Hey, it's Shalaysia Harris, your host of Buzzworthy.
Join me as I sit down with entrepreneurs to talk
about their innovative businesses and their unique
stories. Remember to follow us on social at Hamilton
Hive on all platforms, and don't forget to rate
our podcast. Let's jump into today's story. Hey
everyone, today we have Kyle Ferreira in the
studio with me. Kyle and I actually go way back
with live theater once upon a time, but that's
a later story. Kyle's here to talk about his
two businesses. Bar Sazerag and Salt Lake. And
he started both these restaurants after taking
a step back from his typical career, like most
people, and eventually jumping into his passion.
And here he is as an entrepreneur running two
restaurants. And not just an entrepreneur, but
a restauranteur. Is that what you call yourself?
A restauranteur? Yeah, that's the... french way
of saying that i guess awesome well kyle you
know from our musical theater days and now to
an entrepreneur what do you think set you up
to be an entrepreneur um well uh you know i have
two kids now and one of my kids has a very difficult
time with uh following instructions and i see
quite a bit of myself in him i think most of
my desire to do things for myself is based on
just my inability to to do what people ask of
me unless i see something of interest to myself
it just uh it just comes down to a personal desire
to be charge and a personal desire to have agency
over overall of all aspects of my life you know
the joke I said to a friend of mine when he was
when I had recently purchased salt lick was you
ever notice how your farts don't smell that bad
so yeah it just comes down to the you know the
things that if it's a problem of my own making
a problem of my own creation then then i just
feel a lot better i just feel a lot better about
it yeah yeah that wasn't what i was expecting
but you're right you definitely can handle it
a lot better you have your own expectations of
it and you go through it but is there anything
you think that you know kind of really gave you
the skills, the confidence, and all of that to
say, hey, I'm going to do this thing that I love
and turn it into business. Well, I went to chef
school at George Brown. I spent... As you said,
most of my life in musical theater. So the ability
to cook and the ability to talk and present myself
well to other people has always been there. I
ran restaurants or had been in a position of
leadership inside of other restaurants for most
of my... most of my cooking career previously.
I went to school and worked for my aunt, who
has a financial planning office. I worked for
her as a tax repair consultant for a couple of
years. So the concept of... of working with and
being around money, proper accounting, proper
business practices were always there. I think
it's just an amalgamation of, I guess, everything
that I was up until the point in time that my
friend said, would you like to open a bar? And
I was like, yeah, I feel prepared to do that.
Let me do that. That's awesome. I think in a
lot of ways, we take our experiences for granted
throughout the years, no matter like how small
it is or how significant, but they all eventually
roll up to where we want to be. And you can always
draw from those different experiences to really
build yourself and take yourself to the next
level. I generally, yeah, no, I absolutely agree,
actually. I'm not one of those people who believe
that if I want to be a doctor, I should only
take doctor -related courses in university and
then in medical school. No, I believe in kind
of the more holistic approach they had previous
to, let's say, the 1940s, 1930s, which was that
a doctor could be... Obviously, science -minded,
but they could be from almost any background,
provided they had the marks. So you ended up
with, in many cases, much more rounded practitioners.
Yeah, because they have a richer sense of thinking.
It's just not linear and narrow just from a medical
perspective. Yeah, it just... It's not that medicine
has progressed quite a bit since that point in
time, and there's a lot more to know, and obviously
a little bit more focus is not a terrible thing,
but too much usually ends up with somebody who
is probably less than capable of dealing with
people and having the ability to kind of reach.
to wherever the person they're dealing with is.
It is slightly unreasonable for anybody in authority
to expect for people who are not in authority
or people that they are serving to meet them
at their level. You must. You must go to the
patient's level. You must go to the customer's
level. You must go to the patron's level. So
that's generally what I believe in regards to
that. So you're quite right. Quite right. It
must happen that way. Yeah. And when your friend
came to you to say, hey, let's start a bar together,
what made you want to start a bar here in Hamilton?
Well, he actually said that he was just kind
of milling around about wanting to start a wine
bar. And I said, let's, no, it should be a cocktail
bar. The margins are better. The outlay is a
little less. A little less gigantic. And the
product doesn't ever go bad. And then you're
like, you want to do this with me? I'm like,
yes. Yes, let me. I never thought about it up
until apparently this conversation about a couple
seconds ago. But yeah, yeah, I want to do that
with you, bud. Shane McCartney is. is my business
partner, still is, even though I've mostly bought
him out of all the properties that we've done
together. But forever and ever, amen, will this
man be one of my closest friends and associates.
