Building The Malarkey, Part 1: The Team

Welcome to our mini restaurant series, where we take you behind the scenes of the key ingredients that go into opening a restaurant.

In Part 1, we discuss how Brian approaches building a team for a new restaurant. He shares the hiring mistakes he’s made throughout his career, what he looks for in an employee, which restaurant roles he thinks are the most underrated, and what aspiring restaurateurs should consider before opening their own place.

Tune in next week as we dive into how he builds a menu.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Is there anything that you're scared about a week before opening?

SPEAKER_01 0:02

I'm scared no one will come.

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:04

Yeah. That's my biggest fear. And that does wake me up in the middle of the night. I was like going, oh my god, what if we built this giant restaurant? Close to 70 people on payroll. The building's 10,000 plus square feet, seats over 250 people, um, and everyone thinks I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

All right, welcome to the Harley Mullarkey podcast on the road. On the road.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

No, oh, we're on the road. I'm like, this isn't the studio.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

No, we're we're on the road. We're on the road. We're on the road. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Where are we? Where are we? Oh, is that my question? Are you asking the question?

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Where are we? I'm gonna interview you.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Uh oh, well lovely. I'd love to be interviewed. Yeah. Um I'm Brian Mullarkey. Yeah. I'm a chef, restauranteur, uh, a lover, a father, uh humanitarian, uh, a good guy. Yeah. A bad comedian. High school rodeo state champion. High school rodeo state champion. Failed answer. Um uh yeah. So we're up here in Portland, Oregon, opening the new restaurant called The Mullarkey in the Pearl.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

The Mallarkey is is it gonna be like an Irish?

SPEAKER_01 1:14

It's a it's an Irish, um, yeah, it's an Irish pub, essentially. I'm I'm really good in the pub world. I do a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 1:20

Have you started drinking again?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah, I drink a lot of beer now, Guinness, from sunup to sundown. Okay. We're having a good time out here. Um, we do jigs and stuff like that. I think that's what it's called.

SPEAKER_00 1:30

Can you do a little jig right now for the camera?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Um, you know, just connecting with my inner leprechaun. Okay. Uh no, the malarkey is not an Irish bar. Uh, it is a steak and seafood restaurant. Um, we jokingly said, let's call it the malarkey.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Do you see my necklace?

SPEAKER_01 1:46

Oh my god, you're a clear fish. A clear fish.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

It's a seafood restaurant.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Oh, it's a seafood restaurant. I didn't get the it looks like a um a goldfish. Uh that's you're not supposed to distract me. Remember? Like when I get distracted, I figure what I'm talking about. Uh so we call it the Malarkey. My family has been here since the 1880s. You've heard this story, so I'm just gonna share it with the guest here. Uh, my family's been here since the 1880s. Uh, a lot of malarkeys all throughout the hills and the valleys and the ranches all around here in Portland, Oregon. Um, but the the reason is the malarkey is it's a funny name. People have been making fun of my last name for years. Yeah. Um, you know, you're full of malarkey, a lot of malarkey, whatever it is. Um, but the idea of the malarkey here is not an ode to my family, it's an ode to Portland, Oregon. And there's a lot of people taking things real serious, like all over the world. But in Portland, they get real serious about a lot of things. And I'm like, how about we have a restaurant that's just like fuck it? And malarkey is kind of fuck it. You know, it's a bunch of bullshit, you know, let it go, have fun, shenanigans. And I wonder restaurant name that disarmed people immediately. I mean, you can't say the malarkey and not like kind of smile a little bit. It's like, uh, so it's it's just to get away for a few hours, get away from politics, family trouble, financial troubles, whatever troubles you might have. There is a special aure around here.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Around this restaurant. Yeah. And when you walk in here, your troubles mysteriously fade away. I love that. And at the Malarkey, you're just present and you're just talking and talking story and sharing laughter and eating food and having drinks and listening to music and having great people take care of you. It's just a little, it's kind of like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

That's great. I also think, you know, you said Portland gets a little serious. I think Portland's known for being weird, you know, and this this restaurant's a little bit weird. Way weird. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:48

