Speaker 3: 0:11

Hello everybody and welcome. You are listening to the Restaurant Guys. I'm Mark Pascal, he's Francis Shot. Together, we own stage left in Cat Lombardi restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We're here to bring you the inside track on food, wine, and the finer things in life.

Speaker: 0:25

Hello, mark. How are you?

Speaker 3: 0:26

Hey Francis. How are you doing today?

Speaker: 0:28

I'm doing great. Recovered from Valentine's Day.

Speaker 3: 0:30

Excellent.

Speaker: 0:31

That is definitely a Hallmark holiday, but I'm grateful for it. I will tell you

Speaker 3: 0:34

yes, I, you know, we've talked about this, we talked about this years ago. Val Valentine's Day is an important day because people need to recognize their significant other

Speaker: 0:44

Yes,

Speaker 3: 0:45

and it's important that we do that. What's not important is that we do that on February 14th.

Speaker: 0:50

I just wanna talk to you as your business partner.

Speaker 3: 0:53

Yeah.

Speaker: 0:53

Shut the fuck up. Okay. That was a great day. Come on the 14th, but if you can't come on the 13, it's a wonderful day. It's a wonderful day.

Speaker 3: 1:01

But going out on the 13th this year, the 15th was a Sunday. So not as, not as good, but going out on the 13th and the 15th is a wonderful time to celebrate. I I

Speaker: 1:13

totally agree.

Speaker 3: 1:13

Valentine's

Speaker: 1:13

Day. Do you know what this show is? Everybody. This is the Mark and Francis Valentine's show It's just the two of us. We got a lot. We want get off our Chest and it's a romantic little show with just the two of us.

Speaker 3: 1:24

Oh, no. So it's over. Hope you

Speaker: 1:29

enjoyed our talk together. Well, I I do like to talk about Valentine's Day. I think there are some interesting strategies. I am a, look, you can't, you can't shift Christmas if you're in the restaurant business, you shift holidays, but even if you're a civilian, if you wanna shift Valentine's Day to the 13th, or better yet, Thursday the 12th, um mm-hmm. Or that Sunday to go to if, if that's okay with your partner. I think that's a really great thing to do.

Speaker 3: 1:53

Alright, I'm gonna sound a little bit sexist.

Speaker: 1:55

Go ahead.

Speaker 3: 1:55

I think most wives will be mad. Oh, I'll kill you if you shifted it to after the date.

Speaker: 2:01

Interesting.

Speaker 3: 2:02

when you shift it, I think, unless you. Come to an agreement beforehand. You gotta shift before the date.

Speaker: 2:09

Now you know that I was married only briefly, but I have a little more advice to give you with that. Okay. If you shift it to beforehand, you better still show up with a little something on the day of. Am I right? Did I get that right? Jennifer is Marks wife. She's our producer. Did I get that right? No. Yes or no? Ah, you're too easy going. Jennifer.

Speaker 3: 2:23

Jennifer and I haven't shared a val. We've worked The only time we share Valentine's Day restaurant. Yeah. Or if we're passing each other. Holy Table

Speaker 4: 2:30

12 needs more water.

Speaker: 2:31

Holy crap. You and I have shared every Valentine's Day for the last 30 years.

Speaker 3: 2:35

Just about, just about but the other thing I want to tell people, you call a restaurant on Valentine's Day. Every restaurant in America is booked two weeks in advance on Valentine's Day. Mm-hmm. For two.

Speaker: 2:46

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 2:47

When you call that restaurant and you want a reservation for four or for six people, if you have another couple that you're close enough with not, and I don't mean this. You're gonna make a bad, bad joke. Oh, I do.

Speaker: 2:58

No, I do not. A joke. Mormons. We need more Mormons. Sorry. Sorry to my Mormon listeners.

Speaker 3: 3:03

Uh,

Speaker: 3:03

I know you don't do

Speaker 3: 3:04

that anymore, but if you need, if you have another couple that you're close enough with, you know what I found too? People coming out in threes, somebody will bring out the in-law, you know, the, the

Speaker: 3:13

thrus also are a thing. Mark, it's

Speaker 3: 3:15

Francis. You are so gross.

Speaker: 3:17

It's 2025. It's 2026.

Speaker 3: 3:19

It's a year. It's 26. You, you did miss a year. People bringing out their in-laws. Yeah. And bringing out, you know, that somebody's a widow or a widower and they would, they bring out that person and they become a three. It is so much easier to get a table as a three or a four. Oh yeah. Or five or a six. Every restaurant in America has those tables open. Well

Speaker: 3:35

let, let's give it on

Speaker 3: 3:35

Valentine's.

