A Coffee with Dan Cote-Rosen, VP of Marketing for the OEG

Join us for a coffee and conversation with Dan Cote-Rosen, the dynamic Vice President of Marketing for the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG)! 

We dive into Dan's unique upbringing, which took him from his birthplace in Montreal to living in fascinating places like France and Brazil before his family eventually settled in Toronto.

Dan shares his surprising career path, starting with high-stakes marketing roles for big names like Coors and Wiser, using his Bachelor of Arts degree to pivot into corporate brand strategy. He discusses how he found his dream role with the OEG in 2016, joining one of the biggest forces in Edmonton sports and entertainment.

But that's not the end of the entrepreneurial story! Amidst global shutdowns in 2020, Dan's creativity pivoted from the arena to the kitchen. Hear the incredible tale of how his passion project, Flat Boy Burgers, started in his home kitchen during the work-from-home era. He details how rapidly the demand grew, forcing him to move to a commercial space and ultimately build multiple successful brick-and-mortar locations (with more coming soon!). This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in high-level marketing, the inner workings of a major entertainment group, and the spark of entrepreneurial success.

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Transcript

0:01

Hi, I'm Dan Cote-Rosen and you are listening to Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam. It's cold. It's so cold. I mean, it's cold in here. It's just cold. Winter's coming, I think. Can I say that? No. No? You cannot say that. It's almost October, but it's cold. It just turned fall. You can't say winter's coming. The leaves are falling, it's cold. Although today's supposed to go to like 25 degrees. I know. It's that fun time of year where you're not really sure what to wear. I know, it's a layer weather. It is a layer weather. You dress warm in the morning and by afternoon, you're like stripped down. Exactly. Well, not totally stripped down, but you know what I'm saying. That could be another show, but yeah, it's fall and well, whether we like it or not, winter is coming and we want to let everybody know that we are coming to you from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. And yeah, I think Michael turned the heat up in here. Well, this is why I'm drinking a very hot beverage right now. Yes, that's right, because we're cold and it's awesome. And so, hey, thanks everybody for joining in again and listening to us. This is really awesome, glad you're listening. And hey, I want to tell you that we have some important people that make this show happen. And Wing Snob, I want to tell everybody about Wing Snob. If you have not been to Wing Snob, you got to go to Wing Snob. You have to go to Wing Snob. Best wings you'll ever have. Best wings, you know why? Because they are... Fresh never frozen, Cam. Fresh never frozen. 16 flavors, four rubs, absolutely incredible. Your favorite is Snobby Q. We say that every week. Every time. Mine is Parmesan. But you like Dill, too. Dill is pretty cool. Plus, they got the most amazing Parmesan fries. They got this cornbread that you'll die for. You think you're like down in Texas eating wings. Come on now. Texas, hey. Well, not really. Not really. The cornbread is really good. It reminded me of Texas. There are ten locations in Edmonton and area. Ten locations all across Edmonton. That's right. Yes. And they're expanding into Calgary and into Grand Prairie and all over the place. And I'm telling you folks, Wing Snob, some of the best wings you'll ever have, you can get traditional and boneless or you can order the 50-50 pack. Because some people like to have the bones in the chicken wings. And I have a friend who actually eats the bones. But anyways, I'm just saying. Again, that could be a whole other podcast. Well, yeah, we should have them on the podcast. But anyway, Wing Snob wings are the best wings you're ever going to have. And if you don't have plans for dinner tonight, take the family down and get a family pack. And they've started their Oilers game pack. Oh, that's exciting. Yeah! I know, so you'll have to check out www.wingsnob.ca. They got their Oilers game pack. They got lots of stuff going on. Appreciate Wing Snob. Love it. Pretty soon we're going to have Mike Chadi on the podcast. And he's going to do Flavor of the Month. Can't wait. I'm excited about that. And we also want to let you know about some other important people to us. And that is Mprint. Mprint, sign and print solution, right here in Acheson. That's right. For all your printing needs, everything from your business cards, pamphlets, brochures, whatever you need, they'll even wrap. And not Christmas wrap. Not Christmas wrap. No. And not rap-rap as in rap. But they'll wrap your vehicle. They'll wrap your vehicle. That's right. They'll wrap your motor home. Cam, they even wrapped a helicopter once I know. They are incredible at what they do. Their work is fantastic. I'm telling you, you're not going to find a more professional printing service than Mprint printing. No matter how big or how small, whatever you need, they'll do it for you. Whether you're local, long-distance, wherever you are, give Mprint a call, www.mprint.ca. Don and Jan, amazing people and their crew over there. And so, hey, listen, if you need something printed, I'd go talk to those guys because they are amazing. I am very excited about today's program. I am too. Me too, because this guest is amazing, has an amazing story for a lot of reasons. Well, and it's almost perfect timing because the season just really is starting to kick off here, Cam. That's right. So, Jennifer, you get to do the honors. Our guest today is Dan Cote-Rosen. So, welcome, Dan. Yay, Dan. Thank you for having me. Great to be here. And Dan is the, we want to get your title right. We're going to let him say it. Okay, yeah, you say it because I always get it wrong. You are the? VP of Marketing at OEG Sports and Entertainment. That's right. OEG being the Oilers, Edmonton Oilers. Entertainment Group. Entertainment Group, the Edmonton Oilers. For those of you who aren't in Edmonton, that are listening somewhere else, the Oilers are the team that went to the Stanley Cup last year. But anyway, I'm just