Best of Nashville Acceptance Speeches

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Chris Chamberlain? Brandon Styll. How you doing, man? We're live. We're live right here. See all this happening out here live? I am almost recovered from the Best in Nashville party. I'm 100% recovered. How was it? Crowded, as always, best party of the year, as always. Heck yeah, man. We had the stairwells lined with people going up and down at ACME. I mean, they would just wait to get to the next floor to see what the next part of the party was like. Wow. Yeah. There was a lot of organizing going on there. And I did not tell anyone, but the people at the scene know that I once gave ACME the top rooftop bar in Nashville.

01:02And within days of that publication, the rooftop collapsed. So, so that was the building we took everyone to. The newly reinforced rooftop of ACME. It was very kind of you to do such a thing. Welcome in everybody. We are doing the best of Nashville 2024 acceptance speeches. So we're very excited. This has kind of become an annual thing. Chris comes into the studio and we talk about it. Our first guest today, we're going to jump right in. We're not wasting any time because we have a jam packed show today. His name is Patrick Rogers and he is the editor in chief over at the Nashville scene. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Patrick. Hey boss. Thank you, Brandon. Hey Chris. Good to see you both. Thanks for having me. Happy to have you here. So this issue, biggest one of the year or is it, is this the by far the biggest issue of the year? Easily, easily. Yeah. This one outpaces most of our other issues by about 200 and some odd pages.

02:05Yeah. You don't want to drop it on your foot. This is the only, it's like a book. It's the perfect bound issue. We call it. Yeah. It's the only one we have to actually print a spine for because it's so large that our printer can't do the usual staple fold for it. It has to be bound like a book. How much, what's the additional cost on something like that? If you're putting a spine in it, is it like not that, or is it like, sir, we'll have to get the publisher in there to tell you that. But it is, you know, it's, it's obviously there's a return on investment there. It's a hundred, it's 260 pages this year. And you know, it's, it's a lot of ads in addition to a lot of copy, 80 pages of editorial. You know, it's three times the size of the usual issue, four times, you know, it's, it's a big boy. And we can only get like five of them in a box. So you better grab yours early. If you haven't gotten it yet, you may have to make your way to the scene office to pick up a copy of this year's. We keep some around for the stragglers. Yeah. I love it.

03:05Chris, why don't you jump in? You had some questions for him. I did. So Patrick's been, been my coworker for 16 years and my editor for seven to six or seven. I think seven in November. And so, you know, I wanted to talk a little bit about the role as an editor, you know, when you're dealing with all these, all these descriptions, all these writers picks, a great editor will leave in what's good and he'll improve the rest of it without even the writer noticing that it's been done. And I, Patrick is an expert at that. And I believe, you know, of all the dozens of editors I've had in my freelance career, we both trained under the best, Jim Ridley. And Jim would make something you wrote so much better with just the turn of a phrase, with the movement of a paragraph or cutting a sentence in half. And I just wanted to give a shout out to Patrick for doing that and occasionally giving me a couple extra words over the word count so that I can blather on a little bit longer.

04:13Thank you for saying that, Chris. Yeah, Jim was we used to say about he would sprinkle fairy dust on our copy. He would somehow make it all a little bit better. And you'd still say, well, that still sounds like me, but it's just like 100 percent better. How did he do that? So I definitely learned from the best. I don't think I'm anywhere near his level, but I definitely took a lot of lessons from him working under him. So within this huge issue, we've got multiple larger categories and then plenty of both readers picks and writers picks underneath that. This is Nashville Restaurant Radio. So talk specifically to the importance of the food and drink section as far as how it drives engagement, the votes that it gets, how people are probably voting for food and then throw in best hardware store, you know, things like that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's absolutely the cornerstone of the issue always has been in print. We lead with that section. You know, it has more both more readers categories and writers categories, kind of always has, at least in the time I've been with the scene. And, you know, that's where people go to vote the most.

05:16That's where, you know, when I'm looking at the analytics on day one, that's where, you know, the top category is food and drink, which makes a lot of sense. You know, that's what people are sort of looking to us for primarily. You know, we've got nine. We've now split it up into nine sections just to make it a little bit more manageable. You know, arts and culture and music and retail and services and all the rest. And retail and services, of course, is another one that people come to a lot, you know, because it's just handy, you know. But yeah, food and drink has always sort of been what we build on the most and sort of our biggest section at the shout out. Cole Villana, our our associate editor who typically edits the critics picks, who helped me as sort of the section editor of Food and Drink this year, did a really great job of wrangling all those. And he's written about food quite a bit. And and so he was a huge help in kind of organizing that the beast of a section. And people might like to know a little bit about the process behind. The, you know, choosing the writers picks, which ones get in, which ones are too specific. You know, it's really easy to want to throw some sunlight on someone that's a friend of yours, and that can be seen through pretty easily.

06:22You know, best Chinese food on my block or, you know, something like that. But we really do sit down and try and think of it. You get a small group of people together and try and think of it globally for Nashville. You know, we're not trying to trying to make picks because it's something personal to us. It's because it's something we think is worth sharing and, you know, and there's some nervousness about that, you know, like this year when when we gave best new restaurant to bad idea, I was excited about the pick. But you can imagine what it's like to be an editor, to be a publisher, to be a writer and having every PR agency in town lobbying for their new restaurant. So I didn't think it was too brave to pick bad idea because I think it's an outstanding restaurant. But it sure didn't hurt when between when I wrote it and it got published that the New York Times and Food and Wine both put them on that list. Like, OK, I feel all right about that. So yeah, for sure. It's always nice to see. Yeah. And another thing is, you know, well, we obviously take the past year of work and reporting and criticism that we've done to to inform what we're putting in the writers choices. You know, so often we're picking something that we've done a review on or Chris, you'll have done like what we sometimes call a first bite.

07:36And, you know, we really convene and think those things through. And it's completely separate process than the readers poll. The readers votes are usually going on while we're discussing and assigning the writers picks. And it's fun to see where the overlap is. Sometimes there's a lot, sometimes completely different. But in recent years, they they're closer in a lot of categories than they were in the early days. I remember in the 90s, it would be Domino's would win Best Restaurant, McDonald's Best French Fries. Like, seriously, this is how it was in like 97, 98. So I think we've come a long way from there on the readers poll and writers choices. So how do you adjust the categories every year? When do you decide that Nashville needed a best lay ocean category? You know, things like that as you as you keep your finger on the pulse of what's going on. The readers poll, that process starts pretty early on, honestly. That's in the spring. Usually we have a meeting with I meet with the publisher, our art director, Elizabeth Jones, who, of course, Chris, you know, have worked with quite a lot and has been at the scene as long as I have.

08:38And we'll sort of sit down and look over in the readers categories what hasn't been getting a lot of votes. And sometimes it'll just be certain things that just they kind of fall away because over time, if there's not enough to really to go into that category, sometimes it's like, you know, these these just didn't get enough votes. So we'll kind of peel those off. See what needs. Oh, there's a lot of boba places now. Let's throw in a best boba category or what have you. And of course, writers, Chris, as you know, when we meet about those, there are certain things that we kind of always want to have a best new restaurant, best restaurant, best bar, best new bar, all that sort of thing. But then we kind of almost reverse engineer some of these categories based on, you know, we really, really want to write about this one dish. It's outstanding. We didn't necessarily have whatever it may be. Best chicken last year. But SS Guys chicken is so phenomenal that we just have to, you know, have to single it out somehow. So that's it's all kind of the writers choices are more of an ongoing process where readers, it's a little bit more data driven, like these aren't getting votes.

09:43You know, let's, let's cut that one. Let me ask you this. I was noticing on all the writers picks, there's the, the pick, and then there's a, there was a blurb you write about the actual thing. And then if you go on all of the readers picks, it just shows the winner and then second and third place is a reason why you don't write a little something about, because it's not your pick. Is it just, is there a general? Cause if I don't know anything about NoCo and they win best restaurant, I look at it and go, what is that? If it, is there just something that, is that, I guess that's intentional? Well, part of it would be, you know, I usually start the process for really prepping for best of Nashville in July. I think if we wrote about the reader's choices, I'd probably have to start in like March or something like that. But the thing is, you know, it's those, those are the readers picks, but so often there really are, there's enough crossover. NoCo won best restaurant in the readers poll. We gave them a different category in the writers. Bad idea placed in both places. Edgar, Victoria won best chef and readers poll and Chris, you gave them a writer's choice. So, so often there is, you know, the Venn diagram, there's definitely an overlap there.

10:52And part of it's just the way the process works. Voting is open in August and by the time the readers poll is settled, all of the copy is already into us for the writers poll. So it's a little bit logistical and also just sort of like, kind of keep it clearly defined. Here's what the readers think. Here's what the writers think. I love it. Well, just one more quick question. You want to address the rumors about how advertising might affect both readers and writers picks? Because I know the answer, you know the answer, but I'm not sure everyone does. I'm happy to say that advertising does not factor into the process at all. Not only that, it would be, you know, we keep a very clear line between our advertising department, our editorial department. We don't confer as far as who's going to get coverage or who's going to advertise. And, you know, sometimes people will say things like, oh, they engineer these like specific categories just to please an advertiser, which isn't the case. It's like I was saying earlier, so often it's, you know, Chris, you have a lot of fun with sort of these quirky categories and it's designed to, you know, highlight something that's very specific about a place.

11:56Maybe they really do just have the best happy hour. And that's what we do. And I don't see who's advertised in a, you know, as editor in chief, I'm handling all the editorial. So advertising doesn't even cross my desk and I don't even see who's advertised in the issue until the day we're sending it to press. And I'm just sort of looking through the PDFs that we send off to the printer. So yeah, it's very much a separate process. And as a matter of fact, I know there's been more than one occasion where an advertiser thinks that, you know, because they've advertised, they're they're going to get glowing reviews and no negative press. And that's just not the way it works more than once. I know that my publisher has had to deal with criticism from somebody who had bought an ad and it's, you know, that's his job though. So I don't need to be that part of it. So you're saying that if NoCo bought like a full page ad, that wouldn't guarantee them anything in the magazine, but it might guarantee them an appearance on Nashville restaurant radio. Very, very much so abs every time. And I think that you're getting really good at segues because it is that this time that we get to say goodbye to Patrick Rogers, really just a programming side note.

13:10The SS guy was coming on at two 30 and they're slammed right now. They're unable to make it. So because they won a national scene award. That's exactly it. So we have, we have a replacement. Her aunt from Lyra is going to be joining us at two 30. And I told Emma and Chris, if they can make it at four, then we're excited to have them. So a little side note, Patrick, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for all your insight. And this episode was a lot of fun, man. I'm really glad to have you here. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you guys very much. All right, back to work. Which brings us to our first guest in studio. We have, we have, this is, this is pretty big. This is the best restaurant winners. I mean, if you're talking, we're going to start off with best picture. I mean, best restaurant is it, right? That would be the last award of the evening. That would be the last award of the evening. Well-deserved goes to Lala land. Join. No, no, no, no. No code. No code. Sorry. Hang on. Yeah.

14:14We have Wilson and Brannock and John Murray from noco. Welcome gentlemen. Thank you. Try it now. Appreciate you having us on. There you go. That's the Basso Profundo we were looking for. So what'd you guys think? Did you know, did you have any idea? You also won a writer's pick. I like to say for the best restaurant bar experience from ML meters, what did you think when you read this? Were you just like shocked? Are you excited? I mean, of course we're excited. I don't think any of us ever thought that it would happen. Um, I think we just keep our, our nose to the grindstone and you know, stay focused on our guest experience and our employee experience. And what transpires from us doing that we're grateful for and feel very fortunate. Yeah, man. Just overwhelmed with gratitude. Super proud of the team. We've got a great crew. Happy, happy, happy, happy. This is, this is a direct result of your hard work and getting it done.

15:16And I had every, I, I, I didn't know there was fan tastic and people, there was a line out the door, but waiting to go for that bar experience. Does that still happen every day? It does. It does. I think that's the one, not that we're not proud of the best restaurant that's blows us away, but we sat down with the bar team six months ago and said that we felt like from the very beginning, we didn't quite provide the same experience at the bar that we do table side. And so we took a lot of time, energy and effort to really hone in on that. And so when we saw that it was kind of like, Oh wow. They're right. They saw it. We're actually, we're actually doing it. So yeah. When did you guys find out and how did you find out? Through an Instagram post. We did a, we offered up a $250 gift card for a social giveaway. And then when the post went out and it said best restaurant, we found it to be the post. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how it happens nowadays. I mean, that's how we have, that's how we found out. Yeah. It was cool.

16:23I was in, I was in Atlanta this weekend and people were asking me about NoCo. Wow. I mean, and that's part of it is cause it's suddenly it blows up socially. That's what's great. You know, it expands the reach because you've got, you know, everyone that's entered, everyone that wins, everyone that reads the scene, they're all magnifying the event. And so it puts it to the top of everybody's hour of them. So, um, I think people in Atlanta want to know what's going on in Nashville. Just discovered NoCo. So get ready for some 404 phone calls. Wilson's from Atlanta originally. So a Grady baby, actually. Yeah. She born at Grady hospital. Oh wow. Okay. I didn't know that. I was actually born in Atlanta. So that's killer. It's wild what social media can do. Like it's insane. We talked to every guest. They've never done with us. How did you hear about us? 99% of the time it's either Instagram or Tik Tok. And then close behind that is foodies of Nashville. The Instagram page. Oh man. I'm not the Instagram Facebook page. Excuse me. It's nuts.

