Get your hands together and we're going to start to party. Start. I'm ready a party.
The Elvis Ran After Party Show, Party Podcast, God Party podc After Party Podcast, After the Show.
One day, we'll get it and I'm back for your dining pleasure.
Thank god, Leger's here. Hey, it's time to get to know Lee a little better.
Getting to know you?
Who was a question for Lee Schrager.
I have plenty o yeah please? So Lee, what was your very first job growing up back? I'm assuming during the depression or the depression? Was I depressed in the year? What I've been through all of last year? And I'm here? Okay, that's Elane stretch. Of course. We are the ladies who lunch. Hears to the ladies who lunch here, and they the best news I delivered, Yes, okay, deliver newspapers. I delivered newspapers. That was your first job. I delivered newsday on Long
Island in Massa, Peaka. They came to your house and they dropped them like four o'clock in the morning, and then I would deliver them every morning before school. And it was when it was really cold and you know, freezing cold and snowy. My mom would take me in the car and I would throw the papers out the window, and Alex Baldwin was on my paper route and he still owes me money, which I have to remind him. Really, they still owed me a dollar.
Have you ever had that conversation with him on the passing?
Every time I see him and he says, do not ask me for the dollar. It was fifty five years ago.
Yeah, if he paged the dollar, the bit would be over.
That's true. Every time I see him, I tell me, you know that I did the same thing with Penny Savers when I was a good That was my first gig, and I remember, I think I got in trouble because I used to throw them out of the car and they would land in places, bad places. And then I worked at a Chinese restaurant on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights from five pm to nine pm, so four hours, and I made twelve dollars a night. What'd you do pack Chinese food? It was a takeout only, big game. Yeah.
I loved it. Yeah. And you know what we used to do. My friends would put an order in like under the name you know that I would know, and then I put like twice as much food, like stole food from other orders, you know, like chicken chowmain. So we had a bunch of food for late night. Yeah. Wow. Therefore they went out of business then hence no they're still there. What's the name of the place. I think it was called kwang Ming m I n g kwang Ming And that was long Island a long hour. Yeah,
I delivered that. Then I worked at Swinston's ice Cream. Oh. I used to work at Baskin Robin Left Asking Robinsmanship.
Winston's had the cookie, the little triangle cookie, which I came from. Swinson's had the triangle cookie that went on the Sunday.
It was my favorite that place. Oh I did. Is that what they were called? I remember you had to put it in that.
Yes, when he worked before they invented cookies.
No, I did that. And I then when we moved to Florida, I worked at wind Dixie. Oh yeah, the grocery store. Grocery store, and we were I started work in the middle of summer. We had just moved down to Florida. I was fifteen, and my first day of the job, they gave me a razor. I'm like, please want me to slip my wrists already and even know me, and then they gave me I had I had a scrape bubble gum off the floor of wind Dixie for a summer. I don't know, but we were we were
like really growing up. You know, if I wanted anything, I had to work for it. I mean, I have to tell you. You know, we didn't get a free ride.
And you're still that way, You're somewhat grounded. I mean, no, you never know about talking to him, but he is.
A great no no, no, would you get into food like where this? My mom was a great cook and uh, not an exciting cook because my father was very very steak and potatoes. But my mom was always creating, you know, always sampling and cooking different things for the kids. And that was my food. My mom was a really good cook. Wow. Yeah, Lee Scheger is here.
We're asking him questions.
May I ask you a question? Yeah?
I'm actually on the tail end of Danielle's How did you move beyond uh wanting to get into food and actually getting into food? I know you studied and you also went into hospitality and you actually worked catering for a lot of the big hotels in Miami.
So I graduate school. We moved down to Florida, and I was did like tenth grade and eleventh grade. I graduated in eleventh grade not because I was a smart student, but because I doubled up and we had shop class, which I don't think they have anymore shop with wood shop, yeah, and I hated it. I was deathly afraid of the machine. I thought I was going to cut my fingers off.
