Emma and Chris Biard

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. We are powered by Gordon Food Service. My name is Brandon Styll and I'm going to be your host today. We are joined with Caroline Galzin, back from vacation in just a few minutes, but today we are talking with two of the most amazing people in the city, Emma and Chris Byard. They are the owners of SS Guy, which is now open. You can go to the wash right now and you can finally eat it. I think the first time I did a pop-up, there was like a year and a half ago and man, I was just blown away. I was blown away by what they were doing because there's nothing like it out there anywhere.

01:01I mean, it's really truly unique and you're going to learn all about it today. That's what this episode is about. But man, first I want to talk about Rachel Hale. That episode on Friday was so fun. She is, she has so much energy and she's so fun. I know there's something about Rachel that was just, there was a great interview, we had so much fun and at the end of it I said, hey, so this song, Amen. Tell me about this song, Amen. Are you single? And she goes, I am single. And I said, we should do a dating show with you. And she goes, what? And I said, what if we found you a suitor? What if we found you a single man in the city and we brought three of them in here and then you sat in this chair and you asked them questions and then we got down to one and you went on a date with them and she's like, oh my God, I love to do that. So here we go. We are going to do a dating show. We're going to do a show where you get to take out Rachel Hale. This is going to be sponsored by some people, but right now I know I'm sponsoring it at Mayor Bowl.

02:01So we're going to take them out for a dinner for two at Mayor Bowl restaurant where we're going to have footage of the whole thing and then we're going to bring them back after the date to learn how the date went, see if there's going to be a second date. So this is a lot of fun. If you are out there and you are a man and you would like to date this woman, you want to go out on a date. If you listened to the show and you thought it was interesting and you wanted to give it a shot, you need to DM me, DM me at Brandon underscore NRR and just put in the message, hey, I want to date Rachel Hale. And from there, we're going to do some screening questions. We're going to find out, make sure you're not a crazy and then we're going to bring in studio. We're going to have a lot of fun with this and hopefully make a love connection because that is what we do here. We make love connections. That's what it is. Not true. We're having way too much fun over here at the podcast. Hey, we're going to jump into this episode with Emma and Chris, but first I want to tell you about volunteer welding and supply.

03:03You hear the name volunteer welding and supply and I wonder what do they do? What is volunteer welding and supply? Well, they are the ones who supply you with the CO2 that that fills your Coca Colas and your beer taps and all that stuff. Volunteer welding is the ones who will come to your place. They work with telemetry so they can know when your CO2 tank is low and let you know immediately. They're just amazing people. When we first were opening Chagos and this is why we get volunteer welding. No BS here. Volunteer welding was amazing in coming in and this is what we can do. And I did a comparison of what we were using with their competitor, the national competitor. They have another competitor that's local who does a great job too, but their national competitor was charging us. They currently are charging us at one of our restaurants twice as much as the other, but I didn't know because it's all this. The invoice is so crazy and none, you don't notice it. We're going to go down to P&L.

04:03We're going to have enough sponsors. We're going to help you get all of these little expenses that just eat you alive. We're going to get local companies that you can call. They're going to help you do it. Sometimes you're in five, six, seven year deals and you don't even know what you're paying. This is where you need to call David Perry because this guy can help you out. Let me give you his number. His number is 615-306-7455. That's 615-306-7455. Or you can find him at dperry. That's d-p-e-r-r-y at volunteer welding.com. Seriously, guys, give them a call today. Let's jump in right now with Emma and Chris. I'm just going to jump right in. Let's do it. Super excited to welcome in Emma and Chris Baird. Did I say Baird? Baird. Super excited today. Already we're jumping off to a start here. Emma and Chris Baird, they are the owners of the brand new SS guy.

05:07That's wild to hear. Is it wild to hear? My goodness. I think I went to your first pop-up. It was over a year ago. It was almost October 2021. Right around Halloween. A year and a half ago, I went to your first pop-up and I was like, this is delicious. I didn't know nothing about anything. And then I've seen you guys at Eastside Bond V for ever. Now it's time. Now it's time. It's really here. Was your first pop-up at Bastion? Is that right? No. First one was at Eastside. It was at Eastside. Yeah. But did you do one at Bastion? We didn't do one at Bastion. No. Sorry, guys. Oh, okay. Yeah. The first one was Eastside Bond V. It was kind of a blur. We did a lot in the first pop-up. It was a, can this really work kind of a pop-up? And we tested it. It works. It works. There are a lot of things to not do, but kind of going through the motions, we learned a lot from it.

06:13But it was a good test to really see how it works and go from there and build upon that. So we took a little while before we did another one to kind of really reflect on it, work on the things that we needed to work on. And the next time that we did it, we were going to come really strong with it. What'd you learn the first time? We don't take pre-orders for the first pop-up. We don't invite every industry person to your first pop-up ever. I remember walking into that and I'm like, God, this is a who's who, a chef's in this room. And it was like, it was awesome because you're just like, hey, what's happening? What's happening? And then all of a sudden it's like, wow, this food is great. But I can imagine the pressure. It was the first time we had ever served the food to anyone outside of our family or friends. Our home. And then it's like, OK, here's everyone that matters in Nashville coming to eat your food. And they're just like, oh my God. Oh, shit. Did you get good feedback or were people critical because?

07:17But you want that on the first one. Do you need people after a first pop-up to be like, holy shit, this is delicious. You need to do this or do you need constructive? And your first one, what are you looking for there? You need a little bit of both, I think. It's really important, like you have your inner circle of people that you've cooked this meal for, that you've worked with, like the guys you work with in the kitchen or Michael at San Fido. And like, I've been feeding him this meal for a long time, just like because he is the best. He doesn't hold back. And I love him for that because you need to know the real the real deal. A lot of people will tell you, like, this is awesome. This is you should totally do this. But like your inner circle that you trust, like, where am I at with this, you know? And so we got both like we we got really good construction, constructive criticism on on things that work and things that didn't. But it was it was an overall feeling of like this, you know, do this. And people like it and yeah, building a little confidence there of like, this is a meal that people enjoy and don't think everyone's just bullshitting us, you know, look out and see that people were really enjoying it and loving it and asking questions and that built your confidence there.

08:31So I think it was a nice mix of, you know, feedback and just like a good confidence building thing. Like, OK, we can really do this. Yeah. So Mackenzie Lunsford over the Tennessee in wrote a little article about you guys are opening with You Are Here hospitality and I want to get all into You Are Here hospitality and how this whole thing has happened and how people have seen you at Eastside Bond Me for so long and just kind of the story of how they do this stuff. But I think the genesis of what what are you doing is really fascinating in the idea of you guys went to Thailand, was it your honeymoon or honeymoon? Yeah. Well, you tell the story. So I had been once before for my 30th birthday. Didn't take much convincing to convince Emma and I to go on our honeymoon to Thailand. And there's that was just was about this is twenty twenty when we got married before the pandemic. Right. Right. Wow. Yeah. Travel. What's your anniversary?

