Did COVID-19 Destroy The Restaurant Industry Overnight
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 9 minutes
Words per minute
168.48137
Harmful content
Misogyny
5
sentences flagged
Hate speech
12
sentences flagged
Summary
Andrew Zimmern, host of the hit TV show Bizarre Foods, joins me to talk about the impact of the restaurant shutdown, and why he thinks it s going to be a long term economic disaster for the industry.
Transcript
00:00:04.200
I feel I'm so close I could take sweet victory.
00:00:10.740
Yeah, why would you bet on Goliath when we got Bet David?
00:00:16.440
This world of entrepreneurs, we get no value to haters.
00:00:25.400
Andrew Zimmern has had many different TV shows.
00:00:27.340
One of them is Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.
00:00:31.500
One on MSNBC, another one that's going to be launched here soon as well.
00:00:34.260
You know, this was very interesting for me because we talked about how the restaurant industry in America that employs every one out of 10 people in America work for the restaurant industry, the food industry.
00:00:42.900
And he showed how 50 million Americans are affected by what's going on with the shutdown of restaurants.
00:00:49.100
And he makes predictions of when he believes everything will go back to normal.
00:00:53.440
This is a very, very unique approach to an interview.
00:00:56.740
And I have a feeling you're going to love this one.
00:01:01.440
So what do you think about all these restaurants going out of business?
00:01:09.040
It's a one of the saddest things that I've ever seen because like so many of the issues that are turning sideways and going underwater in America right now, the vast majority of it was preventable.
00:01:27.220
The leadership gap coming out of Washington, D.C., is responsible for a lack of money flowing to states.
00:01:40.260
And forget about the different acts that are all trying to help various small businesses, and I do believe in what's now called the Restaurants Act that's specifically designed to bolster the 650,000 independent restaurants around America.
00:01:56.780
By the way, an industry that is second largest in America, second only to the U.S. government, right?
00:02:03.380
A trillion-dollar industry that represents 4% of GDP.
00:02:11.320
But the lack of money to the states and municipalities means that they can't spread money around to allow for restaurants that can't afford it to begin to reorganize both dining rooms and, most importantly, kitchens, back a house, and take care of workers.
00:02:32.800
So that really any opening right now is jeopardizing human life.
00:02:39.380
I do believe in the 239 scientists that sent a letter to the WHO that asked the body to recognize airborne transmission of COVID-19.
00:02:52.540
And the difference there is that rather than just being transmitted through our respiratory systems, the virus can linger in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.
00:03:04.960
There's so much we don't know about this virus.
00:03:08.620
And so restaurants have been pivoting one way, then pivoting another, then pivoting another way, then pivoting another.
00:03:16.940
And I think this is where the role, if not during a public health emergency, then when does a government, a national, federal government, have the role to step in and help backstop small businesses, including independent restaurants?
00:03:37.980
And quite frankly, if we don't see the Restaurants Act passed, that's the one that Congressman Blumenauer in the House and Wicker and Sinem in the Senate have backed.
00:03:49.560
If we don't see that $120 billion aid package go to restaurants, we will see, without a doubt, an extinction event of about 65 to 70 percent of restaurants that just won't make it.
00:04:01.580
That's a pretty bold statement you just made, right?
00:04:06.440
And it's actually the same statement that I've made since the beginning of March.
00:04:19.920
By their own admission, restaurateurs, statistically, have come up with a figure of about 80 percent of restaurants not being able to reopen.
00:04:32.580
Now, since that poll came out, that was a James Beard Foundation poll that was quite extensive.
00:04:38.620
Since that poll came out, a lot of people have pivoted and found other resources of income.
00:04:44.640
And, you know, I bet if that poll went out today, I think 70, 65 percent of them would say without additional income or aid, we're not going to be able to survive.
00:04:56.860
So I think that number has gone up a little bit as people have realized that there are other ways to make money with food.
00:05:02.920
But you've got to remember, everyone is locked into rents.
00:05:05.880
They're locked into their insurance packages, their utilities packages, perhaps payments on equipment, loans to banks and investors.
00:05:14.340
So you can't continue to exist on 25, 35, 40, 50 percent of income.
00:05:21.600
And at the same time, if restaurants aren't really, really cautious, and this is where I – it's not that I'm talking out of two sides of my mouth.
00:05:31.240
It's that I want my industry to survive, but to do so, I think it has to shut down.
00:05:36.920
And the reason is, is that if we develop hotspots in restaurants and if the public has a perception because of some less than responsible operators ruining it for everyone, which I'm seeing right now here in Minneapolis, I am worried that a hotspot develops and then consumer demand drops because they think restaurants in general are problematic.
00:06:02.120
When, in fact, it's any place people are gathering is problematic.
00:06:07.080
You know, we just yesterday had the worst day in terms of COVID-19 statistics in the entire history of the pandemic.
00:06:19.320
So it puzzles me why we're talking about opening businesses and opening schools.
00:06:24.540
It almost feels like a genocidal betrayal to me.
00:06:30.520
I mean, we are – Americans are dying by the thousands every day in America, and we have a – we're all on a leaderless ship.
00:06:40.360
I'm glad you're not getting very political today.
00:06:48.520
Well, it's – I mean, look, I've got to be honest with you.
00:06:50.560
I mean, it's both – I don't see things through a lens that isn't civic.
00:06:55.680
And, you know, I think civics touches everything that we do.
00:06:59.340
So civic solutions oftentimes are political ones, and I think that's hard for folks to understand.
00:07:05.980
I think people want to avoid talking about politics.
00:07:09.180
I think they want to avoid talking about subjects that make them uncomfortable.
00:07:13.220
It's one of the reasons why I made What's Eating America.
00:07:15.920
I wanted to talk about subjects that made people uncomfortable, but I also wanted people to learn and be entertained while they were being made uncomfortable.
00:07:23.980
I referred to it once in a meeting as a roller coaster.
00:07:34.020
In the middle of the whole thing, you're saying, I'll never do that again.
00:07:39.940
I think that it's important that we have these discussions now more than ever.
00:07:44.000
So let me ask you this, because you said a lot of different things there, and a lot of it had to do with leadership at the top, which is directed towards Trump.
00:07:51.940
And it's very obvious you're against businesses opening up due to cases being up.
00:07:58.780
Your concern is if we do open up, it's going to be disastrous.
00:08:01.680
So you want $120 billion to go into the 650,000 restaurants, open, that 80% of them don't shut down, et cetera, et cetera.
00:08:12.480
15 million people work in a restaurant business.
00:08:15.760
Half of all adults at one point worked at a restaurant.
00:08:21.760
One-third of Americans' first job was at a restaurant.
00:08:25.520
10% of the nation's workforce is employed at a restaurant.
00:08:30.020
You said a trillion dollars, $900 billion to be exact.
00:08:35.360
My question for you becomes, who takes the biggest hit?
00:08:53.840
Who ends up taking the biggest hit in this industry, in this situation?
