Jimmy Collins

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. Welcome to you on a Monday. We are so excited to be here today. Hope all of you fathers had a wonderful Father's Day, got to relax, spend some time with your children. And for those of you who are without your fathers, our hearts go out to you. We know this day can somewhat be a tough day, but we're thinking about you in our hearts and prayers. Today, we're going to be talking with Jimmy Collins. Jimmy Collins is a regional manager for the Frederick Wildman and Sons Company. And he lets us know what that means. What is Frederick Wildman and Sons and what is he doing?

01:01So we talk all about wine. Today is about wine. What is wine? How do you serve it? Just some of the basic knowledge of wine is one of those things that's a little bit intimidating to you. Today's your day. This episode is going to be so much fun. Jimmy and I used to work together at Merchant's Restaurant in Cool Springs. Yes, the one in Cool Springs that was way long time ago, I think it was 1998 that we worked together there as servers. So it's really great to reconnect with Jimmy today. I think you're going to love this episode. Saturday was Juneteenth, which is now a federal holiday. We're so excited about that. And one of the things I want to do on this show is I want to start highlighting minority owned businesses and black owned businesses. And we're going to start today. And I want to talk about the Germantown Pub. Naima Walker Fierce is the owner there and she is amazing. Their trifecta wings are the things that legends are made of. So if you want to find an amazing place that has really good hamburger, the Nashville Hot Hamburger, their fish and chips are to die for. They've got amazing salads, but they have the total community feel going on there.

02:03It's one of my favorite places. If you're in Germantown at the corner of Monroe and Rosa Parks Boulevard and you want to support an African-American owned business, go check them out Germantown Pub. But we have some really, really great news today on our on brand. We're going to be on brand today with Steve Colson and Spot On Technologies. We're going to bring him on right now. There he is. What's up, Steve? Hey, how's it going? What's going on, Brandon? You know what? We talk about this stuff all the time. And one of the things that we've all we've all known this to go and delivery has been huge. And you used to have to pick up the telephone to call in, wait in line. You can push on hold, please. You're waiting and you're ordering it and you hope that they get it right. But now there's technology in one of the things the pandemic has brought on is it is just shot ordering your food online, just straight to the top. And kids today are born with cell phones in their hands. You have a pretty big announcement to it today with Spot On Technologies. What do you got going on? Yeah, thanks. You know, we're actually very, very excited.

03:05We as a company, we announced this on Thursday, 17th, but we officially are the the first cloud based point of sale solution and restaurant technology company to integrate directly with Google for food. So we have now order with Google with Spot On restaurant technology. So anyone can basically from a Google search or Google Maps, Google your restaurant, the type of food, find you easier and actually order straight from Google. So that gives a better customer experience, much easier fluid process and gets those orders directly to your point of sale, printing in the kitchen, KBS, however you're set up so that there's just an easier, smoother process. Not only that, but it's reducing costs. There's no additional cost for this Google integration. There's no third party delivery apps to deal with as far as the commissions and the fees associated with that.

04:08So we're just kind of helping, again, just to help streamline the process for restaurants. Another important thing, Brandon. I don't know how important this is for you guys, but keeping your customer data so you're going to get to acquire customer data through this process as well. And keeping that data and owning it is huge for marketing your restaurant as well. So, you know, we're extremely excited. I went to FS Tech, the Food Service Technology Conference. We're going to go again this year in September. And one of the coolest things we talked about was, you know, if somebody comes in they place it to go order every Tuesday at six o'clock and that's the day that they do it. And you don't really know these things, but when you can keep your own data, you can see that stuff and go, OK, Sharon Johnson places an order every Tuesday. You can send her a message. You can market her Tuesday at noon to say, hey, you should be placing your order tonight. Would you like to try our new specials? Or you can send her one on Thursday and say, we know you normally order on Tuesday. It's like, wow, how did that's that's either amazing or it's kind of scary. But I think it's amazing if you're into marketing, if you're a restaurant.

05:15Absolutely. I mean, you know, just having that control and knowing just knowing your customers even that much more and being able to reach them and connect with them. It's huge. It's gigantic. And with Spot On Technologies, you guys are so customizable. It's what I really love about you guys. And I really learned about Spot On is that they're a POS system, but you can do so much more. You can do just the input. You can now it integrates with Google so people can Google your restaurant. It says place order. They can place an order and it goes directly through Spot On to the only technology out there that this is working with. If you want inventory controls, you want there's so many more things you can do. Steve, how do people get a hold of you if they want to learn more about this? Absolutely. So first of all, email is a good way. You can provide my cell phone number, which is 615-480-6282 or email me at s.colson at spoton.com.

06:16I'm going to put that on the screen. If you're watching this right now, you can see on the screen it's s.colson, C-O-L-S-O-N, at spoton.com. You can also go to our web page at www.nashvillerestaurantradio.com, find the sponsors tab and if you find the Spot On tab, it's a link that goes directly to Steve, you can go visit their website and see what they've got going on there. Steve Colson, I'm so excited for you. You've got to be a busy man with all of this new stuff going on. Thank you for taking the time to let us in on this amazing announcement. Absolutely. And thanks for having me. I know you're busy as well. I hope you, you know, happy Father's Day again and I appreciate the opportunity once again, but absolutely, man. Happy Father's Day to you too. And check him out. If you want to follow him on Instagram, he's going to post this stuff. You see it scrolling on the bottom of your screen right now at spotted underscore by underscore Steve to go follow Steve Colson for everything new that's happening at Spot On Technologies.

07:22Steve, we'll talk to you soon, brother. All right, Brandon, talk to you later. Yes, sir. All right, we're still excited to have Steve Colson on. And if you are looking for a new POS system, check him out. Go look at Spot On Technologies. They're doing some amazing things. It's not a one size fits all. They do so many things and you don't have to buy all of it. You can do as little or as much as you want. And that's the fun part. So if you call Steve, just talk to him, ask him about it. He's happy to field any questions you may have. All this new technology coming out, I know it can be confusing. We're so excited to have them as a sponsor on this show. Guys, I hope you have a wonderful week. Brandon's Book Club, we are doing five dysfunctions of a team. We're super excited about it. Go check us out on Facebook. There's a group, Brandon's Book Club dot com. I'm getting more and more restaurants joining every single day. I cannot wait. The Zoom call is going to be on July the 11th. It's going to be a Sunday night from seven to eight o'clock. And I hope to have as many people on there as possible talking about how we can help your dysfunctional team get better.

