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Hey, thank you very much.
Jim has to take up.
Go teach his class.
Headlines with the press times.
John Kramer into house.
We're talking about something very cool.
But first I want to say once again, thanks to Joe vertigo and Scott Hansen, legendary stock car racer and Joe, of course, who's done so much to promote stock car racing in the area.
It's absolutely unbelievable.
They were just fantastic to have on.
Katie Burke, three rivers, rolly old log growing event in Howard taking place this weekend.
That sounds so cool.
I'm challenging John Kramer.
He and I to do that.
Todd, who would you put your money on?
used
to
be
able to ride a unicycle.
Did you really?
Yeah, I was that nerdy kid
Well, you've got some very special guests in here for headlines of the press times.
It's the monk community events taking place Manu and to welcome.
Thank you.
It's pleasure to be here.
Great
to have you What have you got going on?
Well, most recently, just a couple of weeks ago, John was at one of our events where it was our first year collaborating with On Broadway.
My passion foundation is the nonprofit's name for the Mung Organization that we are board members of.
And we just love being able to bring this event to the community.
for free, which is amazing.
And so with the right collaborations and resources, we were able to create this event that actually exceeded our expectation.
The weather was not the greatest, but people still showed up, stayed through the rain, danced in the rain and had a great time.
The weather has been the greatest for any events this summer.
It's just crazy, isn't it?
It rained a lot.
Unbelievable.
You know, it's so admirable, though, with you folks come over.
What 50 years now probably 50 years from from Southeast Asia and what you've established in communities and how strong you have all stayed together to support one another to help one another to the way you have all thrived.
It's it's a pretty amazing American story.
Wouldn't you say?
I mean, you have to be proud of it.
I would definitely say so.
I mean, in 50 years, we've got senators, mayors, lawyers, doctors and then local.
business professionals in the area here as well too.
And that's a great accomplishment in 50 years.
Do they ever talk, your parents ever talk about, you know, how cool you guys have it now?
Maybe your kids have it versus what it was like when they first came over and dealing with this weather and all the different things.
Oh yeah, they're always talking about high expectations, right?
Everyone's dream is for their kid to be a doctor or lawyer.
And you know, there's a lot.
to just be very thankful for, you know, we're always happy to have the support of our elders and to have them kind of just help push us so that we can continue to be the best that we can be here.
You're talking about your event that you had.
Talk a little bit about that.
Yeah, so it was a collaboration that kind of started last summer.
Fatma from on Broadway, she actually reached out to my dance academy to come perform as a placeholder.
And so we came to perform at the LaVette concert series.
And then from there, they wanted to hear community input.
How can we engage the community more, especially at, you know, the Monk communities or other communities that we can reach out to, to bring everyone together, especially for events that are amazing like this, where they're free, it's in an open space.
using, you know...
the Lutch Park there that you know a lot of people can have access to in the middle of the city and so it was great to have them see something in us in our organization that we have connections with the monk community to be able to bring them out and to be able to um voice at the tables which artists could really bring the community together and so um it started a year ago and then with the team they asked us to join the planning committee we were able to suggest and recommend artists in the monk community
that we thought could really bring people out.
And we were so happy that they took a chance on us and really just, you know, it was our first year.
So we didn't know what to really expect.
We didn't want to over-promise anything, but we're very grateful for this partnership with On Broadway that they believed in us and supports us.
And we did it.
And, you know, it was, I believe, when we met last, there was over, like, 500, 600 people that showed up for this one.
That's
awesome.
It was awesome, yeah.
How is it taking the culture?
Moving it forward.
I mean, you're similar now.
You're, you know, you're like I said, you're just a guy lives in Bellevue.
But you know what I mean?
To make sure that the young coming up don't lose the traditions.
It's very special.
I mean, I was born in a refugee camp.
So I was a month old, came to the United States, lived in Chicago, the most diverse city ever.
And then the early nineties moved to Green Bay.
You saw it was very different at the time.
But I called myself a lifelong Green Bay.
Right.
No, you know, and I don't see myself moving out of here.
We always joke at 13, 14, as soon as I hit 18, I'm gone.
You know, this town is too small for me.
But the longer that we stay here, the more you take pride in belonging and being a part of the community.
And I think with this event here, it did a lot because a lot of our local entertainers for the event was all local people within 20, 30 miles and to see the talent that we have here.
And again, this is on an entertainment level, but the professionals that we have in the area that have said
I'm making Northeast Wisconsin my house.
This is where I belong now.
For myself, I'm a realtor and I love it.
