Food, Peace, & Love in Morristown
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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forever
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what's up everybody welcome back to
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another episode of greetings from the
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garden state i'm mike hamm we are here
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in my hometown once again at south and
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pine uh morristown new jersey i didn't
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say that uh with chef lee gashiong glia
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welcome to the show thank you happy to
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be here happy to be here too so we got a
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lot going on today uh there's a lot of
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things happening we postponed this once
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which i totally get and now we're here
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again so if you're watching on youtube
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and you see people walking in front
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like right now
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totally fine but we're going to power
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through because right you're going
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through some renovations right now yes
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at the day of this recording tomorrow
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you're actually supposed to be open so i
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appreciate you taking time out of what
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i'm sure is just a been a chaotic few
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weeks i'm not stressed at all right i'm
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not sure i don't seem stressed you seem
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very zen i mean it's all a facade i'm
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actually freaking out um being hide it
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well yeah i mean you have to in this
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business it's all chaos it's controlled
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chaos so i feel like this is like my
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natural state that i'm used to being in
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yeah no i love it and i love it and i
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think once it's done i mean i could
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already see you know like if things are
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a lot better a lot nicer than maybe when
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i've been here before not that it wasn't
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nice before i don't mean to come off
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that way but no we've made some solid
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improvements and like when we opened
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this business we really didn't have a
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lot of uh
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funds to work with and so we just did
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like a very
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affordable cosmetic renovation with like
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paint and some wallpaper and we just
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upgraded we got all new uh light
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fixtures we added some ceiling fans in
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we got new heat lamps we did
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reupholstery on banquettes brand new
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floors throughout the restaurant so we
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did a lot awesome and it was about
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double what i had budgeted for
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that's always great too happy new year
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i'm sure that doesn't add into the
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stress whatsoever but
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we're going to talk more about the
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restaurant in our second segment today
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when we do more of like our experience
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type stuff so what people can expect
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when they come down here but i want to
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talk about you a little bit because you
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know i live in morristown and lived here
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for the last three years and spent some
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time in morristown before and south and
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pine to me has always been one of those
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spots in town that's just like a staple
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um so i want to talk a little bit about
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you get to know you so you're new jersey
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born and raised born and raised
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i was born in passaic new jersey um
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my mom was a single mom my dad left when
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i was pretty young and i have a brother
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so my mom always like held down two
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three jobs at a time to
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support my brother and i and um
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i started going to public school in
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passaic and my grandpa was like you know
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what i'm gonna put you in in private
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school so we ended up going to st john
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canty in clifton
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um which we were fortunate enough to be
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able to do that and then um i went to
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high school in wayne oh cool yeah and
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would you where did you go to high
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school my girlfriend went to went to
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high school in wayne she's from wayne
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what high school i don't know wayne
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hills i think all right i went to depaul
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um excuse me i feel like everyone like i
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went to pope john so okay so yeah i get
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it everyone like intermingled though in
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wayne wayne hills and passaic valley and
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depaul anyway um so yeah so my
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it was time to apply for college and i
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applied to montclair state for
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psychology degree and they lost my
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application in the process and told me
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that i wasn't going to be able to start
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college until the second semester and so
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like obviously at 17 years old i had a
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complete meltdown like my boyfriend
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broke up with me over the phone in the
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same week and so like my life was ending
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and i was working at a bookstore across
