E176 Brandon McDonald

This week's guest is Brendan McDonald, who joins us from Sunny and Warm saying, Augustine, Florida. Brendan has spent the past 15 years in the industry, opening and operating bars and restaurants across the US. Several of the topics we cover in a conversation with Brendan include his time spent in Gainesville, Florida, attending the University of Florida and working in the bar scene there. We talk about his favorite style of bar to work at and why, and we also talk about Brendan's podcast, which is named Bart Tenders.

Hip and I mean appearance as guests on that show a few weeks back. We also happen to have interviewed the co-host of the Bart Tenders podcast, John Mater, back on episode 165. Make sure you check out the Bart Tenders podcast and Brandon's page on Instagram at liquids and cuffs or check the show notes as always for all the links. Enjoy the show.

Okay, we are back with another episode of the industry podcast. Kip and Dan with you as usual. What is happening? I know much.

Just at a solid weekend of we had a Christmas party from work. Oh, have that go? Well, I remember showing up. We did schedule one of our past guests.

We did a little mushroom catering, so it was great to see her and you know, patronize the local business, which is great because she does a lot for the community. Who does? So that was wonderful. We had a great time.

Everyone absolutely loved the food. A little catering event, a big catering event. They do big and small and do everything in between. Check out a little mushroom catering and lovely kitchen wahoo Cambridge.

Yeah, good plug for Steph. Yeah, and the food is great. Yeah, what about you? Nothing too exciting.

Another week of struggling along with the bars. I was wearing the Christmas season, so that should be good. I actually ended up at Shooter Run after my Christmas party. I had a couple drinks, a couple cocktails.

I'm sure I talked really smart for a while. Perfect. Yes, and then I got home. But how do you go with the bars?

That's my usual question. Yeah, it's fine. Yeah, but December will be good and then we're all crossing our fingers for January and February. So I'm addressing the Cambridge bar.

That one's been a bit of a struggle with them, different plans of attack you've taken their house. The latest switch to lower price points and flat pricing. We actually had our busiest week yet. So over this last weekend, so that is good.

But I don't know. It's still hard to tell. It's a big Christmas bump. It'd be the pricing.

So we will see you keep writing it out. Gotcha. Yeah, if you're in the area and you want to check out one of these bars we've been talking about, Shooter Run is in downtown Kitchener. At Shooter Run Bar on Instagram to check out what's happening there.

Babylon Sisters is up down Waterloo. That's at Babylon Sisters bar on Instagram. And then the Argyle Arms is in Preston, Ontario Cambridge at Argyle underscore arms underscore 2023 on Instagram. So check out all the things that are happening there.

Lots of live music at Argyle. Maybe mixing in some karaoke soon if you guys want to check that out. So yeah, and it's a $6.00 points $5.00 by rail and $15 for everything on the menu. Oh, geez.

Yeah. So we're doing it there. Yeah. Just a little sounds like one big brawl waiting out there anytime Friday night around 1230.

Let's hope that. As for what we do here on the show, if you like what we're doing, you should keep saying subscribe. But I guess we should just say follow is all the new platforms. It's the follow button.

It's the subscribe button. So it's follow. And if you want to drop a rating and a review, that's even better. That helps us have a great deal.

If you'd like to be guest on the show, info at the industrypodcast.club is the email address or you can DM us at the industry podcast on Instagram and then Sakhana at Sakhana.co is the man behind all the artwork on the Instagram platform. We always appreciate him. You should check him out for all your graphic arts needs. And I think that's about all we got to chat about.

Let's bring in our guest Brandon McDonald is joining us here from Florida. He is one of the hosts of the bartenders podcast. We had John Mater on earlier his co-host. We also have a guest on your podcast.

So how are you doing? Not too bad. Enjoying my first day off and like three actual actual weeks between like, you know, podcast stuff, you know, we spent, technically yesterday was a day off, but we spent 12 hours recording content. So it doesn't really feel like a day off.

No. And you know, I was going to make a joke. You know, he said he got to go to a Christmas party. I don't know.

Since I've been in the industry, I've gone to a Christmas party that I wasn't working. That was actually in the month of December. No, yeah. Bartender Christmas is in January.

Or sometimes it's February. That's right. Yeah. So you've been doing this for a long time now.

