#failingupwards

In less than 3 weeks (June.. 6TH?!?😭😂😭) I join the elite ranks of Ernest Hemingway, Paulo Coelho and... @justinbieber 😱(you better "belieb" it👍) as an AuthOOOOOOR!! I had the first world privilege of spending the last 2 years pouring as much humor, never ending failure+behind-the-scenes humility and semantic recipe detail (incl recalculating illegal+underground measurements for EVERY recipe, if you want a jump start on your own illicit "place" 🙇🏻 #pleaseinviteme) as I could into this... BOOK!📕 And if you didn't know, it's just as much memoir as it is a cookbook with stories in between+IN every recipe too AND shit just got 💯REAL when I got THESE last week (included a hilarious "Bananas", banana from my loving editor @milesdoyle 🍌😏) I'm fucking proud of it and still can't believe it! Will it be a commercial success+get on that pie-in-the-sky (btw, what flavor pie is it anyway, I'd like to know+have a slice of this pie please 😝) @nytimes best seller list? Will I get a razzie? Am I still scared shitless (answer: YES😣) Does any of this really fucking matter?!? Not really, but we sure as hell ain't gonna stop pushing, would love for y'all to come along for the ride🤘 and keep shooting for the mother fuckin' STAAAAARS💫 (*whoosh!*😆) This book's for all of you that have supported us through the years. This book is for the many that have tolerated me+have some how become fans despite... Me! LOL This book will hopefully serve as inspiration for you guys who want to do more and consider that we were (+still are😉) a simple couple who had no experience, no idea and no other choice in the economic crash than starting an underground restaurant JUST to see where it would take them... And here we are now, #failingupwards together, with all of you.✊ Thanks kids. Let's enjoy the weekend, but really... LIFE!! (and don't ever hesitate to invite us too🙌🙌🙌😁) #ernesthemingway #ernesthemingwayrollinginhisgrave #paolocoelho #paolocoelhocomingafterme #belieberbook4ever #adventuresinstarrykitchen #starrykitchen #skbookhustlin (at Banana Suit Enterprises)

About 8-9 years ago a fan emailed us this 7 page email about a crazy idea of a craft beer bar, arcade and Asian restaurant concept. In consistently SK-like impulsive fashion, I literally sent a 1 line email to the extent of “Ok, let’s do it!” And to be honest, it was one of the best, impulsive decisions we’ve made in our accidental career of #failingupwards. When this quarantine fell upon us, our staff (like many of you) got fucked in the process of this #fuckCOVID19 madness, and my partners had to sadly lay off 30+ employees that make @buttonmashla live, breathe and exist today. Our close friends+big fans @adamrobezzoli + @iam8bit independently came up with this idea, graciously and honestly really fucking thoughtfully put together this fundraiser to #savebuttonmash and our wonderfully, disfunctional family of staff hosts, servers, runners, bar and kitchen staff that I’ve worked with all these years (and some as far back as our lunch days!) 🙇‍♂️🙏🙇‍♂️ Flip through the pics to see the different levels, and hit the link to find out more 👉👉👉 https://bit.ly/BMQBP It ends 4.22.20. There’s a LOT of great downloads (like GAMES+COMICS) and rare swag people amazingly donated from ppl like our book+restaurant illustrator @joseph_harmon and so many others like @amandavisell @doublefine @a.wintory @jonvermilyea @jiojio_warudo @chrisprynoski and our friend @superphamicom including a digital version a Button Mash-ONLY recipe edition of our book from us! Thanks for everyone’s support over the years, and if you can, we’d love you to support the people makes us/SK/BM what we are today and we couldn’t do without.🙇‍♂️ (at Button Mash) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-xASJ-DNoU/?igshid=1pe1l2xmbzkna

Starry Kitchen was born out of the fall of the economy. It was born of our necessity for us to make income, and do something, anything to survive. It was born to give a since of community when we were all lost. COVID-19 and the fall of the economy share one main similarity: completely blindsiding so many people and disrupting their lives. These pics are our illegal+underground humble beginnings... But I offer these images and the perspective of our story (that I will ALWAYS say I truly appreciate how we accidentally fell into this, somehow still #failingupwards) to give potential direction or hope that... if you were unhappy about your situation or always had an idea you wanted to do prior to all this: NOW IS THE TIME to at least try to think it through and make some progress. If y’all didn’t know, I also wrote the book with the honest intention of being a “How to/How NOT to run a restaurant/business” kind of book too. Coincidentally from my last post, I graciously got a DM reply from @k.c.san on how to go legit AND... I answered her questions (with probably overly verbose answers+analysis) on reddit (👉👉 https://bit.ly/personalchefgoinglegit 👈👈). And in all seriousness, this situation has seriously fucked us over too, and I’m looking back at our history for guidance+personal inspiration of what to do, and all signs seem to point to: it’s time to do/create some major pivot for us too... to survive, to grow (either personally and/or Starry Kitchen) and... just keep on fighting. We are still very much part of @buttonmashla and delivery service should resume soon, but we just don’t know the lasting effects of what this is going to do and change. We’ve also been caught in so much turmoil running restaurants (aka the norm), that we know we gotta try something. I have ideas, and I’m up for any ideas you have, but I have no idea what we’re going to do yet. What’s going to stick? What’s going to work? But in a nutshell: that’s all Starry Kitchen has almost always ever been. I jokingly say “it’s to see how much we can get away with,” but in all honesty it’s as much as we don’t know jack from shit and are just trying anything because we don’t know better too. 🤷‍♂️🙏🙇‍♂️ (at Living At NoHo) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-NJvifjAkJ/?igshid=mkpqwmrfn7ks

