Andrew Little

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City! Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and it is a Wednesday Rewind. Today we're going to be talking with Jeff Andrew Little of Josephine and we're going to start doing this every Wednesday. We do a Monday show, sometimes we do a Friday show, but we're going to start doing a Wednesday show and I'm going to play an episode from way back in the middle of the pandemic from somebody that I just really love talking to and we had an episode with Alex Wendkos, which was a couple weeks ago and she talked about her stint at Josephine and that she, it wasn't her scene, she didn't enjoy working there and it's so funny because I'm going to play this entire episode, the intro and all and you get to hear what I say and one of the things I say is, if you're looking for a place to work where they absolutely care about you, go to Josephine.

01:19It's not the environment for everybody, but I was, this is absolutely my type of environment. I'm sure that there are people that come from my restaurants that feel like that's not their type of environment, but what they're doing there is so special and they are doing, I've mentioned it like 20 times in the podcast that he does game tape, where he actually films people on the line and then watches it with them and I just think that's like the ultimate coaching, hey I want to help you get better, let's all get better together and I had dinner there with my wife a little while ago, a couple months ago and man was it spot on. Every single course, the service was perfect, they were safe, socially distanced, they just did everything so well, so I wanted to do this, I wanted you guys to all hear this episode with Andrew Little, commercial free, brought to you by What Chefs Want, Cytex and Supersource. Just to tell you guys, these companies, What Chefs Want was the very first company, when I came up with this idea to do the podcast, I did a couple episodes and I talked to Monnie and he goes, brother I love what you're doing and we just want to be part of it, how can I help support you?

02:29And you know, Cytex was and Supersource were my next two that really came on and these guys have been with me since the beginning and they were really, they've just been amazing partners and I not only, they're not only sponsors of the show but I work with all three of these companies and I vouch for them personally. Their goal through all of this is just to help support telling these stories that you guys have and I just love it and I have to say thank you so much to them. This episode is brought to you again by What Chefs Want, Supersource and Cytex, you want to learn more about them, go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the sponsors tab and that's it. Next week we're going to be talking to the people behind the Eastside Bowl and Fable. So also, this coming Thursday we will have, hopefully Friday, Friday we're going to have a new episode of the Music City Roundup. So everybody stay tuned for that, it's going to be a lot, a lot of fun. And this is Chef Andrew Little from April 21st, 2020.

03:33Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville Restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and we're going to be talking today with another chef. This chef is the chef and partner at Josephine and his name is Chef Andrew Little and we're going to talk about all kinds of fun stuff today and he's just, if you like to break stuff down, if you like to think about how somebody's brain works, this is such a fun interview because he takes this to the next level. This thing all comes back. If you want to work for somebody who really cares about you and wants you to have a future, if you're making a list of places you may want to go check out, this may be something you want to listen to.

04:44So sit back, relax and enjoy about 45 minutes of conversation between me and Chef Little. All right, so we are here with Chef Andy Little. He was the executive chef and partner at Josephine on 12 South. Andy, thanks for coming on Nashville Restaurant Radio today. Thanks for having me. So I'm so excited to have you here. You are a native Pennsylvanian. You love music, you played music, you played the tuba, you started working in restaurants while in school and you fell in love with it. Yep, that's the short version. So I'll fast forward, so you went to CIA and you worked in D.C. with Patrick O'Connell at the Inn in Little, Washington. You did a stand at Evermay on the Delaware before spearheading the Shepherd Mansion in Pennsylvania. You moved to Nashville in August of 2013 and I kind of go through this whole story because you seem to be all in on Nashville.

05:44You really love this town. Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, when we came down here to interview, in all honesty, took the interview because I had never been to Nashville before and I thought it was a good opportunity just to visit the city. I have never been a huge fan of mysticism or when people say, I've got to go to this place, there's a feeling there, there's a vibe, but I still remember we got off the interstate and pulled on to 12 South. I mean, at this point, Josephine was concrete cinder block and wood. It was still being built. The whole building was being built. It was a rainy night. I think it was a Wednesday and in the summer and 12 South was, it was pretty packed. There were people out, there were people exercising or people walking up and down the street, the stores and in the context of how quickly Nashville has grown, people look at 12 South what it is today and I can say even six years ago, it still had room to grow and certainly had grown a lot from what it was prior to that.

07:01So got here, kind of looked around the city a little bit and really sort of fell in love with just about every aspect of it. I mean, everyone was so nice. I mean, I remember having, my wife is from East Tennessee. She grew up in Knoxville. I remember saying to her, hey, this is weird. It's sort of this like Stepford wives kind of situation. Everyone's so nice and welcoming and we went to a couple restaurants to see what was going on and people in the restaurants didn't know us from anyone and were so nice and when we mentioned that we were considering coming to Nashville to start cooking and they were just so open and growing up in the Northeast, everything is super competitive and here there certainly was the feeling of everyone wanting to do a great job, but it was everyone wanting to do a great job to the benefit of everyone else and that whole thing was very attractive to me and it didn't hurt that around that time, Josh and Eric had just gotten some really great press from Food and Wine and Roth and Dollars was on the Bon Appetit list and Husk had just opened and there were some big time things happening in Nashville, not to mention Tandy having been here for a bunch of years at that point and really just, man, that food, just so incredible.

