Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Yeah, you have to start.
[00:00:02] Speaker A: Gotta cross your arms. We gotta mimic each other. There you go. Yeah, look fake happy. There we go.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: I know that way. I know that phase. Do we have a theme song?
[00:00:14] Speaker A: We do have a jingle.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: We need. We need a theme song.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: So I actually have a giggle that it.
I need to get back with him.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: Yeah, somebody created one.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Oh, we definitely need it.
[00:00:24] Speaker C: Totally unprompted.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, we should. That's amazing. We should absolutely have an opening song. Yeah, let's do it.
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Let's go. So Shit yeah.
We are. And the shit yeah Show. We are back. We have thawed out and we are excited. It is January, the end of January. And I'm really excited to be back in studio. I think it's been a couple weeks since we've been. And today we've got Tony Ederton.
Really, really excited to have him here and share his story. It's gonna be a part one, part two. So we're not gonna be able to fit everything that Tony has to offer in a 26 minutes. Not gonna be able to do that. And as usual, Dalia's gonna keep me on track so we don't get too out there. But because of that and because of what Tony brings to the table, you know, we're gonna split it up. So as everybody knows, the yeah show, if you. If you've listened before, talk really about three things.
See the yeahs crossed out. And so we talk about what sucks about the restaurant business. I love the restaurant business. I hate the restaurant business.
I'll reiterate that again on. On the. On the show. But we're gonna talk about what sucks, and then we're talking about what we love about it. So what makes us say shit yeah. And then lastly, what we're doing and what you're doing and what you've been doing in your career to make the restaurant business better. I think that's it. I think in everything we do, we're supposed to be good stewards of. Of it. And I think, as the boy scouts say, leave the campsite better than we found it. Right. Restaurants usually don't usually do that, especially on night shift.
[00:02:04] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: So we're talking about that.
[00:02:05] Speaker B: So I say got after the night shift there a little bit.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: I took pride in that.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: You did.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: When you were like the last one closing at like 2:30 in the morning, I was like, why is Dahlia still there?
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Because you were there when I was.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: Yeah. Because everything was immaculate. That's why I was there so late.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, very good.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: So Tony Yeah. Awesome to have you. Yeah. Thank you. And, yeah, you know, I think for this first episode, I love to talk about how you know our guests and how you get into this business. And you're more on the bar side of things, for sure. You're now, as of officially today, day one, our vice president of beverage operations. So a huge role. It's showing our commitment to our bar program in Zunza Bar. And you've been doing amazing things in your career, especially since COVID when God brought you to our business, which was awesome. And you always wonder why people come into your life. And now it's very clear. It's come full circle. But, yeah, I'd love to kind of get your. Your wiki bio, as they say.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Of. Of what you've done in the restaurant business, your. Your life, you know, how you grew up and all that stuff.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Yeah. So, as you know, it's a common story that you hear when you. You're young and you. I was an actor, and I just graduated college, and I told my parents, hey, I'm moving to New York. And they didn't believe me. And then two weeks before, like, I graduated, and two weeks before I was moving, I was like, all right, it's time to go. And they were like, wait, you're serious? And that speaks a lot to just kind of me as a person, too. I've always been the person who sets my mind on a goal, and then it's just what it is. It's what's going to happen, and I'll figure out the way to make that happen. Right. So I moved to New York, young guy, and obviously you have to pay bills, so bartending was something I dabbled in in Michigan and then moved into the city and jumped into the W hotel bar. We called it the Fishbowl. It was on 46th and Broadway, all glass front. So everyone who's walking by just stops and looks in and they see the bartender right there making cocktails. And that bar was always packed. And, you know, of course, as a young new to New York, you walk into Times Square and you say, I want to work here. So, you know, I jumped into the madness. Absolute madness.
And honestly, I always say, right place, right time. I was very fortunate. This was in the 2007 era, and I was young, but I was surrounded by true pros. Right. So the beverage director at the time, he noticed my passion just in general, as an artist, as a creator. I was always creating new cocktails for people, taking random ingredients and putting them in a glass and he said to me, you know, you have a, you have a passion for this. I see it. Do you want to learn how to do it the right way? Really do it? And I said, absolutely. He said, all right, well, if you're available on the weekends, come meet me at my place in Brooklyn. I do like a class. And this is early days before the cocktail community had really made a huge resurgence. And I didn't know it at the time, but I was going over to his place and sitting in a room with absolute giants of the industry. So they're all calling each other, looking up history books, digging out old cocktails from the 1800s and bringing them back to New York City at the time and creating this new modern era of cocktails with all fresh ingredients and all of these stuff that's kind of got lost over the years.