The Witching Tree Which version is best? The first is straight from #Procreate and I threw some fun filters on the rest 🙃 #failingupwards #ipadcreations #creepytree #witchaesthetic #willothewisp #inked #swampy #PhotoManipulations https://www.instagram.com/p/BzChSq5jsEF/?igshid=1fr852k6nphvl

Oh YEAH, tonight’s the 3 year anniversary (+CELEBRATION) of @buttonmashla! Just for tonight: we’re resurrecting our (long gone from the opening menu) #shrimptoast, a preview of our cumin ribs AND a crazy beer special beer list! Stuff your face, down them beers and... holy shit we’re still somehow still around in the LA food scene... WEEEEEEEEEIRD?!? (And THANKS everyone for all y’alls support through the years, over all the interactions and the craziness too 🙇‍♂️🙏🙇‍♂️) #failingupwards #adventuresinstarrykitchen ... #beer (at Button Mash) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpK_Nw-Bq0s/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1p9eroci9cjbv

“THIS”, #cutestCillían, is the reason I have willingly pulled back from frequent social media (+actually frequent social interaction) and refocused ALL of my time and day commitments for the last 2+ years. Ive been so busy recently that I’ve been reminded of Father’s Day REALLY by all the people around me (and thanks guys, I would have COMPLETELY forgot to call up my dads and dads-in-law🙏🙌😅). Playing with, being with, learning with and FROM Cillían has/still unequivocally is my GREATEST joy I’ve ever experienced in my short life time (on hijinks, accomplishments and just being a fuck up in general🙋‍♂️). It wouldn’t be honest of me to say I didn’t expect it, because I’ve always loved children and was even aspiring to be a pediatrician when I WAS (mistakenly😅) pre-med back in the day, but I think Cillían especially brings more of the best out of me than I even knew he/I had the capacity to have. (Does that even make any sense???🤔🤷‍♂️) This is my most favoritEST recent visual experience and pic of him which I always mentally call - #asianintraining 😬. With no help or influence from anyone, he took those chopsticks, picked up (ANYTHING for the first time I should add) that #CrispyTofuBall, held it and then as seen here- CAREFULLY inspected seemingly not his physical (mind blowing, to me at least 🤯) accomplishment, but the “strange and fun” (my words, not his... yet 😉) crispy green ball within that short-lived moment with a refreshingly deep curiosity that is ALWAYS mesmerizing to observe. I dunno guys, I just trying spill out that I fucking love being a father and I fucking LOVE this kid. I intentionally don’t post many pics of him just because I’d rather just play with him and show him how much I adore him. (He’s thankfully asleep as of this post... oh man, he’s waking up now gotta wrap up this fatherly rant now!😭) If you see us anywhere in public come say “Hi”, but if you’re ready for your heart to melt into a warm comfortable mush... be ready for his CUUUUUUUUUUUUTE “”BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE” 👋 #happyfathersday everyone #adventuresinstarrykitchen #failingupwards #ramblingsofadelusionaldad (at Button Mash)

Search Committee - 7.24 #theoffice #tobyflenderson #jomhalpert #gavelewis #newmgr #greatbratton #keepitrunnung #creedbratton #boboddy #threestepplan #porkysbaby #steamroller #robertcalifornia #confidence #interview #regionalmanager #davidbrent #nelliebertram #fingerlakes #jobennett #ceo #thesenator #shutupaboutthesun #resume #clippy #andybernard #darrylphilbin #corporate #weaknesses #scrantonblade #gaymafia #deshaunwilliams #zenoffice #jimschtick #jacquessouvenier #failingupwards #blueberrymuffin #itskismet #theofficeus #theofficedailyscreens

SO I have a tv pilot/show premiering on @foodnetwork THIS Saturday, March 17th called #BigBargainEats which I hope you’ll watch/DVR/troll/whatevs 😅🙏👍... which I’m adding to a CRAZY list of surprising accomplishments (that I should emphasize I am DEEPLY proud of, and no one can take that away from ME😝) that are astounding to me so we’ll start with that: I was never supposed to have a tv pilot where I travel, eat and get to be myself. I was never supposed to be interviewed on @NPR. I was never supposed to publish a book. I was never supposed to travel all over Asia just to shoot photography FOR that book. I was never supposed to land on @laweekly’s essential 99 list. I was never supposed to work w/ a fan and open a bar/arcade/asian restaurant. I was never supposed to have a CUUUUUUUUUUTE child. I was never supposed to completely quit, come back and break @ubereats. I was never supposed to be on @thejgold’s 101 best restaurant list a 2nd time. I was never supposed to be invited by our friend @ridingshotgunla to be part of the resurrection of Chinatown. I was never supposed to have @626nightmarket booth. I was never supposed to have a farmers market booth. I was never supposed to get away with throwing marijuana dinners. I was never supposed to get away with smuggling illegal ant eggs. I was never supposed to partner up w/ a fancy French chef friend to do the marijuana dinners, smuggle illegal ant eggs.. and I forgot to mention do 19-course white truffle menu with. I was never supposed get away passionately cursing when describing our food. I was never supposed to wear a banana suit and succeed. I was never supposed to open a lunch restaurant. I was never supposed to run a successful illegal+underground restaurant with my wife. I was never supposed to leave film. I was never supposed to be in film. I was never supposed to leave Texas. I was never supposed to amount to anything... and here I/we am/are, still #failingupwards. 🤷‍♂️ Oh, most important- I was never meant to meet SO many of YOU amazing people, become friends with so many of you and be able to share all this craziness with you (amongst many, MANY other things). XOXO, 😬 (at Banana Suit Enterprises)