Interview with Lien Ta of All Day Baby about hosting successful events, empowering women in the food and beverage industry, and social media storytelling.
Good Tech Makes Life Easier - For too long, Lien Ta saw her point of sale technology getting in the way of efficiency at her first restaurant Here’s Looking At You. In 2018 she had enough and switched to Toast. Bad tech makes work harder, good tech makes it easier. Now the entire staff operates better and is happier. Investing in technology means investing in the future of your business.
Southern Inspirations - It was days from opening All Day Baby when Lien Ta decided she needed a fried catfish sandwich on the menu. The LT's Hot Catfish Sandwich, along with other mouth-watering items at ADB, was inspired by the American South. She brought her own story and Southern roots into the menu to great success.
Viral TikTok Breakfast Sandwich - Social media is at its most successful when people share stories organically. Although she is not a TikTok user, Lien Ta has learned that her All Day Baby ADB Biscuit Sandwich has regularly popped up in popular videos on the social media video app. The big taste (and size) matched with the photogenic ascetic inspires patrons to pull out their phone and share their meal with the world.
Good Tech Makes Life Easier - For too long, Lien Ta saw her point of sale technology getting in the way of efficiency at her first restaurant Here’s Looking At You. In 2018 she had enough and switched to Toast. Bad tech makes work harder, good tech makes it easier. Now the entire staff operates better and is happier. Investing in technology means investing in the future of your business.
Southern Inspirations - It was days from opening All Day Baby when Lien Ta decided she needed a fried catfish sandwich on the menu. The LT's Hot Catfish Sandwich, along with other mouth-watering items at ADB, was inspired by the American South. She brought her own story and Southern roots into the menu to great success.
Viral TikTok Breakfast Sandwich - Social media is at its most successful when people share stories organically. Although she is not a TikTok user, Lien Ta has learned that her All Day Baby ADB Biscuit Sandwich has regularly popped up in popular videos on the social media video app. The big taste (and size) matched with the photogenic ascetic inspires patrons to pull out their phone and share their meal with the world.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Welcome to Restaurant Influencers presented by Entrepreneur.
00:03 My name is Sean Walsh, founder of Cali BBQ and Cali BBQ Media.
00:08 In life, in the restaurant business and in the new creator economy,
00:13 we learn through lessons and stories.
00:14 Today, I have a very special guest.
00:17 I am in Los Angeles with none other than L.A.
00:23 Restauranteur.
00:24 Not only are you on the cover, but what's more impressive to me is that
00:28 you actually wrote the story that is inside of this magazine.
00:32 Lynn Ta, it's a pleasure.
00:34 Thank you for having us.
00:35 Oh, thank you for being here.
00:36 Such a delight.
00:37 This is super exciting.
00:39 We're at All Day Baby, so we're on Sunset Boulevard.
00:42 The sun has just come up.
00:43 We have the Hollywood sign in the background, and we're here to talk about
00:48 lessons and stories about the restaurant business.
00:51 We're grateful to Toast.
00:53 Toast is a primary technology partner, not only at our restaurants,
00:56 but also at your restaurants.
00:58 They give us this platform, this stage to share stories with entrepreneurs
01:03 that are doing things differently.
01:05 This is a very hard business.
01:07 And the reason that we do this show is to share the secrets
01:10 that you shared in this story.
01:12 Can you start by telling us the love letter that you wrote
01:15 about being a restaurateur?
01:17 What'd you write in here?
01:19 I mean, I think I wrote about how that it was work.
01:21 Restaurant love requires a lot of work and a lot of love.
01:28 Yeah, it was it was a challenging article to write because I think we wanted to
01:32 me and the editor of Edible LA, we wanted to have a premise of joy
01:37 attached to it.
01:39 And, you know, my relationship with joy, especially in the last four years,
01:43 navigating the pandemic with my team, it's it's really gone up and down.
01:48 And I've learned a lot of lessons about
01:49 how much to work and how much of it can really
01:53 kind of actually negate, you know, your love for for your job.
01:57 In the article, you write about tears of joy.
02:03 And I think that anybody that listens to this, if you're a restaurateur,
02:07 if you dream of becoming a restaurateur.
02:09 We dream of that day one, you know, and I mean, day one, not pre opening
02:15 and, you know, thinking about opening up the restaurant, but actual day one
02:19 of when it's go time and now the cash register can actually ring
02:23 the point of sale can actually start taking some some money.
02:26 You talked about the tears of joy of of just gratitude.
02:30 Yeah, you know, of that champagne, that toast to the team.
02:33 Can you bring us back to that moment?
02:35 Yeah, I mean, I think at the time I wasn't even prone to tears of joy.
