Are Food Critics Still Vogue? Hear From Peter Dills...A Legacy.

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You open a restaurant because you know how to make a steak, but

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you've got to feed the masses to eat with the classes.

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Feed the masses to eat with the classes. So you have to

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give. As a restaurant owner, you have to give the people what they

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want, not what you want to make.

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It's Wine Talks with Paul K.

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Hey, welcome to Wine Talks with Paul Kay. And we are in studio today

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about to have a great conversation with famed Peter Dill's

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food critic and wine critic as well. Introductions in just a

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minute. Great day today here in Southern California, and I want to

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alert you to a new show that I'm starting, the new. The first episode comes

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out next week, and that is called Song of America,

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which is the title of a book written by George Mardiqui and famed restaurateur

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from San Francisco in the 50s, and he brought

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250,000 refugees to America. And he wrote a book. It's

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incredible. I stole the name with the. With

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at the pleasure of his son. So we're going to release stories of

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immigration to America that are successful, whether it's financial, social, political, or

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whatever. And the first one is about the Agogenian family and their

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racing history, including Indianapolis 500 and local racing, but not

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why we're here. Well, there's plenty of those guys still around.

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Yeah, it's a huge family. We talked about that. Every time

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I. Well, I'll run into somebody Agonian. Well, no, that's

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the third cousin over. We did this, but, you know. Yeah,

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yeah. So welcome to the show, Peter. Thank you. This is host of

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Dining With Dill's. Yeah. Peter Dills and the podcast Peter

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Dills, which I'm gonna go right into that. Because, you know, growing up,

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your dad Elmer was one of the famed

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food critics, not only California, but the country. No. Yeah. Well,

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you know, I call him the OG the OG restaurant.

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Restaurant critics in the 70s and 80s, when he was doing

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restaurant critics critiques, there was no. He was the only game in

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town. There was a woman named Lo Dwan. She wrote for the LA Times,

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went on to the New York Times. Very famous restaurant

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critic. There was hilly rose from KFI in the

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70s and. But there was

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KFI. KFI 640. Hilly rose in the

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70s, and then Lois Dwan, and then my dad, Elmer

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Dills. Merrill Schindler came around. Merrill Schindler. They were kind of.

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Were they close? So Mer. Yeah. Meryl and my dad were

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friends. Adversaries at some times. But when my dad was on

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KBC radio Meryl would come and be the guest

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host. So basically when my dad was on vacation, Meryl got his

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start from doing that. From doing that. And you

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know what Meryl Schindler's claim to fame is?

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He was the writer for the Casey Kaysen Top 40. I

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did not know that. Yeah. Wow. That was one of my favorite shows with Casey

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Kane. That's what Meryl did back in the 80s and 90s. He was actually a

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producer of Casey Kaysen's Top 40. You know, so let me

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this play with that a little bit because Jonathan

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Gold passed away a couple years ago and he was, you know, well known. LA

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Times, but more mostly digital. Is that

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part of food culture in America? An active part

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of the critic part? Do we still. Do we, do we still hang our hat

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on that? I know you do a lot of it. I just wonder what the

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popularity. Because your dad was so popular and Meryl Schindler was well known

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and people sought that opinion. But I'm wondering what the digital world, if some of

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that's changed at all. It's a lot. There's probably a thousand people,

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ten thousand people out there with a phone and think they can just walk into

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a restaurant and be a critic just because they have a

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phone. It's interesting you brought that up. I was talking to

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a student at Cal State Fullerton this morning, the Titans over there

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on 57 Freeway. And he's into journalism and

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wants to learn more. And he brought it up to me and he

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said, how do you, as a man my age, how

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do you relate to people my age? And I said, well,

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there's a lot of history involved. So at my age, Paul,

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if I go in and talk about a burrito at a certain restaurant, hopefully

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I can add a little flavor of the history of a burrito. Where did the

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burrito come from? What makes a burrito great or a steak or a Caesar

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salad? So to answer your question, yeah, the digital age has

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definitely taken over and there's a lot of competition. But I think

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for me and people that are. We mentioned Merill.

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Merill's still around. He does a podcast. Oh, does he? I didn't know. Yeah. So

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I think that you just have to. I, I use the word og. I

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think you just have to be that guy that's an expert and not

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worry that there's a thousand other kids, you know, with

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a phone saying, hey, this sucks. Or these fries are. Yeah, whatever. Do

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people recognize your name and still say, hey,

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you related to Elmer? Yeah, yeah, I am.

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When talked about the radio show, KRLA, Sundays at

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5, they do a whole thing. A 30 second

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introduction of Peter Dills has taken over for. Well, I don't know if

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I taken over for Elmer Dills, but no, I don't

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go into a restaurant or a scene or

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some situation and say, hey, I'm Peter Dills. You know, you might

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remember my dad, Elmer Dills. A lot of people do that. Hey, you might

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remember his dad. But it's not that I feel uncomfortable

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with that. I just don't. I don't know if I need to do that. I

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just keep the energy. I mean, look, there's. There's

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you and your dad, right? 75. Yeah. A little while ago.

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Well, we certainly as. As sort of descendants of,

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of the industries we're in. Can't ignore that. Right? I can't. You can. It's

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impossible. Yeah. And I give a ton of credit to my father for even getting

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me involved with this sometimes and.

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But, you know, I consider that legacy an important part of

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our DNA when it comes to what we do. Yeah. I mean, sometimes people will

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say to me, boy, your dad must be looking down in heaven and very proud

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of you. And I'm like, well, I hope so. I'm just kind of trying to

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be me. But I think you brought it up before we even got

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on. Just trying to make sure that we keep reinventing

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ourselves and realizing that the podcast and these videos and

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these cameras are the way of now, not the future. It's the way

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it is now, and. Who knows what the future is going to do. The reason

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I sold one of the month clubs in March of 2023 was

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I was not, after 35 years, prepared

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to regen it because I hadn't, you know, we were paying

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attention. We were prolific digital marketers, emailers, all that stuff.

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33 million emails my last year. But. But something was

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going on in the industry that I couldn't figure out.

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It was post Covid. Covid was incredible. 30% up. You

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know, do no wrong during COVID And that's. That

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eroded very quickly post Covid. And so I wasn't prepar

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Jen at that point and we had already started the podcast. And I love this

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stuff, as you do. Yeah. And so it was time for us to

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do it. It's time to not slug it out in the trenches

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anymore. So were you always going to be in the food side of things

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following your dad or not following your dad, but being part of the family? Well,

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what happened was, it's kind of a simple story. When

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I was Doing events, always doing things like chili

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cook offs, charity events.

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That's. That was my deal. And then when my dad,

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KABC radio in the heyday or. Right, right. When they actually

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left the Dodgers, he went to a station called

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KRLA K I E V, which was famous for a guy

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named George Putnam. Oh, yeah, George Put. Yeah. Wow.

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Channel 13 news. And there is a guy named Bob

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Hastings was the general manager back then. And Bob's dad

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was in McHale's navy. He was the, the, the one of

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the. Come on. Bob Hastings, his dad was in McKill's navy

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and he was running this KRLA KIV station.

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And he said to me, and I was there very part time, he said, hey,

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you know, your dad's not going to be around forever. Why don't you,

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instead of Merrill or Steve Knight, why don't you

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take over the show when your dad goes on vacation? Because your dad sure goes

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on vacation a lot. So they gave me an 11 o'clock time

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slot Saturday night when I don't know if anybody's listening,

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but that's what they gave me for a couple weeks just so I could practice

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being on the radio. Yeah. Wow, that's pretty interesting. Yeah. How long ago was that?

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That's at least 17, 20 years ago. Yeah. So

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I've been doing radio for. Was it intimidating? I think

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it still is. I. I sometimes get

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nervous, even though I've been doing it for 20 years. Sometimes I'll get nervous

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like at 3:00 when I'm getting ready for the 5:00 show.

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Kara, Is anybody listening? Will I get phone calls?

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You know, and all you can do is just really do the best

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you can and people will follow. Yeah, that's right.

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You know, you were just talking about the podcast. My podcast, which is

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on. It's on everywhere.

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You put Peter Dills. Like Peter Dills. Just, just type in Peter

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Dills. Subscribe. A friend of mine called me today. He goes,

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hey, I listened to your podcast with Musso and Frank Sunday. I think that was

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the best show you've done in three months. And I thought, really?

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Because I didn't like it. Yeah, no, that's interesting. I'm glad you said

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that. I don't like listening to myself

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necessarily. No, no. And I don't like watching myself necessarily. Yeah.

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But today I did a show Wednesday with

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Madeline Puckett of Wine Folly. And she's a

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very engaging, brilliant young lady. So I knew there was no

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content issues to discuss nor pace issues. I knew I could keep

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the pace up But I was playing it back today, and

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I was with one of Bourdain's old producers. He was

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here, helped me with something, and he didn't want me to turn it

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off. And I thought to myself, this is a really

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good show. You know, I. I was engaged to it and I went through

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it. And it doesn't always feel that way. You don't always think that, you know,

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you kind of go, gee, I don't know. I don't sound very good. I was

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asking the. The chef and the manager, general manager

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questions, and I didn't feel that they were telling a story. I

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want radio. Well, podcasts there. It's a.

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We're telling a story. Yeah, you know, we. You can ask me a little later

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about the wines and things like that, but for me,

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when I'm selling or talking about a bottle of

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wine, to sell, there has to be a story

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behind it in radio, too. So,

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you know, if. If somebody comes on my show, I want you to tell a

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story. I don't want to sit there and ask you 15 questions. I

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want you two or three questions at the most. And I want you

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to. Well, because this is why we buy our stakes. Because we actually flew out

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to Chicago and we visited where the, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah,

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blah. I want to hear a story. Sure, Franks. I mean, it's like

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one. This is interesting. I'm going to ask you this question because you go to

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Europe, you go to France, and I have a book at home called the Great

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Chefs of France. And. And most of the restaurants in this book, and the book

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is from the 70s are still around, and there's still legacy restaurants. You know, food.

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The culture of food is so much different in Europe than it is in America

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in La Muso. And Frank's is one of the last surviving sort of restaurants like

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that. I knew what you were going to ask me. Oh, he's going to say,

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why are Dan. Well, Dan Tan is still around. Why isn't chasing still

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around? Why isn't Larage still around? Why did all these restaurants

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go out? Because I think you know the answer. I think

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that we are such a casual society in Southern

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California that I remember going to the Parkway Grill one

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time after a football game and I was wearing shorts, and the general

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manager said, peter, you know, hey, come on, what are you doing? I go, well,

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I just got. I'm just got through with the football game. Now. If you

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walked in with shorts, maybe not a tank top, if you walked in, they

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just want. They just want your business yeah, right. No, it's different. It's so different.

