Alyssa Gangeri

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02:23Welcome 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. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Super excited today to bring you this episode with Alyssa Ganjeri. She is the partner and chef over at the Buttermilk Ranch. And man, what a fun conversation we had. In this conversation, I didn't know a whole lot about her. Again, I love these kind of interviews because she just was a very interesting person. She's from New York and she's new to Nashville a couple years in and she runs a really cool place over off 12 South and I wanted to learn more and we got into this conversation and we it kind of got, I don't know controversial. I don't know if that's the word, but I think that we both are running restaurants and I think there's a fatigue that you get when you're just trying every single day.

03:38I think everybody in this industry kind of has this. It's a grind every single day and we had a real good conversation about what it's like leading a restaurant. So if you lead a restaurant, this is a conversation that I think that you'll enjoy because hopefully you'll be able to identify with a lot of the stuff that's going on right here. I really appreciate her vulnerability and talking about some of this stuff. Just kind of the loneliness that we feel kind of leading. It can be a challenge and I know that a lot of you out there are feeling the same things. So really excited to get this to you. Got a couple of announcements to make. One is I'm super excited to be watching Hell's Kitchen right now. Hell's Kitchen on Fox. It is on Fox. It is the battle of the ages and moving to the battle of the sexes and This is three episodes in Alex Ballou who is a chef from Murfreesboro, Tennessee is on the on the show and the guy is crushing it. He's a friend of mine and I've known him for since the pandemic started. If you want to hear an episode with him, it was on April the 8th 2020 where in the first episode of this this Hell's Kitchen he says I'm a former restaurant owner in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The pandemic killed me and you know, Chef Ramsay said yeah, no it happens.

04:59But this if you go back to April the 8th, if you scroll back and you listen to that episode you can kind of hear he still had the restaurant then but what happened you can kind of hear the story of the backstory from Alex and I thought it was a really good interview and he's a very talented chef. In my opinion way the front-runner right now in this whole thing. Three episodes in I invite you to to watch it. His food is fantastic. He looks great. He sounds great. He's just he's just an awesome guy and I can't wait to see how this whole thing shakes out front-runner in my opinion. I also want to tell you guys the Bon Me project over at Eastside Bon Me is happening right now. Chef Harant from Lyra, his Bon Me is up right now and this benefits the Nashville food project. One dollar from every single Bon Me goes to them. So go support Eastside Bon Me and go check out these Bon Me's. They're the best damn things ever. I've had two. I'm gonna go try the Lyra one today. It is fantastic. There's still Trevor Moran, some other chefs coming up and I think that you should definitely go give that a shot.

06:03On that note, I will tell you about a brand new sponsor that we have. It is called Southern Health Insurance and guys this is a this is a game changer for you. You need to call Dan Maher. Dan Maher is at 832-816-8602. If you do not have insurance, if you are out there and you don't have insurance, you think insurance is too expensive, he can help. He can do some amazing amazing things for you. If you are young at heart, mostly healthy, or healthy, or part of a growing family, this could be your solution and it is Southern Health. If you are, if you don't have life insurance, my life, my insurance guy, he's got a number on his desk and his number is like 89,527. Like what is that? He's like that's how many people have GoFundMe's out right now that can't afford funerals. Guys, you never know when something's gonna happen and you've got to have health insurance. If you're in a restaurant that doesn't have it, if you own a restaurant that doesn't offer it, this guy can help you out too. I mean, this is the main thing that if you're a small business, he lumps you into a whole bunch of other businesses and you get to be part of a group and you get group discounts and group rates and he can save you a lot of money.

07:15But also in this world right now, you've got to offer that to your staff. If it's your full-time staff, then you got to offer it to him and he can help you do it. Southern Insurance, Danmar, his number is 832-816-8602 or you can email him if you have questions and I recommend just giving him a call and saying, hey man, what can you do for me? Just find out. His email is dan at southernhealthins.com. He offers life insurance up to a hundred thousand, qualified health, dental, health, dental and vision. So I mean, gosh, if you don't have insurance, I have a friend who didn't have insurance, he's in between jobs, didn't have insurance and he had a lung issue, went to the hospital, had to have emergency surgery and it's been paying off that $40,000 settlement that it cost to do that for the last 10 years. Do not be in that position. It is less expensive than you think. You need to have health insurance and I'm so excited to have Southern Health Insurance on board. We're gonna do a whole thing in December where we're gonna be really focusing on some of the sponsors.

08:18Guys, these sponsors are people that help support the locally owned and operated restaurant business here in Nashville and I highly recommend you just give them a call. Any of our sponsors, we would love for you to support because they are supporting this show and this show supports you. So these are people that are amazing people and they're my friends. I use them and I think that you guys should too. All of my sponsors are just awesome, awesome people. On that note, we're gonna jump in right now with Alyssa and Jerry and I'm really excited to bring this interview to you. Hope you guys have a wonderful week ahead of you. It looks like the weather is gonna be gorgeous all week long. Go have a hike. Go take a clarity break. Go do something where you intentionally set aside some time for yourself. Think, get bored and we've got some great shows coming up for you guys real soon. I cannot wait to continue doing this. Go back and listen to some old episodes. It's really interesting sometimes to go back and listen to episodes that are from the pandemic because just to hear what people were going through during those times might give you some perspective about what we're doing right now and there's some really great leaders that we've talked to and told some stories. Go watch our Instagram stories.

09:29I'm gonna put up the top 10 episodes we've ever had. If you're looking for some big episodes you want to go listen to, you might be surprised at what our top episode is and I can't wait to share that with you. Go follow at Nashville underscore restaurant radio on Instagram and that's where you will see our top 10. Thank you guys so much for listening today and have a wonderful week. Let's jump in right now with Alyssa Ganjiri. Super excited today to welcome in Alyssa Ganjiri. She is the pastry chef and partner at the buttermilk ranch. I am so excited you are here today. Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here. And I'm thanking you for the amazing goodies that you brought. Let's just be honest here. You showed up bringing goodies and that is the mark of a fantastic guest. At least you're talking without food in your mouth right now.

10:32So that's not gonna happen through the whole interview because I am eating a Almond Joy Croissant Holy shit. Holy shit. This is out of control and you also brought me a Twix croissant and a Snickers and a like a you didn't say butter. I'm sorry. You didn't say Reese's but it's like a peanut butter cup croissant. Yes, it's like an inside out Reese's. You got the whole candy bar collection today. So the candy bar collection just better way to start this thing off. Tell me about the candy bar collection. Straight into it. Um, so I'm a very creative person and I get bored very easily and Anyone that's been to buttermilk ranch you walk into all these pastries Most people get really mad at me when I change them but I can't do the same ones over and over and with it being October and Halloween coming I just really was craving candy bars And I was like, how do we not just turn some of these croissants into candy bars?

11:34So I took a poll of our staff of what everyone's favorite candy bar was and then I went and bought a bunch of candy bars We ate a bunch of candy bars and had to be terrible aren't oh horrible I'm sorry to put you pray had to go through that. It was it was brutal. It was really brutal But yeah, we just kind of decided on a top four. There was some good contenders So there's some secret ones that are still gonna come But the candy bar collection ended up being Twix Reese's I'll enjoy and Snickers. How the fuck did almond joy make that cut? Everybody like hates on like it's a year. It's so polarizing It's like I hate almond joy or you're like me and you love I enjoy love I'm enjoy and people kind of hate on mounds too, which I don't dislike mounds But I like almond joy better because it's got the texture of the nuts. Oh, yeah, so I was straight like we're not doing mounds It's only almond joy. I was actually surprised how many people liked almond joy, which I love it I mean dark chocolate coconut almond. I mean I'm gonna tell you right now that this is the best pastry I've ever eaten in my life. Thank you. Thank you I hope you're not just saying that I'm not like you. Well, I'm not like a huge pastry guy I mean, you know, it's not yeah, I'm not like the most fitness dude, but like I am I'm conscious of what I eat Treat yourself, I don't eat a lot of pastries but like this pastry I'm usually like I'm like a casual pastry eater if I'm somewhere there's patients like oh I have one but they're never like Really good and this was made like two hours ago literally right on the oven You're one of the first people cuz they launched today. So I mean we opened at 8 So yeah, I mean it's 1030 right now So I'm two and a half hours into hours in from that being right out of the oven. Yeah, I feel honored at this This is really amazing and it is really freaking good and I'm saving the others to take home because my wife and kids are going to Go crazy for this. Oh good. I'm glad she's gonna listen. It seems like oh my god. Those are the best

13:35She's gonna be walking where she's doing going. Yes. Those are the best Don't blame me when that croissant makes like a huge mess all on your desk Well, it's okay. I'm I'm down for it. I love it. So this is really exciting. So we've you have the candy bar collection Yes, what's your story? I know this podcast we like to tell people stories Are you a native? Nashvilleian I am NOT a native Nashvilleian. I am I moved here from New York City four years ago Okay, December will be four years for me here in Nashville. What brought you to Nashville? Jay Pennington and Billy Ammon who own urban grub Lored me here They told me they were very interested in opening a pastry concept Very pastry focused and really wanted to bring kind of a big city style bakery Dominique Ansel Antonio Bacchore style to Nashville because they felt like it didn't exist here and Jay was I got introduced to Jay by one of my very close friends and I had a bunch of interviews here in Nashville and She was like you have to talk to Jay first. I didn't know who Jay was. I didn't know anything about urban grub I just knew that I liked Nashville and I was ready to leave New York City and kind of fresh start fresh city and Yeah, I mean four years later. Here we are with buttermilk ranch. We moved here by yourself. Are you married?

