James Lee: O.G. Washington Heights Restauranteur

In this episode of Uptown Voices, Led Black and Octavio Blanco sit down with James Lee, the proprietor of 181/Cabrini, to discuss the evolution of nightlife and the restaurant industry in Washington Heights, particularly in the wake of COVID-19. They reflect on the community aspect of dining, the challenges of running a restaurant, and the impact of gentrification. James shares insights on the importance of maintaining quality in food and service, the dynamics of local businesses, and the role of community in fostering a vibrant neighborhood. The conversation also touches on political engagement and the future of Washington Heights as a unique cultural hub.

Takeaways
COVID-19 has drastically changed nightlife and restaurant dynamics.
Community engagement is crucial for the success of local businesses.
Quality food and service are essential for customer loyalty.
Gentrification impacts the cultural fabric of neighborhoods.
Running a restaurant requires grit and resilience.
The restaurant business is not as glamorous as it seems.
Maintaining a diverse clientele is key to survival.
Local businesses thrive on regular customers during slow months.
The importance of creating a welcoming atmosphere in restaurants.
Political engagement is vital for community representation.

Chapters
00:00 Introduction to James Lee and His Journey
02:56 The Impact of COVID-19 on Nightlife and Restaurants
05:53 Buddha Beer Bar: A Community Hub
08:46 Understanding the Neighborhood Dynamics of Washington Heights
12:00 James Lee's Background and Restaurant Philosophy
14:34 The Reality of Running a Restaurant
17:58 Creating a Sense of Community in the Restaurant
20:43 Adapting to COVID-19: Challenges and Innovations
23:54 The Importance of Local Community and Regulars
27:42 The Rise of Anti-Social Behavior
30:48 Community and Connection in Urban Spaces
32:37 Political Discourse and the Future of Leadership
37:26 Disillusionment with Political Figures
44:39 The Broken System and Its Consequences
48:23 Economic Challenges and Neighborhood Dynamics

Creators and Guests

Host

Led Black

Host

Octavio Blanco

What is Uptown Voices?

A podcast focused on the Uptown neighborhoods of Inwood, Washington Heights and Harlem. Our neighborhoods have a voice and we want to be heard and felt. We love Uptown.

Each episode will elevate the people here who are making a difference in the life of this community. We’re also committed to “real talk” that seeks solutions that improve the quality of life in our beautiful Uptown neighborhoods.

Led Black (00:41)
Yo, yo, what up everyone? It's another episode of Uptown Voices, me and my brother Octavio Blanco. And this is a special episode, because this is one of my favorite restaurateurs uptown. I've known him for a while. We go way back. Super smart. He's kind of an NBA hater, but ⁓ he's the proprietor of my local bar. And that's really not a lie. I spend a lot of time there. I give this man a lot of my money. So I'd to welcome to the show James Lee, the proprietor of What He Want Cabrini that it is on.

One A One Cabrini. James, how you doing, brother?

James Lee (01:13)
How you guys doing? You alright?

Led Black (01:14)
Doing good,

Octavio Blanco (01:15)
Yeah, good, good. Yeah, I was gonna say, we always, you always say, this is a special guest, but this is an extra, extra special guest. I mean, James.

Led Black (01:21)
Yeah, for real.

James Lee (01:24)
Don't believe the hype y'all,

don't believe the hype.

Led Black (01:25)
Hahaha

Octavio Blanco (01:27)
Yo, James, also go way back to James. I've been a staunch supporter, but I stopped drinking about five years ago. And so I think James must've seen that in his books. All of a sudden there was a sharp decline. ⁓

Led Black (01:40)
He saw the dent.

James Lee (01:40)
A lot of ⁓ people have stopped drinking last five years, dude. It's called COVID. The reality

Led Black (01:46)
But, yeah.

James Lee (01:49)
is that people have, like, honestly, COVID, people touch a lot of death. People experience death in so many different ways. And people say, you know what, no mas. All right, give me that.

Led Black (02:00)
I agree. Yeah,

Octavio Blanco (02:00)
Yeah.

Led Black (02:02)
I think if you, don't think we, nightlife, and nothing has recovered since then. It's gotten closed, but it's not recovered, right? Like, you know, at 11 o'clock on a Friday night, Washington Heights was jumping. That's not the case now, every Friday night no more. You know what mean? So, ⁓

James Lee (02:08)
No.

yeah.

No, it's

not like that anymore, man. The world has changed.

Led Black (02:19)
Yeah, and mean, and again, how does it been navigating that for you as a restaurateur?

Octavio Blanco (02:20)
Yeah.

James Lee (02:23)
Well, I mean the writing was on the wall, man. Seriously, like you saw this when I had Buddha Beer Bar. You saw people didn't interact, people, younger kids. I mean, the whole bar business is based on young people coming through socializing at bars, but that just that part just kind of evaporated literally. I always tell people it's like young people, what do they do? They work, come home, smoke weed, Uber eats.

and rinse and repeat. mean, they don't drink as much.

Led Black (02:50)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (02:51)
Yeah, yeah.

James Lee (02:54)
They smoke a lot more weed.

Led Black (02:54)
And

you brought a Buddha Beer Bar. We gotta say rest in peace to Buddha Beer Bar. Buddha Beer Bar was a super special place. I really had a lot of love for that because that was right by my mom's house. I spent a lot of time there too, man. I really liked that place.

James Lee (03:02)
yeah, that's a lot, man.

Because

it was a place, I didn't do anything special. was just a downtown place with a huge beer selection that was uptown. And I always tell this, and I've told you this before, it's really weird in the sense that it's Dominican without being Dominican and it's very accepting of who everybody was in the neighborhood. Whoever was there was there. And it was just like, the thing about Dominicans as a whole is that they want to be around other Dominicans, but they don't want the whole reggaeton sometimes.

Octavio Blanco (03:20)
Yeah.

Led Black (03:28)
Right, agree. Right.

Right. Something different, an alternative. Yeah. Right. Yeah, I love...

James Lee (03:39)
They just wanted to hang, just wanted the other Dominicans to just chill. But that was the whole thing. It was a special

Octavio Blanco (03:45)
and

and

James Lee (03:45)
place.

Led Black (03:46)
I love Buda because first of all, the draft selection was crazy, right? And then you go watch your sports happy. It was big enough that it could be really jumping. But also, and I think I gotta give you credit, because for all, you have like a signature as well with the food. Like the food is always top-notch. Like you always pick the right bread. And I think that's what made Buda Beer Bar great. That it was kind of this, yeah, I can have a great beer, but I'm eating some really good food. Like why is that important to you?

James Lee (03:49)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (04:01)
Mm-hmm.

James Lee (04:12)
You know, it's not even important to me. It's just what I am because I just don't think that I think that it doesn't take much more price or effort to do little more than you can. Like it's like at Buddha Beer Bar, I always used organic wings for the longest time, little more expensive, but at the same time, it just made things right. And whatever you do, just it's not like you just, you just want to be like honest with yourself. When you go home and say, you know what? I did what I can.

I'm not ripping people off. This is what it is. And that's it, you know? They don't like it, screw it. If they do, they do. That's it, you know?

