Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yeah, hither the Detroits wheels, Hey, Douglas, Jeff So joining
us on the line is chef Jeff Balden, well known
in Detroit here for his restaurant group, the Baldwin Restaurant Group.
And I know many of you have seen him on
all the TV stations. Jay Towers sings your praises every day,
(00:20):
Jeff whenever he yeah, whenever. You know, we bump into
each other here at the radio station and you know
you had just appeared, say on Fox too. He's always
talking about wanting to, you know, come to the East
Side and uh and go to the restaurant. And I
told him anytime, you know, we go there a lot,
my wife and I and we'll be happy to go
(00:43):
out to dinner and see you there.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So we certainly appreciate that. We just HiT's a big
throwdown dinner wine fasting with Charlie and Jeff Jr. And
Charlie Langdon ended up winning the Tom Flamm uh weeks ago.
(01:05):
Oh he's all proud about that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm sure he is, of course, and of all people
to win, right yeah, right there you go. So it
is a family affair when it comes to the Baldwin
restaurant group, because not only yourself, but your wife, Rose,
i know, is very involved in the business. Then you've
(01:28):
got your two sons, Michael and Jeff. Now Michael, Michael's
a full chef.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Correct oh yeah, yeah, and his famous wife Tevrie Ella
bald One, who is a food star network Now I
know I've.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Seen herund the food networker. Yeah, I'm expecting her to
have her own show here pretty soon. She's so often.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, she's working on it. She's definitely working on it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, you know, I know she's added a little touch
there to your other restaurant, Testa, and it's been a
nice you know, it's been a nice combination of the
two restaurants.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm truly blessed. Rose and I are truly blessed to
have our family, you know, working with us so closely.
And they're very talented. From you know, Jeff Junior being
the sammier, which he has fifteen sammiers on staff, and
then of course Michael Baldwin as the executive chef. He
goes we call him the dope man. He goes back
(02:29):
and forth. He does all the pizza dough, the ravioli's,
the ficasha and you know, so he goes from each
restaurant back and forth and then beautiful Gedrella. It was
the tire and you know, very blessed to have everybody
in my family, you know, working together.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, you all do a fantastic job. And as the
additional ten to fifteen pounds a year that I put
on eating there at both your restaurants, I can attestify
to it. But if people don't know by now, really
your signature dish I would have to say, is your
appetizer of klamari. I could actually order, you know, a
(03:14):
double order for dinner. It is so good. But if
people don't know about that, I don't know if you've
noticed either that some of the restaurants around town are
starting to steal your you know, your recipe.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, they always try to do something different, but yeah,
I know what you mean. It definitely builds the restaurant,
both of them, and paid the rent and put both
my kids through college.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well I love that. So how many years now, Jeff
has Jay Baldwin's been open?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We open in December fourth, two thousand and four, for
twenty years.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
One to years. Wow, Okay, so I'm sure you I'm
sure you've got some celebrations coming up.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Right, Yes, yes, we do. If December ninth, we are
doing a collaboration with the Wagner family, which is Camus
Wine Group. They are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and we
are celebrating our twentieth and on the same day. And
(04:25):
Chuck Wagner has graciously sent us a two thousand and
four vintage of their famous Camus wine that we will
be pouring that night, along with the rest of their
portfolio and some delicious food of course, and we're looking
(04:46):
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I was going to say, so people can can purchase tickets,
I would take it to to come to the event.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Tickets right online on at Jabaldwin dot com.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All right, partner, yep with the twentieth anniversary. Do you
remember your very first party that you had? Of course
you do opening up the opening up the restaurant where
somehow we got involved together, probably because I'm a big
fan and uh, and we somehow got Darren McCarty involved
(05:23):
in the grand opening of your restaurant. And I don't
know how much food you serve that day, but I'll
bet eleven hundred people came through the restaurant that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah. We had a news station local and national
station outside our door with the big dishes outside, and yeah,
it was quite a bit. Darren decided to leave the
Wings that day, wasn't that. Yeah, that was a big announcement,
and I just remember all these newscasters coming up to
(05:59):
me and say, hey, I need an interview with Darren McCarthy.
