Imran Sheikh-CEO/Founder

00:00Hey guys this is Brandon Styll and I was having a conversation the other day with somebody and they said so do you really like use the people who are your sponsors what do you how do you how do you vet them what do you do and I said I absolutely do I said but I love relationships I love having a guy I love when anything happens I have somebody that I can call on their cell phone that's gonna answer the phone and help me and that's exactly what we do that is why Jason Ellis does my dish machine and my chemicals because if I ever have an issue I can pick up the phone and call him and he is right there to help me he's absolutely amazing well Aaron Mosso over at Sharpies bakery if I ever need anything with bread I pick up the phone and I call Aaron and she is absolutely amazing if I need anything with the compost company Jeffrey Ezell will take care of me right away Matthew Clements over at Robbins insurance these are people that you don't know that you need until you need them and it's so much better when they're already in your phone when you need them and that is why today we are talking about Corson fire and security so we had an audit at our restaurants about a month and a half ago and it was through Robbins insurance we asked them to come in to do a full inspection and he said what was the last time you had your hoods checked by a fire company and we looked at the sticker on they said well it's been a year and a half since you've had somebody come in as a no no they were just here well they didn't they didn't mark they didn't put the right sticker so I had to go to that company and I had to look up the invoice and then I had to call them had to press the number one then I had to press the number four then finally I got a hold of an operator who said oh Ned's unavailable but I'll let him know to call you when he's ready that's really frustrating nobody has time for that in the middle of the day that's why you need a guy which is why we're now working here at Nashville restaurant radio with Corson fire and security they're one of those companies that you don't necessarily need all the time

02:01until you really need them till your fire extinguishers get shut off and you need somebody to come help you until you need somebody to come train your staff on how to use everything let me tell you Kevin Rose is the man so what Corson has done is they have a special restaurant division where Kevin is focusing really exclusively on helping restaurants with all of their fire and security needs let me tell you they have fire extinguishers general fire products emergency and exit lighting fire alarm systems fire sprinkler systems kitchen fire suppression systems fire suppression systems security monitoring communications I mean they've got everything and they're focusing on restaurants do you have a guy for that because if you don't you need to call Kevin Rose right now 615-974-2932 think about it right now who was the guy you would call if you needed to have a fire extinguisher refilled with nitrogen so that it would shoot off how would you know that you needed that that's what he's here to do here's my call to action for you call Kevin Rose again 615-974-2932 and have him come out and check your restaurant for everything you might possibly need see if you're getting the service that you deserve they're amazing so excited to welcome Corson fire and security to Nashville restaurant radio welcome to Nashville restaurant radio the tastiest hour of talk in Music City now here's your host Brandon Styll hello Music City and welcome to Nashville restaurant radio we are powered by Gordon Food Service my name is Brandon Styll and I am your host we're in for a good one today we have got M. Ron Shake he's the CEO and founder of milk shake

04:06concepts they own the layer cake restaurant which is on 3rd Avenue directly across street from FGL house and it's a four-story building with the cherry lounge and it is really really really amazing they're doing really cool stuff over there and in this episode he outlines the three more restaurants he is going to be opening here in the next 12 months and while we are in for a treat I have never met this guy before kind of like the last episode but I was absolutely intrigued he's from London he has an amazing accent I am immediately jealous of his accent envious of his accent and one of the smartest just loveliest people I've talked to in a really long time we talked for an hour and a half and I really could have talked to him for like four hours just one of those people who's just so smart and I'm just just excited to talk to you know you get in there and you go tell me about this tell me about that and his attitude man his attitude is so positive and he remains positive and he's such a leader and I'm just excited to share this conversation with you today so if you're an entrepreneur out there or you're anybody I think you're gonna be motivated by this conversation I think this conversation is one that you're gonna listen to and go wow I can do things I can do things he he's changed paths so many times and he just has such a dedication and I just I don't know it was just a really really fantastic interview and I cannot wait to share it with you I do want to tell you that our Mexican restaurant bracket is happening right now if you go to Nashville restaurant radio calm you too can vote you can vote for your favorite we are in round two there's only 32 restaurants left who made the cut there's that's some really good restaurants out there I cannot wait to throw a party at one of them on September 15th for September 16th is the Mexican Independence Day but we're gonna do it on September the 15th so we don't steal their Friday we're gonna have a lot a lot of fun with this

06:09just want to say thank you so much to net checks for supporting this in making all of this happen net checks has been amazing an amazing partner thank you Lauren and Anna we also have a new sponsor they are called justice industries and just dot glass so I want you to go to justice industries dot org and what they do is they are a non-profit organization that creates social enterprise businesses 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 dot glass offers curbside pickup of your glass for recycling they really want to pick up the glass that you are going to be going through at your restaurant let's stop sending those to landfills and let's start employing people that otherwise are difficult to be employed they will come pick up your glass and they will recycle it they're doing amazing amazing all you have to do is go to just justice industries dot org and there you can sign up right there online you can sign up to have all of your glass picked up how amazing is that you know we started working with Jeffrey Ezell and the compost company and it's amazing I told everybody line up I said hey look we're start having to have green to go these green trash bags there for food waste only and if you could look at your staff their eyes light up and like we're gonna be composting now and you go yeah and they're like thank God this is so cool and I really thought it would just be a really good retention model for I just wanted to do it for the staff and I want to do it for all the right reasons but I was just so excited that the staff was so excited we were doing that and I can imagine with just dot glass it's exactly the same so you can go online right now at justice industries dot org and you can sign up to have your glass recycled let's do the right thing from Mother Earth it's super duper important so here

08:13we are I just got back from a trip to Springer Mountain farms and that was absolutely amazing I'm gonna have those guys on the show here coming up in the next couple weeks very very interesting if you've ever been to a chicken farm holy cow wow there is like 42 facets to raising chickens from the actual eggs to hatching to everything I mean it's just out of control and what they're doing over there is really cool stuff so big shout out to Spring Mountain farms thanks for taking us down there and doing the full tour if you want to see more pictures of what that was like you can follow me at Brandon underscore in our are that's kind of my page where I post all my random stuff that I'm up to and always false Instagram at Nashville underscore restaurant underscore radio where we're putting on all kinds of stuff and videos on Facebook and on TikTok we have a tick-tock page so go follow us on tick-tock right now we're gonna jump in with my new good friend Imran shake enjoy super excited today to welcome in Imran shake he is the CEO and founder of milkshake concepts how you doing man fantastic how are you marvelous welcome to Nashville restaurant radio you are a restaurateur in Nashville I am a new restaurateur in Nashville yes a new restaurant tour in Nashville so I want to get into I have like a million questions for you because you have so many different restaurants there's been so many experiences but you don't come from necessarily the restaurant industry but you're you're just excelling you're killing it so let's go back to you obviously don't sound like you're from here you're from London originally I am born or raised born and raised and when did you move to America so I officially landed in Dallas Texas in January at the end of January 2013 I did some fact-finding during 2012 and I made the

10:22move quite quickly and it's it's interesting because I had never been to Texas and I did not know anyone in Dallas or Texas as a whole really yeah why Dallas very good question so the first business that brought me initially over to the States was actually a fashion stroke apparel business they were headquartered in the UK and the the owner of that company and I had struck a partnership whereby I would launch the brand in the US set up their infrastructure and so as I started doing some due diligence one of the things that I felt quite strongly about was being the the type of brand that it was the size of company that it was I didn't feel like going to a city like New York Los Angeles Miami where the competition is fierce the rents are very high I just didn't feel like that was a sensible move I wanted to be somewhere obviously very business centric and so I really just did some good old internet digging and I came across a headline and it said something and don't quote me specifically on it but to the extent of if Texas was its own country it would be in the top 20 economies of the world or something like that something like that and it was intriguing eye-opening yeah yeah I mean the only real reference I had to Dallas was good old JR Ewing really because that show was so big in the UK which I'm sure that people resent that in Dallas as much as we resent people who think that like the show Nashville is what actually happens here it's like come on guys so yeah I did that reading and I thought okay this I you know you just you drop a pin and it becomes quite clear that you're in the country and so you have access everywhere and then the more you read the more you see how it's sort of on this growth spur and people are moving there and all the above and so great place to do business and so I hopped on

