Javier Salado

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01:05Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City, and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll, and I am your host. Join today and every day from now on. Co-host. Co-host with Vince Lanni. Hi, Vince. Hey, what's up? Good morning. I have to mention today that we are powered by Pepsi. It's all right, we are. You're powered by PepsiCo, but I think, you know, being more powered by Mountain Dew. Is that, yeah? I mean, I don't even drink coffee anymore. I shotgun cans of Pepsi. Pepsi's here. Let's not get crazy. Well, that's not, you drink Celsius. I do. Celsius is great. Although I never shotgunned a Celsius. You've never shotgunned a Celsius? No. I've only drank one Celsius.

02:07We've shotgunned Red Bulls and the whole pipe bombs back in the day in tin roof days, but the Celsius to me, I'd be flying if I shotgunned a Celsius. Really? See, I don't, I'm already naturally, like, jacked up. I wake up in the morning, my kids this morning on the way to school, I was like, are you guys ready for today? We're going out of town tomorrow. And they were like, I was like, one more day. And my son looks at me and goes, Dad, it is 6.55 in the morning. I'm sitting right next to you. You can calm down. And I didn't sleep last night. Like, he woke up at two o'clock in the morning. He fell on his bike, right? He looped out. He's doing a wheelie and he fell backwards. And his whole back is just like road rash. He was doing 20 miles an hour and just. And he's like, I'm fine with it. But he fell asleep last night. His shirt. Got stuck. Stuck to his, uh, got stuck to his wound. Like, you gotta dress that. Well, so he came in the room like two, he's like, my shirt is stuck to my, my wound and it hurts. And I was like, so we're up at two o'clock.

03:13Then I couldn't go back to sleep. Like, I just, I don't think I went back to sleep. So I'm faking it till I make it. Pamela are powered by Pepsi today. It's got a Celsius in here for you to shock up. Powered by my pre-workout. I had a tough workout at the gym that I could not get. Every once in a while you get to the gym and you're like, let's go. And you're just like, never in my life. Almost every day that I go to the gym, I'm like, let's go. And I'm like, raised against the machine in my ears, rocking and rolling this morning. Uh, bulls on parade raising his machine. I was just like, I powered through it, but I'm, I'm, I'm already on a full cup of coffee, full protein drink full. And I'm, I'm not, I'm not feeling it, but I'm excited about going out of town. You should, you should be excited and you should relax. Like going to chill out, going to, is this coming out today? This episode we're doing don't call Brandon for the, if you listen, hey, don't call Brandon for the rest of the week.

04:23The next five days, don't call me going to sunny Cancun with the family. Although there's a tropical storm coming through there tomorrow. So we'll see what see how sunny of our plane will land in a tropical storm. It's yay. The hurricane season, you go to Mexico, you never know. Family trip. My dad's 75th birthday. So we're all, I have a brother, sister, and you're going to hear, we did an interview with Kelly black. He is the owner of pop hospitality, which is the row tree house in East Nashville tree house, the pie in the sky, then Southern spoon and saloon. What is that one? And then, uh, it's called the, uh, Nash house. Yeah. And then he just opened bravado bravado, but we started that episode and he was like, Oh, thanks, Justin. And I was like, I'm not Justin. Uh, I'm Brandon. And that's, that's your brother. That's my brother.

05:25All right. It was kind of close. Well, my brother used to be his marketing. My brother worked was the, my brother owns a marketing company called tall boy marketing. And he used to do all of the marketing for Kelly black and his tall boy as well. My brother. Yeah. Oh, he's six foot eight. Okay. Yeah. Three, like 300 pounds. Are you like the run of the family? That's what people introduce. I'm actually his younger brother who walked up. This is my little brother, Brandon. That's the joke because like, he's like six, eight, 300 pounds and I'm six, six. And it's like, yeah, the, the, the little brother, Brandon. That's great. I like when I reach anytime someone messes up my name and it's like something totally different like that. Like Justin, Brandon, like you're not even, it's not like Brendan, Brandon, it's not even close. And you just say, Oh, you can just call me Brandon. Like as if they were close. And it's just like, ah, just, just call me as if you call me Vincent. And then I was like, Oh, just call me Vince. No, just like, wait, what? What's up, Sam? How you doing, man? It's good to see you again. You can just call me Vince.

06:31That's the move. I like it. Oh, speaking of the move today, we have got Javier Salado coming on the podcast. Now, normally I record these intros after we do the podcast, but we are going to be recording this today. So we were recording the intro before the podcast. Yeah. We've recorded the podcast in like an hour. Yes. So, uh, Javier is the owner of Soy Cubano. They originally started, uh, in the wash in East Nashville and now he has a location. Do you call it Sylvan Park? This is like a whole debate. Is the Charlotte corridor in between like the nations and Sylvan Park? Is that technically Sylvan Park? I'm the wrong person to ask. Cause I don't know any of it to me, like anything west of downtown, no idea. I don't have anything. I knew like we're in Bellevue right now. And it's all like, I can't get anywhere without my GPS, but now anything East or South or like Germantown, I'm good. I can do whatever. And downtown, obviously once you get past Midtown, I'm, I'm toasted. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know anything.

07:39It's like Tantissimo. I had lunch at at least tacos yesterday with Holly and at least tacos was really good. I bet. By the way, I would, I'm not surprised at all. Yeah. They have like a, a really good salsa bar. So you can get like chips and there's a salsa bar. She didn't like the green salsa, regular salsa. They have something called cowboy candy, which is like, it's got to be bacon. It's onion. It's like, uh, jalapenos, like pickled jalapenos and like pepper and like peppers and like, uh, some onions and stuff. It's like this really nice pepper blend. Delicious. I had the Brussels sprout taco, the brisket taco. I had the smash burger taco and the skirt steak talk. I think it was a skirt steak taco. Okay. So I had four tacos. Fantastic. Okay. It was delicious over there in seven parks. So, uh, used to be poncho on lefties. They rebranded because I don't think people knew that poncho and left lefties was owned by Edley's at least tacos. But thank you, Holly. I had a wonderful lunch with Holly.

08:40If you need to do any catering, they do an amazing job at catering. So if you're listening to this, you're like, Hey, I need to cater an event, call Holly over at least. Cause she is, uh, she is amazing at that. She's we hear people say, I want to do catering. I want to do catering. She does catering. And if you need help with catering, um, give her a call there too. Cause she's, uh, she's amazing. She's a wealth of, of catering knowledge. So at least that's Sylvan park to me. Okay. You go to like Nikki's coal fired 51st North tap room. That's the nations. But then you get over on Charlotte and you've got that ML Rose and soy Cubano right next to ML Rose. You've got autos and there's actually parking. That's cool. There's a ton of parking there, but, uh, we just talked about them on, I'm doing a monthly segment on channel four on today in Nashville called, where are we eating? And we just featured soy Cubano on that. I'm going to play that clip live for him. I don't, I don't, I want him to hear what we talked about. I don't know if he saw it. Nice. Yeah. And so we'll play that clip and we'll kind of, I said on the interview, I love the fact that when you're in that soy cumin, first of all, the Cuban sandwich is fantastic. Yeah. I mean, unbelievable extra pickles, right? That's I'm a no pickles.

09:55And, uh, it's like you're transported into Miami. You go in there, like the music, the colors, the vibe, like the food, like everything feels like you're in me. I, I have to make this announcement. I've never been to Miami. Really? Like I have been to the airport in Miami a dozen times, like stopping airport in Miami, but I've never been to like South beach. I've been once. I've been once. I went to, we went to South beach once. And, uh, in Miami, we saw the longest NFL game of all time. It was the, uh, dolphins opener one year, my buddy, Justin's from Miami. And, uh, so we went down and it was like a delay because there was like lightning. So they like, and then, so we're sitting there, I forget how, how far when maybe it was in the third quarter and then the delays happen. And then we see people start coming back onto the field. And we're like, all right, cool. Here we go. And then they would like leave. And we're like, what the fuck? So we would just like, we ended up just like, forget it. We'll leave. And we go and do a bunch of things. Then we're at the hotel later on at like the hotel bar and the game's on. And we're like, is this a replay? They're like, no, I just came back on.

11:02We're like, Holy, like it was like eight hours. Wow. It was crazy. Well, there you go. I mean, I've seen Dexter. Oh, okay. Yeah. So, oh, you know, uh, that's a burn notice. That's a good No, that's a good, never have never seen burn notice. I mean, Miami vice back in the day, I imagine that's like Miami. I have watched CSI and there's a lot of, I've seen my, I feel like, I mean, I've seen the video. I was like, wow, that was, it would have been way off. There's a lot. I know what the Miami culture, I can feel it's it's there. And I feel like when you're in soy Cubano, if I was to go to Miami, that's what it would be like. Yeah. Or transported into that, like that vibe, that whole, like, and then you walk, you know, you're, you don't feel like you're in Nashville and you walk out and you're like, Oh, it's kind of like, have you ever been in, in like a dark room, like a bar, like a bar, like, like, you know, sometimes when I would be at like the stage on Broadway before they had those windows out there, that was just all enclosed and dark, but it's like daytime.

