Aaron Vaccaro

00:00Hey, I'm Matthew Clements with Robbins Insurance Agency. You know, before I got into insurance, I worked in the hospitality space. So I do understand firsthand how tough it can be to keep things running smoothly. Now I love to help business owners like you protect what you've built. Whether it's a restaurant, bar, hotel, catering operation, I know the risks you're up against and how to cover them properly. This isn't a one size fits all coverage. I'm going to help you find a policy that actually fits your operation, your staff, and your budget. So you can focus on serving guests, not stressing about what ifs. It's an ever changing market. Anything could go wrong. If you want to work with someone who knows hospitality from the insides and out, reach out to me, call my cell phone, 863-409-9372, or go to robbinsins.com. Pony boy slings. What's that? It's a bourbon based canned cocktail from Kentucky. Bourbon canned cocktail? Yeah, but it's only 7% and fully carbonated.

01:01So it's super refreshing. Oh, I get it. It's not a regular bourbon. It's a cool bourbon. Giddy up. For more info, visit drinkponyboy.com. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are super excited today because we have Aaron Vaquero. He is the CEO of Liquor Lab. Liquor Lab is a cocktail experience you can do downtown. They have one in Louisville and he was one of the original guys for Topgolf. He kind of did all kinds, he's with a venture capital firm and really interesting stuff.

02:02We talked a little bit about Liquor Lab, but I had so many other questions for him and it was just really a good conversation. I cannot wait to play that for you. A little bit of an intro here, we'll probably go a few minutes, but we are going to talk about the NARA Connect and then we're going to talk about my trip to Monterey and Salinas after that. So we'll jump in right now with NARA Connect, Nashville area restaurant alliances in full swing and we are hosting in like the first I've ever seen. I don't know if this has ever been done before and it's kind of been my dream for a really long time. So I'm really excited to tell you about it. We are doing an independent restaurant show. It's from three to six on August 14th and it is at the Music City Center. Now if you would like to go to this and you are an owner of a restaurant, a general manager, an executive chef, I would love to have you. All you have to do is go to naranashville.com. That's N-A-R-A-Nashville.com. You're going to see a tab that says NARA Connect. Just click the link and then you register.

03:02It's free for you to come. Now here's the deal. We are limited on people, so I can bring a hundred people. I'd like to get 50 restaurants. So we're limiting it to two people per restaurant. So go register. Independent restaurants. I do not want chains. If you have like 30 restaurants in 20 states, this is not for you. These are for people who operate a restaurant here in town, who own a restaurant here in town, who are tired and want to see some other people in the industry and connect. I really wanted to have an event where everybody get together with no salespeople. Everywhere you go to these things, there's just all kinds of salespeople everywhere. It's hard to get around. The first hour and a half of this thing, from 3 o'clock to 4.30, there's no salespeople. This is just restaurant people hanging out. This is going to be a benefit for the Giving Kitchen and we're going to have them up talking about what Giving Kitchen does. I'm going to talk about what NARA does.

04:04So between 3 and 3.30 is like a meet and greet. And then from 3.30 to 4.30, we're going to do kind of a presentation, which is Giving Kitchen myself, we're going to present a check to Giving Kitchen. This is going to be a benefit for them. And then at 4.30, we are going to open the doors and we are going to let you into the huge monstrous kitchen at Music City Center. This is a huge kitchen and Chef Max has invited me and all of our vendor partners to be there. So you want to meet Jason Ellis from SuperSource. He's going to be there. You want to meet Matthew Clements from Robin's Insurance. You want to try Ponyboy Slings. You want to try Calexo. You want to meet the people from Sharpier's Bakery, C&B Linen, all the people. We are going to have Dr. Pezzona from Pezzona MD. So if you are a person who's looking for a doctor or anything like that, you just want to talk about whatever he's going to be there talking about what he does. We're going to have the Chandler James team there from Lee & Associates.

05:07So if you're curious about what parts of town, all four broadliners. Of course, GFS will be there, Cisco, US Foods, PFG. We're going to have all four broadliners in one space. We're going to have Freshpoint there talking about produce. Not talking, this is going to be all of these people will have a table. My goal is to have some line on your P&L, have somebody representing every line of P&L and these are people that I trust, that I've been working with, that we've negotiated deals for you as NARA members. If you come, that doesn't mean you're automatically a NARA member, we would want you to sign up and we need to talk about it and what that looks like and how we can help you. We'd love to have every independent restaurant in the city to be a member. There's no cost for the first 50 members, I think we're at 31 right now, 31 members. So the next 19 members that come on, it's going to be free and after that there will be an annual charge just for the first inaugural 50.

06:08You'll learn more about it at the event. This is going to be awesome. It's going to be a lot of fun and hopefully you get to connect with a ton of people. I think this is the thing that the local community has been needing, needing something where everybody gets together and just is able to hang. So we're going to hang, we're going to have a meeting and then we're going to go have a vendor show. There's going to be food, there's going to be drink and there's going to be an after party that's going to be sponsored by CMB Lennon and it's going to be cool. I can't tell you where it is, you have to come to the event to find out where it is and it's going to be downtown at a local bar and restaurant and there will be food and drink and all the things because this is just going to be a heck of a time. So go register right now, naranashville.com. Click the register or Nara Connect and then click the link. It's an e-vite thing. You just sign up and then you're going to show up. We're going to have lanyards. It's going to be great. So I just got back late last night from Monterey, California and I was in Monterey for three nights and then we spent one night in Carmel and we went to California with Marcon.

07:15Now what is Marcon? Marcon is the kind of the produce division over at Gordon Food Service and they've been telling me about Marcon and I've said, okay, I was a produce guy for a long time, I don't, you know, whatever. And so they said, no, we want to, we want to take you guys for our restaurants out to Monterey, California. We want you to go to Salinas and see the fields. I want you to see where Marcon is being packed and what it is. And I said, oh, oh, I'm down for that. Let's go. So we flew into California. We went into Monterey, which is gorgeous, right there on the bay in Monterey Bay. We got to go kayaking one day. We went out to, we were like kayaking in the bay outside of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was a sea lions and sea otters and seals. If you were watching my stories at Brandon Styll, or even at Nashville Restaurant Radio, at Brandon Styll had all the kayaking pictures, at Nashville Restaurant Radio had pictures of the field and we got to go out to the actual produce fields. And it was unbelievable. I want to say a big shout out to Doug and Val over at Marcon.

