738. - Eli Zabar

All right, this episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Stateside with Kai and Carter, a new podcast from The Guardian. And they are using this podcast to slow down the news and wrestle with the questions that we all have about what's happening in the world. And they do it three times a week, Jason. Does that sound familiar to you? We don't really talk about, you know, a lot of international global news items and climates and cultures and sports and things like that. We do talk about fashion and wellness, but for everything else, Kai and Carter are a great place. All right, so who couldn't use more news? Listen wherever you get your podcast. or watch on YouTube. How Long Gone 2025 coming at you live. It's a beautiful day in Los Angeles, January 2nd. I hope you... got your pump in your resolution started. Um, and if you didn't, you're a lazy sack of shit. Yeah. Circling back season begins today. It feels like, right? That's right. That's right. One of my, which is good because we're, we're listening to this now on a Friday and one day of the week was all we were really able to handle after. the last week or two right that's right yeah yeah yeah my favorite my favorite seasons are fall spring and circle back those are my kind of my three my three favorites so okay i'm kind of in bloom i'm in bloom myself uh okay beautiful as we speak i know that you were talking earlier about wanting to pick up a musical instrument yeah have we decided which one it's going to be yet We haven't gotten there yet. We haven't gotten there yet. I mean, I'm going to talk to some of my closest confidants who make music professionally and kind of, since they know me, maybe they can prescribe which instrument will give me the least headache to take up as a hobby. As I age, I think, and everything becomes work, I think it's smart in 2025 to figure out a hobby. Okay, so not just work, but play.

I've heard that the P word is really important. Do you agree with that, Chris? Exactly. The way that you've discovered a passion for power washing, I need to discover a passion of equal or lesser value to kind of keep my thumbs twiddling. You got a bathroom and a sponge too, Chris. Get to scrubbing. No, I know. You could clean. I like cleaning, actually. It's very meditative and it gives me a lot of satisfaction. I believe that. But it's not like I'm going to be, you know, in the garage tinkering on a car every Saturday afternoon or something. You know, I don't know. I can't. I'm not going to get into model trains. You have a history of drumming. Why don't you get the electric set? Put the cans on. Cold brew pump. A little doosie cold brew and diet. A little pumping through your little veins. A thin diesel in the Nalgene while I just work on my fills. No, I don't. Electric drum sets are unfortunately. With the weighted vest on? I know what you're going to say about electric drums, but I mean, you live in NYC. It's not going to happen. But I mean, Jay Ellis, you know, amazing musician, incredible drummer. He had like a practice space he just shared with like a doctor homie who had like the most insane drum kit. And he would just go in there for a couple hours. hours and you know cost a couple hundred bucks a month not the doctor homie also a friend of the show david oh yeah he's got a little little photo studio i've played his drum set i've played his drum set in that photo studio yeah go over there yeah just a little studio time just take a 45 minute train ride to play drums badly for 45 minutes and then kind of get on back Get on back to the city. It's not a bad idea. But I'm exploring several options as the year unfolds. Okay. Well, I will say it'll be a lot easier to get the Les Paul up those stairs than the Baby Grant. No, I know. Well, I'm going to see about what it costs to crane one in. Just to compare and contrast. I think the Maroon SG and the Fender portable amp.

um will fix much you go in angus acdc mode this is a good you the this is an idea that i don't think is going to take it has a lot of pros but i think much like uh playing the drums you know it may have some insurmountable cons I just watched the Avicii documentary on Netflix, which I'm sure many other people did, just to start the year off on a sullen, somber mood. But his whole thing was he loved to be a musician and considered himself to be a musician and not a producer and really wanted to make live music in the style of Quincy Jones, not in the style of Skrillex. He mentioned having or his friends mentioned him having real issue with not being able to say like the instrument that I play is my laptop. And that's why, you know, I've been able to become 100 millionaire and, you know, headline every festival. It's because of that. And maybe, you know, you have the MacBook Air in your lap right now. Oh, no. You know, what do you say, Chris? I can't. I mean. I could get some CDJs for the house, like I know you're planning to, to kind of add to the living room. Yeah, but I mean, like GarageBand, every Logic, it all, from Morby to Mahashmashana, everything's got to go through a laptop at some point. No, of course, of course. GarageBand has dope 808 beats, but it also has a little white boy honky drum kit. Little acoustic guitar. You just get a harp going. There's a lot of Caucasian instrumentation at your fingertips. Okay, so does it have pedal steel, or is that kind of where the line gets drawn? Okay, it does. All right, wow. Okay, now I'm back. Pedal Steel Emulator. I feel like somebody from Martin is listening right now. If you want to gift me kind of a classic acoustic, you know, I would accept that and just kind of start to strum there. We're going to unplug Dylan style at the beginning here. Just kind of get our bearings, get some chords down, and then we'll switch into the, obviously, the vintage, you know, kind of beautiful aged yellow Telecaster with all of the Bruce Springsteen style.

belt buckle dings in the back so you know it's real. That I do like and I hope also that you don't because I feel like this is your personality type. You will learn how to play guitar. You will learn the chords but you will outsource somebody to string and tune the guitar. You're going to be like, I can't do that. I have a guitar tech for that on hold. I think you're going to spend the money and get a guitar tech. So he'll come over, you know, just like when you've got a guy that comes over and waters the plants once a week. You know, they've got the kids, jay carrots, just so busy. I'm sitting in the corner in a leather jacket like I'm in the Ramones with an acoustic guitar playing Mary Had a Little Lamb, but I've got a tech waiting just in case I break a string. I need to change it quick. That's a good idea. I mean, I got all the tunings I'm going to need, too. I'm going to need a whole road case full just to accommodate my tuning. So this is going to be a long road, Jason. But 2025 is off to a good start. We have 363 more days to kind of accomplish our goals. Let's talk about, well, since our guest is in the culinary field, do we have any dietary goals that we have for this year? I was just reading an article. in taste, cooking about sort of the proteinification of the food world now. And every beverage at Erewhon shows you how many. grams of protein it has and i didn't tell you i didn't tell you about in toronto there is a popular because they don't really have canned cold brew there and a guy tried to sell me on protein coffee yeah see i was like i can't i can't do all that bro that that's too crazy but that that you're right this makes sense yeah so you're are you gonna remove any is there anything that you're gonna i know last year you kind of cut out desserts for a while You know, we're going to hop back on that train. I mean, I've had a few desserts during the holidays thanks to you and your pushing of cookies. But, I mean, I'm trying to. Don't, don't, don't. Do you want me to? I'll show the texts. No, don't. I'll show the text. It ends with this if you want to play that game. I can get real lively with it. Are you?

