A Main Street New Jersey Gourmet Bistro
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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until i hit the stage
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what's up everybody mike cam here
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welcome to another episode of greetings
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from the garden state we are here in
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madison new jersey at harvest bistro
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with the owner chushar patel tushar
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welcome hey nice to have nice to be here
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nice to have you nice to have you on
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well nice to have you here and do your
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video tape live exactly great to be on
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the show yeah no i'm very excited you
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were on my old my other show the morning
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spotlight that was a year ago now um and
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we've been long yeah it's crazy that
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it's been that long we've been talking
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about coming here to harvest bistro and
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doing something with you here so i'm
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glad we were able to finally make that
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happen yeah yeah real excited about it
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absolutely me too so let's learn a
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little bit about harvest bistro so tell
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us what harvest bistro is what kind of
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stuff you guys have all that kind of
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stuff so here we go we started back in
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uh august 22nd in 96.
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so it wasn't called harvest b show this
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whole time it was called on a roll where
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gourmet deli and catering business
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and i would probably choose to say more
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of a gourmet deli back then um but
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shortly after being in business for
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about three four months um
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i realized i need to get into the
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catering end uh
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making sandwiches wasn't cutting it i
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wasn't going to pay the rent wasn't
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going to pay you know all the bills
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right so we had to um
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well i had to really initially within
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the first uh few months
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restructure some stuff and um get my
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name out there and the corporate and
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since we have so much in the area
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um it wasn't that difficult at all right
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so that um
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and it took off it took off because you
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know what i was personable i was there i
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was greeting the people
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um going there physically
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handing out little samples and stuff
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right and then getting to talk to the
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people right away
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yeah no that's great so i find that
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interesting because i feel like now
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maybe i'm wrong because i don't have a
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background in the restaurant business or
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the food business or anything like that
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but i feel like people a lot of times go
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from the catering side to a restaurant
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as opposed you kind of went the the
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other way so you were trying to get
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maybe you know the the
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physical location was here and then was
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trying to expand and get the tentacles
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out into different communities and all
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that kind of stuff yeah correct yeah and
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um working with a lot of not-for-profits
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is great too right um you know i'm a big
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believer in giving because it always
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comes back tenfold right you know
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and um and it has you know the longevity
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of being here for almost 25 well past 25
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years at this point yeah you know right
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yeah absolutely so i mean
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another question i would have too is you
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know i feel like i can make a pretty
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good sandwich but then when do you
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decide to like hey i'm going to open up
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a place that like we're going to sell
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sandwiches like gourmet sandwiches i
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mean what goes into the thought process
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behind doing something like that just um
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wow that's an awesome question i've
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never been asked that so it's pretty why
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is your sandwich better than my sandwich
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and your restaurant quality type yeah
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it's from from the beginning right we've
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always um my my biggest thing is always