08:28So the city itself, I mean, I grew up in a very small town, so one thing that was attractive to me as well was that 15 or 20 minutes from downtown, you can be in a very rural setting and that's something that's still, yesterday I went for, I just got in my truck and went for a drive and ended up almost to Chapel Hill, not North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Tennessee and those types of things, those types of, that ability to be able to be in a creative artistic metropolitan center and then turn around and literally within minutes be in the middle of a rural setting is fantastic. So yeah, I mean, Nashville's home. My wife and I just bought a house two months ago, great timing. We have met so many great people and it just, everything about Nashville and middle Tennessee just feels so great to us.

09:28I moved here in 1988 and started working in the restaurant business in 1997. My first job was at Jay Alexander's on Whitebridge Road, which was the original, there's only two Jay Alexander's at that time. I've been doing it in this town for a really long time, so when people come to town who are chefs or when you have just these people that come in, there's this weird feeling that you can get. Some people are here like, well, we're going to test out Nashville and see what it's all about before we move on to our next big thing and everything that I've learned about you seems to be, we moved to Nashville and we're just completely immersed in everything that is Nashville and we consider ourselves Nashvillians. We don't forget our roots, where we came from, but you guys just really seem to be the epitome of what a Nashville chef-owned restaurant looks like. Your wife is the journal manager of Josephine. Yeah, and Somalia as well, so when you come to Josephine, you're going to see us there. Yeah, and I guess to kind of circle back to your thing, Nashville is not a stopping point for the next big thing.

10:34Nashville is the big thing. And I think that we need to, as a group of chefs and restaurateurs in the city, we need to continue to think that way. This is not a stopping point. This is a place to go and put down roots and really do great work because the Nashville dining public is very receptive to that and that's what makes Nashville a great place to live and work is that there are very few restrictions. If you get it right, if you buy in, if you're in the restaurant, if you're talking to the guests, they are very open to, you know, we have Scrapple on the menu. That's probably about all you need to know with how open people are to dining and ideas. So, you know, this thought of it being a stopping point and on to bigger things is, you know.

11:36It's crazy. I get agitated sometimes that that one agitates me, you know, I mean, if that's your thing, then fine. That's not our thing. Nashville is our thing. Well, I love that about you and thank you for that. We love having you here and I love what you've done to the food scene just in the 12 South area. You're such a destination to go to in itself and you've earned two James Beard nominations. You made semi-finalist twice from Josephine. What is that like? Personally, certainly gratifying, but a the result of and a way to show the intense amount of effort and hard work that the entire team goes through it is, you know, it's an award certainly that are, you know, a nomination that has chef's names on it. But at a certain point, chefs go from being the guy who wants the ball with two seconds left to make the shot to the guy who's coaching to the guy who is teaching and mentoring other people that you're trying to show them what it's like to want the ball with two seconds left.

12:49It's very much a team sport. So for me, validation for the team is probably the biggest thing for me. And your team means a ton to you. So I've, like I said, I followed you a bit and one of the things I recognize about you that's similar to some chefs but different is that you're obviously very passionate. You're obviously very passionate in what you do about cooking. But what I'm being the produce background that I have, what I love is you have a respect for this thing being a chef and you have a respect for people that shows and that's I'll give you an example. I love the way that you respect food. I read in a blog that you did for a while that if you planted a potato where you dug a hole, you watered it, you planted the seed and you watered it for four weeks every single day and you came back and you dug that potato up, you're going to be damn sure you're going to cook it properly because that's it's you respect what that potato is and you take that mentality with all of your food and people.

13:57I mean, everything you do, it's a matter of respect. Yeah, I mean, I appreciate that is certainly a way of of looking at life. I mean, when prior to coming to Nashville, my dad and I and frankly, a lot of the people who worked in our little restaurant helped work on this ten thousand square foot garden, which is, you know, it wasn't a massive operation, but it was big enough. It was big enough that we were digging trenches for potatoes by hand. And so what that experience gave to me was that, you know, in everything you do, the amount of time and I think it's not no mistake that chefs and farmers, gardeners, the various types of purveyors and crafts people that we work with, it's not a mistake that a lot of chefs have gardens and not a mistake that a lot of gardeners and farmers are great cooks because the nurturing aspect of putting a seed in a ground and watching it germinate and then watching it grow is a lot the same way that chefs are working with their cooks or they're working with certain dishes and sort of nurturing them to the finish line is something that requires an incredible amount of daily focus and an incredible amount of time and I see stories of these chefs who have, you know, younger chefs who somewhat made it overnight.