12:06So then you walk outside and you're like, Holy shit. Like it's daytime still. You go to like a casino. Yeah. Casino or like the movies and then you walk outside and you're like, Holy shit. Like it's, it's daytime. That's what it's like going to soy Cubano. And then you leave and like, Oh, I'm, I'm in Nashville. I'm only 20 minutes from home. This is cool. So definitely go check it out if you haven't checked it out. And I'm excited to learn about his story, Cuban exile parents. He grew up in Miami and he kind of wanted to just make the food of his childhood. And I think that we're going to get a pretty good story today. So I'm excited about it. I'm definitely excited. All right. We're at 11 minutes on the intro. So I don't know if that is that long. Is that wrong? It's good with two people. I think when I talk for 11 minutes, it gets a little long, brutal to listen to because I'm like promoting and talking about Nara. I do want to say that if you are a local restaurant out there, we are adding people to the waitlist. Go to Nara Nashville.com. Click that join button. We'd love to have you. If you're a local restaurant and you want to be a part of this, if you are choosing where you go eat, if you want to go out to eat tonight, but you don't know which restaurants are local and you want to support a local restaurant, we encourage you to do so go to Nara Nashville.com. And there's a list of about 120 independent local restaurants sorted by neighborhood, sorted by cuisine. There's a map. This is your guide to finding local restaurants.

13:37And we're adding more and more as we kind of continue to onboard people and see where we can help. I think we're helping a lot of people. This has been a lot of fun. And we'd love for you to come visit us at Nara Nashville.com and learn more. On that note, let's jump in. Let's do it. With Javier Salado, you are listening to Nashville Restaurant Radio. Salado, which means, you know what it means? Anyone in the room know? Salty. I guess that was that. Yeah. Salado. Sal. S-A-L. Salt. Salado. Something is salty. So if you call something salty in Spanish, está salado. It is salty. Or it also means in jinx or having bad luck. So if you have a string, we'll go with salty. Yes. If you have a string. So if you're playing cards or something like that, and you have a string of bad luck. So when I played little league baseball, right? And it had a little salty. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was very salado because I would strike out three times in one game and be like, oh, está salado. Well, you've been listening in so far as we're getting names right. We are joined right now, super excited to welcome Javier Salado into the Minuteman Press studio. What's up, Javier? Javier is the owner of Soy Cubano.

15:11What's up, guys? Thank you. Welcome. Welcome. Good to have you here. So how the hell are you? Man, I'm excited to be here. Oh, great. Great. You know, we opened up the Soy Cubano on the west side six months ago now, and it's been going awesome. I mean, the neighborhood is showing up. So every time I drive by there, it's just packed and your patio is so perfect. It's covered. It's right there. I mean, the patio is just awesome and free parking. Is it free parking? You have lots of parking. Yes, it's free parking in the back. We have plenty of parking for anyone to come. And we also have some, there's some public parking also, catty corner, if we fill up. But yeah, we have plenty of parking for people to come and show up and easy for the neighbor to come in and park and a quick coffee. You can come in, drive up, pick up a coffee, go, go to work. So yeah, it's super convenient. So let me ask you, we had a debate in our intro. 51st North area, there were Nikki's Coal Fire, Daddy's Dogs, Pringles. That is the nations. Tantissimo, Edley's, Park Cafe, that is Sylvan Park to me. What the hell is... Where's the line?

16:27Where are you? Because that Charlotte has me, you got streetcar, headquarters, M.L. Rose, right there. And you've got there, there's a, Martin's has a burger place. What's it called? Is that Hubert's? Hubert's. Well, along that, I call it like the Charlotte Corridor. What is it technically? I will call it the Charlotte Corridor as well. Yes. But we call ourselves nations just because we're on, I guess, just on the other side of Charlotte. Then if I think we're just across the street, we'll be Sylvan Park. And I think... So that's the dividing line. Yes. I hear so. Charlotte Pike is the line. Yeah. I like the making it like Charlotte, kind of like 12 South was like a street, and then let Charlotte and those restaurants be like a street. Yeah. And there's like the L&L Market. There's all these... What's the other market where like Punk Walk and Gray's Fine Cheese. What's that place called? Sylvan Supply. Sylvan Supply. That's it. All that's right over there. So that's on that side. So Sylvan Supply is that, I guess that would technically be...

17:32Sylvan Park. Sylvan Park. It's in the name. It is in the name. Well, now that we've cleared that up, we've got that set up. It's so good to have you here. Every time that we've interacted or talked, I've just enjoyed talking to you so much. You're such a nice guy. And I'm just... From your beginnings at The Wash, now you still have a location at The Wash. How is that going? It's holding on there. It's steady. It's been steady and increasing every year and same this year. The Wash is great. It's a great place to get started. But I will tell you, we didn't get started at The Wash. We got started at the Commissary Kitchen on the West Side, maybe the nation's, the one that's right behind the McDonald's on Alabama. And we got started there in 2020 during COVID. In August of 2020, we sold our first Cuban there. And from there, we started doing farmer's markets. So we're in the Germantown, the main Nashville farmer's market there for about a year or so. We went to 12th South farmer's market. We're there for about a year. And then I was doing pop-ups at Never Never since the beginning for about a year and a half.

18:51And then from there, we went to The Wash. So we've been in business truly for six years, starting in August of 2020. So this past August, we celebrated six years in business, which is incredible. That's awesome. Where's my... There we go. Hell yeah. The crowd loves that. The crowd loves that you did that. Let's go on your story. I was just on Channel 4 the other day talking about you. Cuban exile parents grew up in Miami. Tell me about your childhood. What was that like? Yeah. It is typical Cuban family in Miami. And you would only know if you grew up in Miami, specifically in certain neighborhoods in Miami. So if you were in South Beach, maybe not. And if you were in downtown, maybe not. But if you were in Westchester, where I grew up, in Kendall, Hialeah, there's certain neighborhoods that you... Certain dialects, certain language.

19:54I speak English, Spanish, and Miami. We have our own way of speaking. We have our own dialogue. We speak Spanglish and very Spanish and English all together in one. It can be one sentence that we just keep on going. It just comes natural. We read it all as one, Spanish and English all as one. So we don't go back and forth. It's just one, right? One language. And so growing up like that. And then we grew up like our teachers were Latino Cubans. Playing baseball, our coaches were Cuban. You go to the markets, they're Cuban. So we spoke Spanish everywhere, except with our friends. So with our friends, maybe in high school, in grade school, middle school, in high school, with our friends, maybe with our cousins, our family members, around our same age, we spoke English. But once you were in someone else's home, you spoke Spanish. You dated a girl, you went to their house, you spoke Spanish. So out of respect. And then our food that we ate was the same. So the food I ate at my house were the same I ate at my family's house, but also my neighbors and my friends from high school and the girls I was dating went to their house and they cooked food. It was the same food. So it was a style of food that we ate down there that I'm bringing here. So we connect that connection point that we have growing up in South Florida and specifically in Miami, that food that grew up, like the cafe con leche with a tostada, the lechon, everything like that are certain styles and certain flavors that we try to bring here. And that's what I try to bring to our guests.

21:40So the con lechon, but what is it? Lechon asado is just roast pork. Roast pork. Is that the sandwich I had the other day? That's panko lechon. Panko lechon. I didn't want to say the wrong panko de lechon. Pan con lechon. Pan con lechon. Perfect. Tell me about that sandwich because I think people need to hear this because everybody knows the Cuban. Cuban is delicious. Why recommend that sandwich? Most people, if they're not familiar with the food, they know the Cuban sandwich, right? So you recommended that one to us as the next one to try. Why? Well, because it's the OG. It's good. It's the OG sandwich. So the Cuban sandwich originates from the panko lechon. Panko lechon means pork in bread. Pan is bread, lechon, pork in bread. So it's the OG Cuban sandwich. And the Cuban sandwich truly is not a Cuban. It's not from Cuba. It's an American sandwich named Cuban sandwich.

22:46Interesting. That makes sense. I did not know that. Well, there's a lot of Indian food. Tikka Marsala isn't Indian food. That's what they made for British soldiers. It was like a version of Indian food they made for Americans. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So same. So you won't find mustard in any other ingredient. Neither are pickles or Swiss cheese. None of that stuff you find in India. I mean, I thought I was like stepping out trying to keep it. I was like, no, it's in your DNA to like this sandwich. But the panko lechon, it's the OG sandwich. And it comes from like once your... Sandwiches are not a meal, right? A meal for Cubans or for most Latinos. It's not a meal. Sandwiches are just kind of like something you might eat really quick or something. But you don't sit down and like, I'm going to have a sandwich for a meal, right? So sandwiches come from, like panko lechon specifically comes from like after you've had like a feast of having the leftovers, you make the sandwich with it. So you get a piece of Cuban bread, you put some roast pork in there and just some onions. That's the basic of the panko lechon. So that's it.

