Bryan Lee Weaver

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now, here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I'm your host. We're so excited you could join us today. We have a great episode ahead. We are going to be discussing Tennessee Action for Hospitality, how that began, what's going on with it, what it means for you. And we'll be speaking with our guest, which we're going to jump right into this interview with our guest, Chef Brian Lee Weaver. And Brian is the executive chef and owner at both the Butcher and Bee and the Redheaded Stranger. Brian, thanks for joining us today. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

01:03So happy to be here in a absolutely crazy time. And you're one of the people who, when this whole thing went down, you didn't just go, oh, woe is me. You took action. Yeah, I tried to. I mean, I've definitely had some woe is me moments, I think like any normal person would right now. But, you know, I really wanted to try to put forth a message as like an industry or a group of like independent restaurants that we needed to have like a unified voice in how we move forward and kind of figure out solutions to this because I think pretty quickly you could see how our like current state of things was kind of crumbling and we would have to adapt and figure out a way to move forward if we're going to survive as separate businesses, you know? Yeah, no, 100%. So already been penned. I read the Nashville scene. Chris Chamberlain had a wonderful article kind of outlining what you did and what we're doing. But you're kind of one of the, you're the architect for Tennessee Action for Hospitality.

02:17How did that come about? Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say I'm the architect. I was maybe more just kind of like throwing up a sign for help or something, you know? Like, I mean, I was literally like laying in bed, like just stressing about, you know, I laid off, you know, 100 employees between the two businesses and I was just like, I don't know what to do. And it was just kind of throwing out like, you know, I just wanted all the other chefs to know, like, I know we're all going through the same thing and have like, let's have an avenue to talk about it. And, you know, luckily, there was a lot of people on that chain a lot smarter than me who could figure out those types of things, you know, and some of them had already been putting plans of action in place. And, you know, I mean, it was like literally 12 hours later that we were on a phone call, like with the mayor and other lobbyists to try to put forth an agenda. So like, you know, shout out to like Julia from Henrietta Redd, like they were, she was working really hard on stuff already. And like, there's just so many people on that chain that like had the connections and kind of knew what to do without really knowing what to do, you know? So you sent a text message to a bunch of your chef friends and you said, guys, let's get together. What can we do about this? And immediately people just started responding. You mentioned Julia Sullivan, she jumped right in and the next day you're on a conference call with the mayor. I mean, that's just amazing how quickly that came about. Were you shocked? I wouldn't say I was shocked just because of everything I've seen from Nashville since I moved here, you know? Like I've only been here five years, but I've said in almost any interview I've ever done, like talking about this city is like how amazing the other people are and like the support that we all collectively have is incredible, you know? Like I did a dinner

04:20with Tandy from City House like maybe a month after I moved here and like he was just the kindest person and like introduced me to farmers that I still work with and didn't know about, you know? And it's just awesome to see like how supportive people are. It's never been like a competition thing. It's just been like, oh, you're doing cool stuff. Like let's support that and like watch it grow. And so I can't say like I was totally shocked that it came together, but how quickly it came together was pretty shocking, you know? It was just like, okay, we sent this text. All of a sudden there's like, I don't know how many people ended up being on that chain, but like there's like 50 people on it and then there's a phone call that like important people couldn't even get on because there were so many people trying to listen in and figure out what we're doing. I spoke to Margo McCormick on St. Patrick's Day. We did an interview. I asked her, what's going on right now? What can we do? And she goes, I was on a call this morning that had like literally everybody. It was I think 36 different chefs and then the mayor and all the lobbyists and all of the people. I mean, that's a massive phone call. So where is it at now? So Tennessee Action for Hospitality was born that day. Do you have an update as to where, what are we doing with that and what's coming about because of it? Well, I mean, definitely at first we were trying to focus on some of the bigger picture things that would keep our restaurants in business, like allowing us to sell liquor and beer and stuff, like trying to ease our sales tax payments and stuff like that. Like things, you know, even just like approaching landlords for holds on rent, like kind of started as conversations like that. And now the big thing that we're putting forward now is grants for our employees and stuff. So like we can apply as restaurants and get our

