Charley Augello

00:00Hello, this is Jen Heidinger-Kendrick, founder of Giving Kitchen. Let me tell you a little more. Giving Kitchen is a James Beard award-winning nonprofit that provides emergency assistance to food service workers nationally. Headquartered in Atlanta since 2013, Giving Kitchen has served over 19,000 food service workers and awarded over $12 million to food service workers in crisis. Giving Kitchen helps food service workers that get hurt or sick, lose a family member, or suffer a housing disaster like a flood or a fire by offering financial assistance to cover rent and utilities. If you know someone that works in a bar or restaurant that is in crisis, tell them ask for help from Giving Kitchen by visiting givingkitchen.org slash help. Want to get involved and support Giving Kitchen? Dining with Gratitude in October, GK's month-long campaign where the food service community pledges to raise critical funds and spread the word about their mission. Learn more by clicking the link in this episode's notes givingkitchen.org slash DWG. I am so excited today to introduce all of y'all to a brand new linen option here in Nashville. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Tri-Tex Services. They opened in 1989 as an independently owned and operated textile linen service company serving Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. Nashville, Chattanooga, and Knoxville are their key markets that they are in. That is what is in luck for you because they service multiple industries including food and beverage, medical, and industrial. They supply a wide variety of products. We got restroom supplies, all types of mats, matting, wet mops, dust mops, towels, aprons, uniforms, table linens, first aid, just to name a few. I mean their goal at Tri-Tex Services is to combine customer service with a quality product at competitive pricing and exceed our customers' expectations every single day. That's not something you hear from a linen company. They're trying to exceed your expectations every day and I love that. Their

02:04company's slogan is the difference is our service because they take pride in customer service. They know what that's what they're known for. So go to tritexservices.com and get a free quote right there in the center of the page. Click to click to get a free quote or give them a call 888-761-3238. 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 today. I will be co-hosted this episode with a great guy named Billy Kramer. He is the owner of NFA Burger and he's been on the last three episodes as we are continuing our month of Atlanta Restaurant Radio. Good news, I have found the Lost Ford Fry episode and I will be able to put that out next week. So I'm really excited.

03:14I was so excited that I found this episode because now we can share it because I thought it was really a good one. This episode today though is with a guy named a gentleman named Charlie Ogiello. He is the owner at the East 48th Street Market in Dunwoody and this is the definition of a family business. We had so much fun talking to him and he's just so gentle and so kind and so much wisdom coming at him. He's been married for 62 years. So you can imagine this is like having a conversation with your grandfather. It was so much fun and a grandfather who still works in the business every day. I mean it's just amazing what this guy is out there doing. He got to meet his whole family. I mean it was just really amazing. My heart is hurting today for a family out there. The Rayburn family, I think that we all learned this week that Randy Rayburn, the iconic restaurateur here in Nashville, passed away. I don't know the cause of death but Randy was such an amazing guy. I met Randy a long time ago and my dad used to be a regular at the Sunset Grill when he was doing the CCM magazine thing and the whole thing. So my dad used to go to Sunset a lot and that's and he knew Randy because he was a regular there. Then I started working in restaurants and I met Randy a couple times and then I started selling food and when I was with What Chefs Want back in 2005, 2006, 2007, I worked with the Sunset Grill and I worked with Cabana when it first opened with Chef Brian Yule, rest in peace, and Craig Clift and so Craig is, I think he is running right now the soda shop, the Elliston Place soda shop and I got to know Randy. I got to work with him and his standards and his excellence and then you know he was just such a smart fundamental

05:15restaurateur. He knew what he was doing. He was old school and you know what I love the most about this industry is the people and I love all of the people that I get to work with. It's the reason why I'm in this industry is because of the people and Randy was one of those people that didn't judge. He gave people chances and if you would come in and work with him and you cared, I mean you were gold to him and he gave so many people second and third chances and just cared so much. He gave them so much autonomy and he wasn't a micromanager. I mean he was one of these guys that just got it you know and he had great ideas. He was a good businessman and then he really wanted to give back and the Randy Rayburn School for Culinary Arts at Nashville State, he just wanted to put so much into developing people going into the future and I don't know what more we can ask for. I mean that's what the goal should be for everybody out there. I love doing the events at the Tennessee tastings every year for Nashville State. This past year we did a full episode about it and Randy wasn't supposed to be there. He'd had some health issues and Randy showed up and he said I can't miss this and I got to take a really cool picture with him and Deb Paquette and Craig Clift and he always remembered my name and anytime I needed him he would answer the call.

