Hunter Briley

00:00SuperSource develops and distributes high-quality cleaning products and supplies, as well as delivers wear wash, housekeeping, laundry programs, and food service training. They partner with restaurants, golf and country clubs, hotels and resorts, schools, universities, and health care institutions. Save time and money and reduce inventory by utilizing their high-quality products and engaging with their highly trained service specialists. If you're looking for wholesale cleaning products like dish machines in Nashville, Tennessee, they have you covered. Listen, guys, this is way more than a dish machine and chemical company. They do not make you sign a contract. They earn your business every single week. And let me tell you, I will personally vouch for Jason Ellis and his entire team over at SuperSource. If you want a dish machine and chemical company like this, give them a call, 770-337-1143. And if you are a member of the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance, make sure you tell them that you get the special NARA pricing. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll.

01:12Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We are powered by the fine people over at Gordon Food Service. We've got a film for you today. If you've been in this industry for a long time, in Nashville, you probably know Hunter Briley. Hunter is the proprietor at the Emmy Rod Bakery. And this was such a fun episode to record. I swear I'd say this every time. We could have spent hours in here just like talking and we met before Christmas at his shop. And we did, we talked for like an hour and I was like, I don't know what we just covered, but we need to do a podcast, we need to do something because I just loved hanging out with him.

02:12And it did not disappoint. And he brought sourdough with him. It was like a Caribbean sourdough. It had like plantains and it was delicious and it was savory. It was really good. We talk about it. He's kind of been all over this town. We talk about all kinds of just stuff. You got to listen. If you know anything about bakeries or you want to learn about his bakery and why he does it, he's a special kind of guy. Hey, we've got some stuff to promote today. Not brands per se, but events. We have lots of events coming up. The first one is in two weeks. It is the Nara Connect Spring Social, right? So this is going to be at Shotgun Willie's. It's going to be from four to seven. It is a come and go as you please kind of a thing. It is brought to you by Cisco. So what this is, is we're going to have a few different brands there.

03:14We've got to be able to pay for the event. I don't want to ask for a lot of stuff for free, but there's going to be stuff we're going to give away and I need to pay for that. So we brought, we have four or five different vendors. I think CNB Lennon is going to be there. Wild THC is going to be there. We're going to have Justin Cook's coming from EOS. He'll be there like the second half. Cisco is going to be there. We'll have some different vendors to be there, but this is not a open to salespeople thing. This isn't open to restaurant professionals kind of a thing. If you want to mingle with other restaurant members, other restaurant owners, meet them, say hello. That's what this event is for. Of course we will have a raffle and the raffle we're going to be giving away some custom dunks. And so if you go to our TikTok page or our Instagram page, you can see me giving away these shoes. What these shoes are when you're a NARA member and we do an RFP when we help negotiate your broad line vendor deal, I like to make people shoes. And so I make custom dunks for people and you can see me videos of giving these away. They're really cool and it's one of my favorite things to do for our members. So that is on April the 14th at Shotgun Willys.

04:27Then on April the 28th, we are going to be doing the Giving Kitchen Pudding Classic. Now this is going to be at the putting zone over there off of Cydco Drive. If you haven't been, it is really, really cool. But this is not something where I'm asking you to buy teams. I'm asking you to call your vendor and see if you can play with them because they're the ones who hold all of the teams. This event is about connection. It's about bringing restaurateurs together and people who work in the industry and learn about the Giving Kitchen, but also have a great time and fellowship. This is just a big connection and this is for anybody in the industry that wants to come. The only way to get to play is if a vendor sponsors a hole or they have a table there, they're going to have teams and they have to invite you to play on their team. So if you have a vendor that you really like, have them contact me and see if we have some teams available. We have about seven or eight sponsorships available, maybe 12 teams left. So chances are your vendor already has a team. Just go ask them. Say, hey, I want to play on your team. They don't know anything about it. Tell them about it. It is on April 28th. It's at the putting zone. It is the Giving Kitchen Pudding Classic. It's going to be great. We're doing two different tournaments. One starts at two o'clock and one starts at four o'clock and we're going to have prizes. There's a hundred and sixty foot putt challenge. We're going to have a little program in the middle.

05:51It's going to be great. We're so excited to do this for the Giving Kitchen. Of course, Vince and I from NARA, we are chairing the engagement council this year, so we are putting on this event so you know it's going to be fun. We're going to have all kinds of fun vendors there, giving stuff away, just loving on people in the industry. They have the putting course, then outside they've got free golden tea, free shuffleboard. There's tons of free parking. It's just a great event. We'd love to have you come and support whatever it is. Chances are we'll have a team for you to play on if you come and you can swing a stick. It's all putting, so it doesn't matter. If you've ever played putt putt, you're good. That's all you have to know. It's a scramble format. It's going to be great. Really, really excited about that. I want to give a big shout out over to my friend Jessica Hazard. She's at NYPI. We just finished up her whole Broadline vendor RP. We're wrapping it up right now. She's been so fun to work with. We've been able to help her so much. We just love working with restaurants. Anybody out there who wants to be a part of this, look us up. NaraNashville.com, N-A-R-A-Nashville.com. Okay, next thing. I am going to be on NPR tomorrow, April the 1st. I think it's a show. It starts I think at two o'clock in the afternoon. They're going to replay it at night, but we are talking about restaurants and what the restaurants are going through right now and how we can support them better.

07:33We were on Today in Nashville yesterday. If you can go find that episode from Monday, Today in Nashville, Vince and I were both on there talking about what restaurants are facing right now and how you can support restaurants and how we are supporting restaurants. Then the final event that we're doing is on April the 20th. This is the American Culinary Federation. They do a meeting every month, but April the 20th, 420, guys, is the event. It's going to be at the Nashville State Randy Rayburn School for Culinary Arts. It's with the old Hickory Hollow Mall. I don't even know what they call it. I think it's Hickory Hollow. It's up there in Antioch. I will be speaking at that event on April 20th. It is free for anybody to come to. If you've never been to an ACF event, the American Culinary Federation is awesome. Tom Neville has done a great job over there. They've always been a supporter of restaurants and chefs and restaurant owners and just people in the industry in general. So anybody is welcome to that. If you want to hear me speak, there's going to be a Q&A as well. That is on April 20th, 420. I don't know what time it is. I think it's maybe six or seven o'clock at night. Go to nashvillechefs.org and you can see there they have the meeting schedule on there so you can check it out. All right. That was a lot of things that are going on. And then the Music City Food and Wine Festival is going to be the 23rd, the 24th, and the 25th. And I believe I'm going to be there on the 24th at the chef's demo table kind of helping them see the event. It's not 100% yet, but I'm leaning towards it. So maybe I'll see you at the Food and Wine Festival in Nashville. That's a really cool way that they've revitalized that. And big shout out to Olivia Britton over there for putting that whole thing together. I know she works her tail off to make that happen. All right. So we will see you guys at NARA Connect in two weeks. Our next episode is with Jason Lyacona. This is a lost episode.

09:35I got a new board here in the studio and I accidentally deleted the episode, but I videoed it. So I've now transferred the video audio to my board and my mic didn't pick up on the video. So I have to go through and either rerecord my section of it or just raise all the volume. So it's going to take me a little bit to work on that. But our next episode is with Jason Lyacona. And it is a good, we talk about mental health and it's just a, it's a deep, deep episode. And I have had a massive vulnerability hangover the day after. I almost wasn't sad that I deleted it because we share a lot. We share a lot in that episode. And all right, well, hey, let's jump in right now with our man, Hunter Briley. You are listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Oh, I want to talk about that. Do it again. I want to hear it again, man. The radio voice. Do the radio voice. 102.9 the buzz.

10:37So you did that like professionally. I don't know how professional I was, but yeah. Sounds pretty professional. Get you to come in and do like, you're listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. You're listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. I don't, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I just talk into the microphone. I know. I love it. We're recording this by the way. Okay. Excellent. So if you want me to include that little, our little intro stuff as we test our microphones and all that good stuff, we can leave it in. I think you just said it, but we are super excited today to have Hunter Briley in studio. Hunter is the owner of, is it M-Rod? M-A-Rod. M-A-Rod. M-E, like the show, the award show. Rod. M-E-Rod. Yep. M-E-Rod Bakery. That's it. The city, is it Mount Juliet that you're in? Yes, Mount Juliet. Mount Juliet. Now, is it Mount Juliet, Tennessee, or is it Mount Juliet?