Octavio Blanco (04:46)
Well,

people do like it. My friend, still raves about your grilled wings that you had at Buddha Beer Bar. She's still like, she wants to come to, she comes to...

181 and she's always like do you have those do you have those wings do you have them because she remembers that and for her that was like a big deal and for me I I loved I loved the Buddha bar because Like you say, I mean it was right on Broadway. So, you know for those of for those people who may not know You know a lot of people uptown do know a lot of our viewers do know but we've got viewers from all over the world but here ⁓ in Uptown Broadway splits our neighborhood. So everything that's ⁓

basically east of what of Broadway is heavily heavily Dominican and everything that's ⁓ West of Broadway is a little bit more ⁓ gentrified and diverse ⁓ And so what was cool about Buddha bar was it was like right there smack dab on Broadway and so you got a real taste of the whole neighborhood and it catered to everybody so I always appreciated that and it was a fun place

Led Black (05:52)
Yeah. And I think, think it also, yeah.

And it made that little, it made the, that little, that block really cool, right? Because across the street you had apartment 78 and you had locksmith and it's like, so, so if you went to one, you will go to cross the street to one. And it was just, I love that thing, but I have a story Octavia that you don't know about Buddha beer bar. All right. James knows this story. So my boy 40, I get a call from my boy 40, like at three o'clock in the morning.

Octavio Blanco (06:12)
Okay.

James Lee (06:13)
His boy,

his boy, his boy.

Led Black (06:20)
He's like, yo, lead, you're not gonna believe this. He said, I went to the bathroom and booed a beer bar, right? And when I came out, I was locked in. So I was like, what? He's like, yeah, so he's taking pictures, he me pictures. He's in the bar by himself. He's like, it's the funniest ever. He's drinking like, so then I was like, but I didn't wanna call James like at three o'clock. So I waited like two hours. I was like, hey, James, how you doing, brother? By the way, my friend, what happened that day? Do you know what happened, James?

Octavio Blanco (06:21)
Ha ha ha!

Hahaha!

James Lee (06:36)
Tricky Paps!

Yeah.

You know, I don't know like honestly like no no no blood no foul. That's really the reality Okay, cuz he was not calling the fire department He was probably stoned out of mind and he just like he just basically said you know what it is What it is? I know they're gonna let me out. So I got a bathroom. I got some beers I'm just gonna chill for a while and that's exactly what happened. Eventually we opened it up. He walked up. That's exactly what happened

Led Black (06:52)
Right. Charge it to the

Octavio Blanco (06:55)
Hahaha!

Led Black (07:09)
I agree.

And

he lived right up the hill so he just went...

James Lee (07:14)
It really was no blood, no foul, man. It was really no blood, no foul. I mean, he just did a point

Octavio Blanco (07:17)
That.

James Lee (07:20)
like, and I'm like thinking this situation like, either he got passed out, you know, there's so much that happens at a bar on a regular basis, because you have interaction, not just between customers, but customers, employees, and you have all this complicated relationship. I always tell people about restaurants, neighborhood restaurants. It's really the relationship, not just about the place, but

Led Black (07:27)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

James Lee (07:43)
about the people that come in there and the people that work there and whatever kind of function or dysfunction of that relationship comes out of it, that's what becomes a restaurant. And so how you hire people, I always hire people, usually most of my staff and this is always uptown because first it's easier that they'll stay longer. Second of all, they understand the groove of the place. Uptown runs different than Brooklyn, Midtown.

Led Black (07:54)
Right.

Right.

James Lee (08:12)
It just runs different. If you don't understand that, you don't understand the neighborhood. That's how I see it.

Led Black (08:16)
That's facts. That's

Octavio Blanco (08:16)
Okay, well,

Led Black (08:17)
facts.

Octavio Blanco (08:18)
explain that to me a little bit more. How does Uptown run different? How do you see it? Like, what's one way that it, or what's a way that it runs different?

James Lee (08:27)
Well, let's say that rather divides the place. So that's definitely true. There is a sense of like.

There are some Dominicans and there's some people who've been here longer who just want to be the way it is and there's some people that understand that this is almost like a trend like this is almost like a gateway to Gentrification or gateway to the other culture of not Dominican like through all the 80s you saw like Castle Village and all these neighbors means a solid block of neighborhoods that kind of helped this whole neighborhood stay afloat and what happens is that it becomes

Like I always say, the Washington Heights is the last real neighborhood in Manhattan. You have everybody that's still here in the sense of like you still see the struggling artists, you still see the old Dominican neighborhood, you see the a lot of people move in and out, but it's still a real neighborhood. The other places are just transplants of all other places. And I just think that's very interesting in that way. Like I always tell people this and people are going to get pissed off about this, but I'll say this, right? You know,

Led Black (09:04)
Thanks.

Yeah.

James Lee (09:27)
This concept of gentrification in New York City is very weird because every neighborhood in New York City was Irish, Jewish, Thai. Every neighborhood. Before black people, white people, whoever, other people came in. it has a sense of like, I don't know, it's like Washington Heights kind of understands that. Like before the Dominicans were here, the Cubans were here. The Cubans were the Latinos in this neighborhood. And everybody just kind of goes through the system and it's a real neighborhood.

Led Black (09:51)
Bye.

James Lee (09:54)
The Greeks were here. A lot of these people were here before. So I think that's the beauty of Washington Heights. People know that it's a really real neighborhood.

Led Black (09:57)
Yeah.

You know, it's funny, James, that this is a fun fact for you that you may not know this, that Octavio and I actually had our first like physical, like we first met at your restaurant, you know what mean? Which is amazing. Yeah. You know, I think that there's a testament to where your restaurant is, right? Like what you're talking about, you can feel it, right? And again, it goes down to personnel. You have people there at One-A-One Cabrini that like been there for a long time. They're like, you know, that I know, you know what I mean? That are really, and almost it's to a person.

James Lee (10:13)
Yeah. I know that. Yeah.

Led Black (10:32)
the solid people, Darryl who used to be there. mean, everyone you have solid people. I can see, you know, I can see the quality control and the food and the people and all that. And you create a vibe, you know, and I really thank you that, man, because it's not easy to create a neighborhood joint. Like it's a neighborhood joint.

James Lee (10:48)
Because

it's it's not it's not like it's who I am and what the neighborhood is it's just People who are they are I mean, it's just like, know You're gonna work if you live in the neighborhood. You should appreciate the neighborhood if not move somewhere else. That's what I say, you know, some for some people and I know this this is so some people coming from Midwest or anywhere or Brooklyn they hate the Heights, but they're here just because of the

Led Black (11:03)
Right. Right, I agree.

Octavio Blanco (11:05)
Hahaha

James Lee (11:15)
Bred Room Community, because this is what they can afford and what they... Okay, so you're gonna move on, that's fine. But the people that are here and they like it, it is what it is.

Led Black (11:21)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Octavio Blanco (11:31)
And you've

been here for quite a while. tell me, yeah, and what drew you to Washington Heights? Because you not only opened a business, but you've established roots. You have a son, and you have a wife, and your family, and everything.

