- It's definitely not glamorous.

You're sweating, it's hot, you're regardless of the restaurant too, it's all the same.

I mean, there's just different techniques and different, but it's still sweaty.

You still smell, you still follow a lot of similar arc every day.

Like work, work, work.

It's busy service, blah, blah, blah.

Get off, meet your friends, have a couple beers, go to bed, do it again the next day.

It's an odd environment, but like in every sense of the term, and sometimes bad and sometimes bad, but I gravitate towards it, man.

I, and I'm never, I don't regret it and I don't, and I don't, I don't know what else I would do.

You know, like I don't, some people go back to college when they're my age, you know, but I, it's a gritty industry.

But if you can hack it and you make it through and you, you, you, you feel like you can do it for a living and make a career out of it, I recommend it, but just know that it's not, it's not like it is on tv.

My name's Jordan Taylor, Co-owner and Chef of Bread and Circus Sandwich, kitchen plus catering, pizza, cheeks and Boathouse.

Spa and Grill and soon to be Perch.

This is a building that was a grocery store about a hundred years ago that the building owner purchased about two years ago and has transformed it into this being that this neighborhood doesn't have any, well basically this is the first restaurant in a neighborhood in Sioux Falls.

I would say like no commerce around it.

I don't know if you wanna see the basement, but this is a pretty cool in the sense that, you know, this is how old the building is.

This is like the, the original a hundred and 110, a hundred year old foundation.

- A lot of people think that if you open a restaurant that's so different than anything that's available, they think that that's gonna be groundbreaking and very popular.

The problem is those people aren't used to that, so it may be a complete flub.

So I give them even more credit for opening something that wasn't the norm.

I don't know Sioux Falls, so I didn't know how it was gonna go.

Obviously it's gone well at least as far as the number of restaurants that he's opened up.

But as he told me, when he opened his fourth endeavor, he said, I still am as poor as when I lived on your couch.

So financially, maybe it's not the best thing.

- I love it.

I still love it.

I love food.

I love making food.

I love the creative process and I love the science.

I love it all, but it's, it, it, you don't get into it to, to get rich.

I said I want to do as much as I can before I turn 50.

'cause I feel like 50 is, I don't want to be opening restaurants and writing.

Like I'll write recipes and still cook, but I don't wanna be on the line.

It's a young man's game working the line.

You're up and down, you're sweating.

It's hard.

It's harder work than most people think.

I'm from here in Sioux Falls.

I kind of bounce between Fargo and Sioux Falls every four years before I graduated from high school for my dad's job, which yeah, graduated from Roosevelt.

Mom was born in Minneapolis.

She's of Japanese descent.

My father who's kind of a white, a Caucasian mutt so to speak.

Also, he was born in Madison, Wisconsin, but lived most of his life in Minneapolis.

They were like hippies that hung out in the same crew.

And I mean, I'm an only child.

Other than that, it was pretty standard, normal childhood I would say.

And I lived with my mother post divorce for about a year.

I don't necessarily think it affected me in a negative, I mean a little bit of course, but you know, some people's parents divorcing is kind of a, a big huge ordeal.

And this one was, I just knew my parents weren't happy together.

So in a way I was kind of, it was kind of a good in the long run I guess.

So I didn't have an idea of like what I wanted to do.

I think during college though, I started to think that, you know, I might want to be in the restaurant industry and in some, in some form.

Once I decided I was gonna move, it was basically my friend and now a business partner had moved to Portland and I didn't like what I was doing.

I worked for a bank for six months out of college.

I just wanted to get out, honestly.

Like I was young and I like my, a lot of young people in their hometown, they just want to get out and go somewhere new, right?

I just got, basically, I just got in my car and left Sioux Falls someone, I don't remember who, but someone was like, I was talking about moving and they were like, just get in your, just do it.

Like quit your job, get in your car and go.

And that's kind of what I did.

And I had never been out there, so like driving in through the gorge was nuts.

This huge, you know, geographical beautiful area that I had never seen.

And it was night and it was rainy and it was like everything was kind of what I heard and read about.