06:24employees hopefully in the mix to get like a thousand dollar grants and try to help them out because I'm definitely not the only business that had to, you know, either let people go or furlough them or whatever you want to say it. Like none of us are working for the most part right now. So. That's amazing. So if you're out there and you're in a restaurant and you're able to sell alcohol to go, which everybody can now, it's because of this group of people that went through and lobbied to make that happen. It happened quickly. Yeah. It's amazing how fast that became a law. And it was like days later. I mean, it like, it just makes you, it's like, why weren't we doing this already? You know, I know there's a lot of red tape to go through and blah, blah, blah, but just to see how quickly we could, we could get this in front of people. And like, no matter what your politics are, like, you know, it's just like smart to try to support us. Like how many, I mean, I don't know what the numbers are in Nashville, but like just nationwide, like it's like, you know, like 15 million people that work in like independent restaurants and over half of them have already lost their jobs, you know, so. So there's a, there's, there's a butcher and be in Charleston, right? Yeah. Yeah. How is, how is everybody there faring is it? Cause obviously I'm not in South Carolina. So what is, what's the scene like there? They're, they're in a similar boat. They definitely haven't been affected as much by Corona from what I've seen. And you know, they still haven't shut the state down like they have here. So places can still sort of do what they choose, but they definitely chose to shut everything down. And they're actually trying to pivot to just sort of a grocery model, helping farmers sell eggs, you know, like whatever produce spring produce that they have. Like that's a big thing that is happening here where it's like, we have to figure out how to help the farms too, you know? And like, there's so many people that

08:28are connected to the industry that like you, maybe you don't think about on the surface. It's not just my cooks or my servers or whatever it is. It's like also the farmers that, that we support, like they're not getting business now and stuff like that. So I think Charleston's tried to really pivot towards that. And we're definitely working on some stuff like that here too. So that's one of the things that we've had to do in the word, you know, pivot. I think there's a hashtag, you know, because that's kind of what everybody has to do right now. What are some of the more, because I know we all have tons of time to look on social media, but what are some of the more unique things you've seen restaurants doing out there? I mean, a lot of them, it's like they're just trying to do their normal menu takeout wise, which is part of why I kind of didn't want to do that at the be at first. And some of them are just doing like almost like what we would do as family meal for our employees. Like, you know, before, at the end of a shift, like we would make a big staff meal for everybody to eat. And I think a lot of places are just sort of like almost making a family meal, like for actual families at this point, you know, which I think is pretty cool.

09:44It's very cool. Like family meal has always been really important to me. Like we spend a ton of time at the be like just making sure that our people can sit down and have a meal like before their shift, like normal humans, you know, which isn't that easy to do being in the restaurant business. But so I'm going to, I'm going to pause you for one second just for people out there. If you're listening and you don't know what family meal is, there's a lot of restaurants out there that cook food for their staff. So before the shift, maybe they'll do breakfast or in the afternoon. But if you're a night only restaurant, whenever it might be, they'll come up with just dishes and then everybody that comes into work sits and they eat together and that is called family meal. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And you know, we've always, we always try to have fun with it. Like people bring in their family recipes and stuff like that. I know like at Josephine, Andy Little has kind of a running thing where he has the cooks like make specific recipes out of cookbooks and then they have to like explain why they did it. Like it's definitely a kind of a known thing in like in a lot of restaurants and it's kind of cool to see what how people are spending out a little bit like delivering meals or however they're getting to people. That's awesome. I want to pivot a little bit here to use that word again. I want to go back and talk to you about the tornado.

11:05Mm hmm. Yeah. I know Edley's right there was pretty affected. How did the butch room be fair? I mean, Redhead Stranger, were you guys okay? Did you get hit at all? Very minimally compared to other people. I mean, it feels like so long ago and it's crazy because that was maybe like one of the craziest nights of my life, you know? Yeah. Pretty much like I, I don't know, man, like the there's tornado sirens that go off here all the time. Like I grew up in Texas. Like my brother lives in Kansas. Like I know about tornadoes, you know, like my wife works at Rolf and Daughters and she had got home and it was starting to get pretty bad and she was kind of freaking out and the dog was was getting scared and I was like, oh, it'll be fine. You know, it's just some rain and then my phone just started blowing up and we didn't really have anything in my house. I mean, I live about a half mile from the beach, but nothing really happened to us over there. Then like somebody texted me a couple pictures from like the basement east, which is right behind Butcher and B and it was just destroyed. So I was like, oh man, like, I don't, I bet I don't have a restaurant. Like, so I got dressed. I went, drove down and it was like a, it was like a war zone, man. Like there were like cars overturned, like trees in the middle of the street, like just people roaming around. Like I couldn't even drive to the restaurant because the cops had it blocked off, but I, I parked and walked down and we literally had two broken windows.