23:58Now I add a little bit more to it. Something like the way I enjoy it. When I was a kid, I put some mayonnaise in it. I put some cheese and then I put some potato sticks and that's what I sell today. That's a cool texture thing when you're eating it too. I go, hey, I think I got some like stray fries in mine. This is, I thought I had like an extra one. I was like, no, that's supposed to be in there. It's like chips in a like, you know, you have like a lunch meat sandwich, put chips in it. That's the thing. Yeah. Yeah. Because it's all like soft. So I felt like I needed a little bit of a little texture. So as a kid also, I would put like mayonnaise and potato sticks, anything in there because I felt like just the lechon with bread and onions wasn't enough. Who was the person when you were younger that would cook these feasts? Well, my dad. Your dad. So your dad was the one who cooked the feast. Did you, do you have memories of like, did he ever bring you in the kitchen and show you what he was doing? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Men don't do that. Like except for him, you know, because I think my mom tells me now that my dad didn't like my mom's cooking. So he had to cook for himself because he... That's the origin story.

25:07Yeah, that's how he started cooking. But, but, um, um, yeah, no, my, as, as the son, we're not brought into the kitchen. We're outside, you know, learning, maybe doing other things, but not in the kitchen. They, typically it's more traditional in, for the woman to be in the kitchen, unfortunately, but my dad did cook a lot. So it was different for me to see him cook. And it was inspiring. I mean, that, that was something that I enjoyed. I enjoyed, you know, obviously eating his food, but watching and, and always was in tune. And then once I was able to go away to college, I started cooking. That's when I started. What, did you fall in love with it? Like what, what part of it? Cause man, I think there's a lot of this history and culture behind it that when did you move to Nashville? I moved to Nashville in originally 1999. Okay. So you've been here for 27 years. I mean, it looks like you moved away. I left for a year and I came back in 2001. I went to Charleston, which was also inspirational because I was in Charleston, which is definitely a big foodie city. And, um, when I came back, well, first, when I first moved here in 99, I continued, like I was, I was watching a lot of food TV and then copying what they were doing and bringing it home and doing it. And when I moved here in 99, I was here for six months. I didn't have a job.

26:31I was living with my girlfriend at the time and we were, I was just kind of watching Emeril every day. Emeril. I love him, man. And he's still today. I still, I think he's the best. Right. And his recipes always hit. Right. So I would go to, we lived off of West End and we'll, I don't walk cause I didn't have a car. We'll walk to, I think it was like Piggly Wiggly or something. Yeah. Right there on West End. Yeah. Piggly Wiggly. Yeah. And I'll pick up some stuff, the ingredients that I got, whatever, cause they didn't have anything there and I'll pick up whatever they had. And I got back home and, and I made the dish and almost every day I would do that. And so little by little I just started picking up, picking up and, and just studying what they were doing on TV. And then I'll read a lot of stuff and, um, yeah, I was just really getting into it. And then I started falling in love with the hospitality end of it, working in restaurants, which I've always worked in restaurants since I was my first job when I was 15 or 16 years old. What do you love about working? What is the draw? What is the thing that, that you, that there's, I have a coach that tells me, told me, write down the things that drain, you're drained or you're exhausted, write down what's going on. And then when you're excited, like write down what's going on. Every time I hit record, I light up like I'm on, this is, this is my favorite moment. And I was like, this is what I want to do. What about working in restaurants? Like light you up to where you're like, I love this. People coming in. Number one, I love it. I love it when people are coming in. Cause you never know every day. I think are people coming in?

28:02You don't have people coming in. Are you a gambler? No, not at all. It's just weird. Cause that's like, clearly he opened a restaurant. He's a gambler. But no, I, you never know if you were going to show up or not, you know, just never know. So people just coming in just makes me excited. My God, you know, they're in here. So just coming in, it's like, it makes me excited. It's like, yes, they're coming into my home. We need to treat them right. So, um, I love that like host mentality. I always felt that like, I'm, I'm just here to host whoever, I love people coming over my house. And when I'm in a restaurant, I get to host. It's like, what a great opportunity. What a great privilege to be able to host all these people that come in. Yeah. And I do that in my house too. So we have a lot of friends that come over and we host, my wife and I host parties for a lot of our friends, but having guests come in and host, and sometimes I feel like it can be annoying because I just go around to every guest just to check in on them. And some people just don't want to talk to me. And, and, and I try to get that and I walk away, you know, quickly, but, um, they say, thank you. That's my cue. Like, thank you. I'm like, yes, heard. But, but, um, I'm, I'm grateful that they're there. So I want to make sure that they know that, you know, so, um, uh, but yeah, I, I, and I take great pleasure out of that. People just coming in and us hosting them, taking care of them and making sure they have a great experience. Um, so that's, that's my main thing that we, I try to push on.

29:30As someone who's been a customer that your whole team gets that, you know, they, they replicate what you do really well and they make you feel that way. Well, you mentioned to us that most of your staff is bilingual and the reasoning behind that I thought was, was rooted in absolute hospitality. Tell us about that. Yeah. Yeah. We want to connect with, um, all our guests, you know, as much as possible. That's, um, in, when you walk in and visually, when you come in and the way it feels and connect with them that way and make sure people feel comfortable. So we, I like to have everyone, you know, not everyone is bilingual, but majority of our staff is. And, um, we want to make sure anyone that comes in there, um, that feel comfortable with whoever they're being taken care of. And we'd like to be representative with everyone. So we try to have, uh, as much as diverse staff as possible. I love that. You know, I cooked, I cooked dinner with my son. He got hit. There was some Nick D Giovanni, some influencer guy that my son, that guy hosted a show that my friend was on a hundred cooks or something.

30:38Yeah. So he made a cookbook and my son was like, I want to cook this meal. He was in, he got into cooking and I said, great. So we cooked and we cut up all the steak and we made the whole thing. And I said, now it's time to set the table. And he goes, why are we setting the table? And I go, because we're, we're, we get to make this food. This is us showing love to our family. And then we set the table. So when they sit down, everything is ready. And he kind of like set the table. And I think it like clicked on him a little bit, like, Oh, we're doing this for you. We're we're, we're this making a meal and then sitting down and eating it together. And the half the moon is like, do you like it? Is this good? And I was like, all right, you're, you're, you're, that's the hook. Yeah. That's getting you into this whole hospitality thing is creating something for somebody and seeing them. Margot famously said, that's my leveling, which is I love to acts of service. I give love by making this food and I receive it when people eat it and they enjoy it. That's how I receive love. That's why the pandemic was so tough for a lot of us that we couldn't do that in person in that moment.

31:40I thought that was really a special insight. Yeah, for sure. Like, um, I can be a little bit of a creep like that because sometimes when the food comes out, especially initially, when we first opened up, the food will come out and I'll just peep from the side of the wall. Just look at their reaction, just to see their reaction. If they enjoyed it, I was like, yes, okay, we can move on. You know, and almost every person I kind of watch their reaction from afar and from the corner to see some things they'll catch me, you know, and be like, I turn around really quick, feel odd about it. But, um, uh, I can't imagine I can't be the only one that does that. Right. No, no, no. Everyone does that. But I mean, I, I, I always try to watch other people's reaction when they take the, I do it on the move though. I'm like, I don't hide behind a bush or something, but I'll like walk by and like, Lance, you know, I'm looking for it. This is why. And again, somebody the other day asked me, uh, on that same chest goes, why do we need to eat local? And I go, because they, people care that you have an amazing time you're watching because you want to show your love and give them like this experience because you actually care and everything in your building is curated around kind of transforming yourself into this world. That's not like everywhere else. And I think you want people to get that. You want people to come in and go, wow, I feel like I'm kind of on vacation right now. Yeah. And, and, and further than that, like it was very important for me to, to make sure that people, when they walked in there, not even knowing about Cuban food, once they walked in there, they felt comfortable because if you sounds crazy, but if you have a bunch of like Cuban flags and Cuban music, Cuban artwork and stuff like that, um, they, they might not connect with that. You know, that's not, they're not Cuban. They're, they don't know much about that, but if you have some sort of connection point with them, they'll feel comfortable. And I always put it in, look, I can go walk into like, I don't know, like, uh, an Egyptian restaurant and not know anything about it. I don't know