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Yeah. But. Yeah. Why did all those great restaurants from the 70s and the

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80s go out of business when in Europe they're still there? I

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think it's a cultural shift in food, I think, you know,

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profitability. There's no legacies to hand off, you

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know, Ferdinand Pont, you know, his wife, whatever. And they hand it off to their

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kids. And the TWA Grill Brothers. There's a. I think maybe

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the respect for cuisine, particularly regional

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cuisine, is just got history in Europe that we don't have

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here, and maybe that'll change. But we were responsible for those

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restaurants you just mentioned for some of the big shifts in food in

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America. Was it called. I remember Merrill

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Schindler wrote for the Zagat Guide. He was the. He was

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one of the editors, and he had called that the Parkway Grill

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was the Spago of the East. I

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remember that line in the. In the Zagat guy. The Spago of

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the East. But maybe we just never had enough or don't have

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enough interest in those type of fine dining places anymore. Well,

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but that's interesting, though. Look, the Smith Brothers. Look what they've been

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through for the listeners. Smith Brothers are local restaurateurs who have

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three. These stalwart restaurants in Southern California, but have

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had many more than that. That didn't survive. Yeah, that didn't do it. Yeah. I

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mean, even a guy like you been all these places, critiqued all these restaurants, talked

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to all the owners. Probably can't put a finger on, like, why

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some survive and some don't. I was talking to a restaurant

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tour just a couple of weeks ago, and I just crossed my fingers

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that he survives. It's a barbecue restaurant. And I was asking

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him, I go, hey, I'm gonna write an article. I write for the Sierra Madre

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newspaper. And I said, hey, you know, there's no cost or anything. We

227
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don't charge you. It's a real restaurant review. Tell me what

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your favorite dishes are, your signature dishes. And he said, I like all

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my dishes. I go, I know that, but give me two or three dishes

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to try. He goes, well, I can't really do that. Cause I like everything on

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my menu. I go, well, look, you know, you have children, and obviously you

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like three. You like all your children. But which. Which

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dishes? Which is your favorite? And he wouldn't give me an answer.

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And so to answer your question is that I think that if

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you own a restaurant and do it your

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way, that is fine. You want to, you know, you. You open

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A restaurant because you, you know how to make a steak, but

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you've got to feed the masses to eat with the classes.

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Feed the masses to eat with the classes. So you have to

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give. As a restaurant owner, you have to give the people what they

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want, not what you want to make. It's not like, you know, that Soup

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Nazi thing, hey, here's my soup. This is the way it is. You

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know, I remember going out with my dad to a restaurant. It was in

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Glendale, I don't remember on brand. And my dad said, okay, make sure you

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get, you know, plenty of garlic. Really

246
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plenty of garlic. So the guy comes back and my dad says, I

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said, plenty of garlic. Guy comes back, a little bit of

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garlic more. He goes, sir, I want my eyes to

249
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not like onions, but I want to cry that there's so much garlic. I

250
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want my wife to be mad at me when I get home because there's so

251
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much garlic. So I think that the

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problem with what I see with restaurants is they try to

253
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appease themselves, and they really are in the customer service business.

254
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It's hospitality. It's a hospitality business. Bruce

255
00:15:26,326 --> 00:15:30,052
Taylor. Bruce Taylor up in LA Canada has two restaurants, one on

256
00:15:30,076 --> 00:15:33,460
8th street and the other one on Foothill. And he'll. He always says to me,

257
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I. I get together with him two or three times a year. And he always

258
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says, peter, I don't think we have the best steak in

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town, but I think it's pretty dang good and it's pretty reasonably

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priced. So I think that when a restaurant gets that

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balance, this Taylor Steakhouse, Taylor's Steakhouse. But I

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think the same thing for wine. There has to be a balance of the. The

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cost of the wine or the cost of what you're giving

264
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somebody. Because if you're giving somebody an $85 steak and it's, eh.

265
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It's okay. Do you think let's move into

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that? Because there was a restaurant in Hermosa and we spent a lot of time

267
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there, and there's a guy down there, his name is Slay, is a chef. His

268
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restaurants, he keeps opening them, you know, while restaurant next door is closing,

269
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he's opening more, and he has a separate cuisine for each one, and

270
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each one has hospitality driven, you know,

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energy. But there was a restaurant in Hermosa. It was. I forgot the name of

272
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it now. And it said on the menu, substitutions and changes.

273
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Politely declined. Now what? That. That

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is a pretty arrogant position to take when you're supposed to be in the

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hospitality business and taking care of your clients. And you go,

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no extra garlic allowed. Yeah, right. We're going to serve it the way we're

277
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going to serve it. It's going to be rare. And that's the way it is.

278
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And that's. That's the way we serve it. So this is an interesting

279
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segue into the wine side because it's a very important subject.

280
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Years ago, I read an article about a guy saying, well, you know, the wine

281
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trade, they don't understand you've got to meet the customer where the customer wants you

282
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to meet. And I think in general, that's probably

283
00:17:09,010 --> 00:17:12,562
true. You vint wines, what are

284
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popular at the time? We had Bartles and James at one time, we had all

285
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this stuff that used to come out. And there's different things today.

286
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But isn't it a true glass of wine? Exactly the opposite. That is

287
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what is given to you by the vineyard and by the vines

288
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and by the grapes. And you make the best you can from there, as opposed

289
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to stocking the shells with Josh and apothic red.

290
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And, you know, they're trying every year to make sure it tastes the same so

291
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the client comes back. And so this is a big argument that goes on, and

292
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I'm very romantic about it, but I get it. I. I don't want to step

293
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into your knowledge because, you know,

294
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that's very. Kind of you to say. Thank you. No. But I have had

295
00:17:51,824 --> 00:17:55,672
this argument discussion

296
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with the wine buyers at Vons and Pavilions,

297
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Albertson, Safeway. I said, look, if you're just going to

298
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pull the stuff off the shelf that you feel is not

299
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selling. Now, it could be selling in Monrovia, but it's not selling

300
00:18:10,728 --> 00:18:14,532
in Fullerton. And you're doing a schematic of, hey, well,

301
00:18:14,556 --> 00:18:18,036
we're only selling 10 cases of whatever,

302
00:18:18,228 --> 00:18:21,684
and you pull it on the shelf. Well, what, we're just going to become

303
00:18:21,852 --> 00:18:25,492
Stater Brothers? Yeah. Nothing wrong with Stater Brothers. No, no. You're talking about the

304
00:18:25,516 --> 00:18:28,932
wine selection. I'm just saying selection. So we're going to get to a

305
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point where we're just taking wines off the shelf because

306
00:18:32,780 --> 00:18:36,164
only two people. And all you need is two people to come into a

307
00:18:36,172 --> 00:18:39,508
supermarket and. And keep buying a certain wine. That's

308
00:18:39,524 --> 00:18:43,306
right. You need that regular. Yeah, you just need that regular person to buy St.

309
00:18:43,338 --> 00:18:47,066
Francis cabernet twice a week. And you're good. You're

310
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golden. But, yeah. Oh, it's not selling in

311
00:18:50,898 --> 00:18:54,270
Fullerton, so we're going to take it off the shelf. Are they central buyers?

312
00:18:55,410 --> 00:18:58,730
Can you buy. Can you buy in Your individual shop as what

313
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you. So that's kind of what I wanted to lead the

314
00:19:02,546 --> 00:19:06,010
show off with, is that when I got into this business five years

315
00:19:06,050 --> 00:19:09,812
ago, I thought somebody would

316
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come in and say, we want a bot. We want a

317
00:19:13,436 --> 00:19:17,076
case, not a bottle. We want a case of something

318
00:19:17,148 --> 00:19:20,996
fancy. That's hard to get. Tell me, tell me something that Luja,

319
00:19:21,028 --> 00:19:23,640
though, you know. Yeah,

320
00:19:24,620 --> 00:19:28,148
I can get it for you. I thought that's what business I was getting

321
00:19:28,204 --> 00:19:31,716
into. I thought I was getting into the I can get it for you business,

322
00:19:31,868 --> 00:19:34,884
but I'm not. I can get you some Chateau

323
00:19:34,932 --> 00:19:38,602
Montelena Cabernet or Chardonnay. I can get that for

324
00:19:38,626 --> 00:19:42,442
you. But the hard to. Hard to find stuff like the Georges

325
00:19:42,506 --> 00:19:46,218
Latour of, you know. Yeah. BV.

326
00:19:46,314 --> 00:19:49,914
You know, $139 a bottle or whatever it is. $135 a

327
00:19:49,922 --> 00:19:53,162
bottle. Oh, but we want the 2011. Yeah, everybody wants the

328
00:19:53,186 --> 00:19:56,710
2011. We can't get that. At least in our

329
00:19:57,250 --> 00:20:01,082
realm of. Of responsibility, of getting wines for

330
00:20:01,106 --> 00:20:04,362
customers. So you. So you went into this job thinking that you're going to be

331
00:20:04,386 --> 00:20:08,040
sort of the concierge of wine for that shop and

332
00:20:08,080 --> 00:20:11,672
end up being what it. It's just the same thing that

333
00:20:11,696 --> 00:20:15,140
everybody else gets. Sure. Dow will invite you up to

334
00:20:15,440 --> 00:20:19,112
their winery to take a, you know, take a. A tour of

335
00:20:19,136 --> 00:20:22,660
it. But to me, you know,

336
00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:26,456
that's fine. I mean, I can drink. I can drink tattoo at home.

337
00:20:26,528 --> 00:20:30,280
Yeah, whatever. But, yeah, I. I don't know. I mean,

338
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like I said, I mean, you. You tried over all

339
00:20:34,106 --> 00:20:37,778
these wines and would. I mean, you're the host. I'm

340
00:20:37,794 --> 00:20:40,722
asking you one question. But would people come in and say, hey, Paul, I'm looking

341
00:20:40,746 --> 00:20:44,370
for a case of Chateau Montelena, but it has to be

342
00:20:44,410 --> 00:20:48,226
2007. Well, because the nature of my customer base

343
00:20:48,258 --> 00:20:52,018
was not like that, though I did, as every subscription

344
00:20:52,114 --> 00:20:55,858
club in America has tried, provide

345
00:20:55,914 --> 00:20:58,914
a service to people to call in and say, can you get me this? Can

346
00:20:58,922 --> 00:21:02,310
you get me that? Now, you know, and I know that most

347
00:21:02,350 --> 00:21:05,814
domestic wines are very hard to. I mean, the. The regular stuff that you have

348
00:21:05,822 --> 00:21:09,302
on the shelf, you can find. But so many domestic wines are DBAs of

349
00:21:09,326 --> 00:21:13,110
DBAs, of DBAs. So just to give me a brand name is almost impossible

350
00:21:13,190 --> 00:21:16,806
sometimes to find them. Europe's different because they have an import statement.

351
00:21:16,878 --> 00:21:20,662
But no, I didn't do a lot of it. And oftentimes what

352
00:21:20,686 --> 00:21:23,814
they wanted, I couldn't find. You know, it was too hard to find.

353
00:21:23,982 --> 00:21:27,500
So it's just the interesting irony between

354
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:32,032
your job out there is to answer the questions, if they have

355
00:21:32,056 --> 00:21:35,904
a question. So how many people walk into the shop knowing

356
00:21:35,952 --> 00:21:37,180
what they want to buy?

357
00:21:38,920 --> 00:21:42,720
Percentage? Can I include liquor as well? Liquor and

358
00:21:42,760 --> 00:21:46,512
wine. Sure, why not? So a lot of these antique collections.

359
00:21:46,576 --> 00:21:49,408
What are they called? Antique. So they're looking for these special

360
00:21:49,464 --> 00:21:52,700
bourbons and yeah, I can get them.

