Brian Lea and Leina Horii

00:00All right so we are so excited to be welcomed right now with Jordan Williams. He's the CEO of WEC Nashville and Neat Mixology for our On Brand today. What's going on Jordan? Hey how's it going Brandon? How you doing? You know I'm doing wonderful and we've started working together. This thing is going great. This is a passion project for you at Neat Mixology that the Jordan Williams passion project I still sometimes don't believe this is true that you're able to do all of these things for $500 a month. Like it's just it's unbelievable. Tell our listeners exactly what you do. So we do we do beverage development for your entire company. Kind of like a group of beverage directors that comes in and helps you out where needed. Take some of the hats off that you wear on a daily basis. Things that we do are inventory, creating seasonal cocktail menus, curating wine, beer and spirits, lists, looking at P&Ls, making sure that you've got time to spend more time with the guests so the guest satisfaction is higher. Just alleviate a little bit of pain points for you overall.

01:06I think that my 16 years in this industry and our team that's got over 55 years of total experience, we've just kind of figured out how to do all these things by working in restaurants for a long time, by working in distribution, by working in the supply field. We've just kind of figured out a process that makes sense and works. What is the process? Can you walk me through a little bit of how your process works? Absolutely. So like I said, we're kind of like a group of beverage directors. We look at things very analytical and very data driven in that aspect. So we'll come and look at previous six months of P&L reports, get an idea of who you are, what's moving, what's not moving, start to make some initial changes based on that. Right away, we start doing the inventory and ordering for you so you don't have to worry about getting an order done in on time with the distributor, making sure that we're hitting all of your discount case deals the right way so your pricing comes in appropriately through your distributors. And then looking at things around the area, keeping our finger on the pulse with the trends that are going on in the U.S. and in this market specifically to what makes sense in your restaurant, your bar to be selling, what kind of cocktails to be pushing, what features should you have, how to negotiate those things with the distributors and suppliers the right way to get pricing, to have events at your locations, to build more revenue. Again, this alleviates a lot of time for the owner, the bar manager to spend time with the guests, the number one person in their establishment.

02:35You know, that's exactly where I took it. When I first spoke to you, I thought this is going to be amazing. My bar manager is going to have all the time in the world to really spend on education because we've got a relatively new staff. Pandemic comes, we hired a bunch of people, they're a little bit green, they don't know our wine menu, they don't know what we're doing, they're sharp people, but I need to focus a lot of time on continuous training and some of this work you guys are able to come in and do. But as we've talked about it, it's really kind of been amazing because if I didn't have the capability to have my own bar manager, if I was a restaurant owner and I was kind of also restaurant owner slash general manager and I was counting the inventory maybe every other week, but it's still just such a time suck. You can come in and save those people in a time right now where hiring is really difficult. You're a godsend. 100%. That's one of the things we've really looked at is hiring staff right now is difficult. You, of all people know that. The listeners obviously know that. It's staffing your restaurant. We've got a lot of friends who have restaurants that have sections closed off strictly because they can't staff it. Not because the demand's not there or anything like that. There's no staff.

03:47So coming in at $3 an hour is essentially what we break down to to handle all these things. We've got clients who are the owner, the manager, the bartender most nights and alleviating the inventory or the ordering. All these things off of their plate allows them to do so much more throughout the day to be more productive and to help grow the right way just across the board. That's amazing. Tell our listeners how they can get a hold of you. How easy is it to get you in the building to identify whether or not you can help somebody out? Absolutely. Our website, WECNashville.com. There's 19 places on there to contact us. Anywhere on there. My email personally is Jordan at WEC Nashville. That goes right to my inbox. Feel free or call me at 615-973-4511. That rings my phone right next to me and we can get everything started. Just get the process started for you guys. You can also follow them on the social medias at Neat Mixology and at WEC Nashville. You can instant message them if that's something you prefer to do but there's lots of ways to get a hold of them. They'll come out and let you and just kind of answer any questions that you have in much more detail than this. Jordan, thank you so much for joining us today. I think we have a lot of listeners are really excited about what you're doing. Thanks, Brandon. It's always a pleasure. Appreciate it.

05:25Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. The tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. I am joined as always with Jen Ichikawa. What's up, Jen? Hi, how are you? I am good. I'm great actually and I am so excited for this episode today. We are talking with Lena and Brian from the brand new Kisser which is at the Patterson House Sunday and Monday night. You are going tonight to eat there. I'm so jealous. I'm so so so excited. I feel like I've said it. I've told everyone that I'm talking to you like, hey by the way I'm going to just keep saying it. Because you have twins and one of your twins is joining us on the show right now. Who do we have here?

06:33This is Ezra David. Can you say hello? He's saying hi. He says if you're watching this on YouTube you can see that he is saying hello in his eyes. Have you had a good week, Jen? Both babies are sick right now and cutting teeth. So a long week. I have been a day ahead all week so I was like catching up on work emails yesterday and realized that it was Friday not Saturday. So my date night plans all week were a day delayed in my mind. Oh no. No but it's everyone's feeling much better. We just got some stuffy noses and teeth so we're getting better right? Okay and we're spitting up so that's a good sign. That's the best sign right? Oh my gosh bless you. I don't miss those days at all. But now I just wish I'd get them off their tablets. Honey you're okay. Come here baby. So we had a good week on our end. Last Sunday night we did Brandon's book club. We did the five dysfunction of a team. It was a blast talking about thanks to everybody who joined us on that Zoom call. We got pretty deep. You know what these calls get really good. Like there's some really good feedback we're having on here and I'm not putting it out as a podcast. I just think it got too personal. It was just really good. Some vulnerability happening in these Brandon's book club and this next month we are going to be doing Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential.

