From the South of France to Nashville – The Journey of Cocorico Bakery with Elodie Habert

00:00Hi, this is Matthew Clements, Robbins Insurance Agency. We care about ensuring the hospitality industry. We want to make sure that you're taken care of and that we take one less stressor off your plate so you can sleep well at night. At the end of the day, when you purchase an insurance policy, you're really purchasing peace of mind. And we want to showcase that and how we operate within the hospitality space during the summer of giving by giving back to the giving kitchen. If you call today to ask for a quote, we will be sure to give $50 in your name to the giving kitchen. Just give me a call. Area code 863-409-9372. We specialize in ensuring the hospitality space. We want to be sure to give back. We look forward to hearing from you. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll.

01:03Hello 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 and we are coming at you with a bonus episode. This episode was coming at you today, but we have Elodie Ebert. That's how you say her name. She is the owner over at Coco Rico French Bakery and Cafe. And this was such a fun conversation that I said we have to just put it out today. She has an event coming up on March 20th that I will also want to help her promote. But man, this is, you know, when we talk about sharing stories of people in our community who are doing really cool things in hospitality, she's the definition of that. And I can't wait to share her story. You get to hear it today. She moved here from France 2018 and opened up Coco Rico about a year ago, but has been doing farmers markets and you probably know about her, but if you don't, you're going to want to hear this episode because she is just lovely and I had so much fun talking to her.

02:15That being said, I do, I do want to tell you, I know you just listened to the episode with Calexo. I want some feedback. Let me know what you think. Are you selling THC beverages in your restaurant? Are they selling well? Are people getting wasted? What's going on? Because I'm not having those experiences and Calexo is an amazing brand. You can get them through Litman Brothers. Everybody that's come in the studio that I've given a sample to has loved them. We're selling a bunch at our restaurants. Just didn't know what the THC thing is going on out there because I'm not getting a lot of feedback from y'all. So please let me know. And if you're thinking about bringing on THC products, check out Calexo. They're really good and they're amazing people, as you heard on the show, just down to earth guys who created this product and want to spread joy and conversation. One of the conversations we had in our episode today was about this, just going to restaurants and enjoying being with people.

03:24Another thing that makes people sometimes enjoy being around them is tequila. You know, I got to spend some time with Jason and Ray from Black Sheep Tequila. They do a really cool songwriter's night over at the Nashville Palace and that is on Thursday nights. They sponsor us. If you want to try the tequila, you can go over there and you can try it. But man, I went to the Nashville Palace with Stephen Hoon's restaurants the other day. I have never done, I've never been there. First of all, this was the first for me and that place is wild. The actual bar there is really cool. And then the bar, you walk in to the right, there's a bar there on a songwriter night. Super cool kind of vibe at the songwriter night. And then you walk into the, there's like this other bar, this huge bar in the back and there's a cover charge to get in there. This was Thursday night. I guess it's ladies night. I didn't know this until after the fact. But they have a, it's a line dancing bar and they do line dancing classes.

04:26And so there's all these people that are there and there's a guy going, okay, step ball change, move to the left in this song and he practices this so you can learn line dancing. I was floored at this because I can't, I don't have the time to go and learn line dancing. Me and Stephen just played pool for a little bit because they have pool tables and dartboards. But I imagine the people in the dance floor looked like they were having a blast. Even saw one of our servers from the Green Hills Grill there. And she was like, yeah, I love doing this. So we practice at home, like on YouTube. I didn't even know that this, I guess I knew line dancing was a thing, but I didn't know like how you learned how to, I just thought that it was like a chip that you have planted in your brain. You just knew how to line dance. So there was like standard things like, no, you have to learn specific line dances to individual songs. And I got to watch that happen live on Thursday night and mind blown. I was like, wow, but everybody looked like they're having so much fun. I don't know if it's for me, but I did tell my wife, I go, we should go do that sometime.

05:29It looked like it could be something completely outside of our comfort zone. And I like that. And I like to do something that we both know nothing about and maybe learn together. Fun date night kind of a thing, right? So that's Nashville Palace. But the genesis of that story was Black Sheep Tequila. Everybody that was trying it was like, dude, this is the best stuff. And that is the general consensus. Every time anybody tries them and they have a brand new product, it's called Amo Grande and it is a tequila blanco, comes in a liter. This is their entry level bottle. So best tequila in the world now has an entry level so you can pour it as a house or with your house margarita. Did you guys know that margarita is the number one selling cocktail in the world? Huh? I just learned that the other day, but this Amo Grande is apparently the best. Everybody that we tried it, it doesn't give you the, the burn doesn't have the burn like most tequila has. It's very smooth. Everybody says is doesn't have any burn.

06:30And I guess that's, that's the thing that you want when you drink a tequila just has the straight flavor, a hundred percent agave and a hundred percent blue agave. And I think you should test it out or call your Ajax Turner rep and ask them to bring you a sample. Come try me on the Amo Grande, which means like the head dog. This is the best one. Also, they have a Blanco, a regular Blanco and a Yeho, a Reposado. And they have a really special and Yeho, which is in a really fancy bottle and it's really expensive. But the, just a regular and Yeho and Reposado double gold, San Francisco world spirits competition. Definitely you should check it out, but definitely we're going to check something else out. Check out Coco Rico. It's right there on the buddy killing circle where the dancing naked people are. And you can go in there and you can hang out, talk to Elodie and all the amazing people at Coco Rico. And we're going to go jump into that right now. We are super excited today to welcome in Elodie Ebech.

07:35You did great. Elodie Ebech. If you read that, it looks like Elodie Hebert, but that is not the way you say it. Elodie, like melody with an E. Welcome. Thank you. I'm so excited to have you here on Nashville restaurant radio. You are the owner of Coco Rico French bakery and cafe. Absolutely. Yeah. Tell me, you've been doing this for a year now, right? Tell me about it. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. Well, we started Coco Rico in 2018. So the story is a bit longer than that. Starting at farmers markets initially, just like bringing food once a month, you know, and just meeting our customers and starting really has a side hustle. And after a few months, we were like, okay, people need more products. They want to see us every week. They, you know, want us in different markets. And so we ended up doing four farmers markets per week. So it was a full logistics behind behind Coco Rico and then started to wholesale to hotels and restaurants in the airport, doing catering as well for businesses and private parties.

