Jimmy that is a simple thing. Lemonis while they overhaul their business. How many more seats can you pick up when you guys are busy . Maybe you pick up eight more seats. More importantly, their relationship. Jimmy basically every single thing ive ever said for you to do was, no, were not doing it that way. Were doing it my way. Lemonis . So they can heal from the devastating family tragedy that still hangs over everything that they do. Dante not everything has to be a fight. Lemonis we got to fix this tension between you guys. You lost your wife. You lost your mother. Do you guys want to lose each other . Im marcus lemonis, and i risk my own money to help businesses. I love investing in american businesses. These people are here because they care. Its not always easy, but i do it to create jobs, and i do it to make money. Man we have a deal. Lemonis lets rock and roll. Man 1 yeah man 2 lets do it. Lemonis this is the profit. I have a special attachment to Family Businesses primarily because i started off working in one, the car business, and it taught me how to navigate working with family, which can be tough, but also the same business skills i learned there helps me run a multibilliondollar company, so im always gonna have a soft spot in my heart for Family Businesses. Whats happenin . Jimmy marcus. Oh, my gosh. Lemonis how you doing, buddy . Jimmy hi. How are you . Lemonis good. This is a cool place. How you doing . Dante hi. Nice to meet you, marcus. Lemonis im marcus. Nice to meet you. Lemonis are you dante . Dante my pleasure. Yes, i am. Lemonis so father, son. Dante this is my father, jimmy. Lemonis thats the arrangement. Okay. Jimmy we own the building and the business. Lemonis okay. Jimmy so were a family with the building. And just dante down here. Lemonis so you have to pay your father rent . Dante right. Yeah. Jimmy sometimes. Dante and myself. Lemonis why sometimes . Jimmy sometimes i forgive him, you know, so. Lemonis but theres a balance between being his dad and being the landlord. Jimmy well talk about that. [ laughs ] lemonis so your dad named it after you . Dante yeah, i mean, but. Lemonis do you owe your dad money for it . Dante no, i dont. Lemonis he just gave it to you as a gift . Dante i guess you could say that, yeah. Lemonis did you have restaurant experience before this . Jimmy no. Lemonis did you have any restaurant experience . Dante i did as an employee, but never in a managing role or ownership role, so it was a first time for me. Lemonis overwhelmed . Dante at times, yeah, it takes over your life. Obviously theres days where i kind of hate what im doing, but. Lemonis im sorry that you sometimes hate it. Dante well, yeah, i mean lemonis its being honest. I appreciate the honesty. Dante yeah, yeah. Jimmy the problem is, he wanted to do things his way. Ive been in business all my life. So i try to keep him organized, basically, is what it is. Lemonis but hes not able youre not able to keep yourself org you need your dad . Dante no, no, no, no. Lemonis or youre just in his business . Jimmy [ laughs ] oh, no. Lemonis look, hate is a pretty strong word, but i have a feeling that dantes hate may stem from the fact that his father is always trying to control him and has maybe taken some of the fun out of it. Which one of you called me . Jimmy i reached out. Lemonis why did you reach out . Jimmy what happened was, we would grow. We were growing and growing and growing. We did a Million Dollars within, like, the first year. Lemonis wow. Jimmy and then we had to hire another chef. At the same time, we were remodeling the whole place. It took us six months, and were still recovering from it. Lemonis you may have lost some business in those months. Jimmy lost half the business. It went back down to the numbers where we started. Lemonis can i get a tour . Dante yeah, absolutely. Lemonis lets do it. Dante lets go. Lemonis how are you . Denise hi. Im denise. Lemonis nice to meet you. Denise nice to meet you. Im dantes girlfriend. Lemonis okay. What is your role here . Denise take care of the waiters and waitresses. I do their scheduling. Lemonis youre here every day of the week or. . Denise no, im not. I do have a fulltime job, as well. Lemonis what day is your day off . Denise um, i dont [ laughter ] lemonis what im worried about is that it seems like everybody is always coming in to rescue dante. Enabling people arent gonna make them better at business. Nice meeting you. Ill see you in a few minutes. Denise yes. Lemonis how you doing . Im marcus. Nick marcus, pleasure. Nick. Lemonis nick . Nice to meet you, brother. This is really a small kitchen. Its tight. Nick a lot of the equipment in here is very, very dated, so weve just been kind of doing the best we can. Lemonis its tough to work in here. Nick you get used to it. Lemonis what was strange is that im here around lunch time, and theres not really anybody here. As i walk around the inside of the facility, im underwhelmed. I cant tell if theyve given up or they dont care. But i cant invest in a business that dante has neglected. What would you call these two colors . Salmon and light salmon . Dante salmon. Lemonis lets the three of us go outside. And as i go around the outside of the property, im seeing weeds everywhere, crap hanging from the trees. The parking lot looks like garbage. Now, i can be tolerant for certain things, but disrespecting hardearned assets is not one of them, and so im gonna put him through the paces. What would you rate the property today, aesthetically . Dante uh, 5 out of 10 . Lemonis a 5 . Whats giving it even a 5 . Like, walk me through what makes it a 5. Look at your order