06:45When we first started this podcast he was one of the people that I wanted to be on the show the most because I think the one thing that we learned throughout the podcast was who the real leaders were, who the people were, who didn't know what to do or the people that did know what to do, who pivoted appropriately and he was one of those people who was loud and was always willing to help anybody. He was always willing to help come on the show and share what he was doing over at Midtown Cafe and he was vulnerable. He told us stories about closing Sunset Grill and Cabana and you know some of his other restaurants. I mean the guy is an absolute legend here. I mean he used to work at F. Scott's. Oh man I mean there's the lineage. A lot of people are really sad today. He's affected a lot of people in this industry positively and I think that's something we should all strive for. So as we remember Randy, kindness. The people that work in your restaurant you know this is sometimes restaurant workers do crazy things and you know what it's okay. We're people, we're human beings and I think that he had empathy and grace and I think we should all practice that in his honor and I just I'm gonna miss him. I'm gonna miss talking to him every once in a while. I miss having him on the show. I'm gonna miss seeing him at events. I'm gonna miss him at Midtown Cafe. So this is a tough blow for Nashville's restaurant culinary scene.

08:24I don't know any information yet about services or any of that stuff but I'm sure I will definitely go and I'm sure that you will too and I look forward to seeing you there and maybe we can celebrate this amazing man together. So hey with that being said I know this is a tough intro to go into a show but I wanted to say a few words about Randy because he's an icon and I love him. So let's get this thing going. Charlie Ogiello. Here we go. All right so we are super excited today. Welcome back to Atlanta Restaurant Radio. We're joined with Charlie Ogwillow. Is that how you say your name Charlie? Ogiello. You know I never even do that. Charlie Ogiello. Correct. Well I've phonetically had that wrong. 20 plus years. He's never corrected me once. Everybody says it differently but that's sort of an Italian annunciation that is Ogiello. Okay Charlie Ogiello. You are the owner at East 48th Street Market which is an Italian market in Dunwoody? Dunwoody. Dunwoody right? Yep. Dunwoody Georgia. And you are somebody Billy Kramer is joining us as well. Billy is the owner of NFA Burger.

09:45You've set this up. I'm so excited. I've done a little bit of research on you. I've watched some YouTube videos on your store and man you guys have a really cool community vibe in there. Yeah well thank you. How long have you been doing it? This September will be 38 years. That's it? Right 38 years. What got you into this? Are you where are you are you originally from? Are you a first generation American or are you an immigrant? First generation Italian American. I was born up in New York City and I was in the electronic business. I have an engineering background and I spent 27 years in the electronic market selling sales and marketing. And then mergers got me down into Atlanta and then after moving nine times around the country we decided we don't go and move any longer. That's a thing. How many people did you when you moved like that? Was it were you an adult with a wife and kids? Yeah wife and kids. We have four children nine grandchildren and two great grandchildren. So we have a full we have a tribe. Now let me ask you this. One of my somebody I was on a podcast called the Nashville Dads podcast and they said what's the most exciting thing you're excited about when you with your children? Like what milestone is a dad? And I said I think the day that I become a grandfather is the thing I'm most excited about because my kids are going to understand what that love that the love they have for their kids like that moment when my kids get to experience being a dad. Becoming a grandfather or great grandfather? Which one is is there one that's more special for you? I don't know if you can make a comparison. Each one is sort of unique and special and we're very fortunate that we're both my wife and I Anita is in good we're both in good health and old enough to really enjoy a family and especially great grandchildren. Now how many of your family members work at the East 48th Street?

11:52Well I want to technically or technically or technically they have all worked at the market. Technically they've all worked at the market. Initially my son was part of the business he worked with us for about 20 years and now my daughter Andrea she's now runs the operation on a full-time basis. So it's a truly family Italian market. And her daughter Victoria is now also working at the market full-time. She's equally the ball buster Andrea is she's working on it. She's a pleasant one. I have to say she's a pleasant one. No she's awesome. Yeah so I mean that it's a it's a family business local business we you know we started the business in 1986 because we didn't want to we wanted well put it this way we did some market research there wasn't true Italian identity in Atlanta so after that we decided that we were going to open a traditional small Italian market and it was we evolved from from the perception of working in New York City living in New York City with all these environments was always around us.

13:12So we tried to duplicate that. What's the first thing what's the what's the for when you decide to open an Italian market what is the thing that makes it an authentic Italian market? When people from New York walk in and they go oh this is legit what's the thing that you gotta have to be an authentic Italian market? Well I think it's a few things it's not one thing it's several things. You have to have a variety of grocery products. Okay right like an authentic Italian grocery product just like which are there anything specific? Grocery like pastas you know you got to have a variety of pastas you have to have the condiments the Italian condiments which are imported you have to have a good selection of imported tomatoes and things and Marzano's and San Marzano and plus chopped whole you know marinated you name it. You gotta have it all. You gotta have it all so we had that right from the beginning and also we had a very large big variety of deli meats and cheeses which very few people had and even to today we we have both of Italian and what you call you know American type cold cuts but a big variety of Italian. So as an example we have prosciutto we have two types we have San Danieli and then we have a 24 year old one. So a 24 year old prosciutto? 24 month old. I was like that I've never even heard of that. 24 month old. That takes our age to a new level.

