Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning for me, Maria Wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac CD morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start the show off the same way we start every episode off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you spend with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hidden with,
Speaker 1 00:00:18 Oh, she caught me, loves near listen to the next city morning show.
Speaker 0 00:00:28 All right. And we're back. Okay. We have return guests. I'm very excited to chat with them. Cause I've got loads of other questions that I was not able to cover last time. Um, but as you guys know, I don't introduce my guests. I let them do that themselves. So on that note, can you please tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about?
Speaker 3 00:00:42 I'm Gareth Norris, um, older Patti mix begins a long-time resident Murray and happy to be back here. I really enjoyed the last visit. So
Speaker 0 00:00:52 It
Speaker 3 00:00:52 Seemed to go to quick.
Speaker 0 00:00:53 Yeah. 20 minutes flies. So I've got bar based questions more than anything else? About hard liquor on this one. Okay. So
Speaker 4 00:01:02 You got some hard questions,
Speaker 0 00:01:03 Hard questions on hard liquors. How do bars really decide on like the hard liquor that they provide? Like I understand if you had a rep for beer, like a rep came in and they've given us a kokanee. Yeah. Okay. So, and kokanee is owned by, I don't know, like, well, Labatt let's pretend. And so you carry that line of beers. Right. But when it comes to like whiskeys, you have all different types of whiskeys from all around the world. How do you decide which supplier to go with or what drink to purchase?
Speaker 3 00:01:37 It's uh, sometimes there's a bit of a crapshoot. Okay. Um, you know, you've got your, Barwell your well stuff, which is your lower end.
Speaker 0 00:01:44 Well, explain that to me, but
Speaker 3 00:01:46 That would be like your basic gin. So a lot of times it's, it's, what's the cheapest. Okay. Because that's your one o'clock in the morning and you don't care. You just want a gin and tonic.
Speaker 4 00:01:54 That is my favorite drink is the cheapest liquor available going to the
Speaker 0 00:01:57 Car.
Speaker 3 00:01:59 Right. So that we priced that that's based on price for 99% of the places. Unless you have a rep that comes to you and says, if you carry this as your well
Speaker 0 00:02:06 Drink, right.
Speaker 3 00:02:08 You know, I can do this for you down the road. Um, and then anything above that, a lot of it is based on what's popular.
Speaker 0 00:02:14 Right.
Speaker 3 00:02:15 Um, some of it is based on personal choice. Yeah. You know, we have some stuff we carry that we personally like. Right. Um, and then hopefully it catches on. Right. And some of it is reps. They'll come to you and say, look, we've got a new product. We'd like you to try it. We'll help you with the promotions.
Speaker 0 00:02:29 Okay. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:02:30 And it's changed from what it used to be. I mean, 20 years ago, 25 years ago, you could have a rep come in and go, I'll give you this money. If you carry my product. Right. Here's a trip to wherever,
Speaker 0 00:02:41 But
Speaker 3 00:02:41 It's changed so much now that it's it's so, so restricted on what they can
Speaker 0 00:02:46 Do. Right.
Speaker 3 00:02:47 Which makes it harder for them. That's
Speaker 0 00:02:49 Right.
Speaker 3 00:02:49 And a little bit easier for us in terms of there's no pressure now truly carry something that,
Speaker 0 00:02:54 That you believe in
Speaker 3 00:02:55 To carry because there's a financial incentive.
Speaker 0 00:02:58 Right. Um, expos conferences, every industry that I've ever worked in has like conferences that you go to is the bar business the same? Is there like, like a bar expo, liquor expo
Speaker 3 00:03:10 Vegas every year.
Speaker 0 00:03:11 Okay.
