James Kerwin

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. We got a good one today. Again, super excited to bring you another episode where we talk to somebody in the Nashville culinary world. Today our guest is going to be James Kirwin. He is the chef at the Little Fib inside the Renaissance Hotel. It is a get to know you episode today. I don't have a super long history with him. He's relatively new to Nashville and I see him all over social media and he's just doing really cool stuff. So I reached out to him and I said, dude, I would love to have you on the podcast. I'd love to hear more about you. I'd love to learn about you. So if you don't know James Kirwin, hopefully this is an introduction to just one of the sharpest guys, super, super good dude.

01:16I had so much fun talking to him and I hope that you enjoy getting to know him a little bit better and maybe you can get into the Renaissance or to Little Fib there at the Renaissance and try his food because I can imagine I haven't eaten there yet so I'm dying to. I've eaten his food at the Soup Sunday and it was my favorite thing out there so I was really, really impressed by him. So I hope you enjoy the interview. It's coming up here in just a minute. I always have a couple things I like to talk about. Today I'm going to promote The Roundup which is our show that we do live Thursday at 3 30 in the afternoon with Delia Jo Ramsey and myself. We do it on Facebook as well as YouTube, our YouTube channel, and this week we're going to be focusing on East Nashville. Kristy Cookie is bringing us the the neighborhood spotlight. We're going to be talking about East Nashville. We're going to be going over all of the hidden gems that you need to know about in East Nashville and we are also going to be, we're going to be doing a Miracle One wine promo. So one of our new sponsors, Miracle One Wines, we're going to be doing the Where's Charlie and Charlie McPherson's going to be jumping into the show and letting us know which happy hour he is at and inviting you, the listener, to go right then and there to wherever he is to go drink his wines, to go taste his wines, to go taste his wines. He's going to be doing free wine tastings for anybody who's listening, identifies where he is, and goes to where he is. We're going to test this out. I think it's a pretty fun theory and hopefully you get some wine out of it. I mean come on. We'll do it socially distanced. We want to be safe. We don't want to just pack a bunch of people in there but hey he's going to be around for like an hour and a half and then you guys can go drink his wine.

03:05It's going to be great. Miracle One Wines. We're so excited to have them sponsor The Roundup. We got a big big week coming up next week. Tuesday is election day and we're going to have a special election day episode with Dee Patel. She is the managing director for the Hermitage Hotel and I'm just so excited to have her on for election day and we got a big week next week coming up. We'll talk more about it on The Roundup and we just thank you guys so much for all of your support. So dig in. Get ready to get to know James Kerwin. With much excitement I want to welcome in today Chef James Kerwin from Little Fib inside the Renaissance Hotel. Welcome Chef. Hey thanks for having me. I'm super excited to have you on today because I'm legitimately like excited just to get to know you. Like I see so many things that you're doing out there and I never worked with you so I don't know a lot about you and I'm just genuinely interested to get in and learn all about you. Hopefully just get your name out there and everything you're doing.

04:19Yeah I mean well excited to just talk to you. See another human being. You know you might need to put an E next to this podcast because I tend to have a chef's mouth but you know excited just for the opportunity to hang out with you and hopefully you know we can shine some light on some local people and you know get to know each other. Do you notice when I do that when I put the little E next to the uh because I do it based on the conversation like if there's some f-bombs dropped if there's not then I won't put an E but like I actually like am cognizant because I have little kids and I'm like I want parents to be like oh it's cool he never cusses and then get in a car like whoa what happened in this episode? So I like to give heads ups. That's why it was like top of my mind so I was like I'm probably gonna curse at some point um and my kids are downstairs I was like let's just get that out of the way like first and foremost. Well first and foremost you got kids tell me about your kids. So I have two I've got a two and a half and a one one and a half year old um Leopold and Everly um super great just like a proud dad they're just like the best kids man kids are the best thing that ever happened to me.

05:33Leopold and Everly? Yeah. Those names are fantastic. Well I can credit my wife for pretty much all of them. Is there any family history behind any that or is it just like hey we love the name Leopold? No we're just like semi-hipsters. Semi-hipsters? Yeah we just like to do something a little bit different. I love it. I love it. So you went into the the quarantine with one and two year olds or not even quite you celebrated a one year birthday in the middle of the quarantine. We did and honestly like we've just been super blessed because you know obviously your kids are a little bit older mine they don't know what's going on they just know they get to hang out with mom and dad all the time um and now that I'm back at work it's I miss daddy where is he but that's the biggest problem I have so I've just been super blessed with that like they don't understand what's going on I don't have to do homeschool because if I had to do long division listen it would not be good.

