GFS Show Part 2 (Multiple Interviews)

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City! Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Welcome to part two of the Gordon Food Service show. I want to say thank you to all of the people who stopped by and talked to me. I had so much fun in this episode. I went back and this has a bunch of different people on it. We have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, six different interviews on this episode. And on this episode we're going to be talking with Morgan Castillo and she is the owner of Tenfish in Newburgh, Indiana. We're going to be hearing from Ed Schwartzman, who is the owner of Gables Bagels as well as Buffalooies in Bloomington, Indiana.

01:09And his is an interesting story. We don't talk a lot about his restaurants, but we talk about his son and it's a pretty interesting conversation. He lost his son and his son was a musician and it's a plea to some Nashville musicians and record people out there. So that's an interesting conversation. We talk with Eric Jones, who owns Smoke Show Barbecue in New Haven, Kentucky. He is with Jason Smith, who is one of the managers over at GFS and they work together and the Smoke Show Barbecue is a really neat story. Just the nicest guy you'll ever meet. I had so much fun talking to him. And then we got into some locals. So we had Bad Luck Burger Club. The Burger Boys came on, Andy and Cody. That was, as you can imagine, just a blast. And then we had Andrea Chavez, who's the owner of the Rose Pepper. And then we had Howard Jones, who is the owner of Kingdom Cafe. So we finished off with three Nashville restaurants. And it's so fun to see people at these events, especially people that I've helped in any sort of a way. And that's something I do is I love to help people find solutions for a lot of their vendors. And we talked about on the show, we've got a lot of sponsors on the show that I vouch for. I care about these people. And Gordon Food Service is one of them. And a lot of people call me and they say, hey, I've got a curious question about a broad line person. And I'm happy to answer any questions that comes around that because that's what I did for years. And I know some of the tips and tricks and things. And that's why I love Gordon Food Service so much because they are they do what they say they're going to do. And I trust them. And I love what they do.

02:45They're just very genuine. They're a family owned company. And I love that about them. So we're excited to to wrap up this Gordon Food Service show conversation today. And I hope that you enjoyed this. This one is a fun one. Again, go to the show notes and it will tell you the exact timing for each one of these interviews. So if you want to find one specific one, it's easy to find for you. And thank you for listening. Let's jump in right now with Morgan Castillo from Tinfish. We are back at the Gordon Food Service show and we are joined with Morgan Castillo from Tinfish in Newburgh, Indiana. Yes. Hello. How are you? I'm well. Are you having so much fun today? So far, so good. What are you? Are you here looking for anything in particular? Not necessarily a good time. Maybe. Well, of course, Louisville is always a good time. Right. Yeah. I love I did. Would you go do dinner last night or anything? Yeah, we did. I took my assistant manager. We went to north of Bourbon second time there. Absolutely wonderful. Have you been? No, north of Bourbon. Yeah, it's a very small little joint, Bourbon Bar. And they do all of their inspiration is from like New Orleans and the low country. And it's absolutely amazing.

03:57Oh, well, I'll have to do that next time. We went to Le Mou last night. Oh, we almost did. It was on the list, but that's where we had Le Mou. I didn't know what it was. I've never been there either. That's my first time. Yeah. Steakhouse, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I had a five Japanese wagyu for the first time in my life. Isn't it amazing? It was like butter. Yes. I had that when I was visiting down in Miami at a Korean steakhouse, Michelin star restaurant. It's a whole thing. I'm like, what is this? It just melts. It just melts. Yes. It's like it was I was like, this isn't steak. This is crazy. Oh, it literally butter. Yeah, it's so good. And you can't eat much. Only a little bit will do. It was a 10 ounce steak. You ate 10 ounces. I did not. We kind of got it for the table. It wasn't like I wasn't going to order it. It was kind of expensive. Yeah. Yes. To say the least. Hey, let's get I got the American wagyu, which was like half less than half price of what it was. But we all kind of we got like a prime rib eye. We got a bunch of meats and we just shared it. It was absolutely when you're a chef, you tend to do that. You share plates all the time. I never just order like this is mine. Like it's like, what do you got? There's like eight things. Let's just get all this stuff and then let's just pass it around like a family. And that's the best way to do it. Absolutely. That's what we did last night. I think we ordered probably eight or nine different dishes and just split them and didn't even finish most of it. You know, and it's all about the taste and experience. So taste and experience. Yes. Tell me about Tin Fish in Newburgh. Are you the owner?

05:15Yes. Owner. Yes. Tell me about Tin Fish. When did you, how long has it been open? Tin Fish in Newburgh opened up in 2005 and I took over in 2007. So calculations, what 15, 16 years. I lose track. It's been a long time. 17. That's 2024, right? Yeah, it is. Last time I checked. I think that's 17. So October 1st coming up here will be an anniversary for me. And yeah, so basically I've been doing that for 17 years in Newburgh. What'd you do before that? I've always been a chef. I'm originally from the East Coast in New York and moved around a whole bunch and planted myself here in Evansville, Newburgh. Why Evansville, Newburgh? Of all the places, New York, is it just like, I want the antithesis of New York. Well, I was out in Colorado before. Okay. So I moved halfway home. That's how I see it. There you go. That makes sense. And then my roots kind of automatically got set and they've kind of stuck and this is where I am now. Okay. So tell me about Tin Fish. You guys do seafood place? I'm guessing. Yes.

06:20And T-I-N is not T-E-N, it's T-I-N Fish. Yeah. So it is, I mean, it's not an actual fish. People go, what is Tin Fish? Is it a fish? And no, it's not. It's the name of our place. And we have a very metallic kind of thing going on and it's beautiful. But we've been there for, we were in one place for 13 years. And since then we built a new building and moved a restaurant in that town and we're a staple. We're a huge part of that town and give back to the community. And it's something that we do, but mostly seafood. We do have chicken and other things on the menu. Well, we just talked to the owner for Prime Time. Absolutely. Yes. Michael or David? It's David. David. Yes. Yes. Yes. He is also a restaurant owner in New York. Are you guys like close? How is the competitiveness there? Or is it like all of us together as a community? Personally, there's personally on my end, I don't see other restaurants as competitive. We're a suburb of Evansville. So my whole thing is more restaurants draw more people and your slice gets a little bit bigger. Rising tides rises all ships. Absolutely. Absolutely. So Dave runs a great business, actually two businesses in Newark. Yeah. And I have mine and there's a lot of other restaurants, you know, a handful that, you know, I think we all see it the same way, you know, bringing more people in. I love that. Well, that's one of the origins of this podcast was let's interview all of these people who own restaurants and let's share each other's ideas and how can we all get better together and not feel so alone? Yeah. You know, you're in the four walls of that business every day. Absolutely. And then it's like, am I doing this right?

07:54How is everybody else making it? And so to hear those stories of how people are making it is really a fun kind of a thing. And when you kind of work all together and have that attitude, you can compete with the chains and stuff that people are drawn to. See, that's it right there. When you guys, when we band together to do this together, you can compete with them because they've got 50 restaurants and a director of purchasing and all these different things. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I think a lot of us in that area in Newburgh area have that same train of thought that we're here together. We're not competing. That's so cool. I'm going to come up there one day and do like a day where I interview David and some other people and bring this whole setup up there and do full interviews, not 10 minute snippets of what you do. Yeah, that'd be awesome. That'd be awesome. So yeah, I'm really big in the community and just having, you know, having that people and the support and stuff like that there is, is absolutely amazing. So that's what, if I come in, so if I come out there and I go to 10 fish for dinner, what do I have to have? Like, what are you known for? Well, well, we're known for our fish and chips. That's the basic, that is our using cod. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. We've used the same cod, the same brand, the same quality for all the years that I've owned it. I've never switched and it's something that I'm very prideful about because it's about quality. I bet people have got you to try, they've tried to get you to switch. Oh my gosh, yes, yes, yes, yes.

