Bob Bernstein

00:01Hey everybody, happy Easter and welcome back. We're talking about SuperSource today. Jason Ellis, my friend, I talk about him. I've been talking about him for almost two years and I'll tell you a real life story. Green Hills Grill, we've got all wood tables and some of the varnish is coming off on some of the tables and a server came to me and said, hey, I'd check with the guy that does the chemicals because these guys are notorious for raising the level of chemical. I think it's taken the varnish off the tables. Immediately I thought, well, there's no way because Jason's amazing. But I think it's funny that the first thing that people's brain goes to is that their company is doing that to them. I never doubted in my mind at all, but I called Jason. I said, hey, is there any chemical in there that might take away a varnish? And he said, there's absolutely none. We make the chemicals, there's no problem. He said, I was in there last week. All of your bottles are labeled. Everything's perfect. You should have no issues. But I'd be happy to come by and look at the calibration, which I just checked last week. And I said, no, not a problem.

01:02I mean, if you are here, that's great, no worries. I talked to Steve and the owner and he said, you know, the guy that did the varnish, he said he got a bad batch of varnish and that's the problem. It has nothing else to do with it. But it's just amazing how people's brains go to this place that they wanna find blame for somebody. But me, working with Jason Ellis and working with SuperSource, I know that I've got somebody I can trust who's working with my company. And I just love that. There's a sense of peace that I get working with Jason Ellis. If you want that same feeling, if you wanna do that same thing, you should call him at 770-337-1143. He does dish machines, he does chemicals, and he does classes. He'll come teach and educate your team on how to use the right chemicals. He is the man. Honored to work with him here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Jason Ellis at SuperSource. And if you go to our website, nashvrestaurantradio.com, click the Sponsors tab. And there you can find SuperSource.

02:03He's got a special deal for Nashville Restaurant Radio listeners. Go check him out right now. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. We'll be joined with Jen Ichikawa in this episode as we speak with Mr. Bob Bernstein. Bob is the owner of Bongo Java. He also owns my favorite breakfast slash coffee spot, Fido. And he owns Green's Vegetarian Bongo East. The guy has been in Nashville forever, and we have so much fun during this interview.

03:05We go way back, way, way back. We reminisce about Nashville. We joke around. He tells an amazing story, which has an amazing finish, right? So the opening story you're gonna hear, listen to the very end, because at the very end, I'm going to reveal what we did after the show. In our outro, you'll find out the answer to what we did. And it was kind of interesting. Not gonna say the person's name, but it was fun. Telling you a little bit about what we've got coming up, this Friday is gonna be Earth Day. And on Earth Day, the 22nd, we're gonna be speaking with Jeffrey Ezell. Jeffrey Ezell is the owner of The Compost Company. They are a new sponsor on the show, but more importantly, they're doing amazing things. When I first heard his story and what he does, I was just so excited. I was excited to work with him. I mean, they take all of your food waste and they compost it, and it helps reduce greenhouse gases and so many other things.

04:08And I cannot wait for him to come on and talk about his story. Also, a week from this Monday, we are going to be talking with Marcie and Star from my other favorite place to go for breakfast and brunch and coffee and CBD, Anzee Blue. Chef Star is going to be in the Iron Fork being April 28th, I believe it's a Thursday. She's one of the four chefs competing, and she comes on and talks all about what she's gonna be doing. She's confident. I love it. I love the dynamic between Marcie and Star, and that is an episode you do not wanna miss. So we've got some great things coming up on Nashville Restaurant Radio. If you haven't subscribed, you need to go subscribe because today is Easter, and it's Sunday, and it's like two o'clock in the afternoon, and this episode is out live right now. And if you didn't subscribe, you wouldn't know that until tomorrow when I post it that it is out. So Mondays, sometimes on Fridays, you get new episodes that maybe sometimes come out on Sunday.

05:12Maybe sometimes they come out on Thursday, but we've got some fun episodes coming up. Thank you guys for all of the follows. Go follow us on Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio, where that's where we post, to let you know all the cool news. And I think that's it. Hope you guys had a wonderful Easter, and we will be catching up with you soon. Please enjoy this episode with Bob Bernstein. Oh. Yeah, we're easily bound to stay together. So. This isn't being recorded, right? We are recording officially now, and I will go ahead and say super excited today to welcome in Bob Bernstein to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Welcome, Bob. Welcome, thank you. It's been a long time. I feel so, I had a meeting at Fido the other day, and I parked in the lot next to Fido, and I went over to get, because I'm trying to be a good, I go over to the little pay station lot, because I've got a ticket there before.

06:17And I. Don't tell the secrets of the parking at Ponga. I won't tell the secrets. Don't do it. I will tell the secret. I will say the, but I did something, and this nice man comes up next to me and gives me some really good advice. How does that sound? That's good. And he go, and I said, thank you so much. I appreciate the advice. I'm gonna do this thing because, and he goes, it's okay, I own the building. And I went, I knew it was you, Bob. I didn't wanna say it. And I said, hey, Brandon, Nashville Restaurant Radio. And then we, I said, you gotta come on the show. I'm three blocks up the street now. And he goes, I'd love to. So here we are. Here we are. And three blocks up the street. Tell me the story on your way in here today. So I got a little lost. As is customary with finding this spot. Well, it wasn't even the spot. Well, I'll just say, because I don't wanna like give this, okay, so I had the address slightly wrong, but I go up to the door. I'm like, I didn't think this is where it was, but this is the address. And in the doorway, you can see through the glass, there's all these cooking cookbooks made into a desk.

07:24That's cool. And I'm like, wow, that's cool office you got. And then I'm like, nobody's answering the door. That is really cool. So I look at your text and you say, come to the back. So I walked to the back, the back door is open. There's a kitchen and right in the kitchen, there's a podcast station. What? Really? So I'm in this kitchen yelling, hey, I'm here. Hello, anybody here? Nobody's coming. So I texted, I emailed you and you said, I go, I'm in a kitchen. And you're like, call me. We have a kitchen. So I walked into somebody's kitchen and just kept going. So you broke and entered today? I broke and entered today. And nobody showed up? I kept thinking I heard something. I'm like, I'm glad they didn't come down with a gun. I want to know. I want to tell you off here where this house is and you can go see it. Cause I want to find out who's got a kitchen with a podcast studio in it. And like a desk made out of cookbooks. Yeah, I would love to do that. Kenji would love that. We could do a tour. We can get them on the show. Probably somebody really famous.

08:26I don't know. I just broke into. Well, or at least somebody that has a lot of trust because to just leave all the doors open, I would never. Yeah. And there were some packages on the floor. I was going to bring the packages to you. I'm like, what fairy came in here and dropped off these package fairies? Lovely. And I will say that you came bearing gifts. I'll show on the screen here. We have the Ethiopia Sedama. Sedama, yeah. Sedama is the monthly roast. It's our coffee of the month. Coffee of the month. A little discounted online and stuff. So we pick a different one every month. Well, that's very exciting because I'm always drinking coffee. It's what you tell me. And I go across the street to Kroger and I buy like Lavaza coffee that I've been using here because it's a strong, good coffee. And so, you know, it's like, no, we need to have a local coffee. You're a local guy. You do this radio station. You need local coffee. It's all about local. So I got to do it. Yeah, there was one time I made the coffee and I didn't know which was his. And so I made whatever folders and he was like, Um, did you use the folders in there?

09:29And I was like, yeah. And he was like, that's not my coffee. And I was like, OK. OK, so you can understand that, right? So there's a kitchen here and this is a mixed use. There's a lot of other offices here. It's a kitchen, but doesn't have a podcast studio with a desk made out of cookies. Nothing like that. No, no, but it I'm hoping this person's listening to this. Bob was in my kitchen. I probably know the person. I'll bet we do. Like, there's no way we don't. How can you not know who this person is? It's like Sean Brock's house, right? He could have cooked me dinner or lunch or something. Yeah, it's been amazing. I could have brought more gifts. I tell you, I'm like so in through. I want to know who that is so bad. Well, he'll tell you off air where their address is so you can go break in. Well, welcome to this studio. Is this studio like the studio they had? I don't see the kids just say it's nicer. Say this is nicer. Oh, there we go. Definitely a nicer podcast set up. But it was a kitchen and actually had some. It had to give it all away. It had treadmill in the kitchen. What? Wow.

