Soulfood is Love

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[Applause] [Music]

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forever what's up everybody welcome back to

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another episode of greetings from the garden state i'm mike ham we are here at asada soul food in chatham new jersey with karima singleton welcome to the

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show hello hello hello how y'all living i'm living great i'm so excited to be here

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uh so we met actually at an event at one of my former guests uh daddy maddie's that was really cool and he was like

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have you met karima yet and i said no and he was like you have to meet karima absolutely and i was like okay and then

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we met and now here we are it's like just that's how it works it couldn't wait yeah it could not wait so um let's

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let's do like a little bit of background on you okay and just we kind of like the people can learn a little bit about you

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and everything you have going on all right so are you from jersey originally yes i am um born and raised in newark

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new jersey nice mm-hmm yeah yes brick city yeah brick city the like the city of tomorrow since you know for a while

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but uh i love newark love going down to newark uh but um so you still live around there do you live around here now

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no i live in morris county for the last 15 years cool awesome yeah nice um so

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i did not realize until we were just chatting before we started doing this episode that like this is obviously i'm

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sure a full-time job running a restaurant like this absolutely but you also have another full-time i do yeah i

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do so i am an educator during the day nice and i run my business during the evening

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and on the weekends okay so like when you when do you actually have time to do anything else besides work oh i make

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time i promise you that i make time i try to take a day off

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which um there is no days off actually but um i squeeze in

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you know some me time you gotta take care of me you gotta refill the cup back up absolutely and another thing is if i

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feel overwhelmed anytime yeah i'm a firm believer of

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taking a day off yeah unscheduled unplanned all of that just go for it that right there because i'd

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rather do that than to have anyone come in here and step over me on the rug because i passed out

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yeah so like that was that's the other thing i was asking too or wanted to ask was like you're kind of like the only

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not only person but you're here by yourself i'm here alone quite a bit i do

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have help yeah um but i would like some more help we are hiring okay shout out to let's just

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let's just put that out there [Applause] i am hiring we are looking for some

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servers the weather is breaking um it's time to get ready to line the seats and the tables outside we have a beautiful

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patio beautiful parking lot that can be blocked off anytime we have venue space

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so we are hiring i am looking for an assistant a couple of servers come through holla

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at your girl i like that you were standing right straight right into the camera absolutely i need to let them know

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that right there so how long has assad has been here

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so december 8th we made a year nice congratulations yes yes

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so um i got the place september of 2020. nice in the midst of all the madness

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yeah i'm sure that's like the perfect time to open up a place like this talk about it and um

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i can't say that it's been easy but it's been a lot of fun yeah and so like what was the i guess like impetus behind

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being like you know what i'm gonna open up a restaurant you know what this is not my first rodeo okay so i had my

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first restaurant in venue space in north new jersey in the neighborhood that i grew up in

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in 2017 i had to close

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you know every loss is not a loss sure so patiently i waited to find another

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spot i continued to cater um and then i came through town on one

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of my so-called exercise kicks doing my walks and there was this big sign in the

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window at first i had my eyes on nam king which was one of the old sandwich shops

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i believe and then when i went to look back after i took a picture of it it already was the

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windows was all taped up and coming soon i was like so then coming past here i saw this and

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i had no clue that there was the full parking lot the venue space the patio i just thought it

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was you know this front space yeah and um i called actually me and my girlfriend

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we're riding by i said you know what stop like we're in the middle of traffic let me get a picture of this the cars are honking we

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like ah yeah like be quiet wait a minute you know

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and um i was calling and calling and i thought they weren't returning my call but i wouldn't stop calling come to find

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out they had returned my call a few times and i had messages that i wasn't checking

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so that happened to anybody yeah finally i met up with the guys and i got in here

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and i was i was sold yeah i was sold i mean there was a little bit of work to be

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done but i could see you know my vision was like okay yeah yeah yeah you know what

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i'm saying like okay then when i found out about the venue space and the

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and the full parking i was like oh this is the best spot right because you're like right i mean when i walked

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around the corner it's like right here this is the best spot i must say the best spot

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on the main street yeah um so so the original spot that you had in newark was

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that basically like the same style a place that absolutely much bigger though okay

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it was much bigger um i had so much space there yeah i'm

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talking people had horses at the events in the backyard and stuff like that that's how large the space was i was so

