Chef Andrew Gruel on impact of ridiculous crack downs on stoves, ovens

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You fix everything else. Don't worry about the pizza. That's Dave Portnoy from Barstool. Famously, he's got his pizza contest where he tastes all the pizza and tells you what's good or not. And he's just upset like many people are to get rid of coal-fired pizzas as if that's a priority in our country.

But it is in very green-oriented New York City. How does chef Andrew Gruhl feel about that? Founder of American Gravy Concept and a very successful entrepreneur in his own right.

And goes to bat for the industry that he dominates as a celebrity chef. Andrew, welcome back. Well, welcome, I should say. Hey, thanks for having me.

I appreciate it. What was your reflections on this whole coal-fired pizza thing and what Dave Portnoy said? Well, first off, when I heard about this, I thought it was parody. I honestly thought this was like a Babylon Bee headline.

And then when I looked into it and I realized it was real, you know, I agree with Dave, obviously. I mean, he's the pizza king. And as somebody who actually owns a pizza shop in California that was forced to go electric, I understand the perils and the tribulations of trying to create a good pizza off of essentially a glorified microwave. What do you say to people who all of a sudden pizza guys don't have a huge margin of profit? Now they got to go invest in a new oven and a new vent. And that's a big project. Yeah, well, from a financial perspective, this actually is a game changer in the sense that it'll knock out most of the small independent artisanal pizza shops. People say, you know, online, of course, this became a huge fight.

And, you know, it's divisive. Oh, it's only just a little contraption you got to add on to your pizza oven. We're talking $25,000 to $30,000. But to really have them stick it to all the pizza shop owners, you have to pay for the inspector to come and tell you what you need to do with your pizza shop.

$25,000 to $30,000 plus paying the inspector and then ultimately upkeeping this new equipment. That's going to put anybody out of business. Right, no question. And just think this is the same city that just fanned out with inspectors. If they found someone in the kitchen with a mask below their nose, $5,000, $5,000, $2,000, everyone was sitting there paranoid. And finally, I talked to a few owners, said, you know, my guys are working hard. You know how sweaty that is. You do this for a living, how hard it is. They're grinding it out.

Their mask is down. They get fined. Some of the owners say, hey, listen, you're going to have to pay it yourself now. I mean, the city became an enemy of the restaurant business.

It did. And I, you know, I've been saying this for years. And in California, too.

Oh, well, I mean, look, you know, they're kind of brothers in arms there. I've been saying this for years. Restaurant owners are the enemy of the state. And here's why. They hate entrepreneurs because they want the state to run all independent businesses. And restaurants are the way in which people become entrepreneurs typically, right? How many times you talk to someone, well, I think I want to open a restaurant.

Well, I tell everyone it's crazy. That's kind of the gateway into becoming an entrepreneur. So they got to make you the enemy. And they got to make sure that you don't start trying to do your own thing and become independent.

Because if you do, then you are trouble. Which when people talk about cutting regulation, people think big stories. They're really smaller stories. Because the small business, the delis, if you start hitting them with all these regulations, the margins are so small that you drive them out of business. And a lot of this green technology, this green push is taking aim at you guys.

Of course. And let's look at what's going to happen is that if you take out these small guys, these spaces aren't going to be retrofitted into direct retail. They're still going to be restaurants and they're going to be outfitted and permitted as restaurants. Well, who's going to come in? It's these large guys that are coming in. The large guys that are effectively merging with the government, you know, the 500 plus unit chains who are effectively, you know, turning food into plastic. And then they're just going to take over everything. And the government loves that because they merge with them.

And really, I mean, that by its own definition is fascism. And you've got a few people that merge with the government and run our entire food system as opposed to all these independent entrepreneurs. It's the independent entrepreneurs who create the jobs, right? Who become the family of their local community. This goes beyond just the food and the business. It goes into the actual community and the fabric of that community, which is food.

Absolutely. I want you to hear, too, it's not just going into restaurants and blowing up pizza kitchens. They're blowing up your kitchen. They want you to go to electric and soon they're going to come for the restaurants.

