Long distance runner what you stanin there for... get up get out of the door get out there to Fire on the mountain. Go get yourself something to eat! you got family coming into town you're sitting there staring at a big bowl of mashed potatoes and stuffing laying on the table are you tired of cooking for nineteen people in the house best thing to do if you live in Denver or Portland let's go jump in your little auto mobile and go over the fire on the mountain let's and they got specials at each of the locations at the burn side location they got a carribean style pulled pork dill pickle and provolone cheese stuffed into a toward a bun and served your choice aside they also have these amazing garlic parmesan fries served with a side of garlic parmesan annually and in the Fremont location has been that meatball sub will soon house made pork and beef meatballs and a house marinara mozzarella pepper genies of parsley serve with the with your choice of a side and then my favorite the blue cheese stuffed mushroom mushrooms fried to a crispy golden brown in their beer batter and served with a side of sweet chili aioli with interstate got going on well the interstates got %HESITATION they're bringing back by popular demand the blue cheese fried mushrooms and the fried slice of New York style cheesecake wait what a what a ride slice of New York style cheesecake I'd side with your choice of passionfruit jalapeno sauce or chocolate sauce I mean come on Hey seriously after all that Turkey cook and all that stuff you're gonna be tired of that you want something different let's go to fire on the mountain check it out you guys and here's the deal three locations in Portland two in Denver to serve you if you're not one of those places and we just made you really hungry don't be sad go to Portland wings dot com grab yourself some of that sauce cook it up you got the experience at home so go to Portland wings dot com or at F. O. T. M. on Instagram you could see pictures all this stuff your love it fire in the mountains you lost an hour or weight you gained in a way which is that we fall back Paul Bauer that's really know what shop to a bus gained some reprints they reprinted there row Jimmy there's China cat sunflower and there I know you rider tees and hoodies it won't be sure but it definitely will help yeah those seasonal blues that you get when you get a new Christine or nice warm hoodie for the season you really can up your attitude yeah who who would have thought that ordering clothing from shop tour bus would help you out it will help your attitude because when you get whatever you ordered you are going to get fun little extras possibly even a bootleg what we can say on a you looked like you had something on your tongue once say their first I was just looking as well I was actually looking at these I realize I need a row Jimmy sure because I'm a champ that's right that yeah you know what when you order yours and it is the holiday time for that Grateful Dead fan in your family or Grateful Dead adjacent human being that you know and love it you need something for bush after bus dot com when you order it you're gonna get it in a hand designed box you to full box it's got it all over print of one of their designs on its like Mel said it's got all those extras and it might even have a good week the real cassette tape so go to shop tour bus dot com or at shop tour bus on Instagram make sure when you check out you put in the promo code noticeable road all one word and you are going to get free shipping because you and they are part of the no simple road family and I don't we now know some preventing what's up it's a ren mail and apple mail the mail disease of singing in the beginning of the show I mean who doesn't like a nice little sing song name here there what I actually did on the way home which is just switching stations here we go it's beginning in November and the Christmas Carol stations early on you are Santa Claus yeah not only Jackson five okay and singing here comes Santa Claus like in the Jackson five when he was only to see here comes Santa Claus does that make you feel like it's like your personal theme music if you drive down the freeway yes it did you feel like you're being called yes actually kind of feel like I'm on this I was on the twenty six driving home and I felt like I was in the sleigh ride on hand and the traffic doesn't bother me as much and stuff so anyway this week the road is something really cool man yeah I was going to enjoy this is Justin Gucci he is a restaurateur entrepreneur Grateful Dead fan and member of the Grateful Dead family amazing human being and in her care of his employees yeah it's the food genius what would what else help me out I had a S. that that that kind of covers it all their own husband father author of his own cookbook I think did you throw that in there author of his own cookbook at that's the sweetest guy you'll see after this interview yeah and he's got so much going on and he has five restaurants in the Denver area right now with linger route down vital root L. five and Ophelia's and he has a really awesome website edible beats dot com and it talks about all these endeavors it you can buy the cookbook there you can book a party make reservation order you can order the thanksgiving yeah it's pretty dope and if you just look at all of the restaurants there in such gorgeous locations in these beautifully refurbished remodeled a sophisticated get like the gastro brothel of Ofelia as %HESITATION the linger vital route so there's just it linger was a mortuary at which you'll hear all about that story and he will feel he is was proper all yeah in the end and kind of like the same idea what McMenamins does hereby taking these old buildings in like re having them and turning them into something beautiful and then what he does is like here's the the food with music and what you eat is an experience of more than like a meal and what we say about the lady that you talked to today it did she ate at Langer we're just talking about food and then I was talking about that this interview coming out and she she goes %HESITATION if you're you're up in Denver talk about food because she's from up there she said %HESITATION eight linger and was one of the best dining experiences I've ever had well and then I work with a coworker who just moved from Denver and was talking to her about our our talk with Justin and she was like oh yeah route down is huge I love route down because she was a server not at his restaurants but just in the industry and knowing about these incredible restaurants so he's definitely got a reputation of having an amazing atmosphere and like you know kind of a place to go to yeah and you know I've been really blown away lately because we've been branching out with the type of guests that we're getting on a simple road like it's not just musicians anymore it will never really was just musicians but lately we've been doing more of other stuff and I'm continually blown away by the way that music overlaps into everybody's life and every part of their life and has changed N. created careers for people and set them on the course that they're on and like this look like with Justin the his love of music has infused everything that he's done to the point where his L. L. sees that he's made are named after Steely Dan songs in my head I mean it's I don't think it's like you go to get something to eat chances are that food was made with some music around it or it's being served with music in the background true gas all it's always some part of the meal in some kind of a way right and we have a music lover that's creating these restaurants he's doing an incredible thing with that infusion and the other thing that really struck me about Justin was and I don't even know that we talked about this but I was thinking about afterwards is like you know when I was on the road with the dead one of the things that really %HESITATION that I loved about being in a part of that community that I love about being part of that community is the feeling of family and help people take care of each other and like if you're if you're in the law and you're hungry you can get something to eat without much money or like if you're having trouble inside to show people are there to check on you and that kind of stuff and he is actually like translated that into how he cares for his employees that work in his his arm restaurants in like you we'll hear all about that here in a few minutes but it's just that ethos of the Grateful Dead family of the the wider musical community of family and caring for each other has his gone into that with him yeah that's dope and that it covers like all the plate like a music lover I drink and food lover and a people lover yeah and it ended as a corporation that into everything he does and it's not just some bullshit lip service it's like no this this cat is like making changes that are that are affecting the food industry and like this kind of story you don't hear stories of success like this this often immediately you'll hear it in here most people don't go in and open these fantastic tastic restaurants about every nine months to a year yeah working on something while you're working on something while you're working on something yeah and I'm totally fine with it yeah and this was one of those conversations that we had that when it ended I was sad that it was over and I want to keep hanging out with them and I can't wait till we get the opportunity to meet Justin in person and hang out and have a meal at one of his restaurant it like a like I said I exceeded her I'm excited always excited to go to Denver to go see a show at red rocks or decks or something in I can't wait to go there to go eat at all the restaurants or podcast live from affiliates yeah they are my favorite if your if your food foodie like most of us are you go each of his restaurants have their own instagrams in a website you can go see all the beautiful pictures of these of this food L. five the wave and said to him is the one I want to start with because they have the seafood paella and other dishes that I mean everything looks so