15:33And I just think to myself, well, you know, my biggest hope for them is that they continue to learn because I grew up a big baseball fan and I sort of feel like this is this quote is attributed to Cal Ripken, but maybe not. It's it's what you learn after you know it all that actually the stuff that makes a difference. So, you know, having that respect for people and making sure that the family tree that you're growing has a strong trunk, strong roots, and then has many different branches. So, you know, a lot of it just goes back to spending the time. We we work with this motto of trying to get a just a very little bit better every day. If you watch the the new documentary that came out on being a little Washington, Patrick O'Connell, you you definitely heard that in there and that I feel like that's a very rewarding way to live and to have a team at a restaurant is focusing on getting these little things done every day. And then, you know, a week later, a month later, you turn around and look and why you see it, you know, it doesn't seem like it, you know, doesn't seem like it at the time.

16:39But when you can turn around and look at it, it certainly is doing something, provided that every day you are passionate and concentrating on the details of honing your craft. And I think that that could, you know, that could carry over into any number of disciplines. It just happens that cooking and team building is happens to be mine. I love that. I did a podcast yesterday where I said, stay hungry right now in these times. It's OK to take some time to do everything to do, but stay hungry. Don't be looking for the next thing. Don't get satisfied with where you're at. Constantly try to get better, learn, take something that you can learn out of everything that you do. And I love that even in that same blog I saw, you posted a video of your line for five minutes on a Wednesday night or something. It was just a video of your line. And I love the idea of, hey, football players watch game tape all the time.

17:42Why can't I just put a video? This is my line for five minutes. What things can I see there that we could get better at? I just love that mentality that you would do something and put it out there for the public. Yeah, we actually call it game tape. So I'm glad that wasn't lost on you. And you know, there are times where if you come into the restaurant, you may see me up on a ladder filming. I'm not sure what, you know, what angle that particular video was, but I will stand up on a ladder so I can look down. And be taking video down on the line as they're working because there's some, you know, it's amazing what happens to life when you change your perspective. And in kitchens, especially, it's the same four walls, it's the same floor equipment. But when you stand on top of a piece of equipment and look down, or when you get onto a ladder and look across, and you see things a little differently, you're going to see different things and you're going to see more. You know, I started doing that, those videos, one, for my own, you know, I wanted to look at them just like a coach would look at game tape and say, OK, well, what, you know, we have an open kitchen.

18:51What are people seeing if they're coming to the pass? And then that evolved into what I'm, you know, what can I see that I can help each individual with four people on the front of our line? And we have one chef in the back. So, you know, so how does that I just for people that are listening that aren't chefs, they kind of are our guests that come in, kind of go through a little bit about what each one of these stations does while you're describing this. I'm sorry. Go ahead. So as you look down, the four chefs that are in the front of our line starts farthest away from where most people would be able to see on the Garmage station, which is a cold salad appetizers. Half of they share a fryer. The next station down is what we consider hot first course. So that is pastas and hot appetizers. Then the next station is the fish and roast station.

19:52And the final station is the meat station, which is on a 100 percent wood fired grill. The chef in the back is responsible for the cheese and also all of the desserts throughout dinner service and also doing bulk prep, managing stocks, doing a lot of the bulk prep during dinner service. So as I'm videoing them, you know, if I can get behind the line and I can work with one chef on a specific technique or something that's going to make them more efficient, I'm only really able to work with 20 percent of the team at one time. If I can take a video and then go back and watch the video again, there may be something that I find that is applicable to the entire team. And so that's going to make every one of them better. It was just a way for initially for me to be more efficient with my time. And then what it turned into was the chef themselves actually really enjoyed being able to go back and look at it, even to the point we never did this, but we had considered installing a GoPro and just turning it on every service so that we would have a library of things to go back and look at.

21:11And then, you know, the other thing, too, is when you're dealing with the minutia of let's try and do this one little thing better and then tomorrow we're going to do another little thing better, it's fun to look back at last month's video and say, and look how far I've come, because the reality of all of what we're talking about here is no one who is just going and punching a clock cares about any of this. It is something that you have to be passionate about the progress of your career to care about a crazy chef who's up on a ladder filming. You're going to go through an eight hour day and then when that eight hour day is over, you're going to take the time to go back and watch a video of yourself with other people or a chef who is being very critical of what you're doing. I mean, think about the mentality that requires that's pretty special stuff. You know, that is top level athlete kind of stuff.