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the street from my high school and my
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boss was like what do you love to do
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and i was like you know like i really
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love cooking and he was like well my
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wife goes to a culinary school in the
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city yeah do you want to do you want me
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to set up a tour for you and i was like
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yeah that'd be great so i went into the
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city with my mom
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and like i always found new york city so
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magical
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um so like just like feeling like such a
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big girl like getting on a bus and like
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getting on a train and going to see the
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school and you walk into this school in
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like the classrooms or kitchens and
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you're like
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holy like this is is this real life
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this is what my school could be so i
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fell in love that day and i signed up
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that day
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and um and that's when i guess my career
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started yeah so what what kind of drove
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like the love for cooking was just like
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cooking at home was it doing that kind
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of stuff or take me through that yeah i
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think because my mom was a single mom
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and she was always like working at night
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and during the day we kind of had to
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fend for ourselves so like we had to
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cook for ourselves and i always loved
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watching cooking shows on tv that was
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like one of the bonding things that i
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did with my grandpa we would watch
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frugal gourmet julia child yin ken cook
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i remember watching yan ken cook like
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fly through an onion
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and thinking um i'm really sorry about
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that
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oh we're doing great um no this is i
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love it this is like my favorite kind of
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episode okay
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this is our life here at south and fine
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yeah so i remember watching um
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on young can cook he used to like fly
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through an onion and i used to be like
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wow i wish that i could do that with a
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knife and an onion like that's
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incredible yeah we used to watch iron
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chef america when that first came onto
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the scene so i think that that's where
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my
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love for food really started by watching
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people on television cook and like
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still to this day i can say i learned
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the fundamentals from watching cooking
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shows on tv like the two hot tamales
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taught me how to cut an onion
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um you know like i learned so many
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things from emerald agassi or from bobby
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flay or from jamie oliver and that show
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how to boil water or like interesting
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little science tidbits from alton brown
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and that was kind of like my first
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school in in culinary yeah and then
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obviously you know the cooking shows
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obviously paint the restaurant industry
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the food industry it's exactly the same
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right oh
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no
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no no no no i mean they do make it seem
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very very glamorous and
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while i think that this is very
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glamorous that's me like
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you know sometimes we're cleaning poop
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out of the bathroom and you know
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sometimes like the grease trap overflows
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and that's just an awful situation and
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that needs to get cleaned up and you
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leave on a saturday night and you have
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burger spatter all over your face and
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like my glasses i need windshield
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washers on like it's i mean it's it's
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hot it's long it's tired you don't have
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time to go to the bathroom sometimes you
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don't have time to eat you're getting
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like 24 000 steps in a day some days i
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mean it's hard hard work but yeah i love
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it i don't know what else yeah it's too
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late for me
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well i mean i mean even though like i
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think people like that find something
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that they really love love like all like
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the nitty-gritty stuff like that you
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know like i could host a podcast and do
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this and this is a lot of fun and then
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go and meet different people and go to
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different places but i also have to edit
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it and market it and run the site and do
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all these other things right which is
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not the glamorous side i mean granted
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i'm not cleaning but i'm you know
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yeah working yeah
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so i think it's like but you love it and
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i think that's what kind of shines
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through you're able to like take those
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things that's just part of the whole