12:40Yeah. And like, I mean, subsequently, like we've done a little more inspecting and like there was some more damage to the building, but like, really, we really had two broken windows and, you know, Smith and Muntz is across the street, like their buildings condemned now cause it got messed up. Like there's a, there's a strip mall across the street. That's just totally destroyed. You know, the field house Jones, the new hotel there, like they were hit pretty hard, like, and then it just went over to the basement and then like Attaboy, we, you know, we're super tight with those guys and they've been through hell because of this. Like it was just devastating at the B really, like we didn't have power for, I think eight days and they had the street closed off that whole time. So like, we couldn't even think about reopening for a while. And you went straight into this coronavirus straight. I mean, we reopened for maybe four days, I think. And then it was just like, we just couldn't do it. Like we couldn't really have people in the restaurant anymore. And the B especially, I wasn't ready to just try to do take out. I didn't think it made sense. And Stranger though, Stranger was fine. Like we did a couple fundraisers. We raised like $6,000 for the bartenders guild had put together a fund.

13:58That's awesome. To give to like out of work employees from the specifically the tornado. This was before Corona happened. So that was pretty fun. And yeah, we started to try to just do take out and delivery only at Stranger, but like, just with all the interaction with people and like Uber drivers and like, even just my employees, like, you know, my chef at Stranger, his wife works at a hospital. It's just like us coming to work every day and interacting with each other was like starting to get more and more what I felt like wasn't smart. So that's kind of why we just decided to shut it down. I would say you did, you made the decision just to to shut her down and more so for the safety of your staff. And I know food doesn't necessarily do the same thing in a to-go box that it does eating it fresh. There's definitely something to be said for for trying to feed people right now. And I think if you can figure out a way to do that safely, like, like I'm all for it. But, you know, I just I didn't think that asking my employees to come to work and work side by side in a small tiny kitchen really made a lot of sense right now.

15:11I understand that. I mean, that's that's a real concern. I think every restaurant owner has to look at right now. And I mean, sometimes there's tough decisions you I think every restaurant has their own personal decision that they have to make based upon their own circumstances. And that's got to be a tough decision for you. Yeah, I mean, dude, like, I mean, just laying off people means their livelihood. Like, I don't know, it's it sucks, you know, and like, we could have, you know, we definitely could have stayed open and made a little bit of money to pay the bills or pay our employees maybe. But, you know, in the end, I hope that we can ride this out and get healthy and we'll get enough assistance. And that's part of why we started, you know, the Action for Hospitality group. And like, hopefully, in the end, we'll we'll figure out how to come out on the other side. But I feel more I feel better about everyone staying at home until we have a little more information, you know, and it keeps changing every day. So who knows, you know, every hour. Yeah. Let's move on to some more positive things. I think the first 15 minutes of this conversation has really been towards kind of some sad, sad moments in our past month. And I want to move on to when we reopen, what this is going to look like. Is there anything you're doing right now during this time to prepare for like, are you going to do some kind of grand reopening? I don't know about grand, maybe to some extent, like it's just some of it just depends on the timing of it. You know, I mean, like once a week, we're trying to cook for hospitals and stuff right now. And that's like all we're really doing as far as cooking goes. But I do meet with my staff. You know, I mean, we text all the time, but like, we have sort of more of an official meeting or phone call to try to figure out what we do in the future, because right out of the stranger, I mean, it's a taco shop. Like everything's wrapped up in foil. Like it's easy.

17:06Like we could do that to go all day. We're sort of a glorified taco truck anyway. Like, yeah, you know, it's, it's nice that we have the dining room, but like, really, like it's just set up to take out the book. The B is much different, you know, like we, we've always been about sharing food, like giving you a stack of pita that you rip up and like pass to your friend and like that, that whole thing is going to look totally different now. So yeah, I can, I didn't think about that aspect of it. Yeah. So we're, you know, we're kind of looking at it in like kind of three phases, like how we get back open. And at first it's probably just going to be take out and delivery and what that looks like. And it's going to be totally different from when we can have people in the restaurant. And, you know, when we can actually like have people sitting next to each other, like normal restaurants, you know, like who knows when that's going to be, or when people are going to feel okay, or even financially be able to do that. Like, I think we have a pretty long runway until we could be back to any kind of normal. So it's, we've tried to look at it positively and be like, this could be a reset for the restaurant and figure out, you know, what was working, what wasn't, and kind of what, what we can use to, to like make smarter decisions moving forward. I'm working with some people right now and we've tried as technology changes day in, day out, there's so many new restaurant systems out there. There's different digital checklists and line checks and all these different things that are really hard to implement while you're running on a day-to-day basis. And so we're going through and we've, we've kind of said there's been so much change in the past year, just in all the cool new upgrades we can do that if we opened a new restaurant, we'd add all of this stuff in, but leading people through change is such a challenge. And right now, with restaurants being closed for diners, it's a real easy way to go through and culturally just kind of redefine exactly who you are, what you're going to do. And when you reopen, this is how we're doing it, like

