Claire Crowell

00:00Hey guys, we are supported by Sharpies Bakery and we've been supported by Sharpies Bakery for the last year and I tell ya, I couldn't be more proud of this partnership. Guys, they're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurant's back door and man, is it good. You wanna know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at sharpiesbakery.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S, bakery.com. So they have over 200 types of bread and if you're wondering, well hey look, it's a special recipe that I like to use that we bake it in our house and it's just, it's kind of a pain but we like to do it. They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor. They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453.

01:03You should do it now. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource. We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio. We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you. If you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant or just need a double set of eyes on that, we'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is 770-337-1143. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis, 770-337-1143. 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.

02:09My name is Brandon Styll, and we are powered by Gordon Food Service. Thank you, Gordon Food Service. We are gonna be joined here shortly with Caroline Galzin as we interview Claire Crowell today. Claire is the owner of Hattie Jane's Creamery, and she's the current president for Le Dame Descafier Nashville. So we get into all kinds of fun things. We learn a lot about ice cream, what she's been up to. And you know what's fun because we took a little gander back into the past. Claire was one of the first people that I had on the podcast because she was putting together a list of all of the resources that were available to employees and staff and things to do, ways in which we can get money and funds. And I got this email, and she came on, and there's an episode way back in the day called Here's What's Available to You Right Now with Claire Crowell because she came on and let everybody know about all the amazing resources. She's an absolute leader.

03:11It was leading at the beginning of the pandemic. So go back and listen to that, go way back. It's really interesting to hear us talking with that level of concern, like, oh my gosh, we have no idea what's happening. Just to take you back into that space. Maybe you don't want to, maybe it's traumatic. I'm not gonna tell you to go back and do that. So I've got two things I wanna talk about today. Number one is the weather. It's getting nicer outside. There's lots of patios, lots of fun things to do, lots of places to go drink and have fun. And sometimes that's not good for people who are newly sober. Maybe dry January was something that was great for you and you enjoyed it and you're keeping into it. Maybe you're in this industry and you're struggling right now. There is a solution, one solution that might be helpful. There's a new meeting called Ben's Friends, and it is meets every single Monday at 11 a.m. at the Oak Steakhouse. This is for industry people that are in recovery or don't know or wanna meet other people that are like them in recovery.

04:19So if you think you have a drinking problem or a problem with alcohol, drugs, anything, you're welcome to come to Ben's Friends. It's free 11 o'clock a.m. on Mondays and it is for specific, for restaurant industry people. Go check them out online, Google Ben's Friends. They're amazing, there's a Nashville chapter and my friend Jamie Pruitt is the chair. He's been on the show, go back and listen to his episode. It was a ton of fun. And yeah, I wanna tell you, I'm really excited because this Wednesday is my birthday. And on my birthday, the present I'm gonna get is we get to interview Mr. Will Gadara. And Will is the person who wrote Unreasonable Hospitality. He was also the general manager and then the owner of 11 Madison Park in New York, which was named the number one restaurant in the world. He was also, if you watched on Netflix, there was a show called Seven Days Out and they closed the restaurant and reopened it.

05:21He was the main central character. He was the owner of that restaurant that opened. So if you wanna do, go check him out on Netflix. There's a TED Talk that he did. Our last book club that we did a couple weeks ago was from Unreasonable Hospitality and now he's going to be on the show next week. So if you're listening and you want to, just any questions you want me to ask, DM me, let me know. We're really excited to welcome Will Gadara to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Again, that episode will be out next week and it's an amazing birthday present for me because I love that book and I cannot wait to get to talk to him. All right, this interview with Claire Crowell, guess what? It's gonna happen right now. All right, super excited today to welcome in Claire Crowell. She is the owner of Hattie Jane's Creamery as well as the president for Le Dom Descautier's Nashville Chapter and this is your third time on Nashville Restaurant Radio.

06:27That's right. Big gap in when you've been on the show and I will give a little bit of history so if you've never heard the episode, let's rewind back to March 19th, 2020. Okay. Yeah, do we have to? What a nice time for us all. Very scary time where we are, nobody knows what's going on and I get an email from Steven from Air Bowl and he forwards me this email from Claire and Claire had gone through and put every single resource that was available to anybody out there. We were all just, what the F is going on? We don't know what's happening. Restaurants are closing, then there's a mandated close and what do we do with our employees? Everybody wanted to protect everybody and nobody knows but you took the leadership of all of this and just started rounding up all these things and I said can you come on the show and let's talk about it and you said absolutely and so the episode I think is called this is what's available to you right now with Claire Crowell and you came on and we talked about all of the relief opportunities.

07:45We talked about, I think Core was just starting and there's all these different things but you had created and you had this list of every restaurateur that I'd ever seen on this email. I was like wow, you just did that and then you came on the show and we talked about it and we wanted to give resources for people to know what to do. You also came back on, you were the very first restaurant so you were the, I don't know, was it the COO? Yes. You were the COO of A Marshall Hospitality at the time and you were the first restaurant to open back up in May of 2020 so they were the first one to let guests back in and I had her back on the show and I said, what was it like? Were people freaking out if somebody touched their mask? What were the servers like? What was going on? And you came back on to do that show so thank you for your service to this industry and thank you for coming on the show and doing all those things. How's your life today versus back then?

08:48It feels like 10 years ago, doesn't it? It really, it really, really does. Just listening to you talk about that, I was like oh gosh, what flashbacks? We didn't even know when we reopened Puckett's Franklin that we were one of the first in the country and so it just kept getting replayed. I would see Puckett's in the background of today's show's pandemic coverage for forever and it was just so bizarre and we felt very prepared and you've had Lyle on the show and he was so integral in that whole thing but it was just like, is this a good thing or a bad thing that we were the first? But it ended up being such a positive. But yeah, it does feel like 10 years ago. It really, really does. The way it's marked our lives, everything's before or after and it'll be like that for the rest of our lives. It's wild. It's true. When you were talking about that and talking about reopening and what is it like for the staff and I was just like oh god, so awful. Yeah, doesn't it just bring back, somebody asked me the other day, they said how many episodes have you done, this and this and I said we've done like 300 episodes now and I think you were on episode five.

09:52Yeah. It's crazy. Early on, my first episode was March 14th, 2020. What a time to launch. Well, I look back on it now and I was telling somebody that day, maybe it was even in an interview and I go, we have a chronicle of so many leaders in this industry and I think it's funny because I've said there's not a book on how to lead throughout a pandemic and we really identified who the true leaders were and you are like the definition of that. Like you were somebody, I mean, you didn't wait for somebody else to take action, you just jumped in and started doing. Where does that come from? Like what is that? Is that just growing up? Well, I obviously, I grew up under great leadership. My dad's a classic entrepreneur and classic doer and my mom too, she's like that silent, kind of quiet leadership as well as they're such a great compliment to each other but. What do your parents do? Her dad is Andy Marshall.