Post the screenshot. Check the metadata. What happened to How Long Gone? Oh, they sued each other over some cookie text, and it kind of just fell apart after that. That's how it crumbled. I didn't even know Chris had $250 million. But, well, yeah, he got it all. TJ got it all. It's great. I don't know. He took it all. Yeah, I haven't heard from him again. I haven't heard from him since then. No, I don't have any – I don't really think about food that way, but I'm sure things will develop as the year moves forward. Do you have any food-related kind of – things you're looking to i don't know i mean i guess just i i'm sort of the same way i don't really consider myself to be a fatty everyone could always lose you know an extra five or ten or whatever of course not everyone brian boy is looking a little slim but you know other other than that brian boy put down the pen bro put down the pen and i'm talking about the ozempic pen yeah pick up the i don't want you pick up the fucking jollybee queen you look you look good in the in the body con but come on You know what I mean? Let's level out in 2025. You look great. You look great. Yeah, yeah. We did the work, and now we can do a little clean bulk, not a dirty bulk. A little less work. A little less work. Yeah, we did the work. Now let's just do a little less work. But I think that overall, not really any big changes, but usually this time of year, the holidays are when I will put on a few pounds. That's right. So I want to just kind of restrict myself. Stick to the Hubie's diet. I just unfollowed Huberman. Congratulations. I couldn't take it anymore. I don't even know why I followed him on Instagram. I guess maybe when he first came out. I had hopes of him coming on the show. I know why, probably, because you wanted to see some helpful infographics on how to biohack your way through. I think that's why everybody follows him. Does he do a lot of two-camera video monologuing? I'm all set on all content like that. I've, unfortunately, I think I'm going to try to interview this guy for GQ, but I've uncovered a new video style that I'm getting served on Reels. I've heard that video is big in 2025, so I would love to hear more. It's a streetwear resale store in Columbus, Ohio called Heat Archive. Good name. People bring in their stuff, and this guy who's good-looking, very charismatic, who seems to own the store, he kind of...

He sometimes has to break the news that, yes, I know your brother gave this to you because he owed you money, but these Jordans are fake, et cetera, et cetera. Like Palm Stars. Exactly. But then somebody brings in like three Birkins, and he's like, okay, let me give you this. But his kind of trick is he offers you two prices for a coin flip. Oh. And a lot of people go for that. So it's like, I'll give you $3,500. cash or i'll give you 3700 cash if we you know coin flip and and often often the sellers take this coin flip which gives it a nice cliffhanging kind of fun sure gamification vibe and i'm just addicted to these videos and i can't believe how much gallery department exists in ohio i didn't know there were that many professional athletes in ohio i think a lot of there are a lot of professional athletes in ohio because i think they're just a big fan of that kind of style of architecture you know there's a lot of historical mid-century stuff out there. That's probably what they're driving towards. But it looks like we have our guests on the line, Chris. Our guest today is the legendary Eli Zabar, the New York food emporium in Presario. He's just had a busy holiday season, I'm sure, and I can't wait to talk to him about how much smoked fish he moved during the holidays. How many mugs this guy sells every year, am I right? I'm jealous of that. The hat's alone. It could put a kid through college. All right. All right. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Quince. Jason, the temps are warming up. It's getting hot out there. Summer always changes how I get dressed. I need pieces that feel lighter, more breathable, and that are just easy but still put together. I don't want to look like a slob. That's why I keep coming back to Quince. They focus on high-quality essentials that feel and look amazing. Breathable linen and soft organic cottons. Well-made basics, but without the luxury markups. That rare balance where everything feels elevated, but still effortless. Yeah, Chris, linen season is here. I wore a linen blazer to dinner a few nights ago in the warm California sun. But, you know, you got that Italy trip coming up this summer. And quality European linen pants and shirts.

Upgrade that look starting at just $34. You know, if you get a nice linen suit, a little t-shirt underneath it, some chill shoes, you're looking good, but you're staying cool. The inside of your special areas are nice and dry as you turn up with your besties. So elevate that summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com slash how long for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns, even on a nice holiday now available in Canada. That is Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash how long. That'll get you free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince punto com slash how long. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by a new podcast from The Guardian stateside with Kai and Carter. This is covering a lot of our bases, Jason. It's trying to slow down. The news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's happening in the world. And I know you particularly have quite a lot of questions. A lot of questions. But how often? Because we do this podcast three times a week and that's a sweet spot. How many times do they do? Three times a week. And I have a feeling just based on the platform and these talking points that they're maybe going to be covering different stuff than we do. That's just a guess. The Guardian is not some billionaire owned. They're not afraid to say what they want to say, brother. Yeah, Rupert ain't sniffing around in what journalists Kai Wright and Carter Sherman are up to over there at Stateside. But yeah, listen wherever you get your podcasts. You can watch it on YouTube. It's three times a week. And who couldn't use more news? Especially when it's not from here, let's say. Give it a listen. Give it a listen. Oh, this is huge for me personally. This episode of How I'm Gone is brought to you by TaskRabbit. Oh, baby, let me tell you something. This is not a joke. I use TaskRabbit a lot because I can't do anything. You need some art hung, TaskRabbit. You need a fucking something put together, a cabinet. Got to reach that cheese grater on the top shelf. TaskRabbit. Anything you need, TaskRabbit can take care of it for you.

How it works, TaskRabbit connects you with skilled taskers in your area. They can help you move. They can assemble furniture, repairs, yard work, mounting, and more. You can search for a tasker based on cost, skill set, availability, and past client reviews so you know exactly who's showing up and can have confidence that they know what they're doing because taskers have assembled over 3.4 million pieces of furniture, completed 700,000 home repairs. handled 1.5 million moves, and the numbers are just going up, Jason. Yeah, throw a little money at the problem. It's not so expensive, and that job that you really don't want to do is something that another person out in the world is very good at doing and would gladly do it in exchange for a little bit of money. So when life happens, your to-do list grows. Get ahead of it now and get $15 off your first task at TaskRabbit.com or grab the TaskRabbit app. using promo code HOWLONG. Taskers book up faster, especially for same-day tasks. So book Trusted Home Help today. That is $15 off your first task using promo code HOWLONG with the TaskRabbit app or at TaskRabbit.com. Okay, there's one guy. That's Chris. Okay. All right. I'm one guy. Yeah, who's the California guy? That's Jason, my co-host. Okay. Eli, are you in the fucking car? I'm in my office. In the car. Exactly. Okay. Do you happen to have headphones? I know that's asking a lot. No, absolutely not. I don't believe in them. Or hearing aids. Okay. This is going to be one of those episodes. I can already feel it, Eli. Okay, listen. It could be one of those, or we could turn this around and have a good time. We were always going to have a good time, Eli. Don't worry. I didn't know. Okay, so being anti-hearing aid, is that something that you've been prescribed and said no to, or is that just a general kind of feeling you have? No, I feel emotionally it takes me away from my wife. Oh. But it's too deep for you guys. Let's move on to something else. No, no, no, no. You can't lead us with a little breadcrumb feel like that. First of all.