Speaker: 3:36

Let's give everybody a little bit of insight as to why the restaurant will love you. And frankly, if you're planning on having a group of people get together, or three couples that are friends, like, Hey, we wanna go out as a six top. I would even call the restaurant in advance and say, Hey, listen, we're coming as a six top. We know it's a big night for twos free. We think a six top might help. If you did that for us, we would be, we're super happy to see you because here's what happens. You, you have four tops and six tops in larger tables in your restaurant that if you do nothing, a. Sometimes go unsat literally every other table, you

4:04

know?

Speaker 3: 4:04

Well, or you put a two on this uncomfortable 10 top.

Speaker: 4:07

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 4:07

people are like, Hey,

Speaker: 4:09

and here's what happens to the restaurant and why things can get so crazy. And we, we will control things to not put as many people in as is physically possible. Mm-hmm. Because when stuff goes back, here's a little inside baseball, if the restaurant is gonna do. 300 covers in a night. Mm-hmm. And there's twos and fours and sixes. And eights. And the average ticket is four people.

Speaker 3: 4:32

Yep.

Speaker: 4:33

Well, if the average ticket is two people, that's twice as many tickets.

Speaker 3: 4:37

Average ticket is actually 3.7 people.

Speaker: 4:39

It doesn't matter. I'm hypothetical. In my hypothetical world, it can be. But, but if it's, if it's, if it's gonna be four, you, you and it's two, you have twice as many tickets into the kitchen. Mm-hmm. Well, that's twice as many times. The waiter has to take an order. Has to take a dessert order. Mm-hmm. Has to clear the table, has to make a, a separate run to the table for food.'cause we don't run out with two tables where the food at the same time. Yep. So it. Believe it or not, even though it's the same number of people, the stress on the restaurant, uh, to keep that all, you know, how many people ask for the check? How many times do you have to run the credit card? It's, it is a tremendous amount, more stress, and you need to leave a little extra room as a restaurateur. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 5:15

Well, I'm gonna remind, remind you of, of something that happens in our restaurants.

Speaker: 5:19

What's that?

Speaker 3: 5:19

an expediter calls our tickets, so they're hung in the window. When it's all tables of two, when every table in the restaurant is set for two, then there's more tickets.

Speaker: 5:29

Yes. Yes.

Speaker 3: 5:29

Okay. So the ticket board actually gets full and you can't see every single ticket. what the message is to you is if you have a four or a six on, on a holiday like Valentine's. You are beloved.

Speaker: 5:41

Yeah. Go to a six on Valentine's Day and preorder a bottle of champagne. Everybody will love you. Um, so I wanna bring us to, uh, a different topic. This is the, this is the Mark and Francis catchall show, or the things that I wanna talk about and you wanna talk about that don't,

Speaker 3: 5:54

that we normally don't have time to talk about.

Speaker: 5:55

Well, that normally that don't fit into a specific guest that we have on the show, but I, I came across a YouTube channel and an Instagram channel. Um, it's called at Mass Spec Everything. I find it fascinating. The guy has a mass spectrometer that he Oh. That he has access to.

Speaker 3: 6:13

I went right to church.

Speaker: 6:14

Oh, no. Different. Different. Ray is Catholic. Um, the guy has a mass spectrometer that he uses on a lot of different things, and there are some very surprising results that I, I've been emailing you about a little bit and I wanna react to,

Speaker 3: 6:28

oh, I did see one of these videos.

Speaker: 6:29

Yeah. Well, some of the things are, he's, so he analyzed. Pappy Van Winkle. Mm-hmm. And, and Rip Van Winkle bourbons. And he analyzes several different ages of the bourbons, and he talks about what things increase, what changed and decrease as it goes by. So that's fascinating, uh, in and of itself. But he found a couple of other things that I don't know. Um, some sponsors, some potential sponsors might f fall out of our, uh,

Speaker 3: 6:54

every day Francis and I do a show, we eliminate a possible sponsor for our show.

