Bart Pickens

00:00Welcome 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 today is the day. We have got the famous, infamous, however you want to describe him, Mr. Bart Pickens will be on this episode, and he has a reputation for being loud and crazy, and we've talked about him on multiple episodes. He's a very influential person in the Nashville restaurant scene, and I think you get to see a different side of him today. You get to see a side of him that's a little more relaxed, a little more subdued, and he's just a really genuine guy, and I think that this is the side of him I'm excited to share. So I hope that you listen to the very end. The very end he's got some interesting things to say. Do you want to tell you real quick about Spring Mountain Farms chicken?

01:09These guys are doing, they're producing the best chicken in the world. I mean they really are, and if you go out to a restaurant, ask them if they're using Spring Mountain Farms chicken. If you go to the the grocery store and they don't have it, ask them if they've got it. Ask me if they can get it, because they can. The best restaurants in this city use Spring Mountain Farms chicken. It's a fact. So if you have the opportunity, go check them out. SpringMountainFarms.com Join the flock. Put your email address in there and start getting really cool updates. I got one today. It was fantastic. Recipes, kind of all kinds of updates on the industry. I think you'll enjoy them. I also want you guys to check out Kurt's Hospitality Marketing. They're a full-service sales, marketing, and public relations agency dedicated to growing revenue for their clients. I tell you, I say that and I just think about it and I go, man, if somebody was just out there dedicated to growing revenue for me, that would just be a really nice thing. And they do that. They're fantastic. They help me. I'm not only, they're not only a sponsor. I'm also a client. They help me identify key people to go talk to and give me ideas. But if you're wondering right now what you need to be doing, give them a call. It's a free consultation. Say, hey look, I've got this restaurant. Talk to me in a couple days. Tell me what your ideas are. And they've got some special offers for my listeners. So give them a call. 615-456-3953 or go to my website at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com and click the sponsor tab and then go to Kurt's Hospitality and click that link and you'll try and that's where you'll find the special offers that we offer for them. So let's get moving on directly into my interview with Bart Pickens. Now the format for this interview is a little bit different because I didn't have a plan. Sometimes I like to know what I want. I kind of have a plan when I go into an interview. But this one, I just really was just plug-and-play. So I'm

03:11just gonna play the whole interview. There'll be some light editing but you even get to hear at the beginning when I read him a release. Get a kind of an idea for his personality. And it's a little raw but I hope that you kind of enjoy the realness of what this interview in a conversation with Bart Pickens sounds like. We are outside at Party Fouls. There's some random noises. The audio is okay. But I hope you guys enjoy it. Alright, so now I am live. Now I am actually recording. You weren't live before? I deleted that. Okay. Just kind of you know deleted it. So I do have a release for you. I will sign whatever you want except a write-up. I have to say it. I want to make sure that I have your permission to use your likeness. Any information you share here you understand the recording and I'm gonna share it so listeners potentially throughout the world can hear it. We both agree that I'm the owner of the rights of this content. Sound good? Great! I have no idea what you said but that's okay. My brother's a lawyer. No, I'm fine. I'll call my brother if I need my picture back. You can't make a you can't make a bobblehead out of me though. Why not? I know. It said likeness.

04:25No bobbleheads without my permission. Written consent. I know. It sucks. I wanted I wanted to sneak in a bobblehead deal there. You didn't understand what that said? Yeah. Okay, you can have my bobblehead. You can have a bobblehead? Bart Pickens bobblehead? Yeah. All right, so let's go Bart. We're I've talked about you I think four times so far in the podcast. Good or bad? Good! Everything has been good. Not cussing? You're kind of no I mean I think that there's they're all referencing you cussing. I think they're all referencing you. You kind of like the you mentioned my Yeti. You're kind of the mysterious guest on the show. Who is this Bart Pickens guy if you don't know Bart Pickens? Right. Who is he? Who is he? Very passionate New Orleans style chef. What is a New Orleans style chef? Loud. Mardi Gras every day. Loud. French taught. Old school. You bake. You fry. You blacken.

05:40And if you can't blacken it fry it. If you can't fry it blacken it. Interpretive cuisine with a classic revisit. That kind of cooking. All right, so I know you I met you in 2005. 2005-2006 yeah. You were at the SoBro. The Country Music Hall of Fame. Yeah. I kind of refer to those as the good old days. They were the good old days. Before the the original 2008-2009 downturn. It's kind of freewheel in Nashville before the crazy boom. Right. It's still we had a country music Hall of Fame. Nashville was still booming but like those are those are fun days. It was booming but not the big boom hadn't gotten me. No. That changed the whole perception of Nashville and cuisine and what Nashville cuisine is and the culinary expressions etc. It hadn't gone boom yet. How did you get here? Left turn.

