Hunter and Julia Freemont

00:00Welcome 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, powered by Gordon Food Service. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. Happy Monday to you and yours. I am so excited to talk about this interview with Julia and Hunter Fremont. They are the owners at Flora and Fauna in East Nashville and I didn't know a ton about them. And when I met them, they are just like the nicest, cutest couple I've ever met. And they're so sweet and I'm so excited to share their story because, like I say at the end of this interview, this really is like the American dream.

01:03What they're doing is really special and I'm just so excited to share this story with you guys today. That being said, this has been a tough week, man. It was just really, really tough. FS Tech in Dallas was a lot of fun. Coming back, I don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to feel it. I'm starting to feel tired. I'm starting to feel exhausted. I'm starting to feel beat down and it's just been a challenging week. I don't know if you're out there feeling it also, but I'm with you. I'm with you. This is a tough business. This is a grind and I'm feeling it this week. I'm not going to lie. I come up here and I'm positive and yeah, man, let's go. Let's do all this stuff. But this week has just been a challenge. People have been, I don't know, it's just been a challenge as a leader of somebody who's leading people in all of the work that we do every single day to make lives better and to really lead people and do the right thing.

02:15And I just feel like a failure. You just feel like the end of this week, you're just like tired and you feel like it's just not working. There's just a degree sometimes where you just get exhausted. I know it is working and I know that I'm positively telling myself like, hey, we're good. We're working really hard. But when you have a vision and you work your ass off for a bunch of people and sometimes you don't feel appreciated and you feel like there's just a lot of complaining, it can be really, it's just difficult. We've had a lot of people out and I think everybody's stretched thin. I think that's a normal thing right now. I don't know if you're out there feeling the same way I am, but I'm tired. I'm tired, I'm exhausted. And I just wanted to share that. I wanted to share that with you guys because I come up here and I say, this is awesome and I'm so positive and it's like, man, sometimes I have to step back and just go, hey man, it's going to be okay. I don't put it in my hands and it's just a lot sometimes. So there it is. That's all I'm saying.

03:15That's all I'm going to say. So if you're a praying person, keep me in your prayers and I will you know that you're not alone out there if you're feeling the same way, there's other people out there feeling it. I'm trying to stay positive. We're going to get through this and putting plans together. We're going to make this thing happen. And I know I am. I just sometimes it's okay to not feel okay, you know, I think I'm at that point right now, just for a minute, it's just a lot going on with me and I'm just, I'm tired. So we're going to get in the show and it's Monday and I'm excited about Monday, but I've had a lot of conversations about this topic, the, do you have a guy? And I think one of the most important things when you're running a restaurant is that when stuff happens and it does like all the time, shit just happens and you got to have somebody who you can call who's going to be able to fix it. And I have some people that are sponsors on this show that I talk about and I do these about them, but I want to make like a different, I want to tell you a list because these aren't just people that pay me to talk about them.

04:19These are people that I actually work with. And when the most common thing to ask me is, Hey, who's your guy for this? And I wanted to go down and give you guys a short list with phone numbers of people that I call that are amazing, that totally take care of me. And this is them. It's number one, Jason Ellis over at super source. This guy is unbelievable. And anything that I need with any dish, machine, chemical, if I need to train my staff, he's right there and I highly recommend him if there's a ton of chefs that are going, yep, that's the dude. That's the guy. His number is 770-337-1143. And I highly recommend you call him and just get him to come in and do like an audit of what you're doing. Maybe educate you on your dish, machine and chemical because he's, he's legit. Also insurance, some of these people you don't need every day, but when you do need them, you need to have somebody you can call because, you know, dialing a number, then hitting one and then hopefully getting somebody who doesn't know your restaurant, doesn't know what you're up to. It's just a challenge. You got it. It's just a pain in the ass, but having somebody who understands the intricacies of your business every single day is amazing.

05:23And Matthew Clements over at Robin's insurance is that guy. And I have questions for him all the time. And he's right there. He answers the phone. He's amazing. And he's willing to help. I mean, if you don't have like an insurance guy, you need to, uh, and this is personal life too. If you need like an insurance carrier, if you're using like progressive or some national company, get a local guy that will absolutely take care of you. Uh, and Matthew Clements is that guy. His number is 863-409-9372, uh, Gordon food service guys. One of the main things that I harp and I talk to people about all the time is utilizing one vendor and really understanding the partnership aspect behind it. And GFS is absolutely amazing at that. They can come in and identify exactly what you need. Paul Hunter is my guy over there. I have multiple people over there, but Paul is just absolutely amazing. And his number is 615-945-6753. So if you're looking to, you have questions about a broadliner, your broadliners doing some shady stuff or they don't have the product and you just, you just want to talk to somebody else and see what they can do.

06:28Paul's your guy. Give Paul a call like right now, uh, course in fire and security. This is one that kind of got me into the, do you have a guy thing? Cause they just came out and did a full audit of everything we're doing, found a whole bunch of stuff that the previous company wasn't doing, said they were doing charged us like they were doing it. But again, I had to call the number, hit the number one, wait for somebody. Then, then I had to hit a different extension to get somebody who was, didn't know what I was talking about. They called me back and that person was, I'm so sorry we didn't do all the stuff we said we were going to do. Tons of credits, but Corson is the company that's going to come in and you need a guy for that. Your kitchen suppression unit isn't working or you need a fire extinguisher or you shoot one off. And what do you do? The guy you call is, uh, is Kevin Rose and he's over at course in fire and security. He's absolutely amazing. His number is 615-974-2932. If you need fresh baked bread, if you're tired of baking bread or you're buying frozen bread from your broadliner, buying fresh baked bread from a local bread company is a guts and I get so many compliments about how amazing our bread is.

