And we're back.
It's kind of odd.
We got some people that we've been trying to get on the podcast for a while, so it's
kind of weird seeing them here finally.
Every time we get a new guest, it's kind of a trippy thing because it's kind of like we're
being put on the spot for the product that we put out.
So we got two.
They're not avid listeners, but hopefully they'll be after this.
So this is September 10th, 2024.
And Ducacos, I'm Sean.
I'm Paul.
I am Jeff.
I'm Stan.
I'm Nick.
And we're ready to rock and roll.
We've got our two guests.
They're proprietors of a business in downtown McKinney called The Kelt.
And we're just going to ask some questions and let them talk about it.
But I guess to start off with, do you guys have any questions regarding us?
No.
So first time listeners out there that have not ever listened to Ducacos, basically we're
three guys that grew up all over the planet.
And we got together drinking and being stupid.
All of our kids went to Centennial High School in downtown Frisco.
And so we kind of met organically through that.
And we started drinking beer together and hanging out and going to like little parties
and things.
And we're so goofy.
And we have such good chemistry and we're solid friendship.
I mean, really we count on each other like a true brotherhood and when we get together,
we just babble and have so much fun.
People had said, I mean, you guys ought to do a podcast.
And I've have all the sound equipment.
And I was like, all right, well, let's just dabble in that.
We had a couple of beers and set some stuff up and then we started doing it.
And then we started turning it up more and more.
And then we made some investments.
And my son, Austin, our producer, he came up with the name.
It's kind of dudes like us kind of sticks.
So we talk about life.
That's basically what the podcast is about.
We talk about life.
We you know, normal thresholds, taking your kids to school in the mornings, take them
to college if you're at that age and retiring, you know, your first prostate check, anything
and everything, you know, whatever you have to go through in life that you share that
dudes like us go through.
We try to look at that.
Yeah.
So anyways, we got we got Stan and Nick from the Celt and how did you guys start that out?
Because I went on Nick was there first and then you jumped in a little bit later.
Is that accurate?
Yeah.
Yeah, Sean, I actually spent like over 30 years in banking and retired as a region president
with U.S. Bank, but did not know that.
Yeah, you didn't know that.
No.
All right.
I was one of my biggest customers was U.S. Bank.
Really?
Where are you from?
I was well, I worked for.
So I did all of your bank refreshes.
Nice.
And when you when mergers and acquisitions would buy new banks, you'd go out there and
get them and put new I.T. equipment in there.
OK, my team.
My team.
Actually, it was me at the time.
I'd buy all the equipment and get it staged for all the tech guys to install.
Yeah, that's probably what drove you out of banking.
His company could be so we can get it.
But yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean, I went to UTA and TCU and then started my banking career.
I think we're all over here except Nick to remember Texas Commerce Bank.
Nick, how old are you?
Yeah, thirty five.
Thirty five.
All right.
Well, that's good.
Yeah, that's solid.
I think he I think he was born the year Texas Commerce Bank failed.
If you remember those days, although banks that weren't supposed to fail in Texas did.
And so anyway, such a career there.
And in 2000, I moved to Oregon and went to work for U.S. Bank and then finished up in
St. Louis there as a region president.
But when I turned 35, Nick's age, I knew that I'd always, always wanted to own an Irish
pub.
Oh, and it'd be just like you guys.
They got with your 20 brothers, you know, and sit around and talk.
Wouldn't be great to do this.
I thought I'm going to do it.
And what really was impetus for me doing that was traveling to Ireland my first, second
and third time and sitting in a hotel room in Dublin by myself one night.
And it was 2013.
They didn't have a red light district.
Dublin.
No, that's that's Amsterdam.
We'll talk about that later in the show.
That was the next trip.
Yeah, that was 2014.
That was a long year.
We're kidding, guys.
We're kidding.
But anyway, so I thought, you know, I'm just going to do that.
It was still five years after the 2008 crash.
If you guys remember that.
Oh, yeah.
Changed everything in banking to where you could actually use to help people.
And now you've got to fit a square peg in a square box.
And so it just wasn't that much fun.
And I thought, you know, I'm going to do this and set a goal to do it.
And I was going to do this by the time I was 50.
And about a month shy of my 51st birthday, I left US Bank.
We called it early retirement.
I don't know what it was.
But and then came back home to Texas from St. Louis to to do this.
And it was I take it was a long process.
My whole goal was to like build a new Irish pub in Arlington and downtown Arlington.
And that didn't work out.
And then we moved on to grapevine and and then something else.
And life happens and things get in the way.
And I thought, well, this is really a harder lot, a lot harder than I thought it was going
to be.
Are you saying you started it in those places and they didn't go well or you couldn't find
a spot?
You just couldn't make the project work.
You gotcha.
You couldn't work at good terms with the landlord or you got the TI prepared.
It couldn't get off the ground.
You couldn't just work it out.
And became very frustrated and actually for a short time there, I thought about going
back into banking and a buddy of mine that was also a banker and a fraternity brother
of mine said, came over and give me those talks.
It's like you just can't give up.
You're one of those guys that just didn't give up.
What are you doing giving up?
And he goes, and by the way, there's this little English pub in McKinney.
I was going to mention that.
For sale.
Yeah.
And I was happy when you converted.
I'm a Fort Worth boy.
I mean, that's my tractor parked out front, Sean.
So, and he goes, McKinney, I've never even been to McKinney.
We would drive through McKinney once or twice as we were kids up to Texoma.
And so me and my fraternity brother, Mark, and my brother-in-law, Bruce, we took the
Saturday night, 2013 right before Christmas and opened the door once we found downtown
McKinney and just fell in love with the place.
And it was like, you know, when you fall in love at first sight, that's what it was like
for me with the Celt.
And it was actually Churchill's at the time.
So it's an older...
Yeah, I think it was, I think, Nick, it was Churchill's.
I've had it for 11 years.
I mean, shoot, in the late 1800s, it was a brothel.
Yeah, called Rambo's.
Rambo's.
Yeah, it's named after me.
When did that close?
Fell in love with the place.
One of the owners almost kicked me out for drinking too much scotch at the evening.
It was Christmas, you know, so, no, I'm kidding.
But we had a great time and I thought, this is it.
I'm going to make this happen.
And, you know, the moral of the story is I was going to build a pub that may have never
worked, and was able to buy one for half of what I thought.
That was already built.
Great.
It needed some work, obviously.
And obviously we converted it over to Irish as soon as we could and became the Celt instead
of Churchill's.
But it was just a fantastic experience.
And I remember, I remember my first Sunday, my very, I think I bought it on a Thursday
and Sunday was Mother's Day.
You're laughing at this.
And we had gone out to the dump and bought a lot of new furniture for the place too,
because I was like all in.
It's like spend some money, fix this place up.
And the place is just packed.
It's just packed.
And half the staff doesn't know me.
And I had zero restaurant experience, guys.
Nothing.
Oh, wow.
Talk about jumping out.
Were you there at the time?
Yeah, it was a mess.
It was a mess.
I mean, it's like Mother's Day for us is not our day.
And the dump just decides to deliver all the furniture on a Sunday too.
Everything's rolling in.
Stan's kind of like, no one's really got a chance to know Stan.
He's like...
First time they've ever met me.
He's ex-bank.
Oh, you're the new owner.
Yeah, you're a banker.
Dude, it was seamless.
You just were there one day.
No, it was a nightmare.
I will give you credit here.
I mean, to be blunt, in the service industry, there's always talk about you got this industry
who builds a place up and then sells it to somebody and that person comes in with not
a whole lot of service industry experience.
And then, I kid you not, that Mother's Day Sunday, we're running out of eggs.
We ran out of syrup.
It was for some reason we got slammed.
But I kid you not, this was a big thing for me, man.
Stan was out there actually bussing tables and wiping them off.
His former bank president is out there like...
He was all in there.
Yeah, he was.
And I remember I fired a staff member during that too.
She was like, you don't know what you're doing?
She goes, I don't like working here and I go see you.
And you're like, good for you.
And she's like, you can't do that.
Who are you?
I got this DEI thing.
I can show you right now.
That was before DEI.
But Sean, and Nick knows this too, it's like whatever...
It can't be so bad forever because there is a closing hour.
You're going to get through this somehow and then deal with it tomorrow.
But it made a lot of friends that day and it was amazing.
Made a lot of friends.
You got some respect.
It was a day that was kind of the...
Watching like that...
It was a turning point.
It was like, are you with us or not with us?
And since then we've grown substantially.
Yeah, actually that's a slow Sunday now.
I'll tell you what, I have a love-hate relationship with the kelp.
I love to go, but I hate to fucking be there because it is so fucking packed.
Every time I go to the bar, I'm just like, what the fuck, man?
Every time I feel like I'm going to have to take someone out.
I think you did one time.
No, I've never done that.
I've never gone to a party ever.
Sean has never done that.
I go there, have a couple of drinks.
Hopefully I'm super happy and I think that's the...
Well, that's a good problem to have to a lot of people there.
The drier I get, the more giddy I get.
And the thing is, in this industry, it's typical to see a restaurant turnover, even with the
same management.
They change the name and they change the look because it's not taking off.
Irish pubs are timeless.
Right, right, right.
They're timeless.
Okay.
You don't have to do anything.
You just kind of roll with what's working.
They had the cycle to their ups and downs and we're in a little bit of a down cycle for
Irish pubs now, but the kelp...
You got things going on, like your routine programs, you got your music.
Well, first of all, your Sunday brunch.
I mean, you have a restaurant side of stuff.
Music seven times a week and open mic and trivia and a couple of Irish sessions.
Talk about your clientele though.
