Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. It is a Monday. Here we go. Rainy Mondays. Got to, got to love them. Today we are coming to you with two of my favorite people in the city, Chad and Gracie from East Side Bond Me. They tell their love story. They talk about their past. They talk about their future. And what bothers them the most in the restaurant working together? I tried to get them to come up with a safe word, but you'll have to listen to see how that ends up. Today we are, we're going to be having a fantastic on-brand today from Complete Health Partners. And they are going to be talking to you just kind of how it works because it almost seems to be true.

01:02These guys are doing amazing things for you. We're going to jump in with Christian Ruff in just a second, but I want to ask you out there. I don't do the best job. I listen to my kids watching YouTubers all the time saying, smash that subscribe button and tell everybody about it and give me likes and all these things. But I asked sometimes, but I'm going to ask again, I really want to build this thing up guys. I keep getting wonderful feedback from you. Thank you. You tell me that you like the show. You like listen to it. You like hearing these stories. So let other people know I love word of mouth. Let somebody else know that you love this podcast. It would mean the world to me. Also subscribe to it, whatever way you're listening to it. Subscribe to it. Go to our YouTube channel. If you're watching this right now. Thank you. But click the subscribe button that you're watching it on right now. And if you haven't been to the YouTube channel, go to the YouTube channel and subscribe. I would love to know how many people out there are listening and watching all this good stuff. So with that being said, let's jump in. Let's check in with Christian Ruff right now. And now we're excited to welcome back to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Christian Ruff, who is the chief of staff for Complete Health Partners.

02:06What's going on, Christian? Hey, good morning. How you doing? I'm fantastic. The more I learn about what you guys do, the more excited I get. And I was thinking the other day that businesses start off with a reason. They start off with a, hey, here's a problem. I'd like to solve it. And you guys really hit on that. Like, how did that happen? So about six months ago, I was transitioning out of the military where I'd spent the last 10 years as a pilot. And I picked up a internship at Nicky's Coalfire that was looking to get some hospitality industry experience because my wife's family, they're all in restaurants. I knew I was going into health care and I was like, you know, I just want to go learn how to make bagels. So I started, I guess that was eight months ago now, I started making bagels with Nicky's. As my transition completed and I found myself with Complete Health Partners, which is a locally owned primary urgent care practice with three locations here in Nashville, I kind of pieced together the two in seeing, not just at Nicky's, but across the board restaurants, there was a large gap in the direct health care that could be provided to its employees.

03:24I saw it with restaurants that are owned and operated by my in-laws, other restaurants here in town. And I just saw this gap of like, there surely must be a way that we can provide direct care within our community that doesn't have the expensive premiums and deductibles and co-pays that traditional insurance plans offer. So that's kind of how it all started. So for me to paraphrase that, you are in health care with Complete Health Partners, you pick up a job, you want to expand your horizons, you're working at Nicky's and you recognize there that restaurants and small businesses have a hard time providing major medical and you guys provide urgent care, local urgent care with a local company and you can offer that to restaurants at a fraction of the price of major medical. Urgent care and primary care. So there's a couple options that we're offering and we're seeing that like there's definitely a need for direct urgent care.

04:24Think of it a virtual on-site clinic, you have an employee at work, he or she gets hurt, they need to be seen, do they go to the ER, do they go to the urgent care or can they wait until they can schedule an appointment with the doctor? Well, we bridge that gap by telehealth, hey, come into us right now. So the employee comes in, we bandage them up, whatever it is, get them back to work. It's not the, oh, they need to go to ER for something that can just be solved like 15 minutes down the road and a 45 minute throughput time. On the other side, we find that having a primary care doctor is not a lot of people have that. They don't have a direct relationship. So we're offering, hey, you're going to come in, we're going to assign you a primary care doctor, you're going to have his or her email address and anything that comes up, you're just going to email them, we're going to call them, you're going to get an appointment, there's no two, three week wait, no copay, all locally operated and at a fraction of the cost.

05:27No deductibles, no copays, just a simple monthly subscription. So that monthly subscription that you charge to restaurants, so if I own a restaurant, right, and I want to offer my entire staff primary care and urgent care and telehealth, how do I begin? What do I need to do to get that going? The first thing is just reach out to us and the best way to reach us is that complete care at completehealthpartners.com and there's a couple of different options that we're offering, all starting at $50 a month for either the urgent or the primary care and then a combo of the two and we can just assess your needs and figure out what is the best solution. So there's no, it hurts me nothing to go pull up my computer and email to completecareatcompletehealthpartners.com and I just send you an email that says, hey, I'm with a restaurant, I heard you on Nashville Restaurant Radio and I'd like to learn more. Yes, I'm the John Q. restaurant owner. We started with restaurants just because of the immediate exposure and experience that I had when I saw this gap, but really it applies to all businesses.

06:36We have our own employees that are enrolling in this because it doesn't necessarily replace or is an alternative to health insurance, but it gives you that direct access that those plans cannot offer, so we have people within our own community asking for it. Well, this is a tough time to get employees to come work for you and to offer benefits to them is a huge draw and I think that you guys have absolutely solved a problem and it's fun for me hosting this show to have you guys on for me to be able to introduce this to restaurants. Like I feel like I get to tell you guys about this amazing opportunity in front of you. It's local, you're supporting local and you're offering an amazing benefit to your staff. Christian Ruff, thank you so much for joining us today and hopefully you'll get many, many people emailing you and hopefully we can help restaurants in Nashville offer this health care option to their staff. Awesome.

07:37Thank you so much. Thanks, Christian. Have a great day. Alright, thank you so much, Christian, for taking the time to talk to us here today. Your sponsorship means everything I love that you guys are getting involved. Let's get on with the show, ladies and gentlemen, Gracie Nguyen and Chad Newton. Super excited today to welcome in Gracie and Chad. They are the owners of Eastside Bond Me. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you so much. What's up? It's so different seeing you guys like not in the weeds. That's very true. It's very nice to not be in the weeds at the moment. At the moment. So I will tell people out there that this has been an interview that I've wanted to do for like so long, but getting you two standing still long enough together to talk is not always the easiest thing. What is your schedule look like right now? Well, yeah, we're pretty darn busy.

