IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
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IN YOUR CITY Show With Kelley and Gordon
How An Italian Culinary Legacy Found A Home At The Ritz-Carlton
The kitchen should feel like a home you’re invited into, and that’s exactly what we experienced with Mario Iaccarino of Casa Don Alfonso at the Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. From Sorrento to Clayton, Mario shares how design, memory, and an open-kitchen stage turn dinner into a sensory journey—copper pans glowing, custom tiles whispering history, and wisteria captured in glass and paint. It’s hospitality you can see, smell, and taste.
We dig into the culinary mission that powers the room: safeguarding generational recipes from Southern Italy while honoring Mediterranean seasonality. The menu changes twice a year to mirror nature, with winter vegetables replacing summer favorites, except for the beloved eggplant parmigiana that never leaves. We explore how classics are reimagined with integrity—a feather-light parmigiano espuma gracing a house Caesar, a tiramisu included because guests crave it and done with precision, not shortcuts. Then comes a sweet new chapter: the Casa pastry boutique, where morning croissants, Sfogliatella, Babà, and Caprese cake meet Ritz-Carlton staples, inviting daily rituals from cappuccino to tea-time indulgence.
Mario also speaks to food as an investment in health, drawing on the Mediterranean diet’s proven benefits—extra virgin olive oil, fish, legumes, vegetables, and fruit driving longevity and heart health. From there, we switch gears to relationships and time: scheduling dates with partners, teams, and ourselves; saying yes to surprise nights out; and learning to take a small vacation from our routines to keep the spark alive. To cap the holiday mood, we share a practical guide to real Christmas trees—balsam or grand fir for that classic scent, Fraser for a clean piney note, and a few to avoid if you want aroma—plus local Missouri tree farms for a nostalgic outing.
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And your city show is here, and it's a happy hour that you will not forget coming straight from the Ritz-Carleton, right here, the beautiful city of Clayton. It is love stories, local flavor, and a whole lot of holiday cheer. So we're going to pour glass, make your mocktail, your cocktail, whatever it is that you love, have that with us as you enjoy a travel journey through the Ritz-Carleton. We've got some other fun things too that we'll be talking about. Like, do you know what holiday Christmas tree to get if you're going to get a real one? Because we made a mistake about the wrong one and it didn't smell. Didn't smell like Christmas. We're going to save you some heartache. We are going to save you some heartache, that's for sure. All right, well, before further ado, I've got to say this right because it's Marium. Yum Yumperinum. Something like that. He says it so much. Have a seat with us and join us. Thank you so much. Such a pleasure. I'm so glad that we got the memo. Got the memo on what you know what we're um what we're wearing here. So this is so much fun. Bobby Mitchell, which of course we've had on the show before, and he brought us uh, I guess, some pizzas and some cocktails and showed us around over there um at your lovely bar. And then this is so much fun having our logo stamped on the top of it. So love it. So you're coming all the way from Italy to here right now.
SPEAKER_01:Let's see, this is uh this has become now my second home in my heart because uh I'm um visiting St. Louis since uh a few years, and um I really feel like uh the this great sense of hospitality, which is the main character of uh Midwest uh countries.
SPEAKER_02:That's right.
SPEAKER_01:And it's an honor for me that uh and uh uh let's say a gift from God, which uh gave me the chance to realize this project here in uh St. Louis. So, you know, I was very lucky.
SPEAKER_02:And I know I've I've got some specific questions to ask you, but saying that, you've come from Italy, Sorrento, which we were lucky enough to be there. Um, such a beautiful, oh my gosh, it's just absolutely gorgeous there. First of all, I want you to say your name correctly since I did not give the beauty of it.
SPEAKER_00:Let's try. Try it, ready? Mario Mario Giaccarino.
SPEAKER_02:Giaccarino. Giaccarino.
SPEAKER_00:It's very easy.
SPEAKER_02:So let's give a little brief about. I mean, here you are, you are a partner here at the Casa Um Don Alfonso, and you're over there in Sorrento. How did, first of all, how did this collaboration come together? And that we're lucky enough to have you here.