06:39Dude it's not long division anymore it's called common core and you wouldn't know how to do addition it's not even long division you got to worry about because it's like three plus three they have made so damn hard just to be like three plus three is six I'm like you got fingers like no no no common core suggests and you're like oh yeah you're like I run a 20 million dollar business I can do that fine but throw like 500 minus 50 times x I'm like I give up yeah no more where's the calculator well that was you know there was this time you're lucky you are blessed because there was a time when school came back and we live in Williamson county and there was a kindergarten and first grader my kids was like they can go back to school so like it was a are they going to go back to school and then it was a yes they are and then we had to make the decision are we going to send our kids back to school and that's the subject you know I think on Facebook and everything you post all these fun moments I put on Instagram the other day it pictures me playing in the the yard and leaves and all these things and it's like I didn't post all the fights I had with my wife over whether our kids will go to school this year yeah and it was legit man I mean do you send them to school where they could potentially get sick and do you are you disrespecting the teachers and I mean it's a whole long conversation and we finally decided that I don't know how to do long core division and I know I'm not gonna be a good teacher and she was like I'm not gonna be like yeah there will be kids going back and we just bit the bullet and said let's do it and it was a great decision I mean they've been loving school and it's given us a major reprieve it's been great yeah I mean like safety is the first and foremost like whether it's school or whether it's the restaurant or anything like that but like at the end of the day like people just want to talk to people and it's it's so sad when your kids are like I just miss my friends right you're like uh buddy I know but but that that is the biggest problem that I've had so

08:40so we've been blessed it's a thing all right so enough talking about me let's let's talk about you growing up where'd you grow up are you a Nashvilleian I am native I'm a transplant so I've been here for about two years um grew up in Detroit but lived in Chicago for about 12 years before I came here so most of my all of my pretty much professional career has all been in Chicago um I lived in Florida for a little while went to tribe tribe culinary school uh was not for me was that your thing huh no did college wasn't for me school has never been what do you think that is what why was that not for you is it just a because I've had a lot of people on the show a lot of them graduated this I've got my doctorate I've done culinary school and a lot of them are like no I didn't graduate college I was like I want to get in and do I didn't want to learn about somebody else doing I wanted to do it I had an opportunity to do it so I took it but what about you what's your why I just I never wanted to be bored I think it was so I I went to college I did three and a half years um studied finance which at the end of the day really helped me out my career um for the little bit that I went to class um but I was I was just never I was always yeah like a doer a busybody I didn't want to sit in class um I wanted to be social um and so when I've always loved cooking it was never really cool um I remember the conversation with my old man when I was like I think I want to go to culinary school and be a chef and he was like that's for convicts and people don't know what they're doing I was like yeah but like I really enjoy it yeah I think it's cool I I started at like everybody else thought I was at 14 as a dishwasher um did that all through high school I was a I was a banquet server which was my only front house experience so I was like nope I like the guys in

10:43the kitchen um okay cool I just drop plates and ask people if they want white wine or red wine I can deal with that um and full matkins great love it but other than that I was like yeah I'd rather just cook food and create stuff that gets served but do you think that there's a is there there's some kind of beautiful marriage between not wanting to be sitting still in a classroom and learning to just being on a pirate ship in a kitchen and just all of the the melee and craziness that happens do you think that that's just a a natural fit you know I like I think now it's much much different just I think the same as your experience kind of just I came at the very end of the pirate ship thing where um chefs would yell at you and you got physically abused and you did all that like so we're kind of I'm kind of on the very very tail end of that generation um for the better most definitely sure how old are you 33 okay yeah um so I kind of caught the tail end of that with like fine dining in Chicago and and all that but um I'd love to see where the industry is now and I feel like it's just so much more positive I think the world I mean and and I love it I think the world is more positive now I mean I know my eyes have been opened up just over the last seven months I mean all the stuff that we've been learning all the the different civil rights movements and everything I mean I'm not going to say that I I was perfect I mean there was a lot throughout all of this this past quarantine that I've looked in the mirror and I've thought like man I got so much I need so much work I need to do and I mean I thought I was pretty well I got this I'm pretty sharp and and I mean that's just in the past seven months I I'm hopeful as to where we might go in the next seven months there's wherever we're at

