Private Club Radio Show
Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the industry's weekly source for education, news, trends, and other current developments in the world of private clubs.
Hosted by the talented entertainer and industry expert, Denny Corby,
the podcast offers a unique perspective on the private club industry, featuring expert guests, product spotlights, predictions, and more.
Whether you're involved in a golf club management, yacht clubs, athletic clubs, or business clubs, the Private Club Radio Show is the essential podcast for
anyone seeking valuable insights and information on the latest trends and developments in the private club industry.
Private Club Radio Show
441: The Big City Pour w/ Heather Korte
You probably don’t plan for a fire in the supply closet.
Heather Korte didn’t either.
But when three stories of her clubhouse got soaked, smoked out,
and stripped to the studs, she got to work.
No panic. No pity.
Just bold moves, creative thinking, and a serious amount of member love.
Heather is the GM at Oakley Country Club, and this episode is a
behind-the-scenes look at what it actually takes to lead through crisis
and come out better on the other side.
👇 Here's some of what we get into
🌎 Why her CMAA network saved the season (and her sanity)
💡 Creative pivots: from cantinas to pop-up flower markets
🙌 Keeping your team engaged without a building, a kitchen, or a clear timeline
🍷 What a $4K bottle of wine and a kicked trash can taught her about service
🏊 Why the pool deck became the new hub of club life
🧘 Yoga in borrowed studios, Easter by the pool, and the world’s scrappiest gala
🔥 And how to keep your team calm, creative, and moving when everything else is literally falling apart
If you’ve ever had to lead through the unexpected, this one hits home.
If you haven’t yet…take notes.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, where we give you the scoop on all things private golf and country clubs, from mastering leadership and management, food and beverage excellence, member engagement secrets, board governance and everything in between, all while keeping it fun and light. Whether you're a club veteran just getting your feet wet or somewhere in the middle, you are in the right place. I'm your host, denny Corby. Welcome to the show. In this episode, I get to chat with Heather Corti, general manager of Oakley Country Club in Massachusetts, who's been leading a full scale clubhouse comeback ever since a devastating fire in December that left most of her building soaked, smoked out and stripped to the studs. What started with a small electrical fire in a storage closet turned into a total shutdown of three stories, and yet somehow Heather never lost momentum. She walks us through the creative pivots her and her team made moving events to partner clubs, hosting fitness classes off-site, planning Easter by the pool and turning a tiki bar into a cantina for some adult forward dining. This isn't just a story or an episode or a talk on damage control. It's literally a playbook for how to stay and lead with imagination, humility and a little bit of Boston grit when your walls literally come down. It's so cool to hear about how she was able to lean into the New England community and how they all came together to help. I cannot wait for you to listen and dive into this episode with Heather Before we do, as always, a quick thank you a genuine thank you and support to some of our show partners.
Speaker 1:Please, listeners, if you can give our partners some loving, if you are interested in any of their products, hit them up. Let them know that you also are heard about them or reaching out because of Private Club Radio. It means a lot and when you do that, they will continue to support the channel. So quick thank you to Golf Life Navigators, kennes, member Vetting Members, first Concert, golf Partners, partners and club capital, as well as myself, the Denny Corby experience. There's excitement, there's mystery. Also there's magic, mind reading and comedy One of the most fun member event nights you can have guaranteed. And there's something special I want to send you Now. Even though my show is not straight standup comedy, there is some standup comedy elements to it and I've talked and worked with too many clubs who have had bad stand-up comedy nights. And even though, like I said, it's not what I do. It still sometimes reflects on the type of show that I do and I want to make sure you and your club have the best stand-up comedy nights possible. So I've developed the ultimate comedy night blueprint how you and your club can have the best comedy night. Get that right now for free. It's amazing. Head on over to dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. That's dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. Now, private club radio listeners. Let's welcome to the show.
Speaker 1:Heather corti. We start all over. I didn't think it was going to be that good. I didn't think you were going to come out that strong like I did not expect. Did not expect a fire in the closet. You know, less than a minute before hit, hit and record, uh, but you had a fire in the closet yeah, next to my office oh yeah, did you figure out what caused it?