10:30Yeah, I could. Maybe it was like a modern day. I'm getting myself in trouble because I'm like admitting to breaking an injury. We didn't take anything. It was an innocent mistake. We didn't even saw you. You're on somebody's camera. It's going to take talk tomorrow. We'll just keep that story that I didn't think. There you go. Yeah, we'll continue. So, Bob, welcome to the show. Last time you were on, you joined us for the Music City Roundup. That's I couldn't remember what we did. We were doing a show called the Music City Roundup, and we did four or five interviews in a day, but we were like 10 minute interviews. We'd have a show was like an hour and a half show and it was live. And you logged in through Streamyard and you hopped on. And I think it was me and Kelly Sutton. That sounds right. I think me and Kelly Sutton and we just talked to we were. We're talking about Hillsborough Village. OK, we were doing different areas. We're highlighting different areas of town. And Hillsborough Village was the thing. And I wanted to talk about Fido. And I think Kelly was like, call Bob Bernstein. I was like, I don't have Bob's number. And we messaged you and you're like, yeah, let's do it.

11:33And so you came on and we talked a little about Fido, a little about what your business was like in the middle of a pandemic, what was going on. And I remember thinking he has a lot to say right now. He's got a lot of thoughts and we got to get more. We got to do this again. Cool. I'm glad to be here. I've been waiting for your call. It's like sitting by the phone is the second thing I've done and since the pandemic started the other interview with you. And now this one. So this is great. I've been sitting home waiting. And all you had to do is just walk into somebody's random kitchen and you could have had a third, you know, I could have called you from my one call from jail. Could have been I'm not going to make the podcast. Yeah, I'm not going to be there. I have broken in jail. That's fantastic. Well, thank you for bringing me a cup of coffee, too. This is really good. I feel bad. I didn't bring two. It's OK. I am at the point in the day where I probably won't have any more coffee or I won't sleep tonight. So we are at the point where I shouldn't. But I do anyway, because I have no willpower and I love coffee. Well, your kids sleep through the night.

12:36Yes, I don't. So I have different needs. Fifteen month old twins. That's that's amazing. Thank you. I'll show you that when we hang up. They're very cute. They look a lot like Kenji. They're adorable. And how old are yours? Mine are I have six and eight year old boys. They're a little older, just a little. They talk back. Mind you, too. I hear quack and duck all day long. How is the coffee business? Tell me about what's going on in your life, man. Man, life's fun. It's my kids are almost 16 and almost 14, I guess. I lost two boys, two boys, two boys. Also, here's our boys. I have a boy and a girl boy and a girl. OK, how minor? 20 months apart. Yeah, ours are twenty seven ish. OK. Yeah. So hanging out, you know, it's like a lot of entrepreneurs talk about how their family life suffered because of their business. And I've always found it the opposite. My business kind of like took a back seat once I had kids. I had kids late in life.

13:37And so once I had kids, it was like, I'd rather be with them. Yeah. So. Business grew and all that, but it wasn't like my full time thing anymore. So I'm glad I spent that time. I was having kids older and having businesses that were mature, too. It gave me that freedom to do it. So I was lucky. That is very lucky. Not like you kind of pregnant when you had when you bought a business. Yeah, we had a uniquely difficult first year, but that's OK. It's good. I think it's an interesting perspective, though, because so many we just had a gentleman in here who was a barbecue company and he lost his job in the pandemic due to just layoffs. And it was like light bulb. Wow. I want to spend more time with my kids like he met. He realized how much he missed. I think a lot of people had that experience when they were forced to be at home with their kids and like, oh, my gosh, they're they're amazing. They do all these things. How did I miss all of this? Well, we have not as the one good thing I think about the pandemic is people realize that there's life outside of work.

14:41I mean, it hasn't been great for my business since a lot of those people didn't come back or different careers. But I think as a society, at least for a moment, we had a chance to breathe and say, what really do we want to do? It gave us give us all that pause. Yeah. You know, I don't think we actually said like so. I think I know who Bob Bernstein is. Everybody knows who Bob Bernstein is. But you own Bongo Java. I do. And. In Belmont, you have Bongo Java, the actual coffee house coffee shop. You accurate way to say it. And then you also own Fido. Am I missing? Is there other locations, other things? What do you got going on? Oh, we got so much going on now. We've got Bongo East, which is right. OK, yes. Slash GamePoint, because it's a board game cafe right off of five points. Right. They've been there a bunch of times. It's a great location. And then hidden on Vanderbilt's campus, we have Greens Vegetarian. Yeah, it's a kosher vegetable. Well, the first kosher certified restaurant and oldest vegetarian restaurant in town is right next to the Brandscum Quadrangle.

15:44Very good. Wow. A Vandy guy. Well, I sold them produce for a long time and I sold Greens produce for a long time. So I very familiar with that location from the Morial Gym is where I go. Yes. Yeah. Are you a Vandy fan? Sure. Why not? Why not? No, I grew up in Chicago where college sports wasn't that big of a deal. It's more about pro. So nothing against Vandy or UT or anything. It's just, yeah, I'll support local and all that. I've chose Vanderbilt as like my local team because I've lived in Nashville for 33 years, but I'm a Titans and Preds fan. 33. When did you get here? 88. Me too. November of 88. August, I think of 88. Yes. I'm more of a Nashvilleian than you. You beat me if it makes you feel any better. I probably got here before you were born. You did. I did live outside of Chicago for a little bit. Which part? Crystal Lake. I grew up in Skokie. Nice. Yeah, we lived there for a few years before we moved to Florida.

16:45And that's where I like grew up. But I like have this thing with Chicago where I love it. And I feel like I was part of it, but I wasn't. I was like seven or eight like Chicago adjacent in Crystal Lake. It's like so suburban there. I was in a barbershop quartet, Skokie, Illinois. Were you? What? That's not real. The usual suspects. We've seen the movie Usual Suspects. Oh, my God. Literally no movie that you're. Verbal Kent is in the studio and he sees Skokie, Illinois. And then he goes, I was in a barbershop quartet in Skokie, Illinois. The only reason I know the name Skokie, Illinois, is from that movie. Well, the the only famous. Well, the two famous things about Skokie is one back in 1976, 77. Skokie is a very large Jewish, not only Jewish population, but a Holocaust survivor population. Oh, wow. And back then, the the Nazis, young Nazis from Chicago wanted to organize a march in Skokie. So that became this big controversy and famous.

17:47And Danny Kay, if you remember that actor, did a TV made for TV movie called Skokie. I kind of feel like I only know Danny Kay from. Christmas Vacation. I just need to say tap dance like Danny fucking Kay. I don't know why you're looking at me like, oh, no, man. Is this a movie? Yeah, I'm telling you, I'm just going to go now. I guess you see Christmas Vacation, right? No, no, she's she's younger than us. Christmas Vacation is a classic. It's like saying like, but so are you. And that's why I'm glad that it's great for you. But I am so sorry. This is happening right now. Yes, I broke into a house and I'm talking about Danny Kay. Do you know what? I got. You know, I screwed up. Can we go back? It was Danny Thomas. Oh, OK, Danny Thomas. I am none the wiser. Either way. Are you Jewish? I was going to ask you. I am. I was wondering. So I Kenji, my husband, you know, is not right.

18:47But I assume. Yeah. But I grew up Jewish. So our kids are the only Jewish Japanese people, I think, ever. But anyway, so one time I made Passover Seder dinner, like I tried. I can't tell you how, Matt, how poorly I did. Like I wrecked, I think all Jewish food for him going forward. Yeah, that's yeah. You should have him do the cooking next time. Well, he didn't know what the hell he was doing, though. He was like, what's a matzah ball? He never had. But really, what is a matzah ball? I don't really know. I was just about to ask the same thing. Like, I don't it's a matzah's bread. I mean, unleavened bread. Right. And you make balls. Yeah. And put it in matzah ball soup. Anyway, it's not my I don't cook great at it. But I was like, I'm going to be a good Jewish wife and I'm going to like make these things. And I wrecked it. So we've been together six years. I think that was like four years ago. And ever since then, any time I'm like, do you want me to know? I don't want you to try it. We're good. We're I like bot man to shove it. I did all of it. And it was not good. Do you know? I remember this.