But it was, it was fun man.

I liked it immediately.

Like I loved grunge back then too.

So like moving to the northwest was cool and it was like kind of grungy, like it was an old, you know, port town.

Well, I mean I knew I wanted to go to culinary school, but I wanted to save money for some reason.

I guess that was me trying to be responsible.

So I got a job with a insurance company as like a auditor trainee or something that paid pretty well.

And then I failed a background check.

So because of the misdemeanors in high school, I, I applied and got that job and then got taken away or rescinded basically within the first month I was there.

Once I got that job offer rescinded, I said, screw it, I'm going to culinary school then.

So my father, he, he came out there to go through the orientation basically, or the signing up process and we were sitting in the office and or in the lobby so to speak.

And he says to me, he's like, you sure you want to do this?

And I was like, yeah.

And he said, well the industry, you know, this industry is full of like, like nitty gritty or I don't remember the words he used, but basically he was saying rough around the edge is folk right?

And in my head I was like, well I'm, you know, kind of like that right now.

I mean, I don't know he, but he was like, well, you know, and also you're, you're, you're not very creative.

And I won't forget that 'cause that kind of like stuck with me and it made me wanna prove him wrong, you know?

- I don't know exactly the progression that he went through.

I could tell you he fit in really well at Zach Shack.

He would usually sit right down there and play a bunch of songs on the jukebox and sing along really loud.

And Jordan's probably the greatest air guitarist I've ever seen.

He does air drums and air piano as well.

But his air guitar is something really special because when he gets going, not only does he play the guitar, he likes to look to his sound man over on the side and he'll tell him vocals up and then he'll play a couple and he'll go, you got it now buddy.

So just indicating that you have a side sound guy is really important 'cause he is not looking out to the front sound man.

So that indicates to me that he's playing some kind of big concert in his head.

So he fit in really well here.

- My only prior cooking experience before culinary school was getting fired from Taco Bell.

And I would work drive through, like I had no cooking experience and a lot of the kids in, in culinary school do have a lot of experience.

There's no like competition necessarily, you know, I think at the end there kind of is for, 'cause you have to do an externship and I think then people kind of get cutthroat 'cause they want to be like the only person that goes to X restaurant and they give you a list of the places that are or an option in the country.

It's not, it's nationwide.

So I went to the externship coordinator and I said, I want to go to Olives.

And Vail Olives was like Todd English's restaurant at the time and the other one I said, I want to go to the herb farm.

And she said, well I can get you into olives, but we don't, we don't have a lot of, what did she say?

She's like, we don't have a lot of success with sending people to the herb farm.

And she said, well I can call up there, but I'm just telling you that we haven't had a lot of success.

I said, well, yeah, call.

And she, you know, a couple days later said, I got you a stage which is a tryout so to speak, like probably the most nervous I've ever been in my life.

Like the, the herb farm was at the time of top 30 restaurant in the country.

Like it was nine courses, one seating a night, six paired with wine.

There's like two gardens.

'cause I, I really had my heart set on like farm to table.

But I went up there and I just, I, I BSed my way through a lot of questions they asked, I helped them with service.

Like they dumped a like 20 dungeness crabs on the table that were cooked and told me to clean them.

Which is like, you know, you've done this before, right?

I was like, yep.

And I never had done it before, which is strange 'cause you think you would learn that in culinary school.

But met the chef at the time, his name's Jerry Traunfeld and he was like, you know, there was an aura about it.

I was like, oh, like it is Jerry is chef Jerry, you know, like he was on top chef masters.

Like he's, he's a, he's a pretty well-known chef.

But he took me aside at the end of the night, he said, we don't usually take students from your school, but you did great and we want to bring you on.

And I was like, no way.

Like this is insane.

And I left at like 9 30, 10 o'clock, I remember it was later.

And I drove all the way back to Portland and I got Taco Bell ironically on the way home and was just like ecstatic.

Like I couldn't believe it happened.

And I felt like I proved the externship coordinator wrong.

Don't tell me I can't do this.