07:31And that's Erin Mosso. She's over at Sharpies bakery. They're right off of there. They're in West Nashville. Her number is 615-319-6453. And then all things like payroll, payroll, HR solutions, uh, hiring. There's so many, so many things over, uh, at net checks and you need to talk to Lauren Domaine. Lauren is absolutely amazing. She will, she's their restaurant specialist. She will come in, sit down, talk to you about what you need. I mean, if you, if you don't have a really good solution for that, you got to make that call. You got to make that call and talk to her. She's absolutely amazing. And then it's the end of September. You got five days left, guys go to poached, poached. They are a jobs company. They're a hospitality industry job company and they are free for the month as the rest of September. All you got to do is go to poachedjobs.com or go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com. Click the sponsors tab. If you go to nashvillerestaurantradio.com, click the sponsors tab, you'll find all of these people right there. You can click one link, get right to them. And hopefully you can, you like, these aren't just people that pay me.

08:32Like I said, these are people that I recommend. So I mean, if you're asking, Hey, do you have a guy for this stuff? Like yes. And these are the people. I'm going to reference this episode of Floor and Fauna to go back and these are all the numbers of the people that I love, that I use, that I trust. And if you use them, if you pick one of these people and you start working with them and something doesn't go right, you have the absolute right to call me. If you don't like what's happening there, call me and go, Hey man, cause I have relationships with every one of them and I can help translate. I can do whatever it is. I stand behind all of them. So I'm super excited to share all of that with you and even more excited to share this interview with Julia and Hunter Fremont from Flora and Fauna. Super excited today to welcome into the show, Hunter and Julia Fremont, and they are the owners of Flora and Fauna in East Nashville. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Thank you.

09:32Thanks for having us. It's exciting to be here. I'm excited to meet you guys. We just walked in and I don't like to do a whole lot of talking before people come in cause I like to get all that out on the way. We walked in, you guys drove a Jeep. I'm like, Hey, we're Jeep drivers together. I love that. And then how long has Flora and Fauna been around? So we opened March 3rd of this year. So we just celebrated six months last weekend. Wow. Congratulations. Thanks. How's the first six months been? Good. Um, there's been some learning, um, but we've had a really great response from the East Nashville community and we've got some really awesome regulars that are pretty loyal. They come in every day and we've just had, we've had a really great response. So yeah. And it's getting a little busier each month, so. What's the biggest challenge you guys have had to overcome so far? You said there's been some learning experience, like what have you had to learn?

10:33Well, we've been in the restaurant industry, I think like our whole careers ever since we left college or even during college, we were in restaurants and, um, it's different though when you're the boss and you own the business. So I love that that's what came up. I love that. That's what you said. Like from being server working in, you know, kind of doing all the other things to being the boss was the biggest. What have you learned? What's changed in that side of it? Yeah. I mean, it was new for me. Like Hunter's been a general manager before, so he's been people's direct boss, even though he hasn't like owned the companies he's worked for. But for me, I was in management, but I was never anybody's direct boss, so never like really responsible for hiring or letting people go or giving like that real direct feedback. So I don't like conflict, so it's challenging for me to kind of figure out how to give people good feedback so that we can grow and we can, everyone can do their job well.

11:48And also this, this new generation is a little bit different too than how we kind of grew up in restaurants. So I don't think there's realer words have been spoken, like looking at you right now, talking about this, like that's so real. That's something I think so many new owned businesses are dealing with right now is just holy shit, this is hard in dealing with conflict and we've never done things this way. This is a new way to do things. Generation Z is a different generation. And then coming up now, it's like, okay, like every just, it's just a whole different thing. Hunter, what about you, man? You kind of dealing with the same stuff? I would say yes, to a different degree. For me, like having been in management before, one thing that's been different for me is kind of letting her take the GM role. Okay. So you're technically the general manager? I, yeah, I guess so. I do like more of like, I guess the floor side of it.

12:49I kind of still let him do some of the back end stuff because he's just good with numbers and that kind of thing. So, but yeah, I've been doing more of the front of house and he's been handling more back at house. Okay. Yeah. So that's been different for me to kind of let go of control of everything and sort of having that like co-pilot. So now it's not, I just go in and this is how I want it done or this is how we're going to do it. But it's like conversation, finding compromise, that's new for me. So I think that took us probably a month or two to figure out in the beginning, especially because it was. I don't have it figured out yet. No, no, no, no. There's no way. There's no way in hell it took you one and a half months. You're still in the middle of that shit and it's not going to stop. Like that's something that's going to be ongoing forever. Better than it was. I'll say that. Okay. Better than it was. Yeah. We did. We did work with each other before. So. How did you guys meet? At work. Where? So I was managing Frothy Monkey down in Franklin.

13:51Okay. And then she had just moved to the country. From? Ireland. Ireland? Yeah. You don't have an Irish accent. I know. I'm, I have a dual citizenship, so my mom's American and my dad's Irish, but I grew up in Ireland. Wow. What part? County Kildare. So it was really, really just outside Dublin, kind of like maybe like Franklin or Spring Hill is to Nashville. Kind of that to Dublin. That's a great reference, like for people to understand, like how far away it would be. My mom is an international flight attendant for like 20 years, 20 plus years. And she just retired in February of this year and she would go to Ireland, Edinburgh, Edinburgh? Scotland. Yeah. Where would she go? She would go to, I don't know where the city is that she would go to all the time. It wasn't Dublin. Belfast? Nope. Galway? Nope. Limerick? She would go to Limerick. Yes, that is a place she would go. And I'm trying to think if there's like some city that she would go to all the time, and she has like friends at all these bars, long story short, we're sitting outside the other day and she says, hey, me and your dad are going to go to Ireland to kind of say goodbye to all of my friends that I'd built all these relationships over the years.

15:04And she's like, you want to go? And I was like, for like the weekend? She's like, yeah, sure. So at some point in the next month and a half, I'm going to go to Ireland for like the weekend and I'm going to do this whirlwind tour of meeting all of her friends and I want to see the cliffs of more. More. Yeah. Is that a thing? Yeah. Okay. That's something I've never been to. I'm like, I'm going to go in the next couple of months just to kind of it's a long trip for the weekend. But why not? Yeah. Somebody offers it. I mean, it's a small country, too. So you can see a lot in a short amount of time. My mom's like kicking because she listens to these episodes and she's going to be right now going, I go to this city and this is what I do. I mean, there's not really a lot of big cities there. So I'm trying to think like there's Cork to maybe. No, no. You know, I didn't have to fly to it. You're going to go there and you're going to be like, this is not a city. This is like a small town. Mom. I love you. I cannot wait to go whenever we go if I go and we're going to have a blast seeing all of your friends. I love you. All right.