06:47It's like by car. 95 I think from Miami to here. But tell me your story like because I you know I I remember I very fondly remember sitting because that was a sales rep. Right. I drove around in my car all day long. Yeah. And I like the highlight of my day whenever I wanted a cigarette I'd go visit Bart and I could pull up to the back gate of the Country Music Hall of Fame the guy I got to know him really well. I'm like hey what's up it's just me and I would go park by the dock and I'd walk in you'd be like oh time for a cigarette. Yeah. I'll go yep and you had these Marlboro the red Marlboro's. Cowboy killers. The cowboy can we go sit on that back and I would just talk to you about your thoughts on the industry. What was going on? I just remember like I waxed poetically about those days of sitting on that back dock with Bart Pickens in my infancy of my sales career. Yeah. You did good. Well thank you. You understood. I mean the rules as a guest you come into my restaurant. You are the one laying the golden egg. Yes. Because you're keeping the lights on by paying me to cook. Vice versa. I lay the golden egg for the sales guy. Yes. So I get to yell at you because we got to take the yelling if I overcook a prime rib but they're right. So if I don't like that chicken you sold me I'm right. Whether I'm right or wrong it don't matter I'm right. True but and so that's kind of a stereotype for chefs that they're crazy and they'll yell for no apparent reason and I took that as a challenge because I always thought that they are yelling for a reason. If you didn't screw the thing up in the first place and you anticipated all of their needs and you and you and you delivered upon that it was amazing how much I didn't get yelled at but I got the opposite. Right. I got to sit and

08:48smoke cigarettes with you and learn about you. You still got yelled at. I mean what people don't understand is you know they always think I'm quick to pop. No. It takes 15 things to get me there. May have nothing to do with that apple that you sent me with worms in it. It may have to do with the 14 things that added up prior to that apple. The apple ain't got nothing to do with it. It just happened to be number 15 on a you know parade hit list or whatever. You know I mean the the little things that send a chef crazy you come in. Pause. Pause. I told them no music out here. If you could hear Bart right now he's going to yell at the manager. We asked him before the meeting not to turn music on and he just turned music on. He goes that's number 12.

10:02Number 12. Number 12. I got three more things before I go boom. And then we get two more. I said maybe we can go boom in the middle of this thing. What at 14? No. Okay you hit a button off. Is it fucking draft room? Our system is completely down. Oh that was the draft room. That wasn't even here. Motherfuck. How loud did they go? That's like a that's like a party over there. Well let's hope they don't go off again. Really? Are you going to be live? Yeah it's live. Oh very cool. What station is it on? No we're not we're not live here. He gets to clean it up when I say fuck. I get to yeah I get to clean it up. You better use that button like you have a lot. Yeah that's a good thing. I don't mind those words. I just I just there's a little button I have to click at the end that says is it clean or explicit? Oh is that it? If it's explicit I just click the E button and then I then I put a little note says this is for adult content so don't like otherwise it's usually pretty clean. I don't I don't try and swear it up but I mean.

11:21Shit's not a cuss word. It's on fucking regular TV now. I don't want to uh censor anybody. I want raw unfiltered who you are. Yeah it is. Spooky. Yeah. Spooky. We still on TV? Yeah we're on TV. So one of the things I was going to tell you about and we can get back to it. I remember faces but other than I do names because usually I call everybody Tiger Woods. Hey Tiger Woods! They look. Why do you do that? Because I can't remember their names. Usually I give them nicknames. What's my nickname? Too tall. Too tall. You're only 6'6". Who are your favorite who are your favorite people? What are some of the good nicknames you have people around town? There's YB. His name's Willie but it's YB Youngblood and then there's Pitbull who I called one of my cooks downtown and that's because he had the fight of a pit bull.

12:24Then there's Chong who's my little amigo. His name is Emanuella Quavis but Chong. Yeah of course. Yeah. Made sense to me. The funny thing is we just hired some guys in Donaldson that came with nicknames Dakota and Solo. Dakota and Solo. I'm like I don't even have to give you a nickname. You came with one and those are their real names. Nice. And now I'm like wow cool somebody caught on. Started naming their kids nicknames so I don't have to change it. Yeah I don't know. Usually it's everybody has the same name until I can remember their names but usually I don't. So I took us on a left turn. We were talking about the Sobro Grill. We were talking about how Nashville's changed. I said how has Nashville changed? Kind of go through that progression with you where you were going with that. Well it was funny when I got here you know I was in Miami prior from New Orleans so when I got here meat and three was a term I wasn't familiar with and they go meat and three meat and three you know green beans. They wanted green beans on their dinner so I'm buying fresh green beans giving a quick saute putting it on their plate. Well they want green beans a different way. They want them fully cooked no nutritional value left.