12:25a plane in January 2012 and actually did a little driving tour of Dallas Austin and Houston Dallas resonated most with me for some reason I came back in June I hired an attorney I hired a broker in the background while in the UK doing lots of continuing to do lots of due diligence online again the beauty of the internet now yeah and got all my ducks in a row grab two suitcases and made my way at the end of January 2013 and you moved to Dallas so there it is yep move to Dallas had dinner by myself for about the first two weeks don't really know anyone sat bars and of restaurants and looked around and often it felt surreal where are where am I did you bring a family with you so twins right I have twins so I left the family behind initially two main reasons for it one is immigration it's very interesting when you come from the UK on a what's called an e2 business visa you have to come and invest the money before you apply the money in inverted commas has to be at risk so you can't say I would like to open a business can I have the visa it's take the risk and then apply okay so it's interesting because it is a risk because what if you don't get it but that makes sense it does make sense because you can't otherwise everyone would say I'm going to and probably not yeah I mean there's a lot of right right right so I'm going to yeah so I did this so for immigration reasons I came on you know what is an Esther so you can come for three months at a time and you know really needed to be agile needed to be flexible didn't want at the time they were two and didn't feel like you know running around you know by myself I can I can slam it as they say you know you don't need everything you can stay in a hotel and it's easy and so yeah that process was about five six months then they joined me five six months later nice after the after the business was set up and the visa was approved how old were your children at that time they were two two and a half when they got here they're nearly 12 now and just like

14:28we were kind of talking about pre pre starting this interview you know I think they will always resonate I think with being Texans we actually were just in London two weeks ago and it was the first time back they haven't been back in five years due to kovat and other reasons family's still there family's still there lots of family lots of friends college buddies your children have an accent so it's really interesting my daughter now is pretty much I'd say 90% American accented my son is interesting when he talks to anyone when he talks to us or anyone from home family he tends to go sway towards the sort of English side but I hear him with his friends and it's hamburger and you know he goes into full Texas y'all mode right so he's a bit of a chameleon he tends to be able to go back and forth I recognize that so much because we as again we're previously talking I was born in Southern California lived nine years and I've lived here for 34 years right I've adopted some of the vernacular but when I when I'm here people say you don't sound like you're from around here and I go walk a slower day and you know I recognize it but when I go to California and we hang out and I say well y'all want dude night they go what y'all want dude so I get that both ways yes like yes what do you do just embrace it I guess right yeah so they yeah they joined us and and joined me and and really have been there since what did you do growing up in London like what was your words your school what got you into the apparel industry my brat my background is actually hilarious I would say interesting but it's hilarious I I studied economics and management at Royal Holloway which is part of the University of London okay beautiful campus in Egem Surrey so just on the outskirts of London I've never been to London okay well I'm gonna go I mean I've been kind of all over Europe I've never been to London crazy enough definitely somewhere you'll have to put on your list and so studied economics and management went into finance initially out of college you know the route that I

16:37had sort of mapped out was banking and a lot of my friends who I went to college with and peers are still in that industry today here's the sort of curve ball if you want during college and to help finance college I by very much accident became a DJ so I was in bars and clubs and became friends with a DJ and then we used to just mess around on the decks and I guess I was getting a little bit good at it and one day an owner from another club said just while I was messing around like wow love the music you're playing I want you to be the resident DJ in the VIP room of my club and I absolutely faked it and said fantastic man let's go didn't even own a pair of headphones so it was a real fake it till you make it I remember getting to that club and I had to call it my buddy and like I've never seen this mixer before like what do I do and so it kind of it really did it kind of just progressed in a most insane way whereby started whilst studying DJing up to five six nights a week throughout central London and just ended up in very fortuitously in you know some of the best venues which sometimes had some of the best clientele which then started taking me all over the world Bali, Saint Tropez, the Maldives, the US and they would fly me out for private events to DJ you know Simon Cowell did his birthday the founder of Topshop did all of his DJ Simon Cowell's birthday I did so just some fun stuff like that that's fantastic and so the DJs just stuck I kept DJing I through college in fact I would say the first year of college like most students I ran up a very embarrassing amount of debt by outspending what a student shouldn't spend but DJing was a great blessing because by the end I'd paid that all off I bought my first condo I'd bought my first sort of nice car and so you know it was really interesting and so I'm gonna come full circle here because what the club did what the DJing did do is it put me in

18:40the realms of a lot of hospitality a lot of events venues bars restaurants clubs and then of course in the background I'm studying finance come from a family who inherently love business and after working for a couple of years I just said I don't want to do this a couple of years into finance into finance okay I was like into DJing into finance into the apparel right now so into finance didn't want to do it just was not inspired by it felt not excited I mean it's no you're DJing these places and you're used to right so I'm gonna sit in a room and right click things like you're not fun you're not sexy you're 21 you're working 14 hours a day you're not inspired you feel like you're a paycheck player yeah and so came home told my parents my dad was absolutely livid told my mom it's all your fault you've you he gets this free spiritedness from you and but I did it and I carried on just DJing how but no let's how hard was that I mean how hard to go you grew up your entire life your culture your your family this what you're gonna do they've raised you I mean I have kids you have kids you met you met you put yourself in that shoes you raise 21 years old and then they come to you and say yeah so that's a different kind of work I want to do I'm gonna go continue DJing right like the inner dialogue that you had to have during that I mean it takes balls yeah it was definitely I'll rephrase that it takes guts that's not the right it does take guts and you're absolutely right I think if either of my children said that to me I would be furious too but always been a big believer in myself and always believe that I'd find my way I didn't at that point know what my path would be I just knew that I would figure it out and so I DJed but what I did do well is whilst DJing and you know sort of accumulating some networked I networked networked networked I met some incredible people in fact the partner I had when I moved to the US in the fashion business I met him because I was

20:44being flown to Tuscany to DJ his one of his best friends birthdays and we were sitting on the plane together so it's just stuff like that now in the background I will say this I was doing some I was doing some consulting work I've always felt very comfortable and confident in business in general and I was able to leverage some of these relationships I was building and actually the fashion one was one of them because when we came back during the flight was something that he was speaking to me about was how his business was changing and how as an old-school retailer you know he had made clothes and they sold them wholesale they sold them retail what was the dynamic was all changing the high street as we call it you know the the malls here was seeing an erosion of traffic and a lot of that was to do with online business sure yeah you know I said the word influencer to him and he looked at me like I was bananas when I told him you're probably gonna have to start sending free clothes to these you know sort of online influencers he looked at me like I was crazy why would I send anyone a free item of clothing and so they'll wear it and put on the internet and everybody want to buy it exactly right and so as part of the whole thing he asked me to have lunch with him I had lunch with him I kind of shared some thoughts and ideas about how he could transition and really evolved to ensure he could keep up with what was gonna come and it just led to this relationship where I he said look I want to bring you on as a consultant like you're speaking a language that I don't speak I've been doing this 20 plus years but you're saying words to me that I don't know right and so I need someone who or I don't fully understand probably don't know is a bit harsh but I don't fully grasp and so that was that we work together I sort of helped them with some of their online staff digital marketing staff rebrand help them rebrand a little bit and that's when the conversation of the US came up now I'll kind of just rewind a little bit in 2009 I suffered the loss of my mother to cancer a huge huge impact on me we were incredibly close she was a huge figure

22:52in my life and so when I met my would-be partner it was sort of in 2011 so after the after my mom's passing and then 2010 my twins were born and one of the big things in going through you know everything I went through with my mother was you know spend a lot of time with her while she was in hospital getting treatment and you know a big part of our conversations was reflection on life but you know her just really really imploring me to go out and never settle never just live in my comfort zone how capable she believed how much she was believed me even though I didn't take the path of unwanted me to take and just go and do it don't don't be scared take risks you've got this and so when I met my partner hero her Johnny that was very much in the back of my mind right and so when he started talking about the US I said I think I'll do it I'll do it let's go I mean my kids are young they're only at that point they were like you know they were six I don't know less than a year when I met him sure and you know that's the age if you're gonna take them take them you know ripping them out in their teens when they've got friends and they're settled is a whole nother ballgame it is and that was that really so that's how just I just love that your mom you know that you had the wherewithal in that moment with your mom to have that conversation and then you listened yes so many people people say stuff like that too and they go but I'm comfortable yeah I'm comfortable I don't have to I just read a book called the comfort crisis by Michael Easter have you read that I have not oh please we all live in a 72 degree world it's too I don't want to get out of my comfort zone it's air-conditioned here it's hot outside like right you you're never gonna move forward in life if you don't just do that yeah and I love that there's a couple moments there so far like with your with leaving finance and then with your mom kind of saying that and saying I'm gonna do it I'm just gonna push your incredibly intelligent guy and this is I imagine your confidence level I can do anything yeah I mean I think