Like what do you let me fail?

And I had to prove myself at the Herbfarm.

Like they didn't believe in me.

I was just another intern.

They took interns but they were like from CIA and I was in charge of the picking every day on the offsite garden, which was like two, three miles away.

I was in charge of picking this list of daily produce.

And then I was in charge of the salad course, which was sounds bottom of the barrel, but it's never changed.

Like the ingredients changed, but it's like 17 components, large lettuces to edible flowers, the same vinaigrette.

But each lettuce is dressed separately and it's like an all hands on deck course.

Like you're placing, it's like a composed salad that's all local in their produce, right?

So, so they didn't really believe in me.

I was just kind of a peon until I made staff meal and I made fajitas and they were kind of like fajitas, dude.

- They were good.

And so after that I was treated differently and, but I was like the peon still when it came to the gardening and whatnot, the chef Jerry was came, he's like, I'll meet you tomorrow morning.

Met him the following day and he like walked me through the garden, made me eat things, like handed me stuff and it just felt surreal.

But that was a big moment.

And then when I left, we, my cousin who lives in Seattle, my father came out and her husband, we all went to dinner there.

One of the cooks came out and he was like, we had to re pick your whole salad course because you bagged everything to tighten it all wilted.

And he like left.

So he was like, that was my send off from him was like F you, you know?

And which it was, he was true, he was right.

But, but then the chef came out at the end of the meal, which was awesome and he brought out the original Herb Farm cookbook and everybody in the kitchen signed it and he signed it and I was like, wow.

It was like, man, it's cool, you know like, but that was my payment.

You know, I didn't get paid but it was a, it was just a cool moment to like, like they didn't have to do that.

They don't do that.

You know, they don't, I don't know, I just felt those two moments were pretty big for me overall.

Back then I think most people could attest that have lived there a long time.

Portland, you know, in the early two thousands there was a handful of restaurants that if you wanted to work at a good restaurant and learn or you know, work under a good chef, there was only a handful.

So I applied at three places and I got callbacks on all of 'em.

But Wildwood, I went in and I gave him my resume and I was like, I give the chef this resume and they're like, yeah, go ahead kid.

You know?

And I gave him my resume and he goes, and it was Corey Schreiber's his name, he looked at the resume and he goes, oh you worked at the Herb Farm, huh?

- I can think of many conversations at the bar area standing up, just looking at a resume and trying to do a quick filter on, you know, what applies to what we do here.

Like where's your place in the puzzle?

Obviously the herbfarm.

That was wise on Jordan's part.

I think Jerry Traunfeld I think was the chef and plus at that point it was my own restaurant.

So I had a much deeper sensibility about what the right placements were that came in there.

And he was, he was definitely one of 'em.

So I would say, and I'm thinking back to after, after I hired him, that that the things that became true or manifested.

And what I noticed in that first conversation was a commitment, a passion.

And also there was a sense of humor, which in kitchens is essential.

I mean so many things go wrong.

If you get all wound up on everything that spills or drops or burns or goes wrong, you're gonna be in deep anxiety form.

And I think he had a certain ease about him.

- I'll never forget it.

I came back the next day and they're like small dice mirepoix, like a cup of mirepoix, which is one part onion, one part carrots and celery.

So they gave me like a nine pan to put that in and they said make a vinegarette for like a mixed green salad or like a simple salad, make a simple vinegarette.

And then they gave me these like Chinese long beans that were local at the time and they said, do something with these that would pair well with like this king salmon we got in today.

And I was like, holy, like what I'm gonna do, I just lost all confidence.

But I did it all.

I just remember the, the chef to cuisine at the time was like I would grab sugar for the vinegarette, like a classic vinegarette is three to one, three parts O fat or oil to one part vinegar or acid.

And I thought it was too acidic and instead of balancing the ratio better, I just grabbed sugar.

And he goes, you can't balance that without, without sugar.

And I was like, yep, I sure can.

I never would've knocked on that door if it weren't for like the Herb farm.

Herb farm set me up and Wildwood was another eyeopening experience.