Every time I get to help someone buy a house and stay in Northeast Wisconsin, I know they're going to be contributing good contributing members to society as well.
Do you ever talk with your parents or did you talk about that?
Or did they not want to talk about the, as my parents, you say about Italy, the old country.
My dad loves it.
My dad loves it.
He was 18.
So I mean, for him coming in at 18, not knowing what to do, getting his technical degree, working in Chicago.
And so I moved here to Green Bay and worked for the community as a community relations person for the Old Monk Center of Green Bay.
He loved everything about it.
Then he eventually left and started his own business.
So he wants to talk about the progression of what happens in the 45 years he's been here.
It's very special to hear them talk about it.
I now have kids of my own and to try to tell them, hey, there's more to it than just go to school, get your degree and work.
There's a legacy of the hard work of what your family and ancestors have done.
What I want to know is how did the Hmong community get so good at volleyball?
How did that... So I originally met her at the Hmong New Year at...
Edison
yeah, so
you're a teacher at Lombardy, correct?
Yes.
Yep.
My day job is an educator So I currently work at Lombardy Middle School and I love it there The Green Bay School District has done wonders to support me and all the extra things I do I hope to advise the Asian clubs and from that I was able to work with the district to host the Hmong New Year's for the last four years and so it started very small just you know where I can give impact in my classroom and then as students hear about it
They're like, Mrs. Vang, can you do one year for us too?
Can you come over here and help us too?
Because they all...
crave that, you know, they want to know about their identity.
They want to feel a sense of belonging.
And so to have my principals and the district be able to support me and my vision and to continue to help me grow that vision, to become something this big, it's been amazing.
And so last year, we were able to host Mung New Year at the biggest middle school, which is Addison Middle School here.
And it was great.
We had over a thousand people that showed up.
Wow.
Yeah.
For just one day, John came in, was amazing, took pictures too.
And we were kind of
scattered a little bit because there was two floors of events and so as people kind of it's free-flowing but we had cornhole we had volleyball we had dance performances
We had a documentary specialist called Ning Nao, who actually went to Southeast Asia to do studies and research about monk instruments.
And we watched his video that he created.
It was just an all around great day.
And we just had a blast, you know, to hear everyone enjoyed it and bringing the community together just makes a smile.
And so it's great.
I think the best part about that event was
our our mom kids don't really know I always tell my sons if you don't know why we're here then you've got some history yeah that's what I was kind of asking a little bit earlier
if they are they interested that do they want to know yes
yeah they really yeah I think most recently one of our programming sets in the works is um
among language course so we're seeing what's already out there so that we don't have to start something from scratch because some of my students are saying they want to learn their language because they want to be able to help translate you know and they want to be able to help do things and to remember you know like the roots and all and so um we're really excited to hear the feedback from the community and to create something that's meaningful for them and so we're hoping that we can continue to create things that will help our youth stay connected and interested and engage.
Do you I mean
Do you sugarcoat it or do you let him know how horrible it was at the fall of, you know, 1975, the United States left and the North Vietnamese took over and pretty much wanted to, they wanted to annihilate the Hmong, didn't they?
They pretty much did.
And I, it was telling someone earlier, um, it's stuff that's not taught in books.
Right.
That's what I mean.
I mean, it's, it's brutal.
I moved here from Chicago in the early nineties.
And there was a big monk population, but no one really understood who the monk was here, right?
Exactly.
Right.
The Vietnam vets knew.
Yeah, the veterans knew.
The Vietnam vets knew, and they had
all the respect in the world up to hear that.
As a kid, 12, 13-year-old walking down the streets and having a Vietnam veteran come up to you and say, hey, thank your family for what you did, or I would still not be here myself.
That's awesome.
That was very powerful.
But I think in our society, too, as time goes by, I have two boys, they're 22 and 20 right now.
they don't know anything else besides what everybody else knows.
So it's very important.
But that's, I think it is because I think we as all Americans need to do more to let people know exactly why you're here, why you came here, why you had to leave your country.
I mean, you were forced out or you would have been killed and what it took for your parents and your grandparents for them somehow to persevere
to escape and for you to be sitting right here and for your kids to be sitting where they are and all these kids at Edison or whatever.
It's an amazing story, a perseverance.
Imagine leaving your home with nothing but the clothes on your back.
Nothing.
It's just-
And imagine being chased, literally chased through the jungles for weeks and months on end.
It's impossible for us
to- Us to realize it.
To conceptualize it and to understand what a people has gone through.