saying, because I just want people to know. Last two years. I wasn't going to say the last two years, but Dan is the guy who makes them look good in front of everybody. Dan, good to have you. Thanks so much for having me. Really happy to be here. Yeah, it's awesome. This is a busy time for you. It is a busy time. It's an exciting time. We've had four pre-season games at home now, and we're fired up for October 8th, Home Opener, Battle of Alberta. Battle of Alberta, yeah. It's always a great game, isn't it? Yeah. So your job is to get her all out there and get her going and get the name out there. Get the pageantry ready, absolutely. And we've had a lot of hockey here in the last few seasons. We've had some great deep playoff runs, which is amazing. And our fans have been so incredibly supportive. We're so lucky to have this fan base here in Oil Country. And now it's just about reigniting that passion. Right. And getting people back down to Rogers Place for another, what will hopefully be a great season. You know, Dan, I was thinking about this the other day. And most people, if you don't have a team in any professional sports, but let's just say hockey. So the Oilers, the last two years, have gone all the way to the Stanley Cup. Most people forget that ends in June, roughly. Right, late June. Like late June. And hockey for them, for the players, starts again, well... They're training all summer. They're training all summer, yeah. A lot of the players are back late August to start skating. I mean, so if you're in a city with a team that goes to the playoffs and makes it all the way, and then you got to start up again, you guys don't have much of a break, do you? Like a lot of people will say, hey, well, you know, the summer is typically your time to chill out. You guys take a foot off the gas a little bit. But that's really when the bulk of our planning is getting done. Of course. And come planning for the new year. You know, renewing our season seats, and then we go into selling half seasons, quarter seasons, power packs. That's all happening during the summer. We've got, you know, on our partnership side, those guys have to get a lot of their work done before the season even starts, because that's what they're selling. So you know, if the work's not done by now, we're playing catch up. That's right. And kudos, I'm just going to say this, kudos to the Oilers. Probably on the partnership side, kudos to you guys. You brought on Brickhouse Beef Jerky to be selling their beef jerky at Rogers. And I'm telling you, folks, well, we've had them on the podcast. We have, Trevor and Amanda. Amazing. Have you ever tried their beef jerky? Of course. Oh, come on, it's the best you'll ever have. And so yeah, that's good for you. Kudos for you guys. Great little business doing a great job. And they're going to be a partner of our loyalty program as well. Oh, okay. Oilers Loyalty Rewards, which we're super excited about. That's a part of the marketing program. We're really excited about it. They've joined that as well. So we love when local companies do extremely well, we can help to platform them at Roger's Place. Good for you guys. Cause you know, a lot of times people think that big sports guys, teams and all that kind of stuff, they just sponsor like Pepsi and Coke and all those. And here's a local company doing a great job. And you guys, I think it's fun. Kudos on you. Thank you. And we love Pepsi, too. Yeah, yes. We love Pepsi, too. Gummy Bears. Who's the... Haribo Oh, last year, I got to meet at one of the games. We were invited to a little meet and greet. And I got to meet the German distributor. Right. I forget her name. I asked her if she'd be on the podcast. She said, next time she'd come to Edmonton, she'd be on the podcast. And her job is, she distributes gummy bears. What a job that is. What a job! And they sponsor our Oilers Drum and Brass Band. Yes! They parade around the concourse before the game, intermissions. And they've got their dancing gummy bears. It's such a perfect connection. Plus we have Leon, who's German. So that's one of those partnerships for us that just makes a lot of sesnse. And speaking of the drum band, did you know that we had them on the podcast? And then we had them at the ABA Golf Tournament this year. It was fantastic. They were great. It was the best. That was so much fun. It was, yeah. It was really cool. There's something about that kind of music, I think, that just makes people happy. Absolutely. Especially at 7.30 in the morning. Oh man, as the carts were rolling out. And it was like, and they were great on the podcast. It's such a great story. Absolutely. So yeah, lots of Oilers Connections. This has been so good. And now we have you. This is fantastic, but. But we want to know where it first all started. Where did it start for Dan Cote-Rosen? That's right. So, Dan, tell us a little bit about where you grew up. Well, I bounced around a little bit. I was born in Montreal and very quickly. My dad worked for Alcan Aluminum. Oh, OK. Yeah. And he worked in a role that kind of took him all over the place. So when I was young, we moved to France. We lived in the south of France for three years. Oh, France. I didn't get to experience a ton of that. I got to learn French. French became my first language for a few years. Much more glamorous, I think, for my parents living in the south of France. But three years there and then Brazil for two years. Oh, my goodness. Living in Rio, again, great spot for my folks. Yeah, yeah. We didn't get to enjoy it as much. I didn't learn any Portuguese. No. And then back to Canada when I was a youngster and settled in Mississauga. So just outside Toronto. How old were you when you came back to Canada? Seven. So by now, you've been a world traveler. Most kids wouldn't dream of that. Right. You know, I don't know how much I really appreciated it. I remember little bits and pieces, but for me, it was something that was just normal. I didn't really... Because it's the way your mom and dad did. That's what you did. Exactly. But then, you know, seven is still pretty young, and I got to have a really normal Canadian upbringing growing up in a suburb of Toronto. And I stayed there until university, went back to Montreal for school, played football at McGill. Oh, okay. So that was kind of... My boss, Stu McDonald, at the Oilers, one of the first things he ever said to me was, you know, we kind of joked around about our skating abilities. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, don't ever let them see you skate. You know, you're gonna lose all respect, all credibility. So I always seem to be double... Don't you love people that just encourageers? Don't do that. Yeah, yeah. We have a family holiday skate that takes place during the end of December, and I always seem to be double booked. I feel bad for the kids. The kids don't get to experience it, but... I love that. You know, you gotta love those people who are really honest in our lives and like, you know, I had... I swam in high school. I was on the swim team, and one day my coach pulled me aside and said, Cam, you're pretty good. And I was fast, but he said, there's... you got a problem. He said, your hands are too small. You'll never be... just find something else. So I had to go find something else. But anyway, we all have something. Yeah, we all have something. Growing up and back and forth between Toronto and Montreal comes the ultimate question. Yes. Habs, Leafs, neither. Habs, Leafs, neither. My parents were big Habs fans. I did grow up with the Leafs as a child. Yeah. And those were a lot of really bad teams except for in... We won't make a comment on that. For people who are listening that don't follow hockey, the Toronto Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967. 1967. Yeah. Yeah. As far as I'm aware, have never won more than two playoff rounds. Right. Yeah. In the history of their franchise. Yes. I know. Well, and we're spoiled in Edmonton, obviously. We're spoiled. But, you know, they're supposed to be the hockey dynasty legend. Anyway, that's a whole other podcast right there. So you played hockey. All right. You played football. What position? Defensive back. Oh, okay. Defensive halfback. Yeah. Did you have any grander ideas of moving on to CFL? NFL? Well, you know, I did, but no one else seemed to. Which is a pretty significant factor. I didn't play very much. That's the best way to put it. I was on the CFL draft list in shockingly. Oh, okay. Yeah. Nobody. Nobody called. Nobody did it, eh? No calls. No calls, yeah. That was a dream that was snuffed out for me. I knew that that was not going to be a future for me, but just such a great way to make lifelong friends, you know, and just the camaraderie and having those teammates and beautiful stadium in Montreal where the Alouettes play as well. But that was never going to be an option for me. I knew that I wasn't blessed with any real athletic ability. But talking my way onto the team and had a lot of fun. But then graduation came and I actually was lucky enough to move back to Toronto and work for Coors Canada. So what did you take in university? What was your degree? I took a Bachelor of Arts degree. My dad was in business with Alcan a long time and he said, he really pushed that BA because he said, you can't put a price on just learning how to create compelling arguments. Learn how to read well, learn how to write well, which seem like such basic things. But I can't tell you how often I lean on those very skills, which I don't want to sound too old here, but I feel like those are disappearing skills in our world. And I think technology has a lot to do with that, but I think you're right. I think you're absolutely right. It's those are still foundational skills, in my opinion. And I, to be honest, and I know we're not talking about, I worry about that even with AI and where we're going with that kids, and not just kids, but people aren't learning their reading, their writing skills, their comprehension skills, all that kind of stuff. It's a different day, for sure. I'm not saying anything revolutionary here, but AI is a tool. Yeah, they can't replace the things. No, you're right. And AI is becoming more and more prevalent in our world, too. But it's got to be a tool to use and not something to just fall back on. That we rely on to do our work. Yeah. All right. So you went to work for Coors. Went to work for Coors. The beer people. The beer people. And this was early 2000s when Coors was really undergoing a huge brand shift, you know, from kind of a lazy Sunday afternoon, slow-pitch, golf beer to an exciting beer that was going to be marketed towards younger people. They had a partnership with Maxim magazine, which was a very popular publication at the time. That was a cool guy's magazine. If you were a cool guy, you read Maxim. I didn't, I don't think I was, I'm just saying I didn't. Anyway, it was, it had cool things in it. Yeah. It was just a, it was a really fun place to work at the time. And what it did was show me the power of smart marketing. Right. They decided that they wanted to shift who was drinking their beer. And let's be honest, people, you know, going out to nightclubs, bars to drink Coors Light, were gonna consume more than one or two at a golf course or during a slow pitch game. Right, right, yeah. And they were trying to shift that whole perception. And I got to see firsthand the power of compelling marketing, persuasive marketing, brand marketing. So what was your job? Your job was to work? My job was field marketing. Okay. So literally out. You were out in the clubs. You were out there doing this. I was wearing the logo on my shirt. I was setting up the satellite bars, putting up the inflatables, sampling, doing all the, you know, support for the festivals that the brand was sponsoring at the time. Frontline. Frontline. Yeah. And this is really what it's, it's not, you know, anything too special now in 2025, but in 2003, experiential marketing was brand new. Yeah. It was something that was just starting to take off. And it was again, really cool to just see the power of it and just see the power of being able to put what we called liquid to lips. Right. Hey, that's pretty good, you know, and then if... I like that. Liquid to lips. You start someone, if... That's good, eh? That's a good line. There's, you know, anecdotal and probably researched evidence as well that typically, the first drink that someone will have during a social occasion is what they'll continue to drink for the remainder of the evening. Yeah. So just getting that first sip to them. It was a great experience. And how long were you with them? Coors? I was with Coors for about