I don't know how you do it without gas ovens. Here's the press secretary being asked that question about the appliance crackdown. So from this administration, we've seen them go after gas stoves, air conditioning events with regulation, refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, now water heaters. How many more home appliances will Americans eventually have to replace then because of regulations? So just to be clear, when it comes to water heaters and it is proposed what has been put forward. And if it is enacted, it would not take it into effect until 2029. So let's not forget that.

So we want to make sure that we have the facts out there. And if and when it is enacted, it's going to help consumers save about $11 billion a year. That's what the president wants to do.

Feel better? No, because the way she wiggles and kind of wanders through that, makes it as if it's going to be something way in the future and this is good for the climate. If they enact this, the changes are going to be made today, right? Because the industry has to start to make those changes. So even though it's coming, it's still going to be forced down our throats and it's going to cost a ton of money because they'll start removing the products from the supply chain that we can still use today because they know that the change is coming. And those new products, policy doesn't necessarily kind of match with culture here. So they're pushing culture and policy doesn't, the products aren't there. So they're going to be incredibly expensive right off the bat. Needless to say, what she's talking about right there is going to cost the manufacturers $600 I think to $700 million is what they estimate in order to make these changes.

Andrew Gruhl, our guest celebrity chef and founder of Slapfish. When you start your restaurant in 2012, what do you learn about business that really educated you to the point where you wanted to get your message out to the social media? Well, for me, it was my first foray into understanding the strong arm of the government, right? Little things that I thought were somewhat insignificant or decisions that I could make myself, especially in California, the government had to make for me. They were inefficient and it cost five to ten times more money. And in the long run, it either was scrapped as a government program or it didn't actually meet the ends that the goal of the government program, it was just jobs. So I realized that the number one enemy in the very beginning of running my own business was ultimately going to be, especially in California, the state government.

But now we're seeing this kind of, you know, federal contraption that's distilling down into state governments that's controlling our lives. Can you give me an idea of some of the regulations? Yeah, so I was about to open up my business, you know, we were bootstrapped. It was like $130,000 to open up my first brick and mortar. Friends and family, $5,000 here and there. And right before I open up, they come in the inspector and says, well, you know, you're going to need an underground grease trap even though we were grandfathered in. And even though it's coming in a year or so, before you open, you need to put this in today. $25,000, one day before I opened and marketed my business, I ended up having to take out a million high interest loans, which if I wasn't scrappy enough would have put me out of business.

And I ultimately paid it off and kind of, you know, fought the force. But that's just one example where they come in and arbitrarily tell you, you have to do this because the policy is changing and it's going to cost you this incredibly excessive amount of money. Who sends that, like how does that attitude drip down to the inspector that walks into Andrew Grool's restaurant?

Where does that come from? That's a great question. The overall attitude, I think, from the street level inspector isn't necessarily, we want to screw the small guy. Instead, it's more along the lines of I need to, job security, right? It's the bureaucracy. It's the system.

I need to be able to come back and re-inspect. We know that we need more money coming in. We want these programs to get bigger, not smaller, so that we can grow the size of the government even on a local, you know, basis.

And the more regulations that we create, then the more boxes they have to check and the more work that they have to, you know, kind of complete. You might have trouble doing it now. Not now that you've established a success, but establishing yourself. When you look at the interest rates happening right now and inflation, people say, well, it's going down. It's not a problem.

I was seeing some of your Twitter feed. Do you think it's still a problem? It's a massive problem because there's no cash available for small business owners. They all talk about how, oh, we're creating these, you know, these government-backed loans that are going to be available.

That's not true. The only way you can get any of these loans as a small business owner, even outside the restaurant industry, is if you already have cash and capital. You know, SBA to me is a joke. You can't get cash and capital unless you're already connected. So it's a rich man's game. You've either got to have a ton of grit and figure out how to get through the system, which not that many people do, especially when they see the bureaucracy coming after them because it's scary, or you've got to be able to have, you know, deeply funded partners. Wow, and right now you were able to not only survive, but in California, what made you a survivor in the pandemic? And then you started a program to help others. Yeah, well, it's about the community, right?

So you got to bring the community together. And the government talks about, you know, how much they help, but they really don't. So it was during the pandemic that we realized so many people were out jobs, restaurant workers specifically. The government wasn't doing anything to help.