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in love with the space but you know some things work out and some don't yeah like i said every loss isn't a loss and

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what's for you is going to be for you exactly this you know god had all of this planned for me i was just waiting to

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receive and i'm here right and so like i'm sure like it must be a much different experience having like a

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restaurant like this in chatham than it was in newark oh absolutely

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absolutely so looty i'm sure for a lot of reasons but let me tell you this

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this is where i belong yeah and when people ask me all the time because for one

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no one can believe a soulful restaurant is in chatham right and not only in chatham but on the main street yeah

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but i'm here yeah here in thriving oh yeah that right there yeah

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yeah and um i'm very happy here i'm very happy here that's awesome this is where i belong yeah no this is i mean like i

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said perfect spot and like you know like you said who would even think that that place like this exists but that just means that there aren't enough of these

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kinds of places around and you're filling that fill in that void for sure so absolutely um like culinary

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background so obviously you had like the other restaurant were you like always cooking always a professional cooking background or you just kind of

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like well i come from a family of cooks on both sides awesome and i spent a lot of

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time in the kitchen and growing up with my grandparents and the garden in the backyard and all of that stuff like that

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nice my mom's really good cook um all my aunts the uncles my dad he's a

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great cook so it's just in me it's in my dna exactly yeah so then like i mean there's one

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thing i mean like i like to cook okay i don't think i would ever open up a restaurant just because like you know i mean i basically just take my time and

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drink and only cook for like myself a couple other people well i mean i take my time and i drink too

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um but i cook for a lot of people yeah right and um this is i love doing it yeah i love doing it i love um meeting

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new people um i like giving back um everything is not about you know a

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dollar yeah so i give back a lot right um and i just i love it here like

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everybody's not only my friends and my family i've met some amazing amazing amazing people um since i've been here

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and when i got here it was all about you know the black lives matters and all of

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that stuff um all lives matter yeah and

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i felt like everyone was so like genuine like in my in my gut in my heart like my

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soul my spirit like the way that they treat me up here yeah

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it's great yeah no that's awesome and then like we're gonna get a lot into that like in the community section just because i think like that's really cool

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to see like you see like any any of the places that we've had on so far so i think this is gonna wind up being like episode

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30 or 35 or somewhere in that like range but okay but like that's one of the things that you tend to see like all the

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people we've had on have been just like such good people oh yeah you know and then like they vibe with the community

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and you always just vibe with good people some amazing people yeah so i'm i'm very blessed yeah i'm very blessed

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awesome but the other thing i was going to ask too so like your family cooks

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did any of them have restaurants or were they just more like at home more eggs for like family and everything like that

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so then at what point are you just like i'm gonna take this to the next level and i'm gonna open up my own shop um

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it's just what i felt um prior to like all of this i've always catered

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and cooked out of home out of satellite kitchen assisting others

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soup kitchens things like that yeah um so i have a medical background for like 20

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plus years you're like all over the place i am medical background teacher i am because you know what i feel like

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i follow my heart whatever i feel like doing that's what i do that's awesome

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that's that's that's just how i've always been yeah so i've ran like surgery centers doctor's offices i've

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been in the or like i've pretty much been in every specialty yeah and

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that's what i loved and enjoyed doing although when i returned back to school i said wait a minute what am i going to

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do so i went and got my first degree in early childhood development and i did nothing with the degree for

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several years and i met a young lady that saw something in me that i wasn't even

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thinking about right and that's when my name got spoken in the room that i didn't even know about until later on

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start ringing and boom there it was so i started you know teaching and i left

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i'm not i skipped over something too that's fine because i went into the academy okay actually all right

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and i was almost through with the academy yeah but the opportunity for opening up the

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business came and i jumped on it and i said the heck with the academy right

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so that was that that's right there yeah and now you're on the show that right i mean like you know after exactly a

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couple more years but yeah awesome no i love that yeah i'm all over the place no no i mean like listen

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i sell insurance okay i do this and i do like a lot of other stuff so like i i'm

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down with the whole do it with a lot of you have to have multiple crafts yeah yeah

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have to i have certifications and all kinds of stuff but we don't have to get into all of that i know this is about me

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it's all about you yeah exactly that's why i said you when you walked in yeah although you know we don't have to talk all about me all right well that's great

