JUSTIN HALEY FROM THANKS FOR THE INVITE INTERVIEW

JUSTIN HALEY AND HIS PARTNER PAIGE RUN THANKS FOR THE INVITE. THEY SPECIALIZE IN PRIVATE PARTIES, WEDDINGS, FOOD POP-UPS, COOKING CLASSES AND MORE! WE SAT DOWN TO TALK ABOUT COOKING AND SOME OF THE CULTURE THAT MAKES SONOMA COUNTY SO UNIQUE.

What’s going on man? Thanks for doing this.

Yes sirrrr.

Tell me a little bit about young Boog. How did you get into cooking?

My mom cooked almost ALL of our meals at home growing up, but I really didn’t get into cooking up until watching ‘A Cook’s Tour’ right after high school, and then ‘No Reservations.’ Watching Anthony Bourdain talk about food was so fun.

So safe to say Bourdain is a big inspiration for what you do now?

He’s an inspiration for what I would love to do in the future, but I think that’s kinda everybody’s dream travel around eat food, see the world.

Totally. You always had big cookouts at your house and were always cooking for the homies. You have expanded that now and are doing private events, catering, and pop ups. Tell me about how that evolved.

Mannnn, we were doing soo much stuff at the house and it got costly honestly hahaa, you’ve been to some parties here and it’s always a melting pot of different people, it’s funny because that’s kinda where the name came from. People that were invited were always super pumped and thanked me, and people that hadn’t yet got an invite would say “thanks for the invite” but it’s been about almost 1 year now since we did our first event at Marine Layer Wines in Healdsburg. We were doing house pickups, they reached out and asked us to do an event, we sold out tickets and it went off from there. I’m always grateful for them and Copain Winery for believing I could pull something like that off.

That’s so cool and it speaks to the vibrant community in Sonoma County. Thanks For The Invite is a great name. Who do you run it with and what is your guys main focus right now?

I run it with Paige, she’s kinda the motherboard of TFTI I throw ideas and menus at her and she reels me back in very often. We were doing soooo many private events which I absolutely love, but I want to get back into public events. I really like meeting with new people, and thinking of new ideas. That and collabs, we just finished a great one with Acme Burger. We did our smash burger at all 4 of their locations. We’re in works with A&M bbq, and a few other secret ones. We just really want to bring fun stuff to Sonoma county.

I love that. I was bummed I missed you guys at Acme. How do you guys source your ingredients? Do you try to keep most stuff local?

We will 100% work with Acme again they were AWESOME. Ohh man, yea I try to source hyper local. I’m always yapping with somebody. Visiting farms, talking with fishermen and women, sourcing from local foragers. Honestly Nick Chat and Annie are always finding me something super cool or taking me out and showing me how to forage. TFTI did a Omakase event last year and all the fish, mushrooms, herbs, fruit, and veggies were all from Sonoma county, and Mendo county. We even sourced fresh wasabi from Shasta county, the closest wasabi I could find. Sonoma county has such abundant resources for things like that. We also love getting cheese from cow girl creamery and point Reyes cheese co. Some of the best cheeses in the world made 15 miles from me.

Yeah Nick and Annie are awesome. It’s incredible how many good resources we have in our own backyard. It’s so cool to see someone taking full advantage of it. I’m not super tapped in but I feel like that’s a step people skip. You mentioned you were always yapping with somebody and I think that’s what it’s all about. Speak a little on the community and what it means to you guys.

So, before our first public events we were doing some stuff with the Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma County teaching teens how to cook meals, for “mental hygiene” retreats. It was a VERY quick lesson in staying as cool and calm in the kitchen as possible. Also to remember that I need to have fun, I think people see that if we’re having fun it means that they can have fun with us. We really love people coming up and asking what we’re up to, what we’re making and why. We have made so many friends that I think like us for who we are and what we got going on, food is just a bonus to them hahaha. We learned that from a really early start. I had ate at restaurants my whole life but a friend of mine named Conor invited us to a restaurant he was managing. He explained to me all the ingredients used, where the idea came from, why they do it like that and it changed my perception of eating out and made me think more about the experience of it. I think everybody can make a burger you know, but when you can explain why, when you can show them how, when they can watch you do it, it changes that burger into an adventure, a story, a memorable time. And we try to bring that with everything we do. We love Sonoma county, and they really show up for us at events. I think that’s what really ties everything together and brings the magic full circle. When I’m making our smash burger I love telling the story behind it and watching people really feel the story in the burger. Also this is so freaking fun. :)

So I was gonna ask about that because like you said anybody can make a smash burger, but for all the reasons you just listed it’s what sets yours apart. Would you guys ever think about opening a restaurant or do you like the freedom of not being confined to one space?