SPEAKER_01:That's a beautiful question. Let's say it was uh the year uh 2018. I received a call from a common guest of uh Rit Scarlettum St. Luis and Don Alfonso 1890 in Santa Agata, uh telling me that uh Rit Scarlton St. Luis was going to make a renovation of the entire uh let's say ground floor space. And I said thank you very much for the information, but you know, I don't yeah, I didn't even know where it was San Luis on the map at that time. Then I, you know, I after three weeks I was flying here. Uh and that was the moment where I had realized uh digitally the first uh idea in terms of contents of uh Casa Don Alfonso project. I came here and I presented to uh all the people which were involved in the project, like the property, the managing company, which is of course Ritz Carlton under the big hat of uh Marriott. And I saw the eyes of these people shining after five minutes. So I realized that I was going to make another restaurant here. That was happening in 2018. Then uh once we had uh negotiated the contract, uh we started the renovation here. So I was participating in the renovation of the entire space, bringing uh inspiring this uh very talented um architect studio from Atlanta. They came to Santa Gada to my mother's place, and were there they stayed a week with us and they uh you know and let them discover the identity, the history, the architectural uh history of this part of the world, which is uh the part of the Campania region. We are talking about Amalficos, Sorrentokos, Southern Italy, the Bay of Naples. This is the place where uh uh historically, since 2000 years, we have had so many influences by so many cultures, and finally, this is a huge container of uh knowledge, of uh heritage in terms of culinary, in terms of architecture, of history. And this is what uh Casa Don Alfonso contains in itself. Casa Don Alfonso is uh inspired by the um uh let's say we start by the kitchen style. The kitchen style, the structure of the kitchen want to reproduce the style, the mood of the ancient kitchen, of the ancient villa of the Vesuvian area. When we talk about the Vesuvian area, we're talking about the influences of the Arabic world in terms of uh ceramic tiles. As you can see here in Casa Don Alfonso, we have brought, we have realized this um specific pattern for casa. Uh it has been realized by the oldest uh tile maker of the entire region. So we're talking about a company, a factory, which is uh more than 250 years old. So a huge heritage that you find on the wall of the kitchen of Casa Don Alfonso. You find the copper, the copper is typical was typically used in the kitchen. My grandmother's house, there was a copper and iron. So the kitchen of Casa Don Alfonso structurally tells you about my memories, but my memories not because it's my memories, but because of uh my memories is uh um telling you about this huge heritage coming from the Arabic world, from the Greek world, from the French, Spanish kingdom. We had also appeared uh, you know, the big connection with the Austro-Hungarian uh kingdom. So Napoli City and surrounding is a huge melting pot of so many different cultures, and in Casa Don Alfonso, we tried to recreate this uh mood which contains all these cultures together in terms of structure. Then the architect arrived in in uh in our garden in Santa Agata, and they saw it was May, they were very lucky because in May there is this uh huge, beautiful uh wisteria flowers that uh they give us the pleasure to show up only about two weeks. Perfect time all over the year. When they saw that, they were so fascinated that they made a surprise to me. They realized the picture, so cartons you can see by the wall. Cartons uh you can uh you know lightly see the Wisteria flowers of the garden of Don Alfonso 1990 in Italy. And uh they also realized these uh let's say glass Wisteria flowers, too. The painting has been uh realized by a local artist in Sorrento area.
SPEAKER_04:Really?
SPEAKER_01:It's funny because this lady, she's a very talented lady, but she's not really like uh interested in you know, she's just painting and she even doesn't know that she's in Casa Don Alfonso.
SPEAKER_02:She's probably watching she knows now.
SPEAKER_01:You know what that is. So every there is uh specific uh signs in this place which want to tell about a huge heritage. This is in terms of structure, in terms of culinary, what we do in Casa Don Alfonso, we try to um recreate, to reproduce this huge heritage of the recipes of the generation of migrant mothers.
SPEAKER_04:That's beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:It's a kind of big responsibility for us, and Casa Don Alfonso is a big responsibility because Casa Don Alfonso, of course, it's a drop in the ocean, for sure, but in Casa Don Alfonso we try to keep alive this unique extraordinary recipes which have been uh handed on for generations in our region and arrived until now. The problem is the ladies, not because the ladies are worse than before, the ladies in the last 50 years, they don't have any more of the time to spend time in their kitchen. Before the ladies had 10 times more time to my Nona spent every day in the kitchen, all day. So they were responsible to bring to the new generation this uh beautiful heritage. Now the ladies have no time anymore, and uh we are losing very quickly uh in the last 30 years a huge amount of recipes which are part of uh you know the humanity. And our responsibility is to try to keep alive these recipes by divulgating to the world by you know sharing with our dear guests. So Casa Don Alfonso's culinary mission is we want to express the culinary tradition of southern Italy, but we also sometimes and normally we uh include in the menu like kind of uh Italian flagship recipes. Because we are a Mediterranean restaurant, first of all, but we are also an Italian restaurant. That's why you find the tiramisu on the menu. Because uh, in the imagination uh of the people, there cannot be an Italian restaurant without a tiramisu.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So even if tiramisu is not part of our um culinary tradition, it's uh tiramisu was born in uh in northern Italy, but we are proud to you know to present an amazing tiramisu on the menu because we are anyway an Italian restaurant. So this is the beauty of casa. It's more than just a dinner or a lunch. If we give ourselves the time to enjoy and to uh get out of our job, our problems, and we focus on what we are eating and escape for a while, we can jump into a dream where we are enjoying and experiencing transported to Italy, a huge uh world which is the Mediterranean area, finally. And uh this is when I say Mediterranean, I'm saying about Southern Italy, I'm saying about Greek, Tunisia, Morocco, and all this Lebanon, which is another extraordinary country, where we get inspired inspiration to realize the culinary project of Casadon Alfonso. So and I'm very proud and I'm very, very happy to you know to be the ambassador of this uh this culture. But believe me, I can say uh I'm having a great experience because uh St. Luis uh guest, okay, Rich Slarton is uh visited by all over people from all over the world in St. Louis because of the this uh huge amount of business that there is around the Clayton area. But St. Luis people are very sophisticated people, and uh believe it or not. Very, very curious.