361
00:21:53,090 --> 00:21:56,314
It's going to be a little bit of work. But I'm not just going to

362
00:21:56,322 --> 00:22:00,074
get them from somebody, buddy. Just walking into the shop, they've got to

363
00:22:00,082 --> 00:22:03,162
be a regular customer if I'm going to go do that. Because then we just

364
00:22:03,186 --> 00:22:06,506
call them cherry pickers. Yeah, right. You know, yeah, they just had. Yeah, right. Yeah,

365
00:22:06,538 --> 00:22:10,154
they just happen to call in 10 different stores to see if they had a

366
00:22:10,242 --> 00:22:14,026
certain antique. And you want to cater to your regular buying

367
00:22:14,058 --> 00:22:17,642
clients. Somebody that's going to spend. Yeah, somebody that's going to spend two or three

368
00:22:17,666 --> 00:22:20,842
thousand. Four or five. And there are people like that. I mean, there are people

369
00:22:20,866 --> 00:22:24,314
that are going to spend a lot of money on wine. I mean, but, you

370
00:22:24,322 --> 00:22:27,946
know, once their wine cabinets are filled, you might not see them for six months.

371
00:22:28,018 --> 00:22:31,514
Do you think that those, the apps, you know, the Vivinos and the wine

372
00:22:31,562 --> 00:22:35,210
Searcher apps have created sort of. Oh, I guess

373
00:22:35,250 --> 00:22:39,034
it's bargain hunting from people. Again,

374
00:22:39,122 --> 00:22:42,890
I'm going to. You probably know the answer better than

375
00:22:42,930 --> 00:22:46,410
me. But I, What I learned is quickly is that

376
00:22:46,450 --> 00:22:49,590
somebody will come in and say, peter, why is the

377
00:22:49,960 --> 00:22:53,792
Johnnie Walker Blue 179? I can get

378
00:22:53,816 --> 00:22:57,424
it at Costco for 166. Well then go right ahead and go.

379
00:22:57,512 --> 00:23:01,152
Go down to Costco and get it for 166. Oh, that's a good answer.

380
00:23:01,216 --> 00:23:04,752
But they're out of it right now. Yeah, exactly. Oh, so they're out of it

381
00:23:04,776 --> 00:23:07,296
for 166 and I'm charging you

382
00:23:07,368 --> 00:23:11,184
177. I have it. They don't.

383
00:23:11,232 --> 00:23:15,056
Bucks. Yeah, 11 bucks, 50 cents a shot. Yeah. So that's

384
00:23:15,088 --> 00:23:18,912
kind of. And then the apps. Well, we. I can get it. I can get

385
00:23:18,936 --> 00:23:22,640
it through an app. And then I looked at the apps and I'm like, well,

386
00:23:22,680 --> 00:23:26,400
wait a minute. This company is out of Kentucky and I know. And

387
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:30,128
you, you know that you call that wine store wine

388
00:23:30,224 --> 00:23:33,552
app. We don't have that, but I have this.

389
00:23:33,656 --> 00:23:36,880
Yeah, that's what even my customers admitted to

390
00:23:36,920 --> 00:23:40,720
me, that when they try to go

391
00:23:40,760 --> 00:23:44,412
on these wine apps and call them. Yeah, yeah, we have stags, we have

392
00:23:44,436 --> 00:23:48,172
Artemis 2007. And then when you say, okay, I'll take a case

393
00:23:48,196 --> 00:23:51,948
of Artemis 2007, well, we don't have 2007. We've

394
00:23:51,964 --> 00:23:55,484
got 2017. That's a

395
00:23:55,572 --> 00:23:59,052
bait and switch or not. No, that's what it is. That's really what it is.

396
00:23:59,076 --> 00:24:02,700
And those apps, well, people would come to the shop and they would just point

397
00:24:02,740 --> 00:24:06,588
the gun and point their phone and they're very inaccurate. Vivino is probably

398
00:24:06,604 --> 00:24:09,436
the most inaccurate of all of them because they have an average price and there's

399
00:24:09,468 --> 00:24:12,644
people out there that are, that are baiting people into the store with a, you

400
00:24:12,652 --> 00:24:16,356
know, with, with that bait and switch price. You know, lost leader. They don't

401
00:24:16,388 --> 00:24:19,524
have just like car salesman. And then they move you to a different part of

402
00:24:19,532 --> 00:24:23,332
the store. But it's such a competitive world right now that, that we have

403
00:24:23,356 --> 00:24:27,172
to be cognizant of these apps. But we can't compete with them

404
00:24:27,196 --> 00:24:30,708
because you have to hold your ground at what. Yeah. Margins are and what you're

405
00:24:30,724 --> 00:24:34,436
trying to do. And is it really available like you said? What

406
00:24:34,508 --> 00:24:38,308
about the car? Car is a great analogy. So you mean that they have a

407
00:24:38,364 --> 00:24:42,014
Porsche at Rusnick for 50,000? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I drive over to

408
00:24:42,022 --> 00:24:45,422
Rustic. Oh, we don't have any $50,000 Porsches. Yeah, but we got

409
00:24:45,446 --> 00:24:49,070
$150,000. We'll just add a hundred thousand dollars to it. Yeah.

410
00:24:49,150 --> 00:24:52,302
What happened to the 50,000? Oh, we sold all that. We sold them all. We

411
00:24:52,326 --> 00:24:56,110
sold those two. They're gone. Have you seen. It's been five years.

412
00:24:56,150 --> 00:24:59,310
You've been on the floor. Have you seen a change in

413
00:24:59,350 --> 00:25:02,490
consumerism? Well, I know that with.

414
00:25:03,110 --> 00:25:06,878
I started the month of COVID and I

415
00:25:07,014 --> 00:25:10,680
at the beginning of COVID Beginning of COVID And we were selling a

416
00:25:10,830 --> 00:25:14,356
ton of high end stuff. Moet, Shandon, Hennessy

417
00:25:14,468 --> 00:25:18,132
people. Because obviously they weren't going out to eat because they had to stay

418
00:25:18,156 --> 00:25:21,764
home and they were buying anything

419
00:25:21,812 --> 00:25:25,332
that was luxury. They were buying. Yeah. And that

420
00:25:25,356 --> 00:25:29,172
changed and that changed dramatically. I know at my store I

421
00:25:29,196 --> 00:25:32,996
was just in the cellar and there are eight,

422
00:25:33,148 --> 00:25:36,860
I'm not exaggerating. Eight cases of insignia. Eight

423
00:25:36,900 --> 00:25:39,257
cases of insignia. 2018.

424
00:25:39,538 --> 00:25:43,132
$330. Paul. A year and a half

425
00:25:43,156 --> 00:25:46,796
ago that was $200. Yeah, right. 220. So they've

426
00:25:46,828 --> 00:25:50,124
raised the price and it's not selling. It's sitting there.

427
00:25:50,212 --> 00:25:53,852
Yeah, yeah. Five years ago it probably would have sold at

428
00:25:53,876 --> 00:25:57,676
300 because people needed it. But it's, you know, I guess it's

429
00:25:57,708 --> 00:26:01,532
supply and demand. Well, you know, when, when, when I was, when

430
00:26:01,556 --> 00:26:05,232
the going concern, when the Wymuckle was running and just cruising along, I would

431
00:26:05,256 --> 00:26:09,008
Never hear from Silver Oak. I would never hear from Camus, another big brand company.

432
00:26:09,064 --> 00:26:12,768
They didn't need me. Yeah. And they're out. They're courting restaurants because that's the house.

433
00:26:12,824 --> 00:26:16,656
Poor is where the money is. Right. And then Covid hits and they're banging

434
00:26:16,688 --> 00:26:19,632
on the door. And I look, I said, I'll buy some stuff and I'm sure

435
00:26:19,656 --> 00:26:23,344
I can sell it, but you can't forget me after this is over. Well, I

436
00:26:23,352 --> 00:26:27,104
wish they had forgotten me after it was over because. But the

437
00:26:27,112 --> 00:26:30,620
point was, I'm going to make was I was getting 1 liters of

438
00:26:31,070 --> 00:26:34,370
Camus and I'm selling them for 140.

439
00:26:35,310 --> 00:26:38,950
They're now $99. And back then, you couldn't even get

440
00:26:38,990 --> 00:26:42,726
Leaders retail. Now you can. The market's

441
00:26:42,758 --> 00:26:45,490
changed so much. And to go back to your point about COVID

442
00:26:46,110 --> 00:26:49,942
whatever I said to the client, they'd buy if I

443
00:26:49,966 --> 00:26:53,462
put out anything. And you're right, the

444
00:26:53,486 --> 00:26:57,152
prices, what they're willing to pay went up

445
00:26:57,256 --> 00:27:01,040
a lot. I'm sitting on nine

446
00:27:01,080 --> 00:27:04,848
cases of Caymus 1 liters right now because the moment it was over,

447
00:27:04,904 --> 00:27:07,780
the day of those sales stopped.

448
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:12,192
So the customers went back to the restaurants. They went

449
00:27:12,216 --> 00:27:15,616
back to buying their regular method, but they had no interest

450
00:27:15,688 --> 00:27:19,312
anymore in the elevation of their pallets. It was

451
00:27:19,336 --> 00:27:23,152
really, I thought, quite interesting. And I

452
00:27:23,176 --> 00:27:26,662
wonder, that parallels the food world as you've been

453
00:27:26,686 --> 00:27:29,926
out on the streets tasting food and eating and

454
00:27:30,078 --> 00:27:33,270
courting restaurants. What have you seen when it comes to

455
00:27:33,310 --> 00:27:37,030
pricing? Has it been busier for these guys these days?

456
00:27:37,070 --> 00:27:40,870
What's happening? They rebounded. I didn't realize this, but when I was talking to the

457
00:27:40,910 --> 00:27:44,410
guys from Musso and Frank's, they said that even buying meat,

458
00:27:44,910 --> 00:27:47,450
steaks, beef is cyclical.

459
00:27:48,190 --> 00:27:51,702
And I waited a second to find out what they were talking about. They said,

460
00:27:51,726 --> 00:27:55,060
well, January, February, we're paying more

461
00:27:55,360 --> 00:27:58,340
for the stakes. But then come

462
00:28:00,480 --> 00:28:04,200
April, May, prices start to level off and go down. And

463
00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:08,008
I thought, well, I didn't realize that prices would ever go down on anything.

464
00:28:08,184 --> 00:28:11,656
I mean, I realized that salmon would be

465
00:28:11,728 --> 00:28:15,432
seasonal because, you know, they're up in the river in

466
00:28:15,456 --> 00:28:19,224
Washington, so maybe. Or king crab legs or

467
00:28:19,312 --> 00:28:23,136
seafood. I get that. But I didn't realize that meat was so cyclical because I'm.

468
00:28:23,208 --> 00:28:26,768
I'm thinking there's slaughter seasons. I don't

469
00:28:26,784 --> 00:28:30,140
know. But it's gone through the roof, though.

470
00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:33,792
Yeah. Even at. I know at pavilions, a

471
00:28:33,816 --> 00:28:37,552
$15 steak from two months ago is now $22. And

472
00:28:37,576 --> 00:28:41,040
ground beef. And, you know, if you see Ground beef for

473
00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,832
A$97. They're probably losing money. But you know,

474
00:28:44,936 --> 00:28:48,624
supermarkets and restaurants are two different dynamics.

475
00:28:48,672 --> 00:28:52,328
The supermarkets advertise. Their whole push is

476
00:28:52,384 --> 00:28:55,304
they don't want you to go to a restaurant. I mean, you, if you grab

477
00:28:55,352 --> 00:28:58,728
your flyer in the, in the mail on Wednesdays,

478
00:28:58,824 --> 00:29:01,980
it's. It often says supermarket quality

479
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,880
rest. You know, a restaurant quality supermarket price.

