Crystal De Luna-Bogan

00:00Cali Sober, the totally legal THC infused mocktail. Cali Sober was created to provide a better alternative to alcohol. No dependence, no ulcers, no liver damage, and no night you want to forget or mornings asking, what happened? They only use non-synthetic all-natural Delta 9 THC derived from the hemp plant. It is the real deal. It's the same buzz, the same chill you'd expect from THC. Best of all, Cali Sober is federally legal because it is made with hemp derived THC, which is a legal substance under the 2018 Farm Bill. If you're a restaurant, you can pick this up through Litman Brothers. They offer three different flavors, Paloma Spritz, Ranch Water, and Buried Ginger Fizz, all with less than 3% THC by volume with five milligrams of THC per serving. Please enjoy responsibly. 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 minimum orders, offering split cases, and providing daily deliveries with 24-7 customer support.

01:31This 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 whatchefswant.com or give them a call at 800-600-8510. 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. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. Love those guys over at Gordon Food Service. Man, they're the best. We are going to be joined today with Crystal DeLuna-Bogan, and this is another bonus episode. This was an episode that it was Grilled, National Grilled Cheese Day this past Friday, and I said, hey, we should do a show with the grilled cheesery. We got to do something. It's Grilled Cheese Day. So Crystal DeLuna-Bogan came into studio.

03:01She brought me some of their new menu items, and we proceeded to have a blast. I'm not gonna lie. We had so much fun. We talked about kind of everything. The first half, the first 40 minutes, it's all over the place and fun, and in the last 40 minutes is like talking about when she opened the grilled cheeseery and her relationship with Fresh Hospitality and how they had the chance to buy back their business and how that worked and really interesting stuff. In the second half, the first half, a lot of parenting stuff, a lot of life stuff. She's one of the OG food truck owners in the grilled cheeseery. She was the president of the Food Truck Association. We just, we're all over the place. We have so much fun in this conversation, and I hope that you enjoy it. I do want to tell you that there are two events coming up that you need to go to, and one of them is Toast Nashville, and Toast Nashville is an event that is going to be this coming weekend, the weekend of the 19th, 20th, and 21st, and if you go right now to Nashville Restaurant Radio, to our Instagram page, Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio, there's a post that is about an episode with Chef Kev D, and in that post, if you say which event you want to go to and tag somebody you want to go, and if you're already a follower of Nashville Restaurant Radio, then we're going to pick people to win on Monday morning. Monday will be actually Monday, like around lunchtime. I'm going to choose all of the winners randomly from a hat, and we're going to be giving out, I have 12, like 12 sets of tickets. There's 12 tickets, six sets of tickets, so it's going to be a lot of fun. The following weekend on April the 28th is going to be the Giving Kitchens Tennessee Tasting, and this is going to be tons of restaurants. I will be there. I am going to be the emcee for the event, and I am

05:03going to be donating off an auction item where you can be the host of this podcast. If you'd like to come in and be the host of Nashville Restaurant Radio for the day, we're going to make that chance for you. There will be an interview opportunity with this. You'll be able to interview Andrew Zimmern, the amazing Andrew Zimmern, James Beard award-winning Andrew Zimmern, so you could be the host of Nashville Restaurant Radio for a day where you interview Andrew Zimmern. That's going to be a lot, a lot of fun, and I love that we're going to be auctioning that off for the Giving Kitchen, which of course the Giving Kitchen exists to help restaurant workers. So if you go to the Giving Kitchens event, the Tennessee Tasting, your entry money, everything that happens for that is going to be going to food service workers. You are helping people not get evicted. You're helping people who are sick pay their electric bill, their gas bill, get groceries. You're helping people in need. So go out, have some food, have some great drinks. There's going to be so many amazing things happening at that event. I would love to meet you, and you got to go. We're going to have Chago's Cantina will be there also handing out food. I'm going to let you go into this episode. We're going to be back this Friday with Anna Aguilar from Tentissimo with Josh Cook and Maria. They're all partners in Tentissimo in Malavita, and they are going to be on the show this Friday, and we have a ton of fun in that conversation. Also, lots going on over here at Nashville Restaurant Radio. We have got, I will tell you, another big one next week. We're going to be interviewing Gloria Johnson, and that episode will be coming out in a couple weeks. We've got Sarah Gavigan in the books, and we've got a couple episodes for May. We're going to do a food truck big episode coming up. We got lots of fun things in the bank here at Nashville Restaurant Radio, and we thank you for

07:04listening, and let's jump in. I mean, here we go. Crystal DeLuna-Bogan. Super excited today to welcome in Crystal DeLuna-Bogan. She is the owner at the Grilled Cheesery. It is National Grilled Cheese Day. What's happening? Wow, it's a big day. It's my biggest day. Is this your Super Bowl? It's my Super Bowl. It's better than my birthday. I wake up with all the energy of all the grilled cheese makers on my back. I just really feel this is our day. No one else's day. It's just our day. Well, I'm honored that you're here, and you are sharing this day with me. Thank you. Yes, I'm a listener. I love this podcast. I love hearing all my fellow chef friends on here. This is so great. It's perfect to be on National Grilled Cheese Day. I know, and you brought me some food, and let me tell you, there was somewhat of a grilled cheese theme going on with the food. They were sandwiches, but one was an al pastor grilled cheese sandwich. Yes. Oh, my God. I know.

08:17Like, oh, my God. I see all the videos of pulling cheese because the cheese is a cheesy goodness. Yeah, but this is something different. I didn't even know that you did stuff like this. I know. I need to talk about it more. There was these tater tots that was like another al pastor tater tot, and then the first sandwich, like two sandwiches in the tater tots, and the first sandwich was like a Korean fried, but it was like a Korean chicken. Yeah, it's an homage, too. So it's like a Korean fried chicken breading method where you double fry, double, double bread. So it's like very crispy. And so we brine, we double batter. It's a whole thing. It's very time consuming, but it's like the only way. We've never put fried chicken on the menu in 12 years, and we decided this is like, it's so good. And so it is still a grilled cheese, but it's more of a chicken sandwich in a grilled cheese had a baby situation, and it's honey butter.

09:20Yeah, all I know is I started eating it, and I was like, I need more. I had all three of them. You were exuding joy, joy coming. I was like, this is this is it. This is what people do when they eat our food, then we've done it. Well, I told you I'd been at a career day all day with my family, or like with my at my kid's school. I have third and fourth graders and I had to go do career day. I volunteered for this and I brought like the studio with me and I was like a podcaster. Have you ever done career day like at your kid's school? Obviously, I've not even at my daughter's school. She's only five. I've done other career days. They don't even have kids go there because I just will teach a class. Nice. So I'm like a career, like I'm adjacent to someone who goes there and I'll like be an honorary parent. So I know I know the pressure and I know the judgment that you probably got. And I'm sure they were stoked to see all the buttons. Oh, it was a light up buttons you have here.

10:22There was probably 15 tables set up with all the other parents and I knew a lot of the parents said hi to him. But I had one mic on one side of the mic on the other side with like a set of headphones and the board here and kids walking like what are you doing? I go put the headphones on. I go cool. The kids will put the headphone on. They start talking to the mic and I would say, hey, what's your name? What do you want to be when you grow up? And then had these little intimate conversations with like third, fourth and fifth graders. I didn't realize you did all that. There was a there was a line of kids. Oh, you won. There was like all the other parents. There was like nobody at their table and there was like 30 kids. I want to talk on the microphone and I was like, you won. It was stressful, but I did not eat nothing. So I texted you and I said, if you want to bring me a sandwich, you're my hero. If you tell me to bring you food, I'm going to bring you two sandwiches in a massive amount. You did that. You did that. But it was delicious. And it wasn't like a grilled cheese sandwich, but it was like all these other things that I didn't even know you guys did all of that. He said grilled cheese sandwich, but I wanted to give you something. You're in. I mean, you crushed it. I wanted to give you like the flavors, you know, I was just like, I just need to crush something really hungry. Yeah, you were hangry and now you're not hangry. Mission accomplished.

11:39So how is life going for you? You are 10 years. You've been doing the more than 10 years. 13 years. Yeah. Food truck for going on 14. We started in 2010. So let's talk about the food truck. Let's go back. First time on the show. Yeah, we have so much to talk about. We have like origin story stuff to like if there's people out there like I don't I've heard of the grilled cheese. I don't know. A lot of people are new to Nashville and they don't know that you were like one of the O.G. grilled. They don't realize. Food trucks. You were like the O.G. Oh, they do realize. The food truck people know. The food truck people know. I love all the food trucks. I love my fellow food truck community. We're very supportive of each other. At least in my experience. BJ left back in those guys. He's on my side, so we're good. Yeah, good. He's great. He's great to us. So, you know, he didn't. Did he just open the food truck place on like West Nashville last week? Yes, he just opened it. Everyone go to it. Like if we want cool things like this, we have to show up. So when I had him on the show, he was talking about his little funk soul brother, I think was his back in the day. But back in like 2010, restaurants weren't excited about you having a food truck in their town. Like restauranteurs, this is a pretty tight community. They didn't like it. But when you. They lobbied against us.