22:14I was just thinking the Jordan documentary last night. I love that, by the way. I didn't get to watch it, but I've seen nothing but pause. I cannot wait. That's my wheelhouse right there and I love that you mentioned Cal Ripken. I'm a huge baseball guy myself in that Cal Ripken time. I saw I was at the 89 All-Star game when Bo Jackson hit the home run to lead off and Cal Ripken was there, but the guy behind me caught the ball for Bo Jackson's home run. It landed on the tarp. He jumped over me and my brother to go get it in Anaheim, California. I think that's so innovative that you did that and I think you've touched on something that is this passion that and you know it's really being memorable when you go in somewhere and you work in a line cook or a cook or chef. Somebody who really cares about the craft that wants to go back and look at game tape. That's when you know you have somebody special and I think that there's a difference when people go out to eat and they choose where they're going to go dine that these people really care about every detail about what you're putting out every day.

23:17It takes a special kind and thank you for sharing that story. So if you're a line cook, you got four people on the front. Do you ever are you the expediter? Who's the person that expedites the food or do you guys expedite that out? Because this is we've touched on something that I want our listeners. Again, if you're not in the restaurant business and you're listening to this, you see the guy standing behind the line and you got the people cooking. What's the guy doing? What's the expediter doing? I think it's fun to talk about some of that stuff. Let people into some of the secrets. Sure. So it depends on the day of the week. Most of the time I am on the other side of the line expediting the food. And if you think of an expediter a little bit like an air traffic controller. Mostly a conductor for a symphony. Sure. Yeah. For every table that's in the restaurant, every seat that's in the restaurant, there is an electronic ticket that comes into the kitchen. And it is the expediter's job to make sure that and at any point in time, food could be coming from any one of those five chefs.

24:21So it's the expediter's job to make sure that those five chefs are all putting up the food for that table at the same time. I don't want to interrupt you, but if you're listening out there and you've had a four top or a six top, that's what we call you if you're four people, five people, whatever it might be. If Jan orders a salad and Ed orders a medium well burger and a well done steak, and then somebody just wants an appetizer for their entree, you have five different dishes that take five different people to cook. One dish may take one minute. One dish may take 10 minutes. One dish may take 13 minutes. You don't want to make the dish that takes two minutes and put it in the window, then have to sit there for 12 minutes. So somebody has to make sure that all of that food comes out at the exact same time because hot food, hot cold food, cold, right? Yeah, and especially, you know, we have gotten into this trend over the past. Oh, I don't even know when it started popping up, but the, you know, your waiter will say to you, you know, can I just bring it out to you when it's ready? Tapas. That's not this particular, this particular style is your meal is coarsed.

25:26And regardless of what you have, if you have a cheese plate that takes less than two minutes put together, that goes with a well done steak, that steak is going to be hot. And the way exactly the way you want it. And the cheese plate is going to come out all together all at the same time and presented to your table so you can all eat at the same time. I can, I can definitely get the conducting a symphony. And, but a lot of times, you know, at eight o'clock on a Saturday night, I feel a little bit more like air traffic control in Atlanta. You feel like air traffic control Atlanta. You'd like it to be like a symphony. Sure. Yeah. I mean, hopefully what people see is the symphony conductor. What I'm feeling is, yeah, something else. Speaking of feeling something else, let's jump into right now. I want to get your opinion as to what we're doing right now. And I appreciate you just kind of talking about what your restaurant does on a normal basis. Because I know we're certainly not in normal times.

26:28What are your feelings in the state of the industry right now? Well, I mean, obviously we're shut down. We are not one of the places that has gone to doing curbside. Just didn't feel like it was the style of restaurant that that, you know, that lent itself to doing curbside and to go. And, you know, honestly, I'm just not sure. You know, that model is a long-term model is, that's a little scary because one of the reasons that I got into cooking certainly was for the craft of cooking. But, I mean, you can just see based on the places that I have worked, I love the restorative nature of going to a restaurant. The fact that when you leave a great restaurant, you feel better about life than you did when you entered. And that requires personal interaction. Our business is a people business in this particular sector.

27:30And so, you know, the thought of waiters wearing masks where you can't see their inviting smile when you sit down, that makes me sad. You know, the general interaction and the feeling that you get of going to a great restaurant. I hope that we don't lose that. I mean, I think as far as everything that's going on right now, things are happening so quickly. And everyone is pivoting so fast to just to keep it together and simply in survival mode. So, you know, I've read a lot of people's speculation about what it looks like going forward. I have one of my former sous chefs worked at a Michelin three-star restaurant in China a couple years ago. And so, I asked him to text over there and to any of his friends who are still working there and ask, you know, it would appear to me from a timeline standpoint and from my dumb little bit of knowledge that I have about what's going on with this, that, you know, China's obviously, you know, it started there first.