amazing yeah I gotta go check out all this food you guys are really really going to enjoy this one and if you live in the Denver area and you haven't frequented or at least gone to one of these places now you know yes %HESITATION five day journey one new restaurant each day oh my gosh that's the end of it go buy new pants a size larger that's why I wanted to go up there for a week let's do it a little music in between the food you know cool let's a fit in the business and then we'll get him to the interview has that sound that sounds good yeah follow us on Instagram Twitter and Facebook at no simple road go to W. W. W. dot no Sapporo dot com you get no simple road merge there you can get a terror reading from Mel and I that's right %HESITATION we have somebody that signed up for terror reading and I need to talk to you about it I forgot and I'm just telling you so that you right now I mean when we're done J. B. like that person do that I don't know what to get somebody for Christmas that some really unique amazing rap because it's not just something that's it in one ear out the other we send you a playlist with the Grateful Dead a tarot deck we send you pictures of all of the cards we send you a synopsis of the reading and the recording of it so you can go back listen to it and be reignited by the information yep that's right we're so it's fun it's cool yeah get out that's how you make a living you sell stuff it's true we're gonna provide services for you go to page three on dot com that's right less noticeable road and you sign up as a patron for the no simple road crew here yes sign up for as little as a Buck a month and then we get to keep doing the show yeah like we always say about doesn't sound like a lot and you know since it doesn't sound like a lot gives a fuck and that's what puts gas in the tank that's what keeps the tires going yeah that's what helps us get on the road go to festivals get out there get your neighborhood keep the light and it makes us all smile spreading the love that's right and if you want to do something that doesn't cost anything you can go to apple podcasts and leave a five star review now to star and you can actually see on that you can go over there and you can leave a review and guess what this is November it is now the torch has been passed from bell to Aaron and his friends birthday month well as for Asperger's Jasper's birthday is tomorrow we got a Tuesday we got a review Aaron guy a birthday month review would you like to read it short and sweet and I love what it says it's from soul shine help on Tuesday January nine let passion of your genuine heart rock and roll %HESITATION boom that's what I'm talking about you don't have to leave apparently we love a paragraph or two or three but we also love short and to the point of what makes you feel good about what we do R. that's a fuckin sweet review yeah you know our family is paying attention and I just really want to say thank you to everybody who gets our inside jokes knowledges on and you know participates with us in we're living real life here yes this is our our real life and for those of you all that participate with us that send us messages and just do ought thank you we love you I am so grateful for it I'm grateful that I get to have that part of my life and we're super stoked that we have the the owner of doing this and now with you and you know I was thinking the other day about inside jokes like you just said people they get our inside jokes if we ever interviewed %HESITATION I'm sorry in the back that up when we finally interview Trey the first question I'm gonna ask him is how does it feel to have made a forty year career on inside jokes like for real it fish is the biggest inside joke ever it has to be the largest inside joke ever and so I would like no simple road to become the second largest inside joke ever and I'm glad that there's people participating with our inside jokes that was my point all right anyway well and then the other thing you could do to his call that tepid line yeah nine seven one eight oh eight one five two four number again is nine seven one eight or eight fifteen twenty four and on the top of the line you can do our latest ask has been referred to you know try to work on pulling this cookbook together to share recipes it's a slow process and falls we we we we need more it doing like we said it's holiday season we know everybody's got things up their sleeves up grandma's old recipe a mama your new recipe throw those out as or just go on there it's open might give us a show review a trip report a joke a story what you basically do whatever you can just call up and ramble eat all you out there I know that somebody listening was at the train to show I know it I I feel it in my bones one of you that was there Erica I'm talking to you or somebody else call us up and give us a review that training to show because I listen to the goose that today and it was freakin phenomenal the free confirm our free free delivery on all yeah man and you know what that's it I think that's the bill that's it let's get them to this awesome interview Jensen because they're gonna really got everything other the last thing we ask you to do is do the easiest thing all over your mouth and tell somebody you love about us that's right that's the easiest way to spread the mycelial network of no simple road and hang out with this episode if you're working at linger route down L. five feely as one of those places and you're listening to this welcome to the family for the first time Hey we love you we look forward to seeing you Sunday and Justin thanks for coming on the yeah they need so much gas you have something you want to talk about %HESITATION promote anytime you come to Portland no simple road is here for you brother we love you so now decide if you want me to come down to Portland look open a restaurant here I would be a supporter that's %HESITATION hi there opening night with his bid on it hi without further ado the no simple road crew gives you Justin could she yes I'm good man I'm Erin Erin just a nice to meet you Asia my name is Mel nice to meet you Justin think they'll likewise yeah and then the third one here I'm apple thank you for joining us third one apple Justin and I you know no simple road is typically a well there's nothing typical but most time we're doing musicians and and stuff like that and we had a couple of of chefs on the show and I have to say man I was really excited to talk to yeah nice really really needed very cool nice to be on a show that doesn't normally have restaurateurs or chefs %HESITATION and as a big music fan that's a that's an honor yeah man I mean the the crossover is evident with you it's a you know it's infused in everything you do the music and and and your food it it's we've just spent the morning like perusing your menus and starving now yeah they also buy a ravenous after this movie wasn't enough this morning interstate door dash or something I haven't figured that out yet but I'm sure they will yeah can you can you tell the people that are listening a little bit about who we are and and what we're doing here sure yeah %HESITATION yeah definitely as you mentioned lifelong music lover I think food and music %HESITATION sort of are interchangeable for what's more important at the moment but you know and it will be just kind of about celebrating both and sometimes the music is secondary because we're a restaurant group so yeah %HESITATION %HESITATION %HESITATION originally %HESITATION from New York and lived there for a bunch of years and made my way out to Denver and I was lucky enough to open a restaurant here called route down I know my eyes to the Beastie Boys song in the Jimmy Smith original jazz song %HESITATION and sort of just a small restaurant there that I thought was going to be the end of my journey %HESITATION and that was lucky enough to kind of collaborate with a lot of great people who immediately Sir were drawn to that restaurant in that concept and then the city of Denver and seem to embrace it with like open arms which I was not expecting as a native New Yorker who came out here and thought I'd be the outcast %HESITATION but it just was really embrace and so then I was lucky enough to go on an open about five other restaurants so we have six restaurants in the group right now why why Denver well you know I feel like I had lived in the east coast most of my life with a very sort of closed off mentality about what happened between the coasts this is a you know corn fields in mediocrity that's what I thought I was wrong and so %HESITATION manager living in New York and being overwhelmed after twenty seven years here in Manhattan it was just overwhelming %HESITATION there was a disconnect for me for coming to my thirties and feeling disconnected from things which is what New York is great for it to keep you disconnected you don't have to participate if you don't want to right and so I was just a little disenfranchise and so then I wanted to move to boulder but it got to the boulder was so expensive and so I ended up just without even visiting Denver just moved right to Denver %HESITATION and I so I went from overwhelmed in New York and I had actually lived in Key West for about seven years which I was very underwhelmed with perfectly wound all right reserved the Wyoming was great well you're welcome like that it's either under or over but I was like I thought well dear yeah that's that's so what did the people was that the environment was it like a mixture of both the music scene yeah what what was it about it that well do you perfectly %HESITATION you know it's probably at a point in my life when I wanted to be able to have more than just the bare minimum in terms of like whether it's a parking spot or grass for your kids and dogs which I had at the time and %HESITATION that's not a reason to move here but I will say that I I choose a neighborhood here called highlands which is right outside the city and it felt like Brooklyn to Manhattan in like the late eighties early nineties so it was really in its infancy you for people who didn't want to live in a city or can afford to live