This is community leadership! Sal Scognamillo and Patsy's Restaurant of NYC

Well, again, you know, I always say this, I've got to stop saying we got amazing guests because we always do, but this one's— wow, this is a treat. We're going to go in a little different direction today. We met Sal when our friend John Tantillo, America's Marketing Doctor, brought us to world-famous Patsy's because, of course, those of you who follow the show, you know Alex is a real foodie. I love Italian. I'll go anywhere for Italian food. And we always heard about Patsy's. And Sal Scognamillo, his family's been running this restaurant— well, he'll talk about it— I mean, for generations now. It's amazing, and they're an icon. But that's— we didn't— we hit it right off with Sal. He became a real good friend. But that's not the reason we have him on. It's because of what he's doing during the COVID-19 situation. So we're going to bring Sal on right now. There he is. Hello. Sal, thanks you so much for being with us.

Oh, what a pleasure. Thank you so much.

You're the best.

Appreciate it.

Oh, you're the best. First of all, your food is outrageous, man. I— thank you. We were talking about that for weeks afterwards. That was always a dream to come down and visit you at Patsy's and to get to meet you and get to know you a little bit. That was a, that was a real special treat.

It was, it was a treat for me too and a real honor, and I appreciate, uh, you having me on the show today. It's, um, it's a wonderful show. It's a positive show. I love what you do. Keep doing it.

Well, I appreciate your kindness. You're way too kind because, you know, you meet people like, well, in the days, Sinatra, you even have the Sinatra Room and all that stuff. So for you to say something like that, I'm pretty humble company compared to a lot of the people, right?

It's, you know what it comes down to, and I think you, this is your philosophy too, is that every one of us can do something to help, right? It seems, it may not seem like a lot, but it is a lot. Believe me, a little bit. Goes a long way, especially during these very, very difficult times. So, you know, being that the restaurant is not open right now, we are still selling our pasta sauce in the supermarkets. And we decided to somehow, someway give something back to those first responders. So we're donating all the proceeds for the whole month of April for the sales of the pasta sauce to the Direct Relief Fund, which benefits the first responders. And it's an honor to do that for them.

Well, you know, you say it's a small thing and I'm glad you said that because a lot of the leaders we've been talking to over the last couple of weeks have been asking. And it's our own fault because in our main message, we use 3 words: inspire, empower, guide. That's what leaders do. And that inspire thing can be a little tricky because people are looking for the grand speech or they're looking for a big gesture. And to me, the most inspirational things are the most simple things. But giving a month's worth of profits is is huge anyway. But I understand what you're saying. But in the scheme of things, right, that was something you saw you could do something and you did it instead of worrying about what you couldn't do.

Well, you know, for me, the two major influences in my life have been, which may be a lot of people too, of course, food and music. And, you know, the two of them came together for us with the fact that our restaurant was made famous by Frank Sinatra. I mean, you can't get bigger than that in terms of music. And he, to this day, there's people come in all the time because they said they heard Frank used to come here. And it's such an inspiration to us. And what can I do as a chef? And the small little talent that I have is to cook food, which hopefully makes people happy. And that's really what we're trying to do. And at this point, to give the profit to the people who are saving lives, literally saving lives right now. And I've had the pleasure of speaking with— A lot of my friends in the music industry, and I'm sure you've seen on all the streaming platforms, they've been doing concerts from home. And what better thing than food, family, and some music? And of course, the third F would be Frank Sinatra, you know, food, family, Frank Sinatra, right? So that's the kind of music that I enjoy as well.

In that order? Is that the proper order?

Well, you know the old joke about the Italian families, they have a portrait of the Pope and Frank Sinatra in their house, not necessarily in that order, you know.

Hey, and I'm looking at your hat and I said, how the heck did I— obviously I, I have to, uh, I have to wear hats. I, I don't know how I got out of there without one. I'm going to get one the next time we're down.

Make sure you have it. Yes, it's, uh, we've been very blessed, you know. My grandfather's name was Pasquale, and when he came through Ellis Island, uh, so many years ago, I believe 1928, he came to America. And, uh, and when he landed, uh, his, his, his name Pasquale, they shortened it to Patsy.

Oh, you're right.