Well you got to get in line.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
That was quite the day and pretty memorable there. I
think probably the biggest thing that's ever happened on Garfield Road.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. People were lined up and they had
like bowling pins and guitars and lamps and they all
wanted them signed by Darren everything.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yep, yep. You know, we talked about Gabrielle being on
the Food Network and all her national acclaim that she's
starting to get. But I see that there's going to
be an upcoming documentary series about Detroit chefs and that's
going to be coming out here in December, and you're
(06:47):
going to be involved in that. So tell us a
little bit about that, Jeff.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, for people to remember with chef Keith Samey, he's
now a film producer and he's producing a film on
the vacuum series on the Detroit City of Chefs, who
are all the chefs that were involved back in the
(07:10):
late seventies and eighties nineties that were the beginning of
the culinary, big culinary scene in Detroit. And it's really
going to be something spectacular, a three part series and
the premiere is going to be on PBS on December. Times. Yeah,
(07:31):
it's very exciting, very exciting. Came here and filmed at
the restaurant and it's great. I mean there's all the
big names in Detroit, you know, from the London chop
out to you know, Chef Milos is still alive and
all the the list goes on and on and on
(07:52):
and included in myself is included also, so and my
kids are in. My wife sent it.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So we're excited about it and it's going to be
a great uh the historical culinary scene.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Of Detroit well and and well deserved for yourself as well.
But you know, I would have to say that the
the whole culinary experience that's going on in Detroit has
been part of the rebirth and the you know, resurgence
of what's happened here in the Motor city. Would you
(08:33):
agree that you know, a lot of what's going on,
especially in downtown Detroit and and in the suburbs, has
to do with and surrounded around food.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, I totally agree. I'm just you know, every day
and I get to work with my kids and they're
they're so talented, and everybody in Detroit, the new restaurants
that are downtown, I'm just totally blown away. I went
uh to Jeffrey for a thirty good birthday Wednesday, the
day that I saw you at Elo. That's right to
(09:07):
a restaurant called Supreme, which is in the book Cadillac
and just get outstanding food. And I'm just so impressed
by the new chef, the new talent that's in Detroit,
and it's just amazing. You know, we're definitely on the
same scene as you know, Chicago, New York, LA. I mean,
(09:29):
Detroit has got so much talent and so many great restaurants.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, it really is second to none when it comes
to especially what's happening down there right now. I saw
those pictures. I was wondering where that restaurant was. Is
it tough for you to go into a high end
restaurant like that and try the food and gom you know,
I would have done it differently.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I just enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
We had bottle of lines from my sun birth year
nineteen eighty nine, and it was just incredible. On the
meal itself was incredible. And you know, like locally here
out out in McComb County, go to Luigi's or the
Brewery or down Francesco's. You know, there's so many great
(10:21):
restaurants out here too. I enjoy, you know, seeing what
everybody else is doing, what the competition is doing, and
what most of all just like to kick back and
enjoy the soul.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah. So how many years, Jeff, have you now been
a chef? And and where where were you just before
you opened up the Jay Baldwin's restaurant?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay, well that goes all the way back to nineteen
eighty opened up Van Dyke Place in the Indian Village.
It's not there anymore, but therefore lived downtown for six
years in the carriage House, and then nineteen eighty six
opened up the Whitney downtown and then went out to
(11:12):
Oakland County and was the corporate chef for Norman's Restaurant Group,
which led me to out to McComb County and opened
up mc and rae's in nineteen ninety four. Yeah, when
they turned it into a banquet center, I decided that
it's time to go on my own and stripped up
(11:36):
all the savings we had and put it into Jay
Baldwin in two thousand and four. That's pretty much a snapshot.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Those are some pretty historical places that you were at
and opened before you got your own restaurant, so people
can really see, you know, the progression there of just
you know, the fantastic meals and food that you've been
serving since you know, the early eighties. That's that's a
tip of the cap, A feather in your cap as
(12:09):
well there, Jeff.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, the Kyle Murray was created at Van Dyke place
that it was actually part of an employee meal that
I surve one day and the employees that's the point.
That's fantastic. You got to, you know, put that on
the menu. And then as one of the first advertisers
at the Whitney when I opened up the.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Whitney, with all the holidays coming up, I know you
have to have some incredible events that I want to
get to those in just a second. But what I
wanted to ask you was about the economy right now,
and just how difficult is it to keep a couple
of restaurants like you have going at this time. Is
there anything that's you know, showing you some light at
(12:53):
the end of the tunnel, because I know COVID had
to have taken its toll, but you guys hung in there,
and you know, now we're supposedly coming out of all
of this, but so many restaurants that you see still
up and down the West Side, east Side, downtown opening
and closing. Is there is there any help out there?
(13:17):
Is there anybody helping restaurants right now? Or is it
all on you?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'm going to say one thing, a good thing that rose.