14:58You have children like what's your so I'm married my husband Jonathan It was also in the restaurant industry. We owned a restaurant together in New York in Manhattan for ten years Wow, and Yeah, I mean like we are New Yorkers at heart will always be New Yorkers But it just kind of owning and operating a restaurant in New York City is has its highs and lows But it was an amazing experience it just we got to a point where the city was changing the people were changing and we were just ready for something different and he has never really lived outside of New York besides going to Villanova for college and Yeah, I never thought he would leave I never thought we would leave really truly I've lived all over I'm like a Gypsy chef. Yeah, I've been everywhere. So for me, it was super easy just to pick up and move and leave my family For him. It was a lot more it was more difficult But we moved down here. He actually opened red phone booth. Oh, wow Yeah, so he he opened red phone booth and then kovat hit was he like one of the owners of red phone?

16:07No, like he actually he opened it as the GM and like really was like kind of consulting for them and getting them off The ground because they started in Atlanta Really cool concept obviously and is great for Nashville But they really needed like somebody with like deep hospitality roots and he's been a bar owner pretty much since I've known him forever But kovat hit and you know, obviously Cooper shut down all the bars and everything downtown and you know I was in the midst of building buttermilk and you know, it just kovat him we looked at each other and we're like Oh my god. What is this? But think how we're not in New York City like stuck in our apartment. Yeah, Aubrey's side How was your experience throughout means because you're new to town your year into being in Nashville at this point and then kovat hits like Have you were you able to form relationships with people prior to kovat or like you kind of had a pod or anything like that? Um Anybody that knows I'm talking so I'm taking a bite. Yeah. Yeah you you dig into that. I'm enjoy Anyone that knows me knows I work pretty much around the clock. So when I'm a workaholic I love it and I'm super I'm grateful that I What I do is something that I'm very passionate about so it doesn't really feel like work to me a lot of times Except when I'm working like 17 hour days. Those are those feel like work Um kovat hit and I Just kind of went even deeper into work, you know, we shut down obviously construction for buttermilk, which was super scary for me because you know, I moved here to do that and It's a dream concept for me So I kind of kovat hit and half of me was panicking inside because I felt like my dream restaurant concept that I was 85 percent done with kind of May or may not happen anymore. We didn't know where things were gonna go. We didn't know what was gonna happen

18:10Urban grub we Went down to like ten employees all pretty much management and kind of buckled down and figured out a to-go menu working at urban grub Yes, she moved here. So working there while you were building buttermilk. Yes So when I moved down here, you know, the main reason was to partner in buttermilk ranch, but I joined urban grubs team kind of rehaul their pastry program and then also did some front of the house for them as well just to kind of Get them back to where they wanted to be kind of elevate their service and kind of really focus on Crafting our employees to give an experience as opposed to just serving When I started everybody looked at me staff wise and was like you slow down New York Like we don't operate like that and I'm like, no, that's how we're gonna operate now How did you do that though, I mean because that's the hardest thing in the world to do is to walk into an established restaurant That's doing well. I mean for all intents purposes people come to work. They make money Yeah on a leadership level you can walk in and you look at all the data and you look at everything and you go We need to elevate you. It becomes crystal-clear Looking at it from 10,000 feet some of the things you need to do Yeah, I think it's real easy to sit in a room with three people and go we need to increase service and we need to Re-establish our footing in the neighborhood How do you do that? Especially when everybody else is like we got a good thing going here. Don't fuck it up And like yeah, how did you?

19:36Jump in to do that. So I'm a person I mean, I obviously have a lot of experience back in the house from the house and for urban grub I mean it was already such a successful restaurant and just booming busy all the time and It's kind of hidden gem right everyone knows like there's no sign outside it's in you know, the heart of 12 South and everybody knows Jay Pennington and the things that he's done and You know, he kind of when he moved me down here He looked at me and said hey like take two weeks and like we'll sit back down and you tell me what needs to get Fixed in this restaurant and I think for him He knew that I was a person that had ownership eyes And I think when you have skin in the game and you have ownership eyes You kind of look at things differently you evaluate things differently you kind of see The puzzle piece is a little better. I always compare it to like micro macro and I am a macro person all the time I you know look at every tiny little detail and you know There's people that may not have noticed that detail even working there for five six seven years You know the person that walks into restaurants. I am that person to you were describing each other right now When you go out to eat and you're like they have three light bulbs out What the hell is going on here? Like I get it like I notice dust in places I'm also six foot six. So I have the ability to like see but like I My wife's like just eat the fucking food. My husband John is like Alyssa stop like stop I mean listen also too is like I mean as a business owner It's like I have so much respect for anybody that operates a restaurant a bar any type of business because it is so beyond difficult, especially now after kovat, but Yeah, I am. Yeah, I'm super super macro. So Jay says come in. Here's two weeks. What did you tell him at the end?

21:25Of that two weeks. Oh my gosh, it was like Laundry list of stuff and he was like at the end. I don't even think he said anything I think he was like cool fix it and I was like, alright But that's also when I knew that like him and I could be partners Because also at the same time this was kind of a test run for me to kind of see are these people? I want to align myself with I already, you know knew the background and had met You know pretty much all the Pennington's and I knew about Jeff and Jenny having Pickers and stuff like that paintings stillery Davidson's reserve great, you know, they're awesome people. I love them Amazing, you know, it's the blaze blaze blazes like a brother to me. I mean honestly, I mean we moved down here Really knowing three people truly. We have no family down here. Our whole family is up in New York and New Jersey and You know, the Pennington's have really kind of taken us as as family, you know blazes I can say like a brother to me and he's just Yeah, he's awesome. And you want to tell you a story about the Pennington's? Yeah First of all, I went to high school with Jenny. Okay, and Jeff and I went to high school But Jeff his birthday, I think is like March 10th and mine's March 8th Okay, and so he lived five houses down from me growing up like literally from the house I live in like when I was like a kid like rode the same bus like I've known him for a long time I don't know who Jay was by anything right but like we used to have competing like toilet paper Contest like on my birthday. I'd have people over and he had it was always at the same weekend We had our birthday parties like we would like TP each other's houses Fast forward several years and I get a job at a place called the boundary Okay, the boundary I've only heard stories what and I'm sure it's like this legend, right?

23:11I mean this place was the restaurant. I got a job at the boundary. Yeah smoked a lot of pot I was a punk kid. Yeah, but Jay had no idea who I was or anything I approached him one day and I was like, hey, you know, my name is Brandon and I really like working here 1997 could help far back this goes and I said, you know, I was a food runner and I was like I really want to wait tables and he goes Aren't you the kid who's always in the back smoking pot? Oh, no Yeah, and he goes aren't you the kid to live the street for me who wrote fuck you Jeff on the side of my house And shaving cream and I went That was me. I'll go back to running food. Thank you Literally turned around and walked away Aren't you the kid that wrote fuck you Jeff on the side of my house and shaving cream and I was like, yep Okay. Thank you for letting me work here. I'm just gonna go. I'm gonna go back to running food We'll circle back around We'll circle back to this I went to college and it was a that was one of the best experiences my life working there and Jay is an absolute legend Jay if you're listening to this, I want to get you on the podcast because we got stories So I might have to twist his arm to come on a brief history in the Pennington And Jeff's been a good friend of mine for many years and my brother works with them and the whole thing and awesome We are big fans of the Pennington's over on this side of the table. So cool. That's my little So am I. This side of the table is big fans too. Obviously I partnered with them I mean he's an absolute legend his innovation and what he did with Urban Grub Yeah, I mean that 12 South was a sleepy little thing and people were so pissed when Urban Grub came in because They liked this small and this big monstrosity with all the fire and all the stuff And it was like all the construction that it took to build that but when it was done, I was like, yeah Wow, it's what he was able to create He has like visions that and I think this is why him and I have gone along so well is that You know, I think I was a person that he met That he would literally just speak his visions out loud

25:11Even if it was just like pastry related like he comes to me all the time He was like, oh my god, I've seen this and I was thinking about this and I'll be like, okay and a day later I'll be like, here you go and he's like, what is this? I was like, you asked for this And he'd be like, are you serious? You actually did it? Yeah, of course. I mean why wouldn't I? I mean like it's just it's just pastry. It's I mean flour water sugar salt chocolate I mean, is that the best thing in life when you in business when you get to find somebody Who gives you the autonomy to do what you want to do and fully trust you? Yeah You guys can be real you don't have to there's no politicking and there's no this and that's like This is really what I feel and you can have that honest conversation back and forth Is that what you feel like you found there? 100% I mean and to be honest, you know, I think a lot of people Have trouble or find it difficult to work for Jay because because he is He is a demanding person, right? He has visions like he He is constantly evolving right now. It's like he's spending a lot more time traveling seeing other places Kind of looking at what other people are doing and just like it's not about for him. It's never about like oh, I saw this Let's duplicate it. It's like I saw this. How do we one up that? How do we do better?

26:29Right and I'm like from day one, you know, I always told him like I'm a same page same line person all the time But I am a person that strives to be better every single day And if I can get my employees on that same track to want to be better every day Even if it's in a small minute way, I mean you got to try and be better, right? He is always looking to make things better He can take the most perfect dish and he may think it's perfect, but there's some way to make it better There's always a way to make it better and I think a lot of people, you know, listen urban grub You know can a lot of people are like, oh it's a revolving door There's a lot of people that go in and out of it like that come and go as employees Yeah, sure But like that's also the restaurant industry and also you're gonna naturally have that when you're doing 400 plus covers a night A lot of people can't handle that volume breaks people I mean, let's be real and it does break people and if you're on a management level and work for Jay It is a demanding thing and it is a situation you can't coast There is no coasting. You know what I mean?

