Jen and Kinji Ichikawa, Michael Kaplan

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City. Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and today my co-host is the one being interviewed. We are talking with Jen Ichikawa and her husband Kenji Ichikawa and their partner Michael Kaplan as they have made a big announcement this past week that Guy Fieri has eaten at their restaurant and has filmed a Dinans Drivers and Dives, Dinans Drive-Ins and Dives, Triple D and we go into some of the details about how that came about, what their story is, when the episode comes out and just kind of learning about this small restaurant there in Brentwood and it's a lot of fun.

01:15Really it's just, we just crack up the entire time and we're a bunch of goofballs and I hope you're in for that kind of a show today because I am going to start off and talk about the month of October. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and at Maribol, which is one of my restaurants, we are going to be wearing pink and we are going to be working with the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition and I have a call to action. If you're a restaurant out there, I would love to have you join us. There's five Mondays in October and for every single Monday, we are going to donate 10% of our sales to the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition. That's to-go's, deliveries, anything that we sell on a Monday, that's all day long, we're going to donate to them. I would encourage, anybody that wants to join us, I would be happy to share your restaurant name on every single show that we have.

02:17Take a day if you want to join in with us and help support the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition, the TBCC, and I will tell you what their mission is, they're a little bit different. They're not like Susan G. Komen, who really is another fantastic non-profit, but they work towards breast cancer research. The mission for the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition is to be the foremost advocate and provider for Tennesseans facing breast cancer through education, legislative, and just assistance in general. What they do is they take women who have breast cancer, who can't afford to live, essentially, and they give them money. They pay for their rent, they pay the light bill, they pay for groceries, up to $1,000 per person. Their goal is to raise $5,000 this month, $5,000 to help support Tennesseans. This money stays local right here in our community to help people who have been diagnosed with breast cancer live their life.

03:24So breast cancer is the most common cancer among American women, except for skin cancers. About one in eight or 12% of women in the U.S. will develop invasive breast cancer during their lifetime. Breast cancer is the second leading cause of death in women after lung cancer. Breast cancer accounts for nearly one in four cancers diagnosed to U.S. women. I'm going to save some of these facts. I'm going to keep talking about it. You're never too young to develop breast cancer. Breast self-exams should begin by age 20. Women in their 20s and 30s should have clinical breast exams as part of their periodic health exam by a health professional at least every three years. Women between the ages of 40 and 45 may choose to have a yearly mammogram. Women who are 45 to 54 years of age should have a breast exam by a health professional once a year, but may switch to every other year by age 55. Screening should continue as long as a woman is in good health and expected to live 10 more years or longer. These are things that are real and part of breast cancer awareness is making you aware of these things.

04:31If you're a woman out there, please get an exam done. Do self-exams. Do what you got to do. But I think if you identify early, your chances are much, much better. So if you would like to help and you're not a restaurant and you can't raise money, please come eat at Maryville on Mondays. We would love to have you be donating 10% of everything that you purchase to them. Or if you would like to just make a straight donation, you can Venmo. You can Venmo us at Nashville RR. That is the Venmo for Nashville Restaurant Radio. It is at Nashville RR. Just going to verify that. Yes, Nashville RR. And that is where you can donate. You send it directly to us and we will make sure that it goes into the fund. So that's what we're talking about right now. This month, wear pink. Let's talk about it. That's how we get awareness as we continue to speak about it.

05:35I also want to talk today about Complete Health Partners. These guys are really amazing. And let me tell you, let me tell you what they do. Your staff, if you sign up for Complete Health Care, what they do is their urgent care that your employees will get to go see an actual person that will get to go see them. There's no company deductible. There's no cost. It starts at $50 per month per employee. Unlimited urgent care plans at the three locations. There's three locations that's $50 a month plus you get telehealth involved there. So you can just pick up the phone. You can zoom them. I think you can Skype or whatever it is. You can talk to a doctor right there if you can't get in there. Primary care plan, one of their providers to include email access. It all starts at $50 a month. Dependents can be over 14, can be added to this as well. COVID testing and vaccination services offered at a discounted rate for those businesses enrolled in Complete Care.

06:40And you guys know that when you have to test your entire staff, it costs a fortune to get those things back quickly. They can do it for you. Complete Health Partners have been a great partner to this show. If you want to learn more, go to our website, NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com. Click the Sponsors tab and scroll down to Complete Health Partners. There is a special link that is on there that will get you directly over to Christian Ruff and he can answer any questions that you have. And it's Monday. We're excited, excited, excited about this episode. I hope that you enjoy it. We hope that you have a wonderful week ahead of you. And as always, we really appreciate you listening. Let's jump in right now. You're editing this, right? Yes, he'll edit it. Sweet. No, I'm not editing it. We are live right now on Nashville. Live with three listeners? Yes, five people are. And there's three of them in the room right here. There's three of them in the room right there. I'm excited. I'm excited. We are talking with Kenji, Michael, and Jen from Soy Bistro.

07:44What's going on, guys? What's up, man? Good morning. I think the obvious question is why do you have a WWE wrestling belt, Michael? Why not? Yeah, that's a good answer. We're 80s wrestling fans. This is not any ordinary belt. This is now a signed Ric Flair belt. Wow. And he went to a, what was it, a wrestling Comic-Con? No, a baseball card show. Comic-Con? I'm going to try to be nice. Don't edit any of this out. Comic-Con? This is not getting edited out. This is absolutely making the show, by the way. I just told me I went to Comic-Con. This doesn't represent our feeling towards Soy like the champ. This is because Michael and I, through this wonderful relationship, have realized we have a lot more in common than just wanting to serve good people and good food.

08:47We are huge wrestling 80s fans. And those that remain to tell their story, we're going to get their autographs any chance we can get, including pictures taken, whatever. We are huge fans. Where was the baseball card show? The card show is the Williamson County Expo Center. Brutus Beachcake was there, Ricky Steenvaux. Ric Flair. Ricky's there today. So it's going on today. I'm going to go today. Dwight Gooden, and I'm going to, yeah. Oh, it's like an 80s, 90s, just amazing. They've done a great event. It's a Lollapalooza of sporting events. Unfortunately, by the time this airs, it'll be over. Yeah, it'll be over, so we can't give them any prob, but they've done a great job. It's going to come out on Monday. It'll be back next year. We did a good job. Did you buy that? I assume you didn't win that. I've had this belt for a while. That's a good call, Brady. You should have won it, but hey, there's other ways around that.

