Speaker 1: All right, you all know Dana Schaefer. She was the
Speaker 1: former producer of The Fork Report. She had been with ABC.
Speaker 1: She pops all over the place. She went from here
Speaker 1: to the East Coast, and now she's got another adventure.
Speaker 1: And we're going to get up to date with Dana. Dana,
Speaker 1: how are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: Hey, how's it going good?
Speaker 1: So last time I saw following you on social media,
Speaker 1: you left one of your dream jobs. I did in
Speaker 1: radio for ABC correct and so what the hell what
Speaker 1: are you doing? And why?
Speaker 3: I like to say that I am fun employed right now? Oh,
Speaker 3: because anything that I do must be fun. And that
Speaker 3: might sound ridiculous, but I love radio and I wanted
Speaker 3: to be more creative and tell stories, and I you know,
Speaker 3: towards the end, I wasn't really doing that. I was
Speaker 3: doing more sales and everything, which is a crazy job
Speaker 3: and it's so but I wanted to do something just
Speaker 3: more fun, and it gave me the opportunity I had.
Speaker 3: Like the fact that I had the opportunity to just
Speaker 3: be fun employed. As I say, you know that I
Speaker 3: have support system around me, my boyfriend, my parents, everyone's
Speaker 3: right down the street from me. I've been planning this
Speaker 3: for a while is awesome, but then it also gives
Speaker 3: me the opportunity to do things like really focus in
Speaker 3: like we spoke before about the diner, and you know,
Speaker 3: just do and figure it out, you know. And I
Speaker 3: think a lot of people are at that point, especially
Speaker 3: with everything going on in the world, where they're just
Speaker 3: trying to do stuff that serves them more of a
Speaker 3: purpose and to be happier.
Speaker 1: So I so you go into the grocery store and
Speaker 1: you do you do? You put fun on the table
Speaker 1: and say how much you find I mean, there's actually
Speaker 1: real life going on around you, as much as we'd
Speaker 1: all like to be fun employed. What how do you
Speaker 1: how do you pay your bills?
Speaker 2: Well? Good question, So I do have.
Speaker 3: I do work at a restaurant, and I've always worked
Speaker 3: at this restaurant since I started in radio, like ten
Speaker 3: to fifteen years ago. So even when I was full time,
Speaker 3: I was still working at the restaurant on the side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So I was working.
Speaker 3: Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights after work and you know, luckily
Speaker 3: those three days there as a server. As long as
Speaker 3: everyone tips, well please tip your servers.
Speaker 2: It's a thing.
Speaker 3: Sorry we're not in Italy, but it will it will
Speaker 3: at least supplement my rent. And you know, luckily I've
Speaker 3: I've saved up enough and I'm doing little side gigs
Speaker 3: here and there. I also work at a cafe in
Speaker 3: my town. Also, just you know, for funzies.
Speaker 1: It sounds like auto pay to pay her bills. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's what it sounds like. Wow.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but you know, it's it's it's a journey and
Speaker 3: I'm just trying to figure it out. But also going
Speaker 3: to what you were just talking about, like dining out
Speaker 3: that is so important for small businesses. Like the restaurant
Speaker 3: that I work at there's only six tables, but we
Speaker 3: rely on people dining out to support that restaurant, and
Speaker 3: I do to support my bills. But also you know,
Speaker 3: knowing me and trying to restore this diner in Jersey
Speaker 3: that I'm doing for the l.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're going to get to that too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to get an update exactly.