in the city they live in highlands here and so I was really drawn to the neighborhood because I thought man there's like a resurgence here it's so close to the city so I really like the low high which is the nickname somebody came up with for this neighborhood I really love the low high five it just felt like up and coming and the people is probably what drew me here and the the beautiful mountains and in the city you live on this island and pretty much there's no you know sense at least when I was growing up in the seventies and eighties there's no sense of %HESITATION you know nature you have to travel far and wide right here in Denver you don't fifteen minutes you could be in the foothills you could be enjoying the mountains %HESITATION but ultimately it's the people they just really felt so warm and genuine and %HESITATION it was just nice it was nice to break out of a shell that I had a protective shell coating yeah and you know the I think for us is that the Denver represents a Mecca for the music scene and %HESITATION it's so robust it there so %HESITATION so much going on in in Denver musically N. for somebody like you that I read that it was %HESITATION James Brown Steely Dan and the great dad right yeah the the strategy that it makes sense for you to be doing what you're doing there to me %HESITATION as a as an onlooker and and a fan of yours they it did make sense but what I wanna know man is like how you decided that like the music was going to be infused with the food in the way that you've done it will it I will say I didn't realize how cool Denver was musically until I was maybe here for a little bit that's not what it was maybe one or two for me we'll be out here I really thought it was going to be a harder music scene or more you know a less robust music scene but as you mentioned it's a great hub of so many things and so many styles of music so that was a really great thing to discover I think the process of infusing the music that were just musical influences whether it's you know a lot of people don't know this but everyone of my %HESITATION hello sis you know you have to name the company for the government to collect taxes in everyone of our LLC's %HESITATION I named after Steely Dan lyrics or song and so I immediately like so like I wanted to use that as just like a funny sarcastic nod to each restaurant I guess I'll say it was an organic process okay it was something that %HESITATION you know I feel like musically I think like that in all the bands that I love for different reasons are part of my process I think we become like a really full blown musical ever you you you have it sort of %HESITATION you know become part of your DNA whether it's the way you are socially whether it's the humor you have well the way that what I discovered was the way I wanted to collaborate I don't want to be a you know let's just say about bill and I wanted to be the Beatles you know even with the push pull of the frictions and although complex relationships that comes with bands or dare I say let's say the grateful that you know where something is just so collaborative that you can make more magic from you know five people or ten people than you can with one or two and so I think once that creative process sort of took hold and I realize that it's usually not a good the collaboration part of food and plus some people in their restaurant history love music it felt like we had this comment another common ground the size just food it was this love of music and so then it just felt like a freedom like we can give our Mazda this and we can make this part of our restaurants both in that the sort of experience it could be part of our our leadership culture and the way we want to lead people in the way we want to collaborate and a key part of the just the culture of sort of %HESITATION you know that the restaurant I guess for there I say hi it it it's a what you've done and what you're doing is very inspiring and unique in that you it well let me back up I've worked in the restaurant industry when I was younger apple has also worked in a yeah not to put too fine a point on its a mother fucker and like it it chews people up a lot of the time and spits them out it's very unforgiving it's it's militaristic in the kitchen sometimes it's rough and dangerous interest and all that stuff and what you are doing in how you are caring for your employees as family is really arm that is let me gets me choked up man like that that's something special Justin and and work I mean I can I have an idea but can tell us a little bit about that and how that started in wine yes thank you man for a that was a lot of really kind words and %HESITATION you know I had grown up in the restaurant industry so I feel like I have a large swatch swatch of %HESITATION sort of relationship with the industry through all its phases and it definitely has all the things you mentioned from militaristic it has also sort of a culture less so now luckily I'm just using things whether it's using people using products using its community and not a great way and %HESITATION you know it somebody once joking he's like man it's like knowing you as they come out in this was when I lived in the New York early on like it's like knowing Tony soprano Mike what do you mean what what do I do that's terrible so it just the restaurants you just use everything and then you spit it out Tony soprano the big user and I that stuck with me that it was something that's like man I want to feel like that I want to live with that like you know weight on my shoulders so I think number one growing up in a family restaurant %HESITATION I think we were more aware than most of how to not do that how to have a familiar culture even though I think that maybe has you know everybody uses their cultures like a family so it is feels disingenuous now but when I grew up in my grandparents restaurant we have people there you know both our chefs were there for over forty years we had some servers that were there for twenty years so I feel like we were doing something right and those seeds was sort of implanted in me and so when I moved out here especially I really felt a deeper responsibility for the people that make the restaurants work it doesn't matter who's idea who pays the bills are who borrows the money it only works if everybody in that restaurant is appreciated and feel like they have a sense of sometimes silent ownership which I think I always wanted to create with that idea of like how do we take it a step further how do we give it from silent ownership to active ownership more how do we do it so there's actually another way that people can feel a connection to this and feel like they are vested as owners and %HESITATION as I was getting older all my advisors were like you need to exit strategy you need a legacy plan and all things that I had never thought of in my life I look at the options they all just had no you know they didn't appeal to me I felt such a responsibility to Denver because I feel like I was in the right place at the right time and I was really you know we wouldn't have grown as the city of Denver wasn't so embracing both by the people who live here but also the city let me money at times and I get SBA loans and I was really fortunate to have a really healthy financial path to ownership a lot of people have multiple investors in multiple %HESITATION you know sort of partners and everything and I was lucky enough not to have that so I guess what I was trying to figure out what to do the word is out that flew around and I had really no idea what that was it after doing some due diligence I felt like boy talk about the win win talk about something where it's not an act first day of just like you know charitable like I'm giving this to my employees right because unlike then the person who you know put a lot of those things in wouldn't win but it felt like man I can win if I can align my life to it all my employees can win and then I thought there was a third win which was the guest wins for us because if we have a more %HESITATION you know sort of bought in staff if we're able to be more financially responsible because of that then they don't have to pay let's say as high prices is another restaurant they get better value and then of course they get more hospitality more connectedness so when I read about east ops I was like wow this is an amazing vehicle but %HESITATION and if I'm going too long feel free to try you know no man I'm just a part of this so we want to hear all your stories man taking notes so looks like I'm writing but I am taking notes that all right okay good well if I do get that point to stop by and right before because of it we had finally reached this pinnacle of like success that all startups gets it we were very grassroots and we got to this point where like we have our shit together we have this leadership team our sales were at the highest they were and they had just been climbing and we felt like wow we can really do something incredible here and the stop was that I just thought number one I don't know of any restaurant groups maybe there's two or three out there that have become in the stop and I thought what a great way to make a statement to be innovative about not saying we're going to take care of people by having health care or you know for one K. which of course we have both of those but how do we go deeper and actually show that we care about the industry in actions in the east out felt like a real you know it felt like a great risk within Kobe came along %HESITATION and everything fell apart I really thought at that point working all these years to something that I thought was this end game because %HESITATION banks would no longer lend me in restaurant people money and the valuation of the restaurant was in jeopardy because of the cove it right now if you're gonna survive in all sales were decimated so I really thought that was the end of it and luckily %HESITATION you know we come out of cobit government gives money to sustain a bunch of businesses including mine and %HESITATION I found that after that that we are still able to do the E. stop we would just