got like my, uh, my fiance hates it. Cause I have like books and books and she's like, can you just throw this crap out? But it's all my notebooks. I always have one while I'm working. And so I write recipes and dishes and all that kind of stuff. And now I get to like look back on them. And I'm sure they could inspire you today. Like I think this is, I'm a natural born archivist myself.

Like, so I did all this too. So I totally relate to that. Like I've, I'm a bit born archivist myself. Like, so I did all this too. So I totally relate to that. Like I've, I'm a bit older than you. So I was a big, uh, like fan of the drive of 85 when the Blue Jays won their first, and I still have these scrapbooks like meticulously maintained with like,

here's a picture. I don't know, name it Doyle Alexander, uh, article from the Toronto star about this big win or, or George Bell just set the Blue Jays mark for doubles in a season or whatever. It was, I still have all that junk.

But today I would create like a Google Doc. Yeah, right. It's so funny because like for me, I still am a piece of paper and a pen kind of guy. I'm not big on the technology. Right. But it's so funny to look back on all those notebooks from the past and like, I start to look at it and it makes me

realize like what bad, what a bad cook I was, I guess at that point in time, like I see some of the dishes and I'm like, Oh my God, that sounds terrible. Right. Right. The, uh, so how do you go from, uh, you know, working in a restaurant and you'll have to tell me the details here, uh, but to opening a restaurant, like, like what's that journey look like? Um, it's a long lengthy one, uh, lots of hours. Um, you know, I worked the, when I worked at Oro, I worked a year, I didn't get paid. I didn't even get bus fare. But how did you like eat? I mean, I guess you can eat, but how do you like pay rent?

I was at the time. Does Nona help you out? Yeah. I mean, at that point I was moving between living with my parents and with Nona and going to school. And part time I was actually, we were talking about this earlier, but I was building cars. Right.

At Chrysler and Brampton. So I was making a bit of cash there, but I was working mid right um at Chrysler and Brampton so I was making a bit of cash there but I was working midnights it was wild I don't know how I did it but you did it yeah uh and you did it I'm assuming you did it because uh of the passion right like it was a passion that drives you yeah for sure and like I said it was that you know I saw what Keller was doing and I saw what all these chefs were creating. And I was like, I want to do that. So I used to go to my chefs with like these terrible ideas for dishes and be like, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? It was awful. Amazing. Okay. So the, uh, walk me just through the highlights of the journey though. Like when,

when, like, I would think it's one thing to say, Oh, I'm working in a kitchen and, and, and I love what I'm doing. I'm preparing food or whatever yeah and then uh like the the the restaurants like you're an executive sorry you're an executive chef today at amano and uh and union chicken the aforementioned union chicken that lowest at the low uh indoors highway uh how do you go from a to b there yeah so i mean i guess the biggest biggest break for me, like I was working at another very high-end restaurant in Toronto. And then from there, it was called Splendido back in the day. It's now Piano Piano.

Shout out. Sure. Then I bounced over to a restaurant called The Black Hoof, which was a very famous, well-known restaurant in Toronto. And that was kind of my bigger break, working for Grant Van Gameren and Gen Ag there. They really let me kind of show my skills a bit. And like Grant would let me put specials on and like helped my creative juices get going and in the right direction.

So, and then from there, Grant actually helped me get my first head chef job And where was that? It was a restaurant called Lunita Which was on Avenue Road It's now I believe being transformed into Julieta But yeah I was 25 And thought I was hot shit And knew better than everybody

And I quickly found out that, uh, I didn't know anything. How did you find that out though? Uh, like, like how do you, cause I remember being 25 and knowing everything myself and then realizing the only thing I really knew for sure is that I didn't know anything. Like there's that moment, right? Like, like, so, so what was the, what, what helped, uh, like spark that, uh, epiphany? Well, I think it's a lot of like, you know, it's the first time you're getting to put your, you know, everything on the menu is you, uh, it's, you get the final say. I mean, to a degree, obviously there's ownership involved, but they were really great to let me do it. And then you

start to realize that interacting with guests and stuff, um, that for me, it was like, you know, I was like, I know better than the guest. And then quickly I realized if I have that attitude, there's going to be no guests for me to cook for. Right. So there needs to be a balance between an educational factor of like, you know, try this, it's actually better. Um, but it really gave me an opportunity to, to understand that, that like you need to be a little bit more guest focused and not, if you're cooking for yourself, you're literally going to be cooking for yourself. And, uh, is Amano, is that like the first restaurant you opened? Uh, no. So actually Sherway Gardens was the first one I, well, so I had opened restaurants before for other people.

Uh, Sherway was the first restaurant I opened. Like Union Chicken? Yeah. That was the first restaurant I opened like union chicken. Yeah. That was the first one I opened for myself. Originally I came on board to do a mono. Um, it was a concept that I had had, uh, with our business partner, Adam, him and I have been friends for 10 years, 12 years, something like that. It's been a long time. Uh, so we always wanted to do this restaurant. Uh, so we partnered up with a couple people they had Union Chicken as a concept that they were doing

they needed a chef so then we'd bridge both companies amazing amazing okay now let's reveal now to the listenership that you've come with an entourage yes you know they haven't been heard yet they can't be seen on the cameras here

but who joined you today? You got a team. You're like, when you go in, Chef Mike goes anywhere. I got a following. They're just here to make sure I don't screw up. So we got Stefan, who's our director of marketing and sales. And then we have Mimosa, who's new to the team. She's actually the sister of Phil Nguyen,

who is one of our chefs within the company who's actually started with me at Lunita. He was the salad cook and I got him to drop out of school to work at the restaurant. Well, you're a good influence. I feel really bad. So, okay. So when you say that Stefan here is like in charge of marketing, like of what entity, like is this ChefDrop? Like how does it all tie together? So basically we have a company called OCH, which is Open Concept Hospitality, which owns Amano, Union Chicken, Uncle Ray's, a bunch of other stuff. And then we have ChefDrop. So Stefan is director of sales and marketing for both. And kind of filters down through that. And Mimosas does digital content creation.

