Gep and Katie Nelson

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. This is Brandon Styll and I'm your host. We're so happy to have you here today. We're gonna do a fun story today. We have Gep and Katie Nelson with us today and we're gonna talk about their restaurant, The Yellow Porch. I want to get into kind of their life and history of between a husband and wife that have owned restaurants and they used to own Cross Corners Bar and Grill as well as The Wild Iris. So this should be fun. I'm excited. Let's jump right in. Gep, Katie, how you guys doing today? We're good. Thanks for having us. We're great. Fun to be here.

01:03I wanted today's episode to be fun, somewhat nostalgic and educational. So part of my demographic of people that are listening are industry people who work in restaurants, chefs, restaurant owners, as well as guests. So I want people that come out and dine in the restaurants to hear from restaurant owners about their restaurants and kind of have some educational tips. So we'll jump in towards the end. I want to get your opinion on some different things guests can do to have a better experience in a restaurant. Well let's start off. Let's hear, I'd like the listeners know just a little bit about yourself. So Gep and Katie Nelson, you guys own Yellow Porch restaurant, correct? That's right. 22 years. So Yellow Porch opened in 1998? Yes. About this time of year. It was the year we got married. So let's get into that. So where did you guys meet? Well to track back a little bit farther, my brother, based on a tiny little bar up in northern Michigan where we have vacationed all my life. I think Brandon, you used to work at Ruby Tuesdays. My brother got his start at Ruby Tuesdays in Knoxville and he, after he graduated from UT, he opened Cross Corner, a little sports bar in Brentwood. And then he moved to a bigger location and I, in the middle, in the midst of that move, he sort of looked at me and said, I'm having a hard time finding somebody to sublet this original Cross Corner spot. What do you think about opening a restaurant? And I was, just didn't hesitate at all because I was so familiar with that space and I just said sure. So I went out and hired a chef and had some people that I knew that would help me manage it and I opened up Wild Irons in 96. Gep owned an organic

03:10home delivery business up in upstate New York. His family is from here as well. He came down, back down to Nashville to start a branch of that. This was back in the Wild Oats days, which you might remember. Do you remember Wild Oats? Oh yeah. That and Sunshine Cafe, Sunshine Grocery, were the only two organic type places. So his home delivery business was pretty big. So he called upon me at Wild Iris one day to see if I wanted to buy organic produce, to which I had no time for him because I was really busy. So I sent him away. That didn't keep me away. Basically, our first date was I was bartending and Gep was washing dishes at Wild Iris. That was our very first date. Your first date you were bartending and he was washing dishes? He invited me to go out to dinner. All plans failed when the restaurant became shorthanded, as is very often happens in small restaurants. So I said, well, how would you like to wash dishes? Because I had to go in and bark them. So he did. Little did he know that if you're not familiar with the Wild Iris, the kitchen and the bar were almost synonymous. So you're practically working together, right? Yeah, which works out well, you know. In a small restaurant, when you become understaffed, it's really easy to do that because everybody can see everything and so you just kind of work together and work shoulder to shoulder and tag team. And if you remember in that spot, the dishwasher can see the bar and further out see the front door. So you kind of know everything that's going on as the dishwasher. Of course, I was a terrible dishwasher and the dishes just piled up and I made very little progress. He was really, really slow. He

05:13probably was, his attention probably was somewhere else, if you know what I mean. Well, you're making me blush, Brandon. This was a date. There was a date, yeah. I'm not sure I kicked him out though. He was really slow. It was a hell of a date. So what did you guys, so your first date, you're at Wild Iris and it just took off from there. So that was just the fantastic thing and it went to, where'd you guys go next? Well, we, so we worked, we worked Wild Iris and we worked his home delivery business. In the course of that, was it, what opened? Wild Oats opened and all of a sudden people could get organic produce, could walk in and get it in a store. So Get's business started to kind of dry up so, and the restaurant business will just sort of grab whoever it can grab to help it survive. So he, he gave that up and came over and started working in the restaurant business with me, which was great. And then we got married in 98. We were driving along over in the Thompson Lane area and Yellow Porch was originally a kid-friendly coffee shop and I'm forgetting the name. Cafe Bambino.

