Sabin Lomac, founder of Cousins Maine Lobster, talks about growing a single food truck to a multimillion-dollar business. Sabin talks to host Jaymee Sire about his childhood growing up with a single mom in Maine and how a nostalgic conversation with his cousin turned into a popular West Coast food truck. Sabin talks about his relationship with investor and mentor Barbara Corcoran and the challenges and rewards of scaling. He gives his best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and his passion for mentorship and philanthropy. Sabin talks about his experience hosting the Food Network Show, Grill of Victory, and the music he likes to blast on set. He gives his thoughts on the differences in grilling in the South vs. the North before revealing whether he prefers butter or mayo on his lobster roll.
Sabin Lomac, founder of Cousins Maine Lobster, talks about growing a single food truck to a multimillion-dollar business. Sabin talks to host Jaymee Sire about his childhood growing up with a single mom in Maine and how a nostalgic conversation with his cousin turned into a popular West Coast food truck. Sabin talks about his relationship with investor and mentor Barbara Corcoran and the challenges and rewards of scaling. He gives his best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and his passion for mentorship and philanthropy. Sabin talks about his experience hosting the Food Network Show, Grill of Victory, and the music he likes to blast on set. He gives his thoughts on the differences in grilling in the South vs. the North before revealing whether he prefers butter or mayo on his lobster roll.
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Find episode transcript here: https://food-network-obsessed.simplecast.com/episodes/sabin-lomac-on-building-a-lobster-empire-mayo-vs-butter
[MUSIC PLAYING] JAYMEE SIRE: Hello, and welcome to Food Network Obsessed, the podcast where we dish on all things Food Network with your favorite Food Network stars. I'm your host Jaymee Sire, and today, we have a serious entrepreneur on the podcast who talks all about his experience starting one small food truck with his cousin and growing it to a multimillion dollar business success.
But before we get to that, we have a quick note for our listeners. We are going to take a break from releasing a new episode next week. But don't worry, we will be back the week after next with a brand new episode, so make sure you're following us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss a thing. I'm so excited, so let's get to it. Our guest today is a Scarborough Maine native, co-founder of Cousins Maine Lobster. And you know him from hosting the Food Network series Grill of Victory. It's Sabin Lomac.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Sabin, welcome to the podcast. How are you doing today? Oh, I love it.
SABIN LOMAC: Do you hear that? We're changing the energy. We're starting really big energy after that. I need to give it to you back.
JAYMEE SIRE: I love it. I love the energy. I love the enthusiasm. And I'm excited to have you on, because I actually am obsessed with Maine. Obviously that's where you're from, and we're going to talk all about that and Cousins Maine Lobster, Grill of Victory on Food Network. But let's start with Maine. You grew up in a small town there. What was your childhood like?
SABIN LOMAC: Man, my childhood was definitely unique. I was raised by my mother only my entire life. No brothers, no sisters. So just mom and myself. And we grew up in this coastal town called Scarborough, little nook of it called Pine Point. Maine is beautiful. In hindsight, you see the beauty of Maine. When I was a kid, I was like, man, I want to get out of Maine. I want to leave.
But it was awesome. It was really, really nice. We didn't have a lot growing up. Our first house didn't have heat for the first eight years of our life in Maine. But we had a lot of love, a lot of fun. And it made me who I am.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's important. I grew up in Montana, and I feel the same way. At the time, you're like, oh, I don't want to go to Glacier Park again. And now I'm like, I want to go to Glacier.
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah, it's all you want to do, is go to Glacier Park now.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah, no--
SABIN LOMAC: You don't know how good you have it, I think, until you leave. Especially you're in New York. I went to New York for college. And even then, I think at some point in your 30s, I don't know what it is, you're like, damn, I had a really good time at school. It's actually really cool to be safe and quiet and fun and serene. Maine is special.
JAYMEE SIRE: Let's talk about the food in Maine. Because obviously, lobster comes to mind right away. But what else is Maine known for? What else do you recommend people try when they visit the state?