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using the freshest ingredients possible
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right
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um and that is something we've never
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strayed away from you know cooking our
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own you know proteins uh fresh
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vegetables possible all of that helped
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um not only just salads but also i mean
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sandwiches but salads as well right and
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then we used to do some uh you know like
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comfort food type things yeah uh which
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we still do
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um
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so
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the creating sandwiches
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is is a lot of fun right i agree yeah so
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it's it's pretty much like you come up
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with ideas and you know i have a test
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kitchen at home yeah which is just my
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kitchen
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yeah nowhere to you know yeah yeah it's
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not some huge elaborate right thing it's
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just me getting in the kitchen and
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saying hey what is in the fridge let's
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put a couple different things together
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and see what it is come back here try it
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out
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a couple of my regulars say hey try to
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sandwich out what do you think and you
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know and then it takes off from there
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right so and then we're always um we
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could take one protein and add
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a thousand different things to it yeah
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and turn you know turn it into a million
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different things yeah right yeah exactly
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it's
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variety right that's key yeah you know
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we just don't want to give you the same
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old board boring sandwich right you know
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ham turkey whatever yeah on a roll like
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this tomato mayonnaise right anybody can
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do that yeah
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you don't need to pay money to go do a
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sandwich like that and the other key is
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making your own dressings
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so
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not your mayonnaise mustard stuff like
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that but you know we make our own honey
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mustard we make our own balsamic
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vinaigrettes
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you know 95 of what you get on your
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plate is made here yeah which i think is
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awesome and why the quality which i mean
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i've eaten here before and i think the
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quality is just off the charts so maybe
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you may mention this in your previous
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answer but i just do want to
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touch on it again so it was on a roll to
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start which i think is a great name
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at what point do you rebrand into
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harvest bistro gotcha so here we go
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we're
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at the 21st anniversary
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and it just got to a place where you
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know what i wanted to open for dinner
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yeah
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and you're not going on a roll for
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dinner no right because you're thinking
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all right well i'm just gonna go on a
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pair of shorts and not that we're fine
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dining or anything like that but you
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know we wanted what i i wanted to do was
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incorporate how i love to cook at home
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into the restaurant yeah and um you know
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hired a really good guy to to be my
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right hand man here because i want to
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come out of the kitchen as well right
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because if we're going into the
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restaurant i wanted to be the part of
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the front end you know the face behind
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as i had been over the years
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um so
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bringing walter on has been a an
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incredible addition to you know the
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harvest bistro team and he's still with
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me till today yeah um unfortunately we
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don't do dinner anymore
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from pandemic reasons yeah you know i i
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give this
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um i give a lot of things i do about
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three years in business to see where it
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takes off and all and we're going into
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our third year right it was growing but
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we got to a place where we had to pretty