Speaker 2:um, the best we've ever heard is that it's some kind of unidentifiable electrical cause, but no real pinpointed thing. On the good news, the sprinklers did everything that the sprinklers are supposed to do, so they absolutely doused the clubhouse and kept the fire contained to one storage closet filled with markers and crayons and Halloween decorations. But the bad news is that water from the sprinklers in the fire trucks and the smoke that gets picked up by the air handler goes through an entire club. So three stories of a club are now in phases of restoration. Stories of a club are now in phases of restoration and some of those phases are as simple as walls getting scrubbed down, repainted, new ceiling, tiles and carpet. Um three-fourths of the club is down to the studs wow, and it looks like a project. We're going to look at it in phases, yeah, and that first phase where we get the couple of rooms that it's just cosmetic we're hoping it's may.
Speaker 1:The rest of it, where it's down to the studs, it's looking like mid-fall, um, maybe even early winter yeah, yeah, yeah, how that had to be a struggle or has to be a struggle, especially maybe in the beginning. Maybe I could be wrong, but how did the membership? It has to be a little difficult to still be sending your monthly bills, but it's such a unique scenario. How do you manage that and the expectations? And I'm sure you're getting members who are still at this point, even though it's only been a couple of months, maybe getting like a little antsy In my head. It has to be a unique position where everyone like knows the position, like happy, everyone's happy, healthy, safe, but also like when's the club go back? I'm sure like there's some antsiness and how do you manage like expectations at that point? Like how do you keep the membership you know, at least engaged, excited? How do you keep that momentum going? And do you guys have like outdoors? Is the club even like usable, like are they able to use the club or has it been like MIA.
Speaker 2:It's been interesting One. We are incredibly fortunate to have the members that we do. These are folks that are largely from, you know, the Watertown, boston, brookline, belmont, lexington communities. It's not one of those clubs where people came from super far away. This is a place that a lot of them have. Multiple generations of their family were members of this club and this is something that's near and dear to them, almost like a family member. So our people are going to be incredibly patient, understanding and kind. They just want to see their club come back. The graciousness that they have shown myself, my team and the team that is putting the club back together again, as well as the board, you know, have we? Yes, of course, everybody wants something to do. So actually, a great shout out to my sister clubs in the New England chapter of club managers. They have been above and beyond also gracious with giving our members kind of this extended dining over at their clubs and having events at their clubs. You know we even moved our winter gala with, like I think, a week and a half to the date, belmont Country Club was able to accommodate 200 of our members for our formal Christmas gala in December, which is just absolutely wild that they were able to swing that the Charles River Club. They were able to accommodate my incredibly large employee holiday party, also in December, on the fly, and everybody did it with a smile on their face and, again, incredible kindness. You know, we are absolutely blessed to have the clubs and managers and the board members of the other clubs that have been so gracious to bring Oakley that kind of that sense of normalcy, which has been absolutely great. They've invited our members to their Wednesday pasta nights and this special class, even to have golf lessons at their simulators. It's been very, very generous. Lessons at their simulators, it's been very, very generous. We've also worked with people in our community to give them access to gym facilities and you know these places that have lots and lots of golf simulators and super fun bars. Even our yoga instructor, who usually came to Oakley to do a class once a week, has now graciously said you know, until your building is back together again or until we can be out on the golf course, we'd be more than happy to host Oakley over here at the yoga studio. So again, just incredibly generous and people really, you know, stepping out of the way to make that happen for our members.
Speaker 2:That being said, spring is right around the corner, or so they tell me. So our people are going to be. They're already out on the golf course, even though the tarps are still out there on the greens, but they are playing golf in that marshy mess, but they're happy to be out there. You know, we're going to open our tennis and pickleball courts earlier than ever and I've challenged my little crew of managers that I have left.
Speaker 2:I'm like this is the time where we really need to put on our Imagineer hats and think outside the box. What kind of things can we bring the members, knowing that we might not be able to necessarily be back in our building, knowing that we might not be able to necessarily be back in our building? So some of the things we're going to have a meet and greet with the Easter bunny and have little baskets for the kids and some snacks down by the pool. I can open the pool at the pool area to have a pop up. You know, day before Mother's Day flower market where kids and dads and anybody could go and make these beautiful bouquets for mom, and we're going to like buy flowers at wholesale price, you know, maybe some chocolates and some other shopping. Of course, snacks and cocktails, but this is the time for us to kind of I hate to use the word pivot because we use it so much. You know, five years ago Limitations towards creativity pivot because we use it so much.