00:09:10.220
There are a lot of owners in the restaurant business that have other businesses.
00:09:15.340
They're corporate restaurants, chain restaurants, investment groups, etc.
00:09:21.220
Obviously, the independent restaurant owner, you and I are partners.
00:09:40.700
Because remember, restaurants are the ones that are giving everywhere, right?
00:09:49.900
You cited a lot of really great statistics there that are super, super important for
00:09:56.960
Restaurants are also the number one employer of returning citizens coming out of jails and
00:10:07.540
As I said before, the only industry bigger than restaurants is the U.S. government.
00:10:16.040
Well, unlike airlines, unlike cruise ship industries, unlike banks, unlike a lot of other businesses
00:10:23.140
that hold on to vast amounts of money, the restaurant industry averages 93% pass-through.
00:10:34.240
Essentially, we keep seven cents of every dollar.
00:10:37.540
And of that seven cents, two and a half cents of every dollar usually goes back into employee
00:10:43.660
subsidy programs like paid sick leave to workers and things like that, as restaurants have begun
00:10:52.540
So when these restaurants go, you know who goes along with it?
00:10:56.540
All of those winemakers, all of those clam boats, all the fishermen, all the people who are
00:11:03.240
raising chickens and ducks that have been sold into restaurants.
00:11:06.000
The restaurant boom, especially the independent restaurant boom of the last 20 years, has created
00:11:11.140
communities of producers, suppliers, the napkin vendors.
00:11:22.380
Since we're the second largest employer in America collectively, think of the economic
00:11:28.300
All those people on unemployment, all those people without health insurance, right?
00:11:33.440
All of those people that are going to put a strain on different segments of our economy,
00:11:41.480
if I am not an economist, but the ones that I speak to when I start to have this conversation
00:11:48.000
with them, look at me and basically tell me that we're looking at an apocalyptic event.
00:11:53.260
Now, I'm not saying that I believe a certain industry should go out of business willingly,
00:12:02.340
If an airline went bankrupt, one of 20 domestic carriers in here, others would step into the void,
00:12:14.140
If they're going to go, we're going to go in a massive number because we're all in the exact
00:12:23.040
And so you're looking at something that will affect Main Street USA.
00:12:30.940
They pay like one and a half percent in American taxes because all of them have figured out a
00:12:44.620
Nobody goes to San Francisco to get a sandwich at Panera.
00:12:47.400
You go to San Francisco to eat at the great restaurants or New York.
00:12:50.860
When I travel to Omaha, I'm going and I'm trying to figure out what the best restaurant
00:12:56.520
So the bottom line is there's so many industries codependent and woven within it.
00:13:02.160
You're looking and while you cited this trillion dollar industry number, it's really multiple
00:13:09.260
trillions of dollars when you add on hotels, hospitality, all the farm workers, et cetera, and you
00:13:14.640
start to get up to about 50 million people that the food and hospitality system employs.
00:13:25.720
For $120 billion, which I know sounds like a lot of money, is a very small price to pay
00:13:32.540
to avoid the multiple trillion dollar problem that we would face if those restaurants went
00:13:42.240
That was very crystal clear on the way you explained that.
00:13:46.560
So the way it's going right now with cases, okay, cases are going up and the level of trust
00:13:53.520
If you look at the TSA stats of travel, last year today, we had 2.7 million travelers.
00:13:59.620
Today we have, what, 600,000 according to TSA reports that are coming up.
00:14:03.740
We haven't recovered fully to the 2.7 to 2.2 million.
00:14:07.140
The low we hit was 87,000 back in April, which we've come seven times that, which is great
00:14:12.440
news to see progress in a span of three months.
00:14:16.860
Do you think, how long do you think it's going to take until we go back to 100% of restaurants
00:14:25.520
being open and us being able to go back to Friday nights, go to a restaurant?
00:14:30.380
Oh, it's not at 50%, it's at 100%, it's opened up.
00:14:33.600
How long do you think it's going to take until we get there?
00:14:35.340
Three months, six months, four months, or you don't know?
00:14:43.120
About nine months after a vaccine that is effective to 85% of the population.
00:14:50.280
Now, that might, I mean, look, the great thing about capitalism is that we have a global pandemic.
00:15:02.380
If you and I were in any kind of medical device or pharma company right now, we would be going
00:15:08.740
all guns trying to be the first one if we had a part of our business that could help figure
00:15:15.720
out a cure for this because there's money to be made at it, right?
00:15:18.500
And I honestly think, because I'm very pro-business, I honestly think that this is where capitalism
00:15:31.300
If we can come up with a vaccine that works 85% of the time, my fear is we get one with
00:15:39.120
side effects that only works 65% or 70% of the time.
00:15:42.360
Not that I wouldn't take that and it couldn't be improved upon.
00:15:47.400
But if we got one that was effective, 85% of those vaccinated, I'm guessing that it's
00:15:57.300
nine months after that we go through a cycle of seasons in America, which is nine months.
00:16:03.640
I think that you would see consumer demand return.
00:16:12.960
When does consumer demand match its levels that it was before, right?
00:16:21.860
I mean, well, business has to start picking up there, right?
00:16:25.060
The vast majority of people who are using the airlines are business travelers, right?
00:16:29.860
Top 10% of customers are responsible for like 60% of airline revenue, something like that.
00:16:36.700
But we're looking at business taking on a different shape these days.
00:16:41.860
I have friends that work in Fortune 50 Minnesota companies, like General Mills and Best Buy and
00:16:53.740
Every single one of them tells me that they're never going back to work the way they did before.
00:16:59.380
It's all going to be flex time or time at home because these companies are figuring out a way
00:17:04.740
to get things done via tech that they were sort of afraid to do before.
00:17:10.800
You know, the virus forced everyone's hand to get real familiar with how to run a Zoom meeting, right?
0.98
00:17:19.140
And they found out that even though everyone is working 10% slower, the savings on the real estate is massive.
00:17:25.520
So we'd rather have people have a better lifestyle.
00:17:33.560
With restaurants, you've got this consumer demand issue that is correlated to how safe we feel being
00:17:41.680
out in public amongst each other and that we feel the places that we're going are custodians of the public health.
00:17:49.600
Restaurants historically for the last two generations have been licensed entities.
00:17:53.940
In other words, health department has to license them.
00:17:56.880
There has to be a licensed health sanitarian on premise at all times.
00:18:00.880
You usually have two or three members of your staff take the health department test.
00:18:04.260
We know what it takes and what it means to serve food and keep the public safe that way.
00:18:11.420
But we have to learn a whole new system here when it comes to a respiratory and what I believe is also an airborne transmission virus like COVID-19.
00:18:25.100
And I think the last thing that I would say to this, and it's why I link it to nine months past a workable vaccine, just over the last five or six days.
00:18:37.300
And I'm on a whole bunch of committees here in the state of Minnesota and actively engaged in talking with health commissioners and so on here in our state as we're working through some of the problems.
00:18:49.480
And I'm on a lot of national committees as well.