19:50I think this was I think this was you. I'm going to talk about way before your time. OK, this is old Nashville again. OK. Bongo Java was famous. Oh, yeah. Famous worldwide. Famous. I know where you're going with because because they made a cinnamon roll and Mother Mother Teresa, Mother Teresa's face was in the cinnamon roll. Am I your 98 percent right? We didn't make it. It was like just we had a third party vendor. OK, but we one of my employees picked up this cinnamon bun and looked at it and said, that looks like Mother Teresa. Is that like grilled cheeses? Like there was that pick? Yeah. Yeah. Same kind of thing. OK. But we were I mean, this is when the Internet was just starting to happen. Yeah. This was ninety six. OK. And we got a million hits on a website. When I mean, million hits is still a big deal, but we got a million hits in 96.

20:50That's like everyone that had the Internet. Yeah. People magazine like pick it up. Every I mean, everybody picked it up on the news. David Letter. What? Late Show with David Letterman. Yeah. What's the music guy? Paul Schaefer. Paul Schaefer did a five minute song and dance routine about why America's great is because we can find famous people in our in our food items. Wow. So we were we were everywhere. That's awesome. I was on burden of proof debating Mother Teresa's attorney about copyright law. Shut up. That's how crazy this thing got. That's wild. Which you should not watch because I was nervous. I was going to say, now I want to go look all this up. It's it is true. Oh, it's all. Yeah. Just Google nun bun and you'll nun bun. Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. Which is our fault. We wanted to call it the Immaculate Confection. Did you sell it or did you keep somebody stole it? Really? They broke into the store at night on Christmas Eve. Is this like cosmic karma then for today? Yeah. For breaking. Oh, I should have looked in the kitchen for the nun bun. I bet you it's there.

21:51We're just trying to lead you back to it. Here it is, by the way. I pulled it up for you. There's the nun. There it is. That's pretty. That's Mother Teresa. I mean, that's wild. Yeah. You see why I got a million hits. Yeah. What did I believe when they were trying to prove that she was a saint, that they didn't call us and say, hey, this is one of the miracles. But right. That was my only disappointment with that thing. Well, what kind of crazy, good fortune is that? I mean, what did that do for your business? Well, it was, you know, it did help, admittedly, for a short period of time. But we sold, you know, 200 T-shirts. But it as I told people, we were the most famous coffee house in the world for about 10 minutes. But it was fun. Yeah. I mean, I just thinking of random things that happened at any time. We took the bun to a coffee convention in Atlanta and we had a booth set up trying to sell coffee. But we were I mean, I was pretty big. People wanted to see them on because it was it was big time. Oh, which is the employee that like first noticed it.

22:53Did you do anything special for? No, he he he didn't really want to be in the limelight. He kind of just discovered it. He was kind of a spiritual kind of guy and just kind of like, you know, I found this. But two other employees made a short 15 minute like mockumentary about it. It was it was a lot of fun. That's probably on the Internet somewhere, too. I don't know. Yeah. It's just it's just crazy how things like that. I wonder how if that was today, that was like, you know, how viral that would have been. Well, I'll update. I just realized that in the I think it's like the somewhere in England, they're one of those documentary channels. They just flew here to interview me about the number because they're doing this four or five part series about Mother Teresa and was supposed to be aired recently, but I guess the war and stuff delayed it a little bit. But the nun buns, I mean, it never dies. It's going to be he did to do other things. It's not just the podcast. All I keep thinking about is I want to call him out. He wasn't just waiting for my call.

23:53OK, three. OK, I keep thinking about the Halloween costume for this because, like, I love the phrase nun bun. I love that. And I feel like from the bottom half, you're like a cinnamon bun. And then up top, you just have like a Mother Teresa mask. That'd be good. That'd be good. Right. I feel like we should do like a nun bun. No, we're doing this Halloween 20 years ago. We'll do it this Halloween. We'll bring it back. Vintage Nashville, like a nun bun. Oh, G Nashville. You show up here like I'm the nun bun. Like nobody knows you're talking about. You're not Nashville. Yeah. If you know what it is, there you go. That was that was a junior in high school when that happened. And that was in my heavy coffee shop days where we would go and hang out. There was a coffee shop in Elliston place right on the corner there. I can't think of what it was called now. But there was Bongo Java. I mean, there was that was when you were 17, 18. That's where you were hanging out at coffee shops. There you go. You could smoke cigarettes. And well, Fido is has like a very special place in my heart, because when I moved here, I didn't know anyone and I'd never been. And so I had no friends. And I'm a writer like that's what I love to do.

24:54So I used to go I could only I'm still nine years here. Very directionally challenged. But I could get to Fido like I knew how to get there. My car didn't have GPS. It was like a 98 Camry and whatever. So anyway, I would drive to Fido and I would get the same thing. I would always get the it was like the grilled chicken dish. There was like sweet potatoes and whatever. I like loved that plate. I would get that. And then I would like go to Pangea and buy a couple of things and walk up to the flower mart up the road. So Hillsborough Village became my favorite spot in all the city. And I would just go to Fido and write. But your Wi-Fi was always down because it was always popular. Right. Like it was always busy. So one day after I'd been there for like a month straight, I think one of the employees was like, here's a hint. If the Christmas lights and then I felt like, oh, my God, I made it like I know a thing insider thing in Nashville, I know when I can get the Wi-Fi at Fido. And I felt so cool. So I just love Fido. It took me a while to figure that out, too. I'm like, why are these Christmas lights up here all year long? And they're like, that's the Wi-Fi. That's the Wi-Fi. I had no idea.

25:56I didn't know that. Yeah. Oh, that's never happened on the show. No, I don't. I never went to. He's never there's things he doesn't know where I know something that he doesn't know. Like that never happened. But I've been to Fido 500 times because I used to live in a condo directly behind Sam's. OK. So there's these brick condos right there. My my windows overlooked like Sam's parking lot. And it was like zoomie sushi and these other places. But that was like the hey, that's my favorite time, I think. With Jackson's and we would go to Fido. I sat in the corner of Fido. We sat and we watched the crane tear that building down. My office was in that building. It was the saddest thing. I was like that by the shoe repair. Yeah, but the shoe I got, I would get my shoes repaired there. I had a pair of I don't know what kind of boots they were. But like I just I was just the saddest thing. But we were there every day. I mean, walk in eggs, McFido, everything bagel, scrambled cheddar cheese, local sausage or bacon, pending the day that I was the local latte. 12 ounce in it to go cup.

26:56They're making me so nostalgic. I miss those days like not. I wasn't there that long ago. Hillsborough Village, though. The old Hillsborough Village, Jackson's back. I was here for Jackson's, too. And Bosco's was still here. And Pangea is forever like one of my favorite spots. And I was there the week it closed because I just couldn't handle it. I love Old Hillsborough Village so much. It's funny, Sandra, the old owner just emailed me today, I think. Did you see the email I just sent you before this whole thing? No. Oh, I said very last minute. I sent you our latest newsletter from Bongo saying might be something we could talk about. Yeah. Oh, what is it? Sandra, comment about let's talk about it. What was on it? It well, it was my annual favorite holiday newsletter. April Fools Day is your favorite holiday. It's my favorite. OK, tell me why, because it's my least favorite. Really? I'm so gullible. I know. And that's what's so fun. There's people like you out there. That's why I love it. Praise on you. I grew up in that kind of family. We do all the stuff.

27:56My wife hates that stuff cycle at once a year. I get to do it. You know, I fall for all of it. What did you do? Well, this year, you I mean, I've done some wacky things. This year was more political, local, political. It was all about turning back the clock. Fifteen years saying that's when Nashville is great. And I gave some suggestions at the end about how we could go back there. But it's kind of fun. Yeah. What are they? You can't just say gave some suggestions. We could talk about it like subscribe to the newsletter people. It was it was we called it, you know, because in the news it was they're talking about daylight savings time. Change the ending. Yeah. So we called I called it Bongo's Bongo savings time. But the logo on there is BS. Anyway, so it was just my initials. Yeah. Wow. Sorry. The thing people like that makes sense. That makes sense. That's funny. I didn't think about that. We're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. What Chefs Want has been serving the Nashville restaurant community for over 15 years.