James Lee (11:34)
Yeah, I've been here for 18 years.

Yeah, what happened was that Fred Meijer, he has a place down by the water and I visited him one time and he always told me, come up here. This is when I was living in Upper West Side. I said, it's way too far, man. Yo, dude, I ain't doing triple digits. And then I came up here and there was a forensic and then from that point on, I just called the people said, you know, hey, ⁓ I'm in the restaurant business.

They called me up and I and I rented a place and I put a place in and the thing is that I always say this about myself like and this is the truth I'm just a ghetto restaurateur. I'm the marginal guy like you know I just like I'm on the fringe because I look for the good rent and the before it turns Before it turns before it turns expensive before the neighborhood turns or you know like I think the reality is like back to Buddha beer bar the success of Buddha bureau was that

Led Black (12:24)
I like that.

James Lee (12:40)
It was just a normal place that can go without being overwhelmed by reggaeton or anything else. It was a show, you had to get dressed up. Just go there and just, okay, I'm out. I get some wings, I get some beers, and I go home. Just like a typical experience you get downtown. But it was hard to get back then because back then was like you had to show. You get dressed up to go out. And then I just go in after work, go get some wings and beer and go home.

Led Black (12:47)
Right.

Yeah. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (13:06)
Yeah, I mean, I remember that your neighbor up there was ⁓ a place called Arca Lounge, which I went to a couple times, but that was a real like...

James Lee (13:07)
That's it.

yeah.

Octavio Blanco (13:16)
It's strange because you know, Washington Heights and uptown and Inwood and you know, it's a pretty pretty blue collar neighborhood, but a lot of these clubs that they took their clubbing seriously like you have to be you have to be dressed up and and it was nice then you didn't have to do that to go because you just want to go out for a few hours and and and go have a good time. ⁓ It was it really does ⁓ satisfy that so.

Do you have any like business background or are you fully a food guy? how did you, like there is something to be said about running and managing a successful restaurant. Restaurants are really a tough business to keep going. So tell me a little bit about your...

about your background, it's in business, if it's not, what's your philosophy ⁓ about running a good restaurant?

James Lee (14:14)
I'm I was born in Korea. I was raised in Canada. I didn't want to live in New York I just came here because my sister is here, but I didn't want to live and die in Toronto. So I came here and then But my first restaurant for a first job out of college was only a restaurant in Toronto Just cuz I didn't know options. I didn't have a job anything else My uncle was selling his and then so I got into that world and then I came here I was in banking and then I kind of floated around got into back into the restaurant business

I mean the thing with the restaurant business that you have to have a couple of expectations. It has to be part of your life. You can't think that I'm going to do 16 hours a day. This is like, oh, I'm just going to this for 16 hours a day. You have to understand that it's not a place where you make a shitload of money. It's also a situation where like it's a grind. As long as you understand that you're good. But people, so many of you are going to this fact like, oh, they got it. You think they got to get make a ton of money. It's busy. It's not.

I mean, all that is just irrelevant. You just have to kind of deal with like the ins and outs and ups and downs every day and then you're a writer. But if you have unrealistic goals, you're like, why am I doing this for?

Led Black (15:16)
Yeah,

you know it's so funny you say that because a lot of people think, I think everyone has like a romantic idea. I'm on a restaurant and it's gonna be like great and I'm gonna go and eat and just be the boss but not do anything and it's the opposite like all the dramas yours. James, how long have you guys been open now? Since 2010, 2009?

James Lee (15:25)
No.

yeah.

No,

wait, oh, it's Yeah, 17 years. Yeah, well also what I reason why I opened this place was Once the reason why I did this is I had a kid coming up and I said, know Gonna make a little more money. I've established by myself more so before that I had four restaurants I had I had a place Three places in Harlem. I had a place in Times Square. You know, I've been through gamut, you know and

Led Black (15:37)
Wow.

Octavio Blanco (15:37)
Yeah.

Led Black (15:40)
That's a big deal. That's impressive. That's impressive. That's a big deal.

James Lee (16:00)
What I actually really enjoy is the buildup process. I can really build up restaurants. But the regular grind of running a restaurant between who's not showing up, this, this, it's a grind. It's just a grind. It ain't glorious. It ain't glorious at all, man. It ain't glorious.

Led Black (16:18)
But you know what is funny James, you're part of that bar, you're there, you tease everybody, you mess with people, me and you argue about the NBA.

James Lee (16:23)
yeah. yeah, all the jetpans,

Octavio Blanco (16:27)
hahahaha

Led Black (16:29)
my

God, you're gonna get flack for that.

James Lee (16:30)
That my fault that your team sucks,

okay?

Octavio Blanco (16:33)
hahahaha

Led Black (16:35)
Wow, wow, I didn't expect the Jets hate, okay. ⁓

Octavio Blanco (16:38)
Okay,

James Lee (16:39)
What? They

Octavio Blanco (16:39)
alright.

James Lee (16:40)
got the perfect record bro!

Led Black (16:42)
Hahaha!

that's too funny, But you know, but I'll say one thing though, like I gotta go back to the food. Like there really is excellence there. you know, I think I say it's the best steak sandwich uptown. I love your steak sandwich. Remember when you didn't have it on the menu, I was like, yo, you need to bring it back. You know.

James Lee (16:46)
But it's true, you know.

Octavio Blanco (16:46)
Jeez, yeah.

James Lee (17:02)
Yeah, but

the thing is you know what the thing is honestly like I don't like If you go to Peru you go to these places a real food capital Like you really see the care that they put in as long as you put a little bit carry all right But I think most places just don't have that and then you know I've been through a lot of kitchen guys But you know I stuff guys been with me for 16 years 10 years 12 years 7 years

Led Black (17:26)
Wow.

James Lee (17:29)
But there's a certain expectations that I expect from these guys and they kind of expect that you know Because that's why I still cook once a week just to say hey, know, I guess you this is this is I'll do it. You know, just I'll do it because there you know like and then Once you kind of like said that hey, you know, let's let's just try to be good at this at least, you know Just try man. That's all this don't don't schlop. Just just try that's all expect the kids You guys all know that they don't like, you know, they're not it's not it's not perfect every order. I'm not gonna lie about that

Led Black (17:57)
Right.

James Lee (17:57)
As long as they're

trying, hey, we got something. That's all it is. That's all I expect. As long as guys know what they expect, that they're trying, and they put some love into it, that's all we need. And everything is irrelevant.

Led Black (18:01)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (18:01)
Well.

Led Black (18:06)
Yeah, man.

Octavio Blanco (18:06)
Well,

also, you I'm a big fan. I love your nachos. I'm Mexican and you know, they're not, mean, nachos are not a Mexican food. They're an American food, but your nachos and the guacamole is like so good. you the meat that you can have it with the meat, without the meat. ⁓

One thing about your restaurant is just like, what stands apart is that unfortunately, especially uptown, I don't know if you, Led or James are gonna agree with me, but a lot of restaurants are just like, you go and it's just like, you know, maybe I'll go back. Nah, I don't know. It was okay. It was edible. You know, it's not like you leave thinking, wow, that was a special experience. And what's cool about

Led Black (18:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mm.

