Behind the Plate Episode 3 - Dagan Lynn - National Cattlemen's Beef Association

Antonio Howell hosts a podcast called "Behind the Plate," where he explores the restaurant industry. He interviews a seasoned professional who has opened nine restaurants and six hotels, including a Michelin-starred restaurant. The guest discusses the challenges of running restaurants, the impact of the pandemic, and the importance of adapting to changes. He emphasizes the value of culinary education, mentorship, and the need for efficiency in operations. The guest also highlights the role of the National Academy of Beef Association in advocating for beef and developing recipes. Antonio learns about the industry's dynamics and the importance of passion and resilience in restaurant management.

Transcript

Antonio Howell  0:00  
Hey everyone, welcome to Behind the Plate. I'm your host, Antonio, and this is the podcast where we go behind the scenes of the restaurant world from day to day operations through challenges of running a business. We'll hear first hand stories from the people who bring the favorite meals to life. Whether you're dreaming of opening your own spot or just curious about what it takes, you're in the right place. Let's get started. 

Dagan Lynn  0:44  
Hey Tony, 

Antonio Howell  0:45  
Hey Dagan,

Yeah, I'm doing good. How are you?

Dagan Lynn  0:50  
I am good. What's going on?

Antonio Howell  0:55  
I'm making a podcast for my my school. It's a project. Yeah, I'm excited. 

Dagan Lynn  1:01  
Alright, and restaurants are a big topic, I'm sure, yeah,

Antonio Howell  1:07  
They're just pretty much my passion. So it's a passion project, and restaurants is what I want to do. I had a little bit of media influence with it. Kind of wanted to do that, so I combined both and got a podcast about restaurants,

Dagan Lynn  1:21  
What um, what guy are you excited about restaurants? Um,

Antonio Howell  1:25  
so I worked at a restaurant for about two years. Yeah, and my boss just laid me off. He got out of business, so it wasn't successful, but it's, I don't know working there was so much fun cooking fish, I gotta deal with customers. So it was a fish. Fish and Chips was the main restaurant. 

Dagan Lynn  1:42  
Where was it? 

Antonio Howell  1:44  
It's in Castle Rock. 

Dagan Lynn  1:45  
Okay, 

Antonio Howell  1:46  
Yeah, it's a place called Fish & Company. It's pretty cool. 

Dagan Lynn  1:49  
Okay, cool. Man, I can't, you know, I've probably worked at more places than I can even remember, but a lot of them, you know, I opened three big restaurants in New York City. None of them, well, only one is still alive. So

Antonio Howell  2:07  
Really?

Dagan Lynn  2:08  
Over the years, you know, I think you, you know, you get into those opportunities, you learn a lot what not to do, and they end up, you know, still fueling the fire. So it's not necessarily a bad thing, you know, learning what not to do is, is, is almost as important as knowing what to do. but don't, don't get discouraged. 

Antonio Howell  2:31  
Okay, no, absolutely. And then you're wearing your Is this like a for 

Dagan Lynn  2:37  
Yeah, I had an event today, yeah, so I'm working today. I I had a, what is it? Probably 35 people today for lunch.

Antonio Howell  2:45  
Okay, that's cool. 

Dagan Lynn  2:46  
So I work for National Academy and Beef Association, so we're a lot of these ag groups, you know, agriculture groups have a check off. 

Antonio Howell  2:56  
Okay? 

Dagan Lynn  2:57  
So, like, you know, avocado, wheat, corn, and soy, they all have checkoffs. You know, beef has a checkoff. Chicken has a checkoff. The checkoff is funded through legislation. So all of the cattle transferred or sold in this country, like $1 goes in the fund, and we get a portion of that dollar, 

Antonio Howell  3:16  
Okay, cool. 

Dagan Lynn  3:17  
And then a portion goes to the states, and then we basically advocate for beef. You know beef is what's for dinner. Are you familiar with this? 

Antonio Howell  3:26  
Yeah, no. 

Dagan Lynn  3:27  
Have you ever heard, have you ever heard of beef is what's for dinner?

No, if you don't say, if you can be honest with me, you know, it's funny, because Gen Z doesn't know at all, and it's a really old brand, like, if you your parents know? 

Antonio Howell  3:42  
Yeah, I'm sure that, 

Dagan Lynn  3:43  
yeah, so, but yeah, Gen Z is the one we're trying to I'm trying to pitch everybody to get into because not even some of the millennials, they don't really know us either that well, but people that you know had bunny, bunny, rabbit TVs. You know, they all know

Antonio Howell  4:01  
that makes sense. 