08:04Kitchen Confidential is the iconic book from Anthony Bourdain and it is done right now to coincide with the release of the brand new film Road Runner which we got to go do a sneak peek of this past Thursday. It is out now. You can go see it at the Belcourt Theater. We got a bunch of tickets and we gave a bunch of tickets away and I went and saw it and oh my goodness. I just I feel like I left. I was kind of heartbroken. Have you heard anything about it Jen? I haven't. I'm so excited to see it. Kitchen Confidential is one of my favorite books and I read it once a year because it just I feel like whenever I'm feeling a little burnt out it's a good it's a good thing for me to read again and I just love it. You know what I'm interested in reading with this particular book this time is now learning some of the rest of the story with Anthony Bourdain and this movie was amazing but reading this book again I'm through chapter one and I love where he says you know he was on a boat and he drank he had oysters for the first time and from that point it was like game on it was like ding ding there's nothing I will never eat again I love when he talks about having the gazpacho and it's cold and soup is cold and what's white is black and up is down and his whole world is flipped upside down that soup could be cold just some of these stories are so amazing the way that he's a storyteller but they're also archaic I mean the things that he went through at the dresden and these different places that he worked would never fly today and it's it's it's interesting so I'm I'm really excited to do the book club book this month kitchen confidential because I want to hear from chefs what their thoughts are what their thoughts are about if you haven't read it I want to hear new chefs reading it for the first time and then I really want to hear people that have read it multiple times read it again in this post-covid era how we're doing like what did they learn did

10:11what's antiquated in that book and what needs to go away in this industry right now because I think everybody's growing you know is there anything you won't eat like talking about that of the idea of like changing food ideas and stuff is there anything you won't eat no I'll eat everything once I will not eat anything involving olives really yeah I hate olives yeah I've had them I just just I hate them yeah so the the point is not that you have to like everything the point is that you have to try something so that you know you hate it like if somebody says I will never eat sweetbreads because that's just disgusting and you go how do you know that's disgusting I don't know because of what it is like but it may taste like pumpkin pie so Trevor Moran taught me this so I can't eat any fish or shellfish right and so one day I was talking about how much I wish I could and Trevor I was working under Trevor Moran at the time and he was like well you know tuna is basically avocado and I was like what do you mean and he was like texturally like if you eat an avocado it's texturally the same as tuna and I was like nobody's ever told me that so that was really cool so I like that that's fun so now you know the texture of tuna yeah because it's something you just can't know like oysters are a good example I have no idea what that texture feels like you don't you don't want to know oysters to me I've eaten oysters a hundred times they're one of the dishes that I want to like like I want to go somewhere and just like love it but I've just haven't been able to maybe a couple times in life I think a bastion was one of them maybe at Henrietta red and then um I can't think of the name of the place is now closed was in the van dyke but um oh right what was that set sun yes I wanted to go there so badly there was an oyster set sun yeah Kenji loves west coast oysters a lot but we don't get a lot of those out here so no it was it was amazing so but no I will eat anything I'll eat anything one time but then I then I'll know I there's a I have a book called

12:15the the naughty bits I think which is a just a compilation a bunch of stories from Anthony Bourdain and he's reading about he's on a seal hunt he's in an Inuit he's with Inuits and they're hunting a seal and they catch us they caught a seal they kill it they bring it home and he says they walk in their kitchen and it's like all this plastic like a dexter scene and they all the whole family just gets and they just start gutting this seal and they're all just like eating from the body and the mom or the grandmother reaches in and cuts out the eyeball and hands it to Anthony Bourdain and he's sitting in the kitchen he's like this is the honor that they bestowed upon me like to have the eyeball and so I put the eyeball in it slurps around in your mouth and it's and it's like I don't know if I could do that I don't I don't I want to say I could eat the eyeball of a seal that we were cutting open in the kitchen on plastic but I don't know where you draw the line like that's to me I'm like that would happen that would likely be a game time decision for me yeah I would definitely I remember the first time I saw chicken feet being prepared that was hard for me because they keep like the claws on you know you can see like the so that visually was uncomfortable um but I did eat it still so yeah so like I did try it but eyeball I don't I don't know one time you got one time you tried then you go you know what now and he said it was delicious well that's cool I am allergic to a lot of things so I feel like I may rely on that in that situation like oh I'm sorry I'm allergic yeah that's not something I can do I am sorry yes don't have that so today's episode is so much fun we we we started last week we started talk and shift and uh oh my god we had so much fun we released it yesterday as a nash restaurant radio podcast and you can tell the first hour goes so smooth we have so much fun the second hour was smooth too but it was just kind of got off the rails a little bit we're like getting our

14:17dogs and playing games and it just it was out of control we're going to be doing another episode of talk and shift and it's going to be on august the first and let me tell you we have a contest we're doing a contest I have a logo for talk and shift and it's like a microphone talking you've seen it we have an instagram page go follow it it's at talking underscore shift underscore podcast we have a facebook group that you can go join where we can I'd love for you to tell your stories we're posting the link for you to join the podcast everything is there go join those things but I hate the logo and I can go to fiber and I can create a logo and whatever it is but I want to reach out to all the people out there in the culinary industry who are also graphic designers who know how to do this stuff talk and shift is a podcast for the people for the restaurant workers to tell stories and I need a new logo so here's what I want to do I'm going to offer up 250 cash to anybody who can make the logo that we choose so I want to make a contest out of it I would love to have as many people as possible submit their potential logos and I want to have that person on the podcast the person who wins on august the first the guest host for the show which are to be determined we will all vote on the best options for the new talk and shift logo and we would love to have your submission so go to the talk and shift group in facebook and you can post it right there post your logo that you make or you can post it to our instagram page or tag us on it you can email it to us whatever you want to do email it to brandon at nashvillerestaurantradio.com and the other side is I have a really cool intro I love my intro for nashville restaurant radio it's a rocking kind of a welcome to nashville restaurant radio I want a talk and shift like a real intro song that we can use that is from a local musician