And he thought it was like the American translation. So he got a real kick out of it. And when he opened the restaurant that many years later, he used the name. And it's Patsy's Italian Restaurant. I want to just emphasize our only location on West 56th Street. It's patsys.com without the apostrophe on the web. And right now the sauce is available in supermarkets like King's Supermarket. ShopRite is a big supporter of us. Some of the FoodTowns. We do have a website, but temporarily our fulfillment house is God bless them too, they're sending out supplies for like masks and for the people who need that type of stuff. So we're temporarily not shipping out of that right now, but it will be up soon enough to the people outside the area that can't get it in the store near them can also buy the sauce. I've been so inspired. You know, sometimes you try and feel like a little bit to, you down on, you know, the prospects of things, the way things are going, but you have to really look and see. I'm so, so blessed. My customers, which become family, and we're 4 generations of the Scognamiglio family at Patsy's Italian Restaurant, over 76 years. And my customers have been posting videos and pictures from my— of the pasta sauce that they're cooking at home now, because of course a lot of people are cooking at home. They It inspires me so much. This is, this is what the vodka sauce looks like. I don't know if I'm holding it the right way here to the label, right?

Oh, you're showing us the secret ingredients.

Yeah. Well, the vodka, the marinara, tomato basil, and also people have been posting my cookbook, which, uh, yeah, put that up. Patsy's Italian Family Cookbook, the foreword by Ben Stiller, you know, the actor.

All right. Yeah.

Nice man. And I did another book years ago. Also Patsy's Italian Restaurant Cookbook, and the foreword was by Nancy Sinatra, Frank's daughter.

Oh wow.

And to see people posting these recipes and videos from home, it's, you know, now is the time to be home with your family. And, you know, it's the old expression, you have a lemon, you make lemonade. And people literally are home doing what they can do to keep together. And what's a big thing, I mean, I hate to say it's, I look forward to every meal. Before this, but at least now it's something to do and to get in, you know, get on the stove and start cooking. It's, it's, uh, it's good because you bring the family together. Isn't that what it's about? Bringing the family.

And people are saying that more, that they're, you know, spending more time, right, sitting down at the table and eating, uh, than they used to. You know, we just grab it and go in front of the TV. And hey, if you're listening live right now, if you're on the live stream, not on the replay, um, well, actually, if you're on the replay too, share your comments, share your ideas. And if you have something for Sal, if you're watching on the replay, we'll make sure it gets to him. But right now, while you're live, really appreciate the hearts and thumbs. Those are really cool. But we'd love to hear your ideas. What are you doing at home? What are you cooking? And hey, somebody come in here and ask, ask Sal what the hell's in his sauce. Take the pressure off me. I don't want to, I don't want to ask about the secret ingredient, you know.

It's funny, people ask me all the time. But you know, we do share our recipes on Facebook at least once a week. Uh, on Mondays we share our recipes. And you know, really, if you ask me what's the secret. Now, for our Southern Italian kitchen, which is a Neapolitan Southern Italian red sauce restaurant, proudly, proudly what we are, there's two main sauces. One is marinara, which is with garlic, and everyone thinks that every Italian dish has to have garlic, and it's, it's not, it's not true. But the other main sauce is the tomato basil, and the base is onions. So let's just take marinara, for example. If you're asking me a secret, there is real no secret in the sense that It's obviously olive oil, garlic, some good canned tomato or fresh tomatoes, salt, pepper, oregano, basil. But what's the difference? We don't cook it for a long time. Now people will say, "Oh, I had my sauce simmering for 10 hours on the stove," and it sounds good, but that would be if you did something like where you put spare ribs in it or brajole, something that needs a long time to cook. If you overcook a basic marinara, again, garlic, oil, tomato is the basic ingredient. You're going to ruin the tomato flavor. So if you bring it to a boil, it simmers for 15 minutes, put your paste in, let it simmer another 10 minutes. That's quote unquote the secret.

Yeah. But you know, you're being too modest too though, because a lot of people overdo, right? It's the balance of the ingredients and especially garlic. I mean, I love garlic. Don't get me wrong. I love garlic. But there's so many times when I've gone to, you know, to a restaurant where this, the garlic is so heavy and yours is such, it's just balanced so nicely.

I mean. Well, you know, my father was the chef before me and my grandfather Patsy was the first chef. And when my father taught me how to cook, I've been there full-time since 1985 now, right, right outta college. And he said, Sal, I'm gonna teach you how to cook now. And this is what we're gonna learn. You are the student, I'm the teacher. At the end of this, you'll be the teacher and I'll be the student, which isn't true. He's still a better cook than me. The one thing he did, the one thing he did emphasize was exactly what you said. Sometimes people think, oh, if I put more salt in or I put more garlic in, it's gonna be even better. And that's not necessarily the case. Obviously garlic is a taste. If you like more, you put more. If you like less, you put less. As a matter of fact, my family, we love garlic, but you know, it sort of repeats on you after a while. So what we do is we take the whole cloves of garlic, we brown 'em in the sauce, we get the flavor of it, we cook the sauce, and then we take the garlic out so we don't accidentally eat it. Not only because it's good for you, but it's just, it would repeat on you. And that's the way Frank Sinatra liked it, as a matter of fact.