14:49You better correct that. Like our prosciutto can drink. It lives a long time no but it's a it's it's more it's it's an aged prosciutto which gives you a different buttery delicate type flavor but most places don't carry things like that. Why don't they carry things like that? Well I think you have to have a commitment like we started as like we mentioned a traditional Italian deli a market which is sort of a hybrid business because we have a deli area we have fresh breads we have pastries we have groceries. Are you guys baking the breads in house? We used to but now we have somebody making them for us. A local bakery? Local bakery. Nice which bakery do you use? We use Alon's. Alon's? Alon's bakery. It's actually about an eighth of a mile from here. Now what happens is that when we we had our own bakery for over 20 years. Really? Because there was no no quality Italian type bakery around and so but since then we had it for over 20 years so but what's happened now is that we Atlanta has grown obviously and both in food wise restaurant wise so now we have artisan bakers that have the ability of making quality breads.

16:11Well that's a that's a good thing. So that gives us the opportunity to outsource it. What role do you have in the market to this day? Are you actively in there working doing the thing? I'm now considered a part-timer. You know I actively take I do the greetings. Are you the mayor? I'm the schmooze with customers. I also take care of the wines. I do the wine selection, wine buying and I'm on the floor. We're selling wine at times. So I see that you have a good selection of Italian wines that goes with Italian food and I told you before the interview I think that one of God's gifts to this planet is a real Italian food with Italian wine. What is your favorite Italian wine to drink? Well presently I really enjoy wines from the Piedmont area. Oh yeah it's like a Barolo, Barbera. Barolo, Barbera but also like a more Barbera. Every day is Nebbiolo. Nebbiolo and Barbera. Yeah yeah that's what I prefer. I always love I think Barbera was one of my absolute favorites because it grows just on the side of the hills not on the actual top where I think you get your Barolos and it's a really good drinking wine. It's like a tenth of the price as a Barolo. Oh of course. I mean it's beautiful. The Barbera, the Alba or the Asti and then I love a good Montepulciano de Bruzzo. That's another good wine. It's a good inexpensive Italian red that anybody can drink. It's a light. You can find really good Montepulciano's out there.

17:42Well the thing is I think they enjoy wines, enjoy food is to drink a variety of wines. Okay. Because once you start it like just like with food you drink a different wine, different style of wine. It's more compatible with some foods with others but you get to really enjoy the differences. Now it's not a question of one's better than the other it's what you enjoy. Yes. That's really the key you know and price is also a secondary item. It's what you like is what counts. A hundred percent. I always told people I said when I did my level one sommelier in 2003 and I said this isn't a good thing this just means I have to pay way more for wine than I used to and you learn what the different nuances and you build your palate it just means you have to pay more now. I think that one of the things that you probably can attest to when it comes to Italian wine and Italian food is that no matter what you're drinking when you're at the market it's an experience because you're drinking it with the food with friends and there's fellowship.

18:49I just imagine I haven't been there yet and I really want to go there that it's just a absolute family familial we're here everybody knows each other you got people busting your balls in the corner and it's just like it's a whole thing like am I wrong? That's you nailed it you nailed it Billy can tell you he's had several conversations with that in the area. I forgot Billy was here I'm sorry. Look man I just I listen to Charlie all day so before COVID it used to be more you know you said that that couple tables inside and there was this one table where kind of anybody sat at right it was the high top yeah it was the high top and you would walk in and so like on Fridays he's got lemon pepper wings on Fridays and I would go sit down and then the doc from the veteran veterinarian down that he would come over and then there'd be two or three other guys two guys talking fantasy baseball and we'd all just kind of hang out and you kind of knew every Friday you might see these guys or if you went on a Thursday you might see you know the Monsignor's come on Saturday right so you know so it used to be a little more like that before COVID but it's still like that he's got this great patio outside and people share tables and not afraid to talk to each other. So if you ever come to Atlanta and you really see this is what I really want to do a capture while I'm here was if you're coming to Atlanta if you're in Nashville and you're coming to Atlanta for a weekend don't go eat at some chain somewhere don't don't like go find the 48th street. It always confounds me because confounds me because there is a chain place next down the strip center that sells hoagies and things like that and I always imagine like if you're facing the strip center and you have a choice of going right or left I don't understand the left path they're good people they're good people they donate to the community you know the owner of that franchise right there's nothing wrong with them but I just think like being having gone to high school and college in South Jersey