Octavio Blanco (18:53)
you James and your restaurants because Buddha Bar was the same was even though it was like a regular place to go you don't have to get dressed up and you don't have to like do something special the service the food the the the atmosphere

was really special, is really special. Like you left feeling like, man, that food was good. I want to go back. can't wait to go back. And that's just not the case in a lot of restaurants ⁓ uptown. And I would say maybe a lot of restaurants everywhere. So kudos to that.

Led Black (19:13)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and for Buddha Be a Buddha,

I closed that place down several times with my peoples. Like, we would stay there till like the chairs are going up. Like, okay, I guess we gotta leave, you know what mean? But that's the thing.

James Lee (19:36)
I knew you're bring that story about your friend your boy 40 in

locked in. I'll say what the Yeah ⁓

Led Black (19:42)
sent me pictures, he's like on the bar, he's just like pretending, he's got a head by the tap, like it's just the funniest shit ever. I was like, how do I call

James? Hey James, my friend is in your bar, he's locked in. I really think, I think you're right. I think he was super high and super drunk and I think he lingered longer than he wanted to in the bathroom and you know, yeah, yeah.

James Lee (19:51)
I, I, I, that was so long ago.

Yeah.

That's exactly what I think would happen. Because

he wasn't like passed out. He was just like, he just got super high and he just lost time.

Led Black (20:11)
and one too many beers, you know what mean? Those craft beers that hit you. It's funny, because you have, I think one of my birthdays, I was at Buddha Beer Bar, and you had a thing, ⁓ a beer called Total System Shutdown.

Octavio Blanco (20:24)
Hahaha!

James Lee (20:25)
that was

double digits to ABV. That was some strong stuff.

Led Black (20:29)
five of those and then I don't remember the rest of the night it was horrible I was

Dead the next day, like, oh my God. But I love Buddha Beer Bar. But what I'm saying, Jay, is like, you create like this place for people. Like, because I do it at One in One Cabrini, too. Like, I run into Juan, Juan Ignacio Rosa, who's my brother. And then he'll come. My wife will come down. Mariela come down. And next thing you know, like, we're closing it. know? that's, but that feels like home in a way. Like, your restaurants feel like an extension of home, man. So thank you for creating that.

James Lee (21:01)
There's one, I

haven't seen him in while man, I haven't seen one, he's alright?

Led Black (21:03)
I haven't seen Juan in a

minute. Yeah, I think he's okay. think, you know, the pressure of work, you know, he's in this Trump economy and then Trump, know, you know what mean? I think, I think he's, it's, and especially in his line of work. But yeah, we got to get, we got to actually get Juan on the show. Juan Ignacio Rosa is a really, really dope young brother, you know, been involved with politics. Just one of the, one of just super smart. So we should have him on. Super character. Yeah. Yeah. Him and, him and James just snap on each other and it's just, it's hilarious. It's hilarious.

James Lee (21:09)
⁓ my god.

Juan's a character. He's a character.

Octavio Blanco (21:29)
hahahaha

James Lee (21:29)
Yeah, damn you wanna

you wanna just see your podcast when me him go at it. It's pretty funny

He's always got something to say.

Octavio Blanco (21:38)
So when COVID hit, let's bring it back to COVID, because a lot of places didn't survive. And when COVID hit, and you said you saw the writing on the wall, but restaurants had to reimagine what

a restaurant was gonna do. Like for a while there, we were all locked in our homes and restaurateurs were, you know, ⁓ the workforce that was allowed to leave the house, you know? They were, Essential workers. So did you already have your like,

James Lee (22:10)
Thank you, workers.

Led Black (22:11)
essential

workers.

Octavio Blanco (22:16)
you know, delivery and ordering and all that in place, or was that a hurry up offense to get that going to a place where you could survive?

James Lee (22:26)
No, I didn't have that. mean, just it was just constant bleeding. I mean, was just nobody knew what was happening. It was just crazy. I mean, at a certain point, like, you know, I dug deep into my savings. It was just crazy. I lost a shitload of money. I mean, it was how do you say this? It wasn't I don't think anybody's prepared for that. Even if you had delivery service. I know some guys made bank, but.

It was just at the beginning. Nobody knew what the hell was happening. Nobody knew it was ever going to go back. Let's be honest. It was going to be two months, one month, four months, 10 months. Nobody knew that. mean, it was just like, you know, it was the end of the world, you know, it was like the, you know, the plan of the apes, the last scene with the statue of Liberty, you know.

Led Black (23:03)
Mm-hmm, for sure.

for real.

No, you're right. But what's interesting, James, is like, it becomes pivot or plummet, right? And you pivot it, right? Because, you know, during the pandemic, 101 Cabrinha became a place that you could go because you had the outside area. You know what I mean? And it was smart. You know, you would get the little to go things and you adapted it. And again, not many people could adapt. And, you know, it's testament to your leadership too, man. Like give yourself some credit, you know?

Octavio Blanco (23:10)
Yeah, I know, but it was true.

James Lee (23:34)
think that the whole like restaurant guys in general are pretty feisty guys. Because if you on a regular basis, if you can't survive the regular grind of it, there's no way you're going to survive COVID. You have to be pretty gritty. You have to be gritty to survive the restaurant business in New York City. And then you have the whole COVID on top of that and you're just like, what the fuck? That's what it comes down to, you know? But you know, it's one of those things like

Led Black (23:45)
Right.

James Lee (24:03)
I always tell people that in the restaurant business for me, my whole life is like one dinner rush and one lunch rush. And after that, it's over. Then it just happens again. Then it happens again. Then it happens again. It's not like I can't like, yeah, it's just like, it's just what it is. It just keeps going on and on. Like my whole life is one big dinner rush. And I was just like, okay, this is happens. But that's how life works, know? And it's seven days a week is the grind and nothing really kind of.

Led Black (24:12)
It's like Groundhog Day.

James Lee (24:29)
Rates it like until kovat happened kovat just broke everything and at that point you're like trying to figure out the math But the math didn't work

Led Black (24:33)
Bye.

But what's interesting is that a lot of the people that I saw at 181 Cabrini prior to COVID, I still see them now at 181 Cabrini. Because you have community there and you've created community, right? Which is amazing.

James Lee (24:44)
yeah, mean, this is...

Yeah, it is

a community. mean for Thanksgiving I do a community for the deep-fried turkey. I do the whole meal for them. I do open the bar. I've always done that for years. you know, I don't know at this point, like you can't think that I'm gonna be rich out of this place. Just can't. It's just work. It's just a business and that's all it is. You know?

Octavio Blanco (25:09)
Yeah,

but it's more than that to us because we appreciate you being there. one of the things we had, we had, the co-owner ⁓ of Kugens,

Dave Hunt. Yeah, we had Dave.