17:26I bet you're going to say, well, they heard me on Nashville restaurant radio. And then it just, it just swamped you. You were already after this way big. You were, you were the best restaurant in Nashville. I mean, everybody was talking about it when you guys were on. I mean, it was a was one of my favorite interviews we've done just cause you guys were so genuine and everything. You know, there's a lot of people that get in this business because there's a profit in it. There's a profit and I can, it's a business. Sure. You guys, when I left here, it's like these guys genuinely get it. They understand service and they care. They care that their guests have an amazing experience while they're there and it's through and through and it's just what you do every single day. And through that you can do well. And it's, it's, it's amazing to see everybody catch on to that mentality, the guests, the guests to understand and get it. Yeah. I mean, I think, um, obviously numbers have to make sense because you borrow a substantial amount of money and you're obligated to pay that money back. But for us, it's before anything, it's not about the guests.

18:31It's about our employees. And so, you know, go into like, Oh, you won best restaurant, which we feel great about, but the goal of NoCo has never been to be the best restaurant. It's to change hospitality for the better and being opening every single day to make sure people have a great experience transitions into the guest experience, which is transitioned to this man. And I, I mean, I'm kind of like shaking hair, standing up on my arms right now, just thinking about it. So I appreciate it. And I've said it again and again that any restaurant that is operating right now is the best. I mean, there's no, since the pandemic, it feels so silly to try and it, you know, vote someone as the best over someone else. Um, but when you look at who finished in the top three, how weird is it that it was NoCo, bourbon steak in the Southern? You know, how can you, how do you feel about being judged against just those two?

19:35There's so many great restaurants, man. It's impossible. And you're right. Like thank you for that perspective. It is tough to be in this business and anybody that is up in operational right now should consider themselves the best because it's definitely not an environment where many are thriving and to be thriving feels amazing. It really does. Did you do anything to promote the contest? Did you through your social, did you say vote NoCo? Never not once we, we have this. So one of our values is humility. And it's a thing we struggle with. Like, you know, recently we got a nod in the New York times and we didn't share it on social, not because we're not grateful for it, man. Gratitude is one of our values as well, but we don't like talking about achievements. It's do as I do, not do as I say. And I know that doesn't really correlate completely, but it's grateful for we are is like the K review that happened in the Nashville scene the week before. Like I want to cuss right now, but holy crap.

20:43You can, you can cuss. Holy shit. You can. It's wild. You know, that the way that felt, um, but in as much as we'd love to say thank you, like I just doesn't, it feels forced to us. Like last year, you know, the eater award, best new restaurant blew us away, but we didn't want to talk about it. Our PR firm had to say like we think you should say something about it. So it's this, I'm kind of going off on a tangent now, but it's this battle of like grateful for it, but don't want to boast about it if that makes sense. Well, and good thoughts to Kay and everybody in Nashville. I mean, that she was able to come over here and catch you guys. And I thought really captured just what you were talking about. The, the guest experience, the passion that goes into making sure it's a fine meal for everyone that comes in the door. I mean, she got that even over and above the food and how interesting the food is and how timely the food is. And so, I mean, that's how you win best restaurant.

21:45Appreciate it, man. Patrick Rogers has rejoined us. He's the editor of the Nashville scene. Patrick, do you have anything you want to say to the gentleman from NoCo? Well, it's exactly when did you guys open? Cause it's been about, I want to say about it. Is it two years at this point? Closely approaching a little over a year and a half. March 3rd, 2023. So we're 20 months old. Yeah. Wow. Have you ever let the pit go out or just burning continuously? It just, no, I don't think so, man. I don't, we just left the restaurant on our one day a week. We're closed. We just spent the last two hours continue. And how do we get better? What are we doing? What do you do there on your day off? You go there at day off. What are you guys doing? Cleaning? A little bit of everything. There's a little bit of cleaning, dreaming, game planning for the week, phone calls. We call every guest the next day to personally thank them. So some days on Monday we try to get out ahead of Tuesday cause Tuesday can be a long day. Call every guest. I thought I was special.

22:47I was like, man, he called me afterwards. This is amazing. Yeah. Every guest, every guest, how much time does that take? Hour to an hour and a half, depending on what day we're calling. Weekends tend to be longer Sundays or we're open for brunch and dinner. So that's, that's why Tuesdays are so arduous cause it's two full services. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Wow. Well, Patrick, you got anything else for these gentlemen? I just thank you for, uh, thank you for being, uh, I'm an East Sider, long time East Sider. I'm delighted to have NoCo over there. And yeah, the phone call thing is something really special. My girlfriend went and she asked me and she's like, do you know why they called me? Did you call them to call them? I'm like, I think that kind of, those kinds of folks. So I think that's a really special touch. Well, we appreciate, um, what you all do. It, it, you know, I think a lot of people not take for granted, but maybe forget what it takes to be noticed, to be considered the best restaurant. And it's not just us.

23:49It's not just our guests. It's not just our employees. It's the community. And you guys embody that to the fullest. So you're very kind. This is the time where you get to actually give your acceptance speech. The thing that you've just said is not what we do. Uh, but this, you know, I think this is a fun episode because who's going to go on there and say, let me say thank you to all my adoring fans. But when I ask you to, it's kind of one of those things that look, man, people are really excited about what you guys are doing. You guys are crushing it in every way. This is a passion. You've been recognized for your hard work. What do you want to say to all of the voters that voted you best restaurant? And you guys can both, we got, we got four minutes. You get two minutes each. The official accepted speech. Immensely grateful. Like thank you to you guys for everyone that voted. I mean, I'm just grateful. I'm just happy. Yeah, I've got, dude, I'm just happy as hell to be right here.

24:49If you've got four minutes, that's not enough time. Um, I'm not really sure that gratitude, being grateful, articulating how we really feel is quite possible. Honestly. Um, so I just think, thank you with infinite amount of exclamation marks. All caps and all caps. Thank you. All we did was type what somebody else said about you. You know, the votes came into you, you earned them all. Appreciate it. Yeah. And it's an open competition. It's not like other category, other, other best ofs where they list the restaurants you can vote for perhaps with their advertisers at the top of the list. They had everyone in Nashville to vote for. Yeah. So they had to come up with you. Well we have another 60 or 120 seconds because that was a quick one. I like it. You're like, thanks to the academy route. It's good stuff. Uh, what's next for noco. Is there a, is there a noco to come in? What do we got going on here? Noco. No, no more nocos.

25:54We are actually getting ready to open our second concept. Um, first week of December, right next to noco, uh, exactly what that is. I'm not at Liberty to say at the moment, but it is, is there a better place to break it than this is the time or scene editor, natural restaurant radio. If you're going to tell, if you're going to give it, this is the time. Who are you saving this for? Yeah. Well, we're not, we're very, very protective of, of a lot of things. Um, I will tell you this. It's 700 square feet. It is tiny. It is high touch. It is very intimate. Um, in the name of it is Kase. Kase. K-A-S-E. Yeah. And it is Asian and it is, it is, I'll tell you, it's fish forward. Is junior involved? Of course it is. Okay. Junior's involved. There's a rumor mill going on about what it is and we love it. Yeah. We're just kind of, we're grateful for that one.

26:56Well, when, when you first December, you guys got to come back, bring junior with you. Yeah, we got to get junior and junior and been in here yet. So come in and bring, bring junior back and let's talk about Kase. We'd love to. Oh, I'd love to be great. We, and we can quell all the rumors. Cool. We're gonna come in like on November 29th or November 30th and we'll be like, you're opening tomorrow. Here it is. Go. So Nashville's first all smelt restaurant. Yeah. It's a smelt restaurant. Damn it. Chris, you picked it. Shit. It's ruined. You just Googled Kase. What does this mean? All right, gentlemen, thank you so much for coming today. Congratulations. Best restaurant in Nashville by the readers of the Nashville scene. Best bar experience, best restaurant bar experience. You can do that at NoCo. They're on, you're in Eastland. Is it on Eastland? The little Eastland and Porter right there where it splits. Yeah. If you're wondering, it used to be Pomodoro East back in the day where NoCo now sits. Go visit them. You guys are open every night, except for Monday. Correct. And you're open on Sunday and just Sunday for Sunday for brunch, Sunday for brunch. Uh, thank you guys.

28:03We are going to jump in with our next guest. Beautiful. Thank you. Appreciate it. Guys rule. Hi, this is Matthew Clements, Robin's insurance agency. We care about ensuring the hospitality industry. We want to make sure that you're taken care of and that we take one less stressor off your plate so you can sleep well at night. At the end of the day, when you purchase an insurance policy, you're really purchasing peace of mind and we want to showcase that and how we operate within the hospitality space during the summer of giving by giving back to the giving kitchen. If you call today to ask for a quote, we will be sure to give $50 in your name to the giving kitchen. Just give me a call. Area code 863-409-9372. We specialize in ensuring the hospitality space. We want to be sure to give back. We look forward to hearing from you. Y'all get across the river safe. There he is. See how quick this happens. We just jump right in with Harant from, and every time I say this, I know I say it wrong. Harant. I want to say, uh, Lyra.

29:11Uh, Lyra. I knew I was going to say it wrong. Had a 50, 50 shot. I used to call it Lyra. That's Lyra. Best Mediterranean restaurant in Nashville. I was not going to let you fail, but you just jumped right into it with the wrong name. I, and I, I, I love his restaurant too. It's one of the best in the city. How you doing, man? We were really excited to, to get, uh, that win again. Thank you for joining us on short notice. We have Patrick Rogers and Chris Chamberlain from the scene here. Um, what is this? What does it, what does it mean to you? The win? Uh, I mean, you know, it's fantastic. I mean, I love that, uh, uh, you know, we won. I mean, it's, uh, nice to be recognized for all the hard work that, uh, my staff and I put into it. How long have y'all been open now? Uh, we been open about six and a half years now. So that has been six and a half years.

30:15I know it's just hard to imagine that. Wow. I feel like it has, I feel like it hasn't been six and a half years. Well, I mean, that is the sweet spot. That is, you know, you've reached maturity and you're not up against a lease, you know, and that's kind of the sweet spot for a restaurant right now where you can really pour some gasoline on it and, you know, think about your decisions for the future or decide to open another place. Uh, yeah, which we already have. So, yeah, I thought that was about the right time where, you know, you've got a staff in place. What do they say the second restaurant is the hardest one to open open? Then after that, it gets pretty easy because you have to have a staff in place that you trust to run the places while you're not there. Um, yeah, I'm so thankful that I have a great kitchen staff and a great front of the house staff at Lyra that, uh, I've really kind of taken it over. I mean, you know, the best restaurants really kind of on them, uh, cause they're the ones that have been doing all the hard work in it. One of which happened to be married too. So that helps.

31:19Well, yeah. How was Elizabeth doing? She's doing good. She's, uh, doing, uh, you know, all of her admin stuff today at the restaurant and, uh, yeah, she's doing fantastic. So how are you splitting yourself between the new place Vega and tell us a little bit about Vega, but, uh, how are you splitting your time between the two places? Uh, yeah. So right now Vega has kind of taken all my attention for the last couple of weeks. I mean, we're, what are we five weeks into being open now? So I've been there a lot. Uh, I'm hoping the next couple of weeks I'll be able to split my time a little more evenly, but, uh, like I said, right now that's, that's the new baby. So it's taking all of the focus. Um, but, you know, we're really excited that we were able to open it up. You know, we, um, did lunch at Lyra back in pandemic times, uh, which I absolutely loved doing. It was a really fun, you know, fun way to show off a different, you know, style of food that we, uh, you know, a little quick service kind of, um, food that we did at Lyra. And when, you know, after the pandemic and all the switching around to restaurants and, and, um, it just didn't work out very well for us.

32:46So we were really excited to be able to open up Vega, which is all focused on this kind of quick service, Middle Eastern, uh, you know, food, you know, it's a shawarma shop. So we're doing fresh chicken, beef shawarmas, uh, just still making all the fresh bread in-house. Everything is made in-house just like Lyra, just a little bit more casual and a little bit more quick. So, So am I the only person that's picked up that Vega is a star in the constellation Lyra? Uh, you know, not many people pick up on that. Honestly, I was kind of surprised. Uh, you know, a lot of people think we're a vegan restaurant, which we're not. So, Vegan shawarma would not be as much fun. Where is Vega? Vegan food though. Uh, where is Vega? Where is it located? Uh, yeah, it's, uh, in the Madison square, um, shopping center, where East Side Bowl is and, uh, shotgun Willie's and daddy's dollies just opened up. Nice. What kind of sandwich in between the two of them. So, It's a great spot. Have you been yet, Patrick?

