Chef Robert Luna on LA food, Masamalo, and toys

People have powerful feelings about the traffic in Los Angeles. It says something that local officials warned motorists about a temporary roadwork closure on the 405 last year by calling it Carmageddon. Angelenos took the hint, and this weekend they're expected to steer clear of the latest 405 closure, named, of course, Carmageddon 2. That's how it is in L.A., a snarl of overstuffed freeways and commuters who keep their cool, except when they don't. KPCC's Stephen Cuevas has this profile of a punk rocker whose music expresses the insanity of L.A. traffic while extolling the virtues of public transit. Couple of things you need to know about Eddie Solis. He lives in L.A., loves the band Kiss, and does not own a car. Being someone who's from L.A., born and raised, and, you know, having a few cars in my past, I saw the city much differently through a different perspective through the eyes of a bus rider. One just all the way to the back. Line 18, Wilshire, Western Station. Just steps from the front door of his home, across the street from a tortilla factory in L.A.'s Boyle Heights neighborhood, Solis catches a bus that connects him with the city's subway, and the commuter train he catches to his day job at an indie record label in Hollywood. It just opened me up to, like, little neighborhoods, galleries, clubs, bars, just everything, just seeing what's out there, little pockets of the city. Solis' journeys aboard L.A. buses and subway cars informs a lot of the material on The New Los Angeles Part One, Through the Eyes of a Bus Rider, the latest release by the singer-guitarist band It's Casual. The New Los Angeles No one has been wet In Solis' vision of a new Los Angeles, people abandon their cars, climb aboard public transit, and, you know, have to go back to the city. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. It's Casual. The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Angeles The New Los Rogers The New Los Rogers a long escalator to catch a train. So, where are we now? We're at the Red Line station, the Pershing Square station in downtown L.A. And what's our destination? We're going to go downstairs another tier and in about five minutes we're going to get on the Red Line going northbound. Okay, let's go. The Metro Red Line snakes from North Hollywood to downtown Los Angeles. It's the train that inspired its casuals signature tune and spawned a viral internet video. It was partly filmed late at night on a movie train as it hurtles from station to station. Solis thrashes away on his guitar and barks the lyrics which celebrate the Red Line and call out the congested freeways that coil around Los Angeles. This is a train from the Metro Red Line to North Hollywood. The 210, the 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The thread that comes out of the record that ties everyone together is just like be alive, don't be a victim of having a car. The red line, the two dead, the 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The Red Line, the Red Line. An MTA spokesman said he couldn't comment on Eddie Solis' furious pro-Metro message, but the Red Line video was a hit at the offices of Move LA. Eddie's done a good job. Thank you, Eddie. It's the public transportation advocacy group headed by former Santa Monica mayor Denny Zane. He liked the juxtaposition of Solis blissfully riding LA public transit in one scene with scenes of the band raging against those notorious freeway jams. Eddie is all frantic when he talks about highways and so mellow when he's like grooving on a skateboard and on the bus and on the Red Line. There's a metaphor for the transformation, you know, from the oh my God, I just got to get out of the traffic to hey, this is cool. I can mellow out. Or you can blast the tune like too many people as you claw your way across Los Angeles by car, bus or skateboard. Los Angeles. There's too many people. I want them to go away. I want them to go away. Too many people could also be a motto for its casual. Over the years, the band whittled itself down to a power duo of Solis and a rotating cast of drummers. So you may think the burly bearded punk rocker just can't get along with freeways with people or his native LA. Not true. I love it. I love everything about it. I've traveled throughout the US many times and I could never look forward enough to coming back. The weather, the different cultures, the landscape. I was just like, you know what? Now I know why everyone moves to LA. Solis will bring the love and the volume during a redline mini tour next month. It's casual will play a different venue within walking distance of several redline Metro stops from Union Station to West Hollywood. For the California Report, I'm Stephen Cuevas. I want my driver back to school. I'm going to go to the! I'm going to go to the I'm going to go to the! The President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President President The 210, the 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the 210, the freeways are not so nice. The 101, the 405, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The 210, the 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The redline, the redline, the redline, the redline, the redline, the redline, the redline, the redline. The 210, the 605, the freeways are not so nice. The I-5, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The 101, the 405, the freeways are not so nice. The 605, the 101, the 101, the 101, the I-10, the 210. The 605, the 101, the 405, the I-10, the freeways are not so nice. The red light. The red light. The red light. The red light. The red light. The red light. The red light. The red light. And good evening, planet Earth. Welcome to another spectacular episode of Los Angeles Nista. I'm your host and creator, Edward Solis. My intro. And studio guest from Masmolo and Molo and Screw. Screw Toys. Screw Toys. I'm Melrose. I'm Virgil and Melrose. Virgil and Melrose out in Hollywood, right? Yeah, East Hollywood. My guest, Robert Luna. And there's your mic. Is this mine? That's yours, buddy. Great. There he is. How you doing? I'm good. I'm good. Doing really well. I'm excited, man. You had a long day. Extremely long. Extremely long. Extremely long. Started at 6 a.m. today. Yeah. I wanted to get into it with you. I mean, there's just so much that I didn't know about you other than what your culinary background is. Sure. And your executive chef background with Molo and Masmolo. But you're actually an Angeleno. Absolutely. Through and through. El Sereno, right? El Sereno and then the promised land, the San Gabriel Valley. Okay. So, you know, I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. I'm a fan of El Sereno. Now, back in the day, you were really heavily involved with skate culture, skateboarding, spraying, sprayed the spray can on the walls and graffiti. Yeah, absolutely. Now, you're a chef. And I know you just changed your graffiti name. Yeah, I just started spraying chef. So, if anyone sees chef around LA, that's you. Yeah, Highland Park area. Highland Park area. That's really good. I love that. Now, as far as skateboarding goes, how far back do you go with that? I've been skating since probably like 83, 82, when I was like 10, 11. And I started skating actually in Orange County with my cousin, Sal Badano, at a place called Sadlands and the Ranch and the Del Mar Bowl and stuff. Now, was there any skate parks open or was that when they were closing? No, that's when they weren't even open. Okay. That was pre-open. That was pre-opening. Pre-Pipeline? Pre-everything. Pipeline was probably going around that time. The only one in Upland, right? But everything else was like just starting out. Wow. Wow. And then how was it when you guys actually discovered street skating? That's when all the parks closed and it was mostly the streets, right? Yeah. The schoolyards. Vert died and everything was going. Actually, you know, like around 84, 85, it started going in the street and it was really like, for us growing up in LA, it was like the best form of travel, man. Like you could go from A to B in a mall. It was like a little heartbeat. And so when it went street, man, you started like seeing all those early videos from like Bones Brigade. It was like, wow. Venture Primitive. Yeah. What are those dudes doing, man? And so it kind of blew up in LA because we had, you know, streets and our weather was great. And so. Some killer schoolyards. Absolutely. Yeah. And empty pools and all that. So, so, so your approach to your day-to-day life definitely comes from like, you know, a skateboard perspective. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. That's kind of like your, your, your mannerism. I mean, you've, you, you learned how to work hard through skateboarding. Yeah. You can say that. You know, I had Salman Agha on here, a professional skateboarder, you know, Salman. