Gabe and Brooks from Ladybird Taco

00:00We have a bonus episode for you today and it is brought to you by Cytex. Cytex is your uniform service, kitchen apparel, linen services, restroom and mat services, and first age services company serving middle Tennessee. They're delivering daily and they can do the things that others can't. High quality service, high quality product, and they maintain this throughout the entire pandemic. Let me tell you, I've been using Cytex for four years and the service is unbeatable. That is not something you hear all the time about a linen company. Let me tell you why, it's because I work with Ross Chandler and the entire team at Cytex. If you wanna talk about your linen company this way, you need to contact Ross Chandler, 270-823-2468. That's his cell number, he answers all the time. The guy is amazing and so is the company Cytex. So if you are looking again for a linen company to replace the terrible linen company you're working with, give them a call, 270-823-2468.

01:05That's Ross Chandler in Cytex. We are so excited to welcome a new sponsor to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Volunteer Welding Gas and Supply. Volunteer Welding Beverage Carbonation began serving bulk CO2 in beverages systems in 1976. They're a service oriented company that is passionate about and dedicated to beverage only gases. How does a gas company provide service? Well, you either know or you don't know until it's too late. And they use telemetry to monitor your system. Let's say that you're in the middle of a busy lunch and then you realize, hey, there's no carbonation in our Coke, this is a problem. What do you do? You call an 800 number, you put on hold to be told that maybe sometime in the next 24 hours, somebody will get out to you. Well, that's where the telemetry works. Volunteer Welding is monitoring your tank for that. If it gets low or there's a leak, they're gonna let you know beforehand. Imagine that call before lunch so you never have an 86 situation when you definitely don't need that.

02:11Wanna learn more? Give David Perry a call at 615-306-7455 or email him at dperryatvolunteerwelding.com. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. And welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We're coming at you with a bonus episode on a Friday. We're gonna be talking with Gabe and Brooks and they are partners of Lady Bird Taco. So I have worked with them, we've done some things in the past and I was having lunch there today and they're both there and I said, dude, do you guys wanna go do a podcast?

03:17And they were like, yeah, let's go do a podcast. So they're here in studio, they can see me right now doing this intro. So this is a little different today because this isn't an episode I had planned, this is a bonus. So it's gonna be Friday and you're gonna get to learn the whole story about Lady Bird Taco which I am so excited to learn myself and to share. And I think we should just jump right in. This is gonna be a full episode, this is gonna be a lot of fun. So welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Gabe and Brooks, partners for Lady Bird Taco. Welcome, Gabe, let's get your voice. Hey, hey, hey, thank you, glad to be here. Excited to have you here. And Brooks, what do you sound like? Hello. All right, that's all I got. I like the enthusiasm you came with there, Brooks. That's also the only word he says, he sounds nice. You're like, so what do you think about that? Hello. We're all still getting used to speaking to each other on microphones which is a fun thing to do, right? With these things around our head. These things around our head.

04:18We're not videoing this, you can't, you don't know what that looks like out there but it's happening. So welcome guys. Your tacos are freaking delicious, by the way. One of the first times I've had them was today. One of, did I say that? Like I'd had it before but no, today was my first time having the tacos. Yeah, it's about time. I gotta tell you, there is a taco you make with brisket and it has potatoes in it and it's, you hear potato and brisket and you're like, it's gonna be very doughy, almost like a potato-y thing, but it's not. You had, it's like scattered, covered, crispy, not covered, scattered, crispy Waffle House potatoes. So when you eat this thing with the brisket, there's like a crunch to it. Oh my God, that's out of control. And then you have the Walker Brothers kombucha which I absolutely love. I think I have a sticker on my computer right here for them. And then you have these salsas that you can, you just go get your own, you have a tomatillo, right? And then you've got a roja, which I'm guessing is just red.

05:19Yep. Yep. See, I learned, I got a little, that got less. Well done. And then there's one you call Patron. Yep. Tell me about the Patron sauce. So the Patron is a pepper, so it's how poblanos and jalapenos and a little bit of garlic emulsified together. And it is delicious. It does pack a little bit of a punch and for me personally, a little insider trick is to mix the Patron and the salsa roja together. I received this insider information before I ate one of my tacos and it was good intel. Oh yeah. It was good intel. Thank you for that. Appreciate that, Brooks. It's good stuff. So are you guys, you're Nashville native? What's your story? I'm asking Gabe. Yeah, yeah, Gabe here. I should be considered one at this point because I've been here a long time, but I'm not. I grew up in Michigan. Okay. The land of breakfast tacos, just kidding. Naturally, I was going to say that sounds why you should do breakfast tacos. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

06:20So you guys are only open breakfast and lunch. That's right. You're not a dinner spot. Breakfast and lunch. Could be, maybe should be, but yeah. Do what you do. And that's enough, man. Yeah, that's enough. Yeah, so I grew up in Michigan. Moved here for music. How long have you been here in Nashville? A long time, since 98. So that's 25 years. 25 years. I moved here in 88. You win. Well, it's not a competition, but the math is easier when you have by tens. So you said 98 and I said 88. You said 25 and then I knew to add 10. That's how I know it's 35. So 34, oh, I mean, 35 years. Yeah. See, we're not having fun in here today. This is not how we do it. Yeah, we gotta be more serious or not. So you've been here 25 years. Yep. And tell me about your story. What's your musician? What do you, did you move to a band? Were you like in Winger or something? I wish. I was a huge fan of Winger.