two years. Okay. And I enjoyed field marketing, but then Coors and Molson merged. Oh, I didn't know that. Really? So now it's one company. Yeah, yeah. But at the time, they were separate. Who bought who? Did Coors buy Molson or did Molson buy Coors? It was, you know, what they call a merger of equals. Yeah. In Canada, Molson was obviously the beer company. Oh, it was the beer. Yeah, for sure. In the United States, Coors was the bigger company. Yeah, yeah. Wow. So I think if you look at it overall, Coors acquired Molson, but it was pretty balanced in Canada. Molson was still the major player. That's a big deal, actually, because Molson, I mean, for Canadians, that's a big deal. That's a big beer. Definitely. Like it was a big deal. Definitely. You know, and then, yeah, and Ezra Bush acquired LeBatter, just around the same time, maybe a little bit earlier. Right. But my next role would have been in sales. And at that point, I had become so enamored with the world of marketing. That was the path I decided I wanted to follow. Right. And I was really fortunate to get a job working for Corby Distillery. So still in beverage alcohol as an assistant brand manager. And my first portfolio was Wiser's, which at the time, Wiser's Canadian Whiskey, lots of another bunch of mergers on that side. And Canadian Club had been the brand they had focused on previously. Now it was Wiser's, so we got to create this really fun Wiserhood campaign in the mid 2000s, which did really well. And I just kind of progressed in my career, beverage alcohol, Corby, a few other companies, progressive roles, and just really got to live and enjoy firsthand the power of strong brain marketing. And that was all in Montreal? Toronto. Sorry, Toronto. Yeah, Toronto. And now sports, when does sports come in to the picture? So I received a call in April 2016 about a possible role with the Edmonton Oilers, OEG. This was just the end of Connor's first season in Edmonton. Roger's place was... Connor McDavid. Just in case you don't know, I don't know who wouldn't know that, but just saying. Probably non-hockey people wouldn't know that. Well, you got Connor Brown. Yeah, that's true. There's really only one Connor, but anyways. But here's my question. How did they call you? Like when you say in 2016, were they head hunting? Did they hear about you? You were doing such a great job with the Wiser's. They thought, we need this guy for the Oilers. Is that how that happened? It was a recruiter who actually... And this really speaks to the power of networking. You never know who you're going to cross paths with in life. This was a recruiter who had previously worked on the HR People and Culture team when I was at Coors. We worked at Coors together, she was in a much more senior position. She had actually placed me in that first assistant brand manager role at Corby. Then many years later, she had taken on the OEG portfolio when I was searching for this marketing director at the time, and she contacted me about that opportunity. So how did that feel, having the Oilers? Were you super ex... I mean, how does that feel when the Oilers call? It was really exciting. In the back of my head, my goal had always been to work in sports marketing, professional sports. It's not something that I had assumed would happen, just because the opportunities are so few and far between. Well, that's the thing, right? They're rare, like it's, yeah. And I had a few interviews, and I felt pretty good about my chances, and I was offered the role. And then it happened really quickly. I think it was less than 60 days between the time I was offered the role and had started my first day at OEG. That's, you know, moving across the country. How do you feel about moving to Edmonton from Toronto? Well, it's a bit of a culture shift, yeah. Yeah, it's a bit of a change, yeah. Smaller. I had been a few times for work in my previous roles in beverage alcohol. And I'll tell you, the last time I had come before interviewing with OEG was in 2015. And I was doing some tours, market tours with the sales rep. I worked at Miller at the time. Okay, yeah. Brewing company. And he had taken me down to a place that existed at the time called Mercer Tavern. Mercer Tavern, yeah. Yeah. Which doesn't exist anymore, but right across the street from Roger's Place. And, you know, a really cool spot. Restored old brick building. Yeah, yeah. And then you could see Roger's Place across the street now. Like, the frame was up. They were about a year and a half away from completing construction. This is like May of 2015. And it was the first time I had visited Edmonton, where I felt like, hey, this city feels like it's on the edge of something. Something really cool, something really special. It reminded me of some other places I had been on the cusp of. Just something different was about to happen. And that really stuck in my mind as I was considering the role and accepting the role. And a big part of the conversation that we had had during my interview process was the opportunity to not only work on this iconic sports brand, the Oilers, but also have a small opportunity to impact the future of this city in a way. That's the one thing about Edmonton is there always is an expectation of something great is going to happen. For a long time, we were called the city of champions. We had a championship hockey team. We had a championship football team. We were the city of champions. And then that kind of fizzled a little bit. But you're right, there always is this expectation in Edmonton that something great is going to happen. Because we've experienced it. You've got, there's so much, you know, engineering intellect and capability in this city. And the work, I think, is second to none. You've got so many hard workers, people that are just responsible, keep their head down. And there was now this opportunity, I think, with Ice District Building to think of our city on a greater scale. That's right. And not be ashamed to build something great. Ice District has changed everything, hugely, for the city of Edmonton, in terms of... It's been neat to see. We're not just an oil city anymore, we're not just a gas city. Right. And we are still, obviously, so proud of oil and gas, for sure. But we can be more than just that. We can be more than that, yeah. Alright, so now you come to work for the Oilers. Come