- My lady left me...
so I'm going back to my first love--
cooking.
- I don't need her, anyway, 'cause I've got other ladies.
- Time to eat, Black Golden Girls.
all: Ooh!
- All this food-- Tray, you outdid yourself.
- Smell like you done put your foot, your ankle,
and your calf up in here.
- I know I shouldn't say it,
but, Tray, you need to get dumped more often.
- So which ones do y'all like the best--
the pulled pork, the hot fish, or the barbecue brisket?
- Ooh, Lord, that's just like asking me
to choose between Jim Brown and Billy Dee Williams.
- Well, don't forget Sidney Poitier, now.
- Oh, he was fine. - Mm-hmm.
- Focus up, please.
I'm not asking y'all who y'all wanna date?
I'm asking y'all which one y'all like best, okay?
I'm trying to get hired by this guy in the restaurant--
Splendor Greens.
- Oh, I heard of that spot.
That's that new place-- farm to table?
- Yes. I read about that. Oh, it's very fancy.
- Yeah, everybody. - All right.
- Yeah, but with Tray working in the kitchen,
it's not gonna be farm to table.
It's gonna be farm to my thighs!
- And booty!
- Ooh, turn up the TV.
They're talking about the community center on the news.
- I love Brooklyn. You know what I mean?
So much.
And I started thinking, like, have you noticed
how many facilities there are for people after they mess up?
But how many are there to help others right before?
You know what I mean? Before it's too late.
That's why this community center is pivotal.
It's vital to us, Brooklynites.
Can y'all please make sure that baby has a coat on?
Y'all got a coat on. Why he don't got one? Please!
But don't get it twisted.
Now, it's not gonna just be for children, no.
It's gonna be for adults like us.
You know what I mean? And we're gonna be
tackling issues like mental health, PTSD--
- Bears battle for dominance...
- Oh. - Hey.
- Excuse me, we were looking at that.
- Sorry, Ma, I made a mistake and changed the channel.
- It wasn't no mistake. - What's going on here?
- Tray is in his feelings, honey.
- Veesy came over here looking for signatures,
and her and Tray got into some kind of altercation.
And were cussing each other.
- She tried to say my wheelchair
was an insurance scam.
- You seem to be having
a whole lot of trouble with women, Tray.
- Hold on! We supposed to be talking
about how good my food is, not my relationships.
- Shit, they both messy.
- Mmm.
- That shit right there gonna melt in your mouth,
not in your hand.
- That's honey, right? - Yeah.
- Okay, cool. Nice little kick.
I'm feeling that. - That's what your customers
gonna be saying once you hire me.
- Oh. - Come on, Wavy, man.
You know, I need the gig, man.
- Come on, slow your roll. Slow your roll.
You know, we doing this whole particular kind of thing.
It's got a kind of customer, right?
A certain kind of customer--
- That's why everything you eating right there
is locally sourced and humanely raised, man.
That pork right there came from a pig named Stanley.
I knew him. He was a hard worker.
Survived by his wife, Bertha, two piglets--Woop and Oink.
- And the beef--
the beef right there, that came from a cow.
Mixed cow named Brownie, man.
And they said before she made the sacrifice,
she turned her life over to Christ.
So you eating sanctified beef right there.
- Stupid. Right. So I'm eating a holy cow.
- Hey, Ma. I thought you was at the church soup line.
- I was, but we ran out of food.
So we had to turn people away again.
- You know, uh, Ms. Barker, I'm sorry to hear that.
You know, I might be able
to help you with that right there, you know.
- Oh. Well, who are you?
- Ma, this is, um-- this is, uh--
It's Wavy.
- Wavy.
The one that messed up your life?
- Nah, Ma, he's the one
that own the restaurant I was telling about.
- That probably started with drug money.
- You know what? I think I should--I should go.
- Yeah, you should go.
But before you leave, let me ask you something.
Do you have any idea
how much damage you caused?
Not just to Tray's life.
I lost 15 years of my son's life
and my grandchildren just because of you.
- Ms. Barker, with all due respect--
- Get the fuck out of my house!
- Dad, I never knew you played guitar.
- That's 'cause I don't.