11:39Okay. Let's go. This is a debate, man. So we'll go Mount Juliet is the answer, Mount Juliet. Mount Juliet is how we say it. Correct. It's listed Juliet. Okay. Right. Kind of like Lebanon is Lebanon. Yeah. But Lebanon or Lebanon, but it's the locals is Mount Juliet and Lebanon. But if you are phonetically saying it correctly, it is Mount Juliet, right? That's correct. I Googled when the first instance of that name was a thing. Like, and it was Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet was the first time that he like made up that name. Okay. That's the first time Juliet was ever used. Interesting. And so the enunciation is Juliet. Juliet. And so I was like, oh, I have a Project 615 t-shirt that says, I hiked, I climbed Mount Juliet. It's like at elevation 823 or something.

12:40That's hilarious. So on a side note, geographically speaking, we have been, my wife and I, Wendy, we have been to in Verona and stayed at the Romeo and Julieta. Julieta. The hotel. Well, that's how you actually say it. Our balcony was across from the balcony. Like the balcony that it's written about. Yeah. Well, that's pretty bad. There's a fun fact. Look at you, world traveler. And we're talking Shakespeare. What happened? Well, that's what happens on the show. And natural. Try radio. There's not a whole lot of structure here. I'm for it. Let my ADD run wild and we see where it goes. I'm just so for it. I love it. How are you doing? Man, I'm great. I'm really great. Like things are crazy good. I, you know, I wake up at three or five till three a.m. Every day. Every day.

13:40And I'm so excited. It sounds ridiculous. It does. Like I'm not one of those self-help guys, although could be, I guess. I mean, that's kind of what we base the bakery on. We can get into that later. But, bro, I literally wake up every morning and I'm thrilled. Like, it's like, yes, let's go do this. You get to go like make bread. Yeah. We do bread and take care of people and, you know, meet our neighbors and our friends and make new ones every single day. So I'm awesome. I absolutely love that. Well, I mean, that's it's such a stark contrast from so many people that I talk to these days. And it's like, how you doing? It's like there's like a sigh. And then it's like, well, I mean, overall, I mean, kids are healthy. I'm on the right side of the dirt. But, man, everything's fucked up. Like, this is really difficult right now. And there's all this stuff going on. And there may be some of that going for you. But I mean, just the idea of every day you love what you do. You get to go live your dream.

14:41And I mean, that's it's wild, man. It's a breath of fresh air for myself as well, you know, because I've had those dark days. I mean, we all have, right? We've all been through it. We've all been through things and life and all the stuff. But, man, you know, one of our mottos, we have a couple mottos at the bakery and within the within that business. And one of them is be kind to one another. And it's literally on the menu. Like, hey, you can choose to be kind to one another. And that rubs off. And I truly honestly feel like if you can take the positive as many times as possible and string those positives together, it's going to end up being a good hour or a good morning or a good day or a good week, so on and so forth. You know, and that comes a lot from personal challenges that I've worked on. You know, and I will talk about it like you had mentioned before, like my sobriety. I mean, I'm over three years without a drink, you know, and or anything intoxicating.

15:42It's not just a California sober. I'm full on sober, which no judgment if that's your thing. That's your thing. I'm proud of you. But yeah, I've been sober for over three years. And that's one of the things that I had to hang on to at first was, you know what I mean? Like you're hanging on to that. Like, oh, my God, like I this is the only thing that I'm breathing with right now. And it's turned from that to what I live by instead of hanging on to. And it kind of it hangs on to me now. It's kind of taking a role reversal instead of riding on the front of the boat with all the waves. I'm just kind of sitting in the middle of the boat, man, cruising. What was it like when you were sitting on the front of the boat riding the front of the boat that time when you're hanging on to that? Yeah. What were some of the realizations that you had around alcohol or drugs or whatever? Yeah, it's alcohol. Addiction in general. Yeah, alcohol was mine. Man, it just the false sense of security. The the crutch that it was and is and, you know, had become in my life.

16:50So I don't know. I used to joke around and tell the story like I would be on a phone call. And people would ask me, like, when did you drink or when did you get triggered drink or anything like that? And I was like, the answer was yes. It was, man, we had a great phone call landed that deal or let's have a drink time for shot. That was your way to celebrate. Yeah. But it was a reward to yourself for doing a good job. Correct. And it was. And then the good job became smaller and smaller, if that makes sense. So not even late Monday. Yeah, it was a good call or, you know, that ended well or they didn't answer. You see where I've retracted from now. And now it's like it just gets smaller. That window went to get smaller and smaller. And it was like, well, now I'm just drinking all the time. Well, I think that the the adverse of that is, well, that was a bad call. Correct. That call sucked. I need a drink. Yeah. I mean, so either way, it's not necessarily a reward now.

17:51Correct. I think a lot of people use alcohol for is a really easy, readily available fix to any problem that they have versus dealing with it. Yeah. Like I said, that crutch. Yeah. That's what I guess to answer your question. Yeah, that's what alcohol had become to me. And that's when you get so just deep and in it. I mean, I hate to use the cliche, but you can't see the forest for the trees, you know? And that's it. Period. Stop. You know what I mean? Holy shit. Yeah. Like, what am I doing? Like, what was this? And a lot of it, you look back on it, go, I can't believe I was there. You know, like you didn't know. No clue in your middle of it at all. Like you would never think like, oh, that's not. But when you completely stop and you look back hindsight, you're like, go, I did what? Like, that's crazy. Exactly. Exactly. So yeah, yeah, that's I think that's one of the biggest things with the with the alcohol thing is it's you know, it just. It's hard to get up at three minutes till five or five till three or whatever it was every day, bro.

18:54Yeah, that's when you're going to bed. Yeah, not happening. So before you had a bakery and I don't want this doesn't I tend to talk a lot about that because I it's near and dear to me. And I think that that's a big issue in this industry. But I'm comfortable with it. I like sharing when other people are really happily sober. Yeah, they're like, dude, it changed my life. It's for the better. Like, and I think there's this perception that, oh, well, you go to a cool part. Well, I mean that there's that, you know, I think that there's a perception of what an alcoholic looks like. And it's like, I had one. I like to be like that. No, I have more fun than ever. I go to hockey games. I go to soccer games. I have kids. I do all this fun stuff. And I remember all of those. I remember, but like it means more that I didn't have to have alcohol to do it. And so you can still have fun. You can still do all the things that everybody else does. You just don't have to have. And I want to I want to point out, you know, a lot of times people demonize alcohol or everything that you just said, like going and doing all those things, the folks that can handle it and that do it okay.

19:58And I don't want to get into the psychology or the physiology, all that stuff, because that's a whole nother podcast. But I mean, the people that can handle it and do it and do their thing. More power to you. Do it. And I have the allergy. I can't. Right. And that's it. And that's what you learn in the rooms. Like it's I have the allergy, bro. It's like it's just like I can't have just one drink milk like the dairy. It's going to be a bad night. You know what I mean? Same thing. Yeah, it's going to be a bad night. That's when it all made sense to me. Yeah. When I learned that it was like an allergy. Correct. When you have an allergy that like I can't just have one drink. If I have a drink at dinner, then I want to have a drink dessert. And then when I get home, I can't just be done and go to bed. Like I can't shut it off. Like that was my problem. Like, oh, it's it's like a thing and I don't have the ability to stop it. That's that I'm powerless to it. Yep. And when I learned that, I was like, oh, well, that makes way more sense. I feel a lot less shame about it. Correct. Like it's okay. I wouldn't feel shame if I had a peanut allergy.

20:58Correct. It's like that's just one of those things. I can't I can't empower. I can't have it. I can't have it. That's not fair. Sorry. Yeah. So you've been doing this for a while. The restaurant thing. Yeah. Tell me tell me some of your history. Where you've been in town. So maybe we should start with where I haven't been. So I was 14 years old and I was raised by a single mom and she she loves it when I tell this joke or tell the story because she's like, it sounds so bad when you say it the way you say it. But I wanted this pair of shoes. I think they were pumps or whatever. Remember the three buck pumps? Hell yeah. Basketball on the and you pumped it on the tongue. I wanted it so bad. And she was like, okay, well, let's learn how to earn a dollar and, you know, get a job to help understand that. And I mean, she's being a responsible mother, you know, thinking that I would just go out and wash cars, wash cars or mow a yard or something. So I went to the guy that I played soccer with. His dad owned the franchise for Baskin Robbins on Second Avenue before it was what it is now.

