Lj's Lounge Podcast

60 Days of Progress – LJ’s Lounge Update

• Lj's Lounge • Season 1 • Episode 8

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0:00 | 42:09

Podcast Episode: 60 Days of Progress – LJ’s Lounge Update


In this conversation, Kenneth Jackson and Ramsey Alexander break down the incredible development progress at LJ’s Lounge over the past 60 days since receiving the keys. From major updates and valuable lessons learned to the overwhelming buzz building across Orange County and beyond, this episode is packed with insight and excitement.

Marketing is hitting strong, the energy is high, and with just a few final approvals left, soft opening test runs and grand opening are right around the corner. Tune in as they share details on the exciting weekly programming that’s set to transform the dining and entertainment experience in OC.


If you love community, soulful vibes, and excellence in action — this one’s for you.


🎧 Listen now and stay locked in with the LJ’s journey!


#LJsLounge #GrandOpeningSoon #Podcast

#SoulFoodOC #CommunityTable



SPEAKER_02

Alright, gentlemen, you can go ahead and take a seat.

SPEAKER_05

I let the knees you could I let the knees go ahead and uh complain about it afterwards. Yeah, we're gonna still work that angle. We just I'll keep you in the mix as far as potentially over here. My bad. Oh no, you're I got it. I was talking to his sister.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know. Which one you said?

SPEAKER_01

His sister, um, she's applying for a position with uh Boston Red Sox for uh a media coordinator and so she she sent a cover letter, she'll usually send a cover letter to me and Meredith to kind of proofread, hey, this is what I'm thinking. So I was proofreading that for her. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My bad, my bad, my bad. I should have said that. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05

So we if there's uh any hiccup or anything, you can cut and re-redo it.

SPEAKER_02

Or would you would you just like to go through it and then no if you if you um like for example what I just did right now. Right it's okay to pause and then be like not I wouldn't say like look at me and say, let's just run that back. Just redo it. I would just read it. And then you'll go back and then it makes more work for me if you're like, hey Kyle, so go this section right here, cut this out, and then re- I would just say just go, just keep it flowing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

If I say hey Lolly, they won't know who I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_02

It's okay. You can put a filter on your face.

SPEAKER_05

You know how I realized? I realized uh when we were talking about sitting on the bench, um, we didn't implement that photo. Should have implemented that photo originally in that you have a photo of that moment? Yeah, I texted it to you. Both of you guys.

SPEAKER_02

Oh well, we can do that for like a uh like a callback.

SPEAKER_05

Uh to be honest with you?

SPEAKER_02

Uh like a beat uh throwback Thursday photo.

SPEAKER_05

That's cool. Which what you should also do is you should uh frame it and put it somewhere because that's that's the you know what I mean? I got that picture, just frame it and put it somewhere and be like, this is where it all started. That's where it was activated. Yeah, this is the activation date right here.

SPEAKER_03

I do not need to be. I probably could have used mine. Use bags? Yeah, I could have used them.

SPEAKER_05

Kyle, how much would you say all this equipment is worth?

SPEAKER_02

Twenty-five. Alright, you guys are all good.

SPEAKER_05

You can hear me, we're good. Hello, hello, liquid levels?

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna so what I'm gonna do, if you can if you can do this, like a shaka sign is usually the about the the length, and you can move it right here? Yeah, yeah. If it's adjustable, like just move it around. I got you. That way, if you want to adjust them, you want to squeak over. I got you.

SPEAKER_01

Can I just move it like so? I got you. Okay. What do you want? You want it here? You want to do like that?

SPEAKER_02

That's perfect. That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01

What were you saying, Ken? When uh I'll start. Yeah. Let ask you some questions, keep it uh comfortable, easy, conversing. Uh, one of the first questions uh I want you to ask for me is um uh add um add to it, uh that'll be one B as 1A. Um ask me about what I am thankful for. Sure. Um, because what we're gonna do is use that as a clip for tomorrow, because tomorrow we're uh thankful Thursday. So we'll use that. So first thing you ask me is um in your own words, you don't have to be screwing your own words. Hey, what do you think? Hey, what are you what are you thankful for? And we go from there. Tell me, Kyle, we are we good? You got levels that you like, so lights you like?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, levels are all good on the audio, audio's recording, three camera angles are rolling, we're all good.

SPEAKER_05

So you got one directly at me, one at you.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, this one's you, this one's dad, and this one's both at all. Oh, stick that way it's a safety just in case one of those cut. I still can use it.

SPEAKER_05

Hello, NBC Studio. Let's go. This is the WB. No doubt. All right.

SPEAKER_01

Oh my goodness. For those that are viewing, welcome to another edition of the LJ's Lounge Podcast. Your host, Kenneth Jackson. Another special day. It has been literally nine weeks, just over two months, since got the keys on March 20th. Uh, so much has happened during that time frame. I think it's a wonderful opportunity to sit down again uh with the partner in the bench at the Circle of Orange uh that we talked about the activation moment where this kind of all jumped off. Uh, even though it's been sitting in my dome for multiple decades, uh, the activation point took place a couple years ago and uh it's been rolling.

unknown

Mr.