Speaker 3 00:03:13 And restaurant show absolutely phenomenal. I've only made it to one and Jon Taffer happened to be the guest speaker and it
Speaker 0 00:03:20 Was,
Speaker 3 00:03:21 Yeah, it was phenomenal. That was really cool. I have to say, I learned so much in that four hours. Yeah. Um, unbelievable. And then we have a huge convention center. Uh, I dunno how many tens of thousands of square feet and it's just vendor after vendor be honest, we made two rows and I was drunk.
Speaker 0 00:03:39 Yeah. No doubt.
Speaker 3 00:03:40 Cause it's all samples.
Speaker 0 00:03:41 That's right.
Speaker 3 00:03:42 The guy that sampling food. Cause it was 10 30 in the morning and I was pretty buzzed, poor guy. I had these little, uh, little portable, deep fryer sits on your bar.
Speaker 0 00:03:51 Right.
Speaker 3 00:03:52 And you just drop food in and it cooks it. Well, wow. Bad. Cause I sat there for 10 minutes just eating. It
Speaker 0 00:03:57 Came out.
Speaker 4 00:03:58 It sounds like a having absolutely. But also the bar version of fondue. Yeah. Instead of like fancy cheeses because when I'm drunk, I don't want fancy cheese.
Speaker 3 00:04:10 Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:04:10 Absolutely. If I had a deep fryer in front of me, the things that would get deep fried would turn dangerous. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:04:16 I was going to, it's funny that you brought up John from bar rescue. Cause I was going to ask about that. I think most people, especially myself prior to that show, never really knew or thought about all of the different things that go in to running a bar.
Speaker 3 00:04:30 Oh,
Speaker 0 00:04:30 It's huge. So with a show like that and an expert like that, you see it's bar rescue and there's so many bar owners that obviously don't know what he knows. Is that something like that is intrinsic. That like, if you want a bar, people pass down or you just kind of learn or when you go to an expo, people are telling you, Hey, these are things that we're doing to improve our sales and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3 00:04:51 I think you think, you know, I went into it thinking, I knew I grew up in pubs in
Speaker 0 00:04:56 The UK.
Speaker 3 00:04:57 I thought I knew everything and listened to my parents as you don't
Speaker 0 00:05:01 Right.
Speaker 3 00:05:02 And I'm still learning. Even today, you get to sit in front of somebody like him and have him talk to you.
Speaker 0 00:05:08 Right.
Speaker 3 00:05:09 The big thing for me is, is he came out on stage right away. And he's just, he's a big man. Yeah. And he had two body guards that were even bigger. So physical presence
Speaker 0 00:05:18 Because you right.
Speaker 3 00:05:19 And he literally pointed at the front, it was about the fourth row. And he pointed to these guys in the front row and he said, do you a beer Budweiser? Yeah. Do you sell beer? Yep. Budweiser. Yeah. And not coming to your place. Cause I don't like to look at you. You're disgusting. And the guy was like, what? And he goes, I'll go to your place and spend more. Cause I like to look at you, I'm going for an experience, not a beer. Right. It was like a light bulb moment. You can sit here and drink this. Why would you come to Patty's to have a glass of Jameson?
Speaker 0 00:05:49 That's right. That's right. All they
Speaker 3 00:05:51 Sell is an experience. We all sell the same products.
Speaker 0 00:05:54 Right. It's
Speaker 3 00:05:55 The memories and the experiences.
Speaker 0 00:05:56 So for me that was a light bulb. Very insightful. Interesting. And he built on that, right? Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:06:02 Yeah. The only way to sell anything you can't deal with in the days of like cheap stuff and online shopping, the only way you can sell anything is by selling the experience of yourself.
Speaker 0 00:06:12 Yeah. Interesting. Yeah. That would have been cool. That's I, I loved watching that show. I, I don't have that channel anymore, but I'm assuming they still air that show spike
Speaker 4 00:06:22 TV,
Speaker 0 00:06:23 My TV. Yeah. If you're a business owner in a bar or a restaurant, even if you're in a different industry, like some of the things that he talks about. Yeah. It works for any industry. It's just basic marketing and design and customer service. Yeah. They universal. Yeah. Yeah. So here's my other question for you that I really wanted to ask last time. I remember going to Patty's when I was young in my like teenage early twenties. Yeah. And red bull became a thing. Yes. Like for some of the viewers and maybe even Tanner, um, red bull wasn't didn't exist. No, it didn't exist.