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because in the second segment here we're going to get to in a minute uh we're going to learn about what goes on here

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and like what people can come to expect when they walk in which i know is going to be that's probably the most excited i am about this whole episode so we're

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going to take our first break all right of this episode so this is the greetings from the garden state podcast i'm mike ham we're here at asada's soul food in

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chatham new jersey with karima singleton we'll be right back

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it is time for today in new jersey history bruce springsteen auditioned for columbia records a r honcho john hammond

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in new york city on may 2nd 1972. hammond was so impressed with the audition that he immediately arranged

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for bruce to play at the gaslight club that evening to share his discovery with fellow label executives and that is

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today in new jersey

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history all right we're back for segment two of this episode of greetings from the garden state i'm mike hamm we are

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here at asada soul food in chatham new jersey with karima singleton there we go so

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in the first segment we learned all about your background i'm sure there's plenty more because it just seems like you've got a lot going on which i love

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like we talked about um but we're here to talk about assatas absolutely so let's just do like very basic

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description what is asada's soul food if it does if they can't figure it out from the name

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we'll spell it out for them okay so asada's soul food is love

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okay it's peace it's harmony it's family

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um it's great things i mean it's mood changing yeah

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you walk through the door whatever your mood is i promise you it's gonna change

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and it's not gonna go downhill but it's gonna go all the way up yeah um it's a

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great time um everything is about a great time i mean it's smiles it's laughter

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it's great people yeah it's a lot of new people um it's

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should be i mean right out of the gate like that should be right you know so um all my food is made with love

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and i know this but it feels good to hear it from everybody that comes through this door yeah um they say how

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when they walk in here it feels like home yep um people come and they don't want to leave

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and i'm fine with that because while you're still chatting i'm cleaning up and prepping for whatever i have to prep

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for next right so i'm always cool with that i mean it's just a great time yeah it is no i love that so like what are

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some like basic stuff that people can like expect to get when they're here like food items okay so i cook just

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about everything okay um i can cook just about anything um

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some of the things that they love yeah let's let's hit them with the highlights they love fried chicken if i fried

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chicken every day they would be good with that yeah um

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they love barbecue sometimes i pull the grill out and i'm smoking and

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the food can't make it off the grill inside um turkey wings oh let's not talk about the

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ox tips that's actually something i've never had but i've always wanted to try it oh i'm gonna have to hit you up the next time i

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make them yeah hit me up definitely um i make everything they love cornbread they love macaroni and cheese

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cabbage jerk chicken i mean shrimp and grits you name it

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so when you come here you can expect a lot of things i have a new baker on board cool

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shout out to my new baker cupcakes by nikki look up y'all

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she's amazing she's been coming through um with all kinds of desserts i bake but

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i don't have time for that i want to focus on my food and my events um banana pudding strawberry shortcakes

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uh peach cobblers all kinds of cakes i mean she's amazing she does it and i make amazing sweet potato pies so i

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would never allow anyone to make my sweet potato pies yeah now i get that because mines are

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the best right there's nobody better no yeah my grandmother and she's no longer here

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okay but um you can expect a lot of stuff in here we have venue space so if you're looking to

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book any type of event meeting gathering big or small

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um if weather permitting we can open the patio up i can block the entire parking lot i think the town is used to me now

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yeah i mean creep is just going to do karima we're just going to deal with it yeah we have

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djs in here outside bouncy house you might ride up in the lot is blocked and

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there's a full carnival going on food trucks everywhere i mean you just

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never know i've had a comedy show here 120 plus people nice turned the parking lot into

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an event space and we just rocked out we have a lot of cigar and bourbon events cool yeah i'll be there

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yeah i'm spending a lot of time here i could imagine oh yeah so we have a lot of stuff going on here yeah yoga i mean

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whatever you name karaoke we do it all yeah no it's awesome so one of the things that i thought was interesting

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and like this would be a question is like today's menu over there it says i mean this was whatever day i guess yeah

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okay fried chicken baked mac and cheese green beans cornbread so is that like that's what you're selling that day so

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what happens or something else you if you order shipping grits on monday and that's not on the menu

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take a hike everyone knows that already yeah they already know that at asadas the menu changes every couple of days

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sometimes every day yeah so um we sell out a lot here because at

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asadas when you walk through the door this is like walking into my home yeah i spend a lot more time here sometimes