And where are you? You're in Florida. Are you back in Gainesville or? So I'm in St.

Augustine at the moment. I work with John at the TBC Sawgrass Clubhouse at the golf course in Pawnabee Drow. And I'm kind of just, you know, waiting to see what the next step in life is. The pandemic brought me back to Florida in 2020.

And I've kind of just bounced around a little bit looking for a good fit for me personally, and making sure I can pay my bills. And you know, working with people I enjoy is as important as making a good income. So making sure you enjoy where you're working is as important as enjoying what you're doing. And you were out in Denver before the pandemic.

Is that right? That's correct. It's been about four years out there and, you know, COVID brought us back home. And what?

So talk to us a little bit about we've had a few people who on the show from Denver talk to us about the scene out there. I know they have a death in Coe. What else is going on out there bar wife? So Denver was the first time I worked in a town or city that felt like it was in front of a lot of the country as far as food and beverage went, certainly pre pandemic, you know, they cared more about food and beverage anyplace I've ever worked on.

And it gave me a very jaded perception of how the food and beverage world was because we're so tourist driven for so long. It was cutthroat. It was don't you dare go to those people. You come to me.

Denver was, oh my God, we have a new bar opening up on the block. That's so fucking cool. Let's blow them up. We want this block to be busy.

Go hang it. Go see them. Come see us like we're all one giant community. It's co-opetition.

We're on the same team and we want to all work together to make the community stronger. And that was the first time I ever experienced something like that because like I said, in Florida, everyone's fighting for the same dollar. As Denver had the idea that if you take care of everyone, the money's going to show up. Like you're going to be busy if you provide a quality product.

So whether or not your neighbor is doing good or bad doesn't really affect you, but the better they do, the more likely people are to come see you anyway. That's 100% right. That's the only way we can do this. Like especially now post pandemic where all this whole industry is in the fucking toilet, basically.

Like if we're not supporting each other and supporting a community in an area of a city, we're all fucked. Yeah, 100%. And we all ultimately want the same thing. I mean, everybody wants peace of mind.

They want to enjoy what they do. They want customers to enjoy what they do. So it's not like any one bar or restaurant wants something wildly different from their neighbor. There's no specialty restaurants that need a special set of rules as opposed to the rest of us.

So working against each other is really just cutting off your nose to spite your face and it doesn't make sense for anybody. Yeah. Yeah. And it never seems to amaze me how many people, even in our own community here, don't see that.

And look at other places that open as competition. It's like, why don't you look around and see all the places that are fucking closing down around you and how that's affecting your business? You're looking at it in the exact wrong direction. The more places that are open up down in your community, the better.

If you look at a bar or restaurant that's opening up in your area and you see it as a sign that you're going to go out of business, there's already something fundamentally wrong with your business anyway. That's right. Like a good bar down the street isn't going to bankrupt you unless your business sucks already. That's true.

And then maybe it's good that you have that tool to use it as a reflection point, but like, oh man, this bar is going to offer affordable drinks and a good atmosphere. We're going out of business, then maybe you should go out of business. Maybe there's something wrong with your building. Yeah.

Okay. So that's interesting. The difference between Florida and Denver. Where do you grow up?

I'm an Orlando boy. Orlando. And then you went to Gainesville for school. Correct.

I was in Gainesville for school, graduated with a degree in economics and finance and the worst time to have those two degrees in history. I got to say I graduated in 2009. You were right on the money on that one. And then I refused to move home and I refused to ask my parents for help.

So I couldn't get a job in banks. So I started working at the Dory Night Club and I was a host at a sushi restaurant. And within the next nine months, I was classified as a manager at both of those spots. And I kind of never turned back.

I realized I could monetize my personality. I could chitchat with people and make money. And I was never built to be a nine to five or so, you know, walking in the restaurant at 11 AM and clocking out at 9 or 10 PM was more my lifestyle than, you know, getting up at six to be to work by eight and be home by five. And just that's never worked for me in the first place.

Something we're built for was to be a football player though. And you played football for the University of Florida, which is yeah. Very briefly. Right.

But still it happened. And that's crazy. What does this be? I don't know if we ever talked about that when we were on your show.