480
00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,576
Yes. You know, I don't know what that means. It means

481
00:29:09,728 --> 00:29:13,512
stay home, don't. You don't need to go out. But they're in competition. I mean,

482
00:29:13,536 --> 00:29:17,352
they talk about, you know, I just read this actually recently. They talk

483
00:29:17,376 --> 00:29:21,048
about sushi grade fish. There's no, there's no definition for sushi grade fish. It's

484
00:29:21,064 --> 00:29:23,336
just. I don't know what they're trying to tell you. It is, but it doesn't

485
00:29:23,368 --> 00:29:27,160
exist, you. Know, I didn't know that. Well, there's. I don't know. I don't know.

486
00:29:27,200 --> 00:29:30,360
A and B and C. I don't know. You know, one day I was just,

487
00:29:30,400 --> 00:29:33,864
I just wrote this note down. We were talking about prices of wine. Remember

488
00:29:33,912 --> 00:29:37,672
cane sellers? Cane five days. They burned down

489
00:29:37,696 --> 00:29:41,272
in a fire. Yeah. So. Or they are. They

490
00:29:41,296 --> 00:29:44,232
reopened. I don't know. I know I haven't seen the wine lately at all. And

491
00:29:44,256 --> 00:29:47,448
I, and I, and I don't remember what happened to the brand, but I'm talking

492
00:29:47,464 --> 00:29:51,182
about the late 80s, early 90s when I went into the vines over here.

493
00:29:51,336 --> 00:29:55,170
The time at Arcadia and the Cane five, which

494
00:29:55,210 --> 00:29:58,882
was their premium brand, like insignia for that winery

495
00:29:59,026 --> 00:30:02,466
was $2.99. Wow. $2. When?

496
00:30:02,618 --> 00:30:06,402
Oh, this is probably like 1990 O. It was $2.99. And

497
00:30:06,426 --> 00:30:09,634
I. Wait, what? Yeah. $2.99.

498
00:30:09,722 --> 00:30:13,522
Yeah. So I went outside and the guy's, the guy's name was

499
00:30:13,546 --> 00:30:16,722
Kelly Stockton. And the wine, the, the, the wholesale house was called

500
00:30:16,746 --> 00:30:20,584
vintage something. I can't remember. Now they're gone. I had to go

501
00:30:20,592 --> 00:30:23,432
outside on my cell phone, which was back then was that big brick that was

502
00:30:23,456 --> 00:30:26,904
in your car, and call him and say, hey, Kelly. I said,

503
00:30:27,072 --> 00:30:30,744
Is cane 5 still like 95 a bottle wholesale?

504
00:30:30,792 --> 00:30:34,568
He goes, yeah. I go, thank you very much. I went there and I grabbed

505
00:30:34,584 --> 00:30:38,344
every bottle I could. I brought it to the thing and the

506
00:30:38,352 --> 00:30:41,064
guy's checking me out and he's like, this is a pretty good deal, huh? I

507
00:30:41,072 --> 00:30:44,024
go, yeah, I'm not going to tell him no. I go, do you have any

508
00:30:44,032 --> 00:30:46,088
more in the back? He goes, I don't know, I'll check. And he went in

509
00:30:46,144 --> 00:30:49,800
back and there's Nothing more. So I got on, I called my dad. I go,

510
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:53,132
dad, he won't believe this. I just got cane five for 299. Maybe it was

511
00:30:53,146 --> 00:30:56,584
399. He goes, Jesus. He goes, what are you doing buying wine at a

512
00:30:56,592 --> 00:30:59,864
market? He goes, you have a warehouse flag. I don't care.

513
00:30:59,952 --> 00:31:03,672
399. And so let me tell you a funny story. That

514
00:31:03,696 --> 00:31:06,904
was at least 2,000. It couldn't have been much past that. I went to a

515
00:31:06,912 --> 00:31:10,360
tasting at Beverly Hills recently. And I was walking around, I ran this

516
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,136
old acquaintance. Not an old person, but just an old acquaintance

517
00:31:14,168 --> 00:31:17,802
of the trade. And I told her this story. She goes, that was me. She

518
00:31:17,826 --> 00:31:21,642
goes, I'm the one that marked it down. We were redoing the whole cellar and

519
00:31:21,666 --> 00:31:24,378
I had to get rid of everything. And I'm the one that made it 399.

520
00:31:24,434 --> 00:31:28,010
I go, I love you. Yeah, so that's.

521
00:31:28,090 --> 00:31:31,674
That's insane. And that's. Have you ever returned a

522
00:31:31,762 --> 00:31:33,470
center wine back at a restaurant?

523
00:31:35,330 --> 00:31:39,130
Yeah, that's a great question. That sounds like something that was, like, set up,

524
00:31:39,170 --> 00:31:42,442
because I do have a story. So down in Newport beach, there's a place called

525
00:31:42,466 --> 00:31:46,226
Pelican Hills. Pelican Hills Resort. Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I know.

526
00:31:46,298 --> 00:31:49,682
Overlooking. Overlooking a Bridge, beautiful 5 o'clock

527
00:31:49,746 --> 00:31:53,298
sunset, the whole deal. And I was

528
00:31:53,354 --> 00:31:56,962
being hosted by a vendor,

529
00:31:57,106 --> 00:32:00,770
not a wine vendor, somebody that I helped get their almonds and

530
00:32:00,810 --> 00:32:04,578
cashews into pavilions. And as a thank you, they took me.

531
00:32:04,634 --> 00:32:07,122
Where do you want to go? They were based in Newport Beach. So we went

532
00:32:07,146 --> 00:32:10,900
to Pelican Hills. I ordered a glass of Tattinger. And this is

533
00:32:10,940 --> 00:32:14,080
seven, eight years ago, really. And the

534
00:32:14,780 --> 00:32:17,960
back then, it was $28 a glass. Wow.

535
00:32:19,500 --> 00:32:23,236
She. She brought it over and. And I looked at it

536
00:32:23,388 --> 00:32:26,532
and I got. I did my Elmer Dill's thing. I got the knife out and

537
00:32:26,556 --> 00:32:29,876
I did this. There's no bubbles at all. And

538
00:32:29,948 --> 00:32:33,332
she just rolled her eyes at me

539
00:32:33,516 --> 00:32:37,230
and I go, it's flat. And she. So she

540
00:32:37,270 --> 00:32:40,974
comes back. Oh, my goodness. Well, she comes back, open a

541
00:32:40,982 --> 00:32:44,782
new bottle and said. And she had the biggest smile on her face

542
00:32:44,806 --> 00:32:47,490
and said, oh, I can see the difference.

543
00:32:48,310 --> 00:32:51,934
Well, that you taught her something. I mean, how about that? Yeah.

544
00:32:52,062 --> 00:32:55,902
She goes, I can see the difference. I go, yeah. So one thing I

545
00:32:55,926 --> 00:32:59,342
talk about on my radio show, Paul, is that.

546
00:32:59,526 --> 00:33:03,242
And I do this every time. I tell

547
00:33:03,266 --> 00:33:07,082
them, open a fresh bottle. And I have never had one person at

548
00:33:07,106 --> 00:33:10,490
a restaurant say, no, we have to give you what we

549
00:33:10,530 --> 00:33:14,010
have opened already. I agree with that. They have never,

550
00:33:14,130 --> 00:33:17,802
never ever any restaurant has ever said to me, no. So you lead

551
00:33:17,826 --> 00:33:21,610
with that, or do you wait till they. If it's champagne, I

552
00:33:21,650 --> 00:33:24,110
certainly do. If it's cake bread, chardonnay,

553
00:33:25,570 --> 00:33:29,224
then, you know, I'm in a trust that it's selling

554
00:33:29,272 --> 00:33:32,520
pretty fast. So Santa and I were up in Monterey years ago,

555
00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:36,312
2014. It was the Concord Elegance. Forgot why we

556
00:33:36,336 --> 00:33:40,040
went there, but anyway, we were sitting in a bar, I'm having a martini, and

557
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:43,704
the. The house pour was from classic. It was the

558
00:33:43,712 --> 00:33:47,448
Crane Lake crap. And. Right. And

559
00:33:47,504 --> 00:33:51,112
this is back when it actually. Crane Lake was actually vintage wine. Okay, well, then

560
00:33:51,136 --> 00:33:54,660
maybe it was. Okay, so it's. Apparently the

561
00:33:55,290 --> 00:33:59,058
barback thought this is a good idea to put it in big, giant black felt

562
00:33:59,074 --> 00:34:02,674
pin letters, numbers, put the date that they opened the bottle.

563
00:34:02,802 --> 00:34:06,578
I've seen them especially at Asia, Japanese restaurants. Yeah, I've seen.

564
00:34:06,634 --> 00:34:09,922
Put it nicely, discreetly on the back. Not this big giant thing. Label. Right, right.

565
00:34:09,946 --> 00:34:13,058
And so the one that was looking at the pianoir, and it was at least

566
00:34:13,194 --> 00:34:16,786
10 days, maybe 2 weeks old, it's been sitting there, you know, it's gone.

567
00:34:16,818 --> 00:34:20,626
Right. So the waitress came. I was next to the waitress station.

568
00:34:20,658 --> 00:34:24,222
She came up, she says, glass of pianoir. The guy didn't even look.

569
00:34:24,406 --> 00:34:26,622
So, hey, why did you put the data on if you're not going to look

570
00:34:26,646 --> 00:34:28,814
at it? Just pour it. And he poured it right in front of me. I

571
00:34:28,822 --> 00:34:31,534
said, dude, I go, that's come back. He goes, what do you mean, sir? I

572
00:34:31,542 --> 00:34:34,974
said, look at the date of the bottle. He goes, oh, wow, man. Thanks a

573
00:34:34,982 --> 00:34:38,766
lot. I really appreciate that. Yeah. Because they may not come back. But if.

574
00:34:38,838 --> 00:34:42,430
If it doesn't come back, then that person's got a bad experience. They may never

575
00:34:42,470 --> 00:34:45,454
come back to the restaurant because the wine's so bad. But I did it just

576
00:34:45,542 --> 00:34:48,984
two nights ago at Parkway Grill. Send it back. Yeah. And

577
00:34:49,072 --> 00:34:52,760
why. He poured two healthy Bordeaux, the house Bordeaux, which is called

578
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,648
rute or roulet. And it was corked. And

579
00:34:56,704 --> 00:35:00,472
whoever. What. Whoever drunk it before me either sent it back or had a

580
00:35:00,496 --> 00:35:04,104
bad experience with it because it wasn't, you know, when corked wine is musty and

581
00:35:04,112 --> 00:35:07,864
two, there's no fruit. It's all gone. And he kind of

582
00:35:07,872 --> 00:35:11,704
rolled his eyes. You probably know Naz. I know Naz. I've known NAs

583
00:35:11,752 --> 00:35:15,560
for 35 years. Yeah, I like Nas. I love Nas. And so he

584
00:35:15,600 --> 00:35:18,392
looked at me and he. I go, smell the difference. Oh, yeah, yeah, I get

585
00:35:18,416 --> 00:35:22,254
it. You know, but nobody had sent it back before that, so and it

586
00:35:22,262 --> 00:35:25,742
was very, very nice. Well, I wonder how many people actually know enough to

587
00:35:25,766 --> 00:35:29,502
send something back. I mean, probably with sparkling

588
00:35:29,566 --> 00:35:33,182
wine or champagne, it's a little easier for me at least to

589
00:35:33,206 --> 00:35:36,798
tell. But somebody with your palette would know, like right away

590
00:35:36,934 --> 00:35:40,686
that not only it's just funky.