SPEAKER_01

Ramsey Alexander, principal investor, uh CFO, uh, and little brother. Little big brother. No doubt. So with all that title um and everything that's been going on, um, I've been here day to day in the trenches, striving to hold myself accountable to a very high standard as it relates to communication. Uh I think it's safe to say we talk pretty much daily. Weekends, weekdays, evenings, mornings, and everything in between. But what part of this process up to this point, sitting here looking, the conversations, um, what would you share as far as something that you're very impressed about, you're excited, um, as it relates to the progress that is taking place as we prepare to open?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I would start with just that, bro, the progress. Um, yeah, you know, you've been laser focused since you've been in here. Um, you know, uh every every time I come back, there's something new uh that has been added or done that wasn't uh done before. Um I think even one of the um I think even one of the investors in the investment group said that they get more information, more detailed information from you on the daily progress or monthly progress or weekly, excuse me, progress than they get from their work on progress from work, things like that. So no, I'm I'm definitely um uh yeah, the the progress that you've you've you've do and just the laser focus that you uh kind of operate with, uh it kind of makes me feel a lot happier. I'll put it to you that way, bro, because you know, at the end of the day, like you said, principal investor, that means money. And if money goes out, you you want to make sure it's being handled. So yeah, that that would probably be my biggest thing is that there's always something new when we come back.

SPEAKER_01

I appreciate that. Cool, cool, cool. So I know this has been quite the journey for you. Uh I affectionately refer to you as the mayor. Um, it's your personality. Um, you are the man of the people. I would love to hear from you, like what what has happened and what have you experienced as we begun to launch this and the social media and all the other things. What has changed or what is that pervasive theme or the text message conversation? What's that buzz been like for you personally? Yeah, man, the buzz has been, honestly, man.

SPEAKER_05

I I had a text message uh um yesterday from a buddy uh saying he wants to bring his LA folks out here. Um are you guys open yet? I keep multiple uh Instagram messages, messenger messages, messages, um, text messages. You know, everyone honestly, the the buzz is real. Um yeah, and and and like you, you're probably getting a lot of people who want to know where we are in the process, and and I think they love all the um the little videos that we uh continuously put out to give kind of an inside look at things. Um my actual sister was telling me, which I thought was pretty unique, she said she liked the video of uh you with your mom and everybody in the kitchen. She said that's that's um that's real um intimate to be able to see kind of a behind the scenes that you know most places don't. And I'm like, you know, I said, well, first off, Kenny's a mama's boy, he will tell you, neither here nor there. So but um yeah, man, it's been it's it's it's just been ever I mean, just today at the gym, uh a guy literally walked across, said, Hey man, is your restaurant open yet? And I'm like, I said, hopefully in three weeks, that's what we're aiming for, three and a half weeks. And it's like you just gotta let us know. And everyone at the gym now who I've kind of let know what's going on, they they're all and so yeah, man, it's it's kind of one of those things, man, where you know, if if things work out the way we expect them to, we're gonna be up to our ears in some stuff because everybody just wants to be a part of what uh what was going on. They've seen you know videos of the place to see the inside of it, they've seen the the new decorations. Some people knew what the old place looked like before. So as soon as I show them, they're like, oh, I remember I used to I used to party there, etc. So no, the buzz is the buzz is real, bro, and it's it's coming from every angle right now.

SPEAKER_01

Cool. Yeah. I'm gonna I'm gonna dig a little deeper on that question because as I asked it, you got those dimples, those dimples perked up, and there's like a little twinkle in your eye. That buzz, how does it make you feel?

SPEAKER_05

Well, look, the bottom line is um, you know, first off, I get those dimples from my granny. Let's start there. I she used to always tell me that when I was a kid. You make sure you tell them you get those from granny. Um, yeah, man, I mean, look, it feels like, you know, one, we're doing something. Number one. Um, two, you know, we got people fired up about it, but the beauty is we're not talking about going to, and let's go to so-and-so tonight, you know, and go hang out with our friends. It's like, yo, this is ours. You know what I mean? And honestly, I'm, you know, still sitting here, you know, trying to wrap my head around the whole concept of ramp. You're gonna own a piece of a business that's literally about to launch pretty soon. So yeah, I mean, I'm look, I'm fired up. I'm I'm I'm trying to figure out, you know, what would days look like when I'm in here, because that's the part I don't really, you know, I'm like, you know, I'm a I want to walk around and say hello to everybody, etc. Um, but then you're like, you know, do you want to interrupt people while they're eating if somebody's performing? You know, so I'm sitting here trying to just say to myself, Well, yeah, I was thinking maybe I'll just be the hostess. You know, I don't know. No, I'm just kidding. But just think I'm just trying to figure out what's the best way that when when this launches and everything is is is moving, what is it gonna look like? Uh success is what I know, but I mean I'm just looking at the day-to-day of how I'm going to uh interact with folks and whatnot and people who are waiting to come here and whatnot. But yeah, man, it's it's becoming um it's becoming real. Cool. It's becoming real, bro. Cool, cool.

SPEAKER_01

Is there is there a in this process, and we've talked about a myriad of things from liquor licenses to commercial leases, operating agreements, ordering food? Lord have mercy, right? Ordering food, ordering furniture. Yeah um, okay, Ramsey, hey, we're getting low on funds. We we've talked about, you know, a myriad of things. Is there one, two, or whatever number that is? Is there something you're like, that's a good nugget? That's a lesson that I had not thought about, or something like, wow, I didn't think about that one. Is there any nuggets that jump out of you?