SPEAKER_02:At least two of us.
SPEAKER_01:They go deep inside the questions, and uh it's so fascinating for me to to share with uh this uh this amazing community what is my my heritage, no?
SPEAKER_02:We're honored to have you sit here, and as we look around and you're talking about the style, something you've done is you've opened up the kitchen where we can experience what's happening back there. Tell us the reasoning behind that.
SPEAKER_01:The reason behind that because uh in the in in its name, casa is a house, is a home. This is my home where I want to share with my guest, with our guest, of course. I'm saying my because you know I'm uh you know I feel like uh it's uh part of my history. But casa kitchen uh has to be in the center of the restaurant because uh it has to be like a theater where the guests can enjoy the handcraft part of our uh job that otherwise you don't see that. You just receive a plate and you lose the maybe 70% of the beauty while you are sitting there. If you're sitting at the kitchen counter, we have a lot of people they like to stay at the kitchen counter. It's like uh enjoying a movie, right? A beautiful movie in uh in the Mediterranean. And the kitchen is where everyone gathers and still does gather in the kitchen, so having that of the focal point, you can see all the beautiful things and uh the mistakes sometimes or whatever. It's real life. What's happening there, it's not fake, it's totally real. And uh I think uh, you know, uh in this moment of the history of the humanity, uh, to enjoy real life and to take away our mobile phones, it's uh a good way to take a big part of our time being on our phones, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, yes. I love the fact that it's kind of I get to experience what you experience as a child from your these recipes from back with with your grandmother and and uh Nona. And uh and uh I get to experience that. I it's like you welcomed me into your home, it's like you welcome me into your home, and I get to experience all of these great menu items that were done. And these recipes were things that didn't happen overnight.
SPEAKER_02:These are recipes I just think they're coming from your heritage is really.
SPEAKER_03:These are recipes that took experimentation after and back, like you said, when they spent so much time in the kitchen back then, they were it was like science projects. I mean, family gathered.
SPEAKER_02:It would be two days to get ready for um a preparation of a meal. I mean, everything was handmade. There was not when I say handmade, there was every ingredient was was created.
SPEAKER_01:Caitlin Gordon, you said you touched a very important point because uh sometimes even in in Don Alfonso in Italy, the main question is uh how long did you get to you to realize this recipe? And I say it depends, from 500 years to 2000 years, because uh the recipe is a result of uh generations. Then, of course, a new recipe, but a new recipe we take always inspiration by by something we have uh experienced when we were a child. We have a farm, organic farm is in 35 years in uh in uh in our uh region where we get inspired by the nature. What I brought here also, it's very important, is uh the sense of seasonality that the world is losing. So uh we change the menu, you know, we cannot change the menu four times a year. Operationally speaking, it's so complicated. So, what we have decided together since the beginning is that we change the menu twice a year, so we put together the let's say the spring and the summer, and we put together the autumn and the and the and the winter so that we can really strictly follow the sense of seasonality in terms of produce. Sure, it's fresh. I tell you, I give you an example. You will never find, I give you this specific example because uh then I tell you why. You will never find uh an eggplant in our menu in the middle of the winter because the eggplant is a summertime ingredient. Okay, you will never find uh zucchini in the winter, you will never find a sweet pepper in the winter. In the winter you will find cauliflowers, uh broccolini, broccoli, spinaches, uh, cabbage. So we try to follow the sense of uh seasonality except for the eggplant parmigiana, because eggplant parmigiana is like uh you enter uh in a Japanese restaurant and you don't find the tuna.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:So eggplant parmigiana is uh we keep on in the menu all year long. We know that in the winter there is this is not the season of a um eggplant, but we cannot uh I cannot take out of the menu the eggplant parmigiana because this is like uh you know the king of the story, right? And we want to share with the guests all year long, even if uh it's not the best moment of the year in the winter, but you know, it's such a huge um such a huge experience in terms of flavor.