You know, uh, your mom's favorite musician is Prince.
So I thought I'd surprise her and learn a lot of instruments.
That's nice.
- That's great. That's awesome. But can you keep it down?
Me and Amira are trying to finish our college essays.
- I am actually done. I finished all three of mine.
- You finished all three? - Yeah.
Different schools look for different things.
Here, show me yours, and I'll just help you.
- I'm not finished yet.
- Okay, well, just show me when you're done.
- Well, I held on for as long as I could,
but it's happening.
The time has finally come for me to admit
that I will always live in Amira's shadow.
- Shahzad, you're gonna be fine.
Don't compare yourself to your sister.
It's like me comparing myself to Jimi Hendrix.
- Wait. What?
Wait. So she's Jimi Hendrix, and I'm you?
- Yeah. - I'm finished.
- Afiya, those are the flowers I chose?
- Yeah.
- You know what to do with them, right?
- Okay. - Thank you.
- Man, I never pictured you working with farmers.
- I don't. I buy all my shit from Costco.
- What?
I stock this whole restaurant myself.
The cooks don't even know.
- So you flippin' like we used to do on the streets?
- It's a lot safer selling fake pasteurized eggs
than putting baby powder in dope, you feel me?
Look, I would've hired you a lot sooner, but...
Meet our head chef.
- Tray. - Elizabeth?
- Tray. Tray. Tray. Tray.
I'm the boss, and I say what goes!
- Oh, shit!
- Everyone, this is Tray-- our new line cook.
- I take food to the next level.
So just show me my area. Let me do that.
- Mm.
Sorry, Tray, Splendor Greens ain't 'bout that life, okay?
All our meals-- and I repeat all our meals--
must look exactly like the picture.
- Got some good stuff in here.
Not bad. - Mm-hmm.
- But eventually I'm gonna want to add some stuff.
- Okay.
No, no laughing from you guys. I only laugh.
- What's so funny?
- I mean, Tray, come on.
Did you go to chef school?
- No. - I did, actually.
And that's why Wavy hired me to run his restaurant.
I constructed the menu,
and I'm the only one who can make additions to it.
- But if you ain't want me to make the food better,
why you hire me?
- I did not hire you. Wavy did.
So, before you start studying that menu,
if you could just take the garbage out,
and while you're at it,
if you could take that attitude out with the garbage
that you brought in here.
Uh-oh, corn hand.
Yep.
- Hey, yo, they about to throw down!
crowd: Fight, fight, fight! - What is that?
crowd: Fight, fight, fight, fight!
- Get up!
- Yo, I'm breaking this up, man.
- No, let 'em fight. Let 'em fight.
- I'm sorry. Don't hit me again.
- Don't make me have to.
- Vamanos.
- Okay, we've looked through your transcripts,
and we've covered your academic interests,
and it's still inconclusive.
Now let's talk passions.
- Mm... oh, I always wanted to be a whistleblower.
You know how when they interview them,
they're in shadow and their voices are really low, low?
- Well, that's not really a job.
- Okay.
What classes do I have to take to become a Renaissance man?
- Well, I don't think you can just become a Renaissance man
without some life experiences.
- So I should be an explorer first?
- Okay, this is all good.
There are no stupid answers.
I put all of that in, and the algorithm says...
- What's the answer? - Yeah, what's my perfect job?
- Nothing. - Nothing?
- Really? - You are a one of a kind.
Congratulations. He's a one of a kind.
- Huh. Thank you. - So what should I major in?
- I don't think having a traditional job is your path.
You think outside of the box.
Those are the qualities of an entrepreneur.
- Exactly, an entrepreneur.
- I'll email you my bill. - Thank you.
- Oh, beautiful fold.
- Gotta admit, Tray, you are actually doing well.
- No, no, no. Why are you going to that?
I give you one compliment,
and you're already doing things wrong?
- I'm just experimenting.
- No, Tray-- - Try this. Mmm!
Voilà, my spicy Cajun avocado.
- Okay, that's good. It's really, really good.
But it's also against the rules, so, no.
- Forget the rules.
Everybody know the kitchen is the chef's bedroom.
