0:00 it's really cool like I met I was able to meet Cameron Diaz I freaked out at that yeah did she had C in her hair Oh Come [Music] What welcome back everybody to another fantastic episode of the careful boys where today we are so honored to have TOA babe wow question for you toy you've done a lot of amazing things what is the by and far coolest thing that you've ever worked on ooh cool thing dang that's it's hard to pick that's a that's a hard question feel free to list them all so that we can settle brag but I think um opening up the restaurant has to be like the coolest thing really where's the restaurant for people that are watching my restaurant is called Dei and it's
0:50 located in West Hollywood that's also not just opening a restaurant that's like you open a restaurant on hard mode like you opened it up in like one of the most expensive like affluent districts for something that they don't even already have yeah it's it's um it's incredible when I like driving to work and I'm like on that street I look at the houses on the hills and then I'm I look at like all the restaurants there and I'm like wow I'm driving to my restaurant it's really cool it never gets old it's automatically being held at a higher standard yeah cuz it's not like in a strip mall like in North Las Vegas yeah you know or it's yeah it's an experience or like Hawthorn or something you know like it's it's right here in West Hollywood yeah and it's like um a place that doesn't really like serve Vietnamese food at that scale and so like I'm very proud to be able to do
1:40 that and like you know like how often do you really see like a family of Asian people um walking down West Hollywood to have Vietnamese food yeah it's like elevating it and sharing it with the world yeah it's really cool but I do I do picture a gay Vietnamese couple though going to get some oh absolutely all the time cuz it's West Hollywood hell yeah dude all the time all the time is DD like d like go D all that's cuz I say when I speak to my friends I Tred to incorporate as many Vietnamese words as possible just so they can like get used to it and so when I was in Vietnam um when I was in Vietnam two years ago I just kept saying D and everyone like kind of knew what it meant by the end of the trip and so I was like that's a cool name and so when we were trying to name the restaurant it
2:30 was in between lucky youu or Deee o and I just felt like lucky youu was just like too generic Asian what about Golden Dragon Restaurant yeah Vietnam number one what about Golden Dragon massage restaurant d was the name of my dog really yeah but it was de for Dodger Dog cuz I traded Dodger tickets for her that's cute Dodger Dog Co speaking of uh what was like the hardest thing that you hdle that you had to get through to open that restaurant and then also what was like maybe the first true moment of like Euphoria for you ooh I think the hardest thing about opening up de [Music] um every part of it has been really exciting but I think like sharing it with the world and like
3:23 getting that negative feedback it almost felt as if like holy ████ like am I doing this wrong you know but then when that moment passed and I I really started to see that like there are regular people that are coming in here um multiple times a week you know and like they actually enjoy it and like have to be able to host my family in here um my dad just saw it for the first time um the other day and he like almost teared up and so I was just like you know like those moments like just made it all worth it because even though like there's like noise it's it's just noise at the end of the day and um it's like the fulfilling part is like knowing that people there's actually people that enjoy it mhm when you're saying like negative feedback in hindsight is that like because there was like a lot of
4:13 negative feedback or is it because like you're so close to something it's so personal that even like one out of like a thousand comments is the thing that get stuck with you at the end of the night you know what I mean of course because that's my baby that's what I've poured so much of my energy and my effort into that I was just so like you know like protective of it and it's almost like somebody talking ████ about your baby you know um so you get you feel way about it but then at the end of the day it's like there's nothing that I can really do to persuade you unless you come they're not opening up a shop either so unless you like come in and like have it yourself you know like there's nothing that I can really do to like I've already proven Myself by opening up this restaurant that's my yeah that's my favorite thing about it was that when when certain people were questioning like why the price point is where it's at but your respon was why doesn't Vietnamese food deserve this that's my favorite thing about it yeah
5:05 that's like you don't see it and it but you should but like that's the thing like you have to do it for it to be real exactly like somebody has to do it cuz if you don't do it a white person will but that's how our restaurant name works too you can say didy like go to the restaurant or if you don't like them you be like did go away that me go away oh so it's go both directions oh just depends on how you say it yeah what's the difference say it well no difference you say it the same but the context of how you're say it's not like a tone difference no go do demonstrate you can be like didy or you could be like did oh yeah I don't like this oh the second one hurts that hurt my feeling I got kicked out on the second one scary what what was the moment of like like the first moment of Euphoria for you when you're like ████ this is really happening the opening for sure they the opening day when like you know
