Kate Davis

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01:09Welcome 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 happy Monday to you and yours. Today our guest is going to be Kate Davis. Better known by most people as at Nashville food fan on Instagram, she has been covering Nashville's food scene for seven years now on the Instagram front and this is her first major interview that she's done and we get to talk about a lot of things. I'm not gonna tell you too much about the interview because I'm excited for you to listen, but I do want to tell you that if you do like this podcast, one way to let people know you like it is to go to wherever you listen to your podcast and rate us five stars. Tell people about why you love the show or the way I'd really love to hear you do it is go to Nashville scene.com and find the best of Nashville tab that they've got. Voting is live right now through the end of the month. Click on the media and politics tab and vote for Nashville restaurant radio for best podcast. I would love if we could get a word out there and let everybody know about this podcast so we can get these stories from our local restaurateurs and people in the industry out there so everybody can know about them. I do want to talk to you quickly about Springer Mountain Farms chicken. They are the best chicken in the world and I you know that by now. You know one thing that I would love for you to do is go to their website, go to SpringerMountainFarms.com, join the flock, put your email address in and get their weekly email, but also there's a

03:11tab on there where you can find every single restaurant that you can purchase Springer Mountain Farms from so you know that the restaurant is serving the best chicken in the world and if they're serving the best chicken in the world chances are they're using really good other ingredients as well. It's a good indicator of a great restaurant if they're using Springer Mountain Farms chicken so go check them out. Also F-O-H and B-O-H, Faux and Beaux is a new company that is there for hiring so if you're out there looking for a job go to FauxandBeaux.com fill out a profile and click the restaurants that you'd like to work at and chances are they're on the side too and they will contact you for an interview so if you're looking for a job out there go find your dream job at FauxandBeaux.com. So let's go ahead and jump right in with Kate Davis at Nashville Food Fan. So with much excitement I'd like to welcome in to Nashville Restaurant Radio Kate Davis the Nashville food fan. Welcome in Kate. Hello hello thank you for having me. I am so excited to have you on the show today because you're your Nashville food fan I mean oh my gosh. I am I am the one and only although I feel like there's lots of people in the Nashville food Instagram community now doing all kinds of similar content so I want to say the one and only but the one among many but I'm yeah I'm happy to be here and it's definitely an unusual year to be in Nashville Food Fan probably an unusual year to be Nashville anything but I'm plugging along. Good well the question that I ask people when they come on the show is how are you doing which is the standard greeting most of the time if you if you listen to show you know that I asked every episode off this way we will say hey how are you I'm good how are you I'm good. I think the most valid question you can ask somebody in these

05:12times is how are you with genuine enthusiasm with wanting to know the answer to that question so I'm gonna ask you that question how are you doing today. I am doing okay I'm doing I think as well as can be expected I feel you know a sort of balanced sense of both gratitude for what I have and mourning for all that has been lost or put on pause this year I certainly know that a lot of people are hurting right now and that is weighs on me heavily and helps me keep perspective that while I have challenges just like anybody else you know it could it could be better it could be worse I'm I'm okay. Good well that's that's good to hear because you know you know you never know what people are doing out there and it's good to hear that you're doing well. I send a smoke signal out to all the other parents out there without formal child care I would say that I can certainly relate to every meme every you know cry for help every request for wine yeah I'm doing fine but I'm not I'm not doing normal. So I just we dropped off our oldest child this morning for first grade took him to school first grade. What a rite of passage yeah. But just what a incredibly unusual and scary decision it was to him to school I mean we live in Williams yeah and they you know kindergarten through I think second grade or doing in school and we decided after just hours of deliberation and tears and fear like and you said all the little memes like my wife's been

07:13sending me stuff on messenger all the time like look at this this is not I'm not crazy like I'm like I know I know this is a whole thing yeah I mean I think no one is crazy right now and everyone is crazy right like there is no decision that feels sane there is no possible choice that doesn't have down bow it consequences so to speak and yeah I mean I think that every choice that a parent is making right now is understandable and I also I have a nine month old so for me I I am it's easier and harder in different ways I mean I definitely don't have to be making those school decisions and I don't envy anyone who's making them but yeah it's a real thing there's also there's also a very real separation anxiety that's happening because we have a kindergartner as well and he starts on the 17th so we are going into first grade who only got to have half of a kindergarten year so there's a trepidation is he ready kind of a thing and then you know we've had him at home since March so right now he's gonna be gone every day throughout the day my and then we're gonna have the other one so the first time in seven years my wife's gonna have the first part of the day with no children and that's that's not easy also I'm sure I'm sure it's gonna be hard for an adjustment for everyone for both of them yeah so there's definitely some empathy out there for parents yeah going through this and it's a real thing I mean I I've I think that you nailed it when you said everybody's crazy and nobody's crazy because that's right I mean how do how do you remain completely normal through all of this there's nothing has been proven there's not a book that I can go to Amazon and buy that says how to remain sane during a pandemic that's right there's there's no blueprints there's no framework I mean I you know I am not by nature a then person I'm not