07:21Me and Kip. Now they come into our restaurant a lot and Paul, his guitar player of Winger is a good friend of mine and he, that's why I was joking because Paul literally is the guitar player of Winger and he. Oh, and he's a great one. He's a good one. He's a great guy too. Yeah, I believe it. Never played with Winger, but yeah. Just a- Cinderella? Love them too and haven't met a couple of them. Yeah. I just got asked to go on a tour when I was a youngster. And it never occurred to me I could make a career out of music. I grew up loving music and then was going to school to be a teacher because I thought, that's what you do to make a living. And then somebody asked me to go on this tour. Who told you that? Where I would make money and play in front of sold out crowds every night and travel the country. And I was like, didn't occur to me that was a thing. Yes, please. And so I did and when the tour finished I was like, I'm gonna move to Nashville.

08:24So I did spend the last couple decades doing lots of touring. Who were you on tour with? Can you name drop for us? I can. They may be names you know, they might not. I've done lots of work in folk music, Christian music, and country music. None in the- Who, let's go Christian and country because I don't know any folk, but I know Christian and country. Don't tell Kip, okay. I've never done rock. It's all right. Yeah, so I toured, started out touring with a guy named Andrew Peterson who's still tours. We still do a Christmas tour every year. We've done it for over 20 years now. But he's also an author. He's spread his wings. He does lots of amazing things here in this city. The guy named Bebo Norman who- Yeah. Doesn't do music anymore, but for years he did. Really? And eventually it got to the point where it was Bebo and myself. That was the show. It was just the two of us standing on stage. Like who needs a band?

09:25Yeah. Just two dorky guys at the time that were single and yeah, playing- What'd you play? Did you play guitar? Playing songs on an acoustic guitar. Yeah, I mean more than that just because it's only two of us, but Dobro. Nice. I play slidey things. Play this thing called the hammered dulcimer. This trapezoidal instrument. Yeah, I've heard of that. There's a festival every year in Michigan, so- A hammered dulcimer festival? Yeah, exactly. I bet the crowd for that. I bet the crowd for that's just nuts. You don't find breakfast tacos there, but you got hammered dulcimers. It's like, I'll bet you the contact high is just out of control from the hammered dulcimer concert. Just like these guys are wild. Oh man, I'll tell you what. You get two hammers on my hand and it gets wild. It does get wild. No, but I've just always been a yes man when it comes to music where it's like, hey, can you do this?

10:26And I'll either, yes I do, or I'll lie and say yes I do and then go figure it out really quick the best that I can, fake it, and then get good at it later on. So that's- How did the restaurant get in? How did you get into the restaurant world? Yeah. Somebody asked you, you said, yeah, I can do that. And then all of a sudden you had to figure out how to make tacos? Exactly. That takes a little longer than an instrument for me though, for some reason. I married Texas a number of years ago, almost 20 years ago. And between touring and music, playing everywhere, but that includes Texas, and then marrying Texas, spent a lot of time there, and have this thing called a breakfast taco on this thing called a house made tortilla. And there are things that don't exist, certainly don't exist in Michigan where I grew up, and don't exist in most places outside of Texas. And you send a guy like me, I guess, who loves something that much into these areas where I can have it, and then I would come home for years and years and not be able to get this thing that I loved.

11:35I finally got so tired of waiting, I was like, I wonder if I can do it. I know so nothing about restaurants. But that's why you have Brooks. Is. Yeah. So you're a smart guy, you get smart guys around you that can help operate them, and then that's why you need, that's why you need partners. It works well, it makes me look good too. It's like, man, he did so awesome. I'm like, yeah, I didn't do much, just had this idea. But I will say that I did develop the tortilla. I spent about three years, which is. The viewer of the first one? That truly is. Or the tortilla that you use. Well, yeah, for the world I developed them, but then also I changed the recipe a little bit. Created the tortilla, that little thing around there. I created the tortilla, so there's that. Oh gosh, man, it was like, it was easy to try something without committing to it. So I bought a little Kamal at my house and bought this. Just did it. Tortilla press, and it costs a little bit of money, but nobody's watching.

12:38And so I'm able to spend time staying up late whenever I've got time at night and make tortillas. And see how they go. And as it turns out, there's an art to it, which goes back to the world I come from. Your tacos are very, the tortillas are very good. Thank you. I like the tortillas. You know what eating your tacos felt like? Heaven. Heaven. Well, yeah, but you reminded me of like, it's like you were making really good burritos. Tell me if I'm, I'm way off base here, cause I'm just, this is just a thing. But you like the tortillas were too small. And you're like, well, we're just gonna put all the stuff that's in the burrito, but in the smaller tortilla, it's not gonna fully close up and wrap. So you just have to eat it differently. Yeah. That's like a compliment. Oh, thank you. Because some people make tacos and they're like, where's the rest of the shit that goes in the taco? That's right. And yours felt like it was like a burrito that you just used a smaller tortilla and weren't able to wrap it.

13:42So it's like this heavy, the tacos were full. I got four tacos. I couldn't eat them all. And I can normally kill four tacos. Yep. I'm a professional eater. Yep. I couldn't do it. I was like, these are, and they were delicious. Thank you. So, okay. So then I'm sorry. I get, I'm excited because I just ate them. No, no. I'm still enjoying them. No, I love it. The thing to me is that it's, with the tortillas and taking the time, because I was forced to, cause I don't know, didn't know what I was doing. I was learning all along the way is that I didn't know what not to do. So every recipe I would look up in the world, it would say to make a tortilla this way. And I was like, why does everybody make it the same way? There has to be another way. So I would experiment, try other ways, and then hand them out to a bunch of people to try multiple times a week. And the people like the ones that were made the way they're not supposed to be made. What do you do different? Ooh, can I tell? Tell, do tell, we're all on the edge of our seats.