13:48And a meat and three that's a blue plate where I come from. So I got lost in a little bit of the terminology now I know it and I you know meet their expectations. I might give it a little kiss or a little fluff but I try to replicate their items for them. You know my wife's from Nashville so she's taught me stuff. Or she taught you. Don't put so many bananas in the banana pudding. Drives me crazy. I'm like first name's banana honey. She wants more wafers anyway. More wafer less it's not called wafer pudding. I know the first name is banana honey. Anyway so the food you know I think then a lot of people started tiptoeing up here whether they were from you know Destin or from you know Charlotte or you know Showhands got here so the cuisine started being more elevated. You know the identity you know that Nashville associates with Nashville hot chicken.

15:00And there's more there's more. Oh yeah a lot more. But there's still you know the industry got too big too fast and they didn't bring cooks with them. That's the game now is getting the cooks with them. You have to if you can hear the music in the background there is a restaurant right next to us. We are out on the patio of Party Fowl in Cool Springs. There's a place called I think it's King's Bowl. Yes a draft room I think it's at King's Bowl. They're jamming they are jamming right now at 9 30 in the morning. They're getting after it. I think they're I think they're sweeping the bowling lanes or something. They're having a good time. Oh hey I'm all about some fantastic voids though. Yeah a little loud for 9 30 in the morning. So if that upsets the sound apologize. That's part of doing podcasts. That's what happens.

16:06It's okay to have a beat in the background. Yeah why not. Our voices are loud. We can carry through this. It's okay. We probably cut through Cinderblock. Yeah my last interview was with Jeff and Jenny Pennington. They were on a boat the entire time. Literally driving a boat in a harbor on zoom talking to me just like yeah we decided we're just going to be on a boat because if we're going to be talking to you for an hour we'd much rather do it on a boat than sitting in a room we're at the beach. Right. Hey thanks for talking to me while you're at the beach. I mean like this it's a working vacation. We're good. Okay I felt bad but but now that'd be fun. They have quite the stereo system working over there. Yeah I guess they haven't played it in a couple of months. They're breaking the speakers back in. Yeah they're testing it out. That's loud. That's impressive. I think for Cool Springs that would be like a thing. That loud? Yeah I mean like that would be like the police are I'm surprised they're not already here.

17:08Ah no the mall police you would think but it's still early. That's loud. Okay what else? You know I know I'm getting old is that I'm like my ears are probably that's that's not that can't be good for their ears. No but it wasn't good for ours either. All right let's get back to it. Let's get back to it. We can edit out whatever we want to edit out. I don't you know. Right. I don't have a serious like agenda here like I said. I mean what makes them play it that loud? They're getting ready in the morning they want to crank it up and have a good time. And not think because you sure can't think listening to that shit. There's no thinking involved. Okay that's what I don't like. I want people to think.

18:17It does it does this microphone picks up everything. It'll pick up all of that. Maybe that's trying to talk through it. There we go. Oh look at that. I don't know for how long. Okay now let's talk faster. All right let's talk faster. So let's move ahead. We're talking about how Nashville changed your progression. You went from so but you were Tom Morales. Tell me about your relationship with Tom Morales. I love Tom Morales. We had good times. You know I did Sobro and Country Music Hall of Fame which was you know Tom Katz catering. Then I went with them to Fontenelle and then went with them to the Loveless and then I elected to stay at the Loveless and ride that for a little while and then I was getting a little bored. So I started looking for something that inspired me again. I've always been pursuing you know something like a franchisable concept because that's what I grew up in. So when party fouls started looking I applied and I knew what to give them and that was.

19:30Oh yeah. Oh you're chasing away all the nesting birds too. I would say turn it up. That's one way to do it for sure. Well thank you very much. So when when party foul came looking I knew what to give them because this is the chance. 1983 I was working for Al Copeland in New Orleans blackened redfish just hit the market just started flooding the food scene. So when I heard hot chicken and it was almost like I came full circle. That was the opportunity to put Nashville cuisine and you know blackened redfish put a statement on Louisiana cuisine. So you were at Copeland's.

20:35Yes. Was it the original Copeland's like you worked with Al Copeland and oh yeah got the thing going. What was that like? It was fun. High energy you know in 83 Al Copeland you know was Popeye's chicken New Orleans hero whatever. Paul Prudhomme started playing in New York and other metropolitan outlets putting in the redfish and the oyster artichoke soup whatever Louisiana cuisine he was the first you know chef that marketed Louisiana cuisine probably outside of Louisiana. When they opened in Nashville in Cool Springs there was one in Cool Springs Copeland's of New Orleans right behind Amerigo. Right. Up West Gate Circle that place was it was like the nicest when it first opened it was like oh my gosh. Yeah and then I think everybody starts thinning out what it's supposed to be you know. I mean blackened redfish when I was there you know we bought redfish we pulled the pin bones we seared it you know we would sell 200 250 a night.

