Jonathan, Jon Taffer is here.
Really?
We're ready, guys.
We're each doing one of each of everything.
- Jon: We don't like to share. - All right.
- Thank you. - Jon is here.
So we gonna do the best, okay?
I feel, like, scared, because I don't know him
and I know he has a-- he got his reputation.
So I feel kind of nervous.
( speaking Spanish )
Sake sangria.
I would not have expected this to be this color.
- Would you? - No, I did not.
But it looks so tropical, so Caribbean, so fresh.
It's good.
It is. Well-balanced cocktail.
- You like it? - Yeah.
- Wow. - Futumaki.
I love how he's infused the mango into the sushi.
He's really created a fusion here that works.
And then you got the butteriness of the avocado,
you got the sweetness of the mango.
The spice from the wasabi. It's a really beautiful bite.
- I'd come out of my way for this. - I would, too.
Plate three.
The best ones, take the best ones.
( speaking Spanish )
Excuse me, gentlemen.
- Ooh! - We have the Fufu dumplings.
- Wow, look at that. - Enjoy.
Jon:
She's not only a manager here, she's Jonathan's girlfriend.
Okay, good job, good job, good job.
Wow.
And your lemonade.
- ¡Salud! - ¡Salud!
Good balance again.
- Yeah. - Miso mofongo chicken.
Can you tell us what's in here?
Yeah, this is-- Do you know mofongo?
- Have you ever tried mofongo? - Yes.
So it's a Puerto Rican traditional mofongo.
In your case, it's with chicken. Yours has steak in it.
The yellow cream, it's miso sauce.
And on top of it, you have--
That's furikake, and the bok choy we have.
- I hope you like it. Enjoy. - Thank you.
Thank you.
There's passion here.
Gabriella knew everything about this food.
Personally, I like my brother's cooking
'cause I really love sushi.
He has his twist on it, so it's really good.
And people who try his sushi tend to really like it a lot.
- Good flavor, Chef. - Mm-hmm.
It was a little fishy in odor, but not in flavor.
- No, you're right. - Think about this.
They all love this. If in fact, he can get people
to come here when he's a guest chef,
he can certainly get them to come to his restaurant
- Right. Yeah. - when he's his own chef.
- How often do you go out in your dining room? - Every night.
The thing about a restaurant
is have your locals and your regulars,
but you always have different people in there.
So it's important to get to know these people, make a connection.
Why isn't Jonathan here?
If I knew Taffer was here, potentially open up my bar,
- I'd come say hello. - Oh, yes.
I wanna actually go back there and see how busy he is.
I wanna see if he could've come out to say hello.
Sounds good.
( speaking Spanish )
Jonathan!
Yes?
You busy?
Um, not right now. How was the food?
The food was great. Why didn't you come say hello?
I'm kind of busy.
- But you just told me you're not too busy. - Yeah.
- I go now. - Come on out.
I need to talk to Jonathan and Gabriella.
The fact is, we had a really successful night.
People came.
So why haven't they opened their restaurant
for all these months?
I had some fantastic food tonight.
- Thank you. - It was creative.
Cocktails were balanced and beautiful.
That's why you invested in him, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, he's my brother.
I am proud of his talent.
- I don't blame you. - Yeah.
Your sister and brother-in-law invested with you in the restaurant.
Yes.
And you opened your restaurant when? How long ago?
One year ago.
So you were starting to make money.
Yeah. We started, we started.
Maria devastated the restaurant.
- Yeah. Yeah. - So you were closed.
- For seven months now. - We lose everything.
So you don't have the dollars then to fix it,
- so you're stuck. - Both: Yeah.
- We're broke. - It was devastating
just to have something so good
and then because of a hurricane, you just lose everything.
- The restaurant's bad? - It's very bad.
You know, I have to rescue people sometimes that don't deserve it.
You deserve it, but it still worries me
that you haven't tried to open it more.
I was fighting, but I can't do-- I can't do more.
You can now. You ready to fight with me to do this?
- Yes. - All the way.
So let's see how bad this is.
- Can we go see it? Okay, let's do that. - Sure, yeah.
I'm a little apprehensive about the state of this bar.
But I need to know what I'm dealing with.
That's it?
Gabriella: Yes.
Doesn't look bad out here. The front's okay.
- Yeah, it's-- - The sign's missing.
We don't have any sign, we don't any light,
but the power's pretty unstable still
in the island.
So maybe we have power for two weeks,
but then we have a blackout for more than maybe ten hours.
- Wow. - So it's pretty unstable, yeah.
- Let's see inside. - Okay, let's see.
Okay, go ahead.
Thank you.
So, this was Shibo.
It doesn't look so bad.
Jon: So this carpet, was this wet?
'cause this doesn't even look like this was wet.
No, I don't think so. It's just dirty, yeah.
So there's no water line.
The water, I think, from the back,
from the kitchen door, got a little bit of water in.
You can see the water on the border of the bar.
You can see the water damage.
Well, but this is the worst part.
Eight black ceiling tiles, and that's fixed.
But you said to me this is terrible.
This isn't terrible!
There's no water line, there's no damage at all!
What's so terrible? Is this chair ruined?
It just has to be cleaned.
Could we clean this room if we wanted to, to be open?
Why didn't you? Honestly.
I could clean this room myself in a week, couldn't I?
Give me some chemicals, let me clean.
Who would've given you the chemicals,
if you don't have any money?
A few hundred dollars worth of chemicals?
Yes.
- Not even that. - Did you go price it?
No.
So you didn't even try.
You just gave up before you started!
I get that there was a storm,
but you gotta fight to get out of it!
- And you didn't. - We thought about doing it
but since we ran out of inventory,
we just didn't have anything--
So inventory was your issue?
We didn't have the inventory to--
Literally, we had no money.
Like, zero on our bank account.
It would've been difficult to buy all of the stuff.
Let's go see the kitchen.
Let's see what we got from there.
- Do you have any light? - Yeah, we have light.
Jon: Look at this place. Oh!
Ugh!
There's-- There's bugs in all of this.
Yeah, I know.
That's roots.
- Yeah, it's-- - Ugh!
Look at this. I don't even wanna touch this.
Those are cherries from seven months ago.
What's wrong with this kitchen?
- That works, doesn't it? - Yeah.
Everything was new, everything was brand-new.
But everything works. There was no flood in here, was there?
We have a little bit of water that came up from outside,
- but-- - How much water?
( speaking Spanish )
So it's an excuse, but it didn't hurt anything.
Yeah.
- This equipment works, doesn't it? - Yeah.
If I clean this kitchen,
could I cook in here tomorrow?
- Both: Yeah. - Why didn't you? I don't get it!
Help me understand this!