SPEAKER_05

Man, I I think all of them are nuggets, bro, to be honest with you, because you got to remember, like, even for you, I mean, I I know you're, you know, a little bit more well-versed in the business part of this, so you you kind of know what needs to be done from a structural and operating perspective. But for me, just to sit and listen to a lot of these things and hear words I've never heard before, or words that I may have heard but never really dug into, and now all of a sudden we're talking about things on the daily that I've never spoken about before, you know, is to jump into a whole new arena, yeah, man, it's it's all it's all crazy when you when you think about it. So yeah, I'm I'm I'm at the point that you know, everything we do and everything that we talk about is like, and and I'm just filing stuff away. And then when I start looking at paperwork that's coming over to me and I'm sitting here saying, How did I get here? Like, how did we get here? Like, you know, we were doing this one minute, and all of a sudden it's it's it's real, real grown-up stuff now. So yeah, man, I listen, I'm you know, I'm fired up about it. That's really all it comes down to.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, fired up. Um, I want to piggyback on that and and take a moment to share. Um, it is definitely, I tell people the best way I can describe it from my own corporate career is going from the call center basically to a boardroom, right? And and everything in between. And for me as well, a lot of terms I knew, heard, but it's really different when it's your finances, it's your signature, it's your bottom line. You know, it's it's you, you know, I've signed many contracts before in my corporate career. Not pertaining to you. Hey, but when the word PG, and we're not talking point guard.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. We love hooping. We used to hoop. When you're talking point guard, we're talking about personal guarantee. Absolutely. When I gotta sign something and hey, you're the personal guarantee, it hits way different.

SPEAKER_05

You're absolutely right.

SPEAKER_01

It is, it's it hits way different. So um it's where also it's challenged me that hey, remember why I'm doing this, and I'm doing this candidly. Do I want to earn a living and do something for legacy for my kids? 100%. But I really at the essence of this, it's impact and changing lives. Okay. And so when I have, you know, our boy Thaddeus is in here working, um, you know, we had Gianni come in and she's one of the first bartenders. Um, talk about Chef Justin and how it's crazy to me. And Devine, he lived in LA, he's there and here. The opportunity to impact people's lives, and I'ma say it in the comments, let them fly in, particularly impact the lives of people of color. Sure. It I can't express the amount of adrenaline and sense of purpose that runs through my veins of like, hey, look, you know, you you gotta stay after it because this is not just about me, this is people's lives, right? And then you look at the people on the wall, the you know, the Martins, the John Lewis's, the Rosa's, you know, the Harriet's and the others that we put on the wall, and not to mention the musical icons, it's like they all had to hit lean into that talent, lean into that purpose, and it wasn't easy. You know what I mean? So I, you know, just seeing the Michael movie, and I know there's debates on both sides of what was included, who participated, but at the end of the day, he had a gift and he felt a responsibility, and he ran with it. And that's the same, that's the same feeling that I have is like we have a gift. Yeah, you know how I feel about this place. This is a gift. And then I have with that gift comes the responsibility. So I appreciate the fact that you know many people don't realize I think you know that about me that hey, this is a gift and responsibility, and you share that same sense of purpose. It means a lot to me.

SPEAKER_05

No question, bro. Yeah, no question. Absolutely. No, um, yeah, like I said, you you've talked about it for a long time. It's it's you know, it's finally come up uh where we can make it happen, and the perfect I want to say the perfect opportunity kind of kind of came together and is one of those you just can't you can't deny it's like you have to you you gotta go after it at this point.

SPEAKER_01

If if we told people the terms of doors open, doors closed. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, don't even get me started. It's not even started, don't even started. I agree with you. Um anything, anything you want to, I know we we want to be kind of natural, organic, but you know, questions for me. Uh flip the script.

SPEAKER_05

Absolutely, yeah. Um so I know we were talking a little bit earlier, and we're talking about um being thankful. And so I wanted to um hear from you uh as far as what specifically uh that you've been thankful for just as you go through this situation and realize kind of where we are in this process.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Um I'll never forget being asked the question, what scares you most about this process? Because I've been talking about this for a minute and I was having a I was having a conversation. I was just finished DJing at Hotel Laguna and uh was kicking it and um was asked the question, hey, what scares you most about doing this your own? And without hesitation, I said the people. Yeah. Without hesitation. You can have the best dream, but if you don't have the right people, the right team, the right belief, you can pack it up. You and I both love sports, yeah, right? You could have the best playbook, but if you don't have the right talent on the team, that play ain't getting executed, bro. No question. It ain't getting executed. Yeah. And so in this venture, the thing that has, I won't say necessarily, well, maybe I can't say kept me up at night. The thing that I've been most uh focused on and most reliant on and most intentional about is I gotta get the right team. So I am super thankful, extremely thankful that um, you know, I think about you pretty much every day of how we linked up, and you've been a good rock, a good sounding board, and you you understand me, I understand you, and so that partnership. So I'm I'm thankful for you. There's nine other, you know, people that chose to participate in this. They've seen the vision. I'm thankful for them. Um I'm really thankful for the team that has come in. The amount of people that have expressed interest in participating in this, it's very humbling. And right, you know, there's the indeeds and there's the Craigslist and put some stuff out, but there's just those unique set of people that they see it, they feel it, particularly from our compute community that they're all in. So I am thankful for the opportunity, as you said, the perfect opportunity and the timing, but I'm really thankful it's about people, and we're gonna be successful because of the people that we have. So appreciate the question, but I'm thankful for people without it. It doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_05

