Cam and Nicole Payne

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01:50Additionally, they have trucks from coast to coast bringing products to farms and artisans across the globe. You can order through your phone app or online. They truly are what chefs want. Check them out at whatchefswant.com. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. I'm joined as always, not as always, but as most of the time, Jenny Chikawa. What's going on, Jen? Hi. It's a big weekend this weekend. Yeah, we have a lot, a lot going on this week. Wow, man, just the weather though, like. I know it was so springy.

02:55Wasn't it just, like I was outside working on my trail in the backyard. We met, we have some neighbors we've met right down the street and we've started building a trail to their house that accesses the trail. And man, I think I cut down like two or three trees that were already dead. Yeah. I am beat today, but being outside for two whole days in the woods, making bonfires with the kids, building forts, like I, my cup overfloweth. Good. I'm glad. Yeah. I called you and you were like, oh, I'm about to talk to my neighbor. Can I call you back? Yeah, we went to the park yesterday was my kid's first time at like a big kid park and Ezra was so overstimulated. Like he was like, there's so many people to see and everyone's cause I mean, it was Franklin park. Like everybody was out. The weather was beautiful. Was it Pinkerton park? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So it was super fun. Because they're both still a little, I put them in one swing together and like the baby swings, I just put them back to back. Ezra was so miserable. He like fully gets his, I don't like outdoors from me and Noel loved it. Like she just ran around everywhere and she was enjoyed the swing. Ezra is not here for it. He will be. I never was. So if he's not, it's cool.

04:06Like we'll just watch daddy. Yeah. That park, I almost got arrested there one night. For what? We went there. We went to Taco bell and a little weed story and we had, we had weed. We did. You went to Taco bell. I went to the doctor that day and I had pink eye. I was there with my girlfriend and a couple of friends. We were going to go like play in the park and like smoke a joint. So this is at least 20 years ago. Oh yeah. This is, yeah, maybe longer. Okay. 24 years. It's a long time ago. Okay. And the police roll. We're all playing in the park. We just put a joint out and the police pull up and they're like, get over here. You know, it's like, what's going on? And this was the best moment. The girl, we had Taco bell. Yeah. This big bag and she hid the weed in the crumpled Taco bell bag. So it's just a bag, but it's like all the crumpled wrappers and she hid it inside one of those wrappers, like wrapped up, like the weed in an old Taco bell wrap wrapper and just threw it in the bag. They could not find it to save their life. And they came and say, boy, we know you got weed. And I was like, I don't, he was looking at how red your eyes are. And I was like, sir, I have pink eye because I've heard that before. And I go, no, no, no, go look on the passenger seat. There's a, there's a, there's a documentation from my, I was just at the doctor today and the dude goes out and gets it and he's like, oh, you really do have pink eye. I'm like, is that the first time you've ever heard that that actually like panned out and let us go? And we left and I was like, oh my God, that's awesome. 20, 24 years ago. Have you been back to Pinkerton? I have not. That was, that was my last visit. It would be a different experience now. Maybe, maybe speaking of new experiences. Well, how was the rest of your weekend? Did you do anything fun? I don't want to jump onto the next thing. No, you're okay. That was, that was honestly the highlight. It was so fun. They'd never been to a park like that. So it was, we have a little park in our backyard, but that's it. Well, we, we almost had some big trouble. We're doing this trail. When you called, okay, so here's what happened. I'll tell you this story. We have this trail in our backyard and it's, it goes from my house to my parents' house. And

06:08then there's like, it's like we looped it into where now it's like a 10th of a mile long. Well, we found these neighbors, the four houses down and they're amazing. So the house next to mine and the house next to them, they all know about the trail. It doesn't touch their yard, but it kind of goes in there. They could, it's back in their backyard. They're totally fine with it. We've talked to them. Well, the third house down, we didn't really know the guy. And then the fourth house down are our friends. So we're building this trail so that the kids can come to and from our houses without having to walk down a really busy street. Right. And so we were like, well, let's ask the guy if he minds if we go through the very back of his yard. So he texted me, he said, no. Okay. And he was like, no, we're like, okay. So we rerouted it down like a different way. And then we're back there at the chainsaw or like move. There's a huge oak tree that fell. So I'm cleaning this tree up and the guys, another text message that's like, Hey, I'm calling the police if you don't stop. So like, we're like, we need to go talk to him, explain to him, like, here's what we're doing. So you call him like literally walking to this guy's house to like have a confrontation. And the dude came out and he walked back and he was like, Oh, you guys are just making a trail. I thought you were building like a structure back here. I'm like, no, no, it's just like, so kids can walk across. Like, it's not a big thing. And he was like, I'm so sorry, my bad. That doesn't make sense. Because your tone wasn't like, Hey, I'm talking to my neighbor.

07:24Like it wasn't Mr. Rogers. It was very much like, I'm about to talk to my neighbor. Yeah. Okay. Well, that makes sense. Everything was cool. Everything worked out really well. And yeah, so here we are. It is Monday, recording this on Monday. This is coming out on Tuesday. So this is like really almost live. This is very fresh. This is live. So hopefully the weather doesn't hit you too bad tonight. Looks like we've got some really bad storms coming in, but we are going to be talking today with Cam and Nick. Is it Nicole? I'd say Cam and Nicole. Online it says Nicole, but we haven't, we've only spoken in person, not in person over the phone a couple of times. And I don't think we ever clarified. Red perch. Yes. Red perch. He's from Australia. Her parents are from the Philippines. They met in Hawaii and we wanted them to come on for Valentine's day. Right. I was looking for a love story. So we called some people and said, Hey, do you want to come on and tell your love story? We'll do like a love story. And they kept bringing up Cam and Nicky, Nicole. We'll find out what to call them. They said they would be great.