SABIN LOMAC: Obviously the seafood. But Maine blueberries, Maine corn. Just all the dishes. There are these hearty rustic dishes that people make. Shepherd's pie. It reminds you of those heartier dishes, because it's usually really, really cold in Maine. It's not as beautiful as what you see right now in the summertime, right? You're like, oh, I love Maine.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
SABIN LOMAC: Come in February and see how much you love it. But I would say just soups, chowders, potato rich dishes. The corns, the lobster rolls. All the seafood dishes, risottos. There's so many amazing restaurants now in Maine, so you can go and mix and match. But when I was growing up, it felt like this just really charming blue collar area which offered the best seafood. Just fantastic fresh seafood. Ways to make fish and haddock.
To me, haddock as special. It's my grandfather's favorite food. And when I think of it, I just think those rustic dishes. We talk about Cousins Maine Lobster. We talk about sitting at the picnic table with corn and lobster roll and butter and blueberry pie and pasta salad and potato. All those things that remind you of your childhood and kids getting in trouble and us trying to steal the wine, that's what it reminds me of.
So that's Maine to me. It's not super glamorous, but it's really, really charming.
JAYMEE SIRE: No, I mean, the seafood is for sure unmatched. I just actually worked with a seafood company from Maine. I made some haddock fish tacos Baja style.
SABIN LOMAC: And? How did it go?
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, great. It's so good. I crave them all the time. The seafood is so good. I loved that in the summer you can drive down the road and people are just selling blueberries on the side of the road. And they're the best blueberries you've ever had. I love the food there. I'm curious if, as a kid, you were as interested in food as you are now.
SABIN LOMAC: No. I don't think so. When I was a kid, I was interested in sports and girls. I ate a lot. I remember I had the craziest appetite as a kid. But no, I wasn't too into it. But I worked in restaurants my whole life. I started working I think when I was 12. The first one was at this place called the Clambake. And I was making coleslaw and batter and all the stuff.
When I got in the car after my mom would pick me up, she'd make me take my shirt off because it smelled like fried foods and stuff. Then I worked in a million restaurants. And honestly, over 40 restaurants in Southern Maine when I was a kid, partially due to the fact that I was a terrible employee. And then when I moved in New York, I was a waiter. And it wasn't until I moved to New York I think that I really started appreciating food, because we couldn't afford really nice dinners when we were a kid. I think a nice dinner was us going out to pizza. It wasn't fancy.
I didn't even know fancy existed, truthfully. So I remember working at Morton's, I would see kids coming in and their parents buying in fillets and stuff. And I'd be like, when I was a kid, I didn't even know what this was. So I didn't think I had a great appreciation for it. But I realize now in hindsight how much it bound our family together. Food binds people together in general, whether it's in Dallas or whether it's California, or wherever. There's just this regional specialties that usually keeps groups together. So for us, it was, of course, lobster and stuff like that.
But I didn't appreciate it as a kid, no. Now, definitely, yes.
JAYMEE SIRE: How did you make that transition, then, from working in restaurants to, I'm going to start a food truck with my cousin?
SABIN LOMAC: Alcohol. I got confused.
JAYMEE SIRE: Isn't that how a lot of stories start?
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah, I was out here. I sold real estate in Los Angeles. And my cousin came to visit me. He's the baby cousin, I'm the oldest one. So he's like the runt we used to always beat up. And I took him out to this fancy schmancy sushi in LA and I want to show him a good time. And the more we drank, the more we started getting honestly emotional about our childhood. And I was probably 30 at the time. He was 26.
And he was like, man, I haven't seen you in years. How's it been? My grandfather had passed away. We were talking about just life. And we realized how much we missed each other and how much we missed that kind of bond. And then we started, man, we should do something together. What would we-- we should do-- yeah, hell-- shot, shot, shot. Alcohol, alcohol, alcohol. What should we do? Yeah.
And then we just thought, what about lobster? And then you're like, well, what would we do, and how would that go? And the more you drink, the more genius the idea develops and sounds. And then we just said, let's do this. Yeah, what the hell, let's do it. We woke up the next morning terribly hungover. Didn't talk about it for a week or two. And then he called me. He was like, what do you think about that?
And I was like-- because it didn't sound as good. It definitely didn't sound as good. You're like, I don't know, man. I'm pretty good right now. But lo and behold, he was pretty persuasive, so we ended up doing it.