06:46That's right. They had just shuttered a wonderful little couple who had a really cute little business and so we drove by and I said, I love how that looks. Let's stop and see and just look in the windows. We looked in the windows and I really liked the vibe of it because honestly it looked very similar to sort of the big open room that Wild Iris was. So we ended up buying that space from them and opened up Yellow Porch just a little while later. Our first chef was Martha Stamps, who's an old friend of mine from Harpeth Hall. Wow. Yeah, Martha's amazing. Martha is amazing and Kim Totsky, I mean, we had a, we had a great crew. Actually, when Yellow Porch first opened, we honestly had a really, because of Gap's customer base in the Organic Produce restaurant, I mean, Organic Produce home delivery, we actually had a really big vegetarian offering. We've since sort of moved on from that but that was sort of the first incarnation of Yellow Porch was, it wasn't all vegetarian but it had a healthy stint to it. So we opened that up in 98 and then I can't remember, we sort of decided at that point that we were, we were stretched very thinly. I was, I was actually cooking brunch at Wild, at Wild Iris while Gap was trying to run both restaurants. We just basically needed to get bigger so that we could hire more people. We ended up buying Cross Corner from my brother, Michael Gross, who's now in commercial real estate. And with the three restaurants, we were able to kind of get over that economy of scale hump and we were able to hire enough people

08:51so that we didn't have to be working 80 to 100 hour weeks. Plus, we were able to hire people that were better at it than we are and that's kind of always been our goal is to hire, hire staffs for our restaurants who do it better than we do. Which honestly, it's a good philosophy. Well, it is particularly when you have so many restaurants, it's nice to have a couple of people who, who can fill in, can plug the holes when it needs to happen, which is kind of what is happening right now. We are not so attached to the hourly going bonds of the restaurant that we can actually be of benefit when we need to be. So that's a strength. It cannot, you know, it can, can work both ways for sure. No, absolutely. And I want to ask Gep a quick question. Why, why organic produce delivery? So did you grow, were you a farmer? What, what is your history and how did one get into that? Did you see this need a long time ago? Well, I started doing it in the, what, the mid nineties, I guess I was, I had a little farm in upstate New York in a place called Sharon Springs and the growing season is very short. My customers didn't only want organic produce. I mean, the organic produce that I could grow, which was, you know, very much leafy green sorts of things at that point. And, but they wanted bananas and, you know, raspberries and things that I wasn't doing. And they wanted mangoes. And so I started supplementing what I had as a farmer with, with groceries I could truck in, but I was out in the middle of nowhere. So there weren't really a lot of customers. And I, so I started delivering my goods into Albany's connect to the Saratoga Springs and, you

10:54know, that area of New York, that kind of delivery was also going on in New York City at that point. I didn't, I wasn't part of that, but it's kind of where I got my ideas. And it was working pretty well up there. And I was, I'm a Nashvilleian and I came back here visiting family and realized that there was a market for it around here as well. And it worked, you know, until the Whole Foods, you know, they came in and sort of blew it out of the water. But they, they, they found that neat. They saw that need also. Yes. But they were, you know, they were big enough and, you know, started having a couple of locations and so that worked for consumers pretty well, obviously. Awesome. And then I'm going to come around to all of this here in a minute, but just kind of your story Gep and then your story, Katie, you guys met, you started, you went on your first date at the Wild Iris where Gep, you washed dishes while Katie bartended. And then you had another restaurant. You got married. You opened the Wild Iris. You bought Cross Corners. So this is a, so what is that dynamic like for a married couple? Because I can count on one hand, probably where husband and wife companies in the restaurant business work really well. And it seems like you guys have done a great job at it. What's the secret in that?

12:27I think that's part of this. Well, I don't know. That's a good question. We're very different. I'm kind of the motor. I love to just work. I'm not, I don't know. It's not that I'm the muscle because we both have certainly muscled through a lot. Gep is a very deep thinker and he really likes to do the stuff that I don't like to do. And I like to do the stuff that he doesn't like to do. So mostly that works until I have to figure out, you know, some random tax issue or go weed the garden one or the other. So I don't know. I think we just compliment each other. We've had lost words at times, but really not much at all. I mean, that goes away quickly and we're just kind of get back to it. I was going to ask if there is like a recurring fight. Like what's the number one thing you guys fight about when it comes to like work? I don't, you know, obviously couples you have, you have disagreements, but like, is there one thing that you guys disagree about inside the restaurant?

13:35The main disagreement is I want her to stop making so many pies because I just eat them all the time. I blame it on her. I have a dream. My dream is, is a pie business. And I just, you know, when I come home and I'm stressed out, you know, I don't go for a run or I mean, I'm like, I like to garden, but I just like to make a pie. So that's what I do. And then I eat it. And then we put up an L and I, our daughter, we put away in 24 hours, we put away an entire chocolate bourbon pecan pie. We just leave a fork in it and we just go at it. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about right there. That's where it's at. You're going to get one. You just, just when we get finished with this, you just tell me where you want me to bring it. I will. And I will accept it. A lot of people like, no, don't worry about it. Yes. Homemade pies are, are I think what everybody in this world needs right now.