My wife is not on the call. But to answer
your question, we don't see much late at the end
of the tunnel. Unfortunately, you know, obviously the end of
this year, the quarter is hopefully it's going to be
a good one. I don't want to get political or
(13:44):
anything like that, but unfortunately our Michigan government has decided
to raise the minimum waste for all servers across the
board starting in February of twenty five, and that is
really going to cripple a lot of restaurants unfortunately, and
(14:06):
you're going to see a lot more clothing than than opening.
You know, prices are gonna raised, be raised on menus.
I mean, there's no other way. And I hope that
this doesn't happen, but the quality of service is probably
going to go down because we're going to have to
(14:27):
have less servers that serves the same amount of people.
And you know, right now a server in our restaurant
only has a three table section so they can take
care of these tables. When we when we have to
have more uh pain, well we're gonna have to have
less stunly.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So it's kind of a really.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Raise our raise our payroll just for our two restaurants.
Uh just it's going to raise the payroll over half
a million dollars past that on the consumer and then
you know how that goes.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
So it is a double edged sword for everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Which once the consumer finds out that the server is
making you know, X amount of dollars, they're going to say, well,
I don't have to tip twenty percent anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I don't think that's the case necessarily in our style
of the restaurant, but it definitely would be in a
you know, a Coney Island or something.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Oh certainly, you know, yeah, absolutely, did anybody you know
from from Michigan come to you and and maybe necessarily yourself,
but to restaurant owners and and get their input on
something like this. I mean, you would think that they
would have their home.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I mean, we're trying to The Michigan Restaurant Association sent
out quite a bit of information and which you know,
to send to our legislators, and you know, it's kind
of falling on that there there's there's really only seven
states across the country that adopted this, and I don't
(15:57):
know of any state that happy about it. You know,
I think it's kind of a I hate to say,
a money grab, you know, for taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We're nervous about the future.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, I had no idea. And that's that's a you know.
I mean, I had an idea that when I was
going to talk to you, that this would be, you know,
obviously different from my normal rock and roll podcast. And
I think it's important for people to know what's going
on in their communities, not only with you know, bands
and clubs, but also with the culinary aspect. But I'm
(16:36):
sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
At the same time, they're putting in seven seventy two
hours sick a mandatory for not just servers, but all employees,
including dishwashers, busters, everybody, anybody that works over thirty hours,
which is now they call it thirty hours of time work,
(16:59):
which flows me up.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know, this deal is starting to sound better than mine.
I may have to do. I may have to reapply
for a new job somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I know.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Hey, listen, I used to work at the gor Mayhouse.
I was one of their best pot and pan cleaners
that they ever had there. Okay, in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
That's where I started, too.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Really, Joe Chave, Yeah, I think I was definitely like
in junior high school, washing dishes for mama and stirring
the sauce. She used to make me stir the sauce.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
The chef walked out on a Saturday night and then
they threw me his apron and said, okay, ball, get
us out of this mess. And I did. And that's
how it all started.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Wow, that is no, that's great. I've never heard that
story before. Jeff, That's good. All right, Well let's uh,
let's let's talk about some of the upcoming events you
have here for the holidays, and I see one of
the first ones on the list is Sweetest Day, which
I wasn't even aware of, So I'm going to have
to get my reservation in for October twenty first. Tell
(18:08):
us what you've got going for that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, it's very similar to Valentine's Day. We feature some
really nice specials that day. You know, it's a it's
a definitely a couple to stay out. But and it
falls on a Saturday, the third Saturday, I believe in October,
a Hallmark holiday. But it's always always good things.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well, people love to go out on
Sweetest Day to dinner, so I mean Testabara or Jay
Baldwin's certainly would be a fantastic place to take Your.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Search was on a Tuesday, but Saturdays are pretty easy
to fill up already. But yeah, like Valentine's Day, at
least have moved around ear here. But yeah, there's always
on a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So I see the Make It Merry Monday is coming up,
and that's going to be in November, early in November,
November fourth, and that's kind of the kickoff to the
big holiday season, right right, Yes, We're.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Going to do it like a little dinner with some
nice Christmas Holidays type of food and drink of course,
and Roses working furiously to get everything decorated for the holidays,
because it's right after Halloween hits. She's decorating both restaurants.