16:21who also works in a restaurant and I would love to shout that person out if you want to create the intro music for the talk and shift podcast we would love to pay you 250 dollars also so we got 500 up for grabs the only thing is you got to work in a restaurant because I want to support people in our industry you got to work in a restaurant this has to become a side gig and it's got to be good it's got to be good right so I'd love to see competition we are music city so I feel like you know we can do a good job with this and I just want to give I want to give a little something versus paying somebody on fiber in you know Indonesia to make my logo or create something for me I'd rather spread it around here and do it locally and support somebody who's in the industry so that contest starts now we'd like to have submissions ready to go by August the first I understand if it's a musical thing we'll have to wait till we get a few we can kind of pick out the best one but words lyrics just beats a rap whatever it is you got talk and shift to play with right so I mean there's there's some good some good things you can do yeah that'll be really fun I'm excited for it yeah it'll be cool almost as excited as this interview today holy cow I love them so much are they like the greatest like if you also we do play the newlywed game with them and if you're listening to this you're going to need to go to our YouTube page and you need to watch them play the newlywed game it's kind of incredible yeah it's super impressive they are just super pure lovely people they're the kind of people that I love moving to Nashville Nashville but there's the deal they come from California and New York and they're here in Nashville and they're making our culinary scene so much better yeah I agree they're very very cool people and you can tell that their heart is really in it and that's what makes Nashville

18:21natural to me so 100 well let's hey let's jump in let's do this we are super excited today to welcome in Brian Lee and Laina Horry who are the chefs and owners of kisser how you doing guys hello hi doing well yeah welcome to Nashville restaurant radio you guys have a pop-up but it's kind of a pop-up that's going to be going on and on at the Patterson house tell us about it I mean yeah so we we were at Bastion recently and uh and you know we were there for a couple years and we're we've been talking about doing our own thing for a while now and uh just talking to some of the like some of the guys that have been doing pop-ups in town I mean you know uh Edgar is doing the alabri at Bastion and seeing how successful that's been and uh you know we just been talking about this for a while and you know the kind of little concept that we're trying to do and uh we stepped away from Bastion to start focusing on that and try to open something up and then they reached out to us Max uh Goldberg reached out to us to see if we want to do something at Patterson house on Sundays and Mondays so it's like yeah why not why not start getting things out there so yeah that's so cool tell us about the um the concept is it Japanese barbecue yeah yeah that's what that's what we're calling it that's what you're calling it yeah well uh I guess the concept for the restaurant that we're going to be opening is uh it's a fast casual um Japanese barbecue but everything done in a bento style so everything is meant to be taken taken away um it's an idea that we've just been talking about for years and years of wanting something that was sort of like fun and easy to get but also like with ingredients

20:24that there was care put into it and uh and uh and just also with like the sort of flavors of like grilled smoked Japanese food and you have you're doing like a farm to table but it's from your home yeah some of it is that right some of it as much as we can yeah so yeah the menu is going to be as seasonal as we can and uh whatever we can uh get from basically like our our garden to use in the restaurant we have been it's something that we've been even throughout uh as we've been building the garden um even at bastion like uh we before we went into work we would go into the garden and pick all of our herbs and as much produce and things like that as possible that we could do using the restaurant and you guys are originally from California am I right on that yep what part of California uh I grew up in Orange County and then Lena uh from Waximi Valley but we we met working in LA so so what part of Orange County I'm originally from Laguna Hills oh really I was born in Laguna Hills uh and uh yeah no my I've got family in Michigan so okay aunts and uncles um I grew up I lived in Costa Mesa and Santa Ana and then uh but went to school in Huntington Beach so nice I went I went to Westminster High School for a while rivals in the same district yeah yeah you had ocean view was like our biggest rival yeah yep we had the battle of the bugle I believe is what that was called for the basketball team so I played basketball at Westminster so that was a whole thing like we it was a lot of fun I was a small world yeah that's crazy but that's so cool so you guys meet in California and what brought you to Nashville so I had originally I had lived here before we met um I was part of the opening team at husk here uh I moved here from Charleston where I was there for

22:28like 10 months or so and um just had the opportunity to come be part of the opening team here so moved up here sight unseen um and yeah just really liked the city and I moved back uh to California for a little bit and we met shortly thereafter and then um it was sort of crazy because I spent most of my life in uh in my adult life in New York um I was a I was a pre-med student at NYU and then I decided I wanted to cook so I actually like got rid of everything and when this moved back to California to try to pursue that and within that short time frame of like of like is how I met Brian yeah and and yeah like we we were there for a couple years like while we were together and then kind of decided it's like neither of us wanted to be continue living in LA and so it's just like all right where do we want to go where do we want to go in any anywhere in the country and um she was saying she's like you always talk about how much you like Nashville let's try that one of our best friends down here so that that was going to be one of my when you when you moved to Nashville sight unseen what was your preconceived notion of Nashville before you moved here and then once you got here is what was like after a month of being here what was like shattered and change how did it change I I actually had I knew basically nothing about Nashville when I moved here like I yeah I had been told that it was a bit of a party city but that was basically I knew absolutely nothing about it um I found my roommates on Craigslist before I even got here so and you know I haven't met actually met them I think I had a phone conversation with them but basically knew nothing about it so uh yeah it was just once I got here though I mean opening husk was insane so I didn't actually get to enjoy the city for you know probably two to three months um but then once I got here it was it was just