08:45And eventually people were like, well, we need a place where we can find you every day. Can you make that happen for us? And so we opened Coco Rico Bakery and Cafe in February 20 for 2024. Yeah. So about a year ago, about a year ago. And then where is Coco Rico Bakery and Cafe? So Coco Rico Bakery and Cafe is on division streets. So we're in midtown where basically we're at the roundabout plaza is with the beautiful statue. The Buddy Killin' Circle, the beautiful naked people dancing. Exactly. Yeah. You can sit at the bar watching the naked people and drink your coffee. That's what we do. How French is that? I mean, come on. Right? People watching. Okay. So I'm going to go back a little bit. I know there's so much more to this story, but you started, you moved here in 2016. Correct. Why? Thanks to my husband's assignment. So we basically worked for a French company that also has a headquarter here in Nashville. And we wanted to live abroad just to have, you know, just another perspective in life and meet new people and just be challenged by other cultures.

09:52And so we had the opportunity to go to China. Wow. Or to go to the U.S. Oh my. And you chose U.S. We couldn't speak Chinese really. So we were like, I'm not really a housewife. It's going to be hard for me. What am I going to do for two years? So we decided to pick Nashville instead and I've had a great time so far. It was supposed to be a two year assignment. It's been nine years and we're here to stay. So what was your perception like when you were, okay, China or Nashville? What about Nashville? What in your brain did you think about Nashville when you were in France about to move to Nashville? Okay. I'm going to be very honest here. Be honest. I had no idea what was Nashville. Did you think like cowboy hats and like dirt roads and stuff? Well, at first we didn't even know where it was. So we started to make some research on Google Maps, right? Like the basics and like, okay, it's in Tennessee. It's in the U.S. It's here. And then it's in the South, which we didn't know what the South was at the time, you know, and starting to make some research. And at the time you had one picture of the skyline with the bad tower that was the same on all the websites.

10:56We call it the Batman building. I love it. And then we had the Nashville TV show. That's everything we could find about Nashville from friends. And I was like, this is fascinating. So did you watch the Nashville television show? We watched a couple of episodes. We're like, okay, we get it. That's me. I only watched two episodes. There was one episode where some, where they said, take me to Tootsies and get me a beer. And I was like, all right, I have lost all credibility on this. And I didn't watch it again. I have not watched any of it. So we're like, okay, it's about boots. It's about tracks. Well, we don't really know what we're getting into, but worst case scenario, it's a two year assignment. If we don't like it, we just go home. You know, it's fine. But it was way more than that. Tell me your experience of Nashville. Yeah, we've been loving it. I think the best part is the people, the warm welcome and the help and the support. You know, like when you live to another country and you don't know anyone, you don't have any family, any friends, you don't even know about that you need a social security number.

11:57You know, all this kind of things that everyone take for granted, like we had no idea. So just like the support and yeah, the warm welcome was incredible to us. When I moved here, I couldn't really speak English. Like I studied English for about 12 years, but couldn't understand the Southern accent, like learn British English, which is a little bit different from American English. And also just like wasn't able to understand what people were telling me. So it was really hard to have a conversation and respond. You're doing really well, by the way. I'm doing better. You're doing great. So I had to volunteer in like local libraries, you know, and just like forcing myself to go to grocery stores every day is like, okay, today I'm going to ask for a puff pastry and I'm just going to go there and see what happens. So very uncomfortable, but very like helpful to learn, you know, like kind of on the spot and then took English classes in churches and things like that. And eventually like felt comfortable. For a long time, I wanted to fight kind of my French accent and try to get a better American one, you know, but at this point with Cocorico, I felt like this is such a, it's a great marketing tool.

13:05So I'm like, I'm good with this. I need, I can change it anyway, you know, I'm probably too old for that, so I'm going to own it. This is, this is fine. I think it's great. And I was going to, I was going to compliment you on your enunciation and the way in the, the way you speak is really, really good. Like I would, I would have thought you spoke English your entire life. Thank you. Maybe a second language, but like that you've done it. I guess you have. Wow. Okay. So you move here, 2016, you said, you're here. We're going to see what happens for two years. Hey, we, we like it. This is really cool. And in 2018, is it out of necessity because no, you can't get French pastries here. And I've been to France a couple of times and the pastries are legit. Like everywhere you go, there are bakeries everywhere and cafes and just delicious. Was that something that you just missed and you were like, Hey, I can make these better.

14:06Was this something you did in France? There's a lot of questions. I'm sorry. No, it's great. Um, it's not something that I was doing in France, but when I moved here, yes, I had a different products that I couldn't really find the way I liked them, you know, and just, and just started to play around with a friend. I remember that day we were supposed to work on her LinkedIn profile, you know, and just like, cause she's an architect and she needed just some work on this. And then we sat down and we started to talk about recipes and a company name and dream about this cocorico thing. And eventually we started together as a partnership. So my friend Barry and I, which who is also friend French and, um, and then, yeah, and I, I carried that over later, but, uh, yeah, it was just like looking for products. We couldn't really find the way we used to find them, you know, everywhere, every day. So this is how cocorico started. Wow. And what does cocorico mean? Ooh, I like this question. Um, so it's the sound of the rooster, but in French. So here in America, people say coca-doodle-doo, we say cocorico, um, the rooster is one of the French emblems.

