Interview · moment 18 of 25
Finding the 'Dave Attell of Pizza Makers' and Craftsmanship
from Bill Burr | The Tim Dillon Show #321 · #321
4 min
Guest
Bill talks about seeking out master craftsmen like a young cobbler who hand-makes shoes, and laments how modern restaurants add unnecessary loud DJ vibes instead of just being great at the one thing they do, like classic waiters at Musso and Frank.
- Tim explains his method: find the Dave Attell of any craft—the master craftsperson whose skill makes other practitioners stop and watch.
- Dean Del Rey introduced him to a 24-year-old cobbler named Saying who hand-makes shoes the old-school way, tracing your foot and delivering a custom fit weeks later.
- The people worth remembering are those passionate about their craft who figured out how to make money doing it sustainably.
- Real old-school service—waiters at places like Russo and Frank or Smith Wolinsky's who know your name, your drink, your table, even details about your family—matters and shouldn't be done ironically or as hipster irony.
- Tim had to wear earplugs to a sushi dinner with his wife because restaurants have become unbearably loud, trying to engineer a club-like vibe.
- Every establishment now manufactures an artificial atmosphere with DJs and music, but the vibe often mismatches the experience—like blasting club energy while serving spicy tuna rolls.
- When you're truly excellent at something, you just sell the thing itself; mediocre businesses compensate for lack of quality by layering on DJ sets and manufactured vibes.
- Scenes used to develop organically, but now anything showing commercial potential gets immediately co-opted and ripped off by competitors chasing the same money.
- Tim wonders whether scenes have simply gotten bigger rather than disappeared, or if he's just too old to recognize the new shape they've taken.
Russo and FrankSmith Wolinsky'sDave AttellDean Del Rey