13:06What was that like that time? It felt it felt sad because I was restaurant folk before. I was sous chef at a restaurant on Belmont Boulevard. Like I've worked for Arnold Mint. Like I've always been a restaurant person. So I felt like I was trying this new thing. And like, you're so vulnerable as a new business. Oh, my god, it's so hard. You just care so much what everyone thinks. And then you want your people you look up to also feel support. And a lot of them were supportive, but there were some that weren't. And then they, you know, kind of took to the legislative branch to ban certain ways we could operate. And luckily, they were really in favor of us because they wanted to give us permits that worked for us. They wanted us to pay the fees and whatever. You know, like we wanted to, too. There's revenue there. There's tax money. There weren't things that existed for us. So I'm proud to say that we were a part of building that, you know, with with banning together and letting them know what we needed and what what we and even the health department. Like we helped write stuff together because they didn't. They were like having to go to other cities to learn how to even regulate and grade us. You know, and so one of my food trucks they used as like a pilot program to help train other health inspectors. So it was cool. Like we were apart. We felt like we were in it together. The some restaurant people didn't love it because they felt we were taking away business from them, which is fair. I mean, we didn't know. We didn't realize parking next to a restaurant like, dude, what do you do here? Let's park here. You know, but obviously, we were naive and not realizing we just wanted it. We wanted the business and we felt like we felt like we had then Twitter, you know, people came out for us, you know, so it's not like we were taking away from the businesses, but they didn't see it that way. Ironically, the hardest area we had and we can never ever serve in was Hillsborough Village. Really? So it was such a triumphant, like, return to have our restaurant there.

15:07This is back when like, Jackson's is there. Sunset. Yeah, the trace. Sunset girl was still there. Cabana, Sam's, Bosco's, like all that stuff. Yeah. They they didn't love it. Any of them. So they would often call the police and then went off. Would you park in a like parking lot back on the other side of a regular parking spot, like on 21st, because we didn't know. We just pull up, you know, and then we'd like be like, we're here at this time. And then people show up for us and like be waiting in lines like long lines. And they did not like that. So I think if we didn't, we had a lot of attention on us, you know, so it was like the heyday. I'm sure if someone did it now, I would never call anybody. I would be like, they're just trying to make some money on the corner over here. But how would you think like now? Like, so now what you didn't know then, what do you know? What is the etiquette there as a food truck owner? What do you do? What do you not do? I would never park in front of somebody's front space, you know, to shore. You would never if I'm selling burgers, I would never park in front of a burger place. You know, like I would never be that, like, try to steal this away from never. Yeah, never. A lot of times. And what they don't realize, like we were asked by like another business to be there. So it's not like we just rolled up. We we had talked to other maybe the ice cream shop let us, you know, or the law office wanted us there, you know, so but there were no rules, there were no regulations. So we were just doing whatever we thought was the right thing. And then now we have permits, we know where we can go, you know, we we there's different etiquette. And I think that we self regulated ourselves, we self policed ourselves. So so other people wouldn't come in and kind of like, give us these you cannot park anywhere, you know, that cars park or, you know, and a lot of us have like, we we we shell out the more money for the quiet generators, we respectfully put our own trash cans out, pick up trash around our space. And if you're not doing that, then like, then

17:10yeah, I wouldn't let a food truck park around my business either. Like anything, if you're respectful, and you recognize what you're doing, and you I mean, which are all things that are learned. As you hey, we tried that, that was a mistake. I'm sorry, you can raise your hand and apologize and move forward. Yeah, I mean, we had that's kind of what our food truck association was really kind of in the beginning, kind of like just being like, what is the etiquette? Let's all kind of try to follow our own, like what we know to do, rather than people that don't know our business trying to come in and like, give us regulations like the city. And we've always been really, really friendly with the mayor's office, like we serve at all their events, we were always like, welcome downtown. So they wanted us downtown, they want us downtown, clearly, we have like our own food truck Thursdays, we have, you know, permits where we can park downtown by all the office buildings. I mean, there's definitely business to be had. And but now there's so many more restaurants, people ask what has changed? Why isn't it the same business that it was like 10 years ago, where you could just like open anything food truck and people would try it and line up and give you a chance. Now it's so much harder because there's so many more restaurants. There's so many more pop ups, there's so many more hotels, like you can't come with your like rink eating recipe anymore. Like you have to come branded money, staff service, like packaging, like you have expectations. Instagram has to be good. You know, like you have to have good photos. Like you you have to really come like your baseline now has been the bar has been raised so much. And I feel like when people ask us like, what can we do?

18:52And I'm like that you just can't, you can't rest back. You know, you have to keep up on what is the trend? What are people doing? Just it's so it's hard when you're small business in this town right now. It really is. Do you know of any food trucks out there that are just like bad ass that people might not know about? Can you give any shout outs to people other than the grilled cheese? Are you of course like who out there is crushing it? If I see we are fine, we are fine. You don't have to come to us if you see us like, please patronize our business. But like, you know, we're we're we're good. I love I mean, I love a lot of like early eats. That's my just the heart she puts into her food is so good. Cashel, she's so she's so everything she does is like with love and passion. Bedia, babe, she's all her flavors are so good. The Bedia, babe, like the I've had that across from Bastion one night. Yeah, I know. It's just like and she's so good. There's so many.

19:54Is that how you say it? Bedia? Bedia. Bedia. Yeah. I thought it was beer. Yeah. I mean, if you're right. Well, so we have a Bria taco at Chaco's, I Googled it. I was like, how do you because I was like Bria and it's like, no, it's like infinitively it. Google tells you beer dash YA like Bria. Sure. Sure. But you you can say the original enunciation is Bria. The the cooks in the back are laughing at you just so you your cooks are probably like, let them say it that way. It's fine. It's OK. It's OK. It's OK. You have the world at your fingertips. It's fine. You can say it however you want. I said the truth. I don't mean to say that, but it's fine. I can make fun of you for not pronouncing you rolling your arms and you have all the other advantages. Anyway, anyways, back on track, back on track.

20:55Some great food. I mean, obviously, Bad Luck Burger Club is like just so consistent and they have got such good energy and their vibe. I love Chivanada. I mean, they're so consistent to like I like consistency. Like Yaya's has been giving me the same great product for eight, nine years, you know, like I get my favorite thing I love from them every time. And it's always the same. I get the same great service. I mean, they could have had 10 trucks, but they want to be consistent with their one. That is like the mafia there. You can't even look in their truck. They don't even let you in. Like you have to be family or you can't go in their truck like for real. So like everyone has their own. That's awesome. I need to get them on the show. I got to learn. I got to get the secrets. Yaya. Oh, he's the best. And then his daughters work the truck with him and his wife. Like it is literally family only on that truck. So it is just stuff like that. Like the things that I know about these people like make me love their food more.

21:58So I wish them to let other people know that, too, because I will go out of my way when I see them. But there's so many new trucks I haven't even tried yet. I mean, I just wish I could. It's a pretty good list. I mean, yeah, and King Tut's is like more stationary now and he's off there off Nolensville Road. His talk about consistency and just like always with the good flavors. They're so good. And then Deg Thai, which has a restaurant now, I mean, they're like getting so much national press. They really are. They've been doing the same consistent product for years and years and years. It's like finally everybody realizes how good they are. So. Well, so have you. Yeah, I mean, but I'm talking about other people. Yeah, but I just what you look for in other people is also what you try and do for yourself. Right. I mean, because I see that it's worked. You know, I like I like I'm very like age ADHD ask where I'm like, oh, make the same thing, you know, over and over again.

22:58But but people want the thing they came for five years ago. If you're still open, they want that comfort food, they want that same thing. So we will never not have pimento mac and cheese not on the menu. Like, we will never not have certain things because we can't change that. Like, that's the classic for them. And we want them to have that thing that they remembered. And maybe the friend will try something different and then next time they'll try that. You know, so we like that we have new things, but we also try to keep the big sellers that like we know we can't spend on that show. They want it from that show, you know, so which is so cool that we have that option that we can do that, you know. But yeah, the new menu items are like, that's where I get to play around a little bit. But we keep the classics on there, too. We do. We do a similar thing kind of at the Green Hills Grill or Maribold. There's things that people have been eating for 20 years. Can't change them. And it's not like I can change, you know, the spinach dip at Green Hills Grill or there's, you know, Ron the server. I mean, there's so many different things that people have just we've been having this for 30 years. Yeah.

