When You Know You Know - With Tommy McFLy

18:46And then when I got to meet her in person, it was like, thank goodness she was the Katie Kirk I wanted her to be.

18:50Shelley:Yeah, seriously. Did you interview her? Yeah, interviewed her. And then we were in touch a little bit here and there. So that was awesome. That's incredible. You're listening to Lunch with Shelly. So you are behind the dipping closet here at Yellow Greek Ice Cream. Yes. When someone comes in, they're like, what's Greek ice cream? You say, well, everything is ice cream, but we're known for our yogurts. Okay. We have orange. We have sour cherry. We have an apricot yogurt that we love. But also we have a mint chip and cookies and cream. Our pistachios roasted. Our caramel's burnt. We've got kataifi, which is a very Greek baklava dessert.

19:27And Greek blue summer.

19:28Shelley:Is that, that's not what you were just talking about? That's a favorite. That is blueberry lemon. I think I might have to have Greek Blue Summer and the Caramella. The Caramella? What would you like? Ma 'am? How can I help? I will take the, how do I pronounce it? American Aki cookie? Yes, please. And if you like chocolate, the American Dream is the cookie, but then we put white chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and cookie in there, and it sounds like it should be a brick, but it's delicious and light. So now the scooping, you don't want to do like a huge hunk and scoop. It's supposed to have a beauty to it.

20:06Shelley:Oh. So you. Really? Yeah, you hold it on the bottom. What are you having? Because it's marketing, so you're always presenting it out to the customer. I love our pistachio. It is so good. Oh, yeah. I should taste that. I'll pair it with probably our sour cherry, our tart cherry. Oh, okay. You get a little Greek lesson, too. You never knew you wanted when you come here. So yamas means cheers in Greek. Look at her first day. She's already found the sample spoons. Yeah, right. That is our pistachio right there. I have to try this. Pistachio Odyssey, not just pistachio.

20:41Shelley:Yum. Yum. Roasted pistachio. I'm not going to reconsider. But okay. So you give it a scoop. Right. And you want it to be like a perfect ball. Because even in a micro, in our small, you get two scoops. and you put a little, the trick is you put the first scoop and you put a little divot in there that you set up your second scoop on top of. Okay. You want to try your first one? Sure. I'm going to get all this juicy. Blueberry goodness? Yeah. Oh, look how good I am. There you go. Maybe it looks missing a little bit there. It looks like the Death Star after the first movie. There you go. I'm not fixing mine.

21:23Shelley:Now I put it back in here? Yep, you put it back in the water and it'll wash. Yep, so that way with a clean scoop. Okay. And then the water also helps you cut through the ice cream. And then there is your second scoop and that's a proper micro here at Yala Greek Ice Cream. It looks like you have a cigarette in your mouth. Okay. You're going two cups. You're mixing them. You're not mixing them. Yeah, I'm not mixing them. It's a Beastie Boys song keeping separated. Sublime, I think that was. Oh, so, you know, while we're doing this, this was one of my questions. That wasn't one of my best ones. What music are you listening to now?

22:02Shelley:Or what new, do you have new music that you're into? I'm listening to everything. I, there you go. I spent so much time of like playing the top 40 hits that I love to just put on Apple Music and be like, choose for me. Like the Discover station is like so good. So I've, Sombra is the one that I've been listening to a lot. Tate McRae. I've been on like a rediscovery of Sugar Land recently. There's so many great, so many great Sugar Land songs. But you've got to try, you like yogurt, right? Yes. You've got to try a yogurt bite. So Mornys with Thea. Oh, yeah. Is our most popular. That's going to be the yogurt and the orange and the ice cream.

22:42Try that. Yep. Do you want to, Karan, do you want to try tart cherry or apricot?

22:47Shelley:Tart cherry. Which one? Tart cherry. You got it. That really does taste like vacation. Yep. Delicious. So tell us how you met Chris and what's like the whole deal there. He's in the back too so he can fact check me if I go off script. No, we met at dinner with friends. So I was supposed to have cocktails with a friend of mine, double booked himself. And he's like, we're all, you know, a bunch of us are going to L 'Oreal Plaza. You should join us. The best. Is it still there? It's still there. We just celebrated our meetiversary. It was July 13th. So we would go to L 'Oreal Plaza on our meetiversary.