27:36And he's a you know, he's a visionary. He wants to do bigger and better all the time And even I can never fault him for that I find I found talent in the last couple weeks myself with I'm with you a thousand percent on get better every single day Do something, hike, work out, read a book, listen to 10 minutes of a book, listen to a podcast Find some way to challenge yourself get outside your comfort zone But like constantly be striving to do better My biggest frustration is is that I'm I feel like I'm on an island sometimes Because I walk into I feel like when I'm in here and I'm talking to other leaders like yourself right now I feel like I'm I'm in a really safe place So many times when you're in a restaurant and I'm not I'm not talking shit about my stuff Okay, that's not what I'm doing here What I'm saying is it's challenging sometimes because everybody's not like that No So many people like look, dude, I just want to come in, wait tables, go home, smoke pot, come back and do it again Yeah Like I don't want to get better every day or maybe they don't know if they do but that mentality every day is exhausting For me personally, like I don't know how I continue to do it Yeah Do you find that for yourself?

28:51Like do you ever feel like you're just alone when you go in and you're trying every single day to get all this stuff done It's like why the fuck did you come in 20 minutes late? Why do you not care? Yeah Because that's hard to lead people that way Yeah So I've always said you can't teach care But yes, I do feel that way every day It's, you know, I've tried to evaluate it a lot, especially with buttermilk, right? Every opening, you know, I've done a lot of openings and after every opening, I'm like, I'm never doing another opening And then I find myself doing another opening But like you have to be a specific type of person, right? You have to have a specific type of mindset You have to be a goal-orientated person And with buttermilk, you know, it was very successful right off the bat, which I'm super grateful for But at the same time, you know, I've said it recently I've kind of like had a kind of come to Jesus moment of that where it's very lonely at the top You know what I mean?

29:59And I'm not saying that, you know, I'm a very humble person I don't think I'm the best in the world or anything like that It's just when you own a business, it's difficult, right? You're by yourself Ultimately, it all falls on you and it is very lonely at the top And you find yourself where people are coming in late You know, I can't teach you to care I can't make you want to be here But then again, it goes right back to, we said it before, like trying to make yourself better every day You know, I've tried to instill in my staff that I want you to be a better person, right? I want you to be a better person, right? Be a better pastry chef, be a better server, be a better cashier Whatever it is, be better at it every day Set goals for yourselves, right? And I heard a quote recently because I'm a very goal-orientated person And if I don't have goals, I'm not focused But I heard a quote the other day and it's like, you know, focus on goals, not ideals, right?

30:59So we talk about it all the time It's like, oh my God, it would be ideal if, it would be great if And it's like, okay, we can get lost chasing those ideals that you probably will never hit, right? But if you set goals, now they shouldn't be easy things to obtain But they do need to be attainable A smart goal, right? They have to be attainable to a certain point Specific, measurable, attainable, time-bound and relative? I don't know what they are, but yeah I just, I mean, I'm a person that sets pretty hard goals for myself Just because I know that I'm a goal-orientated person If you're not a goal-orientated person Then, you know, set minor goals that you know that you can achieve Because when you do achieve them, you feel good, right? There's a sense of accomplishment There's a sense of, okay, I want to do it again Now let's make it harder, right? But, you know, it is lonely Like, it's super lonely And, you know, you hate to, you know, you own restaurants And it's like, you don't want to bring it home all the time Because, you know, you're aggravated, you're upset That, you know, somebody didn't do what you wanted them to do They didn't perform the way you wanted them to perform And don't get me wrong, we all make mistakes All the time I mean, I make mistakes, everyone makes mistakes I mean, you can't let them define you No But at the same time, it's like You can learn from them You can learn from them, right?

32:15Every day And I love all my employees I'm very grateful for the employees that I have You know, it's just trying to make sure that they're growing, right? And they're being better every day And they're going to make mistakes And there's going to be days where, like, they're hungover And, like, they don't feel like being there And, like, you know, it's that whole hospitality thing That's never changed It's only gotten worse after COVID, right? But, you know, trying to make sure that They're not making the same mistakes every day, right? It's like making sure that you don't have employees That are those employees That's like, oh, first day every day Like, oh, first day, first day You know, you don't want that Because I think that's also kind of leaks And kind of goes into everybody else You know what I mean? It does And, you know, I think you're going to have a percentage Of people like that all the time I was telling my wife the other day I said, I feel Sometimes I just feel defeated Because I can't stop thinking about the future As a visionary and an integrator Yes, 100% I'm thinking about the future And I'm thinking about all of these people That work for me And how do I make their lives better And what can I do And I go, there's kind of a weird feeling When you're in the building I don't have a good sense of like I feel like it's kind of fake Because I'm like When you walk in and everybody is really nice to you And like, hey, good to see you And I'm like, is any of this shit real?

33:38Like, I don't know And then I had a server, you know, two weeks ago Tell me that she hates everything And that you guys and them and they And all these things And it just deflated the living shit out of me Because I was like Do you have any idea How much work and effort I put in To making this place a viable place for everybody And how much I want And then people just don't give a shit It is lonely I don't have somebody to just go Dude, I feel like I'm on an island right now And I'm curious Curious You seem very well driven These are the things I'm going after And it's hard because in this industry Those people are I don't want to say they're rare But people are content doing what they do I'm content being a bartender And there's nothing wrong with that Whatsoever I love that But for somebody who's like Every day I want to get better Also, it's exhausting for me Because it's like I don't know how to turn that off Are you able to turn that off for a minute And just kind of go I'm going to take a hike today And not listen to a podcast Or I'm just going to hang out with my husband And not talk about work A full day?

34:53No No But that's a thing I mean like I'm sure my husband would like me to You know I also haven't traveled a lot I really I did travel a lot prior to coming to Nashville Obviously once I got to Nashville My sole focus was buttermilk And then COVID happened Then COVID stopped traveling And then buttermilk opened And I haven't really been able to travel much Because of just being there 24-7 But I feel like you can get a lot of inspiration, right? You mean Oh man, all the time I mean I am I have to thrive on creativity, right? My What I do Revolves around being creative All the time And there's times where it's hard to keep yourself In that creative mindset In that creative flow, right? And it's like All right Who didn't I go to work every day I'm like, okay What's going to happen today? Who's not going to show up? Who's going to be late? Who's going to come in And say that they don't want to do this? Like Who's going to get in a fight with who?

35:53Who's going to walk out in the middle of the ship? Who's going to walk out Like what dishwasher is going to walk out In the middle of the ship And not say anything to anybody And then show up the next day Acting like nothing was wrong You know It's hard to stay in that creative flow And be a business operator at the same time, right? Because it goes back to macro There's so many moving parts to a restaurant Or a bar Or a bakery Or a cafe Whatever it is To be the person that's the creative flow But also the person that holds The glue that holds it all together It's very difficult That's probably one of the hardest things for me You know And then You try and bounce ideas off of You know A partnering chef Or anything like that And it's trying to keep them up At a certain level of creativity So then you have to stay on that level But then also inspire everyone around you To You know Do their job to the best of their ability You know I've always said You know I said before about Urban Grub Is that my biggest thing Going in there For front of the house wise Is like This is not just serving You're not just taking people's orders You're not just getting drinks You're creating experience Creating experience People don't come back You know Listen They can have the best meal of their life If the service You know Was poor I'm sorry So I'm trying to Curse all you want Oh okay cool I think I've said like 10 f-bombs so far In this interview So I'm I'm the worst They told me When I moved here They're like You need to You have a potty mouth No this is a very real Real podcast Uncensored To your thing You know So I think it's difficult Because You want to create an experience Right If somebody comes into a restaurant And they can have great food If they had shitty service They're not going to come back No You know This is a bad day Oh the kitchen had a bad day I'll order something different Correct This place has great reviews Agreed Service though Service Almost unforgiving Unforgiving right Because it makes people feel not special Correct People like to feel special And I always said that And like my whole entire staff Will laugh when they hear me say this But it's like I literally have hammered it

37:53In their head so deeply That it's like You have to realize that One you're on stage Right You're a server Always You're giving experience And guess what If you have five tables That's five different experiences At all No You know And I think that People that aren't in the restaurant Industry don't understand that Right You have to figure out How to make everybody in the room Feel like the most important person In the room Really good people do Yeah The good servers The ones We had a server at Sky King Pizza And Where the hell is that At Dixon I think it's in Dixon But it's This little tiny pizza place My wife loves it They have a really good dessert But we went there the night And I never expected good But this kid Was so good Like I want to come back And ask for him Every time It made the entire meal I think I left him With a 35% tip I was like That was awesome Because it made you feel good Yeah I felt special But I wasn't expecting it Yeah I love to be pleasantly surprised Yes I am a big person It's hard to pleasantly Surprise me But I'm super happy But when you are It's the best Yes It's awesome It's awesome The good ones The ones that care The ones that want to Get better every day And you keep that going Yeah And I think that It's kind of My favorite quote By Henry Ford is Whether you think You can do a thing Or whether you think You can't do a thing You're right You're right That's the actual quote Whether you think you can Or you think you can't You're right It's 100% And I think walking Into any job Is a mindset And this is for me As a leader As a coach I'm like When you start Your first table We have no idea Where they came from Yeah If they just Put their dog down If they just Left their mother's funeral If they just won the lottery They just got laid I don't know You have no idea But they're walking in But our only goal Is to kind of Read their energy Figure that out Read their energy And then make them happier Than when they showed up When they left They want to go That wasn't just food That was amazing And if you're a really good Server

