VIP Café Show – Youngstown, Ohio – Local Guests with Amazing Impact to Our Community

E44: The VIP Café Show with John Rudy - The Secret Sauce of Success: Reviving Youngstown's Heartbeat at the Varsity Club

• Debbie Larson and Greg Smith • Season 4 • Episode 44

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Every dollar tells a story, especially in the restaurant business. Join us as John Rudy, a culinary connoisseur and the brains behind Youngstown's new hot spot, the Varsity Club, shares a feast of wisdom on how a dollar spent wisely can be the key to success. With a nod to his roots and the values instilled by his Catholic education, John reveals the behind-the-scenes rigor of running a restaurant that's more than just about the food—it's about creating a cultural heartbeat in the heart of downtown Youngstown.

The threads of community and sports are tightly woven into the fabric of our latest episode. As John paints a vivid picture of the Varsity Club's mission to blend family-friendly dining with the electric atmosphere of YSU sports, you'll almost feel the energy of a game-day crowd on their expansive patio. Learn how a menu designed for sharing can transform a meal into an experience and discover the unique ways this downtown revival is honoring tradition while fueling a new era for Youngstown's nightlife.

We wrap up with a love letter to the unbreakable spirit of Youngstown, a city that defines resilience and community. Stories of local camaraderie and the pride of wearing 'Youngstown' on your sleeve bring to life the undeniable 'Youngstown It' factor. From tailgating traditions that turn friends into family to the way a city's character can inspire action, this is an episode that invites you to join the chorus of voices celebrating this remarkable place. Please tune in and feel the warm welcome of a town that stays with you long after you've left its streets.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the VIP Cafe Show. I'm Greg and I am Debbie.

Speaker 2:

Larson.

Speaker 1:

Yes and welcome welcome. Yes, we have a great show today, don't we, debbie? We do, we do, yes, yes.

Speaker 2:

So Youngstown Town Youngstown's been getting all kinds of buzz lately because the construction is nearing an end and things are starting to look up a little bit after a long construction project. So our guest today is John Rooney. He is operating partner of the upcoming varsity club in downtown Youngstown. It's going to be amazing. He's also a lot of people recognize him because he is the former owner of the Magic Tree in Boardman and he has just such an extensive experience in the restaurant industry. He's perfect for this new venture in downtown Youngstown.

Speaker 1:

So that's who we have today. We've got to go back, we've got to dial it.

Speaker 2:

You've dialed it. It's a time a little bit, though.

Speaker 1:

We always like to know who you are as a person and a great way to talk about it. Really, we found out when you start talking about, maybe around high school time. How did high school shape you as a person? And then coming out and getting into the work of life. How did that all shape you? How did you shape to become who you are and what you do?

Speaker 3:

You know, at the third in high school I graduated from Ursuline. So I went to Catholic school. Actually my whole life preschool, kindergarten, grade school, high school so it my Catholic faith has been a big part of who I am and where I come from, and going through Ursuline to it was, you know, ursuline was an amazing high school for me. I actually loved high school, I loved going to school. But the value that they teach to you at Ursuline not about just your Christianity but in life in general family beliefs, things like that I believe it really molded me into who I am right now and it really gave me a work ethic, my work ethic. I played sports too in high school and some of the lessons that you learn football, baseball, things like that stick with you a little bit. But it wasn't easy. Coaches were a little tough on you a little tough on you then and they are now. But but yeah, I believe, just the value of genuine life I learned from Ursuline and my Catholic faith has also been, like I said, very big for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so tell us how you got into the business.

Speaker 3:

I actually just I started. My mom ran a catering company for she was there almost 44 years a local catering company and I started washing dishes when I was like 15 years old there and during high school my first job in the restaurant was BW threes downtown. Oh, not a lot of people know it existed downtown.

Speaker 2:

I do.