I played defensive tackle and tight end. Right. But you were on the same team as I'm in our previous discussion as like Aaron Hernandez and Tim Tebow and like some big name Florida. Yeah.

Those Oh nine gators were I'm sorry, oh five gators. The oh five gators were crazy. I mean that team is probably the five oh six version was not bad. The oh eight version was probably one of the best cultural ball teams to ever take a field against anybody ever.

That whole team was monsters. Brain spikes Percy carbon. Obviously, he was there. I was on that team.

Yeah. The first time was a freshman the same year he's the same age as he goes. Those guys were all incoming freshmen. Oh my God.

So crazy. Yeah. Like it's all like talk to us a little bit about what that school was like to even just attend what it was like. I don't know if you're on the team briefly, but like what was that whole situation like for you and what was the what was the vibe in games or during that time?

What's it? It was crazy. So going into that the team hadn't experienced a ton of success for about 10 years. The last national championship or that was ninety six.

So there was always an expectation of being good. The Gators have always been an above average competitive sporting school in most sports. We don't have a hockey team, but the big three is always, you know, they're always the top one percent of college athletic programs. But when they started doing good, my freshman year, the football team really surprised everyone.

And it kind of took the school by storm. And I mean, it was just parties after parties after parties and professors are giving better curves on finals and everyone is just happier. And then the next year, the basketball team wins. And it is just now it's just a bonanza.

And unfortunately, it creates some sort of expectation of excellence, which is a good thing and it at the same time because like you get to use to winning and you have unreasonable expectations of what it is moving forward. But I remember watching the first basketball championship, I watched with my friends and when the clock hit zero, we were like, amazing. Now we have two national titles. What do we do right now?

And you look out the dorm room window and people are just flocking to University Avenue, which is the main strip to the North side of University campus. And we're like, let's follow those guys. Why not? Like everyone seems to go that way.

Let's go that way. And it was kind of just build your own street party. And people had just run to the streets and everyone's just congregating, but it's not. It wasn't aggressive.

It wasn't destructive. There's no vandalism. They weren't lighting things on fire. It was like a drum circle broke out and like a pet band brought out their instruments and people are just running around high-fiving each other and dancing.

And as the competitions kept going, the gamesville police department was just ready to shut the University down. So the street University Avenue down and it just became a block party every time those things happened. And for the next week or two, it was just a giant celebration because everyone on campus was just stoked to be present. And as it turns out, as a student, I had the, I mean, I was absolutely spoiled rotten.

I had four national championships in four years. It was just the best time to be a student athlete or a fan of college athletics because it was just absolutely just an embarrassment of riches. Nice. And an early era in cell phones.

So that's going to be people recording stuff. And honestly, thank God for that. You know, they talk about people, you know, ruining their lives by recording things on cell phones. And it's like, bro, thank God when I was in high school and by the beginning years of college that these videos were so terrible because they existed now.

Like who knows where we would all be. Yeah, we were very lucky to be well before recorded cell phones during our university days. So I was like, I look back. I think about it now.

Like the poor kids going to school now, like the rest of your life. And it also much like kind of lead to how much tamer experience because people were probably more worried about that shit, right? I mean, you would probably, yeah, I mean, I remember just thinking about the idea of, you know, as I progressed in Gainesville, you know, I was running a nightclub. I remember kicking somebody out and I remember seeing this just like horrifically just terrible ancient flip phone pass through the gate where the guy's trying to take my picture and be like, I'm going to remember you.

You're the one who kicks me out. I just remember thinking like, you're going to like sober up tomorrow and you're going to look at that and you're going to have no clue. Yeah. Who's this dude?

They took a picture of this. This is so weird. Yeah. Why is it that's a weird angle?

I remember the bar on my gate to like flip up and he's just like, I can't imagine what that guy thought the next day when he flipped the response. And it was like, who's this gorilla on my phone? What happened? Like, you know what?

He made his point. He was going to remember my face for being the dude who takes him out. Yeah. I remember that when we're going to the campus pub to a lot of a lot of liquid courage back then with especially with you know, like you know, I mean, it happens at all bars all the time, but specifically normally people tend to grow out of it as you get older, but the 20 year old university college crowd with a couple too many beers on them.