I was going to say, we were painting outside a few weeks ago and we had the old slogans
on the front that were like, it was like great food, amazing drinks, great food.
And I was just like, I mean, we got good food.
I'm not saying we don't have good food, but as much as we have great drinks, I was like,
the thing that I always hear about is people like, man, we had like a, we're having an
okay night and then we just went to the kelp.
I was like, every story I hear, every time someone finds out I work at the kelp, they're
like, oh man, I got a story for you.
I said, you know what?
Scratch the food part.
Let's just put like great drinks, amazing stories.
And I think that is what makes Irish pubs so time.
So as people come there and the clientele, whether you're, I pride myself on this, whether
you're 91 or 21, you can share a pint at the Kelp's Bar Top and you'll make friends.
And people, I mean, there's not a lot of assholes there.
I mean, there's a really chill fraternity brothers that go in there and get a little
kind of silly.
And then next thing you know, they're, they may be acting silly, but 99% of the time I'm
there.
Yeah.
It's always the Ohio State fans.
What's up with that?
Okay.
So I was asking about the clientele.
I mean, if they're not all Irish, I mean, it's not like, it's not like it's a, but I
kid you not like the amount of people I know that are like, like that I walk up to it,
I get to know.
And then I'm like, they seem like they've known each other for 10, 20 years.
I'm like, oh, y'all must've went to school together.
But oh no, we met backroom playing pool about two years ago.
Awesome.
Yeah.
You know, it's the cliche, uh, cheers concept where, you know, you can go to a place where
everybody knows your name.
And it sincerely is that feel that you get when you go inside the kelp.
Every time I go there, you know, and I've been going there since 2014, you know, it
may be once twice.
I don't need 10 years.
Yeah.
Is that crazy?
Yeah.
You know, and I love going there.
I brought all my kids there.
I, I'm not proud of it, but I got shit faced there with my son right there.
And I had to make him drive home, which was, you know, bittersweet.
I was thankful he got us home and I got to have fun, but I brought up my other kids there.
So it's just like, you know, I got my youngest and my oldest where all of them have been
there with me.
Uh, when we were building out filtered, it was like, uh, cause I would work late and
I was thankful cause you guys were open to like midnight and I should open, I'd like
two or three, uh, back then, you know, our diets have changed as far as alcoholic beverages
go.
You know, we went from, uh, having beer and then I want the strongest shit that you make
in beer, you know, which is the Imperial stout, you know, and, and now we're kind of like
in a new different phase of this where we're drinking our bourbon and whiskeys is similar
to that.
But I remember going there every single night and after I got done, I was all nasty cause
I had gypsum from, uh, you know, we're building out filters.
So that was my thing.
That's how it started.
But there were some different owners back at that time.
And then overnight you were there.
Yeah.
And that's, it was kind of seamless.
Uh, there was a guy that kind of reminded me, I'm going to say Scrooge McDuck, but you
know, it's not because I think he's a Tucker Scrooge.
It's because of his accent.
He's got a Scottish accent.
It was a shorter gentleman with long hair, charismatic.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
What was his name?
Uh, Billy, he was our general manager from 2014 to 2019.
Yeah.
Well, I mean, I enjoyed walking cause I'd see him walking down and I'd say hi to him
and, and I didn't know if he was part, I didn't know who owned the count or what the deal
was and I didn't know who, what you guys did.
And I kind of stayed out of it.
You know, I met a handful of times, but we never really talked, you know, so I was like,
fuck man, I'm here.
And you know, when I was up there and I was running the filter and I was, that's one of
my biggest disappointments is that I hadn't talked to you more often and get to know you
because it was so busy.
We talked a lot, Sean, you just don't remember.
No, I remember.
I remember talking to you, but not with Nick.
Okay.
Every time it's Nick I was referring to you.
I remember talking to you.
We talked quite a bit.
Yeah.
No, you, I remember every time.
Because you guys were literally right across the street.
So when you, when you bought the, the count, you said you made, you, you converted it over
to an Irish, what does that mean?
Irish pub convert that over?
What'd you kick out of the bar?
Yeah.
Well, you know, you know, I, I, there, there is a difference.
I mean, when you walk in and you may not notice it right away, but, um, I think, you know,
what's hanging on the walls, obviously the Irish centered and, you know, for people that
know the 800 years of English oppression that the Irish experienced.
And I mean, there, there's a lot of history there too.
Sure.
And, uh, but mainly it, it's about the crack.
The Irish have the word crack C R A I C, which basically means what goes on in a pub.
It could be gossip.
It could be talking politics.
It could be watching sports.
It's basically means you just having a good time.
You're having a crack or the crack is 90.
That means it's really, really, really intense.
And but really, I think what really separates us and those things are important too.
It's the music.
Uh, we, we have music seven times a week and, uh, we do as much Irish music, Irish rock.
You do the Tuesday night where they, they, everyone brings in.
Well, Tuesday nights open mic for us too.
And that's very, very popular for us.
Wednesday's the session now.
Wednesday session.
Oh, I always enjoyed that man.
They play like Celtic music and someone will bring their own instrument and they get out
there.
I love it.
Anybody wants to show up Wednesdays, Wednesday evenings can do that.
Uh, that's an open session on Sundays.
We have a closed session, which is a more professional players, but both are really good.
And we've been doing that for 10, 11 years now as well.
I really enjoy the music.
That's one thing that you don't get in a lot of.
You get a lot of music, but this is, I think the, the, the Irish music is unique and I
really sit back and you can sit back and listen to it and enjoy it.
Cause it's not something you hear every single day.
It's not the mainstream pop music.
Yeah.
Well, and, well, and of course we do cover bands and we do, we do country as well, not
as much country because you know, frankly, you can throw a rock and hit a honky tonk
in Texas.
Right.
But we try to find it.
So some I learned in economics one-on-one many, many, many years ago, the TCI member,
my professor said the way you succeeded in business is tell them, Nick, how do you do
it?
You find an itch, split the hell out of it.
Thanks.
What the hell?
So somebody, so somebody came in, it's like, Stan, where are you doing Irish music?
Nobody's going to listen to this.
He's like 2% of the people's going to listen to it in North Texas.
And I said, well, that's a quarter million people.
Exactly.
You know, so a small percentage of a giant number is a big number and you can't be everything
to everybody.
That's right.
Yeah.
You guys have separated the men from the boys with your, with your establishment.
I mean, really a quantum leap being recognized not only locally, but across the planet.
Tell them about our awards.
Yeah.
I mean, I mean, start with the city of, you know, the, you know, the, I mean, I'll flex
a little bit.
Yeah.
We were like, you know, we've won multiple winners for a best venue, a music venue, best
pub, our nightlife, I think like nine years in a row.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
We've, and then we've gotten a couple of really big ones actually.
I mean, we've, we've done some things that are, well, to be honest, our, our, for a pub,
our size are, so it's like, you know, we've won the city awards, we've won, and then we've
actually won some international awards.
I mean, and to be blunt as can be, we've also had some insane numbers when it comes to products,
which I'll talk about in a second, but the back of what Sam was saying about honky tonks
and everything in 2018, we won best Irish whiskey pub in North America from Irish pubs
global.
Wow.
And then in 2019,
That's amazing.
In 2019, we won best Irish pub in North America.
In the Americas.
In the North, North and South.
Of course, I think there's only like three in South America.
But you think Irish pubs, there's a lot more than that in South America.
You think there'd be a lot out there in San Francisco, there in New York, in all Kansas.
We were up against them all.
Yeah.
And I asked them, I said, Hey man, like, you know, it's just, I mean, I've been, I was,
I've been to several of the pubs that we were in the finalists with.
And I was like, I mean, these are, and these are like black rose, Boston, dead rabbit,
New York.
I mean, these are legendary.
Like these are some of the best like pubs ever.
Dude, that's tight.
And I'm like, how did we win?
He goes, man, I'll be real with you.
He's like, you're in the heart of North Texas.
There are honky tonks in every corner.
He's like, and you went, you try to do what couldn't be done.
Y'all just try to be an Irish pub in, in, you know, back country pretty much.
Yeah.
And you're killing it.
You are.
And we've, we've inked, we have, we have, we have our sister pub over in Dublin that
we've, we've sent staff members here to work at and vice versa.
We've built that reputation about our Guinness, which I was going to say for, for strictly
numbers where we're the odd, you know, in Guinness, we're our number one account in
the Southern region, not, not in Dallas, not in Austin, not in, you know, a downtown city.
Where in the perbs of North Texas, man.
And we're questioning it.
Like I know, I know Carlsberg's not like an Irish thing, but we're Carlsberg's eighth
account in the country.
That's cause it's green to the bottle.
And I mean, to your point on the East coast, there's like a massive Irish, a massive Irish,
you know, following.
And it's a lot easier for them to, they're seeking out an Irish pub.
I mean, you can, you can, it's like, East coast is great, but there are so many, I mean,
it's, it's so, it's so easy to find a really good Irish pub on the East coast.
And that's just because they got the infrastructure.
I mean, they got the old crate, old buildings, they got the culture.
And there's more Irish in Boston than there are in Dublin.
Yeah.
Right.
That's my point.
East coast.
I mean, you're drawing from an Irish, you know, immigration, you know, group that is
like seeking out the pub because that's what they're used to as opposed to, as opposed
to you guys drawing in.
And we get a lot of Irish holidays and we, a lot of real Irish people.
I mean, we, you know, many people come in.
This is my favorite compliment about, about the keel from like Irish proper.
They're like, Hey man, it's not Ireland, but damn it's close.
And I'm like, you know what?
I'll take it.
I will take it.
We're in North Texas right now.