00:18:51.740
We're finding, as the pathologists are able to work on people who have passed away from C-19, that all organs are damaged in people who've passed from this disease.
00:19:09.780
We also know that people who have recovered, especially young people who have recovered, not only have permanent lung damage, but we're also looking at a neurological effect.
00:19:22.680
Reports out of the UK with some really reliable studies over there are showing that there could be long-term effects on brain function associated with people who contract C-19.
00:19:41.660
You know, some people get better in five weeks.
00:19:46.840
The point being, there's so much we don't know about it.
00:19:50.380
And this affects all businesses where the public gathers.
00:19:54.880
If you and I own a shoe store, we're selling online.
00:19:57.720
Eventually, everyone learns to buy shoes online.
00:20:00.780
It's just, it's eventually going to be the way it happens.
00:20:02.720
I think what you're talking about, though, is that pleasurable aspect where you and I are grabbing a couple friends and going out and socializing and spending a night in a restaurant.
00:20:12.860
I've been addicted to that feeling since I was 14 years old.
00:20:16.660
If I think about it too much, I'll start to cry.
00:20:18.920
I got hooked as an early teen shucking oysters in a clam house in East Hampton, Long Island because I watched what, you know, the tray of icy briny oysters that I set down on the counter was taken by a server to a table.
00:20:39.640
And it flipped a switch inside me that's never left.
00:20:43.180
It's probably even stronger now, 45 years later, that people can't enjoy that feeling is killing me.
00:20:53.660
I'm just worried that we need the type of leadership that says to everyone, line up behind me.
00:21:02.160
We're marching over that hill and we're not going to stop.
00:21:05.320
We're going to spend every dollar, fight every battle until we knock this thing back.
00:21:10.600
And we're going to help every, you know, there's 350 some odd million Americans here today.
00:21:16.440
I mean, you know, I had no favorite in the, you know, in politics.
00:21:23.380
I haven't endorsed a candidate or anything yet.
00:21:25.960
But the mathematics that Andrew Yang was talking about, where we give each American a certain amount of dollars,
00:21:32.480
now in light of the trillions of dollars that the government has given to corporations and all of these different backstopping acts passed by Congress,
00:21:45.520
boy, oh boy, if we had given that out to actual citizens to start to make it through this disease, we might have made a better choice.
00:21:52.980
You know, that is a form of an endorsement, buddy.
00:21:55.340
But I'll tell you something, talking about, you know, the data of the pathologist talking about in Europe that is showing signs and symptoms of long-term effects
00:22:05.740
and, you know, what this could do to somebody in different areas.
00:22:09.700
It's kind of the argument of what some of the anti-vax guys say that, you know, the long-term effects of vaccine has autism.
00:22:15.880
So there's a concern right now about driving the vaccine or forcing people to take it without a lot of testing,
00:22:21.160
especially all the testing that they're going through.
00:22:23.020
But the reason why I was asking this question from you when you said,
00:22:26.140
how long do you think it'll take until we will go back to normal, right?
00:22:31.600
How long it'll take until we go back to normal?
00:22:33.480
So right now, you've got 155 vaccines that are being tested right now, going against coronavirus.
00:22:43.600
You heard Novavax yesterday, which is good news.
00:22:46.840
Novavax yesterday got a $1.6 billion funding from the government, not yesterday, three days ago,
00:22:57.680
And you're seeing other people that are fighting to get into that conversation.
00:23:01.540
If you're saying nine months after a vaccine comes out, so let's unpack that.
00:23:06.160
The vaccine is not going to be ready for people to take.
00:23:10.400
They're saying fourth quarter, but let's just say Q1.
00:23:18.400
Little aggressive, little conservative will go right in the middle, okay?
00:23:27.120
Originally, Fauci, if you remember, he said 12 to 18 months.
00:23:36.560
So if it's nine months, November, now we're talking from today, July, August, September,
00:23:44.260
October, November for 16 months till we go back to 100%.
00:23:48.220
My mindset is 2022, but we're going fourth quarter of 2021.
00:23:57.200
Got $120 billion to give to restaurants in an industry that's a $900 billion, trillion
00:24:08.140
You're going to have to do another one 90 days later, another one 90 days later, another
00:24:15.280
So the math, you seem very, one of the things I enjoy about talking to you is the fact that
00:24:21.200
And by the way, you sound like you should be sitting on a committee giving advice on
00:24:25.180
And I'm talking, I'm talking from the White House because, you know, for someone like
00:24:31.060
How do we unpack that $120 billion to not say we need to do another one 90 days later and
00:24:37.880
Um, you know, we, we spent a lot of time at the Independent Restaurant Coalition, a group
00:24:44.220
that I co-founded back in March, you know, about 60 or 70 of us got together and said,
00:24:49.360
we need to, we need to change policy in Washington.
00:24:54.880
Independent restaurants are going to be left behind.
00:24:57.100
And we, we, we banded together and we've grown ever since.
00:25:01.240
People can check out, uh, our, uh, policy statements and the Restaurant Act itself.
00:25:07.880
Um, I'm referring to the specific act that, uh, Congressman Blumenauer introduced a couple
00:25:13.880
We have it on our website at save restaurants.com.
00:25:16.600
And we also have the math on our website at save restaurants.com.
00:25:20.120
The reason that we came up with that number is that there are many restaurants out there,
00:25:25.000
corporate restaurants, places that are already found a successful way to pivot that wouldn't
00:25:31.200
qualify to take as much money as restaurants that have been forced to close in certain areas
00:25:39.420
So it's not all restaurants getting the same amount of money.
00:25:43.500
Number two, uh, restaurants owned by women, restaurants, uh, owned by people of color,
0.99
00:25:51.920
uh, and indigenous communities get first bite at the apple because they have the least amount
1.00
00:26:03.900
We used a very complex formula, but essentially it is, uh, a sort of minimum amount to keep
00:26:12.980
afloat for 18 months minus your PPP minus your PPP.
00:26:18.960
If you took it is the amount of money that you get so that in that restaurant that you and
00:26:25.040
I own, we can pay our rent, we can pay our utilities, we can pay our insurance so that
00:26:32.680
we are ready when people come back to work to actually hire them when there are customers
00:26:39.780
If you and I happen to live in Laramie, Wyoming, where we have a successful restaurant, that's
00:26:45.180
much different looking than Houston, Texas or Miami, Florida right now, today in July of
00:26:54.640
Um, so, uh, in Laramie, we might have customers, we might have a parking lot, uh, that we can
00:27:01.240
serve, you know, a hundred diners, uh, a night and people willing to sit, uh, socially distanced
00:27:10.560
We may be able to bring grills outside and grill steaks and serve simple vegetables and
00:27:16.160
have people take advantage of it in the camaraderie of, of small town USA.
00:27:20.500
And with a desire to socialize and be with one another, um, profits from those dollars
00:27:31.260
We know how that 120 billion is going to get spent and we need to get to that money fast
00:27:40.400
One of the issues that, um, we've had, and I'm, I'm sure you've seen it every day.