24:53there's got to be a boldness in you right and there's got to be a what's what's the worst that could happen right I go I don't enjoy it doesn't work I come home I come home and you know I always felt confident myself enough that home I'd always make it work right I'd find my way yeah and so yeah I did it and I moved out and the best part of all this is the fashion thing did not work and it did not work for a number of reasons we did a lot of great things on the ground we had opened a couple of stores we had a great head office doing a lot of great things unfortunately once I left my role on the ground in the UK as a consultant and came to the US I fear the company started reverting to old habits and because I wasn't on the ground to influence them like I was able to when I was there we started going backwards again well you're a visionary so if you look into the EOS model are you familiar with Gina Wickman and traction that whole thing right yeah familiar there's a visionary there's an integrator you have somebody who's all the ideas who's moving forward who's constantly looking ahead constantly looking ahead do you have to have somebody on the ground who's implementing all of those things that's your integrates the guy it sounds like you were kind of both of those people and when you moved into a visionary role or when you moved to America nobody was integrating nobody was doing those things back in the day and then you start regressing and how do you do all of that at one time exactly right and I think it was a source of frustration for me because here I am I've left home left that comfort zone we talked about taking this risk and I'm ready for greatness right I want to be great yeah at what I do and so if you're not gonna if we're not aligned and wanting that greatness taking the risks making the investments in order to be great then this isn't gonna work and so that was so we opened we started operations in sort of May of 2013 and unfortunately by the end of 2014 very quickly it's becoming abundantly clear to me that I don't

26:59think this is gonna work and so I sort of set some call it look must must happens right so by January it's a new year we can we can turn this around still but these are the must-happens and frankly if they don't happen then I'm out and that was scary too because what am I gonna tell people what am I gonna do how am I gonna make money it's an ultimatum I'm in a foreign land and so I I set the list and it did not happen and so dare I say it but I sort of called the bluff and I exercised a exercised a sort of exit clause that I had to get out it meant the loss of significant funds for me but at the end of the day if I'm not gonna progress in the manner that I like to progress in then I'm ready to write that off and start again and so that was a very scary period January through May of 2015 there were lots of um's and ah's and what do I do do I go back home so at that time I'm gonna take you back to that time before you before you call the bluff so to speak yep you say this is what needs to happen yeah what yours is 2014 doesn't in 1314 as you say yeah 13 into 14 and then eventually we sort of see I seized operations in 15 they weren't doing as much as you want to do what was your five-year goal ten-year goal at that time you say you've got to be progressing where did you want to be so if you look at you had to submit a very thorough business plan in order to obtain your immigration and I was my plan was open one store in the first year three in the second year five in the third year ten in the fourth year but alongside that very aggressively pursue online sales build an incredibly strong social platform have a really strong sort of influencer type program happening which you're seeing now with a lot of the fast fashion companies like fashion over and etc etc yeah and I knew

29:01the middle market was where we that come that that industry was gonna suffer right so people are still spending galore at hyper luxury level the Gucci's the Louis Vuitton's the Chanel's and then you've got a lot of fast fashion happening right and social media is a big part of that because if we take obviously this was women's apparel I know a lot of people now who they don't want to spend a huge amount on one item of clothing because they're gonna take a picture post it on Instagram and they don't wear it again or if they do they're gonna wait maybe twice max three times so they don't spend three hundred dollars on a dress now right so you kind of foresaw this was coming and and that's kind of what's happened it's what's actually occurred since then what a crazy industry I know I know I know just you saying that I know that they wear one dress one time right the focus in prioritizing that in your life to me I'm a regular dude you know it's like it's a weird thing fashion I like getting dressed up like the next person but sure I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt yeah that that's my go-to how do you think working in the apparel industry set you up is there anything in that industry that set you up for success in the hospitality industry I'm gonna go ahead and say that I'm just a believer that 70% of good business is the same same disciplines same applications in how you apply yourself execution absolutely execution and discipline absolutely right and so and then you adjust according to your industry the rest right and so that period was definitely tumultuous some uncertainty but I just here's what was interesting so there's a couple of things that were interesting one was as troublesome as my partnership became with my former partner I was loving life in Dallas so I was still waking up the smile on my face I'm not it it takes a lot for me to have a bad day I mean me too I I try

31:04and see the best in every day even when problems mount up do you have a favorite day of the week that's an interesting one Tuesday is my busiest day Monday's my busiest yeah see Monday's my personal busiest day Tuesday is my other people busiest day okay Monday's the day I set myself up for success Tuesday's the day I make sure everyone else is set up for success that's Sunday is that day for me and then Monday's the setting everybody else up Sunday has definitely become more of my decompression day spend time with the kids decompress try and just switch off a little bit though I do struggle with that and it has become that for the first five years of in being in Dallas Sunday was Sunday fun day and I had horrible hangovers on Monday so but we've got a bit too busy to be hung over on a Monday well I see all of our social media it's Monday we got case of the Mondays whatever and then people hate Mondays and I'm kind of like no man Mondays Mondays my day right right I set all of these goals all stuff and I have the rest of the week to get all this stuff done like I just don't like Friday I'm like I got a lot of shit to do today like it's kind of like a Friday is a deadline for me and I just go through the whole week and I'm so excited I get to do all this stuff and then Friday I kind of have a little bit of like and hope I didn't get it this down I didn't get that done and I don't know I just love Mondays it's like I have this whole week ahead of me most people don't have that mentality right yep and so that's kind of how my week structured now and yeah I'll go back to that period and that'll happen but I was loving life I'd made some fantastic friends I felt like there was still so much potential in a number of businesses to be honest in Dallas along the way I had met one of the co-founders of milkshake so there's three of us in total and I'd met one of them quite early on and he and I became very good

33:04friends he had more of a nightlife background okay had been in the night club space in Dallas awesome shake awesome awesome shake same last name well and that's kind of how we met is everyone kept thinking I was his brother I said I don't know who this dude is right and so when we finally met face to face I was like also you're the guy one thinks I'm related to okay and that's how we met Jets that was literally how we met that's so funny we grabbed a coffee I don't really like him when I first met I'll be honest with you I thought he's a bit of a douchebag and I got a text from him a few days later which I was surprised by because I didn't think when I first met him that I would get that text he said hey man we should grab coffee so tone had changed a bit but I guess I guess maybe in that moment he just was like who is this cat right so we grabbed coffee talked a little bit and became friends started hanging out and you know he same he'd been he'd owned some pretty mega clubs in Dallas you know one of his had been opened by P Diddy and he had Paris Hilton and you know all the above Drake and all the all the good stuff and so you know we talked and we became friends and in 2014 he got approached through his vast network in that industry to invest in a new restaurant bar that was opening and in our chats is like should we do it together like let's just put it in together like let's decide on an amount and let's just split it and do it 50-50 it'll be fun let's see how it goes and we did it and it became clear to me during that process that we both had a lot to offer as it pertains to under to that business but we came at it very differently right so interesting I was looking at their pro forma and what they were proposing in sales their P&L's and the contracts he was looking at more of their marketing plan their branding so on and so forth so we did that it was very much a passive investment but it got us communicating about business and night life and so after the it was called aftershock by the way the fashion brand after aftershock sort of dissipated and I was in this period of

35:10what do I do I stumbled across an old 2,000 square foot house that was Felice and I called asked him and I said before you say I'm crazy I want you to hear me out found this little house it's an uptown Dallas it's 2,000 square feet it's about eight yellow rooms that it's divided into I've got a crazy idea that I think it could be a really cool small antithesis of what exists in Dallas big box TVs everywhere yeah thousand people and do something small powerful intimate energetic and I think people will respond when I took him there he looked him he said you're absolutely insane like this doesn't work in Dallas and I begged to differ and he said fine I'll do it with you even though I think this is gonna be tricky let's give it a whirl and that was the birth of milkshake concepts Wow right that right there so I signed the lease on that first house in beginning of May and literally within three days of that I incorporated milkshake LLC no kidding yep and what was the name of that there was a restaurant you put there that was a bar called Citizen which is still alive today and doing well fantastically well we have so this is a fun story so let's get into that so okay we've signed the lease now we need to raise some money you can't go to a bank when you're opening a bar just two of you and you've got no track record they don't just hand out money for that yeah sadly not so the idea was I had was you know much like we invested in that other restaurant bar and I felt like we added quite a lot of value to that let's bring in some investors of our own and hopefully they will not only benefit financially they'll be our ambassadors they'll come they'll they'll party they'll book tables they'll do happy hours all the above and so that's what we did it was it was it's so fun looking thinking back to walking people through that house and

37:13the look on everyone's face was the same is you sound like you know exactly what you're talking about this house is absolutely perplexing because it has no right to be a venue right and you had that vision though we did and you know once awesome I really sat down and went through he was like okay this is cool like yeah we'll do this thing called a drop like at midnight where all the bartend just get on the bar and like you know they like sparkles up and we play a crazy song and everyone just kind of goes crazy and and so we did it we managed to raise the money we got turned down by about 80% of the people we walked through the house but the 20% will always be forever grateful for believing in us and you know it was one of those venues I don't know if it's tasteful to to share numbers but I think in this case it probably helps give some perspective so the idea when we did it was you know you could probably make you know we'll be open to a three night you know four nights a week call it and you know if we make a million million and a half in sales it will be good investors will get paid back in about a year and a half and it'll be a good business and in the first year we did over four million and paid them back in six months and that was really the nucleus for what was to come I mean that's got to give you a I'm like I'm you're thinking about a million and a half you do for a lot of people coming through the doors a lot of people it was running the thing at this point are you in the building you within the four walls I mean we anything we lived that business I was there every single night so what was your first impression of this business I mean you we opened it we opened it on my birthday which is November 5th 2015 and we had a lot of hurdles getting there city issues ordinance parking I mean up to three days before I wasn't even sure it'd be open but again in my today's gonna be a good day no problems only solutions I got through it all and we opened it and that first night just seeing feeling the