Do you want to name check, putting you on the spot here, but name check some of the chefs that are involved in the operation? And again, Stefan, if you wanted to jump on a mic, it's open for you over there. Go ahead. It's up to you, man. Go ahead, man. Let's look.

But you want to name check? I mean, some of these names are very well known. Can you slide by? Slide by here. Okay, so you can unmute your mic. There you go. So Stefan's going to jump on the second mic here. Oh, now he gets the headphones so he can hear when he's on the mic

and when he's off here. Oh, yeah. There you go. Oh, this is way different now you can actually hear it she's a problem solver mimosa solving the problems she's relocating good stuff

I just talked about it oh this is weird yeah yeah it sounds a bit weird when you hear it at first but just try to get as close to that mic get as close to chef Mike as get as close as Chef Mike is on the mic. Mike on the mic. Testing, testing. So, yeah. I'm about to come ruin the podcast, but let's go.

Okay, so I'm curious if you could tell me the story of Chef Drop. Do you want to take this or should I? I'll start it. You start it because you founded it and then I came in. You make sure I don't mess anything up. There Chef Drop started in the pandemic. We, you know, noticed that there was a big market for these, you know, at-home meal deliveries, but really with less of a chef-driven focus and we're restaurant hospitality people first. So we wanted to give an opportunity for restaurants in the city to have a bigger reach, right?

So you're not doing Uber or whatnot. You're actually getting, you could live in, you know, Whitby and get your favorite restaurant that's in Parkdale. You can get their food. So then we started reaching out to friends and, you know, it started with our restaurants and then we slowly built and started adding chefs. And the biggest thing for us is to build the platform into a space where you can get all of your favorite chefs in one place. You could have a dinner party and have appetizers from David Chang, main courses from Mark McKeown, dessert from Rob Gentile. And you have, you know, you look like a superstar, like you've been cooking all day, but you really haven't. Amazing. Okay, more name dropping

i want to hear more of some of these chefs too like uh what else we got victor berry can we talk about chefs that are upcoming or anything yeah of course man yeah we got some sneak previews you want to give them some sneak previews um what do we have we have verse coming on pretty soon in the next few weeks uh matthew ravenscroft is coming on in the next couple of weeks, I think, or next month or so. I'm actually going to meet Matt Ravenscroft later today to test out his kits, which will be launching on the platform

in the next month. I think that last name there, Ravenscroft, I think, okay. Pretty badass. Okay, there's a guy, he's passed away actually, but of old age, but Thurl Ravenscroft,

he was the guy who sings, You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch. And he was the voice of Tony the Tiger. Oh, really? This guy, yeah. Both? Yeah, he was both. Thurl Ravenscroft.

That's a pretty good name. I heard that name. It's pretty unique. And it is a badass name. Yeah, 100%. He was the there great? That was him, right? Yep, that's him.

Yeah. Thurl Ravenscroft. Yeah, well, Matt does vegan food, which is, you know, an area that we haven't really tackled on the platform, so shout out to vegans and vegetarians out there. We're coming for you. That's my buddy

Fast Time Milan. Yeah, absolutely. You've got to look out for them. Yeah, 100%. And also, in addition to the chefs, run down some of the restaurants that you can get from Chef Drop. Yeah, 100%. And also, in addition to the chefs, run down some of the restaurants that you can get from Chef Drop. Yeah, so we've got Union Chicken, obviously, as mentioned. We've got Piano Piano, Buymark. Calibri.

Calibri, yeah. And that's Mexican, right? That's where you get your tacos. Yeah, Chef Elia Herrera, amazing tacos. Yeah, if you love tacos, have to order order from her because the top chef canada star her tacos are yeah and again chef job really gives you the opportunity to um prepare the kid at home so you get it as fresh as it would be if it was in the restaurant as opposed to it sitting in a box you know what i mean oh yeah so i i should point out point out, I've enjoyed Chef Drop myself.

And my wife loved it. And I mean, we all loved it. But it's absolutely like you described. It's, yeah, it's prepared meal kits. Is that the, that's the way I would explain it? You had the pit master platter, right? Yeah. Yeah.

From the carbon bar. Carbon bar. Shut up. Honestly, yeah. So the vegans won't like that too much but uh god it was good and i'm gonna just if you want a good burger richmond station yeah and speak speaking of actually i brought i brought you a kit oh my goodness so we can talk about you mentioned yeah yeah okay so what do you got there talk to me so this is uh

mark mckeown's new kits that we've added on to the platform so this one is the famous by mark burger wow um so it comes you know everything here you got truffle aioli a little red leaf lettuce a little breed de mo and uh strip loin patty is the burger on there i just see everything else yeah yeah sorry i'll pull it where's the beef there you go so that There's the important stuff. So that's by Mark Custom Ground. Oh, my God. It's a mixture of like aged strip loin. Wow. Pretty amazing.