And for what you did and-
I have some of my Vietnam vets say one of the worst things ever as far as when we left Vietnam the way we did was that we abandoned in some ways the monk and and some of the ones that other ones that have helped us that was that that's a black mark against the United States at the time and that's why I know so many Vietnam vets have done whatever they can in you know in more modern times or everyone I call it to try to show their respect towards the monk and and
to a man, whenever I talk about them, they can tell a story about, you know, a helicopter that was shot down or something.
And they were thinking they were just an NVA territory and they were done for.
And all of a sudden, a monk patrol would show up and take them and hide them for safety until a Lerp unit would come and find them.
I think the part that most people don't know is you're asking for among men, but...
These are among teenagers, 13, 14, 15-year-olds that were out there rescuing people.
So there's a lot of PTSD that goes on because of that.
And tough issues that are around because of that.
All bet.
We got a text here, such a great event at Edison.
I got to briefly explain to a guy who was up from Plymouth to throw bags about diversity in Green Bay Area Public Schools.
Okay, Brian, but you one of those events you know what it was kind of John another another event You covered was out at Oh nighta correct where they're having they reminded me of the same things as far as with the dance and the young kids in the culture and Making sure that stays alive with the young.
I think that was very cool But I thought both events were very similar didn't you John in covering a both?
Yeah, the the oh night of pow wow and I'm waiting to hear confirmation from those folks because they should be here next week Okay, cool.
What a what an amazing event
If you live here in the area and have never had a chance to get out there, you know, find out what it is next year and and check it out.
Absolutely.
If you can do one thing for me, just confirm that I have a really bad cold.
So when I weasel out of the corporate event tomorrow, there's a
reason why I'm sitting so far away from you and you smell like a jar of vixen.
He's just trying to get out of the corporate event tomorrow.
Chris is probably listening my editor.
So just.
confirm that I have a really bad cold.
He looks fine, Chris.
He's fine.
I'm dying here.
We think his voice sounds great
for radio.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Manu and two, can you stick around?
Definitely.
Oh, standing back with more right after
this.
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Il John Kramer here, headlines of the press times, Manu and Tu from the Hmong community events.
You guys were talking about the community, bringing everybody together like that.
Do you ever talk about with your parents that you almost had to do that for support back in the day?
Because like I said, when my family moved over from Italy and other families moved over from like, you know, Germany or wherever, they all lived kind of together because this strange new world, they needed that support in a lot of ways.
Do your families talk about that?
Oh, yeah.
Mung people are very family oriented.
Yeah.
Where they stay with their clans a lot.
And sometimes when, you know, someone goes somewhere and say, hey, there's job opportunities.
It's great over here.
Then the whole clan moves over, you know, and like they all go together as a unit.
Back in Laos and Thailand, you know, people stay based on their clans and then you would go, this is the villages of the Vings or this is the villages of the Yangs and stuff like that.
So as we came here, you started seeing that and, you know, being a realtor, I hear people, there's more extended families living together now.
Yeah.
I mean.
when I came here in the 90s, it was my grandpa and my uncles and then their kids and maybe another cousin somewhere.
So it was all family-based.
I was working with a veterans group out of Appleton and they were pushing hard to try to get veterans' rights for the mung that fought for our country.
Is that still going on, do you guys know?
I know there's still pushes for it.
I think part of it is that property has gotten older and there's not that much of it.
You know voice anymore.
Yeah, but I think that's important.
I mean they gave their lives for our country I mean that's you know to help our servicemen.
I think that's an important aspect.
I really truly do So I hope that goes through somehow
that definitely
by the way, you know what you guys got to get John I'll tell you what you got to get John when I went to one of my clients my monk clients in Appleton Okay, and a bad cold and I walked in one day
and they were cooking something, and everything cleared up.
My sinuses cleared, my throat cleared, everything cleared, and they gave me some of that sauce.
It was, it's like, it almost looks like chili peppers.
And I put that in chili, and that like cured me.
So if you guys have that, it's like chili flakes, it's so hot, it's incredible, but it will clear you up, John, like you can't believe.
I need something.
I'm dying here.
I might have some upstairs.
I'll go try to get yourself.
blowing his nose with them.
John, you've been doing great stuff for the press times.
I mean, they've got you busy.
You've been really going all over the place.
Yeah.
So this weekend, I'm talking to some of the Holstein royalty.
So yeah, gonna meet them out at a local farm and do a little interview with the...
Queen of Holsteins and her court, so.
But I
mean, you seem to really be enjoying this.