23:26And so that's where we met. It was a table of six. I got there late. I was coming from a radio event. I think it was like Six Flags in Prince George's County. And I come in and I sit across from Chris. Fajitas, a bunch of frozen margaritas later. Wow. Two weeks later, I'm in Greece.

23:41Shelley:Were you like, oh my God, you're so cute? Basically. And he felt the same way? I think so. You'll have to ask him. You're so cute. You're so smart. He was like, no one I've ever met before. Wow. And we just, when you know, you know. And fast. I mean, I love when you're saying that, except I am remarried for the second time. And the second time, you know, you know. Right. Exactly. Are you Polish or whatever you are? German-Polish. German-Polish. So you are not the Greek one. I had a whole bunch of other stuff. No. And then. My husband is the very Greek one. His family's from Rhodes and Carpathos and Athens.

24:17Wow. And he is, you know, his grandfather, who's memorialized here. Oh. Came to the U.S. from a village in Carpathos, worked back a house and kitchens his whole life, and worked to make everything the best. Built a family on the restaurant business, but he was never the guy, never had his name on the door. Yeah, right. And so this whole shop, this whole thing with yellow Greek ice cream is an homage and a love letter to his hospitality and sharing some of that to the world.

24:45Shelley:It's so incredible. So three weeks in, which is very bold. And I appreciate the one you know, you know. I totally get it. But I think, you know, again, sometimes you think you know and you don't. But you find yourself in Europe. So where did you go? And did you just fall in love, of course, with Chris and the Greek world? You seem very ensconced and knowledgeable about all things Greek. Mila oligo elenica. I speak a little Greek. Oh, my God. That was really good. It's so hard. It's super hard. The letters don't mean what the letters mean in English. There's more of them. I've only been to Greece once and I couldn't say anything, which is really embarrassing because I feel like I can get along in Italy.

25:25Shelley:I can get along in Spain, you know, but France. And ne means yes and oji means no. Oh, my God. It's a whole thing. Yeah. And then you did theth thing or, you know, whatever your pronunciation was, was terrific. Caristo Parapoli. Thank you very much. Yeah, very good. But that was, so when we first met, we were together for a few weeks. He had already planned his annual trip because every summer he would go to Greece to see family. Oh, so he was like, do you want to come? Not like, let's start a whole new. Oh, that makes a little bit more sense. Yeah, he was like, I'm already going. And I was like, I'm very busy.

25:54I have a radio show. I can't take off. No one behold, you could. Yeah, well, one of the weeks he was gone was a week that I had pre-scheduled vacation and I had nothing planned because I'm a terrible planner. And I was like, you know what? Yeah. And so I was like, I'm really into this guy. I can go to Greece. I'm either going to end up in love. Vating him or loving him. Or like on Nancy Grace. And either way, it would be a great story.

26:16Shelley:Right. So obviously you loved him. Where did you go? And did you also, I mean, it sounds like you fell in love with Greece. I've only been to Athens and Santorini. Both were gorgeous. And I always say about Greece, it looked just like the postcard. Yes. Which is incredible. It's actually better than the, like, I thought I was like an avatar. Like my brain, so I get to Greece, we go to Athens, we go right to Santorini. My first view of Greece, besides the Athens airport, was Santorini. Wow. Like, the caldera, all the stuff, right around sunset, dinner, sunset. Right, right. Like, my, like, American brain could not put it together.

26:53Right. It looked like it was fake. And then we did Nikonos for a few days. And then I had to go back home to D.C. He continued on to Rhodes to see family. I'm sure. And I was, like, it was crazy. I was, like, sobbing in the Athens airport, being like, I'm leaving this guy. I'm leaving this place. Like, what am I doing? And that was like a real moment of like, okay, well, I think we know.