09:21who like goes inward and meditates but I certainly am drawn to that quality in friends and mentors and so I yeah I mean I guess you just do the next right thing one thing at a time and hope that it leads you to a decision you can live with I mean I think living like the ability to live with it is the best that we can ask for I think that the expectation that we're not going to be by our decisions right now is unrealistic I think it's like what can you live with and yeah what level of risk can you live with what level of sacrifice can you live with what level of cost can you live with like that's the best that we can ask of ourselves right now we can and I think that you nailed it right there too is that we've got to ask it of ourselves we we can't ask a lot of others we've got to look in the mirror and ask it of ourselves and you know I've had a lot of business leaders and business owners on the show and I think that right now more so than ever leadership is the most important thing I mean we've got to have really good competent leadership who's gonna lead us in the right direction now I don't know I don't think anybody knows what that direction is but I think that there are qualities of leadership that leaders need to have that will help us make the I mean making good decisions is a leadership quality and I think that we now more than ever we need to follow people that are good leaders amen so this interview is gonna be kind of fun for me because I don't I don't know you I don't know you don't know anything about you I couldn't find any interviews with you have you done interviews I think I've done one a couple of years ago my friend Lily was doing a book of Nashville Conversations and I did an interview for her website

11:23leading up to that book but I really haven't done very many and this is certainly my first audio podcast radio interview well you're doing great so far just let you know thanks killing it the fun thing usually I like to do some research I like to know about the people that I'm going to be interviewing and obviously we know that you are a Nashville food fan and you've got a huge following and you've been doing it for a long time but I think beyond that was the intrigue for me like who are you like to maintain I like to maintain this you know mysterious no I mean I I think part of the reason why I haven't done that many is because Nashville food fan is is a big part of what I do in my life but it's not my main source of income it's not my main source of employment and I have done it more some years than others it's really lucky for me that I can sort of give it more or less of my attention depending on what else is going on in my life and the community seems to stay active and there but yeah I mean I'm happy to fill you in on all that's missing well let's let's go back and I think you gave me a really good lead in there with what is your your full-time occupation but I don't want to I want to get to how Nashville food fan began what year began I want to say I moved to Nashville in 2013 in the spring and I either started food fan that fall or the following spring and I mean Instagram was a very different place full of hipstamatic filtered photos and I mean like if you go back to the first post of the food fan

13:27account the photography is so bad but it was very it was very in keeping with the time it wasn't just mine was bad it was like I mean just it's unrecognizable looking and I think I started it I honestly don't really remember I think I started it mostly to show friends of mine living in other cities like hey look how cool everything in Nashville is like you should come visit me because I moved to Nashville jobless and pretty much friendless on a whim and I knew no one here and I was like I mean I think the first 15 or 20 weekends that I lived here I had a different friend come visit me every weekend from New York where I moved here from and it was like it was my way of sort of documenting for my own memories where we were going and sort of like keeping a virtual zag it as I built as I go okay and so then that's cemented in times I mean it's almost like having an online photo album yeah that's what it felt like definitely you know as I started it I there was no real food Instagram accounts when I started it there was one other in Nashville eat Nashville was around and I think had a couple hundred followers I mean very early on and I didn't even start Nashville food fan with the intention of it becoming a public-facing thing I just you know took photos of food as I went around town trying places and then I guess probably a year into it maybe a little less I started posting other people's photos and that's primarily because I've always just been a photo person I don't have Twitter I'm not drawn to like social media that's word-based I'm very drawn to image-based social media like you know who took the prettiest photo of this burger whether