(19:39):
And we have the Dasher Room over at Tetabara, which
is our patio, and then over at Baldwin we are
opening what we call lay Dow Christmas Room that won't
be ready for the fifteenth, but that we're creating like
(20:00):
face of Christmas holiday fun areas, so people who can
celebrate the holidays all right from November to through the
end of the year.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Now, I do see and one of the things I
see always popping up on Facebook with your group are
these tasting menu dinners. And you've got one coming up
here October twenty third, and that's going to be a
Jay Baldwin's right, is that the upcoming one? So when
(20:36):
you know I've done a couple of these, but explain
to people what this is all about and how they
can get involved.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, we're very successful with these types of events. We
usually get a wine maker or the wine company and
we put together a dinner based on each different wine,
and the food is always spectacular, small plates, just usually
(21:08):
four to five course meals. We have like what we
call a power hour in the beginning with Roase, my
wife has a store right next door to Jay bald
and we kind of start things out there with some
tasting of wines and secuteraries trays, and then everybody comes
into the restaurant and we usually do about anywhere from
(21:32):
one hundred to one hundred and twenty people for these
tasting dinners.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Wow, that's fantastic. Well, let's hope that some of these
events spark what you know we were talking about, you know,
a real forthcoming of people into the restaurants and help
things out for the holidays, as you know we get
into the new year, and then of course a big one,
the celebrating of twenty years at J. Baldwin opened its
(21:59):
door is back in December of two thousand and four.
We all remember it very well. Uh, you know, that
one's going down in the history books of the Red
Wings rock and roll and culinary tasting. But that was
a good one and that's going to be coming up
and tell us about how people can get tickets for
that again.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, it's on the website and I believe it's going
to be I don't have the price in front of me,
but it's December ninth, featuring a four course dinner with
each dish paired with wines from the Wagner family, so
including Kamus. They will have Kamus select that night, and
(22:40):
again they're bringing a two thousand and four vintage to
celebrate our twentieth anniversary, and they will be pouring that
with one of the courses, which, in one of my
signas to dishes has been on the menu since the beginning,
which is not the Calmary, but the lamptops. Yeah, the lamptops,
(23:00):
you know, be served that night with the two thousand
and four fast.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I should also mention that my go to dish whenever
I come there to Jay Baldwins is the duck. I
love the duck that you serve there. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
You know, I have it every week. I ended up
putting it on the menu, so it's been on the
menu for about five years now.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, you know, I love it too. It really is good.
So uh, lastly, I want to get this in because
I don't want to leave Rose out, and she's got
her consignment store. You mentioned the store next door to
Jay Baldwin's. They're off Garfield And uh, you open that
store of what now about two two and a half
(23:44):
years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Uh, you just celebrated third anniversary.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Okay, I knew it was around there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, so, and yeah, she's really doing well with it.
It's mainly uh or furniture and a lot of new
product that slightly used, like some different model homes and
(24:11):
things like that. When the people buy the model home,
they have to move all all the furniture and everything.
And she has paired up with one of the companies
and they bring off once a month or so, they
bring a whole new load of exciting products. They have
to be able to tell this stuff out so people
(24:32):
can get some really good deal.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, you guys have done a great job. You're making
us proud on the East Side. I mean, it's nothing,
nothing short of first class. When you come to either
testa Barro Up or j Baldwin's, we highly uh you know,
recommend people go into the consignment store to and see
what you've got. But Jeff, I just want to say
(24:54):
one of my favorite chefs in Detroit. I'm proud to
know you.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
How did you like By the way, it was fantastic.
I got a bunch of clips I got to show you.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, no, I thought it was you know, we did.
We just went there to see a concert and it
turns out to be one of the best concerts of
the year. I thought it was a really good one.
But I love the restaurants. You do a fantastic job.
You know. All I can say is is that keep
working hard and we'll we'll do our best to get
(25:27):
the word out and keep people coming so that you know,
we're going into twenty twenty five strong and let's you know,
let's just see what the future may bring in that
red hopefully.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, fighters, And what I was saying earlier, but Doug,
I just wanted to say to you, I appreciate our
relationship and you have been very supportive of all these years,
and it's a pleasure to have you as our guests.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, I appreciate that, and I'll expect a double patron
next time.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay, So okay, you got it.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Chef Jeff Baldwin of the Baldwin Group for Jay Baldwin's restaurant,
Testa Bar Up, thank you very much for joining us here.
On the rock Doc podcast today. Thank you, Cheers all right,
cheers to you too,
Yeah, hither the Detroits wheels, Hey, Douglas, Jeff So joining
us on the line is chef Jeff Balden, well known
in Detroit here for his restaurant group, the Baldwin Restaurant Group.
