 10 years ago or so the restaurant was really slow like 2007 2008 the economy is in a hard way people aren't showing up right this place just feels like a ghost town we're doing on a slow night 20 30 guests 40 guests you know we're a big restaurant that's just we're losing money and I got really angry and I was just like oh man we're working so hard I believe this is still a really good dining experience you know well who should be introducing each other because I want to save you the you know it's always a little awkward right because what are you gonna say you're gonna be like you're gonna you gotta you gotta be positive you gotta be upbeat you gotta be complimentary and then I'm over here like okay like you're overstating it but let's just skip all that okay okay okay well for our listeners that don't know who you are you know what why don't you you just share with us a little bit more about uh countless okay here we go you're ready can listen 30 seconds yes let's go my name is Mark canless I run this restaurant in Seattle with my brother Brian he's downstairs texting me saying where the hell are you um but uh we're a restaurant in Seattle yeah we just celebrated our 70th birthday during a pandemic like a lot of people celebrated birthdays so we've been here a long time we've been here three generations my grandfather started this thing in 1950 so we um we're a fine dining place um but we haven't been for the last 15 months we shut this restaurant down March 15th of last year and in the meantime we've just been doing everything we can to keep our employees working and to you know pay the bills and hopefully encourage the city hopefully encourage the nation um and I think do some thinking around how to rebuild an industry that um that's how to really rough go um and so that I think that's our I think that's our charge a little bit um it's just to ask ourselves okay how do we how do we put this thing together and in the process can we keep serving we keep serving the people that we that we love to serve even though we're not a fine dining restaurant so that's um that's what we're up to I love it because like for actually I think you're not really describing yourself or giving yourself enough credit because you guys one of the top fine dining restaurants I would say I didn't say that a really good restaurant how's that okay beautiful very good restaurant one of the best I would say it's definitely one of the best um that's definitely one of the best there we go there you go uh and I remember last year when I interviewed you guys it was just in the the beginning of the pandemic and you guys were quick with adapting to the new rules of the game where you guys went from you know employing like over a hundred people and you guys were switching to the dime of like hey you know what how can I do fine dining with COVID no you're not doing it so now and then you switched to selling burgers over a thousand burgers uh crazy uh on a switch of a dime and I was like super super inspirational that that interview that we had because like you guys were not waiting for the new normal you guys were just like adapting to the rules of the game and you're like you know what let's charge your head as you said um so now I want to bring you back and see like hey now we're a year into the whole COVID we're about to get out of it um and basically share with us your recent activities I know you guys have been doing a ton of things uh let's dive into what do you want to start with I know you guys are you guys are so many great things you know um yeah I think I think I think what we I think that that initial pivot like um got a lot of attention and and and um people were paying attention to it which which was hugely helpful for us um I think maybe I'd like to start with like this like chapter two like what happened after that you know and um why did we maybe why did we make some of those decisions or or um what really is the opportunity that's out there for a restaurant right now or for people right now who are saying I'd love I'd love to I feel like we're tuning in corner and yet I'm still I'm still stuck like my company's not open or we're still hamstrung by all these new rules you know what do we I just feel like there's um we're kind of in this holding period this sort of not yet period we're all ready to um to kind of get back to to a more normal lifestyle and yet we're not there yet um Camus is still closed and uh even though you know everyone here is getting vaccinated and and um and there's just a different feel in the city there's just a different tenor for sure I don't know it's because it's sunny in Seattle or because people are truly feeling like hey we're entering a new season but we are we're entering in in many ways a new season um but the the fact matter is is we still have to keep playing this game and to to countless it feels like a game that's kind of how we've approached it the entire way it was okay um we're playing this game we're on the field we're not the referee we don't control the rules we don't get to say how this thing goes we just need to sort of figure it out and adapt and keep playing for as long as we can like how do we just how do we just not um we don't want that final whistle to blow so um so that's what we've been up to yeah right now the restaurant looks like I think we're in our 13th business model so we know you left off at bagels and burgers and takeout and stuff um we've done a few since then right now we are camp canlas I love that camp canlas is that is that the same as a yurt village or different we use we repurpose the yurt village so the yurt village was designed to be like this swish chalet kind of apresky fine dining you know wintertime thing um it's 74 degrees in sunny in seattle right now so that did that's it felt a little weird to be you know eating reclet and so we kind of had to redo the entire thing so we stripped it down okay sorry sorry sorry before we we leave your village because it is something that caught my eye and I'm like holy crap like this guy is