09:49Technically, it was originally a fantasy football championship belt that I won. That's a good league. Then I retired it, and now it's mine. Soy. So it sits in soy, like on top of the soda machine, and I get so many messages on the social media account, people being like, why do you guys have this belt? They're not all questioning it. We've got a kid with a picture. They're not all like, why? It's more of a why, because that's the awesomest thing here, besides the Biff and Muck skillet. It's a great call. I'd like to throw a call to action to all of our listeners to please blow up their Instagram and Facebook account asking why you have a championship belt. Why don't you just come in and get a Biff and Muck skillet and hold the belt? That's really what we want. You should make a special dish that's called the belt, and that only people who listen to this show can walk in and go, I'd like to order a the belt and be like a Biff and Muck with filet or something crazy.

10:54Filet. Here we go. This belt just cost us $100 every time someone says it. Loss of money immediately. When you guys come in, you're going to see a regular old guest belt that I'm wearing. That's the only belt you're going to see. Thanks, Brandon. Jennifer must have put you up to this. Her and RGM hate what we've done to the restaurant. There's little wrestler figurines around the restaurant. You just did this? Yeah, easily. These are probably most of the questions we'll have when they go into Soy Bistro is why do you have all this stuff? This is good that we're answering all of the auxiliary questions at one end. I've never had one that said why do you have all these figurines? That's not what I wanted them to be called, but that's okay. Because it makes us happy. Yeah. When you walk in and you see a championship belt and you see the British Bulldog sitting there greeting you and classy Freddie Blassie, it just puts a nostalgic smile on your face.

11:58And that just starts your experience. I agree. And then Kenji hits you with some great food and some great service, and you're like, well, that was amazing. Yes. See? It's great now. I'm suplexing you with my food. Kenji comes off the top, wham, to finish you. Now, you're going to have to watch this on YouTube. Everybody listening to this on the audio podcast is like, what the hell is going on? Yeah, exactly. You gotta go. I'm telling you right now. I have no idea what kind of food we serve. It's potatoes and meat. Well, okay, so I know a little bit about you guys because I've talked about you before. Thank you. I appreciate it. You talked about me? No. Okay, good. Just him. Apparently, you don't listen to the show, Michael. Thank you. But he did leave our sticker up on the door when we took everything down, so that was nice. Kind of him. It was kind. It was kind. It was not a contribution to that. It's not that his sticker wasn't starting to peel at all. He left that.

12:59We took all the stickers down for the filming. And so in that, he left up the national sticker. Your sticker was a good-looking sticker. It is. The other ones look like a very good-looking logo. So now it's just that sticker and like every other restaurant, we're hiring. So let's talk about that last comment. You just said we took it down while filming. You made a pretty significant announcement this weekend. What were you filming? Well, we were fortunate enough, September 1st, to have Diners, Diamonds and Dives. Triple D. This is our little home, our little restaurant, and yeah, it was an incredible, incredible experience, to say the least. One show, like for me, it airs October 15th, and I truly am not going to watch it. Not right away, because I'm telling you, to see something cut down, three to four minutes, when I had the experience of, you know, about two days we closed, about eight hours filming each day, which could, for some, be long and tedious.

14:09There were some moments that I needed Jennifer, my wife, to tell me, really, like, hey, you're going to be fine. Just do it, because I was sitting there like, but the overall experience was so special that to see it cut down in four minutes, it's just too early for me. So, you know, I'm going to enjoy hearing some feedback, but I'm not going to watch it, just because it's too fresh of how great of an experience that was. They are truly a family. That crew is really, really wonderful. It speaks volumes to that show. Makes sense why they've been on so long. How was Guy? Was it fun working with Guy? Guy was great. Yeah. For the four minutes he was here, he was great. No. It was an hour and a half. He was great, though. He intentionally stopped me to tell me how great he thought Kenji was and how he was just really kind and supportive. He's the guy that represents, like, in such a short period of time making such a big impact. And that's what our little restaurant wants to try to do.

15:10So, again, there's a lot of these things that lined up. And, you know, he's such a busy guy. He's got grocery games. He was giving out a restaurant downtown, which he was giving away as a prize. So you knew he was on the move, but he was so present when he was here. Yeah. For the hour and a half, talking to our guests, talking to the old owners, Chris and Hannah. There's no soy bichita without him, and that's what we want to carry on. But he made it a point to not only be super professional, like, you know, it didn't feel rushed, surprisingly. Yeah. He also cared so much. Calm me down. He cared so much about the story of soy, like, our story, which is different than I think a lot of other restaurants. Well, I think that's a fantastic segue. I was just about to say, tell me the story of soy because, you know, big, huge franchises like Dynan's Drivers and Dives, Dynan's Drive-Ins and Dives, Triple D, doesn't necessarily come to restaurants like yours unless you've got a great story.

16:14Where did it begin? I mean, I think 11 years ago. Yeah. Started in 2010, Hannah and Chris Lee, two people had no business opening a restaurant. Which they'll admit to. Yeah, that's why I'm saying that. I'm not saying that because of food or the way they did it. Third restaurant in this location? I want to say fourth, but yeah, sure. It was definitely in four years, talking to the landlord, it was a seafood restaurant, I heard. Italian? Italian, we have the tile to prove it still. Our bathrooms look Italian. It's fantastic. It looks like olive garden. I'll never change that. Big fan, by the way. And then it was a teriyaki bowl spot, but none of them collapsed up. And the real reason, I have nothing to do with their food. I mean, it's, when you're this small of a restaurant next to a cleaner's, you got to stand out. There are good food, you know, restaurants. It's how they treated guests.

17:15I came here in 2011 when I used to work at Marables, and it was one of those spots. I drove by it a couple of weeks, and I was like, that place is either really good or really bad. It's just my experience being from Seattle and LA, especially when restaurants are tied to another business that's not a restaurant. It's not like right next to us is a lot of competition. Back there at Burger Taco. Some of the things that aren't of this nature. I came in, the food didn't even matter. It was Chris and Hannah. The way they greeted me, the way they asked me, you know, help me go over the menu. So you found it, right? Yeah. You just stumbled on it. I just stumbled on it. Can I tell my story real quick? We shouldn't stop you from telling your story. This is the best story to put it all together. I hope it's true. 05? You want to call it 05? We'll call it 05. I went, my wife and I, you know, we live in Brentwood and we went to a restaurant downtown Nashville called LaSalle. It was not 2005.