I mean, you started out as a photographer, as an intern or whatever.
Now you're writing, you're doing everything.
You got all the, you know, you got the cool aspect it seems like with the paper.
Well, what I try to do is find stuff that interests me before I get assigned stuff that doesn't.
Right.
So.
Welcome to the media.
Yeah, I try to find things that are basically interest me or are fun or just fun to photograph or video rather than.
being stuck with something.
Don't go to city council meetings and things like that.
She knows I like the warm feel good stories.
So I'm fortunate word that that's where she usually.
Okay, you
got to get back to something you mentioned.
You mentioned why are they so good in volleyball?
We
didn't get the full answer on that one.
We didn't.
Seriously.
So I was at the New Year event, they had volleyball going on and then the concert, they had volleyball going on.
And these kids can get in the air.
I mean, it's crazy.
How did volleyball
get so involved with the monk community.
How'd that?
I'll let Tulon talk about that because he does a lot of my volleyball coronations.
For me, on a personal story, I started at 13, you know, just I grew up in Chicago and it was along the beach.
You see people playing all the time.
But in our community, I think people just automatically stereotypically put you with soccer.
And there was just guys like, I was like, I can't run all day.
But I think in Asia, Volvo is also very popular.
So as we came over and just started going through the generations, but it became more coordinated.
I mean, again, I started at 13, I stopped playing at 40 because my body wouldn't let me do it anymore.
But coordination and passing on what you know, teaching.
The next generation and I think it's kind of kind of it's kind of like the family thing as well, too, right?
You want to pass on your legacy to your next generation?
So at the Monday or the David Levitt production I had my nephew help me run it, you know, and it was very I had a lot of pride because I knew that it was okay I'm passing on to my nephew teaching and how to be organizational and stuff like that But he got back and he just had one request was can I just take a picture with David Yang, you know?
the entertainer.
But I think it just was something that we just always just did and kept passing on.
And as you start doing more, it becomes more organized and more competitive.
So the skills really.
What
is the major sport?
What would be the, because when you could see yourself, Thailand or Laos?
I could serve myself more tight.
I'm tight.
Okay.
Cause I was born there, but I'm more because soccer is huge there, isn't it?
Soccer is everything.
Yeah.
I mean, that's huge.
I mean, but I, again, I grew up in America.
So what am I?
Sitting in the Packard chair.
Yeah, exactly.
Well, I'll tell you what, whenever you guys have other events coming up, please let us know.
We'd love to promote this as much as humanly possible.
One thing I wanted to ask, have you, do you know about that?
What's the flower garden outside of Denmark?
Is it a community flower garden?
run by a group of mungs right along the highway there.
You ever stop there?
I've always wanted to stop in because their flowers are unbelievable.
I think they do farmers market.
Oh,
is that the farmers market?
Oh, they don't sell them there then, huh?
Oh, they
grow them there and then bring them down here because they're unbelievable.
Oh, that's beautiful.
I just drove by that the other time and it's like, oh my God, this is unbelievable.
Where is it?
Just outside of Denmark.
Between here and Denmark.
I don't even know what highway that is.
All right.
Not 41.
That's the
other one.
Okay.
It's like, if you went by Twin Oaks Golf Course, okay, whatever that's on.
Okay.
gotta check that out.
They're unbelievable.
No, it's really, really cool.
I'll find it.
All right.
How come there's not a good Hmong restaurant here in town?
There is.
It's growing.
Yeah, it's growing.
We've got four or five of them now right across the street.
They're Asia Fusion Cafe, Arkandeli, Fo One.
And for large, it's growing.
You know, it's amazing.
Seven years ago, you had hardly none.
And then what do
you consider the best one?
Oh, I go to all of them.
He's got stock at
all.
Hey, it's great having you guys here.
John, thanks for bringing them.
This wonderful Manu and to the monk community events.
Anytime you have something coming on, we'd love to have you back on.
Thank
you, John.
I got nothing.
John, stop breathing in my studio.
twin twin twin twin twin twin twin
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Now back to Mino and the Mayor.
Here's John Mino and Jim Schmidt.
Hey, thank you very much very special.
Thanks for John Kramer and my you and two from the monk community events joining us now We've got Audrey Anna Vanderleest the marking director for the Oshkosh Marriott Waterfront Hotel and Convention Center and chef Lauren Rue Hello How are you good?
How are you good?
Thanks for having us.
Yeah.
Well, I'm not very good
that because I was all excited about this menu?
Okay, and let's look at some of these great things you have in your menu and you've said you've changed it now We have because I had like three things.