Speaker 3:

It was a while ago and I just started there as a cook and everything about it. I just started to enjoy it and I still, to this day, thoroughly enjoy cooking and I just I worked my way up. I went from a cook to an assistant kitchen manager, a kitchen manager, and did everything I could. And then I finally turned 21 and I said I want to bartend, I want to start bartending, that's my dream goal. And I started bartending and I became a bar trainer and then a bar manager and just I worked for some local local companies or local restaurants throughout the area for a while. And then I worked for 14 years for a big corporate restaurant and that's when I got into the operations aspect of the restaurant, more of understanding the numbers, the financials, the PNLs, your food costs, bar costs, labor costs and that really intrigued me a lot. It just wasn't. I think we talked about a lot of people like, oh, you have to bar high five and doing shots.

Speaker 1:

No it's not like that. Not like that Honestly you can. I know you agree with me on this. The truth about business is knowing your costs and knowing what to charge. If you don't have a handle on that, cost accounting is where it's all at, and if you don't have a handle on that, stay out of business or find somebody who does.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that's like I talked about before. That's the back of the nobody sees. During that corporate stretch I think it was about 14 years I worked in a Cleveland region, youngstown, and I worked in the Pittsburgh region for the same company. Every Monday at 530 in the morning, we were at the restaurant. We counted every bottle. We weighed every liquor bottle, we weighed every keg. We were in the kitchen. We would weigh different products in the kitchen and things like that.

Speaker 3:

So we actually got our actual versus theoretical. We knew to do the exact number of ounces we were lost per bottle per week, down to how many pieces of cheese we were short on our burgers that we lost. So it really hones in to where you know, is there different things? There's that proper training. They're making things wrong as a theft so you can actually correct it and get it fixed for the next week. And we did a weekly P&L. Yeah, so every week we knew exactly exactly what we were doing.

Speaker 3:

I trust me, it wasn't fun every Monday getting up at five in the morning. It was a 12 14 hour day every week. Wow, sometimes we did multiple restaurants we go from one to go to the other and but you really get to understand the value of that dollar, and one thing that I always did is I always explained To my staff the cost of everything. I was always the guy hey, give them two napkins, don't give them a stack of 30. If they need more, though, ask those little two ounce cups. They might be four cents each, but you go through thousands a week and everything adds up. Everything will add up, and paper straws and stuff like that. I was very particular on invoicing and costs and just maintaining costs right.

Speaker 2:

Interesting, yeah, because I guess, like sometimes those little things do, once it hits the table, even if it's not used it has to be thrown away, whether napkins or straws or whatever. So that is interesting the, the value of a dollar and what you learn by working for somebody so many people I know a lot of my peers or entrepreneur minded, creative ideas and stuff. But to balance it out with the technical, with the boring, but the in the laborious Work of that is is very interesting, because that's so my I probably struggle with a little bit yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and it's even not just with my restaurants, but every time I go out to eat, it's just, it's in my blood that I'm paying attention to the sound, the lighting, the cleanliness. I'm watching food come out on every trace it's played, and I'm seeing what the servers are doing. It's how much ice they're putting in cups, how many napkins, how many pieces of silver they're giving them. That's just, it becomes a part of my life. Now I don't want to critique them, I'm not gonna say anything. It's just in my own little head that I sit there and I think things. When you have to Look at the overall process of the restaurant business, the financials are Extremely important and again I would like to tell my staff and I would sell them hey, this is what we did. This is so much money we lost just for that this. So when they get a better understanding of it too, they can start to fill. Maybe I'll just give them those two napkins now instead of 30 things like that. Or hey, just throw out all these to-go boxes or things like that.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah but, I think you say, greg, controlling crock our costs and the restaurant business or it's hands-down the most important thing if you can't control your cost and it's the same thing in your home and, yeah, on our steel business it's the same thing.