39:17energy and just how people were so like wow this is different but cool and it just took off and it not only took off but it became the venue of choice for Dallas Cowboys players Dallas Mavericks players Dallas Stars players because it was small it was intimate it was somewhat protected it almost felt like yeah it felt like you you were part of something and so that was that and then to just kind of complete the the part that the sort of full circle of milkshake just as I signed the lease for citizen someone who I'd met who's in the beverage business and obviously we're starting to talk to people like that now said there's someone I'd like you to meet his name is James Fala said okay said he's got a business plan he wants to open a restaurant in a part of town called Deep Ellum I said I know deep element sort of I've heard stories of how it was great in its yesteryear and that's kind of gone through this sort of downturn but it's so close in proximity to downtown and uptown and everything that I think you know probably have a reemergence and so and restaurants to that and are so vital in creating that resurgence and that's what they do right these restaurants came in all of a sudden it's and as we go through this conversation you'll you'll kind of come to learn just how vital they did become so I met James and we hit it off you know a one-hour lunch turned into a four-hour life business vision conversation about you know I love those right just effort it off effortless effortless well oh my god it's been four hours what the hell yeah I'm late or I've missed three meetings and so we got on and really obviously after some push-pull conversation what became clear to me is I wasn't James really was looking for an investor and I told him well I'm not that guy I've just lost a lot of money in the fashion business and

41:19I just raised money for this this bar but I did a good job raising the money so here's what I'll do I think you and I would work fantastically well together right because I've now got awesome who's very much nightlife marketing very well networked knows that business and I've got this bonafide food guy who's worked in the food industry for 20 years as a professional an operator he's an operator and he's worked you know he's worked his way up through management roles all the way to director of operations but he's he feels like it's his time right and that his old boss that he was working for wasn't probably the best boss and he was just fed up right I you know I don't like going into Friday and finding that my staff are not gonna get paid right because the owners decided to probably go to Vegas for the weekend so he was just like you know I'm just done with that you know my people are everything so that is the business plan he had in his hand that day was for a restaurant called stir and stir was to be our first bonafide restaurant and so absorb James at the time just into stir eventually what was gonna happen was we were all just gonna get on so well that we just became partners in everything so milkshake was there for okay and so we raised money for stir and you know raised a bit more because it needed a bit more because you've got a kitchen and you've got more square footage and all the above and I think there was some trepidation then about deep hell and they're like yeah but it's not there yet like it was 20 years ago it's a bit it's a bit ropey I'm not sure like you guys are killing it a citizen loved the business plan loved the vision but the area scares us what was your goal for year one there I thought everyone we could do three and a half to four million dollars that's so many more seats in this one bigger deal more food yeah every day open to me three or four million is nothing to shake his dick at

43:20though especially in a neighborhood that right isn't really happening right now right what you guys end up doing seven point five you've hit you've struck gold on your first two yeah I mean that there's a recipe there for why there was a recipe I think one partnerships can be extraordinarily difficult and I think we stumbled upon one where everyone kind of understood each other's strengths and played to them as opposed to stepping on each other's toes communication is key not gonna sit lie and say we haven't had disagreements not gonna say we haven't but butted heads we have you should we do it's not healthy if you don't but the business always comes first yeah and as long as we keep the business best interests the one thing we have which I think you cannot just you can't just find or just get easily as trust it's and it's the most important thing yeah so there's an it is an inherent trust we consider we consider ourselves brothers more than anything else and and that was it so that was stir first restaurant did very well very blessed and that led to down the street in where we did stir there was another building that actually I wanted for stir and the landlord at the time said look really like you guys but this is my gem this is like my jewel this property so I'm gonna give you like another really good one to do stirring but I can't give you this one I want this snazzy chef and other okay she did stir now he's like if you want this exactly what happened yeah and that was to be Vidora and so that's a Mexican concept Mexican concept look you could throw a stone and you're probably gonna hit somewhere in Dallas Texas that serves queso right here too there is a lot yeah my and this is my personal belief is it's not necessarily about reinventing the wheel it's just redefining it in a different way so yes we so what do we know we know that people have Mexican food right that is a check and coming from London

45:24which I didn't eat a whole lot of Mexican food it's pretty crap there but I started eating a lot of Mexican food and I don't know if it's like there's some places it's great here I think it's a vibe right I think you go there and it's an excuse to drink margaritas and you have chips and salsa and it's more of a experience like you just so thing so how do you differentiate that you've just used the word experience yeah milkshakes tagline is an experiential hospitality group because what I said early on what James and awesome completely agreed with me on and what we kind of try and really force down everyone's throats within our company is we don't just serve a plate of food and a glass of and a margarita we serve experience experiences everything from the moment someone walks in smells sound visuals ambience then the food itself then the drink itself and so if you create and deliver experience then I think people will connect with it they'll resonate with it and they'll enjoy it and they'll keep coming back and so Vidora has been an incredible success we currently have two locations the third is currently in construction in another part of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and of course we'll hopefully get to talk about it but the fourth is coming here to get old Nashville yeah and you were telling me you were I want to get back to this I think I know the story you're gonna say there with the experience in the case so you're talking about case so you can get case anywhere why is it different at Vidora at Vidora so as part of the as part of sort of the whole conceptualization process we went to Guadalajara and we wanted to get a lot of the furnishings from there because we really wanted Vidora to feel authentic and transportive and I think we've accomplished that because when you're there you're like where am I right could be in Dallas might not be in Dallas and so you know giant plant pots and tile

47:24that's handmade tile and all that fun stuff so as part of that we wanted glassware and we wanted some really cool presentation dishes and one of the things we absolutely fell in love with were these authentic Molcahete bowls and you can heat them up to 400 degrees and so we actually put our queso into those and it stays hot and bubbling for probably a solid 30 minutes Wow and so you know where you kind of get the queso normally and you're dipping in it's really good in about 10 minutes that you go back in paste it's all gone like hard yeah that doesn't happen to us and those are the things and of course so presentation it's a presentation it's Instagrammable it tastes great it stays hot win win win win right and so at a minimal expense I mean that's not a hard right do right and so those are the types of things that we focus on right and who comes up with those ideas I mean is that just as a group or do you guys each hey bring something new are you intentional with that very well yes yes and no some things we intentionally look go looking for and some things we just stumble across and I'm honest about it hey man that'll work and we do a lot of things on the fly we're you know while in the midst of construction yeah that's actually not looking so great let's change that wall and so because at the end it's got to be right and so you know we're still making mistakes now we've been here six years we've got you know six seven years we went credible success behind us but we're still learning and we're still evolving and we're still trying to be better and so the door has been you know really really really glad we've been really blessed with it it does incredible volume and people just really really resonate with it and it's busy all the time lunch happy hour dinner and they say that it's open till 2 a.m. so you got people like dancing on the rooftop till 2 a.m. drinking margaritas probably taking a few tequila shots and what does that make you feel like to be you created something like that that so many people that resonates with so many people does it to do anything for you like it reminds me every day while I left finance and then that's why because I feel so proud I feel I feel you know it's

49:27it's cliched right it kind of goes back to kovat I did some interviews during kovat they're like well do you think people are ever gonna sit back in the dining room again I said absolutely they are because people inherently want to break bread together celebrate commiserate you know someone gets a job someone's birthday someone's anniversary what do they want to do they want to eat they want to drink they want to be merry they want to connect and it will never stop I never believe so and so it's it's it's probably one of the greatest feelings in the world to see people doing all those things in one of your venues choosing your venue and of course there are other fantastic businesses out there I know because I go to a lot of them but for me personally and for us as a group seeing our dining rooms full seeing people enjoying the food enjoying the experience it's everything and it reminds me every day why the risks I took were always gonna be worth it one of the things during the pandemic and I love that answer and it's gonna be a funny I've never I don't I don't have as many restaurants as you do and it's just a cool feeling I love when I'm in the restaurant and I have two restaurants here in town and somebody does like they get married they do that the rehearsal dinner show or they'll do the reception in our main room and I'm standing there watching one of the servers give this to be able to tell the story of the other restaurants in a home in Brentwood and it's called Mayor Bowl I've ever been there before but there there's a he's telling the story and you look at the groom and the bride and they kind of look over they're laughing and the mother and the fathers they're all laughing and you kind of go these people are creating life long memories like they're gonna remember this moment for the rest of their lives yeah and they trust us with that yeah like they trust us to help curate that moment and this is this is like where you lean in and you just do it and I love watching that moment because it just it kind of makes it all worth it it's kind of like man there's a lot of bullshit that we deal with every day but a lot these moments that just are perfect like that it's like makes it all worthwhile it's all worth it yes this is the coolest thing and I don't know if you how often you're