JAYMEE SIRE: And why a food truck and not a restaurant to start?
SABIN LOMAC: We looked into both. We weren't sold on one or the other. But when you start researching the startup costs, the lease commitments, the personal guarantees that come with a restaurant, it's scary and daunting. So for us at that time, it was too much. Too scary, too daunting, too much money. Too much. This was going to be a side project. This was not a career. This was not something that was going to make us millions of dollars.
We really just wanted to break even and work together and do something fun. This was not done for money. We just didn't want to lose money. I started looking at the food trucks in Los Angeles, which back then were just starting to bubble. It was just starting to get a little more acceptable and cool. I was just standing there counting tickets seeing how many tickets this person could do a day and how many a shift.
And then I researched how much it was. We bought our first truck for $65,000. Not that much. We had savings. OK. And hope it works. That was really all that went into it. So restaurants are just so much more scary.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean, were you afraid of failure at all, or did you have a feeling this could be something special?
SABIN LOMAC: I was definitely afraid of failure. We didn't want to lose. We're competitive guys, so we don't want to lose. That fueled us. Obviously no one wants to lose money. We were scared, but I think we just go into it so blind. And that's the beauty, I think, of actually fulfilling your dream or doing something is you are so naive. And that actually can work to your advantage, because you can overthink and outthink and outsmart yourself if you break something down too much. Inevitably, you just got to go for it and go, what the hell, I'll figure it out.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. What kept you moving towards that first opening?
SABIN LOMAC: I think for us, we just-- I think just the competition. The fact that we believed in ourselves. The fact that we wanted to-- probably just proving it to ourselves that we could do it. Proving it to each other. Every time we would have a little bit of a setback and then we overcame it, it was electrifying. It was like, yeah, we figured that out. Yeah, that was like, yo, what's up, yo? You're like, hey, you'll never guess. I got a permit today.
The littlest things seem so monumental. Once you just start getting momentum and you start flowing. And whatever business this is, it doesn't matter. But once you start getting a little and you go, oh, wait, I could maybe do this. Oh, man, I could do this. Oh. Then it just keeps spiraling and doubling down. We just started getting going. And once that train started, it wasn't coming off the tracks.
Another thing we did, too, is we would email each other every week. I'd have a week and he'd have a week. And if it was my week-- this was really in the closing couple months as we were getting close to launching-- I'd email him and I'd take a photo of a beautiful house in the Hollywood Hills and I'd attach it in the email. I'd say, hey, come over to my house, I'm having a barbecue today. Or I'd say, hey, check out my new car. In hindsight, it was just continuing to churn and motivate him and motivate us on goals.
JAYMEE SIRE: How did you approach getting the word out about your business at the time as you were getting ready to open?
SABIN LOMAC: We really didn't do it quite well. We had a Twitter with probably 200 followers, maybe. They're probably all my mom's friends. We had a Facebook with 300 followers. But it was really grassroots. And what I chose to do is I was using photos of Jimmy and I as we were kids with my grandfather on the rocks in Maine. And we were connecting that to the authenticity that we aimed to provide. Which was bringing the bread and the rolls from Maine, which is a must if you're going to have lobster, right. And bringing the best fresh Maine lobster at the time, which was a must. It was boom, boom, that simple.
I hope that people when they saw it, they'd be intrigued and believe in the authenticity. Urban Daddy, which I didn't know what was, but it's a website that promotes what's going on and hot in the area at the time-- I don't know if they're still do it, but they put us on their cover for our launch for what's hot in LA on Friday. A friend of mine told me. I was like, whoa, this is awesome. How did that happen? I don't know how they saw it.
And then the day that we opened, one of the casting directors and producers of Shark Tank saw that and went, met us. And when we came home the first night, we had an email from Shark Tank asking if we would want to come on the show, or at least apply to go on the show. That all happened incredibly quickly.
JAYMEE SIRE: Wow.
SABIN LOMAC: But for marketing purposes, we didn't do much. We didn't know what to do. You don't know what your company stands for when your company doesn't even really exist. Takes so long to find that and over the time, grow it.
JAYMEE SIRE: So Shark Tank reaches out, which has to be incredibly thrilling. But I understand you said no initially.
