Andrew Arbogast

00:00Cytex is celebrating 60 years of service. Check out their video on their YouTube page. Just go to YouTube and click Cytex and don't forget to subscribe. But you can watch videos there. They have a brand new virtual tour of their entire facility. It is so cool. If you've ever wondered what the inside of a linen facility look like, and I am the kind of guy that likes to see that, it is available for you right now. It is a full-on immersive experience. You can also find out what their company is about, and it is everything that we stand for here. They are a family-owned and operated company. They care about partnering with you. They're not just some company that's renting you linens. They care about your business, which is why I use them in both of the restaurants. They are absolutely amazing. They have this brand new mesh back oil resistant chef shirt that is anti-sweat and works really well for everybody behind the kitchen. Call Ross Chandler. His number is 270-823-2468 and get him to come talk to you about this shirt. Go to YouTube and watch some of their videos. You will see why. They're the number one linen company in Nashville. I also want to tell you guys about Charpier's Bakery. So Erin Mosso has been, she's been the owner at Charpier's Bakery since her father passed away, and we had the best conversation just the other day talking about fresh baked bread. How good is fresh baked bread? I just went on vacation with my wife for her birthday, and we were in St. Martin.

01:38We stayed on the French side of the island, and every morning they brought in fresh baked pastries every morning. French bread and chocolate croissants and this like sticky bun. It was amazing. I was just telling like fresh baked bread is so good. It's because that's why we deliver every single day, so that your guests can have fresh baked bread. And then, you know, French bread needs to be fresh baked bread, and they have an amazing French bread or the one-third as they call it, which is a long French bread broken into thirds, commonly known as a banh mi bread. But Charpier's Bakery is there for you, and she would love to bring you fresh baked bread every day. She said, give them my cell phone number. Her cell phone number is 615-319-6453. Just give her a call. She'd love to help consult with you. What are you doing with your bread program? How can she help? That's what they're there to do. They are locally owned and operated for 36 years. They've been delivering fresh bread to you. Visit them at charpieres.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com, or follow them at CharpieresBakery on Instagram.

02:56Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. I'll be joined shortly with Jen Ichikawa as we sit down with Andrew Arbogast, who is the owner of Arbo's Cheese Dip. They are based out of Memphis, Tennessee, and are taking on the Nashville market by storm. First read an article by our good friend Chris Chamberlain over at the Nashville Scene, and I was intrigued about this veteran-owned company and wanted to hear his story, and this guy is a passionate dude, and I am so excited to share this with you. Must apologize. I know you're out there wondering, where are these new episodes coming, and they are coming fast and furious. We are really working hard to get the studio completed so that we can start doing these live. There's been a lot of prep work, a lot of stuff to do, busy with the restaurant, so just bear with us. We are going to continue to have shows, I promise, like this one today.

04:32Monday, we are going to be talking to Mr. Corey Coleman, who is the Director of Operations for Lucky Hospitality. That's all your corner pubs, esquina cantina. He is a great friend, and he's gonna be telling his story. Monday is Corey's four-year birthday of sobriety, so he's gonna be coming on on his four-year birthday to tell his story, and I couldn't be more excited. I love this guy. He's a great human being, and I just, I don't know, I just love talking to him, and I hope that you guys enjoy listening to this. I don't know if you've seen this, but our Facebook page and our TikTok page are blowing up. I get, we had a video on our Facebook page that has over 3 million views out there. Apparently, people are liking it across the world, and you should go find us on Facebook and follow us. Find us on Instagram at Nashville Restaurant Radio. My Instagram is Brandon underscore NRR, and Jen's is Jen Ichikawa underscore NRR. Go find us on TikTok at Nashville Restaurant Radio, or just tell somebody about Nashville Restaurant Radio. We love a little bit of word of mouth. We really appreciate it.

05:50We're so excited to have our studio up and running. We're gonna be in Hillsborough Village. Lots of good things coming in the future. Thank you for listening today. Please enjoy Andrew Arbogast. All right, super excited today to welcome in Andrew Arbogast. He is the owner of Arbo's Cheese Dip. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Andrew. Hey, Brandon. I appreciate y'all having me on. It was exciting to get that message, and I'm glad the word's spreading out pretty quickly here. Well, I'll tell you, I learned about you because my good friend, Chris Chamberlain from the Nashville scene, wrote an article about Arbo's Cheese Dip, this veteran-owned cheese dip, and the debate over cheese dip versus queso in West Coast and East Coast, and you're from Memphis, so I'd love to get into that debate, but first of all, we've just identified you have children, you have twins, and Jen had a special milestone today. Yeah, our son Ezra said mama. I was very excited because Noel's been saying it for what, like three months? I feel like it's been like three months, and Ezra did not, and so today he finally did. So you got two kids calling you mama. Yeah, and that's it. Only two ever to call me mama. But the three month gap there, that's pretty, I mean, now that you've heard, is it him saying mom? So you have boy and girl twins? I do, yeah. They're almost 13 months old, so just over a year. Awesome. I also have boy and girl twins. They are six, and they tend to put other words in front of mom and dad, usually an expletive. I'm kidding. They're good kids, and that's definitely a fun milestone. We've got a 10-week-old now as well, so I'm coaching and encouraging to

07:53get that dad before mom comes out, but we'll see. Yeah, he tried to. He lost, but that's fine. Well, I have six and eight-year-old boys, and my six-year-old the other day were in the car, and something, I don't know the exact, she goes, what in the f-word is going on? He said that exact phrase. He didn't say the f-word. He said, what in the f-word is going on? And I was like, oh, I turn around. How did you know that in perfect context, like you're no longer playing Fortnite? Yeah, not happening. Well, one thing I can assure them is that I can't. They probably learned it from me, and so it's not like I can get really upset about it. It just, you know, emotions and all that stuff. We tend to let some words slip, but. I curse them a sailor, so they'll definitely, like, no question.