Yeah, that's the thing too, isn't it? The garlic— we were wondering if the garlic was going to kill the corona. Like, I keep saying corona, the corona. I made up this stupid word just to, you know, make light of it. Now I'm stuck with it. I can't, I can't stop saying it. But yeah, in your head, it's stuck in my head. It's stuck in my head. You know what else is stuck in my head though? What, what I had your, um, I had your veal. Was it this? Do I have the scallopini there?

The rollatini with the mozzarella inside?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

But a veal rollatini masala.

Yes, I love that.

Most popular veal dish next to the veal meatballs or the veal Parmesan is the veal rollatini masala. And what it is—

well, I stole the meatballs off Alex's plate.

Oh, well, you know, that's what friends are for, right? Well, we make the meatballs all out of veal. And again, going back to recipes, there's no right and wrong. That's the recipe my grandfather made. On Facebook last week, I put a recipe of the beef meatballs. That's the way my my mom makes them, and she makes them without garlic, with onions inside. So people were saying, no garlic, no garlic, and I said, well, this is— and it's not right or wrong, it's what you like. But the veal, what you had, the veal rollatini masala, very popular dish. It's a veal scallopini, we beat it down flat, we stuff it with mozzarella, prosciutto, roll it up, and sauté in a masala wine and mushroom sauce. Very, very flavorful. I wish we could figure out how to email food. Don't you think that would be good, right?

Hey, I'll tell you what, I'm half thinking right now, I'll put on my mask, I'll just drive down and fill up my with your stuff and bring it back.

Why not?

Traffic's not bad right now, I hear down there.

That's for sure. That's the only little, little good part of it. But you know what I really want to talk to you about, what's really nice, is that people really are showing how good they are right now. And I'm so inspired by them. I'm so happy because I really believe that basically all people are good. And I really hope that this feeling continues on after we pass this whole sad history in our time. And we're all We're all doing our part, we're all doing what we have to do to keep people safe and get better, but let's always remember to be kind and good to each other, not just in bad times. That's important.

Amen, amen. I'm so glad you brought that up too, because there's two things that really came to mind as you were talking earlier. You know, first of all, I want to make sure people again understand that, you know, you're donating your April profits to the first responders, and I think that's a huge gesture. I mean, You know, you're a small business. It's hard, you know, these days, and yet you're really pitching in. And along those lines, you know, for people who haven't been to New York, I think what they don't realize, you know, how tight people are there, right? You see, it's not the movie vision of people always too fast. I mean, it is a fast city. It definitely is a fast city. But every time in New York, Alex always jokes with me about this, right? I'll stand waiting for the subway and someone will walk up to me and start telling me their whole life story, right? I mean, And the way the neighborhoods, the neighborhoods are still there, right? The people are very tight and they're very loyal. And you've built this huge community around Patsy's, like you said, the people, right? People are part of you, it's part of the whole thing.

I mean, I'm so blessed that people have been coming there for years. I mean, there's people that are coming there before I was even the chef there. And it's so nice to hear from them to say, you know, and we do get a lot of out-of-town people as well. It's so nice to hear them say, you know, the first place when we land in New York, we want to come to have dinner at your restaurant. I mean, it's such a heartwarming feeling. And I got to tell you, probably the best compliment I'll never forget that I've ever received is a gentleman who's been coming forever. He's in his 70s. He's now brought his children and grandchildren, and he'll bring the future generation. And, you know, I say, hello, welcome back. We hope you enjoy everything tonight. And he said, he turned around, he looked at me, he pointed to me, he said, Sal, You know, I know what the food's going to taste like before I sit down. That's why I come back all the time. And we've been blessed. We're very, um, we're very loyal to— I deal with some of the same suppliers my grandfather dealt with. I'm dealing with the grandchildren. For instance, we buy our mozzarella from the same, you know, all our cheese from the same supplier for 75 years. Now he's been in business since 1920. It's DiPaolo Fine Foods down downtown in Little Italy. And it's just, you know, it's a level of consistency.

Yeah.

You know, my father, of course, when he trained me to be the chef, he made me promise never to change things. And I think I could tell you a funny story about my grandfather. Patsy was fortunate. I was so fortunate that he actually got to see me be the chef. He passed in 1986.

