Joe Shaw

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and boy do we have a fun show today. We are talking to the one and only Joe Shaw and Joe is now the general manager at the standard at the Smith House, been the executive chef there for many years through COVID-19. They're pivoting a little bit, doing some different things. He's kind of the jack of all trades there now. They are about to open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, I think after the 4th of July. So lots of good stuff going on for him. But this interview is done, well it's a new interview to you. We did this interview the week before last and he came to my house and we sat on my back porch. So if you think that I live in a bird sanctuary after listening to this, you're not wrong. The back of my house backs up to some woods and we just sat back and had a conversation. I apologize for the audio, it's not wonderful. I just did get some new microphones so hopefully that will be something we can remedy here pretty soon. Speaking of new microphones, I do want to tell you that that's a fantastic thing and I could do that because we have amazing sponsors like Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. And I tell you guys all these random things about Springer Mountain Farms Chicken like they're the greatest chicken in the entire world.

01:51Let me tell you why. Because they take extra steps to ensure the health and welfare of their chickens. They're raised in comfortable houses with an unlimited supply of clean water and fresh feed along with plenty of fresh air and room to roam, allowing them to live a normal life without the threat of predators, harm from the elements or diseases from the flocks of birds they'd be subjected to if they were raised outdoors. All of the practices and procedures are certified by the American Humane Association as being the most humane possible. This is verified by regular independent audits of all their farms and facilities by the American Humane Association, the oldest and most trusted advocate of animal welfare in the country. Springer Mountain Farms was the first brand of chicken in the world to be American Humane Certified. So that's one thing. It's one of the things how they are the absolute best chicken in the world.

02:51And I always say this, they're doing it right. They've been doing it right. They were the first ones proactively making it happen. So I'm honored to have them as a sponsor to support the show. And I hope that you guys enjoyed our Friday show, The Roundup, brought to you by Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. Delia, Joe Ramsey and I had so much fun last week. And this week we are going to be doing a Father's Day checkup. You want to know where to go to brunch for Father's Day, what's happening, where to go. We have some takeouts, we're going to talk happy hours, talk to-go drinks, lots of cool stuff going on. Plus the ever-popular What's the Delia segment will be back. And I'm pretty excited for what she has for us this week. So without further ado, let's get into the one, the only Joe Shaw. Some pretty good stories going on here, guys. I hope you enjoy it. Here we go. So welcome to National Restaurant Radio, Joe Shaw. How are you, sir?

03:52I'm doing great. Glad to be here. So glad to be here. This is a first. You know this, starting a podcast, you get involved with speaking with chefs and I started off this podcast talking about how much you need to reconnect with old friends. And you and I have kind of reconnected. And we have so many stories from our time in the past. And I thought it would be really interesting to share that with some of our listeners. So I've invited you out to my house around my back porch and recording this. First time we've ever done this. Hopefully the sound isn't too bad. I'm so happy you're here, man. Well, I'm glad to be here and talk about old times and going forward post coronavirus. I've got my coronavirus haircut going on. Oh, it's good. Thanks. No ponytail anymore. No ponytail, but I'm sporting the beard. I feel it makes me look about 20 years older, but I feel about 20 years younger. So I don't know how that works. I do feel like you have to dress up a little bit better so people don't think you're homeless. But I'm going for the homeless look. There you go. Of all the years in the corporate world where I had to wear slacks and a dress shirt and do all of those things, the one thing when I started my own business was I thought the cool, the crazy like aha moment was I have to create a dress code for myself. Nobody's telling me how I need to dress, which is a weird thing because I've always just you wear slacks and dress shirt. You look professional. Do your thing.

05:27And now I'm kind of like, I kind of like being comfortable. It's pretty amazing. There's nothing wrong with comfortable. You know, even as a chef, I think you have to live up to people's expectations and it's that that in itself has changed. 10 years ago, I think people expected chef whites and a little bit more starch. Trend has gone to short sleeve blacks and more of the avant-garde and even even down to kitchen tees and ball caps. So let's bring our listeners back. If you don't know, Joe, we met, gosh, and I want to get into your story, how you got here, but I'm just going to bring people back to the moment we met and I want to paint a picture of that time. Okay. I am 25, 26 years old. I just newly got married and I started with a company called creation gardens and this brand new restaurant opened up a watermark and it was the was the restaurant in Nashville. When watermark open, it was the, if you're anybody in Nashville and watermark open, that is where you went to have dinner and you were the opening executive chef at watermark. Walk us through how you got there in 2005. Frank Stitt in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm from Birmingham, Alabama and I had been a chef de cuisine sous chef for Frank Stitt at his Northern Italian restaurant, Bottega for a four year period. I had worked with Dean Robb, who was his general manager for a period.