02:40 It just wasn't a part of my emotional acumen at the time.
02:45 So to to be affected
02:48 in that manner was was new to me.
02:52 And I remember I highlighted three things, but one for sure was go time.
02:57 I wanted to gather my staff, do a little champagne toast.
03:01 And I couldn't even get the words out.
03:04 There was nothing that I could do or say to maintain composure.
03:08 And I think someone else had to step in for me.
03:11 We just clinked.
03:12 I just swallowed the champagne and the tears back.
03:15 And I've since now gotten sort of I'm a little bit more in touch with my own emotions.
03:22 I'm very I'm like an empath.
03:23 So I think I'm I'm great.
03:25 And I and I am geared towards service and taking care of others because I have
03:30 I have such deep, like manifestation of others feelings.
03:34 But for me, I'm generally late to my feelings.
03:36 So, yeah, it's it's been an extraordinary journey, even just
03:42 understanding how joy can can look.
03:45 Well, what I appreciate so much about reading that, you know, prior to coming up here,
03:52 I was so excited to come and interview you, but I hadn't read the article.
03:56 And when I read the article, it really hit home why we put this show on.
04:01 You know, the first guest that we ever had on Restaurant Influencers was Sam,
04:04 the cooking guy and Sam, the cooking guy, is this prolific mentor of mine.
04:09 He's an incredible storyteller.
04:11 He's a YouTuber with over three million followers on YouTube.
04:15 He makes incredible cookbooks.
04:17 He shares all of himself.
04:19 He teaches people how to cook.
04:20 But he opened up a restaurant.
04:22 And I remember going to not not tacos before he was opening.
04:26 And he was on Instagram Live.
04:28 Yeah. Connecting with this community.
04:30 But then he had to pause.
04:33 And he didn't cry, but he choked up.
04:35 Yes. And I think that moment
04:38 that you share about your story and Sam's moment and my moment of thinking back
04:44 when I opened up our first restaurant in 2008, it's a very emotional place
04:49 because it's all your hopes, all your dreams.
04:51 And you still don't know if it's going to work.
04:53 You don't. And then, you know, you're looking at your team.
04:56 Maybe, you know, some of them, maybe you just met them the other day.
04:59 And, you know, and they've they're trusting in you that, you know,
05:03 this this job is going to work out.
05:05 This job is going to sustain their life.
05:07 And then those doors open and then you're just hoping for strangers to come in.
05:12 And then it's just the most bewildering experience
05:14 that it's not like people that love you, people that support you
05:17 coming through the doors, but it's just like names you don't know.
05:21 And like how in the world did they make this decision
05:24 to come all the way out to this area of town to enjoy food
05:27 that they don't know anything about?
05:29 Can you bring us back to the financial aspect?
05:32 You said in the article you raised seven hundred fifty thousand dollars.
05:35 And this is a show for entrepreneur people that have a dream.
05:39 Sometimes most entrepreneurs aren't able to finance that dream.
05:44 Some people are. A lot of people have to ask for money.
05:47 Right. I was asking for money.
05:49 It's it's a humbling experience.
05:51 You know, I raised seven hundred and fifty thousand for our first restaurant
05:55 and one point two five for the restaurant we're at right now. Wow.
05:58 And it's, you know, and now when when peers or restaurant
06:04 hopefuls ask me about how to do that, I mean, I don't know.
06:09 I mean, I I literally say you need to think about any single person
06:14 that has possibly ever cared about you.
06:16 Hopefully they have deeper pockets than yourself
06:19 and really make the case as to why they should give this money to you.
06:26 Because in many ways, you can tell them about the concept.
06:29 You can tell them why you think it's going to work.
06:31 This is the five year plan, et cetera.
06:33 Ultimately, an investor is investing in you.
06:37 Yeah. And they need to believe that you're the kind of human
06:40 that's going to see this through to the best of her capabilities.
06:46 When did you find your truth so that you could actually close that investor?
06:51 What do you mean you get rejected?
06:54 Oh, yeah. Do you remember any of the rejections?
06:57 Absolutely.
06:59 Honestly, a lot of women rejected me.
07:01 Really? It's not that I had a lot of people to ask.
07:04 I mean, I really you know, I was so new in the game.
07:08 You know, we always talk about my chef partner and I, we always talk about
07:12 we were just two nobodies like hoping to open a great restaurant.
07:15 But I remember, you know, we would take the time, create these dinners,
07:20 go to these people's homes, beautiful, gorgeous homes, a home I'll never own.
07:26 You know, and and really doing our best to showcase
07:31 what our future will hopefully look like.
07:34 And, you know, they think about it.
07:35 They have to think about their finances.