sign. That look good to you . Dante no. Lemonis does this sign look nice to you . Dante no. Lemonis does that banner in the tree look good to you . Dante nope. Lemonis does the mailboxes like this look good to you . Dante no. Lemonis all these weeds, all this trash . Dante no. Lemonis if you pulled into a restaurant with your family and you saw this, what would you do . Dante id be turned off a little bit. Lemonis turned off or turned around . Dante yeah, turned around. Lemonis i dont think you care. Dante i absolutely care. Lemonis i dont think you do. This place looks im sorry to say, it looks trashy. Jimmy but you could a Million Dollars fixing everything up. Lemonis unhunh. It doesnt cost a Million Dollars. Jimmy if it doesnt work out, he loses his total investment. Its a bad, you know its a bad situation. Lemonis okay, jimmy, heres the deal. It doesnt take an expert to know a few basic things, like keep your place in order and keep it clean, and if you say that its not your business and its dantes, then put your foot up his ass and make sure that he keeps his place clean. Its time to start treating dante like a Business Owner, not a kid playing one. So maybe youre coddling him. Jimmy but i do know the burden he has. Lemonis whats the burden . Hes a Business Owner. Jimmy yeah, i know. Lemonis join the club. So, dante, i want to try the food. Dante yeah, yeah, yeah. Lemonis lets grab a menu. Dante sure. Lemonis okay. Waiter all right. Ravioli. Lemonis any time i go into a business, i want to understand the people, the process, and the product, but now i want to do the most important thing in a restaurant, which is taste the food. Good portions. Dante oh, yeah. Lemonis the food is unbel i dont think ive ever eaten this much. The food is amazing. I am stunned by how good the food is, considering how poor the environment is. Like, if i could move this restaurant to new york city, wed be millionaires. Business lose money today . Jimmy its just we dont see any profit cause we keep putting all the extra into the business. Lemonis it comes out of your savings . Jimmy yeah. Dante yeah. Lemonis and how much have you put in in the last year . Dante probably around 100 grand. Lemonis 100 grand . Wow. Dante yeah. Lemonis i wanted to understand whose idea it was for you to get into this business, cause it was a little unclear to me. Was this your idea or your dads . Dante oh, um, it was kind of both of ours. He wanted me to get a business. I wanted the same thing. Lemonis why wasnt he comfortable with you just doing your own thing . Dante he was a single parent. So he kind of felt more responsibility. Lemonis what happened to your mom . Dante uh, she passed away in 9 11. Lemonis how old were you . Dante i was 9 years old. I remember every second of that day. That day, she happened to be in the towers and. Yeah, and thats what happened, so. Lemonis im really sorry. Dante yeah, i appreciate that. Yeah, it was a sad time, for sure. It was just, like, a pictureperfect family, and then Something Like that happens, and it just gets ripped away from you. Lemonis you and your brother . Dante yeah. Lemonis and so your dad got left holding that bag. Dante right. Lemonis look, ive never experienced the loss of somebody in a tragedy like jimmy and dante have, but i can understand why jimmy coddles his son, and while hes micromanaging and creating a lot of tension between him and dante, its because he cares so much about his son, and he feels a tremendous amount of pressure for his son to succeed. You know, i wasnt aware of what happened when he was a kid and how he lost his mom, you lost your wife. Jimmy yeah, its its hard for me to talk about that. Lemonis yeah. Jimmy you know. She was the best. She was great. We had the greatest life you could imagine. Lemonis how long were you married . Jimmy 19 years. We had everything. We had two beautiful kids. [voice breaking] you know, we had a good marriage. And. It was very hard. Her father got ill, and she was gonna visit him at the hospital. So she didnt go to work, and she had important meetings that she was gonna be missing. She said, im gonna run across to the World Trade Center and check on the people that were supposed to be at the meeting, and then ill come back to the hospital. So she went there for a few minutes, and thats what happened. So, what little compensation i got for them, i gave it to them because they lost their mother. Im sorry. Lemonis dont be sorry. Jimmy and thats why i felt he could do business cause he had some money from that, and i said, go ahead. Lemonis and so the money that you bought the business with was part of the money that came from your moms passing . Jimmy i didnt want to keep that money. I gave it to the kids because, like i said, it was blood money to me, and they had no mother. So i didnt want them to wait until i was dead to have the money, and then it was just sitting there, and he couldnt find a job. What am i supposed to say . Id do anything for him. Id jump in front of a train for him. Im sorry. Lemonis this business exists because of the tragedy that dante experienced with his mother. It has tmean something. People know the reason you bought the business . Jimmy we dont tell anybody our business, you know. Lemonis your background, motivation . Jimmy no. Dante no. Lemonis im a big believer that, in business, consumers will rally around a cause or a story or some personal connection they have. People like to do business with people. Its okay that you amplify who you are. Thats how i make a connection with you. Youve really been a mother and a father for. Jimmy for 19 years now. Lemonis you have the