So I was a fly on that wall and it was incredible. I quickly became head bartender of that program and then kind of the, the beverage director was like, I'm going to pass you off to, you know, some of these other really high end cocktail bars so you can focus on that passion and that learning and that, that sprung me forward into a series of other bars that were all smaller, intimate neighborhood, 4050 seats. You could really dive into the technical stuff. And I did that for many years and then pulled a switch. And I was at a cocktail bar. I was making maybe $200 a night right in New York City. So it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't amazing for New York.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: At that time you were also. I was still acting full time theater, full acting.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: At the same time, I'm doing national tours, I'm bouncing back and forth, wildly busy. So on that side of things, I was still doing tours, doing shows, taking two and three months to go do a contract, coming back in, setting up a new bar program, jumping back out like constantly.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: And so then in that era, I, a buddy of mine was like, I'm working at this bar downtown in Soho and I'm making $750,000 a night cash.
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Wow. Okay.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: And so like we're talking the, the 201112 era of like a nightclub scene in Soho, New York. So as busy as you can imagine. Ten deep, six hours straight, three bartenders, doing 20 some thousand dollars in sales. Like it was pretty intense. But I would only work Friday night, Saturday night, Monday night, and in that time was making insane amount of money. But I called it the golden handcuffs because it flipped my whole world upside down. I was working till 5, 6 in the morning. I You know, wasn't able to go to auditions as much for that whole year because you're not fresh. You can't get up at 6am if you were. If you go to sleep at 4. So it really took me the complete opposite end of the spectrum. And I then one day woke up and just said, I cannot do this. That's not.
It's gonna derail me from my.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Plus the tail wagging the dog. It's like you've got this incredible opportunity, but your passion is theater, and that's the whole reason you were there. And love the story and how it went there. So one of my favorite things about the restaurant business is that it brings people in that are passionate about other things besides the restaurant business. Right. So a lot of times it's their passion doesn't pay all the bills, whether it's an artist, whether you're in school, whatever it is. But that business, it's somewhat transient for a lot of people. And I say people work, you know, for, you know, for various reasons. Right. But if it's to kind of close that gap, then there's that opportunity. And that's why I think it touches so many people, because so many people have had to close the gap. The gap with that. Yeah. So, you know, in Manhattan, that story probably is not new of people coming in and bartending, and there was probably like a culture of that.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:58] Speaker A: Would you.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. A lot of friends who had similar journeys in terms of, you know, doing the bartending on the side while pursuing the acting career. That's all been, you know, tale as old as time, as they say. Right.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: So. So with that, though, you know, one of my favorite things is, you know, bring the, you know, the. The right people at the right place at the right time. So it sounds like you were just at the right place at the right time with the people that you were going into a guy's house and. And then getting that training. Not everybody gets that opportunity. Right. And so some stars were aligning there, and so from that opportunity, you know, where did that, you know, what impact do you think that made in your overall career?
[00:09:37] Speaker B: So I think that ultimately I'm a curious person, and I think that oddly enough, not knowing what I was even experiencing fully at the time, I chose to leave even that to go into a nightclub world, which in a lot of respects, in terms of technique and different things, is steps backwards. But I did it for the money. Right. So at that time, I sacrificed maybe some passion to try to make some money that only lasted for about a year. And then I wasn't happy. So once happiness left, thankfully, I could look at myself, assess the situation, and say, I can't do this.
Oddly enough for me. And what I found is as I grew as a bartender, I was also growing as an actor, and they were working hand in hand, so. So they really kind of grew at a very similar rate, which makes things very interesting and difficult. But, you know, I'd have to turn down a show or turn down a tour because I was an opportunity to open a new bar. So once I left the. The club downtown, I opened with those same owners, their Upper east side location, which was a nice restaurant called the East Pole on the Upper east side of New York. And, you know, got to design the beverage program, got to put cocktails on the menu and do all of that business.
