the-restaurant-guys_1_03-25-2026_141035 0:20

Hello everybody and welcome. You are listening to the Restaurant Guys. I'm Mark Pascal and I'm here with Francis Shot. Together we own stage left in Kaha Lombardi restaurants in New Brunswick, New Jersey. We are here to bring you the inside track on food, wine, and the finer things in life. Hi there, mark. Hey buddy. How are you today? I'm doing great. I'm really doing well. I'm looking forward to today's show.

Francis 0:39

I'm looking forward to our guest, Michael Chey, Alina, who has, uh, written a book, about being a mare d in New York and the Wild and Crazy times of the eighties, nineties and offs. He's been a mare d even longer than we have. Yeah, and in New York too. I I know we have a lot of ma d stories. Yeah. He's got more ma d stories. Yeah. And the book's great. Yeah. So we look forward to talking to him a little bit. But before we get to him, before he comes on the show, I wanna talk with you, um, about an article I read in The Economist. Mm-hmm. Um, and I don't have answers, but I think it's good to raise the question. So it's basically like every question you bring me my whole life, no, I, I often have wrong answers for those. No. I wanna talk about gene editing of fruits and vegetables. We're seeing, um, a lot more genetically modified. Fruits and vegetables come to market. Yep. And with the advancement of artificial intelligence to aid in using things like CRISPR and gene editing, you're gonna see more of that. You're already seeing more of the fruit of the food products being genetically modified. Yeah. I still have a certain reservation about genetically modifying plants. Yeah. And, uh, I'm, I'm no Luddite, but, um, well, we've been talking about this for 20 years, right? The, the concern has always been what happens when you let the cat outta the bag. Yeah. you know, you can't put it back in, right. The law of unintended consequences and you release things into the wild. We think about when we bring Kudzu into the United States on a ship. Yep. And you, it's outta control. Mm-hmm. There is no way to stop kudzu from taking over. Right. Ancient carp in the Mississippi River. And, what happens with gene editing is you can, what you used to be able to get by hybridizing and, and selectively breeding things in and out of food crops, which we have done for millennia. Yep. Um, what. The gene editing allows you to do is to achieve things that you never could have crossbred before or to jump a thousand generations. Yeah. And when you crossbred things in the wild, I think maybe nature has enough time to adapt to the new thing before it's a thousand generations ahead. And the the, the fear is when you introduce something that will either. Um, invade or outcompete a native species. Alright, and I'm gonna steal man, that argument, right? So the biggest argument against that will be they, they have a, Canada has developed a new form of yeast, which is less likely to give you a headache, uh, if you use that to ferment your wine than the yeast that have conventionally been used. Yes. That's great, except a lot of wine is made with natural yeast. Mm-hmm. With the ambient yeast in the air and yeast is microscopic. It's on your shoes, it's on your clothes, and if this genetically modified yeast overtakes, the natural becomes the dominant strain comes of the dominant yeast, it will change the way that. Everybody's wine is made and everyone is, beer is made. So that's, that's a, a fear. But I, I, I think there are other fears too. There's sometimes there's unintended consequences. Right, right, right. Right. Okay. You got a new. Crop that grows four times faster, but maybe it causes, gluten intolerance right. In 50% of the people who eat it. I, I mean there, there are all sorts of, the, the human body is very complex and not even in the human body. I mean, you've introduced it to the ecosystem of the world. Mm-hmm. So, you know, maybe it's great and it increases yields and there's a lot of profit, but you find out it's, it's doing something bad for the environment in general out there. Mm-hmm. But, you know, they're, they're coming. There are genetic modifications. They are using crispr and I wanna talk about some fruits that people can be expecting and, and who doesn't want blackberries with no pits. Yeah. No seeds with no seeds. Seedless. Blackberries, right. Seedless Blackberries. Because that's the most annoying thing about the blackberry is the little seeds in there. Yeah. That came from a biotech company, uh, called Pairwise. And it's a, they're gene edited blackberries pairwise in North Carolina. And stainless cherries also come from, uh, pairwise. We did seedless grapes without crispr, but people really like seedless grapes. Yeah. Um, and you know, you know, you know what else? Okay, I'm gonna say something. Mm-hmm. I will try the blackberries with no seeds. I want my cherry to have a seed. I don't know. I don't know. I, I, I want my cherry to have a seed. Well, you know, the big thing in the cocktail world was, pitless lemons. Seedless lemons. Mm-hmm. Seedless lemons, I remember. Which makes a huge difference. Look, I think these things are really interesting. Um, I am a little concerned about the environmental impact. Um, I'm more than a little concerned. Yeah, I agree. Uh, because somebody's gonna take it too far. Yeah. And that's really the, the whole answer, right? It's not that this thing is going to be a problem or that thing is going to be a problem. Somebody's going to take it too far. If everybody has license to do this, somebody's gonna do something wrong. Well, everybody has license to do this, so somebody's gonna take it too far. But some of the things we can look forward to with the new artificial intelligence, helping companies use gene editing we have, um. Non browning avocados are in the pipeline because they're, they've removed. Well, one of the things that here, here's one of the things that's happening now is with artificial intelligence, they can simply remove a gene, which is. Maybe a little less risky than introducing genes from other unrelated species. We can't just put a little lemon juice in there. It's true. Come on guys. That's true. Um, China has come up with a, uh, way to make tomatoes up to 30% sweeter. Um, and, uh, you know, I, I think we're gonna see these things on the market. Oh, you're definitely gonna see them. There's no question about it. And here's what happens. The European union's, uh, process went to simplify, um, for that block. The process of releasing these route, they don't need to be labeled anymore. Yeah, I don't love that. And, and that's, uh, I, I think it's interesting. I, I don't know where I stand on this. I, I have concern, but I, I think it's coming and people should know about it. Um, but I, I don't, I don't have an answer. I just, I thought it would be a cool thing for the restaurant guys to let people know what's going on out there and, uh, I don't know. We're all, we're all going to hell in a hand basket. Can I use one more metaphor? Yeah, go ahead. Trains outta the station. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So It's coming one way or the other. And you heard about it first on the restaurant guys, unless you heard it about someplace else first, in which case you didn't hear about it first on the restaurant. Guys, listen, we've got Michael Chey, Alina, one of the best Ma Ds in New York through the eighties and nineties and Austin. His book is amazing. he'll be on the other side. Don't you Go away. You can always find out more about us and all this crazy stuff we talk about restaurantGuy@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 7:03

Hey there, everybody. Welcome back. Today's guest has seen more of the restaurant business from the dining room side than just about anyone alive,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_140132 7:10