financials that we can look at . Jimmy yeah, yeah. Lemonis wanna go get them . Jimmy yeah, sure. Lemonis are these the books . Dante yeah. Keep track of how much cash, how much was on credit cards. Lemonis this does not look like a financial statement. This looks like a bookie. Jimmy yeah, i understand what youre saying, yeah. Lemonis like, this is how a bookie keeps numbers. Jimmy we dont have it printed out. Lemonis so how much did it do last year in revenue . Dante uh, about, like, 460 lemonis no, no. I dont want an about. I want the exact number. Dante um. Lemonis can you guys add it up . Jimmy hes just busting our balls now, i think. Dante all right. Well, yeartodate for. Jimmy from january 18 to december 18. Dante january 18. Jimmy you should have it in the book. I got it right here. Heres january, february. Dante i think part of thats in that book. Jimmy i got it right here, january 18. What are you doing, changing the book . Dante it starts in this book. Jimmy heres where we start. Dante you want to see where were at currently . This is weekbyweek. The big circled number is what we did for that week. Jimmy this is june 19. Lemonis it almost looks like two people got into the Restaurant Business that had no idea how the Restaurant Business actually works. That may be the first indication of why business is down. Im im like, no, thank you. Dante this cant be right, but. Jimmy you have to do it again . Dante im just saying, trying to add jimmy just no. Do it again. Dante thats it. Jimmy thats it. I came up with 505. Lemonis 505. Dante we should be doing just under 1. 2 million a year. Lemonis all right. Do you know what the margins are on the 500,000 . Dante no. Lemonis do you have a pos here . Dante yeah. Lemonis typically what would happen in a business like this is the pos system would feed right into quickbooks. Jimmy into the what books . Lemonis quickbooks. Its an accounting platform. How are you keeping track of all of it . Dante oh, our Bank Statements and. Jimmy yeah, yeah. Lemonis no, but on a financial statement, how are you keeping track . Jimmy weve never had to show anybody a financial statement. Lemonis what about showing yourself, like, to make decisions . How do you make decisions without good information . Dante just by me being here all the time and seeing what everybody orders and. Lemonis look, guys. Heres the deal. Normally, right now is usually when i would make an offer. Unfortunately, i. Jimmy every single thing ive ever said for you to do was, no, were not doing it that way. Were doing it my way. No matter what i said was, no. 99 was. Dante it wasnt no. I just had a different idea of going about things. Jimmy it was no. Rowithout the Commission Fees and account minimums. So, you can start investing wherever you are even on the bus. Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Lemonis writing a checkusiness thand investing in. Le however, i do want to help you guys. Get the outside of the business right, get the inside of the business right, and come up with a plan that will actually get you to 1 million. But with process. Dante okay. Jimmy yes. Thank you. Lemonis i give him a lot of credit for putting the most important asset that he ever received, the memory of his mother, on the table, fully at risk with the possibility of losing it, and because of that, i dont want to take equity out of the company, but i am interested in teaching dante because i want him to believe in himself and have pride in what hes doing. So tomorrow well get started . Dante lets do it. Lemonis why dont we go lock the door . I dont want anybody else coming in. Look, we need to reintroduce dantes to the neighborhood and have the locals give it a second chance, but what we also need to do is help dante find his motivation for why hes doing this. Lets get everybody together. How do people know about the story behind the family, the owners, who owns it, why theyre here . Does anybody know that . Do you knanything about them . Camryn i thought it was something to do with his father. Lemonis jimmy, will you tell her the story . They work here, and they dont know the story. Jimmy dantes mom died on 9 11, and i raised him and his brother by himself, and i wanted to help him out. And thats why we ended up here. Lemonis did you know that about dante . Camryn no, i didnt. Um, i have a lot more respect for him now. Obviously, i did already, but. Lemonis this idea that business isnt personal is total b. S. Business is personal, and to have the employee understand the genesis of the idea, the purpose behind the business, and how much it means to you will give them maybe some pride, as well. Why is that we do what we do . Is it just cause you want to sell pizza . Dante . Dante no. I also want to prove to myself that i can run a business just like my father did growing up. Lemonis prove it to yourself or prove it to him and yourself . Dante a little bit of both. I just feel like he thinks im incapable. Growing up, he tried to make decisions for me. Jimmy like . You have an example . Dante the decision of picking my own house was not even up to me at 26 years old and. Jimmy so, when we looked at the house, i didnt say to you, dante, what do you think . You like the house . You think we could do it . Denise you said, i like the house. This is where im gonna live. Jimmy you werent there. Denise i was there. Jimmy if somebody ever built me a house, i would not complain about it. Ive dedicated my whole life to you and your brother and get talked to like i do. Lemonis part of the reason why im so adamant about doing this is because i feel like dante gave up on the business because of his