Wow. So you brought me. That's amazing. No, thank you so much. You brought me that. And then, of course, you'll be leaving with some Great Lakes beer. And you'll be leaving with some Palma pasta. And I just want to give you, make sure you get the sticker that's on top of that red box.

So, yeah. That's from sticker you doc yeah that's for you that's that's your toronto mic stickers so you have any i'm a big sticker guy where's it gonna end up that's what i want in my notebook 100 i litter my notebook with stickers so i love it i used i used to uh like i well i bike every day but my bike i had like i was 17 years old i picked up a bike and i rode it for like 20 years. And I used to put stickers all over my bike. And then when the bike died, because eventually bikes do die

because it costs more to fix and replace. I actually, it's still, it's in my garden back there. It's like a statue. You can't see behind that bush there because I couldn't throw it out because of the stickers. Yeah. Like it's like, you know. It's like all those notebooks, right?

You know, can I tell you a funny story about biking? I love funny stories about biking. So I grew up in Scarborough in the suburbs. I was like taking the train down all the time. So I never rode a bike my whole life up until basically the pandemic was really, yeah. The only time previous to the pandemic, like, so now I have a bike. It's my grandfather's bike from like 1965 That I got fixed up He rode it every day It's fixed

I ride it around Toronto now Amazing But prior to that The only time I'd ever really ridden a bike Was I was in Bogota in Colombia And everybody's like You gotta do the bike tour You gotta do the bike tour

And I was like okay I'm like I'm not gonna say no I'm with this group of people I can't let them know i don't know how to ride a bike right so then we run we're like late we're running to this thing they give us the bikes and they're like go and the first part of it's just like straight downhill and i'm like cool well this is where i'm gonna die uh this is just it's over for me and you know we go and I managed to figure it out. Bogota is a very busy city. So I'm biking around 20 minutes into it. My business partner's fiancee, Holly, looks over at me and she goes,

do you not know how to ride a bike? And I was like, not really. So it was a two and a half hour bike tour of Bogota. I survived. You survived. And now I ride a bike. I'm wondering like did you wear a helmet uh that time i did now i don't now i get a little word of warning for you that uh

when was it exactly it was in the pandemic that's everything now have you noticed now when everything's pre-pandemic or yeah it's been long in fact i know March 2020. Who says post-pandemic? We're still in the pandemic. Wishful thinking. Yeah, there you go. Once I got vaccinated, I said, okay, we're post-pandemic. Yeah, exactly. That's funny. Okay, I had a bike crash on rural York, actually, in March 2020.

And I did break my wrist, so I ended up six weeks in a cast. But that's not the part of the story I want to share. The part of the story I want to share is that I had a helmet on because I always ride with a helmet. It's my helmet split in two and I go to the emergency at St. Joe's, right? Because I broke a wrist and I said, oh my, because it literally split in two.

They're like, oh, we need to do a CAT scan. Like, you know, anyways, everything's fine. I don't know, actually. They said everything's fine, but I question that. I haven't been the same since. But no just kidding i had no effects but the i honestly believe that this helmet if it didn't save my life it saved me from some serious like brain injury or something like i'm just warning you stick on a helmet like why not so i've never really gotten i ride a lot now and i've never really gotten in any trouble but my fiance recently

it's a hilarious story she she bikes very fast i go like so slow like i look like i'm like 16k an hour i know i don't know if you measure you i measure every way i'd say maybe like 8k an hour that's too slow like i'm basically walking the bike my five-year-old goes again yeah it's brutal but she like zips around the city and she also doesn't wear a helmet um so she was at dufferin and bluer with those new bike lanes of course and i don't know if you've seen people like pedestrians now and like you know now that i'm a biker i'm like fast stupid pedestrians uh but this woman just like didn't wasn't looking just walked straight into the smartphones cracked no no no the best

part of the story was she was walking out of popeyes and like you know she hops up she's like you know all broken but you know beat up whatever and this guy starts yelling at this woman like you walked in the bike lane blah blah she's like guys there was a fly in my head like it wasn't my fault and we're like what a fly in my head well i did see did see there was a couple of wasps that were going at Stefan earlier in this conversation. But just, again, I sound like a preachy guy or whatever, but it's just your head, man. It's one thing to break a wrist. Break a wrist, whatever.

Break a leg, whatever, whatever. It's the head. It's the head. Stick a helmet on that handsome head of yours. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And your girlfriend, too. I mean, cars are dumb in this city.

I'm going to go on a ride later today that will push me over my target for the month, which is a thousand kilometers. So I'm going to clear a thousand kilometers with my ride today. I'm at like 983 or something. But that, so I bike literally,

like I bike every day and I bike all over the city and the cars kind of hate you. Yeah, totally. You notice that? Like they kind of hate you being there and they kind of do like things to like let you know they hate you. So, totally. You notice that? Like they kind of hate you being there and they kind of do like things to like let you know they hate you.