00:27:49.220
I follow so many chefs and so many restaurants just over the years, every day I see another
00:27:53.900
three or four that I follow that have said, no, I just can't do this, uh, anymore.
00:28:03.220
But I realized that, you know, restaurants that I'm involved in, I own, co-own, or am a partner
00:28:10.940
in four or five different restaurants here in the twin cities, uh, two have yet to open.
00:28:20.680
The other one hasn't, uh, we've opened patio on one because it has one.
00:28:25.780
We haven't opened patio on another cause it doesn't have one.
00:28:28.680
And we're waiting to see if we can open up where we are going to open up if we're allowed
00:28:33.840
to at 50% here in Minnesota, because Minnesota is one of those States that sort of at, at even,
00:28:38.840
we've seen a small uptick, uh, in numbers, uh, but nothing that's taken off.
00:28:44.320
And our governor has shown a lot of leadership.
00:28:46.180
Governor Wall has really been amazing, but so many restaurants are folding already that
00:28:53.800
That statistical number of, you know, 650,000 independent restaurants that's out there.
00:28:58.840
I, I, I have to imagine there's 75, a hundred thousand of them that aren't even open at all
00:29:06.480
So that number has gone down in terms of who needs the money.
00:29:12.880
And what we have to remember is a whole network of effects that we're also trying to deal with.
00:29:18.300
Number one, indoor dining in many cities could be a very long way off, right?
00:29:24.720
And we have this airborne transmission issue, quarantine orders, travel restrictions, theater
00:29:31.400
closures, you know, movie, I'm not talking, not talking Broadway, you know, movie, all
00:29:35.440
that kind of stuff is going to further dampen restaurant spending, right?
00:29:39.920
People aren't going to be out and about in big major metros where the majority of people
00:29:44.260
are majority of restaurants in America, uh, are, um, the outdoor dining delivery and takeout
00:29:55.160
We mentioned it before in a long list of things, but it doesn't make up for, I mean, if you're
00:30:00.440
a, if you're a business, that's only taking seven and a half percent to the bottom line,
00:30:04.920
you've got to be at a hundred percent capacity, right?
00:30:09.040
You've got to be back at those pre COVID numbers.
00:30:12.240
And, and look, many restaurants, we haven't even talked about this side, but you know, it's
00:30:17.700
Many restaurants were very fragile and brittle to begin with.
00:30:21.660
When I started out in this business, I asked my godfather, Frank Granite, guy that owned
00:30:27.460
a bunch of restaurants and got me jobs when I was 14, 15, 16 restaurants, I wanted to learn
00:30:32.980
And he had a three month prudent reserve at every restaurant, you know, the restaurants
00:30:38.420
that I'm involved in, I mean, and I'm talking about really successful ones, there's no three
00:30:48.120
Wait, wait, wait, let me, let me get this straight.
00:31:01.520
Restaurants are extremely brittle and extremely fragile.
00:31:04.580
And the reason, the reason is this, um, and I'm talking about independent restaurants.
00:31:09.260
You can't, you know, the fair wage, uh, sorry, the, uh, fair trade coffee, uh, movements that
00:31:19.060
Everyone was buying 75 cent cup of coffees at the local corner store.
00:31:23.660
And then all of a sudden Starbucks and all these coffee shops started, you know, and now
00:31:30.140
And one of the reasons that we do is that everyone really got involved on the social justice
00:31:34.120
side of this, which was the fair trade program for beans, right?
00:31:37.680
Let's help these small communities of farmers on these fincas all over throughout the coffee
00:31:43.420
growing region by paying a fair trade price for the beans so that these villages could
00:31:49.780
actually succeed, not just as a subsistence farmer, but as a successful farmer so that
00:31:56.440
their communities could have schools and a clinic and all the rest of that kind of stuff,
00:32:00.800
But we're lagging behind that in the food business.
00:32:03.420
I have a friend, Tracy Desjardins, one of the most famous chefs in the world, Michelin
00:32:08.020
starred restaurant, Jardiniere in San Francisco, her flagship restaurant.
00:32:17.420
She says, well, you know, we weren't making all that much money.
00:32:20.740
And then at three, three years ago, I, I really felt that I wanted to take a lot of the profits
00:32:27.500
that we had, even though it wasn't much and put it into, uh, programs for my employees.
00:32:33.780
Number one, because I wanted to take care of them, right?
00:32:36.040
Like paid sick leave and stuff like that, uh, a bonus program, et cetera.
00:32:40.920
She said, but also because the economy was getting better and better and better and better.
00:32:48.880
Employee retention was getting harder and harder and harder.
00:32:54.440
We know, you know, I don't have to tell you about rent issues in San Francisco, New York,
00:33:00.860
Employees are traveling an hour and a half into work to restaurants in the city.
00:33:07.560
So she decided that she was going to raise her prices and actually charge enough money
0.83
00:33:14.260
So when she opened, she said her half roast chicken, a really nice roast chicken, by the way,
00:33:20.440
Her costs had gone up over 25 years by X number of hundreds of percentage points, right?
00:33:26.500
Rent, payroll, insurance, all the rest of that.
00:33:32.560
But the cost of her chicken, she still couldn't charge more than $24.
00:33:36.880
She found that the minute she tried to go up above 20, despite the fact that to put the
00:33:41.580
chicken on the plate and all the costs and, you know, the right fair cost for that chicken
00:33:46.940
No one's going to spend $32 for a half a chicken, right?
00:33:52.400
People pay $100 for a steak because they would have a special occasion at a steakhouse, but
00:33:56.780
they're not going to pay more than $24 for a chicken at Jardiniere.
00:34:00.920
And so we have artificially deflated food prices all across our restaurant system.
00:34:08.580
You know, it's that whole dollar menu mentality that has artificially brought down the cost
00:34:15.980
We're addicted to steak in the supermarket being a certain size and a certain color and
00:34:21.660
have a certain, the muscle has to have a certain size to it.
00:34:26.260
And we're not going to pay more than $9.99 a pound.
00:34:34.040
And you can't make a living on outdoor dining on to go and to take out and deliver.
00:34:46.280
Not in the, not with the lease that you and I have in our pretend restaurant and with our
00:34:52.580
Now, if we close that down and we move down the street to a place that's very undesirable
00:35:00.120
from a storefront point of view, but we can do all the takeout and community kitchen and
00:35:06.560
delivery from there because we're not seating customers.
00:35:09.760
Then you and I have come up with a different business model, right?
00:35:17.120
Restaurants have to dig themselves out of a rent hole.
00:35:20.080
I mean, the figures that I saw from New York City, from Roar, was that in New York, 73%
00:35:27.480
of landlords did not waive rent in June and 80% of New York restaurants did not pay their
00:35:38.860
full rent in June, according to the surveys that Roar did and the Hospitality Alliance
00:35:45.140
I mean, that, that's the, these, the kind of statistics that show you how fragile and
00:35:50.480
And, and you have to remember the PPP aid was only designed to be temporary, right?