amazing like like first of all for those people that don't know what your village is can you tell us a little bit more about like a but 10-second pitch of what your village is yeah well if we go back to like last summer so we were running a restaurant in our parking lot called the crab shack it got really smoky because of forest fires we had to kind of shut that thing down and it started raining um so we opened something called canlas community college um which was like a two month idea and tons of fun but not sustainable long term for us and we decided to build let's say let's build an outside restaurant again okay so I'm I'm so sorry to to uh to cut you off right now because I know the canlas community college is a gem and it's something that I really want to talk about okay you're skipping on all the good stuff the great stuff going too fast all right I'll step by step right so the first outdoor restaurant we did was crab shack and because of weather we were like now we can't pull that off right Seattle is just a is a is a is a wet mess so um and at the same time our team was really tired we're having a hard time keeping everyone employed um and and we no longer had a restaurant so we thought what if we did something for the community that allowed us to sort of take a break from trying to like be in front of all these guests no one CDC doesn't know really how covid spreads it was all kind of awkward you know in that phase so we came up with this idea and Nelson did our wine director he's like what if we just did we have this thing called um canlas university which is not a university at all it's like a two week class we teach in the restaurant he's like hey let's just do that for the city and which is like a cool idea except we don't we're not teachers like we can barely put together two weeks of stuff for our own staff um and we thought yeah but we have a platform and there's a lot of teachers here in the city voices that need to be heard and that could really just shine a light on what's positive about Seattle even in the midst of the fact that we're all catching this disease and on the struggle bus and so we went around town and just said who who would be cool to listen to and let's invite them in and have a socially distanced cocktail you know we set this up in the dining room I tried to make the cameras look like we were close but you know you're sitting and we just had conversations like tell us about you know um the Northwest African American Museum I don't know anything about that I had never met the executive director I don't know anything about black history in Seattle and it was like you know what I'm quarantined I'm stuck at home I'm kind of like poopy pants a little bit with the attitude what a great opportunity to learn so we sit down with her and we just talk for an hour and say tell us about your museum we did that with the Mohai the museum of you know industry here in Seattle um we did that with like so many people we actually had 48 different classes like we brought in different chefs from cuisines that we know nothing about right we learned how to make dumplings um and we just thought what if we're the learners and we bring in these incredible voices around the city and let them be the teachers and so we call that canless community college where where was this distributed oh we just stuck it on youtube um and we purchased people 25 bucks and to be a student and that 25 was a fund raiser so we said hey after we get our costs paid for like our my buddy that was the producer and like his you know random buddy who was like the sound guy um we said we're just going to donate this to fair start so it ended up raising a lot of money 60 grand or 70 grand or something for fair start um and it was fun i mean brand i did like a kid show for kids we did it's if you youtube canless community college it's all out there but it's what's the highlight right you're you're still missing the highlight of this whole college what most notable guests okay what uh so like my favorite show like my favorite class i think uh there was a i was really blown away what really caught my eye was like i thought you were joking because you're you're really great at telling stories when you said like hey you know what who better to share this than bill gates oh man yeah so you're missing i mean you're like how are we going to tell people that we're doing a community college this is sort of the goofy and like what the hell like we're a restaurant right so people were just scratching their heads thinking i think we were opera rocker so we decided a friend of mine uh cal mccallister he writes advertisements for a living and he's like dude i'm gonna write this thing for you see if you can get bill gates so he writes this little script and we um um i don't i'm not friends with him but you know he's eating here and stuff and so we just called and said hey we're kind of hard up where this restaurant you've eaten here before it'd be amazing if you could just deliver this line we're gonna fake a commercial like a youtube video and so anyway in the video brad and i are like oh we're on the struggle boss we don't know what to do but we talked to book gates and he told us to open a community so gates is totally into education right so so he told us to open a community college and in the video bill said they're like i did not tell them to open a community college right it's just this dry humor kind of thing but um i think the idea of the community college a little bit was to say was to sort of like circle the wagons and say look this is us seattle like this is us maybe you run a school maybe you're some chef in a tiny restaurant maybe you're bill gates but if we just sort of like come together and say we can do something cool here i don't i don't want to hear the sob story that we're still in a pandemic let's create something cool let's keep learning let's fill our minds with something good because if you just focus on the negative all day you're going to be filled up with the negatives so it was like what can be