24:02Like, I can't change. I can't change it. Yeah. The chicken salad melt is one at the Green Hills Grill. It's just a that's a classic. You ain't going anywhere because it's from 1990. People been eating that sandwich and like there would be a revolt. Yeah, it's amazing. It's out of control and no one can change it. Chopped salad. The recipe is so solid, too. Chicken tortilla soup. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. I mean, we I feel that way when I I'm a Los Angeles native. I go back and I want to have the same thing that I had when I used to live there. Like, I love that they do. Some places do specials, but I'm like, I want that thing that I like loved. You know, there's a comfort to that. And that's all that's everything that like if it doesn't come back to comfort, we don't we're like, that's not in our our wheelhouse. Like, we need to always come back to comfort. Like, it's just somebody's comfort. Then that's what we can serve. So tell me about that. When you say somebody's like somebody's comfort, that's what you want. Why is that so important to you? It's because that evokes an emotion.

25:02You have an emotional attachment to something that brings you joy and like somewhat of a little bit of a respite. And it's something that it's like good mood food, I call it. So I used to be in fine dining, you know, very much like in my chef whites. Yes, chef, you know, like very much like crying the walk in. Never show emotion. You know, I'm there first there, you know, first in, last out. You know, like always kind of very much. I thought it was going to be, you know, an executive chef one day. And there's a discipline to that as a discipline. There's a pride in that. And then I worked for a small mom and pop in Los Angeles called Clementine. And it's it was a woman owned business. She ran with her husband and they had employees that would work there for 15 years. And I'm like, what's that about? Because I worked with a lot of people that hated their job, but they still did it because they just wanted, you know, they needed that experience, whatever. I'm like, why are these people making like comfort food and sandwiches and like grilled cheese sandwiches and like, why are they here for 15 years?

26:08Like, why do they love the owner so much? Like, why do they love the chef so much? Like, what is it about this place? So I like stopped what I was doing and like went and worked for her. And I basically was like, took a pay cut and just like admired her. And she was very well known in the Los Angeles area for like using like local foods and sustainability in her business. And she's just kind of doing it right. She was known in the chef, very respected in the chef community. And she had worked under Nancy Silverton, which was an icon of mine. And so I was really interested to see what she was doing. And so when I worked for her, I was just like, I don't even care. Like, what you put me like, I just want to learn. And she's just like, are you sure? Like, we don't usually have like chefs work here. We have, you know, we're like very high volume and we use really good ingredients. I mean, whatever, you know, like it's so she didn't know why I wanted to. But I ended up working for like almost two years and I learned so much as a mentor. I learned how to treat my employees.

27:09I learned how to to cost the menu. She let me do so many things that I would have never been able to do at the Four Seasons or Disney or wherever I worked, because I was that was everyone had a small position and like, you know, you did that and head down. So when you say I learned how to treat my employees, what? I think there's a lot of people out there who still don't know how to treat their employees. What do you mean by that? I mean, these are people that have their own hopes and dreams and wants and needs, and they will never sympathize with whatever problem I'm going to have, probably because they're working for a reason. They're working for their family. Their work, their motivations are different than my motivations. And when you walk into a space and just command like all the attention and all everything and just like this is your only thing that you should care about. I think that's not realistic and it's not sustainable. I think everybody has had a bad day, a good day, a family member that's ill. You know, there's so much going on in people's lives. Like when you come to work, you want them to to do a good job, but you also have to sympathize and empathize with them.

28:15And I think we do that so well. And I think that's why we've had such long term employees. And like, why do they work at a sandwich place for so long when they're so like they could be doing anything else? And I think it's because of how we all and we use the word we a lot. You know, it's a lot of the team, it's a team, it's a team. It's it's it's a let's come together and talk about it kind of situation. And we we definitely have like the best people making the best decision for our customers and for our team. You know, so and I just love I love that. Well, I think some of them might hear that and go, well, I have employees that lie to me and they call out, they tell me they're sick. And we have those employees, but not really when there's when it's a safe place. And it's a safe place to say, hey, I'm not feeling well. And somebody to go, I'm so sorry, is there anything to do for you? Like, how can I help you? Can we send you some food to your house? Like, you're going to question whether I can come to work today. You're telling me it's OK and you'll figure it out. And you want me to get better. Like, oh, shit, I'm not used to that.

29:16I'm not used to somebody saying this is my you need to be here anyway. Figure it out. And you start respecting people and treating them as people. They stay longer and then they're honest with you when they're sick and they don't have to. They can call you and say, hey, I'm having a really bad day today because this happened. You can empathize and say, yeah, how can I help you? Or or that's how it should be. Right. Let's switch. Let's switch you with someone else because maybe, you know, whatever. In a few days, you'll be a better person. And also that reflects on the service. Like if that person's coming in and doesn't want to be there. Sure. Sometimes people don't want to be there. That's in the best job, you know. But I think that when you when you show it, we have an open kitchen, too. So like that shows on their face. People are going to see that they're going to have a bad experience. They're paying for a sandwich. They can go to anywhere to get a sandwich. They're coming for the experience. And that's what the food truck kind of gives. It gives you experience right off the bat. It's a different experience than what you would have had. Now we had to create that in a restaurant. And I don't know about you, but it's like sandwiches are like everything right now.

30:19Like chefy sandwiches are opening everywhere and they're all so good. And they're all like chefs that I respect. I've worked in like the best restaurants and like that's super intimidating to me because I'm like, why would someone choose this sandwich over the other sandwiches? You know, but there's like room for all the sandwiches. Like, I just realized like there is room for all the sandwiches, because we're all so different. And the thing about like doing this type of food is it gives us freedom because we're not doing super late dinner services. We're not doing, you know, we don't need a ton of employees. You know, like we we can keep it kind of within reach. And I think a lot of us run these businesses with our families. You know, I run this business with my husband. A lot of these other sandwich shops run their businesses with their partners. And Bill Sandwich Palace. I know they're my favorite. We use Christian as our photographer. They're the best. I mean, there's couples that run these places and they're in there doing it. Yeah, LaVon. I mean, like Fat Belly. There are so many good sandwich places right now.

31:21But those three are like within five minutes of each other. I know. You're on the whole other side of the town. I also live within walking distance of all those places. So I frequent. I'd be there every day. Yeah, no, it's but it's great. It's like there's room for all of us. What there isn't room for is like huge hotel type money coming in and stealing our employees. That's what we don't have time for. And we've experienced it because they we can't. All over the place. Yeah, we can't compete. Like we just cannot pay what they pay and offer what they offer. It's just not possible when we're selling sandwiches. You know, it's just not. And it's like, how do we what do we do differently? We we care about our employees. We we empathize. They have my cell phone number. You text me if you need anything, you know. So I think that's that's everything. This is why when people say eat local, it matters, right? Because if you have if everybody's eating local and they're supporting the local restaurants, the mom and pops like these, and there's a line out the door all day long, there's a chance you can pay your people enough.

32:29Like we can continue to pay the people that work there more money if that business there. But when a big gigantic hotel opens up and you go eat at the national chain that's there all day long, that's just money you're taking away from locals. And it just hurts. I think I think it's painful. It's one of the reasons why I do the show is to tell the stories of local business owners and say, go support them. This is what they're doing different. And everything you just said is the reason why we do this. I mean, it's so great. And that's what that's what I'm saying about this is such a great platform. That's what I'm saying about the food truck industry, too. Like every single truck has an origin story. And like they were something before. And now they're this, you know, like it's like we used to be, you know, in the garment industry. And now we're this like in this. It's like there's so many different stories that are like immigrant stories and that they're like, you know, we had nothing. And now we saved up for this. And this is the dream. I need to do wonderful. I think I have an idea.

33:30You just turned me on. Can we just do food trucks? I want to do. I think I should do like a food truck month. Like the whole month. Nashville Food Truck Month. Is it? Yeah. It's also Mental Health Awareness Month. OK, that's not a coincidence. Oh, shit. I have I have half of May already recorded for mental health stuff. But the second half of May and June, I'm totally down. We should get. Will you help me get? You probably have contacts for all these people. I was the president last year of the association. OK, all of our meals. Well, if we could do, I would do like 10, 30 minute interviews so I could get like two trucks for every show. Because I don't want to do I only get four trucks if I did four shows. Or you could have a couple of them at the same time. We're all friends, you know, like it would be nice to be like, have the taco guys on, have the, you know, ice cream guys on, you know. I want to tell as many of those stories as I can.