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. He does a restaurant called Pizzanista. Pizzanista. And actually, we had a discussion about how skateboarders have a advantage over people because when you're out there learning tricks by yourself with no coach or no team, you're just motivated and you're committed to learning. And so, you know, when you're out there learning something over and over, you kind of make yourself see it and then you go practice it every day. And people call that the power of visualization, but he calls it skater's advantage. Right. You know, and I mean, do you ever use that kind of, you know, in your, in your strategy business? Day to day. Day to day. Right? Day to day. Coming here was that same thing. You know, it was like, I envisioned it like six o'clock, damn, I gotta make a lot of food and I gotta walk around the corner. But no, in everyday life, for me, it's, it is that. It's like figuring out all the angles. Yeah. To what I'm doing, you know, and it's even getting around during the day with having to pick up produce and stuff. It's like, you're trying to figure out the angles always. Wow. So. Wow. So, so yeah, we're going to get into your day to day of Masamalo very soon, but let's talk about when you committed to culinary school and getting your background sharpened with, you know, your, your Asian cooking background and French, right? Yeah. Started out, you know, my mom was a culinary arts teacher. Yeah. And, uh, my father worked, was a paid, was a baker and then, and eventually, uh, went to the LAPD and my mom said, no, there's no way. My husband's gonna be an officers and they killed. So he went to a job where it became a driver for RTD. He was with them 24 years. And at the time I was probably, uh, 14 or 15 years old. And I was like, man, I can't stand school. I'm just gonna, you know, I had no, uh, vision of what I wanted to do other than just be at the beach. Nice. And, uh, you know, in Venice and Santa Monica with my buddies hanging out. And, uh, one day I showed up at my mom's house and she was cooking and I remember tasting something that she made and just being like taken back by it. It was just like, this wasn't normal. This wasn't like everyday food. This was like something that captivated me. And at that moment, It was like an epiphany for you. Yeah. You wanted to be, you connected to that. I connected it to, to it in a big way. And it was something so simple. It was refried beans and it was homemade tortillas. And I just remember like, maybe I was starving that day. Maybe cause I had no money. I don't remember, but I just remember from that point I was like, this means something, this means something. So I wanted to cook and, uh, quit high school and went to go work for a couple of guys that were really good to me. Uh, one of which is, um, the chef over at, uh, the Skirball Center, Sean Sheridan. Uh, the other was a guy that's now in Buffalo named Sam Rita and, uh, another one by the name of Robert Gatsby. And uh, kind of just worked, you know? And at 18, I was like, I'm gonna be a chef. I'm gonna be a chef. I'm gonna be a chef. And at 18, I was thinking, man, I better figure out if I'm gonna do this professionally. And I had the opportunity to open a restaurant. Wow. In Pasadena called Cafe Santorini. So I was executive chef in my first restaurant at 18. And at the time I was like, I gotta do, do something more than this. So I went to, uh, LA Trade Tech. Okay. And I met a woman by the name of Barbara Thompson and she's still there. And uh, she gave me the best advice anyone had ever given me up to that point. Which was? Get out of cooking school. Get out of cooking school. Go do something with it. Because I had, she said it in her words, she said I had really natural talent for it. So she already saw your talent was honed in and crafted and she said, just go do it. Yeah. And basically, you know, she had been to the restaurants that I had worked at and she's like, you know, you're running one of the biggest restaurants in Pasadena at the time and you're 18 years old and it's like you get all these great write-ups and everything's happening for you. You're wasting your time here, you know, go out and make it happen. So at the time I was not, I didn't believe it. It was like, you know, I'm this kid. I don't know. I'm not going to do it. I'm riding a bicycle to work. You know, I'm still skating after my shift, you know, I'm stealing cigarettes because I think I had just turned 18. I didn't even have an ID. So I said, okay, I'm going to go. I went to a PCC and I forged some transcripts and I got into, I took an astronomy class. Yeah. At the time, you know, I went to Alhambra High. I said, Hey, I need some transcripts. Well, Mr. Schiller, you didn't graduate. I was like, all right, well, can you give me something? And they said, well, there's really nothing to give you. I said, well, I'm going to go to a university. I said, well, I'm going to go to a university. They said, well, there's really nothing to give you. So I went to PCC and I said, give me the forms and I filled them out and I signed my teacher's names on them and I signed Mr. Cano, I forget his other name on it. And they took them. Oh man. And I got classes. I was took astronomy and then I took a debate class. I took an English class. I took a algebra class and I was like, man, this is awesome. So it turns out I go to a, it's coming to the end of the year and they're like, you know, none of your transcripts check out. They said, you don't have a high school. Diploma. I said, yeah, absolutely. But I said, but I passed all your classes. They said, yes, you did very well too. But they don't count. They don't count. Yeah. They said, you need to actually took them back. Yeah. They said, if I ever wanted to get them, I had to get a high school diploma. I had to get a GED or something. I said, no way. It's not going to happen. So they didn't honor your work. No. Far from it. Wow. So I went to cooking. I went to another cooking school called the Epicurean. Okay. And they gave me the same advice. They said, you know, this is for housewives. This is for the housewives. This cooking school is not. It's good. And we do a good job and whatever. And we're going to teach basics and stuff. But you're past that point. And I started working with a Japanese guy named Toshi in Pasadena. And I worked with him for a few years and really liked Japanese who really liked the art of cutting fish. And I went into that for a while. How long were you working with Toshi? I was with him probably almost two years. Just enough, just long enough to know that. Yeah. The<|ur|> defeated on the Japanese front. But at the same time, I had just met a guy, Sam Rita, and he took me under his wing. And by the way, I'm still running that restaurant in Pasadena and it's still there. They do $6 million a year. It's called CatFast Antrini. My menu that I wrote, you know, 20 years ago or so is still in place. Wow. So it's a testament to what I was doing at the time, but it wasn't enough. So the menu is still installed there. Yeah. At least 40% of it is still mine. The Mezza platter and some other like the farfallo with the cilantro pesto and the baked salmon with almonds. And there's a couple other things on that are still all mine. Wow. So that's killer. So as far as that goes, what's your connection present day? Do you ever go there to do like, you know, a special evening of chef chefing? Or I went back for, I went back like eight years ago, right after my, my divorce to my first wife. And it was like, you know, I was there, I was there for a year and I hated it. It was just like, man, this is awful. You know, the menu was old and it was like, the place is beautiful and they redecorated, but I just like, you know, this isn't me, man. It's not cutting edge. It's not new. It's not vibrant. It's not sustainable. It's not, it's not, it's fucking, it's, sorry for cussing. Oh no, you can cuss on here. It's pedestrian food. It's passerby food. It's, it's the guy that, you know, that just jumps off the plane and is from Nebraska and wants to eat something, you know, Californian. Right. And that we're not that anymore. LA is so far past that. The salmon with the beurre blanc and, you know, the cream sauces. We're so far from that right now. Where would you say we are? We're in the midst of actually a little bit of a food revolution here in LA. And that's taking the known and kind of pushing aside and taking the unknown. It's a lot of people out there doing stuff with pork ears and with stomachs and eating awful and getting used to the bad cuts of meat. Like we did a long time ago. Like, like, like the Mexican get bad cuts, like the tripas and the sesos. Yeah. And the, you know. The Saturday night drunken feast. Yeah. The agrudo food, right? All the stuff, all the stuff that when a true chef. Stomach lining. Absolutely. Sesos, cheeks, hearts, lungs. You know, the thing is when, when a true chef or a guy that loves food and sees it come out of the animal, he doesn't say, oh, well, let's get rid of that. That's trash. He looks and says, man, that's stuff we can cook. That's delicious. A chef, a good chef will use everything. Absolutely. You know, it goes back to, to my French background, working with great French chefs. It was that you don't always have money to buy the tenderloin. You don't always have money to buy the New York. You take the lesser of everything and you make these incredible meals. And so right now we're figuring out here in LA and abroad. I mean, it's not just here, it's abroad, but more so in LA. That the food that we're doing is, is it means something. It's sustainable. It's something that you can take the, the, you know, like now, I guess the pork bellies are really expensive now, you know, because everyone's eating them. Because there's more of a demand now, right? But before it was, you know, it was whatever it was, you know, it was the lesser cut. Everyone wanted the loin. And, and so we're learning that there's parts of the animal that we should be eating. There's stuff that we shouldn't throw away. There's other ways to prepare food. So is it really safe to say that, you know, within the Mexican culture here in Los Angeles and in Mexico, but, you know, just like, you know, seeing people on the weekends making, you know, the, the, the tripas and the sesos and the lengua on top of the asada and carnitas and siete mares style, you know, drunk food. I mean, is it really, is it really a revolution that's taking place? That's going to, that's trying to utilize all those bad cuts. Absolutely. And maybe, maybe turn it through a new pipe and push it out with something different at the end. I think, I think what happened was, is that 10 years ago, and I can remember that there was only one taco truck in Pasadena. It was called Juanita's on Fair Oaks. And they had struck gold. 