22:05And there was windows on the Cumberland, like this little. Yeah. Right. So in front of that, in the little alleyway, there's the Chicago dog stand. And man, that guy, that's another whole story, too. He's hilarious. But in front of that, even on Second Avenue was the Baskin Robbins. So and he would let us work for two or three hours, like twice a week. You know what I mean? To scoop an ice cream, right? Sure. So I'm like, let's go do that. So I started scooping ice cream. And on the corner of Broadway and Second Avenue was this little rock and roll restaurant coming called the Hard Rock Cafe. And the way they did it at the time was they would open their retail shop first and just start printing money and that would pay for the restaurant's build out. Right. It was brilliant. You know, it's pretty smart because also at that time, the Hard Rock T-shirt was huge. Huge. I collected them when I was a kid. I mean, they were big time. You were everywhere at school. Big Johnson and Hard Rock. Yeah, exactly. Golly, I haven't heard that one in a minute.

23:06That's great. I felt like I was in Panama City for two seconds. So they did that. They opened the retail store and the folks that they had hired there and the manager that they had brought in from New York to live in Nashville and do the retail side, they would come in and have coffees or get milkshakes or ice cream or whatever. And he was like, dude, you should you should come work with us at Hard Rock. You're great. You're funny. You're cool. Like come. And you were like 14. Yeah, 14. And I love rock music. Right. I mean, somebody gave me the first StoneTable Pilots on cassette for my trip to Washington, D.C. with the school. And I was like, what is this? This is music. And my life changed. Yeah. So core. And so I just went over and filled out an application and the guy was a manager. So he said, yeah, you're hired. You're good. And I said, you need to talk to my mom or anything. And he said, I mean, I can, you know, so I said, let me go home and talk to mom first. So I went home.

24:06Mom, I got hired by the Hard Rock. It's amazing. I just going to sell T-shirts. And it's just like that, except not scooping ice cream. It's T-shirts. So she actually went and had a meeting with them and all that. And long, really long story shorter, ended up like she would drop me off after school at work and come pick me up in front of the Hard Rock Cafe. What a cool job to have when you're 14. And then they transferred me into hosting. And so, like, it's 15 and a half. I don't know. Like I was the night of the CMA is talking to Trisha Yearwood, who is like pinching my cheeks like you're the cutest little thing. I can't believe you're working at Hard Rock. And I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing here, but your table's over here. You know what I mean? And then go to school the next day. Be like, you're not going to believe what I did. You know, and all those stories. Right. So by the time I was 16 or 17, well, I guess 18. Yeah, because I had to get out of high school. But I started training and I was all of a sudden traveling around the world, opening up Hard Rock Cafes.

25:09So I helped with writing new training manuals and international openings and stuff like that. So like the Cayman Islands and Sydney, Australia, and, you know, like just Rio, all the crazy stuff. You know, and then they were like, well, do you want to? There's a thing called the unification when both sides of there was two Hard Rock companies, essentially, without going too far into that, they unified. So they came back together as one whole company. So each side did different things. So we trained each other on all the good things. So I was one of those guys that they sent around to all the cafes in the United States to fix and or do things. Right. What did the Hard Rock do really, really well? What was the what's in for? If I was like a new person coming into the heart, what's like the most important thing you can do? Team, team, your family. Like they taught us that and I still do this. They taught us that happy employees create a happy atmosphere, create a happy product, and that translates to your guests.

26:16Period. End of story. The answer is yes. What's the question? And that's what I learned with the Hard Rock. That was the biggest thing for me because there's systems for everything. Right. I mean, there's a million. So you and I just talked about systems for some other stuff that can always be honed and learned and taught. And there's always a better system. Right. And there's always a way to. It was always a system that somebody has. I think most people just have it in their mind as to what it should be and without writing it down and saying this is the system. Yeah. And then people don't do the system that's in their heads and they go, why didn't you do it this way? And they go, you never told me. You never told me. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. That's what happens most of the time. You're right. Hard Rock didn't do that. They had it. They had it lined up. Yeah. And you felt like a family member no matter what. And the crazy thing about Hard Rock is I could go into the Hard Rock in Jakarta and that same family feeling would happen instantly. It's wild. I remember one time I got this wild hair.

27:18I went to my manager and I said, I've got friends in Phoenix, Arizona and I want to go see them this summer. And I'm really excited. I haven't seen them in years. And she was like, do you want to work at the cafe there? Hold on. And I was like, seriously, you're cool. She picked up the phone, called the AGM in Phoenix and said, hey, I'm sending one of our employees out. Can you make room on the schedule? A couple shifts a week at first. And then if you can work him in, that'd be great. And they were like, awesome. I had a job for this summer. That's incredible. That's amazing, man. So you get a lot of lifers that work for Hard Rock, rockers, whatever, but that would be there for decades. Did you have to wear pieces of flair? You didn't have to. They didn't make you at first. It's one of the things I noticed. And then I think office space, really. Yeah. That's based off of Hard Rock. But actually, that's TGIF Fridays and all that stuff. The uniform and everything. But the pieces of flair, all the different pins, you're like, how many pieces of flair do you have? You want to know the difference? The difference is that same thing that I just said, is that family thing.

28:20We wanted to. It was cool. Because actually, back then, we all traded all those pins. So I had a thing for the surfboard pins. And everybody knew that. So if somebody came across a surfboard pin, they'd be like, dude, I have this pin and this pin. I have a boy that wants that. Can I trade you for it? And they'd trade it. And then give it to me. And then I'd trade them for something. It was a whole black market of flair. But you drank the Kool-Aid. Yeah, totally. Remember, I was 14 when I got hired. So that Kool-Aid was like, this is the only Kool-Aid. This is the only Kool-Aid I've ever had. I understand that. I get it. But it was at the time. And still, it's a great thing to be a part of. And it taught me a lot. I have people that looked out for me. There's a guy in Chicago. His name is Jim. Shout out, Jim. What's going on, buddy? Because he will listen to this. I promise you, he will. You know what? I'm going to tell on him. So the only reason he left Hard Rock is to go be the head of PR, I believe, for the predators when they first came to town.

29:28He is the guy who came up with Fang Fingers. Oh, that's badass. That's his claim to fame. I do that all the time. Yeah, we all do. So that's Jim. Anyways, so Jim is like, he's one of those that he loves my mother, knows my mother, still talks to my mom sometimes. I met your dad, Johnny. Yeah, you met dad. It's stuff like that. It's a family, man. And it always is. Wendy? Wendy is my wife. Yeah, nicely done, bro. That's very good. So that was a really long answer to how I got started. But that's why I ask you the question, what did they do really well, right? What did they do right? The team, people together. I think that working in a restaurant is a master class in efficiency. Correct. And I'm a big fan of hot food hot, cold food cold, and then full hands in, full hands out, right? What? Yeah. Wendy and I do that at our house. You do hot food hot? You do full hands in, full hands out?

30:30At home. It's like if you're leaving to go. Carry something. Come on, what are you doing? Nothing bothers me more than a server walking from one end of the restaurant into the kitchen without anything in their hands. It is wasted time. Efficiency is, I tell new people, I say, our entire job is to get the plates from Dishland onto the line, and then to get all the stuff that they prepare to the tables, and get all that stuff back. It's like this big rotation, but we have to do all of that while doing everything else. That's the sub job. That's the sub job. You have to do that while you're walking somewhere. Do something while you're walking. So when you're walking to the kitchen, we have to bring all this stuff back to the kitchen. Do it while you're already doing it. You're going anyway. Grab the stuff, and you still feel like, well, that's not my table. I'm like, oh. It's just like one of those words. It's like, we're a team, and a team. So I get that. You have to be a team. It's very, very important. Absolutely.