Yeah, you can have unemployment, but since they misappropriated $60 billion in unemployment funds, sorry, you'll get it in six months. So that's when we pulled a fund together and we actually raised over a half a million dollars to help independent restaurant workers get money to get them to the next step. And the power of community was so strong that that was almost inspiring. It was, there was a synergy that existed. And that's what kind of gave our business, you know, the wind behind the sails to continue moving forward and pull people together. Right, do you get the sense that the American people want to eat out to eat more than ever because it was denied them for a couple of years?

Yeah, I mean, there's always the, you want what you can't have. But also, I think it's the community element. People want to get together. They want to just mingle in a community setting. It's that kind of town hall effect. And they want to go out to eat.

We were stuck in our homes for so long. People just want to get out and enjoy something. It's not even necessarily about the food itself. It's about the experience.

And, you know, food is culture and food is unity. Yeah, I always felt that way too. I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but if the food's just good, I like the feel of a restaurant. More than people say, well, if the restaurant looks like crap, but the food is fantastic, I'm like, okay, you know, I'm not food-oriented in that way.

You probably are. Well, I am in the sense that I know I need to create a quality product and support really good local farmers and food producers. But also, I do understand that you need to create an experience. Like, I don't want to see paneling. I don't want to see the kitchen. No, no, I mean, look, if you've got phenomenal food, then that's always going to be an added bonus. But service drives it more than food, I hate to say. You can have, you know, mediocre food and great service and people are going to come back.

You can have phenomenal food and bad service and people aren't going to come back. Andrew, go stick around, okay? Because you're also going to be on this weekend on One Nation because I think it's so important when people talk about the big numbers and unemployment and GDP. That's one, that's for the economists. But you're somebody who's really the American economy.

Back in a moment. It's The Brian Kilmeade Show. Hey, welcome back, everybody. Chef Andrew Grull is with us, founder of the American Gravy Concepts.

You can follow him at Chef Grull, I should say. So, Andrew, during the pandemic, you were very outspoken. And do you have any, tell me what you did. Yeah, so once Newsom started breaking all of his own rules and shutting restaurants down, but then keeping his restaurants open, I just had had enough. And I had always kind of remained a little bit on the sidelines politically. And I just started speaking out. And, you know, it went viral and I started getting absolutely crushed by both customers and, you know, some of my contemporaries in the restaurant industry. But furthermore, even the media, and I became a target. What was really interesting about it is that when I made my real statement about Newsom and that thing blew up, about eight days later, I got served an investigation by a labor commissioner in California on all of my companies, companies that didn't even have employees.

And, you know, they wrap you up in the red tape. There was nothing that was triggering it. There was no evidence of any wrongdoing.

We've always been a phenomenal employer. Weaponizing government against you. Yep, it cost us, I want to say, $70,000 to $80,000 just to, I don't want to say fight it because it was in an investigation stage. And do you know when it went away, when we stopped hearing anything from the kind of commissioner's agent, was the minute that the Newsom recall was approved to go on the ballot, poof, everything just slowly disappeared.

Why do you think that is? I think because he just didn't feel like dealing with any of the backlash because I was making noise about it. And what I think is really funny is he did an interview with Jen Psaki probably three or four months ago and he talked about how everybody in his office tells him that he needs to stop watching Fox News. It's an obsession, right? And he watches it 24-7. Well, I was on 24-7 talking about my viral video going off on Newsom.

So I knew then and there he'd seen it, right? It's way too coincidental that, no joke, less than, you know, a week after I go off, this massive investigation is served. And there was no, there was no predicate to it, right? It wasn't as if there was a complaint that they were following up on. They wouldn't give us any information.

We had to take it to a superior court to try and get to the bottom of it. So you didn't do that in California, outside Orange County, and a few others. That's gutsy, right? Because you had to speak your mind. But a lot of these people are way to the left and took that personal. So they start staying away from your restaurant? Yeah, but I'll tell you what. Well, then again, you shut down. Our sales went up, you know, 500%.

They did. And the minute I started speaking out, I had people calling up with a credit card number saying, just ring in $1,000. We just want to support you. It was unbelievable, the support that we've gotten.