And I got Irish proper telling me that I'm the closest thing that they got outside.
That's super cool.
That's this side of the Atlantic.
Like hell yeah.
I'll take it.
That's awesome.
You should.
That's a huge win for you guys.
You should.
And proudly, you know, like I said, there's, there's nothing like it.
You know, there's every time I travel, if I had an opportunity to go to the East coast
and first off from the East coast, every time I travel, I Google Irish bars, you know, and
that's where I go.
And there's always one.
Yeah.
There's always one.
He thought New Jersey was just the greatest.
Oh, that's some amazing pub.
I was walking around with a heart on the entire time I was out there.
Cause I was like Irish bar and it'd be like walk 500 feet on the right.
I was like, fuck yeah.
Yeah.
No, New Jersey does it right.
There's some amazing pubs there.
Yeah.
We, we, I had a good time.
I was down there, but it's, there's something to be said about it.
You know, it's, it's a little bit more, I mean, it's Boston, I'm sorry.
Is Cheers technically an Irish bar or is it just a bar downtown Boston?
It's not an Irish bar.
It's just, well, it's actually a little bit out of downtown Boston.
We were, I was there just last June and it's, it's not a big place.
It's about as big as this living room here.
Yeah.
Not funny.
But, but, but it's, but it's, but it's got the same feel and crack as an Irish pub does.
One thing that we love is not only, you know, love people come to our place, but like, you
know, another crazy number, we've had over 500 of our regulars make it to the Kilt in
Dublin.
I mean, that's a, that's a, it's a pilgrimage.
It's yeah, we call it a pilgrimage.
That's a pretty substantial amount.
When you think of like how many people from downtown McKinney or like McKinney, you know,
have made it to.
With the lottery of those numbers.
Another place.
I mean, we have been at the Kilt in Dublin with other people from McKinney.
I mean, like, holy shit, you're here.
You literally recognize him there.
Yeah.
Well, actually the first time me and Stan were in Dublin together in 2016, we were at
a pubs conference and we're in Temple Bar, which is like, I mean, it's Temple.
It's like clusterfuck.
It's like so many people and we are, we are sitting at a, by a table and Stan has to go
to the bathroom and he asked this group if we can put his beer on their table.
And you know, we, they recognize we have an American accent and they're like, Oh, where
are you from?
And since like Texas.
And he's like, Oh, we're in Texas.
Oh, McKinney.
Oh, we're at O'Lakell.
He's like, Oh, my sister goes there.
And I mean, we are like, I mean, of all the places we could have been in Dublin, all the
tables could have been, we've met someone who knew Stan across the nation.
And those are the moments where you realize the dream is, is true.
Yeah.
Like you, you, you're making connections that you, that you were hoping basically for.
Yeah.
Well, wherever we go, whether we're getting our haircut or in the hot tub at Choctaw,
you know, people know at the same time, you get a haircut in the hot tub.
You've made it walk us through this stand.
Yeah.
When you're getting your haircut in a spa, you've done it.
I'm here for the haircut.
Anyway, we always, always meet somebody that's been to the Celt.
Oh, that's cool.
Let me, I want to, I want to share my, my, my impression because I, I don't go to a lot
of Irish bars.
One thing I loved about that bar and maybe that's indicative of all, thanks man, uh,
of all Irish pubs is how compartmentalized it is.
Meaning you've got an area, you've got the beautiful bar by the way, beautiful bar, beautiful
bar top.
Then you have this little couch area that's kind of off to the, you know, then you've
got these high tables that are kind of secluded on the side.
Meanwhile, you've got the main tables on the stage and behind the wall, you've got the
darts and the pool table.
Everything is, it's almost like, it's almost like if you had like, if Elon Musk was your
like your best friend and he invited you and your friends over and he had a mansion where
every room had a different, a different thing going on.
That's the feeling I got walking into the bar.
And then the downstairs bar will give you even a totally different feel.
Exactly.
The downstairs bar is kind of like a redhead stepchild.
You don't give it enough attention.
You know, it's just, it, you know, for people that don't want the, the, the loud crouch
or the busy or the music, uh, it's a little more chill atmosphere.
Right.
Yeah.
And it's different.
I like it.
I like it when I had to get away.
And the staircase, the staircase is badass.
I know that's stupid, but that's cool.
How dangerous are those?
It's part of the sobriety test program.
I was just saying how dangerous are those?
Hey, shockingly, and I've been there for almost 12 years.
I've only seen, can I say this?
Just no names.
No names.
Okay.
Is this, is this a, well, we get, we get deleted.
Doesn't matter.
Is this, is this, uh, that's the internet.
Yeah.
Have him look up something.
You're not going to do that.
I'm just going to show them the video.
We all can see the video.
Yeah.
But have it look at it.
What, what, what did you say?
Nick falling down the celt stairs.
Yeah.
What'd you tell the guy?
It wasn't a slide.
It was a piece of cardboard first.
This was after hours.
Those little things.
You got airplay on this, but he got, I don't think it works.
We're not, we're not going to be able to do that.
That's okay.
I'm just going to show you.
And we don't have video anyways.
Yeah.
There's no video.
All right.
So Nick has shown us a video and he's, uh, he's, he's, he's at the top of the stairs.
Oh, I notice better angle, better angle.
Oh wow.
Oh, that was you.
Have you ever seen the episode of friends?
I come running down, dude, I kid you not.
So I'm like, it's a Sunday.
It's dead.
Dude, dude walks up, has one pint.
It looks like your penis got cut off.
I gotta go outside.
So I was like, yeah, that's cool.
And we're sitting on the stairs and then all he is and they're like, they're like, dude,
someone just fell down the stairs.
And I'm like, okay.
So you were sober.
No, I was bartending.
I was bar.
That wasn't me.
That was, I was, so I, I run down.
I see this fucking broken glass and blood everywhere.
And I'm like, dude, he went head first.
I'm like, what's going on here?
And I like walk out.
I'm like, there's no body.
I'm like, where's this dude at?
And I fucking walk outside and this dude has his buddy's shirt wrapped around his face.
He has a notch on his nose for every step he hit.
And I'm like, Hey, he's like, what?
I'm like, are you okay?
He's like, yeah, what's up?
So that wasn't you.
No, no, no.
Oh, I got bounced his face off of every step.
You just take it down the stairs.
He goes, it looked awful.
Fine, man.
I'm good.
Walk it off.
You know, the beauty of this, there's no way he wanted to admit that happened, which means
there's no way he's going to ever, he'll never sue.
Who wants to admit that?
Right?
We, we, we, we didn't like, oh, we didn't release it for a while.
And then like years go by and like, I get a message from someone from like on like one,
like Barstool sports or something, one of those, and they're like, it's live.
And I was like, what's live?
And I see that.
Oh my God, it's just like this video.
I am hopefully this guy, but yeah, nothing bad happened.
Yeah.
Actually, he was fine.
We didn't know how many years ago was that?
Oh, seven or a year.
Good deal.
I don't know what the statue viral.
So that video went viral or what?
Uh, I don't know.
Hey, that's good.
By the way, that's good.
That's good.
Pub.
They got it on the little website as a dumb ways to die.
Right?
Yeah.
People ask me about it sometimes like to be, I'm like, no.
And since then we've, I mean, to be honest, in 12 years I've seen four people and none
of them have fallen from the top.
It's always been like, they miss like the, like almost the, well, I mean, good for you.
I mean, cause I mean, I mean, I've been up there and I have gone, I've have left the
a few times, um, a little less than sober, a few times just saying, don't quote me on
that.
But I remember going down the steps.
I'm like, God bless.
This is rather precarious.
Extra careful.
I think.
Yeah.
I was like, I, I'm kind of like, yeah, I need to focus on this one going down.
That dragon's milk has got us a couple of times.
But, but, but, but what is it called?
Jesus.
I mean, I mean, best thing that ever came out in Michigan, right?
Oh, jeez.
Here we go.
Well, I thought you hated Michigan.
Why?
Yeah.
Dragon's milk is good.
Dearborn.
I like Michigan, by the way.
Yeah.
Oh, I love Michigan.
So yeah.
But, but anyway, um, I think we'll talk about some other videos.
Let's talk about our haunted history.
Oh, jeez.
I mean, yeah.
So, so there's like a ghost running around.
Okay.
Yeah.
So, so the place, I think 1860, it was a wooden structure at Burnett.
They rebuilt it in 1885 or something.
That is a rainbow saloon.
And yeah, there's, there's four or five ghosts.
Nick doesn't like to talk.
I don't, I don't.
So how many experiences have, how, how, how many times has it occurred?
Okay.
I'll just give a blanketed statement over this whole situation.
So this building has a weird history.
I mean, it's old.
I mean, the, the James game, Jesse James himself was inside the building before he left McKinney
to go get killed.
I mean, the last time he was in Texas, he was at downtown McKinney before he shipped
off to a, was it Arkansas?
We got killed.
Missouri, Missouri.
We got who, who did that?
Jesse James.
Oh shit.
V Jesse James.
There was a lot of people.
This is a Bonnie and Clyde stop by.
Yeah.
This was a, this was a saloon in brothel and burnt down and then it was rebuilt.
Um, and they supposedly like, I don't know, they don't know the whole history, but the,
we do know a couple of things to be fact.
The last public hanging when the last public, like non like, how do I say this nicely?
The non like, Hey, this man committed a crime.
We're going to hang him.
This last public lynching.
I don't want to.
There we go.
Nah, we don't care.
He shoot from the hip.
The last public lynching was on our patio and it was botched.
They did captain the guys head rolled inside and then they're still there.
Right?
That was a bad, do you know what the video for?