14:37So you mentioned your daughter, your daughter's, um, quite the swimmer from what I understand. Let's talk about her for a second. Well, thank you for asking her about her because she is our pride and joy. We can talk about her for hours. She, um, she started swimming when she was tiny and, um, she kept going with it and she qualified for Olympic trials, swimming trials in 2016, the 13 year old, uh, backstory to that as my sister is an Olympic marathoner, uh, Margaret Gross. She ran, uh, all over the world back in the seventies. So she, uh, anyway, hopefully Ella might become our next Olympian. She goes to UVA. She got a full athletic scholarship to UVA and her team, uh, sadly, well, not sadly, there's silver lining to everything. They won ACC conferences. Ella swam very, very fast, faster than she's ever swam and, which is hard.

15:40It's hard to drop time when you get to be the kind of developed athlete that she is. And then four days before they were going to go to NCAAs, um, this year, they were predicted to win, which would be the first time ever for UVA swim, women swimming to get in the top three of the NCAAs. Um, it was canceled as we all know. And, uh, she'll be back though next year, better than ever. Um, Olympics have been, um, postponed until summer of 2021. And we're, we're just looking ahead to that. And she is very nervous right now that she has no pool to swim in. Swimming is a 365 day a year. It's a training based sport. So when you're out of the pool, it's not good. She's doing great. And she's, she's like her father. She's very laid back and she also likes pie. So, my parents have a pool and I know nobody's in it right now.

16:44And, uh, it's very cold outside, but if you need a small pool, you want to just swim in, you're welcome to come over. We're all neighbors. What part of town do you guys live in? Oak Hill. I'm sorry. Well, I think it's been for people who are listening to know, and I'll come full circle here when we talk about what's happening right now with the current state of our industry in the current state of the world, really. There's a lot of people out there that want to help local business owners. And kind of the story that you guys just told is really kind of the American dream. You talk about two people who want to go out there who are entrepreneurs and they meet, they, there's a sparkle in the eye through running restaurants in spirit of service, you guys find a connection, you find love, you open restaurants together.

17:48You're, this is the definition of mom and pop. I mean, you guys have two restaurants in Brentwood. All of a sudden there's this huge big box influx of uncle Julio's and just that whole row over there by cross corners, which was just all big box stores, which is tough on a small local business. And now you're down to the yellow porch. You're putting your heart and soul into it. And when people are out there talking about mom and pop restaurants that you should go support, I don't think, I think if you look up the definition of mom and pop locally owned restaurants, yellow porch just comes right to the top of the list. Well, you know, mom and pop isn't, is a perfect, that's what our staff calls us, mom and dad. I don't know. I, the big box store, when they descended upon Williamson County more towards the Brentwood area, because they had actually been out in Cool Springs, but that was far enough away that we were able to maintain our, our, our level of business.

18:56When they came to Brentwood, it, it totally, I mean, there were, I can't remember how long it was, but you know, possibly an entire year of very, very depressed sales. And Gep and I are not young. It's, it's becoming harder and harder for us to do what our stellar staff does. And that's always been our ace in the hole is that we can go in and, and be those people. And it's harder and harder for us to be like, I, it would be very difficult for me to cook on the line now. I used to cook on the line all the time. I loved it. And it would be very difficult just to be able to walk in and do those things now. So we just had a hard time out there. And luckily we were able to, to sort of move our leases over to people who, who thought they had good concepts and it hurt really, it was hard to close both of those restaurants because Cross Corner, as I said, my brother opened it in the space that Wild Iris existed in.

20:06It was one of the only restaurants along with Noble's restaurant in Brentwood. That was back in 1989 or 90, I can't remember the date that he opened. And then Wild Iris had been in existence for 20 years, 21 years. I mean, it just, it, it was hard to close those restaurants. But it was good in that we, we are much more able to handle one restaurant now than when we were handling three and even four back when we had the flying works for a little while. So we're happier with one. It's, it's more doable and we can sort of overlay one restaurant much easier than we could three. What, how was the, how was this COVID-19 or the coronavirus? I mean, first we had a tornado in town. It wasn't, it was more on the other side of town. But I don't know how that affected you, if that affected business whatsoever.

