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Transcript
Scott Ellis: Welcome to the Frisco Podcast, I’m your host Scott Ellis, and this week we’re hanging out at Stan’s Main Street with Jennifer and David. Welcome to the show.
David Gates: Howdy, howdy.
Jennifer Rearick: Hello.
Scott Ellis: Hey guys, how are you?
David Gates: Doing good today.
Jennifer Rearick: Pretty good.
Scott Ellis: Good. You guys are what I consider one of the staple downtown businesses. You’ve been here for a few years, been very involved in the community. You make a mean burger. Lots of good stuff going on. I wanted to come in and chat a little bit. To start off with the community involvement side of what you’ve been doing, because clearly that’s ramped up a lot in the last year or so. Let’s talk a little bit about some of the things that you guys have had going on here, in particular for the police and firemen.
Jennifer Rearick: We did Rock the Red for the Frisco Fire Fighters Association, then we also did Rock the Blue, which was in August, which was for the Frisco Police Officer Association. Both of those, 20% of our sales from opening on Friday to close on Sunday, went to them. Along with David and I went out and collected a bunch of raffle prizes from other Frisco businesses, and we raffled them off. We sold raffle tickets, and ended up raising a ton of money for them. It was a lot of fun.
Scott Ellis: The Rock the Blue event came on the heels of the shootings that happened in downtown Dallas.
Jennifer Rearic: It did.
Scott Ellis: I think that was definitely a good time, because it certainly rallied people around the police pretty well, including here in Frisco. I think even though we didn’t necessarily … Obviously, Dallas is close to us but it wasn’t as direct an impact here as it was in downtown Dallas. It still gave people a pretty strong of sense of wanting to step up and show some support. You guys saw that first hand, right?
Jennifer Rearick: Yeah. Oh, totally. Especially because it was for Frisco. I mean, we started their benevolence fund, so everything that was donated that weekend went into the brand new benevolence fund, which is kind of surprising. Most people don’t realize that the Police Association didn’t have a benevolence fund before that.
Scott Ellis: Can you tell us what a benevolence fund is, or what does that go to?
Jennifer Rearick: It’s for sick officers, or officers killed in the line of duty, to help out with some of the expenses, like when someone’s in the hospital they’ll withdraw from that to pay for the food for the family, anything that family needs. It’s pretty much for like everyone, family and friends, I guess, kind of.
Scott Ellis: I think most of us realize that police officers don’t make a ton of money, typically, especially given how dangerous their job can be sometimes, so there are other associations and organizations that have funds and collect money to help out in those times of extreme need. That’s kind of the point of the benevolence fund?
Jennifer Rearic: Yes.
Scott Ellis: Okay.
Jennifer Rearic: Before this, they didn’t have one. It was a lot of fun to start that, and to see kind of the process of going from nothing to something, I guess you could say, instead of contributing to something that’s already there.
Scott Ellis: That’s good to know. I didn’t realize that the Frisco Police Department didn’t have one either.
David Gates: We were actually real surprised when we found out, because when we were talking with Colby Hill, who’s the president of the Frisco Police Officer Association, he told us where it was going. He’s like, “Yeah, there’s $500 in the account right now,” and we were a little shocked about that. We’re like, “What do you mean?” He’s like, “My wife and I both put $250 in to start it yesterday, because we knew you all were going to do it.” They didn’t know what to expect really. They were expecting, maybe …
Jennifer Rearick: A couple thousand.
David Gates: A couple thousand dollars, three thousand dollars. Me and Jen both had a number in our heads before we started, that we never wanted to say out loud until it was done. She didn’t want to jinx it. We were both shooting for like five grand, and we thought that was a long shot. The community really poured out. One of things that really impacted me, that Jen had told me, was you looked around, a bunch of people were doing stuff to support the police, because of the timing, it was right after the shootings, but nobody up here was doing anything for the Frisco police. You know, everyone’s heart went out to Dallas, of course, and all the cities that were affected, but that could happen anywhere, as we found out. Right? She decided to make something just locally here, and that made all the local businesses just pour out in support. We had some other people that helped us gather prizes, that really leaned on them to make …
Jennifer Rearick: Mike Nordyke.