Speaker 3: But like the last year and a half or so
Speaker 3: doing that, you know, I've met so many other diner
Speaker 3: owners everywhere, and they used to be twenty four to
Speaker 3: seven and now they're not because people are not dining
Speaker 3: out as late or not dining out as often. And
Speaker 3: there's also people that are not going to work at
Speaker 3: these places anymore. So it's a struggle all around. So
Speaker 3: we really need that support system.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know, here's the thing you can if
Speaker 1: nothing else, Yes, or to take out I get all that,
Speaker 1: But ultimately, especially if you're having it delivered by a
Speaker 1: third party or any of these things, they're not making
Speaker 1: what you think they're making out of health food. There's
Speaker 1: two The margins are too small. So ultimately, going in
Speaker 1: dying and having a complete meal, and that means you
Speaker 1: can get beverages, they don't have to be alcoholic beverages,
Speaker 1: get dessert, get appetizers, have that whole meal is really
Speaker 1: how they're gonna stay alive. So I'm glad you echo
Speaker 1: that because I know you've been in that business for
Speaker 1: a long time. Now, what about your baking. You're a
Speaker 1: big baker. You love baking. Is that playing a part
Speaker 1: of any of your fun employment?
Speaker 3: Yes, it is actually, And then you know it's a
Speaker 3: blessing in disguise, because if I didn't leave my job,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't have the opportunity to bake as much as
Speaker 3: I do. The owners of the restaurant that I work at,
Speaker 3: they sell my cheesecakes now for dessert and it's taken
Speaker 3: off a lot where you know, and I've also been
Speaker 3: starting to push my Instagram a lot more my dessert
Speaker 3: Instagram now that I have the time.
Speaker 1: To well give it to everybody.
Speaker 2: Dana's Desserts.
Speaker 1: It rolls off the tongue.
Speaker 2: Yeah right.
Speaker 3: It's actually the ten tenth anniversary of the launch of
Speaker 3: Dana's Desserts this year.
Speaker 1: Nice alliteration. Thank you, Dana's Delicious Desserts.
Speaker 2: On demand A triple quadruple.
Speaker 1: D that's great. And your style is an East Coast
Speaker 1: style cheesecake.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a classic cheesecake.
Speaker 3: So it's not New York cheesecake New York style because
Speaker 3: there's difference in that the New York style has a
Speaker 3: lot more eggs, which makes it dense, and also is
Speaker 3: heavy cream and cream cheese based. When a classic cheesecake
Speaker 3: that you might find anywhere else, it is more the
Speaker 3: heavy cream is supplemented with sour cream, so it's like
Speaker 3: it's sour cream and cream cheese and less eggs.
Speaker 2: And that's the kind that I have.
Speaker 3: It's lighter, it's creamier, and then it has a GRAMD
Speaker 3: cracker crust One of my most popular ones is a
Speaker 3: lemon sambuca cheesecake, so I have. Yeah, it's a sambuca
Speaker 3: bass with a sour cream layer and then a lemon
Speaker 3: shimmer layer, which is just fresh lemon juice and a
Speaker 3: little bit of cornstarts, sugar and water which makes it
Speaker 3: like almost like a lemon rang But that's one of
Speaker 3: the most popular, and I have multiple orders of that
Speaker 3: when I go home this week.
Speaker 1: You got that. You can't help that shimmer water.
Speaker 2: You need that lemon shimmer water over here.
Speaker 1: Water here. Right now, we're talking to my friend Dana Schaeffer.
Speaker 1: She was the former producer of The Fork Report, you
Speaker 1: may remember, and she loves baking and she's been in
Speaker 1: radio for a long time. Well, she just left one
Speaker 1: of her dream gigs with ABC Radio to pursue some
Speaker 1: dreams and one of those has to do with the
Speaker 1: new Jersey diner that she wants to bring back to
Speaker 1: life data. How's that going?
Speaker 2: It is crazy?
Speaker 3: Side note, I'm getting ripped by everyone over here for
Speaker 3: not bringing in a cheesecake, So sorry about that.
Speaker 2: I owe you one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, geez, I know, I know I wasn't gonna start
Speaker 1: it because I knew Kayla would.
Speaker 2: Yep, she's calling me out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, the diner thing, it's a very interesting journey.