Really happy to have worked with him and really
happy to continue to work with him. Why Hamilton?
I'm from Hamilton. I wasn't born here, but every
bit of my life, from the moment that my family
moved here from Trinidad and Tobago, I've been
here. So I wanted to be part of the city. I thought
that the idea that we would do a cocktail bar
in town would be fun. We have a lot of... A lot
of development going on all downtown and the
idea that we post up in a place and slowly build
a reputation while most of these places were
going to be coming up would be the better play
rather than waiting and then fighting up to try
and get a spot on what would be kind of the epicenter
of Hamilton. dining culture so we just we're
like okay cool so we have the location the price
is right uh for for the location um you know
and and we just made it happen not a lot of money
spent uh to to to get it done but that's that
was restaurants in hamilton at the time now now
you wouldn't be able to do that now So how much
has that changed? In the last 10 years? Mm -hmm.
Jesus. I've seen, on the same street where we
are, I've seen in one location three different
operators. It was a very difficult location.
The guy who's there right now seems to be doing
pretty well, but I think... I think that the
amount of turnover and the amount of kind of
cultural shift that we've had on James North
is, yeah, it's been a lifetime in the past decade.
So it's been very exciting to be part of it.
I've met a lot of wonderful people who have.
the sort of businesses that bring a great amount
of foot traffic, rather than being on the street
more or less by myself at one end. There's a
lot of other restaurants and other bars to go
to, so it ends up being a place that, oh, well,
if I can't get in at... Let me go here. If I
can't get in at that other guy's spot, let me
go to Sazerac. Let me go, you know, so it's not,
it's less of a destination. Yeah. Less of a singular
destination than a place that people can enjoy
the entirety of the street. And I think that's
wonderful. Yeah. What do you think has really
set? Bar Sazerac aside from some of the other
restaurants and bars that had a higher turnover?
Well, one, I'd say that the focus for me has
been less, I say less classical business. The
initial outlay kind of made it so that we were
constantly putting money back into the business,
back into the business. And because of that,
the focus has been on spending the intervening
time, making it into something that people would
want to bet on. A lot of the other, a lot of
other businesses have been putting, you know,
this is the amount of money that we want to spend.
We expect to see these returns immediately or
in, you know, in a pretty quick turnaround. If
they don't, they, you know, they make the necessary
business decision to say, okay, well, that didn't
work out. Let us stop hemorrhaging money and
let's hang on to what we have left. In the case
of Bar Sazerac, it was always like, okay, well,
we have this amount of money, and we've put in
money to improve our infrastructure. We've put
in money to improve our products that we have
available to sell. I have spent quite a bit of
time competing in regional and provincial. uh,
national competitions to kind of raise our, our,
our prestige and our, our status in, in the cocktail
community. So that's cool. Tell me a little bit
more about that. Yeah. So yeah, the whole point
of that was just, um, how do we get people to,
how do we get people to make sure that, uh, they
respect what it is that we're doing? Um, so,
um, In actual fact, in April, I'm going to be
competing in the Canadian National Final of Made
With Love for the second time. Cool. So, yeah.
Congrats. Thank you very much. So, it allows
us to have something to say. Like, if you're
coming here, I mean... The guy's pretty good.
The other people that we have working with us
at Sazerac also do competitions that are very
respected in their own right. Alyssa Anderson.
I have a thing with Alyssa, who is our head bartender
currently, that I will continue to do. until
she beats me. Wow. And she is nipping at my heels,
bud. She's nipping at my heels. Real good. You
know, the whole vibe of Sazerac has always been
let's be... Let us be fun. Let us have our own
kind of voice. Let us answer the questions that
we have swimming around our head. What if we
do this? Why not? Who's there to tell us no?
I mean, I guess it would be me, but I haven't
done that. I like that, though, because it really
speaks to also one of the reasons a lot of businesses
continue to do well overall is, you know, with
that level of, you know, healthy competition
that. Pushes your boundaries of innovation in
a space where you might think that it's limited
But it's not because now you have so many different
things to do Alyssa wants to beat you you want
to maintain your status quo so, you know That
really continues to keep you moving up the ladder.