Speaker 1:

the minute we get people that are to understand that we do well when we don't, we lose, you lose track. It's just I'll guarantee you anybody is listening to this. If you like money's kind of tight at home look at your subscriptions on your credit card that you signed up for.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, yeah, it's interesting and you know what. Okay, so where? How do you balance that out with? Then equality, because some restaurants they get either new management or they're like, hey, we need to cut costs. And then the quality they think that it doesn't matter. Oh, we're going to use a different sauce, we're going to use something different. Or people's the customer feels that there's that they have to ask for everything or that they're being nickel dined. So how do you balance that without feeling like the customer experience is being affected?

Speaker 3:

The one thing I always did is I, even after COVID happened and all the prices even right now prices are going to one thing that we never I personally never did, was cut quality.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

If people are going to come. People in my mind are like me. I'm a foodie, I love good food and if the food's good I'll pay the extra buck for it. I'll pay once I have. A good meal makes me happy.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm in a good mood after a good meal, so I never really cut the quality on everything.

Speaker 3:

We did have to cut costs. There's certain things of you can. You can save costs here by charging this there on the back end and all even out in the long run the quality. We used to have a lot of grass fed beef there which afterwards went up.

Speaker 3:

They almost got $9 a pound and it was something that we had something we had to cut out, but then we got a good quality burger. It just evened out, but that was the only thing was a quality I never really liked to buckle down on. Now, like again, we did change some products or some things we couldn't even get for a while. Wow.

Speaker 3:

It was like sriracha sauce, hot sauce. You couldn't get it anywhere for a while. It was on eBay for five times the bottle. So we use that in some of our sauces, yeah, but we have worked with some good food distributors and good suppliers and brokers that that really helped me out in the business and they they search time low for what we needed and we found. We found it working together. It is a team effort in my opinion. You got to have some good, strong food vendors with you and some brokers that you work with for your certain proteins and stuff. But it was definitely hard. But again, I just never cut quality and it seemed to work.

Speaker 2:

People came in, they were foodies, they wanted a good product and that's that's the thing that I ask you, because everybody who knew the magic tree, everybody that I knew, whether they did an event there or they ate there, people would always talk about the food. They would talk about how great, how much they loved it, how great it was. So I knew that you would have experience with that, because the word in the community is how well of a job that you did there.

Speaker 3:

It just wasn't me either. I had some really talented guys in our kitchen.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'm really talented guys that hey, instead of buying it, I can make it myself. We can cut back here. We could do this and they would get us close to the taste for half the price. Yes, I guess wouldn't even know. We would know, but I guess wouldn't even know. But some of the talented guys I had in that kitchen magic tree, they taught me. They taught me a lot. That's why we made a lot of things from scratch. It was just not everything's cheaper to make scratch, but some of the smaller quantity items that we use we'd make from scratch because it was just a little cheaper for us. But these guys knew the experience they've had and their training that they had. They knew how to do it.

Speaker 1:

Tell us you've moved on from magic. Tell us what you're up to these days.

Speaker 3:

Right now I am working with my buddy, Brian, we talked about earlier. Brian owns the Gallagher building we are going to be putting in the Varsity Club downtown Youngstown, the old Cedars building. We're still working on it right now. We really what's the?

Speaker 3:

When you're going to open, we're trying to have a soft opening by Memorial Day weekend. Ok, right now we're doing kitchen design. It's completely gutted For anybody that remembers Cedars. It looks nothing like Cedars used to look. It's going to be all brand new kitchen, brand new bar, tables, chairs, everything's going to be brand new Patio. Again, we don't have really nothing set in stone. We're doing kitchen design right now and then we're going to start working on the bar which we started this past week Bar design, tables, chairs, all that and then we're going to get the patio open for the summer and we're going to just try to see by Memorial Day weekend if we can have the kitchen going, the bar inside and somewhat of a patio for the summer so we can enjoy the summer outside downtown. Awesome.

Speaker 2:

That's amazing. What do you think the ambiance is going to be right now? Because that's overwhelming for me to think about taking the space from scratch and deciding on the ambiance. Walls, kind of booths.

Speaker 1:

How are you going to brand it?