relationship or frustration with his dad, and i feel like jimmy gave up on the business because of his frustration with dante. I dont plan on solving this right now. It may take a little bit of time. Were all gonna Work Together to clean up the place, and the restaurant is gonna be shut down for at least a week. All right . Lets go back to work. Dante sounds good. Lemonis so, what on this menu do you want to learn the actual food cost for . Dante pappardelle steak alfredo. Lemonis okay. Great. Any time i see a company thats generating revenue but not making a profit, theres two things that you want to look at what the gross profit is and what the expenses are, and so as part of that, i want dante to really start to dig into his food cost. I want him to go item by item so he can understand if you sell something for 5, and it costs 6, well, thats gonna be a problem. Dante we buy the pasta by the pound. We pay about 3. 50 per lemonis about or exactly . Jimmy that is a simple thing. Dante no. Exactly 3. 50 per pound. Lemonis so how much is that . Dante 1. 16. Lemonis so thats 1. 16. Dante okay. Lemonis whats the next ingredient . Dante 6 ounces of steak. Or, no, that was halfpound. Lemonis premade frozen steak. Dante yes. Um. I think that steak cost us 2. 75. Jimmy confirm the steak price. Nick thats definitely wrong. Jimmy so can you get the bill out . Nick its 4. 20. Lemonis oh, okay. Lets put that in. Im now starting to better understand why jimmy inserts himself all the time. Dante just kind of yeah, that looks like yeah, we could sell that for 12 or 13. Next item. Nick halfcup heavy cream. Lemonis okay. How much . Nick 56 cents. Lemonis okay. Next item. Nick one tablespoon minced garlic. 11 cents. Lemonis okay. Nick 3 tablespoons pecorino romano. 67 cents. 4 ounces of white wine is 28 cents. Lemonis what is the total . Nick the total is 7. 63. Lemonis please write that down. What should the appropriate retail price for this item be . Nick so, typically you multiply it by three. 22. 89. Lemonis and how much is it . Nick 18. Lemonis so, is this item selling well at 18 . Nick no. Lemonis is it gonna sell well at 22 . Dante no. Nick oh, no. Its not gonna sell at all. I see what you mean. Too high. Lemonis off the menu. Nick you got it. Lemonis by the way, news flash, nobody wants frozen steak, not in a bag that looks like steakumms. Thats what i should have said to them, steak . Umm. Maybe shouldnt be on your menu. So, next time i come back, i want it all done. Nick okay. Lemonis every item on the menu. Nick you got it. [ motor stars ] watch those fingers. It takes a second to build pressure. Lemonis in addition to working on the food costs and other processes, i also want to start cleaning up the place. Lets get that sign on the other wall off. All the christmas lights. Everything in the dumpster. Denise all right. Lets go. We have a crew. Lemonis youre in charge. Dante yeah, i. Lemonis if not, were gonna change the name to jimmys. Dante all right. [ laughter ] so, just start cleaning everything on the exterior. Denise all signs. Dante lights. Everything. Denise lights. Everything. Lemonis if places look good, people stop. Everything should be as good as it can be. Its got to be right. You know, as i go through this whole process, i realize that this Business Needs more help than i originally thought, and i have to be honest that im seeing a side of dante that i did not see the first day i was with him hard work, really committed to what hes doing and so i dont mind giving him a small loan that he can pay back when the business is profitable. So, dante, lets do it the right way. Im gonna give you a check. Consider this an advance. So its 30,000 is the budget for the inside. Dante holy crap. Lemonis and you pay me back when you can. Dante okay. Okay. Lemonis okay . Doesnt matter how long it takes. I dont care if it takes 10 years. We got a deal . Dante thank you, marcus. Lemonis okay. Dante we have a deal. Jimmy thank you. Is this all going in the garbage, marcus . Lemonis yeah. One of the things that i hope to accomplish in lending dante money is to raise his focus on being responsible, understanding the value of money, and he cant just wing it. I want him to budget things. I want him to be accountable for it. So let me talk to you about something with nobody else around. Dante yeah, sure. Lemonis what i want to be able to leave or end today with is this understanding around this pride of ownership. Theres people that have literally nothing. They own a rock. Dante right. Lemonis thats all they have to their name, and its the most important thing in their entire life. This is your rock. Dante mmhmm. Lemonis this is the equivalent. Dante mmhmm. Lemonis and so how do you think about the rock differently today or how do you move forward . Dante oh, i have to do everything to protect that rock. Lemonis because that is all you have. Dante mmhmm. Lemonis right . And so where did that rock come from . How were you able to acquire this rock . Dante i was able to acquire it through the sacrifice of my mom. Lemonis so, when you now stand here and look at it, do you think about it a little differently . Dante i do, when. Lemonis because whos it really ultimately disrespectful to . Dante my mother, absolutely. Lemonis right. I wanted him to start to think about what this business means to him, and i wanted him to think about the importance of keeping it polished and protecting it, just like his mother would want him to. And rather than getting angry at dante, i felt like the best way to get his attention is to draw the parallel to what his mother would think. So lets figure out how we