have to get really creative to do it there was no bank it was gonna let money and that's usually the crux of it he's up a bank comes in lens money to employees who then pay that to the owner and I hold like a note and then over time the rest of the note gets paid so it's like a down payment but because nobody would lend money because I was so committed to this Aesop idea and felt like the people who had come on this journey I felt even more indebted to them even more gratitude for the people who are still here going through probate and we lost a lot of people right I bet %HESITATION and so then there were the option became well a bank's not get we can lend money so you're not gonna get anything in the beginning but you can do it like %HESITATION like owner carry the house right you have the mortgage per se and the restaurant just pays off and that's ultimately the one for me is I think it was important for me to get a a payout I wanted to be involved I'm still there every day I still feel like if you were there pre is up and post these out very little is changing the way we operate it's still the same leadership team it states still the same commitments of the things we're doing is just behind the scenes there is a way for me to sell the business that over the course of ten years and then I get to back out and the employees now would own it let's say in ten years and that's sort of the way this works without a bank so wow yeah for those that don't know out there what is the substance for %HESITATION this is the M. for employee stock ownership plan and then you one other thing I'll say is you can do ten percent twenty percent fifty percent right there's ways to split this up %HESITATION I felt as I often have that it was all or nothing I was like I don't wanna do this halfway I want to dive in and so we're actually a hundred percent you stop which is well sort of on the rarer side there's a lot of partially stops but we're a hundred percent committed so if you go head up %HESITATION as a to me it's a genealogy so we worked in a restaurant it's not just restaurants one of the hardest things in business is not being a revolving door for employees that bill no security that let you know it the most jobs are speed bump on the way to looking for the next better thing to better yourself so I mean what a genius way because it's all owners when you're an owner what do you want to do you want to live there especially in a restaurant you don't want to miss a beat right so what you've created I mean it comes through like we sent all all morning and yesterday it was like look at me these two Larry time we go to go to another city or something I am weeks ahead of time looking at all the restaurants and looking at men using going to Instagram to look at the specials and what you have created is just it's like it's it's a wonderful heart work at like everything you do we can't I can't wait to come up there amazing the one restaurateur it's a anyway I guess there's no question it's it's like congratulations well that's what most places should be doing so you have a stable thriving business with people that are happy to walk in the door every day well either and the other side of that to Justin is that like apple said you by doing that you create an atmosphere where the employee is no longer an employee he is he or she is a %HESITATION steak at stake holder yeah right in the business and I know for myself like if you let me borrow your car I'm gonna take care of your car right I'm I'm gonna watch not gonna get an accident I'm returning cast and whatever and it's fine but if you if you like to do this is our car now right you own this thing I'm gonna do that be like okay I may take you yeah I'm sure of that like it's my own because it is and the way that I portray myself outward from inside of that thing becomes different I'm going to treat the people that come in like they're coming to my house yeah and so have you seen you said that you we wouldn't be able to tell previous sop Posti sop but I bet we would be able to tell by guest experience do you think that's true yeah I would hope so %HESITATION I think again we had a great sense of ownership but it was passive or silent I'll say beforehand and I think part of the reputation you know I appreciate saying that what I've created with this is by all means a team sport in this village and this is you know so many people being part of this and that's %HESITATION yeah I think that hopefully that's evident when people come in and I think one other thing I'll add about you such as I think there needs to be a shift in the way business owners think about you know the difference between wealth and worth and I feel like the Aesop was about celebrating worth yeah you know creating value not necessarily turning this into the most money for anybody and I feel like we were we we are we speak about to my staff about this trilogy right in the trilogy is the guest first and then it goes down to our culture and then financial wellness is our third which is a shift a lot of places obviously where business we have to hit the bottom line but I always felt that you do number one and number two right it'll take care of number three yeah and %HESITATION yeah yeah and it's it it seems to work in fact even like a couple years ago I you know there's this thing that people would always say like you know what just exams on your signature he pays easier and I was like no I don't want to feel like I'm a people person that paid the guest is who pays yeah we don't yes there's no money for me to pay everybody so I did a sort of bait and switch with my bank and I sign my signature to look like my signature but it actually says the guest and %HESITATION checked stamped with the gas although it kind of if you don't know it might look like a J. in a sea of water that's to be something like people think about like that since signing your paycheck that's the reason we're all here while I was reading something about %HESITATION and one of the interviews and you were saying something about gosh now I I got out of my head I guess my question is this do you feel successful at the point that you are at now because I know that means a lot of different things and people will be have traditionally in the end be like in the back in the day if you had a lot of money a lot of things you're successful but we're in twenty twenty one al twenty twenty two these years and it's not the same anymore so what is a great question so yeah so sorry no I know Hey we're we're if we got a marriage is hanging out what is the you're a busy man just to get a few moments with use of no no no that was just my daughter it's Saturday so I but do you have that do you feel successful and and maybe maybe not just the delicious dishes that you've helped create collaboratively with your employees but like as a person as a dad as a husband as a entrepreneur that you know yeah what a great question because you're so right so many times success is measured by the financial sure bye you know how busy you are how many too much press you have and of course in a business those things are part of it right you wanna be able to pay your bills and have some payoff you want to be able to help get some recognition I feel like you know that is a great question but I do think this success for me feels like %HESITATION you know I success that is so %HESITATION you know deep in gratifying because you touched on its successes just maybe like or I'm starting to feel success as a human and how I can affect not only my employees not only like the food system and how we want to be responsible there and the way we you know I think a lot of the buildings that are men are repurposed buildings there you know that they're not torn down and got it they're they're left to give homage to the history of these big buildings in Denver and and then the materials we used to put in there are a lot of reclaimed we train you to use about fifty to seventy percent like just repurposed things to create the furniture the art the chairs so I think your answer is I do feel a lot of success or that I'm starting to get a lot of success in all those areas by trying to realize what work life balance is because you talked about the commitment to restaurants is exhaustive and I spent many years on that treadmill and finally you know maybe one of the reasons that the Aesop was alarming to me is like man I wonder if everybody is part of it that now we share the burden in some of the ways that we did in the past the financial burdens the burdens on a Saturday and Sunday that you have to deal with it again I my team is so amazing that like they've given me part of this success by just becoming a partner with me on this ride and trusting because you know there's there was no like promised to anybody this is a organic experience like I said I wanted to open one restaurant and I wanted to do it well and then before long we were doing to restaurants and I wanted to do those well and I don't want to have more you know restaurant kids if you will until I felt like the two restaurant because I had were doing well they weren't like living in their car will although nothing wrong with that they're getting a good education there are good people and as each restaurant's really gain that it was like all right let's have another restaurant you because they're all so different and I think the the momentum you have as a growing restaurant group the first seven years we opened almost a restaurant every eighteen months hi my name is easy restaurants they were in the eighteen months was only the gap between restaurants but I was opening a restaurant while planning my next restaurant and that would take sometimes two years so by the time I open up first restaurant the second restaurant is halfway through its fruition to open so I love that question I don't know if I know how to answer well I think that maybe you're just scared to say you do feel successful because you know that may be like the self serving or whatever but really truly what you're doing is revolutionized the way that you see servers dishwashers and restaurateurs even if it's in your