33:50I haven't, but it's not far from my neck of the woods and I'm just really excited to see that little spot blossoming in Madison. Um, kind of started with East Side Bowl. And now, like you said, daddy's dogs, shotgun Willie's up there. You're up there. It's, it's certainly not what we had 10 years ago in that area. We had K-Mart and a Home Depot. So, Yeah. Is that where ML Rose is? Is that where ML Rose is too? Uh, no, they're going a little further in the Wood area. Yeah. Um, no, we, we love it over there. You know, it's, it's nice to kind of be in between East Nashville and Madison. Um, you know, I mean, right off Riley Parkway. So it's super easy to get to. So you're burnt, you're burning up Ellington right now, right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And my house is right in between the two restaurants. So it's perfect. Not far from me though. Yeah. I'm between the two as well over there. Yeah. Um, you know, it's, it's, uh, been really well received by people, East Nashville and the people of Madison.

34:58We're really excited to be able to offer another, you know, healthy tasty option of food that, uh, is in an area where there's not a lot of it right now. So, and Patrick tell the people that live on the mainland over here, where I am, how quickly you can get from downtown to Madison. Oh man. If you just, if, if it's a good day on Ellington, you can be there in no time, 12 minutes. I don't know something like that. I mean, I'm lucky now our, our office is relocated over here to center six one five on main street. And you know, I can hit Lyra on my way home and you know, four minutes to Lyra four minutes to my house. I'm, I'm having a great time over here. I've very seldom, since we moved out of the gulch, I very seldom go over in that direction. Apologies, Westsiders, but yeah. I just like to point out to people that you can get from downtown to Vega, for example, faster than you can get from downtown to Vanderbilt. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. And nobody thinks that way on this side of the river, but, uh, yeah, get out people, you know, the, our spot, we have the biggest parking lot I've ever seen for a restaurant. That's all free.

36:08So even better. I love it. So go ahead. I don't make it out as often as I'd like to. And I really want to go. If I told you 10 years ago that the best places in town to go eat would be in an old Kmart and an old Piggly Wiggly in East Nashville and North Nashville, what would you have said? I don't think I would have believed you, but I've seen a lot in Nashville. We're the old tire shop that came to the fire shop next to the old next to the cemetery. Yeah. Honestly, it has a long time East side. Or if you'd told me that I'd might say, I think that sounds about right. Yeah. So I'm just going to go ahead and nickname that place Tyra then. So we got Lyra and Tyra. I love it. So how are things going over at Lyra? You haven't been there in a little bit, but I mean, without you, how's it, how's that hanging?

37:13Things are going great. I mean, I've got a fantastic chef. Danny is running the kitchen there for me and you know, didn't he didn't really know much Middle Eastern food before he took the job and is really, you know, poured himself into it and has come up with some awesome dishes and great flavors. I think he's really continuing the idea of what you know, was started when I was more hands on in the kitchen. And it's been wonderful. I mean, you know, like I said six and a half years in which it's hard to believe that we made it through everything and you know, still going strong. Is it easy? Is it, is it difficult when you go back in there? I'm, I'm spending 99% of my time at Chagos right now doing a similar, probably a similar thing you're doing at Vega. I'm just really in there focusing on this, this new baby. It's not quite as new, but I was at Maribol this morning and I was like, it's still standing and I haven't been in here in a week.

38:17Like when you walk back into Lyra, how does it feel being out of the building for a little while? You know, it's a, I mean, being a Vega is awesome for sure. It's a brand new space, all brand new equipment, not been used and abused for six years. So it feels good in there. But Lyra does just kind of feels comfortable if it feels like home. I mean, I worked in that space when it was Holland house before we took it over as Lyra. So I've been in that building for, I don't know, probably about 10 years in total and it just feels comfortable. It feels like a home. Well, I know this was kind of last minute to have you join us here today and I just want to say thank you and congratulations. This is the official acceptance speech episode. So this is the time if you would like to give an official acceptance speech, this, this is, you're talking to the readers of the Nashville scene and anybody who's listening. Mike is yours.

39:23Awesome. Well, I, I appreciate that. I didn't really have a lot of time to think of anything. This was like 10 minutes ago. Yeah. But you know, I mean, I would just like to say, you know, thank you to all of Nashville, you know, for supporting us over these years. I mean, we wouldn't have survived or wasn't for our neighborhoods that came out and, you know, made sure we were still going strong through the pandemic. And, you know, after that, it's, it's still Nashville and the neighborhood that really support us and really keep us going. And, you know, I love seeing all the familiar faces week after week in there. And, you know, all the friends that I've been able to make through, you know, just meeting our guests in the restaurant. That's great. And Patrick, before Hrant goes, you might want to remind the listeners of another major award, a competition that Hrant won a couple of years ago, sponsored by the scene because that's another feather in your cap that lasts forever.

40:32Iron fork. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That was, that was a really fun event. You know, I know people kind of looked at us like we had something to do with the winning ingredients, but we absolutely didn't. I was excited. Yeah. But that was, that was an absolute blast. I love doing it and I love competing again, you know, this past year. And I'm so happy that Chef Julio won it this year because it's just a great way to, you know, get some exposure for a new restaurant. I don't know if, if, if the Mediterranean king wins with chickpeas and the mole king wins with cacao, we might have to think twice about these secret ingredients going forward. I mean, I saw Julio's eyes light up when we said the secret ingredient this past year. I was like, I think he's got a little bit of an edge here. No, those are, those are a blast and we're going to do it again next year in April. And I think we're going to go even bigger this year.

41:33And it's always a really fun thing to do. And sometimes they have me and or Chris out there emceeing and just running around and getting a few spare bites of those, uh, winning dishes, which always is fun. So thank you for coming out to do that, Ron. It's always fun to have you at those. Oh, we love doing it. And, uh, you know, I'd love to do it again if I have the chance. Where do you keep the trophy? Uh, well, I had to give the trophy back. Oh really? It's not, it's a rotator. We rotate the trophy. And as you know, Ron, that thing weighs like 90 pounds and it's heavy every year. I have to prep the winner before we hand it over because otherwise, yeah, you know, I had a guy try to buy that off of me during the competition one year, an attendee, he was like, how much trophy? And I was like, I don't think I can do that. You have to earn it, sir. Well, I didn't see it. I didn't see it in Julio's new restaurant. So I'm going to have to go bust his chops about that and say that needs to be proudly displayed. Oh yeah. Yeah. I used to keep them right next to the expo window.

42:36So every time it would be expo and you'd just be staring back at me. We have the, uh, at Maribor, we have the soup Sunday trophy for best soup. We have to give that back, I guess, from next time. And that's the only thing we've ever won. So I'm just, just really proud. I have a feeling like Julio might be on this show next year when it comes to best new restaurant. Yeah, it's a possibility. Yeah. Ron, thank you so much. Really cool stuff over there. Yeah. Thank you guys. And, uh, I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you guys. And I keep teasing, like we've got to have you in here to do a full show and like, I want to do the whole thing and get into deep. We don't have like 10 minutes to talk, but we should definitely do it. Yeah. Sounds good. Love it, man. We set something up for that. Congratulations on the win and no, we'll talk to you again soon. Cool. Thanks guys. Well, he's amazing. I, I love them. They're just an amazing couple. They are, uh, Liz have known forever and she was at Lachlan table for a really long time and ran their bar program. She's, uh, they're just an awesome couple.

43:40I mean, they were, they worked with Deb Paquette. I mean, Liz was the front front of house and I think our guests are almost cooking in the kitchen. So at what chefs want, they deliver the seven most needed product lines to meet the unique needs of chefs and restaurateurs from local to global and from staple items to gourmet rarities. They have the variety of products to cover all of your needs produce, seafood, meats, gourmet staples to go and dairy at what chefs want. They're transforming food service by eliminating minimum orders, offering split cases and providing daily deliveries with 24 seven customer support. This means chefs have the flexibility to order what they need when they need it, experiment with new ingredients and keep their kitchens consistently stocked with fresh supplies. It's all about empowering culinary creativity while streamlining operations.

44:41Check them out at what chefs want.com or give them a call at 800-600-8510. Yeah, this is how it works here at restaurant radio, national restaurant radio. We just open the door and we invite our friends in. I didn't know if somebody was already in here recording. So, so just grab the headphones, put them on and just get to see as we do a transition here, a set change. While we're doing that, um, we should probably point out that you say you never win any awards, but Chago won this year. Oh, yes. We, uh, well, you know, it's funny because it's not that we never win any awards. The big ones like the Nashville scene, I think iron forks, a big one. We have never really had like an executive chef to do that. Uh, soup Sunday was pretty cool. We, um, yeah, we were talking about this episode and I was like, Ooh, I gotta do some research. The episode came out. I didn't even busy as hell. So I finally came over here to the studio and I was sitting in that chair over there and I'm scrolling, I'm looking in the computer and I'm looking at the writer's picks and I'm looking over the whole thing and the very, the very end, uh, we, we got a nom, we got a, um, best revival of a local staple Chagos.

45:56And I was, I was floored, you know, it just, I think when you spend as much time inside of the four walls of a building and you spend as many hours planning and sitting and talking about, do you think this will work? Do you think, what will the guests like, how do we agree to be a great member of the community? And then when you purchase a place like that and it already has a name and you make the decision to keep that name because of what it is for the community. And you take your ego completely out of it that you want to call it Brandon's bar and grill, but no, we're going to keep this name and we're going to, we wanted to really be a bastion for that. And, and it, I would tell you it, uh, it was, it was, it felt good seeing that. It was like, wow, somebody recognized, somebody saw that and it was, um, it was emotional. It was, it was a really nice moment. So thank you. Um, I mean, that's the value of the writer's picks, right, Patrick? I mean, you get a chance to come up with something like that. Yes. And, um, so that was, it was really special to have that. So congratulations. Thank you. So I think Brandon, what, what's the gentleman's name that, uh, I don't have it written down who was the writer you probably have right here, but we are now joined in studio, um, with a couple of other restaurant owners, Andrew Perot. And is, and is your last name pro too? Is it?

47:13Yes, it is. Perot. Yeah, she kept it. And I have three sons with that name. I had to keep it. I think so. They're the owners of the villager tavern, which is a perennial best dart bar in the Nashville scene. Right. As long as I can remember going on 30 years, we've won that award. Probably so. And we want a writer's pick one time too. We won for best jukebox. And actually it was, we had a big, the girl came in with her like one year that she dressed up like the prom queen and she's like, you know, like pitiful weird look on her face. And she took a picture in front of the jukebox cause we have an original CD jukebox. We do not have the electronic. We have just held on to it. I love the villager. I tell people in the day, like my favorite, I've been going to the villages since 1997 illegally. And maybe I had a really good fake ID. It's amazing how many people actually tell you that.

48:14Your dad gave me that beer. You know, I didn't, I think my 21st birthday I drank out of the dog bowl is kind of like, Oh, don't tell them. I actually hired someone that used to come in before she was a Belmont student. And she said, you know, when you'd have a party and I'd have an ID with a different name on it, you'd call out, I won something. And she's like, I didn't remember. It was my name. It was my name on the ID. Well, I think that for a place that Hillsborough village, I used to live in the condos on Belcourt right behind, it used to be in the Sam's parking lot, like right behind like the Belcourt taps was. And I thought Hillsborough village was the most special place in the entire city. I loved Jackson's. I got my rehearsal dinner was at sunset grill, all of the places Fido just Bosco's back in the day, Sam's and the villager was such an amazing part of that. I feel like that's where the locals used to hang out. The Hillsborough village was where you go downtown if you're a tourist, but Hillsborough village, that's where all the chefs would be after they get off work on the patio at Jackson's or playing darts at the villager. I have a, the night that I proposed to my wife, which was October the 17th, 2004.

49:28I don't know how I came up with that just now off the top of my head. I had a dart tournament. We had dinner at Ruth's Chris. And then I was the, I was a manager at Amerigo. We had the Amerigo round team. Yeah. We went after we got engaged, we went to the villager and played darts because that's what you did. Yeah. And thank you guys for being around this long. I just have so many amazing memories of what it is. I remember the Amerigo team very much so. And then y'all grouped at one time, y'all actually played with another restaurant. I'm trying to think of what the name of it was, but like two restaurants combined. We played with the Ruth's Chris team a lot too, because we really liked them. They were, they were a whole other team. Yeah, maybe that was it. But the late night league was great. Do you guys still do that? We have actually at the moment after COVID, I stopped doing the late night league because the service industry crowd isn't around the village anymore. It's all day time. Our village has basically turned into a daytime eatery and clothing and gift shop. You know, we don't have, we're like the only late night. Yeah, we're, we're open till three, but, but that's about it.

50:34Fido just started opening again till 8 PM and then the sports bar down the streets open till a double dog is open till 10, sometimes 11. Yeah, we used to be the late night. People would get off, you know, they would get off at one 30. Yeah, they would get off and they would come, they would cut you after, you know, getting off of a, you know, out of Jackson's or out of sunset grill or sportsman's grill or a host of these places. But those places are all gone now. And the village has been since the gentrification has been transformed into this, what I call the B and B district, you know, boutiques and brunch and there are Airbnb is there too. So, but we just, we keep doing it. We're just, I technically close at two 30. I mean I can serve till three if we want to, but you know, there's no, I never want to change it because I don't want people to think the villagers closed early. Andrew wanted to open earlier and he's like, Oh, let's open early and get the lunch card. I'm like, no, we are the late night crowd. I won that argument. We open earlier. Early on the weekend. Hey guys, I've got, I've got Patrick Rogers on.

