{"id":32387,"date":"2015-03-26T19:32:09","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/?p=32387"},"modified":"2015-03-26T21:15:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T01:15:08","slug":"exclusive-an-interview-with-patrick-potopsky-owner-of-the-brew-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cavstheblog.com\/?p=32387","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: an Interview with Patrick Potopsky, Owner of the Brew Garden (Plus, A SECOND MOZGOV COMMERCIAL!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Brew_Garden_Logo\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Occasionally, amazing things happen in this life. One of those things was the Timofey Mozgov ad for the Brew Garden that I wrote 1,700 words on earlier today. However, just that writeup did not fully quench my thirst for knowledge about the 15 seconds of pure magic that is Timofey Mozgov firing a competitor plate aside and declaring that he is hungry for Brew Garden. So I called the Brew Garden and got some initial details from a bartender who was present for the shoot of the ad, and was able to get some information for her. I also left my number for the owner of the Brew Garden, the true mastermind of the ad, in the hopes that I could get the full breakdown of the ad. A few hours later, he called me back. The following is a transcript of what he told me about the ad.<\/p>\n

On The Overall Ethos of The Ad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we did the commercial, we thought this is going to go really, really well, or be really odd, but I\u2019ve got a Masters, and I thought quirky works. It\u2019s not going to be perfect, because it\u2019s not his first language, but he was awesome. He had us in stitches. He was only there for an hour, he was there for three hours, and he could not stop eating the food. He was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

On The Ad’s Construction:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to pan up slowly, so you could be like \u2018who\u2019s throwing this plate?\u00a0That was the whole idea, that you\u2019re not supposed to know what\u2019s going on the first time, but it gets funnier every time you watch it. So now, when you hear this crash from the other room, you go into the TV room and watch the ad.<\/p>\n

On Choosing Mozgov as the pitchman:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI played college basketball, I like the way he plays, and we were looking for a spokesman.\u00a0The idea came from watching the Cavs and I thought, the way he plays, wouldn\u2019t it be fun if he swiped the plate and said get that weak stuff out of here \u2013 we thought about that guy from Rocky, Ivan Drago, you know, with the ‘I must break you,’ and we said it\u2019s fine if the English isn\u2019t perfect. We wanted to get that feel.\u00a0It was either him or we\u2019re not doing it. We would have never done a commercial unless it was with him. I mean, it\u2019s perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the Jersey Being Backwards:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The story behind the backwards jersey is that we wanted the name real big in the front \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m surprised that you picked up that the jersey was backwards. The plan was to pull the jersey low so it wouldn\u2019t be obvious, but in the take we used, the collar ran up a little bit.” (At this point, I mentioned that basketball fans know that the name on the jersey is on the back, to which he replied, “oh.”)<\/p>\n

“For the BG Logo, we ran down to an embroidery place at 9 AM, and they were able to get it done by noon for a 1 PM shoot.”<\/p>\n

On the Process of Filming the Ad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe did do\u00a0a lot of takes. We only did 5 takes of the plate, and he nailed the s**t out of the plate takes. The first one, he threw it to the window, and that\u2019s 20 feet away.\u00a0Originally, the competitor thing was supposed to fly off, but once we saw it fall down, we liked it, and that worked. Like I mentioned, during the takes, he was eating the food, he was eating it so fast —\u00a0we tried to make enough food for 6 takes. During one take, he almost ate the entire plate, the sandwich, the chips, and everything. And he was like, ‘I\u2019m so hungry, I\u2019m sorry.’ So then we had to cut the production, because we ran out of food.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had difficulty with Rs. He had some trouble with \u2018Brew Garden\u2019 and \u2018Bartenders,\u2019 but the editor\u00a0did such a good job with splicing that you can\u2019t even tell. I\u2019m from Ukraine, too, and I know that whenever you come over from Ukraine or Russia the American \u2018R\u2019 is really difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Where it Goes from Here:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI had an idea, and I never thought it would blow up the way it has.\u00a0I had a $20 dollar bet that it would get 50 million blog hits, and it did that in the first hour.\u00a0We\u2019ve got some outtakes that we\u2019re going to put out over the next couple weeks.”<\/p>\n

On The Brew Garden (After some prompting by your editor):<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We just have great food, great people working for us, great place to watch the games, we have one of the largest outdoor patios in Ohio. 30 craft beers on tap, 90% of our menu is scratch. I mean, it’s just great food and great people.”<\/p>\n

BONUS MOSGOV:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: It\u00a0keeps getting better. \u00a0When we reached out to the Brew Garden, they provided us access to the second (in what is hopefully a long line) of commercials featuring our favorite Russian. His co-star in this is Liz, the 6’1 bartender, who was our original contact at the Brew Garden today. Thanks so much to Timofey and everyone at the Brew Garden for being awesome and generally making our day.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yDSHyNVfwjQ&feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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