39:53Every day you figure out I'm going to learn A lot more about the Backstory of this meat Where do we buy our produce Where do we get this Where do we do that I'm going to articulate I'm going to tell a story You're a tour guide Yes You're the ones Who you're guiding And if you can do that For five different tables It's impressive Five tables is hard It's hard Four tables I think is really Where you can do that Yep Five tables You can't engage that way It's just too hard But four tables It's tough Three tables is a sweet spot Yeah But really doing that I think if you stop Thinking about your tip And you start thinking about I always say that I'm like stop looking At your tips Stop You can look at the end Of the night And be like okay I made XML But it's like stop You can't live in that mindset Because you can never Be deep into Giving an experience Going above and beyond And exceeding expectations If you're constantly Like oh I only got 15% on this Oh I got 18 Oh this person gave me 25% No You can't be on that Roller coaster Like get off that Roller coaster Ride your own ride Anxiety riddled Yeah It's anxiety riddled Am I going to make money It's like You're going to create Amazing experiences For everybody Correct And the money will come You're going to do Gangbusters Yeah Focus on the job at hand And that's what We do a tip for Both of our restaurants I don't know if you guys Do that or not We started with Buttermilk we did Urban Grub they team service So they're in teams Like two and threes Okay well that's cool I think that When you're able to do that When it's When hey look We're all going to make A big hourly wage And it's going to be great The better everybody does The better everybody does Service every day Is the way to go But again That is a challenge Because there's a mindset of That's my money Well I think It's hard because If you have the right Group of people Right in the right Environment Tip pool can be Super successful And create An awesome environment For your staff But also too Is like you hire The one wrong Server And it affects The whole entire group And it is Like a flip of a switch

41:54That you had a great team To all of a sudden You have a miserable Team That's like oh This one's not Pulling their weight I'm not making enough Money I could have made this But I only made that And it's like Oh my gosh Like please stop Please We're talking about A lot of controversial Issues today Yes we are A lot of controversial Well I think people Could be listening this And like What do they know They're not waiting tables You know they don't Understand that Well I'm pretty sure If you come into Buttermilk Ranch You can see me rolling Croissants Yeah But that's ownership Of a restaurant It's like I want The best for this place And it's like I can't walk around And be like Hey do this Hey do that If I'm not willing To do it myself You mean I will never Have the respect Of my employees And my team And you know I'm not gonna stop Somebody from trying To give an experience To be like hey Can you go refill The bathrooms No I'm gonna do it myself Because that's for The best interest Of my restaurant I mean if I'm We all are in this I mean Owning and operating A restaurant Is so Incredibly difficult To begin with This whole post COVID World And bubble That we live in In the hospitality Industry Or I should say What's left of it Is so Difficult It is like Dealing with Almost like A manic Depressant Employee 24-7 Because you never know What you're gonna get And don't get me wrong I love my employees None of them are that way But it's a real Experiment That COVID has kind of Created for us That it's Yes I think the Restaurant industry Needed to change I think adjustments Need to be made But at the same time It's like You have no idea What you're walking into Every single day And that is A very difficult thing to do How do you How do you fix that Right so I mean Yeah You take a plate And you're gonna make it Better Yeah Every single day You can get a little bit better Yeah If we know that No clue what's gonna

43:54Happen today Yeah Is there a solution to that Is it the day before We call everybody Like what Yeah I mean I think Honestly you know It's always gonna happen You mean that's just The name of the game But at the same time You know I pride myself on My work ethic I pride myself on Being passionate And being better Every single day And impacting people's Lives right And yes it's just Food like I mean let's be real Like it turns to shit In four hours I mean it's food It's not brain surgery We're not saving lives You know But at the same time I love pastry Because I feel like Pastry makes people happy Right And I'm happy right now You guys haven't Be able to hear But I'm eating this I'm just slowly watching This croissant gets Smaller and smaller I'm like moving the mic From like I'm asking a question Like she's gonna talk For a minute I'm gonna eat He definitely is moving That fucking mic So he can eat that Croissant just so Everybody knows how I am enjoying And then I can Go back to the roots Of like what drives me Right Because if I can Figure out what drives Me that may not be What drives everyone else But I can at least Inspire everyone Around me Right So it's like I find passion In doing pastry Because One I love it I think it's great But it makes people Happy You know what I mean Like genuinely Like people get excited Like people like Eat pastry Like it's genuine Elation for some Weird reason It's probably the sugar And you know, a lot of people relate pastry to like, oh, my grandmother made these chocolate chip cookies.

45:26Oh, like the birthday cake that I had when I was a kid, it was the best. You mean like, listen, like I remember my birthday cakes, it was a Friendly's watermelon roll that my mom got from Friendly's. Like, I mean, I have a summer birthday, it was a summer like ice cream cake. But if I can evoke an emotion through food, I feel like I did my job, right? If I can turn someone's day around based upon what they just ate that I created, I did my job, right? That's what drives me. But then it goes deeper, right? I look at, you look at urban grub, you look at buttermilk ranch, two very different concepts, right? One is a day dining, one is a nighttime kind of finer dining. The morning is so different service-wise. If you're doing breakfast and lunch, it's completely different than doing dinner, even if you're doing dinner on a casual level, right? Because you have the ability to be the first person somebody interacts with, right? If you leave your house and you come to buttermilk ranch, you know, at 8 a.m. and that's you're stopping on your way to work to grab a coffee and an Almond Joy croissant.

46:29That cashier or that person that greets you at the door, that's the first person that you speak to, maybe for your day. Maybe, you know, you're married, you're not, maybe your spouse was sleeping, but that's your first person you come in contact with. That person can set your whole entire day. Is that person bubbly? Are they happy? How do you feel? What was your experience when you left, right? Did you leave feeling like, oh, I'm important, that was a great experience. Wow, that person was so happy. Wow, they, you know, said my, they liked my shirt or whatever it was. They knew my name. They knew my name. If I go there every day for my coffee and a pastry, hey, John, great to see you, good morning. Large coffee, milk, two sugars, or milk, one Splenda. And people like my staff is always like, I'm never gonna be able to remember that. And I'm like, it's not about remembering that, but also you will because you're just gonna see that person and you're gonna know. I mean, I have people that walk their dogs. We make dog treats. Every time, you know, Kenneth walks his dog down 12 South, I mean, Izzy like literally lays down in front of buttermilk because she knows she gets treats. But also that's how he starts his day.

47:30I've never thought about this. But it's wild, right? Because for me- It's incredible, the responsibility. It's a huge responsibility. Responsibility of, we get to set the tone for your day. Your whole entire day. I've never thought about that. But for me, it's like, okay, for me, you know, my pastries, I try and, my goal is to be the best, right? I want them to be the best. I want them to be as fresh as possible. Pretty fucking good. Thank you. Like one for me. You know? So if I know I can win it over on the pastry level, but it's also, it's not, once again, it's not just about the food, right? It's about the experience. It was, how was that person when they greeted me? You know, it's like when you walk into like a gas station to go get a coffee first thing in the morning or something like that. The person behind the counter is just like, doesn't want to be there like, meh. It's like, okay, if you're not happy, don't work that job. You know what I mean? If you want to be somewhere at six in the morning, you've got to be up, bubbly, happy, ready to go. You're impacting people's day, right? They're going to leave happy and then they're going to open up that box.

48:31They're going to eat that croissant. They're going to be, they're going to be happy again. So that's a two times. If you can get people three times, you're solid. You know what I mean? So I just, for me, it was really truly about trying to create a culture with my employees to give them that responsibility for them to know, hey, I have the ability to impact people's lives. I have the ability on a small level to impact people's day and I can make their day good or bad. If I've got my head's- Let's switch off in the right direction. Correct, yeah. And I say to them, I go think about how you would want somebody to treat you first thing in the morning. If I'm the first person you see and you walk in and I'm like, like, could care less. Don't want to look you in the eye. Don't want to say hello. Don't want to say good morning. Don't want to ask you how the concert was last night. Do you think you're too cool to be here like, oh, you want to, like, I want to meet him. Oh, do you mean that? Like, of course I mean the middle. I don't know. Don't have to correct. Yeah. It's called moments of truth. It's, yeah. Those little moments of truth where I went to a conference recently and I, the word that I kept hearing was frictionless.

49:36Okay. It was a tech conference and they were like, this is a frictionless technology. Frictionless. I was like, God, they're just using this term a lot. And I thought, that's the goal. That's a goal. That's, that's our new mantra. Friction causes uncomfortableness, right? Well, it's, it's, it's a moment of like the friction. Like, so if you walk in the, if you, if you park in the parking lot and you run over a glass bottle, friction. Yeah. You walk in the front door and there's trash out front. Like friction, if you ask the hostess or host, hi, we have two people. Do you have a reservation? Yeah. Friction. That's friction. Like how we speak to people when you walk in and you go, hi, how you doing? Like, did you look at the menu? Do you know what you want? Like, am I in trouble? Yeah. Like did I do something wrong? Friction. Friction. Like how do we make it? I always say arms crossed too. Like, cause it's also too is like once, once you, body language is huge. Cause once you've realized, okay, like it's the way I speak. It's my tone. It's what I say. Okay. But it's also about how you carry yourself, right?