09:32March six. Oh, yeah. OK. Well, my birthday is March 8th. So we're I know that time that you're like the week before it happened. Literally. Yeah, because there was first case thing was March 8th rumblings of it. But it was like, oh, like, you know, we reached out to the people in Thailand and they were like, everything's fine here. Like, y'all should still come. OK. And then we got there and we're like, oh, so did you go to Thailand on your honeymoon? Did you go to Thailand on like March 7th? Yeah. The next day. Yeah. A lot of our family was like, you know, are you all really going to Thailand right now? There's no fucking way we were. I had been planning this for so long. This was our first real vacation in like three years. You know, we were like, we're going. Did you did you guys meet working in restaurants? How did you meet? So, yeah, we both moved to Savannah in Savannah, Georgia, in about 2017. From where originally? I'm from Nashville. And I moved from California.

10:32We had both kind of been looking for a reason. That's right. We were looking for a reason to end up in Savannah. I had come a long time ago, fell in love with the city, didn't have a reason to go yet. Husk was opening. That's my shot as I'm going. We're going to leave California, head east. I was working at Husk in Nashville and I was like, I just graduated college. I was looking for kind of a way out of Nashville for a little bit. I knew I'd probably always come back, but wanted to go do something else. And they were opening the Savannah location. So I moved there as the like administrator and events director. And Chris moved to open as a sous chef. And yes, we started working together. I had kind of like the eight to five portion of the job. And Chris had just... All day long. Yeah, Chris was there opening. And he had just adopted this dog. And I was so concerned about the dog. I was like, who's taking care of your dog? You're always here. You know?

11:32And I was lonely. I had just moved there. I was living by myself in this apartment. I was like, can I go take care of your dog and walk her? And then the more I started taking care of Julia, the dog, I kind of started hanging out at Chris's house for her. And she thinks this is by coincidence. This is a very thought out plan. I knew exactly what I was doing. I'm incredibly strategic. So yeah, we started dating pretty soon after and dated for about two years and got engaged in 2019 and married in 2020. That's right. It's a beautiful little park in Savannah. It's a classic restaurant love story. It is. It really is. Everyone has their own. I have almost the exact same story. And then we moved to Nashville and started doing pop-ups. She really wrote a book of how this works. It's a proven method. The trap.

12:32I miss the day that was telling me they were... I was in a meeting somewhere and someone was like, I just can't find anybody out there. I just can't find them. I go, come work in my restaurant. You'll have 10 people in a day. What are you talking about? I got a job for you. If you're lonely, you're in the wrong business. That's a new dating app. The love connection is go get a job in a restaurant. All right, so my favorite question is, how did you propose? Did you propose? I mean, I don't want to assume that you proposed. Maybe you proposed. I don't know. But how did the proposal go? So I planned this big long trip up in Boone, North Carolina. We drove up. Did you know? I had inkling. I never get my nails done ever. And my sister had mentioned, you should treat yourself. Get your nails done. And I was like, this is weird.

13:32I'm also going to the mountains. Why do I need to get my nails done? So I had an idea, then that happened. I was like, OK. I kind of feel like something's happening here. Getting my nails done. I definitely got my nails done the day I thought I was getting engaged. I didn't know. Because you might be doing the photo. And I was like, OK. I don't know if it's happening. But if my sister's saying something, I'm going to do it just in case. All right, so you're going to the mountain, Boone, North Carolina. Pack the dogs. Everything up. Tons of food to cook in the little cabin. Had a hot tub, fireplace, outdoor fire pit, mountain views. Nice little cabin up there. It was perfect. No one was there. So if she said no, we could make things haste really easily. But just proposed up there, just us and Julia. It was really nice. It was just at nighttime. We had just cooked a really nice meal by the fire. We didn't even tell anyone for a whole day. Just enjoy it for a minute.

14:34It was just us. And there was literally no one else out there. We were in the mountains. I didn't even call anyone until we were back in town the next day. It was just really nice to take the time for ourselves. We'd been working in restaurants and just not really stopped for two years up until that point. Barely even had days off together. Yeah, we didn't have days off together. We were fucking going to Thailand. It's coming together now, I see it. It was just us, kind of away from the whole world for a solid 24 hours. And then we went back into Asheville and called parents and friends and all of that. But it was really nice just to take a whole night and day to just kind of soak it all in and have that time together before it all goes into craziness once you start telling people. So yeah, it was a special, special time. That's awesome. So then you go to Thailand and you eat while you're there.

15:37And you tried this chicken. And you had fried chicken and you had grilled chicken. Tell us about that experience. So let's see. In Koh Phangan, which is one of the southeastern islands, I had gone before for a full moon party. Things happened there. It was kind of wild. I remember the experience. I told Emma, we've got to go to Koh Phangan. It's amazing. Never even went to the full moon party when we were there. We were just too... Yeah, I was a little like, well, it's our honeymoon. I don't want to go to a full moon party. It's actually highly overrated. And everything I had read on the internet of Koh Phangan was just like, you go for the full moon party. And that's pretty much it. Then we realized there's a whole other side of this island that's kind of untouched because everyone stays at Hadrin, which is where the party is. And then there's this whole other area that is... That just has amazing food, amazing beaches. And it's quiet and beautiful. A lot of expats, but also just a huge local community there as well.

16:38It just does really gangster food. We were... We took like a beach day where we'd just gotten on a little scooter and we just drove around the entire island and just stopped at all the beach signs that we saw. And we were coming back and we could smell this chicken. And we just followed our nose to this little roadside. Literally ended up in this little hut. We both smelt it and Chris was just on the front. Following this little scent. I imagine a cartoon where there's somebody cooking. And the dog just starts floating those. It's like floating towards the food. I am that dog. That was me. And there's this lady cooking. All she's making is grilled chicken, som tam, and sticky rice and a couple of sauces. That's all she has. And we sat down and proceeded to eat five orders of this chicken. It was unbelievable.

17:40I had never... I've been eating chicken my whole life. Fried, grilled, whatever. I had never had anything like this. This was insane. So did you order one round of chicken and then eat it and then go, I have to have another one. And you did that five times. It's just like we didn't really know what to expect. And we also couldn't communicate very well. So, you know, you just kind of point at what you want and go. And we didn't really know how great it would be. Then we sat down and had that moment of like, holy shit, like this tastes like nothing I've ever had. And it's something we've eaten a lot of. I mean, in the South, you fried chicken. It's kind of a staple, right? Yeah. Chicken itself. But there, this was fried chicken, but it was completely different. Completely different. What was the biggest difference in that chicken now that you've kind of perfected it? What do you... Perfected is a stretch. Because to me that's, you know, it's something that will never be perfect in my mind. Because I will always be chasing that moment.

18:41And that's the beauty of it and what it is about that. Because I don't know if I will ever be as good as that lady. Have you gone back since? We have. We went back in March. It's three years on the dot. Your three year anniversary, you went back to Thailand? Yep. To do, you know, for several reasons. One, we want to try to go as much as possible, obviously. But we had to do an R&D trip before we opened this and go back and to see, to go to these two spots and see if we were close. It's something we always said we would do. Like if we actually do this and get to the point where we're opening our own spot, like we have to go back. And we have to do a little bit more research and find people to help us translate so we can communicate and talk to the people cooking the food and put a bigger focus on the research side of it. You know, the last time, when it was our honeymoons, we were like eating all this wonderful food and drinking and having fun.