12:43but I mean like 10 years ago 20 years ago was a different animal man yeah one I think just like with the natural progression of technology like I don't think anything has really changed I think it just exposes everybody right like I'm not perfect and you are neither but I feel like now with social media and more access to knowledge right it just exposes the people who were doing the right things and more didn't have integrity so you know I'm definitely guilty of that at some point right I'm sure I mean said some short-sighted things that I probably forget and and regret and you know but like I think it's just technology like nothing's really changed just now it exposes everybody right like when you when you mistreat a server they can go on twitter and call you out on it and it's not a bad thing I think that's that's what's going to help perpetuate our industry and make it a better place to work you know I don't want to have a conversation about cancel culture but I mean I think that there's two sides to that one is I think it's a cop-out sometimes is to go on Facebook and or Twitter and call somebody out and the art of having an in-person conversation with somebody there's somebody treats you in a way that's that's not positive I think that I think there needs to be a conversation it's just a bully and they do it to everybody and they've had the conversation with them and they say I don't I don't give a shit I'm just going to continue to be that way then yeah I mean they if if the normal lines of communication don't work but I think that there's there's this immediate reaction to it's almost like the Yelp culture if somebody comes in your restaurant and they and something isn't perfect they go oh yeah well I'm gonna I'm gonna kill you on Yelp and it's like well why don't you know I didn't mean to do that let me fix it let me see what I can do and I think through interpersonal communication and just sometimes the restaurant is a intense place and I don't think people recognize sometimes what it's

14:46like in the middle of a Friday night when you're on an hour and a half wait and everything's going nuts and the the wheels are falling off like it's intense sometimes you yell sometimes it gets crazy and it's like the kind of the whole fun thing about a restaurant at the end of that you can all kind of go hey that got a little off off the rails and I appreciate everything you did I'm sorry if I lost my cool like we're people and we need to continue to work as people to to get better and I mean that's just that's one side that balance thing you know yeah well I think you hit it right on the head with the interpersonal right like there's no one that's going to go on and say like chef James is a jerk because he yelled at me one time right because you built up that rapport with that person and like you can have the conversation and so I think exposing like what's happening is we're exposing those people who are habitual people doing that so it's not a one-off thing it's not a Friday night where you're slammed it's a this person does this all the time and a long time ago somebody told me that jerks don't make it in this industry especially like in a corporate environment that I worked in right like there's an HR like if you are a jerk you will be exposed you will know and I've always thought about it well that's that's that's indicative of a good culture I mean if you work somewhere that has a really good culture and it you can I love walking in a place you can feel the culture yeah like my number one thing when I walk into a restaurant as a sales guy for so many years I'd walk in and if the gatekeeper which was like the host or whoever if the gatekeeper was rude and mean or if you'd walk in a kitchen and somebody was just dismissive or what do you want you know defensive it's like I could tell immediately that their chef was a jerk and sometimes I'd walk in as somebody would be hey man what's going on hey nice to meet you then where's chef he's he's right over here be happy to talk to you it's like oh they have a good it's it's you can it's palpable yeah well I would say just like hospitality doesn't the the most important job in a restaurant is the hostess right like that's your first and

16:48last impression but that goes to line cooks like hospitality is not something that you do while you're on the clock right like it doesn't extend to being on the dining floor it's you know we always say we're hospitality and have fidelity kind of good throws like the restaurants retro feel and like it builds that culture and we're just we're hospitable that's that's it it thank you for for mentioning that because we get off topic and I can talk to restaurant people all day long about this stuff I appreciate you engaging me so you were in Detroit and then you're in Florida and then you were Chicago for a long time what brought you to Nashville uh so I had opened the marquee in Chicago uh so 1200 room hotel um I did the first good hall like as I go proof of concept from Marriott um just as one of like the f&b things that they were trying um really really great like I love Chicago it's I still consider it like my home home are you a Blackhawks fan I'm not a sports fan at all I we can continue the conversation this is great I gave up sports a long time ago like I at the University of Michigan is like a thing for me I I do love U of M football um but I just like a good game when I when I can catch it but you know once you start working 80 hour weeks you just kind of furgo the the sports enthusiasm um yeah so I worked at marquee open food hall and we had just before we even found out we were having our second child it had just been mulling over my mind about the way I wanted to raise my or our children um and

18:49it was the kind of place that I wanted to raise them in and an opportunity came up here at the Renaissance they were two weeks away from opening Little Fit um I tend to be the person that comes in when things are going awry um and I try to fix them or assist in some way um you know when we open the marquee I came two weeks beforehand my chef handed me a concept and said write it make the menu I want it tomorrow um so we did that and it was a 350c restaurant move it inbound and kind of the same opportunity came up to come a little fit um the the team and chef foals that you know so well um they needed some help at the restaurant they're they've been super super busy up to that point um and Nashville always just I've always come here I had good friends here uh you know unfortunately chef Nate from Marsh House is leaving us going to Creation Gardens um so he I worked for him previously and uh chef Mike who's over at Upper Lands they're both mentors and chefs of mine um so when they say that Nashville's a great city to move to and get a place to raise a family I tend to listen we are going to take a quick break to tell you a quick word about Trust20. Trust20 is the new standard of restaurant safety and diner comfort.