07:37 Are they thinking of investing twenty five thousand, fifty thousand,
07:40 maybe one hundred thousand?
07:41 And then ultimately they're like, this food's good.
07:43 But I don't think I believe in this location
07:46 or I don't think, you know, the steak tartar is chopped correctly.
07:52 I mean, there I remember absolutely really small at the time,
07:56 quite painful details.
07:58 But I try to focus on, you know, the nine that really did give us the money.
08:02 I remember feeling really stuck.
08:04 I was talking to someone last night at an event.
08:06 I remember I had raised whatever seven hundred and fifty minus
08:10 220 is I'd raise that and then I was stuck on this 220 K.
08:14 And it's and it's just it.
08:16 It sort of swallows you up whole and you can't
08:19 you cannot think about anything else.
08:22 But how are you going to raise this in time?
08:23 You're in the middle of construction.
08:25 You have an opening date in mind.
08:26 Rent is starting to sort of collect.
08:29 Yeah. But this one was even harder.
08:33 This one. What happened?
08:35 How did you get this?
08:36 No. How did you get over the line?
08:37 How did you get the 220?
08:38 You truly so the first step is obviously asking anybody who's ever.
08:43 Attempted to care about you.
08:45 The next step is to ask them again and ask them about other people
08:49 that they can think of and to constantly go through the layers.
08:51 And eventually I got there and, you know, a group of people that I didn't know
08:56 ended up investing that whole chunk of 220. Amazing. Yes.
09:00 So when you open up the first restaurant, I think, you know,
09:04 one of the powerful things for me is getting in a position to talk to someone
09:07 like you that's not only open one, but you've opened to
09:10 bring me through that process of going from one to two.
09:14 I feel like most folks thought and assumed it was easier, you know, like
09:21 you figured out how to do one.
09:24 Two is, you know, and we'd already had like, quote unquote, one success story.
09:30 So why wouldn't anybody just immediately throw cash at us
09:34 for a second opportunity and a second vision?
09:38 But no, it was challenging.
09:41 It was in many ways harder.
09:43 I think one, I was still in running the other restaurant,
09:47 and it is a full time job trying to raise money. Yeah.
09:50 And to you, I remember we captured the space,
09:54 signed the lease, began construction, and you're sort of just
09:58 going along these two roads at the same time.
10:01 You're running this place.
10:03 Yes, you're trying to, you know, be frugal
10:07 and think about the correct choices for construction.
10:10 But in the meantime, it will get solved if you don't raise more money.
10:13 So it was it was incredibly difficult.
10:17 And and unlike the first place, I have three times,
10:20 four times the number of investors here.
10:22 I have almost almost 30. Wow. Yeah.
10:25 So but that was that was amazing where I would get one person.
10:31 They would then ask their best friend from high school
10:33 if they would invest and they would ask somebody else.
10:36 So it's it's it's a really incredible collection of people.
10:41 I have women investors in this restaurant.
10:43 I have it's a very diverse group to even have, you know,
10:47 a girlfriend from college.
10:48 She studied writing with me in school and and she was like,
10:52 this is all I can give.
10:53 But, you know, I believe in you and I believe in this cause.
10:56 I had a woman that I had bought a chandelier from her
11:00 for our first restaurant.
11:01 It was like one of three splurge items.
11:03 Her name is Heather Levine,
11:05 and she's just an incredibly talented ceramicist here in Los Angeles.
11:09 And when it came time to think about opening and raising money for all day,
11:13 baby, I approached her and she's like, you know, I've been so lucky in my life,
11:17 you know, with my my career.
11:20 I want to give it to someone.
11:22 I want to give some piece of this to to someone that is also trying to find
11:26 her truth and her art.
11:28 So she asked her boyfriend.
11:29 She asked her best friend, best friend, asked her sister.
11:32 So, you know, together, the four of them created a hundred thousand dollar
11:35 investment. That's amazing.
11:37 Tell me more about why you spend so much time with your new nonprofit
11:41 that you co-founded for women.
11:43 I spend a lot of time with regarding her because it's
11:48 it's important to me to see other restauranteurs
11:53 that happen to be women also being amplified,
11:58 being on the cover of magazines, being in talks just like this.
12:02 I think it's kind of I don't know what it is.
12:05 You know, I've been on the other side of it.
12:07 I've been in media in my life, too.
12:09 And it really does kind of come naturally to think about
12:14 the heavy hitters, the stars, who's going to get those Web page clicks,
12:18 who's going to get, you know, cross your video threshold of one hundred
12:22 thousand views or whatever it is.
12:25 And you mostly kind of think of men.
12:27 I don't know if it's a it's a voice thing or, you know, they've just had more success.