08:24So Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lenzioni. Go get the book. If you go to the Brandon's Book Club page, I have the first hour of the book. You can listen to it, kind of find out if you like it or not. Well, let's jump in now with Mr. Jimmy Collins. They're super excited today to welcome in Jimmy Collins, who is the regional manager for Frederick Wildman and Sons. What's going on, Jimmy? Hey, Brandon, how are you? Good morning to you. Talking wine at seven thirty. I like this. This is good. Yeah, man. You know, I I saw you the other day at the restaurant. We were talking and I was like, dude, you've got to come on the podcast because I've known you since, what, 1998? When dinosaurs were in the earth. Yes, it was that long ago. Yeah, it wouldn't be 88 because 98. Yeah, it would be that. Right. That's exactly. I moved here in 96 from outside Philly. So and I've been here ever since. So, yeah, it was probably about 98. So, yeah, we've been in the restaurant business one way or the other, haven't we? Food and beverage for for decades. So decades.

09:25It's been, I think, like 26 or 27 years for me. But you so we've had interesting paths going through. And it's great to see you. Great. Let's let's reminisce a little bit. Let's go back to some of your backstory. And when you were we were waiting tables at merchants, we left there. Where did you go after merchants? Oh, boy, now you're testing my memory at my age. Merchants, I think where I ended up was at the Mad Platter, which was just an iconic restaurant in Germantown before anything was in Germantown. Right. I mean, I remember working. I remember working there at the Mad Platter one time. And somebody came in and stole the cash register during dinner, just grabbed it and ran. And the manager ran out after him to get the cash register back. And the burglar turned around with a gun pointed. And a manager told me later, he goes, What was he doing? Why was I chasing this guy for for this money when he's pointing guns at me? Anyway, I mean, that was it was a little rougher part of town back then in the late 90s.

10:30But what a great restaurant, amazing restaurant. And that now is Mother's Ruin. That's correct. It's Mother's Ruin. I went back there when Mother's Ruin kind of opened it. And because they had one of my wines there and they have a spirit brand of mine there as well. And it was just so weird to walk in because it was just like going back how many years and thinking about just the same wood floors and just, you know, knowing that what it was like for me. But I really cut my teeth there more than anything in terms of wine and food knowledge was was at that location. It was it was great. Loved it. You know, it's interesting. We worked at merchants together and there was a manager named we had Gavin was one of the guys there. And then there's another guy named Jody. Yes. Yes, I remember that. I remember that. Yeah. Do you still keep in touch with them? I do. I still keep in touch with Jody because he's a broker now. And but I remember my interview with Jody.

11:33He said, what do you know about wine? And I said, I think that white, you know, Chardonnay is white and Cabernet is red. And then he said, go buy a book and you need to learn about wine if you're going to work here. And that was like 19 or something. You know, I couldn't even buy wine. Ended up learning, like falling in love with it because I just the idea of wine pairing with food and just everything. I started learning about it and I just became fascinated by it. Just was one of those things to me that hit me. And I was like, this is the most amazing thing. I'm good at this. I like it. And hey, every once in a while you get drunk. So that was really kind of the bonus for me. You get paid for it. What was it for you at Mad Platter? You said you really got in the wine thing. What was it? It was. Yeah. And it's the reason is because the way and you remember working at Merchant's or at least probably most restaurants, be it independent or corporate, how they're generally run. Mad Platter was such, I mean, the owners were just fantastic.

12:35And I had so much freedom that I could talk to guests, kind of get a feel for what they like to drink and then try them on something different. I could pair it with food. And it wasn't that corporate. Hi, my name is Jimmy. I will be taking care of you today. Can I start you with a spinach dip or some, you know, whatever it would be? Right. That's usually the schtick that happens when a server comes to a table. And mine was more like, hey, I'm Jimmy. Welcome to Mad Platter. The food's great. It changes daily. We can talk about the wine list. How can I get started? It was so casual and I could just use my personality. So what really and I always talk about this about light bulb wines. I don't know if you've ever had this where there was a light bulb moment when you had a wine and you realized I want to know this product, whether you get into the industry or not. Right. You just want I want to know more about wine. And mine was a nineteen ninety one Mount Vita Reserve. So this is from Mount Vita area of Napa Valley. Right.

13:36So it's a little more prestigious. And there are five grapes and these are the five grapes that are found in Bordeaux. Napa does them as well. And I tasted this wine with lamb, a lamb special we had. And it was that European. That was my light bulb moment. You just talked about Brandon. You had them together and you go, this is why Europeans have wine with food. This is why it just made total sense to me. And suddenly I just wanted to learn as much as I could about the product as a result of that. I love it. Let me see if I can name those five grapes. Go ahead. Hit me. Cabernet. Yes. Cab Franc. Ding. Pinot Noir. No. No. Malbec. Malbec. Yes. All right. So Cab Franc, Cabernet, Malbec, Petite Vordeaux. Ding. You got one more and it's an obvious one, more obvious. Don't go deep. Hello. There you go. Yeah, OK. Yes. Yes. I've still got a little bit of chops.

14:39You do got the chops, man. I like it. So I'm in the same way that Bordeaux style wine, like to me, it was Italian wine for me. And it was I think it was just like a Sangiovese or just something. I started getting into super Tuscans. And the idea that just the rules around wine, that you can't grow French varietals in Italy with and being called since you had these winemakers growing French varietals in Tuscany. And they were just smoking these day and they're calling them Chianti's are calling them Tuscan wines. But the people in Tuscan are like, no, you can't do that because you're you're growing French grapes in Italian area. But they were just absolutely coming. A guy named Jeff Hotmayer. Do you know Jeff Hotmayer? Yeah, Jeff. Yeah, absolutely. Turned me on to a bunch of those and I was like, wow. And then eating those when I was at Amerigo with Italian food and super Tuscan wines. And I was just like, that's it. This is what God made these things on purpose for you to enjoy. Very much. And it was funny because exactly that story that you're talking about, you know, Italian laws, if you were making Chianti or you're making you had to have certain grapes in those wines, right? And they have to have the percentage.

15:53So then you have these winemakers that are having, you know, they want to do 50 percent, 70 percent cab with a little bit of saying, you may say 80, 20, right cap. And there was no certification classification for it. So they had to create one, you know, they didn't want to call it table wine because these bottles of wine were going for like 200 bucks a pop. It's not table wine. So hence the I.G.T. classification. Yeah. So that's that's where that came from. It's because of experimental winemakers. You just want to break the mold of Italian wine and successfully. So they did. So I found wine to be something that became less pretentious as I learned about it. And I always hated the people that wanted to throw out this. Let me tell you what I know about wine. And I always wanted to make wine approachable for anybody at my table. I didn't want to come across the table like I was this douchebag. I really wanted to be like, hey, it's OK if you don't know anything about wine. I do know something about wine. Let me help. I always wanted to introduce somebody to something new.