51:29in the restaurants because I mean how many do you have now total so I think we are currently open and operating 11 including our first in Nashville okay yeah that's that's the next thing we're gonna talk about yep and but we have a pretty strong and aggressive growth trajectory I lose track myself sometimes but I'm gonna go ahead and say by the end of 2023 we would have opened another 12 we're gonna take a quick moment to hear a word from our sponsors we are supported by Robbins Insurance offering protection you can trust Robbins Insurance is an independent insurance agency known across the southeast for their customized insurance policies sound guidance and attentive service they're also known here at Nashville Restaurant Radio for protecting some of music city's best restaurants look when it comes to or bar you don't want to leave the job to some strip mall insurance agency with no background in hospitality and expertise in the local market you need someone who knows the industry who understands your business will create a policy that protects your physical space and protects you and your staff too y'all Matthew Clements is that guy he's the agent at Robbins Insurance for the hospitality industry with extensive industry experience himself Matthew has the knowledge to create a policy that will protect you and your business no matter what comes your way visit Robbins website at robbinsins.com that's robinsins.com to get in touch with him or reach out to Matthew directly at 863-409-9372 protection you can trust that's Robbins we are super excited to maintain IQ for restaurants maintain IQ is a modern digital checklist system that simplifies your operations they are designed specifically for restaurants you can standardize track and manage food safety procedures temp logs daily

53:33checklist preventive maintenance and ongoing repairs he's saying that you can managers will save up to 10 hours per week you can repair you can reduce repairs and maintenance spend by $5,000 a year staff will know what to do how to do it and when to do it everything is digitally recorded minimize liability ensuring safety cleaning and compliance standards are upheld this is the best thing since sliced bread guys and we're gonna talk about that in just a sec with sharp yeas but we are talking about a checklist to do every single thing in your restaurant that's all kept nice and neat in a little app you need to call Will Jackson his number is 888-534-0261 and set up a 30-minute demo if you do that I'll give you a free Nashville restaurant radio hat or I'll give you a free Nashville restaurant radio t-shirt just send a message on Instagram check out maintain IQ 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 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 24-7 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 their 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 calm did you know the number one cause of methane or

55:37greenhouse gases in landfills is your food waste restaurants waste so much food all the food people don't eat all of the scraps that come from all of your prep it all gets put in a dumpster and then gets buried in a landfill and as it decomposes creates methane gas well thank God Jeffrey Ezell and his brother clay have come up with the compost company you can now compost your food waste they take it to their farm they create organic soil out of it they then sell that to Whole Foods as well as local farmers and landscapers so it's literally coming full circle in your community if you're a restaurant owner or manager you need to be calling Jeffrey Ezell at 615-866-8152 and they will set you up with the green bags and the green trash cans that they will come empty twice a week if you work in a restaurant and you would love to have this option instead of putting food into a trash can you can start composting tell your manager to call Jeffrey Ezell that's 615-866-8152 or follow him at the compost company on Instagram they okay yeah that's that's the next thing we're gonna talk about yep and but we have a pretty strong and aggressive growth trajectory I lose track myself sometimes but I'm gonna go ahead and say by the end of 2023 we would have opened another 12 wow some people call that a death wish yeah well I just you know it scares the shit out of me because if I think about it we're looking into a couple potential spots here yeah and I'm more focused on how do I continue to keep our culture opening at that fast rate I mean you yeah you can have core values and you can have this is who we are but like when you're bringing in leadership teams that have never worked for you in my last place we did this like how do you indoctrinate everybody and I use that word lightly but like how do you get everybody rowing in the same direction so quickly and is it something that you guys have like a list of core values in your company like how does that work so one of the things we have

57:41found to be the most successful for us is training and development and promotions within because it's really just hit you've made a very valid point some people with exceptional resumes come to us and they struggle truthfully because of the pace at which we move the expectations we have and again not saying we're the best we just operate a certain level of and pace and you know you take the door for example you know someone could have come from a great Mexican restaurant and by 11 o'clock they're doing all the tip-outs no no no we're just getting ready for the fifth portion of the day and now you're gonna be here yeah right and so it's different and so we do a lot of that coaching development within we're constantly using the word bench strength and looking at who within our teams can take the next step up because now they understand it at core level what milkshake is who we are how we operate and then we want them to work towards and strive towards that growth internally and so that's not to say we don't hire from out we do but you have a farm team essentially that you're constantly developing we're constantly employees constantly developing I mean it's so it's so amazing to see today some of the hourlies where I remember you know early days Vidora now is a bar manager at Vidora Addison and you know one of the servers at stir is our construction manager you know it's just we've got so many people who have really found their path within the company and I love it and we keep we keep really wanting to develop that because yes hiring expertise from out is gonna be important but if we can pepper that with this internal growth mechanism I think that's the perfect balance for us well I think when you look at a company like you and your size most professionals in this look there's people that are in the restaurant industry because they need to make the side hustle and they have their show their real job which always pisses

59:42me off but they have their other job that they do then there's the professionals and those people always are looking towards promotion yeah what's in it for me and me if I was looking for a job out there and I thought layer cake downtown so wow and they're gonna open four more concepts here in town hey if I get in there and hustle and I show them what what I can do exactly I'm not that far away from raising my hand saying hey look I'd like to get into leadership and where can that take me I mean that'd be a pretty attractive place for me to want to go work exactly right yep and that's the goal we want people to feel like they're not just look I respect it hugely when people have a second job because they're in school or they're studying of course yes they need supplementary income respect it but for those who genuinely love the business and want to create a future for themselves in the business then we want to continually be opening up roadways and pathways for them to be able to do that and I think we've seen you know we've seen a lot of success with it I think we've also probably early on promoted people a bit too soon because we were too excited for them I want to see you win there but it was a bit too soon for them and then it's actually not fair because you put them in a bad spot right and so we learnt that too like should have just left them where they were for another six months and then they would have probably been ready and now we've put them there they're not ready and then that really from that point it's very hard to retract right right and so we learnt that too and again though these are all the many lessons we continue to learn as we go you know go down this path but this is this is a you can answer this or not answer this and it's it's going down a rabbit hole of pettiness and sure and speaking in a small operational way but if I was coming on board as a manager what are the expectations what are the expect you said there's a lot of expectations we have operationally work show up here and I I'm here for that if I'm coming on board what are some of the things you would tell me what are some the expectations well I think just curiously I think you know from a 30,000 foot level ultimately one we we want to make sure we are setting out for success right so we want to be giving as many of the answers to the test that we can give

01:01:46but I think what you can't give people is a passion to be great a passion to deliver experience a passion to not only want to grow themselves but to coach and develop those beneath them those are the things that we expect of our leaders because we are inherently of course a people business we rely upon an army of people to operate in order to hopefully serve droves of droves and droves of other people who are spending their well hard-earned dollars with us and we should never take that for granted right it doesn't matter whether it's five dollars or five hundred dollars that's money that's been that they've chosen to spend with you and we have got to deliver an experience to them do you really care about that you know yeah and again it goes back to sort of again what I said earlier are you truly here because you care or you just a paycheck player and I'll go back and say I don't hate what I hate is when people say this isn't my real job and I go this is a real I get paid very real money that pays for a very real children in a very real home so when you're here I need you to act like it one thousand like I don't need this to be your side gig when you're here I hate that mentality of well this isn't my real job well then if you're gonna do a fake job do it at a different place so no I ask you these questions because I think we've got a lot of restaurant tours in this city and there's just a how do I grow how do I go to the next level and I want for you being new to Nashville I mean you come from Dallas you're here in Nashville we're opening up all these restaurants I really wanted today to encapsulate kind of your story the milkshake story and what brought you to Nashville but some of these things that when you get to that 11 to 24 23 24 restaurants I don't I just want to share kind of some of your insight because I think it's really interesting I think it's I think people can hear this and they can go okay well that's really good stuff here's somebody who's doing it who's in and I also like to represent there's there's this whole thing people coming to Nashville and