Led Black (25:23)
Dave Hunt? Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (25:25)
We have Dave Hunt on the show and and one of the things that he said that I appreciate and I think, you know, it's what you do. It's like he said, yeah, you can.

focus on trying to bring in new clients as much as you want. But what Dave Hunt also said was you really got to focus on the clients that you already have and keep those returning clients coming back. And that's really, really, you know, more important even because that's your that's those are people that you can like depend on, you know, so, so, so, you know, like the things that you do are creating a community and ensuring that ⁓

folks like me and folks like Led keep coming back, you know, it's really important.

James Lee (26:07)
Yeah, well that's that's

always a case. That's always a case. It's, know, January, February, your locals, your your your regulars hold you through those months because it depends how cold January, February is in New York City. You don't know where you're to be. But I mean, that's all true. But I like I always tell people this now. New York City, when I came here 30 years ago, you had. We had the shoemaker that you said hi to, even though you only went to him once a month. But now what do you really have in the community now? You have.

Led Black (26:19)
Interesting.

James Lee (26:33)
Barber shops, bodegas, coffee shops, and bars and restaurants. That's all you have. That's the only corner. So no one even goes to dry cleaning anymore. That's all you have. That's all you have now. know, barbershops is also salons, the same thing. But like, that's really your only community sense of community you have. Nobody goes to the local store to buy a t-shirt. Nobody goes to get the shoes fixed. Very few people get dry cleaning anymore.

Led Black (26:41)
Bye.

Octavio Blanco (26:42)
That's true.

James Lee (27:00)
What do you really have now?

Led Black (27:01)
Bye.

James Lee (27:01)
mean, supermarkets are not it. You don't really have any community. That's what that's that is the real real problem with New York City and any community. This concept of community, which is the most dying factor in the modern society is community is the fact that there's no place anymore.

Led Black (27:03)
But I mean, right.

Right.

Octavio Blanco (27:19)
Yeah, the third space, your third spaces, that kind of thing. They just...

James Lee (27:20)
There isn't.

Yeah, the third space.

that interaction on a day. I mean, now with Uber Eats, these people don't even want that. They just want to go home, close the door, smoke weed or just hang out and just order Uber Eats, watch Netflix, rent and recycle. That's all it is, That's what they want.

Octavio Blanco (27:43)
It's,

Uber Eats has an option, has an option that you can like ask them to just put your food on the doorknob. So you don't even have to interact with the, with the delivery person. It's crazy.

James Lee (27:52)
Yeah. You know, they don't want that. They don't want

that. I mean, the whole concept of what we're going through is this anti-social reality is going to come back and bite us in the ass because especially the way society is going, it's like young kids don't know how to talk to other people. And it's a very anti-social society.

Led Black (28:14)
Yeah, it's funny you say that.

I don't know you saw that there was one of these young tech kids, made a thing, he has those ads called Friend. Do you need a friend? Have you seen that? And basically, so basically he's selling this thing that costs like $300 and it's a chain that you wear and it's gonna be your AI friend.

James Lee (28:23)
Nuh-

Led Black (28:30)
So you're supposed to talk to it all day and it learns you and you could tell it whatever to do it. I'm like, that just shows you what you're talking about. This disconnection, this isolation, you know what mean? But that's again, it goes back to how important 181 Cabrini and what you do, right? You create community, right? Because I could go into 181 Cabrini and I go off there, right? You know that I'm there all the time. If I'm doing dishes, I mean, if I'm doing laundry in between loads while I'm going to be in 181 Cabrini, right? Because I live in a house with my wife and three kids. So have four bosses. So maybe when I don't want my boss,

James Lee (28:48)
Yeah.

Led Black (29:00)
I go to the bar to my third space and again, I know, I know, man, I know. But you know, it's one of those places where I could, it's like, everyone at that bar is super diverse, right? But it's always love and again, even from the people at the bar, it's everybody's community, man, and that's super important. So kudos to you, right? You don't give yourself, sometimes I know you don't wanna get that credit, but that's super important,

James Lee (29:03)
Shoulda had a boy bro, you shoulda had a boy.

Led Black (29:28)
Super important.

James Lee (29:28)
mean,

it's not a credit, it's just what it is. I don't like, I learned early when I did this 181 that, you know, for me to survive at the very beginning, I realized that I cannot get an all white crowd, all Dominican, all young crowd, old crowd. You have to grab the neighborhood. It's easier to grab the neighborhood than it is to grab one particular whatever that is. Cause then you just can't survive.

Led Black (29:55)
Right.

James Lee (29:55)
And

then it's a more of a natural existence if everybody comes there is just whoever the neighborhood is. And the neighborhood at one a one Cabrini is whatever it is. You know, it's like you had these hardcore. mean, for a while, had a there was a lot of street pharmacists. know, have a a one. And that will tell you that wasn't a true life.

Led Black (30:02)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (30:02)
Yeah.

Well, you know, ⁓

Led Black (30:14)
Hahaha.

Yeah, very true.

James Lee (30:20)
There's a lot

of guys in the block, you know, but they all knew me I didn't bother them. I didn't bother me. So it's like And there was a whole bunch of people that came in from You know moved in from the Midwest trying to be actors in that just hang out So it's all you have to grab whatever the neighborhood is and nothing grab just let it be And whatever you open the doors, you know, it's like one of those stupid things like if you build it people will come You don't know who's gonna come, you know, but you want you want you don't want to direct that you want

Led Black (30:21)
Yeah, yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (30:44)
Yeah.

James Lee (30:48)
Because it's also, remember the big thing about the restaurant business, it's interaction between the employees, the owner, and the customers. That's where the synthesis comes in. That's what holds the place. That's what gives it the breath to the place and the character. It's not just the customers. It's not just the workers.

Led Black (30:56)
Right.

Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (31:06)
Whoa.

Led Black (31:08)
is the interplay of all those things, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (31:09)
with

Yeah, and we've talked a lot about the intergenerational nature of this neighborhood where, you've got people of all ages who are living here. It's not like, say, Williamsburg the way it is now, which is like all young people or frankly, like a lot of Brooklyn is like just like skews very, very young or it's not like a downtown where it's just like who lives there? I don't know.

James Lee (31:27)
yeah.

Octavio Blanco (31:39)
people who are you know have a place there and come and transient but uptown Washington Heights is a real neighborhood a real and a real representation of

of New York. And I think we've seen that politically.

we've seen how important Uptown has become in these coming elections with the, you know, the focus that our community has been given by Mamdani and all the other, well actually not the rest of them, but Mamdani has given a lot of focus to Washington Heights. And I think it's been obviously helpful to him.

James Lee (32:18)
Yeah, mean, you know, Madonna is very interesting in so many different ways. you know, I wish him the best. I really do. whether he fails or not, he's going to make it clear how broken the system is. Whether he or fails, it's going to be very clear how broken the system is. Because the city is broken. The city is absolutely broken.

Led Black (32:34)
Sure.

Mm-hmm, for sure. Sidney's super

broken. Yeah, yeah.

James Lee (32:45)
It's not even close.

Led Black (32:46)
It's so funny you say that, right? Because by the way, you know, I'm with Zara and Mamdani right there. He got the little poster up, you know what mean? He had it in front of United Palace like two days ago. But you're right, like it's funny people like, we can't let Mamdani have it. I'm like, have you seen the fucking city? You see how bad stuff is in this city? Like, it's not like this is humming like a top and we're taking the chance. Like, I really feel like, I think that, you know,

that he represents something new for the city. like I said, I'm rooting for the best. I'm trying to work in any way I can to get him elected. I think we can't, I thought about this, right? And this goes on crazy. This is a hot take. Mamdani is who we thought Obama was, right?