21:10But then obviously the, the one, two punch of tornado and then coronavirus. What was that like for you on March 13th? I've kind of used Major League Baseball ending spring training, March Madness being canceled, the NHL postponing their season and the NBA postponing their season as kind of the timeline as to when everybody in this country went. Oh shoot. This, this is really happening and it's coming to America and like everybody pivoted that Friday. You know, I think when we, um, when you own your own business, you, you, you can't really do that. I mean, we did, we, we were shocked. We were shocked on many levels. You know, we had a, uh, a daughter whose world completely blew up. Um, we, and this is a funny story about Gap. You know, if there is one snowflake out the window, we start to worry about whether we're going to have to close our restaurant for a day. And we thought we have throughout our entire restaurant career, we have hardly ever closed only when we have to.

22:17We realized, you know, Hey, it's just, you know, losing that day of sales can, can make you a break you sometimes. And then also it, it, um, it kind of stops the flow. We, we want our customers to walk up and see that we're open, not that we're closed, so to look at what we're in right now is honestly, we have never contemplated it, we have never fathomed being closing our doors for several months. So we, I think a friend, uh, my sister-in-law, Carrington Fox, Carrington Nelson Fox, she's, um, a brilliant, wonderful person. Oh yeah. We, um, called me one day and said one, uh, uh, she mentioned another restaurant answer over in, um, Sylvan Park. She said they do an amazing family style business just, you know, even before the pandemic.

23:21So I jumped on their website and I sort of learned what, you know, just sort of saw what they were doing. And I said to Gep and I said to Mario, um, our chef in the kitchen, who's been with us now for probably 19 or almost from, yeah, 20 years, I said, Mario, this is what we have to, this is what we have to do to stay open. We have to create a family style menu and we have to do takeout. So we did, and we switched from, from full on dine-in cause we do very little takeout business. Um, we switched from full on dine-in to full on takeout and it involved figuring out what, what pans to put things in, quantities, our kitchen never missed a beat. Those guys, they jumped in there and they did it. They all want to work. They don't want us to close our doors. My staff crunched with me for three days out front, figured out how to put it on the web.

24:27We, I am 57 years old. Social media makes me anxious and nervous. I've jumped on Instagram in a big way. I don't know. I mean, I just had people who wanted to work. We all know each other really well and we just made it happen. And the bigger part of that is our customer base is deep and loyal and loving and caring. And I, you know, if it weren't for the fact that so many businesses are closing and this is going to be economically really hard for everybody. The pandemic has been a heartwarming situation for us. I mean, we're not making tons of money. Don't get me wrong, but we have been surrounded by loving loyal customers. Our clients are amazing and they are coming into the parking lot and waiting sometimes 30 minutes when we are just trying to figure out how to do this new thing that we're doing and they're generous with our servers.

25:35It's just, it's really been kind of a re-centering experience, honestly. Wow. No. So that's great. That's, that's one of the questions I was going to ask you because true restaurateurs have a relationship with their guests that I don't think a lot of people quite understand when you have a restaurant like the Yellow Porch, that's as intimate as it is. And you have people that are really at the community restaurant where people who live close by, they eat there on a regular basis. You probably know most of the people that eat there by first name. And that's really a way in which by creating food and service, and it's really kind of a way that you show love as a restaurateur, it's really a kind of an interesting thing that I'm trying to get across on this show for everybody to recognize. And when that stops, when you don't have a dining room full of people that you can walk through and say, Hey, Dr. Johnson, great to see you. And it's just, it's this vibrant feeling.

26:37It's hard. I mean, but when you're able to see people in the parking lot and just stop by and wave, it does mean everything to you, doesn't it? It does. And the, the, um, I just read a note on Instagram now that I'm glued to it, five or six hours a day now. Um, Stephen smithing with green Hills grill, um, or, you know, he penned a beautiful letter, um, that just read just yesterday, I think about his relationship with his customers, um, that really puts it beautifully. He just said, you know, we miss you guys. We miss having your life and your, and your smiles and the, the kind of the chatter in the restaurant. And he even put his phone number out there and said, you know, just send me a text, let me know how you're doing. Um, that is, you know, when I was reading and I was like, you know, you go, Stephen, that's exactly how we feel. Um, honestly, our, as many people as I know, and get nose, um, my staff knows an even bigger amount of these people by first name and last name.

27:51And literally I, I just, um, grateful is, is a, is a big word and I, I'm using every single bit of it. We are just so grateful and it, it really, honestly, if you look at what has happened in the restaurant business in the last two to five years in Nashville, we, we wondered if we could hang with it, um, you know, like I said, we're older, we've had to dust off things that we haven't done in a long time. And I think that when we first started our restaurants back in the, the early nineties, mid nineties, we were, we were the thing we were, you know, one or two or three of, you know, several dozen restaurants in all of Nashville that we're, we're doing fast, uh, you know, casual fine dining.