Michael Chey.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 7:10

Alina has been decades running the front of house of some of New York's most iconic restaurants. From Mineta Tavern to Luca Co, to River Cafe to our Os, and now Che's Bar and Grill. He really knows what happens between the host stand and the check drop. And he is got a great book called Your Table Is Ready, which Jay McInerney is called The Front of House Kitchen Confidential. It's funny. It's brutal. And if you've ever worked in a dining room, it's a little too real. And if you haven't, you should read it to know what it's all about. Michael, good to see you again. Welcome to the show.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 7:40

Thanks guys. It's a pleasure to be here.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 7:43

I think the best blurb on the book though was McKinney calling it Kitchen Confidential for the front of house. That's, that's a blessing, huh?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 7:51

Yeah, it was, yeah. I look, I know Jay for a very long time and, um, you know, he's a wonderful writer. And the, the, the, the, the book encompasses New York from the early eighties to, to the current. And his book, bright Lights Big City, really encapsulated the eighties New York City. You know, that's the Bible of it. So for him to, um, l his name to the book. Uh, Jay Macer is a wonderful man, and it was nice to get that absolutely.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 8:15

So let's talk about. New York City from the Maitre D's perspective. And um, it really is reading the book. I lived through that and we were in New Jersey. We weren't in New York, but there was a whole kind of high stakes thing going on. There was a whole society that lived around the front of the house that I think Bourdain did capture the kitchen side of things. Being front facing and dealing with the public in New York at that time is a whole different animal. French, talking about the, the early eighties really is, which is when the book really, really takes hold. Right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 8:46

Yeah, well, it, it, that's where I started. That's where it begins. Absolutely though it, it, it does go to the present. But, you know, the eighties in New York was the wild, wild West. It was coming out of, uh, the Daily News headline, fortune, New York Drop Dead. There was a, a huge fiscal crisis and things started to turn around. You know, there was the a really. Uh, the, the early eighties Reagan gets elected. The economy changes and the whole world changed. It was crazy. It went from New York in being destitute and you had wealthy pockets and the Upper East Side and the lower East Side and everywhere else other than the Upper East Side was pretty poor. You know, it was all working class and, um, eighties created a boom. I think that really helped. The whole city come back in terms economically and into all socioeconomic levels. Look, the book, I try to tie in what was going on in the city and what was going in the restaurant world. And they're one and the same back then studio. So Studio 54 was the, the place to be. It was the discos that were, you know, people went to studio was everything. And when that closed, there was a dirt of places to people to go. And that's when restaurants started to become the night out. You know, or you began your night out in a restaurant. It wasn't just about the food that would, that became the club and Keith McNally nailed it with the ion. That was the place to be. Everybody went to the ion.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 10:09

Yep.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 10:09

you got into 54, you got into the ion. It was that same demographic and everybody wanted to be attached to that.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 10:15

The Cosmopolitan was born at the ion. The, the, uh, the thing about that time, which I think made it so rich for, uh, up and coming restaurants was you had neighborhoods that were completely affordable in New York City still. Yep. Yep.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 10:33

It's such an amazing point because what we don't have now is someone with a few shekels that can open on the corner or open on like, um, uh, down on Delancey Street or some odd little place and they could afford to open a restaurant and they were gems.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 10:49

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 10:49

gyms. The chef was there with his wife, ran the front of the house, and he ran both and they were everywhere. And that was where you really wanted to eat. You don't find that anymore. It's really sad.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 11:00

It's not just the restaurants. I mean, I had a little apartment in the East Village on Second Avenue and St. Mark's plate, sixth floor walkup. I gained 10 pounds when I left and I lost that apartment. Um, but what was, it wasn't just the restaurant, it was the block and the neighborhood. So I lived on Second Avenue in St. Mark's. It was a little bar down there, a lot, a bunch of cool clubs that opened up with very little money. And it was just, it was the cool that was there.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 11:23

82 St. Mark's place.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 11:24

yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 11:25

It was a big club. Yeah. Small club, but everybody went there.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 11:28

Well, there were all sorts of cool places that were opening up down there. But then you also had, I remember there was a bar called The Dugout, and the dugout was a little sports bar where they had baseball cards veneered into the, um, into the bar. Mm-hmm. The average age, there were these old guys with long beards that were gray, but they were a little nicotine, staying gray beers. And you'd go in there and you'd get a beer for 75 cents and you'd hang out with the old guys, and then you'd walk out and Madonna would be walking down the street. And that was the energy of New York back then. It was rich and poor and everything in between, and every ethnicity all in the street together. And now a dive bar is a million dollar thing that some hipster made to look like a dive bar.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 12:09

You are a hundred percent. Look, I lived on sixth between A and B. Um, I moved in there in 1979 with$200 a month rent. And everybody in the area was, they were struggling artists, junkies, um, very few rich people lived there. You couldn't get a cab. East of second Avenue was the demilitarized zone, but God, was it alive, all

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 12:28

Save the Robots, Kings Wawa Hut, the Pyramid Club. That was all your neighborhood right?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 12:33

Percent. Yep. Hundred percent. Yeah. When the Pyramid Club opened.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 12:38

Oh, I was, I saw, I, we saw a lot of bands there. We could, we could go down a long line of memory lane in your neighborhood and then all the listeners would stop listening. So let's

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 12:46

Okay.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 12:46

come back to I just, and just to, to remind, just to remind people about the, the neighborhood. At that time it was the neighborhood that I had to lie to my mother and, and not tell her I was going to, I used to, when I would come home, if I came from the, the restaurant I was working in and I wore a jacket and a tie, I would, or I went out to a fancy dinner or something. I would, I, I would take a cab directly to the door and dart in the door. If I wore like a leather jacket or a denim jacket and some ripped jeans, I could walk the streets safely. You were gonna get hit And, you know, there was an energy to that and that energy translated into these dining rooms. Let's talk about being in maitre d. Yeah. I want, I wanna talk about some of the things that happened in New York City restaurants in the eighties and nineties. So tell us some of the stories. Um, the best part of this book, I think, is that we really do. You really give us firsthand one. You name names, okay. There's a lot of names in here of, of people that you talk about, you know? And two, the the stories, you feel it. They're real stories, right? This happened in New York at that time. I remember. So give us a flavor of what it's like to be a mare D on the streets of New York in that time.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 13:52

So I start, so I, I was a, a captain at the water club and then I get promoted, uh, the same owner to the River Cafe in Brooklyn.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 13:58