20:52I'm not looking at these two and I'm going right just because I know it's going to be authentic my wife loves going in there because his daughter Andrea shows hey babe what do you what do you want and that's like every place in in Jersey in New York is you know that's just how they they talk and so it makes you feel like you're that alone is the authentic part much less I've been going there for 25 years I've probably touched one-tenth of what they have in the store. Wow yeah well you know the advantage is like you giving us the opportunity to speak with you on this podcast gives people an opportunity to come and explore with local places because it's very difficult for people that are traveling to find really good the local places you know you're looking for something quick now you know we're small but we move people in and out pretty quick so so even if you're in a hurry we can get it we can satisfy that need what's the thing if I'm coming there like what's the number one thing that you sell what's the thing that everybody what's the number one sandwich sandwiches our hero we call them heroes from New York we're from New York so we call them heroes South Jersey we call them hoagies hoagies right and if you're in New York and Connecticut is a grinder grinder submarines yeah so your sandwiches we're here I call them sammy what's the number one seller the number one is a meatball sandwich oh which is a number one the next what's the top seller is that the number one is the meatball and then the italian hero number seven so you know they're numbered so when I said number one number one number one people order the sandwiches we have one to 27 27 technically 28 because you have the special of the day that's always special right because you don't ever I don't think you have room on the board for the number 20 every time I go to like a chain if I go to like jersey mikes whatever I always get the italian sub or the italian hoagie or whatever it is this is the best this is the best sandwich yeah I can't I can't imagine how good it would be at an italian

22:54market like this yeah when you walk in it's uh I don't know you just kind of know like I've brought people from here's what I find interesting it's been around in Dunwoody for 38 years 38 years September I will meet people who've never been they live in Dunwoody it's confounding and it's not like Dunwoody is just like this huge metropolitan area where you can't find things how far is that from here where we are right now at the 10 minutes four miles yeah oh okay we're close to about five miles you're two streets away from being there it took me 12 minutes to get here yeah and I'll tell you we are uh live right now at the distillery of modern art and this is a really cool facility we talked about it on our last episode but man this is neat do you ever come here to this place I haven't this is my first time your first time here I've heard about it and um this is they're relatively young that's only two years old but to your to your birth their two year anniversary is this past sunday yeah they've had good press uh and um and they've also uh I'm also active in the local rotary club at Dunwoody and uh the distillery has really been a big supporter of fundraising too they've made donation of some of their products that's fantastic yeah so I want to share something that we've talked about before the broadcast so I own a uh I own a burger joint nfa burger um I don't know if you listen to these podcasts out of order so I don't know when you'll know so I um as I told you Brandon when you and I spoke the other day I said my first sales manager ever said Billy you asked so many effing questions and I said I'm sorry she said no it's a good thing and then Charlie kind of said it earlier before he's like he said this before we started recording Billy asked a lot of questions and it's true so I asked Charlie on October 17th 2017 so I had a different job my wife was still begging me to never consider opening a restaurant she said the quickest quickest way to divorce is opening a restaurant um still married yes I am

25:01because now she knows how happy it makes me uh but at the time it was just you know thought of owning a restaurant just stressful uh yeah um so I would always ask Charlie questions about the business and so I asked Charlie hold on what's your what's your advice the notepad is the note file is called Charlie's advice and he said who is your customer question mark understand your demographics why is what you do better have good systems and keep it small and simple and uh I think I did all of that so thank you I mean I've I mean because if you watch what he's doing I mean he's got a lot of skews but the operation itself is very streamlined and everybody knows what they're doing and everybody gets the food out um at 48 street pretty quickly we move it move move move pretty quick and so I feel like you know I kind of you know did all the things that that he recommended I do I had kind of forgotten about the file until about maybe two years ago and I was searching for something and it came up and I was like oh I did all that you yeah I did I did the thing Charlie and it worked well I think it's actually interesting because Charlie comes from a sales and marketing background I also come from a sales and marketing background I'm on the I was on advertising sales but it's kind of interesting because I think we approach our businesses very similarly um and how we how we treat our customers or how we want our customers to feel when they come to our establishment you know it seems like both of you and this is something that I can completely attest to my three restaurants in Nashville are 100 community restaurants and one of our core values is we love our community and what that means is without the guests that come into our building every single day we have nothing literally nothing if we don't have the guests but also we love the guests like these are the people that we see every day we want to