18:15What was it? Let's call it 05. 2015. You're right. You're right. It's only 10 years. Yes. Yeah. It was pre-soyed. We set up six years before soya. 2015. Sorry. The years are running together. Thank you, Jennifer. Thank you. Yeah, leave that in there. That's us. This calls us in. 2015. It seems like 2005 because the waiters' story is going to already get long. Yes. Ooh. Give me that. So this real high-energy waiter gives us, and he's like, oh, where are you from? He's not even our waiter. Real nice guy, but he tells us, hey, you're from Brentwood? You got to check out this awesome restaurant called Soy Bistro. And we're like, oh, OK. LaSalle was OK. We go, and it's like it's a lunch spot. It's amazing. It's closed, right? Yes. It's true. I totally agree. He wasn't our waiter. I agree. You don't exaggerate how it was, but go ahead. All right. So we go, and we're like, man, this place is amazing. Fast forward, what, five years, and Kenji and I are having this discussion about everything.

19:18He's like, well, how'd you hear about Soy? And I was like, we were at this place in Atalisa, LaSalle. We had this real high-energy waiter. He's like, what was he like? I think he was Asian? He's like, wait, that was me. Which makes it so great that they don't see race. They just see energy and a guy who just butts into other people's business. His wife is why it's so important to let it out, because she's the one that reminded us. Because you and I have been talking forever. She's like, I recognize that guy from somewhere. She was like, it was you. She immediately knew. And LaSalle is where Kenji and I met, so it was all very kismet. And then you guys decided, hey, let's buy this place. So Chris and Hannah basically had told, the plan was eventually for him to own it when he was GM, because he was GM here for, what, three years? Yes, 2017. Correct. And so the plan was Chris and Hannah were getting tired.

20:20They were not in the restaurant industry prior to owning Soy. So it was a huge transition for them, and they were getting ready. They were like, all right, we're feeling called to something else. We really want to move on. And so the plan was for Kenji to take over. But the real plan was for me to be here for three years, get to know how a fast, casual restaurant works, and for me to just go off and open my own with some of my mom and grandma's recipes and things I had picked up along the way. Never thinking they were going to sell. This was super profitable. It was a good business. Great brand. It meant a lot to them. But yeah, Jennifer put it perfectly. They were called to something else. They wanted to try something else. And to our blessing, they came to me first. It was like the week we were getting married. And they never wanted to take away from what I was trying to do. But I am so glad that they presented it to Jennifer and I first, because they allowed us to even speed up the way we thought as a team and a couple and everything if we really wanted to do this, you know, because we would have to iron out things, make sure, you know.

21:36And Soy is where like our whole life is Soy. I mean, we got engaged here. Super romantic. How did that go down? So I run the social media for Soy and I have now for four years, except for a brief intermission during COVID. And so we, Hannah, for almost Thanksgiving, for Valentine's Day, used to put on like a coarsed out menu, which is obviously very different than the fast casual that we typically do. And so he would come every year with our friend James, who also used to work at Mirror Bowl. And so when we started dating, we started working here, basically, like I would work the event with him. So in what year was it? 2018, maybe? Yes. 2018. I was here to like put up decorations and stuff for the event. And he picked a fight with me. And everything I did was, I just wanted to throw me off.

22:37I wanted a real surprise. Yeah. So because he kept telling me, he kept telling me it was like, you know, a couple years away from the engagement. But meanwhile, he would like get down on one knee all the time, like in random, disgusting places, like bars that are now closed. And like, oh, sorry, I just got to tie my shoe in every time. So anyway. That's cold, man. Dirty bars. Yeah, that bar is closed. Bar. Well, that was the only bar. There were other places I did. Anyway. Anyway. So then he picked this fight with me and I was all sad. And Chris and Hannah were here and they were like, they felt so bad. They were like, no, listen, it's going to be OK. You're going to have a great day. Like, don't worry about it because they obviously knew it was coming. And so then Kenji comes out with and he hands me flowers and he's like, here, I'm sorry. And I was like, oh, thanks. And then he gets down on one knee. But I was eating tacos and not thinking anything of it because he'd gotten down on one knee before. And so then I'm listening to him and he's telling me like how important I am to him and how much he loves me.

23:39And he's so excited for our future together. And I'm like, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then he pulls out a ring and I'm like, oh, shit, like now this is really happening on this podcast. Yeah. Um, so once I saw the ring, I like look up and everybody's filming us. And I realized that was actually what you said. I said, are you sure? I think I don't think I said yes. Right away. I was like, is this for real? Are you sure? Yes. Yes. Yes. But anyway, so now so all of our engagement photos are like us at this table, but over there and him with the green ladder, the green ladder behind us. Like I just really wanted to throw her off for me. Yes. The storybook in front of, you know, a waterfall or wherever, but she just would have known engagement. And I needed her. Yeah. And it's just us. Why? I mean, yeah. Everything else was planned. I wanted this not to be. And then the things we did after going to Peninsula.

24:40Yeah. So we saw our favorite thing, like our favorite date night. Please don't check that restaurant out. It is so freaking good. Our favorite date night thing is to like go to a bunch of places and eat like our favorite things at a bunch of places. Like that's how we catered our wedding to. We got our favorite food from a bunch of restaurants. And so after we got engaged, she was like, oh, so surprised. I have the night off because I thought for sure he was like, all right, see you later. Like I got to finish the shift. So he got the night off and we went to subculture. We went to subculture, which is one of our favorite restaurants. And then I like walked in hand first. I was like, look, you guys, Pablo, Christina. Like we were so excited. And then we went to Cork and Cow. And then we went to Peninsula. And then finally, yeah, we went on a whole tour, all of our favorite places. So that's what I knew. I, before all this, I was like, okay, I'm going to go to Subculture. I'm going to go to Subculture. I'm going to go to Subculture. I'm going to go to Subculture. That's what I knew. I, before all this, one of the suggestions I made was like, hey, man, why don't we go to like five restaurants?

25:44You know, and a lot of people would be like, that sounds stupid. And not even your girlfriend at the time. I think even friends would be like, that sounds terrible. Let's just go to one place. And we just hit up different places eating like an item from each place. And she was so willing to do it, even fast food. So that was like just one of many things that was like, I got to lock her down immediately. Immediately. That's a very good story. It shows that there's, you know, there's many people have restaurants and it's a job that was a job to you. But you certainly felt like there was more like this place is home to you. And now that you own it, you just can tell every time you walk in the door, there's a feeling. There's a feeling when you get to Soy Bistro and you hear Kenji and there's just an energy and the food is great. It's so tiny that there's just people kind of everywhere. It's just hustle bustle. I think that's kind of what I was getting at.