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than i do my own home sure so when you come in the house

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your family makes a certain amount of food right and when it's gone it's gone yeah sometimes you can get seconds

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sometimes you can yeah and then you plan the next meal right and that's the way it is at asadas yeah so like what goes

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into like putting together those daily menus it's just like you know what today i'm gonna make chicken today i'm gonna make catfish today i'm gonna make this

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and i'm not gonna lie you hit it right there on the nose yeah just like whatever your whatever is flowing whatever my mood is and

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i now it's so funny because i get a lot of inboxes yeah um

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are you open today blah blah blah um what's on the menu sometimes you know they don't look at the menu first they

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inbox me and i don't mind um and they'll say i'll say no remember tuesdays i'm

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closed but i'll beat it tomorrow i'll see you tomorrow well i just hope that it's

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gonna be fried chicken mustard or turnip greens mac and cheese and cornbread and i'll be like

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yeah right so yeah it's it's pretty much what i feel i've tried the putting the menu out

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for monday through sunday it doesn't work for me no just like i'm

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a lot happier in the middle of the night or while i'm driving like okay what am i going to

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give them tomorrow what have they not had or what is it that they love right a lot

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sometimes i'll just ha i'll put fried chicken and i'll add another entree sometimes there's two to three entrees on the menu okay

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with a whole bunch of sides yeah it's like a big day exactly sundays

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and then sometimes i'm like okay they love fried chicken i've gotten so many phone calls and messages so whatever let

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me just get in here yeah yeah no i love that so like when they come in here so like you got this thing

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here with them okay oh this is the buffet trays one of the most important parts and pieces of assatas is my steam

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tray um because i can prepare all my sides right like any time i'm frying

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anything whether fried fish or fried chicken that's another thing you get it fresh yeah because if it's if you don't

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it gets like all soggy exactly and you're not gonna leave here talking about me yeah

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and that's not doing that yeah right so in here what i'll do if i'm doing something other than a fried food my

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turkey wings baked chicken barbecue chicken whatever the case may be i can prepare it and you know load up and then

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load up all the signs so when they come in you know they just order or when the

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orders are called in or they dm me or whatever way they're getting through to me yeah

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yeah and around here um the town likes everything right now right yeah so this works out

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great no that's awesome yeah it's a good idea but they're used to the fact that if you want chicken it's best to call me

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because sometimes i can have so many orders yeah that there's a hour wait

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yeah and they don't mind they say no problem we'll wait yeah yeah well they know it's

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so good yes that right did right yeah yeah so then like so where do people go to get

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the menu like i've seen it on instagram i posted daily on instagram

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on facebook um a lot of them call me yeah

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so i pulled up put it up here so when they're passing so yeah yeah and that works well for me right i have the

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website i just didn't launch it yet but the ig and the facebook is enough for

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right now to me yeah could you put enough information out there for some people no exactly all the events

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everything goes up there and they love the ig page right yeah yeah no i love that

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yeah no i mean like the ig page like i told you like right after we met and then i emailed you the next day like

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that night when we got back from that event i was like going through like your uh instagram page and if i wasn't

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already so full from matt's thing i was just like oh my god like we got to go there like

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asap yeah we haven't you know made it but like we're going to come yeah no we definitely will yeah

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uh so like i guess i i didn't ask this before but like i know you mentioned like barbecue stuff and soul food stuff

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but like and you said you can cook anything but why was soul food the thing that you just landed on and was like

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this is what i'm gonna bring to the food world because this is what i grew up on yeah

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and this is what i grew up around and this is a part of my culture yeah you know so why not right

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you know i can make the spaghetti and the big ziti and the lasagna and the stuffed shells and

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the this and the that i put that in there sometimes but this is where my heart is at you know i grew up

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around soul food sitting around the long table at my grandmother's house with the beans and

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the rice and it is and that and a lot of people thinks um

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from the caribbean too like some of the dishes that i made yeah and looking at me but i'm i'm from

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newark new jersey [Laughter] big city born and raised

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just the girl from newark that wanted more and i went for it that's it right no i love that um so like

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our like looking into the future like cause you now you have like somebody helping you out with like the bake stuff

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and like you know i'm looking over there with like the coffee stuff over there like you like look into the future being

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like maybe we could try this one day you know like and like change it up and like try to do different things or are you