10:53Yeah. Oh, okay, sorry. A Marshall. Yeah. Sorry guys, I'm just catching up here. No, that's fine. It's my first day back from being sex. Speaking of that, we haven't talked about that yet. No, no, we'll save that for another time. No worries. Yeah, so my mom worked in the school systems for a long time. She worked, she had a bunch of different things, PR and she worked as a personal assistant for Pam Tillis for a while and she was the director of admissions for Franklin Road Academy, which is where we grew up going to school. But really, I mean, now she's quote unquote retired and is busier than ever just keeping Andy afloat and keeping everything that we've got going on as a family. But yeah, I don't know. I just feel like when I am in that position of going, oh my gosh, how do we deal with this? I want to know what everybody else is doing and so often nobody's talking about it because you're so insulated.

11:55And I feel like, especially in our industry, that particularly for independent, you're just kind of tunnel vision, right? I mean, you operate and you're like, you kind of look up and go, is anybody else dealing with this? Of course, we were all dealing with the pandemic and no one knew what was happening. So I just felt like I would want somebody to share this information with me as I was, as we were uncovering it. And so, and I have so many friends that were just, I just knew that I felt like I was drowning. I knew everybody else felt like they were drowning. So let's try to like, crowdsource this a little bit. Yeah, that's the reason behind the podcast. I mean, part of it was, let's just share all this information with everybody. I feel like we live in our own little boxes. Yeah, 100%. If you and Nikki's coal fired in the nations and you're back there on 51st Avenue and you're in that four walls of that building all day long, you don't know what's happening in East Nashville or downtown or West End or Brentwood or Franklin or Bellevue or Murphy's Pearl. Like, it's nice to kind of bridge all of those people together to go, okay.

12:58Well, and I think too, I think that for me, at least prior to the pandemic, I felt like there were so many struggles that we felt like we were on an island that we felt like we were alone with. And one of the gifts I think for us out of the pandemic is realizing everyone was going through things. We just, for whatever reason, I don't feel like, felt like we could talk about it as openly as I think we do now. You know, it was- 100%. You know, like we were, it was like too much of a, oh, bad PR. If I tell someone that, you know, something's not going well, then it makes me look too bad. Or weak or something. Everything's great. Yeah, everything's so great. And it's like, no, that's fucking bullshit. Everything's really hard all the time. So let's not pretend like it's not because it makes everybody feel bad. Well, it was the episode with Caroline and Tony that where they were incredibly vulnerable and said, we realized a lot of things throughout this pandemic. Like we're not happy. Like we're just every day grinding and our relationship is strained and we wanted to get away just together and we couldn't stop thinking about work. And we was like, light bulb, we're not okay.

13:59And I think I got so many people reply to me and I was like, oh my God, that episode was, we feel the exact same way. We're in the exact same thing. We didn't think anybody else felt that way. And it was at that moment that I was like, wow, okay, good, that this is something that's helping. And I think that it's, I don't know, I think it's good to hear what other people are going through and to share our struggles. Well, so if that's what our life was like during the pandemic, what is day-to-day life like for you now? Because I know it's been a while since you've been on the show and it sounds like a lot of things have changed. A lot of different things are going on. Yeah, so since then, I guess it's been about a year now. I had Hattie James, started that in 2016 kind of as a side hustle, to borrow a word that I feel like it's kind of overused, but just kind of something fun that was related to our business. And over time, that was starting to develop into its own thing. I ended up with some great partners, Rhonda and Autumn. And they, 100% when I was dealing with everything with A Marshall and the 500 plus employees that we were having to handle during the pandemic, they really took charge and kept Hattie James going in the truck, really with a very minimal guidance for me, kind of going, you guys okay?

15:17Okay, you grew, and checking in and doing what I could to make sure that they knew that I had their backs, but had so much on my plate. So last year, gosh, I mean, time is so hard right now, but it's been a little over a year, definitely a year and a half since I decided. I was like, I think I need to put more of my focus on this business to really give it its due. And my dad was my original partner, Andy, and he wanted me to do this as kind of a, learn how to be a CEO. I've always been the other side of the operations and more strategy and hadn't ever been able to flex that muscle as an entrepreneur. And that was really the inspiration besides my daughter's name that started Hattie James. And so after the pandemic, I'm only just now, 2023, three years later, starting to piece together everything that was influencing that decision. And one was feeling like I needed to put more time and energy and effort, and I just couldn't with the big job that I had.

16:23And I tried to do different things to create more space for it, and I just couldn't make it work. And, but also just like the stress. I was like homeschooling Hattie because school was closed, and having to also get my other daughter, my younger daughter, who was not school age at the time, to one of the few daycares that were open, and accepting, thank God, food qualified as, essential worker, or I don't know what we would have done. So just all of that ended up just kind of influencing, and I only really, really started piecing that together this year. I was going, oh, I think I just was really overwhelmed, but I didn't know until I had time to release some of that and started focusing on Hattie's and stepped away. And so now my day-to-day is a lot, it is more relaxed. I mean, it's still running a business. It's not running a restaurant, and it's full capacity, which is totally different, and your ice cream is different.

17:24People come in as it's a treat. They come in to treat each other, to treat themselves. So there's a little, the vibe's different as far as when people come in, but we've been sort of in a phase of getting our inner workings ready for growth, and that's where we're at right now. So I am a little bit more around for my daughters. I have a little bit more flexibility of my schedule, but we're also about to ramp up. We've bought a building in Columbia that we're building out to expand our production, and we've really re-centered our lives. My husband and I moved back, he's from Columbia. We moved to Columbia in 2020, August, and bought land, and it just sort of kind of upended a lot of things. We're in 4-H, we have, I brought you eggs, we have a million chickens, we have goats and cows, and so life's totally different than it was in March 2020, and May when we opened back up, totally, totally different. That's such a fascinating, I think that that leap of faith, I don't know, just stopping for a second to kind of get your bearings, and where am I, and I'm so overwhelmed, and all of these things, and shifting that focus back to, I wanna do Hattie Jane's really well, and I wanna be the CEO, it's a mindset.

18:44You have to change your mindset on that. I struggle with that all the time, because I'm essentially the CEO of a restaurant, Mary Bowles and Green Hills Grill, but I also do the podcasts, and I help other restaurants when they call or we talk, and it's like balancing all of those things is, it's a lot for me, and it's like, wow, I couldn't imagine just jumping in, letting one go, and going to all of them, because I just, I don't know if I'm addicted to the constant busyness and all the stuff that goes on. I feel like I need to step back and sit down and go, okay, it's inspiring to hear you say that, and then to do the thing that you, is that what you wanted to do? You wanna do the Hattie Jane's creamery? I mean, is that like your? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I wanted to give it all of that, and it's been really fun, is that I always consider myself not creative, and I'm not artistic, I can't sing, I can't play music, but going into this role, I'm like, oh, I actually am a little creative.