Speaker 3:

Well, you know, what we're doing is we're going to keep as much original as possible. The brickwork that's inside is gorgeous. It just needs cleaned up a little bit. The ceiling just a ceiling to ceiling.

Speaker 2:

You're going to paint it black and you're fine.

Speaker 3:

There's hardwood floors throughout the whole dining room. We're going to try to refurbish we're going to try to keep everything original, give it that rustic look.

Speaker 3:

A theme that we're going for is we're going to go to a small sports bar theme, and the reason why is we are going to be a big partner with YSU on not just one athletics, but all athletic departments. I mean there's 22 different sports there that they have and we're going to work with them one on one on sponsorships and different things like that. We have ideas to do called Roundup for YSU, where if you round up your check to the nearest dollar at the end of the year, we'll take all that money and we will donate it back to a local kid going to YSU for a scholarship. All supported local, all by local people, alumni and everything like that. So we want to be the place to go for YSU. We want a big YSU sports. We're going to get a bigger view of it and with that we'll be able to stream all the sports. So all the baseball, softball, soccer, basketball We'll always have it on TV there.

Speaker 1:

It's always going to be with you. Definitely have some merch, because you can't get merch at the bookstore.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we're going to do that too.

Speaker 1:

That's another revenue stream that we're talking about we need it so literally there's no place to get nice stuff.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah.

Speaker 3:

So we're going to work with that, and then we're going to bring some local athletics into it too, just to get the stadium right up the road. It's what you walk on on the patio and you look up oh yeah. You're on YSU. We're on campus. It's just a little hill. In the St Colombo there's Williamson, I believe. We're literally on campus.

Speaker 1:

So let's see if you get Wilkins and Drosky and Stout to come back and be a big march out.

Speaker 3:

We've had ideas during tailgate. I personally have been tailgating for 20 years at YSU and there's a group of four or five guys that I've been tailgating with probably since early 2000s. They've been down there since the 90s They've been tailgating. So YSU sports to me is big. I love YSU football. I follow it a lot. We want to intertwine with that. We want to have buses running from the restaurant downtown to tailgate every half hour or tailgate party on the patio. Big 120 inch screen on the patio showing YSU games with sound going. The patio could probably fit, on a good day, 150 people. It's a big patio. We're going to intertwine with that. Can't get the local sports team going, but we're going to keep it cut clean, keep that historic feel, but we've got some ideas going. So it's definitely.

Speaker 3:

I enjoy this. I really enjoy doing this. This is what I love doing. What kind of food? We're going to keep it. We're not going to have dinners. We don't want to really be a dinner. We want people to come down in groups and families, shareables, things of that nature. We're going to have some again quality burgers, quality product burgers, sandwiches, wraps, flatbreads Try to do as much.

Speaker 1:

This is Youngstown. Burgers are dinner. Yeah, you're right, it is burgers and fries.

Speaker 3:

We want that guy to come in a suit and tie and be OK and a guy to come. Shorts and flip flops we don't really want. We want to be comfortable for everybody. We want families coming in, like right now. We talked hey, go down to patio, smoke a cigar, relax, bring the kids. It's going to be a family atmosphere too. It's not it's called the Varsity Club, but it's going to be a restaurant. We're going to make that feel welcomed. Before the YSU games, before the Friday football games, saturday football games you can bring the family down. Before the games go to the stadium.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I got an idea for you. I don't know if you use it or not. Oh, but what if customers can earn a letter?

Speaker 2:

What do you mean? Sports?

Speaker 3:

when you hit a certain status, you get like a letter in a jacket yeah, like the letter on it. Oh how fun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you could let her up. Yeah, hey, that's cool, that's a good idea.

Speaker 1:

You could get so creative with being in college, yeah, well then you get the bars for every time you earn that letter again, you could get a big V tattooed on your arm. Yeah, the VC, somebody will do it.

Speaker 2:

Trust me yeah, it'll be a good idea, it'll come.

