Inside High-End Country Clubs: Master Chef Turned GM Reveals What Really Goes On

Aidan Murphy [00:00:00] You know, when you work in a private club, people ask for different things and it can be con pretty frustrating at times. And I used to tell my cooks, I said, look, let me put it this way. If a member comes in and asks for a glass of pee, you start drinking water. Okay? That's

Vance Crowe [00:00:16] Kind of simple, putting a really blunt, but

Aidan Murphy [00:00:20] That's the way you gotta think about it. If somebody wants something, if we have it and we can do it, we're gonna do it.

Vance Crowe [00:00:25] Hey, this is Sean Newman, host of the SMP, here in the Great White North, and you're listening to the One and only Vance Crow podcast. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm glad you're here. Today I sit down with Aiden Murphy, general manager of Old Warton Country Club. Now, if you're like me, I grew up in small town Illinois. I had no connection with country clubs. It was something I saw on movies and tv, and I can say that the image I have about those places, well, it doesn't actually make you feel very good about the people that are there. They seem like they're gonna be stuffy and disconnected and mean. But in my years living in St. Louis, I've had an occasion to go to this country club a few times and it is absolutely a very nice place to be. But the people all around you, and especially the people running the place, were not stuffy at all. I had a chance to meet Aiden Murphy at the very beginning of Legacy Interviews where I was telling him about the service we offer to interview people, to tell their life stories so they can pass it on to future generations. Aiden heard me talk about this and said, my members would love to hear about this. So he arranged a dinner and gave me an opportunity to address the crowd, to tell them about what we worked on and how to tell great stories. Aiden did it for nothing. He just did it to connect me with his members 'cause he thought that they would like it. So I invited him to come on the podcast, but then I actually disinvited him and I was always like, we're not quite ready. The studio's not quite there.

Vance Crowe [00:01:56] Our filmmaker's not quite here. But after a long time of getting things together, putting out some amazing interviews, I finally worked up the courage to have a man that is the general manager for one of the nicest country clubs in the country. Come and sit down and talk about what it's like to be a chef for some of the highest parts of society. How did he become a general manager of a country club and what's it like to interact in this world? This is a really interesting conversation and most of all, what I think you'll come away with is that Aiden is not the person that you might expect. He is warm and open and has all of these life experiences from scrubbing dishes all the way up to figuring out how to run this preeminent club that I think you'll find valuable to your life. Because when it all comes down to it, everyone in business is in customer service and he's just at the very top. Alright, without further ado, let's head to the interview with Aiden Murphy. Aiden Murphy, welcome to the podcast.

Aidan Murphy [00:02:58] Thank you, Vance. Pleasure to be here.

Vance Crowe [00:03:00] So when you win Chef of the Year, national title and then you come back to the country club that you're a chef at, does everybody expect to have the greatest meal of their life every night?

Aidan Murphy [00:03:12] Absolutely. They, they want it better than they had to before. That's a tough thing, but yeah, no, that's a true statement.

Vance Crowe [00:03:19] So what goes on in the world of a chef? You know, people don't know what they're about to eat with with you, but they've heard your name, now you've won this award. How does that impact people?

Aidan Murphy [00:03:29] I don't know how it impacts people, but it didn't change me that much. 'cause I always figured I was pretty good at what I did. I just stepped into that, that world of competition and made my way up to there. I mean, when people go out to eat, they just, they're always looking to enjoy their night, to have good food and, and good camaraderie and you know, when they really have it, sometimes it's not even about the food, it's about who they're with and where they are. So we just kind of add to that,

Vance Crowe [00:03:58] You know, being a chef now is kind of cool, but at the time when you started, I don't think, I don't think it was that cool.

Aidan Murphy [00:04:04] No, it wasn't cool at all when I became a chef. I mean, my parents even tried to talk me outta doing it because it was such hard work and I just said, Nope, I love it. Leave me alone. Let me do what I wanna do. Yeah. It was not, it was kind of one of those jobs that people looked at. Yeah, you, you, you probably should do that 'cause you're not smart enough to do anything else.

Vance Crowe [00:04:22] Oh, ouch.

Aidan Murphy [00:04:24] So, yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:04:25] And so that then it actually was like a calling at that point then it

Aidan Murphy [00:04:29] Was, I remember, you know, my mother was a great cook, so I love being in the kitchen with her cooking. You know, I'd help her, we'd do family meals when she'd, when we'd have family over uncle's, aunt, that it was always a big deal and I was the one in there helping her cooking with her. And I just, I just really enjoyed it. And from a young, you know, my jobs as a growing up were in hotels, restaurants, started as a dishwasher and one, then I became a waiter. And then in Ireland, you know, at that stage when I got a little older and I was like 17, 18 and legal drinking age in Ireland as 18. But you know, at 16 and 17, if you look a little older, you can get into the pubs. So when I'm working as a waiter, the pubs closed at 11. Well, I was always working later, the chefs were done at 10, so they got to go to the pub and I was like, you know what? I think chefing is better than, than working. So that's just a little side joke,

Vance Crowe [00:05:28] That one, when

Aidan Murphy [00:05:29] You're a kid,

Vance Crowe [00:05:30] Like, I think a lot of kids pick up the drums 'cause they have good rhythm or they can pick up piano 'cause they can carry a tune. Were you more attuned to smells and to like the way things tasted? What, what was the draw? I would,

Aidan Murphy [00:05:43] You know, it's a funny way you put that, 'cause I was never into music. I mean, I like sports, but I was never super, I was good at rugby, stuff like that. I remember as a kid, one of the strongest food memories ever had is a kiwi, you know, and we didn't have that fruit in Ireland. And when it showed up, I was like, well, what is this? And I remember cutting it open and just biting it and go, whoa. Never tasted anything like that before in my life. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:06:11] 'cause it's hard to describe. Yeah, the, the, it's not quite a citrus. Nope. It's like,

Aidan Murphy [00:06:15] It's just a different, and I was just like, that is just crazy. I've never tasted anything like that. So, and I was young at that time. I was probably maybe 11 or 12.

Vance Crowe [00:06:24] What was your mom cooking in her kitchen?

Aidan Murphy [00:06:26] Oh gosh, everything. Stews, you name it. She made her own bread. She, you know, cookies, desserts, soups. She could do it. Curry's, she was, she was adventurous. She enjoyed it. She actually, here's a good one. She actually went into the hotel business as a kid. As a child, not as a kid, but as, no, that was, and back then when she did it, her parents literally paid the hotel for her to go work in. So times have changed. Yeah. So times have changed. Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:06:59] And what was going on in the world when you're growing up in Ireland?

Aidan Murphy [00:07:02] Well, we had, I wouldn't pay much attention to the rest of the world, but in Ireland we had the troubles all the time going on.