00:35:55.080
So we need something with a little more heft, uh, to it, uh, like the restaurant stabilization
00:36:00.700
bill that, uh, Blumenauer and Wicker proposed in the house and Senate respectively.
00:36:05.800
And we began this line of questioning by talking about who suffers hospitality, employment in
00:36:16.600
But I do think, as I said, it's the American people who are going to be the big losers because
0.89
00:36:21.120
Main Street USA, those, those taxes that go to keep the roads paved, put books on school,
00:36:26.940
uh, desks, um, people don't understand how big the collective industry is.
00:36:33.140
And even statewide, like here in Minnesota, our collective restaurants that put a billion
00:36:38.160
dollars into our state's economy, um, you know, that number is down to 200 million.
00:36:44.280
That's a huge, huge, uh, problem for our state lawmakers in terms of meeting budgets.
00:36:51.820
Again, we're the second largest industry in America, second only to the U S government
00:36:58.080
Too big to fail of an industry that there's a, there's a, by the way, I went on your website,
00:37:03.240
Uh, we're going to put the link below for others to go see the whole thing about what you're
00:37:08.660
But, uh, you know, you said a lot there, 73% in New York didn't wave.
00:37:13.640
This is the, the owners didn't wave rent, 80% didn't pay, which is a wash because whether
00:37:19.540
you wave or not, I don't have the money to pay you.
00:37:29.480
So commercial industry is taking a massive hit.
00:37:33.180
You're explaining 50 million people tied to the restaurant.
00:37:37.720
Let me, let me ask you, how close are you, or who is the most close person right now working
00:37:43.040
to the Trump administration that's showing these types of stats where they're sitting
00:37:46.820
there saying, you know, this makes a lot of sense.
00:37:50.360
Who is the main voice that's spearheading that message to them?
00:37:55.560
Um, about four or five weeks ago, Kudlow, Mnuchin, Vice President Pence, President Trump, Jared
00:38:03.880
Kushner, Ivanka Trump invited a group of restaurant leaders into the White House for a lengthy
00:38:14.860
Three of them, uh, were co-founding members of our independent restaurant coalition from
00:38:26.780
There were several other, uh, restaurant industry, uh, types.
00:38:31.180
There are people from, uh, big, big giant chains all the way down to single operators.
00:38:41.460
And it was because of that meeting, uh, that we were able to not only get, uh, it was because
00:38:49.540
of that meeting that Representative, uh, Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Chip Roy, Republican
00:38:54.820
of Texas, were able to introduce the act that was the PPP fix that extended it from eight weeks
00:39:02.060
Uh, and the reason that the president signed that bill, uh, was, uh, after it passed was
00:39:12.160
He heard what he needed to hear at that meeting and turned to Secretary Mnuchin and others and
00:39:20.620
And they were like, well, this is a, you know, we were building a plane in midair and PPP does
00:39:26.260
have some issues and, you know, we want to be able to extend the runway.
00:39:31.620
We're just extending the runway of forgiveness and reorganizing the, uh, the terms of those
00:39:40.200
To have it make more sense, not just for restaurants, by the way, but for small businesses all across
00:39:45.900
One of the problems was the length of the loan.
00:39:47.580
And the other problem was that it was 75%, uh, payroll, 25%, uh, utilities, rent and other
00:39:56.420
And it went to 60, 40 and from eight weeks to 24 weeks.
00:40:00.160
Um, but we had a seat at that table and we got a chance to talk to the secretaries and
00:40:05.280
to the vice president, uh, and for a little bit to the president about the, uh, restaurant
00:40:15.000
So I have, I have cautious optimism, but I still have optimism and I look, I'm not going
00:40:23.540
Anyone had, all anyone has to do is look at my work on MSNBC, look at my social media feeds
00:40:28.660
and, and I think everybody understands that I'm quite left of center.
00:40:32.660
Uh, I I'm not quite on Karl Marx's left knee, but I'm sort of on his right knee while he's
00:40:40.060
Uh, but I'm definitely, I am definitely, uh, uh, left of center.
00:40:46.880
The, uh, the, and, and my point is, is that, you know, at his core, President Trump's business
00:40:54.000
advisors understand that that $120 billion that we're asking for is very small compared to
00:41:02.360
what would happen if, I mean, just the employees on, on, uh, unemployment for another six months
00:41:15.820
We definitely can't afford not to give out the $120 billion.
00:41:21.400
So are you full on communist or would you say you're socialist right before communist?
00:41:34.960
It was very Marx's communist manifest on Atlas Shrugged.
00:41:39.900
These, uh, these men are sitting here in a vault.
00:41:46.700
I mean, look, I am, uh, I am someone who is a, uh, very civic minded and political person.
00:41:53.020
I've been involved in a lot of social justice activism, uh, since my parents got me involved
00:41:58.580
as a young child in the sixties, um, growing up in New York in a, uh, in a very progressive
00:42:07.100
Um, and you know, I believe it's my civic responsibility, uh, to be an active voice.
00:42:13.660
And probably more importantly, um, when my TV career took off, um, I felt that if you have
00:42:21.920
a platform and you don't do something good with it, um, you have, you've left a hole in
00:42:28.820
the ground that can't be filled somewhere else.
00:42:32.420
And, um, you know, I, I was determined to devote 25% of my time and 25% of my money, uh, to social
00:42:45.560
And I started doing a lot of board work and I started to get involved in a lot of national
00:42:51.440
Um, people can go to my website, andrewzimmern.com and click on our resources and our partners
00:42:56.160
page to see the type of groups I'm involved in.
00:42:59.300
But, you know, I'm on the board of services for the underserved in New York, uh, the IRC,
00:43:04.940
not the independent restaurant coalition, the international rescue committee that Einstein
00:43:08.620
founded in 1939 refugee, uh, do a lot of refugee work, work with a lot of organizations.
00:43:16.540
I try to work on homelessness and hunger and addiction issues and, and the like.
00:43:22.360
And it, it's really been in the last three years as I've seen the work that my parents
00:43:28.800
undertook for a lifetime away from their businesses, uh, the work that so many people have done
00:43:35.160
for, uh, on the social justice side and to promote equality in America for everyone.
00:43:42.900
And seeing that under attack definitely got me more civically involved and definitely got
00:43:49.640
And I made a conscious choice, uh, that while, you know, my new show family dinner on Magnolia
00:43:57.720
is definitely a, uh, a treacly sweet piece of entertainment.
00:44:03.020
Um, but it's about connecting with families over food, something that I believe does have
00:44:09.000
And I wanted America to see what it looked like for families to spend more time together
00:44:14.920
Cause I believe that, uh, we'd be better off as a nation if we all spent a little more
00:44:21.100
But by that same token, I'm also making a show called what's eating America at MSNBC,
00:44:26.160
which is very civic oriented, which is very issue oriented, uh, which does not pull any
00:44:34.160
And we explore everything from voter suppression to climate change, to food and wellness and
00:44:41.600
Well, so again, like I asked you earlier to confirm, it's very important.