15:28I took it or not I want to post the best photo of it gotcha but that's what led me to start reposting other people and giving them credit and sort of trying to build a little bit of like a page that you could scroll through for dining inspiration again whether I took the photo or not I just wanted the best Was there a moment in time where you was there was there a seminal moment like a tipping point where it became a hey this is my online kind of photo album to hey well people are really getting this I'm gonna is there one particular image or one particular post that really puts you over the top that made you kind of change to a public figure? I don't remember I mean I remember feeling like getting hitting 10,000 followers was insane I think it was kind of like when I when I hit 10,000 followers it was one of the bigger food accounts at the time if not the biggest in terms of following numbers for whatever that's worth and now of course like everybody has got tens of thousands of followers but I think a very special moment for me which was right around that time I think if my memory serves me Reba McIntyre the one and only last name not necessary did a takeover of Nashville food fan and she posted her favorite place to get breakfast her favorite place for lunch and her favorite place for dinner and I was like yeah this is cool like Reba Reba's doing Nashville food van for a day she's my first to ever take over I'm starting at the top it doesn't get any better than this like I mean maybe Dolly would be equal to as a goal but like you know it's all downhill from here I can tell you that much isn't she isn't that was like that was person sorry repeat that question isn't Reba just the most

17:33amazing person just the most amazing I mean just the most amazing yeah you moved to Nashville from New York City because you love country music and you love Nashville and then within like a year or two Reba's doing your social media takeover like that to me was sort of like my version of the of the Nashville dream but sure it could be your Nashville story everybody's got their story with the celebrity right what do you remember what places were oh gosh she her favorite place for breakfast was I think her own kitchen table and she she had a cup of coffee and some you know gorgeous looking granola bowl probably and then I want to say someplace near music row for like a power business lunch and maybe a seafood tower somewhere in midtown for dinner their photos were gorgeous she was fabulous my friend Justin has worked with her forever and he was very instrumental in putting that together and it was yeah she was she was great it was great the whole thing was it was a hoot the last restaurant that I worked at and I don't want to out her but the last restaurant that I worked at she ate at twice a week and well she does dine out there I will tell you Nashville food stand was a very organic collaboration for her I think she she put in one of the captions that the best thing she makes is a reservation you know she which is a line that I mean it's just yeah solid Reba gold well you can't you know she's I imagine she's like Dolly because when she's sitting in the restaurant she means she looks dead up like yeah I was standing at the front door one day and she walked out she's like bye Brandon and I said see you and she walked she was walking out the door

19:35as two ladies were walking in and they walked in and their heads kind of turned they walked up to the host and I'm standing there and they and they looked like confused I go I bet you thought that was really McIntyre they're like yeah it looked just like her that was so she gets that all the time and they go I bet oh my gosh and I go do you know why they go I go because it was rude McIntyre they go probably followed her out the door that's hilarious yeah no I mean it just doesn't doesn't get any better than that no that's a that's a cool it's a cool thing to kind of and I met her like a year later at the Draper James opening in 12 South and I I mean I kept my composure but I did ask her to take a photograph with me and I was like you did food ban and I think that was like the first time I ever posted a photo of my face on food ban was like a so I was like it's not if not now then when you know I've got a share of this rebus selfie no that's that's that's perfect so let's I don't want to say the word pivot but like if we move to so you do the Nashville food fan it grows you hit 10,000 followers you're continuing to to document kind of your your journey through the Nashville food scene you said that you do have a full-time job when did that yeah like and how did that come about did have to do with that no had nothing to do with Nashville food fan and in fact I didn't I you know I did Nashville food fan very little for the first two years I was in this job because I traveled so much so I am currently and have been for a number of years now Ashley Judd the actress activist humanitarian author extraordinaire I am her chief of staff which is a completely ambiguous title to sort of mean that I do a little piece of all the parts of her life professionally personally and otherwise and I free her up to do the parts of her life that only

21:38she can do and it is a very fun and sort of unusual a typical job that has brought me to like 10 or 15 countries in the last couple of years and a lot of really extraordinary travel with the United Nations and movie sets and all that kind of fun stuff but I was home in Nashville maybe half the year for the first two years I worked for her and so yeah that's my that's my full-time gig wow okay so you yeah you are a busy person and actually Judd is she's doing amazing work out there and you know I yeah it's that she does something on her Instagram called pass the mic yes that's an initiative that that came about quite recently out of the in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and in the black lives matter movement and I don't know if pass the mic as an initiative that's happening right now but Ashley is always you know engaging in every opportunity to share her platform and amplify the voices of of others and yeah it's really cool that is really cool it's similar to what you did with Reba an idea that you had or if that's like a national thing no I don't get to take credit for it it's a national thing I think Toronto Burke who is the founder of the me too movement and Glennon Doyle the author and a couple of other people put that put the most recent iteration of pass the mic together okay so what does your day what is a day in your life look like and you have you said you have a young daughter I do I have a nine-month-old she's nine months old today so she's