Speaker 4 00:07:00 That's a that's that's most things. It is. They didn't exist.
Speaker 0 00:07:04 Yeah. That's right. But it's just so like normal now to go to a bar and potentially like have vodka red bull or Jaeger bomb or a grenade or whatever. But like I remember when it came in, like it was, it was unheard of like, so can you tell me, I know how it impacted my life, the bar scene. How did that change? When that drink came into play? It was big for us because it was a popular item. Yeah. And AGLC was still trying to figure it all out. So right. Couldn't open a can of red bull mix. It that's right. I remember that. I had to give it to you. That's right. You had to do it yourself.
Speaker 4 00:07:38 Can you now? Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:07:39 Now we can.
Speaker 4 00:07:39 Ah, I see. I still went to the bars where they weren't when you, yeah. That was two separate things you got.
Speaker 0 00:07:45 Yeah. When it first came out, I actually was in London, in the UK and I bumped into a friend of mine randomly on the street and from Canada. Right. Um, we went into this pub and they were doing a big promotion on red vodka, red bull. And it was in little medicine bottles. Right. And they literally, you had to go to one counter to buy red bull. Right. Then you could go over there and buy a vodka that's right. And you had to take it to your table and mix it yourself. And it was, to me it was something new and it was amazing when he came to Canada. It was pretty exciting. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We couldn't, we couldn't mix the two together and yeah. But it was so popular and so popular and it still is it's uh, yeah. Got a good market. Yeah. No doubt. But like, it's so funny for us because it's an energy drink. Yeah. It's and so like how, and maybe, you know, and I, I don't know, like I kept to imagine red bull never thought, Hey, listen, let's this is going to be a combination. Yeah. And then when it happened, they were like, Hey, listen, we're selling even more of it. We're not arguing. Yeah. We're not going to. Yeah. So when,
Speaker 4 00:08:45 Uh, it was originally a, like a five-hour energy thing, they
Speaker 0 00:08:49 To trust
Speaker 4 00:08:51 The truck was in Asia.
Speaker 0 00:08:52 So how did you, like you tried it in Europe. Yeah. But then how did it get, did you have a rep come in and be like, Hey, cause it's not an alcohol. It's like, so how did that relationship start between BARR and
Speaker 3 00:09:05 The red bull? Yeah. Originally I was just buying it. I would go to Edmonton it and bring it in because
Speaker 0 00:09:12 Yeah. Taking off.
Speaker 3 00:09:13 And then I think red bull soda obviously caught on with the popularity and ended up local distributor. And so like anything else you, Pepsi wrapped comes or your Coke rep
Speaker 0 00:09:23 Or red
Speaker 3 00:09:23 Bull rep
Speaker 0 00:09:24 Comes
Speaker 4 00:09:25 Reps have that cool car that they get to drive.
Speaker 3 00:09:28 Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. They had the mini up here a couple of times with the giant can on the tall.
Speaker 4 00:09:34 So many around here. Often I saw that many around here a couple of months ago. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:09:38 Well I think the amount, especially back when this happened and the amount of money that was Fort Murray at the time. Yeah. Like red bull would be like this as a hot market. Like we need to spend a lot of time up here because these guys are
Speaker 3 00:09:50 Well and you know, this town works hard and they party
Speaker 0 00:09:52 Hard. That's right. That's exactly it. Yeah. So, okay. Yeah. I just re I, I, I gotta be honest. I don't like the taste of red bull. I like independently, but when mixed with the right alcohol, it's delicious,
Speaker 3 00:10:07 Dangerous combination,
Speaker 0 00:10:08 Dangerous combination. You gotta be like
Speaker 3 00:10:10 Wink and drunk. That's
Speaker 0 00:10:11 Right. Well, my favorite drink and I don't drink it anymore because it's, it's a, it's a problem, basically. Good things don't usually happen is a grenade where it was like the Jaeger vodka, red bull. You pull the pin, you do one and then it drops, man. Like, I can't tell you how much money I invested probably makes weakens on that drink in particular to easy to do. Oh, it's so easy.