to work for the Oilers, it's June of 2016, and it's a bit of culture shock, for sure. But mostly, it's just trying to wrap my head around this new industry. When I was working in beverage alcohol, you'd have 6, 12, 18 months to put together a campaign. If you were going to make a strategic shift in one of your brands, you have a lot of time to think about it. A lot of leaders- Sports isn't that way. No. Sports, I think my second or third day here, the team traded Taylor Hall. Yeah. And he was, at the time, the face of the team. We had to get every location, the airport, the mall. Anywhere where his brand was. Yeah. And that had to come down overnight. And I had never worked on such short timelines before. So that was a really good introduction to the speed at which this industry moves. And this was also a period of time where the team wasn't doing real good. I think what's more fair to say, well, they weren't, let's just be honest. But again, because of the expectations in Edmonton, that we're supposed to always have a winning team. Ten years without playoffs. Yeah. Like, here we had won five Stanley Cups, and now no Stanley Cups. A lot of pressure on you guys. Not just on the players, but on you guys too. And everything has to work together. You need a strong business operations, hand in hand with strong hockey operations, because one kind of funds the other, but the other one fuels the other. So it has to be cohesive. Was it ever tough selling the Oilers? Was there ever a period of time where it was... Because now... You have to ask my predecessor, because I feel like I've been extremely fortunate that the time, the window that I've been here... The new arena helped everything. The new arena was huge. The two best players in the world. Yeah, for sure. Those are really great tools to have at our disposal. To market and to sell. Yeah, yeah. But we certainly can't take anything for granted. And after that first season, the team made the playoffs. We came within an overtime period of making the Western Conference final. That was my first season working for the team. And I thought, this is great. This is going to be easy. Five rings in the next five years. It's going to be the old Oilers. And the next two seasons, we didn't make the playoffs. And that was kind of back down to earth. And then there was a bit of a reset. And the team, kind of, I think, Connor really found his identity as a leader. And they brought a bunch of great players in surrounding him. And you've got, you know, Leon, Neuge, Darnell. So, you know, you're doing this role. Things are going well. All of a sudden, the world starts to change. Yes. And hockey changed. And how we enjoyed everything in life changed. Tell us about that time. And how with you as the marketer, what do you do in that situation when all of a sudden you can't have people come into the arena anymore? Right. And Edmonton was unique in all of that. COVID comes and, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I'll start, I guess, from the beginning of COVID. And for us, we were hosting a season seat holder breakfast the morning of March 13th. Oh, yeah. And, you know, we had been talking the night before. I think the NBA had suspended its season the night before. Yeah. We had a game against Winnipeg at Roger's Place. And we were kind of all flying blind at the time. Nobody knew exactly what the right way to go. Let's see who shows up for this breakfast. And we had pretty good attendance. And I believe Jack Michaels was emceeing the event that morning. And there's a lot of questions about, you know, what's going to happen. And nobody really had any answers at that point. And then things started escalating pretty quickly. We went into a bit of a shutdown until, Cam, as you mentioned, Edmonton was selected as one of the two hub cities for the remainder of the 2020 season. I can't imagine internally what you got. I mean, for everybody, though, for everybody on their own level, on their own scale, whatever their business was, but a professional sports team. And now, you don't know, like you said it perfect, nobody knew, nobody knew. And here, they're shutting you down. Your bread and butter is people coming to the arena and watching a hockey game. Without that, you really don't have anything, maybe some TV rights and things like that. But you guys, what was that like inside? What were those conversations like? Were they? Well, as of I think the next week, we all had to start working from home. Right. So nobody was even going into the office at that point. Everyone had kind of dispersed and we come from an industry where you're there every day, you're at the arena. It's so important to the way we run our business. It's a team. So working remotely was a really bizarre kind of feeling. And the first little while I was spending time trying to procure face masks with our Oilers logo on it, which seems so surreal at the time. I love that, with our Oilers logo on it. I know it was almost impossible to get. Yeah. Manufacturers started ramping up, but it was hard to get anything at that point. Supply chains had just shut down. We were all just, we were trying to keep busy. We were trying to add value wherever we could, but there was just, like I said, so much uncertainty. And then even when the NHL selected Edmonton as a Hub City location, there was only a handful of people that were working inside the arena. So we should explain that for listeners, that the NHL decided, how many cities? There were two cities, Edmonton and Toronto. And during COVID, only Edmonton and Toronto hosted hockey games. Eastern Conference, Western Conference. No other teams were playing in their own arenas. Just Edmonton or Toronto. That was it. And so, yeah, they came. They came and Edmonton kind of qualified for the qualifier playoffs before kind of getting into the main draw. And we lost to Chicago. But the tournament carried on. In Edmonton. In Edmonton. And then eventually when the Eastern Conference finalist, which was Tampa, I believe, from Toronto came to Edmonton to play that year's Stanley Cup finals. Yeah, it was the most unique, bizarre. Were you in the arena at all during that time? Not really. No, no. And anyone that was there had to do a daily COVID test. I, you know, I had no justifiable reason to be there. And they were really trying to limit who was