26:45Like what did Food Network, they had to learn about the feeling you get when you walk into that restaurant. So many times you can walk into a small restaurant, it's dead or slow or there's no music. It's quiet. It's one of these things. But the energy in the culture that you've cultivated is really unique. I appreciate it. I mean, part of that too is building on making mistakes, you know, recognizing those and then but be okay. Like we are so far from even where I think Michael and I have our own ideas where we want to be. Not in terms of food, but there's always things to improve on. But we get to every day be here and know that we can in this little restaurant. The size does not matter. You know, even just being content for us is good. You know, we appreciate that. We need to appreciate, you know, not trying to go too far too fast.

27:46But there's always stuff for Michael and I that we can improve on in any way to just make it more welcoming. You know, to show off a little bit about who we are as people. You know, and that's you put it perfectly, Braden. Like I worked at when I decided I wanted to possibly be in this industry for the rest of my life and own a restaurant. I made sure I touched a lot of restaurants and saw how they operated. So I've been very lucky and fortunate to go to work at and be a part of restaurants like Marables and Red Pony. And those two, LaSalle, because I wouldn't have made it. But those first two really stand out because of how they are run by their owners, how the owners are part of it, how they make you feel, not just as an employee. Actually, you end up getting rid of that, you know, just being an employee who's there clocking clock out. You feel like you're a part of the restaurant, like ideas you have, suggestions, everything, even like concerns, questions and concerns.

28:51So it definitely set me up to know that I just had to find a partner who is going to be OK with this lifestyle. But what Soy really opened up the door for was a restaurant that does well with the right mission statement, with the right foundation. Man, we were closed at eight, you know, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We're not open Wednesday nights and Sundays. And we don't have to worry about having to have those days and feeling like if we don't open those days, you know, we're we could possibly be struggling. You know what I'm saying? It could hurt the bottom line. It's it is a true blessing, you know, which has allowed me to have a family. That's amazing and be a part of it. So, Michael, what about you? Yeah, what about you? What about me? One thing I want to add to your previous question is when when the show came in, I think when we brought our guests in because the first part they clear out, they turn into basically a movie show set and they're working in the kitchen, as you can kind of see here.

30:01We have an open kitchen. When we changed and went to where we had the tables and we were serving the food and they could see the guests that we brought in, they could really get a good feel for the family of our guests, our culture. You know, everybody was super relaxed, had a great time. And they could, you know, it was all set up by even me looking out there with cameras and lights. Well, they're all people that are regulars anyway. Like we invited basically all of our best regulars or favorite regular families, their kids work. Our front house is all run mostly by high school kids. And so what that's allowed is like brothers and sisters then come work once their brother graduates or sister graduates. And so like the families of those kids end up being like totally interwoven into all of our lives. My mom works here in the front of two. So it's literally all family driven. So having all of those people in was very natural versus like. It's going to be really cool to look and watch the show and see the tables.

31:04And you just kind of laugh because who is Ford eating? Was Ford eating with your dad? My mom. Your mom. Yeah. And you know, just random tables that we put together of people that, you know, they all mean a lot individually, but we only had a certain amount. And so just to see and look at the show and, you know, they do the lot, the wide angles and you see people in there. And we know every person that was in there. Like anybody was staged, anybody. You know, they were all handpicked as some of our favorite people and regulars. And just that part in the interviews. And yeah, we stayed. They didn't stay. It's not a bunch of people. And the one requirement, they said, what was it? No newbies. You know, just to get a bunch of real young, young. No, baby. We still had our friend Ben Zeller and his son and daughter who eat here all the time. We love the food. So at least, you know, usually they come in, you'll see them once a week. We have to have them all together at once. It felt like a real Thanksgiving. The experience was so memorable.

32:06And that's what's, again, why I say I won't watch it October 15th. Do you know why they chose you? Did somebody like call them and say, hey, you should pick Soy Bistro. How did they learn about? So I asked that when I was lucky enough to, you know, Jennifer said I had an email and I gave him a call. And that's the first thing I asked. I just want to know, hey, how are we lucky enough to even get this, you know, phone call between us? And she said it was a mix of definitely people requesting us initially. So I'm sure whether it was on YouTube or anything, people would type in, hey, you have to check out Soy as they did others. Because I want to say there was like she said there are about 10 to 14 restaurants they were looking at, you know, and as there should be. You know, for me, Nashville has got to make the final decision. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Guy and a couple of react. Guy, of course, in the end had a couple. They even had a couple of the questions. They read the they read the about us on the website and they read reviews.

33:12So three things request reviews and website. I just think it's it's fascinating because so many people in this industry set out for I want to win a James Beard award or I want to be a celebrity chef. I want to get on TV and people have these goals. But I think it's interesting that really the majority of people who get on diners, drive ins and dives, who get on Chopped, who get on who win James Beard awards aren't the ones who are looking for it. They're the people who are genuine, who show up to work every single day and have a genuine concern for taking care of the guest. I got to be here. All I want to do is I want to create amazing experiences. I want to nourish my community and I want to do the right thing. And it sounds like exactly what you guys do. You've got this tiny place. It's not about you come in. You pay for it. It's like, hey, look, we're a family. Come in. We want to nourish you. We want to nourish our community around us. And it's genuine. And you've done it for a little while now.

34:12And that's what resonates with people. It's not, hey, hey, call Food Network. Let them know we're here. Right. Kenji called me when I talked to Kenji. He goes, seriously, what did you do? And I was like, man, I didn't do a thing. I don't know. This just email came out of nowhere. And at first, we were like, all right, maybe. We'll see what happens here. Low expectations. From the day they said yes, we had three weeks. And they're like, hey, by the way, we'll be here in three weeks. It's in like 21 days. You're going to film. We'll close down. And we renovated a lot. There were things we wanted to do. They just pushed the timeline up. And to your thing, and I think what's cool about National is there are people that want to be, they actually want the James Beard Award. That's great, because you know your food's got to be on point. And I'll go to that restaurant and support that restaurant. So you've got these chefs that want to be the goat, the Michael Jordan, if you will have been, right? Correct.

35:12Hulk Hogan. Sure. Yes, Hulk Hogan. But you know, we just want to be in the game. And we just want to be in the game. And we want to be like an organization, you know, without needing stars, you know? And that doesn't just keep us humble. It just keeps, you know, for us, I treat, because Hannah and Chris taught that to me, because Stephen Smithing, Marables taught that to me, because Jason McConnell, Red Pony taught that to me. Even when they walk in and you know they're the owners, you feel right on their level, like the whole time. That's what we're trying to create here. I'll tell you, I think the biggest compliment we get is when we see one of our guests, and they're like, hey, this is this person's first time. I'm bringing somebody. So you can tell they have pride, they have ownership. In our restaurant, what we do, they're so proud to bring a friend and be like, hey, you got to check out this little spot next to a cleaner behind backyard burgers that nobody, you know, it's like my little secret spot.