Speaker: 6:58

Sorry to say this, but he, he analyzed Casamigos Uhhuh, which you know, is an okay, um, tequila. Aspartame, there's aspartame in the ca, I'm sorry, allegedly uhhuh. He has found aspartame in the ca amigos and a bunch of other stuff. Mm-hmm. And what's interesting is there's a way that we have always talked about, and a lot of, uh, spirits professionals will talk about seeing whether sugar or caramel color is added to, uh, spirit. Mm-hmm. So you pour a little on your hands and you rub your hands together. And if when the spirit dries off, you're left with something sticky and gum. That's caramel or sugar additive, right? Mm-hmm. But people do that and say, well see if I didn't get that, there's nothing added. Yeah. That's not necessarily true. If it's something that doesn't get sticky or gummy, you need a mass spectrometer, which he has.

Speaker 3: 7:43

pretty amazing.

Speaker: 7:44

Yeah. You know, it's like, is it okay to put aspartame in there? I'm not sure. But to not put it on the label. Oh, I think people want too much labeling sometimes. Mm-hmm. In food and, and alcohol products. Things that are just a normal part of the process. Like if you use egg whites or bentonite to find a wine that's not in there anymore, I don't think that needs to be on the label. But you know what, uh, when you, when you find aspartame in your tequila.

Speaker 3: 8:05

Mm-hmm.

Speaker: 8:06

Uh, but I got another one. Jose Cuervo

Speaker 3: 8:08

Uhhuh.

Speaker: 8:09

He found Stevia Glycosides in Jose Cuervo. allegedly, if you taste Jose Cuervo, you're like, oh, I, I could see that.

Speaker 3: 8:16

Can I tell you? There is just something about Stevia that I actually dislike. Yeah. I would rather. Have unsweetened whatever, than have stevia.

Speaker: 8:25

you. You know what? I want an unsweetened tequila is what I want. It's just, I like my tequila to be made of, I don't know, tequila. I'm just

Speaker 3: 8:32

talking about my tea.

Speaker: 8:33

I hear you. I hear you. Oh, anyway, you should go to this guy. He has a YouTube channel. He has, Instagram as well. And it's, at mass spec, everything in both places. And it's fun'cause it's not just alcohol stuff

Speaker 3: 8:43

that, interesting. I had seen the Quervo one and I, and I was like, what? That's cool. Why do you put Stevia in there? Well, and it's, and it's legal, it's perfectly legal because of the type of ingredient it is that he doesn't have to put the ingredient Stevia on the label.

Speaker: 8:56

Let's give the producers the benefit of the doubt, right? Mm-hmm. They do a lot of research on what people like, and that's not in there to make it cheaper. That's to stretch it out. Those things are put in there. Mm-hmm. Because more people probably like it, at least initially, um, with those things in there. But

Speaker 3: 9:14

if a fast food place puts sugar on the french fries for that same reason, you'd be like. Come on.

Speaker: 9:19

They do. And I'm like, come on. They do. And you're, and you're exactly right. But, you know, so I, I just want to temper our criticism a little bit. Look, it's not, I think that the artisanal producers who do it without resorting to those methods should be able to differentiate themselves. Mm-hmm. And say, listen, I. Ours doesn't have that. Exactly. And they don't have, because they're required to put that on the label. You know, they don't wanna put no aspartame on the label. Right. So I think, I think that's interesting. But here's a whole different controversy. Nothing negative here, but you know how we have always said, you can tell the difference between, and this isn't from the channel, this is from a different source. We've always said you can tell the difference between Coke with high fructose corn syrup. Yes. And, and, and Mexican Coke without

Speaker 3: 9:57

no question.

Speaker: 9:59

They have started to produce very quietly American Coke with sugar. Yes. And they don't advertise it. You look like it. It appeared recently on some Christmas labeled Coca-Cola. Uhhuh was American Coke, and if you look, the first ingredient is. sugar, it's cane sugar, not high fructose corn syrup.

10:15

Ah,

Speaker: 10:15

however people were saying. Yeah. But this is still different than Mexican Coke. So I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole.

Speaker 3: 10:22

I can't believe it. You

Speaker: 10:23

I know, right? You ready for what I found out? Yes. And I've never heard it. Yes. French

Speaker 3: 10:27

money. Go ahead.

Speaker: 10:27

I, I've never heard anybody say this before. Now when I researched it, it was fairly easy to find. Mexican Coke has twice the sodium that American Coke has. Really? So maybe it's not just the sugar fructose we're tasting, it's the balance. But I, but we are vindicated for all the people who said, ah, you can't taste the different, it has twice the sodium.