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much just you know put on hold right now
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yeah yeah which is fine um you know we
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have talks about redoing some things um
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but we'll see
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so getting back to the harvest b show
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piece yeah um the name came through a
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lot of um
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you know just
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i'm a man of faith yeah right so prior
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meditation and all that stuff there was
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things i was going through in life
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um
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and you know during the time of harvest
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is the hardest time in the farmers
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you know yeah life life right so it's
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sun up some down working and that's
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pretty much what i did there was stuff i
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was going through uh mentally physically
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spiritually
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and um you know and then you reap
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yeah and that's where we're at right now
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right so you know we've we've navigated
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through so many different you know
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transitions um and i don't want to say
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recessions yeah i'll call those
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transitions housing market stock market
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911 unfortunately yeah you know and then
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my personal
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the things that i had to go through and
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then the lastly now we're still dealing
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with yeah which has been the longest and
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the most difficult right pandemic yeah
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exactly yeah and i think that's
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interesting too because it's
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i think you know you always hear about
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restaurants i mean i live in morristown
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you see old restaurants opening closing
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like within months sometimes right and
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here you are 25 years later still
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chugging along and going through all
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those things you ever kind of like take
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a step back and like reflect on how long
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you've been able to sustain some success
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because you know there's a lot of stuff
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going on here downtown madison i mean
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it's a bustling downtown area and here
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you are 25 years later now doing the
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greeting from the from the garden state
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podcast so congrats you made it you know
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i was hoping
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three you know three years into this i
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made
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it 25 yeah it speaks it speaks a lot um
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you know
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so
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what makes it easy if you love what you
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do yeah you keep doing it right i love
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it and i love seeing the expressions on
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people's faces you know yeah i love uh
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setting up for an event and everyone's
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talking
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in the middle of it say wow this is
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great go try that go try this
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you know
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it's just
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a wonderful feeling you know yeah and it
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keeps you going it really does you can
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have the worst day possible but then
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when someone tastes something that comes
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out of your own place
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and it changes you know the expression
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on their face
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it's it's just yeah it makes you feel
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good yeah it does yeah whether you're
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cooking at home i feel like or at a
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restaurant you still get like that same
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yeah you know thing and you're able to
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reach a broader audience and you know
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customer base than maybe me cooking out
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of my apartment's kitchen um but uh but
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yeah so do you have a like a culinary
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background or was this just something
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that you just said hey let's let's start
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it it's a hobby yeah i love to cook yeah
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you know i've been we started this
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actually i started cooking when i was
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about
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10 11 years old right uh i grew up with
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a family of great cooks you know
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everybody has signature dishes everyone
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has you know
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you name it we can cook it at home
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and