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. Nowhere to eat other than Juanita's truck, the yellow truck. Right. Next to the parts store on Fair Oaks. And slowly it started that there was another truck down the street. And there was another truck. Wow. And then there was another truck. And so all of a sudden this whole culture of food trucks came from California. I mean, nowhere else. SoCal. Yeah, absolutely. No, where else were you getting, you know, you could get three pot tacos at three in the morning at the same time, about four blocks away. You know, recently now you can get fo, you can get sushi, you can get, there's a Koji burger, you can get whatever it is. And it's a whole culture. Oh, it's a whole mobile kitchen culture. And that's where we're at right now. I think that maybe it's hit a spike a little bit. Okay. There's maybe. Now there's, everyone's doing a certain sort of truck, but the idea behind it is, is the right idea. Now, would you say that because of all the cultures in Los Angeles that, you know, we all know it's a melting pot, that a lot of the foods are becoming a hybrid? Is that possible? Yeah. The one thing that's not, and, and not to, you know, poke fun of anyone out there that's doing it, you know, but the one thing that's a constant is Mexican food. By far. By far. It's the one thing that you really can't. Add anything, any other culture to it and make it any better. I mean, I've had, you know, the Mexican, uh, uh, happy roll at, you know, at Wakano or. I've had the Japanese tacos. Right. But it's the one food that we romanticize. It's the one food that here in LA, everyone has that one friend that's mom made beans or made these tacos. And you remember growing up eating them and it's like you romanticize it. It's. Right. I mean, I, I had, I had a friend, um, about four years ago, uh, move here from, uh, Texas and, uh, worked for a very big concert promoter. And, uh, you know, he's Mexican American, just like us. And he was like, he was like, Hey man, he lives in Whittier. I mean, we're not Whittier, Hollywood. And he said, I need you to take me down Whittier Boulevard in East LA and take me to get real menudo, real pan dulce, real tamales and real tacos. Right. I need you to take me to get these things. I've had that request myself. Yeah. I mean, because have you noticed a lot of the transplants think, uh, Eagle rocks the East side? Yeah. Yeah. That's, uh, that's about far as far north as you can get from the East side before you get into Glendale. Yeah. East side. Um, you know, even, uh, you know, the, the, the, the borders, you know, between El Sereno and El Hamra, which is now San Gabriel Valley are light years apart. You can tell like from building like actually one block apart, you know, you know, in East LA building, you know, in East LA block, you know, in East LA, uh, group of houses. Uh huh. You know? It's, it's, you can't deny it. Like they blindfold you, take you to a certain area, drop you like, oh shit, I'm in East LA. Exactly. So. Oh yeah. Well, that's great. Okay. So we're going to come back. We're going to talk about Masamalo. We're going to take a break and we'll be right back. Thank you. This is Ignacio Salcido from Lama Skoda Bakery in Boyle Heights. You're listening to LA Nista at skidroadstudios.com. This episode of Los Angeles Nista is brought to you by Lama Skoda. Bakery, a family owned business serving the community since 1952. Tamales and sweet bread made the old fashioned way daily. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the crutch no concessions I will not budge I won't forgive there'll be no compromise meet you halfway I'd rather die I'd love for a tone or make amends no surrender we'll never be friends be no peace there'll be no love life's too short not all the drugs you fucked me over you hung me out to dry you swept me under you said goodbye from a tone or make amends no surrender we'll never be friends there'll be no peace there'll be no love life's too short not all the drugs you fucked me over you hung me out to dry you swept me under you said goodbye I feel no guilt I feel no shame if I killed you now it would be the same The girl had my girl The girl had my girl The girl had my girl You fucked me over You hung me out to dry You swept me under You said goodbye Never atone or make amends No surrender, we'll never be friends Be no peace, there'll be no love Life's too short to not hold a grudge You fucked me over You hung me out to dry You swept me under You said goodbye Life's too short to not hold a grudge No concessions, I will not budge I won't forgive, there'll be no compromise Meet you halfway I'd rather die Meet you halfway I'd rather die Meet you halfway I'd rather die Meet you halfway I'd rather die Meet you halfway I'd rather die The bloodshed<|ur|> Death is their domain Get that in your head When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head I never had a plan B The only person I could trust was me I'll get by with the critics, yeah Fuck them, who cares anyway Time collapses Like a hit and run Bullets fired From your thumbs When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head I jumped off a true ship My life first served on a straight jacket I never had a plan B Hey man, what do you want from me? Time collapses Like a hit and run Bullets fired From your tongue When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead Death is their domain Get that in your head When wild hearts are chained The spirit is dead The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood The blood is blood Let's fight it For violence Let's fight it For violence Let's fight it For violence Let's fight it For violence Let's fight it For violence Let's fight it Here I am As free as the wind Here I am Take your best shot Round after round And I'm not gonna stop I'm a threat You're a fear Try to discredit me And discredit you Your enemy You'll never know It's not me It's your own shadow Here I am As free as the wind I'll never bow down You will never win As free as the wind Here I am As free as the wind I'll never bow down You'll never win As free as the wind I'll never win Here I am As free as the wind I'll never win Take your best shot I'll never win As free as the wind Here I am A lesson to all of us I'll never be the same All of your hatred What does it do? I'm a threat How ridiculous Try to bankrupt me You're a fool I don't need your blessing for anything Security compromises everything Here I am I'm as free as the wind I'll never bow down You will never win You will never win You will never win You will never win You will never win The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President The President Here I am Here I am Here I am Free Here I am To do With the drop of hope Nobody's around Keep them occupied At the score It's Time Children Occupied Keep the children occupied At the score Gotta find something for them To do When they come home Nobody's around We gotta keep them occupied At the score Correct The The The The I got used to making mistakes I got used to making mistakes I tolerated phonies and fakes I opened myself up and let myself down I gave them the rope and now I'm hanging around Hanging around like a fucking piñata The bust be open and you'll find nothing Hanging around, a puppet on a string The slice be open, you'll find nothing Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around like a fucking piñata The bust be open and you'll find nothing Hanging around, a puppet on a string The slice be open, you'll find nothing Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around, like a fucking piñata Hanging around, hanging around, hanging around Stupid is as stupid says Fool me once, water under the bridge Fool me twice, send down the fools Fool me three times, man fuck you Hanging around like a fucking piñata The bust be open and you'll find nothing Hanging around, a puppet on a string The slice be open, you'll find nothing Hanging around Hanging around, a puppet on a string The slice be open and you'll find nothing Hanging around, a puppet on a string The slice be open and you'll find nothing Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around, I'm just hanging around Hanging around, I'm just hanging around California, California is not energy or machine California, California is not energy or machine California, California is not an HBF machine. California, California is not an HBF machine. California, California is not an HBF machine. The California, California's not for that. California, California, California's not. And I can't have my shit. All right, welcome back to Los Angeles Nista. I'm your host, Edward Solis, and my in-studio guest, Robert Luna from Masmalo. How are you, man? I'm good. I'm good. Well, let's talk about, let's talk about, we spoke about the food revolution. Right. Now let's talk about the return of downtown L.A. All right. Not D-T-L-A. I'm talking E-L space L-A-Y. L-A. L-A. Let's talk about, yeah, let's talk about the return of downtown L.A. I think that there's also a downtown Los Angeles revolution. What do you think? Absolutely. Yes, indeed. Do you remember a decade ago or even maybe seven years ago at six o'clock, it was lights out and nothing but zombies walking on crack? Yep. Remember that? Absolutely. Run, run for the