That started to open my eyes to the business of bars and the business of doing more than just creating the drinks, right, Running the program, setting the pricing, setting the margins, things like that. That's what led me to the next step, which, one and a half, two years later, I was approached to reopen the Rainbow Room. So iconic New York City, rainbow room.
Dale DeGroff, obviously a legend in our industry, was the initial runner and operator of the Rainbow Room. They were reopening in 2015.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: And so that's Top of the Rock, right?
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah, it's the 65th floor of Rockefeller Center. So you're literally on top of New York. And 360 degree glass up there. It was insane.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: I was up there twice.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: It's pretty cool. And. And, you know, got the opportunity to be on that opening team and design a lot of the cocktails for the menu and. And work with legends like Dale and. And.
And sure enough, another year down the road. My good friend from just being around and in the business is Frank Kayafa, who wrote the Waldorf Astoria cocktail book.
He's a legend as well, ran peacock alley for 10 years. And I had an opportunity to open the first restaurant in the Waldorf in 30 years in Lachine. And then the Waldorf closed for renovation. So, as you see, like, all of these little steps and decisions, it's like I went to the Rainbow Room. I was sitting there literally on top of the Rock, and I thought, well, there's nowhere to go from here. And then the Waldorf shows up, and I'm like, this might be the only opportunity I can think of that would be like, oh, okay, I'm gonna leave this job for that. But all of those little things along the way, right place, right time. Right. I had no control over that. That was some higher power that was taking me on that journey. I mean, after Waldorf, I stopped working anywhere, opened a consulting company, focused on acting for four years straight, Was paying all my bills, doing nothing but acting and consulting. And I thought, oh, I've made it. You know, as an actor.
That's the dream, Right? You don't. You don't have to have outside jobs. You don't have to do anything but what you're passionate about. So I was taking on new programs and designing them for people and then training their teams. And then I was acting in all the shows that I want to do on the side. And at that time, I was doing Sweeney Todd and the Beast and Beauty and the Beast for 300 performances and touring around international tours and. And then Covid, and then Wham. So. So then the world shut down, right?
[00:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah. So especially up there. Oh, yeah, that was. That was.
[00:13:37] Speaker B: It was seriously.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: Oh, we threw a party.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Well, I mean, it took a week or two that it was serious. And that just meant you could walk down the middle of the street, they said, with a cocktail in hand.
[00:13:50] Speaker C: They're making us put our chairs outside, everybody. We'll be fine.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: It was pretty wild. I was actually at the Broward center in Florida when the shutdown came. We were in the.
Literally mid running the show. We were doing ragtime and beautiful show, and the producers all walked in, and we knew the whole cast was like, oh, no. And they had to, because Broadway shut down, and all the union and the actors that were in the show, they had to pull us out because union rules. So that shut us down.
Luckily, I flew, so I had a choice. I had to get out of there because the airports were closing, which was wild. And I flew to Michigan, right? Because I was like, oh, I better see my family. I don't know what's happening. I flew to Michigan and got stuck there for three months because New York airport shut down. All of Michigan shut down. They went on a full shutdown as well. And I was with. I lived with my brother for three months during COVID and honestly, one of the best times I've ever had. I got to spend. I got to spend some amazing time with my knees. Like, it was crazy.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: Such a terrible time for so many people and so many things. And it was. There was so much just chaos, disruption.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Destruction, loss of life. Like a terrible, terrible stuff. But there's also, I think, Covid, you know, it allowed, at least for myself to, like, slow things down and think about life differently. And you know what? You know, I'm a big believer that every problem is a gift if you can find the good in it. I believe there is good in everything. Right. Plant a seed for a future opportunity. For us, it was Zunzabar.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: At the exact same time Covid was happening, we lost our lease at our original location that had been there since 05. Little hole in a wall York street. And there was nothing we could do with the landlord. He wanted that UPS store to take our spot. We were too busy. And now we can ship our sauce out of that UPS store. And it's weird. Every time I go back, I'm like, you know, it still smells the same, but you. But for us, it was Dunzabar, and Covid actually ended up bringing you down here.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: So that's where it gets really interesting is I come down here during COVID everything was shut down, and that's when I was lucky enough to get introduced to Dunzabar and Chris here and the whole team and was there for a good six, seven, eight months in the beginning. But Chris and I sat. We sat down to early days, and we had conversations about. I think I said. I think I quote, I said, I'm not the guy who's gonna stay here on the deck running this location just because of, like, my life and past and experiences and how everything had been moving and all of those different little things.