07:26I think Dean worked with Frank for, I'm going to say at least 10 years. I want to say for some reason I'm thinking 17 years, but that may be a little long, but anyway, Dean worked with Frank at Bottega there for a long time. Jerry Brown had partners, but primarily it was Jerry Brown's restaurant watermark and he wanted to open an upscale Southern food restaurant in the style of Frank Stitt or Frank Stitt style restaurant, which would be Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham, Alabama. For those of you who don't know, Highlands Bar and Grill has won multiple James Beard awards. Frank has won multiple James Beard awards. Most recently, I think two years ago, he won the James Beard for the best restaurant in the United States and his pastry chef, Alastair Miles, won the James Beard award for the best pastry chef in the United States. She's been with him. She actually has worked with him for over 30 years.

08:33So anyway, Jerry went to Frank and asked Frank to work as a consultant for him in opening the watermark. Frank basically was too busy, but basically had no interest in doing that type work. But then Jerry asked Frank if he would mind if Jerry asked Dean, his general manager, if he could ask Dean to do it. Frank gave Jerry his blessing. So Dean became involved with the project and worked for a while and I was no longer at Bottega during this period of time. I had moved on and actually was with a company in Auburn, Alabama, but it was through Dean's recommendation that I was introduced to Jerry Brown. And that's how I came. I did an interview. That's how I was brought on board. So you've got Highlands Grill, Bottega, Frank Stitt, who I mean is doing it right. He's an innovator. He's using the highest quality ingredients.

09:41You didn't go to culinary school, right? I did not go to culinary school. You're a chef who kind of learned from people, almost just kind of took your innate talent that you had and then applied that with influence and learned southern cooking. Yeah, but before we move away from Frank Stitt, I've got to say that, you know, in my lifetime, I have worked with two people that I feel like are geniuses and Frank would qualify as one of those people. And to me, a genius is not defined by necessarily somebody who is more brilliant than the rest of us, but it is defined by someone who has a vision or a passion that transcends normal capacity, normal vision. He sees beyond what the rest of us see. For instance, I'm a line cook and I'm working for Frank and it's a Friday night and we're getting buried on Friday night. And there are tickets working and there are tickets back and the printer is printing and we're putting together some fairly technical plates and there's a salad, a gourmet and an assistant gourmet and a grill guy and a saute guy and a pasta guy and we're all working and communicating and trying to put things up together to be sent out to get simultaneously on tables and doing this dance and it's busy and it's rocking and you're trying to keep up and you're trying to work at a pretty high level and the concentration and the heat and Frank pulls something out of the window, a plate,

11:42and he pulls it down and it's like everything sort of stops and he goes, fellas, fellas, look at this, look how beautiful this is, how beautiful and he takes the plate and he walks it behind the hotline and he's showing every individual cook how beautiful he thinks this plate is and how wonderful the ingredients are and the freshness and how well assembled it is and the tickets are still coming in and the pans are still cooking and he's just walking and he's just walking down the line because he is overwhelmed at the beauty of the food that's being put together and that's genuine, that's not, that's not, you know, it's like he can't help himself. It's maddening as a cook who, you know, it's like you've got stuff that you're trying to keep, protect its beauty in the pan. It's like you don't want it to be thrown back at you and have to start again but that's Frank's tip. That's living in the moment too. You know, it's like you get 60 pound wheels of Parmesan cheese and you break them down into little pieces and we had to hand grate all of the cheese because that cheese came from an artisan that cheese was made by somebody who devoted his life to making cheese and we needed to understand what went into the production of that cheese and the 18 months that it spent on the rack and the time it spent in the ship on the boat coming to the United States and what it was that we were using and not to overuse it and to treat it as special as it was. It reminds me of the