34:31If I could tell 10, 15 of those stories next month, that would be so fun. And actually very impactful for the business. Yeah. Like what, you know, maybe certain hotels don't need, you know, like we actually could, you know, five extra families coming in a night to us is like the world of difference. Like, like, just think about that, like that money that you would have spent at a Panera given to us is such a difference. Goes a lot longer, goes a lot more. And no, and I love Panera and I love their employees. Like we have had people that work at Panera work for us. And we love the Panera people. But like the employees that come from there, because we get a lot of their employees. Well, they're local. Are they local? The people who work there. Oh, the people working, of course. Exactly, exactly. The local people. Yeah, no, great. Like those people a lot of time to find their way to us and have been with us for a long time. So, you know, I just that makes such a difference that if you came into our store.

35:36And I know it's not as convenient. Like you have to walk in. You can order ahead, but you also, you know, there's no drive through. You know, so I get it. It's it's we giving you an extra step. But like if we could afford a drive through, believe me, we would. We would definitely be on board. Well, but that's also not the experience. That's part of what you do is the experience of coming in and saying hi. And I think that the and I'm so happy Arnold's is back. And I've said this on the show a hundred times. I mean, the community aspect of a local restaurant, where people come in, they were like, why is this closing? But standing in that line at Arnold's, that's where you have construction workers next to lawyers, next to senators, next to musicians. And it's like, that's where everybody that's a melting pot of everybody getting together and seeing, hey, we're all the same. We all do the same thing. And that's kind of the experience of going inside the grilled cheese. It's you go in there and it's a it's an experience. And it's it's everybody all together sharing comfort. And you know what? You probably get this to at Chagos because you're so close to the Vanderbilt.

36:36We get so many people from the hospital, from the Children's Hospital that are like having a horrible, horrible time with whatever they're dealing with. And they've come in to our restaurant and like have chills just to sit and get away for a minute. And it like kills me. And I'm just like, if this they ever needed comfort food, it's right now. I'm so happy that they that we're so close to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. It's like we serve there all the time to the trucker will serve there to all the nurses and the doctors and the doctors and nurses come in. Like, it's just so awesome to be so close to these types of people because it's like, oh, these are the people that we want to be serving. I get chills thinking about what you just now said. I mean, those families, I used to sell food there when I was at Fresh Point. I'd be in the hospital all the time. And it was it was I didn't have kids then. Now having kids. I can't even think. Yeah. And just those doctors and everybody to be able to provide them with that level of comfort.

37:41It's got to be that to me is like the real reason why we do this. Oh, what else do we we don't do it for the money. I mean, we'd run Airbnbs if we wanted the money. This is what we love. You know, like if I think I said that, like if you don't love it, like you really it's just like, what's the point in its work? It's pennies on the dollar you're making. Yeah. You know, it's not it's it is work and it shows, you know, it shows that it's just work and it's just not. And I say that to people. It's like they maybe they make a good cookie or something. And they're like, well, should I start a cookie business? And I'm like, are you obsessed with that cookie? Like, is that cookie the only thing you can think about day and night? Like, is that cookie going to be the only thing you think about for like the next 10 years? You know, it's like, then do it. You know, but if not, then like maybe you just like make the cookies for your friends, you know, and give them away. Don't you want to hate the cookie? You don't want to hate the cookie. You know, like it's why I never went into wine sales. I hate the wine.

38:42Oh, I like to drink different wines. I don't know. What do you sell that's empire? Like, you know, I have to buy my stuff. I'm like, what if I like something from Lipman? I can't go out and drink that. I was like, I don't want to deal with that. Yeah. Back when I drink, it was a whole thing back then. Yeah. So I think I think that's the first thing I say. And if you can see their faces, they're just like, maybe they've maybe I've stopped some businesses from happening. I don't know. But I but that's my honest experience with in food. Like, if it's not something that you're like obsessed with, then maybe like maybe it's not this, you know, like maybe it's something else. We have our niche in our restaurant. Like the thing is, is we love to serve people. We're here. We're here to serve people. We are all servants and that's what we do. I've told this story on the show before, but I'll try to do it really fast. I had this couple of women came in at Green Hills Grill a couple of years ago, like two years ago. But I walked to the front door and I said, ladies, how are we doing? And I thought they were they come in before. And I said, you guys have a favorite place you like to sit? Like she was just a booth somewhere.

39:44And I said, great, no problem. It's first time here. And yeah, that's our first time. We're coming back to Nice Co's booth. So excited you guys are here. Like, is there anything I can start you off with? Like, what's going on? I'm just randomly three o'clock in the afternoon kind of a thing. I brought John over and I'm like, John, it's the first time. Take care of him. And John brought him a free dessert. And I came back after the meal and I was like, well, ladies, like, how was it? Did you really enjoy everything? And they kind of stopped and she looked at me. She goes, you know what? We this is my mom and our daughter. And we just buried our father today. And we just needed a place that we didn't know anybody like that was going to like. We just wanted a place that we were not from around here. But they said that this was the greatest experience. We've needed this more than anything. You guys are so friendly. This could be more perfect. And it's like those little moments like I didn't do that because they're going to do whatever. Like, that's the thing. Like, that's the motivator. That's like when you go golfing, you hit that one shot and you're like, I'm Tiger Woods.

40:48That keeps you coming back every day. It's those little moments for me that are like I can't I can't script that. That's what I that's what that's what I think about at night time. And that's a feeling like you can't teach that. That's like really innate in some people to be in hospitality and serving people like to be a servant. Like I say that about a lot of certain like people just in like life. I'm like, what a servant like this person is so it's not about them. It's about what they're providing for other people, whether it's in restaurants or, you know, just customer service in general. Like, there's just certain I say that about this guy that works at FedEx. Shout out to my FedEx guy. He is so much a servant. It doesn't matter if your document is not formatted right. He's going to help you format it. And that just made my whole day, because now I don't have to go back to my graphic designer and change it. And like, he knows David knows that he will format my document the right way for me. David FedEx on West End.

41:50Shout out like he and he's and he just he's the manager there. He that's all he doesn't get paid extra for helping me extra. Like it's he's just it's just this thing. He loves talking to my husband about yesterday. I was like, this guy is like makes our day because now I don't have to like stress about it. You know, I'm already stressed about a million other things. So it's just like people like that, like that person could probably be a great restaurant manager. You know, it's like doesn't matter what he's doing. He's there to like help you. And I think that that comes. It's a very humbling experience. But I get so much satisfaction and gratification when you make that smile happen or you make that, you know, little kid excited or the parent. You're preoccupying the kid with just like some little coloring sheet or a little game that you give them at the table so the parent could just eat their food. Like, that's a huge thing for me. Like, like, let the parent eat while the kids like kind of distracted. I had two women the other night. They're having margaritas at Chagos. And they had she had a little baby, a little boy, maybe eight months, nine months old, little kid.

42:54And I was over the table, like messing with him. And she just kept going over and I go, can you me to take him? I'll go walk him around the restaurant so you can eat. And she goes, if you want to, you can. And I picked the kid up and I was carrying him and he didn't cry. And he was just hanging out. And I was, hey, folks, I've got two people. And I was like, come with me. And I was like, you're like a unicorn, though. And we were just going back to the table and they got to sit there. And she ate like two of her enchiladas. And then he I got a little too far away and there was a dog. And he was like, oh, I was like, OK, here he is. Oh, my God, that's so it's like that moment where you're like, your dad, you know, to do that, because that is like not normal behavior. A lot of people just give you your kid. I'm this random guy like, here's my kid. Go walk around. Good energy from you. There was a good energy in the moment. But that is so that's so helpful. You know, like that mom, you know, I always like if you see a mom that's like in the kid is crying, like just just pray for that mom. Like, you know that she didn't do anything. Don't give her a dirty look. Don't give her a dirty judge. That's why we keep our restaurant a little loud. It's like, let them just talk. Let them go.

43:55It's like, don't it's OK. Yeah, it's OK, guys. This is long for that space with like so much space for kids. You know, like I there's certain restaurants where I'm just like, this is a family friendly restaurant, you know, that this is. I don't care if my kid drops something like no one's looking at me funny. You know, and also I'm like, I'm just because I'm such a restaurant person. I was just like, what are you looking at? Like, you don't have to clean it. Like, don't worry about it. Like, you know, to like other people. I just and but my daughter is very well behaved at restaurants. Just she's she grew up in the, you know, the walker around the the restaurant. Like, you know, behind you, she says behind you. So I have to say, I'm a little spoiled. She definitely is a restaurant kid. So I have one who understands it, one who's like, my dad's the boss and like you sit down and you shut up. And she ever says she thought it was funny one time to be like, you're fired. Somebody I'm like, you don't ever say that. That is so degrading. My 10 year old will come in and like, you know, my wife says, hey, can you?