19:43But it wasn't a research based trip. Now you're like asking what they marinate this chicken in. Find someone and help translate and let's actually try to communicate. What is this flavor? Because everything that we were going off of was based off of research and memory. It's tough to... How far off were you? For the fried, we got really, really pretty spot on, I would say. I'm really, really happy where that's at. The grill kind of sat in a way, but happy in a way. The lady was not there for the grill, which was at first kind of a gut wrenching thing for me. We went to the exact same spot, looked around, asked everyone around. And as things happen, things grow, tourists happens. COVID. Yeah, I mean a lot of vendors did not come back from COVID. So that whole place is closed. She's not there.

20:43Well, it's either that or it has expanded to five or six other spots. And it's not just one lady cooking chicken. Yeah, because she was just right off of this road that we think we were driving around. It wasn't really a place that you can Google or you can look up. She's just right off the road with her little tent and her little stand. So it was kind of on us. Is this on the right road? We definitely figured out we were. And we were able to communicate with some of the other vendors and people cooking there. And they kind of said after COVID, not everyone came back. Not everyone was able to make it. Other people took other jobs and things like that. I imagine there's also a side of that you want to let her know that, hey, look, it was so good. We're going to make a business out of trying to replicate. Yeah, it's where she could at least know that, hey, I've inspired somebody to do the rest of our lives.

21:44Yeah, you think that'd be something that you said that you can't share that with her. Maybe you go back another time and she's back. I mean, who knows the way things work out. You know, and so I was super disappointed about it, but I kind of look at it now as I always get to chase that. I always have a goal to get to that I can't see if I'm as good as. But I have something to work towards because I don't know if I'll ever be as good as her. And it's good not knowing in a way always gives you something to chase. This might be kind of a technical question, but I'm just curious. Is there a big difference in like the breed of chicken that's being used there versus what we have access to here or what's commonly used here? Maybe like what our palate is used to. Yes, very, very much. We've tried to sources. The birds are a lot smaller there. The breasts aren't near as big. It's slightly tougher there in a way, but they intentionally cook it pretty far to kind of break it down a little bit. But finding a bird in America that matches that is pretty tricky.

22:47We like to grow very large birds here. I mentioned Springer Mountains Farm. Is that you're using? We're not using Springer. No, because they grow small birds. The ones that we found for our fried have been pretty large. Have you made those adjustments to like kind of accommodate what you think people are more used to? Yeah, for sure. But still staying true to what we do. And we've eaten just about every local bird we can find. We have done so many comparisons of side by side and trying to figure out what is the closest to what we had there. But there's just some things that can't be duplicated. Yeah. And it's a struggle, too, because we want to use a good local bird, but we're also doing street food at the end of the day.

23:47And we have to keep that affordable cost of street food for what we do. And that's a really hard balance for us because we're two people that love local ingredients that are delicious and raised by good people. And we want to, you know, put that support and money right back into our community. But we first of our very small business, we have very, you know, kind of low capital going into this. And we'd have to charge a pretty premium price in order to serve a, you know, we're doing half birds, we're doing whole birds, and that's an option. So in order to serve that as a local bird, we'd have to be charging a lot of money. And I just don't, you know, we're a street stall kind of it's not a full set down restaurant. So we've really struggled in the past couple of months going back and forth of like, do we do this? Do we not? Is this worth it? Will people understand that this is why we're having and will they care enough to pay that much more money?

24:52So it's definitely been like one of the biggest debates we've been having of, you know, is this worth it or not? I mean, for what it's worth, I think that, you know, you guys are making a smart decision having those conversations. But being mindful of you have to take care of your business. You have to feed your business so you can feed other people. And part of that feeding other people is down the line. You know, then you can make those adjustments. Hey, we found we were able to source this. We were able to source that or make this change. But, you know, don't don't beat yourselves up about having to make decisions, money decisions first. You know, that's what we kind of finally arrived on and like this is the best decision for us, we think. And as we get, you know, a little bigger and we start to meet more farmers and people in the community and talk to other restaurateurs about what, you know, chicken they're using. And I think that it'll kind of naturally come. And my sister and brother-in-law also live on 70 acres and have started getting chickens.

25:57I'm working on them. I think that you all should. There will be a SS guy farm in Clarksville. Yeah. Let's go. That's really my dream, but I've got to work on them a little bit. So for people who haven't had your food before, tell us about your menu. Tell us about the flavors. Tell us about what you can expect. So we wanted the whole idea of this concept was to do, you know, it's based off of two things. Fried chicken and grilled chicken. Guy Yang and Guy Todd. And, you know, also a somtum. What is a somtum? Somtum is for people that are like, I don't know what that is. Traditionally, it's a green papaya salad and it's a pounded salad. Basically, it's shaved thin green papaya with fish sauce, tamarind, palm sugar, dried shrimp, tons of chilies. Long bean. Spicy as hell, right? It's spicy as hell. It can be. Yep, it should be. We definitely had some in Thailand that they give it to you and they're all just staring at you and you're like, I'm scared to eat it.

27:02This white boy is going down. I think Nina makes one of those over at Thai Isan that's like fire. Yeah. The Nina hot. It's hot. And it will ruin you. Exactly. One time I got mild at Thai Isan and I was like, I can't eat this. I'm a medium spice gal. How can I not eat the mild? She takes all this. Right now, she's listening to smiling going ha ha. Gotcha. That's what she wants. We're going to take a short break to talk about some of the most amazing partners in this industry. Right now. We are so excited to have Citex back on the show as a sponsor. Citex, the whole linen industry has been absolutely out of control over the last three years during the pandemic. And it is nobody's fault. But I will tell you one thing. We have used Citex through it all and they have been absolute rock stars.

28:02If for some reason they didn't have our color, they were there with a different color. They were calling. They were communicating. The level of service that we received throughout the entire pandemic from Citex was second to none. And I am so excited that they are back to building new business. If you are a locally unoperated independent restaurant out there and you are unhappy with who you're buying your linen from, I'm telling you, you've got to give Citex a shot. These guys are doing amazing, amazing things. Let me tell you, you got to call Ross Chandler. Ross Chandler is my guy over there. His number is 270-823-2468. And if I ever need anything in the linen world, Ross is the first one to jump in and help out. I love this guy. He'll always laugh because he said, you're the first customer that I've ever hugged. I said, well, I'm a hugger, man. I love you guys. So they're great people over at Citex. Again, give Ross Chandler a call at 270-823-2468.

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30:06John Ho at 615-483-0315. Or you can follow him on Instagram at HousePetality. Amanda Gardner with Foundation Mortgage is 865-230-1031. Find her on Instagram at mortgageamanda. What chefs want story is incredibly unique. The owner Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early 2000s and asked them one simple question. What do you want? And the chefs, they responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We want to be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so you know what he did? Something crazy. He did just that. So what chefs want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy, gourmet. All of that seven days a week.