Speaker 2:You know, five years ago limitation, but we have creativity, yeah, so we're.
Speaker 1:We're on full pivot mode, uh, just trying to make cool things out of what we have you guys thinking about doing any like food trucks or getting a food truck, or do you have a food truck or a food trailer, or is that like uh?
Speaker 2:we thought about it. Yeah, um, but if you've ever seen our parking lot you would also unthink it very quickly. But on that same tangent, we looked at we have a really great and kind of very big, very generous sized pool area. So we talked to one of our local tent companies who's going to put up a 30 by 30 tent right next to our tiki bar that we built last year and I worked with my chef on developing a menu that was less you know, chicken tenders and French fries and slushies to making it more, especially in the earlier part of the year, geared towards the adult. So it now is going to have kind of a cantina feel. It's going with the tiki bar. It should be something fun, interesting and it's all completely doable with what equipment we have in a pool shack and grills. So is it different? Oh sure, but will it be great? We'll make it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's awesome and I love it. The limitations force creativity. It's just all right. Here's what we can do, here's what we can't do. Boom and just yeah. I'm trying not not to use the word pivot, that was, that was the trick I know it's so.
Speaker 2:It's so awful, isn't it?
Speaker 1:yeah, yeah one fine word, now ruined I think that's why I just started saying, like limitations force creativity, because it's just like it means pivot in like a very obscure way, um, but I mean that that has to come from your background, in because you were at like super fine dining and you got your, you got your psalm certificate and you're all bougie there. Um, no, but you like that when you're in those environments, when you're in those situations it's about. It's a constant change and adapt and a movement, and you know so it has to.
Speaker 2:When you correlate yeah, sorry, um, I would say my background working in luxury hospitality prior to coming to the private club business. There is definitely a level of customization and personalization that you have to be able to bring to every customer, every guest every time. That spending years doing that really does kind of give you a leg up. When you come over to this side of the business and you are tested with these more challenging situations Because you already have the background of, I know that I can make a tiger appear out of a paper bag if I really need to, and maybe that's what the situation will call for Don't be talking about my show.
Speaker 1:If I really need to and maybe that's what the situation will call for Don't be talking about my show.
Speaker 2:Don't be mocking me. You know how badly I want to. I'm not, I'm absolutely not. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:No, but that's that's, and it's impressive. How'd you get your stick? What's you know? Give us the 30,000 foot foot view. What got you to here, like, did you always start in hospitality? Did you have like one of those weird like you're in engineering and then had like a bartending gig?
Speaker 2:and then we're just like ah, I'm going this way oh, no, no, I took the incredibly traditional route to hospitality, which is you go to school and you study. You know something that's, uh, you know, incredibly like art, history or philosophy. In my case it was art, history and theater and linguistics and German and chemistry. Please show me what line of work that ends up in. So that is the fast track to hospitality. So that is the fast track to hospitality. You will talk to many talented bartenders and restaurant managers and chefs and many of us have a very similar college background. So it's amazing and not one single class. And that was in hospitality.
Speaker 2:But I was very fortunate to. The first job that I had in hospitality was working as a server at the and you're going to laugh at the name, but you have to see the spelling of it. It's a real place. It's called the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee, wisconsin, starts with the letter P, p-f-i-s-t-e-r, and it's a beautiful, like you know, kind of grand dame luxury hotel. This is the kind of place where the MLB, the NBA, rock stars, politicians, that's where they stay. And I was being trained in my very, very, very first server job at incredibly high standards of luxury service and never looked back. It was, you know, it was amazing to walk in such a beautiful place, work with such interesting people and to again have these incredibly challenging situations put in front of you on nearly a daily basis. And for personality types like mine, I don't like to be bored. So coming to work every day and every day was a strange new adventure, with strange new people in the most gorgeous place. Sign me up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, having to do it all with a smile on your face Most of the time.
Speaker 2:Always when we're on stage.