20:18Trust20 restaurants are part of a national network of restaurants that meet a high standard of cleanliness and safety giving diners confidence in the measures you're taking to keep them safe. Trust20 restaurants receive expert guidance operational resources and benefit from diner focus promotion on behalf of Trust20 network of participants. So how do you get certified? It's easy. First go to Trust20.co and request a certification appointment then a Trust20 specialist will reach out and arrange a visit. The specialist conducts a 60-minute review and consultation according to Trust20 tactics. If adjustments are needed the Trust20 specialist will provide guidance to assist. Now that you're certified have peace of mind that you're doing everything you can to keep your restaurant safe and start enjoying the benefits of Trust20 certification. Remember visit Trust20.co to request your certification appointment today. You're like anybody I mean you move to Nashville because there's huge opportunity here in Nashville they call it the it city right now because it is and Nashville's got a lot of really cool things going no shame in that man I love the fact that you're here and I love that we're bringing in amazing talent I don't I was kidding about the Blackhawks thing you know I'm obviously a Predators fan but Chicago's our big rival and nothing against Blackhawks fans they're they're actually great that's what makes a rivalry right yeah no I think that's awesome dude so land of opportunity your wife you have I mean you moved here did you you had a six month old like you're just like with a baby yeah yeah you're gonna move here and raise children it's you've been at the little fib since they've opened yeah yeah so we just celebrated our two year grand opening just a couple weeks ago and excited to be back I've been back for a few weeks we've opened for breakfast and we're still in late night so we're closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

22:22just given the nature there's no concerts anything like that yeah but Thursday night Friday night Saturday night Sunday night we're open for dinner and then Friday Saturday Sunday Monday we're open for breakfast and so hotel restaurants are a big deal I mean there's there's some legit hotel restaurants a big Chicago King of the restaurant industry Tony Montuano has opened up Yolan and the Joseph recently and they are number one on our Nashville hot list yeah just killing it there's been some amazing hotel restaurants tell me about I don't know I've never eaten at little fib so tell me like about the whole concept if I'm out there and I'm like little fib that's in the renaissance really like give me just a full update on what the restaurant's doing what your menu is like what the decor is like so it's all kind of it little fib harbors back to the country music saying that true music is three chords and the truth five chords and a little fib eight chords and straight up live so we try to blend some old school American retro with like modern plating and super local so you're going to get things like you know meatloaf but our meatloaf has 40 ingredients in it it's delicious we're bringing you home we're all about putting the supper back in summertime you want you to come in have a good time get that nostalgia it's just good American food that's all purchased locally and just made with love and it's going to be a place that you can come for breakfast and get an omelet but it's a really good omelet and like you can come and there's gonna be a surprise in every dish that kind of elevates it a little bit but like you just feel at home and that's that's what it's all about I feel like that's that's my my feeling of Nashville is like um you know we're here to just have a good time and give you good

24:29food it's like so it's not pretentious it's really some classics you know I last restaurant I worked at they said they said why don't we do all this crazy food and they said you know what we do here is we do good food people like to eat yeah and it was really good food quality ingredients that people enjoy ordering we're not trying to reinvent the wheel here we're just trying to put out food that people love but make it really really well and it sounds like you're doing that with almost a little more of a twist like with a little bit of that innovation that's surprising at the end of the day like we just we this is a restaurant for Nashville I know that there's a captured audience that's in-house for us and we're blessed to have that um but at the end of the day like I want it to be a place when when there were credits games right like I wanted you to come and have some delicious wings and a good local beer and have a great time before even the press game or to go to the brine man right um and it's all it's all exactly what you said good food just done well like our chicken wings we brine them for 24 hours we smoke them in-house we do a house barbecue rub we make a jack daniels like smoked chili glaze like it's really approachable food just we're just there's a lot of effort and a lot of care that goes that goes into it you know our our hope is that it shows on the plate so uh you moved to Nashville what part of town do you live in I live in Buena Vista it's like Buena Vista by the Kroger at Rosa Parks in Jefferson oh gosh yeah so um you had a you had an interesting day on March the third uh yeah so we did get a little bit of tornado damage but um you know a house is just a bunch