08:29You got to talk to them. So we called them and they just, that day we were so last minute, like, Hey, can you just hop on today? Which is tough. That's super tough. We were, yeah, we were throwing some ideas against the wall there. I really wanted Brandon to tell like a funny breakup story. And he's like, I don't have any of those. Mine were all sad. And I was like, Oh, I've got a lot of funny ones. Well, I don't remember them. Like I've been in a relationship for like 19 years. Like, yeah, like most of my life, almost your entire life. I've been in a relationship. I don't have like a lot of 60% of it. I didn't. And my breakups were like, we went together for like three weeks. Like, oh my gosh, it was a record. I met this one. I knew it was the one. So that was it. That's the only, and I don't have a breakup story for that. So that's good. Yeah, that's good. Those are the two options, right? Either you do or you don't. That I want to share. Right. So my expectations just kind of coming into the show. I'm just, they seem like really nice people. They really do. Yeah, they seem really nice. And I always like when couples from different cultures come together and like share food as their commonality. Cause that's, I mean, that's what me and Kenji do with him.

09:35Me being Jewish and him being Japanese. We've, he learned about latkes. I learned about katsu. We're going to talk about katsu today. I think you're going to teach me about their katsu tacos. I've tried to make katsu and I can't do it, but I can't make much of anything. What is katsu? So surely someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but it is Japanese, I believe. And it's a style of like a preparation of meat style. So like you can say like smoked ribs, right? So like katsu is fried, but it's, it's fried in like a specific way. His mom, my mother-in-law Midori makes pork katsu. And that's one of Brian's or Kenji's like, I call him Brian. I've had multiple people think I'm cheating on my husband because I call him Brian, but everyone else knows him as Kenji, but I'm not Brian Kenji. Brian or Kenji or both my husband. He has two other names. We're just going to start with Brian or Kenji. Itch is the other one. Anyway, so his mom makes pork katsu a lot. And that's like one of his, she's made for me and it's really good. And it is just kind of like a fried. So they make a chicken katsu taco. And that's, it looked really good. It sounds delicious. Yeah. All their food looked really, really good. It did. It looked really pretty. So the Red Perch is in Sylvan supply.

10:53They started off in the arcade to Sylvan supply. So I'm just, I'm excited to hear a fun story. I think the way they met is pretty interesting. Yeah. She did tell us how they met and hopefully they'll go into that because she goes, I don't know. We don't tell a whole lot of people, maybe we'll get into their, their love story and this can be fun. Yeah. I'm excited to talk to him. What do you say we jump on in? Let's go. Super excited today to welcome into the studio live Cam and Nicole. They are the owners at the Red Perch. What's going on guys? Hi. Hi. Thanks for having us. Welcome to the studio. This is I think our third episode in the studio. So this is news is a new experience for us too. Yeah. We used to do this over the computer where we just like, we're looking at each other and Brandon and I were only in the same room together twice, maybe three times. So it's nice to be like next to each other and like seeing everyone really. You guys started during COVID, right? So it's all virtual and like March 13th. Yeah. I remember that. It was my first episode and it was just because all the, all everybody was posting on Facebook. They're posting online that we're clean. We wash our hands. You should come eat here. Come eat like the, cause the whole coronavirus thing was taken off and people were saying, seriously, our sales are dying right now. Like come and eat. We need you to come eat. We're clean.

12:16And I had a conversation with somebody and I was like, should we be that their point was should you be going on a medium, which essentially anybody can screenshot and keep forever that you wash your hands and you're clean. Come eat. What if this thing kills you instantly and you invite all these people out and because you made that post, like, are we doing the right thing with that? And I thought that's a compelling thought and I want to talk about it. And so that's, I just started talking and just went after it. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad he did it. We were all confused about what to do. Yeah. It was such a hard season to figure out what the right thing to do as like, do you keep your doors open? Do you not? How long do you close for? What are the ways you're going to alter your business? It was, it was a nightmare. I wake up every day thinking that I don't know if we're done thinking that now. I mean, Kim and I have conversations about this every day. But we have more information now. Back then we had no idea what we were looking at. We didn't know if it was airborne. We didn't know if it was just sanitation. You know, like we had no idea. No clue. It felt like our strategy changed all the time. Like every day. It's still changing. Yeah, it's still changing. That's what I'm saying. Like different variants and what's next.

13:24And so when did you guys open? Now, let's go a little backstory. You opened Red Perch in the arcade. Yep. 2018. Oh, right when you moved here. Yeah. Wow. Right when we moved here. So was this in, this was in the works before moving here? Well, we lived in Hawaii. And then we moved here because the food scenes like up and coming and we could buy a house. So good timing, by the way. I know. Thank God. Right before. Yeah. Yeah. We probably wouldn't be able to swing it now. But when we got here, we had to find a space and there was no restaurant space available. So we had to buy the Greek touch just because they had a grease trap and a lease that we could get into. Wow. Then Cam spent like two weeks in there and painted it. Yeah, we sort of spent all our money purchasing on the actual purchase that we didn't have any money left over to renovate. So I just spent two weeks wiping the grease off the walls and repainting.

