Grateful Nashville 2021

00:00Hey guys, it's Ross Chandler with Cytex Uniform & Linen Services. Just wanted to take some time from our third generation family owned business to you and your family to wish you guys an amazing and happy Thanksgiving. I hope that you have a full belly and a full heart as we enter this time. Thank you very much for listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. We love our partnership with Brandon and those guys. Again, happy Thanksgiving. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Today is a Wednesday rewind and we are going to go back one year ago when we released an episode called Grateful Nashville.

01:08And so I had a co-host. Her name was Kelly Sutton. You probably know her. She is all over the place right now. And we decided that it was 2020. It was Thanksgiving and we had a lot to be thankful for. I know I sure as hell did and I know she did too. And we wanted to talk to restaurateurs and get their take, like what they were thankful for and what their holiday traditions were. So we spoke with Benjamin and Tara Goldberg and we spoke to Stephen and Jolene Smithing. We asked them about their family traditions, what they did, what they were thankful for. Me and Kelly had a nice conversation to start it off. It was a lot of fun. But today, this episode is a little different because it's going to be a little bit of old and we also have a new interview. I caught up with Kelly Sutton and we did about 20 minutes where I just caught up and you guys can all know what she's up to and she is all over the place. I'm so proud of her. She's just amazing and she's following her dream.

02:15And so the first thing we're going to do today is we're going to catch up with Kelly Sutton and then we're going to go back and we're going to play the episode from last year's Grateful Nashville episode. So it was a lot of fun. You guys, here's what we're doing coming up. This Friday, we are going to be releasing an episode with Sean Lyons. He is the managing partner over at the Germantown Cafe, the newly reopened Germantown Cafe. That's going to be out this Friday. And then I put out a post on my Instagram page, Nashville Restaurant Radio Instagram. You can follow us there, Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio, or you can follow me. It's at Brandon underscore NRR. And there I asked some questions that who do you guys want to hear on the show? And I got a varied response. And one of the responses I got a lot of was Brian Baxter, who is the executive chef over at the Catbird seat. And that is going to come to fruition. That episode is going to be out next Monday, the 29th. That episode will be out. So two more episodes and then we're going to take the month of December off.

03:22We're going to take a little bit of a break. We got a lot going on. We're going to do some planning. We're really excited about January of 2022. We're going to start tackling some issues. We're going to start doing more interviews. Jennifer is going to do kind of her own little spin off, or she's going to really start talking to some hospitality heroes, some unsung heroes and celebrating women and minorities. So she's going to do some really cool stuff. I'm really excited about her new episodes on the show. And so we're going to take December off. So this episode today, we will have four new episodes, maybe five new episodes in December that are going to be replays. So I'll do a little talk up at the beginning, get you guys caught up to what's going on. If there's any breaking news, we'll try and get it to you. But I do want to tell you guys, coming up next week, our last episode is going to be on Monday with Brian Baxter.

04:22And then Tuesday is Giving Tuesday. And you've probably heard the Giving Kitchen, and you've heard about Big Table Nashville. There's also another charity called CORE, Children of Restaurant Employees. And I really also want to talk about Le Dame des Scaffiers. They are doing a big Giving Tuesday push. And I want to encourage you, if you have the means, if you can, or if you want to give on a Tuesday, and there's a bunch of people out there talking about what they would like for you to give, look into the Giving Kitchen. They're helping restaurateurs in crisis. They're helping restaurant, employees of restaurants. They're helping you pay your bills while you're injured. They're helping you pay your bills while you go to rehab. All kinds of cool stuff there. The Big Table is coming up with solutions to help. You can go back and listen to our episode just a couple weeks ago with the Big Table. And then CORE helps out restaurant employees' families. They're just amazing.

05:22And then Le Dame des Scaffiers, obviously Women in Hospitality, is something that we've been a big supporter of here on the show. And you can tell by our Table Talk series. And we just, you know, we want to help out wherever we possibly can. We've been donating our sponsors' money for those episodes. So we're really excited about a lot of things going on. If you're looking for somebody to donate on those days, please feel free to go to their site and do it. If you just want to do something easy, you're welcome to donate to our Venmo and just put in the caption where you'd like it to go. And I'd be happy to donate to any of those people. It makes it really easy for you. It's at Nashville RR, right? So it's at Nashville RR is our Venmo. If you donate any money to that, just put underneath it where you want it to go. We're going to be collecting all that and then just sending it directly to those people. If you don't want to go through all the different channels, not a problem whatsoever. The last thing I want to talk about is, I've got a little cold. I'm not feeling super hot. Not COVID.

06:25But you know, Complete Health Partners, they're amazing people. And this is the time of year where you'd be wishing that you had signed up for their services months ago. Yes, flu and cold season is here. And if you had their employee package, you and all of your staff can go to one of their three convenient Nashville locations for urgent care with no copay. Right? You can do telehealth services. So if you don't want to leave the house and you just want to call a doctor and do a Zoom call, they do that too. So if you're a restaurant and Major Medical isn't in your plan, Complete Health Partners is a local company. They identify that, hey look, restaurants need to offer something to their staff and if they can't afford Major Medical, this is something you can do. It's as low as $50 an employee. So if you're a small restaurant and you've got 10 employees, you can offer every one of them urgent care every week. They do discounts on COVID testing. They'll actually come out to your facility and they'll do shots. They'll give you the vaccine.

07:28I went to the big Dino's Halloween event. Dino's was doing a shot for a shot and Complete Health Partners was there. They're outside vaccinating people, which is just so, so cool. You all want to support local and they are local. Go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the Sponsors tab and you can scroll down and you'll see Complete Health Partners. There is a link there where you can go and check out all this information. They are doing really, really wonderful things. So without further ado, I would like to wish each and every one of you a Happy Thanksgiving. And from my heart and to yours, I hope that you have a wonderful day. I'll be working all day at Mayor Bull. And I'm excited to celebrate Thanksgiving with all those people and my family. So if you guys are enjoying this and enjoy, get caught up right now with Kelly Sutton, Stephen and Jolene Smithing and Benjamin and Tara Goldberg.

08:32Enjoy. I am super excited today to welcome back to Nashville Restaurant Radio, Kelly Sutton. Hey, how are you? I'm so good. How are you? I am fantastic. We I miss you so much. Thank you. I'm right down the road. I go past. I saw your Christmas lights out. They look fantastic, by the way. I was going to ask. Did you see them? I'm up early again. I can't I see a good weather weekend. I take advantage of it. You're smart. You're smart for doing that because we've waited. And now it's like 20 at night or whatever. So I'm now I'm waiting for one of those beautiful days and I don't know if I'm going to get one. So will the outside lights go up here? Maybe, maybe not. We'll see. You know, it's OK if they don't. It's OK. If anything, if anything we've learned through the last few years, everything is OK. It doesn't really matter. It's all going to be OK. Well, it's funny because with this episode today, I'm going to replay our episode.

09:34We did a grateful Nashville last year. Right. We had this idea that we would we're in the it's 2020. Now, to go back to 2020 and think about November and 2020, what we were doing and what just our mindset was, there was a lot of things that we were just kind of grateful for. We were starting not necessarily to come out of it. There was this talk of a vaccine that might be coming out. Right. And all this stuff was starting to happen. And we just wanted to do something that just let everybody know, like, hey, let's be grateful. Let's talk about what people's traditions were. And it was so much fun. I just remember that episode being so fun to do. Well, I think at that at that point, I mean, 2020 feels like it was yesterday, but also 10 years ago, it's this weird time. My time space continuum is so out of whack. You know, the year 2000 was 10 years ago, but then also it wasn't. So in thinking about all the things that we really had gone through and that we got to November and we really had this little glimmer of hope, things might be kind of getting back to normal. And, you know, we might actually get to see the bottom half of people's faces again.