33:45anything about the culture. I don't know anything about the menu. I'll walk in there and I know about food and I can walk in there and not feel comfortable just because there's so much of that. I'm reading the menu. I don't know anything on the menu and it can feel kind of, I can feel a little bit off. Yeah. It can be a little awkward. Like I don't know what this is and nobody's explaining it and it feels, yeah, I'll roll the dice and just order something. Or that's when you pick out the, I'll have the Cuban sandwich. Exactly. And I'll have the chicken Parmesan. Right. And that's exactly what I wanted to wipe off. So when someone walked in there, they felt not like that. So, so I curated it in that sense. So, um, from music to colors, to everything else. So someone walks in there. That's what I was thinking too, especially the color, like the, the, the paint and everything. It does just feel like you're in Miami or somewhere around there. And there's not all the flags, like you said, it's just like a real subtle hand. If you've been there, it's a vibe. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a vibe. It's not a, it's not like, you know, it's like cologne, right? Somebody walks by and they put five spritz of cologne. You're like, Oh my God, that's a lot of cologne, but just a little bit like, Oh, that smells good. Like it's kind of like that. It's not macking you across the face. It's like, Oh, that's really nice. You know? Yeah. I don't know if that's a good, uh, metaphor, analogy, whatever that is. Yeah. Hey guys, we're going to take a quick break so I can tell you about SuperSource. Jason Ellis and SuperSource has been a sponsor of the show for almost seven years. Yes. Uh, when they started, Jason was the only one working at SuperSource. And now I think he has like 15 employees. They're taking over the city, no contracts. You only pay for what you actually use and you can trust him. I've never had more people say I love my dish machine and chemical guy than I have with Jason. So Jason Ellis and SuperSource, if you are looking for a new, uh, dish machine and chemical company, definitely reach out to Jason. His number is 7 7 0 3 3 7 11 43. Another

35:54company that has been working with us here at Nashville restaurant radio for just about as long as Sharpies bakery. They have been delivering fresh bread since 1984. Yeah. They've been, they've been doing this a long time in Nashville and you hear us talking with Javier about OGs and way Nashville used to be. They've been through it all. Absolutely amazing team over there. If you are looking to get your bread baked fresh and delivered daily, like they've been doing for 30, what is it like 38 years? Uh, definitely reach out to Sharpies bakery. Their number is 6 1 5 3 5 6 0 8 7 2 or go visit them at Sharpies bakery.com. That's C H A R P I E R S bakery.com. And right now we're meeting with so many people. Insurance premiums are rising. Everything costs more. It is imperative that you call Matthew Clements over at Robbins insurance.

36:58He writes the most insurance for society. Plus they have so many other brands they can shop. He can save you money today, but you know what? Forget the savings. Having a rep who actually comes and dines at your restaurant, who understands your business, who is there, who answers the phone when you call and understands what you're doing. That's what you need when it comes to insurance, having the right insurance and the right person who's able to take care of you is everything. You can call Matthew Clements today. His number is 8 6 3 4 0 9 93 72. That's Matthew Clements with Robbins insurance. There are two types of business owners. Those who are busy and those who want to be busy. Toast is designed for both with tools to keep you humming and help turn grind into growth. That's how you turn busy into business. Toast built for busy. Obviously, I think most people have, again, I go back to connection, a connection point to South Florida. So you either been there before or even Florida in general, either you've been there before or you have family there and you visited, you spend some time there. It can be the Florida Keys or South Florida or Tampa or even the Panhandle. There's that vibe that we're trying to put in there. Some of my inspirations when I was doing it is there's this awesome restaurant called Flanagan's in Miami. You just have to know Miami. They're all over South Florida and it's just awesome. I don't know. There's something about Flanagan's that people just draw to and I wanted to have that same kind of feeling in the restaurant.

38:44I've never been to Flanagan's, but I get that feeling. In the intro, I announced that I've never been to Miami. I've been to the airport in Miami a dozen times, but I've never been to South Beach. I've never been to Fort Lauderdale. I've never been around. I've never been in the water. I've seen Dexter and I've seen Miami Vice and I've seen CSI Miami. I guess I get what TV has painted the vibe to be. I think I understand. I've seen Scarface. I know. There's a lot of violence there. I think there was a lot of violence there at some point. I've seen South Beach. I've seen the Ice Ice Baby video. He's rolling on the 5.0 right top down so his hair can blow. I've never been there, so I don't know. You've been to Soy Cubano, so you've been close enough. I feel like I've been in Miami because I've been to Soy Cubano. Awesome. That's the thing. If you've ever been to Miami, there's a thing. Let me ask you a question. Why Nashville?

39:52Miami sounds, from everything that I've heard, Miami's fantastic. Weather's nice. It's warm. You've got the beaches. You've got the great culture of food. Why in 1999 did you decide Nashville? Because Nashville in 1999 is not Nashville of 2026. I will tell you, I was ready for a change. I'm a son of Miami. Miami raised me. I am Miami. They speak like Miami folks, especially from the 80s and 90s. I have a connection with Miami. Miami is in my heart, but I knew I was different. I just was different from a lot of my friends and family. In what way? I just wanted to explore. I wanted to go out there and find and meet different people. You had a curiosity? Yeah. I think a lot of people down there don't. They feel like Miami is it. Hey, this is it. Why do you need to go anywhere else? Because the weather is great. It's beautiful, blah, blah, blah. I was like, no, no, no. There has to be other things. As soon as I got a driver's license, I would drive as far as I can, as far as my parents will let me drive. Sometimes behind their back. I'll go up to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm and hit the clubs down there and go to the bars there. I don't know what you're talking about.

41:16By myself. Just by myself. Then go down to the Keys by myself. Just because I just wanted to explore. The first chance I had to move, there's a person I was dating. She got an internship at Vanderbilt. I was actually planning to move to Atlanta at the time. She goes, I got an internship at Vanderbilt. You want to come? I'm like, where's that? She goes, it's in Nashville. I'm like, where's that? Where's that? Exactly. Where's that? She's like, it's in Tennessee. I go, I think it's the Capitol. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I went up and I got my Atlas and I opened it up and I'm like, there it is. There's Nashville. I'm like, okay, I'll give it a shot. So we went down there and man, I fell in love with the city. There was a community feel about it. Artistry, people at that time was amazing. People supported each other. I'm not saying they still do it now, but it's kind of- It's a lot different.

42:20It's a lot different. They still do it now within the small business. Within certain segments. Yeah, certain segments. Because the big companies are coming in and we're getting muted. But at that time, there was someone making shoes and I was just like, who the hell makes shoes? Who does that? To me, that was so cool. Who's making shoes? And people were just making clothes and doing this and I just fell in love with it. And then we spent some time in East Nashville, even back then. I was like, man, it was this rockabilly scene down there. It was so cool. I think the Slow Bar was there and the Five Points. And so we used to hang there and we just fell in love with East Nashville. We went to Charleston for a year because we had to go there for a year and I was like, hell no, this place stinks. Let's go back to Nashville. We went back to Nashville. We moved to East Nashville in 2001. And man, the scene of Nashville at the time was especially East Nashville. Still, today's East Nashville is super cool. But back then, it's what made it so popular.

43:29And yeah, that rockabilly scene, all that was new to me. And the community supporting each other was so strange to me because in Miami, they don't do that. So do you think Nashville today is turning into what Miami was back then where you said the community didn't support each other? I mean, do you think that with all these chains and people seeing that Nashville is the city, you have all these people from out of town coming here to capitalize on what Nashville is, a lot of that vibe that you're referencing from back in the day, and I know exactly what you're talking about, do you think that's eroding? How do you think it's changed? No, again, no. I think it exists still, but we're so muted. We're not being heard. You got to find it. Yeah, we're not being put up front. So publications and all that sort of stuff are not putting us up front compared to all these bigger companies that are coming in. They're coming in with a bunch of dough and making the places look Instagram worthy. But I noticed that within still the Nashville community, small businesses, we still support each other. I have some friends in the restaurant industry who are great, starting from when I was at the Commissary Kitchen. I started there with Chivanada. I started there with Pepper Pot, with Mama Yang, with Home Team Pizza. We're all there at the same time growing our businesses, and we're still really tight. We're still close, and we still support each other. And now being at the Wash and being next to Leche de Tigre, being next to SS Guy, Eastside Pho. So all those, I mean, we're close. We're friends. Now, in Miami, that would not be the case. We will be enemies. We'll try to compete with each other

45:31for here. I guess because we're fighting to be able to grow our businesses, and it's really difficult. So we understand each other's struggle. So we kind of try to help each other out. So I still think it exists there, except it's just not seen anymore. I want to magnify that as much and amplify that. Shout it from the rooftops. On this show and anywhere I can, because I think it's people like you that make this city special. I mean, this is what makes the city special. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. You guys are doing a great job now making sure that we're being put up front. So I appreciate that. Yeah. We need it. We're trying. Yeah. I just saw a lot of... I used to go to Sam's in the Village. Sam's Sports Bar, Jackson's right there. And you could sit there at the bar at 10 o'clock at night, and any chef restaurant, I mean, you just see everybody doing shots and hanging out and playing darts. There are so many amazing times. Man, I worked for a short time at Rumba off of West End. Oh, Rumba was the best. I met my wife there. Did you really? She was a patron there, and I was a server there, and she was a patron there. Were you there with Jeffrey Martin? Did you remember Jeffrey Martin? No. I was in the last like six months.