24:30realizing it's just a really cool city to live in like everyone asked me like oh what is there to do and it's like I don't know you can go do the like the the tourist stuff but as far as living here I just like living here so Lena what about you when you got here what was your kind of idea I mean he obviously was able to talk to you about Nashville and tell you that he loved it and wanted to move there he has moved there did you come here in advance to kind of check it out or did you just say let's throw my knives in a car and let's go well that's the funny thing is I applied for a I applied I just sent my resume into strategic just let it float out there and see where it landed and um they got back to me and so I for catbird seat so I actually flew out stash at the catbird seat was here for two days for two days stash and then I flew right back and uh took the job and we drove cross-country so that was I didn't even get to I ate haddy bees because it was right down the street from catbird seat and then that was uh that was basically my first uh impression of uh Nashville was just that little area that's all I did yeah so she only experienced my town and that was it yeah so when I met you guys I remember like meeting you lana and thinking you were such a rock star because all I heard was yeah my girlfriend works at catbird seat and that was when ryan poli was the chef and he would come in all the time and and that was just such an that was such a crazy time I feel like in my life I mean obviously I met my husband during that time and so it was it was a lot but that was just such a cool transition because brian you came in and took over um and he talked about you all the time and I remember Kenji being so excited when he first there's not a lot of like asian and white couples out here so he was so excited to like see another one and he was so excited that you worked at the catbird and he was just I think he had a small crush on you but I think he would also kill me for like sharing that especially probably but um but anyway it was really really cool that's it so that's so funny that I love that hey um how did you guys meet did you guys were

26:37you guys working in a restaurant together yeah so it was it was just it was all sort of weird the way it happened so lana was working at a restaurant when I worked when I moved back to california after I was living here I went to work at a restaurant called tomec um and it was just a tiny little like tasting menu restaurant and lana was working at a restaurant that I had previous I had worked at years before and um it was red medicine brian had well you were part of closer to like the not opening team yeah like opening team at a restaurant called red medicine and lana was working there at the time and uh one of my friends that I worked with he was bartending and I would go in there all the time because they had just an awesome late night menu uh they were until two o'clock every day and yeah I was just sitting at the bar and uh it was a totally empty bar late at night so it just got not to work I think it was just the two of us I had a horrible shift yeah like I just we just got absolutely crushed in the kitchen and so I was sitting on one end of the bar just by myself I was on the other end of the bar and my friend our friendly was the bartender he was just like he was talking to me and he was like oh that's lana you know she works in the kitchen and I think we both had like low acid whiskey and just like kind of raised them to each other and that was the first like technical introduction but then uh few months later red medicine actually closed and so all I mean it was an awesome restaurant all the cooks were you know basically being grabbed up by every restaurant possible in the city and uh her resume came our way to at toamec and um that's when yeah and I reached out to my same buddy who introduced us and he was like oh yeah get her if you can so that's sort of how we met and uh yeah it's kind of you know hanging out going out for drinks after work and you know everyone sort of hanging out is pretty tight-knit uh group and so yeah that's the helmet it's a restaurant romance yeah it happens all the time I thought he was such a jerk when we first met it was oh gosh he asked

28:44me to cut a pint of a brunoise pint of shallots and then uh and then I saw him and it just like never they never got used I was like why didn't you make me do that and I was because I was pretty new to cooking and it was just sort of I think that was like a knife war test but I was like that guy's such a such a jerk I do know so what would that change oh it was just hanging out yeah just hanging out I thought I thought that Brian was really into uh a totally different type of lady than I was uh like so I in my mind I was like oh he'll never be interested in me I'm basically just another dude so you know we go out hang out I just eat hamburgers and just feel completely at ease because in my mind I was like oh you know there's there's no chance of anything ever happening here so we just yeah over the course of a couple months just um just hung out all the time and then I realized like man I'm totally in love with my friends oh that's a good story I love that and you cook together and then how did you propose oh did you get married you guys are married couple right yeah it was I mean it was we moved in we moved in together I don't know it was after like six and 96 months probably but it's pretty pretty quick and uh I mean we were just living together and I think it was it was basically uh we were out here in Nashville when I actually posed and uh I think it was on your birthday it was on your birthday right yeah well you have had the ring for a while it's like it's it's passed down as your grandmother's ring right and we were in Paris and there was one point I remember he was freaking out checking his pocket saying like yeah oh I think I lost something I think I lost something and I was just sort of impatient like well what are you like it can't be that important I realized afterwards you told me that he thought you lost the ring in Paris because you were going to propose there and then you ended up not and then I ended up not

30:45so why did you not do it in Paris there's a story there right I know it's just never nothing no situation we were in everything looked like the right time like we were just it was just like just a non-stop trip and and like just always out and about somewhere and like okay we got to go here then we're going here then we're going here and poor planning on my part I guess and then it ended up on my birthday at like the end of the you know end of the day I just got really sad and I thought I had a feeling that you were going to propose to me today so I'm just really sad that you didn't like no no I am and he got out the ring like I've had this for months now and that's how he proposed to me that's sweet I love that it's like gotcha that is so cool and how long have you guys been married for uh it's we're almost at four years so I think in October it'll be four years four years you're opening your own place and you're kind of testing it out now have you is it have you actually started doing service there is this so today is Sunday and tomorrow you're doing service tonight and tomorrow and is this is how many weeks for you this is the second week second week yeah I know I know somebody here who's on the on this interview who's going to be there yeah we're so excited we're like because I'll tell you like he so when we saw you guys at locust back in October when you all walked away he was like those people are so genuine like I am so excited for whatever they do and so I saw I follow obviously everything with strategic um and so I saw I think I saw it through Jordan uh Farrell that posted about it and I was like what is this and so I saw Japanese barbecue and I sent it to him and he was like book it right now like right now so we I think I literally booked it right then and I'm just