First of all, I don't know which one of you made the absolutely wrong comment about how much smoked fish I sold during the – because if you think that you're interviewing Zabar from Zabars, you're wrong. I understand. I understand. You have your own ten locations, correct? I have my own businesses on the Upper East Side. E-A-T. I've gotten it. I've been to E-A-T a few times when I've become famous shopping up there. Which one are you? I'm Chris. I live in New York. I live downtown. So sometimes I make the trek up. Oh, okay. But you're from Atlanta originally. That's right. I am. That's right. I am. Zabar does his homework. I like that. Well, yeah, I was... What was I doing? I was prompted to talk about a few different things here if we ran out of things to talk about. Okay. All right, so you're in your car, and it looks like you're about to kind of chomp down on a little side dish. A delicious cold salad? Actually, I was really hungry. I don't know if you can see this. I don't know if you guys can see. Can they see this? No, no, no. Move. Okay, I can see it now. Is that a fruit salad? That's a good guess. It's a Sicilian. And bread and different kinds of peppers and anchovies. And it's my absolute favorite salad that I make, and hardly anybody ever buys it. But that's the way things are. Yeah, I mean, based on that description, I've got to say it's not sounding super appetizing to me. The anchovy and pepper salad is not moving off the shelves the way you wanted it to? Well, it's really good. So is that like a Sicilian panzanella kind of thing? Is that what it is? But it's much more interesting than anything you've ever. I don't know who's talking, but whatever. But I understand there's one guy that's interested in food and another that's not. But the guy who might be interested in food, the salad is absolutely beautiful to look at. It's delicious. It's all kinds of peppers that have been grilled and whatever they do here. And then it has anchovies and it has all kinds of herbs in it.

That's a poor description. Let me tell you, it's absolutely delicious. But you're right. The description of Sicilian bread salad, if you guys come up with an idea of what to call it, and a non-druggy idea of what to call it, I'd be really interested in it. I would actually change the name right after this. Wow, okay. This is a good assignment for us. Let us get some ideas down on paper. We'll send those over. an item on a menu somewhere, and I haven't had like a sandwich named after me or like a coffee drink named after me, but this could be a step in that direction. Right. Well, that's a very big ask. But just, I mean, what, if we call it Jason's salad or Chris's salad, I mean, how many Jasons are there? That's true. That's true. There are a lot of them out there. We would maybe just add a last name or a last initial to kind of differentiate. Eli, I've got a couple of things you mentioned. The salad, you want to make sure that this salad of anchovies and grilled peppers and delicious Sicilian herbs and olive oils, you want to make sure it does not have a name with a druggie energy to it. I want to know why. Does it currently have a druggie name and you're trying to move away from that? What is up with the drug thing? Or do you just think we do drugs? You know, I almost didn't come on this program because I heard some of your programs. But actually, I thought the one with Wexner was really good. He had a lot to say. I thought the one with McInerney was really sophomoric. Let's move on. I just wanted to state before we started. Did we ask you to do this podcast, Eli, or did your people ask us to do this podcast? I had no idea. In fact, I was going to ask you how I got on this thing. Welcome. All right, look, look, look. Let's start off on the right foot. Okay. My name is Eli Zabar. I have places on the Upper East Side. It's my 50th year in business. You know, I've repeated my history so often, I'm bored of repeating it. Okay. I get it. We are, too. Yeah, you can read about it on my website or something. So if you have specific questions.

We can move this along and have a good time, as I said. Okay. Well, we just kind of do a real fly-on-the-wall conversational style, and things will pop up as they pop up. And also, we have a mutual friend in Flynn McGarry. Yeah. He's an old dear friend of ours. Right. He's a young friend. He's a young fellow. And we did an interview together, and that was very good. I liked him a lot. He had good questions. In fact, I was just thinking I need to invite him to have dinner and talk some more. He was very easy to talk to. I liked him. Facing many of the same problems and issues that I have and continue to have, like making something that you really like yourself and nobody else seems to want to buy it. That was the orange. Really, almost the way business began. How often are you coming up with something that you're like, this is it, this is amazing, and then you put it out on the shelves and the fish aren't biting? No, I don't come up with things very often anymore. The farther you get away from trying to run a business and fix things that are broken, the further you get away from actually getting your hands dirty. coming up with things that are interesting to me. The business has always been based on what I like. Fundamentally, the customer doesn't know very much, can't possibly know as much as I know. Basically, the business is based on the hope that there are always a number of customers that would like what I do and enough of them to allow me to make a living. So that's the whole premise of 50 years in business. There are a lot of things that don't work. Most things don't work. Yeah, but I like them. I like them. Like this salad that I was just eating. I haven't had it in a while. It's absolutely delicious.

Hardly anybody buys it, but I still continue to make it. You've got to hold on to your guns. You've got to stick to your guns. I think you never quit making the salad. You have this salad that you love, but nobody else loves that much. When it's time, you know, it's expired off the shelf. We have some unsold product. Do you do anything with it? Do you repurpose it in a sustainable way? You make a big frittata out of it or something, or we feed it to the cats? No, actually, a frittata would be a nice idea with this. I think it would be kind of very interesting, frittata. I think I'm going to go try that. Are you hiring, Eli? What did you say? I said if you're hiring, I'm an ideas man. Okay. Which one are you again? I'm Jason. I'm from California. I'm the food guy. You know, I better look at the screen. That way I'll know where we're at here. You know, mostly I used to be known as the king of recycle. I used to always love recycling. I used to say if something was great the first time around and you made it with great ingredients, it could be even as good if not better the second time in some other form. I never thought about doing a frittata with this, but I think it would be absolutely wonderful. In fact, again, I hardly do any of the cooking. I assign it to other people. Then it comes out more perfect looking than I would make it, but it wouldn't be quite as interesting. And then I'd never be able to do it exactly the same way the second time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I like that. In fact, I'm going to take my pen out. Here's my pen. And I'm going to make a note. Jason, look at that. This podcast is making, we're making waves already with this kind of recommendation. This could be something that we see pop up. Well, I understand you guys have a daytime job, so you don't need to be hired. Well, we're always looking for new opportunities because we're kind of open to where life takes us. So if Jason needs to make a frittata, that's something he would do. We're freelance. Okay. So my life is based kind of around food.