I'm such a forward movement guy. And so it felt like, especially coming out of New York in here, it just felt so stagnant for me, and it was driving me almost insane. You know what I mean? Because I just couldn't. Right, right. And that's just a place in life that you find yourself. And it was a really interesting time because, like you said, it forces you to slow down. I had to figure that out from a time when, as you can tell from my story, I wasn't slowing down very often. So in that way, it was a gift.
But also then I knew ultimately that there was still more that I had to do.
And when the city opened back up, well, I went. I went over to the Gray for a little bit. I can't skip to the Gray, because I love it. I love the restaurant. I love the people.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Let's backtrack a little bit. So when you came on board, you had friends that. That had. Had other restaurants. That's how we got introduced. And. And so, you know, they had. They had said, hey, you know, let's put you in this spot to launch the bar program. Yeah, I had no bar experience. So it was, you know, you were a huge part of that. There was so conversation of where this can go. And from my perspective, I just wanted to have a concept that I could be really enjoying a quality of life as I was going to have a family and do that to where, as we were expanding, I could open beach bar locations. I've said it many times, you know, with five Guys franchises, you're just going to be opening at Target or a Walmart shopping center that will someday be a Big Lots.
And then you are the anchor of the Big Lots shopping center. And it's not that exciting. And so I think it's Big Lots or five Guys, amazing companies that are doing great things, things. But I would rather travel to beach destinations, places that people are just really going to have a good time and really create that. And that was always, always the goal from the beginning. I remember even our logo where it has the cocktail and has the umbrella in the cocktail. And it's to remind you to celebrate your life, right? And, you know, we've got the rainbow umbrella and it's the eight areas of your life. And I think that's. That's one of the things that you're big on is balance, is these, you know, your life, you've got your, you know, your body, your mind, relationships, time, career, finances, sense of giving and celebrating life, spiritual life, purpose. That gets heavy, right? But the restaurant business disrupts that a lot. And even in your story that you just shared of how you had your passion in the theater business and then going in the nightclub side, right, that nightlife, that could vary if you weren't disciplined on it and you had the money, it gets derailed. And it's like, why am I here in regards to it? And, you know, a lot of people get stuck in this business, right? And time pass, it's like, oh, now I don't have a choice. I miss my passion, whatever it is. They kind of get lost in the sauce, as they say, right? And one of our values is be a pro, right? And I think that's one of the things that you've been working with, with Kev. And I said, oh, man, Tony's our guy. I gotta get you with Tony from that perspective. Just because we had worked together and we saw things so much, so much alignment from that perspective. And so, you know, you just. I think working with pros was a huge part of that. I've seen the business from all different angles. And so I guess, you know, the gray to come back to that. Just kind of to give that background of there and then the Gray while you were in Savannah during that stint and then where you went after for a few years.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: Yeah. So the. The interesting. So there was a. One of like, I always have, like, pins. I think of it like a. Like a board of your life. And there's always pinpoints that stick out. And there's things that you remember and within the Gray's experience. Wonderful people, they are very much pros. They treat it as such. They take great care in their restaurant. They, you know, want to give the best for their people. So there's. There was that being around them was awesome. And I met some really wonderful people who were still friends today. And. But there was a moment when I was. I was in the diner bar. Mainly I was running the front room bar. And it was just me. Most nights during COVID I was just running the room with one other person serving tables. Shout out to Asar. And. And we ran that room and we broke all the sales records in gray time that it had been around.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Because.