19:47It's just creative in a different way, so through the flavors, or through marketing, those types of things, so exercising that muscle more than I was able to before, has been really, really fun. I'm also, yeah. It allows you to be a visionary. Yeah, right. But before, you were more of an integrator, taking somebody else's vision and putting it into play, and now, this is your vision, and it's almost allowing yourself to have that confidence to be creative. Yeah. Because I think it's always there, but you weren't able to necessarily flex that muscle. Right, and naturally, my dad and I always complimented each other really well, as our talents and our natural personalities, and so I just naturally fell into, okay, I'll be your right hand, and be the operator side of your, because he's a very visionary type of person, and that was really, I learned so much through that, but also, I don't think I realized that I could also do that side, and then how much fun that's been, and it's been funny to see the more I've gotten into that, it's almost like the detail and organization side is starting to go, and I feel like I need somebody, I need my Rhonda and Autumn, who are the most organized people I know, have really complimented me in that way, which has been funny, because I'm like, oh, that's something I used to own, and now I'm about to let that go, so it's been, yeah, it's been great.

21:06Are you familiar with Traction, the book Traction? I'm familiar, I haven't read it. Gina Wickman? But yeah, I'm definitely familiar with it, I've had conversations about that whole dynamic, yeah. Well, it's very similar to visionary integrator, and how the whole model works. Carolyn, you're gonna say something? Oh no, I was just gonna say, I think that that letting go piece is so important for growth, you know, if you're trying to, it feels almost unnatural to say, okay, I'm gonna stop doing my job now, in essence, and hand it off to someone else, but it is so important, you know? Then you have, so now you also have, how long have you been a member of LaDomme? Three or four, okay, it was before the pandemic, so there we go, so probably a couple years before the pandemic, so maybe about five now, yeah. So I've been a big fan of what you guys do. You guys did a Tabletalk series that I, you were actually on one of those, I believe.

22:06I have done, yeah, I did a couple Zoom things. Yeah, and so I released those as episodes. Yes, thank you for that. If you go back and you can hear, and then I donated all of that revenue from those shows, I donated it to LaDomme. If you wanted to bring something like that back, I'd be happy to do that again, but it was really, really interesting. I really enjoyed those conversations, and now you're the president of LaDomme. What does that entail? So now you've got, you're adding stuff to it, you're building it back up, you went back down, and now you're taking on more. What does your daily duties include being the president of LaDomme? Yeah, and for those that don't know, LaDomme Des Gaffiers is an international organization of mostly women in hospitality, food, hotels, that kind of thing, and we have our national chapter, which is a fairly youngish chapter compared to some that have been around New York for decades. So we raise, the fundamental purpose is a community of people, first of all, talking about connecting with people.

23:11It has really filled that need for me of being able to go, who can I ask this question, or what have you, but also, we are raising money to give away. So we do scholarships for women that are going into culinary or hospitality programs, or we'll give grants to people that have a business need. Like, I am starting my business, my food business, and I need this piece of equipment, or something like that. So we do both of those types of things, whether it be program or a financial need. And then we do some disaster relief, which came up, obviously, during the pandemic. Sure. Yeah. Go ahead. So I was just gonna say, I'd love to talk some more about the programming that LeDame is doing right now, particularly the Desegregating Nashville's food scene series. I know there was some last year, there was a series of three, and then it's been revived again this year. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? Yeah, we have, we just did one, the first of the three last week.

24:12February 13th. Yeah, same. Monday night. Not too long ago, this past couple weeks, but we did it last year, and it was a brunch series, and then all of us restaurant people were like, hey, maybe we shouldn't do it on this Saturday, you know? So we have changed that to Monday nights this year, but it was so well received, and we ended up with great new members from the series, and people that were exposed to LeDame through that. And so we did that with Bridget Janay Jones last time from Bellamy Winery, she was amazing. And then we'll have two more coming up in March, we're doing both of them in March, the first Monday, right? Or the second Monday, and then the last Monday. And we'll have, next one is Kelly Martin, who was on a panel last time, and she's fantastic as well. But yeah, we basically have, Charlotte at Yay Yay is hosted, and it really what came out of her and Nancy, you know, who a lot of people listening to this know, wanting to do something productive after all of the protests and everything that followed quickly after the pandemic, and wanting it to be meaningful, and having meaningful safe conversations about really difficult topics, and that's really what has become of it, and it's been great.

25:39It's also a little, you know, we get training in and kind of hearing what different groups have to deal with when they go to and have a dining experience and how to make people more comfortable and feel welcome and more inclusive. So it's been a really great overall thing. And these are open to anyone, anyone can attend and- You're totally open to the public. March the 6th, 2023 is the next one, desegregating Nashville's food scene, tools to make our hospitality industry more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. It is at Yayay's, Yayay's, Yayay's. Charlotte Miller, she's gonna be on the show in a couple weeks. We're bringing her on. She is such a wonderful person. We had her on last year, right before we did the desegregating, the first series. The second one is gonna be March 27th. So March the 6th and March 27th, you can purchase tickets, it's $50 for you to go, and then that includes food, and is there a drink involved too? Yes, food, cocktail. Food's amazing. You get to learn. I got to go last year, and I unfortunately was sick for the first one, so I couldn't make it, but I'll be there on the 6th.

26:43You should come with me, Brandon. I'd love to go. We'll be there. Yeah, it'll be great. I'd love to go. We'll also be doing, you mentioned Table Talks, which is international organizations. They give us a platform, any chapter can do it, but we're actually gonna be reusing Naima Walker-Fierce's DEI symposium last year, and I'm gonna put that back out there for Table Talks this year, because it was such a great conversation. Naima is one of my really good friends. She's awesome. I love her. She's the owner of the Germantown Pub. Oh, yes. She was on the panel when I attended last year. She's awesome. We talked a couple weeks ago, and she goes, man, I've been meaning to call you, but I didn't have 45 minutes. I believe it. And then we talked for 40 minutes, and I was in the parking lot of Target, just in like, I gotta go inside of Target. I gotta go in here. I gotta buy something, and it was just, she's just amazing. Yeah. She's got so much going on, too. She does. She's one of those people who's kind of all over the place, but in a great way. We drove by, we went to dinner the night, the Optimist, and I drove by Germantown Pub.

27:45It was Thursday night, but it was packed. That place is just doing amazing business. That's awesome. I always like to give her a little plug, because she's awesome. So, Claire, it sounds like you grew up in the restaurant business. Did, yeah. Awesome. Is it something that you always knew growing up? I love this, this is great, or was it more like, I've worked in restaurants where the owner's kids had to come in and work in the dish pit as punishment for, instead of getting grounded. Right. I like that idea. Yeah, I mean, Brandon, bring your kids. We had one place that I worked, the owner's son was notoriously there every single weekend, shelling favas, and just doing terrible jobs. He was always grounded, and anyway. And ironically, now he still works in restaurants. It didn't turn him off. So, what was your experience like, growing up in the restaurant world? Yeah. So, my dad was in grocery before. So, I grew up in that, running around in grocery, I always had Piggly Wigglies. And then he bought Puckets and Leapers Fork when I was 11, and we moved from Nashville to Leapers Fork when I was 12.