23:41been here on the outside as long as she was on the inside which is wild I she was adopted and at birth and I'm just totally smitten and in love with her and she's amazing and a kind of a unicorn tricked baby who sleeps like 13 hours a night and I just you know I won the I won the lottery with this kid so a typical day for me right now is very child care related I definitely and I'm working you know in between baby related activities but nothing feels quite like a normal day right now and frankly even before the pandemic I don't really have normal days I mean every day is wildly different depending on what Ashley's up to and where we are and if there's travel or not and all of that so do you go with her when she goes that do you travel with her everywhere she goes not everywhere she goes but typically yeah I do a lot of travel we lived in Berlin for a number of months when she was filming a show called Berlin Station which is a great spy show we lived in Budapest for a little while the year after that filming this next season of that same show and then she is a United Nations global goodwill ambassador for the UNFPA branch of the United Nations and so we've done a lot of humanitarian travel with them India Bangladesh Sri Lanka trying to think of where else that's amazing that you know that's exactly what I'm talking about when I'm talking about leadership and people stepping up and really fighting towards things that matter and it's people like her that are driving causes right now that are that she's making a big difference she's one of those people yeah back the heck out of and is making a big difference using her platform for the right things I appreciate that yeah

25:45she's been doing it for a long time I mean Ashley probably I would say since her days in college it's actually interesting there's a you know a lot of a lot of activism of young people right now is at the forefront and there was an article in the New York Times just a couple days ago about some really courageous girls at the University here in Nashville at Vanderbilt who are walking out on some of their sorority memberships because of a lack of participation from their white sisters in the current racial awakening and Ashley has a history of that kind of personal activism which I find so inspiring you know before long before she had a platform long before she had this notoriety from acting she was just like walking the walk and talking the talk and the University of Kentucky campus you know staging a walkout of classes because a board of trustee member there had used the n-word in a board meeting like she just you know hang banners out of her her sorority house window you know protesting this very beloved guy while her sorority sisters were two days later going to have his book signed so it's she she is she's been in this game for a long time and she is just a really she's a person worthy of your respect for sure well you know we talked about other people who dine out at restaurants and her mom Naomi and Larry Strickland they dined at that same restaurant I worked at regular fun and I've known her since my days back I my initial podcast I am on March 13th I talk about Naomi Judd at Amerigo

27:50and there was a dancer like a male exotic dancer who got up on a table was dancing for a girl on her 18th birthday and she walked over and tapped him on the shoulder was like oh my god do you remember this I know this is my first hearing about any of this oh yeah so this is a new restaurant in Brentwood that right when Amerigo first opened in her and Larry eating and she walked up like she's going to the bathroom and this guy's on a table and she taps on the shoulder he turns around sees that it's her and like flails off the table and it's like I'm hurt and you know she assaulted me it's like no she didn't stop it but she's always been so kind and so generous and just the nicest person another random story about her and I've got to know her a little bit working at these restaurants and Larry when I was in Bellevue a year and a half ago and the new Bellevue one and we were going to Desano Pizza there and maybe we're going to Honeyfire we're going to one of the two but we pulled into a parking space and as we pulled in an Uber Eats driver swung his door open into my wife's car it was like what like it like ripped off half of her door it was like a whole thing and as as this is going on I get out of the car and I'm like hey man like what's going on and Naomi and Larry walk out of Eastern Peak right there and she walks straight oh my goodness she walks up to my car and says is everything okay can I help in any way and then I look at her and I'm like no no we've got it but like thank you so much like oh my god thank you so much Naomi Judd hi Naomi like and she didn't know who I was not that I'm anybody but like no idea like oh this is the guy that she associates from that right you know she knows me in the restaurant but outside of the restaurant but I was just like how genuine of a person is that that they see something going down in a parking lot in Bellevue and she's the first one to walk up can I help and I was just like that's yeah it's very in keeping

