Name: Joe Rogan Experience #1469 - Adam Perry Lang
Uploaded: 2020-05-05T19:00:04.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1469 - Adam Perry Lang' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-05-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Joe Rogan Experience #1469 - Adam Perry Lang' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2020-05-05. Transcript available.

Joe Rogan Experience #1469 - Adam Perry Lang

one what's happening brother how are you good to be here good to have you I
have enjoyed your
restaurant many times my favorite steak restaurant in all of Los Angeles thank
you it's one of the
reasons why I wanted to bring you in here because this is a really crazy time
for restaurants and
I mean that's basically that that's the gist of it this is a crazy time it's it's
bananas
it's absolutely crazy trying to just get a handle on it it's just overwhelming
so for me it's just
head down and cook try to help people you know that are in need and then we'll
figure it out later well
I know you've been doing a lot of cooking for first responders and for
hospitals and like what have
you been doing with your time now that this is well it really first started
where basically everything
just everybody was just staring at each other and saying what what is going on
what's happening and
I had I didn't lay off any of my employees and it's all happening everybody
else is closing up shop
and you know I'm just overwhelmed as a business owner what am I going to do and
I actually had my GM
come up to me and you know because I'm trying to figure it out everybody's
asked what's going to
happen my GM came up to me and says hey listen you know we're with you um we
know you didn't create
the coronavirus you know you do what you have to do and we know your heart's in
the right place
and I was just like I just like kind of just let out a breath and I'm like okay
well I appreciate
you saying that and then I was just head down get down to business with it and
um we had a cut back
um 90 of the staff and uh we were just like just cook um didn't know who we're
gonna who's gonna buy
it or anything it was just crazy so we just tell everybody it's the the steakhouse
is called APL
and it's in uh LA in what is that like the theater district what is that called
yeah it's in the
heart of Hollywood Hollywood and Vine yeah and it's right next to the Pentages
Theater which we and
what's ironic was it was literally when they closed down all the restaurants
was the gonna be the
night of uh Hamilton premiering which is a big deal for us as a business and uh
you know all of a sudden
it's like it stops yeah we um I went to your place right after we saw something
it was uh
oh it was frozen yeah okay I have daughters right yeah we went to see frozen
and that was the last
time I was at your place um it's it's got to be a very strange thing this has
never happened before
and one of the things that we've talked about uh a lot on this podcast is what's
so devastating
about this is there's a lot of people that have lost businesses in the past
because markets changed
and because maybe they didn't do what they could have done or work as hard as
they could have worked
but for so many small businesses and restaurants and bars they've been doing
the best work they've ever
been able to do they're putting in the hours they're showing up they're putting
out these uh
amazing meals and then because of nothing that's their fault it just gets shut
off it just gets shut
off it's crazy and without any real understanding of how long it's going to
take or when when you're going
I mean we just had a conversation I was saying we should just talk about this
on air because we're
just talking in the green room like there's no clear indication of when you'll
be able to go back
to work and serve food to the general public and what that's going to look like
I know it's it's it's
the unknown um but how I'm investing my time how a lot of other chef restauranteurs
are investing their
time as trying to serve takeout to the public but also doing um charitable and
things to provide for
first line you know frontline you know defense and one of the things is is you
know Jimmy Kimmel and I
teamed up to um for every meal that we prepare we donate a meal to St Joseph's
Center so that was the
first thing was for our our attitude was is like we want to help people and let
them know that they're
cared about and then the other thing is to really just keep um even just the
five people working so
because we didn't even know if people are going to order so um we jumped into
it like that and then
these services such as uh frontline la which comes in and um brings it's like
the glue between us and the
hospitals and we we prepare meals for 150 meals at a time for the hospital
workers and do you guys
package them up and then have them delivered to the hospital yeah exactly i
mean so we'll just sit
there they'll say hey we have a need for this particular hospital you know um
hollywood presbyterian
okay great 150 people we package up the meals how do you do that do they order
off a menu or do you just
prepare stuff that you think that they'll enjoy we prepare um healthy things
things that they would
appreciate and then also sometimes i just serve comfort items so sometimes i'll
do meatloaf gravy
and mashed potatoes because you know if they're just all healthy sometimes they
just need a little bit
more of like you know warmth and like just kind of like pulling it it's a weird
word comfort food you
know it is but that's what's happening it makes it but it works like the
comfort like when you say
macaroni and cheese comfort food yeah it is that's what people are gravitating
towards that's where my
menu is right now it's all comfort food and barbecue really yeah so do you do
is that because that's
what people are asking for well that's my cook steaks right that's my read on
the market you know i had
experienced a similar thing where things shut down and people needed help and
that was around you know
during 9 11 and you know our attitude was is like how can we help people those
you know those in need
and and really comfort food really kind of just blossomed out of that so when