15:07So it's kind of like, um, cultural reference to, to our country. Oh, I, you know what, if you gave me a hundred guesses, I wouldn't have guessed that. I'm like, I'll bet it's the sound of rooster makes, but what they say in France, cocorico. Okay. Sorry. I thought that's just really, that threw me off for a second. That was really cool. I liked the name. And so you started baking at home. You started making different things. What was the first moment when you were doing that, that you decided like, holy cow, this is really good. Like, wow. I just made something that. So we were used to bake the goods that we're selling right now in our house. You know, like my mom was just making those for dinner, for lunch. My grandma had recipes, like those are things we grew up with that meant a lot for us. And so not being able to find them was kind of like a moment of like, okay, we need to do something about this. Um, we started with baguettes and quiches. We were kind of, and sandwiches were kind of like our staple items.

16:08And then from that we started to just like, um, increase our menu and just work more on like the pastry side with lamination. Um, and then eventually add, add more things, but, um, yeah, I think the bread and the really pastry products are kind of key here. Um, at Cocorico. Okay. And when you decided to start selling these items, how did you decide the farmer's market? Like this is 2019. When did you start doing the farmer's markets? 2018. And you started doing farmer's markets and people are going, wow, this is delicious. And we need to do more. What did you do during the pandemic? Did the pandemic help you at all? The pandemic was incredible for farmer's markets actually. Yeah. Because imagine you didn't have a brick and mortar then you could, you were probably established going to farmer's markets. You had a spot when everybody else is trying to get in them. You're already there. We're already there. And then we're outside. Uh, we can space out customers and just people felt safe shopping.

17:10And so, yeah, we had actually excellent here, like excellent years at farmer's markets during the pandemic, which is very interesting. You're the one. You're the one, the pandemic helped look at one of them, probably, I guess, um, I really believe like for small businesses, farmer's markets is such a good way to just, um, refine your processes, your production, but also meet your customers and understand their needs and what they're looking for with like a very low cost of entry and just like risk taking kind of thing. Um, cause you really pay between 50 and $60 to be there on Saturday, right? So what, what is the worst that can happen? Like you don't sell, that's it, but it's, it's really worth it. And then you build your relationship with your customers and they come back the next week and they tell you what they want and then you just work. Because it's you standing there. Oh yeah. It's you standing there selling. It's not like you have a team, like had a team at the time, like a team of people, like, So people get to meet you, hear your accent, know that you're from France, you're selling French baked goods.

18:15And they're like, wow, this is really, that's what, that's the coolest thing about farmers markets. I think is you get to meet the actual vendors and the artisans who are making these things and build that connection. Yes. And they know their products and you can ask questions. People have data restrictions. You know, it's just a good place to chat and take the time. It's Saturday. People are just like hanging out. They love being here. You know, they bring their friends, their dogs. You meet their kids. It's just like a very special community to me. When did you know you needed a brick and mortar? Well, I guess after a few years, realizing that you talk a lot about staffing and staffing challenges in your podcast and we're not different from every other companies here in the industry. You know, like we were realizing that by the time you hire your market staff and your kitchen staff, farmers markets are very seasonal. I guess I'm going to start here. Yeah. We have a very strong season between April and October, but then from November to March, this is really dead. So basically you hire your people by the time they're trained, it's like August and then you have two to three months where you can be very productive and efficient and then you have to let them go because you don't have any job during the winter and then you have to do it again.

19:24So there is really no way to grow unless you have a more sustainable place to sell your products. And you can do it year round. Because then you can train, you have to keep retraining people for half the year. Exactly. And that's very challenging. And so we've tried wholesale as like a winter backup plan, you know, to still have revenue and still produce and keep part of the team. But wholesale is a little bit challenging. Sometimes it's hard to see like or to understand how people are going to use your products and we have very perishable goods, you know, like you don't want to eat a baguette from the day before. No. So, but you can control that. You don't know how your restaurants are going to use your products and stuff like this. It was a little bit frustrating and we're like, OK, this is not a good winter solution. Like we really need a place where people can find us all the time and just enjoy our products and also make this company sustainable for everyone and for us to keep our people. And so the brick and mortar kind of came into place three to four years maybe after we started the company. How did you find the space there on the Buddy Killin' Circle? I mean, that's a fantastic location right there downtown.

20:27Or is it? I mean, it is. It is a great location. What we like about it is like it's walkable. It's very European to walk to your bakery, you know. So it's also like very on brand with what we do and have like a little bit of a few tables outside when you can do people watching because people driving the roundabout is very, very entertaining. I don't know if you've seen that before, but it is very exciting. So people come for that too, you know. I've been like when Tai you saw him right there, like sitting there and watched, but I don't ever watch like the cars going by. I can't now that you've said that I have to do that. Like I want to think about it. I'm going to come there because the weather's going to be gorgeous next few days. Like I want to come by and just sit outside, have a coffee and a croissant. How do you say, how do you say croissant? Croissant. Croissant. Croissant. Croissant. Oh, that was good. That was really good. Okay. Keep it. Croissant. Croissant. You're like, hmm, you mean a croissant? Come sit and have one of those.

21:28Watch people drive around a circle. Because they have no idea how to do it and it's a lot, probably a lot of honking going on. Yeah. And they've been redoing like the area too, with a lot of like sidewalks and bike lanes. And so it's been very interesting also to see people adjusting, you know. When they decorate the people, like the people and they put like, like the playoffs come, they put like Pred's jerseys on all the dancing naked people or they put cowboy hats on them or whatever it is that's going on. That's my favorite. When I get in the circle, I'm like, oh, look at that, they've, how do you make them that big? Yeah. It's a, it's a great neighborhood. And the thing we didn't realize when we picked the place is like, there is kind of a food dessert around here. Like around there, there is basically like an amazing brewery. There is a bagel shop that is awesome, but it's really about it. I think people needed like more options and also on the healthy side, you know. And so that's something we're trying to provide being over there. But yeah, we've been loving the neighborhood and we're in office buildings, so we're lucky enough to be able to feed also people working from the office during weekdays and have our, the neighborhood and our customers coming on weekends, you know, to make that kind of sustainable for us.