31:07They also offer 24-7 customer support. You want to call, you want to text, you want to email. You can talk to somebody 24-7. Get your delivery seven days a week. An amazing selection of products. That 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. So we wanted to just do a few things and do them really, really well. Our menu will never be much more beyond that. And just execute it perfectly where you have perfect fried chicken with sticky rice, a couple sauces with a grilled and a somtum salad, and really delicious vegetables that go along with that from local farms. That's where we get our good local in there. We were really inspired too by the simplicity of street food in Thailand. It's like you have a lot of people in one area, but everyone is just doing their one thing that they do really well.

32:09And there's multiple people so you can get multiple things, but everyone's just doing their one or two things, and they're doing them really, really well. And that was something we talked about when we were eating food in Thailand. It's like you don't have or you don't go into these restaurants, and there's 20 different options. There's generally like two to four options. And that's all you get. That's all they do. They do it really fucking well. So you don't see that a lot in America because we're feeding the masses. We're trying to, you know, we're doing fusion. We have every type of option you can imagine. Well, there's the Cheesecake Factory. That's a book. A literal book. Yeah. So there was a big part of what we love and respect about Thai culture and street food is the fact that they don't try to do it all, and they just do what they do really, really well. And that's something we definitely took with us as we kind of went into this.

33:09Exactly. So yeah, having the meal with just a few veggies and things to dip in and just sit down and enjoy it. I ate the peanuts. They did another like a soft opening the other day that was amazing. Thank you for the invite. Of course. And they gave you peanuts and then these mangoes. I ate those for like the next three days. I was just eating. Indeed. I mean, I would love to tell you what's going on with them. They were just delicious. Is it like a roasted peanut? They're doing a grilled peanut. Yes, they're grilled peanuts. So is it like the peanuts or is it like boiled peanuts that are grilled? No, so just the shelled raw peanuts. We toss them a little bit of shallot oil and grill them very slowly over coals until they're really, really toasty all the way through. It takes a while. And then a lot of tamarind powder, coriander, chili and lime.

34:11Yeah, kaffir lime. I was going to say those things, but I didn't want to throw off exactly what it was. All those nuances of the flavor. I knew what it was. I just wanted to see if he knew that's what it was. I do know they were delicious. And then the mangoes were just like the chewy mangoes were just like perfect. I get like the dried mangoes at Costco. And those are like my candy now. And they didn't have the sugar on them, but they were the flavor on them was so on point. A little spice, a little fish sauce. With mangoes here and when you have a mango in Thailand, it's the best mango you've ever had every fucking time. And so we don't always get the perfect mangoes here. And we never want to do something that's not perfect. So you can still get really good mangoes. They're not going to be as good, but we can treat them in a way where they will be really delicious. And what kind of brings it in is they do jerky a lot and dried meats and stuff like that.

35:15So I kind of wanted to do something that was a little bit different, but could be a snacky thing that you can take with you and relate. And so mango kind of jerky-ish thing kind of played in. I don't want to change the subject because I'd love talking about your food and the actual food. I'm getting so hungry. I'm literally tasting that drumstick that I ate, the fried chicken. I'm sitting here thinking about that night going, are you open tonight? I will be there tomorrow night. See you tomorrow. They open Saturday, June 3rd. So this Saturday for well, I'm going to spoiler alert. This episode is coming out on Monday. So they opened two days ago. They opened this past Saturday. And yes, you can go tonight. Are you open seven days a week? Closed on Tuesdays. Closed on Tuesdays. And are you lunch and dinner? Lunch and dinner. And then eventually, I'm not putting a date on it quite yet.

36:17We're going to be doing late night. Smart. And they're in The Wash in East Nashville right next to the new Suiza. Super quesadilla. And then the next door to that is ESP. Which I mean just that is one of my favorite, favorite places in town. They're going to take it. So you are here. Hospitality is just going to like take over the wash. That's my prediction. Is that what's going on here? No, I'd say it's open to anyone who wants to come in and see how that works. That's the beauty of that. Yeah, because Soy Cubano and Two Peruvians are awesome. And good people, good food. So yeah, I think that I just had the opportunity, you know, for these open spots. And Chad and Tyler have developed a good relationship. So definitely worked out well for us. Indeed. So since you guys are in a stall, I'd love to hear a little more about kind of like the structure of your business, how your operations work, what your different roles are in the business.

37:19Sure. So as far as The Wash itself and our business, how it's grown. So Chad and Gracie are our backers in this and we put a lot of time in it. You side by me and worked with them. They've helped us grow in the business as well. That was my question. You're here. Hospitality. How does that system work there? Because you guys were working at East Side by me while developing this with them. Is that part of the plan? Yeah. Yeah, it's I think it definitely kind of was a little for us specifically because we actually when we were living in Seattle, we decided to move to Seattle in 2020. When we came back from our super good idea. Yeah, really weird of us. But so we were in Seattle and we were moving back to Nashville and we saw Chad and Gracie that they were opening East Side by me. We're like, oh, this looks really good. Like we just saw about them through Instagram and some of our industry friends and stuff. And so we had the idea already in our heads of like wanting to do this and then seeing, you know, there were really great business people.

38:26When we moved here, we went in and aid and kind of got to know them a little. And Chris was looking for a job and at the time is working with Michael from St. Vito. And but we were kind of trying to find someone who could help us get this off the ground. And we had talked to Chad and Gracie about it before, you know, Chris even started that elevator pitch of it. Yeah, this was something we were interested in. And we wanted neither one of us had ever worked in like a fast casual concept before we had all done kind of finer dining and never worked in a restaurant like East Side by me. And we knew that if we wanted to do us, this guy was definitely going to be at least at the starting point, something more fast casual as opposed to fine dining. And so we thought it'd be really great experience to kind of get in there and start working, see how that business works. And it's definitely different than running a fine dining restaurant.

39:28Oh, yeah. And also just for us to work together again, we hadn't worked together in about two years. We had not worked together in that type of setting that small of a restaurant. And intense moments. Yeah, busy, small and just like kind of having our defined roles of me running things in the front and Chris running things in the back and just kind of how we will work together well in that type of setting. So it was really, really helpful to spend that time at East Side by me, because we kind of got to work out some of the kinks of, you know, running a fast casual spot. What's one of the kinks? Communication. You have to communicate and respect. Respect is that you are stuffed in this tiny little spot. It is hot. It is busy. Everyone is pissed and just not losing respect for each other. I've never noticed. I've never noticed. You guys always like having a blast in there.

40:28We have fun. Everybody's not pissed. That is such a part of it, too, though, is, you know, having that open kitchen concept is like the back of the house learning, hey, guys, there's not that wall. You're part of the hospitality of the customer facing hospitality. Yeah. It's a big part. You don't show that, but it's the end of the night and you get home. You've been there for 13 hours. Smell like fish sauce. We smell terrible. It wasn't the best day. Maybe something went wrong and we both didn't, you know, do our best or something and just not losing the respect for each other and still being able to have a good talk about like, OK, this didn't go great today. So like, how can we change this tomorrow? And just like and also just the immense amount of time you spend together. We work in this, you know, the small kitchen, tiny kitchen. It's like you come home. We're like still in small quarters.