5:58 like when you work um on a project for so long I every part of that project you worked on it separately the menu I worked on it separately the music the design everything was worked on separately um and then once you see it all come together you hear the music you smell the food being cooked you see like the Ambiance is just like put all together and everyone is sitting down eating the food it's like wo like this is the moment that we all worked for wow you know it's like when you make a film and you turn it on and everyone's sharing it together yes cuz now it's work like it's all operating yeah do you guys have custom music too uh no but we I curate the playlist and um you know like when I first uh submitted the playlist to my partners they were like
6:48 you know um I don't really think that people like to listen to T pay at 6 p.m. and I was like you know what let's try it for like a week and the first the first thing that people will say is like oh the music's really nice like the music's good like I'm vibing out to this I really like this Got Rice ████ song that's what she puts on no but it's like I play like '90s R&B hell yeah that's fire you can't beat that yeah and it's it's a Vibe it's like very warm and romantic in there ah how long did you work on each face for it just it comes in I I don't have an exact time frame I think overall like the turnaround for the restaurant was very fast because I signed um I signed the paperwork with my partners in October of 2022 and the restaurant was open July
7:40 2023 W so it was it was very quick yeah it was like one week I would do one thing and then another week another thing and then sometimes I would have to go back and do that other thing again you know yeah do you have like a dream uh customer that you would love to host like to have a table like like a JK news or something like that like someone that you someone that you look up to that would come in and just sit and have a meal your yeah like like you run in the back of the kitchen you're flustered you're like everybody ████ figures out we got this person here uh let's start with a live okay cuz you're going to say anthon say Anthony bour like Uncle Roger comes through and then he's like okay give me the fried rice now he's like DD that was good I don't know um dang there's just this so many influential
8:30 people that I would love to host guy Fury or something yeah like that would be sick no there's been there's been so many people that's come to the restaurant that I wouldn't even know because it's like the hwood crowd right they're like celebrities and stuff like WTH palro uh went to our Lunar New Year celebration like she she saw like the lion dancing and everything like was she giving out red envelopes no she wasn't but like she was giving out ████ candles the ████ glitter like she was just being just a regular person like no Entourage or she just her it was just her and like one of her friends so cool it's really cool like I met I was able to meet Cameron Diaz I freaked out at that yeah did she had ████ in her hair oh come on what that's an old reference from a from a what movie is that something about Mary that's crazy so there's been like
9:21 there's been people that I'm like whoo like I've gotten to meet you because you you're here at my restaurant like that's really cool thank you for coming here to eat at my place what if like one of your like old instructors from like culinary school was there ooh would that be cool or would he's like that would be interesting but I mean it would be cool I just like didn't have the best experience in culinary school yeah like I I think culinary school is it's um I have mixed feelings about it because it's like didn't teach you ████ it it taught me like technical stuff but like I didn't really get to learn how to cook like in a way where it's like seasoning and like how to put your own flavor into it um and I remember specifically like one time that we were doing a like a Chinese day or
10:11 something like where we would cook Chinese food and the instructor she was like oh uh you don't need to put white pepper in there white pepper smells like Barnyard and I was like woah W that's rude I'm like that that's uncalled for Barnard yeah like never it would be like little like passive aggressive comments like those in like don't be using all spice you want to taste like a Chinese Grandma yeah and I'm just like yeah it it I don't know if I had to do it all over again I would probably just have gotten like a job at a restaurant that's that makes sense yeah there somebody oh good nobody ask you for your do you have a ████ certificate of completion for your you know this is true yeah they just go what are your availabilities can you start tomorrow can you chop can you cook like you just have to prove it huh