27:06learn their names another core value is remember me we want to remember their first names we want to remember their last names remember their children's names their wives names their husbands names all of these people everybody loves hearing their name when they get there hey Dr. Johnson great to see you hey Charlie hey Bill like something happens in your brain you hear your voice and I feel like both of your restaurants when you walk in the door you're going to know people's names and they're going to know your name and it's very much about serving the community you don't market to tourists and other people that are coming in you want to serve that like I think you said it in an episode with Chris Hall where you said I'm not interested in your nine dollars I'm interested in your hundred and fifty nine dollars I want you coming back again and again and again and when you have a community restaurant that's the most important thing but it also feels good it's fun to go to work because this becomes part of your network part of your people I love going to work because of the people I'm going to see and to catch up with people and find out how they're doing and sharing successes and failures and all of these things and I mentioned that's something that drives you every day isn't it Charlie it is because one of one of the major things not a major but the essential thing when we started there was no POS systems everything was on paper so the first rule was that you always get the customer's name first so when you you know you've been to a lot of places and when you'll give you a piece of paper and you have a number 194 73 here you only have a name that's it so that's what we first started and also so that was the beginning of developing a community relationship we've been successful because we have a loyal customer base we also have our products are consistent and our price structure is competitive you know we're not the highest we're not a gourmet shop but we're very competitive both on our wines and our groceries and our deli meats that type of thing but we're

29:09successful the community has supported us and we give back and that's really what makes it work Billy does a good job an excellent job in that as well and because you get it there's feedback you know and that helps you your promotion it takes a little longer to to get established but you you earn a loyalty that's really uh really priceless and really how that's helped us is during covid tell me about that told covid was really a challenging part for anybody that was in business oh yeah and uh we couldn't believe the number of customers when when they started closing businesses down and etc how many customers came out and just said no we're going to support you so they they kept us alive and uh we made some modifications uh and to comply with some of the local regulations and fortunately georgia was pretty uh open and uh we did okay we we we did very well under those circumstances the customers came in they supported us and in times of crisis is when you really find out a customer has to decide where they're going to spend their money they have a choice so they could have gone a lot of other places but they came to us because they supported us do you think that a lot of restaurants miss on the simple aspect of what you're referencing and you're referencing executing on fundamentals right executing i always i love the analogy of the balance pass right i always say that people come in and they do restaurants they want to do the 360 dunk and they want to dunk from the free throw line i'm like learn to do the layup first full hands in full hands out like learning people's name consistency making sure we're doing the exact same thing every single day creating theoreticals and pricing things in an appropriate way do you think a lot of restaurants miss that oh definitely there's no question about especially fast food restaurants you know

31:12and you know if you went to a restaurant let's go back 20 25 years ago you talk about a white tablecloth restaurant sure you walked in it was mr and mrs or so and so they knew your name they made it a point of addressing you by by your name all the time that was that that was places that were like that and then you know before the change came it was the neighborhood places so the neighborhood place everybody knew each other so that was the fundamental part of that and that's when we started our business that's what we wanted you got to know the name and do you think that's one of the secrets to longevity oh well that's the secrets of starting to build loyalty and and a loyal customer you know you're making money on on a repeat customer you know because you you know also marketing 101 if you want to improve your business and get more profit get profit you where do you go to you go to your existing customers sure you know four walls marketing well both of us having been in sales part of our careers for 28 plus years each churn is your enemy oh my god right so churning customers right trying to the hardest thing in the world to do is to find a new customer the easiest thing to do in the world is lose a customer right so churning churning is your enemy so to like if you think about like you were saying like it's a number you know name first versus a number if you go to shake shack and you know they're calling out a number 1224 right or whatever the number or whatever the restaurant is but when you when you work at a restaurant that's calling out numbers you miss some things right so when you come to nfa it's we put your name on the order right that's it there's no numbers and if the cashier messes something up sean in the back says oh jimmy never gets mustard on his hot

33:16dog right yeah not number 1224 does never gets mustard on his hot dog so the people in the kitchen see the orders is that jimmy thompson or jimmy uh right but like care away but the but the but so a testament to what charlie does i always see i always say when you go into a restaurant if you see familiar faces those are people who take care of their staff right so you go in a 48th street market over the years they've had people come and go because they're going on to do different things but there's a lot of a lot of familiarity there with the people so you know andrea will know that i don't like something or when my son walks in oh that's billy's kid right because he looks like me he's got the smirk right he's got the smirk he's got the billy's smirk so you know it's those kinds of things you're not getting at a mcdonald's or anywhere else right because they're not that's not what they're doing they're serving like we talked about this in the other podcast they're serving food right and what charlie is serving is like family you're coming to his house to he's going to make you a sandwich do you know what the mission is for our restaurant group my mission statement is what can i do to make every guest a repeat guest while nourishing my community that's right that's our mission statement perfect what can and nourishing doesn't mean filling with food that's just getting full that's not nourishing nourishing means to be made whole so leaving the restaurant better than when you came in that's our goal well you know there's two things you got a business you're running a business and then you also have hospitality and we're really in a hospitality business yeah that's what it is you know running a business is you know you're looking at the numbers it's profit loss expenses and whatever and everything in between but you're talking about hospitality and that's really what we're doing well god dare and executing it that's the big question is executing it when unreasonable hospitality said service is black and white