Speaker 3:

But yeah, we want to give the note to Youngstown, we want to give the note to downtown Youngstown Sports in general, but I keep saying it's we want it to be family friendly. Yeah, we know we're going to. We with with the apartment building there. I believe they're all rented out right now, so 41 apartments are rented out. So we got to be courteous to the people living there. We're not going to be a late night club weekends. We're going to close 1130 midnight during the week, 10 o'clock early.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that said nothing good.

Speaker 3:

No, after midnight I think we'll do well.

Speaker 2:

We've already had a. They also have airbnb's in the building right.

Speaker 3:

Yes, yes, so there are bnb's talking, there's weddings coming into Youngstown. They're renting out the whole floor there, bnb and they want to rent out the patio and they're already. They're asking to rent out the patio and the bar.

Speaker 1:

But you were saying you're going to make some banquet rooms in. Yeah, Hopefully.

Speaker 3:

that's like I said. Everything's going to be done in phases. That's phase three-ish. There's some beautiful rooms in the basement. Again, the brickwork is gorgeous, it's beautiful and it's enough for a banquet room putting a small bar. We like to do something like that. We're going to work on a catering program. Also. We talked about putting a game room down there pool tables, maybe golf simulators, maybe a cigar lounge down in the basement for suburban cigars, a couple of things that surprised me.

Speaker 2:

because I get to tour, I've got to look through the whole building. A couple of things surprised me. One is the incredible quality of work that was done, that this building is still lasting with original brick, original floors in many places for over a hundred years and it's been through multiple things. But that basement is impressive. It was a little creepy because it had been abandoned for so long, but there is some great space in that basement.

Speaker 3:

The whole building in general is beautiful, especially when Brian and his team did rebuild and everything. I got a chance to look at the apartments and tour everything. They're gorgeous. I'm looking to move in there soon.

Speaker 1:

I think we're the only country on earth that gets excited about something being a hundred years old. They're like a hundred years old. They're like ours is 5,000 years old, but look at the quality.

Speaker 2:

Now they put them up and they're like paper and they know, oh, 20 years will update to the, you know what I'm saying, you just don't see that quality now, which is sad because things yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

There was a lot made to last. So, yeah, this is exciting because it's an exciting time for downtown Youngstown, a town that at one point in time was a husband and there was no, no real like there was. People dreamed people like that popped up but for the most part it felt like, oh, this town will never be and honestly, I think that some people had to let go of what it used to look like to be able to see a vision of what it could look like. And fortunately we've had enough, just the right amount of set of circumstances that really help and hopefully it continues to move that direction.

Speaker 3:

I think that I think it is. I think it is. I've been spending a lot more time downtown and right now we got away to the weather breaks. It's been a lot. It's beautiful today, once the weather breaks and people are back out. I drive through downtown every day, multiple times a day, and I'm seeing more and more people walking, more and more cars parking. It's definitely going to come back and I believe that with us coming down to and there's some great restaurants downtown, as is right now, and, like again, we've talked, you got to give these guys a lot of credit going through, COVID going through construction.

Speaker 3:

We're stuck through it. That's the heart that these guys have.

Speaker 1:

downtown man it's it's impressive, we are young, it's grit Youngstown's grit.

Speaker 3:

But you know there's some amazing restaurants downtown. I hang out downtown. I love it. You know, in my personal opinion, I feel it's safe, I could park, I walk. Yes, I don't think there's no issues and I think it's just going to get better. I think from this point on, it's getting better.

Speaker 2:

Well, our shows are getting better at the amphitheater. I hate to see even better. I'm going to say that people are becoming aware of the Youngstown Amphitheater, the Cavalli Center it's. It's literally a place that is now on the map for some of the bigger acts coming through and it is exciting. It's an exciting time.

Speaker 3:

Awesome yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm looking forward to the summer, so I want to get that patio open. I hear you, I want to get that patio open. I know we'll be down there. Yes, maybe we'll do some shows down there.