10:46It was a time of feeling of thankful and hopeful and really looking at everything that we'd already lived through and thinking, OK, well, we're here and we're well. And our families are well. And, you know, that's the best that you can really hope for in that situation. Everything else kind of fell by the wayside. The important things fell through the cracks and that was OK. The important things were always important. The unimportant things fell through the cracks. I was going to say, yes. Yeah. And I think we were able to kind of mine some of this, like we were able to stop and look in the mirror and go, hey, wow, I have a house. Like I have heat, like the little things that I feel like we kind of take for granted weren't like we were starting to like see that. Hey, look, we got it's OK. Like we're going to be all right. And it was really neat. But since that time, I started working back at Marable and Green Hills Grill, right? Continue doing the podcast. I'm still doing some consulting.

11:47Still a dad. My kids are growing like a weed and life has been amazing. But I wanted to catch up all of my listeners and what you're doing, because I don't know if they all follow you, but I do. And I'm almost exhausted watching you progress because you are on fire. I am so excited for you and everything. Well, you like I just I thought it'd be great to let our listeners know what you've been up to, what you're doing now. If they want more of I miss Kelly, I want more of her. Where is she? How can they consume what you're doing? Get us up to date. You know, it was crazy. OK, so 2020 really kind of it was one of those. Yeah, the world is falling to hell in a handbasket. And then everything that was my career kind of followed suit.

12:47I mean, it's funny now, you know, but yeah, I've been in television for years and have this great job at Channel 4. And they came in and let 12 people go. They let 200 people go across the gamut at all of their stations. I mean, it was a I think we refer to it as Bloody Thursday because 200 people that worked for news in Meredith World were all let go. And I was just it was my number got called. So I was one of the unlucky ones. But then in rebuilding what I was doing, if you remember when we were I think right around November. Yeah, this beginning of November, I had started doing my own YouTube channel called Connected with Kelly. And the first guest who was just a gem and a true human that I love so much was Carrie Underwood. And she came on board. And then, you know, my biggest fear was, can I do this for myself? I've always done this for outlets. I've always done this for, you know, the CMA. I've done this for bigger places. Will this survive if it's just my own thing?

13:48And it took off and it got bigger. And then starting in April of last year, I started my own syndicated radio show. So I have a syndicated radio show called Y'all Access. We're in 18 different markets across the United States, from California to Florida to New York. So you can yeah, you can look around and ask if you have a country radio station that you want to pick up my weekend radio show. Please tell them Y'all Access is much wanted. But it's a Saturday or Sunday show, three blocks of fun things that are happening in Nashville. So it's behind the scenes and red carpet and interviews and all the stuff I've always done. So from that, I got a phone call from Amazon and Amazon asked if I would come on board and be the voice of country music for them. So yeah, so they have a station that you can listen to on any of your devices or on Amazon Music. It's called Country Heat. And right behind you there, you can see it. Country Heat in DJ mode is me.

14:49So if you have an Alexa, you can say, Alexa, play Country Heat in DJ mode. And that's me. So I'm there just guiding you through all of our favorite country songs. And then that blossomed into a full blown podcast. So I've got I have come full circle, Brandon. I am now back into the podcast world. Country Heat Weekly is now the podcast that's on Amazon. It is you can find it anywhere. It's on any platform that you listen to podcast. But you can also watch it on YouTube because it's also a video component. So it's very funny. They call it a podcast with a video component. But in reality to me, it's a TV show. Yeah. Like that's what I've always done. But it's amazing. I get to host it with one of my friends, Amber Anderson. She and I have known each other for years. And it's incredible. Our first guest was Eric Church. We've got Jason Aldean coming up. We have Jimmy Allen, who was just nominated for a Grammy today. Wow, that's awesome. That's exciting for him. And then if that wasn't enough to have those three jobs, my friends at WSM Coffee Country and Cody, they called and said, we have a job we think you'd be great for.

16:00And so now I'm a part of the crew on WSM. WSM is the home of the Grand Ole Opry. You can listen to it on any streaming device. It's a radio station. But then they have a television component as well on Circle All Access. So you can watch that on Peacock. You can watch that at Roku. We are in 85 million households, I think now, which is a little interesting to think about. Kind of crazy. But I'm on that Monday through Friday from 7 to 10. And I do all the entertainment stuff and hang out with Bill Cody and Charlie Mattis. And I get to do amazing things at the Opry and Gaylord and just hosted a Christmas special for Gaylord Opryland that will be airing very soon behind the scenes of all the things happening Christmas-wise at the hotel. So yeah, it's really crazy. I went from zero to 100, which is it's been amazing. And I don't know how I'm doing all of it, but I'm doing all of it. And I love it all. Wow. That is incredible. And that's I know how much you love country music and you love being in the middle of all that.

17:04It's so fun for me getting to know you last year, kind of doing our show, but then seeing you get to this. This is like dream stuff. How fun is it to just really hang out and talk to all these people and do what you love. I'm so excited for you. Well, and I'll tell you, you know, one of the coolest things about really being a part of WSM and being on Coffee Country and Cody, Bill Cody and I have known each other for 20 years and we've always said we wanted to work together. It was just, you know, there wasn't a spot open or the job that I had at the time was on at the same time he was on the air. And so it just never we were like ships in the night. Just never happened. And then all the stars aligned. And honestly, it is such an amazing show. It's so much fun. We play traditional country music and top 40 country music and we have artists come in. Everybody who is going to be on the Opry will usually stop by, especially if they're making their Opry debut.

18:04They'll stop by our show first, which is. Oh, man. So we get to talk to all of these people who are about to step on that stage. And you know what that means to me, like the Opry is just my heart and I love it so much. I love everything that it stands for. So to even be in that family now, it's incredible. And I get to go hang out backstage at the Opry and I'm working on some other fun stuff that I can't talk about yet, but it'll come out very soon. So, yeah, it's not fun is it to be able to talk to artists the day that they're going to be making their debut at the Opry just to be able to gauge their their dream coming true that day, get to talk to them. And is it inspiring? Is it? What does that feel like? It's inspiring. It's also fun to watch even the people that are seasoned pros at being on a stage. That's a different stage. I mean, that is like you could play 300 shows a year. You walk out on that stage. It's a different feeling. It's a different vibe. It's a different energy.

19:05You understand the gravitas that comes with it and the people that have come there before you. So it's very interesting to see how it affects different people. Some people are excited and like jittery and other people are very reverent about it. Most of the people that I've talked to have a moment where when they come off stage, it hits them. It doesn't happen when they're on stage. It's when they come off stage because it's a blur. They get two, maybe three songs. So they're out there. The music starts. They're going. They might say a few things into the microphone and then they're off the stage and they just look like that just happened. I can't believe that just happened. I just stood in the circle. So I feel like for each person it's a little bit different, but it is amazing. I'll tell you who just made their Opry debut that shocked me. I'll just be completely honest with it. Do you know who Jelly Roll is? Yes. The dude with the tattoos on his face? Yeah. It's him on TikTok. Yes. Jelly Roll is he's like a country.

20:11He calls it country trap artist. So it's like rap. He calls it. I think trailer rap is where trap comes from. I'm not even sure, but he is very like it's Southern rock rap. All of that rolled into country. And when you think about an artist like Jelly Roll, who is very different and independent and kind of a rebel coming onto the stage of the Opry, I think everybody kind of went, what's going to happen? And Brandon, he walked out and he told a story about he had been incarcerated. He had a daughter. He knew when he was behind bars that he had to change his life. He got out of prison, went to the Grand Ole Opry. He's like, and I sat in that seat right there. And he pointed to it. He said, I was in row seven. I was right there. And I listened to Craig Morgan. And I thought, what am I going to do to change my life to be a better person? And that's when he started really pursuing music and doing music his own way.

21:12He sold tapes out of the trunk of his car. He was, you know, making CDs and working hard for it. And to see him on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry. I mean, here's this guy that is a, you know, he's a big dude. And he is in tears because it was such a full circle moment for him to be on the stage of the Opry. And to know that he turned his life completely around. It was incredible. Yeah. I saw a TikTok of him and like his girlfriend and his sister, whatever. And they were all backstage at the Opry and they were just bawling. They were just sobbing. And it was like such an emotional, like he got off the stage and it was just like this. Oh my God, that just happened kind of a moment. Yeah. Man, I don't know what is. I'm just a sucker. I love those stories and human spirit. How like if you just say something and I'm going to do this and then people just follow dreams and that make it happen. I just I don't know what is about those types. I mean, maybe I'm just a normal person because that's a that's an amazing story.