31:31And fun fact, Wendy was a hard rocker on the hotel side. Never in the same cafe or in the same building. How'd you guys meet? Running a restaurant is tough. Staff turnover, rising cost, and the endless tasks that bog you down and take you away from what you love. Let Adams Keegan lighten that load. Their privately held Tennessee-based restaurant and hospitality-focused outsourced HR, payroll, and benefits firm. The team at Adams Keegan removes the administrative burdens of HR administration, payroll benefits management, garnishments, unemployment claims, compliance, 401k, and so much more. From their proprietary HRIS platform to seamless payroll and competitive benefits that keep your team smiling, they've got you covered. Adams Keegan lets you focus on what you do best, creating unforgettable dining experiences while they handle the rest. Essentially think of Adams Keegan as your back office HR department right here in Music City. One of the many things I love about Adams Keegan is that unlike big publicly traded companies out there, they have an incredibly high standard of customer service.

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33:41And so you may say, well, every year they must raise the price on the seven-year contract, right? No, because they don't do any contracts. There's no gas fees, there's no clean green service fees, there's no replacement cost, there's nothing. The only price you pay is the price that you pay for the actual product. I know it's too good to be true, no contracts. They do formats, they'll make custom formats for you, they do fresh linens, cleaning supplies. And guys, I just did a tour of their facility and it is immaculate, it is state of the art. I'm gonna post pictures on my Instagram. You can go find them and you can see how absolutely gorgeous this is, to the point that they even wash and sanitize every one of their used laundry carts. It's just absolutely amazing. If you're looking for a linen company you can trust who wants to earn your business every single week, go back and listen to our episode with Jason Cruz, the owner of C&B Linen. Hear it from his, straight from his mouth, exactly what they do.

34:44Or you give him a call at 9-3-1-7-2-2-76-16 or you can DM me, at Brandon Styll on Instagram for my exclusive pricing through the Nashville Area Restaurant Alliance. Sharpier's Bakery is a locally owned and family operated wholesale bakery, providing bread to Nashville's best eateries. They have operated in Nashville since 1986. Yes, next year will be 40 years. They're providing high quality, fresh bread daily for restaurants, catering companies, hospitals and universities. Their bread is also free from any preservatives and artificial flavors. They're right off of White Bridge Road. Erin Mosso and her team have been doing this for a long time. You know what I love about them is that they're local and they care, they care about your business. That's like the number one thing you're gonna hear me talk about is, do they care about your business? And I 100% believe that they do. If you would like to be working with a bakery that cares about your business, give them a call.

35:45615-356-0872. That's 615-356-0872. Now you can always visit them at sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S.com. And they have pictures of all of the bread that they can have for you. And contact information, go check them out. Sharpiers Bakery. Building, but. How'd you guys meet? So, okay, here's more about me, I guess. I was in a rock band. Well, this is a podcast about you. You're not lying, you're correct. This is for you to divulge all this stuff. Okay, so I was in a rock band for a long time and she was a fan of the band and ended up being the manager at a restaurant where we all, like three fifths of the band worked. And so she would hook us up with the right schedule so we could go and play and do things. So, and then ended up falling in love with her. So we've been together for 20 years, married for 15.

36:46Who wouldn't fall in love with somebody who fixed the schedule so you could go play music? You could play rock music, yeah. She gets it. Yeah, so even more fun facts too. Albert, the guy that hired me at the hard rock, lead guitar player in the band. No kidding. Is now the broker for the real estate agency that I own. You own a real estate agency also? Yeah. How many businesses do you have? 76. Seven. Fake number. I'm like, holy shit. No, yeah, so yeah, I have a real estate company and a title company and we also build houses. All right, so where does the bakery fall in? I mean, is that your number one source of money? What is your number one source of income? So I think multiple streams of revenue is always a smart move. That's been documented. You know, it's just good. Diversification. I mean, things go bad sometimes and you're not left hanging when they do. So I learned that a long time ago.

37:49And so because of, I think of all those things, I never really thought about this until right now, but all the efficiencies that we learned with the hard rock and being in the, don't even say hard rock, with the restaurant business. The efficiencies that you learn, I applied it to life. And tried to be efficient in my life. And I guess full hands in, full hands out for life. Is that too deep? But it's true though. Like, I mean, I think if I have that amount of time to do something and or make something work, then let's do it. You know, I mean, you only get one of these. So what I've learned more recently is to use that for way better. And the other motto that I said, we had multiple mottos in the business is I am second. So I am second, always. No matter what, if it's business, relationship, work or whatever it is, like if you can try to put yourself second, that step back gives you perspective.

38:53And I think that that's important. I know it's important for me, but I think it should be important for other folks as well. So yes, we have a real estate company and a title company, but the bakery is something that was born of sobriety and focusing on passion and focusing on what truly makes you happy in life and attacking that. And so in 2020, there was a tornado that came through Nashville. And took every 13th. March 3rd. March 3rd. It was March 3rd. Yeah. So. You had it tattooed on your arm. Yeah, it took everything that Wendy and I owned. So we were, you know, I was laying on top of her and the two dogs and the house filled out on top of us. And we somehow, someway walked out of it. So this was just before getting sober.

39:54I'm like, if the camera was on me, you'd see like my jaw on the floor right now. I don't know if I've ever met anybody who's been in a home that was completely leveled by a tornado. And were in the home and made it out alive. Except there are many who died doing that either. But. Yeah. What was that experience like? I mean, did you know it was coming? Like where did you go? Like. So we went to bed that night, just kind of, you know, storms come in like the last storm that just rolled through. You know, you just go to bed or whatever. And now we don't, but. Went to bed and I remember waking up and looked outside and it was green, you know, and it was like 1245 or something like that. And you just got that sixth sense, you know, like in the hair stood up on the back of my neck. And I turned the TV on and Dan Rather on, not Dan Rather, was it Dan Thomas? Sorry, Dan Thomas. Weatherman for channel four came on and he was like, and I remember distinctively like the TV popped on and it was him.

40:55And he said, three minutes till Donaldson. And we lived in Donaldson at the time. And I was just like, oh, okay. That's real, you know. Woke Wendy up and we have two, at the time we had two boxers and we ran downstairs. We had a ranch house, like a little, like 1500 square foot house with a basement and ran downstairs and our boy dog, Akeem ran back upstairs because he was scared. And I ran and got him. And as I'm running back through the house, the whole house just started vibrating. And I threw him down the stairs. The house started to collapse and threw me down the stairs. And I just remember running and diving. And Wendy had a blanket up, like holding it, like get under like tent style. And she dropped the blanket and I covered her head with my hand and the two dogs and everything just exploded. And it was, the freight train thing is real. Like where you, you know, everybody says you hear a freight train. I felt everything change.

41:58Like just sonically, atmospherically, everything just flipped upside down. And I remember when it was happening, I looked up and I saw our HVAC unit going around like in a circle, like the one from outside. That ain't supposed to happen. You know what I mean? And I just, I mean, I still, you know, like. I'm like my hearing this live going. Yeah. I'm there with you for a moment, but I can't even fathom. Yeah. And it was, it was crazy, man. Like I, that happened and then everything just goes, and it was a huge explosion. And then everything just goes death silence. Just, I mean. Were you trapped underneath the house? No. And so that's the crazy thing. And we were in the basement and we had just remodeled the kitchen upstairs. Yeah, bro. I mean. I don't mean to laugh, but I know how hard that is and how, what a dream kind of thing that would be to do.

43:01Yeah. Like the, I saved up and got the wolf stove and oven combo. We even put a wolf hood in. Like my brother-in-law who is in cabinetry came and we hung the cabinets ourselves, which I will never do it again. Shout out to all cabinet hangers. You're amazing. But yeah. But we think the reason that that didn't collapse on us is cause we had redone the floors. You know what I mean? Yeah. And so I'll never forget this. Like everything stopped, right? And it was all black. And we looked up and Wendy looks up and it's like, it's just dripping. And you can't see anything. Cause number one, you're in shock, right? And then cause it's all, everything's gone and just black. And she was like, oh babe, I think we have a leak. And we both just started laughing. Like, cause that's the only thing we could do. You know, it's like, well, I guess we'll get it fixed.