13:45interview I did with Chef Andrew Little from Josephine. He talks about a potato and he says if you have to take a seed and plant a seed and then water it, fertilize it for three weeks, come back every day and water that and maybe three, four weeks and then you dig up a potato and you have to wash it off and you've got it there, you're damn well going to cook it the right way. You're not just going to go, it's just a potato, I'm just going to peel it and throw it like. You're going to do something special with it because now there's a relationship you have with the food. It sounds like that's what he's doing and that's one thing you taught me. Whether you realize this or not, you have a young impression of a 25 year old sales guy who walks into the Watermark and we started talking and your standard of excellence was so high. There was nothing about what you were doing that you were going to allow to not be perfect. Watermark was a perfect restaurant. You're going to tell me it wasn't but as far as anybody else is concerned and what you taught me was I don't want you to walk in here and sell me crap. I don't want you to come in and go, hey this is the cheaper. I remember red bell peppers because they have Holland bell peppers which is an 11 pound pack and they're hoop house grown. They're perfect thick wall beautiful red bell peppers. Then I got a bulk red pepper that's a bushel and a ninth is what they call it but it's a 35 pound and it's all kinds of mis-shaped just a random red peppers and I said which one do you want the one that's you want the Holland pepper? Do you want the bushel? Then I go the bushel's a lot cheaper. You can probably get a lot more out of it and you went I do not ever want the cheaper option. I do never I never want the least quality. If you have something that's a higher quality that's what I want. That's what the guests that come into my restaurant deserve and it just stuck with me because I've never heard that every chef wanted what's the cheapest thing that you have.

15:44What's the I want the shittiest product. I don't even care because I'm just going to chop it up but you were no I want the best because I cared about every single ingredient that went into that food and it showed it showed in every detail of that restaurant and I was mesmerized. I was just I want to learn from this guy. That's the aura that you had for me. The effect that you had on me as a young salesman was I just want to that that mentality was so next level in this city and I want to say thank you for that because you motivated me when I was younger and that's that's the level you brought to the table. To me it just seems so it seems so obvious first of all it's like when we when we built the watermark we put in a six by eight cooler and the whole idea was that we were going to cook fresh food every day. It was our job every day to bring in fresh food. We were only open at night but we had a daytime crew that did the production.

16:50You know we were expensive but you know I don't think we were astronomically expensive. You got what you paid for. We did fresh stuff. We rolled it every day. We got the freshest. I had seafood accounts in Florida and I had a seafood account in Hawaii where I got my tuna and the guy would call me when the tuna boats were coming back into dock before they hit the dock and he would say I've got this big eye blue tuna coming in and it weighs this much and it's going to cost this much and I can have it to you tomorrow afternoon at three o'clock from Hawaii. So it would be on the boat before it hit the dock and I would be ordering it and I would have it in Nashville at three o'clock the next day. Never frozen? No. Straight from Hawaii? It had been in the water the morning before I had it at three o'clock the next day. I don't know as a flounder if it was a scape but you were showing me the top level ingredients in everything you did. By the best.

17:56So Watermark best restaurant in the city was amazing but so I'll never forget the day that you called me and you said I'm no longer at Watermark and I was like what like what the hell and I could tell in your voice that something was awry like something and you were it was almost like you were hurt but that separation what happened why why did you leave Watermark? It still hurts me. Listen at the Watermark I gotta tell you first of all it's a funny story it was a popular restaurant and we all got a lot of press everybody's ego was large everybody's head was large and yesterday I was looking through some old Watermark menus and I looked you know for like the first six months I was looking at the menus and I was thinking man these menus people were writing some really nice things about me and man these menus suck and then I was looking at like the second six months and it's like these are a little bit better but god they're terrible and then in the second year I could see how things kind of it got because I've always preached you know as as I learned from Frank you know seasonal menus and and fresh ingredients just the way the menus let laid out in the the fish the meat the steaks and and how the balance on the menu so anyway I just funny story me on me seeing seeing the development and I could see I could remember sort of feeling feeling overwhelmed and sort of the terror of just trying to keep up with the volume it you know it wasn't six months into it that we were we were 160 seat restaurant and on Friday and Saturday nights we were serving close to 300 with 42 turns in yeah which is which is a lot which for for an upscale restaurant