SPEAKER_02:People expect it and want it, and so exactly, but the presentation is everything as well. I mean, I I will be honest, this is the prettiest, I should say, most beautiful Caesar salad that I have ever been able to experience. The dressing and the perfect little dollops, and um, so it's more the taste, of course, we know that comes first, that's so important, but also the presentation, the way you bring it out, is not like anything else where you know you might experience it most places.
SPEAKER_01:So Caesar salad is not part of our tradition, but how we can uh have a restaurant in the United States, it is impossible. So we try to make a um a variation of uh on uh yes, Caesar salad, adding uh mayo made with the same ingredients of the classical uh Caesar salad sauce sauce. We made an espuma with uh parmigiano, uh beautiful crouton.
SPEAKER_02:So that's the idea of you know, we just says everything, it makes it even better as well.
SPEAKER_01:Even on the new menu, uh and that's what we want to talk about.
SPEAKER_02:The new menu, also the casa pastry uh boutique. I want to hear about that as well.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I tell you the story. Okay. Uh when I was in March, and uh I have to be very thankful to uh Rich Scarlton um management because uh uh since the beginning, I have to tell you something first of all, because uh I have to thank you so much, uh Rich Scarleton World. Because uh, since the first day uh I uh landed in this place, I uh received such uh an amazing and unique hospitality that I have never received anywhere else in the world. Rich Scarlton uh represents what it means, hospitality.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely, 100%. No one makes a bed like them.
SPEAKER_01:Without any you know, without any compromise. With the guest is always and forever the king. Yes. This is what Rich Scarlton was teaching the entire world. That's my personal opinion. And um and it's not happening uh since two years, it's happening since a while. So I found the right place in terms of uh humans to realize Casa Don Alfonso project. But what uh um how we came to boutique, to the boutique corner, uh, and every everything I was asking, uh I'm always asking or proposing or you know, trying to let's say let's do something different. They are really very um quick in uh operating what uh uh it comes in my mind. And the story is that in March I was here and I was walking around uh the the restaurant. I said, why we cannot share with our guest a corner? I was thinking uh uh inspired by a very famous brand, and I know I I cannot say I might say that, but uh you know there is beautiful uh macaron bench shops like this. And I say, why we don't realize a Casa Don Alfonso corner boutique where we can try to share with our guests uh the culture, the tradition of Neapolitan pastry. I say, why not?
SPEAKER_02:I'm glad that you asked that question.
SPEAKER_01:Mouth uh only six months ago, after two weeks, uh you know the management called me, Mario, this is a good idea, we want to, and then you know, just the time to uh call architect and uh you know manufacture and everything, that finally uh Casa Boutique uh is uh going to be open. Uh we should they should open Casa Boutique Corner in uh at the beginning between the beginning and the middle part of December, where the guest of Rich Carlton, the local guests, the resident people here around Clayton, uh will have the possibility in the morning to enjoy all about croissant and all about beautiful pastry concerning the breakfast moments. Then from 10 o'clock around in the morning, they will have the possibility to experience a single portion of beautiful dessert coming from the Mediterranean and Neapolitan tradition, also including some classical Rich Kaltan pastry. So the guests will have the chance to experience from one side the Neapolitan culture, from the other side the classical Richz Kalton mood. And then during all the day there will be, you know, small sandwiches. And uh you know, until the end of the day, whenever you come here, you will see this beautiful display where there will be um, I'll give you an example, uh Sicilian cannoli, Neapolitan Baba, or um, you know, Capri Cetart made with almonds, sometimes with the lemon, sometimes with the chocolate. It will be anyway changing the proposal so that we can uh give the most beautiful experience possible.
SPEAKER_03:I'd gain 10 pounds just. Yeah, yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_01:Then we have realized a lot um a proposal of cakes. So you can come here and you choose your cake, you see your cake, and uh you can bring home Sicilian cassata. Imagine you arrive at home for a you know family celebration, you uh can bring home an original Sicilian cassata. We brought our executive pastry Sheffield 10 days to train the people to realize the authentic um pastry from, let's say, southern Italy.
SPEAKER_03:That's the first thing we did when we landed. So when we went to Rome and we landed in Rome, the first thing we did was we got a room, then we went downstairs, we found the first place we could sit, have a cappuccino and have it have a pastry. Beautiful was the first thing we did. And it was like just set the mood and the tone for everything. So that's what you can do, you can set the tone for everyone's day. Yeah, when they come in here and get a pastry in the morning and some of the things.