Speaker 1:I was. I was just writing a thing before our call. That's basically like the show starts as soon as you hit the parking lot, like it's not, like it's true, like, like it's not, like it's true, like it's not when it's like it's not when you're in. It's like no, like it starts really. Like you want to be technical, like once you like get, get in the car, like as soon as, like you hit the parking lot because you don't know like who's who, who's coming back, you just don't know who people are, and like the show just starts like you're just on baby, like who hundred percent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I learned that the hard way. I've become a real Boston driver and I like to use the horn in my car and I accidentally used it as I was going around the corner near the club and that was a former president. The good news was is that he's a pretty fun loving guy and he thought it was really entertaining, but it could have gone very badly.
Speaker 1:You're talking to somebody who used their horn so much. I blew out a horn on my car I had to get a new horn. Like literally, the dealership was like we've never heard of this Like I was like what do you do I?
Speaker 1:love the horn, like I I, even when I don't have to, I just love honking the horns. Uh, I used to keep an air horn, also, like in my car, like probably up until I turned 30, like, I think, when I think 29 into 30. That's when, like, I like, took, took it out, but like where, like the cup holder is, um, on the car door, was always an air horn, because sometimes it wasn't enough.
Speaker 1:Uh um, did you ever get any really bad advice in hospitality, like advice that you like look back, maybe from early years, and you're like that was actually horrible? And I'm only asking because I feel like you probably have some funnier stories.
Speaker 2:Oh, like bad advice from supervisors. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Just like someone like you look back or like has he's ever gotten like really bad advice? That you're like that was just either horrible? Or, like you, you put it to practice and you're like that was just the worst advice ever.
Speaker 2:Um, I, I once had a gentleman who thought he was helping me out. Um, I will not name the restaurant that I was. This is going back to my experience as a floor. Um, um, uh, this was Christmas night at the hotel. I was working at this flagship fine dining, super great restaurant and he and his date were sitting in this exclusive booth in the entire restaurant and they wanted to have wine pairings with the tasting menu. And when his date stepped away to use the restroom and I was about for wine number two, he grabs me by the hand and says honey, I just want you to know we're from New York. I'm like okay, wonderful, welcome to Wisconsin.
Speaker 2:And when we're in New York, we like to go to really nice restaurants like this. I love going to La Bonadonne, and I know that's not how it's pronounced, but that's how he said it. So that's how we're going to say it and you know what we do when we're there. He's like we like to have the tasting menu and we like to have it with the wine tastings, just like you're doing. You know what the difference is between you and the sommeliers and La Bonadonne. I'm like mm-mm. And at this point I'm like a little bit scared because this is a weird time that we are having. It's like they like to pour it to here and he is showing me on a wine glass like double what I've just poured. So basically a full glass of wine for every single course, and when you're looking at a down the barrel of a eight 10 course 12 course menu.
Speaker 2:My Lord, like that's a two bottles wine per person. Buckle up and buckle up. And I'm still staring at him and he's like so here's my piece of advice to you why don't you just pretend you're in the big city one night. You're in the Big Apple and give us a big city pour. So I smiled, my teeth gritted, hands shaking, and poured this man a giant glass of wine and one for his date and went into the kitchen. And only after I knew I was like, clearly past the point of any customers hearing, I unleashed a chain of swears not unlike that in like a Christmas story it's probably still hanging over the air by Lake Michigan and kicked a trash can down a flight of stairs. Not my most colorful moment. It did, however, teach all of the cooks in the kitchen that I'm not a psalm to be trifled with in that moment. But I went out there and I smiled through it all and I poured in the wine. I charged them for four wine tastings, of course, and in all of my fury I in fact called that restaurant. I talked to the SOM on Christmas night and I asked hi, this is going to be very weird and I'm calling from this undisclosed restaurant in Wisconsin. A Merry Christmas SOM to SOM.
Speaker 2:B. Can you tell me how many ounces are in each of the pours on your tasting menu? I'm like, of course it's right around. Uh, two ounces Like perfect, that's what I pour to. They're like you have a Merry Christmas. Sounds like you've had a rough one. I'm like, yeah, um, but uh, yeah, so that was, that was great. Uh, I learned that. A, I do have the. I do have the resilience and the patience to deal with a man who talks like he's out of a 1930s mafia movie. But B, if there are good human beings in the world, like Psalms and French restaurants in New York who will patiently and calmly talk to weirdos over in Wisconsin. You just need to know was I validated in kicking a trash can down a flight of stairs?