16:05We'll go into the interview. You met at the frothy monkey. You were a manager. I was managing. You were. I just got hired as a barista. You were a barista. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. How long did you guys? Work out. We were we were friends for a while. There is, I guess, some mutual attraction, but. Yeah, it took it took us a while to come on. I love a good love story. Let's do this. Yeah. So I think there was there was a mutual attraction, but I was 24 and just a total shithead and was not trying to be in a relationship. So you're telling me a 24 year old dude was a shithead and not trying to be in a relationship. That's shocking. That's shocking to me. So I was pushing back. I was she was pursuing and I was doing the opposite of pursuing. Really? I don't know if I would just corroborate that story because I mean, I mean, maybe a little bit.

17:08I mean, so he he actually left frothy for a little bit and worked at this bar that we all went to. And I would name names. What bar did you work at? I was at Brewhouse South. Where? Brewhouse. Oh, Brewhouse. Oh, yeah. OK. OK. Yeah. So that was kind of like the industry bar back in the day. So we all would hang out there. So I definitely hung out at his bar a lot. OK. To be like, hey, I'm still here. Hey, I'm here to see me. I'm in your peripheral. So to be clear, we did not date while I was managing and she was a barista. We did not date until I had left. And then that transpired a year or so. There's nothing wrong if you did, by the way. True. People listen. This is more for Ryan Pruitt if he's listening. But it doesn't matter if Ryan Pruitt's listening and he might be. But he's a good dude. He understands that kind of stuff gives us a hard time about it. Oh, well, good. Oh, there you go. Anytime I get a chance to to throw that out there, I'm going. So what was the first date?

18:09You guys actually go on like a date. We're like, hey, this is a date. Or do you guys just started hanging out? And then all of a sudden you had this conversation like, should we? Are we a thing? Did this happen? That's exactly how it happened. OK. Yeah. I guess there was like no real date. We just were hanging out. And you guys are married now. Yeah. OK. So you guys are husband and wife. Yes. Five years. Five year. Congratulations. Thank you. And how did you propose? Actually, at Cork and Cal, it was we still lived in Franklin, still hung out down there. Zach Helton was bartending. OK. At the time, how did you like plan this whole thing out? Or is it kind of spontaneous? Yes. And yes. So I had it planned out for all of about a day and a half. OK. I went to a bottle shop and bought a bottle of Bookers. All right. They had their series that they had in there at that time was called a niece's answer. And it was Booker's wife was a niece.

19:10And the little picture on the bottle was his engagement ring that he proposed to her with. And so I bought that bottle, took it to Zach. Zach put it behind the bar, like up on the shelf. We went in, had dinner. You tied the ring on it. Yeah, I tied the engagement ring inside the box. So then we went in, had dinner, and then decided to do a nightcap. Zach, probably your idea for the nightcap. Yes, of course, like we should go sit at the bar. And you're like, I don't really want to leave. I know we're sitting at the bar. We should go say hi to Zach. I want to go home like we need to see Zach, damn it. Like, OK, we'll see Zach. What's your funny because when we first walked in, he had told me about Booker's. I hadn't. I don't think I knew about that bourbon. And so I pointed out there's bakers. It's a Knob Creek deal on the shelf. And I was like, oh, they have a bottle of it up there. And he was like, oh, yeah, he was foreshadowing. He wasn't ready. So he was like, oh, yeah, it's there because he didn't want me to see the ring. Yeah, I was trying to draw attention away from it. I was like, that's awesome. Yeah. And so you said, hey, look, can we see that bottle?

20:12And then Zach brought it over and there was the ring in it. I actually thought it was a fake ring at first, like it was like part of the whole thing. And I was like, oh, they put a little ring on there. That's cute. Even though I knew he was proposing, but it just didn't click. I mean, she read it before we even left the house. Like she knew that this was happening. And oh, wow. So I thought I was being slick. I was not. I was like, I'm going to wear this dress because I'm going to get proposed to you. Oh, man. You know how many times I've heard that story that it didn't happen where women are like, tonight's going to be the night or he's taking me on vacation. We've been together two years and then come back. And people that have worked for me, you know, worked in restaurants where they tell me we're going to I think he's going to propose. They get home like didn't happen. I'm like, oh, shit. Well, that's how I knew because we were actually going to Seattle with his mom. And he was like, I'm not proposing to you in Seattle because my mom's going to be there. And she had talked about marriage already. How long did you guys date before that happened? About a year. Yeah, a year and a half. This is all very important to the story of floor and fauna, by the way.

21:15This is all very, very important stuff. And then so five years you've been married now and you have a child. Yes, we have a two year old daughter. What is her name? Ailish. That sounds like an Irish name. OK. Ailish. Ailish. That's beautiful. I love that. Is she like just the coolest? What's parenthood like? It's hard. Owning owning a business that you both work in. It's kind of like owning a business and managing people or just managing somebody with who doesn't know how to regulate their emotions at all. Yeah, so like running a business. So it's like like managing people who don't know how to regulate their emotions. I am the head coach of my seven year old's baseball team. And I know exactly what you're talking about, like. Six year olds and seven year olds, they don't listen. They can't even get to center field where center field like. The center of the field would go there. I don't know what that is, like. Go like it's the start walking and I'll let you know when you're there.

22:17But yeah, oh, my gosh, it's really difficult when you give clear direction. And she's like, no, I don't know what you're talking about. So then that's the windows. Do you guys want to have more children? Yes, we actually are expecting in April. What? Well, congratulations. Thank you, April. Gosh, that's four, five, seven. So you guys don't know if you're having a boy or a girl. This is new. Yeah. Congratulations. Yeah, we actually just told staff a few weeks ago, about a week ago, a week and a half ago. All right. So if you're going into Florida and fun and you see make sure that you congratulate them. That's awesome. Two kids. I have two kids. That's it. You guys want more? Maybe to be determined. Yeah, we'll see how we'll see how this goes. She's cool with two. I kind of like the idea of three. OK, but we have a lot going on, so we'll see how it plays out. All right. So all in this story here, we're learning the the whole story of you guys, you both work together at Frothy Monkey.