14:29I know what that's like. Yeah. So I mean, we, we signed the lease on the 1st of July and we opened on the 17th of July. So it wasn't much of a turnaround to getting it open. So it's definitely sort of bootstrapped it. Yeah. So the way in which I obviously we have a mutual friend in Jason Ellis, yes. Right from SuperSource. Yeah. One of our sponsors. We love SuperSource. Okay. Is there a positive affirmation? We do have a mutual friend in Jason Ellis. We, we talk about how much we like him like all the time. He's so great as like as a small business and for, you know, someone who really we were small business, like, we kind of need to be babied and he babies us and he's like always shows up and one time he like cam called him at at night and he came over like from Lebanon. It was insane. He's so great. It's crazy. He's like beyond. He's like next level, just like nicest guy in the world. And I call him the dentist. Let me explain that. I actually don't know this. I always call him he's the dentist, right? Because if you ever go to the dentist, you'd imagine they're in it for the sales. So I would imagine in front of every dentist office, there'd be like a box of Snicker bars, right? Because they go eat candy, you'll come back sooner, but they don't. They do everything in the world to not have you come back. Right? Yeah. They're trying to preventively do everything they can just come back for your checkups. That's cool. You don't. Is that what they're trying to do? I think so. Yeah, I'm not sure. I don't know if cam feels the same way. I always felt like dentists were like always trying to like, hey, you need to floss. You just don't come back unless you have something really bad. But he does that. He always comes in and tries to identify things that this might go wrong if you continue to do this or this or this. And it's like, wow, man, thanks. He's always proactively helpful to me. Yeah. I'm sure cam has more insight, but he's I feel like he's a he's a member of the team almost. Yeah, he's great

16:34once a week. He's going to love this episode. He checks all my levels. He goes through through my through my storage area. He checks, makes sure I've got all the gloves, brings them in, unpack some stacks them up. It's like I have another member of the team. It's it's pretty crazy. They the level of service he provides. Yeah, we went with him because Andy from Chopper and Barista goes with him. And yeah, I think that's what kind of solidified it. And then he showed up at one of our pop ups to you. Nice. Yeah. You're a guy. Our mutual friends are Craig and Yuriko. Oh, yeah, they told you I actually married me and my husband. Yeah, like she was. Yeah. So my husband is originally from Seattle. And so they knew all the same places and all that like being in the restaurant industry. And anyway, so when they moved out here, we met them really quickly. And Yuriko is half Japanese and my husband is Japanese. So our kids she was like, your kids are going to look like me. And they went to the same restaurants. And it was just she never he's also a Japanese man. And I'm obviously a white woman. And she loved that because you don't see that. Sure. And I'm a lot. And so anyway, we became really fast friends and took them to all of our favorite Asian restaurants out here. And then when it came time for us to get married, we wanted it to be by a friend. And we were like, well, you're a co you're like half of each of us you like, like not just ethnically, like, genuinely, she like our personality, she like, somehow is like the perfect mix of us. And we love them so much. And so she married us. Like, that's so neat. I love your ego. I feel like I just like love like her vibe and her energy.

18:15She's like a hug and be your best friend. She's the best. She's one of those women that you're like, how are you that beautiful and confident and kind and successful? And you want others to be there with you? Like, she's just she's such a an amazing person. I love her so much. You know, that her dad is a children's book author. Yeah. Like everything about her. No, which is like a sin. Because yeah, you know, she's the main character. Yeah, we she had her dad sign the book. It's called My Favorite Daughter. It's about Eureka. Yeah. And I read it to the girls every night or not almost every night. They love the book. It's about being Hoppa, which is like half Asian and half white, too. So we're like stoked on it. I know. I've she's shown me them like when we went to their house. I've seen them and stuff. And yeah, I think she's just amazing. It's so cool. And she like was talking to me a lot about those books, because I write to like, I'm a writer. And she was like, you would love my dad. He writes these children books in there. I want to meet her dad. I know. I've never met him. She jokes that because you know, her mother is British. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. So she told us this joke. I grew up with two different tea services. And I love that. Okay, Kim won't even let me make tea.

19:28I don't make it the right way, apparently, for an Australian. What is the right way for an Australian? I just have a very simple I just have a black tea with a splash of milk. I was gonna ask if no I'm not sure how she messes that up. I feel like she just doesn't want to make me a cup of tea. So she just she just messed it up. You know, I did I do that. Honestly, I did that with laundry the first week I was married. I feel like a red shirt and with all the white stuff. I was like, you can't do that. She's like, never again. I was like, yeah, I can rely. So the reason Craig and Yuriko came up was because we were it was Valentine's Day. It was Valentine's weekend. And I really wanted to do a fun one to tell a love story. You know, and I thought, Hey, look, let's call Craig and Yuriko. Maybe they'll come on and we'll do that. And he said, Yes, that sounds awesome. Then Oh, no, we've got somebody coming to a restaurant to film or something. We had all these different things happening. They said, You should call Cam and Nicole. And I was like, Okay. And so I reached out to you guys, you're like, we'd love to do it, but we just can't do it right now. But you have a really cool story about the way that you met.

20:33I mean, there's a lot of explicit. I'm not sure. You know, it's funny, you do a PG version. So what's funny is that I was like, we were wasted, I was wasted at Locust. And we were telling this story to them somehow. And then the week later, you guys approached them about a Valentine's story. And so probably triggered that. I just ate at Locust for the first time Saturday night. I love Locust. Oh, my gosh. He's amazing. He's a magician. Yeah, he's he's very cool. So there's is there a paraphrased version of the story? You don't have to tell it. It's okay. Yeah, no, we can tell the story. That was pretty funny. Funny, but like, interesting. It's relatable, too. Yeah. So like a little backstory cam has like worked all around the world. But at the time, he was a chef on a private yacht for an Australian millionaires, like, and he had to take a vacation because the guy was going off the boat. And he went to Hawaii. And then we met on Tinder.

21:44In Hawaii, like Hawaiian tender? Is it just regular tender? Just regular Tinder. Just regular Tinder in Hawaii. They just identify where you are. I don't know if there was like a Hawaiian tender like he got married before any internet apps or anything like that. So he's like never seen them. I don't I have I've been married 16 years. So we never had we never had social media with all time we dated anything. So yeah, yeah. So we did the whole 90 day fiance thing. Yeah, we did that. Did you really? We did. If we backstory this, I think the funny the funny part is and cam staring at me because he thinks I'm going to tell the drunk story, but I'm not going to. It was the first date. So it was we met on Tinder. Oh, well, right before that, I was sick and my mom was visiting. And my mom, obviously, her name is Josie, but we call her Lola. It means grandma in Filipino. So she loves to cook and she's like always cooking for people. She does around a lot of pop ups around town. And she's like all like Julio and everyone comes to them.