28:54Now we, and that's what defined us. We were the new restaurants. Now we are defined as the old restaurants and, um, that is a definition now, you know, we're legacy restaurants. Yeah, we're not the new restaurants. And that's been an interesting thing because we can kind of, uh, cling to that definition now we can flesh that out. We can see what is, is the positive of that sort of definition, which is knowing your customer, my name, being able to do what we're doing right now during this pandemic, we are weird. We can define ourselves now as opposed to being lost in the midst of 1500 new restaurants, we do have a niche now. And our niche is, is the, like you said, the legacy restaurants, a lot of the Nashville originals. That's another topic that's. Well, that's what I was getting. I was just about to ask you to do a pivot. I was going to say, talk about the Nashville originals in what it is, in what it means to you, I'm going to let Gep take that one mainly because he's a slow talker and I always talk to him when he does and he's so he's very bright about that Gep was one of the first people to start Nashville originals.

30:09He was on that board for many years when it first began. He and Rick Balsam, Rick Balsam and Tom Leventhal. So I'm Tom Leventhal from Nashville, Rick Balsam, longtime owner of the 10 angel and I'm going to let him take, take the Nashville originals. It's a cool, it is a cool thing. Um, yeah, uh, I love Nashville originals and it, it began, I don't think I can't remember dates and stuff, but all those older, older restaurants kind of gathering together and saying, you know, how do we deal with what's going on, like the, the chain? I think it was 2006. That sounds right to me. I think, and, uh, so we, we tried to deal with it. You know, you can't just say, well, come on, everybody love us and, and don't like the, the big chains. I mean, the big chains do some great stuff too.

31:10So we had, we just kind of had to keep doing what we do and, uh, and knowing that that's the right thing to do. That's what we do and people brand. We were branding being local and independent. Yeah. So part of what I, from what I understand back in the day was kind of around the time Maggiano's opened and I, I was at, uh, Amerigo around that time. And it was a scary cause it was this big Italian restaurant opening right down the street. And I remember talking to Rick one day and it was a, how come this restaurant across the street that's been open for three weeks gets to buy product at like half the price that I get to buy product at, because there's some gigantic store with a national account and I've been in this town for 20 years and I have to pay twice as much as they do. Like that's not beneficial to the local business owner. That's not going to help us with longevity. So creating something like the national originals, Nashville originals, where you could all band together and say, Hey, we've got 20 restaurants that are acting as one now we're a big chain.

32:16Now we have negotiating power and we can hopefully band together and play with the big box people. Am I anywhere close to what the Nashville originals is about? Well, that was the, uh, that was the beginning and, and, you know, if you were sitting in Rick's restaurant at that time, you could just look out the window and see up on the hill, the big Maggiano's and it was quite the visual at that point. And it explained how all of us were feeling. You can't run a restaurant or especially a restaurant. Cause it's restaurants are all about, uh, socializing part of it. So you can't run the restaurant based on disliking the other restaurants, you know, the enemy. Of course. No, you just can't be that way. So we just banded together and sort of found different ways to support each other and be there to answer questions for each other and give each other ideas.

33:20And it's a, it's a wonderful thing. Brandon, to speak to what you were saying that the buying consortium, the banding together to create amongst, you know, a non chain mix of rest of independent restaurants so that we could, uh, get more buying power was definitely part of it. And I, and I do believe that that worked, um, with distributors to a certain extent, I think the organization of it was, and maybe possibly still is, um, hard because owners are busy. Owners are often the chefs or the managers of their stores. Um, and sometimes it's just hard to make all that happen, but I do think Nashville originals has made a, has made a stand on letting people know that there is an important independent, um, aspect to dining that differentiates, uh, their experience for them.

34:23I mean, it's different going. I actually, I think the big box stores over time started to get better at it. And I, and there are big box stores that I really love and our independent restaurants that do a great job and they're independent restaurants that don't do a good job. So I think, I think it's just, it, it's just a bigger mix now. And, uh, Nashville originals is important to us, obviously, because we are one of them. And, uh, they have pushed out my posts, my Instagram posts, and they can be a powerful marketing tool. So if you're listening to this and you are a guest, you got to dine out at restaurants and you didn't know what the Nashville originals were. They're a collection. How many restaurants are in Nashville originals now? 50, 60? Well, last time it's correct and it's, you know, it can change, but it was 50 or 60. Okay. So that's 50 or 60 restaurants.