51:38Do you want to say anything to Ann and Andrew? Well big fan of your establishment and you know, I think there's a great argument to be made that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. That's true. I've been doing it great. You know, it's, it's, it's my spot. When I go to see a movie, I pop in, pop in and have a beer before or after. Just grateful for you guys still hanging around. I have to dip out. I wanted to say thanks to everybody for having me for talking best stuff for this episode. Yeah, it's been another great year. 36. Let's do it. 36 more. Thanks Patrick. Thanks for joining us. All right guys. Thank you. So you guys really trained a lot of Nashvilleians too. I think that's great. We probably, we probably taught more people to play darts at the villager historically than possibly any business ever. It's possible. We actually received an award from the greater Nashville dart association. They gave us a, an award that because we had, we had a historic business award because we have been such a, a positive influence on darts in the city. And the other thing that you taught Nashville diners in the eighties, nineties, thousand, two thousands was it is possible to go enjoy yourself for an evening in an establishment without a parking lot.

52:50Well, yeah, the greatest weapon I have is when they call and they go, where do we, where do we park? And I said, I have a, I have free parking all the way up and down the street. Cause you know, cause we're, we're going to be busy after rush hour when that would parking wouldn't be there. And it's always, they always get tickled by that. They're always just like, Oh, cause everything else is paid parking now. I remember when people would ask me like, I can't believe Pat Martin opened that big restaurant down on fourth Avenue with no parking. I'm like, Oh, where's the parking lot for Roteers and the villager. Yeah. And that just kind of trained people like, Oh, we, we can get to a bar without parking. Great idea. If we were, if we were a music venue, that would be a different issue. That's the only time I've ever been told that that's, you have to have a parking lot is if you're a music venue. Well, for years we had parking down Belcourt and then we had so many Vandy employees parking on Belcourt. That's when they put meters on Belcourt because that would kept them from parking all day on Belcourt. But of course our, our patrons have to pay for parking on Belcourt, but 21st Avenue.

53:56That's true is all the way open. And it's the hospital thoroughfare. So like there'll never be any type of parade coming down edge or anything like that. It'll always be there. And you've got a bus stop near your restaurant. I mean, come on. We do. And a crosswalk. People, people sleep on the food at the villager to talk a little bit about that program. Well we have our roast beef pull boy that we've had forever and ever. And then after, after COVID, well in order to open with COVID we started serving gumbo, a chicken on Dewey gumbo. Yeah. And so then the sandwich one, gosh, sandwich used to be one best sandwich in town. Like we have, we have, you know, because the West side is a little different. We don't feel like, or like that neighborhood is different as far as like people really kind of taking note in the cultural sense. But like back in the day, the sandwich one best sandwich in town, seven times runner up four. Well that was before Nashville had any food. You know, I hate to say that.

54:56I'm from New Orleans, so I can say that when I got here, yeah, it was, it was a desert. How long have you owned the villager? Since 91, February 1st, 1991. And then that was with my ex-husband. We bought it. We had, yeah, it was, it was a, it was a jump. It was a leap of faith. It was a very big leap of faith. We had just purchased a home. We had Toby, Andrew's a twin. So we had just had twin sons and then we had an older son and you know, so we were hooked up to, you know, the top of our head, but, um, hard work. So I know that those three, four buildings that connect to each other to be Hillsborough village on that side, that the ownership's a little weird in that is Vanderbilt your landlord. No, actually the villager spot was the very first building on 21st and then everything else was built next to me. Actually, we bought our building. We bought our little, a little piece of the pie.

55:57That is the best news I've heard. Best news I've heard all year because once you have control of that, that was the only way we could really good for y'all that I felt comfortable with my, my boys coming in and making this their life too. Yeah. The wholesomeness tied into us and the ownership at the time through the years has really, really paid off. We had leased it from the family that owned it for the whole 31 years, 32 years. Is there a dad vow that it would always be what it is? And we were like, we're cool with that. It was in the actual lease that it had to be a bar. It could be nothing else. Really? Yeah. Had to be. It was, it was a political jab towards somebody. Well, I don't know that we need to get it, but it's, it is a historic site that was that as it was at one time, the front entrance of what was the Hillsborough theater, which is now the Belcourt theater. That's why it says Hillsborough on the front of it. So you said ownership. So yes, it's, we own our little piece. And then the Davidsons, Davis is three spots.

56:59They own Molly green and then they own four spots, four spots. So book man and book woman, what was the bookstore that was there forever? They owned half of what that story was, Rebecca James, where Rebecca James is. No, that, yeah. The, well, the original owners of book man, book woman do. And so everything from Rebecca James to us, and then the one store on the other side of us, that's the Davidsons. The only thing Vandy owns is the bank, I believe. Okay. Cause I knew they had part of the building farther south for a while. Well, the biggest thing was that they, uh, they did make that acquisition to buy Vanderbilt. I'm not by vendor, sportsman's grill turned into Vanderbilt and they were going to turn that into an office building. And then they decided not to, they put central barbecue there, which closed. So we lost more sportsmen. I would say once the, once the BAPCO lease comes up, possibly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well that, that was when, you know, we were always afraid the bell court would want to take us again. And, and they had requested that they had tried with the owner to buy us and have an entrance on 21st. But they said, no, you are the, you are the lobby. You're already the lobby of bell.

58:14Well, what Patrick was saying earlier, when he said, when I go to bell court, when I see people that I see like every once in a while, that I know and I've known for years, but I don't see them like regularly. I know it's like, you're going to go see a movie, aren't you? And they're like, yeah, how'd you know? I'm like, yeah, you know, it's amazing. I'm a soothsayer. So we have like one minute left and, um, I do want to give you a shout because not only do you run, own this bar in Nashville, this great dark bar, you're entering in my world now. I am. Yes. Me and my friend, Brennan sharp, or I guess soon to be business partner, I guess we're, we're, but we've become best friends. I really like Brennan. You know, we're, I love Brennan. He's fantastic. The best dude, man. And I like, I like his optimism. Like I'm, I'm a workaholic. I don't like rec resting, but I like the fact. So it's hard to be optimistic when you're like that. So having someone around you who always bleeds that optimism in is really effective for me. And yes, we're, we're, we just, we actually just shot the pilot for the, for the brand new villager people podcast. The villager people podcast. Yeah. Tell us about the podcast real quick.

59:17We just want to feed. We want to feature the customers. I mean, we will, you know, that's what my dad used to always tell people, I don't own the bar. They do. The bar is definitely the neighborhood. Yeah, for sure. And yeah, so we did it. We did a pilot with a long time regular who was actually, it was his idea to for me to create one. And then I met Brennan. We were able to, and a hardcore regular who also played in dart league, who was in from out of town. And I just looked at her and said, do you want it to be on a podcast? Probably must have been in the wildest thing she'd ever been asked thinking she was going to get to a podcast while she was out of town. And we, we, we shot the pilot and we're like, well, let's see what happens. You know, let's keep kids, keep doing it. That's the plan. So look out for villager people guys. I got to kick you out. We've got our next guest in the green room right now about to hop in and thank you. It was a pleasure to see you again. I never really get nice to meet seeing you a million times in the village or just probably say and talk to you just didn't ever was like, Hey, I have a big party this Saturday. Yeah. Our Halloween party is the 26th. I mean, you got to, don't you have something? Yeah.

01:00:21There's a Saturday. There's a couple. I have to do so much rat racing and policing over at the bar. I'm like, man, I really wish I could just get away and do it, but maybe, maybe I can, maybe I'll stop by. All right. Again, thank you guys so much for being here and we will, I'll see you all the time. Yeah. See you soon. Are you looking to grow your business or are you looking to start a business? Finding a retail spot is number one. You got to do this and that is why we're talking about the Chandler James retail team at Lee and associates. Miller Chandler and Leanne James are your go to brokers to do just that. They're located downtown in the heart of it all and the Batman building and they're serving all of middle Tennessee. Let me tell you, both Miller and Leanne are Tennessee native. So, you know, they know the neighborhoods, they know, they know the demographics and they can help you find your dream location. Now here's the cool part. Chandler James can help you find and negotiate terms on your next restaurant location. They represent both retail tenants and landlords in our market, which means they can also help you with lease versus buy decisions and act as your leasing agent.

01:01:32Should you ever decide to go all in and purchase commercial real estate? If you'd like to get ahold of them, give them a call at the office. Their phone number is 615-751-2340. That is the Chandler James retail team. Give them a call today. There we go. Hi. Now I can hear. Hey, can you hear us? Okay. Ah, we can hear you. Okay. Sorry. This gets a little bit crazy when you have seven interviews and a two hour time and everybody's coming in live, some live, some virtual. We are joined with a couple more Nashville scene, best of Nashville winners. The man sitting next to me over here is the writer who picked this, right? It's not bad to come into town, not even be here a year. And suddenly you're in the best of issue. So yeah, you've earned it. It definitely feels really good. Thanks so much. What an honor. We have chefs, Tiffany Ortiz and Andy Dubrava. Did I say that right?

01:02:33Wow. Like, look at this. They are with the brand new version of the catbird seat. Well, it's always a brand new version because they go through chefs intentionally and incubator method a hundred percent, but y'all are still in the old catbird seat. Correct? Yep. Yeah, we certainly are. You might be hearing it in the background. Sorry about that. We're literally in the catbird seat right now. So the good, no, we've been cooking here for a month now. And the new space is under construction. We get little updates here and there, but for the most part, we've set up camp here and kind of made it our home and have been executing dinners in the old space. So what's that like operating in one space while you're building another? I mean, are you taking ideas from what you're experiencing in this space and like, Oh hell no, it's not going to be this way in the new place. Or man, I never thought about putting one of these in this corner.

01:03:38Are you helping with the design aspect of that? I think we're always thinking about that. We've spent the last couple of years traveling around and cooking at all different types of restaurants. So we definitely have lists of, you know, things that we like and things that we don't like. Yeah, for sure. I mean, Josh Habegger our boss and close friend he is, you know, obviously partner in the restaurant group and is kind of streamlining all of the kitchen planning and stuff. And every once in a while he'll he'll run some plans past us for kitchen equipment or something like that. So we still feel very much a part of it, but our focus is definitely, uh, doing, you know, our kinds of food here in the cappered seat that we have been lucky enough to be in while we wait. Like more storage. I mean, you've seen space. You've seen the space. It is very tight, but we both worked in kitchens in New York city and it's not much different. Well that, and you lived out of a van, right? I mean, come on. Didn't you travel to go, what were you, what was your vehicle when you traveled to country?

01:04:42We have our Subaru and we brought a little five by a cargo trailer that had all of our ingredients and our equipment in it. And, um, yeah, that was tight as well. Yeah, it certainly was packing. That thing is something I don't miss from the tour. Probably shaved a few years off of my life. Um, everything was always logged and tagged in on a specific shelf, but yeah, very tight space. And we were lucky enough that we had restaurants that would host us in each city and we'd be able to prep out of there and set up camp and, you know, get some nice big Airbnb's for us and the dogs in the short term. Well, and that's why I think you're so well prepared to be in a place that's so precise and thoughtfully laid out as old cat bird and new cat bird. I think you guys are the perfect folks to, to step in at this transition. Thanks for saying so. So best new addition to the chef community, best new additions. This is a plural best new additions to the chef community. What has it been like so far for you entering the chef community?

01:05:46Have you experienced the chef community? Have you gone around and met a bunch of people or you guys just head down, making it happen and just what is your experience like in Nashville so far? Yeah, we've, we've cooked at several different restaurants around town. We've done dinners at Audrey and June butchering bee. We've met a lot of fast friends in the, in the chef community. Everyone out here seems like they're really wanting what's best for each other, which is a really good feeling and made it a lot easier for us to acclimate down here. Yeah, I think that's what we're craving so much after being on the road for two years. Not that we don't love spending time with each other, but it can be a little bit isolating and, and to be able to be in a place to call home and to feel like there's a community of people waiting for us and rooting for us is definitely a huge reason why we decided to come on board with strategic and cat bird, and especially cause we've done some guest chef dinners with Baxter previously in the space too. So we also got to know some of the team that we inherited and a lot of the folks in strategic, like Max, Ben, Josh, you know, Jordan, Camille, Jenny, all of them.

01:06:55And you introduced yourself to the community with a zine. I mean, they have, they have a comic book basically that tells their story. And I think that's just so awesome. I mean, that's what, what kind of calling card could you leave that would be better than that? Yeah, I mean, uh, kind of funny to say on a radio show, but we don't really like talking about ourselves. It's, it's not something we're a hundred percent comfortable with. Definitely have a bit of imposter syndrome, but people always wanted to know more about our food and more about where we came from and how we met and things like that. And we thought it would just be a lot easier to digest through illustration. Um, we're a couple of weirdos and we have a weirdo friend who does really amazing work. And, uh, we were just like, Hey, can you take all of these words and just turn them into pretty pictures? And you know, uh, it ended up working out and we're working on more to come to. Yeah. We actually just ordered our second printing. Yeah. Excellent. That's so cool. So I'm curious, because I, I had your food a little bit at the tasting, the Tennessee tasting, which was for the giving kitchen.