Dagan Lynn  4:03  
We just, we represent the ranchers, and I get to explore beef. And, you know, I do. I did lasagna today.

Antonio Howell  4:11  
 That sounds cool. 

Dagan Lynn  4:13  
Tomorrow's taco, yeah, but yeah, that's pretty much every day this week. 

Antonio Howell  4:17  
And so you're, you're cooking all that is what? 

Dagan Lynn  4:19  
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I do a lot of cooking more than I have running hotels, that's for sure. 

Antonio Howell  4:27  
Yeah, wow.

Dagan Lynn  4:28  
They also ran hotels too. Wow, yeah,

I ran a bunch of them.

Antonio Howell  4:31  
 Your life sounds amazing, exciting all the time,

Dagan Lynn  4:35  
You know, I think looking back, you know, I did have some good opportunities, you know, I kind of wish I had gotten in the game, you know, I got into a restaurant, got into a place, but I worked in hotels. I made good money, you know, I able to get good work, life balance through, you know, working for big companies, you know, 

Antonio Howell  4:56  
Yeah, absolutely. 

Dagan Lynn  4:58  
But I've also been all over the place. 

Antonio Howell  5:00  
Yes, yeah, I've heard, I've heard a lot. 

Dagan Lynn  5:02  
Yeah, right. So if you like to travel, you know, especially I'd go overseas right now, like, I go to, you know, I go over to the, you know, over to the Arab world over there, because they're really doing a lot of cool stuff the UAE. 

Antonio Howell  5:18  
Oh, yeah, 

Dagan Lynn  5:19  
Yeah, you can make bank over there.

Antonio Howell  5:22  
 That sounds fun.

Dagan Lynn  5:24  
 Yeah, its all what you want to do, though, right? It's like the industry will take you wherever you want to if you want to go, chase money, like I did, chase money, you know, if you want to go, you know, work in Michelin stars, which I've also done. It's a little bit slower, slower rise, but lower pay, but you can get it done. It's all where you want to go.

Antonio Howell  5:48  
Yeah, absolutely. Um, cool. Want to get started?

Dagan Lynn  5:52  
Yeah, yeah. 

Antonio Howell  5:54  
Okay, so the first question is, just, what's your story? How did you get in? How did you get here, the Beef Association, you know?

Dagan Lynn  6:00  
Well, I mean, much like you like, you know, when I was 10 years old, I thought I wanted to be a chef, and I was fortunate, my grandfather remarried a Japanese woman after the war, so I learned a lot of cooking from her. That's cool. You know me, you know, we were from a modest means house, so we didn't have a lot of the, you know, good products around and, you know, a lot a lot of money to spend on food. So had to get kind of creative with preparing dinners. You know, for me, you know, going and working in a restaurant was, you know, the best way to get a good meal and to learn how to learn how to cook. You know.

Antonio Howell  6:44  
That's cool. 

Dagan Lynn  6:45  
So upstate New York, I started off in a dairy farm working, but then I got into restaurants, and there's a lot of like, a Greek, Italian places up there. So got on with a mom and pop opening really cool comfort food, like I remember that. I remember their menu like it was yesterday, like we had sun dried tomato Turkey loaf on the menu

Antonio Howell  7:08  
That sounds so good. 

Dagan Lynn  7:10  
It was, like, very comfy food. Amazing owner, and the place was busy packed all time. I had a chef mentor that was a CIA grad, and he was going to Cornell hotel school at the time. I went, I went, later on, went to work for him in Vegas for a little bit. He kind of get, he kind of set me on the path. 

Antonio Howell  7:32  
That's cool.

Dagan Lynn  7:33  
 Yeah, good guy. Still talk to him all the time.

Antonio Howell  7:37  
 That's awesome. You went to a you went to Vegas. What was that like, working? 

Dagan Lynn  7:43  
It was great. I would, yeah, I did culinary school while I did I was cooking for a while. And then I remember I was here working for a younger Restaurant Group then, but now it's pretty big, called Lotus Concepts. And I remember the owner of the place gave me, like, 50 bucks and the menu of this Fat Duck. You ever heard of the Fat Duck

Antonio Howell  8:06  
I don't think so. 

Dagan Lynn  8:07  
It's a three star Michelin place.