I don't know, but I know it was a slimmer brothel and when, before it burnt down, there
was a movement in McKinney and they closed up the two brothels.
Was it like black lives matter?
No, I don't know.
What kind of movement?
No, I think it was more prohibitionist thing.
Yeah.
And pretty much what, what, what they've, the rumor was they actually boarded the girls
up and killed them all.
They killed them all inside the building.
Like inside, inside the Lord and then lit it on fire.
That's why the top floor burnt down.
The bottom floor didn't burn down only the top floor.
Okay.
You're, you're, you know what you're doing here.
You're setting up, you're setting up a background for tons of haunting going on.
Yeah.
All right.
So what Halloween coming up?
What have you seen?
What is your main stuff that happens?
What, like the glasses?
Glasses.
Oh no, they, they blow up.
Well, it was a brothel.
Are you serious?
Are you being dead serious?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've got the video.
We have videos of like glasses flying off the rack.
There was, you know, even the guilt look in the bar, the wine glasses.
Oh yeah.
They're hanging there.
I've seen a whole row pop.
Oh, you kidding me?
Not kidding.
Late night.
You want to, you want to talk shit myself.
I do.
My hair is standing up right now.
I'm walking out of the brothel.
I would be like citing chance being like, please treat me right.
You know, like the way a brothel should.
Well, what, what are the ghosts?
I mean, it's not cheating.
It's a ghost.
Why can't there be a haunting where a hand slips down your pants?
Right?
Why can't, why can't that be a haunting?
Uh, because it's a different world we live in.
Damn it, man.
Nowadays it'll go up your ass.
Sorry, but anyway, anyway, what, what, what, one of the, uh, and we were outside of the
so we can talk about this. I won't talk. Nick won't talk about it period. I won't, but,
but May, I think it's her name may. I don't like to fuck with it because like, look, y'all
get to go home at night. I got to lock the door. Yeah. You're the last one out of the
building. Like, can we bring a Ouija board? I'm like, fuck no. We've all seen horror movies.
This is how it starts. It's not the kids like bringing in and leave. It's like the janitor
at the night. You're going to wake them up and I got to mop up the closing. I'm the one
that has to deal with the aftermath. I can tell you one thing and you'll agree with this
since we switched from English to Irish, they are a lot happier. Oh, the ghost and I spin
the ghost. I mean, and, and like, it's just an old building. You'll hear noises. You'll
think you'll see stuff. I mean, there's a lot of corn in the eye stuff where you swear.
Like, I mean, I, I had one, I've actually, I had, I had one the Thursday, uh, I was closing
up and my guy was downstairs and I could have swore he was upstairs. I was kind of in the
bar doing stuff and he was probably sitting like right corner of my eye. And I was like,
you know, Steven, I gotta do this. Hey man, we gotta make sure we get done this. I was
just kind of talking aloud. I swear he was standing there and I looked up and it was
like, and then it was poof gone. I was like, what the, and I thought he was messing with
me and I went downstairs and Steven has his AirPods on. He's in the kitchen and clean
up like, how long you fucking been down here? He's like, I've been down here for the whole
time. I was like, God, yeah. I was just like, Oh, and you know, that happens reportedly
a lot. And I mean, there's a lot of things. I mean, look, I'm a, I'm a proponent to hauntings.
I mean, I know Jeff has his opinions. He doesn't agree with it. I don't either. I don't believe
it. I believe there is some sort of weird ether out there and I don't know what it is.
This is my statement to say, like, do you believe it? I was like, I believe in one thing
that I think all of us at this table can agree upon. There are unknown parts of this world
that are best left unknown. And I think that is a valid statement. I don't want to fuck
with shit. I don't like people messing with me. If there's unknown, so I don't even know
what that means. I don't even know what that means. I mean, if there's, if we, when it
comes to history, there are, there's so much that we don't know. I will show you something.
Every time I will say something, ah, that's bullshit. You know, whatever about the ghost,
something weird does happen. So I'm being careful. I don't say anything inside the kilt
to make it for them to listen, for them to hear. Yeah. But you know, Nick, you're going
out of that all wrong, man. Leave them a drink. That's all you got to do. I make a drink,
leave it on the bar and then go to bed. This was kind of like, like you set up the, the
night of Christmas cookies for sailor cloths. Yes. Well, well, well, typically one of the
most interesting stories is that the, an old judge that used to work across the street
at the courthouse, cause you can see it, you know, it's like 50 feet away from us. Yeah.
And the old judge would go up there at lunch break and set up at the top of the state where
that were the musicians play on the top floor and look out and have his lunch and have a
beer and he could still keep an eye on the courthouse. There you go. Yeah. But he's,
he's harmless. May is harmless. There's one mischief as one. I mean, like the amount of
times is the mischief one. That's the one that's pulling the, the, he's the one behind
the bar. He's the one behind the bar. I mean, like, and to be honest, it's not like, I'm
not the only one that says this. The amount of random people who say stuff to me about
it is kind of crazy. Like in the, in the bar, like, Hey, and we've had multiple people describe
people's names that I've heard from like somebody completely different. Like a real good video
on YouTube that we did about that. Conning, you know, there's a couple of YouTube videos
out there. What time is your, I'm sorry. I was going to say you should have ghost hunters
come out. I was just going to say that. I was, when was it? We were on one of the cable
shows. Yeah. At one point, we're in like the top 15 most haunted in Texas. Really? Yeah.
And they came out with all the equipment and did all the bullshit. Yeah. I just don't like
to mess with it no more, but I always say, but they used to, you'll be shocked by like,
it's like that, that building you're hearing like I'm looking for like the Sigourney Weaver
ghost busters kind of thing going on. No, no, no. Yeah. I got so much of that. I will
tell you this. So when I was there, I'd granted I'd been drinking, we were playing darts.
Jim was moving my darts. Oh, come on. No, no, we were, we were, they were all getting
fucking competitive and shit. And I was like, guys, my dart is moving. Yeah. And I was pissed.
I was pissed. I was like, I can't play darts here, guys. I think, I think it was the Guinness.
It was it. It might've been. And then like the office, so the old owner of cams, it was
an Asian food spot, the owner of cams, her bedroom was our office and she died in there.
Oh God. So that is fact. There's not, that's not a fact. How long ago was that? I mean,
the 70s, 90s, early 80s, 80s. Yeah. But still that's enough. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Look in
a huge package, uh, the kelp has that, that it's history. It's got everything moving forward.
It's got the entertainment. It's, it's, it's a great deal. I congratulate you, Stan. It
was a great purchase and you've turned that thing around. Not only have you turned that
business around, uh, you've also kind of turned yourselves around. I'm not saying you were,
you weren't, but you've, you've taken on a, a health crunch where you started exercising
and look, Ray's on board. I'm happy to see Ray kind of like shape up a little bit. I'm
happy as hell. Cause I'm always, I see people, I'm like, fuck, even though I'm kind of a
poster child. Well, I tell you, I really believe that, that, you know, uh, activity, health,
going to the gym, you know, healthy diet. That's my problem. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah.
It's a big everybody's chat, right? Nick, Nick has lost his, geez, I don't know in Ray.
And it's like, and I go every day of the week and you go four or five times a week. Yeah.
I mean, you're no homo. I mean, you're looking pretty good. I recall of shit. There was a
long fucking time. Yeah. You were, you were getting kind of bulbous and I was kind of
like, God bless you go, you go and bulbous. Yeah. Yeah. Have you ever been called bulbous?
He's got a colonoscopy. So they took a lot of shit. I'm saying is that I saw Nick one
time and he was overweight in my opinion, a little overweight. And then the next time
I saw him, I was like, holy shit, who's this guy? And I was happy cause I saw some Instagram
posts you guys working out altogether and I saw Ray and he kind of shared a little bit
that that's what they're doing. Yeah. That's it. God bless. You know, so what, there's
something to be said about that. So what's your routine? What do you do? Well, just overall,
you know, it's a good culture that the kelp has trying to keep their people happy and
healthy. We go every day, Monday, Monday through Friday, every day at the gym. I was in a rough
patch and, and Stan had started before me and uh, I mean, saw some big strides in him.
And then I was in a really kind of a weird spot mentally in my life and shit. And Sam
was kind of like, I'm signing you for the fucking gym and you're coming. And uh, ever
since then it's been kind of there and it was a, and now, yeah, I, we go, I go four
times a week. You go five times a week. Ray goes, uh, you're a one-upper, huh? Yeah. And
you do what you do cardio, you do weights, we do cardio, metabolic weights. It's, it's
all one on one training. Okay, nice. Oh, you got, so you got to, yeah, you got to, we just
do what they tell us to do. Yeah. You know what? That's I'm going to, I'm going to put
a plug out. It's, um, it's infinity personal training and Alan and, uh, 75 exchange amazing
place. Yeah. Say one more time. Um, infinity personal training there in Alan, infinity
personally personal training, personal training. Yeah. They're at exchange in Alan right across
from Penn stack. Yeah. So I mean, so here's the thing. If you are struggling with weight
or diet or any of those things and you don't know where to start and, and you need, you
need support and you need accountability. Yeah, man. I mean, yes. And signing on with
somebody that is like you're one on one and they, they care about you. Like they're waiting
for you to show up and their way. And they're like, you said, you don't have to think they,
they have a whole plan for you. They do it for you and they just walk it. They, there's
no better way to start and then you get going with it. And it is, it is intense. I mean,
sometimes she come out, they're just exhausted. Somebody said it was like D one football training,
you know, there's something we said about that. I mean, I find it admirable. Really
hard work. Yeah, it is. And keep it up. That's all I can say, especially working in the bar
life. Look, oh yeah, that's what I was going to ask. Oh, horrible influence. Like you have
good food there. How often do you indulge in the food? Uh, and I know just the bar life
itself, you know, do you indulge in the drink and stuff like that? Is that a hard thing
to overcome? Um, yeah, well it is and it isn't, I can tell you my biggest problem is my diet.
