Excerpts below, but the Full interview can heard on the podcast, LISTEN HERE, and available anywhere podcasts are found “Let Me Tell You Why…with Jeremy Jacobowitz”

Tell us about your restaurant?

So it's called Kellogg’s Diner. It is in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It has been around for nearly 100 years, but different iterations, serving different styles of food under different owners, but always under the Kelloggs name.

Why was it important to keep the name, and still make it a diner?

So it was important to keep the name because I mean people have so much attachment to this restaurant, like everybody that I've ever spoken with has a Kellogg's memory whether it's good or bad, but it's always like you know, like Kellogg's diner, you know somebody got broken up with there, or I threw up in the bathroom, or you know whatever, that was like my favorite after work spot. And It was just really important that we stuck with it because, I mean, it's so historically important in my eyes. And it represents so much of New York City, the average New Yorker. You you can find so many walks of life here. And I think if Kellogg's had ceased to exist, it have been a really big loss for the community.

How would you describe the menu?

It definitely does have a lot of Tex-Mex and Southern influence in there. I think that there's definitely more to it than that. And that was intentional, right? So we initially were going down the Tex-Mex and Southern pathway pretty exclusively. Then just kind of realized that we wanted to open up the umbrella a little bit, and appeal to a bigger swath of diners, the people, not the buildings. And, I just decided to put some more like diner staples on there.

Was it a tricky balance to make sure the menu still felt like a diner?

Yeah, so it was, I mean, this was definitely the most daunting menu I've ever created. Partially because prior to this project, my goal as a chef was always to be as creative as possible and try to invent new exciting things that people hadn't really seen, or combined flavors that were new and exciting. Whereas this project was the exact, the antithesis of that. I was taking dishes that people know extremely well and trying to make the best version of that. But for me, I didn't really grow up eating in diners. I grew up eating in like small Mexican, mom and pop restaurants. So that was kind of my association of what this space was supposed to be. And when I first jumped on this project, the place that I started was by essentially like polling the people that were in the restaurant, the servers and, back of house, and guests and being like, okay, what would you love to see stay on this menu? And much to my dismay, most people said the penne alla vodka. And I was like, all right, I'm not talking to you fools anymore.

How has 24/7 been? Is it quiet at night? Rowdy at night? I have so many friends that cant wait to go eat there at 3am

We have bouncers! I don't know if I would say that we're prepared. I mean, last night when I left, because I don't stay overnight, but last night when I left, our walk-in was completely empty. We were running out of things left and right. And I tried to mitigate that to the best of my ability. But there's only so much you can do at like... night on a, you know, late at night on a Sunday too, where am going to get 40 pounds of green beans? We just have to pivot. But yeah, I mean, we definitely got hit hard over the weekend, which I don't know if we were anticipating that so much, but it's good. Now we know what the max is kind of going to be. I think we did like, 1100 covers in one day.

What’s your favorite thing on the menu?

That's really hard to say. I mean, I eat a lot of salads now because I've been eating this food for a number of months, and I'm trying to do some damage control. But what is my actual favorite thing on the menu? I think maybe our chrome burger is my favorite. It's so good. It's a nine ounce dry aged butter basted. burger patty, Dijonais, pickles, caramelized onion, and bib lettuce on a sesame bun. And it was just kind of like, all right, we wanna have our own iconic burger. And that's what I ended up with. I don't know if I would call it, I can't call my own burger iconic, but it is very good.

Who made the playlist? So rarely do I even notice music being played, but it just felt right.

You know, I've discussed that before. I don't know who's making the playlist, but they all hit. They all hit and they all felt like, you know, sometimes it'll be like Billy Joel and sometimes it's like Rihanna. like, no matter what it is, I'm like, okay, yeah, this feels like this should be playing in the dining room right now.

What is the most iconic NYC restaurant in your eyes?

That's a really hard one. Iconic. My gut immediately said S &P, but their story kind of mirrors ours, right? With having so many owners and kind of coming out the other side. But they're sticking to their more traditional guns a little bit, and I really respect that about them.

Gaming

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FILM

I finally watched Bladerunner 2049, and it BLEW MY MIND! Just a stunning thought provoking, incredible film! I had seen somewhere that I didnt need to watch the original Bladerunner to enojy this one, and I guess it wasnt neccesiary, but it would have made it much easier to understand! So after a few youtube deepdives on 2049, Ive know purchased the original and will report back soon. BUY HERE