- He was just in as much in the flow with that whole kitchen.

What was going on as anybody else was, it was never, he was never secondary or a third or whatever.

He was always playing I think at the primary level because he, he also knows as we all do that, you know, the time is short, you gotta absorb at a pretty quick level.

'cause there's, as we talked about, there's so many things going on.

So I think he has absorbed and and understands the immediacy of the moment.

- It was like everything was fairly new.

I mean the whole farm to table thing was really taking off at that point.

So like when Jordan landed a job, you know, decided to go do his internship at the Herb farm, you're like, wow, he's on, how did he do that?

I mean that's like what everybody wants to do.

How did he pull that off?

You know?

Then he went to go work at Wildwood and you're all like, man, he's doing all the right stuff, you know, to get to know food and all that.

And so that was the fun thing about hanging with him is bouncing ideas off of each other and just, Hey, let's make it so then yeah, we would hang out and make food.

- I was a better line cook, that's all I was.

So when I went to Olea, that was a whole new game.

Like that was like kind of molecular gastronomy ish.

It wasn't so farm to table, but the technique was more refined and it was like a top 10 best new restaurant in the country in gourmet at the time.

And I was like, I want to work there.

Like I want to go learn and work there.

I went to, I said, you know, I dropped my resume off and they were like, oh you work in Wildwood.

Like, these were steps that got me into these places and came back for a stage.

Did pretty well, I thought.

He said, well you pretty much, I think we're gonna, I think we'll hire you.

What are you, what are you doing tonight?

And I said, well I don't have any plans.

And he goes, you want to come back later and we can sort this out and I have a drink.

And I was like, okay.

So I came back with my girlfriend and we went out and next thing you know, it's like six in the morning and we're at my friend's house and we're playing ping pong I think.

And like it was at like six, seven in the morning.

He was finally like, you got the job.

But he basically wanted to see if I, I could hang, you know, like, 'cause if I could do that, then I'll show up.

You know, showing up for work shouldn't be, I don't know what his outlook was.

He was a very toxic human.

But, and then I, you know, I, I started there and it was every day was a nightmare, honestly.

Like for a year.

I think I worked there a little less than a year, but like someone got fired every day and then they got rehired and you never knew what station you were on.

He was always like hungover or just, but he was a talented dude.

I learned a lot from him.

But he, yeah, he just, it was probably the most toxic kitchen I was ever in.

And a lot of people that worked for that guy would probably say the same thing.

But people would say, you know, even 10 years ago they would say Olea was the best restaurant in Portland for a while.

So then the guy that who was at Wildwood for a long time opened up a place across the river called Roots.

And I just like gravitated towards that style of cooking more than Olea.

It was like always written in the like top 15-20 restaurants in the city.

It was a good place.

But I just went out there 'cause I knew they were hiring and a lot of people from Wildwood went out there to help him open it.

- I met Jordan, I hiring him here and Jordan is a, he is a case in his resume, honestly wasn't that impressive.

But when I brought him in and he started to work, he was, he blew us away.

He was a, he was really good at what he was doing.

His resume didn't do his him justice.

And I, I remember that very distinctly about Jordan.

I knew within, you know, two days that he was gonna work out.

And when you say chef, I think as somebody who has the whole package that could work with people that could do the business side of it and then also the food side of it.

So there's three parts there.

Jordan had all three parts and that's a rare thing that's a, I see I've worked with people that could cook but couldn't do the other two.

I could work with some people that were good with people but couldn't do, couldn't cook.

Jordan had, has a rare quality of all three.

So when you say chef, that's what I think.

- I never thought I would move to North Dakota.

I was very, I loved Portland and, but my mother had her first bout of ca with cancer at the time and my father was, had colon cancer.

And so I kind of got a reality check and I was like, I want to be closer to my family.

My aunt who lives near Medora had heard that they were, they just remodeled this hotel and they wanted to up the game in the food department.

So they were hiring the chef.

Yeah, I mean the, the the, the craziest part, I was only there for eight months I think total.