Vance Crowe [00:07:09] What are the troubles?

Aidan Murphy [00:07:10] The north of Ireland, the, the Irish and Protestant, the bombs, the car bombs going off. Even in Dublin where I grew off, there was, there was car bombs that went off and blew stuff up. That was kind of the, the height of it back then. And that was like in the seventies. So

Vance Crowe [00:07:26] It's surreal to hear you say it because that's one of those things that I like saw in the movies and the, you know, where they make reference to it in my Patriot games. But like, no real sense of, of what it would be like to be there.

Aidan Murphy [00:07:39] We just kinda, I mean, we were in the south, so we lived in Dublin, didn't see a lot of it, but it was, we knew it was there. We just, you know, we went about our life just as, you know, we tried to go on as normal. It didn't affect us too much. But that was the big thing in Ireland at the time.

Vance Crowe [00:07:54] And it was kind of other people that had the, like the, the passion to be involved in a conflict.

Aidan Murphy [00:08:00] Yeah, I mean, my neighbors were Protestants, we were Catholic. We didn't even think about it, you know. But up in the north of Ireland, that was a, that was a big thing. And it's still there today. I mean, the walls right down the center of Belfast that separated the Catholics from the Protestants that's still there.

Vance Crowe [00:08:16] It's hard to imagine, you know, in a place like St. Louis, they're, they have so few Catholics. They're reducing the number of parishes, I think that's going all over the country. And in other places. The passions are still so strong. They're, they're

Aidan Murphy [00:08:27] Strong. I'm not sure if it's about the religion side of it anymore, but they're strong.

Vance Crowe [00:08:31] Yeah. What did your parents do for a living?

Aidan Murphy [00:08:34] My mom was a homemaker. She had, they had six children, so she was busy. And my dad was a, he, he was a, let's see, he was a farmer first. They sold that, they moved up to Ireland. Then he went into the, he was a home decorator. He did that till he busted up his back and then he went into the paint sales. And he was, he was just a, he was a very good character that was very good at selling stuff to people. And when he retired, actually they called him up a year later to bring him back. 'cause they had accounts that weren't paying or bills. And they knew he was the only one that could literally go into an account and make them pay their bills. He had a little bit of charisma about 'em.

Vance Crowe [00:09:17] So he was more on the salesman rather than the picking paint colors and knowing what the decor should look like.

Aidan Murphy [00:09:23] He was. But he could do that too.

Vance Crowe [00:09:25] Okay.

Aidan Murphy [00:09:25] He was, he was good at that too.

Vance Crowe [00:09:26] That's a like a real art, right? He is like, and it is really undervalued. I know when I went to put together this space, like, I don't know, somebody wants to put carpet in here. Tell me what, you know, I'm gonna choose the, you know, whatever color. And then all of a sudden you realize, oh, people that actually care, they care. Does your carpet match the, the vase? Does it match the lamp?

Aidan Murphy [00:09:46] It's amazing what it does. I mean, I see that in the club when we do decorating redecorating, it's like a, it's a whole committee and then you have a, a designer in there telling you what to do, and committee members don't like that. And it just goes back and forth. But eventually you show up at something beautiful, you know?

Vance Crowe [00:10:02] Yeah. I mean, we'll talk about your, you know, being the GM of a country club. 'cause that's, I think like a very fine orchestra, like conductor of an orchestra. But to stay with the cooking for a bit. Yeah. Like you're a dishwasher. You can be around some really rough characters when you're Oh

Aidan Murphy [00:10:20] Yeah.

Vance Crowe [00:10:20] When you're washing dishes.

Aidan Murphy [00:10:22] Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, my first job in, in the cooking side of it in Ireland was at Kani Court Hotel. And it was coming up to Christmas and it's, you don't get off at Christmastime in the hotel. You, you're, you're working. And one of the guys looked at me and he says, I'm getting off at Christmas. I said, how the hell are you gonna do that Now, this is a little gruesome, but he took up a meat cleaver and chopped the top of his finger off. And I just about passed out. I'm like, you gotta be effing kidding me. What did you just, this is, I told you I'm getting off for Christmas. You got off for Christmas.

Vance Crowe [00:11:01] I, I knew people, I was a, a busboy. And I realized real fast, like the other people that came in here, they spent the night drinking and they came in, hung over and see around that. And then when I worked on a ship, they call it scullery, where the guys are hired and all, that's all they do, like 18 hours a day, they wash dishes. And you gotta be hard.

Aidan Murphy [00:11:21] You gotta to do

Vance Crowe [00:11:21] That all the time.

Aidan Murphy [00:11:22] You gotta be hard to do that. And one of the things I would do with apprentices that I took on is they had to work at the dish washing station and the pot washer station so that they would respect these guys. 'cause we, we actually need them more than we need some of our cooks. 'cause the last thing you wanna do at the end of the day is go wash dishes before you go home. So it was a way to make them respect the dishwashers and the pot washers. 'cause they're, they're a, an important part of a kitchen, a really important part that people don't even think about.

Vance Crowe [00:11:54] Oh yeah. And they're, every day, their hands are filled water all the time. It's hot water. They get scalded and burned. Yeah.

Aidan Murphy [00:12:00] You're

Vance Crowe [00:12:01] Scrubbing things and, and there's

Aidan Murphy [00:12:02] Cook burns the pot and doesn't care. Just throws it at you. And no, that's why I made them work it here. You, you figure out what it's like to scrub that pot out after you burn the bottom of it.

Vance Crowe [00:12:11] So who was the first person to let you like, move in and start cooking somewhere?

Aidan Murphy [00:12:17] Well, I went

Vance Crowe [00:12:18] To

Aidan Murphy [00:12:18] The Dublin College of Catering. So when I finished what we call, what you call high school here, we call it secondary school. And that's where I started the actual serious cooking. And, you know, at the time didn't have much money. So I got a part-time job a weekend. And that's where I ended up in that killi court. And I would finish on a Friday, hop on the train, go out there, and then worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday and go back to school on Monday. And we didn't have, I didn't have a car, so I, we traveled to buses and trains. So 11 o'clock at night and Kani was the last bus. So depending on what business was going on and what a humor the chef was in, if I didn't catch the last bus, I had a two hour walk home. Ooh.

Vance Crowe [00:13:08] Did you ever have to do it?

Aidan Murphy [00:13:09] Oh yeah, I did it a few times.