35:20and hospitality is where you add the color said hospitality is how my service makes you feel so i can bring you a coke or i can do this or i can customize it and make it as i think just being thoughtful and caring hey we're going to take a moment to hear a word from our sponsors are you looking to grow your business or are you looking to start a business finding a retail spot is number one you got to do this and that is why we're talking about the chandler james retail team at lee and associates miller chandler and leanne james are your go-to brokers to do just that they're located downtown in the heart of it all in the batman building and they're serving all of middle tennessee let me tell you both miller and leanne are tennessee native so you know they know the neighborhoods they know they know the demographics and they can help you find your dream location now here's the cool part chandler james can help you find and negotiate terms on your next restaurant location they represent both retail tenants and landlords in our market which means they can also help you with lease versus buy decisions and act as your leasing agent should you ever decide to go all in and purchase commercial real estate if you'd like to get a hold of them give them a call at the office their phone number is 615-751-2340 that is the chandler james retail team give them a call today we are so excited to introduce a new sponsor to nashville restaurant radio all-star fire protection these guys are your local solution to all your fire suppression needs all-star fire opened in nashville 34 years ago and they continue to grow they're now serving chattanooga noxville and bowling green they have over 130 team members and they got 40 trucks out on the roads at all time to service your restaurant and you know you know what i love just when i was

37:20talking with them and i said hey man what makes you different i get your local you do all the things but what makes you different he said you know what makes us different is that we actually care because i actually care these people are small business owners this is their life and we're a small business as well and we understand what they're going through and we take that approach we actually care about their business we want them to be ready in the case of fire which is why they offer trainings they will go in and they will sit with your staff and say hey this is how you use a fire extinguisher how many people out there actually know how to use a fire extinguisher they want to make sure that you're getting the most out of that they're building those relationships and that is why i am proud to introduce all-star fire protection to you you can get ahold of rob bowman you should call him today his number is 615-431-3760 that's 615-431-3760 charpies bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery providing bread to nashville's best eateries they've been operating in nashville since 1986 providing high quality fresh bread daily for restaurants catering companies hospitals and universities their bread is free from preservatives and artificial additives learn more at charpies.com that's c-h-a-r-p-i-e-r-s.com or you can give erin mosso a call directly her number 615-319-6453 that's charpies bakery at what chefs want they deliver the seven most needed product lines to meet the unique needs of chefs and restaurateurs from local to global and from staple items to gourmet rarities they have the variety of products to cover all of your needs produce seafood meats gourmet staples to go and dairy at what chefs want they're transforming food service by eliminating

39:22minimum orders offering split cases and providing daily deliveries with 24 7 customer support this means chefs have the flexibility to order what they need when they need it experiment with new ingredients and keep their kitchens consistently stocked with fresh supplies it's all about empowering culinary creativity while streamlining operations check them out at what chefs want.com or give them a call at 800-600-8510. When unreasonable hospitality said service is black and white and hospitality is where you add the color said hospitality is how my service makes you feel so i can bring you a coke or i can do this or i can customize it and make it as i think just being thoughtful and caring well there's a see that's where i think there's a distinction there that many businesses or restaurants don't differentiate it that well because the service is like you mentioned i bring you a coke i bring you a glass of water but hospitality is hi dave here's your water i hope you enjoy it you know anything else i can do for you that's hospitality so service and hospitality are distinctly different but they go hand in hand 100 how long you been married for oh that's good question this don't mess it up this month well it'd be 63 years what 63 years okay so dave dave ramsey says also let me qualify it's the same woman dave ramsey says don't ask somebody who's been divorced four times for marriage advice somebody who's married 63 years right i've i meant almost 19 years i'm 26 26 but we've been dating 35 what's what's the secret the secret is respect and respect each

41:24other and trust respect and trust and don't go to bed angry right well that's also part of it how did you meet your wife i met her in sixth grade you met your wife in the sixth grade and you got 63 years you married her in the ninth like you don't look that old your question was when i met her i met her in the sixth grade so you met her in the sixth grade when did you know when we went out did you have a crush on her when we started it was probably a teenager okay you know and we we started uh well seriously getting together was been older teenagers 17 18 years old was she your first girlfriend no oh because you did have like a girlfriend before her oh yeah of course of course well you did 16 i don't know of course you're looking to tie again what do you mean he's like i was dating him at 11 like what do you do like well you always go out you know how would you do on your first date i'm curious what year was this so 63 years i can do math it's marriage it was a long time ago but we went to see shane the movie shane shane was that like with uh gary cooper the only thing i know about shane is uh is uh samuel jackson talks about it in the negotiator i know my grandfather had the vhs of shane like and i never knew what it was i just saw this movie called shane it was a dog it was about a dog yeah john wayne wasn't in that i think i think no i don't think it's john wayne i think it was gary cooper i think and uh it was back in the 50s mid-50s you guys went to see shane it's amazing yeah i've known julie i met my wife in uh ninth grade and we started dating senior year in high school yeah so pretty so it's pretty close pretty close yeah we're very fortunate well being married 63 years i think i qualify for a government check for being a minority your marriage your marriage almost has social security you know yeah that's a thing

