00:00In my opinion, the Phoenicia Diner is the iconic diner of the Catskills.
00:04It's a magical mix of the location that we're in, the scenic views,
00:09certainly the food, and the people that work here.
00:12We serve 160,000 customers a year.
00:15We've grown immensely in terms of popularity,
00:18and some say this is a destination restaurant now.
00:25People start floating in the back of the house
00:27at around 5 and 6 o'clock in the morning.
00:29Bread working, grinding, prepping,
00:32and then we have almost pretty much a single shift towards the end of the day.
00:35People come in and ask specifically for our pancakes.
00:38Lucio is in charge of the pancakes.
00:59Pancake sales here, they're incredible.
01:02Could be some days about 1,000 pancakes.
01:04It's like air traffic control.
01:06How many items he gets on there, they have to come off.
01:08What's going to be back on?
01:30We stack and we use maple syrup.
01:32All those components actually make that dish popular.
01:36A lot of times people just order a full meal
01:38and then get a side of those as almost like an appetizer.
01:41It's incredible how difficult it is to make
01:43those 1,000 pancakes consistently correct.
01:46So Lucio is an amazing person.
01:49So our pancakes, I know it's almost lunch,
01:52but our pancakes are a little over an hour long.
01:55So our pancakes, I know it's almost lunch,
01:58but our pancakes are fantastic here.
02:00You can do a side of three, they're this big,
02:02or a full order of five, and they are this big.
02:05Between 11 and 2 are our busiest times.
02:08In the winter, we're catching skiers,
02:10so like during the day it slows down,
02:12and then by 4 o'clock this place fills up
02:15almost immediately with skiers.
02:19One of the other items that is a popular dish is a Reuben,
02:22which is again one of those diner staples.
02:24And Jesus, he's back there brining those for days.
02:54Olive oil, spices, fennel, pepper, coriander,
03:01we also add white sugar, and we also add honey.
03:05We use that for the Reuben, for the corvée,
03:08for the hash.
03:10And then we just add what's left of the oil,
03:12so it boils.
03:13It has to be done every week,
03:15because it has to be marinated for at least five days
03:18in the water,
03:20so that it absorbs all the spices and salt.
03:23It was important to me to be integrated into the area
03:27and part of the community,
03:28so we try to stay local with our vendors.
03:31We get about 12,000 pounds of brisket per year.
03:35One of our longtime vendors is Paul from Veritas,
03:37and he's been with us basically from the first day we've opened,
03:41and he supplies the meat for our corned beef.
03:43We have a new chef here.
03:45Wallin handles most of the ordering
03:47and taking the deliveries in.
03:48Thursdays we get a lot of our big deliveries in.
03:50We're ordering about 160 pounds of brisket a week right now.
03:53I'm out here checking everything,
03:55produce and meat and everything like that,
03:56just to make sure that there wasn't an issue.
03:58Reubens here mostly gets sold more of a lunch item,
04:02about 200 to 250 a week.
04:06The diner over the years has become a staple,
04:09and on the cusp of becoming a destination restaurant,
04:12guests come here and take incredible photos,
04:14and it's just the location is unique and very special,
04:18and I think people recognize that often.
04:48It's like you're eating chicken.
04:50You have to find the shape.
04:52We remove the fat.
04:53We're going to cut it like this.
04:55This is for Reubens.
05:04One of the other popular dishes is corned beef hash,
05:06which is also the same corned beef that Jesus works on for the Reubens.
05:11It's used for that hash, too,
05:12so he's got a role in a lot of the popular dishes here.
05:15First, we sauté the chili, the onion, the potato.
05:20We sauté it, and then we put it in a skillet,
05:22we put it in the oven, and we keep it hot.
05:24And from there, it's up to the customer
05:26if they want some sunny-side-up eggs, some scrambled eggs, or some ovejas.
05:30People like it a lot.
05:31They come from the city, from the neighborhood,
05:33and they really like the food here.
05:36Sure. Small is this, and a large is like that.
05:40Okay.
05:41So on a staffing standpoint,
05:43I'm very proud of the fact that pretty much everybody who's here now
05:49was here almost on day one.
05:51One person who works here that stands out sometimes to me
05:55is Mona, who's a server here,
05:57and she's just an amazingly warm person, very genuine.
06:00The staff is hyper-local.
06:02We pride ourselves on being ambassadors to the rest of the Catskills.
06:05We may be your first stop,
06:06and we wanted to make sure that you're enjoying that trip
06:09because that ensures that you're going to come back,
06:11not only just to us, but to the area.
06:15We have a bread program here that's run by Nelson.
06:18He makes our rye bread, our sourdough rolls, and brioche.
06:41There's about four ounces of powdered chocolate.
06:45This ingredient is to give it color,
06:48because we use the rye to give it a brownish color.
06:52We don't use a white color in the rye.
06:55Then we add a pound of caraway seeds.
07:00Okay, and we add nine and a half ounces.
07:04This is long stick.
07:06For the amount I'm making right now,
07:08you add eight ounces of sugar.
07:10We also add eight ounces of yeast.
07:15I've been making bread for about 12 years.
07:23In a week, we make about 60 to 80 pieces.
07:33So the recipes that we're using today
07:35are the ones that we had developed in early stages
07:40before we opened.
07:41I also want to say the ethos of this place is,
07:44from a chef's standpoint,
07:45we also want the chef to have some flexibility.
07:48So we always leave room for someone,
07:51each chef that's come through,
07:53to kind of leave their mark on the place.
07:55If somebody has a southern background,
07:57there may be a few more southern dishes.
08:00Half the kitchen is from Puebla.
08:01Those menu items and flavors make their way onto the menu.
08:14This diner originally was in Long Island,
08:16and it was relocated in 1982 to this spot.
08:21I bought it in 2012.
08:23When I bought it, we implemented a few changes,
08:25and not a 40-page menu, but have it down to a placemat.
08:28It was me going through all my childhood diner favorites,
08:32so you would see pancakes,
08:33you would see breakfast items all day.
08:36A diner should, in my view, be everything to everyone.
08:42Recently, we got a request from a show called Severance
08:47to shoot some scenes in here.
08:49Oh, really? It affected you?
08:50Yes.
08:51Ben Stiller was mapping out shots.
08:53They changed the name to Pips,
08:56and the flood of outrage, because nobody knew it was a film,
09:00they thought we had sold this diner.
09:02The first season, you'll see it a little bit,
09:04but I believe on the second season, you'll see it a lot more.
09:12Alrighty.
09:13Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much.
09:15You're welcome.
09:16In terms of guests' experience here,
09:18we strive for this authenticity,
09:20and one of the things that I'm keenly aware of and want
09:22is that they leave here not only satisfied with the food,
09:26but also the overall experience.
09:28Like, they were at a place that was authentic to the area
09:32and the Catskills,
09:33and not necessarily someplace curated from the city
09:37where they're escaping from.
09:39So I don't want to recreate a city experience.
09:42I want this to be an authentic Catskills experience,
09:45and I think you can't get any better than a diner
09:48in the middle of literally nowhere.
09:52Phoenicia Diner, I think, has transcended into an iconic diner,
09:57an iconic restaurant.
09:59We're authentic, and authentic to the Catskills.
10:02It's been my goal from day one,
10:04and I think people feel that,
10:05guests feel that when they get here.
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