0:00

Teddy Saraphine Leonard, owner of real In. You can find

0:04

out all about them at real i n Malibu dot

0:08

com reel in Malibu dot com. Teddy, welcome to the

0:14

Fork Report.

0:16

Thank you for having me.

0:17

So please tell us tell us where about For those

0:21

that don't know real In there in Malibu, tell us

0:26

about that? Uh and uh? What's what? Where you are

0:31

left right now? After the horrific circumstances of January and

0:35

the fires.

0:37

Well, the reel in where we were located was right

0:41

just west of Topanga Canyon on Pacific Coast Highway, and

0:46

my husband has had the store for thirty seven years

0:49

and we had a big, you know, old neon sign.

0:52

We were a fish shack across the street from a

0:55

very popular surf spot on Topanga and we had puns

1:00

on the sign. Every day we would change the puns, yes.

1:02

And if you are local, you know.

1:04

Them quite well exactly.

1:06

And what was funny was, you know, each day, different

1:10

screenwriters going into work. People would call us and give

1:13

us ideas for the puns for the sign, and if

1:16

we used one, we would buy them dinner. And it

1:20

was really fun because people would say, I mean, some

1:23

people weren't even customers. They just said they knew when

1:25

they saw the sign they were out of the city.

1:28

They were heading into Malibu. It was like we were sort of the gateway to the Malibu and that sign

1:32

meant a lot to a lot of people. In fact, the firemen after everything burnt down were adamant about can

1:39

we get up there and change and put up some signs.

1:42

We just want to give people that hope again, like

1:44

that it's going to come back. Because it was a

1:48

iconic place. It was a place where a lot of

1:50

families came. They celebrated birthdays, they celebrated death, they celebrated weddings, births.

1:58

It was one gentleman send in a picture of himself

2:01

as a baby with his father on the reel in deck,

2:03

and then he sent in a picture of himself that

2:06

his baby on the real in deck, and generations knew

2:11

the restaurant and knew it well, and we were blessed

2:14

to be a part of the community in a bigger

2:17

way than we even knew. In an odd way, the restaurant,

2:22

you know, burning down as quickly and as visibly as

2:24

it did, opened just these gates of people telling us

2:29

what a profound impact the restaurant had had on their

2:34

family and people called us crying, and we immediately started

2:38

to go fund me for our kitchen crew because most

2:41

of our crew has been with us over thirty years.

2:44

Think about that, over thirty years. I mean they were

2:48

family and they actually were family. They were all interrelated

2:51

from a small town in Wahaka who did a weaving

2:54

for us that was hanging in the restaurant that said

2:57

real in because you know, we funded the town, I

2:59

guess they just so that was our main concern and

3:05

when everything happened, we had to evacuate our home as

3:08

well here in Tapanga, so we found ourselves in Airbnb

3:12

and mar Vista, not really knowing what to do in

3:14

The first call that came in was the BBC London

3:17

and that was within hours of the burning, and we

3:20

started to gofund me and today we have raised over

3:23

two hundred thousand dollars for our crew and every penny

3:26

of it has gone into their pockets. And Wow, I'm

3:30

really so touched and grateful. From all around the world.

3:34

We've gotten donations from Istanbul, from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, France, Ireland,

3:43

you know, one man sent in a thousand dollars from

3:45

the UK and he said, it's my first stop when

3:47

I get to Los Angeles. I always make sure that

3:49

I get to you guys, And so we had it

3:53

was just I said to my husband, after thirty seven years,

3:55

what a wonderful way to find out that something you've

3:59

given so much of your time in your life too

4:01

has had a good impact on the world. You know,

4:05

you like to know that at this.

4:07

Age, at your own funeral kind of exactly exactly.

4:12

And we're in our seventy I just turned seventy and my husband's seventy six, and you know, people could say

4:17

you're going to rebuild, and we wanted to come back,

4:19

and we've had set in I er say, oh, we

4:21

can come and make it look exactly as it was. Sure, yeah,

4:25

but thirty seven years later. I mean a lot of

4:27

the old surfboards he had in the raptors were from

4:31

over one hundred years ago, like the first lifeguards in

4:34

Santa Monica. I mean, he collects that kind of stuff.

4:36

But now it's gone.

4:38

You can't.

4:38

I don't know that we'll be able to rebuild. We're

4:41

still waiting to hear from the State parks what their

4:43

plan is for Lower to Panga and for the Pch area.

4:48

They don't even know. I think they're still staging. They

4:50

were staging the EPA clean up by the end of April,

4:54

they're supposed to be done with that. They were staging

4:56

it at our site where the restaurant was. And then

4:58

now the Army Corps of Engineer Years is going in and we don't really honestly know what's going to happen next.