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Let's do it, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

We got, yeah, some inside connections to make that happen. Okay, rudy, what would you say? You have been in Columbus and Cleveland and some of these places that you're, the corporate job has taken you and stuff, and in fact, from my understanding, you were about to follow that path back outside, out of town before this opportunity presented itself. And then you talk about how excited you were to get to put your energy back into something in your hometown. You growing up on the East side, right.

Speaker 3:

I grew up on the East side of Youngstown, right over by the Royal Oaks. I've always loved this town. I'm just a Youngstown guy, thick and thin. I've always believed in Youngstown. I always supported local. I've been blessed, truly blessed, to meet some other great business owners brother for the breweries, the restaurants, to everybody and I really feel that this town has the potential, you know, to get there to be the Cleveland Pittsburgh. But you see, some of the people that come to the concerts are driving from.

Speaker 3:

Cleveland, pittsburgh they're coming in and they're staying downtown. It was exciting for me when I spoke with Brian and everything and we had some meetings and talks and the opportunity presented itself and I got to say that I had this excitement in me again that I haven't felt in a while and it was something that triggered me to decide to stay in Youngstown and to get this and I haven't really thought twice about it and again, the excitement of coming back is good.

Speaker 3:

I'm putting my all into it. I'm giving my heart into this. We open. I'm going to be there and I know I'm going to be there seven days a week. I'm already prepared for I know what's going to happen. I've been through the restaurant business. I'm sure we're going to have staffing issues. I'll fix it.

Speaker 2:

I'll get it done If I have to cook, I'll cook.

Speaker 3:

I'll do whatever it takes to get it going, but I'm excited. I have a lot of friends that work in the downtown area at the bars and restaurants All the owners I'm good friends with. I'm excited to work with these guys.

Speaker 2:

So explain okay, maybe three words. I'm putting you on the spot here, but if you had to describe Three sometimes we don't see unless you look at the mirror and describe yourself other people could describe you sometimes better. So, having been a little bit out of the area, describe Youngstown in three words. I.

Speaker 3:

Would, first and foremost a community. When things happen, this community definitely does come together. Oh, that's true. It's uh. There's a huge sense of community. It's no matter where you go. It comes and it goes, but there's just so much history here, yeah and. Being from here makes it even better. The first and fourth of community and I second. I love the family sense. There's a lot of huge families that come from this town.

Speaker 2:

And it's pretty big family, but it's the family comes it just it comes natural to me.

Speaker 3:

And when I was traveling I traveled a lot of living Cleveland. I really didn't get to see my family too much, so I only came home once or twice a year. You know what I say in our last podcast I said I'd rather live in Youngstown and visit anywhere else to live somewhere else and visit.

Speaker 2:

When he said that, I was like that is a slogan.

Speaker 3:

Yes, there were the tours of Euro and when I come home, it just felt like I didn't have enough time to see everybody or go everywhere and do everything. And Lastly, I would just say I think it's easy living here. It's a very I feel like we're in the central part of everything.

Speaker 1:

Travels easy.

Speaker 3:

Everything's very affordable.

Speaker 1:

Airports to choose from?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, everything's within a 10 15 minute drive, unless you're gonna Cleveland Pittsburgh, 45 minutes between Chicago and New York. It was great we had the Youngstown Airport. I went to Florida a lot. I live 10 minutes away. I'd get on a plane. I'm in Florida to out at Youngstown Airport was amazing. I'm an airport, so there's a lot of a lot of community sense and that's what I like. When things get going and people need help, we all come together.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, family and easy living.

Speaker 2:

Wow said for thinking on your fly, on the fly. But obviously it's something that you obviously think anyway, but yeah, I love that.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's definitely a great place and, like we, everywhere I travel to I always have a YSU shirt on, or I have a Youngstown Ohio shirt on, or especially down in Florida. But it's young style. I'm with Ursula, I want the moony. I went here. I grew up on this side. There's everybody knows Youngstown. Yeah, like everywhere you go, somebody knows somebody from Youngstown, it's all. You got a guy. I'm sure you got a guy to got a guy you know. Yeah, from Youngstown, I got a guy that can do everything.