Antonio Howell  8:09  
Oh yeah. 

Dagan Lynn  8:10  
And it's like, the owner gives me 50 bucks to go to the store and get the food. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing. I have no idea I 'm like, 20 something, you know? I just decided right then I needed to kind of get more under my belt. And ended up going up to Portland, Oregon, to culinary school, good good school. Ended up going to New York City after that, to do my internship at the best possible place I could find, which was Alain Ducasse, New York. 

Antonio Howell  8:41  
Okay

Dagan Lynn  8:42  
He's a name probably me, arguably, like, when they say was the best chef in the world, he's, he's that guy. 

Antonio Howell  8:49  
Okay

Dagan Lynn  8:50  
 So his name, Alain Ducasse.

 I'llput it in the message, 

Antonio Howell  8:53  
Yeah. That'd be great.

Dagan Lynn  8:56  
Yeah. I went to do my internship with him. He had a three star Michelin place called ADNY at the Essex house, and he was opening up his first bistro down the road.

So I went to go work open that place, along with my he was the chef my buddy Doug Saltis, who was another big name. You're gonna you're gonna get it from me, and you're gonna get names and contacts, okay, 

Antonio Howell  9:24  
yeah, thank you. 

Dagan Lynn  9:26  
Both those two names had a huge impact on my career. You know, I ended up going to be a chef for Ducasse in Puerto Rico, years later, years later, for a Shelby hotel, but it kind of started, you know, at the internship. But, yeah, I've been all over the place, so I just, I connected the dots, because I'm putting together, like a website for myself to do some catering and stuff on the side.

Antonio Howell  9:55  
That sounds cool, 

Dagan Lynn  9:56  
And some consulting. And I just connected all the dots, and then put day or times anything, but I put places and really, I've been, I've opened, probably, I think, nine restaurants and six hotels. 

Antonio Howell  10:08  
Nine you've opened, 

Dagan Lynn  10:10  
Opening team. No, not as, not as well some of the chef, but not more just being on the opening team. So first the restaurant. Yeah.

Antonio Howell  10:19  
Really cool. Yeah. Yeah,

Dagan Lynn  10:20  
Its been quite a journey. 

Antonio Howell  10:24  
Yeah? So wow, um Yeah, a question I'm asking pretty much everyone here that I'm interviewing. So it's like the pandemic sides of it. What were you doing down during then?

Dagan Lynn  10:38  
So, yeah, so I was actually there's Le Meridien AC hotel downtown Denver, and, like, good things about the pandemic, because I don't like to talk negative so much about it. I mean, it was definitely a challenge, you know, to work with a mask. You know, we were sweating over the line. You know, that was tough to communicate. You know, it's a, you know, high volume, you know, high action, high activity environment. You know, customers were just as uncertain as we were. So it was that was tough to handle. I thought, you know, because, you know, it was just difficult to manage the, you know, people in the restaurant getting them set, you know. And there was different, you know. So there's people like me who, you know, got sick and it did nothing, and there's other people that were extremely paranoid, so you had to kind of take that into consideration. 

So, you know, working with the mask was tough, you know, making sure other customers needs were met was also difficult. Staffing was the biggest challenge, I think, you know, just making sure your staff was comfortable, you know, because these are the one, you know, they're on the front line. Yeah, they're, you know, the staff was the one getting sick all the time, you know. So, you know, helping them through that, and then helping them be comfortable with, you know, taking care of your guests and trying to keep your business going.

You know, positive things where, I think a lot of these restaurants got to increase their footprint very affordably, you know, through, you know, you know, outdoor dining. Or, you know, Chicago, you know, you got to sit them outside. So it kind of added more seats for the very low cost. So that was great, I think, for restaurants, 

Antonio Howell  12:29  
That's interesting.

Dagan Lynn  12:31  
But, you know, and I think, I think, you know, the strong ones pivoted. And, like, I know a lot of I was actually in Chicago for part of it too. And, you know, they put to go windows, you know. So that was another aspect of the business that you kind of expanded was, you know, beforehand nobody wants to go like, nobody's like, No, I don't want my food to travel, and then you're going to have that experience. So I think a lot of these successful restaurant groups got really good at doing to go business and, you know, and saying, hey, you know, it's about, you know, 15 to 17% more at the end of the year, if I could keep this going. So I think, you know, there's a lot of good things came out of it, you know, along with, you know, lot of restaurants didn't make it. You know, 

Antonio Howell  13:19  
Yeah, absolutely.