50:37If I walk in and the hostess got her head down and her arms are crossed, like you look angry. And like, and I feel bad sometimes cause I've said it to some of my hosts and they're like, oh my God, it's just like, I'm just creature habit. Like I just stand there. I'm cold. I'm cold. I just, and I'm like, okay. But if I look at you, you're unapproachable, right? Like you, I can't approach you, but I probably can. But like, I'm not going to feel comfortable. I'm going to feel like there's- How dare she speak to me like that? She's such a bitch. Yeah. Well, now I'm going to go right about on Yelp. It's the truth. Hey, we're going to take a quick break to hear a few words from our sponsors. You know, what chefs want, some people still call it creation gardens, but what chefs want has been, was our first advertiser on the show. Monty Crawford saw what we're doing. He goes, I want to be part of it, dude. I love it. And I just, I love that they're so perfect cause they work with locally owned and operated restaurants better than anyone. And let me tell you how they do it. No minimums, no fees, no fuel surcharges, no surcharges anytime.

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53:42They are just amazing. You guys need to call Kevin. I keep hearing about how it is impossible to hire people and there's staffing issues. That is why you need Poached for hospitality. Poached is the nation's top jobs marketplace for the hospitality industry with innovative on-demand staffing technology and permanent hire solutions. Poached gives employers the flexibility and control needed to decrease labor costs and increase productivity. Poached is built by industry professionals for industry professionals. And guys, right now in Nashville only, it is free. For the month of October, the rest of the month of October, it is free for you to post. So if you're out there spending tons of money on these other job sites, go to poachedjobs.com. Better than that, go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com, click the Sponsors tab. If you scroll down and find the Poached, there is a special link there that lets them know you found this through us. Guys, I'd love to have you go to our website and click the link because that lets them know that you're listening to us and you're out there hiring away for free.

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56:02And I was like, no, no, no, can't be. And I'll tell you what, there's people doing some good stuff, but it's very singular focused. Five Daughters has its success doing its donuts and stuff like that. And there's very single focused pastry. Amazing bread, crushes it like sourdough, awesome. But for buttermilk, I am obviously a goal-oriented person. I shoot higher than people probably want me to shoot. And my staff probably thinks I'm crazy half the time. And then they come in like one morning and they're like, what do you mean we're changing half these croissants? I'm like, yeah, we're changing them like tomorrow. And they're like, oh my God. But I think that you have to be that way, right? You have to strive to be better every day. And if I can get my employees on the same page and I can get their mindset to, I need to be better every day. If it's a mindset of abundance, if it's a mindset of, okay, how do I be better? And I think where I struggled was when I got here and I said, okay, we're gonna do entremets, we're gonna do house made gelato, we're gonna do lamination, we're gonna do cookies, we're gonna do everything in house, we're gonna bake it fresh.

57:13Every couple hours you have those croissants out of the oven because I think a croissant six hours out of the oven is completely different than two hours out of the oven. I think a croissant two hours out of the oven is way different than one that was eight hours out of the oven. And that was very daunting for my staff. But I also realized with Jay telling me that this type of pastry wasn't here, the staffing wasn't here for it. And that was a very difficult thing for me. And I mean, I now can say that probably 80 or probably 90% of my pastry staff were all home bakers. Really? And that terrified me. And at first, and now I'm looking back at it because I turned down some people or I didn't interview certain people because they were just home bakers and stuff like that. I've never hired a home baker before, I've never hired somebody that wasn't classically trained. I mean, I'm very classically trained and I've spent 19 years honing my craft. I took the plunge because after COVID, there was no one left.

58:16I think any restaurant here that even had a pastry program got rid of it. The only pastry that lived was us and a couple random high-end restaurants and then hotels. So I had to jump into the waters of, okay, I will train you from the ground up. You have to be open to that and you have to be ready to learn, right? You have to have the mindset to be open to learn and grow. You let people know that on the front end. Is that part of the interview process of like, Hold on. This is what, let me tell you what you're getting into. This is what, well, and here's my thing. I tell people all the time, I mean, you're interviewing me and Buttermilk just as much as I'm interviewing you. I want this to be right for you just as much as it's right for me because if it's not right for you, I mean, you're not gonna be an A employee for me or a B employee for me if you don't wanna be here. If you don't wanna grow and if you don't wanna learn. And I tell them all, I'm like, I don't expect all of you to stay here. I don't, I mean, you could be here for a year. You could be here for six months. My goal is that you leave here a better person and either a better cook, a better pastry chef, a better staff member.

59:20If you do that, go where you wanna go, do what you wanna do. I'm never gonna stop you. You know, I'm just, I wanna have that impact on your life that you had a great experience working here and you grew. And you know, you could take those skills and go somewhere else and grow even more. And then come back. That's, well, I think if you create the environment that lets them know that they have a long future with the company and you put the right things in place, then why would they wanna go? This is the job. And when you have that, when you have some seniority, you know what you're doing. Look, training's expensive. It takes a lot of time, energy. Like keeping people, retention is the new cool. I keep saying that, like keeping people around, putting your arms around people, identifying where they're at. I don't interview people anymore. If we have a rock star walk in and they're like, we're gonna hire this guy. I'm like, cool, I wanna do this final interview. We're gonna hire him. Like, I wanna do the interview. And I don't interview people anymore. I set people down and I go, okay, it's nice to meet you. I'm Brandon, you know. Normally this would be a final interview, but I'm actually gonna let you interview me because I think that this job is important enough that I think that we want you, but I wanna make sure that you want us.

01:00:33Correct. So you ask me whatever you wanna. You are interviewing me now. Open book. I wanna know what, and it's so, it's the most telling thing I've ever done. So many people are like, really? They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, just interview. What do you want about the company? Like ask me anything you wanna know about anything you wanna know. But it's interesting, because I learn more about them from the questions they ask. If the first question is, when can I start taking vacation? But like if there's a. Red flag. Tell me about your culture and is it defined? And what does the future look like? Do you wanna grow? Where do you see the company in five years? Those are questions I'm like, oh. Yeah. Keep asking more questions. But like it tells me where they're at. Versus, tell me what you, like having somebody rattle off their greatest hits. It's real easy to make yourself sound good. But I want you to want to work here. I wanna know that you're comfortable with who we are.

01:01:35And I'm an open book. It's been the most rewarding thing that I've ever done. Just changing that. Just like, I'm not interviewing people anymore. They're interviewing me. Yeah. When did you ever think like times would come where like majority of the time, like I barely even look at people's resumes. Like I look at them. But like, you know, when I sit down and like interview with them, I don't even have the resumes there anymore. Cause I'm like, it just doesn't matter. Where are you at in your life right now? What's your mindset? You know, are you a positive person? Are you a person that wants to grow? What do you want? What do you see yourself obtaining out of this situation? Why do you wanna come and work for Buttermilk Ranch? Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. Whatever your past was, just tell me about it. Yep. And be real. Yeah. Look, we're gonna work real close together for the next little while. I'm gonna figure out. I'm gonna see you more than I see my family. I'm gonna figure out whatever these things are. Let's talk about them, and let's get everything on the table. Yeah. What is your goal? What is your attitude? Like I tell you, I had the best, I had a kid tell me one time, he goes, well, I've never worked at tables before.

01:02:36I know this is a nice restaurant, but he goes, and I'll tell you, I'm gonna make a lot of mistakes. He goes, but I never make the same mistake twice. Good, that's great. Cause I learned from everyone, I was like, I love it. You're hired. Hired. Could you ever not hire somebody who said that? Can I steal him? He's at NYU now. But like, can you ever like, I was like, I can't ask for a better answer. I can't think I've ever heard somebody tell me something better, like, I am gonna fuck up. I'm gonna do it a lot, cause I've never done this before, but I won't do anything that I've done twice. And I learned from my mistakes. And what? Word? Word. Yes. Can you start tomorrow? Yeah, like, let's go. Let's go. I mean, that's really, I mean, I don't need to know, oh, I worked for this person, that person. Like, why don't you work there anymore? Yeah. Why? I don't know, but like, what did you learn from that experience? Yeah. Just tell me what that is. I think sometimes too, is that people look at like, you know, it used to be, okay, let me look at your resume. Oh, you jumped around a lot. You were only here for six months, you know, a year, blah, blah, blah, blah. But like also too is like, I think that's a testament to the establishment too. Like everyone's always like, oh, the employee jumped around. Well, no, like what was wrong with those places?

01:03:36Like, was their structure bad? Did they not have systems and controls in place? Like, were they not making their employees better every day? Cause like, we have an obligation to our employees just as much as they have an obligation to us. I mean, if you don't think restaurant, I see resumes, I see a lot of resumes, right? But like, I see all the places that people only work a couple months. And then in my brain, I'm like, well, there's a lot of people that work two months there. I wonder what's going on there. Like, I wonder what that is. And sometimes I'll call that person and get them on the show. You know, what's the deal with that? But I mean, no, I think that it's a really interesting, it's an interesting dynamic. We were talking about some controversial stuff today. Yeah, I like it. Where people are sitting here going, they're only looking at people. They're like, no, we want to hire great people that have a good attitude, that want to do the work. Is that too much to ask? No, I don't think so. I mean, also too is like, I understand and recognize that it's not for everybody. And I think more so now, like after COVID, people have realized and gotten out. They took their chance and got out of hospitality, right?