Way weird. Uh, there's a lot of weird things going on here. Everything from the stripper poles in the bathroom, famous strip clubs here in Portland, Oregon, uh, to the coastal. There's pictures of Bigfoot right over there.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Bigfoot and his child. I'm looking at. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

I didn't even know.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah. So what you don't know is that Bigfoot is real. And these are actual, like they're photos that people took of Bigfoot posing with salmon.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

He's native to Oregon.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah. He's yeah, he's definitely Oregon. Lot of weird shit going on here. The whole restaurant is painted interior salmon dairy. And salmon dairy is pink. And I'm wearing the uh this the support staff, the busser uniform right now. Uh, I've been living in a hotel for about a week, week and a half now, and you came in and kind of I added some flowers and some candles. Got rid of the stank. Yeah. Uh, because Hunter and I are sharing a room here. Um, but so I didn't have any clothes. So I'm conjoining doors.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Conjoining doors. Okay, so we have about one week left until you open a little bit more. How are you feeling?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Uh, right now I am actually feeling very good. Carlos and I were actually at the um restaurant supply store this morning, and I was like, oh my gosh, when we opened Hofgar and Huckleberry Lounge, we were we were dead. We're we we had some bad hires. We are unpacking all the boxes for the furniture, building tables, doing all this stuff. We were exhausted before we unpack the first piece of food. Here we have a team, and it's all really come together. Um, we're so much more organized, but it is still absolute chaos. Every day, trucks of boxes, plates, uh glassware, pots and pans, furniture keep coming in, and we'll be breaking down cardboard, breaking down cardboard. But finally, I can smell food in the kitchen. They are starting to cook.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Uh, that is exciting. Well, I think it is. This is like your second restaurant with a different your other restaurant group. You have two restaurant groups. Yes. And the Portland restaurants are separate from San Diego, Bend was Oregon restaurants are separate from the Oregon, sorry, sorry. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Uh yes, so we So you learned a lot. We weren't we weren't the smartest lot when we opened the last restaurant up here in Bend, Oregon, but here in Portland, we are we are You've learned a lot.

SPEAKER_00 5:55

Not on hard wood as as is there anything that's keeping you up at night right now?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

You are. Danielle's keeping me up at night because we're still making a baby, you know. So she's always like, she's like, breed me, breed me. And I'm like a wild stallion. I'm like, so so I mean, just my stud services are a little exhausting, but I'll never be too tired for that.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Good. I'm glad to hear that. Uh, are you is there anything that you're scared about all week before opening?

SPEAKER_01 6:23

Uh I'm scared no one will come.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah. That's my biggest fear. And that does wake me up in the middle of the night. I was like, going, oh my God, what if we built this giant restaurant, trained all of these staffs, have all of this money, all of these moving parts. I mean, a restaurant, we have 65 employees we just hired, plus probably the six, seven management people we have right now. So close to 70 people on payroll. The building's 10,000 plus square feet, seats over 250 people, and we're in an economically declined area. Portland hasn't been building big new things for a very long time. Um, and everyone thinks I'm crazy.

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Don't you think pretty much every restaurateur probably has that fear, like the week before opening, the couple weeks before opening? Like, what if it's what if it's not a hit? What if they don't come?

SPEAKER_01 7:10

Well, there's the great Sam Fox who does like True Food and North and Blanca and um whatever he has, uh, all those incredible restaurants. I guarantee he's never too worried. I get I guarantee the person who creates Javi Airs, never too worried, you know. Um, but we're coming into uh a market we're we're not very familiar with, we're out here meeting a lot of people and chefs and psyched up. But I'm just wondering like, how many people are going to my line of the week is how many people are coming through the tunnels and across the bridges to come invigorate the downtown metropolitan area of Portland? Are they gonna show up? Because I don't want a few guests, I need a lot of guests. I think they'll show up. Well, thank you. You're on my team and you're supposed to support me.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So no, but I I've gone to Portland a little bit in the last week I've been here. We went to Lake Oswego, we've we've driven around, and it is, I think the city's coming back. You know, I saw it a couple years ago when it was having a bit of a ru rough moment, and it's a beautiful city.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