And I know many of you have seen him on
all the TV stations. Jay Towers sings your praises every day,
(00:20):
Jeff whenever he yeah, whenever. You know, we bump into
each other here at the radio station and you know
you had just appeared, say on Fox too. He's always
talking about wanting to, you know, come to the East
Side and uh and go to the restaurant. And I
told him anytime, you know, we go there a lot,
my wife and I and we'll be happy to go
(00:43):
out to dinner and see you there.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
So we certainly appreciate that. We just HiT's a big
throwdown dinner wine fasting with Charlie and Jeff Jr. And
Charlie Langdon ended up winning the Tom Flamm uh weeks ago.
(01:05):
Oh he's all proud about that.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I'm sure he is, of course, and of all people
to win, right yeah, right there you go. So it
is a family affair when it comes to the Baldwin
restaurant group, because not only yourself, but your wife, Rose,
i know, is very involved in the business. Then you've
(01:28):
got your two sons, Michael and Jeff. Now Michael, Michael's
a full chef.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Correct oh yeah, yeah, and his famous wife Tevrie Ella
bald One, who is a food star network Now I
know I've.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Seen herund the food networker. Yeah, I'm expecting her to
have her own show here pretty soon. She's so often.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yeah, she's working on it. She's definitely working on it.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Well, you know, I know she's added a little touch
there to your other restaurant, Testa, and it's been a
nice you know, it's been a nice combination of the
two restaurants.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I'm truly blessed. Rose and I are truly blessed to
have our family, you know, working with us so closely.
And they're very talented. From you know, Jeff Junior being
the sammier, which he has fifteen sammiers on staff, and
then of course Michael Baldwin as the executive chef. He
goes we call him the dope man. He goes back
(02:29):
and forth. He does all the pizza dough, the ravioli's,
the ficasha and you know, so he goes from each
restaurant back and forth and then beautiful Gedrella. It was
the tire and you know, very blessed to have everybody
in my family, you know, working together.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, you all do a fantastic job. And as the
additional ten to fifteen pounds a year that I put
on eating there at both your restaurants, I can attestify
to it. But if people don't know by now, really
your signature dish I would have to say, is your
appetizer of klamari. I could actually order, you know, a
(03:14):
double order for dinner. It is so good. But if
people don't know about that, I don't know if you've
noticed either that some of the restaurants around town are
starting to steal your you know, your recipe.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, they always try to do something different, but yeah,
I know what you mean. It definitely builds the restaurant,
both of them, and paid the rent and put both
my kids through college.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Well I love that. So how many years now, Jeff
has Jay Baldwin's been open?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
We open in December fourth, two thousand and four, for
twenty years.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
One to years. Wow, Okay, so I'm sure you I'm
sure you've got some celebrations coming up.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Right, Yes, yes, we do. If December ninth, we are
doing a collaboration with the Wagner family, which is Camus
Wine Group. They are celebrating their fiftieth anniversary and we
are celebrating our twentieth and on the same day. And
(04:25):
Chuck Wagner has graciously sent us a two thousand and
four vintage of their famous Camus wine that we will
be pouring that night, along with the rest of their
portfolio and some delicious food of course, and we're looking
(04:46):
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
I was going to say, so people can can purchase tickets,
I would take it to to come to the event.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Tickets right online on at Jabaldwin dot com.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
All right, partner, yep with the twentieth anniversary. Do you
remember your very first party that you had? Of course
you do opening up the opening up the restaurant where
somehow we got involved together, probably because I'm a big
fan and uh, and we somehow got Darren McCarty involved
(05:23):
in the grand opening of your restaurant. And I don't
know how much food you serve that day, but I'll
bet eleven hundred people came through the restaurant that afternoon.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh yeah. We had a news station local and national
station outside our door with the big dishes outside, and yeah,
it was quite a bit. Darren decided to leave the
Wings that day, wasn't that. Yeah, that was a big announcement,
and I just remember all these newscasters coming up to
(05:59):
me and say, hey, I need an interview with Darren McCarthy.