08:58Yeah, I'm really good about not swearing in front of the children. I'm like, so good, but if they hear me anywhere, like if they're listening to me right now, like on the phone in the other room, like, well, the f-king guide, I'm like, I'm terrible, I'm terrible. Or I'll be in like a real meeting, and I'll go, can you believe what the f-word that, oh, no, I'll start spelling what the f-word is? I can't even do it. And like, why are you spelling? I'm like, oh, I have small shoulders. Then they learn to spell and it's all over. So there's another funny story. I said, Matthew, my youngest was being really just annoying. And I looked at my wife and I go, he is being such a little D-I-C-K right now. He goes, what's a dick? And I'm like, oh, they can spell now. Here we go. Nevermind. Learned that lesson the wrong way. Just a matter of time. So, all right, so we could talk about children for days, and I'm sure we've lost our entire listenership at this point. So like, we don't care about your kids. Tell us about Arbo's cheese dip.

10:11Oh, man, this is... Give us the elevator pitch. Well, that, okay. So people can tell that I am like very passionate about my product and the story behind it. One thing I am terrible at is just doing a standard elevator pitch. You know, hey, give me your 30 second pitch. I just, I lock up and I'm like, you know, and it's just a jumbled mess, but I'll do my best. You mentioned Chris Chamberlain, first of all. Chris, I was connected to through a local food editor here in Memphis from the Commercial Appeal. Her name is Jennifer Chandler. Jennifer is the sweetest person on earth. And like, I love working with her. And so when we started getting into the Nashville market, I sent a note to Jennifer and said, hey, any help you can be here? Do you have any connections? And then she goes, oh, call Chris and tell him I sent you. And then Chris automatically responded. He's like, any friend of Jennifer is a friend of And so it kind of just brings in that whole like Tennessee partnership and collaboration and, you know, keeping this thing local. But so Chris did an article and, you know, I ended up coming to Nashville last week. I wish I would have planned. I would have planned accordingly. I would have dropped off some cheese dip to y'all. But and that's right. I'll be back next week.

11:33There we go. And, and Chris took me to the Predators game, like center ice. And I was just amazed at the hospitality, but also just that experience. I've never been to a hockey game. So now I feel like I'm just inching closer and closer to moving to Nashville. But don't do it. Yeah, we're full. We like you. But yeah, Memphis is just it's so close. You're fine. All right. All right. We're open arms. Come on in. We love you. No, I'm trying to bridge that gap from Memphis to Nashville. You know, we got to be friendlier and I'm going to do that through through cheese dip. But yeah, so this this whole thing Arbo's cheese dip, it's really paying homage and tribute to my father. He's still alive, of course. But this is a cheese dip that he made. I mean, he's been making for 20 or 30 years. And it's been, you know, so popular here with like our friend group and families. It's always like, hey, no questions asked. We're bringing cheese dip to whatever function we're going to.

12:42Like, it's just the expectation. We've tried bringing other things. And like, this is good. But what are you doing? Right? You know, so it's always been an item that people told us, man, you got to figure out how to get this in the grocery stores. And one of the things, well, first of all, not knowing anything about that, how to do it, the risk and the time that that would take, I mean, nothing that ever appealed to me. But we are the home of Pancho's cheese dip, which is just a huge cheese dip. I mean, they're legendary. They've been around since 1955. They had like six restaurants spanning, you know, from like West Memphis, Arkansas, and peppered all over Memphis. Well, they closed their restaurants earlier this year, but they plan to continue doing, you know, their retail cheese dips and salsas. And being in Memphis, like you don't know, no one speaks ill of Pancho's, right? Like that is the only grill. It's a cheese dip. Right? Yeah. And so just when I started, you know, doing this, and you know, I was, they made, there was one article that was done. People, I did this pop up in Midtown Memphis out in front of Sweetgrass, Ryan Trim's restaurant. And people were like, how dare you? You know, or, you know, who do you think you are?

14:01Or the balls you have? People were passionate that like you're encroaching on hallowed ground. That's it. Yeah, right. Absolutely. And some turned their nose up because they were so loyal to Pancho's. They didn't want to waste their time. Right. But those, and those are the ones that I really her at, I mean, targeted, you know, hey, look, just give it a chance because it's not like you can't enjoy other cheese dips. You can all of the cheese dips, right? So the whole point was like, there's room for more. Mine offers a similar profile, but different tastes, flavors, and it has a kick that Pancho's doesn't necessarily have. But back to the, back to the story of how, you know, it got to this point and me being from Memphis, I love hospitality, entertainment, food. I mean, we've got Beale Street, we have barbecue and, you know, just the blues overall, like hospitality piece of this, it fits in with, with my core and what I love doing. I was in the army for 10 years, flew Apache helicopter pilots, or sorry, flew Apache helicopters. I was the pilot. I didn't fly other pilots.

15:20I'm sure at some point you did. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And after that, I got out in 2017. And I knew I needed a job. So I went corporate and was working at a great company, international paper out here in Memphis. And, you know, it can never say enough good things about IP. I just, it wasn't for me anymore. And, you know, the pandemic was very exciting. Oh, right. Yeah. You know, flying helicopters to buying paper or buying equipment and, and whatnot for to make paper. So I, the whole, you know, the pandemic thing, I just woke up one day and I told my wife, like, I'm going to try this and I'm going to see what happens. And she's basically like, don't quit your day job. And, you know, and my wife, of course, is always going to be very supportive of anything I do. But I can tell she, she thought this might be just one of those like clean thoughts and, hey, don't, don't spend, you know, don't lose time with your family or quit your job because of this. And it kind of started as a joke. And then it turned very, very serious. Once I figured out how to start a business and do all the certifications and get a container made. And then before you know it, it was like, I just created the LLC December 31st of 2020. And by March, I was already on, you know, in on two menus at two restaurants here. And then in May, I sold my first retail container, you know, and it's like, it went from concept to this in six months. You know, I mean, this could take, this takes years for a lot of people that are trying to do this for a living, whether they start out at farmers markets and, you know, it catches steam and continues to build. But I knew right away that I had a product that was guaranteed delicious because of what people have told us our entire lives. And I love it, right? I still eat it. So

