Francis (2) 2:17

Good morning, Mark.

Mark 2:18

Good morning, Francis.

Francis (2) 2:19

I wanna talk about a couple of... In, in the last week, we've both had some pretty extraordinary restaurant experiences. Some,

Mark 2:25

some really nice restaurants here, right here in New Jersey.

Francis (2) 2:28

And let me tell you something, I think there are a lot of nice restaurants in New Jersey, and I think there are a lot of restaurants, which have very good food, a number of different genres. But the truly fine dining restaurants- You know, being next to New York is sort of a blessing and a curse. If you put New Jersey in the middle of the country, you know-

Mark 2:44

Mm-hmm

Francis (2) 2:45

it would be known as one of the best restaurant states around. Right. People would fly to New Jersey.

Mark 2:49

Right.

Francis (2) 2:50

Because we are so near New York, a lot of the great fine dining restaurants, so many of the great fine dining restaurants are, are in New York, which is the food capital certainly of the United States, or at least the fine dining restaurant capital of the United States and, and possibly the world. I mean, it really does vie with Paris to-

Mark 3:05

Oh, I don't think so.

Francis (2) 3:06

Well, there, there is a- I like

Mark 3:07

Parisian restaurants better than

Francis (2) 3:08

New York restaurants. But there is a lot of opinion that says, especially for fine dining, um, there's a lot of respected opinion out there that, that points to that New York. Now, in New Jersey, we do a lot of things well, but fine dining is something that mean, truly top-of-the-mark fine dining- Mm is something that's been building slowly over time. Well- You can't walk every few, every block or two and find a great restaurant.

Mark 3:25

One of the things you just said is it's a blessing and a curse and, and that maybe people don't look at us in, in as high regard as they might otherwise because we're so close to New York City. But at the same time, we have access to, to so many great products because we are so close in proximity to New York City. So many great wines that, that aren't available in other places in the country. So many great products that, that may not be as available as fresh as we can get them in this area, and such a diverse amount of products that

Francis (2) 3:51

we can get. We spoke to, we spoke to recently Jen Castle and Blake Spalding, who have a restaurant out in Boulder, Utah, population 108, and the way they get fresh produce is, well, they grow it themselves. Yeah. You know, that's, and that's

Mark 4:02

about- And there's no... And one of the things they said is there's no such thing as fresh Fresh fish. Fresh seafood.

Francis (2) 4:05

Yeah.

Mark 4:05

Because, because all they have is, uh, are some local streams and the fish that are indigenous to those streams they have. Actually, it's farm,

Francis (2) 4:11

farm-raised trout is all they do.

Mark 4:13

Yeah. Farm-raised trout. That's, that's, that's the only fish that they have on their menu. Where we have New York City's port right here, where fish are coming in fresh from all over the, you know, the ocean.

Francis (2) 4:23

And it's, and it's great because, you know, we're, we're so close and connected by highways. We do send our people into the green market in New York because that is where the best green markets are right now if you wanna hit a lot of farmers in one place. And we do get to go to the fish market and the meat market in Manhattan. Mm-hmm. It is really just amazing. And there's... And we have so many diners with great taste that it's nice to see fine dining restaurants, I mean, truly fine dining world-class restaurants opening in New Jersey, Now so many of our listeners are, are very far away and will never be able to go to these restaurants. Sure. What do you think, uh, you know, makes the, the... a place What sets it apart from other restaurants that are kinda pretenders to the throne?

Mark 4:57

Well, first thing, a- anybody can have a beautiful restaurant, okay? You can- Right You know, all you need is a little bit of money, and you can have a, a... or a lot of money. And you can have a beautiful restaurant with beautiful plates and, and-

Francis (2) 5:07

Mm-hmm

Mark 5:07

but you... it starts with an attitude, and when you walk in and, and there's a feel in the place that you're going to be taken care of and that somebody really wants to take care of you and wants to make sure that you have a great dining experience. And- What

Francis (2) 5:20

makes you feel that way?

Mark 5:21

they're gracious. someone is immediately there to greet you when, when you walk in the door. And that someone wants to bring you a cocktail as soon as you get there, and when you sit down, you're made to feel very, very comfortable when you arrive, and there's a nice wine list.

Francis (2) 5:35

You know, you re- you remind me of the time that we had dinner-

Mark 5:39

You know what you remind me of?

Francis (2) 5:40

You remind me of the time that we had dinner at a place called, Alain Ducasse. Mm-hmm. Alain Ducasse is in New York now, but this is when he, he first had his restaurant in Paris. And we were in Paris, fortunately, and we had one of the best meals of our lives. And-

Mark 5:51

I, I can say that was the best meal of my life

Francis (2) 5:52

and as we left, we talked about what made it really great, and they had all these fab... I mean, the building was fabulous. Everything was... It was not in the current location. It was in a prior location. It was a location. It was in, uh, the old Paul Robuchon place. Mm-hmm. And for all of the finery, for all of the beautiful things that went on there, we always got the feeling that they had done it all for us, that the staff was very solicitous of us, of us- Mm-hmm and that they had m- made us feel that it was all done for us. Each

Mark 6:19

thing that they were doing made, made you feel special and important.

Francis (2) 6:23

As, as opposed to you go to some restaurants and they make you feel like you're... They try to make you feel like you're lucky to be having dinner there. Right. And that is just the opposite of being gracious. You were talking about restaurants with The Restaurant Guys. We're gonna talk about a couple of restaurants in New York in a moment.

6:34

We were talking in the last segment about a couple of restaurants in New Jersey

Francis (2) 6:37

that are really exceptional, and we're gonna be talking about another restaurant r- right now, um, that is pretty exceptional, and it's in New York. But it's not in Manhattan, it's in Greenpoint in Brooklyn, and we're talking with Liza Queen, who is the owner of The Queen's Hideaway. Hello, Liza.

Liza 6:52

Hello.

Mark 6:53

Liza, welcome to our show.

Liza 6:54

Hey, thanks.

Francis (2) 6:55

Thanks for coming to join us. Now, your restaurant, we first, first came to our notice, um, when we read about the way that you do business, which is, um, pretty unconventional for around here. You don't have a set menu. Is that correct? N-

Liza 7:07

no. No, we don't really.

Francis (2) 7:09

What are you, crazy?

Liza 7:11

Yes. But, you know, it's not 'cause I'm ambitious. It's just 'cause the way, because of the farmers we deal with, you know?

Francis (2) 7:17

Uh-huh.

Liza 7:18

Uh- So you

Mark 7:18

just pretty much cook whatever you feel like?

Liza 7:19

Yes, I really do.

Francis (2) 7:21

Well, so, so how did, how did the... first of all, how did the idea to do a restaurant