Speaker 3: 10:46

I don't, I, I gotta tell you, we've been singing the Mexican Coke song for. For over 20 years now, but I, I think we were vindicated when every great bar in America carries Mexican Coke instead of American Coke.

Speaker: 10:59

So we went so far back in that we used to have American Coke because it used to be that I, you, I know, I know you remember this be before we found Mexican Coke. So we're talking in the nineties, nineties. When the holiday edition Coke would come out. Mm-hmm. Kosher for Passover in seven ounce bottles that was made with sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Mm-hmm. And we always would seek that out at Passover and we'd buy the Passover Coke. Yep. And then we switched to Mexican Coke. But you know, people said, oh, you can't sell the difference. we know we could always sell the difference, part of that may be just the sugar is what you're saying. It's, it's 85 grams per 12 ounces of Mexican Coke, 45 for American.

Speaker 3: 11:37

Wow. That's a big difference.

Speaker: 11:39

Wow.

Speaker 3: 11:39

That's a big difference. You know, but it all, it makes sense, right? If Americans, one of the things that's happening in cocktail bars across the America is people are adding salt to cocktails.

Speaker: 11:50

Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 11:50

So now your Mexican coke is adding salt to the Mexican Coke

Speaker: 11:54

and it, and the thing is, Mexican coke is so sweet and so bitter that sure that's one of the reasons we like it better. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure I didn't know that it was there. Uh, and you know, there's that old, there was old joke about when we first started in the business, what the chefs used to say, what are the, what are the French Back in the eighties? They're like, what did the French chef say to the American chef? Salt stupid. Yes. You know, and that was,

Speaker 3: 12:14

well, American chefs have learned, I've

Speaker: 12:16

a

Speaker 3: 12:16

lot of restaurants.

Speaker: 12:17

That's great.

Speaker 3: 12:17

Where it's a stupid amount of salt.

Speaker: 12:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:19

So,

Speaker: 12:20

so anyway, so I, I, felt we've been, we've been talking about Mexican Coke for so long. We had to, let everyone know exactly what's going on there. I think those were. Interesting, fun facts. and I want to come back on the other side, and talk about, um, kind of a, a tempest in a teapot around a vital farm eggs. Can you

Speaker 3: 12:36

just say

Speaker 4: 12:36

a tempest in

Speaker 3: 12:37

a

Speaker 4: 12:37

teapot?

Speaker: 12:37

I'm an old man. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 12:39

Oh my goodness gracious. If you're under 30, you, you, you're not hearing this'cause you just turned it off.

Speaker: 12:45

We'll be back in just a moment. Like follow and subscribe@restaurantguyspodcast.com. Hey there everybody. Welcome back, mark and Francis. Of course. So, uh, we gotta move on to the next topic we wanna talk about. It's the wonderful World of Eggs. One of your favorite foods. No,

Speaker 3: 14:45

I am a huge egg guy. Love eggs.

Speaker: 14:48

What the classic jersey sandwich is.

Speaker 3: 14:50

Pork roll, egg and cheese,

Speaker: 14:51

Taylor Ham, egg and cheese. Just like he said, I don't need this muffin. If you're from Jersey, you got that. If you're not from Jersey, you didn't get that. But that's a, it's a big controversy. The fisticuffs have been reached over Taylor Ham. It's ridiculous versus pork roll. It's ridiculous. Here's the reality. Taylor Ham is the brand name. Pork Roll is what it is. So it's Taylor Pork Roll and so everybody's right. Stop fighting about it.

Speaker 3: 15:13

It's, it's really dumb.

Speaker: 15:14

so enough with the Taylor Ham. Uh, I want to go on about eggs. Um. I, I think, you know, they're so fundamental and eggs really came into focus when they had the great egg inflation of 2024, 2025.

Speaker 3: 15:27

Francis, I, I know that I'm responsible for paying the bills, but we were talking, we were getting into the 270 do for regular eggs for not, not for the good eggs that we, that we like to use. It was$270 for 30 dozen,$9 a dozen to get eggs for the restaurant.

Speaker: 15:46

And if you, if y'all remember why, there was a bird flu thing that was going around, they had to destroy a lot of stocks and it was, it was so expensive and we felt bad for like diners and stuff. Mm-hmm. Who count on eggs being this, the basis of their food and they're cheap. But when they quadruple in quintuple in price, you know, what does that do to the price or your food? It hurt us. It killed them.

Speaker 3: 16:05

Yeah. I mean, for us, uh. 90 cent egg instead of a 20 cent egg didn't make that much difference. Right? Right. But when when you're serving three eggs for$9, it matters.