28:51And yeah, I definitely grew up doing all of those things. I wasn't grounded all the time, but when I was 12, 13, 14, I thought it was super cool to go in, with dad and the wee hours of the morning, and make the biscuits and all of that. And then, I think my job was stocking the, if you hadn't been out to the Puckets and Leapers Fork, then it was still a grocery, still half grocery. So, I was stocking the coolers, and that was not my favorite job. And then, I worked all throughout high school there. We just had that one until I was in college. We opened Puckets in Franklin. So, I just grew up in Leapers Fork. So, no, I did not anticipate going into hospitality, because my experience in hospitality was just a small country store. That didn't seem like a career path. It was so small. And my dad ran it by himself, and of course, with a team, but it really did not occur to me that hospitality could even be a career until I had graduated from MTSU with a French degree, and was just trying to figure out my life.

30:01So, I was like, I'll go work for dad for a little while. I decide if I'm gonna go back to school, or what am I gonna do? And I was like, oh, he's wanting to grow this. We had opened Franklin, and he asked me, actually went back out to manage Leapers Fork right after graduating college, which was a whole nother thing, but we just were starting to talk about what was gonna come next. And that was, we had Puckett's, 98. We opened Franklin in 2004, and this was 2008. So, it had been a long time of just very quiet, slow developing of the company and the brand. And we were like, maybe Columbia's next, or maybe Nashville, and it ended up being Nashville. But I was like, oh, I think I can help with this if this is gonna keep going. Whereas before, it was just like, oh, that's dad's thing. And I served at various restaurants around Murfreesboro, but it just never clicked. Yeah. Totally. We're gonna take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. We are supported by Robin's Insurance, offering protection you can trust.

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33:10That is what chefs want. So if you ever wonder why do they call it that? That's your reason. Check them out at whatchefswant.com. Do you feel like you kind of, during that time, growing up in the restaurant business and then after college working and helping to grow and expand the business, do you feel like you have encountered some of those challenges that women in our industry tend to encounter? Or do you feel like maybe it was a little different because you, people knew your dad or probably knew you as a part of ownership. What was that like? That's a great question. I was certainly raised as gender being a non-issue. It didn't influence how I was raised to work or anything like that. And it really didn't occur to me until I was in leadership role and interfacing with outside people that I was viewed differently, especially if I was standing side by side with a non-female and it was automatically assumed that I was not the general manager.

34:13Those types of things started to hit me as I got further in career. Of course, being a young woman in a serving role, especially outside when I was working in other restaurants, I had things that came up that I now go, gosh, that was gross. But I was young and just kind of brushed it off and moved on. Whereas now I'm more, when I have the opportunity now, we employ so many young teenage girls to have those conversations with them. They are way beyond what I ever was. Their awareness is way, way beyond. But those things didn't really get to me and they never got serious enough where people have dealt with more serious things than I did. But it wasn't really until leadership that I thought, oh, there it is. Totally. Would you have those moments where people would treat you one way and then they'd find out who you are and it would switch automatically like, oh wait, I screwed up. Yes, and I always wasn't really sure if it was so much. What I got more was, well, I'm a friend of Andy's.

35:14I've known Andy forever. I'm like, oh, how do you know my dad? And they were like, oh. You know, like a rewind that would happen and I would see it happen. That was always kind of fun. It was like my little game I'd play. Don't you love that? But yeah, there was definitely occurrences where I was asked, like, can I speak to the general manager? When I was general manager at Puckets in Nashville and I was like, this is it, you know. I'm here. Here I am. You were speaking to her. Do you think that there's any kind of major challenges that we as women in this industry still have to overcome that we are still fighting for or do you feel like the playing field has become a little more level over the last few years? Yeah, I think we are constantly making progress, which is good. I'm not sure that I have the answer of when that's going to feel totally even. I do operate in an environment where I'm interfacing with a lot of amazing women. So it feels really good. And it feels like we are almost taking over the industry.

36:17There's a lot more leadership roles in the back and the front in culinary. I don't know, how do you feel? How do I feel? I feel like some of it is regional, actually. When I talk to my friends in Chicago in particular, I do feel like there's still something about being in the South and that kind of, I don't know, almost social hierarchy of the very traditional, women, wives, mothers, men are the ones who are really more involved in business. I guess maybe I feel like I get treated a different way by men in Nashville than I did in Chicago, or I don't know. Yeah, it's super interesting because I've only ever worked here. Yeah. I don't have an outside perspective. Or I feel like a lot of times when I've helped friends at restaurants in Chicago on various projects and interacted with people there, I feel like I get treated more respectfully or more equally as a woman or see more women in leadership roles than I do here sometimes.

37:33I still feel like a lot of people that we're dealing with doing business, whether it's vendors or brokers or things like that, I still feel like I interact with men a lot more. It just, there's that boys' club vibe. I feel more here than there is. Maybe an easier way to say. I think there's definitely still a boys' club vibe. I think that, you said that there's days back in the days where you recognize things. I have a similar feeling. When you said that, I have a similar feeling, but I was the guy that did those things. I look back on myself as a leader when I was much younger. And it is, there's a culture you're brought up in. And I grew up in a very conservative household and man is the this, woman is the heart of the home, and then the man is the head of the home kind of, it's this weird dynamic that you grew up in. But I think I've learned so much over the past five, 10 years that I get cringy when I think about who I was as a male leader back in the day. And I think it's imperative that we have these conversations, that we talk about this stuff.

38:35Because gosh, I've grown so much. And I'm so, I can't imagine myself. I still feel that way. I still feel this guilt about who I used to be. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. But I think that we have to give people space to grow. And that's something that really weighs heavily on me is like, I want people to know that they can still grow and that's the way, whether it was, what you did in the past, maybe it was cringy, but can we talk about it? And can you grow? And that's what, I know that's what you're doing. I have to give you kudos for that. But I wanna have a lot of grace for that and allow people to have that space to grow. I agree, totally. I think that grace is so, I don't know. I think if you're trying, I think mistakes, I tell people when they get hired, I encourage you to make mistakes. I like mistakes, that's a good thing. Let's grow from them. And everybody has a past. Everybody has a thing that, but try and be better.

39:38Yeah, definitely. You don't learn. You don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah, as long as I think that people care and are making that effort, I guess that I've seen maybe some more social reckonings happening in the industry in Chicago than I've seen happen here. In terms of equity, whether it be gender equity or equity for queer people or equity for people of color, I think that those are things that I see a lot more in the forefront in Chicago than I see here. Not to say that people here don't care or that those aren't important. I think that it's a lot more in the conversation there than what I come across here, if that makes sense. Well, it does, and it sounds like LaDonna's doing a great job of opening up those conversations. I mean, the series Desegregating Nashville's Food Scene, I think that everybody will go, it's not segregated. Like, what are you doing? I go, well, go to the thing and learn. Go to the event and learn about what that means and let's learn about inclusion and why we need to do what we need to do.