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:52] Speaker B: And here's the thing. No one knew why everyone was always asking me, why are you doing this? What are you trying to get out of this? And I always said, absolutely nothing. I'm not trying to get anything out of it. I'm doing it because I always try to do things to the best of my ability. And so this room was allowing me to do that, and I was doing that Right. So I wanted people to have a good time. I was spinning records. I would get out from behind the bar. I would stop making drinks, set them down, say, wait, guys, I gotta flip the record. Step over there and talk to the whole room at once. You know, creating that environment of. Of that shit. Yeah. Experience of being like, I just had so much fun at the diner bar. And we had a great meal, and we had great cocktails, and we listened to killer music and just enjoyed ourselves. Right. So I'm. I. That's the driving force for me, regardless of where I'm at. And I've always had that passion. So then New York opened back up, and I had an opportunity, was called up by a friend who was reopening a hotel in midtown Manhattan, actually, to backtrack to that nightclub. When I went uptown and did the one on the Upper east side, his name was Peter. He was the GM of that. He then went on to open this hotel, calls me back up, says, tony's the guy you need. And that's what landed me at apici. So I just spent the last, basically two, two and a half years as the National Beverage Director of Apici hospitality. We had 28 bars that I oversaw nationwide. And that's everything ground up from, you know, design of concept, execution, financial structure, inventory structure, all of the above. So really, really learned, had some incredible mentors in that in the two year time span and really learned the ins and outs of running a business from every aspect and looking at it and looking at systems. And the other side of that coin, which we've already touched on here, is that life quality. Right. You start running yourself for two years, I mean, you spend 75% of the year on the road. You're sleeping in hotels all the time. You're, you're, which are beautiful hotels. I mean I was, I was very, don't get me wrong, it was a.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Great, great bar program, by the way.
[00:23:10] Speaker B: Beautiful, beautiful bar programs that like that and beautiful hotels to sleep in. And it was wonderful. And it was in a, I would never trade it. It was a great experience. And you know, there just got to a time where it was like when, when Chris reached back out and we were talking and we'd always stayed in contact though, we would always have little messages passing back and forth just like, hey, hope you're doing well. Just saw this looks killer, awesome, keep it up. And so then it just started to make sense and he reached back out and I was like, man, this, there's a lot about it, like you said, about just being able to open up great bars, great restaurants for the people in beach towns where everyone's having a good time. And, and that is so appealing. So, so there's, there's that and then there's also just the culture of this company is incredible. And I, you know, something we touch on, we've touched on briefly, but it's, it's definitely, you know, the restaurant industry sucks and they're doing different things to change it. Right.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: You know, we are and I think what we're doing is we're really focused on getting great talent.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: You know, I think this is a people business and my role is to serve our six stakeholders with that and getting people that are like minded, that have seen great companies operate because it's very easy in the restaurant business to just say, hey, what sucks about the restaurant business? But what have you seen really, really done well, you know, you've worked with some incredible companies that, you know, probably suck less working at those places than others. Right. Cause there is the bell curve that there are businesses that do it extremely well. And I think they, you know, they're pros. They look at the restaurant business not just as the storefront business but front end, back end. They're covering all the bases and they understand, you know, how it all works together. It's not just a passion project to have great cocktails. Yeah, right. That, that usually is, you know, ends up killing somebody unfortunately in this business where it's all the front end and you know, that's, that's the rough side of it. So I just got the, the one minute countdown.
There you go. Our 26 minute rule.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: It's only for part one.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Really cool to hear your story and getting to this point. You know, I think in part two to give a little teaser. We'll talk about what, you know, what sucks, you know, about the restaurant, mainly the bar business. We're going really heavy in Zoonza bar. So we'll talk about that. We've got the expansion of the downtown, our flagship first Savannah Zuns of our locations. We'll talk about that expansion that we have. One of the big reasons you're a big growth guy personally and professionally. So what we have going in there and then you know what sucks about the restaurant business, what you love about it, what we're going to do to change it, we are doing to change it. And also the direction of what's happening in the bar business and the cocktail and there's so much coming as profiles change.
Go ahead and put it out there. I think it was the surgeon general just said that one glass of alcohol causes cancer or something. Right. So we're going to the bar business and that's now announced. So you know, there's still an opportunity to make everybody say shit. Yeah, without it killing you.
And so we're gonna talk a little bit about that and we're doing differently. We are always, you know, if the herd's going that way, we're going to look the other way and see, see what we can do to make our stakeholders say shit. Yeah. So stick around, come back for part two.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: Awesome.
