Evan Funke

And Crespi grads who are famous.

Mother Wolf's very own, Evan Funke, my favorite restaurant.

Three-time Super Bowl champ, Randy Cross.

After Crespi, he went to UCLA,

Let's talk a little bit about, uh, the, the history of the restaurant.

Uh, it's turning 20 this year, which is amazing, 20 years, uh, from Josh Loeb, um, and a, and a, and a cast of chefs like Jeremy Fox and Evan Funke, and, and really other partners, um, who, who really have made this an institution in Santa Monica.

And to me, I think that it's probably some of the better years ri- are right now.

Uh, again, small sample size, and I, I just love what's happening there.

this is Funke and Beverly Hills, everybody.

Evan Funke's restaurant, which to me-

It was so good

... is, like, the best Italian food ever.

I go back and forth with myself thinking that people might not take me seriously because I'm not the nationality of your typical pizza shop owner." And I thought about that for a second, and I was like, "That's so interesting." Then I bring up the, the example.

I said, "You know who Evan Funke is? If you ever watch Netflix, The Chef's Table series, they featured Evan Funke on one of the episodes, and this guy can't be further from Italian, and the guy is an absolute wizard and magician when it comes to pastas.

He is well-recognized, and he's got three restaurants in LA right now that all crush it, and he's not Italian.

So who wrote the script that you have to be Italian to own a pizzeria, right?" [clears throat] He goes, "I think I'm just getting in my head too much." And I go, "Yeah, I do it all the time." I think we get caught up in our heads a lot with these thoughts and with these beliefs that just because we're X means we can't do Y, and I think that that's just the biggest crock of shit in the world.

They're just the same old pizzeria, you know? And so what I tell him, and he's opening up in a town that's very competitive when it comes to pizzas.

I wanted to share this with you because it was such a shining moment for me to be able to have somebody that I barely knew kinda open up to me in a way and share that sort of fear or that limiting belief with me so quickly.

Because at the end of the day, and I got this from Evan Funke, he said it in one of his videos, "Most people are not gonna remember your food as much as they're gonna remember how they felt leaving the place." So create an experience and create a feeling for them for when they leave that they're never gonna forget.

And I think this is such a perfect recipe for this particular restaurant owner to shine once his doors open.

I'm always at home at AOC.

I love Felix, Evan Funke's first restaurant.

Last time I was in LA, I had a Really good meal at Funky, his more developed restaurant.

Yeah.