Speaker 1: Teddy Saraphine Leonard, owner of real In. You can find
Speaker 1: out all about them at real i n Malibu dot
Speaker 1: com reel in Malibu dot com. Teddy, welcome to the
Speaker 1: Fork Report.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: So please tell us tell us where about For those
Speaker 1: that don't know real In there in Malibu, tell us
Speaker 1: about that? Uh and uh? What's what? Where you are
Speaker 1: left right now? After the horrific circumstances of January and
Speaker 1: the fires.
Speaker 3: Well, the reel in where we were located was right
Speaker 3: just west of Topanga Canyon on Pacific Coast Highway, and
Speaker 3: my husband has had the store for thirty seven years
Speaker 3: and we had a big, you know, old neon sign.
Speaker 3: We were a fish shack across the street from a
Speaker 3: very popular surf spot on Topanga and we had puns
Speaker 3: on the sign. Every day we would change the puns, yes.
Speaker 1: And if you are local, you know.
Speaker 2: Them quite well exactly.
Speaker 3: And what was funny was, you know, each day, different
Speaker 3: screenwriters going into work. People would call us and give
Speaker 3: us ideas for the puns for the sign, and if
Speaker 3: we used one, we would buy them dinner. And it
Speaker 3: was really fun because people would say, I mean, some
Speaker 3: people weren't even customers. They just said they knew when
Speaker 3: they saw the sign they were out of the city.
Speaker 3: They were heading into Malibu. It was like we were
Speaker 3: sort of the gateway to the Malibu and that sign
Speaker 3: meant a lot to a lot of people. In fact,
Speaker 3: the firemen after everything burnt down were adamant about can
Speaker 3: we get up there and change and put up some signs.
Speaker 3: We just want to give people that hope again, like
Speaker 3: that it's going to come back. Because it was a
Speaker 3: iconic place. It was a place where a lot of
Speaker 3: families came. They celebrated birthdays, they celebrated death, they celebrated weddings, births.
Speaker 3: It was one gentleman send in a picture of himself
Speaker 3: as a baby with his father on the reel in deck,
Speaker 3: and then he sent in a picture of himself that
Speaker 3: his baby on the real in deck, and generations knew
Speaker 3: the restaurant and knew it well, and we were blessed
Speaker 3: to be a part of the community in a bigger
Speaker 3: way than we even knew. In an odd way, the restaurant,
Speaker 3: you know, burning down as quickly and as visibly as
Speaker 3: it did, opened just these gates of people telling us
Speaker 3: what a profound impact the restaurant had had on their
Speaker 3: family and people called us crying, and we immediately started
Speaker 3: to go fund me for our kitchen crew because most
Speaker 3: of our crew has been with us over thirty years.
Speaker 3: Think about that, over thirty years. I mean they were
Speaker 3: family and they actually were family. They were all interrelated
Speaker 3: from a small town in Wahaka who did a weaving
Speaker 3: for us that was hanging in the restaurant that said
Speaker 3: real in because you know, we funded the town, I
Speaker 3: guess they just so that was our main concern and
Speaker 3: when everything happened, we had to evacuate our home as
Speaker 3: well here in Tapanga, so we found ourselves in Airbnb
Speaker 3: and mar Vista, not really knowing what to do in
Speaker 3: The first call that came in was the BBC London
Speaker 3: and that was within hours of the burning, and we
Speaker 3: started to gofund me and today we have raised over
Speaker 3: two hundred thousand dollars for our crew and every penny
Speaker 3: of it has gone into their pockets. And Wow, I'm
Speaker 3: really so touched and grateful. From all around the world.
Speaker 3: We've gotten donations from Istanbul, from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, Ireland,
Speaker 3: you know, one man sent in a thousand dollars from
Speaker 3: the UK and he said, it's my first stop when
Speaker 3: I get to Los Angeles. I always make sure that
Speaker 3: I get to you guys, And so we had it
Speaker 3: was just I said to my husband, after thirty seven years,
Speaker 3: what a wonderful way to find out that something you've
Speaker 3: given so much of your time in your life too
Speaker 3: has had a good impact on the world. You know,
Speaker 3: you like to know that at this.