hills. Yeah, exactly. Now, now it's, I mean, you know, you could be at the bus stop or, you know, on Spring Street or coming out of your place and you see these people walking their $2,000 dogs and pushing strollers. I live in the Los Angeles area. Nothing wrong with that, but I'm just saying it's changed. Yeah. Now, was that part of your strategy as a business partner in Masamalo to come to downtown? Yeah. You know, just a quick history of, you know, for me, downtown was, you know, 1979. I was like seven years old and I still remember like putting on these really hard little white shoes and my little cargo pants and my little, little white shirt with my little jacket. And my mom would take me downtown on the bus. And, you know, we'd hit Newberry's. It was a destination. That was it, man. Newberry's, Zody's. Zody's, man. Newberry's had the cafe inside, right? Yeah, absolutely. And it was like. That was like the thing, man. And then like, you know, we'd walk into Bullock's and it was like way too expensive. So we walked down to Broadway and, you know, it was like the thing. And by 430, my mom's like making her way with all the packages and we ate at Clifton's and. Awesome. We're running to the bus to get out of L.A. because it's like, it's going to get dark soon. And you gotta run. Yeah, and as soon as it's dark, you gotta get the hell out of there because it turns into a, like, it's like Mad Max or something. Yeah, it was like a no man's land, especially for, like, you know, a woman with a young kid. Sure. So we shoot forward, you know, to, you know, early 90s. And even in the early 90s, you know, there was a lot of things going on downtown that were like, you know, the tower used to have, like, live sex acts. And it was, you know, this really seedy, dirty thing. There wasn't no Pershing Square concerts at night. There wasn't no KCRW. No farmer's market. What's the thing that they have at the Grands performances? No. There was no Masamalo. There was no Red Line. Yeah, no Red Line. There was no Escape from LA. Yeah, exactly. And so now we shoot forward, you know, another 10 years, 2000, man, and it's different. It's the lofts are coming in and people are spending money and, you know, you know, it's the mark of, like, community when, like, Ralph's moves in. You know. 24-hour Ralph's underneath the lofts. Right. It's like, man, Ralph's, I don't got to go back into San Gabriel Valley and shop at Ralph's. Right. Well, you know what's funny to me? I think that this really was significant. And, you know, I mean, LA Live. I think as soon as they installed LA Live, which has the Staples Center, Nokia Theater, the whole Nokia Plaza, Nokia, you know, Club Nokia, the Conga Room, all the restaurants and the plaza, the theaters, all that stuff. I mean, that was being built and things were still a little seedy around LA. Then as soon as that happened, all of a sudden, you know, five months later, two months later, a year later, all these lofts were opening up and it was like this trickle-down effect that LA Live had. And then the subways came in or the subways, you know, started expanding their service, the blue line, the red line. And it just all came together pretty nicely. And then I started seeing things pop up, like, you know, these galleries and Kohl's kind of, like, had a comeback. And then I see Masamalo's, and then I see Masamalo there. Right. And so forth. And I mean, it's really, there really is a downtown revolution. Don't you think so? Oh, absolutely. The thing for me that was like, was that when we came into Masamalo and we were doing the finishing construction and we saw the vaulted ceilings and the dust was cleared away and we had swept and the floors were there and everything, the woodwork was there, is that we stepped outside the building and we looked in and it was like, you know, this is such a piece of history for LA, this building, and all the other things around it. And it was, man, this is a revolution. This is the fight. This is what everyone that's part of any conservatory, that's part of any kind of revitalization was fighting for, was to bring back these beautiful theaters, these beautiful buildings and make it now just not a place that you walk around and admire, but a place that's actually functioning. And that's where we're at now. Tell me this. Let's talk about Masamalo, the history of the building you're in. What did it used to be? It started out as a jewelry store. Wow. And we still have the original vault. In the building. Really? Yeah. We actually turned it into a tequila room. So if you want to go in there and have like a party of 12 and do a sampling of tequilas and food, we set it up for little private events. But the building itself, 1920s, was a jewelry store and then eventually became Clifton Silver Spoon. Clifton's on Broadway was the buffet, the cafeteria style. Right. And that was all rooted with the recession, and good prices because of that. Right. Absolutely. And so Silver Spoon was the coffee shop for them. And if you look on our building off of Wilshire, there's a big water tank at the top. And on the water tank, it still says Clifton Silver Spoon. They filmed part of Fight Club in there. If you remember the scene where they're sitting in the room and says, don't eat the clam chowder. Yeah. The murals are still in the back, are still there. We have the original murals. So that's where you filmed some of Fight Club in Masamalo. Yeah. Wow. And after they filmed it, then it closed down shortly after that. Now, how long has Masamalo been open? We've been there three years. Okay. How did that come together for you? Rough. For me, at least. You know, the partners that put up the money that did it were own Echo, Echoplex, El Prado. Those are your partners? Yeah, part of Spaceland. And I got called, I did the first one 10 years ago with a guy by the name of Stephen Arroyo from Cobras and Matadors. And, uh, got a call that we were working on a concept. I had just opened up two restaurants for him and he said if I wanted to help him do this, uh, Mexican restaurant. And we ended up doing, uh, coming up with the food and the menus and stuff. And we opened it and it was crazily, crazy successful from day one. And then I left and went away and did some other things, you know, things we're not too proud of maybe. Stuff you can't talk about. Or you can talk about it. Stuff we can talk about, right. Uh, you know, uh, got married, had some kids and, you know, got divorced and whatever now. But, back to happier things. Um, uh, ended up getting a call from, uh, actually, oddly enough, Mitchell Frank, who, um, Spaceland, Spaceland and Echoplex and said, hey man, we're doing, we want to do another restaurant and we're doing, um, downtown. We want you to come in and consult and get Malo back up to speed where you had it from before where the food was, you know, they've gone through some changes and some different incarnations of, of stuff. I said, yeah. So I went in, I did a month, I straightened out things, the food and rewrote a menu and they said, do you want to join us to do Mas Malo? And I said, absolutely not. You know, I'm trying to get out of your, trying to get out of here. I'm trying to get out of, out from in front of you as fast as I can. And it took some talking and some persuading and finally I said, okay, I'll come in and so, so did they make you an offer you couldn't be, they made me an offer that I could refuse, but at the time I wasn't at a point to refuse. Yeah. So, um, and so I've been working really close with Jeff Ellermeyer, uh, he's the principal, uh, operating, uh, manager, owner, partner guy. And, we work really close together now and it's me and him putting together a lot of the, uh, the day to day. And so the vision for the restaurant right now is to go back to what, where it was, Malo was 10 years ago. Okay. And that's a simple home style. East LA comfort food. East LA comfort food. That's exciting. And, um, it's truly, you know, the LA, LA comfort food that I remember, growing up. It's not, you know, like a bunch of food on a plate with sour cream and cheese. And it's, you know, a few items, you know, it's one thing. It's sometimes just with beans, with rice. Sometimes it's just by itself. And that's the comfort food that I grew up with. I didn't grow up with, you know, meatloaf and stuff. I grew up with hard shell tacos and bean and cheese burritos. And like you told me earlier, which was so funny, I remember going to, uh, Dino's in, in, uh, Lincoln Heights and saying, I want a bean and cheese burrito and a cheeseburger. Yeah. You know, and eating them both at the same time. Yeah. A lot of times when I order, you know, from Stanzanese to LA, it's that hybrid. I mean, when you go to Masamalo and order a bean and cheese burrito plate, it comes with like big French fries that would come in with a hamburger special. And that's like, kind of like the East side mentality is like you roll up to like, you know, this like Cornitas Micho Khan on Whitter and Soto. And I'm like, Oh, I'll take a bean and cheese burrito with just a cheeseburger or, or, or, you know, fries. And then like at the salsa bar, you put all the salsa on your fries. Dump it on. You know, and that's how you guys serve your plates. Like if you order a bean and cheese burrito, it comes with a side of fries and guacamole on top of the fries. Right. And that's very East Los. Very East Los. Yeah. Completely East Los. You know, it's, you know, we grew up poor. We didn't grow up wealthy. We didn't, we had, we had enough to, to be happy. Right. And so that one time you go out, you know, it's that weekend. It's that Friday night. You know, we used to go to Johnny's Shrimp Boat. Oh yeah. You