19:59like that is is a lot the restaurant that redefined fine dining in Nashville it might well absolutely I mean I I I was new to Nashville 15 years ago I know that there there have been the wild boar I know that there had been a couple of other Mario Mario's is still open and sort of teetering on the way out we've been open for two years and we were no longer doing 300 on Friday and Saturday nights and the owner thought he was the reason for the success and the general manager thought he was the reason for the success and I thought I was the reason for the success and those guys the general manager and the owner thought that we needed to this is my take on it I think that they thought that we needed to a kick in the arm a kick in the pants and we needed to make some changes and the general manager had a brother who had worked in New York at Gramercy Tavern and they wanted to go in a more New York fashion and I had worked for Frank Stitt and I thought that we should double down and be more southern and listen I am I started in this business first restaurant I ever worked in I was one of five partners we were all young guys I learned this business by sitting around the table arguing my point standing up what you believed in I argued my point that's how I found myself you argued your point and they felt differently they felt differently I mean you know that's that's the way it goes what you learned from that experience I learned how to run a successful restaurant Nathan Lindley was a great general manager in as much as as I demanded excellence in the kitchen from my staff and the quality you know Jerry Jerry Brown demanded that of me I think as an owner I demanded it of my staff but Nathan also demanded

22:03of his staff we just didn't spare any expense on service either you know we had we had food runners and bar backs and waiter backs and I think that was as much the reason for our success as the food so what do you think went wrong why I mean why were you not doing 300 covers was it competition was it you said that you guys all had egos you all thought you were the reason why it was successful what was your reason why it wasn't successful not that it wasn't successful because they were still doing business but well I think because it was you know I think competition I think the fact that it wasn't you can only be new you can only be the new kid on the block once you know I'll still go back to we didn't try what I believed we should have tried then and and I think you know you just push it just stick stuck with the southern I think yes I mean you know that's in the same way that that frank has been successful for almost 40 years I think that's that's what you do you I'm sure there have been years where he hasn't been as successful as other years but we could have done more with wine sales and food and wine pairings and you know I look at the menus that I wrote there weren't we didn't really link ourselves to local local purveyors necessarily local farmers of course this was you know 12 years ago and that that really wasn't the wasn't the way people do it we're doing it by then but we hadn't taken leadership in doing that and and I think you know that's what I'm saying we could have and I think we should have been at the forefront of of doing those things within the community I think that would have helped us it sounds to me because through all of my experience working with all the different chefs and restaurants that I have and through my years in operations there's some finite aspects of

24:06running a restaurant that you have to have right so you've got to have creativity in a chef who has the ability to be creative and they've got another kitchen they've got another business behind running the kitchen so a chef's such an interesting thing because you can write a menu but then you also have to manage the staff and all of that you're a general manager you've got an owner and the tough thing is that you've got to be able to balance all of those things together so many people get into owning restaurants and they've got a great chef they've got a good general manager and an owner but they all have three different opinions and there's a book out there and if you're out there and you have a restaurant getting at is there's a book out there by Patrick Lencioni it's called the five dysfunctions of a team and what it talks about is absence of trust talks about an attention to details being vulnerable with each other and having healthy conflict and so many times I see restaurants where you have these egos and you have different people that have differing opinions and they take things personally there's all this politicking involved where they get angry with each other and you you said that to me and I took it personally when if you really sat down and you talked about you got vulnerable about it and you said what's your ultimate goal and you said to take care of the guest and you asked Nathan you said what's your ultimate goal he said to take care of the guest Jerry what's your ultimate goal and he said to take care of the guest okay good so now we're all in agreeance about one thing everything here is about making sure that the guest experience is great so now if I have an opinion about that you can tell me you don't agree with it and I can tell you I don't agree with it and that's okay I'm not telling you you're a bad person no and there's a dynamic there that if you're listening to this out there and you have a restaurant the five dysfunctions of a team are so rampant I see them all over the place in restaurants I get to because people just can't argue effectively you can't be creative in a room and it's okay to be wrong or it's okay to say I'm not really sure that I that that idea is going to work and to be great tell me why let's