17:21it's not like I had to go through this long orientation or market testing. It's like already know I have a good product. Now I just have to fit foe, which is what my commander used to tell me when I brought a problem to him without a solution. He'd be like, figure it the fuck out. It's so simple, but that's that's how it worked, man. Yeah, do you think I'm gonna adopt that term? I was thinking I was like, oh, it's gonna be our next manager meeting. So I have to ask, did you watch the office? And if so, you worked in paper. I mean, oh, yeah. What character would you have been? Oh, man, I really just, I think I align well with Jim. But I love one of the most annoying characters, Andy, you know, like, every other day or so Aaron, she's in the kitchen and I'm in, like, the other side of the house and I'm go rid of it too. She's like, shut up. I just I don't know, maybe the goofiness of Andy and kind of this it plays into who I am. Like, I do not take myself seriously. I'm very serious about this business. And and that is, you know, my my blood and everything I've put into this. But I wanted it to be a brand where it's like, this is fun. You know, like, it's edgy. You know, we chose the slogan cheese fix mafia to as a tribute to 3636. And the people that see it and they get it, they're like, oh, damn, you know. But then there's some that are like, oh, you know, that are, you know, grandmothers like, oh, cheese fix mafia.

19:03That's cute. You know, like, if only you knew, or should I support this or not? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And and so it just that that is that's Memphis right there too, man. It's just having fun with all of this and the grit and grind. The whole city has just been behind me, even though, you know, we started as a competitor to ponchos. And now it's just like ponchos just sold to a company in Minnesota. And that was groundbreaking news a few months ago. And then my sales just flew through the roof because of all the word of mouth and you know, on Facebook pages, people like can't believe ponchos sold out and like Arbaz is a new sheriff in town and people like, what is that? And then from there create like five anonymous Facebook pages that accidentally got there. Like, may have sold to a Minnesota company. hire you as a consultant. So I want to go back, I want to go way back and talk about your dad, your dad he got this cheese dip recipe. Was that passed down from like, his dad from his grandmother from like, when did who made the first batch of this cheese dip?

20:20And that's that's actually I'm glad you brought that up. It came from his mother in law. So my grandmother on my mom's side. And she used to make it I don't know where she got it. I mean, she could have gotten it from like a newspaper cut out, right. But my dad noticed that he wanted to add a bit more flavor to it. So that's where he kind of made it his own and added a kick that it was missing and a few other spices just to kick. Man, it's really like a peppery kick. So it's like, it's black pepper. And, and so it's simple, right. So it's like, yeah. People that love spicy food will eat this and be like, oh, that's got a nice little kick to it. I like it. And then people that don't like spicy food are like, oh, man, you know, it's not spicy. But I noticed that kick at the end. It's really good. It's peppery. Yeah, but it's like, I can take care of the people that are more inclined to avoid spicy foods than and then the ones that do want it. You know, of course, the dip works for them. And then I'm coming out with the spicy version of the original to take care of them too. But it's like, I wanted to get, you know, anyone who's lack who's not lactose intolerant, I want to take care of you.

21:39Now, was your father in the military as well? No, my dad was not. He actually was a postal worker for his entire life. And my dad is just, when I say like, you know, someone that I look up to and, and try to. He's my I guess you say he's my hero, right. So it my dad didn't didn't go through life telling me like, hey, this is you got to do this guy to do that. He just supported me no matter what. And he led by example, right. So he got up every day at 2am, because he had the three o'clock shift. And you know, he would go to work. And I didn't really understand or appreciate that at the time. But like my dad is just someone who, I mean, the guy doesn't hold a grudge against anybody. And he's just the nicest person on earth and will do anything for you. And sometimes I feel bad because it's like, he's, I got him out here making deliveries for me when we first started. And still to this day, I'm like, Dad, I need you to go do you know, can you do this? And he's no questions asked, you know, hangs up the phone and he's on it, right. And I mean, he could be in the middle of something and he just he loves us. And that's what he does, right. But he's he's his his bread and butter is cooking. And so I got that from him. I love the cooking aspect of this. I wanted to be go to culinary school after high school. Mom told me no. And, you know, this whole time, I've got to figure out like, how can I get involved with food? And it's all it all stems from him showing me how to cook in the kitchen. And, and, and I guess that's just kind of like how I relate to my father, you know, and doing this and calling it Arbo's, it's, it's, it's my way of like saying, Thank you, Dad, because that's, that's your name. We wanted to call it Charlie's cheese dip, but our patent attorney was like, Chuck E. Cheese will have a heyday, brother. So we Yeah, anything about that? Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, you know, I'm glad we went

23:40with Arbo's because I think it just has a good, you know, quick, nice ring and catch to it. And, you know, not, it's not even just my dad. It's my entire family that's, that's helping. And it's behind a lot of this. So, so how did you change it? You, when you took it from your, your dad, you go to these parties and you're the one who, Hey, bring the cheese dip, bro. Like you're, you're that guy. What did you add to it to make it your own to what we're currently you can buy at the store? So for the longest time, I, I replicated his recipe down to like the cook time, the exact amounts of seasonings. And, and people, I mean, I don't even remember this, but like my, my, I lived in a house with five dudes in college. And when I started this, they're like, this is the cheese dip used to make. Right. And I was like, I guess, yeah. And so I noticed, and I didn't, I didn't do this intentionally, but like, you take a small, small batch family recipe that you can easily make at home and you try to scale that times 300, you can imagine the, the stress because it doesn't work that you cannot just multiply it by the amount, the yield of what you're trying to achieve and expect the same consistency and flavor. So experimenting with that was, was a pain, but I'm so glad I did it because now it's allowed me to, you know, when I go to a co packer, I'm like, okay, if, you know, try it, if this, oh, your water is, you know, maybe different water has a different flavor, but I show them what the, the end product, the finished product should look like from a consistency texture and, and appearance. And that's something we can aim for. But I noticed that I was making it a bit thicker as, as we, as I continue to progress through this. And the reason I did that is because on the container, I've added, you know, enjoy hot or cold.