I remember you saying that. Yeah.

And I started in '85. And I'll tell you a funny story I might have told you in person. Was that one of the last times he was at the restaurant was in late '80s, in the summer of '85.

Yeah.

And we usually eat dinner at 3 o'clock. In between lunch and dinner, we sit down. The family has dinner then. So Grandpa came in to see the restaurant, to see the family, to join us all. And we're at the front. There's about 10 of us. And we see him walk in the door. We put our arms out to give him a hug. Grandpa, he walks past all of us. He goes in the kitchen, goes downstairs. He comes back 5 minutes later. I said, Pop, where'd you go? He said, I went in the refrigerator to check and see if you're buying the same veal I told you to buy. You know, it was that kind of— yeah, that was all he cared about first and foremost. And he was— him and my grandmother, my grandmother Concetta, was such an amazing woman, way ahead of her time. She was the business person when they started the restaurant. And, uh, I'm very blessed.

Dante, thanks for chiming in. Dante Vespignani. Now, Sal, he's from Pittsburgh.

I hope you don't mind that, but A name like that, I'll have to prove something. I hope, I hope we make you happy. Ask for me, Dante, please, when you come in.

And Dante, he provides great services for entrepreneurs connecting them with franchise opportunities. So Dante, go ahead and put your, your contact information. He was on the show a couple of weeks ago or a few days ago. Put your contact information up, Dante, so people know how to get in touch with you. And awesome. Yes, don't worry about it, my brother. We'll, we're going to bring you down to Patsy's, introduce you down there. And you know, Sal, one of the coolest things too, You know, there's a lot of places to get good food, you know what I mean? And I always, I always go by the feeling that people give me when I come in, you know. And of course, a little plug for our dear friend, our mutual friend, right, Dr. John Tantillo, America's Marketing Doctor, who also has great resources for entrepreneurs. But when he, when he brought us there and walked in the place and you came up and you greeted us like you'd known us, I mean, you just met us and you greeted us. And not only that, I mean, and Alex still treasures it, I couldn't drag her out of there. We had to get out of there. You, you guys were talking food for about an hour and a half.

I remember.

And to me, that's the, that's the most special parts of an experience like that. And I mean, I, I just treasured that. That was so cool.

Well, I gotta tell you again, the things that just warm my heart and make me so happy.

Well, Dante said his grandma was the same as yours.

All right, you see, we got something in common already. What warms my heart is that people, when they come in, they say it's obviously, you know, the food, but it's the Patsy's experience, the Patsy's Italian Restaurant experience. It's that, and the greatest thing they say, we feel like we're coming home. And honestly, these are the dishes my grandparents cooked in their home. And grandpa would always joke and grandma would always joke, we have the, you know, same thing as our home. It's just a bigger kitchen and a bigger dining room and more friends, you know, so. Yeah, that's what it is to us.

No, it's real special. You know, I grew up, uh, near West— uh, Westerly in Providence, Rhode Island. You know, it was a big, uh, big food, food town, Providence, right?

I've been there, I've been there. Excellent.

Yeah, and I remember that was, that was the feeling. The restaurants I always liked the best were the ones that, yeah, they treated you like family. Um, they weren't as good about sharing recipes.

Well, let's be honest, things have changed. It's the internet, you get every recipe in the world you want there, and, uh, I mean, it's really made— it's like you say, it's made with love. This is our family recipes. It's a fun thing. And I mean, you know, even like Nancy Sinatra when she wrote— like I told you, she wrote the foreword to my first cookbook. And she wrote to me, she wrote, she said, "To me, Patsy's is more than a restaurant. It's a touchstone." All the things in her life, how many times she was there with her dad and her friends and continues to come. And it's those kind of feelings that really make me so, so very happy. I mean, whether it's a celebrity or not. And sometimes, you know, you get— I've had people come to me, you know, after they ate and they had such a good time at the restaurant, they said, you know, I was a little hesitant. I felt like maybe it's a tourist trap because of the celebrities and stuff. And, and fortunately, we're able to, to, to convince them it's not that and that everyone is important to us. I mean, when I have the, the good blessing of being able to go around and say hello to everyone in the dining room, as you witnessed that night, and, you know, I usually— sometimes I have to work a position in the kitchen at night. Usually my work is done By about 3 or 4 o'clock, I do the major preparation, the sauces, the baking, the soups, cutting up the veal, you know, ordering all the food. And if I can, I walk around the dining room, and it's my greatest pleasure to meet people. That's what I like to do. And again, I'm in a business that I'm so blessed that I have an opportunity to make people happy. Yeah. And I really enjoy that.