Speaker 1: Age, at your own funeral kind of exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: And we're in our seventy I just turned seventy and
Speaker 3: my husband's seventy six, and you know, people could say
Speaker 3: you're going to rebuild, and we wanted to come back,
Speaker 3: and we've had set in I er say, oh, we
Speaker 3: can come and make it look exactly as it was. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 3: but thirty seven years later. I mean a lot of
Speaker 3: the old surfboards he had in the raptors were from
Speaker 3: over one hundred years ago, like the first lifeguards in
Speaker 3: Santa Monica. I mean, he collects that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But now it's gone.
Speaker 2: You can't.
Speaker 3: I don't know that we'll be able to rebuild. We're
Speaker 3: still waiting to hear from the State parks what their
Speaker 3: plan is for Lower to Panga and for the Pch area.
Speaker 3: They don't even know. I think they're still staging. They
Speaker 3: were staging the EPA clean up by the end of April,
Speaker 3: they're supposed to be done with that. They were staging
Speaker 3: it at our site where the restaurant was. And then
Speaker 3: now the Army Corps of Engineer Years is going in
Speaker 3: and we don't really honestly know what's going to happen next.
Speaker 3: So we were really truly so grateful to everyone who
Speaker 3: gave money for our crew, because a lot of these folks,
Speaker 3: with the current climate, even though they're legal, are terrified
Speaker 3: of going out and applying for jobs. Sure, and they've
Speaker 3: had this job for over thirty years. A couple of
Speaker 3: people have never worked.
Speaker 2: Anywhere else in their lives, and we take care of
Speaker 2: our family.
Speaker 3: They took care of us during COVID, and we took
Speaker 3: care of them. The PPC we got the loan and
Speaker 3: we gave that to them because we were okay.
Speaker 1: You know, I'd like to give that out teddy to
Speaker 1: those people. Is it still is the GoFundMe still active?
Speaker 2: Yes, it is.
Speaker 3: They're still active, and you can I think there's a
Speaker 3: link on our website realin maildu dot com. So if
Speaker 3: people would like to donate to our crew, we're still
Speaker 3: dispersing funds to them. It's been going on since the
Speaker 3: data fire started, and these a lot of our guys
Speaker 3: that have not been able to find work. This is
Speaker 3: how we, you know, we've been able to keep them
Speaker 3: the rent paid in the food.
Speaker 1: Real in Malibu dot com obviously R e e l
Speaker 1: in Malibu dot com. You can also go to go
Speaker 1: fundme and just search for real in Malibu Fire Recovery,
Speaker 1: but it's very easy to go to reel in Malibu
Speaker 1: dot com. Teddy Saraphine Leonard, owner of real in you
Speaker 1: know it there in Malibu. The website is Real r
Speaker 1: e E l in Malibu dot com. If you haven't
Speaker 1: been there, it's hard to think of you as a Southlander.
Speaker 1: There is a go funder go fundme page rather as well.
Speaker 1: GoFundMe dot com look for real in Malibu Fire Recovery
Speaker 1: or you can find a link at the real in
Speaker 1: Malibu dot com website, and that is going entirely to
Speaker 1: those that work there, the crew, the family that Teddy
Speaker 1: was talking about. So Teddy you're wrestling, you and your
Speaker 1: husband wrestling with rebuilding. You talk about, you know, the
Speaker 1: things that were that hung on the walls, the things
Speaker 1: that have been collected over the many years that reel
Speaker 1: In has been there. I would, you know, respectfully say
Speaker 1: that everything up on those walls was new at one
Speaker 1: time or went up you know, went up there.
Speaker 3: Yes, some of them one hundred years ago, but yes.
Speaker 1: But you know what I'm saying, It was new to
Speaker 1: you guys, or you gathered it and you put it
Speaker 1: on the wall. And I see it more personally, being
Speaker 1: kind of a philosophical guy, I see that place as
Speaker 1: a mirror of you guys, and the people that have
Speaker 1: worked there and the people that have frequented it, and
Speaker 1: and that it's really you guys. All those things were
Speaker 1: things that brought joy to your husband or to you
Speaker 1: that made you think, oh, it's put it up on
Speaker 1: the wall or somebody sending something in, and.
Speaker 3: Oh, yeah, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's the spirit of that family you guys created there,
Speaker 1: and not the walls themselves anymore than a church, you know,
Speaker 1: is God. So it's like, I hope whatever you guys
Speaker 1: end up doing that those places are important. They they're
Speaker 1: important to see. They're important to know that they exist
Speaker 1: and that families are in there. And I'm not saying
Speaker 1: corporations are bad, but you.
