Bryan Lee Weaver

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Today we are, we were gonna do the Music City Roundup and this was gonna be Jen and I going over the news. We had such a fun time discussing what the episode was gonna be and then we recorded the actual episode and I just thought we went too long winded on stuff and it was, we'd already talked about it once and it's a long story. We talk about it more in our next intro together. But there was a really great spot that we talked or I talked to Brian Lee Weaver of Redhead Stranger and Butcher and Bee and he's collaborating with Gracie Nguyen from Eastside Bon Me.

01:14I think it's this Thursday at Butcher and Bee. They're doing a James Beard House dinner and one of the things we were talking about on the Music City Roundup was Audrey opening on October the 15th and wondering if Sean had enough people, like what his staffing situation was like. And I had seen that Brian had just eaten at Audrey so we thought, hey, look, let's ask him how his dinner was, what it was like, it was kind of a friends and family meal. Let's ask him about his dinner that he's doing and then we just kind of caught up. So this episode is going to be pretty quick today because we are not going to be releasing the Music City Roundup. It is, however, released. So if you go to our YouTube page, you can watch it. If you want to watch it, it's like an hour long and you can watch the full episode. All of it, it's unedited. It's I'm not super proud of it, but if you want to watch it, then you can head over to YouTube and you can watch it, I guess.

02:17It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this is a serious thing. We at Marable are donating 10% of all of our sales on Mondays to the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition and we want you to join in with us to find a day, find a day out there that you want to donate 10%, DM me, let me know of a day that you're going to help the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition and I will promote it right here on the podcast. We have a bunch of episodes coming up. We speak with Sarah Gonzalez. She is the bread lady of Spring Hill. She has an amazing story and we find out during that story that we went to the same elementary school in California. It's crazy. We are doing a Wednesday rewind with Tony and Caroline Galzin from way, way back in the pandemic and one of my favorite interviews that we did, the end of the interview we play a game called the newly reopened game where I have them leave the room and they have to answer questions together.

03:27It is hilarious. It is so much fun. If you missed that episode, you've got to check it out. One of my absolute favorites. They were so honest, so vulnerable and just kind of talked about what they were dealing with throughout the pandemic and it started a friendship that I think was one of my favorite friendships that I gained throughout the pandemic. This was really a special episode for me and I'm really excited to share it with you. Wish I had a bunch more announcements. I know I always finish this thing and I'm like, damn, I wish I told everybody about this or that, but I got a lot of episodes coming up to be able to do that. I do want to tell you about Faux and Beaux, F-O-H and B-O-H dot com. They are the place you need to go. If you need hiring, just go to F-O-H and B-O-H dot com, Faux and Beaux. You can pick any position that you have in the restaurant. You can tailor make it to exactly the criteria that you need. You need somebody for Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings.

04:29No problem. It's going to identify people who recognize your values and what you need, have the right certifications and you can get instant matches. So if you want to pick out any individual, you want a busser, you need a line cook, you need a chef, you need a general manager, you need servers, bartenders. All of these positions are available right now. Enter the specifics. It'll give you instant matches and request them to come work at your restaurant. Check them out. Just check them out. F-O-H and B-O-H dot com. If you work in a restaurant, go get on Faux and Beaux. If you want to find a better job, it is there for you. All right. So this interview today is really short. It's about 15 minutes and it is with Brian Lee Weaver, who's one of the most humble, amazing people in the city. I love talking to him and I hope you enjoy it. So super excited right now to catch up with Chef Brian Lee Weaver of Red Headed Stranger and Butcher and B Nashville.

05:30What's going on, Chef? Not much, Brandon. Nice to see you. Nice to see you too. So we're talking about the Audrey is opening on October the 15th and I saw you post a friends and family that you were there. What was your experience like? We had a great time last night. I went with my wife. We got a date night, which was cool because that happened very often. And yeah, we sat there. They had a beautiful bed. It was kind of like a foretop, but we had triple seats. They had kind of a almost like a tent you planned out for you to try what they had. And we kind of shared everything between us. The space. I mean, I'd already seen it since, you know, strangers right across the street. So I've been watching this right next to obviously pretty closely for a couple of years now. Yeah. So I had seen the inside, but to actually sit down, you know, and get the whole experience, it was really nice to kind of get a first look at what they're doing.

06:37And, you know, I know a lot of people who work for Sean and they've worked for me too. So it's nice, you know, to see them and just kind of see everything actually come together. But yeah, we ate some good food, got some service, which I don't really get out that much at the moment. So, you know, it's nice just to be in a restaurant and regardless of where it was, it's nice to be there. How was the service? We're going to talk about this, just the idea that Sean Brock opening Audrey, like, is he having the staffing issues that everybody else has? I imagine not, right? The service was fantastic. Yeah, I mean, you know, obviously, like any kind of friends and family are kind of practicing you know, seeing things as it comes and not to say that there was anything wrong with it. But, you know, there's just there's a lot of people there and, you know, they want to see how it goes. I would imagine Sean is doing fine as far as talking about service and Sean and that everything was great.