22:52They like they're fun. Her food is good. So when before we had even met, I was like, Hey, do you want to come over? My mom is cooking and camp declined. Seems reasonable. We've not met before. Meet your mother. She's cooking my mother and your auntie was there. Yeah. Yeah. So he ended up declining politely. Yeah. And so I had met up with him right the day she was going to leave. Anyways, we ended up like partying all night and we like hooked up. And then I accidentally overslept and my mom was like blowing me up because I was supposed to take her to the airport. No, I mean, took picked up, picked her up, took her to the airport, came and I like hung out for his whole trip. And yeah, and we like hung out for his whole trip.

23:52Then he left. And then how to come back for some reason. Yeah, something. Yeah. No, I think I had a visa issue in Tahiti. Yeah, they leave or they'll make me leave. So he went back to Hawaii that we started we hung out a little more than we met back up in Fiji. And then we ended up deciding to do a 90 day fiance thing. And how do you decide that? Like, hey, let's do I don't even know what that means. So I do because I love that show and a girl I went to high school with is on it. Oh, really? Yeah. So when is she? Elizabeth and Andre. So. Oh, so I've known her since we were like eight and I'm it's wild to like watch her on that show. Yeah, but she goes she used to go by Libby, but she doesn't anymore. I love that show only because Cam is my 90 day fiance. I've always been blown away by that because I'm like how so the 90 day fiance so it's a K one visa and you have essentially 90 days to get married after you get accepted into it, right? Like after the government says, OK, you can have the visa, you have 90 days to get married or the visa expires in person to leave.

24:59So it's a I've always been fascinated by it because I'm like, I, I don't know if I'm a commitment. I'm married, right? So I can't be like too much of a commitment for but I we didn't get engaged for two and a half years. And even then it was like a year and a half of engagement to make sure and yeah, totally. I can't fathom being like, yeah, OK, this is it. I'm just not. Oh, they have their children here in the room in the studio. Both of them are hanging out with us. And what is the Chloe Chachi? How old is Chloe? Six months. Oh, my goodness. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, it's fine. We can take a break, man. It's not in the world. We can you can bring the baby. We can do that. It should be quiet, but just hold it. Yeah, OK. Kind of like we'll just keep going. I'd like to welcome in Chloe to the studio. She has both of your daughters and Chloe's now looking at me like, dude, what is happening in here? This is fun. This is awesome. I love it. I feel like we could talk to you, Cam, just about stories about being on the yacht. Yeah. Like traveling around the world on a yacht for a rich guy. Yeah. So I wasn't like a famous person, too. He wasn't. I think he signed an NDA. Yeah, I mean, you can't. You can't. Yeah, it's well, I didn't sign an NDA, but this is like the general sort of unwritten rules. You don't talk about your boss. Yeah. Because people come up and ask all the time when you be docked somewhere, they always want to know who it is.

26:36Whose boat is that? Yeah. Yeah. Or they'll they'll just it's kind of strange to be docked at somewhere and people will just walk onto the boat. It's a privately owned yacht and they'll ask you for crap for like a cup of tea and some biscuits or something. Like, who are you? Why? Why? Why do you feel like I need to give you? Yeah, they think it's a cafe or something. It's kind of bizarre. There's a show on Bravo called Below Deck. Yes, everyone always asks. I was going to ask if that's like if it's at all relatable. I've never seen it. You've never seen it. Okay, there's a lot of iterations you can choose from. There's like Below Deck Mediterranean. I'm digging into Bravo. Yeah, I'm like no. No, but I mean, it was a great experience. So I joined the boat in Fort Lauderdale and we sailed sort of all the Bahamas, Caribbean to South America. We went through the Panama Canal and that was probably that was probably the best experience going through the Panama Canal was really cool. It took us three days to get through it. So the first day you go through a series of three locks that take you down and then you spend, it depends how many boats are in the canal at the time, but we had to spend a day like overnight in the canal anchored and then we could do the series of three locks going up to the Pacific side. So that was really cool. It was really interesting. So they put you in a lock and the locks are massive. So we'll be tied up against like a tanker and then there's a tiny little yacht next to us and then another tanker.

28:11And yeah, it was just really, really interesting thing to see. You go past Nega. Noriega, that's the one you go past Noriega's house like his in house prison, which is more like a mansion. That was pretty cool. That's wild. Wow. Before that, he was in Turkey. Yeah. And you're working at Atticus. Oh, Attica. That was in Melbourne. That's Ben Cherry's restaurant in Melbourne. Okay. That was, that feels like a lifetime ago. That was about 12 years ago. I think I started there 2008 and I left 2010 sometime. So if you guys met in Hawaii, what part of Hawaii like? We met on Oahu. On Oahu. In Honolulu. Waikiki. Yeah. Okay. So you meet in Hawaii. You do the 90 day fiance. You get married. Yeah. And then now you're both married and you're living in Hawaii. Is he still a chef traveling the seven seas? No, no, no, no, no. He had to get off the boat so we could stay together. Yeah. He asked me if I wanted to join the boat.

