Behind the Plate Episode 2 - Part 2 - Allen Burger Venture -Dino Debell

Dino DeBell shared his journey from working in his family's restaurant to becoming a successful chef. He detailed his early experiences at Mama Mia's in Denver, his transition to fine dining, and his move to Hawaii and Vail. Dino discussed the challenges of opening Allen Burger Venture in Buffalo, including raising $100,000 and adapting to COVID-19 by reducing burger sizes and prices. He emphasized the importance of classic culinary techniques and his favorite burger, the Jiffy burger. Dino also advised aspiring chefs to gain experience in high-end hotels for better training and professional development.

Transcript

Hey everyone, welcome back to behind the plate. I'm your host, Antonio Howell, and this is part two of our deep dive into Tina de Bell success. If you haven't caught part one yet, I highly recommend giving it a listen to get the full context. So let's jump right back in

Dino DeBell

Another thing I did is kind of like, you're not we weren't initially you weren't supposed to have alcohol or people in in there. And don't quote me on this. This between you and I, nothing really matters. But like a bunch of my buddies that do, I'd be like, I would just go to the grocery store and buy like three cases of Bud Light and the liquor store and buy like three bottles of _________ . So my friend would be like, if, can I still get sneak that Bud Light and a shot a ______ if I do an arm like, yeah, so what it's here for? So, you know, now you got the husbands and the wives fighting over coming to pick up the food, because there's, you know, they're tired of looking at each other in the house, and they're coming and they can have a beer in a shot with me and grab their food. And people, it became kind of a joke. They're like, beer in a shot at ABB picking up my food, you know? But it was, it was actually very terrifying. If you go to, what is it called buffalo first, I don't know if you just Google name, yeah, and there's some articles on, there's a there's a really well written one based on that COVID time. It was really good interview with a guy, really good writer, so it's a long story, but And I should add more, like, 

Antonio Howell 

it's very helpful.

I just got a simple question to wrap it all up. Like, what's your favorite dish that you sell?

Dino DeBell  0:18

That I sell? Yeah, my favorite one at Allen Burger Bentures, the Jiffy burger.

Antonio Howell  

 Jiffy burger, 

Dino DeBell  

The story behind that was on Wadsworth and maybe 10th and Wadsworth, there was a biker bar called buffalo chips, okay, in Lakewood, and they sold peanut butter on a burger. And I was with all my cousins. We had lunch break there, and they're like, peanut butter and burger, and you gotta try it. I'm like, I'm not eating that shit. So last minute, I get the burger, and It had peanut butter on, you know, cheese, bacon and lettuce, tomato. And I was like, so this is pretty good, people, their first like reaction is, it's like, Yeah, they'd make, I call it the Jiffy face. So, you know, I've had that burger, but I never had a restaurant where I've had to have a burger on the menu until 20 years later. I was probably 16 at the time when I tried that. So I ended up doing the Jiffy burger. And then a lot of people around me started doing it. So then I added pickled jalapenos to mine to add a spice component. So it's New York State, white cheddar, Applewood, smoked bacon, peanut butter and jalapenos. And everybody's just like, oh, that sounds disgusting. You know, never eat that. And I go, if you eat it one time, you'll never order another burger. You'll always get that one. And I go, think about it this way. Think about taking a beef satay and dipping it into a spicy peanut dipping sauce. Think about the flavors that you're experiencing. That's what the burger is. 

Antonio Howell   

That sounds good, 

Dino DeBell  26:51  

But it's in a bun, you know, it's actually pretty good. It's really good. And the proteins from the peanut butter kind of knocked down the heat of the jalapenos, about the jalapenos add a nice crunch. It's a really fun burger. So that's probably my favorite one. 

Antonio Howell  

Man, I gotta try some burgers. 

Dino DeBell    

Probably fourth best, huh?

Antonio Howell  

I gotta go to your restaurant and try your burgers. I mean, that sounds good. Who knows what else have you? Have you gone down the menu? I've looked at it a little bit off to dive more details. 

Dino DeBell  2:55  

So based on what I told you about classic steak dishes. Try to go through there, you're going to see like, the number one is, like a steak or Plov so it's kind of brand new, peppercorn sauce on it, mushrooms, you know? So that's a high end French filet mignon, classic steak dish. That's your number one burger. The number two is something that we do in Buffalo. It's called, it's called the beef on wet. And a wet roll is, it's a German role that has caraway seeds and sea salt on the top. So that's in every restaurant. It's all over buffalo. It's wonderful. It's usually shaved roast beef, horse radish on a on a sea salt Caraway roll. And you dip it in a aju like a, like a french dip. Number three is really, it's not really classic, but it's caramelized onions and a porter cheddar cheese. Number four is, like a Big Mac, and number five is the jiffy, but it gets into, like, thinking of a Philly cheesesteak, and then you get into, like, a Tuscan style one, you know. I don't know if I still have it on the menu, but it was prosciutto wrapped with arugula, lemon juice, Shea Parmesan, Truffle oil,you know. So it's all kind of classic dishes. So when you look at that menu again, you can kind of see where my brain was going with it.