29:01During that time, they've worked tirelessly to be. Well, what chefs want seven day deliveries, no fuel charges, 24 seven customer care, unparalleled availability, and they'll split almost everything they sell. If you're the kind of person that wants to see what's new when it comes in stock, you should follow them on the socials at what chefs want and sign up to be a customer at what chefs want dot com. Hey, everybody, today we're talking about my good friend Ben Ellsworth and GigPro. After years of spending too much time and money on useless staffing software, Ben Ellsworth knew something had to change. So out of necessity, GigPro was born. GigPro is the on demand marketplace for hospitality staffing. They're changing the way people work and hire. If you download the GigPro app today, you can get the help you need. GigPro has an exclusive promo offer for Nashville restaurant radio listeners.

30:01Sign up at go.gigpro.com forward slash N R R B I Z and make sure that you use that code. I want them to know that you came from Nashville restaurant radio. That again is go.gigpro.com forward slash N R R B I Z. That code will get you your first gig for free up to two hundred dollars. Go check them out right now. All right. Today we are talking about net checks, net checks. Man, I tell you what, net checks. If you heard. I start thinking about net checks dot com and I just get I get excited. I mean, payroll taxes, human resources. Oh, this is my jam. Yeah. Hey, look, I'm a restaurant person and I'm good at dealing with people. All the things. But you know what? All this HR payroll taxes, that is not necessarily my jam, which is why net checks is here. They make it so darn easy.

31:03Recruiting and onboarding, performance management, human resources. They do the scheduling. They're like a program. You can go and put your schedule. It'll fill it out for you. You need that. That makes your life easier. Stop using an Excel spreadsheet. They do payroll. They do taxes and it's all wrapped up nice and neat in a mobile app. You need to go check them out right now. If you are like me and don't like doing all these things, they make it so easy that anyone can do it right now. Net checks is always on the employee experience. Thanks for listening. Please go support my sponsors. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the sponsors tab for special offers from all of them. Now back to Bob Bernstein. No, it's just a big part of what I've been going through the last 10, 15 years is like this changes in Nashville. I'm trying to figure out, do I still mentally fit here? Because I moved here in 88, like we said, and thinking I was going to use it as a springboard for my journalism career.

32:11I moved here to be a journalist thinking you're two in the south, whatever. I'll get out of there as quickly as I can. But after a year, I realized I had it backwards. I didn't really like journalism, but I liked the city and I stayed. And I called it an easy place to be. It was just affordable. You can get anywhere in 10 minutes. They had enough of everything. There wasn't a lot of stuff. I mean, I remember chairing when the first Indian restaurant opened. But over the years, it's just grown so crazy. It's very exciting. And, you know, maybe if I was 20, 30 years old, I'd find this town really exciting. But I find it hard to just drive my kids to school and all the potholes and the construction zones and the speed bumps they have to put out to save a safe neighborhood. So that's kind of stuff. And also been real involved, pretty involved in education issues and wondering how this talk in national about growth was going to like provide all this money to get us great city services, like better schools, sidewalks, transportation, all that hasn't come to fruition.

33:22So that's the kind of stuff that I was thinking about and wrote about in the newsletter. Talked about how if, you know, when we recruit new businesses, our new corporate headquarters here, if we would include facts like, yeah, it's a great city because we don't have to pay income tax. And we have really I think that I think we're like 45th in the country in terms of overall tax rate. I was like, that's great. We don't need to give we we need them to pay more taxes. Yeah, but it all means that we have schools that are completely underfunded. We don't we have no sidewalks. We have potholes everywhere. We can't get our garbage picked up in time. And people don't correlate those two things. So I tried to do it in kind of a silly way, saying, you know, you have to also point out the negative stuff there that's going on. I talked about how city council people and school board members should be required to hang out at the parks and talk to parents about young parents are always having conversation. How do I get my kid in a good school?

34:24It's always about the good schools, because the perception is there's five good schools in Nashville and people need the elected officials need to hear that this is the kind of conversations going on. It's not about, hey, you know, Titan's new stadium. It's not about in the latest, greatest farm to table restaurant. It's opening up. It's about where can I put my kids in school where it's the buildings not crumbling, though they'll actually have supplies and things like that. So I try to like poke fun at that and kind of tease it in a way saying, hey, start thinking about it. I love that. I've I've been battling that for the last couple of years, too. And we right before we decided to go forward with soy, I was kind of like, oh, but I think I might want to move. And Brian or Kenji, I call Brian Kenji is like, why? Because he loves the city so much. And I loved it when I moved here. But yes, because it was easy to be here. Like, that's a great way to describe it. But as I've been here longer and now we have kids and all these things, I'm like, you know, I we live in Williamson County and I don't want to put my kids in school in Williamson County because I do want them to have people that will look like them.

35:28And that likely won't happen out there. And I'm like very aware of that. I'm very aware of just these different things. And the city feels like it's been being built for tourists instead of for locals. And when I got here, like I loved Fido and I loved Pangea. And I love these things and all of those things in Fido still here. But Pangea is gone. Jackson's is gone. Like we've talked about a ton of rest. Bosco's is gone. Like Sam's is gone. Like there's just so much sense with any kind of growth. Obviously comes some you have to to have a new life. You have to leave some of your old life behind. Totally. But I didn't want to leave all that behind. And it feels like a lot of locals didn't want to. But all these tourists came. And so then Broadway changed and it became, you know, celebrities, bars and things like that. And I don't know that I love the growth. I think I'm resentful for it because I want my old city back. Yeah, I mean, I think that's going to be a big conversation. The next mayor's race is who is the city for any born? What are we doing? Yeah, another point in my my.

36:32My quoted seven point plan that had nine points was rent control for businesses that really helped make us the city because we are, you know, a lot of us being are forced out of business just because of rents, we're really fortunate that, you know, I've been in business so long, we bought a lot of our real estate where I signed really long deals. Right. But that's why I try to talk about other people that just can't afford it. I mean, some of these businesses just naturally closed because owners are, you know, getting to a point they want to be there. But it's rough. It's rough out there. And I'm starting to feel like our city doesn't the look, feel and taste of Nashville is going away. It's starting to look, feel and taste like every other city. Yeah. And that's, you know, if I had a cause and issue, that would be that an education or those two things, local business and education. I totally agree with you. I don't feel like the city represents me the way that it used to. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Neither my interests, like personally, professionally, any of that. Like, I just don't feel like it represents who I the people I want to raise or the person I want to grow into or any of that.

37:34And that's I mean, now we own a business, so we we are here for a while. Yeah. So, yeah, it's funny to hear you want to move from Williamson County into the city. Yeah. The problem is, it's so unaffordable. So is Williamson. I mean, it's yeah, that's true. But it's like, yeah, where are you going to live? You know, and I'll tell you when we hang up. Well, I it's near and dear to my heart. Also, I think that I've asked myself the question, what can I do to help preserve our industry? Because what we're seeing is these national chains come in. And I'm talking specifically about the restaurant industry for me, because that's where we were. No, but I mean. Well, if you're a small local restaurant, you know, I love the story. I don't love the story. I hate the story of like Ten Angel, right? So I mean, Ten Angel is there and you get Majiano's across the street. And I think I was selling them both produce at the same time. And I'm making up numbers right now.

38:36But like, I think Majiano's is around twenty one dollars a case for Romaine. And Ten Angel was paying like thirty four. And you're like, how and and he gets angry about that. Balsam, right? Right. And he's angry. So he starts the Nashville originals and he let's bring all these people together and then let's have this buying power to to beat them. And you can get all the people together and nobody could agree on anything. But were you part of the national originals? Was that my wrong with that? I mean, there was a lot of that. And then you get a bunch of small business owners in the room. And we all have our own opinion about how things should be done. Well, how it should be market, how it should look and feel. But but national originals did, I think, a good job for several years. Yeah. And then it became. People got tired of it. It's an interesting things that people some people say there's so many small business or small, so many local businesses here. But I don't think anybody could really do what I did 30 years ago and not because I'm so great, but the timing was affordable to do it.