29:21No. It's not for everyone. It's a lot of time at sea. Yeah. So he moved to Hawaii and couldn't work for a little bit because of the visa thing. And then he just was doing like pop-ups and stuff because of course, like as a newlywed, I didn't want him gone. I worked also, I didn't want him to be gone every night and weekend. So he was doing pop-ups around Waikiki. And then, and it did really well. We do, he did paella over there as pop-ups, but we do a paella night at Red Perch on Wednesdays usually. Oh, nice. Do you pick up a tiny little bit of Australian in her dialect? Like how she speaks? I don't. Do you start listening? Because I almost feel like when she says some things that has like an Australian, like you've talked to him a lot and you're picking up little accents of it. That's funny because when she was in Hawaii, she had a Hawaiian accent. I think that you'll hear this. I'm listening to her and I'm like, she's got a bit of a southern twang now. I feel like it's like a Nicole accent.

30:37Yeah, it's like a unique to you only. I felt like it was almost like a surfer bro accent. I can see that. I can see that too. Like I just, anyway, just random thing there. Sorry. When did the idea of Nashville come about? Just after Charlie was born. Yeah, milk was like seven bucks. Yeah, it's like eight dollars a gallon for milk in Costco in Hawaii. And we were renting and we were living. They call it Ohana. Ohana means family. And you live in a part of someone's house. That's like a subdivided part of someone's house. So our landlord lived above us. Right. It's always nice. Yeah. They were great. But yeah, we wanted to build a- Yeah, it was like 2,600 to live in part of someone's house. Right. We wanted to build a home here and Nashville seemed like a great place. Yeah, the economic climate looked really good. And the food scene was coming up, which was important to us. What was the food scene like in Hawaii?

31:43It's good. I mean, it's mostly Asian based. Obviously, there's a lot of great Japanese places there. I was going to say, when I was looking over your menu, I was like, there's a lot of different Asian influences here. Like there was katsu, which is Japanese. And then you had Vietnamese, obviously, and Filipino. I was like, wow, there's a lot here. I mean, coming up, like cooking in Australia in the early 2000s, everyone was doing- Yeah, people don't get that. There's a lot of Asian- Asian-Australian fusion. Well, so my husband, I mean, I think he'd tell this story. When he first moved here, so he's 100% Japanese. His mom moved here when she was a teenager, but he's fourth generation because his dad is third generation. So anyway, when he moved to Nashville, he was working at Logan's Steakhouse. And this guy goes, hey, man, what kind of Chinese are you? And he thought it was funny because- What kind of Chinese are you? Yeah. And he's got really thick skin. He thought it was funny. But anyway, so being here and like- The most ignorant question of my entire life.

32:49I know. I know. And if somebody said it's my kid, I would be livid. But he was fine with it. But anyway, all that to say is like, I think people do not understand that both Australia and Hawaii have like a ton of different Asian influences. And it's not just one kind. It is a ton. Sure. Yeah. There's every kind of like, I thought it was so mind blowing here about the Thai, Japanese sushi or Thai sushi, Chinese restaurants. I'm like, what the fuck? I know. That's not even close to the same thing. I know. Whenever we talk about sushi out here to like his family in Seattle, they're always like, really though? Where are you talking about sushi? Well, there's one sushi place. So I am actually allergic to shellfish and fish. We think it's like God's funny joke that he married a Jewish girl who's allergic to shellfish and fish. And anyway, so I have to eat vegetarian. So when I pick a sushi place, he doesn't care because he's like, well, I'm not going to eat that, right? So the only place that he really loves the sushi is Sona Bona.

33:51Oh yeah, we love Sona Bona. That's Charlie's favorite restaurant. Well, Yuriko and Craig introduced us to it. They like, yeah, they rented out one of the rooms and we like, it's so good. So they showed us that. And then we showed them King's Market and Vien Phu. Oh, cool. Oh yeah. Yeah. Vien is my favorite. You live right over there. I was looking at like, we were looking at where the perch was and I was like, are they in the nations? No, it's still in supply. Yeah, right. So I'm really bad at directions. So if you say Charlotte, I'm like, oh, the nations. Where do you all live? Over like White Bridge, you said? Yeah, so we're in Charlotte Park. I thought we were buying in the nations, like because it was the same zip code and we didn't know. And then I guess we just ended up there, like off of Robertson. Yeah. I never knew Sylvan Park was a thing until I was interviewing for a job there the other day. So bye, Brandon. I said no to it. I turned down the job, but like, I'm so bad at directions. I'm like, she just cracked me up.

34:52Got a little hot now. What? No, I know. No, I'm not leaving him. I left a different job. Not this job. Well, the other job was with me too, but it's okay. I did leave you there, but not here. She left me in my other place, but not here. So you moved, so it's a very smart decision. You decide, hey, look, Nashville is growing. It's got a burgeoning restaurant scene. It had this prices of houses haven't skyrocketed yet. You moved to Nashville. We did. I have some family in Murfreesboro, so we lived out there for a little bit. But then we moved to Nashville quite quickly, like within a couple months. We were just, we're like, oh, let's go. And then you got here and you opened a restaurant. How fast after you moved here? Six months. Yeah. Moved here six months later. Was that kind of the plan the whole time? He will move somewhere, open a restaurant. How long have you had the idea for Red Perch? He's Kim's always been. I sort of always, so I've always loved cooking seafood.

35:53Seafood's always been the thing. You know, basically the one thing I've really enjoyed cooking. So I always knew I wanted to do something with seafood. Didn't want to do anything too fancy. Fish and chip shop sounded. I've always loved having sort of a nostalgia for fish and chips. He'll eat it everywhere we go. Fish and chips? No, it's not gross. I mean, I actually just had fish and chips before I came. I can't like eat fish and chips anymore because his laundry smells like it. And it has to be washed separately. I totally get that. He and Charlie fish and chips all the time. It's so bizarre. That's funny. We put a fish and chips on the menu at Green Hills Grill and it's like the number one seller. I mean, it's amazing. Overnight, it's just like boom. And everyone loves fish and chips. Fish and chips are fantastic if they're done well. Yeah. Not much worse than a really bad fish and chips. But if I could eat a Cuban, that's like the food I would eat every day. But there's not a lot of great Cuban places out here.