I can tell by the people uh that we have. I mean, look, you ain't gonna have no fuddy duddies around us. You're gonna have some real real folks who understand their role and make sure, like I said, man, you look, you're gonna invest with somebody, you better make sure somebody who's able to do all the things you can't do and don't want to do, and make sure that they get it done. So it's almost like I'm hiring you in a sense to do what needs to be done when you really think about it, you know. Um, let me ask you this though. Um, I know you're here daily, um, and you're kind of going through the grind. What what what's got you really fired up right now as you go through this process?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, the um I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go inward and outward. Inward, what uh what I'm fired up about is you can have your self-doubt, you can have your questions, the volume of things that come my way in a day, um, it's humbling. And so I think where, you know, I'll beat myself up, you know, like, hey, did I did I get the team asked me to get this, and you know, and I didn't get around to it. Or hey, did I hit payroll or whatever the case may be? So I think inwardly staying resilient is what what you know I'm really enjoying that. Proud of myself, don't chase perfection, chase excellence. So every day I'm chasing excellence, so I feel good about that. On the flip side, watching the team embrace one another, support one another, uh, and and I'll throw it out there, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna point out Monty. Uh Monty's got a huge heart. And so he's gotta he's gotta run the dining room and and the and execute the experience. But that doesn't, he doesn't limit himself in the sense of I love watching him. He's like, hey, Chef needs this. Hey, I think we need this in the kitchen. Hey, have you thought about this? Hey, I think this for the podcast. So he's letting himself be open to and just, you know, regardless of my reaction, right, watching him grow and blossom. You know, I've been with Chef for about a month now and watching him evolve, get more comfortable, understand my unique personality, my expectations. So just watching people grow, um, watching people just willingly volunteer. I'll talk about Kyle watching his ownership and watching his commitment to being on top of it, to excellence, um, sharing his thoughts, whether we execute it or not. So, to me, as a leader, when you watch people. People invest of themselves and when they care, it's all that matters. No doubt about it.

SPEAKER_05

No doubt about it. Um what um as you go through this process, or uh what have you learned uh so far uh in building that you believe will make uh LJs even stronger as we go?

SPEAKER_01

Continue to authentically be myself. No doubt. And you know how I feel about not having a potty mouth and uh my love for the Lord and being a Jesus free, but I I'm gonna say it and not giving a damn about what someone else thinks.

SPEAKER_05

No doubt. Absolutely. So um those are the only kind of friends I like, to be honest with you. To be honest with you. The only kind of friends I like. Uh and that irregardless of whatever your conviction is, it don't matter. As long as that's who you are, then that's who you are. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And and and still doing that with some doing that with a sense of ethics and morality. Because right, there's some people they're good with who they are, but they're flipping rot into the core. There's no question. And we won't get political, right? Well, I'll stop right there. So my my point is um being myself, knowing that my intent is to do the right thing, right? So um, yeah, I think uh I think really leaning into who I am. I think uh I was sitting here um and I was having a conversation with um either the team, might have been Cheryl, but I was just sitting here just talking about I'm in my lane. Yeah. When I'm here at LJ's, I'm in my line. I am in my lane. Like and I'm actually afraid for anyone that tries to get in my way to stop me from being in my lane. Like this up, that's a bad way.

SPEAKER_05

I've seen you upset on a basketball court. Yeah. It's yeah, it's pretty interesting. Um, let me ask you this uh how do you see kind of this this weekly programming and overall experience kind of set it apart from other restaurants and what they're doing? And don't give up too much sauce because we don't we we don't want them knowing all the how the sausage is made. Well, they're gonna figure it out at some point, but you know, we we want to do things a little differently, and I want you to kind of explain kind of what you think.

SPEAKER_01

Why don't we alternate back and forth kind of each day and we'll kind of talk through it all or I'll comment on the day and let you add in. Sure. So um there's a lot of things that's gonna make LJ's different. Yeah. Um, it's gonna be this I can see it, I've always been able to see it. But imagine this hub. And so to me, each day needs to have its own identity to run with. Sure. So Mondays, we're we're actually doing it right now. Yeah. I've always thought like, how do we give back to the community? And how do we not just be, yeah, we're selling burgers, we're selling food, we're selling chicken, whatever. No, no, no, no. Who are we about?