41:29Just like figuring out, you know, respect, giving each other space and just like, I feel like we really learned how to work well together during our time there, which is really going to help us and has already helped us. As we open, you know, this area and this restaurant and another really small space, you know, and really small space, small space. It's tight. The walk-ins bigger than most things, though. So that's good. You know, but going back to Chad and Gracie and you are here hospitality. I I know we both are so thankful for for what they've given us in this. Like we literally had a restaurant to use as a test kitchen for our business and to grow it. Like I thousand percent could have not done this. I mean, we are so immensely grateful for them. So it's like we would not be here. Now we just don't hear about things like this happening. You know, they were so accommodating and just willing to do what they needed to do to help us succeed.

42:35And especially in this environment these days where it's so competitive, everything's so expensive. Just the amount of graciousness they have showed us as we get this open is incredible. It seems part for the course for them. I love I love them so much as the kindest people ever. And seeing you guys there, it's interesting because you have this concept, this idea, and then you want to move back to all the changes that's happening. And then you you hook up with this couple and you've put a lot of work into this thing. I mean, I don't know how much you've cooked at home or how much this has cost you to cook at home trying to perfect this chicken. And I mean, every single day I'm seeing you. I mean, why not every day? But like every time I go to East Side Bond, me, there's Emma, there's Chris, like, and you guys are always so friendly, but you're always there. And I think there's kind of a school of hard knocks side of this thing that's like, hey, look, we're going to figure this out. We're going to bust our asses every day. We're going to work through these kinks.

43:37How does it feel to be? I mean, obviously, it's Monday. You open two days ago, but it's not really Monday and you open in two days. What like how does this feel like? Is this are you excited? Are you nervous? Are you and we'll get back to her original question, which is what is the operational structure of how you're doing? How many employees you have and all that stuff like how are you feeling today? It's a little surreal. I carry a lot of the anxiety. I am so nervous. So what in a gram number are you? Oh, I have no idea. You don't know? No. You don't know what you are? Oh, probably a high one. No, it doesn't work like that. Never mind. So you're you're holding all the anxiety and he's over here going grip it and rip it, man. Let's go. I don't care. Open the doors. That's kind of how we are in our relationship. Definitely a little bit more high strung. And Chris is like, oh, it's all going to work out, which is why we work well together.

44:41We're both nervous. You like that, too? Oh, yes. Except that the opposite, which which you probably would think that Tony's the more laid back and I'm the more high strung. I'm more of the like, everything's fine, like full steam ahead. And Tony is the one who, like, even though he's quiet, I think is like more gets more worried about things sometimes. I don't know. My wife is walking the dog somewhere right now listening to this and she's going to be like, oh, I'm the I'm the one who thinks that he's I'm always fine. I mean, I worry about I worry about a lot of what happens if and I'm like, then we'll we'll deal with that when it happens. Like, I don't know. Like, I can't think of every potential scenario that could go wrong. And I'm like, well, what if this happened? The likelihood of that happening is very low. But that's a superpower. No, no, that can be a superpower. If I mean, I my number one advice to every manager that I have ever trained or talked to, if I said fix this shit at five o'clock, that could that you're going to that you can fix before it happens at seven o'clock because it's seven o'clock when your hair is on fire.

45:44It never fails me to sort of goes, there's no paper towels in the men's room. You're like, I don't have the three minutes to go get paper towels and get the key and unlock the thing. And like, I could have done that at four. I could have done that. We're all standing around smoking cigarettes. The bar is out of lime juice. Yeah, like that kind of stuff like that's that side of it, though, that you can prepare and go, OK, what do we need to do now? Instead of reacting when we don't have time to fix it. So that's it. You got to have the yin and yang. Yes, it plays in my favor sometimes for sure. Most of the time that plays in our favor. OK, let's go back to your your original the original question. We could do this all day. I'm just curious. I don't know. I'm kind of like a nerd when it comes to, I don't know, talking the intricacies of the business. I'm just so curious how how that works for you guys. Yeah. So Chris runs most kitchen things. He's your chef. I'm the chef. He's the chef. I don't have a culinary background, but I have turned into a pretty mean prep cook, I gotta say.

46:46My prep skills have gotten a lot better. Are you the sous? I am the sous for now. Until I have more than one employee in the back. I'm the sous chef slash cashier slash this slash that. I kind of do it all. Yeah, I mean, it's just been Chris and I up until this point. Even we had Chase come help us, who has worked with us at East Side by me and helped us at all of our pop ups. So he's helped us and between him and Michael, they've both helped us at pop ups and things that we've done. But we haven't had an actual employee. We plan. We have a guy starting today, actually, in the kitchen, which are excited. And then I've hired a front of house employee who is going to be great. So I think we're going to start with about three employees. We're going to we have one more. Chris and I want to do a lot at the beginning because, you know, very, very hands on. It's our baby. It's the way to do it.

47:46And it's just like we don't know quite yet how everything's going to work. Like we have these systems, but we haven't really tested them all yet. So we don't know that they're all going to work. And I can't just tell someone, oh, this is how we're going to do it. And I've never actually really done it. And we've never had a full service all day. So it's and that's what we've like been telling people a lot in interviews. It's like you have to have a certain amount of like flexibility with us because we are also figuring this out. And we don't know what will work best. We have an idea based on our experience and, you know, knowledge of cooking this food. But there's going to be, you know, a fair bit of flexibility needed as we kind of go into this and have to change things according to what's working and what's not working. So it's important to us that it's that it's us that figure that out, too. It's super. I just want to throw someone in there like, OK, here you go. Figure it out. It's like that's that's on us.

48:46And it's really leading, you know, this very small team to success as we open and making sure they feel respected. And like, you know, we are supporting them and not having expectations of them without giving them the tools to do what we want from them. So, yeah, we'll we'll see. We'll see. But it's also so small. So everyone kind of does a little bit of everything that goes hiring our front of house. I was like, OK, are you OK washing dishes at the end of the night? Are you OK doing some prep work? Are you you know, what's your level of comfort there? Like, this isn't just a stand there, take orders and run food all day. You will, you know, need to get in the back and do a little prep and pick herbs and wash dishes. Are you OK doing that? So that's definitely how Eastside Bond me was was a little bit more involved front of house, which I really like.

49:47I think it gives a bit more insight into what everyone what all has to get done to make a restaurant be successful. And sometimes in the front, you could just be a little isolated in your own world of, you know, juicing your limes and rolling your silverware and kind of forgetting there's this whole production happening behind you. Take away the line between the front of house and back of house, too. And, you know, not have that separation. Everyone does everything. I love that. Yeah. So let's hop in our time machine. Eighty eight miles an hour and let's go forward five years, five years. Everything goes to plan. What are you guys doing in five years? Sleeping, we're sleeping, we're tired. We're back in Thailand. I'm tired as this guy has made a billion dollars. No, it's a healthy plan.