You know what else I wanted to ask you about was— we'll get back to the food in a second, I promise you guys that are tuning in. So, but you've been, like you said, you've been in business more than 75 75 years now. And, you know, through the generations like that, a lot of people are very, very worried right now. You know, how are we going to get through this? And you've been— in 75 years, you've had— you've been through times like this. You've been through some ups and downs, right? And especially during 9/11 and, you know, how much that impacted. What's your advice for people that are worried right now about where their business is going? What are some of the strategies you employed during deployed during the years to keep things moving?

Well, you know, one of the things is obviously you got to have a good attitude. I mean, that's easier said than done, but you do have to always look at the glass half full and look at the blessings that God's given you. And I really do. And, you know, it's very difficult. I'm in a position where I'm very lucky because we've been there a long time. We are established. I think, you know, we should be able to be okay after a long time. I think you look to inside yourself, and I think you look to your employees too.

I was just gonna say, how are you staying connected with, how are you keeping these guys engaged?

Well, we do, as a matter of fact, last night I called almost every one of them. They're doing well, they're keeping their heads up. They're the ones who are saying to me, "Oh boss, we're worried about you." And I said, "You know what? I'm worried about you guys." And thank God, some have wives who are still working or partners that are still working and some have been able to get the unemployment, which of course is helpful as well. And it was the hardest decision. My wife and I were literally in tears when we had to let go our employees, but it was the right thing to do. We discussed it with them because then at least they could collect unemployment. So I think, I think, you know, I always, I always have this vision in my head. I don't know, since I'm a kid, of, of the slow and steady turtle. Let's just, you know, keep moving forward slow and steady. Keep our mind, eyes on the prize at the end of this tunnel. Think about what good we're doing by staying home and saving lives. And, you know, let's just— I know it's hard. I know it's not easy to have patience for this, but But let's just keep being positive. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. I think you're starting to see a few of the states looking at the reopenings. You know, New York, I think, will be a little bit tougher. We were the hardest hit. You know, it's one of those times where you're not happy that New York was number one, you know. Really, really tough. But with the good leadership, and you know, whether it's the state or the, or the the federal level. I think that we have good people guiding us, good medical experts guiding us, and I think that at the end of the day, you know, hopefully we'll all look back as a bad memory with this and, and go forward with the lessons we've learned. And again, again, it inspires me, and I hope it inspires other people to see how good people are, especially during this, this very tough time. People are good to each other.

Well, you're the inspiration. And I'm deadly serious about this. I mean, I appreciate that you acknowledge some leaders that are more visible, right?

Yes.

But you know, everything that we work on around here, you know, with businesses and associations is about, you know, the leadership at all levels, no matter who we are. I mean, to me, there's two types of people in the world. There's leaders and there's people who refuse. And it doesn't matter what your job is. It has nothing to do with your authority, right? You have great people on your front lines. They're terrific leaders. They might have little or no authority at all. And we all know there are plenty of people, a lot of power and authority that are thousand leaders. But, you know, that idea, what you're doing, and I mean this from the heart, you are absolutely embodying what we talk about when we talk about a sensei leader, particularly because, you know, right now you're showing such courage, you're showing such compassion, you know, internally with your team and externally with the community. And, you know, that's what it's all about. So, you know, I appreciate your leadership through this.

Oh my God, I really appreciate it. That means so much coming from you. It's just, it's just, you know, you gotta rise up to the occasion, you know, God doesn't throw more than you can handle, and we got to rise up to what we can do. I mean, and you always think about this, this, the poor people that obviously have passed, and, and, and, and they can't, they can't fight anymore. And at least we're here to fight another day, you know, and get— I don't mean fight, but, you know, get up there and— no, no, it's good to keep going. My friend Tony Dancer says, keep punching, you know, that's what his words are.

Well, there's a good segue, there's a good segue, because I'll tell you, one of the things that, that you do so well, again, a mark of a wonderful— it's a leadership quality that I'm frankly very jealous of. You know, you walk around that restaurant, you by name know people because you were greeting people in there that hadn't been in for a while. I remember one woman said she hadn't been in there a couple of years and you knew who she was. You knew her name. You remembered us. We were so touched that you remembered us when we got in touch again. And you know, hey, I know I did some time as a boxer, but I can't remember anybody's damn name. I'll tell you, I'm so jealous.

Well, my wife's much better than me at that. Remember her name?

If she's better than you, then my God, I can't even imagine.