Speaker 2:

But it's things like that.

Speaker 3:

We got some pretty incredible famous people that came out of this town that are known worldwide, and it's good. They still push Youngstown and that's just. It's a good, like I said, sense community.

Speaker 2:

I love that. I love that we interviewed Joe Guerrero. He's a of Taylor in downtown Youngstown but he went in out to LA and San Francisco and he represented Youngstown out there and some of his stories for of Youngstown Connections out there were pretty cool too. So yeah, everywhere. Greg, what's that saying that you were talking about with a friend?

Speaker 1:

Youngstown it young. People and they say and she's talking to her friend, she goes, oh, just Youngstown it.

Speaker 3:

She goes, you guys always make decisions.

Speaker 1:

You have no problem making decisions Like we just noticed that about your culture. You guys just do it and then you go into action. You know you don't fuss, and so we picked that up and we just say Youngstown it.

Speaker 3:

I'm making a decision and take charge.

Speaker 2:

I like that, I would have to start using that.

Speaker 1:

I got the website.

Speaker 2:

I love it. I love it. It's so funny because I have a t-shirt sign that I designed like before. You said that and it is along that theme. So when you said that, I was like yes. And then you also said Youngstown breeds people to take over, something like that yeah, youngstown breeds people, you said in one of our podcasts. You said Youngstown breeds people to take over in their community or their job or whatever we stand out, we really do. I don't.

Speaker 2:

I thought when I went for an internship and that's what took me away from Youngstown at 17. Yeah, and the Just the natural rise, that, the Trajection of my experiences, I thought was just not gonna say I call it favor. But some people say luck, these different things. But then I start realizing and in the more I talk to people, the more we have a quality here in this area and it could be because we were born here or because you raised her or you just develop it from being around here that it is a tenacity. A lot of people use grit, but it is something that says hey, like we're gonna find a way, we're gonna find solutions, we're gonna Youngstown it and we're going to. We're not going to just by our very DNA. We don't stay down. We there's a challenge and then we rise above it, and it's a quality that seems to be recognized by people from outside of our area, sometimes more than we realize it about ourselves.

Speaker 1:

In 1990 or diamond steel burnt down. We had a gas leak, it exploded, it burnt down. It's like a blowtorch. Our competition came and said what do you need to get? Stay in business like what yeah, they said what do you need? And we needed some things because the stuff got destroyed. But they said we can't handle all the business and we need you, and it was just mind blowing. But yeah, our competition came, whatever we needed, they got forced.

Speaker 1:

And we stayed in business and Diamond Still Collins owns it now. Dave Collins and his family own it now and they're still thriving and they're doing phenomenal. That's good.

Speaker 3:

That's like we chatted briefly during COVID. We were closed for almost 16 weeks but I worked with a lot of my buddies. My buddy Melvin owns Bogies, my guys have Aquapaso Michael.

Speaker 2:

By the way, those Sir Roger Bourbon fries are my favorite. It's okay, ammo that has Bruno Brothers.

Speaker 3:

What we did was we all helped each other. In that little corridor we would trade food to feed our staffs. Hey, I'll feed your staff today, you feed mine. On Thursday we ran out of this product. Hey, I got you, don't worry about it. We're all restaurants fighting for business right now, but we all work together. Hey, what are you guys doing? Can I borrow this? I'll get you next week this and that. It was good to see just the sense of community again and coming together and that whole situation and that's that brought that. It was amazing to see that coming through from other restaurant guys that are fighting for business, just like I am. They're sending people my way. Hey, we'll keep through this. You go to Magintree, you go to Bruno Brothers, go to Bogies and just help each other out. I made the staffs feel good. I said pretzels and tenders and they brought Aquapasas and pasta, bruno's pizza. We just trade food every week and help each other out and it kept a good vibe between us.