I think maybe one day, but man I like love being able to change what I’m making every day. My ADD like doesn’t allow me to do it. I CONSTANTLY want to do something different. And I know if I did a restaurant my chefs would hate that I changed the menu so often. I think if it was easy to change the menu once a month or something I 100% would. Whenever me and Dakota work together he says “okkkk,what we got going on this time?” hahaa.

Yeah that makes sense. What are some off the wall ideas you have been playing with lately. Can we expect anything crazy soon?

Well, we recently discovered Paige is gluten free. So we did a gluten free fried chicken that won a fried chicken contest! But besides that it’s coming up on crab season so I’m going to be trying a bunch of different crab and black trumpet mushroom dumpling combinations, and a bunch of different crab dishes until spring time. Maybe a crab melt soon?!? We also have a smash burger with A&M brisket that we want to do asap.

Man all of that sounds so good. What have been some of the highs and lows of doing this. I could imagine being so busy has to eat into your passion at times. You mentioned remembering to have fun, is that what it’s all about?

Honestly the highs are the people we’ve met, we’ve made a lot of new friends. The lows are dishes. Dishes suck so badly. Well I’m thankful because cooking really is my passion, I really think cooking/sharing food is the 6th love language. Watching people enjoy our food and coming up with recipes and ideas with friends and Paige is one my favorite things. We have so much fun. It’s really rare now a days that we leave a private party or an event bummed. I just want to always do fun shit.

Keeping that fire lit and having fun, love it. What are some of the eatery’s or chefs you guys are stoked on right now in Sonoma County?

Ohhhhh love this question! I’m really pumped on what our friend Mustafa is doing, he’s really featuring some of the best hikes, adventures and food in Sonoma county. Tyler from Golden Steak Warriors has been doing some great pop ups and he is constantly teaching us things. Our friend Cody Candelario just freaking won Chopped and he’s about to put grits back on the map with some insane ideas! Paige LOVES getting slices from Mombo’s and they just opened a new location in Cotati! We have a list of like 30 places we want to eat but just don’t have the time. Ohhh we just had a Cajun pho from Bayou on the Bay! That got my wheels turning big time.

Hell yeah!! Mombo’s in Cotati is the best gift ever. Why can’t places last in Cotati? We have some staples but even those have changed ownership or went downhill.

I don’t think Cotati gives enough support to the local restaurants and to the community. They made the parking in Cotati very difficult and SSU has a huge impact on the town, now a lot of students do online courses. I also don’t like the new white Cotati signs at all the park entrances. Cotati has a huge culture, really deep and diverse and they ran white modern Cotati signs with a basic font. I feel like they have missed the mark in the last 10 years on supporting their community. One day I’ll run for mayor hahaa, bring back all the public events they used to have. Look what Sebastopol did to their down town in such a quick amount of time.

Those signs bugged me out. I feel like they could have went true with those and decided not to. They definitely have missed the mark but I feel like most of the residents still hold the values we are talking about. Sebastopol is a great example. Cotati is such a unique place and you have my vote. Have you guys done that treasure hunt from the sticker machine at Hines Signs?

I think this would be a great idea for you to pitch to Cotati City Hall, the designs and signs of Cotati are what make Cotati weird and cool, I walk by Hines Signs twice a day and had NO clue, we’re going to do that first thing in the morning! The Hines signs shop owner is also a wealth of knowledge about Cotati cool history, Vito Paulekas is somebody to look into, he made the Native American statue in Cotati.

Yeah I have thought about that. Something I’d def be down to pitch in the future. Jake from Hines is a cool cat. He’s also a Page descendant which is dope. Vito Paulekas name drop is all time. Alright man, I gotta couple quick hitters for you. Food trends you hate. Food trends you love.

I’m trying to think what I hate. I love hot Cheetos crushed in stuff, and that guy that does sliced cucumber stuff on Instagram. In London they do a baked potato with tuna, beans and cheese… I don’t hate it but I don’t think I would try it.

Dude cheesy beans, mushy peas and tuna on a masher I think I’m gonna pass. You always post animal battles on your polls. What’s your all time animal matchup?

😂 Maaaaaan I asked Paige today “remember when I did those animal polls? I might do that again.” She jokingly said, “Honestly no, what polls?” But I almost did some today haha.

I’m in your head. Now I need an answer. You must have recent material.

Oh I’m going to tomorrow I think, I like to mix up fun stuff to be with apex predators, like a panda and a marlin.

Well kids go vote. Thanks a lot for doing this. I appreciate your time and insight. The community is better with you guys in it. Any last words or anything you want to promote? Fire away.

Man thank you, this was honestly a blast! You can follow us on thanksfortheinvite.ca on Instagram. And hopefully somebody from Cotati reaches out and asks for help fixing those signs lol. Shouts out to the trees for changing leafs right now it’s been amazing!

Shout out trees. Thanks again man. 🔒

You can follow/book with Justin @thanksfortheinite.ca