14:43It might sound simple, but it's a big difference, which is that tortillas are historically made, flour tortillas are made with lard as the fat that's in them, which I think, at least for a certain demographic of person, they wouldn't even realize there's any fat in a tortilla. It's bread, that's what they think. Sure. It's not, it's got fat in it. And that's what makes it, when a tortilla cooks the way it's intended to, it's this flat thing that you eat a burrito or a taco with, but not really, because when you cook it, it turns into a balloon, it inflates. The centers both get hot, separate from each other, pops up and finishes cooking the inside. So it's kind of magic, tortillas are. And that's what that lard does. And so I tried, it sounds simple, I'm just saying that many people do it. I was like, I don't really like lard. It sounds gross, even when I say it, lard.

15:45I'm gonna try a different kind of fat. So I tried butter, just butter in the fridge. And it worked? You can't see me right now, but my hands are making the balloon effect again. I can see you. That thing, yeah, yeah, that's true. That tortilla pops up and it, it's, I mean, I can explain it to you, but the truth is it felt like magic to me in that moment, because it was like, ooh, I came up with a twist, it worked. So that's the difference. Yeah, that's the difference. And it makes a big difference, in my opinion, even with texture, as well as taste. Okay, so. Can I tell you one more thing there, really quick? No, okay, one more thing. There's a punchline to this whole thing, which is that I'm gluten intolerant. Not because I wanna be trendy, but because I actually can't have gluten. So I didn't get to try any of these. So you just give them to everybody else. Spent three years of making tortillas for other people, until they all agreed that this is the one. And then was left with, what do I eat?

16:48So at Ladybird, we also offer extremely wonderful corn tortillas, because that's the one I can eat. So. Nice. Fresh masa, it's a real tortilla. I didn't get to try one of those. They're. I will do that next time, because I will be back. It's a different thing, because you know, most corn. I'll speak for Michigan, but lots of places. When you get a corn tortilla, it's got these little lines that go across it. And that lets you know, like this was made somewhere else, and it's processed. You all couldn't see my fingers, but I was illustrating it for everybody again. When you have a real corn tortilla, if you've not had one before, you would almost say, wait, that's not a corn tortilla. No, no, no, it is the thing you've been eating all these years. Those aren't corn tortillas. That's how different they are. The texture, the taste, same thing. They balloon up. It's the real deal. Well, I mean, I'll go back after this and go get my dessert. And when you get a corn tortilla at Ladybird, we wrap it in gold foil, which makes it feel like you won Willy Wonka's prize.

17:52Yeah. Nice. The golden ticket. Yes. You know what I loved also is that you order by number, right? So I did not go breakfast bread tacos. You have number one through six, I think your breakfast tacos. And then seven through like 13 or something is your lunch tacos. And I got like number seven, nine, 10 and 12 or something. But when they came out, the actual tacos were wrapped in foil, silver foil, but there was a piece of tape around them that had the number of taco that it was. Like I go to many places and you just get these tacos and you're like, which one is the four? And they're like, the one that has the brisket in it. And you're like, I don't, I don't even remember what I ordered, but these did, these had them. They have these really, that's a custom tape that you guys use? Yeah. And they're also, each taco has its own branding. So they all have their own like iconography. I didn't, I noticed there was like a animal on it or something, like a little thing on it.

18:52So they all have their own iconography? Yep. Yep. Yep. Is that the word? I didn't, I didn't, is that a word? Five syllables, man, I'm in. Yeah. That was impressive. What a way to, what a good segue to talk to Brooks for a second. Iconography. You're welcome. So you were a literary genius? Yeah. You know, like Gabe, he was from the art world. I also come from the art world. Where do you really come from? What's your story, man? Tell us about you. So I'm from Alabama. I grew up in Birmingham and I've been, my first job was a trash man. No kidding. Oh yeah. Did you ride on the back of the trash truck and like? No, we did it for apartments. And so we would go around with the big bag and grab the trash outside of people's room and then take it to a big dumpster. And did that when I was 15. Did you ever get anything cool? Did you take anything home that people left outside that you're like, oh, why are you throwing this away?

19:53I don't think so. I'm more just, you got a whole lot of- Do you see this hat? I've been in more dumpsters than I would like to admit. But no, then I come from food world. So I've been doing food for, since I was 16. Started out at Dippin' Dots, which is the ice cream of the future. That's what I, we're in the future now from when that started. So is it just called ice cream now or is it still the ice cream of the future? They were just so far ahead of their time. Okay. It's coming. Because I see that we still have ice cream that isn't Dippin' Dots. And it's officially the future from when Dippin' Dots started. It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know, I'm not, I'm gonna call bullshit on that. Dippin' Dots. You've connected the dots, yeah. Yeah, I've connected the Dippin' Dots. But no, and then I- Can you imagine if we still drink? This would just be off the rails so far ago. For me, I don't drink. I don't know about y'all, but I'm like, no.

20:54Anyway, go ahead. So you're a restaurant world guy? Yeah, so then I did Dippin' Dots. I helped a concept called Steel City Pops open a lot of locations. And that took me to Texas. And then I was a partner to a concept called Honest Mary's. I was the director of operations there. Moved back to Alabama with a one-year-old and my wife during COVID, which was quite a time to be alive. Yeah. And then Gabe and our two other partners called me in June, or I joined in June of 2021. But they had the one shop in 12 South and we're looking for someone to join them to run the day-to-day of Lady Bird and see what we can make of it. And so after a short six to nine months of conversation, we figured it out and I joined in June of 2021. Wow. What do you do? I- Everything. Yeah, I wear a lot of hats at Lady Bird, but I run Lady Bird.