5:05

So we were really truly so grateful to everyone who

5:10

gave money for our crew, because a lot of these folks,

5:14

with the current climate, even though they're legal, are terrified

5:19

of going out and applying for jobs. Sure, and they've

5:21

had this job for over thirty years. A couple of

5:24

people have never worked.

5:25

Anywhere else in their lives, and we take care of

5:29

our family.

5:29

They took care of us during COVID, and we took

5:32

care of them. The PPC we got the loan and

5:37

we gave that to them because we were okay.

5:40

You know, I'd like to give that out teddy to

5:43

those people. Is it still is the GoFundMe still active?

5:47

Yes, it is.

5:47

They're still active, and you can I think there's a

5:50

link on our website realin maildu dot com. So if

5:53

people would like to donate to our crew, we're still

5:56

dispersing funds to them. It's been going on since the

5:59

data fire started, and these a lot of our guys

6:03

that have not been able to find work. This is how we, you know, we've been able to keep them

6:07

the rent paid in the food.

6:09

Real in Malibu dot com obviously R e e l

6:14

in Malibu dot com. You can also go to go

6:17

fundme and just search for real in Malibu Fire Recovery,

6:21

but it's very easy to go to reel in Malibu

6:24

dot com. Teddy Saraphine Leonard, owner of real in you

6:29

know it there in Malibu. The website is Real r

6:32

e E l in Malibu dot com. If you haven't

6:36

been there, it's hard to think of you as a Southlander.

6:39

There is a go funder go fundme page rather as well.

6:43

GoFundMe dot com look for real in Malibu Fire Recovery

6:48

or you can find a link at the real in

6:50

Malibu dot com website, and that is going entirely to

6:54

those that work there, the crew, the family that Teddy

6:59

was talking about. So Teddy you're wrestling, you and your

7:03

husband wrestling with rebuilding. You talk about, you know, the

7:08

things that were that hung on the walls, the things

7:11

that have been collected over the many years that reel

7:15

In has been there. I would, you know, respectfully say

7:21

that everything up on those walls was new at one

7:26

time or went up you know, went up there.

7:29

Yes, some of them one hundred years ago, but yes.

7:31

But you know what I'm saying, It was new to you guys, or you gathered it and you put it

7:35

on the wall. And I see it more personally, being

7:39

kind of a philosophical guy, I see that place as

7:43

a mirror of you guys, and the people that have

7:47

worked there and the people that have frequented it, and

7:52

and that it's really you guys. All those things were

7:56

things that brought joy to your husband or to you

7:59

that made you think, oh, it's put it up on the wall or somebody sending something in, and.

8:03

Oh, yeah, it's not.

8:06

It's the spirit of that family you guys created there,

8:11

and not the walls themselves anymore than a church, you know,

8:15

is God. So it's like, I hope whatever you guys

8:19

end up doing that those places are important. They they're

8:27

important to see. They're important to know that they exist

8:30

and that families are in there. And I'm not saying

8:33

corporations are bad, but you.

8:34

Know, I know I think the small business, You're correct.

8:37

I think the small business, the mom and pop shops

8:40

are what makes a community unique. It was one of

8:44

the things that made Malibu, it.

8:46

Makes Malibu so unique, is that there aren't.

8:49

Big corporations coming in. There are few now, but you

8:52

have you know, people come in, they know our crew,

8:55

they've been there thirty something years, and they say hello

8:58

to them, and they you know people, we have celebrities

9:00

that stand in line with surfers, that stand in line

9:03

with executives. You know, it was all walks of life,

9:08

and everybody was comfortable there and everyone was It feels

9:13

like it's theirs, you know, like like they belong there

9:15

and it's their home. I did have one funny thing, well,

9:20

a couple of funny things happened, and I think it was Bordon Ramsay came through, David Beckham Broun through and

9:26

he mentioned the cooks, would you like me to come back and cook? They didn't know who he was. They

9:32

like that, I'm liking you. No, we're not letting you

9:35

back exactly exactly, and then you know, you know, and

9:41

then similarly that time, you know, I said to our manager,

9:45

we had cameras in the restaurant, obviously, and I happened

9:48

to be looking at them. I said, just guys reaching in the window and grabbing cups and things. You might

9:52

want to keep an eye on him. He goes, you want me to keep an eye on David Beckham. I said, no, no,

9:56

he can have all the cups. He wants to know that's mine, but.

10:00

You call me, I will punish him personally.

10:03

Yeah, it was.

10:04

It was really cute. It was really cute because you

10:06

would have you know, there was a booth, a certain

10:09

booth in the restaurant that from time to time Dylan

10:12

would sit in and he would bring someone with them, and they were very nondescript, and they would the person

10:17

would stand in line for them, and you'd stand in line.

10:19

You'd order your food, and you'd go back to your place.