in and out. Unless you had game operations responsibilities. I felt like the people who were there almost had to sleep there. I know they didn't, but that's almost how it was, right? You were basically inside the bubble where you couldn't go out. And then when you came back, yeah, it was weird, just weird. Wow. And weird times. It was very strange. As we talk about it now, you know, and we, it's just, it, it seems like forever ago, but it seems like yesterday. It just is, it was such weird times. It was very weird times. But Dan, something also happened during this time of COVID. For you. For you. Tell us a little bit about that. I love this part. I love this part of the story. Well, you know, they say idle hands are the devil's workshop. Okay. Someone says that. Stay tuned, folks. The best is yet to come. And as I was mentioning, I was out of the bubble and we were waiting to find out when, because there was that second wave of COVID, kind of flared up in October, November of 2020. And so now we didn't know when hockey was coming back. And I was looking for something to occupy myself. And I love hamburgers. I love cheeseburgers. I think you need cheese on a burger. This is so great. Who doesn't love cheeseburgers? This is like, yeah. And there was a particular type of burger that I really enjoy. I just felt like you could not find in Edmonton. So with the help of some YouTube videos, and a lot of time on my hands, I decided to create the kind of burger that I felt was missing from this city. And I had a vision one night, and the name came to me, the logo came to me, Flat Boy Burgers. And the next day, I secured the URL, the website. I trademarked the name, because I couldn't believe that no one had done it. Yeah, they've done it. It's this thin, smash-style burger. Yeah. And one of our amazing designers, I want to give him a shout out, Cristobal Castellan, who I work with at OEG. He was also, you know, had some time. And I sent him a sketch, I'm like, Chris, I've got this vision for this. And so he took it and cleaned it up and made it beautiful. And, you know, I started making smash burgers. In your kitchen? In my kitchen. In your kitchen. So how did, like, all day, you were just making burgers? And what is your, how's your family doing? Like, were they loving this? Dad's making burgers? Well, you know, at the time, at the time, it was just me. Oh, okay. I was in a condo. Okay. Downtown. Making burgers all day long. Yeah. I... I love it. And a big part of it, like, the burger part was easy. It was, how do I get my food safety certification? How do I get licensed by the province? I need to get a city business license. During COVID. Right. So that was the part that I knew nothing about. Yeah. I really had to learn about. And at the same time, every night, I would make the burgers and I was just delivering them or friends were coming to pick them up. Really? Just to try to get a little bit of buzz out there. And then people that I didn't know started reaching out and asking if they could get one. And so then I felt like, okay, we've got something here. And I found a location at Edmonton where you could rent a commercial kitchen space by the hour. Yeah, yeah. So a full flat top, which you need to make these kind of burgers. And I hired somebody who had a little bit of experience working. But again, this was all just kind of a flyer. And I think this is great. The timing of this is a little crazy because the evening that I found out that I had received my full AHS food license, the next morning, I was called back to full time work with the Oilers because we were going back to playing hockey. That was the season that we played at home, but with no fans. Right, right. That was a bridge season. Canadian teams comprised in the North Division. Yeah. Watching hockey, no fans in the seat. It was odd. We had these big tarps covering them. That's right. Yeah, covering them. But at that point, I said, well, I've made it this far, so why don't, I'll work full time for OEG. Everybody at OEG knew about this little side project of mine. And were extremely supportive, I must say. Cause you were giving them burgers. Yeah. Feeding them burgers. But I needed to figure out if they tasted good or not. So I decided, well, I can still do Flat Boy Friday night and Saturday. So that's what I did. It really took off. Where was your first restaurant? The first location was that commercial space in Edmonton, on the south east side in industrial park basically. Oh, okay. Then we started talking to Sea Change, right. Yes. The beer company, and they were really interested in what we were doing. So I struck a deal with those guys, and they took on more of an operational role. Given that I was now being pulled back. Yeah. To your real job. Yeah. It's not something you can really have. It's just the commitment is too great, and that's my passion. That's what I'm here to do. Yeah. But I didn't want to see Flat Boy die on the line. Oh, it's something good. It was awesome. So. It's awesome. You know, we were able to create a great partnership agreement. They moved the business to Granite Curling Club. Yes. Where it kind of took on its next phase of life, and that was probably for a year or so. I just want to say, I loved going to the curling club to have a burger. It was the most unique experience of my entire, I remember the first time I went, and I was with somebody here, and I said, you're kidding, you're kidding. I said, you're kidding. Come on, serious? And then it was amazing. It was the best. The only thing is nobody was curling. I thought, I gotta come when people are curling, and you're sitting there watching curling, eating one of these most fantastic burgers I've ever had in my life, and that's no lie, because I've eaten a lot of cheeseburgers, as you can tell. So yeah, no, thank you Cam. It was amazing. Thank you. It was amazing. And from there, Sea Change was building out a beautiful space for one of their other brands, Shiddy's, and they had this great space called the Rumpus Room, and they wanted Flat Boy to come in and be the food provider inside Shiddy's, and that's where we've been for the last year and a half, I would say. And it's awesome. Shiddy's is awesome. Shiddy's is awesome. Sea Change is awesome. I went on Friday, and I sat, this isn't like a woe is me story, but I sat all by myself at