And it's, I just eat out too much. Right. It really is. And you know, when it really
gets down to it, you can strength train, you can get stronger, but you know, if you want
to lose fat, if you want to, you know, you gotta cut calories. You have to, you have
to have consume more. I mean, it's just math. It is, it is. And it doesn't matter what kind
of calories it is. And you honestly can't work out or do cardio enough to offset the,
what you put in your mouth. You can't, you can't die. I died. 80% of it. Wouldn't you
agree Nick? I mean, there's a guy, go ahead. Sorry. I mean, I mean, just, just, but uh,
uh, moderation is, uh, who said that? Uh, moderation is key. Even moderation, uh, mother
Teresa, everything in moderation, including moderation. Oh, Gandhi, Gandhi. No, no Irish
guys. Irish guys. Uh, Irish author Oscar. Oh, you said Robert Sturkin. That was a good
guy. That was a really good guess. That was better than my guess. That was better than
my guess. It's, it's what I'm just saying is moderation adds to respect of what we do.
Like we understand what we do. We understand that, you know, we're a purveyor of, you know,
what some people call certain things where we're like, Hey, yeah, we're slinging booze.
We got fish and chips and all this stuff. But like, you know, it's, it's, it's, yeah,
we sell a lot of food, but, but it, but it's like Nick said, it really gets down to moderation
because you don't want to starve yourself to death and binge and then you're going to
blow it. Right. You know, so, so, so really, and this is what our new food, you know, no,
no, I, I know a lot of people that do, I just can't go that long without eating. Uh, even
if it's late to 18 hours, but really it just gets down. It's like, don't order dessert,
you know, maybe order a veggie instead of, uh, you know, the fries, don't order all the
appetizers. All the appetizers, all the meat. Hey man, I think any nutritionist or, or,
or personal trainer will tell you that, that if you starve yourself during the week, you're
going to binge on the weekend. Oh yeah. You don't want that cycle. It's all about rewarding
yourself every once in a while, having a good time, but being good most of the time. Yeah.
And I want to tell you that that's my biggest challenge because I do like to go out to eat
and, you know, a hundred calories here, a hundred calories there. It does add up and
it is all about counting calories. It really truly is. If you're consuming less than, than,
than you're burning up, you're going to lose fat and weight. I, I, you could do it on a
McDonald's diet that you're not going to get stronger. And there's obviously other health
benefits, but, but you know, if you're burning 2000 calories a day and you're eating 1800,
you're going to lose weight. Yeah. So, so, so I count my calories. If I'm on the American,
what is it? American fitness plan, the meal plan. So everything I eat, everything I drink,
I log. Yeah, that's, that's excellent. I, I feel I, I fast every day, you know, even
in fast and it's great. I just, I just don't, but again, I've been fasting for a long time.
You would think I'd weigh 180 pounds, but that's not the case. So it doesn't work for
me, but I'm going to continue to do it. Yeah. But Sean, you don't know what you would be
like if you weren't fasting. Yeah. That's well, I'd be fatter because I've lost weight.
So I'm at my point by saying that is I'm trying to make an effort. And like, I started off
like fasting one day a week. You know, I would, I'd eat dinner Sunday and I wouldn't eat again
until Tuesday morning. And I did that for, since the beginning of the new year and it
actually worked. I was at two 65 and I got down to the two 45 and then I hit a wall and
I'm kind of like, God bless. And it's exactly what you said. It's just like, yeah, you,
you, you don't eat. And then, you know, Tuesday came along. I ate less cause my stomach was
full. By the time Saturday hit shit, man, I was like, give me a full freaking, you know,
I like my whiskey. I like my Guinness and I like my cheeseburgers and I'm not going
to give that up. Yeah. Well, I mean, that's why, that's why I was like, you know what?
This isn't working. So I think I'm going to try the, the fasting every day, do the 18
hour break and just eat between a window and just eat reasonable. Yeah. But my personal
trailer now, Keegan at IPD is a great guy. He always say, Stan, you know, this is your
goal. Uh, you want to lose five pounds. You want to get your body fat down. He goes, there's
two ways to do it. You can either do more cardio or you can eat less. He goes, I don't
care how you get there, but if you don't meet your goals, we're doing more cardio. Yeah.
I need a trainer like that. God bless. And that's a great point. I mean, I know, I know
people that don't ever go to the gym, right? They never go to the gym. All they do is watch
what they eat and they lose. Yeah. They lose a ton of weight. And I wouldn't even, I wouldn't
even call it eating less. I would call it eating smart. Well, you know, I, you know,
I think one of the best inventions is these Apple watches. Oh yeah. Getting your 10,000
steps in. And I mean, these things are amazing. I think everybody 10,000. I'll have one. Yeah.
I set mine to seven. That's okay. That's lame. That's lame. Well, yeah. We've been trying
to shame him for a year. You finally were able to shame him. Thank you. I did 25,000
steps on the weekends. Shut up. Hold on. Say that again. 35 years old. I did 25,000 steps
on the weekends. Are you serious? Like he shifted. Oh hell yeah. Oh yeah. Shoot. And
you're not even, you're not even trying. Yeah. That's just me on my feet. You're doing your
thing. You're falling down the stairs. He's doing, he's shaking his arm. Does that count
as steps when you fall down the stairs? No, no, but that St. Patrick's day. Is that a
step on each one? Between the end of the bar and the bar. Like I was looking at how many
steps did I do on St. Patrick's? And I was, I mean, we were in that bar nonstop just because
it was so busy. And I did like, I think almost like 16, 17 miles and that bar is, that bar
is probably what, how long is the bar? I don't know. 50 feet. No, no, no. The inside of the
bar. Yeah. Jeez. 15, 20 feet. Yeah. Yeah. I did, I did 15, 16 miles to walk back and
forth. You're doing, you're doing D1 like, you know, where they touch the lines going
back and forth. The shuttle. Yeah. You're doing the shuttle run all night long. Do you
guys hit a capacity on St. Patty's day where you like, are you kidding me? Yeah, we, we
have to, we have to watch that. Are you kidding me? Obviously we have line wraps around the
door. It is ridiculous. Also, you've got to do the counting thing where they can't, you
can't allow that. Yeah. I'll tell you what, I'm going to make it a suggestion. I think
you guys need to open up one of those windows and put some sort of a air filled tube where
people can exit and that way just jump down the window. That way there's a quick exit
plan and that way you have a free flow because people get in there and they're like, Oh man,
I got to all the time. A kiddie slide. Yeah. Just say, Hey man, there you go. And then
you get them out. Okay. I'll charge them five bucks. I'll call Boeing tomorrow. Okay. That's
a good one. I'll be scared about that. That's a horrible idea. All right. So Stan, I got
a question for you. They're going to get stranded up there. I don't know if it's such a great
airplane either. No, it's not a good spaceship. It's not a good airplane. All right. So I
got a question for you. So you walked into this situation kind of, you know, like you
said, you had no experience, no industry experience. You just kind of winged it. If you were to
do it all over again, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently? I'd have
got a job waiting tables in college. I mean, I mean, I mean as an entrepreneur, no, no,
no, no. Well, no, a quick story. And I was going to TCU. I thought it'd be really be
cool. And I talked, I talked to a couple of buddies of mine to this. Let's go apply at
Benningans remember Benningans and let's wait, let's wait tables. Oh yeah. That was a great
happy hour. And they gave us about 20 minutes of training and they had me carry out a big
tray with like 10 plates on it. How'd that go? I said, I'm not doing this. I went to
back to Macy's selling ties. So that was my experience in the restaurant business before.
Okay. But so for me, it wasn't being the restaurant business or the pub business. It was all, it
was all about being Irish. We had to lean on people though. I mean, to get the business
up and running, you had to lean on people because the people that you around you that
knew the business. So when you showed up, Nick was already there. So I'm assuming he
was one of your main people that you would lean on. Right? Yes. I'm assuming. Well, did
Nick help you or hurt you? Sometimes with a fantastic relationship, it becomes bittersweet.
I mean, hey, look, even a dead cat will bounce. Brutal, brutal. But look at Nick, I mean,
you, you were, were you handling both sides of it? Like the food and beverage. I know
you're food and beverage, but I mean, were you back in the kitchen helping them? I mean,
so I was there before Stan as like, I just, I was like a server bartender doing like the
front house stuff and I done some management before at a couple of other places. I'd been
in the industry at that point. This was 13 for about six, seven or about seven, eight
years now. Yeah. So yeah, next, next July I'll been in the industry for like 20 years or
coming up on 20. Shit. Damn. Yeah. I've been at the kelp for about 12. Yeah. Well, and
that was one thing that Stan, I will always respect him for the fact that he, he was,
he would, he would ask questions and he would take your input and he would, he would work
with it. And if he disagreed with it, you know, he'd give you reasons why he was like,
I don't think we should do this because of this. It wasn't just like, I'm the, I'm the
new head honcho where he's like, he'd be like, Nick, I understand what you're saying, but
I, come on, let's just, let's just try this. I think we should do this a little differently. And like,
there were some things that I thought I was, you know, Gunn-Hill completely right about that he
proved me wrong on. And, and eventually over time vice versa, yeah. It turned into where I could
talk to him. Hey man, I think, I think we're doing something that we could be doing better.