Well you got to get in line.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
That was quite the day and pretty memorable there. I
think probably the biggest thing that's ever happened on Garfield Road.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. People were lined up and they had
like bowling pins and guitars and lamps and they all
wanted them signed by Darren everything.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yep, yep. You know, we talked about Gabrielle being on
the Food Network and all her national acclaim that she's
starting to get. But I see that there's going to
be an upcoming documentary series about Detroit chefs and that's
going to be coming out here in December, and you're
(06:47):
going to be involved in that. So tell us a
little bit about that, Jeff.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
Yeah, for people to remember with chef Keith Samey, he's
now a film producer and he's producing a film on
the vacuum series on the Detroit City of Chefs, who
are all the chefs that were involved back in the
(07:10):
late seventies and eighties nineties that were the beginning of
the culinary, big culinary scene in Detroit. And it's really
going to be something spectacular, a three part series and
the premiere is going to be on PBS on December. Times. Yeah,
(07:31):
it's very exciting, very exciting. Came here and filmed at
the restaurant and it's great. I mean there's all the
big names in Detroit, you know, from the London chop
out to you know, Chef Milos is still alive and
all the the list goes on and on and on
(07:52):
and included in myself is included also, so and my
kids are in. My wife sent it.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (08:01):
So we're excited about it and it's going to be
a great uh the historical culinary scene.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Of Detroit well and and well deserved for yourself as well.
But you know, I would have to say that the
the whole culinary experience that's going on in Detroit has
been part of the rebirth and the you know, resurgence
of what's happened here in the Motor city. Would you
(08:33):
agree that you know, a lot of what's going on,
especially in downtown Detroit and and in the suburbs, has
to do with and surrounded around food.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, I totally agree. I'm just you know, every day
and I get to work with my kids and they're
they're so talented, and everybody in Detroit, the new restaurants
that are downtown, I'm just totally blown away. I went
uh to Jeffrey for a thirty good birthday Wednesday, the
day that I saw you at Elo. That's right to
(09:07):
a restaurant called Supreme, which is in the book Cadillac
and just get outstanding food. And I'm just so impressed
by the new chef, the new talent that's in Detroit,
and it's just amazing. You know, we're definitely on the
same scene as you know, Chicago, New York, LA. I mean,
(09:29):
Detroit has got so much talent and so many great restaurants.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Yeah, it really is second to none when it comes
to especially what's happening down there right now. I saw
those pictures. I was wondering where that restaurant was. Is
it tough for you to go into a high end
restaurant like that and try the food and gom you know,
I would have done it differently.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I just enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (09:59):
We had bottle of lines from my sun birth year
nineteen eighty nine, and it was just incredible. On the
meal itself was incredible. And you know, like locally here
out out in McComb County, go to Luigi's or the
Brewery or down Francesco's. You know, there's so many great
(10:21):
restaurants out here too. I enjoy, you know, seeing what
everybody else is doing, what the competition is doing, and
what most of all just like to kick back and
enjoy the soul.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah. So how many years, Jeff, have you now been
a chef? And and where where were you just before
you opened up the Jay Baldwin's restaurant?
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Okay, well that goes all the way back to nineteen
eighty opened up Van Dyke Place in the Indian Village.
It's not there anymore, but therefore lived downtown for six
years in the carriage House, and then nineteen eighty six
opened up the Whitney downtown and then went out to
(11:12):
Oakland County and was the corporate chef for Norman's Restaurant Group,
which led me to out to McComb County and opened
up mc and rae's in nineteen ninety four. Yeah, when
they turned it into a banquet center, I decided that
it's time to go on my own and stripped up
(11:36):
all the savings we had and put it into Jay
Baldwin in two thousand and four. That's pretty much a snapshot.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
Those are some pretty historical places that you were at
and opened before you got your own restaurant, so people
can really see, you know, the progression there of just
you know, the fantastic meals and food that you've been
serving since you know, the early eighties. That's that's a
tip of the cap, A feather in your cap as
(12:09):
well there, Jeff.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Yeah, the Kyle Murray was created at Van Dyke place
that it was actually part of an employee meal that
I surve one day and the employees that's the point.
That's fantastic. You got to, you know, put that on
the menu. And then as one of the first advertisers
at the Whitney when I opened up the.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Whitney, with all the holidays coming up, I know you
have to have some incredible events that I want to
get to those in just a second. But what I
wanted to ask you was about the economy right now,
and just how difficult is it to keep a couple
of restaurants like you have going at this time. Is
there anything that's you know, showing you some light at
(12:53):
the end of the tunnel, because I know COVID had
to have taken its toll, but you guys hung in there,
and you know, now we're supposedly coming out of all
of this, but so many restaurants that you see still
up and down the West Side, east Side, downtown opening
and closing. Is there is there any help out there?
(13:17):
Is there anybody helping restaurants right now? Or is it
all on you?
Speaker 2 (13:21):
I'm going to say one thing, a good thing that rose.