you're doing right
so you're doing takeout as well and how does that work do they order online or
do they call up like how
how's that work we prefer curbside um as opposed to just doing postmates and grubhub
you know people
can do that and so we'll get people to come deliver yeah let's get to that
because how does that work
postmates and grubhub is that good for your business is that is it less good
than people ordering directly
from you like how does that work well it's great for our business because it
gives us a greater range
and we really can't deliver so it gives us an opportunity so it's a whole nother
market but you
know they charge a back-end fee on it so we have to up charge it a bit and you
know for us we'd prefer
just to kind of sell directly to the customer curbside which we're doing a good
clip up too it's
probably about half and half so like what if you had to guess like what's the
capacity is as part as
like for your business is like full on wide open where people can come and sit
down versus now like
how much is it deteriorated oh it's it's maybe 10 15 percent of did the
business compared to yeah
and that's why i'm just focusing on like i just got to keep moving that's how i'm
emotionally
getting through this thing and also keeping the business going is just
basically just cook for
people that are in need you know focus on the hospitals and then and the
neighborhood just right
around us so it's a tough spot and you have obviously you have a lot of friends
that are in
the restaurant business and so what is talk all the time what's the general
feeling like what is uh
what's the the the temperature like how how's everybody dealing with this
you know first of all knowing that a good number of us are not going to be
around
um because just even figuring out all the rules and the laws that are going to
happen around this
thing or are unfolding they're just very hard to read and get a clear
understanding of what's happening
so a lot of people just don't know the unknown um you know landlords you know
we're deferring rent
but at the same time you know they're not accepting of that so we're like on
the hook and we don't even
really know where we're going to end up with it even just the ppp loans um uh
only what is ppp
it's the paycheck protection program and that's really a government funded um
assistance to supply
restaurants and all businesses i think of all the loans given out i think only
five percent of all
the loans given out were actually to restaurants so um they get they give you a
chunk of money
essentially that covers eight weeks of payroll and also a portion of that for
uh 20 that's 75 has to be
spent on payroll covers for eight weeks and then the other 25 is for rent and
utilities so it's like
an eight-week lifeline so and so far how long has it been now we're looking at
like six weeks of
lockdown so far or something like that like it feels like longer it's got to be
a little bit longer like
for me it feels it probably is that i don't even have a concept of time i'm
working so hard it's just
me and four other people and two are in the front and two are with me in the
kitchen we're doing dishes
we're cooking we're cleaning we're doing everything i mean it's a great sense
of you know what you know
accomplishment like i got a uh an email from a nurse thanking us for the
healthy meal that we prepared
for them and that makes it worth it but you know like for me i'm actually like
inspired and just
kicking it into high gear i'm not gonna like just waller in it i'm just gonna
keep working head down
do what i do and just hope at the end of the day at the end day people have to
eat so the world's gonna be
different you know probably not going to be the same at all in terms of from my
business but what
what choice do i have right you want one of these man yeah sure kill cliff cbd
drink delicious oh yeah
sorry for people listening to me slurp i like that um so
when you're operating at 10 capacity obviously this is not sustainable 10 of
your business is not
sustainable that's right just because operating costs and all the above and
then you're you're obviously
in a very high profile area which must be extraordinary rent too um we're just
not paying
the rent you know we're just pushing it off we can't we don't have the money
for it so we'll have
to work it out you look very stressed out i don't see i've never seen you like
this every time i've seen
you i should just like that's you right there with a big smile all right
whenever i see you at your
restaurant it's always smiling i i found out about your restaurant i don't have
the answers you know
it's just it's crazy i found out about your restaurant online i was just googling
new places to go
for dinner and uh i don't know it's like maybe a couple years ago and uh i was
googling steak houses
and then i saw that you specialize in dry aged steaks and i i had a steak that
you cooked once that was
more than a year dry age was just so it yeah it was delicious but it was really
weird i mean it's weird
it's different anything like a regular steak it tastes like um boy it's like a
different animal it's like
you're eating something you know some exotic animal and that's what i like to
do i mean you know more
age doesn't necessarily mean better but you know it's just different and that's
you know for me as a
chef you know i call my dry room an environmental chamber i think that's uh
yeah there's a picture on
instagram of me and uh adam in the basement that meat locker weird meat room
that you've got and um it's it's
for people that have never been to a dry aging room it's very odd there's fans
blown around everything's
a very specific temperature you've got all these different things labeled as
far as like what date
it was put in there and for no one for people who haven't seen dry aging it's
very odd too because
you're like hey what is wrong with that meat yeah exactly the outside crust of
it you got the here's
a photo of it folks you can see it in the background of the um it's not working
you got a technical there it is so for folks you can see it in the background
the meat has like a
black crust to it and then you slice that crust off what do you do wi