 We are at Salt Bay Steakhouse in New York City where I worked for a period of a few weeks This story starts back in the spring of 2017 when I had heard that the popular internet celebrity Salt Bay was opening up a steakhouse in New York He is known for his successful steakhouses on new shred in Turkey and Dubai at the time I was actually working in hospitality as a bartender So I was trying to keep an eye out for hiring notices I figured there would be a lot of hype behind the restaurant behind the position and it would be very lucrative Towards the end of that year around October. I saw an advertisement and was invited to the open call interviews The interview was at the Plaza Hotel in New York Which seemed a bit odd and it was because they were conducting interviews in the middle of a public lobby With other hotel guests. I don't understand how they had enough money to put all of the staff in the Plaza Hotel But not rent an office space or room to conduct interviews I showed up early and was the first person to be interviewed by a young Turkish woman Who had me wait after the interview to speak to Can I help you? This is a public place All right This guy's nice All right, we'll pipe it up this way. I guess Humpty Dumpty wanted me to move 20 feet this way So we'll roll with it So I show up to this open call interview for the steakhouse restaurant and I'm interviewed by this Turkish woman It was like a screening kind of thing and then they had me wait Usually you speak to the hiring manager after they screen you with someone else So this hiring manager was actually sold by himself As I was waiting I was chatting with another guy who was interviewing there The reason I'm bringing this up is because I actually came across this guy Just earlier this year when I was going on an interview somewhere else So I'm definitely not alone on my struggle in hospitality and dealing with you know people like this So I get pulled over for the interview and I'm sitting across from an older man Diagonally to me is salt bay after a few seconds I realized salt bay doesn't speak much English and he was his translator, but salt bay definitely understood English so I wanted to set myself apart from anyone else and I have an Instagram with a lot of pictures of me So I figured it would be perfect to show him that you know salt base thing is doing ridiculous stuff on Instagram related to steak related to burgers whether it's slicing a steak or you know putting something on a fire and You know I take on my phone and I hand him the phone and he starts looking at the pictures of me You know he's going through them and he swipes over to my shirtless pictures and He started smiling I I Could barely contain myself from laughing hysterically and I was kind of like is this is a comedy What's going on? You seriously you take someone's phone you look at a picture of the shirtless and you start fucking smiling in front of their face It was it was comical shit guys and I don't remember the rest of the interview after that But I ended up getting invited into meeting them the next day Because they wanted to discuss the future of the restaurant and what their game plan was this meeting was actually in the same lobby of the Plaza Hotel that we interviewed in and About 30 people showed up so we all sit down and before the meeting even starts The Plaza Hotel management staff comes over and says we can't be there because it was reserved that day They tried to conduct the meeting anyway Quickly asking if oh can you go to Miami can you go to Miami because they wanted to open The Miami steakhouse before New York as a test run. It's completely ridiculous. They hire these people on the spot And then the next day they ask people to come with them to Miami in a couple of weeks to work for them But I guess that's what you do when your restaurant is owned by a real estate company That's affiliated with one of the richest billionaires in the world The guy that owns it is actually the richest man from Turkey You know it trickles down, you know through a few companies and through a few steps But there's so much money behind the sky that it's weird just a few minutes into the meeting The police came and kicked us out So we had to go downstairs into this bodega market thing where we were signing up to go to Miami With the same Turkish woman that interviewed me the other day and she's using a garbage bin as a desk I was like hell fucking no, I'm not going to Miami with you morons. This is already a mess So the New York Steakhouse was supposed to open in October or November But that was when Miami ended up opening in hindsight I should have probably gone down there because that would have landed me a better position in the restaurant in New York But I didn't know that at the time and the New York restaurant opening ended up getting delayed several months So it's now February. It was cold as shit outside and we started training at this steakhouse There were a lot of other bartenders that were hired and as with most of the staff They were pretty much Turkish. The bar was set up completely wrong Like a kitchen, you know, we had like refrigerated drawers to put rabbits in or something But that's a whole different story So these people put a lot of money into this restaurant Probably dozens of millions of dollars with little