Um, just, I don't know sounds tough. I'm not gonna lie, working at a restaurant, and he's been in the pandemic too, and he said it was terrible,

Dagan Lynn  13:30  
I don't know, yeah, but you know, it made you stronger and it made you better, you know. And I think that's restaurants you know that are successful for a long period of time, you know, they don't, necessarily, you don't stay the same all the time. You're constantly reinventing yourself. And I think, you know, COVID had so many pivots, even the supply chain, you know, it's like, I can't get this. I gotta get something else, you know, yeah, kind of, I think it gave the really good restaurantuers and operators, you know, a leg up, you know, if they made it through, then you made it through that you can make it through anything 

Antonio Howell  13:30  
Absolutely, yeah.

And then, um, I was gonna mention, so you talked about, uh, starting up a couple restaurants in different places, and you're part of the marketing team. I don't know if you've seen the show the Bear or heard about it a little bit? 

Dagan Lynn  14:21  
Yeah, I haven't seen the latest one. I know everybody, because I'm doing beef. Not everybody likes the Chicago beef sandwiches, but I've actually had a few people reach out, you know, you know, talk about how to do that, and how it would do that. And so

Antonio Howell  14:37  
That's cool. 

How we create the dishes, yeah? So, yeah, I love it. I mean, any any exposure, you know, even if it's somewhat, you know, emphasizes the drama of the industry and maybe a negative way, it's still great though. I haven't seen the newest one yet, but, 

But I'm pretty sure, I think it was in the earlier seasons. They were like, get. Everything ready and set up to open their big restaurant and borrowing money and all that. And even part of, like, a team that's gotten together, you guys, like, actually focus on, like, like, little things, like moving from counter to counter. And

Dagan Lynn  15:14  
I think, yes, I think, you know, good operators like my buddy Doug is, he's phenomenal at it. He just got an eye for it, you know, he, you know, spends, you know, not as much in the back of house as we used to. We spend a lot on the front so the money's generated, and we just try to make the back as efficient as possible. And I think that's the key now, right? I mean, yeah, labor is much more expensive now than it ever was. You know, cost of doing business is is crazy, right now. So, you know, if you're going to go into a restaurant operation, you got to be efficient, you know, you got to pick your battles, right? Where are you going to make the money? You're going to make the money in the front and if you're selling booze, you know, it's a big opportunity there too. Yeah, you know, keep your back of house. You know, the Essex House, we probably had 14 guys working from 8am until, you know, 11 at night. You know, to do maybe 100 and some covers. Like, it's just really difficult to do that now, you know, you just gotta, you gotta know your business model and figure out, like, where you can keep your full time employees, and where, you know, you gotta pick up efficiencies,

Antonio Howell  16:29  
Okay, and then with knowing all that, and like, maybe, like, leading into, like, some schooling, you talked about culinary school. 

Dagan Lynn  16:36  
yeah, 

Antonio Howell  16:36  
Would you say that's helpful, like, culinary school, or hospitality school, or anything like that, managing, you know,

Dagan Lynn  16:42  
 I think, yeah, it was definitely helpful for me. I went to Oregon, you know, the produce and the products up there are amazing, you know, culinarily, I learned, you know, a lot more, you know, on the job.

Antonio Howell  16:55  
Yeah.

Dagan Lynn  16:55  
...than I did in culinary school. I learned a little bit about how to run a business. But I think, you know, those who want to go and do it, you know, there's obviously different levels of school. It just shows a commitment. It shows a commitment that you're in it and you want to learn more about it, and you're willing to pay to get that. Now, I don't think you have to do that. You know, we're in the information age. 

You know, like our we have a lot of partners that are influencers and stuff, you know. And they just have a passion, you know and I just, they asked me the same question. It's like, you have to have school. I'm like, you know, if you have this passion for it, like, if it's barbecue, if it's, you know, yakitori, if it's steak, and everything, you know, follow that passion, and the information is there, you know. And you just have to kind of test your skills, you know. And like when I went to culinary school, you know, it was, it was kind of required, right? So this was probably 2003 now they want bachelor's, master's, degree, you know. And I just, I don't know if there's value in that. I mean, you know, my, my always goal was attach yourself to a star and and ride, you know, go along for the ride, you know. So,