21:52Then they started to run out of redfish everybody was buying it up in Alaska I think 15 million pounds of redfish went to Alaska so they could do it there. And then I think it just loses a little bit of its sexy because you start pushing on certain items crawfish. Crawfish weren't cheap anymore. Well you know I'll tell you a story I used to work at the Amerigo right next to that and we used to get off work and go to Copeland's and the bartender we would go over there and hang out and the bartender would just give us everything right. We're like 21, 22 years old but like we like five guys would go to Copeland's we get off work every night and we would drink these hurricanes that were like 32 ounce fish bowl hurricanes that maybe were 17 ounces of liquor and then I mean it was just lethal what they would make us we would just sit there and drink for like an hour or two right up until close we get our tab and the guy'd be like here it's a dollar we're like here's 40 bucks dude. Well that's not good business. No it's terrible and then I'll never forget I mean because I got into management after that and I was like well that's why they closed they're giving the house away and my biggest moment of why I recognize they closed as an operations guy is I remember sitting there and I'm a crazy crazy fanatical person like I every detail I have to have everything right you may not notice it from my podcast but I'm working on it but if I'm in a restaurant a phone rings I'm like my senses I'm like a phone ringing who's got it who's got it who's getting the phone and I'll just immediately start moving towards the phone because it's just it's just ingrained in my body that you have to answer the damn phone like immediately and I would never forget this dude the bartender was sitting there and the phone started ringing behind the bar and I'm sitting there I'm like are you gonna answer that phone he turns around hits the volume button down on the ringer and he goes I hate the damn

23:52phone he turns around and I was like and I about lost my mind I didn't say I was just like oh my god I would have fired you in a heartbeat if I would if I would have seen an employee turn the ringer down on a phone like I don't answer the damn phone I was like and then they closed and I was like well there there you go there's your indicators well and I think that's I mean that's up to management that's up instilling a certain structure that you need to have I mean you know I try to tell people I've cooked a lot of different cuisines in my career but I try to tell them you strive for perfection so excellence can be achieved everything you do you should be shooting for perfect you should be you're not gonna hit it but you can hit excellence if you're going a thousand percent and you only hit ten percent that's still a hundred and so that's a pretty important message right now today I think there's a lot of people have the attitude of hey look we're just reopening we're trying to get it together give us a break and it's like I totally good enough ain't right I understand that like it's you got to knock the rust off maybe the first couple nights but a couple weeks into it that excuse doesn't fly anymore does it it shouldn't but that's where you have to change the culture a little bit I mean you have to expect every sandwich to be perfect you know like I said you know I ask a lot of young chefs are you in it for the glory or in it for the sweat and tears because sweat and tears is eight hours of your day the glory is 20 yeah they're done they ate 20 minutes they're gone now you better like the exercise the practice the prep the things that are important the eight-hour day how do you learn that you just live it you have to understand it but it it's just like a sport

25:53it's just like the military it's just like you know whatever I mean being a sport I think it's fun I think it's fun you know getting up there you know the military it used to be called a brigade the hotline that's a military term I got your back you got mine yeah so I mean if you got to take a navy seal approach to the hotline I put the bacon in you'll know smell it help me go get it out the oven I didn't put it in there what happens what happens if I'm on the line with you we're cooking next to each other and something happens and I look to you and I say and you say hey I need this and I go that's not my job uh usually a whole lot of fucking cussing it is your job every job is everybody's whether it's answering the phone as a cook answer the phone here's the spiel thank you for calling party foul happy afternoon how can I help you the one that I love is now they don't even know how to answer the phone hey somebody's on the phone for you who I didn't ask really why wouldn't you ask their name regarding what you're gonna come and stop me to tell me someone's on the phone guess what I'm not your secretary what do you mean you're not my secretary don't tell me I got a phone call I got my own telephone they can call me if they know me otherwise I don't know some guy selling something right well yeah what's the best way to sell you something come to me around nine o'clock in the morning not at 11 o'clock in the afternoon not at two o'clock in the afternoon pick a day not a weekend weekends begin on Thursday not Friday because you better have your homework done before Friday gets here yeah you just got to listen to what I'm looking for I mean the games right now

28:01you know I'm chasing chicken consistent chicken right now the supply chains are a little broken you know they don't have blue cheese somebody got blue cheese somebody got somebody got blue cheese you know they're out of horseradish call Minnesota and give me some god dang horseradish people because I know I can put it on an airplane if I feel like paying FedEx money so is that that way you just now said right there I hear that in my brain and that's a huge lesson to me this is the way my brain works I hear that and I hear no excuses right so many people are so quick to say oh well I placed your order but it says we don't have any so I don't have any you go how's that gonna what you would say I know except had that you could say how's that gonna help me have horseradish on my line today right you go uh what do you mean we just don't have it how's that gonna help me I bet Kroger has it I bet you go find it what do you mean we don't have it and you that's but that's if you if I'm listening to you I'm hearing you say make it happen when I walk in here and sell you something don't sell me on we're gonna have everything you can possibly want and we're gonna chef we're gonna be in this thing for you and then tell me I don't have horseradish because I can't tell my guests sorry we don't have cocktail sauce today right like we're featuring shrimp cocktail today right I can't have you know it's a whole thing and you know you also have to know how to make it that's the games too in today's world apply yourself I've been doing this I don't know I can't remember 35 37 years I still buy cooking magazines I still apply myself you know and that's what that's what the young chefs need to do apply yourself apply yourself do not stop educating yourself do not stop messing up food so that you can learn how to perform the food and that's where a lot of them get stifled