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experience yeah like there's nothing
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more that i love than like a saturday
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night when there's so many tickets
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coming through and like the machine
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won't stop and the servers need
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something like for instance my family
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came last mother's day and they've never
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been here on such a busy day like just
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so happened like we just
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got to fill up the restaurant and the
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whole patio was like one of those first
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spring days that like the whole
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restaurants packed and they came in at
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11 and by 11 15 i think we had 75 menus
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down wow and it just it just started and
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like tickets are going and i'm like
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pumping ketchups and pulling plates and
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guys i need this guys i need two sides
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of fries how come where's the burrito
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where's the burrito like and like at the
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end of it my family looked at me and
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they're like oh now we understand why
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you are the way you are and i'm like
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it's taking you guys 20 years to
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realize this like thank you for coming
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to my ted talk yeah right exactly i love
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that so what um so after you were done
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with the the school side of it um and
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then you started working so what what
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type of jobs did you have at the very
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beginning that kind of kicked off the
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career so actually i thought that i
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wanted to be front of the house at first
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because there was no
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real
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you just don't think that like as a
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woman you are made for the kitchen but i
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started working at charlie brown's
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steakhouse okay
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as a hostess the legendary spot yeah i
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mean
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the salad bar yeah it's classic that
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raisin bread is very tasty um
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so yeah i started working as a hostess
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and then i became a server and then i
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became a trainer and then i became an
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associate manager and i started going to
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these weekly seminars to become an
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assistant manager i was only like 18 at
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the time but i was just like hungry for
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more like i wanted i've been used to
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having so much responsibility in my life
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it just felt natural for me to be in a
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management position
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and um
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they wouldn't give me a promotion until
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like one day i took like 20 resumes and
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i went to montclair and i just walked
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around from restaurant to restaurant and
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i was like i'm going to start working in
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the kitchen somewhere yeah and i went to
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this one restaurant called liberte it's
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not there anymore cuban pizza is there
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now
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and
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yeah i opened that place oh yeah uh-huh
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yeah
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that might be for
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not on the podcast we'll talk about that
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later um
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uh so this dude frank he was the chef he
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was from france the owners were german
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and turkish
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and um
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he asked me if i knew what a gas streak
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was in my interview and i had no idea
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what it was
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and like a week later he came to charlie
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brown's looking for me and i was like
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what are you doing here and he's like
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well i wanted to offer you a job in the
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kitchen and i was like amazing and i
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just looked at him and i was like i know
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what a gas streak is now i went home and
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i researched it yeah yeah so i started
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working there
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turned into cuban pete's i opened cuban
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pizza that was a wild ride not very long
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lived
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um
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um
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yes
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and uh then from there i went with the
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chef to uh
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it was that was crazy work opening cuban
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pizza was nuts we worked like literally
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95 hours a week we were there from open
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to close every day and it was
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busy yeah right from the jump like that
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place is i think it's the highest
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grossing byo in new jersey still yeah um
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so kudos to him for doing that but we we
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didn't i didn't last there very long i
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ended up going with the chef to the city
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to
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son cubano which was so much fun and
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then i went to another restaurant called
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sasha
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i came back to jersey that place sasha