19:10bigger, better, stronger than we've ever done it before. And it's just a, I'm looking at this as a huge opportunity to improve on where we were prior. Yeah, for sure. And we're, we're definitely looking at it the same way. And, you know, like, I mean, I just think about, you know, I mean, we're in Nashville, it's not like we're, we're in New York, but like thinking about more of like delivery and takeout and like how people a lot of times like just want to eat at home and like have it quickly. And like, just think about restaurants that have modeled themselves on that. And like places that have basically like a line for, you know, one cook line for the restaurant and one cook line for to go stuff. And like, it's like a totally different way to think about it. And, you know, honestly, like at Butcher B, like we've never, I've always been kind of anti like to go like, we're a restaurant, like we're hospitality, like we want you to come in and like have an experience, you know, and like, it's just, it just looks totally different now.

20:11Which is, which is completely different because that's a sentiment right there that kind of peeks into who you are. We want you to come in, sit down, dine and have an experience versus just drop off food to fill me up so that I can like fuel, you know what I mean? Like we want you to come in, experience our chairs and our dining room and our music and our vibe with our food. Again, and not to keep mentioning Marko, but she mentioned that one of the things she loves to do is when she puts food out there, that's her giving love to everybody. And then when they people enjoy it and they have a great time, that's giving love back and you can't do that for it to go. Like there's a side of that. You just have to put it in a box and send it out. You're not feeling that entire feeling. Yeah. I mean, even a stranger, you know, it's like, like we created the whole vibe in the dining room. Like it was like kind of a diner and like a neighborhood spot. It might, we want you to come in every day for your cup of coffee and a taco or whatever, you know, and like we want you to listen to whatever stupid music I decided to put on that day, you know, like it's, you know, it's, it's definitely for, for me, it's definitely like we're a restaurant. We're just, we're not like just a grocery store, like a freezer aisle, you know, like there's a reason why we got into this and it's to make people happy. And there's more to that than just putting it in a bag or whatever. And we can make people happy that way too, but there's a lot more thought that we put into it beyond just that, you know? And I think that's the, that's also the side that I'm trying to get out. And I want people to understand is that a lot of the media attention is financial, that people are out of work. They're not making money, that this is a, that's what people are focusing on. That's what the stories are. But the bigger story to me is all of these people in the industry, this is how we define ourselves. Like you're not able, like you, the creative person that you are, who likes to create food, to give to people,

22:12where they can enjoy it, to create it. You're not doing that right now. Like you're not able to share that with people right now. And that's a void in your soul. Like how do, how are you dealing with that? Not well. I feel like, you know, it's, it's been hard to like, I mean, someone has been nice. Don't get me wrong. Like, like my wife's seen me more probably in the past month than ever, you know? So, I got a puppy in January, so I've got to spend a lot of time with him. Like there's, there's obviously like personal positives, but my whole life has been around like cooking food and like people coming to my restaurants and making people happy. And like, it's, it's totally, I can't do that at all right now. So, you know, we can find little ways to do it in the meantime. I hope feeding hospital folks and like, hopefully we can figure out a way to, to help the farms and stuff like that. But just the general day-to-day stuff, it's like, I don't want to be too negative about it. It gives me a little more perspective. And, you know, when I get back to work, you know, maybe I won't be in a bad mood because I have to, you know, fill out a spreadsheet or whatever it is. Well, you know, maybe I'll just be grateful that we're doing it. That's kind of what I'm hoping at this point, you know?

23:27– A new friend of mine, Monte Silva, that he told me, he said, people, bartenders right now are missing the person who is trying to place their order and asking a bunch of gluten-free questions because they just want somebody in their life right now doing stuff like that. And I thought, that's an interesting perspective. – Yeah, totally. I mean, like, just hearing the ticket printer, like, whatever the normal, like, day-to-day sounds are not even there. You know, somebody dropping a hotel band would normally piss me off, but it sounds cool to hear right now. – So you mentioned playing with your dog, hanging out with your wife. Are there any other quarantine activities that you are doing, looking also to give people ideas? But what have you been doing to fill your time? – Yeah, I've been, I mean, I've been exercising a lot, like, just running a lot. I've been trying to read some fiction. Like, I basically took all my whole pile of, like, cookbooks and magazines and all that. We're all, like, food-related. And I just felt like I needed a cleanse of that and not have that on my brain. So I put them all in a closet and I started reading some fiction. And I don't know, just trying to get my mind a little clear so when we can get back to it, I feel like I'll be, like, really ready to go, you know.