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 13:59

Which at the time was the first American three star restaurant in the city. Um, the fine dining was the Liz and the laws, er, ene. All, all the French restaurants, American restaurants had not caught up yet. Um, windows on the World Bega, I think began it. The River Cafe did with. Larry Forgione and Charlie Palmer and David Burke and all these great chefs came outta there. So suddenly I'm running the door of the most sought after American restaurant in New York City with one of the most beautiful views. And everybody wanted to be there. I mean, it was crazy. You had, you know, we booked out two, two weeks in advance. The book filled up, filled up in two minutes, which was done by hand. Pencils you made your note with in pencils and, and everybody wanted to be there. As a young guy not really knowing this world, I, I got a little bit of it at the water club with the, the, the, the whole, the, the elite of the city. you know, Johnny Carson walks in one night, I almost dropped dead. You know, there's Johnny Carson standing in front of you, said, can I get a table for a bottle of wine? Of course. Um, and you're making big money for somebody like me and someone in the restaurant business because Mait Sure. D you're you, you're seating the tables

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 15:12

So you have how many seats at, the River Cafe?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 15:15

Uh, probably 75.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 15:16

75 seats. Masters of the Universe want to get there. There is no online reservations. There's no auctioning or reservations. It is not, it is not a first come, first serve, uh, access to the dining room. The,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 15:30

Restaurants are not democra.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 15:31

exactly. So talk to us about how those decisions were made that put you in the middle of the maelstrom. Talk to us about that time and, and how that went out. It's not even Republic.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 15:41

There are nine. There are nine window tables. Okay, so you're talking nine people That evening, or nine Reserv guests will get, we will get into the. those tables and everybody wanted them. And you said the masses of the universe, people are not used to being heard No. Wanted these tables, it would became a thing of prestige. So who gets the tables? Um, uh, the owner would say, what you can't do is sell a table. Well, the thing is, he paid me$5 an hour.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 16:08

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 16:09

and you had a small share of the tip pool. So how do you make money? Look, did I sell tables? Uh. Yes. Um, did I, did I

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 16:19

Wanna think about that for a moment,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 16:21

Well, no, but did I shake people down?

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 16:24

right?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 16:24

people got it back then. They knew if they wanted the table, they're gonna walk in the door and they're gonna palm me, shake my hand, Michael, great to see you, and hand me a hundred dollars. Um,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 16:33

Yeah. Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 16:35

that's$350 or 400 in today's money. I had a guy come in one night at the door on a busy Saturday night. night. We would, would, would, would, you would. Packed. Everybody wanted a window table. The bar is three deep people waiting for tables. This guy comes in, says hi, um, he gave me his name, uh, table for four, please. Do you have reservation? He says, no. I kinda laugh, sir. I'm so sorry. We, we've been booked out forever. I just don't have any tables available for you. He smiles at me. Um, there's two, beautiful with him and another guy with him, and he turns around and he hands me a, a stack of money and I said, sir, I, I don't have a table. No, no, no. You're a gentleman. He gives me the money. So I'm running around and I, I, I wanna walking down the, the aisle and I tend to look at it and it was$200. So now we're talking like 800 in today's money. And I'm like, oh my God. Um, so I see a table getting up at the window. I grab one of the busers, change the table four top. I go to the bar, I say, Mr. Blah, blah, blah, please, your table's ready. He gives me the biggest smile in the world. He gets seated. This was a lot of money. He gets seated. He says, do you have, do you have uh, kristal? Uh, very most expensive. Champagne still is. I said, yes. We'll take a bottle. He said, you have troche again, the most expensive wine

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 17:49

Yeah. Okay.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 17:50

house. We'll take a bottle of that as well. Sits down five minutes later, he gets up, walks over to me and hands me another$200. He's so happy to get the table. So who's going to get the table? I mean, you know, you wanna be nice to everyone. Look, people came in on their anniversary or their birthdays they want Yeah, of course, no problem. Because someone else will make up for it. But, but that's what it was. That was access

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 18:12

Here's the thing about access back then though, that's really fascinating because there's an ecosystem today in which there's access and who do you know? And there's a certain amount, and one of the great things about being in the restaurant business. I've got your fricking cell phone number, man. If I need a table, I'm calling you a cheche, right? So, but it's about whose phone number do you have? But let's go back to when you started. There were no cell phones, there was no internet, there wasn't an email. So when somebody wants a table, you, you have two things that go on. One is you've only got a hundred seats, right? So you reserve 20 of them to have in your back pocket the day of in case the mayor calls, right?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 18:48

of course.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 18:49

I don't have any more tables, which happens about 20 seats before. You don't have any more tables, but then you get to where you don't have any more tables and how do you handle that is my first question. And my second is, what if there's a VIP who's new in town and they really wanted that table at your restaurant? How do they even get to you to talk to you, to maybe bribe you, to maybe convince you to get them a table,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 19:13

Okay, so old school ways they came in.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 19:16

right? Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 19:17

Came into the restaurant, or you knew they called the reservationist and said, hi, I am Johnny Carson.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 19:23

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 19:24

though,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 19:24

Right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 19:24

he just walked in unannounced. Um, uh, uh, I am so, so and so. I'd like to get a table. Can you let Michael know, blah, blah, blah. And you called this person back and that's, you know, you, it was personal. It was, it was phone call to phone call. But if the restaurant's booked right and you have a wait list and the mayor wants to come in, or Debra Harry, let's, uh, uh, it is one example. You said Madonna. Let's say Debra Harry or Andy Warhol, and they called, and you know what? You're seating them.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 19:52

Okay.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 19:52

saying no, you're not saying no to the mayor of New York. I'm not saying no to the guy that gives me$800. You take it and you pray. And you hope that someone, that someone gets up early or what you do is you juggle. Someone's gonna have to wait for that

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 20:06

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 20:06

They're not gonna get the table they want. And it's, it's really a game of Tetris where you're really seeing who's getting up, who's not getting up, what can I do? I'm buying them drinks at the bar, I'm gonna send you over appetizers and you make it work. And we still do it today. My restaurant's packed. My ma de Christina is amazing. She doesn't say no, she makes it work. Can we make it work?