12:32 And and I certainly understand the appeal of that.
12:35 And what I love about regarding her is I'm trying to forge true connections
12:41 and learn these individual stories and do my best to provide a platform
12:45 where we can celebrate those women.
12:47 So now I think it's three years, three years since the founding of Regarding Her.
12:52 It's so wonderful to see them headlining panels, you know,
12:56 and are being in or being incredible presences on social media.
13:02 Like, it's not really my forte.
13:04 Like, I don't know how to self tape.
13:05 I don't know how to like do a real.
13:07 What are you talking about?
13:08 No, I really don't. Come on.
13:10 I truly don't.
13:11 You have you have a great Instagram presence.
13:13 I have a good voice.
13:14 But as I'm told by young people, I do Instagram all wrong.
13:17 I write long captions.
13:20 I do. I disagree.
13:21 You we've we've been doing this show and what we what we teach anybody.
13:25 That's that's in a leadership position.
13:27 And we believe that if you're in hospitality, every voice matters.
13:31 So it doesn't matter what position you're in.
13:33 You are in a leadership position, but you post.
13:36 You do things that most restaurant owners don't do.
13:38 Yeah. Give yourself some credit.
13:40 Absolutely. But I don't do movement like video is not my.
13:45 It's not a it doesn't give me joy.
13:47 That's for sure.
13:47 So then definitely.
13:49 But writing does.
13:50 Yes. Writing gives me writing as a way that I choose to express and can express.
13:55 But it's been amazing to see, you know, women that we gave like ten thousand
13:58 dollar grants to, you know, at the onset of the pandemic.
14:00 And, you know, I recently came across this young woman named Naomi.
14:03 She owns a restaurant with her family.
14:05 She started out when she was 20 years old, younger, you know, just like handing out
14:09 catering flyers in her high school and getting caught and going to the principal's
14:12 office. And the other day I saw her on Instagram and like she was cutting a ribbon
14:16 for her second location.
14:18 She was gorgeous on video.
14:21 It was like moving around.
14:22 I was so impressed to see how much she has grown, even in such a short amount of
14:27 time. When you think about social media specifically for your restaurants, what
14:34 kind of impact has it made for you?
14:35 I think it's been a lifeline, like we needed this outlet to to tell people we
14:45 exist. And, you know, and I think it's a challenge, especially these days and
14:50 algorithms we don't understand to create that following.
14:54 And all I know best to do is to showcase the talents of my team.
14:59 And, you know, we opened three months before the pandemic and after that was when
15:05 we had to create activations and, you know, and find ways to best appeal to an
15:14 individual at home, told to stay home, but wants to support small business.
15:18 They have a million choices literally here in L.A.
15:21 You know, so what is it going to take to get them to choose to come to us?
15:26 And Instagram was our way.
15:30 You know, it was the way we created regarding her.
15:33 It is the current I wake up every morning.
15:34 I think I'm thinking about Instagram, you know, but it's it's easy.
15:38 It comes naturally when I have other things to talk about at this restaurant.
15:43 I have a great new mocktail that you're going to love, you know, a new dish that
15:47 chef has been working on, even just a story of like our guests coming in.
15:52 And not that I'm out there trying to post about new babies, but like I'm thinking
15:57 about it, like I got to hold a new baby the other day who is as old as the new
16:02 revamped dinner menu.
16:03 Like I was holding this child, Henry, and I was like, you were born a couple of days
16:07 after we relaunched the menu.
16:09 You're as old as the menu.
16:10 So these are all things, you know, that I've collected over time.
16:16 And I won't ever forget because you you cannot take any guest for granted that
16:21 they they made an option to come and see you.
16:23 When you think about the future of restaurants and restauranteurs that are, you
16:28 know, getting into this game or wanting to improve the game, what what we are so
16:33 grateful that toast us for our barbecue restaurants is what we call digital
16:37 hospitality. You know, hospitality in real life is making a memorable moment.
16:41 But in order for those memorable moments to happen, you've got to have the right
16:44 technology partner that can help you do that.
16:46 Can you talk about when did you find out about toast and why did you switch?
16:50 Yes, I think it was 2018.
16:54 My staff and I at here is looking at you or suffering through an old POS that I
17:00 won't name it.
17:01 You know, time is time is precious, you know, and in in the restaurant world,
17:07 guests to team member and food and it being the temperature it needs to be.
17:13 All of those things are so valuable and actually not that forgiving.
17:17 And I was struggling to make the former POS work on my side.
17:22 It was slow, you guys.
17:24 And it was difficult to troubleshoot.
17:28 It was difficult to find someone for help.