SPEAKER_01:You can enjoy a tea time here in casa in the afternoon and enjoy this beautiful. This is a very, very uh in all over Europe, wherever if even if you go in this beautiful uh historical cafe in Vienne or in uh in Munich or in Paris or in Rome, as you said, in Naples. In Naples there is this beautiful uh old uh historical bar cafe called Gambrinus, which is an institution. If you go in Naples and you're enjoying visiting the museum, you have to stop there in uh this place and enjoy a Neapolitan's Foyatella. This is what we we uh we want to do here.
SPEAKER_02:So experience that you're providing. Yes. Really be able to have a taste of Italy but and the gorgeous city of Clayton. I mean, it's it's it's definitely um one of kind. There's nothing else like this around, and bringing your vision and your passion here to the Ritz has definitely changed a complete new vibe. I mean, it truly is. I mean, I remember the first time we walked in and the that um had just opened, and we were in all, we actually did a story on your restaurant, it's been in our magazine. We'll have to give you copies to take with you, but uh I I don't have that copy, but I'll make sure you get copies of the story sent to you digitally. Um, but that's the first thing we did. We were so wild when we came in. We sat at the bar, they made us a drink which had the Britz Carlton uh stamp on it, not our logo, and we were so impressed, and we immediately had to do a story on it. When you walk in, your your your soul brightens up when you when you walk in here.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, very much so. Inside this place, even myself, yes. When I come after six months, and I leave as soon as I leave my luggage, I'm not tired anymore. Yeah, I just want to be here because I need to to start to breath the the the perfume, the you know, this beautiful uh uh perfume coming from the kitchen.
SPEAKER_02:And uh I can smell the truffle oil coming from that plate right there, I'm sure. Is it this one? So gorgeous plates. There's gonna be um some new items that will be for the holiday that we'll be able to experience. Of course, we cannot wait to experience the new pastry boutique, which will be absolutely incredible. It's not just the holiday, of course, is what's around the corner, but it's an everyday experience that you'll receive when you come into the Casa del Alfonso, which you say so much better than I do. I don't even want to, I don't even want to talk anymore if you're listening to. It's like I feel like this dull, boring voice after sitting here speaking with you. We love your passion. We can't thank you enough for taking some time and and really helping others to understand what the experience is when you come to the roots Carleton and walk into the Casa del Alfonso. It's absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. And I can't wait to see what you keep doing. I'm sure we're not finished. Yeah, when it opens up. Yeah, add us a pastry.
SPEAKER_01:Next, uh, I mean, from uh starting from uh Wednesday, we um um presenting the new menu for the winter season, and I'm super happy because uh, you know, we could uh once again uh um realize dishes which uh tell an history. Every single dish uh tells an history behind, and of course, in Casa Don Alfonso, in my personal opinion, I eat pizza almost every day. You can have a great pizza because uh, you know, the dough we realize is uh part of another huge heritage. And uh pizza dough is changing every day, the recipe is complicated because of the weather conditions are changing, and uh I was super happy to check this time that the pizza is really great, so I invite uh uh you to try. We have amazing original uh modern style of dough from Napoli City, so pizza, and uh I'm really happy what we're doing here now in Kaz in terms of a pizza experience to I'm pretty sure I made some funny noises, didn't I, when I had it last?
SPEAKER_02:It was really good, and you know that's the that is something that we experienced when we're in Italy, is that what you've brought here, when you are there and you're having wine and you're eating pizza and you're having pasta, never once did I my stomach hurt. A lot of times America tends to want to Americanize too much and keeping the the ingredients fresh, using the um fruits and vegetables that are in season, that are organically made. I mean, it's complete change in how you experience. And I love the way you talk about the food because food should be an experience, not something we just consume and we're hungry. It it's a time to To to experience with someone you're with, or even if you're alone, if it's a date all by yourself, to be able to really indulge in yourself and be able to experience food and know that everything that you're bringing to the table comes from heritage, it comes from passion and experience throughout hundreds of years. That's I mean, what how much better can it get?
SPEAKER_01:I think the food, our intend the food, we can say food, the way we eat is the hugest investment on ourselves, on our body. You're right. Whatever we uh put in our body is going to be our heritage in terms of health. So what we I feel to say that uh this is uh we need to give a huge attention to the quality of produce we use, but above all what we are eating every single day of our life, it's important, you know. And in a Mediterranean idea, uh we can say that uh you know the Mediterranean diet has been recognized as the way of uh eating which gives the yi the best result in terms of health, in terms of heart disease uh avoidance. So I could be here for many hours to tell you about that, but uh it's so important that uh for everyday uh food we need to make the biggest investment in terms of uh time, we need to understand what is good for us and what is not good for us for everyday food and for our kids. This is the biggest gift we can give to our kids to teach them to eat in a specific way. And uh I'm not going to enter in that, but uh basically we are convinced that not Mario's convinced the um worldwide uh scientific community that extra virgin olive oil is proved that it's bringing uh it's a miracle of the nature in terms of uh you know cleaning uh the the veins and then uh the we need maybe I would not say that let's try to eat more dried vegetables than meat every day. Let's try to eat more fish and vegetables and fruit every day than other things. So uh if we pay attention to that, we can make the biggest gift to our future generation uh to avoid a lot of problems when they reach our age.