10:22

You'd get your drinks and you go back to where we're sitting and we'd call your name. And it was

10:26

great because our system was so bad that if you

10:30

could recognize your name, you knew you were a regular

10:34

when the cook would say that your was ready, it's

10:36

like your orders ready. And people knew, they just knew.

10:41

And it was so much a part of the community

10:45

that I felt sorrier for our customers than I did

10:49

for my husband and myself, because this is where we

10:52

had people that during COVID too, came every local loyals

10:57

came every week and they got their food, they said,

11:00

in the parking lot. And there was someone sent us

11:03

a video of a seagull trying to pack its way

11:06

through the windshield to get the food off the dashboard

11:08

of a car that was eating in the parking lot.

11:10

And you know, to give you an idea.

11:14

Our crew the first thing during COVID when we were

11:17

paying them out of our savings because there was no

11:21

PPPs or any of that yet, and they said, we

11:25

want to give you our money, our salaries back. We

11:28

don't want to take money from you. Guys. Well, this is happening, and I just broke down because I also

11:33

sell real estate. You know, We're fine, and it's just

11:38

that is the kind of heart these people that work

11:42

for us half that's their soul. They when this happened,

11:46

the restaurant burned it down. They found out where we

11:48

were at our you know Airbnb. We weren't at home,

11:51

and they came there and they said, what can we

11:53

do for you? Can we come to your house?

11:56

Can we take care of you somehow?

11:58

Right now we're talking with Teddy Seraphine Leonard. She's the

12:02

owner of real In. You must know it there in Malibu,

12:05

seeing it as you drive the coast, which we are

12:09

blessed and incredibly lucky to have here in southern California.

12:12

It's the only thing worth the Texas, let's be honest.

12:15

And I wanted her to talk a little bit more about the reel In because this is and has been

12:20

an important part of the food scene and the comfort

12:24

that food brings to southern California. Keep in mind, you

12:29

can find out more at reel in Malibu r e

12:33

e l in Malibu dot com. There's a link there

12:37

for a GoFundMe page that goes directly to the workers

12:41

that have been working there for a long time. You

12:43

said some like thirty years.

12:46

Yes, and fair too.

12:47

The employees were there when my husband got the restaurant

12:51

thirty seven years ago.

12:52

Wow, And so they've been there longer.

12:55

Than he has, and they're all sort of she's married

12:59

to each other, and it's just it's kind of a

13:02

unique story and that it is family.

13:05

So you were telling you one of the things that stood out that was very sweet to me, Teddy. You

13:11

were talking about how, you know, the famous, the rich,

13:15

we're standing next to surfers and you know, politicians and whatever,

13:20

and food is the equalizer in that. I love that.

13:24

You know, it's not a fancy place, but equalized everyone.

13:28

Oh, it really did. And it was funny because we

13:30

would also get people that were going to you know,

13:34

large galas and Malibu and they'd say, oh, we're stopping

13:36

here to eat first, because they just you know, have

13:39

these little finger things at the gatherings and we want

13:43

a plate full of food, and our crew we would

13:46

have to kind of say, guys, you don't want to

13:48

keep throwing food away. They would overheat people's plates like

13:52

they were at their own home in Mohaka. You know,

13:57

we tried everything this long now, like okay, two scoops

14:00

of that and two scoops of that with this particular spoof.

14:04

None of it worked. They just did it like it was their mother trying to fatten them up, and it

14:10

was hilarious.

14:11

Yeah, we couldn't.

14:12

That was one thing. And just they everything was fresh,

14:16

Everything was made on site every day. The fish was

14:19

delivered fresh every single day, the same fish vendors that

14:23

were delivering the Maestro's and Thenovu and the other restaurants

14:27

the same fish, not the same price when we solved it.

14:30

But we didn't have table claws or waiters or any

14:33

of that. But we had really good fresh fish. And

14:38

they made up the chipotle sauce, they made up the salsa,

14:41

they made up all the spices for the caju and

14:44

they did that. We were laughing, and I so I'd love to get the recipes. We talked about doing a

14:48

cookbook and putting the recipes and raise more money.

14:51

For the crew.

14:51

And you know, they would grab handfuls of spices and

14:57

you can't really quantify that.

14:58

So I was trying to find them.

15:00

If we do a cookbook, we need to have actual

15:02

measurements on what you put in. And that's not how

15:07

I mean. It was all very It was very much

15:10

like I said, a mom and pop place. People knew us,

15:13

they knew our crew, our crew knew them, and everybody

15:17

felt like they owned it. You know. That was one

15:20

thing my husband loved. It's a culture he set up.