small area of Denver you revolutionize that because here we are in Portland Oregon and we know about it you know what I'm saying so it's it's gone beyond just your boundaries of state and it's inspiring in multiple ways as like the the Izapa is inspiring the way that you handle your remodels or you know bringing in fifty to seventy percent reklame materials that's huge and then invite lake making the guests first but maybe not the employees Lassell these are all concepts that have not come to fruition that you're doing so I I'm just saying I I think I'll answer for you yes you should also no not yet not the self serving we just period like a gun man did something really dope with business and he was given well it can not too bright heady about it but let's let's do that for a second energetically giving ownership to the employees changes the vibe of the whole thing and also being respectful responsible and conscious about what you're taking out of the world and putting back into it energetically changes the outcome of how things grow thrive and mature so by having that %HESITATION I don't know what what you would call the mindset global maybe our ecological responsible may be responsible great worth lots of %HESITATION mindset of like I'm gonna take out less and put back more somehow right and that energetically changes things and to me that indicates success it's a complicated world out there in cannabis land wise there's little green elves dancing behind trees there isn't unicorns made of key features like forty seven million new strains monthly as people cross things together turban auto cat feet there that's a new one I like that go to define premium cannabis talk to apple they got two locations here in Portland to serve you one in Hillsboro one in forest Grove they're going to get you hooked up with the exact cannabis product that's right for you okay thank you Greg check this out back in the day habitation I worked at the apple store right and the thing at the apple store it was not just to sell people bullshit but was to get them matched with the products that would enhance their life I now live with apple who works at the fine and he does the same thing the apple store did you like that yeah a delight that lately I am apple genius you are Sir yeah I don't work at the fine but make sure to come visit us and holds borough or forest Grove make sure to say your listener because when you say that like I'm a listener noticeable road we give you a ten percent discount we give you a T. shirt which I wear back on your second third fourth fifth visit and get fifteen percent and a guarantee if you come in and say that we're gonna hook you up with more stuff than just that and then walked very happy good to get a discount on anything but when you get a discount on your medicine on your cannabis on your relaxation that's but let me discount your relaxation yeah yeah yeah I think you thank you very much all right so you get the you get the picture two locations Hillsborough forest Grove good we define premium cannabis that's the deal and also we are done interrupting your interview we are going back now here we go well Hey that's a that's a hugely mature thing to do to get out of your own way yeah and yeah B. of a true leader in the field that you're working in and that's I wonder how much of your music background has influenced those decisions center %HESITATION I once you know a minute ago I was like yeah I see it like there's definitely when you talked about the sense of you know sort of connection ownership that can happen it's like yeah the business how I grew up listening let's say to the grateful that this your don't get dead heads have this sense of ownership or any band like that I see of the fish poster behind so those bands that incorporate their fans in our connected don't those fans feeling ownership and how we do it right I think that's important and I think also you know bands that are responsible and I think especially grateful that I which I think were so %HESITATION you know early adopters of so many things that became maybe you know sub conscious ways that then people who listen to them went on to do yeah I like put back more than you take out right give more regardless of what you're going to get an idea model of like they gave whether it's content whether it's themselves whether it's their music without getting sometimes returns right fans taping letting people take me up yeah I mean with and and again but what a brilliant way to create like a viral marketing by giving people something and just to me I think when I maybe took away from there was just the connection that I've always wanted to the people who come to the restaurants to be connected to the restaurants like you would to your favorite band nine restaurants the restaurants but the connection is not nearly as deep to my favorite band that I want people to come and we'll beat feel like a band you they want to turn people on their way to take them to the linger concert or concert and they they want to have that experience and I always tell like this service when it we do these meetings I'm like man you have to understand people here to make a movie everybody has their individual movie just like at a denture our official people make that movie of their their experience and whether they're going to take drugs with the gonna be sober when they're gonna go with their family their daughter that you go when you make a movie of your experience and the band is a is a conductor conducive to that and that's how I want the restaurant to be I want to be conducive to whatever movie people are making we have to be that the cast and I mean we have to be the crew not the cast in there the stars they're the people who are the director of the stars of the movie we just have to consolidate it well it's such a powerful thing Justin but we have a a group up here called McMenamins and what a re purposed old buildings they have concert venues hotels restaurants they like they have like an old Masonic Temple that they turned into a restaurant hotel concert venue they have a winery that they'd re purpose that was like well the poor guy under build underprivileged farm where people could go work they re purposes place turned into a winery anyway my point is when we were looking for a place to live we moved from Vegas six years ago to Portland when we were looking for a place to live for me one of the final deciding factors of coming to the Pacific Northwest was a happenstance stop endemic minimums property in Eugene to grab lunch on the drive home and when we walked in there was Grateful Dead memorabilia on the walls the menu was Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin team named stuff on the menu and I felt like I had come home nice that the staff was very welcoming and and so it's not like you said it's a it's more than a restaurant it's more than a meal it's it's an experience and that experience is powerful enough to cause people like me have a good you know up the coast because I felt something that moved me that made me feel a part of something that I was missing you know this is an amazing thing for a restaurant or anything to do to somebody yeah and what a cool role they've played right man and you've got all those spots there that are literally doing that like that linger it's that's such a amazing thing like mortuary manly yeah that Amos Richard at least that's what that's a pretty gutsy I got like going into that use your you're with the real estate agent and what's that pitch look like like I got the perfect place to put a restaurant brother what's funny is the %HESITATION when I first came to wow highway you know the book and I drove every street every day looking for a like a restaurant home and I found root down which you know was like a mid century gestation it was just a cool little corner it was a very dangerous corner at that time and likely the city was like I said willing to invest money to make it you know attacks being you know %HESITATION building and all that but the building owner who I reached out to us like Hey you suck for rent sign he was actually the owner of the mortuary so he's a developer in the high and he also he was out my landlord three of the restaurants and still is actually and %HESITATION she called me it's like brother I got the next thing for you and this is what we're down was maybe a year old and we were we were experiencing a success that I could never have dreamed of opening a restaurant and I felt like such a failure inside and the reason was is that you know we open this day with thirty people and I was just maybe looking at it to organically I was like you know what we're gonna do forty to sixty people at night and you know what I had the strategy that by like the third day was just like crops and we got run over night after night our quality I don't think was there I think we were understaffed underprepared all these things that like I felt like we were failing everybody we're getting this done and the phone everybody wanted to kill the phone because it's just you can pick up a call and they'll be like three call waiting and then the other phone and it was amazing it was like the success most people dream about but I was not ready for it and so when I was in the middle of trying to figure that out and we grew from thirty employees two hundred within three months and a lot of the people who opened it some of my key people just they weren't the right fit no fault of theirs it's just it wasn't right fit so I felt like god I feel so alone in the success that should be collaborative but that was early on so anyway my point being the landlord then call me and he's a come check it out and I'm like there's no way I'm prepared to open another restaurant and so I went in thinking I'll keep the relationship and you know I don't want to lose that sort of like Hey we got a cool space for you in the future and I go to this mortuary which was just architecturally beautiful it was this late forties early you know sort of like late deco early mid century and I really love those styles and the view of the city on top of the roof I climb