08:40We have been since we opened last August-ish. So yeah, it's been a jam nonstop. It's going to be a year soon. I just can't believe that. It's just flying by. But our schedule right now is the restaurant's open six days and we're pretty much there six days. We close early on Saturdays and just do lunch. And then our one day of rest is Sundays. And we kind of always planned it that way intentionally for a few reasons. One, we want to have one guaranteed day of rest. I'm also a big football fan. So kind of goes hand in hand with that too, to have like a nice lazy Sunday watching either football or the English Premier League, my two things. And Gracie loves to have her little rest and quiet time on Sundays as well. But also, you know, we wanted to make sure we had a day close where we could do some cool events and pop ups at the restaurant when we wanted to. So yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. So who's your favorite football team? American football. Niners. Niners fan all the way. Born and raised in the Bay. Yeah.

09:41Okay. Yeah. What do you typically do? If he's watching football and football and you get the one day off to relax, what do you do to relax? Well, this is going to be embarrassing, but I don't get out of bed and I'm on my phone watching TikTok and Instagram all day. Dude, seriously, is TikTok not the most addictive thing in the world? It's awesome. You know what? I've learned so much on TikTok too. People think it's like for teenage girls and I am a 42 year old man and I love, I keep texting my wife's like, I'm not going to do that and I keep texting her these videos and she's like, that's hilarious. I'm like, yes. Yeah. Yeah. There's some good content there for sure. I haven't gotten into it luckily, so you know. So okay. So you lay in bed, you chill, you play on the internet and that's totally acceptable. I'm completely down for that. Let's get back into some of your, let's start with some of your history.

10:45You guys are a married couple. How long have you been married for? This August would be 10 years. Wow. What day in August is your anniversary? Just curiously. August 7th. August 7th. All right. And what day did you guys open the restaurant? I'm sorry? What day did you guys open the restaurant? What was it? August 17th? Yeah. August 17th. And I was just randomly like, did you guys correlate that to like open the restaurant on your anniversary so that you could have this day and, but no. No, I don't even think we were thinking about the anniversary. I think we kind of skipped over that this year by half by accident and half because we were just so busy with trying to get a restaurant open in the middle of COVID. But yeah. But thank, you know, we did that a little quick interview with you on our opening day, which was so cool. So we appreciate that. We were so probably nuts at the time and probably not all there, but it was really cool to do that quick spot with you. I will give that a little bit of a plug. If you go back on Nashville, we did a show called the Music City Roundup, which I'm going to bring back.

11:50I was doing a weekly show, probably a bi-weekly show, we just talked about all the cool stuff that's going on. And when you guys opened, it was major news, man. It was, we've got the owners of Eastside Bond Me and you guys came on and gave us a, yeah, we're opening today. We're kind of slammed. But if you want to hear that interview, go back on the subscription, look back on August, around that August 17th time, and you think it's August 17th, you'll find the actual interview with them. So go back and check that out. Now, you guys are both from the West Coast, right? Well, Gracie's originally from Texas, but... Yeah, I moved to San Francisco to go to culinary school at like 20, 19, 20 years old. Chad, did you go to culinary school? I didn't. I got a degree in restaurant management at San Francisco State, but we kind of both went through the school of hard knocks actually in really good restaurants, which is what we recommend everyone, of course. But yeah, so that was my culinary school, was just cooking at the best restaurants.

12:51So Gracie grew up in Houston with your grandmother cooking, teaching you classic Vietnamese. You went to San Francisco to go to culinary school. When you graduated culinary school, tell me about your experience working in restaurants and kind of what that was like from the perspective of, I just got a culinary degree. For people, did you walk in and say, I have a culinary degree, and be like, oh, great, here's your executive chef job, or were they like, oh, great, go wash dishes? Yeah. I actually, while I was in school, I was working for the Wolfgang Pup Cafe in Macy's, which is not there anymore. But going to culinary school and eating around, my favorite restaurant was Postrio by Wolfgang Pup. It's like a fine dining. And so after I graduated, I was like, I want to work for here. And so I did and stuck around for a long time. Wow. What about you, Chad? You said you graduated with restaurant management, so you're both restaurant people.

13:51I mean, this is something you guys both decided you were going to do. So you got a management degree. Where did you go work? What was your experience like? Well, you know, going back, one of my first jobs in high school was at Domino's Pizza. You know, like I just always loved to eat. That was my thing. Like I cooked pizza hut. Yeah. You know, like I cook because I love to eat, as you can't tell. But yeah, so like going back to that, and then in college, I worked, I went to San Diego State as well for four years and had a great, too much fun down there and really couldn't progress down there in the business school. So kind of went into the restaurant area and I was working at some chain restaurants like Pizzeria Uno back in the day, but I became, yeah, it was actually pretty good stuff back then before I got super over commercialized. But you know, it was becoming a trainer there and doing that. And then I moved to San Francisco, started going to San Francisco State in a restaurant program. And at the same time, I started, I got offered a job at Postrio, which, you know, where Gracie and I eventually met, which was one of the best restaurants in San Francisco for many, many years.

14:56It was a fantastic place. A lot of great chefs came out of there and super great pedigree about it all. And it was just, it was amazing, amazing place. So that's where I kind of got in there as a front of the house food runner and expediter. And then eventually I started, so I was doing doubles on that. I was working lunch and dinner, going to school. And then also sometimes in the middle, I would, on the weekends, I would jump into the kitchen and help out. And then I started working my way up and about a year and a half later, I became sous chef and did a really fast track there in the kitchen. So if you're listening to this out there, this is, this is the roadmap, what we're discussing here. This is kind of the restaurant roadmap, that school of hard knocks, like they said, I mean, you get in there and you put in six, seven days a week, you hustle. This is why a lot of people are turned off by the industry. But then also, I think that's why a lot of people are turned on by the industry because people that need to get out there and just need to serve and need to work like this is, this is an absolute like welcome, come on in and do it.