44:56I'll bring him to work. And I give him a shirt and he'll bus tables and like run around. He's 10. He's 10. And I mean, obviously, that's just hanging out. It's like bring your kid to work day. Yeah, I love it. The first time I did it, I was like, all right, dude, here's what you're doing. He was right next to me and went to a table and I was like, all right. Now, grab that plate. And he's like, no, like somebody's eating off that plate. And he's like, that's gross. I'm like, pick up the plate. And I grabbed glasses and we grabbed glass for bus and table. And we go back to Dishland and he like scrapes the plate and he puts it down. He's like, throw the silver in here. And then I'm like, yes, throw that there. Then I put the cups in. He goes, oh, so that's all you do. You just pick this stuff up, bring it back here and you separate it and put it up. And I go, yeah, I didn't see him for the next 45 minutes. Because he was just like, going. That's a Montessori activity, excuse me. That is sorting. That is like, I mean, we're learning multiple skills right then. That is a great parent. And here's the funny thing is that like every table he went up to, I could watch the tables he would go up to. They all were like, who is this kid? That's adorable, too.

45:57And so then I'd walk up to him and I go, hey, how was everything? You know, that's my son. He's 10. He's here. And they go, are you we have a 10 year old. Like, can you can you have him come in, too? And I'm like, no, that is the best thing you can do for your kids. Everybody loves them work, too. It's like they get it. So my one every school is always off on Mondays for some reason. And then we're busy because then the schools are off. So like she's come with us and she's like stood at the register and she's like handed out the number. Oh, man. You can just see the pride in her face. And then she's like watching them get their food. And like I'm like, these are life skills she's learning. And you know, they pick up on so much more than you think that they do. Yeah. And it's amazing. It helps with their confidence, because when you're looking someone and that many people in the eye and you're like helping them, like there's no room to be shy, you know. But she's I don't know. That's a whole nother. You know, all of us have restaurants that we can teach our kids. Well, it was funny today at school, my kid came up, got on the microphone. He was like, what's up, dad? And he started talking. Every other kid was really shy, like hello.

46:59And they get in there and they didn't know like what to do. And he just jumped in. I go, he comes in here and he interviews me sometimes. And we like he'll come in here and we'll do this just to play. And I have so many recordings of him interviewing me and me interviewing him. Later, I know I'm like so excited about. Hey, when you were eight years old, you interviewed me. You want to hear what it sounds like? Like when he's 40, how great would that be? Are we just talking about how good parents we are right now? I think so. Basically, we're the perfect parents. So well, duh. I tell you what to do. We're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. And when we come back, we're going to talk more restaurant business stuff. How's that sound? That sounds good. I'll be right back. Unleash the wolf with Campo Bravo Tequila. Campo Bravo is a 100 percent agave tequila with a bold, smooth flavor. Perfect for sipping neat as a shot or in cocktails. Campo Bravo is also certified additive free, which means there are no artificial flavors or sweeteners in Campo Bravo, like there are in many other brands.

48:03Campo Bravo gives you all the bold, smooth flavor you want in a tequila with nothing you don't. Campo Bravo is actually truly farm to bottle tequila, meaning our fifth generation agave farmers meticulously control entire production process from the farm to the bottle to give you the highest quality handcrafted tequila. Order through best brands and please remember to drink responsibly. Y'all today, we are talking, as always, about SuperSource. And you know, one cool thing about SuperSource is, did you know that they develop most of their cleaning products and chemicals in their in-house facility? They're environmentally conscious and only use dyes that are safe for the employees and the environment. They carry a number of products for keeping your dishes, flatware, services, floors, restrooms, laundry, basically your entire facility clean, bright and smelling and feeling new. This is just one of the many reasons SuperSource is taking over this city for dish machine and chemicals.

49:07You need to call Jason Ellis, his number 770-337-1143. And he would love it if you would give him a call and let him come down and just check out your operation, meet him, say hi, see if there's any way he can help. He is here to help you succeed. That's Jason Ellis with SuperSource 770-337-1143. Sharpier's 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 sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. Or you can give Erin Mosso a call directly. Her number 615-319-6453. That's Sharpier's Bakery.

50:09The boys in gold are back and we're talking about the Music City Beer Company. Yes, this is Nashville's local domestic beer. Made in Nashville, by Nashville, for Nashville. And the official local beer of the Nashville SC, who are back in action. This beer is brewed for the boys in gold. We want to tell you today about the Music City Light. This is a local domestic beer for Nashville. Music City's own local light beer in the Music City Amber, the beer for adventures in Music City. Well-rounded flavor from beginning to end that leaves you wanting more. And if you're going to Geodes Park to check out Nashville SC, you've got to order the Music City Pitch. Ice cold refreshment while you cheer on our boys in gold. If you're a restaurant and you'd like to pick up any of these products, you can purchase them through best brands. And if you're a consumer, wherever you consume, ask for Music City Light and Music City Amber.

51:09Please enjoy responsibly. OK, we are back from our break. And it's been like 15 minutes since we've been on break. Welcome back to the show. I'm going to switch gears here. And thank you for the first half of the show. That was fun. I just enjoy just kind of like talking and telling stories. Sometimes that's just like my favorite thing to do in here, because I love talking about me, too. It's a thing. I'm no good of a daddy. What do you do? Yeah, pat myself on the back for the next hour. How great of a restaurateur, I mean, how great of a dad I am. End of episode. I'm just going to start recording my stories of how awesome I can be. You so we got to food truck. You had the food truck. Oh, gee, food trucks, how we started like you were one of those. You got a brick and mortar. You got this spot, which what used to be the Sunset Grill right back in the day. I did my rehearsal dinner at the Sunset Grill. Wow. By the way, back in 2005, the best stories of that building.

52:13I do. I have some really amazing stories of that building. And I remember it like it was yesterday. When did you open that location? So we opened that location in 20. Oh, my God. Now I'm going to have to. Think about it, because my brain 2018. 2018, yeah, 2018. It's like 2017, but it was actually 2018. OK. And which is like weird that I can't even. Was that your first store? Yeah, that was our first sort of a first brick and mortar. Holy cow. Here we go. Here we go. Yeah. Now, did you you were partnered with Fresh Hospitality? Yes. Is that when you open that location, was that so fresh? We partnered with Fresh Hospitality to open the brick and mortars. So that was the the part of that deal was the brick and mortars. How many do you have? So we had three. Wow. We we grew to like we open Hillsborough with with a bang.

53:15Like we did better than they expected. And so quickly they started. We decided we would start looking for more locations. And they found one in Franklin. And then they were opening the Hunter Station location as like all fresh brands in that food hall. And so you went from I have a food truck to now I have a food truck and three restaurants. Yeah, it was a lot at once. And I was pregnant. How do you do that? I mean, because I'm having this trouble with the restaurant, like you are so into being involved in every aspect of one of the restaurants. You you have so much control when it's one or even two. But when you get to three and four, like you have to start letting go of the vine a lot. Yeah, we say kind of in like within our like fresh families, like the we kind of all very much kind of help each other like the under the fresh brands, you know, we're like Martins and Biscuit Love and Buies, like the few babies.

54:21We all kind of said like one restaurant is one restaurant to you can kind of split your time, but three, you have to be a company. Like you have to operate as a company, but meaning you have to have your HR in line. You have to have your payroll has to be super tight and on it. You know, like there has to be food costs has to be tight. Like there is three you are operating as a full on. Like where's our GMs, our district managers? You know, you have the whole chain of command. So you have to learn how to systemize. And we got that down pretty quickly. And so the one thing Fresh was really good at is, you know, they they kind of know how to multiply really quickly. So with like the juice bar success and the Tzihi success and obviously Martin's success. So we kind of learned a lot from them within those systems of like this is how to operate a location number one, two, three, which is like.

55:22So out of our that was not what we did. You know, we were always there. We were even we had food truck managers, but I would still check in at the food truck all the time. Like it was I was very hands on. But there is a I think there was something we learned to like be able to like you can truly work on your business when you're not working in your business. And I think we were at a heightened level when I could step back and actually like see everything from a customer's point of view and make those changes accordingly. You're going to lose some heart in it because you're not there. People aren't seeing you there. So that's hard. And I think that's why it's the hardest part for me. It's the hardest part because it's like, oh, I went and see you. It's like, well, yeah, because I was at the Franklin shop or like I was. That was the one day I wasn't at the working at home or I was working from home. I have like, yeah, I had just had a baby. I was like super hands on with my daughter, obviously. I have a choice. I like don't have nannies, you know, like I didn't at that point.

