Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PV4Ec8iR04&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=23
Evan Snow: And we are back here on the Choose954 podcast, episode 76, with local Hollywood restaurateur Victor Troy from his beautiful Jurassic Street Eats restaurant here on Tyler Street in downtown Hollywood, which is going to be the site of our next upcoming AAF Creative Zen event this Friday morning. If you didn’t know about Choose954, myself, Evan Snow, and my business partner, Mr. Adriano, started a social movement to cultivate culture and community to keep people in the know with all the great things going on within the 954, primarily within the arts, culture, and community-building space. Now it includes yoga and meditation and mindfulness as well. This is in an effort to make this a better place to live and not just a better place to vacation because we live here. The point of the podcast is to connect you with interesting people like him that do important stuff in the community, and he does more than just within the confines of this space here. So, without much further ado, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself at a high level?
Victor Choy: Thank you. I’m so happy to be on this podcast. I know we’ve been talking a lot for a while now. The tours that you bring into the restaurant are amazing, and I’m glad that now we’ve got to this point where we can talk a little bit more.
Evan Snow: Amen, thank you. Thank you for letting me be on here.
Victor Choy: Of course. As far as my background, my background is in commercial art—so graphic design, illustration—so I have an appreciation for artists and art. When we started the restaurant almost a year ago now, especially when we had all the commissioners and everybody involved, we got the reefs placed throughout the community at Arts Park, on the circle at Margaritaville, at Driftwood Park, and some other places. You do a lot of stuff, a lot of events in the community. What were some of the events you’ve done recently and anything coming up on the books?
Evan Snow: We try to do events just to get our name out there. So, the Arts Park—anything at the Arts Park, there are different concerts and festivals we’ve been a part of. It gets us out of the restaurant too. We tend to close here, take the whole team over there, and serve some of our bites and things. We were part of the Food and Wine Festival on the beach in Hollywood Beach—how was it?—about two months ago.
Victor Choy: Yeah, it was our first time, obviously. It was a great experience. We got to be part of this festival that we didn’t even think we’d be part of—it wasn’t even on our radar.
Evan Snow: It’s like the Broward South Beach Food & Wine Festival.
Victor Choy: Yeah, yeah. We were lucky enough to win Best Food at the event, so we got a little plaque and some recognition. It was a great time. The Caribbean Festival was this weekend, so we were there also serving some very Caribbean-ish dishes. Like I said, the chef is amazing, so whatever he creates is always definitely good.
Evan Snow: Amen. You can find Victor, Gina, and the rest of the family here most of the time this Friday morning. They’re nice enough to open their doors to let this colorful, life-filled, vibrant establishment serve as a venue for our monthly breakfast lecture series, mini TED Talk called Creative Zen. We have a dear mutual friend and probably one of your best customers.
Victor Choy: One of our favorite customers for sure, from day one when he walked in, tried our food, and started to come back frequently. We got to talking, and I found out how amazing he is and what he does. It’s really inspiring what he does. When he comes in, I try to take his ear a little bit every once in a while, ask him some questions, and he’s so helpful. He wants to give advice; he’s very selfless and wants to help. He’s one of our favorite customers. We know what he likes; he comes in here, and he tends to order what he always enjoys. When we heard that he wanted to do the talk here, we were super excited.
Evan Snow: Oh yeah, and we really appreciate it.
Victor Choy: I said yes, whatever day, whatever time you tell me—that’s definitely open doors for him.
Evan Snow: It’s such a fitting venue. He was our last podcast guest, Akim Nowak. He’s going to share his thought-provoking, inspiring story. He’s a brilliant guy. He’s had many different careers in his life, but he’s a coach, an author, a podcast host, a consultant, and a great member of the community with the Parkside Civic Association in Hollywood here. An absolute gem of a human being. It’s a free event we do generally every second Friday morning of the month. This one had to be postponed, unfortunately, due to COVID, but we’re going to make it happen this Friday, June 17th. The doors open at 8:30. We have some free coffee, some mixing and mingling, a little networking with other members of the community that are coming to get inspired and connected and engaged. The talk starts at 9. There’s a free guided meditation that we include as well, and you’ll be out of here by 10.
We’ve been doing this—we just celebrated four years last month of Creative Zen. It’s where I initially had my aha moment that led me down this path of arts, culture, community building, and now yoga and meditation, thankfully. That’s why I continue to pay it back and pay it forward and continue hosting this event for free because you never know who’s going to be sitting there seeking or yearning for that little bit of inspiration, that little nugget that can maybe help change the course of that person’s life. I know that this guy, especially after just spending time with him doing this podcast—he’s got it.
Victor Choy: Oh, he’s got it down. Oh my God. I listen to his podcast whenever I can. I’m on his mailing list—get on his mailing list because he’ll send you an email when the new episode comes out, and they’re always very inspiring and motivating. He has really great questions. He’s got that down. He gets the best out of you, and he gets great guests—amazing stories.
Evan Snow: Amazing stories—called My Fourth Act podcast. He interviews people that are in that fourth phase of their life or career where maybe they had been a theater director, then they were a writer, and now they’re coaching, and now they’re doing X, Y, and Z before they wind down on this journey called life. Really great stuff. Really glad to have him.
That’s AAF Creative Zen, a free event. Just has to chew our sweet peas—we know how many people are coming. Free coffee, hugs, high fives, and all that included, and plenty more good stuff where that came from. We are glad to continue doing the tours of the Art Walk. We will have more cool stuff going on with the Mermaids project and events. You can stay tuned to Choose954 on social media. We do a newsletter bi-weekly—it’s not spammy. If they want to follow along with you, where can they find you on social media?
Victor Choy: Drastic Street Eats on Instagram and Facebook, and drastics.com is our website. That’s the best place to go because that’ll update you on whatever menu items they have, hours of operation, and how to order.
Evan Snow: Great. We’re going to turn the camera around, and we’re going to show you guys some of these amazing tabletops that local artists have contributed artwork for. You can experience it yourself every third Saturday night of the month during the Downtown Hollywood Art Walk tour for free, or you can come any other day besides Monday because Monday they’re closed. We appreciate you opening up for us in the podcast here. Last question that we like to ask—why do you choose the 954?
Victor Choy: This is home. This area is special. Downtown Hollywood is special. It’s growing—it’s growing very fast, but we found that the art here, the art community, is still—there’s so much opportunity here. I can see that it’s going to go pretty far. Being able to bring the art, the food, and the good vibes, I think, has made us a unique spot. I’ve met so many other great business owners, community leaders, customers—Akim, you. You started as a customer.
Evan Snow: Thank you.
Victor Choy: Thank you for what you do. You’re kind of the glue of the art and culture here in Downtown Hollywood. Everybody knows you and what you do, and so we’re grateful to be collaborating with you as well. I think that makes us so excited about what the future holds.
Evan Snow: Amen. We make it easy to support you. Plus, my parents love the restaurant as well.
Victor Choy: Right.
Evan Snow: We like to rotate our support of the Downtown Hollywood restaurants, but when we go out to dinner before the Art Walk, when they come on the tour—my dear folks, they love to stop by here. So we appreciate that. I’d love to hear why you choose 954. If you know somebody that has a thought-provoking, inspiring story that we should share and highlight on the podcast, glad to continue doing this thing for free because it’s the right thing to do. You can reach out to me at Choose954 or evan@choose954.com on email. Hope to see you this Friday morning. Hope to see you on the Art Walk tour. If you take photos with the reefs, please feel free to tag us at 1000 Mermaids, at Ocean Rescue Alliance, all that good stuff. We’ll see you next time. Cheers!
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