24:41Like I said, just going for runs, taking the dot, like, trying to stay active as much as possible. And then just personally, I'm super into video games. So, like, I've gotten some good Xbox time and I play a lot of NBA 2K because there's no sports right now. So if I can do it online, it seems kind of fun. – There you go. Making your own, making your own sports league. – Yeah, thinking about it. – That's awesome, man. I love that. Again, thanks for joining me on here. One of the things I've always loved about Butcher & B is, like, seasonal flavors. You mentioned just now, your brain is constantly thinking about food and how to make it the best. And every time I've eaten there, you've had some of the best pickled vegetables I've ever had in my life. And so, seasonal cooking. One of the things I wanted to touch on with you, because you're from the West Coast, right? – Not originally, but I did live there for, like, quite a while. I lived in Portland, Oregon for six years and Los Angeles for five years. I grew up in Texas and then we moved to Colorado when I was younger and then kind of in my 20s. That's when I went out to the West Coast. – So, the West Coast, you can literally cook anything you want to whenever you want to, because everything is available all the time, right? – Yeah, especially, I mean, yeah. Like, Southern California, you go to the farmers market in November and they have amazing tomatoes and, like, just, it's crazy. Like, the Santa Monica farmers market, like, changed my life. The abundance of what they have and how amazing it is, like, no matter what time of year is pretty awesome.

26:22But in Portland, it was a little more seasonal, you know? So, you could get the same kind of quality, but you have to be a little more selective about when you use it. And honestly, I've been really impressed with Nashville and the quality of stuff that we can get here. I didn't really expect that when I moved here, but it is very, like, you know, if you want those strawberries, you have maybe, like, two to three weeks to really use them. Otherwise, like, wait until next year, you know? – And those strawberries you're talking about are some of the best darn strawberries you'll ever get. – I know. – The locally grown strawberries. – Yeah, yeah. – Oh, my gosh. – Bloomsbury Farm does some amazing strawberries. – Laura, Lauren. – Yeah, Lauren's pretty much anything she does is pretty awesome. – She's amazing. – Yeah. – So, I want to play a word association game with you to a degree. And when you think about doing seasonal menus, what are the first things that come to your brain? Like, the first foods that come to your brain, because right now in Nashville, you said there's a two-week window for strawberries. So, when I say spring menu, what foods immediately come to your mind?

27:30– Peas. I think, like, peas and strawberries and just, like, you start to get into the green stuff. – Ramps. – You know? Like, all winter, all you have is, like, turnips. So many freaking turnips. And I do one of the best turnip dishes, you know? Like, I love that dish. It never leaves the menu, but, like, by the time you get to, like... – What about summer? – Summer? – Uh, corn. That's all I want is corn. Like, so much corn. – All right. And fall? – Fall, uh... – Fall comes around. What's the food that comes to your brain? – Man, fall is, like, when I, like... It's kind of weird because I start to think about, like, squash. – Yeah. No, I was gonna say butternut squash or acorn squash. – Yeah, which, like, that shouldn't be the first thing I think of because I have that all winter, too, you know? But I don't think I appreciated squashes until I moved here because I started working with Farmer Dave and he introduced me to... It's an heirloom squash, the candy roasters. They're these giant squashes, like, I mean, they're literally, like, three, four feet long.

28:33And they're so sweet. Like, they're so sweet. They literally taste like candy. Like, I know, like, I feel like that might get overused sometimes for sweet stuff, but, like, there's so much sugar in them. Like, it's one of my favorite things to use that I never knew about until I moved here. – So when you have something that has that much of a sugar content, how do you prepare it? – That one we typically use for, uh... We do, like, a... We call it, like, a squash custard. I've never known what to call it because if I call it a soup, people are, like, annoyed because it's too thick. And so, I don't know. We've always called it a squash custard. But basically, we cook it down in a bunch of cream and milk, and then we blend it with a lot of Parmesan and then a little thickening agent. And then we, uh, we kind of brulee the top. So, like, it's like a creme brulee almost that you crack into. Like, we top it with, like, pomegranate seeds and more cheese because you can never have enough cheese. But it all balances out how sweet it is. And, uh, it's one of my favorite dishes that we do at The Bee. – I'm, like, sitting here salivating going, God bless, you need to open the doors tomorrow because I need that right now in my life. – Yeah, yeah. Well, soon enough, I hope, you know. – Soon enough. What is your favorite ingredient? If I was the, uh... You cooked in the iron fork, right? – Uh-huh, yeah. – What was the ingredient? What was the ingredient when you did that? – And I killed that, man. The judge hosed me on that, I think. But, uh, yeah, I brought a bunch of hay and we smoked the sweet potatoes in hay. – Was it the fingerling sweet potatoes? – Yeah. – You know, I actually decided that ingredient that time. – Oh, yeah. I was excited about it. Like, I used it, I used the ingredient, like, four different ways. Like, I think I was the only one that, like, really went to town on the ingredient specifically. So, I was bummed out I didn't win that one. But it's okay. – Well, it's a fun event anyway. – Yeah, we had a good time, man. – So, you talked about Farmer Dave,