01:03:47taking advantage of our position of tourism and so I'm just I'm a carpet bagger I'm gonna come in I'm gonna make my money and then you're never gonna see me again you're only in Dallas and you're only in Nashville yes so you're not across the you're not just somebody who's just I mean you're only in Dallas you're very strategically in Nashville but it was an interesting story as to how you got here yes let's dive in there so you know obviously now we kind of get 2018 the door is open we're looking at what growth looks like obviously looking within our own markets our backyard it's what we know best but as we contemplate growth you know you're looking and thinking about cities that you know you feel you can be successful in and naturally you look close to home you know within Texas Houston Austin etc again I just as well as being in the position I am I still consider myself a student of our industry and that means that I'm constantly reading and learning and digging and who who opened where and who sold what and who failed and who succeeded and why and and in that reading I I stumbled sort of quite a lot across Nashville and not just the tourism that was occurring here but the the amount of people that were living people are people that were moving here moving here living here the group with the growth and population sure the development sports team sports team we get all of a sudden it's not just this little town right medical industry heart you know lots of medical companies hubbed here huge all the above HCA yeah and so it was just an aligning of stars because Nashville was you know on this list of cities I was kind of starting to dig into and I got a call from a broker here in town and he said that his owner William Hastings who is a very well known architect in town mm-hmm that his former office building he had since

01:05:51purchased and renovated the old public library which is where they're based now okay he had this really unique building on just off-broadway on 127 third south and he they were very impressed by what we do have they been to your locations in Dallas he had stumbled across one of our locations in Dallas okay and so that was really what set this whole thing apart and I think what what transpired in our conversations was he didn't just want to turn the building into another generic type of I'll find a country star to turn it into a place that plays over and over again which listen people come for it they love it so many of those venues are fantastic I've been to every single one of them he just wanted something different and he said I want somewhere that yes tourists can enjoy but I want to be able to enjoy I want to be able to come I live here yeah and that's really how that conversation James and I came we were invited to come and meet him we came and we were blown away just by you know you start by doing some crane spotting right cranes everywhere and so and this was like night 2019 or 2018 maybe 2019 somewhere years ago and it went really well you know got you know met William spent lots of time together talked very much like we're talking now life stories yeah how we are where we are what we're trying to accomplish and that was really the first that was the first step of our romance with Nashville and it is a romance because we've to your point we are not we're not we didn't we're not just throwing a stone and hoping it works here equally to we're not here we truly care and we want to be a big part and so we've been very strategic and very intentional about not looking anywhere else and saying okay we'll grow within our own market and now let's choose another city and then let's really invest in it not just dollars obviously

01:07:55but ourselves our teams out and so that's what we've done you know we come here very regularly we have an apartment here at 5th and Broadway and nice we we haven't just thrown a stone so one of our shared apartment that you guys can either all three of you can just stay in when you're in town exactly right and once we got to a certain point James basically was spending at least half the week here to oversee everything it just made sense so you know we had a for again as we talked about growth within we had a former AGM who went on to become the GM at Vidora Addison she was the AGM at Vidora Dallas and she excelled and when she heard about Nashville she was like you know I don't have obligations not married don't have kids let's go send me I want to go so she's been here we open layer cake in June she's been here since October so there is a lot that goes into that right like so you know you're investing a lot of time and money way ahead of any potential opening to really make sure that boots are on the ground you're understanding the market we're still understanding it right we're still learning it we're still trying to make sure that we and layer cake which we can talk about now is probably the hardest one for us to have started with because it's such a hybrid venue it's multiple venues in one. Four stories right? Four stories. You have the cherry blossom so we have cherry lounge cherry lounge cherry lounge is just like a cool speakeasy bar low ceiling it's in the basement stroke event space and you know we wanted to do something down there because we were like I don't want this just become a dumpster site of storage and and rubbish and so we thought let's put something fun down there and we can throw some fun parties down there and people can book it and you know but the back half we were gonna use anyway for some kitchen prep and you know our office is down there but it's just a cool fun little space in the basement and so we've got cherry lounge there then

01:09:58on the ground floor we've what cool we've got what's called the wonder room and it's just a it's really hard to explain if you haven't been but our logo is color blocked and so the room itself is color blocked it's really three zones like a pink zone a blue zone and the yellow zone in one room so it's like three venues in one but it's just the most outlandish crazy stuff happening everywhere fun room you can think of whose idea was that it was so as that was the room that we were it was evolving as we were going we were couldn't quite we knew that because we weren't music artists driven to me what was the USP of that room right there's plenty of places to go sit have a drink but a lot of people come here because they love country music they want to sit in a bar here the music we weren't going to be country music driven so what was the USP and the USP had to be a really fun room right unique something unique the USP the acronym USP yeah it had to have a unique selling point unique selling power thing yeah something purpose it had to have a it couldn't just serve a beer right like yeah and so that room we just we worked with the designer and said go nuts I just go nuts just make it so fun right was the designer so we worked with a come shout people out we worked with the architectural firm Powell who also built it probably won't say too much more on that because it wasn't the best experience oh so I'll leave that there okay so we're not giving a shout out to Powell but we are saying that they were the people that did it they were let's just say that the people that will leave it they'll leave it they will leave it they'll leave it for the next time we'll leave that there we'll keep it PG today all right and so we actually brought in another another someone else we had been working with he's a local guy and he he

01:12:03wasn't the designer of the whole project we just brought him in to design that room and so but we worked very much collaboratively and it was just this so what did happen you have the Wonder Room we have the wonderful colors it's really cool and go there for brunch go there to drink go there to have a great time great place celebrate your birthday it's just it's fun it's fun it's fun it does not you know what we need yeah we need fun it's fun it's just fun in life yes if you if you haven't been having fun yeah get your ass up and go to the Wonder Room exactly right and have some fun just go do it yeah so the Wonder Room's fun okay above the Wonder Room is the dining room and that's really where you go for a dining experience you go for dinner we're open for lunch we're open for brunch and we're open for dinner so we're open seven days a week and we believe that it's a fantastic place to come and have a meal whether you are planning to hit Broadway afterwards whether you're a local you don't want to touch Broadway but you want to kind of come up third and then get back out are you like across the street from FGL it's directly okay directly across street from FGL got it so above that is the dining room again open every day for lunch dinner and then on the weekends we serve brunch and you know we think it's a really broad fun modern American menu who's your chef we are not chef driven okay so we have a corporate chef okay who's our culinary director who then works with a whole array of people within our organization and everything is done sort of corporately we don't we're not sort of chef driven gotcha so we all tastings all menu creation is done at corporate and then it's done in Dallas is done in Dallas and then implemented do you guys do you guys have so you don't like as a broad line vendor you have to purchase all of your stuff from I assume you have a deal that you've signed with somebody we how do you do that so the team I'm not gonna I'm not gonna pretend to be an expert here but I will tell you that I know that we work with dozens and

01:14:03dozens of vendors really for your go like is like you're so so we're in food service one of those type people so in Dallas we use Benny Keith okay and but Benny Keith aren't quite ready to be able to get us the volume of deliveries that we need here in town here in town I think they're coming out of like something like that and it's like they're only in town certain days and like I think they want to get here but they're not quite here yeah I want to say here in Dallas we're using PFG okay so yeah obviously a lot comes through them and then you know our team sets up relationships across the board basically okay and then so yeah great menu please you know if you haven't been come and check it out I'm definitely going to I just yep and then above that is our rooftop and our rooftop does what a good rooftop should do and that's just again lots of fun you know we we're excited because we believe when you know sort of sports season kicks in it'll be a great place to come and watch sports we've got screens obviously up all around the bar area and then the weekends it's just been a party it's a party it's a party it's a party well that's what that's what downtown is you get right down there right do you ever just walk down Broadway like on a Friday or Saturday night and just go like what the hell is going on so is it just shocking to you too so we the apartment I referenced obviously fifth and Broadway is on the 27th floor facing downtown facing Broadway you can see a lot from there and you just like look out and every time I do I did it last night again before I stepped out for the evening and I'm like this is unbelievable I had a cousin in town last week I wasn't able to make it he came with us in my business partner because Logan Paul was here for the WrestleMania stuff and he was coming to layer cake and Logan Paul was coming to layer cake yeah he was coming to like he came for dinner on Friday then he came to party on Saturday nice and it was that something you set up in advance where you say hey you come here and you pay him to come there it's an influencer type thing yes and so it varies in this

01:16:08case Logan Paul's manager reached out to us and said when we're in Dallas we had so much fun they just organically had dinner at Harper's then we did a little deal for them to come to Citizen and he said we've heard layer cakes the spot right now we already love working with you guys we don't talk to anyone else we just want to come there and it was it was a very easy mutual type deal and so but my cousin was with us in my business partner because he was he's traveling on business from London and he just texted me he was like oh my god like I what is going on here he was walking down Broadway just shell-shocked at the sheer volume of people the stuff that's going if you want if you want a people watch yeah walking down Broadway so do you indulge any of that stuff I mean are you yet you have kids are you are you married do you have yep so yep married with kids but I am very out there I you know to be in this business to me I can't be sitting in a room yes I've referenced the internet a lot but that's just the first step of research I mean I've probably eaten dinner at nearly every restaurant in town here now so far do you have a fair part of town that you like to go because it's not Broadway to eat no I've really enjoyed so I've gone to Sunda and Gulch for Asian food which I really enjoyed one of the first places I was told about was Chohans yeah and 12 yep and so just been making my way through really I'm sure I've got lots more to eat I went to church and union yesterday and listen I'm one of those people I not only want to go and experience I like supporting other businesses yeah I'm a big you know with success we can all rise with the tide right like I don't I don't see any I never look at peers as competitors I look at them more as peers and there's there's always gonna be room for all of us to succeed and lots of us to succeed and it's sad to me when one doesn't to be honest with you I never take any joy in seeing a restaurant close down I promise you that no I don't take joy in really seeing anybody no never I mean it's just not something there's a word for that shat and Freud yeah did you know that no I just read this book and