36:13And they bring people in here, and Kenji knocks it out of the park every time. And then the next time we see that first-time guest bring another first-time guest, and that's about like the, that's the best compliment we get. I would say too, that for me, I love when people come in here, maybe their third time, and then they start noticing like the decor. A lot of places, decor is first, right? Why do you have a belt? You know, right, but that's not their first thing. It's usually like, probably they heard about our restaurant, they're excited, and our job is to match that excitement. And then as they come in, they'll notice the cool pictures of old school Brentwood, what it was before all this, you know. He has like, our kids put prints up from when they were born. They're like a little corner. We're surrounded by amazing high schools, so we had one of our employees do, you know. Yeah, if you look behind Jen, you had, I could see. Oh yeah, logos. Yeah, you can see the pictures behind you. We have pictures of our family, the employees, past employees, guests.

37:14We had all of our employees do the menus. We have a couple artists. So, you know, and that stuff, we, Michael, I, Jennifer, Jamie, like for us, we do take pride. We like how it looks that way. But again, usually it's not the first visit someone notices that. It's when they get really comfortable, they start looking at the space. And, you know, we didn't do this for them to immediately come in and be like, wow, but it definitely represents us four. You know, maybe not the bell. This one's not the bell, but we are. It is October the 4th, Monday the 4th today. And you are listening to this. You have 11 days. Okay, if you're listening to this right now, you have 11 days to go ahead and get into Soy Bistro if you don't want to wait in a long ass line. If you want to know what everybody else is talking about, what the, when it goes live on Triple D, good luck.

38:18You guys are going to be slammed. But if you're out there listening, you're like, I never even heard of Soy Bistro. I want to give it a shot. The next 11 days is when you need to go down there and be one of the people that tried it before it was on Triple D. Right? Safe assumption. We're going to take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors. One of the funnest things I get to do on this podcast is talk about some amazing companies and not only amazing companies, but the amazing people that run them. And Super Source is exactly that. Jason Ellis has been on with us since the beginning. And you know, he's one of those amazing guys that is a hustler and just has been growing the business at Super Source so much that he is, he is actively hiring. And I think that's what we want to talk about today. When you're doing such a great job in a culture that everybody wants to sign up and it's just, it's just, hey, it's telling me this advertising is working because you guys are hearing about him.

39:18You're giving him a call and then you want to sign up. And I love that. And he needs your help. So he is hiring right now Jason Ellis of Super Source. Give him a call. 770-337-1143. This is not a gigantic company. They are, they are a company that can offer you insurance and full benefits. But this is a great time to get in with a growing company. You want to be part of the ground floor when they are building, being part of something bigger than yourself. This is your chance, especially to work with an awesome guy like Jason. Again, give him a call. 770-337-1143 right now. You know, another company that's been with us from the very beginning is What Chefs Want. And I just love how they've communicated. I love that they've always been exactly that. What chefs want. And there's a time when the supply chain was causing problems.

40:18And I think every single person out there has dealt with this. And what they did was they said, Hey, let's get our orders in earlier. Let's put a five o'clock cutoff time in so that we can really make sure that we have everything that we need. We can communicate well. They've done that. And as they slowly get the supply chain back on track, they're excited to announce the beginning Monday. Couple Mondays ago, September 27th, they can now offer add on emergency orders up until nine o'clock via the app or the Web. They're not going to be doing allocations after five p.m. cutoff. But you can order if you have an emergency order you can place after nine p.m. That's it. They're not just going to stick there at the five o'clock when once things get back better, they're going to get back to a system that is there. Their life is doing what they can to make you happy. It's what chefs want. It's not what they want. It's what chefs want. And they truly, truly believe that.

41:18That's why they deliver on Sunday. You know, nobody else does. They do because that's what you need. You need deliveries on Sundays. They split almost every single thing that they sell. They carry the really hard to find items because you know what? That's as well what you want. And I just love that they are doing all these things. Go check them out at what chefs want dot com. If you don't have an account, sign up. They have 24 hour customer service. They're happy to talk to you. They're really, really amazing company. Check them out. What chefs want dot com. Final company we're talking about today is my good friends over at Cytex. And Cytex is just they're a linen company. They do uniforms. They actually just acquired a new uniform company. And just like I was talking about Super Source, they are hiring an amazing company. They need route drivers. If you have a CDL and you can go out and you can deliver.

42:21He said their route drivers make north of $60,000 a year. So I don't know what you're making right now, but if you want to make more than $60,000 a year, you should contact Ross Chandler today. That's 270-823-2468. He is looking for local drivers in the Nashville area. We need route delivery. And so these people are out selling. You're building relationships with restaurants. You're the face. You can be the face of their company to learn how to get into all these restaurants, meet all the chefs, see the behind the scenes in so many places. So give Ross Chandler a call 270-823-2468 if you are interested in being a route driver. And if you're a restaurant and you want the best damn linen company in the city, do the same. Give Ross a call because you will be very, very happy you did. Yeah, they told us it's gonna they told us like how much to expect after like how much of an increase in guest count and all that to expect after it airs.

43:27And it's a shocking number. Go now. Go now. It's on Maryland Way. You're right there. There's like a backyard burger. That's the closest landmark. There's a park across the street, real close to Franklin Road. It's kind of a hidden treasure. You're not going to see a big sign. Even our awnings kind of covered by a tree. We have a small parking lot, but right next door, there's an office building with a really big parking lot. You'll find parking there easily. Again, in the next 11 days, it'll be a lot easier to find parking than it will be after October 15. 11 day, but not even 11. How many? Because we're closed on Sundays. Yeah, we're closed Sunday. Nine days. Just get over here. Come do it now. It'll probably be a great day. And I will say that the bibimbap, is that how you say it? Bibimbap? You said it perfectly. The bibimbap in a skillet with steak and I always get fried rice is like the best dish. You can go back to my Instagram and you go back and look at it.

44:30Every time I go there, I can't help but take a picture and post about it because it's like that moment because I don't always get over there. I work like a minute from you guys, right? But when I get to go over there, you bring me one, it's like the highlight of my month. It's like, oh my God, I get to eat my favorite thing in the world today. And I just want to share it with everybody. It's that good. So that is Brandon's recommendation. No, truly, Brandon, anytime I bring him one or you bring him one or whatever, he'll pour out a little bit and give it to somebody that's like, what is that? I've never had that. He would pour it out. I think we know what you're having for lunch today. Yes, exactly what I'm having. I'm going to take 10 times in the next nine days. Which is Monday, October 5th. And for anyone that calls in, orders to go, that doesn't know what a bibimbap is. It means mixed rice. So mix the dish together. It's going to be presented. Mix it all together. But you want to take the wonderful gochujang sauce, sweet and spicy, and mix everything together before digging.