SPEAKER_02:Mario, thank you so much for spending some time bringing your passion to the In Your City show, allowing people to really understand what is behind this beautiful restaurant, thank you, pastry boutique, the gorgeous uh bar that you have over there. There's just so much to offer when you come in. So even if you're not staying at the Ritz-Carleton, that does not mean that you cannot come in and enjoy all that Caso del Afonso has to offer. Mario Iaccarino uh from Italy, sitting right here, his beautiful creation here. We thank you so much for sharing it with us and the experience that we're able to have. And we cannot wait to taste the pastry. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:I really appreciate that you were coming here and spent time with me. And uh it was an honor from you.
SPEAKER_02:So we always say cheers during our show. We always cheers the end, but what we'd like to say is salute would be the salute would be the correct way, right? So let's definitely give a cheers with you.
SPEAKER_01:Uh doing his best.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so to a beautiful holiday, to a happy new year, and to the continued success of your Case Del Afonso. Thank you so much, Mario, for spending time with us.
SPEAKER_01:Salute. I can say Viva San Luis.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yes, thank you. What is another one? Chinchin?
SPEAKER_01:Chinchin, we send it in chinchin. Okay, there you go.
SPEAKER_02:Chinchin. Take a drink to I have no idea what I'm having, but it's a delicious.
SPEAKER_01:So is this. He is a yeah, Mr. Bobby's an angel. Oh, he is.
SPEAKER_02:He is, he is fantastic. Thank you. This is great. Look at that.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Right here at the Ritz-Carlton in St. Louis. We've had the pleasure of experiencing Ritz-Carlton's uh in California, Chicago, nothing like it right here in Clayton, Missouri. We're so glad that we can be a part of it, and this is where we live. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_02:Wonderful. Garden was a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you. Oh my gosh. Incredible interview with Mario Jaccarino. I mean, incredible. And the fact that he's invited us to come and stay with him when we go to Italy. Oh man. Um, should we plan it next week? I'm so ready. It's gonna be amazing, and we're definitely going to do that. And you know, talking with Mario, talking about the beauty of food, the culture, the heritage, the love, the passion that's brought into it, that's the same, that's the same way you need to be with yourself, with your partner. Um, we really want to get back into bringing the relationship back into our show. And we don't just mean the relationship with another person. That relationship can be with yourself, which that's probably one of the hardest relationships people have is with themselves. We're so hard on ourselves. We really are. We're terribly hard on our society wants us to be. Yeah. And sometimes we don't, we haven't.
SPEAKER_03:You're not like this, and you know.
SPEAKER_02:Right. And and sometimes we haven't found that perfect person. Gosh, I was single for 11 years after being married before I met you. I mean, you know, there time life changes, uh, you know, it's evolving all the time around us. And something that we want people to think about is that you're not alone. Sometimes it takes a while to find that perfect person. Sometimes there's some people that love being alone, and that's okay too. But having a relationship, what we want to say is you have the right to have a love story, whether it's with someone, with your work, with your business, with yourself. It's really important to schedule dates. And that means with your, if you're a leader at work, schedule time with the people that work for you. If you're in a relationship or you're married, or you you have your partner, schedule dates. If you're alone and you're somebody that's not in a relationship, schedule a date with yourself, or make a date and don't tell her until like an hour before. Like yes. And you know what? It was so much fun. Gordon walked in and he said, Um, I hope you uh aren't upset. Um, but I have tickets to Casey in the Sunshine Van. And I'm like, I dropped my purse, I went like this because I was exhausted, and the thoughts of going somewhere sounded absolutely awful. Well, guess what? She had a great time. It was the best time ever.
SPEAKER_03:So did the ladies behind us.
SPEAKER_02:They were doing the woo, the kick in it.
SPEAKER_03:They were back in 1972, cheerleading time.
SPEAKER_02:They were the they were the woo girls. Yeah, woo. But it but it was so fun. And gosh, KC, I think he's 74. He sat on stage, which is put on a little bit of, you know, weight. Uh he said it was during COVID, but we know how long ago that was. Yeah. But I'm gonna tell you what, I could not have done what he did. He danced, he spun around in circles, he sang, he played instruments. I mean, it was incredible.