Antonio Howell  17:16  
Yeah,

Dagan Lynn  17:33  
 you know, I found the biggest name I could and just went after that because he taught me, you know, his food is exactly what I still love and always will love. So it's kind of kind of kind of that farm to table concept before was, like a trend, you know, he just, that's the way he cooked. So 

Antonio Howell  18:29  
Do you have, like, a favorite meal that you've ever cooked before, or, like, favorite meal to eat? Maybe 

Dagan Lynn  18:35  
I tend to like the things that I can't necessarily afford. So, you know, caviar and crab legs and foie gras, yeah, you know, obviously I'm knee deep in the beef world right now. So, you know, I love this industry, and I love the ranching community and everything it stands for. And I think I'm pretty good at cooking beef now, so 

Antonio Howell  18:56  
That's cool. 

Dagan Lynn  18:59  
Any any part of it,

Antonio Howell  19:01  
yeah, opening restaurants in the past, just leading into the food side of it. Like, what was I going to ask? I'm trying to think, like, you know, 

Dagan Lynn  19:16  
We'll do mix. So mix, mix was a cool concept. Like, if this concept was here now, like in recent years, it would get a lot of great attention. Mix was, like, the idea of the concept was French techniques with American classics. So we were doing, like this crazy, detailed chicken pot pie, you know, I remember, like, we did this Tuna apua with a Bernese like, you know, doing, you know, filet app while with, you know, this Crazy Rich Beef sauce with foie gras and everything, you know,

Antonio Howell  19:49  
Maybe kind of just saying crazy words in my ears, but it sounds really good.

Dagan Lynn  19:52  
Yeah. So it kind of, you know, the blending of French techniques with American classics. And then in Puerto Rico, we did the same thing with Puerto Rico as. French techniques with Puerto Rican classes. That's interesting. The concept was, kind of was built to replicate wherever, you know, wherever we wanted to, you know. And I just think, you know, looking back, you know, the concept had a lot of great ideas, but it didn't really make it so maybe ahead of his time, or, I don't know what the main reason was, or maybe we spent too much money in the beginning. Who knows? 

Antonio Howell  20:29  
That's cool. So with the French techniques and all that you you learn that with, with like, all the people, the contacts you were going to send me and like, did you learn that with them, or was that through culinary school? Or, 

Dagan Lynn  20:44  
yeah. I mean, you learn the basics within culinary school, like the mother sauces and cooking techniques and pan fry and saute and braids, you learn, all those things in culinary school, you know, and you get to apply them a little bit. I guess most culinary schools have, like, have a restaurant that you work in before you leave,

Antonio Howell  21:05  
 yeah

Dagan Lynn  21:05  
So you work in various aspects of the restaurant before you graduate. Lot of it was on my own, you know, I worked for a guy, Thomas Keller, you know him too. Yeah, 

Antonio Howell  21:17  
hope 

Dagan Lynn  21:17  
I'm getting, I'm giving you all these names,

Antonio Howell  21:19  
Yeah, give me these. I'll research them afterwards.

Dagan Lynn  21:20  
Well, yeah, it's really, you know. And I tell young aspiring chefs, you know, I mean, the the people that really had big impacts, Daniel Blue, Thomas Cowler, David Boulet, you know, these guys in this country anyway, you know, they had a profound effect on the industry and still, do you know, built amazing restaurants. And I always kind of tell people, you know, find your favorite restaurant. Look at who owns it, look at what concepts they have, and chase them, you know. And if that's what you want to do, if that's what's speaking to you, that kind of cuisine, like my buddy Doug, has a Andros Taverna in Chicago, and then he's got his Asador Bastion, but he's doing a lot of live wood cooking. So he's kind of, he's designing, he's helping design some of the equipment he's working on, but it's just that live charcoal, you know, it's just

Antonio Howell  22:20  
 that's cool,

Dagan Lynn  22:21  
 you know. And he's bringing in fish from Greece, and, you know, he's sourcing beef, the best in the country, and some importing some too. But, you know, he's at that high level customer and products.

Antonio Howell  22:36  
That's crazy, 

Dagan Lynn  22:37  
you know, that's that always caused me, you know. But I still love going to, you know, like a local Taco joint, you know, for doing, like, Berea tacos or whatever it is, you know, and how they doing it, you know, Is it grandma's recipe. You know, one of the cool things about working at casino was I had a huge team. I had, like, nine concepts that I oversaw, including a buffet. But I never forget this. We had a Mexican restaurant, and we had a chef there, and all the recipes were his grandma's, you know. So it was authentic, like, you know, from making tortillas to making the sauces to burning the peppers, you know, the way his grandma taught him, you know. So that's really good. So over the journey you just, you know, same thing with Chinese food. Like I had a Chinese guy running my buffet station, and this guy would do, like, walnut shrimp, and he'd do all these kind of authentic, you know, Chinese dishes. And I've learned a ton from this guy.