And, you know, we talk about this parallel economy. But you still had to pay a ton of legal fees. Yeah, we did. I mean, those legal fees just buried myself, my family. We had just had a new baby. My wife was freaking out. She was named on all the documents.

It was subpoenaing all of our personal bank accounts, all the business bank accounts. Stress your relationship? I mean, you know, having a new baby stresses it. I know. Can you imagine that sitting around going, oh, did you really have to say that? Now look at this. Fortunately, she's a fighter like I am. So she was actually saying go deeper, dig harder. That's awesome.

So that happens. But what is he going to tell you what kind of a politician he is? Revengeful? Do we really need a vengeful, another vengeful politician out there? You don't agree with me? I'll put you, I'll have to maybe force you to sell your company.

Yeah, it's not just that. You did end up selling. We did end up selling the company. And then we restarted a new concept here in Orange County. And I'll tell you.

What'd you do? So it's Calico Fish House. We've got a full service restaurant and bar now. And you know, what was interesting was getting that liquor license approved about eight months longer than it takes any other, anybody else. Even our attorneys were like, wow, this is absolutely unbelievable.

But they approved it. So I saw the weaponization of the government, as I mentioned last segment, in that they were just killing these restaurants that opened up. There's not six feet apart. You have too many people at tables.

You're staying open too late. Or, you know, people walking around without masks. You can sit down without a mask. You got to get up without a mask. I saw them, inspectors while I was there, two separate times, walk right past the hostess, go right to the kitchen to try to stop, find a cook with the mask down.

$5,000. Really? You kept them closed for a year and a half. You're making them fill up half the restaurant. And now you're fighting them.

What kind of attitude is that? Well, the thing is that it's all being forgotten about. And that is indicative and it's emblematic of the way in which they're going to govern moving forward.

So he goes to the French Laundry. Of course. And I think people forget about that and that's what's crazy. But also the element there is that you're talking about government inspectors. What I saw even worse was the way in which they deputize citizens to basically do the same thing. These COVID fanatics who would sit outside my restaurant, take photos of me talking to guests without a mask on and post them up on every single social site. The social contagion that's connected to the way in which they try and deputize people to turn on their neighbors. That's a scary thing because now you got millions of people. Listen, I saw it, especially in a very blue state like Los Angeles. I could just imagine people walking around screaming at other people for not wearing a mask outside. Now what we know about wearing a mask outside, having kids play soccer and baseball with masks on. Remember this crap that was going on? Yeah, and look, it's not completely underground. It's still happening. That's the scary part because it's become a culture. I want to ask you about something else you're doing.

You're trying to convert toilet water and purify it and put it back in the system. Are you okay with that? No, because I don't trust the people that are doing it. I don't trust the government. I don't trust a lot of these large utility companies. We've already seen how many mishaps do we hear about, I mean, over and over and over again.

And it's kind of like the whoops. So for us to question that, whether it's that, whether it's cell cultured chicken, all these things that are getting approved on the fly when intellectually you're like, this doesn't make sense. Do I want to drink toilet water?

Yeah, meat made in a laboratory? I don't think so. Real quick, tipping. What's going on with the tipping craze? I could buy a smoothie, they want a tip. I buy a salad, they want a tip. When should you tip?

Well, I mean, that's up to you. I think you tip on service, right? You shouldn't feel obligated to tip. You got to be able to do something to tip, but it's also a great incentive element. I don't think we get rid of tipping because it incentivizes people.

I was waiting for a long time. I lived on tips. I made $2.35 an hour. It's now the obligatory tip.

That's the problem. And furthermore, what all these new IRS agents have done is that they're going back in and they're auditing all these tips because the tips now go through the credit cards. The credit card companies report the tips to the IRS. So what a lot of people don't realize is that with these tips, the employee pays taxes on the tips and the business pays payroll taxes on it as well. I'm going to bring this up on television over the weekend, but everyone, tipping cash. Tipping cash. Right? Give the waiter a break. They're not millionaires.

They're just working hard for a living. Thanks so much. Andrew Gruhl, thank you very much. And we can follow him at chef Gruhl and I'll see you Saturday at eight o'clock. Wonderful. Thank you. Listen to the show ad free on Fox news podcast plus on apple podcast, Amazon music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.