Vance Crowe [00:13:11] I did it

Aidan Murphy [00:13:11] A few times. Hey, I was young and fit. I didn't care. So

Vance Crowe [00:13:15] What's the early cooking? Like, what do you, what are you actually doing

Aidan Murphy [00:13:19] Then? It's just, you're prepping, you're getting stuff ready for the chefs. Just getting done the dirty work, doing the grunt work, washing lettuce, washing vegetables, peeling ve vegetables, you know, just doing the, the tasks that nobody else wants to do. And you just kinda keep getting better at that stuff. And then you work your way up the ladder as it goes along in apprenticeship. That's what it's about. And then you become a chef to party, which is, you run a section of the kitchen, you know, you might run the sassier, you might be the garge, might be the butcher, the pastry chef, those d each kitchen is, each department is broken into their own little section. And then you would become, you'd run that department, there might be two or three guys start girls under you and you'd run it. And eventually you become a sous chef who is like, you'd have an AM and a PM sous chef and they are running the physical part of the kitchen and reporting to the executive chef or the head chef.

Vance Crowe [00:14:16] And so what type of food are you making at this point in your life?

Aidan Murphy [00:14:21] And what, and when you say what type, I'm not quite sure how to answer that. So,

Vance Crowe [00:14:26] Well you weren't making burgers, right?

Aidan Murphy [00:14:27] No, I wasn't making burgers. It was, it was more high end, you know, good restaurant food, lots of seafood in Ireland, roast lamb, beef steaks, that kind of food. You know.

Vance Crowe [00:14:39] Was it food that you would've eaten at home?

Aidan Murphy [00:14:43] Eh, some of it would've been like a roast egg of lamb. We definitely do that at home. You know, like New York strips, steaks. No, we wouldn't get that. My dad would get it and the rest of us would get something else. But we have some of it. But no, mostly it was, it was restaurant food. So it was a little different. A little different.

Vance Crowe [00:15:02] And as you're doing this, at what point do you realize like, no, I'm, I'm not just gonna do this 'cause it's a way to make money. I'm gonna like, I'm gonna go for it. I'm gonna, actually

Aidan Murphy [00:15:12] It was, that was always my way of thinking. I never, I never went to work for money. Never ever did I, any job I ever took, that was the least of my questions. I never worried about what you were gonna pay me. I always figured you'd, you'd cop on. I was worth it.

Vance Crowe [00:15:28] Oh, that's a good way to be.

Aidan Murphy [00:15:29] So I just, I love work. I'm one of those crazy people that have no problem working. So probably one of the bad things about me is I, I work too much.

Vance Crowe [00:15:41] Well and for being a chef, you know, like you have to be willing to work like you're, you're the other guy in the busboy who's willing to cut off his finger because you have to be willing to work when everybody else wants to be doing something fun. I remember I said had some mention of being a chef to my dad or that I had a friend that was doing, he said, you just have to be aware every time other people are out to dinner for anniversaries and birthdays and whatever, you're back in the kitchen, they're out there celebrating. Yep,

Aidan Murphy [00:16:07] You are. You're working when everybody else is off. That's basically what it is. Holidays, you name it, you're there. Never really bothered me till I started having my own kids. So then we had to, to figure out how to do that. And basically what we did was, hey, you know, Thanksgiving doesn't have to be Thursday. We can make a Wednesday. So we do Thanksgiving, Wednesday, Christmas doesn't have to be the 25th of December, it can be another day. So that's kind of how we went through it. We just kind of, here, this is our holiday. So. So

Vance Crowe [00:16:38] Tell me about the people you're meeting as you're going through this world of learning to be a chef.

Aidan Murphy [00:16:44] Lots of interesting people. I mean, when I went to Kani in Ireland, it was just Irish people. So we were all the same. It didn't make any difference. Then I went to Switzerland and there met, you know, the Swiss French to Swiss German, the Swiss Italian yuca labs. They, I mean, people came from India. They were from all over the world. It was fascinating to, to meet these different people and work in the same kitchen with them. You just sort of realize the world is a small place and you know, we can all get along. I mean, we always did in the kitchen. You had to have each other's back. So you really, I really did learn what a small world we live in. So that was, that was Switzerland was kind of a, i, I call it my extension of college. Even though it was work. I had a very, made some great friends. The Swiss people are very hard to get to know. They're kinda standoffish. They love their country. And we were called Outlanders as we, all of us that went to work there. And, but once you got to know them there, I mean, I've left that country, what, 40 years ago. I still get cards from 'em. We still, we're still in contact with each other, you know, so they become friends for life. So that was, that was pretty cool. What else can I tell you about Switzerland? That's where I met my wife.

Vance Crowe [00:18:10] And was she an American?

Aidan Murphy [00:18:11] Yeah. Yeah. She was a dental hygienist working over in, in Switzerland.

Vance Crowe [00:18:16] A pretty unique dental hygienist. If she got a job over in Switzerland,

Aidan Murphy [00:18:19] They, they needed them at that time. They didn't have a lot. So she was just finished a, she went to the University of Minnesota and one of the, one of her friends that got a job over there and reached out to her and says, Hey, there's another hygienist position over here. And she just took it, hopped on the plane. And it's like, we both laugh. I said, we both have to leave our countries to find the partner.

Vance Crowe [00:18:41] You know, in pop culture when they show chefs, it's very like hierarchical, very like people are very deferential to the people in charge. Is that the sort of kitchen you were in?

Aidan Murphy [00:18:53] Yep. Yes. Chef. No chef. It was you had you answer to your department head and he answered to his department and you know, it was very, you know, the owner, the resident walk in, you'd be Mr. Kraft, how are you this morning? Good morning. Yep. Chef would come in, you'd say Morning chef and if he might look at you and he might not. I think actually when I got there was, it took six months before he actually recognized I was in the kitchen. It was probably one of those things, okay, you're worth talking to now. So,

Vance Crowe [00:19:24] And did you ultimately become that way?

Aidan Murphy [00:19:26] No.

Vance Crowe [00:19:27] Why not?

Aidan Murphy [00:19:28] 'cause I didn't wanna be that way. It's not my nature. I, I'm, I will, anybody who's listening that worked for me will say, you, you were one tough son of a bitch. But I was still very fair. I mean, and I, I wanted people to love this career. 'cause it's a tough career. Everything about it is tough. Now that didn't mean that I didn't, if someone screwed up, they got a, as we call it in the kitchen, an ass whooping, you know? So I was tough but fair. That's the way I like to put it.