01:08:03Thank you guys so much for coming out and just kind of giving us a preview of a little bit of something that you guys are going to be doing. I will say though, most chefs that I talked to, we have an executive chef and a sous chef, these to be co chefs in the building, are there individual specialties that you both have? How is it working together like that? How is that dynamic? I mean, we both definitely have different skill sets that we have found over the last few years working together, uh, to be very complimentary. So in a lot of ways it makes our job a lot easier. Um, yeah, I mean, we both shared duties as much as possible. Yeah. I mean, um, a friend once told us when two people in any partnership, whether it be relationships or business, when two people agree all the time, then that means one person is not needed. And so sometimes we do have differences of opinion. Um, and other times our skill sets are just very complimentary.

01:09:07It's like with any co chef team, whether it be sous chefs or line cooks or anything like that, our big thing is we like to make decisions for the restaurant as a group, not just Andy and I, so everything is still through the scope of what we want the concept to be and how we want the space to feel and what the experience is going to be like and what the food's going to taste like, but it takes more than two people to execute that vision. We call that healthy conflict in our company. There we go. I mean, it's a serious thing. Like when we trust each other, that our number one goal is to make every guest or a peak guest in that we know that we trust I'm doing this because this is what I think is best for the guest. Then you should, if you have a meeting and it's an easy meeting, when you get out of it, like something's wrong, like we should have passionate debate. You should kind of go, I don't think that, or I do think that, and then talk it out and not be a personal thing. I love that. Otherwise, this could have just been an email, right? Otherwise, this could have just been an email. Could have just been an email. Yeah. We have, we have meetings and we have pre shifts literally every day and it's usually notes from the previous service or notes about things we want to put on the menu and then we floor, we floor it to the team if anybody wants to add anything or have a moment to speak to the group, it's just very communal when it comes to making decisions around here at the restaurant.

01:10:29So was it a conscious choice to go somewhere where it was such individualized service? I mean, I don't like to use the word show restaurant, but I mean, you are presenting every dish face to face individually to each diner. Was that a decision so that you could further explain your philosophies of seasonality and food use, you know, not lack of food wastage. I mean, the chance to not just present it on the plate, but also talk to people about it. I think that it definitely had something to do with it. I know that we are always really interested in trying new things and this is a kind of restaurant that Tiff and I have never, never worked at before. Like she was saying earlier, we've cooked here several times doing guest chef dinners with Baxter, but actually running a restaurant like this is something totally new to us and it's very stressful and very exciting and very rewarding.

01:11:34But yeah, I don't think that we didn't seek it out necessarily. Yeah, I mean, it was a very, very good fit, I will say, because during the tour, again, it was predominantly Andy and I, and we would outsource labor within the restaurants we were taking over around the country or in Canada, wherever we were cooking. And so a lot of the times we would be our own front of house, so it would be easier to work in an open kitchen, similar to Catbird's seat, maybe on a different spectrum because we're in different cities and in different spaces and stuff like that. But there was still always a connection between the guest experience and us and relying on our delivery, trying to empower people with information as they ask for it, but also not rubbing it in their faces or anything like that if they truly just want to sit down and enjoy a meal without any interruption. So coming to the Catbird seat to do those guest chef dinners was really helpful because it seemed very on point and very on brand for what we were at the time, except now that we're in the Catbird seat, we get to do exactly what we did on tour, but with the support of others, which is really, really helpful.

01:12:46Yeah, I will say also that running a tasting menu restaurant makes it a little bit easier for us to mitigate waste when we know exactly what we need for the week. You know, our goal is to serve 40 people a night. The old thing that we used to say is if we're serving 40 people, we need 40 potatoes and nothing's going to go to waste. So in that way, it's a different way to think about cooking and a different way to think about preparing the menu. But from a food waste standpoint, it gives us a lot more control. Well, and that's, that was a big part of why I wanted to give you all that writer's choice award was because I felt that, you know, people like you, if your personality and your passion was hidden, hidden behind the past, that would be a real waste. And the fact that you've come in and introduced yourself to this community, and I think people are going to get to meet you and that's the best part of it. You know, if you were just doing tweezer work in the kitchen, they wouldn't know what awesome people you all are.

01:13:49So congratulations on that. And I was very proud to be able to recognize you guys. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We're so honored to have you guys here. And I'd love again to have you guys in, in studio and delve deep into a lot of the things that you guys are doing. And thanks again, we were doing acceptance speeches here. So there is a final thing that we do is you get to actually give your acceptance speech for your best of Nashville award. And don't worry, we'll play him, we'll play, we'll play you off after a minute if it goes too long. So don't feel like you got to go on and on and on. So we'll turn up the orchestra. But we'll make this quick since there's two of us, we definitely want to thank strategic hospitality as a whole. Like we mentioned before, Max, Ben, Josh, Jenny, Camille, Jordan, Josh's wife, Lauren, played a huge role in helping us in the beginning days. Our friend Dustin is here prepping for a pop-up. He was really integral in setting us up with a community base and kind of, you know, feeling like we had family waiting for us in Nashville.

01:14:56Some of the restaurants we worked at as well have really amazing chefs that we were super grateful to work with. Yeah, Sean Brock, Collin Shane, Sam Jett from the Audrey June team really, whenever we needed anything, they were doing everything they could to help us. Chris and everybody over at Butcher and B, we were down in Nashville cooking last year and, you know, they helped set us up with a house and kind of showed us around town, introduced us to a lot of farmers. We'll be Alex over at Bad Idea, pretty much our favorite restaurant in Nashville. Matt and Erica, two of our team members here that moved across the country to work here with us. Wow. Huge, huge, took a big risk in coming out here and working with us. And Bill and Leanne from Bear Creek, some of the best beef and pork that I've ever worked with, ever. Um, it's just, we're, we're really fortunate to have met a lot of really great people in a short amount of time.

01:16:00I mean, to be able to get in good with Bill and Leanne after being in town for just a little while, that speaks volumes as to what kind of people you are. What part of the cow has she, what part of the cow has she set aside for you? Cause I think we have a half of a cow. That is literally how you get your meat from Bear Creek. You either get all the tri-tips like Matt Bolas, you get all the ribeyes like Sean Brock, or you order a half a cow. And then you get half of the cow. Well, and also they will utilize every bit of half of the cow. So that's the other beautiful part. It is a beautiful part. Well, you've seen our kitchen, uh, she's holding on to the cow for us. We're just getting it in pieces. Tiffany and Andy, thank you guys so much for joining us today and congratulations. We're so excited to see what comes out of everything that you're bringing to our town and we're honored to have you here. Uh, thank you for being amazing. New additions to the chef community. Thank you. Thank you for having us. All right. We all have a great week. Bye y'all.

01:17:06You can see why I wanted to give them that award. I mean, they're just really special people that have made Nashville a better place, just like that, that quick. There is something that I don't know what it is, but Benjamin Max and Josh over strategic. They just find these people that are, I, they're amazing. I haven't met anybody in their organization that I'm like, eh, like everybody that I meet with strategic is just like you, Julia Sullivan, Brian Baxter, and it builds on itself. I mean, when, when you become the place that hires those people, you become the place that those kinds of people want to work at. It's incredible. I, there's, they're just amazing. That whole company. I mean, it boils down to don't be an asshole and people that are good will want to work for you. Yeah. And, and Jordan Farrell shout out to Jordan. Farrell, do you know Jordan? Uh, yeah, of course you know, Jordan. Yeah. What are you talking about? And I don't think none of the nicest people I've ever met in my life. I just, the sweetest help helpful.

01:18:08I mean, everybody, and then there you find people like them and then you come on and you're like, of, of course you're like the greatest addition to the chef community because, uh, and then over at kisser too, I mean, Lee and Brian, I mean, will we have Trevor if it wasn't for, no, well, that was the, that was the, the story is, you know, Trevor was just in town and Josh was like, Hey, come cook with me for the day. And then he was kind of like, Hey, I want to go to the thing. Do you want to, do you want to do this? And you'd be the next version of it. Right. I mean, that's what he told me. Yeah. And then, uh, and then he was like, yeah, let's do it. And then Max and Ben put together 120 page folder, promising all the things that he could do if he got a work visa and that's what it took. That's what it took. I think that the story of the catbird seat, Josh's story of the catbird seat, where he says I was making food or was making drinks. He was the general manager of the Patterson house. He's making drinks, the Patterson house. And he would set the drink in front of somebody and he would watch what they did with the drink. And if they took the garnish off, they took a picture.

01:19:09If they took a drink of whatever they did, he goes, when I'm in a kitchen, I make these food, I spin it in the window and then it disappears. I never see it again. So I don't know how people consumed it. Here's what these drinks, I could see how they consumed it. And I could get a little bit better every single time I made one based around how people consumed it. And what if you could do that with food? What if I could put food right in front of you and watch how you consume it and then evolve every single serving that to get better. And I was like, that's pretty cool. Yeah. It's a little creepy having somebody watch you eat, but you know what? I think it's even weird that the cooler side of this whole thing, not that I'm just fawning all over strategic. Cause I really liked these guys, but he said, everybody had told that idea to, or like, you'll never make money doing it. You never make money. He was, and I told max one day this idea and he goes, we'll do it. We'll put it upstairs. Let's do it. Do we have this business? Let's go. Well, I mean, he'd already worked for grand packets at Elenia or Elenia. And, uh, when he came to work at Patterson house with, with, uh, the guys from violet hour as a consultant, Max and Ben didn't know he cooked.

01:20:14He worked there for, as a bar manager for months and they like, well, I cooked too, you know, a little bit, you know, just a bunch of James Beard finalists. That's all. I mean, why not? So let's build something upstairs. That's out of control. We've got, uh, I'm, I'm checking in on, uh, Edgar Victoria right now. You can jump on right now. You can jump on this chat. I know that, uh, party on forever. Andy over at, uh, bedlet bird club has, is trying to get the chat going. He's watching. He wants people there by the time he comes on. He wants this thing to be rocking and rolling by the time he comes on. Exactly. Well, and you know, while you're doing what you're doing there, um, to continue the story about Josh, both, both the folks from, uh, you know, Andy and Tiffany and Edgar have done pop-ups at bastion and that's a, that's a service that a restaurant like bastion doesn't have to do, they don't need to attract more people in, they can keep their books full, but they make it a point to how can we lift up somebody new and sure enough, they might end up being part of the restaurant group later, or if nothing else, they're going to create another great restaurant in Nashville.

01:21:23And that's kind of where Edgar, not only did people discover Edgar for the first time when they ate on the sidewalk outside of bastion, you know, with his taco takeout, but that's also where Edgar discovered, Oh, I can do so much more than sitting in a truck and just slinging tacos through a window. Well, you know, he was Alex Ballew's sous chef at Dallas and Jane out of Murfreesboro and Murfreesboro when, when Alex Ballew, who won hell's kitchen season 21 had his restaurant at Murfreesboro Dallas and Jane, Edgar Victoria was his sous chef and then when the pandemic hit and all these things happened, he was like, Hey, and he was a great chef of his own, but then he started doing these pop-ups. That's when I learned at the first pop-up I went to was when he was at the Southern doing an alabri pop-up and I took my wife and I was like, I don't know what to expect. This is one of these pandemic pop-ups that are just kind of happening. And I was absolutely floored. It was one of the greatest meals I've ever eaten in my life.

01:22:24What he did, the flavors that he had in the presentation of the food was better than anything I'd seen in a really long time. But you know what? I was really starving for something, something to do because that nothing was really happening yet. Well, and when you consider somebody that doesn't have his own restaurant yet, though read the scene last week and you'll hear where he will have a restaurant soon, you're not, you're going to bury that lead. It's in, it's already on bites, put it up on Friday. Well, you gave it, so he won two best of Nashville's. That's what I was going to say for someone that doesn't, that cooks out of never never and bar sovereign and cooked at the stadium and shows up, pops up at at the pool at drift and pops up at farmer's markets. It's a fixture that he's got a truck at the drift, right? Um, well, the pool's closed now. Oh, yeah. So that's seasonal. And so when you think about someone that is doing that kind of cooking that wins best chef in a restaurant town, like Nashville, and that was reader's poll, best chef, reader's poll over second place.

01:23:34Sean Brock, third place, Jake Howlett Peninsula. I mean, that is really an accomplishment and I hope he does come on. Cause I want to find out how he got the word out. I'm going to tell you, but regardless, it's, it's, it impressed me. I did not know that he was going to win best chef when I gave him the the writer's choice award that I gave him. He's so funny. I want to, he might get mad at me for doing this, but I'm going to do it anyway. When I messaged him and I said, Hey man, I'd love to have you on the show. He said, yo, love to do it. Can you send me an invite or maybe just text me Monday, like an hour prior to it. And I was like, yeah, man, of course I can do all of that. You know? So I sent it, I texted him the link to it and then he texts me back. Thanks, man. Hey, I'm not really that needy. I'm just busy as fuck currently. LOL. I was like that, that, that tracks. Like, is he's like, dude, I'm not like that. I'm not like that. I'm just, I'm slam. So I understand he's probably in the middle of one of those places right now, just going to town.