put out there that's positive and he was amazing and he you know the guy's saving the world right now he's got way better things to do than deliver a line for our stupid video but it was cool it was a lot of fun and we were all like you know i have so many questions is insane because i'm like how first of all like yo let's just call him up and you're like okay let's just call bill gates and that's how it goes i think we knew someone who knew someone who knew someone i don't know i can't remember how it happened but i love that now i know someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows someone that knows bill gates someone who knew someone who knew someone was picking up dinner like we were doing dinner to go and we're like oh wait a second yeah i mean it's seattle's still a small town and here's the thing let me just put credit it's like he's as cool as you want him to be like he's the real deal so when a bunch of podunk restaurant people are like can you help us with our canless community college he's like yeah i mean that's bill gates and i think people don't give him credit for that he's he's authentic he's a real human and he's got a big heart and so and honestly you know well something for me one of the things that i'm learning in this pandemic is just man if you have the guts to just say hey i need help if you have the guts to say i i'm not enough i can't do it alone right now i could really use a helping hand like that really connects to people and and more often than not they'll be like here and i think for me i'm kind of scared to do that i mean they're scared to admit that i need help or i'm scared to admit that like i can't do it on my own or embarrasses even like you know asking for directions all of that's really vulnerable it's all of it is like hey i don't have my stuff quite put together could you help me out and it's hard for me if i'm really honest it's really hard for me i'd like to stand at the front door of a fancy restaurant and look all polished and put together and have you pretend i got my shit together the reality is you know it takes a village to keep this thing running me my family my restaurant and so i think that's what we learned particularly in community college was it takes a village and if you're just willing to sort of say i could use a hand here it's amazing people just that's humanity right we're all more alike than we than we want to admit and there's something about hospitality that has a lot to do with your head going this doesn't make sense but your heart going man i gotta help that guy so i that's what the bill gates video was a highlight for sure but the real highlight was seeing the city come together in a way and help lift us up help pick us up and be like hey canless this is a kind of a grace crazy idea but we got you let's do this this will be cool and so i mean you know the content we're putting out there is like c-quality right there's like there's like good stuff and then there's like all the other stuff and then there's like what we put out there which probably isn't worth watching but in that time and place i think it blessed a lot of people and it certainly it certainly blessed us so thank you thank you for sharing such an important lesson because humility and just being humble and vulnerable as you said just there's so many good traits that are that you're sharing with with a lot of owners especially new restaurant owners they feel like that they must have a front they must need to know everything otherwise you're not a business owner and i think like that's really far from the truth because meloni i don't know who who wrote the rule that says hey now that you own your own business you know everything but it's not that message societally or in our own heads it comes through right and we're like oh man well i'm the i'm the person in charge so i better i better act like it like i better show them that that i merit or warrant to being in this position and the reality is there's 63 dozen people in this city who deserve to be in the position i'm in right like like there's so many people who could run this place and there's so many and so i think just this understanding it's the same thing i feel when i'm driving past a guy in the street ask me for money you know who's i'm like man i'm one lucky break away from being that guy that's just the truth i'm one one mentor away one decision away one one thing in my life where like i had something that he didn't have and two roads split into what that could be me on the side of the road so i feel that way in both in both ways and and it's true you're right people run a restaurant or they or they get they get put in charge maybe there's just a manager of a few people and they and there's this false hood in our head that says we have to know what to do that's not true there's no there's no rule book suddenly where you got all the answers you don't have them i don't have them and the person running that business down the road he doesn't have them we're all just trying to figure it out and saying that out loud has been a learning step for me and an important growth step which is so and if you met our team you'd get it like they're so talented like they come alongside and lift us up and support us in ways that like i said community college wasn't my idea camp canless wasn't my idea like very few of this was my idea right this is the team saying hey let's let's put our heads together we can do this together and yeah it's been encouraging to watch them watch them do it i love that two things for takeaway it's just like yo don't be afraid to ask for help and honestly just be authentic so thank you thanks for sharing that um i know after the community college and after that whole thing you guys now started your village yeah tell me a little bit more about your village because that's another big achievement on your part i'm like holy crap how it looks beautiful cool no it looks really good i'm stoked how it came out i didn't think it would look that cool we're all kind of in love with it we're