22:37So I'm hearing bakery cafe and I'm focusing on bakery because I think coffee, I think baked goods and that's where my brain ends. Tell me about the end cafe. Do you have like savory dishes and like, yeah, so what else are you doing? So we bake our baguettes and pastries from scratch every day. And then we make sandwiches out of our baguettes. And that's how we started actually at the farmers market. Those are our most popular item. We have the Parisian with salted butter, ham and brie cheese and that should make you feel hungry right now. I'm like, I need one of those McDonald's breakfast ahead is not doing it for me. And then we have salads. We have soups. We have lunch for meal for the week, for the weekdays when you can get a little lunch and just have sizes of different things, you know, to try out. We also like to promote our friends from farmers markets because this is where we come from. We're still doing them and still connected to farmers and local providers. And so we have hot sauce from Hot Sauce Nashville and then we have pierogies and like different kind of pasta made from scratch, you know, ice cream in the summer that comes from like the area as well.

23:44We're also try to give a hand to our people that we know and that also look for other spaces to sell. I love that. I love everything I'm hearing right now. Like I want to go, I want to, I want to be like a regular there. No, I'm just look, there's, there's in my opinion, when it comes to operating a restaurant, there's a very business side of it that is very cold because it is a business. And that's a lot of times what I do on the back end with my restaurants is I do a lot of the negotiating business stuff, but at the heart of what you do, coming in from another country and learning the culture and learning the language and working in farmers markets and learning the community and building connections and then finding a place to do this year round and connecting with people, connecting with other local vendors to provide a very walkable European experience inside of Nashville. All of those things are really organic and special and that's what makes the hospitality community special and you're doing all the things.

24:53And I love that. That's like my favorite thing in the world when people like you come out and start making magic. I like making magic. That's a good way to define it. We were trying really hard, you know, it's, it's, it's a difficult industry and, but there is so many great people with so many talents that help you get there. You know, it's been, it's been a great experience so far. My parents have a wine distribution company in France. They've been in business for 25 years and I was swearing to them, I would never own my own business. I was like, I'm going to study nonprofit and I'm going to do something else. And here I am. It's in your DNA. You can't stop it when you, how is your husband doing? Is he working with you now or is he still doing his thing? What does he do for a living? My husband is not working with me. I'm running this business by myself. He's still working for the company that moved us here in the U.S. He has a great career. He's like director right now with like a large team of people.

25:56He is very supportive. He's here every step along the way, you know, and just be able to jump on and make sandwiches when I need it or drop something and deliver. Yeah, it's, it is a strong support of me for sure. Like. If you pardon me, I'm pulling up Google Maps because I want to look at the world and I'm going to go to France and I want to ask you some geographical things. I'm ready. All right. You said you were from the southwestern, southwest of France. That's correct. Paris is kind of central, north central, kind of north ish central, right? You are not. What city are you? You're closer to Bordeaux or? I'm not too far from Bordeaux. It's called Toulouse. Oh, look at that right there. You should have it. Yeah, it's the fifth bigger city in France. Yeah. So you're not far from the coast either. I'm not far from the coast. I'm probably two hours from the coast, two hours from the mountain, seven hours from Paris.

26:59But yeah, very interestingly, a place, a region where people don't travel to too much, you know. No, well, it's you got to think there's I'm just looking geographically. So in the south of our country, grits and, you know, country, country ham. And there's these different things, barbecue, different things that identify the south. What is it about the south southern side of France? Are your pastries different than you would get in Paris or north? Like, do you do anything very unique that is from the south of France? Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited for this question. So there is a big debate in France about how you call pain au chocolat, right? Or chocolate croissants. I don't know if you've heard about that. So what tell me the first way that you called it. So pain au chocolat is like the north way of pronouncing chocolate croissants in French. Chocolate croissants, one of my favorite things on the planet.

28:00OK, so you have to you're going to have to learn how to pronounce it properly because in the south of France, southwest, we say chocolatine. Chocolatine. Chocolatine, yes. Chocolatine. And so that's been a very strong specificity of our cafe, like we don't serve pain au chocolat, we serve chocolatine. So you need to make sure you ask for what you want. You don't have both. So if I walked in and said, I like a chocolate croissant. It's like, sorry, we don't have it, but we have a chocolatine, you'll see it's probably better. Oh, so you don't just go, OK, that's what they want and give them a chocolate. But you want to distinguish that it's a chocolatine. Yeah, you know, it's part of the experience. We're bringing the south of France to the south of the US. So we're just trying to just give you all the hints, you know, and all the things. So that's one that's a big one. Chocolatine. Yes. Because that will be something I will be ordering when I go there. Please. I will tell you a little story and I won't make it fast. When Alyssa, again, Jerry was in here, she is the partner at Buttermilk Ranch.

29:02Have you been to Buttermilk Ranch? Yes. Delicious. Everything there is amazing. She came in and she brought me all these pastries. And I said, you know, I'm not really a big pastry guy. And I said, I'll try one, you know, whatever. And I got home, my wife was in the episode and she goes, you're not really a big pastry guy? Like, what the hell are you? Everywhere we go that has a chocolate croissant, you order it like you are everywhere that we go. And I was kind of like, you know, crème brûlée. I like it like it's a thing. And so the joke is I am a big pastry guy. And I don't know why I said that on the show, but I am. So that is very hilarious. All right. I'm writing. I'm going to write it phonetically. Chocolatine. I'm going to spell it chocolatine. Chocolatine. Chocolatine, yes. OK. And then going back to your question, in the southwest, it's a lot of like we have a lot of duck dishes. That's also something that I miss quite a bit, because it's really hard to find here in the U.S.

30:03in general, unless you go to a French restaurant, French inspired restaurant. But yeah, duck confit, duck legs, you know, like duck prosciutto. We're very strong into like charcuterie, too. We have a lot of different local cheeses, really everywhere in France. A lot of dry meats, too, that we like to eat, you know, as a starter during our lunch. And you have all of these things? We do not have cheeses right now. We've been partnering with other businesses before, and that's something we need to dig into. But that's what you like in the south of France. That's what we like in the south of France. And that brings me back to the collaboration that we're doing with Miel, that we did with Miel this month, where we brought those dishes to life, because, you know, in the bakery and cafe, it's kind of hard to like serve those dishes. We're not really set up as a restaurant. But working with the Miel team, that was really incredible. Like we had a trio of like duck dishes. We're serving gizzards. I don't know if you've tried that before. So something that we do.