22:14But you get to you get to experience that all the time. I know it's really it's special. It is special. And I understand that. I mean, it's been special for me to be a part of watching so many of my favorites, you know, starting in this business. So many years ago, 20 years ago, I just had a chat with Jason Aldean's dad. And he was like, yeah, you know, you were his first TV performance ever. And I was like, oh, yeah, I forgot about that. So there are these people that I came up in the business with. And I love watching their stories and I love watching them succeed. But then also seeing the next generation and the new crop that is coming in. How about Carly Pierce? Oh, my God. She's not just on fire. She's amazing. I'm amazing. I love her. Her. Oh, she her song about her friend passing away. Oh, show me around. Show me around. It was about the same time my grandfather passed away in February.

23:17And I just I can't even listen to it. Like, I mean, I can. I love listening to it because it's not a sad song. It's so heartfelt. It is a sad song, but like I don't look at it like that. It has so much meaning to me every time I hear it. She has such a beautiful voice. And I'm so I'm just so excited for her. She does so many. She's just amazing. She's now the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year, which is how about that speech? Here's what's really funny, Brandon. I did an interview with her two days. Or was it one day before the CMA Awards? It was either two days or one day before the CMA Awards. They do radio remotes where they bring all of the artists through. And it's like you get five minutes with each one of them. So she comes in and I've known Carly for a very long time. And I said, OK, girl, when you win this tomorrow, what are you going to say? And she said, OK, I love you for saying that. But if they truly call my name, I will probably collapse on the way to the stage. And that's exactly what she did. I was like, holy cow.

24:21I mean, I called I I had a very strong suspicion she would win. She was definitely an underdog in that category because she's going up against Miranda and, you know, others that have won it. So she was under she was an underdog. But I really she's had an incredible year and 29 is such an amazing album and 29 written in stone is amazing. So I really thought she was probably going to win. But I think she was completely floored. She did not see that coming. It was incredible. It was it was a cool moment. I've you know, I'm new in the country world. I'm like a I'm like a year and a beginning of the pandemic. I started getting in the country and I still listen to all the time. I'm going to start listening to the country weekly, though. I'm going to thank you. I really hope you do. Well, I mean, I like the favorites. I know. Yeah. That's really cool about what we do with the podcast in particular. We have a segment called Rediscover, which is rediscovering an artist that either didn't get proper due in their day or maybe it's just somebody that we haven't listened to in a long time that has a really amazing catalog.

25:31So for the first week, we did a rediscover segment on George Strait and we went back and we went through his catalog and some of the songs that you might not know or things that you may not have heard. And we just did a rediscover with my girl, Dina Carter, who is incredible. Twenty five years ago, she released Did I Shave My Legs For This, which had strawberry wine, and we danced and so many incredible songs on it. And then the latest rediscover we just did was Charlie Pride. And I had no idea. And this is, you know, I do love the fact that Amazon is giving us leeway to talk about these stories. But, you know, Charlie Pride was the first black artist to ever win New Artist of the Year in the CMAs. And it didn't happen again until Darius Rucker in 2009. Like he really was such a trailblazer. People don't understand the path that he carved. And he had 29 number one hits, which is insane. I mean, we all know him for Kiss an Angel Good Morning. But you start looking through his catalog and you're like, oh, my gosh, he had these prolific songs that were so good.

26:34There's one called OK, this is perfect for you. This is so perfect for National Restaurant Radio. There's a song by Charlie Pride called Burgers and Fries. You need to go listen to Burgers and Fries by Charlie Pride. It's so nostalgic. It just makes you happy. And it was one of the things that I loved rediscovering and putting on the podcast. Well, I'm going to listen to that podcast. Good. I'm going to listen to that song for sure. Oh, thank you. Thank you. So how is your family? Is everybody doing well? As last year when we talked about what we're thankful for, you said, I'm just thankful that my family's doing OK. Everybody's well. Everybody's doing good. Are we still doing good? Yes, we're still doing good. Knock on some wood somewhere. Hopefully this is wood. But yeah, you know, my dad's doing great. Yeah, he's doing persimmon pudding. My dad, 82, is making a persimmon pudding and bringing it to my house for Thanksgiving dinner. And my mom's mom is healthy and still working. Neither one of them will retire, which is fine.

27:34I mean, at the time during the pandemic, I was screaming at them to retire because I wanted them safe in a bubble at home. And neither one of them would. And now I'm glad that they didn't because I think that probably, you know, sometimes when you don't have a purpose, you just kind of sit and then things start to happen. Neither one of them are slowing down, which is amazing. And I'm thankful. Thank God for that. Reese is healthy as ever. She was just Willy Wonka or I'm sorry. She was Charlie in Willy Wonka at the middle school in the play. So just finished that musical and that was awesome. Paul's doing great. Yeah, we're all just happy and healthy and thankful for another year. Well, it's so good to catch up. Is Dudley the elf going to be coming back this year? He will, I think. I mean, I don't know. I got to talk to the big man. See if he can make it. See if he can make it. You know, Dudley's been with us a long time. Dudley might want to year off. He sustained a leg injury one year.

28:35So the light bulb. He's been through a lot. He's been through a lot. Yeah, it was a light bulb burn. And if he wanted to make a year off, I wouldn't blame him. I'm eager. I think he's planning on coming back. We'll see. Ready for Skittles to make his appearance because it's amazing. We talked about it last year. How their behavior immediately. That's like, why does Skittles wield all this power? And I'm your father and I don't. Like, I need you guys to do this. Like, no, like Skittles is watching. Oh, I'm sorry, sir. May I go put my clothes away? You're like, what is this? See, now the boys are what ages? Six and eight. I knew you had a six year old. Six and eight. When they're 12, you know what works is money. So it works now, too. That's it. It's like vacuum your floor and I will give you two bucks. And she's like, OK, that's fine. I mean, two bucks.

29:35I made the mistake. Got to go low, brother. Don't start high. William lost a tooth. I can't. William lost a tooth and my wife was not home. And she said, hey, make sure you put, you know, make sure that the tooth fairy, make sure the tooth fairy comes. And I'm like, yeah. So I wake up at like, I make sure I've set an alarm like one o'clock in the morning. And I'm like, I have the only thing I have is a 20. And I was just like, oh, hell, this is it. So I just went with it. Wow. OK. And I got an earful the next day. Like, you can't do that. I'm like, it was a special tooth. What do you do? Like, I don't know. This is the best thing I will tell you. The tooth fairy did this for us. She's very smart. The tooth fairy went to the bank and left gold dollars that you can get at the bank. The little, you know, yeah, that could do with dollars. Yeah. So she got some of those and she left them here so she didn't have to fly with them because they're super heavy.

30:38But they're here. And that's what she gives when a tooth is lost in our home. And they're in a special place. Much better deal. It's a better deal. And it's special. Well, Kelly, I have kept you way too long. I love you. I miss you. Thank you for catching all of us up on what you're doing. Go listen to Country Heat Weekly on Amazon. Listen to WSM radio. Is it WSM radio in the morning? WSM radio in the morning. We have an app where you can stream it straight from WSM or you can listen on TuneIn or any of the other providers. You just type it in there or you can ask Alexa, play WSM 650 and she'll play it. And you can go to YouTube and find Connected with Kelly. Yeah. There's lots of episodes up there. You're all over the place. Thank you for catching us up. You can't shake me. I'm everywhere. Next time you drive by my house, I'm outside honking a wave at you.