Speaker 3: Know, I know I think the small business, You're correct.
Speaker 3: I think the small business, the mom and pop shops
Speaker 3: are what makes a community unique. It was one of
Speaker 3: the things that made Malibu, it.
Speaker 2: Makes Malibu so unique, is that there aren't.
Speaker 3: Big corporations coming in. There are few now, but you
Speaker 3: have you know, people come in, they know our crew,
Speaker 3: they've been there thirty something years, and they say hello
Speaker 3: to them, and they you know people, we have celebrities
Speaker 3: that stand in line with surfers, that stand in line
Speaker 3: with executives. You know, it was all walks of life,
Speaker 3: and everybody was comfortable there and everyone was It feels
Speaker 3: like it's theirs, you know, like like they belong there
Speaker 3: and it's their home. I did have one funny thing, well,
Speaker 3: a couple of funny things happened, and I think it
Speaker 3: was Bordon Ramsay came through, David Beckham Broun through and
Speaker 3: he mentioned the cooks, would you like me to come
Speaker 3: back and cook? They didn't know who he was. They
Speaker 3: like that, I'm liking you. No, we're not letting you
Speaker 3: back exactly exactly, and then you know, you know, and
Speaker 3: then similarly that time, you know, I said to our manager,
Speaker 3: we had cameras in the restaurant, obviously, and I happened
Speaker 3: to be looking at them. I said, just guys reaching
Speaker 3: in the window and grabbing cups and things. You might
Speaker 3: want to keep an eye on him. He goes, you
Speaker 3: want me to keep an eye on David Beckham. I said, no, no,
Speaker 3: he can have all the cups. He wants to know
Speaker 3: that's mine, but.
Speaker 1: You call me, I will punish him personally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3: It was really cute. It was really cute because you
Speaker 3: would have you know, there was a booth, a certain
Speaker 3: booth in the restaurant that from time to time Dylan
Speaker 3: would sit in and he would bring someone with them,
Speaker 3: and they were very nondescript, and they would the person
Speaker 3: would stand in line for them, and you'd stand in line.
Speaker 3: You'd order your food, and you'd go back to your place.
Speaker 3: You'd get your drinks and you go back to where
Speaker 3: we're sitting and we'd call your name. And it was
Speaker 3: great because our system was so bad that if you
Speaker 3: could recognize your name, you knew you were a regular
Speaker 3: when the cook would say that your was ready, it's
Speaker 3: like your orders ready. And people knew, they just knew.
Speaker 3: And it was so much a part of the community
Speaker 3: that I felt sorrier for our customers than I did
Speaker 3: for my husband and myself, because this is where we
Speaker 3: had people that during COVID too, came every local loyals
Speaker 3: came every week and they got their food, they said,
Speaker 3: in the parking lot. And there was someone sent us
Speaker 3: a video of a seagull trying to pack its way
Speaker 3: through the windshield to get the food off the dashboard
Speaker 3: of a car that was eating in the parking lot.
Speaker 2: And you know, to give you an idea.
Speaker 3: Our crew the first thing during COVID when we were
Speaker 3: paying them out of our savings because there was no
Speaker 3: PPPs or any of that yet, and they said, we
Speaker 3: want to give you our money, our salaries back. We
Speaker 3: don't want to take money from you. Guys. Well, this
Speaker 3: is happening, and I just broke down because I also
Speaker 3: sell real estate. You know, We're fine, and it's just
Speaker 3: that is the kind of heart these people that work
Speaker 3: for us half that's their soul. They when this happened,
Speaker 3: the restaurant burned it down. They found out where we
Speaker 3: were at our you know Airbnb. We weren't at home,
Speaker 3: and they came there and they said, what can we
Speaker 3: do for you? Can we come to your house?
Speaker 2: Can we take care of you somehow?
Speaker 1: Right now we're talking with Teddy Seraphine Leonard. She's the
Speaker 1: owner of real In. You must know it there in Malibu,
Speaker 1: seeing it as you drive the coast, which we are
Speaker 1: blessed and incredibly lucky to have here in southern California.