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 20:27

I'm gonna give you an example of the ultimate end game of the, of the matre D rope. Like when you ha you kept that one table in case the mayor called and then somebody else. Really important. Called and you gave him the table and then the mayor calls and you really don't have another table. Mr. And Mrs. Moskowitz were, the guy used to be a meet inspector in New York City. I was a young bartender in New Jersey. They used to come into our bar all the time and they said to their favorite waiter and me, their favorite bartender, they said, we don't have any kids. Let us take you out to dinner in the city. So they take us out and we go to car mines. And we're at Carmines and we walk in and Mr. Moskowitz was connected in many ways, uh, rest his soul. And so we walk in this big line outside, we walk right in, like, oh, Mr. Moscowitz, good to see you. And then we get the, and the way back in Carmines, there were two tables on the way to the back room, one in each corner, and they were the best tables in the house. And we sat down. There's no menu. We have the whole dinner. It's, you know, he, uh, he's obviously a VIP. We have a great night, and there's a table of ladies who sat at the other best table in the house next to us, and we're about to have dessert, and their entrees are about to hit the table. Matri D comes over panicked, and as the waiters are putting the table, the plates down in front of the ladies, he waves'em off and they pick them back up again and walk away. And the matri d walks over and says, ladies, I'm terribly sorry. There's been a big mix up. Uh, I I need this table back immediately. And they said, we're not going anywhere. You don't think that we're gonna, so three of the big waiters come out and they were moving whether they liked it or not. what the Maury said to those ladies. He said, I will buy you a bottle of champagne at the bar and I will have a table for you again in 15 minutes, but I need this table and I need it right now. And they were like, we're not coming. We're not coming. And so the. The guys come over and they're, they're, they're gonna move from that table. So Mr. Moscowitz graciously waves over the Maury and he said, we'll, skip dessert, we're, and go. He said, just tell me who is it? And he says, I can't say. And he walked away. And as we're walking out, John Gotti is at the bar. Ladies, were getting the fuck up from that table. You know what I, and it wasn't about a tip, you know what I mean? When John Kelly wants to sit in that neighborhood at that time, he sits.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 22:33

It's survival. Look what I, what I have done, I have done that. Look, um, when I had on, on Bobo, I had a large, large group came in and there were two gorgeous women sitting by the fireplace. I needed that table desperately.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 22:44

Right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 22:44

up to them and I said, ladies, I'm so sorry. Can I buy you a glass of champagne? Let me buy you dessert. I need to move you. They. They agreed. They didn't fight me at all. But, but you do that I wound up get wound up dating one of them, which was great. And, and here what I'll do sometimes is we'll do the Goodfellas thing at the Copa Cabana where we will bring up a table from upstairs.'cause I need a table and juggle things around to make that table fit.'cause I have to get these guests to sit down. But at the River Cafe, it had a big mob presence there. I'm a big mob presence. Uh, guys would come in and, you know, one guy, we call them stem glass Vinny. Stem glass. Vinny would come in'cause he only drank his doers in a stem glass. And he'd come in and he'd go, Mikey, how are you, Mikey? And he, and he'd squeezed my cheek and he

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 23:26

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 23:26

bucks. He never had dinner. He went to the bar he always go, Mike, remember I get the stem glass? He said, at every single time, every single. One night, it's a, it's a late night at the River Cafe. We're closing up the place, not much is going on. And some guy comes in, uh, the, the bar is empty, nobody at the bar. And he stumbles to the bar and he goes there. And as soon as he stumbles to the bar, the valet comes running in. And I said, Michael, this guy just parked right in front of the door. He won't gimme his keys. Nobody can get in or out. The owner's coming down, buzzy is coming down. I don't know what to do. So I look at the bartender and I go, I put the, the, the, the.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 24:03

You're.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 24:03

him on signal and the bartender looks at me. Next thing I know, he turns around and gives the guy a drink. I'm like, what the fuck? What are you doing? The bartender, legend guy named, Jimmy, been there a lifer. He's in the bartender hall of fame and he gives me this look like the stay away. So I go around to the service bar, he goes, do you know who that is? I said, no. He says, just stay away. Stay away. It's fat Anthony. Okay, so I'm over by the service bar. This guy gets up, he walks over to me and he backs me up against the window. He's like a fire plug, and he says, I don't know who you are. I don't know your name, but you disrespected me. I get a drink wherever I go. Then he takes his keys in front of my face and hands it to the bartender. he walks away. And now I'm like, oh, Jesus Christ. So he has a drink, he leaves. I talk to the bartender, he says, yeah, he's in, he's in the Gotti gang. Um, he's rising through the ranks. Uh, nobody likes him. You gotta be careful. Stay aware. Be careful. Careful. Supposed to do. I gotta get the guy's keys. You give him the goddamn drink and I'm the bad guy. So, um, I get a little nervous, right? Because I disrespected this guy. I get, I get, I get a little nervous We had two York City detectives, legends that were security guards and it's a busy Saturday night and one of the guys, the guy is sitting there, he passed away recently. A wonderful detective, most decorated detective in the force, and he's running security, make more money, and he's sitting down at the table. We're supposed to have, have dinner, and who walks in is Fat Anthony and two other guys. One guy was so big you had to wear jackets. At the River Cafe. This guy came in with him. Abbie didn't have a jacket. He's like a, he's like a gorilla. And you could see the back of the jacket had ripped'cause it was a loner jacket.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 25:49

Hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 25:49

another guy that we knew from the restaurant, and it's Fat Anthony. And I go, oh Jesus Christ. And I tell the detective, this is, this is the guy I talked to him about. I'm a little scared. He says, I lemme go to the car. Lemme go get my gun. I know this guy. So that now I'm, I'm totally scared, shit

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 26:04

Can I tell you something? Can I tell you something? You are the make of the dining room and one of your allies says, let me go get my gun. That is not a good night. You are not, that's not what you wanna hear.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 26:14

So as he goes out the door, fat Anthony turns around, walks over to me and he goes, how you doing? And I said, I'm okay. I'm like, look, I was so scared. I didn't know that you could pee your pants, shit your pants at the same time. I didn't know what this guy was gonna do. He says, you disrespected me and I'm gonna take care of you. I don't get disrespected and he goes back to the bar. Now I just want to die. I

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 26:39

Well, he, he, he, you might have wanted to, he might have died. I wanna die with both of my thumbs though, right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 26:46

Detective comes back, um, I'll try to make the story short. Detective comes back, he says, okay, I know this guy. He's uh, he's definitely involved in Gotti. We think he was involved in the Castellano killing, who was the mob boss that was shot at Sparks that side. Sparks Steakhouse. We know who this guy is. Okay, great. Thank you. Now what? This guy's gonna kill me, right? So. Um, they wind up leaving'cause the detective doesn't, pat doesn't leave my side. And so now I'm terrified. So one of my other, one of my guests, uh, an undertaker, you're in a funeral home. He was connected. He comes in one night, I tell him the story. He says, oh shit, this is not good. He says, he's not one of my people, but I know you're talking about, we'll try and get it figured out. He winds up calling stem glass, Vinny. on the other team and they have a sit down to talk about me and to