know, that was a big night out. You know, Friday night, dad rolls in with the check. Hey, we're going to Johnny's Shrimp Boat. We're going to go, we're going to first, you know, we're going to La Placita. Right. You know, and that was like really big, you know, cause that was like expensive and the mariachis and I got to run around. It was craziness. And you could be loud and no one's going to say stop. Right. So man, what are you going to do? You order your food. Here it comes. You got the cheeseburger. You got the fries as a kid and you want to put everything you could imagine on it. Right. Everything, you know, there's jalapenos. Yeah. Throw it on there. Salsa. Yeah. Put it on there. Extra cheese. Everything. And because that was your one night out. And so I wanted to recreate that. And our first menu, we had something called the big night out. And that was a steak and there was a New York steak and lobster tail served a Baja style, you know, with butter and jalapenos. And, and it was really popular. And so it was, eventually we moved the menu forward where we weren't so worried about, you know, having the traditional items, the lobster, and the thing, and the thing, because of the area. And we brought down the menu a little bit where, you know, now we're topping out at like 16 bucks for a plate for like the carne asada. And it comes with all the, you know, beans and rice and stuff. That's current rates. Yeah. That's the most model. You know, and if you've looked at our building, I mean, if you've seen the interior, it's these vaulted ceilings with these frescoes and this woodwork and this marble floor. It's really high end. And so I'm trying to fill this place serving tacos. I'm trying to fill this place serving hard shell tacos for, you know, 12 bucks. And we're doing a good job. That's great. People love it. That's great. Now, do you think that the actual foot traffic you get during the day, is it the locals in downtown or is your place a destination for non-downtowners on the weekends only or, you know, you know what I'm saying? Weekdays, we are definitely the businessman's lunch. Destination. Yeah. We're, we're definitely the lawyers and, you know, the businessman around the area and, you know, the businessman out, chief, and it's very quiet and, you know, because you can't see from the outside in. It's very exclusive and it's very private. So you can't see who's in there. Yeah. It's very, very hidden. And at night, it's very much the guys from the west side that want to experience downtown and they want to eat at the taco truck but they're afraid to stand on, you know, on 7th and Olive. They're afraid to stand on, on Los Angeles. Right. Exactly. So they come to us because it's a safe environment. We got a valet. We got a, we got a nice bar. We got some music. The who's who there. And it's nice. So we get a lot of people from the west side coming in to experience downtown and at the same time experience a little bit of East LA. Right. Now, have you noticed a spike in Mexican food? Yeah. As far as, as far as people, you know, when I say a spike, not just translating the sales but the press coming to you and wanting to talk to you about what your menu is and so forth. Because I remember two years ago, I saw, I saw you on Vista LA. Right. And it seems like, you know, after doing research, there was, you know, with your past history, there is a lot of press leading up to Mas Malo as well. Do you think serving up Mexican food these days is just, it's not going away anytime soon, right? No, it's not going anywhere. I mean, it's been here for so long and it, it has stood the test of time. I mean, you've gone in and out of these different things, you know, California cuisine and all this other and this foofy and the thing. I mean, Mexican food's just been a constant, man. It's, it's really what identifies LA to a cuisine, to a food is Mexican food. Yeah, that's the, that's the attachment to LA. Yeah. The first thing. But also, I feel that you can't fuck it up. No, it's hard. It's really hard. How do you fuck up Mexican food? Well, bean and cheese burritos, even when they're bad or good. Yeah, I mean, if someone makes a bad one, it's good. I'll eat it. Yeah, I'll eat it. Put some more cheese on it. It'll go down. Now, now, how often are you creating new items? Daily. Daily. And are you testing things out? Yeah. Can I be your tester? Absolutely. We'll do another show and we'll bring some, some stuff to play with. You know, but I handle the bar program now. Oh, let's talk about that. You know, I handle the bar program at both locations and, you know, I just, I came up, I've been doing cocktails and I've done menus before, but I haven't actually done the day-to-day and so I'm starting to pick up a shaker and go behind the bar and, and we're, working on menus for the restaurants and what I'm doing is, what we're doing is, we're incorporating a lot of the stuff that you'd find in cooking. Like we do a drink now with mole. We do a drink with, You do a drink with mole now? Is it, is it available? If you were to ask for it and I'm there, you'll get it. But it's still, it's still, it's, it's development stages. Wow. And what we're doing is, we're doing something called ricotto, which is a burnt chili. It's like a chote, which is the, a natto seed paste that they use in a, to color food, Mexican food. But this ricotto is black. It's, black is black. I mean, you pick a black paint and it's blacker than that. And so what we're doing is, we're taking that and we're, diluting it with grapefruit juice and we're actually roasting the chilies and we're making this black mole and we're doing a drink called the apocalypto. Oh, wow. You know, and, Apocalypto. Yeah, because it's, you know, black as day and it looks like the end of the world's coming. But it's actually really good. So, I'm taking the helm a little bit more on the drink side of it and redoing the bar menu and working on the tequila program and trying to bring it back up to speed and now we're serving, like all our tequilas are served with sangrita. Oh, wow. Which is a fruit juice. Right. You know, people, you go to places and you get a sangrita and there's tomato in it. Uh-huh. It's not a real sangrita. A real sangrita is a leftover fruit juice from the stands and so when the guy would be done with the fruit, all the juice that was left. The bottom. Yeah. He'd save all that juice with the chili and the limon and he'd drink that sip for sip with the tequila. Yeah. Okay. And that's what sangrita is. Now I noticed too, inside Masmala, you guys have the jugos. Yes. Yeah, that's very abnormal for a restaurant. Very abnormal for a restaurant, especially in downtown on our 7th street corridor. You actually have the big tub. Yeah, the jarras. Yeah, and what, you have jamaica? They changed that. We always have jamaica, we always have horchata, but the other ones on the bar, like today we did a watermelon, yesterday we did a melon, tomorrow we're probably going to do like orange and cucumber and they change up. So, you change it up. Daily, yeah. Wow. Now do you think as far as, going back to the bar talk, is that more competitive than the food as far as creating a menu versus creating a new bar item? yeah, it's definitely more creative. Why, just because there's more bars? Because there's more bars, there's more people wanting to work in bars, there's more mixologists, it's not, it's still not a part of the restaurant that's dominated by Hispanics. You know, so there's a lot more people that are vulgar, and they're vocal about the position and they want a buck for that position and whereas in the kitchen, you know, you have a line cook, I have line cooks that have been with me for 12 and 13 years. My sous chef started with me when he was 14. Oh, wow. At Cobras and Matadors or 15, you know, and he's been with me ever since and I travel wherever I go, he goes and so, Bernardo's been, you know, that constant in my life as far as like a sous chef and trained him and he runs the ship. So, those positions in the kitchen, there's not a lot of fight but in the, in front of the house, in the bars where it's, you know, very, very few Hispanics, you know, that are trying to be mixologists, there's a lot of talk and so, for a chef to take the position at the bar, it's not an easy task, you know. Well, I mean, at this day and age, you know, I mean, the business you're running is very boutique, you know, it's very boutique, it's a niche, but it's a, it reaches the masses but don't you agree that because everyone has so much information at their fingertips that you have to get more clever and you have to get more clever with your marketing? Man, you gotta be, you gotta cover your ass every which way but, you know, yeah, because there's something, you know, there's one thing that I learned that you can say one thing and you get someone in and says, hey man, that's not exactly what it says in that menu, they call you out, you know, and they can research everything in seconds at the table. Right. You know, you say, hey, these are black tiger shrimp and these are the phones looking at pictures, that's not black tiger shrimp, you know, and they call you out on it. So yeah, it's become very, very, very nitpicky. Absolutely. And that's due to the, you know, the access of wireless devices and phones. But I like it actually. Keeps you on your toes, right? It does. It makes for a better product. It makes for a more true product. It cuts out the bullshit. It really makes things what they need to be and what they are and it cuts to the chase. It cuts to the heart of it. Now, are you, the question for you, have you ever seen Rick Bayless? Yes. You like it? No. Okay. He's raping