I want to come down an order right away What were those tell me about them?
Well, I'll be honest with you at the waterfront burger itself sounded really good.
Okay, it's a big one I thought that I wanted to try the smoked schnitzel.
I want to take my son down He's big and he lived in Prague and he's big into schnitzel and through Germany I want to try that and I wanted to try the I didn't even know what it would how to pronounce exactly the steak up a plop a plop
I want to try the steak.
Apoie.
Well, our new steak, so...
We have a wonderful partnership with Barry Molot from Molot in Green Bay here.
Molot
Meats.
Molot Meats, yeah, Molot Distributing.
All of our beef is actually now coming from the state of Wisconsin.
So born, bred and butchered.
So 94% of all cattle farms in the state are dairy farms.
So only 6% are for beef consumption.
And we're fortunate enough to work with Barry.
He produces a great product for us.
So we're using some beautiful filet from Barry.
We're doing a chimichurri marinated skirt steak, which is...
Fantastic.
It's in a skirt steak sandwich.
We're also serving it as an entree with some grilled zucchini and some, uh, some fingerling potatoes.
Really delicious.
Nice.
Do you know which county in Wisconsin has more cows than people?
trivia question this morning.
Trivia question.
I'm going to guess, is it Marathon County?
No.
Okay.
You
gotta have a guess.
Are you from Wisconsin?
Come on,
Adriana.
Oh my gosh.
I don't know.
blank.
I
Now we know.
know.
You can use that one day at work.
And correct us right across the bridge from our
Absolutely, yeah.
Our WISO studio.
Well, we've completely rebranded into a Marriott property, so the hotel is
received a multi-million-dollar overhaul.
So really from soup to nuts, all of the rooms have been renovated, the entire Great Room Bar have been renovated.
We're going to be the only Marriott in Wisconsin with an M Club, which is for all of their titanium and ambassador clients, for those who are looking for an exceptional high-quality experience.
That's really what we're all about, is bringing that beautiful Marriott experience and then also
projecting that through the food and the ambient, you know.
environment of the restaurant.
Can I tell you that if Todd comes there or when he comes there, I guarantee I'm gonna tell you what he's gonna order.
Okay, what is it?
Spotted cow fry, walleye
So it's cool, you know, a lot of what we tried to do with the menu is bring a lot of locality to everything that we're doing.
So we've highlighted a bunch of things with little state icons.
So using fresh cheese curds, using local beer, using local beef.
So our burger blend is a blend of chuck,
short rib brisket.
just for us from, and again, in the state of Wisconsin.
So, you know, for someone who just wants the pizza, I'm sorry, who just wants a burger, you know, the burger you can't go wrong with, whether it's a restaurant burger where we take a temperature, or we do a smash burger where it's kind of cooked to medium well, well done, but still, still juicy in the middle and beautiful.
But we're really going to be focused on pizza.
Pizza
is going to be.
I got to just one quick question for you and then go on for there.
What is semolina and cornmeal crust?
Yeah, so.
Tavern style pizza is what we're really trying to accomplish.
And what I've found is in my time in Oshkosh is there's not really a lot of great pizza.
You know, you have a couple of places that have bar pies, and then everything else is your big box, dominoes, you know.
pizza hut, whatever.
You know, so I'm really trying to bring some flair to Oshkosh with this pizza program.
And Semolina is a type of flour that is a little bit more coarse than your traditional all purpose white flour.
It brings a really nice rigidity and texture to the crust.
And traditionally in the land of our friendly Illinois brethren, you know, the the bar pie is a is a
thin crust pizza that has that cornmeal dust on the bottom, really just gives a really nice crispy, really crispiness to the crust.
So there's no flop to the pizza.
You know, we're using belgioso, whole milk mozzarella.
So,
you know, again, it's trying to do as much in-state local as possible.
Okay, so I have to ask, because when I grew up,
Our Sunday meal was polenta polenta for sure.
Of course.
So do you cook it that same way where you stir for like an hour because my dad would stand there and stir for like an hour till he was sweating in it and then take it
out.
So cornmeal is where we're how we're using it is we're literally just dusting the base of the pizza in the cornmeal.
So it gives it a touch of texture on the crust side.
We're actually getting this beautiful new oven.
It's arriving today as soon as we I leave here.
I'm going back to the hotel.
I'm so excited.
We have a pizza master oven coming which.
is like the Cadillac of pizza oven.
Oh my God, Mino,
wanted to have a pizza
oven.
I know, I know.
Quiet,
Todd.