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 27:33

Oh boy.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 27:34

I don't get killed. This, this truly happens. And he says the next time he comes in, you go up to him and say, Mr. You know Mr. Anthony, I'm so sorry I disrespected you. Please, can I buy you a drink? Sure enough, the guy comes in the next week, he goes up to the bar. I say this to him, he looks at me, he says, to buy me anything. He said, I'm expecting a phone call. Is coming through to the mat D stand. Make sure you call me. That's it. Now he owns me

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 27:58

Uh.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 27:58

me. And so these guys were coming in for the next month or two months. There'd be bunch of them getting phone calls. The owner said, knew what's going on. Don't let them in. I said, are you crazy? You don't let them in. I'm letting them in and again. So, so what happens then, A month later, I come into the restaurant, the, the same bartenders at the bar. He hands me a copy of the New York Post mobster shot in New York. They killed him. He got murdered in a, in a, in a deal. Gone wrong.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 28:25

was because you, right. It was because you, right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 28:29

No,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 28:30

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 28:30

know, so I've been punched, I've been screamed at, I've been called every name in the book because I didn't give people a window table. I didn't give'em a preferential table at Look Cuckoo or at Raul's. I've been sucker punched. People get so

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 28:42

You were, you were stucker punched in the dining room. Yeah. It's amazing. Come on. People have, people have attacked you in the dining room. People, there were only a couple times in, in my younger or more vulnerable years of people attacked me. And my philosophy was very simple. I just called Mark. I gotta, I gotta tell you a funny story on our side. There was one guy, we're both down in our office, we get a call, major D says, there's a guy at the bar. I cut him off. He's not having it, he's not going great. I was like, ah, mark, I'll take care of it. I'll go upstairs. So I go upstairs and this guy's really not having it and he's, you know, gonna get physical. I'm like, why the? Am I gonna deal with this? Mark is a very large guy, you know, football player type guy. I said to the bartender, I said, call Mark says Mark. He's like, oh, I gotta call Mark. Ah, right. And, mark comes up out of the, out of the kitchen, walking outta the kitchen and he says, ah, what are you, you, you, the big Italian guy? Are they keeping in the basement? Just throwing eyes out. You left out the word fat. I said, dig. And Mark said. Yeah. Yeah, I am. And he, and he, and he forced him out the door. Um, so I do want to go, you start out the book and I, the minute I read the first chapter of the book, I'm like, okay, uh, this guy and I have a lot in common. Uh, so I spent every Sunday in Bensonhurst, uh, my grandparents' house, um, and my, my grandfather was a funeral director at Tour Grosso funeral home in, Brooklyn.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 30:09

So the J that I'm talking about, the, the undertaker was Mr. To Grossa.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 30:14

Who knew everyone.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 30:16

We knew

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 30:16

Okay. Who knew everyone. Okay.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 30:18

that? For one degree of separation.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 30:20

the, so you tell a story of, you know, these guys would come in and double park everybody in every Sunday, and you didn't mess with them because you didn't mess with them. And you tell a really good story that I'll let you tell in just a minute about what happens when you ask them to move their cars. So my grandfather. Had to have an off street garage on the property. He wouldn't buy a property that didn't have an off street garage so he could park his limo in the garage

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 30:48

Right.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 30:49

nobody would bother it, and he could get in and out when he needed to get in and out, and he didn't have to worry about and answering to anybody for, for getting his car in and out.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 30:57

Parking was a big thing. People will kill you for a parking spot on your block. Someone parked in front of your house. Who is this person? What are they doing there? It's public. It's a public street, but so my, I, I had, I come from a half a mafia family on Sundays, they come over and they all play poker and they're all playing poker. And what would happen was they all drove Cadillacs and the Cadillacs, they would double park them. On the street and no one bothered them. This is illegal. You can get to I, if you get towed back, then you get tickets. But the cop car would go down the block and leave them alone. Leave them alone. So in the middle of this one poker game, there's a knock at the door. Guy's there. Hey, my, I, my car's being blocked. I can't get out. Can somebody move the car? One of the guys was a real kind of crazy tough guy. He wound up not, not doing so well in his life, but he was a little bit crazy. He said, we tell him, Hey, uh, could you move the car? This guy's out. He says, what? He wants me to move my car. He goes outside. He looks at the guy, he goes into his truck. He gets a trunk, gets a lug wrench and smashes the guy's windows. He says, now you want me to move? No, I'm not moving anyway. Get outta here. And that was it. Nobody bothered him. You wouldn't let'em go. It it, it was like that. It was, you know, it was tribal. You didn't mess with these guys. If you were, if you, if you were blocked in, you're not getting out till they leave.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 32:13

You know, you mentioned the Sunday poker games. so the Dining Room of Kale Lombardi, our second restaurant on the second floor up here is lined with pictures of my family from 1900 to let's say 1980. So the restaurant's, Kaha Lombardi named after my grandmother who, who spent her whole life in Brooklyn. And so there's a great picture of me with my grandfather and my godfather, and we're sitting there. And we're playing poker for money. And I look at the picture and I realize I'm three years old. I cannot read yet, but I can play poker for money. I have the ability to play poker for money'cause there's money sitting in front of me. So I'm definitely betting it's it just.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 32:55

dealing at seven years old. No, that's what we did. That's how you grew up. It's crazy. Crazy. Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 33:01

It's funny, the mare D does hold. I think the mare D and the bartender in restaurants do hold a certain, I don't know, position. I still in society. But back then again, when they're, everyone's less accessible. That mare d at the door, that bartender at the bar, it it, especially in New York City and in parts of New Jersey and old cities in New Jersey, I think it was great. I remember there was a.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 33:24

the mare D was God. They were you. You revered them. You knew the name. I know my uncles knew the name of the guy. Who was the ma? The Copa Cabana. Yeah. We don't get in. I know how to get in there. We know the maitre d. We know the maitre

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 33:35

Well, that can get in. That was a big thing. There was a guy, guy named Wade Kin, who was the. Cousin of my friend Kurt Wenzel and Wade was the mare D at, oh, I forget the woman's name. It was a woman's name in Soho. She had a, but in any event, I, I knew him and, uh, I traveled with my buddy to come back. I'd been bartender for a long time. I was a really good bartender from Jersey. I wanted a job in New York and you couldn't get a job in New York as a bartender unless you had New York experience. So Wade was willing to lie for me and tell people that I had worked at his joint'cause he knew it was a good bartender. And I asked him where I should go. I wound up getting a job at Soho Kitchen and Bar, which I kept for a short period of time. Kevin's really got me a job there and, um, I went, he said the best place you'd wanna be is a place like Finale's. Finale's is still there. It's a great place in soho. Before soho was.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 34:19