Speaker: 16:14

Right. Your entree's still 50 bucks here. Either way, you know, whatever. It's not even gonna raise the price. Um, but one of the things that is really. Fascinating and really interesting. I don't know if it's fascinating that's for you to decide, but we have always been sticklers about eggs. You travel in Europe and or you travel somewhere and you get farm fresh eggs, or somebody has chickens in their backyard and they have the chickens have a good diet and you crack the egg bright yellow yolk. It behaves differently when you open it.

Speaker 3: 16:38

You know, I've been on the egg kick since I was a little kid. Yep. Because my, my father's farm had chickens.

Speaker: 16:44

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 16:44

The very first thing he did even before we were, were planting

Speaker: 16:48

yep.

Speaker 3: 16:48

Is we put up a chicken coop and we had fresh eggs. it was a tremendous difference for, for a 12-year-old kid to recognize how different the eggs taste.

Speaker: 16:58

You were kind of a foodie as a 12-year-old, I'm sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3: 17:00

Not so much as a 12-year-old. More and more as I grew up.

Speaker: 17:03

how did your family keep the chickens? What did you feed the egg, the chickens.

Speaker 3: 17:06

We fed them chicken feed. There were scraps and things that were always used. Okay. So there was some table stuff that we used, but for the most part it was chicken feed. Half of their diet was chicken feed.

Speaker: 17:16

So here's the tempest in the teapot. There was a big internet bruhaha that I, I think was kind of undeserved, but it raises a lot of issues that deserve to be talked about. Mm-hmm. It was the Vital Farm egg scandal. So Vital Farm Eggs, is it kind of, oh, it's not really, it's not organic washed, it's, it comes. It packages itself to look like, you know, like there's Vital Farms at the end of Route Nine. You go down there and there's an old lady tending the chickens is vital and it's not, it's a,

Speaker 3: 17:45

this is vital is back there.

Speaker: 17:46

It's a, it's a publicly traded company, it's huge business. Um, and they have never explicitly stated that they were anything else to be fair to them. But people were sort of outraged when they found out that there was a lot of linoleic acid in the eggs from. this farm? Yes. As opposed to eggs you get from a, a local family farm, which might have a different. nutritional makeup,

Speaker 3: 18:12

little like acid. By the way, omega six is the one that's not as bad as the omega nines, but not as good as the omega threes. a six that's right in the middle. I'm a numbers guy. I know that.

Speaker: 18:22

So there's a huge scandal that arises around the fatty acids and the things that are found in the eggs, and they're like, where does this come from? And it goes back to the feed. And the feed it turns out is there's a lot of corn and soy, and these chickens are being raised mostly on feed. It turns out that, even on family farms are mostly raised on feed. Mm-hmm. Um, and. That's because chickens have a high metabolic rate. They're warm blooded animals. They don't eat grass. They need complete protein. They need a lot of calories. They need calcium and phosphorus because that's what eggshells are made of. And they

Speaker 3: 18:52

eat all the time.

Speaker: 18:53

And they eat all the time. Now, we, we talked to some farmers who do regenerative farming and have cows on the property. Mm-hmm. And they have their chickens come up behind their cows as they circulate them through the fields.

Speaker 3: 19:03

We did not have cows.

Speaker: 19:05

Well, as natural as you want to get it, it's that the, the chickens pick through the kung And spread that out and take the nutrients from the, whatever has not, digested or insects and those sorts of things. but you need to have your chickens on feet,

Speaker 3: 19:19

uhhuh.

Speaker: 19:19

Um, and people were outraged that, and they felt lied to. Because they say Vital Farm says their pasture raised now. Pasture raised means that the chickens get a certain amount of sunlight. Mm-hmm. They get a certain amount of, uh, access to the outside. So free range cage-free pasture raised does not mean it, it's not raised on GMO Cornerstone,

Speaker 3: 19:43

and we can vouch for how much. Sunlight they get and all, all that. So every farm's different.

Speaker: 19:48

Well, but there are, there are, there are minimums, I think, to be pasture raised. Yes, there are minimums correct. To be pasture raised. So if it doesn't say pasture raised, they can be indoors their whole life. And I think it's a good thing. I think cage-free is a good thing. I think pasture raised is a good thing. Yep. But it doesn't necessarily imply a nutritional difference.

Speaker 3: 20:02

Doesn't imply a healthier egg. It implies a happier chicken.