16:55That was the thing to me when I was when you had people that came in and they said, I'll just do a white Zinfandel because white Zinfandel was really big. The actual Zinfandel in the early late 1990s, early 2000s was gosh, you could barely keep that stuff in stock. We sold so much of it. And my only goal was to get you out of a pink wine and into like a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Let me elevate you so you don't have to drink the pink wine. Let me put you in it. And now Rosé is all the rage. But I know, right? That was my number one goal when you you had a did you have a wine magazine back in the day? I did. I had I started a wine magazine. This was kind of like I was right on the edge. I was in music just like everybody else was in the midst of doing restaurant gigs. Right. So I would write songs and produce some records and I did some demos and all that kind of thing. But then I hit this point where the music industry was changing. Everything was being downloaded and streamed. Record budgets were shrinking.

17:57And I had to make that choice between whether I wanted to invest in a studio or try something else. I was really passionate about wine. Everything you just said about the desire to educate people. And the idea of a magazine came into my head because for one thing, as a server and you know this, you get all your friends calling you from the retail store and they're always like, hey, I want to buy a wine. What should I buy? You know, and you're sort of like I'm in the middle of a shift. I can't really talk right now. But they look at you as like a wine person. So they want to ask your your opinion. I thought why not have a magazine that people can pick up for free in a retail store and it'll be wines that are available in Tennessee, in Nashville in particular. And the reason being because at that time you weren't allowed to ship wine from Napa to your house by law. You could only buy what was in the store. So that was the idea of the magazine. My wife's a graphic designer. So she did an awesome job making the magazine look fantastic. And then we just had reviews from wines from some of the best tasters in Nashville.

18:58I had all the Psalms and everybody come for wine tastings. And mine was based off of not just is it good or not good, which is, you know, subjective, well made. It's about the price. So how can you compare something that's 10 bucks in value to something that's 50 bucks? Well, in my opinion, if it's 50 bucks, it better be smoking. It better be really, really good. At 10 bucks, when you have that, you go, man, there's only 10 bucks. This is great. Like as a wine compared to a $50 wine, it might not. It might not compare. But for 10 bucks, this is the best value. So mine was based off of value, not based off of just the wine itself, if that makes sense. I kind of added that to it. So I ran it for three years. It was called Nashville Wine Press. And then sadly, it went out of business because of the recession. We lost all our advertising. The recession killed us in terms of advertising. You know, so yeah. So that's what happened in 2008, 2009. Yeah, it went from 2006 to 2009, like right in the beginning.

19:58Right at the end of 08, beginning of 09. That's when I stopped. But I got a job with a distributor pretty much right after that. That's how I ended up from distributor to what I'm now is called the supplier, which sounds like a drug addict to a supplier. And I go through a distributor. That is kind of the wine where the three tiered system, you know. Can you explain that, how that works? Because I think there's a lot of people out there who work in restaurants that hear the words wine rep or on-premise, off-premise, regional manager, supplier, broker. Can you break down how the whole system works and what you do? I'll try to. I'll try to. So tier one, we'll call it, would be someone like you, a GM, something like that. Someone who's buying wine at a restaurant or retail store, right? Then you have a distributor. And this is a law in Tennessee that a distributor needs to distribute wines and spirits to both retail stores and restaurants. That's what they do. Someone like me as a regional manager, you notice my title is not a regional salesperson.

21:01Sales representative. Because I don't go out and sell. My job is not to go out and hit all of these restaurants and retail stores and sell my wine all the time. That's not my job. In fact, people find out I work for an import company and go, oh my gosh, you just drink wine all day? It's always the first reaction. What a cool gig. You drink wine all day. I'm like, no, that's an alcoholic and it doesn't pay terribly well. But my job as a manager is to basically manage my portfolio of wines, which is excellent. Frederick Wildman's very, very well respected. But manage that portfolio from a pricing standpoint, from an inventory standpoint, from an education standpoint. I educate the distributor and the sales representatives so that they can go out and sell my wine. I give them incentives. If you sell X amount of cases of this particular Chardonnay, you can get X amount of dollars per case. And it's a way to kind of get our brands out into the market and spread across what we call points of distribution.

22:05That's what we're kind of going for is to get our wines out there so people have them. And so simply, that's kind of what it is. I do go out and sell at times. I could come into your restaurant, but I have to be with a distributor. And they have to talk about price. I can just talk about product. Here's a Chardonnay. This is from Burgundy, from the Cote de Bonne. You know, X amount of aging in barrel and then bottle this. And then we really say, yeah, here are the scores. That's kind of what I do on my side. Wow. Okay. So there's a bunch of weird laws around alcohol. The fact that you go in and you can't talk about price and you can't sell, but you can only talk about the product. Why is that? I've heard a rumor. I heard it was prohibition. I mean, who knows? I can give you various things about it. And I don't mean this as a knock at all. It gives distributors a little bit more control. So it doesn't go out of hand. Because if you think about how popular Nashville is, if a guy like me could go into any restaurant with any one of my wines, to Mirror Bowls, just go to Mirror Bowls, you could have how many suppliers like me, right?

23:16People who work for import companies could come into your restaurant. There's so many that live here. There could be a barrage of people like me every day saying, Brandon, you're available. And I've already seen four people. I can't see anybody. So the laws were set up, I think, so that there's a little bit more control for the distributors and product being out there. So probably not the only reason. But I think that's part of the reason. And it's actually probably pretty smart. But here's what's interesting. I can go into your establishment, see you, Brandon. I cannot open the wine. I cannot tell you the price of the wine. But I can talk about the wine. So I can show a bottle. I can say, hey, this is a Chablis, fabulous Chablis. It's really going gangbusters. I see you have a hole, and you have a room for Chablis on your list. Consider this. If you'd like to taste this, we can get some samples from the distributor and have you taste it. And I think it's in a price point that you'll like. So I can always sort of go around and say, well, it's somewhere between $30 and $35 a bottle, somewhere in there.

24:22A cost. I'm not giving you an exact price. I'm giving you a range, right? Now, if I come into Mirror Bowls with that bottle at night for dinner, and I open it up, and you charge me a corkage fee, which is fine. That's the law. I would say to you, hey, you want to try a glass of this? Oh, yeah, sure. I'll try to cost it. Then you taste it. That I can do, because I'm coming into your place. I'm eating. And I've opened the wine for my enjoyment. I just happen to share a glass with the general manager, or the Somme, or whoever happens to be at the restaurant. That's kind of a way around the law. But I don't do that, truthfully. I like to go with the distributor. Sure. That's a lot. You have to have a real need to want to try somebody a wine to go through all of that. Yes, exactly right. That's exactly right. So what is your go-to if you're going out to eat? What's your favorite wine to drink? It's so cliché, but it really is what I'm eating.