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it's just been great my father and i we
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took over all the holidays okay you know
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and we were doing thanksgiving was our
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biggest one yeah you know so prepping
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turkeys and all that stuff and you know
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we'd have
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anywhere from 35 to 45 people over for
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thanksgiving yeah so there you go
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there's my caterpillar it's a good
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practice you know yeah that's how i got
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my uh quantities going for catering
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right running that end of the business
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yeah yeah and so i mean the catering
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side is it go beyond maybe just like the
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standard menu here is it just got a
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different type of thing how does that
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work yeah it's um it's a completely
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different menu um but we also use our
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regular standard menu our lunch menus
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dinner menus and stuff like that right
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to add because there's things that
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people want to you know here perfect
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example our
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buffalo or you know balsamic cauliflower
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people love that they want to have that
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their party yeah it's tough to do it
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there just because um you know it comes
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flash right out of the deep fryer so to
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get that same experience back at home we
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have to you know rework it but it's such
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a huge hit yeah it really is so yeah
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we'll we'll do whatever and even those
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things not on our menu we will
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incorporate you know chef and i we have
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seven eight different backgrounds in
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cooking yeah so
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if we can't do we'll we'll tell you
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we'll be up front yeah yeah so i don't
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want to say i want to do something and
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not
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right not follow through yeah yeah the
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classic you don't want to oversell and
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under deliver you know that's with
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anything yeah awesome awesome all right
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so this has been great so far we're
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going to take a short break uh this is
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the greetings from the garden state
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podcast we're here with tushar patel at
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harvest bistro in madison new jersey i'm
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mike hamm we'll be right back
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it is time for this date in new jersey
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history on november 1st 1871 poet and
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author stephen crane was born in newark
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new jersey crane is best known for his
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novels the red badge of courage and
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maggie a girl of the streets and this is
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today in new jersey history
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what's up everybody we're back we're
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here at harvest bistro in madison new
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jersey we've got two shark patel i'm
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mike ham this is the greetings from the
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garden state podcast uh we just spent
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the beginning part of the show the first
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segment here talking about the
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background of harvest bistro the history
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of it the origin the origins of honor
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roll and kind of how you got yourself
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here today
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and we in those uh questions and those
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answers we talked a little bit about you
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know kind of events that you've had to
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to weather whether it be 911 like you
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said housing crisis stock market crashes
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and then obviously the pandemic so
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kind of take me through what it's been
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like trying to navigate over the last
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year and a half here at harvest bistro
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and your staff yeah it's um
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it was uh
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really unsettling to say in a nice way
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[Laughter]
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um so two days of just like pulling a
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hair out of my head and trying to figure
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out what am i going to do just buying a
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house you know and
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got a mortgage and you know other things
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going on
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and
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so sitting back so i have a great team
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of men that always speak into my life um