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah. Well, they reached out. They were like the food truck industry in they were just getting really warm, too. I think we were on Season Four. So they were just starting to bubble. I didn't know what the show was. Jimmy knew. And he was like, this is awesome, this is huge. But as we spoke to them, we didn't turn down the offer because of ego or because we didn't think anything negative. That show was a beast, and they're all amazing people.
It was because we felt A, we weren't sure of how the mentorship would come into play, number one. And number two, we didn't want to look bad on TV. And God forbid the role was cold and they said it wasn't great. And then we're like, oh, we just told nine million people that they didn't like our food. Oh, what were we thinking? And we had just opened. The first month, we did 65,000 in sales. The next month, we did 85,000 in sales.
So we were cranking every single day, selling out. We were so busy. And we just weren't sure if it was the right move for us. Inevitably, thank god we did it.
JAYMEE SIRE: So once you finally agreed to do it, how did you prepare for that opportunity?
SABIN LOMAC: We watched about 50 episodes. We created those index note cards that you used to study on in high school probably, right. And what we noticed was the sharks oftentimes have similar questions episode in and out. But after we started watching it, we were like, wait, Mark always ask these type of questions. Barbara always ask these types of questions. So we just wrote down the question and how they would spin it to us. We wrote what we thought was a flawless answer. And we stood up and quizzed each other.
So I'd pretend to be Kevin O'Leary and Mr. Wonderful, and I direct this one to Jim. And then he'd stand up and he'd be Barbara. And we just did it all the time, nonstop. We'd go on runs in my neighborhood in West Hollywood and we'd be jogging and we'd practice our pitch. And we'd go so far as to going into the bathroom looking in the mirror, trying to distract the other person as he's answering questions. In hindsight, I think that's why we did so well, because we were really, really prepared.
And when we were on the show, we knew the questions they were going to ask as they were coming out of their mouth. So it wasn't that we were the smartest guys in the world, it's just that we were really, really well prepared.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I mean, preparation is one of the most important parts of success, right? And when you did step in front of the judges and that moment right before everything starts, I mean, what's going through your mind?
SABIN LOMAC: It was very scary. When you walk out, you actually stand there for a couple of seconds before you pitch. And you're looking. And the lights are bright, and it's hot on the set. And there are no do-overs. That show is real. You always wonder how real reality TV is. It's very real. There are no, can I do that again? Can I cut? It doesn't work that way. It was very, very scary. The lead-up was scary. The days coming into it. I'm not going to lie, I was scared. But I think we really handled ourselves well.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I mean, Barbara Corcoran ended up being the one to invest in you guys. So what was it like to get that yes from her.
SABIN LOMAC: Well that's who we wanted. We targeted Barbara going into it. We'd heard really nice things about her for the fact that she was really invested in the people. Because she had retired, so this was her second life. She wasn't running a day job. So we knew she had the time. She seemed kind. She seemed-- reminded us of our moms. We're very close with our moms, so there's something charming about her. And we heard she'd done well with some food groups.
So we targeted her. We wanted her. When we got it, we were thrilled. But still leading up, even after that was done, we were still, god, I hope this is going to be what it is. We weren't popping champagne after. We were like, god, did we do the right thing? Was that the right thing? Oh, I hope, because you still don't know what it's going to be like to work with Barbara. And you don't know what the episode's going to look like, because it's going to air four months from now. So you don't know all of these things.
Knowing what I know now, it was the best thing that could have happened. And she is unreal. As are the other sharks. We've got to know them very well. They're so cool and kind and helpful. But the show itself is a beast. It changed our lives. And Barbara now is more like family. So when I see her, I'm going over there, kicking my feet up and playing Scrabble at her house and just talking trash. It's a totally different relationship, and she's really been cool.
JAYMEE SIRE: What do you think is the most valuable benefit, at least in your guys' case, of going on the show? I mean, because I think some people, obviously, it's the publicity, right? So was it publicity? Was it the actual money and investment? Or was it Barbara and her mentorship and now friendship?
