Bobby, it is great to see you, baby.

Just start a a bit with the history of

your restaurant, Bobby. Bring viewers up

to speed how your family built it,

Bobby, into what it is today.

>> Well, it was it started in 1950 with my

grandparents. Um they start It was only

about a 40-seat restaurant. They took it

over and made it into the Mandarin House

restaurant.

In 1958, my parents bought it from them.

And they started the expansion at that

point. Um they did about four or five

different expansions. So, from 40 seats,

it now holds 1,200 seats.

And there's an outdoor venue that fits

another 600 for a big concerts and

things like that. So, at any moment,

especially in the summer and actually

with the outdoor venue, we could have

about 18 we can seat 18 people at one

time. 1,800 people.

>> So, 1,800 people, Bobby. I mean, is that

what you think separates your restaurant

from others? Just the sheer size and

scale? Is it certain dishes? Is it both?

What do you think?

>> I think it's a combination everything.

It becomes like um not only a dining

experience, but an entertainment

experience. And we kind of transform it.

Originally, it was just dining. And

as we grew, we we found that we could

use the additional spaces where there's

a upstairs function room where again,

outdoors was started during COVID. Then

we could use it the spaces for a big

entertainment. And we've been bringing

[clears throat]

in a lot of big name entertainments as

well. So, it's it's kind of like

somebody comes in and they feel like

they're in Disney World because there's

so much to do in one room. And each room

is a little bit different in terms of

the decor, too.

>> Uh Bobby, we are always looking for line

of sight into the consumer. And you

certainly have that. And I'm just

curious, you know, how healthy, Bobby,

how strong does the American consumer

look to you based on on what you see in

your business?

>> In terms of our our our

our public being able to still frequent

our restaurant, is that what you think

is important?

>> Exactly. Exactly.

>> Oh, yeah. um I think we've changed and

actually you do have to change over the

years because

the demographics change, the taste

change, so we started off with basic

Chinese food actually that people

uh

would not normally eat in the 1950s like

chow mein and chop suey, things like

that. And my fact parents took it over,

they added a Polynesian uh tilt to it.

So we had ended up with pupu platters,

uh

chicken fingers, spare ribs, which is

not really known as Chinese. So people

call it the um New England style Chinese

because of the fact that it has a lot of

influence with uh

with the Polynesian. Um and then we

started adding uh Thai Thai food when it

became very hot at the late '80s and

then we added sushi. And we're still

evolving in terms of things that we add

on because the the taste change in the

demographics change quite a bit um since

I started working there.

>> What about Bobby, food inflation? I'm

curious what kind of trends you're

seeing there. And and have you all had

to to raise prices, Bobby, to try and

offset some of that?

>> Yeah, we I and again restaurant tourists

tend to try to be

um conservative in terms of trying to

raise their prices, but there's a point

where you would have to. And we found

that if you raise prices while everybody

else is raising, it's kind of like

you're you're not going to be singled

out. Um

people that try to hold the line when

prices are going crazy and they can't

they don't want to raise prices, um they

they they could be caught in terms of

uh not being able to become profitable.

And

so I we we found that once prices start

to rise, we we have to go along with

what everybody else is doing. Otherwise

we we'll be behind

behind in terms of our profitability.

>> What about labor, Bobby? I'm curious,

are you able to to find and hire all all

the workers you need?

>> Um that's become much more of a

challenge. Years ago, you know, it was

basically a a Chinese uh

labor market for us and we had no

problem finding employment people coming

in for employment. Um, due to the

changes in terms of what the Chinese

immigrants want to do for work, they've

gone into construction, they've gone

into, you know, other types of work that

they find um a bit more appealing than

the long hours in a restaurant. So,

we've found that it's the labor pool has

shrunk and so we're going outside of the

normal Chinese uh labor market.

>> What about GLP-1 drugs, Bobby? I'm

curious. You see any impact from that in

your restaurant? You see, I don't know,

are diners ordering smaller portions,

Bobby? Maybe fewer appetizers?

>> Um, we've been fortunate. We've kept our

portions basically the same, so people

have been able to just order and because

our portions tend to be on the large

side, they can save it for another meal

or they can feed quite a bit at the

table when they do dine here. So, we've

been fortunate in terms of our model

hasn't changed. Um

we've kept the same size portions and

people just either share more or they

ended up using it for more than one

one uh dinner, so.

>> In the documentary, Bobby, just final

question, you did talk about the

possibility of downsizing. I'm curious,

you know, what does the future of your

family restaurant look like, Bobby? And

if you did downsize, would that make it

feel, I don't know, anyway less unique,

less special?

>> Um, no, well, we're looking at the

future and we didn't want to get caught

where we wake up one day and we can't do

this and we're stuck with a large

restaurant. So, we've kind of like put

our plans and planted the seeds for when

the time comes and we're where the

family's getting a little bit too old,

if you want to put it that way, as well

as the next generation not being as

involved in the restaurant as

we were. Um, so our goal was to get some

plans done and I guess plan A was to get

plans drawn up for apartment buildings

of this location and we would downsize

in one of the apartment buildings. So,

instead of 50,000 sq ft restaurant, we

end up with maybe a 20,000 sq ft

restaurant. And that was plan A and in

terms of keeping all my employees, a lot

of the employees were uh getting a

little nervous when we said we were

going to close and downsize and that was

a few years ago. So, plan A was to

have downsized but we'd have satellite

restaurants um that we can all we can

employ all the other restaurants uh

employees rather. So, that no one would

lose their job. And as well as that, we

were going to give uh the opportunity

for the employees that have been so

loyal to us to to buy shares and

participate in ownership in all those

little satellite restaurants. So, that's

where we are now. We've opened a couple.

Um naturally, that was plan A to be able

to funnel the employees to all these

other locations but because we haven't

been able to get our permits quite yet

but they're still doing the due

diligence in the in the town, um we've

found that we

kept our workforce here and I was

scrambling to get additional workforce

for the satellite restaurants.

>> Bobby, so good to have you on the show

today. Thanks for your time. Appreciate

it.

>> No, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Thank you.