Antonio Howell 

 Yeah, absolutely. That's, I mean, that's awesome, even with the classic dishes. That's good. That's cool. Um, that was pretty much all the questions I had for you. If you have any more information. You can always reach out to me, or if you want to share something right now.

Dino DeBell    

That's pretty much, that's pretty much it. I talked to your mom a little bit. She said you're thinking about doing, doing some are you in working in restaurants now, or thinking about pursuing more of it? 

Antonio Howell 

Or, yeah, so I'm working in a restaurant. Or I was, I got laid off. The business failed then, but it was a lot of fun, while it was scary,

Dino DeBell  

scary business. I'll tell you that. Yeah, I've

Antonio Howell  

experienced it, and I've heard it, but it sounds that's what I want to do now, sounds awesome

Dino DeBell  

for me. I think what I and I still love it. And I'm 55 and I work, you know, I'm, I'm only working 60 hours a week. Now, when we open this place, we're all, we're all working 100 that's insane, but that's just part of it. But if I could give you some advice, and is, you know, if you could get into a really great hotel with a good food and beverage program, and just, you're going to see twice as much there, and they have to be professional due to HR, and you know their corporate training, yeah, those are that's a really, really good foundation for your, you know, just to understand your your you know, your temperature zones and your rotations, and your dating and how people talk to each other, what banquets are looking like, what breakfast, lunch, dinner looks like. And you that'll give you more of a an education without being in a restaurant where it's just like, you know, a mom or dad or, you know, crazy chef, or, you know, all the other bullshit that comes along with that. There's a lot of drugs and alcohol and restaurants, you know, it's .Restaurant kitchens are kind of a place for misfits, to some degree, where, you know, it's just, we're our own family, you know, and that's the good part about it. But if you really like to get good training, go work, you know, obviously, like a Broadmoor hotel, but I know you're not gonna move down there, but that's probably the high high at the high hotels, not in just Denver, but nationally. But you know, for me, it was in a ski resort town, you know, and I got lucky to have good mentors, but I would, I would try to get into that and at least know how to work like that, understand the environment, learn, learn cooking from scratch, learn rotations, food safety, all that stuff, and then then go into an independent restaurant, or see where that takes you. A lot of times, hotels are owned nationally or internationally. So, you know, you can transfer, if you're in a high end Marriott and it's got, you know, a subcontracted Food Beverage program. I know there's one here the Ritz Carlton down here, just subcontracted with the Jose Garzas food and beverage group, you know. So even the high end hotels are starting to, are starting to subcontract into really high end, great chef opportunities. But you're going to see more, you know, you're going to be surrounded by more professionals in a professional manner, with great HR, with, you know, it just, you'll, you'll see more than, than a lot of restaurants just really don't treat people great, you know, yeah, independent one so and let me know. You know, keep me posted if I can help you or answer questions on your personal level. Moving forward, give me a call or text me any question you want. I'll get back to you and tell you what I think.

That'd be awesome. Thank you so much. So this is great. 

Keep in mind, too, my family, who had a telco, they have scholarships for culinary that they offer every year. 

Antonio Howell    

Really 

Dino DeBell   

think they offer, like, one scholarship a year to a culinary to I don't, I think it's the CIA, but you know, if you're looking around or whatever, I can talk to my cousins and see what Restaurant Group you know, figure out what your what level you're at, what you'd want to do, and figure out what, you know, they have such a pulse on every restaurant in Denver, Vail, Seamboat, Aspen, because that's their business. So, I mean, we have a lot of resources too.

Antonio Howell   

Yeah, that that's perfect. I mean, I love all this. Thank you so much. I'm gonna read your blog that you said, look on your website. On the website. 

Dino DeBell    

Yeah, look on the website. I think it's not buffalo first. It's, it's, I think it's called buffalo rising.

Antonio Howell  

Okay, I think my mom had something she might have. Yeah. 

Dino DeBell  

And then there's that,

Antonio Howell   

 look at your web, look at your menu. When I want to see the classic steaks, that looks interesting. I like that theme that 

Dino DeBell  

you can also, you can also watch me 25 years at the Go doing a Nickel City Iron Chef competition. Really pretty funny. I haven't even, I've never even watched it because I hate seeing myself on on video and cameras and shit. It's a series, yeah, I should have won that one, but we tied. And then the tie breaker was, you know, when the audience, when you came, you know, you put your ticket into a fish bowl of who you came to cheer on. So, you know, he had more, he had more popularity than, Oh yeah, Buffalo guy. But that's kind of a fun watch. I think it's a short one,

Antonio Howell   

Sweet, cool. Yeah, thanks for talking to me. That was awesome. 

Dino DeBell  

You're very welcome. Sorry it took so long. 

Antonio Howell  

Oh, no worries. 

Dino DeBell   

Okay, have a great night. Call me, text me if you need anything, or if you ever have any questions about it, I wish you the best. And it's still, it's, it's great career, you know, if that's what you enjoy, you gotta enjoy it. You gotta love it.

Antonio Howell  

Oh, it's awesome. Yeah, cool. 

Dino DeBell  

All right, see you, all right, take care.