16:00You guys both seem to be right there with that. Well, I'm glad you said that because however stressful it was, it was also so much fun. But then for me personally, it was about the pure joy of delivering beautiful food to a table of people having a great time and then just utterly loving it. That was it for me, like that sold me, you know, I'm delivering these beautiful plates and putting them down in front of people and they're having this great time and they're looking at their food going, wow, this looks amazing. And I knew the food was quality and beautifully presented and there's everything about it was just such a turn on. And plus, you know, the camaraderie and restaurants at that point were, you know, just over the top. It was just such a great atmosphere. For all the other toxic things that go with it, you know, there was so many great things. And that's one of those things where kind of the great things. But I do. I always still break it down to basically the act of hospitality. It really comes down to that and everything you do, you know, that's what I hear you tell that story. And it's almost like the kid nappy falling in love with the kidnapper, like, yeah, it was.

17:07It's a lot of hours. It's really hard. But eventually we all fell in love and it was a fun deal. And you guys literally fell in love there. I think we touched on this on the interview last time, but let's let's just let our listeners know again. You're both working at the say the name of the Wilking. I want to say Pasta Ria because that's we had the poster post post trio and it was on the street. There was three owners. It was post trio. And yeah, it was a very cool thing, but got it from San Francisco. I'm not as up to date on the San Francisco food scene and all of the restaurants I should be. That's why we talk to people. You guys let us know. Gracie, what did you think the first time that you when did you know like that you kind of liked Chad? Did he ask you out? Were you guys like having drinks? Like what was the first time you saw him that you were kind of like, hey, that guy could be, you know, he's kind of cute or whatever. So we I left post trial to work at the post trial in Las Vegas.

18:09And then I came back to San Francisco years later. And that's when we ran into each other. And I didn't really recognize him because, you know, ten years later, he's changed a little bit. And but he actually had a girlfriend at that time. So I didn't really think of anything. And but I think we started hanging out as friends for a bit and then, you know, things happen. Well, I think she's being nice about it. The whole. The real story is that. There we go. Yeah. It was that I was a food runner, so I was working more in the front of the house or the middle of the house, if you will. And Gracie was cooking on the line in a kind of very hardcore male dominated, dominated high aggression, like old school classic line. And she was fighting for herself back there working the grill. And this is like one of the most hardcore grills you will ever see your grilling squab quail like tons of chickens, tons of steaks every night. Over this open fire.

19:10And it was just a hardcore station because I eventually worked it. But so I just remember bringing her plates and doing things like that. And she claims that she doesn't remember me at all from those days. And so that's where kind of the fun story comes in, is that I guess I wasn't that memorable. Yeah. So we kind of, you know, Gracie moved on to go to Postreo Las Vegas and open that. I traveled around a little bit. We both came back to San Francisco separately and started working as executive chefs at different restaurants. And I remember I went to her restaurant, which is the slanted door at the time, which is an awesome restaurant in San Francisco, one of the biggest and high gross, highest grossing restaurants actually in the country. But really amazing Vietnamese food at the Ferry Building, which is a complete culinary destination there. But I went in with my dad and we were popping around, going to different restaurants, just tasting food before our Giants came. And I remember seeing her in a chefware catalog, because that's where you bought stuff back in the day.

20:13It was like literally the chefware catalog and the newspaper to find cooking jobs. Right. That was really what it was then for all the kids out there right now. You would like circle a job on the thing that you were interested in or you would circle the chef coat that you liked and then you would order it, send a check in or whatever it was. But she was in there as like a chefware model. And I remember seeing her and going, oh, I remember her from from Postrio. And then I went in and I asked because I had heard she was working there or saw her in the kitchen or something. And I asked to see her and very nervously she came over and still didn't really remember me, I don't think. And that's kind of how it started. And then we did we ended up doing an event where we were both there doing tastes or bites and kind of started talking and started texting and then started hanging out a little bit. And then, what, like a month later, we moved in together. That escalated fast. Yeah, yeah. So we kind of knew it was a we kind of knew it was a fit.

21:14That's amazing. I don't know. I saw you the other day. We were at Gifford's Bacon over there, Prime Self Meats, and you're just every time I see you, Gracie, you got your head down and you're just hustling. Every time I see you in the kitchen, wherever it is, you're just working and literally head down working. I just picture you at Post Trio and I just see you on the grill. Were you like a were you like a badass? Were you like one of those people that was just there and just like yelling and cussing? Or were you were you just like in your zone, doing your thing, not saying a word? What kind of what kind of person were you on the on the line? Well, definitely just in my zone. But I'm just working hard because it was I was pretty much the only female on that cooking line and it was hard to deal with, like the males and the way they talked and all of that. So I just put my head down because I really loved what I did. And I just put my head down and just try to do my best. That was it. I hear that and I and there's a side of me, you know, that I read Anthony Bourdain Kitchen Confidential and, you know, that was just kind of a rite of passage, guys and kitchens being guys like.

22:29That's so terrible. I think about that now and I think how like what an incredibly terrible thing that must have been like. Did you did you did you like get done with the day and have to like go talk to somebody about some of the stuff that you heard or did you were you able just to fully put it aside or did it bother you? Because I mean, it should. Yeah, it didn't really bother me and it wasn't as bad as like some of the things I've heard. But I don't think it really affected me because, you know, like I'm at work with the kids now. I would tell them stories and we can just laugh about it. But it wasn't it didn't really bother me at all. What about you, Chad? You got back there on the line. I like to talk like I'm imagine that like I'm back there. I like to go like, hey, you working this, you got this, you got this. When I expo, I like to have I like to have like chatter back and forth. Yeah, chatter is important. I think chatter is important. But I mean, chatter is different now. You can't run kitchens the way that we used to and people used to. And, you know, I've worked for some really hardcore chefs where, you know, it was borderline abuse, like mentally and sometimes physically.