26:34of wood and steel our family was was okay and you know our neighbors were okay and that's really kind of the important part but you know we're still getting stuff done but what was that night like I mean I don't know if Chicago has like tornadoes like that but I've kind of told my story and I've asked everybody what their story was on the podcast like what walk me through having a one and a half and a two year and a half one and two year old children at the time and are you home were you at work like what was going on honestly it was it was such a crazy thing because we had just done koshan 555 and like won that and like brought home the trophy and the next day so we were like living on this high where I hadn't been home for like a week because we were working on koshan and then I finally get home and I get a chance to relax and sitting on the couch I ended up falling asleep because we're just as a family just hanging out um and I didn't even wake up to like the alarms or any of the the buzzers my next door neighbor my friend Jody she called us and she's like what are you doing take some cover and I looked out the our back window and I saw our garage door wrapped around a car oh and so I was like yeah let's grab the kids and uh fortunately we have like a little I call it the Harry Potter closet um underneath the stairs so we grabbed them took them down and you know immediately just started calling friends and family you know people at the hotel people at the restaurant making sure they were okay people that we knew were kind of in the path and and making sure we were safe wow what a just a harrowing experience what was that next morning sun comes up the next morning what did you what was the first thing you did um you know you have to like get some coffee and get some sort of like normalcy right and like

28:35level set yourself and and then we just set out to cleaning up the neighborhood and making sure everybody was okay were you in awe at all at Nashville I mean it's your you're new to Nashville you have this perception of what Nashville is you've been here for a little bit but that next week could you did you really get a sense of what Nashville is absolutely like there's there's no other place that I've ever been where people come together and rally around just helping each other I mean I can mostly speak to it from uh from a chef's perspective where we just want to take care of each other so I was like what can I do I've got a dented Weber let's get some charcoal I got some food in the freezer let's start cooking let's feed some people cleaning up um one of my neighbors his third floor got blown off and he's like my bar cart was still intact that means that this was meant to be drank so I'm making batch cocktails for the whole neighborhood everybody's cleaning up and I was like I'm gonna cook some chicken whatever we got to do like let's just all help each other out and the sense of community is is just crazy it's an amazing town I loved just those two weeks the Nashville strong you know every pulling together and I I can't wait for this election season to be over hopefully once somebody wins the election or loses the election we can um we can join back together and start mending I think as a nation I I hate this divisiveness and um I'm just hoping we can get that feeling I felt the two weeks after March 3rd before really you know Saint Patrick's Day and the coronavirus really hit I just felt so like warm and just proud of my town I still am but like I just I hate that you know it's just frustrating sometimes and just to roll right into you know all these

30:35restaurant closures and and all the people that that you love and care about and that you respect them having to make that hard decision you know to to close the restaurants or to put people on furlough and to make those phone calls right like that's a really difficult thing to do like rolling off of you know a natural disaster like that like you know I think about like like attaboy like I'm glad they're back open yeah what what a story and like it warms my heart to see that like so people that are really like flourishing coming back and giving everything with corona and international disaster you know it's I've always said that there's no better people more equipped to handle this kind of thing Russian people because we're used to stuff on the fly we're used to changing we're used to adapting we're used to hard work and you know it it warms my heart to to see everybody kind of bouncing back a little bit but if there's if there's one industry that's going to put in the work and do the right thing it's Russian industry that's a true story and I've I've you listened to the podcast I've talked to so many people whose stories have inspired me hopefully have inspired other people but just the resilience the innovation things that restaurant people are going through and I mean it's almost a daily um this past Monday I had on Matt Leff who's the owner of Ryzone Productions and he was my second interview I interviewed him on March 16th so March 16th on like October 25th we did two interviews and the stark difference between the two was just unbelievable and how much innovation and how much we've learned over the last seven months has been insane so I want to get into some of that with you you move here from Chicago you've got this life's good I imagine you get into little fib you're rock and roll I met you at the at soup sunday which is just an amazing event if you don't

32:35know what soup sunday is google it our kids soup sunday it's like 60 different restaurants all making a soup your soup was my absolute favorite sorry to everybody else there and I and you kind of have to go around like oh the soup is amazing which a lot of them are but yours I went back to the table I got like three of them I was like no you guys have to try this one again yeah um you're riding high you've got this you're you're you're downtown I imagine life is really good Nashville's booming you're killing it and then you go into kind of st patrick's day this past year being in a hotel did it take them longer to close you guys down like what was that what was that like for you and your family and just everything what was that moment like um it's it's interesting just because my wife also works at the hotel um there you go she runs the front office and you know I do culinary um so it's kind of like a family affair but that's also one of the things I love about the Renaissance is that you know we are all family um rolling into it was was really hard because at the end of the day like I didn't run a bad business like like we didn't shut down because I mishandled money we didn't like we were making more money than we ever have we were costly people were happy we're doing things and then you know this kind of happened and and it's just another interesting layer with having a you know 650 room hotel so not only are you an independent restaurant but you've got in-house guests so once safety became paramount taking care of our people is kind of our cornerstone um so once we couldn't keep the people safe um and once we couldn't provide the revenue to keep it open it just became an easy business decision to to shut it down um so I was furloughed and