27:12Shelley:And how long ago is that? That would have been 2013. So when did you get married? In 2017. Nice. Yeah, July 1st, 2017 at the Pendry in Baltimore. Oh, wow. I've been there. It's really nice. Tell us how you got so involved with Best Buddies. I emceed the wrong event, to be honest. Because it was when I was still doing the nighttime show at Mix. And in radio, you get asked to emcee stuff all the time. Well, only the good ones, I'm sure. Thank you. It was when Best Buddies at a time did a Eunice Kennedy Shriver 100-mile bike ride as a fundraiser. They do a couple of them in Hyannisport and in L.A.

27:55and in Miami. And they did one in D.C. for a minute. And I was invited to emcee the student party afterwards. So not all the students would ride 100 miles. They had a gathering of the students.

28:05Shelley:Oh, okay. And I got there and I was just like, wow, these young people are incredible. And it was the best buddies who have intellectual disabilities are wonderful. They'll change your life. They make you rethink everything you know about yourself. What really struck out to me initially were the peer buddies. So these are the students that don't have intellectual disabilities who join this club and say, this is something that I want to do. Those students, for me, were so much cooler than I was in high school. Like, I wasn't a jerk, but I just, like, had my head in my own studies, if you will. And they saw the world so differently.

28:41And so at that moment, I was like, if I can do something with them on the radio or find a way to make it even just a little more cool so, like, one more peer buddy shows up, that's what I wanted to do.

28:50Shelley:Yeah. And at that time, the next year, they brought me back, and Best Buddies Virginia, D.C. was really going through some hard times. Like, they were closing chapters. They were losing money. They couldn't raise money. Was it because Mark Shriver or the Shriver sort of aged out or something? Not really. So Anthony still runs the organization. But it had just been – it wasn't run – not that anything ever bad happened or anything nefarious ever happened. It just wasn't run as efficiently as it could have been. And the headquarters – Anthony also moved to Miami. They moved the headquarters to Miami.

29:24So Miami blew up the whole staff, brought a new staff in. and then that executive director, Karen Glasser, who took over, blew up the whole board and so she rebuilt the board and she was like, you seem like you have energy and you want to be on a board and I was like, yeah, that seems great. Ted Leons is on boards. I should be on a board too. Great. I'm like 22, 23. So I joined the board and then brought some other friends and I'm like, we're doing the board and they're like, great and we built this board and after two years, I became the board chair.

29:53Shelley:Oh my God. Which was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And you were 25 at the time? 25, 26. Yeah. That's incredible. That's when we started prom. But people need your energy and you have terrific energy. I guess so. I was one of the board sharers who's a good communicator. I'm not a good business person. Right. I had a wonderful board that backed me and we had so many great ideas. The prom is so adorable. Thank you. And it was really like a parallel party where we were able to raise money but also throw an incredible moment for these students. Yeah. And that is all because of the Reagan building and John Drew.

30:25You're kidding. Who's the CEO of the Reagan Building, the Giroux Company. He, I had met him years ago through his sister Maureen, who's like a wonderful Irish lady. I was at a, again, I was hosting an event at a wine, like a wine tasting festival for them at the Reagan Building. And I had just met her and I told her about the prom idea. The first year of prom was at Pinstripes in Georgetown. Oh, funny. And then I was at the Howard Theater. And she was like, when your event grows up, you call me. And so after we sold out the Carnegie Library, we were one of the last events there before the Apple Store renovation.

30:54I called Maureen I was like you said I can call you here's what we've done we've grown every year like we're ready for the Reagan building she has me meet with John two weeks later John in his team John sits across from us and goes you know my uncle had Down syndrome

31:10Shelley:and if Best Buddies was around when he was growing up I can't imagine how much different his life would have been so we're all like crying in the meeting and he's like whatever you need and his like head of sales was like so like tell us the proposal of like whatever and he goes whatever they need. And she's like, I'll call you tomorrow. Right, right. And basically for the first five years, the Reagan building underwrote prom. Wow. So we had an event that would raise$300 ,000. And you would get the$300 ,000. That cost us like$28 ,000 to put on. Unbelievable. The margins were insane on this event.