25:38That's how we do cheese dip in Memphis is like, you eat it cold, but outside of Memphis, people are like, what are these idiots doing? You know, heat it up. It's queso or cheese dip. It's like you're reading my mind. I know. There you go. There's always one. But my point was, it's like, I wanted to make it a little thicker to where those that did warm it up, it didn't turn it into soup. Right. But if it's cold, it's not glue. And break the chip. Yeah, that's right. And so I, this is what I've tried to, you know, make the perfect balance of, of being not too thick, not too thin, enjoy hot or cold. And, and I'm, I, the feedback I've gotten is pretty strong on it. So I'm, I'm working, I'm on it. I'm on the right track, I think. So you mentioned, you mentioned that, like this from, you know, I made this at home to now it's in grocery stores was like a six month time span, which is really fast. How did you know what steps to take? Like, did you have friends in the industry helping you with that? Because that is a very fast turnaround.

26:42There's, there's several people that I can, you know, go down a list of people that have helped me trying to figure, you know, it's like, I have a buddy, Ryan trim, who has several restaurants here in Memphis, and he let me cook at his restaurants after hours. So that's where I got to experiment. But you know, his his knowledge, at some point, it's like, okay, food service, now you're going into retail, I don't know how to help you with that. But I can connect you with someone that does right. And that's Memphis has been about connections, like I'm, you know, I'm from a Catholic community, or Catholic family, you know, the Catholic school network, and then I went to Arkansas or high school in Arkansas, the boarding school, actually, and then, you know, the army and all this I have just have all these like connections that have helped with all this. But how did I learn how to do it? Getting back to your question, Jen, I knew that if I really wanted this to evolve into an actual real life brand that I could, this would become it'd be in Kroger and Walmart, and all these other stores, I had to find a co packer. So it's like scaling is that's what everyone's like, you got to figure out how to scale on it. So it's the whole chicken in the egg thing, because it's, you go to a co packer, right, you go, and you can't just go to any co packer, you have to go and just for the audience, a co packer is contract packer, right. So they do everything from source your ingredients, your packaging, they'll and then they manufacture the product for you, they'll pour it, seal it, repackage it, palletize it, and then distribute it.

28:25I mean, they can, you know, depends on what their scope is. But it's, it's, it's turnkey for someone like me who doesn't have a manufacturing facility. But when I said chicken in the egg thing, you can't go to a co packer and say, I have this great family recipe, or I have this idea. And because their first question is going to be like, okay, how many customers do you have? What's your distribution? If you're like, Oh, I don't have any of that yet. Well, they're not going to spend time and their resources bringing you on only for you to potentially fail because you don't have you didn't think through the business plan. And so like getting like a shark tank. Yeah, that's what I was thinking of too. Yeah. Yeah. And I've applied shark tank like 30 times and they still haven't responded. So if y'all are listening, I'd appreciate a response. We would love Mark K. Bell's listening. Yeah. I'm not bitter by any means. But no, so and so my issue was, you know, that there's a local, you know, there's a local co packer. And like I said, some of them are dairy, some of them are poultry and meat, some are seafood, some are sauces and seasonings, you have to be like, certified by either USDA for meat or just FDA. I don't know all the details, but as long as the co packer does, I don't care. And so when I go to this co packer, I'm like, hey, I've got this great dip, you know, and I've got it like this cheap plastic generic container container. And, you know, they're like, I wish I could, you know, just like, oh, yeah, you know, they just kind of laughed it off and like, okay. And they didn't think I would, that's how they treat, you know, it's, they were probably, they probably get so many calls and stuff about this. And so it's like, probably just a robotic response of, yeah.

30:22What turned them over the edge? How'd you get it done? So they kept telling me what I had to do. Like, hey, if you want to, you know, the next thing you have to do is go get, you know, your ingredients done, and it's got to be by FDA, you got to go get a nutrition facts panel done. You've got to go get actual legitimate, like retail containers and some labels printed off. And then after that, we got to look at your formula, figure out, figure out if we can diversify it with the equipment and processes that we have. And then you got to figure out distribution. So I just kept hitting all these things so rapidly. Right. And eventually I got to the point where it's like, okay, I'm ready. And then they're like, well, we just can't do it. It's just not going to work out. And so that was frustrating because I'd spent, obviously, I wouldn't been a stop. And that's what I think they didn't understand. It's like, I'm doing this and you're either going to be with me and make money with me or I'll go somewhere else that wants to work with me. And so after just so many rejections and, you know, the frustration there, eventually I get connected. This is through my sales rep at Cisco. He's like, Hey, there's a co packer in Tupelo, Mississippi. He makes chicken salad. I think he brings on other other food manufacturers if you want to reach out to him. And I call this guy's name is Bruce Parker. And he's got he's got chicken salad and pimento cheese all over the south. And he's in Nashville, too. It's called West End fresh salads. So I go up there, I give my pitch, and I'm about to leave because I'm like, all right, they're just going to tell me no, like everybody else. And Bruce is like, when you want to roll, man. And I was like, Oh, my God, start crying like a little baby. Because I mean, it's been like five months of grinding. And and I just didn't know if this was ever going to work. And then that was the key, right? So I get a co packer. And from that point, now I've got, I've got a way