09:18And there's so many other cods out there that are processed like at sea differently, you know, like twice frozen and stuff. I won't even touch it. It's got to be, you know, full fillets, you know. I love it. It's about quality. I'm a massive fish and chips guy. Oh, fantastic. But we have so many other things. We're also known for our fish tacos and mahi. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Cod mahi, you name it. Anything that I have on the menu, I'll put it in a taco for you. We have two different versions of our tacos. We have our traditional, you know, tomato pico de gallo, and then we have a papaya salsa. So we have a one that's a little sweet too, which works really good with fried fish. Papaya salsa. Works great with fried fish. Are you using maradoles? No. The big ones or the small ones? The small ones, the small ones, but they're fantastic. I love papayas. I think it's a hard fruit to get right consistently. Yeah. Well, the biggest thing is everyone goes for pineapple and mango and I'm like, yeah, we're not doing that. I think it's awesome. Every time I go like out of the country or something, everybody has papaya and I'm like, more people need to do papaya. Oh, it's good. It's good. And then we have a full oyster bar there where during the off season of away from Mardi Gras season, we're the only ones that are doing fresh shoved in front of you oysters seven days a week. So we have an oyster bar at our bar. Our bar is beautiful. It's blue quartz. Where do you purchase the oysters? You can get them a few different places from Gordon's. You can get a selection and then also creation gardens slash bluefin. I shouldn't say that. They are a sponsor of mine as well. So it's funny because they are doing a food show today in Nashville the same day and I had, I was like, well, it was like, which one do we go record at? But I had committed to GFS first, but I love those guys over at What Chefs Want. They do a great job. I've been working with them as many years since I've been working with Gordon's. They'll tell you they're a great compliment to a good broadliner. Oh, absolutely.

11:13If you have a good broadliner, they can fill in a lot of gaps. Absolutely. So Gordon's is my main and then definitely bluefin slash creation is right behind that. So your work with, gosh, he's been there for, Randy? Randy Bush? Well, I don't think I actually work with him, but I mean, I've gone through a couple different sales reps. Usually I talk to him on the phone and things like that. Yeah. Yeah. I don't recognize his name, but. Oh, with creation. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Well, so what are you here today to find? Well, it's really difficult because we don't do anything. Well, yeah, good time, but it's difficult because I don't do anything pre-bredded or anything like that. So we have to sort out proteins and stuff, but, you know, there's not new proteins. So we look for different ideas, different things that are coming out that is like the trends, you know, to see if there's anything we can, you know, tag onto at the restaurant and see if we can do that. So we look for ideas and stuff like that and, you know. How's, are you, there's a speaker, is he speaking? There's a stage, I guess. I haven't been over there. I'm like tucked away in the back corner. A lot of times we'll visit that and come up with cool ideas. Last year there was a great cocktail speech and they were doing different trends with cocktails and things like that. So there's always something good to pick up on. They're talking about staffing today. One of the things they're talking about is just employees and I think the perception that nobody wants to work in restaurants anymore. And there's actually more people now than ever that are working in restaurants. How's the job market in Newburgh? I would say that my personal business has always been excellent. Like we've always had, excuse me, the employees that we need. We slack a little bit here and there and always looking for somebody to come through, you know. But we find that the market's good in Newburgh. We have a lot of college students slash younger folks that fill in all the gaps, if need be. And then we have a lot of people that are established. Professionals,

13:17that's what they do. Absolutely. And there's nothing wrong working in the food service. It's fantastic. But it does take someone special. It really does. What do you think the most important part about the culture at Tenfish is that would make people want to stay there? We definitely have a culture there. We are a family. We have everyone's back. We care for each other. You know, we were just talking over here with some of the Gordon's food service, and they were talking about how Gordon's are a family with the restaurant owners, you know, and how that connection is. We also have that at Tenfish. Like we look at our employees as just not employees. We care. We talk to them. We talk about their life outside and we treat them right. And a lot of times if you treat them right and you're respectful and you take care of them and you're kind, I mean, it's giving back to you a hundredfold. Or treating people like they deserve to be treated is absolutely. Why does the industry miss that so much? Why do people miss that aspect of treating people like human beings? I personally think, I know it's going to sound a little whatever, but I think in a lot of the places that are chain, people are just numbers. You know, when you go to a small business, you know, an individually owned restaurant, you have the owner there. You have the management. You're engaged. Oh, I'm there a hundred plus hours a week. It's ridiculous. That's too much. I know. I'm just going to tell you right now that that's too much. I know. I see. But, you know, I'm on the floor. I'm in the kitchen. I'm behind the bar. I'm with the customers. I'm everywhere. You know, my customers are like, oh, let's go to Morgan's.

14:53It's not necessarily let's go to Tenfish. You know, so when you're an engaged owner and management, it says a lot, you know, if you're willing to do whatever you're asking your employees to do, it shows an example, you know, I find that a very endearing quality. Oh, absolutely. It's, it's the hardest. I'm the director of operations for a group in Nashville. Yeah. And my job is to, I don't have a role in the restaurant. So when I'm there, I want to bust tables. That's the thing I like because I get to see immediate results. I like to do that sort of thing. But I sometimes don't get to do as much as I like. And I hate that because I feel like the perception comes back like, oh, that guy just is a suit, you know, and it's like, that's not what I do, but my job is different than this. That's not what I do. So there's a lot of balance that goes into play there. Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Well, we are, I'm trying to keep these short and sweet because, but I'm going to come to Newburgh one day. I'm really interested in what you guys have going on over there. It sounds like this really great place. Absolutely. Yeah. We, we, uh, we love what we do.

15:54Like I said, we've been there for 17 years, which is a long time for a restaurant in that small area. And, uh, we do, uh, we do, we're open seven days a week, except for holidays. And on, on Sundays we do a brunch also totally different menu. And it's absolutely amazing. Definitely something you should try out. Definitely do it. Yeah. Well, Morgan Castillo, owner of 10 fish in Newburgh. Yep. Thank you for coming to the Gordon food service show day. Thanks for stopping by Nashville restaurant radio. Yeah, definitely. All right. And if you're out there and you're listening to this in Nashville or wherever you're going to Evansville or Newburgh, go visit Tim. If you're going to the casino or something, go visit Morgan over at 10 fish. There's, there's tons of us in that area. Small businesses. We'd love to see you. Awesome. We'll enjoy the rest of your time. Thank you very much. Thank you to Morgan for stopping by the booth and talking to me. The next guest is named as Ed Schwartzman and he's the owner of Gables bagels. And, uh, I kind of set this up in the beginning, but this one is an interesting one and, uh, I'm not going to give it anymore. Just check it out. And, uh, let me know what you think. And we are backed up now with people joining Nashville restaurant radio. I am having so much fun here at the Gordon food service show. I'm probably tired of me saying this, but now we are joined with Ed Schwartzman. He's the owner of Gables bagels and Buffalo Louise, Buffalo Louise. That's a fun name. I gotta say, I gotta tell you, you're a genius for being here because you just, instead of trying to go out and fish and hunt, they come in, they're coming to you. They're coming to me. Oh, there's a line of, there's a lot of people I know that have been here, but I'm having so much fun meeting all these new people. Where, where are your restaurants? So we're located in Bloomington, Indiana, home of the Hoosiers. Everybody knows us for basketball, but now they also are going to know us for football.

17:44Look at us with three and oh, it's unbelievable. I didn't, I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah. We're ranked 25th and we're coming on. Wow. That's awesome, man. You know what? Look at you. Exactly. That's amazing. So nice to meet you. Are you having fun at the show? So I love the shows because we're in the hospitality business and everybody is hospitable. Everybody says, hi, we all got name tags on life is good. Brandon. It is a good day. You know what? Good. There's a lot of people here having a lot of fun and people just keep bringing food over to me. And mainly just leaving it on the table. And just, I don't know what these things are. People just drop food off and then they walk away. And I'm like, am I, am I eating this? Is this for display? Is this tuna fish looks good? Should I take a bite? Yeah. I'm like, is this a, is this old food that you're trying to get rid of? This isn't, this isn't like a tray that you put your old food on. They put me in the back, back here in front of the pillar. You're doing fine. Love the guys at GFS. So you had sent me an email and I lost this email. It just vanished into thin air. Like, like, like it's even better because we're here face to face. Now we're face to face.