25:24I work one of two ways. I either look at a menu and go, oh, I'm going to have that scallop, the soda dish. And then I start looking at the wine list to find out what's on that list that's going to pair with that well. Now, ultimately, I go to restaurants who support my products. So cavicchioli, right, is 1928 cavicchioli percent. I was at Admiral Bowles. So I know straight away I'm going to be buying that. So then I start looking and say, well, what will that go with? That's my other side is that if I'm going to support my wine at an account, I will know I'm getting that wine so they don't pick the food based off of that. So that makes complete sense. I always did that when I was a sales rep. But people would say, come on and eat them. Like, I only eat at people that buy from me. I go to all the restaurants. I get 45 restaurants that are buying from me, and I'm going to go spend money where they spend money with me. It's just as simple as that. Right. And if it's not mine, if I happen to be somewhere that it's not my account, it's not my state or something like that, I'll generally get a glass of wine of something I'm not familiar with. That's usually what I like to do.

26:24It's like, man, I have not had a Verdicchio in forever. And they have it by the glass. Let me get my palate back to what that tastes like as opposed to a typical Chardonnay or something like that. I'll get something obscure, Gruner Veil winner. You know, it's just something that I haven't had in a while. So we talked. One of the questions I think people ask when they talk about wine is expensive wine versus cheap wine. You mentioned earlier in the Nashville Wine Press, you were talking about $10 bottles of wine that drink much better than a $10 bottle of wine, and $50 bottles of wine that need to drink really good. What is, why are, what are some of the factors? Like, why is a wine $10 and why is a wine $50? Is it, is it all like, why is wine really expensive? What are the factors that cause that? You know, I would flip that and say, when you find out what's all involved in making wine, it's surprised how inexpensive it actually is because the labor that's involved, you got to start with the land first.

27:25You know, if you want to say, this is where you look at labels, right? So if you look at a label on a bottle, let's just say from California, if it says Napa Valley, that means the grapes, 75% of them had to come from Napa Valley, right? That's expensive land. Not just California. Right, right, right. And not just a California Appalachian, right? So that's no different than buying a home in Williamson County and say, if you're going to buy a home, way over, pick another county that's far away, but the land just, it doesn't cost as much, right? So that's kind of where that comes from. So Appalachian matters. So even though it says Cabernet on two different levels, you have to see kind of where they came from. So he first talks about the land, then the labor that's involved in doing it, then the expense of barrels. Barrels are crazy expensive, right? So if you're using new oak versus old oak, that's a price difference right there. The bottles, the way the bottling thing is set up.

28:27There's all these different factors play into how much something costs. And then if you're talking about imported wine, gosh, you're talking about shipping costs, you're talking about storage costs, taxes. It's amazing to me with how long it takes, like picking grapes, especially hand harvested grapes, right? Picked by hand versus a machine. There's a cost difference right there. You're paying labor to individually picking out, cutting these clusters of grapes. That's as opposed to a machine just kind of going through and doing it, right? That's an additional cost as well. So the fact that they go through all this process, especially in Europe coming over, and they can keep wine at least relatively affordable, it's amazing to me because it's a labor of love. I mean, you know how it is. If you invest in a winery, it's like generally people buying wineries are like these surgeons, right?

29:27They're buying these things up in Napa. They have all this money and they think, but it's just millions and billions of dollars you invest. And I don't know if you get the return. I don't know if the best investment, but it's an awesome to have your own winery. There's no doubt, but I wouldn't want to do it. No, I mean, it'd be really cool to have a winery in Napa and that just kind of be your life every day. I mean, you'd have to be pretty well off to do that, I imagine. So even if you're importing wines, let's just go back to Italy. If you have a table wine, Italian red table wine, you still have to ship it. You can buy cheap Chianti. You can buy cheap wine out there. So let's just say the difference between a Montepulciano di Bruzzo, which is pretty cheap, versus a Brunello di Montalcino, right? So they're all coming from Italy. You have to all the same shipping costs. You got to do all this stuff. The actual grapes themselves, is one better than the other?

30:28Yes, in the sense of how they're grown and where they're grown, it can make such a difference. So if you see cheap Chianti, it's Sangiovese, but they're getting probably that buying it in bulk and it's less expensive. I mean, you can take that analogy anywhere you want. You could get, let me give you an example. Here's an odd one, but it's strange, but it really does make sense. Hang with me on this one. During college, I used to make Crayola crayons. I worked in a factory and I made Crayola crayons. And one might say, what's the difference? You're buying crayons, right? What makes Crayola better than another brand right there? But if you ever tried the two side by side, you'll see the other one will break and Crayola makes it in a way that it's stronger and they make their own color. It's a whole thing, but it's just a better quality. And similarly, the grapes that go in cheaper Chianti aren't like they're bad grapes.

31:31They're just not as good as the Sangiovese Corroso, which makes up Brunello di Multicino. They're better. And so the cost, so truthfully, Brandon, sometimes demand plays into it, right? So if some wine has a big demand for it, wineries will raise a price because if they kept it at the same price, they'd run out and that would be the end. They almost raise price to keep sales at a good steady pace for the next vintage coming up because you never want to undersell a wine. You're out of stock within five months and then people have to wait five more months for the next vintage. I mean, just you want to have things sort of roll along and be smooth. You don't want inventory stacking up. You don't want to be too overpriced that your warehouse and the winery has got like old vintage and it can't sell. You don't want that either. So it's a weird balance to kind of get those two. I hope that answers your question, but it really is where they get your bulk wines, your box wines.

32:33Those are bulk grapes that they've bought at an inexpensive price, sort of like Costco. They buy it at an inexpensive price so they can sell it cheaper. It doesn't mean it's bad. In fact, let me say one thing. Box wine has improved so much, so much over the years. So I'm not knocking that at all. I'm just letting you know that's kind of the difference. Okay, I think that explains it. I think that, you know, soil, you know, so if you're growing it in different soils, you look at the, you know, Bordeaux, which side of the Gironde you're going to be on. I mean, the gravel soil or it's alluvial soil, whatever it is. And then there's certain areas where the soil is much better. So I think if you hear Napa Valley or Sonoma Coast for a Pino or Walla Walla, whatever you're looking at in a New World side, there's different areas that are on longitude and latitude that actually are perfect for growing grapes. So when you hear something that says Napa Valley, it's specifically from Napa Valley because that is the place that gets the right amount of rain, the right amount of sunshine.

33:39It's got the soil. They have older vines that grows better grapes, richer, better grapes that they can take care of when they harvest it and how that they produce it. So you take some and there's only a small acreage where they don't have that many grapes and then they just is the process. You pull a grape and then it goes into the maceration, then fermentation. Yeah, they crush it, right? They crush that. Then it's certainly for red grapes. Then you do your fermentation and you let that, you know, and that's a natural byproduct. That's the cool thing. It's, you know, you can say, you know, God created that that way, whatever your belief is, but they will just ferment, right? So it's like, certainly Noah, I think got a little, he got a little toasty. He got a little toasty sometimes in the Old Testament, but, you know, the grapes will ferment themselves and then you press it at the end of that. And then comes some of the aging process and then the bottling process and all of that after that. Whereas white wine is different.