Speaker 3 00:10:33 And the beauty as a bar owner is it's over in 15
Speaker 0 00:10:35 Seconds. That's right. And you got to do it again.
Speaker 3 00:10:37 You're going to hold
Speaker 0 00:10:38 On today for a five minutes. That's right. That's exactly it. Hey, listen, Tanner just gave me the signal. He's ready with his questions for the Mac CD minute. Do you know how this goes? So I wish you nothing, but the best of luck Tanner hit him with the max 80 minute.
Speaker 4 00:10:49 Alrighty. Question. Number one. What is your favorite dish past, present or future that Patty's has hat that you've enjoyed the most?
Speaker 3 00:10:59 Oh, that's a loaded question. It's probably two of them. I'm really partial to the Shepherd's buyer. And I really like about the chicken. So if I had to pick one over the other, I'd go with the butter chicken. Cause I liked the spice.
Speaker 0 00:11:10 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:11:11 Question number two. What is one story you have at a, with a bar regular that stands out to you the most
Speaker 3 00:11:19 With a bar? Regular. That's a very good question. Uh, I don't know. Off the top of my head, I have a few stories that I probably can't
Speaker 0 00:11:30 Tell
Speaker 3 00:11:31 The fear of identifying them and
Speaker 4 00:11:34 Them being regulars.
Speaker 3 00:11:35 Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh, we've we've had so many regulars that literally run the place like it's there's um, we had one regular. They used to come in and he would disappear from the bar and we wonder where he went and he'd gone home to get cleaning supplies, come back and he'd be cleaning the bathroom for us cause was messy or somebody had thrown up and yeah, like we have our own cleaning supplies. I appreciate it. But secondary you can use our stuff.
Speaker 0 00:12:01 That's awesome.
Speaker 4 00:12:02 Question number three. What is the best drink you've ever had at Patty's?
Speaker 3 00:12:09 Oh, well I got to give a shout out to Dave cocktails by boots. Um, it kills me to be so nice to the guy. No, it does not give him sarcastic, but uh, he does an old fashioned bar with the custom old fashioned and I don't like whiskey ever
Speaker 0 00:12:21 Have.
Speaker 3 00:12:22 Oh wow. He has me converted. Wow. Um, yeah, he does one. That's a dark chocolate orange old-fashioned yeah. I'm totally addicted to it.
Speaker 0 00:12:30 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:12:32 Question number four. What is the strangest trend you've experienced through your bar?
Speaker 0 00:12:41 That's a good question. Yeah, it was just like, cause there's been, since I've been a bar, goer is like two decades now there's been a lot of trends that have come in. I haven't gone. That's a good question to enter. Wow.
Speaker 3 00:12:52 That's a very good question.
Speaker 4 00:12:54 Thanks. I made it up.
Speaker 0 00:12:55 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:12:57 I can't, I can't think of one specific that a would stand out in my head other than, uh, we've had some people come in and do, and then this is going back now. This entry of beer.
Speaker 0 00:13:11 Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 00:13:12 So that was a trend for a while. And Sherry was really dodgy for us because you can only serve so
Speaker 0 00:13:16 Much. That's right. So
Speaker 3 00:13:18 We get guys ordering like four or five pints of beer and then they get a shot.
Speaker 0 00:13:23 And
Speaker 3 00:13:24 Then all of a sudden we notice they're hoarding the shock glass and it's like,
Speaker 0 00:13:27 That's right. That's right. You got to do the people do that in the bar. I've done that.