07:42Yeah. So excellent. Well, we had a little bit of technical difficulty there. But you are let's talk about you for a second. You are doing a dinner a week from today with our good friend Gracie Nguyen from Eastside Bond Me. And it's a Beard House dinner. Is it at Butcher and Bee? Yeah, it's over at the Bee. It's next Thursday. Yeah, I guess I was approached by the Beard Foundation. They wanted to have me do a dinner and they said there would be a guest chef. I wasn't sure who, but I recommended a couple of people. And, you know, Gracie was was kind enough to join with me to do it. Obviously, I've done a collaboration with them before when we did the Bond Me over there. And I've been good friends with them since they opened their shop. I live right around the corner, more or less. So I'm just happy that they wanted to be a part of it and to support them. I mean, it's exciting to be a part of the, you know, anything to do with the James Beard Awards.

08:50So for the foundation, I should say, it's nice to be on the radar there. And yeah, we're going to do like a three course dinner. And it's a little bit of a collaboration between us and kind of giving our own dishes a chance to shine and, you know, just show what we do over on the Eastside. So this is next Thursday. Is it do you have to buy tickets or can I just show up? How does that work? Yeah, there's tickets. I think if you go to our Instagram, definitely Butcher and B and Eastside Bond Me's Instagram. I think there's a leak in their bio. Or if you go to James Beard, like Taste America, there's a way to buy tickets there. It's a it's basically it's a series they're doing at different cities around the around the country and they're trying to more or less raise money for restaurants. Like most of the proceeds end up going back to us. It doesn't go to them at the moment. So they're really just trying to get the word out to, you know, support independent restaurants and try to help us out a little bit.

09:51That's awesome. What a great what a fun evening for everybody kind of involved. And I love the collaboration with Gracie and what Chad they're doing over there. They're two of like my favorite new people in town. Yeah, just getting to know them every time that I talk to Chad. He's just he's like the most positive dude. He just has this energy in this just like his level of service that he brings. I don't know. I just like being in his presence. It just makes me it makes me feel like a happy person when I'm around him. Does that make any sense? Oh, no, for sure. Like I've gone in there, I don't know, 20 times, maybe more. He's been there every time. He's always smiling. He's happy to see me, you know, like it's it's pretty great. And, you know, I welcome them so much into Nashville and like the East side, like we love what we do over here. And, you know, it's just nice to have these national just keep growing and have more, you know, interesting places over here.

10:54You know, we were talking about we're going to talk about this if we haven't already in this show today, I know we want to talk about the Hermitage Cafe closing and just some of these small pieces of Nashville that are going away. And I contend that East Nashville really has the most. Independent restaurants and the most version of what I consider to be old Nashville that we're hanging on to in the community is intentional about keeping it that way. Does that make sense? Yeah, I mean, I'm not old Nashville. By any means, I've been here for six years, you know, so I still feel like I'm learning my way around almost, but but you get it. You get like this side of town is just I feel like it has a spirit and we all support each other, not that any other neighborhood doesn't, you know, but but we feel pride about what we do for sure. And like, you know, I don't know, it's kind of funny. Like when I first opened the beat, we did an event and I had a guy ask me when we were going to open in Nashville.

11:54And I was like, what are you talking about? Like, we've been open for two years, you know, a year on the East side. And he's like, yeah, but real Nashville, like, you know, like East Natural didn't exist or something. And I, you know, I just love it. Yeah, it's strange. But, you know, I feel like we have a good sense of community and there's more places coming in. And I think everybody's just supportive of each other, like everywhere in Nashville. And it's it's nice to see. And, you know, it's I just love it over here. It's great. Well, you came on the show in the middle of the pandemic, kind of you get a bunch of publicity for pending a text message, I think, to a bunch of people. And Tennessee Action for Hospitality kind of grew. Bunch of people came together to make that happen. But one of the things when you came on the show, you said that you absolutely loved was Peninsula. You said Peninsula Restaurant is my jam. I said, what's your favorite place right now? And you said Peninsula. And ever since that day, I've been trying to eat at Peninsula. And they've been closed. And then they open and then they closed.