SPEAKER_03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

So Mondays, we'll have a prefix menu, because I know Chef wants a break. Yeah, I'm already driving him crazy after a month. But on Mondays, I want to do something giving back, and we're gonna do a podcast.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So we'll have a prefix menu, but we'll have people live here in the restaurant, yeah, right? They can order, come in after work, but we'll talk about and we'll publish a topic. So, you know, the first Monday of the month might be health and wellness, the second Monday of the month, it might be financial literacy, the third might be philanthropy, the fourth might be entrepreneurship, whatever that cadence is, how do we start to give a platform to others that can benefit the people we're serving? So I'm super excited about Monday being that opportunity to be, you know, mental Mondays or, you know, Monday motivation, whatever that nomiker or whatever that name is, that we'll do a podcast. Um, and it's so, so dope. Every time I mention that, someone's like, that's a I never even thought of a restaurant driver. I never thought of that. So I'm excited about Mondays.

SPEAKER_05

That's uh that's interesting too because um I have uh a few folks uh with with with different angles uh that would like to be sitting up on this stage talking about certain things, which I think is gonna be dope. And then the idea that you have a small studio audience of people who want to sit in and listen to a particular topic, things of that nature, uh it's that's dope, man. So no, I I think Mondays are gonna be uh real interesting. Okay, so that's Monday. Let's let's run through the rest of the week. What is Tuesday looking like?

SPEAKER_01

All right, so Tuesday. We um stumbled upon two talented singers. Some people uh seen them, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah, we had Darry uh and we had Ashley. Yeah, they're gonna come back and do another little sound check. Okay. Uh Kyle did a fantastic job, and shout out to Dallas and Nick, boys Dallas and Nick on the sound and the video tip. Love them. What's up, what's up? So they stumbled upon us through social media, said they wanted to be involved. So come on down. Sure. So Kyle set up the stuff. We had uh Nick in Dallas here. We just had a jam session. We're gonna do it again.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So Tuesday is about how do we again, we're sharing our platform. We're going to do talented Tuesdays. Okay, local talent. Sure. So folks like that, DM us, reach out to us. Kyle and I will help coordinate things. They'll come in, they'll sing, play through the house system. Yeah. So we want to give them that platform. I also think it'll be dope to partner with a high school like OSHA.

SPEAKER_04

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

So partner with OSHA, their students or OCC or whomever, but partner with organizations, come up here, Talented Tuesday, and then later in the night on Tuesday, we'll do that, let's call it from 6 to 9. And then later in the night, as owners in this space, I think it's important for us to give back. So we're gonna do industry night every Tuesday night, which will be nuts. So I'll bring in a DJ, play some cool, fun sing-along throwbacks with the 70s, 80s, 90s, but play some fun stuff. So this can be a place where all servers, bartenders, bar backs, whatever, they can come to LJ's, kick it, get a soulful twist on it, right? Get a soulful twist, and hang out. So talented Tuesday and then industry night on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_05

So will the uh the performers who come in um you'll be promoting for them, and then they're also gonna be obviously be responsible for uh bringing their following here as well?

SPEAKER_01

They can. They can. I think um Dallas, one of our sound guys, used to be a teacher to OSHA. Okay. So I think all of us will sit down. I think getting investor input piled from a marketing digital input. I think we talk through that because if someone doesn't have a following, it doesn't mean that they can't perform. Of course. Um, what I do want to be careful of in my mind is it's not so much about trying to get big local bands because we're not that large of a footprint. Yeah. So I really want to help the up-and-coming mind. Like, how do we give back in the up-and-coming game?

SPEAKER_05

Both the girls I heard, they were pretty soulful. I liked them. I liked them a lot. I can just see uh a room full of people here and these girls sitting in here jamming on stage.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Ram, it was super special. Um Ashley, um uh the young Hispanic uh singer, took her in like in the men's uh wait minutes, in the women's restroom to see the pictures and that, and then walking through the space, yeah, like welled up with tears. She's like, This is dope. Like she was she was she was fired up. And then you heard her.

SPEAKER_00

And then she said, I want to sing James Brown, This is a man's world.

SPEAKER_05

I was like, what are we doing here? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, you must have not got the memo, but yeah, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00

She invited to the barbecue though. Absolutely. Okay, perfect.

SPEAKER_05

All right, so uh that's Monday, Tuesday. Okay, let's talk Wednesday. So super excited for Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01

This is Monty's Day. Monty, people don't know. Monty is on top of his wine game. Used to be a Somalier, brought him down from Napa, Sacramento. So it'll be wine Wednesdays. So we'll feature wine specials. Uh we'll make sure we uh partner with some of our vendors to focus on different wineries. We definitely want to lean toward ethnicity whenever possible. Yeah. So for instance, Brown, and I might butcher this, and Monty will correct me on an upcoming podcast, but uh Brown is a predominantly black, if not all black, owned winery. Okay. Um so they will kind of partner with us. So we just want to make sure we showcase different things. Might be all female, might be from Mexico. Yeah. Um, we're but we want to showcase ethnicity and just do things a little bit differently because the world is sounds redundant, and you know, the world, there's so much global value and uh outside of the US and outside of the traditional, traditional places. How do we showcase those?

SPEAKER_05

And mainstream is always just this highway of just everything, and nobody's really paying attention to these little smaller things off to the side. We're just passing it by. So and LJ's is not about any of that.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. We want to be, to your point, off the beaten path. No doubt. All right, cool, okay. And then and then we go from wine Wednesdays, and then you, you know, you have a couple of cocktails, you get a little liquid courage for some. Um, we don't drink, but so we've heard. Right. But then later in the evening, it becomes windpipe Wednesdays, and we'll do some karaoke.