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closed like the week before christmas
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and laid off the whole staff that sucked
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yeah came back to jersey
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and was doing like a little stint at
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this place called gaucho steak uh which
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um alex garcia was a chef of and we got
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a really great write-up in the star
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ledger and the owners from raymond's uh
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read it and they contacted me and asked
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if i would come do a tasting for them so
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i did i ended up working at raymond's
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for like a year
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ish probably a little over a year and
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actually they're the ones who introduced
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me to bobby flay they wanted me to go
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for three days because i was like 23 at
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the time
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and they're like why don't you just go
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see what makes them successful
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see what makes them organized and um and
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then come back and i was like okay cool
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like bobby flay is mean he's so mean to
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that guy on grilling and chilling like i
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really i'm not a fan but all right i'll
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do it so i went and then they invited me
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back the following week to me to meet
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bobby yeah
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so i'm like standing at the chef's
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station and on this side there's you
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know garman jay and hot apps and roasts
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and on this side is
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saute and grill and broil and i'm
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standing at the head and
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i can see flay walk in
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and he just starts walking right towards
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me and i was cutting red onions for this
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mango relish and he walks right up to me
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and he goes hi and i'm like
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hi i'm leah and he's like i'm bobby and
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i'm i'm just like like in my head i'm
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like holy yeah it's crazy right so
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i said out loud i go this is crazy and
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he said what's crazy and i was like it's
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just really crazy that you're here and
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he looked at me dead in the eye and he
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goes it's my restaurant what do
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you expect and i was like
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i turned beet red like a lobster like my
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irish was coming was shining and i had
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to walk away because i almost cut my
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finger off and then about a month later
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i was back at raymond's working and i
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was in the basement mind you i'm like 23
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at the time and the hostess comes
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downstairs and she's like chef um liz
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from some bar is on the phone for you
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and i was like oh my god i left my
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credit card at the bar last night like
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how we've all been there how many vodkas
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did i have
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and i pick up the phone
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and she's like uh it's liz from bar
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american bobby sitting right across from
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me he wants to know if you want to have
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a future with us and i was like wow this
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is insane so i met with him
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and i was really impressed with um how
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he talked about food and how like his
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passion off the bat was like sold me and
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then he was also talking about this
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work-life balance thing that in this
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industry i've never heard of and that
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also intrigued me so i signed on with
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him and i was with him for a little over
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seven years
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and i was at five of his fine dining
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establishments and it was you know like
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honestly
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never in my wildest dreams that i ever
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think that i would be working for
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somebody on food network somebody that i
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had watched for years
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like i didn't think that that would be a
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reality in my life and there were so
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many pinch me moments in working for him
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that i was like this is just
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honestly such a dream come true and
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uh he he has given me so many
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opportunities i don't think i would be
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where i am without having worked for him
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because i got so much knowledge for
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working for him and with his team and in
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his restaurants and learning how to run
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a kitchen and in learning how to run a
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business so i feel like that's been
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really really priceless for me yeah of
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course and so and you've been on cooking
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competition shows too right yeah chopped
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yes that one yeah so like take me
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through that experience because i feel
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like it's kind of interesting because
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you said you learned how to cook by
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watching these shows and now you're on
13:55
one of these shows granted it's not like
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hey today we're going to learn how to
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make chicken farm but it's like you know