31:04I just made an executive decision. OK, we're going to put this episode out today. OK, right. I was going to wait a couple of weeks as I have a couple other episodes ahead of yours. But you're doing this dinner on March 20th. That's correct. Today is March 10th. I'm going to put this out today and people can hear it, because I think people are going to want to go try all of these things at Miel. And so let's just do it today, because I want people to hear this. This is great. So in 10 days, you're doing a dinner. Yes, we're free. Seema and everybody over at Miel. Tell me about the dinner. This is very exciting. So Miel is a French inspired restaurant. They source a lot of their products locally through farmers markets and local providers like we do. And so they have a deep love for France. They know how to source French wines. And it was just like an evidence for us to work together. We're just very aligned in the way we treat our employees and just want to grow our businesses sustainably and stuff like that.

32:04And so we we put this like salving of French menu together with like recipes from my family and like what I was what I was using, what I used to eat when I was in France from starter to like desserts. We have a lot of different specialties. The violet flower is one of the emblems of Toulouse and also something we use quite a bit. And so we're going to have like a violet ice cream served with our chocolate cakes. We're going to have a lot of like veal and duck dishes. It's going to be like really rich, really like comforting, but also bringing you back to France. Like this is going to be super exciting. Wow. But I'm sitting here going, how much are tickets? So it's a la carte menu. So you can make it as cheap or expensive as you want. Oh, so you're just showing up. It's just one night. March 20th. Yeah, you need to book your table. But yeah, you can just like. Where do I book the table? They're on. It's on their website, actually. Miel.com. Miel Nashville.

33:05MielNashville.com. You can purchase tickets for March 20th. You can purchase a table. You book a table. You book a table for, is there a minimum or maximum? No. Two, three, four, five, whatever. Yep. Okay. And then you go there, then it's an a la carte menu. That's going to be a Miel and Coca Rico collaboration. Absolutely. That's awesome. I'm going to buy tickets tonight. I would love to see you there. I'm definitely going to buy tickets. I'll be there too. Yeah. Hosting everyone. So yeah. It's going to be so awesome. I just love unique experience like that. And I haven't been to Miel in a long time. And I need a date night. So that's a. And that check all the boxes. That checks all the boxes. I'm like, all right, we need to do that for sure. And I'd love to support you guys the best I possibly can. All right. So there's that. And I had this question in my head just now. What do you miss the most about France? Because when you talk, like when I'm looking at you in the eyes, when you're talking about all of the food and the charcuterie boards and all the things you're like, you like light up talking about being home in France.

34:10Like what's one thing that you just miss? Well, I guess there is still some dishes that we miss and Dirk is one of them. I was talking to you about that. It doesn't have to be food, just anything. Like what do you miss? That's like subtle differences, you know, like the driving. I was in France one time and we got pulled over and we did not know what the hell to do because the police officer pulled out in front of us. And we were like, and then he kept slowing down. We're like, does he, then we started, and then he got in front of us again. We were like, what do we do? Then they were like, pull and they're like, pull. So we pulled over like behind them. It was just a weird kind of experience. And I was like, that's kind of interesting. There is so many differences. And you know, like when we moved here, we was like, well, we watched American TV shows. We know how this is gonna be. We're gonna be fine. Like, I don't think we're gonna be too much challenged or anything. But then when you start to live here, you start to see all the little differences, you know, and just like all, there is a real cultural shock that we didn't expect in plenty of different ways.

35:18Like we're pretty big in sustainability. And I guess that's probably one thing that is challenging me still this day about recycling, you know, and just like being, yeah, being more careful about the packaging we use, overpackaging things, straws, you know, like there is a lot of laws in France when you don't have like plastic bags at grocery stores, you need to bring your own bags now. Like grocery stores do not provide plastic bags anymore. Restaurants cannot provide straws. You know, like there is those kinds of things that they put together to just to lower their, you know, like environmental print and stuff, yeah. So we still recycle our goods and our dishes and stuff and everything we have at home. And we don't really know where it goes and if it's really like useful, but you know, it's kind of part of our culture of just being more involved in composting and things like that that are really strong to us. And I feel like there's still a bit of work to do probably in Nashville area, but in general, probably in the U.S., you know, on those questions. Where do you guys live? What part of town?

36:19We live in East Nashville. Okay, so you should live in East Nashville. Hey, this is where we are. If I could live anywhere, if I had a choice to live anywhere, and I know that I technically do, but it would be East Nashville. Like that's, I just love everything about East Nashville. It's so- Very eclectic, a lot of like fun restaurants opening right now. It's the food scene is really amazing. And food is a big part of our culture too. You know, in France, like we stay around the table for hours on weekends, but on weekdays too, we get dinner with the family. Like food is just a way to connect and socialize. And that's also what Cocorico is trying to do. I'm gonna give you a very like silly example, but we don't have wifi at our bakery and cafe and people get upset, but we were like, hey, what we want you to do when you come here is just unplug for a second and just look at what you have on your plate or in your cup and just enjoy that. And bring a coworker or a friend and just take five minutes and breathe, you know, and just go back to your day. I love that. I want to do, and this is, somebody please do this out there because I want, they sell these lockers.

37:24There's a, you can buy a locker system. It's like five lockers. If you can see my hand is up like five lockers high, maybe it's 15 lockers, but they're small, like the size of a shoe box. And they have like a little code you can put in them. And inside of it is a bunch of plugs. Okay. So when you get to the restaurant, everybody in your family puts their phone inside the locker and you can plug them in while you're there. And then you can sit down and have a dinner without your phones. And I was like, well, how will people take pictures of the food and share it on Instagram, whatever. I get that. But the experience of dining with people without devices, I think is magical. And I think that your turn time would be better because people aren't sitting there looking at their phones instead of eating. And if people just ate and connected, they'd be finished faster, theoretically, versus let me take a picture. Oh, look, I got these notifications. And then there, I walk by tables all the time when there's four people at a table and four people at a table sitting there on their phones.