I'm working on it
here.
So they're amazing pieces of equipment.
They go up to, like, 850 degrees.
It's a Stonehearth oven.
Oh,
wow.
So
we have the ability to not only make pizzas, but bake breads, do paninis and sandwiches in there as well.
So I'm super jacked.
It's been a long time coming to get this oven, but super excited to have the right equipment.
But really, the semolina, it starts with any traditional pizza dough recipe where you're taking hot water, yeast, sugar.
letting that bloom, then adding the semolina flour.
We actually use a little bit of bread flour and AP flour as well in our mix.
We let that proof overnight.
And then the next day, we basically roll it out in semolina and then pass it through a sheeter.
So something, one of my biggest grievances for pizza places, especially for hand toss is that the crust isn't always consistent.
There's cold spots or there's like, there's little bubbles or places where the pizza will have a little bit of dip where like the crust just
This isn't set up as well.
So by using a cheater, it's consistently the same texture every single time.
When I come there, I'm going to get the Lily Lou.
The Lily Lou.
It's named after my daughter.
She's
big.
She's big on prosciutto.
So anytime
you have prosciutto on this,
prosciutto, burrata, you know, it's, it's, it's really what she loves to eat.
So the, the, the Benito is my son and he's anytime we go for pizza, he's the barbecue chicken pineapple pizza guy.
So I had to, had to give a little nod out to the kids in the menu.
They, they're.
big pizza fanatics and super excited to bring this concept to Oshkosh.
Now, I gotta be honest with you, the one thing that you got on your menu for toppings that I've never seen before on a pizza, asparagus.
Yeah.
So, you know, a lot of what the menu is, you know, we're in the Marriott.
So we need to have, it can't just be pizza.
So we have a full list of bar appetizers, sandwiches, soup salads and entrees.
And, you know, for me,
It really brings a little bit of uniqueness to a topping.
I love asparagus.
I think that especially coming into the season, I mean, we're right at the tail end of asparagus where we can get at the local farmer's market.
You're just seeing it kind of beginning of July tail off.
But asparagus just works really well.
We have it on our surf and turf plate as well.
So for those people looking for a unique vegetarian option in toppings, it was kind of a no-brainer.
So what does that taste like?
Is it grilled based?
the asparagus first or yeah absolutely
so we're basically wrote we'll end up roasting it in the hearth oven
okay
so when you hit it at a really high temperature uh we'll we'll coat it in a little bit of olive oil kosher salt uh black pepper and then just give it a like a char um and then you'll finish it on the pizza
because the romania sounds good
Not Romagna.
Romagna.
So that's actually like a very popular sandwich in Rome.
So if you go to Rome, it's a focaccia.
Roman pizza is focaccia pizza.
So they basically cook it in a pan and then they're big on their vegetables as well.
So the Romagna has pesto, roasted peppers, olives, asparagus, and slow roasted tomatoes.
So again, really trying to hit that vegetarian and give everybody else an opportunity to enjoy food.
that they might not always enjoy.
So, Chef, you talked
you for that.
Oh, of course.
So I've been in Wisconsin for the last 16 years.
So I practically feel like I'm a
can see it.
So again, I'm originally from Illinois, which is where the Tavern Style Pizza House drove.
I figured that.
by looking at the menu.
You
why
I say
we're fibs.
We're
friendly, Illinois brothers, right?
I don't know what else it would ever stand
for.
Thank you.
You know, I moved up here.
I've been doing fine dining for the last, you know, for the first 10 years of my career.
Were you in
Kohler?
Well, I worked in Kohler for five years.
I worked at the American Club.
I was the executive chef and
restaurant manager.
My son worked for about five years at, is it Tavern on the Lakes?
Tavern on Woodlakes?
Tavern on Woodlakes.
He was fired three times by Herb Kohler.
Oh,
yeah?
Yeah.
And Herb Kohler's wife told Herb to be quiet and rehire them each time.
Mr. Kohler, I've actually had some awesome interactions with him.
I've done some tastings for him where he's been taking notes off of what you say.
So he really always respected somebody in a chef coat.
And then when you do a tasting with him and you're not in the chef coat, he does like, who are you?
What do you know?
And I'm like, Mr. Kohler, I'm the chef.
He goes, well, where's your chef coat?
So
my experience in Kohler was phenomenal.
I still live there.
That was back in 2010 through 20.
2015.
After that, I went to Blue Harbor.
So I
was at Blue
Harbor right on the lake for five years, overseeing all food and beverage operations and culinary operations there.