Speaker 1: It's the only thing worth the Texas, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: And I wanted her to talk a little bit more
Speaker 1: about the reel In because this is and has been
Speaker 1: an important part of the food scene and the comfort
Speaker 1: that food brings to southern California. Keep in mind, you
Speaker 1: can find out more at reel in Malibu r e
Speaker 1: e l in Malibu dot com. There's a link there
Speaker 1: for a GoFundMe page that goes directly to the workers
Speaker 1: that have been working there for a long time. You
Speaker 1: said some like thirty years.
Speaker 2: Yes, and fair too.
Speaker 3: The employees were there when my husband got the restaurant
Speaker 3: thirty seven years ago.
Speaker 2: Wow, And so they've been there longer.
Speaker 3: Than he has, and they're all sort of she's married
Speaker 3: to each other, and it's just it's kind of a
Speaker 3: unique story and that it is family.
Speaker 1: So you were telling you one of the things that
Speaker 1: stood out that was very sweet to me, Teddy. You
Speaker 1: were talking about how, you know, the famous, the rich,
Speaker 1: we're standing next to surfers and you know, politicians and whatever,
Speaker 1: and food is the equalizer in that. I love that.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a fancy place, but equalized everyone.
Speaker 3: Oh, it really did. And it was funny because we
Speaker 3: would also get people that were going to you know,
Speaker 3: large galas and Malibu and they'd say, oh, we're stopping
Speaker 3: here to eat first, because they just you know, have
Speaker 3: these little finger things at the gatherings and we want
Speaker 3: a plate full of food, and our crew we would
Speaker 3: have to kind of say, guys, you don't want to
Speaker 3: keep throwing food away. They would overheat people's plates like
Speaker 3: they were at their own home in Mohaka. You know,
Speaker 3: we tried everything this long now, like okay, two scoops
Speaker 3: of that and two scoops of that with this particular spoof.
Speaker 3: None of it worked. They just did it like it
Speaker 3: was their mother trying to fatten them up, and it
Speaker 3: was hilarious.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we couldn't.
Speaker 3: That was one thing. And just they everything was fresh,
Speaker 3: Everything was made on site every day. The fish was
Speaker 3: delivered fresh every single day, the same fish vendors that
Speaker 3: were delivering the Maestro's and Thenovu and the other restaurants
Speaker 3: the same fish, not the same price when we solved it.
Speaker 3: But we didn't have table claws or waiters or any
Speaker 3: of that. But we had really good fresh fish. And
Speaker 3: they made up the chipotle sauce, they made up the salsa,
Speaker 3: they made up all the spices for the caju and
Speaker 3: they did that. We were laughing, and I so I'd
Speaker 3: love to get the recipes. We talked about doing a
Speaker 3: cookbook and putting the recipes and raise more money.
Speaker 2: For the crew.
Speaker 3: And you know, they would grab handfuls of spices and
Speaker 3: you can't really quantify that.
Speaker 2: So I was trying to find them.
Speaker 3: If we do a cookbook, we need to have actual
Speaker 3: measurements on what you put in. And that's not how
Speaker 3: I mean. It was all very It was very much
Speaker 3: like I said, a mom and pop place. People knew us,
Speaker 3: they knew our crew, our crew knew them, and everybody
Speaker 3: felt like they owned it. You know. That was one
Speaker 3: thing my husband loved. It's a culture he set up.
Speaker 3: This belongs to the community, and you know, people would
Speaker 3: walk in and decide with their group, oh, we're going
Speaker 3: to move these tables over here and move those chairs
Speaker 3: over there, and you know, they would do whatever they
Speaker 3: wanted to do. They'd bring their dogs out on the
Speaker 3: patio on the weekends and it was just it was
Speaker 3: lovely to have that kind of culture in that kind
Speaker 3: of gathering place for the community. And I hope even
Speaker 3: if we don't do it, I hope someone else does.
Speaker 3: But our crew has all come back to us and said, look,
Speaker 3: we're going to you know, I said, I want you
Speaker 3: guys to get jobs because we don't know how long
Speaker 3: this is going to take, and I don't know how
Speaker 3: much more I can raise the GoFundMe.
Speaker 2: And we've got a way to.
Speaker 3: See because our income obviously stopped when the restaurant down.
Speaker 2: And that they work for some of them.