31:41I almost did one day. You had your leaf blower and I thought I will scare the living bejesus out of him if I honk right now. So I didn't. But I'm thankful that you have your Christmas lights up. They make me happy when I drive by. Well, that makes me happy. Congrats on everything, man. I'm so thankful that you have a chance to do what you love and that you're at Mirror Bowl and you are with amazing people there. But you got to keep this going and all the other fun things that you've started. This is awesome. It's it's been a real ride and it's been very cathartic for me. And I just it's something that's pretty special to me. And I love I love doing it. And I think I'm getting a lot of feedback from people that enjoy it. So we're going to keep going. Good. You should. It's amazing. All right, Kelly, you be careful and have a merry merry Christmas. Have a happy Thanksgiving. Happy holidays. You too. All right. I'll honk next time when I drive by. Bye. Bye.

32:41And now here's your replay of Grateful Nashville 2020. Hello, Music City. And welcome to the Music City Roundup. My name is Brandon Styll and I am joined with Kelly Sutton. Hi, how's it going? I'm fantastic. I love this time of year. I mean, truthfully, it is. It's one of my favorite times because I feel like we are in the countdown to the big show. The big show to me is Christmas Thanksgiving. I love. But let's be real. The calendar is circled for the 25th of December. So we and I know you're the same way you've already got all like all the decorations up. So I know you have to feel the same way. I'm completely ready to go. There's a whole like the Christmas spirit. Like me and my family, like we absolutely get into like we have that whole Christmas spirit. There's a there's a feeling. There's an emotion that is wrapped around this whole season.

33:42I think this year we just started like two weeks ago because we were like, you know what? I'm not going to wait for it. Let's just get Christmas music playing in the house. We have the Christmas tree up, Christmas lights. We're just like feeling the mojo. We're doing it. Yeah, I absolutely agree. I said it before. I think I said this in August. If it makes you happy, just do it because we all need joy right now. So I truly wanted to decorate in August, but I felt it was slightly premature. However, the majority of the house is decorated. We haven't done the outside yet. I wish we would have. You were smart. You did it when it was 80 degrees outside, and we should have done that because now it's not 80 degrees any longer. But we are right there with you. And I'm just I'm thankful for all of the wonderful things that are coming our way. And I'm thankful that we get to do the show. This is fun. Me too. I'm so excited. That's a great segue because today's show is going to be about thankfulness, like how we are grateful here in Nashville.

34:45And we're going to be talking with Stephen and Jolene Smithing. They're the owners of the Green Hills Grill and Mayor Bowl. We're going to talk to them about their family holiday traditions and what they are. And spoiler alert, they're they have to do with being in a restaurant. That is so interesting to me because I don't have friends that are necessarily well, I guess I do have friends that are restauranteurs, but I haven't really spoken to them about what their holidays look like. And I think this is like a peek behind the curtain. Absolutely. And we we also get to sit down with Tara and Benjamin Goldberg and talk about their holiday traditions. And they're just that was just such an amazing time talking to them. You know, it's interesting when you say Goldberg and you're talking about anybody that's been in Nashville longer than five minutes, then you it's fun to think what each person thinks of when they hear that name, because Benjamin and his brother Max are behind so many incredible places in downtown Nashville.

35:52But for me, I think I immediately think Paradise Park, which is hysterical because that was like the lowest end of all of the restaurants that they did. But it was one that made a huge impact. It was really funny and crazy. So, yeah, I mean, they are just they're a staple when it comes to anything in Nashville. And you're talking about restaurants in different locations and to get to talk to Benjamin is quite a feat. I mean, I've interviewed Max before, but I had not spoken to Benjamin before now. And he and Tara were so kind and gracious to tell us what's happening in their lives. I really enjoyed catching up with her because I think you get to hear Benjamin's name a lot. You hear Max's name a lot. But to really, you know, I think that you are the heart of a home. And my wife really is the heart of our home. And you get to hear so much about them, but to hear her perspective on everything, I think really was just so unique and so fun. They were just such a great couple. Again, I love this time of year because it is steeped so deep in tradition.

36:56And there's so many routines that we have and that bring warm feelings. And I think that no year like we've ever had, 2020, I think we all need that. And I am excited to get into these interviews, but I would like to know what are some of your traditions? What are some of your traditions? What are you thankful for in 2020 going into this holiday season? First and foremost, I am super thankful that everybody I know and love is healthy. Like that's I think that's everybody's thing, right? You're just I'm so thankful that my parents are healthy. My in-laws are healthy. You know, my extended family, my kid, my husband, we're all we're all doing good. And that's the biggest blessing. And I'm thankful that I get to be with my family. There are a lot of people that are not going to have that luxury these holidays. And, you know, we are doing it responsibly. We're a really small family. I'm an only child. I only have one kid. Like there's not there's not a lot of us. So when they said a limit of eight, I was like, well, that's us.

37:59We're total. That's perfect. So, yeah, I'm just I'm really thankful that we get that time. As far as traditions go, there is one thing that stands out that I think is probably unique. We always like sing songs and I've always got music going. And my dad plays guitar and my husband plays guitar. My kid sings. And so we're, you know, we're always singing something. But the one thing that I think is very unique, my dad makes every year a persimmon pudding. Yes, really, I thought that might like persimmon pudding. I'm sorry. What is that? So growing up, you know how you always have these traditions growing up and you think everybody has those traditions and then you become an adult and you're like, no, we were just strange. So I thought everyone had persimmon pudding. I didn't realize that was a very, very small fraction of the human race has tasted this. So, yeah, I grew up in southern Indiana.

38:59There are a plethora of persimmon trees around where we grew up. I grew up going and gathering persimmons with my dad. My uncle had a tree that was like in his front yard and we would go over and you have to wait until they fall. You can't pick them off of the tree because they are way too green and it will pucker your mouth. Don't ever eat one of those. But when they get really soft and they fall, then you pick them up and you grind them into a pulp and put them through a sieve. It's a mess, dude. It's a mess. So sticky. But then my dad has this wonderful recipe that was handed down through, I think, my great-grandmother. And it's almost like a cake pudding kind of texture, but it has this amazing glaze over the top of it. Very sweet. Very sweet. But an incredible flavor to it and unlike anything else. So I think that's one of our traditions that is probably really unique.

40:00I love that. That is a very unique tradition. Yeah, it's different, right? It's different. When I say that, I usually get that look. People are looking at me like, what? What are you talking about? I have the opposite tradition where we used to open one present on Christmas Eve. And I thought that we were the only people that did that. I was like, we have the most unique tradition. We get to open one present on Christmas Eve. And then it's like, I know everybody does that. I'm like, oh, I thought I was unique. Fine. Fine. We're not unique. It's fine. Okay, so I know you're going to be at Merble, so you're going to be working. On Thanksgiving. Okay. What happens with the fam? Are they coming to see you? No, the family is going to be spending some time with her mother. So they, you know, her side of the family, they do a big Thanksgiving every year.

41:00We have a tradition every year we do for Thanksgiving, which is changes. Because we have more family move from California to Nashville. So we've kind of added and subtracted and moved and kind of we're used to this changing thing. But I was going to say probably the greatest thing right now about traditions is I have two small boys. So creating new traditions, like not falling into the, hey, we have to do this, but kind of transfer because we've as kids, we've always gone to my parents' house. We've gone to her parents' house. But now doing things or doing Christmas morning like at our house and having people come to our house, like transitioning from old traditions and creating new traditions is kind of this. That's kind of where we are at. And it's the funnest thing in the world. We do that the day after Thanksgiving. We put up our Christmas lights. It's always been a tradition. But now the boys get out and help me. We did this a few weeks ago. But that's always been a tradition. And then opening presents in the morning, getting up early, who opens what, when they do them, has just been an entire thing that we've started doing. So we're creating traditions right now.