That's the definition of liquid courage. I loved that and it was so annoying at the time, but looking back. So like I was a manager pretty quickly at the club, but I mean, I still had to be a part so the particular night club I worked at, we didn't call security. We called it hospitality.

No, that's nice. Because a dive bar needs a bouncer, but a nice club can get by with hospitality. And I remember being called in numerous times to diffuse situations and like you said, liquid courage, somebody took my face and sometimes they're my size and usually they're on and they're like, oh yeah, you're going to kick me out. I'm like, if you choose that path, that is what's going to happen.

Yeah. And the number of times it's like you and what army and boy, did I love when you asked me like that, because what you didn't realize is like you think that these are all just like fancy lights going off, but that flashlight that you saw maybe briefly, that was an actual signal like that was a goddamn lighthouse. Yeah. And I actually had like I'm 62 to 60.

I'm above average size. I have four actual pieces of farm equipment on their way to pick you up right now. So this conversation we're having is I'm literally stalling. Yeah.

So when you say you and what army, I'm glad you asked me a question because I'm going to think about it for a second. I'm going to say the one behind you and then I turn around and you're going to see 1000 pounds of angry dude and you are no longer in my face. I know it's just never like, and it gets like, if you've never worked in a club or a bar and like you're that guy who's had too much drink and a little liquid courage, you have no clue about that, right? So you're like, yeah, you're all swollen up about like getting in this one guy's face who you probably also can't beat up and let alone him and four of his friends.

But I remember that when you were doing that job, the one thing we had to do security a little bit of my camp square, I worked out. The one thing I was always taught was the best thing you could do is just talk them down. If you can get them out easy and talk them down, that's the best, the best and easiest way you never want to get in a physical confrontation and like the easiest way is still talking them out and reason with them, right? So you'll reason with them right up to the point where you can't do it anymore.

100%. I mean, putting your hands on somebody else is not fun ever. And anybody who says it is a sicko. And you know, those people exist.

And if you enjoy that's totally fine, but that's not. Those people become cops. Yeah. And that's not.

You're not wrong. That's one of the things where like you see the most the conversations get blown out of proportion, arguments get blown out of proportion. And like if you can't talk somebody down once you start physically interacting with someone, you have no idea what's going to happen. That's right.

Yeah. And people go nuts. People like, I mean, I see people get very, very badly hurt over some dumb shit. Like they overcharge me a dollar on my credit card.

And it's like, this isn't, this isn't something that's worth like drawing blood over. But as soon as you put your hands on one of my staff members, you have just forfeited any sort of, you know, compassion, me or anybody working with me has for you. And like talking people down, definitely step one, like, please, like, we're going to talk about this. Unfortunately, I'm going to kick you out right now.

Like I don't ask questions when someone tells me you got to go, you got to go. My job is not to ask questions. My job is to make it happen as quickly as possible. And you know, if you choose to, if you choose the hard path, I have a hard path for you.

Right. But I would rather you pick the easy path because that's better for both of us. And you make a good point about like, when you put your hands on someone? Because the other thing that the other side of that is like, I have seen some like very small dudes who you would not expect to be able to handle themselves, handle themselves in a situation like that.

And then it goes bad for everyone, right? It's like, you think, oh, it's not going to be a big deal. And then, and the other thing I was going to ask you about is like the one thing I always encountered at the campus pub, so I worked out was the buddy, the guy's buddy who's like the fucking lawyer. I love that.

I love that. The number of times. So the club that I worked at, I worked there for the better part of four years. I never saw one of my staff members throw a punch at her.

They were incredibly good. They paid for us to take jujitsu classes. My group of guys could choke you out six ways from Sunday. And that's, you know, you say talking people down to step one, making you go to sleep with step two, because leaving people don't punch you.

And I don't like being punched. I respond very poorly to being punched. And these guys like, we will just carry unconscious people out and like set them on the sidewalk. And exactly right, we have that buddy who's like, this is all on camera and I'm going to sue your ass.

I'm like, well, I have cameras in the building. You're on camera right now. My name is Brandon. This is the address.

See you when I see you. Yeah. I've made you want to ever contact me. Oh, it's always another drunk dude who's the smallest guy in the group, but the yabbies.