'cause it was, it was a miserable experience beyond, the summer was fine 'cause it had a bunch of people from all over the world that worked there.

But I had a, a lot of fun in the like three, four months during the busy season.

But in the winter it was miserable 'cause no one's there and you're in the middle of nowhere and it's like an hour to a grocery store.

It was a lot of, yeah, I smoked at the time and I was like drinking a lot and I'd just hang out in the backyard and look and watch the antelope and like, it was kind of pretty, but it was a bunch of snow.

'cause I was, you're in this like valley in the Badlands.

So I would just flick these cigarettes and then when I came back and there was still snow on the ground, but it was melting for the most part.

And the backyard was, yeah, a very unhealthy sight.

And I don't remember half of those nights, you know, so just, it's just a, a lot of cigarette butts.

And so that was like the, I don't know, it was probably the loneliest time I had in my life, which isn't ideal for a 32-year-old.

- I remember when a guy I used to work with was the GM at Mc Minimums in Portland.

Hal Finkelstein called me and he said that he was considering hiring Jordan as the chef at, at the, that place in Portland.

And I, I couldn't have been happier for him.

I gave him a, a glowing review.

It's because Jordan has all had all three aspects of what a chef is.

And I knew that he would, he would land on his feet and do well at that job.

- So I, I wanted to go back to Portland.

I made a phone, couple phone calls and I set up a job interview at this hotel downtown that was like, it's a restaurant group, restaurant bar group.

But this was like their, their venture into fine dining.

And they hired well, and they hired a bunch of people that were, that were pretty well known, but they were having some issues.

And I got a hold of a guy who was the GM at Wildwood or back in the day, he was the GM at Wildwood.

And at the time he was the GM of that restaurant.

And he said, we'll fly you in and we want you to do a tryout or a stage or whatever.

Yeah.

And I, I nailed it and they hired me and I, so I moved back to Portland right around the time I was at the Zeus.

I, I got a call saying that my mom had fallen ill with cancer again and paranoid schizophrenic.

And she lived in a low income housing in downtown Minneapolis and she's a five foot tall Japanese woman who's like a hundred pounds on soaking wet, you know, so she was a strong woman for what she, from her appearance.

But I went to Minneapolis and was there for not too long.

I think it was a couple weeks at the most, a week or two.

And then went back and then I got a call.

Luckily a friend found her, they got her to the hospital.

And I was like, what's well, so the chemo's not working?

And they said she's never come in 'cause she was 'cause of her illness, her mental illness.

So I went back to Portland and then, you know, shortly after that I got a call saying she's in ho she's gonna be in hospice.

Like we found her.

She's, it's, it's the cancer has spread.

So I went and I stayed with Justin for, and my aunt for about four or 5, 3, 4 or five months.

I don't know.

I mean the idea initially was came about because my mother was ill and she was passing and it kind of made me think about moving back closer to home.

And so I had it in my head that it might be good to move back closer to home and open something here.

One of the first things I did before I moved back was find purveyors when it comes to produce and when it comes to proteins.

And we, we, I knew there was a lot of farmers that were around, did not, but that weren't being utilized either.

- Well actually Jordan connected with us.

We, they were working on putting together bread and circus and he wanted to use locally sourced product and he found us online, I guess and, and visited with Mary.

And it, that's been a really good relationship.

I, I think they're real happy and, and we're obviously real happy.

The farm to table concept requires real serious commitment on, on both parts.

I mean, it's not easy to just incorporate what a local farmer might have available on a regular basis because it's constantly changing and, and so the restaurant has to be constantly changing their menu.

I think it's difficult for some restaurants to deal with that challenge.

But you know, Jordan appears to have been able to make that work for him.

- When you talk about like farm to table in an area that's high agriculture or known for agriculture, but not necessarily that agriculture that you eat doing that you have to have a actual philosophy.

It's not a marketing plan.

I think at his level of being a chef, you've come to the point where you understand that less is more and being able to bring ingredients together.