So they'll like encroach on your space and pedestrians and their smartphones. I know that not flies to the head like your lady there. But I've noticed a lot of like, they're on, they're looking at the phone and they're completely,

and this is on like bike trails, like Martin Goodman Trail and stuff. They're completely oblivious to everything around them yeah like the the family drivers hate cyclists cyclists hate pedestrians pedestrians hate okay the difference is that the pedestrians always live to tell the tale yeah when the drivers hit the cyclists that's not always the case no 100 you know what drives me nuts sorry we're no i'm a little bike and then i have have to bring you back to when you were a teenager

because we have something in common. Yeah. So when you go down, you know, Lakeshore has that nice bike lane. Martin Goodman Trail. Yeah. So we have a restaurant on Church Street, so I'll ride. I live, you know, West End, Keele. So I ride along.

Sure. And it drives me nuts that the pedestrians walk in the bike lane, but like in a line. It's like either single file. Instead of walking the whole lane? Yeah, it's like you're a pedestrian. And you're hammering the bell, right? Oh, my God. It's crazy.

I just want to get out and have a talk. This is a whole episode into itself, the culture. Because I do drive sometimes. So I do appreciate drivers. And I walk sometimes. And I bike a lot. And I can kind of see all vantage points but it would be this whole culture and i don't know when it started when when the drivers

started to like resent the the bike lanes and the presence of cyclists it really is an issue like at some point and and it really is uh dangerous 100 like cyclists are dying yeah no it's crazy it's it's wild that we just don't have a better culture on that right when you go to like places like Amsterdam Amsterdam

Montreal even yeah right like you see the way Copenhagen yeah Berlin even like I've been to a whole bunch of cities

where it's like why can't we be like this yeah totally that's crazy so shout out to Bike Teal yeah let me bring you back

for a minute here so I grew up not too I went to primary school at Jane and Bloor. Bloor West Village, if you like. Which is also a very Polish neighborhood. A little more Ukrainian.

You know what? They have the Ukrainian festival and the Bronsi's, I guess. Bronsi is the Polish side. Right, right, right. And they don't like each other? Is that the deal there? I mean... Because their festivals are on the same weekend. Yeah, it's wild. So growing up, my mother stephanie he's romanian yeah i was gonna say so i'm not polish i'm eastern or i'm romanian eastern european um and that polish versus italian conversation really upset me so i'm gonna put that out there for everyone who's listening who

is upset at mike i agree with you definitely with you. Definitely go with the progress, go with the cabbage rolls, go with all the good Eastern European stuff. Italian food is not healthy. There is no... Not that Eastern European food is healthy. Italian food is just all carbs and meat. But delicious. Oh, it's amazing. But... You can't eat healthy

every meal, right? I was reading like Chef Mike here... Well, when you work at Chef Drop or the restaurant you can't eat healthy basically any meal. Lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. I noticed chef Mike is a big, this is not what I was going to, but I just remembered I was reading like you love your cereal. Is that still like you love a bowl of cereal?

So I, it's funny. I love cereal, but I hate breakfast. So you eat cereal for lunch? Like at midnight. For dinner? Oh, at midnight. Yeah. I used to do that back in the day.

I love it. What's your go-to cereal? You know, I'm not a fancy cereal guy. I'm like a Honey Nut Cheerios is a good one. Oh, my sugar in there. Yeah, I know. It's not great. You know what I used to do is like the regular Cheerios,

and then I'd put a spoon of sugar in it. That's how I grew up. Yeah, I know. I grew up with the sugar on the cereal. That's one thing. I grew up with that. Like you made your cereal grew up with the sugar on the cereal that's one thing I grew up with that you made your cereal and you sprinkle some sugar on it but as an adult it sounds like ridiculous to me that I would do that

but that's how I grew up even like rice krispies or shreddies or whatever I was eating like why it's sweet enough and you know what it is the milk is sweet a lot of sugar in the milk 100% here's where I'm going to jog your memory for a moment okay so i grew up and um my brother was uh big on like uh fant nfl pools or like gambling on nfl games back when it was maybe a little gray area

or whatever yeah and uh there was a weekly ritual before the sunday games where uh we had to get our picks in to the Cheese Boutique. Okay. And the wonderful Ephraim Pristine. And this was like a ritual. Like, okay, this is back when the Cheese Boutique was on Bloor Street before it moved, right? And that was the weekly ritual. And my brother Ryan was really big on this and buddies with Ephraim.

And I was reading you used to work at the Cheese Boutique. And my, my brother Ryan was really big on this and buddies with Ephraim. And, uh, and I was reading, you used to work at the cheese boutique. I did. Yeah. That's amazing. The cheese boutique is amazing. Yeah. It's the best.

It's, uh, you know, those guys have been great and they've been great to restaurants and like supporting us and, you know, their growth and our growth and Ephraim's amazing. Uh,

we've actually got Ephraim on the platform for Chef Drop. Is that right? Yeah. I had no idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like a TV star now. Oh, it's crazy. What happened there?