00:44:44.840
It's fair to say you don't have a picture of president Trump on that wall anywhere else,
00:44:48.400
Uh, that, that, that would be, that would be correct.
00:44:52.480
Um, I have, I have pictures of Joe Namath, uh, during his most anarchy plagued years,
00:44:59.140
uh, the New York jets, when he was the owner of a famous bar in New York called bachelor's
00:45:07.140
It's, it's, uh, he's in the fur coat, the mink coat sitting on the bench with the sunglasses,
00:45:12.340
the, the Broadway Joe era with the long hair, you know, my heroes, uh,
00:45:18.400
are, uh, are definitely not members of this administration.
00:45:24.460
And I think it's fair to say that Joe Namath has probably partied harder than you and I
00:45:29.140
Although I don't know your background of party.
00:45:30.640
And I know Joe is a hardcore part of some lighthearted questions.
00:45:36.220
I'm just curious, you know, for somebody who loves caviar, what is the best kind of caviar
00:45:42.120
If you were to say, let me educate you on caviar for two minutes.
00:45:48.720
I lived there for 10 years, lived at a refugee camp in Germany for two years.
00:45:52.480
I grew up by, uh, my family owned a place by Bandar Pahlavi back in the days, which was
00:46:00.640
But I'm curious to hear your feedback and thoughts on caviar.
00:46:03.280
Well, geez, well, the first thing is, is that why aren't we standing together somewhere
00:46:08.460
in a kitchen, socially distanced, cooking together?
00:46:11.400
What I refer to generically, because it's a broader geographic footprint of Persian cuisine
00:46:16.680
at the, at the, you know, at the height of, uh, that culture's influence, um, in Central
00:46:24.520
Asia and the middle and what is now the Levant and Central Asia.
00:46:27.920
Um, I'm not sure there's a, there's a, a broader and wider cuisines.
00:46:32.560
One of the, one of the world's truly great, great cuisines.
00:46:40.740
I often tell people it's whatever you think tastes good.
00:46:47.260
Not everyone has the flavor for it, but if you do, um, I do try to take people away from
00:46:54.120
lumpfish roe and other things that are sort of like pretend caviars.
00:46:58.360
But then the issue that gets raised is, uh, the cost and what's, uh, you know, I'm hoping
00:47:06.320
as more, and it's part of the reason why I actually promote what caviar eating that I
00:47:11.820
do not to pat myself on the back or to, you know, uh, claim some sort of elitist, uh, position.
00:47:21.240
It's just that my hope is, since it's one of my favorite foods that we can invest more
00:47:26.360
in aquaculture because every year, the, the more companies that get involved in this stuff,
00:47:33.900
Now the caviar industry is like many other food industries boomed over the last 10 years.
00:47:41.540
Uh, whether it's farms, sturgeon farms in Taiwan that I visited, um, or ones in Florida.
00:47:47.740
I mean, I've, I've told stories about caviar production, aquaculture caviar production in
00:47:52.860
six or seven different countries around the world over the course of the last 15 years,
00:47:56.920
but now they have no one to sell to because restaurants are closed.
00:48:03.360
I will tell you that while, uh, the great true Mala salt, low salt, uh,
00:48:11.540
beluga caviar, or cetera, whatever your size preference is, something firm, something that
00:48:17.680
really pops in the mouth, something that has a beautiful balance of salinity.
00:48:22.060
While for some people, they automatically assume that costs a lot.
00:48:25.700
I did a story in Oklahoma about five years ago on the Oklahoma department of natural resources.
00:48:35.560
And they were trying to, uh, they have a wild paddlefish population there.
00:48:41.900
Oklahoma and Missouri, the only States in America where wild paddlefish exist and they
00:48:46.800
You get a license and you're allowed to pull X number of fish out of the water, but the
00:48:51.360
paddlefish in Oklahoma actually go to go through two egg laying seasons, right?
00:48:57.260
So a lot of these farm, uh, fishermen would open up their fish and fillet them and paddlefish
00:49:06.780
And, uh, magically they found that people were throwing away these five, six pounds of row
00:49:17.760
Well, the department of natural resources guys had seen one of my older shows from 10 years
00:49:24.380
ago in Missouri where I was actually with fishermen, fish to the paddlefish, and I actually made
00:49:33.220
And much of the same way we fry other sets of egg row, sliced it in pieces, lightly floured
00:49:39.000
it, fried it, served it with scrambled eggs and toast and butter.
00:49:44.020
The same way you would shad row in the, in Maryland and, uh, or smoke cod row in Ireland and England
00:49:52.160
in Scotland and these Oklahoma DNR guys had seen the Missouri show.
00:49:58.180
They sent one of their own to caviar school and now they make wild paddlefish caviar from
00:50:08.780
99% of the caviar in my pictures, you can see me making reference to it.
00:50:13.900
I think you can go to the Oklahoma DNR, uh, page and make your way to it.
00:50:22.340
And all the money that from the caviar program goes to support the, uh, water systems in
00:50:32.800
So if you Google wild Oklahoma paddlefish caviar, it'll probably take you right to, uh, the website
00:50:46.560
I'm going to look it up and I'm going to order it.
00:50:48.480
And I've, I've sent it to, I mean, there are chefs I've, I've been, I have no financial
00:50:55.180
There's no, this is not a sponsored thing at all.
00:51:00.400
And all the money goes to help the, the streams and rivers and forests in Oklahoma.
00:51:06.000
And so one of the amazing things I've turned all my chef friends onto it in blind tastings.
00:51:12.920
I mean, it's, it's, I, I can tell this, you know, we're not talking about, you know, primo,
00:51:18.660
but we're talking about something that's a rock solid B plus.
00:51:22.680
Then I tell them the price and they lose their minds.
00:51:25.800
There's more restaurants now buying and selling this stuff because I've just been bringing
00:51:30.520
it to food festivals, doing it at, at dinners and all the rest of it.
00:51:34.720
Uh, it's very inexpensive as in, uh, single digit hundreds of dollars for a kilo.
00:51:45.820
The article here, April 12th, uh, 2016, how Oklahoma cornered the market in caviar national
00:51:57.720
I've eaten at a lot of different restaurants worldwide.
00:52:02.520
You know, whether it's from a hole in a wall sushi spot where the chef, the owner makes
00:52:07.100
it, and you can trust his work to a high-end restaurants in Monaco, Le Louis the 15th, or
00:52:12.640
a nice restaurant, hole in a wall, La Vitrola in Cartagena, Colombia, to all these other
00:52:18.980
By the way, I know, I know both, I've dined in both of those last two restaurants.
00:52:29.820
So I went there when Alain Ducasse was a young chef and arguably the best chef in the world.
00:52:35.600
And he had just gotten three stars for two different restaurants.