35:24If you see when we get back to some sort of normalcy, Nashville originals restaurant week, if you see a restaurant that's participating in that, they are locally owned and operated restaurant. That's part of this group of restaurants that want to promote each other. So while everybody out there is essentially a competitor, Nashville restaurants, locally owned Nashville restaurants, we all want you to support each other. Nobody wants you to eat in their restaurant. Well, we all want you to eat seven days a week, but we recognize that you're not going to, but when you don't go to places, I think go to places that the owner's going to walk by and know your name. Those places you're talking about, Stephen smithing at the green Hills grill and mayor bowl, but y'all at the yellow porch and there's 50 or 60 is many more than that, but restaurants that are part of the Nashville originals that you should be dining at. These are the people, when you say go dine local, eat local, these are the restaurants you should be at. Right? Yeah. Amen.

36:27Yeah. I mean, it's, um, and the flip side of that is that our, our Nashville originals, um, are defined by being a unique concept there. They're one, one, you know, one concept. You, you can't have multiple spots that is part of the, uh, you know, in the constitution of, of the Nashville originals, but then the independent restaurants in this city only exists because of our customers and because of, of them coming through the doors. And that sounds obvious, but it's just so true. We embrace our customers in a way that is, you know, maybe hard for, you know, a bigger, I don't know, like I said, I have a lot of respect for, for people in this industry in general. Well, yes, well done. Well done restaurants, no matter who you are or what you're doing.

37:27Well done. Restaurants are hard to do. And I love Jay Alexander's. Yeah. And I love brick tops. I love that style of just consistency service. Those things are great. Yeah. And if you're doing a good job, you've got a lot of people making smart moves and smart decisions. And, and those are the sorts of people that Gep and I have always tried to emulate, you know, Joe Ledbetter was, was brilliant and amazing restaurant mind. And he, he was the, he's the brick tops and Houston, yeah, Houston. So I don't know. It's, it's, you just gotta keep your head, keep your nose to the grind and keep trying to be good. And if you, most Nashville originals restaurants are trying to do that. I would say. All right. So I've got two restaurant owners who've owned restaurants in Nashville for 20 plus years. I want to pivot to, let's say I'm a, I'm a Joe diner and I live in Kansas and I'm coming to Nashville and I see this thing, Nashville restaurant radio.

38:37And I want to learn, Oh, I want to go eat at a local restaurant in Nashville and I listen to this and I think yellow porch, this is great. Or if I'm a local person, I live here in town and I just want to come out and support you let's I'm curious from your perspective and this is where it gets dicey. Okay. I want to help the guest be a better guest. And I was on a show. I did a show yesterday with a guy named Monte Silva and we talked about Yelp. We talked about if you go out and dine and your steak isn't cooked the way you like it, which happens, right? We understand that that we're human beings, but when you pay $40 for a steak, $50 for a steak, you expect it to be perfect. But sometimes when you're in a group of people, you don't want to say, excuse me, my steak isn't right. Cause now they got to come back and they got to take your steak away and they got to bring it back. It just disrupts the whole meal. So let's say you don't say anything because you don't want to upset the apple cart and you get in your car to leave and you go directly to Yelp and you blast that restaurant.

39:45That's not the way to do it. Right. What is your, what is your impression? What's the correct way to get things done in a restaurant? I think you can do that. I mean, mainly because we respond to that and in this big, big world, this big world of technology, it was hard at first to read those, but once we started to respond to them and try to make it right, that's what the restaurant wants to do, no restaurant is going to be perfect a hundred percent of the time. And we want to know on very truly, honestly want to know. And perhaps the better way to do it is to not, not post something in anger. Um, wait till you can call the restaurant the next day and let them know personally, because we will respond to that. Um, I agree. I personally, I appreciate a phone call because you know, it's some time often hard to interpret, uh, attitude when you're reading a post or reading, even reading an email, you know, we just want to make it right.

41:01That's all, all we ever really want to do. You know, servers start to get upset, say, well, I didn't say that or I didn't do that. And, and, you know, suddenly you get all caught in the middle of some argument that you don't even know what the argument is. People just want to come in and have a good meal and, and talk to their, their friends. So I like a phone call myself. So that's it. That's your goal as a restaurateur is to create an experience, to be meant to create memories for people. And that's, you, you nailed it exactly what I was getting at. If I'm trying to educate the guest, don't leave a restaurant, go directly to Yelp and just blast. How does that make you feel as somebody who's out there putting everything you have, you wake up in the morning and you get a notification says, you have a new Yelp review, one star, this restaurant. And somebody just, how does that make you feel inside? Well, I'm serious back when all this started, it was hard to get used to that.