He's blowing up. You should be a TV star. Maybe one day. I think so. That's why we're here. I'm staring in his eyes and I realize this guy needs a camera. Everybody else I talk to says I got a face for radio. You even got the good hair yeah hopefully it stays

we'll see how old thinning of it 33 wow yeah there's no guarantees that stays i was gonna say you haven't dodged that bullet yet my dad's thinning he's got the comb over but he's like he's still got some hair up there salt and pepper but but what about your grandfathers do you remember are they still out there no they're both passed uh my no no had uh he was bald my uh yeah i don't know my my grandfather my mom said passed away before i was born so sure i can't but that doesn't bode well no no not great hopefully you dodged that bullet but but i just want to bring up the Cheese Boutique because like I go way back of that place. And again, a great, you know, Afro now, I think he's got some TV show

on the Food Network or something. Yeah, he's got that. He's got that, I don't know if you remember the big poster he had up at St. Joe's. Like you'd be driving down the garden and you'd just see Afro. And now I just see Brendan Shanahan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Who went to, shout out to Shani who went to my high school. Nice. Yeah, no, the Cheese Boutique, that was a fun, you know, period. I was between jobs. I was planning on moving to Italy to go work in Italy. And then I, you know, got caught up in fun times when you're 22. And it didn't really work out.

So, yeah. But, okay. 2022 and uh didn't really work out so uh yeah but okay yeah and i didn't even realize they were on the chef drop platform so uh maybe just a little more like nuts and bolts about the whole chef drop thing because uh all month i've been talking to people about chef drop.ca and there was a promo code to save 20 and now as i revealed earlier in this episode, there's a new promo code, F-O-T-M-B-O-G-O, which is buy one, get one 50% off your first order. And I urge everyone to go to chefdrop.ca and just check it out. But a little bit more of the nuts and bolts. So there's essentially this consortium of like restaurants and chefs that are available at chefdrop.ca. Yeah, exactly.

I think, you know, the biggest thing, like I said, is it's really great for entertaining, really great to get your, you know, a lot of people through the pandemic have moved out of the city or, you know, are up at their cottages or whatever. You know, you're going away to the cottage for the, I mean, it's getting cold out, but let's say you were going to the cottage,

you could pick up, you know, a bunch of these meal kits at your house to get delivered to you. You take them up to the cottage and you've got this really great restaurant experience where again, it's, it's not like most typical meal kits where you're having to do all of the prep. We've taken a lot of the effort out of it for you with the chef. So it's like, you know, you need to make a stock or a sauce or whatever. We've done those labor intensive items. You need to like, you know, for the by-market, you just need to cook a burger. But like the cheese is done.

The sauce is done. Everything's ready to go for you. It's what we call mise en place, everything in its place in a restaurant. We've basically given you our mise en place that we would give our cooks in the restaurants. Amazing. Go ahead, Stefan. Yeah. I think the, one of the really cool things about ChefDrop is you literally get access to some of the top chefs and restaurants in the city, no matter where you are in Southern Ontario, right? So like, let's say you live in Hamilton. I know this is Toronto, Mike, not Hamilton, Mike. Let's say you live in Hamilton.

You're not going to spend three hours driving to the city, coming back, waiting in line at a restaurant. Like, I just think it's too much. You don't have enough time. Like, I just think it's not easy. Or you can just instead order a chef drop meal kit and it just comes to your house. You do a bit of the prep work

and you literally have that restaurant quality meal at home. And to be honest, like I live in Leslieville. So I'm in Toronto and there's restaurants in Toronto, like downtown that don't deliver to my area, even i'm in the city just because the radius is is too far apparently um the other really thing that i love about chef drop is because you do a bit of the prep work is you actually again get that restaurant quality meal at home whereas not to trash delivery companies or take out or things like that but there are certain things for example i love like i love tacos i love fried chicken but those things don't translate well to take out your

delivery like you get it at home like it's soggy it doesn't taste good it's just not not a great meal to get out of the restaurant but with chef drop again if you let's order calibri for example yeah you do a bit of prep work at home and you literally have some of the best tacos you'll ever have in your kitchen in your backyard with friends family by yourself literally whatever you want whenever you want. In our unbiased opinion, 100% unbiased. Well, it goes without saying that, uh, I love working with you guys and I'm so glad to have you on board and I'm glad we could do this episode. Uh, chef Mike, what neighborhood do you live in now? So now I am actually just above Ronsonsville.

So I'm, uh, like right next to High Park, I guess like the tip of Bloor West. I don't even know what it's called. Like just behind Kiel station. Yeah. I'm just now picturing there's a church there. Joan of Arc, St. Joan of Arc. Yeah. So I'm like a couple of houses down from there.

Very nice neighborhood. Yeah. It's lovely. I love it. You know, ever since I moved downtown, I've always been a west end guy so well you went to don bosco no i never went to that that was my cousin no no my cousins went to don bosco my apologies i went to pope john paul ii shut up and where was that speaking of polish scarborough military trail oh i got you on the other side i've not heard that street name in a long time. All right.

I do want to let you know that if you do wish to relocate in the GTA, Mike Majeski is a great sponsor of this program. If you go to Instagram and follow him there, Majeski Group Homes, he's got these fantastic videos that he drops there. So if nothing else, follow Mike Majeski on Instagram, Majeski Group Homes. He's got these fantastic videos that he drops there. So if nothing else, follow Mike Majeski on Instagram, Majeski Group Homes. He's actually the number 14 Remax sales representative in Canada. And he's a great guy. We had an event like August 27th on the patio of Great Lakes Brewery, TMLX8, the eighth Toronto Mike listener experience.

And we had this event. And again, Great Lakes bought everybody their first beer. Palma Pasta catered the whole thing. And Majeski just rolls in. He just buys 40 beers for the crowd. And then he rolls out like a superhero. He doesn't stay? He just comes and goes?