17:31 And I wasn't even thinking about optimization and actual like efficiency and
17:35 all of that. A friend who has a restaurant here in Silver Lake, they were using
17:41 toast.
17:42 Yeah. So I set up a meeting.
17:44 I have still the best sales.
17:46 Who is Jessica Kast Kastmirsky?
17:49 Jessica. Yeah.
17:51 She's from the Midwest.
17:52 OK, she's wonderful.
17:55 And she's got a top level position now, but she still answers my emails.
17:58 And, you know, sometimes it's about the person.
18:01 Yes. You know, a lot of times it is about the person.
18:04 And I, you know, I really believe in someone being able to authentically present
18:10 to you what your life could look like if you use this product.
18:14 Anyway, so Jessica is amazing.
18:15 And I just remember onboarding this and and it changed our lives instantly.
18:22 And it's been wonderful to watch in the last five years.
18:25 How's toast has continued to elevate their game.
18:28 I loved how they just like humbly always had a toast takeout program.
18:33 And when 2020 hit, Jessica was just like, oh, we have this.
18:37 And by the way, it doesn't really cost anything else.
18:40 Like just you turn it on, basically.
18:42 And I love I got addicted, actually, to the little dinging sound
18:49 when like an order would come in from online and the tickets would come up.
18:52 I loved being able to have,
18:55 you know, a visual of of a guest first and last name.
18:59 Like, you know, there's a guest that ordered religiously several times a week.
19:03 Tons of things.
19:04 I was like bereft one time that I left his key lime pie out of his order.
19:08 And and this guest is specific to all day baby.
19:12 And it was funny that when I launched or announced on social media
19:17 a GoFundMe campaign to help to attempt to raise one hundred thousand dollars
19:22 to reopen the other restaurant.
19:25 This guy who I knew from his breakfast orders.
19:29 Yeah. When he donated a thousand dollars. Wow.
19:32 I mean, I I didn't actually understand why,
19:36 because, you know, I know him from here.
19:38 I didn't actually know him there.
19:40 And then as the story continues, I learned that he was a writer
19:43 that was recently on strike. Wow.
19:45 I've found him on Instagram.
19:47 We follow each other now, and I do now see him.
19:50 I figured out who his partner was, who also did her own ordering.
19:54 And it's just.
19:54 And again, it all started with that first and last name information.
19:59 Yeah. You know, that toast provides for us on on a single ticket.
20:03 It's amazing when you understand
20:07 when you have two different locations and back to people invest in you.
20:12 So they know the more that they know your story, the more that they're willing to go.
20:16 Oh, well, I didn't know your other restaurant was struggling.
20:18 I would love to support you because I believe in you
20:22 no matter where you open up your restaurant. Right.
20:24 That's very powerful.
20:26 When you look at the future of what's happening with events,
20:31 you know, we we look at our restaurant as if we're every day that we're open
20:36 as an event. Yes. Today is an event like we have cameras here.
20:39 We're rolling. We're filming for toast and for entrepreneur.
20:42 You do events very uniquely.
20:45 How did those come about and what kind of advice do you have for anyone
20:49 that's looking to do an event within a restaurant space?
20:52 Oh, gosh, I love events.
20:53 And, you know, it kind of came about by necessity.
20:59 You know, we just had to find ways to differentiate our restaurant
21:02 from other restaurants.
21:04 I think you're absolutely right.
21:05 Every day, it's a miracle that we can even open and close without
21:08 hopefully less than five emergencies.
21:11 And and, you know, and oftentimes restaurant work is repetitive.
21:15 You're you're actually trying to master one way.
21:19 Events are the exact opposite.
21:21 You're trying to do something super special and super unique
21:24 to this particular day and time.
21:26 And we here at All Day Baby needed to do things differently.
21:32 And we've kind of been doing this from the beginning.
21:35 You know, when you're when you don't have, I guess, something like in a pandemic
21:39 to make you think differently.
21:41 You know, I I was just like any other restauranteur.
21:43 I was like, oh, I'm not the chef. I live in the background.
21:46 I just want to do things normal and like pray that I can even get there.
21:50 And when 2020 came, we were just like, it doesn't matter.
21:54 Let's just try anything.
21:56 You know, we'll we'll do biscuit windows.
21:58 We'll do cocktails to go.
22:00 We'll we'll host a drag.
22:02 We hosted a drag queen bingo night.
22:04 I remember like just a week before, you know, we opened and we hadn't
22:07 really done anything well at night yet.
22:10 And that was one of our first attempts.
22:12 And I mean, we just want to have fun.
22:14 Like mastering repetition in your work is fantastic and really rewarding.
22:19 And in an achievement in itself.