26:08talk about it having open and honest conversations with people without bias without this fear of what somebody's going to say about your idea stifles so many amazing conversations that could potentially happen I want to flip a book out there Patrick Lanzoni's five dysfunctions of a team it's on Amazon go get it I mean they're not a sponsor or anything but if you're having some of these issues those podcasts hopefully will give you some ideas as to ways to help your business better and I'm hearing this and I'm going gosh if you guys could have all just set your egos aside for a minute and not taken anything personally and said let's figure out a way we all have the same goal right we all want this restaurant to be the best damn restaurant in the city how do we work together yeah true that everything's maybe things work out differently yeah so you left there so let's talk about your progression to where you got today where'd you go from there you went to the standard to the standard the standard the smith house it's now the history behind that house the oldest private what it it's 173 years old it was a boarding house built as a boarding house 18 1840s it was uh purchased by a group of Jewish businessmen turned into a private club at the turn of the 20th century it was they built a ballroom on the back it was the largest ballroom in Nashville when they built it which is laughable it's not as big as a basketball court at one time it had uh I think two bowling lanes in the basement downstairs I did not know that it's a three-story house I think in around 1910 1912 they uh they moved the club and it was purchased by a private citizen who became he was an optometrist and he

28:12and his family owned and operated an optometry company they lived on the second third floor and had an optometry business on the bottom floor for like 75 years the man's daughter also was an optometrist and she continued the business the one fun fact that I just can't forget is that the daughter was responsible for petitioning the federal government to paint lines on highways as an optometrist she thought it would reduce traffic accidents and uh it was her idea and Tennessee was one of the first states in the United States to have painted lines on highways as a test apparently it worked yeah apparently it worked wow what area what aspects of the next part of your career do you want to talk about where do you want to uh you know okay so so let me just tell you all right tell me but here's my story you know I played football at Auburn right yeah when I was in junior high school when I was in the eighth grade we won the city championship when I played freshman I started v-team but then I got pulled up to the varsity as a sophomore and then won state championship junior year and was the captain of my state championship team winning team my senior year and then went undefeated as a freshman freshman team so in eighth grade ninth grade 10th grade 11th grade in 12th grade 54 and four wow you didn't lose much no and then my three letter years at Auburn 13 18 and two oh pitiful yeah in those same three years Alabama won the national championship

30:12and Georgia won the national championship so there you go all right so I'm gonna go a little psychological on you yeah you play six years throughout high school 54 and four a lot of winning going on there yeah defensive end outside linebacker you go to Auburn 13 18 and two two you tied twice 13 18 and two I had a gentleman on the podcast yesterday Ben Ben Whitlock is his name he's the president at mobile fixture and he's a professional golfer and he said the one thing about he said he hated being a professional golfer because he hates to lose because he grew up with tiger woods and Phil Mickelson all those guys got my ass kicked all the time because I didn't you know he's like I hate losing more than anything I remember my loss I don't necessarily remember my wins so that story being said having all of those wins and then going into a sub-500 collegiate career what does that do to your psyche do you learn to deal with losses no no never does that ever get easy no no everybody in my recruitment class we were we were we were really tight when we got out of school there are individual friendships but as a group we don't keep in touch and I would guarantee that to a man every one of us feels like a failure wow it stays with you still feel that feeling you know exactly that feeling feels like yeah it's not just that we were mediocre and I mean you know we hung into some games my sophomore year we went four and seven and every year Alabama being 35 to six or 35 to three 35 you know Bear Bryant and coach yeah Bear Bryant sure Jordan was our coach

32:14you just got to you know you have that going where you say you lost to Bear Bryant I mean at least it wasn't like you know Lane Kiffin or something it doesn't tell me something Joe because I appreciate your knowledge and expertise and I certainly respect you what's your view of you look back at your menus at watermark and you said these are some pretty bad news there's been an evolution in this city since you've been here what are your thoughts on it that much huh I'm not sure I want this published um you can say it and we'll decide I think there are a lot of people doing some very interesting food all right listen it's a loaded question loaded statement well it was a loaded question you're asking me to make personal commentary about people's food who they care deeply about you're asking me to be a food critic as a chef maybe or just in the whole city has changed now we have pedal taverns and tractors pulling bats rats up and down the street that we didn't have the gulch when we were when you had watermark in the gulch there was there was all the stuff that there wasn't there there were relevant there were railroad tracks across the street railroad tracks across the streets I mean it doesn't have to be about one individual's food I mean that question can be just what are your thoughts on what's happened in Nashville you know I said what's happened that's what we've I hear let me let me all right let me tell you let me put it this way let me preface the story yeah I was thinking about this today and and then when I was thinking about it I was thinking you know I really this freaking old but when I started cooking in Birmingham Alabama if you ordered red peppers there was a skip day because they had to order them from Atlanta I mean it's fancy if you went yeah it was fancy if you went to the farmer's market you got potatoes