36:55But I would eat that over and over and over again, multiple times. What's your food, Nicole? Pizza. Pizza. Yeah, pizza. What's your favorite pizza out here? Have you found it yet? I can't say because we have so many friends that make pizza. That's true. But have you guys, have you gotten to really experience it? I mean, you moved here essentially with a one-year-old, right? And then you opened a restaurant and then you have another beautiful little girl. So like, have you gotten a chance to really experience the city yet? Because then the pandemic hit. So it's like so many things. Yeah, we experience it. Yeah, we're still on the rooftop of the bar yesterday with our kids. Oh, I'm so proud of you. My husband and I haven't been out in months. But that, I mean, we just haven't been out in months. Because we also own a restaurant and have two kids that are little. And it's like, we just never get out. Total. I mean, yeah, I get that. We just, we don't like, we don't have fancy cars. We don't buy any clothes. We spend all our money on restaurants.

37:56All of it. So that's that. Yeah, that's what we do. That's a huge expense. We did a budget. I was like, oh, we spend a lot of money eating out. Yeah, we did that too. Not as much recently. Yeah, I wouldn't even want to know. Yeah, that's why we don't have a budget. Hi. Hi, Coco. Oh my goodness. She's so pretty. Yeah, you guys, this isn't on video, but if you could see what's happening in front of us, it's adorable. It's the most adorable thing that's ever happened in studio. I can safely say that. Yeah, yeah, my kids don't often bring their babies. No, and you're a third interview. So, but I'm pretty sure it'll last though. This will be a standard standard test of time. Yeah, yeah, she's really pretty. Thanks guys. Well, so go ahead. No, you go ahead. I was just gonna say you're in Nashville. I want to just kind of tell in your story as to what, how it's been, how has the restaurant community treated you? Do you guys feel, I mean, because one of the things that I hear the most from people who just move here, and I'm very proud of this, is people welcomed us right in, like we were welcomed right in.

39:01And there's a lot of people that haven't been welcomed right in, but they haven't wanted to be like, well, they've kind of come in with a, hey, where I come from, we do it this way. And it's like, well, you're not there anymore. So you're here. And I feel like this community is very welcoming. If you come in, they'll put their arms around you. If you say, I want to be welcomed, like I want to be. Yeah, I think that's a hundred percent. There's a niceness to the city and there's a niceness to this community. We all want to help each other. But if you're somebody that's going to take and not give, I think then the community kind of goes, you can stay over there. Yeah, totally. Yeah, I think that's a hundred percent correct. I mean, we just actually, I was just thinking about this or the other day, like our freezer broke. We asked every single person, Cary Bringle is like, come put your stuff in my freezer. And then Andy Little was like about to get jump in his truck to help his truck on his way. I now have about 18 fridge guy contacts in my phone from all our friends that tried to help.

40:07Yeah, there's, I mean, that's just the, yeah. And then when we were getting this one little example. Yeah, one example, when we were getting started, like no one knew us. And like no one, you know, we're just like in this dive, cam cam cam can cook. Remember Yan can cook cam can cook. Okay. Do you remember that guy? No. Oh, it's a, it was like a show cam can cook. Yan Yan. It was this Chinese guy anyways. Sorry. Okay. I'm usually good with references, but okay. Is this a housewife? She's not going to know. So cam, he's, he, I think he's obviously a bias, but he's, I think he's a great chef, but we were in this like little shop in the arcade. No one knew us. And then just people started coming and befriending us and trying to get our name out. And then we were having a tough time, like during the pandemic and then Trevor and Phil, they like made and Khalil. Yeah. Khalil was like our first friend.

41:08Is it everyone's first friend? But they, we did this like fundraiser for the Australia wildlife. They all like Trevor made shaved ice, Khalil made pancakes. Phil made an ice cream for like our birthday one year and just like really was like, you guys, like they're just trying to help us. Like, and we were just a little family spot and everyone's been so sweet. It's insane. Like I almost start crying every time I think about it. It's, it's been really, really nice. It's funny. I went to, um, we participate in an event every year called soup Sunday. Oh yeah. And yesterday was former champ soup Sunday. You, you won soup Sunday a couple of years ago. Participated every year, even last year, virtually. So last year was last year was that this year. Sorry. It's the first year we haven't participated. I think this was our 18th year for mayor bowl. Oh, they've were one of the original restaurants. We've done it every single year, but I was there yesterday and two of the celebrity judges, one was Andy little and the other was Khalil Arnold.

42:17Yeah. And just like those two people, but like that's them giving up their Sunday to come help our kids, which is, you know, those guys will always help. They're the best. They're the best. It's good seeing them and saying hi, kind of a stuff. Delia Joe Ramsey was one of the, uh, judges as well. Yeah, they were actually sold out and she sent us her tickets because I didn't know that we were like, our life is crazy. We do love soup Sunday. Um, but I didn't realize it was this Sunday and she comes up with tickets. Yeah. And shout out to do it. Thank you for that. Did you guys go? We did. I was there. I didn't see you. I didn't, I didn't look for you. We were in the kid zone. Did you get face painted? Yeah. I did not, but I was over there taking pictures of the hockey rink. Hockey rink. Well, the, this Saturday, the predators are playing the lightning. So I went out, I was just taking pictures and they're like putting together the hockey rink. Oh yeah. I was way, I was wondering what everyone was looking at.