01:04:38My husband, John, you know, has been in hospitality forever. You know, one of his members at Red Foam Booth was Gary Ashen and was like, hey, do you want to come do real estate with me while COVID has got everything shut down? You want to go back after? Go ahead. I mean- Is he doing real estate now? Fuck yeah, he was never going to come back. Now I'm just like, hey, he'll walk into buttermilk and be really busy. And he'll be like, I'm going to bust these tables for you. I'm like, okay, cool, thank you. See, I think that's when people say, what happened to, where'd all the workers go? Where'd they all go? But also if you were, it's very hard to leave, right? Hospitality is hard to leave, especially if you're a server or you're a front of the house person and you're making cash and like, you have that flow of cash. It's hard to break away from that, right? Everybody's like, oh, I can't get a real job, blah, blah, blah. I don't even know if it's that. I don't know. I think COVID was an excuse for people to pivot, right? And a lot of people pivoted correctly. Some people didn't, you know, that's fine. I mean, you've got to make that life choice, right? And that's, that is everyone's individual choice. But also too is like, I think that you have to choose places that you want to be.

01:05:40You have to choose places that you're proud of. Like I say all the time, if my employees bring their family in on their time off, like if their parents are visiting and they bring them into buttermilk, they're proud of where they work. They take pride in their work environment and what we do and what we put out there. That is like a huge thing for me when people bring their families in because I know that that employee literally loves being there and takes pride in it. And pride is a huge thing. It's a huge, huge thing. And you also can't teach pride. It gives you confidence walking to a table that you want to tell. If it was me and I was at buttermilk ranch, I would not be able to wait. I would be so excited today at like eight o'clock. I'd be like, holy shit, we get to roll out the candy bar collection. Welcome to buttermilk ranch. Let me tell you today, an hour ago, if you like candy bar, you got to try one. At least take one home with you, but then get your normal order. But I would just be so excited to share that because that's really like, that was really tasty.

01:06:41And I'm done eating now, by the way. I don't know if you guys got to hear it. I'm gonna eat another one too. Okay. Honey, I love you. I'm sorry, but only two of them are gonna be coming home. There's a Snickers, a peanut butter, and what a Twix left. She should probably text you which one she wants so you don't break into it. She's not gonna know. Sorry, babe. No, I think that it's all very interesting. This has been a fun conversation. I've really enjoyed your candor and just, it's helped me because I've been feeling low. I've kind of been down. I think it's hard. I mean, and I think we're all so busy in trying to run our own places and make sure that we're keeping our heads above water and making sure we maintain our staff and people don't steal our staff and things like that. And it's just, for me, it's like, Nashville has been such a great move for me and people have been so supportive and the other chefs in this whole community of Nashville have been so great and I've gotten to know so many of them.

01:07:45And it's interesting because New York is so cutthroat and it's so just go, go, go, go all the time. And going back to the mindset of abundance and just trying to just do the best that you can do, it's so strange for me here because people support that, right? And for me, being a New Yorker coming down here, I'm a New Yorker opening this big restaurant in the heart of 12 South, are people gonna be like, screw this New Yorker? Who's this New York girl coming into Nashville? I didn't know, it's the South for me. I'm pretty welcoming. Super welcoming and Nashville's new home for me and I think everyone's been so, so beyond supportive outside this industry, inside this industry of buttermilk and myself and it's such an awesome thing to experience and I try and remind myself of that and the small amount of time that I do have off, I try and go to other people's restaurants and go see them and support them and it's just, everybody's in it, everyone.

01:08:50Everyone I go and sit down at the bar or whatever, it's like, everyone's just like, man, do you have anybody? No, do you? No? Yeah. Don't you fucking take any of them in here that they're coming to your place. It's hard, right? And it's like, you try and be respectful and it's like, I just had a girl apply and she worked for Sean Brock and I love Sean. I think he's great. He's been super supportive of me and I was like, I told her when I interviewed her, I was like, I'm gonna be very honest with you. I know Sean, I know his staff and I'm not trying to rob from him and I don't wanna rob from him. I don't need that karma in my life. This is a chef that's a huge chef down here and it's like, his support has been so huge for me and I just, I will be contacting him and letting him know that you did apply if you do wanna come here. I need to give him that type of courtesy because it's just, New York, it's just like, who can you take from anybody? It's just so out for yourself and here is just so different.

01:09:51It's definitely a breath of fresh air for sure. Different in a lot of places here. It depends on, and hopefully through this podcast, I can share that that's the way you need to do it, guys. You need to make that phone call. If they're still there and whatever, but I think that's a very respectful way to go about it. Wow, do you see how fast this goes by? I know, I didn't even look at the time. I don't, I mean. All of a sudden. I know, there's so many things. There's so much stuff that you still don't know about me. I know, what do I need to know? Talk to me. Oh, what do you need to know? Oh my gosh. What is your, do you have any hobbies? What are your hobbies? What do you do for fun outside of. I own a restaurant. I don't have any hobbies. Come on, so you have a dog? I have a dog. What kind of dog do you have? I have a two year old Jack Russell, cattle dog mix. So she is super high energy. Do you walk your dog? Do you go hiking? Do you do. I try and hike as much as possible. I do love that you can get to like a lake or a hike in like 10 to 15 minutes in Nashville.

01:10:54Where do you live? I live in Wedgwood, Houston. So right outside of 12th South. I mean, I'm at work. WeHo. WeHo. I hate that, but I don't know. I don't know why. I like Wedgwood, Houston. Like WeHo sounds like we're trying to be Denver. I was kind of confused by the WeHo thing. I definitely don't call it WeHo, even though I live in WeHo. We don't call it WeHo. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I have to be super close to work because I'm there at like four in the morning, so. So you don't have much of a nightlife. I have no nightlife. I have not. Everyone's like, oh my God, I wish I was you. Like, oh my God. I was like, no, I work 24. Everybody says that to you? People say that all the time. And I'm like, oh my God, I just want to be you. And I was like, nah, I don't think so. I don't think you want to work about the amount that I work. Yeah, I don't know. What other questions do you have? Man, well. There's so many, I mean. I had no idea. I didn't, I've stopped preparing. Okay. Like deep, like where I go, you used to work at the Grammar Sheet Tavern. Tell me about the experience. I don't do that anymore because I like to be.

01:11:55What did you know about me prior to coming? Nothing. Nothing, ooh. I mean, I didn't know anything about you at all. I knew that, I know Jay runs really great restaurants and I saw that you're the partner there and that you're a pastry chef and I don't have a whole lot of pastry chefs on the show and I find that to be a really interesting segment of our industry. And since you're a partner there, just kind of the dynamic of what you're doing. I've tried to eat there five times. I haven't yet to eat there. Well, now you have my number. So you just text me and I'll get you a table. Every day I'm like, they're closed. What the hell's going on here? But that's Mondays and Tuesdays, right? Only Monday and Tuesday. We're open Wednesday through Sunday. Wednesday through Sunday. I apparently go on Mondays and Tuesdays. Yeah. Because your leadership means on Monday, let's go check out Buttermilk Ranch. Yeah. Oh, it's closed. So I really didn't, I just, as a leader in the industry, as somebody who's here, some of my favorite interviews, this one is, and I say every interview is my favorite interview, just because I love genuine connection. I love connecting with people and I love hearing people's stories as to what they're doing every day.

01:12:56Are their lives the same as mine? Are they dealing with the same shit that I'm dealing with? And I think that there was some real vulnerability in this episode where you're kind of like, yeah, this is hard. Yeah, it's very hard. I'm trying to get better every single day and it's exhausting. And I think that resonates with a lot of people. I think there's a lot of people out there that are feeling that same way. I mean, nobody knows what anybody's feeling right now. Yeah. Nobody knows what anybody's feeling. Well, I think everyone's in their own little bubble of just trying to survive, right? And just trying to figure out, because I feel like things change daily and it's like, okay, now all of a sudden there's a cornstarch shortage. Like I can't get cornstarch right now. Like I haven't been able to. What the hell is that? Like I haven't been able, and like, I mean, a little background about me is like I deal with a lot of different starches and stuff like that. But I can't get cornstarch, which I'm really mad about right now. But yeah, so a little secret about me going back to starches.

01:13:58So I am completely gluten-free. Okay. Ha, yes. I didn't see that coming. Yeah, I know. That's why I asked you. I said, I mean, what did you know about me prior to talking? You're the gluten-free pastry chef. Gluten-free pastry chef. I was diagnosed with celiac disease seven years ago. Yeah, seven years ago. So I have not consumed any gluten in the past seven years. So I have no idea what that almond croissant tastes in like, so I'm so glad you liked it. Ha, ha, ha, ha. I would say that it was just delicious. Yeah. Just rainbows, rainbows in my mouth. Yeah, so, but yeah, it's, so that's like another struggle of mine. I feel like people look at buttermilk and, you know, look at me like, oh my God, like I wish I, I just wanna be you. I wanna open like something like this. And it's like. Like a fun pastry shop. Yeah. To kind of just be in and be kind of the mayor of. And people don't realize, you know, how much work goes into it. And like people, you know, I watch people eat our creations and some of them, I've made a lot of things gluten-free and then there's obviously some that I cannot have.