44:04Well, you gotta call the plumber, I guess. And you get up and realize that there's nothing there to fix. It's gone. And I had an F 250 of like the truck, the big F 250. And it had picked up and that's a, and the only reason I know this is cause of insurance. Cause I dealt with insurance forever, but that's a truck that is over 7,500 pounds. And by the way, if you have a truck that weighs over, I think it's 7,200 pounds, you get a bigger discount. So look out, there's your tip for the day. Unless they've changed it, don't hold me to that. It had picked up the truck and thrown it about 200 yards into the pool. Like in the back, we had a little pool that we had done and it picked that up and threw it into that pool. 200 yards. Yeah. And so like the weather channel showed up, Lester Holt showed up, like the show TV, his show showed up, like the NBC nightly news and all that stuff. Were you on all those shows? Yeah. Yeah. And they were just like, bro, this, you shouldn't be here.

45:05Like the guy that really got me was the guy from the weather channel. And he's like, I am a storm tracer. This is what I do for a living. And he said, despite whatever you hear, see, or read on the news upcoming, you were hit by an EF5, which is super, super, super rare, right? Yeah. And so it actually went down and you can Google this. It's an EF3 that hit Nashville in that area. And I looked at this the other day on the anniversary for some reason, but the Tennessee and did a cool, like it's not cool, but it's interesting. It's a follow along map of the path of the tornado and it's a real time, it moves, right? So you can scroll with it and it shows you and bro, it goes right over our house. Like you see the truck, you see the house, it's just like a pile of matchsticks, like right there. And so anyways, so I mean, I guess I believe him when he says it was the EF5, I don't know how to rate those things, but he was like, because of the sheer and the way the house lifted and it's sucked out of the dirt and he's like, there is no reason for you and Wendy to be here.

46:12Like there's, it's physically impossible that you guys made it. And I'll never forget that conversation standing at the side. You woke up. Yeah, man. Oh, we'd have been gone. Like we'd have been in Cookeville or whatever, but like gone. So yeah, so all of that, man, I learned razor sharp focus on what matters because you literally only have one of these lives, right? And you're so little in all of this. I mean, everything I own was gone in less than 12 seconds, Brandon, everything. So what or who do I think I am in all of this? So why not help? Yeah. Right? So we were going on a trip sometime after this and I'd gotten sober and everything and we were going on trip and I just. Was there any part of the sobriety part of this like recognizing?

47:14I didn't know it, but yes, at the time, because I will admit that I drank more then because of just stress and all the things, but. And then like literally two weeks later, COVID global pandemic. I mean, you're not talking, you're talking March 3rd and March 17th. Correct. It was like, Hey, COVID. We had all the volunteers helping clean off and get stuff out. And then crickets like gone. You know what I mean? Like the whole world shut down. It was wild. Yeah. Oh my God. So how did I not know this? Well, I guess we've only met like once. And yeah, let's say we had a cup of coffee and like. So yeah, that's kind of our background. And that, so I had my Jerry McGuire moment on an airplane coming home and I was like, Amy Rod Bakery. I wrote the whole paper for it. And it's on our pages. Like I think we pinned it or whatever you call it. But the whole reason behind it and why, and what we're doing and it's four ingredients when it comes down to it, you know, and I say four bread is just flour, salt and water, but it's also time.

48:24And time is the biggest ingredient that you have to use. And bread is using your time wisely to get that magic to happen for that bread to happen, right? So I gave the why and the magic that it is to be able to hand somebody a loaf of bread is so much bigger and so much more than the $10 you get back for it or whatever money it is, money doesn't matter. And that's what it always was with this business is money doesn't matter. We're gonna take care of people and we're gonna produce good food and we're gonna produce real food. And from the best possible, you know, sources locally are not local. You know, I love local and I wanna help as much as I can, but if there's a better source for something, especially health-wise, which is our flour, but we're gonna do that. And that's what I wanted to do. And brother, it is just blown up in spades. Like we did it out of our basement of our house.

49:26And I started just, I started focusing on baking and I was like, okay, the neighbors try this. Do you like it? And they're like, can we get another loaf like next week? And I'm like, okay, yeah, make them another loaf. And then those neighbors and those neighbors. And then we opened it up to the HOA page on our neighborhood site. And it was all of a sudden we had these orders coming in. And then I was, I told Wendy, I said, I'm gonna put this on my regular Facebook page and not the HOA page. And dude, all of a sudden we had 200 people showing up at our house on Thursday to pick up bread. You know, and meanwhile, I mean, I'm still doing real estate and doing all this stuff, but it was just like the joy and the passion and what it was to produce this product for these people. And then here's the crazy part. Then I turned my basement into this little speakeasy looking bakery, right? And people started coming in and sharing with me, sharing their problems or sharing good stuff, you know, or celebrating or just wanting to talk and hang out and just be.

50:27And all of a sudden it started becoming this safe place for people to hang out and just chill and talk and everything. And I looked at Wendy and I said, this is way, way, way bigger than providing a product for a need, right? It's way like you're bigger than just a bakery. Correct. That gets a community. Correct. And, but if you boil that all back down, if you just get it all set to the originality of a loaf of bread handed to somebody, you can live off a loaf of bread. If you had nothing else, you can live off a loaf of bread. So mentally, like to wrap your head around that or to even attempt is pretty huge for me. And that is a lot of the reason that 2.55 a.m. is exciting every single day for me. Amen. I mean, I had a guy, I'm gonna be on NPR Tuesday talking about all this restaurant stuff. And he said, he was a kind of the answers, but just as pre-interview stuff, like why is it important to support local?

51:35And I went, these are like, I just gonna play him that clip of everything you just said as to why it's important because you can't cookie cut or build that somewhere. That's heart and passion and caring. And I think your love language of spirit of acts of service of giving to people is also how you receive love. Yeah, absolutely. And it's like, that's a thing that when you're able to do that every day, it fills your soul. Absolutely. You're nourished by that. It's not a job at that point. They say, find a job that you love to do, you'll never work a day in your life. It's like, to get up at three o'clock in the morning, it's like, oh, I gotta go do this. You're like, I get to go do this. It's a whole different mindset. It is. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the other side of that coin, if you will, is staying in your lane.

52:39Emmy Rod is, while I own it and control it and do all that, it's gonna be right there and that's gonna be it. We've had people that have said, we'll pay for the next opening. We'll pay for your Spring Hill store or your Pic-A-Town. We've had more of these. Yeah, and it's just like, man, that's so flattering. Thank you so much. That means the world to me, but we're gonna stay right here. This is what we wanna do. This is how we wanna do it. And we don't need, I'm not, and I don't wanna sound contrived or, you know. Unappreciative. Yeah, it's just so nice to do this and let it be that. I think that we're in this, a lot of times in this world, it's more and more and more, faster, faster, faster, and it doesn't need to be. Well, sometimes also, if it's lightening a bottle, it's personal to you. Correct. And when you do four of those, it all of a sudden starts changing. Now it's a business that you got cogs, you got all these things, and it becomes more than, and some of that personality loses because you're now not there, and you're at the Spring Hill store, and you're at the Franklin store, and you're over here, and it's like, we never see you, and it's like, that's not what I wanted.

53:57Correct. And so I tell them, it makes total sense to me. Yeah, and kudos to the folks that can do that and build those empires like that and do it. Awesome, you know, that's amazing. Congratulations, it's just not for me or my business. Wow. That's so, I'm just like, I'm just like blown. It's so refreshing, and like, it's just, I just love hearing these stories of people that serve. Yeah. I am second. Yeah. You know, it's that thing you just said, like, I'm here to serve the community, and so people that work, your wife works with you. Yeah, so she is there Fridays and Saturdays, and she works like the counter, taking care of people, because those are our crazy days, for sure. And she's, you know, she's there, like right now, I think she's planting trees in the back, because we just built a new deck, and it needed greenery. So she's like planting trees, bless her heart, but she's an outstanding human being, and you know, just, I owe my entire, yeah, she's amazing.