46:56Do you know Margaret Humbrick? Yes. Mags? Yes. Yes. She's the best. She's awesome. I went to my 21st birthday at Houston's, which was across the street, and then I went to Martini's, which is the restaurant that was before Rumba back in the day. My 21st birthday in that building. Speedy. God rest his soul. Speedy at Rumba, he was our favorite. I was the manager at Amerigo down the street. We would go to Rumba every night and drink. He was the first man that made me sex with an alligator. The only person that made me sex with an alligator. This layered shot in a Martini glass, and he called it sex with an alligator. That's hilarious. Yeah. Best guy though. Yeah. Great. Rumba represented Nashville in a lot of good ways too. They were originally one of the first cocktail kind of restaurant bars there, and people hung out there. Man, that place was great.

47:58Good vibe there too. It's great vibes. Places like that, that's what I'm trying to recreate in Nashville, which a lot of that doesn't, not around so much. It's a restaurant, maybe bar that brings in the community together, brings in the people together. There's some of that happening, but a lot of it's just, yeah, it's hard. It's hard. Yeah. Well, there's so many options too. That's the other hard thing. There's so much saturation and the chains just keep adding to that. Yeah. The chains, big restaurants coming in, it just makes things really difficult. Do you know the guys over at Cuban Cracker? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. In Hendersonville. In Hendersonville. They're about to have a brick and mortar. Yes, yes. Yeah. I was trying to read up on it. I didn't understand it, and then I got distracted. So they're going to be in a football five, is like a soccer football venue that's there. So they're partnering with them and they're creating a space within that complex.

48:59Yeah. I went over there and he kind of showed me what the layout's going to be and stuff like that. Yeah. They're good people. They're really good people. Holly and Vince. Your name, huh? Yeah, yeah. Her name's Holly. Holly and Vince. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Really good folks. Good stuff that they do. I'm excited that we're getting more Cuban food in that area and just in Nashville in general. And I know there's another ... Back to Cuba reopened. They're at Nipper's Corner. Nipper's Corner. So again, the OG Cuban spot. Brintioc. Yeah, the OG- Where I used to live, didn't I? Yeah, they're now ... They've been there for about a couple of years now. And I know Cuban Cracker was ... I was trying to ... Because they told me they're about to open up a brick and mortar and I went to look at it. And yeah, it seemed like it was in a sports complex or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you spent much time in Cuba? Never been. Never been to Cuba? Never been to Cuba. I haven't either. Yeah.

49:59I would love to go. Do you have any desire to go and- It's heavy. Start with Miami first. Yes, I would love to go to Miami first and then we'll just take the boat. No, no, I don't. Really? Why? I don't know. It's hard to say. It's hard to say. I think it's been driven in me from my family because they escaped in the early 60s, mid 60s from the regime, Castro. And we're so anti-Castro any which way of going back to Cuba and putting any of our dollars into that country and supporting them politically. So we tend not to go back. Much different than me going to Ireland. Much different. And the places where my family grew up doesn't look the same. You can kind of look at it. There are people now in Cuba doing YouTube videos, which you can do now. And so there are people posting YouTube videos of the areas where my family is from and they're telling me it doesn't look the same. It doesn't look the same. So just going back, it's, I don't know.

51:19That's interesting. Yeah. No, it makes sense. Yeah. Look, I don't have, except for culturally, I have a connection with Cuba, culturally, because I grew up Cuban, both my parents being Cuban, but from the country, Cuba itself, there's no, I have no connection with that country, only culturally. So the music, the food, the language, but the country itself, no. So that's why there's no drive for me to go to Cuba at all. Interesting. It makes sense. Yeah. And it's hard to explain that. And again, that's why I don't have anything Cuban in the restaurant because the restaurant is more of my identity, the way I grew up, right? More of Miami, 80s and 90s Miami, which is mostly me. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I think that's an interesting distinction to make though. Because I mean, I think that that's a good reasoning behind why there's not flags everywhere and why I don't agree with the political system there and I don't want to support it. However, culturally growing up in Miami, this is what I had and that's the food my father would cook. And this is what I grew up making.

52:27And I want to share that with people. It's like you represent the stuff that you like about it and the culture around it. And that's enough to support, you know? Yeah. Where'd you work when you first got here? Like what are some restaurants that you worked at as you came up? Let's reminisce back in the days from 1999, 2000 to like 2020. Well, so when I first moved here in 99, I have a degree in graphic arts. So I came from Florida as a graphic designer. I came to Nashville in 99 and I knew I was going to be here a short time, so I didn't want to pick up a job. So I was kind of working, like I said, I was cooking every night, going, but I also got bored and like, I want to go pick up a job, but I want to get like a part-time job or a temp job. So I went, there was a temp agency right next to us. So I went over there and they gave me a temp job in some warehouse knocking down racks, okay? And this is again, a food thing. And then during lunchtime, the cafeteria, we'll go to the cafeteria and it was all divided. That warehouse was a bunch of different kinds of ethnicities were there. And so, you know, white people, white people, black people, black people, Latinos, Latinos, and there was like Middle Eastern group, right? And they're eating.

53:46And so initially I would eat by myself and the Middle Eastern group guys go, Hey, come over here. Want to eat with us? We got invited to their table? We got invited to their, yes. You're like back in grade school again. Yeah, no, for real. And they sat around, again, this was new to me, right? They sat around in a circle and they all brought their food, right? And they all shared and they all got like bread and shared here and grabbed some of that food over here and some of that. And I was like, wow, this is so cool. So it was important for me to bring food for them to share with them. So I would make food, excited and be like lunch. I would only go to work for lunch and share food with these guys. The job sucks so bad. I can't tell you how much I love that though. Yeah, it's great. You got to find your thing when you have to go do a job. But I think that's the hook. That's the thing where you know you love cooking. Yeah, for sure. And so I was, man, that job was so difficult, but made me go every day just to hang out with these dudes. And I learned their stories.

54:52They're most of them from Iraq. They came from the war and after the war, and they were in Nashua. And so they were all bringing this food and we're all sharing it. And that was my first job there. And then I left and came back two weeks prior to 9-11. And so I was trying to find work as a designer and art director. I couldn't find work. And I started one of our favorite restaurants was Granite Falls. Do you know Granite Falls? Yeah. Granite Falls on Broadway before the turn by Vanderbilt. That Broadway before it ends, before it turns into 21st, I think. It was right next to Manuel's, the designer. Okay. Yeah, that's like downtown. Yeah, it was in Midtown. Okay. Anyway. So Granite Falls, I started working there. It was one of my favorite spots. I looked at the newspaper because we're looking for jobs at the time. I looked at the newspaper and I saw they're hiring. And so I don't know if it was Craigslist or something like that. And I went over there and I'm like, hey, I need a job. And they're like, yeah, yeah, we'll hire you. And I started working Granite Falls. I loved it. The owners there were Paul Keyhays and Mark Robbins, who I'm still close with today. Mark Robbins, who they also owned a place in Smyrna called Hickory Falls. And- Okay.

56:21Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they also owned the Franklin Chop House at the time in Franklin. So I worked for them and they quickly moved me into like a key position, right? Or part-time manager position. And I started really liking working with them and they were good operators, really good. And so I learned a lot from them. And then I tried to get away from the restaurant industry and then I started working in Franklin Chop House with Mark Robbins. I tried to get away from it and I couldn't really. In 2012 or something, I get a call from Mark Robbins and he goes, hey, there's a Mexican restaurant opening in the Gulch. This is what he says to me at the Gulch. Will you be interested? Because they're looking for a manager. Would you be interested in that? I'm like, nah, I don't want to work in a Mexican restaurant. No way. And- Cantina Laredo? No, no. Añejo?

57:21No. Mark was completely wrong. He lived in Franklin. He doesn't know anything about Nashville. So it was Taqueria Del Sol on Tulsa. Okay. And so I met, like a day later, I was thinking about it. And at the time, and not to go into anything too deep, but I was going through like some personal stuff with a divorce and it was getting really hard on me, going through some depression. I was working from home in my job and I was like, oh shit, I might lose my job because I'm really depressed. And I need a change. I called Mark back the next day. I'm like, what is this job again? He goes, I can get your interview. I went to interview at Frothy Monkey on 12 South. I met with Tony Halligan, who's the owner of Taqueria and his partners. And it was kind of a cold day. And if you know Tony, he has glasses and he has this little, almost like a little monocle type thing on a lens.