08:20They were kind of our hosts. I also want to say a big shout out to Josh Dooley, who is with Gordon Food Service. He, I don't know what his title is. He's like a market manager. He kind of manages the whole Nashville market, but man, we had so much fun. I don't think he tried to sell me anything the whole time, but it was really nice to like get to connect with these people and you know, I love GFS. These guys are just amazing besides taking me to California, but it's so funny when you just hang out with people and you're like, when you hang out with somebody for three days, you get to know them a little better and you're like, man, these people really are. They're just, they're just great people. And I really, I couldn't be more proud to represent them here at Nashville Restaurant Radio after this trip. So let me tell you another shout out. We got to visit Taylor Farms. We went to their actual farm. We watched them pick spinach, this crazy machine that goes through and picks it and it's out of control.

09:20It's the only thing I saw a machine pick. We went to Mann's, Tannamere and Antle. We got to see how baby artists, not baby, it's Artisan Romaine. We got to hear the story of Artisan Romaine from the guy that brought it here from Europe. TNA is a huge brand. They do a ton of spring mix, but like we're talking to the guy standing in the field while people are pulling out baby Romaine from the field. And he tells a story why he brought it to America and what it's doing. And it's like, whoa, this is, this is really kind of cool. That was my favorite guy, by the way. I'm going to try and get him on the show. Big thank you to Missionero Giant. You know, we went out and saw how iceberg is picked and weights of iceberg and the, you know, the standard weight for Marcon product. And then we went to the strawberry fields. I actually got to pick a clamshell of strawberries. And I think I won. I think I won for like the best job with picking the best strawberries. And I'm an old produce guy. So that's something I was really proud of. And then I got to eat all the strawberries.

10:21So that was good. They had got pulling strawberries off of vine eating them like a minute later. Pretty damn good. Not going to lie. But the thing to me, the thing that I saw out there that really made an impact on me was the people. Because we live in America and right now they're rounding up families based around how they look. They're showing up at Home Depot's. They're showing up in fields or showing up in restaurants. We got people afraid to go outside. We got families being ripped apart. We got people don't want to go to work because they're afraid that somebody is going to come out and take them away from their family. People don't want to go out to eat right now. I mean, restaurants are suffering because people aren't going out to eat. You know, they don't want to be seen at a restaurant because they're afraid somebody is going to come in and take them away from their family. And when you're in these fields and you watch how celery is cut and then you watch how iceberg and romaine and strawberries and you're hearing the stories of all of these immigrant workers who are there, it's backbreaking and they were freaking good and they're taken care of like they make good money out there doing that and they're hustling and there's thousands of people out there picking lettuces and vegetables.

11:40And it kind of broke my heart because this is what our, this is like, this is the backbone of our country. How we round up everybody and send them away. How are we getting, we're not going to eat. Nobody's going to come to the restaurant to eat. Nobody is going to be working in the restaurant. Nobody is going to be picking the food. And I don't know. I was just the, every person that I met who was out there was so kind and everybody was so they were working their asses off. I was like, good guy. I felt like a jerk standing there watching. I'm like, can I jump in? Like, what are you, what are we doing here? But they were so professional and they were so good. And it just was a sign of our times. And it just kind of was what I kind of took away that, man, we really need good people in this country to help do a lot of jobs and these are jobs that I don't see a lot of people lining up for and we're trying to just get rid of people. It's, it's really sad. So that was one, that was probably one of my biggest takeaways. The other takeaway was food safety.

12:42Every single box that they had, had codes and labels on them that every single row had a number that is picked on this row and then they test them. And really those little labels on the side of your boxes that you get when you get your produce is really amazing. And Markon was second to none. I mean, their whole company with what Markon does, I just thought it was a broad line produce division and it was way more like, Oh, wow. I mean, obviously I'm there for them and they're showing me the best that they got. But I can typically see through BS and it was, it was pretty legit. I was pretty impressed because they work with all the major brands. All these major brands, you see the branding boxes are packing for Markon out of the same fields and the standards are pretty high. And so is the food quality and the safety is really good too. So, uh, on top of that, we had some nice dinners. Uh, I got to play golf. I'm not like a big golfer, but Hey, when you're in, when in Rome, right? So this was not, we stayed an extra day and we played at Spanish Bay in Carmel, right next to Pebble beach.

13:47And that was incredible deer walking around on the course. I think I shot like a 13 on hole one, really narrow course. I haven't played golf in over a year. First time I swung a club all year was at this place golf. And I was like, Oh my God. But it was just an honor to do that. And then we went for like a five mile walk down the coast yesterday morning and it was, uh, it was incredible. I mean, it's absolutely incredible. If you ever have the chance to go to Monterey or Carmel by the sea, highly recommended that 17 mile drive is one of the most amazing places I've ever seen. Just absolutely gorgeous. The lone Cypress tree, the whole thing. So I am back. I'm excited about this August 14th thing. I'm not going to drone on anymore. I've been talking for almost 15 minutes. We're going to talk with Aaron Vaccaro and I hope you enjoy it. Super excited today to welcome our guest. We are sitting with Aaron Vaccaro and he is the CEO of liquor labs.

14:53What's that? Liquor lab, liquor lab. There's no, it's not plural, is it? It's just, yeah, it's liquor lab, technically liquor laboratory. But you know, we go by liquor lab, liquor lab, and you have two locations, one here in Nashville, one in Louisville. And I'm fascinated by this brand. It's really kind of a cool thing that you're doing. How long have you been involved with liquor lab? I started actually as an investor in 2017. So I came from a venture capital firm in Seattle where we invest in experiential entertainment concepts. So our big one was Topgolf, which we built over a long period of time. And then now from that, we've gotten a lot of experience in the food and beverage and experiential entertainment world, and that has brought us a lot of interesting deals and investments, including this one in 2017. And so started as a, as an investor and board member, got more involved over the years and just actually stepped in as CEO at the, at the beginning of this year. Wow. What have you learned so far that you didn't know? You know, I, it's going to sound funny, but all businesses, even successful ones are loosely functioning disasters.

16:05My friend, a guy named Brent from Missouri said that. And it's even, it's like, even when we're building really successful companies that are rocket ships, it's still, they're all just made of people. 100%. And so all these systems you're building and, and processes and all of these things are still run by people and people get sick and people make mistakes and people have good days and bad days and, um, nothing is, is ever perfectly like on the rails. So every day is a new, a new adventure. I love that. So how much control over culture and direction have you spent coming in as CEO? That's kind of the whole, um, that's basically my whole job. So, you know, I'm not a bartender by trade. I'm an enthusiast. I'm a huge fan of cocktails and mixology and bartenders are like heroes. You know, to me, right. As a, uh, as a person who's, who's an enthusiast, but doesn't have the skills. But what I am good at is building businesses and building teams and culture. And so I came in and have instilled some, um, some new, you know, ideas and processes around trying to scale the business and focusing on not just creating an experience, but building a brand and trying to build a team that has a really great culture that supports each other and, um, makes it fun to come to work.

