Chef Adam Perry Lang on the State of the Restaurant Industry During Coronavirus | Joe Rogan

I have enjoyed your restaurant many times. This is 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's the gist of it. This is a crazy time. 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 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. What have you been doing with your time now that this is? Well, it really first started where basically everybody was just staring at each other and saying, 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 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 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, we're with you. 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 of breath and I'm like, OK, well, I appreciate you saying that. And then I was just head down, get down to business with it. And we had to cut back 90 percent of the staff and we were just like just cook, didn't know who we're going to who's going to buy it or anything. It's just crazy. So what did you just tell everybody? The steakhouse is called APL and it's in L.A. in what is that like the theater district? What is that called? Yes, it's in the heart of Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine. And it's right next to the Pantages Theater, which we and what's ironic was it was literally when they closed down all the restaurants. It was the going to be the night of Hamilton premiering, which is a big deal for us as a business. And, you know, all of a sudden it's like it stops. Yeah. We I went to your place right after we saw something that was. Oh, it was frozen. Yeah. OK. I have daughters. Right. Yeah. We went to see Frozen. And that was the last time I was at your place. 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 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 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 to 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. Yeah. 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. But how I'm investing my time, how a lot of other chef restaurateurs are investing their time is trying to serve take out to the public, but also doing charitable and things to provide for first line, you know, frontline defense. And one of the things is, you know, Jimmy Kimmel and I teamed up to for every meal that we prepare. We donate a meal to St. Joseph's Center. That was the first thing was for our our attitude was 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 even just the five people working because we didn't even know if people are going to order. So we jumped into it like that. And then these services such as frontline L.A., which comes in and 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, Hollywood Presbyterian. OK, great. One hundred fifty people. We package up the meals. How do you do that? Do they order off a menu or do you just prepare? No, we think that they'll enjoy. We prepare healthy things, things that they would appreciate. And then also sometimes they just serve comfort items. So sometimes they'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's a weird word, comfort food, you know, it is. But that's what's happening. 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 cooked 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 during 9 11. And, you know, our attitude was 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's that? Like we prefer curbside 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 a business because it gives us a greater range and we really can 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 upcharge 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 good clip up to. It's probably about half and half. So like, what if you had a guess, like what's the capacity is as part is 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% of 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. This is 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 tough spot. And you have obviously 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 what's the temperature? Like, how's everybody dealing with this? You know, first of all, knowing that a good number of us are not going to be around, because just even figuring out all the rules and the laws that are going to happen around this thing or 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. 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. What is PPP? It's the Paycheck Protection Program. And that's really a government funded assistance to supply restaurants and all businesses. I think of all the loans given out, I think only 5% of all the loans given out were actually to restaurants. So they get they give you a chunk of money, essentially, that covers eight weeks of payroll. And also a portion of that for 20, that's 75% has to be spent on payroll covers for eight weeks. And then the other 25% is for renting utilities. So it's like an eight week lifeline. And so far, how long has it been now? We're looking at like six weeks of lockdown so far or something like that? 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, accomplishment. I got 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 going to like just wallow in it. I'm just going to keep working head down, do what I do and just hope at the end of the day. At the end of the day, people have to eat. So the world's going to be different, you know, probably not going to be the same at all in terms of from my business. But what choice do I have? Right. You want one of these, Ben? Yes, sure. Till Clif CBD drink. Delicious. Oh, yeah. Nice. Sorry for people listening to me slurp. I like that. So when you're operating at 10 percent capacity, obviously, this is not sustainable. 10 percent of your business is not sustainable. That's right. Just because operating costs and all the above. And then you're obviously in a very high profile area, which must be extraordinary rent. Yeah. 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.