45:34I have this dream of like, because I do the social media and a lot of these words are Korean on our menu. And so people come in and just say them in different ways. I want to like film, well, gochujang specifically. I want I want to like film 10 people coming in and saying gochujang because it's so different. Like, what's the wordest? My mom can't say gochujang. Gochujang, bibimbap. Everyone says bibimbap. Yeah. Or bibimbap. I think I've said bibimbap. That's a Japanese word. Adomade. I hear a lot. Gyoza. We don't have gyoza. Bulgogi instead of bulgogi. So the two dishes that the guy ate are our hot chicken, which are not like Nashville hot chicken. It's not like deep fried and stuff like that. The pan seared, just pan seared using our house chili oil. It's not over a little bit of butter. Yeah. It's a special dish we love.

46:34That's a real good hand recreation. And the bulgogi, which is like 14 ingredients. It's marinated, deeply marinated pork. Like it sits in this. Deeply is a great word. Yeah, it's deeply marinated. It's massaged in for hours with love. And then sits in a pristine bucket just in its own, you know, in the marinade. Right. So at least 24 hours before serving. But that one's a special. Yeah, that one we don't have every day. And we run out if we do have it. Yeah. 100%. If I come in and order the belt, what am I going to get? A belt. You get the belt. It's double skillet. It's double skillet. Yeah. You're going to pay for it. The belt means you get one here, one to go. And definitely for people, you know, you don't have to get that dish to enjoy these items. So if you come on Friday, Saturday, you can get the pork because if we serve it to you and just get the spicy pork, it's a mound of pork. Right. But I recommend it with lettuce.

47:34You can almost make like lettuce wraps where you put the gochujang, the rice, the pork and the carousel. But you can get it with our tacos. You can add it on top of fried rice. You can do it to the bibimbap, which a lot of our regulars do. Same with the hot chicken. You get hot chicken tacos. Add the hot chicken to the udon noodles. That's one of my favorite. Add the hot chicken to curry fried rice. That's one of my favorite. Your regulars are going to be pissed. No, he's going to be pissed. He's going to hear all these modifications next to him. I'm moving that cook. Brandon, if you want to go championship style on the skillet, it's double meat right there. So if you hear championship style, that's double meat. I think we've got to have a belt special. Then you'll know all the people who listen. It's going to be all protein. It's going to be all protein. Double egg, double meat. Maybe we create you the greatest. Double egg, double meat. That's all that you surf and turf skillets.

48:34That's that control. I love the secret menu stuff. There's different weight classes. You know what you got to do. You got heavy weights, light weights, featherweight. Come on, it's how you roll. Hey, you know what? We're happy with whatever people order. Boxing, surfing. I'm what's known as a heavyweight. That would be all protein. All protein. All protein. Think? So we're donating 10% of our sales on Monday nights to Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition. Yeah. So we ordered. The whole month of October. Yeah. For the whole month of October, every Monday, 10% of sales would go to them to try and help. Our goal is five women. What are we doing? We're asking restaurants to help us. We're asking other restaurants to help us. So if you want to help. Yeah. If we want to help. If you want to jump in on Mondays. We're on a broadcast. God, thanks, guys. Awkward. We're already four days into October, right? Yeah. Well, yeah. Four days. Yeah.

49:34I want to be a part of the first. You guys are ridiculous. We're going to do No Shave November today? No. I'm Asian. I have nothing to shave. He is no shaving. Yeah. This is just what it is. That's three. That's No Shave three months. That's right. I'm going, oh, my God. What just happened? What is going on here? What's going on here? What's going on here? What's going on here? What's going on here? So I got him. I got, so one of our things is socks. We buy each other socks a lot as like gifts. It's my inspiration. So I had socks with our kids' faces on them. Take two champions right here. Noelle and Ezra. Yeah. Right? Little Steve Martin action. Come on. You know what I'm talking about. Oh. Yeah. Three amigos, baby. That's right. But just one on this shirt. But yes, three amigos. Which really, if you realize. That's terrible. If you realize. There's one of me. Anyway, the kids are cute. No, no, he's decent. I mean, terrible. Tammy Chase has done this in life. Just some good. No, no, in life. Oh, in life as a person. Yes, yes, yes. Nobody wants to talk about that guy. He could do rehab like me. Keeping the two of you on track is like so difficult. Michael. On your track.

50:34No. Yes. Good call. I don't know. We're on track. We're on track. We're on track. The track is almost. Yes. I'm just going to go. Brayden. We like to laugh. Have a good time. Yeah, I hate that stuff. What is. You hate laughing? Yeah, you're laughing. No, I'm just saying. Having a good time. This is who I married. We like to laugh. Have a good time. I hate that stuff. It's a nice balance. I like fun. She does it. I like people. She does. It's a great balance. We just have somebody in the fun place. I'm just going to go. What is your question? I feel for Jen because she has to deal with me like all the time. She's always losing track. And I'm like, no. And then you're like just like me, Kenji and Michael. I feel like you're right in that same boat. So like. Compliment. That is. How the hell am I going to keep you guys on track? I'm like, who gives a shit? Let's just go off track. I don't give a. I didn't know there was a track. There's not a track. I wanted you to be Michael. I wanted you to be able to tell your story of you're not nowhere near the restaurant industry prior to this and to decide to come in it during a pandemic and like not only come in it but own it.

51:43So my poor decision making. Yeah. Yeah. We had talked before the pandemic. No, I know. I know. But it was still a time to buy. If anything, the pandemic made us really see our guests. So we were talking with Chris and Hannah before. Pandemic hits. We were really about this close to, you know, making the deal. Pandemic hits were like, whoa, let's let's let's wait a minute. They did a great job of adjusting. They kind of changed it. We were only to go and everything. But the numbers, you know, the guests are regulars. Everybody really stepped up and kept going on, you know, maybe a little bit less. But the plan originally because of the, you know, the pandemic was and, you know, restaurants being lucky enough to get the PPP loan was let's, you know, stay close for, you know, whatever. I want to say Chris has said no less than, you know, two and a half months, two months, whatever. And the outcry, you know, the support from.

52:45They close for a month easily. Yeah. And we would have these Zoom meetings and Chris would just rather choose to be like, hey, you know, this is the plan, blah, blah, blah. Check on us. And then after a month in one week is when Chris calls me. He's like, dude, look at have you been checking all these emails? And I had, I just didn't want to tell him what to do. Still his restaurant. But there are people like, please open. We need some semblance of normalcy, normalcy. But more importantly, at least give us something to expect and look forward to. We want your food again, because that felt normal before this happened. And so we just had a long talk, talked to the talk to our employees, talked about protocol, talked about what we need to do. If we do this, we're open the next the week after. So instead of two months, maybe longer, one month and two weeks. Yeah. We know. But quarantine was so fun for us.