29:54with the Larry and Naomi that I know so I they're very special to me and I love that you know them and know of them that way so yeah really sweet family so that's that's got to be a really cool unique thing to do on a daily basis is it what's it like being on and we'll get back to you but I still think there's some interesting stuff here when you're on movie sets is it like a lot of waiting it's a lot of waiting around sitting around funny Ashley and I were on the last day of the last season of Berlin station that she that there ended up being and we were in her trailer and we were waiting for I don't know hours on end and we were going a little you know well cuckoo because it was like the last week of many many weeks of filming and we were trying to think of something to keep ourselves busy and we started playing that game heads up that like you know there's an app you could it's sort of like charades not really you have to get the person to guess what you're saying by acting it out and I filmed her doing it and it ended up on like hello or one of those global mail like like tabloids magazines I mean waiting on movie sets is not entirely a glamorous affair it's like a lot of waiting in your trailer and reading scripts and hair and makeup and but it's fun I mean there are there are certainly worse jobs do you have to do she ever like give you scripts to read and like ask your opinion about them yeah I mean I think part of my job is sort of like playing that liaison between her and everybody else on her team and all the potential projects going around that hasn't always been a part of my job I've sort of worked my way into that being a part of my job but it is certainly a part of my job now yeah what is your favorite part about your job the non

31:55Nashville food fan side of the job and I'll ask you that same question about Nashville food fan but what's your favorite thing that you get to do working besides just the activism and all that I mean the activism and all that would definitely be the favorite part of the job you know I mean I think helping a person through the kind of year like 2017 was for Ashley being the first name source in the New York Times piece about Harvey Weinstein and watching her have the bravery to sue him that's the most satisfying part of the job is being intimately involved with a person's ability to make change in the world and everything that I do is sort of in service of that whether it's helping us book travel and actually traveling with her to the more substantive sort of parts of the job like reading the scripts and doing the research and all that wow it's so interesting that is just so so fascinating to me like we can do a whole show on that yeah I've certainly never been interviewed about my job so I hope I'm doing it justice I certainly asked Ashley's permission before talking about it publicly but yeah it's a very interesting job and I'm certainly proud of it it's it's the first job I've had that feels like a career instead of a job well let's put some let's put the word out you guys are working on some things I'm sure how do how can we get people involved with what she's doing how can we where can we drive people to join in that activism that's a great question the things that come to mind some of the organizations that she is super involved with our the United Nations UNFPA is the acronym for the branch of the United Nations she is an

34:00ambassador for she's also heavily involved with times up which is probably many people have heard of is sort of the initiative that came out of the entertainment industry response to me too and what else comes to mind I think voting voting feels very salient for everyone right now I know that we are going to be helping amplify the efforts for people to take advantage of early voting here in Tennessee yeah so those three feel extra important right now and top of mind excellent no that's that's I love to if people hear this and they go man I want to be a part of what they're doing and I want to join and help in that activism I just want to give people a place to get started like where was the yeah they need to do yeah the first thing they need to do is register to vote which I get there ten closest friends to register to vote and that's me saying that that's not Ashley of course I mean I can't speak for what Ashley would say is the number one thing people can do but that's the number one thing I feel like we should all as good citizens of the world right now be making sure that everybody gets their voice heard and that and and votes for the candidate that keep protects their right to vote you know I mean I think voting is just extra important right now we're less than a hundred days away to the election so it feels like it hopefully is not a partisan message to everybody should vote and I think that on top of learn learn the candidates platform you know don't listen to the media when it comes to you placing your vote go online you use the Google machine and look at people put it in the Google as my mother would say put it in the Google that's right up Joe by

36:04identify the people that you most agree with and hopefully that aligns with caring for people that's right right do the most good as many times as you can and when you yeah without voting you really in my opinion don't get to have much of a complaining mechanism when he was with the outcome like if you got it you got to be in it to win it I completely completely agree so I've been doing a lot of shows that are not chef shows or restaurant tour shows and this is national restaurant radio and I love to get off on some of these tangents because we're in an election year and I think that putting out having a logical rational conversation about this stuff is important I want to model what it's like to not get angry if I disagree with somebody or anything like that and but I'm having too many of these conversations I feel like a lot of emotional emotional time living in and I want to get back to the food scene I want to get back to you being Nashville food fan and right is that okay absolutely so we I mean I've been you know I would say 80% of my energy over the past since the day of the tornado on non food affairs and so I welcome the invitation to get back to the food you know I mean I think where I stand on a whole host of issues is no secret to anyone who follows me with any kind of antenna up so yeah I'm not I'm I'm I'm here for the food I'm here for it all good well I like that so let's talk about the the business side of this thing is that is it okay yeah I mean so you said I what is what is the word I'm