34:18eggplant yellow squash zucchini sweet potatoes you got what the farmers grew the suntan peppers in Alabama yeah and and that was it celery onions you know corn there was no such thing as specialty there was no you you couldn't order stuff from California and those were your limitations that that was your larder that that's farm to table that was it you know I have been so fortunate and so blessed to have been a chef to have grown up in an industry as it has grown up as it has developed you know I talk about I work I work for Frank Frank was a philosophy student at Berkeley uh when shape and E opened and he happened to get a job in the kitchen at shape and E Frank wanted to be a sommelier and he was going to France to learn how to be you know on a wine tour and uh and they helped him plan his wine tour and schedule uh schedule uh some time with Richard Olney who was an American living in Provence and Richard Olney I mean young guys won't know this but there's a whole series of cookbooks made by time life Richard Olney wrote every recipe in all of those like 13 or 17 books in France from France for time life in that cooking series Richard Olney was the inspiration for Alice Waters one of the inspirations I don't know Alice Waters but he he was her inspiration at shape and E Frank I think ended up staying with

36:21Richard for like six six weeks when he came back to the United States he's from Cullen Alabama he decided to open a restaurant called Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham not to be a song yet point that I'm that I'm trying to make is that as an as an industry those the chefs that when I when I worked with Frank Frank used to do these wine dinners and the four years that I was there I was able to work with uh Hubert Keller you guys have to look look up Hubert Keller he had a restaurant in San Francisco called Florida Lee I was able to work with Charlie Trotter at Trotters I was able to work with Susan Spicer from New Orleans I was able to work with uh George Germain and Joanne Colleen from Providence Rhode Island I was able to meet a Kermit Lynch great wine importer I was able to to meet Bruce Niers who worked for Kermit Lynch but whose wife was the hostess at shape and eat these people are all interconnected it was a community and a camaraderie but the food that they made had integrity and the wine that they made had integrity and that's what's missing that well I want to say that's what's missing because that's that's that's a wholesale statement I would just ask the chefs and cooks does your food have integrity it doesn't matter if it's beautiful it doesn't matter if it's uh you know if are are the freaking purple kumquats that you got for amazon delicious do they go with do they complement what else is on the plate you know do they make sense are they cost effective

38:30are they necessary those are the questions that you need to ask you know just because you can get them doesn't mean you need to have them are they integral to the dish that that you're making just because you can get something does that mean that you do need it it's an interesting question just because you can do something should you absolutely absolutely and I think some of your history is interesting because I think that Frank Stitt he worked for him that name has kind of followed your career but I want you to know that you're somebody to me that I look up that I don't even think about things that I look at what you've done and I look at your career and all of the places you've been in Nashville and all of the time you've spent teaching me about product because I you've you've been always been there no matter what I've been through no matter what you've been through you've always had a level of respect with me that I've appreciated a lot I don't think I'd be where I am in this industry today if it wasn't for you your footprint on what you've done in this this landscape in Nashville I appreciate and I want you to know that I appreciate you I listen the passion that you have for what you were doing is like the passion that I had for what I started doing 35 years ago what's your passion now I still I still have this passion for food this passion for I mean you know I was between jobs one time and I did an interview a long interview with the gas company and it was the question are you the kind of person that would that would rather be doing like a lot of this or a little bit of this and I just resented the