to no supervision or you know restaurant or expertise I mean if I had as much money as these guys, I guess I wouldn't care if I was burning it in a driveway So we ended up training for a few weeks. I don't remember how long exactly I think it might have been two weeks and when we opened they were giving me day shifts the lunch shift and The traffic during rush hour for lunch shift was nuts So I literally went up to the manager and asked him. Hey, what the hell are you doing? You know, I had more experience than the other people. I was committed to the job for longer in the back of my mind I knew it was because most of the other workers were Turkish The majority of the people working at night, especially the bartenders all spoke the language They were very familiar with you know Turkish culture and I didn't say this earlier, but Salt Bay is Turkish He's from Turkey. His first restaurant was in Istanbul. That's very successful and his next most successful restaurant I think is in Dubai But the point is I wasn't gonna grow a mustache or learn Turkish overnight And I also had an offer to go on MasterChef season 9 at the time So I decided screw these guys. I'm gonna fly out to California to LA and go on the show in about two weeks Hindsight is 20-20 guys. I didn't end up getting more than like five seconds of screen time on MasterChef And I would have done a lot of things differently I still would have gone on MasterChef But I would have taken my family out there and taken a different approach to the whole show But the people in this restaurant were making like twenty five hundred three thousand dollars a week Waiting tables and bartending, which is incredibly good for New York City So I didn't end up on the show and I was probably out, you know Several dozen thousand dollars because I didn't find to work for a long time after that But what are you gonna do? You know, I put a lot of work into my YouTube channel. I'm very successful now I'm happy with where I am but I Kind of struck out in every single aspect when making those decisions if you keep up with salt bay on Instagram You'll know that he opened up a restaurant in Mekunos and these guys have so much hype and social media presence behind their restaurant They're doing seven eight nine hundred a thousand covers a night at, you know, two hundred two hundred and fifty dollars a pop This restaurant makes, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars every single night under ideal circumstances So, you know, whether or not it's a scheme to launder money who knows but They're making a shitload of money anyway Even though they're owned by a company that you wouldn't think wanted to get into restaurants and hospitality So this is new Sirrette steakhouse in New York City You know the bars right inside when you go in They probably remember who I am I don't think they would let me in there's actually a picture of salt bay on the ball there Would have been nice to get that for the thumbnail, but there's actually a lot of people dining in there today You know, I wouldn't think at the end of the summer that these guys were still doing so well So I guess they have outdoor seating now, but it's raining outside Back here is actually where I used to walk in every day They got new Sirrette Aztec salt bay You know, it's very nice steakhouse again, you know, super expensive upscale clientele You could see the bar better here. I Think some of the same people that were working there when I started her in there That's a new bartender actually The bartender in front though is like this guy that does bar tricks and stuff So they're doing really well. This is the staff entrance and That's really it. This is actually a cross from the Museum of Modern Art On the MoMA building and it's by CBS to It's right by the CBS building over here. This is on 6th Avenue Avenue to the Americas and 53rd Street, I believe so it's midtown Manhattan. Now. It wasn't too bad of a trip from where I am You know parking was decent Drive home was quick and easy. So we have MoMA over there This is new Sirrette Salt Bay This is a CBS building Over there nothing notable really So this is on 53rd Street and Avenue the Americas I Actually used to work at Del Frisco Steakhouse as well. Oh, which is down on 49th Street. I Don't think we could really see it from here There's like a bunch of flags down there on next to the shorter blue building The building past that is 49th Street Del Frisco's Right by the Halal guy, so I used to pass by giant lines every single day Every single day giant lines trying to get the Halal guy The Baccarat hotel is also on that street very high end hotel There's always like diplomat license plates and stuff there Where elite people go Thank you guys for joining me today If you could please like the video subscribe hit that bell icon and share the video if you can you guys would like to support me Further definitely check out Frankie's free range meat calm providing you with high quality nutrient-dense animal foods at an affordable price We sell grass-fed steaks unlike this guy You can also go to Frankie's naturals calm minimal ingredients minimally processed hygiene and cosmetic products Thanks again for joining me guys If you'd like to reach out to me for one-on-one health consultations Shoot me an email Frank a topano at gmail.com