38:10trying to think of I I retain the right to to defer to certain questions to my to my business the folks but yeah I mean I'll be as open of a book as I can sure and I know I'm not there's no gotcha questions here of course I think that people who follow Nashville food fan you've almost basically got a hundred thousand followers and I mean there's a lot of clout when you post about somebody I mean it does it does big things for them how if that's been kind of a job for you it's turned into something that's kind of become a second career now to your original career how does that work how do you monetize that do you do a lot of advertising do people contact you do you go out and contact people how much I don't do it kind of it I mean I definitely am doing very little of it in 2020 I can tell you that I do like to give local businesses who I may not have gotten to otherwise the opportunity to advertise on food fan I like for it to feel as organic as possible I mean listen I am not going out to eat all the time anyway I am in my mid 30s when I moved to Nashville I was definitely going out more and so I you know I think that there's a world in which there are certain restaurants that I would go to anyway but sometimes sponsored content and paid a paid partnership just sort of gets them on my calendar to ensure that I post about them if it's good generally speaking I wouldn't post about anything I didn't like I mean if I went to a restaurant and tried something and it was god-awful I would absolutely say I'm just not comfortable posting about this like regardless of how much she would like to pay me to do so so you can pretty much rest assured that I am not out there

40:13hawking something I haven't tried would you say for somebody if you had not eaten there no unless it was abundantly clear that I you know like like an opening of a restaurant I hadn't tried yet I might feel comfortable saying hey look this is exciting this place is opening because that feels to me fairly obvious that I haven't tried it yet but I wouldn't say I'd been somewhere and eaten something if I hadn't got you well no man I don't think you'd say you'd eaten somewhere but you know let's yeah there's a restaurant that says hey we'd love for you to post about us yet you hadn't eaten there but they have a pretty good reputation and you're like yeah sure I mean but no because I mean I'm thinking about that hasn't happened and and I mean I guess the way I would I mean 2020 aside right like I'm not going to restaurants right now really and so I'm just declining invitations to come to new restaurants and things like that but no in a normal world I would have no good reason not to just go and make sure it's good and I also like to take the photos myself and I certainly repost other people's photos at restaurants I haven't been to so you might see pictures on food fan of places I haven't eaten if it's a repost because the photo food looks great but if it's if it's a sponsored if it's a paid ad I would go myself gotcha okay that makes sense yeah so before 2020 before 2020 started what's like your favorite restaurant where do you where is your place what part of town do you live in I live near Vanderbilt football stadium sort of in the Hillsborough West End the area I have had the same favorite restaurant since before I moved to Nashville it's one of the things that made me move to Nashville because I felt like coming from New York I was like City House if I

42:14if nowhere else is as good as City House I can at least eat at City House like I was a bit of a New York restaurant snob and I just I have spent every birthday there every special occasion I brought my daughter there for her first restaurant outing I mean I just have a very special put my my my sort of last meal on earth fantasy meal would probably be a belly hand pizza a bandit cocktail and whatever is on the dessert menu preferably the Tennessee Waltz cake but that's I would say that's my Nashville restaurant crush is City House and I'm very clear about that and very obvious when I talk about I gush about them all the time and I have many many many restaurants that would be tying for second third place but City House's is my fave well give us a couple that you would pick on your tie for second or third place well see this is where I get trouble because they do have so many and I have so many friends in this amazing restaurant community here and I hate to ever leave anyone out but I love Henrietta Redd I love 210 Jack I love folk and Rolf and Daughters almost equally I Joyland I mean the the new corn dog at Joyland is like a revelation Sean is a very dear friend and I hope he opens 12 more restaurants in Nashville because I'm sure each one of them would be wildly different and I know he's well on his way to opening a couple more here that are already announced I'm not breaking any news obviously um where else I mean catbird seat we are just so lucky to have catbird seat here I love bastion and I love otaku the hot chicken buns at otaku are a real favorite treat I'm leaving so many places out I love