17:23What's your framework for that? Do you work on like the EOS model? Or do you like, what is your base, your foundation for that? Um, I have actually used the EOS model and some, some companies I'm running one right now on the EOS model, which is working pretty well, but I'd say fundamentally at our investment firm, we we've developed a system we call model thinking and we implement that into each of our businesses. And model thinking is a way to understand the various components of each company and break them down into sort of playbooks and models. And that gives you a framework for understanding in each of those variables, whether it's ticket price, timing, um, input cost of alcohol, food, supplies, rent, all these pieces, these components of your business model, some of them are fixed and some are variable and volatile. And so we try to understand what is the natural volatility in each of these measures, in each of these components of the business, and then not be, not be predictive of saying this is exactly what we think is going to happen, but understand the range of in each of those elements, whether it's how much traffic you're getting, what's the average price, you know, average ticket price going to be, what's your average cost for the week, knowing the range of outcomes that, that are going to come from that.

18:45And then it's, it's funny. It's like the hardest thing when you're a CEO or founder is to say, I don't know, especially you're raising money from investors and all these things. Nobody ever wants to say, Oh, I don't know the answer to that question. We have to pretend like we know everything, but that's such a fallacy. It's like, so the best thing we can teach founders to do, and I try to do myself now as a leader is, is to admit, Hey, here's the parts of my business I don't fully understand yet because that, once you do that, you can focus on learning and saying, Hey, I don't curiosity. Yeah. Curiosity is so important, but curiosity to really use it requires intellectual honesty too. It does. You can't, if you already know everything, there's nothing to be curious about. And so you start with, Hey, I know we've got a great product that people like. Maybe I don't know what's the right price and maybe I don't know what are the perfect times to hold classes. So then you can actually experiment with those things and try to gain an understanding and then you can optimize. So we almost think of it as like applying the scientific method to business, but you have to be able to willing to say, these are the elements of my business model and this is how I'm going to test each one.

19:55So when you came in as CEO of liquor lab, what did you not know? What were some of the things that you had to get curious around to learn when it comes to changing and driving a culture is one thing to do it from an office and look at numbers and look at spreadsheets and go, Oh, here's my variables. But when you actually get in those four walls and you're in there, what did you learn? Well, we're still learning a lot. Obviously the biggest variable and thing we're trying to, we're trying to learn is how do we, how do you, how do you get people in the door? Right? It's like, how do you get, how do you reach your potential customers, whether they're locals to Nashville or they're tourists, how do you reach potential bachelor parties, bachelorette parties? We know for sure that when people get in the door and come to a class, they have a great time. We have almost exclusively five star reviews. We have amazing feedback from our private events and public classes. So the quality of the product that's a known at this point, and we only bring in the best bartenders from great cocktail bars around town.

20:57We have a couple of full-time instructors and then we rotate in bartenders that are actually working expert mixologist that are out there in the industry making drinks every night for people. And so we, we have a combination, not a question, whether if someone comes in our door, if they're going to have a good experience, the question is, how do we get them into the door? And so that's what we've been really experimenting with influencer marketing, Instagram, you know, coming on, doing podcasts like this. And that's what we're trying to figure out. I think that I got so interested when I started talking to you, I glossed over like, what is liquor lab? You know, I, I know what liquor lab is because I've done some research here, but the average listener is like, what is liquor lab? I don't understand why this applies to Nashville restaurant radio. Give us, give us. So if I'm, let's just say I'm a guy and I want to, I book, I look and I see that you have summer cocktail class or something along that I book, uh, me and my wife are going to go and I don't drink.

22:01So it probably wouldn't be something that would be good for me unless you do a mocktail or something or other. Like, what is the experience? Walk me through what I'm going to experience. Yeah, totally. So liquor lab is basically a cooking class for cocktails. And so we have two physical locations. Like you mentioned Nashville and Louisville, uh, in Nashville, we're downtown on second, second commerce. So just to block off of Broadway, you come in, we have basically two classrooms where it's set up with a bartender upfront on a little stage and then a, basically a classroom set up where we have a bar tool set up at every, every station where you've got your shaker, your mixing glass, your ingredients, whether it's going to be syrups or whiskey or whatever the ingredients are for the night and over the course of a 90 minute class, you're going to learn to make three different drinks. And in the course of making and enjoying those drinks, you're going to learn how to do basic shaking, stirring, combining ingredients, um, how and when to use ice, different flavors and different things. So each class has a different theme.

23:03It might be summer cocktails. It could be famous whiskey cocktails. We've even done fun things like famous movie drinks or other kinds of themes. But in every class, you're going to get step-by-step instructions of how to make, uh, how to make the drinks and the basics of mixology. I'm just thinking about this as a really cool, um, like team building exercise. Like you've got your team, let's get, let's get 15 of us, our leadership team out there and that's where my brain goes as a leader of my three restaurants. They get the whole management team there and let's create a cocktail or even send a training class for, you know, if you have all new employees, Hey, you're going to do a basics of this is what it is. This is what it is. This is why you use a shaker. This is when you stir, this is why different ice is important. And this is why you shake this drink and stir this drink. And it's all vital stuff. We've done stuff like that. We've, we've done that. We do trainings for like distributors that need to train their reps to go out and have some basic cocktail skills.

24:06Um, it's funny, the team building stuff we opened, you know, back in Nashville, actually 2019, and then being open for only a couple of months, the pandemic hit and so we had to shut down. And then we actually were affected by the bombing on second Avenue also. Yeah. I was going to say that you're right there. We were right there. We were shut down for another year because of that. So we had to shift and for a couple of years we were doing online classes. And I think in 2021, we like tripled revenue or something because everybody and their brother were searching zoom team building events and happy hour events and things. And so we had all these all over the country, these corporate, you know, team building events and happy hour things, cause people are working from home. And so we would do online zoom classes where people would get the ingredients and would you like mail them the ingredients or they would go buy the ingredients themselves? Yeah, you're not supposed to mail alcohol across state lines, but you know, you can mail ingredients and people can pick up the bottles themselves from home. Yes, that's a thing. So I'm looking online here and you have these different classic Friday, June 20th at 4pm, you have margaritas and tacos, six o'clock summer cocktails.