all sort of like oh man i had to take this down but it's in our parking lot yeah um you built a village on top like it's like a five-star resort hotel-ish kind of deal that you built in your parking lot it's insane how so the first step was um i don't know if you remember so we threw this party a while back and we ended up building this huge two tiki huts for it we're like man we need some tiki huts the restaurant's not big enough and it was january it was new year's eve right so we're like how how's it gonna feel like hawaii you know it's 38 degrees out and it's leading outside so we ended up with these two tiki huts so we fell in love with those like these guys built them for us and they just did an amazing job so we picked them up with a crane and we stuck them we moved them into our lower parking lot and kind of became like some of the culture of this restaurant's where we party as a staff and hang out and for a while we've always said wouldn't be cool we could use those in the winter like we could just turn these into yurts um and then at the same time i will get there who who used to own 11 Madison park he built a yurt village like who was this will get there he and daniel ran 11 madison in new york city and was part of made nice and and all that stuff um anyway they did that in in aspen and we saw and we're like oh that's brilliant that's genius so um we partnered with will and we just said how'd you guys do this he's like well the the move is to get a big sponsor on board so will called american express um and he saw the writing on the wall he's like hey it's not just you all these restaurants are gonna be hard up when the cold weather comes um and so he got american express to sort of do this for a dozen or so different restaurants around the country um and so they foot the bill um they gave us wrote us a chex that we could go buy a bunch of yurts and put that thing together um and we just wanted to make it we were like all right we're gonna do yurts they gotta be canless yurts like it's gotta be the canless of yurts you know whatever that means so we just tried to to run that to ground a little bit and be like okay well if now we're the canless of yurts what does that look like so we had a lot of fun with it the staff and I went up we got some forest passes uh from the forest service and we went um snowshoeing into the woods we brought down a bunch of trees and we just started decorating this thing and um and it came together we got the snowboard and ski museum to give us a bunch of old stuff rai came on board and they're like hey we do outdoor gear um let's let's put you guys and you know parkas and stuff because you're freezing outside right so um and you're out there a long time so it just sort of came together we just started having fun with it and uh and and then and then we did it again for camp canless we just stripped it all down I mean I was away I took I took some time off recently and I came back and now there's a pond they built a pond in the parking lot so now you come in and everything is grass and um they've got this huge rock so now there's a the rowboat all these canoes there's like a rowboat sitting in a pond in the yurt village by the way this is like just built on an asphalt right so um the idea I think is just if we're really if we can be considered if fine dining is like the most considered kind of dining then what if you just take that that laser beam that you got that consideration laser beam and you and you point it at camp like it's the same move right if we're paying attention to the plates and the silver and the stems and the way it all comes together um with a bunch of different ingredients it's the same move when you're looking at getting an old camp pennant and some old backpacks and a canoe and trying to make it feel special right so so like actually I do have so much questions about the yurt village like you guys did that um you make it sound like a breeze you're like hey you know what just call my friend up solid they did a great job let's just call a mix and and have them front the bill and let's just build something and build a whole whole thing like yeah like that was crazy like it's how long did that take you guys to build and like what's the what's the process if someone wants to be able to do that in the smaller scale what would you recommend well time that's like three weeks of planning um and probably outside of that it's seven weeks ten weeks of sort of thinking it through um obviously like the the most important time in there is is up in here it's not with the hammer in the nails it's designing it so that it feels right um I won't lie to you we're really good at that um we also have just a lot of we just try to surround ourselves with like some some wicked smart people and um and we and we collect them we just like we meet someone who you just your heart connects to and you know they're talented you gotta promote the shit out of that person you gotta grab them and pay them what they're worth and bring them on board and just be like hey you're a champion and um and we're surrounded like Candleston the story of a hundred different champions with a hundred different stories who put this place together time and time again and um that's our staff and that's external too um and so I could list name after name after name like I'd love to tell you that I built that nope like so many talented people in this community kind of came together so many different little companies the Yurts themselves are a 120 year old company in Seattle that started building tents for the Alaskan Gold Rush we're like all right I don't know nothing about Yurts but I bet they do they've been building tents for a hundred years right so they came on board and like here here's how you do this right so it was just a collaboration of um I think the best of this city or a lot of you know a lot of talent that we have around us and we're really fortunate we live in an amazing town so you start to look around and just say who could build this with us so artists and what kind