And, um, and then as for the, the front house, back house, you know, it's, it's building that
relationship between the two parts of the house. They say that you got F OH, B OH, front house,
back house. And that is the hardest part about restaurants and bars is that relationship because
they just like two islands and they don't like to talk to each other sometimes. Right. Yeah. And,
and they have different goals, right. And they can be pompous towards each other, you know? Yeah.
You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what you're talking about. And, uh, I had,
I had a, a good, I was at a conference of Barton and conference and they said, and I was listening
to some guy and he said, you want to learn how to make a drink, go talk to your cooks. They'll tell
you how to make something taste different. Like they know what tastes, what will make things taste
interesting. Yeah. And, uh, I think that's, that's a really, anyone, any part of this is like,
take some time to get to know your, your chefs, like your cooks, like, and the stuff that they can
bring to the table. Uh, but, and anyone who wants to get into like management, like don't be below
anything. I mean, I'm, I don't cook every day, but let me tell you what I've cooked in our kitchen
before when they need me. And I'm like, you know, this is the best spot that I can be right now.
I can go sling, sling some fries on the fire. I can go take care of some business back there
is it, is it my like number one, probably top skill set, probably not, but I know how to do it.
And I think that's important. And so far, you know what that is? That's good leadership.
You didn't walk in going, I'm a banker motherfucker. I know exactly what I'm doing.
Because I didn't know everything. And, and, um, I, it's a lot of hard work. Yeah, it is. And,
and we did it right. But, but, you know, I, I, I'm, I'm a student of history and I know the FDR
during the depression, things were bad and he would just throw things against the wall and see
if they stuck. And we, we, we did a lot of that. I mean, I mean, remember Nick, at one point we had
Mozart chamber music on a Sunday night that didn't work. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa. I like Mozart.
Well, I do too. I love Mozart and a lot of people did. Is that cause he had hearing aids?
Yeah. Hearing issues. That was Beethoven. That was going on. Oh, thank you, Stan. Thank you.
But no, but we tried, we tried bluegrass and, and you know, and, and, and we finally found out,
okay, what, what, what works, what doesn't work. It's, it's not what I like. It's, it's what our
patrons like as long as we're, we're, we're, we're staying true to the Irish culture. And that, that,
that overrides everything. We are not, and, and, and we have lost employees because of that. And
we have lost customers because of that, uh, because we are not going to compromise on, on,
on, on the Irish part of our, meaning you're not going to branch out and change the, the theme.
Well, yeah, they, they, there's a word for Irish pubs. They're not Irish. They call them plastic paddies.
Okay. It's, it looks Irish. wannabes. Yeah. I mean, there will never be a leprechaun in the cult.
They're trying to cater to everyone, right? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it's just, it's just not,
and you can tell when you walk in and whether you like it or not. And most people do like it.
Most people come back. Most people, but, but we, but you can't be everything to everybody to be
successful in business. Nice. Yeah, I agree. Nice. Yeah. I mean, for me, but, but you know, you know,
Sean guys, we, we, we focus on, you know, obviously the food, uh, we focused on, on, on the Guinness.
We focus on, on the whiskey and we focus on the music. Beautiful. So you, so you've been
running the successful business for a while and I know you, you dipped your toes into politics.
Right. Well, you dipped your toes into politics, I believe. I think it was more in my toe.
Was it a full body plunge? Well, actually I lost my toe during the city council.
So did you run for a city, like a council or a city council in 2021? Yeah.
Well, that's where you truly found yourself. It was the most human humanistic experience ever.
Right. Yeah. I ran for a school board years and years ago when I, when I was younger and it was a
very pleasant experience. But, uh, so, you know, you know, you know, I, I can tell you, uh, I've
always been, I was always interested in politics and political junkie and I know the debates going
on while we're doing this and all that kind of stuff. And you know, but, uh, so it is important
what's going on, but to me, I'm just going to be perfectly honest and I hope this changes cause
there's something I want to get serious with guys. There's something really wrong, um, in the way
we're treating each other over. We know all about it. And it seems like the, the more, you know,
the person, the, the lower the level, the politics is IE city council, because you know, these people,
you know, the people that are voting for it. Uh, I made a lot of friends, uh, because of the run that
came to the kelp and I lost some friends too. And it, it, it's just, it was mind boggling to me when
you're talking about fixing the streets and, you know, restoring good government and integrity
and, you know, uh, protecting, you know, creating more green spaces and maybe slowing down this or
something that everybody should be on board with. And, and, and it's really just all about, um,
um, I need to be careful what I say. It's just really all about, uh, um, power power. Yeah.
That's what I'll balls down to. And Sean, this is what surprised me. It's like, good Lord guys,
this is, this is city council. It's like, and it was, it was an eye opening for me. Uh, and I have
to say that, that, that, um, that people say, stand up, think about running for council, you know,
what's your advice? And I said, I have three words. I said, don't do it.
So I went and had lunch at the kelp. And, uh, I think I had, I think I had Austin with me
and you shared this exact thing about your experience. And I was kind of like,
that sucked. It made me bitter. I was absolutely bitter. Your experience and, and, and guys,
what, what, what has done this? I think what is ruined social are, are it, it's, it's social
media. It's this iPhone that's sitting next to us for some reason, I'm just going to be perfectly
honest and speak from the heart here. I think that, that people become very brave, uh, and they think
they're anonymous when they're behind a keyboard. Uh, but they're not, uh, it's just the opposite.
Uh, it's like road rage in a car, but they're not held accountable and they're not held accountable.
And, uh, so many pillars like, it's like, Clara, I know you, how can you, you know, me it's like,
why are you saying, and, and because, you know, she may be center left and I'm center right.
And you know, that's not good enough to more. You gotta be extremely far right.
Yeah, that's absurd. It is evil.
And yeah, if you're a moderate, you know, I ran a very, what I thought was, it was a good, uh,
locally issues based center right campaign and just got crucified. Now I did, I did make the runoff,
you know, and, uh, and, and the gentleman that, that one is a, is a very good man. And I, I can't,
I can't say enough good things about him. Uh, he wasn't the one I was running against at the time,
it seemed, but, um, and, and I pray for him every night, uh, but, and I do cause it, cause he's a
good man and he's trying to do the right thing too. If they just left us alone, I think we could,
and me and him are friends. Uh, what do you mean left us alone? Uh, outside, do you feel like you
were harassed? No, no, no, you, you, you can't run for city council now with that national politics
coming into like packs. They want to know what your views are on this and that, and they're
pressuring you to have a certain platform. Yeah. It's like, what does that have to do with city
councils? And now both parties are extremely involved in, in, in city council runs even down
the sand and it's just a mess. And it's just a mess. And it's like, Hey, he, he's a good guy.
She's a good girl. You know, um, I'm going to vote. I'm going to vote for him or her because I know
that I know they've got a good heart and they're going to do the best job they can. Right. That's
not what that's not how people know. It's not, you know, it is, I say this over and over again,
it's how to get power and how to keep power. And those are the two things that politicians are
concerned with. And you can, and there are no, no stone unturned or person stepped on to get there.
I see another reason why they need to have a time constraints on the amount of time you can spend
an office term limits. Well, then there's a ballot on, on the city of McKinney, um, uh, the, in
November to, to, uh, do away with term limits. Yeah, absolutely. Do away with term limits. Yeah.
Cause they don't want to leave. Right. Oh, go away with term limits. Go figure. The people in power,
so, so I just want to never leave vote against that proposition. It's at the very end of the ballot,
but vote. No, you know, the sad thing about that, I think it'll probably pass. That's a sad thing.
I think eight or 12 years probably is enough. No, but here's, here's the sad thing to me.
There's a lot of good people that want to make a difference and they want to get into politics to
make a difference, but they steer clear. Yeah. Yeah. They don't want to deal with the bullshit
that you just described. And I would advise them not to. Yeah. And God bless the guys that are
willing and gals and gals, guys and gals that are willing to, to, to, to go there to make a difference.
Right. I think it's important to do it. I mean, I, I stepped up in my neighborhood. Uh, unfortunately
I had the wonderful experience of being our HOA president for over a decade. Oh, it's no politics.
There is no, it is absurd. So, but it's, it's a microcosm of what you went through, but it's still
nonetheless, uh, it sucked. Yeah, it sucked. And then the, in our community, no one would want to
step up because trust me, I want it out. I didn't run for that. I've had, I've had thoughts of
running for school board and I think what you're talking about has kept me from doing it because I
think it would just be a, I don't want to say a nightmare, but you have such a great temperament
for that type of stuff. Well, well, I'll kill you all authority. You know, I like to tell everybody,
you know, a lot of people say, so I'm never going to run because my past, I mean, it's like, it's
like, I don't think anybody cares about that anymore. It's a, what it is. Do they agree with
you or not on, on your ideology? And it's, it's, it's just a, it's just a real mess right now.
And the other thing I've said, if they can't find something on you, they're going to make it up.
Right. They fill in blanks, especially with AI, especially with AI now.
Oh yeah. Let's take a picture of you and Nick and spin it. Look at these guys. Look at these guys.
Look at these guys. They're looking though. They're on vacation. They're in Ireland.
They're on vacation in South America. Are they smuggling drugs back? But, but, but that's the
leveler. They're in Ecuador. Because, because the other side, I mean, I mean, searching for
crystal skulls, you know, you know, my side's doing it just as hard as we're getting on the other side.
And yeah, on both sides. Yeah. It's, it's, uh, so let's talk about Ecuador. Okay. Let's talk. So
you were crushing the, the Irish pub competition in South America, destroying them. Oh yeah. There's
like one Irish pub in Quito. Right. And you totally crushed their dreams. Which is cool.
