Wine Mama (34)-Meeting With Philip

Kirk Carter@ WGA Copyright 2013

WINE MAMA (34)

MEETING WITH PHILIP

INT: GATOR TAIL RESTAURANT-BRIAN'S OFFICE-9 AM

AFTER MEETING WITH BUSINESS ASSOCIATE PHILIP FLORES THEY SIT DOWN FOR A CHAT

BRIAN

"So good to see you again, how's Irvine treating you?"

PHILIP

"It's been real good, lot's of business, making good money, but must expand menu...I call numbers you give me on getting Gator Tail, but with permits, hunting license, shipping, it all confuse me, so I'd like to just go through you!"

BRIAN

"Well, it's just procedures, getting someone to hunt, getting the meat in fresh, hard to find people you can trust, have consistency, took me a long time to find this guy I'm working with now..."

PHILIP

"So, it's fresh meat...no frozen?"

BRIAN

It's shot, butchered, it's poly-sealed, it's Fed-Ex'ed directly to me, very clean, I marinade it in Port, smoke it for twelve hours, very tasty, very popular...can't keep the stuff around, I sell out every day, no leftovers!"

PHILIP

"So, I thinking, we do gator farm, maybe we grow our own?"

BRIAN

"Never really thought about that, but hey...anything's possible..."

PHILIP

"What about water, water different here...like food, what they eat?"

BRIAN

"Well, there is a lot to be said about Louisiana food, brackish water, very unique taste, gators eat all kinds of things out in the swamp...the wild, such a diversity, it's real southern food, where it was raised, I don't know if I could duplicate the conditions over here, especially in a farm setting, I just don't know...have to check it out and stuff."

PHILIP

"We try then...we focus on what they do in wild, imitate on farm, make happy gators, good tail?"

BRIAN

"It would seem to me that it would work, you getting me pumped!"

PHILIP

"Tasty, with good food, we feed them no junk!"

BRIAN

"So...no junk, I like your attitude with this...so how is Irvine treating you anyway, you ready to expand to Long Beach yet?"

PHILIP

"Since you help me set up shop, we do lot of take-out, get permits for smokers...boy they think we smoke tobacco, we say no...we smoke meat, that over, work hard, have good time, but Long Beach hold in my thought, we'll see!"

BRIAN

"Well, I told you it was hard work, long days, but it's the business..."

PHILIP

"More than I thought...everyday prep, deliveries, keep things clean for inspector, and chop, chop, chop, clock move quickly when your busy!"

BRIAN

"Let me check with one of my city commissioner friends and see if they will even give me a permit to do something like this, see what Sandy thinks about putting a pond out there in the woods?"

PHILIP

"They scared of gators, come after them...reptile sensitive?"

BRIAN

"Shit, anything that walks or breaths around here is fair game for the "Save The Planet" people, they loony over anything that can't speak back, like all the harbor seals bringing in all the sharks, they Love getting their hands into nature, problem is...they just don't think about the results until it's out of control!"

PHILIP

"You let me know what you find out, okay?"

BRIAN

"You got a deal, but I warn you up front, I marinade them and smoke them, but I have no idea about raising gators, at least not yet!"

PHILIP

"Knowing you, it won't take long, nothing ever stopped you from making your dreams happy..."

BRIAN

"At this point, with all these morons trying to mess with us, I'm just feeling lucky to still be alive!"

PHILIP

"People want to take your things, get in the way?"

BRIAN

"Yea, and almost did...but, we live for another day!"

PHILIP

"Each day special, you know I say prayer for all of us each day...we are blessed you know?"

BRIAN

"Yea, I feel you, oh...by the way, James is suppose to be coming over here to hang for a while...you want to hang out?"

PHILIP

"I still feel bad funding didn't fall into place, I feel sorry for him..."

BRIAN

"It was a little bit of everything that could have gone wrong at a bad time...I don't know if there was anything that could have saved that deal?"

PHILIP

"Location was good, ideas new, good team, what happened?"

BRIAN

"Convincing outsiders to invest, we had no references  real estate, collateral, no friends in the business, just no legs to stand on!"

PHILIP

"So, you give up, you done?"

BRIAN

"Shit, wasn't like we didn't try...not really giving up, just giving it a rest...we take a break, see how this Port Vodka thing pans out, we'll go back to work after we get some coins in the bucket!"

PHILIP

"I really like your style Brian, you always good to me, you file game plan with man upstairs, he look down on you and smiles...we raise gators now, you think?"

BRIAN LAUGHING

BRIAN

"Yea, let's see if we can raise some gators...that man upstairs would know...come on let's get some lunch..."

PHILIP

"What you have good?"

BRIAN

"Guess?"

scene close