53:45Are we on quarantine? Because, well, we weren't really. Soy was closed. My job was closed. So we were just home together. No, it was great for us. It could have gone. We were newlyweds. It was great. Let's talk about. Now you have twins. That's not overshare. You can do the math. The maid word. Then it's true. This is a maid word. You're the family. You're the first one to swear. You're the first one to be. I'm on this podcast regularly. Y'all are the guests. Yeah. I'd be the one to say. We've been. And we've got our NT 17. Wow. Wow. I'm impressed. I like to see in the morning stuff because I'm this is. I'm on a Monday. On a Monday. I love that. We're going to have a bad case. Yeah. Okay. I think it's our prep. Have you seen office space? Have I? Yeah. No, I haven't. And he made a comment about it left. What is with the thing? It's so much younger than all of you. This is a cult classic.

54:46I'm not in the cult. I don't know what to tell you. You are in a cult. But you're right. Not that cult. You're right. I mean, you don't know the term waiting. I'm basically. You don't know the term waiting. Somebody's got a case of the Mondays. I've seen one. Waiting came out of a game problem. Waiting probably came out at the same time as that. I'm going to fact check this live. Either way, it doesn't matter if you're willing to watch waiting. That's one of the greatest. I've probably watched office space 20 times. I'm going to watch tech. Great suggestion, Brandon. Instead of my dad football watching office space. If you have not watched it. Okay. Waiting came out in 2005. Office space. Office space is nice. Waiting before. Okay. I'm going to fact check. Thank you. Damn. It feels good to be a gangster. I mean, come on. 99. There you go. How old were you? Like three? I was nine. Okay. Tell me about her age thing again. About what? Have you thought I was 23? Yeah. I told him the story about Waffle House the other day.

55:46That's a tough one. Yeah. I haven't been back with her. I told you. I was like, we're not going back. We don't need to tell. No, it's fine. Anyways, can we shout out some restaurants? I think it's super important that people go to. I would love that. Okay. So Arnold's Country Kitchen. 100%. Hello Arnold's. Great guy. Yeah. Yeah. He and Michael are my friends. Also been on Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives. Can I just say that I just posted this morning on my Instagram page, a wonderful picture that says that Black Dynasty Ramen. Well, I just fucked that whole thing up, didn't I? Because it's on Sunday, October 3rd, which is when this is actually, we can let everybody know this is actually recorded on Sunday. I think they knew it from the beginning. Who comes and watches your podcast 15, 20 minutes in? If you watch it, they saw the wink. They know what's going on. You got me winking. Yeah, Black Dynasty Ramen at Arnold's today, yesterday.

56:46I'll show you. What? Really? Where are you? I'm going to Arnold's after dark. Khalil's doing some great things after dark, but I'm still sticking with the roast beef. I'm sticking peach pie and the fried green tomatoes. You're a traditionalist. I'm regular. That's for lunch. It is really tonight, but we have plans tonight. Well, all right. So Kenji, I want to, first off, shout out to that hole in the wall, tiny place, nobody knows about Arnold's. What other secrets do you have? He's only been up for 25 years. Nobody knows about him yet. I talk about it almost every episode. Subculture. Yeah. Egg shavaganza. Taco 22. Yes. I talked about that. Now we're getting somewhere. West 22 Tacos. That's really what I meant. See, this is why I have you. West 22 Tacos, Austin Garcia, incredible. Abbo is a great restaurant, James Ford, head chef there.

57:46What else? I think Red Pony. That's now at the McConnell house right now because Red Pony, the building itself is still not open. Still operating at a very good fire. We love Cork and Cow. Cork and Cow is incredible. McDonald's, Brentwood, solid. McDonald's, Brentwood, solid. They are there really quick. They provided breakfast this morning. Chick-fil-A, they didn't provide. We bought it. Is there anybody close to you guys that? I was kidding. I was going fast casual into finer dining, date night. The other ones you just go on whenever. Maribles, that's a special occasion when you go get ready to be wild. Yes, Maribles is great. It's also good on a Tuesday night. I'm just saying. I'm probably smarter to go on a Tuesday night. Less of a wait. Or a Monday so you can donate part of your check towards the Tennessee. 10% in the month of October.

58:47Wow. This is a Maribles sound out. We got it. Diner's Drive-In is a great segue for Maribles. When you drive by us and the line's out the door, just stop on Maribles. Shameless. I tell everyone at Marible about you guys. I can't tell you how many guests. I like teach about Soy Bistro all the time. Is that why our lunch sales are down? Yeah, we don't do it. Hey guys, have you tried Maribles? You guys know how to eat. You guys know how to put fork to mouth or chopsticks. I mean, it's fine. We're not going to teach you. Listen, I have allegiance with three different restaurants, so. Yes, and I come forth. And I love that. What's the part? I work at Greenhouse Grill, too. Another great restaurant. The old one used to be amazing. That's been there. We still have that. Yeah. But the old location. Where they stuck a movie theater. Old school right here. We got a Hispanic decor. Not Hispanic. It feels very Spanish. We're very.

59:47That's. It's not. No. It's Southwestern. It's Southwestern, yeah. The decor is actually California revival. I mean, if you want to get technical. Don't get technical. Don't ruin it for whatever you say. California revival. Oh, I got a great restaurant. You'll see what. Great restaurant. Are you ready for this? To disagree. I would never disagree. He will not even know about this one. Oh. Carl's Perfect Pig in Dixon. The most underrated barbecue sandwich you'll have in the mid state area. Carl's Perfect Pig. So you're driving all the way out there to get a sandwich. And you'll leave happy, cash only. Cash or check. They take checks. I was there about a week ago. It's amazing. And great banana pudding and sweet tea you can chew on. I still enjoy it. I always enjoy it. Sweet tea is so sweet. You chew it. Carl's Perfect Pig. Nobody. Hey, don't blow them up too bad. I truly enjoy any place that's still cash only. Check. I was like. You have to be good.