50:47No, we have a couple a couple of goals. There's the expansion of SS guy. We always love the idea of a Thai is a kind of situation. Bringing it up a notch in terms of service like I, you know, the front of house and me wants to have a restaurant restaurant. Like a brick and mortar. Dining room and I, you know, want to have and create the full SS guy experience. So there's that part of me and Chris, I want the chef counter. I want, you know, big wood tables, elevating fire stations, elevating the cuisine and elevating the whole experience a little. And so that's something that we talk about a lot. You know, there's also the you know, this is a very good small concept that can be built to grow as you know, there can be a lot of SS guys.

51:47And there's there's definitely that vision of where where that can go. We fell in love in Savannah. So Savannah has always kind of been like, I'd love to have one of these in Savannah. So that's definitely up there. If this actually works out, we'd love to open one in Savannah. We have a ton of friends still there and people in the industry that are doing amazing things there. And I want a reason to spend a little bit more time there. So that's on our minds a little. But yeah, I mean, really just kind of taking the next year to see how this is received and how we feel about it. And, you know, how it is executing this out of such a small space and how crazy we're going outside of Chad and Gracie. There's a lot of people involved in making something like this happen. Right. So vendors, consultants, I don't know who you've talked with. Who are some people that you guys have partnered with as far as vendors are concerned that have really helped you that you have felt like?

52:51Man, and if there's nobody say nobody, but like if there's somebody that's really helped you, I'd love to give shout outs to people for who they're opening their first place who've really come in to help. Anybody like that for you guys? As far as vendors and not to I'd say there's more inspirational people that have kind of brought us there. Vendor wise, not too much. Yeah, we're pretty much everyone we worked with at East Side Bond Me. We've just kind of set up Jason at SuperSource. Jason at SuperSource. Yeah. He's just like the best human ever. That's very true. He is. And is available, like helped us with getting set up and just like so nice in general. He really no one has ever said a bad thing about Jason. He is. It's so nice to like not have to think about something in the restaurant. I mean, just literally everything's on your mind and wait on you. It's like, OK, I don't have to worry about cleaning stuff or and just the health department thing when they come in like, oh, you have SuperSource.

53:56You're done. You're good. All right, cool. That's it. I'm going to isolate that. That's my next commercial for them. I mean, you guys seen the movie Air yet? Yes. Like Jason Ellis is like my SuperSource. Like my Michael Jordan. Like when I first started my first advertiser and I'm like that on the right guy. He's just amazing. He's just he's everything you guys just described. I love working with him. I'm sending you home with some of his stuff. You get a little bonus deal. All the gaskets and freebies that come in here. Other than that, I mean, our family has been a huge support, you know, having Chris. Chris grew up in restaurants. His parents owned a restaurant. Kind of wild, too, because let's see, we are opening our restaurant now and they are literally after 36 years finally selling their restaurant.

54:57What what and where is the restaurant? It's in Claremore, Oklahoma. I grew up in it from the age of 12 pretty much. And it's mama pop style restaurant, country fried steak, 14 different pies they make daily, mashed potato rolls, all the good. What's a mashed potato roll? Right. I had never heard of one. Is it like a potato bread? Yeah, it's like it's a yeast roll and with mashed potatoes folded into the dough and it's stupid good. It's very Oklahoma. It's legal. It's stupid good. You know, so my mom and dad have been in the restaurant business forever and they've helped coach along the way and been there for advice. But also, you know, let me figure out my way as well. So so so thankful for them along the way. They've been a huge help and just a wealth of experience that they can give us of the do's and don'ts. So that's really nice.

55:58Well, yeah. And then Chad and Gracie, I've called Chad countless times of what do I do? Is this right? You know, and just having someone you trust and you know will lead you in the right direction is very, very helpful. I'm so excited for you guys. Thank you guys. Please remind us again when and where we can eat your delicious food. So starting Saturday. Yeah, Saturday, June 3rd. We're open at the Wash 1101 McKinney Avenue. We are the third bay. We'll be open every day except Tuesday. And then 11 to 9 to start and be on the lookout because in a couple of months we'll start doing late night. And that'll be from 9 to 12. We'll be doing like buckets of fried chicken. Who doesn't want a bucket of fried chicken at 12 a.m.? We're going to try to do some fun like street food stuff on the in the courtyard of the wash.

56:59We're really trying to make that kind of like a late night destination. So the bar stays open already and none of the food vendors so far stay open. So ourselves and Suiza will try to be trying to kind of start that late night. I mean, that's the perfect thing for the summer. Yeah, it is. Yeah. Weather's nice. It's a great cocktail. Grab some chicken. Hey, I want to give a shout out to Suiza super quesadilla. Yeah, that was the best quesadilla I've ever had in my life. I'm not kidding. I didn't. I didn't know what it was. It's called S.W.E.E.Z.A. Suiza. Suiza. Suiza. Like S.U.I.Z.A. A Suiza quesadilla. But it's spelled S.W.E.E. Because it's it's just a fun play on the word. Right. I didn't know what to expect. I was just coming to eat SS Guy and like, hey, you can have a Suiza. I'm like, what is this? I didn't even know it was a thing. Yeah. And so we get these quesadillas and I'm like, well, try it. And I was like, holy shit, this thing is delicious.

58:01And unfortunately, we ate that first. We ate that. I had this gigantic quesadilla. And then we got the SS Guy. So I was like, well, I'm kind of full to start. But it was an amazing. Believe me, I ate it all. You couldn't stop eating. I love the Suiza quesadilla. That's another Chad and Gracie from Eastside Bon Me. They've now opened Suiza quesadillas right next to ESP. And and then they're right next door in SS Guy. So that's why I said, I think they're trying to take over the wash, because now they've got three of the six bays. And one of them, one of those bays is a bar. So it's them. And then the is a three Peruvian. I'm adding a Peruvian. They changed their name to Leche de Tiga. And then Soy Cubano is the second bay they're right next door. And they both have incredible food and options and just really solid people, too. So lots of options over at the wash.

59:02And they're all based off street food, pretty much. Like everything is kind of street food. So it just is fun. It fits our concept really well. It's a great mix of people there. Do you want to do some rapid fire questions with them? Go for it. She's like, if you do, I'm sorry, I feel ill prepared. And we will be right back with the newlywed game and a rapid fire questioning for Emma and Chris right after these words from our sponsors. You know, we don't do a lot of ads for Gordon Food Service or as most people know them, GFS, because they're our title sponsor. And they do the final episode. The final thought of the show is based on Gordon Food Service. And we're powered by Gordon Food Service. But every once in a while, I like to jump in and just tell you how amazing these people are. They have supported me and this podcast as long as I can remember. They were some of the people that I talked to when I thought about starting the podcast. They've just been good friends and they genuinely care.

01:00:02So if you work with a broad line company that you don't feel like genuinely cares about your business, it's time to make a change. Or it's at least time to explore other options. Look, you need to call Paul Hunter. He is kind of the new business development guy. He can come in, identify exactly what you need. He does so many amazing things. His number is 615-945-6753. You give him a call. He comes in. It doesn't hurt. What's the best? What's the worst that can happen? You learn about a really cool company that's doing awesome things and you ask your current company, hey, why don't you do those things too? Nothing hurts from finding out what the other people have to offer. And if you're using Gordon Food Service, they want to say thank you. They want to say thank you for everything that you're doing for them. And hopefully they're being an amazing partner for you. All right, there it is. That's all I got. Gordon Food Service. I love them. You should too. We are supported by Robbins Insurance, an independent insurance agency known for providing customized insurance policies, sound guidance and attentive service.