SABIN LOMAC: People do try to go on for the publicity and for the TV time. We didn't go on for that purpose. We believed at that moment that we had something special, because we were a couple of months in and it was like wildfire in LA with this. So we believed we had something special. But we had no business experience whatsoever. The opportunity to have mentorship was important. So I think in hindsight, that was definitively the best thing that could have happened to us, because she did provide us a lot of mentorship and a lot of education. Some of which is just
Common sense stuff that you overthink. Barbara, she shoots from the hip. She's not scared of anything. She just says, boom, go. Yeah, do it. So if I said, I have this idea I think I should do, she's like, do it. So she just taught us to be ourselves. That all being said, the publicity is insane.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
SABIN LOMAC: You can't deny that. But you have to go on with a genuine desire to get better. Like anything in life. You have to be ethical and want to do that.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
JAYMEE SIRE: When we come back, more with Sabin on the challenges of scaling his business, his advice for entrepreneurs, and we talk about why mentorship plays such an important role in his life.
How many food trucks and restaurants do you guys have now?
SABIN LOMAC: 35 food tracks, nine restaurants and counting. We have a pretty robust e-commerce platform. And growing. We've actually been pretty slow with our growth, although it seems very fast. We've actually been really picky and slow with where we're going to open and who we're going to open with. We moved to a franchise model. So we still have our own corporate units, but we have traditionally, most of our growth has been from franchise model.
And the people that we partner with have been amazing. And that was one of the biggest question marks when we started, and we've seen other people do it where they have the opportunity to franchise and they just go and they throw and they go a million miles an hour. And they do it with the wrong people and not knowing how to do it, and their business crumbles.
JAYMEE SIRE: What are the challenges in terms of scaling a business versus starting one? We talked about your trepidation and not knowing what you were doing. So now that it has grown and you guys are doing all these different franchises, what are the new challenges?
SABIN LOMAC: The first challenge when you start is actually just doing it, right. Most people have all these great ideas and they don't believe in themselves and they just don't do it. It's that simple. So I think that's the first start for people. If you have an idea, you got to do it. But now I think the biggest challenge is if your scaling is consistency, for sure. It's a wild product. There's seasonality. There is massive price fluctuations. Massive price fluctuations.
And there's also, for us, a really big challenge in teaching people how valuable Maine lobster is. People on the East Coast know. The people in the Midwest or the West Coast wasn't as successful when they were growing up. So it's harder for them to understand the price and the valuation when they get it. But I think for most people, you grow, how do you make it the best? Your first one is always the best. How do you duplicate it?
JAYMEE SIRE: What kind of advice would you give to other entrepreneurs, dreamers out there that are thinking about doing the same thing?
SABIN LOMAC: Do it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Do it?
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah. Don't complicate it. I think if you're going to do it, do it for the right reasons. Don't do it to make $10 million. Do it because you really like it. And that sounds cheesy, because we all want to make money. But if you go into a business and you always want to cut corners to make more money, I don't think it's going to be successful. When we did this, we really didn't care about how much money we made. Because we had jobs.
So we bought the most expensive lobster. When we did that and you came and you tried our roll, it was the best you've ever had. That's why you came back. I tell people, if you're going to do something, don't be cheap. Don't be scared. Go in and actually do it. And then you won't have hindsight of going, I was going to-- oh, yeah, I had that idea but I-- and you stayed in your box. When I was a kid, no one told me that you could do something like this.
So when I talk to entrepreneurs, people, or dreamers, I just encourage them to actually do something. And once you realize that you actually can, it's like gas on a fire. And if you do it the right way, you're kind, you're ethical, you put your ego aside and you actually provide a really good service, then you'll succeed. It's really cool.
JAYMEE SIRE: I think that's great advice. And I know mentorship is really important to you, both on the business side and personally. I know you're involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters Los Angeles. You've started your own nonprofit, Cousins for a Cause. Can you tell us a little bit about that?
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah. When I was a kid, as I said, I grew up with just my mother my whole life. Didn't have really any male influences. And when I was about 11, 12, I started getting into a lot of trouble and had problems with the police, problems in school. I was lucky enough, my mom put me on a waitlist for Big Brothers Big Sisters. And after two years, I got matched with a big. He really helped me turn my life around.