31:42And so we were able to hire staff, open chapters. When I stepped down as board chair, I did 10 years of a two-year term.

31:49Shelley:Oh my gosh. We had just opened our 100th chapter. We expanded to Southern Virginia. Hampton Roads, Richmond. And D.C. was rocking. Our jobs program went from like seven participants to dozens and dozens. We started an adult friendship program. The work of Best Buddies. And it wasn't me. It was our incredible staff. I just got to be like the wrecking ball. But Molly Whalen, who took over after Karen left, and the incredible people who have worked at Best Buddies over the years, they don't make a lot of money. They do it because they love it. And it's an awesome organization. And it's incredible that you are so involved in it and you don't have it in your history.

32:26No.

32:27Shelley:It really speaks well of you, too. When you know, you know. I think that's going to be the title of the podcast. You know, I went to Best Buddies thing when I first came to D.C. And I don't have any relationship either personally, but it was at the Shriver's house. Oh, yes. I've heard about this. It was so amazing. The ball, right? Sergeant Shriver and I smoked a cigar together. And I was in my 20s. And I had this very, holy smokes, I'm this girl from Wilkes-Barre. And I was just hanging out with Sergeant Shriver smoking a cigar that he probably got from Cuba. I mean, it was, there were so many aha moments.

33:09Shelley:I still have them. That's the magic of this town. Exactly. But you have to keep the magic. I mean, that's the only thing is like, you still have to be like, oh my God. You're listening to Lunch with Shelly. I've always thought that when you drive past the monuments at night, Everybody says this, right. If it stops being cool, it's time to go. Right. And 20 years later, it has not stopped being cool for me. I agree. I know. Tell me about your dogs. We are very dog-centric. Ah, Kotak and Mr. Troy are our pups. Troy is a 13-and-a-half-year-old rat terrier dachshund mix. Oh, dear. He's popping and locking, and he's got so much energy.

33:50He is my 7.30 alarm clock. Right. 7.30? You're so lucky.

33:55Shelley:I wake up at 5.30. With your pup? Yeah, but we'll get there. Yeah, every morning he's like, time to face the day. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's make it happen. Yeah. And he's just our dude. But 13 and a half, are you nervous? He's great. I have a 13 and a half, and she's a baller, but she's, you know, like a little deaf. Oh, luckily. When she needs it. Not when she wants to be. If she hears a food bag, unbelievably, she's alert. Luckily, Troy's doing all right. And he's been our boy. We got him weeks after Chris and I got together. Right. It was a very crazy summer. My God. That's how we've always rolled.

34:33Shelley:That's so nice. And, yeah, he's been awesome. And he's doing great. And then Kotak, his little big brother is a 60-something pound American foxhound mix. Wow. I'm afraid of his own shadow. He's on doggy Prozac. But he is like all legs in love and he's just, he's awesome. What does he look like? Well, you'll have to show me your picture. Yes, he's got, he's like legs and ears everywhere. And 60 pounds. So does that mean he's tall? Yes, he's very tall. He's a supermodel. A foxhound. So are you a huge baseball guy? I love the Nats, but I haven't been, I haven't been as invested since we won the World Series, but I'm still, still love him.

35:11Still there for it.

35:12Shelley:Well, you won a huge award for your coverage. Yes, so that was the first Emmy I won. I was wearing a shark suit. Are you kidding? So it was part of our team coverage from NBC Washington. And this was, you know, it was Lindsay Zarniak and Leon Harris and Lauren Ricketts and Pat Collins and Julie Carey. And so many of us on the team that day, we won a team award for it. But literally, Lauren Ricketts and I were in shark suits because it was the baby shark era. That is so funny. And I was like, you know, I've won a few cents, but the first one will always be in a shark suit. That's great. Which my first job in radio was in a frog suit.

35:44So here we are.

35:46Shelley:Frogs, sharks. I know. I wonder what you could be next. Not a commander. Well, that would maybe be an upgrade because you'd be a human. That's true. That's true. Yeah, I am not a big fan of Major Tutty. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a weird mascot. Wait, so baseball is not your thing. No, it is. I love baseball. I've just not been as invested as I had been for that. So Kelly Collis, my radio partner and best woman at my wedding and best friend and co-conspirator to this day. Okay, she's still your person. Yeah, Kelly and I, we met. We lived down the street from each other. We were radio partners.