01:18:11I learned I'd learned this I'll share this with you there's two words or shit it's an old German term shat and Freud yes where you wish harm on people who are doing well like you hear about somebody who's something bad happen to them and you're like oh good they deserve it it's like it's horrible no like don't do that but then Freud and Freud is the other side where you're just genuinely happy for other people and you're like man that's awesome we need to practice more Freud and Freud absolutely versus shat and Freud absolutely right so no listen I think I think the culinary scene is great I think it's it's growing evolving and but we're excited to obviously now bring our other concepts to town so if I'll go through them now but we've started construction at Peabody Plaza which is directly across the new building that went up directly across from where Pinewood Social is okay yeah and so there's one anchor beautiful eight and a half thousand square foot space wow at the base of the building and the owners of the building the Aitkins great people we met them and they were very keen to put a very well executed dining establishment in that space it was built specifically for a restaurant and so we decided that that would be an ideal location for Harper's which is our globally inspired steakhouse I say globally inspired we have a fantastic steak program that we believe stands up tall and strong against most but we've had some fun with it you'll find a Szechuan chili chicken on the menu and you'll find a Burmese tea leaf salad on the menu and so you know I'm I love to travel I've always traveled a lot since it's since a young age and I feel like you know so much of what we eat now is just becoming more and more this melting part of different flavors and foods and so yes let's be let's be let's be a steakhouse but let's be a steakhouse with a little bit of a difference sure and but you know but let's again still have all the staples but then have some fun around that and so hot this will be the second location of Harper's the you

01:20:13know the first location open actually just just a year ago on Friday it was it's in Dallas all right so you bring in Harper's here it's gonna go across the street from Pinewood social yep and then and then you will get the Finch the Finch so the Finch so we have two stirs we'll go back remember I had the first stir and we went on to open a second stir yes but we also then felt like there is a stir with one R in Chattanooga here okay and inherently we just felt like we love stir and stir will always be so near and dear to our heart but we've grown we've grown up yeah and the Finch is our what we believe to be a reflection of who milkshake is today versus what milkshake was in 2015 we were still figuring everything out now let me temper that stir is both stirs are open alive well and doing fantastic sales and have evolved to the new version of milkshake so to a degree yeah we're always trying to improve things right but we just we felt like with the Finch there was an opportunity to do us you take it in a slightly different direction so it's a grill and raw bar so you'll be able to sit and eat fresh oysters there will this be chef driven I I want to say that every restaurant we open should feel from a culinary perspective chef driven our corporate chef is a fantastic chef yeah he actually worked at the number one steak house in Dallas for over 10 years as their executive chef Wow so fully capable of clearly capable but it's amazing because when we do tastings and where I'm involved me James were involved in every tasting still I love it because when Rodman Shields who's our culinary director is there he's never there alone he's with my VP of operations who's also worked in kitchens in his past and he's with the the head the kitchen manager stroke head chef of Harper's and they're all like throwing ideas around it's this really collaborative you know thing and then so the way we come at it is okay this is what we want the menu to kind of look

01:22:13like this is the shape of the menu this is kind of what we want to look like now you guys go have some fun right so if we want a chicken type dish on the menu we'll give you some direction go have fun with it put three or four out we'll play with them and we'll go from there so you're in the scene you're here yep you're absorbing the culture everything about it you're eating at all the restaurants you're seeing all this stuff and then as you conceptualize the fence you're thinking about the neighborhood because I've gone in that neighborhood and I've looked around at what else is being done there then you can kind of give it hey look this is a broad this is what I'm looking for and this is what I think that that neighborhood would is missing or what they really need and then they create the dish you all taste it and then right that's how you are making the menus so and Finch is really interesting because we are in construction on two finches simultaneously right now in the Dallas market so sitting here today it's what August by August 2023 we'll have three finches there's none open today and there'll be three open a year from now and there's me one here one here in the former flying saucer space oh so you're taking over the flying saucer I have a carriage house I have taken the old flying saucer space Wow and so we're excited about it you know love that building love the character of it love the position of it love you know just really like its placement I really do like its place sure again proximity to Broadway but not in Broadway so you know people that are want a good meal in the area can come there but again if you don't want to get involved in the congestion of Broadway on a busy day you don't have to are you guys looking at coming station at all so the after the Finch the only other deal that we have signed so that will that will now bring us full circle to our fourth and final current lineup of restaurants is Vidora so you're bringing a Vidora to Nashville you're gonna get Vidora you're gonna get the B gonna get the 400 degree queso yes yeah so that that will be the final one that is going at 8th and Broadway okay so 8th and Broadway that's and that where the Manuel that space was and you

01:24:15know I'm being told about that and I didn't really know a lot about it so that location it's exactly it's right on the corner you can't miss it oh wow yeah that's right there on the corner right there on the corner and you know you've got all the development happening just behind us with I think the Amazon Towers and the Nashville Yards and has a monster location and so and then you've got Broadway this way and then you've kind of got the gulch that way and and so just right smack bang in the middle so you're you're this is I know what you're saying that now it's kind of like that picture in the mall you look at and all of a sudden ago it's a sailboat investing in Nashville is you're not just here to do the one thing I mean these are these are major major investments that you're putting into Nashville time money resource energy all the above so we care we really do we care and we plan to be here for hopefully a very long time so it matters to us that we do the right things the right way that we are seen as a great addition not only to the culinary scene but the community as a whole and so we are we're thrilled we're thrilled to be here but I think more than anything I'm thrilled because I think Nashville will go from strength to strength a lot of people ask me how is it that you would sign for venues in a location without opening one and I said because I've signed the first knowing feeling so good about the market that it was what I signed for I would I sign none but you sign that first one before COVID yes that's that first one what was that like that first one has pushed and tested me and us and James probably I think if there was every time I was gonna fall out of love with this business that project would have been it just because it was so brutally unlucky we started the process we COVID happened we had to you know I think we had to put

01:26:20these micro piles into the basement in order to support the structure of it the addition of the rooftop and they were hoping that you know they would hit bedrock at like five feet they had to go to like 30 something feet and that by the way changes budgets to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars so you've got COVID you've got what do you think in that moment what do you think so I mean you have the whole thing playing out your business guy you sit down is it is it a I guess that's the cost of doing business or like do you just go like fuck like what is your what happens in your brain when you get that phone call that you got to go 30 feet instead of 7 feet and it's gonna cost an extra quarter million dollars that's a house I mean that's a lot of yeah look I will tell you that that project again just between and I'll put it delicately issues with the general contractor issues beyond everyone's control COVID and there was a collapse caused by apparently a car driving into the building I don't know I wasn't here haven't seen the car but apparently there's a collapse of the structure this is in addition to everything else long time ago recently during construction okay during construction like so yeah I mean as we talk about projects that can and or are fraught with challenges that one endured most of them but it's open and it's it's it's doing well it's doing well it's downtown but you know I I think that one of the most important things you said today and you said it kind of flippantly you were like but with my attitude of every day what you were kind of like you're kind of saying that as I like a joke so that's probably the most important thing that you have right right I think you know people often ask me like you know what do you

01:28:22think's the most important thing about being a CEO or you know as a leader and and my thing is is to lead with confidence and that was we'll figure it out we'll figure it out and I've always got a will figure it out mentality in life because you have to figure it out what are you gonna do you're now right I'm gonna sit and cry what's that gonna do for me for my team for my morale for their morale you're gonna figure it out and so thank God we figured it out look it was painful and but it's it's open and like I said it's doing well I think that there's still so much bandwidth there which is exciting because I think we're in a very good place but you know I still meet people now who oh yeah I've heard of that haven't been there yet or what is it well I'm one of them right I mean I'm one of them I live here and I'm in restaurants happens to the best of us right and so you know I still think really really happy and excited with how it started but I think the bandwidth that exists within it to still do so much more I think you know the weekends are fantastic busy I think the weekdays we want to build up some of that you know we want to make sure people know you know yeah you might see a crazy party happening on the weekend on the roof but actually if four of you just want to come for a nice lunch on Tuesday great yeah and so you know lots of bandwidth but excited I think we're all heading in the right direction and it's just you know again it's a hybrid venue so people have to understand there's different things on every floor and you you know you choose to use as you might want like for example yesterday I knew someone from out of town and he called me and he said oh I want to go to layer cake and he the group went to the Wonder Room for drinks then they made their way up to the dining room for a proper dinner and then they made their way up to tables for table service on the rooftop nice yeah and then some people will come and just go straight the whole experience and then some people came just for dinner and left and probably had to go somewhere else or were going to hit all the honky-tonks and I know you got to go this is I don't know what kind of time you look like you got to go we got five minutes what do we got five minutes good okay it's it's this will come out on Friday of this coming week