Obama turned out to be empty. But Mamdani, is, no, I mean Obama's empty and it was more symbolic than anything else. Obama was just basically another Democratic politician that really was more about the status quo. He didn't upturn things, right? And I think Mamdani's not about the status quo.

James Lee (33:28)
I mean...

I mean, I-

Led Black (33:52)
I think of MomDining is really about real change and like doing things for people. Like the way we do things for rich people in this society, we should do it for regular people. So I'm super excited. And I'm glad you're excited too, James. We don't argue about that. We can still argue about the NBA because it's starting pretty soon, brother.

Octavio Blanco (34:08)
Yeah.

James Lee (34:08)
That means a joke let's say that

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they will never win with Bronson that that's going in there with the finals going in the West again No, but I know what? Okay, I tell you what I agree with you what you said I really do I mean you look at you look at like You look at Obama He has three million deported the most amount of drone attacks then he wins the pinnacle piece prize for what?

Led Black (34:10)
Knicks are winning everything and Knicks are winning it all this year, man. Knicks is... What? So first you dissed the Jets and now you're talking Brunson?

Right? No, you're right. And I was one of the believers, right? I loved Obama, right? Obama made me believe in America.

James Lee (34:34)
You know?

believe

them because look the guy came from Illinois came with Chicago you know run Chicago still the Daly family they still run that place he was hand-picked you know the King makers they put the crown on him he didn't make it himself don't kid yourself he didn't make it himself so in that sense I agree with you I really do agree with you but Zoran is a different animal man he's different animal and then when you see him when you see you

Led Black (34:46)
Right.

Listen, I really, but, yeah.

Yeah, I think he's the real deal.

James Lee (35:06)
When you hear him, he has this sense of mission. Like you see him, he's always quoting like Martin Luther. I mean, he has a sense of obligation he feels that he has to society, which is different. And I think that, you know, and he didn't get owned because he was small donor raised.

Led Black (35:18)
Right? Very different. Yep.

Right, yup, it's a new way forward. You know what mean? it's a, yeah.

James Lee (35:27)
No, really

is. I agree with you. you know, Obamacare to me was a disaster because he just raised, he just allowed the insurance companies to play with the premiums. I mean, what I really feel is that he should have expanded the border, the parameters of Medicaid and Medicare. that that will allow us more people to get into the system. Yeah.

Led Black (35:45)
Right.

Medicaid for all, Exactly. Again,

it's better than what the Republicans were doing, right? But it wasn't enough. It just wasn't enough. I think, like, and also, yeah.

James Lee (36:00)
Because without

the government option in Obamacare, you really allow the insurance companies to with what those numbers are.

Led Black (36:07)
Right.

Right. mean, so I'm glad that more people got covered. Right. But what? But again, what I said, I as a kid, found Malcolm X at 13.

I didn't believe in this country in that way. And it was an adult and kind of experience in Obama that I started, I believed in America again. Like he made me believe, right? So I'm saying as a person, I believed, I really, really believed in Obama and the family. But then when you look back, I'm like, what he did is he took all that energy that he had behind him. And instead of using it to really change this country for the better, he said, now I got this, let it go. And we all believe that we all step back.

and we took the foot off the necks of the people. then after the recession of 2008, he put the same people that caused the recession in power. So was like, again, that's why I feel like Mamdani is different. I'm really excited about it, man. I'm really super excited.

James Lee (36:57)
Look, I mean, I, how do I say this? I mean, I agree with what you said. mean, I, I think that like, wish him the best, but one thing he will show is that right or wrong, he's going to show how broken the system is. That's all I want. That's he will show you how broken system is. This is a, it's a flawed system.

Led Black (37:09)
first facts. ⁓

Octavio Blanco (37:10)
Yeah.

I just feel like I

Led Black (37:13)
Agree.

Octavio Blanco (37:17)
need to defend my man Obama for a second there because I don't want us to forget that he had the Republicans voting against everything that he ever wanted to do. And the fact that he got elected woke up a lot of people who were just like, I hate this black person and I'm going to do everything I can.

Led Black (37:23)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (37:41)
I don't want to, I do think that he did burn a lot of capital, but I also think that politically he got painted into a corner because the Republicans again, didn't want to play ball with him. That's all I'm going to say. I wish he had been able to do more. I just don't think he really could. And let's face it. Also, there's a bit of that like old school or that old way of thinking where you want to play nice, where you want to like,

well, this is, know, Republicans and Democrats, we have to work together. And I think he got, he, he unfortunately got shown how much Republicans don't want to play nice and don't want to play together.

Led Black (38:19)
But so,

so to James, this is the point in the episode, in the, that will me and Jay and Octavia argue because we're gonna argue now, okay? So just letting you know, right? So you're right, right? Like I saw something on Instagram, right? Where they said, and I agree with you, right? Where Obama's election broke the psyche of a lot of white people in this country. Like, let's be honest, right? They could not take that.

Octavio Blanco (38:24)
Hahaha!

Hahaha

Led Black (38:43)
And again, he did have lots of things going against him. But what I'm saying is we thought he was there to really change things. That's what was sold to us. And really, he just kept the system in place and kept it running.

Right? And he kind of provided a smoke screen. Right? And then you see afterwards when Michelle was like all lovey-dovey with George Bush giving them little mints. Right? Like you were like, what happened? Like, you know, I thought, thought these were the worst people ever. Right? So that's what I'm saying. Like he just feels too, too part of much of the part of the system now. Like I look at him differently than I looked at him before. So that's what I'm saying. Like I think I still have love for Barack to a degree, but it's not like it was before. And I look at him, I don't know if you ever seen when he went to Flint, Michigan.

Right? There's a scene where he went to Flint, Michigan. He basically went there and he had a prop of water and he took a drip of it. Look, the water's clean Flint. It just did this. And after that, I was like, that don't feel right. And again, that's why I think, again, that's why I'm going back to Mom Donnie. Mom Donnie is a different thing. Like the old Democratic party has to die. It has to die. Schumer, the other guy, Hakeem Jeffries, who's Schumer and Pelosi's son. All those people got to go.

James Lee (39:53)
Booker!

Led Black (39:53)
Cory Hooker,

right? All those people gotta go. And Mamdani's the future. And being at the United Palace this Monday, October 13th, you really felt that, because it was everybody. was young, old, black, brown, Latino, Jewish, Muslim. One of the things that I loved the most there was to see the East Asian immigrants there in full, the cab drivers there, like, yeah, we rocking with Mamdani. That's not something you see in the sea women in hijabs. Yes, we're there to vote.

That is powerful and again, I must say it again, Mamdani is who we thought Obama was.

Octavio Blanco (40:30)
we thought Obama could have been. ⁓

James Lee (40:33)
I never

thought that of Obama. I never thought that.