11:01 yeah is there somebody if like they showed up you would be like the most intimidated by like the ████ food critic in Ratatouille ooh like the rat yeah who's the rat the food critic Oh I thought you meant the rat rat shows up cuz the Rat shows up and he's all like who would that be think I don't know I I don't think I would be because I'm very confident in the food that I serve but it could be like I'm not saying it would be but like hypothetically like it was like your mom or your grandma or some ████ know what I mean every time they come in yes my my mom of course yeah they like oh you could do this like this or do it like but you know what recently she's come in and she's like wow everything's really good so like that's a big like pat on the back for me because it's like I don't I usually don't get that it's usually but it like well everything's really good could fix up These Wings a little bit
11:51 yeah no like she's actually like really enjoying my food now and so that makes me happy what if what if Mikey Chen comes from from Strictly dumpling oh that would be really cool yeah that's Joe's friend he yeah I like him is there anybody you don't want like if like AR Kelly was like I love oh he was giving the St you know we'll just we'll just kind of set his table to the balcony or something or the you still but you still be dropping ignition in your playlist huh no I don't you still be dropping ignition come on you would still seat him you would still give him a table you got to give him the mafia table in the kitchen bro you got to give him a table in a kitchen where you can eat is there a age limit here is there a age limit here I'm just saying things he would ask yeah damn she's just like don't see them next to the kids oh no she might start
12:42 peeing on everybody oh whoa that's a thing hey Ryan most interesting man in the world what's the coolest project you ever worked on you asking me I thought we' be all focusing on TW it was just a question it just a question most interesting dang Ryan's interesting as ████ that's what I'm saying so interesting no I bet you have like 10 things that are all tie that are all tie like tied together like like tie no like tie for first place cuz there's so many different aspects in your life I feel yeah I don't know man come back to me I haven't I didn't know you going ask me anything I was all geared towards TW this whole episode hey I'm the host I'm allowed to ask you what about you then what's the most interesting you've ever done I'm only asking interesting people so this is an interesting video you're interesting he's a noodle salesman that is pretty interesting though that you have a noodle brand in Costco I will say
13:33 for the sake of this question actually working on the shoe was probably one of the coolest things that ever for sure The Full Experience yeah because like I think I've never had more mind-blowing moments happen where I was like is this ████ real wait with with K bang no the shoe the shoe air with Nike like I specifically the moment that we went up to Nike and performed our first time it's like 2016 or something like that we performed for their Tech Awards which is like an internal award show uh celebrating like their new tech advancements and Innovations cuz Nike Innovation is like the heart of blah blah blah blah blah right and so we're like working on the show we do the show and then we just hear that some really important people are going to be sitting in the audience but again when you're a performer on stage you know it's just all black and and just lights on you so you do your thing and then we're like in the lobby
14:25 afterwards cuz people are just networking so random people are like oh I work in fashion apparel or I worked on the air the Air Max you know blah blah blah and you know people giving you like your your Kudos and stuff you're like man this is really really cool you know what I mean you're just networking with people that have like changed the game for Nike over the years right and then next thing you know we get pulled off to the side and they're like hey uh we got to take you guys to a meeting and this wasn't on our schedule at all and we're like okay so everybody uh put your or and whatever the ████ down we we got to apparently we have a meeting there's like 10 of us that are doing this show right so okay we start going and next thing you know it's it's it's in Beaverton in in Oregon so it's really ████ cold at the time and we're walking late outside at at night and we're we're just going through the campus that we got a tour from earlier and we're like where are we going we're passing we're passing tiger this or the Mian this or blah blah we're going down
15:16 this way and suddenly we're like walking towards the Innovation building and um we go outside there and then they start handing us ndas they're like you guys got to sign these we're like what the ████ meaning is ganger paper copy or digital um real real paper copy was that docy sign or yeah yeah I'm curious I'm curious how they operate over there we're just standing out there in the cold we're signning NDA nobody knows what's going on once everybody signs the last person signs NDA we hand it back then they're like okay um you guys are going to sit down with Tinker Hatfield wow and all of us like holy ████ so was he like hiding in the closet and then like waiting for you guys and then after you signed it he goes finally you signed it no he didn't tell us he was in the ████ the win of Bago there's a very like classic win of bagos it's like a whole story of Nike because back in the day like the first running shoes that they ever made uh