Francis: 20:06

It. And you know what? I'm all for happy chickens. Yeah. I'm all for happy chickens. And, and, but we go back to a thing that you used to say, mark is, you, you always used to say if you are a carnivore mm-hmm. You, it's not just you are what you eat, you are what you eat, eats. Right. And so there are differences. And when you see. Truly small farms. Mm-hmm. And people who raise their own chickens and control what their chickens eat, you will get a better egg. And you see that bright yellow yolk is often an indicator of an quality egg. it behaves differently when you fry it. It certainly behaves differently when you poach it. Um, and I am a big fan of having, uh, great eggs,

Speaker 3: 20:42

but I want you to be careful because the. Egg producers, some of them have recognized that we're looking at the color of our yolk

Speaker: 20:52

this is what I heard from a farmer at the Union Square Farmer's Market. Mm-hmm. Who said, you know, be careful because certain farmers are putting marigold

Speaker 3: 21:00

marigolds. That's what I heard. Feed, that's what I heard. It was marigold. You're exactly right.

Speaker: 21:03

And the marigold turns, it turns the yolk extra yellow. Now the marigold's actually nutritionally a good thing to have in there. Yep. But it's a way to, you know, get that to cheat a little bit. I, I don't love big, huge factory farms. Mm-hmm. I, I do see the point that it was a little bit greenwashed maybe. Yeah. But I also think, you know, they were transparent about it and there was no, the internet came for them with torches. And I think that was a little unjustified.

Speaker 3: 21:25

Well, and, and the other thing is you look in the supermarket now. There's pasture raised and there's cage free and there's organic, and there's, you know, vegetarian feed and, and there are more and more specifics on the label.

Speaker: 21:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 21:40

Right. So, so, you know, it's different because there's a, there's something that's saying something different on its label than that.

Speaker: 21:46

And I think, but I think that reason people feel betrayed and I sympathize with them as you go for the. You're like, you know what, I'll spend the extra two bucks a dozen and I'm gonna get the good eggs. And then you realize that, well, the eggs aren't as different. They're, as

Speaker 3: 22:00

you thought they were, they're not as good as I want them to be. That's how, I mean, definitely happened. I mean, I remember mm-hmm. During that Greg egg shortage, we're buying different eggs than we normally buy.'cause you're buying whatever's available, right?

Speaker: 22:09

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 22:09

And so you would think this brand and I, I won't mention any brands, but some brands say that they have really, really good eggs.

Speaker: 22:19

Not

Speaker 4: 22:19

always.

Speaker: 22:21

Well, and the pastry shuffle will yell at you when the eggs aren't good. So we know'cause um, Maria

Speaker 3: 22:25

will head, so I wanna set, tell another secret. Yep. Okay. Right now, and this is really more for the restaurant people than it is for, for homeowners, uh, for people cooking at home.

Speaker: 22:35

I was gonna say, renters, renters, forget it. We don't let turn off the show.

Speaker 3: 22:40

what we're seeing in the, in the marketplace for. The, the boxes of 15 or 30 dozen eggs is the extra large eggs are cheaper than the LA large eggs, but not just cheaper. Sometimes half the price. so an extra large egg is cheaper than a large egg.

Speaker: 22:59

That seems counterintuitive,

Speaker 3: 23:00

mark. It's crazy. But what's, that's what's going on in the mass marketplace. It's because restaurants, every, restaurant's, recipes, we've mentioned this before, are based on large eggs. But I really thought this was gonna go away after the whole, uh, bird flu thing. It was ending, but it's not going away. Extra large eggs are actually coming down in price. and large eggs are maintaining their price.

Speaker: 23:22

So if you have a recipe at home that calls for large eggs and you're using extra large eggs, you're putting 30% more egg mass into your recipe. And if you're doing something that's like delicate and just gonna hold together and you have the right amount of egg and sugar, that can actually make a a huge difference. So be careful of that at home. But if you're making Taylor ham, egg and cheese sandwich, um, you get 30% more egg. So have it, you know, it's just

Speaker 3: 23:44

add more cheese, add more. Taylor, ham. You're all good.

Speaker: 23:46

Exactly. Get another half an English muffin in there. Alright, so I think this has been an extraordinary session. we're gonna take a break. We'll be back in just a moment for just a little bit more with the restaurant guys.