32:22to mass produce this now I just need to find major distribution because I'm in like 10 stores in Memphis, I need to get into larger distributors like AWG associated wholesale grocers, they're one of the largest co op growth for independent grocers in the US. And so there's a warehouse in Memphis, there's one in Nashville. So like, we're at Piggly Wiggly and on West End and the other Piggly Wiggly and in Osborne by right, that's because we got into AWG Nashville, right. And we actually just received the green light from the Kroger Delta division to move forward with them. But hopefully that'll that'll turn into Nashville and here pretty soon. I just I got to keep keep working at it. Wow, that's, that's quite the tenacity you've had to have to really make this thing happen. Yeah, I'm just I'm stubborn, man. I get, you know, when they're like, when people tell you know, they're like, don't take it personal. I don't have a choice. I can't like I get really cannot take it personal, you know? No, I and you know, it's one of those words like, I'm not trying to be, you know, arrogant or anything like that. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, you, you missed an opportunity, because I promise you, I'm gonna, I'm doing this. And it's just a matter of who's willing to who wants to do it with me. And that's what I found with all of this is like, I love working with, I love collaborating with even competition. Those that just want to work together, man, I'm a people pleaser, like, this is, this is why I do cheese dips, like, I can give you cheese dip, you eat it, and there's a smile on your face right away. And like, my day is made, right? And so it's, it's more, it's become just so many of these things that I didn't realize at first, it's like, oh, I love food. Now it's just, I want to help people one day, even if it's being a co packer for somebody else, the small

34:23guy that that needs a break, somebody else. Yeah. So we'll see where this goes. Let's let's settle this debate right now. Because I'm curious. I don't know the answer to this. You're Arbos cheese dip. It's not Arbos queso. Is there a difference? You mentioned cheese and you never said our queso is the best. What is the difference between cheese dip and queso? And why are you cheese dip? I think you just basically would apply the same methodology to y'all versus humans or whatever they say. And you guys, you guys is, yeah, sorry. You guys is in y'all. It's just regional. And, and like, if you go look at any restaurant, I think another one is like restaurants do, they're typically gonna, gonna list it as queso, but that's how I would describe mine. If, if someone was like, oh, is it queso? Yes. I mean, it's, it's got tomatoes, chilies. Of course it's got cheese and, and ceasings. But, you know, in Memphis we call it cheese dip. And in Arkansas, they call it cheese dip. Arkansas holds the, get this, annual world cheese dip championship. They are the only host of the world cheese dip championship. So I can, I competed in it last year. I said, have you competed?

35:48What did you, what did you? We got, we got third place and you know, this is our first go at it. And I honestly think we could have done better, but I showed up, you know, with my cold cheese dip in a, in a container and, you know, wanted to impress people that way. But all the other competitors had like pulled pork and this fancy stuff they've added to it. So next year, when I go back, I'm like, game's over guys. Like if this is how y'all want to play, you know, well, I'll, I'll add a little umbrella or whatever else I need to. But then my whole point is like, and then once you get into Texas, it's queso. And so I want to be true to my brand. You know, it says Arbos cheese dip, but it Texas, the Texas market says the only way you're working with us is if you change that to queso, then I really gotta, you know, maybe it's regional, right? So it's just a matter of where you are, what it's referred to as, but, um, I'll have to figure that out.

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38:50SuperSource. And if you sign up there, you will get three free months of dish machine rentals right now. You can also check him out at SuperSource.com or you can call Jason Ellis directly at 770-337-1143. I guess I consider cheese dip to be like white cheese melt. You know, like, like the Land O'Lakes white cheese. You melt it, you add the milk and butter, you add the stuff to it and it's just a white cheese dip. Queso to me is a yellow cheese. It's a cheddar or whatever yellow cheese you're going to use. And you add tomatoes, you add chorizo, you add anything else to it to make it a queso dip versus just a plain cheese dip. Cheese dip is just cheese and you can add stuff to it to make it queso. That's in my brain, that's what I think. See, I think of queso because like when you go to like Pueblo Real up the road for me, that cheese dip or that queso is white. So like I think of queso is just warm, I guess.

39:53See, I'm kind of there with you too, Jen. I just thought and that's why I mentioned earlier restaurants, they're gonna say queso because it comes out warm. Yeah. But honestly, this is an important conversation to have. The one commonality here that we have is like, whatever you want to call this, it doesn't change the flavor of it. And it's damn good, whatever you want to call it. So I just have to, this is my broker. When we're trying to figure out like how to get into new markets, and is it going to work at this store in this location? He's like, man, all you got to do is get it in their mouth. Once they try it, they gonna get it, they gonna buy it, you know? And so, sorry, Brian, if you hear that. So why do I feel like Brian sounds just like that? Brian's like, man, do I really sound like that? Yeah, I know. Like if you do. Yeah. So have you been to the Grilled Cheesery here? Because I feel like you guys would be good friends.

40:56Wait, say that again. I'm sorry. You've been to the Grilled Cheesery here in Nashville. I feel like you all should be good friends. No, but I'm taking notes. The Grilled Cheesery is a Nashville original restaurant and it started as a food truck and now it has, what, two or three broker mortars? Oh, okay. I'm gonna just add that one down as a stop, maybe to drop off some samples when I'm there. Another one that I think would be a perfect fit for, because this has a kick and I also am coming out with a spicy version. It's already ready to go. I'm just waiting on my 25,000 containers to get printed, which takes 12 weeks, just in case you're wondering. Is Hattie Beach. I am trying, I need to find someone that knows an owner or a chef there, but if y'all do- Nick Bishop. That's the guy. He's the owner. Okay. Can I tell them that you sent me, Brandon?

41:57Of course. Okay. Single person in Nashville that has worked in a restaurant. We were talking about somebody that applied with us the other day and we were both like, oh, we don't know him. He must not have. Yeah, no. If I can get in touch with Nick, if you're out there, Nick, I want to get you some cheese dip or some queso. You call it what I'm gonna call it. I'm gonna, when I post this, I'm going to tag him in it and I'm gonna go, Nick, you need to listen to this episode. Heck yeah, man. Cause look, I know they both, sorry, really quick. They, their mac and cheese is incredible. And I know it's like, it's not broke. Don't fix it. But I'm just asking, try it. I mean, because people use this with mac and cheese and add some mozzarella to it. Holy shit. Okay. All right. I think we've got to introduce you to, to, uh, Carrie Bringle over at Peg Lake Pork or two. Yeah. Yeah. He's got sushi. Yeah. Let's go Carrie. So thank you for your service. Um, you were, you, you mentioned earlier, you flew Apache helicopters. I'd like to talk a little bit about that experience for you and how old were you when you decided to join the army?