36:24She's my best woman at my wedding. We were fired together. We started a business together. The business didn't work together. There's a thousand reasons why Kelly and I should hate each other, but we're actually even closer than we've ever been. Oh, that's so great. But she is a rabid Nats fan and made me love the game. And so she had such an integral part in that moment. And 2019 when we won the World Series was the year that Kelly and I had our own business. And we had our streaming channel. And it was such a special time.

36:51Shelley:So then what do you do on your quote unquote time off? What are your hobbies? I don't know that I've ever had a hobby. Because my work is I've always worked constantly. But I've never worked at all. But I'm always working. Right. I'd say the closest thing to a hobby that I had was when I was in an improv troupe. That's so cool. Yeah. When I first moved to D.C., the D.C. improv would always come in and be a guest. And so I learned about their improv classes. They'd bring their headlining comedians in. But it was a time in my life when I was 21, 22, and figuring myself out. I lived in Rockville.

37:28My dog died. My girlfriend dumped me. Speaking of a country song. I was like a country song. Right. And I started doing improv. And I met this wildly diverse group of people, mom from Potomac, dude who was formerly incarcerated, and everything in between. And we just had this eight-week run of improv class. And then I did the next level, and then I joined a troupe for a little bit. And I was in the first Fringe Fest here in D.C. You were? That time in improv was the last real hobby that I've had. And also, it made me so much better at my job and at my life.

37:59Shelley:I imagine, yeah. Because it's that yes and principle. Right. When you're listening and you're not thinking about what you're going to say next, you're in the moment reacting to what someone is telling you. But that was the most fun. Like when you get a suggestion that they're like clearly trying to be funny, like you would find the funny and making fun of they're funny. That's what's so magical about improv. It's like it's such a trust, which is really cool. I could see you really banding with your other people. That's a nice. And so do you play sports? Does Chris play sports? We go to Barry's Boot Camp.

38:31So we do the gym.

38:32Shelley:Right. But not like organized sports. I long to like do volleyball. Again, I did volleyball in high school. Oh, that's fun. And so I always see people like by the Lincoln playing volleyball. And I'm like, who has time for that? Yeah. But I would love to do that at some point to get back into that. Right. But the problem is I need someone else who plays volleyball because you can't play volleyball by yourself. I'm sure you can, but if you hit the ball, someone's got to hit it back. Oh, no, no. I understand. But like there's got to be like a rec team or something. Probably. Probably. I'm also like 40, so I'm not going to be like, Hi, can I come play volleyball with you?

39:02Shelley:Oh my god, you look so good. It's Weapon's Great Eye Cream. It's Al Sharmé Forever and Weapon's Great Eye Cream. So what do you think you want to do? I mean, like 40 is delicious. I'm sure it seems old to you or no. It doesn't. And what no one tells you is when you turn 40, everyone's like, This is the best decade. And I was like, how come no one gave me a heads up on this? Right. I don't know where it keeps getting better. It's like a speakeasy. You get there and they're like, Look at all this fun we're having. I was like, how did you all from the outside project it was terrible? But this is great.

39:30Shelley:Well, no, that's probably like social media or something dumb. I don't know. But what do you want to do this decade? When's your birthday? June 3rd. Oh, so happy birthday. Freshly 40. As a matter of fact, my sister's birthday is June 3rd. That's so funny. Gemini's. Yeah, exactly. I love Gemini's. I want this decade to be just a decade of discovery and a decade of taking a moment to enjoy the moments. there's been so much hustle and there's so much work that still has to be done I'm so excited to see where my husband's adventure his odyssey with yellow creek ice cream goes and that's amazing and I want to spend more time meeting new friends and spending time with the friends that I cherish because you know you only got so much time on this planet and I want to make sure that I'm taking the moment to enjoy the moment so you sound very YOLO Hello.