SPEAKER_05

Oh boy. Well, you ain't getting me up here, so that's you don't have to worry about that. But uh, okay, cool. So wine Wednesdays, and you have a time frame that that works, kind of an afterwork thing. It will.

SPEAKER_00

It will. So I'm thinking wine, wine specials early. And quite honestly, wine play. They can blend in between the two, right? They can blend between the two.

SPEAKER_05

Well, you once you have a couple glasses of wine, anything is possible.

SPEAKER_00

So straight up. And we have wine on top. We got wine on top. We got wine on top.

SPEAKER_05

All right, perfect. Okay. So there's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Now Thursday. You sound like Alexander O'Neill. Absolutely. Saturday. Saturday, love. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Okay. We get there though.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Okay. We're at Thursday now. What do you got going?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I'm going to let you talk about it. I'm going to flip the deal. It's going to be the link up.

SPEAKER_05

That's right.

SPEAKER_01

That's right.

SPEAKER_05

The link up. Yeah, yeah. So we we we did that one uh over the summer last year, almost to the date, almost, right? Almost to the date last year. Uh early May, I want to say maybe like three weeks ago, we first started it. And it was a professional kind of uh kind of after work, kind of get together. People come out, um, sit down, mingle and whatnot, business professionals. Um, yeah, that was that was a that was a good setup. Um hopefully now we can get more men because remember we were we had too many women. Now that that link up then went to the the personal side. Absolutely, right? Yeah, so but no, uh the yeah, the link up was dope, man. Um a lot a lot of people looked forward to it. Um, and I like to call it, even though it's a Thursday, I like to call it Friday Eve. You know, it's always been my favorite word, Friday Eve, which is a good day for people to kind of get out prior to the weekend and kind of get their weekend set up. And Thursday is always a good day prior to a Friday, which everyone is probably tired or doing something after work, and then you don't want to dig into their Saturdays and/or their Sundays. So Friday Eve. So yeah, the link up will go down and really just have the ability for people to come down, um, mix and mingle, talk, exchange business cards, phone numbers, do whatever, but uh really just a place for people to just come out and kick it and kind of talk a little, right?

SPEAKER_01

I love it. I love it. You nailed it. Well done.

SPEAKER_05

Cool deal. Tell me about uh tell me about Friday.

SPEAKER_01

So Friday, you talked about Friday even Thursday. I think Friday we start ushering in the weekend. I don't think we need to work, quote unquote, too hard on a definition, but the thing that just resonates and sticks out with to me is it's just gonna be funky Friday. We're gonna get the we weekend started. Yeah. Um, I think we look and see again, we have a small smaller stage footprint, but we have great infrastructure. So whether that's a DJ playing some funky cuts, or we get a small little funk band in here, they know. So funky Friday's kind of get it, get kind of get it cracking. Gotcha. Yeah, I think that with our capacity inside of about 75 to 80 people and the capacity in the patio about 40 and us being on an open table, yeah. I think it's gonna be a hard spot to grab.

SPEAKER_05

Perfect. Perfect. Okay, cool. So that's Friday. Um, talk to me about Saturday. Ooh. Talk to me about Saturday.

SPEAKER_01

So you mentioned it with the link up in Laguna, and then we talked about it. Um, you know, how how we've on this being on this journey, the weekends are gonna be ridiculous. And and Saturday leads into Sunday, but we finally have our own home on Saturdays for soul to soul. It's wild, yeah. Talk about what you I'm not gonna do. You talk about we will get to have soul to soul in our own spot. You talk about soul to soul.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, you know, it it was uh it was a great concept that uh, you know, we had come up with, and it's funny because uh I don't know if I told you this story, I went to a buddy's birthday party and um Tao, is that what it's called? Out in Hollywood, Tao Tao. And I went to the birthday party and we're sitting there and I'm sitting with a amongst, I mean, I know him, I've met his mom before, but there's uh six other people I've never met before. And I just happened to ask uh, you know, my buddy, what do you got going on uh this weekend? And um he says, you know, I don't know. And then I happen to be talking with the the girls who were at the table, and I'm like, what do you guys got going on this weekend? And they're like, well, and she pulls out her phone and she says, Well, I'm thinking about going to this this RB brunch. And then she looks and she goes, Wait, is that you? It was a little commercial we did. So she's literally asking me if she she was gonna, I mean, I'm asking her, she's saying she's gonna go to this thing, and then realizes as she's looking at it, that was me and you in the in the promo that we did for, which was which was pretty cool. But um, yeah, man, um, we put that together. Um, didn't really know what to think. And I mean, we we knew it was a concept, and we knew we could we could prove it was a concept, but we put it together. Next thing you know, we are booked, and you know, um all of a sudden, videos, people are we're putting out videos every other weekend or every weekend of that, and everyone's like, who, who's, where's this at? Where are you guys doing this at? Um, you know, this, that, and the other. And so, I mean, no, it it it was uh it was chaotic. Uh, it was it was uh controlled, good chaotic, uh, but it was an awesome vibe, bro. Um, just to be able to sit down and and and then people start getting up and want to jam, bro. And yeah, so uh so we're on Saturdays we'll have, so it'll be uh more of the uh traditional brunch where we'll do kind of um a select menu type of thing.