We won't tell anybody that you were in uh sandals last night and almost took a needle to a toe. Don't worry, that that's like uh you don't see that stuff around here anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:24

You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

So it's it's it's kind of patchy. There's different little blocks of uh not very good. But there's it's the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. Like, what are we to do with these people who suffer massive fentanyl addiction?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

And major mental health issues and the major trauma and abuse that got them to this point. But it's in every city. You walk down the wrong corner with the money.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

And I will give my PG version of what I think we should do. Yes. And you walk around for mayor corner of San Diego.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

All major metropolitan cities, haven't they? Yeah, and it has it. It's not just isolated to here, but yeah, it's it's it's I have a lot to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

It's intent.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Okay, this episode, we're gonna try and make it 15 minutes long. I think we've already been talking for 15 minutes. The focus of it is what makes a great restaurant. How do you hire the right people? Um, and so you at this point in your career are mostly focused on just hiring the management team.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

And you you we had restaurant one, uh, Hawkeye and Huckleberry Lounge out on your own, and some people from the management team left in within the first week or two, maybe first. First nightmare, complete nightmare.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And they've been on payroll for no less than eight months and were both fired and terminated in the first week.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yes. And and now going into this restaurant, you know, obviously the restaurant hasn't been opened yet, but I'm I'm pretty confident none of the management team is going to get fired in the first week. Nobody's no one's um so you know a question here, miss. Yes, I'm ready to answer, and I know you know what the question is Oh, you're I'm talking too much. You want to talk. Uh well I I'm giving the background because can you tell within the first five minutes if someone is going to be a great hire?

SPEAKER_01 10:06

I always thought I could, but I guess that we just agreed that I can't. Uh well, what it is, is when we did uh Hawkeye and Knuckleberry Lounge there, I I thought I needed a local. Yeah. And I didn't know the local very well. Yeah. But I like looked at their track record and I was like, oh, you got this. But we run at such a different speed than most restaurants. Like ours are high speed, high energy, a lot of engagement, a lot of training. We don't take secondary, we don't take second best, you know. We're not, we don't let stuff slide.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

So when I started to find that pressure to that person, it was just implosion. And the same with the chef, I was like, oh, that person solid, be good enough for Ben. And then all of a sudden, I was like, saw that twinkle. I was like, oh no, we're going to crush this, we're gonna do something so special here. Um, let's really and so we brought up Carlos to run that restaurant. Uh, and he's just doing a phenomenal job and absolutely killing it. And their sky, their sales are skyrocketing year two and a half. It's just amazing. Um, so we really had time to put our thoughts together for this restaurant. Back in my early days, I used to open up all the fabric restaurants, they were too fast, and they they didn't have the culture, they didn't have the heart, they didn't have the integrity that you need from a restaurant. And so I'm I'm very fortunate that the Puffer Mullarkey group, we we we spawned a lot of great people. And I have two of those running restaurants. We have Jamie over in uh central Oregon, who knows the discipline that he learned from Puffer and opening these restaurants and knows our shortcomings, also. And we were able to get Starkey to be over from Boise, Idaho, who helped me open up so many fabric restaurants back in the day. So I really know who she is, and she knows what we want to do, and she has the same expectations. So that's incredible. Um, and then we got to introduce ourselves to Chef Lalo, who is a Portland uh chef uh by way of Mexico. Um, and he is the best type of chef because he's a collaborative chef. Carlos and I are constantly with ideas. Carlos is here helping me open him, like he does. He's in the kitchen right now, get the kitchen find uh fine-tuned and bought to life. But you have to have chefs that are willing to share ideas. We're a collaboration group, right? Like if you tell me something smarter than me, I'll be like, good, really. Let's do it. Let's do it. So as long as you have people that are willing to try new things and to collaborate uh for the well-being and the bigness of the venue for the restaurant, I think that's what we need.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah. Sounds like you don't want somebody coming in, chef, GM with a big ego who's it's no egos.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Yeah. Like even though I appear to have ego and I have these big sunglasses on because my other glasses broke, um, but I feel cool in these and they they don't show the fear in my eyes, you know. Um, you you we we have to remove our ego from this equation. And so many chefs are horrible egomaniacs. I mean, I'm an egomaniac in certain ways.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Um but you're always willing to hear your microphone, it's not even close to you.