32:51so excited like and I think what is great is Nashville is finally it feels like the age of Asian food which is so exciting for so long there was none um I mean there were those hall-in-the-wall places like I talk about VNFA all the time that is we've seen you guys there we love it so much um so and you know we've been to King's Market a lot we love King's Market there's a ton of really great local small places um but it it was the we haven't had a lot of like higher end Asian food yeah and so having locust open and then Peninsula who are really good friends that did um the dumplings during quarantine was so cool and to see kisser pop up it just feels like this is the the age of Asian food and I'm so excited for that yeah we've got we've got some really great mom-and-pop places here but yeah just never it never really seemed to expand beyond that so yeah hopefully we can be a part of that yeah so I love you guys posted you have an Instagram page and for those of you who are listening that want to learn more about this pop-up in this restaurant to be it is at kisser barbecue k-i-s-s-e-r bbq let's talk about the name real quick I'm so glad you asked that I want to is it because you guys are husband and wife and we might get to see some like kissing during the dinner I mean it's there's there's it's it's uh it's multi-faceted but yeah we were we were in trying to think of a restaurant name or even like what to call ourselves uh we we were trying to find sports terms I think because a lot of times people have compared the way that we cook in the kitchen almost like like like almost like a dance is a you know we we don't bump into each other it's a seamless we're not constantly shouting at each other it's very like calm and fluid and you know yeah it's it's it's a word

34:54yeah exactly it's that's a word that people have used a lot or even like in if you were boxing or something like that and just help the the boxers sort of dance around each other and um you know so we were just trying to think of words that describe that and like oh like wouldn't that be like pal right in the kisser and um oh that's cute so it was like that and then realizing yeah like how well that works of like you know it's like the food we're making it's like you know it sort of punches you in the face is kind of the idea there and um yeah uh it just works so you have little stories I was looking at your Instagram page and I first of all I love that it's so awesome I love what you guys are doing I love to see I'd love to like come in and like film that and like put that as accompaniment with this because really the dance I think that people who aren't in restaurants don't understand that there is a dance when you work with somebody so long and you can kind of just hold a saute pan over they throw something in I mean where it's just you guys are just right there completely in sync it's really something beautiful to watch but one of the coolest things I think is on your Instagram page you talk about the is it show coupon is that how you say it yep show coupon which otherwise known as milk bread and you tell this lovely story about it would you mind telling that story now for the people who are on Instagram that in any other kind of like story about the food that you're gonna be um producing would be really cool sure uh well I mean to preface before I even posted it I was asking Brian like is this stupid I miss them because we're so bad we're so bad at talking about ourselves you were uh but I just thought that it because people keep asking like what is the food that you're doing and I've had such a hard time describing it I can I can tell you what the dishes are but as far as describing like what it is it's been hard yeah and why and why we're doing what we're doing there's so many of them are are things that are inspired by or focusing on sort of the the food from I guess

36:57you could say my food from my childhood or uh home food you know it's like it's the food that matters the most to you so um I guess to tell the story we've been making um the show coupon the Japanese milk bread uh as an item on our menu and um it was something I think was really important to both of us to to have on um and for for me it has so many memories of um every summer we uh spend at my grandparents house in Tokyo um and uh it's uh my grandmother would make us breakfast every morning and uh it was either going to be a Japanese breakfast which is usually you know pickles miso soup rice things like that or she would try to accommodate us as American you know Japanese American kids and so she would cut us uh thick slices of the milk bread and then uh for her American breakfast was probably like a slice of tomato some American cheese and uh and kipi mayo and that was a that would be our breakfast and so it's just it's uh it's a weird combination I guess but it's I think it's delicious and uh it's food like that that always brings up so many memories all of my memories are food related it's the thing that I think we joke about because when my sister and I relate memories uh she'll she she sees it from a very different standpoint of like of sort of describing uh like maybe like a location or like a building while for me it's like oh but we're on the way to get noodles for that trip and then after that we had this and then then we had ramen for dinner and like all the memories are food related and uh um and I think that's that's sort of what the menu is going to be focused on and the thing the things that uh have that sort of emotional uh connection yeah at least at least rooted in that yeah that's so cool I mean culture is so driven through food Anthony Bourdain talks I actually have a plate of one of his quotes about that out like on our in our kitchen and it's just it's true like food is is so cultural and it's I know like Kenji desperately wants me to learn to make katsu

39:01and I keep saying no because it's not the place like how his mother made it and then how his grandmother made it and so it's just I know it's going to disappoint him because he's I can't do it like I'm not a good um but it's so fun like so his dad is coming to visit my father-in-law's coming and that's like on the menu is he's going to make katsu so that he can have that like sense of home and I just I think it's so incredible that food can do that and it it hits so many of your senses right it's sight it's smell it's touch and feel it's it's just so cool and I think it's awesome that that's what I think that is when restaurants succeed so well is when that is what they're focused on and I want to touch on that exactly what you just said was what was going through my brain is that throughout this entire pandemic we've just come through everybody you know I know we've been screaming it from the mountaintops that you need to eat local and support local but just these stories that you're telling is kind of the essence of what you're going to get with a locally owned and operated restaurant especially one where they impart their childhood memories and these flavors and these stories that all kind of translates into love you know all kind of translates into love that you're putting on a plate and you're sharing that with other people and I think that's just something you don't get at these mass produced restaurants where they're just people are just putting food on a plate it's like an assembly line they're thrown in a window and it disappears into the ether and I imagine that every single dish that you put out tomorrow or sunday and monday you want to know that people are enjoying it and you want to like there's just absolute like love and all this time and energy and passion into every dish and like that's what it's about isn't it yeah I mean I mean exactly that it like stresses us out just because like we're testing and testing and like tasting things and like it's tasting it to the point where we don't even know if it tastes good anymore it's like I don't know it's just it's it's fine I guess it's I think it's delicious but I don't know anymore and