23:35I would get thrown off a station physically, things like that. And, you know, once I went through that, I started running my own kitchens and there's a little piece of me that that I had that and it took with me. And I was a little bit of a yeller for like a year after that. And then I just realized I was like, you know, this is not the right way to go. This is, you know, 15 years ago. But, you know, or 10 years ago and just started to realize as we started kind of developing restaurants and doing our own restaurants with partners and such, we just started to realize that you just can't do that anymore. It has to be a better environment. And I'm glad things have changed so much where the environments are way better than they used to be. The toxicity is down. Again, it depends on where you're at and who you're cooking for and kind of a degree of that chef or restaurateur is because there's definitely still some places that don't have the best work environment. But at the end of the day, it's like, why? You know, let's just make it easier for all of us. It's such a hard thing in the first place. Why do we make it harder by having just a tougher environment?

24:37Yeah, I think it's almost impossible now to have that type of environment with the labor shortage. I'm not putting up with this. Like, I'm out. Like, I'm not doing this. But then again, I guess if you're you're staging for somebody and you want to be in that role and you want to learn from them and people can mentor. But I think that's it. It's just it's just going by the wayside. Thank God. Yeah, business has changed completely. And that includes the restaurant business as kind of ages cycle through and whatnot. So it's good to see. I think that there's a lot of chefs out there that are really kind of even taking that and running with it in the opposite direction of kind of how they came up and really kind of integrating a lot of really cool things into the workplace and the culture that makes it just a lot easier for everybody and a lot better for everyone mentally, physically, all that. So I'm glad it's gone that direction. Well, you guys are doing a great job with that. Every time I see you, you're like the happiest person that I like. Is that intentional?

25:37I mean, are you because every time I see you, man, you're always big smiles. You're just happy. And like, I love your energy, both of your energy. When I walk into the restaurant, I can I can feel it like it's palpable. Is that intentional? I mean, do you want that? What you're trying is that what you're going for? Is that just naturally what happens? I think hospitality is important. So, you know, saying hello, saying goodbye, saying thank you to as many people as you can. Yeah, you miss a couple of people because you're busy, too, and you got your head down looking at a sandwich or looking at tickets or trying to direct or trying to look at a transaction on the register. But our biggest goal is to really try to engage with every single person that comes to the door. And I think we're pretty good at it and can always be better. And that's always a goal to try to catch as many people as we can. That's why oftentimes when you when you come into East Side Bombay, you'll hear two or three people be like, hey, how's it going? You know, hello. We just try to make sure we're doing that, talking to people. And I think that's just the basic hospitality. And yeah, for the most part, we're having a really great time.

26:40We're having so much fun. And I think that's the best comment we've gotten from a lot of folks around Nashville, specifically a lot of our peers is just like, seems like you guys are having so much fun. And that's what we're trying to do, honestly, especially in these such tough times. We're kind of reinvigorated in the business. We went through some really tough times back at some of our previous businesses. And this is a brand new change for us and a brand new opportunity to kind of do our own thing, really just as a family business. It's just Gracie and I and a great team, but we don't have any partners or investors for the first time. This is really our own kind of family thing where we can make every decision ourselves and do everything we want to do. And so the idea is I think that really makes us happier and have a better environment and a better culture. And again, to me, it really just comes down to hospitality. And Gracie is kind of the same way. That's so funny. People always say like, oh, you always hide Gracie or something like that. She's just so busy in the kitchen, like running the kitchen well.

27:41And I have to be that person that's really try to be really engaging in the front and talk to people and and just spend as much time as I can doing that, but also hope in another area. So I think we balance each other really well. And that's why I think, you know, after so many years working together, we've kind of finally figured it out. And believe me, that doesn't mean there's not tough times or hard times. Of course, it's running a business together. And, you know, we've done this for a while. And in the beginning, it was really hard. The first two years of being married and also running and operating businesses together was brutal. I mean, like we didn't make it almost didn't make it a few times. What were the first 10 years like or the first nine years? Who were you? You said you had partners. Did you have other restaurants that you? Yeah, so just a quick background. It would take too long to talk about it all. But there was a moment in San Francisco where Gracie and I were, you know, executive chefs at different restaurants and we kind of crossed over and helped each other a little bit at each other's restaurants just based off of our availability and stuff.

28:46So it was great. That's when we first started working together a little bit. And then obviously, like cooking at home and stuff, it just was like a common thing for us just to cook together. And we totally clicked when we did that. And it was so great. Then in 2011, we moved from San Francisco down the peninsula to the Silicon Valley area, Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and we created and opened up a first restaurant that would become 10 that we fully developed with our old partner, Frank. It was called Asian Box, and it was a fast, casual, Vietnamese, really cool concept that still has eight locations open today. And we've remained great friends with all of them, all the investors, all the partners, the current CEO, the board of directors, everyone involved, a ton of the staff still at all the different stores. But we created that from the ground up. Frank, Gracie, and I opened one up. It was a smashing success in Palo Alto. It's right across the street from Stanford University, a tiny little store, 913 square feet.

29:50It was basically based off of Vietnamese rice and noodle bowls that was served in a box. It was called Asian Box. But we grew that to 10 units. So we went through all of that altogether, growing a company into that many units. And we learned so much from it, good things and bad things, of course. And like I said, I'm still proud that we're still great friends and family with the restaurant group. And we still retain some equity. And everything's great. And we wish them the best as they continue to rock it out in California. They only lost two units during COVID, which is crazy. They're doing really well. What brought you to Nashville? Oh, that's an interesting one. Why Nashville? Yeah, well, kind of being in that and going through that growth and experiencing what we experienced was somewhat of a factor. It was kind of like that timepiece that you're kind of ready to try something else.

30:54And then I had a little tragedy. My mom passed away suddenly in 2018. And that kind of just changed me completely, like completely. And we just needed a change. And it all pointed to trying somewhere new to be. And we looked around, and there was a couple options of places that we wanted to possibly live. We really started enjoying the South and traveling throughout the South, like Charleston and some other places. And we kept visiting Nashville and kept liking it more and more and brought Gracie here. Because I went out a couple of times before. I was there for a conference or two and really got to see it and really started enjoying it. And then Gracie started visiting. She really loved it and kind of just all decided that this was the spot to come. Where was it between? Were you picking between like three cities that you wanted to go? No, I mean, I think there was Charleston definitely. We really fell in love with Charleston and we still really love it there. Fantastic food city.