SPEAKER_03:I could have not entertainer.
SPEAKER_02:I was in a chair going, you know, and doing a little moving and grooving in my chair, and I was tired.
SPEAKER_03:And you know what? He actually sat and talked for a couple minutes with people. Quite funny. And you know, it was very personal, personal, yeah, to talk the way he talked to us, and you could tell he really loved what he does and he loves performing for people. Yeah, he loves it.
SPEAKER_02:The dancers were great. I mean, it was really I love smiling.
SPEAKER_03:It was fun. I didn't realize he's never been married, and he's got such everything about him is so personal. You don't know what his net worth is, you don't know what anything is.
SPEAKER_02:He's kept everything on paper, let's put it that way. I wonder if he has a cell phone because that really keeps that what footprint they call it, you know, off of him. But great, great show. And then we had the luxury of another date. Um, our friends Kevin and Tracy Kester have started a band. Uh, are they in their 50s? I mean, it's never too late. That's my big word. It's about time. It's never too late to go at what you love. Yes, don't wait. And they've started a band together. I think this might be the first band they've had together. Keys and Kevin's an incredible guitar player. Tracy loves to sing, she has a beautiful voice. And they decided, hey, let's do this. So we went and watched Twisted Fiction. They were fabulous. Uh, so maybe Gordon will show a little clip of him up on stage, but nope, it wasn't easy getting him up there. It's very hard to get him to get up on stage anymore, which everyone misses it. So you did fabulous. I mean, you you always do fabulous. Again, she tells me that about what? No, we're too hard on ourselves. You were amazing. Dude, your voice is incredible. I don't know when you're gonna figure that out and quit worrying about it so much. But but anyway, you do need to take time. And they say it keeps love intentional, it's not accidental. You're saying that you matter, we matter, uh, and meaning as a leader in your business or relationship or for yourself. It protects your relationship, of course, from becoming stale. And in our uh case, a lot of times we tend to be in a business with each other. Talk about work about work all the time. I talk about work too much, probably. I'm I'm probably the one that really does that. It's like got to turn it. Remember the movie What About Bob?
SPEAKER_03:And uh Bill Murray played this crazy guy who always needed a psychiatrist next to him. And the advice that was given to him was take a vacation. Just take a vacation from your life. From your life. No kidding. That's very hard to do. We need to do that in our relationships. We need to learn how to put things aside and just focus on the people that are in the moment. Right. And a solo date, okay?
SPEAKER_02:You're by yourself, you're not in a relationship, but you want to get out there and do stuff. A solo date is one of the most powerful acts of self-love. It says, I deserve, I am deserving, I deserve space and I deserve joy. Heck yeah, absolutely, 100%. Um, it strengthens the foundation and definitely brings less stress to the life, uh, to your life. And then, of course, it keeps the spark alive, um, especially you know within your relationships and yourself. I mean, how good does it feel when you go somewhere and you maybe reluctantly didn't want to go and you went and you're like, so glad I did. Right. So keep a love story going, whether it's with yourself relationship or it's with your team at work. Don't not do it. Right? Just do it, as Nike would say. Is that a commercial for them? They owe us now for saying that.
SPEAKER_03:There's our new shirt. Don't not do it. No, it's the don't not do it shirt.
SPEAKER_02:There's so many things that I'm experienced that I've never done before. I wish that I wasn't experiencing so much on top of each other because it's like having a great meal. You just you want to sit down and you want to enjoy it and you don't want to be rushed. And sometimes when you do too much, you get too busy, you can't really sit back and enjoy what you're doing. So, you know, just launching the children's book and then coming soon, I've got the it's about time anthology, which is all about it's never too late. And I want to be able to enjoy that.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_02:I want to enjoy that experience. And sometimes you got to slow down a little bit to do that. So, but um, so anyway, relationships are so important. Keep that love story alive. So, on another note, the holiday season is approaching, and um, I think we were we were talking about the Christmas trees. And did I mention the trees that you're supposed to buy? Because I think we mentioned when we started the show about you can buy the wrong tree. We were so excited to do a real Christmas tree. Yeah, and we got home, we're like, I had to buy things that hung on the tree to make it smell like a Christmas tree because it didn't have any smell.
SPEAKER_03:And if you still have a house that has berber carpeting, don't buy a real tree because it'll get stuck in the berber carpeting.
SPEAKER_02:I don't want to do that. So balsam fur, that is the strongest, most classic Christmas tree smell. Um, Fraser fur, fresh, clean piney scent, the Douglas fir, which I hadn't heard of. That's the sweet, fruity, evergreen aroma. And the grand fur, that's the very intense aroma. That has a beautiful glossy needle. I don't know what's making it glossy, but there's shiny, gorgeous needles on that. All right. And then, so what do you think? I think we got the Fraser fur, is what we end up getting. Yes. But we're going to get either the um grand fur or the balsam fur this time. We're gonna make it.