01:15:07And I'm lucky enough to have amazing recipes and, you know, have eaten a lot of stuff over my lifetime and eaten in amazing restaurants and worked for amazing chefs. You've had gluten for a long time. I was on the gluten. So you know what it's like. I was on the gluten for a long time. Like, and I was hard on the gluten for a long time. Now I'm off of it. And yeah, you know, it's, you learn to just, it's one of those other things where you just like, feel like you're alone by yourself and you're like, got to figure it out. And it's, you know. Well, I don't drink alcohol. So I quit about three years ago drinking alcohol. Imagine it somewhere, because everywhere you go, there's just alcohol everywhere. And you're like, I'm gonna do the thing that isn't alcohol. Yes, yeah. And you kind of sometimes feel like. It's hard. You're on an island and everybody's drinking and having a good time and getting louder. And you know, you're just like, I'm not, thanks. Yeah. I was the same thing or not, but. I mean, but it's true. You mean like you're surrounded by it. You know, and it's like, you know, and it's not, and also like, you know, it's a choice.

01:16:08You know, like it's a choice not to drink. It's a choice for me not to consume gluten. But it's also medically. I mean, you have that. Like I didn't, I would probably would, but. So what do you, what's your favorite band? Let's get into some get to know you chit chat where I can learn about what you like kitchen tracks. Like what do you listen to? Kitchen tracks, kitchen tracks change all the time. Most recently we jump around a decent amount. Not a lot of country music going on in our kitchen playlist. Even though like country music has grown on me. I've never been a country music person. Like New York city didn't even have a country music radio station. So we moved down here and like had to embrace country music. I'm all over the map. Like we were listening to like 90s, like old school hip hop this morning. And yesterday we were on a little OAR. And I'm definitely, I'm definitely gonna try and go to this Pitbull concert on Sunday. Cause he is an high energy person.

01:17:12Talk about experience. Like he's a awesome, awesome person. He was one of my favorite interviews on Howard Stern. He's just so real, so raw and does not pull punches. And he's just, he's like, he's just full of life. A guy just does not accept things that aren't just like, no man, life's amazing. You gotta live it every day. And I'm like, I want that energy. I want that mindset. You know what I mean? Like how do I live in Pitbull mindset? You gotta have like $800 million. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you do it ever the fuck you want. Then you can just be that all day long like, oh, you don't like that? Go fuck yourself. Thank you. I'm not gonna lie. I'm gonna kind of feel like obtaining that amount of money would be in the ideals category and not the goals category. It's a different animal for sure. But I will, I'll put that on there. I'll put that on my list. He was so funny. Howard asked him, he said, so I see you like in your videos, you're on these yachts. He's like, these like your yachts.

01:18:13He goes, no, Howard, if it floats, flies or fucks, I just rent it. It's a bow right? And I was like, that's funny. But he said that. That was like something he said in an interview. And I was like, that's amazing. Yeah. I just think that's funny as shit. I just like, I mean, I love him in general. Like I said, I think the mindset, his music, everything. I love his collaborations. Anytime I'm like, you have to like get into like a good head space to either like compete or anything. I mean, my headphones are in and it's definitely Pitbull. Like if you see me like not talking to anybody, headphones in. You're at the gym, you're like. I don't go to the gym. I don't have time to go to the gym. Oh. But if I did go to the gym, I probably would listen to Pitbull. I could give you a dose of your own medicine if you want. Yeah. You do have time. You're just not making it. Yeah. No, that's true. If you have to get work at four, you could get up at two. Yeah. Or you get off work. You gotta prioritize it and you gotta want that in your life.

01:19:14Yeah. See, I don't want the gym in my life. I'm literally on my feet like 14 hours a day and I lift like 50 pound bags of flour. So I consider that. You like work at CrossFit. Yes. I consider Buttermilk Ranch, pseudo CrossFit working out all day long. Deal. Yeah. That's a thing. But yeah. That's a thing. Favorite movie of all time. You can go comedy and drama if you want. Cause. Favorite movie of all time. I mean. You had to been asked that question before. This'll be no surprise. I am a huge original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory fan. Nice. Yeah. Oh yeah. Good. What about that movie? Cause I have a million things about that movie. Like to be honest, I really feel like that. I remember vividly watching that movie like at my aunt's lake house, like as a little kid, like watching it on like an old school, like big like fat TV, you know? And I don't know. I really feel like that movie like sculpt me into like getting into what, like being a pastry chef. Cause I just loved it. I loved like the whole room with like the chocolate waterfall and like the edible trees and like all that kind of stuff.

01:20:19And we decorated buttermilk ranch as a gingerbread house last Christmas, which we're doing again this year. And the designer that helped us with it, he was like, talk to me. And I was like, I want like Willy Wonka meets like gingerbread house. Like I want people to walk in this place and feel like they can like take things off the wall and like eat it. Like just because like you feel like you're being transported into something else and it's happy and it's joyful and it's like sweet and yeah, I love it. But if I had to think like regular movie, no, yeah, I think Willy Wonka. Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder's fire, man. Every time I watch that, and I've watched it recently. Yeah. He's like, strike that, reverse it. Yes. And he does like this. He has so many great quotes. Walking out with the cane and then the flip and then the. Oh yeah. We are the music makers. We are the music makers. We are the dreamers of the dreams. And then he just stops. My ringtone is pure imagination. I'm not going to lie. I'm going to go, I'm going to watch that.

01:21:19It's probably been over a year. And then maybe it was the Johnny Depp version. I didn't love the Johnny Depp version. No. Obviously, I mean, I'm, you know, Gene Wilder's my jam. So you mean you can't really fuck with an original sometimes. You know, you got to keep it how it is. Don't mess with it. It doesn't need to be messed with. That's the first time somebody's told me that movie, by the way, by asking that question. Awesome. And I love that answer. Okay. Awesome. That's an amazing answer. Okay, great. Got any more brain busters? Best book. What's the book that you read or that I've read that like you subscribe to, that you would share with anybody? I think your best friend that like is, wants to become a pastry chef or they're having a hard day or they're whatever. What's the book that changed your life? That's a really tough question because I don't really read a lot of books. I don't, this is my own fault. I don't really allow myself enough time to like read books. I can't even tell you like off the top of my head, the last book that I read from like start to finish. Wow. Like.

01:22:24Well, I will tell you a book then. I'll answer that for you. Okay, all right. If you tell me a book, I'll probably get it on audio book and I'll listen to it. That's what I do. I drive into work and I'm always listening to book podcasts or I go hiking and listen to books is the thing. I just did Brandon's book club. Last month on it. It's called The Comfort Crisis by a guy named Michael Easter. And it teaches you to get out of your comfort zone. Okay, I like that. We all live in a 72 degree world. This is a nice comfortable warm room, but if it was 60 degrees and you walked in, you'd be like, this is, you'd walk outside and feel like, oh, this weather's like, it's how you get, your potential is here, but you live here, but your potential is here, but you have to get out of this circle to unlock it. People who typically don't have the ability to have comfort, we both have jobs. You probably own a home, I imagine. You go home and we take for granted that we walk in at 70 degrees in our house. We take for granted that we've got food in our pantry. Mine's at like 68 permanently. But you know, people that don't, people live on the streets.

01:23:27There's a perspective that they have where they appreciate things. They would love to have those things that people appreciate. So you getting out of your comfort zone helps you really practice gratitude in the everyday things that you probably take for granted, but it also challenges you to go, hey, I can do a lot more than I thought that I did. And that's that mindset every day of I wanna get better every single day. Like, well, how are you challenging yourself? And sometimes it's in a different way that you didn't, because you're thinking business and how can I tell myself like, but go hike 10 miles tomorrow. Like, well, that's gonna be really hard. But go do it in a 10 mile hike where you do 1500 feet of elevation and it's like, it beats you down. Might make a 12 hour day in the bakery feel pretty easy. Well, it's also amazing how much you can clear your mind to on those, like that type of hike. Like sometimes I have to like force myself to go and do it on like a Monday or something like that, solely just to kind of reset and clear my mind. Get bored.

01:24:28Yeah. Sometimes people, that's another thing. People are comfortable, they get bored, they're uncomfortable, they get their phone and they look at it. Being in nature with nothing but your thoughts, leave your phone in the pocket, spend an hour or two hiking. You get bored and that's when all the creativity happens. Oh, I come back from like hikes and it's just like, I literally have like a whole entire list of stuff. My staff's like, God damn it. Did you go hiking again? What are you doing? Where did you come up with this stuff? I'm like, I don't know, just came out. I hiked, I'm sorry. Yeah, I hiked, I'm sorry. I cleared my mind. Get ready. The workload's gonna be real hard for the next two days. But it's gonna net the candy bar collection. Yes, but then comes a candy bar collection. Which will be a massive success. Yes, I hope so. I hope so. It's only for this month, so. Next month comes pies. What more do you wanna tell us about Buttermilk Ranch? What more about Buttermilk Ranch? What more about Buttermilk Ranch? Promote Buttermilk Ranch all that you can. Buttermilk Ranch, BMR, man, BMR just promotes itself.

01:25:30I mean, I'm, I mean, I live in the South, but I mean, I feel truly blessed. Like I feel like I can say that. I mean, I've worked extremely hard to get to where I've gotten to and gotten Buttermilk to where it is. I'm super excited about things that are coming for Buttermilk Ranch, to be honest. You know, obviously we do these little things and you know, everyone knows us for breakfast and lunch and day dining and our small batch bakery. But I'm super excited because there's a lot of nighttime special events coming. Some collaborations, some different chefs coming in. That's always been my goal, to be honest. I never wanted to be open at night, but I always wanted to bring in guest chefs, kind of give a different dining experience. And I think it's super important because I think, especially for Nashville, like bringing attention to Nashville, to Nashville's food scene, but then also kind of creating new dining experiences that are limited edition, kind of only for, you know, one night, two night or weekend, whatever it is.