55:04But yeah, she's there, and then Chris is my, I guess, second baker, whatever, assistant. He's not an assistant, he's a business partner, but he was actually, so prior to all this, Wendy was the director of operations for food and beverage for the Music City Center. They had hunted her and brought her in for the opening, I guess it's been 15 years now, I can't remember, but yeah, she's bad to the bone, you know what I mean? Yeah. That's a monster over there. Yeah, dude. Monster. Yeah, it's crazy. So Chris worked at the Music City Center also, he was head of IT and security stuff and all that stuff. So I called him when we had the brick and mortar going, and I was like, do you wanna, will you come put in cameras and security system for me? Because I know, I trust him, like he's gonna do it right, he's very thorough and brilliant mind, just amazing. And Adam knew he was a foodie as well, cause we would talk or he would send me random pictures cause we're buddies, but not like we weren't close, but he'd be like, man, I just smoked this brisket or did, you know what I mean?

56:14Like all this cool stuff, right? And so I knew he was a foodie and he came and worked on the bakery and would see me by myself doing the stuff. And he was like, man, I'm not working Friday, do you want some help? I was like, yeah, dude, I mean, if you wanna spend your day off doing this, then great. And he hadn't left yet. So he left a career of 15 plus years in IT to be a baker. And now when your cameras go offline, you're usually pretty set. Dude, like it's all- But your camera system's pretty bad ass, isn't it? Yeah, correct. We can launch a rocket from the Emerald Bakery, bro. Like it's, bring it on, you know what I mean? Like the cameras we do have, I can, well, I probably shouldn't say this online, but I can see a license tag from like a mile away. Like it's the craziest thing, but yeah. So- Johnny's on his way in. Yeah, he'll be here in 10 minutes, but- Get the bread ready. Correct. But yeah, so he's there and he's there full-time with us now and has been since, I guess he got a year in February.

57:16But yeah, he's crushing it. And we've absolutely become thick as thieves. And he's just, he's a great person and an amazing human being. Tell me about the bread that you're doing. Which like just a normal stuff. So I mean, it's all sourdough. We're a sourdough bread bakery and kind of focused like the old world French boulangerie. So slow bread. It takes- Slow bread. Sourdough bakery. Yeah, and it takes three days to make our bread minimum. So like we've got our original sourdough loaf and then we add on from there. Like we do in everything bagel and Parmesan or Asiago cheese and rosemary. And like, there's all kinds of different stuff. I think actually I brought you the Caribe to try and- Plantain. Coconut milk and plantain. Coconut milk. Yeah. So I cannot, thank you for bringing that for me. Of course. That's very kind of you. Show up into handed, bro. Like, it's okay. Old rule. Yeah, so we, everything we do sourdough, including our pastries.

58:21So like the croissants and danishes and cinnamon rolls and you know, all the things. It's all sourdough based. I was secretly really hoping that you would not come empty-handed. But I would never ask you. I was like, God, I really hope he brings some bread. And when you walked in, I was like, oh yes, yes. He brought bread. So I was really excited that maybe you might, but I would never ask you to. So I'm- Yeah. Thank you for that. You're welcome. All right. So that's the Caribe. Caribe. Caribe. Where do you do get like, how do you get ideas for new bread? Hey guys, today we are talking about Robin's Insurance and restaurants carry a very unique set of risks. We can customize a menu of insurance solutions to meet your specific needs. Reviewing the options and developing a plan for restaurant insurance coverage is a perfect recipe. Every restaurant owner has heard the statistics about how tough it is to survive and thrive in the business.

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01:04:38Caribe. Where do you get, how do you get ideas for new bread? Man, it just, a lot of it's life experiences or, I mean, we go out to dinner or to another city and do something, and you just get inspired by some flavor combinations. Wendy and I's favorite vacation spot has always been the Caribbean. We love it. And we're right there with you. Yeah, and tostadas and plantains, and it's always so, they're delicious, and there's a lot of different ways to prepare those. And the roasted plantain, I just thought, man, everybody loves banana bread, but I can't do anything normal. What's the not normal banana bread? And it's like, well, plantain. Okay, let's see what we can do with that. And then coconut milk, I mean, let's see what that does. And it creates a creamier texture, and it's delicious. But yeah, it actually plays really well onto the plantains, so you'll like it. Any kind of entree I should have? Is it sweet? So that's the thing, it's not a sweet bread. When you get a direct bite of plantain, it'll have a little bit of sweetness to it, but plantains aren't super sweet like bananas.

01:05:43You roast them, and it brings out a little bit of sweetness, but more of a savory thing. So it's just a light, refreshing bread, if that makes any sense at all. But some folks have sent us pictures of just peanut butter spread on it, doing French toast with it, and then I've seen it dipped into soup. And it works, it goes with all of them. So yeah, I love doing stuff like that just to kind of see what happens. And we've tried to expand upon that with certain partnerships. And that's the other thing about Emmy Rod, is I wanted it to be a spot where other bakers could even be shown off. So like our chocolate chip cookie, it's a brown butter and sourdough chocolate chip cookie. And we partnered with Mylene, who owns Cookies and Cravings in Mount Juliet. And she was just trying to get it going at the time, and said, well, you can, let's put your cookies here, but let's partner on, let's do something together. So she uses our flour and our starter, and we worked on a recipe like add a little salt, you know, do some stuff here and there.

01:06:48And now we've got like what I consider one of the greatest chocolate chip cookies ever made. And it's, you know, is it, do I make it in the building? No, but it's a partnership with a local baker to help her out. That's awesome. And same thing with baklava that we have in house. Julie, she does like amazing baklava and all kinds of fun stuff. Like we just, I'm really stoked about this. We just partnered with Nicoletto's Pasta, and we have a sourdough pasta now that yeah, it's ridiculous, like absolutely ridiculous. We did a little secret dinner thing that we do every quarter at the bakery. And that was the final dish was we did a ragu, a short rib ragu with this sourdough pasta. How'd you get invited to the secret dinner at Emirat Bakery? Man, you gotta go on our site. We drop tickets and they sell out in like three or four minutes. Like it's a quarterly thing and it just happened. So watch it in three months. You'll see, I'll, I do a, so it's called Emikase. So it's based off of omakase, right?

01:07:50A little obsessed with Asian culture, but that's another story. But I love that, let the chef handle it is what that means. Like we'll take care of it. Like, and tell me when you're full. So the last, we're on, we've done three and every quarter you'll just see a neon number. This coming will be four. You'll see a neon number four show up. If you see that in any of the advertisements online, then we're about to drop tickets. And when you see that happen, jump on there and buy yourself a couple tickets, man. So, but it's pretty cool. We do like a nine course tasting meal and it's all got sourdough woven in and out of it. And it's pretty cool. So the next one's gonna be insane. I've already got it lined up. Definitely wanna be a part of that. I would love to have you. That would be so bad ass. All right, I'm gonna be watching. I'm gonna do everything I can to like, I watch shoes, like when shoes drop, like I like Jordans and stuff. I saw the Jordans. Yeah, like when I, when those- I almost wore mine too. When they drop, I'm like the first one to be like, oh, I want those, I want those, I want those. Yeah, yeah, for sure.

01:08:50And I sell them too. Do you really? Yeah, if I can get like a drop on like something really cool. Nice. Then I'll turn around and sell them so that I can buy shoes I'll actually wear. Did you see the reissues of the goggle, the black, old black Jordans where it looks like the gas mask on the tongue? They reissued that. The sixes? The sixes, yeah. I saw, I just saw an article about it the other day. There's a- There's a bunch, I'm a shoe nerd. I love it. Now, I didn't used to be, but now I'm like, I don't know what it's about shoes. I've got the orange and white dunks, like the Jordans. Yeah. I love them, they're great. These are, I took them off. These are just some mids. Nice. Jordan 1s. I wear mostly like, well they're mid, not highs. Jordan high, mids, and lows. I typically wear Jordan 1s almost every day because they're just comfortable. There's like regular, everywhere's like athleisure, coltan shoes, and I'm like, I'm going to be a little different. I love it. I want to be like everybody else. Be you. I want to be me. I like them, it makes me happy. I love it. And you know what? I make yourself happy.

01:09:51Exactly. When I was in your building, I noticed you had a bunch of like lockers. Like you walk in and then there's like all these lockers there and people just would walk in and then they would just go to a locker and grab bread and leave. Yeah. I thought that was really unique. So we wanted to, it's only Chris and I baking on a normal schedule, right? And then Wendy on the weekends. And I didn't mention dad, dad's there on Fridays and Saturdays doing coffee. But we wanted to make it easier on folks to need to run in and run out, right? And also easier on us to be able to handle the rigors of everyday baking and then the line or lack of at the front, at the counter, right? So we worked with a buddy of ours who built our ovens and we just, we're like, let's do a cubby system. And it's just literally 35 cubbies with glass doors on there and it's labeled A one through seven, B one through seven and so on and so forth. And we have a website. You just click on the website and go to emmierodbakery.com and you can pre-order for the entire week.