And then the last five years prior to joining Scarlet Hotel Group, I was the executive chef for the Milwaukee Brewers.
So, you know, my favorite foods are hot dogs and cheeseburgers and locks and bagels and pot stickers.
So, you know, and as a kid, if you looked at like my five year old drawings, what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wanted to be a baseball player.
So
That was the closest thing that I could get at that time in my life.
So for the brewers team or for the organization?
For
the organizations.
I oversaw a culinary for concessions, sweets,
tailgates,
catering, restaurants.
It was a blast.
It was an amazing point in my career.
Quantity food production driven.
I had nine chefs working for me.
It was really, really fantastic.
At the height.
In 2020 end of 2023, we were nominated second best food in the in the nation for stadium food across all platforms.
So Pat, my own back a little bit was, you know, really proud of my team and made a made a big impact in Milwaukee.
Really enjoyed my time there, but was itching to get back into a more, I guess you'd say well rounded food portfolio.
And Scarlet is giving me that opportunity to really bring some some creation, not only to Oshkosh, but really to the vision of
the organization.
When they interviewed you for the job at the Brewers, did you admit that you'd been a Cubs fan?
You know, we didn't
talk about that.
I actually had to do a tasting at Lambo and I asked them to borrow a hat because I didn't have a hat and they gave me a packer's head and I'm like, do you have a Lambo hat that I can try?
No, but they're a good group of dudes up there at Lambo as well, still talk to
them.
Well, I gotta tell you one thing though.
Cause I was a sports caster for a hundred years, whatever.
And you'd go into the locker room after the game, so obviously whatever.
Those guys eat well in their post game, don't they?
You know, they eat five times a day.
It's
unbelievable.
It's crazy.
They pre, a breakfast, pre-batting practice, post-batting practice, pre-game post game.
And then a spread.
And then you get like $300 per diem to go have a meal.
That is not a bad
life.
Every club deciding a little bit different.
Like the, I want to say the Dodgers and the Yankees actually travel with a chef.
So, like, we wouldn't have to cater
for the
chef in that regard.
Oh, yeah.
You guys
see these spreads?
Big market teams, you know, they can afford that.
Whereas, you know, with the Brewers, they're very analytical based.
They actually had a nutritionist who was kind of planning out all of the meals for the team and obviously very big meat and bean people and rice people.
So that's what
be salivating all over the
place.
I'm so Jan.
This oven's so amazing, I gotta tell ya.
Chef Lauren Rue, back after this.
Hey, thank you very much.
Welcome back.
This is a lot of fun.
We're talking with some great people here from a great restaurant.
And Lauren, we're going to talk a little bit more about the great things you got going on.
But first, I'm going to tell you again what Todd is going to order for breakfast.
menu.
We'll talk after
show.
Todd is going to order the butter biscuit beer brought breakfast skillet.
or secret recipe, biscuits, blanket, and spotted called brats.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, it's a spotted-crow gravy.
I mean, again, we're in the state.
How can you not use the nectar of the gods?
It is, yeah.
High noon, correct?
Is it noon o'clock?
Very excited about that.
restaurant is just beautiful.
We have an amazing staff and really excited.
I mean, all we have a whole bunch of new equipment coming in this week.
I think I mentioned that a little bit ago.
If you didn't know, I'm a little excited about it.
But no, the breakfast, you know, again, we're a full service hotel.
So whether you want breakfast, lunch or dinner, we are open.
We do have, you know,
I would consider it probably just the greatest assortment of breakfast foods that really anyone would want.
So you have your standard breakfast.
We're using Joan's Dairy Farm Sausage.
We're using Newskies Bacon out of Wittenberg.
Best bacon in the world.
Shout out Tanya Newski if you're listening.
What's up?
using fresh stone cut oats from ants and mills.
We have, again, that skirt steak and eggs using that chimichurri marinated skirt steak.
And then probably my favorite thing on the menu, there's a restaurant up in St.
Germain that unfortunately closed this past season.
It's called Wolfpack Cafe, and they had the best pancakes in the world.
Their slogan was peace, love and pancakes.
And they unfortunately are retired, but I've tried my best to replicate their pancakes as best as possible.
And they're just, they're fantastic.
if they're flapjack, so they're thinner than a pancake, thicker than a crepe, they're gooey, they're delicious.
We also have fresh Wisconsin maple syrup that you can throw on them.
And then we're basically taking fresh blueberries, making a compote out of those with a little bit of raw sugar.
Just amazing.
We talked about gooey and delicious.