18:45Even better. It's even better. What do you want to talk about today? Ed? Thank you, Brandon. Well, certainly I could talk about bagels and our bagel shop. And please, if your listeners care to look us up Gables Bagels in Bloomington, Indiana, I'm very proud to say with the highest ranked bagel shop in the highest ranked restaurant, Google review in the city, pardon me. Wow. What makes your bagel so special? It's a, it's a, are you importing water from New York or something? We actually import the bagels. No joke. And I've got a chef who is magic in the kitchen. We make everything from scratch, except the bagels. I bring them in from New York. And so yes, you are, you have New York water, just not brought in the water. You brought the whole thing. Correct. Correct. I like it. And then we've got another concept called Buffalo Louise, which is a chicken wing and burger joint. We've been around since 1987 and the brand is very hot. We're about to open up a second store in Carmel, Indiana. We're also in the football stadium. No coincidence. This is our first year in the stadium. The team is three and oh coincidence. I think not. I don't think it's a coincidence. I think you have, you know, I went and saw Pearl Jam in 2016 at Wrigley field and then the Cubs won the world series. I think every Cubs fan should send me a letter to say thank you for me going into Wrigley. I think that's a logical connection. I agree with that.

20:01No coincidence that I was there. I brought good juju to the entire thing. Are you a Cubs fan or? No, I'm an angel fan. I'm originally from California. So I'm 36 years in Nashville, but it's a thing. Nice. So what I want to talk about, if it's okay with you and your audience. Of course. So I know Nashville is a smoking hot city right now. Everything in Nashville is on fire. I understand it is the number one place for bachelorette parties from what I understand. It's been that way for like 10 years. And I don't know much about nothing, but if they need somebody to show for them around, I'd like to volunteer for the job. There's a lot of people that do that. My dad does that actually. He's got stories. He is a retired music guy. I guarantee he's got stories. And he drives bachelorette and we sit around by his pool and he tells me like the crazy stuff that happens in his Tahoe. It's really funny. Correct. He loves it. It's like his favorite thing. Good for dad. And so your dad's in the music business. Well, that's a perfect lead in to what I wanted to talk about. So Nashville not only is for bachelorette parties and obviously for barbecue and country music. Well, music is the thing. Music. Music City USA. Thank you.

21:12And so my son Ben in 2007, he was 19 and a half. He was an extremely gifted musician, battled with depression, ADD, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And sadly takes his life at 2007. And he let me thank you. Yeah. Well, so my goal in life from this point forward has always been to make a lemon lemonade out of a horrific lemon. And I feel very fortunate because my son left me 11 songs to work with, to do something with. And I'm hoping that if you do wear this and hoping your audience can maybe listen to some of his music, that'd be amazing because everyone who hears my story says, well, I get it. The dad wants to keep his son's music alive and that's very noble. But when they listen to the music and they're nice enough to get back to me, they're like, Ed, I got to tell you, I was not expecting much. Your son was talented beyond measure. And that's how I feel. I've never stopped believing in it. I've never stopped trying to talk about it when I saw you were here today. And now the irony is, so through the years we've been associated with a couple of not-for-profits, because by the way, I have no desire to make a penny over this project. I want the music to get out there. And in a perfect world, it'll raise millions of dollars, much like we are the world, much like do they know it's Christmas time at all such that money, because as you know, the arts can move mountains. They can move mountains, unlike maybe anything else, because it joins us together. It creates a feeling, a vibe that I don't think anything else can do. And so through the years, I got associated with Centerstone, which is a mental health not-for-profit located where? Nashville, Tennessee. Correct. And so if any of your audience streams my son's music, Ben Schwartzman, I think somebody makes like an eighth of a penny. Well, those eighths of a penny go to Centerstone. So why am I here? I'm here because even though we're on all the streaming services, and there are people who play, and he's been played all over the world, I'm looking for more. I'm greedy. I'm not looking to make a penny, but I'm greedy, and I believe in the project. And my hope is that one of your listeners is going to download some of his music. Is downloading? Do you still download? I don't even know the term, but they'll

23:15stream, download, whatever the heck it is. I don't know. You listen to it. Correct. That's what you do now. You don't put a CD or a record or an 8-track. Correct. You just listen to it. It's funny you said CD. So this dream was hatched literally the day after he died, and obviously I'm in a much different mental state that I could be glib and talk about it, but I'm 17 years into this journey. And I didn't ask for this assignment, and God only knows I'd give anything not to be on this journey, but he's my son, and I'm the only one who could carry the ball. But when he first died in 2007, my dream was to have a two CD box set. Remember those? One CD would be Ben's 11 Songs, and the other CD would be artists like Bono, Christina Aguilera, all the big names from then. These people aren't even recording it. Covering his songs? Correct. And they would do a version of it, and again, like We Are The World or Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All, and raise millions of dollars to, I mean, Lord only knows it's even harder and harder for kids today. I mean, between the phones and all the social media pressure, suicide rates are off the charts, off the charts.

24:22And obviously if I could help, there's a phrase in the Tomlin, it says if you save one life, you save the world. And I know we can't save them all, but if I could save one, I feel like we did something. I think that this, first of all, thank you for sharing what you shared. And I have two sons. I couldn't fathom what you went through. And this industry has so much of that, this hospitality industry. And there's so many, I don't know anybody who hasn't lost somebody to that. And it's almost like a, it's like a cancer. You never know somebody with cancer, but in this industry, there's a lot of depression. There's a lot of alcoholism. There's a lot of mental health issues. And I don't think there's enough being done about it. I'm an alcoholic. I don't, I don't drink alcohol. I've, I was able to like, as of now, I mean, it's a daily thing, but I was able to kind of get out of it. But we need to support anywhere we can that's going to help people with mental illnesses so that fathers don't have to deal with what you've had to deal with. Well, it's funny. You said, you know, you, you were very empathetic and said, you know, I can't imagine what you went through. I remember when I would meet dads who would tell me they lost their son. This is when Ben was alive. And I would say to myself, how could they talk about him with not without being in tears? What's the matter with this? I can't talk about it to you right now. That's why I'm, that's why I'm saying this. And so it is amazing, you know, the phrase time heals all wounds. I got a scar as big as any scar in the history of scars, and I can get deep and dark real fast. I don't think that's why I'm here. No, but it's all part of, sadly, it's part of life. And you say the hospitality industry, the industry that I would say has a beat is the music industry. Yeah. I mean, when I tell my story and if I'm, and I've been in front of a lot of artists, and I've communicated with guys like Zach Brown, Eric Clapton, John Mellencamp. I've had what I call near misses every single time. And my guess is just from talking to you, if this show airs, I'll have another couple of near misses. And so my goal is you never know that all I need is one person to say, I want to take this ball and run with it

26:25just a little bit. And again, I'm not looking to make a penny. My whole goal is not to make a penny. My whole goal is I think the music is if the music's not worth while listening to, then the project means nothing. But if you take the time and listen to the music, I think you'll understand why I'm sitting here talking. I will commit to listening to the music. And then I will say, if you're out there, check his music out. And it's every listen that you put out there is going to help somebody else help hopefully prevent another father to not have to go through this. Amen. Thank you, Brandon. Ed, we're doing 10 minutes a person. Well, good. An honor meeting you as well. Thank you for sharing what you shared. And if you are so inclined and you are in Indiana, Bloomington, Bloomington at home of the Hoosiers, go check out Gables Bagels. And I want to say Baba Louie, but it's not it's a that's like my father never could say it right to the day he died. Buffa Louie, Buffa Louie. You got it. I was a Baba Louie is old. Everything by Buffalo, but Buffa Louie. Exactly. I love it. Well done. Thank you, Ed, for joining us today. Thank you, Brandon. Hey, before you go, will you give me one more time where people can hear this music? Sure.