591
00:35:40,798 --> 00:35:43,502
Well, you know, but that's funny, because my wife is way more sensitive than I

592
00:35:43,526 --> 00:35:46,912
am. And so she. She's the one who said, did you get that nose? I

593
00:35:46,936 --> 00:35:50,544
said, and she's not. She. And by no means has followed the career here.

594
00:35:50,632 --> 00:35:54,272
She was the accountant here. She did not care about the rest of it. I

595
00:35:54,296 --> 00:35:56,752
go, yeah, I smelled it. But I was hoping it would blow off and just

596
00:35:56,776 --> 00:36:00,064
kind of keep going. But then when the. When the fruit was gone, I realized

597
00:36:00,112 --> 00:36:03,712
there was a problem with the wine. But I wonder how many people are

598
00:36:03,736 --> 00:36:07,232
intimidated, you know, to do that just

599
00:36:07,416 --> 00:36:11,104
because you expect that a house poor or even by the glass

600
00:36:11,152 --> 00:36:14,804
is a curated wine. Right. One that there was a

601
00:36:14,812 --> 00:36:16,720
deliberate reason we put it on the list.

602
00:36:18,220 --> 00:36:21,812
Yeah. To make sure that it sells.

603
00:36:21,876 --> 00:36:25,700
Yeah. Fast enough by the glass. Right. And I'm sure the person that's going

604
00:36:25,740 --> 00:36:29,560
in there selling Parkway or what name, any restaurant

605
00:36:30,540 --> 00:36:33,956
would say, hey, put this by the glass. It will sell.

606
00:36:34,108 --> 00:36:37,812
You know, I shouldn't say this, but I'll say this

607
00:36:37,836 --> 00:36:40,400
anyway. I had a vendor come in.

608
00:36:41,380 --> 00:36:44,972
Maybe I shouldn't say this because I won't say the name of the vendor. And

609
00:36:44,996 --> 00:36:48,780
he goes, peter, I need a side stack. I need

610
00:36:48,820 --> 00:36:52,428
a side stack. I need a side stack. So that would be about three cases

611
00:36:52,484 --> 00:36:56,156
of wine. And he has a sleeve that he'll put the wine in. And

612
00:36:56,228 --> 00:36:59,400
I like the guy. And I said, look,

613
00:37:00,900 --> 00:37:04,556
I'll put a side stack there, but in three weeks, whatever's

614
00:37:04,588 --> 00:37:07,004
left, you're gonna have to come in, or your boss is gonna have to come

615
00:37:07,012 --> 00:37:10,350
in and buy what's left. And he thought about

616
00:37:10,390 --> 00:37:13,982
it, and it's probably not right. So

617
00:37:14,006 --> 00:37:17,518
funny. Not right for me to say, but. No, no, but you know what? That's

618
00:37:17,534 --> 00:37:21,182
a. I'm glad you brought that up for the listeners. The

619
00:37:21,206 --> 00:37:24,878
liquor business and the wine business is. It's not.

620
00:37:24,934 --> 00:37:28,782
No longer run by the mob. I was going to use the word. Yeah, yeah.

621
00:37:28,846 --> 00:37:32,654
No longer run by the mob. But yeah, certainly the influence of

622
00:37:32,662 --> 00:37:36,258
it and the business style has a lot of gleanings from those

623
00:37:36,314 --> 00:37:39,362
days. And I can't tell you how many times it probably happened to you. A

624
00:37:39,386 --> 00:37:42,434
thousand times on the 30th of the month or the 31st rep comes in and

625
00:37:42,442 --> 00:37:46,178
said, I need Some help. Yeah, I need you to make my number

626
00:37:46,234 --> 00:37:50,030
for me. I need a side stack. Yeah. And you expect

627
00:37:50,330 --> 00:37:53,538
the, the, the favor in return one day.

628
00:37:53,594 --> 00:37:57,314
Yeah. Like in my case, I bought,

629
00:37:57,362 --> 00:38:01,122
I don't know, some strawberry flavored something or another and a bunch of little

630
00:38:01,146 --> 00:38:04,946
pieces, bottles here and there, some. But I expected access to Pappy Van

631
00:38:04,978 --> 00:38:08,662
Winkle after that from the same vendor. And, and I got it

632
00:38:08,846 --> 00:38:12,582
because you know, you know that in this business it's one hand

633
00:38:12,606 --> 00:38:16,390
washes the other in this career and it's, it's a controlled

634
00:38:16,550 --> 00:38:20,342
industry. And yeah, we deal with the best we can in that regard. I

635
00:38:20,366 --> 00:38:24,198
was working at a restaurant in Pasadena, very part

636
00:38:24,254 --> 00:38:27,718
time, Robbins Wood Fire barbecue. Oh, I remember that.

637
00:38:27,774 --> 00:38:31,542
395 north rose meat. I was not the manager, but I was the

638
00:38:31,566 --> 00:38:34,950
night manager. So basically, you know, put the money

639
00:38:34,990 --> 00:38:38,704
away, take the till, you know, put it in the, you know, managing

640
00:38:38,752 --> 00:38:42,272
at night. But I wasn't in charge. And the guy from Harold Lombos came

641
00:38:42,296 --> 00:38:46,096
in. Fred, his name was Fred. Called him Fast Freddy. Harold

642
00:38:46,128 --> 00:38:49,952
Lamos was a beer distributor, right. And he said

643
00:38:49,976 --> 00:38:53,184
to me, peter, we're pushing Moosehead

644
00:38:53,232 --> 00:38:57,072
beer and if I can get 25 taps in the

645
00:38:57,096 --> 00:39:00,420
San Gabriel Valley, they're going to send me to Hawaii.

646
00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,544
I said, absolutely. I didn't ask him for anything in return. I said, absolutely.

647
00:39:04,592 --> 00:39:08,212
Bring it in. One keg. He goes, one keg? I go, yeah,

648
00:39:08,276 --> 00:39:12,004
bring it in. We'll go through it. Yeah. So what? I mean,

649
00:39:12,092 --> 00:39:15,844
you know, we're in a relationship business. That's right. But it's, I

650
00:39:15,852 --> 00:39:19,668
think it's more than others because of the control of the liquor and that.

651
00:39:19,724 --> 00:39:23,284
Yeah. And, and the lucrativity. Lucrativity. Even a

652
00:39:23,292 --> 00:39:26,932
word of. Particularly liquor. But that's an interesting

653
00:39:26,996 --> 00:39:30,484
point. I, I think I have two or three espresso

654
00:39:30,532 --> 00:39:34,250
machines and my wife is going through her

655
00:39:34,290 --> 00:39:37,898
jewelry the other day and she goes, what's this? And it was this 5

656
00:39:37,954 --> 00:39:39,790
troy ounces of silver,

657
00:39:40,530 --> 00:39:44,362
0.999 from the US Assay Office. I go,

658
00:39:44,386 --> 00:39:47,882
oh my God. A vendor gave that to me. I said, I haven't seen this

659
00:39:47,906 --> 00:39:51,322
thing probably for 25 years. I can't remember who it was,

660
00:39:51,506 --> 00:39:53,754
gave it to me, says, hey, if you do me a favor, I'll give you

661
00:39:53,762 --> 00:39:56,394
this thing. I got it as an award. Yeah. And I'm going to give it

662
00:39:56,402 --> 00:39:59,070
to you. I'm like, cool. The Thing's worth like 500 bucks.

663
00:40:00,050 --> 00:40:03,732
Yeah. But you said

664
00:40:03,756 --> 00:40:06,160
something I wanted to talk about. Oh, yeah. The,

665
00:40:07,740 --> 00:40:11,520
the one hand washes the other industry is such an Important part of

666
00:40:12,540 --> 00:40:16,196
what we do. And I can tell you that when

667
00:40:16,268 --> 00:40:19,720
this one woman retired from RN, D.C.

668
00:40:20,700 --> 00:40:24,372
had a major impact on. On. On stuff for me. I mean,

669
00:40:24,396 --> 00:40:27,252
it's almost like you should. I should retire at the same time, which is what

670
00:40:27,276 --> 00:40:30,890
I did serendipitously. But that relationship was

671
00:40:30,930 --> 00:40:34,602
so deep, and I had helped her career so much along the

672
00:40:34,626 --> 00:40:38,474
way and she had helped my company along the way that it

673
00:40:38,482 --> 00:40:42,218
was. It was a true party of friends. You know, I haven't

674
00:40:42,234 --> 00:40:45,930
seen her since, but it was a true party of friends that did business

675
00:40:45,970 --> 00:40:48,630
together for a long time. That's a

676
00:40:49,090 --> 00:40:52,910
valuable. Yeah. Lesson here. Yeah.

677
00:40:53,250 --> 00:40:56,842
Really, those type of things for you. You were running the show for

678
00:40:56,866 --> 00:41:00,324
me. You know, we have district managers and regional

679
00:41:00,372 --> 00:41:04,052
managers and buyers and, And. And. And people like

680
00:41:04,076 --> 00:41:07,780
that who. Who we have to lean on at our

681
00:41:07,820 --> 00:41:11,668
level to see if we can get that Pappy Van Winkle, which I couldn't

682
00:41:11,684 --> 00:41:14,960
even bother with because it's so. Hard to get, you know, so.

683
00:41:15,340 --> 00:41:19,172
But I also have. I don't know, I probably still

684
00:41:19,196 --> 00:41:22,884
have 10 cases of eagle Rare that I had to get to get some of

685
00:41:22,892 --> 00:41:26,378
the Pappy I got. But that sold for a while. Yes. Yeah.

686
00:41:26,394 --> 00:41:30,202
And it slowed down. And then with Blanton's, you know, you

687
00:41:30,226 --> 00:41:33,626
could. That was dime a dozen. You know, you could get it anytime you wanted.

688
00:41:33,658 --> 00:41:37,418
Until it went to Harbor.

689
00:41:37,594 --> 00:41:41,290
Yeah. Harbor. Yeah. Sazerac has it and they went to harbor and now it's allocated.

690
00:41:41,370 --> 00:41:45,162
Yeah. And I. And I had six. Six packs of it left over from

691
00:41:45,186 --> 00:41:49,002
R. DC And I was selling at the restaurants for considerably more

692
00:41:49,026 --> 00:41:52,122
than I paid for it. Yeah. I'm down to now a bottle, but. Yeah, you

693
00:41:52,146 --> 00:41:55,522
know, that's. That was. That was like contrived

694
00:41:55,586 --> 00:41:59,202
allocation. You could get it anytime you wanted to at some

695
00:41:59,226 --> 00:42:02,594
point. Well, that's like the insignia.

696
00:42:02,722 --> 00:42:06,482
Joseph Phelps. And that's what I was thinking. Like, what are we

697
00:42:06,506 --> 00:42:09,570
going to do with these eight cases of insignia at

698
00:42:09,610 --> 00:42:13,266
$330 a bottle? Yeah. I mean, it's just sitting

699
00:42:13,298 --> 00:42:17,110
there. I mean, that seems awfully high. Well, okay,

700
00:42:17,450 --> 00:42:20,730
so my. Okay, my. Here's my thought. Is that the

701
00:42:20,770 --> 00:42:24,186
supermarket business? Name a supermarket. Ralph's,

702
00:42:24,218 --> 00:42:27,390
Kroger, Albertsons, Stater Brothers.