43:09First of all, thank you, Brandon. Um, and Jen, uh, so I was in high school. I was a, a junior nine 11 happened. It's, it's kind of one of those stories where it's like, I don't really know where I was going in life and that happened. And I think that was just, that turned into my calling. I knew I needed to go to college. So I did army ROTC and, um, and I majored in food service, but, um, two years into it, army's like, Hey man, you gotta, you gotta change that unless you want to be a cook. Uh, so I, I picked psychology cause there was like three to one girls to guys. And I actually, yeah, right. The decisions I made. Um, but so I knew, is that where you met your wife? Um, no, actually, uh, I met my wife in high school. We were high school sweethearts for three months. Then she dumped me, um, for nine years. Uh, she, she went off to Clemson and realized what she was missing. So she came crawling back.

44:15I'm sure that's exactly the way she would say it. She's in the, I went off to Clemson that I realized what I was missing and I just came crawling back. Yeah. She, uh, she just, she couldn't live with herself anymore. And I understand. Uh, no, I'm not, I'm not that way, but, uh, so, um, with, with college and everything, I did army ROTC and, um, I knew after that, I owed a four year commitment, but I really wanted to fly because that looked pretty sexy and cool. Um, I knew nothing about flying and I waited till the last day to take the flight exam and somehow passed it and did pretty good. I don't know how, but like, uh, I got selected for aviation. And at that point, like I didn't read the fine print. I thought I owed, you know, six years because of flight school, they had a little bit, but I signed up for like a 10 year commitment because I'm an idiot. And, uh, and, you know, I didn't, but the funny part was like, I ended up getting married. So that was 22 is when I commissioned, but I ended up getting married around the age 26. I still thought I had a six year commitment. So I told my wife and I was like, you know, like two more years. And then one day I came home after I found out they did some sort of like human resources info release and I just passed her in the house. I was like, Hey, like another four years. What do you want for dinner?

45:35Uh, so she, she freaked out. But anyway, like it all, it all worked out. And, you know, 10 years of just, I mean, I lived in like seven different places, just Fort Rucker, Alabama, Fort Riley, Kansas, Savannah, Georgia, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. I got to live in Nashville for a little bit, but, you know, did some tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, flying Apaches. And that was, I mean, it's hard, man. I, a lot of people are like, you know, it was the best thing, you know, I mean, it's hard. And, and I think I didn't realize it at the time, but I was getting prepared for my life, you know, what was ahead of me and like, whether that's this, you know, the absolute like persistence, determination, and the attitude that I have is because I've been through hell and back and I, I hated it at the time. And I actually was like, woe is me. Woe is me. You know, I have to have all this baggage, this weight I've got to carry on my shoulders from, you know, from my service or what have you. And, I mean, it can, it can really mess you up, but I had to figure out like how to turn that into a strength, right. And how to leverage that and actually use it to my advantage rather than sulk and be miserable. Because I mean, you know, it could take years of therapy and years of help to kind of get through some of that stuff. But it, you know, hopefully I've overcome it. And I think I have because like I said, nothing is going to stop me at this point. And it's because of the service and, you know, I'll never regret it. And, yeah, that's, that's really it. So well, I've again, thank you for your service. I know that what you've done and been through isn't the easiest things to do. And I've been to so many Vistage meetings and different conferences where

47:39I've heard people who have served and they're in leadership, talk about what it takes the courage that it takes to go into battle and to go the time that they spent in Afghanistan and working with other people in the army and how that team comes together in the perseverance. My favorite quote is by Henry Ford, and it's whether you think you can do a thing or you think you can't do a thing. You're right. That's the actual quote. But I imagine for you, like just the the sheer ability to overcome, it kind of fills in for me why you decided to do this. And all of the people telling you know, and you're like, nah, fuck you, I'm gonna do this. I'm not putting up with this. I've been through so much more. I'm going on and I it makes sense. And it's like that's that's anybody out there listening to this can gain from that. I mean, people tell you know, all the time, all over the place. And if you believe them, that no, you're right. Okay, you say no, okay, nevermind. I can't do it. Then you're like, you've got if you believe in something strong enough, like you believe that you could do this cheese, if this cheese dip is damn good, if I can get it out there. I just love that story, this story about perseverance about closed doors, closing a door opens another one, you know, hey, just keep trying, keep pushing until you can really make it happen. And I think that's, that's your story. And it's just beginning. I mean, I think this is, I can't wait to talk to you in five years and be like, oh, he's lives at the on the 70th floor in Manhattan. And he's got, you know, like, I can just see you really taking off. And I love your story. Brandon, I appreciate that. And one of the most amazing things happened recently. And it's, you say five years from now, I don't know what it's going to be. It started with cheese dip, but it's actually evolved into so much more. And I don't want to jump the gun, but because the opportunities here, I've got

49:39to, I got to scream from the rooftop. So, you know, with my with my service, like obviously, I am very passionate about giving back and continuing to give back, even though my service is technically ended. And one of my ways of doing that was partnering with folds of honor. And if for those that haven't heard of folds of honor, it's a nonprofit that was founded by Colonel Dan Rooney in 2007. He's actually a jet pilot. And he was on a commercial flight actually coming back home from overseas. And and that flight had a deceased service member that was killed in action. And, you know, the pilot asked everyone to remain seated and quiet as they removed the removed him from the flight. And, you know, he was received by the family. And it's just it's very sad if you've ever witnessed anything like that. And so from that point on, Colonel Rooney was like, his life was changed. And even though he was a service member herself, he vowed to never leave behind the children and the spouses of fallen service members, fallen and disabled service members. And his way of doing that was was creating folds of honor. And so the money that they raise 90 cents to the dollar goes to folds of honor. And that money is for college or advanced schooling tuition for the children and spouses. Right. And so they don't have to worry about that. You know, they're dealing with enough losing a parent and so raising money for their for their schooling. And I've decided I reached out to them and they were so welcoming. I was like, hey, I'm a small company man. There's not much I can do right now, but I promise you one day I will be able to make an impact for folds of honor. And so the story goes. Wow. We're now proud partners of folds of