40:31it's like the whole premise of the question you know I uh I started out I'll try to be quick I had a car wreck you had a car wreck I had a car wreck and I was 26 26 years old when I was 24 I lost a child when I was 25 my wife left me when I was 26 I had a car wreck I was living with my parents I lost my kid my wife my home my health my job 26 I'm living with my parents I've got a concussion my skull is split from here to here I've got broken ribs torn cartilage in my leg uh I'm sleeping 18 hours a day after three months I need some place to go back to work but I don't have any stamina I weigh about 175 pounds a guy from college I know is running the neighborhood bar they do food you know bistro stuff chili burgers stuff like that I go and I get a job as a waiter two days a week three months I'm a waiter after nine months I'm running the whole place I'm doing bar back service bar on weekends waiting tables dinner night he leaves to open his restaurant to open a restaurant for himself and he's got some partners he hires me because of my construction because I've been doing construction tells me that he'll give me stock in his company train me in the restaurant business if I work for 250 a week to build out his restaurant so I build out his restaurant for 250 a week and he trains me in the restaurant business after nine months he puts me in the kitchen first day in the kitchen guys build making a soup we go steam kettle guy says chef soup's ready chef goes over taste the soup joe shaw come here taste the soup it's my first day I'm I'm friends with this with

42:38the chef but I don't know anybody else in there I don't know how to cook I don't know anything about the kitchen I taste the soup he looks at me he says what you think I go he says it's dish water you make dish water I don't remember the guy's name it was cooking it's a pudgy little guy that's what I remember he says man put some salt some white pepper some celery salt garlic powder onion powder you know I go back to doing what I'm doing five minutes later says joe shaw come taste the soup I taste the soup it's like chicken soup it's delicious what happened yeah how did he do that he just made soup it's like how did you know what the fuck it's like oh my god it was magic it's magic was that your aha moment that was it the next day I came in I said get another manager I'm gonna be a chef like if I could make something like that this is magic anyway but that's how it is this guy Joe Lynch was the owner of the restaurant he had been trained by Dave Wattell he was the sale maker manager the four important rules of a successful restaurant are quality service cleanliness and value I learned those I stayed with him for another three months because I had been because it was a successful restaurant I didn't know how to cook but I got a job as a kitchen manager I learned how to make make soup I studied you know three three recipes my job was to do to run the daytime line to do the ordering and inventory to make the daily special and the soup of the day and so I would I would read three to five recipes what's the same about every recipe what's different what makes it what it is what you know I figure out a daily special I taught myself how to cook through that through

44:38that I met chefs in the in the local restaurant association they taught me how to read cookbooks and I did that I worked in a 600 family country club while I was working in the country club I got a job in a hotel working in the fine dining kitchen I was working like 100 hours a week working 60 hours a week at the county club and 40 hours a week in the hotel yeah I got a job working as the because I've been a manager and a chef I got I was working with this bistro this bistro two weeks it was a new thing two weeks before it opened the general manager disappeared I signed a one-year contract to be the chef and general manager you've had a restaurant life do they have the NFL has the football life like I mean it's been a whole I've worked 64 years old yeah I worked in hotels I've worked in county clubs I did five years at Kathy G Gourmet catering she was a member of the international caterers association and the first time we went to the international caterers association the first thing I went to was a was a seminar on how to set up a field kitchen the last day I was at the international caterers association meeting in Las Vegas addressing 600 people in an auditorium on how to set up a field kitchen and the last thing I'll say to you is that my relationship with the restaurant business is like like the way people love ballet so like a dance like I don't have this mechanical scientific numbers relationship it's like I can walk in a restaurant and I can tell you which waiters out of place which waiters in the weeds you can see it cooks feeling yeah and I know when it's

46:39all going right it's a dance and I'm in love with that dance I can tell you when temperatures too high or too low and the music's too loud and I can tell you which server is going to walk with the biggest tips and which which girl is fixing to cry it just it's in my blood and I'm in love with it I think that's what makes a restaurant person we talked about restaurant people right there's nothing else I'm gonna do I'm never gonna sell insurance no I'm never gonna be a guy that's like I feel like the total life and just like no I get that I walk into a restaurant I feel that exact same thing I can walk into a restaurant and go that's not right that's not right that's not right they didn't greet me I didn't get the feeling when I walked in that this is a friendly place right that the host when the host is rude for every little aspect of it I start picking apart it doesn't mean I can't enjoy it right man when I walk in somewhere and they're firing all cylinders and they really hit it it's it makes it so much better it makes me just I love that I'm passionate passionate about that about service about seeing then you walk into a thousand kitchens you can start seeing I know I can tell just from the sanitizing bucket you can look in and go let's get this dirty tonight in here I need to immediately just from how people are cleaning but that's what that's what makes us unique yeah this is what we're gonna do yeah that's what our passion don't you know Randy Randy is all the time how can you do this why don't you do something else why I can't I I would fail at any other thing you know I can't sell food it's it's an endorphin rush too I mean it's exciting I'm being in sales I got married my wife's I get out of the four walls of the business which is why I got into sales right I was told my whole life that I will probably end up in sales just because of me being me but