703
00:42:28,050 --> 00:42:31,706
They're working on pennies. They really are. They're working on pennies. That's an important

704
00:42:31,778 --> 00:42:35,470
comment to make. And if you're sitting on inventory

705
00:42:36,290 --> 00:42:40,106
of. That's just one store, they're sitting

706
00:42:40,138 --> 00:42:43,962
on all that inventory. And then when the quarterly profits

707
00:42:44,106 --> 00:42:47,912
come in, I think about this, maybe I think too much, but they've got

708
00:42:47,936 --> 00:42:51,592
to do quarterly profits to their shareholders and say, hey, look, we lost this or

709
00:42:51,616 --> 00:42:55,020
we made this. Wouldn't it make sense

710
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:59,080
for them, the Kroger's of the world, to pull back on

711
00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:02,920
their buying when they know that the quarterly results are

712
00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,680
coming in? Say, hey, Paul, we love you, but we're not going to buy

713
00:43:06,720 --> 00:43:10,488
any. Josh right now. Yeah. Or something more expensive.

714
00:43:10,664 --> 00:43:12,740
We're not going to buy any of your

715
00:43:14,190 --> 00:43:17,718
BV or Insignia right now until

716
00:43:17,854 --> 00:43:21,142
the quarter's over and then we can buy it

717
00:43:21,246 --> 00:43:24,710
again. It's the same thing in my business. In your

718
00:43:24,750 --> 00:43:28,470
business, I'm always looking for sponsors for the show,

719
00:43:28,510 --> 00:43:32,182
for the radio show. Right. And this. I had a conversation today with

720
00:43:32,286 --> 00:43:36,070
somebody and he goes, oh, Peter, perfect timing. My budgets are coming

721
00:43:36,110 --> 00:43:39,952
back for the year now. The year. Do you

722
00:43:39,976 --> 00:43:43,504
see what I'm getting at? Like, I get it. Why, why, why are you buying

723
00:43:43,552 --> 00:43:46,112
so much stuff? Why are you stocking those shelves when you, you know, it's just

724
00:43:46,136 --> 00:43:49,520
general management. Yeah. It's just, you know, and I, I had a friend

725
00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:53,216
that still. He's still a friend. The second

726
00:43:53,288 --> 00:43:56,992
busiest store in Pavilions is in Newport coast. Oh, I know

727
00:43:57,016 --> 00:44:00,720
that story. Yeah. Kobe used to shop there and everything. And he would

728
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,384
tell me that. He goes, we just got a lot of 300, 400

729
00:44:04,472 --> 00:44:07,882
wine that. That's not selling. Might be just like you said about the

730
00:44:07,906 --> 00:44:11,546
cane. 299. Yeah. He goes, we should just start all over

731
00:44:11,618 --> 00:44:15,050
and get rid of the stuff that's not selling. It's.

732
00:44:15,210 --> 00:44:18,858
It's boutique or what. It's great to say that you have all these great

733
00:44:18,914 --> 00:44:22,634
wines, but if they're not selling, it's

734
00:44:22,682 --> 00:44:26,442
inventory. That's the, the bottom line. This is the part of the

735
00:44:26,466 --> 00:44:30,282
wine business that is not frustrating because it's always been

736
00:44:30,306 --> 00:44:33,858
driven by the consumer. You always have to have stuff that the people want.

737
00:44:34,034 --> 00:44:37,746
But then there's this wonderful romantic side of wine where this is value.

738
00:44:37,818 --> 00:44:41,122
This. What's in the glass is such value to the human soul that you can

739
00:44:41,146 --> 00:44:44,162
have a drink and you can feel something from it. And so these are two

740
00:44:44,186 --> 00:44:47,922
opposing things, because those are the wines that are made like that. But

741
00:44:47,946 --> 00:44:51,442
not everybody can afford them. Nobody cares what. What's in the glass. They want a

742
00:44:51,466 --> 00:44:55,250
glass of wine and that. That's what you get. And it led me to this

743
00:44:55,290 --> 00:44:59,058
point that you jogged a memory with, which is. Guy

744
00:44:59,074 --> 00:45:02,302
goes, I'm going to go to Hawaii. I'm gonna go to Italy. If you buy

745
00:45:02,326 --> 00:45:05,982
these 10 cases, I get to go to. I'll give you, the espresso machine. I

746
00:45:06,006 --> 00:45:08,510
win. After I get back from Italy, all this stuff that I got. Right, right.

747
00:45:08,550 --> 00:45:10,010
I mean, I got that all the time.

748
00:45:12,310 --> 00:45:15,854
This poor guy I had sitting in where you're sitting now. Wonderful

749
00:45:15,902 --> 00:45:19,262
couple. Made gorgeous wines out of Paso. Just started. And

750
00:45:19,446 --> 00:45:23,214
passionately approaching the wine trade. I'm gonna be part of

751
00:45:23,222 --> 00:45:27,010
this lifestyle. You know, they can't afford to send

752
00:45:27,410 --> 00:45:31,114
salespeople to Hawaii. They can't walk into a sales

753
00:45:31,162 --> 00:45:34,842
meeting at Southern and go, hey, you guys, you know, 200 reps, we're gonna. If

754
00:45:34,866 --> 00:45:38,442
you sell the, you know, they can't do that. And so. Yeah, I don't know

755
00:45:38,466 --> 00:45:41,898
that that necessarily limits the placements that they get. Like at

756
00:45:41,954 --> 00:45:45,770
Pavilions. Sure it does. Or something. It does. How about the number

757
00:45:45,810 --> 00:45:49,370
of vendors that you're allowed to work with? Like, because Certainly the more

758
00:45:49,410 --> 00:45:53,082
POs that you generate as the buyer, you know, the harder it is for

759
00:45:53,106 --> 00:45:56,862
corporate to deal with. Right. They got to write that many more checks and have

760
00:45:56,886 --> 00:46:00,350
that many more accounts. There's. I remember there's a

761
00:46:00,470 --> 00:46:04,046
woman, a young lady that came in and she had two SKUs.

762
00:46:04,238 --> 00:46:07,230
A skew. A skew is a product and it's called

763
00:46:07,270 --> 00:46:10,590
Nostotros Tequila. She had a

764
00:46:10,630 --> 00:46:14,062
Anejo and a blanco. She only had two. What,

765
00:46:14,166 --> 00:46:17,130
Nosotros is ours? Yeah, yeah, we are.

766
00:46:18,070 --> 00:46:20,942
And I wanted to help her. You know how sometimes you just want to help

767
00:46:20,966 --> 00:46:24,618
people? People come in your shop and sometimes you go, no, no, no, enough

768
00:46:24,674 --> 00:46:28,442
today. And then sometimes you think, you know, I want to help this person. Yes.

769
00:46:28,506 --> 00:46:31,962
Because they don't know. They don't know what they're doing. Right. And she goes, what

770
00:46:31,986 --> 00:46:35,642
do I do? She goes, I have only two SKUs. I have to go to

771
00:46:35,666 --> 00:46:39,482
all these Ralphs and Vons and Pavilions, but I only have two tequilas. I go,

772
00:46:39,506 --> 00:46:43,274
well, come up with a necktie that you can put around

773
00:46:43,362 --> 00:46:47,098
the bottle and whatever. 100% agave

774
00:46:47,194 --> 00:46:50,070
or award winning or whatever it is.

775
00:46:50,890 --> 00:46:54,354
And she did it. She actually did it. And to this day, I don't know

776
00:46:54,362 --> 00:46:57,714
if she's still working for the tequila company, but it's still on the shelf

777
00:46:57,762 --> 00:47:00,910
today. And that's my segue, is that

778
00:47:01,210 --> 00:47:04,550
just because you got your wine on the shelf

779
00:47:04,890 --> 00:47:07,938
doesn't mean nothing. Doesn't mean

780
00:47:07,994 --> 00:47:11,602
anything. Is it going to stay on the shelf? That's the

781
00:47:11,626 --> 00:47:15,138
whole thing. And then to your point of. Well,

782
00:47:15,274 --> 00:47:18,840
I don't. I can't. I have this wonderful South American,

783
00:47:19,460 --> 00:47:23,164
South African wine that we've been able to get into a couple

784
00:47:23,212 --> 00:47:26,924
places, but we can't get it into Pavilions or Vons or Ralph's or whatever it

785
00:47:26,932 --> 00:47:30,540
is because you don't have the, you don't have somebody

786
00:47:30,700 --> 00:47:34,000
to come in and sell it to, to pitch

787
00:47:35,380 --> 00:47:39,084
the. The rule of thumb. I heard from two young men.

788
00:47:39,172 --> 00:47:42,924
One of them was descended the Trincheros, you know, which is Sutter Home. And the

789
00:47:42,932 --> 00:47:46,730
other was descent of one of the winemakers at Camus. And

790
00:47:46,770 --> 00:47:49,834
they teamed up and they were making wine at Trincara. I forgot the name of

791
00:47:49,842 --> 00:47:53,194
the brand now. And they said we have to have

792
00:47:53,282 --> 00:47:57,066
100 placements on our own as a supplier for the listeners.

793
00:47:57,178 --> 00:48:00,378
Supplier is the person that basically makes the wine that brings it in from. To

794
00:48:00,434 --> 00:48:03,962
overseas. The distributor is a person that takes that wine and sells it to the

795
00:48:03,986 --> 00:48:06,790
retailer, restaurants, then you buy it. So

796
00:48:07,730 --> 00:48:11,556
we have to have a hundred bonafide placements of this wine

797
00:48:11,588 --> 00:48:15,332
before any distributor picks it up. And that's going back to your

798
00:48:15,356 --> 00:48:19,156
point, which is it's going to stay on the shelf unless somebody does what they're

799
00:48:19,188 --> 00:48:23,012
doing, going out and slapping the wines, doing the dinners, pouring them

800
00:48:23,036 --> 00:48:26,164
off, where they're going to pour it off. And I thought that, you know, I

801
00:48:26,172 --> 00:48:29,812
think branding in wine and liquor is probably one of the

802
00:48:29,836 --> 00:48:33,652
hardest products in the world to brand. You know, next to toothpaste and

803
00:48:33,676 --> 00:48:37,214
salad dressing. You're not going to unseat Paul Newman and you're not going to

804
00:48:37,222 --> 00:48:40,926
unseat, you know, George Clooney's

805
00:48:41,038 --> 00:48:44,878
thing. But then they see things like Dow selling for a billion dollars,

806
00:48:44,974 --> 00:48:48,654
Clooney making a billion or 2 billion. And there's an intrigue

807
00:48:48,782 --> 00:48:51,614
to like getting into this and see if you can make it work. And the

808
00:48:51,622 --> 00:48:55,342
reason I brought that up is sitting where you're sitting. I've had a half

809
00:48:55,366 --> 00:48:59,022
a dozen at least pretty average

810
00:48:59,086 --> 00:49:02,638
ideas that people spend a lot of money on trying to get their brand

811
00:49:02,694 --> 00:49:06,342
going. One was somebody thought that, that she was

812
00:49:06,446 --> 00:49:10,038
the first person with a 375, you know,

813
00:49:10,174 --> 00:49:13,782
and, and she called it. What do you mean?