Yeah, it's a it's one of them it's one of the
better things about I would say our process in
general, which is Um, everyone is always, is
always trying to be, uh, creative. Everyone is
always thinking of, I was, I was thinking about
this flavor profile or, um, right now we're in
the process of, uh, of writing our, our big menu.
So every year we, uh, will have a large theme
menu. Um, and then, uh, During the downtime between
menus, because we have to have a little bit of
a breezeway, because if you immediately put out
a theme menu after a big theme menu, it kind
of is, I guess, less impactful. So there's usually
about four to six months of us coming up with
that menu and having a very... a very creative
time uh to to come up with that so right now
it's just all um you know answering a lot of
answering a lot of personal questions i want
to i want to make it taste like this how do i
do that um what happens if i put this in in this
liqueur will you know will it create a different
flavor and a different concept we're buying um
buying in uh other molecular gastronomy textures
and um somebody's trying to a little do little
um i don't know if you've ever had you ever had
um bubble tea yes i i i asked the question i
assumed but whatever um uh somebody wants to
try and make boba but um instead of instead of
boba they're little popping caviar of other flavor.
So there's the thought process of how do I do
this? And we've always had a kind of a mandate
at the bar, which is that if you come up with
an idea and that idea costs less than $200, we're
going to try your idea. And the vast majority
of ideas fall well below $200 because it's just
like, well, I would like to use this liquor,
but we've never actually had it here. And I was
like, well, the LCBO app says it's only $40,
so why not? Yeah, nothing to lose. Nothing to
lose. Maybe you just make 13 to 18 cocktails
that are lightly. flavored with this thing and
you know in the grand scheme of things you know
we're doing thousands of cocktails a month so
who's what what's another what's another 13 what's
another 20 you know so for some people uh especially
our especially our long -time patrons they enjoy
Being part of that process, they enjoy tasting
the weird and wonderful. So they don't mind it
being like, I bought this thing. I don't know
anything about it. You want to find out about
it with me? Mystery drink. Let's taste it together.
I think it tastes like this. I think it tastes
like that. Let's make a cocktail together and
then we discuss it. And then the discussion is
the part that they actually care about. Yeah.
They don't really. It doesn't bother them that
much about the flavor because they've spent,
yeah. I feel like most people have spent more
than $15 on a mistake in their life. Oh, for
sure. Oh, for sure. So you're going to spend
$15 on a three -ounce cocktail. That within probably
20 minutes you're going to finish and forget.
Who cares? Or if it's really terrible, it'll
be memorable. Or if it's really great, it's still
memorable. Exactly. There's no losing. It's just
like theater. You go and see a questionable show
and maybe just on the drive back you have a chat
with your wife and you're just like, well, that
was weird. That was weird. But the experience
of going is still there. So when the whole pandemic
came in, and I know it's a few years behind us.
It's not behind us. It's not behind us? Okay.
It's not behind us. As far as I'm concerned,
it's going to be probably another... year or
two before especially hospitality businesses
in this town get back to the financial position
that they were in at the at the beginning you
know because so you know big advocate for maintaining
all of our municipal and provincial government
programs that allow us to continue to try and
get back to where we were yeah That's awesome.
I'm glad you're able to tap into those because
like you said, you guys took a really big hit.
Did you do anything new during that time to keep
the business going? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. No. Um,
uh, pretty much as soon as, uh, as soon as we
were closed and we were closed for, uh, I would
say like, like I think my wife and I spent maybe
like a week or two. moping around. And then she
was like, well, enough of that. We're going to
sell cocktail syrups and we're going to sell
cocktail mixes. So basically it was an opportunity
for people to have kind of a bar Sazerac experience,
whether or not they were sitting at the bar.
So we did that. As soon as it became possible
for us to sell cocktails out of the bar, we sold
them. For the longest time, we were selling cocktail
kits. We also sold other cocktail paraphernalia.
Even if you wanted, let's say, a cocktail shaker
set and a mixing glass and you didn't know where
to go, you could always come to Bar Sazerac and
we'll help you out. So it was a lot of fun in
that regard. In almost every other regard, no.