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mentors pastors
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uh things like that so and each one
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handles a different part of you know
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my life right um
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and so we just got together we spoke
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about it and you know he said hey time
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to restructure
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and so there was things that was
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that i wanted to do and incorporate in
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the business a long time ago a perfect
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example was family-style meals
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everyone's going to be home yeah and all
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we could do was take out
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right right so we changed our whole menu
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around in a couple of days
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you know
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to gear our menu to go our dinners to go
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yeah and it took off really well um a
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lot of the other restaurants probably
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about 50 in town um decided to
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you know take time off i guess i'm not
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sure i can't speak for them yeah or
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however they had to navigate through
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this
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um but what i did was and you know i
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didn't want to close at all yeah right i
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didn't want to put any of my staff out
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and that was my biggest key so having a
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sit down with them and say hey no one's
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going to lose their jobs we're going to
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keep pushing we're going to we're going
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to do energy and everything
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that you know what it takes to to you
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know service our community yeah
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and um to keep the business alive
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and you know like within the first few
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months we heard so many horror stories
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yeah people closing down just can't make
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it right things like that and you know
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the
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the government assistance was difficult
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to trying to get i'm sure
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i'm not the only one that had a problem
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yeah you know filing every other day and
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they didn't you know there was nothing
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set in place because no one was ready
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for this right right yeah so
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it was tough um
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but we did manage you know it was a slow
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turnaround
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um
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stressful as you can imagine right but
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we navigated through it yeah you know we
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all had each other's backs here
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and um you know we talked a lot about it
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and then what is the best of the best
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that we can do to get out to stay fresh
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for people to um you know
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to to get in here you know to keep the
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business thriving yeah exactly so right
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that was that was you know one of the
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biggest things and then we did a lot of
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work with uh the hospitals
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and other um
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you know not-for-profits too yeah
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so yeah awesome um so talk to me a
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little bit about maybe you know kind of
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you said you had a pivot i guess that
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was like the most popular word of all
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time in 2020 pretty much yeah um but
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talk to me about some maybe like you
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know you said you went family style
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meals what were some other things that
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maybe you had implemented that you think
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might be things that you're going to
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continue to use even once we pull
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through the other end of of covid and
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the pandemic and all that kind of stuff
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are there any other things just some of
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our standards our in-house standards
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without a doubt right you know making
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sure the tables are sanitized things
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like that that's most important the
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health of our staff the health of the
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people yeah right so you know when
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people see that you know
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they
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automatically like you know
15:21
when we tell customers that we're not
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closing down and stuff like that and a
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lot of them you know commented hey we
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know you're one of the best places to
15:28
eat in town number one and we know how