00:52:43.200
I was staging in a restaurant in Paris that Alain Cendérin was the chef at called L'Arca
00:52:49.780
Strada, Alain Cendérin's first Michelin three-star.
00:52:52.900
And a whole bunch of us drove down, and for three days, we showed up at 5.30 or 6 o'clock
00:53:00.820
when they opened to see if there was a table in our crappy blazers, you know, and I mean,
00:53:10.820
That meal, I had never seen, and it was the first time.
00:53:19.380
I can name up 25 restaurants in America that do it.
00:53:22.520
But at the time, 1982, 83, 84, I had never seen butter churned in a kitchen and the bread
00:53:32.860
baked in the kitchen, both according to the reservation chart.
00:53:38.380
They were churning butter multiple times a day.
00:53:41.540
So the butter was never refrigerated at the Louis Cain's in Monte Carlo.
00:53:46.580
The buildup under the cap of the churning machine was actually whipped away from the separation,
00:53:58.000
They would take that way, and they would constantly, every hour, scrape off a few tablespoons,
00:54:04.120
and that's what they would use to delicately saute, use it like a cuisson, just to glaze root
00:54:12.980
When you think of the lengths that restaurant was going to, just with that simplest of ingredients,
00:54:18.740
butter, you get, and bread, you get an idea of what, I had never had an experience like
00:54:30.460
You said, you went there when the chef who went, I read his article that he went at 28
00:54:37.440
years old from a one-star to two-star to a three-star in three years, and he was like
00:54:42.340
the legendary one worldwide that everybody, and by the way, they still do the butter.
00:54:47.200
You see the show when they're doing it, when you go into the place.
00:54:51.100
Because before, it was hidden away in the kitchen.
00:54:53.680
In the middle, really, what you were telling me, I was watching, and I'm like, what are they
00:54:57.100
doing over there, and then they come, and they tell you about it, so you eloquently
00:55:00.220
explained that, but out of all the places you've been, out of all the places you've
00:55:04.980
been, what's your number one where you say, if money's not an issue, if I want to take
00:55:10.900
my friends, if I want to go to a place and sit down and enjoy food, my number one is,
00:55:21.540
Um, that's a very difficult question to answer, and I would answer it differently
00:55:31.840
A couple years ago, I might have said something like, you know, let's go and do the
00:55:40.920
Let's go to one of the three-star Michelin restaurants in Tokyo, right?
00:55:47.600
Let, let's go and really celebrate in the, in the private room at, you know, Alinea, and
00:55:55.540
tell them to really put on the feed bag for us, right?
00:55:58.060
I mean, just to have that over-the-top experience.
00:56:05.100
Because I love seeing what a chef can do, that kind of chef, at the peak of his powers,
00:56:12.660
with ingredients, the transformational things that they do with food, the, the techniques
00:56:18.680
that are going to be used 30 years later, once it trickles down to, you know, home cooking.
00:56:25.560
But I think what's most, what's notable and powerful for me are the places where I can
00:56:36.240
On the island of Palawan in the Philippines, there's a bunch of floating restaurants.
00:56:44.560
You, you, somewhere at the end of a dock, they've built a rickety dock half mile out
00:56:51.400
There's, I wrote about one in, in my first book, you know, a place where I can go, where
00:56:58.000
the fishermen come in and they, they, they lift the fish and the shellfish and the mollusks
00:57:04.420
up into the center of the restaurant through a big hole cut in the middle of it.
00:57:08.220
The restaurant is on stilts in the water where you can watch the sun go down, where
00:57:13.140
you're sitting on the water, where the bananas for frozen banana drinks are cut from a giant
00:57:20.660
ripe banana plant that was tree ripe in that's sitting by the bar, where the limes are grown
00:57:26.140
in the backyard of someone's house and picked and brought in, where everything is so fresh
00:57:31.540
And it's really a matter of whether you want your fish or shellfish, you know, grilled
00:57:40.160
Those are the kind of places that really thrill me the most.
00:57:42.960
It has as much to do with location and simplicity of food, um, as it does, uh, with the quality
00:57:54.620
Because I think the quality now means something different to me.
00:58:02.160
Um, you know, you talked about Cartagena in Medellin, there's, uh, a pollo carbone,
00:58:11.180
you know, charcoal roasted chicken is what's eaten.
00:58:14.740
Every street has a different pollo carbone place, but there are a couple that do it a lot
00:58:22.180
You know, give me a good pollo carbone place and a lot of really cold frosty root beer and
00:58:29.940
30 of my closest friends and let us just sit there for hours and get messy with our fingers
00:58:35.320
eating pollo carbone, uh, going out into the street and buying a sugarcane juice with lime
00:58:45.220
Last night, I was shooting an episode of family dinner.
00:58:48.320
I was eating with a Nigerian family and, uh, they, they did a version of burning meat on
1.00
00:58:55.360
skewers, something that all over Africa, you go into neighborhoods and it's just people
1.00
00:59:03.400
Typically the animal is, uh, they're being butchered on the back table and you can point
00:59:09.500
I want a little luxury cut because everything costs a different price, right?
00:59:13.080
They, they know the luxury cuts are more expensive than cuts from the, the leg or the tendon or
00:59:20.340
Um, and you know, you sit there and you order it.
00:59:24.460
Same thing in the, you know, Jamal Fana in Marrakesh, you know, in the sook there where
00:59:31.320
You order the meshwee and they pull a little bit from different parts of the animal and
00:59:35.060
they put it on a piece of newspaper and they spill a little bit of cumin chili and salt
00:59:40.020
mixture on the plate for you to season your own lamb with.
00:59:43.920
And if you want bread, they send a kid around the corner of the bread place.
00:59:48.660
And he comes back with that and some hot or cold mint tea.
00:59:56.220
If, if you said, Andrew, let's you and I go to one place for dinner tonight, anywhere in
01:00:03.360
the world, it might be to some of the markets that I've been to in small villages, jungle
0.99
01:00:12.120
markets in the Vietnamese countryside where spring rolls and grilled fish and shrimp salads
01:00:18.300
and just, just the food that you just, you want to just keep eating for the rest of your
01:00:26.740
I remember being in Isang, Thailand, up in the north on the Laotian border, just about
01:00:33.380
30 miles from Vientiane, but about five, eight miles in from the Laotian border.
01:00:39.520
And I was on a farm and they told me that they were going to make a shrimp salad, a drunken
01:00:46.980
And I knew that, you know, you take the small shrimp and they're live and you drown them
01:00:51.400
in rice wine and then you mix it with toasted rice powder and chili and ginger and garlic
01:00:56.460
and fish sauce and sugar and mint and cilantro and crushed peanuts and tomatoes.
01:01:05.620
It's one of my favorite dishes in the Vietnamese culinary canon.