this fifty foot ladder I had never been scared in my life and I wind up on this ladder and I didn't want to go down the ladder I just want to like have somebody like you know get a crane to get the so so terrified but the drenalin of that that what that city look like from that rooftop and the beautiful building I was like I mean and I remember that that night he's like well you got to pitch me on something I get other people interested and so on very little sleep I just sort of you know that the building is originally called the only %HESITATION mortuary and it's the biggest war was the biggest Marjorie in Denver for I want to see like seventy years at that point really they had to like %HESITATION process sixty or seventy percent of everybody's deceased through their mortuaries in the anyway the sun was only more trees I remember like I have no idea what I would do I'm so overwhelmed with the roof down I did the path of least resistance I pitched him on the idea that I'm gonna cross of the own call it linger across some more trees and make each worries and then I just put together like a paragraph but he was so enamored with me keeping the sign and giving homage to the building and not trying to hide that it was a mortuary yeah you're right let's do it brother and then what's funny is at that point I really had all my chips on rue de I pushed everything I could beg borrow steal route down inside names the L. L. C. for linger %HESITATION gold teeth because as a Steely Dan so called gold teeth when someone's at the craps table and they don't have anything to bat except they pull out their gold teeth and bull team on the table and I felt like me opening linger was really like I got nothing but I'm gonna take my goal to them put on the table and hope it works out stealing America use for that one yet you have the intention behind everything just as it is amazing it whether it's from a song lyric or whatever your you are I gotta ask you a personal this is what you have a beautiful mind thanks for sure and put it in everything you do what is going on on the board behind you %HESITATION yeah like my little good will hunting board yes a board fanatic like we have a conference room and when I run a white board I'll do it on the windows I'll do it on the wall and so it's just because I feel like %HESITATION I it's so hard to contain my love of like collaborating and brainstorming and a lot of this is just that yeah cemex is a nose too but I just need to see it otherwise I feel really remiss when I put it in a notebook which doesn't work for me %HESITATION I train organize it in my mind it's like I'll forget ideas and I'll disappoint myself for people and so the white boards are meant to be like a conduit of like momentum that we never like falls off the line I mean falls off the page it's still you gotta stare in the face when you walk in every day yeah yeah I've been I wondered that because with the the offerings that you have at your different spots are so it's it's so eclectic and so creative and for me I one of those dishes is like okay I'm done I've created the coolest thing I I'm gonna March off into the sunset but there's like an entire menu for seven restaurants or whatever that like each dish is that thing is it is it you sitting down with the team to figure that stuff out or does that stuff come from you or how does that work to to bring that up another great question I I love you know you guys are so thoughtful about your questions the answer look more thoughtful so I appreciate all the great set ups I feel you know I have definitely like many shows in it you know I I've been appointed my career where I sell okay I'm gonna be in the kitchen and I'm gonna cook every dish I'm gonna come in early I'm gonna leave at the end of the day and I'm gonna make sure everything passes through my filter and %HESITATION that could only be sustainable so long especially with again I think successful busy restaurants where people felt like they were knocking on the door to come in every day of the week and %HESITATION it also felt a little sort of Bob Dylan S. ray it's like I'm going to be the voice I'm gonna write the songs gonna play the harmonica me me me me me and not as exhausting as well and so my goal at one point when I felt I learned where I was able to articulate collaboration in the workplace something that I may be created my most of my career but I could never articulated I just wanted it but I don't know how to communicate that to people I also didn't know how to communicate like excellence because the more I can communicate that the others and what excellence looks like the less that I have to be trying to maintain excellence in other things you know so I feel like %HESITATION I I got a shift when I was like man I can't cook and run a successful restaurant and want to be creative about the the ideas the intentions that design and so after route down sort of found its wings in Langer started it would probably happen after linger I was like I need to find it immensely talented chefs and I need to think of myself as like a a producer right alright I want other people to have their voice on the menu because for a while it was like I know I'm doing all the ideas and if you want to put something on let me give you the idea let me let me watch you do it let me correct you and I think that's again it's a limited formula for success and I think also it wasn't when I create I do you know there's definitely part of it that if if I'm at the top of the food chain the bottom depending how you look at it you know your name goes and everything and it's your it's your capital it's your name it's your your future so I have the most to lose but at the same time I really wanted to be a at at some point as a man I want to be obsolete in the day to day so that like whether I'm in the building or not is it doesn't matter because usually and how it's to the point to this day when the owner walks into when I walk in there is a shift in quality there's a shift in you know intention is a shift in whatever and I wanted less than that I want to walk in and feel like there's going to be a change I want to be like it's on equal footing with what's happening and on the whole I feel like that's what happened so to answer your question about the menus %HESITATION I still am the filter that everything goes through but I really want my chefs and some of them have like high degree of empowerment where I truly am optional I still do the tastings and all the food are still direct them like Hey this is a little bit too busy or Hey we need a texture or the colour is the seasonality I'll still do what I feel like maybe a producer does in the studio which is trying to record the talent that's in front of you to highlight their talent the best and then there's some shops that are maybe earlier on their journey we're all set okay I want to see these five things on the menu and I still always want to give them latitude to succeed or fail because I don't want to hand them a recipe or dish I intend to try and hold back from giving them too much also because often I'm so delighted and surprised at an idea that I didn't think would work is that they're gonna put in front of me so they just present dishes to me and we do tastings I think most every day of my life is spent tasting food and that just feels like that's the only mean that I'm most at this point still most %HESITATION able to touch and still feels that I've I earn the chef moniker in nineteen even though I'm not in the kitchen %HESITATION definitely too old and too beat up for that time it is industry thirty five years so restaurant years are almost all years three yes I lived a hundred years of restaurant years I've not heard of many businessmen who push themselves out of their own business in order to help the people that they hire to you know be part of their business this is something that is really I've never seen Justin I've never seen anything like that especially in this field there I mean it's I am I'm inspired I really am I'm inspired and what kind of like going back to what apple said I know that even he you brushed off it quickly but you do have a beautiful mind you have a beautiful way of one like you said it's about forgetting things and that's why he's a white board sometimes are forgettable thought could be a million dollar ideas so just putting something up like something so silly and then not even cost you know it's very cost effective stupid white board and you know to to delegate to allow your other employees to kind of delegate to each other and like create menus like that it's just unheard of and I just want you to hear it from someone outside of your circle so that you can realize that you have done something to this date that's very inspiring right now yeah like it I'm sure in the future it's continuing but like right now I feel like you deserve a a kudos for what you've done thus far map thanks yes you gonna make me the Cantiere so I am I'm an emotional person I love to cry I love to laugh I love to celebrate people and that's precisely what you're doing on the show we're celebrating and kind of like showing people out there one you know that the musical family is much more vast than just the music yep yeah that's what we're that's what we're highlighting and showcasing but also when someone's doing it in a way that is unique and helpful and edifying for others besides just themselves that should be showcased and highlighted too and so I'm really proud to be doing this today I twenty don't know that and I'm excited to share this interview with all of our listeners and get them down to your restaurants to have that movie scene experience you know and and you just described apple's like dream wife tasting food all day yeah I I we love to lately you said like your music a musical background and %HESITATION him my jam it we all share nights around her whose night it is to cook and when it's my night I I'm in the kitchen it's Steely Dan every night always has been I get it from my dad away and Steely Dan play in the kitchen and get to cook and but you've created let like we we I mean up there in Denver