And my mother came in and told the principal that I couldn't go into shop class, that I was traumatized, and that she got me into homech and I excelled in homech and I had a teacher named Linda Darnell who told my parents during an open house night that you know, their son, she really go to the Culinary Institute of America, which you know, we didn't My parents didn't know what that is, and that I got into the CIA, and that was really my love of you know, catering,
that was my love of food, going into the Culinary Institute of America. So we'd never seen the school. We couldn't afford, you know, my parents couldn't take me up to school, so I went there by myself and I was just turned seventeen, so I was a really young student. I was with Anthony Boa. Anthony I were classmates. Anthony and I yeah, yeah, he actually wrote the forward to my first book. So Anthon and I were friends for many,
many years. And so going to the CIA, I never wanted to be a chef, but I wanted to a CIA. But I never wanted to be a chef. I wanted the background of that. But I did chef for many years. I mean I worked, as Olvias said, for a very fancy cater in New York City called Glorious Food, uh. And then I worked with Donald Bruce White. Then I worked for Elis, a bar at eat on Madison Avenue. Then I opened up Deading de Luca downtown on one
twenty one the street. Yeah, I worked there, And that's kind of the beginning of my life, going from Dean and de Luca on Prince Street when it was brand new, and then when they opened the store in East Hampton, they brought me out to East Hampton. And that's my love affair began in the Hampton's, you know, by being out there, and it's how my friendship with you. Hear me talk about Edie Beal. Sometimes that's how I met Edie Beale by living in the Hampton. You guys, remember
do you know who that is? Oh my god?
The Grey Gardens, the mother and daughter that lived in the house falling apart in East Hampton?
Have you not watched Greg Gardens on TV?
Is another gay thing? But watching people, I had to explain what he's saying.
Remember Dean and de Luca when we did that big event with them because Felicity, Remember the show Felicity. It was huge with Dean and de Luca. So we broke past life from a Dean. They closed one down just for they did. Yeah, well now they're all closed down because of you.
Lee Schrager's here were asking questions, Yes, scary, you're a food guy.
What food trend do you wish would just disappear? With all the food trends out there that have gone viral? Is this something that comes to mind? You know, we were talking about it, you know, earlier in the live show. I hate reviewers. I hate people who write negative things about restaurants I do. I just would never write, you know, if I go to a restaurant, if I don't like it, I just don't talk about it. I would never ever write something about I just think that everyone should go
in and try a meal. Like you know, you go to a restaurant and sometimes there's no one there, doesn't mean it's not good. It means maybe they're a quiet night or maybe they are bad. But I wouldn't walk away from that, and I have friends who would walk away. So I don't like the trend of everyone being a critic. I don't think that they're you know, I'm not knowledgeable enough to review a restaurant, and they certainly aren't. So I wish that would go away.
And a lot of restaurants do become very, very trendy because of all the wrong reasons.
Absolutely, you know, but I think, you know, I hate when I read a bad review about a restaurant, you know, especially a mom and pop restaurant, you know that kind. You know, think something going viral can kill a restaurant. It's a horrible industry. It's hard to make money as it is in that business. So let's let that die. Let us let you die along with What are your thoughts on a turn duck in? Do you know what
a turn duck is? Of course I do. Turkey duck and chicken all together, right, and in between each layer is a layer of dressing. Okay, so it's turkey, you flatten it out, no bones, a layer of stopping. I think the duck is in the middle. The duck is because it's a small, same thing, Yeah, the turkeys are big. So three layers. Have you ever had it? No? I have not. It's great. Well, oh you slice it in.
It's beautifully. Oh it looks beautiful. It's no bones, so it is so delicious, done correctly, and you could order them. There's a company in New Orleans called butcher Block or butcher Board and they I think it's like one twenty nine and they're really great. I never heard of it.
You get the pie caken.
That's a trend I wish went away. Yeah, I don't like the pie cake.
I just don't love that they named this thing and it begins with turd.
I feel like it is turn ducket's it is it is turn it's I feel like they could have done better with that end up going. I'm sure they couldn't anything to do in order layer.
You can't come up before you have to do it in the orderage layer, so it has to be turd ducket or you can do what about a productor I don't. It's gonna have been anything we had all our time with leashreggor Leashregger everyone.
Yeah. The latest member to join our show, the Elvis Duran after Party,