No, he just came. He saw the crowd. He was like blown away by how many people were there. He bought, I think it was like, I think that's about 200 bucks, I guess, five bucks a beer. He buys like 40 of them and then he waves goodbye and kind of leaves. But I'm sure for him, 200 bucks isn't that much. If he's the number 14 in Canada.

Well, yeah. Nice gesture regardless. Regardless, really appreciated there. I'm going to give him a shout. I'm looking for trying to buy something in this market he's a cool guy honestly talk to him especially in the west end here but the whole GTA Mike Majeski of

Remax Specialist Majeski Group so what's next I'm curious what's next for you Chef Mike and what's next for Chef Drop so you know the pandemic obviously hurt restaurants pretty bad and the whole hospitality industry. But we're chucking away.

So I'm about to open a new restaurant on October 19th at Church and Front Nine Church Street. It's going to be called Amano Trattoria. Easy peasy. Nail the pronunciation. Castoria. Easy peasy. Nailed the pronunciation. Yeah, so it's basically the restaurant I've always wanted to do,

inspired a little bit by my grandmother, inspired by my interpretation of Italian food. So there's a little bit of Polish thrown in there, like you're having prosciutto with cabbage and, you know. But all handmade pastas, really, really going to be an amazing space. It's beautiful. It's a big space. Lots of room for private events when we get back to that.

So I've got that going on as well. Chef Drop, we've now moved into a facility that we're working out of and we're constantly bringing on new chefs. And I'm working with some of the best people in the city trying to get these kits made and delivered to all the people in Southern Ontario. Well, you know, if you're ever looking for like a cannabis infused food, I actually produce a podcast for, I want to shout him out, Chef Jordan Wagman. Okay.

In the weeds. And yeah, if you ever want to chat up Chef Jordan Wagman, he's doing this awesome stuff with uh cannabis infused meals i would love to learn more uh you know as a young kid in scarborough i definitely ate my fair share of pot when i was younger uh which didn't go so well so like i'm a little hesitant about it yeah you gotta you gotta small doses well that make you hungrier then yeah right like you order some and you get hungry and you order more and more. It's like a perfect business plan.

A self-fulfilling prophecy. Smart. Absolutely. Are either of you two gentlemen Blue Jays fans? I'm a big Toronto sports fan. I was just going to say, yeah.

Including the lovely Toronto Blue Jays. Big win last night. Woo! Massive win. I would argue had we lost last night stick a fork in it

it's done especially because Boston won last night too but when Bo hits that homer I guess the 8th inning I think it was but he hit his second homer but you know we talk a lot about Vladdy and of course Vladdy's got MVP caliber numbers like this guy's a phenomenon but lest we forget,

Bo Bichette is having a hell of a year. Like this is a heck of a hitter. Well, didn't Semien break the record for home runs yesterday for second baseman? Yes, he did. It was yesterday, the day before. I think it was... 44.

He let off the game yesterday with that. That was yesterday. Absolutely. Marcus, hopefully he sticks around. But shout out to Bo. He hits the homer and I'm like that was a big home run.

Talk about good hair. He's got some great flow. He's got the Nylander thing. The William Nylander flow. Nylander's flow is pretty fantastic. Can we talk about how painful it is to be a Leafs fan? No we cannot.

It's still too early. I'm still crying. Yeah. I don't know what to say about that team. Like I've been rooting. I think I probably fell in love with the Leafs in like 1982 or 83. Okay. So I've been like loving the Leafs ever since because they're the home team.

Yeah. As Jerry Seinfeld said, we cheer for laundry. Okay. We just cheer for laundry. Okay. We just cheer for the jersey. Like whatever body's in that jersey, go, go Leafs go. And it's very hard. It's a heartbreaking thing.

I'm so glad the Raptors won it all in 2019 because it is so difficult to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. It's heartbreaking. It's terrible. Like I literally game seven was on the floor in my living room being like not again deja vu all over again why i basically missed the third period of game seven because i think

it was already three nothing then i just went i left and went for like a two-hour walk i saw my girlfriend i was like i have to go well we've seen that movie so many you've seen that movie so many times yeah but every year it ends poorly and then i mean i say i'm out or like i'm more hesitant and then like matthews will score like the second game of the season i'll have a hat trick and then i'll just be 100 back in and then that's classic destroyed again in april or may or whenever the first round is well here's where we're at now like so the one obviously this team has not won or sorry has not played in the stanley cup final since 67 which is before any of us, any of us four people were born. But what's

remarkable now is I have a 19-year-old son, second year of university, living in Waterloo. He has no memories of a playoff round victory. Because the last time the Leafs won a playoff round was 2004, when he was two years old. That was back when we were destroying

Ottawa every single year. That's right. We beat Ottawa in the first round and then we lost in seven to the Flyers or something. And that was Pat Quinn. Pat Quinn was coaching that team. Ed Belfort was in it. I haven't won a series

since I was legally allowed to drink, since I got my license. I know I might be younger than you guys. Think about that. I was up with 11-12 when we last won a series. Yeah. God knows what. It's one thing to be like when we last won a series yeah yeah god knows what it's one thing to be like oh we haven't won at all like you know you know cubs fans are like come talk to us

or red sox fans are like yeah we know that drill so it's been forever since we won a cup or been to a cup final but that whole idea of not even having that feeling of winning a playoff round which i mean i remember some length you know with pat burns there was a couple of uh conference finals and pat quinn there was a couple of conference finals. And with Pat Quinn, there was a couple of conference finals with Gary Roberts and Matt Sundin and everybody. But this whole, like, not even winning a damn playoff run, not even that play-in series against the Blue Jackets. That was, like, it frustrates me so much.