All he did was show up at some of my games and hang out with me and get a pizza. So he was just a person that was present. He didn't reinvent the wheel. And I've learned over the years, that's what mentorship really is. That's what Barbara does for us. She didn't come in and do something that is so magical that you can-- I'm telling you and you're like, oh, the secret sauce. She's just present. She's really kind, and she listens and helps. And really just reaffirms my own confidence. That's what he did for me.
So fast forward 20 whatever years later, I'm a big brother to a young man here in Los Angeles. Encouraging mentorship. Encouraging, whether it's helping kids, giving back to communities. People that are disadvantaged, people that don't have the head start that some people do I think is just really important.
JAYMEE SIRE: And in 2016, you were actually awarded National Big Brother of the Year. I mean--
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah.
JAYMEE SIRE: I can only imagine what that meant to you personally, just hearing your story and how important these mentors were in your life and you're giving back. I mean, what did that mean to you?
SABIN LOMAC: That was the coolest. That was one of the top moments of my life, for sure. And my little brother gave it to me. And it was really meaningful to be-- especially coming from a position of as a little brother and a young man who was really lost at the time, to being recognized for helping people and raising awareness for the need to help. It was awesome. I think the biggest misconception when it comes to volunteering is that you have to be an expert in something or you can't have your own flaws. You can't have your own problems.
You can. You don't need to be the best at something, but you can still definitely volunteer and give back and change someone's life. And I think again, that's the same misconception with starting a business. You have to be a businessman or have to be perfect at something. Everyone started with nothing at some point. If you want to give back and mentor, you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to know how to do it. You just figure this stuff out.
So whether it's mentoring kids or doing something in your community, just do it. We need it. This whole country and the world needs everyone to step up a little bit.
JAYMEE SIRE: Well Sabin, we are here on Food Network Obsessed, so we definitely want to talk about your latest show on the network, Grill of Victory. It's a fun show. I mean, you've got homecooks that are competing in these very unique challenges. They're trying to win the ultimate outdoor grilling oasis. It's the perfect summer show. What was filming like for you?
SABIN LOMAC: I loved doing this. I've had the fortune of the good luck of working with Food Network over the years, and it just keeps getting better and better and I've done a lot of really cool shows. This was the best. They encouraged me to be myself and to be loose and spontaneous and fun. And that's where I feel like I thrive, when I'm not scripted and I just get to have fun. And I really like to get to know the judges as well as the contestants.
And when you put that energy out there, everyone just has a little more fun. But it was a blast. Our shoot location was amazing in Knoxville. And the city itself from Knoxville was cool. I was just bumming around, eating the whole time. It was awesome.
JAYMEE SIRE: Have you had an inkling of wanting to be on TV previous to the last few years? Or is this something that just happened?
SABIN LOMAC: No. You know what, when I was a kid, I used to do plays and I used to do TV commercials and this and that. When I went to college, I studied drama and speech communications. And I did more plays and I did off-Broadway plays and stuff like that and TV shows. It was something I really liked doing. I like performing. And when I moved to Los Angeles, I did a little bit of it. And then I started doing real estate, and I was really successful. So I said, I'll do this if it works out.
We started Cousins, and then I was all in on Cousins. And then organically, it just came back. And Food Network, I was a guest star on this or a featured person on that. And it's so fun. I really, really appreciate doing it. I love it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Seems like you guys had a good time. You mentioned some of the judges on the show. Darnell Ferguson, who we had on the podcast.
SABIN LOMAC: Yeah, I saw.
JAYMEE SIRE: Tregaye Fraser, Christian Petrone also a podcast guest. I could only imagine the fun you guys had on that set. But what did you guys get up to behind the scenes, if it's something that you can share?
SABIN LOMAC: They cannot leave us together again. That was a bad decision. You cannot put us together and assume that the roof wasn't going to explode, just from the personalities in itself. It was awesome. Those guys are hysterical. It took us all of two minutes to become brother and sister and just talking as much trash as possible. Christian, of course, right off the bat, I mean, he's ridiculous.
Tregaye, I think, have probably the closest relationship, and really one I value and appreciate. She's just so funny, and I love to get under her skin and actually just, I talk nonstop trash to her. From morning, we would show up on set. And every morning, I would come in and I'd be blasting anew like I'm a rap guy. So hip hop. So I bring my portable speaker. And it was 6:00 in the morning. She's doing hair and makeup, whatever. And I am blasting maybe a Jay-Z, Kanye song or something, loud.