30:02what do you mean by that they don't they don't apply themselves you say stop messing up the food you got to mess it up a couple of times sure so you can learn what you're doing wrong because recipes in a cookbook you think they're real you better know how to cook because they lie they don't want to sell you a cookbook so you never come to their restaurant again so they're always tweaking a little bit they're going to leave out a little lemon juice they're going to leave out a pinch of salt they're going to leave out a you know a tablespoon of bacon soda so you're trying to tell me that if I buy a cookbook from a restaurant and I make it at home it's not going to taste just like it does that is that is you heard her here first ladies and gentlemen well and I don't mean they're doing it on purpose but you know there's old cliches and sayings right a recipe is just words on a paper the cook gives it the soul yeah I mean you know my tablespoon in a kitchen may not be the same tablespoon you using at home I'm giving it a little extra kiss you know they all they all look at me sometimes because I I use my own terminology I said don't forget to kiss it may you know until they work with me they're like what you go back there is somebody actually kissing it throwing in parsley and green onion give it a kiss break those colors make it more vibrant don't forget to kiss it don't forget to kiss it yeah uh Ben Whitlock had some some Bart comments he said Bart will come in and be like hey where's the uh the fly the fly fan or he calls it a a bubble net a freaking bubble net it's a net made out of bubbles it makes perfect sense to me uh yeah using old terminology I mean uh you know I used to tell people I take care of the center of the plate I already buy the best

32:09halibut I buy the best of the best you know they always used to ask me why do you make fresh bread and why do you make fresh desserts and I used to say because that's the first kiss and the last kiss those kisses matter just like dating a date and a pretty lady that first kiss matters that last kiss matters in the middle I already bought the best of the best that halibut is from Norway and it's beautiful it's fresh I'll cut it I'll square cut it I hit it with butter I keep it simple little gold dust a little salt butter sear it sear it sell it that's such you know what that's it's so old school you know I'll tell you what I mean by that it's old school because if I if I translate that to front of the house I spend an exorbitant amount of time with the host stand right and I feel like it is a lost art the host and hostess position yeah yeah when people walk into the building their first impression of what happens inside of the building is so important it's so important and then when you leave being felt like you are like nothing worse than just spending $150 and walking by a host stand and not getting a thank you so much for coming by we really appreciate your business thank you like because if I walk out and they're just like on their phone right I immediately think like I guess they don't care that I'm here and everything could have been great I don't it doesn't judge the entire meal but it definitely is something that accentuates it on the front end and on the back end kind of what you're saying the first kiss and the last first kiss and the last kiss right are so important because you all know if you have the first kiss and you don't kiss goodbye you won't get that last kiss you know what do you do I think it's a whole thing well and that's where you know it is you have to school harder you have to make them accountable but I mean goodness we used to hire and yes I'm

34:12old we used to hire the 45 year old woman to be the hostess yeah then we'd hire 17 year old girls to be the seaters the greeter had the gap had the personal touch and that does matter I mean they told me way back when you know we used to go to symposiums you know it was always the management or people that I had worked for invested in their employees giving them the tools to do the job so if it was going to seminars or symposiums or you know watching videos what was it called back then toast training no taste taste training videos now it's you know everybody wants you to do it online have you seen my telephone it's small have you got a flip phone still no but that's it's a good one I got like 128 megabytes on this thing we'll probably have the same one mine's just the bigger version mine's an s3 mine's an s3 or something anyway I don't need no bigger my back pocket ain't gonna hold it if it's bigger but we used to be trained that way and you have to train your people that way someone told me in one of those seminars what industry is restaurants or are in people go food entertainment okay when dixie sells food we sell entertainment so experiences right so I mean well there was bad things in my youth I was entertaining but you should be greeting them at the door the manager should be table visiting this you know you should be upselling because that's what they're there for they're for edu there for education for a meal for the entertainment for the music for the tvs for the carpet