it's such a music CD I mean you know you got you got all the you have Dicks up there you got red rocks and everything yeah and serve on today's nap now yeah and and like looking for every what a good place to be and carry on that music over to the way you treat your restaurants and your recipes and stop because I've been a red rocks in those places I look forward to coming up there and come into the new it's like going to it now it's on my mind is like new venue the new venue yeah yeah I need to come up there and I need to go to linger and then go to a restaurant I was yeah yes %HESITATION good music is half of that you know we talked about yeah yeah sure they can give us the %HESITATION feelies pitch your fears pitches %HESITATION again the landlord who had route down building in Langer says I found this amazing building it's it was an old brothel and %HESITATION it's on the national historic register places and it's the only one that has anything to do with sex that's on the register and I was like wow that's pretty crazy and it's beautiful Victorian building and downstairs where she is it was a very robust dirty bookstore sex toy peep show but like in the CDS least the way it was really greedy old Denver Tom Waits Denver and I got just got away and so he shows me the building again I'm just my eyes are bigger than my stomach and I'm like oh my god we are do this and my team is like do we just open the rest of the I. A. we were lucky enough to open a route down in the airport which was monumentally difficult but they do their game they're amazing they're they're willing to trust on this journey %HESITATION and so that was like you know what we have to do something more than just a restaurant because you know restaurants are great but there's so many of them and you know music was the next best thing or the next you know thing that was sort of in our wheel house and I felt like let's open a music venue that's trying to create we're obviously the stage is the center of this universe but not far behind is you know the the space that attendance so we took this Victorian building and we cut a big hole between the basement and the first floor to create a mezzanine and we tried to get the best sound person and one of the best talent buyers which we did and we decided to open a independent local music venue with you know it's like a four hundred fifty cap room and we started to put on shows six seven nights a week and what we wanted to do was couple it with instead of just going to being about the bands what if you came there at five o'clock and happy or then you rolled into dinner and then maybe you watch the show and it was about the food the hospitality and it just was this I don't like this word but this elevated musical experience where the band and the venue are more harmony and I think to a degree people like you know probably the Fillmore east way back in as they did that where I think bill Graham really wanted to make an experience you know why giving whether it's giving breakfast to people when they leave for quality of the music the quality of the sound system and I felt like let's do that let's make the best possible sound the most beautiful environment let's honor the music with the other side of it which is usually drinking and food and that's what office is all about and now even partner with live nation and we get you know they book bands to us all the time sometimes some really amazing under play is that where we could never get that banned because of the relationships they can say you know you're gonna play red rocks and then we have this solo acoustic you know and that's %HESITATION a few years or some bands that we just never would have been able to get they put to that room so it has a nice synergy to it now that's cool man what's the what was the first band that you had your member and affiliate yes I do I gotta remember their name they okay were local bands and %HESITATION somebody told me about them and they were just sort of like a funk you know band but what was crazy about them on opening night what nobody told me was they also at one point in this gets too X. rated let me now they all get butt naked all the chili peppers but is there any you know they're I think they're all just like having fun young guys in a band kind of thing and then they all do this like they all sit on top of each other while playing their instruments but make it and it's a good way I thought this is like a fun fun being about okay they just raise the bar what what that could mean there are some key band I really don't remember their name but they were definitely fun that was the first member they were just a local band that somebody had were %HESITATION recommended to me I wish I could remember the name it feels very appropriate seeing that %HESITATION feely as we get a brothel and all my friends get bring out the what's a what's the menu look like and a few is is there a is there a feeling for this or is there a yeah it's not a theme but there's a feeling and the feeling is probably %HESITATION a music I'm inside food that you'd want to eat while experiencing music so you know we try to take it too serious but we try to still have it be you know informed through seasonality through our sourcing through the other restaurants which is a scratch kitchen it's not like a lot of music venues where you they get infers and pizza are frozen whatever they just reheat we have a scratch kitchen we have an executive chef there but the food is probably a little sort of low country %HESITATION needs %HESITATION maybe just a little sort of American %HESITATION with we also like flat bread so you know it's it's sort of a little bit of a bastardization within today it's probably just like a low country vibe so with with that done and where you're at right now is there something that you have always wanted to do that you haven't done is there someone left let's dexter %HESITATION there is one thing which is %HESITATION I'm actually doing I feel like coming to Denver was at a point in life when I really felt that responsibility of like not just using right now hold on a minute I was forty forty two I think okay so you know starting to become a responsible adult you know %HESITATION and I really felt that the food system needed changing I'm that was something that I think was happening in pockets you know around the country I think chefs started to look at the seasonality. There was farm to table, I don't know if that existed back then but that intention existed before the words farm to the table existed and that is something I was lucky enough to work in one restaurant in Denver that is now out of business and so I wrote that that's good we have day out they they took on that mindset of being a responsible steward of the food we serve whether it's not just how we get that food but also like %HESITATION making it so it's not just an overt attack on your health to eat well because oftentimes shifts just pour things in food to make it delicious often that sugar it's fat it's brand it's it's just a lot of things that I think as I got older I do want to just take that route I want to do more intentional about allergies about gluten free about being vegan about vegetarianism about seasonality and %HESITATION I forgot the question what will %HESITATION just made no what yeah they're using left for you that you haven't yeah so I've always wanted to try and gross food %HESITATION and it put it in the restaurants and we've tried we've tried a couple of like urban plots and we rented it and we've brought some food but they've never really lasted because we never did it responsibly was more of a passion project he so anyway %HESITATION there's a company that approached me during the pandemic when I was at my lowest point of thinking bye bye restaurants by future you think we have this great product it's a it's a container to read claims with containers a repurposed and we put in a full %HESITATION grow room of the hydroponic solar powered %HESITATION vertical garden and you can grow the number is amazing because you can grow year round that every six weeks you can harvest and it's these vertical shelves that you can grow food and also one for mushrooms we can grow like two hundred fifty pounds of mushrooms I think a week in these containers so one of the things I always wanted to do is not just to say were farm to table not just to say we work with local farmers but to actually do it and so I during cove it I was like there's no way I could say no to this this is just like what we've been planning to do for so many years and we so we bought one and it's going in about two weeks in the back of one of the restaurants in the parking lot and we have this you know forty foot container and we have a farmer and we're going to be growing food that's going to be like not grown thirty miles away but grown ten feet away every six weeks will do a a harvest and we were grow food and just put it into the chef's hands and just truly be farm to table in a way that feels really responsible and really gratifying wow hi we're done now that's just an now I I'm just blown away man like we've talked to I know we've done almost a hundred episodes we've talked to a lot of people and I have to say brother that like there's a few standouts in this is going to be one of them this well very inspiring men and like but Israel to the heart behind it yeah the heart that that's inspiring and and I I'm always excited to go to Denver because it means that we're going to red rocks or an awesome yep but I am equally as excited to come to Denver just to to have dinner when your restaurant's man like I it's hard to pick which one several well that is definitely my I. five really stands out to me because of the pie a %HESITATION dishes you do that seafood one just the address that makes me just salivate yeah and then if we need it all all of them but that that that one eight that's the first one I would pick and then would be linger after and then worked my way through just the menus are outstanding and sleazy bass recipes just I mean I look at that it's it's like oh my god I think we need to to figure out