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everyone's yelling at at least the way
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they make a team on tv but like what was
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that kind of like journey like to come
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full circle and get back to that it's
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wild like the first time i did iron chef
14:12
america you walk into kitchen stadium
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and you're like whoa like i've seen this
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on tv so many times and now i'm here
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actually in this kitchen so i feel like
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even walking into the chopped kitchen
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it's the same thing because you've been
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watching it for so many years
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i was really scared to do a cooking
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competition um
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and like
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flight like forced me to he was like
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you're doing it you have no choice and i
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knew that on my first i knew i was gonna
14:39
cut myself because i get very nervous
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yeah
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um and so
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on my first competition i had to cut
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like all these things on a mandolin so i
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was like let me just bang them out back
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to back to back and and then get rid of
14:52
the mandolin like thinking about
14:54
effectiveness because that's really what
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this business is it's like how you can
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do the most in the least amount of time
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exactly
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um
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so i'm like cutting garlic and cutting
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ginger and like cutting fresnos and
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cutting whatever else i'm cutting on
15:08
there and the camera guys
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literally with his camera in my face
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going out out
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and i'm like dude can you stop like this
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is so you know
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and lo and behold i slice my hand from
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like here here on the mandolin
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and i dropped the mandolin i was like
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renee uh it was bobby flay's um culinary
15:29
director i'm like i cut my hand she goes
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come over here we have like a little
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stash of band-aids so i like rinse it
15:35
off and i put a band-aid on it
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like i put a glove on it and like two
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minutes later the glove is filled with
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blood so i'm like so i like take it
15:44
off put another one on fills with blood
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again they had to call the medics out
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they're like 35 minutes remain they're
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like lee are you okay i'm like i'm like
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i'm fine just wrap it up wrap it up we
15:53
gotta go and we ended up winning oh nice
15:55
and so persevering yeah yeah i mean but
15:58
like again that's what this business is
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it's like you're sick you come to work
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until the chef tells you to go home like
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no matter you just can't stop you have
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to keep going until the night is over
16:09
yeah
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um so
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yeah i i like i love it now i love it
16:15
it's such an adrenaline rush it's so
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um
16:20
it's exhilarating it really is
16:21
exhilarating i like live for it i love
16:23
that yeah i love that it's so cool just
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to kind of like because i mean i knew
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about that but i've never met you before
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so like just to kind of like hear the
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story is just so cool and so much fun
16:32
but like it's legit yeah like when they
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say 60 minutes yeah you have 60 minutes
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when you have 20 minutes you legit have
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20 minutes right like they'll be like
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here's a zucchini come up with a dish in
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20 minutes making zucchini the star and
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you're like you don't even know where
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you pull it out of it it's like how do
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you come up with this but like
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i've learned by doing multiple
16:52
i mean i kind of feel like i attack
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those the same way i attack the menu
16:55
where it's like you start with like a
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list of what's seasonal and you build
16:59
from there so that's usually like my
17:00
route and
17:02
planning yes there's like pickled pigs
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feet and
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like yeah i don't know what season those
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come in i don't know either yeah but
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that was a awful
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chopped was hard
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it sounds hard and i mean i mean like i
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like to cook but there's no way i can do
17:17
that like i'm you know i just like to
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take my time
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drink and then have some fun with it
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yeah but that was a perfect segue
17:24
talking about the menu so we're gonna
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take our first break of this episode uh
17:27
so uh this is the greetings from the
17:28
garden state podcast i'm mike him we're
17:30
here at south and pine in morristown new
17:32
jersey with chef leah gaccione we'll be
17:34
right back
17:35
today in new jersey history is sponsored
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by paypro let paper will help your
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organization with human capital
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can scale and grow to learn more head to
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payprocorp.com
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it is time for today in new jersey
17:47
history robert sean leonard was born on
17:49
february 28 1969 in westwood new jersey
17:52
and raised in ridgewood the actor is
17:54
best known for such roles as neil perry
17:56
in dead poet society dr james wilson on
17:59
the television series house and as dr
18:01
roger kodak on the television series
18:03
falling skies and that is today in new
18:06
jersey history
18:08
all right we're back this is the
18:09
greetings from the garden state podcast
18:11
i'm mike ham we are here at south and
18:12
pine in morristown new jersey with chef
18:14
leo gashion so in the first segment we
18:15
learned about your background how you
18:16
got into food and cooking and all that
18:18
kind of stuff we learned about the the
18:20
tv shows and all that stuff and that was
18:21
great but one of the things you
18:23