01:10:56So you can go in and if what we're doing on Wednesday looks good to you, grab it and put it in your cart, close out. And the day that morning, we'll send you a text that like, hey, your bread's ready and you're gonna be located in cubby B5, right? So you can come get it whenever you want while we're open. And then we have an actual locker room in the back. And that is super, super cool. Like it's, we developed it with these people called Harbor Lockers and it's essentially like an Amazon style locker. So they're three metal locker towers inside a secure room with cameras and lights and air conditioning and all that stuff and it's 24 seven. So we'll load your bread the day we bake it, send you the code to the door and a code to pop the locker and you just use your phone and pop it and you can get your bread anytime. It's like a bread vending machine. So that also creates a third shift for us without a human. So we can bake all that bread, like the morning bake will be for the day, right?

01:11:59And then a second bake can come out and load the lockers and we'll send it out to the people that pre-order it. So that's also where you'll see the MECASA tickets. So we have, if you go on there, you can click and sign up for text messages and we drop the new menu for every week at 3.30 on Sunday, every Sunday afternoon. And you'll get a text and it says, hey, Emmy Rod Baker, he's open for the week, go check it out. And like Saturday sells out in a few minutes. It's crazy. And then Friday, it kind of goes Saturday backwards. Wow. Yeah. So we've got, I think, man, we went into brick and mortar last November and we are at like 7,000 subscribers for that text message. So that's pretty cool. I can see why it sells out in like three minutes, like the, that's going to be a tough ticket to get out. I like the challenge. I got you, bro. I'm like, I want the challenge. I want it, let's go, I want to be part of this. Love it. I just want to meet. Remember Ticketmaster, like when you had to go and be at the like Kroger or whatever it was?

01:13:02I camped out at Sam Goody for Pearl Jam tickets in 93, man. Yeah. And I got tickets, but I was in the nosebleed still. Yep. But you were there and you loved it. Oh, we had the best time. It's the same mentality. That's the Hard Rock stuff, man. That's where all that comes from. It's like, yeah. What was the coolest piece of merch that you ever, like, cause Hard Rock is the largest collection of music in the world. Yeah. What is the coolest, like for like a, like in New York, they have like a smashed Nirvana, get like Kurt Cobain guitar that he smashed on stage. So I've held that. Yeah, like I've held that. Like when they had to clean it, cause I worked at the New York cafe for a long time. I went to school in New York too. And like, they had to clean it. So they unlocked the merch people. There's a team, by the way, used to be based in Orlando. You can put gloves on and do that. Oh yeah. And they were like, bro, do you want to hold it? And I was, yes, absolutely. So I got to hold that guitar, the smashed Cobain. It's a Jag Sting. Yeah, I'll say it's like a Jaguar. Yeah. But like, that type of, like, I love Hard Rock.

01:14:04Besides the food, it's like, everyone is like a miniature museum. Absolutely. And I love music. Every song we listen to in the car, I know. My kids are 10 and 12. Yeah. They don't listen to music. Really? There's not like music. They have other things. Sure. Like that take up their time. They have the internet and they have games they can play with kids all over the world. And they have E-Bikes and all these other things. Like I was like grounded to my room and I had like Pearl Jam, you know? Like I had music kept me. That was my empathy. I had the cassette tape of Core. Yeah, I mean, like, but that's what- And Nevermind and all that, yeah. Yeah, like the cassette tape. Like I have a cassette deck in my, I'll tell you a two second story. I have an old truck. Okay. It's an old Ford Ranger. And I have a cassette deck in it. Yes. And a buddy of mine, who I was in the eighth and ninth grade with, still good friends with to this day, but he was, his dad passed away and they were cleaning out this house and he found- Oh my gosh.

01:15:12We used to make these like Pearl Jam mix tapes back and they call them live and rare. And he would go through like a Rolling Stone magazine, cut out like a little picture and make a sleeve. Are you serious? And he typed out the songs that were on them. Like he made like these old live. And he goes, dude, do you know what I found? He goes, I found like six of these live and rare tapes. And I was like, the OG once like when we were like in the eighth grade, he goes, do you want, do you have a tape player? And I was like, I do. So in my truck, I have these- Pearl Jam. Pearl Jam live and rare cassette tapes, like early 90s, 92, 93, live from Den Hog, you know? And it's like these Eddie and it's prime. Every time in my truck, push a little tape deck in. I'm like, oh, black unplugged. That's a good one. You know, it's like all these state of love and trust and all these different songs. I'm like, this is the best. Wow. That's what I had. My kids are like, you know, so many words. I was like, this is my- Correct. This was my video game. This is your Fortnite or whatever it's called. This is how I connected with the outside world. We had MTV, we watched the videos.

01:16:12Like this was our world. Kids today don't, they don't listen to music. Taylor Swift, maybe, but like there's not, who's the iconic band that you would want to follow around Harry Styles? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. It's besides like Harry or Taylor, you know? Like, I don't know. I don't know. There's not that. There's not that. I think there's some coming. Like I've seen the grunge movements coming back. Oh, that would be amazing. Well, I would love. Yeah. I love hard rock. Yeah. Because that's my genre. Like, and it's all genre. Like seeing, you know, Jim Morrison's report card or something or whatever. You know, there's these little things and you're like, that is so freaking cool. Like, would you have like a favorite thing that you use? I mean, I'll hold the Kurt Cobain guitar. Yeah, I mean, that's, that's there. I mean, Kurt, that one, that's pretty amazing. Yeah. It's funny, I called that one thing out that I've seen all of the hard rock cafes and all of the merch in New York City. And you're like, yeah, that one, I felt that.

01:17:13That's it. So Nashville had the original Thriller jacket, the red Thriller jacket that was the first one. And it was labeled number one on the inside cuff that he wore that Michael Jackson wore in Thriller in the video. And it was the one that he wore the most because he changed probably, who knows, a hundred times, whatever. But that jacket was the one, and Hard Rock Nashville had it. I don't know if they still have it or not, but it was, I remember it was sitting over booth number two and I would tap it every before every shift. Cause that was, I mean, Michael Jackson was, I mean, come on dude, like that. Oh, iconic. Yeah. The most iconic. That was one. And I remember, in Los- Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam, I think had a bass guitar that was signed by the band at the Nashville store when they first opened. Yep, we did. Okay. When Hard Rock opened, that was the, in my opinion, that was the gateway to downtown.

01:18:14Oh, 100%. Cause downtown was seedy as shit. Yeah. And when that Hard Rock opened, all of a sudden, it was okay to bring your kids and your family downtown. Or let your kid work there. Or let a kid work there. But like, you wouldn't go, like there was no Broadway. Right. And it went down Second Avenue first. Like that Hard Rock Cafe was the first thing. It was the flood gate, man. Cause if you remember- And then the Planet Hollywood. Yeah, that was next. And it was just like, wait a second. And then like the country started taking another, Nashville? Like, I thought it was only country and honky-tonks. Well, not really. It's music. Well, there was like Tootsies and Roberts back then. Correct. There wasn't all the other stuff that you see now. And yeah, I think one of my favorites was also in LA. They had a guitar from the MC5 and oh my gosh, that's one of my favorite bands, the MC5. Like- The MC5? Yeah. Do I know the MC5? You do. You should, you'll know probably three of their songs. Okay.

01:19:14That should be the intro music to today's episode. All right. The MC5, done. You'll love it. Done, we'll do it. It's great. I'll add it in. But that's one of my favorites, I think, and the Michael Jackson jacket. And then of course, Kurt Cobain's guitar. So, and the fact that we had basically, cause we had our own videos playing all the time. It was like CCTV, MTV, right? Like we had our own videos for hard rock. And then when we started having hard rock festivals, then it was all the live songs that they turned into videos. And so there was constantly this crazy music going on all the time, all these different bands. I was in Atlanta last summer. And I do like an individual trip with my kids. And I took William, my 12 year old, I took him to Atlanta. He likes to ride up and down the elevators in the big tall buildings. But we were staying at the Westin, like on the 70th floor. We were way up there, it was awesome. But it's like right next to the corner of the hard rock there, right in Atlanta, right in the downtown area.