Speaker 3: A couple of them. We have them coming up and
Speaker 3: doing yard work for us, just to keep people yeah yeah,
Speaker 3: and paying and being able to pay them. All of
Speaker 3: our crew was legal. Over the years, we had helped
Speaker 3: them get their green cards and their citizenship, but still
Speaker 3: they're concerned with what's happening, and I'm concerned for people
Speaker 3: with what's happening right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're hearing a lot of that obviously, and that's
Speaker 1: been something that has been throughout the food industry for
Speaker 1: a long time. And as I said earlier on the show,
Speaker 1: if there's people you don't want here because they're bad,
Speaker 1: then there should be people that you do want here
Speaker 1: because they're good, and you know, and being able to
Speaker 1: decide and have a system is the best way, in
Speaker 1: the reasonable way. Just one more moment here, Heaven forbid.
Speaker 1: But you guys deserve your time too. You put in
Speaker 1: a lot of love, so you deserve your time too
Speaker 1: and are allowed for that. And hopefully someone takes that
Speaker 1: legacy with your guidance. What do you want people to
Speaker 1: remember or think? What do you I know we right
Speaker 1: now go to really in Malibu dot com click the
Speaker 1: link for the GoFundMe to help pay for the workers.
Speaker 1: It's not going to you and your husband, it's going
Speaker 1: to your workers. But what do you want them to
Speaker 1: think about when they think about that neon sign of
Speaker 1: the you know, the fish jumping and something that we've
Speaker 1: seen in Malibu forever what do you want them to
Speaker 1: remember and think about.
Speaker 3: The spirit of Malibu, the community of Malibu, and to
Speaker 3: Panga and the palisades that if you go to I
Speaker 3: hopefully still on our Instagram or our website. Many many
Speaker 3: people came forward with so many stories that I'd say
Speaker 3: the first two days, three actually two weeks after it
Speaker 3: burned down, I found myself I could only read two
Speaker 3: a day because I would just start crying. I was
Speaker 3: so moved by what other people felt they had lost.
Speaker 3: I mean, I know what my husband and I lost,
Speaker 3: but it was more impactful to us that all these
Speaker 3: other the community lost. It was a community loss.
Speaker 2: And yeah, so if.
Speaker 3: We get to rebuild, We're hoping our son, Jack, my
Speaker 3: step son, my husband's son, Jack is in the food industry.
Speaker 3: We're trying to convince him to come down and maybe,
Speaker 3: you know, take the lead on this because he does
Speaker 3: manage restaurants in Seattle. But not sure, not sure. I mean,
Speaker 3: I don't know what's happening. And I feel very badly
Speaker 3: for the restaurants in Malibu. And if people your listeners
Speaker 3: get a chance somehow they get to Malibou, or that
Speaker 3: they take the one on one to Malibu canyon and
Speaker 3: go over. There are wonderful restaurants that really need your
Speaker 3: patronage right now that are going through such a hard time.
Speaker 3: Their businesses are down by like eighty percent from last year,
Speaker 3: and ours burned down in a weird way. We were
Speaker 3: blessed because we had insurance and you know, otherwise we
Speaker 3: would be going through our savings like we did during COVID.
Speaker 3: And I think that's something that if people go to
Speaker 3: the beach, it's lovely. You know, maybe not in the water,
Speaker 3: but look at it.
Speaker 1: Look at it, take pictures, don't stip in it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I'm not. The reports are great, but
Speaker 3: you know there's some lovely places like oh see that.
Speaker 3: Just these restaurants really they need us right now. It'd
Speaker 3: be nice to see people go out and patronize them.
Speaker 1: Well, it is my job to ring that bell every Saturday,
Speaker 1: and I'll continue to do it. My friend, I appreciate
Speaker 1: you that you came on and took the time. I
Speaker 1: know you've got a lot going on. Please keep us
Speaker 1: posted on any changes, and my producer and I will
Speaker 1: make sure that everybody knows what's happening. And if I
Speaker 1: can say, one last tip is to your step son.
Speaker 1: Every time it's raining there and it's sunny here, Colin,
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful right now. Oh it's raining.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, honey, that's so horrible. It is. It's
Speaker 1: eighty five here right now. Well, oh, why are you
Speaker 1: coming through your windows? Oh my god, that sounds horrible.
Speaker 3: And then that's hilarious. It's true. Well, he grew up here,
Speaker 3: so he knows what the weather's like here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't remind him, you're right.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you so much for that, and thanks for
Speaker 3: having me.
Speaker 1: Teddy A. Seraphine Leonard, owner of reel in and again.
Speaker 1: You can find everything out at real in Malibu dot
Speaker 1: com reel in Malibu dot com