Speaker 1:was I validate and kicking a trash can down five stairs. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, there's the same camaraderie with magic and magicians and comedians and entertainers. Like it's one of the like there there's all the equivalent. So you know there's. You know you call if like hey, I heard you did this gig, were they as we? And it's like, oh, my god, yeah, and it's like yeah, like there's a couple like, because sometimes you know you, you'll, you'll leave a show interaction, be like pretty sure it was the audience.
Speaker 1:Because like for that mostly no, because most of the time you're like okay, what, what could have I done different? Maybe it was, you know the oh, whatever. But there's just some. You're like they were just weird, right, like you're just like something was just a little bit off. And then like, like they'll, they'll say like oh, like you know, cause when you talk to people, like they'll oh, so-and-so, you know, two years ago we had this person. Or four years ago, or like you know you'll talk to some entertainers and uh, who have had like the same gig. You know, because the client like will, will tell you who's who and there's been that like.
Speaker 2:That's like sort of an equivalent of calling like another, another song going hey, I know there's a you might not know there's a huge, there's a level of comfort, um, in knowing that you can reach out to people who, like they, live your life every day, even if, again, it's on the other side of the country and they're working in a Michelin star restaurants and, my God, they've probably never heard of you. It's you know the whole, you know New York Boston rivalry.
Speaker 1:Like New York never thinks about Boston, Not going to lie, though, you probably made that person's night. Can you imagine working and getting a call going? Hey, there's a Heather, a Somalier from Wisconsin, on the phone for you. That's like the Vatican calls. Is that like a bat call? What is this? That guy has a crazy story also.
Speaker 2:There's actually now three people who get a crazy story out of that one night, because one the Sam who talked to me in New York probably was having a good laugh. When they got out to an industry bar that night they were like somebody met a New Yorker, or a person pretending to be from New Yorker really is giving them a hard time. I'm glad I made their day. There's one, two, the man who ordered all those like the big city pour. Well, I ran into, he and his date the next night, because they came into the little winery bar that was attached to the restaurant and that lady looked at me and she said no, not you, just walking through this room. I'm like, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm like I do recognize you from last evening. How are you, mrs So-and-so? She's like why did you pour me so much wine? I have the worst hangover in my entire human life and I just smiled. I looked over at her date. I'm like it's the big city pour. And she looks at him because she must've heard those words come out of his mouth, cause she knew it wasn't me and she just starts slapping him. Why did you do this? It was amazing. So he's never going to forget that vacation.
Speaker 1:Neither she, neither my and neither is New York, and that is the title of this episode the big city.
Speaker 2:It was the best Christmas of my life the big city poor.
Speaker 1:You need to make the rights for that Like that is, that's like a Netflix movie or that is a limited series the big City Poor.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's a sequel to it called the Rick Springfield Poor, and this now goes through generations of people in my family who've had to serve the singer of Jessie's Girl Wine glass is filled to the top. It's a whole different story, but that's the sequel.
Speaker 1:Oh, part two, Part that's yeah yeah, adventures in in serving wine yeah, yeah, the big city pour that's hysterical uh so how? Uh, so how and when did you get into clubs?
Speaker 2:how long have I been in clubs? It might have been around 10 years ago that I made the jump. Yeah, I had been the director of food and beverage at the Milwaukee Art Museum, which that sounds kind of strange. Like what? Was I running a cafe? No, like there were multiple cafes. There was a wine bar with gelato and charcuterie, and we also did really phenomenal events. If you are not familiar with this, the building itself, it's this architectural marvel that part of it was designed by Eero Saarinen, so of the famous, like St Louis arch and tulip table fame. But the other half, that is probably more famous now, was designed by the spanish architect, santiago calatrava. It literally has these white wings that open and close up on the top. Um, they used it for one of the transformers movies, I think, the one where, like they, you know, destroy chicago, but the villain, his office, was Milwaukee art museum, which was also my office. So very, very fun, and it was a place for a club villain.