42:09I can't like that's the new tradition is creating traditions as they continue to get older. And that's a real fun thing that's kind of new to us. Do you have an elf? We do. We have an elf. His name is Skittles. Her name is Skittles. I think that it's non-gender specific, the elf. That's very 2020 of you. Yeah. Yeah. The Skittles is our elf's name. And it will show up the day after Thanksgiving. I was asked about it this morning. Yesterday morning, I had to get up at 630 because it was Monday, the week of Thanksgiving. And my oldest was like, I think Skittles is here. I had a feeling about it. We had to get up yesterday morning and go walk around the entire house and look for him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We have an elf named Dudley. Dudley had an unfortunate accident a couple of years ago, got a little too close to a light bulb and had a had a burn. Had a meltdown.

43:10A little bit of a meltdown. However, a miraculous recovery. And so Dudley, I believe, is still able to fly. And I think he probably will make a return visit this year. I don't know. You know, I mean, when you've got a bad leg, it might be hard to fly, but I think he's OK. I've definitely noticed the behavior of my children increasing rapidly right now. Yes. Yes. I need you to get off the iPad and go brush your teeth. Yes, sir. No problem, sir. Like, who is this child? And Skittles is watching. Oh, oh, now I see who really wears the pants in this household. I'm just saying. Enjoy it while it lasts, friend. Mine's 11. Skittles doesn't wield that power when they start to become tweenagers. It starts to fade slowly. Every single ounce of that magic I'm going to try and keep. I'll tell you that much right now.

44:10Bottling it up. Bottling it up right now. All right. What do you say we get into some interviews? OK. Let's talk with let's start off with Stephen and Jolene Smithing. Guys, enjoy. All right. So we are welcome with Stephen and Jolene Smithing to our Grateful Nashville segment today on the Music City Roundup. Welcome, guys. Well, hello. Good to be here. We are so excited today. We're really just having a fun episode. And let's tell everybody who you are just to start off with. You go first. I am Stephen Smithing and I own Merble Restaurant and Green Hills Grill Restaurant. And this is my lovely wife of 27 years, Jolene, who has been my helper the entire time. The mother of my four wonderful children. But she also works in the business or on the business and helps out quite a bit. All right, Stephen, I got to jump in and ask how many years have you had Merble and Green Hills Grill?

45:16Well, I started working at Green Hills Grill when I graduated college in 1992. And several of the people or a couple of the people that were there when I arrived in 1992 are still working with me today. My kitchen manager, Andy Rucker, and obviously Ron, who's probably the hardest working server in all of Nashville. If you actually can imagine working every shift every day for your entire life and wanting to do that run somehow as a blessing that allows him to do that. He does a wonderful job. He's probably the highest paid waiter in Nashville as a result. He does not have any problems, I can tell you that. Merble, we bought Merble in 2007. So about 13 years ago, it'll be 14 years in April. And we've just kind of worked it along since then. It was certainly a restaurant that was a little bit in distress when I purchased it. And we hit a little bit of an economic downturn right after that. So looking at the numbers we're going through right now, they look a lot like 2008 and 2009. So we know how to move up from there.

46:17Oh, it's scary to be in that position. But when you've done it already once, it's not quite as scary, right? Well, you get a year where you realize that not everything lasts forever. And you certainly hope that things could certainly get worse. And COVID is looking not better at the moment, but we can see positives on the horizon. And hopefully we'll be able to get there relatively soon. I tell guests in the restaurant, what we thought would be three months is going to be a year and a half. And you just buckle down the hatches and don't spend a lot of money and try to treat the people who work with you especially well. And the people come in the restaurant really well. That's a great segue, Stephen, as we kind of talk about what the similarities between 2008 and 2020 and just kind of how your business has been a challenge. One of the things that we're kind of focusing on today is what are you grateful for? Like throughout all of this, there are certainly things that you can look at and certainly identify where you have blessings.

47:20What are some things this year unique to any other year that you're thankful for? I don't know, it's unique. Obviously, I'm thankful for the support of my family and my wife. I mean, we kind of are rolling through this together. I do think, you know what, I just mentioned Andy and Ron, two of the people I've worked with for better than maybe 28 years on December 4th. When you have people that have been with you that long, they know what to do. They know what to do and they know that things get worse and things get better and that's how it goes. Really, the reality is I'm very grateful for the community of people that we're taking care of. I mean, right now we're a memorable restaurant and I think there are nine tables in the restaurant, which I wish that there were 59 because that's about how many tables we have. But of those nine tables I just went around and visited, I think four of those people have eaten here at least 250 times. I mean, these are people who trust you and trust what you do, trust what your people do and that you have a command of what's good for them and what's good for the community and they keep coming back.

48:21So to me, that's the blessing. You know, Green Hills where certainly we were closed for a while and I brought that restaurant back five years ago. It's amazing to see the people in that community respond to that restaurant and come back in droves and just come again and again. We have the same people who come every Friday, every Tuesday. We just celebrated our 70th birthday with a super regular guest last night in the restaurant and you just have some of those small blessings. And we know we'll get through it and we're fortunate to have been moving forward and we've had the restaurant operating here for several years. So we're a little more fortunate than other people, but I think we'll get through just a little lean. You know, you talked about some of those people and it just feels like you do have the second family. I mean, you've got the family of the people that are working there that are part of what you've built. But then all of your customers coming and they become part of your community and ultimately part of your family. I mean, talk to us a little bit about that culture because you don't find that everywhere. Well, I love what I do and I'm blessed.

49:25I like going to I love to serve people. And when you serve people, you really, really enjoy that part of it, which I don't think we're taught that everybody's supposed to enjoy that. Some people would never want to do that. Well, when I can hear a guest ask for something and I'm walking by the table and I can just bring it without them knowing that they asked me for it. They're kind of like, how did that happen? That's a little bit of the magic in what we do or what general good service is. We treat our people well. We try to be respectful. You know, I certainly have bus tables. I do whatever it takes. You know, Jolene's on the phone with them on a regular basis if they have a problem. We had a gentleman who needed insurance the other day and I think he asked what your birthday was after you got it for him so quickly. But we understand that there are needs that people want. We're not going to try to stand in the way of what those needs and wants are and what we can actually do. Can we do everything for people? We can't. But we'll try to do the best we can. Jolene, what's this time been like for you?

50:26The COVID time? I mean, just from your perspective, man, I think we hear what Steven's going through. But like as you know, kind of you're not necessarily you're doing a different aspect of the business. Like, what are you experiencing and what are you thankful for? I am thankful for, you know, as we go through all this and think, OK, what often I think of the worst case scenario. I think, OK, so if everything just completely falls apart, businesses have to close. You know, we lose everything, just total devastation. I'm always thinking of what we can handle that to, because I got my kids are healthy, my husband's healthy. We'll move on to the next thing. So I'm grateful that if it all just goes away tomorrow, that I feel like we can pick up and land on our feet, even if we have to start over. So I'm very grateful for that. Navigating through this time got helping with the direction and the strategy of the restaurants and how we might mitigate risks as we go into what could be around to COVID.

51:33That's the kind of stuff I like to do. I like to look ahead at the best and worst cases. Having the kids at home studying online is not really ideal. Playing video games? Yeah, I never signed up to. Your kid has his phone in front of the class and there's a video game on it. You're like, come on, man. Because I've got an 11 year old that's on Among Us instead of Science all day. Yeah. So making sure they're awake after they pay attention to school and at the same time trying to, you know, figure out what meetings I might have to do business wise. I mean, I've enjoyed having them around. Silver lining is we've gotten some more time as a family. So I'm grateful for that. I'm done being their alarm clock and I'm super grateful for the teachers who are out there absolutely doing the best they can in this environment because I can't even imagine trying to get these kids to focus online and to learn something.

52:35So a big shout out goes to all of my kids' teachers and Metro school system because they deserve something this Christmas. And the people in the colleges and universities. We have two college students and both of them are at school because we have apartments at school. But not going to class. I think my son has one class. My daughter is already back home studying here. But the amount of work that goes into just figuring that all out. I mean, do I think my children are getting the best education right now? I don't think any of us really think that. But people are trying really hard to figure it out as quickly as possible and to make that gap, you know, shorten that gap as much as possible. Yeah, it's stressful on everyone. So I try to move with some empathy and give people a little extra grace because it sucks if whether you're a student, a teacher, a guest in the restaurant, owner of a restaurant, everybody is navigating through some stuff that we never have before. And so I think we all just need to take a deep breath and give each other a little extra few ounces of grace on a daily basis.