28:41So, they're a little bit ahead of us as far as the recovery. And so, what is, you know, what are restaurants in China look like? And he got back to me and said that they're, they continue to wear masks. They're not wearing gloves. They viewed wearing gloves as a, and I share this even more, you know, just in general, I always feel like wearing gloves is not as great as just wash your hands a lot. I've worked in a lot of kitchens where people wear gloves and they do four different things and they'll look at you and say, well, I have gloves on. It's like, come on, you know. You do, but those gloves now have chicken and broccoli and, you know, squid on them. So, just wash your hands. It can almost be a placebo to make you feel like you're being safe, but you actually, it's almost like permission to not be safe in your brain subconsciously. 100%. That's exactly what it is. So, you know, I don't know what, here's what I do know. I know that as an industry, I mean, if you even look at some of the stories that you hear now and there are things that make me so proud to be a chef, to be involved in restaurants, but, you know, chefs, restaurateurs, hospitality people, they're always the first people there to help.

29:58And you can look around and see so many people. I mean, Nashville specifically, we've got the double whammy of the tornado and now this. And if you want to look to a segment of the population that has stepped up in the, you know, staring straight in the face of, you know, an industry crushing event, and they're still out giving. So the hospitality business, we got everyone got into it because we saw a need. We responded to what the public was looking for. And that's what we'll continue to do now. What the public is going to be looking for coming out of this. I can't imagine a world where people don't want to go out. And I mean, it's human nature. Yeah. Even the most introverted introvert still likes to go out and enjoy time with people.

31:01And they like to do it in a restaurant setting. So I can't imagine a world where people don't want to go to restaurants anymore. It's just, it seems horribly unnatural to me. And it also seems that would be a sad world to me. Part of it is the athletic, you know, a full restaurant to me feels like a full stadium where there's anticipation. There's that energy. And so, you know, a little bit of it because it's the job that we do. I, you know, I tend to feed off of that, but I also, I love standing around the corner and watching the dining room and just watching people have a great time. And, you know, to go into Josephine now and it's, you know, I'm scrubbing floors and organizing and cleaning and you don't have that energy anymore. That's, that's sad. So that's going to come back. I think so. I do kind of wonder if how people eat when they go out won't change.

32:04Even briefly, you know, I'm an older guy. So I was, I was cooking and working in restaurants before the whole shareable appetizer thing started to happen. And before this idea of shared small plates, you know, when I started coming up, everyone got their own first course. Everyone got their own entree. Everyone got their own dessert. And I know that that dates me. But frankly, coming around to the idea of shareable first courses was kind of strange to me. I'm certainly, you know, I'm there, but I always loved the idea of, you know, you only shared your first course begrudgingly if it was so good that somebody else at the table should have a bite. But also if it was that good, you didn't want to share it. You know, it was more, you gave them the look of a, why don't you just order your own? You know, so I kind of wonder if people aren't going to be a little wary about sharing plate. Yeah, that's definitely something that I think people will be more conscious of.

33:07Yeah. But the other thing, too, is I think that it is to try and make a game plan right now is tough. And I can tell you, you know, I've been through it. You know, my wife and I have had multiple conversations of, you know, what's it going to look like? And we've had a lot of conversations with friends of ours. And I don't think that anyone knows. I think if anyone does know they're holding a winning lottery ticket, because it's going to be that amount of luck. I don't know that you can put, you know, put this into an equation and it's going to spit out what it will be. But people will come back to the restaurant that they feel better when they left than they did when they came in. And I think that that, you know, that's going to be a driving factor for all of it. It's going to test our industry in a way that I think is, frankly, is pretty great. We're going to every guess that we had prior to this, we're going to have to win them back.

34:09And I feel like that type of challenge is something that we're all up to as a business. I think that when we get through this, our country will have a vibrant hospitality sector as we did before. And it may look a little different, but it also, you know, that could be people aren't focusing on the positive of it could look different. Yes, it could look better. It could look great. You know, one thing's for sure is that the, you know, you've been pretty vocal about Nashville is hiring. And I spoke to Hugh Acheson about this on Saturday, and he said, you know, I don't want to talk about this. Not my number one concern, but I think it is. I mean, for me, I think it's interesting because people can position themselves right now to do a lot of things. And while there's going to be some serious attrition, he said, Tom Calicchio said that a third of all restaurants are going to close because of this, which is a if you have 15 million restaurant workers, that's a lot of people without jobs, and that's terrible.

35:11But at the end of this, Nashville, if you own a restaurant and you've been in this business in Nashville, the number one concern, the number one issue you have is finding the kind of people that want to look at game tape, you know, finding the people that are going to come in that want to do that. And I have a feeling that after this whole thing's over, the job market is going to look a little different. Yeah, I mean, and I have heard, you know, I try not to focus on it too much because, frankly, it gets a little scary. I have heard anywhere from a third of restaurants to half of restaurants to 70% of restaurants. Again, you know, I think that sometimes sharing those opinions can cause people to stand up and pay attention. Sometimes I just wonder if, you know, let's take a day to day, you know, again, we're back to the whole thing of, you know, let's try and get a little bit better every day. Let's take a day to day and see what happens. I mean, there was no doubt that there was a bit of a restaurant bubble in Nashville prior to this.