34:39You know, you don't age white wine with the skins on it. You know, the color, right? The color from red wine isn't from the grape, right? It's from the skins sort of stewing with the juice itself because the juice is generally clear. Both the juice color in red grapes and white grapes is generally the same color. It's they let the skins sit. And that's what creates the color that you see. Now, additionally, rosé wine, the reason it's pink is it's red grapes that they're just letting sit there momentarily. So it's only pink and then they remove the skins and that's how you get your rosé color. There's another way to do it. They can inject sort of red wine to make a rosé color. But let's go back with the original just for now. That's what it is. You know, it's a short maceration. And then white wine, I guess, just ferments without the... Yep, without skins. They're gone. They just let the juice sit there and do its thing. And then that goes through, you know, a fermentation, malolactic fermentation.

35:42Now we're getting geeky. But the red and some white wines do this. Change this lactic acid, citric acid, sort of like a green apple. You bite into that, your mouth gets kind of puckery. And then it changes that acid to a lactic acid, which is like milk. There's acid in milk, but you don't really notice it like you would a green apple. That's malolactic fermentation. It's changing one acid into the other acid. So that's that kind of buttery cream thing you get in Chardonnays. That's malolactic fermentation. I've never heard anybody put it like that. Oh, okay. And then you won't find malolactic fermentation in Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Grigio. That's why those wines are not described as buttery and creamy because they don't do that. Okay, so here's the thing. It's impossible to find a linen company who you can trust, who you like, who you'd recommend. And if you're at a restaurant right now and you're looking for that company, you're unhappy with who you're currently using and you want to start sourcing out that you're waiting for recommendations, right now is your lucky day.

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37:58They have a very, they have very diverse product lines, so their chefs have access to thousands of items across many different categories that allow them to receive fresh products daily. This type of flexibility helps chefs with the ability to offer and test new menu items with ease. They have hundreds of trucks on the road every day to reach their vast market. Their focus is tight urban areas where groups of restaurants and chefs are located. Additionally, they have trucks from coast to coast bringing products to farms and artisans across the globe. You can order through your phone app or online. They truly are what chefs want. Check them out at whatchefswant.com. SuperSource is the answer to your dish machine and chemical needs in your restaurant. They've got zero minimums and zero contracts, so they have to earn your business every single week. Zero minimums. They're not gonna make you sign a five-year contract even if you lease the dish machine from them. It's amazing. Jason Ellis is a hardworking man and he is here to help save you money, increase the cleanliness of your dishes, and provide the best service in Nashville.

39:06So check them out. Go to our website at NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com and click the Sponsors tab. Find the link for SuperSource and if you sign up there, you will get three free months of dish machine rentals right now. You can also check them out at SuperSource.com or you can call Jason Ellis directly at 770-337-1143. What do you think the biggest misconception about wine is? That it's hard to understand. I think people, human beings, we go to things that we know, right? We do a lot of things in repetition. We do the same thing or we watch the same show or because we like, oh, I know that. I'm familiar with that. Wine's the same way. And I think you would feel this way, Brandon, in the fact that you love turning people on to wines they've never had before. I think people should learn more. It's not that hard to learn the basics and try different things.

40:09If you like Chardonnay, you don't have to keep going to the same Chardonnay you buy all the time. Go to different ones. Try different ones because if you have it from one region of California versus another region of California, they're different. A Chardonnay coming out of Santa Barbara tastes different than a Chardonnay that's coming out of Napa. And you might be surprised. You might like the Santa Barbara better. I deal in French wine, right? So I even brought some props. And these are, I'm going to show you some labels if you don't mind. You with me on this? Can I do this real quick? I'm going to show you. Go to full screen. Here is, here's one. If you can see it, sorry, the sun's starting to come in here. But this is a great, great producer, B.R. Simone. And this is Chablis. Chablis Grand Cru, right? Yes. And then I have this, which is Germaine Favely. And this is a Polini Montrachet. Can you see that? The sun's doing it. All right. And it's a Premier Cru. These are both Chardonnay. And they're both from two different regions of Burgundy.

41:11This is a cool, this Chablis right here is a cooler climate. So when you have this, it's a little, it's still Chardonnay and it still has oak aging, but it's not as prominent. So it's not unoaked, but it's certainly not a big full body. But someone who doesn't want that big buttery, oaky, Chardonnay vibe that you might get from, say, a Rombauer out of Napa, they might love this because it's not sauvignon blanc in terms of texture, but it's certainly a little bit more steely, I would say, in that respect. And I mean that the best way possible. A little bit more lean, right? Really fresh, right? And then this one is Polini Montrachet, which is in the Côte d'Ivoire. So they get more sun exposure. It's a warmer climate kind of thing here. Shouldn't say more sun exposure. I'll just say warmer climate. So that makes this one a little bit more fuller body, right? Just a little bit more fuller body and riper fruit. And they're both Chardonnay. But once someone understands what these labels say, because they generally will give you information that you need to know.

42:14First of all, Polini Montrachet is one of the best regions you can get Chardonnay from. Move it over to your left. To my left, right there? Or the sun's still going to be in it. Okay, I was ready for that. Is that better? Yeah, that's good. That's okay. And then it's Premier Cru. Yeah, so Premier Cru is telling you it's from the better vineyards. The best are Crown Cru. Sort of like the Cheblia just had was Crown Cru. So this is Premier Cru. Chardonnay is just, you know, something else has to do. But that's not as important. But let you know when you see Polini Montrachet, Premier Cru, you know you're getting a really quality product. Here's one for you. It just says, Premard, I'm going to go left. Right, as you told me to. So you see that, Premard, right? Okay, so Olivia Liffleff. Great producer of white and red burgundy. Now, first of all, if it's a white burgundy or a red burgundy, it's either one of two things. White Chardonnay, red Pinot Noir. That's it. It can't be anything else. It's those two grapes. So this is a village. Premard is a village in burgundy.

43:17And it's an excellent, excellent village. So when you see Premard, there's nothing that says Pinot Noir on it. Do you see it? Yeah. The reason is because Europeans know what it is. They see Premard, they know it's Pinot Noir. If it's red, they know exactly what it is, right? So once you get the basics of it and go, someone says I like Pinot Noir, and then they have something like this or something called a Bourgant Rouge, which just means burgundy red is what it means. You'd be surprised. You don't have to buy Maomi all the time. You can try these other Pinot Noirs that are out there and you'd be surprised what you like and don't like. So it's labeled. Knowing a label isn't that hard. That just takes a little bit of reading and a little bit of tasting. And you'd be surprised how your palate will expand. There you go. Thank you. That was excellent. I always talk about the label because there's so much you can learn from a label. Correct. So would you consider that an old world Pinot Noir? Definitely.