Mexico and I don't appreciate it and, I don't like the bastardization of my food and my country and, or my ancestry, you know, because if I, you know, I can do the same thing. I can go to Mexico and go find a small village and find some lady that's making this amazing green mole and I could go to her and offer a thousand dollars for her recipe and she'd be thinking I was amazing and bring it here and sell it and make profit off of it and, yeah, I just don't, it doesn't, it doesn't ring, it doesn't, it doesn't resonate with me. I get you. And I don't understand the following of it and, I'd rather, I'd rather those things stay there. Stay in Chicago. Yeah. Stay in Chicago. Stay in Chicago, Rick. Yeah. Don't come to LA. On the Live Well Network. Right. LBW. Right. You know, and so I see, I see where the food has come, where it comes from and I see what he's doing and I'm not so big on it. You know, for me, being, you know, being an Angeleno and immersed in this culture, I watch it and, you know, I enjoy it but, I'm not coming from a perspective that you are as far as, you know, being a professional in the kitchen and running a restaurant as an executive chef and, I could see how that would definitely rub people the wrong way. At first, I was very defensive when I saw that. The whole, you know, Rick Bayless thing. I thought it was kind of lame. Then I started watching it and I give him credit for doing his research and, you know, again, anyone could do research but, I'm happy that the platform exists to inform people that don't know but, I still think that, you know, LA's not represented on a televised level like it should be. Right. You know, so when I see this guy out of Chicago repping Mexican food, it's like, well, that doesn't really have anything to do with anything. You know, you read, if you were to, if you go through and you read articles from Chicago about Mexican food, Yeah. Categorically, most people say that the best Mexican food in the United States is in Chicago. It's, it's one of the things that people have read and I read it everywhere and stuff. Why is that? You know, it's a different style of Mexican food. It's not necessarily the Mexican food that we are used to here in LA. And our food here in LA is, is a little bit different from most Mexican food. It's not as heavy. It's not as drowned in sauce. We're not a very saucy Mexican style of food out here. And I don't think we've given our fair, our fair air time. You know, I agree. I think that one of the things people associate with Mexican food is when they go to these restaurants that it's like three items on a plate with big pounds of cheese and super amounts of sour cream and, and not even that's really traditional Mexican food. Oh yeah, yeah. You know. That's pretty clear. And so what we want to do is educate about one portion of LA, which is East LA. That's where our food, our style comes from. You know, and you can go to San Gabriel Valley, you can go to, you know, Pacoima, you can go to San Fernando Valley. You go to Santa Barbara. All the food varies. It's regional. Yeah. It's very regional. East LA style Mexican food is completely different. We eat ground beef. We eat ground beef in our tacos. We're not so much the asada or the street. We're more ground beef in our tacos. Our enchiladas have olives in them. You know, there's green onions inside the mix with the cheese for the chile rellenos, you know, and so it's very indigenous to East LA. And I think that right now we're not getting enough airtime. We're not spotlighted enough. And when we are, we're linked with other regions, you know, and it's not fair to us. It's not highlighted appropriately. It's just like connected to something. Sure. Aside from Los Angeles. Now, to be fair to Rick, Right. You know, what he's doing in some ways is preserving a part of Mexico. Well, that's what, that's what, when I started paying attention, I was like, you know, okay, I'm not going to say this or think this because he's actually doing the research and there's work being put into this and there's a lot of knowledge being dropped on his behalf. But, I'm more upset that it's not one of us. So am I. So am I. Completely. I mean, why isn't this, you know, why don't you have your own show? You know, that's what I'm thinking. I mean, how come Los Angeles isn't highlighted as a platform for the amazing Mexican food and it's coming out of Chicago by Rick Bayless on the Live Well Network. Right. Yeah, we need, you know, Robert Luna on the Viva Bueno Network. You know, it's, but, so, you know, whatever it is, you know, in all fairness, he found something that he was good at. He found something that, you know, he could attach himself to and great, good for him. Exactly. could it be done better? Could it be done by someone that speaks the language a little bit better, that understands the culture, someone that understands the art a little bit better? Not saying that he doesn't, but, if you're Mexican and you actually have a link to it, it means a little bit more and there's a little bit more process. Because you're actually connected to the, emotionally, emotionally. And physically and mentally. And in the bloodline. Right. And that's, you know, that's where. And that goes for anything, not just Mexican food. I mean, if it's a Japanese food show, you know, I mean, anything. I mean, it would be nice if someone is presenting that, you know. You know, it's not saying that, you know, it's anti everyone else, but, I would expect that, you know, if I wanted to learn about Japanese food, I'd probably learn from a Japanese guy. You know, and he'd probably have a better link to it and a better understanding of it. Right. And how it, how food itself is linked with art and linked with music. Well, if I want to take jazz guitar lessons, I don't want to take it from some guy at MI that has long hair. Right. That's some rock dude. It's like, I want to take it from a real jazz player. Right. You know what I mean? That's, that's the same thing. Now, as far as, you guys doing a third Malo, is it, do you think that's going to happen anywhere? It should happen. It probably will happen. But at the moment, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, we're just trying to get everything over the three-year hump. Right. And so. Reach that plateau. And so. Once you make three years, you're probably going to be around for a while. Okay. So. Now, let's talk about that walking tour you just gave. Oh, that was amazing. Yeah, yeah. So you took a group of people to the produce district, right? Yeah. Let's talk about that. I got a call from a lady from something called Atlas Obscura. Okay. And they're based in New York, Chicago. They had all the major cities and what they do is they do walking tours. And they said, you know, we have some interest in doing the produce market and we'd like for someone to give the tour. And we read your bio and we saw you on the net and we like your food and you seem like the perfect guy. And they follow me on Instagram. And we see you at the market all the time posting pictures of the market. And I say, yeah, I'm there twice a week at least. They say, well, how would you like to give a tour? I said, I'd love to. It'd be great. And we met up and they brought 12 people that had just recently moved to LA that knew nothing about the produce market and knew nothing about Candy Row, which is Olympic, where it's piñatas and candy. Oh, we get the piñatas. And they'll make any piñata for like 20 bucks. Yeah. You can make Chewbacca, Yoda. And a taco. And you get a taco from the, yeah. Or a respada. Right. And a respada. Yeah. So they, I took them on a tour. I took a two hour walk around the produce market and it was really amazing. It was, I had learned things about the markets that I had forgotten. Like that I used to go there when I was a kid with my mom. My mom owned restaurants throughout LA when I was a kid. Little hamburger stands and stuff. And I forgot. I remembered walking through, actually looking at the buildings and remembering, you know, man, I remember being here. And we took the back alley on some of them but where Rykoff Sexton was, where American Apparel is now. It used to be Rykoff, which was the king of all food purveyors when I grew up. Is that where, Rykoff was where American Apparel is now? Yeah. Wow. And so, you know, I walked those alleys with the people and it was like, man, I remember coming here with my mom buying donuts at four in the morning for her place and then she'd, you know, I'd be asleep in the back. She'd go pick up meat. She'd go to the restaurant. She'd dump me off at school. She'd run back. And so, enjoyed it. I think that there should be more tourists. I think there should be more people walking the city. Yeah, that's exciting. We're going to take another break and we're going to come back with more Robert Luna from Osmolo. Thank you very much. Hi, this is Eddie Solis. You're listening to Los Angeles Nista on skidrowstudios.com. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. guitar solo solo solo solo solo solo To gossip and judge Isn't it wrong To have no self-control Isn't it wrong To hurt people Can't you see What it is you do You give me strength You don't give me fuel It's not enough To fight for what is yours You have to live For what fight is all Yeah Yeah Isn't it wrong That you're not Be courageous Isn't it wrong To not love people Isn't it wrong To have no purpose Isn't it wrong To hurt people Can't you see What it is you do You give me strength You don't give me fuel It's not enough To fight for what is yours You have to live For what fight is all The<|ur|> The The Yeah Yeah Isn't it wrong To tell a lie Isn't it wrong To cheat and steal Isn't it wrong To kiss and to grieve Isn't it wrong You hurt people Isn't it wrong To be a thief Isn't it wrong To gossip and judge Isn't it wrong To have no self control Isn't it wrong To hurt people It's wrong It's wrong It's wrong You're gone The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The On both sides If you don't have your fair today $250 final grade Tapcorn Tapcorn Tapcorn T-A-P T-A-P T-A-P T-A-P Tapcorn Tapcorn Tapcorn T-A-P T-A-P T-A-P T-A-P You can start to breathe And all of that baggage you can let go and leave You can walk your path The one that you dream This is your life This is what life means Twice a week. Okay. Twice a week. So you go because you know what you need. Right. And the quantities and what exactly you need to buy. Right. So I mean, how much earlier do you have to get up to do all this? 5 a.m. You get up at 5? Yeah, I leave the house around 5. But, you know, I could order from a company. Bring me exactly the same product. Right. And it will arrive at the restaurant. At the restaurant. The exact same quantity. It's probably maybe at some levels even maybe better quality. Really? But I'd rather support. The guys that are doing it day by day. The guys that are bringing in from the farm. The guys that are out there with their kids selling. And, you know, as much as like you think of like you go to a farm and you got the guys out there picking with their families and they're out there. They're doing the same thing in downtown LA. These guys are out there. It's the same kind of strategy, right? There's guys out there with their kids and they're running these shops and they're really trying to make a go at it. I'd rather give them the business and support them. Right. Then maybe. With the cash in their hand. With the cash in their hand. As opposed to having some big deal. A big company come in. And at the end of the day, I mean, you know, we're a business. We're there to make money. And we do save money by going to them. Sure. So it's a dual-edged sword that cuts well on both sides. Let me ask you a question. It seems like, I mean, obviously one would think that's more work, right? Yes. To go do it yourself. Like you said, you can order online and place an order and have it delivered to your doorstep daily if you needed to. Right. Don't you think that's part of the fun though? Like you create the menu. You get out of bed earlier. Then everyone. And you go get the produce. And you bring it back. And you prep it. And then you make it. And people order. And then that's your day. Your day starts. There's some gratification knowing who has your food before you actually have it in your hand. The guy that brought it in. The guy that at 6 o'clock in the morning on every Thursday is there with a donut and a cup of coffee for you because you're bringing him, you know, a few thousand dollars worth of business in one day. Right. And it's gratifying. It's good to know. It's good to know that you matter to somebody out there and that they matter to you. You know, it's... And I think that coffee and donut, it could be really anything, but it just shows like there's just like a really nice like support system in place for each other. That all stems off good honest business, right? Yeah, absolutely. Now, when do you get to the restaurant after a produce day and start prepping? Well, we're not done yet. We got to go pick up a few more items. Okay. I pick up all my own meat. Okay. And that's going to several different butchers. One of which is called Zacatecas Meat Market. Wow. And we've been buying meat for him. I set up the program at Malo 10 years ago and he's been the same meat guy for us for 10 years. Where's Zacatecas located? Pico in Arlington. Okay. And a small mom and pop. It's like literally at some point, it was at the point where it was going to like bust. It was going to go out because the laundromat next door to him, was under construction. And so it was a big, and you know, that's where half the business came from. And he made it through. They finally finished and he's doing better and I wouldn't switch. You're very loyal to your vendors, right? Very loyal. It's good business for me to be loyal to someone that's loyal to me. And you know, I could be, it's Sunday afternoon. Oh, I can't get meat anywhere else. I call him and, oh, sure, no problem. I'll bring it right over. I'll be right there. You know. He'll deliver it on Sunday. Absolutely. If you're short on something. Same. So after the meat, then we hit the spice market and that includes picking up all the chilies and all the dry goods and the achiote and the dry, we use like seven different dry chilies in the restaurant. So we have to hand pick all that stuff up. And when I say hand pick, it's like one batch is hotter than another. So you need to sample each package. Oh, wow. So they match up. You have to actually sample them. Yeah. And you smell and you do the taste and you check the seeds and make sure they're not overripe. Make sure they're not too dry and make sure that they're not old and all that. I mean, it seems like there's a whole math to it. There really is. Absolutely. And then after that, we're still not done. We gotta go, you know, we have to, after that, we go pick up some of the canned goods that we use. And right now, we're at probably less than 5% canned good in the restaurant. Wow. And the only reason being is that there's some things that we can't get. One of which right now, the short supply of pumpkin flowers are on short supply. So we're having to get a canned one until we get past this dry season. Yeah. And then we'll go back to the fresh. And so there's a lot of picking up and a lot of knowing where to go and knowing the nooks and crannies of LA. And this is about twice a week. The produce, all that happens twice a week. Wow. Twice a week. So you're actually getting up that early, making all the stops, coming back to the restaurant. Right. And then prepping. And then prepping. So there, I mean, that's already like three huge destinations. Oh yeah. You know, that you accomplished before opening the restaurant doors. Right. Wow. And then, and then when do you get to restaurant on a day like that? Well, Tuesday, I'm probably at the restaurant around 1130. And then I get ready for lunch and we do all the specials in house. And if we're going to use a bread, we bake the bread. And if we're making a special dessert, we bake the cakes and everything that we can do in house, we do in house. And that's right now 90, like 95%. Is done in house. We were making all our own tortillas and we're making, you know, we're doing, if we made tamales over the holidays, we ground our own corn to do, to make the tamales. And, you know, my guys hate me for it, but it's, it's the only way to ensure that our product is the best it can be. And even at that level, that commitment to making a good product, sometimes you still fall short. So imagine if we were using, you know, canned goods or we're using other, uh, like my second, as opposed to fresh corn, you know, so. It's a standard that you already set. So, I mean, that's, that's really killer. Now let's talk about your toy store, vintage toy store that you are involved in. Yeah. Okay. It's called, uh, screws, screws, old school toys, skateboards, and oddities. Okay. Yeah. Now, now at the break, we were talking about the Shogun warriors. Now those old Shogun warrior figures stood about what? A foot and a half high? 24 inches. 24 inches. Plastic. Plastic. And it came in the, the, uh, boxes that you pull up. Big, giant, beautiful box. And, uh, it would be like Guy King. Right. I know what, Dragoon. Yeah. Yeah. Great Mazinga. Yeah. And then oddly enough, you know, they had these great robots and they said, you know, what would be complete without like Godzilla? So they threw Godzilla as a part of the show. I remember that. He was part of that. Yeah. Rodan and Godzilla were part of that series. And, uh, his hands used to fire out. Yeah. And he had the tongue. Yeah. The tongue lasher. Yeah. And you would come out and they had fire painted on the tongue. Rad. And then you'd have the, it's actually our logo for the store. Okay. Is that Godzilla? Now, obviously that stuff is out of print. Right. Oh yeah. Now is, has, has there been since the seventies, early eighties, have there ever been any reissues? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Una five. And then, um, uh, Una five did one. And then seven, you know, the guys that do, uh, like, um, they do some reissue stuff, but yeah, there's been a couple of reissues on them. Not as nice as the first one, right? Like the plastic was really like durable and you could like smash them on your brother's arm. My dog would be chewing it. I take it. Oh, there's no bite marks. Just hit the dog. So, but yeah, there's, there's been a couple. There's still, um, still super expensive. I mean, even the reissues are hard to come by. Well, I remember back in the day, you know, um, I think I was living in Monterey park back in the day and we'd go to like toy Villa. Remember that? Yeah. Toy town on Valley, Valley, all that stuff. And, um, I remember back in the day, like this is 1980, 1982. I was five between five and seven. And these, these Shogun warriors were probably about 50 bucks at the time. Expensive. 