23:21There's the coffee shop connection. And then you went away. You still worked at Frothy. Yeah. And you started dating. You get engaged. You get married. And then he comes back to Frothy. You came back to Frothy. I did. OK, well, now it's not taboo because you're already together. Yeah, we literally like we finished our honeymoon and then we opened one of the Frothy Monkey locations together. Yep. That's awesome. Well, and then you open Frothy. You had the child. What brought where did the idea of, hey, let's open our own thing happen? I think the original conversation started back at Frothy Monkey Franklin. Just casually, my my long term goal. Was always to open my own shop. And then we were talking about it, and that's kind of her long term goal at the time. And so that's kind of where we I guess the seed was planted.

24:24And then life happened. We went a thousand different directions, got married. I went back to Frothy. I was managing Frothy Monkey and Nations. And then I also was doing East at the same time. And then Covid hit and everything just kind of. Yeah, it was great. Covid. Have you guys had Covid, the actual Covid? I don't think so. We don't have we've never been confirmed that we've had it. I don't think we've ever had it. We've had a bunch of illnesses, but never tested positive. Yeah, there was like a week where we were both like not feeling great, but we weren't really even sick. But neither one of us tested positive. So we've kind of been like, maybe that was it. But maybe it wasn't. I don't really know. I just had it for the first time like a month ago. Was it bad? It was awesome. It was awesome. I loved it. So you won't do it again? No, but I was kind of getting tired of everybody taking a week off. That's fair. You know, I have two restaurants that I run and it's like, I got Covid.

25:25I guess I'll take the rest of the week off. You're like, fuck, what are you doing? Like, come on, man. And I haven't had it yet. So I was getting a little bit of like this. I don't know what this syndrome is, but I'm like, I think I don't stop. You had FOMO. I had a little bit of FOMO going on. Well, I mean, like you guys own businesses. You have children. You don't stop, right? When do you guys just go, I'm going to lay on the couch all day today. Like that shit doesn't happen. Like that's not a thing. You go, go, go, go, go, go, go. And until something like knocks me down, like if I break an ankle or something and I can't walk, that's the only way I get rest. So when you get Covid, it's like I have to quarantine away from everybody and watch TV like. OK, I'll do it. Raise my arm. But I mean, I have like 50 meetings during this whole thing. There's a point to me that's like I was like I need to get Covid so that I can lay down because I won't allow myself to rest. And that's a whole thing I see a therapist for. But like that, but like for me, it was like I got it. And I was like, oh, shit, now I'm just going to lay down and I'm going to just enjoy it.

26:30It wasn't fun. I felt like dog shit for a week. But it was at least I got a point to relax. Yeah, that's kind of how a pregnancy is for me. I'm kind of forced to relax a little bit more. She's over here like, oh, chill, man, what's up? No, I get that. This is good for me. OK, so you have the idea. Let's do this thing. Flora and Fauna, talk about the name. So we had thrown around a lot of different names. We didn't have anything that we loved. And then I was on Instagram one day and I follow this account called Nature is Metal. Which is kind of exactly what it sounds like. It's and I agree with that animals being animals in nature and it's kind of gory and that explicit. Yeah. So scrolling through it and then underneath one of the captions, it mentioned Flora and Fauna. Well. I'm going to be honest, I didn't even know what that was. What is it? It means plants and animals.

27:32I thought it was like an Addams Family reference. The two sisters, Flora and Fauna, that they want. That's the only that's the only reference I knew to Flora and Fauna was that the brothers used to date the two sisters, Flora and Fauna from the original Addams Family, if you go back that far. Yeah. Yeah, he like came to me and was like, have you heard of the phrase Flora and Fauna? And I was like, yes, like I did science in college, so. Oh, so. Yeah, it's just part of it. Are you a smart person? I would say I'm slightly above average, but not. What did you study? Biochemistry. Where? In a college. Where at? Trinity. OK, so you took biochemistry. Yeah, you're one of those smart people. I love that. Now we have a whole other tough conversation. But I'm not doing biochemistry for a reason now, so I don't think I could do it long term. What's the reason? I just I'm not. I don't have the scientific brain that can like come up with studies and experiments. And I'm not I don't think I'm that logical.

28:34OK, I think you are. Yeah, I just met you, but I think that you are. I think you could do it anyway. Hunter, Flora and Fauna, plants and animals. So that should be the name of our place we have. Yeah, that how organic it was. Yeah, it really was. That's that's like the name. That's like the Dirk Diggler. Yeah, pretty much. I always have seen the movie Boogie Nights. Yes, but it's been a minute. Well, he goes, he was what's your porn name going to be? And he goes, I got the best name. It's like it's like it's in lights, you know, like I hear it. And it's like it just pops. He's like, what is it? And he goes, Dirk Diggler and like the thing just shows up. This is Dirk Diggler. And it's like in lights. You're like, holy shit, that's the best name. When I when I first said Nashville Restaurant Radio, I was like, oh, like, I like Nashville Restaurant Radio, like it's everything. That's it. That's the name. Flora and Fauna. That was your. This is it. Flora and Fauna. I don't know if it was that grandiose.

29:34I think it was more like. What do you think about this? We didn't have anything better. Yeah, it was like, fuck it. Let's just roll with it. Yeah, I mean, we had like kind of we knew kind of what we wanted the vibe to be. And I guess the name just seemed to like fit that. OK, so what did you want the vibe? How did that conversation go? What did you what did you envision? So. I grew up in Ireland. So that kind of like that cafe. European kind of cafe, it's not quite the same in Ireland as it would be in, like, France or Italy, but the kind of idea of that, like cafe where you can get food and coffee and tea was just a lot more prevalent. Like, there's just a lot more places like that. And I don't think there's that many in Nashville. There's a few. So we kind of wanted that kind of like cafe vibe where you could get really good coffee and you could get really good food. And we wanted it to be different than, I think, a lot of the kind of in the quote unquote coffee shops.