40:39And I'm excited to go. Yeah, it's a good time. It's very comfortable conversations and a great crowd. Yeah. Good people. Let's do it. I'm gonna bring you with me. We're gonna go. Okay, I will go. It's two days from my birthday, so it'll be like a little. What's your birthday? March 8th. Oh, that's awesome. The 8th. So close. Yeah, I think it's on a Wednesday. It is a Wednesday, I know, because I have two events booked that night. I know exactly what it is. March the 8th. So what's exciting happening with your company now and what can we look forward to in the coming months and years? Yeah. What's next? Well, we're really focused. We actually just broke ground today on that building that I was just talking about. So we make all of our ice cream in Columbia and in the back of our shop, and it's ludicrous if you can go see it. So my husband and I bought just a warehouse building that's right behind, is on the square, right behind Puckets and Hatties and that whole strip there.

41:44And the back half's gonna become our commercial kitchen and we're gonna run out the front half. So that move alone, we've been a little tight on what can we do because we just are out of room and we're prepping on carts. Anybody in the restaurant business knows what that feels like. And so we're, and you're just looking forward to that space. And right now, now that that's happening, I am aggressively looking for more locations to grow around Middle Tennessee and we're casting a pretty wide net. But also we're looking to expand our wholesale business, whether it be restaurants that wanna scoop our ice cream or we are already in turnip trucks. So we're looking to grow into those other regions. And some of that is marked by, again, the pandemic is like, how many revenue streams can you have just in case one goes down? So- It's gonna be more diversified. Yeah, and we do pint shipping now and we're just trying to lay some of that groundwork to expand into all three of those areas where it would be scoop shops or online or wholesale.

42:51Or is there anything that you guys were doing as, I feel like that's something that we're doing now is scaling back some of those pandemic revenue streams. We're like, oh, we don't really need this anymore. It's not really worth it. Is there something that you guys have either scaled back on or a program that you've eliminated because it was a kind of a pandemic thing? I'm not sure so much about the pandemic thing. I would say we scaled back on getting our truck out. Some of that was just because one of our trucks went down and we had to use the ice cream truck that we normally do events out of as our delivery vehicle. But also made us kind of think like, how much are we putting into this versus how much are we putting getting out of it? It's a lot of effort to get events, as many listeners know. And is that something we want to put our time, energy and effort into? Because we have to staff that and all of that and our staff's pretty small. And then we also looked and said, we were doing coffee and this and that. And we just sort of streamlined a lot and said, okay, what's the most essential to our business? What's supporting us?

43:52What is our identity? So we have streamlined that to really focus on the ice cream, which is, of course now we're considering bringing some coffee back because we get asked for it a lot. But I know it's just one of those things. I'm like, okay. What is the differentiator? Because I love ice cream. Yeah, I love ice cream. And I'm a nerd. I eat a lot of ice cream. Yeah, good. Probably like my biggest Achilles heel is ice cream. What makes your ice cream unique? And what's the differentiator in Hattie Jane's ice cream? Yeah, so a few things. We are a super premium. So that's above 16% butterfat. Is that what that means? Yep. Okay, I don't know. What's like the least you could do? Oh, you know, a lot. Fake butterfat? Yeah, well, air is what. And you can feel it in like Kraft ice cream. If you pick up a pint of this versus a pint of that, you can literally feel the weight.

44:54You know, like if you pick up a grocery store thing of ice cream, it's like. Like a Breyer's. Yeah, it's very light, you know. You pick up one of yours, it's got much more weight to it. Right, because it's measured by volume, not by weight. And that's a whole kind of thing within the ice cream community is, you know, the amount of air you put into it. So, you know, our overruns, you know, it's pretty thick. So we have a thick creamy. We also do, you know, our dairy is, it's a custard style. It's not custard, but it does have egg is what that means. We have enough egg in it that we have to put either a French style or custard style on the label. And that's a quality that we really like. It has that really kind of thick creamy. But the biggest thing is that we source Tennessee dairy. And we partner now, we started off making it all in-house, small batch as we grew. We had to either start a dairy plant or partner with a dairy plant. So we partner with Sunrise Creamery, Sunrise Dairy up in Crossville, Tennessee to make our proprietary base.

45:58So they have a, you know, they're a dairy. So they have the cows on the ground and a mix of Jersey and Holsteins. But they're just great, great family. So that's a big thing. And then, you know, our flavors, we have all of our classic flavors, but we kind of, we are kind of stubbornly Southern. And that's something that we've streamlined as well. We used to throw a lot of spaghetti at the wall, flavors a whole lot. And through that whole, like, who are we sort of post pandemic thought process, I thought I really want to create a Southern brand. Of course, everybody's got your classics, vanilla and chocolate and, you know, and all of those. But as far as our creative flavors and our seasonal, we, you know, said, okay, this is our box that we're going to stay in. So that we actually had to eliminate some of our favorites that just didn't fit in that box. But we want to be known as a kind of the craft Southern brand of ice cream. What's your favorite flavor? It's like asking favorite kid. You know, it's so funny growing up. That's the next question. Which one's your favorite kid? Is, you know, I only ever ate chocolate and I love our chocolate.

47:03It's kind of a medium dark chocolate. But since I started this company, I almost never get chocolate. I almost exclusively try whatever the funkiest thing is. But I would say on a consistent basis, I love our coffee. And that's a local partnership with Mealtown Coffee Company in Columbia. Honeycomb is great. It's got a really good nuance flavor. And this is seasonal, but right now we're doing maple bacon with a bacon brittle with tall grass with a butcher out in Columbia and they're bacon. So that one's high on my list. Does it have like pieces of bacon in it or are you like steaming the bacon in the base? We are making a bacon brittle and then that goes into the ice cream. Yes, please. Well, bacon and ice cream together. Let's go. Are you a funky flavor guy, Brandon? Or are you like just, I only eat vanilla, I only eat chocolate. No, I like ice cream. I love anything.

48:04I really love anything, but I do love mint chocolate chip. That's kind of like my favorite. I've got some in the car. Who do you? I'll bring that in. That's like my favorite flavor. Now you brought me a coffee ice cream today. I love coffee ice cream. Mealtown Kick coffee ice cream. And that is like my other favorite flavor. I love coffee ice cream. So you nailed it. I love that one. Hey, I wanna ask you, how many children do you have? Two. Two. So literally Jane is the oldest? Yes. What is the youngest name? Eliza. Okay. Both girls. Yes. Now, psychologically, I have two children. I have nine and seven year old boys. If I named my company William, Matthew's gonna be like, what the hell is that? Like, why is the company named after my older brother? Do you recognize, like, is that a thing? Does Eliza like, well, this is bullshit? Like, where do we get Eliza's coffee shop inside of Hattie Jane's Creamery? Are you gonna do something like that? And is that present in your life as a mom?