I go all the time. Sasha's one of my closest friends who

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 34:22

W Well, I didn't know much about it at the time. And he says, yeah, you get a job at finale's, but you know, somebody's gotta die there before you get a bartending job At Finale's, they never leave. Two weeks later, I get a call, Francis, it's Wade. One of the bartenders at finale's just died. Get down there right away. That was the old New York story. It's, I really wanna talk about the mare D because the world has changed again. Okay. It's, it's 30, 40 years later and I think it's changed for the worse in this way. And, and, and what I'm talking about is the mare d at the door of the restaurant now is. The least experienced, least knowledgeable person who doesn't know who you are, who doesn't know anything really about the restaurant business, except this name goes on table 42. This name goes on table 41, and the host or hostess of the restaurant is no longer in a, in. 80% of the places I go is no longer the person in charge and an open table and resi. And these things have made it so that person at the door isn't you or me in a lot of places. And it, it's really, I think, made restaurants.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 35:43

Here, here, here. Here's what happened. Here's what happened. And then so we, we, we got tipped, right? We made a lot of money at the door. You and nobody declared their tips. In New York City restaurants, right? Everybody, waiters, bartenders, you walked out with a stack of cash, you got your money. At the end of the night in the nineties, the IRS cracked down. They, they picked four or five restaurants. One was Petro, had a bunch of friends working there, and they, they audited them. And, and some of the captains and at and bartenders at Petrosian had to pay between 80 to$120,000 in.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 36:15

of money. I remember that.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 36:16

And it changed, and the position changed overnight. So restaurants didn't want you, you know, you're a maitre d buzzy iss paying me five bucks an hour. I'm making six figures a year, right?

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 36:25

Right,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 36:25

because of buzzy,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 36:26

right.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 36:27

of tips. So suddenly maitre d has to declare his tips. What are you crazy? You, you're losing all, most of your money. So the maitre d went the way, the dodo bird, no one wanted to pay a maitre d six figures to stand at the door. So what they did was they put a host there. the host became in charge. Now, this is when Rey's coming out and open tables coming out and they're plotting the book and restaurants lost personality. You lost access. You have the, the least knowledgeable person at the door making minimum wage, seating the dining room, and it crushed, it crushed the restaurant scene. There were no more Mare Ds.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 37:02

Well.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 37:02

few, few places had them. Uh,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 37:04

I wanna make a point. When you come to Stage left and Catherine Lo Body, most nights you'll find one of us, or you'll find one of our senior staff whose job is to walk around and say hello to people. And, uh, and when we go, we were at your place and we saw you there and your longtime people. We, we've, we've kept the flavor of, of that in a few places. And I think that we should be that. Places like that should be treasured. But listen. Michael, we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna, uh, have a commercial. We'll be right back on the other side. Don't leave us. You can find out more about us and more about and more about your table is ready@restaurantguyspodcast.com. Hey there everybody. Welcome back. We are talking with Michael Cheche

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_140132 39:04

Chey.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 39:04

as Alina, and we're getting on like a house on fire, as they say in Ireland. Um. This has been a great little, uh, port Monto of, uh, New York City, eighties, nineties, and how it's kind of changed over, but we haven't really talked a lot about inside the restaurant. And I think some of the cool things, uh, it, I love being a waiter and a bartender in that time and there's a whole different, um, thing that went on between the front of the house, the back of the house. It was the wild, wild west. Everybody was sleeping together. Everybody was, you know, staying out way too late at night. Talk to us a little about how things were a little bit crazy inside restaurants back then.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 39:42

They very crazy. Look, look, you are talking about the eighties and going into the nineties. Um, in the eighties, cocaine was king. The I have a Time magazine cover that I referenced in my book with the, with the, from 1980. or 82. It's a martini glass filled with cocaine, and it was acceptable. It was acceptable. It was happening in the clubs, so you would get tipped. Guys would walk in the door with a hundred dollars bill wrapped around a gram of coke,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 40:08

Hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 40:08

put it in your hand and they expected you to do the coke while you're at work with that. Drinking champagne with them, especially the Wall Street guys. They loved it and everybody's getting high. Now you have restaurants, right? They're, they're full of, they're pressure packed. You have young, attractive people working in there. You have a bar, you have drugs being passed around. It's debauchery

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 40:28

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 40:29

It got crazy. Now, was anyone being taken advantage of? Honestly, not that I know of. People partook freely. It's what was happening in

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 40:38

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 40:38

People having sex in Studio 54, they're having sex in the bathrooms and restaurants in the walk-ins. Um, it was, it was really, and then you go out after work, right? We would go out pockets stuffed with cash, go to the ion. There's a place called Jazz Fan Dam. Uh, a club called Heartbreak that was cocaine alley down on, on on Van Dam and Rack Street. It was, everybody was out, everybody was doing drugs At Js Vanda, you couldn't go in the bathroom'cause it was packed with people doing blow. If you were a guy, you went and peed outside. It was faster.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 41:10

So,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 41:11

everyone is doing this and it, it's, it's heightened. And then the, you know, the kitchen guys. Chefs were animals.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 41:18

yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 41:18

was, it was the military people, plates were flying, screaming at you. If you screwed up an order, they'd be scripting you a new asshole in the front of the house. There'd be fights. And then if you were lucky, you all met at some bar that you all went to and you made up and hugged each other and came in the next day that you wanted to die from your hangover, but you did it again. You did another line, you did another shot, and you went on.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 41:40

And one of the things you, you mentioned in the book that I, that I thought was really, really relevant, uh, chefs, most chefs were assholes. And it didn't matter if they were talented or not. Yeah, yeah. That's like, they were, they were assholes regardless of whether they had any skill or not.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 41:56

That's correct. I, my first restaurant job, the chef, he couldn't boil water. He was a French guy and he was the biggest asshole in the world. And one night he got so angry at it as a server. He kicked him in the nuts. The guy was hospitalized for a month

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 42:10

God.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 42:11

the size of a grapefruit,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 42:12

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 42:12

nothing happened to him,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 42:14

Yeah. See those, those were the excesses and I, I, you know. I really enjoyed, and I think I just, I stayed on the safe side of things and I was out late and I did a lot of drinking and I did a lot of carousing with people that had a lot of fun. But one of the few vices I don't have is drugs. So I never did cocaine and I never got into that side of things, but I watched it go too far and I, I, I was happy to see it reel back in, but it did kind of explode on itself, didn't it, Michael?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 42:44

It did. Um, well look, I think a couple things happened. One was the AIDS crisis hit and it decimated a population. Look, look, every restaurant, uh, in theater restaurants, three half your staff was, were, gay men. and we lost so many. It