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just gonna like stay true to like what you're doing right now and just keep rolling with it because it rocks um

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that's a hard question to be honest i'm open to different things

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um but i'm never gonna change the soul of it yeah this is a solar

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soulful restaurant um i cook with love it comes straight from my soul this is where your soul

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meets my food and where my food meets your soul yeah and and it's gonna stay like that now

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will there be a number two maybe sure yeah absolutely yeah will there be another venue space maybe absolutely

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yeah but yeah yeah it'll be a solid soul food love it um and then like you got to tell

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me like what the experience is like working all day and then like being here and cooking all night is that just

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something that just like feeds you so you're just like not literally but like you know spiritually i guess and just

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like that's what kind of like keeps you going because that's i mean like we said before that's logging a lot of hours

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and then just like driving to work and being like hey this is what i'm gonna do for the menu today and then posting it and then just getting here and going for

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it it is a lot i think i thought when i i was teaching before i opened

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this up yeah and you know with the whole pant they're making all of that stuff there's a lot of changes and i did not want to do

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the zoom and all that stuff it's a lot i'm i'm in school still myself and i

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stopped because we are not in the classroom i was in the actual classroom i can't do

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it's just it's too much right it's hard to like lock in it really is yes and

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i thought it was going to be a little tiring when i decided to go back because it slowed

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down a little in which it slowed down for everyone yeah but when it came to making a conscious

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decision of do you sit and you open up and you turn lights on and you cook all of this food and

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nobody's coming through and or do you sit down and think about and i

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went back and forth with it do you go back to doing something else that you love where you're making money and

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things like that uh karima hello yeah so that's what i did and i

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thought that i would be exhausted exhausted yeah because now i have to get up early

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a lot earlier sure get myself together make sure everything's packed and ready when i'm going into the classroom with

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the kids and you got to have your mind right right because they'll they'll [Laughter]

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they know when you're tired oh yeah and they like they have and they play on it yeah but i am not she and she is not me

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okay so my kids they know

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and i love them and you know what um it worked out so well because i feel

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like i needed them just as much as they needed me sure to be honest yeah not only just the salary but just seeing

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them and talking with them and stuff like that we needed each other so the reciprocation

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was there it's good no i love that and sometimes i'm in here like late because

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i have to prep i'm either in here early in the morning or i'm in here late because i'm prepping because when i leave from the school

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i change the hours to where i'm opening at five which means when i come in here it's no sitting down yeah it's not

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playing around i can't pour me a cocktail mind you this is a b-y-o-b so when y'all come through

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b-y-o yeah bring your stuff with you okay i like

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white wine just in case you want to break something for karima too

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so i come in here i can't sit around yeah you gotta go i gotta put my stuff down

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and wash my hands put on my apron and turn the lights on and get to get in yeah because within a couple of hours

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i'm opening my doors yeah and it's not the kind of food that you could just be like like boom it's done you know it's gonna take some time and some heart you

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know nothing gets uh frozen you don't get anything frozen yeah and

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reheat it and microwaved and all that stuff this is all fresh food

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daily yeah that i make right which i think it's just so interesting too because like the menu is just kind of

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like whatever's kind of with you and you're just like i'm doing this today you know and then like you have it's not

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like you just can go in the morning and go to like the market and get some whatever i have to prepare yeah yeah i

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have to prepare myself for the classroom i have to prepare myself for here you got to prepare yourself for home

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because you know although i'm in the classroom and i'm here running my business

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i still have to take care of me yep i still have children you know they're

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they're older but they still need me sure got my man he's interested in me yeah

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right pulled in a lot of directions exactly yeah but everybody i have i must

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say i have a really great support system yeah the mr is very supportive

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um my daughter i named this place after my

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last daughter okay so that's where asadas comes from asada yeah so

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um she's helpful but she's doing her own little thing right now um i have

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a group of amazing amazing my tribe i have an amazing tribe

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my sisters come through sometimes when i call them and sometimes without me calling

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and they come in here and they show up and they show out yeah and i appreciate them i appreciate you all so when y'all

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watch this know that your sister loves it that's right yeah i have some amazing brothers i belong to a fraternal

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organization i'm an eastern star okay and they come through and the support is just i'm just it's crazy love around

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yeah yeah that's a great segue so we're gonna take our second break of this episode our last break of this episode