My interest in it, my love. Would you say that your life in food is more on the business of selling food and maybe the less romantic creative side now? Why can't we outsource the business side of it and then you can focus on the innovation more? Well, that's a good question. Okay. The answer would be that I like doing everything. I don't want to outsource anything. I want to do everything myself. I've run out of hours in the day, and I've run out of energy sometimes. But I really want to do it myself. But even the inventory and the tax and the payroll, you want to do that too? No, no, I don't do that. No, we don't do that. I can't possibly do that. Okay, thank God. I'm not dyslexic with numbers, but it's not my thing. I have this big commissary over on 91st Street in buildings that I have. I have about 20 years of parts and pieces for equipment and dumbass mechanics that work for me. Instead of looking through a bin for something that we might already have, just bought it again. We got rid of the guy who was running the bakery. We have a very good guy now. I have a bakery. We sell bread to a lot of restaurants and hotels and caterers and ourselves. They're breads that I developed over time. Anyway, I'm spending a lot more time up there now that I have somebody who's really competent to help me. You can't really see how dirty my fingernails are. I have these work gloves. I've been down there, and I'm going through huge garbage pails full of parts and screws. And it's quite satisfying, you know, getting all these different size washers and putting them in containers of the right size. Have you tried meth? This is a very meth-y style activity on the subject of drugs, you know, organizing washers with your spare time. Anyway, so I've been doing that.

So I get involved in every aspect of it, of what I do, and then you can't do everything at once, so then things fall by the wayside and I get back to them. The suggestion of doing a frittata with this is actually very interesting. It'll be very interesting. I'm looking forward to tomorrow taking some time and getting into the kitchen and doing it. This makes me very happy to hear, Eli. Thank you. I would like to hear more about this bread business. What's the number one loaf that we got going on over there? Oh, my God. My favorite bread is this bread that we call the Jerusalem loaf, and it's just a bunch of organic. You know, it's like a big round beef. You know, when you cut it, it's got holes in it. It's got a very nice crust. And the wheat has a lot of flavor to it. And I started baking back in the, it must have been like about 1980. And ethnic bakeries had kind of disappeared. And, you know, I just taught myself how to bake and make different kinds of breads. And I only developed a few kinds. But they're kind of iconic. What we call the seven grain or the health loaf is really, you know, really delicious and toasted. If you had just a slice of that toasted every morning, it's just nothing on it. It's absolutely delicious. And so I developed that in a raisin pecan loaf and then something called a ficelle, which is about the thickness of a broomstick and very, very, very chewy, very hard-crusted and chewy. Over time, I developed other things, but now I would say over the last number of years, this thing I call a Jerusalem loaf is really my favorite. Are you friends with Nancy Silverton? I know who she is. We know each other. I know you guys both came up in the 80s baking and growing your empires, respectively, I would say. I know that she had a podcast with you.

I tuned into a little bit of it just to get an idea of what you guys were about. She didn't like us very much either, so I understand. That's a good example. Hopefully it was not super sophomoric. Again, I know her a little bit. I was just hoping you two had some type of rivalry. No, I wouldn't say. That's absolutely not true. Did you dump any money into Madoff back in the day as well? No. I didn't. First of all, I didn't have that kind of money, and I wouldn't have dumped it into Madoff. But I used to see Madoff. The oldest store I have or at market I have and cafe I have is called EAT. You got an EAT? Yeah. And it's here at 80th and Madison. And I had another one for a brief time back in between 81 and 85 down – you know where Ralph Lauren – I don't know. The guy in New York – who's in New York? Okay. Ralph Lauren has a very – Yeah, yeah, yeah. And a very nice, very fancy building. Yeah, the mansion right there on Madison. Yeah, yeah, the Rhinelander mansion. Well, I had – I opened in 81 or so. I opened a store in the corner. And I ended up selling my lease to Ralph in 85. But starting in the 80s, Madoff, I used to see Madoff in the store all the time and then up here at EAT and blah, blah, blah. No, but I never invested any money. That's good. I like that you just took his money. He was a customer, but we ended it there. Well, that's a good way of putting it. So let's see what else we talk about. I want to talk about a friend of mine who I've been working with since 1986. He's an architect. His name is Richard Lewis. Not the comedian Richard Lewis. May he rest in peace. Are you paying attention? What was the profession I said that he does? Chris just couldn't resist. I apologize on his behalf. I know. I know.

You guys, you might have showed this, guys. Listen, so Richard is an architect, and I met him in 86, and I would say every single day of my life since then, I've spoken to him on the telephone, and we've had projects, okay? And actually working with him has allowed me to do so many of the things that... It's like I wake up in the morning and there's something I want to do. And Richard said, okay, come on, let's do it. And he'll do the drawings for it. And then I have a crew. I have my own construction crew. So we build our own stores and we build our own furniture. And we do our own steel and iron work. And I know one of you guys likes Balthazar. Yeah, yes, I do. It's my neighborhood restaurant. Okay, so he's Keith McNally's architect. Okay, so this guy's busy. Oh, yeah, he's very busy. You know, I hardly know who his clients are, but if you look up his website, I heard that it lists that. I know he does a lot of work. He did Via Corona and, you know, Il Sodi, I Sodi, and places like that. Anyway, I only mention him because, A, he doesn't get mentioned, and, B, because... You have to have the tools to do the job. Having Richard, who had this kind of enthusiasm to say, yeah, come on, let's go do it. I have these buildings over on 91st Street where my commissaries are that I've bought over the years. I have greenhouses on top of them and I grow tomatoes in the off-season. I also grow other things. It's not a lot. It's about a quarter of an acre. Now, a quarter of an acre doesn't sound like much. Well, we're talking about Manhattan. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Believe me, you two guys working together as hard as you could couldn't take care of a quarter of an acre of things growing, especially you two guys. I couldn't agree with you more. I couldn't agree with you more. Maybe this speaks more to you.

Jason from California. I know how to keep a tomato alive, Eli. Don't worry. I just looked up Richard's website and he has a laundry list of restaurants all over the world. Really impressive. I'm giving him a shout out here because who are the people except for me that helped me do what I wanted to do in my work? And my work, as I explained to you before, is only about satisfying me. The way it should be. You know, and it's making that salad even though no one buys it. But I like to eat it. This episode of How Long Gone is brought to you by Squarespace. Obviously, Jason, you and I spend a lot of time on the World Wide Web, sort of our peers, our listeners, our friends, our colleagues, maybe even your parents if they're freaky. And if you're doing anything in the world... writing, taking pictures. I do topless boxing. You need a website. Exactly. A website that works, that does what it's supposed to do, that allows you to be creative but also business-minded. Jason, there's one place to go for that, Squarespace. Yeah, Chris, I'm over here. I'm modifying calculators and putting Claude inside of them so you could cheat at school. And I just want a place where I could have everything all in one place. I can have the SEO tools. So those future graduates can find me and, you know, I'm able to accept, quote, unquote, donations for my services that might be gray area. You know what I mean? And then email campaigns. Hey, I got a new, you know, 2.3 version upgrade. Boom, boom, boom. Get the analytics going. Raise some money. You know, show your investor all of your cool analytics of what's going on. They're going to want to get in early. And we can use Blueprint AI to make your website look as professional. as your competition, if not more. So head to squarespace.com slash how long for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code how long to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain.