Vance Crowe [00:20:00] So what is tough? Like, hey, these carrots weren't chopped fine enough. What, what does that look

Aidan Murphy [00:20:05] Like? It could be that wasn't cooked properly. You know, you get one chance with a customer to serve the food, right. And if doesn't, if it's not right, doesn't matter what you do afterwards, it's already a screw up. So, you know, someone puts something up and it wasn't right. It's like I'm, you know, I'm not gonna be happy with that. And, and even I will test people just on a hamburger, you know, cooks. Some cooks think I'm too good to cook a hamburger. It's one of the hardest things to cook is a hamburger. It's hard to believe that. But ground up meat is, you know, someone wants it rare or medium rare. It's, it's not the same like a steak. You can't do it with feeling, you gotta no timing and all that stuff. And then, okay, do you do that right? Do you toast the bun properly? Is your lettuce, tomato, and pickle, fresh, crispy, all that are the french fries coming out a fryer basket right at the right time to go on the plate and goes out. So everything is just perfect. How many times do you go out and you get a hamburger and a french fries or soggy? Does it happen? Vance? Oh

Vance Crowe [00:21:09] Yeah,

Aidan Murphy [00:21:09] There you go. And people think they're too good for to make a hamburger. And I, I always go, it's one of my good tests for it to see if a cook actually cares. And a lot of times another way I'll test 'em is I'll make them do employee meals. So you're cooking for your fellow employees. Do you care if you care and do that? Well then I know you've got a heart in you for cooking 'cause it all comes from your heart. That's what cooking's all about at the end of the day.

Vance Crowe [00:21:36] Tell me more about that.

Aidan Murphy [00:21:38] So if they don't actually care about the food they put up for the employees, then how are they gonna care about any food? I mean that to me it's, that's the first test. It's like I will, you know, I'll tell people cook like you're gonna cook for your mother, you know, then you're gonna put a little passion. That didn't always work because some guys didn't like their mothers.

Vance Crowe [00:22:02] So it didn't know. Always work out.

Aidan Murphy [00:22:05] You know? 'cause I mean for me it all comes from your heart. That's, and I always say that females that made better cooks 'cause they cook from their heart automatically. Men have to learn to do that. We have to learn that we don't have that. So,

Vance Crowe [00:22:22] And there's something, when you say from the heart, it's an understanding of other people or it's that you,

Aidan Murphy [00:22:29] It's, it's a passion. It's an under, it's just, you don't necessarily have to understand the person. But if the food you're cooking, you put that passion into cooking, that piece of meat, that fish, whatever, and you put, a lot of times people will love it because you put the passion into it and they get it. You don't necessarily have to understand the person in the beginning. If you do, the more you learn the person, then the more you understand them. But in the beginning, no, you just have to cook something with some love and some passion serve it to them and they're like, Hey, this is good. You know?

Vance Crowe [00:23:04] Yeah, I can, I can agree with that. Like Saturday morning breakfast has a lot more passion and love in it than like Thursday we're getting out the door and it doesn't even have to be that much of a difference. But it is a difference. It's a little bit of time. It's a little bit of

Aidan Murphy [00:23:17] Sunday morning. Same thing, you know? So yeah, it's just, it's kind of a hard thing to explain. And if you don't, if people don't have it, a lot of times I'll be like, don't even stay in the kitchen. 'cause go work in a factory kitchen. Go work in a, you know, there's plenty of places for people that are mechanics at it. 'cause it can be a very mechanical job too. But if you're gonna be in a, a, a high-end restaurant or a, you know, a country club where you have to just be a little bit of a difference. Food has to be a little bit just higher end, just a little more passion putting into it. You know, you're doing weddings and stuff. You're dealing with brides and, and mothers of brides and they gotta know that you actually care about what they're going to do. And, and you have to care. You know, it's not like, oh, it's another banquet. No, it's, these are people that you're going to change their life today. You know, they're gonna sit down. Are they gonna remember their wedding dinner or are they just gonna be, eh, it was rubber chicken. Yeah. I never wanted anybody say about my chicken that it was rubber chicken because I've beat at some of those banquets and it's like, yeah it is. It's rubber chicken. It's good god. And that's just because put it in an oven, take it out, put it on a plate and send it out. No thought put into it.

Vance Crowe [00:24:32] So, you know, if cooking is about passion, but it's also about science and making sure all these things work together. Like how hard is it to learn the, the,

Aidan Murphy [00:24:41] That's, that's hard. That is, I always say, 'cause I always cooked with passion. I use recipes in the beginning and then I never use recipes. I just kind of, okay this, that add this, add that. And then I got a book, the, what was it? It's by Harold McGee and it was, I think it was called The Art and Science of Cooking. And he went through and I read the book and I was like, oh, you just destroyed my passion for cooking. Because everything is scientific, you know, it's like making a holidays. It's all about opening the little air pockets so that the butter can go in there and if you put too much in it's gonna crack. And it's like, well, yeah, I know it's gonna crack, but it's like, now he broke it down to the scientific thing where it's like, I kinda lost my passion.

Vance Crowe [00:25:26] That's interesting

Aidan Murphy [00:25:26] Because it's kinda like, it's very scientific, you know, it's

Vance Crowe [00:25:30] Reductionist in a way when you do

Aidan Murphy [00:25:31] It that way, you know, it's kind of like, okay, you roast something, what happens to it? It's, but it's, it's a good thing to understand as well. So you still keep the passion, but it's like, okay, there's a real good science behind it. And it really is interesting when you dig deep into it and it makes you actually a better cook. 'cause now it's like, oh, okay, that's why that went wrong. Now I understand it. So in the beginning you didn't, when I started it was like, there's no recipes. It was like, you need to figure this out. So you'd do stuff and chef would say, Nope, that's not how you do it. He'd quick show you how to do it and put you back and you'd do it again. And you know, nowadays, a lot of times you walk into some of these recipes, they give you the recipes for everything. We still don't do that. We have recipes for certain items like dressings and, but actual cooking is like, it's a feel. It's a feel. You're,

Vance Crowe [00:26:23] Wow. That's a, that's also like a leaning into risk, right? Because you could standardize it and say, do it this way. And then, you know, you'll have a certain level or you can say, I'm, I'm willing to throw the dice on my people and maybe you'll get above that line. Sometimes

Aidan Murphy [00:26:38] You've gotta have standards for certain things. You do have to have that for your, your recipes, your basic sauces. But you need to teach cooks that if you're making a chicken stock, the chickens you get in today are not gonna be the same chickens you get next week. So you need to be able to adapt to that and taste it. So it's not a, a set recipe. 'cause it might need more, might need more chickens to get that flavor out of it. It might need more vegetables to get the flavor you need. It might need less water, you know? And you have to learn to be able to taste that and not just strictly go by a recipe on something like that. Same thing with making sauces. How much do you reduce, it's, where do you reduce it to it's taste? It's always taste. One of the hardest things to teach a cook is to taste food. They just kind of get in the habit of going through the motions and to teach 'em, Hey, stop taste it before you serve it.

Vance Crowe [00:27:33] So I read somewhere that you're one of those people that cilantro tastes like perfume. So how do you get a taste for something like cilantro when you don't like the taste of it?