Yeah, it's important. I mean, you know, again, they feel like, uh, you know, they're walking back into their home. They feel like family. It's, it's a great thing. It's fun. You know, it's funny I mentioned about Tony Dancer, but you know who was in for the first time about a month before all this craziness happened? I think you would appreciate was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Oh yeah, yeah. And of course my kids love that iconic fight scene with, uh, with Bruce Lee.

Bruce Lee's like, right, he's like this, and Kareem is— he had— he's easily twice as tall.

Yeah, but nice man, nice man. And it— but it's, it's, it's so much fun for me to go to work every day. I enjoy it so much. And that's the part I'm really missing right now is— and, and I'm sure most people are— it's connecting with people. And I'm so lucky to connect with people every day, these people that come into us and are loyal to us. And, you know, in a city of 20,000 restaurants, you know, the fact that when they land in New York, they say the first place I want to go is to your restaurant, Patsy's Italian Restaurant on West 56th Street. It's just so heartwarming. And again, it's like this, some people say, oh, I plan my whole vacation around you, going to eat at your restaurant. I said, I hope you enjoy the movie at the theaters that you're going to and all those things. You know, it's a great location. It always has been. It's near the theaters, it's near Carnegie Hall, Midtown Manhattan.

I always get this— I always get the streets mixed up. It's 56th Street, right?

56th Street between 8th and Broadway. Yeah. And it's, it's, uh, it's always been a great location. We've been very lucky with that. And, uh, my, uh, my oldest son has joined the business now full-time. He graduated a few years ago. Um, he always wanted to do this ever since he could talk. I never forced him to do this. I wasn't forced into this business. As a matter of fact, I took television and film production in, in college. So this type stuff. I love it, you know, it's really right up my alley. Um, but, uh, I couldn't get it. I worked for 6 months as a cameraman. I couldn't get a job anymore. My father said, would you like to learn how to cook? And I did. And my youngest son— my oldest son, like I said, he always wanted to do this. Our youngest son, he, he's, he's working there part-time, but he's going back to school. He loves psychology. He was so blessed, he got, uh, he got accepted into, uh, Fordham for a, um, a PhD degree for psychology.

That's great.

Yeah, he worked, he worked in Manhattan, actually in the Bronx Bronx for 6 months at a homeless shelter. He's very good, you know, helping people, things like that.

Yeah.

And, um, but he helps us out at the restaurant as well, so it's, it's good. But like, we never forced him. I mean, that's the point I wanted to make. I wasn't forced to do that, and my oldest son wanted to do it. My youngest son didn't want to do it. As a matter of fact, 3 or 4 years ago, he came to me and my wife in tears, and then we said, what's the matter? He says, you know, I don't know if I want to work at the restaurant. We said, of course that's okay, you know. Yeah, it's, it's, it's— of course, you know, it's better if it comes from the heart Anyway.

Yeah, no, for sure. Hey, listen, I can listen to you all day, and, uh, but we, we've promised to keep this sort of lunch break friendly. So if you have a few minutes, we still— if you've got questions, if you're chiming in, and thanks so much. A lot of people popping in and out today, and they say on, on these live streams, if someone stays in for more than 4 or 5 minutes, uh, that's pretty cool. And it looks like a lot of people have, so that's nice. Thanks for the, the hearts and the thumbs. Um, if you've got a comment or question or idea, or tell us how you're getting through, tell us what you're cooking, what's on your stovetop. Yeah, I mean, you're— and believe me, you're a big influence on Alex. Um, she's— you know what she's really good with is she makes the most amazing pizzas out of, gosh, anything, anything around. It's just—

oh, God bless her.

Terrific.

Well, you know, there's all these things on Facebook, be the before quarantine and after quarantine, and you know, after quarantine you put on a few pounds.

That's what I'm thinking. We gotta, we gotta buy a couple of cases of your sauce next time we're down. I don't know, I don't know if they have it in— are you in the stores in the Northeast up here in Maine or anything?

You know, a little while. We're having a little bit with the distributors right now. We're trying to get back in because obviously all that's going on right now, right?

Sure. Yeah, yeah.

And we will have our website, uh, up and running soon enough that you could buy it and shipped anywhere throughout the country. It's no problem.

And that's the patsys.com, that's patsys.com, no apostrophe.