01:26:34I mean, I have some people that wanna come to a residency for like a month, you know, like three days a week, whatnot. But I'm super excited. Adrian Miller is coming next month. No, yeah, we're in October. Sorry, I never know what month it is, what day it is. Yeah, Adrian Miller, who he's like a culinary historian and he's connected to James Beard and he's also an attorney and a whole lots of stuff. He's coming to do like a women in the White House dinner at Buttermilk. So we're gonna do a special event where it's gonna be like a five course meal and he kind of curates it and myself and my chef, Daniel Gorman, are gonna do the menu and it basically walks you through each course as a different woman that was cooking in the White House. So just kind of different, like I want like different kind of stuff, you know? And I feel like I haven't pulled the trigger on a lot of things, because I don't want them to be like this like mundane pop-up. Like everyone's like, you know, I think pop-ups are cool, you know, but I want it to be different and stand out from others and it's an experience that you can't get anywhere else.

01:27:41So I'm super excited for that and it's kind of slow rolling because staffing and working 4 a.m. to midnight is a little tough sometimes. But- It's a lot tough sometimes. Yeah, but- 4 a.m. to midnight? Yeah, if I do a special event at night, I mean, I'll be in buttermilk at 4 a.m. because we'll be open in the morning. And then if we do an event at night, I'll be there until at least 11, 12 o'clock. Yeah, you don't have time. Yeah. What books have you read, Alyssa? I haven't read any books because I- What is wrong with you? You should be reading friction. Friction. So, but yeah, I mean, I'm super excited for that. I think there's a lot of those things coming and it just kind of gives a whole different side to buttermilk. And I have a very fine dining background and so does Daniel. And I think we struggle sometimes because when you open up a concept that's very different from what you're used to and the level of dining and stuff like that, don't get me wrong.

01:28:42I mean, we do a lot of volume at buttermilk and I think it's a really cool, innovative breakfast, lunch menu. But we have a super fine dining background. So sometimes it's like, you feel like you're not utilizing your talent. You know what I mean, as a chef. And I think for us, those are the exciting things and the fun things for us to do. And we have like 120 person charity dinner tomorrow night that we're doing and it's just fun. It's different. Yeah, it's long hours that day or the days leading up to it too. But it also kind of, once again, gets those creative flows going in a different direction than, okay, what type of croissant can I do? You're changing lives. Yeah, I mean- When I say changing lives, every time you're on the interstate and somebody lets you in, they wave at you and like, come on in. You're like, what you did at buttermilk, they could be in their car with their buttermilk ranch coffee and their croissant that they left there in a joyous way. And they're like, come on into traffic versus the guy next to me went to Mapco and the guy was like, what do you want, dude?

01:29:47And he's like, no, fuck you, you're not getting in here. You're literally changing lives. I know, I try. I might be overstating it, but we try, you know what I mean? That's cool, I loved that part of it where you were like, no, we have to be cognizant of that. That's amazing. I think you have to be super cognizant of it. All right, we've gone way over our time. I feel like I could talk to you for hours. You are welcome back anytime. Oh, thank you. Love to have you back in studio. The final thing that we do on the episode is the Gordon Food Service final thought. Okay. Did you watch Jerry Springer when you were- Oh my God, yeah. So Jerry had the final thought. Yeah. Where he kind of was like, guys, and he finished his whole thing. Yeah. Nobody gets that reference, but- That's like old school right there. Final thought. Okay. Whatever you want to say. Oh my God, it's on me? Oh, geez. Whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you're just speaking to the hospitality community or whoever's listening, I don't know. But you get to take us out. So the Gordon Food Service final thought. You really put me on the spot here.

01:30:47On the spot. I mean, it's a thing. Okay. I don't like being put on the spot like this. It's gotta be inspirational, motivational, whatever you want. You could say nib high football rules and then be done. Nib high football. If you get that reference. Gatorade. There you go. Oh. Final thought. I think that, I think this is a very interesting time for us all to be alive. I think that it's an interesting time to be in the hospitality industry. I think it's even more interesting time to be an owner and an operator in it. But I think realistically, it's still the same industry. I think it's still the same passion behind it. I think it's still the same love and care that we put into our food. And realistically, if we put pride and passion in everything that we do every day, good things will come. And I think you can get blinded by that, by the distractions of everything else. But ultimately it's set goals, take pride in what you do and be passionate about what you do and everything else will fall in place.

01:31:54And so will the people around you because ultimately like-minded people and like-minded goals will kind of be attracted to each other and will support each other. So I think I have faith that everything will change and get to a better place. But ultimately it's on us to kind of create our own future and our own time to be alive and be successful. And be passionate at the same time and eat lots of croissants. I think you've said it all. Okay, good. I think that was a fan. That was super off the cuff. Fantastic. You caught me off guard on that one. Well, you did a great job. Okay, good. I do that, I sometimes warn people. Oh, you did? Just so we're clear, he did not warn me. He totally threw me out for that. Well, it's kind of a tell too because I like to find out who listens to the end of the show. Because at every show I do it. So if you're going to be like, oh, I was waiting for this because I listen all the time, then I was going to be like, it's like a soul self-serving asshole thing that I do. I appreciate that. So if you're listening to somebody and they're like, I wasn't expecting this at all.

01:32:58So you don't listen to the ending. So you don't listen to the ending. You didn't listen all the way through. So now you've listened to the podcast, but it's not a- But obviously you know now that I- Have like 20 minutes at a time. Well, it's funny. Yeah, I literally have 20 minutes at a time and then somebody, I don't know what it is about buttermilk, but it's like, or any work environment. The moment you put headphones in, somebody's like, hey, can I borrow you real quick? And you're like, God damn it. I was trying to listen to Hal talk on this podcast. Did you listen to the White Squirrel Farm? I did. I only caught like the first like 35 minutes of it because I got pulled into another direction. Were you blown away like I was? Listen, I love how, I love Kara. Loughlin Table was literally, I think I told you before, was the first place that we ate at coming to Nashville. So- That's my favorite restaurant in the city. They do. I hesitate to say it, but it is. Yeah. Well, that's because you haven't come to buttermilk yet because it's been closed every time. True. Sorry, Hal. Actually, I mean, listen, Hal's been in, he's eaten, I mean, he's had his fair share of croissants. So, you know. They're amazing people. The White Squirrel Farm guy, Chris Winters, the whole yin and yang.

01:34:01I didn't know it was yin and yang either. I was like, it's like the yin and yang. He's like, yeah, just like yin and yang. I was like, did you just like passive aggressively correct me? That is correct. Finally, I was like, am I saying it wrong? Yeah. Are you just doing this? No, he was passive aggressively correcting you. It was so funny though. That is exactly what he was fucking doing. It was almost immediate. I was like, it's like the yin and yang. And he's like, it is like yin and yang. What? What did you say? I don't get that. I'm sorry, have I been saying it wrong this whole time? I think I have. He's like, yes, but it's okay. We all understand what you mean. I'm like, okay. But I guess you don't want to be like, you're pronouncing it wrong. It's actually pronounced yin and yang. Maybe that was just the polite way that he was correcting you. That would hope that you didn't realize. I didn't take anything by it until after I listened to it, I was editing. And I was like, man, he was really quick to be like, it's yin and yang. But he didn't say that. He used it in a sentence like, I'm gonna say it correctly. And via context clues, you're gonna recognize. You're gonna listen to this back and realize that you've been saying this wrong the whole time.

01:35:05I told them in the show, but I loved his whole soil chemistry and the energy of good food. When you put good energy into vegetables, then that energy, you can actually measure the energy in the food and then house positive energy. What he does with them, I'm like, it's wild. That's why they taste so good. That's why it tastes so good. I believe it, because his vegetables taste better than any vegetables I've ever had. If you're angry and you're making food for somebody, the food's not gonna be good. It might be good, but it's not as good as it would be if you put your love and energy into it. I think all of that, that could be another final thought. Yeah, that's a good one. You should save that one for another one. Or I'll say that next time I come on. Next time you come on. Anytime. Thank you so much for joining us today. You're very welcome. Have a wonderful rest of your week. You too. You'll be on a sugar high with all your pastries. Can't wait. All right, bye-bye. Thank you. Thank you so much to Alyssa, Ken, Jerry for joining us here on Nashville Restaurant Radio. What a fun interview. Some topics there talked about.

01:36:06What are you guys feeling about that stuff? Give a message. Send me a DM. Let me know what you guys think about what we talked about. Are we alone? Are you with us? What can we do to change it? How can we all support each other? I've got some things in the works, but guys, this is serious stuff. And I appreciate me having this outlet and these conversations with leaders in the industry really helps me a lot. Hopefully it helps you. But this is a lot of fun. Guys, wanna say a big congratulations to everybody who out there won on the Best of Nashville from the Nashville scene. We're gonna be doing a show this week with Chris Chamberlain from the Nashville scene, and we're gonna be doing acceptance speeches. So look for that next week. That's gonna come out on Friday. We're gonna do it live on Tuesday from one to three. So if you see this episode pop up, we're gonna be talking to a bunch of the winners from Best in Nashville to hear their acceptance speeches. Yes, it's gonna be a lot of fun.

01:37:07We will announce the lineup on Tuesday at one o'clock. So you just have to tune in. We're gonna have some of the best of Nashville on Nashville Restaurant Radio. We're excited to do this episode. Guys, thank you for listening, and please go visit our sponsors, and I hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys, bye.