we need to do a live podcast from %HESITATION that is an open invitation right now you one last thing before we go yeah why did you put in R. V. on the roof of wings I love it a bar V. yeah you know this is what we need tells the story quickly climbing that ladder and everything and then I think to yourself like I'm afraid to come down the ladder let's put it to be on the road I'm gonna live on the roof yeah yes well like most things in this you know I think it's trusting %HESITATION you know I think it's a good amount of risk taking you know %HESITATION adverse addresses were but I enjoy like just taking risks and hoping that will make it work and again that's from I think my musical past I've seen on this planet the date time and time again took risks they don't always work night after night and so I think %HESITATION that's an organic part of that after I open route down and it felt like were successful like me my wife and when the automatic you know what we need to be able to get away easily so let's buy an RV I always love this old school R. V. these GMC Arby's from the seventies and I bought one for us to go into the mountains so we had this R. V. to go and enjoy the beautiful mountains well needless to say when you're running a successful restaurant and still figure out your way we didn't use it once we we we bought it we got it and it just sat there and it's out there and so when I'm building linger in again I always try and find something like what can we do that you you were not buying can be repurposed until we find something that someone's casting often so Hey I happen to have this R. V. I'm not using and we you know the whole vibe of lingers about like street food and you know the the for the sort of street five sounds like I have this RV and I asked my contractor can we got it can be crated up and luckily I work with some really great people both the landlord who is allowing me to do this on my contractor and so the the idea behind it was like fuck it let's clean it up and I will stay off the record probably at the statue of limitations has expired we did it on a July fourth for certain reasons that I will not say because I don't know if it would have been completely kosher and we craned up on July fourth we connected it and then we immediately turned it into a Barbie so it just became another part of the journey where I had it I'm not using it and it was like better than buying something a building some support well do this these are the two words that come from this interview for me its intention and attention to develop away I'm gonna borrow that is D. R. is it not like I feel like just by talking to you that I feel like that whole thing we just said about the bar V. I'm not using it I wanted it it's let can we repurpose it let's go for it that's the intention and attention to detail and it I mean there's a million of them like other ways that you've %HESITATION explained that through this conversation and while man I'm really I'm really grateful for your contribution to this world for real like truly truly yeah that you're truly inspirational without really intending to be by just being yourself and sharing what's in that mind and everything and I felt this I don't think this is happened I just want to give you a little yellow thank you for for giving us some of your time and and sharing away and one more thing you're totally a jammer like the way that the jam band work totally that's what you've done and I just wanted to recognize that you know just throw that in there and then go ahead and say that I just want so you have my number just and if you ever open invitation do you ever come to Portland and you have free time and you want to hang out hit me up man I'd love to have you over will cook for yeah we love to help you out yeah well since then I'm with me and my wife %HESITATION but a new RV because we actually do get to go into you want to go to Alaska next year we want to drive through Portland one way through we've got a %HESITATION so thank you your number and that would be and I will come it'll be it's probably two to three weeks but I'll let you know when this is coming out okay awesome and I do want to say that Gee I love that you mention the gym thing because I think that's what maybe is so hard sometimes for people who come into edible beats is that I'm a jammer and I would just want to jam with people and I want to get a room but I know running a business that could be really exhausting so I feel like I've had to temper the improvisational need to figure out our way through it which I love and I've worked with people who love that but as we've grown that some you know I think sometimes our strength is our weakness in our weaknesses our strength and that's a perfect example of something I love to do that I now have to wait temper with also we we need a plan and we have to write it out and we have to let everybody know what it looks like and give somebody like maybe like you know blueprints and we just have to like you know play the music even though there might be no it's on the page so I but I do love that idea of just creating with others in the moments to see where we go but that's not everyone's Cup of tea sets I'm glad you mentioned I. have and that's my company I love collaborations and everything that you've done sounds like has been even maybe like you said temper you're putting it all swear you still do you may not be able to jam here right now but you're doing it somewhere else and you're trying to get in and I mean you're for not playing an instrument you're a hell of a musician or do you plan on it meist um you know I I played in bands for like ten years old he was okay that's for well even more so than it already and more so I was just there thank you for your time and is there will y'all are awesome your questions your thoughtfulness I think it was just you know I think you brought most of this out so close to you guys you are like a musician that's like like can't wait to see what the next album is yeah hell yeah right March for our lives is to you and your beautiful family and your your families and all of your awesome ideas spin we'll try to really keep it hold on to my number for real I'm going to do that and vice versa and I number of like do not hesitate and I wasn't joking about the live podcast will be in touch bye bye Rick gas and that is just in case you just like that that's how you interview sweet angel heart if yes I guess that I wouldn't put it in those terms now but absolutely that's helping the not only employing your employees but caring about your employee employees Hey Justin I bet you've never been called a sweet angel heart before well that's I hope my family has always somebody sounds good coming from now it does but if I would've been like and that's how you interview a sweet angel heart the same room I don't know I I don't know how well how can you have to think it and feel it in order for it to sound right it's like is that like you know like in the polar express how if you don't believe in Santa Claus you can't hear the bell at it like that like if you don't feel it yeah well yes VS if you don't inwardly feel and see the sweet angel hardness of somebody when you say it just comes out flat but but what is the sweet angel hardness lookalike there's no look it's a feeling you can only know it by its it's kind of like the smell you know like certain kind of smell he'd like okay like bacon bacon has a very specific smell okay so sweet angel heart okay can you smell what Justin Gucci's couldn't it's like marshmallows in vanilla and like spring time are %HESITATION those since okay I also it also comes to mind is like a new baby smell yeah but what about well I don't know if she hasn't publicly these are out for a hot minute but babies are new because they there's nothing they've no toxicity they've got no it no nothing there perfect so if you for god from the beginning of the episode go to edible beats dot com and check out everything that's going on if you live in the Denver area you've got out what they're cooking again five amazing restaurant to go check out linger route down vital root L. five and %HESITATION feely as and if you go to the website right now there's even a button on there to order thanksgiving dinner so I may do it can you imagine like your family flies in from Botswana wherever they're from and they get to your house and you've got food from edible beats on the table for thanksgiving like some amazing farm to table stuff and you could even be like yeah I've been slaving over the stove yeah you get rid of all the over to heat it up a little bit so you wouldn't be quiet lying you get busted Mrs Doubtfire yes the good news the new a so Hey everybody happy holidays happy holidays are not around the corner there here are you happy veterans day all the veterans out there yes it is better in the day we want to take a moment to say thank thank you service and and thank you again for your service for being putting your life literally on the line or hold exactly and on hold for the time that you spent serving our country and I just wanted it I feel it and I just want to say it thank you thank you thank you veterans are a bunch of sweet angel hearts they do okay does does pretty that's pretty good yeah look a little bit of work but I like to use it right away okay yeah your points yeah it was really %HESITATION Dunkard once you're on board yeah you're on the board for sure enjoy your Friday everybody and we're glad we could spend a little time with you today will be back on Monday to ride to work with you right and just remember to smile well the stranger enjoy your weekend take care and take it easy either at that new restaurant that type your when the hustle and the bustle starts and people you like everything starts getting hectic like take a deep breath and roll into it that's a good reminder a deep breath is always always something to be had easy taking men at work he is anyway smile at a stranger safety third hydrate don't don't hustle no bustle don't let the sound of your own will be is a sweet angel we love you see next on Monday thank you six of the