Aidan Murphy [00:27:46] I actually, one, when I was doing my master chef exam, my, one of my great chef friends, Steve Ava, he's, he was a master chef and I was working with him and he was putting me through the process. He kept putting cilantro in my basket. Every time I went to do something, he'd have cilantro in there. So he made me learn to love cilantro. I love it today.

Vance Crowe [00:28:10] Oh, you came around on it?

Aidan Murphy [00:28:11] Oh, totally, totally. I learned to, I learned how to use it properly. So, and it was just, he, he knew I didn't like it, so he just kept putting it in my basket that he would test me on. And I learned to turn it around, you know?

Vance Crowe [00:28:28] And so now you can actually like, absorb it, put it in things. Oh

Aidan Murphy [00:28:32] Yeah, absolutely. I love it. I now, I love it. Just take it and pop it in a salad. So

Vance Crowe [00:28:38] What other spices and things did you have to come around on? 'cause I'm sure that as you're as a chef,

Aidan Murphy [00:28:43] Well I wasn't a, I wasn't a big garlic fan in the beginning. In Ireland. We didn't use garlic, we used onions. I mean, we didn't really, so it took me a little while to get to that. And cheese, now my wife tells me I use way too much garlic, otherwise I was not afraid of, of most spices, herbs or anything like that. It's just to learn how to use 'em properly. You know, you, you don't use rosemary with, you know, with delicate meats and stuff, like that's a harsh herb, you know, you need that one nice leg of lamb. It's a great thing with that. Same thing with mints, you know? And, and why do you serve things like that with different things? You know? Mint helps your digestion with lamb 'cause it's fatty, you know, so that's why we serve a little mint vinegarette little leg of lamb.

Vance Crowe [00:29:29] Yeah. I'm coming to the conclusion that with food, so much of the things that people did as like their culture is, is really valuable. Like we've just learned with our children that if you serve food in courses, so if for breakfast we serve the eggs first and then we bring the fruit out and then we bring the oatmeal out, we can get them to eat much, much better. But you also think about like, if you have a vinegar before you eat sugars, your blood sugar doesn't spike. So having a a little salad beforehand is really valuable to do that thing.

Aidan Murphy [00:30:02] Very, very true. I mean, it is cultures the different, you know, when they started trying to fusion cuisine as they call it, and I, a lot of times I called it confusion cuisine, but it was each culture, there was a reason why they did what they did. You know, why did they eat curries? It helped 'em sweat, you know, and that helped 'em cool their bodies, you know? I mean,

Vance Crowe [00:30:24] Oh wow. You

Aidan Murphy [00:30:25] Know, when you think about it, when you sweat, you're cooling your body. So there was a reason they did it, you know, it's, can't can't think of other, but there, that was, their culture was, it was a way of making them stay alive. It wasn't because they loved it, it was because that's how they stayed alive. So, and then, you know, you, you start a different countries crowd, different people come together and they still wanna have their, what they used to eat in their home country. And then all of a sudden you got, you got Little Italy, you got little Ireland, you got, you know, and they start bringing them together. And some of it works together and some of it just, nah, doesn't work as far as I'm concerned. But it doesn't always mean that,

Vance Crowe [00:31:04] You know, there's a funny thing because cooking is an art, but if the, if the chef isn't humble that art comes off really poorly, like, like the giant plate with a little thing of food and like, it's just too artistic, right? Like you're, how do you balance that art?

Aidan Murphy [00:31:23] I think you have to remember that you're, I know chefs will say, I'm cooking for myself. I'm like, no, I'm cooking for somebody. I'm not cooking for me. I'm cooking for them. I gotta, like you said earlier on, you gotta kind of know the person. So, you know, when you're in a, when you're in a club, like when I first went to a Warton as a chef, I had to kinda get to know the members on what their likes and dislikes were and what kind of, you know, so I could, I'm cooking for them to like you, you know, to give somebody, like you said, a big plate with a, a pee in the middle of it and say that, Hey, this is art. I just perfected that pea. Say, yeah, okay, whatever, you know. But there is a, there's a balance. There's a balance of what you should do when it comes to it. I mean I used to, you know, when you work in a private club, people ask for different things and it can be con pretty frustrating at times. And I used to tell my cooks, I said, look, let me put it this way. If a member comes in and asks for a glass of pee, you start drinking water. Okay. That's kind of simple,

Vance Crowe [00:32:26] Putting a really blunt,

Aidan Murphy [00:32:28] But that's the way you gotta think about it. If somebody wants something, if we have it and we can do it, we're gonna do it. So, you know,

Vance Crowe [00:32:36] So let's talk about in into a country club. You know, I think of a chef wanting to go to Fancy New York Leer and, and do those things. Is is a country club where the chefs go to pasture? Or is this go, you said it's

Aidan Murphy [00:32:52] A little bit harder. You looking for a dig or something? No.

Vance Crowe [00:32:54] Well because you, I mean, the way that I've heard you describe it, like those people, I think the challenge of a country club is those people have the means to travel and go places and eat at very fine restaurants. And so you have to balance between the stable, what do these members want? And staying up on the edge. Yep.

Aidan Murphy [00:33:12] And

Vance Crowe [00:33:13] So I don't think it's, I I think there's complications with that that make it very difficult.

Aidan Murphy [00:33:17] You have to be able to do the best hot dog, the best fried chicken, and then a fantastic wine dinner all at the same day. So as a chef, yes, we all wanna be that one that opens the best restaurant in the world. You know, that's everybody's dream. Everybody's dream when you start out and as a chef is to, I want to have a great restaurant. I realized that as hard as I worked, if I opened my own restaurant, I'd probably kill myself. So it's like, okay, let's, you can still do great things, but not for yourself. So when I came to America, we got married in Minnesota and I, in, in December, it was pretty damn cold in Jan in January, I was in Florida and I was looking for work and I walked in, somebody directed me to a country club. I'd never worked in a country club in my life, no ideas in, in Europe. It was all hotels and restaurants. So this was my first, you know, okay. And that was my door into country clubs. And I never looked back. 'cause I realized that they were an opportunity, if you were a talented chef, you could do just about anything because they wanted that, they wanted to be able to, yeah, I want a, I want a hamburger today, tomorrow I want to bring my family in. I want you to give 'em an absolutely meal that will blow their minds away. So it's kind of like you get, and you, you, I'm gonna say your life is balanced 'cause it's not, but you don't have to.