36:13Obviously, no one saw any of this, this being what might burst that bubble. And in a perfect world, you know, I don't want to see anyone out of work. I want to see anyone who wants to work in a restaurant and wants to work in hospitality specifically as their career. I want them, I want them out there working. I want them, you know, blazing their own trail if that's, you know, what they want to do. I want them watching game tape if that's what they want to do. So, yeah, I mean, scary times. Will it kind of readjust the labor market? Um, it could if it turns out that there are places that don't reopen after this. But here's the thing. I think that that, you know, people, again, it's something that we need to talk about, but I also have faith in the fact that people, people want to be in restaurants, both as part of the team that that's building them and working in them and as part of the team that is, you know, and it very much is a team as part of a team that's going and dining in them.

37:20Again, you know, chefs, restaurateurs don't necessarily create dining scenes. The guests who sit down in the seats and are demanding and respectful of what the chefs and restaurateurs can do create dining scenes. I can't stress enough to people who live in Nashville and the people who are, you know, going to come back and travel to Nashville that, you know, push us a little bit. They're the people that make the scene. Yes, we can do what we need to do, but we need the general public, the dining public, to come out and push us. And that's, you know, that's what we want. People that I have met in the hospitality business who don't want to be challenged, don't want to be pushed, don't want to. I mean, we can use watch game tape as a broader idea here. They don't make it in the hospitality business very long. It is built for people who want to achieve and want to do great things. And so, you know, we certainly need the dining public to push that a little bit.

38:26I love that perspective. I think that's amazing. So how, Brass Tax, how is Josephine doing? I mean, I read, famously, Stephanie Langston's put an article out there, and she's a long-time friend of mine about Arnold's, that the headline was, Arnold's Fearful, They Won't Reopen, which I feel like they're a good position. They're doing to-go's, but how's Josephine doing right now? I mean, I feel like we're in a good position. We were, it is a day-to-day thing. I also feel like it, frankly, it depends on how long all of this lasts. And the flip side to that is, it a little bit depends on if we go back too early. And, you know, again, not, I'm in no way any type of scientist. I read what you read. And so one of my fears is that instead of waiting another, let's just say two weeks, we, you know, we pushed her to reopen earlier.

39:26And if we had waited that two weeks, this thing wouldn't have wrapped around and come back in the fall. My, you know, my hope is that this is, we're going to inflict all of the pain at once instead of coming back too early and then having another situation in October or November where we're kind of sitting where we're sitting today. And, you know, the other thing that I, you know, has been a concern of mine is that just because we're allowed to reopen doesn't necessarily mean that the dining public is going to, it all comes down to trust. It all comes down to whether or not, you know, the government saying, yes, you may open your doors is one thing. People actually coming through those doors is another thing. You know, I just don't know. I know that currently where we're at in our neighborhood, I see the delivery cars pull up just about every night to almost all the houses delivering food from the local places.

40:32So, you know, people are continuing to eat out just through the delivery. So, you know, it's part of what the new normal is for restaurants like Josephine to share what are. And, you know, as much as I'm showing game tape of the chefs while they're working, you know, is it out of the realm of possibility for me to show game tape of what we're doing to really help. And, you know, I'll be honest with you, I am wildly proud of how clean and organized and well kept that kitchen is. I mean, almost seven years into it, and it looks pretty close to brand new. So, and the rest of the restaurant as well. So, you know, do we maybe do some things that show what our organization and cleaning protocols are so that people feel and trust feel great about coming into the restaurant and trust us. I think that that's, you know, frankly, a great thing. I think going forward, you have to. If you're if you go in somewhere, I did an episode on my podcast a couple of days ago with Janet Kurtz and the topic was what's the new future of clean.

41:39We had some guys on from GHP and their architectural environmental cleaning people. And he said, if I go to a hotel and I go to push a button on the elevator and I don't see any signage anywhere, it's going to allow my brain to wonder. But if I walk in and I see a sign that says we've had this professional company come in and they clean and sanitize every single surface, we're doing X, Y, Z. And they had just have a list. Now, I think we wash our hands, those type things. We get that. But what are you doing that's like industry innovative? This is how we've cleaned whether or not everybody's doing it. If you have a sign up, at least I'm going to go, oh, OK, it's going to be that nice, warm, fuzzy for me that's going to help me push the button on the elevator. This can make me feel like it's not contaminated that. And actually, you know, if you use it in a restaurant context, if you're sitting at a table, the table beside you gets up, you know, either consciously or subconsciously, you're watching what's happening to that table that is empty.

42:44And so being very upfront with the cleaning protocols that go into making that restaurant as clean and sanitary as possible. I mean, I think just showing people throughout a dinner service what you're doing is going to make them feel just feel, you know, I guess maybe safer is the word, but they're going to feel better about about going out. And hopefully because and, you know, we all we all do this, we all feel this way. But, you know, you want people. Let's go back a second to one of my greatest hang ups about negative reviews. And they're inevitable. I mean, you're you're in the service industry. If you're not able to to take a shot every now and then, then probably in the wrong business. But sometimes the, you know, the inevitable negative review that somehow those people think that you personally singled them out to have a bad night.