49:05You know, it's funny, because I think that's like my number one question I get asked. Is it really? Yeah. Well, when they understand, like, oh, it's named after your daughter. I have two daughters. Well, what are you gonna name her after Eliza? You'll notice those eggs that I brought you have Eliza's eggs stamped on the top. So that's her business right now. But it's funny, right now, she's six, Eliza is, and I didn't have her when we named Hattie Jane's Creamery, but she- There's some plausible deniability in there. There is some plausible deniability. You weren't even here! It was a great debate. Tyler, my husband, and I talked a lot about it. I was like, it's a really great name, but like, is this gonna be a thing? Because we knew we probably would have another kid. And so far, it's at six years old, knock on wood, it hasn't been a thing. She just, they just sort of like referred to it as their, our business together. I did have to remind, teach Hattie, it's not her business, you know? And so now she'd like that scene, we moved past that, but I was like, it's not your business, it's actually mommy's business, and it's our family business, but they were great, and they love- Where are the royalties, mom?

50:12Right. Royalties, I don't care whose business it is, that's my name, where's my check? Exactly. They're so cute, though, because they're at that age, like they just wanna help. We were stopped in yesterday after, I was saying that we had a little half-day special day, and we stopped in, I had to pick up some things, and they were busy, because it's President's Day, and so I, he was helping, they just, they wanna help so bad, and it's so cute, I'm like, I was that way, and maybe it'll change, but so far, I liked you. How old is Hattie Jane now? She's nine. Okay, so you have nine and six. Yeah. I'm nine and seven. Same space. I know the dynamic of what's happening, they're my oldest, we had dinner at Mayor Bowl, I don't know how long ago, but he was fascinated by the expediter. Well, that's because it's the most fun position in the restaurant. Right, so I said, do you wanna go work with him? And our expediter, his name is our sous chef, and he's the most amazing guy, just kind and patient and happy, and he's like, oh no, I'd love to have him up here, and so I got a video of him with these gloves on, reaching in and grabbing micro greens and putting them on top of a piece of salmon, and then him yelling for hands, like the next two days, I wanna go back to Mayor Bowl and yell for hands.

51:20I loved yelling for hands, I need hot food runners, I need hands, and I was like, that's just amazing, but he was like, I wanna go back and work with Casey, can I go back and work with Casey? And I'm like, sure, I mean, I don't. That's how my girls are with Rhonda, my business partner, she's just so good with kids, and I'm always like, are they in the way? But she's over there showing them stuff, because she's raised girls to, actually, all three, four of her girls work for us. Oh, wow. So, yeah. That's pretty cool, it's cool to have that, isn't it? It is, and they're awesome, such an awesome family. I don't know if you know them, but they are the ones that started to shower up, which is the mobile shower trucks for unhoused people. It started in Nashville, and now they have, her husband, Paul, has expanded that into several cities. Sorry, Paul, I think it's like six, seven, I mean, they're all over the place now. That's amazing. Maybe more. Yeah, they're incredible people, the whole family, top to bottom, awesome. Sounds like it.

52:21I love it when you have people like that that work for you. Like, it's really amazing how, you know, I think so many restaurants tout that it's like a family here, and a lot of times it's not, but like, when you really run a company and you do it really well, to have that dynamic, and it's literally family, and they all work together and they want to work together. Do you have a set of like core values that you guys live by? Yeah, I mean, we've got, obviously though, we spent some time really thinking about this, I guess it was two years ago for Hattie Jane's, and you know, what is different than the restaurants, we were really thinking most of our employees, most are maybe first time job, maybe second, and, or if they're a little older, it might be their first leadership position, and as we kind of sat around Rhonda, Aud and my other partner who runs the kitchen operations, but has been, we've been working together since I opened Puckets in Nashville, she was my right hand there, and we were like, well, I think for me, the biggest why I have, besides, you know, great product, is wanting to impress upon and be a place where parents want us and their kids to work, and that we are like basically teaching them core skills, and I got to, you know, do that at the restaurant level with like hosts and some dishwashers, but at Hattie's, it's almost 100% besides our kitchen team, and that has been something that's been really fun to go, oh, you know, we were working with, you'll never forget your first job, nobody forgets that first job, and we are that first job for a lot of people, so one of our core values is we are growing whole individuals, so what we really want to do is to work our way towards being the type of business where you say, I want my kid to work at Hattie Jane's, because they're going to learn friendliness, which is one of our core values, they're going to learn resourcefulness, and they're going to learn how to run a business,

54:23basically, how to handle money, we talked about going to this assembly food hall where we are is cashless, and we've talked about going cashless at the other locations, we're like, I think we really want to teach kids how to handle cash, and so we've kept it, you know, just we do a small percentage of cash these days, but we wanted to teach people how to do that. Is it a thing, too, where like, you know, you're an ice cream shop, I imagine that you have young kids coming in who may be like, grandpa gave me a $20 bill, or like, I don't know, I don't have kids, but I feel like when I was a kid, I would always have like, oh, here's $5, I scrounged up, you know, I want to use that to pay for my ice cream. They have cash, I mean, there's kids don't have accounts and things. Exactly, you send your kid in, you're usually handing them cash, not a credit card, because that's too dangerous, you know? Well, it's interesting, because we have, you know, essays, server assistance, that's what we hire people in, and like 15-year-old kids come to work there, and I was in a manager meeting like a year ago, and somebody was complaining, like, that the essays, I can't get these kids, they're just, kids today aren't used to this, this, this, and they were just going on this rant about how the essays weren't doing their jobs very well, and I stopped him, and I go, what are you doing to coach these kids?

55:35I go, do you understand the value and the importance that we have today, that this is, you're their first boss, and you treating them like they don't know what they're doing and you're upset with them, like, that's like the worst thing I can imagine for somebody going home and telling their parents, how was your work today, like, I kind of got yelled at, because I didn't clean a table fast enough, and I didn't just like, and you didn't sit them down before the shift and explain to them every single thing that we're doing, and that's one of my favorite things to do, they call me the essay whisperer at work, because you bring them in and you go, hey, I want to teach you about full hands in, full hands out, I want to teach about hot food, hot, cold food, cold, these are the basic core elements of what we're doing assisting servers, every time you walk in, find something to put in your hands, every time you go out, find something to put in your hands, hot food, and then you teach them these basic things, and you go, okay, today, we're gonna have a contest against all the essays, who can move the fastest and who can help the most people, and I'm gonna ask all the servers at the end of the shift, who they're, and I'm gonna give $10 cash to the one who gets the most votes, and man, their eyes light up, they get excited, like, okay, I'm gonna do a great job, and they get, and I'm like, it's nice to know that $10 can still get kids excited, I would have thought that there was.