Hi Talk House Network listeners, it's your old friend Nels Klein from Wilco here. Wilco is touring this summer and we'd love to see you somewhere on the road. We're playing shows this June and July in Rochester Hills, Michigan, Chautauqua, New York, Lafayette, New York, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Vienna, Virginia, Forest Hills, New York, Portland, Maine, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Memphis, Tennessee, La Grange, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina, Virginia Beach, Virginia, Wheeling, West Virginia, and Columbus, Ohio. Plus, there are even more dates, some with Willie Nelson that I didn't even mention here. So please go to wilkoworld.net to see the full list of dates. We'll see you on the road this summer. Do you hear that? Sounds like breakfast is ready. Because Quaker's coming in hot with morning nutrition. 100% whole grain oats and a good source of fiber to fuel the rhythm of your morning and kickstart your day. And that sounds absolutely delicious. Fuel to start whatever's next. Quaker, official sponsor of FIFA World Cup 26. And it's actually the way I started baking bread because I... Didn't know how to bake bread, but I couldn't buy any, and I made some pretty ugly-looking rolls, and I had a theory that the flour wasn't any good, and you had to burn it, and we made a dozen rolls or two dozen rolls. Unfortunately, somebody came along who really liked it. I had a business. So are you a low-key real estate guy because you've been around long enough? You've got a lot of stuff going on uptown? Well, I kept buying buildings I was in because we were using them. It's like when luck hits, you've got to take advantage of it. I have a building called the Vinegar Factory because it was a Vinegar Factory. and it turned out the people were very, very old. They wanted to sell, and they made it very easy for me to buy it. And I turned that vinegar factory into a very interesting market. This goes way back, and Richard came with these 50-foot-high vinegar barrels made of two-inch-thick poplar.

We then planed them down into tables and everything else. Out of that experience, I then moved my market. I eventually closed that market and moved that market to 80th Street and 3rd Avenue. The market there is – you guys have been to European markets like – I don't know if you've. Yes. In Paris. You guys have been to Paris, right? Sure. Yes, yes, yes. We've been to Italian markets, like Eataly. What did he say? I've been to Eataly before. No, no, no. We've been to European... That's a kind of... Okay. That's not bad. That wasn't bad. Wait, what do you think about... I mean, you could have used something like Kruger's, but you didn't. You used Eataly. I mean, okay. So it wasn't a bad choice. And actually, if you went to the Italy in Italy, the different vendors there, the fish man and the cheese man and the butcher, they were independent people. They were people who had butchers. And so when you go to a market in Europe, all the stalls are independent people. When I built this market, I wanted it to have the feeling that each store, there were stores or stalls rather than a supermarket and that whoever I chose to be the butcher or in fact this guy Sal who's been running the produce for… It comes from a Sicilian agricultural family. They would merchandise it the way they wanted. It wasn't going to be like a market. I didn't have a hand in it. That's part of the quality of keeping the person in everything we do. I would say that's a signature. First it was my signature. And then after it became my signature, it became the signature of people working for me. Managing the managers. Forget about the – you're talking about, like, business. I'm talking about, like, the guy who actually unloads the produce truck, and then he sets up the stands, and he displays it the way he wants to display it, and he writes the signs with his own crayon, you know, as opposed to, you know – I'm not talking about the business side. I'm talking about the – I understand. Yeah. You give him a blank slate stall. The fishmonger goes, picks up the fish, chooses what size ice cubes.

how they're going to be laid out. The oysters go here, the squids go there. They have a sense of ownership over it, and then they can express themselves, and then you can take a cut as well. Okay, so great. You think you got it, right? So what's my job then? Your job is to find and hire people who share the same vision as you. You trust that they have a human connection with the customers, and you can let them operate the way they want to operate. taste, something about quality, something a little bit beyond what they know. Well, that's why you found them, though, too, I think. That they could, in many cases, have to struggle to appreciate what I have to say. But they could get there. So I think you're looking for somebody who simply cares about what they're doing, and then you can sort of mold them with your taste level into the right direction versus somebody. who's already baked in their mind of, like, I know what's good and what's not good. Yeah, that's why you have to stay away from French people, Italian people. Okay. All right. Okay, guys. Yeah, so, okay. We don't disagree. We don't disagree, Eli. Don't worry. What do you think about all these markets, though, the Italy's and the 10 building and all of this stuff? Like, how do you feel about those places? Do you think they have a place in New York City, or do you think they feel inauthentic? I'm glad you said, how do I feel about it? Because it's a feeling rather than what I think. Let's put it this way. I don't have a whole lot of respect for most people doing what I do. Same. Welcome to the club, brother. Okay. So we can start with that. I actually think what Italy did, and I don't know what it is now. But I think what they did originally was very, very good. What the guy, I can't remember his name. What he did was very, very good. I don't have the same praise for anybody else. Okay. Yeah, I think on the good side, a place like Eataly, they're able to feature. What is the good side? Okay, what is the good side of the tin building? Okay, then you can stop there. Okay, let's move on.

I'm not talking about, I'm talking about a place like Eataly specifically on the plus side. Okay. Well, Eataly, we finished with Eataly. We were all through. We were talking about something else, okay? You're trying to wheeze a lot of Eataly. It's fine. Tin Building is not Eataly level. It's more of a grouping of restaurants in a part of town that is somewhat of a food desert, I would say. Listen, I'm not in the restaurant business. You make salads and buy buildings. What business do you consider yourself to be in? I'm in the food business. I'm in the basic, I'm in fruits and vegetables and cheeses and meats. You're basically a distributor is what you're saying. No, I'm not a distributor at all. You make tuna fish salad for a living. I hate tuna fish salad. Really? I despise tuna fish salad. And we don't sell tuna fish salad at EAT. Because you don't like it, so we're not selling it. Yeah, exactly. I don't like the way it tastes. I don't like the way it smells. So that's right. So in my store, you can't get tuna fish salad. Go every place else to get tuna fish salad. Go to the three guys. The three guys. That's a euphemism for the local. But we don't sell tuna fish. I don't like tuna fish as a salad. I make something called smoked whitefish salad, which is absolutely delicious. And if you were Jewish and came from New York, you would immediately say, okay, I know what that is. We're familiar with that. Okay, so tuna fish salad, don't like the smell of it. Smoked whitefish salad, yummy, yummy. I don't like the taste of it. I don't like the taste of it. That's fine. I like the taste of it. I like a smoked whitefish. I've had yours. Yeah, it's really good. The smoke ratio salad is very good. But we're going back to my very beginnings, which I didn't want to spend more than a moment on because I've told you why. But I originally started with the idea that I would do takeout food. That's all I wanted to do.