25:14Then you have the next morning you do or next day at one o'clock you can do brunch cocktails, summer cocktails, margaritas and tacos, the after party cocktails, um, boat drinks. Yep. You know, you can find master series advanced, uh, this is an advanced series with pina coladas with like, with like frozen drinks, I guess. If you come to five out of our six advanced series, we're doing a once a month over the next few months. If you come to five of them, we'll give you get like a liquor lab master mixologist certificate and the special apron. Oh, wow. Something like that. Look at that, the gold star for you for doing that. So this is, it's something that anybody could do, but you're really, really what this is for is people coming to visit Nashville. Um, they want to find a unique experience, something fun. They want to have a couple of drinks. They want to laugh and assume that this is just a very interactive course. Super interactive, but you know, it's a 90 minute experience, but, um, you're, you're taking 10 or 15 minutes between each drink where we pause and turn on music and you socialize and hang out with your friends, meet other people in the class.

26:23So it's a very social experience. It's a way it's actually a great deal. You know, it's $75 for a class, but you get three drinks, which normally is going to cost you 60 bucks right there. Just downtown, anywhere downtown. And so it's a great experience. We're about 65% tourist and 35% locals. And so we do get a lot of people coming in from Franklin and outside of town. And, um, and yeah, it's really targeted for people who are interested in this, this idea of making cocktails, but you know, they, they maybe don't have all the stuff at home or maybe they do, they are a home bartender and they want to like learn some new skills and, or share that that this happens a lot too. I love to make drinks at home, but I don't have a way to always share that with all my friends. And so it's like, Hey, let's all go in together and now you're going to develop the same love that I have, because now you can feel it and try it for yourself. What's the, how important is education versus like the entertainment side of this and what do you guys feel like you deliver every night and far as far as like these classes?

27:23That's, that's a great question. Um, I think the education part is so important because it's what to me is what makes it feel really authentic. It's not just about putting on the show. Like we always say, we hire bartenders, not actors. And so the people that are teaching are real expert career mixologist that have worked in the best bars or work for the best brands and we're there to actually teach you something. And so we don't just teach you how to make the drink. We talk about the history of the spirits, the history of the cocktail itself can answer all kinds of questions that you might have about, about the spirits industry or about cocktails or about bartending. So we're really there to teach you and to get the consumer comfortable with this product that we're, you know, we're putting in front of you and learning how to use it for yourself. And it just turns out that when you're in a fun environment with music and you're shaking drinks for yourself and you're drinking alcohol, you tend to also have a great time. Hey, we're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. Calexo is an art and design collective of BIPOC LGBTQ women and allies focused on creating delightful drinking opportunities for all focusing on quality, taste and experience.

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30:39They do fresh linens, cleaning supplies. And guys, I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate. It is state of the art. I'm going to post pictures on my Instagram. You can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts. It's just absolutely amazing. If you're looking for a linen company, you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week. Go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz, the owner of CNBLenny and hear it from his straight from his mouth, exactly what they do. Or you give them a call at 9 3 1 7 2 2 76 16, or you can DM me at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville area restaurant Alliance, NARA for short. Sharpier's Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery, providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986.

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32:43Is it all, is it only alcohol? I mean, like, cause I, I do, we do so many wine dinners at one of my restaurants and it's like cocktails are awesome. And there's a whole mixology thing there, but wine is also a huge category and people, there's still so much that isn't known about wine. You hear people go, Oh, well red wines for steaks and all white wine tastes the same. It's all the same thing as white wines for women or something, you know, these, whatever these stereotypes are. And like, that couldn't be further from the truth. Do you ever do wine nights where, Hey, look, we're going to taste a whole series and we're going to bring in a master Psalm and we're going to do something like that. So we've actually, we have done, we've done wine tasting. We actually did a lot at the beginning. Well, we do a, you know, flight of Spanish wines or we do California tours or things. And we could still do that. We know we can, we can do that. We can do beer tastings. We've done coffee also. What I have found, now we're talking. Yeah. The coffee tasting is right now we're talking. So what I am in a, I guess another learning coming in this year was, you know, there's a lot of wineries out there and most, most wineries, they have tasting rooms and there's a lot of people doing great wine tasting already. And there's even a lot of places you can do great beer tasting, but there's nowhere that you can learn to make cocktails and learn mixology the way that we do it.

34:04And so leaning into what I know we're the best in the world at and where we can create a really unique, really fun experience and letting the other experts do wine tasting and beer tasting. That's, that's our sweet spot right now. Good. Well, man, I think that's important. You know, I think there's a lot of other things you can do that knowing that they call it, I think in a Gino Wickman calls it shiny things. Stay away from the shiny things that are going to take you away from the thing that is your genius. That's your, that's the thing that really you set you apart from the rest. A hundred percent. And that with a brand like liquor lab, where you can do all this cool stuff, it's really tempting to chase the shiny objects, you know, we've, and we have in the past, we've chased, you know, selling cocktail kits, we've chased selling, you know, doing more online stuff we've done. Do we do pop-ups and restaurants? And so what I've tried to do is instill some real focus and discipline and say, let's crush the in-person experience that we do at the lab and be the best in the world at this and create an amazing business. And once we do that, we've, you know, we are in the right to try new things and experiment with more options, but I don't want to chase the shiny objects until I know we've, we've, we've crushed our main object.

35:13Now what if I wanted to do like a whole, my whole staff, if I wanted to bring 30 people in to do something like that, could you come to my restaurant? If I was closed on a Sunday night and I said, Hey, look, can you set up a liquor lab in my building and do it for an entire staff? Like, Hey, we're going to learn three cocktails. We're going to teach you all the stuff around it. We have really fun training slash team building event. Is that something you could do? We've done it. We actually did in New York city. We did a hundred people in one in like a ballroom for a company that had this huge corporate event. It's not something we're doing right now, but we've, we've got the tools to do it. I, I would invite you to come to the lab where we can host up, you know, 75 people in our space. Oh, you can up to 75 people. We've got, I think we've done a, we have classroom one holds 50 and classroom two holds 32. So I think we could do 80, 80 to a hundred actually, if you include the whole space. Wow. Okay. Well that's good to know. Yeah. Now we do awesome private events. We're probably, I think that we're one of the best bachelorette or bachelor party options in town. I mean, it's like custom menu. We can theme the drinks, whatever you want.