It was not fun. So are your cocktail kits still
around? Not really. No, we do them for, like,
one of the things that we also did during the
pandemic was cocktail classes. And if, as you
probably got during the pandemic also, you got
really good at using. um zoom or teams or whatever
yeah so we did those over over uh um those uh
those platforms um and we still do them to this
day so like if you have uh you know if you have
a difficult time getting people together you
we can we can do cocktail kits and you or we
can mail them to your uh Your audience, yeah.
People, whoever, wherever they are. And then,
you know, when we make sure that everyone has
those items, we can then do a cocktail class
with them. That's cool. And it will be with whatever's
in the kit. So, yeah, it allows us to still do
those now, but we don't. It's not primary business
anymore. No, it's unfortunately, well, I guess
fortunately, far too busy at work. Far too busy
at the thing. You can't get the staff to get
off their larger problems. They have the people
who are physically in the building to serve.
And we're already... You know people were chomping
at the bit and so are to so are to this day the
idea of going out the idea of Feeling like this
is I think we want to do so That's that's who
were that's who were making smile these days.
Yeah, that's good. So you also own Salt Lake.
Yeah, Salt Lake Smokehouse. At what part of your
journey in owning Bar Sazerac did you decide
that, hey, I need another restaurant? Well, the
truth of the matter is that the restaurant industry
by the very nature of the way people value service
and value the food that they eat. We have a weird
valuation of that, in that we expect quite a
bit for the least amount of money, which... You
know, I'm a person. I also don't like paying
for things. But at the same time, they're, you
know, they expect people to be very, very accommodating
as well as they expect restaurants to continue
to exist, even the best restaurants that, you
know. razor thin margins so my my personal thing
to get around that as well as kind of be able
to look myself in the eye on being the sort of
employer that makes sure that everyone is properly
paid and that all the things that they want out
of their life obviously within reason but at
the same time everything that would make them
fully actualized as a person are fulfilled is
that obviously there's the amount of money that
we have as profit and then the dividends therein.
But there is the amount of money I just pay myself
as a person. So my way of getting around this
larger problem is to just try and own more restaurants
and pull stupid little salaries from each one
and then um and then i'll have one slightly reasonable
salary eventually eventually so i mean it puts
a little bit less uh less of an emphasis on um
on being so draconian about What everything that's
going on puts more emphasis on kind of a personal
ownership of the people that work for us and
with us. Like, you know, I'm really mostly just
doing this so that we can all get paid. So how
about we just, you know, how about you stop?
How about we figure out how to solve this problem?
Because we're really just trying to... all of
us, and who's working for the organization just
trying to get paid. So because of that, fairly
early on in my journey in ownership, I was like,
okay, cool. I need another restaurant eventually
because my wife and I had just had our first
son, Benjamin. In our usual infinite wisdom,
while we were having our second son, we bought
the other restaurant. That sounds like the perfect
timing. Oh, yeah. Two new babies at once. Oh,
my God. No, the thing is, it's one baby, and
then the rest of the staff, they're people. They
have their wants and needs, and it's always quite
a... quite a balancing act to get everyone singing
off the same song sheet. So it's been a time.
I'm not going to lie. We've only owned Salt Lake
since May of 2022. Okay. So it's only been about
seven months, seven, eight months. A lot of changes
during that time. It previously belonged to my
business partner. He moved out of town and wanted
to divest himself of a lot of his obligations
in town. He knew that I had that ambition to
own another restaurant. He's like, would you
like to own this restaurant? I'm like, the restaurant
that I've already run? Yes, that would actually
be... Very easy transition. Well, substantially
easier, I would say. The idea, I don't want anyone
to ever think that business ownership is at any
point in time easy. A friend of mine the other
day was like, Kyle, I really want to open this.
I know that you have a... You know, your business
background and you already own a restaurant.
So tell me what you think of my business plan.
And I was like, okay, let me stop you right here.
Before I read this, I just need to know, like,
can you see yourself doing anything else? That's
a good question. Can you see yourself doing anything
else? Because if you have even an inkling of
anything else you want to do, go do that. This
is, like, I... I have to do this. I have to do
this to live. I can't not be a person who owns
and operates restaurants. I like it too much.
Yeah. It's the only way that it makes any sense
because it's not the most... Easy and or immediately
lucrative of businesses. Yeah. Because the typical
turnaround on any kind of real profits, isn't
it about two years or so? Well, I think that's
a kind of a general business timeline. But for
restaurants, like what we're talking about with
even the highest flyers in the restaurant industry.