SPEAKER_01 13:03

But I'm so loud.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

Uh, you're always willing to hear when something could be done better. If somebody has has outsmarted me, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

Uh, but my big ego uh doesn't think many people can outsmart me.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Uh so if somebody wanted to work for you one day, uh the things that you've listed, you know, they need to be collaborative. They can't have a big ego that compromises their ability to do the job well. And it's probably best if they worked for you in the past. Anything else that you would add to the list?

SPEAKER_01 13:34

It's a passion. You have to love the job. This is not a job for the the for the average person. The restaurant business is, you know, we call it comfort and chaos. You work nights, you know, especially. I mean, if you're in my type of restaurants, we're we're big, large venues. We're not happy unless our restaurants pack. We're not, we're not winning unless we're making money. So it's a passion. You have to love what you do. You have to love people, you have to love to enter uh entertain people, engage with people, you have to be a great leader, you have to inspire people, you have to see details that other people don't. You have to hear the music, see the lights, smell the food. You need to know what's going on at all times to be in our management group. And you have to, yeah, you have to love what you do.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah. Um, so based on that, what is harder to teach? Skill or attitude?

SPEAKER_01 14:25

Uh 100%. It's your attitude. We can take, if you have a great attitude and the willingness to learn, we can make you great. If you have the greatest skill, I've seen so many chefs fail. Like I the I unfortunately I love it at times. I'm sorry for the people who go down with them, investors, staff, whatever it is. Egotistical chefs that just are like, it's my way, I'm doing it this way, this is the way I do it. And they just they they believe that everyone should buy into their that's the all the restaurants that shut down. Are people that cook for themselves? They cook for the the Michelin guys, they cook for that. You gotta cook for the guest, you gotta cook for the people, you gotta make sure that the the like such a broad group of people can come in and find stuff they like, and you see so many just egomaniac chefs crush restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

What do you want the malarkey to feel like for your employees who work here?

SPEAKER_01 15:20

I want it to be a place where you're happy to go to work. I I I we did our all-staff meeting yesterday, our first all-staff meeting, and I told them that we have this special magical thing here. Not only are we in a giant orb of happiness in this restaurant, but there's a bucket. It's an invisible bucket that sits by the back door that you walk in when you go to work. And in that invisible bucket, you get to, when you're walking into work, you take all of your all of your troubles, you know, your financial troubles, your love life troubles, you know, if anybody's sick, any trouble you have in your mind, everything in your mind and your heart, you throw it in the garbage right there. You leave it by the back door, anything that's just upsetting you, and you come in and you're you're you feel free. Your job now for the next few hours is just to make other people happy. All right. We're there, we leave our junk behind, and we go in and we just let people have a great time. We're tour guides to an amazing escape for our guest. And now when you leave at the end of the night, you can look over at that invisible garbage can and you go, oh, do I want to pick that stuff back up? Do I want to take that stuff with me? Uh and I I highly suggest most of it you should leave behind, you know? Just leave the junk behind and walk through life a little bit lighter.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

It's good. Thanks. Uh, a couple questions, a little longer for him, then we're gonna get to some rapid fire before we wrap up. Uh, have you ever hired someone you knew immediately would become a star?