27:32Ben Schwartzman, S.C.H. It's a it's two syllables, but a very long name. S.C.H. W.A.R. T.Z.M.A.N. Ben Schwartzman. He's on all the streaming services. I also, if you want to dig a little bit deeper into the project, Google my name and put my son's name afterwards. Ed Schwartzman, Ben Schwartzman. We've been on the front page of the Indianapolis Star. We've been on the NBC News. I've been pushing this. I've been pushing this rock up a hill. I just need somebody to come alongside me and push with me. And I think we can get it up and over. Good, man. Well, hopefully somebody Nashville hears this. That's what they want to do. That's the dream. Thanks, Ed. Thanks for having me. All right. There he is. Ed Schwartzman. Wow. You know, so if you're in the music industry or you're somebody and you are a musician or something and you want to help them out, that would be a really cool thing to do. I mean, I think it's an interesting thing. Yeah. This is the show. You're sitting there and so many people come up and as we get going here, there are so many other people.

28:54We just kind of had a line of people waiting for the interviews and it was so much fun. I felt like the guy from the red zone network, you know, who goes seven hours of commercial free radio and he never gets up and does anything, doesn't pee, doesn't do it. Like he's just like, how do you do that? That's what this was like for a long time and it was a blast and just jumping from interview to interview to interview. And this next one is no different. Eric Jones from Smoke Show Barbecue. One of the nicest people I think I've ever met. Tim, what'd you think? And again, we are back here at the Gordon Food Service Show and I'm joined with the owner of Smoke Show Barbecue. His name is Eric Jones and I'm also joined with Jason Smith. Jason Smith is the manager and distribution here for Gordon Food Service. You both work together at Gordon Food Service and you know each other. So I said, Jason, let's jump on here too with us. How are you guys doing? Are you enjoying the show so far? It's been great so far. First time we've ever done it. So you've had the restaurant for how long? It's been about five months. Five months. So have you seen your family since then? Yeah, a lot of them work with us. So there you go. And I guess you're naming the the concept after your wife. Yep, she's the one that's Smoke Show. Absolutely. Right? Uh-huh.

30:07She's the one that came up with the name. Really? So tell me what kind of barbecue are you doing? Well, just traditional barbecue. We've got brisket, pulled pork, and chicken wings normally. How are you cooking it? Low and slow. But are you using wood? Are you using pellets? I don't know. No, no, we use wood. We use a mixture of cherry and bourbon barrel. So just a little bit different types of woods. So tell me the logic here because I am an amateur pit master. I have a whole hog pit in my backyard and I use cherry and I use oak and I use, but I've always used like one wood and then somebody, the guy at the wood yard said, hey, you should use a mixture of both. And I went what, how, how is that a thing? You're using a mixture. What does that do to the actual barbecue? So cherry or any type of fruit wood is going to give you a light smoky fruity type of flavor. And then your oak, which is bourbon barrel is white oak is going to give it that more that earthy more of a heavier but not so heavy smoke like a hickory wood. Are these used bourbon barrels? So they actually were bourbon. Yes. Charred bourbon. Yeah. Being in the heart of bourbon country, it makes sense. We have pretty good access to those. Yeah. There's a lot. But me and Eric have a good story because about 11, 12 years ago, we were, I cook better barbecue than you. And he's like, no, I cook better. Let's tell the story, Jason. So there was two of us, me and Eric and then a son-in-law, Cody, and we invited a bunch of family and friends over and had a little rib cook off. And it was just kind of the people kind of judged and everybody liked it so well that we did it again the next year and seven people competed. And then the next year we had KCBS judges come in. What fast forward to this year, it was 11th year. We had over 250 people at the house. We had 23 or 24 smokers rolling and we had trophies, t-shirts, DJ, 50, 50 raffle. This has come into a big, big deal back home. And it kind of has a lot of us aspiring to do what we like to

32:13do, which is cook. And we've had three or four people like Eric open up a restaurant, open up a catering business, or open up a food truck off of what we do. That's so cool, man. Absolutely. I love that. And so you guys, it's your house you do this? I live on 40 acres out in southern Indiana and we have like a wood stock. That's crazy. I would love to be one of your neighbors on one of those days. You walk outside and you're like, what the hell is going on? That's delicious. What's your philosophy on smoking meat? You guys been doing this your whole life? Just the last 15 years probably. What got you into doing it? We had an argument of who could cook better and that's what started the whole thing. So now you're a restaurant owner at the GFS food show and you're a restaurant owner and you're making barbecue based around you guys having an argument. That's where it all started. Well now I know why Jason's here in this interview. I'm looking for royalties. He's like at least 2%, right? Something? Right. But no, we both trade ideas. We have a lot of other group of people that do the same thing and we all just kick back ideas. We're very competitive but we're just a big family and we have that contest every year and brings all of us together and we all try to support everybody in what they do. Man, that's so cool. That's just a neat time for everybody to get together and I love cooking barbecue because you can't speed it up. No. And it takes a long time. You earn what you get. You earn what you get but I love in Pat Martin's book, Life of Fire, he says I love road trips. I love road trips because half the fun of going somewhere is getting there. Stopping at the little barbecue place on the roadside or whatever but with your buddies going, I can fly to Florida in two hours but it takes me 10 hours to drive. With my friends, that's quality time. Cooking barbecue is similar.

34:16It takes 12 hours to cook this full thing and I got to hang out with my friends for 12 hours and treat the shit around a bonfire and I went, God, he's right. I want to do that. I want to hang out It's an excuse for you guys. It's like fantasy football draft day. Hey, we're doing a draft but we're going to be cooking barbecue all day too and make an event out of it. Sure. And so I totally see the camaraderie and you just said, I'm gonna make a business out of this. Right. How's business going? It's been going great. It's definitely had its ups and downs but starting any business will. What's the downs? We'll start with the downs. Starting off, what's a down? Well, it is just the challenges involved in a restaurant. Hiring people. Hiring. We've been really, really lucky. We have some really great people. Probably luckier than most places that hire. I would say the biggest challenge is trying to guess how much food you need the next day. Dealing with the building and all the maintenance that goes on with it and just the back end stuff has been the hardest to do. Cooking the food has been the easiest because we've done that for years. Well, so what did you take from your time at Gordon Food Service? Like just knowledge from working at Gordon Food Service that you took into owning the restaurant? You're not getting six day week deliveries? Right. Yeah. You've kind of got to plan in advance of what you're going to get based on the history and what you've got to do with that. But just some of the products that you can get, some things make it easier. Some things might not be the cheapest thing you can get but it's the highest quality. And that makes a difference. Right. And people can, you can definitely cook food cheaply but it's not the best. And at Smoke Show, we want the best food.

36:10So when you come, you're going to get the best brisket you've ever had in your life. That's our goal. It's a bold statement. I like it. I like it. I want to challenge everybody to come and try it. I'll put that out and you know, I dare you to prove me wrong. So where is Smoke Show Barbecue? It is in New Haven, Kentucky. It's 127 South Main Street, New Haven, Kentucky. Tell me about New Haven, Kentucky. Where is, I've never been to New Haven, Kentucky. So if I'm in Nashville, how far away from Nashville are you? You are probably between an hour and a half and two hours from Nashville. That's not bad. Is it off 65? Like if I'm going north? Yeah, you would go and you would get off at Elizabethtown. Okay, so you're driving all up to E-Town and making a left? And then heading over a little bit west or east of there. Taking a right. Yeah, taking a right. Taking a right. And then that's, they got a lot of history there, right? Yeah. New Haven is a, it's a pretty old town. I guess their claim to fame, they have the Kentucky Train Museum and we are right across the street from that. Well, that's a good way to look at it. You're at the Kentucky, cross street from the Kentucky. So if you like trains and you like barbecue, that's the perfect place to be. You need to go visit New Haven, Kentucky. I love it. Anything you're looking for here that you're trying to find? Just new things. Cause if you're not changing what you're doing, if you're just putting out the same old thing every single day, then it gets boring and you can only eat so many pulled pork sandwiches before you're like, you know, I'm tired of pulled pork sandwiches. So we try to do a thing most every weekend is we call it a super secret Saturday is where we're a new business. Yeah. Where we're a new business, we want to put our best foot forward to our new customers. So the things we regularly have on the menu, like our brisket and our pulled pork, our smoked chicken wings, those are tried and true. Those are really good and staples. Yes, those are staples and we always have those and they're really, really good. But sometimes we like to push the envelope. We had a sandwich we experimented