42:05Now I think we are more used to it and we, we can use Yelp reviews as a gauge as to how we're doing overall. And I would say if you are a guest and you are looking at Yelp reviews, take them as a, as a whole, kind of like in a diving meet, they throw out the top score and the bottom score, just try to find the, the, the median in there. And I think that will tell you a lot about how that restaurant is doing. We make mistakes. I mean, we, we make, and if you had been watching us try to do all the takeout orders on last Saturday night, you would realize how many mistakes we can make. And actually I need to put, I wanted to apologize to all of Nashville for Saturday night's curbside takeout. It was rough, but yeah. Um, we, we, we don't try to make those mistakes and we try to make them right as best we can. We, and, and honestly, this is kind of an interesting at once we got on this, um, Brandon is we would love for anyone who has had a bad experience to let us know, we want to know so that we can make it right.

43:16And I wish like several customers on Saturday night, I want to hear from them because I want them, I want to retain their goodwill. And it wasn't something that you did out of a lack of caring or just some level of arrogance that, oh, people are just going to order from us, we'll just put out whatever product you genuinely want to put out the best product possible. And sometimes you're not perfect and you genuinely want to make it right because you care. And I think that's the main thing people want to know is that you actually care. And when you put something on a Yelp, when you put it out there, it's permanent. Like it's, it's there and people are going to make judgments about you and your business because of it. And I think if you're a guest listening to this, what I would take from this is call the restaurant, let them know about your experience. And if the restaurant responds and they say we exact, if they say, if they exhibit any of the behaviors that you just now exhibited, then I think that you, you can kind of go back if you want to place a Yelp review, but tell them that I've contacted the restaurant.

44:22They're very responsive. They want to make it right. And I don't think people realize how important those Yelp reviews are. So as I'm trying to help people become better guests, communicate with the restaurant, call the general manager, call the owners the next day, call them that night, if they, if they tell you on the phone, yeah, tough, man, you should have said something while you were here, prove a receipt, you know, whatever it might be, yeah, then maybe they deserve to be, you know, maybe something else. But if they exhibit this, I absolutely want to hear more about your experience and I care, and we're going to do whatever we can, you know, cut them some slack because this, these are people that live in your community that are just trying to help and, um, there's a, there's a famous fashion chain store Nordstrom back in, when I first got out of college, I was a buyer, um, for a very old business that's since, um, sadly closed, but McClure's, I was a dress buyer there. And we studied and learned about the customer service policies that, um, Nordstrom who, which was based out in the West coast at that point, but they were legendary for their customer service rules, basically.

45:35And the rule would, it consisted of one rule and it was always say yes. And there's a great story about a man who wanted to return a set of, um, automobile tires to Nordstrom and they took them back. And afterwards, the, the person who handled the transaction looked at her boss and said, but, but sir, we don't carry tires and we always say yes. So they took back those tires and I, um, I love that story. And that has sort of stuck with me because people, there's really honestly in the restaurant business, there is really no reason to say no. And we, we say yes. And that's told that to my staff. If somebody has an issue, just make it right. There is no sense in sending away an irate client. It's, it's just not, it's not graceful.

46:38It's not, it's, there's nothing about it. That's good. Just make it right. And so is there, is there anything else in the world of, Hey, if you could talk to all of the guests out there, give them any tips, any pointers, my only pointers are, are just thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you right now. I, you know, this is a really tough time. And, uh, as we all know, it's not just tough for the restaurant business. It's tough for retailers in general. It's tough for the supply chains. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And Nashville has bent over backwards to help our little spot on Thompson lane. And, um, I do, is it okay if I, if I do a little shout out to something that has been really meaningful to me? A hundred percent do it. Yeah. It's a business called style blueprint and I'm sure you're familiar with it. Again, I have used, um, their brain so much over the years, but also just during this period, that group of women, um, Liza graves, Elizabeth Fox, um, they have helped guide me through this world, this virtual world of putting your business out there and, and letting people know, you know, the 180 degree change you've just made and, um, I am very grateful to them for that help.

48:11And I, um, I it's, it's been invaluable. So a little, a little mom and pop store has had to learn how to be, um, a little different right now. And they've been very helpful with that. So big shout out to style blueprint. Well, thank you so much for that. Let's give a shout out to you. Let's talk about what yours, let's do some plugs here. What are you guys doing right now? Give us the whole story as to what you can purchase from yellow porch. How can people out there support you? Well, um, we sweat, we have all of our menus, the lunch and dinner menu are both available for curbside pickup and delivery gap. And I are doing deliveries, believe it or not. It's hilarious. Our daughter of your cars. Yep. Our daughter, somebody said, um, uh, maybe one of our family members said, cause the first time we delivered, we got in the car, you know, we plugged the dress and then we immediately start yelling at each other because, and, and Ella was with us, she was driving with us and she, I hear from the back seat.

