#1469 - Adam Perry Lang

Joe Rogan (0:00)

One, two, one, what's happening brother, how are you?

Adam Perry Lang (0:02)

Good to be here.

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Good to have you. I have enjoyed your restaurant many times. This is my favorite steak restaurant in all of Los Angeles.

It's one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you in here because this is a really crazy time for restaurants. And I mean, that's basically, that's the gist of it. This is a crazy time.

Adam Perry Lang (0:24)

It's bananas, it's absolutely crazy. Trying to just get a handle on it, it's just overwhelming, so for me, it's just head down and cook, try to help people that are in need, and then we'll figure it out later.

Joe Rogan (0:36)

Well, I know you've been doing a lot of cooking for first responders and for hospitals. What have you been doing with your time now that this is?

Adam Perry Lang (0:44)

Well, it really first started where basically everybody was just staring at each other and saying, what is going on, what's happening?

And I didn't lay off any of my employees, and it's all happening. Everybody else is closing up shop, and I'm just overwhelmed as a business owner. What am I gonna do? And I actually had my GM come up to me, because I'm trying to figure it out. Everybody's asked what's gonna happen. My GM came up to me and says, hey, listen, we're with you. We know you didn't create the coronavirus. You do what you have to do, and we know your heart's in the right place.

And I was just like, I just like kind of just let out of breath, and I'm like, okay, well, I appreciate you saying that. And then I was just head down, get down to business with it. And we had a cut back, 90% of the staff, and we were just like, just cook, didn't know who was gonna buy it or anything. It was just crazy.

Joe Rogan (1:47)

So what did you just tell everybody? The steakhouse is called APL, and it's in LA in, what is that, like the theater district? What is that called?

Adam Perry Lang (1:54)

Yeah, it's in the heart of Hollywood, Hollywood and Vine, and it's right next to the Pantages Theater, which we, and what's ironic was, it was literally when they closed down all the restaurants, it was gonna be the night of Hamilton premiering, which is a big deal for us as a business. And all of a sudden, it's like, it stops.

Joe Rogan (2:12)

Yeah, I went to your place right after we saw something.

Oh, it was Frozen.

I have daughters. Yeah, we went to see Frozen, and that was the last time I was at your place. It's gotta be a very strange thing. This has never happened before. And one of the things that we've talked about a lot on this podcast is, what's so devastating about this is, there's a lot of people that have lost businesses in the past because markets changed and because maybe they didn't do what they could have done or work as hard as they could have worked, but for so many small businesses and restaurants and bars, they've been doing the best work they've ever been able to do. They're putting in the hours. They're showing up. They're putting out these amazing meals. And then because of nothing that's their fault, it just gets shut off.

Adam Perry Lang (3:05)

It just gets shut off. It's crazy.

Joe Rogan (3:07)

And without any real understanding of how long it's gonna take or when you're gonna... I mean, we just had a conversation. I was saying we should just talk about this on air because we were just talking in the green room.

There's no clear indication of when you'll be able to go back to work and serve food to the general public and what that's gonna look like.

Adam Perry Lang (3:26)

I know. It's the unknown.

But how I'm investing my time, how a lot of other chef restauranteurs are investing their time is trying to serve takeout to the public, but also doing charitable and things to provide for first line, you know, front line, you know, defense. And one of the things is, you know, Jimmy Kimmel and I teamed up to, for every meal that we prepare, we donate a meal to St. Joseph Center. So that was the first thing, because for our attitude was like, we want to help people and let them know that they're cared about. And then the other thing is to really just keep even just the five people working, because we didn't even know if people were gonna order.