01:01:05Robbins is also known for delivering exceptional coverage to Nashville's restaurants and bars. Whether it's a fryer fire that sets off the sprinkler system and leaves your restaurant sopping wet on a busy Saturday night. Or it's a once in a decade tornado that cuts off your electricity and subsequently spoils all the food in your walk-in. Robbins has seen it all. They know how to create policies that will get your business back on its feet as quickly as possible in the event a disaster strikes. Look, when it comes to insuring your restaurant, bar, brewery, bakery, grocery store, hotel or whatever. You need someone who knows the industry, who understands your business and who will create a policy that protects your space, your staff and your concept. That's Robbins. And here's the deal. If you don't have somebody right now that you can call, a number that you can call right now and talk to your insurance agent, it might be time to make a switch. Matthew Clements is your guy over at Robbins Insurance. His number is 863-409-9372 or mclements at robbinsins.com is how you're going to email him.

01:02:14Guys, I love this guy. Just had an adorable baby. He is a local guy, been here forever, works right down the street from us. He is the one phone call away to being your insurance guy that you need. Matthew Clements, give him a call. 863-409-9372. Hey guys, we are supported by Sharpier's Bakery and we've been supported by Sharpier's Bakery for the last year. And I tell you, 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 want to know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at sharpiersbakery.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, you know, we bake it in our house.

01:03:14And it's just, it's a 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. You should do it now. Now, there's no, I don't have anything prepared, but there's just like the standard. Okay, yeah, let's do it. There's like standard like favorite movie shit, like favorite bands. You've your newlyweds in Nashville. What's your go-to date night? Urban Cowboy. Urban Cowboy for a drink out in the patio. Getting a drink on the patio. It has such a fun kind of romantic. They have a lot of like live jazz music out there sometimes. So that get a pizza from Roberta's. It's easy. You can usually be in and out. Don't need a reservation. So yeah, that's definitely. Also Rice Vice, because there's sometimes you can kind of have the little area to yourself.

01:04:16It's so nice. It's delicious and great people there. I really want to play the newlywed game with them. Like when you go there, what is her favorite drink? What's her go-to drink? Do you know, Chris? At Rice Vice, it's a highball. The one with the cantaloupe. Urban Cowboy. Their drinks change often, so that's tough to say. But usually something with Mezcal. Is that what you were going to say? Something with Mezcal? A hundred percent. All right. Same question for you for him. What's he drinking? A Koji Gold probably at Rice Vice. And for Urban Cowboy. I don't know. It's kind of hard. I switch it up a lot for cocktails. You do. You have a tequila base, I would say. You're also a Mezcal person as well. Definitely Koji Gold at Rice Vice.

01:05:19All right. Are we doing a newlywed game? Whatever you want. Okay. What is her favorite movie? Steel Magnolias. Come on. Is that what you would say? Come on. All right. How about for him? We could have him go outside and we could write this down. Top Gun? Is that it? One or two? One, of course. I don't know. Maybe the new Top Gun just took you over. Kenny Loggins comes on Danger Zone. Come on. My dad, he's always been one of those weird stereo guys. He always was very proud of his stereo. Okay, I'll say that. And when people would come over to the house, you go, you want to check out the surround sound? And he would always put the cassette tape in, you know, of Top Gun and that opening scene that... And it's then all of a sudden the guys, go! And the planes are going and it's... I feel like that is... Highway to the Danger Zone.

01:06:19That is just like the most... He sang on the radio. I can't believe that happened. That's the most dad thing ever. I feel like, hey, you've got to hear my stereo. And I'm going to put on Top Gun. I do that currently to people. I can see that, 100%. That does not surprise me in the least. I have a theater room, which I have, my bonus room, I have surround sound, this huge sub in there, and it's really loud, but I don't do Top Gun. Oh, God. Mean Girls? Brandon's secret favorite movie? That's not so much an inside joke, but yes. No, I play the trailer to the new Lion King. Is there a new Lion King? Well, the new-ish one. It's not a live action, but it's not a cartoon. Disney did it five years ago. It's a new Lion King. But it's this intro that leads up to it, and it leads up to the lion going...

01:07:20And it's in the whole room, it shakes, it's the whole thing. I love it. So I'm like, do you want to watch the Lion King preview? Let me show you the Lion King preview. I don't really give a shit. I'm going to show you anyway. It's a dad thing. Yes, very much. I am a dad, however, so that works. So it works for you. Okay, so Top Gun, Steel Magnolias. Favorite band of all time? Do you ever follow any bands? Were you guys ever like, I followed Fish for two years or something? We're not fish heads. Brandon, it's so insulting to ask them that. No, I'm just kidding. I'm like, what? How dare you ask such a question? Bands are a tough one. I know. I don't know that I could narrow that down for myself or you. We have a pretty wide array of bands. How about a best concert? Do either of you have a best concert you've ever been to? Best or first? We saw Florence and the Machine last year at Ascend, and it was amazing. It was so great.

01:08:21She's so powerful and beautiful and wonderful. She's amazing. She is. I saw her open for U2 at Vanderbilt Stadium when U2 was there. Oh, interesting. It was pretty cool. Yeah, I'd say that'd be up there. I also saw U2. Black Eyed Peas opened for him. Wow, that's a wild range of openers for U2. Well, my best show I've ever went to was in 94, and it was U2 at the Georgia Dome at the Zoo TV Tour, and Public Enemy opened for him. Interesting. Original Public Enemy, like back in the day Public Enemy. That'd be pretty rad. Fight the power. I mean, that also sounds amazing. Oh, the best part of the show was Public Enemy, in my opinion. To see Public Enemy and put in 72,000 people. I would much rather see Public Enemy than U2. What have you got against U2? I don't have anything against them. She hates Bono. I do not, no. It's the edge. I have no opinion about U2. It's neutral for me.

01:09:21I feel the same way. Really? I neither like nor dislike. My wife was kind of like, I don't like U2, and we went and saw them at Vanderbilt, and she was like, how many fucking hits do they have? Because they played for like three hours, and it was just like every song you'd heard a million times, it was like, God, they put a lot of music out there. I will tell you this, I'm sorry to say, you know it's a band I really don't like. Pearl Jam? What? What? We're actually looking for a new co-host on the show. So Tony and I play this game where you have to come up with... I love Nickelback. No. Tony and I have this game where you have to come up with the worst concert you can think of, like what is your nightmare of a concert to go to, and you pick the venue, the opener, and the main act. And I can't remember the opener, but Tony's venue and main act is always Wrigley Field and Pearl Jam, which has happened. I've been to Wrigley Field to see Pearl Jam.