01:01:10.840
And grandma went down to the river with her net and started taking these freshwater shrimp
0.95
01:01:20.580
I, you know, I would put that dish up against anything that I've eaten anywhere on planet
01:01:26.960
Um, food is not just about the expensive, you know, that's why the caviar conversation used
01:01:36.700
Um, and I have it freely with people where I have the opportunity to explain it because
01:01:41.840
the fact of the matter is, is that the food that I find is the most precious is the stuff
01:01:48.300
that's only available on what I call the last stop on the subway.
01:01:52.580
The further away you have to go to get it, the more valuable it is.
01:01:57.800
A year ago, if you and I want to have a great meal in New York, right?
01:02:01.280
I mean, between the two of us, we can call up friends.
01:02:03.740
We can get into any restaurant we want as a deuce, right?
01:02:08.820
The chef will throw all kinds of free stuff at it.
01:02:15.560
But what we can't do is be out in a village in Botswana with a big fat yellow African moon
0.94
01:02:24.980
rising up over the aha hills while a goat is slowly roasting over the fire, while people
01:02:30.440
are playing the same music that their ancestors played for 40,000 years.
01:02:38.620
That's the precious experience that I got to have for 14 years on the road, making bizarre
01:02:48.460
That was an amazing era in my life to be able to have all those experiences and know what
01:02:56.880
And by the way, have that same meal, but have it be moose with the Athabascan tribe while
0.71
01:03:02.000
it's 30 degrees below zero in front of a bonfire while they're white, they're spearing white
0.99
01:03:07.200
fish on the very last night of the season before the river freezes for good.
01:03:12.200
I mean, that's, that's the, that's where I'd want to take you and my friends is to eat that
01:03:18.020
because the look on your face at the fancy restaurant in Paris would be, holy crap, this
01:03:25.640
I take you up to Athabascan country and you're like, you're in so much clothing, you can't
01:03:32.140
And someone puts boiled white fish right out of the river in your face, by the way, that
01:03:45.240
They lose a couple of people every season, usually elderly folks who've been drinking
01:03:51.020
Um, you really will enjoy that white fish because the environment in which we're consuming it
01:03:57.360
together is conducive to a real human connection that I don't think you necessarily get in a
01:04:04.680
Let me tell you, uh, uh, uh, you know, I wonder how you talk dirty to the ladies because your
1.00
01:04:10.660
last seven minutes of whatever you do with food, I am so hungry, but I can't wait to
01:04:19.800
You're saying this because it took me back to, uh, a time I went to Guatemala back in
01:04:28.360
And then you go to this place and it's called it's amazing.
01:04:31.440
And they say, well, this is a place where European people live.
01:04:37.280
And we went to this place, holding them while you ate, but they brought the lobster.
01:04:40.660
They brought the food from the best dish I ever had.
01:04:43.220
Look, I've really enjoyed the conversation with you.
01:04:45.700
And it's interesting to hear a story of somebody who had 14 years old gets inspired by oysters
01:04:50.900
and a man who's born on 4th of July who likes capitalism because improves the restaurant
01:04:56.600
business, what would your final thoughts be to small business owners who own restaurants
01:05:02.120
and folks who are in restaurant business, right?
01:05:04.020
And who are little worded, if you have final words, final thoughts for them, what would
01:05:08.420
Um, food people, despite the gloom and doom that I talked about before, I do believe there's
01:05:13.300
going to be a stabilization act passed, but more importantly, the most creative, the most
01:05:20.480
free thinking, the most giving, sharing, coolest people in the world are food people.
01:05:25.760
Uh, with apologies for everyone else out there.
01:05:33.200
They're the, they, they, they have pivoted three or four times already since February.
01:05:38.680
I think, I think the, the, the higher power that I believe in puts the large burdens on
01:05:49.820
And while this has been a horrific moment for restaurants, it's also been a very freeing
01:05:56.360
Our industry was very brittle and fragile, and it was also had a lot of inequity in it.
01:06:03.020
Uh, I mean, people forget three years ago, the, the me too movement that, you know, rampage
01:06:10.700
Um, the, the fact that we've mistreated, you know, people of color working in our kitchens
0.99
01:06:16.540
and depressed prices and not paid a fair wage and not been able to offer benefits to these
01:06:23.500
workers and, and dignified the back of the house side of the profession from the dishwasher
01:06:34.740
We've professionalized the server and the mixologist.
01:06:37.860
We don't even call them bartenders anymore, but we have an opportunity now.
01:06:41.600
I would have liked to have take our house apart brick by brick before we rebuilt it.
01:06:50.920
We would be stupid to rebuild it in the same, uh, format that we did before.
01:06:56.040
I think there are people, restaurateurs, food people all over this country figuring out
01:07:04.800
We will look back 20 years from now on a 10 year period post COVID-19 that we will call
01:07:13.100
the golden age of restaurants because we will have figured out a way both to honor the food,
01:07:22.060
I think we will be able to honor every single person equitably along that whole food chain.
01:07:27.980
And I think we're going to be better off for it as a society.
01:07:31.120
And I think food people will drive that decision-making.
01:07:34.140
I mean, one creative idea that you've seen in the last few months in the restaurant business
01:07:38.180
that other restaurant businesses can implement one creative idea, uh, gather your best, um,
01:07:44.600
uh, purveyors and package their goods in a food box that goes to families.
01:07:52.060
Now, some people have done it based around, uh, there's a local restaurant here called
01:07:56.840
Grand Cafe, which sold you four meals for four people for X number of dollars with everything
01:08:02.120
labeled and all the rest of that, uh, for folks that wanted to cook a little more adventurous,
01:08:07.460
Other people like Dan Barber up at a blue hill at stone barns has just accumulated cheese from
01:08:12.940
his cheese people, meat from his meat people, seafood from a seafood people, charcuterie from
01:08:18.040
his charcuterie people, you know, tomatoes from his tomato people and put them in a
01:08:22.040
big box and said, every week you're going to get this box for X number of hundreds of
01:08:27.220
We're putting in a little bit of everything for you.
01:08:29.920
I think that's an area beyond takeout and delivery that is really, really, really important.
01:08:36.120
A lot of people in America, not all, but a lot would like to be eating cleaner, healthier
01:08:44.520
And I think restaurants can provide that for their, uh, neighbors and communities.
01:08:50.940
Andrew, thank you so much for being a guest on by Tim.
01:08:55.080
I loved having a real conversation with somebody who asked really provocative questions and
01:09:03.120
And for anyone interested, we have a lot of information at andrewzimmern.com, not only,
01:09:08.020
uh, issues of the day and resources, uh, but incredible, uh, charities to support as well
01:09:15.140
as thousands and thousands of videos and recipes and all that kind of stuff.
01:09:22.300
I'm really proud of the people here in my group that put it together.
01:09:30.140
Andrew, again, thank you so much for your time.
01:09:36.000
And by the way, if you haven't already subscribed to Valuetainment on iTunes, please do so.
01:09:40.640
Give us a five-star, write a review if you haven't already.
01:09:43.520
And if you have any questions for me that you may have, you can always find me on Snapchat,
01:09:51.240
And I actually do respond back when you snap me or send me a message on Instagram.