01:20:19And I was like, let's go to the hard rock. Nice. And I have to like walk around the whole building. I can't just like go to my seat, sit there and look around. Like I have to go, I'm gonna walk around, or maybe after we're done. And he was just like, I'm like, that's Diana Ross's, you know, like there's all these things. And he's like, I don't know any of that stuff. And I'm like, whose kid are you? Can you not, what have I done? Like music is so important to me. And he's like, that's you, dad. And I'm like, have I failed as a father? No, it's just different times, man. It's just different times. Yeah, I used to say that the two greatest forms of communication were music and food. I hope it's still food, or hope it's still music, bro. It is for me. It is for me too. It is such a major thing for me. And I can listen to anything, man. Same here. A lot of the country, I tried country for like a year. And I was like, after I quit.

01:21:19After I quit drinking. Really? I started listening to country. Okay. I was challenged to listen, but well, I had no memories. Yeah. I've never listened to country my entire life. Yeah. So when I would listen to country music, it was like brand new. And everything in my life was kind of brand new. So it wasn't like I heard that song that, oh, we used to get drunk at this. Like it was like, everything is brand new. There's no weird memories or no triggers for any of it. Even the songs are about drinking. And I was like, sounds like some country guys having a good time. Exactly. They're storytelling and it was interesting. And then eventually I was like, I'm not into this. This is not my jam. And you learn more about the actual stuff behind it. You're like, I'm not into that. Yeah, I think probably one of my biggest regrets, I had Stormy Warren on the podcast. I was talking about Morgan Wallen or something. And I was like, well, yeah, there's some good, I do, there's some songs that make sense that I still have liked. But I was talking about something I was like, that's not gonna age well.

01:22:22No. I was into the country at the time and I wanted to hear this stuff. So anyhow. That's funny. This is how fast an interview goes. You heard me say this and they're like, we're already at an hour. Yeah, that's wild. Just like that. That's crazy. We sit here and just have a conversation like, well, that was an hour. It's like fun interview then. I've had a blast. So have I. This is so much fun. Well, we have to do it again. Is there anything that we've missed here? I don't think so, man. I've said what I felt like I wanted to say. I just wanted to talk with you and hang out. No, I did too. And that's why we were just gonna have coffee and I was like, well, come into an interview and we'll put you on the podcast and then we can hang out and have coffee. And well, it is, because we've worked. It's so funny, I think the first time we talked, there was like so many places where we either just missed each other or knew all the same people. And we do. This industry, even you've been in it long enough here in Nashville, there's a ton of people that you know and it's a really cool community of people. It is.

01:23:22I mean, I'll bring his name up, Nick Gidry, dude. And he's one of my favorite people. Him and Audra are just amazing folks. Amazing. Without rehashing that situation, I mean, such is life, right? Like he and I met in the food truck business. And Audra too, like we met in the food truck business. I just love that you said her name right. Yeah. I've had so many people like, man, I love Nick and Audra. And I'm like, it's Audra. Yeah. I'm like, I don't mean to be a dick about it. I'm just saying like. But it is Audra. It is, her name is Audra. Yeah, get her. Not Audrey. And I just. It's even spelled that way. Weird. It's a thing. I just, not that everybody, you hear Audra, you think, you know, people say Audra. I just like to clarify, her name is Audra. Correct, correct. And she is amazing. You are absolutely, both of them. Yeah, but that's like to your point. There's just salt of the earth people like that in this business. Kerry Bringle and, you know, Hal from Lachlan Table. I mean, he just texted me, by the way, while we're doing this interview, Hal did.

01:24:23But yeah, Hal and Trey Ciacci and, you know what I mean? Like all those folks and just amazing group of people like that interconnected. And the reason why we got connected. Yeah, Beaver. Somebody. That's gonna come across wrong. Somebody texted me the other day and they went, Beaver's your brother-in-law? Like, what the fuck, man? How did I not know this? And I was like. Yeah. Love you. Yeah, so if you know Ryan Easterly out there, and he's been on the show. He proposed to his wife on the show. Yeah, he did. Literally on the show. If you don't know Ryan Easterly, you need to. You will, if you know Beaver, if you worked at Sunset Grill or Cabana or any of those type of places, he's been around for a while. He was an Angels in B whiskey guardian when they first started. That's right. But just a big heart. Yeah, huge heart, great guy. And so he connected us. He said, man, do you guys don't know each other?

01:25:24Like, how is this? And I'm like, I don't know. It's one of those anomalies, I think. It just is very strange. So, and we literally know all of the same people. Yeah, although we talked for like 10 minutes and I was like, this guy's cool as shit. I kinda like this guy. We gotta hang out more, we gotta do something. I love it. So, and I'm really glad you made the trip out to the studio. Thank you. Thanks for coming all the way out here. Which, by the way, people of the listening world, if you get a chance to hang out in the studio, you need to. You gotta sign the door and we have to remember to take pictures. Okay, yeah. I always forget to do these things every time. Absolutely, we're still gonna forget, but we're gonna try. Drive somewhere to meet you, take a selfie in a parking lot. I love it. I'm like, I totally forgot to take a picture. Well, it's been a pleasure, man. I love what you're doing. You're, the meaning behind everything that you're doing, even outside of the podcast and all that, it's just, it's outstanding, brother, and it's a pleasure to call you a friend. Thanks, man. I'm right back at you. Absolutely. I've loved this community for a really long time and just the other night, we had this text message group with some restaurant owners for our fantasy football team.

01:26:29Oh, cool. And I won't say names, but somebody messaged that, hey, I've got this person that is amazing and I need to find her a job. She's awesome, this, this, this, and literally within five, it was at 9.15, sorry for the late text. And within three to five minutes, we had three different restaurant owners say, yes, send it to me, I got you, send it to me, I got you, send it to me, I got you, and these were huge. And it was just, I just really loved this group. This is what it's about. People were just going, you got an awesome person? Let's go, I got a job, I got a job, I'll put them in somewhere. You're awesome, I'm awesome, let's go be awesome together. Reputable, good places that were like, I was like, yes, this is it, this will be more of this. Absolutely. We're gonna keep working on it. All right, Hunter, thanks for coming today. We're gonna stop recording. Have a wonderful rest of your day, sir. You too, my man. Big thank you to Hunter Briley for joining us in studio. Like I said, it was just all over the place and it was fun, I absolutely loved it.

01:27:31But now, it is time for the Gordon Food Service final thought. I got my applause back, by the way. I'm very excited about that. Yes, the Gordon Food Service final thought. Typically, we like to catch people at the end of the show, but we have changed it now to where I'm gonna be kind of at the end of the show, telling you my thoughts about the show. Deep Thoughts by Brandon Styll. And I thought this was a really easy one to do. Positivity is contagious. If you wake up trying to find the good in life, you can find it. And I talked to so many people the very beginning of the show and I said, how are you doing? And he said, I'm doing great, man. Like there's a lot of bullshit happening out there, but you know what? The dude is living his dream. He is out there doing the thing that he loves the most and he's finding gratitude every single day in the smallest things.

01:28:35He's finding gratitude in his guests. He's finding gratitude in the people that he gets to work with and what he's doing. And that is a choice, my friends. It is a choice to find gratitude. It is a choice to be happy. Sometimes things happen. I'm a big fan of everything happens for a reason and it's all for our learning. And if things are happening to you all the time and you're not learning anything, then you're just complaining. If you're not fixing anything, if you're not doing anything differently to fix that thing, if you're not finding joy, then you're just finding anger and you're finding division and you're not finding the thing that you're gonna love. So maybe this is your sign if you're somewhere that you are completely unhappy and you're afraid to do something. We cannot live in fear. You have to go find joy for yourself. Nobody's gonna find it for you. And I loved that about Hunter. He just has this joy emanating from him and he's just a great guy and he is loving life.

01:29:42And I love that for him and I wish that for everybody out there. So that is my final thought, guys. Go find your joy. It's important. It helps so many ways. Thank you guys for listening today. I hope that you guys are being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.