58:26Bifocals. Yeah, bifocals. But he also has another little lens in the lens. Oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a new thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it was kind of cold and he wore like this peacoat and he kind of had himself all covered up to the neck. And all he could see is his head and his glasses and his thing. And I go, this guy's very peculiar, right? He's a very funny guy. And he can't see you unless he's really close to you. So when he wanted to talk to me, he would get really close like that. Yeah, like that. And I was like- I just did that to vent, by the way. And he got like three inches off. And I was like, but these guys, I sat down and interviewed with them. I thought I did a good job. These guys were tough. These guys owned some restaurants in Atlanta. One of the chef owners of what used to be Houston's. So these guys knew their business. So at that time I knew, okay, Mark Robbins gave me a recommendation. This guy's a good operator.

59:27These guys are good operators. I want to work for these guys, right? I can learn a lot. I can learn a lot. Exactly. So I decided, I left the interview, not sure if I got it or not. I called them back. I called and go, listen, I'm your guy because I come from your tree. Look at like the Bill Belichick tree a little bit. I come from your tree, okay? I work with this person. I work with these people. These people have the same ideals that you guys have. I'm your guy. But I want her to work in the back of the house. I want her to work in the back. I want her to work in the kitchen. They're like, no. And then they're like, okay, you're hired, but you work in the front. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. I want to work in the back. I want to be the chef. And he's like, no, no, no, not with your personality. No, no, no. You're working in the back. So they had me work the front at Taco Grill Lasso until South. And I was there from 2013 when they first opened until COVID 2020, until I moved. And then I worked with Tony Halligan, who's awesome. He started Stony River in Atlanta. These guys, his partner has this called the Canoe in Atlanta. I don't know if you're familiar with that restaurant. So outstanding. These are great restaurants.

01:00:42Restaurants, to me, one of the best restaurants in the city is Brick Tops, right? It's a great restaurant. Consistent every time they operate like clockwork. Yes. Restaurant, great restaurant. So I knew I wanted her to work with these guys. So I worked with them for eight years. I learned so much from them. I'm very grateful. They're super supportive today. Just to come by and say hello and call me almost on a weekly, checking in with me and making sure they're always wishing the best, which is rare. Once you leave, choose to leave one restaurant, do something else on your own. Rarely does that restaurant come back and go or support you the whole way through. And they've done that. Well, they should. They should. That's the way it should be. Yeah. Yeah. I have a lot of good relationships with people I used to work with. It's so funny listening to you. I have such a similar story real quick, but I wanted to bar back my first restaurant job and they're like, no, you're going to be a server. I was like, I don't want to do the front. And then I also almost, I don't know if I applied or not, but it was just after COVID. I just closed my restaurant.

01:01:57I was looking for jobs and I didn't want to go back to manage bars downtown and be there until 6 AM. And I was looking into a general manager position at Taqueria Del Sol. And I'm like, wow, I wonder if I would have just missed you there. I'd ended up not, I don't even know if I applied or not, but it was one of those high on my radar places to go. So that's funny. It was a great place because they had, we created a 12 South, which at the time, 2013 height. Guys, we're going to take another quick break to tell you about C&B Linen. These guys are absolutely amazing. And they're changing the game with linens. I know everybody we meet with hates their linen company. They're shady. They're not good. These guys are, if you get through me to say this, I'm vouching for them. You should definitely check out C&B Linen. I want you, I want to tell you about Andrew. Andrew is their rep. He is the guy that you need to call. His number is 931-676-7153. C&B Linen. You know, another company we're sending a lot of people to because everybody has merch. If you have a NARA t-shirt, guess what? It came from Twine Graphics. They're located right in downtown Franklin. They do the screen printing right there in downtown Franklin. John Bond and Brandon Hagan are some of the nicest guys you will ever meet.

01:03:23They will sit, listen to you. They've got a great graphics team and they will make the product right here and there. You can even go walk around. They have a showroom where you can pick the material exactly what you want. You can try on the hat that you want and they work with a ton of local restaurants. Everybody we have sent to Twine Graphics so far has absolutely had an amazing experience. If you want, if you need merch, if you want to work with a local graphics company that does screen printing, 615-538-8031. That is Twine Graphics. A lot of people tell us that social media and marketing in itself is a challenge for them. It's a daily thing. You've got to continue to create content. You might forget today, but everybody tells you, you got to post every single day. And what do you post? That is why you need a full serve marketing company to help you create your brand, help you create your identity, and then actually create a schedule as to what you're going to post. You need somebody to film it. This is what Pliny Crane does. Check them out.

01:04:28It's P-L-I-N-Y-C-R-A-N-E. Carter Crone's the owner. You need to give him a call. His cell number is 865-850-7809. If you need to level up your game in marketing, and you do, you need Pliny Crane. You know, I've really enjoyed getting to know Kurt over at Kitchen Guard, and it is amazing how so many people forget to have your hoods cleaned. You'll wait, you'll wait, you'll wait, but guys, this is a massive fire hazard. And if you get the wrong people to come do it, so you can check that box, chances are it's not going to be done right. Kurt Kowalski and Kitchen Guard guarantees they're going to get every single bit out of that hood and clean it so that you can be compliant as well as safe. Kitchen fires are really bad, and you do not want those. You need to have your hoods cleaned. If you're listening to this right now, and you're like, man, I really need to have my hood cleaned, then you need to call Kurt Kowalski today. His number is 734-344-2010. Read that back. You want to write this down. You need to call Kurt Kowalski with Kitchen Guard, 734-344-2010. And finally, if you are somebody out there, you've noticed GLP ones are huge. People are not ordering as much food, and they're certainly not ordering as much alcohol. THC beverages are everywhere. You guys, they're the next thing. I don't know if they're going away in November. I don't think that they are, but I will tell you North Canna is delicious.

01:06:11Low calorie, doesn't taste like bong water. They have a cool blood orange flavor, prickly pear, watermelon, strawberry. There's so many different amazing flavors of North Canna. You can find them at your liquor stores, or you can order them today from Littman Brothers. They will be there tomorrow. North Canna. 2020 was the height of 12 South at the time. 12 South was amazing back then. You're right across the street from 12 South Tap Room. You've got Josephine right there. I just moved to 12 South in 2020. It was either East Nashville or 12 South, and I chose East Nashville. Mafiosas. Mafiosas. Man, come on. I remember when we first got there, you can walk 12 South and walk across the street without even looking both sides. You can just walk the street when we first got there. You can walk up and down and just know everyone walking up and down the street and just wave to people. We really felt part of the community in 12 South. Did you ever meet Dolly? No. She was right next to us. I know. Did you ever meet Dolly?

01:07:12No. Did you ever see her? Never. Damn. I know. I think she chose other Mexican restaurants down Nolensville Road. I think that's where she would go to. I don't think she hung out on 12 South. Tacos, these Mariscos, number nine. Yes. Yeah. I don't know which ones. Number 12. Yeah. I think she probably didn't hang out there much. I would try to scope her because I think she drove like a Volvo or something and she would drive. I mean, you wouldn't know if Dolly was walking down the street. No. I don't know. I don't know. I think with her wigs and stuff, I don't know. But you can't miss Dolly. That's the thing. If you saw her walking outside or something, there's Dolly. She was just like this rainbow. You can't miss her. Wow. I interrupted you while you were talking about 12 South. Yeah. No. 12 South at the time was amazing. We knew all our neighbors, like Tapro, Mafiosas, Burger Up, Urban Grub, all these great places. And you would all go hang out there.

01:08:19There were certain moments. Late night at Mafiosas. Man, late night at Mafiosas. How many of those did she have? My goodness gracious. Too many. Too many. So yeah. I remember, I have a poster in our bathroom right now of, I don't know if you're basketball fans or not, but Ray Allen making the shot versus San Antonio in the finals. I was in Mofs, Mafiosas. But when that shot happened, that's where I was at. I have a lot of special moments. Mafiosas, Urban Grub. I think my wife and I went there for our wedding pre-meal drink at Urban Grub. So yeah. So at the time, I was at 12 South, the hottest market in Nashville at the time. And it helped me define more of my position, what I wanted to do in my life. Well, I think it also cured you. I think that you talked about a time that you were going through a divorce. You were depressed. You did not like what you did. And again, I asked you earlier today, I said, why restaurants? And even in this moment, when you were down at your lowest, I mean, I don't know if that was your lowest, but it was a low point for you.