36:20We can decorate the space and like, we do really cool party private parties. I'm going to get back into the business side of this thing for a second. If you don't mind. I have a feeling like you're, you're, you're, you, you'll do well at this. Nashville was the first location, right? Actually it started in Chicago and then moved to New York city. And so when we first invested, we helped open the one in New York city. And then Nashville was, was like the second location. And then during the pandemic we decided to close New York because it was just too, too difficult in the city to keep going. And yeah. And so then we just, we're just going to focus on Nashville. And then once we were reestablished here, we opened Louisville. Why Louisville? Why Louisville? So Louisville's, I think this number two city in the country for spirits related tourism. So it's a, you know, big spirits called bourbon. Yeah. It's a, it's not too far from here. And so that's actually consideration when you're building these multi location businesses, there's such an important, like sharing of knowledge when it comes to the staff going back and forth and training and things you don't want to open to on the opposite sides of the country. And so it's somewhere that we can get to pretty easily.

37:35And, and the, we found a great space in a great part of town that just made sense for us. What are your plans for expansion going forward? You have Nashville of Louisville. I assume they're going well. More people would be good, but where are you, are you looking right now to expand? I imagine that's what kind of your role would be in what you do is that is kind of why I'm here. Yeah. I'm like, kind of why you're here. Our experience from scaling these, these other concepts. Um, we're, we're really focused on, on maximizing what we can do in Nashville and Louisville. We're looking next at, I don't want to commit to anything cause we've got fans in all these cities. We were looking at, you know, Atlanta, um, Charleston, Indianapolis, Dallas. So not too far from kind of our home base here in the middle of the country, but other markets where we know there's a lot of people that are going to love our product. And, um, and it's a little bit opportunistic in terms of like which one of these cities can offer us the best, you know, the best next home. Well I'm going to put this as an episode of Atlanta restaurant radio also.

38:38So we'll just whet the appetite for anybody in Atlanta who's coming to Nashville. This would be a great opportunity to do, but maybe sometime in the future you'll get your own liquor lab. Is this something, um, that you're looking to potentially franchise? It's a really interesting question. We've been talking about it. Um, you know, every city I go to and you know, I try to go to the best bars and meet great bartenders and cause we learned from them. Right. And half the time it's like, man, I could open one of these here, like give me a license and like, let's get after it. And so it's really something we're interested in. I think I haven't, you know, every concept that we've done has been owned and operated. And so I don't have a lot of experience in franchising, but I think once we really prove out the unit economics of the two stores we have and show that this as profitable as it is, then I think we can, we can think about that. Okay. So there's another little teaser or something you may want to do in the future. Wait, that there might be an opportunity for really interested. I mean, there's so many great, there's so many great bartenders around the country and like people that could, that could do this and put their own flavor on it.

39:45It'd be a really fast way to scale, I think, but I want to make sure that, you know, that we're ready to do that. All right. I'm going to jump all over the place again. I move back a little bit into the experience of what you're doing. How do you guys decide what cocktail classes to do? Like you have the boat drinks and you've got the summer teenies and weenies. You know, you've got all these different summer cocktails, all these different classes. Who decides these? Is there like a schedule? There's a schedule. So I'd say there's, but we have a team, we have a head of mixology here in Nashville, Marisa Nudo. So she's, she's kind of our chief, creating the menus and, and the drinks we have, even though it seems a little out of the place, there is a model. So we have sort of our evergreen are always on classes, which are like the margaritas and tacos and you know, whiskey cocktails, some of those things. Then we have seasonal menus. And so the summer cocktails, you know, we did like winter margaritas. So we'll do Christmas. So we, we have a always on, we have seasonal menus, and then we also have these partnership events.

40:51So the one you mentioned we have coming up is teenies and weenies, which is a partnership with daddy's dogs here in town. So we're going to do, do the hot dogs and martinis. That'll be a really fun collaboration event. And if you can get Sean in there, he'll make it, he'll make it amazing. A good time. It'll be really fun. And so another one was just on Saturday, we had a Carrie from peg leg, pork or in, I saw that I did bourbon and barbecue. He's actually been a friend and a partner for a long time. We've served peg leg here since the beginning. But he came in and you know, they've got an award winning bourbon and we did some whiskey cocktails and we served the peg leg and that was really cool. So we're actually starting to, we've got a bunch of local, you know, local entrepreneurs and brands that were super lucky to, to have some partnerships coming up and get to showcase their brands as well as do some cool stuff with either their food or their product. And I'm really excited about actually growing that part of our business. That is super duper cool. What cocktails are you most excited about right now? What do you drink?

41:54Oh man. I, uh, when I first invested in liquor lab, I was drinking Rainier beer living in Seattle, vitamin R we called it. And my idea of a cocktail was like, I don't know, Pina colada when I was on vacation. And so, yo Miami vice. Oh yeah. So I've, I've learned a lot. Um, I'm, I'm kind of a whiskey guy. I basically drink variations of old fashions. I'll do, you know, whiskey. I like to split base with, with different aged rums and, um, experiment with, you know, throwing different syrups and stuff in there. But I like really boozy, really boozy spirit forward and kind of sweet. I don't like sour. I'll never, I don't drink whiskey sours. My favorite, I was the same way when I was a drinker. I would never do the sour. I think you said we're beers. I didn't like, yeah, same. I skittles never, never been a fan. I think my favorite cocktail in the world right now, if I had to pick one is actually here in Nash down at lay loop above the optimist. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they've got a drink called my dinner with Andre. And it's like a kind of like an old fashioned, that's really whiskey spirit forward. They do this like sarsaparilla syrup.

43:01And it's, oh my gosh, it's amazing. All right. Well, lay loose was like a very awesome. There were like one of the best bars in town. I think Nashville scene, best bar. I think they were like number two this year. Number one, I don't know. They're I've never been. It's really, it's a, it's really cool. I feel like oysters and stuff, especially, which I don't, but I go for the cocktails. All right. Um, do you find that people are more adventurous with their cocktails now? Like people that come in, do they want to learn about crazy stuff or is it still like teach me how to make the Cosmo? I mean, like what are, what's the overall general consensus you're getting from people? You know, it's spirits in general go through trends, right? Like we went through a huge whiskey boom for years. I think whiskeys has pulled back a little bit. Uh, the clearer spirits are back on top right now. Tequila, um, tequila in particular, vodka, um, I cocktail culture in general, in the last 20 years, like has, has boomed, right? I think some of the guys like out of New York, there's amazing things. Um, you know, the guys here in town, like milk and honey and Attaboy and, um, the death and company.