Now, why would you enter the bedroom
if you don't want to reach Nirvana?
Here, try this.
This is my sauce.
Mm-hmm.
- My God.
That's so good.
That's amazing. We have to make that.
The customers are gonna die for that.
It's great.
- Come...
cook with me.
Tell me
- Yo, get it, get it, get it! - Come on, man!
Yo, come back here, man! Idiots!
- Yo, we out! - Ooh-ooh!
- Nigga! - Oh, shit.
Veesy, what you doing in the barbershop--
getting your mustache trimmed?
- Oh, I know you ain't talking, 'cause if I push
your ugly-ass face into dough, we get fucking monster cookies.
What you doing tearing down my posters, you big-ass kid?
- I wasn't tearing it down. I was fixing it.
- Your selfish ass ain't fixing shit.
- I ain't got time for your judgmental shit, Veesy, okay?
I'm gonna be late for work. - Work?
Who hired you? - Splendor Greens.
- Oh-oh, Wavy's spot.
Now, that makes sense, because, you know,
crack-selling birds of a feather flock together.
So that makes sense. What scam y'all running?
- All I know is I'm a chef, okay, and I'm killing it.
People love my farm-to-table organic dishes, aight?
- I keep hearing you talking-- me, me, me, me, me.
I ain't never heard you talk about somebody else.
When's the last time you did something for somebody
that didn't benefit you?
- You know what? Good point.
Hey, Howard. - What's going on, Tray?
- Could you get those sheep shears out
and shave some of the wool off of Veesy's back
so she could donate to Wigs for Kids?
- I'm staying out of it.
- How's that for doing something for somebody else?
- Have a blessed day, you fucking prick!
So much easier than the guitar.
Honestly, you just breathe in and out, and it plays.
You don't find that on a lot of instruments.
- Shahzad, please hurry up with this presentation.
- Just hit play on my computer.
- Finally. - Here we go.
- Introducing Shahzad Birkeland.
He's an entrepreneur from Brooklyn, New York.
- Ugh, this is so corny.
- Since my college counselor thinks
I should become an entrepreneur,
I've come up with a few business ideas.
- All right. - Exhibit A...
say you're at a music festival,
and your clothes are all dirty.
Ugh!
What do you do?
- I don't know. - I'd just go buy some merch.
- Or you could put a few quarters
in the world's first portable laundry machine.
I call it the Port-O-Wash--
a porta potty that also does laundry.
- That looks disgusting. - I don't disagree with her.
That's a little rough.
- But wait, wait. There's more.
Say you're at the club, then it happens.
You spot someone
with the exact same haircut as you.
- That's stinks.
- What do you do?
You can go home and cry...
Or you can go into the lavatory
and find one of my bathroom barbers.
- I like that!
Yeah, you get a haircut in the bathroom.
- No one is gonna pay for any of this.
I'm out.
- You know, the bathroom-barber thing,
it can--it could work.
- That's why you're gonna give me all my college money
to get it off the ground.
- Okay, first of all, stop talking like that.
Second of all, I thought these were businesses
you were going to start after you graduated college?
- But I'm a born entrepreneur.
- You still have to go to college.
- College is a waste for me. W-what am I gonna do there?
- You could cut hair in the bathroom.
- I thought you were out.
- Ooh, burn.
That's a burn.
- Man, think I'm gonna have to fire Elizabeth.
- For what?
- The last couple of weeks, I'm checking my stock,
shit ain't adding up.
I got more food going out than money coming in.
So either she's taking my inventory,
or she taking the money.
Either way, she got to go.
- She ain't had nothing to do with it, Wavy.
- Whatchu mean? - I invented some dishes.
And I was giving it to the customers on the low,
just to spice it up.
- So you stealing from me, man?
- They was loving the taste, Wavy.
They kept coming back.
I even got your customer volume up, kid.
- Yo, I'm running a business here!
You fucking with my profit margins!
- I'm sorry, fam.
- I'm sorry, too...
'cause I'm gonna have to let you go.
Now, you tell your mama that you quit.
Don't tell her I fired you.
- Just came to turn in my apron.
- I heard what you did, Tray.