Speaker 3 00:13:32 I've done it at parties. People try it at the bar.
Speaker 0 00:13:37 Really interesting palsy. Okay.
Speaker 4 00:13:41 And your final question, what is your favorite experience you've had within a bar that you can tell us? Any bar,
Speaker 3 00:13:49 Any bar? Um,
Speaker 0 00:13:54 Probably
Speaker 3 00:13:55 He, I was in Vegas and uh, standing at the bar trying to get a drink and um, I'm going to draw a blank. Now he's a famous baseball player. We were at the pentose of one of the bars and I was trying to order a drink and this guy I'm trying to get the bartender's attention. Uh, and he comes over and kind of elbows me out of the way. And just as this to the bartender, he comes over and gives me a drink. So I was like, what are like, yeah, asshole. I kind of elbowed him out of the way. Uh, his name begins with D it's going to drive me crazy now. Uh,
Speaker 4 00:14:30 And I don't
Speaker 3 00:14:32 Know. That's wrestling that one. I do.
Speaker 0 00:14:37 I don't. Oh
Speaker 3 00:14:37 Yeah, yeah. That sounds familiar. Yeah. Maybe
Speaker 0 00:14:40 He was famous.
Speaker 3 00:14:40 He played for St. Louis, I think.
Speaker 4 00:14:42 Yeah. He also played for Toronto for a bit.
Speaker 3 00:14:45 Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I know. I knew who he was. Right. So I kind of pulled him out of that as pissed off. And I went back whining about, and everyone was like, don't you know who that is? You just literally shoved him. And then he came over to apologize and brought me a drink.
Speaker 0 00:14:56 There you go. Yeah. That's a good
Speaker 3 00:14:58 One. There was pre cell phone days. So no selfies.
Speaker 0 00:15:00 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:15:01 That's probably my most memorable bar experience that I could talk about.
Speaker 0 00:15:04 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:15:05 Jose Bautista. That's who I was talking to them.
Speaker 3 00:15:08 It might've been him. Yeah. It was cut out again. I don't follow baseball.
Speaker 0 00:15:12 Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:15:13 Yeah. That's pretty much the only baseball player. I know.
Speaker 0 00:15:16 Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:15:17 Cool. So then your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:15:19 There we go. Nice. So let's talk about patties for a little bit here. So people need to come out and need support. What do you got going on at the bar itself?
Speaker 3 00:15:28 Yeah, we've got actually a full calendar. Um, I got to give credit to Trish. Who's been looking after everything since I stepped back.
Speaker 0 00:15:34 Right.
Speaker 3 00:15:35 So she's doing 18 hour days in there and it's give her all due credit.
Speaker 0 00:15:39 So when you say full calendar, what does that mean for the people at home?
Speaker 3 00:15:41 We've got a live bands every weekend. Of course we've got some events coming up, Ryan Lindsey and the Garth Brooks tribute, which if you've ever heard of Ryan, Lindsey is a phenomenal voice. Right? If you close your eyes, you'd swear. It is Garth Brooks. We're excited about that. We've got the romantics come in from, um, Saskatchewan are well known. They do 50. So to swing. Okay. Yeah. So that's a ticketed event. We've got a gin cocktail bar coming up.
Speaker 0 00:16:06 Oh,
Speaker 3 00:16:06 Nice. So Dave, that does the whiskeys doing what? Magento? All custom cocktails.
Speaker 0 00:16:11 Right?
Speaker 3 00:16:11 Uh, what else we got Valentine's of course is coming up. We've got some cookie decorating stuff for kids and
Speaker 0 00:16:17 Oh, okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:16:18 So there's lots going on. It's um, it's going to be a full February for us,
Speaker 0 00:16:21 For kids. This is one thing that always kind of, and I'm glad we got to talk about it right now. When I was younger, I remember I was 18, so I could be in the bar, but, and sometimes me and the boys like to pull a full day shifts show up like
Speaker 3 00:16:35 12 hours.