22:00You run Lady Bird. Because director of operations kind of a thing, you just, you make shit happen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty much if it happens at Lady Bird, I am behind it. So I'm fascinated. I love your operations because it was very smooth, very clean restaurant. I thought it was awesome. Can I tell what happened while we were there? Oh, come on. Can I say it? Yeah. The health department came in while we were there, but they didn't come in to inspect you. She was there to eat lunch. I think that's bad ass. When the health department is coming there, when they inspect you and then they come back to eat lunch, that's a win. We're proud. We have a 100 right now, which we feel really good about. Yeah. I don't think you're much better than that. I was gonna say, you can't go up from there. That's it. You should be proud about that. I should be proud of like a 97, like a hundred years back, walking around with like that on your chest. Just get that tattooed or something. Just make that happen. No, I love your operations because I know that you guys run on EOS.

23:05So that's something we do as well. How, so if you go, EOS is the entrepreneurial operating system. It's based on the book Traction by Geno Wickman. And we had Justin Cook, who is our implementer in studio, maybe a year, year and a half ago. And he kind of talked about it. I'm gonna bring him back in. We're gonna do a follow-up interview. It's gonna be a lot of fun. But what has that process been like for you? How has that helped shape what you guys do there? Yeah, that's a great question. So for better or worse, we're self-implementing, maybe because I'm prideful, maybe because we can do it. But EOS- Nothing wrong with that, by the way. We have a couple hundred employees and it's a thing we needed somebody to do. Yeah, yeah. We have loved EOS. So for us, it has helped clarify what we're doing. So they have a thing called a VTO, Vision Traction Organizer. That just laying out 10 year, three year and one year goal has been huge.

24:09And then identifying rocks for each quarter of, hey, what are we trying to do? The biggest, most important things that you need to accomplish. Yeah, like what is our North Star for this quarter? And that has been really helpful. I have a little bit of shiny object syndrome where I get super excited about the thing that popped up recently. And that has helped contain my shiny object syndrome. So yeah, I think that has been a huge impact. And then for us, the scorecard has really shaped a lot of how we function on a day to day basis. We care a ton about our mission as a company is to enable life giving community through courageous hospitality. And for us, how do we accomplish that is really through, are we accomplishing the scorecard? And so figuring out ways to measure what it is that we care about, where we can then celebrate wins and then also correct when we're missing the mark, has really helped.

25:18You can tell. I mean, I think that when you also, when you start living in 90 day life cycles and you do these level 10 meetings is what the meetings are called. That's how we get together as a leadership team. When you start assigning rocks, creating milestones to achieve those rocks and you get in there and you start, all of a sudden that word traction, you're like, oh, we're doing the things we said we were gonna do. It's a lot of fun. And it gives you clarity. It keeps you away from the shiny things when you're, oh, look, that place wants to do this. Like, no, no, no. This is where we're going. This is where we're going. This is our North Star. This is what we're doing. I love that. One of the things you have to do with EOS is you have to create core values. Would you give your core value speech for us? Will you do that? Yeah, come on. He's gonna do that right after these words from our sponsors. We have John Ho with Parks Realty, Housepotality on Instagram in studio to tell you why as a restaurant worker, you can buy a home. John?

26:18Thank you, Brandon. There's three things that are fallacies when it comes to buying a home from the hospitality industry. Number one is that you need perfect credit. Number two is that you need tens of thousands of dollars for down payment. And number three is that you need two years of work history at the same place. John, you're a restaurant veteran, been in the industry a long time. How do you, as a real estate agent, overcome those three myths? The first thing we do is we pick a premier partner for lending, and that's Foundation Mortgage. They're gonna be our first stop to get people pre-qualified in the hospitality industry. Number two, we understand that hospitality workers don't work nine to five, so our phones are on 24 hours a day. Amazing. So if I wanted to call you, how do I do it? You can get me at my cell phone, shoot me a text, or give me a call. It's 615-483-0315. 615-483-0315. Or Amanda Gardner at Foundation Mortgage, 865-230-1031. 865-230-1031. Follow John on Instagram at Housepetality, and follow Amanda on Instagram at MortgageAmanda.

27:24Hey guys, we are supported by Charpier's Bakery, and we've been supported by Charpier's Bakery for the last year. And I tell ya, I couldn't be more proud of this partnership. Guys, they're a locally owned and operated bakery right here in Nashville for the last 36 years. Yes, they deliver fresh baked bread daily to your restaurant's back door, and man, is it good. You wanna know what kind of bread they make? Go check them out at charpier'sbakery.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S, bakery.com. So they have over 200 types of bread, and if you're wondering, well hey look, it's a special recipe that I like to use, that we bake it in our house, and it's kind of a pain, but we like to do it. They can take your recipe and make that bread for you without any of the hassle, the mess, the labor. They'll just deliver it right to your door every single day. It is freshly baked. They love to give you a tour of their facility. Give Erin Mosso a call. Her number is 615-319-6453.