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we're gonna get into our community stuff here in a minute uh so this is the greetings from the garden state podcast i'm mike ham we are here at assata soul

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food in chatham new jersey with karima singleton we'll be right back

29:34

it is time for you new jersey fun fact of the day when new jersey did get its current name it was named for jersey

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island off the coast of the united kingdom and that is your new jersey fun fact of the day

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all right we're back for our last segment of this episode with asada soul food in chatham new jersey with karima

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singleton i'm mike kim this is the greetings from the garden state podcast of course you should know that by now uh

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so first segment we did your background kind of all the stuff that you have going on second segment we learned about

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everything that goes on here at asadas excuse me so last segment we did a good job segwaying in into this so that's a

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good pro pro guest pro podcast guest moved by you all of a sudden now i'm like you know i

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need to close my throat a hundred times um but um community so like every episode that we

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do we always try to tie it back into the community in some way because everything we do here on this show is all about new

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jersey and the people and the communities that we make up and so that was a really cool thing that you were

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talking about with your personal community but one of the things that we talked about before we even started was how cool

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even just this little community that i've started with this podcast has been because we met like we said at the beginning at the event at daddy maddie's

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uh amrish was there and he's a former guest and matt's obviously a former guest and then we met and here we are so

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like talk to me a little bit about that like the the communities that you've found yourself in and how supportive

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they've been of like all the stuff that you've been doing everyone is wonderful

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when i say this is where i belong i mean this is where i belong yeah um

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i have had the whole the entire from the startup to now

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has been amazing yeah it's been very easy

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i can't lie i had a problem with maybe one you know area yeah although after i

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spoke on it that's why let me say this um a closed mouth does not get fed acts not

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want not you cannot hold on to things and harbor it and be upset you know

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because it'll only make you upset and when you're upset with one person you can't take it out on everyone right

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you have to speak on it try to get some help with it and that's what i did and i haven't had any problems since

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right so when i say this town is amazing the borough is amazing

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um the mayor's really cool uh the councilman the councilwoman

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i mean um lynn he comes through from the time i started

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he has come through and checked on me like all the time yeah that's the councilman right

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thank you lin shout out len i don't know i'm not sure if flynn watches the show or not but councilwoman

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everybody everyone is really good everyone that i've had to encounter when it's time to renew the license

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um the fire department the chief or you know whoever it is that has to come out and do the inspection um everyone is so

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cool yeah everyone so it's they support me

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anytime i had the final the grand opening finally yep i did the software when i had the granite

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they all showed up yeah they showed up with their family they all bought dinners they stayed they

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didn't just come the mayor he had a whole speech written cut the ribbon yeah

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it was just it was it was great right i'm serious yeah and the town let's let's talk about

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the town yeah the businesses and not just chatham

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but i have people that come from florin park i have people that come from madison to

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support me um they're just great yeah and everyone in this town for the most part

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has come here to two asadas and supported me not once not twice but multiple times

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right um and even though they're running their own restaurants yeah exactly and they

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still daddy maddie how you doing honey and and even though him and his wife is

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amazing like there's some beautiful people oh they definitely are and i met his wife and his son before i met

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him okay i'm sitting in 54 maine and i had on one of a side of shirt and he just came to sit next to me like

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we started talking a couple of cocktails and been cool ever since but they come here they support me he's

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come here and bought dinner for the entire entire staff and stuff like that yeah like where do you see that

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happening you don't i mean you i mean you do but not often no tim ward

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this woman she supplied all my coffees the sugar the stirrers the cups the everything had

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everything she came here with them delivered all this stuff for me for my opening that's amazing like

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you got my boy from madison y yeah shout out amirish yeah he got a shot and

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his crew yeah like everybody and when i walk i can't forget next door

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madison bagel i can't forget patricia patricia came and brought

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desserts and all kinds of stuff she's here all the time um i just can't forget

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i just can't forget anybody i know yeah you're gonna leave somebody out if you keep going yeah oh my god yeah like

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they come from everywhere like i'm just trying to remember everybody i and if i let if i leave anyone out

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charging to the head not my heart seriously yeah bank of america

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they came over here they tell me they watched when i opened from the window i've catered for them for their luncheon

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like bernie from sharp looks that's my girl

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i cook for their homes and to my customers my customers are amazing i love y'all