SPEAKER_01

Um no, Chef Justin is he's down. Um we'll offer our typical menu. Sure. And candidly, before, because we were operating in someone else's footprint, yeah, we were going, hey, you guys can come from 12 to 4 to the end. Sometimes remember we had two sessions. Sure. Hey, we were I think we were doing like 11. We did the first week. That was tough.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, we only did it one week. That's that toy that we call that Kai Zen. Yeah, continuous improvement where you have that immediate conversation. Yeah, we figured it out real quick. Real quick. I'll get to clear.

SPEAKER_01

Clear clear speaks to that. Okay, but um, for soul to soul on Saturdays and Sundays, uh, it'll be the old school hip hop RB brunch. Definitely we'll do a DJ because flying through that recorded music, going around jumping from genre to genre, um, easier, in my opinion. So, no, uh, soul to soul, we'll do it. Um, we'll they if they're gonna have to go on open table and book, sure. We'll talk through hey, what are we gonna do from a time limitation? Likely reservations will be two hours so we can turn the table. We'll work through that um a little bit TBD, but so to soul has its own home.

SPEAKER_05

No question. That's dope. And then that'll be the same thing for Sunday, you're thinking as well.

SPEAKER_01

Well said. So Sunday, we'll flip the script a little bit. Yeah, we'll kick off the early part of the day with a little bit of gospel, a little bit of soul, a little bit of jazz. Right. So for the mature folk, you know what I mean? Mature folk.

SPEAKER_05

The ones that get up early and ready to do something early in the afternoon and go home and go to sleep later.

SPEAKER_01

Calling a day, right? Absolutely. They might be, yeah. Before hey, Kyle Brave is in. So, hey, whether that's um they, you know, they want to grab something to eat before church, they want to come here after church. So we want to make sure we, you know, take that opportunity to express that gratitude. But uh, we'll do that early, but then what I'm excited about, you know, I let me some reggae, so we'll kick it off with a little bit of gospel, jazz, soul. And then as we hit the afternoon, we're gonna hit that reggae island vibes right here on the way to the beach. So all afternoon and evening, we'll get into some reggae, uh, some dance halls, some Afro beats. Um, may have, you know, likely we'll have some performers, just it'll be some smaller groups, but uh Sunday weekends here are gonna be ridiculous. It's gonna be a hard spot to get. Perfect. Hard spot to get. And that wraps up the week. Yeah. Now you can you can do your chanel, your Chirail, Alexander.

SPEAKER_05

That's right, yeah. No, all right, well, cool. Yeah, so I'm actually glad we had a chance to break down the days because um, you know, it's one thing for people to um probably go on somewhere and look at it if it's somewhere to be printed. But I think if we talk about it and give a elaborate on it a little bit more, it makes it a little bit easier to understand and um a little bit more consumable for folks. But yeah, no, I mean, I'm like I said, man, I'm I'm fired up. Um I can't wait. And um, yeah, I mean, at this point, we're just waiting for the word, right? We're waiting for the word, get the word, and we're off and running.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I'll um give I'll give everyone a kind of an update of where we sit from an LJ's perspective. So, LJ's lounge opening. So where we sit currently, as it sits today, May 27th, yeah. Um, we have um we are good from the health department perspective. Yeah, check. Yeah, we are good for the fire department. The one last item with the fire department is getting our drapes, getting them retardant, fire retardant. Yeah, um, but other than that, fire department check. Okay. And then one of the key items, as you can imagine, in this endeavor is a liquor license. And so without getting all our tea out too much, uh, basically uh we are firmly in uh that process of getting a liquor license transfer. Our application is in the process of being submitted, and uh we anticipate uh within, as you mentioned earlier, within within just a couple weeks, that we'll be ready for a soft opening. So they need to stay tuned. Uh we'll come live on open table, probably you know, let's call it a week to ten days and start booking some reservations out there once we get a little things a bit more solidified. But um they better keep calling, keep following on the website, follow the social media.

SPEAKER_05

Uh we are coming. Two quick things before we get out of here. Um, talk with me really quick about soft opening, grand opening, because I'm getting a lot of questions about from people about you know, grand opening. I'm sitting here thinking to myself, we can only capacity can only be what is that, one twenty-five total. So do you realistically see? I got friends who want to fly down. I'm like, yo, yo, slow down, don't fly. I say, because you know, maybe you come down on another weekend, but let's not. So what do you tell me how what your thoughts are and what you see for a grand opening?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so I I'm gonna say a couple things. Um, as a leader, I would be, I'm gonna call it irresponsible or short-sighted. Um, and the team has given me the feedback as well. What we will do is we will first do some soft opening activities. Um, we're gonna even start a very small one, I think, even later this week, because my mom's coming into town for a second round to work with the chef. So we will do some soft opening activities as we lead up to a grand opening, meaning we'll bring in a reduced amount of people, so 20, 25 people. Hey, we're gonna cook these dishes. Let us know your thoughts. What's going with that? That gives A, the kitchen an opportunity to get consumer feedback, also lets the service team go through those motions, work out, ooh, we have this tray over here, we did this, we put this in the system, yeah. So start working out those kinks. So we are literally employee training starts Monday, June 1st. Monday, June 1st, employee training begins. In concert with that, we're now going to start doing some soft opening and rehearsal activities, some private, and then as we get the liquor license approval, consumer facing soft opening activities. Grand opening, um need to go through that process where I want to make sure you and all, if not predominantly, all of the investors are available. Yeah. Um, also make sure that hey, is there are there any dignitaries that we want in participation? Sure. Um we'll see. I mean that one's not, I'm not necessarily losing sleep over that one. It would be nice to do, not a requirement. So I think once we have the green lights, um, we're checked off all the boxes, we can open, we can we can serve and sell alcohol. Because right now we theoretically conserve it. Sure. We cannot sell it. Um so once we have all of our boxes checked, um, I think the grand opening really will be more of a mixer, not a grand opening in the sense traditional where people will sit down and eat.