28:26You should do it now. Hey, this is Jason Ellis with Nashville SuperSource. We're so proud to be a sponsor for Nashville Restaurant Radio. We would love the opportunity to discuss your chemical and dish machine program with you. If you have any needs or any questions about your current program, opening a new restaurant, or just need a double set of eyes on that, we'd love the opportunity to help you with that. My number is 770-337-1143. We don't do any contracts, no minimums, weekly service, to make sure that all your equipment is functioning properly. Make sure you have everything that you need. Again, my name is Jason Ellis, 770-337-1143. And so our core values are caring, humble, and hungry. Caring for us means everyone has dignity. We don't get to decide that. We get to honor the dignity in other people, whether that's our guest, your teammate, your business partner. And we genuinely care about the person in front of us in everything that we do.

29:31That plays out in a thousand different ways. Probably my favorite way that plays out is in guest and team member relationships. So one of our regulars is moving soon. And today, part of our conversation was we're going to throw him and his wife like a small going away party. Nice. And it's like, that's the kind of stuff. It's like, that's living out caring for people. It's an honoring of who they are as people. And then humble is, I have not figured out life. No one that I've met has figured out life that I like to be around. That's good. There's a nice caveat at the end of that statement that I like to be around. And so it is just an openness to direction to the fact that we can be wrong. And Gabe and I try to leave that out first of like, gosh, I screw up stuff all the time. I think I know something and I don't.

30:33When I'm presented with facts that I wasn't aware of previously, I changed my mind. Amen. It happens. Wish more people would have that mentality. Sure. Yeah. Where it's like, you know. And I think that's also where the vision, the North Star comes in of like, we're all accountable to achieving this vision and living these ways. So I'm not above our core values. I'm also accountable to them. Yeah, you gotta be. And the last one is hungry. Where it's, I always tell people, it's not just about food, but it's about, I wake up in the morning and I'm pumped about what I'm gonna go do. I am excited to learn and I'm excited to grow. We care so much about helping team members. We just take the next step in their life. Whether that's connecting them to a music thing, because we have a ton of people on our team who do music, or it's them moving up at Lady Bird. We just want to help people take the next step in their life and we think Lady Bird is a great stepping stone.

31:33And for, you know, 10% of the people, that's gonna be with Lady Bird. And then for a lot of them, it's not gonna be. And that's totally fine. We just want to help them take that next step. And you guys are growing like crazy. We just, you got one in Birmingham. You have Nashville and Birmingham, right? Do you have others other than that? Yep, so we are, we have signed a lease in East Nashville in Inglewood. Nice. Yep, so that'll most likely come online the first few months of 2024. Okay. And then we're, our goal, one of my routes for this quarter, is to sign another lease to open in 2024 as well. Wow. In Nashville? Most likely Birmingham. Birmingham. Okay, so your second location in Birmingham. Yep. Okay. Wow, so that's a lot. So you got, I think it's good, because I know some stuff about what you guys are doing. I love how organized you are. I love your passion towards it. I loved your core values when we first, that's what it's like. There's so many people out there that are unhappy with what they're doing or they're, if you're a leader out there and you're listening to this and you're like, I just can't get a grip on what I'm doing, it's a very simple process, the EOS process, to get in there and do it and then to create these things and start getting traction immediately.

32:49But those core values, I want people to hear that, because if you don't have core values, you need to put that on paper. That's a foundation for everything that you do. That's how you hire, that's how you fire. That's how we live and work. And if you don't, you can, there's people that write that down, there's people that actually live it. You guys actually live it. And I love that about you. And if you're looking for a job and you want to work somewhere that has growth potential, there's a Ladybird right here on 10th Avenue, adjacent to 12 South. It's a fantastic place. And there's growth potential, because they're going to be opening a new location. So I imagine if you come in and you're a badass and you show that you want to lead, I think there's an opportunity at the new location you probably want to hire from within. I don't know if you have that whole team set up yet, but you can go apply. I don't know if you need people or not. Oh no, come on. We're always looking to fill our bench. We want leaders. And honestly, for the right people, we will make room. We want high caliber people who care about impact in the community in a long-term way.

33:54And even to speak to what Brooks was saying earlier too, it's like impact doesn't take 10 years or five years. Sometimes it takes one day, one second, one interaction with the human being to make a difference in their day. Besides, here's some food. Thank you for the money. Let's give each other more. And I think that even when it comes to employees, it's okay if people even come in saying, I want to learn for six months and I want to move on. Great. Let's learn for six months and move on. It doesn't have to be, I want to be in this industry for the rest of my life. It's like make it matter. Make this moment matter so that it makes us better while you're here and it makes you better in the future with whatever you do. And there's so much you can learn right now. I tell people the other day, we have a level two Psalm who's with us over at Maribor.

34:57Her name is Margaret Humbreck. She's amazing. She is, she's absolutely amazing. She's just, she's just a fantastic human being, but she's also just the most knowledgeable person ever. And people are so afraid of wine because wine is just one of those things that it's just, it's almost like it's everywhere and it's nowhere and people are snooty when they sell it. And how do you, so there's an intimidation around learning it. And so I was in Atlanta and I said, guys, go use her, walk up to her, ask her, you can taste stuff, like go learn this stuff, not just because I want you to sell it, to articulate it to our guests, but when you're 35, when you're 40 years old and you're going out to dinner with your wife, you don't have to be intimidated. This is a skill. This is a, this is a life thing I want you to learn because when you're older and you don't, maybe you don't do this anymore, you don't have to be intimidated about wine the rest of your life.