01:30:26and today is the day of the big Grand Prix are you going down there yes I'm actually going to Peabody Plaza which is where Harper's is okay and Alliance Bernstein who have a huge global office here have very generously invited me because they have an observation deck on top of the building which will see all the cars coming off the bridge oh that's so cool yeah well let's get you out of here two things one is one is a question I'm gonna have the one just a quick conversation around QR codes and then the last question I'm gonna you can start thinking about it we have you take out the Gordon food service final thought where you get to just say whatever you want to the people listening I open up you get to take us out number one downtown COVID hiring all of this stuff I love your perspective as somebody who has multiple locations I think sometimes restaurant owners get too busy working in the business instead of working on the business show and you're keenly like you work on the business there's in the business but you are constantly working on the business where do you see the future with that because go tab was one of my sponsors but I'm had a friend in town and he's like now we went downstairs and I waited for like 20 minutes to get a drink be great if there was a QR code I could have just scanned order the drinks and picked him up at a separate bar but no I'm standing there forever he meets five girls while he's in line and he goes I need five gin and tonics and two of these and T-star or all these drinks for these people the woman goes all right so she makes the drinks I just get a water I don't I don't drink but then there's a it's $72 he hands her $100 bill she turns around puts it in the tip jar right I mean like that's gotta I imagine that happens all over the place right it's cash transactions and I just kind of think like people are so afraid of the QR code but I really feel like people you can do so much more with it I think it's a tool and people see it as a well you're losing hospitality it's like no you've got to have a hybrid of

01:32:29that you've got to have like this if I'm a brewery and I have a QR code anybody can walk up table I can have a Cicero and walk up and say let me tell you about our beers and then when you feel like you've decided just scan this code and and send it go straight to the bar and bring it out to you let me see your IDs everybody's good and just do that like you can do better things with service yeah versus oh here just order on the QR code and we'll bring it out like you can do that where do you see the future of the industry and are you planning on incorporating any level of that at any of your locations we're always looking at we're always looking to be innovative right and we're always looking to technology to help make things more efficient it's not easy it's not easy because there are habits and there are operational challenges and sometimes people are reluctant to change their ways right and but I think that you you know you don't need to shove people but I think you can you can edge them along right and and I think you're I think you've hit the nail on the head actually when you just said that and I think the point is this I think that we are going to see a hybrid occurring of things where you know things evolve in a positive way look we're not no one's trying to make anyone's experience worse no one's trying to make it slower no one's trying to make it less personal we're just trying to make it a bit more efficient and we are constantly doing the same we're looking at ways to do that but equally it's it's hard because you know when we came here and we're getting a lot of feedback well that's what everyone else does and you're like okay well that's just what they that's what they do here okay but you don't do that but is that the best way no but that's just what everyone does right yeah but I don't want to do that but so somebody's got to be the first right right right you know it's things like you know there's systems now where you know people can get their tip-outs directly deposited to their debit card through their debit cards every day yeah you know but you still get pushback and I want to I want to walk out here with

01:34:32my cash right and so it's like yeah but we're kind of you can see a lot of people are moving to some this sort of cashless I don't know who still pays cash I don't I mean no we we do a tip pool and it all goes on to a check every two weeks but it works out great and we have systems that do that for us I think in summary there we are constantly pushing the envelope to ensure we stay relevant current innovative but you know at the same time that we do it at the right time so as not to push both operationally for the staff and service teams and operational teams we certainly don't want to cause them additional headaches and then for the customers we want to make sure it's still seamless and they feel like it was all it flowed very well but I do think we'll see absolutely more and more technology and innovation impact our business and it has to and it should I think it should too I mean I look at just basic adoptions of cell phones I had so many friends that were like dude I don't I'm never getting one of those things I'm never doing and those are the people who are on them the most so I mean it eventually I think that everything will move generation Z is more the cell phone in there so the boomers and generation extras who don't who like the people we're gonna get out of that and everyone's walking go where's the QR code there's gonna walk in and go where's the QR code so and they're gonna scan it and they're gonna all know how to find the thing they want if they have questions so I'll come to go yeah hey how's the whatever dish I'm looking at it here and they can see pictures they used to touch it and they'll order it and then there's an aggregator that once it's they can all send their order at the same time they can all be combined into one check and one guy pays or they can and then when it goes to the kitchen it'll all put them on the same table and they'll course it and send it out the right time that's like there's no more there's no server error in that no absolutely now I can have servers I can have some oh yes I can have people who really understand my brand come to the table and go let me answer any questions you have without having to then go do all of the coursing everything and remembering to put on like let's make it easier for everybody

01:36:33I don't know I just see service going that way and I think a lot of fast casual I don't necessarily know if that's good for maybe a Harper's yeah but I mean I think sometimes you know look it's a good friend of mine in Dallas he runs some burger joints and he's a big he's a big proponent of technology right and so after doing the first location having issues with some staffing he was like I'm gonna streamline the second location right got these great kiosks they look brilliant awesome super efficient you come in it's got a nice video you can see the food you see your toppings I mean I went and used it I was like this is brilliant sat down food came out right like seamless just lots of pushback I mean he said my all my reviews like very impersonal didn't know how to you know I don't want to talk to a robot and he's just like it's so easy to use and I keep people floaters if they need help and they come out and say hi how can I help you do this and right people still don't like it he just see it's it's you know he said everyone you come you use it you're great but then I get you know people who just give me this pushback and then they'll give me it they'll even say to my face like the food was excellent and they'll give me a one-star review because of the kiosk it's like that it's I'll always go back I'll always go back to review I read when I was traveling somewhere I think it was to Cuba and I was going to Havana and Varadero and I was looking at hotels I'll never forget so I thought this was brilliant it kind of resonates with me sometimes as it pertains to restaurant reviews and I saw a one star on this hotel I was like oh wow I just read so many five stars per said it rained all week yeah that's it that's it that's it right there so you know I think it's just a case of you know and I told him don't lose heart but maybe you have a hybrid situation for now yeah but yeah anyway well Imran

01:38:34thank you so much for being here I did thank you could I feel like I talked to you for hours on and thanks for spending a little extra time no no you gotta get going final thing Gordon food service final thought whatever you want to say whatever you could say thank you and that's it or whatever you want to do the mic is yours take us out I mean honestly thank you first and foremost such a pleasure to be here and talk all things life business and restaurants you know beyond that just super excited super excited for where Nashville where the Nashville food scene is today but I think you know I know of other brands coming here that you know started in London went to Miami Nashville's their second stop after Miami so that that says a lot right like not not LA not New York they're doing they did came from London to yeah they came to Nashville so they are coming to Nashville and so you know as challenging as our business can be I'll always maintain the I'm too blessed to be stressed attitude and just keep going at it and seeing where we end up I'll always find we'll find our way too blessed to be stressed I love that I love that well again thank you thank you so much coming in and spending time I wish you nothing but the best of luck thank you so much all right well that was fun like to say thank you so much to Imran shake for coming in to studio and talking to me and spending an hour and a half this is not the tastiest hour of talk in Music City this is the tastiest hour and a half of talk hour 41 minutes man thank you guys if you've made it this long I'm super impressed we talk about the comfort crisis I'd love for you to read this book with us go to Brandon's book club on Facebook buy the book and then DM me and I'll pay for it I'll send you a Venmo I'll pay for the book so get it the comfort crisis by Michael Easter and let's read it and you can be on this podcast talking about it with me I would love to do that with you

01:40:38so please do me a favor go to NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com go vote for your favorite Mexican restaurant thank you net checks please go support our sponsors because they're amazing people and you need them telling you you need them and then stay tuned because Friday or this this coming Monday we're gonna be talking with chef and yellow turco and he is the new executive chef at the Four Seasons MIMO and this guy earned a Michelin star at the Four Seasons in Beijing and he tells the story of how he did it he's worked at NOMO he's worked in a bunch of places under some amazing chefs and we're honored to have him here Nashville this is his first interview in Nashville so we are introducing you to chef Nello from MIMO that's gonna be out Monday I cannot wait to share this interview with you and then coming up next Friday we're gonna have Kate Madri and Kate Madri is an actress a comedian and another fellow sober person we talk about our journeys on sobriety that's gonna be out next Friday so enjoy this episode with Emron Shake thank you for listening to it I enjoyed making it and I hope that you guys are being safe love you guys bye