39:43I could afford to make mistakes. I could afford to be weird and different. But now, you know, you have to have cocktails that are twenty dollars. Another point in my nine point plan was you have to have cocktails. Can't be more than twice the minimum wage. Yeah. Or the average cocktail. But because that's what it's turning to is these higher. You have to charge a lot of money. Yeah. Cover the rent and the labor and things like that. Yeah. We're all you know, we all want to pay livable wages and all those things. But rent and everything else is hard to balance. That at the end of the day, if you ever go downtown and I know I don't ever go downtown, but back when, you know, I was in sales and we had season tickets, the predators, you'd go to rippies before you meet. Hey, we're bringing a couple of the game. We go to rippies and you buy a bucket of like a bucket of Coors lights one time. And it was like, it would be fifty four dollars. I'm like, what the actual fuck is going on here? And like, what? And you just have to pay it. I mean, OK.

40:44I mean, whatever it was, I think it was with my tip. It was like fifty some dollars. Like I just paid fifty four dollars for a six pack of Coors light. And that's painful. I our conversation with Tom Morales, which I had a year and a half ago, the middle of this thing, he was still closed at ACME. But I love his perspective of wanting to preserve Nashville. Let's preserve. And, you know, he took the Loveless Cafe and made it something that's going to be around for a long time. The Southern I love ACME, feed and seed Woolworths. He just takes these original buildings and preserves them into something that's going to be long and lasting. And I've talked to so many local restaurateurs that are welcoming this industry, still the local hospitality industry is still a pretty tight knit group of people. And I think that we just have to keep that going. When people come into town, we've got to embrace them, inviting the local people in. But I think there's still a really good culture. Oh, there is. And, you know, in a lot of ways, the restaurant, local restaurant world is thriving in Nashville.

41:52And at the same time, you see these national and regional players coming in here, opening businesses in, you know, the average tourist or the person's been here a week and a half that's moved to Nashville doesn't know the difference between something that's been here 20 years or something that's been here a week and a half. And they have six other locations across the southeast or three in Williamson County and two here and whatever. To me, there's a big difference between the one off shops and the regional or national chains. Yeah, there's a big difference. Big difference. It's where the tax dollars are going. Going back to that is like where the profits come. If if you have profits in the restaurant industry and things like that or where your donations going and things like that. So there's it's interesting. I had a conversation with one of those regional owners of restaurants and they were talking about how they're going to be. They're going to do everything can to be local. I'm like, are you going to move here? Right. No. I'm going to close all your shops out the other way.

42:53No, I'm like, well, then, you know, we don't have much to talk about. Yeah. On that, because there's a huge difference to me. And I won't go to it. I just don't go to those places. Right. Well, and that's one of Brandon's points. He makes a lot, too, of like any time one of those like Nashville original places closes, one was the last time you went there. Like we were talking about Pangea. Right. And I mean, to be fair, I did go to Pangea a lot pre pandemic and then pandemic hit and, you know, no one was going anywhere. But outside of that, like it was it did have me thinking of like, what are the places I wouldn't want to lose? And, you know, some of those places don't fit in my current lifestyle. Like I have kids, my husband sober. Like so a lot of those places I hope stay are just not places I'm going to frequent. Right. But when I'm waiting on somebody and they have a list of where should we go? I'm like, this is where you should go. Go to this bar. Go to this bar. Go to this restaurant. And I just push those because I do want to keep it local. And I listen, I'm I love Olive Garden. Like, I love it deeply and passionately in my whole being. I really do. But I don't even know who you are right now.

43:54I was going to say I was ready to walk out. Sorry, I won't apologize for it. I don't believe in guilty pleasures. I don't believe she would feel guilty about pleasures. But anyway, I do love Olive Garden. That being said, my favorite restaurants are all local. Like the best restaurants I've been to are all here. And the people that work there, I know and I love. And like, I'm actually surprised I hadn't met you, mostly because you had. You do know my husband, but also like we knew so many peripheral people. But I love that you are now sitting across from me and we're talking about Fido. And it has this like very core memory for me. And I love that aspect of Nashville. And I just don't want to lose it. And I I agree with you. I think the restaurant community can be very welcoming. But I think for the people that come in not anticipating it being welcoming and they come in kind of like an asshole. I don't know that I wish for their success. I just hope that they change their attitude about it, I guess. Well, people can change. I remember my biggest thing, I think, is when Davis Kidd closed. Right. Davis Kidd closed and everybody was up in arms. And they're like, how can Davis Kidd close?

44:55I'm like, when was the last time you were there? And like, well, I just get my books on Amazon now. It's like that's why they're closed. Yeah, I pulled this up right here because I just bought Pat Martin's Life of Fire. But you can see this is a signed edition from Parnassus. Very good. But like, I'm not like I wanted. I went to Parnassus to buy this book. I didn't know it was signed, but I got I was like, oh, it gets signed. But still, you got to support local people. Fleet feeder. You know, there's all these little places in Green Hills. I love the donut den. You know, I mean, Norman Fox is one of the nicest people I've ever met. And he's been there forever, been there forever. And, you know, people are let's go to five dollars. Go to this other donut. That's like Green Hills. Go check out Fox's donut den. That guy is as local as he's in there. He was there last Sunday. I walked in, I bought donuts for the Green Hills Grill and and he's in there. He's got a, you know, a apron on and he's making donuts. And the guy's done it forever.

45:57I mean, he's just a good dude. I love supporting people. Did he start donut then? Yeah. I can't remember. And Norman Fox is Fox's donut den. That's his place. I can't remember the story. I used to play pick up basketball with him back. You know, who knows how many years ago? I remember going to sounds games in like 1992, like at Greer Stadium, and they had the Fox's donut. They had there's a big donut. They used to throw baseballs through the donut hole. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's oh, gee, Steph. That's like Nashville original. That guy was supporting the sounds in 92. That was rough. That's not that stadium was rough. I still remember that. I mean, that was a cool that like those are like those fond Nashville memories for me. And now we go to the sound stadium to sit in right field and not pay attention to the game. No, you play miniature golf. Yeah. I mean, the band box back there, I think, is a really cool concept. It's awesome, but it's it's yeah, it's not the same as 92. Well, they have the strategic brothers.

46:58Ben and Max have such a good way of combining local and tourists. Like they are just uniquely gifted, I think, at that in all of their locations. Like locals go there and tourists go there. Whereas like I feel like Broadway has gotten a little weird where that like is just for tourists, you know. So like Ben and Max, I will praise forever. I think it's incredible. They've done an incredible, incredible job like Bastion. And what I love about them is they've they've done what we've done. But times whatever that each they keep doing different things. Yeah, they don't. They don't open 12 of the same thing. Yeah, that's what I really I love that one off kind of concept. That's what we do. And each place has its own feel. Exactly like it's yeah. And now they're doing these partnerships with chefs and stuff. And so it's just yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good guys. Yeah, definitely. I love the fact that they their innovation and their fear, like they will go. They were the first ones at Bar 23, and then they did Paradise Park, like the idea of doing Paradise Park, like this trailer resort on Broadway before.

48:00Like all these different places were there. I mean, just the level of vision that those guys have in the execution, what they were able to do to me, I think is in the way that they do it in Nashville. They're not in Atlanta. They're not they haven't moved to bigger cities. They've put it all here and they've they've elevated the game here as far as what we're doing food wise. Julia Sullivan over at Henrietta Redd, James Beard, Nominee, you know, Josh Hobbiger, the idea of the Patterson House, the first place that open like no sign, tiny little place, eight different types of ice. Like, what, what, what are you doing? I just it's got a great story with the Goldberg brothers. Have you heard how they found him? Yeah, yeah, yeah, no. He came to be a bartender and then he kind of just said, hey, come over for brunch one day. And they're like, oh, my God, this guy can cook. He became one of the best chefs in town. So it's awesome. And it was his idea. I've had both. I had Benjamin Goldberg on the show and I've had Josh on the show to kind of tell these stories.

49:03But I love the idea. He when he started bartending, he was a chef and he was at Alinea in Chicago with Grant Atkins, and he came to Nashville to be a bartender, essentially. But he was the general manager of the Patterson House. But what he did was he would make he was this kind of like being a chef, but I made drinks and then I set them in front of people and I got to watch them. And I got to watch and see what they did so I could actively work on my craft. Right. So if I make a drink and sit in front of somebody and they took the sprig of mint and threw it to the side, or do they take a picture first? Did they clean the thing off the rim or what? Like, what did they do with it? And every time if I saw four times, they took the mint and threw it aside. Well, I'm going to not put that mint. I'm going to do a different thing. And I could actively make every drink better by watching. And he goes, what if we could do that as a chef? Because most chefs are in a kitchen. They make a dish, they spin it in the window and then they go on to the next dish. He goes, but what if we could make a dish, set it in front of somebody and watch what they do with it?