Speaker 2:There's not. A lot of people are going to argue with that, but it was we. We got to do so many amazing, really cool, completely off the walls things there because they wanted us again. It's all about resilience. One of the years I was there, the part of the museum that had most of the art was under restoration. They had to completely gut the place for a year, which meant that for one year the only art that you would see in the art museum were a couple of Alexander Calder mobiles, a Jehuly statue and maybe some Rodin kind of thrown around in a hallway. Other than that, a few special exhibitions, but the majority like 85% of the art in an art museum was over in a construction zone. So the president of the board for the art museum came to my team and one of the team and said this is your mission. You need to make sure that the members of this museum and the general public still feel engaged, motivated and interested enough to come to an art museum that has no art for a year.
Speaker 2:So we developed culinary classes we call the art of craft, where you get to taste things, eat things, drink things and talk to people who are, you know, makers of charcuterie chocolatiers. You know people who blended tea, coffee roasters. You know pig farmers, cheese makers what have you Get to hear? A lot of wine talk with me. You know mixology classes really fun stuff. But on top of that, when we did have these cool special exhibitions, we would have these events. It was called MAM, so Milwaukee Art Museum. After dark, that would feature. Usually, uh, there was always some kind of musical component. So, whether it was salsa dancing or quiet clubbing, which is hysterical to watch if you have you ever seen anybody do quiet clubbing, oh it is, it's the funniest thing. Yeah, a room is dead silent, except for the sound of shuffling with hundreds of people with glowing headphones.
Speaker 1:It's amazing and you can always hear that one person who's wearing corduroy pants, sorry.
Speaker 2:But there would also be these components of. Maybe people were doing crafts and art, but there's always food, beverage and like some other really cool things. This event I remember, the first one that I worked maybe 50 people showed up. I'm not going to tell you the theme because if anybody ever hears that they'll be like that was my theme. Okay, I'm going to say it was Back to the Future. It's really bad. Nobody wanted to go. But within that weird reconstruction time in the museum, that event went from people to all of a sudden you had hundreds and hundreds of people in Milwaukee showing up lying out the door in January. If you've ever been in Milwaukee in January, it's really not any place you want to be outside for more than two minutes, bind up in salsa dancing clothes, ready to party at an art museum, and we were able to do all kinds of. We had roller girls, we had bocce ball courts, we had a life-size, you know statue of David, for another one, pasta tastings, we turned our cafe into a ultra lounge for one night All these wild things and they led us to it.
Speaker 2:But I did transition to clubs after that and part of that was that the place that I'd worked at that resort with a big city floor. They also had a private membership club and a recruiter friend of mine reached out to me and said hey, this place is looking for somebody and I think they might need kind of that infusion of fresh ideas, fresh blood. Would you be interested in going there? I'm like, well, that place is the dream. That club is the cherry on top of the sundae, as the owner of the company would always say, and it was so amazing to work there and to work on that team, because the members are great and the place itself, the club. It's a little club called Riverbend in Kohler, wisconsin, and it's in the old Kohler family mansion. These are the Kohlers of Kohler, like toilets, bathtubs, sinks. They are more than just a plumbing company, they also have hospitality. So multiple hotels, a private membership club and a couple of little golf courses, one of which is called Whistling Straits, and it's kind of a big deal.
Speaker 2:And that was really what the draw for members at our club was that they had preferential access to Whistling Straits and it's a place where everything is just hyper-personalized. There's 32 rooms at the mansion that our members and their guests could stay at. We served high tea, we had a croquet field. It's cozy, there's wood-burning fireplaces and butlers. You feel like you've stepped into a beautiful English mansion, but again hyper-personalized everything. It's a joy to be there every single day. And after that, that was the first club that I made the jump over to. I'm like I can do this. I like this. No, no, it's not. It's not. But every club has its own personality. It's the membership everywhere. It's just it's a little bit different. I've met so many extraordinary people, but every one of these places really is so incredibly unique.
Speaker 1:There are no two clubs that are alike. Yeah, yeah, and I think you hopefully don't take this like the wrong way, but you have that personality and that I think you were so well clicked into the club spaces like you can chameleonize well a bit and you can like talk with anybody, meaning like you know from the from, like you know working in the hospitality, in the kitchens, and like everyone from there up to ceos and everybody in between, being able to pivot and here we go back to pivot but like switch conversations easily and you know you can. You can chat with this person about this, but then you can go talk to the highest level, the lowest level and everybody in between, but like then actually like know the why behind it. I think like that's impressive and probably why.