30:39Yeah. And the like late 2000, like 2010s, there was kind of I feel like all of the coffee shops that opened had like the same kind of vibe where they're very like a little sterile kind of it's very like Scandinavian kind of in the minimalist kind of like, OK, vibe to them. And then I feel like now we're kind of coming into like we're a lot of the new coffee shops are like, let's have color again. And we kind of wanted something that was like a little bit of color, a little bit more of a classic feel. Do you know what I love about a coffee shop? Not that you asked me, but I'll just volunteer this information. What do you love about a coffee shop? That's a great question, Hunter. I I like it when people are friendly. You ever go to a coffee shop and you're just like, I am not cool enough to be here and I'm not cool in general, but like going to a coffee shop, you're like, Hi, I don't know all of the barista terms and I just like coffee.

31:39Can you help me? Like, oh, the eye rolling in the like, you know what you want? Like, no, I need help. I can you can you walk me through like, hey, how are you doing today? Have you been here before? Like, I haven't. And I'm really intimidated by the coffee menu. Cool. What kind of coffee do you drink? Like, I like a real friendly vibe in a coffee shop. I like your friendly love anywhere I go. But like in a coffee shop, that's the thing I look for the most. Yeah. And that's exactly what we try to create was like that place because I did not like grow up drinking coffee. I hated coffee for a very long time. It was until I started working in a coffee shop that I forced myself to like coffee. Really? Yeah. And where did you grow up again? In in outside Dublin. But what's the country called? Ireland. How do you say that? Because you said that you I say Ireland. Yeah, which is wrong. Which is so educate, educate everybody on how to say the country's name. It's just like art, like literally like our land. Ireland. Yeah, Ireland. OK, so like she's not pronouncing Ireland correctly over here.

32:40But you're here from there. So I should probably get my shit together. Yeah. Ireland, Ireland. OK, so now I know. Now, this is why I do the podcast to learn shit like this. So, OK, so now when you go in Ireland, like a month, I'm going to know. Yeah, it's great to be here in Ireland. Yeah, got it. I've been I've been informed. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. No, that's great. Um, friendly differentiator. Yeah, place like color food. I like to I don't think coffee has to be this like exclusive thing. There's I mean, it's it's similar to the wine industry in a lot of ways, but usually the price point is a little lower than wine. But hopefully, sometimes or not. I don't know how you look at it. I think it should be a little bit more expensive, but really good coffee. Are you guys roasting your own coffee? We are. Yeah. So you actually have a roaster and you're roasting it. That's bad ass. We have a roaster right in the cafe. Wow. Right in the middle of the dining room. Do you how much do you buy a bunch of different kinds of green coffee?

33:43Are you buying one type of green coffee? Are you buying from multiple regions? And then are you how do you educate people on what you're actually doing? Because I think that process is amazing. Whether you're buying it from Honduras or you're buying it from here, whether you're buying it's certified fair trade, whatever it is. And then being able to articulate that people like, hey, we bought, we got a really good deal or we got this great coffee that's super rare because coffee can vary in price wildly. How do you let people know? Like this is the Jamaican Blue Mountain bomb diggity kind bud version of coffee that you should try. And we roast it here and this is really good. Do you just charge for it or we're going to take a quick break to hear a few words from our sponsors. I am so excited to tell you guys all about a couple of people that are doing things for the greater good of the mankind. And one of them is justice industries. We just had Ellen Peterson on the show a couple of weeks ago to tell us all about what she does.

34:44And they are a nonprofit organization that creates social enterprise businesses. So they seek to employ those who find it difficult to obtain and retain work because of barriers such as criminal history, addiction, recovery, mental illness, domestic abuse and generational poverty. Their largest industry, Just Glass, offers curbside pickup of your glass for recycling. So this is a big deal. You have so much glass you throw away. I know that we are constantly taking out full Slim Jim's full of bottles, beer bottles, liquor bottles, wine bottles, all of that stuff. They will come and pick that up from you weekly and they recycle it. And on top of that, they're giving people jobs. So we all talk about supporting local and helping local. This is a company that you need to be talking to now. The way you're going to do it is they're all customizable programs. You're going to email Ellen Peterson, E L L E N at justice industries. That's plural justice industries dot org. She will get you taken care of. You can just learn a little bit about what they do. If you're looking for somebody to partner with a nonprofit to partner with, they are amazing.

35:48You should email her today. Our other one is the compost company. And Jeffrey and Clay Ezel, the brothers, are just the nicest people. And they are absolutely amazing. And, you know, we've incorporated our restaurants and our staff absolutely loves it. You know, the number one reason we have greenhouse gases in landfills is food waste. It gets trapped in these trash bags underneath everything. And then it creates methane and just doing your part, all the food waste that you have in the restaurant, putting them in compostable bags. They give you a special trash can you put out back. They'll come pick it up from you a couple of times a week if need be. But then you have the peace of mind to know that you are doing the right thing with the food waste that you have. They turn it into compost. They take it to their farm and Kingston Springs. They then run air through it and water and they mix it with soil. They then create compost. They sell it back to local landscapers, local farmers. You can even go buy it at Whole Foods. They're an amazing, amazing company. If you want to talk about full circle and it's really inexpensive. If you're tired of paying all this money to your trash pickup, this will help reduce how much trash is in your your dumpster.

36:51I mean, think about if you started working with just glass and you start recycling all of your glass, you started working with the compost company. Not only are you doing an amazing thing for the environment, but you're also saving a ton of room inside of your dumpster. So, guys, this will pay for itself. Amazing companies. I'd love for you to check them out right now. You know what chefs want, some people still call it creation gardens. But what chefs want has been was our first advertiser on the show. Monty Crawford saw what we're doing. He goes, I want to be part of it, dude. I love it. And I just I love that they're so perfect because they work with locally owned and operated restaurants better than anyone. And let me tell you how they do it. No minimums, no fees, no fuel surcharges, no surcharges. Anytime they deliver seven days a week, they have 24 seven customer support. You can call, text, chat, email anytime from anywhere. Or you can reach them at 502-587-9012. They have a diverse line of products.