I blocked that out of my mind. I don't know what you're talking about. Which wasn't even technically the playoffs, by the way. So that's like, okay, win this best of five to get into the playoffs. We couldn't do that. And no disrespect to Columbus, but come on. Well, Montreal, which I felt going into that series, would be a Maple Leafs sweep.

I really thought the Canadians were... Can I just say, though, if Tavares doesn't get literally almost more than the first game, I know I'm obviously a Leafs fan, but that series goes maybe five. There's no way the Leafs

lose that series then. I agree with you, except there's always that story somewhere. I know. That was a pretty... If Wayne Gretzky wasn't... If he was called

for the high stick on Doug Gilmore, the Leafs would have won the Stanley Cup. We were up 3-1. We should have won either way, but that's a pretty freak injury.

I honestly thought he was dead. We went to overtime in game 5, right? And 6, maybe? It was 2 overtimes. We were up 3-1 in game 5 and 6. One, Galchenyuk gave the puck away after we dominated. I think one was

Dermott. He tried to do his fancy little puck work. We had 14 shots in overtime and they had one and they scored on the one was Dermot. He tried to do his fancy little fuck work. Yeah, we had 14 shots in overtime and they had one and they scored on the one shot. Haunting. To Montreal and everything. And then now, of course, now I'm remembering that moment

and I think it was, who was it? Fradden? I think when Fradden scored, did he score? Oh, in Boston? Yeah, so game seven in Boston. It put us up four to one

with like 10 minutes left or something. Ask my wife, who I was only dating at the time, but I never leapt so high. My jump, the vertical of my jump on the 4-1 goal, because it was like, we were underdogs game 7, and it's like,

this is happening. I started crying. It's happening. It's 4-1 of 10 minutes left. We're beating Boston, and then well. You know who enjoyed that comeback? Dan Kennedy. He's a Bruins fan. That's why I was not here. We didn't let him come.

He's my business partner and a Bruins fan. It's painful. I always wonder how Toronto guys end up rooting for the Bruins. His whole family are diehard Leafs fans. His mom's got a Maple Leafs tattoo. He's just like a contrarian. I think he was like i'm sure he saw how terrible you are and said i'm gonna cheer for a team that doesn't suck

but when he started cheering for them they kind of sucked too like the cam neely he had cam neely and ray borg which but they never they couldn't they never won anything until 07 yeah yeah yeah but i think it's also like when your family tells you to do something you're like nah screw you guys i'm gonna cheer for the worst possible team i could just to stick it to you my um old manager back in the day when i worked at another company he's from the uk he's from manchester and his family i think his dad was like a huge man united fan and he one day was just like i'm just gonna be a liverpool fan just to stick it to you and he's like the the most hardcore Liverpool fan I've ever met in my life. You know who unabashedly went this contrarian route

just to kind of like fuck with people? We mentioned him earlier when you mentioned Rexdale, but George Strombolopoulos, who grows up in Toronto, big Toronto guy in every regard, has forever been cheering for the Montreal Canadiens. That's right. Like that's just to be a dick. Yeah, 100%. Like why? I thought he was from Montreal for the longest timeadiens. That's right. Like, that's just to be a dick. Yeah, 100%.

Like, why? I thought he was from Montreal for the longest time. No, I know. Because that's the only excuse. Yeah, right? That is the excuse. If you tell me, oh, Dan Kennedy grew up in Massachusetts and whatever, then it's like, okay.

I know some guys in this neighborhood, one guy in particular, who cheers for the Detroit Tigers, right? And you chat him up like, okay, like, why not the Jays? And he's like, well, I grew up in London, Ontario. And then you realize a lot of people in London, Ontario actually cheer for the Detroit Tigers. Well, it's like everyone in Windsor is a Wings fan because it's across the river. Or a Pistons. Right, right, right, right, right. So there's sometimes there's like, okay, there's a good reason or whatever. But Strombo and Dan

Kennedy and these guys who just cheer for these arch rivals just to kind of pay. And then I always feel kind of sorry, not sorry for them, but like, yeah, okay. You're a big... So as a Leafs fan, you feel sorry for other fans? No, I don't feel sorry for them. But here's the thing.

So Toronto, we saw what happened in 2019 of the Raptors. Like the whole city unites. I was at the parade, the good part of the parade, which is the Lakeshore side. I went there with Mark Hebbshire from hemsion sports and anyways fantastic everything amazing i still have i bottled up that energy that feeling and i can still kind of tap into it now and then it was like a drug man that's my drug of choice but amazing if the lifts ever win the city's gonna shut down what is it what is it dan kennedy or a... What do these guys do when...

You chase them out of town. Right. And conversely, though, here's the more interesting. Conversely, in 2007, when the Boston Bruins win the Stanley Cup, it happens, and you're all alone in this city. No one else in the city gives a... There's no one spilling into Yonge Street. There's nothing anywhere. You don't get the best of sports.