50:04And I could constantly be getting better. He goes, and that's where the idea for the catbird seat came from. It was great. And he told he told a bunch of people about this idea. And they all went, you'll never make money doing that. And he goes, and I told Max Goldberg and he goes, let's do it. He goes, how are you going to make money? He goes, I don't care. I love the idea. Look like let's we'll figure that out. But like, let's just do it. And he was like, really? Like, and I asked Ben, I go, what do you have? What part of you sees that vision and just says, yes, I'm willing to take that risk? Because so many people are risk averse that would say, well, I need to put the numbers together. But you had that gut, you knew this guy was special and he could pull it off. And there it is, James Beard nominated. You know, that's just amazing how they do stuff like that. And that's what I guess there is still that. I mean, the Goldberg brothers and others have that here in Nashville. But that spirit of let's just try something different. And that's what I love about Nashville. It has that. Yeah, that's what I'm afraid we're going to lose. I know. I agree. It's as you know, back when I was a reporter, people told me that Nashville special because it was built on co-writing because people work together and it was a cooperative city rather than, you know, I'm not going to tell you my idea because you might do it.

51:17But that's that's the spirit I love about Nashville. And that's like every time I get I make my list of things I don't like about Nashville, I keep coming back to that. It's a creative city. You can still do what you want. It's just a lot more expensive or harder to do. Yeah. I find that if you if you're intentional, I think anything in life that you're intentional with, you can do whatever you want to do. But if you're intentional with eating local and finding local, you're going to run into this people that feel the same way. If you're intentional in shopping local, it's for me, driving through Green Hills that drives me up the wall. It's the for me, honestly, I'm at the point I'm from Southern California. Originally, traffic is terrible. That's funny, because back in the day as a reporter, which is back in 88, 89, I wrote a story about the traffic at Green Hill, how bad, how bad it was. And my feeling was, let's just bomb it and start over. You know, coming from Chicago, everything is, you know, straight this way, straight that way. It's a total grid. You look at Green Hill. Oh, my God.

52:19So I totally hasn't changed. I said, you know what the least uttered phrase in Nashville is? Having a restaurant in Green Hills. Hey, let's go to Green Hills and have lunch. I said nobody in Nashville ever. It's like, is this you mean? Did you say avoid Green Hills like the plague? Because I don't want to go there if I can avoid it. It's people that live inside of Green Hills that are that we see all the time at the grill. But nobody says that. So you moved here for journalism? Yeah, I moved here to be a reporter for the business journal. That's very cool. I got my I have an English degree because I wanted to be like a big writer someday. And I had a column with the Tennessean. I don't know if you remember 12th and Broad. I kind of do. Yeah. So right when I moved here is when they launched it. And it was this like weird little column. Well, mine was weird, low column. But 12th and Broad was supposed to be for like the new Nashville. It was like a little insert or something. It had its own magazine and it was it looked kind of like the scene. Like, you know how the scene is huge. So anyway, mine was about like being single and young and living in Nashville and just moving here and stuff.

53:20And then I worked for CMT after that. But like it was that that to me is like the greatest Nashville thing, because I was like I didn't know anything and I could write off when I went out to eat or went on a date or whatever, because I was working. I did all of. Yeah. So like I loved it. So I I can't imagine like right coming here in the late 80s, early 90s to write. It must have been so cool and so fun because it super wasn't the booming city then. No, I mean, I was covering state government mostly. And I started out with start. Yeah, I started covering covering small business. I did switch to government, which is what I wanted to do. Sure. But doing that, doing what you want to do, got me into to open your restaurant. Hey, same. Not what I wanted to do. Yeah, same, same. Do you have recommendations for government? I mean, like if we're changing the topic conversation, I'm I'm not the one to get into deep government stuff. But I mean, is there if we have listeners out there who are listening? What what changes do you feel like we need?

54:21What are the things that we're missing? I had Kerry Bringle on. He wrote that big op ed, you know, with the 34 percent income tax. Right. And I had him on and I said, will you break down for me what you're talking about? And he went into tax breaks. And why are we giving the four seasons a tax break? They're coming anyway. Like this land that we have, people want to be here and we're giving them tax breaks to be here and we can't get potholes fixed. But why and why are we now taxing local business owners like myself who have bought the dirt, who live? This is my business. I now have to pay an extra five thousand seven hundred dollars a month because the Weston got a deal. Like, I don't understand why our government did that, but he broke it down. It was really interesting. Any insight into that sort of a thing? I'm afraid to step into all that. I don't know enough about any individual or collective incentives we've given people. And I've talked to like Bob Endez, who's a councilman, who is an expert in that kind of stuff, and him and others will assure me that those the total incentives aren't that huge of a deal.

55:32I think Nashville and Tennessee, and this is what I wrote about for three years, is state tax reform. It's funny, my dad was a CPA. He told me if I became a CPA, I'd break my arm. And then for three years, all I wrote was about tax issues and made a lot less money than a CPA would write. But we don't have an income tax and income taxes. Yeah, I know it's a it's a four letter word. It'll never happen in Tennessee. But I was a reporter about the last time they even thought about it. The governor proposed it, but then didn't push it. But so we have a sales tax and the property tax, and those taxes either don't go up much in time or they're very aggressive and hit the low income people the hardest. You could say sales tax hits everybody, but 100 percent of what low income people are paying, they're being charged nine and a quarter percent because they're spending it on something. Right. And property tax. Well, you're going to say, well, poor people don't own property. So they're, you know, why does that hit them? But they're renting and that price is built into them.

56:34And then and then they don't get the tax, you know, the mortgage rebate thing that those of us who own property get. So those two tax are really regressive. We don't have a state income tax, which one. Is more progressive. It's the higher income people hire and grows over time without having to raise the rates because people make more money over time. That's a big part of it, that we are tax base is very limited. So we're going to do. And that's why the state gets it. And that's why they decided to build this tourism business, you know, blah, blah, blah, to get outsiders to pay for everything. I don't know enough about details of anything because I don't follow it and that granule level. But like I said before, it's like. When I was here in 88 in these meetings, the city leaders said we need to grow so we could provide better services for the city. They even debated whether they should keep the Music City moniker or whether that was too hickey for Nashville, that the Nashville that they wanted to create.

57:37But they the promise was growth was going to fix everything or give us better. And I just don't I can just see it hasn't happened. I think my life has gotten harder. My day to day life, my financial aid, you know. Yeah, I can't complain. Like I said, I got here 88 bought properties, so I'm in good shape. It's harder for people like me or people are just coming to the city. So I look at that way and I just I don't know if I believe in this growth fixes all this trick. It was a trickle down thing that didn't work back in the 80s. And, you know, on the national level, it hasn't really worked locally. So do I do I have an answer? Not really. But I think. I think the mayor's race, like I said, is going to be about local versus tourism, versus corporate headquarters and about living, you know, the cost of living and way of life here in Nashville. At least I hope it is. It's about, you know, local versus out of towner.

58:38And people have been here for 10 minutes. Like, why are we catering to them? Right. Even stylistically, I feel like we cater to the tourists. Like the restaurants all kind of started to look the same in the last few years. We've all changed our menus or our systems or whatever, because, OK, how do I deal with a bachelor party of bachelorette party of 20 on a weekend? I didn't have to deal with that before. And a lot of my locals don't. People think this growth is great for our business. And I'm like, a lot of my locals don't come anymore on the weekends because it's touristy. I know the restaurant I work for now, like my mom is here with me with the twins. And she's like, Oh, Friday and Saturdays must be so great. I'm like, they're no better than like I think those nights are worse because it is more tourist people coming in for like whatever shows at the Franklin Theatre or they're coming in from Broadway or whatever. But like Monday through Thursday, those are locals that are coming in to see us and to buy what they know they love, even if they get the burger every time. They get the burger every time. You know, it's it's very different. It's a it's more fun.