44:20the steak free at Josephine sitting at the bar I'm one of the things I miss during the pandemic is sitting at the bar with my friend Caroline at Josephine and eating steak free yeah I mean I'm sure at the second this question is over I'm gonna think of 15 other places and feel badly that I I mean Taylor I had a really special meal at Taylor pre-pandemic but you know that will hold me over till I can get back in there again have you been to the Pelican and Pig I have not been to Pelican and Pig you got to try them out then it's one of those Denise Nashville staple now they went to either Nashville best restaurant of the year last year you know this is the problem with being in the throes of adoption and then new parenthood you miss like an entire year of restaurant openings but you saying East Nashville by the way made me remember a place that I missed which is obviously moss tacos yes I mean the fried avocado taco and a fresca and the plantains with the sweet drizzle thing on them I mean that is also one of my favorite favorite meals have you eaten that we had Craig shown on the episode Friday which was our that would be a fun thing once we get past all of this I'd love to have you come on and maybe guest hosts on our Friday show the roundup we kind of fun we do like a little segment to be good times sure yeah he's he's Peninsula right he is Peninsula yeah we've been there yes I have my friend already had a birthday dinner there one year and it was I mean it was it was really I remember it just feeling so fresh and unexpected and I haven't eaten anything like it in Nashville which is always across I mean that's and he was saying you know that Nashville is such an adventurous city even more so than New York with what people will eat the

46:21number one dish on his menu is rabbit yeah I buy that I mean I think New Yorkers know what they like right I mean obviously New Yorkers are not a monolith and there's there's you know something for everyone but I do think Nashville is more adventurous than people would think it's definitely more than barbecue and fried chicken it's a lot more than that so a lot more so you've got you've got your daughter now and you know you work a lot but do you do you friendly with any of these chefs do you guys hang out do you what do you do for fun I do hang out with some chefs but not necessarily because there's I mean I've most of my chef friends I didn't meet through them cooking like but what do I do for fun I love live music I love I mean mostly I spent the past couple of years hanging out with friends who already have kids and just sort of waiting to join that club and what else do I do for fun yeah I mean I eat out with friends as much as possible in a normal world and I look forward to doing that again I mean I miss I miss the din of a loud busy restaurant and the sounds of place clinking in a way that I did not think I would but yeah what do I do for fun I eat out I go to concerts I show people when they visit which is very often mr. or mrs. Nashville food fan no there is not I am I am a solo mom it's not like you don't have time for that I don't have time for that no I mean that being said like you know I mean I don't know what life would look like if you made time for it before it happened but I would make time for the right person but right now with my daughter is the only I really make time for I can imagine outside of your job outside of my job

48:24that's right so you have been quarantining you haven't been going out doing anything really I've gone to like two or three outdoor restaurant meals my parents live in Williamson County and so I went out once or twice out there with them because they are even more quarantine than I am and I needed to you know sort of give a little mental health boost and other than that yeah I've been pretty quarantine I mean I don't even really go to the grocery store I do I do grocery delivery and outdoor social distance activities here and there like a pool visit and things like that but not very much I feel like you know we've been doing these hour hour and a half long shows and we've been talking for 45 minutes can you believe that I went by very quickly like all of a sudden like I could I every show I finished it I go I said I can talk for the next hour with you I love having conversations with interesting people and I just thank you so much for doing this today I don't want to be done is there anything that I didn't ask you about anything you want to talk about anything you want to ask me like what's on your mind I mean as a person who does feel a little bit guilty that I always feel a little bit behind the eight ball with new places you've you've now added pelican and pig to my must list is there I mean I guess what are the three best meals you've had in social distancing like whether it's curbside or Postmates or what not socially distanced I had food for like basically what are the three best meals I can you get since I don't leave the house I did I did like a whole meal cat thing from the farmhouse that was wonderful okay a little bit of cooking on my own but we've done that I think

50:30twice and that was really good you know Green Hills Grill does a fantastic job at delivery as well as their whole to-go thing like they're one of these companies that just has really killed it for to-go and delivery and the food is always good it's consistent it's not crazy and I have kids so they love the the hamburgers and the food's always really good there I love them and I've been doing you know I've been doing a ton at home so let's see where else is there to go I I'm with you on Joyland yeah hamburgers now that they're in Postmates to game changer yeah and and you know the picking up outside you just pull up on the street give them a call so easy it's so easy and it's touch free like no safe I really was excited about Joyland we love you babies too and excellent oh I forgot to mention a favorite dish now this is where I could get none of real tangent or just like favorite dishes but the brisket burger at Martin life-changing and no one ordered I mean very few people I think go there thinking burgers and when you order it say behind the counter they typically are like you know what you're doing like when you and I they say it almost every time I order it and I'm like yep I do know what I'm doing I love their ribs love their everything but the brisket burger I mean I have a very hard time ever really deciding my favorite burger in Nashville but if I don't pick the brisket burger at Martin's it's always a tie I mean like it's right up there so pretty very good we ate at folk and Pelican and pig and we've kind of been eating around but right now the next place I'm going to go is sets in oh yes that is that is very high on my list of need to try places I've never eaten