51:45honor. And we're going to be announcing that partnership here at the end of this next month. But part of that is I'm now entering into food service. So I have five pound bags, right? I have boiling bags that restaurants can buy, patty bees. And so we're going to be through being Cisco and PFG in three weeks. And we are kicking that off in Nashville. So my first food service customer is John rich of big and rich. And we'll be at his bar on Broadway called Redneck Riviera. So we're launching March 1st with them and they are they brought me in with open arms. John is also a huge supporter of folds of honor. I was at his house for a holiday and heroes event that benefited folds of honor this last December got to meet him and talk about like, he's just a he's just a dude. He is just a nice guy. You would never think that he had any sort of celebrity and all that to him. So anyway, they brought me on with open arms, got a pretty cool house to super house Mount gorgeous view, isn't it? Yes, I had to like, just try to act normal when I was in there, just because I stopped staring at everything and everybody just like, dude, like, get a hold of yourself.

53:10To the top of love circle that overlooks like all of that, everybody can see his house. I don't think anybody knows which house that is. It's a big house up on top of love circle. It's gorgeous. Anyway. No, yeah, it's absolutely amazing. I hope to get to go back at some point. But yeah, he's putting us on the menu. And for late night after the kitchen closes, they're going to do the containers, which is also available in Cisco and PFG as well. So that's my first food service customer, which I think I landed a pretty dang good one, right? So yeah, I mean, anytime you get on Broadway, that whole area is just man. I'm hoping this will this will catch steam and pick up steam and others will hear about it. And I'd love to keep keep moving it. So hopefully people out there, if you're listening to this, and you have a restaurant and you want to put Arbo's cheese dip on your menu, if you want to add it to your tacos, you want to add it as a side with your macaroni and cheese for a particular hot chicken joint. Please, how would somebody do they just contact Cisco? Or should they send? Should they go to at Arbo's dip on Instagram and message you? How should somebody get it? How do I do this? Do I just wait till March 1st and call my Cisco or PFG rep?

54:24Eventually, you'll be able to do that. Just being able to look me up in the system as Arbo's cheese dip. But you know what I do? I would ask people to call me directly. My my I put my information out there. I love customer relations. Like, I don't have enough time in the day to do everything. But one thing I prioritize is like, I'm going to respond to every freaking email that someone sends me. I don't care who they are. I want your email address. My email address is Andrew Arbo at Arbo gassed foods.com. That's a rb o g a s t foods.com. And my information, everything is on my website, my phone number and email www dot Arbo's dip.com. And I mean, of course, we're monitoring social media messages as well. My poor wife who is on maternity leave, I've got her working doing that all the time. You know, when she's not doing her regular job, but do you have brothers and sisters? I have two brothers on the middle child.

55:26Oh, that's what I'm talking about middle children. There we go. That's right. Go middle kids. We have to forge our own path, right? Yeah, man. We got to do it. And so are your other you have two brothers? Are they did either of them go into the army? And are either of them involved in this at all? So when I started this, I, I didn't really know where it was going. And of course, like I was going all in on myself with the intention of, of being able to quit my job, right? And so I really just was asking them for like feedback. Hey, what do y'all think? And they're like, man, you should do it. You should do it. That would be great. And so I've, they've helped a lot with, you know, either just spreading the word, delivering samples or helping me at some pop ups and whatnot, which I need to come to Nashville, do some pop ups at any events that y'all think of. I'd love to join. And even if it's just as samples, I'll do it. CMA Music Fest, you hear me? But so, but they, you know, they, they have their own careers and own jobs. And it's kind of one of those things where it's like, I couldn't really commit to saying, Hey, y'all want to do this. And, you know, you had to be able to quit your job, because that's what it's going to take. But it's like, who knows what will happen down the road. But right now, everyone is just kind of, you know, in my corner, helping and spreading the word, giving samples out for me and those sorts of things. And my older brother, he did not join the military. He went into like the medical sales field. My younger brother, he joined a branch of the military that we don't speak of very often. They're called Marines. We usually just put him in the morning. So I mean, you can't take them out in public. But no, I'm kidding. I absolutely love that branch. And he's like, but seriously, he's bullheaded,

57:27man. He fits the stereotype. He is a Marine. And so proud of him too. But you know, it was nice to, you know, have a couple of us serve. And we are both of our our grandfathers both served in World War Two. And so there's that, you know, even though my parents did, and my grandfathers did, and I've got this cool little photo right here hanging on the wall of my two grandfathers and me in the middle, you know, so yes, wow, that's awesome. That is awesome. It'll take me about 30 minutes to hang that back up. It was I love it, man. Jen, do you want to add anything right here? No, I just I think your story is really cool. And I love that you meant you're manifesting everything you want in Nashville and beyond. And, you know, Nashville is a pretty welcoming city. So I think you'll I think you'll get what you're looking for through somebody and I'm really excited for you.

58:28If there's anything that you know, for those of you that felt you wasted 50 minutes of your day listening to this, if you have just a food dream or really any dream, but I really want to focus on the food thing and you're like, I don't know how to do it. There is somebody out there that can help you me I'd love to help you and I'm not charging I'm not there's no consultation, there's no consult consulting fee or whatever. I just I love helping people get to the next level. But I can help you by connecting you to my co packer at West in Fresh Salads and Tupelo. Bruce loves bringing on the small guy. He was told no, he has the same story, you know, he and his would actually happen later in life. And he was told no, no, no. And eventually, he's like, you know what, no one's gonna tell me no anymore, I'm gonna build my own facility. And now this dude is crushing it. I mean, he's in like, I don't know how many states, and he just started like two years ago, right? No, wow. And so Bruce, God, man, that guy, I owe the world to just for helping me out, but also want to help him, right. And if you got a recipe or something that you think is going to be or it's already being sold, but you need to get to that next level. Bruce is your man. He does Bloody Mary mix for somebody. He does like a meat packaging, you know, he does chicken salad, pimento cheese, he does bagels, Dave's bagels out of Memphis. He does smile. So I mean, really, it's like if it's a food product, he wants to talk to you.