34:40but thankfully I'm back and we're back open for breakfast but yeah it was a it was a really tough time I don't think anyone was was ready for it kind of came out of left field yeah no I think it was uh crazy I want to do a story and I'm working on this right now on pandemic pivots right so I know that word is annoying but hey it works so um a lot of people had to pivot during this time because we were closed I mean you just came back right I mean like you how long have you been back at work uh three weeks yes I mean you were out for six months yeah did you did you pick up any like odd jobs or like what have you been doing to has your wife been working have you been like driving uber like what's what have you been doing we've been up to the the first thing that we did because honestly when this all happened like much of the world I was like this will last for eight weeks we'll be fine um my first initial reaction was how can I help and what can I do so I got in touch with all of like my farmers like Tennessee grass fed who does all the beef for the restaurant or actually pretty much all the proteins and I said what are you not moving what do you have sitting in your coolers what can I do so every Friday we do family meal and we would do a different like to go contact us pick up we did it out of my house um with two of my other schools so people we would do they would say hey we have pork belly okay cool we're gonna do pork belly fried rice and we're gonna make spring rolls and we'll leave it on the front door dm me on instagram we'll leave it for you tell us the pickup time so that really kept us busy because we were chefs we like need to do that um and we needed to help our farmers and we need to help our local contacts that had things that need to be processed I mean it was all a group effort

36:48so we did that I've been working with edible Nashville the magazine we've been doing farm dinners pretty much every month um they're amazing I've been working with them for pro pretty much since I got to Nashville and I can credit them with introducing me to Tennessee grass-fed to army pottery that makes all of our plates at the restaurant and all these other like fantastic people that have gotten to know so honestly when it all happened we just we wanted to support them support the farmers and get out there and and do some good and make people feel happy and and sustain because you know it's a restaurant's about food and hospitality and when you don't have food and hospitality how can we provide that and when most of your friends and family are out of work how can you do the same for them that's that's what I'm talking about with hospitality people and love languages you know I talk about love languages and I go exactly you know the spirit of service yes you know doing things for other people that's the thing that most people miss when we go on furlough yeah but you're getting unemployment it's like but no but that's where we may be getting money but like I'm empty inside like I need to be doing things for other people that's how we give love and it seems like that's part of exactly who you are and you go through a time like this where you can't do that at your job every day and you found ways you found ways to go out and and help and be able to fill your cup so to speak yeah and I mean it's it's not really anything that I did I just helped facilitate and it's really all of my other chefs and all the farmers they're the ones who do the actual work to grow a vegetable or to raise a cow is the actual hard part and my job is not to fuck it up you made a delicious steak and my job is not to fuck it up and you know I get to I get to go and

38:56meet farmers and we've talked before I said I've never met a farmer that's an asshole so anytime that I can go and meet a farmer and they're super nice and all they care about is like the product that they make I love talking passionately about anything they grow and how they grow it and you know I try to dabble in gardening and I'm horrible it's not as easy as it as you would think like plant a seed like no you gotta yeah cultivate and water and fertilize and pull weeds and kill bugs and deer I'm trying organic farming and it's just like especially tomatoes I mean I'm honestly like happy to give me a frost because I just can't anymore the second it turns it turns red something eats it yeah oh I think it was you that put a post it was like I see why people eat green tomatoes because you can't let it sit there too long because it's a thing I now understand why someone has to eat green tomatoes and why it's a thing because the second your tomato turns red someone eats it it's the second it happens it's like damn it what I was one day you get out there and you go I'm gonna give it one more day on the vine and it'll be perfect and that's the day that whatever animal gets it that's how they get you every single time oh I like I've always wondered that and I was like okay now I know because organic farming sucks and so more more respect to everybody who does it and like you know I respect how much hard work that you're putting into it if I was a farmer I would I mean I would love talking to chefs too I mean it's like all day long nobody really appreciating your craft I my favorite interview that I've done one of I mean I'd probably say top five for sure was Sylvia Ganyer and she is the farm the CFO chief farm