53:35So one of the things one of the things you just now touched on, Jolene, which I thought was really interesting, was kind of looking at it through the lens of a teacher and that added empathy. And the next kind of question I want to ask you guys is family holiday traditions. So, I mean, from the lens of what I think you're about to say would be a good opportunity for other people to see what it's like for a restauranteur and what restauranteur's holiday traditions are. I will tell you what our Thanksgiving tradition is. Everybody works. And as soon as you're 13, that means... No, Lenny was 13 last year. So huge world of silverware at Maripoll. So this year, no, that may be that. I don't know what it was. So that's the tradition for Thanksgiving. Everybody works. I go to the neighbors and eat because they are good friends of ours. And we've been covening with them. Yeah. And we, you know, they graciously have me this year. I even volunteered to work in the restaurant for Thanksgiving. And I don't think so. He politely declined.

54:36No, no. I assigned you a job and you said you didn't want to do that job. My daughter's going to do that job. But as far as like, for real, Thanksgiving, we usually eat or try to... Last year we had steaks after everybody got home and have a toast with the family. But that's late. Or we'll do it on Friday. I mean, we've had people in town before, you know, family members. And we usually just do it either later when we get home or we do it the next day. I mean, everybody has Friday off. So, you know, if I work on Thursday, I certainly could take Friday off. We just do it that day. It's not the end of the world. Then it's a busy day for us. It is a busy day. Well, I can kind of relate. Like in TV, TV doesn't take a day off. So I worked the majority of all of my Thanksgivings. It was running out to a place that was open on Thanksgiving that can serve us and then running right back into the TV station. So, yeah, a lot of people are working on that day. And I do love the fact that you pointed out, just give everybody extra grace.

55:37I always have thought that going in and actually being in an establishment that's open on Thanksgiving or any major holiday and watching that staff and just really think, OK, they're away from their family. They are not getting their traditions that they would normally have. So, you know, an extra 10% on that bill. You're already going to give them at least 15, you know, make it 25 or 30. Well, Brandon and I joked about our one-star Christmas Eve review. Please don't give a one-star review on Christmas Eve. Just ask somebody to fix it. I mean, we can fix everything in 20 minutes. If you tell somebody, hey, I've got a problem, we'll fix it. We'll make it better. Yeah. And going back to the traditions thing, I do, you know, kind of looking in from the outside on the Thanksgiving day that the holiday is so busy here. There are established traditions in the restaurant with our family here, the staff and everyone who's working, and they have a huge time. And one of the experiences I'll share is my son oldest, our oldest is 22, and Stephen was working at the original Green Hills Grill when he was born.

56:45So we have a picture of Mac in the little baby carrier, you know, that weighs like 1700 pounds. And we're at the front desk at the old Green Hills Grill. And three of the people who are looking, peering into this brand new baby to see, you know, because he was only a few days old, still work with us today, still are part of our family today. So it was a few years ago when Mac saw that picture for the first time, and he was like, wait, is that Ron? I'm like, yes. You know, these people have been around longer than we have had children, and we absolutely consider them part of the family. And when the kids, our kids start realizing that, it's pretty cool. You know, so we have our family here at Thanksgiving, and they do what they do well every year, and we're grateful for that. And generally speaking, not everybody wants to work on a holiday, but we have a good time doing it and it's busy. Don't look at coming to work to do nothing on a holiday. That would be dull. These are busy days where we all have a good time.

57:46I mean, you know, that chaos that happens in restaurants, we all kind of look forward to that. Those of us that work in restaurants or choose this for a living. My profile says it likes to live on the edge of chaos, and I think a lot of people think that's a weakness, but I see it as a strength. But that's the fun part, is getting busy like that. You know, would I love to have it off? Yeah, sure. Thanksgiving is probably the day I'd most like to have off of all the holidays. But we keep working on it. You know, one of my favorite things, I'm sorry, Jolene, is just the idea that, especially at a place like Mayor Bowl, that when you walk around the restaurant and you see these families enjoying traditions, like their traditions, the great part for people like us with the spirit of service is that you know that you're a part of their family's memories forever. Like that these memories that they're having, like at this restaurant at that time, you get to be part of so many people's family's traditions that it feeds your own traditions. That's kind of the fun part about it. It is, and we have a lot of people that come back year after year after year after year.

58:49I mean, the number of people who make a reservation the day after when they're walking out the door on Thanksgiving for the next year, I'm surprised that we do quite as much business as we do on Thanksgiving, but people really don't want to cook and do all the hard work. You know, I have this lovely 82-year-old woman who has eight children, and she told me one time, she goes, yes, I got to put together that Thanksgiving meal and do all of that. And I'm like, what? You got eight children, you're 80 years old. She goes, well, none of the rest of them want to do it. And I'm like, well, so what? Make them do it. She never made it to the restaurant, because they had such a large gathering at the house, but I thought, wow, somebody's got to take over at some point. Well, yeah, I mean, if they want to be in the will, they better. Yeah, I think it was open will, too. Yeah, that's how you do that. Oh, my gosh. Okay, so I noticed you guys said, like, you come home and you might have steaks. What are the food traditions? Because, of course, everybody's got turkey and whatever. Are there some staples that you like to have, or is there something that's kind of out of the ordinary that you usually will lean toward?

59:55We have a cranberry salad recipe that came from my grandmother and her mommy. The grandkids make it. If we're all together, I won't make it this year. So, I mean, if we're all eating and sitting down at the same time, we'll make it. Usually here we have a three o'clock tradition of you eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or frozen pizza. You eat them as fast as you can, and then you keep going. Everybody over till after the shift, and then they can eat them. And football. Football's a tradition, watching some football. That's what I'll be doing by myself on Thanksgiving. Just having the house to myself is a tradition. Listen, Jolene, I'm going to have so many people at my house. I'm going to run away and come hang out with you while we're all together. That sounds perfect. They are all coming here, honey, and I am not ready for it. And I'm just like, I mean, are there any reservations to open because maybe I'll just go to the restaurant.

01:00:55I'll be thinking of you, Kelly. It's a lot. It's just a lot. Final question. Get you guys off the hot seat. You work every holiday you're at the restaurant. One holiday I know that you're closed is Christmas Day. What is Christmas morning like at the Smithing Home? Well, probably we've been going to Wisconsin almost every Christmas, so there's usually snow. This year we're not doing that, so it'll be a little different this year. It usually looks like everybody in matching pajamas because that's the one Christmas present that we typically open on Christmas Eve. And then we all match and then get up way too early because our youngest is 13. He still manages to wake up at the callback of dawn. We do have to open presents one at a time. Everybody does it at the same time. There's an order to this and it's one at a time. Typically my older children and I who work on Christmas Eve would fly to Wisconsin.

01:01:55We get up early and there's nobody on any airplanes on Christmas Day. We get up early and we fly into northern Wisconsin. We get there about 11 in the morning and then we do it after that. And usually there's other family members, her brother or sister's family is there. We've done that quite a number of years. This will be a new one for us. This is only the second time in 31 years that we haven't done that, so it'll be interesting. I'm all for it though. I think it's a good change. We'll see how it goes. New traditions. New traditions. We're going to work on it. Most of the time my kids all sleep until one o'clock in the afternoon, so we'll see if they actually get up early. I love it. Well, thank you guys so much. Thank you. It's a fun little just I learned so much. I see you guys all the time and it's fun to learn some of the little nuances about what you guys do for the holidays. And we are certainly thankful for you. I mean, being open on Thanksgiving Day and on Christmas Eve to facilitate so many other people's family traditions takes a very special type of person.