814
00:49:13,806 --> 00:49:17,574
3. I know what a 375 is. But she, she thought that selling

815
00:49:17,622 --> 00:49:21,462
wine in a 375 was this revolutionary idea and it was

816
00:49:21,566 --> 00:49:25,302
quality wines. It was not. Sorry, they weren't quality. And second,

817
00:49:25,406 --> 00:49:29,236
you know, they're, it's just marketing. And the point I'm getting is the intrigue of

818
00:49:29,318 --> 00:49:32,600
this industry is in this case, in these

819
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:36,072
cases, the dollars like I can start a

820
00:49:36,096 --> 00:49:39,448
375. I can start a can. There was another girl who insisted that

821
00:49:39,504 --> 00:49:43,224
Lafitte Rashid would be In a can one day and she sat where you're sitting.

822
00:49:43,272 --> 00:49:46,340
I'm like, are you nuts? That's never going to happen.

823
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:51,464
There was another brand that came through here that was, you know, biodynamic

824
00:49:51,512 --> 00:49:55,096
organic wines. Oh, there was one that I tasted recently. Listen,

825
00:49:55,128 --> 00:49:58,592
this method Champenois in a

826
00:49:58,616 --> 00:50:01,632
can. Figure that out. How do you

827
00:50:01,656 --> 00:50:04,800
disgorge? And you

828
00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:08,320
didn't. All the leaves were in that

829
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:12,032
can. So that's the irony of this

830
00:50:12,056 --> 00:50:15,776
industry is that you get these people that have these grand ideas and they invest

831
00:50:15,848 --> 00:50:19,620
a lot of money. There's nothing to reinvent.

832
00:50:20,360 --> 00:50:23,490
There's really nothing to reinvent. Somebody asked me today,

833
00:50:24,350 --> 00:50:27,570
this morning, they have a major call with

834
00:50:28,110 --> 00:50:31,770
one of the biggest buyers in Southwest.

835
00:50:33,550 --> 00:50:37,334
They're looking for non alcoholic, non. Non alcoholic wines,

836
00:50:37,382 --> 00:50:40,998
which is what, 05, I guess. 05. And

837
00:50:41,054 --> 00:50:44,210
he, the buyer feels that

838
00:50:44,990 --> 00:50:48,652
the non alcoholic or low calorie, they

839
00:50:48,676 --> 00:50:52,492
already have them on the shelves. And he asked me to, he

840
00:50:52,516 --> 00:50:55,960
goes, do people come in? I go, no, they do

841
00:50:56,340 --> 00:51:00,140
for whatever. Maybe dry January. But I don't see.

842
00:51:00,180 --> 00:51:03,372
And I could be wrong. I've been wrong. Do you have a shelf? Do you

843
00:51:03,396 --> 00:51:07,228
have a section? Yes. I don't see that expanding. How many are

844
00:51:07,284 --> 00:51:10,940
on that? Oh, you know, I'd say at least

845
00:51:11,060 --> 00:51:14,492
18 or 20. But keep in mind that Sauvignon Blanc,

846
00:51:14,556 --> 00:51:17,848
Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet. You know,

847
00:51:17,984 --> 00:51:21,832
I, but he asked me and he's, you know, he's, he's with

848
00:51:21,856 --> 00:51:25,464
a pretty reputable company and he goes, peter, do you see a focus or do

849
00:51:25,472 --> 00:51:28,968
you see any emerging market for this? I go, it's already

850
00:51:29,024 --> 00:51:32,744
here. It's not going to get much bigger. That's just my opinion.

851
00:51:32,872 --> 00:51:36,488
I think that's accurate. I've seen, first of all, they're

852
00:51:36,504 --> 00:51:40,216
unpalatable. And it doesn't taste good. It just doesn't

853
00:51:40,248 --> 00:51:44,012
taste good. I'm sorry. Beer, Heineken and Beck's

854
00:51:44,156 --> 00:51:47,932
low calorie tastes fine. It's fine. It's good. You have a hamburger and

855
00:51:47,956 --> 00:51:49,280
a non alcoholic

856
00:51:51,220 --> 00:51:53,480
Heineken. It's fine. Yeah, but

857
00:51:53,780 --> 00:51:57,500
0.05 alcohol, they call

858
00:51:57,540 --> 00:52:01,244
it alcohol removed. Yeah. So I was at Whole Foods not that long

859
00:52:01,252 --> 00:52:04,620
ago and they were pouring the non alk Corona.

860
00:52:04,780 --> 00:52:08,604
Yeah. But they still had the stanchions up and it had a sign saying, you

861
00:52:08,612 --> 00:52:12,226
must be 21. Well, yeah, yeah, no, yeah,

862
00:52:12,258 --> 00:52:15,826
I, I. Know it's not alcohol. I know. What's the point? It's just beverage.

863
00:52:15,858 --> 00:52:19,298
But most of them are unpalatable. And I don't know if you know, the process

864
00:52:19,354 --> 00:52:23,170
for wine. But if, let's say a wine's 13 and a half percent

865
00:52:23,210 --> 00:52:26,322
alcohol, you have, first of all, I have to start with good wine. You gotta,

866
00:52:26,386 --> 00:52:29,458
you can't start with crap like, like they used to do with the barrel age

867
00:52:29,514 --> 00:52:32,914
stuff. Bourbon, barrel stuff. You, you,

868
00:52:33,082 --> 00:52:36,882
you take out that 14% alcohol, but you're also taking out another 16 to

869
00:52:36,906 --> 00:52:40,438
18% of flavor. So you really lose 30

870
00:52:40,494 --> 00:52:44,310
something percent of the total volume. Well, you can't, there's not a

871
00:52:44,350 --> 00:52:48,102
margin in wine to lose 30% of the margin once you've paid for

872
00:52:48,126 --> 00:52:51,942
picking it and fermenting it. So you add back water in some

873
00:52:51,966 --> 00:52:55,814
flavoring agents. That's why it tastes like crap. You've taken all the flavor out of

874
00:52:55,822 --> 00:52:58,214
it and you're going to add back what flavor. So I've never had one that

875
00:52:58,222 --> 00:53:01,862
I would sit and drink a glass of. And I think you're totally right. I

876
00:53:01,886 --> 00:53:05,062
don't, I think it's one of the blips in our industry that just kind of

877
00:53:05,086 --> 00:53:08,742
is going to pass through. Do you carry Ariel A R

878
00:53:08,766 --> 00:53:12,454
I E L. That's been around, it's been around for 25 years. Yeah, I

879
00:53:12,462 --> 00:53:15,302
was gonna say that's one of the first ones. That was one of the, the

880
00:53:15,326 --> 00:53:18,838
only ones. When it was on the shelf, it was at the bottom and somebody

881
00:53:18,854 --> 00:53:22,390
would come in and say, do you have any non alcoholic wine? And I only

882
00:53:22,430 --> 00:53:26,086
got the aerial there. But it's not it

883
00:53:26,158 --> 00:53:29,462
I tasted not long ago. It tastes the same as the other ones. And I

884
00:53:29,486 --> 00:53:33,208
talked, I think it's Rodney Strong, right? Is it big brands? And I said,

885
00:53:33,334 --> 00:53:36,132
I called him, I just, I wanted to ask. I said, you know, I used

886
00:53:36,156 --> 00:53:39,588
to stock this in my dad's shelf, you know, almost, almost my dad's

887
00:53:39,604 --> 00:53:42,880
shelf later in the career. And

888
00:53:43,340 --> 00:53:46,692
have you seen any change in sales? He goes, nah, it's only about

889
00:53:46,796 --> 00:53:50,388
3% of our total gross sales and it's not changed.

890
00:53:50,564 --> 00:53:54,212
And I don't see the hullabaloo. I don't see the

891
00:53:54,236 --> 00:53:57,924
reason for it. Same with, with biodynamic

892
00:53:57,972 --> 00:54:01,704
wines, you have an organic section. So people will come in and

893
00:54:01,792 --> 00:54:05,020
ask about that. There's one called Bontero. Yeah,

894
00:54:05,360 --> 00:54:09,192
I think I did a call with Dow and they're two

895
00:54:09,216 --> 00:54:12,776
or three years away from being certified. Yeah, organic,

896
00:54:12,808 --> 00:54:16,328
biologic, whatever they're doing. Yeah, whatever. But very

897
00:54:16,384 --> 00:54:20,200
rare, as many people that ask for non alcoholic wines will

898
00:54:20,240 --> 00:54:23,944
ask for organic. I don't even know what it means. I just tell them to

899
00:54:23,952 --> 00:54:27,266
go, I never do this. But when they Ask. I said, go to Whole

900
00:54:27,298 --> 00:54:30,994
Foods. They might have something there for you. Because I don't really know what it

901
00:54:31,002 --> 00:54:34,258
is. Because if it's organic, the

902
00:54:34,314 --> 00:54:38,018
ground has to be taken out.

903
00:54:38,074 --> 00:54:41,922
The pesticides have to be three years and then the leaves and

904
00:54:41,946 --> 00:54:45,682
the vines and so I don't really get it. And then they

905
00:54:45,706 --> 00:54:49,474
come up with, well, if I don't, if it's not organic, I get a

906
00:54:49,482 --> 00:54:52,510
headache. And the sulfates, I'm like, no, that's not what it's from.

907
00:54:53,790 --> 00:54:57,574
You know, it's. It's funny, most European

908
00:54:57,622 --> 00:55:00,806
wineries that are family owned and not big corporate

909
00:55:00,838 --> 00:55:04,390
America, corporate Europe would say, we

910
00:55:04,510 --> 00:55:07,494
try, we want as little as possible

911
00:55:07,662 --> 00:55:10,934
anyway, because my kids are playing in the

912
00:55:10,942 --> 00:55:14,614
vineyard. We don't go out to spray our fields because we want to

913
00:55:14,622 --> 00:55:17,414
spray them. We spray them to protect them. Yeah. If there's going to be a

914
00:55:17,422 --> 00:55:20,502
problem, whatever the reasons are. But it's. We try to keep it minimally

915
00:55:20,566 --> 00:55:24,386
anyway. And so. And I just, I opened a bottle

916
00:55:24,418 --> 00:55:27,730
of organic Sangiovese the other day from

917
00:55:27,770 --> 00:55:30,818
Sardinia or one of those places, and it had totally failed on me. It shouldn't

918
00:55:30,834 --> 00:55:34,578
have failed. A regular wine in that, that same genre would have been fine,

919
00:55:34,674 --> 00:55:38,002
but it didn't last. And I think that's one of the problems with organic wines

920
00:55:38,066 --> 00:55:41,554
in general. But I had a woman

921
00:55:41,722 --> 00:55:44,818
in the club, I had an organic club. It was not very popular.

922
00:55:44,994 --> 00:55:48,626
And I sent the wine out. It did not have the little green

923
00:55:48,658 --> 00:55:51,120
leaf on the back. Oh, yeah, well, that,

924
00:55:52,140 --> 00:55:55,748
that means it's demeter or whatever. I,

925
00:55:55,804 --> 00:55:59,508
Yeah, I don't know. But that certifies it. Okay. And I said. She goes,

926
00:55:59,524 --> 00:56:02,164
it's not organic. I said, yes, it is, ma'am. She goes, no, it's not. It

927
00:56:02,172 --> 00:56:05,956
doesn't have the green leaf. I said, well, these people have been farming organically

928
00:56:06,068 --> 00:56:09,572
long before the green leaf even existed, right? She said, I don't care. I want

929
00:56:09,596 --> 00:56:13,044
a green leaf. So I had to replace the bottle with a green leaf. So

930
00:56:13,052 --> 00:56:16,360
it had nothing to do with being organic. It was strictly

931
00:56:17,020 --> 00:56:19,720
that it was labeled. That's.