48:42it worked out well for me but I miss man I've always said that the most exciting time of my life is three deep at the bar or when you're managing a restaurant and it's the middle of Friday night and I'll never forget I'm going to paint a picture for you and you're going to get this I was in Jackson Mississippi in Amerigo restaurant and it was a Friday night in Amerigo the owners live there to make sure you're very familiar with this we're friends with the owner of course Bill Lathan and Al Roberts were the owners and the whole the whole lobby is just filling up and it's full Friday night in July it's about 6 37 o'clock I mean it's we're cranking yeah tickets coming out the line as the manager and the manager on duty and the manager in the restaurant right and uh I've got a guy at the front host stand who's asking directions he's literally got a map on the front of the host and he's going but if I go down old Canton road and I'm just going what the hell are you this is a restaurant man I got another guy who was a legitimate friend of the owner there was a five top and this guy you did not he was one of those people you accommodate in every single way because he was a great guest he was there four or five times a week he was legitimately really good friends he wasn't just one of those guys that said oh I'm friends with Bill he's standing he's looking at me standing at the bar he's looking at me going looking at his watch going are we going to be sat anytime soon I've got an entire full lobby of people I finally this guy I say sir I need you to put the map away I need you to go to your car and do this this is not what we're doing and we're greeting people as they walk in it's servicemen going what do I do about this what do I do about this and I look to my left and there's a kid walking through the middle of the lobby with his hand over his mouth and he's vomiting and I just it was that moment where you go this is it baby this is what we're here for

50:44I got you and what do you do at that point that that's where leadership takes over and you go okay you need to leave go see dr johnson I'm gonna put some gloves on and clean up the throw up on the floor let's roll and everybody instinctively just does it that's I know right now I can look in your eyes that's what we live for those are the moments those are the moments I had a similar moment where a snake came in the front door of a restaurant one day and I was just like I walked over I just stepped on it and just threw out the door people like what do you want me to do we're in the middle of a friday night shift that's what you do you just get it done yeah I don't have time to go whose job is it to clean up and throw up no you go put some gloves on you just get it done everybody falls into their role and they just do it that's the beautiful moment yeah of restaurants that people that don't work in restaurants don't get right my voice gets elevated I get excited talking about I can see it in your eyes you're like those are the moments those are the moments that get in your blood oh yeah those are the moments that you can't recreate selling food selling walking and talking to chefs it's fun it ain't that right that's the moment that that we as restaurant people feed off of we call it turbo boost I call it turbo boost you get in there in that moment of turbo boost yeah absolutely absolutely well thank you joe you're welcome thank you for coming by today thanks for coming to my house thanks for meeting with me spending an hour and a half talking I hate to uh to cut it short that's all right but um someone's bringing up uh yeah yeah so thank you everybody for joining joe I'll give you a handshake we're still socially distancing and uh we appreciate it all right all right there it is uh joe shaw from my back porch again I got new microphones hopefully the audio will be better going forward

52:45man I love that last story um that I was telling just about working in at the Jackson Amerigo and just the level of insanity that that chaos that happens on a busy night I know there's a lot of you out there that are missing that and we're going to get back to it we're going to get back to it soon that's going to happen I'm telling you if we all just uh take care of each other and do the right thing I think we'll be there so um I thank you guys for listening today please push the subscribe button on however you're listening to this this episode will not be on YouTube we do have a new YouTube channel so go check it out we've got a few videos uploaded already uh and our Friday Nashville restaurant radio roundup presented by Spring Mountain Farms Chicken is out and ready to rock and roll so hope you guys are staying safe and uh love you guys bye