38:12with. I encouraged the cooks to experiment with things when we have our downtime. Like I said, if you're not changing, you're not growing. So one of our best selling sandwiches is called the Mike drop. And Mike is one of the cooks in the kitchen. He's been with us since day one. So you've named some of these dishes after the employees. That's awesome. Yep. So it's a, it creates a great culture when you do, when you do that. It's a smash burger with cheddar cheese. It's got our brisket on there, smoked mac and cheese and our signature barbecue sauce all on that. It's a massive sandwich, but it's really good. We've done Cuban sandwiches. We have the barbecue bin. We've had all kinds of things. Tyler, one of our cooks, we have Tyler tacos, all kinds of things that we do. And we try to, we try to switch it up when it's something that's really, really good. We put it on the menu permanently. Everything we've tried has been great, but you know, you never know if it's going to be a hit or miss and that's probably do it on Facebook to our followers. We don't advertise it except for on there. And if you're one of our followers, you come in on the weekends and you ask for it. And that's kind of a special thank you to our loyal customers. And it's so brilliant. Yep. And if something just doesn't hit the mark, we don't want that to be your first impression, you know, so it's kind of a twofold benefits. Wow. Well, I'm so excited you guys stopped by today. And I think this is a really cool story. And if I'm in new Haven, right, I'm going, I want to check it out. I want to check it anyway. Sounds delicious. And thanks for stopping by today. And if you're out there and you're heading to Louisville or you're in Elizabeth town for some reason, or you're going to Bourbon country, swing by and have the best brisket of your life. I guarantee it. Okay. Well, that's it.

39:50So that's, that's a bold statement. I love it. Right. Thank you again, Eric Jason, for joining us here on Nashville restaurant radio. Thank you so much. We are going to keep the fun going here and we are going to bring in the burger boys, Andy and Cody live as we're just kind of talking. We're just going to jump in right now. I've started recording now. So anything you say will be used against you in the court of Nashville restaurant radio. You got to pull the chair up. You got to talk. Do you see how close I am to the microphone? I know. I just don't want to, I don't want to like a block out Cody, you know, we're not being filmed. I'm so big. It's a true story. Yeah. But you want to be able to look at Brandon in the eyes longingly. Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry, Andy. That's not your burden to bear. Okay. I have been trying to interview the bad luck burger club for the last hour and a half. You guys actually got in the chairs earlier. We did. And then you got kicked out by, he was like, I need to leave and I need to talk to this guy. That dang bagel guy, dude. He was awesome. He had a really interesting, interesting story.

40:55I won't get to get into it right now, but I understood what he was talking about and it was good that I got to talk to him. Yeah. But we have got Andy and Cody from the bad luck burger club in Louisville, Kentucky. We're at the, Oh, I got that. Yeah, I did. Yeah. We're here. The crowd goes wild. We're here. That's excellent. Live. God, it's been a long time. I see you around town. I don't see Cody ever. I see you around town. And then I had lunch the other day with Sean Porter and you guys did this video where you, that goes a funny April fool's thing, where you guys acted like each other. They do a little switcheroo and he did the smash dogs. Yeah. And when he took his hat off, he goes, Hey, I mean, I fucking fell out. I like laughed out louder than you being daddy. How often do you get like compared like, man, I love your hot dog. I was going to have you call him like, man, I just want to say, I love your hot dogs, dude. Yeah.

42:00It's insane actually, how much people think I'm him. Like I was at the car wash like a couple weeks ago and a guy was like, yo dude, I love your hot dogs, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, dude, that's not me. That's my buddy. And he like, wouldn't believe that I wasn't Sean. He kept like saying, are you sure, man? I heard you guys just opened up a spot in Madison. And I was like, yeah, pretty sure. But it's not me. Yeah. How's it going? I think the last time you guys were on the show, it was like, you guys were doing pop-ups. Yeah. Lots of long time. It was you guys like, how do you guys manage this? Well, we just choose a place and then we go out and we, we, we, we set up and we do this and it's just us too. Yeah. You guys, I feel like you've grown since then. Yeah. A little bit. Yeah. It's been wild. I actually listened to that episode. Like me and you were chatting back and forth about doing this again sometime. So I went and listened to that episode recently, maybe about a month ago. And so much has changed. I mean, it was literally me and Cody underneath the tent. By this point we have two food trucks, 10 employees, and we're open every single day of the week, you know, running multiple spots at a time. So it's crazy. And you guys are part, you have a permanent like parking fixture. Are you at the honey tree metery? Is that what you are? Okay. Yeah. Honey tree. Yep. We're there seven days a week rocking and rolling. Yeah, it's cool. It's been an amazing partnership. Those is rule.

43:33And just couldn't have, we were like trying to figure out what our next move was. And it was always like, let's find a spot to park in front of all the time, you know, and that that's our baby step to a brick and mortar and drew from honey tree reached out to us last year and put all the wheels in motion and finally got in there in January of this year. So we've been there nine months, seven days a week, just crushing. And actually the first two or three years of us doing the tent and the food truck and stuff was really just like me and Cody partying. It wasn't really that big of a business. And now it's like, you know, we're like, we're in the middle of a workman's comp claim. Cause the dude got fired or not fired, but burned like, so, you know, it's like, it went from just like, you know, two dudes making burgers to like, we're real business now. Should I'm the HR department, right? Right. We send everybody Cody for HR. We say he's the real business because I'm totally qualified for that.

44:34Yeah, we, we did this forever. I was like HR, general managers or HR, and we hired an actual HR person to do like all of our HR. And she goes, what do you do for this? And I'm like, we are, she's like, Jesus Christ, what are you guys doing? Like, what is this? And I'm like, we don't know. We're doing our best. We're trying to do the next right thing that we can for everybody, but I don't fucking know any of like the real stuff I'm supposed to do. I'm just trying to use my moral compass and be good. I don't know. I don't, I can't afford an HR person. Yeah. That's us. We just, we try to operate with our moral compass of doing the right thing by everybody. And that'll work until it doesn't work. And we'll figure out what's next. And then you'll figure it out and you'll, you should do a consult with one of them and kind of go, Hey, we're doing this. Like, yeah, don't do that. Like, Oh, I didn't know the ramifications of this. There's a lot of that. And yeah, so this is so much, are you guys having fun here at the show? Have you found anything good? Are you here just to like walk around and not be in the truck for the day? Or are you here because you're specifically looking for something? Man, we didn't come with any like real agenda. Our Sarah was like, they've been trying to get us to come to this for like the last couple of years. And so we have a pretty specific dialed menu that, you know, we're not going to go add a taquito or something to the menu, you know? Although taquitos are delicious.

45:58They're so good. Do you know what a crispy dough is? I need to learn. Cody never heard that. It's pretty much a taquito, but it's got a different wrapper breading on it. That's like a taco, like a Monte Cristo, like a taco that's like roll, you drop it in, then deep fry it or something. Andy described it as a crispy taquito. And I said they're already supposed to be crispy. I don't get it. I don't know. It's like flaky. But anyway, yeah, we're not getting any of those while we're here. But we've talked to a couple of our providers and talked to a couple that we want to get some, you know, some deals on and just kind of seeing what's out there. When you when you get into this thing, not knowing what you're doing whatsoever, then you only know what you do. It's kind of fun to come learn. Oh, like, this might not be something that we're going to use in our food truck right now. But, you know, another year to know that they're doing or we've been making X from scratch when there's a really great packaged version of it. Sure. Available to us that it has a good quality than all the things that can save you money and cuts down for everybody.