the counter, and I loved it. And I had a chocolate shake and a cheeseburger. And I'm telling you, no, I'm serious. No, I believe you. There I sat, and it was like dying and going to heaven. It was the greatest. And that's already after I'd had lunch, if my wife's listening, I'm dead. But nonetheless, I'd had lunch, and then I stopped. You look great. I stopped to have a burger all by myself. It was so good. We're doing Dan on Monday. I got to have a burger. Sometimes you have to. Yeah. You know, and you've done well. Like, you really, it's amazing. We've got a couple more locations opening. Any around here? Like, if you need space in Acheson, we could arrange that. We'll get here. Beaumont is next. Okay. Yeah. And excited to say that we've, we've got a space down in Calgary. Oh, okay. Oh, fantastic. Yeah. So that'll probably be sometime next summer. Folks, you heard it here. I don't know if you hear it first, but you hear it, Flat Boy is coming to Calgary. Yeah. But you know, something, something really cool and I don't want to create an, an implied endorsement here. But as I was leaving the arena this morning to drive out here, to meet with you fine folks, we have a big concert at the arena tonight. I'm not going to say who it is because again, I don't want to imply any endorsement, but we always have all the tour buses and the trucks lined up on the east side of the arena. And our Flat Boy Delivery Van was parked in amongst all those tour buses this morning. So obviously the band that's performing tonight, or maybe one of their openers, had looked up Best Burgers in Edmonton, and they got... See, this is great. I hope Dan as a marketer, you took photos of the van because... Videos, photos, everything. It's the kind of thing. And this is, it just happened to be what I saw as I was pulling out of the arena. That's awesome. You couldn't script us. Yeah. And it just, it's such a nice feeling to be like, hey, you know, we're having an impact and there's people outside of our market even that... Right. I love this story. This, this to me is just one of the, I mean, there's a lot of great stories that have come out of COVID because there's a lot of heartbreak that came out of COVID. But those great stories, this to me has always been one of those really great stories of what you did and what you just, you had a dream and you went after your dream in the midst of when most people were going, who knows what next? I'll be honest. This is crazy. I had, you know, what I thought was enough kind of to live on for six, seven months without going into my savings until hockey came back. And I, you know, probably somewhat foolishly took all that money and put it right into Flat Boy up front. So I didn't really give myself much of a choice. Sure. Yeah. There was no other option. Luckily, hockey did come back, but sometimes you just need to take a chance and- So I'm just going to say right here now, what I love about Flat Boy Burgers the most, outside of the fact they taste amazing, they are smash burgers, which you're right, it's hard to find a good smash. There's a lot of people who attempt to do a smash burger, but don't know how to do it. There's an art to it. Yep. Crispy edges. It's amazing. Anyway, you do the burger. You don't waste your time. You don't have like jalapeno. Onion ring, fry burgers. You have burgers. Burgers. It's just burgers. Burgers and fries. Cam's very excited right now. I really am because you don't find those kind of places. They're just great and they taste great. And they're homemade. You can tell. Great people. Great people. The people that we've been so lucky with, the people that we have that work at the Rumpus Room, work for Flat Boy. The people are everything. Great atmosphere. It's a wonderful place to just go have a burger. Without people that care. You've done well, my friend. It doesn't work. You've done really well. And so I'm so excited to hear that it's expanding. That really excites me. And like I say, Acheson, it would be a great place. But anyway, nonetheless, that's really cool. You're still going with the Oilers. You're still going strong. The Oilers are going strong. New season starting up. New season starting up that we're extremely excited about. Anything exciting you want to tell us? You know, I will say we've launched a really cool new product. If I could talk to you about that. So we now have quarter season seats. We used to have these 11 game power packs. We now have quarter season seats. So you basically get all the benefits of being a season seat holder with a 10, 11 game package, which to me is amazing. It's a really nice number of games. If you're not looking for a share partner, it's a perfect number of games to go to in a season. You get all these great benefits. You can do like our 8 pay program. So you're paying $120 a month after your original deposit and you're a season seat holder. Come on. For a professional NHL hockey game? That's amazing. I mean, one of the best teams in the league. And if not the best, well, I'm a little, yeah, the best, yeah, you know, but yeah, wow. So we're really excited about that. We're excited about this season. That was just me putting on my marketing hat for one second. But no, no, I think that's great. In terms of the season in general, we've got some great new coaches that we had a chance to meet as an organization a couple of weeks ago at our internal kickoff. And they're bringing a lot of new ideas and a lot of excitement. And we have incredible players. We've got some exciting young players that everyone's excited to see, if they can stick around and what they might do. Sure. So listen, I need to remind myself sometimes as well, this is the best job in the city. It's the best organization. Next to working at Flat Boy. Yeah, it's probably the best job in the city. I'm so lucky. If I worked at Flat Boy, if you ever need somebody, just call. I'll come. That's amazing. But yeah, well, you guys do a fabulous job. Well, I actually have another question. Okay. And this is marketing related because I saw the teaser of it. I love the new merchandise. Oh, yeah. The new jerseys, the new... I think it looks so sharp. Thank you. I can't wait to go get the new merchandise. It's awesome. Were you a part of that, Dan? Yes, absolutely. You guys did fabulous on that. It's my favorite in a very long time. Yeah, I