35:57When you're that age, you're going to pay a hundred dollars a person to go do the thing you can do for free right now. Because you go, I want to go to wine, I want to learn about wine, but just do it now, like go get this in your thing. And it's like, learn that. So these are life skills. And there's so much you learn from working in a restaurant, that humility side of serving people, like the ability, they say everybody should work in a restaurant one time in their life. And it's true. I think you should. And this is a good opportunity. I love what you're saying. They're like, look, just come in. We'd love to help you grow and progress and maybe you'll love it. Maybe you don't, but we're willing to give you a shot. Yeah. Right. And, and as cheesy as this sounds, I'm still going to say it. It's, I really believe more than ever that restaurant or otherwise, but we're speaking about restaurants. The worst thing that can happen is we'll have a good time trying. A thousand percent. It's like, I mean, or we can be ornery and not have a good time, but, but let's have a good, at least have a good time doing it.

36:57And we, we still all walk away, whether it's together or separate, better, maybe slightly better people, but also having had a good time. Yeah. I also think. Go figure. Like one of the things that Ladybird's betting on is human to human connection, being a foundation of what people need, not just want. And so we're trying to look for ways to enable technology, use technology to enable more human to human connection, not make that go away. And we've even found that with our team where like, there can be a lot of their day where they just outside of work and they don't talk to other humans. And that opportunity to engage with another human and just get to know somebody can be so impactful. Oh man. So it's something that gets us both fired up. I could tell you guys, you both are the way you guys work together too. I love it. I think it's really cool. You were telling me a story about, you were like, Hey, Gabe's going to come.

37:58We were talking about the coming on here at lunch. And you're like, I'm going to bring Gabe with me. I'm like, great. You were telling me he was going to tell a story. You said, I want to get him to tell a story. Will you, will you tee me up on that? Cause I don't know what this was. So this is so impromptu, this whole interview that like, what? Tell me out. Gabe, do you want to tell the story of the details of when I joined Ladybird? Yeah. I feel like something really cool just happened. I'm like, he's like, do you want to tell the story? No. Here, I'll give it a preface to make it even more fun. Um, it was like a trailer. Um, one man named Gabe. I was doing my, I hope a trailer starts that one man during a pandemic. I truly, uh, I truly think, um, when people talk about, uh, whatever, if people talk about destiny or things that are meant to be, whatever label they put on it. Um, I talk about this stuff all the time. Yep.

38:58Cause I believe it. Same. Uh, it is to me, it's become undeniable. Uh, I don't even have to believe it's like, it's just fact. Um, and that's, that's kind of how things went, um, went down with, with Brooks coming on with, with lady bird. Uh, I'm a musician who decided to open a restaurant. I went from one volatile industry to another one, uh, glutton for punishment. And so one of the things I was, I've always been quite good at in music world was playing to a click track, playing to a metronome. It's like, Oh, he's got good time. Thank you. Um, and then I decided to do this crazy thing, opening a restaurant. And I take my time. I didn't just like open it up. I spent three years talking and getting the tortilla, trying to get a tortilla made. And eventually it's like, okay, we're going to open 2020. Here we go. And then a couple of weeks before we open this thing called a worldwide pandemic happens. Wait, what happened?

39:59What the hell is that? What does that even mean? What's a, I've never lived through one of those. Um, and so that changed the way that things happened. It's like, Oh, we became a taco truck. Basically. No humans could come inside except for the people working there. And you were already open. Original opening date was March. Yeah. 2020. And that's when you opened? No, it's no, well now then we had to delay till June. Cause you couldn't have anybody in there. Couldn't. Yeah. Uh, and then we were able to open, but it was to take out only and not really how we had envisioned it or, uh, set aside budget to build this building. It wasn't like paying for rent. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to open in March. Let's start paying rent in March. Yeah, man. Uh, but as it turns out, it's whatever we, we sold a few tacos and things, things were still going. I was, everybody was highly stressed. I can speak for Ladybird.

40:59It was really stressful. It was like, Oh, I'm doing this new thing. Oh, and it's during a pandemic. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So now you've got a ding dong who doesn't know much about running restaurants, trying to do it during a pandemic. Anyways, I was real stressed, got real tired, uh, felt real bad one day said, I can't go in and yeah. Woke up in the middle of the night, not knowing much about much. And. Mm. Got taken down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Got taken to the emergency room. By the time I got there, I was like, Oh yeah, I'm good. I think I was just, I'm just tired out of it, whatever. Okay. And then yeah, within 24 hours was right back there again, not knowing really who I was or who my wife was. Whoa. Certainly didn't know that I had opened a restaurant. Um, so my brain had, had gotten an infection. It turns out that's a thing. Your brain got an infection.

42:00Yeah. So I got encephalitis, which is inflammation of the brain. And then the other one was caused by HSV one, uh, which is basically, um, the cold sore virus, which apparently lives in like 80% of human beings, whether you have cold sores or not. I never had a cold sore, but Gary was in me and it decided to go to my brain. Um, so is that like deadly? Very. Can it be deadly? I mean, like, is that like a, I'm, I'm quite fortunate to be alive. And, and most folks who get it are, are, are elderly. And I'm just saying I'm 48, but I'm not elderly. Um, you don't look at your, you've got the nice salt and pepper beard thing happening. Your hair though. You dye your hair? No, no, no. I feel like I, I, I'm already started. I don't dye anything clearly, but I'm going gray. And it's like, you get this nice, they had a thick head of hair over here. Thanks man. I don't die. Um, obviously, cause I made it through this illness.