SPEAKER_01 16:43

Um, yeah. I mean, believe it or not, it took him a long time. He's like a dumb puppy, a very dumb puppy, but Carlos. The first day I met him, uh, the chef I was working with, Biddy Lieberman at the time, was like, oh, there's this punk kid over here. We're definitely not hiring him. I was like, let me talk to him. And in the first five minutes, I was like, Are you kidding me? This guy's gonna be amazing. He's just like, he's like a little puppy. He's just like, I want to do that, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this. And it took him like 10 years to get his shit figured out, but now he is that great. You know, he's he's to watch. He's a right-hand man. He's my right heart, he's my left hand, he's my right hand. Uh, he is so in his prime right now. And watching him fire up the staff and train people and prep stuff and and develop the menu and do all of these things with us, it's just it warms my heart to see what he turned into. So Carlos, uh, I knew from day one was gonna be a superstar. I mean, he had to go he had to go, he had to go close his own restaurant, uh, he had to go learn stuff on his own, but now he's in that zone. Uh so definitely.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Um you opened your first restaurant uh in 2010, Seer Secker. Oh, thank you so much. So now it's 2026. So you're doing research on me. Do you think it's harder hiring today than it was in 2010?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Um, you know, I think every market you find out if it's hard or not to hire. Um I'm blown away with the staff that we just hired here in Portland. So many great people, so many passionate people, so many interesting people, great work history. We did our first day of training. I mean, uh upon first appearance, it was amazing. Hiring in Central Oregon, really easy for snowboarders and people that want part-time jobs. Bartender, everybody's a bartender. Bartender has always been the easiest job to hire because everybody wants to be a bartender. Uh, servers, not so bad, but hiring cooks, that is just one of the hardest things there are. It's not as much fun as it used to be. Uh, there's not to be many people that want to do it. And I don't know why, because people should really be. I think being a chef, a cook is a great job. I mean, it's it's it's tedious and hard, um, but for a certain mindset that loves that stuff, you don't have to talk to the guests, you don't have to do that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Uh, and it's the robots aren't coming for your job anytime soon, either.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

The robots are not coming for your job, but it's hands. You're using your hands there. So I think these jobs that require using of your hands um are safe for a lot longer because Elon's not going to build the army of uh robots, chef robots quite yet. But everybody else that uses your brain mainly in your job and not your hands, those jobs are gone.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Uh, what's one interview question you always ask?

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Um one interview question I always ask. Uh what do you do on your days off? I think that's I I know what you want to do here. What do you do on your days off? Um, and I that tells you a lot about people if they have hobbies, if they have things that they like. If they say I don't do anything, I'm like, oh, that's not very well rounded. Um, something I find I do fun for cooks, chefs, is uh Rocco de Spira, great chef, uh, told me this one time, and I just absolutely love this. Is I just take them and have them cut chives. I was like, and you just do it nonchalant. Like, hey, will you cut those chives for me? And you can tell everything about a cook and a chef in 30 seconds by watching them cut chives. Do they take a whole big handful? Do they take a smaller bunch? Do they cut on a right angle? Are they all stuck together? Is their knife sharp? Is there are they clumping them together? Are some big, some small? Did they pick out any that are kind of like a little bit wilted and not pretty? You know, do they have a place to put them when they're done? What do they do with the stems? You know everything in 30 seconds from watching somebody uh cut that. But as far as um everybody else, what do you do on your days off? And what do you want to be doing in three to five years? Because are you committed to this job for a while? Because it takes a long time to train somebody up, and are you just gonna leave me soon?

SPEAKER_00 20:45

When you're listening to somebody answer an interview question, are you just listening to the words that come out of their mouth? Are you observing their body language to see if their body language aligns with what they're saying? Because it's really easy. I you can bullshit an answer really easily. So, as the hiring manager, like what are the cues that you're looking at to see that somebody is genuine?

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Uh, it's completely different for front of the house and back of the house. Yeah. So front of the house, I listen to the answer and I do watch the body language because they're on display.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

They're on display, they're gonna be out there, they're gonna be talking to guests. I want to know how they're gonna, are they gonna open up to people? They're gonna be nice and warm and inviting and stuff like that. So, yes, you listen to the answer and the body language. But cooks, we're a different breed, right? You can be you you can not want to talk much and do this, and if you just destroyed those chives, you're probably getting the job, all right? Like, I don't really like I don't want you to be mean or anything like that, but people go into cooking because they don't want to talk to people. Yeah, they want to do their job, they they're fine with a small little team, but they're not on display. And so we get all kinds of interestingly unique individuals in the kitchen, so you definitely don't read their body language.

SPEAKER_00 21:56

Interesting that you became a chef because you don't like to shut the fuck up. Up. So how does that work out?

SPEAKER_01 22:02

That's so true. So I'm what I'm I'm one of those odd chefs, right? So uh I'm one of the talkative chefs, and that's why they put me on TV.