01:09:34Going back into the restaurants brought you that community that I think that you needed that healed you. Yeah. Just talking to people and just joy. It was just joy. And meeting people. And when I was hired there, they were like, Javier, it's going to be like 60, 70 hours a week. I'm like, great. Can I do 80? Is that on the table? I did not want to be home because home was sad for me. So I wanted to be at work. So it was perfect for me. So yeah. And I was meeting people and me interacting with folks and just joy. And that neighborhood, because I had Chagos for a couple of years, that Belmont Hillsborough neighborhood, the people are so kind. I mean, those people lived there a long time. They supported local. I mean, it was a great neighborhood to be in. Yeah. It was a great neighborhood to have a business. And yes. Well, I think when we asked, I don't know, maybe we asked Kelly Black the question when we said, what is a restaurant person? What makes a restaurant person? I think we've defined that today. I think that this is a person who wants the community, who thrives off of, like you said, seeing people come in the door, providing them with food and service and seeing joy on their faces, lights up your soul. That's the thing that lights up your soul.

01:10:53Providing the joy to others gives us joy. That's what a restaurant person is. Yes. It's totally fulfilling. I get excited talking about it. I'm like, this is it. I love this. Yeah. This is the only thing I can do. It's the only thing I can do. Nothing else I can do because it's the only thing that really fulfills me inside. Yeah. So when other people ask, look, I want to start something. I want to start serving food, having a restaurant. I'm like, listen, if you have, could you do other things? If you could do other things, I would do that first. But if you can't do anything else but this, then yeah, let's look at it. But yeah, there's no other job I can do that will bring me as much joy. I think it's a good barometer. If you're wondering if you are a restaurant person, if you've worked in a restaurant and that's the thing that brought you joy, maybe it's time to go back. Maybe this is, I mean, because I think that we had this great resignation kind of towards the end of the pandemic. People left. We talked about this the other day. They rage quit or they just quit. Or they became realtors.

01:11:57They became realtors. But if you're unhappy doing that thing and you find this void, you can see just in Javier's general disposition, this is it. This is the thing that lights you up. This is the thing that energizes you every day. I told Vince, I've told 100 people, doing what we do at NARA, I don't feel like I'm, I work all the time, all the time, but I don't feel like I'm working. It's just fun. I love doing this and it's in the restaurant world. I can't not be in there. I don't know anything else. This is it. This is my, this is it. This is it. Yeah. And yeah, I don't see it as work. I'm walking in there and I just slip my day. This is what I enjoy doing. I think it's so cool that you built so sustainably too and didn't just like, I opened a restaurant and spent a hundred grand and didn't work in 2020. You came from management, but then like started in the commissary and then the wash and pop-ups and then the wash and then now farmer's market. So it's like that kind of testing, build, measure, learn and getting there slowly but surely. And that's what gives you a lot of the success that you have. Yeah. I always tell people to always test your product at the farmer's markets because it's a good barometer where you, you know, if people like it or not and they keep on showing up, you know, what you can change, they'll tell you what they want, what they don't want on items. So the farmer's market is a great spot to really start and just have a product and see if people want it or not. So I always tell people, test your product at the farmer's market and get practice, keep on doing it, keep on doing it and refine your work. I had no idea where this conversation was going to go today. We're almost at the hour mark and I always ask this question because I don't know. Anything we're missing? Is there anything that you were laying in bed last night thinking about this interview

01:13:57today that you're like, I really want to touch on this or I want to touch on that? Anything that you, do you have any shout outs, anything you want to say, any vendors you absolutely love that you want to shout out? Anybody out there? I mean, I got a bunch of vendors that, you know, vendors that I, look, there are a lot of people that helped me and I give them some shout outs already, you know, people like Mark Robbins, Tony Halligan, you know, those people have really helped me be where I'm at. You know, shout outs to the people that were at the commissary. We busted our butts there, man. They work really hard. And so, you know, I try to, those people are really influential to me as well as like, you know, I look at Brick Tops, places like those, those are places I kind of inspire to be. Now it's a different level. I understand that, but there's certain things I can grasp and bring- Quality standards.

01:14:58Yeah. Yeah. And bring it into what we do. One thing that's always been important to me is that, that we're not really a Cuban restaurant, you know, and not even a Miami restaurant, we're just a restaurant. That's it. So the biggest compliment that I get, and they're like, they go, hey, are you the owner here? I'm like, yes, this is a great restaurant. I'm like, thank you. All right. Well, you, the general public, if you're a restaurant owner and you're listening to this and you want to build your network, come by and meet Javier. You're always there. Yeah, pretty much. I mean, every time I've been there, you've been there. Look behind the bushes. He's watching you eat your first bite of food. Definitely. If you want to try some absolutely amazing food in a really cool environment and come meet Javier, come say hi. I'm sure he would love to know you heard him on the podcast. He would love to shake your hand. He'd like to make recommendations on what to eat there. The food is delicious. The coffee is delicious. They've got a full bar and you're open. You're closed on Mondays. I found this out this week because I tried to go Monday. As of now, yes, we're closed on Mondays.

01:16:08I was there on a Monday. You're like, wow, look at all this parking. Well, that was the thing. I pulled up and I was like, hey, there's a lot of parking today. What's going on? And then we went to M.L. Rose for lunch instead. But even on the closed day, who was there when I got back to my car but Javier standing outside? I'm like, he's even there when they're closed. Yeah. So there's two days a week that you close early. Is that right? We're closed early on Sunday. We close at three. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we're eight to eight. So we're an all day cafe, all day. So we're breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And then Friday and Saturday, we close at nine, eight to nine. So again, we're breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sunday, it's three. Three. We do breakfast and lunch on Sunday. And I'm sorry to keep you here. Is that okay? Hell yeah. There's no cut off. There's so many things. Keep going. This is why we do this. Yeah. The all day type of thing was very important for me. And I put a sign out there that says all day cafe. It's more prominent than our name because I felt like it was so important for us to be out front of us being the all day cafe and being known as the all day cafe.

01:17:28Because I think there is going to be a movement of, there's always been like two service periods. So either- Lunch or dinner. Lunch or dinner, breakfast and lunch, maybe dinner and late night. And now I think there's going to be a movement of three service periods, which are mostly obviously breakfast, lunch, and dinner. So we wanted to be up front with that. So we kind of put that sign out there before anything else. Well, we also were the only thing we got permitted over painting our logo, but we wanted to make sure we were up front with that. Because I think the movement of people drinking less, we all know that and all that. And having a coffee program that we have, which is awesome. We have a great coffee program. Who does your roasting? Frothy. Oh, I'm sorry. No, shout out to Frothy. Great people at Frothy Monkey. Love Frothy Monkey. And so we get our beans from Frothy. But we make it Cuban style. And Cuban style doesn't mean you're getting Cuban coffee. It's the way you're making the coffee. So the process. What does that mean? Yeah, and educate me.

01:18:42So Cuban coffee. So one thing I found out when I was going to all the coffee shops here in Nashville, and I think this is what they did. I could be wrong. But one person decided to do Cuban coffee, and they decided to do it a certain way, which used sweetened condensed milk. And then I guess the next person that opens up a coffee shop, they have Cuban coffee. They make it sweetened. I guess that's the way you make it. And so I guess everyone started doing it that way. I'm guessing. I have no idea. Because I've never seen that before. If I ordered that, I would go, I guess this is how Cuban coffee is. I wouldn't know the difference. I would just assume. I would go to your place and be like, you're doing Cuban coffee wrong. And you wouldn't be the only one telling me that. So Cuban coffee is actually made with caramelized sugar. So you caramelize the sugar with hot espresso when it first comes out. The first thickness, you put it in the sugar, and then you kind of whip it and make it into a crema, a creamy, it should be kind of a white gold color. And that sugar is what you put into the coffee, a dark roast, almost as dark as you can roast espresso. And you put that sugar in there. You kind of just stir it in. So you let the dark roast coffee go into that sugar and you kind of stir it. And then with that, you get a golden crema on top of the coffee. So that's the sweetness that you get. And that's the Cuban coffee typically. Now it's labor intensive. So people tend not to do it. So they cut corners and go, okay, we're just going to put sweetened condensed milk. Gotcha. Okay.

01:20:26Well, see, this is why I love doing this show. Because I just get to learn. Now I can correct people and be like, actually. So we make it like you go into some Cuban household and that's the way we make our coffee. Like you go into abuela's house, you go to your tia's house, you go to your whoever's home. Because once you walk into a Cuban home, the first thing they offer you is coffee. No matter what time of day, it's coffee. I love that. You'll have to remember that for the next time that you come. Yes. Okay. Do you want some coffee? We'll make it happen. We have a flora and fauna coffee here in the studio. We do. Yeah. Big fans of flora and fauna. Big fans of Frothy Monkey as well. Great people over there at Frothy. I am a friend of Frothy. I have the mug. It's one of my favorite things that I have. Their name and logo. One of the best. The best. My first date with my wife was at Frothy Monkey.