Cause you know, he wanted that award and you want it, whatever. So tell us about your experience in
South America. Uh, I've done a lot of traveling. I think I've been to Ireland probably geez,
30 times you've been at least 10. We just got back from, from a group trip in Ireland, just,
just in June. But, um, but what is the goal? What is the function to go there just for the
experience or you, it's a business. I love to travel and, uh, it, it, it's, it's kind of a,
it, it, it inspires me. Uh, I rejuvenated by traveling. Yeah. We, we took a group trip to
Ecuador in March of last year and I liked it so much that I went back in June and going back in
October and we hear all these things about South America. It's not safe. I've been, well, Nick,
it was just amazing. Yeah. I mean, I quit. It was super cool. I mean, uh, real quick to chime back
about your same about Ireland. I mean, the reason you were saying about Ireland, I'm just sort of
try back to tie back in earlier. I wanted to say this, uh, one thing that Stan does correctly is
he, he knows the Irish history. He impresses it onto people. He tries to get us to learn it.
I've spent some time learning about the Irish history and that does add a lot to it. So going
to Ireland, part of that mission is to not only see the kelp over there and hang out with those
guys, you know, sling drinks with those guys, but it's that culture and the historical relevancy of
Ireland that you can bring back is, you know, that we were told this, we come back rejuvenated. Yeah.
And we were told this a while ago, you are ambassadors for Ireland. If you own an Irish pub,
there's something to be said about, uh, traveling afar, uh, somewhere where maybe your,
your lineage comes from and how it rejuvenates your batteries. You know, you just get connected
with everything. It's just, you know, it's not just a break, you know, going to Lake Tahoe
or going to Colorado, but when you go somewhere that's kind of timeless,
Well, well, well, well, Sean guys, travel dispels all prejudice. I've never known anybody that was
well traveled, uh, that, um, that, that was a bigot. I don't know how else to say it. Does that make
sense? I shouldn't say that. Maybe we would edit that. You're no, no, no, no, no, but you're,
you're absorbing, you're absorbing the experiences everywhere. Yeah. More. And you learned that,
that attitude that we're not better or they're not better. It's just different. Well, we have, uh,
we have a saying here in Frisco that like our kids are right. They've grown up in the Frisco bubble.
They don't know the experience. Like I grew up in Cincinnati in a just small little Ohio town,
right? Uh, very small, very small school. Wasn't the nicest. Whereas there in Frisco, their high
schools, like my son played football and he went and played football for college. I was like,
your high school facilities were better than this college is college. So they have this Frisco bubble
mentality where they don't really understand what's happening outside of that. And I think
you just kind of nailed that where you're like, if you travel and you start seeing these things,
you get, you realize how privileged you are. You get appreciation of what you have here in
relation to what a lot of people don't share in every, in, in, in, on the business side of
a research side, we call it research, but, but at the same time, whether it's in Fort Worth or
whether it's in Quito or Taipei, you know, if we're going to go to an Irish pub there and there's
going to be a takeaway and it's almost always, we need to do this very seldom is it's like,
we don't need to do this. It's usually a policy. It's like Nick, Nick, Nick, let's get on the
internet. Let's, let's, we, we were in Syracuse, New York in July, visiting Coleman's, which is an
amazing Irish pub. It's like, that's like the OG thing. And they were telling us a story about
temporary hill where 1920s, the, the Irish kids on, on, on the corner were, were, were breaking
the, the traffic signal live because it had green, yellow, red, red, yellow and green.
And they were always busting it and they were always having to put it up and they say, kids,
why do you keep tearing this down? Because we don't want the red on top of the green.
Oh, they don't want England on top of the Irish. And so, so the city council got smart and they
just hung it upside down. Yeah. So, so, so it's a famous place in Syracuse and intersection.
It's the only place in the whole country where there's an upside down traffic light.
And it's, and it's like, this is so cool. I said, I said, give us a traffic light,
ordered on eBay trying to find it and make us a sign that says temporary hill. Let's put that up
in the kill upside down upside down, upside down. Of course. It's like, it's just so cool.
You know, we have people that come in from Syracuse that know what that is. Of course we do. Yeah.
So what's so cool about that is you would think that, you know, if you don't know any better,
that you go to an Irish pub anywhere in the world and you're going to get basically the same
experience. But what you're saying is you're getting the local experience, the local history,
the local culture, no matter where you go, absorbed into that experience of visiting an Irish pub.
Into the kill. Yeah. Right. It's a lot of fun. It's just super cool. Yeah. Yeah. The amount of
things that the kill that like, you know, it's, it's, uh, yeah, we, we take away so much when we
travel and are things that have been successful for us and things that have not been successful
for us. But I mean, to be honest, like it, it, it does, you know, traveling, going to see those
Irish pubs, seeing what they're doing. And it's always great when you walk into it, like someone
else, especially when they're States away, cause they recognize like their, their staff recognizes
that you're not, I'm not here to compete with you guys. I I'm in Texas, man. Right. Like in Syracuse,
they're like perfect open book. What do you want to know? Oh, beautiful. Like they want, they want,
they want us to be just as successful as they and like vice president, like have you had any
issues with like this list? So this is like, oh yeah, yeah, I got you. Like, and this is how we
dealt with it. So we dealt with it. And it's, it's a, if you become colleagues, you become like
like friends. Yeah. And it's something, it's a brotherhood. It's, it's, it's come on, man,
that's what it is. It's a brotherhood. Very fraternal in that sense. It's like, you know,
people recognize and especially when you've been doing it, I mean, but we've done that in geez,
Philly, Syracuse, Boise, Dublin, I mean, wherever we always, and then we always have a take away.
For so long now, I mean, we've been doing this for 10 years. I mean, which has to, I mean, credit
has to be understood as in this industry, 10 years is kind of monumental. Like it's kind of a big
point. A lot of places don't make it past 10 years. And so we, we finally have a little bit of name
that we have this name towards that people recognize us. People know about it. And so sometimes
it helps us and they ask us questions. I mean, and there is a brother, it's cocktail programs,
whether it's menu layouts, like whether it's, Hey, what's doing good. I mean, I'll be, we have these
corn, peeve and cabbage egg rolls are pretty much a rubin and egg roll form. Yeah. We found
another Irish pub and they said, they said, and there's like, they used to work really, really
good. And they worked really well for us. And they was like, just all you gotta do is this, listen,
this and we're like, I will try them out. They're sharing whatever hits they have. And that's,
what a beautiful thing. Yeah. It's the beauty of it. And then you meet you dude, then you end up
meeting like the big guys. Like, I mean, and that's a good thing about social media,
cause you can make connections and we can talk to these people. Like we were in Ireland in June
in Limerick and a buddy of mine over there is just opened up his restaurant and we went and saw it.
And it was just amazing. Just crazy. Give him a plug. Give him a spot. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's
ACE's restaurant. Condor is his name. He just opened up a new restaurant there. If you're ever
in Ireland, go buy it. It is a heck of a place. I mean, Dublin, Limerick, Limerick, really great
spot though. I mean, if you've got a chance, you want to try it. It's not like traditional Irish
pop up per se. It's, but it is an experience. It's great food, great drinks. And I highly recommend
this. What's the weird thing is I was looking at plane tickets today to go to Dublin. You get
round trip tickets for 550 bucks right now. What the hell? Why are we going to Dublin? I'm in
for $550. I'd go to Dublin. I just wondering why you were, what was your, we're looking for a
vacation. My wife and I, Oh, I see. Yeah. Oh yeah. It's not the dudes like us. It's just, you know,
yeah, during spring break. So I don't know what Ireland's like, uh, end of March, but, uh,
that's a good time to go. We've been there. We've been there. It's a little cold, but it's a good
time to go chilly. It's off season, which is cool. Like pub, like I love Ireland, but this is my,
this is my one thing I would tell you to do. If you're ever going to Ireland, by all means,
there's the on seasons and the off seasons on season. There's tons of people that you'll meet
a lot of cool people, but in the, and I, I mean, Ireland's tourism is what 67% of their total income
is a lot. So in the on season, it's up, Jay up, thumbs up, here's your point up, next up. And
it's burning turn. And I understand that in the off season though, you will have so much more fun
getting to know people because they are going to be shocked. I love to go over there. Well,
it didn't have to be in Dublin. I mean, it could be anywhere and just find a pub that I'm comfortable
with and talking to the bartenders and the staff and the regulars. And you know, you can just like,
I'm coming back tomorrow. That's, that's what I enjoy about the off seasons there. You can meet
the staff, you part with the staff, like they, they'll take you out afterwards. Like, Hey man,
you closed down their pub. They're going to be like, Hey, we're going somewhere else. You want
to come. And I cannot begin to tell you the crazy stories I've had in Dublin, Ireland and Cork.
Love Cork. But like any of those big cities, like over there, you know, especially in,
when you get in the off season and they got the close up early, sometimes like you'll hang out
and then you'll end up somewhere. And like, it's kind of like, you know, back to the, that's what
I love the saying about amazing stories at the Gail amazing stories are meant for Irish pubs.
They always started Irish pubs and they never end in Irish pubs. They always always kicks off
something. So I always got to say like, you know, if you get yourself overseas, especially in Europe,
embrace the off season. If you can't, if you can, it's good time. So we got so many more stories, but
we have a bourbon we have to talk about. Okay. All right. So, and that's, so first of all,
our stories in the second half, I handed you the bottle. If you want to put a little tiny drop in
there or however much you want just to sample it. So this, so I, the little trip that I took out to
visit my dad, my dad likes to go out to Connecticut. We were born up on the Northeast
and my dad goes out with his family and they, they have an Island out there on the East coast,
about Portland and it's called she big Island and they go out there every single year. They,
they used to have a, they used to own, they still own a bunch of land out there, but it's nothing
they have to rent basically every time it is a beautiful spot. Take the ferry out there,
tons of food. It's cold. It's an Island. It's in the Northeast. I'm isolated. You're isolated.