44:08And there's a few people that have done a good number of bars and spread the culture and then some amazing bartenders that are just at one or two places. But, you know, you go back to the eighties and it's like martinis and Cosmos and stuff. And now basically any good restaurant, um, you know, to say nothing of all the cocktail bars, right? Even any great restaurant is going to have a pretty rounded out cocktail menu with some creative stuff. I don't think that was the case 20 years ago. I don't think so at all. It was crown and seven or crown and Coke kind of a thing. I don't hear about crowning more at all. Yeah, exactly. Bourbon's completely drowned it out. Canadian whiskey. It's crazy. I know. And, and my, my first love in the whiskey was, was Pendleton, uh, Canadian. And so it's funny cause you're right. Now it's like all, everyone's got all these bourbons and all these craft, you know, craft whiskeys and stuff, which is great as an enthusiast. I mean, it's like, there's so many incredible options, but it's been really awesome to now be, I live in Sacramento, California and I could go out every night of the week and not have enough time or, or stomach to, to try all the drinks I want to try.

45:15See, that's so fun. And you get to then teach people about all this stuff. And what's the best part about this? What's the best part? What kind of satisfaction do you get emotionally from doing this job? I mean, you know, I, I always say my restaurants, I love when people do rehearsal dinners or have Mary bowl restaurant in Brentwood and so we just made rehearsal dinners and these special lifelong memories that these people share with us. And I love seeing people do their first dance after a wedding or best man's speeches at a rehearsal dinner and seeing the bride and groom and looking at them going, man, they're going to remember this moment for the rest of their lives and they trust us with this. And that to me is something incredibly special. Where, where, what equivalent do you have in liquor lab for you? Oh man, we have had one proposal, okay. I think in 2018 back in New York, I wasn't there for it, but it sounded like a great story. Um, I mean, you know, not getting to be in all the classes myself and see those moments while, you know, they do happen. We have amazing, a lot of, you know, first dates and families that actually come out together with mom and dad are visiting town bachelor parties. For me, it's watching our team of getting to build this business and what it feels like the success we have when we sell out a class and we have a whole room full of people that has a great time and we, you know, we max out for the day and hit our numbers or we come up with an awesome new idea for a class. It's like, it's, it's getting to share in this journey of entrepreneurship with my team that's here in Nashville and Louisville and like bring them along as part of the ride.

46:53And it's the joy of building a business. It's stress too. I mean, you know, it's, it's, it's a huge challenge. Um, but the wins and the wins in particular as a team make it, make it worth it. I love that. And I imagine with your business background, where'd you go to college? I went to a small school in Spokane, Washington called Whitworth university, which is best school in the world. Shout out, go pirates. Um, and then I studied math and I, it was a long story. I thought I wanted to be a scientist, but, um, then I figured out I hated research. So I had to pivot and I went to grad school to get a master's in finance and ended up working at this venture capital firm and because of Topgolf going in particular down this route of entertainment and experiential. What do you think the biggest mistake restaurant make restaurant owners make is business wise? I think it's really important to, you have to intellectually dominate your business.

47:54Like you need to understand as the owner, every facet of the levers of all the costs, all the, all the inputs, all the levers that you have to pull. Like I don't want to ever hear, ask a question about your P and L. Like if this happens, what is the outcome? Or like, if you don't sell this or if rent goes up by this, I think it's important to really understand the financial aspect of your business. Um, because you have to be, the world is a volatile place, right? And you have to be able to make decisions and run your business. And if you don't have a good handle on all those elements, then you're kind of operating in the dark. And I think you just nailed it right there. People from the, that are great restaurant entrepreneurs are like great cooks or whatever, don't always have the, the education on that side of the business. It's not that hard. I mean, people like me can do it, they can do it. And so, you know, but it's really important to like spend the time with whether you have an advisor or you figure it out for yourself, like spend the time to really understand the elements of your business and where the volatility is.

48:55That's something I hear a lot. I mean, people that own restaurants, you can have business people and you clearly are a businessman who loves this space, but most restaurant tours are passionate, creative people who have a really high spirit of service. And they're good at doing multiple things at one time. And they spend 80 hours a week inside of one building. And every time they turn their heads, something is going on. And it's like, but there's so many details in that P and L. And then when this happens, what happens, there's a cause and effect relationship with everything that happens in a building and really understanding data, you know, having the time to sit and look through data and figure it out. Like you were talking about when we first started, just don't have that time. I think that's where chains and local restaurants really differ is that chains, they got a guy who sits in an office and does that and feeds that to you. So you can have people in the building who are that passionate spirit of service people who don't have to focus on that stuff.

49:55That was where I started my career, right? Was I spent six years, you know, as the chief of staff at Topgolf crunching, I mean, I was the world's leading expert on every number, every number in the world, anything related to Topgolf. I could tell you like how weather affected our sales or what the margins were in different locations, like everything, right? And if you're an operator running one of those buildings or you're a COO or our head of F and B, like it's really helpful to have this like smart kids and like anything you need to know. It's like, boom, I've got the data and I can show you a chart. And so most, most entrepreneurs or most restaurants don't have that. Yeah. Well, it's a big thing to be able to have. What's the, what's the data point that you've come across that I'll say two things. One that drives the most profit, but B, I feel like the number one metric that I hire for is, and this is, I just had this conversation with a couple of people. I said, I've seen Billy Bean speak and Billy Bean, you know who Billy Bean is. Moneyball, right? Moneyball Oakland, H&M manager.

50:56He identified that on base percentage was the number one correlative stat that drove wins. So in a restaurant, what is that stat? What is the stat that is going to equate to? And for my world, what I, what I surmise is our goal is to make every guest repeat guest, right? You come in one time, great, but I want you to come in multiple times. I need you once or twice a week. I don't want you once or twice a year, right? So what's the stat that's going to make somebody a repeat guest the most? What's the thing? You know, if I had the answer to that magic question, what's going to make somebody repeat guests, I probably would be a lot more successful than I am right now, but we'll figure it out. I'd say that the two, the key, um, things I look at or what gave me confidence are, uh, sort of the NP like net promoter score or, or, you know, customer ratings, let's say so quality and margin. So do people love the product and can you deliver it at a good profit margin? So when I look at liquor lab, I can tell you two things for sure.

52:05Yes. Like I said earlier, people love the product. When they come in, they unwaveringly have a good time. The second thing is I know our margins are really good. If we sell a ticket, I know that that's going to be a profitable ticket. So knowing that, all I got to do is get people to show up and we're going to have a great business. Okay. So, and that's true of, of basically any business. If I know the, I know the product is really high quality and I know that it, that it makes money. If we sell it, then it's just always a function of marketing and sales. So I think that's a, in that itself, there's a piece there that I think a lot of local and I'm speaking most about local restaurants, knowing that you're making money, right? So there's a formula here hard to get rich selling, uh, selling pencils wrapped in the dollar bill for 99 cents. Yes. I think that there's, so you can help me with this, right? So I mean, there's, there's a, there's a formula here. Um, but you have to know how much your food costs, right? You know, and knowing what your neighbor sells a hamburger for, what they sell, iced teas, a different story. That's kind of a commodity, but a hamburger or a chicken dish. Well, their chicken dish is $19.