Speaker 2:I think it's actually maybe a character flaw of mine, because I don't have really any really instilled fear of other humans, which is why they hired me at that very first hotel. It's this lady who ran into me at a baby shower who talked me into working there's a server. While I was in college she insisted. She's like you need to come work here. She's like.
Speaker 1:We need more people like you.
Speaker 2:I should have. Well, I did. In my first month on the job, I told a US Senator, millionaire, owner of an NBA team, that's all one person. I told him because he cut me off. In my little spiel my waitress spiel about how my name is and the soup is, he cut me off. I was so offended by it that I looked at him and said, no, I'm going to walk out of this room for five minutes and when I come back, you are here, I'm going to tell you my name, the soup, a special and I'm going to inquire what beverage you would like in that order. I walked into the kitchen and I sat in there and I should have been probably let go for that. But I walked back out and he was still sitting there. I'm like, shall we start again? And he said, yes, I'm so sorry that was out of line. I'm like, shall we start again? And he said, yes, I'm so sorry, that was out of line. I'm like, okay. After that we were great friends and whenever I would see this man out and about in Milwaukee which was often he would always come over. He knew me by name. He would say hello to me and my friends. My friends were absolutely flabbergasted. How do you know him?
Speaker 2:It's a really weird long story, but it's all about knowing that I have respect for myself and I have respect for them, but everybody is going to be treated. We'll treat each other as equals. It kind of goes back to when I worked in restaurants. There is some bad advice.
Speaker 2:I once had a restaurant owner chef who would scream VIP, ultra, ultra, vip, just going to hysterics Anytime somebody that in his mind was a ultra VIP. This is not a city where, like the president of the United States was walking into that restaurant. So, like you know, I'm not really sure who was an ultra, ultra VIP that night, but I kind of looked around, like I think that everybody in this room probably is a VIP. I think we're going to give everybody the same excellent level of care, attention and service and I think that will be great, because if I treat anybody in here any different than anybody else, I don't know what their story is.
Speaker 2:That same US senator who was sitting in that restaurant where I told him like that was not going to be acceptable. He had walked in in like the world's dirtiest like hat, a jacket that had patches on the elbows, a sweater with a hole in it. I knew who he was and that was not going to change. Like you know how he was dressed or what he was worth. It was just a matter of like we are all going to treat each other as human beings.
Speaker 1:What's the most expensive bottle of wine you ever poured?
Speaker 2:I served a bottle of 2003 Screaming Eagle to a group, a foursome of nice people from France. They weren't that nice who. When I had come to a table at the very beginning of the evening, they told me we are French and we are sommelier. Also, we own property in Vaux-Romney. Okay, vaux-romney is, like you know, this amazing place in Burgundy where some of the most breathtakingly expensive Pinot Noir like there was a bottle of DRC Domaine de la Romane Conti, I think sold for like $28,000. My mom told me and it showed up on Saturday Night Live, like in the last week. So they're telling me we own property in Vaux-Romney.
Speaker 2:I'm like, okay, that's great. Like they're going to drink something amazing. I've got great Bordeaux's and Burgundy's. No, they wanted to drink, because they were in the United States all of the most blue chip American wine. So they just start burning through Colgan, harlan Staglin. They're drinking really great California cabs when they get to their cheese course because, again, they are proper French people and cheese is last, not first. They're like, and for dessert, a bottle of Screaming Eagle.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh my lord, are you sure? Because that bottle I think we were selling it at that time around like $4,300, which now sold probably more expensive, but at that time around like 4,300 dollars, which now I've sold like probably more expensive, but at that time that was like the one that really, uh, made an impression and I'm like the screaming eagle yes, screaming a gal so I brought it out, um, poured it for them, they sampled it and then they, as they're getting up to leave the show half bottle of this at the table. I'm like, oh, would you like me to cork that up so you may take it up to your room? Like no, no for you and the chef. I'm like, no, we couldn't possibly, but you just gave me, you know, like $2,000 worth of wine for me and the chef, like for you and the chef.