of clubs quick like how does the business side of it make sense like that's a lot of bill that you need to fund like it's is there a range of cost that would be that you can share yeah um so that's the magic of having American Express on board right is that um you have to and this is the genius of will right like it's not like he has some um he's not coercing or manipulating he's creating something that works for two different parties he's saying to American Express I see your need that's Will's genius is he sees a company like them and says you guys have needs too you have needs and then I see a bunch of restaurants and they have needs and I bet if we sew this thing right um we can stitch that a really a really cool relationship together right so American Express needs to be in with restaurants they're trying to win on the game where you you pull out your card and they give you points and you don't use your visa right and so if we can partner with them if we can serve American Express and say cool um you're trying to you're trying to do this and we can help you we're really good at this if you can use the same consideration that you would serve a guest with and serve American Express well maybe you can create a partnership there right so that's Will's genius right so he comes along and um and they say yeah we really want to we want to partner with good restaurants that's helpful for our image we've got money behind this thing so um I think bringing on partners in that we don't do it very often at the restaurant but I think that's a real strategic advantage the key there is that it's not um you're not coercing you're not manipulating um if you're in a partnership that doesn't truly serve the other person take it to dating if you're in a partnership that doesn't truly serve the other person hey you got to get out of that you know what I'm saying like a great dating relationship is one where where it just it it just blesses the other like in a way where the um the sum is greater than the than the parts right and so if we know that to be true in dating or in marriage well why would it not be true in business I think sometimes in business we get tempted to think oh man you just got to like put your best foot forward and make the pitch and make the sell man those are all anti-relational expressions right like wait a second like business is about relationship so if you want a partner or someone man do the work up here and in here to say how how would how would canless coming alongside this company really bless and serve that company how would how could I be good for you and if they're doing the same thing well that's a really that's a really cool thing you can you can build some cool stuff that way so I love that that's I think like that's what a lot of people need to understand is like when you partner get sponsors collaborations it's all about being able to provide value and being able to understand like what is it in a what would establish a win-win situation for for both parties uh and a big part of that a lot of people mistaken is that it's it all comes back down to the values right like I think canless you guys represent something of a very high tier and that's why like Amex they'll be like okay you know what it makes sense for us to partner up with you but for our listeners or like people who are just starting out a year two years into the the game like don't be discouraged of the fact that you can't partner up with Amex no it's not the case it's about partnering up with brands that can both uplift each other's status and just build each other up like that you know can can you build something more beautiful by yourself or if you brought someone on board like so I yeah if you start small in that way uh I think collaboration's got really cool everyone wants to put two brands a little X in between them like that doesn't just because you put the two things together doesn't mean you create anything so you got to do the work up here to say okay what would really be beautiful here if we brought these two things no different than cooking right just because you have two ingredients doesn't mean you have a a recipe so there's a lot of work to do to say what's beautiful about bringing these things together in which ways can we do that that that um could really ignite something and so anyway that's how we built the village um we had we had a lot of help and and we and I won't lie to you we worked our asses off to do like like that's Brian and I out there hours and hours and hours drawing it out in chalk um hand forming the path um I cut those trees down I put them up with my team like you can't just say to someone go get a beautiful tree you got to choose what a beautiful tree is and you got to know that this tree goes here at the entryway and that tree goes over there so we do that by hand um we're here hours and hours and hours building that by hand that's that's how you make something beautiful I think that's so cool because you gave the best analogy which I've never thought of it's like hey you know what your laser focus with fine dining pivoting and really focusing on the experience of the yurt village and and there's just so much wisdom to how you treat your food and how you do things that translates into the experience for your customers so that's really something that I I'm learning a lot from from that conversation so thank you thank you for sharing that and you guys had Eddie Bauer to sponsor your uniforms how how did that come about uh we went after someone else let's be honest with you and they were like oh you know who we'd partner with in the past and they were like oh man cool guys love you but it doesn't work for us right now I was like I was like oh shoot we need you guys and then um somebody from Eddie Bauer came in and we just started talking about what what was going on and we said would you be willing and they said yeah we would love to be on board so let us just and you know retail went through this crazy ride right and so they were like man you know first retail has too