SPEAKER_03:But it doesn't say anything. It does. It's got a good aroma.
SPEAKER_02:But we want the intense, we want total intense aroma. And the noble fur, that's a long-lasting fur smell, but it's a little more subtle. Maybe, you know, some people don't like a lot of aroma or fragrance and that. Okay, here's what not to buy. This is what we did the white pine, the scotch pine, and the blue spruce. Those are out unless, unless you don't want to smell, but you want the real tree.
SPEAKER_04:Right.
SPEAKER_02:But why would you want a real tree and not be able to smell it? Exactly. Okay, now guess what we have? Are you ready to go buy your tree? Sure. Okay, so I think we went to Country Pine's Christmas farm, nostalgic, huge big red barn. You can have apple cider and all the hot chocolate and a lot, they have ornaments and experience too, going down and picking out your tree. Yeah. Yeah. That we were a little lazy, I'm not gonna lie. We were cold. We stayed pretty close to the red barn, and we actually took a tree that was already cut down. So, you know, but that's how we went to experience it. That was our date model. I don't have my pickup truck anymore, so no. What do we get? We'll have to do it to the top. You could rent a pickup truck for a day. We could rent a pickup truck for the day. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I'm ready for a new Christmas tree. Or a fresh, I should say, Christmas tree, a real one. So Heritage Valley uh tree farm, that's in Washington, Missouri. That's choose and cut, where you pick your tree. So you can do that. It's a historic setting, 75 acres there for this one. The mirror, if I'm saying it right, tree farm, that's M-E-E-R-T, the Mirritt Tree Farm, that's in uh Festus, Missouri. Massive selection, tens of thousands of trees that you can pick from there. The Country Pines Christmas Tree Farm, that's the one we went to. That's in Wright City, very nostalgic, like we had mentioned. And then, of course, um you can go to uh let's see. Uh nope, that's a tree. You can go to the Eckert. Somebody's wrong. So see what happens when you it's like having a teleprompter. If you put it, it'll read it. Um, the Eckertz Farm. They are actually having a Christmas tree. Cut your own Christmas tree. It actually started already on November 15th. Um, and going through, I guess if they, I don't know if they'll run out, run out or not, but they've got many photo sessions. They have breakfast with Santa, um, the Newfoundland draft Christmas trees, which I have no idea what that is, so we'll have to check that out. But you can go out to Belleville and go to Eckers Farm. So there's uh four places for you to be able to enjoy getting a real Christmas tree. So, and if you don't feel like doing um any of that, um then you can put up your fake tree.
SPEAKER_03:The silver tree with the little wheel that had the colors on it. Remember that? I do remember that.
SPEAKER_02:I almost want to what about the tinsel trees? Yeah like the they didn't have the light on it, but the the tinsel tree, and then putting the tinsel all over it, and you'd make your own popcorn to to stream around it. I mean, it just makes you feel like you're just a little kid again. Trees are so different now, like in and I'm I'm at fault as well. I love a decorated, beautiful Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_03:White hair in Cottleville has tons of decorated trees. You can just actually go on and say, I want that tree with the way it is.
SPEAKER_02:What's fun is if you go after Christmas and you happen to find a few beautifully decorated trees that didn't sell, and you just go home with all the ornaments and everything on it and half price, yeah, even better. So you can use your tree now and then get one after Christmas. But but um, but what I was getting at is that I do love a gorgeously decorated tree. And but that old fashioned where you you know make the stuff that goes around it and you put all your trees.
SPEAKER_03:Kelly's that person that'll I'll put an ornament up and she'll move it.
SPEAKER_02:It's not in the right spot. Has to be cohesively put together, everything has to make sense, and then the ornaments that your kids made for you that maybe won't aren't as pretty as they once were because they're 38 and 28, and you know, they've been through the times and the in the Christmas pale. They're at the back of the tree, you know, where the where you don't see it, but they're there.
SPEAKER_03:The store-bought ornaments in the front, weekends and all the time.
SPEAKER_02:What an absolutely bella, beautiful for Bella show that we had. Loved Mina Mario, cannot wait to go to Italy to visit him there. This gorgeous cappuccino that's been waiting for us to take a drink, and how fun! As you can see, it has our logos, city lifestyle, and in your city on the top of them, which is super cool. We're gonna say cheers to you, but one more time we're gonna give a little salute. Salute, salute, is that it? Saluti, cheers, chen chan.