My wife is not on the call. But to answer
your question, we don't see much late at the end
of the tunnel. Unfortunately, you know, obviously the end of
this year, the quarter is hopefully it's going to be
a good one. I don't want to get political or
(13:44):
anything like that, but unfortunately our Michigan government has decided
to raise the minimum waste for all servers across the
board starting in February of twenty five, and that is
really going to cripple a lot of restaurants unfortunately, and
(14:06):
you're going to see a lot more clothing than than opening.
You know, prices are gonna raised, be raised on menus.
I mean, there's no other way. And I hope that
this doesn't happen, but the quality of service is probably
going to go down because we're going to have to
(14:27):
have less servers that serves the same amount of people.
And you know, right now a server in our restaurant
only has a three table section so they can take
care of these tables. When we when we have to
have more uh pain, well we're gonna have to have
less stunly.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
So it's kind of a really.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Raise our raise our payroll just for our two restaurants.
Uh just it's going to raise the payroll over half
a million dollars past that on the consumer and then
you know how that goes.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
So it is a double edged sword for everybody.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Which once the consumer finds out that the server is
making you know, X amount of dollars, they're going to say, well,
I don't have to tip twenty percent anymore.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
I don't think that's the case necessarily in our style
of the restaurant, but it definitely would be in a
you know, a Coney Island or something.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Oh certainly, you know, yeah, absolutely, did anybody you know
from from Michigan come to you and and maybe necessarily yourself,
but to restaurant owners and and get their input on
something like this. I mean, you would think that they
would have their home.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
I mean, we're trying to The Michigan Restaurant Association sent
out quite a bit of information and which you know,
to send to our legislators, and you know, it's kind
of falling on that there there's there's really only seven
states across the country that adopted this, and I don't
(15:57):
know of any state that happy about it. You know,
I think it's kind of a I hate to say,
a money grab, you know, for taxes.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
I had no idea.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
We're nervous about the future.
Speaker 1 (16:12):
Yeah, I had no idea. And that's that's a you know.
I mean, I had an idea that when I was
going to talk to you, that this would be, you know,
obviously different from my normal rock and roll podcast. And
I think it's important for people to know what's going
on in their communities, not only with you know, bands
and clubs, but also with the culinary aspect. But I'm
(16:36):
sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
At the same time, they're putting in seven seventy two
hours sick a mandatory for not just servers, but all employees,
including dishwashers, busters, everybody, anybody that works over thirty hours,
which is now they call it thirty hours of time work,
(16:59):
which flows me up.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
You know, this deal is starting to sound better than mine.
I may have to do. I may have to reapply
for a new job somewhere.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I know.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Hey, listen, I used to work at the gor Mayhouse.
I was one of their best pot and pan cleaners
that they ever had there. Okay, in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
That's where I started, too.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
Really, Joe Chave, Yeah, I think I was definitely like
in junior high school, washing dishes for mama and stirring
the sauce. She used to make me stir the sauce.
Speaker 2 (17:36):
The chef walked out on a Saturday night and then
they threw me his apron and said, okay, ball, get
us out of this mess. And I did. And that's
how it all started.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Wow, that is no, that's great. I've never heard that
story before. Jeff, That's good. All right, Well let's uh,
let's let's talk about some of the upcoming events you
have here for the holidays, and I see one of
the first ones on the list is Sweetest Day, which
I wasn't even aware of, So I'm going to have
to get my reservation in for October twenty first. Tell
(18:08):
us what you've got going for that.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
Yeah, it's very similar to Valentine's Day. We feature some
really nice specials that day. You know, it's a it's
a definitely a couple to stay out. But and it
falls on a Saturday, the third Saturday, I believe in October,
a Hallmark holiday. But it's always always good things.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Oh yeah, yeah, Well, people love to go out on
Sweetest Day to dinner, so I mean Testabara or Jay
Baldwin's certainly would be a fantastic place to take Your.
Speaker 2 (18:48):
Search was on a Tuesday, but Saturdays are pretty easy
to fill up already. But yeah, like Valentine's Day, at
least have moved around ear here. But yeah, there's always
on a Saturday.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
So I see the Make It Merry Monday is coming up,
and that's going to be in November, early in November,
November fourth, and that's kind of the kickoff to the
big holiday season, right right, Yes, We're.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Going to do it like a little dinner with some
nice Christmas Holidays type of food and drink of course,
and Roses working furiously to get everything decorated for the holidays,
because it's right after Halloween hits. She's decorating both restaurants.