44:18Okay. So that's an old world Pinot Noir versus the Maomi you mentioned, which would be a new world Pinot Noir. Right. Can you kind of navigate us down the road of the difference between those two? Sure. I'm going to go right back to where you, something you mentioned and something I mentioned as well. It starts with the soil. When you're talking about the soil itself, that is, you know, they've been making this Pinot Noir for centuries in burgundy, right? So the soil itself adds a flavor and a texture, in a sense, of what's coming out of it. Then you have the climate that's involved and where it's stored in the barrels and everything like that. So old world tends to be, this is the way I would say to the general public, you're going to have, it doesn't mean your wine's going to smell like Seabiscuit's horse stall. It doesn't always mean that. It can. And I love those wines. Don't get me wrong. But it doesn't mean it's always going to smell like that.

45:19But something that's a little more New World might have the soil's younger, the vines are younger. So that gives a little bit more of an American flavor to it. And then this has a European. And then you throw all those other factors I just mentioned in it. This will have probably less alcohol. An old world would have less alcohol than a New World will have a little bit more. Americans love alcohol. Don't get me wrong. When we have a red wine that's jacked up to 14 and a half to 15%, we're all happy about that. Europe might be 13 and a half. And they follow laws to keep it within the range that they need to keep it in. The way I like to describe it is old world likes to express the fruit and it likes to express the terroir, which is a common terroir. It just means the soil, the climate, everything involved. That's what they want to feature. Generally, New World wines want you to, they want to feature a winemaking process or maybe bring out too much fruit and not as much balance.

46:28Maybe bring out a little bit more alcohol. It all depends. I mean, I'm knocking New World wines. Sorry, I am. I do that too. But New World isn't just America, right? It's also South America. Argentina, Chile, right? So, and New Zealand would be another one. They're not Old World. Australia generally is New World, although you can get some Old World styles. I would typically say like a New World to me, the perception to me is New World is more fruit forward, smack you across the face with that black cherry or chocolate or tobacco, whatever it is. You just get that fruit bomb around the front and you go, wow, I get that. And then Old World, I always loved drinking Italian wines because you kind of smell it and then you get that, it's like a chalky cellar floor kind of a long flavor to it and you drink it and the mouthfeel is different and it just keeps going. It just keeps going. It's so layered and structured. And New World wines just, you get that.

47:29It's just a punch across the side of the face and then it's gone. And that's an overgeneralization of what I would think. There's obviously some New World wines that are very well layered and structured and fantastic. But Old World to me just kind of has a lot of different nuances to it. Right. And you asked me a question a while ago about what wine would I choose. People always ask me what's my one wine, but it's usually a region. I'm either going to pick Spain, Italy, France. It's going to be one of those three because I love European wine. What I found in Old World wine that I don't get as much from New World wine is that Old World wine transports me to where it came from. So if I'm having Brunello, I've been to Multicino. As soon as I taste it, it just reminds me of it. Now, I haven't been to Burgundy yet, but when I taste it, I can already imagine what Burgundy would be like. So that does that for me. It might not do it for everybody. That's a lot where the passion comes into play because when you can be taken away to somewhere else, that's a fun thing.

48:34All right. So I'm going to pivot a little bit because I think that if we have restaurant owners or restaurant managers, bartender servers, let's give some tips and tricks. What do you think the best way? So if I am a new server, if I'm new, if I'm a bar manager and I'm trying to teach somebody how to sell wine, I've got a young staff. Right now, we're coming out of a pandemic. There's a lot of new people that have switched jobs or coming back to their old jobs, but there's new teams involved. What's the best way to learn about wine or to sell wine? What's the best advice you can give? Advice first off is know the product that's on the list that you're selling. Even if you don't know anything beyond that, learn that list because that's what you're selling. You can read. You can read Wine for Dummies. If you really don't know anything, Wine for Dummies is actually a really good basic introduction to wine knowledge. And then I would suggest the Wine Bible by Karen McNeil. That is written in a way that's very creative.

49:37It's not so stodgy and stuck up about bricks and all that kind of geeky wine stuff. So those two books are worth reading. Know your product. And then I would say read the customer. That's what I always did. If I walked up to somebody and they're talking about that, you mentioned this, White's Inn. They drink White's Inn. I'd say, look, I'm happy to give you White's Inn. We have it. I will pour you a glass of that. Would you be willing to try something? We have a Riesling that you might like. And rarely do they ever say, no, I don't want to try. Just give me my White's Inn. So you come out with a little taste of this Riesling, right? And from Washington state, because they could be a little bit sweeter. And they take the, oh my gosh, I've never had this. I had no idea. Well, would you like a glass of this? Yes, give me a glass. They feel like I'm branching out a little bit. If people do like White's Inn, then give them what they want. But it really starts with you as a server.

50:39Know your product, read up on it, and then lead the customer. Don't try to sell them on something more expensive that'll backfire and a heartbeat because they think you're greedy. Give them what they like. It's even better to say, look, I know you might want to jump to this particular cabernet, but we just brought in this cab and the bottle price is $10 cheaper. And I think you're going to love it. I think you're going to try it. And then they, you save them 10 bucks. It's going to come back in your tip. I think so a hundred percent. I am a huge, I think upselling is important. I think that as a server or a bartender, you are a salesperson, but ultimately you're trying to expand on the guest experience. If I can make you have a legitimate experience that you want to go tell people about, then I've won. If they're buying wine, that's great. It's not water with lemon, go away from me. They're getting an appetizer. They're going to buy wine at that point. I'm not going, well, you need to drink Caymus.

51:39Oh, well, you've got to have this. I'm saying, what do you like? I think that just a simple question of walking up to a table and asking the guest, do you drink wine? It's so easy. And I don't drink anymore. I haven't drank in almost two years, but people will come to the table and go, hi, welcome to XYZ restaurant. Let me tell you about our Chardonnay tonight. Let me tell you about our bourbon special tonight. And I'm like, we don't drink. And I don't want to be a jerk about it, but you could easily say, guys, do we drink? Do we want to hear about these things? And a lot of times people will say, yeah, we're going to drink wine. And then they're telling you, yes, tell me about what you have. And it lets you know as a salesperson which direction to go. You are so right. And you said the key word, it's an experience for them. And that's what you're trying to do. And I'm sure you had this. I still remember working at the Matt Platter. I'd have repeat customers come in. Like I remember this particular couple that would come in. I would have the, I'd put down the menus and say, hey, I can see you guys. Hey, give me a second. I just got to run some food. I'll be right back.