Antonio Howell  23:37  
That's so cool, 

Dagan Lynn  23:39  
yeah,

Antonio Howell  23:40  
So, um, kind of, leading back to that guy, you talked about, the Mexican restaurant, you learn how to make the salsa and the tortillas and everything. So, like, overall, working at restaurants, do you guys, like, get a lot of like, do you purchase fresh bread from local farms or anything? Or would you like, make bread and then like, have it ready for the day, or have it ready for the week. 

Dagan Lynn  24:03  
I think, you know,

Antonio Howell  24:04  
 it's not even like the bread part, just like all ingredients and all together.

Dagan Lynn  24:08  
I guess it depends on which direction you want to head, you know, because everything has a cost associated. Yeah, so if you want to, if you want to start a bread program, I mean, amazing, right? Love it, but it's a cost, you know. And can the business sustain that? You know? Yeah, I want to, I, you know, I try to do as much local as I can, but that's also a cost, you know. So, can you pass that cost under the customer? Will they appreciate it? Can you get a pasta program going, you know, making scratch pastas, you know, the world loves that. But can your business fit it, and can you make money off it? Is the thing, you know, because it's great to come out the gate and do this amazing food, you know. But is the customer going to appreciate it? Are they going to pay for it, and is the business going to be able to handle it right? 

Antonio Howell  24:58  
Absolutely. 

Dagan Lynn  24:59  
But yes to all those things, if you can do it, that's cool.

Antonio Howell  25:06  
You Tina, you own some restaurants. So I kind of a two part question, and some restaurants in New York, and was that success? And so you said, like, some of them are failed and failed out, but there's one still successful. Is there like a secret behind that? 

Dagan Lynn  25:22  
I certainly didn't have the money. I mean, we opened up mix, so I was an owner in these. I owned one here years ago, and it didn't work out, because just bad partners. But, you know, these are these. This was like a ten million opening. So it's a lot of money, right? So we had some investors, not sure if it was the partnership, or if it was the concept, or if it was the location, not 100% sure what it was. We were doing amazing food. We were busy right off the bat, but it quickly subsided. 

You know, just rest, New York City is an ultra competitive market. 

Antonio Howell  26:01  
Yeah, 

Dagan Lynn  26:01  
We were consistent. We were very good. You know, maybe it was, you know, too much on the high end for a customer to absorb. That's probably my takeaway from that place. You know, we opened Country Hotel, which I was a sous chef there, and my buddy Doug was a chef there. And that was two concepts, like a super fine dining upstairs, which was a big place, yeah. And then kind of like a cafe downstairs, I've seen that, I guess, in retros retrospect, I think we should have flipped it. It should have been, you know, the fine dining downstairs, just a small amount of tables, you know, upper echelon customer, and then really turn the cafe into something that was, you know, French bistro, you know, escargot, you know, steak frites, you know, all those kind of fun french french things with American twists on them. You know, steak tartares. 

Antonio Howell  27:02  
Getting hungry,

Dagan Lynn  27:03  
 yeah, right. In retrospect, that concept would have done better, and I think we should have embraced the hotel better, but it's all in retro, right? 

Antonio Howell  27:13  
Yeah.

Um, got a lot of good information. Um, do you have any like, any, what's the word? What was word? Hold on, feedback, any like feedback or anything to give to people like, any of success of restaurants or like, of so. So you said, like, go with, like, if it works, or go with your dreams,

Dagan Lynn  27:44  
yeah, go with a passion. I mean, it's a passion industry. So if you, you know, if you have a passion for, you know, French cuisine, you know, go after that. You know, I think you know, chefs can have a big impact on a team. But really, you are only as good as your team, right? So, you know, I think you know you want to be all chefs want to be mentors. You know, they want to see their team grow and get better and improve. Quite often. That means just, you know, spending, you know, a few years together, if that, and then hopefully they're ready to take your job, you know. So they, you know, either they can, either you can move on and do something else, or they can move on somewhereelse. 

Antonio Howell  28:31  
That's cool. 