agree. It's the whole... It's the new change. The change is it's fresh, it's exciting. And it's kind of vintage. But I was gonna say, it's a little bit vintage, which for if you've been in Edmonton for a lot of years and cheered for the Oilers, it brings back that nostalgic sense, but yet it's very retro and it's very... It is. It's great. We had this photo of... This might be very... Sound like a fashion guy here. We had this photo of some shelves in someone's shop and all these beautiful old cans of motor oil. And that picture was something that we kept coming back to. The Heritage Classic Jersey was something that we really liked. We like using that cream color and we thought, wouldn't it be cool to make that the base color of a jersey? One of our designers, Brandon McMurray, designed the uniform. This is the first time we've ever put Oil Country on the jersey, on the shoulder patch. That was really important to us. This is an ode to Oil Country, this jersey. We still got the little oil drop inside the S. It's been really interesting. Whenever you put something out in the world, you can't expect that 100% of the people are going to see things the way you do. I say this to my team all the time, in the world you've got people that like to build things, create things and you've got people that like to tear things down. We're always going to choose the side of building things, putting things out there. It doesn't have to be universally admired or approved. No, you're right, not everybody is going to love everything. And I think when people see this jersey on the ice, the full kit, we think it's spectacular. I've had 18 months to kind of get used to it. Yeah. But I think when people see it on the ice, and the feedback's been pretty good. We're pretty happy, but I think as it grows on people, we're really excited about it. I'm excited. And we got a really cool message. I'm not going to say who, because I don't want to jinx anything, but somebody I would call a global superstar inquired with the league office about getting themselves one of these jerseys. So that to me is a pretty good sign that we need something. Maybe we'll see if, keep an eye on the paparazzi pages, I guess, over the next few months, and we'll see if that jersey makes an appearance. That's cool. That's really cool. Well, you guys are doing a fabulous job. You really are. I'm proud to be an Oilers fan. I always have, always will be. Glad to have you. Lived away for a number of years, and still, still when I lived away, wore my Oilers jersey with pride. We appreciate it. And it's awesome. Final question. Final question. Final question. Final question. Okay, Dan, what is the best piece of advice you've been given either personally or professionally that you carry with you to this day? I'll use something that I think we were just talking about, and that is to always assume positive intent. So in life, in business, in your personal relationships, you're going to encounter confrontation or differences of opinion. But if you, and this might not always be correct, but if you just put yourself in the place, in the shoes of the other person and you try to think or assume that they're coming from a place of goodwill or good intent, it just completely changes the dynamic of whatever that challenge might be. That's good. You know, and I really think right now, especially, I don't want to get political, but everybody just taking maybe a log off the fire is, it doesn't matter where you're coming from or what point of view you might have. Everyone taking a breath and just maybe at the end of the day, I think 99% of us are just trying to get by and do the best we can and treat our fellow humans with respect and kindness. And that's good. That's a good word. It goes a long way. It's simple, but it goes a long way. No, that's a good word. You're absolutely right. We're too ramped up right now. We need to take a step back. And it's about people. That's what it's about. It's about people. So that's fantastic. Wow. This is great. I love what you do. I love your story. I love what you're doing for the Oilers. I love what you're doing for Flat Boy Burgers. edmontonoilers.com, right? Yep. That's right. flatboyburgers.com. flatboyburgers.com. You got to go. If you live in Edmonton, I'm telling you right now, if you live, I'm not even kidding folks, if you live in Edmonton, if you've never tried a Flat Boy Burger, you got to go. And Shiddy's is a great place to go to. There's lots of other stuff there, but you go for the burger and you'll end up having some of the other stuff. It's fantastic. Soon Beaumont, Soon Calgary, Soon Acheson, Soon somewhere close to me. Downtown Acheson, of course. Here's the thing, I'm just going to say this in closing, because I love In-N-Out Burger. I love In-N-Out. I'm one of those In-N-Out guys, and I never felt there was anybody in Canada close to In-N-Out Burger till I had a Flat Boy Burger. It's a different burger, but now it's Flat Boy. I don't have to worry about In-N-Out, I got Flat Boy. Thank you. So it's awesome. Thanks for everything you do. Thanks for the support. Thanks for having me today. I love chatting with you two. Can't wait to get to a game. No, I'm excited. Start soon and we'll be there, so I'm really excited about it and it's going to be great everybody. Hey listen, thanks for listening today. What a great story. If you're not an Oilers fan, well you should become one. If you're a Toronto fan, I'm sorry. But anyways, that's all I'm going to say about that. So hey listen, thanks for listening. Tell a friend about the podcast. Tell a friend, tell a co-worker, tell an enemy. If you don't have any friends, make one so you can tell them about the podcast wherever you get your podcasts or at www.coffeeinthepark.com. And if you're looking for a place to have dinner tonight, check out Wing Snob. Wing Snob. Here's what I would do if I were you. I'd go to Wing Snob and eat like 25 wings and then I'd go to Flat Boy and eat like three cheeseburgers. That's what I'd do. But anyways, Wing Snob, 16 flavors, four rubs. www.wingsnob.ca, Mprint. Mprint for all your printing needs. All your printing needs. Jan and Don are wonderful here in Acheson. www.Mprint.ca. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. Tell your friends, subscribe, subscribe. Subscribe. Catch you next time. Thanks everyone.