And like I say, if you come to New York City, it's our only location. It's Patsy's Italian Restaurant on West 56th Street. The Scogna-Millo family, we've been there so many years. Last year we had the 75th anniversary party, which was a blast, back in September. We had a great time. A lot of people came. It really is so, so amazing. Restaurants come and go, and we're so lucky to still be there. You know, after second or third generation, sometimes you know, you don't have anyone to take over. And if his oldest son wasn't interested, you know, then we'd have to see what happens. But he's great. He's running the dining room. He's so funny. He got a master's in business in Quinnipiac, in the college up in Connecticut. And after he graduated, he says, "Mom and Dad, I want you to know I didn't learn anything. I learned everything from you here at the restaurant and how to run a business." I said, well, That's good news and bad news.

There you go, Dante's typing in again.

Oh, thank you, Dante, that's so sweet.

Thanks, Dante. I pick on you enough about Pittsburgh, and believe me, I, I've had some great food in Pittsburgh too, but Dante, it's not, it's not Patsy's.

No, don't say that. We don't want to get any of our friends mad. No, I'm sure it's all different throughout the country.

Well, they were mostly, they're mostly the restaurants I found in, uh, in, uh, Pittsburgh were were— because I always liked the ethnic restaurants, you know. Yes. And they were mostly, uh, German and, uh, Polish, because I'm half Polish too. So that was kind of cool.

Good, good stuff. German food, I love that too. Yeah, right. I love everything, as you can see, you know. That's part of my problem, you know. It's my only vice is eating too much, I guess. But that's not so bad. Well, you can't trust a thin chef, right?

Uh, right, exactly. And hopefully you'll make it up this way sometime and, uh, Oh, we'll treat you, we'll treat you some real lobster, not the tourist lobster.

I was gonna say, yeah, you know the good stuff.

We know, we know where the good stuff is, where it's steamed, not boiled. You know, it's criminal to boil lobster. I can't stand that.

Very different. Very different. See, a little— see, now you talk about these little subtle differences. Like, people ask me the secret to the sauce. There's a secret you just gave people that make that small difference, makes a big difference in the flavor.

Is this a friend of yours, Sal?

Eddie? Oh yes, my buddy Eddie says he's a great singer. Well, Eddie's been great. He's been doing, he's been doing live stream, um, uh, he does Sinatra stuff. He's been doing live stream from his house and he's really— it's a lot of fun. I think every Tuesday night at 8 o'clock on his Facebook page he does some wonderful, wonderful Sinatra singing. He's a good friend of ours.

Yeah, Eddie, you, you email me, I'll put the email in the comments. We'll get you on here and, uh, we'll promote your live stream too. That's really cool. A lot of people, like you said earlier, a lot of people are doing that.

It's so uplifting, you know. I mean, you know, music, they, they know that it, it helps you. It, it lowers your blood pressure. It makes you, you know, feel calmer, makes you feel happy, especially songs that you enjoy.

Yeah, you know, I, I think we talked about it, Madonna, because, uh, the secret's out now anyway, but my alter ego Diego Fedora plays surf guitar. You know, I used to be in the music business years ago as a drummer, but now it's a surf guitar. Eddie, you Email me here, and anybody has questions, you want to get things to sell or anything, just, just, uh, email me here. Um, oh, and while I'm on the subject, I should do a little bit of business. Uh, join the Sensei Leader Movement now. We've got the Black Belt membership up for free while we're experiencing this. It's usually about $30 a month for that. The best part of that— a lot of cool things— you're going to get a lot of downloads of books, some online courses to help you grow and develop more as a leader. But the best part of the Black Belt membership is a live call that we do every month. So make sure you take full advantage of that. Just send me an email and we'll hook you up with a coupon for And Eddie, yeah, make sure you give us a shout. The music thing.

Yeah.

No, I, you know, I'm kind of glad I don't do it for a living anymore because that's a tough business, you know.

Oh, that's the music, food, construction. Those are the 3 number failures.

I know, right? And I grew up in construction, so it was— but the, uh, but I love it. I love it. And, uh, you're right, it brings such joy, right?

Very inspiring. And what you're doing also with your, with your membership there, that's very inspiring. That's really nice that you're offering that. Yeah, God bless you.

No, I appreciate that. It's a small thing, but it's, you know, we're just trying to get everybody to get together and share ideas, and that's the most important thing. It's about sharing ideas. Um, like, our live calls are not lectures. We, we have a good conversation.

So yeah, well, this way you don't feel you're alone. And I mean, you know, yeah, I live on Long Island, so I have a house. At least I have a little room to walk around. But I got to tell you, the people in New York, and you know, New York apartments are small, to be in there and doing the sheltering in place. God bless them. That's, that's, it's, it's tough. It's tough.