much clothing and then they can't make any clothing and then they like and then it's all stuck in ships like retail's been all over the map and so they just said we got some stuff um let us hook you up and um and I Brian actually I remember him saying on the phone he's like this is really generous of you guys I want to make sure it's working for you like prove to me why like I don't understand like we didn't understand why this would be so good for them and I'm like well here's what we've got going on from marketing's perspective here's our relationship to Seattle right now like so it really is um it'd be easy to take the free parka and run but um we I think if it's a relationship you gotta all relationships take work let's just again I don't know if I'm talking about dating or business right now but like there's no difference what we do personally and what we do with the business at least that's not how we run it so we want them to be the same but yeah it was um it was really cool they came on board and they read and they did it again for camp candle so you should see the crew they got these amazing like boots and these like they all look like forest rangers basically matches on their arms and um it just makes it fun you know and and you get your team having fun the guest is gonna feel that you can't not you can smell it from 100 feet away when it when a team is into what they're doing and believes what they're doing and they're enjoying what being out there with one another part of that is being warm part of that is looking cool that that stuff matters right so you can't just throw something on the plate and pretend like the thing is done like you gotta take it all the way to the nth detail so for us I think we've learned that lesson like the fine dining nest like what made whatever that is these days right so a lot of different opinions right but whatever that is that laser focus that's not just a fine dining thing like that's either a part of your brand or it isn't that's either a part of your character as a company or it isn't either you care at that level or you don't and you got to have the courage to own it just just own it just being authentic to who you truly are and I think something that you shared with me um like for those of us that's listening it's like yo I want that amix um I want that bill gates I want that eddie bower it all comes back down to being authentic and really being able to invest in the relationships and and it takes years like you guys took 70 years to build your brand name so a lot of people can't just come in and expect the same um and it's something that we just all need to learn from um being authentic it's true you right like that like we're the relationships were closest to the those the people you trust was no different with business right so we have the ability of saying hey we're gonna do something cool maybe to amix or maybe these other partners we've worked with and they look at you and they're like yeah sure you are bud right like hey kid sure you do something cool and hey also it'd just be good for all the people listening we get turned down all the time okay so that would be good to know also like we're the we're the person in the bar who's like hey and she's like no so there's a lot of things that come to us and I'll be like no this is gonna be amazing and they'd be like is it so but with someone like Eddie Bauer we were like hey we're gonna build something cool you could just look up online the last eight ideas we did this pandemic and you could do the math yourself trust me there won't be anything better going on this country at this moment like come on believe in us right and um and they trust us they trust us because for 70 years we have been a part of this city or because we've earned that trust over time that's it's essentially what you're spending in those relationships you're earning and building trust and then you're spending it you're asking someone to say believe in me trusted me and they're gonna look at you and they're gonna decide whether or not and so I do think that that's um that gets missed that gets underplayed yeah and actually thank you thank you for sharing the fact that you do get a lot of news because it's like from from afar it just feels like that you know everyone and it's like hey you know what I get this this is and that it's all easy like it's now so much to admit that the nose that we're always getting the cameras crash and burn journal would be a great read like it like it's embarrassing like like it's it's it's endearing um we get said no to all the time all the time and it's it's a lot of humble pie I'd be totally honest it's like oh man okay hold on a second um cool I mean we lost 11 James Beard Awards before we won one you know what I mean like it's like okay I thought I was I thought I was there but maybe not and um and I and it's I'll be totally honest I wouldn't have said this at the time but we need that we all need that we all need to remember like okay I got work to do here and it's on me to earn it someone's not eating my restaurant that's on me you know we were 10 years ago or so uh the restaurant was really slow like 2007 2008 the economy's in a hard way people aren't showing up right this place is just feels like a ghost town we're doing on a slow night 20 30 guests 40 guests because we're a big restaurant that's just we're losing money and I got really angry and I was just like oh man we're working so hard I believe this is still a really good dining experience you know and someone said to me was like hey if someone's not eating your restaurant that's not on them like that's on you so like maybe take all that anger and turn it around a little bit like take all that frustration like I want quick to point the finger like ah but honestly I was like wait a second I needed to look inside and say wait a second no we can do a better job maybe I need to change my attitude a little bit here if my restaurant's empty that's on me I can't be angry at them for not appreciating if I think something's beautiful