59:58That's amazing. I guess you're sensing the mortality of this interview. Because at the end, you're like, let me get my final word in. I know that this happens because at the end of every single show, I like to give my guests the final thought Jerry's final thought style. I like to open the floor and offer you you can say whatever you want for as long as you want to the Nashville restaurant community. But first, I want to tell you thank you. Again, thank you for your service. And thank you for coming on the show today. Thank you for your interest in our little city here. I'm excited to have you here. I'm a newly crowned Predators fan. I love that. Are you a Titans fan also? By default, you know, I don't have another team to claim. So I'm going to The Titans played in Memphis for the first two years. Yeah, they were the oil. We were a team. The oilers then. Yeah, that's right. I know. Maybe I'm holding a grudge or something. But you guys have the basketball team. Yeah, we got the Grizzlies. And I mean, John Moran, he's just he's catching a lot of people's attention. And, you know, I love it. I love the city. And I want to do great things for Memphis. I want to do great things for my state. You know, I'm all about supporting Tennessee. And one of the cool things I got invited to do. Check this out. I don't know if I'm supposed to tell this, but you are. So every like two and a half years, there's a so each state, there'll be a senator's luncheon that the state puts on. Right.

01:01:42So Senator Blackburn in March, it's her turn at Capitol Hill. I got selected as the small business spotlight, so to speak. Right. I think that's what it's called. But basically, she's I'm shipping cheese dip up to this luncheon. And like every senator is going to have a little printout like a flyer that, you know, talks about business in Tennessee and the story of everything behind it. But like, every senator is going to have my cheese. That's pretty cool, man. I'm so excited about that. Like who? Cheese dip is bipartisan, right? Like no party affiliation. And every party will be there. So definitely bipartisan. I just I just want to spread the love and you know, that's their cheese dip. And that's what we got to do. All right. Well, Andrew, thank you so much for joining us. You get the floor right now. Whatever you want to say for as long as you want to say it to the Nashville community or whoever's listening. I just think over 40 countries listen to this podcast. So, you know, maybe this is an international thing. Who knows? The floor is yours.

01:02:54I think, you know, I definitely touched on on following the dream. And I know that sounds cliche. But for the last, I guess, up until a year ago, I knew in my life that I had hit some sort of a roadblock to where I wasn't happy. And even though the money was there, you know, I had a great salary at my company and I could have done that and continue to move up and retire happy. But there's the key word. I wasn't happy. And so I just didn't know what it was. And it fell back to that one passion. I've always had food. So it turns out I didn't have to look that far. And once I found it and I'd started to learn and educate myself on it, I believed in myself. Right. So people are going to tell, you know, and they're going to tell you why they're going to say, hey, some recipes just aren't meant to leave the kitchen or you're just too small. If you can get past that and use that as momentum or, you know, to fuel the fire that you need, by all means, like getting told no was the best possible outcome for me. And I say that because it leads you to another door, as you said earlier, Brandon. And as long as you keep that persistence, you're going to figure it out. You need help. Don't try to do everything yourself. And it's going to cost some money, but try to do it as cost efficiently as you can. And that's through just leveraging your network and your connections. And, you know, if you're a veteran, you've got so many resources out there. And if you're a small business, SBA, the Small Business Development Center, I was able to to get free legal counseling. And I had my nutrition facts and ingredients put together for free. And I had a small business coach, like an award winning business coach, just because I decided to research and, and join these free

01:04:57tax paid programs. And those are the things that really pushed me to the next level. Because it's like, oh, I didn't know I had to do that, or this. And this could be beneficial if I go this route. And it just helps you with making connections. And before you know it, like, you're, you're sprinting, and there's no indents. I mean, there's no insight in a good way. Meaning, like, who knows where this is going to go? If I if I end up selling this off one day, like that would be a dream. But I'm going to keep focused where I am right now. But my point is, is like, don't take no for an answer, or do and use that to your advantage. And figure out FITFO, right? I can't make it any more simpler than that. And for the Nashville food service industry, just know that I'm there frequently, I'd love to drop off samples for you at any time. I'll probably be just going on Broadway knocking on doors and, and dropping cheese off at your bar. But would love to hear from you. Like I said, you can go to the website, www.arbosdip.com and, and reach out and I promise you, I'll get back to you. But again, Brandon and Jen, thank you all so much for for having me on the show. And this was awesome. I hope I can continue to make some waves in Nashville.

01:06:21Well, we're excited to have you do just that. I'm excited to go. I'm gonna go to Piggly Wiggly today and I'm gonna buy some. And I don't, don't give me any. I want to support you, man. I want to go out and buy some and support your product. And I recommend to you out there, if you want to give this thing a shot in Nashville, you can go to Osborne's Byright or Piggly Wiggly right there on West End, right there in the Vanderbilt area. So if you're a bandy student listeners, go get you some cheese dip. Learn what we've been talking about all day long. Andrew, thank you so much. Look forward to seeing you for a long time here in Nashville. Yeah, thank you. Thank you all. And next time we do this, let's sample the queso blanco and the spicy version that's coming out here this spring. Okay. I love it. Let's do it. Hey, thank you all so much. Thank you, brother. Take care. I want to give a big shout out to Andrew Arbogast. Thank you so much for coming on the show and we are gonna be talking to Corey Coleman on Monday. Please hang out for that. It's a great, great conversation and we hope that you are being safe out there and we love you. Bye.