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i get ready i get emotional when i speak about them right because

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anytime i'm not perfect you know what i'm saying sure i'm still a work in progress

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yeah but anytime you have i'm supposed to open at three oh this is my friend outside too

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anytime i'm supposed to open at three and sometimes it doesn't work out that way that's life yeah

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and they're calling guess what they say how are you doing wait yeah you okay no worries we'll be

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back you want me to pay now blah blah blah these families order for five six seven

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eight nine ten people at a time right yeah the dessert

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insane is an understatement the amount of love that they show and i can't forget my people that come all the way

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from newark irvington east or the oranges bloomfield montclair head there

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everywhere i love y'all we love y'all we thank y'all i'm getting so emotional like because everybody's

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excuse me for a second yeah yeah absolutely this wasn't supposed to happen

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this was not supposed to happen i i you know i promised but i i you know

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yeah so i'm a cry baby all right that's okay

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yeah naturally i cry for everything happy sad whatever yeah but when i speak

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about the love that's poured into assatas and into me the comments i'm like

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a five star on google yeah they love i show out my mr said to me

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before you be doing the most i had to explain to him i said they love it and i know this because they tell me

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right keep on blogging like keep posting it when i walk through town and they know

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who i am and they stop me like kareema what's for dinner today and stuff like that or when i walk into

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one of the establishments and they will not take my money like my

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money is no good like but then they'll come into assatas and will not allow me to give them

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anything yeah that's love yeah yeah nah it's awesome now is that something that like so like

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we were talking about in the original uh the first segment about how like opening up a soul food restaurant here is

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obviously a lot different than opening up in newark and so like you know you find this space you know the spaces guys yeah all good

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all good we really we haven't had like a lot of emotion so i appreciate you know like on on this show so i appreciate

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that but that just shows like how and i think that perfectly like sums up like what this segment like

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what i want this segment to be all about it's like stories like that so like it's not just you know somebody comes in the

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door they buy some fried chicken and then they get the hell out you know it there's way more to it than that oh

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absolutely and that's what makes it so cool oh absolutely but like when you so when you found this space and like you

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knew the space was good and for what you wanted to do was it something where you like was all the stuff that you were

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just talking about was that something that you had expected from like the area of chatham or was that just something

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that kind of like organically happened over the last year plus now let me tell you i did not expect anything from anyone to

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be honest yeah i had no expectations i pretty much know who i am

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i know what i'm capable of and i know that god didn't bring me this far to

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let me fall by the wayside right so i really wasn't concerned and i don't want to sound like i'm being

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cocky yeah or anything like that although i won't say but although

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when you know your stuff you know your stuff yeah and this is not only something this is a gift that god

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blessed me with but it's i'm great at it yeah and i cook with love right

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but i would even say just like knowing you for the last you know 45 minutes and then meeting you over at

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daddy maddie's it's just like i think all the stuff that you're talking about i think we touched on it a little bit in the first segment it goes way beyond

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like what you do in the kitchen here you know i mean like having those relationships like you do with all these people like that's what makes everything

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work like that you know i mean it just it just transcends just the transaction thing at the counter absolutely you know

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what i mean which i think is really cool and like like i always say like the more good you put out into the world you

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start vibing with people that you vibe with so if you're if you're a piece of [ __ ] if you're a piece of [ __ ] you're gonna buy what pieces hello you know if

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you're a good person you're going to vibe with good people and i think that's really like what it really comes down to for sure

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hello hello your vibe is your tribe yeah okay yep and that's some real talk but

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they're so good to me and then the the reviews and the things that they say to me and i just want to say this

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it keeps me going um

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someone makes me cry every day yeah one person at least

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here i am there you go we're closed today and here he goes with his mess okay

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so we almost made it one almost right i was sucking it i was sucking them down

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one person makes me cry every single day and i want to thank you of course for coming through it was a pleasure

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meeting you at daddy's maddie's and the fact that you were sitting across from me the entire time and i had

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no idea who you were right and for and that's another thing daddy maddie like these people are just great

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who this man and his wife

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has shared from paper company to this to that

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it's like nothing that's why they say a real leader will

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share yeah you'll teach and not worry about whether this person is going to be better than you right or

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any of those things yeah i don't ever want to sit in the room and be