I mean, my inspiration was a small shop in London with some very pretty girls in blue smocks and with that, you know, wilting English. And they were all kind of coming out of the kitchen carrying, you know, just roasted potatoes and all those things. And that's what I wanted to do. But I really didn't know how to cook. But I wanted to know how. And so I worked by myself. One guy was a dishwasher. And I ended up making all these salads. And I only made one soup because I really didn't like soup. So I only made one soup, which was actually my mother's Jewish chicken soup recipe. What's the difference between a Jewish chicken soup recipe and a Gentile? It's not a Jewish chicken soup. The. It's not A2. It's my mother Lillian's chicken soup. Okay. How does that differentiate from maybe a layman's chicken soup? Was it just made with love or was there more to it? Are you joking? What is this made with love? What are you guys, flower children or something? Well, he's just asking what is the exact literal difference between like a bowl of chicken noodle soup that us regular goyim. First of all, there are no noodles in it. We've got one answer. We've got one answer. Off to a good start. Is there a matzo ball in play, Eli? Well, you can have the matzo ball version or actually originally there wasn't the matzo ball version. There was just the chicken and the carrots and the turnips and the. Turnips. You've heard of turnips? Yeah, yeah. I've had a turnip before. I have, yeah. And it was the way I put it together. It wasn't exactly the way she put it together because she never made the same thing the same way twice, but neither do I. But anyway, so we only had that. I was going to eat this because I didn't like soup.

growing up. Actually, I didn't like tomatoes growing up either, but I've gotten to like tomatoes. So that's the only soup I had for many, many, many years. And later, much later, when I had a chef who worked for me who made wonderful soups, I sell those soups. But my original soup was the Jewish chicken soup. I didn't call it Jewish. When I opened my business, I was trying to get as far away from being Jewish as possible. But I had worked in the family business, which you know about because you mentioned it. My associations were incorrectly at the beginning. Sure. That's our bad, Eli. That's okay. Okay. You can't get it all right all the time. I had my own vision, but I didn't know what the vision really was. But I knew it wasn't what was happening in my family's business. Though, I think what my family does is great. I think the boys are great. I think they're great. But I think it took me a very long time to really realize it. So you're saying you worked there, but you wanted to do something different, so you struck out on your own. I worked there in college, yeah. But I wanted to get as far away from it. And then I explained to you, I wanted to do something in food. And when I went to London and saw the shop and that was like, hey, that's exactly what I want to do. Then the quest the rest of my life was trying to do it. Well, I wanted to know what your, not obsession, but strong interest or need to set up shop on Madison Avenue. Like back then, what was your vision of Madison Avenue and why was it so alluring to a guy who's making soups and breads? Well, you have to kind of step back for a second because I always wanted to. When I knew I didn't want to do what my family had done, I just loved the perfume of the women on the east side. I loved the way things smelled and I loved the way the people looked. I grew up on the west side. I grew up on Riverside Drive. I just wanted to get away from it. I just knew I needed to become my own person and find my own way. But it sounds like a strong motivator for you is the same for most men, beautiful women.

Well, okay, that's a good point. I love the way the women looked, and I love the way they smelled. I love perfume, and I just knew I wanted to be on Madison Avenue. I didn't care how small a store it was, and I ended up quite fortuitously with this store, and I didn't have any money. I wanted it to be below 79th Street because below 79th Street seemed to be where things were happening. Above 79th Street, at that time, and still not any longer, it was family. There were dry cleaners and there was a little deli here, occasionally an art gallery, pharmacies. schools, a big school here, a funeral poll on the next block. So I ended up opening on 80th and Madison. It was all I could afford. The rent was pretty low. The guy who was in there was dying to get out. But I always wanted to be below 79th Street, and that's how that Ralph Lauren thing came about that I was telling you about at the beginning. There was this corner and I was in love with it. I was always in love with it whenever I drive up Madison. I heard the store was going out. The guy was a customer. I went to the owner of the building and I was able to lease the space. Then the rest is history. I only actually met Ralph at the closing. That's the only time I met Ralph. That's about it. I'm surprised by that. I feel like Ralph would have been a customer. He had been a customer up at EAT, but I hardly knew who he was. Are you not into clothes, Eli? I'm not into clothes. I'm very much into what my wife wears. Okay, that's sweet. I have a uniform.

Okay, what's the uniform? Okay, I have a uniform. It's a two-season uniform, okay? Okay. Okay, okay. Season one, which is this cold, it starts in like October or something, October through April or whatever. I have many pairs of corduroys. They're all the same basic color. They're all the same, not the exact same color, but they're all the same, you know, same shade, same hue. And I have those made. And then I have two shirts. I wear a double shirt. They're done in a shop in Paris called Charvet. Sure, of course. Yeah. So they've been making my shirts now for 40 years. Wow. When you say, hold on, when you say double shirt, you mean you're wearing two? You see what's going on here. Oh, I see. Okay, I got it. I got it. I got it. Okay, wow. Okay, so we got two. We have kind of a banded collar underneath a regular. button-down collar. It's not a button-down collar. There's no collar here at all. No, that's what I'm saying. That's the banded collar, and then on top of that... It's a banded collar. Right. Okay. And the origin to that is, like I was wearing a double... Okay, so a long time ago, the fellow who owned Charvet said to me, why do you have an inner shirt that has a collar? which I make, and I make you the outer shirt that has a collar. Why don't you not have a shirt, the inner shirt with a collar? I'll make it without the collar. And that's how that whole thing is. Okay, and those are both long sleeve, correct? Yeah, can you see them? Okay, yeah, I see it now. Okay, both long sleeve. Yeah, yeah. And then the corduroys, who makes the corduroys for you? Nobody that you would know. I had Charvet make some. There's a guy down the block from me, and I have an apartment in Paris. There's a guy down the block on Université. He's made a few. Actually, I have this Russian guy named Mikhail. He's over on 67th Street and Madison Avenue. He really alters and makes women's clothing. He's been making some that are very successful. He's the most recent, I would say. He's doing a good job.