12:56And I finally got there like two weeks ago. And I thought about you because I was like, I've been trying to eat at this damn restaurant for almost two years, ever since Brian was talking about. And like 100 people have come on the show and said the same thing. They've also like, dude, you got to go to Peninsula whenever they reopen. You got to go. It's amazing. And it was everything that you talked about. Yeah, it's still just fantastic. I went after they reopened. And I mean, those guys are the best, you know, like I know you've had Craig on the show. He's he's awesome. And, you know, I think I think Jake's probably the most underappreciated chef in town, like he's he should be getting all the praise. He needs I need to I need to I'm going to work on getting him on the show. I want to know more about him because I hear a lot of I don't know him. I've never met him. I saw him in there the night working. His food was unfreaking believable, like just it was. You're going to go to a special dinner tonight, right? Yeah, I'm going to Yolan for the first time. So when I left my dinner at Yolan, I walked outside the restaurant and I went, I feel like I just left Nashville.

13:59And I just like I was in Boston or I was in Chicago and I had dinner and then I walked outside of the restaurant. And instead of being in Chicago, I was back in Nashville. It was like this weird like warp that I did. And it felt kind of the same way at Peninsula. I'm eating octopus and all of the food that was an octopus is everywhere now. But like the the food was so not typical Nashville and it was so fantastic. And I was just I walked out and I was like, we're in Nashville. Like, oh, my gosh, I feel so lucky that we have this stuff here now because it just hasn't been that way for so long. Yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I mean, I guess probably it was happening before I moved here. Or I know it was, but, you know, just seeing just seeing all these places pop up that are doing the food that they want to do, they're not necessarily trying to cater to everybody, you know, and like if they do, that's fine. But I think in their in their heart of hearts, there's just doing the food that they want to do. And I think that's so important.

15:02And and you can see so many places doing that now. And it just adds to the community here and like what we're doing. It's it's really awesome to see, you know, like I feel like we're getting to a point where we're like we're on a level with with anywhere as far as the places that are opening, you know, and it's it's it's not even just the the people coming from out of town. It's like people who who like, yes, they came from out of town, but they want to be here or, you know, like it's like they love Nashville. It's not just like, hey, let's grab some money or whatever, you know? Yeah, no, I see that. And I I think I was just I think Audrey is going to be one of those places that, you know, I've heard that it's going to challenge Nomo, you know, best restaurant in the world kind of a thing. That's what he's going for. And I I think that's amazing. I think that it it puts Nashville on the map again for another reason. But I I know you're too humble to say it, but I think it chefs like you. And I've followed you for many years now, just from even when I was in sales following you. But you've never been somebody who's done something to make other people happy.

16:04You've kind of hey, like this is who I am. This is who I'm going to be. I'm not going to change for you. I'm not going to change for else. And I think it's leaders. I think that's a it's a strong leadership trait that you have that other people have been able to go, hey, look, this guy's doing his own thing and he's unapologetic about it. And it's really good. And he doesn't have to succumb to this standard that, oh, you have to have hot chicken or you have, you know, he's pickling things that I didn't know you could pickle. And he's he's he's really doing it. And you've you've just done it. And I thank you for that, because I think you've been one of the people who's helped blaze a trail for everybody else. Awesome. I mean, that means a lot that you sort of notice that I have kind of made it a point in my head, whether I ever said it out loud or not, that, you know, I'm going to do the food that I want to do. And I hope people like it, you know, and I've been blessed to have enough people like it that, you know, there's two restaurants now that are working out and hopefully another one coming soon.

17:08But we'll talk about that another time, maybe. So, yeah, well, that's I can't wait. That's awesome. That that's exciting to hear. Yeah, yeah. I just I just really want to keep doing what we do. And like, I want to keep supporting people that are also doing what they do, because it's it's it's so refreshing just to go into a place and, you know, know that I can just I can just eat. I don't need to think about it. You know, I know, like, I'm going to I'm going to have something awesome just because people are doing what makes them happy, you know. Well, I know you're going to have that experience now. You'll learn one of my favorite dinners in Nashville. They're doing great things over there. Thank you for taking time today. We got to catch up again real soon. This has been a lot of fun. Thank you, Chef. Yeah. Anytime. Thanks, Brendan. All right, man. Like I said, he's like one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. Loving to death. Chef Brian Lee Weaver. Tickets are still available, I believe, for his dinner this Thursday night with guest chef Gracie Nguyen from Eastside Bon Me.

18:15Definitely a treat. I will be out of the state, so I will not be able to go. But I highly recommend that you do go if you want an amazing dining experience. If you are out there right now, however, you're listening to this, please click the subscribe button. If you're listening to this on whatever Spotify or Apple music or whatever you're listening to your podcast on, hit that subscribe button and leave me a five star review. I would love for you to leave some five star reviews. Let's get this thing built up. I don't really ask for that a lot. And if you can go find this on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah, it's Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio on Instagram. And find me. I'm at Brandon underscore NRR on Instagram. And we'd love to have you there as we're going to be posting all about fun things that we eat and see and do and excited to have you. So I hope that you guys are being safe out there. Please get vaccinated.

19:15Wear a mask. Love you guys. Bye.