01:00:47Luckily I had cash. Because it's such a hassle. It's a check. And I'm like. There's a zero percent chance I have a checkbook on me. I've got a debit card. Like PayPal? Yes, exactly. Wic? I can't wait to get paid by cash out. Oh, I know a restaurant. You forgot. 51st deli. Oh, 51st deli. It's one of our favorites. When you come here, you'll see all these t-shirts hanging, by the way. King Solomon's is great. Joey's House of Pizza. Oh, Joey's House of Pizza. Joey's great. Peninsula. Great date night spot. Peninsula. I just had peninsula for the first time a couple weeks ago. It was fantastic. Which one? Peninsula. It's so good. So so good. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, lady, I'm going to land the plane. Okay. Because I feel like we've had a fantastic conversation. This has been one of the funner conversations that I've got to have. I want to get Kenji on or you, Michael, just like to go deep. I want to get deep into your psyche and all of your history.

01:01:48Because this is a lot of fun. I feel like we've learned a lot. We can send Jennifer back. Kenji and I can get deep. That's what we want to do. I hear you. Go check it out. If you see Michael on again, you will have a completely different look. Not like you'd wear the same thing. But you can tell Mike didn't even. He's like, oh, wait. This is. That is my bad. I forgot to. Good information. You wore the soy hat. I wore the soy hat. I mean, I'm not a dirty person, but I've got a hoodie on. Well, I think it's cool that Jamie lent you her hoodie. So that's what I appreciate. I mean, I wear the same size. So that is for some of us don't wear that suspect. What? I'm going to tell my wife. You think she wears an XL hoodie. It's a saying. The world knows it now, too. Alabama wins. I mean, come on. Yeah. You don't wear tight. You were. When she comes in here with a. She sent me to a place that was closed the other day. The flyer. So we're now we're even.

01:02:49Oh, yeah. We forgot about them. I've been there. It's good. Well, I would show no places that are open. I went there three, eight p.m. and it's closed. They close at six p.m. I heard they're amazing. I heard they're great. Shout it out. But would you. You don't even know it. I've been for four times. Don't worry. Land the plane. Brandon. Brandon. Land the plane. Actually, I'm going to have I'm going to I'm going to pass the controls over to you. The last thing we're going to do. I'm going to let you both of you land the plane. We always let our guests take us out. So whatever you want to say, as long as you want to say it. Jerry's final thought. Kenji, Michael, Jen. It the the the show is yours. Take us out. Wow. Well, I just want to thank you, Brandon. If you asked me, of course, I'd be like, this is this is someone. Not want to do, but it's not something I feel I'm good at. So it's kind of hard talking about, you know, anything positive about our restaurant when it doesn't sound like bragging.

01:03:54But this place is super special. It's run and powered by people, by people. It's a place where you can do whatever you want. It's super special. It's run and powered by people, by, you know, love by God. And we would so enjoy people to come check out our restaurant again, close Wednesday nights for dinner, closed Saturday lunch, close Sunday. But those other days we put the work in. That's it. You know, I can't thank Michael and Jamie enough for trusting myself and, you know, just creating a restaurant that they loved. That was the point. Like if we could have people never know that we owned it, that would have been fine. Half our employees don't know. That's true. That's very good. And it's a lot of fun. Which really clear. They might find out. Michael's whole point was like, hey, man, I don't really want to be known for this, you know, blah, blah, blah.

01:04:55Before we owned it, the first five guests I had never met were like, hey, so Kaplan owns this place? No joke. That's his humility in all of this. But we, yeah, this is a special place to us. And I hope it's a special place to you. We want feedback. We don't pretend like we do everything right every time. But we care. So there are things we set up in place to always make sure a guest has an enjoyable experience in one of the realms of service or food or conversation, whatever it might be. And then, you know, if it doesn't work out that first time, you know, it will work out the second time and it'll be on us. So check us out. Five thousand eight Maryland Way. At Soy Bistro on Instagram and Soy Bistro on Facebook. Quick before we wrap up. Our goal is to be a Brentwood staple. We love being part of Brentwood. All of our schools are as close to Brentwood or in Brentwood as you get.

01:05:56We've got pictures of Brentwood. We really love this city. And that's kind of where we had a shared vision. Yes. To keep this as a great restaurant in Brentwood, a one off. We are not looking to expand. And that's another thing why we work out so well. This is we want to keep the talent. We want to keep everything here. You want to be at Soy Bistro. This is the only one of them. And that's what we, you know, we got about 25 years before we get another Kenji. Right. Is it Ezra? No, Noelle is more likely. They're Asian. They can work tomorrow. Okay. Edit that out, please. But yes. So anyway. No, we love being here in Brentwood and being a one off. So yeah, we're not trying to open a whole bunch of chains and lose our character and lose who we are. Yeah. So you will get, you will get. You come here. But after October 15th, when this guy becomes famous. It's not happening. It's going to. What is it? $20 a picture.

01:06:56Wow. I'm gone. Great. Thanks. We're gone. We're gone. Suddenly, this isn't the most ridiculous thing. It's you. That's what I love. You and your wife's sweater. This is fantastic. So anyways, you guys. You can bring your own Sharpie and he'll sign the picture. Hold the belt. Be honest about it. Be honest about your experience in the food, man. We're going to. Someone's going to come and come around to ask you how your food is. It's so important. Honesty is the key to making any, any one or anything better. You know, I'll go deeper into that. Brandon, when we go one on one, because this obviously isn't working. So we'll go one on one and I'm going to want the truth and history. But come in here. Be honest about what your experience is, man. It's the only way we can get better. I promise you that. And other than that. I love you. Go to go to church on Monday. Kenji. Michael and Jen. Just been fun having you be the guest and kind of co-host. It's kind of been a good time here.

01:07:57Thank you all for joining us today. Monday, October the fourth. Great win by the Tampa Bay last night. Yes, that was. I can't believe it. What a week of football. I mean, wow. Oh my God. Titans won again. Just roll them. Just roll them. Oh, I see my sea hawks. Tighten, tighten. You can tell everything. Any other prediction? Nice. That's right. Baby, come see the side. Rick Flair belt. That's the nature of the way. Love you. Bye. OK, so I don't even know where to end that show. end that show. I really didn't know where to begin that show. You missed it. If you go back and watch the video on our YouTube channel, Michael hits Kenji in the chest, and he turns around and yells, man, I'm built like a spoon! That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard, and I missed it.

01:09:02I stopped the recording before it happened. But go to our YouTube channel, watch. You can see the belt. You can see these people are hilarious. They're goofy as hell talking, and you know, there's some pretty deep conversations we've had as people, but I think that this was just a fun time that they wanted to let loose, and I did too. Sometimes that's important, you know? Sometimes it's important just to chill and laugh at yourself. So I don't know. Hope you guys are doing great. I hope that you are being safe out there. Please, please, please go get vaccinated and wear a mask when you are around a bunch of people. Love you guys. Bye!