31:57Such sweet people. Just unbelievable. We vacation there as much as we can now that we're on this side. But I think it was kind of between there. We talked about possibly going to like back home to Gracie's area in Houston or Austin, somewhere there. Kind of like the main decision between everyone right now. Yeah. So we're not very original. But you know what? Once we saw the caliber of food in Nashville and we saw how great the community was and the restaurant community, we really just fell in love very quickly. And we just liked it here. And we've never looked back. We absolutely love it here. Was there a seminal dining experience that you had when you came to like visit Nashville that you were like, wow, you said that the dining scene was fantastic here. Where do you guys like to eat? Is there a place that's just like your number one? We're going to take a short break to hear a word from our sponsors. When talking about what chefs want, really the question is, how do they do it?

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35:42Sitex is a third generation family owned and operated linen, mats and uniformed company. They really are the good guys in linen business. They're transparent with their pricing, they have incredible quality and their service is second to none. Check them out at sitex-corp.com or give Ross Chandler a call at 270-823-2468. Wow, this is, you said that the dining scene was fantastic here. Where do you guys like to eat? Is there a place that's just like your number one? Well, we always try to, well, we would love to repeat, but we always try to like try different things all the time. One of my favorites is Henrietta Riggs. I love how vegetable-forward everything is. Okay. Same thing as Hawthorne. Yes. So good. Yeah. Chef Evans killing it. Yes. I'd say one of the things that was a draw when we got here was eating at both Rolf & Daughters and Full because those two restaurants literally just dining in them and seeing, you know, from an insider industry perspective, right? The wine and beverage programs, the food, the steps of service, everything. You literally take both of those restaurants, pick them up, put them out down in New York, LA, San Francisco, and they fit in. They're in the top, you know, they're in the top caliber of restaurants. Just everything about it is a top-notch dining experience. I think for me, that was what, you know, we ate at those two and we're like, wow, this is, this reminds us back up from back in home a little bit. But, you know, like we ate at Ashton last night. It was incredible.

37:23Was it your first time? First time, yeah. Tell me you're just blown away, right? Yeah, it was just every little piece of it. So well thought out, so delicious. Textures, flavors, service, the engagement with the staff. Josh is amazing. Lauren's amazing. Alex with his wine parents amazing. So yeah, those are, those are, you know, some of the dining experience we've had. Cappard Seat was amazing just to see that, you know, we could see another like high-end tasty menu, which we don't like to do too much anymore these days. But that was an amazing experience. So like some of those really hit home to be like, this is such a high caliber seat. Plus, I mean, I think what gets us the most excited is seeing folks like Julio at Mize and Edgar at Aligrije and Michael at St. Vito. The way people are pushing right now and grinding. Oh my gosh, it gives you so much energy. It gives you so much energy. Those folks are just on it and it's just, it's just mind-blowing. I think that's what's so cool here. I think that's happening back at home, but it's just so much larger that, you know, you kind of lose track of those things. And that's why I like it's a little more tight knit here and a little just bit smaller geography to kind of keep track of. And so it's interesting because San Francisco is, to use the analogy, it is a big pond.

38:44Yeah. And there's a lot of fish in that pond. And Nashville is a smaller pond, but it doesn't mean that the pedigree of fish are different, so to speak. Right. Amazing chefs here. It seems like you guys have been welcomed into the community really, really well. In your perception, how do you feel like the city of Nashville as far as a culinary community has welcomed you into the community? I mean, amazingly well. We're still in awe of it every day and we don't believe that we should be received as well, honestly. Just super humbled, right? I mean, it's been amazing. Everyone has just been, the outpouring has been great. I mean, we even go back to our first pop-up, one of our first pop-ups at Jackalope the Ranch. You know, Josh came out of fashion and just walked across the street and said hello. I mean, like, you know, just. And he was like a celebrity to us. You know, but like you just, that might happen in San Francisco, but it just seems like it would be not that much of a story or something. I don't know. You know what I mean? It's just, and there's, you know, the San Francisco community is great. You know, for a while, a lot of the chefs were hanging out, doing things. There used to be this great like 4th of July picnic where everyone, all these different chefs brought food and hung out together. It was like once a year where that happened. That was really cool. I think times have changed a little bit though, but here, yeah, it's, I just can't believe how welcomed we've been. And you know, our, it feels really good because of course we want to have a sustainable business where we're successful and everything's working and we can retain staff and grow and hire more people and all that. That's like the biggest goal. But to have the appreciation and the love of your peers really kind of hits home and makes you feel good, quite honestly, you know? Yeah. No, it's, it's cool to see because I mean, I've, I watch your feed and I've brought a handful of chefs in to see you, but like, I,

40:46I feel like everywhere I see anybody that comes in, just a testament to this, this project you just did with the Nashville Food Project. I mean, the chefs that made a banh mi sandwich to add to that, I mean, was really, I have second to none. I mean, those people that just came out to support you guys was absolutely, and the food was, was amazing. How much money did you guys end up raising for the Nashville Food Project? Yeah, over $5,000. So pretty amazing. Yeah, it's a lot of sandwiches. That is a lot of sandwiches. Yeah, it was, and you know, the folks that we kind of reached out to do that with were some of our biggest and best supporters when we came to town. That was kind of was a little bit based off of, and yeah, we couldn't have been happier and more proud of how it all went. It was very tough. There's still some tough moments where we almost broke a few times, but I think it was just such a great project for so many reasons, and so happy we did it, and so happy we were able to engage with the community, the Nashville Food Project, and the other chefs. When you said you almost broke, what, can you give me an example? Like, what do you mean? Was it like product didn't come in or you had too many people? Like, what do you mean you almost broke? Give us an example. Well, it started off with a fried avo bun-mi. Yeah, Bradley Weaver sandwich was crazy. Yeah, we got crushed on that one. Fried avo? Yeah, it was Bradley Weaver's whipped feta fried avo and his Dream Weaver hot sauce. You talk about like a brand following or why it's important to kind of create something around one of your big brand standards or your best sellers. Wow, he did a great job because yeah, that was the first series where we stepped back and were like, we are so busy, we can't even handle this. Well, we had to