configure this space in a way that this could all be i could sit with the guy, make pizza. How many more seats can you pick up on a friday night when you guys are busy . Maybe you pick up eight more seats. By adding seats at the bar, im actually going to attract a different kind of customer, one thats not comfortable sitting at a table by his or herself, generating revenue that, quite frankly, may never have been here before. Just keep pushing stuff out the door, that oven that doesnt work. What do you you look like youre freaking out. Jimmy well, its just a lot of things. Like, i paid 3,000 for that oven. Lemonis were not throwing it in the trash. Sell it. Jimmy what are we gonna do with it . Lemonis sell it. Jimmy oh, all right. Lemonis if you looked up worry wart in the dictionary, turn the page its a picture of jimmy. Jimmy i dont think you know totally what to do or the ovens and the space. Now you need a plumber. And they dont know the laws. You dont know if you can handle this. Youre talking about moving sinks over. Youre talking about putting another oven here. Youre talking about getting rid of this oven and another oven. Lemonis not only is jimmy a worrier, but he tends to meddle, and hes not allowing his son to learn. Jimmy these mailboxes can use a little fixer. And, of course, these bushes, you have to keep them nice and trim. Dante oh. Jimmy you cant just pick and choose what you want to do. Its every i tell you, if it takes 22 hours a day to fix it, you need another. You got to work 23. Dante i think, going forward, its time for me to make my own decisions, and whether you think theyre right or wrong, thats besides the point. Its up to me if im gonna sink or swim. Jimmy no matter what i said, no matter i inputted, it was, no. 99 was. Dante it wasnt no. I just had a different idea of going about things. Jimmy it was no. Come on. Be honest. Dante i am being honest. Lemonis if those two cant connect and heal, i worry that that tension is gonna rip the business apart. Jimmy every single thing, basically every single thing ive ever said for you to do was, no, were not doing it that way. Were doing it my way. Dante the ideas of yours that i liked, i took and i did. The ones that i didnt, i did not want to do. Jimmy and how many would you say percentage of was, no, im not doing it that way . Lemonis theres obviously this weird tension between the two of you that i know theres a lot of love, but i dont know that theres a lot of respect when it comes to business. Jimmy there is none. There is none. Lemonis if youre looking to take your business to the next level, log on to theprofitcasting. Com. sensethe lack of control when iover my businessai, made me a little intense. But now quickbooks helps me get paid, manage cash flow, and run payroll. And now im back on top. With koala kai. vo save over 40 hours a month with intuit quickbooks. Robinwithout the Commission Fees. So, you can start investing today wherever you are even hanging with your dog. So, what are you waiting for . Download now and get your first stock on us. Robinhood. Jwas, no, were notthing ivdoing it that way. U to do were doing it my way. Lemonis while jimmy has the right intentions in meddling, hes not allowing dante to learn things on his own, to grow on his own, to fail on his own. Thats not gonna work for dante longterm. What i know, though, for sure is that hes doing it, honestly, because he loves his son so much. As a parent, you can guide him and nurture him and give him advice when he asks. You can protect him and protect him from hurting himself, but for the most part, i think what i want you to try to help me do, is he would like to be able to make decisions on his own, sink or swim. Construction is under way at dantes, and everybody is pitching in to get this thing ready for the grand reopening. Ive asked dante and nick to pare down this menu to get things on there that sell with the right food costs. Nick as of right now, were charging 25 for the filet, where we need to be making 33 to make a profit. Dante mmhmm. So crossing off the filet mignon. Nick cross it off the menu. Lemonis also, im taking them to purchase new equipment for the restaurant. John so were gonna do a total of 10 burners. We can put in a brandnew fryer. Lemonis and what is this for . Cakes . John yes. Lemonis do you guys do desserts . Dante we do. Lemonis what do you think of Something Like this . Nick that would be excellent. Lemonis out somewhere in the kitchen where people could see it. Because to sell more dessert, what do you need to know . Nick display. Lemonis you need to see it. How much is Something Like this . John 2,875. If you do just four cakes a week, youre talking nearly 220. Marcus would have his money back in less than 3 months. Lemonis desserts have great margins and especially if its an addon to the existing bill. If 20 people walk in a day to the restaurant, and half of them get dessert, and the dessert is 5, well, thats 50 of revenue. At a 70 margin, thats 35 in gross profit. If the goal is to give me my 2,800 back, itll take him 80 days to accomplish that. On average, i expect an investment to give me my money back in two years. Its a huge return on investment. Okay, so add that to the order. John hello, guys. Lemonis how you doing . Im marcus. John john levatino. Lemonis john, nice to see you. This is my friend dante. I wanted to take dante and jimmy to driscoll foods because in any restaurant, the food distributor is quintessential to your success because not only do they deliver the food, but they help you craft the menu. They help you work on your food costs, and they give you other ideas of things that are working and not working in the marketplace. Dante okay, so, um, i guess maybe we could start i could show you what im ordering now. Jimmy give him the menu first. That way, hell get a taste of what the business is like, and then youll john the best way to go about this is to be able to match up apples to apples as far as pricing is concerned. Dante invoices . John yeah, invoices are great. Jimmy what about the situation with the sauce and the special sauce you need and the cheese you need . There was a big problem when we made the last switch. Lemonis maybe just for a second, jimmy, for one second, if you could let your son just answer a question. John i would be charging you 33. 