59:40That's the kind of restaurant business I wanted to be in. Yeah. Create those gathering places. And now I go in there. I'm like, I don't I'll never see these customers again. And they all want to write reviews like they're like an expert. Yeah, I know. Do you get people calling, like messaging you saying, Hey, I'm an influencer. We have a bachelorette party. Can we can you feed us for free and we'll talk about you? Do you get a lot of those requests? Oh, my God. Yeah. The first couple. I didn't know anything about. I'm not an Internet guy. So I asked young people early and they look it up. Well, they have 12 followers. I'm like, really, do you want to give them a free meal? I guess not. But it sounded cool. I'm like, yeah, but it's ridiculous. People what people will ask for. Yeah. We're coming to Nashville. We don't want to spend a lot of money. We're going to come eat there. But we'll we'll take a picture while we're there. And is that worth 500 bucks or whatever you're going to spend and eat and drink? And it's like, no, I have to pay my rent with real money. Yeah. In other businesses, you could pay. People don't even know anything about your product. They're just going to hold it up and say, hey, this is great.

01:00:41You know, because they have half a million or a million followers and you just pay them X amount of dollars. It's just it's weird. Nashville is an interesting economy. There's there's there's a lot of in the bachelor world, like all these people, these influencers that like live here and do. There was bachelors last night at Caitlin Bristow was at Marathon Music Works last night, these people just doing these live shows like what? What do you? Well, that's kind of what I mean about like how stylistically Nashville has driven itself toward like influencer culture, which, listen, I worked in marketing and social media, like I do that. And I understand like the need for that. But I do also think are we selling our soul a little bit? I think so, yeah. You know, like, yes, I want you to post about like Soy Bistro is great because it's small, right. And we were on diners, drive ins and dives. And there's that Guy Fieri thing, right, where he like signs the wall with the spray paint or whatever. So like people take pictures of that and tag us in it. And that's great.

01:01:41But they're not taking pictures of the food as often. They're taking pictures of that. And I'm like, well, you're going to buy the food, though. Like, that's why I need you here. We don't sell liquor or beer or wine. So like you have to buy the food for us to do anything. So we haven't made like an Instagram mobile thing that just happened. But like so many places like I'm thinking of that one place, the name I've never been to, the Hampton Social. Oh, yeah. Everybody stops and takes a picture in front of that sign. They have like a neon sign and a greenery. And it's beautiful. We're like the Fairlane Hotel just announced today. They're doing their bloom house. So they have a bunch of flowers hanging from the ceiling. And it is absolutely gorgeous. And that's great. This is not hate to any of those businesses. It's just those are gorgeous. But I am going there to drink or I'm going there to eat. I'm not just going there for the ambiance as a local person. Yeah, it's a different it was like a local person. You're not going there at all. I've never been to either of those places, but I haven't either. But to get it back to me, because this is about me, right? That alleyway at Fido with the mural with the lips.

01:02:45Oh, my God. It's like everybody needs to take their picture there. And bachelorette parties will show up in buses that park in my lot while they take the picture. And then they get back on the bus and go somewhere else to take a picture. I'm like, well, you're taking up all these spots in my lot. Can you just buy some coffee? Do they sometimes? Yeah, I mean, I'm not complaining. And it sure brings people there that mural, but the mural brings people there. The coffee doesn't the burgers across the street. I need nothing. Whatever. It's a mural chaser, which is interesting. It's all like you said. It's this influencer, Instagrammable world. I came to Nashville and took pictures in five murals. Like, did you get to go see the Parthenon? What? What is that? I don't even. What's the Parthenon like? And you know, there's a full scale replica of the Parthenon right now. Oh, yeah, we didn't see that at all. Like, it could be like learn something. It's hard to get that in a photo with yourself. That's perspective. But there's an Instagrammable museum, I don't know what they call it downtown, where you just pay 25 bucks and you can take your picture in front of all these different things.

01:03:50Really? I didn't know about that. That's right. My kids go. My kids go to school downtown. And so you just find these weird places. Wow. I tell you, what do you think about transpertainment? That's part of my nine point plan. Why don't we know? You should have read it. It's like you read it. You'd even read it. I know. Forward this to me. I want to read it. Yeah, I need to see it. I don't know what I'd looked on my email. I didn't see which email you sent it to. I have like six different ones. Really, really does. Yeah. No, it's crazy. I mean, it's like it's to me. You could look at a symbolic of what we want the city to be. And we those things are going around downtown, right? Where we have public, you know, one of the top academic magnet schools in the city. And they're getting these. Not only are they drunk and barely clothed and loud music, but they all sing off key, too. And it's just natural to require them to sing. Now it's like, who is the city for?

01:04:50Yeah. And even the the legislator, you know, they banned it for a while and they made them enclose it. But they're saying, oh, that was just a pause until we regulate them. I'm like, regulate them. Why are they allowed at all? Yeah. Like the scooters on the street. Yeah. And it all goes like 12 miles per hour. So you're just stuck behind them. I mean, is a city for kids and families or is it for tourists and bachelorette? Yeah. So I don't know. It's like I see having a balance. I I've never had a problem with the transportation because I don't I'm not downtown. I don't live downtown. It's not a but they're coming in. I was going to say they're going into going everywhere. Yeah. Now they're in like Midtown, too. And yeah, yeah. Yes. I mean, the but like the perspective of, you know, there's schools downtown and people acting like that is just no. I can see that. I was I I've always had a problem with people that were like living in Brentwood that just hated them. I'm like, why do you hate those? Like, well, they're just loud. And I'm like, you live in Brentwood, like you're not even going down.

01:05:53You don't work downtown. You've never. Yeah, that's another going back to the tax rate and everything else. There's so many people living in Franklin and Brentwood working downtown. It's like when people move to town, they're like, oh, you need to live in Franklin or Brentwood. But then they work downtown and we don't capture that. It's another cost to Nashville that we just hard to capture. Yeah, I used to work downtown when I lived in Franklin, too. And I'll tell you, I don't get it. That commute sucked because if you're stuck on 65, like you're stuck on 65. I found your email. You found I found the news. It wasn't as funny as my normal April Fool's Day joke. I'm going to subscribe to your newsletter now, though. Just once a year is great. And April Fool's Day is usually the fun time. OK, I pass a resolution declaring Nashville children are a priority and then make decisions like whether it's a good idea to allow drunk, barely clothed people singing loud country music off key in any sort of vehicle on our public streets. There you go. I think you nailed it right there.

01:06:56Yeah, the off key part was my favorite. It's not in Nashville. You can't be off key. You can't be off key. You don't have to give your opinion on the person. But did you see the SNL skit with Marsha Blackburn over the weekend? The what with Marsha SNL did a Marsha Blackburn skit. Oh, my God, it was so funny. Like I I'm pretty vocal about I don't agree with her. You don't have to be, but I'm pretty vocal about that. But anyway, this get was so funny, like they nailed the impersonation, which is the important part like of SNL. You got to nail the impersonation. You know, it was so funny. So definitely watch it. It's on the weekend update. I thought that the that there there was a skit where they did a doll. Yeah, I saw that one. It's the funniest skit. They did a like they did like an HSN skit. And the guy that came on was selling a doll and the doll had rainbow dreadlocks and they were like you could grow them like you just had to push a button and they would grow longer. But mechanically, right, where the hair was coming from, ended up looking like a 1970s playboy with the rainbow dreadlocks.

01:08:03It's one of the I felt same wife told me about the next day and I had to watch it on YouTube. Yeah, it was a really good episode, actually. Anyway, the Marsha Blackburn like impersonation is so good. And any time we make headlines for stuff, I'm always like, oh, what do we make headlines for? What are we in the news about? Yeah, I don't. Yeah, we can get it. You should have local political radio. I'll say other things. Well, you have imposed a double sales tax on breakfast and lunches bought downtown by people who live in counties surrounding Nashville and work in Davidson County. Yeah, I mean, they're using up our services and they're not really paying property or much sales tax, whatever. That's very creative. Yeah. Well, these are just, you know, I try to parody all the thoughts I've been thinking about. Protect our cities, look, feel and taste by imposing rent control for the locally owned small businesses that help make Nashville become the city. Amen. There you go.