47:03Yeah. I mean, that's the whole thing. Yeah. So yeah, it's cool to just peruse and see what exists, you know, stuff we have never even considered or thought of. Are you guys playing any music? Dude, Cody's going to Germany next week. You're going to Germany. What part? Flying into Dusseldorf and then taking a train somewhere from the music, playing a festival out there. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. He's a true rocker. I think you're pretty much a true rocker too. I've seen some videos of you used to be singing up there. When did you give it up? Like last week? Yeah. Well, like, should I see you I'm performing this day and you're out there. Yeah. Well, we did a festival last year and we did two hometown sold out shows in Nashville this year. So yeah, you're still doing music. Not really, you know, like I don't plan, I don't have anything on the books to do it again. Okay. At this point, my band's all decided unless Japan calls us, we're kind of done. We've done everything we want to do, but we've never been to Japan. So if they call us, we would rock.

48:07I love that you just put that out there into the world, like that energy. They're like, Hey, we'll, we'll go to Japan. Let's go. Yeah. Give us a call. If there's some Japanese guy listening to the Nashville restaurant radio, then come on. There's like 52 countries that listen to this show. That's cool. I mean, like on a regular basis, like of the time this has been a show 50, it shows me like the demographic of where people listen to 52 other countries. Like who's listening to this in Swahili? I don't understand what's happening there or Germany's a big one. UK, a lot of people in UK listen. That's cool. Worldwide, dude. I don't know, man. I don't know if it's one guy who's from Nashville, who's vacationing there and one to listen to a podcast on a walk worldwide restaurant radio. More like it. It's a whole thing, man. Heck yeah, dude. So what else is happening guys? I mean, I want to do it. I want to get you guys both in and do like another full interview and we should. Yeah. Yeah. It'd be cool to talk about the growth and all the, there's just so much I think to try to fit in. But what's next? I mean, you're, we're there and now you're here. Like what's a year from now, where do you see the bad luck burger club? Do you guys have a brick and mortar and sites? We don't have, we don't have anything directly insights, but I mean, we, we have a couple brokers that reach out to us and show us stuff every now and again. And it's just, this year has been us really learning how to actually put in systems in place to, you know, run a restaurant and have the infrastructure dialed. Cause like the food, you know, the trailer that we're doing at honey tree, seven days a week, 10 employees in there. It's, it's getting our footing and our baby steps and learning how to actually staff and run a restaurant. But that's, that's our next goal is to, is to find a spot for sure. I love it. I have a broker who's a sponsor of the show, the Chandler James team over at Lee and associates. And I don't know. We've kind of just kind of done

50:13our own, but working with the broker, has that been helpful? Do they find spots for you? And how does that relationship work for you? We, we don't have any like technically signed things. It's just like ever since doing the tents, we started getting some attention from a couple firms in town. And so we haven't signed anything with anybody, you know, exclusively, but there's a couple of folks that when they see something that makes sense for us, cause everybody knows we're looking for covenant entry level, lower square footage. What part of town do you want to be in? East Nashville would be like our dream spot. You know, it makes sense. We're open to other, we've seen stuff all over town. Um, but East Nashville is our, our bread and butter, our vibe, you know, the, what if like a spot opened up in the wash? Is that something that you could see yourselves doing like a small spot like that? Or do you want like a full, I think a real, a real brick and mortar. I think we want to have seating and, uh, you know, we want to be in control.

51:14I don't know. I think we'd probably still do counter service. Um, you know, we want to be in control of the environment, you know, have a, a beer program or program and stuff. Yeah, there's definitely some profit in that too. Yeah. Um, and like the wash is very cool, but it's like, we have in our situation with the trailer outside of honey tree already, what that had, the only thing we don't have on site is a walk-in that we just, you know, our commissary is a block away. So it's not too rough. Well, it's every time I see you out in the wild, it always makes me happy. You guys are like probably one of my favorite interviews that we've done. I just love talking to you guys. I love your attitude and you're just like, hey, this is what we do. And it's so much fun and your energy is great. And when I saw you guys here, I lit up, I saw you guys were going to be here and I was like, yes, I get to talk to people I love. So thank you for being here. And thank you for always good catching up. Thanks for all the confusion earlier of getting people in and getting out. It's no problem. So cool, dude, to be honest, your, you know, a step in the ladder of why we're even here, because like our very first deal, you know, we were like a restaurant depo in everything. And our very first hang out with you and conversation, you got us hooked up with, um, somebody I can't even remember. We've had like three different guys at Gordon's now, but yeah, like you got us in contact with Gordon's and that's how we started working with them. And so now that we're at the Gordon's food show with you, Brandon still on Nashville restaurant radio to full circle moment, full circle, full circle moment, proving that whatever Gordon's is doing for you, you are in turn doing for them. So I think they call that ROI. So, you know, whoever is listening to this, just know that all those beef cases that we're ordering every week, which is a lot, it's all because of Brandon. Oh, hey,

53:14I will, I will, I will say that's not true, but thank you guys for the kind words. And, uh, they would have found us eventually, but they found it sooner because of the recommendation. Yeah. Yeah. Heck yeah. You guys are the best and, um, we'll talk soon in Nashville. Let's do it. All right. Deal. Yeah. And I think those are two of my favorite people in the whole city. Uh, best thing about doing the show was that I have so many favorite people because I get to meet so many characters and you guys are just absolutely amazing. Our next character is Andrea Chavez. She is the owner of the Rose pepper and a good friend of mine. Um, she's one of the people that I, um, I work with when it came down to getting GFS in there and she is, uh, loving what they're doing. It was really exciting to see her there. All these people that, uh, we've talked to bad luck, bird club guys said the same thing. They said, you know, Hey, look, we were, we're trying to figure out who we're going to use and we were on your show and you said you're going to restaurant deep. I'm like, man, you guys got to use GFS. And so they called GFS and they've been using GFS ever since. And they said, it's been an amazing partnership. So I love hearing that sort of thing. And, uh, again, if you ever have any questions about broad line questions or who you're using or why are using or how you can save a ton of money, uh, I like to help people do that. Um, I like to do that because it helps you succeed and it helps you stay local longer and I know how to do it. So again, reach out to me if you want to learn more about that brandon at new light hospitality.com or just send me a DM on Instagram at Brandon underscore in RR or call Paul Hunter from the last episode. He's an amazing guy too. Uh, let's get in with Andrea Chavez, the owner of Rose pepper. Oh, we're back here at the Gordon food service show. 2024 food show. Did you know that? It's not a food show. It's a show. The Gordon food service show. It is quite a show because they have the guy talking up here, but then they have all the different operational stuff.

55:16They have everything and it's a show and they have Nashville restaurant radio recording live. That's awesome. We're joined with Andrea Chavez. Nice. Nice. Knows how to pronounce it exactly right. Without me saying anything. This is like my fourth time being Andrea. I think the last time you said it's like, sure. Yeah. With an as at the end. That's exactly right. Andrea Chavez. Yeah. Not chairs. Not chairs. Not chairs. Andrea Chavez. Not cherries. Chavez. Andrea Chavez. Of Rose pepper Cantina. Of Rose pepper. She's the owner of Rose pepper Cantina. The iconic Rose pepper. Leslie Rothenberg is here with her staring at us laughing. One of my very capable managers. Very capable. Who is wearing a food themed dress. I will have you know. Yeah. It's a fruit themed dress. Kiwis. I like the kiwis and bananas and watermelon and limes and apples and oranges. Wow. There's all kinds of stuff and cherries. Yeah. She's been waiting to see if anybody else here is wearing themed clothing, but unfortunately I think she's been pretty disappointed. I will tell you one thing. Nobody's gonna have glasses like that. Those are fantastic. She's got a good look. She's got a good vibe. She really takes on the vibe of the Rose pepper for sure. Yes. You brought it to Louisville. Very colorful. Very colorful. Are you having fun today? Yeah. It's a good time. I mean I definitely came. This is Leslie's first one of these. I've been to a few of these and I came to you know to work. I've got I've already gotten on a bunch of lists straight away. I want to know what what's happening in the glove industry. I want to know what's going on with beef. The glove industry is out of control these days. Yeah. Just bananas.