30:34we've talked about Bloomsbury Farms. Who are some other local farmers that you purchase from? – Rocky Glade is a big one we've used almost from day one. Before we even opened the beat, like, I went to the Franklin Farmer's Market and I met Julie, uh, just introduced myself and she's always sending us samples. She's always asking what she can grow for us. I make a hot sauce, I don't know if we've had, uh, at the Bee. We have it at Stranger, too. Uh, it's called, we call it Dream Weaver because that used to be my, my nickname when I was a line cook. Yeah, yeah. I've been making it for – – I think I have had it. It's amazing. – I don't know, over 10 years now. But it's generally habaneros, but it's really good if you can find Scotch bonnets. Um, so, she tried to grow Scotch bonnet peppers for me and, like, she's just all about whatever would help us or, or, you know, she's always trying to, to find new stuff to grow and interesting things and she's, she's the best. And then we also, we work a lot with Nashville Grown, so there's a ton of other, there's a ton of farms connected to them. Um, but they're, they're pretty amazing. Uh, they're a non-profit who basically try to connect farmers to restaurants. So I can go on their website and order from a bunch of different farms and they deliver it to me twice a week. So we've, we've worked with a lot of people through their, uh, number nine farms, especially, like, I get a lot of, like, the herbs and pretty stuff that, that finish the plates from them. I think that might've been how I originally met Nathan Gifford, who makes all our bacon. – And Nathan Gifford, Gifford's bacon is, uh – – Yeah, man, it's exceptional and he's, he's just the kindest dude. Like, he, when the tornado happened, like, I knew our walk-in was down and he drove his truck over, like, right away to load all of our stuff up and put it in his walk-in, you know? Like, he's just, he's, like, the best dude and then he makes the best bacon. Uh, and we, uh, we use it a lot at Redhead Stranger. We have the, the green chili cheeseburger that has bacon on it and, I don't know, I love the bacon because it's just, it's really

32:35good and it's not overly smoky. – He has a smoked bologna, too, which is very – – Oh, yeah, yeah. We, we, uh, right before we closed at Stranger, we started doing a, uh, fried bologna taco, uh, because I love, I love going to Roberts and getting a fried bologna sandwich, so I wanted to, uh, do something like that. So, uh, that may make its way on the menu, uh, when we get that going. – Yeah, uh, and to give a shout out to Nathan also, he does a, he has a Facebook page called In the Weeds where he does, like, different, like, blogs and stuff that if you were interested in Gifford's Bacon, a little plug for him, because, uh, he's awesome. So, In the Weeds on Facebook. – Yeah, he's, he's one of my favorite people. – All right, so music, you mentioned music. What kind of music can you do? – Uh, like, when it comes down to it, I'm, I'm super into hip-hop. Uh, I, I DJed a lot when I was younger. I had a couple radio shows that I did when I lived in Colorado. Um, that's like my, my bread and butter, but I love everything, man. I'm, I'm really into country, like, old country music. I like kind of garage rock, like, all the Jack Whites type of stuff.

33:39I'm in the mood, like, jazz is cool. Like, I really, there's not too much I don't, I don't mess with other than, like, I'm not into, like, uh, like, James Taylor-y, like, soft acoustic rock. But other than that, I'm pretty good. Like, last night I was just listening, I was listening to Neil Young, who I love, and, and, uh, I never, I, it was on Heart of Gold, and there's a lady who sings on it. My wife was like, who is that? And I looked it up and it was like, James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt do the backing vocals on it. I was like, huh, I never really, I never knew that. But, yeah, so maybe I don't dislike him totally, but. Well, no, I mean, he, he has his moments. Um, so random, like, quick hits, and we'll let you get you out of here. What's your favorite movie? Uh, just one. Okay, so drama and comedy. Uh, comedy? Uh, probably, uh, Grandma's Boy or Super Troopers. But I have to say shout out to Ace Ventura, uh, because me and my wife watch that all the time. What's your favorite restaurant to go dine at in Nashville that you don't own?