Led Black (40:37)
I

thought Obama was really going to change things. I really believed in him.

Octavio Blanco (40:39)
So did I.

James Lee (40:40)
I had

no illusion. But one thing that Obama is, before Trump, he had the most amount of executive orders. I mean, he pushed his agenda. But I never thought that. I mean, the king, he had a kingmaker. The kingmaker has a master.

Led Black (40:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah,

yeah. And then that's what I'm saying. Like now that now after the disastrous Brett Biden presidency that led to the Trump.

tyranny once again, you look at everything differently. And I'm totally radicalized now. Like, I don't even think that Biden was his choice for vice president. think he was told, hey, Biden is the guy of the system. You need to have him there. And again, and I hate to say this too, I'm going all out today. Hillary Clinton would have been a horrible president too. ⁓ Trump would have been better, but Hillary Clinton was horrible.

James Lee (41:14)
Of course!

Led Black (41:24)
There was only one country in North Africa that was doing well for its people somewhat, Libya. They got rid of that and Libya is a disaster now, right? They're doing slavery in Libya again. So it's like, you really look at the Obama legacy like, it's not what I thought it was. And I think the reason...

James Lee (41:40)
I never believed in his legacy at all. mean, you know, the thing is that. How do I say is that, you know, America is based on what economic unit you are for somebody else. It's not about race. It's irregardless of race, the class, the race is the race is what it is. It's OK. It's OK. Money from anybody. They don't give a shit. They don't give a But the thing about it, like in 2016, when

Led Black (41:55)
It's a tool. It's a tool. The race is a tool they use. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, I agree. I agree.

James Lee (42:05)
Trump said that the system was flawed. He said, yeah, the system is flawed. It's rigged by my friends. My friends take advantage of it. And the only other guy that was out there was saying that was Bernie. And then when the Democratic Party stole them all, then sandbagged them. Basically, you threw away democracy. So when I hear Democrats nowadays complain about what the Republicans did with democracy, mean, honestly, you did it to yourself, 2016, you you had

Led Black (42:18)
Yes, they did it twice. They did it twice. They did it twice.

Yeah.

James Lee (42:31)
You could have had a legitimate and if if Trump be Bernie in 2016, I will live with that consequence. But they never gave him a chance to the sandbagged him.

Led Black (42:37)
Bernie would have wiped the floor ⁓ with

him. ⁓

James Lee (42:41)
don't know what the cons are because it was a different play. know, like 2016, you don't know what it's going to play out. all I'm saying is that they never gave the Democrats still do say, oh, Trump does this. No, you took up Bernie because you didn't want him to say exactly what Trump said was right. The system is flawed. then you so you complaining about what you did is blaming the other guy, but you don't know did it because but if Bernie lost, I would accept it. But you didn't give him a chance.

Led Black (42:44)
No, but-

Mm. Yep. Yep. Twice. It took out Bernie twice. Yep.

You didn't give him a chance. You took that away from the people. Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (43:11)
Yeah,

yeah, I completely agree with that. think that they did take away Bernie's chance to really show what he could have done and they were too scared ⁓ to get somebody who had the people's support.

James Lee (43:26)
I think it's scary, there's just too much money, too much power they were gonna lose. I'm not scared, it's just a... Yeah, let's...

Led Black (43:28)
Yeah, it's not scared. They're listening to their donors. They're listening to the billionaire donors that

don't like Bernie. Say, hey, look, I don't like Bernie. This is what do. That's the problem. You know what mean? That's the problem. Yeah.

James Lee (43:37)
them. Yeah. They say I bagged them.

And then now all these Democrats are saying, Democrat party say, oh, I can't believe Trump. You did this to yourself and you were okay with that. You were absolutely okay with it because you wanted to protect the system.

Led Black (43:46)
Right. Right. And again, yeah,

right. And not only that, that a lot of people, right, that will die hard Bernie supporters, right. Once that happened to Bernie, they said, I'm not voting for Hillary. I'm not voting for Hillary. I'm going to Trump. Right. And that's the Democratic Party again. Like, again, that's what I'm saying. Like, I'm just so disillusioned with that party that I've been a part of my whole life. And I don't want to lie about it no more. Like, it's like we have to tell the truth.

James Lee (43:59)
They went Trump! Yeah!

Octavio Blanco (44:15)
You

Led Black (44:15)
I'm sorry. It's like, I'm not like if we lie, if the autopsy is wrong, then the analysis is wrong, right? We keep looking like Biden was good. No, he wasn't good. And now now you go look, Hillary would have been bad too. And there was plenty of problems with Barack too. He was was he was not the person I was led to believe he was.

James Lee (44:22)
Yeah, I it.

I agree with Lenin's, I really do. Anytime these Democrats say, Trump this is like, 2016 you allowed this system to happen, you allowed this. Now you complaining, now you whining about this? Shut up man, shut up.

Led Black (44:40)
Right.

Right. then you didn't like Bolsonaro,

Bolsonaro in Brazil, he's going to jail. You know what mean? Trump should have been in jail. Right. But you were not effective. You know what mean? Like, and I know we're not talking, it's about what I want Cabrini and you, James. But I had to say this, like, even you think about this, the migrant crisis, right? That you have the governor of Texas shipping them to New York.

Right? Shipping them to all the major cities, right? That's mind games to affect voters, to affect people. So you just ship them. And he didn't say, hey, my man, stop. Biden was just nothing, nothing. So he allowed those facts on the ground to accumulate. You see what I'm saying? He never, just, he just, we're here now because of them.

James Lee (45:33)
yeah, I agree dude.

Octavio Blanco (45:34)
And one of the things that I agree with both of you about is that Mamdani is gonna be an interesting choice and that whatever happens, it's gonna show us how the system is broken. ⁓ I like him because he's ⁓ similar to Trump in that.

He's dealing with disaffected people, right? People who are like pissed off at the system. That's how he was able to get his like grassroots support. But the difference is that whereas Trump is a destroyer and a, and a terror down of societies, think Mamdani from what I can tell is much more of a, of a, he wants to help. He, like you say, James, he has this social mindset where his mindset is not to destroy his mindset is to

is to make sure that everybody is doing okay. When I hear lately that Trump is ending Democrat programs and doing all this stuff to just target Democrat cities, it's like...

Aren't you supposed to be the president of all Americans? know, like what's, how is it that we as a country aren't ⁓ making more of a noise about this? Because that money that he's like blocking is not his money. It's the people's money. It's the money that's been voted on and allocated by our representatives to do the things that.

Led Black (46:43)
Right.

Octavio Blanco (47:06)
we think they should be doing and he's just going willy-nilly and saying ⁓ democratic states and cities we're gonna we're gonna kill your programs so anyway that's my rant

Led Black (47:15)
And, and I'll tell you, mean, so James, want

to, you know, like to bring this back though, to bring this back to, you, how has these nine months affected you, right? With, with, with the, mass deportations, the tariffs, like what are you seeing this time of year round that you didn't see last year?