43:18They're playing the lightning. Yeah. That's my hometown team. I know. Oh, I mean, I didn't know they were playing, so I'm obviously really interested. I'm surprised she knew that the lightning were her hometown team. They just, I don't think you can, I don't think she can spell sports. It's just really not my thing. But I know that I know the hometown teams just for Tampa though. Like if you go beyond the scope of Tampa, I'm fully out. Well, two years ago I took my boys and they right now are six and eight. So two years ago, my math is right. That's two years. That's four and six. Yeah. Am I right? Yes. My oldest got his face painted and he got like this face painted, like a, like a skeleton or something. And it took like 25 minutes and it gave the girl like a 20. I felt horrible. He picked like the hardest one to do. Right. And we got Dunny turned around. He goes, I hate this. He looked at me and he goes, I want this off my face right now. So then we spent the next 30 minutes in the men's restroom of the Titans thing.

44:22Like it doesn't just turn the water on. It's like, you have to get it. And so I'm like splashing water and this stuff is not coming off. And I've got these towels. I was like, okay, we're never doing that again. Oh, see you guys. No, this is, it's like doing zooms at home. You know, we're so used to kids jumping into interviews. Now we're just. Yeah. My kids are learning words now and my little, my daughter quacks a lot. Like that's one of the sounds she learned. And there was an episode where I was like, what is that sound? I'm like, it's just Noel. She's just quacking. I'm sorry. They do. So yeah. Supercenter is a great event. It's a good event. A lot of, a lot of food trucks there yesterday. I'm really glad that they have the turnout this year. We felt Kim, Kim works. How many hours do you work? A lot. Like he leaves at six in the morning and gets home at 10. So this is his only day and we're obviously understaffed and underpaid.

45:23Like, so it's, it's been, it's been tough. We just, we couldn't swing it this year. It's our only day that he gets with the girls. I feel really honored you guys are here. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks for having us. It was, we usually, it's, we usually can't really commit to, to things because we don't have that much time. Yeah. Babysitters. That's why you are all here. But I had today off and then Cam is a little bit flexible today. Do you work at Red Perch too? Are you? No, I work for Oracle. Oh, wow. Yeah. She does a lot at Red Perch. I do do a lot of jobs. I totally understand. Like I said, we own a restaurant and everyone always assumes that I work there and I'm like, no, no, I have my own full-time job. I just help them when they need it. And yeah. And we also have two kids and they're always like, how do you do that? And yeah, I'm just tired. Freaking nuts. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Just always, I like live in a state of tired. Yeah, I hear that.

46:24I mean, I do, I do like the back end of Red Perch when I'm not there day to day. Yeah, same. This was just weird because it's funny because I do the same thing and I just, I don't ever stop and people hear that. They go, God, you must be tired. I'm like, yeah, but you know what? I can't, I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Like I, the end of the day, I feel a sense of like, wow, you look back on the things that you got done. And it's like, I could never, if I plan the day from all of the BS that a deal with the things that just came up or happened. I know. Like I would say two things every day. I would start the day off and I'd be like, damn, I never ever finish. But I don't know. I like it. There's a side of that. You can't explain what you're doing, but I'm always pivoting and moving and it's all okay. I think that's why when the pandemic hit and we'll talk about this a little bit. I think that's why this industry was so well suited. This is what we do all the time. That's all we do. We just wake up and like, oh, the sewage is great. I guess I'm doing this now. I guess I'm painting. I guess I'm fixing the bathroom.

47:25I guess I'm fixing a refrigerator. I guess I'm calling people to find some of the freezer. I didn't plan on that today, but that became my reality really fast. And now I'm going to do that. Yeah. And I think that's a hundred percent I wouldn't work or I wouldn't leave my job because I would be expected to work at the restaurant more. And it's so hard. I don't want to do that. It's so hard right there. I don't want to do it. I just love my husband and I want to I want to continue being in love. And I'm like, oh, kids and spending work together and spending our off time together just felt just feels like a lot. And I mean, I don't know if somebody I was telling him before you guys got here. Somebody asked me the other day, like, oh, do you just like work for fun? Or do you like because you don't have to, right? I'm like, yeah, would anyone ever ask my husband that? Like, yeah, nobody would ever ask him that. And I feel like I'm a better mom when I work. Like, I need some adult interaction in my day to feel like I'm not just listening to Itsy Bitsy Spider all day or like the wheels on the bus.

48:29And or just like my kids are they're eating real food now and I'm constantly cleaning up real food or real spills or whatever. And I'm like, I just need to not feel like that's my whole life. Like, I love my kids. I'm fully obsessed with them. But the messes that come with them. Yeah, it's never ending. No. And so for me, I know I'm a better mom when I work. But I do hate that question of like, it's just for fun, right? I'm like, yeah. Oracle is not for fun. Pretty tough. Yeah. So how's business going? I mean, is that are you seeing people over there in Southern Supply? You have Punk Walk now just open. Yeah. Yeah, business is great. I mean, sort of as the new places have been opening, we were one of the first ones to open there. So as the other Black Dynasty and Punk Walk have opened, we started to see just a general uptick in people coming into Sylvan Supply. Yeah, beauty schools across.

49:29Yeah. There's just more stuff happening in Sylvan Supply. Yeah. I think it takes a little while for people to realize that it's still there. I mean, we were in the arcade, but I don't think unless you really knew about it, you know about it. Yeah, no, I agree. Sweet. What? She's so sweet. Oh, I don't know where Binky went. And she threw her Binky. Sorry. That's what we're doing. You guys can edit this and stuff for all these breaks. I can do, yeah, I can do any of that stuff. Could take this stuff out. We can leave it in. I tend to like to leave this stuff in because it's real. Spending five minutes looking for it. Oh, there it is. Oh, there. Oh, OK. Will you get that, please? Thank you. Oh, look at her shirt. She has this headphone shirt on right now. Oh, nice. You dressed for the occasion. We're going to send you home with some swag. You have new t-shirts to wear.