43:02I didn't die. Um, It's like, dad jokes are also part of my thing. Absolutely. Big time. Big time. I don't die. Oh gosh. All that to say, I spent three weeks in, uh, in the hospital and then, uh, yeah, it was a very, very weird time. Um, came home. Probably nobody can visit you. Oh, that, that was another weird thing. Cause you're just, you're just there alone. I mean, that time in the pandemic. Yeah. I could have one, like my wife or in my child, it was always like my wife or a friend. Hmm. They're wearing this weird thing on their face called a mask that, you know, I didn't remember the pandemic. So I was like, what's everybody wearing these things for? Is this really that bad? Yeah. You're like, is it because of me? All that to say, this getting too long. All that to say, uh, yeah, bizarre thing. It's like, I had a better chance at winning the lottery than I would at getting what I got, but I got it. And, uh, it did a bunch of wreckage up, um, that also now is, uh, yeah, three years out and it's still very present in my life, which is my memory is, uh, I don't remember much of my life and my, which is crappy.

44:14I can speak that, uh, from experience. That's crappy. Well, what's crappier is the other part, which is the part of my brain that stores short-term memories is messed up. So it's hard remembering past a couple of days ago, um, what happens in my life. So really, and I'm never have been good at taking notes. And even though now I rely on it, I'm still not very good at it. Um, at taking notes. So, but, uh, yeah. So, so that's kind of what happened. Um, that's fascinating. But then I'm sorry that happened. That sounds really difficult. Yeah. Yeah. Crappy for sure. But it's, uh, but because here I am on a microphone with a chance to say something that the, I've already mentioned the crap part, the, the take, the positive takeaway. And there is one. I would still gladly trade it back to go back to my old ways and being foolish. But, uh, the wise fact that's come out of it is this little thing that we hear our entire lives.

45:14We say it, or some of us do be in the moment or, you know, country song live, live like you're dying. Uh, you know, whatever it's like, uh, it's Tim McGraw, right? It's true. I'm, I'm living proof now because I'm forced to be in the moment, uh, to live like I'm dying. And that today is what Matt, like right now is what matters. Like I don't care about another thing in the world right now, other than the two of you and our microphones, cause it's what we're doing. It might, one of us might disappear in 10 seconds. So let's make it matter. Wow. That's a powerful message. Yeah. So I joined a fun fact for Gabe that he has to deal, deal with is that I only know him on this side of his illness and that element of Gabe has changed my life where I am a little bit younger than Gabe. Uh, and I've been through ups and downs and Gabe has changed my life.

46:24He shaped my life in such a way to feel loved and to experience friendship in a way that is really new to me. Um, and so I tell him all the time, I'm like, dude, you gotta, you gotta live with the fact that you've changed my life post illness. Uh, I don't know anything else. Um, the other guy was so cool. The other guy shred. So that's a, and that's for, so for ladybirds impact, you know, we talk about life giving community and it's been really cool because we, we are trying to create that now, but we're also shaped by that. So before I joined, when Gabe was in the hospital, his good friends came and worked shifts at their friend's taco shop. Wow. Like, you know, Andy Goldhorn. And then we partner with crema coffee in Nashville and Rachel who founded crema, like making, like making coffee drinks on ladybirds line.

47:33Um, you know, don't you guys have like a big coffee? Like your whole coffee is pretty impressive. It's not just, I was like, you like espressos and the whole thing, right? We do the whole thing. Cause it's breakfast. Yep. Okay. I was like, you guys have like lattes. Like what is this? This is great. So that's one of the, I think brilliant moves of ladybird. So what ladybird is doesn't really exist in Texas either, to be honest in Texas, there's really good taco shops, but they don't do coffee and there's really good coffee shops. And so the brilliance of ladybird and Gabe's original idea is bring those two worlds together and do them both really high end. We can't do coffee by ourselves. And so in Birmingham, we partnered with June coffee in Nashville. We partner with crema coffee. And so in both markets, we just say, Hey, who's the best and let's go work with them. Let's have them teach us how they do the things.

48:33Um, and that enables us to offer the highest quality coffee alongside what we would say are the best tacos probably in the country. Thank you. Yeah. Country world. Why stop at country guys? Let's world domination. Yeah. One last time to hear a word from our sponsors. What chefs want story is incredibly unique. The owner, Ron Trenier met with a bunch of chefs in Louisville back in the early two thousands and asked them one simple question. What do you want in the chefs? They responded emphatically. We want deliveries on Sunday. We want to be able to split any item that you sell. We want a frictionless experience where we feel like we're being served. And so, you know what he did something crazy. He did just that. So what chefs want is not only a company that's delivering fresh produce, fresh seafood, fresh custom cut meats, specialty items, dairy gourmet, all of that seven days a week.

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51:41And I'm telling you, Paul is amazing. He will sit down, identify what you need and help you with solutions. Again, his number is 615-945-6753. And I recommend you call him as fast as you possibly can, because this guy is amazing. And tell him you heard about him on Nashville restaurant radio. You know, it was really special there for a second, because I feel the owner of our restaurant, Stephen, is like one of my best friends and he's, he's one of those people that means more to me. I mean, he's just really special. But I could tell when you were talking about him, that there's a real special kind of a thing between you two. It's not just like, oh, we work together. Like there's a real like love and respect and almost a, it's more than just a working relationship. We're like, we get it. Absolutely. Yeah. Gabe can't get rid of me now. Not happening. Here's, here's the thing or a thing is that again, any kind of business, including restaurants, whoever you're doing it with coworking, but in this case owning something, it's a big chunk of your life that you're spending doing this thing.