22:22 But sometimes when you collectively do something sort of spontaneous, it's
22:26 it's it's really it's really meaningful.
22:29 And we all needed to kind of come back and get together.
22:31 So recently at All Day Baby, we've we've been hosting tons of events.
22:36 I hosted food trivia night.
22:38 Tell me about food trivia night.
22:39 Food trivia night.
22:40 It is I had this idea earlier this year that
22:44 I thought, wouldn't it be great if we got a room full of food fanatics
22:49 and restaurant fanatics, because there must be a lot of them
22:52 because, you know, they're all reading Eater and LA Times food articles.
22:56 And I was like, what if we got them all together in a room
22:58 where they could only they could answer trivia questions
23:02 that were exclusively about food and the L.A. restaurant world?
23:05 And that that is my passion.
23:07 That's kind of how I got into this whole predicament as it is.
23:09 And so what I do is I write 25 trivia questions
23:15 and the answers, of course.
23:18 We we set up a microphone, all of that.
23:21 I get a really compelling co-host to host the night with me.
23:24 I choose a very compelling. Yeah.
23:26 So you name drop some.
23:28 Well, so my first one, I was like, I got really nervous, as anyone does
23:31 when they're planning a party.
23:32 This is like takes you back to being young and like having a birthday party.
23:35 You're like, is anyone going to come?
23:36 So I was like, OK, if we're going to launch food trivia night,
23:40 I need to have the most kick ass co-host, at least to like kickstart this.
23:46 So a longtime guest of ours, she's an actress called Kiernan Shipka.
23:51 You know her best as the from from Madman when she was little.
23:56 She's bigger now.
23:57 And like I've watched her come of age and actually being of age
24:01 to drink alcohol from both restaurants.
24:03 And so who knows why I'm even on text message with her?
24:07 But I texted her
24:09 and I was like, hey, girl, do you mind doing me this favor?
24:12 And she was like, yeah, babe. Yeah, what's that? Let's do this.
24:14 And she was so good.
24:15 I mean, she's so engaging.
24:18 We had people choosing the names of their teams.
24:21 The winning team that night was called Let Us Turn Up the Beat,
24:24 as in all those vegetables.
24:26 And it's fantastic.
24:28 There's a prize attached.
24:29 You can you can kind of like at the end, it's very similar to Jeopardy
24:33 where you can wager all of your points, none of your points and and take home,
24:37 take it home or lose it all.
24:39 So, yeah, we've we've been hosting many of them.
24:41 And what other names have you had?
24:43 Well, let's see.
24:44 Well, I love hosting with other food folks. Yeah.
24:47 So Valerie Gordon is my co-host tonight,
24:51 and she owns a really well-beloved
24:55 chocolate company called Valerie Confections.
24:58 So she's coming in.
24:59 She's one of my my regarding her sisters as well.
25:03 We've had writers because they've been on strike as well.
25:06 So Zach Bornstein, who has an incredible following on Twitter,
25:11 he's one of the writers for Shrinking, and he very famously
25:16 in his own writer's room,
25:19 what he would just talk about all day, baby, like all the time.
25:22 And his teammates were like, you know, bro, like,
25:24 is there ever going to be a day that you don't talk about all day, baby?
25:27 So they keep a tally in the writer's room.
25:30 No way. Blank number of days.
25:31 Zach has mentioned all day, baby.
25:33 And the time that I saw the photo of it's at zero.
25:35 Like like he talks about all day, baby, all the time.
25:38 And he was so funny.
25:39 And there was like a very controversial question
25:42 that I had written that night about Nancy Silverton.
25:46 And to me, you know, they're all it's just like basic knowledge
25:50 coming out of my head.
25:51 So I don't think that the questions are hard, but apparently
25:54 they are kind of hard.
25:56 And I wrote, you know, fish.
25:59 It was a fill in the blank question.
26:01 I said fish is to a sushi chef as blank is to Nancy Silverton.
26:06 And to me, I know that there is an obvious answer to this.
26:09 She spoke about it on the chef's table episode that she appeared on.
26:11 And anyway,
26:13 Zach, my co-host, are always in charge of reading all the questions
26:17 answers after each round and they're themed.
26:19 He read it off and the correct answer is mozzarella or cheese.
26:25 And the whole room just erupts.
26:27 And they're like, no, it's bread, bread.
26:30 And like the whole I don't know if the guest started it or Zach started.
26:34 I got I got a a roaring boo from this audience.
26:38 Oh, really? It was in your restaurant.
26:40 I've never been food in my life and it was hilarious. Nice.
26:44 But I was right. It is cheese.
26:47 She doesn't even eat bread, you guys.
26:48 I mean, she was she was iconic in the bread making world back in the day. But.