50 for romaine hearts, and they charge you 39. 58. Lemonis whats that as a percentage . Dante as a percentage . Lemonis yep. Dante how would i find the percentage . Lemonis so 15 across how much food do you buy a week . Dante i was averaging about 2,300. Lemonis and the business is gonna go up. Times 52. And how much is your rent . Dante 2,800. Lemonis how many months of free rent did you just get . Dante almost 6 1 2. Lemonis right. You have a much different approach today than you did a month ago. Dante is actually starting to get on board with the program. Hes starting to understand that hes capable of thinking for himself. It starts with dante. Dante thank you. Lemonis thank you so much. Were looking forward to doing business. Thank you so very much. John thank you. You guys will do well. See you guys. Dante have a good one. Lemonis so its those Little Things you got to start to keep a scorecard of. Dante mmhmm. Lemonis even if you pick up 10, 15 grand a year, thats super meaningful. Jimmy and i said that a long time ago. Lemonis okay. Its not about. Jimmy it is about that. Lemonis no, but its not, though. Jimmy theres so much like that. Lemonis why do you feel the need to do that . Jimmy because he doesnt belieme. Lemonis theres obviously this weird tension between the two of you, that i know theres a lot of love, but i dont know that theres a lot of respect when it comes to business. Jimmy there is none. Dante i think he expects me to take every bit of advice he has and for me to just, okay, dad, yes. Ill do this. Ill do this. Ill do this. Meanwhile, i should have the ability to make my own choices. He makes it me versus him when its really were supposed to be on the same team. Thats what i feel the issue is. Its his ideas versus mine. Its not like were supposed to be on the same team. Lemonis does it feel you versus him sometimes to you . Jimmy no, not to me. Lemonis thats how he feels. Jimmy i know. Lemonis how do we fix this . Jimmy i just let him do his thing. Lemonis right, but my concern is that the two of you are gonna grow further apart, not closer together. We got to fix this tension between you guys. Its very real, and im very worried about it. You lost your wife. You lost your mother. Do you guys want to lose each other . Visit theprofit. Cnbc. Com. Dealing with our finances really haunted me. Ttle cranky. Thankfully, i got quickbooks, and a live bookkeepers helping customize it for our business. live bookkeeper youre all set up janine great vo get set up right with a live bookkeeper with intuit quickbooks. Lemonido you guys want wife. To lose each other . Her. Dante no. Lemonis because thats a really serious question. Jimmy without a doubt. Lemonis is there a way for you to press the reset button and forget about what happened in the past and give him a clean start . Jimmy oh, hed have to change his whole attitude, yeah. Lemonis no, no, no. Im asking you to let your son run his business, and if he runs it into the ground, thats what he does. Dante not everything has to be a fight. Jimmy all right. Lemonis i asked jimmy to go with me to liberty park, and i know that hes been spending a lot of time worrying about how things are gonna get done and whats gonna happen and how this deal is gonna work. So i thought it would be a good idea for him and i just to talk oneonone without dante. Jimmy im so worried. I wish my girlfriend yells lemonis but what are you worried about . Jimmy his future. Lemonis but let him worry about it. When you owned a business and you had to work 90 hours a week. Jimmy i went home on the heating pad every night. I know. Lemonis and did anybody help you feel better about it . Jimmy no, no. Lemonis no. Okay. Jimmy i didnt have a father like me. Lemonis thats right. And thats what i love about you, jimmy. You care so much about your family. Jimmy thats all i have. I have nobody else. Just those two boys. If something happens to me, they have nobody. Thats why i called you. Lemonis lets go under here. Were in the middle of this heavy discussion, and all of a sudden, this storm comes through, and im definitely gonna wait this thing out because theres a lot more to say, and theres a lot more to understand. Look at the rainbow. Jimmy that must be telling us something, right . Thats the new World Trade Center. Lemonis when you look at that building now, what do you think of . Jimmy the suffering that my wife did. I should take a picture of it. Thats blowing my mind. I cant believe that thats happening now. Shes always around me because i see signs of her all the time. Only the good ones die young. She was really great. Lemonis how could you use the restaurant to create more awareness . Jimmy we never, ever talk about that. I dont ever tell anybody. Lemonis well, do me a favor. Put some thought into what you and i could do to create awareness for those people that do feel forgotten. Jimmy in the restaurant . Lemonis yep. On our small, Little Corner of