SPEAKER_00 22:12

Oh, easy. You also hate small talk. Like we we do, we host Christmas Eve every year, and Brian likes to hide in the kitchen so that he doesn't have to engage in small talk with random family members.

SPEAKER_01 22:23

Uh it's it's actually I learned throughout my uh time on this earth is that I I am the greatest minute and a half conversationalist of all time. Walk up to a table, oh my gosh, do you love that? How's that going? Everything great, boom, boom, boom, boom. Oh, gotta get burning the biscuits, gotta go. And so, like, I I just I hit and move. I hit and move. I that's like it's hard for me to sit down and have dinner with people.

SPEAKER_00 22:48

Like when we first started dating, it was hard for me to have like a real conversation with you. You like you like to talk while you do good is you can you perform and you like to talk about yourself.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

I love to talk about myself. Yeah, I mean who doesn't this interview is so fun. I'm I'm like going, this is this is this called the Brian Mullarkey podcast? You're so great.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

What's the most underrated job in a restaurant?

SPEAKER_01 23:10

Uh the most underrated job in the restaurant, uh the two of them, and I don't know if one of them is underrated, but the dishwasher. The dishwasher is is grinding all night long. I every restaurant, I always go say hello and thank you to the dishwashers every time I'm in there. Um it's it's it's not it's it's the hardest work. It's just a constant, it's hot water, hot plates, dirty plates, going in, going out. You can't run a restaurant without a dishwasher. You cannot, right? Um and I almost think the the most important, and I would, I wouldn't say it's underrated because you don't you essentially you it's the hostess. Yeah, it's the first greeting when you come in. Hello, how are you doing? And I a hostess needs to say goodnight. They can't just be like looking at their phone. You have to engage, like, oh my god, thank you so much. Because that's the bookends of the entire restaurant experience. And those are both entry-level positions, and those are both entry-level positions, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Uh what is one piece of advice you would have for somebody who you can choose, either wants to work in restaurants or wants, let's say, wants to become a restaurantur, because that's what you are at this point.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Um so many people come up to me all the time and they're like, I I want, I want to go to culinary school. Yeah. And I was like, oh my God, have you ever worked in a restaurant? And most of them say no. And I was like, don't go take on debt, don't go do any of that stuff. Go get a job in a restaurant and go try to go to the restaurant you think you might want to work in. And that's gonna tell you immediately, like, if that's what it is for you. Because it's it's it's a different, it's a it's a crazy breed of people that work in restaurants, right? Uh, very unique group of people that work in restaurants. So you have to go spend time in a restaurant to know if that's what you want to do with your career. And my my stepfather gave me great advice back in my day. And I was like, Oh, I want to open a restaurant one day. And he goes, You uh go learn how to, and and Tom Colecchio actually said this to us also. He said, learn how to make money on somebody else's dime. Don't jump into your own restaurant. Make sure that you can go into somebody else's restaurant, you can fill it, you can keep your staff entertained, you can keep them clean, you can keep them going, organized, you can keep the food coming out, you can make the PL shine and show that you're very profitable for a period of time, not just a couple months, for like a year, and go, now I have the skill set to potentially go open my own restaurant, raise my own money, and become a restaurateur.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

That's very good advice. Um, well, I think that's all my questions for today. Is there anything you want to share with the audience? Don't wake me up. Don't wake me up. Uh, we're gonna do we're gonna do two more of these. Uh, the next one we're going to do is on how you create the menu for each of your restaurants.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Oh, fun. I like that. These are so fun. Are we gonna just completely change the format of the Harley Malachi podcast?

SPEAKER_00 26:00

This is a limited series. Oh, it's a little bit. If people like it, you know, we can expand it in other ways.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Because I'm living in a hotel up here for three weeks and you're going home today.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:08

You'll be back.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

I'll be back in less than a week, though. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

It'll be okay. We'll miss you.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Yeah, I know you will.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

I'll miss you too. I won't miss our hotel room though.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

Uh so this is it. So join and follow us along as we discuss uh opening of the Malarkey in Portland, Oregon, and get a little feel of what it takes to open a restaurant in today's environment.

SPEAKER_00 26:31

Yeah, and then you're gonna want to come visit us because it's pretty fun here.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

It's so fun.