And they can explain to you how like he's going to even before you even get them out of the conflict. Does even start as that guy is sometimes in your ear and just being like, No, you don't have the right to kick him out. And here's why. Or here's when you shouldn't be kicking him out.

And here's what's going to happen. If you do, I'm like, Dude, yeah, there's no way you have a law degree. So get the fuck out of me. And it's gotten so much worse.

Like right before I left Jamesville, I remember throwing somebody out and they're like, you just made the biggest mistake of your life. I'm in the law fraternity, whatever the fuck out was. And you just impeded our right to the blah blah blah blah. I'm like, bro, if you know anything about the law, you know, first and foremost, I have the right to refuse service to any person for any reason, zero questions asked.

And as soon as I ask you to leave, and you say no, now you're trespassing. And now I can remove you. And if you wanna argue with that point, there's actually a police officer one block away, because there always was in Gainesville, and I'll call him over here myself. I've got a cell phone number, I'll call him for you.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that seems to be one like universal sort of law when it comes to bars and restaurants or retail or wherever, all over the world where it's like, no, we don't have to serve anyone. And some people, like I don't know how it became this sort of idea where the customer got this notion that it's like, oh no, you can't refuse me service. I'm like, this is a private business. I can refuse anyone at any point, like for any reason.

Yeah, but hey, unfortunately in the world today, I can pick any reason, but I'm actually the legally incentivized not to tell you the reason. Right, right, yeah. Because then you can use my words against me and that's the shit. You know, why I kick me out, I'm like, because I am.

And like if I explain to you why, I unfortunately am opening myself up to the biggest actions, but if I just say, no, leave, you can't do shit about that because this is my prerogative as a business operator. Yeah, it's not back to like the thing with your parents where it's like, why can't I do that? Because I said so. Because I said so.

Like when you run out of arguments, it's like, that's just because I said so, that's why. And I hate that that's legally the most sound thing you can do. Like if I say literally anything about you, that can be used out of context and quote it all. But I'm just saying because I said so, that's bulletproof.

It must be so hard to do that job now with all that bullshit, with all the bullshit that people are doing with now. I'm so glad that I'm not doing the business on that side anymore. I'm through you as well. But yeah, like so now you're working at the golf course, a little different crowd than the nightclub in Gainesville, I'm sure.

More often than not, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There's some similarities, but more a lot more differences, they're for sure.

The drunk guys aren't as intimidating at the golf course. Well, unfortunately when the guys at the golf course say that they have the best lawyers money can be. No, they might. Yeah.

Yeah. And it's one of those things where like I luckily because Sawgrass is such a prestigious building, you know, as I mean, I'm a part-time bartender right now. You know, they coined the term, Barcenery after 2020. Go where the money's best.

Go what's the best fit for you. I'm a slinger right now. Like I'm looking for the next step professionally, but like right now, I just go there and I put liquids and cups and I make people happy. Yeah.

So if I have an issue with someone, there are layers upon layers of management and security that I can go to. And you know, there's a police department less than a mile away down from the course to where I don't have to do that. But it's also so interesting because, you know, you never know who's at the bar or who's at the table around the bar because that is such an iconic building and it's such a bucket list location for so many people. I have wandered in and sat down a bar, like, you know, clocked in, got into the service well, and this gentleman has been at the bar already.

And I'm shitting with him. And I come to find out like this is an actual certified can look you up in Forbes billionaire. Right. And he just wanted a chicken sandwich and a Michel Dred draft and to watch TV while his wife was doing something and just like, bro, what are you like in your brain?

You're like, what is this guy doing? And you know, you're just talking shopping, you know, you overhear conversations about a context that makes sense. And then you realize that that guy is meeting with the, you know, president of an actual NFL team and you're hearing names like Robert and Jerry. And you realize he's talking about like the owners of the Patriots or the Cowboys.

Right. And he's name dropping like a fucking savage. And you can't put it in a context because he doesn't have to use last names because everyone at the table knows who he's talking about. Right.

And yeah, kicking people out in that building is a little bit scary for me. But I've seen, I've been a part of it one time and it was because I'm going to put their hands on an employee. And at that point, there's just no question like you, you touch a server. You're getting carried out of the building.

I don't care how much money you have, right? No, because you're on camera, bro. So in that scenario, obviously, I wouldn't expect you nor do I want you to name names or anything like that. What is the like?