56:49Well, those are 15-year-old kids, 10 bucks cash is, that's cash they can take with them, and they get really excited. That's cash they can buy ice cream with. Exactly, exactly. Yes, but like, it's not the kids, it's how we lead. You know, it's not just these kids don't know anything, it's like, well, what do you know? Like, why don't you sit down with them one-on-one and be a coach, be somebody they can trust to go to when they don't know the answer, like, you're 15, this is your first job, you don't know anything. Like, we have to teach them all the things, but they're like a piece of clay, it's like yelling at a piece of clay for not being in the shape of a dinosaur, like, you have to make that clay into a dinosaur before you start criticizing it. And I think that's what you're saying, that's exactly what you're saying, is that you love having these kids and having an opportunity to mentor them and teach them the appropriate way to do things and go into your next job, this is, we want to send you to your next place better than you were when you got there. That is so massively respectable. Yeah, and it's, I have kind of the opposite point of view now, I think, is that I'm so impressed.

57:52You know, they really are in this environment, especially during the winter, they're there by themselves, so they're taking on quite a bit of responsibility as a 15, 16, 17-year-old kid, and that they are handling the business, and it's kind of, coming from a restaurant where I had a big team, that was almost a scary transition, it was like, the only person, and they're facing with my guests all day, are 16 and 17-year-olds, but they're really amazing. And, you know, of course, you're working, like you said, kind of with raw material, some have had babysitting jobs, or some have done some other things, but really, customer service is usually the first time. And we've had other people that maybe worked at some more negative environments and have found this to be a lot just more chill. I mean, no pun intended, it's ice-cold, but that kind of have fallen out of other industries and into this one, because it's just, you know, it's not as high pressure.

58:53And, you know, and it's fun, it's most fun. We're gonna take one more quick break to hear a couple last words from our sponsors. When you hear that sound, it's probably too late. You need a guy, I wanna be your guy. I'm Kevin with Course in Fire and Security, and I'm a Restaurant Territory Account Manager. Do you know who's doing your inspections at your restaurant? Please reach out to me at 615-974-2932, 9-7-4-2-9-3-2, and I'll be glad to come out and take a quick look and look at all your fire safety inspection needs. If you're building your restaurant, we can help with that too. As far as kitchen suppression, fire extinguishers, emergency lights, we do it all, one stop, one shop. Call Kevin at 615-974-2932. Let me be your guy, Nashville. Do you provide your team with health insurance? If you work for a restaurant right now that doesn't offer health insurance, do you need health insurance?

59:54Because Dan Maher over at Southern Health Insurance wants to change that. If you're a local restaurant and you just, you really want to offer health insurance, there are so many benefits. Improved employee retention, you have happier team members, which means longer tenures and less training time. Smoother shifts make everyone's lives easier, meaning happier employees are more likely to stick around. When employees take care of their health, they're less likely to take sick days. This means reduction in lost productivity and revenue for your business. Fewer sick days, wouldn't that be great? You have improved morale, a healthy workplace with opportunities for growth is a happy workplace. Encouraging your team's wellbeing will result in higher morale and better work performance. Guys, all of these things, Dan offers health insurance. He offers visual insurance and dental, as well as life insurance. And guys, if you're out there and the marketplace is just too tough to navigate, Dan can answer any question that you may have. Any business, if you're a small business, it doesn't have to be a restaurant, you need to call Southern Health Insurance, 832-816-8602.

01:00:58If you prefer to email, you can email Dan at southernhealthins.com. Yeah, we have a couple of high schoolers that work for us. And first of all, these are the most impressive kids. No way was I this smart or responsible or hardworking or any of these things when I was that age. They really give me a lot of hope for the future. But I've told a couple of them, I'm like, hey, I'm not trying to toot our own horn, but you guys don't realize what a cool job this is for you to have at this age. I didn't have a job like this until I was in my 20s. We have a high schooler who works for us every summer for the last few years. And he'll pick up occasionally on a weekend if we're short staffed, and he makes pizzas. He works the pizza line. He builds the pizza oven and makes pizzas. And I always say to Tony, I'm like, can you imagine if this was your job when you were 15? Just, it's awesome. What a compliment to you guys too that he keeps coming back. Well, thank you. That's the highest compliment I think is when people come back whenever they can.

01:01:58It really is, and he's such a good kid. We're so lucky to have him. If I was looking for a job, I would love to go work at your place. It's fun, it is fun. There's a good vibe, but the way that you do things, I would 100% join your culture at Nicky's because it is amazing. Oh, thank you so much. I do get a little stressed out sometimes because I grew up in a household that was very conservative. We didn't hear swear words. We didn't watch rated R movies. None of these things. All the way through high school, truly. And nobody's inappropriate with the high schoolers, certainly, but it's a restaurant. They're swearing. There's, the restaurant things come up sometimes. Adults talking about what they did the previous night. And I'll say, guys, he is 17. Guys do not, I don't know. I even personally, I say fuck at work, but sometimes I feel weird if I'm in front of the 17 year old. I don't wanna say fuck. You don't say fuck in front of a 17. They probably say it more than I do, but you know. Probably, I can almost guarantee it.

01:03:01It's a thing. Yeah. It's a thing. There's like, guys, don't forget. We had our employee party recently. I was like, I just wanna remind everyone that there will be minors present. Everybody needs to behave. Check yourself. Yeah, you need to behave yourselves. So Claire, what do we miss? This is how fast an hour goes. We've been talking for, I know you just do this and you just start talking and you're like, wow. And on the intro to the show, it says the tastiest hour of talk in Nashville. So we can't go over. We can. What are we missing? Is there anything that you wanna talk about that's heavy on your heart or anything you wanna get out there? We're gonna do a final thought here, the sponsor by Gordon Food Service, but you get to kind of say whatever you want to finish the episode. So keep that in mind also. But is there any other topics out there? You wanna talk about the mayoral race? You wanna talk about city council? I'm in Columbia. What do you wanna talk about? You wanna talk about Mule Day? Mule Day is coming up. And if y'all haven't been- What's Mule Day? You don't know about Mule Day? No, clone. Oh my gosh.

01:04:02You're from Chicago, right? Yes. All right, let her in. Yeah. Do I need to go? Yeah. Well, okay. I do wanna give a shout out to our hometown in Columbia because it has been growing so much and I think in such a really cool way. And so I definitely wanna promote. There's a lot of cool restaurants, a lot of cool shops. We started, you know, we opened Puckett's in 2013 and it was like inevitable. We felt the wave was going. And what I think has been really interesting is that it has its own identity. I think for a while it was almost like, you know, people were kind of looking at it like, oh, they wanna be like a Franklin. And at some point collectively, the community of Columbia said, you know, F that, we're gonna do our own thing. And now there's like this really cool makers vibe happening out there. And like lots of people moving back to Columbia to open businesses that are kind of my age. And so that's been really fun. But Mule Day is the first Saturday in April unless that's Easter.