53:18So I need to be 20. So I'm going to price it close to what somebody else charges. Like, well, do you know what they're paying? Cause no, I don't know what they're paying. Well, they have 400 locations and they've negotiated a deal and they're paying half of what you're paying because you're a local restaurant and you haven't negotiated that deal and you're paying twice as much, but you're charging the same as them. Your margins are way lower. So I mean, what is this formula? How to, what, what can people do? Well, you know, I, we studied this when I studied this back in the, in the earlier days of Topgolf. I mean, we looked at just the comparables and said, okay, for each kind of sector of the restaurant industry, whether, what do people pay for labor and food? And, you know, there's this concept of prime cost, which is, you know, it it's a little different, but pretty much like 40%, almost no matter where you go, you know, pizza restaurants are a little higher, a little cheaper to run pizza. And it's a little, you know, a little lower at, a little lower margins at like fine dining generally. But, as long as you are around that sort of industry standard for what your percentage, you know, what your cost percentage is for your direct costs and your direct labor, then basically whatever your cost of inputs is, you have to mark up your prices so that you're hitting that right margin, I guess is where I'm going with it.

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57:57Yeah. I'd look at, you know, figure out what, like what you want to serve, figure out what your cost is and then price it so that you've got that 60% margin. But it's a math problem. Yeah. You have to be able to do some basic math. It's, but it's a, but it's, it's a math problem. It's not what the neighbor's charging. If I'm paying, you know, $2 for a dish and I want to sell it for $10. Well, that's a, I'm at a 20% margin there. You know, it's easy math and you go, well, if I'm adding another, if it's a 40% deal, if I'm doing to make $6 and it's a lot of that. But I mean, the point your point is that the math has to work for you, for your business. You're not running your neighbor's business. So it's like, it doesn't matter what they're charging. If you can't make any money on your prices, then you're not going to, you're not going to succeed. Amen. I think a lot of people with like Uber eats or door dash take that 30% and they go, Hey, at least I'm getting sales. And it's like, but you're losing money cause you're paying 30% to somebody else to do it. But Hey, it's adding cash and you're like, eh, this isn't, that's not a longterm strategy.

58:59Yeah. That's another, with small businesses, it's a little less of an issue, but there's something that's a concept in businesses. The difference between like cashflow and, you know, and revenue, like revenue, recognized revenue. Again, it's less of an issue in these types of companies, but I've gotten into situations in businesses where, yeah, maybe the revenue and profit looks good on paper, but the cashflow doesn't always match up with the revenue and the profit because, you know, maybe the buying cycles of you're buying stuff in bulk or you've got customers paying on the delay and you got to make sure you really understand the actual cashflow cycle of your business. So you don't run out of money accidentally. That's just like rule number one of model thinking when we're building a business and we're understanding all the elements, it's like rule number one is just don't run out of cash because that's, you know, you run out of cash, you're dead. And so you always have to make sure you've got enough money in the bank to be able to weather whatever that volatility is and to spend the time to understand the business. Wow. Okay. What am I missing?

01:00:04What do you, what, what, what do we want to talk about? I mean, I could go it. I love talking this type of stuff. I could do this all day long because I think restaurant owners are out there and there's a, there's a lot of just general stuff. I think that we get caught up in the minutia of, Oh shit, my, my drain is backed up and my dishwasher quit and I got this and this, and I'm just trying to stay afloat. And some of this stuff is good reminders and good. How do I do that again? Like, wait a minute, I'm trying to do this, but there's, there's a math problem and there's a lot of stuff going on. You know, there's something that we I think about a lot and EOS is actually really good at this is there's a difference between working in the business and working on the business. And so the way that we did that, um, you know, with Topgolf and building businesses over the last 10 years is, you know, sort of like a Monday through Friday, you're running these companies and you're working in the business. And then on Saturday mornings we'd get together and that's like zooming out and working, working on the business. And so it's like, how can I think strategically about how to improve the overall company, move the brand forward, move our plans forward, not just like, you know, paying bills and flipping burgers, but like zooming out and thinking bigger picture.

01:01:15And I think it's important to dedicate time to that. And so in the EOS system, that's like, they have this thing, these things called rocks where every quarter you're setting rocks, which are particular projects you're working on that aren't just daily stuff. 90 day. They're 90 day. Like this quarter, I'm going to biggest thing. You have company rocks and individual rocks. Right. And so it's like on my team, you know, that could be something like, you know, Marie's rock this quarter is going to be designed a new process for how we lay out all the menus for the year. And it's something that you're going to do at one time and it's going to make a permanent improvement to our company. Or maybe it's like for Claire is going to design a line of merch and implement a system for us to sell t-shirts and hats. Like that's a project for this quarter. Once we do it, boom, that's a permanent improvement to our company. And you set milestones throughout the quarter and then you're checking in weekly. The meeting pulse, I think is the most important thing with the EOS model, the level 10 meetings, as they call them. It's every single week at the exact same time. It's one hour. There's a format to it, but you're checking in on those rocks every week.

01:02:18It's on track, it's off track. And then if it's off track, you're dropping it down and that the IDS model of identifying, discussing and solving real problems in real time. I think this, we have so many meetings that just get sidetracked and there are so many side bars and this hour long manager meeting went to a two hour long bitch session and the EOS model keeps all that stuff on track and you create to do's around it and to do being a seven day action item versus a rock being a 90 day action item. It's a really, it's a good system and it helps. It kind of helps fight something I call the entrepreneur spaghetti brain, which is like as a founder or an entrepreneur, there's all, you know everything about your business and there's, there's big picture things and there's little tiny details, but they're, they're all in your head and they're all important. And sometimes what you need help with and the role that I can play as a board member advisor, if I'm not in the leadership seat myself is helping you unbundle the spaghetti brain and organize the thoughts into, you know, operational issues, marketing issues, capital issues, you know, what's solvable, what's not solvable, what's our plan to address these things.