38:27And you're like, it breaks my heart. It breaks my heart too, because like those chefs are working their ass off to get those dishes out and have like flavors and presentation and everything. And people don't even enjoy that anymore. Well, it's more of what you just now said. Part of your culture is dining and connecting. 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.com. Or you can give Erin Mosso a call directly. For number 615-319-6453, that's Sharpier's Bakery. Y'all, today we are talking, as always, about SuperSource.

39:31And 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, surfaces, 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. You need to call Jason Ellis. His number is 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. We also wanna be talking today about C&B Linens.

40:34This is a new linen company to Nashville, and they're doing things differently. No service fees, no replacement fees, no gas fees, no clean green fees, and you can order your linens like you do food. It doesn't have to be on a par system where sometimes you end up paying for your linens twice. This is a brand new company out of Waynesboro. They are called C&B Linen, and they really want to earn your business. They're a part of NARA, and I'm really excited to bring them to you guys. I know what you're thinking. How do I get a hold of anybody from C&B Linen? You're going to email Chris.Carol. It's K-C-A-R-R-O-L-L at C-B-Linen.com. Send an email and say, hey, I heard about you on Nashville Restaurant Radio. I'd like to look at some pricing and see what you guys have. If you want to look at pricing, you can send an email to me, Brandon at New Light Hospitality.com.

41:39I have special NARA pricing. I'd also love to talk to you about NARA, the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. If you want to send me an email, let's open that conversation and let's get you set up the linen company that truly cares about your success. These are amazing people. Hey, also, it's that time of year where we're kind of end of the year now, but you're getting to your taxes. You realize that your accounting last year was just a joke. That is where Grumburg accounting comes into play. You've heard Marta Grumburg on the episode a few weeks ago, and I told her, I said, hey, I'd love to get you because you work. She's not here right here in Nashville, but she's in Charlotte, but she can do all of this stuff for you online. It is super easy and affordable. If you're looking for a good accountant, Grumburg accounting is the way to go. All you have to do is send an email, info at Grumburg accounting. That's G-R-U-M-B-E-R-G, accounting.com. There you can get set up. It's super duper easy.

42:39She's working with me now at New Light Hospitality. And so I'm getting to see real time how this thing works. And she is just lovely. I've really enjoyed every aspect of it. So it's that time of year, you need an accountant. We have one that works with restaurants as a specialty, Grumburg accounting. You know, that's one of the reasons why I love doing this podcast much because you get in a room with no windows and you have these headphones on and you get locked into a conversation. We're not just sitting here looking at our phones. It's so much fun, but you watch people cheersing. You know, like just the art of like a good cheers of celebration together. Tell me about your day. Tell me about that new promotion. Tell me about whatever. The new- Make me line up again. Yes, I know, exactly. That's exactly what we want to do and what we want to offer. We love it. I want to do that. I want to have like a thing at the front, like this locker and then say, if you put your phones in here, we'll give you a free appetizer. We got to incentivize people. Then like, hey, we get a $6 appetizer for our phones.

43:40And then it will speed up the turn time and people will feel more connected. And then they'll go, I really liked that dinner. We should do this again. That's how you make guests repeat guests. That's really smart. I love that. I think you have someone here. You have something. Somebody do it. Cause like, I've tried to talk to Steve and our owner. I'm like, you've, we got to do this. He's like, no, they won't do it. He just won't. He didn't see the ROI in it. And I don't blame him. Cause I don't either per se, it's more about just the experience. And that's hard to put a dollar figure on. Cause they're like five grand for the lockers. It's not like you can just go on Amazon and get them for 50 bucks. Like it's, it's a thing. So. It's very interesting. Yeah. I think, I think food can connect people and just like, you know, kind of eliminate differences. And then when you share the same dish, like, I don't know, it creates something really different in a higher level of connection that you don't always have just by talking or texting or whatever. So yeah. I think bringing this piece of our, my French culture here in Nashville through this cafe is very important to me. So, so yeah, no wifi. And then we have a mini library when you can find either French books or books about France.

44:44So you can get your coffee, get your lunch or breakfast, and just like hang out with us and just like flip a few pages, practice your French with us or whatever you want to do. Yeah. It's been fun. Does, has it been hard to finding staff? So yeah, let me go back to that. And do you have like all French people working there? No, we do not. You're like, we're looking for people who have a French accent or are willing to learn to have a French accent. Most of our staff do not speak French, but I'm very much enjoying my conversation with my customers when I'm here. That's for sure when I'm on the floor. But yeah, no, like the French community in Nashville is very small, probably a few hundreds of people. So it's kind of hard to hire French people, let's be honest here, but you know, our staff is still doing an amazing job. Where's your favorite place to eat here in Nashville? Ooh, there is plenty, but we're, my husband and I are very fan of like Italian food. And so we go to Il Forno. I don't know if you've been there. It's in Wedgwood, Houston.

45:45These guys are from Napoli and they do like all of their pizzas and pastas from scratch. They have desserts, they have seasonal drinks. They welcome large groups and small. And then we go there every month, we really love it. I love that. The owners are wonderful. And yeah, we love to support small businesses too. Il Forno, what else? Where else do you guys go? Give me the names of a couple of places that you love. All right. And then a couple that you hate. I'm just kidding. Well, I don't know if I'll do that. Don't do that, I'm just kidding. We like Indian food too. So Taj is a very good one for us. Decktie as well is a Thai option. Those are kind of our top three that we order from very regularly. Have you been to Taylor yet? No, not yet, but I want to go to my list. That is a place. Did you enjoy it? Well, you just, for what you like, like the familial style dining, that is his whole concept is in India, families eating together and the way that they present their entire meal. It's like a seating and everybody comes in. I think you would totally dig what they're doing over at Taylor.