40:58operator at Green Door Gourmet and I asked her I said so how do we support farmers and she goes don't go to farmers markets I go what like wouldn't you think that she's like no go to the farm and buy their product and she explained to me the process of how they do a farmer's market did you hear that did you listen to that episode at all I did for sure it's it's the most incredible thing how they have to do this so I imagine spending time with farmers who you appreciate what they do and like to talk about their food and how they do it is a uh can be can be nice yeah and like most of the time when we do these farm dinners it's a fire in the middle of a field and we get to pay homage to everything they do and partner with other local people we get to meet people and you know for most of the pandemic it was small it was 20 people 30 people as restrictions were were lessened and working where we were but at the end of the day it's a I called my family so like we all just get to hang out and cook really really good food and and have a good time that's that's the most important thing I think we all could have done through through all of this is if you don't come out on the other side of this with a greater appreciation for the people that you work with the people you work for the people who work for you um then you did it all wrong amen I know I certainly do I certainly have a new appreciation for um for a lot of things I mean not just the people I mean just a lot like my family you know I think the main thing is appreciation for all the things my wife does I'm not just saying this to suck up she doesn't look into the show you know I never realized how much she did in the house throughout the day while I was gone and now I'm here I'm like whoa you don't stop like you're you're two kids running around laundry dishes like she's just constantly going and going and going and I'm

43:00like blown away at her tenacity yeah that appreciation too I mean just all things yeah I mean my family is where rocks are like couldn't have done this without her now that I'm back at work you know she's just been killing it like I'm sorry like usually I would like handle the food I'd handle like the cleaning um and now it's kind of all on her plate and I'll come home and like did a really good job I'm cleaning the kitchen looks really good do you have any do you have any farm dinners coming up that we can promote uh we've got anything that you're still selling tickets for um the dinner on the seventh with boot hill blades um and black hawk farms that one sold out um but I am doing a taco pop-up with alabri on November 1st oh is that the day of the dead we are listen like Edgar and all of them they're they're handling it I just love hanging out with those guys so I'm gonna go just work the grill they're beautiful new grill that looks amazing um so I'm gonna take a sunday off and I'm gonna sign some tacos with those guys so we so here's I've been working with Edgar um with mayor bowl restaurant do you know what we're doing for the month of November I've heard a tease but are you gonna like I'm gonna announce it right now on this show right now and Edgar can kill me the entire month of November we're giving alabri a home on sunday nights so November the I think it's the 8th 15th 22nd 29th I think it's something like that the entire month every single sunday night we're turning mayor bowl restaurant the mansion in Brentwood into alabri hey yeah four nights in November and I will say

45:02that you know Edgar and all those guys like they're super super talented um I'm from Chicago it's you know a very you know Mexican heavy city so um they they give me a little bit of street cred for like myself um and they've taught me a lot about making masa so I love learning from them and I love contributing and I'll say at the end of the day they're just great dudes that make good food and um you know please go out and support them because these guys are doing it the right way like there's there's no one in Nashville and you can at me or whatever but there's nobody making food like you know all those guys like Edgar and Julio are both killing it out there I'd say for the most authentic masa and corn but uh yeah we're doing four nights with them and each night we're having a theme night so that will be he'll be promoting that soon uh but yeah so he's doing a big day of the dead event is it the Nashville Jam company it is yeah yeah so he's doing like a big day of the dead I think he's gonna have like mariachi and face painting and like a whole thing going on like a pinatas and like a big day of the dead event that Sunday so um definitely go check that out and you can go see chef James slinging tacos yeah uh I love looking at those guys like Julio has been one of the kindest people to me from that city like koshan I wouldn't have been part of it without him he was the one who like found my number and sent me a text to invite me to the event so is he like the best dude ever dude I don't know where he finds the energy like that man hustles like no other like and every chef that I know says that his tacos are the best so like I'm a little bit biased but uh but when you hear

47:04everybody else they're like in the industry saying I'll give his top and sorry you know it's for real we uh we went to the alabrije at the southern yeah and uh we only got one carne asada taco and we got like two of it we got everything on the menu and we got to it was like the carne asada was the last thing and I'd already already ordered like 14 things and I was like just do one of the carne asada tacos yeah by the time the carne asada taco came out I took one bite and I'm sitting with my wife and I took a bite and I was like yeah this isn't good you're not gonna like it she's like give me the damn taco she was she's like dying the food was so good she's like you better pass that taco so I'm taking I took a bite of a taco I hand her the taco she takes a bite she goes oh my god I've never had a taco like this give me back the damn taco literally passing a taco back and forth across the table eating it and there was that we got done and there's like that tiny little bit at the very end of the taco the city on the plate and I was like you gonna eat that she's like fuck yeah I'm gonna eat that and I was like I'm gonna eat that like it was like fighting for the tiny little end piece of the taco nothing on it just the tortilla and I was like it's that good your teas are insane when we when we started our family meal we did a taco night and Julio was the first person to be like I'm testing my like tortillas he and he provided like 400 and they're beautiful so ever since then it's like legit I'm sold like it made me feel like I was in back in Chicago like Southside, just hitteria like they're they're the shit and and he's he's been doing a lot of great stuff too like I love all the pop-ups that are happening oh well and now Julio kind of has his own truck now right so Mais de la Vida is Julio Hernandez right yeah and he is I think he hangs out what's that