01:03:28So just help get all that stuff out of your head onto the page and organize it in a way that we can actually attack each problem and get, and get help. And that's something that's, it's hard to do on your own when you've got all these things swirling around in your head as the, as the leader. So fighting entrepreneur spaghetti brain is, is really helpful with the EOS system, but also sometimes it just takes a friend or a partner pulling it out of you. Well, you get so emotionally involved. Part of it is being a, I work, I have this company called the Nashville area restaurant Alliance, and I work with a lot of restaurant tours and one of my core values is no bullshit is that I'm going to come in. And as we talk about things, you're going to be emotionally involved with all of this stuff. And I'm not, and I can see things and go, why are you doing that? This is not a thing. Oh, well, that guy's great. No, he takes us to hockey games. And I'm like, but that hockey game costs you $70,000. Do you know that that hockey game was really expensive because you're getting overcharged here, here, and this is, they're taking advantage of that. No, you wouldn't do that. And I go, I'm going to show you, no, totally a non-emotional person who knows what they're talking about can help you really fast if they're willing to do that. Yeah. And to get that spaghetti brain, it's really important to have people like that, that you trust in your life.

01:04:46I mean, it's why all of our, our companies have a board board members that are made up of, you know, investors, but also independent people that, um, are just there to help out and help you, you know, see those things objectively. All right, man. Um, any great stories, anything that happened to liquor lab that are just like one time this happened or anything that like is just crazy that you've seen somebody to get way too drunk or, I mean, just all kinds of stuff. We had a guy. So, you know, you come in, you pay for this class where you're going to learn to make great cocktails. And we, one time back at New York city, we had, we had a guy leave the class, come back in, sneaking in like a 30 rack of Coors light or something into the back row and then start drinking, try to, trying to drink beers along with his buddies while we're doing the class. It's just like, what are you doing? Sorry, are the drinks not enough for you? Like also, why did you think and get away with that? That was ridiculous.

01:05:48I've got a great, actually, I have a recent story that's more of just a great entrepreneur, like a scrappy entrepreneur story. Okay. So we've got this space down here in Nashville, um, previous, you know, I have a couple of years ago, some of the guys that were there earlier on had, when we decorated the space, they brought in a muralist to paint a mural in this classroom. And so the whole back wall of classroom one was this big mural that, you know, artists objective, but in my opinion, it was horrible. It was like, you know, just crazy colors. And it was, you know, there was this red, it was supposed to be like red wax dripping down from the ceiling, like a maker's mark bottle. Yeah. But it just looked like blood was dripping from the, it looked like we decorated for Halloween. And it was just this chaotic fever dream of this mural. And it was, it was the wall of our main classroom for like five years. And so when I came in to see, yo, like day one, I said, decision number one, we're repainting the wall, like get rid of this mural. It's not on brand. It scares people away. It looks terrible. And, but it turns out it was, it's going to be, you know, a few thousand dollars to like, and plus the cost of closing for a week.

01:06:57So we got to close, you got to sand the wall down because the paint was so thick. We're going to have to repaint it and do all this stuff. So it was going to cost us thousands of dollars and a week of business. Instead we said, wait a second, we want to bring some more warmth and texture into the space anyway. And all we need to do is, is cover up this mural, right? So basically we went onto Amazon and we spent like 500 bucks on velvet curtains and we just hung up an entire curtain wall along the back wall. So we didn't repaint it. The mural still exists. If you want a headache, you can go down and peek at it. But then we, we hung these beautiful, dark, sexy green velvet curtains all along the back wall. And it looks like a million bucks. And we spent maybe like five 50. That's not bad. And not only that is the sound is so much better now too, for like the instructors and the music and stuff like my curtains in here, like you have here. And so you look at this before and after it took us, less than a day to install them, took us 500 bucks to buy the curtains. And it was like, Oh my gosh, we should have done this five years ago.

01:07:59That's amazing. I love it. Well, thank you so much for coming out today. We do one last thing on the show and this is the Gordon food service final thought. So you get to take us out, whatever you want to say, what it literally anything you get to say, whatever you want to to take us out. Gordon food service, final thought, Aaron Vaquero. I would say, uh, if you're a leader, if you're a restaurant owner, you're a business owner, you're any kind of leader and you haven't watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV, go watch Ted Lasso, my favorite show. And that's the kind of leader that I try to be. Y'all today we are talking as always about super source. And you know, one cool thing about super source is did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility. They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility, clean, bright and smelling and feeling new.

01:09:11This is just one of the many reasons super source is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals. You need to call Jason Ellis his number 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give them a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with super source 770-337-1143. There's a new way to drink whiskey. It's called pony boy slings. These bourbon based canned cocktails are fully carbonated and only 7% ABV. So light and refreshing. All you have to do is chill it, pop it, giddy up. Follow us on Instagram or online at drinkponyboy.com. I love it. There it is. I love Ted Lasso too. What a fan. And here there's another season coming. I've heard these rumors. And I am here for it. Me too. I hope it's good. It ended on such a great note. It was a perfect series. And if they bring it back, I just, I really hope they, they do it justice, but I'm sure they will.

01:10:17Have you watched the bear? Oh yeah. I described the bear as like Ted Lasso, but in a kitchen and grittier. Okay. Ted Lasso's leadership style is so good, man. It's just so, talk about building a team. It's like make consistent, give, give people something to believe in, you know, show them that, you know, they can, it's cool. It's cool to care. Make it cool to care. Now you're pulling on reasonable hospitality out a hundred percent to read that one. One of my favorites. Absolutely. The best, right? Just the best. I was cool to care. My wife and I went to a New York for my birthday last year for our anniversary last year. And I just read, I just read his book and I'm like, I just want to go to 11 Madison for, and we only have to eat. I just want to go sit at the bar. I just want to go see it. Just want to go see it. I was going to have a drink at the bar and just sit there and take it in. And yeah, it lives up does and wills wills. I haven't met him, but I'm, I'm a big fan of the whole. He's been on the show. Oh, awesome. Had him on the show. He actually just moved to Nashville. No way. Yeah. He's bought a house. He has a house in East Nashville. Apparently we'll have to run into him sometime. Yeah. I was hoping to, I'm like, and he's come into the restaurant, man. I'd love to see. I don't think he listens to the show. I mean, I could dream that he does, but just the most amazing kindest guy who gets it just to get it.

01:11:31Hospitality guy, big, big fan, Aaron Vaquero. Thank you for joining us today and we will talk to you soon. All right, Aaron Vaquero. Thank you so much for joining us here on Nashville restaurant radio. I am going to again, send you over to NaraNashville.com. Register today. I need to know how many people are coming and, um, if I can get a bigger room, I will. Right now we got 50 restaurants, two people per person. Register, get in while you can. I'm really excited to do this and I will see you guys on August 14th. Uh, hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.