They're looking at mid -teens for what they're
expecting for profits over the year. You're not
making piles of money. That's why they're very
conscious about the fluctuations in product.
in the market they're in. The amount of time
that people are there at the restaurant, what
is being sold and how much, writing all of your
deals at the back end. So, like, even right now
or earlier today, I was seeing what, you know,
I was talking to my meat guy and trying to figure
out what could be done there. You know, there's...
But obviously you can't have a deepened quality
because that would directly impact how people
feel about your restaurant and their willingness
to spend. So it is a balancing act. But for me,
I thrive on trying to solve these problems. And
for other people, that's not it. And if it's
not, then don't do it. like it sucks it certainly
will it definitely will um and it's like just
having a job that you don't like but you really
just can't pull out of it as easy as handing
in your two -week notice it just doesn't work
like that when you become a business owner no
um it is like man um there's so many different
things that even if you want to do something
that on, you know, by sitting in the room, you're
like, well, it shouldn't take me very long to
renovate this space. You know, a friend of mine
down the street, actually, it pushed him back
by almost two years not opening his restaurant
because every time he... like took out the ceiling
he found another problem and the the people who
had run uh or had that space before um there
there was just like there was a drop ceiling
and then another higher drop ceiling and then
there was there was stuff in between those drop
ceilings that were that were so just to get you
know just to get it to the actual ceiling and
to have dealt with all of the coding issues,
especially as it relates to electrical. You know,
it pushed this timing back a bit. Because Hamilton's
an old city, right? Hamilton's an old city, yeah.
The buildings that Salt Lake and Sazerac are
both in are nearly 100 years old. So there's
a lot of times where a lot of people have come
and gone through those buildings in that time
frame. So there is the things that you know for
a fact that you did. Yeah. And there's always...
You know, this is Hamilton. There's always going
to be some, you know, some breaker on your fuse
box that your electrician's like, I don't know
what that does. All the knobs and tubes should
be replaced at this point. Yeah, well, no. The
knobs and tubes, thankfully, are gone. But I'm
just saying, like, he's looking at the breaker.
He's like, I don't know what that does, but it's
on. And no one's died. So let's leave it alone.
And you're just like, well, yeah, I'd like for
this to be over too because I'm now eight months
behind on this project. You know, the architect
came in at the beginning and they were like,
it's a box. It shouldn't take that long. And
it took, you know, it's taken eight months for
us to get this far. Just, you know, we're done.
You're done. You don't need to do anything more.
I think that's all, you know, part of business,
all the unknowns. And like you said, you really
have to love what your mission is in order to
get over all of those hurdles. So when you decided
to start Salt Lake, what was your vision for
Salt Lake? What was the restaurant experience
going to be? What was the food? What was that?
So Salt Lake Smokehouse was opened by Shane McCartney
like a year, a year and a half before he and
I opened up Sazerac. So like he wanted to just
make kind of things that were world barbecue.
More specifically in the United States, but still
there were other kind of barbecue orthodoxies
like Korean barbecue or Jamaican chicken, which
a lot of people don't tend to realize that. It's
a barbecue. Well, it required, if you were in
Kingston, they would be cooking that chicken
over. charcoal in a, in a halved oil drum. Like
it's getting a fair amount of smoke. It's, it
is affecting flavor. It is, it is making that
experience whole. Um, so, uh, it was always about
world, world barbecue or, or, or cuisines that
were influenced by smoke. So, um, I, uh, after,
you know, after going back to accounting, uh,
for, um, Uh, for the first time, hopefully the
last time, um, uh, I kind of just, I, I did it
for like a month or two months and then I was
like, okay, cool. I can't do this forever. I
can't do this forever. I just need to, I need
to get back to being a cook or at the very least
something in the restaurant industry because
I like. I like that too much. So Shane hired
me to be his bartender there. The decisions that
we made together and the program that I installed
raised his alcohol sales tremendously to the
point that he wanted to do another business with
me. During that time, I moved to being the chef
of Salt Lick so that we could kind of keep in
touch and do better work together. So the concept
of me taking over a restaurant that I had already
run, you know, seemed, for whatever reason, a
no -brainer. or at least less problematic on
its face. It has been equally as problematic
as opening my brand new restaurant, Sazerac,
at the time. So even though you're just taking
over something that on its face should be substantially
easier, it was equally challenging. So what in
itself, you said this many times, that you just
love this business so much. Why? Why? Because
you're just like, this goes wrong and that goes
wrong. But why do you love it? I love food. I
love the memories. I have very fond memories
of... of eating and the places that I was when
I ate. It might seem, I don't know, might seem
a little bit sensualist, but at the very least,
I remember those things and I really enjoy them.