And even in his way where he does it in a very casual way in bread and circus, the high intelligence that goes into that to understand what each ingredient is bringing, but then sourcing it is incredibly difficult.

- I don't necessarily think there's anything special about the tomatoes we grow or the carrots that we grow or, or or any of those things.

But what he's been able to do with those things and how he incorporates and brings out the flavors and, and just does those kinds of things.

It makes it different.

And you know, he genuinely gets excited about things like, you know, the different vegetables that we bring him and, and stuff like that.

'cause he knows what he's doing, you know, so I don't, I don't know how to explain that.

I mean, he's the magician, not, not me.

- The Vietnamese fried chicken's been the number one, if not top three in sales every day since we've opened seven years ago.

And the, the, the thought process behind that was everybody was doing Korean fried chicken at the time.

So I knew that Viet, I love Vietnamese food and I knew that those flavors would work with chicken.

I know a fried chicken sandwich is like four things, usually three to four things.

Mayo of some sort, pickles of some sort, fried chicken of some sort and bun right?

So the thought process on that was if I want to do like a, a glaze, like a Vietnamese style glaze on the fried chicken, it's gonna be acidic, it's gonna have fish sauce, it's gonna have chilies.

So it's gonna be kind of sweet, sour, spicy, like hit all those flavors, like what's gonna go with that?

And we just don't wanna put mayo on it.

So what's like, there's a lot of cilantro in Vietnamese cooking.

So we did cilantro aioli.

Aioli is French, but it's a mayo, right?

I was like, we need pickle on here, so what's a good Vietnamese style pickle?

And we did the dicon carrot and red onion that you would find on a Banh Mi sandwich.

So it was kind of like, start with the concept.

Start with what a, what an what an average version of that sandwich would be and what that consists of.

And then switch out those things for things that are a little more unique, I guess - He, he layers his food very well.

So you're not just eating a sandwich when you go there, or if you have pizza, you're not just eating pizza.

If you just sit and close your eyes for a minute, you're gonna taste many layers to what it is that he's doing.

And that's kind of the fun spirit behind taking a, the depth of what you learn in fine dining and then bring that into a casual everyday experience.

And I think that's like him sticking with that has built that customer, loyal customer base because they're going there for more than maybe what they realize.

There's a satiation that comes with eating high quality ingredients.

And it's so important for our community, for chefs who embody that to continue to do it.

You know, and he's leading the way in, in doing that here.

- I mean, the first year and a half, two years was brutal.

Like if I wanted a, a friend of mine opened a bar a week before that was down the street.

I couldn't even, I mean this is like not a huge deal, but I would bargain by bartering with sandwiches.

I'd be like, what do you want for dinner?

And then I'd get like a couple beers, you know, like I didn't have money for a couple beers.

I didn't have money.

I almost had to sell my car.

Like we didn't, one time we sat down, we looked at my bills and, and, and that's what my paycheck was, you know, so you, you don't, and that was for two years.

- Yeah, it was definitely gonna take some time.

And then sure they knew that going into it.

I mean probably just talking to their family are they're gonna be like, are you anything like Chili's?

You know, there was probably gonna be some of those questions and then just like, are we doing with this curry flatbread?

Is this gonna be something that's so outside the box here that no one's gonna want to even touch it?

But I think you got a few people to try it and realize, wow, these guys are really onto something.

- That's the part that people don't really understand the complexity of trying to put all, so you're moving them from everything from a raw state into this finished state, right?

So if they look at the sandwich and they say $14, what?

I can go down to the C store and get a sandwich for seven.

So people are making this comparison saying, oh this the, the deviled egg sandwich at the sea store and then the sandwich that Jordan made with the house smoked beef and the heirloom tomatoes and the handmade mayonnaise and whatever it is.

That's where the disconnect happens.

'cause we live in a, a very commodified culture unfortunately.

So we think that those two things are on the same playing field and they're not.

And so that's why I mentioned earlier that I'm sure Jordan is an ed.

He had to educate.

- That's a very humbling experience.

If somebody's taken that road, it's the long road.

It's not the short road.