Speaker 3: 23:56

Hey, welcome back. You know who we are. So Francis. I wanna talk to you about a, a phenomenon on Instagram that is, it's more about getting clicks than it is about really engaging in a conversation, but it's something I think that people really are passionate about on both sides of the ledger.

Speaker: 24:14

Puppy, puppy videos. Is that, that is,

Speaker 3: 24:16

it's kittens. Yeah. No. Oh, yeah. Okay. No, absolutely not. But I think it's something that people are passionate about. So it is actually getting clicks. It is actually getting comments and it is actually getting people on both sides. Activated.

Speaker: 24:30

We're not going into politics, aren't we?

Speaker 3: 24:31

No. Avoid it. Avoid not politics at all. Politics in the restaurant's. Not politics at all. Go ahead. closing time of a restaurant.

Speaker: 24:36

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3: 24:37

Is it when you stop seating? Is it when the kitchen stops cooking? Is it. When everybody's gotta be the hell out of there. What is the closing time when you put up your hours in a restaurant? What does it mean?

Speaker: 24:53

Interesting.

Speaker 3: 24:53

what does that mean and how much do you need to honor that on a slow night?

Speaker: 24:57

How are, how are people reacting on the internet? Where are they coming down on this?

Speaker 3: 25:01

Uh, it depends, frankly, servers and kitchen people seem to be saying, you're a fucking asshole if you come in at at 8 55. You should never do that. You're screwing the people who work there. And the rest of America is like. Wait, you told me you're open until nine?

25:15

Yeah.

Speaker: 25:16

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 25:16

Why? Why? Why is it a big deal if I come in at 8 45? Why is that a, why am I, why am I vilified?

Speaker: 25:22

Right? I came in, came patronize your establishment on the hours you said you were open. What's going on? Right? All so, so, fair enough. And we have found that, especially kitchen guys. Mm-hmm. are always disappointed if somebody comes in at the last minute. Yes. Especially if there's been any lag at all. So if you have a restaurant that closes at 11 and then nobody's been here since 10 45 and somebody comes in at 10 55, the kitchen's gonna be like. Oh dammit. That guy's coming in. And it doesn't matter if you move the closing time back till you can close an hour after you open. And when that last guy comes in, the kitchen guy's gonna be like, ah, there he is. Um, but you know, the front of house people, we hope for a little more from, but I understand it because if you get that last table in, it means you are gonna be there for a significant amount of time longer in the front of house, especially. Uh, for not that much more money. Yeah. But, you know, I think that there's, I think that there's a way to make sure that the promise you're making to the guest is clear, and then the business has to honor that promise. And so you talked about a number of different things is nine o'clock. The last time we seat mm-hmm. We seat until nine o'clock. Is nine o'clock when the last orders have to be in the kitchen by nine o'clock. Yep. Or is nine o'clock when we close the doors and throw you out. And I think that last one is problematic.

Speaker 3: 26:34

Yes.

Speaker: 26:34

Um, because if you do that, you have to say, last orders in by nine o'clock, dining room is closed by 9 45. Mm-hmm. Okay. And you see that sometimes in a hotel or something like that, but I think. Re should and managers should make a clear promise to the guest, inform the employees and stick to that promise.

Speaker 3: 26:53

we were out with a very famous wine maker at a very nice restaurant, and dessert time came and I said, nah, sorry. Pastry

26:59

chef

Speaker: 26:59

left. We, we were out on a nice restaurant with a very famous wine maker. We were foot in the. And it was very expensive, bill. Yeah. And we had a bunch of people with us and it was appetizers, entrees, and then it came time for dessert and we got some expensive wine and we're like, yeah, sorry, that person left already. And I was like, okay. Oh, okay. And, and note to self, it was never come back here late at night again.

Speaker 3: 27:20

And truly we never went back there, but. But here's what, here's what I heard from them. Please don't come back here late at night. Yeah. Again, yeah. that was the message they were sending, right? Yeah. So, I don't know if you remember, there was a guy who, and I, oh, Jennifer's gonna have to pop it into the show notes. What the, what the guy's name was,'cause I don't remember. Uh, but he had a hospitality book called. You don't want dessert, do you?

Speaker: 27:41

Oh yeah. Yeah. That was great. That's great.