52:33at Peninsula that is like Peninsula and sets in or my to like got to go I want to do the black diamond ramen black dynasty so black yeah I've seen Delia posting about them I want to do that she's she's kind of my restaurant spirit animal right now yeah she's a good one if you're gonna pick a restaurant spirit animal I mean she's far more informed than I am well she's out there doing it she's I mean she's in that they're doing it yeah she's covering it right now so she's she's been fantastic she co-hosted the show with me on Friday so we got all the new restaurant openings and what's happening and what's what's going on so it's really nice to to do the Friday show with her and I feel like I get to get caught up and catch everybody up on what's opening what's closing what chefs are changing jobs you know just kind of all this stuff that's right yeah so that's what I got I like to give my guests the last the final section here the final part of the interview I like to open the floor to them just to stay say whatever they want to the city of Nashville anything that's on your mind I want to give you the floor take your time talk as long as you want talk as short as you want the floor is yours I would just say that I'm proud of every single person who is getting through this unusual time and I'm particularly proud of the community of people who follow Nashville food ban because I have been extremely opinionated and a bit of a loudmouth the past couple months on every issue under the Sun that means anything to me and I've gotten an overwhelmingly positive supportive response so I just would say thank you and keep speaking out for the things that matter to you and register to vote and vote and you know keep keep tipping

54:43as big as you can when you do dine out and get curbside and take out because we need restaurants to be around to come back to when this is all over and I can't wait to dine at every single one so that's that's what I would end on is is a hope for the future that there are restaurants to come back to and that it's sort of up to us to make that happen amen and I will add I'm gonna add a little little bit to that okay tip big and support little owned and operated businesses yeah amen eat like the locally owned and operated people are the people that live in your community that are supporting they're they're the ones who give the gift cards they're the ones who support all of the local everything that you do that's right the businesses need you to go out eat so bad right now and well said and and also I you know a call to action just the owner at two ten Jack tagged me an initiative the other day to write three Google reviews and three Yelp reviews for any three local restaurants yes and it took five minutes I didn't have to leave the room to do it and I do think that there are things like that that we can be doing even if our dining out budgets are being cut personally even if we are not choosing to dine in and restaurants like there are things we can be doing to support our local chefs and restaurants in this particular time and what boost that would be if you know while their numbers may feel like they're a little low their support feels really high and I yeah I mean I I think there are a lot of things like that that we can be doing in addition to making sure we are being good patrons of all

56:43these local businesses in a very unusual and challenging time yes that that that 100% so I'm gonna I'm gonna lead off my show every day with that if you're out there go right now take five minutes go to Yelp sign in think about the last places that you ate and go leave them a five-star review and let everybody who's looking at a restaurant know if they didn't do it if they didn't do a very good job communicate with the restaurant call them and let them know what wasn't right but if it's a five-star review and drive it and and compliments in public because right now is just the time when everybody needs to be lifting everybody up they're trying you know harder than we can imagine to keep these ships afloat and running well and restaurants operate on thin margins as we know even in the best of times and that's just like a free thing that costs up nothing and could make a difference for them 100% but it's been an absolute pleasure having you on the show today and I enjoyed I feel like I know so much more about you and well you started off with very little information so there was only room to grow yes and that now hopefully the the community in Nashville can learn a little about you too and thank you so much for coming on the show and just talking about yourself and I wish you nothing but the best of luck and safety and health for you and your child and thank you thank you same to you and yours thank you very much all right so there it is the interview with Kate Davis the Nashville food fan like she said right now stop listening and go to Yelp and leave three five-star reviews for your favorite locally owned and operated restaurants in Nashville if we do that I think that's something that would build up everybody let's build up the local restaurants ratings when people come to town if they deserve it if the if

58:47they don't deserve it then like I said contact them let them know with where they might fall short and let them give them the opportunity to work on it so thank you for listening if you enjoyed this episode please feel free go back we've had over 60 episodes with chefs and people in the city over the past five months and I'd love for you to go back and listen to interviews and hear the stories from so many people in this industry and how they are working right now through COVID-19 I hope that you are doing well and that you're staying safe and we really appreciate you listening today love you guys bye