43:32yeah what so charlie i have a question for you um what so we i always ask i didn't ask chris this well i've asked chris this personally privately what is the uh what's the thing that you thought was going to be a no-brainer success that wound up being a disaster and the thing that you thought was going to be a disaster that wound up being amazing well that's a uh i think the uh the you know it went from uh engineering background sales marketing i think was the fact that they open up the business and say it would run by itself that was probably the most naive thought i have had you know and uh i think that would be probably uh you know is that i didn't realize uh that when you're owning a business it's like riding a bike you got to keep pedaling you know because if you stop pedaling you'll glide for a certain period of time but you got to keep pedaling so and that's really i think the uh a fundamental part of uh being a successful business you got to keep something going keep it fresh uh things of that nature did you think you would have 10 locations 20 locations or were you always i know you opened a second one for a little bit right we opened the second location to underground alana in 1989 and um that was a real challenge and um that's where i i say i learned i had my uh i got my master's degree and my doctorate in retailing after being i've learned so much about uh expanding and understanding the uh the logistics of things of that nature so uh we opened in 1989 and underground when underground reopened the first the first iteration of the underground the second second one the second one and uh we were there for three years and then it just didn't work conceptually on paper it was ideal it should

45:38have worked but what happened ultimately is that um the uh the administration of the project i don't think was implemented properly because the uh the concept was that we would get all these uh visitors conventioneers and also get the suburbanite to come downtown well what happened was is that you got some volunteer you got some of the conventioneers you got some of the visitors but after the first six months the uh suburbanites didn't come downtown because atlanta just didn't have that attraction and plus underground was literally underground and there was a big part of it being above ground and it was too hot and people just didn't come down and then within the first year there was also some uh safety problems then being underground in in atlanta they had some crime issues so then people just stayed away did you think you would have was that like going to be the the second and a third and a fourth or was that going to be it for you no that was the concept was to grow it you know to grow it but then as uh so we closed that down in 1992 and then we uh we we went into wholesale bakery business that's what we did so uh and then the idea was then after we opened that we had to take care of uh we had a lot of uh what do you call loans and they had to satisfy after that experience and uh so but we realized is that uh growing a business is really good for your ego conceptually in reality you have to really work out the details and we realized that our business was not a cookie cutter business like a like a mcdonald's or chick-fil-a type of thing

47:42so that required a lot of hands-on so that's what makes our business unique and difficult at the same time right if you've ever i mean i mean i've been going there for 25 years so i see it all the time and watching walking in and seeing charlie with a you know with a pad of paper and doing inventory or are we going to eat lunch there today we can yeah i think that we should i think he's hungry well i mean i think we're going to i don't know what our plans for lunch are but like if it's you know you don't have to twist my arm it's four miles away and it's noon i i think that that has to happen unless you have other plans that's good timing i'm there all the time there's pretty much there's pretty much two or three times a week you you can walk in and see it's been decided you're coming from there you go okay deal you said i'm paying though you can't buy us i have to pay that's fine okay charlie will not turn that okay no i'm paying i don't i don't want you to i'm not saying this because i want you to give us free food and i'm not going to accept free food i want to we were talking about i understand that i respect that we were talking about that on the other session which is like we we go to restaurants to support them not to get we go to familiar restaurants to support them not to get stuff right you know it's one thing you know if andrea gives me a cookie or something like you know like once in a while don't try i'm trying i just added i just added andrea charlie did not need to know that i got a free cookie i didn't know about that yeah andrea is in trouble later um but you know it's another thing it's another thing to do that but you go to these places because you uh you like the people there you trust them that they're going to give you a consistent meal and you want to support them because if if they're always giving stuff away then they won't be there very long well like i mentioned earlier you know is loyalty how do you build that and you and you you made a reference earlier about chain restaurants and regular restaurants you have to

49:44run your business you should be running your business on a basis that every day is an important day is an essential day because if you don't when business goes declines and you're looking for customers that's not the time to make change you say well i should have done this i shouldn't have done that you got to make it every day so that's the way you build your loyalty and consistency i love it's kind of like a an agile method you know it's um so when i started nfa the first day i was doing it like he was doing it on day one at 48th street which was i was taking orders on paper bags i thought it'd be fun and uh day five it was a complete disaster so day six i had a printer system and we were doing it different but you have to realize in the moment something's not right and be willing to change it like charlie has it they have a great selection of olives if one of them was bad charlie's not going to let the bad olive sit out there he's that's that's an opportunity for somebody to come in and say i don't like this place exactly right so he's not going to say well once i run out of these olives then we won't sell them anymore he'll he'll take them off and and and move forward you have to be willing to pay attention i think that's a great another great thing about being former only not a former sales guy who's just selling different things now but paying attention to like what's happening on a daily basis because you need to be able to go where the water goes my least favorite thing is getting a lime wedge or a lemon wedge that's like old and slimy we're walking into one of my restaurants and seeing a dried out lemon dried out lime sitting in the bar and i go where you have to grab this and put it on a glass and you know it's bad before you're going to intentionally serve this to a guest if you were a guest and you got this would you want that and they go no and i go then throw all those