Dagan Lynn  28:32  
So, you know, I'd say it's, it's the industry, you know. I mean, it's hard, yes. I mean, it's very rewarding, because of the people you meet, you know, and the experiences you share, and really you know, enjoy the collaboration and learning from each other more than anything. You know. That's big takeaways for me, yeah, but always try to keep those connections you know. You always you know, the longer you're around, the more people you know, and the more people you know, more times you get to travel. And it's just, it's amazing when you can run into a buddy and, you know, a strange city, and, you know, either go to his restaurant or go to another restaurant together. You know,

Antonio Howell  29:14  
That sounds so cool. Yeah, so, and then, um, so, I'm looking at your LinkedIn profile, it just has a bunch of jobs from it, and it shows like, yeah, Executive Chef and stuff. Is that? Like, what did you prefer? So you helped develop restaurants and stuff, but you're also a chef at many different places. Did you like developing and planning stuff? Director of Business. What do you 

Dagan Lynn  29:40  
Yeah?

I mean, I, I didn't take the next I did. I was food and beverage director and chef at one property, but it wasn't real busy. And it was kind of like, you know, the, you know, during COVID, post COVID, you know, yeah, business was kind of not that great, you know, I could do both, you know, I prefer to be in the back rather than the front of house, you know, I like to be around the cooks and the chefs, you know, and the food, 

You know, hotels, you know, it's never the same day. So I really appreciated that, you know, versus, you know, being in hotels. You know, I always had banquets, you know, I said cafeteria. I always had, you know, either one, two or more concepts that I was managing, you know, Pool Bar, rooftop bar, or whatever it was. I think the most menus I ran out of one kitchen was like seven, seven menus out of one kitchen, you know, various outlets, if it's like, you know, room service or breakfast or living room or, 

Antonio Howell  30:40  
okay, okay, 

Dagan Lynn  30:41  
You know, the dining room, you know, it's all coming out of one kitchen, basically, yeah, and you got to be crazy organized, you know. And I think that was kind of my strength is, you know, keeping the team and myself and the operation organized. 

Antonio Howell  30:56  
That's cool, 

Dagan Lynn  30:57  
You know, I took a restaurant approach to hotels. You know, hotels give you, you know, often more staff. Like, I think I had seven sous chefs at one point, so it's a good time. It gives you, you know, leeway. So if you got an event going over here, you and your guy go do that while they run the other operations. And, you know, divide and conquer. You know, one guy's taking off, so you cover him, you know, so it gives you a little bit more, more guys to kind of push around or, you know, put where you need

Antonio Howell  31:28  
That's cool.

Wow. 

Dagan Lynn  31:31  
I just got good at opening hotels. I got in the hotels and got good at opening them. And then I was like, Okay, let's go over here and open this one. Okay, let's go on over here in open Island, okay, yeah, when you're young, you have no family, this is easier, yeah, 

Antonio Howell  31:48  
man, you, you, you've done it all. This is wow.

Dagan Lynn  31:53  
Like, your real owner, like, I want to that's,

Antonio Howell  31:55  
Well, that's coming soon.

Dagan Lynn  31:59  
Yeah, you hear of all these, you know, kind of concepts that had their heyday, like going out of business, like Hooters is the most recent one.

Antonio Howell  32:09  
Oh, wow, yeah,

Dagan Lynn  32:11  
 Hooters. Like, all those concepts where, you know, one point they were good, and then they just kind of stopped reinventing themselves. And, you know, made the food average, and, you know, the service average, and then people stopped going the concept dated, I don't know, you know, so now they're having to, I think they're going bankrupt this week. 

Wow, yeah, well, I don't know, I unless you have anything else to say. As a no, that's it, man. You know information.

Yeah, commend you for starting the podcast. That's great.

Antonio Howell  32:48  
I'm sorry, I already talked to you. This is, I mean, yeah, you've been the best. So far, I've talked to a couple people, and you have all the information. It's great. 

Dagan Lynn  32:56  
Oh, cool. Yeah. Well, definitely, you know, let me know when you get to the podcast. Cone, yeah, if you ever, if you ever need anything, let me know.

Antonio Howell  33:04  
Absolutely, I'm gonna reach out to you about restaurants and everything. This is, yeah, for sure.

Dagan Lynn  33:08  
 I've always tried to keep my handle on Hotel Groups, restaurant groups, you know, people making a significant difference in the industry. You know, the ones that are successful are often the ones you hear and read about, 

Antonio Howell  33:20  
yeah, absolutely.