And I come kicking down the door and I'm dancing, because I want everyone to get that energy right away. The whole crew is listening. I'm running through the whole set, getting everyone energized. And Tregaye was the person who was so mad every morning, not having it. Because it was--
JAYMEE SIRE: Not a morning person.
SABIN LOMAC: She was so not a morning person. But she was awesome. Susie was amazing. Darnell, really cool. They're all good friends. It's funny how close we all became in such a short amount of time.
JAYMEE SIRE: How would you rate your own grilling skills, by the way?
SABIN LOMAC: I'd rate them at like a 9.1. My wife would probably rate them at like a 7.9, and my best friend would rate them at like a 6.2. So there you go
JAYMEE SIRE: Somewhere in between--
SABIN LOMAC: They're somewhere in there.
JAYMEE SIRE: --is the actual rating.
SABIN LOMAC: You know what? The thing about grilling is I think it's the perfect place to talk trash when you're cooking with your friends. My best friends, they're just the guys that hover, stand over you in the back like this.
JAYMEE SIRE: The beer.
SABIN LOMAC: They're like, oh, man, yeah, you need to flip that. Oh, you didn't flip it? Oh, man. Hey, Kevin, he didn't flip it. Yeah, no, he didn't-- it was just one of those. He's like, you don't know what you're doing, do you? And then if you're drinking, then you start getting in your own head. You're like, oh my god, I should have flipped it. I'm going to ruin the barbecue.
JAYMEE SIRE: What is your favorite thing to throw on the grill?
SABIN LOMAC: I love sausages on the grill. I'm a big American food kind of guy. I feel like burgers, sausages. I love those--
JAYMEE SIRE: Ooh, red snappers.
SABIN LOMAC: Red-- yeah, how do you know about red snappers? No way.
JAYMEE SIRE: I told you, I love Maine. I don't know how I feel about the red snapper. I don't know why they're bright pink, but--
SABIN LOMAC: For those of you at home who don't know what we're talking about, we're talking about hot dogs from Maine that are blistering bright red. A pinkish red hue, which makes no sense.
JAYMEE SIRE: Like neon.
SABIN LOMAC: It's a red you've never seen and you don't want to see in your hot dog. But we've been doing it our whole life. I like vegetables on the grill, onions on the grill, bread on the grill with butter and char marks. I'm just that grub kind of food. I'm not a long, slow roaster kind of guy. I don't have the patience for it. But I'm like, fast, high heat, burning things, charred. That kind of thing.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. You mentioned the filming location was beautiful. You were in Tennessee. But I'm wondering, what kind of differences would you say there are between Northeast grilling and Southern grilling?
SABIN LOMAC: Huge differences. I mean, the patience that people in the South have for their barbecue is just unbelievable. And I think that's just inherent. They seem like more patient people in general. Where I'm from, especially New Yorkers, right, everyone's just like, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. So when I think of barbecuing on the East Coast, it just seems a little more fast and aggressive.
I almost think of tailgating a lot more. The tailgates in the East Coast football games. Midwest, it's slow and easy. And just like, let's get the smoke, let's get the flavor. Of course, that's not everybody, right? Because people in the East Coast do have some patience. But I just think of that. I just think slow, easy. Really drawing out all the flavors. Incorporating so many different aspects and making that barbecue unique.
And the pride that they take in their barbecue is so on a different level. That's the cool part about food, too, and the regionality is, at my age-- and I've traveled, I'm a pretty well traveled guy-- I still get my mind blown. And I'm like, man, I didn't even know that this existed. I didn't even know that you could do this. And that's the fun part of food. So long story short, I think the South has it.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, this has been so much fun. We do want to wrap up with some rapid fire questions, and then we have one final question that we ask everybody. So rapid fire. We will start with East or West Coast.
SABIN LOMAC: East Coast. Come on. We already knew that.
JAYMEE SIRE: Favorite food city.
SABIN LOMAC: New York City.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. Chips or fries?
SABIN LOMAC: Fries. Got to go fries.
JAYMEE SIRE: One item on your culinary bucket list.