43:46I mean, come on, we're we're there because everybody who walks through that door, we want to have a special night. Now, what special is is different for, you know, it could be a special occasion night. It could be a birthday or anniversary. It could just be I got out of the house on a Tuesday. And I just want to sit and have a glass of wine and a cheeseburger at the bar. So special, you know, and so we want people to feel great. We want them to feel safe. And we want them to really have a great feeling about going to the restaurant and a great feeling about dining in the city as a whole. The more that we can come together and show that we're, you know, we believe in this entire process because we've got to, you know, we've got to get people come into Nashville to dine and to shop and to look at the, you know, art museum and to hang out down in lower Broadway. And so I think it's not just restaurants like Josephine. Certainly we want to be at the forefront of it.

44:47And if people can see maybe what we're doing or what Julia is doing at Henrietta Red or Tandy's doing and use that in the bars downtown or, you know, a fast food restaurant, that's going to help for sure. Well, that's exactly what I want to do. The podcast was to get all of these people's minds. It's not just these big national chefs are watching on the Food Network. It's all the chefs in our community getting together and having a forum where they can all talk and we can all learn and we can all get better. Like I've always said is that perspective is an amazing cure. So I'm going to move on here just for a second. You saw the news today that Shake Shack has given back their 10 million. I did pretty good stuff. I was happy to see that. Yeah. I mean, you know, here's the thing too. I'm doing my very best to have as positive an attitude about everything through this crisis.

45:47I saw that headline last night when it came out. And, you know, my first thought was I have for the longest time been like a lot of people, been a huge admirer and fan of Danny Meyer. I've been lucky enough to meet him a couple of times and he's a leader in the industry. So, you know, to read the letter that they wrote made me feel good. You know, then to have to go on and, you know, I think social media is a great positive and a great negative all at once to have to go on and read people's comments about, you know, are they really doing this because they're good people or is it a PR stunt? All that, you know, it's like, you know, that I think at this point, the best thing that we can do is be as positive about stuff as possible. You know, a lot of people have a lot of extra time to be online these days and to think through every angle.

46:48And my angle on all of it is I love that they did that. And I think that, you know, from a positivity standpoint, that's the way we're going to get through this is if we can all kind of get together and look for the good in things as opposed to looking for the black lining as opposed to the silver lining. Let's always look for the silver lining. All right. Well, I won't even ask you what you think about Ruth's Chris then. I don't even know what that is. What? Ruth's Chris taking 20 million? I know. I don't know what that is. Yeah, good deal. So let's move it. So I've had you here for almost an hour. I try and keep these podcasts under an hour, although I feel like I could talk to you for just hours on end. Let's do it. Currently, I don't have a stove to run off to. So I got a couple of quick hits for you and then we'll we'll definitely need to do this again. I want to follow up with you once you get back going. I want to talk about what you're doing to get back open, all that good stuff. I want you to I want you to come into the restaurant and film.

47:50Let's do let's do one of these in the restaurant. We'll put you on the line. How about that? I would love that a hundred percent. Let's go. Okay, let's do that. So plaid flannels. Yeah, I see you in plaid flannels on brand is what you're saying. I see the clogs. I see your plaid flannel mask. I don't know the significance. So the buffalo plaid is a it actually started with a company called Filson products in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle. But Woolrich is a company from Pennsylvania, actually from Woolrich, Pennsylvania, kind of became the most the most famous for that particular style of flannel. So, you know, again, Nashville is where where I live and in my hometown, but I always go back to the roots that I grew up with. And so the Pennsylvania aspect of it certainly informs who I am in Nashville.

48:51I love that. Well, there's there's actually a little bit more to it. Whenever I was growing up, I always I grew up in a factory town rural. So it was a combination of factory worker and also farmers. And invariably, that was what people wore. And so for me, wearing that buffalo plaid is a bit of a nod to the fact that, you know, regardless of where we go in life, we still want to put everything that we've got into the craft of being the best person that we can be and working as hard as we can. I mean, it's just that buffalo plaid means, you know, hard work to me. And it just, you know, it takes me back to being a kid and watching all those, you know, everyone just going to work and working so hard at their craft and doing what they do to the best of their ability. That's awesome. I love that you stay true to that, that, you know, not many people have a is it Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern, you know, Nashville style cooking and just kind of bringing that with you.