52:40I'd come back to the table. They'd hand me the menus and say, just order for us. We'll take what I say. You can move for white or red. They're like, red. OK, done. And I generally knew what they liked. And they always had a great experience. And they'd come back again. That was the whole thing. Giving them a memorable experience. So that's key. It's well said by you. I like that. And people will leave. When you turn them on to something new, when somebody is a white Zinfandel drinker, chances are they drink the pink drink. They don't want to drink. I mean, that's just what they know. So many people out there who come in to eat in a restaurant are so scared about wine. Wine lists intimidate people like crazy. That's why you see a lot of people just buy house wine. I'll just do the house. When they say, I'll just do the house, to me, what that means is I'm intimidated by your list. There's 80 bottles here. I don't know a lot about wine. I'm just going to get what's easy for me and get the hell out of here. I know I want a glass of wine. I'm just going to get it. And then I'm done. So if you can say, I always tell servers or bartenders or whoever it is, start with variables.

53:43So start with Chardonnay and Cabernet. And start with your house. And then start moving up and kind of ask questions and read and take notes. And when you yourself learn the basics, because Cabernet and Chardonnay, obviously, most people buy those. And then I'd maybe go to Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio. But you learn those variables. And you learn the subtle nuances between the variables. This one is stainless steel fermented. This one has new French oak. This one tastes this way. This one tastes this way. So when you go to a table, just having the confidence of knowing your own wine list and being able to turn somebody onto something and be confident about it, the first time you do that at a table, as somebody who's nervous about selling wine, the first time you go to that table and you turn them onto something that's a little bit, I always get Kendall Jackson. Well, I'm going to put you into this one. And they go, I didn't know that this is amazing. I'm going to go tell all my friends. You get a satisfaction inside of you if you have that spirit of service. If you get a set when they leave and they go, I just turned them on to something, a new experience those people had.

54:45And they're leaving here feeling enriched and nourished because they learned something new today. And I got them to try something outside of their comfort zone that they're going to go tell their friends about. That, to me, is worth everything. Right. It is. You're exactly right. And that is a spirit of service. If that's in you, that's a lot of fun. I also would say, too, I really like that idea of asking the table, do we drink? Do we want to try something? The other question that I think is fun to ask is, well, what do you normally drink? Like, I drink wine. So what's your go-to? Tell me what your go-to. You do it in a casual way. The response is, well, I generally drink Chardonnay out of a box. And they sheepishly look down, which they shouldn't. But they do because they don't have knowledge and they don't want to be embarrassed and they don't want to feel stupid. And then if you can take that out of it and go, oh, cool. No, don't worry about it. I mean, let me try something for you here. I'll give you some Chardonnay. You like that? Let's try this. See if you like it. People, like you said, they're intimidated by lists because it makes them feel stupid.

55:50And nobody likes to feel stupid. And they shouldn't. Americans, we don't grow up learning wine at all. We're never taught it at all. Europe, these kids are drinking at a young age and learning about wine from a very young age. So. And it's so easy, too. If you just, I think you have to be proactive. I think so many people out there go to work. They get a job. It's a side gig or whatever. And they're waiting for somebody to teach them about wine or they're just waiting for osmosis to happen. And they're just being around it. They're just going to learn. It's OK to go to the bar. It's OK to go to your bar manager and say, hey, I'd like to try some Cabernets today. I'm really trying to increase my wine knowledge. I think 100% of the time, if anybody walked up to me and said, hey, I really want to learn more wines. Can I try some stuff? I'd be like, hell, yeah, you can come try some stuff. That's the number one thing I'd want anybody to come say to me because you're wanting to educate yourself and grow in this profession. And everybody wants that.

56:50Everybody wants you to do that. Exactly. And just from a just talk numbers standpoint, you want people to have the experience. And I'm sure you go through your servers telling them this, the difference between selling an iced tea versus a glass of wine. And if you can do that from a financial standpoint yourself, it does raise a check average. So it's not just giving an experience, which you will, but also will benefit you. I mean, in the long haul, it will benefit you financially in the job that you are called to do. I can guarantee you if you went to 100 restaurants and 99 of those restaurants, the person that makes the most money in that restaurant does two things. One is they work the most. They come to work and they work the most. And two is they sell wine. They know their wines and they can sell wine. The highest earner does both of those things. They work the most and they know their wines the most. Right, right. And you asked a question earlier that popped in my head. One thing I would tell people, whether it's servers or people coming into restaurants, just general wine buyers.

57:53Generally, most stores in our area can find a wine that you like. If you go to Tamir Bowls and you have a wine you've never had before, then they like it. Then they're going to say, where can I get this? Server has no idea because they don't know where you can buy this thing. But you take a picture with your phone that if you're the guest, go into your local wine store and say, I want this wine. Get this for me, please, if you could. I want to buy a case. They can get it for you outside of any allocation or just out of stock. They can get it. They don't have to find the store. The store they go to can get it for them. Okay, that's good news. I didn't know that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. All right, so we're kind of getting towards the end here. And I will ask you this last question and then I'm going to open the floor for you. What's on trend right now? What are people drinking right now? What's hot and what's coming up? What are the new things for summer? That's really good. That's an excellent question. So, you know, the old standbys certainly work.

58:55Prosecco, in particular, goes gangbusters. Always has, but it's really picked up. And I know you remember a time when we couldn't sell Prosecco into any restaurants, right? They have nothing to do with Prosecco, right? And same with Rosé. Rosé now, I mean, you look at a shelf and, you know, whether it's a grocery store or independent, there's whole shelves now based off of Rosé. All these kind of Rosés from all over. So those things are still really, really popular. I think what's kind of a trend, if we can break out of it a little bit, what I think is a trend is a little bit more experimentation with more obscure white wines in the summertime. I heard somebody talking about a vino verde, right? Oh, yeah. You know, that type of thing where they've never had it, it's not expensive. And they're like, wow, this is delicious. I'm going to keep buying this vino verde. So I think at least in the, you know, millennials is thrown around too much, in my opinion, but certainly the age group there, they're more into trying new things rather than the same thing over and over.

59:59And I think that bodes well for restaurants in particular, because you can have an alborino on your list. You can have a vino verde on your list. You could have a gavi on your list, right? These are white wines that people might not be familiar with. I know it's so good, such a great wine. So I like that you're an Italian wine nut. I like this. Gavi is one of those wines that if you like Sauvignon Blanc, you're like a good crisp wine. That's like a New World style that drinks like an old world wine. Like, gavi to me is where it's at. You know, that's a perfect description. I'm going to borrow that if you don't mind me. I'm going to borrow that when I'm out in the market. That's good. I've never said that. I like that. That's a great way to describe it. So I always said alborino was like, if Sauvignon Blanc had a child with, it would be like Chenin Blanc. If they had a child, the alborino would be that child, you know, that sort of thing.