mentioned towards the end of that was
18:25
making the menus here for south and
18:27
pines so in our second segments we like
18:28
to do kind of like an experience type
18:30
thing so what can people expect when
18:31
they come in here but before we get that
18:33
i just want to get my last question
18:35
basically of the first segment in is at
18:37
what point you're working in all these
18:38
different kitchens talk to me about like
18:40
when you decide to open up your first
18:43
restaurant
18:44
okay so i was working um for bobby we
18:48
just opened gato um
18:51
i would say up until this point in my
18:53
career
18:55
that was maybe like the second hardest
18:57
thing that i've ever done it was like
18:58
working for a celebrity chef very high
19:00
profile opening a lot of stress a lot of
19:03
pressure on like making sure everything
19:05
was perfect to um you know get good
19:08
reviews because he
19:10
um
19:11
is not always loved by the critics i
19:13
think a lot of people underestimate him
19:14
and i think it's a shame because he's a
19:16
really talented chef yeah um so that was
19:19
a really hard moment in my life
19:21
actually where i had a lot of doubt in
19:24
whether i even wanted to do this or not
19:26
that's how hard it was
19:28
and um somebody called me like when we
19:30
were opening and they're like hey my
19:31
stepdad wants to open a restaurant like
19:33
do you want to open a restaurant and i
19:35
was like no way like i'm working for
19:37
like this guy that i've been working for
19:39
who's amazing and he's always treated me
19:41
fantastic and we're doing this major
19:43
opening in new york city and like i'm
19:45
living my dream no
19:47
and then i worked for 100 days straight
19:49
with no days off like 15 16-hour days
19:52
you know no recognition in newspapers
19:55
and like i didn't expect that just it is
19:57
what it is but like you realize when
19:59
you're doing this for somebody else
20:01
like maybe i could do this for myself
20:03
and so they called me back three months
20:04
later and they're like you sure you
20:05
don't want to and i was like you know
20:06
what let's do it so we started looking
20:08
and
20:09
um and then uh we were having trouble
20:13
finding a space and i called my friend
20:14
carl up and he was like meet me at my
20:16
restaurant i want to take you and show
20:18
you something so he brought me here it
20:20
was a different restaurant at the time
20:21
and he's like just pretend that you want
20:22
to have a party here and i'm like dude
20:24
like why are you ambushing me why why
20:26
like why are you making me do this like
20:27
we walk in and i'm like um hi my mom's
20:30
surprise party is in a few weeks and i
20:32
want to have it here can you get me a
20:33
menu so like go to get a menu i'm like
20:35
taking pictures of everything like being
20:37
super shady like a spy like that
20:40
and um and we left and so i showed it to
20:42
my
20:43
potential partners and like they were
20:45
just very trigger shy
20:47
and carl set up a meeting with the guys
20:49
who own this place and
20:51
they offered me a very good deal to
20:53
partner up with them and you know
20:56
open a restaurant so that's what we did
20:58
and that was in 2015. so we're going to
21:00
celebrate our seventh anniversary this
21:02
year awesome love that and so what like
21:04
i know you look did you look at other
21:06
spaces or was this like the one that you
21:08
really tried to get
21:10
i mean morristown i feel like seven
21:12
years ago wasn't really like morristown
21:14
the way it is now right um so talk to me
21:16
about that like why morristown was that
21:18
like was there a reason behind that
21:19
honestly like i feel like it's such a
21:21
fluke that i ended up in morristown but
21:23
i am so grateful that i ended up in
21:25
morristown because not only do i own a
21:27
business here now i also live here i
21:29
walk into town every morning i get
21:31
coffee i love seeing people that i know
21:34
i love that the girl who works at the
21:36
coffee shop knows me i love that the
21:37
smoothie place knows me like i
21:39
i see the same dogs when i walk my dog
21:42
so i feel like um it's such a great
21:45
community here and i'm really happy that
21:47
we ended up here because it feels like
21:49
home yeah no i mean i live here too and
21:51
i walk into town all the time to grab
21:53
whatever sometimes it's a little bit
21:54
stronger than a coffee but
21:56
you know it's it's fantastic so uh so
21:59
take me take us through like if people
22:01
have never been to south pine which you
22:02
haven't if you haven't been you have to
22:04
uh like what can they come to expect
22:06
like let's go let's go broad strokes and
22:08
then we can get a little bit more
22:09
detailed after that all right so i
22:11
always tell people
22:12
i want well i share with the staff that
22:14
i want people to feel like they're
22:15
coming over my house for dinner um and
22:18
so it's just like the food is like how i
22:20
cook for myself it's like mindful yeah
22:23
um but like sometimes it's a little bit
22:26
more comforting it's like a little bit
22:27
more indulgent and sometimes it's a
22:29
little bit lighter but i really based my
22:31
cooking off the season so i would say
22:33
it's a seasonal american
22:35
restaurant that's like a spot where you
22:37
can come three times a week it's not
22:39
pretentious
22:40
but we use really high quality
22:42
ingredients we source from a lot of
22:43
local farms sustainability is very
22:46
important to us making sure that our
22:48
proteins are humanely raised is really
22:50
important to us
22:52
and just making sure that like we're
22:54
supporting other small businesses
22:56
because we're a small business too so um
22:58
we take a lot of pride in things like
23:00
that and and um the produce is always
23:03
like my muse you know what's in season
23:05
now and like we're in winter you know
23:07
it's kind of like meh but like meyer
23:11
lemons
23:12
obsessed caracara oranges i love i'm
23:15
like into all dark leafy greens right
23:17
now but like
23:19
my jam
23:20
summertime
23:21
i live for summer there's so much local
23:23
stuff that we can get in jersey
23:25
from squash to corn to tomatoes i mean
23:29
like melons peaches plums i mean like
23:33
the possibilities are really endless so
23:34
like that's what i that's my
23:37
i long for summer all the time we all do
23:39
who wants this negative six degree
23:41
really to be honest it's terrible honest
23:43
it is yeah no i'm totally on board with
23:45
that but um so when we're talking about
23:46
these seasonal menus are there like
23:48
certain staples of the south and pine
23:50
menu that even if you come in the winter
23:52
or the summer that'll be there yeah
23:53
there's like
23:54
i'm gonna say maybe like seven things
23:57
that always stay on the menu um
24:00
i don't know if we should start with a
24:01
heavy hitter
24:03
yeah go ahead right here polenta fries
24:05
that stays on the menu yeah you
24:07
can't there will be a riot outside if i
24:09
take those off there's polenta fries in
24:11
the window they're extra i'm like guys
24:12
is is this for your tables it's very
24:14
table everybody's like no i'm like okay
24:15
cool gotta go and i like sneak in the
24:17
back by the dishwasher and house it yeah
24:19
um
24:21
if you wouldn't mind going right in the
24:22
kitchen sorry i'm talking to the lady
24:26
she'll sign it for you
24:28
welcome to south and pine um
24:30
so uh polenta fries spicy lime meatballs
24:32
are have been on the menu since day one
24:34
huge seller like even kids love them and
24:36
i actually i don't like lamb i would
24:39
even go as far to say as i despise lamb
24:41
yeah but i like the spicy balls i think
24:43
that they're delicious
24:45
and like you get a lot of funny jokes
24:46
about spicy balls in there which is also
24:48
a lot of fun for me it's also great um
24:51
the fried chicken is always on the menu
24:52
we're on fried chicken 2.0 i'm thinking
24:55
about changing it again
24:58
the burger yeah the burger is
25:01
the burger's salad
25:02
it's a sloppy messy burger but it's like
25:05
a really good burger
25:06
and um
25:08
our salmon has only changed twice but
25:10
our salmon's like one of my favorite
25:11
dishes because it's
25:13
really
25:14
balanced and like really tasty and
25:17
satisfying but also really really good
25:19
for you so i feel like there's always i
25:21
always
25:22
i try listen i'm a chef and i love food
25:24
and i've actually been like on quite a
25:26
bit of a journey over the past
25:28
year myself where i've dropped like 50
25:30
pounds so like i tend to incorporate
25:33
that mentality into my food now but i
25:36
think it's important to have a balanced
25:38
life of like polenta fries and fried
25:40
chicken sometimes and then like grilled
25:42
salmon with brown rice and kimchi and a
25:45
cucumber salad sometimes yeah yeah
25:47
life's all about balance exactly
25:48
anything you can't go too much healthy
25:50
stuff or else you'll be miserable
25:51
correct you know and you need to get
25:52
that little you know a little something
25:54
extra definitely yeah that's why i mean
25:56
every time i come here i don't go for
25:57