Aidan Murphy [00:34:51] That restaurant pressure is, is there, but it's not there. There's, there's support from the membership. You got a repeat business. If you're giving them what they want, they'll keep coming. You know, where you're a restaurant, you might get your customer once every six months. So you're always fighting for that. So there was a little bit of a, I, I remember when I came to St. Louis restaurant chefs would kinda like, yeah, you're just a country club chef. You don't have to worry about food costs. You don't worry about costs, you, so no, you still have to do all those things, but it's not same sort of pressure. If you have a bad month, you're not gonna be closing up shop. It's like, okay, you know, that's, it's like when you ask somebody, would you open a, a coffee shop, a little breakfast shop, a little snack shop, a fine dining and a casual dining in a town of 600? Like no, I wouldn't dream it. Well that's what a club is. Yeah, that's what a club is. So you gotta do all those things and make it work and you get a little bit more financial support from the membership than you would if it was a restaurant. So, but you still have to produce really good food because they get, they know what good food is. They eat out in the best. They travel, they eat in the best places. One of my favorite stories is one of 'em came back from Italy and he just says, I got this great pasta dish for you. I said, okay. He says, I want you to do it for me. And I'm like, really? I said, were you sitting by an ocean?

Aidan Murphy [00:36:25] Oh, he says, yeah, I was, I was looking over the Mediterranean. It was absolutely gorgeous. You were on a patio. He says, yeah. I said, was the weather gorgeous? He says, it was fabulous. Did you have a nice bottle of Italian wine? He says, yeah, and you got a really nice pasta dish and you want me to recreate that? You're crazy. He just kinda looked at me and it's like, okay. He says, I get ya. I said, yeah, it's, it's about everything, you know. So,

Vance Crowe [00:36:48] But so I've had the, the pleasure of eating at Old Wars and it blew my expectations away because when I was a kid, we certainly did not grow up in the country club world. But I remember going to one and it was more like going to a, a wedding or something with the rubber chicken. And so to go to a country club where it's, it is as good as eating at a fine restaurant. It like, what struck me was not only do you have to do this every single day, but like your guests are like, this is the level that they're expecting. And then if you have an event like Christmas celebration or Easter, now you have to feed the older parent that's there. The, their adult children and their grandkids. And all of those people have to be content and happy with it all coming out at the right time and all making sense. I This is hard.

Aidan Murphy [00:37:40] Yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy. And take it, take it in a night when we have a wedding for 300, we might have another party upstairs for 30 and then the actual dining room is full with another 130 people or 140 people and you gotta feed 'em all.

Vance Crowe [00:37:58] So you didn't just stay as a chef, you moved up through. So tell me about your path at Old Wars.

Aidan Murphy [00:38:04] Well, I started there as the executive chef and I did that for 18 years. And while I was there, I did my master chef, which at the time there was only 61 certified master chefs in the United States. And I became the 62nd. And I, from there, I think that helped me, when the management position opened up, they realized I was very serious about what I do. And I'd worked a lot with the members on planning menus. On, on, just out with the members, talking with them. So

Vance Crowe [00:38:40] What's the difference between just being an executive chef with 18 years and going on to do a master chef?

Aidan Murphy [00:38:46] It's, it makes you be, be, I think when I became a master chef, I realized how little I actually knew.

Vance Crowe [00:38:53] Oh really?

Aidan Murphy [00:38:53] So yeah, it was like, wow. I thought I'd do a lot, but I didn't. So it, it kind of humbles you and it just helps you grow as a person. So I, it really did a lot there for me. The first time I went for it, I failed. I didn't get it. So I went through the whole 10 days and I fell the last day. So I had to go back and do it again. So it's a humbling experience. So, so that helped me grow as a person. So helped me when I, when that position for the club manager opened up for the general manager, I was able to step into it. And as I told my sous-chef at the time, I said, here, you're gonna be executive chef. I'm gonna be the gm. We can either screw it up or we can make it work. And,

Vance Crowe [00:39:38] But that's a huge jump because general manager of a club isn't just the general manager of the restaurant. Now you're running the Yeah,

Aidan Murphy [00:39:45] Golf

Vance Crowe [00:39:46] And the thank,

Aidan Murphy [00:39:48] Thankfully, I'm not actually running it. I just make sure I've got a, we've got a good golf pro, a great superintendent that takes care of the grounds and grows the most beautiful grass on a golf course. That is absolutely fabulous. I'll have a great chef, a good clubhouse manager. Comptroller takes care of the money. You know, you've got all these people work that report to me, but my job is to support them and just make sure that we're all on the same track and doing the same thing that we're supposed to do to take care of our membership. So it's coordination with people, it's supporting people, it's understanding what the membership wants. It's, it's just, it's a, you realize that you are not in control. You have people that are doing stuff and you just have to make sure everybody's doing what they're supposed to do. And it's, it's a challenge. It's a challenge to, even with your board, you gotta kinda make sure they don't go off in a different direction than keeping the club on a, a steady, you know, direction. That is nobody. 'cause it's every member is an important person and you're there to take care of every one of them, not just five or 10 of them. So you have to learn that. You have to learn how to, I mean, I had literally sort of learned how to lower my voice, talk to people. 'cause in the kitchen it's like, Hey, oh, there's,

Vance Crowe [00:41:17] You know, that's a,

Aidan Murphy [00:41:19] Some of my staff were totally surprised when I walked out to the front of how my demeanor changed. It wasn't quite as powerful and in your face it was more of how are you, you know. So I was, it was interesting that I could do that. So it was a good challenge for me. And I was, after 18 years in the kitchen, I was at that time looking for a different challenge. You know, I needed that for myself to grow. So it worked out well. And for 14 years I, you know, pulled it up.

Vance Crowe [00:41:52] So you're running one of the most high-end country clubs in the Midwest. You're, all of the people reporting to you are top of their field.

Aidan Murphy [00:42:01] Yep.

Vance Crowe [00:42:02] What is it like to manage people that it's like you have one of the best executive chefs, one of the best golf pros. I mean, these are pe it's like having a whole bunch of professional teams.

Aidan Murphy [00:42:13] Well you're saying they're all premadonnas, none of them. A great thing about it is that it's not one of them that's a premadonna. They are, they are humble people in their positions. They are very good at what they do. We, I'll, you know, I meet with them, we chat, what's issues, what's going on, what do you need? That's kind of my job is to, Hey, what do you need? Is there any issues? You know how to do it. I'm not gonna tell you how to do it. The first, when I took the job is general manager. One of the first things I did, I went down to my superintendent and I said, Tim, I don't know the first thing about growing grass, but I know how to support people. So whatever you need, whatever you want, as long as there's any reason I'll work with you. And we just worked it that way ever since I don't get into his business and he just does what he's supposed to do and what he's paid to do. You know, which is basically what it's about. And if you get somebody that doesn't wanna do that, then you just kinda quietly move 'em on. So fortunately, I've never really had to move anybody on. And if I did, I'm not gonna tell you. So,

Vance Crowe [00:43:25] So you're, you mentioned about you're not just serving the, because a country club has a board of directors, they also have a membership committee, or maybe those are the same thing.