David Gates: Yeah, Mike Nordyke of Nordyke Roofing. Yeah, he really …
Jennifer Rearick: He rocked it.
David Gates: He really leaned on some people and got them to show their support. He told them, “Hey, if you’re not going to show your support … ”
Jennifer Rearick: We don’t know how he did lean on them.
Scott Ellis: We’re not going to ask.
Jennifer Rearick: He’s going to beat them up. We don’t ask.
David Gates: We had a ton of show out for that, and the community showed up, again. Luckily we waited just long enough to where we were able to talk to a lot of the same businesses and they supported the fire department as well. Most people did it without even hesitating, just because those are the people that they don’t hesitate for us.
Scott Ellis: Yeah, I think one of the things that we love about living in Frisco is the community definitely comes together at times of need, and for different occasions like that. We’ve seen it time and time again where different people, individuals, sometimes businesses, are stepping up to do things like what you guys did. Inevitably, if they get the word out the community responds, and that’s one of the great things about living here.
Jennifer Rearick: I don’t know. I was kind of shocked with the number that we did. We ended up raising like 15,000 for the police. It’s really easy when you have such a great organization like the Frisco Police Officers Association. That’s an easy name to go into somewhere being like, “Hey. We’re doing this fundraiser for this group.” The minute they heard that, they were, “Absolutely. What can I help you with?” It was shocking to see all the support. It was shocking, but it wasn’t in a way. I was shocked that we did it here. Frisco came out again. They always do.
Scott Ellis: Well, good. We’re glad to hear that. Tell us a little bit about the event itself. It was a weekend long extravaganza, really. What kinds of things did you have going on throughout the weekend?
Jennifer Rearick: It was live music all weekend, I guess.
Scott Ellis: For sure.
David Gates: We booked a lot of great bands. We have a lot of great bands here all the time, but we had some people that it really touched. For the police we had a group that we, I think, only had here once before, before I was even around. The Ursey Brothers who found us on Facebook, they heard about the event, and they were basically just begging us to be able to play in it. They even offered to play for free, which was awesome.
Jennifer Rearick: They did play for free.
David Gates: Yeah, they did.
Scott Ellis: Wow.
David Gates: I guess, one of the brothers was friends with the police chief of Frisco for a long time, and it was really personal to him. Then, kind of the same thing we had for the fire department. We had Joshua Ingram, who his father was a fire fighter.
Scott Ellis: Right.
David Gates: He was really stoked to come out, and he actually helped us with both events, too.
Jennifer Rearick: Yeah, he kicked off Rock the Blue, and did Rock the Red.
David Gates: Yeah, him and his other band mate, Phillip, come in and kick it off for us, which is always awesome.
Scott Ellis: Josh is a regular here, right?
Jennifer Rearick: He’s a regular player.
Scott Ellis: Yeah.
Jennifer Rearick: I mean, he plays here …
Scott Ellis: I should clarify.
Jennifer Rearick: Artist. Yeah.
David Gates: I’m pretty sure he lives down towards Dallas, so it’s like making it up this way, not a normal hangout for him, but when he comes here he really brings it. I think the last time he was here, you know we have our noise ordinance so we can’t really play after 10:00, but the crowd we had here last time he played just loved him so much that he asked me if he could play a little longer. I just told him to turn it down. He said, “No, I’m just going to unplug and sit in front of a couple of the fans and just play purely acoustical unplugged for them,” and he did that for like another half an hour or so.
Scott Ellis: Wow.
Jennifer Rearick: I think until close.
David Gates: He did it for free, yeah.
Jennifer Rearick: I think he was doing it until close.
David Gates: Yeah. He’s pretty awesome.
Jennifer Rearick: He’s one of my favorites. He’s fun.
David Gates: The music we have is a big part of it, because that just gives something for people to enjoy while they’re here. Another big part, like I said, is the raffle. We had some awesome prizes. We had some awesome donaters. Keating.
Jennifer Rearick: John Keating.
David Gates: John Keating. He always shows up huge for the donations.
Jennifer Rearick: Like huge.
David Gates: Both times he’s donated a …
Jennifer Rearick: Shotgun.