01:24:37That, and he is about to open the brick and mortar. I'll agree. Hey, in the old Otaku space on Gallatin Pike. So it'd probably be about a month, month and a half away, but right. That's what right before Eastland right there, right next to coral club. Okay. Yeah. He's taken over the old takeout window for ramen and he will actually serve a menu that people in the coral club can come get at night or he'll be serving breakfast tacos and burritos. Oh, now he's coming in. So that's probably what he's working on now. Oh, you're about to see him. I hope he's wearing what he wore to the best of Nashville party. It's on your text message. Because he definitely won best of best of best dressed with his alabri hey ensemble. He said, yes, hey, I'm sorry. I'll be right there. There we go.

01:25:37We've got five minutes for now. That's that's beyond next. That's next. He's already got the exact same time as, as a, our next guest. Um, we'll give him time to do his acceptance speech. We'll give him time to do the acceptance speech. If we could jump in right now though, with, um, with Ben, with chef Ben Norton, bring him in. He's here. Y'all today we are talking as always about super source. And you know, one cool thing about super source is, did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility? They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility, clean, bright, and smelling and feeling new. This is just one of the many reasons super source is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals.

01:26:39You need to call Jason Ellis his number 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation. Meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with super source 770-337-1143. Hey guys. Hey chef. What's going on? How you doing, man? Happy Monday. Yeah. Happy Monday. Good to see you guys. Have you to see you too. Have you recovered from the best in Nashville party? I was telling, telling Brandon that I'm still kind of dragging a bit. Yeah. It was a bit rough the next day, but, um, I'm feeling better now. So is your GM able to join us? No, she's not. She's not coming today. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I sent it. I realized as I'm sitting here, I send invites to everybody. My email was compromised, it was hacked by somebody. So I went in and changed all of the stuff. It should be fine. I sent all these invites and before people come in like, Hey, what's the link and I'm like, I don't think that those invites sent.

01:27:43I have it in my calendar. It showed up in my calendar. I'm like, I don't think they all sent for some reason. So I'm so sorry about that chef. We're all looking for somebody to blame. Uh, I thought it was me. It's me. So you won. This is best restaurant, man. This is, this is a, a huge pick from this man right here, Chris Chamberlain, the writer's pick best restaurant. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. It feels kind of crazy. Well, I mean, it definitely well-deserved. I said it very clearly that this is not a lifetime achievement award, but there is a statement to be made that the best doesn't always have to be the newest and shiniest and I think in this market that it's important that we recognize that and when you think of the impact that husk has had in almost 11 years, are we over 11 yet? Yeah. 11 years, you know, the people that have come through that kitchen and who they have baguette that have worked at other restaurants in Nashville and just the, the commitment to a mission from 11 years ago, making something that's so important to you, important to everybody that dines there.

01:28:53I just felt it was definitely time to share it. I mean, I love that. And we, we all really appreciate that. I, I feel like I, I know it's cliche. I'm sure everybody's saying the same thing, but I have like a whole squad full of people that, you know, really put in a lot of work. Like we're, we're running a big, busy restaurant and you know, we can't do that without all those people that come in every day and this is honestly, it's a tough job, so it's, it's really all those people who come in and show up every day and do the work because this is really honestly a beat down most days for us. You know, it's like, this is a big, busy restaurant. So, um, I can't do it without all of those guys and I, we all really appreciate everything that they do, both front front and back of house. Is it easier or harder to box yourself in? You know, I like to say sometimes you got to put fences around genius to really focus it and when you commit to, you know, the old husk adage, if it doesn't come from the South, it doesn't come through the door.

01:30:01Um, does that make it easier for you to decide how you want to operate or is it harder because you limit yourself in, in what you can do? Um, I, I feel like it's kind of a tricky question because honestly, I would probably be doing this anyway. I, this is kind of just how I've always cooked. I worked for a London in Atlanta for a long time and you know, he ran his restaurants like this too. Um, so, you know, I've got a lot of relationships with a lot of cool producers, like just a lot of really great people. And even if I were at another restaurant and we were doing, um, another concept, I would still be buying all the same food from all the same people. So sometimes it does get a little tricky when we're boxed in, especially getting into winter time, um, when things are a little less exciting than they are in the spring and summer, but you know, it's, it is what it is. We'd be doing this either way if it were husk or not husk.

01:31:03So, no, that's a great answer. And as we're heading into, you know, tuber season and root vegetables and, um, how important is, you know, traditional fermentation preservation, you know, how important is that for you to keep yourself excited and still be able to present a little taste of summer in the doldrums of January? I mean, it's super important. It's, I always say, you know, we need to make the menu as exciting in the winter as it is during the summer. Um, and it's just like a little more work to make that happen. And it's also important for us to, you know, make it exciting for us, um, to, you know, come in and be excited about what we're doing every day. So, you know, we could, um, you know, do the same thing we did last year, but that's not what we're here for. You know, we need to, um, keep it spicy for, for all of us and for the guests.

01:32:04Cause you know, we have a lot of people who come back year after year. So, um, it is super important for us. I kind of learned that after my first year of being here, that we really need to kind of like work during the summer to just put up a lot of stuff. Um, because it gets cold and, um, you know, there's just cabbage and mustard greens. Um, you know, you just said something you said, you know, over after the first year and I, I first, you've been on the show. We did a full interview with you, um, on August 22nd, 2021 three years ago and you were just brand new to town from that day, from that first interview till today. What's your experience in Nashville been like? I mean, it's been good. A lot of it has been work, but, um, you know, that's to be expected. Um, I really do like the city after having kind of grown up in, um, Atlanta for most of my life, this doesn't feel, you know, that much different.

01:33:09The weather is pretty similar. Um, it's, you know, a pretty similar city except for size and traffic. So, um, you know, I really enjoy being here and it's close to my family. So Nashville has been a great home for me so far. Well, it sounds like you're doing, you're crushing it over there at husk and, uh, best restaurant. I mean, that's for a writer to say that you realize every other restaurant in the city, who he knows has to go really, dude. Yeah, I love that for a writer. Like there's, what does it mean to you? The difference between a reader's pick and a writer's pick? Do you feel any kind of a difference in that? Or, cause I think the writer's pick is the way to go. I mean, to me it's huge because Chris has always been, you know, since the day I came to that restaurant, he's always been super supportive of me. And it feels, you know, it could be somebody else saying that for it, but for it to be Chris Chamberlain saying it, you know, that means a lot to me. Because he's been super supportive of me the whole time I've been here and just super supportive of husk, you know, as a brand, uh, for all of our restaurants the whole time, um, we've been doing this.

01:34:21So, you know, it's huge for me and it really does feel great. It's been a lot of work and it feels nice to be, um, recognized. So that's great. Well, this is the, uh, acceptance speech episode. I know you're out of town. I want to, I want to be respectful of your time. The mic is yours if you would like to say anything, or if that was what you wanted to say just now, I felt like that was a really good example. He just said it and I'm like, well, do you want to say that again? I mean, I don't want to do that, but anything else you want to say before, uh, help off? No, I, you know, this isn't my strong suit, public speaking and what have you. So, um, you're like the fifth person to say that. Yeah, I'm sure restaurant people, restaurant people, but yeah, like I said, the biggest thing for me is my squad, you know, all these people put in a lot of work, so, um, it's a huge honor to, you know, be awarded with this, but you know, it's all those people who come in every day and do the work and are sweating in front of that grill every day. So, um, thank you to all of those guys.

01:35:24Every time somebody walks down the, walks down the steps to go to the walk in cooler, the walk out cooler, um, hopefully this will put a little extra effort into this will put a little extra spring in their step. Yeah. You know, they're already running. So, yeah, well, thank you so much chef for joining us today and congratulations. Um, if you have not been to husk Nashville, where have you been? Go eat there. It is delicious. It was amazing. Uh, and this man is creating amazing local food for you, uh, all the time. So definitely go do that. And, uh, we will, uh, wish you a wonderful rest of the day, sir. Thank you guys. Thank you both. All righty. Good talking to you guys. All right. You too. Sharpies bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery, providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They've been operating in Nashville since 1986, providing high quality, fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals, and universities.

01:36:27Their bread is free from preservatives and artificial additives. Learn more at sharpies.com. That's C H A R P I E R S.com. Or you can give Erin Mosso a call directly. Her number 6 1 5 3 1 9 64 53. That's sharpies bakery. Oh, and now we have him. Thank you for waiting in the green room for a second there. We have the writers pick for best chef getting bigger by staying smaller. And then we also have the readers pick for best chef in Nashville. Edgar Victoria, owner of alabry. Hey, what's going on, man? Apparently it's the best working, working on the new space. That's, that's what's going on. Best torso in Nashville, apparently. Cause that's what we're seeing. Yeah. Well, I was trying to, I was trying to pull my phone with my hands because I'm out on the patio.

01:37:29So, um, yeah, I was just trying to be lazy for a second. It's okay, man. Like I'm going to have to hold it. So when you found out that the readers of the Nashville scene named you best chef in Nashville, what, what went through your head? Um, well, first of all, I was like, no way, you know, and, uh, yeah. And I was like, give me that magazine. I was, uh, I was at the event and, uh, I had a few friends from the past. Uh, saying congratulations and I didn't, they're the ones that told me. So I was like, no, there's no way that happened. Uh, and they're like, yeah, it's right here. So I was like, let me see. And then I did see it. And I think throughout the rest of the night, I think it was just a lot of mixed feelings. There's a lot of chefs in town that, uh, I do believe, I mean, I can name 10, 10, 10 right off the bat that I believe they they're better.

01:38:38And I look up to them and I love what they do in the city. Uh, so it was a lot of fun. Uh, so it was a lot of mixed feelings and whatnot. Uh, I think I didn't embrace it a little better the next day. You know, I'm just, just talking to friends of mine and a lot of their words just kind of made me feel better about it, but, uh, I mean, grateful for the people of Nashville and they're the ones that made that call. So I'm just, I'm just going to embrace it and roll with it. Well, and I mean, I know deep down, you're a humble dude, but it's hard to be humble when you're wearing a nudie suit with the name of your restaurant written on it in sequence, which I thought was the best dressed attendee of the entire party. So yeah, he was kind of being humble about it, but looked too damn good to be completely humble. I was, I didn't, man, I didn't know what to wear. And I was like, I love this jumpsuit.

01:39:39It just looks amazing. You know, I was like, I'm, I'm going to word this. All right. That's the title of this episode. I love this jumpsuit. I love this jumpsuit. Those are words. I don't know if I've ever said, I love this jumpsuit. I definitely have some shoes or, you know, but that's, that's amazing. So this guy right here next to me, he gave you a writer's pick for the best chef getting bigger by staying small. Chris, will you elaborate on that for me? Well, for one thing, he went and invalidated it immediately after I gave it to him, but I've always admired that about, about Edgar, that there's, there's a lot of people that get themselves in trouble by getting in over their heads and expanding too fast and taking on investors who don't have the long game ideal that, that I know real entrepreneurs do.

01:40:41And every time I've talked to you, you've always told me, you know, I do it all myself, I'll find a place to work. If this place doesn't work, I'll find another place to work. I just need a place to cook, make good food and attract a few people to feed it to, and as long as I don't overextend past that, I can keep doing what I want to do as well as I can do it. And I thought that was worthy of recognition. I had no idea about the reader's choice awards. We don't find out until we opened the magazine either. So, you know, thanks for validating me on that end and then totally screwed it over by saying, oh, and now I'm going to build a big ass restaurant. So, yeah. Well, how big, how big is the restaurant that you're building as restaurant? I mean, that's like, that's not really a big ass restaurant. It just is a place people that's not going to move. Right. It was just the next move. You know, I still believe on like everything you said on that article, because like that's still what's happening. I'm still not taking on investors. You know, I'm still doing everything.

01:41:42Like we just got done painting one of the walls in the building. And I think I did send you like what the graphic, what's going to look like. It's halfway there, a little more than halfway, maybe two thirds. So I'm still like super involved. Well, I think to keep it short, I do believe everything you wrote on that article, it's still very accurate. You know, I'm still involved with the menu, still picking what plates we're using. You know, I'm still doing my taxes every month, which are due today. I'm still involved with the graphics, the illustrations that will go onto the restaurant, you know, what vibes I'm doing my own playlist. I mean, it's still a one-man operation, but now we have our own restaurant and we have no investors. So I'm, I'm, I'm really proud of that in my opinion. I think I believe people choose to do it differently.

01:42:46And I think we all, we all have different goals. We all have different choices as well, different situations. So I respect that from everyone that's been opening their own restaurant in the past few years, you know, but deep inside, I knew this was what I wanted to do. You know, deep inside, I always knew I wanted to fund it myself. And I wanted to like do my own thing. So like, I still believe you're right on every single word. That you say it on there. So, and it's still going to be going the same way. So yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I really, I really love seeing you get this level of praise from the general public in this, in this, I love, I think there's two different sides to the writer's pick in the reader's pick. Did you, did you lobby for this at all?