56:25So it was it was very hard to balance. But my husband and my husband was like nonstop with all of it. But we had great district manager. We had great GMs. You know, we're very into like Monday meetings and Zoom meetings. And but then the pandemic came and like wiped all of that system out for us because we were in a Franklin was a highly, highly tourist area, a very niche tourist area, not like downtown Nashville. It was very like much. That was a hard area for us to recoup from from the pandemic. And when everything went to to go and pick up in that area, it just was not the type of area that you would get pick up to go kind of stuff in. Yeah. So that location suffered. And then the actually the hunter stations location never really suffered. Like that location was doing really well. And the reason why we closed that is because we got offered a buy back from our from fresh hospitality to buy back our brands because they were through the pandemic really trying to consolidate their capital.

57:32So we got offered to buy back our equity and we took that offer. So that deal, though, was that we had to close the hunter station location and the Franklin location because those were buildings that they owned. So they were trying to deal with that on the state side. So we had to close those within a month of each other. Oh, wow. And like we were told on a Monday we had to close the Franklin stop and we let the staff know on a Thursday. And then we did the same thing again on the next week and told them that we would close the next that within that month. And my district manager was married to the GM at the East Nashville shop, so essentially had to let his wife go because you didn't need a district manager anymore. Well, we kept that district manager for as long as we could. Sure. We tried to take all of them in Tillsboro, but like you can only take in so much salary, you know, like probably a lot of employees. I mean, it was a lot of but luckily a lot of people needed employees. So we sent, you know, certain people went certain.

58:36They had no problem getting other jobs, luckily. But and, you know, you can only do so much. It was terrible. I always tell people it was like the worst thing I've ever had to do. Sit across from somebody who did nothing wrong, who was completely hardworking and came out like and look at them and say, I'm sorry, I don't have a position for you anymore. And also that you don't live close to the Hillsborough location. So you having to drive an hour is not something conducive to your lifestyle. You know, and so and a lot of them actually have come work for the Hillsborough location, like recently, because they just didn't fall in line with the jobs that they were in. So it's like so wonderful to like be able to absorb more of them back in. But it is it was the hardest thing we've ever had to do. And but I think a restaurateur, like as a restaurateur, I feel like that has made me such a stronger person who's in charge of a restaurant. I don't want to say like boss, because I know the worst case scenario, worst case scenario that could happen is like have to look somebody in like completely let go your whole staff and and just like take the designs, the everything, all the little things.

59:51Like my husband still can't even look at that location. He can't even drive past it. It's like heartbreaking. So it's so emotional, you know, to to close something that it wasn't like store to it was like that was Franklin. And that was, you know, that was Hunter Station, you know, heartbeat. Yeah, they all were unique. And like this is where I would have my mom friends come and meet me, you know, like like all of them had their own little, you know, special things. So moving forward, it was good for us like us as a business to strengthen our business, to buy back our equity and to strengthen and consolidate everything to one store, because it just that was like our Hillsborough store has always been has always done really well. And even through the pandemic, the community still really supported us. So that was like no brainer. Thank God we got to keep that store open in the deal. And moving forward, growing into new locations.

01:00:53We are doing it in a completely different way that works for our family. And and it's just smarter because because it's it's just going to work for us. We're not real estate moguls. We're not trying to get do 25 restaurants. So that's what I can say about that. And we're excited about the growth of this year that we're going to be able to introduce to the community and create spaces that have meaningful, you know, community vibes that people can gather in and have come for food. And I'm sorry, keep coughing. No, it's OK. So is it covid? No, I'm so glad we're in this one little room. No, I've had like late at night and in the mornings, I could throughout the days. I'm fine. I don't know what it is. But today, for some reason, like going on, it's like my throat is dryers. Is it allergies? That's what people would say. It's it's allergies. I think it's allergies. It's just allergies. It's fine. It could be covid, but it was a test.

01:01:53It was positive. I think it was wrong. It's a false positive. I got a false positive like an hour ago, but I'm fine. I'll know. I'll know where I got it from. Yeah, you'll know where you got exactly over six feet apart. Trace the trace. I'll trace it back. Yeah, shit. So that's wow. OK, so. Fresh hospitality, open roller coaster ride. I've got one store, I've got two stores, I've got three stores. They all have their own individual thing. You're getting used to this. You've got all these systems in place. Pandemic happens, kind of blows everything up. Real estate's crazy. Everything's crazy. They give you an opportunity to buy your company back. You say, yes, I want to buy it back. Oh, yeah, but you have to close these two stores ASAP as part of the deal. Yeah. Back to Hillsborough. But now you can focus all your time and energy. You've learned a ton about how to scale and what to do, what to do. Roller coaster of emotions, communities, friends, like all of it.

01:02:54And now here we are, 2024. It is grilled cheese day. It's the day. And you just said we're going to grow in the community. So you do have plans for expansion. Yes, we have plans for sure for one location expanding in Nashville, specifically downtown Nashville and in a very like iconic building that the community has known and loved for years. And so we have been approached with a very interesting and lucrative and like just all around like our brand opportunity. Yeah. And I'm like very focused also on like providing community spaces for parents and people to come and like gather and not feel like they are needing to rush out or it's a stuffy environment. And this space is like perfect for it. And so it's been something we've been working towards for the past year.

01:03:57And it's finally coming like to a close so we can finally announce it soon. So, yeah, it's just exciting. And, you know, you never want to like say anything before, like the ink is dry, because I think we all know that's like weird superstition stuff. But look for an announcement very soon on where the grilled cheesery is going to come up next in a really cool building. And it's really cool. Downtown Nashville. Yes. And another exciting thing about that, because I started off as like a baker. Like I was a bread baker. I was a pastry is kind of like my hobby, I always say. And so we're going to get to expand on that program in this location. Really? Yeah. So it's an offer, like a coffee program with it because of just what the needs of the space are. So I'm excited about that. Are you going to partner with a coffee company here in town? We already a partner with a coffee company in town. Who are you partnering with? With Good Citizens. OK. Yeah, that's awesome.

01:04:57I mean, that's like just people that we've always we've worked with them. And then we've kind of like followed them through openings of their restaurants and stuff and like they're like family now. So we kind of like do this all together. I mean, like we when we have brand partner, like like when we use a bread company, it's not like, oh, we use Bobby John's like we use Bobby John's. Like that is our family. Like, should we text each other happy birthday? Like, this is what day is it today? Like, did you say you use Sharpier's bakery? We use Bobby John's. Sorry, I'm looking at the sponsor of Sharpier. I mean, they're great. OK, there are so many good bread companies. There's a lot of us specifically. This bread is good for our product. Sharpier is also awesome. Shout out Sharpier. No hate, only love. No, it's it's OK. There are multiple people out there. Also, have you ever met Bobby John? No, he's a freaking rock star. He you know, they bake their bread in a hotel with a guitar shaped pool in it.

01:05:59It is so Nashville. It's like off music road. It is so Nashville that it's crazy. His daughter is running it now. And so his daughter is like, I didn't know that it's a story. I really had a story. This old hotel where like Elvis used to stay. It's awesome. It's awesome. Yeah. And he's like an old, awesome, hippie musician. Like, it's so Nashville. It's like it's almost sounds unreal. But anyways, the bread is soft and it is it is delicious. And it works for our buttery cheesiness. So, yeah, we we we work with them in unison, but Sharpies is also good. Thirty six years of bread in Nashville. They've done a good job. But I love good stories like, you know, I mean, I mean, you can't, you know, Nashville's Sharpies awesome will also be a bread we use in the future. There are some great bakeries in town. You have your sponsor. I'm sorry. I'm looking at the sponsorship wall, too. Do you use SuperSource?

01:07:00No, but what if you use SuperSource? I don't know. Oh, my God. They're the best. Everybody uses SuperSource now that I'm seeing all the all the callies over Gordon Robbins insurance. What chefs want when you get all this? Oh, yeah, we use obviously we use creation gardens, obviously. I mean, everybody. Yeah. I mean, you have to anybody who's anybody. I got to introduce you to my buddy Miller Chandler from the Lee and Associates for new locations coming up. He's a broker who does real estate. Look at that. He's amazing. You want to plug any more of your sponsors? Yeah, let's get the Campo Bravo tequila. Just throw it in there. I'm trying. I mean, we're not going to do as many. I love it. You got to pay for some. You got to pay for the podcast. I get it. Well, here's the thing. It's it's not only that it's that I like to go out like I don't want free food from people. I want to go out and pay for the food. And this allows me to do that. And then these guys, since I don't take any money from restaurants, will not. I don't want anything. How many times a day do you get hit up for something?