Aidan Murphy [00:43:36] They're part of the, that, that will be somebody that's on the board. The membership committee is someone that will, they're looking at bringing in new members. So,

Vance Crowe [00:43:45] And then you've got the people that are members and you've got all your employees. What have you learned about

Aidan Murphy [00:43:52] Conducting

Vance Crowe [00:43:53] All this?

Aidan Murphy [00:43:53] Everybody's different. You gotta learn to, what's that person need, what does that, what does that person need? And learn the personalities and, okay, you can almost, sometimes I can look at somebody and just say, it's a bad day today. You know, so, and those are things that I learned. I didn't, that's not a, something that came to me or I had it. I had to learn that stuff. Same thing. One of the biggest things was remembering people's names. I mean, if you think of the old show, cheers. What was it when Norm walked in, Hey, everybody said, norm, you know, everybody wants to know your name. Well that's, that's what a club is about. You know, you walk in and I'm able to say, Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Welcome, nice to see you. And if they're with their guests, they're just like, how great is that? You know, I came into my own club and everybody knows who I am. You know, your table's here, let's, let's go. Or how's it, what's happening? How are the children? And that's, but that was a hard thing for me to start learning people's names. 'cause you got a lot of people to figure 'em out. But you get used to it and you get good at it. And then wintertime comes and they go to their homes in Florida or Arizona or California and they're gone for three or four months and then they come back and it's like, oof.

Vance Crowe [00:45:10] Geez,

Aidan Murphy [00:45:10] Now I gotta

Vance Crowe [00:45:10] Try

Aidan Murphy [00:45:11] Remembering their names again. So, but that's a, that was probably one of my biggest challenges when I moved up there.

Vance Crowe [00:45:17] Why does a person join a country club?

Aidan Murphy [00:45:21] Well, for one, if they love golf, they join 'em for that. But it's more than just golf. It's a, they're, I like to say they're like-minded people. They, they, it's a very friendly place. It's a place where they're comfortable. I mean, I see people that, I mean, I've been there for 32 years. I, you know, their husbands die. Their, their wives die. And they come, they come back to the club to hang out with their friends. I mean, how cool is that? They can, they, life goes on. They, they support each other. It's not just a, it's not just a club. It's, it's, it's like a big family. It really is like a big family and everybody kinda, they watch for each other. They, you know, it's just a comfortable place to be. It's, it's, it's neat. I mean, I just kinda not knowing what country clubs were like when I got involved in them, it was like, okay, you know, people say they're snobby. They're not, they're just people that like to enjoy stuff and enjoy life. And I'm glad they have the means to do it because they support a lot of people. I mean, we've got 120 employees there that make a nice living by these people. So, you know, but it is a, it is kind of a way of life. It's, it's a great place to be. It's a comfortable place to be. And you got people that want to take care of you. I mean, what more do you want in life? Huh?

Vance Crowe [00:46:49] What's the difference between, you know, like in St. Louis, there's, there's always just a, there's a few clubs people maybe know the name of. But if you said somebody joins Bell Reeve or somebody joins Old Wars, is there a difference between those two people?

Aidan Murphy [00:47:03] There probably is. How about that for an answer?

Vance Crowe [00:47:07] Yeah, that's good. I wasn't expecting that.

Aidan Murphy [00:47:09] It's my PC answer. Yeah, no, there's, it's a different, they're both kind of different clubs, but you know, each club have their own characters and you know, traditions and stuff. But yeah, there's, there's a difference

Vance Crowe [00:47:25] From somebody that's looking at the outside. And maybe the best way to approach it is to say you probably have employees that have, they didn't grow up going to country clubs. I didn't, I don't Did you grow up in a country club?

Aidan Murphy [00:47:37] No, I did not.

Vance Crowe [00:47:38] So what is it like being exposed to the world of is very different, right? Those people have means that are much higher than the average person.

Aidan Murphy [00:47:46] Yep.

Vance Crowe [00:47:47] How do people adjust to that? And what's the

Aidan Murphy [00:47:50] I think it's, it does take a little while. It takes a little educating and it's more of, they finally, they, they do get to realize I'm, you know, I could do this job anywhere else. And I gotta realize that the people, you know, you go to a nice restaurant, a high-end restaurant, same type of people that's coming in there, but now they get to actually meet these people and actually not become friends. But they are actually, you know, they know them, they know their personalities. They actually get to realize that, yeah, okay, they're very well to do people, but they're actually very human and actually very caring. I mean, if a staff is a, something happens or something's wrong, the members are the first ones to step up. They, you know, that's, and they kind like, wow, we're kind of part of a family, you know, even though we're staff, we're part of a family and it takes a little while to get used to the, you know, like, why are we working on Christmas day? Can't they go somewhere and say, guys, we're here just, you know, you, you I've got, that's my job is to say, Hey, this is what we do. You know what? You knew it when you took the job. Let's just do it with the best. Or, and most of 'em were like, you're right. We're here. Let's do it. Let's enjoy it. And we, let's take care. Pretend it's your family, let's take care of 'em. And they do.

Vance Crowe [00:49:13] So what happens at a country club that somebody that's on the outside would be like, what's going on in there? What, you know, what, what are they doing over there?

Aidan Murphy [00:49:22] They're like going to dinner, they're going to play golf, they're going to the pool. They're just going through life. I mean, most neighborhoods have a neighborhood pool. They go down to the neighborhood pool. It's no different, you know, it really is no different. It's just a, it's a higher, you know, it's a higher end. There's, there's just, there's more money there. Okay. Very simple. There's more money there.

Vance Crowe [00:49:44] Now you're retiring soon after all. You did, you said 18 years as a

Aidan Murphy [00:49:49] The chef. Yeah. And the last 14 is the general manager.

Vance Crowe [00:49:53] So where does the general manager of one of the nicest clubs around go for retirement? Do you, do you dream of sitting at a country club now? And,

Aidan Murphy [00:50:03] And, no, no, no. Nope. Nope. I will, I'll stay in St. Louis. I live down at St. Louis Hills and up far from Francis Park, but block from Francis Park. I don't know if you know it, but No,

Vance Crowe [00:50:16] It's

Aidan Murphy [00:50:16] A really nice little spot. And we're gonna home base here. And from there we're just gonna travel. We're just gonna have a good time. And travel. I've got sun in New Orleans and a son in Nashville. And then my daughter lives here and my other son lives here. And they've got, my daughter has three grandchildren and or three children. Three of my grandchildren. And my son here has one. So we got four grandkids here. So, you know, my wife's not leaving to go anywhere else. She's, well, we're staying in St. Louis. I said, that's cool. And we'll just travel. We'll have a good time.