01:02:57And if you're going to go out and eat this holiday, remember the people who are sacrificing their traditions or creating their traditions around your tradition. Be respectful and kind. Be nice. Thank you. Thanks. A big thank you again to Stephen and Jolene Smithing for joining the Music City Roundup, talking about what they're thankful for and their traditions. I just, you know, I think that's such a unique perspective. The fact that they are creating so many other people's traditions, part of their tradition is helping facilitate everybody else's traditions. Like, it's hard to imagine those people are out there. That's incredible. And, you know, that's a perfect segue into our next interview. We got a chance to talk to the Goldbergs. I mean, not the TV show, the Goldbergs, but Benjamin and Tara Goldberg. And it's so, the thing that was fascinating to me, knowing that they are a part of so many establishments in Nashville, that there's only one of their establishments that's open on Thanksgiving.

01:04:01And we'll let Benjamin tell you which one. Here you go. We have so much to be thankful for, and we are super thankful for our next two guests who are joining us. We have Benjamin Goldberg, his beautiful wife, Tara. Guys, thanks so much for being a part of the show. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us, yeah. Now, we know the name, we know all of the different entities that you have around town. So much of our food scene is, I think, thanks in part of what you've helped create. And so I just want to say I'm thankful for all the things that you've put forward and so many wonderful places that we can go and visit in our city. But I need to hear what you guys are thankful for. And ladies first, so Tara, give us a little snippet of what you're thankful for. Oh, well, I mean, obviously I am really thankful. I think that I am healthy and that everyone in my family is healthy. I think that's got to be first and foremost the thing that we are all most thankful for this year. I am also really, really thankful for my kids' schools and their teachers.

01:05:06I feel like these people have really worked incredibly hard and I know put themselves in very uncomfortable situations. And I just feel like my kids have benefited so much from being at school every day. And I'm so thankful to the schools and the teachers and honestly to the other parents, the families that make up these communities, because I know it takes everybody doing their part right now. And I see it and I see it happening. And I'm really, really grateful for that. I love it. Benjamin, what about yourself? That was a really good answer, guys. I'm not sure I'm going to have one as clean as that. I think that I would just say to echo what Tara said first and foremost is the fact that we're healthy and that we've made it through this thus far. We had some touch and go moments in the very beginning with some loved ones that got sick and we've come to the other side of that. And I'm very thankful that we have. And the other side of it is obviously restaurant businesses right now are not the most fun businesses to be in.

01:06:09That's true for Max and I, but it's also true for everybody we work with. And I'm super thankful for all of them for sticking it out and not only sticking it out, but not losing their sense of humor. It's still fun to go in and talk to everyone and hang out with them. And the fact that we're making it through this as well as we are with getting to work with them and having some lighthearted moments and heavy moments is something I'm very thankful for as well. Are any of your holidays or any of your restaurants open for any of the holidays? Merchants is open. It has always been open since the day that it opened up in the late 80s. And we were lucky enough to fall into that restaurant about 10 years ago and had no anticipation of being open on Thanksgiving until the phone started ringing asking us if they could book about six months in advance and realize how special it was to so many families that that was their Thanksgiving tradition. And to be honest, I get goosebumps literally thinking about that because it is so special.

01:07:15So that is open, that is always open, something that we always want to keep open, but that is the only one of them that is open on Thanksgiving. It's so interesting that you say that because that was part of the conversation that we've had with so many people that are in the industry. It's maybe your tradition isn't necessarily with your family, but so many of the different establishments that are open, that is that family's tradition and that they want to book it out so many months in advance. So what did that mean to you? Like the first time that you guys were open on Thanksgiving that you were in charge of merchants and you got to hear some of these stories and you see these families that are coming back year after year. It's one of the coolest things we do. I think there's some events like that where you get to see families grow up and that is one where you see kids and grandkids grow up over the many years. And that is just so special to be a part of in just a really small way. And then the other side of it is it's a day where we recognize that the staff is coming in and taking time away from their family, if that's what it is.

01:08:15So we try and make sure that they get to leave with a nice turkey plate or something like that that they can take. And it's just quite frankly, it's an honor to be a part of those moments in time for people. That's why we do this. So, Tara, back to you. Speaking of holidays and other family's traditions of going out eating in restaurants, what are some of your holiday traditions that you guys kind of do as a family? Well, you know, I thought about this a little bit. It's funny you don't necessarily think of things as tradition and how you realize that you do it every year and it's silly, but it is a tradition. But one thing that we do, which I know I told you we used to always go to New Hampshire to spend Thanksgiving with Benjamin's dad's side of the family. And the family doesn't gather there anymore. But one thing that we do is we start our day off with munchkins from Dunkin Donuts. And that is because in honor of his grandmother, who when we went up to New Hampshire, and I think maybe it was the first time I had gone up there, basically her technique for Thanksgiving was to starve us all day long until it was time to eat dinner.

01:09:23And so she took us out for a drive and they have like a Dunkin Donuts in every corner. And this was a long time ago, so I don't think we had any here. And so I kept commenting on them because I was starving. Oh, look, there's another Dunkin Donuts. And then she finally got the hint and she took us, we went to one and she took us in and we each got to pick two munchkins. And we ate them and she said that should hold us over for the rest of the day. And so we always start our day with some Dunkin Donuts and munchkins now. Okay, I love that story so much because I had to agree on the same thing. You can have nothing. You can have water and coffee because that's it. That's all you get for the rest of the day. So what's your favorite munchkin? Because I know I have a favorite. Oh, I'm chocolate. Okay. All right. Benjamin? Oh, I go glazed for sure. I'm boring on that one. Guys, have you tried the blueberry?

01:10:24Oh, I have. Because legit, like, I feel like that was a life-changing moment the first time that I had the blue. And they're so small. You're like, they really don't count. They don't count. And you're like, this is not even a whole donut. Yeah, I love that. Two munchkins are a substitute for a full lunch is what we've learned in New Hampshire. A full lunch to hold you the whole day. The whole day. There's nothing else. I learned when I was younger that the thing that you have to do is when I used to just get this plate and I would make this gigantic plate. And then my grandmother would say, do you want any more? And I'd be like, I'm stuffed. And it like hurt her feelings. So you had to get like this tiny little portions and like just enough to like and you would eat it. Then she was like, do you want some more? And you're like, yes. Oh, my gosh. I could do six. And she would just light up and like, well, let me get it for you. And you would get so excited. And I was like, that was something I learned early is the small portions in order to have multiple rounds.

01:11:29That is that is love. And I mean, that's truly that's what you guys were talking about, too. She's going to cook all day long for you. You couldn't there was no way she was going to let you ruin it with that. So let's get into some of the things that you would have. Like, what are some of the traditional dishes that you have that we might not necessarily have? It is interesting how everybody has something that's different and quirky. Well, so we go to we used to go to New Hampshire for every Thanksgiving. That was the big holiday on my dad's side of the family. So we would always go there. And I don't know why, but my my Nana always made this green jello mold that I don't think anyone ate. It was like I'm not even sure to this day what it was because it was garnished with cucumbers. And it must have been like this weird northeastern thing, but it did not look good and no one ate it. So there's no way it tasted good except for her. So the green, maybe sweet, maybe savory jello mold is probably the thing I think about the most savory.

01:12:41When I hear you say that, I think about Christmas vacation. Yes, that is exactly right. The mold has like the cat food in it. And cousin Eddie's like, this is pretty good. Yeah. And then I think that the thing that they did really well was honestly, my Nana and grandpa cooked a great turkey, which is really difficult to do. I feel like they would yell at each other every 20 minutes whether or not he basted the turkey properly. So for hours of my life every day, they'd be screaming each other about whether the turkey was basted properly. So that's the other vivid memory of growing up going there for Thanksgiving. I love it. So do you guys decorate like your house at all for the holidays of any kind? I mean, we have some leftover pumpkins from Halloween. Does that count? My house already, like two weeks ago, I had all the lights up.