26:51 Yeah. So for somebody that's thinking about doing it,
26:55 give us some quick tips and tricks of like hosting an event.
26:59 Yeah. Hosting an event in the restaurant.
27:01 Oh, I mean, well, it needs to just be something one
27:04 that makes sense for your brand like
27:07 a little bit different.
27:11 Like it needs to be like the formula needs to be there.
27:13 You know, I'm not going to host like, for example, sports. Right.
27:18 I'm not a sports gal. Yeah.
27:20 And we have TVs here at the bar here at All Day Baby.
27:23 And we would love people to come and watch sports on them.
27:27 But because it's just like not my beat.
27:30 I've struggled with figuring out a way to activate that.
27:35 So I'm going to lean into my own.
27:37 It's great advice. My own talents. Yeah.
27:39 You know, my last night, somebody asked me on a panel about
27:42 liquor and cocktails. Yeah.
27:45 And like, why?
27:47 How is it that, you know, some restaurants do really well
27:50 at their liquor programs and others actually don't have it?
27:55 So, you know, there were a few members of the panel that were like, yeah,
27:58 liquor sales are not that big of a deal at our restaurant.
28:00 And then it came to me and I was like, oh, we love liquor at our restaurants.
28:05 And we love liquor because I have the most talented bar directors
28:08 at my restaurants and they make things fun.
28:11 And, you know, and it and they're different and they're unusual.
28:14 And they they literally light people's faces up.
28:17 And George, my bar director here at All Day Baby,
28:20 he used to work at Heroes Looking at You.
28:22 You know, he has among the hardest tasks there is.
28:26 You know, there was somebody else on the panel last night, again,
28:29 that talked about like how opening up for lunch wasn't worth it anymore.
28:32 You know, you're just like slinging iced teas all day.
28:35 Yes. And this restaurant, it's breakfast and lunch.
28:37 And most most in most of its life, it's it's been that, you know,
28:42 we were doing our best right now to amplify nighttime.
28:44 But George has been successful in bringing back all day drinking,
28:49 day drinking, day drinking, you know, and and and really also
28:54 amplifying non-alcoholics like his mocktail program is really phenomenal
28:58 and and special in its own right, you know, and the beautiful
29:02 like you see them say, I remember even writing about this in my business plan.
29:05 I was like, it's going to be the kind of place that elicits joy.
29:07 And you're walking around with a boozy milkshake and people are going to point
29:10 at it and be like, I need that.
29:11 And this is it. It literally manifested itself.
29:14 So that's super cool.
29:16 So every single week on multiple apps.
29:20 But the most important thing is we're trying to build a community.
29:22 So if you're listening to this show, if you're watching this show,
29:25 your story matters no matter where you are in the hospitality space,
29:28 on the content creation journey.
29:30 If you want to join our community, send me a direct message on Instagram
29:34 at Sean P. Welcheff.
29:36 We do live events on LinkedIn and we do live events on Clubhouse.
29:40 But I would love for you to come on stage, share your story
29:44 and meet the community.
29:46 And we also do social shout outs this week.
29:48 Social shout out goes to Barry
29:50 Schuster. Barry Schuster is from Restaurant Startup and Growth magazine.
29:56 Barry's allowed me to share stories in his magazine.
30:00 And that reminded me of this.
30:03 Anybody you would like to shout out one person on entrepreneur?
30:06 I know it's hard. You want to shout out the whole team.
30:09 Give me one person.
30:10 One person, an entrepreneur.
30:13 One human that's helped you on your journey.
30:16 Oh, that's helped me on my journey.
30:19 Sorry, I didn't have one in my back pocket.
30:24 There really are so many.
30:26 One person that you'd love to send this to.
30:31 I really love. Thank you.
30:33 Yeah, I mentioned him in my article here.
30:36 There's a man that's so special to me named Patrick Q.
30:41 And he currently is a restaurant manager
30:45 at a steakhouse in Manhattan Beach.
30:48 But for almost two decades, he was the restaurant critic for Los Angeles
30:52 magazine. When he decided to leave that post,
30:55 the first project that he embarked on was a book project
31:00 he was asked by the publisher Simon & Schuster
31:04 to contribute to the Masters
31:08 of Work kind of collection of books that they have.
31:11 And they're all like different professions.
31:13 And so he was asked to write a book called Becoming a Restaurant Tour.
31:15 And he asked me to be the subject of it.
31:18 So he followed me around for a year and I didn't really know why or why
31:24 why he would select someone as sort of
31:28 small. You know, we were such a small restaurant at the time.
31:32 And and, you know, he named all of those chapters,
31:36 all of these different roles that one plays to become a restauranteur.