Vance Crowe [00:50:48] And what is a guy that's been addicted to work for all these years? How are you? Are

Aidan Murphy [00:50:52] You prepared for this? You know, that's a good question. I don't know. I don't know. But I'm actually one that can, I can slow down. You know? I can, when I take a couple of days off, I can literally just shut down because, but doing it on a consistent basis might be a little bit different. But I always keep myself busy. I'm not a, I'm not afraid, you know, I love, one of the, the things I love to do is work at home. You know, I love fixing stuff. I love, I love to paint. And I think I learned that from my dad, you know, 'cause he was a great painter, so he taught me how to do a straight line down by a window. I didn't ever need tape. I can just dood the line down. So I still love to do that. So I'm sure my wife will have me. Okay. We need, some of these rooms need painting, so that's a thing I can do in a heartbeat. You know?

Vance Crowe [00:51:43] Do your grandkids like your cooking?

Aidan Murphy [00:51:46] Yeah, sometimes they do, but they're kids, you know, I don't like that granddad. It's like, that's okay.

Vance Crowe [00:51:52] Did your kids eat when, when you, or did you have picky eaters?

Aidan Murphy [00:51:57] They sometimes we're picky, you know, starting out, you know, like we had one son, he never liked spinach. And it was like, okay, whatever. But we realized, I, I, I learned afterwards that kids just don't like spinach and the story, there's nothing you can do to make 'em to, the kids don't like spinach. So I learned that after it was too late by the time I learned that. So, but they were actually, they would eat just about anything, you know, whenever we put up. But I mean, I wasn't home that much to cook for them. So it was mainly my wife would be there. Then Monday was our family dinner, 'cause the club was closed. So that was be the day I cooked for them. You know, whether it was roast chicken or good barbecue ribs or, you know, hamburgers. They were, they were good with it. They ate it. But Monday is still our family dinner. So kids will come to my house every Monday and we do family dinner. So it's kind of a fun tradition. We keep going.

Vance Crowe [00:52:54] So if you're talking to your grandkids about a career well done or one that you're proud of, what do you tell them they should, they should look for in a career?

Aidan Murphy [00:53:05] And they're all young, so we're not even got there yet. But my own children, I kind of told them, figure out, you know, do something that you like, try and figure if you can find something you like, then, then you actually really never work. And I actually told my kids, don't go into this business. It's a hard business. It's, you have to love it. And they didn't. They went to college and my one son, he did business in college and we got out and it was 2009, of course, everything crashed. There was no work for anybody. And he ended up, he says, can I work in the club? And he ended up, he says, yeah, go work in the kitchen. You know, you can today. He's one of my sous chefs at the club. Oh. And he loves cooking, so it's kind of like, well, I tried to keep you out of it, but you're sucked. You got sucked into it. And he does quite well with it. So, yeah. And I'm proud of that. So my other son is a, he's an electrician. They're twins and he's down in New Orleans and he loves that. And then my other son is a sales insurance and he loves that. So it's kinda, and my daughter's a teacher, so they've got all kind of different walks of life.

Vance Crowe [00:54:16] And when you say that this work is hard, what makes it hard?

Aidan Murphy [00:54:20] It's, it's really more the hours, you know, you are working. I mean, I used to work at split shift. I'd go in work till two o'clock, go home, spend an afternoon, then go back to work at five o'clock and work till, you know, 10 o'clock at night. So that's kind of, it's really working from eight until 10, you might take a couple of hours off, but that's not really, but that was, that was just what I did. So I, and you work every holiday, you, it's long, hard hours. You're, you're on your feet, you're in a hot kitchen. It's a young man's life. It's a young man's business. So.

Vance Crowe [00:54:55] And do you know who's gonna replace you at, at Old

Aidan Murphy [00:54:58] Worsened? I do, but it's confidential right now. It hasn't been made official, but I do though. So, and I think they'll do a great super job. I guess about a week after I'm gone, it'll be Aiden who,

Vance Crowe [00:55:14] So, you know, I, I, I think everybody really is in the world of customer service. In fact, I was talking with my wife about this interview that we were gonna do today, this morning. And she said, you know, he's got the same challenges, everybody. How, how do you keep your clients, your customers happy? But you've been at this at a very high level for a very long time. What do you know about customer service and keeping customers happy? I know you mentioned knowing people's names really helps

Aidan Murphy [00:55:40] And just knowing, just try and re you know, they're just human beings. They just want to, everybody wants to feel, let's say loved or whatever way you put it, is that welcome And it's, it's understanding their needs. And you know, if you see somebody, you realize, okay, they're having a bad day, can you make them feel a little better? Or, you know, is there anything you can do? To me, it's always, what can I do for you? What can I get for you? Where, what's, what do we need? How, and even to try and anticipate before they even ask for it. I mean, one of the things we try to get our service staff, we'll have preferences on our members. Like, okay, we know they like the Manhattan, bring the Manhattan to the table when they sit down and say, here's your Manhattan, Mr. So and So, so and so. And it's like, that's the sort of stuff. It's like, thank you. That's what I wanted. You know? So it's just to greet people, be nice to people, treat 'em the way you wanna be treated. I mean, we all want to be treated well. And it's, some of us just, I don't think ever get it. That's why we get that service because they don't get it. And they go out and they expect to be treated well. It's like, no, you, you know, even when we hire service staff, I don't need the top talented waiter unless he's got a good personality. I'd rather hire someone that has a great personality and just is happy about life. I can train them how to serve a person, but I can't train them how to be a good person, have a personality and a want to take care of somebody.

Aidan Murphy [00:57:12] I can't teach that. That's, that comes from inside. So that's, it's, I think that's what makes a, a place special is that your staff is special and they get it. They want to help the members. They wanna take care of them, and the members appreciate it. You know, that's, that's really what it is. And it is, yeah. It's, it's keeping people happy.

Vance Crowe [00:57:34] Well, Aiden Murphy, this has been a great conversation. Thank you for coming in.

Aidan Murphy [00:57:39] V It was my pleasure. I was a little nervous about it, but you know what, it was amazing how we can talk, right?

Vance Crowe [00:57:45] Yeah. Just, and we weren't even

Aidan Murphy [00:57:47] Drinking

Vance Crowe [00:57:47] For time. That's right. Not yet.

Aidan Murphy [00:57:49] Maybe we'll do it again with a drink.

Vance Crowe [00:57:51] I agree. Yeah.

Aidan Murphy [00:57:51] Might even float better. Thank

Vance Crowe [00:57:53] You.

Aidan Murphy [00:57:54] My pleasure, Vance. My pleasure.