42:46take a break. We had to shut down. Yeah, on a few occasions, but yeah. Yeah, then Sean's sandwich also, as you can imagine, was nuts. There were some days where we didn't know if we were going to make it through the whole thing, and staff was looking at us like, what are we doing? And we were like, it's so good for charity, go on. Yeah, you can do it. But yeah, I mean, if anyone's seeing it, they all know we have tiny kitchen. So it doesn't matter how good restaurateurs you are, how experienced you are, you still only have so much space to work with. And we're definitely kind of at capacity. And during those times, we were really at capacity. And yeah, it was nuts. It was a lot of fun. But it was crazy. Do you guys have like a secret word, like a safe word? Like, like my wife and I, we steal from the movie for Christmases mistletoe.

43:47It's like, what's he's like, he's like laying there, he falls off there. He's like mistletoe, mistletoe. Like my wife and I, we like get into like a fight. And it's a stupid fight. I call mistletoe. And I'm like, all right, mistletoe. Like we've, we got to stop take a step back. Like what are we even arguing? I was like, it's stupid. It's nothing like that's our word. Do you guys have a word in the kitchen? Where like, if it starts going down, and she looks at you and you're like, it's about to, she's like, okay, find me squared or something like, you know, is there something that you guys do together? Like, what is that? Well, I think when, um, if it gets there, there's a little tension in the kitchen or something, or Chad is like, we would always say like, watch your tone. And that would like shut us down a little bit. But I think you're right. I think we do need like a nice one word key word that just Gracie and I know, because yeah, it does get a little, it's a little nuts in there. And, um, you know, being married to, we, we know how to push each other's buttons at the same time a little bit. So, um, you know, we try, we try to keep it cool in front of the kids. We do have an open kitchen.

44:50Um, there's been some tense and stressful moments for sure. Um, but, uh, you know, should we create the word right now? I think we should come up with a word. And then if people hear that word, they know like, like a special, like you guys should, yeah. I'm, I'm, you guys can think of that on your own. I have all these ideas for you now in and out. It has like animal style, right? If you had like some sort of like a super secret bun me style, that was like double vegetable and double meat. And if you're like, I want it Westminster style or something, you know, that was like, what is that? You like, oh, I, I'm in the know. I know what's up. So let's talk about what a bond me is because I'm sure people are listening to this and like, oh, these people seem really nice and I like them, but what the hell are they've already Googled what a bond me is if they haven't. Um, which I also, I'm looking at your hat and when I wear my hat, it's my favorite thing. And people go, where's, where's, uh, where's bond Michigan? Yeah, that's right. I actually get people that ask me that like, where's bond Michigan? Cause I wear that hat all the time and it says East side bond. And then the MI and people go, where's bond Michigan? Are you from Michigan? Like the East side of bond Michigan? I'm like pretty specific. No, it's a sandwich. It's a place in East Nashville. It's great. Um, let's talk about what, what is, what makes a classic bond me Gracie? Um, so I feel like what we build in a sandwich is very classic.

46:23Um, so it starts off with a baguette, um, like a lighter, crispier baguette. And then we, uh, slather it with butter mayo, which is not exactly like mayonnaise, but it's just really eggs and oil, but we actually use the leftover oil from frying shallots and use that oil for more flavor and then throw in more shallots on top of that and mix everything up. So we give a good amount of it. And then, um, the traditional garnishes is like the cucumber, the pickled vegetables, which is, uh, carrots and daikon. And it's not like, like a sour pickle is more like quick pickling, sweeter, the fresh cilantro and, um, give it a little bit of, um, jalapenos to spice it up a little bit. And then, um, and then of course the meat of your choice. Um, but to finish off, you have to have the Maggie and the black pepper. The what in the black pepper?

47:23We call it Maggie, which is like a seasoning soy. It's not really soy sauce. Um, but it's like a seasoning soy. I'm sure like they use it in Europe. It's just like, um, it's like a mommy kick to it. Okay. Yeah. So it's, it's a sandwich, but it is not your average sandwich. And this bread is made from heaven, right? I mean, this bread is unbelievable. And who makes all the bread? Yeah, we make, we make the bread in house. Um, we make it from scratch. I mean, it's, I mean, why not? You know? Yeah. I can't even find the bunny bread if I wanted to in Nashville. But your kitchen is tiny. Like, and you go through, I mean, how many sandwiches you guys making every day now? Uh, we probably bake about from 300 to 350 breads a day. Um, cause we, we try to not run out. There are days when we will, but we try and not to run out of bread. And it's okay. We had a few extra 20 left. It's so stressful when you're like counting down. And so I'd rather just have extra bread and just, you know, give it away next door or to the staff, take it home, make garlic bread, you know, do whatever they want. Do you never use the bread from the previous day, the next day? No. I mean, are you tempted? I mean, like, cause you gotta look at, there's all these costs and everything that goes on. And then, I mean, I, I understand the integrity of what you're doing, but like the end of the day, there's gotta be that we'll just use it tomorrow. Like that's, that is not a thing. No, I don't know. I believe in karma. I feel like something bad will happen. I feel guilty. Well, I think there's, you know, and the other thing is that we're often baking bread throughout the day. So you're going to get fresh bread throughout the day. Like, it's not like, oh, nine o'clock, we're baking off every single piece of bread for the day. No, it can't work that way. You know, we start baking off what, around nine,

49:2410, and it continues throughout the day. So a lot of times people are getting, or most of the time you're getting super fresh baked bread. We do re toast a little bit because you want that really crispy exterior and soft pillowy interior. And that's what classic on me is or should be. But yeah, the bread is, the bread is major. It's just like a, you know, the Italians with pasta and pizza, they'll tell you that it's all about that dough. It's all about the pasta first. That's the most important thing. And then whatever you add to it is fantastic. And it makes the final dish, but it's really should be about that base vehicle, if you will. So what is the most popular? Oh, I want to rephrase that because the most popular is not the best. Usually what is, if I'm going there for the first time, I'm listening to this and I go, wow, there is a place in East Nashville that is making bond me. I didn't know what a bond me was, but now I know that you're making a baguette every single day throughout the day. This is a fresh bread that has got a crispy outside, pillowy inside. I love the way you say that. It has a pillowy inside. You're putting all kinds of, there's a carrot and you said, is it daikon on all of them? Is it daikon or is it cucumber?