31:40 And I was just like, I'd never been able to put words to what I do.
31:44 And especially what we all know, the proverbial hats that we all wear.
31:48 And he was able to name all five, some of the five hats that I wear.
31:53 And, you know, we talked about Tears of Joy earlier.
31:56 I remember, you know, really seeing this book and being so moved
32:00 that someone would take the time to take have the hospitality
32:04 to observe me that closely and be able to share my story with others.
32:10 So Patrick is truly an amazing individual.
32:14 I'm lucky to know.
32:15 So one of the things I'd like to end with is in this hospitality business,
32:21 it's in our DNA to take care of people.
32:24 We take care of our staff.
32:26 We take care of our community.
32:27 We take care of our village.
32:29 Very rarely do we take care of ourselves.
32:31 Do you have any advice for what you've learned
32:33 and what you were able to share, not only in this article, but what
32:36 what you go out and you teach other entrepreneurs?
32:38 It's so vital.
32:40 It's you know, I spent many years kind of thinking
32:44 I didn't need that, you know, it was so much more important
32:48 and impactful to me to take care of others.
32:51 But when I started to not recognize myself
32:54 and have almost like an incapacity to take care of others, well,
32:57 I really had to come and look back and and really see where I went wrong here.
33:03 I was truly surprised and maybe others might be surprised, too.
33:08 And, you know, I got some great advice from someone that said,
33:12 just try to do one thing for yourself, just for you,
33:17 and just maybe do it in the morning and get it over with.
33:19 Like if it's that hard for you to do something for yourself, just
33:22 just find 10 minutes, 20 minutes to do something for yourself
33:25 in the morning that is truly for you. Yeah.
33:28 And from there, build like I'm
33:31 I need to be very structured and organized in my life because it's so chaotic,
33:36 which is meaning I'm telling the audience that I'm still improving
33:39 because it's truly a mess.
33:41 And but I've gotten better, you know, week to week at building
33:46 just a little bit more structure to to better take care of myself.
33:49 And the payoff is strong.
33:51 Like I wouldn't have even thought of those events
33:53 if I hadn't actually started doing these tiny little things for myself. Wow.
33:57 Because I suddenly was creative.
34:00 Like I don't even think of I think of my bar directors as creative.
34:02 My chefs are certainly the most creative.
34:04 And I never thought I thought about I was like the logistics lady, you know.
34:09 But it turns out I need a lot of creativity
34:13 to sort of maintain the life of the restaurants and
34:16 doing these little tiny bits of self love acts.
34:21 And you guys, I just mean like.
34:25 Taking a walk, going outside for some sunshine
34:27 and just like staring at the squirrels,
34:29 and it's very small things that you can do for big rewards.
34:34 So I was able to really find my my voice and my creative voice.
34:40 It's amazing.
34:41 So if you guys want to get in touch with me, it's at Sean P.
34:44 Walsh, if please reach out, S.H.A.
34:47 WNP WALCH EF.
34:50 We want to hear from you.
34:52 We want to connect with you.
34:53 People want to get in touch with you if they want to come enjoy the restaurants.
34:56 What's what's the best way for them to do that?
34:58 Well, my personal Instagram is Lin T.
35:01 Gray. It's L.I.E.N.T.I.G.R.E.
35:04 All Day Baby L.A. is this restaurant.
35:07 And here's looking at U.L.A. is our flagship restaurant in Koreatown.
35:12 We will put links into the show notes.
35:13 And when someone comes to All Day Baby, what do they order?
35:17 Well, if they're like me, I know, I mean, if they're like me,
35:22 they're probably eating the breakfast burrito the most.
35:24 But there is a sandwich named after me.
35:27 It's the L.T.'s Hot Catfish Sandwich.
35:28 So that one's an excellent choice as well.
35:30 But make sure to make sure to get to get a Michelada or an 80 B.
35:34 Painkiller. Yeah.
35:36 Awesome. Well, thank you, guys, as always.
35:39 Stay curious, get involved and don't be afraid to ask for help.
35:42 Thank you for listening to Restaurant Influencers.
35:45 The best way that you can help us with the show is to subscribe and write a review.
35:50 We love the opportunity to connect with you no matter where you are on the globe,
35:55 no matter what restaurant you are running.
35:57 Please send us a DM on social at Sean P.
36:01 Walsh if you are interested in toast.
36:03 If you want to improve your digital hospitality, please send me a DM.
36:08 I will get you in touch with a local toast representative.
36:11 We appreciate you listening to the show.
36:13 The best way that you can help the show is share it with a friend.
36:16 And we will catch you all next week or we will see you on one of the digital
36:20 playgrounds that we call social media.