the world. I know theres got to be a way to honor dantes mom and to bring dante and jimmy closer together. I kntheres got to be a way. Lets get the restaurant open, and then well go from there. Is that okay . Jimmy yes. Lemonis okay. All right. Jimmy i appreciate everything. I appreciate everything youre doing, man. Lemonis im on my way back, and im really excited to see what kind of progress theyve made in the week since ive been gone. This is painted. This looks good. Im impressed with what im seeing so far. The outside is really coming together. It looks different. Dante yeah. Lemonis it looks good. It looks lighter and brighter. Joe big difference, right . Lemonis did you guys redo this . Joe yeah. Lemonis this lip is gonna be a problem. Youre not gonna be able to sit here, and you can see it from the side. If i want to pull up my seat, ive got nowhere to go with my legs. Dante okay. Lemonis so we need a new bar put in, a new counter. Oh, my gosh. I didnt expect to walk in to this. Not as much progress that i had hoped. And it looks a little haphazard. The outside looks infinitely better. How do you feel about it . Dante i feel awesome about it. Lemonis but whats happened in here besides nothing . Dante well, today the equipment people are coming. Theyre swapping out equipment. Should be here at 10 30. Lemonis but i dont want any new equipment coming in here until this tile is fixed. You cant go over that. Do you have a knife . Dante yeah. Lemonis this thats nasty. I would stop the equipment people from coming. Nick i know the floors arent the best. Lemonis arent the best . To say that they arent the best would mean that theyre kind of okay. Nick yeah, all right. So theyre not good. Lemonis theyre awful. Nick okay. Lemonis i dont want any food coming out of here. Nick okay, sure. Lemonis its disgusting. Dante, why would you want to bring new stuff into this . Nick we dont want to. We were just pressed for time. Lemonis what are you pressed for . Because this has been 10 days since ive seen you. Like, all the other works great. What the hells happening in here . Dante it was very difficult to get barstools that match the rest of the dining room. Jimmy its gonna be different. It has to be different. Lemonis hell figure it out. How we doing with letting him figure it out . Jimmy ive left him alone totally. Lemonis totally . Because you just jumped in on the chairs. The numberone thing that a restaurant needs to have now. Is an organized kitchen, and while im confident that well ultimately get there, im hoping that dante gets his act together. So you got literally, like, a week. And things arent getting done. So we got to get refocused. Were losing revenue every day. Dante yep. Lemonis i know that dante and jimmy have really struggled to tell their story of why the business exists, and so i found an organization in new york city called stars of hope. Jeff these are stars of hope. Children paint inspirational words and messages on the stars, and theyre a way for families to get together and express their compassion to anybody in need of hope, following either a Natural Disaster or humancaused tragedy. Jimmy how do you sell them . Jeff theres a 5 donation per star, and then thats what enables us to go into the communities and do disaster relief. This is a very special star of hope i wanted to give to you, just as a little way to say, you know, peggys light never dies. Lemonis they definitely havent resolved what has happened, and particularly jimmy, and so what id like to do is make a donation to your organization for 25,000. Jeff wow. Lemonis theyll take the stars that come with that donation, and theyll make that part of their business, and it now gives your mom a presence in the business, and it gives you guys something to feel really good about. Dante i feel pretty emotional. I think this is a great opportunity for us to help their organization and remembering my mom. Thats just unbelievable. Lemonis i think they now feel like they have something they can take back to the restaurant and be proud to talk about and be proud to show people and be proud to tell them the story, and thats the love for their mother and wife. Lets go to appetizers. The grand reopening is just a few days away, and were getting the pointofsale system upgraded and up and running. So everything thats on the menu is in here. Every single item that gets ordered is gonna be in the system, and theyre gonna know what they sell and dont sell. Thomas we have a Little Something special just to kind of show you the strategy that were gonna apply to this. Lemonis and i brought in directmail. Io, a Marketing Company that will help to drive traffic from the surrounding area. Thomas we mocked up a couple of prototypes. Denise its beautiful. It speaks to me. Dante i love it. This is the best ive seen. Im glad to have you guys on board. Denise yeah. Lemonis the restaurant is scheduled to open tomorrow. Im making a special trip to walk through every part of the restaurant to ensure that its got my seal of approval to open. Whats up, guys . Dante hey lemonis it looks totally different. Dante oh, yeah. Joe it looks beautiful. Lemonis it dolook good. Dante so, this is the beautiful display case that you bought for us. Lemonis the tables and chairs looks good. Dante yep. All brandnew furniture. Lemonis lighting is brighter. Dante new blinds, new upholstery along the booth. Lemonis yep. Dante but this is our new menu. Lemonis okay. So simplified the appetizers. Cut your entrees by 50 . Dante most of the items that we took off, we were losing money. Lemonis how did you find that out . Dante by doing the cost analysis on