Do you remember 2010, though? When we won the gold? Yeah, of course. The city was pretty crazy. Downtown, at least, was pretty insane. That's right. We're all together. You're not going to tell me Dan Kennedy was rooting for the USA, are you? I mean, who knows? He'll never admit it, but probably.

That was the golden goal, Sidney Crosby. I remember he yells just before, because Jerome McGinley's got the puck on the boards. Then Sidney Crosby. And I remember, yeah, he yells just before because Jerome McGinley's got the puck on the boards. And then Sid, at the top of his lungs, yells, Iggy! Yeah. Like, just you hear Iggy echoing through that place. And then, yeah, the rest is history.

Yeah, I never got to watch that goal because I was working, you know, classic restaurants. And I just ran out onto Dundas and into traffic and I was listening to it on the radio like that's our big goal if you talk to if you talk to a baby boomer none of whom are present here uh you'll you'll get the stories about uh you know paul henderson yeah and and i i've seen the documentaries and i appreciate that but i was not alive and i think it was just the anniversary of that just just passed a couple days days ago. And so it's really a generational thing.

Like I think the baby boomers all talk about the Paul Henderson goal, which transcended sports in many regards and totally appreciate it. Guys my age actually will often talk about the Canada Cup goal by Mario Lemieux, Gretzky to Lemieux, which is right. But this Sidney Crosby goal,

that's your sort of your modern standard for moments that unite a country. Amazing. I mean, the best part of the Summit Series, though, was when Esposito slipped on the ice. That was pretty funny. Esposito's speech, right? Yeah.

But you have to say that as a proud man of Italian descent. That's right. He was a Bruin, but he was Italian. Yeah, he scored 76 goals in a season. Pretty good. How many is Matthews going to score this season? 67.

The question is, will it matter? This is one thing I'm at as a Leaf fan. I don't care anymore about regular season. I'll watch if I'm around. But really, who cares how we do in the regular season? That's what everybody says. But then what is it?

Michael Bunting scored a preseason hat trick yesterday. I went on Twitter and everybody was losing their minds. Well, I was watching the Jays game, but really let's say we have a great, we win. I don't even know what they call the president's trophy anymore, but let's say you win it all in the regular season.

Like nothing matters for this franchise at this time, I don't even know what they call the President's Trophy anymore, but let's say you win it all in the regular season. Nothing matters for this franchise at this time except playoff success. Totally. Just win a round. And Marner not getting a puck over glass penalty in a playoff. What's the stat? He's got multiple of those. More penalties and goals, I think.

In all of his playoff experience, he's had eight penalties seven of which are puck over glass in the playoffs yeah something like i don't want this to turn to a bashing i love my i love my come to the restaurant okay so chef drop uh and you you've kind of given us a taste of what's coming up again uh what's new and mike you've teased us that you're opening this uh was it church where Where did you say? Church in Front? Yeah, Church in Front. 9 Church Street. It's basically a St. Lawrence market. Right, like one street over.

Right. For all you Torontonians. Yeah. And now I'm hungry and I know it's for dinner tonight. Thank you for the buy. Shout out to FOTM Dale Cadeau who just adores BuyMark. That's his place. Love it. love it.

Good stuff. And you keep adding these awesome chefs and these awesome restaurants to chef drop. And again, a reminder to all FOTMs listening. Now the promo code is now FOTM B-O-G-O. I got to write about that later today. Buy one,

get one 50% off your first order. Thanks for supporting. Thanks for fueling the real talk here. And it's really been a pleasure to meet you guys. I'm going to get you your lasagna out of the freezer and then we're going to take a nice picture by the famous tree. I love it. The selfie picture.

The selfie picture. But just warning, when people Google your name forever, that's the picture they're going to see. So make sure you look at it. No one's ever Googling my name. Maybe my mom, but no, nobody else. And that brings us to the end of our 923rd. Actually, you know what?

I did two episodes yesterday. I've lost track. I'm checking out. It's actually 924. I got to get that right. That brings us to the end of our 924th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at Toronto Mike.

Chef Mike, are you on Twitter? I'm not on Twitter. I'm on Instagram. What's your handle on Instagram? Chef Michael Angeloni. So what's up with that? I just wanted my dad. In fact, I have a list of chefs that Chef Drop works with,

and it says Michelangelo. What's up with that? It just makes you seem more professional? If it's in print, my dad, he'll just tear it up, and he'll just call me all the time. It's your name, man. His dad might come here. Yeah, he's going to show up.

Does your dad live in Etobicoke? No, he's in Scarborough. Okay, I have some time to... Yeah, you got some time. Our friends at Great Lakes Brewery, they're at Great Lakes Beer. Chef Drop, of course, is on Twitter at GetChefDrop.

McKay CEO Forums are at McKayCEOForums. Palma Pasta is at Palma Pasta. StickerU is at StickerU. Ridley Funeral Home. Shout out to Brad Jones and the wonderful team at Ridley Funeral Home here in New Toronto. They're at Ridley FH.

And Mike Majeski of Remax Specialists Majeski Group. They're at Majeski Group Homes on Instagram. See you all next week. Go, let's go. Everything is rosy green. Life, it's so that there's a sucker born every day. This podcast has been produced by TMDS and accelerated by Rome Phone. Rome Phone brings you the most reliable virtual phone service to run your business and protect your home number from unwanted calls.

Visit RomePhone.ca to get started.