01:05:02And I don't think my husband has missed a one because he's from Columbia. Maybe one, he may have been on our honeymoon that year. He might have missed that one. But we got married in April. But yeah, it's just a big party. It's a festival. It's based on- The parade. Yeah, it's, I guess Columbia is sort of known as the mule capital of the world. It's a big mule trade. Interesting. It's still? I won't know. I don't think so. Used to be. But yeah, there was a big, you know, a mule auction. But they, it's just on that. And I hope I'm not stepping on like historical toasts. I'm not a mule day historian by any means. But it is interesting because people like literally like wagon trail it from wherever and start like the week before and like travel by mule into town. So like by, let's say on Saturday, I think it's April. I looked this up earlier, but it's whatever that first Saturday is. I have the information. There is a Wikipedia page on mule day.

01:06:05Mule day, an annual celebrations of all things related to mules is held in Columbia, Tennessee, the self-proclaimed, self-proclaimed mule capital of the world. This began in 1840 as Breeders' Day, a meeting for mule breeders. It now attracts over 200,000 people. That's huge. And takes place over four days. In addition to mule traditional Appalachian food, music, dancing, and crafts are featured. So is it kind of like a state fair vibes where there's like vendors and music and? Just like any other small town festival, you know, you have a parade and there's a lot of parties. There's house parties, there's official parties, there's pancake breakfast. There's all those kinds of things. Twice in the history, it has been canceled. Why? Pandemic. One was in pandem, mule day 2020 was canceled due to the coronavirus. The second time mule day was called off since its inception of the parade in 1937 was in 1942, shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

01:07:05Sure. Only two times is missed, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and then coronavirus. And is it safe to assume that there's many mules? Yes. Oh yeah, they're all over the place. Are they just roaming free or people are bringing mules to walk around? No, they ride them. Okay. There's a parade. Can you, like if I went, could I ride a mule? Is there like a? If you get kicked by a mule, you get a medal. Is that real? You get a free scoop of ice cream. Oh, I don't know. No, anyway, yeah. Free scoop of ice cream, you get kicked by a mule during mule day. Well, maybe I'll make my way down there. That sounds very interesting. Yeah, it is a fun time. We should cover it for the podcast. Okay. Yeah, it's a good time. I'll let you know. So that's my Columbia plug. And usually everything, a lot of things happening down there. And I would also say, if there are any restaurants that are looking for a local ice cream that are listening to this, I would definitely give me a call as we expand that. We have several restaurant partners now. I mentioned that we're in tarp trucks, but my information is on the website if anyone is interested in that. Now, here's my question. If I'm a restaurateur and I'm looking for a great ice cream to do, can you custom make an ice cream for a restaurant?

01:08:11Like, we make this for, if the volume is there. Yeah, that's the key is the volume. Right now, I basically present, here's our list of flavors here. We have our flavors slated for the year as far as what we'll be doing seasonally and roughly when we think they'll be coming out because we do use local produce. That's kind of a moving target, like for the strawberry and the sweet corn, blackberry jam and pumpkin. Oh, the lava corn ice cream. It's so good. It's my favorite this summer. That has been like the surprise repeat. I thought that was gonna be one of those weird ones we put out that we wouldn't do again because nobody ate it. Oh no, people, we used to do a corn gelato back when we were making gelato and people would like call the restaurant and ask. Could you like an heirloom tomato ice cream? I have talked to Sylvia, a green door gourmet wants me to do. Sylvia Ganyer? She wants me to do it. We did most of our produce from her and she wants me to do a tomato and I was like, if I can get the tomato art fest, then I will definitely do that. You need to bring her back on the show. She's so amazing. I love Sylvia. Every time I'm with her, I learn something new about her that I didn't know.

01:09:13I'm like, what? Seriously, like when I was on the show, I was so fascinated by her. I was just like, I wanna do this show 10 times. This was so much fun. Do you know Sylvia? I do. We gotta bring her on. It should be a lot of fun. Okay, here we are. We're at that moment. The Gordon Food Service final thought. Whatever you wanna say, as long as you wanna say it, you get to take us out of the show. Before we do that real quick, if people want to buy your ice cream for their restaurant, what's your email address? How would they get ahold of you? Find you on Instagram? What's the best way to go about that? Yeah, on our website, I have a wholesale page. If you scroll to the bottom and click that, there's just a really brief contact form. It goes directly to my email. And then I can respond to that that way. And that's the easiest way to do it. And you're self-distributed? HattieJanesCreamery.com. Yes, currently. Okay, HattieJanesCreamery.com. Scroll to the bottom. Wonderful. And on Instagram, you guys are at HattieJanesCreamery?

01:10:15Yep, Instagram and Facebook and TikTok. What do you guys do, TikTok videos? You guys make like- That's Macy's job. She's Rhonda's oldest daughter. And she's starting to just get our, you know, she's so creative. She does all these reels and fun stuff that I just don't have. I'm gonna go follow you. Yeah, I don't have the capacity for that. She doesn't- I hear ya. Yeah, what takes me six hours takes her 30 minutes. Yeah. Heard. My kids seem to be like, how do you do that? Dad, you just gotta edit. Okay, use CapCut. I'm like, what's the CapCut? Final thought. Gordon FoodSource final thought. Claire Crowell, take us out. I always just wanna encourage people to seek opportunity to support Tennessee agriculture. That's become our kind of sub passion at Hattie's and as a family getting involved in 4-H and meeting all these amazing producers and farmers that our state offers. So whether it be through our ice cream or through your local produce market or just meeting your farmers, they work so hard and they're doing it because they love it.

01:11:20I promise you because it's a tough business and I think that that would be what I wanna leave people with is look out for your local producers and find ways to support them because they're looking for ways to add value to their business every day. Love it. Love it. Thank you so much for making the trip. Thanks for having me. Hopefully you're coming to Nashville already. Yeah, well I'm gonna make a day of it. Okay. Because I used to live in Spring Hill. Yeah. And it's a drive to get down there to Columbia but you should go visit though. Yeah, for sure. I'm going for Mule Day. It's a party. I am. We've made two separate plans since you've been on the show today. That's true. I like it. First weekend in April, let's go. Claire Crowell, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Thanks Claire. Once again, big thank you to Claire Crowell for joining us on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Go follow us on the socials at Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio.

01:12:21Go find us on LinkedIn. I post all this stuff on LinkedIn, some different thoughts and things, just Nashville Restaurant Radio on LinkedIn. You can follow us on YouTube to know when we go live on certain shows. You can join the show. So go, next time you're on YouTube, look up Nashville Restaurant Radio. You can see a lot of these interviews we put out there and you can watch them commercial free. They go straight through. So it's just a full unedited episode that you can watch. So there you go. So follow me. I'm at Brandon underscore NRR and Caroline is at Gals and Gal. We thank you guys for listening and hope that you're being safe out there and hope to see you at Ben's Friends. Love you guys, bye.