34:39Can I give you three? Of course, yeah, man. I mean, Arnold's is pretty much the greatest place in the country, I think. I love that place. I've been trying to get him on the show, like, crazy. He's so busy right now, but, uh, one day he's going to join National Restaurant Radio. He's a Khalil. Khalil Arnold is, uh, is a special person. Um, and then, uh, City House, I think, I think my wife and I go there, like, every other week. Like, uh, we just love sitting at the bar and getting a pizza and the, the, the cakes there, man, the desserts are so amazing. And then Peninsula, um, on the east side is probably my favorite place right now. Like, just the food that they do is amazing and their hospitality is awesome. Like, I can't speak highly enough of a restaurant. Who do you think the most underrated chef in the city is? I mean, I would probably stick with Peninsula. Like, I don't feel like they get enough love. Like, maybe they do, but like Jake, the flavors he puts together is, is awesome. And it's never like, it may sound weird when you read it on the menu, but like, once you get it, it's, it all makes sense.

35:47And like he, I think he really challenges diners in a, in a way that Nashville needs. Um, yeah, like that's, that's my dude. All right. Peninsula, everybody out there, you've got to go check out Peninsula. One of my goals is for people that live in like Pennsylvania or Boston to be searching podcasts and see something called Nashville restaurant radio. And they hear this and they get names of places to go besides places on Broadway. That's amazing. People come to town and they just go straight to Broadway and they just eat down there. And I'm like, no, go, go to East Nashville, go to the, go to German town, go try other places. And I know people do, but the majority of people just hang out right down there. And I want people to learn places like Peninsula. I know it's crazy. Like between Broadway and like sort of people end up staying like out by Opry mills or whatever. And like, I mean, we have the whole chef's counter at the beach. So I get to interact with people a lot when I'm there. And you know, like one of my favorite things is just to handwrite a list of places for them to go check out that art, you know, whatever, whatever they're supposed to go to Kid Rocks, honky tonk and those places get people to go there, but for a nice dinner, like stop it. Yeah. Like go, go support some of these locally owned chef driven places. So what's your favorite food to cook at home? Man, I end up making like, uh, just like rice bowls in general for, for me and my wife a lot, like just, I don't know, like it'll end up with just like coconut milk and, and soy sauce and fish sauce and just like whatever proteins we have. Um, that's kind of my go-to, but like last night I made, um, like Detroit style pizza at my house for the first time. And yeah, I might be doing that like all the time now because it turned out freaking amazing. And like, it was so good. I took the recipes from, uh, any square book. They have a spot here. We, we used to eat lunch there all the

37:48time, so we were missing it. So we tried to do it at home and, uh, yeah, his, his cookbook, uh, does the trick. I think that's the thing that most people at home with a lot of home cooks are jealous because you cooking at home was probably 10 times better than anything I can do. I don't quite have the, as much equipment here as I would like, but, uh, it's, it's cool. I'll make do, you know, last question, what would you say the best, most definitive cookbook or book, uh, that was regards to being a chef, like the chef written book that if I was getting into the industry and I wanted to learn the most I possibly could easiest techniques, just the most definitive cooking book out there. I'll give you two and they're there. I would give you two for two different reasons, but, um, I read on the line by Eric repair, uh, when I was first, when I got my like first fine dining job and I feel like that book just sort of like lays it out very clearly, like how to be a professional in a kitchen, like how to, how to go in, how to approach your uniform, your mise en place, all that stuff. Like I haven't reread it in a long time, but I bet it would hold up pretty well. Cause that dude's amazing. And food, food wise, like, uh, Harold McGee is on food and cooking is like the Bible.

39:11You can just like put that thing in your bathroom and just like flip through it every now and then when you need to, but like it's, it's like a thousand pages and it can be pretty dense, but it's basically like the science of food. And there's still times where I go to it, where like, I want to know why something works the way that it does. And the answer is almost always in McGee. Like it's just, it's like the Bible for cooking. I lied. I have one more question for you. So a lot of people out there I've been, I've been talking about on this show that if you're a line cook, this is a good opportunity for you to kind of press the reset button. While all these people are out of work, everybody's going to come back to these restaurants. While a bunch of people are going to bring back the same people, there's going to be an opportunity where people during this time have found other jobs and don't come back. And there's going to be people that are free agents now looking for new things. So no matter what you've done in your past, my contention is this moment during quarantine is a good opportunity for you to re like hone in on your skills, read books, do a wine class, do whatever to reinvent yourself going back in.