37:53Their chefs have access to thousands of items across many different categories that allow them to receive fresh product daily. What chefs want is the perfect addition to any broad line company as they've got all of your fresh produce delivered daily. Plus custom meats, anything that you need that your broadliner can't get. Give them a call 800-600-8510 or visit them at what chefs want dot com. We just put a label on it. OK, yeah, does it say it just like that? It says it just like that bomb diggity, kind bud of coffee thing. And then and then kind of like in retail when somebody picks it up and looks at it, then we swarm them and then tell them all the information. Oh, good. Yeah, it's also my favorite thing. I mean, yeah, we're I mean, we're not just sourcing one coffee. We're getting a few different ones. We have a blend that we use for like our cold brew and our espresso. And. You know, for those of people who don't know, blend is just when you have coffee from different regions or different countries and you put it together, blend them.

38:57Same like kind of like a red blend or a white blend when you're talking about wine. And it doesn't necessarily mean that those coffees aren't good on their own. But you just might be able to. Bring out some cool flavor combinations if you put them together. Does everybody do that? Oh, not I wouldn't say everybody, but a lot of coffee companies have some sort of blend. It's very typical to have a blend for your espresso. There are companies that do single origin espresso. Do you guys blend yourself? Do you guys like, oh, hey, I like these couple different and you make your own unique signature blends? Yeah, that's awesome. Now, let me ask you another question. Since you're doing your own roasting, let's just say I have a restaurant and I want my own blend like I want a Green Hills Grill. That's where my restaurants blend that is my own blend. And I could buy from you. Hey, will you produce for me a bag every month of my own personal roast? Could you do that? Yes, to an extent. OK.

39:59It depends on what you're looking for. Like if you're like, it has to be from these countries only. And like, I need it to be like this. Then maybe depending on how much you're buying. But if you're buying a bag a month, like if I found bag a month. No, no, no, you'd buy like, I mean, if you're for your whole restaurant, like if I was to advertise, say, hey, look, come to Green Hills Grill on Sunday brunch and we have or you can't get this blend anywhere. Flora and Fauna makes us the coffee roasters roast a special Green Hills Grill blend that you can only get here and we serve it at our restaurant. I mean, I'd go through multiple. I mean, you know, I mean, 50 pounds a month or something. Then, yeah, we could definitely do that. Yeah, something you guys be like, if there are if I'm a restaurant out there and I'm listening to this and I'm like, hey, that would be pretty cool if we had our very own roast instead of me saying I got bongo or I got this or I got that, like I got frothy monkey. I could do my very own roast and just kind of buy it from you guys.

41:00Is that something that people could contact you for? Like, no, not right now. Yeah, I think that yes and yes, again. The first six months, we didn't focus a lot on wholesale just because we wanted to get our systems and processes in place in the shop, kind of find some stability, figure out the ebbs and flows of business. We are just now starting to do wholesale meetings and talk to different restaurants. We have several on the docket that we're kind of working through. So yes, because that's a major part of our business model that we wanted to get into. Haven't ironed out all of the details on how we're going to do that yet. But we now have our toe in the water and we're dabbling in that world. Starting in October ish, we should we should start sending out our first wholesale accounts. Nice, hopefully. Fingers crossed. Can talk to you about cold brew coffee.

42:02I make coffee every morning. I'm drinking coffee that I made. We buy our coffee from Costco. OK, I know it's not optimal, but it's good. Charleston Brew, it's an organic thing. My wife buys it. If you like it, then it's optimal. It's the exact same every single time. And it's I know what I'm getting. And I drink the same thing every day. Consistency is a big part of good coffee. But I'm a I love cold brew coffee and I love like making like a cold brew latte. It's real easy for me to make a cup of coffee in the morning. I grind the beans, I put them in the thing and then I hit start and it brews my coffee. I see these contraptions that brew cold brew coffee and it's like this thing that's hanging and it's like dripping. And I'm like, is this rocket science? No. How do you make cold brew coffee? Honestly, one of the easiest things to make. You can make it an amazing jar. You're literally just steeping grounds in water. Cold water. It can be cold. It can be room temperature. It can be hot. And it's not technically cold brew, but I've heard of some people using slightly warm water.

43:05I mean, I think kind of when you like most coffee should be brewed from anywhere from like one ninety five to maybe like 210 in some cases. So if you're kind of brewing it less than one ninety five, you could maybe call it cold brew or something. I mean, if you did like, what is the difference in coffee? Like what happens in a cold brew that's different than a hot brew? The flavor, do you get different? I mean, what happens? You get different flavors. Typically, you get a lot less acidity, which is why some people really like it, because some people don't like the high acidity and kind of the specialty coffee. Because, you know, when you're what what you're doing when you're making coffee in any method is you're extracting out some of the coffee particles that are in the bean. You're extracting it out into the water. And that's what coffee is. It's just water and coffee solid. So any any method you're brewing coffee, that's what you're doing. Obviously, heat in any kind of when you talk about chemical reactions and things dissolving, heat can play a big part. And so.

44:14I don't know the biochemist would have a really good answer for this. Yeah, if you don't, I mean, if you don't have heat, some of those reactions are not going to happen. Sure. The thing with cold brew, why why you usually have to steep it for a really long time, like you can't just do it in five minutes is because there is no heat to help speed up some of those reactions and help that kind of extraction process happen. So that's usually why you need like 12 to 24 hours to make a good cup of cold brew. But you're still not going to get all the kind of flavors and aromatics that you would get if you used hot water. But there's less acid. There's less acid typically. That is exactly the answer I was looking for. That's what I was going to say as well. What she. Which is why some people who like an acid don't always like cold brew, like cold brew is not my favorite way to enjoy coffee. It is mine. I don't. I just love coffee. You know, you know, I love I love coffee. When I'm alone, I can just sit and enjoy coffee and I enjoy coffee when I'm with people and I enjoy coffee in my car.