01:10:21You are living Tony's nightmare. He's a White Sox fan, so there's the whole Wrigley Field thing, and Eddie Vedder's a big Cubs fan, so I imagine there's some... I think that probably plays a little bit of a... Little animosity there. I get that. I get that. So what about you? What's a band that you hate? You're just like, I cannot take this, like a band or a musician. Switchfoot! There's a little bit of an inside joke there. Ooh, a band that I hate. That's a great question. That is. I feel like we were talking about this the other day. We were. Who was it? I don't know. I mean, can we just say Switchfoot? Because we'll never see them. I mean, I personally don't have a lot of beef with Switchfoot. They live in Nashville, by the way. Never mind. They're awesome. We love them. They're huge in Thailand, by the way.

01:11:23They love Thai chicken. We can go the classic Nickelback route. Look at this photograph! I feel like we literally were talking about this the other day. I was like, I just can't with them. I don't know. I'm going with Nickelback. It's always a safe answer. Always a safe answer. This is not Pearl Jam. Yeah, I like Pearl Jam. The greatest band of all time. So says Hugh. Oh, not that it's a band, but I am a Katy Perry hater. Can't really put a finger on it. Just something I don't trust about her. Okay. Are you guys into all the Taylor Swift? I could probably say Luke Bryan would be one I cannot. And Jason Aldean. If I hear those voices, I just turn up. Jason Aldean and Eric Church. Actually, Eric Church despise him. It's something about the sunglasses inside.

01:12:25Take them off. Chill out. It's too much. I actually like Eric Church. I don't know why. I think it's because of the sunglasses. It's the sunglasses for me. There's just something about it that I can't too much. Maybe it's smart, though. Maybe he's somebody who can really go out in public unnoticed very easily because all he's got to do is take off the shades. Well, that's why country guys wear. Look, country stars, for the most part, aren't cowboys. No. They work in the farm and they don't need the hats. So they wear the hats and the belt buckles up on stage. If you see Kenny Chesney, if Kenny Chesney came to your restaurant to order food, you'd have no fucking clue it was Kenny Chesney. He's been to my restaurant. Did you know it was him? Oh, yeah. Did he tell you it was him? He's hard to miss. I'll tell you off air. I have met him before and he is very recognizable. He's so small. He's very small. He's very short. Yeah, he's a shorter fellow. The nicest guy. I mean, every time I've had him in the restaurant, he's been very nice. I feel like that's not the same experience you had.

01:13:28Is there tea that needs to be spilled right now? No, no, no, no. Not at all. No, not at all. It was years ago when he came to Nicky's. Years ago. Well, he doesn't look like who I would imagine he would look like with the cowboy hat and the whole thing. You know who's one celebrity I've always wanted to see? I know he lives in Nashville. Have you ever seen Hank the Third over on the East Side? I've always heard that he lives on the East Side. I've never seen him. No. I'm just, I'm such a huge fan of his grandfather and they just look like twins. I've just always wanted to see him around. I would get such a thrill, but I don't know. I want to meet Struggle Jennings. He's around. He's around. We listed to a podcast with him on it and we're very interested in his life. What podcast? What was it called? It was... No, I'm interested. He like was a drug runner or something, right? Hell yeah. What's the one? It was a CNN show and she did a podcast for it, Mary something.

01:14:32I don't remember, but it was about his like drug running days. We drove all the way from Savannah to Seattle, back Seattle to Nashville. So we spent a lot of time listening to a lot of weird podcasts. So that was one of them. Well, speaking of podcasts, it has been an honor to have you guys on our podcast. It's been a long time in the making. Finally made it happen in the busy time for you. Getting open. You can go eat SS guy right now. You got to go to the wash in East Nashville. Now, if you're listening to this, it's potentially a Sunday, except I put these out like a day early, so it'll go out on Sunday. But then Monday, when most people are hearing this, you can go tonight. You cannot go tomorrow because it is going to be Tuesday and they're closed. But every other day, every other day, you're going to see them there. They will be there. They're going to be there. Exactly. You can go meet Emma and Chris whenever you want.

01:15:33Every day. They'll take selfies with you. Indeed. We're so excited. Carolina, congrats guys. I'm really excited for you. Can't wait to get over there for dinner. The final thing we have for you is the Gordon food service. Final thought. Right. So you guys knew this was coming. We did. You've heard the show before, I assume. Whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you guys get to take us out. Go whoever wants to go. Our final thought. Both of you. Both of you get one, though. I get to go. So we want to communicate eating with your hands is a big deal of how we serve this meal. As we've served it over the past couple days, everyone's like, can I have a knife for my chicken? Who the fuck eats fried chicken with a fork and knife? There's a built-in handle. Eat it off the bone.

01:16:34Slow down. Put your phones down. Eat with your hands. Enjoy. Especially if you come eat our food, enjoy the experience. It's our favorite meal to cook for when we have friends over because you're forced to put your phones down. You make this giant spread at the table. You eat with your hands. You have to talk and engage with the people you're dining with. And it just creates a really fun dining experience. You're making wraps. You're picking things up. It's interactive and your hands are greasy from fried chicken. So you have to stay off of your phone and stay engaged with the people that you're dining with, which I think is something we miss a lot when we're dining out these days. So that's my thought. I mean, that was our thought. Other than that, you know, it's cheesy. It's cliche, but you have a dream and food.

01:17:35Pursue it. And if you say you're going to do it, do it. That's it. Amen. Love it, guys. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you guys so much. We'll see you on the East Side. Have a great day. Thank you. Thank you so much to Emma and Chris from SS Guy. You need to go check them out right now. Go there tonight. Go eat at Suiza. Super case idea. Also right next door or ESP or Soy Cubano. Those amazing places over there in the wash. Just good stuff. Stay tuned because this Friday we're going to have a special episode with Marsha Masula. That episode as she is running for city council at large and she is a friend of the show and she is a personal friend of Caroline and eyes. And we love her and we cannot wait to share what she's out there doing. She's making it happen. She is. If you work in this industry, you need to go vote. It is so important that you get out there and vote. The local elections are twice as important to me as the presidential elections.

01:18:38I know a lot of you like, well, it's a whatever state and I'm not going to get my my votes not going to count in Nashville and Davidson County. It freaking counts. You need to get out there and vote for these local elections. This is the important time and Marsha Masula is running for city council at large. You're going to hear about her on Friday. I cannot wait to show this episode because she is amazing. And then no, well, Marquette is going to be the following Monday. We're really excited to bring this to you. She was a James Beard semifinalist this year for Pastry Chef. She's at Yolan. She is a genius and an amazing human. So we're excited to share her story. Then the following week, we're going to be talking to Ford Fry and we have so many more coming up. And so just stay tuned Nashville restaurant radio. Go follow us at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio on Instagram. Brandon's Book Club will also be coming up this week, June the eighth. Brandon's Book Club with Dr. Alex Jahangir. We're going to be talking about Hot Spot, a doctor's diary from the pandemic.

01:19:40This book was incredible. If you lived in Nashville at all throughout the pandemic, you need to read this book and then you can talk to the good doctor. He will be here in studio. We're going to be talking about his book. It's going to be next week. It's coming up this week, June the eighth. We'd love to have you join us. So there it is. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.