16:07 Phil n and and and you know they they they ████ sold them out of a van they went to like a track and sold out a van so they have like a Winne Bagel like cut in half and that's like the the conference room that all the crazy ████ like all the celebrities go there and all this ████ right so we go up there we have this meeting and then this suddenly this meeting turns into like a deep conversation about dance about like kind of hitting the The Tipping Point of like why Dan should be considered like a sport or whatever the ████ so we turns into like a random pitch meeting about like why we believe in it and then by the end of it I just remember tiny looking at us and be like all right consider the point tip and he got excited about it he's like I'm going to work on this shoe wow and we went outside that's what he said yeah what ████ literally consider the point tipped Sky don't miss huh and so we ████ go outside and everybody's silent for the first like 3 minutes cuz nobody know what happened we keep we're walking and
16:58 then once once we like round the corner and no longer with an eyesight of the building we scream and like huddle up we're jumping up and down and like half the guys are tearing up he was outside looking at the window like another dream made consider the point tip whatever he said earlier hey it was just the craziest feeling you know what I mean bro that's sinane it's like it's like you me you pedal himself the mental picture he FST he coming out finally you son it K just's baby let's get to work now we can get to work like he's on queery bust out of a closet or some ████ he's been waiting for them dude he's like willly Walker just ████ hiding around the building and ████ he's been waiting for the K Group big reval I know he's been watching like World World of Dance he's
17:49 like a fan and ████ really funny bro that's insane though that's so cool do you have a picture with them yeah we have a whole video with him they have a whole shoe with him dude he's he's wearing the jacket he's wearing the K hat he's holding the shoe it's definitely like from my perspective to you it's one of the craziest things to be involved in a shoe for dance with Nike like all of those moving Parts is like just a funny dream that we've always had for our whole lives that that would even happen the fact that it was you and Nike and him and and with Tinker too that's crazy I feel like you don't talk about it you should brag about it more H you don't brag enough was because I bring stuff up and then you try to knock it down with some jokes and ████ not me Steve Steve does I I don't do I I enhance your experience I say Tinker was like I made Tinker gay so I enhanced it cuz
18:41 everybody's talked about that forever even all the times that I went to Nike to to do work and we'd go in the thing and we'd be like how crazy to have a dance shoe they'd be like yeah it's it's never taken seriously like it never is crazy hard yeah it would be crazy it would be a bad idea too when it leaves the dichotomy of that though is really interesting cuz I think the more most powerful part about that wasn't necessarily like the product it was the idea of it right so like what that did for the younger and upcoming Dance Generation I know what we did like move the needle it didn't ████ necessarily change the world but it like helped to change the game and I believe that that was like so powerful but then the ironic part too is like dancers are so ████ fickle like that too everybody has that kind of like what they're trying to do that when you you see like another group doing something that maybe like was that funny Dream
19:31 It's not like everybody rallies and let's go support this so we can uplift the dream and push the the the thing it's more like all right they did that all right bet you know what I mean you just kind of sit there thinking about like what your angle is can I say something Anthony Le if I was an opposing dance crew and I saw that you guys had joural sneakers I'd ████ hate you guys I'd be like man ████ these fools these guys are whack and you know Pioneers never actually reap the rewards it's some third generation ungrateful ████ that's going to come out with a dance shoe and make ████ billions dude that's the way it's going to work timing is everything and you're going to be a great grandpa like in your ████ dancer cane and then you're going to be like man I could have been me and here's this little Tik Tok ████ making all this money but for the dance world that's huge though that's that's the thing though is that every there's been lots of companies that tried to make a
20:21 dance shoe but they weren't big companies and the shoe was whack yeah cuz they got tap dancing shoes they got not that ████ yeah yeah no one wants those I seen those ballroom dancing shoes that ████ look whack you can't you can't get a groove on on that n can't hit a dou in that but like you said too you know what I mean it's like there's going to be moments where you could just choose why you did it and what to focus on you know what I mean and and I think yeah that that is just empowering in and of itself so yeah that very very inspiring congrats you guys Vietnam Vietnamese power and Nikes are made in Vietnam oh shout out Circle that's
21:20 true
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