36:14whatever the whole getting caboodle matters they don't understand that and I mean you gotta drill it and then you gotta drill it again and you have to apply yourself I mean that's what I tell young chefs now buy a book apply yourself learn the classics reinterpret but you gotta know the original song before you can change the medley you gotta know the original got to then that's really good until I mean just I think sometimes people try and outthink the room and they try they try and outthink the room and it's like some of these like the balance pass you know it's the fundamentals I find that in my job in consulting with restaurants I find so many people don't do just the bounce pass they're trying to do the the 360 behind the back dunk and I'm like but you're missing out on just like the the greet time and getting stuff like the classic fundamentals of operating a restaurant greeting the people that walk in the front door without a snobby attitude of oh do you have a rest if you don't have it like greet them welcome we're so happy that you're here and then get to it just the the server who thinks that they're special or it's like come on get back to greeting teamwork full hands in full hands out we're like just the stuff that makes restaurants function high level yeah I think that still is what happened in Nashville we just got hit with every restaurant imaginable well how many cranes you had up at one time gosh it's crazy how many restaurants opened up at one time we saw we open I think party foul September of 15 maybe 14 13 I don't even know anymore 14 sounds right anyway we we had pick of the litter and then within a year and a half pick of the litters gone oh yeah it spread thin you know I mean we saw a climbing business one year

38:15from one year to the next and then a drop because there were too many new restaurants that just opened so they got to get their flirt you know they got to get their honeymoon on so that hurt us and then you balance out because you just keep on pushing don't get over the top like I said earlier I said earlier a perfect nacho is just as good as a perfect prime rib they're both perfect strive for perfect every time no matter what you do no matter where you work perfect taco bell or you know cane prime right perfect is perfect perfect is perfect right so I mean if you're exceeding their expectations with excellence continue to do that yeah you know there's something to be said for that and I think a lot of people get in their own heads but when you finish a day you finish your work day and you do that you work that way it feels good you sleep good you sleep good you get off you get off work and you go I did my absolute best today and I killed it some days don't feel that way and in sales food sales in particular the one thing is you never finish the day and go I did it I'm done right it's never never done it's never done it's all you should never be happy if you execute you know three sandwiches perfect in one bed you need to hit four perfect sandwiches five perfect sandwiches if you are cleaning your station great tomorrow I want a little cleaner the next day I wanted a little cleaner how about this wipe the window etc etc don't ever be satisfied keep on pushing it you know who I think is in my time one of my favorite interviews somebody asked me they said what's your favorite interview that you've done so far and I said it really I've enjoyed them all which is a political answer but I for me for me just like some of the things that I really value Chef Andy Little not bad at Josephine in his interview we talked about game tape you know what he does he gets a ladder

40:21and he climbs up on his ladder in the middle of service and he gets his phone out and he takes video of the actual line of everybody working right for like five minutes when they're really busy he has hey come come watch the expo I'm gonna go and take video of my line he then pulls his line cooks and they watch game tape right and he talks about that's fun hey when you moved this way it prohibited this guy from doing this if you watched your left throughout this entire thing you'd notice that you're blocking his mise en place and if you're not you know he can't he has to wait and that three seconds he has to wait stops him it's like a machine it's a misfire in a machine and when the machine runs perfectly and I just thought holy shit but that's but that's a different level what he's doing that is a different level that's fun as all get go and I go gosh if you're hiring somebody and there's there's a new sponsor we have called fo and bo and they have a it's a new website you can go on to to hire people and you can create a video of yourself like a profile tape of what you're doing right so if I'm an employer I can log in I can look I want a bartender I click on a bartender and you can upload a video of you making a drink I was like if I'm a line cook I'm just kind of a video of me watching game tape the one that's going yeah the one applying is making a video yeah whatever spin a glass or whatever and it's kind of like if you're an employer you can just go in click on this video and go oh I need a bartender oh just click on the website find bartender you have 500 different bartenders click one hit a button that says you know I want to the video it's so it says request an interview you can just immediately but it's it's fantastic but I told her the other day I said if I was a line cook I would just put a video of me watching game tape of me on the line and go I'm just studying to get better and I was like that guy would get hired 100 times out of 100 times who doesn't want that right well and that I like it I like it I never even thought of that we have video

42:22cameras I know that but yeah it's fun and it does matter that everybody's in sync you know it's an orchestra somebody's got to be making it work me I get in trouble because I'm a barker I'm loud but that's because the energy level needs to be high if I got to pay play the court jester to get that energy up I don't have a problem with that I'll be as goofy as I need to be the energy level needs to be high you know if it's Rihanna the energy level needs to be high high high because you're not going to get it done in a lull you have to be the cheerleader you have to be the pep rally you have to be orchestrating how they how they get their jobs done so well the way the term which I use as a leader inside of a restaurant because anybody can be a leader inside of a restaurant firmly believe that right most like the anyone can cook you know from ratatouille you have to set the pace right as a leader you've got to set the pace everybody that's looking to you to lead anywhere you go the person who's leading is by definition the person in front who's setting the pace right and if I come into the restaurant if you're the chef and I'm the one who's expediting whatever and I come in I go oh Monday oh my gosh I can't believe it's Monday again I'm so tired oh it's Monday what do you think everybody that I'm leading is gonna what's everybody gonna do I'm with you they're gonna go oh it's Monday but if I come in I go hey here we go right we're gonna do this today hey what are you doing over there what are you doing and I love I'm always it is fed off of your energy it has to be the energy has to be at a higher because what we do ain't easy no I mean what do I clock I clock 17 000 steps a day and I'm in a kitchen oh yeah you now what I do tell people that they don't understand