45:16I'm like and with a fox in a box in a house in a car, like all those things. I just love coffee. Just my favorite thing. Yes, I don't drink alcohol. So it's just my like, I just don't stuff with coffee now. Yeah. And I think that's like, you know, part of why we're in the coffee industry is it's it's a big part of people's lives and it's an important part of people's lives. And it can, you know, be a solitary thing that you enjoy alone or it can kind of bring you together. It can be something you enjoy. As a community. Absolutely. So let's put some plugs out there. You guys are located on Douglas Avenue. Yeah, we're in the Highland Yards building. So we're with Holiday right now and Shed Fitness is there. And Golden Pony is about to open up next to us. And Kisser is going to be right across the hall from us. Oh, man, that you're so lucky. Yeah. Brian and Lena are so awesome. Yeah, we're super. We're like peeking our head in their space to see how far along they are.

46:17Like every day. So we're excited. You guys open yet? Can I have some milk toast? What's up? Yeah, we're excited about that. I'm also a little nervous about like our bank account and all the money, but maybe we can get some trades with them or something. Oh, how much you're going to spend over there. I was like, personal bank account. I'm like, what is what's happening here? Were you worried about like what's happening? No. Well, that was a big revelation. No, I bet that makes no bank account. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. Did you guys go eat kisser when they were at Patterson House? No. Or any time you had it at all? I actually just had it for the first time like last week. They had some we're we go to the East Market, the East Nashville Farmer Market. We have like a little booth there and kissers there as well. So they had some some extra. And so we got to try it for the first time, actually. Where's your favorite place to go eat in Nashville? Let you answer that. Frothy Monkey. No, don't say that.

47:17Maybe. Sorry, Ryan. We've we've had a lot. We've had like eight years worth of Frothy Monkey. So I think I think I have like a top. Three that I would say. All right, let's roll it out. So if we're date nighting, I would say Locust. That was hands down our favorite experience we've had in Nashville. Pretty cool, isn't it? It is. And they also had the Irish connection, so that was cool. So date night, I would say Locust. Casual dinner. Is it Irish or Irish? Irish. OK, I'm confused now. Now I'm now I'm just I'm lost. OK, that's OK. Irish, Irish. Good. Casual, I would say I'm a big Hawthorne guy. I like Chris. I like what John Stevenson does and Haley's OK. Average program. Good shout out to Hawthorne. John Stevens is my favorite people. He's great. Awesome, dude. Yeah. The whole place is great. What a cool concept. And then I would say the last minute. We don't know what we're going to do for food.

48:21I would probably rock Chipotle. Not anymore. We've had some bad Chipotle experiences. There you go. I would still say take it back. Take it back, damn it. Not happening. Not local. We're not doing it. What would you say? What are yours? What are your top two, top three? We don't go there as much. We don't eat out as much as we used to. Just having a kid and all that. But I really like Redheaded Stranger. That's one of my top ones. I mean, like, it's a great burger. It's a great. We're going to be on Triple D. Sorry, Chipotle. I'm changing my. Fuck you, Chipotle. What about that? Sorry, that was harsh. It was very aggressive. Chipotle is OK. My cousin works for them. I have a confession to make. Go for it. Never in my life have I been in a Chipotle. Never walked in the door. Never eaten there. Never been to a Chipotle. Never eaten, never eaten at Chipotle at like an event that they catered, never tried the food at Chipotle, never been.

49:23Is that weird? I'm sorry. Is it that good? Do I need to go do it? I don't think it's. I have one right next to the greenhouse girl. Like it is. I can throw a football at it. I could go eat it anytime. I just don't. I think when we were younger, it was like because it's inexpensive and. And there's probably some nostalgia there. But I think. She's really trying to distance herself from Chipotle. You're hanging on. You're like, no, I really like it. She's like, yeah, not anymore, dude. I'm not ready to give it up. We're beyond that. We're we're adults now. Yeah, we're sophisticated. We're sophisticated business owners. We have children like we don't eat at Chipotle anymore. OK, I had three restaurants. I gave you two good ones. What more do you want from me? I want redheaded stranger. That's like now I'm salivating for redheaded stranger. Yeah, that may be on our list for this afternoon. We went to we went to Lyra the other night. Oh, Larry's in there yet. Yeah, great. It was amazing. But on the way there, I had said, you want butcher and be redheaded stranger. And we were like heading towards that area.

50:25Like redhead stranger was where we were going. And then like this thing like popped up. I was like, we've never eaten at Lyra. Do you want to go check it out? She's like, yes. And then we went there and it was amazing. So I love their wine list. That's that sucks me in every time. Really? I didn't I did not even look at I don't I don't drink. So I didn't like I didn't even I should have though. Is it just it's just unique. That's a well, Liz over there is amazing. She was at F Scott's forever. She was at Loughlin Table for lunch. She knows her shit. It shows. Yeah, she's good. All right, guys, what am I missing? Tell me tell me what you guys if you came in here and you had an expectation of what you wanted to talk about, your proposal story probably wasn't on the list and all this other stuff. We've we've we've delved into some different things. What do you want people to know about flora and fauna? You know. I don't. Honey, you're supposed to read my mind. I know, I know.

51:25I'm like looking in the eyes trying to see what you're like. Well, what do you think is like the vision of flora and fauna? Oh, you're on the spot. Yeah, dang. Like I should know this, the vision when you know that you're going to. I'm going to go for it. Yeah, do it. All right, here we go. The thing I would want people to know is sort of what our long term vision is, I guess, which is I think we're looking to open two to three of these locations. Big focus on. Sourcing local as much as possible, that was one of the major reasons we went to the East National Farmers Market to start building those connections with some local farms. And we've done a really great job of that thus far. We've worked with Carries Berries for a lot of our seasonal fruit. We're working with Bloomsbury now. Oh, good. So I think continuing to kind of. Add to that repertoire of places we're working with, continuing to build our coffee program. Roasting was new for us.