Speaker 3: And it's so funny because I really haven't gone out
Speaker 3: of my way to promote it other than just being
Speaker 3: on social media and just really everyone's been coming and
Speaker 3: falling in front of me that I need to talk
Speaker 3: to right now. I don't know where we left off
Speaker 3: from the last time we talked, but it's pretty crazy
Speaker 3: because these diners, these nineteen forty like train car kind
Speaker 3: of like diners. They're about forty feet long and fourteen
Speaker 3: feet wide, that's it. But they have four beams on
Speaker 3: the bottom of them where you can slide basically a
Speaker 3: truck underneath or like the you know, platform underneath to
Speaker 3: pick them up and move them. And that's where I'm
Speaker 3: at because unfortunately the owners of the diner where it stands,
Speaker 3: they kind of backed out of keeping.
Speaker 4: They want the land. Yes, so therefore you don't own
Speaker 4: this diner. I do not, but they you have no
Speaker 4: right to this diner. What whoever cleaning now?
Speaker 3: Exactly? Yeah, It's it's really funny. People are like, are
Speaker 3: you sneaking in? And I'm like, no, I'm not. They
Speaker 3: give me the key and everything, but I don't have like,
Speaker 3: really anything into this diner other than hopes and dreams.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you could finish cleaning it, and they
Speaker 1: could take it somewhere and open it without you, and
Speaker 1: there's nothing you could do about it.
Speaker 3: And I know they won't do that because it's been
Speaker 3: sitting there for thirty years vacant. But it is a
Speaker 3: fear of mine that every day I pass this diner
Speaker 3: thinking that one day I'll see a demolition truck right there.
Speaker 3: And it's a big fear of mine because I'm basically
Speaker 3: in the eleventh hour right now of trying to figure
Speaker 3: out what I can do with this. So I spoke
Speaker 3: to the town and you know, there's a few areas
Speaker 3: is where there's unutilized land where maybe possibly we can
Speaker 3: get a land lease or do something where we can
Speaker 3: move this diner to keep it. Unfortunately, there's not that
Speaker 3: much land to go, and one spot that we had
Speaker 3: an option to do needed a lot of infrastructure. And
Speaker 3: it's crazy because I've never knew anything about this until
Speaker 3: I started this whole journey. But you know, to find
Speaker 3: the sewage lines, the gas lines, the water electric all
Speaker 3: the infrastructure that you need. And then if it's on
Speaker 3: a lower part of the land, you need the power
Speaker 3: to push up the pressure to you know, get the
Speaker 3: sewage out and all this stuff. So the amount of
Speaker 3: money that I would that I don't have, that I
Speaker 3: would use to put into this diner now would have
Speaker 3: to go into the infrastructure. But then I went to
Speaker 3: another area where there's parking and you know, take about
Speaker 3: only eight parking spots. But the thing is with that
Speaker 3: is they they don't know if they can, you know,
Speaker 3: take away those parking spots and utilize it for the diner.
Speaker 3: So I'm kind of stuck between a rock and a
Speaker 3: hard place right now.
Speaker 1: Water and electricity and everything else in those areas.
Speaker 2: Too, yeah, and so yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: But the one spot where there is the parking, why
Speaker 3: I was really trying to put it over there is
Speaker 3: because it's easy to connect to water lines, gas lines,
Speaker 3: everything because it's right off the main road. And a thing,
Speaker 3: at least in Jersey, if you have an area, even
Speaker 3: if the infrastructure is not there, if it's in a
Speaker 3: certain amount of footage away from the main road, like
Speaker 3: PS and G will hook it up for free because
Speaker 3: it's I guess it's just I don't know, some kind
Speaker 3: of thing with that. So I'm actually in the process.
Speaker 3: I talked to a guy that moves diners in Massachusetts
Speaker 3: who is willing to help me if I can board
Speaker 3: up this diner and at least get it prepped for
Speaker 3: a move. And I'm working on finding a piece of
Speaker 3: land for it right now, which is really stressful but
Speaker 3: also a quite a journey.