40:17What's the number one thing that you see as a chef that would be an unhireable thing? What are you looking for in somebody to come work on the line or to work as a sous chef or to that you're going to hire? The number one thing is just to listen. Like I, it sounds so stupid to have to say that, but like even myself, when I got started, like chef would say something, you'd be like, I know, or something would be like the worst response you could ever say, because like I, I'm not saying anything because like, I know that you know that it's like, I'm seeing you doing something wrong and I'm telling you about it. And like, people just can't grasp, like just, yes, chef, I'll do this the way that I'd want you to do it. Like, I don't really care how you did things at your last job. I don't really care how you were taught something. Like we do things the way that I want it done. And that's why we have this restaurant. And like, some people just aren't cool doing that. And, you know, they probably don't end up being line cooks or sous chefs or have their own places either. So, you know, I guess that's the biggest quality that I look for is just like a listening and like an eagerness to learn and to grow every day because I can't teach that. Like it's like, it's like hustle and sports or whatever. Like I can't teach somebody to have like a motor. Like they just need to, they just need to have that for themselves. And, you know, they end up being, you know, I can take, I can take somebody who has never held a knife before. If they want to learn, they'll end up, you know, they'll end up being one of the best cooks that I have. So attitude, right? So, I mean, everything is about perspective and attitude.

41:54If you come in and you want to be the best you can possibly leave, leave your ego at the door and come in and do your damn job and hustle and listen, right? Totally. I mean, like, dude, I'm not the best cook in the world. Like I, you know, like there's, there's thousands of people who are better at their jobs than I am, but I knew that I would come in and I would like work harder than you and faster than you. And I would figure out how to get it done. And that's, that's what like, I think a lot of younger folks really need moving forward. Also, I think timing is very important and I've never worked on your line or for you, but I certainly, I get what you're saying a hundred percent. That you're not saying is if you're a rock star and you have tons of ideas, don't come work for me because it's my way or the highway. What you're saying is come in. I'd love to have you. Talent is great. But when you're here, we're, this is the way we're going to do things. I need you to do the way. And if you do have ideas, I don't think you're saying, don't tell me. I think you're saying, Hey, chef, if I had five minutes, I have some ideas. Like to tell you in the middle of service, isn't the time to go, well, at my last job, we do it this way. You're like, not the time. Just do it this way. Like I want anything from you as a yes, chef, I'll do it.

43:09Like that's it. And there's always a time you can pitch some, you can sit down and say, chef, I was working line the night I had this idea and I thought I wanted to tell you and you kind of say thanks or no thanks or whatever. But I think you probably would encourage that. But during the moment, like have a great, just come in and make it happen and listen. I do encourage it. Like I think probably as much as anybody, like I want my cooks to have a dish on the menu. Like I don't, I'm not, I have no ego. Like I don't get, I don't care, man. Like I don't care who makes what dish. I just want to make people happy. And like, you know, we do at the bee, we have a, we just call it a chef's snack. And if you sit at the, at the chef's counter, you just get kind of a, it's kind of like a amuse bouche or whatever, like, you know, just a little bite that we sit in front of, but I make, I make the line cooks, they have to make it and have it ready for lineup. And then they have to drop it off and explain what it is, you know? And like, we've taken some of those that end up being dishes or like components on dishes. Like I, I definitely encourage creativity and give, give my cooks a lot of leeway, but as far as certain things go, like there has to be regiment, you know? You've mentioned the chef counter a couple of times. So this is like a pro tip.

44:21If you go to the butcher and be, um, and you want to sit at the table, I think that's great. But if you want to have a full immersive experience, sit at the counter. Yeah. Yeah. The counter is great. I mean, it gives us a way to interact with people. I mean, I love talking with folks. I mean, like I'm just expediting. It's not like I'm cooking, but you get to watch all the, all the cooks do their job and like, for the most part do it well. And you know, it's, it's a chance to get to know somebody over, you know, an hour and a half or whatever. It's, it's, it's pretty fun to see. And like, from our ends, like just getting to see people eat the food and how they react to it, I think is really important that you don't get in a closed kitchen. Brian, I just can't tell you, uh, thank you enough. I think that you've, you've said it all as Howard Stern says, I could talk to you for just hours on end and hopefully you will come back onto the show. We can do a follow-up, see how everything's turned out. I'd love to know what's happening when you do reopen. We talked earlier about some, some follow-up opportunity, but just thank you so much for spending this time with us here today. And, um, it's been amazing. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Um, I'm, I'm happy to talk anytime though. I got a lot of free time right now, so.

45:31Chef Brian Lee Weaver, thank you so much for coming by Nashville Restaurant Radio. And if you are listening out there and if you have never been to Butcher and Bee or Redhead Stranger, you've got to go check those out. What just a genuine dude who's been through a lot in the past month. And, uh, I think all of our hearts go out to him and we appreciate the work that he's doing right now for our community. So thank you all for joining me today. And, um, I look forward to our next interview and I look forward to your feedback. Again, please go to our Facebook page at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Tim, what you think? Love to hear your feedback. Love to know what you think of the podcast. So I hope you guys are being safe out there. Be good to each other. Love you. Bye.