41:02you know and getting to the point of actually serving it like well I hope people like it like I don't know I think I think it's good I don't know do you get nervous going into nerve I would say nervous for that for like the reason that we just said it's just like I just hope people like it and you know not nervous of like oh are we going to be able to keep up with the orders and stuff like that because when it comes down to it I mean again like we one of the reasons we want to do this is because we work incredibly well together like we you know we're we've always got each other's backs we just work you know pretty seamlessly together and always have and uh you know it's so that's it's yeah it's just a matter of whether or not people like I just get terrible anxiety just because uh you know it's you're you're putting yourself out there so much and it's and all at the end I think for everybody like all you want to do is do a good job and make food that people like and it's more like thinking about that beforehand that like things I just get so like anxious and worried but once we're in service all right let's let's you know let's do this just you know do what needs to be done and that's yeah then that's yeah that's when it's like okay now I'm just having fun cooking so what if you guys so you guys both throughout the pandemic you've worked a couple different places but you both ended up at bastion correct what do you think in our industry just going back to some general questions I mean not necessarily about kisser per se but like what do you think some lessons are that you guys learned throughout the pandemic that you're going to take with you post-pandemic I don't know that's hard to say because we were still because I mean because we were at bastion like we were still so busy like I don't know if you were if you were in there at all like I did yeah we did like where yeah the dining room like on in the big bar side and we ate in the big bar yeah man it was exhausting so we didn't have time to like I don't know I

43:07haven't really even had like the time or thought to like really reflect on that because we've gone just so much from like doing that to then like trying to transition to this and um I would say that I I was first off I think you know the bastion has been able to have just such amazing people work there both at the bar and in the restaurant and I let I took away I was just so impressed at how people can pull together like not that I didn't think that already but just in how hard it was to reopen and how everybody made sacrifices both physically and with their time and um no one ever yelled at each other like we were just like okay let's all like push to do this because we want to be able to both reopen the restaurant to keep it going but also you know being able to create that sense of normalcy for people to come in people telling us like this is the first time I've even been outside and like you know for this amount of time and to be able to to do that and just feeling like I guess just to say like being impressed with everybody and how everyone was pushing so hard just to uh just trying to make it happen we are going to take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors all right guys let's talk about supporting local you have a restaurant out there you chances are you use bread and sharpieres bakery is your local baker they are celebrating 35 years delivering fresh baked breads and desserts to your restaurant six days a week over 130 different types of bread they are way more than just your general and burger buns did you know they can actually make your custom recipe your bread recipe and deliver it to you give erin mosso a call she's at six one five three five six zero eight two two or visit sharpiers.com that's c-h-a-r-p-i-e-r-s.com follow them at sharpiers

45:08baker on instagram but you can go to their website and see pictures of all the different breads they carry they are your local choice for fresh bread delivery daily check them out you know one of the number one things that i see when i'm on the forums the restaurant forums is who do you use for pos we need an updated custom pos system and you know what spot on technology has that for you steve colson over at spot on can custom make pos systems that work for your restaurant it's not a one-size-fits-all they can custom build it to where if you need online delivery and they have a they are right now the only solution that works with google google can go directly from people can google and place an order directly from google with spot on they have inventory controls all the food cost management systems that you need or don't need if you don't need it don't buy it so when you have that question who should i need to get a new pos system what should i do you need to go to nashville restaurant radio dot com click the sponsors tab and find spot on click that and it will give you a special offer when you contact steve colson look guys it costs nothing to call a guy and ask him just ask him questions ask him to come in and check out what you guys have he is very very accommodating and he is local guys you got to check out spot on you know another local company that if you own a restaurant you should definitely check out is complete health partnership so they're born out of necessity christian ruff was working in a local restaurant and he recognized the need for health insurance so while you're a small independently offered a restaurant providing major medical for your entire team sometimes can put you out of business it's so expensive but they are a local urgent care solution with free locations here in nashville it is super inexpensive to sign up they have telehealth and free urgent care primary position visits for everyone on your staff so go to nashville restaurant radio dot com and click

47:14the complete health partners tab take you directly to them contact them call them you want to save a bunch of money yet still provide medical insurance for your staff check them out complete health partners right now with the staffing issues we've got you've got to be able to offer it's not only because of the staffing is because it's the right thing to do to offer urgent care and primary care help to your staff check them out complete health partners dot com and as a as a married couple you guys working with josh and lauren like they were so i mean i had josh on the show like a year ago but like he was so calm and so cool but so confident yet humble like he just encompasses all these things and them together working in the restaurant did you guys learn anything from them or like what was that scenario was that like it was fine i mean it's it's such a tight-knit group there like we're just like i mean when and i when we were already working in there i mean we'd already worked together uh for a while in the past and so i mean we knew we knew that we worked well together but it was just it was fun working with all of them it's you know we would get done with a long week of service and then you know on saturday nights and then we'll sit around you know chatting for another hour to two hours after work at the restaurant like we just yeah i mean it's just it was just a fun group of people to work with well people would ask too like wait do you have to be a part of a couple in order to work and then at the end of every shift there you guys josh told me he said at the end of every shift we discuss all of the tables uh-huh like we actually go you re you go over the reservations at the end of the shift and kind of talk about all the tables and what i guess what you could do better or if they liked it if they didn't like it is that how that conversation went yeah pretty much it was it was that it was also just like making notes on people so that i mean because it is such a small restaurant we do occasionally have like three people will come in for like special occasions but like they'll make