James Lee (47:33)
The economy is slowing down. Purchase power is gone. The is slowing down. mean, every day you don't know what's going to go up. We have sometimes like odd things go up. Cucumbers could go up because I don't know, they couldn't get the workers. So you don't know what's happening. I mean, it's just a shit show in so many different ways. mean, there's the consistency is gone. I mean, you understand why there's less businesses purchasing powerful employees or regular customers are gone.

going up but I mean just I mean there there is this tinge there's this huge tinge of negativity throughout New York City and I don't know what the rest of this country looks like because I don't really live in the rest of the country but there was this tinge of negativity that's all around us right now who's like you don't know what's gonna happen nobody knows

Led Black (48:17)
But have

your like cost going up just to like buy your produce, has that gone? I heard beef is up like 40 % or something like that.

James Lee (48:21)
Of course, cost has gone up. Yeah,

everything's going up. There's no random reason what's going up. But at the same time, you just do what you can and just try to kind of bear the grunt of it all and just move on. You can't keep you raising prices. You can't keep changing menu items. Just kind of deal with it. I don't know what to say. Just move on.

Octavio Blanco (48:45)
What's interesting to me is in the neighborhood, I've noticed that, you know, things always change. Restaurants and...

and shops open and close, but I have noticed that a few, there's been a few recent ⁓ restaurant openings and other types of openings. ⁓ But I wonder if that's not like a wolf in sheep's clothing that it's because people are losing their jobs and they don't have jobs that they're starting their own business. is, do you think that like opening businesses and more businesses is a little bit of a possible recession?

indicator because because people aren't actually like working at a jobby job.

James Lee (49:24)
I don't I don't I

don't I think that I think in like maybe an online job on you know, like e-commerce Yes, I understand that but I don't think in a restaurant because there's just too much Special knowledge and too much upfront capital you got to put in it's not like I don't yeah, I don't think restaurants I think that maybe e-commerce because e-commerce what do you need a website? Some products that you buy on concession and this push through but not in the restaurant business restaurant business someone did it for a reason

Octavio Blanco (49:50)
Hmm.

James Lee (49:52)
Tax purposes opportunity. They got some I don't know money in a bag. I don't fucking know That kind of situation, you know, but not not in the restaurant business, there's no way that's in the restaurant business

Led Black (50:08)
You know, I want to say I want go back to the food. I want to say your banana, you're not the bread pudding you do on the regular basis. Outstanding. And I also love when you do the rigatoni alla vodka. That's delicious. What's your favorite? What's your favorite meal, James, like on your menu?

Octavio Blanco (50:16)
Hahaha!

or maybe even not maybe even maybe even not on your menu maybe just like your favorite food.

James Lee (50:23)
What I think about that?

No,

think that I still enjoy the Cuban sandwich. Yeah, I think of the Cuban sandwich.

Led Black (50:32)
very good Cuban sandwich. It's a very outstanding, very, very good. It's almost, it tastes like

a classic, because sometimes people get stupid with Cuban sandwiches, it's like fancy ham, you know, like it's gotta be certain way, you know what mean?

James Lee (50:44)
Nah, it's it's

a certain amount of yeah.

Octavio Blanco (50:48)
My son loves the pulled pork hash. He always wants that. He's like, ⁓ you're going to want any one? Get me some pulled pork hash. That's what he always wants.

James Lee (50:50)
Yeah

Yeah, stuff like that, you know.

Led Black (50:57)
I don't even know what poke port hash is, but it

sounds good.

James Lee (50:59)
Yeah, it's it's it's um, you know, mean I think that I've been here so long that I don't remember anymore. I somebody I've been gone through so many menu items, but there's some of this assisted forever So I guess those are the ones that kind of stand out, know, I mean

Octavio Blanco (51:01)
It's freaking delicious. ⁓

Led Black (51:16)
Yeah, I got a steak sandwich. A1. ⁓ A1.

Octavio Blanco (51:17)
Yeah, yeah.

And your Brussels sprouts are good as hell too. Those are really, really good. And there they got that honey, honey kiss. Really good. I love it.

James Lee (51:21)
Yeah.

Octavio Blanco (51:30)
⁓ So, you know, what are you seeing for yourself in the next few months, years? Are you gonna keep expanding again or are you settled in?

James Lee (51:45)
don't know. I mean,

I think that the geographic of this business right now and the way it's shaping up, I don't know. I really don't know. Never say never. That's all I know. Never say never. We'll see where it will go from there.

Led Black (51:57)
Yeah. Yeah, James doesn't

know it yet, but him and I are going to partner up in a restaurant in Dominican Republic in Punta Cana. In Punta Cana, yeah. We're going to bring one in Punta Cana. I love Dior, man.

Octavio Blanco (51:59)
Yeah.

James Lee (52:03)
Put the gun up? ⁓

Octavio Blanco (52:04)
hahahaha

⁓ Hey, can

James Lee (52:10)
You're all about that putacana now,

You know, I want to go to Mexico. I want to go to Medellín. I want to go to Medellín. That's where I want to go. No, no, no, Medellín, yeah.

Octavio Blanco (52:15)
open one in Playa, in Playa.

Led Black (52:18)
⁓ Winnegoo, Medellin, and Columbia you want to talk about?

Octavio Blanco (52:21)
no, Merida, Merida.

Led Black (52:24)
Medida, Medida. That's why everyone's

talking about Medida. That's right. That's right.

Octavio Blanco (52:27)
Why is everybody talking about Medi though? What's going on with Medi though?

James Lee (52:30)
I heard it's a beautiful place. I've never been there. I've never been there.

Led Black (52:30)
It's like the new, it's the new spot. It's the new spot,

yeah, that everyone wants to go to. Yeah. It's about to get gentrified. Yeah, exactly. For real.

Octavio Blanco (52:34)
it is a beautiful place. It is a beautiful place. I did not know this. It's about to get just a bit time though. I gotta buy a house there now. Hurry

James Lee (52:36)
Yeah. I'll be there.

Octavio Blanco (52:44)
up. I gotta hurry up and go.

James Lee (52:45)
I gotta see it and if it's worth

it first.

Led Black (52:47)
But James, man, thank you so much for being on the show, man. This was really good. Like I said, like everyone, go to 1-8-1 Cabrini. is truly one of my favorite spots. I spend a lot of time there and I'm there often, you know what saying? So, but thank you for being on show. Any last words, James?

James Lee (52:49)
Alright, man.

You know, I don't have any last words. mean, I just...

I don't know. I really don't know. mean, this was a weird experience being in my car talking to two people.

Octavio Blanco (53:10)
⁓ Well, I will say this, I will say this to the audience. If you enjoyed this ⁓ in-car conversation with James Lee and you want to hear other interesting conversations with people, please subscribe. It costs you nothing and it helps us. Yeah, subscribe. You'll see there will be a subscribe button above our heads.

Led Black (53:11)
Hahaha!

Try subscribe for real. And pull up to James Lee,

101 Cabrini, tell him Uptown Collective and Uptown Voices sent you. You might get a discount or something, think, something like that. a free beer. Thanks, James.

Octavio Blanco (53:36)
All right, James, thank you.

James Lee (53:37)
Alright, I'll give you free beer. Alright man? Thanks guys, take care.