46:48I need to go there. And then we like have Red Headed Strangers, you know? It's just like very casual, very chill, very consistent in the food they put. What's your favorite thing there at Red Headed Stranger? I like number five. Number five? Yeah, I believe it's pico de gallo and I think it's the brisket one. Yeah, so good. My go-to there is by far, there's a lot. It's barbacoa actually, barbacoa pico de gallo. I like the green chili cheeseburger. Oh, also wonderful. I mean, of course, you can't go wrong with this. I don't know if there's a better burger in the city. Honestly, I don't know if there is. That's a good question. Yeah, it's also one of our favorite burgers. It's damn good. And the Crunchwrap Supreme. Sorry, I love that place. It's just kind of, I feel like it's kind of hidden. It's not like next to a bunch of other, next to Audrey, but like not a bunch of other places. And it's just got the coolest little vibe in there. I love Brian Lee Weaver, my favorite people. Have you met Brian before? Not yet, but hopefully you'll introduce me eventually. I'm excited. You need to go try coca-rico, Brian.

47:51It's amazing. And introduce yourself to Elodie while you're there. What am I missing? What are we missing today? What else? You have a list, I have a list. Want to give a shout out to Amanda Virgilito. Absolutely. Because she's amazing. Tell me what she does for you. She's wonderful. So she's been helping me just like drive more traffic and give more visibility to our bakery this year because like everyone else, we've been through like a very tough time this winter. And so she's helping with everything, price relations related. She's been helping us promoting our anniversary and then our specials for Valentine's and just connecting us more with the community in general in the neighborhood. So very grateful for her. She's been doing this for a while and she is, she's amazing. I love working with her. A lot of things, but she's just an amazing person. She's an amazing person. And then she's also part of the Les Dames Des Cofiers group. And I saw one of the podcasts, you did a podcast about them as well.

48:53I joined this group like a few months ago and that's how I met her. So I think if I could add a little tips and tricks, I guess like connecting with the community and being part of like industry networks is also very powerful as a business owner because sometimes we all go through the same challenges, but feel like we're the only one to go through that. And it's really difficult. Maybe someone has sold it for you already and then you just don't know about it. So definitely joined the group last year and I've been making so many connections and just like building valuable relationships through this group, Les Dames Des Cofiers. I'm very grateful for that. So say the name of the group again. Yes, cause it's a French name. You ready? Yeah. Are you repeating it? Yeah. Okay. Les Dames. Les Dames. Des Cofiers. It's the Des Cofiers. Like Les Dames Des Cofiers, you know in the South. Les Dames Des Cofiers. Les Dames Des Cofiers. It sounds like Les Dames Des Cofiers.

49:54So Dame means lady. Lady. And Des Cofiers is just the name probably. Okay. I operate a restaurant. It is called Mere Bowls. Okay. Right. M-E-R-E-B-U-L-L-E-S. Most people call it Mary Boules or We say Mere Bowls. Like we take the S off, but I think it's Mere Bowls is how you say it. How do you say Mere Bowls? That word M-E-R-E-B-U-L-L-E-S, which means mother bubbles. Right? Say that again. I need to write it down. M-E-R-E-B-U-L-L-E-S. Oh yeah. I'm ready. What does it say? Mere. Mere. Bule. Oh. Oh. I wish we could say this phrase right now. Let's do it again. M-E-R-E-B-U-L-E-S. Do you have that thing that you can do that I can't do?

50:56Mere. I know. Mere. Mere. That's good. Bule. Bule. That's good. Yeah, Mere Bule. Mere Bule. Mere Bule. So Mere Bule is closer than Mere Bowl. We call it Mere Bowls. Mere Bowls is what the people, anywhere in Nashville, anybody knows it as Mere Bowls. But Mere. Mere. Mere. Mere Bule. Bule. Yes. Mere Bule. Yeah, there is different sounds that we don't have or you don't have. You know the R that you pronounced. It took me a couple of years to pronounce it. And the T-H, we don't have that. So the the sound, this is also very challenging to me. The. The. The. And there is word that I've been like still working on like Squirrel is one of them. Squirrel. Squirrel. Yeah, see? That's what I'm saying. Exactly. It's been nine years that I'm like. How do you say Squirrel? Squirrel. You got it. Squirrel. Yeah. Squirrel. I really need to focus on it though. It's the Q-U. Yeah. Probably the Squirrel. It's that Squirrel.

51:56Squirrel. Yeah, well. Squirrel. And Rural. This is also a very hard one for me. Rural. Rural. Rural. Rural. What about O-I-L? What? O-I-L. That word. What is it? O-L. Oil. Oh, oil. Oh yeah, yeah, oil. Yes, oil. In the South, people say O-L. Oh, that's, yeah. Change your O-L. Change your O-L. They don't say oil. They say O-L. I say oil, yeah. Change your oil. That's a thing that people out here say. Any other like words like that that are weird to you that people say? What about yawn-to? I don't know, yawn-to? Oh yeah. Oh, yawl. Yawl? Yeah, yawl is also very interesting. Do you say yawl at all? I do it now a little bit. You do? We do it mostly on social media when we write it down probably, but yeah. So what you're gonna find is I'm originally from Southern California. Born, I moved here when I was like nine. So I've lived here for 37 years.

52:59Math would say I just turned 46 last weekend. Happy birthday. Thank you. And I still get it both ways. So if I'm here, people say, you're not from around here. And I go, no, I just learned how to speak in California. I still, but I slow it down. I still have a Southern accent. It'll happen. But when I go back to California and we're hanging out and I say, well, I don't know what y'all wanna do tonight. And they go, what y'all wanna do tonight? Is that one word? What the hell is wrong with you? And I'm like, no, I don't know what y'all wanna do. What would you guys like to do this evening? How do I supposed to say this? What y'all wanna do tonight? Like that's a word, right? You'll go back to France and you'll say something like that. And they'll go, where did you move to? Like, what are they saying out there? Yeah, we lose our accent a little bit because we have French friends here that do not come from the South. But when we go back to our families, like it just takes us a couple of days and then we're back on track and it feels really good.