932
00:56:20,300 --> 00:56:24,000
I'm going to guess and say that

933
00:56:24,620 --> 00:56:28,340
that type of buyer just wants it to

934
00:56:28,380 --> 00:56:31,876
be the way it is. And they're not going to fuss about

935
00:56:32,028 --> 00:56:35,732
maybe the taste or maybe hopefully they'll drink it and go,

936
00:56:35,756 --> 00:56:39,268
oh, this tastes like crap. Forget that. I'm just going to drink what I like.

937
00:56:39,404 --> 00:56:43,252
That's what it is. You know, coming in and, you know, buying. Do

938
00:56:43,276 --> 00:56:46,916
you have a organic Chardonnay? I'm like, well, I mean, no, I Don't

939
00:56:46,948 --> 00:56:50,720
you? You know, we have unoaked, we have Tolosa, we've got

940
00:56:50,760 --> 00:56:54,416
blah, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, you're getting too specific.

941
00:56:54,528 --> 00:56:58,224
And I'm not even sure. And you would know better. I'm not sure that a

942
00:56:58,232 --> 00:57:02,064
liquor store or a wine shop is going to be able

943
00:57:02,072 --> 00:57:05,600
to help you. You know, I think what you

944
00:57:05,640 --> 00:57:09,296
see and what you're doing at that store, you're seeing

945
00:57:09,328 --> 00:57:12,912
a pretty good indication of the American

946
00:57:13,016 --> 00:57:16,468
palate at a supermarket and what they're really

947
00:57:16,524 --> 00:57:20,180
buying. Leaving non alk low elk

948
00:57:20,260 --> 00:57:24,084
wines to the people that specialize

949
00:57:24,132 --> 00:57:27,652
in it and know who's buying it is a

950
00:57:27,676 --> 00:57:31,012
great, the right idea. Same with premium

951
00:57:31,156 --> 00:57:34,884
spirits. You know those, there's places where you can get those if you want

952
00:57:34,892 --> 00:57:38,612
those. You want biodynamic wines. And my first experience with

953
00:57:38,636 --> 00:57:42,316
biodynamic wines, we were in New York. My and my daughter Lisa,

954
00:57:42,428 --> 00:57:45,884
you know, she's. She's a French trained

955
00:57:45,932 --> 00:57:49,756
boulanger and she's, you know, into the food scene. She goes, dad,

956
00:57:49,788 --> 00:57:52,412
we have to go to Brooklyn and go to this natural wine shop. I'm like,

957
00:57:52,516 --> 00:57:56,204
this is early on in this stupid. So it was all 100% natural wine.

958
00:57:56,252 --> 00:57:59,948
Yeah. Okay. And so we went to this little shop and she's, oh,

959
00:57:59,964 --> 00:58:03,292
let's get that Sicilian nerd out. I said, okay. I didn't even look at the

960
00:58:03,316 --> 00:58:06,140
price. Like an idiot, I grabbed the bottle, I put up and they were

961
00:58:06,180 --> 00:58:09,950
$75. I'm like, me,

962
00:58:10,070 --> 00:58:12,970
you know, I was paying three bucks, you know, for wine here.

963
00:58:14,550 --> 00:58:18,210
So I bought it, we took it back to the hotel and it was unpalatable

964
00:58:18,710 --> 00:58:22,526
and I looked at my diet. Look, you can't.

965
00:58:22,638 --> 00:58:26,142
Wine is not to suffer through because you think it's a

966
00:58:26,166 --> 00:58:29,370
healthy beverage because it's organic. Right. That's not what it's about.

967
00:58:29,910 --> 00:58:33,722
So drop the consideration of that and pick the

968
00:58:33,746 --> 00:58:37,466
wines that make you feel good. Yeah. And don't drink a wine that doesn't taste

969
00:58:37,498 --> 00:58:41,226
good just because it's organic. Right. What are the laws in New York about

970
00:58:41,298 --> 00:58:45,130
bringing. Bringing wine back? Oh, it's shipping it. No,

971
00:58:45,170 --> 00:58:48,698
no. So taking it back. Yeah. I don't think you can. Yeah. Okay. So that's

972
00:58:48,714 --> 00:58:52,362
the way California is. Yeah. Okay. You can't bring a bottle back. No. Not

973
00:58:52,386 --> 00:58:56,090
unless it's corked. And I. That's kind of on the sly. I'll tell

974
00:58:56,130 --> 00:58:59,806
some good customers, look, if I'm not here and you didn't like it,

975
00:58:59,858 --> 00:59:03,222
it. Don't tell them you didn't like it. Tell them that it was

976
00:59:03,246 --> 00:59:07,010
spoiled. I did not know that. Yeah. If you tell them I didn't like this.

977
00:59:07,310 --> 00:59:10,374
Well, that's all. We can't do anything about it. Yeah.

978
00:59:10,502 --> 00:59:14,214
Hey, I had a funny smell. I

979
00:59:14,222 --> 00:59:18,006
don't think it's, you know, I'm not going to taste it to second guess

980
00:59:18,038 --> 00:59:21,462
them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. Of course not. Yeah, so you can't. In

981
00:59:21,486 --> 00:59:25,302
California. You buy it, it's yours. It's funny. Naz put

982
00:59:25,326 --> 00:59:28,922
those two glasses up by the cash register by the bar

983
00:59:29,106 --> 00:59:32,554
for the manager to come and smell them, and she came over, smelled them, and

984
00:59:32,562 --> 00:59:36,298
then they dumped them. He'd already poured his fresh glasses. We're already happy, but

985
00:59:36,354 --> 00:59:39,754
they, they had to validate. Did you know Mark Brown as well? Of course.

986
00:59:39,922 --> 00:59:43,674
So. So, Mark, we're already at an hour, so. But okay, this

987
00:59:43,682 --> 00:59:47,386
is a funny story. They did a food

988
00:59:47,458 --> 00:59:51,098
and cocktail pairing and Greg actually came to this

989
00:59:51,154 --> 00:59:54,716
Greg Smith, I don't know, a few years ago, and there were maybe

990
00:59:54,748 --> 00:59:58,412
25 people in the room. And Mark's telling a story about a cocktail.

991
00:59:58,476 --> 01:00:01,532
Like you're talking about telling a story. He's making a cocktail. But you ended up

992
01:00:01,556 --> 01:00:05,280
with five full size cocktails from a five course meal,

993
01:00:06,020 --> 01:00:09,772
which is a little, it's a little heavy duty. But in the middle of

994
01:00:09,796 --> 01:00:13,280
it, we, we had had this conversation prior

995
01:00:13,620 --> 01:00:16,332
because I want to stop and talk to you about something. He goes, see that

996
01:00:16,356 --> 01:00:19,612
guy over there? Wait a minute, Mark Brown said that? Yeah. Okay. He goes, see

997
01:00:19,636 --> 01:00:23,070
that guy over there? And he points at me. I was serving him drinks in

998
01:00:23,110 --> 01:00:26,702
1980 at, at the Three Two Saloon at USC. I just want to

999
01:00:26,726 --> 01:00:29,934
introduce Paul K. I'm like, oh, crap. So he was working

1000
01:00:30,022 --> 01:00:33,822
SC at the 3:2 Saloon, which is on the second floor. Yeah. When

1001
01:00:33,846 --> 01:00:37,630
I was there and I remembered him, I remembered a couple of things about

1002
01:00:37,670 --> 01:00:41,310
him that, that, that happened, but it was a little embarrassing. He. He was

1003
01:00:41,350 --> 01:00:45,102
a. A neighbor. I used to live up above Parkway. And I'd see him

1004
01:00:45,126 --> 01:00:48,882
riding his bike down to Parkway. Great guy. I mean,

1005
01:00:48,906 --> 01:00:52,722
he. I don't know why he left, but that's not. I think he had

1006
01:00:52,746 --> 01:00:56,482
a back or foot issue. And I was

1007
01:00:56,506 --> 01:00:59,170
cleaning the house out not too long ago, a few weeks ago, and I found

1008
01:00:59,290 --> 01:01:02,690
a handwritten note. He had been making the

1009
01:01:02,730 --> 01:01:06,338
revolver, which is like a bourbon, orange

1010
01:01:06,514 --> 01:01:10,210
peel, coffee thing. And I

1011
01:01:10,250 --> 01:01:14,052
had written down my writing. His cell phone was on there and it said

1012
01:01:14,076 --> 01:01:17,668
the revolver and it had the proportions for this drink.

1013
01:01:17,844 --> 01:01:20,324
And I took a picture of it. I texted him, I said, hey, do you

1014
01:01:20,332 --> 01:01:23,924
remember this? And he wrote back his whole thing. He goes, you know, I'm

1015
01:01:23,972 --> 01:01:27,748
still suffering a little bit, but if you ever have a job

1016
01:01:27,804 --> 01:01:30,660
and you want somebody to pour a little bit, I can probably pull it off.

1017
01:01:30,700 --> 01:01:34,084
And I. Cool. That'd be really fun because I like talking to him. He's a

1018
01:01:34,092 --> 01:01:37,524
good guy. Anyway, we're at an hour. All right, well, thanks. This is an amazing

1019
01:01:37,572 --> 01:01:41,124
conversation with my. Pretty quick. We can go. We can go buy. You and I

1020
01:01:41,132 --> 01:01:44,624
could talk forever and all these subjects. Well, as long as it's just opinions

1021
01:01:44,672 --> 01:01:47,580
and not fact, I'm okay. Yeah. Right.

1022
01:01:48,440 --> 01:01:51,472
Well, I'm sure we'll see on the streets these days. We. Last time I saw

1023
01:01:51,496 --> 01:01:55,216
you was at Parkway Grill having something. I mean, join

1024
01:01:55,248 --> 01:01:58,800
my podcast. Just. It's simple. It's love to do it. Purple

1025
01:01:58,960 --> 01:02:02,496
icon on your phone and just. Yeah. Type in. Just put in Peter

1026
01:02:02,528 --> 01:02:05,968
Dills. Yeah. And the show is Dining with Peter

1027
01:02:05,984 --> 01:02:09,728
Dills. And that is what day? Sunday nights

1028
01:02:09,744 --> 01:02:12,940
at 5pm Sunday nights, 5pm a.m. 8 70.

1029
01:02:13,430 --> 01:02:17,182
It's a Glendale station, but anywhere in LA. Where

1030
01:02:17,206 --> 01:02:20,862
is the 701? Well, I'm on Brand street in Glendale, so we

1031
01:02:20,886 --> 01:02:24,318
do. Last time I saw you on the radio, it was down in La Brea

1032
01:02:24,334 --> 01:02:28,174
or something. I was down in Orange County. This. This has a little bit more

1033
01:02:28,342 --> 01:02:31,822
oomph to it. Not that that wasn't bad, but that was more of

1034
01:02:31,846 --> 01:02:35,582
a sports crowd. And I. I'm trying. Even before that, you were at

1035
01:02:35,606 --> 01:02:39,134
La Cienega or the kvc. Yeah, kvc. Yeah,

1036
01:02:39,182 --> 01:02:42,792
kvc. Which is gone now, too. So they come and they

1037
01:02:42,816 --> 01:02:45,960
go. Amazing. Hey, great to have you. Cheers. Thank you, Paul.