Speaker 0 00:16:37 But when you show up early enough, especially back in the day, um, I hang out with a lot of Irish people, um, English people, my wife, her parents immigrated here from Ireland. There was always children. Like they would have like their family dinners and stuff there. So, uh, or not dinner, sorry, breakfast, brunch, borderline lunch.
Speaker 4 00:16:56 So technically dinner happens at noon.
Speaker 0 00:16:59 There you go. So that's still a thing. Yep. So explain this cookie decorating thing for me, please. For the kids
Speaker 3 00:17:06 We have hired, uh, fortunately we had hired somebody who's baker, as well as a chef. Right. She's been doing all our desserts for us. She had the idea of doing something for kids. We did the
Speaker 0 00:17:15 Grades red
Speaker 3 00:17:16 Building at Christmas and sold out.
Speaker 0 00:17:17 Right.
Speaker 3 00:17:18 Um, and then donations, we made some donations with the profits. That's the same thing with this. So, oh,
Speaker 0 00:17:24 I love it.
Speaker 3 00:17:25 Cause she's going to bake these big heart-shaped cookies. Kids can decorate them and give them to their parents.
Speaker 0 00:17:30 That's such a good idea. I love when, uh, in the time and age that we live in right now, like it's not, you need to pivot, you need to like do things differently. And a bar for most people would think is so it's an adult based place to go. So to create revenue opportunities outside of the norm. Yeah. That's smart. When's that? I'll bring my kid. When is that happening?
Speaker 3 00:17:50 February 13th, I believe is the decorating
Speaker 0 00:17:52 13th. Okay. I'm going to put that.
Speaker 3 00:17:54 I want it to be enough. We've sold probably half the, it gets to adult couples Who are coming to decorate.
Speaker 0 00:17:58 that's a good day.
Speaker 3 00:18:01 Life again is about memories. Right. And I think people are starting to realize that, uh, we missed out on two years of getting together and being friends.
Speaker 0 00:18:08 That's right. Okay. I'm going gonna, I got it right before we leave Tanner, please. We got to write that down.
Speaker 4 00:18:14 You gotta write that. Remind me,
Speaker 0 00:18:16 Remind me to write that down.
Speaker 4 00:18:19 Yeah. That's not what I'm paying for it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:18:21 That's great. Okay. Cool. Well, listen man. That's the end of the 20 minutes. It was fast. It was quick. So listen, before everybody leaves though, they get a shameless shout out or plug as you know. So you got the mix to camera lights. How fun.
Speaker 3 00:18:32 Thank you. I just literally want to say thank you to form Marie again, this community is it's unbelievable. Unlike anywhere else in the world. It really is. When you ask for help, people just say, just come in droves and give it to you. Um, and hopefully that continues and allows us to turn around and give back to the community. But, uh, yeah, you know, I, I won't do a shameless plug. Everyone knows who I am and what I'm about. But uh, I just want to say thank you literally to the whole form of Maria. It's phenomenal. This town never ceases to amaze me.
Speaker 0 00:19:02 Awesome. It's pretty sweet community. There's no doubt about that. Absolutely. So thanks for coming, man. Appreciate it. Feel free to come back again and again and again, and I'm going to write down February 13th, you said, right? I hope I'm right. I'm going to try to do my best.
Speaker 3 00:19:15 If
Speaker 0 00:19:15 I'm wrong. If I'm in town, I'm going to try my best to get to that. That sounds like a really cool event. It'd be fun. Cool. All right. For Macquarie wood, Buffalo, the rest of the world, that's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you very much for tuning in. It does mean the world to me. I hope you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 1 00:19:33 I just dies that desk. Another max, any warning show dog.
Speaker 7 00:19:50 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