the healthy options just to be totally
25:59
straight up but uh
26:01
just
26:02
being honest i don't believe you right
26:03
if i'm going out to dinner
26:05
yeah you're indulging why am i gonna you
26:07
know like i'll just have a salad you
26:09
know it's not gonna it's not gonna
26:10
happen but um but talk to me also about
26:12
kind of like when you're putting
26:13
together these seasonal menus is it kind
26:15
of like a like in this winter when this
26:18
episode comes out i think it's gonna
26:19
post in late february so is this winter
26:22
gonna be the same as last winter or is
26:24
it constantly evolving over the last
26:26
seven years constantly changing we we're
26:28
really fortunate to have a lot of staff
26:30
who's been with us for a long time so
26:31
like changing the menu is great for me
26:34
because we've been here seven years
26:36
almost no i don't want to make the same
26:37
thing every day
26:38
and neither do the cooks and you don't
26:40
want to eat the same thing every time
26:41
you come there so it's always something
26:43
new always something exciting there was
26:45
only one time that i did not do a menu
26:47
change and that was in fall this past
26:49
fall
26:50
because i wasn't here
26:52
for quite some time because i was away
26:54
working on um a project okay that we
26:58
will hopefully be able to discuss soon
27:00
yeah no that would be great um and then
27:03
so are you in the kitchen every night
27:05
not now
27:07
in the beginning i was in the kitchen
27:09
from morning to night and
27:11
um
27:12
now i would say
27:14
you know some weeks i'm not in the
27:15
kitchen some weeks i'm in the kitchen
27:16
for the five days that i'm working it
27:18
kind of depends what's going on are we
27:21
in the middle of a menu change are we
27:23
short staffed
27:24
did somebody call out but
27:26
there's a lot more to running this
27:29
business than just me having blinders
27:32
and being stuck on one station where i
27:35
am usually when i'm here is expediting
27:37
where i can see the food coming up i can
27:40
see the cooks cooking i can correct
27:41
whatever they're doing if it needs to be
27:43
corrected or encourage them when they
27:45
need encouragement but i'm like there's
27:47
two points of control in the restaurant
27:50
one is the host stand and one is the
27:52
kitchen so like if i have somebody solid
27:54
running the door and i'm running the
27:56
kitchen i know that our night is gonna
27:57
go smooth because when you come and tell
27:59
me this table is 30 minutes late i'm
28:01
like yo guys we have to we got to push
28:03
table 25 this is table 25 by the way oh
28:06
cool um
28:07
but don't don't be hating on me when you
28:09
come in here and you tell me push 25
28:12
i think i just blew up my own spot um
28:15
yeah like slow down 25 exactly exactly
28:18
we have like code words and everything
28:20
right um so yeah it's like that like
28:22
there's just i love being able to
28:24
control the front and the back at the
28:26
same time i love that i could see the
28:29
food coming up and control the pace of
28:31
it coming up but also see that there's a
28:33
straw wrapper on the floor and table
28:35
five needs water and table 21 is looking
28:37
around because they're ready for the
28:38
check and there's seven people waiting
28:40
up front because i need this table this
28:42
table on that table to get up like i
28:44
love being the
28:46
the
28:46
circus leader the ring leader
28:49
exactly yeah like that's that is where i
28:52
excel don't get me wrong throw me on
28:54
grill on a saturday night and tie one
28:55
hand behind my back i will murder that
28:57
but
28:58
um like i like to i like to bounce
29:01
around and be available for everybody
29:03
yeah i love that because i mean it's
29:04
it's your place yeah you know and like
29:06
the quality control obviously is a big
29:08
part of it yeah if i come in here you
29:10
know like in the winter and then the
29:11
summer and then one time it sucks and be
29:13
like eh you know i'm like i'm not gonna
29:14
go back you know it's like it all it
29:16
takes is like one bed
29:18
it happens sometimes right but that's
29:20
yeah but i think that's like the nature
29:21
of the thing yeah we try we really try
29:24
to like maintain a certain standard yeah
29:28
i feel like always there's like two
29:30
points in the year where it gets weird
29:32
and it's like when you get all the new
29:33
stuff in the summer time to load up for
29:35
the patio that's a tough time because
29:37
it's training a lot of people yeah and
29:40
then when there's the drop off into
29:42
winter because it's uh what do they say
29:44
like idle time is the devil's oh yeah
29:47
idle minds or idol whatever something
29:48
like that workshop exactly so like when
29:51
it gets slow
29:52
like slow everybody takes a little step
29:55
back and they don't pay attention as
29:56
much so like there's two points in the
29:58
air where we always need to like have a
30:00
lot of pep talks at a lot of staff
30:02
meetings and just you know keep
30:03
everybody informed on the same page and
30:06
we try to have a meeting every day just
30:08
to like talk about what happened
30:10
yesterday and how could we do it better
30:11
today and you know like
30:14
how do we want to be representing
30:16
ourselves as ourselves and also be
30:18
representing this business
30:20
um and tasting the food and educating
30:23
the staff on that and how to talk about
30:25
it and i'll tell them like what clicked
30:27
in my head to create a certain dish and
30:29
then they'll use that at a table to
30:30
describe it to our guests which is
30:32
really important yeah because it carries
30:33
the conversation it's really like a
30:35
story that we want to keep sharing right
30:37
yeah i love that um awesome so this
30:39
episode so far has crushed it uh so
30:41
we're gonna take our second break our
30:43
last break of this episode uh so this is
30:45
the greetings from the gardens day
30:46
podcast i'm mike hammer here at south
30:47
and pine in morristown new jersey with
30:49
chef legacion we'll be right back
30:53
[Music]
30:55
it is time for new jersey fun fact of
30:57
the day did you know that new jersey
30:58
does not have an official state song
31:01
many people think it's i'm from new
31:03
jersey but this has never actually been
31:04
made the official song of the state and
31:07
that is your new jersey fun fact of the
31:09
day
31:11
[Music]
31:13
all right we're back this is our last
31:14
segment of this episode of greetings
31:16
from the garden state podcast uh i'm
31:17
mike ham we are here at south and pine
31:19
in morristown new jersey with chef felia
31:20
gaccione so this episode so far has been
31:22
awesome we've learned about your
31:23
background we learned about the
31:24
background of south and pine kind of
31:26
what would go into someone's experience
31:28
when they come in here for the very
31:29
first time or the 100th time i think
31:31
that's really cool to kind of get a
31:32
behind-the-scenes look at kind of what
31:34
goes on here but our last segment what
31:36
we always like to do is try to see the
31:37
relationship that whatever businessman
31:39
we're talking to has with the community
31:41
and like i mentioned at the beginning
31:43
the in my opinion southampton is one of
31:46
like these staples of the morristown
31:48
community as a whole you know i mean
31:49
it's right next to the mpac it's like
31:51
you know right on south street i think
31:53
it's fantastic the corner of southampton
31:55
there's the name
31:56
see right there i got that one you
31:58
caught it caught on yeah i'm pretty
32:00
quick i can't get much by me um but uh
32:03
let's let's start with when you opened
32:05
the restaurant the community's
32:08
receptiveness to you as a new business
32:10
in town
32:12
yeah i mean i think that they were
32:13
receptive i think it was definitely um
32:17
it's really scary to open a restaurant
32:19
because you
32:21
a don't know what to expect and b
32:24
the success rate of restaurants is very
32:27
small yeah so i remember opening and
32:31
right off the bat we were open seven
32:32
days for lunch and dinner and brunch on
32:34
the weekends
32:36
and like for months we opened in may of
32:38
2015 for months like every weekend i
32:41
would be like why did we open for brunch
32:43
this is awful it is awful yeah i'm like
32:46
at night on the show nights we would do
32:49
great and then the show would start at
32:50
eight o'clock and you could see at 7 45
32:52
the whole restaurant would empty out it
32:54
would fill up at like 6 6 30 the whole
32:56
restaurant would empty out and that
32:57
would be our night one solid hit because
32:59
of the theater
33:00
and um
33:02
like again back in the day i worked
33:04
every day on the line so like
33:06
working a slow brunch like you
33:09
you just want to like blow your brains
33:10
out it's just awful like you're like why
33:12
it's sunday yeah and i'm here stuck here
33:15
and you're probably here until like
33:16
midnight or later or whatever the night
33:18
before exactly yeah so i remember it was
33:21
in april
33:23
uh it was a sunday morning i had to go
33:24
to restaurant depot because we had no
33:26
bacon no arugula and something else so i
33:29