Speaker 2:So I'm like I well, thank you so much. You don't want to start acting ungrateful in that situation. So I bring it back to the kitchen. Like chef ryan, the that table has been burning through all these great wines. They left this for us like they insisted. We're both like all just a twitter at that moment. I pour us both a nice healthy glasses.
Speaker 1:You mean a, you mean a big city pour.
Speaker 2:A big city pour Yep and we both, we both take a sip. There's nobody on here who owns Screaming Eagles. That's okay. That is. That was the most over, highly concentrated, highly alcoholic, over Oaks monstrosity I've ever had. My entire life. If I'd been drinking a cup of Robitussin mixed up with some, like you know, concentrated grape juice, I wouldn't mind. Maybe I'd not have known the difference. Both myself and the chef the chef we looked at each other because we've been so excited. We both looked at each other and the light had gone out of both of our eyes and like well, now I know why they gave it to us. It was a, it was an insult. Yeah, they didn't.
Speaker 1:This wasn't a thank you oh well, what are some of the best wines you think clubs should have? Maybe some under underrated gems, and what are some maybe overrated ones that they should get rid of and maybe change for something new like josh okay, no, I'm kidding, josh is is very consistent and I and I like that yeah, um, I would say well, let's start with the overrated with the overrated.
Speaker 2:anybody who's still serving Mayomi Pinot Noir, please ask your vendors to help you find something else. I know that the twist off is very attractive to bartenders, but it's not Pinot Noir and it doesn't taste like it. There are much better options out there, and it is like it's so prevalent that you just you see it everywhere else, so I'm sure there's just a better way.
Speaker 1:What are those options? Or what are you digging?
Speaker 2:I really enjoy, like in that same price point, sazuri up in Oregon from Willamette Valley. They also it's Swiss Doff, but their like entry-level Pinot Noir is in the same price point as Mayomi and it drinks like actual Pinot Noir. Chehalem, also up there in Willamette Valley, you know, makes an excellent Pinot Noir that's still highly affordable. And then from Santa Barbara Au Bon Climat, again like it's real Pinot Noir. You do have to use a corkscrew, but I think it's okay, but you're getting it's, you know, same price point, but this is real wine. This is how it's supposed to taste. One wine that I would love to see on more people's lists is, uh, so Staglin, if you're. Are you familiar with Staglin? All right, so it's a, a family owned winery out of, out of Napa, one of the few. It hasn't been bought out by the big conglomerates. It's a beautiful thing and, um, this family makes a a very, very, very, very high-end because they're working with not huge fields or anything like that Very high-end.
Speaker 2:Chardonnay and Cabernet really are their two hallmarks and they are definitely not affordable, I mean not for everyday purposes. They're great to have on your list as these, as these wonderful, like you know, things to be able to offer people who want to splurge. However, staglin also makes a second label they call saloose. Um, it has, like I think, the roman goddess of of health on the label. They make a cabernet and a chardonnay from that line and, and from that line they even have a secret line they call the Benchland Siri, that they only sell to on-premise accounts like country clubs and restaurants, which comes in at even half of the price of the Sallu.
Speaker 2:And again, this drinks, like you know, $150 bottle of cab, but it's definitely not in that price points at all. I can't say it because it's a secret. But the beautiful thing about that particular label is that the proceeds from the sales of that Cabernet and that Chardonnay from the Sallus label go to the One Mind Foundation, which is a foundation that the Staglin family founded to raise money for brain health research initiatives and awareness. They also have a music festival at the estate every September, right around harvest, which I was fortunate enough to work last year, and they raise millions of dollars at that one day festival where it's a wine tasting, a super VIP dinner and then a concert out there at the vineyard, which is the whole thing's magical. But it's really great to hear the stories of the people who their lives have been improved by the innovations that have come through the money that was raised by one mind. Yeah, but again, salus, you're drinking for a good cause.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on the show. This was I didn't know what to expect and this was very, very good.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Well, we'll have to get together again sometime so we can talk about your TSA story.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, no, no no in person hope you all enjoyed that episode. I know I did. You are interested in the comedy night blueprint? Head on over to dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. It's dennycorbycom slash comedy guide. If you are enjoying the content, the episodes, a like, share. Subscribe means the world costs nothing. That is this episode. Until next time, I'm your host, danny Corby. Catch y'all on the Flippity Flip.