44:25especially the young ones move like a turtle not like a rabbit notice the world around you like the turtle don't be that rabbit running circles waving being goofy because that turtle is going to beat you so I mean to be a couple steps slower energy can still be high and you can be moving slow but be intentional make those steps count make do not waste be more efficient have your eyes open see that the bacon's in the oven see that there's a timer on the thing that really sends me to the moon and nobody does it nobody does it when they turn off your timer and never tell you they turned off your time now you know good well that timer went off for something but you're not going to tell nobody hey a timer went off you're just going to turn it off yeah it was it was making me nervous or angry or but you didn't tell nobody gotta tell somebody you didn't go and find the answer who put something in the oven with a timer you just thought somebody just set a timer for nothing enough anyway that'll send me to the moon cookies went three minutes too long because you didn't fucking pull or open the door so now i get to make cookies again son of a biscuit anyway and that's fun i didn't put it in i just turned the timer off because it was making noise whoo there's a reason ask yourself what's that reason you're gonna have an answer well we just had an author on name john miller and he asked the question behind the question i think in that situation is why is this timer going off what can i do to ensure that i'm doing the right thing because this timer is going off what can i do to remedy this situation versus who had a timer or even not saying anything like oh this damn timer is annoying me push the button right not good well and that's they have everybody has

46:29the same answer and a lot of times they will ask you what do i do ask yourself three times before you stop me to ask me because i'm not a genius you are just as smart as i am you're going to come up with the same answer nine out of ten times do you think that's a what do you think that is because you don't want to know people walk up all the time and they'll say hey what do i do if my this doesn't work what do i do the vacuum's broken hey the vacuum's broken i don't know what to do you go fix it right now i don't and i'm not mechanical i don't know why you're coming to me telling me i guess you know it's just a thing or whatever it might be and i've always said if i give you a thousand dollars cash right now what would you do if i said if i give you a thousand dollars cash to fix it right now what would you do and they go well i'd go fix it and i go then just go do that right like whatever you whatever that thing would be right go do that it bewilders me because i am not mechanical but if it's got a handle push the handle if it's got a button push the button it's got a plug check the plug we gotta be resourceful something's broken really how about clean it you thought about that shut the front door clean something yeah now we clean the surfaces of everything really well but when it comes to cleaning a vacuum i know it's cleaning a bissel like cleaning the bissels is like the hair in it oh my gosh like just like that needs to be somebody's side work every time i get a somebody to say hey i need you to clean the bissel like why i'm like if we did this regularly we wouldn't have to why do we have to keep thinking this stuff why can't people and i'll ask the question on the question what can i do to make sure that my staff knows to clean those i blame it on they didn't have etch a sketch they didn't have crayons they got cell phone they got young einstein on the back of mama's seat while they driving down the highway they didn't play all they didn't play i spy i spy yellow

48:35volkswagen they didn't play this they didn't play you know and i know it's a different world let them play i mean we had toys that did not move our imagination made those toys move gee i joe yeah his arms moved but if you wanted to blow them up you had to throw them you know now they blow up with a button where's imagination it's automation that one too uh and that's where i think a lot of it a lot of it misses you gotta ask yourself you gotta ask yourself three times because you have the right answer so you're pretty high energy a little bit you know but you're known for that yeah always have everybody knows you as hey and every time we've talked about you in the podcast but barden he's he's crazy he's crazy so i know so throughout this interview people go oh you know he's very logical he's he's old school i think is a good way to describe you right as he's old school and my question for you is because i'm like that a lot i'm very high energy i don't ever stop like i don't one thing you will net my wife will never say he's like oh he just sits around and watches tv all the time like no no like i i'm ridiculous it's a challenge for me to turn that off yeah and it's it's it's almost a burden like when you're a leader and you're that high when you're constantly setting the pace for everybody else right who sets your pace red bull chocolate covered espresso beans a pot of cdm coffee in the morning candy yeah of me too that's that sounds like my diet my wife told me last night but i do 14 hours i'm done um what do you like at home couch potato now on vacation different because i'm going to get just

50:37as crazy this time with liquor uh at home what's my wife call it fall apart i get one day off a week i've been taking two lately when i take one day off it's called fall apart day so i wake up same time 3 34 o'clock drink my pot of coffee take a nap on my day off watch a boob tube but i don't i don't get out you know and go caravan around city it's fall apart so this is a something that i'm concerned about with this industry because because the hours are notorious yeah it's a grind it is hard hard work and i don't think that that you know you see all these people on instagram that are climbing mountains and they're i just got done working out every day and it's like we don't have that opportunity and the people wonder why mental illness and alcoholism runs wild in this business because a mall ain't open at midnight no open a mall at midnight open the put lights out at percy warner park exactly so i mean but that's a that's a thing and i mean i know you're one of those people that is just constantly working i've never like every time i've ever come to see you've always been at work never oh he's off day like he didn't know what an off day is i'm not gonna see you on saturday or sunday but like i think i'm trying to identify somebody like you who's always on yeah what's it like when you're off and off i am lackadaisical lean back laying in a chair i'm happy that's what you'd like to do yeah now i go on vacation you know they can work me like a mule because i get three great vacations every year i go to hawaii go to maui i think what'd you say go to maui deep sea fish way too many my ties way too many my ties whale watch eat great my ties my ties the bad thing is my wife and i found a place serving my ties in lahaina at 7 30 in the morning