So for a lot of things, it's been trying to figure
out how to recreate that feeling or that concept.
So it was always just really easy for me like
that. My family is very creative. My father is
an artist. My brother is an artist. My brother's
a lawyer, but he's an outlier. He's creative
his own way. But these are the things that we
were always taught. It's just like, how do you...
You know, these are the things that are available
to you. Is that enough for you? No? Okay, cool.
So how do you make that into more? Yeah. Or,
yeah, so I just saw this as a way to do all the
things that I knew to do from childhood, all
the things that I like to do now. This is the
way that I get the most control over it, to be
in ownership. So, you know, it's just, I just
love it. Can't not. I like that. I like that
answer. And what's next for you? What is next
for me? Well, right now, right now our focus
is to make Salt Lake as, as good as we can make
it. There's a lot of people who have very fond
memories of going to Salt Lake, so there's a
desire to hold true to those ideals that have
built the restaurant into what it is. But there's
also a desire to bring back, like Shane, especially
when he was cooking there personally, was always
very excited to, Like, Kyle, I got in these things.
I got in these big honking beef ribs. What are
you going to do with that? He would always be
really very excited about being a cook. He also
has a very sensuous bent. He didn't come... He
didn't go to school for it like I did. So, like,
I've always enjoyed learning a little bit more
academic. He was always very, very, very hands
-on. Almost all of his education was, like, you
know, very hands -on. Whereas me, it's like I
like reading a lot of things and I like having
a fairly... comprehensive understanding of the
things before I would, you know, go and attempt
it. Very, very good for our business relationship.
So I want to bring back that kind of experimental
and fun vibe to the thing. I want people to have
things to talk about at the tables, both the
people who are serving and the people who are
eating. You know, it's like, did you like that?
Did you like, did you like the food that, uh,
that you just had? Um, yes. Which parts did you
like? Which parts didn't you like? Um, you know,
the conversation is, is, is key. So, uh, we just
want to, to do that. Be, be excellent at solid.
Um, I really want to focus on that for, let's
say the next, uh, you know, the next full year.
Uh, and then, um, there's, Uh, there's a couple
of things that I'm, I have planned, uh, to do
with other restauranteurs, collaborations and
the like. We have that to do. And then, uh, when
both Sazerac and Salt Lick are incredibly secure,
I will go after a third restaurant. Something
new. It's mostly just, uh, hopefully at that
point in time, um, you know, I'll have, Both
of my kids will be in elementary school and,
you know, things have not become less expensive.
So I would imagine that I need to put aside a
severe amount of money for their education. You
know, Hamilton housing prices being what they
are, I don't know. I don't know when I'm going
to be able to wade into that problem. Well, we're
all wading. Yeah, well, you got to wade. You
got to wade. It's not... I'm not jumping into
that quagmire just yet. Yeah. But that's okay.
It sounds like you have a lot of great things
on the horizon. You're constantly thinking about
growth. What's next for you? How can you keep
things fresh and exciting? But I want you to
leave us with two things. What's... What's a
cocktail that someone should go to Bar Sazerac
and absolutely taste and have? And then what's
your favorite thing on your Salt Lick menu? All
right. Well, let's say at Salt Lick, the thing
that you should go have, it's kind of a toss
up between the ribs and the brisket, just based
on. Some really nice feedback that we've had
on both. For the ribs, I really like them. What
do you like about it? Oh, okay. Hype it up, Kyle.
Oh, my God. Every time I cook food, you read
and you read and you read about. other people's
past experiences with those things, the things
that people like, the things that people don't
like, and you try and speak to as many of those
things as possible. I would say that this rib
that we're doing right now follows very much
the St. Louis, Kansas City. orthodoxy as it pertains
to ribs. Obviously, two very different styles
if you want to get especially technical about
ribs, but it's two styles that have really resonated
with me as it pertains to pork products. So I
really enjoy those ribs as well as our meat purveyor
is doing a very good job of getting us some very
excellent product right now. Big fan of his work.