Thank you.
Thank you for sticking up for me.
- I realized that the restaurant business
wasn't for me, but I am glad I was the first
to pop that rule-breaking cherry of yours.
- It was beautiful, and it's never gonna be unpopped.
- If you ever decide to let your inner chef run wild,
hit me up.
We'll cook.
- This is awesome.
Come on. Yes.
Come to daddy.
Oh.
- You know, I don't think it's fair
that Amira gets her college money
to do what she wants to do, but I don't.
- 'Cause it's college money
and she's going to college with it.
- But I want to start my own business.
I want to be my own boss.
Do we have any "be my own boss" money?
- Shahzad, I get it. Picking a college is stressful.
You just haven't figured it out yet.
- No, no. I have figured it out.
I'm gonna take a gap year and prove
that I don't need college, but I need money to do it.
- It's not real money.
It's all invested in accounts
that can only be used for education.
- Dad, I looked it up.
You can take it out. It's just gonna be a penalty.
- No, your mother would kill us if we paid a penalty.
- Please, Dad.
- I'm not gonna let you blow your entire college fund
on penalties and your first business idea,
but...
I will talk to your mother about you taking a gap year
and giving you a small portion--
a very small portion of that money.
And if you double it, then we'll match it.
But if you lose it, you go to college.
That's a deal.
- It's a deal? - Yes. Yes.
Thank you, Dad. I love you.
And you look ridiculous.
- When I learn to use this, I am gonna be a musical weapon.
Do not get in my line of fire.
- Hey, yo, pass it.
- This stuff is going quick, Ma.
I'm almost out of greens. - I know. I'm low on meat, too.
Do we got any more inside?
- Ain't nothing in that kitchen
except some tap water and some condiments.
- Well, I'm out of mashed potatoes.
I'm gonna go rest the dogs.
- Ha ha! I got plenty of Brussels sprouts.
Come on, now.
All of y'all could use some of this roughage.
- I'm sorry, miss--we running out of a lot of stuff.
I'm gonna have to get you next time.
- Tray, why you gonna lie to this nice old lady?
We got plenty of food.
- I thought you was all about profit margin.
- Hey, man, I'm just doing my part.
Got my truck full of food here. Got my guys.
It's all love.
- Yo, didn't I see you fighting
in that alley behind the restaurant?
- I don't know what you're talking about.
- You're a better fighter than you are a liar.
Slow down, man. Slow down.
The food ain't going nowhere.
You fight a lot? - Only when I need to.
That dude picked on my two little sisters.
- He had that ass-whupping coming, huh?
My name is Tray.
- Javier. My family calls me Javi.
- You holding up the line. Let's go over here and kick it.
Talk to you for a minute.
- Uh, we got some more here.
Hey, I come in peace.
- How come my skin crawls
every time I hear the sound of your voice?
You have a good day. Y'all enjoy.
All right, take care of the rest of that, okay?
- You like to box?
- Yes, I do.
- Do you train?
- Nope.
- Would you like to,
if I got your trainer and I got you a place to train?
- Yeah, I would like that.
- Stand up.
You got a lot of talent, man.
I just don't want to see you waste it on the streets.
Let me see your stance.
I love cooking.
Put that foot back.
But you know what I love more?
Inspiring people.
You know how to throw a jab?
You know how to throw a right cross?
What about a uppercut?
It's something I want to keep doing...
Faster.
Helping my community
reach its full potential.
Give it to me! Give it to me!
Aah!
And I know exactly how to do it,
but it won't be easy
'cause the only way forward
is for me to take the hardest path.
- Veesy? - What?
- I want to help save the community center.
I'm ready to devote myself full-time
to doing whatever it take.
- All right, cool. Then sign this petition.
- Aight.
What else I got to do?
- The only thing you got to do for me, baby,
is to walk your funky ass into ongoing fucking traffic.
- Come on, man. - What?
- We got to put our petty beef aside and work together.
- Nah, actually, I'm good.
Now move along. I'm good.
- Aight.
A man is not finished when he's defeated.
A man is finished when he quits.
If 15 years in prison couldn't break me,
mm, Veesy doesn't have a chance.