56:56It's really bananas. Nitrile is bananas. But uh. Is that how you say it? Nitrile? I don't know. That's how I say it. I said nitrile. Nitrile gloves. Nitrile. I don't know. I like nitrile. It sounds like British. I kind of like nitrile. You know. You have to go nitrile. Nitrile. But uh yeah I came I came to talk about meats, pre-diced veggies, you know that kind of stuff. So I've already gotten on the lists. How have you been? It's been a while since you've been on the show. You were like a regular there for a minute and then we've all just been insane. I mean it's just been bananas right? Like uh trying to manage operations these days and like everybody I'm trying you know desperately obviously to keep costs down and move my labor numbers around because everybody is really struggling uh right now. Have you seen all those places that are closing on the east side? I mean just tons of them. It's it's a this is a hard business. It's rough. I mean it's rough out there. So I've been out there you know tap dancing for the folks uh that's for sure. Did you see I went a little viral the other day actually. I did a sign about Cybertrucks. I was going to ask you.

58:01I was going to say there's a yeah just when you think the world is great bam Cybertruck and then was that because the Cybertruck parked there? Was that on the fly? So the sign was already up and I thought if I do this somebody with a Cybertruck is going to park in front and we just got to make sure that we are ready to get a picture of it when it happens um because I think that could be really funny. I'm not saying that it's not a spontaneous you know the sign is a spontaneous outpouring of emotion but you know you sort of hope that some of these things can can connect and we did we had a Cybertruck came a couple of days after I had posted that sign but they parked in the side parking lot and they were a little bitchy. They were not uh I don't know if I could say bitchy on the air here. Whatever the fuck you want to say. How about that? Yeah and so we we sort of tried to get like a shot of them but they were like kind of angry people uh and then I you know I wouldn't figure that with it. It doesn't make sense to me but the the gentleman and I didn't put that it was a he even though I obviously it was going to be a he uh parked in front of the sign when Leslie was working and I hadn't even said anything to Leslie but she knows me so well she's so in tune with my needs as an owner that I was at home and she sent me these the perfect photographs of the Cybertruck in front of the sign and the guy had been apparently giddy to park it to get a spot right in front of a different guy different guy who was totally cool oh super cool super cool I didn't get I didn't get his name I wasn't there but I was I she sent me the pictures I posted them and within about 10 minutes I had like almost a thousand likes on the photo and I was like can you if he's sitting at the bar first of all tell him he doesn't have to pay full price for the drinks like I made a joke in the caption that he had to pay full price I was like also bring him a drink on me please because I appreciate the free press uh I think it's at like 5,000 likes right now which is super fun super cool and I was able to promote our because it was on a Monday I was able to promote our two for one Casa Margarita Mondays on it and guarantee that like 5,000 people saw it and I got a bunch of private messages from

01:00:04people that were like have you been doing this two for one thing for a long time I have but I've been calling it half off now I'm calling it two for one isn't it weird how one little phrase like that dude I'm telling you can go right into your ear hole and all of a sudden it will change the way you see or perceive something nobody cares about a six dollar Casa Margarita but everybody likes a two for one Casa Margarita yeah and if they didn't know it was twelve dollars to start exactly then two for one makes sense and they have to have two yeah exactly you do half price you're trying to do them a favor you only have one but then you get a two for one I gotta give you a token or you're I'm just gonna do it as like I don't think you can do the tokens anymore I'm not sure that that's legal uh with the tokens because people can take them and then bring them back on another day and you can't do that that's for sure not legal um but uh I thought it was just because like two for one beers like if I got a two for one beer and they brought me two beers it means I gotta slam one of them or if I'm just gonna enjoy the beer then I got a warm beer so they give you a token for when you're ready for the second one yeah you give them that because the bartender has to keep up with did you have your second one or did you not like it by ear it hasn't really taken off yet like so right now we're just tracking it well after this interview it's gonna take off yeah obviously this is this is gonna be the catalyst it's gonna be this monday's at rose pepper cantina four to seven p.m come get your two for one casa margaritas and really it only takes one so so is casa margarita like your house margarita is that house margarita yeah which has been voted best margarita in nashville how many years in a row every year that they've had the category yeah I mean oh it's like 14 um still but like that's undisputed champion at that point right they stopped having the category for a while because we were the only ones that ever got the number one spot and I think people were getting pissed off but you know hey I don't know Mike Tyson would knock people out in 90 seconds I mean you know what people stop wanting to fight them you know so I don't know you're the king you're the king we'll see these these days everybody's got their pr companies and whatnot but uh uh we'll see what happens with this year's voting I hope I hope we win again we're still I mean we don't mess with

01:02:08a good thing I think october 17th is when it comes out when it comes out we didn't do a lot of advertising for this year honestly we kind of I just been so busy everybody I don't and I don't know that I get like a huge bump from it from the Nashville scene like I don't get a lot of people that come in saying they saw us in the Nashville scene like oh again and like you know you know but uh but if you can get the best margarita in Nashville for 14 years in a row for two for one on Mondays like that makes your case of the Mondays go away exactly I've been toying with the idea if you guys want to just you know reach out to me and tell me what you think I've been thinking about doing it during the week during our slow period from two to four just because it's fun to say two for ones from two to four two four one two to four two to four I see what you did there I like that why not I've come get there come get drunk in the middle of the day listen if you're not day drinking you're not really doing it right like everybody's remote working now so are they yeah right isn't that what people are still doing nobody nobody went back to the office everybody hates going back to the office so people are working from home I think the companies are changing that now are they still changing I feel like people are doing a hybrid like a lot of the companies I've seen out there are people that might are my friends are doing like hybrid work so they're going in like three days a week working from home a couple days a week so on those couple of days why weren't from home there's nothing but distractions there come in the rose pepper and drink a margarita distract get distracted here are you distracted somewhere get distracted at rose pepper if you're gonna have to write emails write them with a margarita a really strong margarita yeah the best margarita in nashville work emails that you have under the influence of an irresponsible amount of tequila you know I sometimes guests come on and they don't give good advice and I'm gonna have to say this is fantastic advice well you know I spent a lot of time in corporate America uh you know in advertising as an attorney you know at various

01:04:12degrees of of soberness or lack thereof and I gotta tell you I did some of my best work with a couple of drinks in me so I'm just out here trying to help trying to help the common man so you should have a booth here just preach just take people to church hi marcos my rep marcos marcos is your rep have you known you and Brandon go way back yes we go way back marcos is the man he's a good dude yeah he's a good dude you're gonna show me some uh some terrace major alternatives yeah all right well Brandon it's been a delight but I'm gonna go save some getting cut up well this is a 10 minute interview so we're at 954 we're right there this is perfect you gotta hang out for five four it's been such a pleasure it's always a pleasure seeing you I feel like this is like a reunion of sorts here I've seen so many people I'm like holy shit I've seen you forever and I'm so delighted that you walked by and I got you got to spend such a good time and Leslie is it absolute pleasure to meet you too she is a bright shining light she absolutely is everybody stop by and say hi to Brandon give him 10 minutes of your time and then go to rose pepper on Mondays and get sloshed good times bye oh me the sober guy telling everybody to go um get sloshed that's that's it's responsible Brandon that's the responsible thing for you to do I don't care what you do have a good time with yourself um I just can't so the next person we're talking to uh this was a really fun impromptu conversation and I kind of talked him into coming over this is Howard Jones he is the owner of Kingdom Cafe here in Nashville and he had a one of his regulars with him a friend of his with him and this guy was was one of the best dressed people I've ever seen and he was so nice and I cannot wait to go over to the Kingdom Cafe it sounds absolutely delicious I have not eaten there yet but I intend to very very soon and um Howard I want Howard to come back on this show because he's just an interesting guy and very sharp and just had so much fun with this conversation