I gotta tell me about the bananas foster waffle.
Yeah, I mean, waffles are amazing.
And bananas foster is basically
rum and caramel and bananas.
And it's flambé to order.
So, uh, we're, it's just, it's, it's an amazing, amazing waffle topping.
I was going to ask you, sorry, John.
No, go ahead.
How's the community embracing this?
As I told you before we went on the air, like, I'm excited because it's a great location.
You're right on the river, right on the water there.
Beautiful sunrises coming up over the water.
It's a great location and.
we finally have something there that seems like it's going to be worthy of being there.
Yeah, you know, it's really exciting because we're just finishing our third phase of construction.
So we're just finishing our ballroom inside the hotel in our private dining spaces.
So we really haven't
spoken to the community.
This
is really kind of our, our, our, our launch, if you will, to, to get to that, that finish line of the grand opening.
We haven't, we haven't done a lot as it relates to sharing this with the community.
It's all just been word of mouth, but very excited to start getting into some press, you know, some media coverage, uh, really exploiting the menus.
I mean, the menus speak for themselves.
Uh, the service,
reading this
menu, it's, it's fun.
It's fun to write, you know, like I said,
mentioned the, what is it?
It's the butter biscuit beer brought breakfast skillet.
And I think
we're going to switch the word skillet to bowl.
menu,
it
says in very small print at the bottom, say
that three times
fast, right?
So, you know, it's meant to be fun and approachable.
We want people to come in and and feel at home and and and feel really comfortable dining inside or outside on the patio.
I mean, we have an amazing patio space.
There are seven boat port or seven docks.
So, you know, anyone who's fishing on Lake Winnebago.
or on the Fox River or in the Fox Lake can literally drop anchor at the port, pull up a table, sit at the bar and have a full service menu, whether it's pizza or a sandwich or a snack.
And just what we say is docked, dined and delivered.
pontoon.
thing I want to say about this is, I mean, you're high quality.
Scratch kitchen.
Whatever, everything like that.
But you're having fun with it too.
100%.
Yeah, you gotta have
fun.
If you're not having fun, you know, you have to provide an environment where people want to come to work every day, where people are engaged and own what they're doing.
And post COVID, a lot of cooks, a lot of the hospitality industry has kind of fallen off because it's hard work.
And it's just, it's turned a lot of chefs away.
So I try to be inclusive with my team when it comes to creating menus.
I try to get their feedback from all the service staff.
You know, it's important to collaborate.
And again, have fun with it.
Ultimately, the menu can't be too big.
I'm not a fan of a Cheesecake Factory menu where there's 40 items on the menu.
We have 12 breakfast items, and they're all fantastic.
We have 16 items on the lunch, dinner menu, plus pizza, and they're all really, really great items.
So no matter what you eat, we're really just excited to have the community and really start to get our name out there for people to enjoy.
Adriana, give us a little as marketing director, tell everybody why they should come down.
Well, I mean, you really can't beat the atmosphere if you want to come in for dining right on the water this time of year.
You're really not going to get any kind of better.
place to go.
That's what I look forward to.
I look forward to the hot days in the summer.
We might be working on a boating partnership where you can actually rent a boat and come and dine with us.
They'll come and pick you up and you can rent a boat for a day or go to their place and rent it.
Again, that's a partnership in the works.
We're trying to get that ready for some complimentary boat tours on the day.
Well, your
location is phenomenal.
It's great.
I mean,
there's honestly it's in the state of Wisconsin.
We're all five many better places than that.
It's I want.
I mean, we are officially the pizza sponsor of Lake Winnebago.
They don't know it yet.
I'm saying it right now.
We're going for it.
But I also love your talk.
We're giving Todd a hard time on the spot of cow because that's his go to.
But but it's wonderful that like new skis and all these different things.
That's awesome.
How you're incorporating all the local, you know, endeavors.
I love
that.
We're in such a agricultural hotspot.
You know, there's so much.
good farming produce proteins.
You got to leverage what we have around us.
And there's no better place to do it.
I'm super enthused to be in Oshkosh and really try.
It
certainly
does.
I
love it.
It's been awesome.
The restaurant's beautiful.
If you haven't come in, come check it out.
You can literally, like you said, dock boatside.
We're ready to have
you.
Oshkosh, Marriott Waterfront, thank you both so very much.
We will definitely be there.
And when we're in Oshkosh, Todd, for our next
OK.
pizza.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks guys.
Sounds awesome.
We're out of time.
We are.
Thanks everybody.
See
ya.
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