01:21:31Although she always says that wasn't our first date because we just got coffee. Then we went for a walk. On 12th? No, East Nashville. Oh, East Nashville. But that's the thing. It's a date. I would argue with Megan. That is a date. Yeah. First date. I think so. Burger up for me. Burger up. Your first date with your wife? What's that place in downtown? I really remember more. Burger up. Burger up was kind of our second date. When I was at Taqueria, we had a break for two hours. I'm like, hey, you want to go? Because I was working there like 80 hours a week, so I couldn't really go on a date with her. I was like, hey, I got a break here for two hours. You want to meet me at Burger Up? Then we will go. We went to Burger Up. And now that's gone. Maybe somebody opened another one. I got lucky. My first date was at Sapphire in Franklin with my wife 24 years ago. It was November 24 years ago. Then they reopened Sapphire like two years ago. I'm like, we got our place back. It's almost like the OG. It's just in a different spot in the factory. You have a 25th anniversary?

01:22:43Yeah. We had our 20-year wedding anniversary. We were married 21 years. September was 21. September 16th, Mexico's Independence Day. It kind of kicks off the whole Hispanic Heritage Month. September 15th is the main, where all the other countries gain their independence. Mexico was the 16th. That starts off. We go to Mexico for our anniversary. They throw us a party. It's awesome. Our 20th, she had COVID, so we didn't get to do anything for our 20th anniversary. We still haven't done anything for our 20th anniversary. Make 25 really special. There you go. Yeah. We'll see how this all goes. Javier, it has been an absolute pleasure having you in the Minuteman Press studio. Yeah. This is fun. Awesome. Thank you. That's great. I love the new studio. What do you think of the new digs? It's freaking awesome in here, bro. We're just getting started, too. This is like phase one of the studio.

01:23:44This is like week one. We've literally put all this stuff up. It's a soft opening. We don't even have our official cameras and all this stuff. You're still being recorded on my iPhone, so we're- Oh, what's up? We will do this thing. It's going to get better. Open invitation. Anytime you want to come back on, man. Love to have you back on. Thank you, man. Thank you for having me here. This has been an absolute blessing. Anything you want to say, Vince? No. I'm sure we'll see you soon at the restaurant again. Well, we're like 10 minutes down the street from you now. Next one, panko bistec. Steak sandwich. Yes. If it has a Spanish name, that's because it's Spanish. If it doesn't have a Spanish name, don't go with it. Cuban sandwiches. What about breakfast? Dude. What's to get? Listen, if you're going to go for breakfast, you have to go for breakfast. Our breakfast is awesome. It's great. Anything. Do you sell protein shakes? The last time we went, we got around like 1030-ish, and it was kind of like the cutoff, and it's like, do I get the breakfast? Is it too late? Plus, we wanted the sandwich anyway.

01:24:49Go for breakfast. Get a coffee. Go for breakfast. Our breakfast is awesome. And a lot of the breakfast items that I do, I've been doing since the beginning. And a lot of stuff that I've done since I've been cooking at home for my kids. So we're like the black bean chilaquiles. I used to make them when I used to have leftover tortilla chips and leftover black beans and make chilaquiles with them and put a fried egg on top. My kids used to call them breakfast nachos. And now I keep on serving them in the restaurant. It's the most popular item. It's great. It's great. I'm a big fan of chilaquiles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to come down for it. All right. We'll definitely do it. Javier, have a wonderful rest of your day, and we will see you soon. We're regulars now at this point. I mean, you're 10 minutes down the street. We're 10. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you guys, man. Appreciate it. It's our pleasure. All right. Thank you so much to Javier Salado for joining us today. Vince, what'd you think of that? Amazing. I mean, amazing guy, but amazing conversation. I love it. I love how he came up in the industry, has moved to Nashville. I mentioned this during the interview, but how he started small, started with the commissary, and then you do pop-ups and farmer's markets and the path I should have taken, that kind of thing. I love it. It was great advice for people that want to start a restaurant, want to try something. That build, measure, learn approach of, let me put something out there, gather the feedback, make adjustments, and keep doing that until you get it right. Yeah, I agree. I try and explain to people why I love this industry and what it is about it that draws me in, and it's people like him.

01:26:33When I say people like him, there's a bunch of people like him who are out there, who are running these restaurants, who have that same passion in hospitality, and they get it. They're the ones who need the most support and the most love. They're the ones that are giving the most support and love to the community and stuff, and they need it back. That's the special thing. That's our why. The Simon Sinek, find your why. My why is, how do we help guys like that? I love having conversations with them where they tell that story. He didn't have any kind of agenda coming in here. I want to come across some certain way. He didn't know what we were going to ask him. Very natural and just being himself. That's just who he is. I don't know. He's just one of the nicest guys. That's who we are as restaurant people. You want to give. You want to serve. You want to host. Yeah. For people, I think new people to the industry or people who want to start a restaurant, I think it was great to hear him, but then also a great reminder for a lot of us that have been doing it for a while. Maybe we forget our why or we get caught up in the busyness and the grind and the challenges, and you start playing the blame game on other outside things that are affecting your business. QBQ, what can I do?

01:28:03You can focus on that stuff, that day-to-day hosting, providing the best hospitality and really loving what you do, showing up for your team, showing up for the guest. Finding joy and gratitude every day in the little things that you get to do. I think we live in a world of comparison. We'll go to that person, but it's like every once in a while, it's like, hey, look, you know what? I get to do the thing I love. I get to go out there and serve this food and talk to the people and show up every day. He just exemplifies that, in my opinion. If you have the level of ambition that he has and that a lot of people in the industry have, and if you can match that with the same level of gratitude, that's the recipe. That's the recipe. That's the thing. Ambition without gratitude is just selfish. Or just not going to work in the long term. Look, this is a business at the end of the day. This isn't something people just do for free.

01:29:07I think when you're in it because it's a business and you want to just make money, that love of hospitality and when you're depressed in that moment, restaurants won't bring you out of that because it's kind of thankless at times. But to see him find his joy there and the genuine spirit of service, it's refreshing. It's fun. I see it in a lot of people. I see it all the time. I just want to give those people their flowers. I want to say thank you for what you're doing. When we talk about his restaurant, it's not bullshit. We've eaten there multiple times. Yeah. I will be back next week. It's really good. When I get on to something, my ADD and addictive person, I'm like, I got to eat that. I want that. I crave that. I need that. I'm going to go. I'm going to go get that. And now we're so close to it. It's a good thing. I love it. All right. Well, Vince, thank you for co-hosting the show here. Thanks for being a part of it. I think the show's a lot better with you in it. I think so. We're going to be back next week with our interview with Kelly Black. He is the owner of Pop Hospitality, which is, again, The Row, Treehouse, Nash House, Spoon and Saloon, and the all new Bravado. That's a fun interview because he was a songwriter and he's written some big name songs and we get into like, how much do you get paid for that, man? And that was a different entry to the industry kind of thing too. So his story and Javier's are so different, but yeah, it's great. He has a similar kind of a vibe and he's done it for a long time here in Nashville. He was the original owner of Pie in the Sky Pizza, some great stories of singers, songwriters, and people. The intersection of food and music,

01:31:11I think, and I explain it in the conversation, but that's going to be next week. So stay tuned. Go follow us on Instagram at Nashville Restaurant Radio. Wherever you're listening to this, click the subscribe button and you will get a notification when that episode drops, all the new episodes drop. We have a new studio. We're going to have new video, lots more episodes coming out. We've got, I think, four or five already scheduled to be in the books. I think I've promised interviews to like 17 different people. These are going to start coming fast and furious. I've been teasing it for a little while, like, hey, we're in a transition. We're moving studios, but here we are. We're here. Let's go. Anything else you want to promote? NaraNashville.com, anything? Yeah, NaraNashville.com, your guide to local restaurants in Nashville. Find places like Soy Cubano and others. We're finding these people and we're putting them on a website so that you can cut through the noise and you can go find them a lot easier.

01:32:17All right. Well, hey, thank you. We'll be back soon. You have to think of your thing. I finish every show and I tell people, because during the pandemic, there was a lot of craziness, and I said, guys, I hope you're being safe out there. Wash your hands and don't lick doorknobs. Hope you're being safe out there. Were people doing that pre-COVID, licking doorknobs? I don't know, but it's not the safe thing to do. I'm telling them, you need to be safe. Then I always say, I love you guys, because I do. My thing is, make it a great day. I don't like the have a great day thing, because then it's not in your control. Make it a great day. Make today a great day. It's a great day to have a great day. All right. So you give your sign-off, then I'll give mine. Go ahead. Make it a great day in Nashville. I like that. I hope that you're being safe out there. Love you guys. Bye.