David Gates: Some shotguns. For the short notices we gave him, he really showed up. I mean, he brought us a Benelli Shotgun, he brought us a USS Texas …
Jennifer Rearick: A watch.
David Gates: Autographed frames. A picture with a piece of the hole shaped like Texas, signed by [Abbott 00:08:46]. A really nice Swiss Legend watch.
Jennifer Rearick: Signed Trump book.
David Gates: Yeah, a Donald Trump signed book. A couple days after he was elected.
Scott Ellis: Oh, nice.
David Gates: Yeah, I mean, the people that we have donating, and the prizes, and I think a lot of people just come out for the fact that it’s for a good cause. You know?
Jennifer Rearick: That’s what I was just about to say. Not even that, we also offered that whole weekend, we offered anyone that works for the police department to come in and eat for free, and we did the same thing with fire, which for me, I just wanted them to come in. I want them to be around. I want them to see everything that we, and Frisco, and we’re coming out and supporting them. How that money got there, in a way. That was a lot of the fun part about it, is all of the policemen that came into eat, all the firemen that came into eat. The firemen really brought their families out on the patio, stayed the entire night. They just had a fun time.
David Gates: A lot of them refused to actually accept the free meal, because they knew that the percentage of our sales were going back to their fund, so they wanted every penny possible to go to that fund.
Jennifer Rearick: Both police and the fire, they’re a lot of fun. A lot of fun. It’s funny, because when they come in, it’s like which one? Which one’s more fun? I guess you could say. I’d have to say their both a lot of fun.
Scott Ellis: We kind of glazed over this a little bit. We started off talking about Rock the Blue, but you also did Rock the Red, which was for the fire department, and that was a little bit more recently, but same kind of event. Right? Live music, lots of people coming in, whole weekend long.
Jennifer Rearick: Whole weekend.
David Gates: Cool thing about that one was it also corresponded with the community parade down Main Street.
Jennifer Rearick: That’s ton of fun.
Scott Ellis: Oh, yeah.
David Gates: Which ends right in front of Stan’s, so that’s pretty awesome.
Scott Ellis: Well, that’s convenient.
David Gates: Yeah.
Scott Ellis: How did you guys arrange that? I’m just kidding.
Jennifer Rearick: We know people. I’m just saying. No, it ends right on North County. That was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun for us because of that.
David Gates: Took our brand new …
Jennifer Rearick: Golf cart.
David Gates: Epic golf cart down it.
Scott Ellis: That’s a perfect segue, let’s talk about that golf cart. That thing’s good looking. You guys got that from our friends at Epic Carts, that are here in Frisco.
Jennifer Rearick: Yep.
Scott Ellis: Certainly people have heard us talk about them. How long have you had the cart now?
David Gates: Three weeks?
Jennifer Rearick: Three weeks we’ve had ours now. They gave us, I guess you could say, a quote, unquote, loaner cart before that, and that’s when we really fell in love with the golf cart.
David Gates: They showed up for Rock the Blue, and they decided to leave us one here, because Jen loved it so much, wanted to get one.
Jennifer Rearick: I did.
David Gates: Plus, they sold the one that they had out in front, in like two days.
Scott Ellis: Good for them.
David Gates: They were getting calls saying, “No, I want the one that’s in front of Stan’s.”
Scott Ellis: Lovely. Good marketing for them as well.
David Gates: Yep. Worked out great for everyone, and now the one they got for us is pretty sweet. It’s got Stan’s written all over it. It’s got some super awesome disco lights that I think I like more than Jen does.
Scott Ellis: Disco lights? I missed that.
David Gates: Well, it doesn’t have to be. It’s like-
Jennifer Rearick: It’s like a rave on a golf cart.
David Gates: You can have just a solid color, or whatever, but I like to turn up the rockin’ system in it and turn the lights on flashing.
Jennifer Rearick: He likes to be part of the stereo and the lights. I like the logos and all the cute little, like, slogans we have on it.
Scott Ellis: I haven’t sat in it yet, but was looking at it on the way in, and the seats look pretty comfy too.
Jennifer Rearick: They are.
Scott Ellis: They’re nicely done.