each item. Nick yeah, by doing the math. Lemonis mmhmm. I was really impressed by the fact that dante was actually doing and executing all of the things that we talked about owning his business, seeming enthusiastic about it, and, to be honest, its a pretty proud moment for me. This counter came out good. Jimmy thats beautiful. Dante oh, yeah. The one issue is the barstools. Its just very difficult to get something that matches the rest of the dining room. Jimmy if its gonna be different, it has to be different. It cant be close to that there. Lemonis hell figure it out. Hell figure it out. How are we doing with letting him figure it out . Jimmy ive left him alone totally. Lemonis totally . Because you just jumped in on the chairs. Jimmy well, im trying to explain what youre saying. Dante well, marcus, im really gonna blow your mind right now. Remember that rock that you gave to me . Jimmy i dont know nothing about this rock. Lemonis thats between us. You dont have to know everything. Jimmy imlemonis to explain for him to be successful, he has to be able to make his decisions on his own. Dante from your lips to gods ears, marcus. Lemonis no option other than doing really well. Dante absolutely. Lemonis thats it. Right, dad . Jimmy its been a whirlwind with marcus. Dante oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Jimmy oh, man, hes amazing. Dante obviously, up until this point, i never really thought about how the property is a reflection not only on myself, but you, as well, our family, my mother. But marcus made me see it that way, and hes honestly right. Jimmy so please build this business, run with it, be successful, and have pride in it. Dante thats what my dream is, dad. Jimmy come here. Dante dantes. How can i help you . Lemonis in all of the businesses that ive ever been a part of, there are very few that ive ever been more excited to reopen. Hi, guys. The bar is awesome, isnt it . Lemonis the first time i was here, there were crickets. Thats how quiet it was. Now the place is packed. The phones ringing off the hook. Everybodys using the pos. Hows it working . Camryn its working very good. Woman we dont have to run back and forth from the kitchen. Lemonis what i think is amazing about where dante has come is that he did a lot of this himself. He acted like a leader, and because of that, hes got a different pride of ownership over the place. And you can see it, and you can feel it. Dante hey, guys. How is everything so far . Woman its good. Lemonis is anybody complaining about the smaller menu . Is it easier for you guys . Woman absolutely. Lemonis do you see the dessert case . Woman its gorgeous. Lemonis youre selling more desserts . Woman yes. Lemonis okay, awesome. [ indistinct conversations ] folks, if we can have your attention for just a quick moment. When i receive applications from people for help, what matters to me more than anything is the purpose of their business. Jimmy my wife passed away in the World Trade Center, and i used funds that he got for the death of his mother for the restaurant. Marcus loved our family and what we were doing here, and he offered to help us out. He offered to help the community out. Dante we have a new and improved business for everybody to enjoy. Lemonis yesterday, we went to an organization that really brought it all full center. Josh stars of hope, we are a Nonprofit Organization where we go to different communities to paint stars to honor those that were taken too early by tragedy or disasters. Lemonis we made a donation to the organization, and we purchased 5,000 stars, and so when you come here to eat, there will be paint provided, and youll be able to make your own star. Dante each star that we donate is gonna help somebody facing very hard times in life. Lemonis theres a lot of different ways to get a return on an investment, and in most cases, it is money, but in this particular case, it is seeing that the memory of peggy will live forever. And that dante now realizes the importance of being a Business Owner and having pride in it. And jimmy now realizes that his son can rise to the occasion. Thank you. Enjoy your meal. [ applause ] dante i love you, and thank you for everything youve ever done for me. Jimmy thank you. Dante well, marcus. Im really gonna blow your mind right now. Remember that rock that you gave to me . Lemonis mmhmm. Dante here it is. I kept it just as a reminder of everything im doing here to try to improve this place and become a success. Lemonis youre gonna do great, buddy. I got no doubt in my mind. Dante thank you. Jimmy i dont know nothing about this rock. Lemonis thats between us. You dont have to know everything. Put him to work, dante. Lets head inside. Dante all right. Lets go. Lemonis put your pops to work. We need some cash in the cash register. Dante thats absolutely true. Lemonis lets rock and roll. Vinny come on over, guys. Tweve got fresh coconuts here. Lemonis . A ukulelestrumming hypeman thinks hes cracked the coconut code, creating an exciting new way to market coconut water. Vinny we do 108 to 130 coconuts an hour. Lemonis okay. But is this a viable Business Concept or just simply a gimmick . Michael it just worries me because when you dont have a patent, then you dont have a product. Vinny but its gonna happen because the coco dream is real. Lemonis im gonna have to help him overcome poor business skills. Vinny when you want to sit me in a room and hammer numbers, thats not my strength. I embody a whole different skill set of coco soul. Lemonis . Ratchet up his work ethic. You showed up late. Vinny you told me to sell coconuts. Thats what im doing. Lemonis in this box