50:31Cool, thanks. Let's say National Restaurant Radio on them. Yeah. And I would send you home with some really cool super source stuff you already probably already have. Sure. Yeah, we love it. We should be on a commercial for a super show. You kind of are, honestly. You just were. Yeah, you kind of are. I was thinking about today when we were coming in. Better get some phrase type out of this. I was like, oh, we're going to be on a radio show. We fucking made it. You're there. Welcome. In Studio Experience. It's the first podcast you guys have been on? Yes. How do you think it's going so far? She likes it. She's like, no, this is good. She's like, I'm doing my podcast debut at seven months. Hi, sweetheart. OK. So what's next for you guys? Do we want to open like 30 of these?

51:35Oh, Red Perch. Yes. So, yeah, we want to get another one going pretty soon here. Yeah, I mean, our plant, like our short-term plants, just to push real hard this summer. Try and introduce Red Perch to as many people as possible and build the brand and build the food. And then, yeah, open another one. Nice. Do you have any idea of what part of the city you'd like? No idea. No idea. Probably East. Sure. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. Just depends. I mean, we're big. We just go with the vibe. Yeah, we're all about the vibe. When we see it, we'll know it. Yep. But we bought our house. We walked into it. We're like, yeah, we'll take this one. We bought the first Red Perch. I still don't know if that was a good idea. The first car you saw, you bought. What is your zodiac sign? It's how we got married. My zodiac sign is a Virgo. So it actually doesn't make sense to be this way. But you're decisive. Like Virgos are really organized and decisive.

52:38Oh. Yeah. I think it's all BS. Yeah, he doesn't believe in any of it. He's a Pisces. I believe in enneagrams. Yes, you do. I do believe in the enneagrams and like, you know, actually based on people's personality. Yeah, I know. What they say. He's an eight. Yeah. I'm a ten in logic. I know. We are opposite on a lot of the spectrum. Like, sign wise, I'm Sagittarius and he's Pisces and we should not get along. He doesn't either. I do. No idea. Right. And he likes sports. I take a word for it. And enneagram wise, I'm a four and he's an eight. So like literally everything is like kind of, we shouldn't get along, but it's very like yin and yang about it. So like all the things I'm not interested in, he's super interested in. And all the things he's super interested in, I'm generally not. So we do have conversations all the time about what? I don't know. You've seen it.

53:38Yeah, restaurants and people and same core values, I guess. Yeah. Well, that's fantastic. We are we today, of all days, we had somewhat of a hard cut off time. Yeah. Going into this thing. The cool thing that we do is when we end the interview is I love to throw people off if you haven't listened to the show. Because you get to do the final thought, Jerry's final thought style. And we open the floor to you to say whatever you want to the city of Nashville's hospitality industry, whoever's listening, listen to an over 40 countries. So you can somebody's going to hear this words of wisdom, whatever you want, as long as you want to say it. Go. So like a piece of advice or whatever you want to say. If you want to say, we're happy to be here. If you want to say, keep up with your dreams. If you want to say, don't buy a restaurant, you can do that.

54:45Whatever you want to say, you get to take us out. So you're taking the show out. You're ending the show at the end of this. I'm going to go. Thank you for being here. And then we're going to be done. Yeah. What do you say, Kim? I mean, I would I would say just like, thank you for having us and thank you, Nashville, because you have been so welcoming to our family. And we just like, love you guys so much. I think that sounds good. That sounds perfect. That sounds perfect. Some of the best ones are short and sweet. And I should probably tell you beforehand. Hey, I'm going to let you say something. Because something that I kind of like it not being that way. So if you're a listener to the show, you'll know at the end of the show, if you come on, like, it's a scary thing. I should secretly start warning people. No, I don't like that. I like the spontaneity of I think there's a genuineness of, hey, thanks for being here. And thanks, Nashville. I mean, I think it's a cool I think I love having you guys here. I love your attitude. I love just that, like, you're making friends. You go out.

55:45You're contributing to what we feel like is a pretty neat community. I think so, too. A really fantastic community of people that is very welcoming. There's so much conversation about all the Californians moving in, and New Yorkers moving in. But, you know, hey, New Yorkers coming here. This is the way we do it back at home. Like, I got you. But there's also a way that we do it here. And one of our missions here on the podcast is to continue to preserve that. If we can preserve that and we can share that. Hey, if you're new to town, we want to learn more about you. We want to talk to you. Like, come on, jump in. The water's fine. Yeah, I think so. But be friendly. Be one of the people that are giving and taking, you know. So it's exciting to see you guys and meet you. And I can't wait till the next time when you guys are announcing your next venture or something fun. We'll have to do it again. And thanks for coming in today. Thank you. Thanks for having us. Welcome. All right. All right. Wow. So thank you so much to Cam and Nicole for coming on the show.

56:49And the final recap here is not going to be done with Jen because I want to put this out tomorrow. And she had to run off to her other job. So I'm going to do it alone. I'm going to say that those people are awesome. And I scratch the surface on what we could have talked about. I think there's a ton to I would love to hear more about specific stories on the boat with Cam. And I think just a lot of their history is really cool and what they're doing here in Nashville. You should go check them out at Sylvan Supply. It's on Charlotte Pike. If you know where Punk Walk is, the new place over there, it's right down the street. There's a new Black Dynasty Ramen right next to them as well. And I was just a big fan, just a big fan of talking to them and their adorable children. I think that while I loved having the children in the studio, it was a little bit of a distraction. So it was hard to keep everybody on the same page. But you know what?

57:49That's life. That's the way some things go. And we're restaurant people. So we pivot. We figure it out. We will be back on Friday with a new episode and then another new episode this coming Monday. We're going to have episodes every Monday and Friday for the next few weeks. So get ready. Lots of shows coming up. Hope you're being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.