52:48that's dangerous not good not good not good good not good fun not good if you're gonna start you know if they say the bachelorettes they all say is that you can't say you've been drinking all day if you don't start in the morning right well we drink all day but we pass out early you can't the problem is not day drinking the problem is day drinking into night drinking without a break right yeah we stumbled home one day i was doing fine until she talked about what kind of friend full of bacon good i want to do hot chicken bomb me right there hot chicken bomb me hot chicken bond me so they got uh four count bacon yeah big old thick head thick thick thick four counts four ounce piece of bacon yeah same bacon strip just that's it wow you cook it just like a pork belly on the flat top put it on the hot chicken bomb me booyah nice yeah what drives you we'll finish this we'll finish off with what drives you what's the what keeps you what sucks you out of the sheets in the morning it keeps you going what's the intrinsical motivation you find the challenges being smarter than it you know making the food the best you can buying the grocery smart training the people up i mean that's where i think a lot of it's lost a chef is nothing but a coach that's all we are don't we wish all we had to do was cook you're a coach a chef's job is to make that individual better than you now they bring things to the table now you have to inspire them to want to learn everything you got and you have to teach them everything you got whether it's making beignets biscuits cookies

54:53cakes pie you know consomme one of them wanted me to show them how to make consomme i went really okay you got to build a raft you got to do this got to he's like cool but your job as a chef is to make him better than you now if he worked at some other restaurant he's bringing something now he's got to learn everything you know now you've done your job he's better than you because he brought something that you didn't have you gave him everything you had so that's the end you know that inspires you you're a football coach you're supposed to make him better you know i had you know i had one cook that was leaving me and he hadn't been with me long and he had good skills he didn't have baking skills so his last three days i made him make cookies brownies fresh bread pizza dough nothing to do with our menu because you didn't have any baking skills he never made pecan pie now i made him better than he was when he got here because he's still got those tools he can still butcher he can still do this but i gave him ads to his repertoire things he didn't know now he knows cookies now he knows fresh bread now he knows how to punch down the the dough etc etc that's what's inspiring it's almost like with the way that you are you're loud you can yell at somebody you can swear a whole bunch and you can do all of these things but it's almost like if you can put up with that it's almost like you're challenging them yeah you know what if if you can put up with me and you can deal with this i'm going to give you tenfold the shit that i give you i'm going to give you tenfold and just my love right well and that's what it is and the skills yeah but it's yes it is it is love it's attention it's development it's education and it also you know you can't leave it one-sided

56:58it's also rewarding for me to see you get better you know that's it yeah you have the heart of a coach you're the heart of a teacher you want to help develop people and that's that's your legacy yeah my legacy is that or your legacy is that you've come in you've been able to be you authentically 100 you and then you can take what you know and help other people to be better well and that's you that's what you've given to the industry and that's what you've given to the nashville culinary scene right that's why your names come up five times on interviews with chefs around the city on my podcast i'll give them everything everything i got my recipes like i said their recipes that's it you have to give it the kiss you have to give it the love you have to give it the attention you know and i mean i can remember one individual you know questioned you can't put milk in the fridge you can't do this i said yes you can no i've never made grits with that so i gave him a recipe he got a little pr from it i said it's yours but you gave me the no i gave you words on a paper you had to cook it you gave it yours wow thanks i don't need the glory i like the sweat and tears i love it yeah well thank you ma'am for taking an hour to talk to me today good that's fun catching up with you yeah now i gotta go check what let's see what they burn in the oven how many alarms have gone off since you've been over here i got beef ribs in the oven got pork ribs probably sitting on a back table well thanks for what thanks for everything that you do man oh it's fun it's fun thank you for having me all right there it is bart bickens i am curious to look at the

58:58analytics to see how many people made it this far the last five minutes were probably my favorite of the whole interview and i learned a lesson that i will have a better plan coming into an interview and you got a subdued version of bart it's funny because we finished that interview and we immediately got all my stuff kind of together walked in the kitchen where he's the pfg rep is there and he's going i can't believe he brought me this bacon why'd you bring me this bacon and i was like i i wanted to record that man you're the crazy guy so you get to see a little bit of his subdued serious side and i love that side of him too so hopefully you enjoyed the interview and hopefully you are being safe and you're healthy and happy love you guys bye