49:07he said shout out to my boy I love him hell yeah man he's the best and he but he parks over at where is he where's his truck oh he's everywhere okay but I think I thought he had like a place that he was parking I can't think of the name of where he was Julio when you listen to this well I'm on Instagram yeah he'll be out there yeah yeah he definitely um but go try his tacos and then wherever you see Edgar Victoria and Al Abrege go go just just go and you'll thank us yeah it's that good Brandon and James endorse it so a thousand percent uh yeah so you have an Al Abrege pop up the next five weekends so that's pretty cool yeah well I mean I don't know if I'll be there all of them I still have to like put eggs at the uh I'm trying the people out there yeah but for the people out there the people out there you don't you don't need my my cooking in there let them handle I'm like I'm like a line cook when I well man I I feel like there's so much more to talk about we always get to this point that 50 minute mark in the interview where I'm like I feel like we could just talk for hours I think that's why people drink beer and go to bars and hang out because they could just talk yeah it's good times um what have I missed what are what's we've talked about little fib we've talked about quarantine kids moving to Nashville Al Abrege Julio Hernandez we haven't talked about Caroline Galzin yet I tend to get her into every episode somehow she's like my Jimmy Kimmel Matt Damon ah sorry to get to Matt Damon today um so I met them at Cochon face to face that's the and then um my one of my sous chefs volunteers for like some of their pop-ups so I haven't had the pleasure of like actually having a conversation with them so with who Caroline Caroline and Tony yeah yeah so maybe

51:09one day they can come you need to we'll hang out figure out a way to do it they're amazing people yeah no I know that we got the Chicago connection so all of us oh Chicago are you a socks you don't like sports never mind I don't is there a big white so no Tony would be really mad if I said I was a Cubs fan but I don't pick sides I love it all right well did I miss anything so far I mean we can do this again I just thought I mean just a pleasure to hang out with you and uh spend a Sunday morning not sure when this is gonna you know hit the pod but you mean a Wednesday morning yes a Wednesday morning lovely to spend a Wednesday morning talking to you Brandon um yeah man I just I had a great time thank you for giving me a platform to just shoot the shit and and talk I don't I don't think my story is necessarily very interesting but you know uh it's it's interesting for to highlight all the other people in Nashville that are doing very cool stuff so well I'm gonna give you your chance right now you know because we at the end of every interview I opened I open the floor and if you've been practicing what you want to say but um the the floor is yours whatever you want to say to the city of Nashville the country the world um where we got I think 32 countries have now listened to this podcast man you're really coming up in the world I'm telling you man Howard Stern in like two years yeah there's no way in hell I would nobody nobody could be Howard Stern um I can hope to be a one thousandth of what Howard Stern is he's one of my one of my absolute heroes so the my the floor is yours whatever you want to say as long as you want to say it go well I mean that's like a lot of pressure but at the end of the day I just want

53:11to say thank you to everyone thank you Brandon for having me on and um you know I love you Nashville we're all going to get through this everything's going to be okay just take care of each other take care of yourself too um and wear a mask go vote all the other stuff just uh and if you're ever hungry in downtown come a little bit I'm probably gonna be behind the line so if your omelet sucks you can win me uh brother Madden I love you guys appreciate you I love it personal accountability yeah the omelet sucks it's on me I'll own that thank you so much uh chef James Kerwin for joining us here on Nashville Restaurant Radio this has been a lot of fun and go check him out at the Little Fib uh it is downtown in the Renaissance Hotel and uh man best of luck to you Instagram it's uh at Little Fib Nash and JT Kerwin uh for Instagram and so you guys want to see what what we're up to what we're cooking that's the best place to find us awesome thanks brother yeah man all right so there you go hope that now you know who James Kerwin is over at the Little Fib go check him out try his food say hi tell him you heard him on Nashville Restaurant Radio I'm sure he would love the feedback and for god's sakes get out there and vote I think that early voting ends tomorrow so if you got a chance today get out there just just get it done it is your civic duty if you want to complain about it in the future you gotta get out and vote please please please get out and vote um I already voted voted last week and it was amazing felt amazing I've never had kind of this emotional feeling like I felt when I voted this time and I voted in every election so it was pretty cool I um implore you guys check

55:16us out tomorrow also please listen tomorrow on the Roundup at 3 30 if you join us on the Facebook live you can interact with us during the show Delia Jo Ramsey and myself do the show live we're gonna have a couple of live guests from the East Nashville area we're talking East Nashville I'm going to be doing my own brand segment about mediocrity and it's going to be a lot of fun so we look forward to having you join us Thursday and we'll talk to you guys soon hope you're being safe out there love you guys bye