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clean you are
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you know and like even the health
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department says you know the same thing
15:35
about us which is awesome right
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so good good person to have in your
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corner yeah and then so again we
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increase our standard right our
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standards were set at a certain level
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right and we went above that yeah again
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so
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um that's something we'll definitely
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keep along uh our dinners to go again
15:51
we're still navigating through that
15:53
we're trying to figure out how we're
15:54
gonna
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open up for dinner yeah
15:56
um and keep you know
15:59
are we gonna keep that going or not yeah
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yeah you know like i mentioned in our
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first segment you know it was um or i
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didn't mention in the first segment i'm
16:05
not sure no i don't think we did i don't
16:07
think so so we we were at a two year
16:09
point of opening up for dinner and yeah
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getting into our third year and the
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pandemic happened right and i try to
16:13
usually
16:15
give a lot of changes a three year
16:17
period to see how it goes yeah yeah so
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it's not a quick decision
16:21
it stinks we're closing down yep
16:22
um
16:23
it takes time to build up you know new
16:26
menus and things like that yeah so
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it did well
16:30
and i believe our third year was going
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to be our breakthrough year and so we'd
16:34
like to really entertain that right once
16:37
things get settled and we could get some
16:38
of the workforce back in here yeah
16:40
absolutely so let's talk a little bit
16:41
about the workforce because you know
16:43
we've talked a little bit when we're
16:44
setting this up and you know various
16:46
conversations that we've had trying to
16:47
eventually get me here to do an episode
16:49
with you um and you know we talked about
16:52
basically you know yeah i think you said
16:54
you have yourself and maybe two other
16:56
people that are here
16:57
more than they you know yeah than maybe
16:59
they should be um and uh you know so
17:02
doing maybe seven days a week with the
17:03
catering side and the restaurant side so
17:05
what's that been like trying to navigate
17:07
that it's it's not it's not easy um you
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feel the tension sometimes yeah you know
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and it's just you know we just have to
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sit there and
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kick back and say hey
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you know we had to close the store down
17:19
early a few times right because we just
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can't do it all yeah you know on some
17:23
saturdays i just i have seven eight nine
17:26
ten eleven events going on right i don't
17:28
have time to you know
17:30
to handle both ends it's difficult
17:32
choice but we have to do it right and
17:34
you know what our customers you know
17:36
understand
17:37
so
17:38
that that's one of the things um
17:40
until we get our full workforce back
17:42
yeah we have to you know deal with that
17:44
right
17:45
yeah so talk to me a little bit about
17:46
maybe like from the catering side you
17:48
told me that that that is kind of taken
17:51
off um a little bit like do you think
17:52
that's just because people are finally
17:54
being like hey we can have a gathering
17:56
of more than
17:57
six people or whatever yeah without
17:59
question i believe you know there's a
18:00
there was a lot of anniversaries a lot
18:01
of birthdays a lot of special occasions
18:03
missed out right um so
18:06
we we're getting that and plus what's
18:09
current yeah you know graduations like
18:11
you wouldn't believe you know and
18:14
you know i calculated like the third
18:16
week in june i think
18:18
we did 23 events holy cow yeah yeah it
18:22
was nuts right how do you do that with
18:24
three basically three people it's it's a
18:26
lot of organization yeah and the good
18:29
thing was it wasn't all in the weekend
18:31
it was throughout the course of the week
18:33
yeah so we probably did about eight or
18:35
nine during the week and then the
18:36
balance on the weekend so we closed up a
18:38
couple days yeah you know right and we
18:40
just
18:41
you know pushed out to catering yeah so
18:44
you have to balance it out where the
18:45
finances are coming in and where they're
18:47
not right and not that the store doesn't
18:49
bring in you know this the
18:51
the gateway to catering is by eating
18:53
here yeah exactly you know like wow i
18:55
really like this place do you guys do
18:56
events type of thing right exactly so
18:59
that speaks more volume than you know
19:01
any advertising you could do right
19:02
exactly yeah if they like your stuff and
19:04
they want you to do your you know your
19:06
kids graduation party or whatever then
19:08
you know there you go i think that's
19:09
fantastic so um you know maybe kind of
19:12
progressing through this you know i know
19:14
you're talking about like the labor
19:15
force and all that kind of stuff but
19:16
kind of maybe where do you see
19:18
the
19:19
you know does the future look maybe the
19:22
way that it did like right before you
19:24
said the pandemic or do you think that
19:25
maybe you know kind of as you're seeing
19:27
the catering kind of take off and
19:29
different things like that do you see
19:31
maybe the approach to the business
19:32
changing at all
19:34
um i don't see an approach changing to
19:36
the business uh getting more staff
19:38
would be the biggest thing right right
19:41
and then we can go ahead and open up
19:42
fully like i'd like to do yeah um the
19:45
other thing that you know i have a
19:47
couple other
19:48
uh
19:49
men we've been talking about um opening
19:52
up more locations yeah so that's
19:55
something i think we will be focusing on
19:58
a lot in the next
19:59
12 to 18 months yeah um
20:02
we
20:03
have some set ideas yeah yeah it's just
20:06
a matter of um now really putting them
20:07
into effect now that right it's coming
20:09
to an end i believe yeah you know
20:12
i'm hoping
20:13
[Laughter]
20:16
so
20:18
with with that um it you know we we we
20:22
really need to build a serious workforce
20:23
behind that oh for sure yeah you can't
20:25
have more locations with still three
20:27
people the goal is to have one central
20:28
location yep uh 80 75 80 of uh the goods
20:33
coming out out of there and branching
20:35
out to a dozen other locations yeah yeah
20:38
that's that's the goal right so i i find
20:40
this just very interesting um you know
20:43
because you mentioned you know some
20:44
places you know just you know in my own
20:46
community watching some places kind of
20:48
put the pedal to the metal a little bit
20:50
like hey we're going to adapt and change
20:52
and do different things and other places
20:53
kind of you know going recluse and and
20:56