40:24Shelley:But what does yala mean? So yala is the best ice cream word. So in Greek, yala, the Y character, makes the G sound. So gala is milk. Okay. Also in Arabic, it means let's go. And in Turkish, it means lick. So it's like the best ice cream word. Oh, let's go lick milk. Yeah. Well, that makes a lot of sense. Let's go lick milk. So you speak Greek. Ligo identica. Little Greek. Okay. Or unpa. In French. I couldn't even. I can't pronounce this at all. But are you going anywhere this summer? You're looking at it. Right here. It's our little Greek beach. Right, right. On N Street. You can almost hear the aging if you listen closely.

41:06No, we're very much in the beginning of a small business. Right. We just celebrated a year anniversary.

41:11Shelley:Oh, my gosh. I thought it was six months. Oh, because I wanted to have you on last year. At the start of it. Holy smokes. It's been a year. And Tommy was like, I'm so busy. Talk about Shelly's Odyssey. I'm so busy. Yeah. did you like that? we haven't had that much hair ever I'm so busy but that's what we're focused on now the Conrad and here at Yellow Greek Ice Cream in Georgetown it's not a time to be taking a trip are you going to go for the weekend in Baltimore or something? we went to St. Thomas for a long weekend of Memorial Day St. Thomas is fantastic we forget about the territories people Puerto Rico, St.

41:51Thomas direct out of DCA or Dulles I know It's amazing Incredible

41:55Shelley:I haven't been to St. Thomas It's great It's amazing Bing bang boom Right Yeah I haven't been to St. Thomas in a long time but that's a really good idea But I love the Bahamas I do too I feel like I'm part Floridian and you know like there are so many places other than Paradise Island to go to You mean there's more than the Atlantis? I can't believe it Exactly Exactly Alright Well my last question is which I prepped you for If you If you could have lunch anywhere in the world, where would it be and what would you be having? So as we're speaking about not going to Greece this summer, I would give anything to have lunch at Glaro's restaurant at St.

42:37Nick's Beach in Carpathos in Arcasa, the village my husband's grandfather's from that we go back to every summer. So his family owns a spot. It's literally on the beach, on the beach all day. I swim all day long. Oh, my God. I snorkel in this beautiful clear water, and then you walk up in your bathing suit, or maybe you throw a shirt on, maybe you throw a hat on, whatever, and you just have this incredible beach food. I'm talking like keftetas, which are like the Greek meatball that's like deep fried with like the right amount of bread in it and dill, or like octopus. I love octopus. Or sudlaki and gyros and just like Greek feta that's fried.

43:14and what's also incredible is the people who sit around the table with us because you've got this incredible family who still lives in the islands who have been just the most welcoming and loving to me as like the German-Polish guy who married the Greek guy. And we every year have friends join us. And so around that table has been friends that maybe we only see once a year because they live near the other side of the country and we just have these wonderful lunches. And when you said lunch, where would you be? Like it wasn't even a thought. I just want to make sure that I'm describing it to you properly because it is just such a magical and wonderful place.

43:50Shelley:Oh, my God. I can picture it so perfectly, and I really want to be there. But I'm so happy we're here. I'm happy we're here, too. So, okay. Well, then I am going to close by saying you were worth the wait. Thank you. It's true. And I think that ice cream for lunch is delish. I think, Karan, what do you think? Did you enjoy your ice cream? I loved it. I need some more. I can make that happen. I know a guy. And the Greek champagne was fantastic. But this was so fun. You are exactly like I thought you would be, but even better. Because I get to see you in person. And it's really nice. And you're very normale.

44:30Shelley:And we're paisan. I mean, you know, anybody from our part of the area, it's like an automatic... Sparks. Yeah, exactly. An automatic trust or an automatic friendship. And we haven't even done the six degrees of separation. Like, who do you know? We haven't even gone through that route. So, but anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed it. Everybody should check out Chris's place at Yala in Georgetown. It is so yummy. There are so many more flavors to check out. So come here. Check out other episodes of Lunch with Shelly at www.lunchwithshelly.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And in the meantime, and as always, peace, love, and lunch.