15:23

This belongs to the community, and you know, people would

15:26

walk in and decide with their group, oh, we're going

15:29

to move these tables over here and move those chairs

15:31

over there, and you know, they would do whatever they

15:34

wanted to do. They'd bring their dogs out on the

15:37

patio on the weekends and it was just it was

15:41

lovely to have that kind of culture in that kind

15:44

of gathering place for the community. And I hope even

15:47

if we don't do it, I hope someone else does.

15:50

But our crew has all come back to us and said, look,

15:54

we're going to you know, I said, I want you guys to get jobs because we don't know how long

15:58

this is going to take, and I don't know how

16:00

much more I can raise the GoFundMe.

16:03

And we've got a way to.

16:04

See because our income obviously stopped when the restaurant down.

16:09

And that they work for some of them.

16:11

A couple of them. We have them coming up and doing yard work for us, just to keep people yeah yeah,

16:19

and paying and being able to pay them. All of

16:21

our crew was legal. Over the years, we had helped

16:26

them get their green cards and their citizenship, but still

16:31

they're concerned with what's happening, and I'm concerned for people

16:36

with what's happening right now.

16:38

Yeah, we're hearing a lot of that obviously, and that's

16:40

been something that has been throughout the food industry for

16:44

a long time. And as I said earlier on the show,

16:48

if there's people you don't want here because they're bad,

16:51

then there should be people that you do want here because they're good, and you know, and being able to

16:57

decide and have a system is the best way, in

17:01

the reasonable way. Just one more moment here, Heaven forbid.

17:07

But you guys deserve your time too. You put in

17:09

a lot of love, so you deserve your time too

17:12

and are allowed for that. And hopefully someone takes that

17:14

legacy with your guidance. What do you want people to

17:20

remember or think? What do you I know we right

17:23

now go to really in Malibu dot com click the

17:26

link for the GoFundMe to help pay for the workers.

17:30

It's not going to you and your husband, it's going to your workers. But what do you want them to

17:34

think about when they think about that neon sign of

17:37

the you know, the fish jumping and something that we've

17:41

seen in Malibu forever what do you want them to

17:43

remember and think about.

17:46

The spirit of Malibu, the community of Malibu, and to

17:50

Panga and the palisades that if you go to I

17:54

hopefully still on our Instagram or our website. Many many

17:59

people came forward with so many stories that I'd say

18:02

the first two days, three actually two weeks after it

18:06

burned down, I found myself I could only read two

18:08

a day because I would just start crying. I was

18:11

so moved by what other people felt they had lost.

18:15

I mean, I know what my husband and I lost, but it was more impactful to us that all these

18:22

other the community lost. It was a community loss.

18:25

And yeah, so if.

18:28

We get to rebuild, We're hoping our son, Jack, my

18:32

step son, my husband's son, Jack is in the food industry.

18:35

We're trying to convince him to come down and maybe,

18:39

you know, take the lead on this because he does manage restaurants in Seattle. But not sure, not sure. I mean,

18:46

I don't know what's happening. And I feel very badly

18:48

for the restaurants in Malibu. And if people your listeners

18:51

get a chance somehow they get to Malibou, or that

18:53

they take the one on one to Malibu canyon and go over. There are wonderful restaurants that really need your

18:59

patronage right now that are going through such a hard time.

19:02

Their businesses are down by like eighty percent from last year,

19:06

and ours burned down in a weird way. We were

19:09

blessed because we had insurance and you know, otherwise we

19:13

would be going through our savings like we did during COVID.

19:17

And I think that's something that if people go to

19:20

the beach, it's lovely. You know, maybe not in the water,

19:22

but look at it.

19:26

Look at it, take pictures, don't stip in it.

19:29

Yeah, you know, I'm not. The reports are great, but

19:31

you know there's some lovely places like oh see that.

19:35

Just these restaurants really they need us right now. It'd

19:39

be nice to see people go out and patronize them.

19:43

Well, it is my job to ring that bell every Saturday,

19:45

and I'll continue to do it. My friend, I appreciate

19:49

you that you came on and took the time. I

19:51

know you've got a lot going on. Please keep us

19:53

posted on any changes, and my producer and I will

19:57

make sure that everybody knows what's happening. And if I

20:01

can say, one last tip is to your step son.

20:05

Every time it's raining there and it's sunny here, Colin,

20:09

Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful right now. Oh it's raining.

20:13

Oh my god, honey, that's so horrible. It is. It's

20:16

eighty five here right now. Well, oh, why are you

20:19

coming through your windows? Oh my god, that sounds horrible.

20:23

And then that's hilarious. It's true. Well, he grew up here,

20:26

so he knows what the weather's like here.

20:28

Yeah, I don't remind him, you're right.

20:31

Well, thank you so much for that, and thanks for

20:33

having me.

20:34

Teddy A. Seraphine Leonard, owner of reel in and again.

20:37

You can find everything out at real in Malibu dot