Yeah, that's Eddie's putting up. See, it's getting worse by the day, the whole hospitality industry. No, exactly, Eddie. I feel, you know, most of my living is, well, up until about 3 weeks ago, you know, most of my living was live presentations, keynotes at conferences and workshops and things like that. And we had the best year lined up that we've ever had, and in 3 or 4 days we saw the entire year evaporate. Well, you know, like you said, you got it. You gotta, you know, do what you gotta do. We pivoted to online. We were planning on a 6-month rollout for our online products. We squeezed that into 3 frantic weeks. So I hate it when you see, you know, you see the some of the celebrities sitting there by the pool saying, oh, it's so nice to have quiet time.

I said, oh yeah, they're not getting the message there.

It must be, it must be.

They're out of touch. They're out of touch when they do that.

Some of them, huh? Yeah, but no, it's cool. Eddie, best thoughts for you, man. And, and, uh, reach out and sell. You're not a Black Belt Club member yet? You're not a Sensei Leader member yet? We're gonna make you one. I'm gonna send you the link. I'm gonna say, please. Yeah, we'd love to have you involved.

It'd be an honor. Of course, my friend, that would be great. Yeah, Eddie, Eddie goes out to restaurants and sings at restaurants all the time. Obviously that part is evaporated. And he's a wonderful man. He actually, for my in-law's 60th anniversary, uh, wedding anniversary a few years ago, we had him sing for them there, and he did a phenomenal job. There's, there's another man who makes you feel so welcome and at home, you know. That, that's, that's what this is all about. And I'm so— oh, thank you. He says once it's over, we're gonna have a bash at the restaurant.

I want to know, I want to know about that.

Oh, we got to get everyone together, of course.

And that'd be cool.

Eddie, you jump up on a chair like my friend George Pettignano does. That's another friend of mine. George Pettignano does the singing as well. It's, uh, It's great, you know, I'm so lucky and I think good people find good people as well. And I'm so happy that we were introduced by our friend John Tantillo. He's a wonderful man, he's been coming to the restaurant forever, very insightful, very— it's so calming to hear his voice, your voice. You guys must understand what a great effect you have on people.

Well, I appreciate you saying that, you know.

It's only one George who can jump up on a chair, I guess, right?

Well, a certain age, we got to be careful about how many chairs we're jumping up on.

It's true, it's true. Oh, it's good, it's good. Yeah, but George, George is a good buddy of mine, you know. I met him many years ago, and he, um, we have a mutual friend that sadly passed away, was Danny Aiello. You remember the actor Danny Aiello?

Yeah, we were heartbroken. He was one of our favorites.

Yeah, George, George actually was, uh, back in his other life, he was a stuntman on some of the movies with Danny. As a matter of fact, wow.

Yeah.

Paul would say, I threw George off the roof right there. And, uh, Port Apache to Bronx, I think he threw him off the roof there. Yeah, stuff like that. But it's, it's great because these are the people that we get together, that find each other, that help each other. And, and like what Eddie just said, all of my friends, we have like this little group on Facebook, they all keep saying, we can't wait, as soon as this is over, we want to come to Patsy's Italian Restaurant and see you guys and enjoy and get out there. You know, that's so heartwarming to me that that's their thought, you know. It's, it's a blessing, it really is.

Yeah, and it's a blessing that in the meantime we do have, you know, these platforms as technology, so at least we can, at least we can have a conversation. But no, I'm with you, Sal. I'm— as you're talking, I can smell Patsy's.

We should be able to email all the, uh, all the food, you know. It would be better. But just to remind everyone, you know, given the proceeds for our sauce here the sales of our sauce during the month of April, and you could buy it at some of the supermarkets. We're giving the proceeds to Direct Relief. You buy them at ShopRite, some of the Foodtowns, Key Foods. Check our website and our Facebook for updates on that, and we'll let you know as soon as you can order it on our website. Then you could get it all over the country. So just go on our Facebook page. We'll keep the updates coming with that.

Excellent. Sal, thanks so much for spending this time with us.

It was a genuine pleasure and an honor. Thank you for what you're doing. Believe me, you're making a lot of people feel good too.

I so appreciate you saying that. The only regret I have is I wish we had thought about this. We could have, we could have had lunch together, right?

Oh yeah, yeah, we could. It's, it's, it's like the social distancing lunch there, right?

There you go.

We don't want all that food in our teeth when we're talking though.

That's all right. It'll make our visit to, our next visit to Patsy's even more special. Thanks, Sal, so much. Stay in touch with you.

God bless. Yeah, and send me that link, please. Thank you.

Okay, absolutely. Ciao.

Bye-bye.