01:09:05Reduce the city wide average price of a cocktail to less than double the hourly minimum wage. What if we had like a local card? We lived here a decade. Yeah, people did real well at vaccination. And you walk up and you have like a local discount card. I say, look, it's more than 10 years, though. It's before I don't count them. Yeah, I don't care. That's OK. 20 years. Wow. I think 15, 15. Yeah, my based my piece on 15 years. So 15 to 20 years, I think if you've been here, you've you help build the city into the city. You could have like an actual local card. That'd be good. And you go somewhere and like that drink will be twenty five dollars. Like, oh, actually, I have this card. And like, oh, actually, that's fifteen dollars for you. I think that's a tenth point to my seven point plan. Tenth point. You know, you remind me of and I hope you take this as a compliment. I you remind me of like a mix between because you seem to see like the ridiculousness of a lot of this, but also like the sincerity that it needs to be better at some point.

01:10:07Right. You seem to really want it to be better. But so much of it is ridiculous. We're talking about transcontainment. That's ridiculous. I feel like there's a little bit of David Sedaris meets like George Carlin. Oh, I'll take that. Yeah. OK, good. I was hoping I was like, oh, definitely. I think I'm surprised you're all you remember who George or, you know, George. I love stand up and I love books. So like if I that's just like, I'm really an old soul. I just haven't lived here that long. George Carlin. Yeah, I'll take I'll take any comparison. Well, not any, and I could get a little left. I like that. I like your point. Number seven, I think might be the best one. Which one's the point? Number seven, have the city maintain at all times at least one route from Old Hickory Boulevard to downtown that doesn't have a speed bump or a pothole. Yeah, I forgot there. You have to I meant construction. I forgot to put constructions on in there, too. But yes, it is one route, at least one route to downtown. Hillsborough, like if it's a Patilsboro or if it's West End, I went under when it is one route that goes straight in.

01:11:12And I picked Old Hickory because it kind of circles the city. So it's we all get one. Old Hickory, if you figure it out, Old Hickory goes. I if I am if I like I said, really bad at directions. But like if I hit Old Hickory, I can usually figure out where I am because I know all the stuff on it in the various parts of the cities. But I don't know that I could get there blindly, except from Brentwood. And I hate to say I've been here 30 almost 34 years. Can you drive around Old Hickory all the way around the city? Or is it just break up? I know it's all around the city, but can you actually drive at all? I have never done it. I know. I keep I keep wanting to do that. All right. Their next episode, I'm going to bring microphones and we're going to you and I. It's going to be me and Bob driving Old Hickory. It's got a whole episode. It's going to take us three hours, but it's going to be the episode. We're just going to be driving Old Hickory. We're going to find out where it starts and where it stops. And then we'll know. We'll share it with everybody in town. I don't think anybody knows the actual answer to that. I hope somebody DMS us and is like, here's the same person whose house I broke into.

01:12:15There you go. Way to bring it back. That was nice. That's full circle right there. Absolutely. Bob, this has been a lot of fun. Do we talk to anything that you want to discuss? I don't know. I mean, I didn't know what I was going to be in for, but no, I mean, I think do you want to talk about your business? How can people get a great burger? So personal, I don't know. It's funny. People come in and I always say this isn't a podcast about food. It's about food people, right? Because it's all about people. Oh, yeah, you're under no obligation to people come in and like, I'm sorry, I didn't talk about my restaurant too much. I'm like, I don't I didn't care about your restaurant. I cared about you. I wanted I want people to hear this and go, I want to go support that guy's places because he's really cool or interesting or that's kind of the story. George Carlin and David's. Yeah, when I used to have these black classes and people thought I looked like Fred Armisen. So that's where I thought you were going. No, I could see that. I could see that for sure. So that's where I thought you were going.

01:13:15But you were I'll take the other one. I mean, Fred Armisen is definitely a compliment to you, though. He's pretty. Yeah, I'm not sure I've said it. I think you said one of the seven words we can't say on TV, but I don't think I did. Oh, we say all of the words. Yeah, we say all the words you can't say. I did stop myself and said, said shit, fuck, damn fucking pussy. Yeah, I didn't say that. That was you and not me. Yeah, it's OK. This is an uncensored episode. I don't tell your kids not to listen. I'm sure the Google that that companies get now. I think George Carlin. Oh, my God, there's so, so many amazing bits. I'm not going to. I'll get myself in trouble. I'm going to have to, you know, talk to find a link to just change your day. All right. Anything else? Are we done? No, we're not done. We always have one. We have one final thing. We have we have a task for you. The task. I think this will be a good one for him. I think he's going to enjoy this. The end of every show, we ask our guests to take us out. So whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you're talking to whoever's listening.

01:14:20I have no idea if there's anybody listening. I know some people do whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say, you get to take us out. The mic is yours, go. Oh, I was confused. I thought I had to go take you out to lunch or something. Well, that too, that too. I'm hungry. It is time for lunch. That's kind of like my 50th birthday called. I wanted to have 50 lunches that people bought me. I didn't get to all 50, but I'll go buy you lunch. What a great idea. Let's go. You've been to Brown's Diner. Yeah, it's been a long time ago that I turned. But I don't eat meat anymore. Oh, you don't? I want Brown's Diner for me. Oh, take you out. The mic is just whatever you want to say. This is your op ed time. Go. Can I sing? No, you don't want to do whatever you want to do. Yeah, but you better stay in key. Literally whatever you want to do. Yeah, it's got to be in key. Oh, forget that then. I don't know. I mean, I just support local. You caught me off guard here. I shouldn't should have known that.

01:15:20OK, we do this. He does it to everyone. Yeah. Have fun. I mean, yeah, keep Nashville cool. Keep Nashville. I don't I wish I had a slogan for you. I don't know. Austin really took the good one. Keep Boston weird. Oh, Austin, I think I meant like, oh, a person named Austin. I'm like, just Austin, Texas, really good one. No support. I guess I'll just stick with support local and then 10 minutes later, I'll call you with something better that you can plug in. I got I got nothing to do. Well, Bob, thank you for joining us today. It's been a lot of fun. I would I always say I said I'd love to have you back. We got to do this again. We'll just keep up to date with you. And if you ever have something interesting you want to say, you can always just call me and say, you know where we are. We're right down the street. Now I know where you are. Now, I mean, I want to go to the podcast on this. Well, I won't say we're this other place after this. Let's go walk over there and knock on the door and just see who it is. Let's do it. I'm serious. Yeah, OK, I will. And in the intro to this show, I'll let you know how that goes.

01:16:23If you have to bail us out of jail or not. So we've just completely walked in on somebody's whole vibe. Bob, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for the coffee. Yeah, enjoy. So if you come and do next interview, I'll have Bongo Java coffee for you. Yeah, anytime you need coffee, just call me and I'll. You don't even have to air the show. We'll just talk for a while and just pretend. I'll think I'm being famous, but all I have to do is give you coffee. I have I have some things I'm in the works on that I'm going to tell you about here in just a minute. I am not willing to do on air yet, but I think you'll like them. Cool. Thanks for being here, man. Have a great rest of your week. Thanks. Big, big thanks to Bob Bernstein for joining us here in studio. After finally finding the studio, you guys heard him talk about the story at the beginning where he went to a different house. He went to the right address, but on the wrong street. And so we left here. It was raining and I said, well, hop in the car. Let's go back to that house. So we went back to the house and we knocked on the front door.

01:17:25And there was like a big it's like a coffee table, but it's full of cookbooks with like a door on top. It was crazy. And suddenly walked around to the back of this house where the kitchen was. He explained. And there was there was a kitchen. And then there was like a full on like selfie stick type. It was like a place where you could record live shows. And I was like, what is going on here? We saw some pictures. Nobody came there. I wasn't going to walk back in. But we got back to the car and I brought the cuffs. It will bring them coffee. It'll be great. Tell the story. And then he looked up online like whose house is this? Because there's a lot of cool stuff going on. And he found out he's like, oh, this is so and so's house. And he knew the person. And I'm like, Nashville is such a crazy, cool, small town. But this is a person who's a political person and probably does interviews. I can totally imagine that they do interviews. And they had famous, let's say famous. They had children that were also well known. So it was pretty cool. It's a pretty cool little moment.

01:18:26And I just want to say big thanks to Bob for joining the show. I have so much fun talking to people like him who just I know he's so thoughtful. Just an amazing dude. And we thank you, the listener, for listening today. Hope that everything is going well. Hope you had a wonderful Easter. And again, stay tuned this Friday for Jeffrey Ezell. And then again, a week from today, we're going to be talking to Marcy and Star from ANSI Blue. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend and hope have a wonderful week coming up and hope for being safe. Love you guys. Bye.