was like i'll go before brunch so
33:32
um
33:33
i parked my car in the back
33:35
and the back door was locked which is
33:36
never locked and so i had to walk up
33:39
pine street
33:40
onto south street and come in through
33:42
the front doors and like as you walk up
33:43
pine tree it's kind of on an incline and
33:45
so like as i got further up like i see
33:48
some heads and then i see more heads and
33:49
then i see the entire patio is full yeah
33:52
and i'm like oh my god and i literally
33:54
started running around the corner and
33:55
running into the kitchen because i was
33:56
like i know i was like this is crazy
33:58
like it was never so busy and from that
34:00
moment on it was like busy busy on the
34:03
weekends busy for brunch
34:05
yeah you can't even get in here like for
34:06
brunch at least you know it's pretty
34:08
mind-blowing like at first i think we
34:10
really relied on the theater to
34:13
get business but i think
34:16
then kind of like people started to know
34:19
what we were about and started to hear
34:20
about us from word of mouth and that
34:22
really helped our reputation and people
34:24
started coming and i mean it's like
34:27
i i seriously can't believe it i
34:29
seriously some days i'm like is this
34:31
really my life yeah like i could cry
34:33
about it i'm so
34:35
grateful
34:36
because like this is what i love and i'm
34:38
able to do it because this community
34:41
allows me to we are successful for two
34:43
reasons one because of the people who
34:45
dine with us and two because of the
34:47
people who work with us and like if it
34:49
weren't for those two things we wouldn't
34:50
be who we are and so like it's really
34:53
it's really mind-blowing yeah i love
34:55
that it just it's so it's so cool to
34:57
think about it too because like at first
34:59
you weren't even sure if you even wanted
35:00
to start your own restaurant then you
35:02
kind of like i guess for lack of a
35:04
better phrase fell ass backwards into
35:06
this particular restaurant and now here
35:07
we are seven years later and just
35:09
crushing it yeah yeah crazy yeah crazy
35:12
um so also we like to kind of talk about
35:15
the relationship that you can through
35:17
the reverse now so like i mean i know
35:18
that you guys are active in the
35:19
community you do a lot of stuff for the
35:21
community because i feel like that
35:22
reverse you know the back and forth is
35:24
very important um so take me through
35:26
maybe like some things that you've been
35:27
doing over the last you could even do
35:28
the last couple years obviously that was
35:30
a pretty significant time in all of our
35:32
lives so maybe some things that you did
35:33
to try to like give back and make sure
35:35
that you were supporting the same
35:36
community that also supports you yeah so
35:38
i think like listening to the community
35:40
is really important and i think over the
35:42
past two years we've really solidified
35:45
our relationship with morristown
35:47
um because up until this point like i
35:49
was never really big on like doing
35:51
videos on instagram but when march of
35:53
2020 hit like that was the only way for
35:56
us to communicate and i think because of
35:58
that um like
36:00
i became more the identity of this
36:03
restaurant than the restaurant being my
36:05
identity right um so
36:08
i saw some post on instagram that was
36:10
like hey like what do you need for
36:12
morristown businesses during the
36:13
pandemic
36:15
i'm like i saw people's responses but
36:16
then i was like wait a second i'm like
36:17
there's long lines at grocery stores
36:19
right now where people are like waiting
36:21
in the cold i was like what if i did a
36:23
grocery program and so we started a
36:24
grocery program two days a week that
36:26
turned into three days a week
36:28
and i felt really happy that we were
36:30
able to offer something to the community
36:33
to help them but they could offer us
36:36
their business
36:37
which literally saved us yeah like so i
36:40
feel like we were working hand-in-hand
36:42
with each other and helping each other
36:44
um
36:45
also like working with other local
36:47
businesses is really important so
36:49
south street yoga um obviously we were
36:52
all really struggling during the
36:53
pandemic and we were looking at ways to
36:55
like join forces to be stronger and so
36:58
we decided to do on saturday mornings
37:00
yoga on our patio and then we would do
37:02
brunch to go and that was one thing that
37:04
we've done too
37:05
hey
37:06
be quiet sorry take control of what's
37:09
going on here
37:11
who is back there right now
37:13
um
37:14
everything is fine
37:16
so um come this far we gotta get to the
37:18
finish line yeah um another cool thing
37:20
about like this community is that like
37:22
they wanted to help us
37:24
so much and so jeff hague started this
37:27
facebook group that was called the
37:28
morristown eat out twice a week stimulus
37:30
plan which was
37:31
single-handedly saved morristown
37:33
businesses in my opinion and he got a
37:36
lot of traction behind that and um the
37:38
mayor tim dougherty
37:40
started this campaign that was like a
37:42
gofundme campaign for small businesses
37:44
in morristown
37:45
and i wasn't sure if we were going to be
37:47
able to if we were even going to need
37:49
the money but like i didn't know what
37:51
was going to happen because in march of
37:52
2020
37:54
i was like borderline suicidal because i
37:56
thought i was gonna lose everything like
37:58
i was scared that i was going to lose
38:00
everything so you just didn't know what
38:02
was going to happen next and so um you
38:05
know we started this thing we raised 9
38:07
000 on it and
38:09
we didn't need the money and so i
38:10
donated it to a local organization
38:12
because we could and because we should
38:15
and i mean even now we're closed for
38:19
renovation for three weeks like
38:22
the community is not only the people who
38:24
dine here the community is us who work
38:26
here like
38:27
i
38:28
am so grateful to be able to have paid
38:31
our staff for the past three weeks yeah
38:33
they're full salaries yeah for and they
38:35
can take a vacation because they've
38:37
worked so hard over the past two years
38:39
right like that makes me feel so good
38:41
yeah it like literally
38:44
i feel so fulfilled
38:46
to be able to do that for all of them
38:48
yeah i don't know it's just uh it's like
38:50
makes me feel warm and fuzzy yeah it
38:51
makes me feel warm and fuzzy i'm sure
38:52
everybody listened in the same way good
38:54
um so that this has been awesome so if
38:56
people uh want to come eat here what is
38:59
the address
39:01
90 south street in morristown highly
39:03
recommend making a reservation
39:06
there's a link on our website through
39:07
rezzy where you can make a reservation
39:09
for i think it's like parties of six or
39:11
less if it's a party of six or more then
39:13
you should call the restaurant um
39:17
definitely make a reservation what's the
39:18
website southandpine.com
39:21
instagram is south and pine
39:23
um
39:25
i'm making my instagram public today oh
39:29
wow i know
39:31
i know how i feel about that yeah i mean
39:33
it's it's a it's a different kind of
39:34
world you get like a lot of different
39:36
kind of stuff coming through she said
39:38
i'm not sure i understand i'm not sure i
39:40
understand
39:42
that should be interesting but um
39:45
yeah i mean
39:46
uh
39:47
this has been a wild ride and
39:49
you know i can't believe we're seven
39:51
years in and i feel like we haven't even
39:53
hit our potential yet like it's it's
39:56
cool that we could all keep evolving
39:58
it's cool that we kind of did a little
39:59
refresh and it's like south and pine 2.0
40:02
and it's so much brighter in here like
40:04
that's one thing that i noticed when i
40:06
walked in i think the floors i think the
40:08
floors the lights just make it like yeah
40:10
yeah i love it yeah definitely it'll be
40:12
better when we get those heat heaters
40:13
out of the way out there because there's
40:15
a lot of natural light but yeah it's
40:16
really exciting and
40:18
you know
40:19
we had to do a little update seven year
40:21
itch right exactly you got to get into
40:23
like a midlife crisis
40:26
i got a new boot we're good we're good
40:28
now i love it yeah um awesome so i'll
40:30
make sure that i put the address the
40:31
website the social handles all in the uh
40:34
in the show notes um along with
40:35
greetings from thegardenstate.com which
40:37
is the hub for the show um chef thank
40:39
you so much for coming on with us today
40:40
this was i mean i had high hopes for
40:43
this and this just blew them all out of
40:45
the water because this is one of my
40:46
favorite spots in town so thank you very
40:49
much yeah i really appreciate you having
40:50
me here and i can't wait for you guys to
40:52
get back open because i will be here 100
40:55
so i appreciate you inviting me to do
40:57
this with you this was really cool yeah
40:58
absolutely so much fun and everybody
41:00
else thank you for listening and we will
41:02
catch you next week
41:07
[Applause]
41:11
[Music]
41:19
[Applause]
41:19
this yeah
41:22
[Music]
41:37
you
