Last week Luke Pearson (Lift Films) and I travelled to Asbury Park, NJ to film for the Restaurant Owners Uncorked video series. I interviewed Marilyn Schlossbach, who owns a handful of restaurants and has been in the business for 30 years.
Marilyn talked about all kinds of really interesting stuff, from when the chef in her brother’s restaurant quit on a July 4th weekend and Marilyn had to learn to cook while her brother walked her through it on the phone, to opening her first restaurant (a success), to learning from several failed restaurants, to how she personally and professionally weathered Hurricane Sandy (which demolished her restaurants at the same time she and her husband had just brought beautiful twin girls into the world), to being a female owner in an industry dominated by men, to the challenges of being a business owner when you are creative person by nature, to why it’s so important to follow your passion, to her desire to create a positive atmosphere in her restaurants so that not only her customers, but also her daughters, will be in a happy place every time they visit.
Marilyn is a determined, self-taught chef and business woman who didn’t get a college degree and didn’t got to culinary school, but she understands the value of rigor, tinkering, learning from mistakes, humility, and always, always pushing forward, no matter what life throws at her. These philosophies have helped her build a $5,000,000 business on the Jersey Shore, and I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for what she has accomplished. I can’t wait to display her videos soon!
Some behind-the-scenes stuff…
Since it was sunny and a beautiful day in the boardwalk in front of Langosta Lounge, we spent a lot of time at a bench. I dared Luke to jump over it…
Finally, some true behind-the-scenes pics of what goes on once we’re done filming. After a long day that started at 5am with that sunrise you see above, we headed into Philly and did a crossfit-style workout in Rittenhouse Square, a park in the middle of downtown. I thought it was hilarious that even though we were doing overhead pushups and pull-ups on that tree, smack in the middle of a very busy park in the early evening – added to which, I was barefoot and wearing a neon yellow bathing suit – not one person seemed to think it was odd. You can only get away with stuff like this in big cities like Philly…