Speaker 3: 27:45

So here's my issues, okay? Okay. The first one is what you put on the door. Okay? And when you put something on the door or on your, website, if there's not a disclaimer, and if it's nine o'clock or 10 o'clock and somebody walks in at 9 55. You have to seat and serve that person. A full dinner at 9 55. If your disclaimer is. Last orders go into the kitchen at 10 o'clock, then that's your disclaimer. And it's gotta be, that's gotta be clear. Wherever you're posting that information that you close at 10 o'clock, you also have to post that your last order goes into the kitchen at 10 o'clock. Yep. Yep. And frankly, I think that's dumb. I think you should, if, if your last order goes into the kitchen at 10 o'clock, then make your last seating nine 30.

Speaker: 28:33

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 28:33

We can clarify all this and we can all be on the same page as to as to what expectations are, and you are, this is what I kept seeing. You're a dick if you come into a restaurant at 8 55. Here it is. Restaurant Owners Across America, restaurant employees across America, people who come in at 8 55 when you close at nine o'. Are not dick's.

Speaker: 28:56

Right.

Speaker 3: 28:56

Okay. Right.

Speaker: 28:57

Yeah,

Speaker 3: 28:57

that is, that is not true. And you have to stop vilifying those people because they're paying the bills that keep the restaurant open

Speaker: 29:04

and the margins are so thin on restaurants, and I understand that on a, on a given night, it may actually cost the restaurant more to serve the one patron if there's nobody else in the dining room. Yes. But if you are the manager or the owner, and you are finding that on Monday and Tuesday nights you're open until nine 30, but nobody comes in after eight 30 except one or two people close earlier. It's your job close early to change the promise you're making. Mm-hmm. So that you can keep your promise every night. Yep. And you know, look, if there's a blizzard, if there's a, if there's a, you know, a torrential downpour, if it's 30 below zero, occasionally on a one-off, can you say, sorry, we're closing a little early tonight because of the. State of emergency. Right. But, but overall, make your promise to keep your promise and don't be bitching about the one or two times that you might have to stay a little bit.

Speaker 3: 29:49

I just wanna spend one minute on the other side of the coin.

Speaker: 29:51

Okay?

Speaker 3: 29:52

Okay. So now you're the diner. You've gone in at 8 55.

Speaker: 29:56

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: 29:57

If a restaurant rushes you out and, and rushes you through your dinner. Don't, don't go to that restaurant anymore.

Speaker: 30:04

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 30:04

Okay. Just don't go to that restaurant anymore.'cause they're,'cause you care more about them than they care about you at that

Speaker: 30:10

moment. Well, let me get on the other side of that coin and then we have created a three-sided coin here, mark, which is very interesting. Um, so the other side of that coin is if you're the diner and you go in and you're like the last table in there. You have your cocktail, you have your food, you have a dessert and a cup of coffee, and you look around and you've been the last one in that restaurant for the last 20 minutes. May, maybe, maybe it's time to like not linger over three more cups of coffee and, you know, understand on your part just, you know, what's going on and, and on what's happening there. And you have a bunch of people standing around

Speaker 3: 30:42

Yep.

Speaker: 30:42

Waiting for you to have another dollar 50 cup of coffee.

Speaker 3: 30:45

A a dollar 50 cup of coffee Woody at McDonald's.

Speaker: 30:48

No, I was reliving my younger and more glorious years when that's what coffee costs.

Speaker 3: 30:53

Well, you know my rules, right? My first rule is I'm the last table in the restaurant. Uh, I'm gonna move through pretty quickly. Uh, my second rule is I'm the second to last table in the restaurant. I'm starting to think about how, what my path to exit is. My third rule is it's late, but there's eight other tables in this restaurant. I'm staying and I'm having a calvados.

Speaker: 31:15

Well, I have one more rule and uh, it's a rule that I used to encounter all the time when I was younger and I don't quite as much anymore.

Speaker 3: 31:22

Yeah.

Speaker: 31:23

I'm gonna say, my rule is if you're there and they're like, last call for alcohol, everybody's gotta leave. I've won the game. I've closed another bar. That's my, that's my rule. I used to do it so much when I was younger, and every once in a while I'll do it now. I'll be like, yeah, I still got it. I'm an old guy. I still got it.

Speaker 3: 31:37

That's how you, that's how you know you've done it right When they turn the lights up.

Speaker: 31:41

Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's it. That's it.

Speaker 3: 31:42

The music's off. The lights are off.

Speaker: 31:44

Have used no homes to go to have used no homes. To go to. Alright, well this is last call for this episode of the Restaurant, guys. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have. I'm Francis Shot. I'm

Speaker 3: 31:53

Mark Pascal.

Speaker: 31:54

We are the restaurant guys and you can always find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.