Speaker 3:

And I would run into the store every day and see these guys in the store every day trying to get everything.

Speaker 1:

Are you ready, debbie?

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 1:

I think it's time for rapid fire. Rapid fire, quick fire. Let's see what we can do better we did last week.

Speaker 2:

That was so bad. All right, favorite song.

Speaker 3:

Byway Frank Sinatra.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that was good, that's so good. That was quick too. Favorite movie.

Speaker 1:

Good fellas man he's good, yeah, he's good.

Speaker 2:

Miracle Whip from mayonnaise.

Speaker 1:

Dukes.

Speaker 2:

Dukes, dukes, mayonnaise. There you go, it's tangy I love it.

Speaker 1:

Favorite French fry in this town. Favorite.

Speaker 3:

French fry oh man. You know what? I don't really eat too many fries.

Speaker 1:

OK, all, right, now it's black.

Speaker 3:

If I would do, I could have a local bar. Patsy's in the Royal Oaks has some good fries.

Speaker 1:

Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2:

Wow, there's a new one. I know Patsy's. Yeah, that's awesome. Ok, favorite pizza.

Speaker 1:

Avalon.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that was good.

Speaker 1:

How about beer? What kind of beer?

Speaker 3:

I don't drink beer.

Speaker 1:

OK, what do you?

Speaker 3:

like Tito's.

Speaker 1:

Tito's and wine. There you go. What kind of wine? Red or white?

Speaker 3:

Red, ok red, I like a very dry.

Speaker 2:

Oh my.

Speaker 3:

All right, I like a dry it's good, that's good.

Speaker 2:

Different dollars I like. I thought you were going to say a dry Cabernet, those, it sits on your tongue.

Speaker 3:

I like the sandpaper and your throat type of dry it's like you know.

Speaker 1:

So what's your favorite Young's Town memory? Let's end with that. That's a good one.

Speaker 3:

Wow, my favorite Young's Town memory so far.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's a good question. There's more to come there's more to come.

Speaker 3:

There's so many, I would probably say my favorite memory was wow, that's actually a tough question. I've had so many good times around here I couldn't even tell you. The time that I do remember joy was when I got to work with the Mahoney Valley St Patrick's Day Parade at Magistrate. I became the official after party there.

Speaker 2:

Oh, wow, so we brought that.

Speaker 3:

So that's always been a great memory and I met some great friends there and it was definitely probably one of my personal memory in my life that I would say is the best memory, but again, I have so many of them. There's been so many good times around here.

Speaker 1:

What about your favorite sports memory from YSU?

Speaker 3:

Favorite sports memory.

Speaker 1:

From YSU.

Speaker 3:

Probably back in the. What was it when they went to the national championship back to back was actually going down to the game. Oh, you know what? I got? To see them play Steve Vare McNair when they beat him up pretty bad.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so yeah, I was there. That was a good one. That was a good one.

Speaker 3:

That's a good YSU memory Again too. I've been tailgating for 20 years, so I've seen a lot down there. Ysu tailgating is probably one of my favorite things to do here. When I started 20 years ago with these guys, there wasn't many. Now we bring a spit down, we put chickens, turkey, we put ham on spits.

Speaker 2:

Have you ever done tailgate, greg? No, we have.

Speaker 3:

TVs, big tents. We have four spots. We bring smokers. It's a big deal for us. We plan the menu during the week. We probably have 40 people that come. We don't charge nobody. Just come to eat, enjoy yourself, bring some beer, and when we go down I would say that's probably one of my favorite things to do.

Speaker 1:

After the Bayans will listen to this show. You're going to have a lot more.

Speaker 3:

Hey, come on by, We'll cook for you, I love cooking. And that saute pan is out there before the burners, those sauteing greens, that's great.

Speaker 1:

Thanks everybody for listening and thank the Havana House for letting us host it here and come down for some great coffee, great cigars and a good time All right, buddy, thank you.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for having me, john, rudy, everybody, goodbye everybody.