01:06:16I love the impromptu conversations people just coming by the table and just learning about them in a way that I don't think that we get to do very often so uh enjoy this last conversation with Howard Jones we're back again uh another another conversation impromptu here at the Gordon Food Service show we're joined with Howard Jones who is the owner of the Kingdom Cafe man I have to say you're one of the most dapper gentlemen that I have seen here today well thank you sir you look sharp as a tack as a tack it's a nice it's a nice outfit you got going on well thank you it's like my chef pants here you know sharp chef pants a little houndstooth going on I like the material on the shirt you just you got a hole is it built look it is now you just felt it oh you see this is kingdom way see we got it we gotta do it I like somebody who's well it's a thing I like to you know so when you walk in the Kingdom Cafe this is kind of like how you're gonna look everything's gonna look very nice it's very nostalgic we have a fireplace room we rent out I also have another bar side I'm about to start opening too but it's a very modern chill homie type of place man home-cooked meals we have soul food always a meatloaf fried chicken baked chicken to make bones you know nostalgic meats we also have macaroni and cheese the best macaroni kingdom macaroni and cheese is the best okay what makes the best macaroni and cheese let me tell you something let me tell you something you know a lot of people like to do things in this extra way I'm gonna put my thing in my smoked gruyere yeah you know what keep it how granny made it but what what happened to granny and and the pool off of it you know the cheese pool yeah come on that's important what happened to the cheese pool you know the co-host of my show when I'm not in Louisville at the Gordon foods for shows crystal deluna bogan and she owns the grilled cheesery yeah yeah yeah she's all about she has opened the the cafe too the cheese pull is everything we gotta have the cheese pull so so I think that the main thing is originality yes but also uh just keeping it keeping it simple you know how long have you been the owner over there how long has this been in existence so kingdom cafe has been in existence

01:08:20for about nine years wow we've been doing our thing for about nine years in conjunction with uh with um well yeah I would say nine nine to six years me and my father been managing that place for six years but it's been open for for nine okay so you took it over three years into it yeah and so maybe a year or two before the pandemic started yeah yeah my pops a pastor your pops is a pastor he's a pastor so hence the the the real kingdom cafe yeah being the kingdom yeah it's like it's like my church to be honest with you okay it's like you know so me feeding people every day it's like an everyday thing you know for people we need that we need positive positive vibes plus great great freaking food that like reminds you of your grandmother with you remind your family you know you go in there and you just ha you know you isn't that what isn't but so I mean look I've talked to like 15 different restaurant owners and chefs today and I think I've I've got that a lot that hospitality isn't dead between owners and a vision of what you want to do it sounds like this is what you guys do over there that's the thing that helps me sleep at night knowing that I've been able to nourish people and I'd say that like nourish people means to make you whole and there's an idea of eating somewhere to say to fill you like I'm full I can go drive to McDonald's and get full but to be nourished right and I feel like what you just described is nourishment it's not just I'm hungry I'll go eat I have it's transactional I've done this I did this the result is I'm now hungry like but going in there it's a whole experience soul experience oh hold on come on Yanni go Yanni what do you got it's a soul experience a soul experience so Yanni over here we she is a you don't work there I don't I'm a loyal customer but you came to Louisville with him yeah you know she twisted my arm you know so something something that you know she's a

01:10:21sweetheart let me tell you her spirit is really great and I brought her here to uh to kind of you know I see things you know she's definitely going to see it taste it with me and things like that just to get a different bird's eye view of some things for my wing spot I'm going to do some some some wingdom oh some wingdom uh-huh kingdom wingdom in a separate location is this like a new thing this can be called it's a eight imagine eight thousand wingdom cafe eight thousand square foot building to where you have a bar on one side and you have some home cooked food on the other two separate kitchens two separate areas like a gold vibe silver vibe oh two separate vibes here and you get alcohol and wings on another and you can go over and get some sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top if you want that with your wings I want that right now so damn good I'm like cabbage you can kind of mix match just not fries now you can get in your kids want some they need some vegetables you can just go no they need to learn what good food tastes like fries ain't good that's fries are fine I don't know every day every night again but that's that's nourishment that's right fresh veggies and uh where do you get your veggies so uh I you know what I go down to the farmer's market down there you know farmer's market is good get some good greens down there Gordon's foods is the next place I get my dad gum veggies that's right mark on produce yeah mark on produce look so I tell you Gordon's is my supplier I'm gonna shout out Gordon's I'm gonna shout out GFS again it's a family family affair with Gordon's see that's the thing they're not they're the only major company that isn't publicly owned and that's why I like them too it's a family thing and like that's what me and pops is about and uh hey and I appreciate you for having me over here I don't want to take too much of your time oh man no this is great I love talking with you all this is so much fun I I don't the fun side of this for me today is I've got to meet a lot of people that I didn't know you know no people here and there

01:12:22but like I got to meet a lot of people I didn't know and I got to learn that this really is just a big community of people that want to share love yeah and they want to they want to nourish people and there's a lot of hospitality like my faith is wasn't broken but I kind of started feeling like true hospitality was going out the window these days it's all about profit margins and this and this and this and that's all very important but man when you look at things in a non-scarcity mindset if you look at things in abundance you look at things in a I want to nourish people Nettie Parker from Nettie's is hollering out at us over here Miss Nettie we talked for a minute and she has a soul food restaurant about an hour from here and I like her vibe man I need that she's 70 years old she's getting it it looks fresh she has her her bar in there I mean that's what I'm going for that's what I'm getting to right there in Nashville on Jefferson Street and I don't mind man she 70 kicking it yeah bro I need that I need that motivation I'm telling you man this has been a fun show but meeting a lot of people they're making it happen she's funky man Louis Vuitton Paris you're talking about got a whole croissant what do you got going on down here where you know what are these shoes you got look Kohans man the walkables those are great those are great shoes breathables I like those you know yeah you know no Justin Murphy's look like you got the Jordan fives he has the fives and these are the uh it looks as if these are the retros okay they're retro top top threes okay yeah I thought I was out of there I'll throw the fives on today yeah I had a I brought a couple pairs like what am I gonna wear it in I got this morning I felt like sassy and I'm like I'm just gonna go on the fives today we're just gonna do it the fives are nice they're nice and they're comfortable that was the deciding factor they're very comfortable the cushy in the fives are they have more there's more I've got some ones and I brought some air attacks and I was like no no

01:14:26there's enough for it for like a 10-hour day on the floor walking around doing your thing I was lower back pain yeah I wanted I wanted comfy today that's what I did you know what I mean you know and your ankle's not gonna flop no if somebody put a basketball goal up here we'd have it'd be on I could jump a foot higher in these six three six four six six six six yeah you can do that I can still dunk that's easy 45 I have to push you I'd be tripping you in the paint Howard it's been a pleasure thank you so much for coming Yanni thank you kingdom cafe that's so nice I'm gonna come visit you yeah I'm gonna come visit you over at kingdom cafe I'm excited to come do that please bring my kids in we're gonna have a good time it's good really good really good try the meatloaf try the fried chicken of course you gotta come try brunch over at mariboldo I think you're gonna love that you know what I'm gonna go ahead and follow you too okay all right we're gonna we're gonna let everybody listening go we're gonna continue talking all right uh thank you guys again thank you well there it is it's a wrap 2024 Gordon food service show I think that was that like I love doing these things I love when people come in studio and you get to these long-form conversations it's so exciting we have an episode with chef v coming up very shortly he is now doing the flavor you may have known him from shahan or the hook or honest uh he's worked at john george the guy is amazing and this interview is going to be fantastic uh we're very excited to bring it to crystal is back for this one and uh I just I want to do more of these this this was great I really do want to go to newberg in evansville and and really meet some of these people and see their locations I was so inspired by so many amazing people you think you live in Nashville and everybody is really cool and we all have a really great community here but man it it's this hospitality community it's people in service that care about other people and everybody's there to help each other and everybody was willing to

01:16:28share everything that they had going on and that's that's what it's all about and I really am happy to bring this to you and thank you to gordon food service for taking me out to louisville we had a wonderful dinner the night before I think I referenced it several times just so much fun Michael Carter was absolutely amazing Paul uh hunter was absolutely amazing really enjoyed our conversations that we had um really thank you for listening to these again if you want to go back and you want to hear specific interviews go back and look at the show notes you can see the exact times for all of them we'll be back next week with chef V and thank you guys again hope you're being safe out there love you guys bye