(19:39):
And we have the Dasher Room over at Tetabara, which
is our patio, and then over at Baldwin we are
opening what we call lay Dow Christmas Room that won't
be ready for the fifteenth, but that we're creating like
(20:00):
face of Christmas holiday fun areas, so people who can
celebrate the holidays all right from November to through the
end of the year.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Now, I do see and one of the things I
see always popping up on Facebook with your group are
these tasting menu dinners. And you've got one coming up
here October twenty third, and that's going to be a
Jay Baldwin's right, is that the upcoming one? So when
(20:36):
you know I've done a couple of these, but explain
to people what this is all about and how they
can get involved.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, we're very successful with these types of events. We
usually get a wine maker or the wine company and
we put together a dinner based on each different wine,
and the food is always spectacular, small plates, just usually
(21:08):
four to five course meals. We have like what we
call a power hour in the beginning with Roase, my
wife has a store right next door to Jay bald
and we kind of start things out there with some
tasting of wines and secuteraries trays, and then everybody comes
into the restaurant and we usually do about anywhere from
(21:32):
one hundred to one hundred and twenty people for these
tasting dinners.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Wow, that's fantastic. Well, let's hope that some of these
events spark what you know we were talking about, you know,
a real forthcoming of people into the restaurants and help
things out for the holidays, as you know we get
into the new year, and then of course a big one,
the celebrating of twenty years at J. Baldwin opened its
(21:59):
door is back in December of two thousand and four.
We all remember it very well. Uh, you know, that
one's going down in the history books of the Red
Wings rock and roll and culinary tasting. But that was
a good one and that's going to be coming up
and tell us about how people can get tickets for
that again.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, it's on the website and I believe it's going
to be I don't have the price in front of me,
but it's December ninth, featuring a four course dinner with
each dish paired with wines from the Wagner family, so
including Kamus. They will have Kamus select that night, and
(22:40):
again they're bringing a two thousand and four vintage to
celebrate our twentieth anniversary, and they will be pouring that
with one of the courses, which, in one of my
signas to dishes has been on the menu since the beginning,
which is not the Calmary, but the lamptops. Yeah, the lamptops,
(23:00):
you know, be served that night with the two thousand
and four fast.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
I should also mention that my go to dish whenever
I come there to Jay Baldwins is the duck. I
love the duck that you serve there. Yeah, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
You know, I have it every week. I ended up
putting it on the menu, so it's been on the
menu for about five years now.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yeah, you know, I love it too. It really is good.
So uh, lastly, I want to get this in because
I don't want to leave Rose out, and she's got
her consignment store. You mentioned the store next door to
Jay Baldwin's. They're off Garfield And uh, you open that
store of what now about two two and a half
(23:44):
years ago.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
Uh, you just celebrated third anniversary.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
Okay, I knew it was around there.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Yeah, so, and yeah, she's really doing well with it.
It's mainly uh or furniture and a lot of new
product that slightly used, like some different model homes and
(24:11):
things like that. When the people buy the model home,
they have to move all all the furniture and everything.
And she has paired up with one of the companies
and they bring off once a month or so, they
bring a whole new load of exciting products. They have
to be able to tell this stuff out so people
(24:32):
can get some really good deal.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, you guys have done a great job. You're making
us proud on the East Side. I mean, it's nothing,
nothing short of first class. When you come to either
testa Barro Up or j Baldwin's, we highly uh you know,
recommend people go into the consignment store to and see
what you've got. But Jeff, I just want to say
(24:54):
one of my favorite chefs in Detroit. I'm proud to
know you.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
How did you like By the way, it was fantastic.
I got a bunch of clips I got to show you.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, no, I thought it was you know, we did.
We just went there to see a concert and it
turns out to be one of the best concerts of
the year. I thought it was a really good one.
But I love the restaurants. You do a fantastic job.
You know. All I can say is is that keep
working hard and we'll we'll do our best to get
(25:27):
the word out and keep people coming so that you know,
we're going into twenty twenty five strong and let's you know,
let's just see what the future may bring in that
red hopefully.
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Yeah, fighters, And what I was saying earlier, but Doug,
I just wanted to say to you, I appreciate our
relationship and you have been very supportive of all these years,
and it's a pleasure to have you as our guests.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Well, I appreciate that, and I'll expect a double patron
next time.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay, So okay, you got it.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Chef Jeff Baldwin of the Baldwin Group for Jay Baldwin's restaurant,
Testa Bar Up, thank you very much for joining us here.
On the rock Doc podcast today. Thank you, Cheers all right,
cheers to you too,
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