01:43:47Did you make any posts that said, Hey, vote for me for best chef? Um, no, we voted, I think we did share a few things on, on Instagram. That's basically the, like, the only tool that we use for marketing anything, to be honest, you know, um, and I think we'd use that platform to, to say, I think this year it was a little, I was getting a little overwhelmed because I've been planning opening on opening this little space for a few months, you know, a few months now, uh, so that really, there was no time to promote anything or really to announce or do anything about it, um, as much as I wish I could have done it, uh, that didn't happen. So I, I do believe, you know, maybe like two weeks before the final day for people to vote, we shared a couple of stories on Instagram and it was more like, you know, cause at that point I'm like, I don't, I don't know what we're the best off, you know, and I don't know if I want to tell people, and I don't want to tell people what to do.

01:45:04Yeah. I just, just, I just don't like that. You know, I don't, I don't want to promote a little story and be like, Hey, you know, I believe we got the best taco. So why don't you vote for us for best taco, you know, just to give an example. So I was, I was like, I don't know what to tell people. I think we'll just put the little link on, on, on the story and then whatever you feel like we do well, then you just, you know, you just vote for that. Well, I'll never, I'll never, whatever you think other people does it better than, than you vote for them. So that, that's what it was two weeks prior, uh, the final day to, to, uh, to vote, we share that on Instagram a few times, uh, but that, that was it, you know, uh, I think in my head, I was just thinking that if, if we can just get invited to the, to the event, to the party, which is the thing. I mean, you got the jumpsuit. You got to do something, whatever. A hundred percent.

01:46:05I was telling him just a minute ago, I said, I ate the first time I got to eat a la brie was at the Southern when you did a pop-up there and you guys took over everything in the Southern, it was late 2020. And I remember he came up to the table and he goes, hello music. I was like, oh man, he, he listens. And, and I was, I was such a fan. I told him, I said, I don't think I've ever had food that tasted like that. I've never had food that looked like that. And I was instantly like, holy shit. Who is this guy? And then we had you on the show, January 28th, 2021. So if you want to go back and hear Edgar from January 28th, 2001, 21, talking about you growing up and kind of getting in trouble and why you're moving to, uh, to America and your, your, your, you did the, um, tagging and like spray paint and like that kind of stuff. Right. Yeah.

01:47:07Yeah. Like how your artistic is all of your artistic abilities in channeling those from something that could have gone in one way into food and how that he kind of was creative with those flavors and everything. So really fascinating conversation. And I, I think I've been such a fan of yours, your food, who you are. I've wanted to see you just be the most successful guy in the city. I know how hard you work every single day. So when I saw that you were best chef, I got, I got my hair stood up on my arms a little bit and I was just so genuinely happy for you and know that there's a lot of people out here rooting for you, man. And, uh, and I'm just, I'm excited to see this, this happen for you. Thanks, man. Thanks. I did that. Those are the words and text messages that I did get like the day after.

01:48:07Uh, so I think, uh, yeah, I think there's a lot of people out there, you know, rooting for what we do. Um, I truly believe in what we do. I think it's just very different compared to what the city, if we forget about the taco trucks for a second, you know, I think it's, I think what they're going to see at the new space, it's something that cannot be found in Nashville. Uh, that's just my humble opinion. Um, maybe can be found in some other cities, but I, I'm pretty excited about what we, what we're going to be doing with this building, um, same with the graphics, you know, I'm heavily involved with that, uh, Chris, which is a friend of mine, he, he had to travel from, uh, out of town, uh, in, into Nashville to do this graphics and I would not pick anyone else to do it. Uh, I find myself really hard to work with anyone else. Um, and that's just because like, like you just mentioned it, you know, I used to do graffiti, so I, I know what I want and I know in my head what that needs to look like and I can even throw it for people and I think people just have a very different style of art and vision so that when it's not there, it's not there and with Chris is the completely opposite, uh, we've been designing our logos since day one, uh, or teach our t-shirts, which are like super heavy, most people think we're a metal band and then we're like, no, we actually make tacos and that they have a hard time putting those two together.

01:49:41Uh, so it's, it's the same thing with this building. I think it's not going to be a building that, you know, that took 2 million dollars, a million dollars to build it. You know, it's myself and my team here every single day trying to do what we can to get it open on a budget. Um, but I do believe that when people walk into the doors, they will notice that, you know, they will know that someone, and I think I find that a little hard to find in, in mainly Mexican restaurants, uh, I think you're going and you know, you're getting some food and then, and then you'll be on your way, uh, you know, like Adam, even though I had to say this, um, I think they all look the same, um, pretty standard with the bright colors and, you know, you'll get a few drinks, some food, and then, and then you'll leave. Uh, so I think, I think the fact that we're doing this on a budget and, and there is a person reaching out to friends and asking for help, uh, I'm kind of like spending 12, 16 hours every day in that building with, with his friends, helping out how to like, bring this to life.

01:50:57I think people will see that, you know, so by no means this is going to be an expensive restaurant at all. I think it's the very opposite. You know, I think, I think you will see someone that spent four weeks doing a graphic by hand. I think people will see that. I think you'll see some frames hang on the wall, you know, I mean, maybe it's more like an art gallery that makes food. I was talking about this two days ago. I'm totally, I'm totally kidding. But like, I think that's, that's what you will see. I think you will see that there wasn't a lot of money involved, but there was a lot of heart and soul involved. And I, I hope people can see that when they come in. When are you planning opening? Do you have any idea? Yeah. I'm hopefully in a month from now. That's, that's a goal. Well, ideally before the end of the year, that's for sure. We get an equipment delivered tomorrow and we get in chairs and seats delivered the day after.

01:52:02And then after that, there's a, there's a few things that we need to get done. And, you know, make a menu, buy some plates and the, I don't know. God knows what else we're missing. And we're probably missing half of this stuff that a restaurant needs to open. But like, I'm, I'm okay with that. If we can open and figure out what we need for the next day and the next day and be better. Ideally, we want to get everything done. But again, this is almost like a one man show plus all his home is helping. You know, I'm at work. I would love to bring this stuff from the studio into your new space and let's do an interview and let's talk about everything you're doing. And let's look around. You can kind of explain what we're doing as we do the interview. That'd be a lot of fun. Andy tacos, Andy tacos, Andy tacos. Oh yeah. And eat tacos, Andy tacos. That's Andy bad luck burger. That's what's coming up. It's not Andy tacos. It's Andy bad luck burger.

01:53:03Uh, Edgar, the last thing we do here, acceptance speech. If you are speaking to all the people that voted for you, I just, we just called your name and you get to come up and accept your award. What are you saying to, to everybody out there? We have just the best chef in Nashville. Edgar Victoria from Alabri Hey, and you get to walk up. Here's your, here's your trophy. Honestly, I believe in simplicity and I don't, I don't think I would give him a whole speech because like a lot of these people that are regulars and I say it all the time, they have became friends. I mean, you're a good example of that. Both of you, you know, are a good example of that. And like there's people that come in for one taco and then they just kind of follow you everywhere you go in the city. You know, they're, they're like, Oh, you're making chicken at the market tomorrow. I'm a good chicken. Oh, you're making tamales specials and it's pre-order. I'm going to get those. Oh, you're doing a little pop up at, um, this other restaurant I'm going to go.

01:54:03So I think, I, I think all these is thanks to all of them. So I would just say, I would keep it simple. I would say thank you so much for all the support for the past few years. And hopefully we'll continue to be friends and we'll continue to make food for you. I love it. Congratulations chef. Thank you for joining. Thank you for taking the time. I know you're busy as hell. Oh, hold on. We got the, uh, we got the burger boys here. I just got to go back to Spain. We can hear you now, Andy. Way to go, dude. Thanks, man. We brought in, um, our next guest already. Thank you, chef. Have a wonderful afternoon. We'll, we'll work that out. I'm going to come down there. We'll do an episode. It'd be a lot of fun. So guys, thank you. All right, man. We are, we are welcome now with our final guests of the day. And definitely not least. Definitely not. We, I would say we saved the best for last, but I mean, I, I am very similar here in what I just said about Edgar with the guys from bad luck bird club.

01:55:14We have Andy and Cody joining us. Hi gentlemen. What's up? Cody tacos. Not Andy tacos. Andy tacos. What does that mean? And eat tacos. He's anti tacos. He's against tacos. And, oh, he's, and he has these words are words are hard, but when I met you guys, uh, and you came in here, first ones to sign the magical door up there. Took a whole section. I love it. I love the drawings that they drew of themselves. You see Andy and Cody on the right and left there. Good job, Andy. Look at the door and then look at us. Yeah, that's it. But you guys are in opposite sides. So it's good stuff. Um, I love them. I think these are like the best two dudes in the city. And I've loved getting to know you. I'm living the dream. I've, I've loved eating your food. I've loved watching you on social media. I've loved this meteoric rise that you've had.

01:56:15And then the other day it happened. The, the, the biggest debated question that anybody ever has in the city is not who's the best chef. It's not what's the best restaurant. It is. What is the best burger? Well, it's two of the most competitive categories. I can imagine best food truck and best burger, best food truck and best burger. Yeah, that's you guys did it. You, you, you won the best burger in Nashville, the readers of the scene. This wasn't like, you know, Chris Chamberlain get just right. No, I'm, I'm something that's a couple of years ago too. I'm vegan. Everybody knows that. Stop it. We can't hear you now, Andy. Oh dude, come on. What's going on? I don't know. Well, can you hear me now? Yes. Put another quarter in the internet. I don't know. Yeah, dude. Thanks, dudes. We're just, you know, our story. We're just burgundy. It's not, it's not a competition.

01:57:17We're not really like too concerned about the best burgers thing. Really? You know, like. And we are very, very stoked that other people think it tastes good. Cause now we, you know, we pay our bills off of people eating our cheeseburgers and we have 11 employees or something now. 10 employees. I ran payroll this morning. 10 employees and, uh, they pay their bills off of everybody eating our cheeseburgers too, which is like what brings the most people to our cheeseburgers. That brings more pride to me. And I think to Cody that we are employing people and they are paying their bills and they kind of like working for us, people like our cheeseburgers that that means more than, you know, food is all the subject. You know, so the fact that people think we got good cheeseburgers. Well, and you know, you're doing this without the benefit of a lot of advertising without, you know, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, public relations, things like that.

01:58:20Getting people to go try a burger in this town by word of mouth. That is something really impressive. Cause I mean, you're up against you, you've, you beat pharmacy and black tap and I won't read what you wrote about pharmacy on the wall, but, uh, no, that's actually the pharmacy wrote that. And yeah, I don't know if you know this or not, but you wrote bad luck burger club right in it and you wrote the whole corner and I wish I could show people up there. You can kind of see it on the door in that top part up here. I posted it online not long ago. We hear a bad luck burger club. And then in the episode we finished the episode and we said, you said the number two best burger is the green chili burger over at redhead stranger. We lose you guys. You still there. They're frozen on the screen. I don't know if they can still hear me. I don't know if the, uh, the, the quarter and the internet's not working for them. The robots are not happy guys. You can pop out and pop back in.

01:59:20I'll still tell the story here and they could be part of it. They can jump in at the end. So if you look at the door that says bad luck burger club, and then after the interview, we all went to redhead a stranger, me and the burger boys went to redhead stranger and we all restored a bunch of food and we ate and it was great. Then Brian Lee Weaver came in the next day or a couple of weeks later, then he wrote right above it to the right. Best burger in Nashville at redhead stranger, Brian Lee Weaver. You see that? And then of course, big daddy comes in and he goes, no F that right in the middle of bad luck burger club. He writes hot dogs for life, right. And just, and then Crystal comes in and she says, no, actually grilled cheese for life. And then, uh, we had the GM of the pharmacy burger. He put the actual worst burger is pharmacy W U R S T W U R S T. So there's a whole thing that is happening over there and you can kind of see it on this top part up here.

02:00:22If you can look at the top, that's where it is up there. You won't see my cursor, but we have, uh, we're going to bring the burger boys back in. We're back. Okay. Did you hear my story? No, we missed most of it, but it was, it was either us being, I heard the stuff about Sean saying that his hot dogs are awesome. The only thing we can all really agree on here is that daddy's dogs is awful. Right? Yeah. I mean, I, you know, you don't have, you get, I'll save you guys the trouble and the PR, you don't have to say it. You can just nod along that nobody likes John or his hot dogs. Okay. Especially John as a, as a human. Oh yeah. Why bad guy, bad guy. That's why I didn't have him on the show today. You tried. Listening. So we can say whatever he wants you about. He's in Vegas right now. He's on an airplane right now. Is that what you just said? Yeah.

02:01:23No, he's on an airplane. Yeah. He's on an airplane. So you can say whatever. He's not going to go back and listen to this. No, those dogs are paying for it. He's having a good time with it. Now, did you guys go to the best of, and you were at the party, right? They were at the party. Are you guys underneath a metal shed? We're like, right. I've been watching this whole cast with no problems. Have you, have you enjoyed the cast? Yeah, pretty much. I, I, I want the whole thing. I got here, uh, right around time at, uh, um, Andy got on talking about. Yes. Andy and Tiff re bit of it, dude. Okay. Well, I'm liking the robot, bad luck, burger, burger club.