What about on the feet, though? Do we have to keep it comfortable, or are we keeping it traditional? I've been wearing these clogs for the last year or two. What, Brent, like Dansko or Birkenstock? No, no. What's a standard clog? You get them down on 42nd Street. Let's see. Here, guys. Oh, Crocs! Crocs. Yeah, yeah, I've been wearing, but I have to wear the fur line. You see the fur line? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, you've got a fuzzy on the inside. And then I have a guy who makes orthotics, so I put my... Wow, okay, so you've got fuzzy plus orthotics. Those are fully custom, basically, at that point. Exactly, exactly. Okay, so shoes, pants, and shirts are all custom. In your off hours? In your off hours, what? In my off hours, I've actually been wearing Belgian shoes for a long time. Yeah, beautiful. What's your favorite color? I have a navy blue pair and a brown pair, but I need black croc is what I want. You want black? Crocodile. Crocodile. That'd be nice. That'd be nice. I have this kind of... baby brown that I kind of got for my son's wedding this summer that I like a lot. Okay, well, what about the summertime outfit? I'm glad you got to the summertime outfit. Okay, I have about 100 or 200 pairs of white Bermuda shorts from Ralph Lauren. One to 200 pairs? Right. My wife buys them on eBay when they wear out. Linen is a delicate fabric. It's true. It's not hard wearing like a cotton or canvas. No, it's kind of a duck. And then I have a white T-shirt and a short sleeve Charvet shirt. Okay. So you wear a white T-shirt underneath the Charvet short sleeve. Yeah, right. Exactly. It's a, what do you call it, Sea Island Cotton. Is it from Sunspell is the brand? I don't know. There is no brand on it. It's also custom. You got your white T-shirts custom made as well? Yeah, my wife gets them made for me. My wife handles all of this. I mean, doesn't handle all of this, but takes care of making sure that I don't run out. Like the shorts. It's beautiful. I assume she's into fashion herself then?

See, I love her mostly in jeans, which she doesn't always satisfy me with by wearing. She's into vintage. I have a niece who's very much in the vintage clothing business out there in California named Rachel Zabar. But Devin, my wife's name is Devin, D-E-V-O-N, Devin. She is very much into vintage. She used to like Marnie, but no more. I don't know. One of you guys, I understand, knows something about fashion. We both do, yeah, for sure. So when you buy your wife a gift, do you buy her clothes and bags, or is it more of a jewelry guy? I'm a jewelry guy, okay? I like that. And my favorite designer is James Givenchy. And his label is Taffin. I think he's a genius. Is this in New York and you work with him? Yeah, he has a studio up on 53rd in Madison. He's the nephew. Hubert. Hubert Givenchy. Oh, he's the nephew. Yes, of course. He's the nephew of the namesake Givenchy. Yeah, he's the nephew of Givenchy. There was a brief period in my life where I was very friendly with Hubert. Really? How long have you had the apartment in Paris? Did you get it just because you like Paris? Yeah, I love Paris. Do you like the French people, though? You know, on the whole, I would say, well, look, look, I don't know that many. The people that I, the ones that I really know well, I really like a lot. I love, actually. Okay. But I just like the feeling of being in Paris. So I've had the apartment for about 20, 25 years. We have a house down in the south of France, down in Provence. Oh, nice. Down in Provence. Yeah. And down in Provence. And we've had that for 32 or three years.

That's actually where I do cooking. In the summer, I cook a lot. I shop. I market every day. I discipline myself, so I have to go to market every day. So what can I tell you about that? You're doing a lot of seafood down there? A lot of seafood down in the south? No, we're not near the sea. We're an hour north of Marseille. We're not near the sea at all. Got it, got it, got it. It's mostly vegetable-oriented. I do buy fish. The local fish market, the network of trucking in Europe is amazing. I mean, things are caught out of the sea in the morning, and they're at the fish market that day, even if it's a couple hundred miles. Anyway, yeah, so that's what I do in the summer. It's not busy in the summer. We basically take the summer off. Okay, so you're out there, and how are you spending your days? Are you reading a book? Are you exercising long walks? Well, I think we walk a lot at shop, go to market, and cooking, you know, making lunch, making dinner. You got a pool? We have a swimming pool, yeah. Oh, that's nice. That's nice. Eli, how much money do you think your wife spends at Charvet every year? I have no idea. I have no idea. You don't want to know. That's the answer to that question. You don't want to know. I think you have to understand something else. When we buy these shirts, I buy six, eight. 10 of these shirts. They last me for years. Yeah, yeah. No, it's a good investment. No, it's a good investment. Yeah. Have you ever had a Charvet shirt? Actually, no, I haven't. My wife wears them a lot. My wife wears them a lot. Great. Okay. So, okay. So, does she wear the shirts or the very long shirts? Whatever it is. The regular, the men's shirt, basically. The men's shirt, just oversized. Yeah. Okay. There's a little tiny tag and it has the year. It has the year that it was made. It's sewn. It's sewn with the year like 2025. And as I put the shirts on in the morning, sometimes I'm amazed. I find shirts that are like 20 years old. Do you have any embroidery on these? Do you have your initials anywhere on them or are they plain? No, I have my initials on them. Okay, I had a feeling.

I had a feeling. Oh, yeah, in the class. Okay, that's nice. Yeah, that's nice. And you said you like blue Belgian loafers. It was a very nice royal blue. That's a nice blue. I agree. I would go blue on the embroidery as well. I'm in the same boat. All class over here. Yeah. Well, actually, I wanted to ask you, you mentioned getting the Belgian loafers for your son's wedding this year. Where did he get married? He got married on our property in Provence. Beautiful. He makes friends, real friends, as he goes through the day. But he had 240 of his – mostly of his favorite friends, and they came over. And my wife had – do you know what petanque is? You know what bocce is? A bocce ball? Yes. Oh, bocce. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Not the little chocolate thing you eat. Okay. Okay. Okay. On Friday, every village in the south of France, and every village probably in France, has a public, a bocce in French is petanque. It's the same game. It's three balls. The wedding began, in a way, by everybody being bussed to the municipal bocce or petanque. And then the first course, all the hors d'oeuvres were served while people drank champagne and rosé. And even though there were maybe 200 people at this point, maybe only 80. But of the 80, maybe 70 never even saw the game before. But everybody had a good time talking and smoothing and playing. And then we bused everybody to our house, which was about a half a mile away. And a friend of mine, somebody I like a lot, has a restaurant down in Marseille. And he brought his team up. And they cook everything to order. That's quite interesting. To have a catered meal where nothing is prepped, but nothing is really made in advance.

as they say in France. Exactly. And they had a row of grills, as far as you could see, and people behind the grills. And when the word came down, the team of waiters came by and picked up the plate with things coming right off the grill and rusted to the tables. It was quite a circus. It was a real circus. That's the way it should be. I guess on the subject of food, let's say you and your wife, it's an anniversary, it's a birthday, something, a special occasion. What are a couple restaurants in Manhattan? I hardly ever eat out. And I think if we're really a special occasion for me and my wife, we definitely eat in and have people that we love, our kids. I have twin boys. One's married, obviously, since I told you that story already, and the other has a girlfriend, and he has a dog named Yoshi. We have a couple of dogs. We have a couple of dogs. Okay. We have some godparents. Shout out to Yoshi. And, you know, we'll come and eat at home. So that's all. Okay. So you don't go visit your friend Keith McNally over at Minetta for a burger or something like that? You're just cooking at home? Well, I think the burgers are great there. No, I definitely don't. In fact, I took my wife for lunch at Shake Shack the day before yesterday and called it in. I had a double burger and I don't know what they call that vanilla. shakes also. I thought that was delicious. It came really hot and we sat in the car and this car. What would we have? A more important question is what would we have? We would have a big pot of caviar. My friend and partner, I have a gift shop called Eat Gifts. If you haven't been there, I think at least one of you would really, really love it.