It was Jerry Jones. It's not good. No one can see other podcasts. Oh, two questions like, first of all, like you've obviously run into like just as you were describing some power players who were like totally polite and nice.

And you've probably run into some, not so much. What is the, so let me defray it this way if you can think of it. If you, what is like kind of the doucheous thing someone's ever said to you at that? Oh, directly to me.

Or over. Oh, yeah. Well, that changes things a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. It kind of, you know, you hear people talking and especially when they get a future and when they start talking business and it's when business people start flexing that they kind of become the doucheous. And when they when they start dropping sums of money and acting like this isn't a relevant sum, that's when you just seem like a giant asshole. Especially in his economy, when everyone's struggling so much, like that must be really hard to listen to sometimes.

Yeah. When, so when you run up a like a four hundred five hundred dollar bill, which to most people, that's a lot for two people running out to like just grab dinner. And when you say, you know, it's not even a thousand dollars. It doesn't matter what credit card I'm using.

And they just like literally toss a card at you and they go back to talking about, you know, you know, you know, this is just a one hundred and fifty million dollar arrangement. You know, that's not, I mean, this is chump change sort of thing. Like, exactly read the room. You're working for a bunch of like you are in a room with a bunch of people who are working for less than eight dollars an hour, living off of your tips and your whether or not you meant what you said or you even like read the room.

You're you're not understanding the context of the situation. And like, don't be a dickhole. Like if you want to talk like that, be like, have a private meeting with someone. Right.

Don't like, yeah, wherever you don't. If a bartender can hear you, everyone can hear you. Yeah. And they're doing that on purpose, obviously.

I always wonder like for some of those people, are they like, like just kind of insecure assholes who are trying to make a point loudly so people can understand how important or how much money they have or some of them are they still out of touch with like what the rest of the world is struggling through that they don't even realize they're being dicks sometimes, you know. And honestly, the sometimes look from Colin Ailow, yeah, yeah, for sure. That's pretty, you've done a lot of different jobs there. Like from running like a club in Gainesville and fucking party town, you, you're University of Florida area to like working at this golf course.

Like, what is, do you have like a favorite salad service or job that you've done? Yeah. You know, I've thought about that a little bit. If I got to choose, if I had to be behind a bar where I wanted to be, and a shout out, this bar still exists, this bar made it through the pandemic.

There's a little spot in Denver, Colorado called the Taterian. It's a little, you know, at the bar, you've probably got 20 seats seated in the building. You've got another 20 seats on a super busy night with Standing Room. You've got maybe 50 people total in the building, two wells, four bartenders, intimate service.

You don't have food, we're here to make drinks for you. This bar made sense. If you were dressed up celebrating, this made sense. If you were just hanging out and you were in short in a t-shirt and you just wanted to come in and grab a quick drink, this bar made sense.

It was accommodating to everyone. It was a building that really fought against the idea of pretentious bartenders and bartenders being super elevated at a time where the speakeasies and the super exclusive bars were at their peak. And it was just, I could make a blue blazer or a Ramos for you and take three or four minutes to really make you a cocktail and everybody was chill. Or you and your buddies came in and ordered seven old fashions and I could crank those out for you in 45 seconds and everybody was still happy.

And a bar where I can make your drinks for you, I can make you a good drink with quality ingredients and have a conversation with you and build that back and forth for poor. That's what hospitality is for me. Like those people want to come back and talk to you because you made me feel good, because you listened. You told me what the difference between bourbon and rye was.

You explained why you shake certain drinks or stir other ones. And the drinks are so good. Like I wasn't having to cut corners for cost purposes. So a bar like that is where I find myself most at home.

Yeah, that's it. It sounds like a perfect bar. I learned so much working a lot like that. I love that.

I love that salad bar where it's like anyone you can be wearing, like you said, wearing a suit or wearing shorts and like you could want like a great cocktail. You maybe just want a beer. Like those are the places I love the best. Like, yeah, that's a good answer.

So okay, before we let's talk about the bartender's podcast a little bit because you were nice enough to have us on your show. So tell us explain the concept of it. Obviously we had John earlier, so he just went a little bit, but yeah, get into it. So basically it was kind of a John as a master of the dad joke and also of not John takes notes about shit that you wouldn't expect them to.