52:53Do it with the right people, which that sounds like common sense. It took craziness for us to come together, but we did. And this is the whole bit about destiny. It's like, even though it was a, you know, a big crappy trail to trudge through, I think destiny happened. Like this was meant to be this partnership. We were meant to meet each other. And then beyond that, once we did, it's like, oh, we should do this. We should do this and refine each other so that it refines ladybird. Well, this is, this is a fantastic story guys. The name ladybird. Do we need to talk about ladies? Ladybird was at Eisenhower. Who was, who was the Johnson Johnson? That's who was my, I don't know. Ladybird Johnson. Yep. I guess she had Texan. She was. Yeah. And if I can tell a quick joke, but it's true, which is that I fancy myself good with words and wordplay.

53:59And what I was originally going to call this restaurant was gorilla tortilla, which is a horrible name, but you know, they both have double L's. One sounds illa. And it made me chuckle. And then it took my wife and everybody else about three seconds to be like, that's a horrible name. Thank the Lord. And then a gorilla tortilla. Yeah. Yeah. And then a friend said, what about ladybird? What about ladybird taco? Yes. We made it one word instead of two. It was two words for her, but oddly enough, we've had some of her offspring, her lineage come into ladybird. No kidding. Yep. And I'm nervous, like, oh gosh, we made it, you know, we made it one word instead of two and we stole her name. And they actually felt really honored. They were like, she would have loved this. So that's great. Felt good in the logo. In the logo. We have, we have Matt Lehman did a lot of our branding work during COVID. He had time, I guess.

54:59And he made us a bunch of really cool stuff. But one of them is a row as a yellow rose and ladybird Johnson's known in Texas. She was the person who planted all the wildflowers along the interstates. So she's, and then she has a lake in Austin, ladybird lake. I didn't know that lake. It's a river, but they call it a lake. I love Austin. I love Austin. They have like this big, like natural spring pool. Oh yeah. Barton Springs. Barton Springs. Yeah. Place is insane. That's awesome. One time I went there, we were like at the C2 at conference or whatever. And Stephen, he goes, we're going to go to a pool. And I was like, that's weird. Like, we're just going to go to like some public pool. Like I'm thinking like Sandlot, Wendy peppercorn there, you know, I'm thinking like it's one of those type things. So we're like grabbing our bedding sits down. We hop on those little bird scooters and we just start going. And he's like, where in the hell are we going? And we pulled up to this park and I'm like, there's a pool here.

55:59And he's like, oh yeah, it's just a pool. And it was like this huge natural pool. That was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. It was, I was like that it's like 62 degrees. Very refreshing. It's awesome. Yeah. Only time to Austin though. That's a good time. You got to go back. Yeah, I do. We'll go with you. Road trip. But no springs flying. It is so fun to have you guys here for this kind of a last minute bonus episode on a Friday. What am I missing? Anything? I mean, I'd love to invite you guys out to 10 South. So everybody who's listening on 10th Avenue South is where you're going to find Ladybird Taco and you can come there for breakfast. I mean, don't do the 12 South. Think to take two streets over right there on 10th Avenue. Delicious breakfast tacos with those delicious tortillas. You can also have lunch there. You cannot go out dinner there as of now. You cannot. It's okay. You have a new restaurant coming and you can do tacos for dinner down the street.

56:59It'll be a lot of fun. Anything I'm missing? Guys, any other anecdotes? Any stories? Anything you're promoting? Anything you got going on? Shout outs? Oh, I think one thing we're excited about right now, we have this concept that we call Good Bird and the short tagline of that is short-term menu items, long-term impact. And it's essentially a way we do specials. Okay. And the next one coming out is from Gabe. It's called The High Five. There's a whole story about The High Five. Gabe's been doing a high five with a friend for I think almost 10 years now. Yeah. Once a week. Yep. They were on Good Morning America. You meet to high five each other? Yep. Nice. I think a mile and a half each. Yeah. But so we're going to be partnering with The Big Table. Yeah. And so they are an organization dedicated to serving the restaurant industry. And we got partnered with them. And so 10% of the proceeds on the day we launch The High Five taco will be going to them.

58:05And then 10% of that menu item, the whole time it's on the menu, will go towards them. And that's just a way for us to find people in our community who are doing good for the community and just say, hey, we want to come alongside you and be a part of what you're doing. That's fantastic. So that'll launch in two weeks. Wow. Congratulations, guys. I love what Big Table's doing. Yeah. And I want to say we've had them on, on the show. And Jen Seeger, who you're working with? Yeah. Jen is amazing. If you also are out there, we love the Giving Kitchen here and The Big Table also works well with restaurant employees. If you want to reach out and if you're a restaurant and you want to do something similar, you hear what Brooks just now said and you're like, man, that sounds like fun. I want to do something like that. It's jen at big-table.com. You could email her and say, hey, we'd love to do something. How can we support Big Table? They also look for volunteers. They have this huge table.

59:06It seats like 50 people. And they do these dinners that you can go to. It's a really fantastic organization. So if you want to learn more about them, you can check out jen at big-table.com. Yep. You'll get an impromptu plug for Big Table while we're here today. Love it. Come on. I love what you guys are doing. All right, gentlemen, we'll let you get out of here. Have a wonderful weekend. And thanks for everything that you guys do. And it's so fun to learn about you. Thank you. Appreciate it, brother. Well, you'll see me a lot more often. Bring it. All right. OK, so there we go. That is the full episode with Brooks and Gabe from Lady Bird Taco. So we really appreciate you hanging out on a Friday. I don't have a lot of announcements or anything. This was kind of a fun episode. But we hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.