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 43:02

Yeah. Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 43:03

watching 20-year-old guys die next to you in the dining room with with kaposi's lesions on them, and that sort of stopped everything. So people are dying next to you. The partying doesn't continue as much. And also the people, it just burnt people out.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 43:18

Yeah. Mm-hmm. It went, it was too, it got too, it burned too bright. It really did.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 43:21

Yeah, people left. They couldn't stay in New York. Those who survived left those who were still here. So many died because of AIDS, and it really stopped overnight

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 43:30

I, I think, and, and France and I, I, I lived this at the same time, in the same place. You know, the, the AIDS epidemic. If you were not in the restaurant business, I don't think you really understood what was happening, right? If you weren't in theater or restaurants, it didn't affect you that way mean it was just absolutely devastating. Just tremendous personalities were were just snuffed out at, at the beginning of their life. And

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 43:55

horrible.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 43:56

horrible. It was, it was so rough to be, to, to be part of. Well, let me, let me lay out the context.'cause I think that. This is so far removed, it really changed an entire demographic. When we were 20 years old, the stereotype of a great waiter was, it was a gay man.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 44:16

In then

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 44:18

a jock bartender who, who knew every sporting event and what was happening. And you had, a slew of gay waiters, but you bought wine, you bought, you bought caviar, all from a gay waiter. That was the stereotype. And when AIDS hit, I remember I had a conversation with my father and he's like, son, you know. My father fought in World War ii and he's like, you know, 21-year-old, 25 year olds dying like this. You know, he made an analogy to World War ii. I was going to funerals and I was losing my friends outta nowhere'cause there was no cure back then. Mm-hmm. But it did. I think the other thing that happened is in the gay community, the way that community responded was to. Put health at a premium and then the, the then the new stereotype of gay guys becoming bodybuilders and going to the gym all the time. That sort of put a, put a kind of a brake on things, but it changed the demographic. I don't think young people today even know there ever was a stereotype that a waiter is a gay guy. Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 45:11

don't. And so many of, of the younger gay men who I, I work with and my friends, they don't know what, those men went through, they don't understand it. It's, it's, it's so far removed, which is tragic. But also all the servers were, were actors

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 45:23

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 45:24

So it, it was so vibrant and you had actors and gay men were actors and straight actors, and it was a party. Your waiters were enter entertaining, hence you being taken by rich people. Took me out, took me there to the homes, come meet me out, uh, in the Hamptons. Come join us. Because they, they wanted this, this, this vivacity in their lives, these personalities, and Mira and still would invite me out to their house in the Hamptons all the time.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 45:49

We're playing Small world again Near Pal. Yeah, so Anne did a bunch of shows at the theater next door. So she spent

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 45:55

Okay. Alright.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 45:55

countless hours in this restaurant. So the Stillers were here a lot. Uh,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 46:00

Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 46:01

you know, Mark's bro, brother actually bothered them once, which was like, if you're a listener to this show, you know that, that, that Jerry Stiller has been tormented by my brother. Well, and literally, you know, as a hd one of the things you have to do is you have to protect the celebrity so they feel comfortable being there.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 46:17

percent.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 46:17

When you're like, all right, we have to make sure that guy who's talking to that celebrity, that's not how it works. And I think Ann Meira said, um, mark, will you do me a favor and get that man away from my husband? Get that crazy man away from my husband. And Mark said, yeah, that's my brother. I'll take care of it. No problem. I remember,

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 46:33

when we have, when we have a big celeb here, we have a manager stationed right by the table. So nobody interrupts them

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 46:38

yeah, I.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 46:39

it doesn't actually happen, but it does. People are crazy. They will, and you'll see them now with the cell phones, like sneaking, try to sneak a picture across the dining room. So we do our best to mitigate that.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 46:49

So I wanna bring this back around to where I am pretty happy to be in the restaurant business today. And I think that there is, especially in New York City, and the nice thing about New York City,'cause we've represented some liquor brands and other states and other places a. When you're in a restaurant community in a town, especially if it's a walking town like New York City, waiters and bartenders do know each other again, and it's not the craziness, the unsustainable craziness of the 1980s and the 1990s, but there is a community there and I think the party is going on. And do you find that to be the case?

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 47:24

You know, I, I, I don't, and

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 47:27

Okay.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 47:27

and I'll tell you, I, and I'll tell you why. You know, so, so, back in the day, everyone, most of, most of your staff lived in Manhattan. You were in, you were in the East Village. You were in Hell's Kitchen. They could afford those apartments. Now I think I have one. One may be two front of house people that actually live in Manhattan.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 47:46

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 47:47

are in Queens, they're in Brooklyn, they're in the Bronx. So now they're, they're, they're walking out here at two in the morning. Instead of going to the corner bar, they're taking a train for an hour.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 47:55

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 47:56

this might be happening in Brooklyn where there's, there's more of a community that people working from the neighborhood and live in the neighborhood, but it's not happening here.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:03

That's really, yeah. Most, most of our staff is lives within five miles of the restaurant and so they get to do that. Right. We, you know, now that, that the world closes earlier and people aren't in my restaurant till three in the morning like they used to be. My staff can go out at midnight and walk around New Brunswick and visit the other bars and all of our know each other, do fun stuff.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 48:24

but back in the day, half the bars in Manhattan after midnight were full of restaurant

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:28

Oh yeah. Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 48:29

Any bar

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:30

Oh yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 48:31

went out because you could take a cab home

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:33

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 48:33

cost you$50 or$75. I think that's changed in Manhattan. I can't speak to the

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:38

Mm-hmm.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 48:38

or, or to Jersey, but, and it's missed because it was such camaraderie, but then you also got into a lot of trouble, so

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 48:44

Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make a, a change that we made 20 years ago now was, it used to be that we tipped out the waiters every night, and it used to be that all the money came in in cash. You separated cash. The waiters kept their cash, and then slowly credit cards were, they were 15% of your business when we started. They're 99% of your business now. And what, what restaurants? Some restaurants still do, few of them, I think is they'll. They to add up the tips and they give cash out of the register to the waiters. And we were one of the first in New Jersey anyway, to say, you know what, we're gonna change this now and we are going to pay everyone their, their credit card tips in a check. And every week you get a check. And so you get your cash tips at the end of the night, but you're, you get a check with all your credit card tips. There was a lot of pushback and we said, listen, if this is gonna be one week where you might be a little cashflow poor, we'll lend you some money if you need, if you need a bridge. And people were against it. We said, we're gonna do this for a month and then we're gonna revisit this question. And a month later we brought it back and so many people said, yeah, I never had a checking account before and now I've got$500 in a checking account.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 49:55