And bartenders really came from a place of coping with trauma. John and I both basically got kicked out of Denver during the pandemic because we couldn't afford to live there anymore. Denver truly handled pandemic protocols terribly. There was a bunch of half measures and it really the people on the front lines of the service industry suffered the worst in that area.

Maybe also medical staffing, but it was bad and we had to leave. And one of the ways we coped with that was we were playing games and you know, we had never played Dungeons and Dragons before, but it was a social game where you can kind of get that like the bartenders always put on a mask. Like when you're behind a bar, you have a persona and it's not your real persona. That's your professional persona.

So the idea of playing D&D and slightly altering who you are to accomplish a goal is not unlike what we do for a living. So we started playing a game with one of our bar backs and he makes the joke, but we can be barred tenders and makes this terrible pun and John's taking notes and we kill an entire bottle of whiskey. I mean, I remember it was Midwinter's dram. It was a high West bottle and we killed it in a night and we're making terrible fucking nerdy jokes and playing more games and just hanging out.

And John took notes and he turned it into a pitch deck and he got us a couple of bucks from a liquor company to give it a shot. And you know, we're working on, you know, what we have been operating for two years in April and we get to record ourselves playing games and just being goons. And the other half of our show is bringing in people like you who are either in our industry or do something really cool and we want to chit chat with you and we want to be a platform for people to get messages out and explain what we do for a living and just see the other side of what we do. Because if you've only ever been a guest at our restaurant, you don't know what the industry is like and we get to let people, you know, shine their lights and, you know, talk their talk and it's just a platform for people to be themselves.

And it's been an outlet for us and it's done far more positive things than I anticipated it to and it continues to surprise me by, you know, people reaching out and letting us do cool things like be on your show. Yeah. Well, and vice versa. And I would just like to say like that meeting people like you guys has been like one of the best things about us doing this show as well.

It's like you meet all these people from all over the world who are kind of doing the same shit as you going through the same shit as you. And like, I don't like I always wonder maybe only people who work in the service industry listen to this fucking show. I don't know. But maybe there's maybe there's people who don't and then they get a little insight into what the people who work in the service industry actually are like and are going through when they're not just putting on their like D&D mask behind the bar for you, right?

Yeah, exactly. I deep down I hope that podcasts like yours and ours can reach an audience that isn't just intimately familiar with what we do because the point is kind of to share a message. And like you said, it's easy to relate. Like you guys can relate to a lot of my stories because you get it.

You live that life. Like, I mean, it's called trauma bonding. Like you and I can understand the difficulties of working in university pub bars because it's the same. It doesn't matter where you are.

It sucks. They're grimy. They're gross. People are assholes.

So like if you like hopefully these 40, 40 pre-law students can listen to this and understand that you're being a dickbag and maybe, you know, change your ways a little bit. But obviously, you know, the message isn't just for industry people. The message is for everybody. So hopefully you and I both get more than just industry people listening to us.

I hope so because like it sometimes you like it sounds terrible. We almost need to humanize the people in the fucking industry. So people who come into bars and restaurants realize you're actually dealing with a human being, not just someone who's there to serve you. And I assure you, there are very few places that need that message more than a place like Florida.

When I tell you that it was the culture shock of 2020 moving from Denver, Colorado to St. Augustine, Florida in October of 2020, one month before the election. Let me tell you that that was the biggest red to blue culture shock bullshit I have ever been through in my entire life. Yeah, I can imagine that's crazy.

It is crazy. Yeah. I mean, we could do a whole other podcast about that. Well, good luck to you down there.

Let's cross our fingers for the election. It's about to come for a week. It is on the way actually. Yeah, it is.

I didn't even think about that. It's fucking white knuckle time down there. It's like that. It's like that's like you, Brandon.

Thanks so much for doing this. It was great to talk to you again. And that's like, figure out what you're going to fucking do down there. You know, you're going to do well.

And like, I know it's a mercenary situation right now, but you will find the spot because you give a fuck. So, yeah, of course, man, and then look with the podcast. I had a John for us and thanks for doing this. Yeah, absolutely.

Thank you for having me guys. Thanks a ton.