And it's right next to EAT. And my partner for 40 years there, this business, is a woman named Kim. And every year for many, many years. And she's also our best friend. So for many years, right before Christmas, she had her husband come over to the house. And we had about a half a kilo of caviar. Some interesting champagnes. I'm very much into wine. I know one of you doesn't drink at all, but we have a cellar. I have a restaurant. It's part of my market, and we have 60,000 or thereabouts, 55,000, 70,000 bottles, mostly burgundy, but a lot of champagne. It's a lot of wine. I would say, arguably, there is no restaurant in New York that has anything like that amount of wine. I don't think any restauranteur could afford it. Okay, so a special occasion, we'll get half a kilo of caviar, some white burgundy from the cellar. Right, probably champagne, and a white burgundy. I see somebody knows something here. Wait, really quick. Sorry, Eli, to interrupt. With the caviar, are we doing bellini? Are we doing potato chips? How are you doing it? Well, it depends. I actually like it just off the spoon. Raw. Okay, I just like to eat it right. I just like to put the bone. Of course, you serve it with bone. You know you serve it with bone spoons. If you don't have bone, you could probably use plastic. And then actually, it's white truffle season. So butter, that Jerusalem bread I was talking about at the very beginning, thinly sliced, toasted, French butter, which has a nice kind of saltiness. You guys both know about good butter, I'm sure. Of course, of course. I don't have to teach you about that. Do you sell the Bordier, the Burr Bordier? Yeah, we have a bunch of different kinds. But actually, my favorite one comes in. It's a five kilo.

You know, that's about 10 pounds, comes in a wicker basket. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it's really, and I like the demi-cell, the salted version, and it has that culture. You know, that French butter has that culture, and it's very waxy. You know, there's very little water in European butter. If you squeeze it, if you ever bake anything, if you squeeze American butter, you get a lot of water that comes out. Anyway, so thinly slice, put it in your toaster, then smear it with the butter, take your white truffle, take your truffle slicer, and give it a nice, whatever you call it, a grating, not grating, but a shave. For me, that's great. My son went to a restaurant in the East Village, which I'm going to tonight, speaking about. What's it called? I hardly ever go out. Actually, the two best meals I had in New York in the last year were, okay, or in the last couple of years. One was, there's a restaurant called Claude's, and upstairs from Claude's, they have this kind of seafood thing. Yeah, Penny. Penny. That was absolutely delicious. I like that. I used to like this place called Oxalis, but they closed and they've changed their stripes. I don't know. Other than that, I love, and tonight I'm going to Smithereens. My son Oliver, who's really, him and the two boys, there's Oliver who got married and Sasha. I'll tell you, they eat out and they know more than anybody, okay? Really more than they would. Okay. You know, and even more than that, what was his name? The documentary filmmaker who goes to that Eurotraff place. Anyway, but the place is called Smithereens. Smithereens, I'm not familiar with. Okay, you're putting me on. Well, you know, one of you guys is from Atlanta and the other guy is from...

from California. Yeah, but I lived in the East Village for eight years. I know the neighborhood, but there's always new stuff popping up. This is between 1st and Avenue A on 9th Street. Now listen, I haven't eaten there. You're not recommending it. You're saying you're going to try it. I'm saying my son said it's great. It's only vegetables, fish, and of course... only white wine, and they're all natural wines, and I don't particularly care for natural wines. So, hey. You're going to find out. I told you what I really like. Okay. The last thing I love, and this is my real wine. I'm having a nice what? Caviar and white truffles. Okay, we're off to a great start here. The two most expensive foods you could buy. My real love are steaks. I love the steaks that we sell. We age them for, I don't know, 45 days. And I love steak. I love thick steak. I love it grilled. I love the bone more than I like the steak. Yeah, that I would say kind of sums up my eating. Or ice cream. I love ice cream. Vanilla only. Yes. Vanilla is the best ice cream flavor. That separates the men from the boys, I always say. Okay. And I saw, I think, did I read that you said to gently slice the ice cream off the top, never dig to disrupt the air bubbles? Yeah. You don't want to press it down any more than you would press a hamburger down on a grill. That's good advice. That's good advice. I love ice cream. All right. Eli, thank you. What's your favorite ice cream? Okay, well, it looks like we... Mine's vanilla. No, but who... Is there a brand that you like? I mean, if I was going to get vanilla, it'd probably be Haagen-Dazs if that was my best option. If it wasn't artisanal. It's not bad. Anything but more concerns. Interesting. Okay. I make great ice cream, my vanilla ice cream. I'll come buy a pint. I'll come buy a pint. That's very good. And this other one that I've been eating, because we sell it, it's called McDonald's. McConnell's. Yeah. Yeah, I like their vanilla a lot. That's good, too. I've had that. That's a good one. Okay, so I think you guys want to say goodbye, huh? We do want to say goodbye, but we really appreciate you joining us. It was a pleasure. Yeah, you guys are great. I was reluctant to do this, almost canceled, but I really had a good time.

Thanks a lot. Hey, I'm glad to hear that. Have fun tonight downtown. That makes three of us, Eli. We loved you. You're a son of a bitch, but we love you. And you're not going to set you straight now. Not to say well from the west side. You got it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. No, we got it now. I understand. East side only. I'll see you uptown. Thank you. Say hello. Bye. All right. I will. A pleasure, Eli. Thank you. The most memorable gifts aren't found they're made Zazzle is a custom marketplace where you pick any product A mug, a card, a tote, a phone case, and make it personal. A photo, a name, an inside joke. The kind of gift that actually fits the person. That's what 30 million customers have been coming back to Zazzle for over 20 years to find. Right now, save 25% on your first order at Zazzle.com. That's Zazzle.com. Make it z-amazing.