49:17that like this is where we go every year for our anniversary and so just making notes like that and it just you know helps to make it special for people when they do come in again or if they do come in again to help us like remember them and you know and just like little little things about them that you know can uh or even like little details like oh they didn't say anything but these people didn't eat any of the raw seafood so like that way we know next time that they've come in like oh they probably maybe steer them away from something or to note like oh they didn't eat the caviar like um finding out like oh they don't eat just like little things like that too that we try to pay attention to well i love that oh i'm so sorry go ahead jen i love that um because i'm allergic to shell shellfish fish and tree nuts and so i was so scared to go to bastion we went for kenji's birthday and sat at the bar with you but i was so scared to go because i'm like i know that this menu is like i know they've prepared this menu i know that you know there's so i know the level of work that goes into that and i hate being that person that's like i'm so sorry but i actually can't eat so much and josh is great like i've known josh since i moved here too and so he was really good about don't eat this don't eat this you know we can take this off and stuff and obviously it was wonderful and beautiful and i had no issue but just i so appreciate when restaurants are willing to do i mean obviously it's an allergy it's not it's not a dislike but it's i know what a pain it is and so i just so appreciate when people are like willing to do that because i don't have to feel unsafe going or like a nuisance even though i always will going to places like that you know no absolutely i mean i think it was just it was an important thing for us at that restaurant like to be able to do that like we're trying to present ourselves as you know one of the higher caliber restaurants in the city and you know to be able to offer that those services to people i think i think bastion is absolutely one of the best restaurants in the city slash state i mean it's definitely top three to me of restaurants and just the way everything

51:22about it i absolutely i love everything about that restaurant no and we were so happy to be able to be part of it for as long as we were so are you guys going to incorporate anything like that with what you're doing on sunday and monday nights are you going to be sitting down after the shift and making notes and where did you house that stuff was it housed in like talk or something or do you have just like note cards i think even just got spreadsheets really like we would write notes like we would have a spreadsheet like with you know all the reservations and we would just like write notes on it throughout the throughout service just as little reminders but um yeah i think they've just got it on you know on the computer and stuff but now we're not doing anything we we got so crushed on monday night this last week uh that by the end of service is just like wow like just i think i think everyone front house and back house we were just like i can't believe that just happened that was that was insane so we are taking reservations yeah and it's just being booked like through normal patterson house like talk website i don't think it says anything about us but it's we're doing it on sundays and mondays but um yeah it was yeah they i don't think they were expecting it i don't think any of us were expecting to get crushed quite like we did well i can imagine it's going to continue to happen if you continue to do what you're doing let's let's jump back into some of the food right so if i'm coming in tonight and i want to eat what are some highlights what are some things i should be looking for that you're really really proud of i mean really i mean hopefully most of it well there's definitely things like that you've really sort of been doing a lot of r&d for and things like that i've sort of yeah i mean part of what we were trying to do is because because it is a different environment than what we're obviously going to be opening up you know it's it's still a bar you know people who come into patterson house you know they've been doing more

53:25food so we wanted to make sure it sort of fit that format still of being you know being bar food friendly um so we've got a couple little things like uh that fits that of just being kind of like little fried bar food things like the like the loaded tots that we're doing okonomiyaki style which are super fun and really really delicious um i mean we've got some like i we've been working on chicken wings for the past few months that i think are some of the best that i've ever had but we're you know we're we're making like a soy uh basically like a soy based brine then smoking them off and then finishing them on the grill uh and then it's got like a sort of like black garlic barbecue sauce that it's getting tossed in tons of scallions tons of spices and seasonings to finish it but i i think they're delicious um yeah the the milk bread that we're serving the like the smoked pulled pork on um and we have a couple items that are sort of like i guess you could call them like a almost like sushi bar items uh my father's a sushi chef so i basically grew up in a sushi restaurant so um you know one of them one of the items um we've been talking about is uh the inari uh it's basically sushi rice that's wrapped in uh tofu that's been uh it's boiled it's fried tofu that's been boiled in dashi it's a very traditional japanese dish it's usually served pretty simply like that um so uh my father made that for me when i visited him in california a couple months ago and it's just we're just eating it together and thinking like man we should we should do this at kisser because it's so it's so tasty people don't really know about this in the states um i don't know why it doesn't really translate here as well but trying to find a way to sort of like make it uh yeah uh make it something that could be uh appealing i think um but we basically we uh take a salmon and cure it in miso and mirin

55:32and then after that we cold smoke it and so it's like that with uh sushi rice and wrapped in um in in tofu and sort of that's meant to be with your hands i'm so excited for that i'm going to um i'm literally right now trying to make reservations like i gotta i gotta go do this i'm so jealous you have reservations for tonight the 18th you're completely sold out there's not one reservation available yeah from monday night the 19th there is one 4 pm that is available and that is too early that i will not be able to make that so that monday night will not work next week on the 25th you are completely sold out except for except for 4 pm and then if you want to eat after 8 30 it's like at 8 45 or 9 uh for dinner but you're from 4 30 to 8 you're completely sold out and then there's a couple spaces left um 5 36 o'clock on the 26th so if you're listening to this and you're hungry and you want to go support these guys but more importantly you want to eat their food go make the reservation now this is your fair warning if you don't want to like plan six weeks out because i have a feeling like this is going to be one of those things that it's it's like when the when the catbird seat first opened you had to book it literally a month in advance just to get a seat how does it make you able to hear that there are still walk-ins there are still walk-ins available oh so you can walk in yeah yep okay oh that's good i actually almost made the reservation for four and was going to be like hey why don't you and jennifer come with us and i was like that's presumptuous i'll just i would have loved that damn okay well next time i know so um yeah well what is your favorite what is your favorite place for you guys to go that's not a place that you've worked what do you do what first of all what do you do when you're not working sleep uh yes uh i don't