50:37Daikon, radish with the carrots. Daikon, carrots, cilantro, jalapenos. And that, so on this bread, inside of the sandwich and it's crisp, there's like this crispiness. Then they add the meat. What is the one that you've, the best one that you make in your opinion that you have to try? I need to try this. Right. So when somebody says it's their first time, we always tell them they have to get the pork, the pork with the pate. Okay. Yeah. It's just called the pork with pate or is there a name for it? Like, I think it's the, yeah, we say the pork sandwich, but it's a, it's slow roasted for three hours in the oven with the caramel sauce that has like lemongrass and garlic and onions. Fish sauce. And fish sauce for three hours. And it's just nice and tender and delicious. There's one that you have that's like the meat. Is there like a meat one that's like steak and pate and what's that? What's I forget what that one's called. It's the chopped steak. The chopped steak. Right. I ate the chopped steak the first time I came in and I remember eating the sandwich because you weren't, the dining room wasn't open when we were, it was the first week and the dining room wasn't open. My wife and I were sitting in the car outside in your parking lot. And I'm not kidding. I've got this sandwich in my lap and I'm halfway through the sandwich. And I look at her and I go, this is, this is a flavor. This is it. And I was like, there's a flavor happening in my mouth right now that I like, I dream about. That's that perfect, that crispness of biting into the sandwich and getting the carrots and the pickles and those jalapenos, that perfect level of spice and the perfect meats.

52:19And I looked at it and I was like, I almost had tears in my eyes. I was like, this is the flavor I searched for all the time. They did it. They found it. It's right here. That's a pretty exciting moment when you get to have that. Do you get a lot of feedback like that? I think most people really love it. I don't want to say that. Yes, but yeah. But I think, I think what's happening is that people are truly seeing what this cuisine is all about. You know, because Vietnamese cuisine is all about all these kind of different flavors, how they come together and balance each other. You've got sweet, salty, you know, the herbaceous, you have the spicy, you have all that. And the way it just comes together and balances is just unbelievable. And that's why the bon meat sandwich is such a great creation, right? You have like the French kind of bread and mayo and the pate, and then you have the really cool grilled meats with the great Asian marinade and, you know, the pickles and the cilantro. And that's why the bon meat sandwich is one of the best sandwiches in the world. You know, it truly is. I'm going to tell you this, and I'm not kidding, that is the best, like your sandwiches are the best sandwiches I've ever had in my life. Like, I'm not kidding. You know, my grandmother, anybody that's made me a sandwich, I'm telling you, the multiple bon mes that I have had in your establishment are the best. And I hear that from everybody. And let people think that you guys are like one trick ponies, but like, all you can do is make sandwiches. I'm reading on Eater Nashville last week, an article by my friend Delia Jo Ramsey.

53:58I think she was the co-host the day that we did our show. You guys are opening in at The Wash, a new place called ESP. Yeah. East Side Faux. Yeah. It's pronounced Fuh. Fuh. P-H-O, but it's pronounced Fuh. Yeah. Well, how would you do it? Tell us what's going on there, guys. Give us a scoop. So it's going to be a small, small shop, and hopefully this will be the last restaurant we open. But it's going to be- No way in hell. We just want to make Vietnamese soups, which I crave all the time. And that's all it is. Just small menu, just a soup shop. Yeah. It's supposed to be just a little soup stall. And that's why, you know, when I say we were ready to open the second one, or we wanted to, probably not. But this was always the plan for the second. It was to be somewhat of a complimentary concept to East Side Banh Mi. Whereas these days, we really like to, instead of trying to do multi-unit of one brand, we really have a bunch of different ones that we have kind of in our pocket that we can open up in the future. And instead of trying to do more East Side Banh Mi's around town, we're just really not into that game anymore. There's nothing wrong with folks that do that. But I just feel like once you start doing that, you start losing some of the specialness to it. You start diluting your brand just a little bit. Again, great strategy for those that do it. And there's some fantastic multi-units around town. But just from our perspective, we wanted to kind of go in a new direction after scaling a restaurant brand from one to 10 units. So this was always kind of the plan for the second one. And we couldn't pass this one up. It's a block from a long block from East Side Banh Mi. So it's super close. There's our good

55:58friend Tyler Cobble from the Cobble Group who's putting this all together. And it was just a great opportunity that we can pass up. And we always just wanted to do a little soup stall. Just really keep it simple. Really based off of the soups. Really great broths. Really great products still sourced locally. And something that would be complimentary to East Side Banh Mi. Because with East Side Banh Mi, we really wanted to open up a Vietnamese restaurant that wasn't the one of everything. We didn't want to have the whole classic, you know, I'm gonna have every single classic Vietnamese item on there. That wasn't our goal. It was really to highlight Vietnamese sandwiches. And then have a few other things so we can make sure we could cover everyone's appetites when they come in. But this one is really about soups and noodles and all that. And it's gonna be amazing. So you said that you crave, and I can't wait for that by the way. I'm so excited about that. You said, Gracie said, sometimes I just crave a good Vietnamese pho or good Vietnamese soup. Where do you currently go when you crave that? Where's the best in town before you guys get open? I'm sure when you guys get open, that's gonna be the best in town. But if you're craving that before you guys open, where do you go? So there's this one place. I think it's in Nolensville, but I'm not for sure. But it's called Baker's Boss. And it's this cute little place. And this Vietnamese woman, she actually makes banh mi there and she makes her own bread.