SPEAKER_04

Sure.

SPEAKER_01

I think to accommodate the larger volumes and standing room capacity, yeah, come out. Would love for the investors to be standing there. The one thing I do envision is uh giving my mom those scissors to cut a purple ribbon.

SPEAKER_05

That's the next question I was gonna ask you. Is there gonna be a ribbon cutting ceremony?

SPEAKER_01

Cut the cut the ribbon. So give my mom some scissors, get a uh get a big purple ribbon, let her cut that. Um I think take a piece of you're talking about memorial. Of course. So I think take a piece of that ribbon, all the investors maybe sign it. We frame a piece of the ribbon, put it up on the wall, purple ribbon. So those are the things that we we will do of that nature.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, and uh last question, um talk to me real quick about event bookings, because that's a lot of uh bringing a lot of questions about event bookings and kind of what we're doing and and how it's gonna work, et cetera. But right now, uh people are if they want to, they go into the LJ's website and and and kind of contact uh you and Cheryl on the back end, correct, in order to look at available dates, et cetera. And can you speak on that real quick?

SPEAKER_01

I absolutely can. So um we are again working with open table so that we can for general folks that want to book and reserve. What we will do for events, and so people know there's already a dozen events. Events that have been inquired about already, and we've not asked for one yet. So there's already some sororities, fraternities, uh different wine groups, and et cetera, birthday parties, graduation parties. So what I would suggest is to email, and hopefully Kyle can throw this on, maybe on the other ticker tape on this, but events at lj's lounge.com. Okay. Events at lj'slounge.com. Um email all the information. They can go on the website, they can inquire. Yeah. Uh, they can call the restaurant inquire. They can also email kj at lj'slounge.com. That would be me, kj at lj's lounge.com. But email us and then we'll go from there. Kyle, who is helping to handle our digital footprint, um, we will have a space on the website for people to inquire for group events. Gotcha. Uh, then there's a process that we've already started talking about in-house. People in the industry know a BEO, Banquet Event Order. Yeah. We'll go through that process and make sure. But uh the website, once we're ready, they can absolutely get that information or calling as well.

SPEAKER_05

Perfect, perfect. Sweet, man. I'm ready to get after it, bro. I'm tired of uh talking about it at this point. You want to be about it? Let's be about it. Yeah. Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_01

So, what I want to say, uh, I want to say thank you to you um for the partnership, the Brotherhood. Um, it's pretty cool, and I consider it a deep blessing to do life and be at this point. Like, you know, I don't want to say I couldn't. It's one thing to envision something. Sure. Because it was always in the vision. But it's just such a sweet thing when the vision is becoming a reality. And so to experience this, uh, I tell people all the time, and I said it to my mom, and she was that's sitting in that chair, or vice versa. Um, candidly for me, I feel like I already won. Yeah, I've already won. Because so many people are afraid to chase their dreams and go after it. Yeah, or they're limited, and candidly, some people don't have that opportunity for a variety of reasons. No doubt. Um, but I already feel like I've won. You know what I mean? So that feels good. So I want to thank you for the belief. Um to the other investors. Um, I want to thank you as well and the partners. So let me think about this. We got LeBron, we got Lucy, we got um Michael Moore, we got Bonaire, we got Marcus Williams, we got Derek Clemens, um, we got Monty, and I believe we have Charles. I think I know do I miss anyone? Do I miss anyone? Do I miss anyone? I think. Yeah, where are you right? Boom boom. There you go. Right? If I miss him, no, I gotta do that again. Um me, so it's me, you, uh, LeBron, Bonaire, Michael Moore, I'm forgetting someone. Jara. There you go. Jara. I knew I was like, that don't feel good. Jara. Um Derek Derek Clemens, we got Luce Key. Derek Clemens, uh, Monty, Marcus Williams, and Charles. There we go. I was like, yeah, I was like, someone's missing. Yeah, yeah. I didn't forget you, Jared. We didn't forget you. We didn't forget you. So want to thank the investors. Um, y'all. LJ's lounge is coming. We're doing this, and we ain't playing around. And this is location number one. Let's go, let's go, let's go. Let's do it, brother. Appreciate you. Let's do it. Thank you. We'll see you next time. Peace. Peace.

SPEAKER_02

Solid. Sweet. Sweet.

SPEAKER_00

You should um can you um you want to record anything for yourself or you want to use this for you?

SPEAKER_02

Um, then we can do uh let me stop the audio, but then we can do uh