Dagan Lynn  33:22  
 So keep it some on the industry. Man, it's a big one.

Antonio Howell  33:27  
Heck, yeah, yeah.

Dagan Lynn  33:31  
All right, I think I got all the questions down,

Antonio Howell  33:34  
yeah? I kind of scrambled some questions together at last minute. 

Dagan Lynn  33:37  
Yeah, that's cool,

Making the restaurant financially successful is like knowing what you're up against, like knowing the numbers, knowing what you have on hand, knowing how much you're spending, 

Antonio Howell  33:50  
okay, 

Dagan Lynn  33:51  
Everything you know and how much your revenues, like, you know there's a program called Toast, yes, I would argue, right? I would argue, you know, during the stock exchange, these guys have had a big hand in having restaurant growth, or restaurant groups grow. You know, it's been a lot easier for it than it used to be, like we had Aloha or these other systems they were cumbersome, and they're still around. But like, Toast made it so easy to stamp out more concepts, you know, and even those virtual concepts, you see, yeah, but those things are just spitting out data. But if you're not paying attention to the data, you know, yeah, it's kind of a waste. It's a futile effort. You got to know how much is going out, how much is coming in, you know, and you know, I see restaurants even around our area closing like crazy, and it's because the days of opening and saying, Hey, we're open, come see us, that's gone, right? You have to be creative, like you have to show features. You have to be ready for the holidays. You gotta do special events, you know. You gotta keep those customers coming back, perhaps they won't, right? You know, the food can be amazing, but if it's like just a transaction for the customer, they have, you know, 100 different options every day. You really got to hone in on hone in on the customer, you know, and keep things interesting. Yeah,

Antonio Howell  35:24  
okay, yeah. I'm happy to learn about that with the community, reach outs and everything, and just focusing on your customers and community, that's interesting.

Dagan Lynn  35:35  
It's really that simple, you know. And I just think a lot of people get caught up and 

Antonio Howell  35:39  
Keep track of finances, 

Dagan Lynn  35:42  
keep the money. Talk about the money, because if you don't have any in the bank, you're not going to be around very long. If you don't pay the bills, it's there. It's not a good thing.

Antonio Howell  35:53  
That's cool. Thanks for talking to me. I mean,

Dagan Lynn  35:55  
I appreciate you, man, yeah, yes, I do recipe development. Here we have, so at the National Academy of Beef Association, there's about 10 different departments, and we get to sit in the middle of all of them. So recipe development, you know, try to things, keep things very simple. So it's often like, you know, here I want recipes that fit outdoor grilling, that are 10 ingredients or less, and you can make them in 30 minutes. 

Antonio Howell  36:28  
Okay

Dagan Lynn  36:29  
 So it's kind of come the ideas come from or, I guess the pitch comes from different angles, and then we just make it work. But I gotta, I got a bunch of good ones coming out.

Antonio Howell  36:40  
Oh yeah, that's, that's interesting.

Dagan Lynn  36:43  
Yeah, we have beefitswhatsfordinner.com. Is the website? Website? Yeah, that we have that we post all the, all of our recipes. I try to, I do, like, I'm doing 24 this year, oh,

Antonio Howell  36:57  
and so, like, community people like me, we can go in there and look at that. 

Dagan Lynn  37:01  
Yeah, beefitswhatsfordinner.com, yeah, okay, 

Antonio Howell  37:03  
that's cool. That's cool, yeah. 

Dagan Lynn  37:06  
So that's part of the checkoff

Antonio Howell  37:08  
Do you have like, a, like, a special knife kit, and, like, I don't know, special pans that are, like, a million dollars. And

Dagan Lynn  37:16  
The pans, not so much. I kind of have average ones here. I have more knives all kinds than Yeah, from scimitars to slicers to serrated to pairing chef to Asian. Yeah, we have a lot of knives here. 

Absolutely. That'll be cool. 

Check it out. Yeah, we got everything you can think of to cook beef. 

Antonio Howell  37:36  
That's cool. That's it. Um, well, it is running out of time. It's like a special

Dagan Lynn  37:43  
but uh, all right, Tony, great to talk to you. Man, don't be a stranger.

Antonio Howell  37:47  
 This is awesome. Yeah, see ya.

Dagan Lynn  37:48  
 All right.

Okay, man, take care. Take care. You.