holding on being like we're going to
20:57
shut down for a little bit whether the
20:59
first part of the storm you know back in
21:00
early 2020
21:02
and then obviously you were a pedal to
21:04
the metal guy and do you think that that
21:06
was a huge difference maker and kind of
21:07
where you are today and being able to
21:09
weather that storm yeah i think um we
21:12
gained
21:13
serious confidence from our community
21:15
yeah you know knowing that you know
21:17
stuff like this isn't going to set us
21:19
back right it's just going to help push
21:20
us forward to get our product out even
21:22
more yeah and you know even better
21:24
quality as possible yeah you know it was
21:26
tough because supplies were really low
21:28
oh yeah right and we're still dealing
21:30
with a lot of that yep and we're seeing
21:31
such a huge increase
21:33
in price for goods yep you know it's
21:36
it's gone up literally 50 yeah you know
21:39
i had to raise prices
21:40
and you know
21:42
cost of wages gone up right you know
21:44
cost of food everything's gone up yep so
21:47
it's it's inevitable yeah of what's
21:50
gonna happen in the future exactly so
21:52
awesome yeah no that was great so we're
21:53
gonna take our second break our last
21:55
break of this episode because we just
21:57
were talking about community i think
21:58
that's a perfect segue into our next
21:59
segment which is going to be all about
22:01
the community um so tushar patel mike
22:04
ham this is the greetings from the
22:04
garden state podcast we are here at
22:06
harvest bistro in madison new jersey
22:08
we'll be right back
22:11
it is time for your new jersey fun fact
22:13
of the day did you know that during the
22:15
revolutionary war more battles were
22:17
fought in the state of new jersey than
22:19
any other state and that is your new
22:21
jersey fun fact of the day
22:27
what's up everybody welcome back to the
22:29
greetings from the garden state podcast
22:30
i'm mike hamm we're here with tushar
22:31
patel at harvest bistro in madison new
22:34
jersey uh so we've just gone through the
22:36
background of harvest bistro and on a
22:38
roll at the beginning the 25 years that
22:40
you've been here
22:42
in madison and then here at the uh the
22:44
second segment we talked a lot about
22:46
current events for lack of a better term
22:48
and kind of navigating that and what you
22:49
guys been doing
22:51
but usually with the third segment we
22:52
like to do on the show is kind of see
22:55
the tie-ins that you have and the
22:57
relationship that you have with the
22:58
community um so we kind of finished at
23:00
the end of the last segment uh talking a
23:02
little bit about how the way that you
23:04
guys weathered the you know covid and
23:06
the pandemic and all that kind of stuff
23:08
built a lot of trust and faith with the
23:10
community around here um so let's talk
23:12
about that a little bit you know because
23:14
obviously you've been here for 25 years
23:16
but obviously you know like last year
23:17
was an opportunity for you to build even
23:19
more trust and faith with the community
23:21
so talk to me a little bit about that
23:22
yeah it was huge um to have that
23:24
community presence uh throughout last
23:26
year and going into this year yeah um a
23:29
lot of people have moved out a lot of
23:30
people have moved in
23:32
right so
23:33
our
23:34
our name is you know
23:37
it's out there right it really is and i
23:39
don't i don't like to boast much but
23:41
it's funny it's like
23:43
you know one person posts i love this
23:44
place love this place all that stuff
23:46
it's just great to hear that from the
23:48
community and you know to be well
23:49
respected right you know and i think
23:52
those are key obviously to running any
23:54
business yeah you know food insurance
23:56
businesses title businesses yes you name
23:59
it you know um
24:00
and you have to give back that's huge
24:02
yeah you know because as business owners
24:05
um
24:06
we
24:07
we we we don't set
24:09
anything in in stone but we are like
24:12
main street you know and we
24:14
maintree bids right so we have to
24:17
support those that support us yeah right
24:20
and sometimes it it does like
24:22
it gets frustrating because you get the
24:24
same person coming in over and over
24:25
again right and
24:28
and you don't see anything from it from
24:30
the one person but then you have to look
24:32
on the outside of it right exactly
24:33
because that one person's coming
24:36
you know faithfully to do their job
24:38
right but we don't know how many other
24:39
people are getting it it's getting in
24:41
front of yeah exactly right so and
24:43
that's something i learned a while ago
24:46
right after being in business a couple
24:47
years saying all right well it's the
24:48
same person yeah because you know what
24:50
they're doing the job because that's
24:51
what that's on their heart right right
24:53
and the community's on my heart yeah
24:55
exactly so i got to give back right
24:56
right and it's it's it's done tremendous
24:58
for us yeah right
25:00
um
25:01
through churches through schools
25:03
not-for-profits uh you name it and we're
25:06
always willing you know the madison
25:08
education foundation i'm big on that you
25:10
know i'm big with the arts too yeah you
25:12
know and
25:15
anyone that wants to come in and have a
25:16
conversation about you know hey we're
25:18
doing a fundraiser
25:20
give me your bottom line right what do
25:22
you need yeah you know what do you need
25:24
how much can you spend
25:26
how high and can we go things like that
25:28
we're willing to work with you right you
25:30
know because
25:31
getting our name out there is important
25:33
right exactly
25:34
and it comes back it really does right
25:36
and i've seen it over and over again
25:38
yeah you know through all these little
25:39
you know many setbacks we've had
25:41
throughout the years
25:42
and um
25:44
you know it just creates a greater sense
25:45
of presence in town and community yeah
25:48
yeah exactly and i think one of the one
25:50
of the other things that you mentioned i
25:51
think in our first segment was you know
25:53
doing some stuff with the local
25:54
hospitals and all that kind of stuff
25:56
so talk to me about the importance i
25:58
mean it could be it's probably a very
26:00
obvious answer but the importance of
26:01
making sure that you did you know uh
26:04
give back to those those types of places
26:06
and those types of people right they
26:07
were they were working endless hours
26:10
yeah i have two older sisters that are
26:12
both in the medical field yeah so i
26:14
heard firsthand
26:16
from them how it was right you know and
26:18
it wasn't
26:20
an easy time for them you know and the
26:22
pictures don't do them justice no they
26:25
don't because you didn't see when they
26:26
got home yeah you know how exhausted
26:28
they were and how they had to come home
26:30
to their families and they had to go
26:32
through a separate process of
26:34
re-entering their
26:35
home yeah you know like literally taking
26:38
their clothes off from work like in the
26:40
garage or wherever they had their exact
26:42
little area to keep it separate from you
26:44
know the family the kid yeah especially
26:46
you know the kids right so
26:49
um
26:50
you know i saw that with my sisters yeah
26:52
right
26:53
and it was just like wow you know it's
26:56
serious
26:57
enough that they have to go through all
26:59
these protocols yeah right so to give
27:01
back and to help them and
27:03
you know we worked with uh there was a
27:06
flag 2020 um not-for-profit worked in
27:09
the area two women one from madison
27:10
someone from uh chatham put this great
27:13
great partnership together with a bunch
27:15
of restaurants yeah to help us stay
27:17
afloat right and they did a phenomenal
27:20
job raised an incredible amount of uh