49:57Do you have any sports teams up there that are your favorite or have you adopted like the Predators? I mean, I'm definitely a Penn State football fan, Penn State wrestling. But as far as pro sports go, as you know, as rough as it might be right now, I'm still an Orioles fan. I, you know, I love going to the sounds. I got to throw out the first pitch at the sound, which is pretty fun. But, you know, also, you know, a Nashville fan as well. I don't do a ton with, you know, I certainly like the Titans, but in general, not a big pro football fan. I mean, when the Eagles were in the Super Bowl, it's just an excuse for me to make cheese steaks. So, yeah, I mean, this is again back to, you know, kind of the way I'm living my life. It's it's based in Nashville. It's based in the South and is certainly informed by Central Pennsylvania roots. So both things make for a pretty unique cuisine that thankfully people enjoy eating. Yeah. As we get back to the quick hits.

50:57Yeah. Favorite. I'm not real good at quick. You're fine. You're fine. I just want to I'm trying to trying to wrangle us in because, like I said, I feel like we could talk for a long time. Your favorite movie. What's your favorite movie of all time? Oh, boy, that's a tough one. Currently, I really like a few good men. A few good men. Tom Cruise, Demi Moore. Yeah, although I got to say Days of Thunder and Top Gun also right up there. So you're Tom Cruise fan. You see a you see a theme there. Definitely older Tom Cruise. He went off, you know, cocktail got a little I have. Yeah, I'm a fan of cocktail. I've thrown a bottle and dropped it before. All right. Fantastic music. Now, I know the popular answer is I listen to anything. You have a bunch of people, a bunch of different cultures in the kitchen. But if it was you alone on a walk. Springsteen. Springsteen. OK. And in the kitchen, Springsteen still, if it's just you choosing the music.

52:00We don't do music in the kitchen. Oh, the music in the kitchen is the sizzle of the pan. And that's actually not a quick hit. I'll make it as quick as possible. When I first my very first chef job, I was in the kitchen by myself. And so I was responsible for having to do a lot of things at once. And so I started knowing that by the sound of what something was doing in the pan, I knew whether or not it was time to turn it. And if I had music on, I couldn't hear that. So that's something that I'm trying to get to continue, is that the music of the kitchen is the music that we have. Now, later at night, it's pretty much anyone's choice. So if you're not eating at Josephine, what's the go-to? I think you've kind of outlined this a little bit. But what's your restaurant? Are you ordering food right now to go? And who are you loving? Not a whole lot. Not a whole lot. We've just been eating at home a lot. I have been enjoying cooking and actually cooking with my wife a little bit, which doesn't happen much at all.

53:03So being able to be at home and cook in our new house has been great. I really enjoy folk. I think that they're doing some, Phil's doing some really great stuff there. But I also tend to, I like the stuff that's been around for a while. I love, you know, rotiers for me is great. Oh, yeah. Everybody goes for the French bread cheeseburger. I'll be honest with you. The chili is probably the sleeper on their menu. That chili is fantastic. I love going to Brown's diner. And, you know, obviously going to Arnold's is a ton of fun. Have you been to the Pelican and Pig yet? I haven't been. It's a little strange for me. You know, I live now in the south of town and I'm working in 12th South. It seems like I need to pack a lunch to go to the east side sometimes. I don't know what the barrier of the river is, but I'm trying to get over there a little more. But I haven't been.

54:04I've heard really great stuff. It's the last place my wife and I ate before they closed everything. And it's my second time there. But Nick and Audra do just an amazing job. The Brussels sprouts that I had were the best Brussels sprouts I've had in my entire life. Short rib is great, but food there is fantastic. All right, last question. Who do you think is, who's your chef right now in the city? Who's the person out there you think is doing just amazing things? If you're to pick like the best chef in Nashville right now, who do you think it is? I think Josh and Bastion. That's a great restaurant. The food there is, to me, equally creative, but also soul satisfying at the same time. And I think if you're really, those are the things that I'm looking for. And a lot of times you get one but not the other, especially with super creative food and flavor profiles that maybe don't exist in a normal standpoint.

55:06They're really working with different flavor profiles to find something new. And when they find it, not only is it new, but it's also super soul satisfying. And I just love everything that he's doing there. And I think that it is, it's just a great restaurant. If you can get in, go. It can be challenging to get in. So there it is. That's part of that Nashville camaraderie. Chefs love each other, the friendliness. Chef Andy Little of Josephine, thank you so much for taking the time today to spend with us here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. I have to feel like I've learned so much. I hate this time because I want to go eat there tonight. And I want to experience all these things. I cannot wait to come into the restaurant and do an episode live. I love to get behind the line. My chops aren't that great, but I have a mad respect for everybody who does have those chops, but I'll certainly give it a shot.

56:07I'm going to hold you to that. Yeah, let's go. All right, man. Hope that you're staying well. Let's do it. All right. Thank you so much. What a genuine chef. So much fun taking time to speak with Chef Andy Little. Big thank you to John Still for doing post-production on this episode. He is my dad and he's amazing. He's the editor and producer of this show. And we thank you all for stopping by. As always, we hope that you are staying safe. Love you guys. Bye.