01:01:03You know, what I like to do back to the server training is if you have a wine like a gavi, right? Or if you're doing a Malbec and a Tarantes, right? You're going, what is a Tarantes? Nobody's selling Tarantes. But it's another great little grape that not a lot of people know about. I like to do wine features in the restaurant. And I do them for two months at a time. And I do both of mine. I'll do like Green Hills Grill versus Maribol. And I have a big trophy. I have a big huge cup. It's called the smithing cup. Stephen smithing is the owner. And then the restaurant that sells the most of it gets to keep the cup over that two months in their kitchen. It's a whole thing. But I started with Cabernet and Chardonnay. I did a feature of Cabernet and Chardonnay. And every single day in lineup, we'd talk about that. And I let the servers that didn't know a whole lot about Cabernet and Chardonnay. Every day for two months, they had to talk about Cabernet and Chardonnay at their tables. And then that opened up the conversation during lineups to, hey, what other Cabernets do we have? And how is this Cabernet that we're featuring today different from those Cabernets? And after two months of talking on their tables about Cabernet and Chardonnay, it's amazing that they all of a sudden were comfortable talking about Cabernet and Chardonnay.

01:02:10And then I did Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. And I talked about why Pinot Noir from the Sonoma coast. I did a traditional Pinot Grigio from Italy. And why those two or what those Pinot grapes and why they're different. And then they talk about Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio for two months. Then the next two months, I did Malbec and Tarantes. We talked about Argentina and why this new world style grape. And then after six months, all the servers that have worked there for six months, all of a sudden knew everything about Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Grigio, Malbec and Tarantes. And all of a sudden they're like, I know about wine now. What is this? Yes. And my distributor loved it because I sold 85 cases of their Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. And they're like, hell yeah, let's do this again. And now I have negotiating power for every two months. I'm bringing in these different wines and it was great. Yeah. And servers love that. Servers love general managers like you. They love that because they're learning and growing. And it's education they're going to take beyond the job. Right? Oh, yeah.

01:03:10Whenever they get out of the restaurant, they feel like, wow, I know something now. This is really, really great. So well done. Well done on your part. Let me know if you need any wines for, let me know if you need any wines for your next tip. And he's like, that sounds like 80, you say 80 cases? Yeah, let's do that. Yeah. Yeah, I'm in. So I'm still a salesman, I guess at some level, right? Those are the words I wanted to hear. Jimmy, it is so great catching up with you, man. I feel so great seeing you every time I see over the last 20 plus years, 23 years since I worked with you, we were young and going crazy. The merchants, I said merchants, I don't think we mentioned that we worked at the merchants in Cool Springs. That's right. Right. Most people don't realize that there was a merchants in Cool Springs and that that is now a Pinnacle Bank. Bank. Yes, it's that bank right there in Mallory. Everybody kept coming in and saying, I thought this was a bank. We're like, no, no, this is a restaurant. It was a cool restaurant. It was really nice. I still remember. I'm going to say this. I still remember their one dessert.

01:04:12Do you remember the chocolate cake with the white Zinfandel frosting? Yes. Oh, that was so good. That was a really good dessert. Bananas Foster. The thing I remember most about that restaurant was the beautiful gold plates with the words merchants written on them. The gold plates, gorgeous plates. And then I remember Sunday morning for breakfast or brunch, whatever you called it back then. We used to get cases of champagne. We had these big ice buckets. And at 12 noon, we were allowed to start drinking in Cool Springs. We had to pop all these bottles of champagne and just free pour to the entire restaurant. It's a champagne brunch and all you can drink champagne. I remember there being clergy and pastors that would come in and have us pour their champagne and coffee cups and all these different people like, I don't want to be seen drinking on Sunday. And we'd have all these different glasses. We'd have to pour the champagne into, which I thought was just so indicative of Nashville in the early 2000s. That is exactly right. That's so true. I forgot about the champagne.

01:05:12I really did. I remember the blue roll-ups. I remember that, the napkins rolling up the blue. Blue, but yeah, that's so funny. I remember being at the bar, like I was working at, when Peyton Manning, that's so weird. Peyton Manning lost the... Did he lose the Heisman to the wide receiver from Michigan that year? I don't remember. Yeah, anyway, that was just sort of in my brain, like things you remember in certain places. So on that front, I was working the day Dale Earnhardt died. Oh, oh. The day Dale Earnhardt died, I was working that shift watching the Daytona 500. And it was like, oh, Dale Earnhardt had a wreck. And then later that night we found out that he died. And I was like, what? We were just watching the races, the end of the race. And Dale Earnhardt crashed. And I was like, oh man, he didn't win because he was a big time favorite for everything. And I remember that day, I knew exactly where I was watching on that TV around the big horseshoe bar there. You know, and I remember the concept was, if I remember correctly, it was sort of like fine food, fine dining food for families, in a sense, right?

01:06:22Because there'd be a lot of people in Williamson County who didn't want to go downtown to get a dinner. And they want to take their kids, right? That's kind of what the concept was. Yeah, and it worked. It was a beautiful restaurant. It might've been before it's time. Yeah. Jimmy, like I said, it's great to catch up with you, man. One of the things I do with all of my guests is at the end of the show, I like to open up the floor for you to make whatever statement, whatever, to take us out kind of in a Jerry's final thought. Whatever you want to say, for as long as you want to say it, you're speaking to my audience. Cool. Go. OK, it's rather brief. So I would say, don't be intimidated. Learn what you can, as much as you can, or as little as you can. It doesn't matter. And don't let anybody tell you that you should like a wine. You either like a wine or you don't like a wine. Someone like me can tell you that this is well-made, but that doesn't mean that you're going to like it. So I always tell people, whatever your knowledge level is, whatever you are on the spectrum, you're still a Roman emperor.

01:07:28It's a thumbs up or it's a thumbs down. And it's all personal preference. And you hold on to that. But I think the more you explore, the more you learn, the more you taste, that's a good thing about wine, you can taste it, the more you get that, you'll see your palate expand into different horizons. And it's not going to break your bank. You don't have to buy these white burgundies I showed earlier because, or the red burgundy, if it's not in your price point, you can find great wine in your price point. That's how I did. I love it. And you know what? That's the fun. You get to get friends together, put a brown bag around a bunch of $7 bottles of wine or $10 bottles of wine and taste them without looking at the label and then identify the one you like. And what a fun process. Like the idea of trying a bunch of wines together and talking about it was how I learned. We just got a bunch of brown bags. My buddies come together and we would open these bottles of wine and go, I really like number two. And then we'd look at it and go, oh, I didn't know that I liked this Merlot or whatever it was.

01:08:31Yep, very true. Jimmy, I wish you nothing but the best of success. I look forward to seeing you around the restaurants. And this was a lot of fun. Thanks for doing it. It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I'll see you soon. Thanks, Brandon. Appreciate the time. All right, buddy.