57:23And I went to check it out. And her soups are really good. It's kind of like what I remember eating back in the day. I can't think of the name of the place. There's a place on Charlotte Pike right across from K&S Market. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, there's definitely a lot of little Vietnamese businesses over there and restaurants and stuff. I want to say it's like Viet Pho or something along those lines. I don't remember. I think it is unbelievable. One of the better places I've ever had pho. My brother loves to take me there. He's like, let's go eat over the place on Charlotte Pike. I'm like, yeah, let's go. I didn't know if you guys have eaten there before. I have not. We tried it once in the beginning. Oh, right. But not the pho though. Yeah, they're supposed to have a really good, I think that's a duck pho, I think. I think that Delia talks about a lot. Yeah, so we haven't tried that yet, but we did try some food when we first got to town. Okay, I love it. I was gonna say, I want to take you guys there. We got to take you there and I want to hear your opinion. Tell me what to order because I'm just not good at that stuff. And you'd think so because I mentioned Westminster earlier. Did you live down there? Did your grandmother live there? We're talking about Southern California, Orange County.

58:35There is right outside of Huntington Beach. My mom grew up in Garden Grove and Fountain Valley in Westminster. I went to Westminster High School my sophomore and junior year while I was there. So I was a lion, the Westminster Lions, played basketball before I started here and finished here in town. When Centennial High School opened, I moved back. I lived in Westminster, which is known as Little Saigon. So I mean, my school was four to one Vietnamese to Caucasians. I literally, my second day at school, the basketball coach walked in and goes, you're gonna be at practice today at two o'clock. And I was like, I don't, no, I'm not. And he's like, yes, you are. And I was like, I guess I'll be there at two o'clock. Thank you. You're the team captain. Yeah, it was like, I was a giant. But it was cool. I loved being in that area. I mean, there's just a lot of opportunities for Vietnamese cuisine in its authentic, fantastic stuff. Did you live there? Did your grandma live there? Where's the? Yeah, so my dad, he actually still lives there in Fountain Valley. Oh yeah, in Fountain Valley. But I always grew up, I was in Houston, but I always go like once or twice a year to go visit him. And of course, we'll just eat all over Little Saigon for sure. He likes to take us all over there. Every time we visit, it's always he's got a new, cool place that he always wants to take us to. That's like totally Vietnamese. And it's often different. There's this one like spring roll place where there's like a crunchy inside. And that was all the rage with the Vietnamese community for a little bit. So he took us there. You know, he took us to a pho place he liked last time. And yeah, it's just great to go with him. He like drives us all throughout Little Saigon. You know how it is there. It's like thousands of Vietnamese businesses of all different kinds. It's crazy, all these little strip malls just full of stuff. And you know, it's cool. Maybe about three or

01:00:36four years ago, when we started really heavily researching on me, we took a trip down there, and we ate at so many different places in one day, just kept going and getting different sandwiches here and there and all that. And I was that was really a lot of fun. It's great research. That's awesome. It's just a small world. Sometimes you meet people like, yeah, there's this little tiny little part in Southern California and Orange County. And your dad lives there. And you guys have been there. And I grew up in that area. That was like where my grandparents lived and the whole thing. So yeah, that's a cool connection. That's awesome. Well, guys, we're what am I what am I missing right now? What do you guys want to talk about? What's big on you on your minds? Um, you know, we're just super thankful to be here and just want to thank everyone for being so great to us and, and really supporting the business and everything we're doing. And we love Nashville. And I think we found our home forever. And yeah, just absolutely love it here. And just super thankful for everything. And, you know, our goal is to continue just to try to be humble, put our heads down and cook good food and be nice to people. And generally, that's a that's a good equation to have a nice sustainable business. So that's kind of the goal.

01:01:51And yeah, we just we absolutely love it here. And thank you for everything and for having us on. And all that. You guys are like two of my favorite people in this town, just just the way you've come in your humility, your energy, your enthusiasm, your you're just such kind people. And you walk in to your restaurant and it feels like hospitality. It feels like what it should feel like. And you know what I'm talking about? Like you're walking somewhere and the host just kind of looks at you as like, what? You're like, yeah, what? Like we have two people like, oh, and they just grabbed me and started like, you know, there's no emotion to it. There's no feeling. And I like when I walk in somewhere to feel like I'm being welcomed into, like, my I feel like I'm welcoming somebody to my home, you know, like welcome or something to be like, there's a real hospitality. And every time I'm around you guys, I feel that. So I mean, even at Giffords the other day, you walk up and you're outside in a tent, but I still felt it like it's still it's just part of who you guys are. And I absolutely love that. And I wish more people would just adopt that. And I think it comes from your heart. I don't think it's something that you like have written down that you need to do. Like this is something that just happens because it's who you are. And I love that. And I just wanted to share that with the whole city of Nashville. If you haven't heard of East Side Bond Me, you've got to go check it out. So you just now said kind of a little bit there where you said, thank you, Nashville. I always let you guys take us out. The guest gets to take us out of the interview. I'll defer to Gracie today. You guys can both jump in if you like, but take us out of this episode. Whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it, you're speaking to the city.

01:03:39I'm giving you a full screen. Go. Well, I don't have much to say. Chad, you should say something. No, just thank you everyone so much. It's been fantastic. And we hope to bring a lot more great food and great hospitality to Nashville for the future. And just so excited to be here. And thank you. Thank you, Brandon. Thank you, restaurant community. Thank you to all of our guests and all the folks in East Nashville and Nashville overall. We're just we love it here. And there's something special definitely happening here. We see it and we're hoping to be a part of it for the future. So thank you. I would say thank you so much for taking time on your day off. I know you guys don't have a ton of time and this just means the world to me. You guys enjoy the rest of your day. Thank you, Brandon. We appreciate it. Thank you, Nashville. And there we have it. Chad and Gracie from Eastside Bummy. Thank you so much for joining the show. Just a quick reminder before we let you go here that Brandon's book club is in full swing. Head over to Facebook. Find the Brandon's book club group. Join it where I have put up the first hour of the audio book for Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

01:04:56So you can listen to it and then go buy it because it is very, very, very good. This is a good tea. It's about 55 minutes of it. You can go listen to right now at the Brandon's book club page. So thank you guys for listening. Hope you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.