27:24
money to help support us to help you
27:26
know feed the the you know frontline
27:28
workers yeah and you know it just didn't
27:30
include the uh hospitals don't forget
27:32
you know
27:33
the emts the police department fire
27:35
department right part of that you know
27:37
they worked endless hours because
27:38
exactly you know they were on call
27:40
non-stop right so
27:43
we did whatever we could for them yeah
27:45
you know and
27:46
even like funeral parlors
27:48
yeah you know right so yeah
27:51
definitely and you know i think that
27:53
that to me that's one of those things
27:55
and i'm a firm believer and it seems
27:56
like you are and i think you mentioned
27:58
it too that the more good that you put
28:01
out into the world not that you're doing
28:03
it for a purpose but eventually the good
28:04
starts to come back to you because once
28:06
you start surrounding yourself with
28:07
people like you just mentioned you know
28:09
those are the people that you want to
28:11
surround yourself with you know that
28:13
just helps everybody kind of row the
28:15
boat in the same direction yeah yeah
28:17
yeah there's a there's a lot of you know
28:19
changes coming up you know
28:21
i think
28:22
the pandemic
28:24
you know it changed a lot of people's
28:26
views yeah ways of thinking sure
28:29
and
28:31
you know we'll help navigate through
28:32
that yeah you know
28:34
do we
28:35
like to do the things that we're asked
28:36
to do no but we understand
28:39
that there's a need for it exactly and
28:42
to keep the community safe you know
28:44
we'll go above and beyond yeah right
28:46
also i mean can we talk a little bit
28:47
about just like you know being on this
28:49
main drag here what's what's the name of
28:51
this road again i always forget in here
28:53
main street that's yeah
28:55
what a host
28:57
but talk to me about maybe like being on
28:59
this main street right here in madison
29:01
you know and just be like does that that
29:03
obviously must play into the community
29:05
aspect because there's always any time i
29:07
drive through here there's always like a
29:08
lot of stuff going on i feel like being
29:11
a part of that we do have a lot of you
29:12
know community events that go on
29:14
constantly between parades
29:16
uh bottle hill day which is coming up
29:18
uh this weekend and then just a lot of
29:21
you know car shows we used to do an art
29:23
show you know
29:25
it's sad that we haven't been able to
29:26
see that but it's good that it's coming
29:28
back yeah and it'll be stronger than
29:29
ever right now proper protocols have
29:31
been put in place
29:33
um and so and so everyone can enjoy the
29:35
event and get back
29:36
to you know how it used to be yeah you
29:39
know i don't like to say normal
29:41
you know right it's gonna be just a
29:42
different normal yeah right so
29:46
you just as you do with everything else
29:47
you know you have a newborn in the house
29:49
all right well we have to take proper
29:50
precautions make sure newborn safe
29:52
exactly hey right so
29:54
same thing you know applies here right
29:56
we just do what we have to do yep move
29:58
forward yeah and you know and keep it
30:00
you know keep learning from this
30:02
yeah exactly and i you know also one of
30:05
the things i think i saw this on maybe
30:07
your instagram or your facebook page uh
30:09
instagram is harvestbistro nj right
30:11
correct yeah there's the plug right
30:12
there um so harvest bistro and j and i
30:15
think it might have been over at that
30:17
table over there you were sitting with
30:18
nick mangle doing something with his
30:20
barbecue sauce company
30:21
is that something that's that you guys
30:23
do or use like a partnership type of
30:25
thing or was it more of like a you know
30:26
it was just a one-time deal we had a um
30:29
we were doing uh themed meals
30:31
once a week yeah for a month
30:33
and then with nick we just uh you know
30:36
he's great customer of ours uh see him
30:38
in town all the time and yes he always
30:40
gives back to the community as well yeah
30:42
and um yeah just approach them say hey
30:44
let's let's work on something let's come
30:45
out with a barbecue menu that's cool and
30:47
all that and yeah you know it did well
30:49
right you know yeah we sold some you
30:51
know
30:52
good stuff and you know we're able to
30:54
give back to the community with some of
30:55
the proceeds right yeah which is again
30:57
ties right back into the community
30:59
aspect of it um so i'm pretty sure we
31:01
hit all the stuff that i think that we
31:03
were talking about that we wanted to hit
31:04
so if people want to get more of harvest
31:08
bistro obviously they can come down here
31:09
and order something or with the catering
31:11
side but where can they go you know
31:13
maybe website we just plug the instagram
31:16
to get more information and maybe learn
31:18
more a little more about the business
31:20
yeah harvest bistro nj.com is our
31:22
website uh there's an online ordering
31:24
portal there and delivery service that
31:26
we use we always use a local guy
31:28
tapfood.us
31:30
you can access it right from there our
31:33
instagram account as you mentioned
31:35
harvest bistro nj and same thing with uh
31:38
our facebook uh capital h harvest b
31:41
capital b bistro capital n capital j
31:44
um and look us up on facebook follow us
31:46
because you know we're changing menus
31:47
all the time yeah we just started our
31:49
new uh fall menu it's awesome yeah and
31:52
come come walk in the door yeah say hi
31:54
to us yeah exactly you know so if people
31:56
are maybe unsure of what they want to
31:59
get maybe what are some like if you come
32:02
to harvest beast or you have to get the
32:04
yeah coconut chicken red grape salad
32:05
chicken fingers
32:07
uh pesto chicken wrap
32:09
there's just so much you know on our new
32:12
specials yeah our chicken and waffles
32:14
have been a big hit already so there's
32:16
just you know
32:18
it will definitely keep you coming back
32:20
yeah and for sure interesting for you
32:21
yeah exactly no i love that it's just
32:23
the innovation and all that kind of
32:24
stuff i think is phenomenal and the
32:25
address here is what 50 and a half main
32:29
street 50 and a half yeah interesting
32:31
right downtown a stone's throw from the
32:33
uh clock what's the half how does that
32:35
work well we are supposedly sharing half
32:38
of this side
32:39
okay i got jack so but they're they're
32:42
not 50 and a half as well so it's just
32:45
yeah it's tough and it's crazy because
32:47
the half oh you know we always you know
32:50
when we came out with our dinner menu we
32:51
decided on going with half portions oh
32:54
so that's yeah yeah that's playing
32:57
it's like a branding type of thing yeah
32:58
that sounds good out of you so yeah
33:00
awesome awesome all right so this has
33:02
been another tremendous episode of the
33:04
greetings from the garden state podcast
33:05
obviously i'll make sure that i put uh
33:07
tushar and harvest bistro's links and
33:09
the address in the show notes like we do
33:11
for all of our episodes
33:13
also if you want to reach out to the
33:14
show greetings from the garden state
33:16
gmail.com and the facebook community
33:19
greetings from the garden state on
33:20
facebook we'd love to have you and learn
33:22
more about maybe different other other
33:24
places that you would like to see on the
33:26
show um to shar thank you again for
33:28
doing this with us this was tremendous
33:30
awesome thank you i appreciate it
33:31
absolutely yeah it's good to be here
33:33
good to be back here um this was
33:35
fantastic so and everybody else
33:37
listening thank you for listening and
33:39
we'll catch you next time
33:42
[Music]
33:48
[Music]
33:48
[Applause]
33:51
[Music]
33:52
is
33:56
[Music]
34:14
you