The brisket, all we've ever tried to do is the
very best that we could do. There are some people
from Texas, expats from Texas, who have said
that we are the best brisket they've had since
they've left home. which is high praise. Nobody
from Texas gives that sort of a... Oh, yeah,
they've got a lot of pride down there. They don't
say that stuff lightly. So I'm very happy to
do that, and it's one of those things that we
are very happy to lose sleep over and do a good
job about. As for the cocktails at Bar Sazerac,
the cocktail that I need for everyone to have
is the cocktail that makes them the most happy.
So have a conversation with your bartender. Talk
to them about the things that you like, because
so many people will come in and say, these are
the things they don't like. Okay, cool. That
wasn't the question I asked you. What is it that
you like? Because I think a lot of people don't
actually get asked that that often. They don't
really think about the things that they do enjoy
because they don't want people to... I think
they feel that it reels too much. I think that
it doesn't. I think that liking the things that
you like and being okay with that is good. Talk
to your bartender about the things you like,
and then maybe we can have a couple conversations,
a couple cocktails together, and then we can
start really exploring what is possible for you.
And if you like a rum and coke... You can have
that too. You can have that too. It'll be, in
all likelihood, based on how I feel about that,
the very best rum and coke you'll ever have,
because I will probably pick. Better rum, and
we make our cola syrup in -house. Cool. Well,
it's been such a pleasure talking to you and
really seeing your business angle of everything,
but also your love for food and the business
that you're in. And to see the growth that you've
made over the years and your Bar Sazerac is definitely
on many lists. Like when you Google places to
go in Hamilton, it's definitely there. It shows
up on my Google. That's huge. And really starting
early and following your passion. I think a lot
of people can take that back. And I think you
should be incredibly proud of what you've achieved.
And hype yourself up, you know. You work so hard.
And sometimes I know you don't see the progress
as a business owner when you're in the business
and the nitty gritty. Because the things going
wrong sometimes can be distracting. But from
an outsider, you've done incredible. You're going
to continue to do incredible work. And I haven't
been to Salt Lake yet, Salt Lake Smokehouse.
But I love barbecue and I love smoky food. So
I'll be by. Well, thank you very much for saying
that. My mom always taught us that other people
should be talking about your... Successes. So
it's not that, like, we are fully aware that
I'm doing reasonably well. But it is always going
to be a somewhat difficult prospect. To just
talk about it. Well, no, there's talking about
it and there's talking about it, right? So, like,
I'm just, I'm, like, I like the fact that I'm
going, yeah, I'm going to be competing. I'm going
to be competing in April to hopefully be, you
know, based on one competition, the best in Canada.
But generally speaking, even at the bar, I personally
don't say that. The rest of the people who work
at the bar say that. Yeah. So you get the praises
from others, not yourself. Generally speaking,
no. Nice. So where's the competition? Can people
watch it? I don't think it's going to be something...
You can go watch it. You have to go to Banff
to go see it. It's made with love. That's the
competition. They've been... I think it's one
of the most interesting and exciting competitions
in Canada insofar as it actually brings bartenders
from around the country together. There's a lot
of other competitions that are available, but
usually speaking, they don't actually pitch you
one -on -one against a person that you actually
met. I've always enjoyed it for that reason.
Some people have other opinions about it, but
I've always enjoyed it as a competition. Yeah,
well, we'll stay close to you, Kyle, and we'll
post your results. Oh, yeah, please. And all
the cool cocktails that comes out of that experience.
Well, thank you very much for having me, Shalais.
Yeah, this is... This has been entirely surprising
for me. Well, thank you, Kyle, for joining us.
This has been such a good conversation. I'm really
happy to see the insights you've drawn from your
own experiences, the bar, learning from your
business partner, and really working together
with everyone, not just as business owners, but
also with your staff to push them to become creative,
to stay innovative. And that really... helps
differentiate you from the other businesses that
exist in the area and just as a business owner
in general. So thanks for joining us and sharing
your story. Thank you very much for having me.
A huge thank you to you, our listeners, for tuning
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