01:13:41And Kelly commented because she was right down the street. She was like, did you put your lights up? She drives by my house every day, like probably a couple of times a day. And I was like, yeah, I did. She's like, I love it. I'm already there. I'm so far ahead. All of it. Let's just bring the holidays. Let's get it all. We need it. It's 2020. We need all the things right now. If it brings you joy, do it. I don't care. I agree with that. If it brings you joy, do it. I will say we don't decorate at all. But there's a house down the street from us that goes all in. And so it's been great. They had the spooky house for Halloween. They now have the turkey house. All these inflatable turkeys all over their house for Thanksgiving. And they've already reassembled, set up some Christmas lights. So it's like we get to live vicariously through them with no work whatsoever. Jackpot. Just load in, kids. We're going to go look at the neighbor's house. Exactly right. It's a full activity for us. We're going to the spooky house and we walk on down there.

01:14:42That's what we do. These are all great things. Okay, so we're rounding out Thanksgiving. Let's move into holiday season. Do you have a Hanukkah Christmas traditions that you want to share that, you know, really kind of it isn't Hanukkah. It isn't Christmas. It isn't that holiday until you have fill in the blank. Tara, you get to go first. Well, so we do. So I grew up celebrating Christmas and I converted several years ago. I don't even remember how long ago it was now. But so my parents do still celebrate Christmas. So I really feel like our family is the best of both worlds. We celebrate Hanukkah in our house with Benjamin's family. I like to have a big Hanukkah party if we can, especially as our kids are getting a little older. They're three and six. So I think it's fun to really have a lot of our friends over and their kids. And we have latkes, which is my favorite, because also Benjamin's mother goes outside to make them, which is also kind of like a funny, I feel like that's a funny memory I'll always have because it's usually cold outside.

01:15:49It feels very weird that my mother-in-law is standing outside cooking. But she makes delicious latkes and then she brings them in and they're hot. And she says, you have to eat them right now. And so then everybody's standing around eating latkes while they're hot. So I think that's something that I'll always treasure and always think about from the Hanukkah side of things. And then from the Christmas side of things, we always would go on Christmas Eve. And we usually spend the night with my parents and the kids. They do the matching pajama thing and they dance. You know, whatever it is that kids like to do to entertain themselves. And we usually would do gifts that night. We do get a lot. We got several questions yesterday about if Santa is real or not. So that's an interesting conversation in our house. And so, yeah, I mean, I think so. I just feel like we get the best of all worlds. And then also the lack of decorating for me is it just makes my life easier.

01:16:49So I don't mind. I love when other people put up their holiday lights because I love to enjoy them. Belmont usually does some really beautiful lights in their big tree. And we like to go and enjoy that. So I really kind of feel like I get the best of everything in that sense. That's amazing. All right. So for the latkes, you got to tell us, like, what are some of the things that you put on? When I've had them, it's always been with like sour cream and some other things that are added in or added on the top. Like, what is the perfect latke for you? I like sour cream and applesauce both. Applesauce? Okay, I've never done that. Oh, don't miss the applesauce on those. That's the key right there. I have been sleeping on the applesauce. That's my idea. See, I always kind of went more savory with like maybe some chives and a little bit of spice. Like the jello mold. I understand how you are. The jello mold. That's me.

01:17:50We take latkes very seriously in our household. Just, Tara is right. Like that recipe, my grandmother, who I'm not going to tell her age because I would no longer be a part of my family, but she's triple digits, has passed down this latke recipe to my mom. And we take it seriously. She cooks them outside because for those of you that don't cook latkes at home, if you make the mistake of cooking them inside, your house smells like latkes for about 17 days. And so that is a huge rookie mistake. So they go outside. That is where they're cooked. And then they're brought inside and you have to eat them immediately, which makes no sense whatsoever. But that's what you have to do. And then you get to your meal after appetizers of potato latkes. So what kind of oil does your mom use? Let me ask you that because that might be, I've tried this and they are not easy to make. And if you don't do it right, they fall apart. So what kind of oil does your mom use? Peanut. Okay. See, that's not, I was just using regular vegetable oil.

01:18:52I only know that because let me tell you, getting the supplies, it is a heavy arm grocery. I can't imagine. Are there, do you guys have like a, we watched Elf last night and then my wife, we loved the movie Scrooge and was the other one that we loved to watch Home Alone. Is there a classic movie that you guys do as a family? You've got three and six year old, anything like that, that you could share? Well, our three year old doesn't really sit through a movie, sadly. He'll try. He'll give it a good try. But then he usually gets distracted. But actually we just, this past weekend, watched Home Alone with our daughter. And she really liked it. We actually tried it last year and she got kind of freaked out by the whole like burglar situation. So I guess five was maybe a little too young for Home Alone, but six was okay. So I feel like we're kind of still on the cusp of some of that stuff, which I think is fun.

01:19:57Because she's pretty much open to whatever. And like I said, I feel like we just get to enjoy like everything. And I always joke that no one loves Christmas more than a Jewish child. So I actually should show you that on our front door, she drew a picture of a menorah and put it in one window. And then Santa Claus is in the other window right now. Yeah. You know what? That's amazing. I love it. We watched Home Alone last week and I'm like, I've seen the movie a thousand times. But there's like this weird side of me that I watch it and I go, that can never happen. And then I like fight, like the kid in me comes out and I just laugh hysterically when they go into the house at the end. When he steps on everything, he steps on that nail. I still cringe. I love that movie so much. It's just such a, that makes me feel warm inside. Yeah. You look at the decor choices in that house and you're like, oh yeah.

01:20:59The wallpaper. The wallpaper. Such a time period definitely in your head. It's definitely one of my favorites too. And I did Elf last night. I forgot how much spaghetti that Will Ferrell consumes in that movie. Like even if he did that take like four times, he's just shoveling it in. And I kept thinking to myself, my God, that's a lot. That's just a whole lot. It was great. Is there sugar in syrup? Yes. Well, thank you guys so much just for taking a few minutes out of your day to share with us some of your holiday memories and some holiday traditions and what you're thankful for. Of course. Thanks for hanging with us. It's good to see you guys. Good to see you. Before we let you go, I want to ask each of you, and we're going to start with you, Tara. What are you most hopefully looking forward to in 2021? A lot of hugs from a lot of different people.

01:22:00Same. All right, Benjamin, what about you? We try and do a family trip every year, and I am really wanting and hoping that we get to do a big family trip together. We'll never take travel for granted again, will we? No. I know. I feel it. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us. Thanks for telling us all your traditions. Thank you. Talk to you guys soon. All right, guys. Big thank you again to Tara and Benjamin Goldberg. I know that Benjamin is not, he doesn't do a ton of interviews, so I was so excited to talk to them. And just thanks again, guys, for sharing those family memories. It's like talking to a unicorn. I know. You know, I've talked to Max, I've never talked to Benjamin, so that was really cool. We are going to take just one more moment to hear from the sponsors that make this show possible. That is definitely one of our new family traditions is spending time at Opryland.

01:23:05As well as tonight, we're going to go visit Cheekwood. We're so excited. Weather's going to be good. We're going to go check it out. So thank you so much for joining on this journey, Kelly, this journey of grateful thankfulness. You know what? This is awesome. And I'm just thankful that we get to do this because it's really fun. And we're talking to all of our favorite people and hopefully helping maybe some of our friends that are in the restaurant business and just having a good time. You know, one of my friends, a former guest on the show, her name is Hannah Heusman, who is the mental strength coach for the Philadelphia Phillies. She did a thing yesterday when I saw when she said, you know what? In order to be grateful, you have to first identify what you're grateful for. She said, take a few minutes and just like take a few seconds and look around you. Are you in a home? Are you in a warm area? Do you have clothes on? Do you have food to eat? Like you I think we have to she said you look around and you have to find some grandeur thing that you're thankful for.

01:24:07It's like stop and just be thankful for the moment right now. And some of the things that you have, you can find gratefulness and what you're thankful for and really anything. And I think that was a good a good kind of message. And I'm going to end it on that. Just hopefully you are safe and you're being safe and you're healthy. And we thank you guys for listening. What is the saying? Happy people aren't thankful. Thankful people are happy. Amen. Have a happy holidays, y'all. Happy holidays.