Jennifer Rearick: I mean, I was so excited, I couldn’t wait. I was blowing Epic Golf Carts up, like, “When can I get my cart? When is it ready?” He surprised me with it. They showed up, and they were like, “We didn’t tell you we were coming,” but it is better than I ever expected. I think we can rock that community parade, I think we really did. It’s six seats so like, we got it to go to Toyota Stadium.
Scott Ellis: I wanted to get to that. You guys have this golf cart. The parking lot here at Stan’s isn’t that big and far apart, where people aren’t going to just walk in. What made you guys want to have a golf cart for cruising around Frisco?
Jennifer Rearic: Well, you can drive it on roads that are 35 miles per hour, or below 30, which is all around here, so we can basically take it … Technically we could take it all the way to Walmart on Preston and Main by just taking back roads. There’s a lot of back roads. We can go all the way to Toyota Stadium. We can go all the way until road Main. It’s kind of cool. It’s great for getting to know people around here locally, like the people that live five blocks over. We go check the mail in it, which I think is great. It’s a lot of fun.
David Gates: We’ve also given a lot of our regulars, that live right in the neighborhood, a ride home. It’s fun for us to do, and it’s fun for them to do.
Jennifer Rearick: It gets our name out there.
David Gates: Yeah. I mean, if we can give someone a safe ride home, and/or save them a $5 Uber, and get to ride around on a golf cart, then why not?
Scott Ellis: Going to be able to shuttle people back and forth to Toyota Stadium?
Jennifer Rearick: Yes, we will.
Scott Ellis: Under the right occasions, and things like that?
David Gates: Absolutely.
Jennifer Rearick: Yep. I heard you can’t have golf carts at Jimmy Buffett anymore, but for a lot of events down there, like community parade, it was perfect. We were in that. It’s perfect for Toyota Stadium, really. We can go all the back roads straight there, and we can drop people off. We’re big FC Dallas [inaudible 00:14:11]. We are technically part of the FE. We didn’t originally have the golf cart, and we did the opening season opener party for them, which I did, I must admit. We could just drop them off. We could take them, like five at a time down there and just drop them off. That’s kind of like the idea of that. It’s kind of cool. We’re not right by the stadium where everyone else is. We’re not in the hustle and bustle of Frisco Square. Just to get down there is kind of cool.
Scott Ellis: Yeah. No, that’s a very nice convenience to have, and good on you guys.
Jennifer Rearick: It’s a ton of fun. If you see us on Main Street, my goodness, don’t honk, please, or honk for happiness. Don’t be mean.
Scott Ellis: Okay.
David Gates: We’ll honk back, too.
Scott Ellis: Let’s talk about the rest of December. We’re going into the holidays. I’m going to say this, for anybody who hasn’t been into Stan’s … I can’t imagine anybody who’s listening to this has not been to Stan’s, but if they haven’t, this is one of the most, I think, cozy, comfortable, neighborhood bars our city has to offer. As you’re getting through the holidays and you want to get away from your family, or you’re just looking for a good place to go hangout, this is definitely a good place to come and grab a beer, or have a beverage and hangout.
Jennifer Rearick: I would say, we’re definitely, we’re Frisco.
Scott Ellis: Yes.
Jennifer Rearick: Without a doubt. Everyone in Frisco, meeting in different walks of life, different personalities that meet up at that bar, and in the restaurant, and it’s just phenomenal. I just love to see the interaction between people. We make people feel at home here. I mean, that’s our goal.
Scott Ellis: Yeah, you do. You really do.
Jennifer Rearick: No matter what.
Scott Ellis: Your staff is very good about remembering people, and names, and drinks, and all that stuff as well.
Jennifer Rearick: Oh, yeah, because you’re like family. It’s like, if you come on a Friday night, you would really feel like you’re at a family dinner instead of like at a restaurant. That’s kind of it. You know the people next to you. You know the people next to them.
Scott Ellis: I’m not going to start dropping names, but there’s a lot of people around Frisco who are in various positions with the city, and things like that, that tend to frequent here, and like to come hangout and meetup.
Jennifer Rearick: For sure.
Scott Ellis: You never know who you might bump into if you come to Stan’s.
Jennifer Rearic: True story.
Scott Ellis: Great back patio. Looks like we have heaters up now, and it’s kind of screened off with the tarp.