59 99 at that time. Yeah. Um, and you know, I was, I was a pretty penny for a toy. Yeah. So, I mean, what, what do you sell those at right now? Um, I have a dry goon in the box right now at the shop. Um, he's up at 400. Okay. And then I've looked online. That's about going right. Yeah. And then I have a shrink wrap, the NOS, like which is new old stock Godzilla still in the box. Never removed with all the inserts. He's up at 800. Originally the shrink wrap. Yeah. Wow. All NOS, but I'm a hoarder. I'm a certified hoarder. I've been hoarding for like 30 years, 20 years. So now, now all that stuff that we're talking about, you know, that's, that's my cup of tea. So, so you have the Godzilla. Right. From that series. Oh, I have all of them from the series. You have all of them, but the only one that personally or for sale? No, personally. Okay. Uh, the loose ones are for sale, not the box ones. Not, not the box ones. You gotta like that. Yeah. And, uh, the shop consists of everything like Star Wars, GI Joes, Hello Kitty, uh, from the seventies. Seventies Hello Kitty. Wow. My Little Pony, Rainbow Bright, Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake. Let's talk Star Wars really quick. Let's talk Star Wars. Okay. Cause that's what I'm all about. I'm not, I don't subscribe to this Star Trek crap. Right. And. At all. So you too, right? Uh, it broke my, it broke my heart when I heard JJ Abrams was going to direct the new Star Wars thing. I was like, what the fuck? Really? Come on, man, dude. You do Star Trek, buddy. You don't do the Star Wars. That's just movie politics. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So, okay. So original Star Wars, 1977 action figures, first movie in the package, still sealed. Like I'm talking Jawas, right? Storm Troopers, uh, Death Star, Commander, uh, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, Leia in the white outfit. Right. Um, Sand People. Right. Uh, you know, the Cantina guys, Greedo, uh, Snaggletooth, Hammerhead, Walrus Man, all that stuff. All that stuff. Like what's that going for loose? And what's that going for in the package? Um, loose, loose, you know, loose, you can pick up loose figures for, um, anywhere from like five to five bucks and up, you know, if they have their weapons, package stuff with the 12 back, which means there's only 12 figures on the back of the package. Cause there was, that's all there was. That's all there was. Uh, vinyl Cape Jawa. I sold, uh, about a year ago for 2,300. Um, I just sold a star. I just sold a 12 back, a storm trooper online for 900. That's sick. So the money is, it's big money. You know what I'm looking for? A 12 back power droid. No, no. Is that hard? Yeah. You're not going to get one. That's rare. Yeah. Do you have it? No, no. You know where I'm coming from. You're like, no, no, ain't going to happen. No, not going to happen. Like if you had that, 12 back, power droid. There's a few things that, uh, what would that go for? You think like three K for easily, easy, right? Easily. You know, the big one right now that, uh, is flicks from the, uh, cartoon droids cartoon. He was only available in Brazil. Yep. And there's now there's like, there's some counterfeits here and there, but if you find a real one package, you're talking anywhere from 5,000 on up. Now in 1984, I remember I saved up enough proof, proof of purchase to get your, uh, melee. Right. To get the mail away. Yeah. Um, you know, if you said had an original box, you know, maybe worth a few dollars. Yeah. He came in a white. Mailer box. Yeah. But general mill stamped on. Yeah. General mills, dude. What the hell? Yeah. Now, um, now, now onto empire strikes back. Right. Okay. Hoth Wampa. Right. Okay. With the play set. Yeah. Okay. Hoth Wampa. Do you have one of those? Yes. Okay. Is it in the box? I do have one of the box. Okay. Now what about the Hoth play set? I do have a Hoth play set. Now that's where you build the bridge and you could, it has the turret and the little, uh, the, the probe, uh, the power, a cannon. Right. And the radar. Oh yeah. So heavy. Yeah. I got a couple of those. Oh wow. Yeah. Cause, uh, you know, I think I'd sell my children for toys at some point. I was like, Johnny, I didn't mean that. I love you, baby. Uh, no, I mean, I mean, there's something, there's something about looking at the, the packaging. Uh, it's so simple, but you know, like when you just look at the live shot from the movie on the back part of where the figure is like glued or, you know, just installed. This is, um, you know, when I grew up in 1977, I was five and I got for Christmas an X-Wing and the box and it had like little radar thing. And there was a picture of a kid, a blonde haired kid flying it. And it was like the orange, and it was black. It was like, whoa, that's going to be amazing. I ripped it open and I got it and it was like, okay, that's not so much fun. Yeah. I fell in love with the packaging. That's what it was. And from there, I, that's why I have so much inventory right now. That's not opened. Cause I'm the original owner of it. I mean, I have everything boxing carded from GI Joe transformers from like 1979 till 1989, 90 boxing card. You named the series. I got the toy. Um, you know, SWAT cats, uh, you know, inspector gadget, Ren and Stimpy, all this stuff from the nineties and back in the eighties, uh, Indiana Jones, go bots, go bots, leader one from, from Tonka, man, Tonka, Tonka, the poor man's transformer. Yeah, absolutely. Now the transformers, I mean, I remember, you know what, what was rad is when I, my mom bought me Megatron and I just thought it was so bad, bad ass that like, you know, sound wave or shock wave would turn it or, you know, the Donald, bots would turn into like these dinosaurs or thrust and dirge would be jets. But Megatron turned into a Quentin. He was just a, there's a gun. What's up, eh? Like, like he's a giant robot. And then he turns into a fucking gun. There's a big gun in space flying around, you know, blasting people. Like, what's up? You want some? I got your back, eh? Fuck it. What's up? That's like the OG. Yeah. That's it, dude. It came with a bandana, you know, in a spray can, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, that's true, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, so as far as transformers go, I mean, do you have a pretty nice selection of those as well? My, my collection is pretty crazy when it comes to, uh, the 80s stuff. Wow. Transfer like Optimus Prime, box and seal, sound wave box and seals, all the cliff jumpers, like, you know, bumblebees, like this big giant Camaro now, but before you, a little Volkswagen, a little Volkswagen. And the way he was packaged on a card, it was like the Star Wars figures. Yeah, absolutely. And, uh, and the five small, uh, robots from the Autobots, they were all packaged that way. Yeah. Like Huffy and Braun. Yep. And, uh, who else was there? There was, uh, well, going back to the cards, it was the, the Sears exclusive was the Devastator. Oh, uh, the Constructicons. The Constructicons. Yeah. Which turned into be, you know, the big, but, um, all the small cliff jumpers, if you can find them carded, there's so many bootlegs now, but yeah, you know, there are a couple hundred bucks for us. Skateboarding. Nah. Now, now, are you, are you, are you carrying new stuff or are you carrying vintage? Uh, in the area I'm at, I'm in Virgil Village, which is, uh, Virgil and Melrose. I'm down the street from like, cha, cha, cha, in between, uh, Skrill Preserve. I'm on that block. Um, a lot of skaters in the area, a lot of kids. And so at first I brought in, you know, a lot of vintage old skateboards and stuff, a lot of autographs, stuff, a lot of one-offs and stuff, protos and stuff. And it wasn't working. Uh, I started bringing in like used skateboards that I'd buy. pay 25, turn them around, complete decks, sell them for 50 and 60 bucks for the kids in the neighborhood. You know, and so you can go buy a blank and get some trucks and some wheels for 50 or you can get like a really nice, you know, like element or baker, you know, chocolate or, uh, uh, ghetto kids, uh, skateboard for 50. And so it serves a need for the kids in the neighborhood. That's cool. And that's where it's at. So you actually like, did that like keep a low price point for the kids in the neighborhood? More so the store right now is more like a storage for me because I go there on Sundays. I put on the TV I kick it and is that where you kick it? Yeah. On Sundays, man, my kids come over and like, we'll watch movies. We'll order takeout. And you know, if we happen to sell something, we happen to sell something. And you know, we get kids from the neighborhood coming in like, Hey, I need trucks. And you know, oddly enough, I have, you know, a couple hundred trucks available that, you know, pairs. Yeah. You know, that are used and they're, they still grind. They're still good. I'll turn them over to the kids for, you know, 15 bucks. That's cool. So, I mean, because usually they're like 45 bucks for a set. Right. And the thing for the neighborhood is, is that it's, it's still an up and coming neighborhood. It's not where it eventually will be. You know, we're probably about four years out. So we're at the beginning. So rent's really cheap. The neighborhood's changing. It's kind of a new, inexpensive place to move in Hollywood that you're still by those fields. You're still by Silver Lake. And so we're on the ground floor and we're going to stick it out by servicing and helping out. And it's East Hollywood. Yeah. East Hollywood. East Hollywood. On Melrose. Yeah. And that's between Virgil and what else? Between Melrose and Marathon. Okay. On Virgil. Well, thank you very much, Robert. It was a great episode. Yeah, it was awesome. Glad I was here. Thank you very much. The President President President President I'm on the call line Go for gold Pick your side So here we go Let's stop trying to tell Going through the day I'm on the way to island one I'm on the call line So here we go Connecting these eyes I go for gold I'm on the call line Listen to Skid Row