Believing in yourself and selling yourself on the idea that it's going to amount to something beyond skill and knowledge.

- You gotta be passionate.

If you don't have that, then it's way too much work for not enough money.

Sometimes there's gonna be bumps and curves in the road, whether it's with a, a customer base or trying to get the employees on board for certain dishes, that type of thing.

You're gonna have a, you're gonna have bumps in the road, but the longer you're at it, the smoother it becomes.

The longer you maintain your true philosophy, the smoother it becomes.

- I got to a point at one point where I said that, is this worth it?

I if I was doing better before I moved, which I was, it just made it hard to believe in this concept when technically I've gone backwards in more ways than one.

So yeah, I mean, but you know, like I said, 2019 helped out 2021 was huge and we've, we've, we've definitely turned that around at this point.

- When you invest that much in yourself, you have a different level of confidence.

You, if you watch Jordan walk around, he's very humble and low key.

And because at the end of the day, you know, you're walking with everything you've been through to get to where you're at.

And it's, it's a process and it's a huge investment in yourself and very difficult to get to a place where, and stay creative.

I mean, you look at the restaurants, Jordan's doing, you know, to grind it out and build your brand and build yourself and then continue to stay creative.

It's very difficult.

And he's doing that and he's bringing that to our community.

- I would say that he stands out above the pack in his commitment.

You know, I think that there's certainly others that believe in it, but they don't execute it as well.

And that's okay.

I mean, I can't supply everybody and I don't want to, I I, I actually, you know, some people look at me funny when I say that, but I, I've really gotten to the point in our careers, my wife and I, where we really only do business with people we like and, and, and we're okay with that and we continue to do business with Jordan.

- I really thought Jordan was a, a, a really good guy and I always thought in my gut that Jordan would be one of those people that when he, when he fell, he'd always get back up and be able to handle it.

And he's, he's, he's taken his part of the world and, and his restaurants and all the food and the ideas that he's doing and I couldn't be more proud of that, taking that philosophy to an entire different community and then forcing it upon them and sticking the path.

It's, it's a lot of, it's a lot.

It's heavy to tote that, but it will, it will pay out for him.

And I am just, I am really proud of that fact that he took that philosophy and he started to another, another community and hopefully it'll, it'll spread from spread from there.

Yeah, Jordan, Jordan was just a flat out, good guy.

- One of the proudest moments I would say was when Triple D was here, they have a, you know, a credit card.

They go eat wherever they're in multiple cities, the crew, the crew, I mean, guy himself is, he knows food, but he, you know, I don't, he's in and out.

We didn't spend a lot of time with him, but the crew who was really cool and they, they, they eat at a lot of places and they've been around the world and around the country for sure.

And they run a card, they do whatever they want every night, right?

While they ate here, every meal that they were here, they actually were genuinely into the food.

They bought t-shirts, they were in contact afterwards saying how much they liked food.

And a side note was that guy, after he left, ordered the rest of the menu for his plane ride home, like, which he never does.

The crew was like, this is, he never does this.

Like this is a pretty big deal.

And I was like that.

It's cool, it's cool for people who, when someone like that who's eating at a lot of places and the crew eats everywhere, they love the food, they genuinely like it.

It's a, it, it made me feel pretty good - Behind the scenes, you know, Jordan's right?

We're just dishwashers.

I mean, we're blue collar trades people.

That's all we were when I finished my apprenticeship, I, I was, I was, I was a journeyman, I was a trades person.

I understood that, you know, I, I thoroughly understood that and I don't think it's really changed, you know, in terms of like the work itself.

- I feel like in your, when I was, when we opened the first three years, I was kind of in the, like, you peak as a, as a chef, I feel like as you get older you're just not doing as much research and you're not, you're just not on top of your, you lose your edge, you know?

So we have some ideas, but I would probably be open to opening like maybe one or two more concepts if it worked out for me.

But it also has to be financially a financially smart decision because I've realized after 45 years of doing this for 23 years of my life, that it's, it's, it's hard work to not see a return.

So yeah, that's the plan.