52:26I love what we've achieved in the last six months. I'm excited to see where the next six months of roasting goes for us. And then, yeah, I think getting several locations open is kind of our short term, long term, and then focusing on wholesale. So if you are a restaurant out there that is interested in picking up wholesale or white bag roasting, which would be where we create a blend for you, reach out to us. I think we would love to start those conversations. How would I reach out to you? That's a great question. Info at flora, fauna, nashville dot com. No, and ampersand flora, fauna, nashville dot com. Flora, fauna, F, L, O, R, A, F, A, U, N, A. Flora, fauna, Nashville, nashville dot com. Yes. All right. Now tell me what your real vision is. Tell me what is in your brain that did he just know what he got? I think I mean, he talked kind of like big picture stuff, like where the company is going to go. But I think like for me, like, I just want to make sure that what we're doing now and I think we're doing it pretty well.

53:30I think that we continue to do it well and maybe even improve. Like flora and fauna is about a place where you can get really good food and really good coffee. Plants and animals. Yeah. You can have, you know, you can get breakfast, you can get lunch. And you can get coffee or you can just get one of those things. Like if you came in to eat, we have stuff for you to eat. That's delicious. And if you just came for coffee, like we have that, too. And I just want it to be a place that is kind of welcoming, like one of the. The biggest things for me when we opened all of our reviews were about how friendly and and welcoming our staff was. And it wasn't Hunter and I that they were talking to. It was our our staff. And that's really important for us that our staff is friendly. And I think the best way to make sure that you have a good, friendly, welcoming staff is to make sure that they're happy in their job. And so kind of just making sure that as we grow, we can continue to look after our staff, invest in them and and kind of make sure that they have a good work life balance.

54:39And so I just want to. Yeah. Flora wanted to just be a welcoming space for the know whether. Yeah. Whether you work there or whether you're coming in there. Let me tell you what I think. I'm going to summarize this a little bit. I think you guys are the American dream. I think what you're doing right now, what we just discussed in this interview is everything that is good in this world. It's two people that work in the service industry who care about people who met, fell in love. You started a family. You started a business. You work your asses off and you serve your community. You serve your community and you create a space for people to create community. And every day you guys get up with that mission of getting out there, trying really hard to make a living, to raise your family while also creating a place for other families to go and start their day. And it's that's everything in this world.

55:41When people talk about shop local support local, this is it. Like people supporting what you guys do is exactly every single time you see a hashtag that says shop small, shop local, take care of people in your community. They're talking about what you guys are doing. And I absolutely love it. And if you're out there and you are going to Starbucks, stop it. You need to go to floor and find if you're going anywhere. That's any kind of a chain for your coffee. I'm going to stop buying Costco coffee now, and I'm going to start buying your coffee when you get it, because I want to support you. I want you guys to make it. I can see it in your eyes. You guys are awesome. It's an honor to have you guys in the studio. And I wish you nothing but the best of success. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you for having us. It's been a pleasure. We're not done. OK. We have one last thing to do. We have the Gordon Food Service final thought. You have to dig deep because we just did a bunch of final thought type shit. So now maybe this doesn't restaurant related. You can just talk politically or whatever you want to do, but don't.

56:44The Gordon Food Service final thought is the last thing you guys get to surmise, do whatever you want to do, say whatever you want to say to take us out. You can both say something. One of you can say something for both of you. You both have said a lot today, but the floor is yours. Take us out. Let the record be shown they're both pointing at each other to say it's your turn. I mean, I think I just. I don't know if this is deep or. A final thought worthy, but I mean, I just want to say, like, thank you to the people that have supported us since day one. Definitely. I mean, we thought we would. Do pretty OK in the beginning, but I don't think either one of us really expected the response that we got from the community. And so I think, yeah, I just want to say thanks to the East Nashville community and those people that just from day one have been our biggest supporters.

57:50And I think that that kind of support for any small business is really what keeps keeps them going, because there's a lot of not fun stuff that you have to deal with. And especially now with like rising food costs and rising rent, like having those loyal supporters is what makes it all happen. So, yeah, if you're supporting us or you're like a diehard supporter of another local business, like. You are the awesome people in the world and keep doing it. That was perfect. Yep, I got nothing. She's she's amazing. She killed it. Yeah, you guys are awesome. Thank you so much for coming in today and sharing your story. And I can't wait to do episode number two, where we get to learn your new baby's name and how life is going with two children. And I'd love to keep up with you guys. And you'll definitely see me in your location buying coffee and supporting you. Thank you guys for doing this today. Thank you. Thank you. All right.

58:53Just want to say thank you so much to Hunter and Julia for coming by the studio. They're amazing. I'm going to start buying my coffee from them because, hell, why not? You should start buying your coffee from them. At least buy it from a local person, you know, buy it from a local vendor. I'm going to stop buying it from Costco because, hey, I'm down to support local. I got to practice what I preach and I can't wait to try their coffee. They're amazing people. And like I said, it's the American dream. If you have a choice, swing by Flora and Fauna and support them. I don't know. I just I just love those people. I hope that you guys have a wonderful week. I know that I'm going to pick up the pieces and get this thing going. And I'm just excited. We had a big Titans win today or Sunday because today is Monday. It's actually Sunday for me. I'm putting this together and you guys will get it. Want to say thank you guys for listening. Thank you for all of your support. Messages you guys send me telling me that you love an episode or anything like that just means the absolute world to me.

59:53Sometimes this can be, you know, kind of lonely out here. You're working really hard to put these interviews together. There's a lot of editing. There's a lot that goes into it. And sometimes just a kind word from anybody out there. It means a lot if you don't like it, if you have some, you know, something you want to tell me, I'm down for that, too. But feedback is good. And if you do enjoy it, let me know. Go to wherever you listen to it. Leave me a five star review or subscribe or tell a friend. But I love doing this. And I really, really appreciate you guys for listening. Hopefully this content is something that you guys enjoy listening to. I'm always down for suggestions. You guys have people that you really want to hear that that I haven't had on the show yet or that I have had on the show. Send me a message. Let me know if you're somebody that you'd like to get on the show. Let me know. So again, thank you guys for listening. I hope that you guys are being safe out there. Have a wonderful, wonderful week. Love you guys. Bye.