Ark Restaurants Corp.

Which practice you're looking for? Okay, I'll bring you later. Okay.

Helpful in increasing demand, so we'll wait and see on that. All in all, we're just, you know, margins have been squeezed. We're trying to pick the margins up by being more efficient in payroll and hopefully driving some more revenue The easy one to talk about, the two elephants in the room, Meadowlands and Bryant Park. Meadowlands, again, we think we're the most likely site for gaining a casino license in the north of New Jersey, but New Jersey will not move until New York State starts to issue licenses for downstate casinos meaning Manhattan or Queens or the Bronx. Two of those licenses we suspect will be issued to Aqueduct and to Yonkers. We believe that once they're issued it will take a matter of months for those to become fully operational casinos because the facilities are already built. For the third license, and there are several developers vying for those, that will take some time. But we think the implementation of casino licenses at Yonkers and Aqueduct will force Jersey to make a decision that they have to do something in the North. has been dying for years, and I think this would really be a death knell, and Jersey will wake up and issue a license in the north. We suspect that New York State will issue licenses sometime later this year, so we also expect that that will generate a referendum to allow, it's a referendum voted on by the public, to allow for casino gaming in the north. So that's the metaverse. Brian Clark, if we follow the headlines, the Brian Clark Corporation has said they want to go forward with somebody other than us. That deal has not been signed yet. It requires a positive... okay from the Parks Department in the New York Public Library. We've hired a whole team of experts and we feel that we have a decent chance of retaining the operation of that facility. It'll take months to know, but we really believe we're still in the game. We think the whole request for proposal process was flawed and the thing that we don't understand is that the new license to operate would be issued to a company that has limited hospitality experience, we've been hugely successful, and their minimum rent proposal is a million dollars less than us. So it just doesn't sound like it's a logical business arrangement, and we're looking into it, and hopefully we will see something that starts to move us back into our direction. So with that, any questions? I'm happy to answer.

Thank you. We will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your questions on the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Kaminski with JJK Consulting. Please proceed with your questions.

Good morning, everyone. Hi, Andrew. With respect to and the process, I guess you folks found out about the lease and the other party through a meeting, the hearings properly, through some sort of public hearing or public meeting. So my question is, are there more of these scheduled And can the public actually attend? I mean, as a shareholder, I have invested interest in what happens to Pine Park as do other shareholders of work. What's preventing us here, you know, as a member of the public and a New York resident from attending such a year?

There's nothing preventing you to go to public sessions. The community board session is a public session. Announcement of his, of the Grindpaw Corporation's election was made at a subcommittee of the community board meeting. It's the Paws and Recreation subcommittee of the community board. And it was a public forum. There was a lot of robust discussion a conversation about it regarding the process and regarding the affordability of the selection of the new restaurateur. You know, we're reasonably priced. We don't think the selection of Seaport Entertainment Group and their licensing agreement, proposed licensing agreement with John George speaks well of affordability to the public. So there was a large discussion about that. But the community board's advisory decision in this, the sign-ups they need to get the deal done with any operator has to come from the city law department and from the public library. And they have not even proposed a change in operators. to either one of those two organizations.

Go ahead. Our comments come from the public. Welcome, I think, to the shareholders and some of your employees. I'm sorry.

We had 25 employees at the community board meeting. We have 250 employees at Brian Paul Corporation who are in danger of losing their jobs. Literally 40% of those employees have been with us for 25 years or more. So that constituency is also important in this process.

Right. And were any of them able to speak at the meeting? And, you know, if I attended the next meeting with Michelle, would I have an opportunity to make a statement?

You would have a minute to two minutes to speak.

Okay. Thank you. You're welcome.

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Desai, a private investor. Please repeat your question.

Hey, Michael. How are you?

Good, Ravi. Thank you.

I had a question. Moving forward, as you guys think down the road, six months, 12 months, just wanted to get a sense of how you guys are thinking about the capital allocation on dividends or buybacks or if you guys have any other ideas outside of, you know, the strategic acquisitions that you're looking for down south.

So that's a complicated question because it really depends upon the outcome of Brian Park, certainly with regard to dividends. Right now, without the cash flow that would be attendant to an operation at Brian Park, we would not be a payer of dividends. That also is a question regarding buybacks. I think that same thought process is applicable. I don't think we're going to be aggressively buying stock unless we know what's going on with Ronald Park, number one, as a company. There may be people we're aligned with who may want to take an interest in the stock. But without Brian Park, it's very hard to make these decisions. In terms of expanding the business, we have some nice opportunities, we think, that don't require a tremendous amount of capital. or where we would have partnerships with other organizations that see it as an important part of the process to establish some new operations. So we're looking at that. It's sort of paralyzing in one respect for a balance sheet and income statement to have this issue with Bryant Park, but on the other hand, we're actively engaged in trying to find areas where we can expand sensibly.

Hope that answers your question.

Yeah, that's helpful there. So we'll see how the Bryant Park shakes out, and good luck with that. I think it, you know, I hope it falls in your guys' favor.

Thank you.

A final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we view polls for any additional questions. Mr. Weinstein, it appears we have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

All right. Thank you all for your interest, and we'll see you next quarter. Thank you. Bye-bye.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.