no one else thinks something's beautiful that's not their fault right if I paint a painting and nobody wants to buy it that's on me right so like I really had to to turn that around like we we've been a slow restaurant before we've been empty we've been rejected and and I wouldn't want someone to look at Candace and say oh yeah yeah it just comes easy for them like no we can talk all day long about um it not going well so thank you for sharing the true side of and adversity um of of what you go through because it that's very encouraging for a lot of people because you know it's like it seems like a very uh short term game for people who who are in it for the first year two years three years and they're hitting walls all the time and yet they forget when they look at you guys it's 70 years of hard frickin work of trial and error head into a wall yeah right so it's like wow and as people forget that and they they it's it's it's super encouraging here's a little secret Will Godara's dad used to tell him all the time adversity is a terrible thing to waste I'd love that statement right like you're running a new restaurant and you just feel like you just feel like you're hitting wall after wall after wall and that you're not making any progress you know two steps forward three steps back baloney those three steps back are valuable like that adversity is valuable it is honing and refining um what it is about you that you like and the things that you want to shed it's teaching you incredible lessons so that adversity I mean the amount of negative press canvas has got our bad reviews man those things shaped us they woke us up and we all need that I don't care who you are but we we need that we need someone to say you know hold on a second sorry I was interrupting you but we're here no no no no this is exactly I think like why why we're going on this interview and thank you so much for sharing and and for all your time in and just diving deep and and sharing this with us because it's so important for us to all hear that you're going to be talking about and if we're not talking about this it's just fluff right it's like and I think honestly there's anything post pandemic I think people are over it I think when we talk about the way that we move forward societally there's a lot of stuff we don't want to go back to there's a normal that we don't want to return to and um and and we are just having this conversation with an editor last night about writing stuff and you're so you got to write this for millennials and I'd be like don't dumb down millennials everyone talks about how to speak to them they're over the pitch like they're over the like just be real like just straight up be real so if we're not talking about the brokenness as leaders if we're not honest with what's messed up about us like sure you can stand on the hill and say charge but you also need to sit down with your people and be like look guys this is what I'm struggling with this is what's this is what I thought I would change this year and I didn't hear the goals I didn't accomplish like here's the me that I want to be and I'm still not yet is that okay do you have space and margin for me to spend another year trying to grow or trying to learn or trying to become that person right takes both and I feel like I'm hoping as we as we rebuild the restaurant industry as we come out of this particular season that we're in and into a new one I hope we remember those lessons when we say hey hold on a second we have a real opportunity to build something from scratch right now our own industry let's build it the way we want it let's build it the way that's sustainable for our people let's build it in a way that we can be truly proud of it's I would not have wished a pandemic on anyone but it's the perfect opportunity for rebuilding right it's the perfect opportunity for stripping away the things that that we don't like about our company or our industry or ourselves and starting new so that's that's kind of how we've been seeing this is like hey it's COVID's not great for fine dining but it's great for being creative it's great for new starts it's great for kicking a bad habit or a system that we didn't have the courage to break down earlier maybe now we have the courage maybe we use a pandemic to just have that be the thing that allows us to just start new so I really hope as we as we come out of this season that's what we're able to do and we're looking at some of that stuff internally we just changed the way we pay our people it's so stinking expensive in this town and we just finally said minimum wage is not enough that's hard I'm gonna have to charge more so all the guests are coming to canvas that's I'm gonna have to charge for that right and we just changed the way we do healthcare in here it's like I don't want to go back to the way we did it before so I'm yeah we're having to take a good hard look at our own systems and and man what a great opportunity to do that right now if we all get extra time on our hands we're not open right so like use it a pandemic is a perfect opportunity all that time on your hands the great opportunity to be learning about you know what we can do better I like that reflection I like that I know for a fact that you guys are focused on camp can less in the summertime opening up in May what's the big plans on that do you have a plug sell us on it also on your vision so here's the deal so we we have it's two parts we open the first part which is the fine dining part that's that's the camp they look a lot like the yurts they are the yurts but the whole thing has been re-envisioned and it's beautiful it sold out real quick we put we have a roof we like hey pandemic is a great opportunity to use a roof we put a tree for it kind of thing up there it sold out in 90 seconds two months of it so we're really privileged to not have to open right away so the reopening of candles we can delay it's really comfortable bringing fine dining back and bringing people in in the right way so we may extend this again we're about