SABIN LOMAC: I'm Italian. I'm Calabrese. And I've been to Italy 10 times, I've never been to Calabria. So I'll just say a nice dinner in Calabria drinking wine.
JAYMEE SIRE: That sounds pretty perfect. I think you need to make that happen soon. TV or movies?
SABIN LOMAC: TV.
JAYMEE SIRE: Go-to coffee order.
SABIN LOMAC: I'm a black coffee guy.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK.
SABIN LOMAC: Black coffee. I'm in I'm out.
JAYMEE SIRE: Cold or hot?
SABIN LOMAC: Whoa, good question. Both.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK.
SABIN LOMAC: Hot coffee--
JAYMEE SIRE: Depends on the season.
SABIN LOMAC: Hot coffee in the morning when I wake up. Iced coffee, not the cold brew, ice coffee.
JAYMEE SIRE: Why?
SABIN LOMAC: No, cold brew, I don't know, makes my head do tricks.
JAYMEE SIRE: It's a little intense. We have an extensive cold brew operation in our--
SABIN LOMAC: Can you please just tell me what is in there? Because the last time I drank one, I ran to San Diego from Los Angeles.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah. I think you need to dilute-- you get the concentrate, it is very intense. So you have to dilute it with a little water, I think, is the key.
SABIN LOMAC: Noted.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK, last rapid fire. Mayo or butter on your lobster roll?
SABIN LOMAC: Mom, don't listen. This is a sin, but I'm going to go butter.
JAYMEE SIRE: Connecticut style.
SABIN LOMAC: But I'm telling you, it is not well received, that answer in Maine. It's not good.
JAYMEE SIRE: They're both excellent.
SABIN LOMAC: People in Maine, don't--
JAYMEE SIRE: Really? That's like a--
SABIN LOMAC: I'm telling you, Mom's not going to be happy with that answer.
JAYMEE SIRE: OK. Well, Mom, plug your ears. So final question for you here on Food Network Obsessed. We ask everybody this question. The menu for your perfect food day. So breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert. There's no rules. You can travel, you can time travel. You can cook it, somebody else can cook it. Whatever you want. Your perfect three meals and a dessert.
SABIN LOMAC: Breakfast. We're in Maine. We're at a diner. I'm with my family. Bacon over medium eggs. Sourdough toast. Hash browns. We're laughing, we're drinking coffee. Maybe blueberry pancakes in the middle and I have one or two bites. I'm dipping a lot of syrup in.
JAYMEE SIRE: Like a table pancake.
SABIN LOMAC: A table pancake. Probably three, but at least one. Lunch, guess where we're going? Jamaica. We're going to Jamaica.
JAYMEE SIRE: Really?
SABIN LOMAC: Jerk chicken.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yes.
SABIN LOMAC: Plantains, rice, beans, some beef patties. A couple cold beers on the beach. Spicy. Spicy. I'm talking heat. And then dinner, we're going to Italy.
JAYMEE SIRE: Yeah.
SABIN LOMAC: We're going to Italy. I like veal personally. I love veal. A nice pasta. A meat. A slow 20-course meal where just, the appetizers, the burratas and the prosciutto and the bread and the olive oil just keep coming. The red wine just keeps getting better and better. The pastas, the meats. The dessert's a tiramisu. Something like. I'm not a big dessert guy, but just something light and flavorful at the end. And maybe an anisette or like a sambuca.
JAYMEE SIRE: I mean--
SABIN LOMAC: All incorporated with family. Family there with you. Family has to be there.
JAYMEE SIRE: That's important. That makes everything taste better, when you're with loved ones, I think. And my stomach is officially growling. So thank you for that. And thank you so much for taking the time and sharing your stories and your insight. It has been a pleasure.
SABIN LOMAC: Thank you for having me.
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JAYMEE SIRE: I know a lot of our guests are entrepreneurs in their own right, but you can really feel Sabin's entrepreneurial spirit. Anyone feeling the itch to draw up a business plan right about now? I know I am. And don't forget, we are going to take a quick break from releasing a new episode next Friday. But we will be back the week after. So in the meantime, make sure you're following us wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss our next new episode.
And of course, if you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review. We always love it when you do that. That's all for now. We'll catch you foodies next time.