51:44away and recut them we're going to cut new limes i'm like yes it needs to be like every single day throw the fruit away and start with fresh fruit a freshly cut lemon or freshly cut lime in any beverage is so good versus a little lop wedge kind of little there's no juice in it there's tons of seeds and now i'm always a big fan of buying i can't say i can't say it's ever happened in 43 because i've never had a sandwich that i felt was not fresh or bread that i felt wasn't fresh because i'm fairly certain that everybody who touches something behind the counter if they recognize that it wasn't the right thing they wouldn't send it out that's normally but you know like we're business we make mistakes you know it happens but in reality though is that it's consistency again is really what counts you know and you you have to pay attention but that's the most difficult part of running a business is teaching and delegating and making people understand that because sometimes some of the employees say well you know that's expensive you know we it's not that bad well what they don't understand is that if a customer gets that and and then they don't like it and they don't come back you lose a hell of a lot more money than the two dollars worth of olives i tell my staff it's a marketing expense it's not a food cost it's a marketing always yeah 100 well charlie well great i have really enjoyed this conversation i i do you have any other wisdom that you can share with us we're going to do something called the gordon food service final thought which is where you get to tell us you get to say whatever you want to say to anybody and billy do you have more that you wanted to just about charlie like i would we could talk to him for hours excited i mean i do i talk his ear off every time i see him um but i'm just so excited that he was able to come out today because he's one of my restaurant uh heroes he's like one of the people that i like my wife when

53:47we go out to eat i'm facing the restaurant now i watch everything right and so i've been doing that at his place forever watching him do the wine or talking to him about the olives and where's the olive oil come from he used to take these annual trips to italy and come back with amazing olive oil and so he's just asking like what's uh and i don't know if we have time but i'm going to tell the story i don't know if you we got this out maybe but tell the story so i he has this family recipe of his sauce oh and um one day we were chatting and i asked him about somehow we got to chatting about the sauce and i said why isn't why isn't your homemade recipe on the menu he said because it's really rich and it has pork in it you know a variety of reasons and he said it's just not for people around here it's just not general public because people have different dietary needs sure of course you know and then we have some orthodox jewish people we have some muslims they don't eat so we just accommodate them accordingly yeah and i always found that fascinating because um i think like that's because once in a blue moon andrea gives me a cookie also once in a blue moon charlie makes me when he makes a batch of sauce at home he'll call me and say i have a little bit and um you'll get to have and i'll have an family song and i having went to high school in college in jersey like i can appreciate like a really good would you call it gravy no we call it sauce you call it sauce okay who calls it gravy i don't know they get shot is that the south philly people you don't get along gravy you put on meat when i worked when i worked for the phillies one summer all this all the south philly people who work to the phillies we call gravy and i didn't know what gravy was i thought gravy i was from the south gravy is gravy right i thought gravy is what you put on mashed potatoes exactly and turkey and they kept talking about they're like oh i love my you know penne with gravy and i would like i finally just said to somebody i'm like i'm gonna be honest with you that sounds

55:48completely disgusting like who put great and they said what are you talking about it's marinara sauce i was like oh got it that's what they're anyway so but the sauce that anita makes and but we call them a sunday sauce which is a family sauce but she puts in there a variety of she puts sausage pieces of pork beef and meatballs and so it's a completely different sauce and so anyways we have a little extra billy gets a little he gets a container i get my get my container so i just wanted to say thank you charlie for coming out and he'll do his gordon food service wrap-up but thank you and for always answering my questions and always being around if i have uh some kind of if i'm lacking information on what happens in the restaurant industry so thank you my pleasure and it's uh one of these things i had a lot of people help me when we first started so uh it's it's really something that i'm happy to do and it's rewarding as well thank you charlie is a is an honor i'm humbled to meet you and i cannot wait to try everything at the 40th street market for lunch today and we did have an amazing lunch at the 40 east 48th street market in dunwoody and man what an amazing interview just the wisdom that he shared with us was so special and uh i just i can't wait to get back to atlanta and and go eat there again because it man it was tasty so thank you guys for listening today we're gonna be back next week with ford fry and then we're gonna be back with uh crystal should be back we're gonna start back with nashville restaurant radio local interviews it's gonna be a lot of fun hope that you guys are being safe out there love you guys bye