01:08:00It's unfortunate because I wish we could do. I wish we could, you know, I never want to be that person. I never want to be the person that's like, hey, do something for me. Like, no, no, no. I always and they allow me to do that. I can have the space. I can have the equipment. And I can do it stuff. And they know that. And they're like, no, dude, we love what you're doing. So all of these people are like with our mission sponsors for my life. I'm going to just become an influencer now. I think you should. This is what an influencer is. They just let life get sponsored just by their everyday things. But these are people who actually know and love. There's no shame in all this. You actually I actually know all these people and use their stuff. This isn't just like somebody who came and said, hey, I'll give you money. Sponsorship right here. That's what I'm talking about. We can stop talking about sponsor. I love it. But I do. I look they mean a lot to me. You know, I've never had sponsors in my lifetime. They've never really talked about this. Jealous that you have sponsored. I don't have sponsors. It's a thing.

01:09:00Well, because, you know, I'm not talking to people. But I'm going to go get the fact that people believe in what we're doing. It's really special. Like, it's really cool. If I had if I could sponsor you, I would. I wouldn't allow you to just me as a person. Oh, well, sponsors this show. It's very kind. You do by listening. Thank you. And by using all these brands that you're looking at behind me. For Sharpies, because we use Bobby John. Hey, you know, food service, they're the they're like the title sponsor. They're the main sponsor. We don't use them either. But, you know, maybe we will in the future. I see that my advertising, since you're a listener, my advertising is not working. Is that what you're trying to tell me? I was getting cut a bunch of bullshit. She won't say what I want her to say. Just all the winking isn't working over here. I found lights in my eye. I can't see. I can't see. It's all the covid. It's all the covid is blocking my blocking my view. Dear Lord. OK. Well, that's very good news that you're going to be expanding here in Nashville.

01:10:03I'm excited. And we'll talk about it in length. Maybe we can do some kind. Let me know when you can announce it and I'll make it on an intro. I'll make the announcement and then we'll post about it. Oh, my God. I love it. Let's scoop it. We talked about on the show. And now here's the rest of the story. I love it. Watch them put up some sign without telling us to like we were going to scoop this. And it's OK either way. I'm not worried about it. No, you know what? No one would don't probably. We're not really breaking news anyway. Nobody's breaking news anymore. Everybody's really listening. Nobody's listening to this right now. Me and my mom's probably listening. You and your mom. Shout out to my mom, who will listen to this whole episode. Hi, Crystal's mom. Your mom, did she listen to she is your mom, like your biggest fan. My mom will post this on her Facebook like immediately. It'll get you do like local and she's got all of her friends on there. She's going to say that I won some award. And she's not even going to get the facts right.

01:11:03She's just going to say that she won the award on Nashville Restaurant podcast matter. She's a proud Latino woman. She's going to say whatever she needs to say to make herself look like a good mom. I love that dessert when you go out to eat with your mom, does she do? And I have to mom, I love my mom listen to anybody anywhere. She knows about my restaurant and my life story. That's it. We go to eat. We're like at Jay Alexander's or something at a restaurant. And my mom goes, he operates red. He has a podcast. I mean, he knows exactly what he's doing. She's got a lot better. She's a proud she's heard me talk about on the show. And now she's like, I didn't know that. My mom doesn't care if it bothers me. I think it's super sweet. It's her job to be my personal PR person. And she me and my sisters, like my sisters and I will anything we do. She's like our biggest. I mean, like, what can I complain like that? That's a great attribute for a mom.

01:12:04And I make fun of her and doing the same thing to my daughter. It's like I don't even it's like I complain and then I'm like here talking about this. Doodle she made. Oh, I was I was today. I'm in the gym and there's like a little girl. I'm in my son's fourth grade class now. And there's a girl comes up and I don't know. Let's just say her name is Tina. I'm totally hypothetical name. I said, hi, what's your name? I'm Tina. I like Tina. Nice to meet you. I said, I'm William's dad. And she went, oh, drama. What does that mean, Tina? Like, do you not like William? She's like, he's annoying. Oh, what? Really? You can leave, ma'am. She goes, she goes, all he talks about is Fortnite. And I don't care about Fortnite. So, like, I, I, it's such a fourth. Anyway, and I just was like, I was sitting there. I was like, well, I'm done talking to you. I wasn't. But, you know, so this conversation. You get funny, though, how I'm doing the same thing. I'm like, you know, William, I'm William's dad. And this is like, oh, yeah, not impressed. She wasn't impressed. Fourth grade. I'm like, William, she has a crush on you.

01:13:05It's hard out there on fourth grade. Oh, for sure. For sure. Crush. I want my first date in the fourth grade. That's too young. You think so? Yeah. I was nine. No, it's too young. Nine. What are you doing? What are you doing? My dad picked up the girl. My dad picked up the girl. Oh, you actually did. Went on a date. We went to McDonald's. You don't need to be on a date. And then we went and saw the movie Twins in the theater. No. Twins. Twins with Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger. In the theater. If that dates me at all. That's a really old movie. So by my math, are you 85 years old? Yes, I am. Yes, ma'am. Exactly how old I am. So I don't know. Oh, my God. Nine. Yeah. No, we're not dating until we're at least 27. They're not driving until they're 30. She doesn't need a boyfriend. No. You don't need anybody. My kids are a strong independent woman. Girls still have cooties to them totally. Like, they're like, uh-uh. Yeah. Good. Keep that vibe. No. Good vibe. No, no. I'm in. Yeah. Like, respectfully, cooties.

01:14:07You know. Oh, the milestones of parenting are so fun. I love it. We're clearly so amazing. I went on a podcast one time and I only talked about my postpartum anxiety. Oh. I don't think that's what they wanted me to talk about. So tell me about your taco. Tell me about your grilled cheese sandwich. It was a very... I like to talk about something different today. They wanted to talk about cheese and I wouldn't. I just wanted to talk about my postpartum anxiety. You're welcome. I'll leave now. What was the... Which podcast was this? I want to find it and listen to it. It was the Cherry Bomb interview I did. And I had just had my daughter. It was probably like... And she came with me on this press tour we did in New York and I got this awesome opportunity to be on the Cherry Bomb podcast. And I was just talking... I mean, it is a very feminist-based podcast about women and business. I mean, it was more than that, but I was definitely only talking about my...

01:15:10Because I couldn't see anything else. I was in the thick of it and we had just opened restaurants and I was like, I don't know how to balance this. This is unsustainable. I couldn't imagine. And then she's like, well, what's your advice? I'm like, don't do it. Don't do it. Either have kids or open a restaurant, but don't do them both. Bloodshot eyes like, don't do it. Yeah, exactly. Don't do it. I carried my own sound machine. She's like, you don't need to put in the sound effects. I'm like, I do though. And I mean, literally, my daughter was crying in the other room. I could hear her. I was like, oh my God, I have to go now. It was probably not... I was at... But I look back now and I'm like, okay. It seemed like that was what I... That's all I could be now. And now I'm like, oh, okay. Now she's eating on her own. She's walking. Now it gets easier, but it just feels so heavy when you're in it.

01:16:12So it's funny though to listen to. It is on their podcast. I'm going to go listen to it. Cherry Pop, yeah. I think that's awesome. It was five years ago. It was so intense. I would listen to it and I'm like, oh God, cringe. And there's been women like, oh, I'm so glad you talked about it. I was like, I wish I didn't. I was very honest. Definitely not Balanced Meds. Listening to yourself on a podcast, I'm still... After 375 episodes, I hate it. I will go back and I'll listen to this episode. This is the best one probably. Because you talk about how good of a dad you are. And I'm going to go, shut the fuck up. I don't need to tell anybody any of this stuff. In a normal conversation, I feel like this is just a... I say these stories because it's relative to the... But when I listen back to it, I go, oh, I'm just like, virtue signaling how great I am. Like, what the fuck is my problem? And it drives me nuts sitting in here Sunday night.

01:17:13And I'm like, oh, I don't want to put this out there. I sound like such a douche right now. And I'm like, I hate this. Or when I start talking about not drinking, and I'm like, well, I don't drink. And it's like, oh, just shut up, man. You're like, get off your high horse. And I do this. Are you just bashing yourself when you're editing? Last week. You really should record that. You should do a video of yourself editing, just telling yourself to shut up. I'm smashing my head on the desk here. You sound like an idiot. I listened to the episode with Vivek Surti, and I was just like... Oh my God, one of my favorite people. Oh my gosh. He was literally one of the first, like one of our first fans. He used to come to truck. Him and his sister, Zarna, came to truck every week. Like, he was such... Talk about supporting local business. Like, he was the best. I didn't know much about... I want to say I've been to Taylor, but I don't think I have. I went to the old Taylor, but I don't think I did for some reason. Maybe it was a long time ago. I don't know, because I don't remember it like I thought I did.