to like you said we're about to open the canteen so we have two parking lots so one is we've got a yurt village in it the other one we just want to do barbecue so Celeste she's been our executive she's our cdc executive sous chef before that she's a champion she's from Lubbock Texas and I love barbecue and she like crushes it so we just bought a smoker well I'm like Celeste let's do this so she orders this crazy smoker on a trailer and we're picking it up with our crane and we're going to drop it down next to those tiki hats and we're just going to do like a like a Texas you know ice house you know highway 99 smoke shack kind of thing so we call it the canteen it's like the the casual part of camp canless so but the tree for it and the canteen and camp canless in the yurts I think that can sustain us until we can open up you know good old-fashioned canless it's so cool like every time I'm so caught up with everything that you do like I'm like you are having new stuff all the time so I can't wait to actually come and try out camp canless when everything opens up it sounds like it I definitely will definitely come check it out so any last words for for our listeners or our audience like do you have anything you want to share you know we've hit on so many things um I think um yeah I think I think I would just here's the thing I think we're tired be good to say that um our crew is tired we got some some change fatigue we've got some we got all of that we're feeling all of that and as a team I think it's good to say that out loud and also I just feel like if we got to go another round we're going to go another round you know we got to go another round after that we're going to do that that's not because we're superhuman I think that's just a choice and I don't think it's a pandemic thing I think it's a function of of our character and so I would just invite and let's see I'm looking in the mirror right now I'm literally looking at my face the zoom screen so I'm not preaching here um but I what I'm hoping is that that's a part of my character and what I'm hoping is that that can become a part of Candice's character and really that it's the character of the restaurant industry like this is our this is our mantle to grab right now and and I think people need hospitality more now than they ever did and and and we've taken our licks as an industry we have this has not been easy right like we've taken we have taken our licks but we're not down we're not out we're just we're just tired we're a little beat up but I think of us as the industry with the most promise ahead of us and I'm filled with hope for that and I see the people that are committed to real hospitality who are like I'm not giving up pandemic whatever I'm in right and and that's inspiring and so and like to me that's that's what's in front of us and so I would just name and claim kind of that hope like hey guys that's right around the corner and I don't know how many rounds it's going to take but but we're going to hold on and we're going to we're going to we're going to hang in there or we're going to die trying I've got this sticky on my dance to my office down there but like in fact it's right there and at some point I was like so frustrated I was like so down just discouraged and scared and like ah we're like losing money and we're like the whole thing right we've all felt this in the pandemic just had these low moments I wrote this thing and I was like we're gonna keep doing this or we're gonna die trying so I wrote die trying on the yellow sticky green and I stuck and I just I kept moving that thing around the office and I would find it and it was like such an encourage so that's how I felt it was like I'm in I'm in or or we're just gonna go down doing something that we believe in and I don't care if you're a restaurant person or not I think to find something that you can just be all in and and be like hey this is me so find something that you believe in and go with it and and that's what we've been doing for 13 months and we're gonna be 14 whatever month we're in right now we're gonna keep doing it so I hope I hope that someone looks at cameras can can be encouraged um it's the story of a bunch of normal people just doing this and or gonna die trying and it's not um it's not anything more glamorous than that you know what's really funny is like while you're giving me that speech I'm like holy crap like I'm all riled up I'm like oh I'm ready I don't know what I'm ready for but I'm ready like what am I doing I'm ready let's do this I don't know what I'm doing it's it's Friday it's Friday I'm about to go home it's like what am I doing I don't know I'm ready you're you're spreading the good word and so thank you for that no thank you thank yeah thank you thank you thank you thank you I appreciate you I appreciate it for um for people that want to follow your journey um do you have a plug but let us know how they can find you yeah it's um um my brother runs our instagram at let's see I don't know what's our instagram at canals at beak at canals I don't know I'm supposed to listen I'll put in the show notes I'll put in the show notes I don't know what our instagram is he does it all but I edit his work I'm like no man that's not what you say so he like takes the photos and I'm like I would say it this way he's like that's not what the kids do anyway it's a conversation we're on instagram you can follow us on instagram I don't want to do that I'll put in the uh in the show notes but thank you thank you so much for your time I I truly truly appreciate this because you're showing so much so many years of wisdom um and just the philosophy is just so different from the people that are just starting out and it's just like we we know how to mirror off what the the people that are the pinnacle at their trade are doing and even something that we can really learn from so thank you thank you for doing so much for the industry as well happy to thanks for thanks for telling our story seriously I hope you guys are well out there stay safe take care