Yeah. Chris. Chris, you're hiding the money.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 49:57

Well, well, you weren't just hiding it. You were spending until four in the morning you were spending, because

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 50:01

Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 50:02

the IRS takes now, you're paying taxes on it. You're not gonna get audited. But you were spending that at a bar in the, I mean, waiters would walk out with$300 in their, in their pants and by the time they get home it's 50 bucks.'cause they, they, they

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 50:13

No,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 50:14

spent it all on the way home and, and now they don't.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 50:17

I, my girlfriend was a captain. I was the maitre d. We walked out of there with a thousand dollars in cash.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 50:22

Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 50:22

And we go out, we go to the ion, and we go to the ion all the time. We get a bottle of Friol and two burgers, and our, our favorite waiter there, he thought we were rich kids. We told him, I no, we're just waiters. He had no idea. He had no idea. Yeah.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 50:37

Michael.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 50:37

actually at, and also Moondance Diner, that one, one of those waiters saw was John Larson, who, uh, we had, uh, uh, created rent on Broadway

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 50:45

yeah. Amazing. Well, that's the thing that happens too. You have these people who come through your, your, your restaurant as a waiter when they're 22, 25, 27 years old, and then when they're 45, they're win Emmys or, becoming gold medalists or the, all the things that people who started out as waiters.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 51:02

I hired Juliana Margolies at River Cafe as a cocktail

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 51:06

Yeah. Was she a good cocktail waitress? Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 51:09

She was great. She's amazing and she's still a very good friend and she comes in here all the

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 51:12

Oh, that's terrific.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 51:13

one of my servers now, it just uh, uh, has the lead in scary movie six that's about to come out next month.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 51:19

Oh, that's great.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 51:20

Yeah. I'm waiting for him to leave and become a star.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 51:23

Well, I just wanna, I, we're gonna have to, we're running low on time, but I want to put a few things in here that really are impressive about your book. you have blurbs in the front of your book from Fresh Air, which is the show on NPR Jay McInerney. Brooke Shields says you always leave her laughing and you have an insightful, uh, book to read. you've got, uh. Photos, travel, and the tasting table all blurbing your book. And it's all really well deserved. It's a great read. Uh, you, you are. It's not just the stories as they exist. You're a great writer. It's a fun book to read. I, I read it in two sittings. It was terrific.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 51:57

Thank

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 51:57

Uh, I will tell you, and I'm, I'm gonna spoil the ending for everybody. this book ends with you in 2023. Opening your own restaurant is, is, it's a great story. I'm glad that you got to this point in your life where you are getting to be buzzy if you want to be, you know, the parts of him that you want to be. Uh, it's great. And I, and I'm glad you're doing it. And I saw you in situ, I've seen you in, in your own restaurant. You were made To be the, the guy who's, you know, manipulating everything that happens in the restaurant. Congratulations to you. I'll see you later this week. tell people about your restaurants so they know where to find you and, and come and say, Hey, we heard about you on the restaurant, guys.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 52:39

We are in the West Village on 13th Street between sixth and seventh, 1 0 5 West 13th Street, Chuckies, and I'm here. I'm here Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to about 12 midnight. Um, because I'm an addict and I love it. And I love people and I love my guests.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 52:55

I'm gonna say it, it's be because this is the life you've chosen. Yeah.

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 53:00

Yeah. Or it shows me, I think it shows me,

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 53:02

So if you wanna go see

squadcaster-5b04_1_03-25-2026_130009 53:03

we all are.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_130015 53:04

Michael. Yeah. And well, if you wanna go see Michael, CHEI, Alina at his place and you no longer even have to palm him$200, you can just go say hello and have a drink. It's all fun. Buy the book, um, and we'll see you in a little bit. don't go away. You can find out more about us@restaurantguyspodcast.com.

the-restaurant-guys_2_03-25-2026_135751 53:20

Well, that was a lot of fun. Yeah, it sure was. the whole palming money at the door thing. Love it. It's very eighties thing. Yeah. But I, I, when we first opened, it must have been 94, 95. Mm-hmm. I, I have, I love this story. Alan Alder walks in mm-hmm. And he's, he comes in and he is, he's going to a show next door, and I see him in the dining room and the guy behind him says. That was all. Alan Alta wasn't. I was like, uh, yeah, it was Alan Alta and he palms me a 50 and he says, I promise I won't bother him. Can I get the table next to his, I promise I won't say a word to him. I promise I I won't do anything. I, I just, I just want to sit next to Alan. I love it. And I was like, yeah, that's great. Yeah. You know what? Yeah, you can, come on. Let's go. So, do you know why I know that story? Yeah. Because we have a deal where we share costs. And you told me that story when you gave me 25 bucks and you're like, here, I did tell you that. Give you 25 bucks and, and tell you the story. I got one other Matri d story for you. Go ahead. I'm, I'm, I'm matching one that you're gonna remember. Okay. So Julio Glas came in one night. Oh yeah. So the most beautiful woman in the world walked in and says he was performing at the state theater right next to and says, Mr. I glaciers would like to have dinner after the show tonight. What time do you close? I'm like. What time did he wanna come in? Because we're gonna close right after he comes in, because he's right after he leaves. So after the show he came in. Nobody came in after the show'cause it was a weeknight and it was a late show except for one regular customer of ours. Mm-hmm. And Julio Igl walks in with, how many women was it? Six altogether. Six of the most beautiful women I have ever freaking seen. And they all sit down and one of'em is his daughter. It turns out. The other ones, he's got one un one under each arm. Yeah. And they're all his daughter's age and, and the other ones aren't his daughter. Right. So, so he sits down, very gracious guy, ask us for a wine recommendation, complimentary about everything. Super nice to everybody. And then as he's getting up to leave, so the guy who's the other customer's like, is that Julio Iias? I'm like, yeah, I'm pretty sure. as Julio is leaving. The other guy says, you know, Mr. Mr. Ggl. I love your work. You are fantastic that, and he says, thank you so much. Um, but you must let me leave because I, what did he say? He said, because now I must go home and make love to these beautiful women. That's what he said. All but his daughter, I'm sure she wasn't included in that one. And I have to say, the thing you could see about the guy who was talking to him, awestruck, particularly awestruck with the love. Oh man, that's a, that's a good one. Yeah, because I don't think he's kidding is what I, what I think. Anyway, so there's our little major D stories. I didn't even get 50 bucks outta that. Hope you guys have enjoyed the time with us today. I'm Francis Shot. I'm Mark Pascal. We are the restaurant guide. You can always find out more about us@restaurantguidepodcast.com.