01:18:16But I was talking to him, and I was like, I really feel exposed, because I don't know shit. I don't know. I'm so dumb right now with what he's saying. Like, I'm like, tell me more about that. And I'm like... He's very intelligent too. Oh my God. Like, intimidatingly intelligent. Are you intimidated by him? I think I was a little bit. I'm not. Well, I don't think I am anymore. He's such a super nice guy. He's such a sweetheart. Like, the nicest dude I've ever met. Like, the first 30 minutes of the interview, I was just like, whoa. Like, I was just blown away by what he was saying. And then, like, the rest of it, I felt totally fine. But the first 30 minutes, I was like, I feel like a fraud. Like, people are listening to this going, is this guy supposed to know what he's talking about? Because he has no clue what he's doing. But you bring on people that do. And so I was literally just, I was learning so much in that first 30 minutes, but listening back to it, I was like, I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't want to put this out there. But then I always just go, fuck it, and I put it out there.

01:19:17Yeah. And then people are fine with it. And then people are like, oh, I've got 50 people messaged me, and were like, dude, that, the vague interview was awesome. I didn't know that stuff either, or whatever. And I'm like, okay, no, that wasn't really good. I was like, stop, stop. The voices get to stop. I'm like, I'm so terrible listening to myself. No, you need a cheerleader. I do. You need a cheerleader. Usually that's Caroline. She's amazing at this. She's like, no, you were fine. And we do, because what I do about myself, though, I'm like, I talk too much about my kids and my career day today. Well, because that's what you did. What, today? Yeah, that was today. That's interesting. I want to, that's like, you made an experience for them. I'm sure when the parents of the kids listening, they'll listen and be like, yeah, that was cool. He won career day. I'm like, I'm a loser. I need to get a better job. I'm not saying that at all. That's probably what they're going to say. Well, I had an investment banker to the left of me and Pinnacle Bank to the right of me. Snooze. And there was no kids there. And there was 12 kids around my table. And I was like, guys, there's banks.

01:20:18Go talk to the banks. They should have been giving out money. Here, count this cash. They don't even count cash anymore. What are they? Hold on. They gave money? Oh, there is money. Oh, dang. They gave dollar bills. What's that? This is like, there was like people that gave out like prop money. Oh my God. And that's a real, she's like a realtor. It's not real. That's so smart. It says movie prop money on it. Oh my God. Is this illegal? Do you counterfeit dollar bills? Yeah. Is that what you do on the side? That's how the sponsors pay me. Wait, was this one of the, a counterfeit money person was one of the parents? They were giving those out today at the career fair. This is so smart because they do this. They fold it and they put it on the floor and then people pick it up. And then I've seen this on like TikTok. Oh, there's a real estate agent. But all the kids started bringing me money. And they were just like handing me money. I was like, what is going on right now? I don't understand this. See, the kids could be your sponsors. Well, they did great. I'm sponsored by the fourth grade class of what school? The school that they go to.

01:21:19The school that they go to, there shall not be. They go to Grassland Elementary School. Grassland Elementary Sponsors. Fourth grade only though. Fake money. We have gone for an hour and 11 minutes. Oh my God, that's too long. We didn't even talk about anything important. This is the tastiest hour of talk. It is Grilled Cheese Day. Even though this won't air on Grilled Cheese Day. Let's do the plugs. Let's do the plugs. What do you got? The new menu started on Monday. And it's the best menu change yet. So today is Monday that this is going to be out. People will hear this on a Monday. OK. So your week is starting out. You're thinking, I don't want to cook. I just had a whole weekend. We do incredible delivery. We have amazing mac and cheeses. Our salads are like you would not expect it. People are shocked that our salads are so delicious. And the grilled cheeses are obviously the best. Yeah. The best. The tots. The tots are. Pastora, tots. Yeah.

01:22:19Holy cow. And we have birria tots too. Say it. Birria. Birria. Birria. Yeah. I can do the tongue twirl a little bit. Yeah. Birria. Birria. But it's like we also at Marigold we have bruschetta. OK. Like it's bruschetta. OK. Do you say bruschetta? Yes. But everybody says bruschetta. Bruschetta. We used to work at Marigold and we had the pollo salad. The P-O-L-L-O salad which was of course a chicken salad. OK. But it was the polo salad. Oh no. It wasn't the pollo salad. It was the polo. I love a southern version of anything. Everything was. I'll have the polo salad. And it became the vernacular. It no longer was the pollo salad. It was the polo salad. That's what it was called. People said what's good? I like the polo salad. I'm like you work here. You're not supposed to say that. Please don't. You're supposed to say the pollo salad. Well some people won't even say queso birria that come in to order it. They'll just be like the one with the shredded beef. And we're like say it. The short rib.

01:23:19Say it. Say it to my face or you don't get it. Well you've got to come by and have the berria quesadilla. Birria. Birria. Birria quesadilla. It's OK. We get it. It's delicious. Either way. This is delicious. Those sandwiches. The fried chicken sandwich. Crispy chicken sandwich. Is that what you're calling it? Crispy honey butter chicken sandwich. Crispy honey butter chicken sandwich was to die for. And we have a Nashville hot shake that you can add to it. Nashville hot shake? Like we call it a shake because you like shake. It's like a pepper shaker of it. You know like we add it to it. OK. So we're doing like hot tots. Like Nashville hot tots. Like with like the hot chicken spice. No to like Nashville. Because I finally. OK. Unpopular opinion. Breaking news. I don't love hot chicken. Do I have to move? Get to you sound effects twice today. I don't. I don't love it. So it says a lot that I made a spice mix that I love because I think that this one has a lot of flavor.

01:24:25What that shows? Tolerance. Thank you. Now I'm just showing off. You think you're better than me with all those sound effects. By the way this was the children's favorite thing of the entire day today. Now I go. My daughter would die if she got to play with that. Tell me a joke. And they were like oh why did the chicken cross road. Get to the other side. And I was like. No. You get a laugh or a cheer. It's like you get a sound effect if you told me a joke today. They're going to offer you a teaching position at the school. I don't think I could do that. Just a class where they play with the equipment. We're going to have microphone play day. Microphone play day all day. Well you know what we do is the final thing here on the show. And this is the Gordon food service final thought. OK. So you get to say whatever you want to take us out. You get to just say anything you want to say if you want to whatever it is as long as you want to say it. The mic is just turned over. Is this your time to just step up on the pedestal and just go. Oh my God. You can talk about.

01:25:25Give me a second. Let me think. It's an election year. Oh my God. Politics. God. You wanted to go local followers. Do you want to talk about religion. We usually like to save losing followers for Pride Month when we remind people that we are all equal. And people lose their mind. I thought you guys didn't like gay people. Sorry. We do. Sorry. Spoiler alert. We do. Yeah. No I mean obviously like you know the Tennessee three like obviously. But I would say nonpolitical I would say God keep supporting those small the smaller businesses you know like keep keep ordering from those businesses like the pandemic if it's taught us anything is that we can pivot and we can we've all made it easier to order like with like the uber eats and the order online kind of options.

01:26:28So we have made it easier to to support local businesses. So I would say that coming out of the pandemic supporting local businesses has never been more convenient. So just keep doing that and write that good review like like that post. It doesn't like if you see me I will like all of my local business posts because those little things make a big difference. It all matters. I love it. End of statement. End of statement. And then did you love it when I start filming you right in the middle of it. I don't know what to look at. I'm like what's going on right now. I'm just going to look at the Gordon food service sponsorship swag. Do you know that strategically placed there. I know it's right in my eye line. Sit there. It's right in my eye line. What if I changed my bread maker tomorrow. I took then you can come back any time. Never. I'll never do that. Don't worry guys.

01:27:28It's not going to happen. And I wouldn't expect it to. Thank you so much. Crystal for joining us. Delight. This was so much fun. I enjoyed it. Sometimes it's nice just to shoot the ship. I love it. I love it. I learned so much about you and your story and I love your leadership in this city from everyone as a food truck leader I know being the president of the Food Truck Association stepping up being a leader and being a good employer in all of the things that you're doing you look out for so many people and you do so much for so many people. So thank you for all that you do. Yeah. And it's every small business owner. It's like they all they have to wake up and make a decision you know to show up and when they do it's like God makes a difference. It does. It does. It does make a big difference. Thank you again for coming in and we will talk to you very soon. Yes. All right. See I told you that was just like a fun. It was a Friday.

01:28:28I don't do interviews on Fridays. It was just I was goofy. That was awesome. And I want to say a big thank you to Crystal for joining on the show. And if you've made it this far into the interview you may you may see Crystal on some episodes coming up in our future. So that's pretty exciting there too. If you enjoyed that one there may be more coming. So we'll we'll we'll we'll keep you up to date with everything happening on the podcast in our future episodes. But we do want to say thank you for listening and hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.