02:02:27I think different version. We're falling apart over here. Oh, there you go. We're back. We're back. Now you're coming in five by five. You know, normally I got this whole, like I got a little podcast studio set up at my house. You know, I shouldn't be at home doing that, but we're working today. Today. All right. So what is that about? So just to go from opening a food truck two and a half years ago to still maintaining a food truck two and a half years later is pretty impressive. But to go to the top of those two categories is meteoric. Unbelievable. How'd you get there? Cody did it all. I'm just the face. That was true. I'm just a great that gets them the shots. He's my agent on the model. I was going to ask who your agent was.

02:03:28And now it's good to know. Yeah, it's me. I'm the agent for sure. So how long have y'all been parked? Uh, we have, so now we have two trucks, like since the very beginning, you know, we started in a tent, then we got in a truck and then at the beginning of this year in January, we got a second unit. So we have a trailer that is parked outside of honey tree metery who won best bar in town. Um, so we've been parked here since January seven days a week. So we have a staff of dudes that run this trailer and we also have the food truck that moves around as well. So it's complete utter chaos all the time now. Well, that's where I've, I've been with y'all was at Fait La Force and you were a great addition there. Um, so have you got a commissary kitchen somewhere? Are you doing it on site at each place? Yeah, we have a citizen kitchen, Laura and Alan take care of us over there. Um, yeah.

02:04:28And so it's good that it's like, you know, a quarter of a mile away from here. So we have to run back and forth a couple of times a day. They get a bunch of food and, uh, and make all that understand. Yeah. Big help in this whole thing is, uh, every time we need to call them and ask them for something, they're very quick to say, let's figure it out. It's, we need more stored like every month. It's like, Hey, we need a new shelf because we just can't keep enough, uh, food, uh, stopped these days. Well, you're the perfect example of how, you know, kind of like what Chopper and Julio did that if you get the right truck with the right bar, both of them end up being bigger successes than they were starting out. And I think your, your relationship with, with the meadery has been really positive for the neighborhood and you know, they, they wouldn't have won best bar if people weren't coming to get your burgers. And I think that's great for both of them. People weren't coming to get their mead. You know, exactly.

02:05:29That's what I was going to say. I mean, that's scratch each other's back situation where it's a symbiotic. Yeah. I, um, I would just like to say that we, um, hold on one second. Okay. I think we have some media fan feedback. It's Sean. Is it Sean? I don't know. I don't know what you're talking about. He's on an airplane. There's no Sean. Sean who, who is Sean? Exactly. You get it. You get it. Like, I don't understand this whole thing. I'm getting high on a plane. I don't know if he's on the plane. Oh, okay. Hold on. I think we're joined now with, um, who, who we have on the phone here. I'm checking the biggest daddy. The biggest of daddy's has made it. He heard somebody was talking shit about him and he goes, I'll put me on. I got this. Yeah. I heard these ugly ass burger boys are talking shit on me, trying to say they're better than me.

02:06:36Yeah, dude. Next year. Best next year, battle up burger club. Best romantic date spot. That's hot dog. Best. You wouldn't know romance. If it's laughing, you don't even know how to be romantic. Oh man. I'm just going to let you guys go. Get me in a dark room with you, bud. I'll show you romance. Oh, there we go. Maybe you do. That would be the launching of the bad luck wiener club. I'd say, yeah. There's different clubs for that guy. It's different clubs. Are you, are you gunning for the most romantic dining spot? Is that something that you would like to take over? I mean, cause that's, I think he's got that on lock right now. We've always, we've never promoted the Nashville scene best of stuff. Like, like I said, it's not really competition. We don't really care. It's very, very cool that we got voted for all that stuff without us.

02:07:39Like trying to get a bunch of votes, but I've decided next year that I'm going for every category that daddy wins right now, and I'm going to win at least one or two of them hard. Good luck. Coming forward, we're going to do one hot dog service one day in 2025. And I'm going to have best hot dog in Nashville. Well, I guess then I'm going to have to do a burger and we're going to have to do, maybe that's the battle we need to do. I'm not worried about that at all. Go ahead. Oh, please guy. I'll smash all day in your face. Oh, I don't, I don't think Sean on the spatula. Yeah, they don't need them. I can do everything with song, baby. He's, he can do it all with Tom's. You got to caress it.

02:08:43If it's going to be romantic, you got to caress it. You got to smash it. Yeah. I mean, smash can mean a couple of things. All right. I am making a hole in my calendar for mid January to announce the Valentine's dinners that are available at bad luck and big daddies this week or this year. There you go. I love it. I love it. Well, hey, I got to run. We're about to get to the airport, but thanks for calling in Brandon. They're not going to let you through TSA anyway, Sean. So don't worry, man. It was truly the worst part of my day. Usually hearing your voice makes me want to jump in front of an off out of the airplane that I'm about to be on. So that's what's going to happen. All right. Thank you. Thank you to big daddy, Sean Porter for joining us here to, to, to congratulate bad luck bird club on there. Congrats, Sean. Hi, I waved at him. He's not even I waved.

02:09:44He's in a car. I didn't, he didn't see me. He didn't see me at all. He'll go back and watch it. He wants to know, I'm sure we'll go back to see what kind of shit was being talked on the name of love by the robot. Tell you my, my, my original plan. I'll, I'm going to, I want to still make that happen somehow. That's what we got to do. I had an original plan for this whole thing. Maybe that'll be the January, maybe that'll be the January announcement. January announcement. You guys got to follow through with this romantic dinner now. I think that, yeah. And you, and you got to take a picture of yourself with like all the, like, maybe not roses, but something like he does the shirt off thing, you know, the whole deal, what did you guys wear to the best of natural cause I was going to say he had the full on yellow mustard outfit with the yellow Jordans. I saw it too. I was like, look at this guy with the yellow Jordans. We were respectable young men and, and more just regular, regular clothes. Yeah. You know, it's not, we're already flashy enough with just being the best that we don't have to look the best too. You know what I mean? You know what? You want to take all the categories. Yeah.

02:10:45Yeah. But tell them what, what did you see? Edgar's jumpsuit. Yeah. Yeah. He said, I said, black jeans, black shirt, black shoes, kind of guys. Yeah. Heard as you can tell every time I see you, that seems to be the uniform. I liked the shirt. It says, well, shit. Yeah. I got this from MB goods, uh, best all around store in Nashville. I don't know. I made that up, but go check it out. I liked that. Like, what are you wearing today? MB goods. I got, well, gentlemen, this is the best of Nashville. Acceptance speeches. So we're at the, we're, we're, we're 10 minutes over our time. Thank you guys for your patience. Thank you for hanging out. I love you guys. I'm so excited for all of your success. And this is a massive victory that you have. Best food truck, best, um, hamburger in Nashville. I mean, if you want to know Montel Jordan's or he said, what's the best hamburger in Nashville? I go bad luck for her club. It's an easy answer. I just asked the scene, right?

02:11:46And I was asked the scene, right? The readers of the scene know all. So now is your time. The mic is yours. Kind of like the final thought that we do on the show. Uh, this is, this is your turn to tell the entire world your acceptance speech for your best of Nashville awards. Full screen. Me, you, I don't know. I mean, like I can get pretty cocky and funny about things, but, uh, it truly. It's just a testament to the crew of dudes that we have working for us. And the folks that come and buy our cheeseburgers, uh, it's really neat that me and Cody just started making some burgers on our own for fun and had no clue how to run a business, especially a food business, and we started hiring people with no clue what we were doing. And they followed us into the darkness and like had to endure a lot of chaos about with us learning how to run a business.

02:12:47And, uh, but everybody's followed us and built us up. And we've been able to just learn things from them and then learn things from us to where we make consistently a pretty good tasting cheeseburger that people are stoked about. And it's not me and Cody. It's the 12 of us that do it every day. And the people that just keep coming back and telling their friends and their family and, you know, it's, it's not me and Cody that make a crazy, the best cheeseburger ever. It's, it's the community between everybody in the East and everybody comes get our burgers that just, uh, supports what we do. So, uh, I'm stoked and thank you for thinking we're fully backed. Uh, this, as far as I'm concerned, this is, this is for our crew because they're the ones holding it down every day. Andy and I can't be everywhere at once. And they're the ones making the food that people voted for. So, uh, yeah, as far as I'm concerned, this, this best stuff is, uh, for our guys.

02:13:47So, um, thank you to our, our crew and thank you to all the people that are coming around and enjoying the food. Well, keep up the great work. Yeah. Oh yeah. As voted by the readers of the Nashville scene. So y'all keep up the great work. And I think there's many more awards in your future and, and big daddy better watch his back. Seriously, that's the biggest truth that's been spoken here today. I'll get it. Uh, thank you guys for just being you in a world that's very divisive and crazy. You guys bring a lot of fun into this community in this world and what you're doing, it's genuine, it's authentic and it's really good. And I just love how you guys show up. I love how you love the people you work with in your community. It's really a testament to how this thing needs to be done and how people can be successful when they do the right thing. And, um, just love you guys. Thanks for joining. You've always been a big supporter of mine and I love that too. I mean, it just goes right back both ways. So thanks again for joining us.

02:14:47You're going to be the last one on the show today. We're, we're going to do a wrap up here, but have a wonderful rest of the day and get back out there, slaying it. Heck yeah, dude. Thanks guys. I appreciate y'all later guys. You can wave at us. Yeah. I feel like I just ran a marathon. A lot of winners. There's a, that was a, that was a heck of a little show there. I was fun to have all those people as a little nerve wracking. I'm on the other end, kind of texting and moving around to get everybody on time. But that was a lot of fun. If you didn't know better, you would almost think any of that was planned. Almost think I, I'm, everybody's like, dude, where's the link? I'm like, ah, I said, everybody thought that it's in my, it's in your, in my, anyway, I must not have, we didn't know the winners till Wednesday. No, we didn't. I didn't know until Wednesday. We did this really fast. This was over the weekend to put this together. And I think that for, to have both the best restaurants, best chefs, best burger, we had, we had, we had a great little showing. And again, thank you for her on jumping on there. We, I had, we could have had 30 people on the show.

02:15:50I mean, it's tough to pick a few. And I just wanted to send out a couple of messages real quick and you had to call people you really wanted to have on. And I just, um, thank you everybody too, who did join us. And like I said, and I did like a little thing in my stories where I shout out a bunch of people, there's so many people out there who are deserving of winning these awards that nobody knows about. I'm sorry, but I grew up in a time where my stories were your soap operas. So I got to go home, watch my stories, Brandon. Stories on social media, stories on social media. Um, I think there's so many people out there who haven't got that level of recognition in the, uh, the scene. I know it's a tremendous amount of, I imagine it's tremendous amount of pressure for you to come up with these things and not alienate people. And you got to think about, well, I gave them this one, this one, this one, this one. And it's not like that. It's really just about merit and what they do. And I know that you put a ton of time and energy into this. Well, in the same way that, that we trust our readers to share what they truly believe is the best in Nashville.

02:16:53We feel like we've earned their, their trust to share what, what we want to shine a spotlight on this year. And it may be different next year, but you know, we want to lift up the whole restaurant community the best we can. You know, we don't crack jokes about the old days when Pizza Hut won best pizza and Mr. Gaddy's won best Italian. You know, did that actually happen? Oh yeah, that, that happened. McDonald's won best burger. I mean, at one point it may have been. Wits won best barbecue. Yeah, it was, it was dark times. Not the case anymore. So thank you guys for joining us. Thank you. Uh, congratulations to all of the winners. Uh, this is a fun episode, Chris Chamberlain. Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for doing this. Always a pleasure to meet this is up here. I want to open the door. Chris lives. You can see the studio from his back porch. So I went to open the door. I'm like, Hey, you come in and just wave at him. Did you walk here? Yeah, of course. I didn't know if you drove or not. That's right here. So Mr. Transit, haven't you seen me on the bus benches and stuff?

02:17:54No. Oh yeah. I have not seen you on the bus benches and I pass. Yeah, I'm all over. All right. Thank you guys for watching and listening and, uh, we will, uh, see you again, very, very soon. We've got, uh, some fun interviews coming up. Thanks for voting. We could not have the issue if we didn't have the votes of the readers. And thank you for reading because we wouldn't have all the advertisers if you didn't read. So between those two, our model of giving away a free paper every week continues to survive. So thank you seeing readers. Oh yeah. Thank you guys for listening to our annual best of Nashville episode. Thank you, Chris Chamberlain. Thank you, Patrick Rogers. Thank you for all of the guests who joined us today and congratulations on your big best of Nashville wins. This is a big deal and, um, I'm honored and humbled every single time we get to do this production. Look, we're restaurant people. I know sometimes you get people on zoom. The sound doesn't quite work well. Hopefully the Andy and Cody made sense.

02:18:58Oh, loved having big daddy join us there at the end. Sean Porter, thanks for joining us and, um, we appreciate everybody. Sorry, it took so long to get out. Stay tuned. We'll have the gentleman from Joe Muir seafood coming up tomorrow. And then coming up next week, we are going to have the former, I think it's sad to say the former owner of Hathorn over on Charlotte Pike. John Stevenson is going to be joining us talking about that whole experience that he went through. And, um, excited to bring it to you. So thanks for listening and we'll be back real soon. Love you guys. Bye.