54:02Just to speak French all the time. How often do you go home? About once a year, usually for the holidays. And then family comes to visit as well. They came for the grand opening and that was a lot of fun to have them here, experience what we've been building. But yeah, accents are always so interesting to me, especially in the U.S. It's such a large country, like there's so many different accents. There is still like places where we struggle, really understand what's going on. Have you got to travel around the country at all? Yeah, we did quite a bit when we arrived because it was supposed to be a two-year assignment. So like, hey, every month, let's hit a new city. Where did you go that you absolutely loved? We loved New Orleans. That was so different. That was really fun. We went to Austin, Texas. Well, there's a French Quarter in New Orleans. It's very, the way it's all set up is very... It's very different. Kind of like being at home. It's very different. It is very different. But it's really fun. I think it's very festive and that's what we enjoyed. We've been to Boston.

55:03We've been to Charleston. We love California. We've been to San Diego. This is one of our favorite destinations. So much fun. We went to Seattle a few, couple of years ago. Really enjoyed the vibe over there as well and the nature. And did a few parks too. So, you know, try to explore as much as we can. It's amazing. Have you been to Atlanta yet? Yes. That was one of our first trips actually. Atlanta is a whole different world. I love it. It's very similar, but it's just so big and... I don't know. It's just, I love Atlanta. It's one of my favorite places to go. It's just a, it feels so big to me. But then it's kind of small. You need to give me a couple of restaurant recommendations over there. I'm interested. Go eat at Little Bear. Okay. Go eat at Little Bear. That's my one I'll give you. And then maybe NFA Burger. There's two for you. If you're going to Atlanta, go to NFA Burger. That stands for not fooling around. It's in a Chevron station and it will rival that green chili burger.

56:04It's a really good burger. And then Little Bear is a nice little homie. You'll love it. It's a locally owned and operated small place. Noted. Beautiful. All right. I've got to get busy editing this to put it out today. So... You're wonderful. What have we missed? Anything else? Like, what do you want to say to the people in Nashville? I'm going to give you a chance in just a second. We're going to do a Gordon food service final thought where you get to say whatever you want to say to the people in Nashville. But anything that we missed that we need to talk about? I think we've been... No, I think we're good. Yeah. I think you get a good idea of what we do and who we are. And hopefully I share a little bit of French culture that make you smile, you know, and that you enjoyed. Again, to reference Alyssa again, Jerry. And I think I did this. I'll do this again in a couple episodes with Henry Roberts, who is the owner of Two Hands. He's supposed to be one of the next shows, but he'll be pushed back a couple of days. He's from Australia. So we had a lot of conversation around like differences in America and why people are coming here and all the good stuff.

57:10But I mentioned to him that Alyssa said, people come into my restaurant first thing in the morning. And a lot of times I'm... We are the first people that you come in contact with. You get up in the morning, maybe you live alone, but you brush your teeth, you scroll the internet, you get dressed and then you get in your car and you go somewhere, a coffee shop, a bakery, to get something to eat. And when you talk to the people there, it's the first audible words you've spoken all day long. And what a really cool responsibility it is that we can either greet them with a smile and a welcome and start their day off great, or we can go, what do you want? You know, that's not how we... No, like... And what a neat thing to be able to do. So if you want a nice French, European style morning, stop in, what time do you open? We open at 7.30 on weekdays and 8 a.m. on weekends. Interesting that you open later on weekends. People sleeping in our neighborhood, you know, they don't show up at 7.30 on weekends.

58:11I love it. Okay. Is that it? Nothing else we're talking about so far? We're good. Okay, so now we're gonna do the Gordon Food Service final thought. You get to say whatever you want, as long as you wanna say it. The mic is yours, public service announcement, whatever you wanna do, you get to take us out. Yeah, I guess I just would like to close out with, go support your small businesses. Like, I think there is a lot of them that have amazing creative ideas, they have great food, they have great services. They're sometimes a little bit overlooked and they really need your help. Like, they need every sales, you know, to just go through the winter, or just like do the, like, hire the new person who buy the new piece of equipment. They need recurring business. And so, yeah, I like, think about in your neighborhood the people that you like and the businesses you wanna see succeeding and just go and just spend your money over there.

59:12Because that matters to them more than you think. It really does. It's a big deal when you have a choice of going to a chain or a local restaurant, supporting somebody like Elodie, where you're helping her dream be realized versus somebody who's got 50 restaurants and you're a number. It makes a difference, it makes a difference. Thank you so much for joining. Thank you for making the trip all the way down here today. You probably, spring breaks, your traffic probably wasn't as bad today. I really enjoyed the road, it was beautiful. Did you drive all the way down Hillsborough or did you take the interstate? I took the interstate, yeah. Okay, well, that's a thing. Busy business owner, you know. Well, thank you for all your time today and I will get this out today. You are just a ray of sunshine. It's so nice to have you in here today. Thank you so much, thank you for having me. There it is, Elodie Ebech. Thank you so much for joining us today on Nashville Restaurant Radio. Such a lovely woman. I am definitely gonna be going to that dinner on March 20th and I feel like I'm gonna be a regular down there.

01:00:15When I am downtown, I'm definitely gonna stop by and I'm gonna have not a chocolate croissant, it was a chocolatine. That's what I'm gonna have, I love it. Love bringing you new people that you might not know that are doing really cool things in the community and like I said in the episode, this is what we're doing this for. So hopefully I turned you on to something new today and I look forward to seeing you on March 20th. While tickets are available, go to Miel, M-I-E-L, restaurant.com, Miel. Google Miel and go to their website and find it and I hopefully will see you guys at Tennessee Flavors tomorrow night. Hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys, bye.