Speaker 1: And what's in it for the landowner?
Speaker 3: I mean, ideally I would it would be a town
Speaker 3: piece of land that's not utilized, and then therefore it
Speaker 3: would just bring more traction to the town, right, So
Speaker 3: that's kind of like what I'm I'm putting it as.
Speaker 3: Because this is a historical landmark. It's something that would
Speaker 3: you know, could bring movies to the area, like you know,
Speaker 3: pr to the area, all that kind of stuff, So
Speaker 3: it would be really great to have there. Funny enough,
Speaker 3: working at my restaurant, And this is what I'm talking about,
Speaker 3: like everything happens for a reason, and everything just kind
Speaker 3: of gets placed in.
Speaker 2: Front of me.
Speaker 3: Do you know Amanda fry Tag She's on a food network. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and she's blonde hair. She's great, but she just randomly
Speaker 3: popped into the restaurant that I work at a few
Speaker 3: weeks ago, and I'm like, she looks so familiar. I
Speaker 3: thought she was just a customer that comes in. I
Speaker 3: was like, why do you look so familiar? And she's like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm from the area. It was like, what's
Speaker 3: your name? She's like Amanda, and I'm like Amanda. She's
Speaker 3: like fright tag and I'm like, no freaking way. Because
Speaker 3: she had a show with Ty Pennington at the time
Speaker 3: that was a diner restoration show, and so I told her, oh,
Speaker 3: my whole spiel. And she also loved my cheesecake, which
Speaker 3: was awesome because she tried it. So I've had my
Speaker 3: own little rendition of Chopped at the restaurant one day.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: But yeah no, but she was like, you know, keep
Speaker 3: going if there's anything that she can help. But she's
Speaker 3: following the journey now too, so I have a lot
Speaker 3: of support. It's just really about finding the right area now.
Speaker 3: But it's really cool about these diners and these historic diners.
Speaker 3: They are made to move, and that's something that a
Speaker 3: lot of people don't know. And you know, as long
Speaker 3: as the infrastructure in the restaurant or in the diner
Speaker 3: is you know pretty good. Which mine is you can
Speaker 3: move it anywhere.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my backyard.
Speaker 3: So I told my dad and I'm like, yeah, you've
Speaker 3: read it paste if we put a diner on the
Speaker 3: side of the house, and he's like, you're insane.
Speaker 2: I'm like, but like it won't be open, you know,
Speaker 2: like I'm not going.
Speaker 3: To open it because it's owning laws, but just to
Speaker 3: keep it there, to keep it safe. So I mean,
Speaker 3: if you see a diner, I mean yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Mean that's another thing is you can put it somewhere
Speaker 1: just to get it up to a place exactly where
Speaker 1: you could have you know, people with money come through
Speaker 1: and see the potential exactly.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the biggest part of it is
Speaker 3: just showing that there's the potential and having like this
Speaker 3: idea and rendering of what it could be.
Speaker 1: You know, well, that's amazing. All right. Let everybody know
Speaker 1: how they can follow you on that particular journey.
Speaker 3: You can follow the diner at Little Falls Diner and
Speaker 3: that's on Instagram and then I am Dana M. Schaeffer
Speaker 3: on Instagram and Dana's Desserts.
Speaker 2: Got too many socials to run.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of socials. We'll always used to hear
Speaker 1: your voice, my friend, and see you. I hope all
Speaker 1: is well, and keep us posted on on all of
Speaker 1: the festivities and crazy stuff you do throughout.
Speaker 3: Absolutely next time I'm here, I will give you a
Speaker 3: cheesecake promise.
Speaker 2: Now you're talking like that's the only reason we wanted
Speaker 2: to hear. I'm no like you.
Speaker 1: That's how it works around here. They don't care about
Speaker 1: me either, They just won't. I get it all right,
Speaker 1: my friend will go and continue to do good things
Speaker 1: and be safe.
Speaker 2: Okay, appreciate you. Thanks so much.