Absolutely. Did you have some lobster rolls? Oh, no, no, not there. I did when I was in New Jersey,
I didn't have any lobsters. We had lobsters cause we go down the Island. That's what they do.
Lobster. So you go down, you drive down and they, they've got a little kids out there. They're just
like, Hey, you want some? So we went up to, uh, you walk up and they've got a rudimentary little
shack set up and they, they got the lobsters in there and you pull them out and you pick them.
And it's like super cheap. It's like eight, nine bucks a pound. And you walk away, you get 5,200
bucks and you just like, Holy shit. I just bought a butt, buttload of, uh, of lobsters,
all my relatives out there, they know how to cook this stuff. So they, uh, you know, basically you
don't do anything to it. You just steam it to death. And then there's a, a technique on opening it
up alive. Anyways, uh, that whole experience I like to, because who we are, the dudes like us
podcast, we, we, we rummage through the, wherever we go and we try to find some of the unique
unicorns out there for bourbons and whiskeys or different across the board stuff. We can't get here.
So, uh, I ran across this place. It's the new England barrel company. And this is actually the
second time that we've, uh, we've actually tasted this one. Now, when I was out there, I tried a
bottle and I actually fell in love with it. I thought it was fantastic. Then I bought, I was
like, man, I liked this so much. I'm going to buy another bottle and I'm going to bring it back with
me. Well, the one we brought back with me, it just, it tastes a little bit different. I don't know.
It's because of the ambiance of being out there and the, the, the emotion behind it. You had your
four, yeah. Bourbon, your four. Yeah. Maybe it was, I don't know. Uh, but you know, uh, this is,
I enjoy it. So it's, uh, this is a, uh, it's made in new England. It's the new England barrel
company. It's a straight bourbon whiskey. It's been aged for three and a half years. Uh, it's a
59 points. It's 119 proof. Basically almost a hundred. It's pretty strong. So this is actually
Kentucky juice that they purchased and they aged up their new England. Very nice. And it's beautiful.
They did a great job. Hey guys, this is really amazing. Have you touched this? This is really
a stage. It's this one, Nick and it's different. So the first one I gave you guys, the first one
we did was a little sample of our infinity bottle from the 2024 whiskey world to whiskeys. But yeah,
I made a couple of notes when I was tasting this earlier and I was smelling it, I'm picking like
the nose. I picked up a lot of vanilla and it smelled very sweet to me. It is sweet. Yeah. And
there's some tobacco like it, like on the very, the finish. So funky caramel molasses. What do you
got Nick? Very little burn tobacco molasses. I'm, I'm tasting all the spice. Uh, yeah. Uh, kind of
like those have a little chewy, right? The backend and kids in the back. Yep. So I mean, in fact,
I even taste a little raspberry on the backend raspberry. Yeah. It reminds me of a little raspberry
bread pudding. I like it. All right. So let's put the, let's put it with the mustard. Zach. So
basically what we do every week and we got categories too, because you have a hundred proof,
you have 80 proof, 90 proof, a hundred proof. Those are kind of in different categories. Um,
yeah. So when we rate those, it, in my opinion, doesn't hold as much weight as something in this
category because you know, 115, 120, that's a different animal. And then you start, you start
driving towards the hazmat era or anything over 120, 125, 30 that's hazmat area. Now me personally,
I love hazmat. You know, it's not about that point. It's not about quantity. It's about quality.
And I like pouring a nice big shot of a hazmat and I take such a minute taste just a little bit.
And then I, you know, I have a little beer after that so I could drink a whiskey. Uh, it'll take me
a couple hours. It'll take all night. Yeah. So it's not about the, you know, getting shit faced.
I mean, there's a lot of people out there that like, well, you guys are a bunch of drugs.
Now it's not about that. It's about the quality of life. And that's what the whole thing is about. So
if we're going to rate this on a scale to one to 10 going around the table, I'll start with Nick
and we'll go counterclockwise, put Nick on the spot. Um, the highest that we've rate, no, no,
no, no, no, don't give any hides. Let's see what they had to say. All right. Well, one through 10,
one being bad, 10 being the best. So am I ranking this like bourbon specific or whiskey specific?
Just whiskey. It doesn't matter. Does your experience with the bourbons or whiskey just
in general? Yeah. Even if you want to compare it to some, some Irish whiskey that you may be familiar
with. Yeah. Cause it's strong, but it's extremely potable. I mean, it's very, very, this good sipper.
I mean, this is a burden that's there is, is so sweet and mellow that it kind of just kind of
just across your throat. To be honest with you, I would actually rank this kind of high. I actually
think it's pretty good. Um, I'd probably give it a seven, seven, five. Like, I mean, it's perfect.
Stan, I love Nick. Um, I like this one. Well, we just got weird. Yeah. I agree with Nick. Uh,
a little chubby. Uh, I really liked this one. I don't know if it's quite as chewy. I like my
bourbon. I think probably more than you do. I love my Irish, but I like my bourbon too. I'm a maker's
guy when it comes to bourbon. Uh, but this is really, um, this, this, this is amazing. I mean,
I mean, it's clear, it's light. I'm getting no burn on the throat whatsoever. I'm picking up
some of the flavors that you guys said. This is a solid eight, eight and a half with me. I really,
I really like this bourbon. It doesn't need water. It doesn't need ice. No, it's just good. Just like
it is. Yeah. I agree for the, the, the proof. What's this? Did you say a hundred and yeah,
a hundred and 18. I would not guess that. Yeah. Right. That's the amazing thing about some of
these bourbons, even the hazmat. It's like, you know, it is that strong, but it, it doesn't have
that ethanol slap in your face when you, when you, we've had some hundred proofers that just
burn all the way. I think it's the thing is the age to be honest with you. This is age for three
and a half years. I mean, that's a lot for a, an American for anything from America. I mean,
three years is a minimum for Ireland and Scotland. What does this go for a bottle?
Um, it's about 60 to 70 bucks. So it's, it's, it's, it's doable, which is white,
right in the sweet spot in terms of, you know, it's, I feel comfortable. I mean, we're starting,
I mean, that's, that's kind of exactly, that's kind of where we're at. And in fact, when we go
over 70 bucks, that's kind of like, ah, yeah. Then we start having higher expectations, right?
Yeah, we do. All right, go ahead. And we got some expensive ones out there and sometimes they don't
deliver. So we got 85. You said eight, eight, eight and a half, eight and a half. All right.
I really liked this one because it's light, right? I mean, for one 19 proof, that's actually a very
light. Yeah. Well, this is the second time we're having it. And I don't think we much cared for
it the first time. Agreed. I don't know why maybe our palates have changed. It's been about a year.
So, and I'll bring to this several times, you know, sometimes when you pop a bottle open
and it's the first time you've opened it, you know, once you, once you bring it past the shoulder
and you introduce it to some changes, it does something to the mix. And so I, because the first
time we tried this here at this table, I didn't, I was like, this is a bust for me. I was kind of
disappointed, but yeah, but now that it's, it's, I think it's got some more air in it. It's rated
a bunch. I think it's opened up those flavors a little bit because I did, I share the same.
Agree. So I'm closer to what Nick has. I think I'm about a six, I'm sorry, about a seven, six,
seven, seven of a bitch. So I could drink that at home. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. No, for sure.
And you can't get that around here. A lot that I'm aware of. I've never seen it. No, no, it's,
it's it's a priority to that. But if you want one, I'm going up there soon. I'll bring back.
I'm actually bringing back like six bottles. He does that a lot.
Right. You're driving, right?
No, I'll put it in my gun case. Okay. There you go. Secret there. No, it's good. It's nice and
viscous, nice and oily. Like you said, chewy, oily, uh, lots of flavor. It is. It's, it's much
better the second time. And of course all of our pallets are different. Yes. That's, that's, that's
the beauty of this. It's like, everybody's going to pick up. When I went to bar school in Dublin
in 2013, the bar, my, the instructor said never, ever, ever criticize or make fun of somebody
ordering a drink at your bar. Just give them what they want. Oh yeah. Because we all taste things.
Do you like what you like? You like what you like. Just what makes it really fun. Yeah. Yeah. For me,
I would give it a 3.1. I think I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I'm actually going to go with
maybe a seven, two, seven, two. There you go. Yep. Go ahead, Sean. I'm going to do a seven, nine.
Uh, it's not, it's not quite an eight for me because for, for, for me, an eight is exemplary
in a, I think this is, I think it's right on the cusp of being awesome. I wouldn't kick this out
of bed. I'd make a turkey sandwich for it. I'd want to stay all night, you know? Yeah. Spoon.
I'd spoon it. I'd love it. We don't need to get into that enough to hurt
it. Too soon. And that's it. So I hear the music. All right. Well, first of all, uh, we want to,
you guys staying for the second half? Yeah. That's up to you guys. Well, it's the first half. It is,
uh, what is it? It's September 10th, 2024. And it's the first half of the podcast. Um, thank you,
Mr. Producer for staying on top of stuff tonight. Uh, check us out on Facebook and Instagram at
dudes like us dash podcast. Do like us does Woodcraft. Uh, if you want some shrug for your
place, a little lasering going on. We can matter. We got a machine downstairs. I can do all stuff.
Dudes like us. I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. Stan. I'm Nick. Thank you guys. This is awesome.
That's good. We'll be right back. It's good, right? We're going to talk about more kelp shenanigans.