57:35we we tend to spend all if we're not like really actively working it's usually spending time in our garden or uh or or going like bike rides things like that i just what kind of town you live in oh donaldson yeah so we're really close to like the greenway trails and all that so yeah we do we got a lot but okay but back in uh la when we were trying to save money and to move out here we basically realized like well in order to afford to move like we're gonna have to stop going out like uh and so we just started focusing on our time on doing things that were free which usually means outdoor things which is great because we love those things like hiking cycling yeah and uh and that's just carried over even since moving out here and um most of the time it is either hiking uh cycling gardening things like that we like camping things like that sort of a boring couple no that's it that's that's all stuff i can totally get into i try to go hiking every day if i have a chance to i live right by percy warner park so i'm like five minutes from all these trails so i try and get out that that's my happy space when i'm able to get outside it's almost like plugging in and like recharging my battery every time it's amazing yeah i'm not like that i like if i like told like like like myself 10 years ago like oh these are going to be your favorite things to do like what i was all my time in new york i was such an indoor kid yeah i'm very much like i want to be in air conditioning all the time i i love being indoors but like i like doing i'm a homebody too i like just being home but i i really i grew up in florida

59:36so i think i just hate being hot so here it's just it's still florida at like this time of year it's florida you know and i'm like i don't need that i had that for 18 years like we're good so yeah well i love it well i'm so excited that that you guys are here i'm glad you're in nashville i love what you guys are doing i cannot wait to try it i'm so jealous jen that you're going to get to go do it tomorrow and i wish you guys nothing but the best of luck this is this is so nice of you to come on the show and spend some time to tell us about you i know you guys are super duper busy anytime you guys want to come back we would love love love to have you um before we let you off the hook here and get to go back to spending a little time together we like to i like to um finish every show and give you guys the um give you the floor let you take us out kind of in a jerry's final thought kind of a thing whatever you want to say and i throw every time i put people on the spot like what the fuck i'm like yeah so if you're speaking to the city of nashville probably mostly the culinary community who's listening to this um floor is yours whatever you want to say for as long as you want to say it you could say go titans and then we're done but whatever whatever you want to say go do you have something in mind brian and there we go that's what you got yeah i guess i guess uh yeah just you know please come out and hopefully you enjoy our food yeah i mean the the national restaurant community

01:01:37is so so amazing just the the the range of people that we've met while we've been here and how supportive everybody has been um it's i don't know i guess it's just sort of sending sending out uh that appreciation uh to even people who are listening to this you know that that that there's interest and there's support for the national restaurant community i just think it's so awesome and we feel very fortunate to be a part of it yeah i mean the opportunity uh that we've even had since we've come out here i mean the opportunities i guess for myself going to work at catbird see it's crazy the sequences and the little steps and the decisions that you make in your life that that lead you into certain directions and i think it's funny all the little things that happened to where i got the opportunity to work there for as long as i did and all the experiences i've had since there and um i yeah i just feel i feel so lucky and for us to even be able to do these pop-ups at patterson's house i feel so incredibly lucky and and grateful for all the opportunities we've gotten since coming out here what is it i have to ask you a question normally i don't have any questions you say your final thought and then it's done but i'm such a fan of benjamin and max goldberg and what they do in their innovation and everybody that i've talked to the julia solvins the um uh uh josh hobbiger's those type people everybody has just said how amazing they are what's been your experience working for those guys i mean similarly just they're just incredibly supportive um you know they're very supportive and i think one of the cool things is is that they and like the way i've always felt working with them is you know they see people and their areas of expertise and they they try not to like overimpose their ideas or anything like that on it it's just like this is this is what you're good at i'm going to let

01:03:41you do it i'm going to trust you to do it and you know if you think it's a good decision go for it and then that's i think that's that's very rare in you know owners and bosses and in this industry is like and i think that's one of the most frustrating things it one of the things that's very frustrating to so many chefs is that you know when they have an owner who's saying you know what i really think you should be doing this and this and this and i want this on the menu and like dictating it it's like well then why did you why are you hiring me why are you hiring me to have a perspective if you're just telling me what to do and you know i think it's the cool thing about ben and max is that they they get that and they know that it's like no you know better than i do on this and you know i'm going to trust you to do that so that's awesome i that's that's that's what i imagine you can tell in the style of the restaurants that that's exactly what they're doing is there a a collaboration is there a hope that when you guys do your very own brick and mortar are you going to be part of strategic's brand we don't know yet we're still figuring things out and yeah trying to trying to get it all get it all together so we'll see if we can that would be awesome but we'll see we'll see where things end up all right well thank you guys for being here today if you're listening to this and you want more if you want more of brian and lana you can go to our youtube channel and you can watch them play the newlywed game the newly reopened game whatever you want to call it it's our version the culinary newlywed game uh right now so go to our youtube page and we have some bonus extras right there thank you guys so much wow so that was so much fun getting to know them i i didn't i've not met them at all in all of my career and i'm like

01:05:42so upset that i haven't they're so nice they are they're super impressive i was really fortunate as you heard to work for brian um and he is one of those people that doesn't waste a word doesn't waste an ingredient like if it's on the plate it's meant to be on the plate if he says it he means to say it like he's very meticulous in that i think that's very cool that is number one on my list of places that i need to go try i've also not eaten at peninsula so that is like one a and this is like one b those are my next two places i am going to go eat at um lots of fun remember if you're out there we'd love to hear you we'd love to see your submission for our logo as well as the um intro song for talk and shift and um anything else you got jen you want to leave them with that's all i've got just keep lifting each other up y'all all right and we uh we hope that you guys are being safe out there love you guys bye