49:19I hear her say, Ooh, there's nothing that fires mom more up more than missing her turn. It's because mom and dad disagree with the, the, uh, GPS, the smart phone. No, no, no, no. I follow the GPS. He wants to just look at a map and I just want to go the way I think it might be the best way, actually there's no traffic anyway, so we, we can get there anywhere pretty fast. Well, thumb GPS is pretty good. Well, so somebody said we needed a dashcam to like record all that stuff and then, and then play back all the hilarious comments, like, no, go this way, no, go that way. So anyway, we were actually meeting with an interesting man today, um, in a, with a business called joy drive. And he approached us, um, to possibly figure out some delivery during this time. He's a locally owned, uh, uh, business. He's, he's like an Uber or a Lyft, but he's locally owned.

50:22And he has a fleet of his own cars and we're going to talk to him today. We're not sure it's going to work for our business, but it was really nice being approached by a local person to maybe figure out some delivery. Uh, but anyway, we have, uh, we, the family style menu has been huge. People can't go to the store. A lot of people don't cook. They don't want to cook. So we're doing, um, you know, half hotel pans of almost everything on our menu. And that's been big. And, um, we're doing bat cocktails. What it's, it made me laugh. The, you know, the, the alcohol rules have been, um, pretty prohibitive here in Nashville for, you know, I don't know, you know, 80, 80 years. We've been trying to change these laws. And all it took was a pandemic and boom, we can all of a sudden send alcohol, alcohol out the door. Um, so we're doing that. You know, you can just get a little to go tray of four cocktails and basically just add some ice when you get home, um, we're selling wine at a discount so that our inventory doesn't sit around until we can get open.

51:36Um, so we're, we're just trying to sell everything we have and take it to go. And it's working. Um, I wouldn't say that it's the volume that we're used to. We have only, we have kept everyone on the payroll. Um, with the exception of people who, who have felt like they just want to stay home and ride this out. Um, so there's a lot of relief out there, SBA loans, the government is jumping in there. Um, we do need that help, but it's not fast coming. So, um, we're, we're staying afloat literally the same way we always have. Just tighten the belt and keep, keep ringing stuff up. I mean, we're, we're, we're trying to work on a bare minimum of staffing so that we can stay open and keep, keep some money flowing into it.

52:39We would like to reopen when we can with the same staff that we shut the doors and went in to take out with. So that's our goal. Well, that's awesome. So this has been one of the, the funnest hours I've had so far doing this. I just love hearing your story. I love getting to know you guys. It's one of the joys of, uh, starting a podcast like this is that I'm, I told people in my first podcast that you're going to have a lot of time at home. You're going to have a lot of time. One of the things to do is connect with people you haven't connected with in a long time. And for me, it's been connecting with people all over this industry, all over town that I haven't necessarily seen in a long time and, and getting to really meet people like yourselves. So this has been a real fun journey for me, and hopefully it has been for the listeners as well. Is there anything else you want to say? We're kind of wrapping this, this interview up. But I feel like I could talk to you guys for hours. I, we could just talk for hours about all kinds of stuff and, uh, we'll have to do this again.

53:44We'll have to, you guys have to come back on and we'll get into even more in depth on your menu, uh, the Mediterranean styles. Where, where does that come from? I have so many more questions. Um, well, we, uh, I have to say you are making us feel very contemporary because this is the very first podcast we've ever done. And I was very nervous that I've, that my computer was too old to pull it off. So I just feel, I feel 10 years younger. So thank you. And yet our first podcast and, and our funnest podcast. Well, so we got, we got, we got that in common. This was really fun. I'll take it. Okay. Thank you for doing this. And thank you to my sweet friend, Natalie Bailey for setting this up. She's, she's actually an employee. She's worked with us. She's on our management staff. And I think she launched a new marketing, uh, business called Lady Savage.

54:48And she, uh, markets mostly, um, musicians, I believe. So she helps me be younger too. From myself back to the restaurant world, go visit the yellow porch. It's on Thompson lane, order some takeout, do a family style meal. If you see Gap or Katie in the parking lot, wave at them. Don't, don't shake their hands yet. Wait till we get back to that. But thanks again, guys, for joining me today. Thank you. Thank you so much. It was really fun. I appreciate it. And so there we have it. Gap and Katie Nelson spend some time with us at Nashville Restaurant Radio. What a lovely couple. So thanks for joining us today. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. Stay tuned. Uh, my interview with Trey Siacha is coming up tomorrow. Thanks a lot. Love you guys. Bye.