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like the biggest person in there yeah you understand no yeah i told you i don't yeah i want to sit with people like daddy

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yeah right um i pasquerella brothers yeah yeah that's my boy

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his dad that's my boy his dad comes through here even when i'm

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closed and i gotta open the door yeah it's just respect right you know what i'm saying yeah absolutely i could be closed and i'm going to open that door

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if they come through right we can be in passing and here in the truck and i'm in my car we honking the horn he come past

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he's honking the horn like that is they show me so much love that man pulled up

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on me with his truck we did a video outside when i first opened everything it's just

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i love where i come from yeah and my town was good to me yep

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although this is where i belong right and when they asked me well how did you choose chatham

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chatham chose me right because there were several people

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fighting to get in here yeah and four guys there's four owners of this place

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and i you know i want to say thank you to them too like you can't leave them out either yeah i always see eye to eye

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about stuff right but thank you to you guys too for giving me a chance and an opportunity

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because to be honest i'm making history around here yeah like i'm the only sister

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from one end of this highway to the next literally right that's awesome and i hear there's another soulful place

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now in marvel's town i'm not sure um how true it is but

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until i get there i'm the only soul food in morris county

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i love that okay yeah so i feel good yeah little old me

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just a sister from newark who wanted more and i went for it right it's awesome and i'm up here and everybody is showing

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me mad love and all my people still come through show me mad love and now i have more family because these people took me

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in and they embraced me in every just about every one of them

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charlie's on all of them they all came in here if you need

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anything you let us know if you need anything you let us know if you need anything you let us know next door

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uh when the kids were working in this when i first opened and stuff like that sen the owner came up he said the kids

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excuse me ever need anything just send them next door who does that yeah

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right but that this is the place this is where you were like you said you were meant to be like

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yeah exactly yeah that's awesome so i feel good well i feel good because this episode rocked this was a great i

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told you it was yeah no i know you said it when i walked into the door and i was like i believe you now here we

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are forward to this i actually rescheduled an appointment to make sure

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that this happened i appreciate that okay yeah thank you

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awesome so if people need to learn more like let's hit them with the instagram handle and then

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that way they know where to go and then they can check it out in the facebook group also so

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we have two numbers here let's start with that yeah one is down but it looks like i have time to make an appointment

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where they can get in here ever since the snowstorm it kind of messed some things up and i haven't been here right

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during the early day part so they couldn't get in to do what they needed to do so we have if you need to reach us

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there's a number of ways if you haven't figured that out um the telephone number 973

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four three three three again nine seven three nine seven eight four three three three

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once the other line comes back up i will put that back out there um you can catch us at instant on instagram at asada

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soulful restaurant which is a-s-a-h-d-a-s soul food restaurant all one word no

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caps all together you can catch us also on facebook at asada's a-s-a-h-d-a apocalypse soulful

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is one word not separated s-o-u-l-f-o-o-d got it restaurant

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there you have it or you can just stop by and i'm karima located at 262 main

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street in chatham new jersey the only yellow door out here okay you know i had to stand out so you gotta yeah

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okay um we are open monday wednesday thursday friday

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5 pm to 9 pm saturday and sunday 2 p.m to 7 for now once this weather breaks

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um we'll be open a lot much earlier awesome um and then you guys know i'm

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not in the classroom in the summertime so we'll definitely be open during the week a lot earlier awesome but um come

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through check us out yeah i mean i'm down like i'm sold it's sold this

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episode sold me if the instagram didn't uh sell me this episode has sold me so i'm gonna be here yeah and we have venue

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space we have great patio we have full parking um i can block the lot anytime

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for events um i cater does it matter

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how many people you need it for yeah i can make it happen awesome because

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that's what i do yeah no i love that all right awesome so we will make sure we put all the the instagram handle the

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facebook handle everything the phone number in the show notes absolutely along with the address so if you do want

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to check it out go check the show notes and come check them out uh but uh karima this was an amazing episode i really

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appreciate i was so excited for this one as i know you were and it just blew out yeah any expectations i possibly could

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have had uh we did it so much awesome yeah thank you so much uh so this has

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been the greetings from the garden state podcast i'm of course is mike hamm uh we've been at asada soul food in chatham

47:44

new jersey with karima singleton thank you for listening and we will catch you next time

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[Music]

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[Applause] [Music]

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you