Jennifer Rearick: We’ve enclosed it now. We were waiting for the last minute, but it got so cold this weekend, so we closed it off. The doors are going up today. Right?
David Gates: Yeah, finishing touches, in just about the next two hours or so.
Scott Ellis: Okay, well, by the time people hear this, they’ll definitely be up.
David Gates: Absolutely. We got the heaters ready to go. I don’t think we’ll need them this afternoon, but from what I saw tonight when we do our Gobble Party …
Jennifer Rearick: The Gobble. Gobble 2016.
David Gates: Speaking of, we got like a big party tonight for the pre turkey day, turkey day, or whatever.
Scott Ellis: Got you.
Jennifer Rearick: It’s the Thanksgiving Eve party.
Scott Ellis: I like it.
David Gates: It will be super toasty inside of there, so you don’t have to worry about the wind biting you, or the cold getting to you, because we’ve got the heaters and the plastic up.
Scott Ellis: You can still come to Stan’s and hangout. You can hang out outside and it’s going to be comfortable and nice.
David Gates: Oh, yeah.
Jennifer Rearick: Even in the Winter. We probably take that plastic down, probably March. February, March.
David Gates: Funny thing was, we were watching on cameras last night, because we had just put the plastic up, and it blocked enough wind to where the inside was cleared out, and everyone was sitting on the patio, which is just the exact opposite of the weekend, because they love our patio.
Scott Ellis: It’s a good patio. It feels more like you’re just hanging out in your own backyard.
Jennifer Rearick: That’s it.
Scott Ellis: Back porch.
Jennifer Rearick: Our patio lights, too. We just got our trees done. They needed it. Some of the guys at the fire department did it. We strung it. It looks phenomenal out there. It’s lit up, it’s bright, especially with live music, it’s a lot of fun. Our staff makes it very easy and very fun. It’s just, if I didn’t know the place, I’d be here all the time, to be honest.
Scott Ellis: Well, there are many of us who are here often enough, so I can’t absolutely validate that. All right. Guys, thank you very much for the time this morning.
Jennifer Rearick: Hey, thank you.
Scott Ellis: It’s been fun to hangout, and sincere thanks for everything you have been doing for the community, as well. I know Rock the Red and Rock the Blue were very successful. Hopefully those will become ongoing events in the future.
Jennifer Rearick: They will be.
Scott Ellis: I know putting big events like that together are a lot of work, too.
Jennifer Rearick: It was, but we’re all about fun, and those were two very fun events.
Scott Ellis: Good. Good, good. All right, well thank you very much, and for all of you that are out there listening, come in to Stan’s, come hangout over the holidays. Have a drink or two.
Jennifer Rearick: Stan’s happens.
Scott Ellis: Stan’s happens. Definitely try the burger. Any other menu highlights? What are your favorite things on the menu?
Jennifer Rearick: Mine is the steak sandwich. It’s a steak sandwich that’s super great.
David Gates: Personally, I think I like the shrimp quesadillas, probably the best.
Scott Ellis: Really? Okay.
David Gates: The two I always hear about the most are the burgers, of course, but then also the catfish. Catfish is awesome.
Scott Ellis: Yeah, I’ve had the catfish, actually. It was very good.
Jennifer Rearick: The catfish?
Scott Ellis: Yeah.
Jennifer Rearick: Isn’t that …
David Gates: There’s a ton of different ways you can get the catfish here. It’s all …
Jennifer Rearick: It’s all good.
David Gates: Hand breaded and freshly cooked.
Jennifer Rearick: Yep.
Scott Ellis: All right. Come on in, hangout, relax, fill your belly.
Jennifer Rearick You can bring your kids. We are family friendly.
Scott Ellis: It is a very family friendly restaurant. They have games on all the tables.
Jennifer Rearick: Yes, we do now. Here now.
Scott Ellis: Including Jenga, which can be a little dangerous.
Jennifer Rearick: My favorite’s the big, giant Uno.
Scott Ellis: The giant Uno?
Jennifer Rearick: I’m such a fan. I kick David’s butt all the time in it.
Scott Ellis: I’m going to have to learn to play again. All right guys, thank you very much, and we’ll talk to the rest of you next week.